Shout Out Louds: They’ll have hair and bare feet

 

It seems that summer has got to me. Eschewing my normal desire for the moody and the sombre I’ve gone and bought an album brimful of sun-soaked pollen-flecked melodies and ice cream sticky Indie jangliness. In fact, Our Ill Wills from Swedish The Shout Out Louds will be my summer album, akin to Bernard Black’s summer girl:

“I’ve got to get a girlfriend, just for the summer, until this wears off. She’ll be a summery girl. She’ll have hair. She’ll have summery friends who know how to be outside. She’ll play tennis and wear dresses and have bare feet, and in the autumn, I’ll ditch her, because she’s my summer girl!”

I’ve not read another review of this yet, but if opener ‘Tonight I Have to Leave it’ hasn’t been likened to The Cure’s ‘In-between Days’ then I’ll imbibe a tube of factor 15 Ambre Solaire (or something).

There are probably more things I could say about this album but me mate has just called for a kick-about in the rec.

So stick these on and open up the windows to get some air in:

Tonight I Have to Leave it

You are Dreaming

Time left for Love

Get a summer fix from this lot here 

angrybonbon 

iLiKETRAiNS: Still loving ‘em.

I probably should spend my limited energy fighting and worrying about the big injustices of the world: y’know, poverty, discrimination, inequality, environmental destruction, Boris Johnson, and the like (please note these are not necessarily commensurate). Yet of late I’ve found myself getting irate about how the fucking Kooks - the aural equivalent of an out-of-date pack of egg mayo sarnies - can get so much airplay and be so popular when the sublime beauty of iLiKETRAiNS get over-looked and barely half fill the Roadhouse in Manc a couple of weeks or so back (yep, this review is late again…blame neo-liberalism).

Let’s be honest: most people passionate about music love the exclusivity of the obscure and the little-known. However, there are times when I want to the whole god-damned world to hear music of the finest quality like iLiKETRAiNS. Yet such a desire always comes with the fear that the larger a band gets the worse they might become. Not that popularity means a loss in quality - the Arcade Fire can fill out the MEN arena so the ‘big=bad’ equation just don’t hold. But then the fucking Kooks exist and get to number 2 in the album charts so there’s an inherent tension to any discussion of good music and popularity.

Anyroadup, the Trains were on fine form again. New single ‘We go hunting’ was suitably sinister and disturbing, ‘Spencer Perceval’ was as cacophonously affecting as ever and a new song (seemingly about sea-level change from what I could gather from lyrics and visuals) bodes enormously well for the future. Plus, amongst the stories of madness, death, deception and despair the band manage to remain strangely cheery in their banter with the lucky few gathered.

They’ve also just released a DVD version of ‘Elegies to Lessons Learnt’ (teaser here). Taking the form of an animated film, the central character is dragged through history (via some sort of time travelling telegraph pole) and dropped into the various stories the songs explore. Having watched the trailers before purchase, I was concerned that the film might have the look and feel of an A-level visual art project. Yet whilst we’re not talking top-end CGI here the film only adds to the experience of the album. The closers of ‘Epiphany’ and ‘Death is the End’ contain some genuinely moving and unsettling visual moments. You’ll see what I mean when you buy it here and their music here.

Listen to these and fuck the fucking Kooks

Spencer Perceval

Death is the End

London to Brighton at 700mph

angrybonbon

“Oh God! Oh Jesus Christ!”

Maybe this is a bit parochial (and non-musical) but all the signs suggest that the largest share of Londoners who actually voted for their mayor did so for an upper class homophobic racist. Apart from making the must-be-soon celebration of Thatcher’s death in Trafalgar Square much more interesting than it would have been under Ken’s genial stewardship, and the prospect of Chavez invading to get his oil back, I see no positive news here. Still, it’s all about the music, so here we are:

‘Kill The Poor‘ - Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

‘Machine Gun‘ - Portishead - Third

‘Class War‘ - Mission of Burma - Four Hands EP

JKneale - in the wicker man

Lowgold: Promise Lands

As promised (ha), my review of Lowgold’s third proper album, Promise Lands. I’m not sure that I expected there to be another album, after all the missiles fate has thrown at Lowgold, but here it is.

While some gloomy music - like Micah P. Hinson - makes you reach for the bourbon, Lowgold have always struck me as the kind of miserablists who are best listened to on a rainy day with a big mug of tea. Which is how I’m listening to them right now. The twin dangers Lowgold have faced on this and former outings are 1) sounding too nice (C*ldplay-fashion) and 2) being too dirge-y, risking reaching the trudging pace of the execrable Snow Patrol. I think they’ve largely avoided the first problem (though in a way I’d rather see them become successful) and they’re too smart to do the latter. Anyway, what I was initially drawn to after seeing them at the Louisiana in Bristol years ago was the line in big, Teenage Fanclub-style heartwrenchers.

