The best album releases of the month, May 2013

It is proving to be a thankless task to divide this year into 12 chunks. Strong releases just keep coming, so much so that the months are running into each other, and also it is has been hard to whittle May's albums into a tidy 10. Once again I've ignored the very obvious - Daft Punk, Savages, Laura Marling - as they've already had lots of coverage on both blogs and mainstream media. Anyway, here are my choices...


The National 'Trouble Will Find Me' choice tracks: I Need My Girl, I Should Live in Salt, Sea Of Love

A much slower-burning effort than their other albums, this took several listens to click, and I've always clicked with the National's other records straight away. Gradually the lyrical gems hooked me again once again ('Humiliation' in particular is so stunning I feel like applauding), Berninger is pretty much my favourite lyric writer of the last few years, and the tunes are stronger and even catchier than I had thought at first. This will definitely be close to the top of the tree when we draw a line under 2013.


Colleen 'The Weighing of the Heart' choice tracks: Humming Fields, Raven, The Weighing of the Heart
my review the 405
"In terms of subverting the singer-songwriter motif and turning it into something new and genuinely strange, this album reminds me of Arthur Russell's The World of Echo. Songs are hinted at and then morphed into something you don't expect. That Colleen has managed to create a work this beautiful whilst developing her inventive music is something that should be applauded. This album is a genuine delight."


Scout Niblett 'It's Up To Emma' choice tracks: Gun, Second Chance Dreams, What Can I Do?
An album written in the aftermath of a relationship that has ended, 'It's Up To Emma' is as good a record as Scout Niblett has made to date. All those emotions are turned into songs - you have the revenge fantasy of 'Gun', defiance on 'You Can't Fool Me Now', hope ('Second Chance Dreams') and finally, resolution. Musically, the bare bones of her raw guitar and single drummer are joined by string arrangements this time around, which works very well with this material.
I was lucky enough to interview Scout Niblett about this album, the feature can be found on the 405 here


The Fall 'Re-Mit' choice tracks: Victrola Time, Hittite Man, Loadstones

This current line-up have delivered three albums as a unit with mixed results - Your Future Our Clutter was an impressive new lease of life, whilst Ersatz GB failed to deliver much that was memorable, save for a bizarre penchant for metal riffs. However Re-Mit returns to more familiar Fall territory with lots of garbled vocals, motorik rhythms, rockabilly and garage-punk, so of course this is nothing short of a massive return to form.


Deerhunter 'Monomania' choice tracks: THM, Back to the Middle, Monomania
As they've been gearing up to play their back catalogue at the imminent All Tomorrow's Parties festival, the release of 'Monomania' took me by surprise even before I listened to it. It has been my most listened to album of the month, initially because I was puzzled by their decision to submerge their sound in a grungey kind of garage-rock mix, and then because I realised that I loved quite a lot of the songs. Not the Deerhunter album to play in order to win them new fans, but an intriguing and occasionally great listen I reckon.


Mikal Cronin 'MCII' choice tracks: See It My Way, Shout it Out, Don't Let Me Go
Inextricably linked with the popular garage-rock underground thanks to his partnership with Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin's 2nd album is something else entirely. Think the grunge-power-pop of Lemonheads and Nirvana, and songwriting promise which suggest Elliott Smith or even Alex Chilton.


Bibio 'Silver Wilkinson' choice tracks: A Toute A L'Heure, Look at Orion!, Dye the Water Green
Bibio is the work of Stephen Wilkinson, which I guess explains the title to an extent, and this is the follow up to the super-hazy 'Mind Bokeh'. Often tagged electronica, Bibio is actually more of a dreamy, folk-rock act, and this is more obvious on this album, where there are less beats and more "real" instruments. The downbeat nature of this reminds me a bit of Gravenhurst's recent work, really very pretty indeed.


The Pastels 'Slow Summits' choice tracks: Secret Music, Night Time Made Us, Check My Heart
I was a fanzine boy fifteen years ago and I rang up Stephen Pastel and got him to talk me through their then newly released album 'Illumination'. I never thought that it would take until now to release the proper follow-up, but I'm pleased to say that it picks up where its great predecessor left off; melodic and very slightly jazz influenced indie-pop with a lot of depth to it.


Mount Kimbie 'Cold Spring Fault Less Youth'
choice tracks: You Took Your Time (ft. King Krule), Made to Stray, Slow
Another electronica act branching into live instruments and even vocals on their second album. The duo add vocals themselves, but they are joined by King Krule for two of the standout tracks. A few reviewers have hinted that this is a push towards the mainstream, but I wouldn't go that far just yet. It is more accessible than their debut but it isn't a sell-out, more of a development in their sound that works and also makes perfect sense.


