The Columns Based Around Theories Regarding the Lost Remained Constant As the Music Has Evolved
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The Columns based around theories regarding the lost remained constant as the music has evolved. years of Christ. Some maintain that during Where Clouse once attached electrodes this period of the prophet’s life Issa (as to the nipples of The Butthole Surfers’ he is known in the Middle East) travelled scatological rock, he’s now digging deeper and educated himself in contrasting faiths into dancefloor electronics, which makes the and philosophies, thereby gaining the hook-up with Editions Mego entirely logical. Joe Muggs on wisdom that he would later share among These crusty, klonking instrumentals recall Joseph Stannard his followers. Fegradoe undertook his own a time when electronic music reflected the Technicolor bass vision quest during the album’s making, eccentricities of its creators rather than an on avant pop absorbing theological knowledge via visits unfortunate hive mind conformism. weightlessness, polymaths, to churches and temples. The result is an impolite society album of bracing minimalism that moves Thighpaulsandra theological between moments of calm contemplation and The Golden Communion music, and “Tour bursts of explosive momentum, mirroring the Editions Mego 2×CD/3×LP minimalism, and sensations of the protagonist as his mind Flamboyant keyboard maestro De France” klonking brims with new information. Constructed out Thighpaulsandra is well known for his work diverted via of a series of improvised studio sessions, with Coil and Julian Cope, less so for his instrumentals Issa is unquestionably indebted to Glass, excellent contributions to The Waterboys or Tetsuo Reich, Adams et al, but feels too personal for his solo work. Which is a shame, as his and soulful to constitute pastiche. new album demonstrates at considerable length that he’s a highly accomplished Ducktails MXLX songwriter and soundcrafter. The Anti-G St Catherine I AIM TO UNDERSTAND NOTHING appearance of his late muckers Peter Kush In Da Sound Domino CD/DL/LP Kinda Rad CD/DL Christopherson (credited with rhythmic Rwina 12" Is it chillwave? Is it hypnagogic? Nah, it’s Troubleds interference) and Jhonn Balance (vocals) on Coming from Delft, Netherlands, but indie rock. As the career of Ducktails’ Bulb LP the terrifically catchy electro-pop banger powered by the Latin-Caribbean rhythms Matt Mondanile (also of Real Estate) has Since I first stumbled across avant pop “Did He Fall?” (a distant cousin to Kate of Suriname and the Antilles, Anti-G has progressed. his music has become ever more polymath Matt Loveridge, performing as Bush’s “Experiment IV”) deepens the chill of made precisely no musical progression conventional. But it’s still very listenable. Team Brick at Bristol’s much missed Venn a collection seemingly designed to extract since Presents Kentje’sz Beatsz, his 2011 Mondanile has evolved into a more or less Festival in 2006, he has become a one man beauty from the most disquieting of dreams. compilation on Planet Mu – which is very classicist songwriter whose dazed idylls cottage industry, firing out gobs of messy “The Foot Garden” is a good example of the much for the best. Every one of the six are a fairly rewarding way to spend 40 no-fi brilliance at a remarkable rate under night terrors on offer. Thighpaulsandra’s tracks here utilises the same bashment- odd minutes, especially if accompanied by various names including Fairhorns, Gnar tremulous, melodramatic vocals are an carnival clatter drenched in metallic reverb, sunshine, beer and weed. His vocal is as Hest and, here, MXLX. He’s also a member acquired taste, being reminiscent of underpinned by oppressive sub-bass kicks, drippy as they come but it suits the distant of motorik trio Beak with Portishead’s Marillion’s Steve Hogarth and Porcupine and scrawled all over with the portamentoed drift of the tunes, which remain thematically Geoff Barrow. These two new releases Tree’s Steven Wilson. In fact there’s a screech of hyper-mainstream dirty Dutch and sonically tied to vague memories under the MXLX monicker are typically distinct neo-prog flavour to The Golden electro house synths. It makes for a bizarre and light romantic misgivings. Like the bug-eyed and twisted. The four track I Communion, detectable in the extended kind of interzone, producing an entirely recent work of Julia Holter, who guests, St AIM TO UNDERSTAND NOTHING is a morose songforms and the project’s overall sense different