And while Promise Lands initially sounds like more of the same, I’m not that sure that’s a problem or even that it’s exactly true. ‘Nothing Stays the Same’ has more pace than usual, ‘Dead Sea’ spits with busy guitars. But it’s the gloom that I’m here for, and I’m more than happy with it. Keep Music Miserable, long live Lowgold!

‘Clear‘ - Lowgold - Promise Lands

‘Farmer’s Tale‘ - Lowgold - Promise Lands

Buy from the band’s site or any good record store…

Image from the official website, ©Jon Bergman

JKneale

Micah P Hinson: A Dream Of Her

So the last time I almost saw Micah P. Hinson was at Glastonbury last year, when his back injury kept him away. Since then Mr Hinson has snuck back into London at the end of last year to play one of my favourite venues, the Union Chapel, where he publicly proposed to his girlfriend. Was I there? No (I would have blubbed - she said yes). Now he’s playing a tiny Hoxton do, and I won’t be there either… got some tickets for his July show at Bush Hall and it turns out I’m away. Should have checked before I bought them.

So I’m going to miss him again. This is almost fitting, as there’s a powerful streak of disappointment and loss and regret to Micah’s songs, mixed with anger and passion. But it’s still really galling - his support slot for the Earlies was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen and I suspect he’s still just as fierce and gentle live as he was then.

Anyway. Last week in the US, in Boston’s excellent Newbury Comics, I managed to find last year’s EP ‘A Dream of Her’, which I had not been able to find in the UK (though I now realise it’s on ITunes, which also seems to say something Micah-esque about looking for something that’s under your nose). It’s beautiful, as I might have expected. Only question is which of the three songs to feature here: forlorn piano ballad ‘Me and You’, ‘A Dream of Her’, which starts as an instrumental then builds into a typically widescreen-but-intimate song, with some heartbreaking strings; or ‘The Dissapearing’ (sic), more piano balladry. First one, by a nose, and one from an earlier album just to sway the doubters.

‘Me and You‘ - Micah P. Hinson - A Dream Of Her

‘Seems Almost Impossible‘ - Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit

Buy the EP on ITunes (nearly 15 minutes for £2.37!), or head to Boston. Micah’s page is here.

JKneale

Blanche: Little Amber Bottles

 

 

JKneale is in the US so I thought I’d write about a band from across the pond. Actually that’s a lie as I’ve been meaning to write about Little Amber Bottles by Blanche for some time. So not something new (it came out last year), but another blog about an outfit beginning with B…curious.

I’m no expert on alt-country or nu-bluegrass (if such a term exists), but I do dip my toe therein with Mr Cash, the Bad Seeds (certainly earlier on) and the odd compilation. Thus I can’t say much about Blanche other than this album is excellent.

What I take to be the obvious themes of country are all present - despair, loss, longing, redemption, faith and hope - all wrapped up in melodies that go from the uplifiting to the melancholic, and delivered in the boy/girl combination style (married couple Tracee Mae and Dan John Miller) that made Sons and Daughters so good until they tried to be more ‘appealing’ on their last and ultimately disappointing album This Gift.  

So where the Glaswegians S&D fail, these folk from Detroit triumph. This is none more evident than on the awesome ‘What this town needs’: a proselytising bombastic foot stomper that’s had me testifying, arms aloft, more than once. In fact, I’d go as far as stating that if it doesn’t do the same for you then there’s something wrong (and please seek help immediately).

What this town needs

A year from now

The world I used to be afraid of

Save yourself and buy it here

angrybonbon

The Black Dog: Radio Scarecrow

The Black Dog and I have had a bit of a break from each other. I have no real idea why it has been 13 years since I purchased Spanners and therefore missed out on everything they’ve produced in between. This is despite keeping in some sort of touch with other artists which, back then, were lumped under the very dubious banner of Intelligent Dance Music (Aphex, Autechre, B12 and the like)

So it was with great pleasure that they got back in touch with me via their latest offering Radio Scarecrow. Drawn to it by promises of magick and the use of EVP samples, this album has been my main source of aural pleasure over the last couple of weeks. I’ve yet to give it the more intimate in-ear listening it deserves so I’m not in any position to judge whether or not one can get spooked by anomalous field recordings - although there is something going on in ‘Dials and Diallers’ with its ghostly voices and what sounds like Ice Cream Van chimes. However, I can state that Black Dog craft electronics in such an awe-inspiring way that Radio Scarecrow is going to shine for a some time to come.

Some might argue that this album isn’t particularly groundbreaking (in the same way as Burial’s Untrue might be). Admittedly, there is something early-90s here: the first half - more ambient, less jagged - brings to the fore memories of Rising High Records (Pete Namlook, Irresistible Force, and the like). Yet this might be due to a) my cloth ears and b) the aforementioned break I’ve had with them. From there on in though, until the piano-in-big-echoey-room refrains of ‘Ghost Vexations’, the beats become more edgy and the harmonies tower ominously.

