The best new albums of the month, January 2015 edition

2015 has offered up some gems already, and here are ten of the best of the year so far.

Jessica Pratt 'On Your Own Love Again' (Drag City) iTunes
my review (the 405)
This "flows perfectly from where her debut left off. Recorded to four-track at home in California over the last two years it is once again a delicate, reflective affair. There are nine songs, and most of them feature just Jessica and her acoustic guitar, yet this time there is room for occasional keyboard touches on a couple of tracks and some adventurous multi-tracking of vocals to flesh out the sound... a mesmerising, bewitching listen."

Dan Mangan & Blacksmith 'Club Meds' (City Slang) Spotify
my review (the 405)
"Dan Mangan transcended the singer-songwriter label three years ago with Oh, Fortune. Now that his band have equal footing perhaps people will start to appreciate that his work involves rich musicianship which gives the music an extra dimension and depth. Club Meds is deliberately dense and cluttered and at times confusing. The fact that it manages to be beautiful and intriguing at the same time is quite a feat."

Pinkshinyultrablast 'Everything Else Matters' (Club AC30) Spotify
my review (the 405)
"Even at this early stage Pinkshinyultrablast have a great understanding of how to harness their noise and work them around the song, and their willingness to use rhythm to give those older shoegaze elements a good kick, means that this debut is not a homage but a fresh step into the future."

Viet Cong 'Viet Cong' (Jagjaguwar) Spotify
There is nothing new under the sun these days it seems, and whilst a lot of bands are plundering shoegaze and garage rock, Viet Cong have set their attention on the post-punk of the early 1980s. VC comprise the rhythm section from the acclaimed group Women, but in this incarnation their music is more direct , more cacophonous, more intense. 'March of Progress' is one of the tracks of the year so far.

Ghost Culture 'Ghost Culture' (Phantasy Sound/ Because) Spotify
Another mysterious London producer only known by stage name, Ghost Culture has crafted a great debut, which manages to combine the darker side of electronica as well as the pop side. Comparisons to Arthur Russell and Kraftwerk are justified, and you get the feeling that this multi-layered album will be one that keeps on giving.

Darren Hayman 'Chants for Socialists' (wiaiwya) Bandcamp
Apparently Darren, the man who wrote Hefner's 'The Day That Thatcher Dies', thought the release of an album called 'Chants for Socialists' in an election year would be a boutique release. It's fitting that this release has a lack of commercial ambition, but it would seem that the vinyl edition - complete with sleeve created on a press used by William Morris - is nearly all gone.
As you may already know, the chants in question were written by Morris in 1890s and produced in a pamphlet, intended to be set to the popular music of the day. Hayman has faithfully updated them with his own music and in turn produced one of his strongest solo records to date.

Sleater Kinney 'No Cities To Love' (Sub Pop) Spotify
Sleater-Kinney's first album in a decade has been hugely and deservedly acclaimed. It's so great to have them back and it's also fascinating to hear them deliver 'No Cities To Love', which may actually be their very best record, this far into their career. What other occurrences are there of a band returning after so long, only to deliver its best work? 32 joyous minutes of cracking punk-pop songs. One of the great bands really.

Panda Bear 'Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper' (Domino) Spotify
Perhaps not as bleak as the title suggests, this third solo album is darker and more soul-searching than his others, but also has a neat line in memorable melodies. This time as well, his sonic experiments have been tweaked to include some hip-hop beats which don't seem obvious on the first few listens but come to define the album. This also feels like the conclusion of a trilogy, but maybe I'm reading too much into that.

Menace Beach 'Ratworld' (Memphis Industries) Spotify
Slightly in danger of becoming submerged by its influences, which are mostly 90's indie-rock, Leeds band Menace Beach's debut is the sort of thing people would have gone mad for if the band were, say, from California. Essentially a duo, with some regular guests like Hookwroms's MJ - who also did a cracking job on production - they flick between slacker-indie tunes like the title track, moody pieces like 'Blue Eye' and the frantic 'Lowtalker', with ease. There's lots to investigate here.