Public Service Broadcasting 'Inform - Educate - Entertain' choice tracks: ROYGBIV, Spitfire, Everest
As long standing supporters of this lot, it has been thrilling to see this debut album chart at no.21 in the UK. All of the early singles are here, seemingly refreshed in the context of the album, and newer tunes like the Kraftwerk-esque 'Now Generation' and the downbeat closer 'Late Night Final' make it more than worthwhile to check out this complete set.

John Peel Archive: F isn't for the Fall...

Once the John Peel Archive got as far as the first 100 'F's, I reckon most people expected the selection to feature at least some albums by the Fall, but it doesn't quite get that far into the alphabet as nearly half of this lot is dominated by John Fahey (an amazing 25 albums) and Fairport Convention (just one behind with 24 albums). There are six by the Faces and five that feature Jad Fair, so that's 60% of the Fs taken care of.

I'm guessing that a lot of people already know the music of Fahey and Fairport so I will feature a couple of albums that are a bit lesser known and deserving of more attention.

First of all it's Jad Fair and Kramer's Roll Out the Barrel. It is a twisted and rewarding set of left-field pop songs, which does hint at the main bands of both these musicians - Fair's Half Japanese and Kramer's Bongwater - yet there is something very individual about it. It is more of a Kramer record than a Jad Fair one, there are plenty of odd sonic manipulations and not much punk rock. It's also on Kramer's own label Shimmy Disc and features his friend Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) on a couple of songs. Roll Out The Barrel became a bit of a lost album after Shimmy Disc was wound-up, but happily it has popped up on Spotify and I've embedded it below.


My second choice had to be one of th' Faith Healers albums included. I chose Lido above Imaginary Friend only because I know it slightly better. This lot were big Peel favourites between 1992-1993 and in fact they released a collection of their Peel sessions a few years ago. Guitarist Tom Cullinan went on to form Quickspace, although th' Faith Healers reassembled in 2009 for some ATP festival action. I caught them at the MBV one and they were just fine. Lido was their debut album and is very much a product of the early '90s Camden scene that also gave us Silverfish, Gallon Drunk, etc. I've embedded it below. Imaginary Friend is also on Peel's shelves and also on Spotify if you fancy some more.


There is one more act I wanted to mention, and that is the mid 90s UK hardcore band Fabric, whose 'Body of Water' album is included this week. Happily, I have found an old interview I did with them, so I will upload that as a separate page tomorrow.

John Peel Archive: D (and some old stuff about Dick Dale and the Fall)

Well after a fairly healthy tally over the first three issues (A-C) I'm disappointed to report that I only have ONE record from the first hundred 'D's. It is the relatively recent Dick Dale album 'Calling Up Spirits' (1996). I was saying earlier on Twitter that Dick Dale deserved to be the featured artist this time as John Peel was at both Dick Dale gigs I went to. It was obvious that he would be at the second one, because it was part of a 'Peel Sessions Live' series at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000. Peel took great pleasure in announcing the three acts, Terry Edwards, Dick Dale and The Fall. I found my old review of it in my archives and I've included it below. More Peel stuff after the review...

THE FALL + DICK DALE
London Royal Festival Hall 22nd September 2000

Part of the Peel Sessions live series, this co-headliner saw two all-time Peel faves coupled together in an unusual setting to say the least.
After a schizophrenic opening set from Terry Edwards (lurching between pub rock and sublime laidback jazz), Dick Dale takes the stage to a glowing endorsement from Mr Peel himself. I had never seen Dick Dale before, but it's clear that he is a born showman keen on playing to the crowd. Although he worringly touches on material that shows his age (rnr standard 'Fever' is played free from irony for instance!) some of his material is stunningly good, the famous heavy gauge strings of the Beast (his nickname for his guitar) rattling and twanging through the likes of 'Take it or Leave it', a fine cover of Hendrix's 'Third Stone From the Sun' and the obligatory 'Miserlou'. Dick's crowdpleasing antics dominate the latter as it lurches into 'Smoke on the Water' (!) and he does a tour of the entire audience still playing his guitar. For this reason he gets a better reception than headliners The Fall who show their customary disregard for us punters.
Of course, Fall fans wouldn't have it any other way, and although a lot of the Dale fans leave, us Fall types are glued to the onstage mutterings of MES and co, especially puzzling tonight as they play loads from the forthcoming album ('The Unutterable'). 'Touch Sensitive' is the first obviously recognisable moment, and give the cue for a lot of people to turn the yawning gap between the front seats and the stage into a makeshift moshpit. 'F-Oldin Money' gets them going, as does a very welcome 'Hey Student'. The only other old songs I can remember are 'The Joke' and 'I'm Going to Spain', though the recentish 'Levitate' and 'Light User Syndrome' albums are touched on too. Not a bad show by recent standards, but still not even close to classic Fall. The encore of 'Dr Buck's Letter' (from the forthcoming album) shows that they can still cut it and stay ahead of younger pretenders. I just wish they could do it more often.