Enough already. Go listen and then buy here:

UV Sine

EVP Echoes

Dials and Diallers

angrybonbon

A new Lowgold album? When did that happen?!

Blimey - I get an email saying Lowgold have got a new album out and that I’ve missed their London gig. What?! I knew they were trying to finish the third (proper) album but I must have missed something somewhere.

I will review the new one, Promise Lands, when I get hold of it, but for now here’s a taster from the unluckiest band in the world. They put out two albums while dodging the collapse of Nude and the neglect of Sanctuary, garnered praise, even toured with C*ldplay (poor buggers), and collected everything else they’d ever done on the magnificently-titled double Keep Music Miserable before giving up. Then one of their managers died; they reformed for the funeral and now they have a new record out.

That’s the Lowgold story in a nutshell. Plucky triers. Underdogs. And handy with a tune, too, as you can tell from these: the ‘hit’, the supremely mournful start to Winners, and a gloriously ragged cry for not putting up with all this bollocks.

‘Beauty Dies Young‘ - from Just Backward of Square

‘We Don’t Have Much Time‘ - from Welcome to Winners

‘I’d Rather Fuck Up Than Miss Out‘ - from Keep Music Miserable

Homepage here. Go and buy ‘em - you could get Winners for £3 in Fopp a while back and they’re all available on iTunes.

JKneale

Punks got the loveliest dreams: A Silver Mount Zion, Scala

Well… my Post-Rock Neighbour persuaded me to accompany him and Muteboy to the Scala to see these Godspeed-affiliated Canadians, and I’m very glad he did. I went in feeling agnostic about the whole thing, waiting to be impressed… and I was. The Scala is an intimate venue and it suited this lot, arranged in a U with the open end towards us, all watching each other. In fact it all makes a lot more sense live. Last album, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, is tremendous, four enormous tracks that manage to be beautiful, terrifying and sad pretty much all at the same time, shifting from plaintive strings and folksy harmonies to crashing repetition, making the most of the possibilities of having a string quartet plus two guitars and a drummer. Opener ‘1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound’ won me over immediately, mainly when the double bass hit a note that had my eardrum rattling - I actually felt it moving, which is exactly the kind of thing I go see bands for. ‘13 Blues’ itself reminded me of early Sabbath in a way - a skeletal blues about ‘being cold and horny with too much war on the news’, or words to that effect, with the screamed refrain ‘I just want some action!’. We had two new tracks, which suggests they’ve been busy as ‘Blues’ only came out last month, and a couple more, and then that was it. When songs are this long you don’t get many to the pound, but I was happy to have my bourgeois expectations about song-length shattered. A witty lot, too, especially the Stephen Merchant-alike on guitar. Fantastic.

‘1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound‘ - A Silver Mount Zion - 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons

This is about 20MB! It would be taking the mickey to post another but I recommend the live version of the very moving ‘BlindBlindBlind’ that can be found on this excellent fan site. And you should buy everything they’ve done from Fopp or anywhere - I’m working my way through the back catalogue right now.

JKneale

True enough

Sorry, no expletively named combos this time, but…

When we started BBO I think there was an implicit assumption that I would write about the electronic blips and bleeps end of the sonic spectrum. Well I’ve not really honoured that responsibility and I’m not sure why. Anyway, I’ll try and rectify that if I can.

Further, I don’t think we ever set out to review albums as soon as they hit the shops or whatever other outlet t’kids go for these days. And this certainly holds true for Burial’s Untrue which came out last year and has been making waves and accruing critical acclaim far and wide since then (even here - arrghhh!). For once this is totally deserved as it’s nothing short of spectacular.

Dubstep has gained an almost messianic status for underground British dance and electronica and Burial have been heralded as the genre’s leading exemplar. However, that didn’t stop me wincing when I picked it up and saw a descriptor with tags like R&B and Soul. On first listen I felt something groundbreaking was going on, but I wasn’t quite getting it. Then it found its way into my ears on the tram home on a dark night.

(WARNING: pretentious bollocks ahead) 

Sometimes you really need a setting, an environment, a landscape to make sense of music. With the city streaking past (not quite clichéd images of headlights blurring into a continuous stream, but something like that) and surrounded by young gentlemen attired in hooded garments, the sheer beauty and grittiness of Untrue shook me senseless. The glitched soulful vocals, the grimy rhythms, interspersed with what literally sounds like bits of grit in the sampler, and the sweeping sensations bound up into the soaring melodies, left me shivering and tingling.*

You’ve got to raise a blog to music that does that…haven’t you?

*(Well, I did warn you).

Some Burial:

Archangel

Homeless

Raver

Buy Untrue here - I did!

angrybonbon