Jan St Werner 'Miscontinuum Album (Fiepblatter Catalogue #3)' (Thrill Jockey) Spotify
This challenging and experimental work from Mouse on Mars's Jan St Werner was developed over the last four years as an operatic performance and also a radio play. "The central concept of Miscontinuum explores misconceptions of time and memory, inspired by unique acoustic phenomena derived digital phasing and musical time stretching techniques. There is an aura of doom that pervades the work." Largely ambient and electronic, it contains cameos from Markus Popp (Oval), Dylan Carson (Earth) and Taigen Kawabe (Bo Ningen).

Time constraints mean that I couldn't quite do justice on albums by Etienne Jaumet (one half of Zombie Zombie), Alasdair Roberts, and the surprise release by Bjork, in time for this round-up, but then January always is a bit overwhelming in terms of the new release pile.

The best album releases of the month, November edition

As the rest of the blogosphere starts to assemble albums of the year list, I'm here wading through quite a few decent albums which have come out in the normally dull month of November. By the way, the only reason the new Guided by Voices isn't in this list is because I haven't heard it. This is a very varied list and there are some pretty challenging ones here, so delve in...

Emeralds 'Just to Feel Anything'

my review is here

"Just to Feel Anything is the sound of a band moving forward whilst holding on to the elements that make them special. At times it feels very different to their earlier work, yet still manages to fit perfectly with their other releases, and that's quite a good trick to pull off."

Jessica Pratt 'Jessica Pratt'
This almost slipped past me. It's a curiously out-of-time record that is really impressive; a young female singer who sounds old and wise. A delicate folk record that sits amongst the recent best of that genre. Surprisingly gentle and beautiful given that this is the first release on Birth records, the imprint of Tim Presley of White Fence.

Clinic 'Free Reign'
Great to see Clinic return, and this new album has lots to recommend it, not least the song title of the year 'Seamless Boogie Woogie, BBC2, 10pm, rpt'.
Overall though, it comes across as a mellower kind of Clinic than on some of their earlier albums, but that's not a criticism, in fact it's interesting to hear where they are taking their music these days.

Andy Stott 'Luxury Problems'
Full length debut from the pioneering techno producer, building on the strengths of his 2011 EPs. This doesn't give much of a nod to the dancefloor, it would rather get into darker, deeper and down right BASS-ier places.

Tim Hecker, Daniel Lopatin 'Instrumental Tourist'
I didn't see this one coming but this is a collaborative album between the two leading lights of experimental synth-based drone, 'Uptown Psychedelia' doesn't disappoint, full of experimental manipulations of instruments from around the world, stretched and distorted into something new and often pretty.

Holly Herndon 'Movement'
Considered up until now to be a voice-based artist, 'Movement' sees Holly Herndon work her vocal compositions around challenging electronic arrangements. The result is an album which explores the conflict between the natural and artifical. There isn't much of it which could be filed under "conventional songs", but as a whole it rewards repeated listening.

Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament 'The Violence'
Yet another ambitious project for the incredibly prolific Darren Hayman. This one is a 'concept' album about the 17th century Essex witch trials. It comes across as a prime example of modern English folk music, but it has a lot of touches that evoke Hayman's back catalogue, and fans of Hefner should investigate as well.

Oneida 'A list of the burning mountains'

Two tracks, 40 minutes total running time, this resembles a cut-away portion of some of the gentler moments of one of Oneida semi-legendary jams. The drums of Kid Millions are central to it all, as the band weave a shifting, cacophonous fuzz around them.

The North Sea Scrolls 'The North Sea Scrolls'
An unusual collaboration between Luke Haines, Cathal Coughlan and Andrew Mueller. Whilst Haines is fresh from his concept album about '70s wrestlers, I haven't heard Coughlan from his days in the under-rated Fatima Mansions and Microdisney. The album has grown out of an Edinburgh theatre show based on the premise that historical documents showing a different version of history were passed to Haines and Coughlan by the actor Tony Allen. It's original and intriguing to say the least!

