NewAlbums

THE PENNY DUANE PITRE PURE X BLACK REMEDY Bridges Crawlino Uo lnhale... Exhale... IMPORTANT The Staiis ' A OK, NowYou MEROK/ACEPHALE Can Panic! Just Intonating, brother SOUNDINISTAS - beautiful modern Austinpsychwaffir minimalism getlostinmusic t London-based festival Duane Pitre's career Atatimewhere 6fiO favourites hit cross- 8tlo traiectoryis fair\ 7fiO psychedelic rock is tniry AI cultural sweet spot unique - from professional madeoverinrugged On the followup to TPBR's zoog debut, No Oneb skateboarder through to minimalist composer fashionbyTySegall, Thee OhSees, etel.PM -tr Fault But Your Own, Keith MThomson's is abigleap in somerespects, thoughboth X seem content with being out of time ard m* deadpan compositions often recall the wry do share a love of, to paraphrase minimalist ofphase. Their second album, CrawlingUp Dia worldview of Loudon Wainwright. Emboldened guru La Monte Young, 'drawing a straight IheSfairs, takes a spacier, more ambied byhearty live shows, the dynamicallyprimed line and following it'. OnBridges, Pitre approach, a lava-lamp swirl of effects-selad eh arrangements blendmusic hall, folk and works the mathematical precision of the guitar and bubbling electronics through Balkan influences in a swishlycalibrated Just Intonation tuning systeminto two which frontman Nate Grace's falsetto fl@ fashion. The archness in some of Thomson's side Jong, gorgeously free-fl odting untethered. It is a wispy thing, not alwaprry' topical observations is offset by the sprightly compositions, full of arcing, swooping to gdp. But its more soulful moments canb tempos and welcome brushes of colour. stdngs that accumulate and disperse like quietly transcendent: the languidiazz-ktfr. Melliflous Croatian singer Mariiana tides of fog. His move from NewYorkto bassline that undercuts the zonked acid ffi Haidarhodzic adds warmth to Thomson's world- New Orleans has obviously done him the of "I Come From Nowhere", or the excellefi weariness. A diverting, nicelyrounded cabaret world of good, opening his music to the "I Fear What I Feel", a sort of tie-dye cousin that emphasises the personalised approach. seductive properties of relative quietude. to The xx's "Infinity". GAVINMARTIN JONDALE LOUISPATTISON I W['RE PET SHOP BOYS LEANN RIMES fi@ Electric ltm. NEtIu Spitftre x2 CURB tu Jno Veterans christen Countrystarletsiteil uM newlabelbytaking hangoutonswaosq lm& Springsteen to the disco forherlongtime laH fr@c A splashy reboot to launch Interspersing originak iEtu 8no their own xz lab el, Electric 8no that address her tabls4 fiilmt finds Neil Tennant and exploited private lifetr1h ffi Chris Lowe working with former Madonna startling candor and thematically apt oursih &ir producerStuart Price, who turbocharges these songs, Rimes deiivers the most intensely pmi,E club-friendly tunes with analogue synths, personal - androcking - album ofhercarerr Ma fuzzyVocoders and amped-up digital euphoria. In an inspired move, producer/songwdtiry k Price's maximalist approach is largely collaborator Darrell Brown has assembleda pm@ successful, producingvivid, neon{it dancefloor genre-transcending band that combines L,A Mm monsters like'Axis" and "Fluorescent". pros (WaddyWachtel, Dean Parks) andcm.m ftdE Tennant also indulges his signature brainywit pickers (Union Station's Dan Tyminski, H *lmahi on "Love Is A Bourgeois Construct", a heady Franklin), with the rock-steady rhythms d lkrisa cocktail oflushtechno, classical samples and drummer Steve lordan and bassist Willie la* tributes to Tony Benn. Even the potentially Weeks. The grabber is "Gasoline And lvIaffi lEe satirical disco-tronic cover of Springsteen's written by Buddyand JulieMiller, featuring Iffiq "The LastTo Die" exudes real passion, invoking Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas and JeffBd* mt@ the Bruce-meets-PSB sound ofThe Killers. powers )> "1 feelthe essence of skateboarding, at who through a scintillating solo. M!*t STEPHENDALTON a fundamental level, consists of seemingly BUDSCOPPA 3:re 'unseen'elements such as pressure and On[trEC ffnesse," reflects Duane Pitre, American mmice skateboarder-turned-minimalist-composer. im"rirh SAM PHILUPS "Andvery minute changes in eithercan ROEDELIUS/ KH Push Any Button change the results of onel skateboarding, SCHNEIDER mm&s LITTLEBOX The same can be said of rnusic that is rooted, Tiden ]]|mr+t in some way or another, in minimalism." mfti Dream-popthrowback: BUREAU B Pltre! transition from wheele to strings was ffi, LAchanteuse's along, alow process-most appropriate for Moresci-fllullabiesh stftt recording career enters someonewhose music rewards the long haul. generation-spanning tMr -:[email protected]., .. .i: itsfourthdecade "l started skateboarding in 1988, [6ut] I turned Krautronicaduo -wF- Surfacing from TV score 7no pro for Alien Workghop in tggr. The owners Two years after their firs -a work and her digital, 7fiO ofthe company certainlyhelped shape how collaboration. Stunden- &e subscription-only recording efforts of recent I'dviewthe world, andart. Compared tothe 78-year-old Krautrockveteran Hans-Joachir nhnrd years (aka "Long Play"), California-born rest of the skateboard world, they were into Roedelius reunites with Stefan Schneiderd Mirhari Phillips here rounds up beaucoup ace LA far-out approaches to creating a skateboerd ambitech texturalists Kreidler and To Rocm .hig@ sessioneers including stdng ensemble - The company, thelr own ways that had nothing Rot for another pan-generational assemblagaffi JfrkE_s Section and Heartbreaker Benmont Quartet ts do with the trends at the tlme." agreeably soporific NewAge lullabies. Thqfo dringi Tench inwindingthrough abatch ofmoody, - After Pitie hung up hisboard in1997, billed as a more focused affair, Iiden follo*= @frsErrr grey-daypop. It's an insinuating set, bordering he spent almost a decade playing in much the same formula of Satie-esque piam mErra on morose inplaces, butbest on "When I'm experimental bands, but a shift in approach sketches nestled in softly lapping rhythmq dE.rl Alone", which, with its choppybeat, staunch in the noughties hEd him studying modern muted electro shadings and vaguely lysergr G{Ese independence and magnetic melody, turns composition, which led to his recent, drones. Stand-outs include "Umstunden", a mre{I Brill Building-style songwriting convention gorg€ouistring ofalbums. "l wanted to writE canopy of melody that conceals a scuttling peiir D upside down, "You Knowl Won't", channeling menagerie ofdigitalnoises, and "Toast", an A pieces that irvolved tlaggical' string andwind ltuq NancySinatra, andthe creamy, atmospheric instruments," he recalls,'llelt I neEdedto ambient confection that unravels into mffiirt E "See You In Dreams". learn how to speat their language." twinkles and littery tropical percussion. ISeftrr LUKETORN o JONDAIE STEPHENDALTON @!qFl ,ibertr*

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