Les Savy Fav are almost the living definition of the term 'cult band'. They're revered in certain circles for their fearsome live reputation and fitfully tremendous recorded output. Let's Stay Friends ends a six year hiatus from the album format for the band and comes three years after one of the most-loved (by those who've heard it) and most-criminally-ignored singles compilations in living memory, 2004's Inches, an album that both helped and hindered the band in more ways than one.
The biggest fault that Inches highlighted for many is that LSF are a great singles band that have always struggled with the confines of a studio album. The problem with Les Savy Fav – and it's a good problem to have – is that they have that keen an understanding of the dynamics of the short form that they seem to lose scope when it comes to the bigger picture.
Therefore on Let's Stay Friends, as is the case with the rest of their albums, you get great songs, neighboured by samey filler. There are signs of growth however, in songs such as the ominous 'Brace Yourself' which shows that they are learning a thing or two about pacing. Then there's forgettable pop-punk numbers like 'Scotchgard The Credit Card' and 'The Year Before The Year 2000', which undo the band's good work elsewhere on the record.
Whilst it can only be a good thing to have a band of Les Savy Fav's calibre back making albums again, you can't help but think that this is yet another missed opportunity.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3119&band=1962
N.B.: This grew on me.
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Live: DPercussion 2007
The two best things about D:Percussion are a) the anticipation leading up to the day, finding out who’s playing and where and such forth, and b) bumping into people you never see any other time of the year. Everything else is just a bonus.
Bonuses this time around included Elektrons’ tight, funky, lithe set full of northern soul, with just a little disco and hip-hop thrown in for good measure. Let’s crown Justin and Luke the kings of Manchester and be done with it. They’d be humble, noble rulers. Also, The Whip were dependably ace, with ‘Trash’ in particular being suitably rabble-rousing. Also, FC Kahuna’s jackin’ electro-house DJ set was just the tonic as the night started to draw in.
There’s always something that pisses on your chips though, be it Norman Jay’s patronising early rave set, the non-event of Badly Drawn Boy’s mini-appearance or the sheer lack of any well-stocked bars past 6pm. That’s what D:Percussion was always about though, wasn’t it? Hopefully someone will do something similar, yet altogether different this time next year. It can’t fail, can it?
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2975&band=1889
Bonuses this time around included Elektrons’ tight, funky, lithe set full of northern soul, with just a little disco and hip-hop thrown in for good measure. Let’s crown Justin and Luke the kings of Manchester and be done with it. They’d be humble, noble rulers. Also, The Whip were dependably ace, with ‘Trash’ in particular being suitably rabble-rousing. Also, FC Kahuna’s jackin’ electro-house DJ set was just the tonic as the night started to draw in.
There’s always something that pisses on your chips though, be it Norman Jay’s patronising early rave set, the non-event of Badly Drawn Boy’s mini-appearance or the sheer lack of any well-stocked bars past 6pm. That’s what D:Percussion was always about though, wasn’t it? Hopefully someone will do something similar, yet altogether different this time next year. It can’t fail, can it?
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2975&band=1889
Single: Lightspeed Champion - Galaxy Of The Lost (Domino)
Who would have thought that the first solo project from an ex-member of now-defunct screamo-ravers, Test Icicles would sound like this? Dev Hynes was the guitarist in that band and Lightspeed Champion bears absolutely no relation to his former day-job. 'Galaxy Of The Lost' is a wistful, Saddle Creek-y (no coincidence as SC's in-house producer, Mike Mogis was behind the desk for this) piece of indie-folk.
It's pleasant enough and full of the traits of the Nebraskan collective; a keening violin here, a pronouncement of the singer's romantic insecurities there. It's a little too slight to be memorable however and after the third or fourth listen, it becomes clear that Hynes is no great lyricist ('Lick my open wounds'? Bit on the nose aren't we?). Nice enough then, but it's no 'Boa Vs. Python'.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2893&band=1850
It's pleasant enough and full of the traits of the Nebraskan collective; a keening violin here, a pronouncement of the singer's romantic insecurities there. It's a little too slight to be memorable however and after the third or fourth listen, it becomes clear that Hynes is no great lyricist ('Lick my open wounds'? Bit on the nose aren't we?). Nice enough then, but it's no 'Boa Vs. Python'.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2893&band=1850
Album: The Strange Death Of Liberal England - Forward March! (Fantastic Plastic)
Yet another new British band taking more cues from across the water than close to home, The Strange Death Of Liberal England take the post-rock inflections of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and the communal, hymnal catharsis of The Arcade Fire and turn it into something that never really feels like it's their own.
Now, we all know that there aren't really any original ideas left in music, doubly so in the indie-rock sphere, so the least you can do is be wilfully idiosyncratic and hope that people dig your angle. TSDOLE borrow so much that they often struggle to make their own mark. If it wasn't enough that the song-titles are so overly precious as to be off-putting ('Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division'? Please.), most of the music within rehashes ideas that others have already had and realised more fully.
But – and it's a moderately-sized but – when TSDOLE are good, they're pretty great. In 'I Saw Evil', the whole band pull together and fall apart in a violent mess of feedback and cavernous drumming. Also, the baroque pomposity of 'An Old Fashioned War' suits them well, like Gogol Bordello recording for Constellation. When The Strange Death Of Liberal England are firing on all cylinders, their derivativeness is easier to swallow, but elsewhere on Forward March! the lack of a distinguishing voice fails to paper over the cracks. A little nurturing and allowed more time to find their feet though and they could surprise us all.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2892&band=1622
Now, we all know that there aren't really any original ideas left in music, doubly so in the indie-rock sphere, so the least you can do is be wilfully idiosyncratic and hope that people dig your angle. TSDOLE borrow so much that they often struggle to make their own mark. If it wasn't enough that the song-titles are so overly precious as to be off-putting ('Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division'? Please.), most of the music within rehashes ideas that others have already had and realised more fully.