Bjork 'Bastards'

Yes, I know it's a "remix" album, and Bjork has been pursuing a very singular trajectory of late. The contributors here have reshaped the material from 'Biophilia' and made a very varied collection. Includes contributions from Omar Souleyman, Matthew Herbert, Death Grips, Hudson Mohawke. As far as I know, all material has been previously released, but as I'm far from a Bjork completist, I thought it was worth investigating.

Listen: 11 of the best album releases of the month

Django Django 'Django Django'
Listen via Spotify
The long awaited debut from this arty four piece doesn't disappoint. Packed with tunes, some of which will be familiar to anyone who has seen them in the last few years, and rich in ideas, this is really only the start for these guys.

Francois and the Atlas Mountains 'E Volo Love'
Listen via Spotify
My review of this can be found on the 405. I concluded "Ultimately E Volo Love is a collection of pretty and occasionally melancholic tunes weaved over a backing of skilful percussion and shimmering guitars. It is remarkable as it is the sound of an indie-pop band immersing themselves in European and African music and getting it totally right. "

Guided By Voices 'Let's Go Eat The Factory'
Listen via Spotify
A fine comeback album from the 'classic' mid-90s line-up. I reviewed it here and I said "Although the prolific output of Robert Pollard and his many varied offshoot bands has kept a lot of Guided By Voices fans satisfied in the last few years, there is something pretty great about having the real band back together. I did approach this album with trepidation, but it is rewarding me with each new listen. I'm unsure if it will win many new fans, but those of us who love those mid-90s albums should find plenty to enjoy here."

RM Hubbert 'Thirteen Lost and Found'
Listen via Spotify
A collaborative effort from this Glasgow based guitarist. The list of guests reads like an A-list of Scottish indie cred, with Alex Kapranos, Emma Pollock, Alastair Roberts and Aidan Moffat all lending a hand. Moffat steals the show a bit on 'Car Song' but all of the tracks gel together as a whole.

Leonard Cohen 'Old Ideas'
Listen via Spotify
I wonder did Mr Cohen ever think he would be releasing new material at the age of 73? This is a new recording collected from some 'old ideas' that have been kicking around as long ago as 1970. His voice has actually got deeper with age, and this is his most immediately impressive album for a few years.

Islet 'Illuminated People'
Listen via Spotify
Debut full length from this Welsh band. There's a lot going on here, from abrasive indie-pop to challenging prog-style time changes, and occasionally folky vocal lines, it certainly rewards repeated listening.

Errors 'Have Some Faith in Magic'
Listen via Spotify
Probably the album I've listened to most this month, this latest release from the Glasgow band sees them adopt a more melodic approach to their music, with emphasis on anything based tunes not unlike New Order. Initial reservations that this may have softened their edges have gone, and this is well worth your attention.

Imbogodom 'And They Turned Not Where They Went'
Listen via Spotify
The most experimental release on this list. I reviewed it here. I said "This is a sinister, challenging listen, but one that stretches the boundaries of post-rock or psych-folk. However you wish to label it, these guys have taken that kind of music somewhere else and are moulding it into strange new shapes."

Darren Hayman 'January Songs'
Listen via Spotify
I listened to this double album a lot this month. I wrote some words about it here, and said "January Songs is uneven but fascinating. Anyone who enjoys the work of Hefner or the solo Hayman should investigate."

Chairlift 'Something'
Listen via Spotify
I'm not as gushing in my praise for Chairlift as some other blogs, but there are some great pop songs on this second album. Slightly wary of the glossy 80s influence, but this album will be one that we will be talking about all year.

First Aid Kit 'The Lion's Roar'
This second album from the Swedish sisters is a much more countrified effort than their delicate folky debut. Their harmonies work so well together and are a joy to behold. The album has a gloriously retro production feel, it's warm and full of reverb on the voices. I keep thinking about Lee Hazlewood's 'Cowboy in Sweden' when I hear this. Country songs set in Stockholm, no less.





The observant ones amongst you will now notice that there are 11 albums in the list, as First Aid Kit is back on Spotify. The only album I haven't got around to hearing is Gonjasufi's new one, and I will give it a review when I've finally got my hands on it. Looking forward to February and the likes of Sharon Van Etten, the Twilight Sad, and of Montreal to hear yet....