set of Black Atlantic connections Catherine departs from the lo-fi meditations electronic noise cycle whose capitalised of grandiosity and high seriousness. This than the UK/US/Jamaica (and more recently of earlier releases to explore a fuller bodied song titles spell out a doleful resignation (along with Cyclobe/Coil man Stephen West African) triangulations familiar in sound environment where structures are (“THIS IS NO PLACE FOR ME”, “SO I AM Thrower’s love of Yes) fuels the suspicion bassbin culture. Confronted by the slower tighter and colours less smeared. The best LEAVING”,“EVERYTHING BEHIND”, “AND ALL that England’s hidden reverse draws on stutter and liquifying wall of sound on the track is “The Laughing Woman”, whose WILL BE WELL”) and whose sonics range musical as well as social taboos. climactic “What The Fack!”, the sudden slowly unfurling melodies gesture towards from aggravated kosmische noise to doom- untethering from expectations makes for Elliott Smith. Harry Nilsson and The Three laden choral synthcore. The album Troubleds Wilco quite a ride. O’Clock. If this song indicates his future finds Loveridge essaying a fractured Star Wars direction, I’ll have no complaints. campfire songcraft with faint echoes of dBpm CD/DL/LP Atom™ Swans’ Michael Gira and the edgeland Following the experimental Americana of Riding The Void Kit Wilmans Fegradoe oddness of Grumbling Fur. The album also Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born Raster-Noton 12" Issa features what would in a perfect world be his Chicago outfit Wilco’s sixth album Sky Blue When he’s not goofing off, Uwe Schmidt Important CD first hit single, the deeply lovely “O Faithful Sky seemed to signal a group unexpectedly remains the class act he has always been. This outstanding debut album from 23 year Erection”. content to settle into an MOR rut. Turns The original track here is just as thrilling as old Bristol based composer Fegradoe is out it was more of a pause for breath than a it was when it first came out on his HD album Shit & Shine harbinger of imminent obsolescence. Wilco in 2013 – its tricks with the linearity of MXLX Everybody’s A Fuckin’ Expert (The Album) and 2011’s The Whole Love Berlin-centric dark basement grooves makes Editions Mego CD/DL/LP found Tweedy and comrades adopting a for an existential rollercoaster, particularly With his new album title Shit & Shine’s Craig carefree approach to the well established when a huge bass tone acts out the title, Clouse nails a distinctly modern malaise, building blocks of their sound. Their latest sliding down into nothingness before namely that nowadays everyone not only has album’s method of dissemination (it was reappearing. Scuba acquits himself well on an opinion on everything, they also feel the initially knocked out as a free download via his “Pulse Remix”, simplifying but energising unstoppable urge to express it via social the group’s website) reflects the lack of the track, while Hanno Leichtmann’s media. Nowhere is this clearer than in the preciousness that makes their current music “Consumed Remix” brings a Nitzer Ebb-ish world of music, where plugged in individuals so easy to enjoy. There’s a neat reversal of disciplinary eroticism into play. But are perpetually engaged in the retconning the traditional rock career trajectory at play Schmidt’s own “Nought Remix” eclipses of their personal histories in order to here. Whereas early Wilco could be a slog them, preparing you with six minutes of acid incorporate discoveries made not ten (whole stretches of the excessively praised throb so that by the time the climactic high minutes ago; and nobody will admit to not 1996 double opus Being There tend towards drone hits, you feel you’ve been waiting for having heard of something. Against this tide the enervating) their current incarnation it all your life. of fake fuckery, Shit & Shine feel like honest has an almost puppyish energy and optimism allies, fuelled by a boozy righteous anger which makes the album’s 34 minutes – JoeFarr & Martyn Hare and determined to counter pomposity with covering considerable ground from the Mode an amplified banality expressed in titles like Frippish pseudo prog of “EKG” to the Leyla 12" “Upside Down Cheeseburger” and “Working thumping, hiphop-like “Cold Slope” – seem Anyone who saw Dave Tarrida or Tobias On My Fitness”. This grizzled cynicism has even shorter and more repeatable. Schmidt play back in the day knows that 54 | The Wire | Soundcheck | The Columns SC-IB-septCB DW FM.indd 54 04/08/2015 17:18.