But – and it's a moderately-sized but – when TSDOLE are good, they're pretty great. In 'I Saw Evil', the whole band pull together and fall apart in a violent mess of feedback and cavernous drumming. Also, the baroque pomposity of 'An Old Fashioned War' suits them well, like Gogol Bordello recording for Constellation. When The Strange Death Of Liberal England are firing on all cylinders, their derivativeness is easier to swallow, but elsewhere on Forward March! the lack of a distinguishing voice fails to paper over the cracks. A little nurturing and allowed more time to find their feet though and they could surprise us all.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2892&band=1622
Album: Chicane - Somersault (Modena)
This record seemingly exists to prove further that the oft-applied blanket term of 'dance music has become just as nondescript as 'rock music' has. Inasmuch as there is very little tying Oasis to Liars, outside of their use of guitars, there is scant correlation between, say, Justice and Chicane. Or is there?
If you cast your mind back to 1996 when Chicane a.k.a. Nick Bracegirdle (a dance producer's name if ever there was one) first released 'Offshore', his breakthrough 12”, trance music was pretty much still a new thing. To some ears, this music was exciting, a euphoric shot in the arm that the nascent dance scene needed to drag it out of the underground. Jump back to the present day and Bracegirdle's stubborn, yet kind of heroic refusal to divert from his initial blueprint has seen him become a dinosaur.
The best electronic artists have always followed the adapt-or-die credo, so the young upstarts such as the Ed Banger crew could view Somersault as a cautionary tale. That is, if they don't envisage themselves soundtracking the drunken dry-humping of the over-dressed, chain pub-dwelling Saturday night hordes come 2017. But therein lies the hidden beauty of this album; its demographic doesn't really care if it's critically-maligned or frowned upon by the likes of me, so long as it provides them with a thumping beat that acts as a pace-setting metronome for the next morning's headache. So, while this sort of thing isn't exactly to my taste, I applaud its honesty and purity.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2891&band=1849
If you cast your mind back to 1996 when Chicane a.k.a. Nick Bracegirdle (a dance producer's name if ever there was one) first released 'Offshore', his breakthrough 12”, trance music was pretty much still a new thing. To some ears, this music was exciting, a euphoric shot in the arm that the nascent dance scene needed to drag it out of the underground. Jump back to the present day and Bracegirdle's stubborn, yet kind of heroic refusal to divert from his initial blueprint has seen him become a dinosaur.
The best electronic artists have always followed the adapt-or-die credo, so the young upstarts such as the Ed Banger crew could view Somersault as a cautionary tale. That is, if they don't envisage themselves soundtracking the drunken dry-humping of the over-dressed, chain pub-dwelling Saturday night hordes come 2017. But therein lies the hidden beauty of this album; its demographic doesn't really care if it's critically-maligned or frowned upon by the likes of me, so long as it provides them with a thumping beat that acts as a pace-setting metronome for the next morning's headache. So, while this sort of thing isn't exactly to my taste, I applaud its honesty and purity.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2891&band=1849
Single: Brakes - Cease And Desist (Rough Trade)
There's something that I don't like about Brakes that I can't put my finger on. They seem an affable enough bunch and it would be churlish to say that you hate them when there's nothing really to hate – they make perfectly serviceable chunks of pop-punk, most of the time even with a bit of wit to them – but it's the insincerity of the whole affair that makes them come over like they're having more of a laugh than their audience. The studied nerviness, the affected vocals, the need to throw in the odd "fuck" now and again, it all adds up to a morsel that presses the right buttons but is gone from memory as soon as the last note is sounded. Depressingly forgettable.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2459&band=1659
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2459&band=1659
Single: Viking Moses! - Swollen And Small: The Songs Of Neutral Milk Hotel (Fire Records)
Presumably in the absence of obtaining a home address for Jeff Magnum for which to send him handwritten love letters, Brendon Massei a.k.a. Viking Moses! decided that the best course of action would be to record an EP of Neutral Milk Hotel covers and inflict it on the world. It's not the most horrible thing I've ever heard, but it's most definitely the indie-est. In fact, when I raised my hand towards my face to stifle a yawn during 'Holland, 1945', the CD case flinched and scuttled to the corner of my desk, cowering.
When I returned from the toilet later on, I found it checking out Brooklyn Vegan for news on the new Bright Eyes album. I kept it busy by putting Cat Power's Speaking For Trees DVD on, before sneaking up on it and hurtling it out of the window under the wheels of a passing car. The coast now clear, I stuck Maggot Brain by Funkadelic on, safe in the knowledge that I was in possession of a pair of testicles.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2460&band=1503
When I returned from the toilet later on, I found it checking out Brooklyn Vegan for news on the new Bright Eyes album. I kept it busy by putting Cat Power's Speaking For Trees DVD on, before sneaking up on it and hurtling it out of the window under the wheels of a passing car. The coast now clear, I stuck Maggot Brain by Funkadelic on, safe in the knowledge that I was in possession of a pair of testicles.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2460&band=1503
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