Review: Darren Hayman, January Songs

So here I am, nearly at the end of my post-a-day effort. Some of you may think that I had a grand scheme to do this months ago and that I was waiting for New Year's Day to come so I could get on with it. In truth, although I had a plan to re-publish some old fanzine stuff, I only realised that a daily post might be possible whilst sitting in the upstairs bar of the Lexington on the afternoon of January 1st.
I was watching Darren Hayman play a short free set as part of the Hangover Lounge, and I bought a copy of his new double album January Songs. For those of you who don't know, in January 2011 Darren undertook what he now calls a 'stupid' task. He decided that during the 31 days of the bleakest month of the year he would write and record a song per day, and upload it to the internet with some visuals to accompany it. Amazingly he achieved this, and I bet his January went very fast. All of the January Songs and their accompanying videos can be found at januarysongs.tumblr.com/ and just to make himself busy this January, Darren has thrown himself into the release and promotion of the CD by playing a couple of shows and drawing each CD sleeve by hand. You can watch him doing this in the video below!

Film about January Songs Cover Art from Darren Hayman on Vimeo.

One of the best things about the whole project is how Darren was able to work with different musicians every day. There's around 100 minutes of music over the two CDs, and during that time it manages to sound like the most varied band in the world. Darren even allows others to sing his songs, which just adds to the variety.
Given the fact that a lot of the songs were recorded impulsively, straight after they were written, the quality is remarkably strong. It's the true that some songs would never have seen the light of day if there had been a diligent editing process, but there are quite a few that rank amongst his very best.
The real diamond is 'I Know I Fucked Up', a beautiful song with vocals by Elizabeth Morris from Allo Darlin, although the likes of 'Shhh' (with Litoral) and 'Ventriloquism' (with Ghostwriter) are superb too. It's good to hear Darren with a band again, and even though it's a different band every track, the voice and the writing style do remind me of Hefner. This is most evident on the catchy sing-along tracks like 'Who Hung the Monkey' and 'I Can't Control Myself' although 'It Was Over' explores their familiar themes of love and regret and 'Bad Technology' recalls the Dead Media-era Hefner with it's analog synth textures.
It's not all familiar ground though; 'I Can Keep a Secret' (with Harvey Williams) is built entirely around vocal tracks whilst 'the Return' is a short spoken word tale with a jazzy backing track.

Finally, on a serious note, Darren's sleeve notes say "what I've discovered as I get older is that hard work stops me feeling nervous and that feeling exhausted is better than being frightened." I took this as a reference to what happened in November 2009 when Darren was badly beaten up in Nottingham in the middle of a UK tour. The attack left him hospitalised for three days with a linear fracture of the skull and a condition known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo which meant that small crystals were dislodged in his inner ear, causing him to feel dizzy. He also lost some of the top range of his hearing in his left ear and was advised to rest and do as little as possible in order to recuperate. Being a very prolific musician, it was hard to do nothing and Darren found that he had to continue to write songs, although he experienced discomfort when faced with loud music. His first solution was to purchase a ship's piano for around £70 on ebay and begin to write songs on that. The resulting efforts were released a few months ago as The Ship's Piano, which I reviewed on the 405.. I think it's fair to say that he intended it to be a 'proper' album, whilst these 31 January songs were more of an internet experiment.
The other aftermath of being beaten up is of course psychological and Darren was worried that he would have difficulty leaving the house, never mind perform in public again. I've been fortunate to see him three times in the last few months and he has seemed like his old self. Amiable and amusing in between songs, and not afraid to trot out back catalogue rarities as well as showcase his new material. There still aren't any loud noises but he did play through a small amp at the Lexington, and the January Songs showcase in the Hideaway in Archway did feature a small drum kit as well.

It's tempting to see January Songs as an exercise in self-discipline; a way of turning your songwriting craft into a day job, like those of the writers who worked at the likes of the Brill Building in the 1960s. Whereas The Ship's Piano was a fine collection of songs with a uniform sound, January Songs is uneven but fascinating. Anyone who enjoys the work of Hefner or the solo Hayman should investigate both.

