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Blimey, it's a Sonic Youth LP. Not since the days when it looked as if Grunge was going to set the musical agenda for a fair few years, drawing Sonic Youth closer and closer to the mainstream through their early-Geffen releases, has the world seemed quite so ready for a Sonic Youth release. In the interim, they've rolled along, making the world safe for detuned guitars and their own brand of six-string almost-jazz, having children, releasing records with seemingly little-regard for the bottom line and just being there.
This, their sixteenth studio release, harks back to the bubble gum of 'Goo' and 'Dirty'. Its strength is founded on a backbone of three tracks beginning with Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso), runnning through the languid, drone-lite qualities of Antenna and into mid-tempo inferno What We Know. Other tracks verge on parody/remix; Thunderclap (for Bobby Pyn) is a virtual photostat of Mary Christ from 'Goo', and Massage: The History augments the Kim Gordon slow fast slow songbook with limited results, but maybe that's the point because, blimey, it's A Sonic Youth LP. Mitherer
Album Review - Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career (4AD)
Written by Editor
From the first one-two punch, bang bang, opening notes of French Navy, this LP sets out its intentions as an uplifting, picnic on the beach sort of affair. Wicker basket, bone china and ginger beer, in fact. Affable and catchy, this eleven-track release is the band's fourth long player in thirteen years and is appropriately mature. As well as rummaging through a bucket bag full of emotions, the songs on here showcase a number of complementary musical styles without ever resorting to pastiche. Stand-out songs include the uptempo Honey in the Sun, the toy band hup-two-three-four of Swans and the title track itself, a thumping diamond set in a sea of swirling, rising, saxophone and strings. Mitherer
‘Ghost Stories: A Night Opera’ was an evocative, innovative and haunting musical experiment
Performed in the atmospheric Gothic setting of St Luke’s Church. Neil Campbell, accompanied by the soaring and sublime vocals of Anne Taft, composed the music for this project whilst the eerie soundscape and electronics throughout were effectively handled by Michael Beiert. It was apparent that Campbell’s technically skilled classical guitar playing combined diverse musical influences, including elements of Spanish flamenco, minimalism, and progressive and experimental rock music. The music of ‘Ghost Stories’ itself is certainly compositionally suggestive of the subtle and elusive compositions of French impressionistic music such as Debussy and Satie, as well as the ambient pieces of more contemporary musicians such as Harold Budd and Brian Eno.
The Picket was a cool respite on one of the hottest nights of the summer when La Excelencia came to Liverpool.
Whilst their infectious salsa had people dancing right from the start it was the third track when they really started to move the room. By the end of the set they had the whole audience dancing from the mechanical steps of the salsa newbies to the bewitching moves of the more experienced dancers.
Salford
Sunday 3rd May 2009
Showcasing bands who haven’t been trampled to submission and soul-sucked by the music industry yet, the SFTOC festival featured nine venues (thankfully all close to each other) and over thirty acts, compressed into a chronological gridlock of 3PM to 11PM. Therefore, my companion and I decided to adopt a stripped-down ‘Dogme 95’ style of criticism. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Two songs minimum from each band we managed to catch. How very magnanimous of us. However, owing to laziness and drink, we only managed to actually watch five bands. Very unprofessional, but we’re old now and I resent young people. It’s about
as much as I can do to be in the same room as some Ting-Ting lookalike for more than five minutes and not vomit blood.
Procession - Jeremy Deller - Cornerhouse, Manchester until 23rd August
Written by Editor
For those who missed the original Manchester International Festival Procession on July the fifth, you can and must catch Turner Prize-winning Jeremy Deller’s multi-faceted (this barely gives credit to the sheer mass of work involved) ‘Procession’. Deller was accused by one national newspaper critic of giving a somewhat clichéd view of the north, what with the preponderance of brass bands, trade-union-style banners and suchlike but these are surely as much and a more realistic, part of the "north’s" culture as jellied eels and Beefeaters are to London. And the metropolis certainly doesn’t waste time in exploiting its own imagery.
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