So what are all these Ds I don't have then? Well there are some I once had, but only in the sense that I taped them off friends. First, alphabetically, is dc Basehead 'Play With Toys' (1991). It's not on Spotify and I had a bit of an effort to find a decent track to embed. These guys were a laidback hip-hop band who somehow got connected with a lot of grungier acts like Helmet and Rollins Band. Not sure why

Secondly, and finally, there two albums by the Damned - 'The Black Album' and 'Strawberries' - that I was given as a cassette swap with an older guy at school. I think I was only about 12 and he was 14 or 15, but these albums stick in my memory, as back then it seemed I was listening to 'proper' albums that none of my friends had. I listened to 'the Black Album' this morning on Spotify. I could just about picture that old cassette.

Record Store Day 2012

Now into it's fifth year, international Record Store Day continues its drive to get people back into their local record shops with a string of exclusive releases and in-store events. I'm officially too skint to really indulge myself, and the thought of paying £6.99 for a 7 inch single is very alien to me. Last year I wrote a piece reminiscing about the record shops of my youth in Northern Ireland which ended with a ray of hope for two new shops. The larger of these, Head, has now closed in unfortunate circumstances which I assume you will know about if you read this blog as it is my most read page ever (and it's on the Huffington Post too).

As I said, I'm unlikely to buy anything but that doesn't stop me drooling some of the releases, so I've put together a list of the most attractive ones as a public service to you people (!), including a couple of beauties that seem to be only available in North America.

The Fall
Night Of The Humerons
7" exclusive tracks
QTY: 1000
Label: Cherry Red Records
I've no idea what this is, apart from the "exclusive tracks" comments, which I assume means they will be new songs featuring the current line-up. 1000 copies of this, so I reckon it should hang around a while.

*UPDATE - SEE COMMENTS FOR MORE ON THIS*


Tortoise
Lonesome Sound/Mosquito
2x7"
Label: Thrill Jockey
Both tracks previously released although very hard to get. 'Lonesome Sound' was from their very early days (pre-first album) and it's a cover of a Freakwater song, which of course means there's a rare vocal on it. 'Mosquito' is funkier than a lot of people might expect from Tortoise.


Various Artists
Smugglers Way
Domino records fanzine with 5x flexidiscs
Label: Domino
Smuggler’s Way is Domino and Ribbon’s first ever zine featuring FIVE individual, multi-colored Flexi discs of EXCLUSIVE, UNRELEASED songs from Dirty Projectors, Real Estate, Cass McCombs, John Maus and Villagers. The zine comprises 24 pages of original art and prose from Domino and Ribbon artists. Highlights include a short story penned by James Yorkston; a long form poem by Laura Marling; short form pieces by Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Ade Blackburn (Clinic), and Tom Fleming (Wild Beasts); illustrations from Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Andrea Estella (Twin Sister), Conor O’Brien (Villagers) and Jon Hopkins; photography from Jana Hunter (Lower Dens), and an original arranged score of music by Owen Pallett. Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice designed the cover and Rob Carmichael at SEEN is responsible for the art direction and layout.

John Maus track


Mastodon/Feist
A Commotion/Black Tongue
7"
Qty 700
Label: Roadrunner

I reckon this is the best, and maybe most unlikely of the split singles where they cover each others songs. Listen below. It is spelt 'tongue' though isn't it?




Francois And The Atlas Mountains/Slow Club
Gold Mountains/Edge Of Town
7"
Label: Domino
Another split 7 where they cover each others songs. Here's Slow Club's cover of 'Edge of Town' from Francois and the Atlas Mountains recent 'E Volo Love' album.




Guided By Voices
Jon The Croc
7" Ltd edition single on white vinyl from forthcoming album 'Class Clown Spots A UFO'
Label: Fire Records
GBV experts, wasn't this on the 'Suitcase' box? Anyway, it's from the forthcoming album and sounds like this

Human Don't Be Angry
Human Don't Be Angry
LP
Label: Chemikal Underground Records
The album is actually out on 23rd April, but they've brought the vinyl forward by a couple of days. It's a lovely package, and I think it's designed by Aidan Moffat. Anyway, this is another chance to plug my HDBA review on the 405 earlier this week.





Deerhoof/Of Montreal
Stygian x Bisection
7"
Qty: 250
Label: Polvinyl Records
I haven't heard it, but it's going to be alright I'm sure. The other Deerhoof 7"s in this series (Bazan, Xiu Xiu, etc) have been worth hearing.

NORTH AMERICA ONLY

Ryan Adams covers Bob Mould
Heartbreak A Stranger/ Black Sheets of Rain.
limited to 2500 North America only
As a Husker Du fan I'd get this for the sleeve alone, it's lovely!

Unrest
Perfect Teeth 7" box set
I've a CD of this from 1993 but it's pretty hard to get at the moment I think. This edition sounds like a real treat, a classic album repackaged as 6x7” color vinyl (each 7" is on a different color), 24 page booklet in letter pressed sleeve. Properly collectable I reckon.