When musicians collaborate: a cautionary tale

Yesterday I posted a bite-size review of a collaboration between Deerhoof and David Bazan, which is the latest in the series of releases featuring Deerhoof and invited guests such as Xiu Xiu and Jeff Tweedy from Wilco. The idea is that the guest works new words and vocals around an existing Deerhoof tune.
It struck me collaborations are very much in fashion at the moment. Two of my favourite albums of last year were Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat's 'Everything's Getting Older' and King Creosote and Jon Hopkins's 'Diamond Mine'. Although in both respects the musicians involved are from slightly different genres of music, they blend together beautifully to create something unique and distinct from their other work. In Creosote's case in particular, the finished work is essentially studio-wizz Hopkins's re-arrangements of existing songs from KC's extensive back catalogue. On 'Bubble' for instance, Hopkins's percussion tracks are built from recordings of balls of paper being flicked around a table top.

The first CD I got in 2012 was Darren Hayman's January Songs, his ambitious internet-based effort from this time last year, which took collaborating to new height, enlisting the services of others to help write and record (and make a video!) every day during January. The project's tumblr has over three hours of audio and visual content.

In contrast to these efforts, there are two elephants in the room when we talk about collaborations. One is the very recent release from Skillrex and the Doors 'Breakin a Sweat', which is remarkable for the fact that the Doors are still making music 42 years after their frontman died, but also for the astonishingly poorly edited (and constantly used) sample of Ray Manzarek saying “C'mon baby light my fi”. It's just NOT GOOD!
The other one is the much talked about, and much reviled, collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica, 'Lulu'. It was a sitting duck for critics and fans alike, and it has been savaged all over the media, although there is a small school of thought that thinks Lou is back at his impish streak and is delighting in pissing people off again, much like he did on Metal Machine Music, or when he reversioned his classics on his Rock n Rock Animal live album, or when he tried to rap on the Original Wrapper, etc etc...
Never mind his past efforts though, this current album 'Lulu' doesn't really work for me. Both camps are well past their best and Metallica especially just sound so compressed and slick that they bore me, and unfortunately some of these somgs are very very long. It's also unfortunate that they chose the most easily mocked tune as the lead track, here it is complete with arty video by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream)

The View is at least amusing because he has made James Hetfield sing “I AM THE TABLE” over and over. My problem with it isn't necessarily with Lou's lyrics or monotone delivery - hell, those are two of the best things about him! - it's really to do with the way the musicians collaborate. Over the course of the album they don't sound like they are in the same room. This was exacerbated by their appearance on Later and their attempt at White Light White Heat, which sounded like a lost old man wandering in on a metal band rehearsing and playing cover versions for practice.

Anyway, It's not like me to be negative on these pages. Here are some collaborations that I actually like.

Broadcast and the Focus Group. Two distinct units coming together to do something unique.


Aesop Rock featuring John Darnielle. You can argue that these guys don't sound like they are in the same room either, and this is more of a cameo from chief Mountain Goat John Darnielle than a collaboration, but I just wanted more people to hear it. (Warning: vid is an OTT horror spoof and may make you queasy)


Gang Gang Dance with Tinchy Stryder. I just love the way these guys fire off each other, although this for me was an unlikely collaboration at the time, it totally works.

Slow Thrills Gig Guide (7th-13th January)

Monday January 9th MILAGRES, Vadoinmessico the Old Blue Last, 8pm, £7
Milagres come from NYC and released their debut 'Glowing Mouth' on Memphis Industries last year. Tipped to be very big this year, catch them while they are still playing venues this size. Listen here.


Thursday 12th LANTERNS ON THE LAKE, Cargo, 8pm, £10
From Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this ambient folk six piece are touring on the back of a very positive reception for their debut album 'Gracious Tide, Take me Home'.

Friday 13th DARREN HAYMAN, The Hideaway, 7pm £10
Part one of his January Songs shows, this gig will feature songs from the first 16 days. Next week he will play songs from the last 15 days. There are different supprot slots on each night and you can buy a combined ticket as well. Click the link for details.

If you would like to have your gig mentioned email slowthrillsj-blog@yahoo.co.uk