Album Review: Chris T-T - 9 Red Songs (Uncut)

3/5
“Billy Bragg’s gone fishing in his 4x4” – here’s the new guard

You’ve got to hand it to Chris T-T. After nine songs of the kind of protest folk one used to hear on early 80s picket lines he declares “War is bad / Racism is bad / Poverty’s bad… Well done, have a biscuit.” T-T’s sense of self awareness makes these largely one-take recordings worthwhile: lyrics about doctors searching for Tony Blair’s missing heart might otherwise seem painfully heavyhanded. Instead this is witty, cynical but articulate – the pro-hunting lobby get an especially entertaining whipping – and while the air of warm bitter and student demonstrations occasionally gets overpowering it’s an impressive addition to an old tradition.

Album Review: Chris T-T - 9 Red Songs (Uncut)

Album Review: Jim White Presents Music From “Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus (Uncut)

3/5
Southern Gothic soundtrack to oft-rumoured film inspired by White’s debut

“Stories was everything and everything was stories”, says Harry Crews in the introduction to Andrew Douglas’ eccentric roadmovie, itself nearly a tall tale, promised for eight years since White’s debut. The soundtrack suggests it’s an indulgence in the clichés of the American South, but an impressive one. White’s tremendous storytelling is complemented by exclusive live performances from 16 Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards (recorded in Louisiana woodlands), Johnny Dowd (recorded in a Louisiana beauty shop), and authentic old-timer Lee Sexton (recorded in a Kentucky coalmine!) The Handsome Family also contribute a typically twisted tale, encapsulating the affectionately dark tone of this tribute.

Album Review: Jim White Presents Music From “Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus (Uncut)

Album Review: Mum - Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK (Uncut)

3/5
Icelandic Sigur Ros contemporaries reissue debut album

The twin sisters who comprised half of Múm round their 1999 debut are arguably better known as cover stars for Belle & Sebastian’s Fold Your Hands… album, and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir's childlike vocals haven’t done much to dispel any subsequent cutesy connotations. Today Was Dramatic…, however, is a largely instrumental affair concerned - like Matthew Herbert’s work - with the playful interaction between acoustic and electronic sounds. Twee behaviour is restricted to the use of nursery instruments: accordions and glockenspiels sit alongside glitchy clicks which at times become psychopathically frantic. But the mood is rarely as icily intellectual as later work like last year’s claustrophobic Summer Make Good.

Album Review: Mum - Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK (Uncut)

Album Review: Don Cooper - Howlin' At The Moon (Uncut)

4/5
Long forgotten early seventies minstrel rescued from charity shop purgatory

Andy Votel’s rapacious appetite for musical could-have-beens strikes gold with this compilation of tracks from acoustic guitar-wielding Cooper’s four albums. Released between 1969 and 1972, they occupy a similar ground to Tim Buckley’s Look At The Fool, but the funk / folk collision is far more pleasing than the MOR strains of Buckley’s 1974 swansong. Cooper’s voice also swoops with the same carefree grace, but never overwhelms the immaculate melodies of songs like “Blueberry Pickin’” and “Step Away”. Meanwhile, “Bless The Children” – its title possibly predicting Cooper’s 1992 collection of children’s educational songs – is as good as anything off Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name.

Album Review: Don Cooper - Howlin' At The Moon (Uncut)

Album Review: Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite – The Best Of (Uncut)

4/5

Long over due retrospective of undervalued 60s pop pioneers behind The Monkees’ best hits

“Come with me back to my flat / It’s late and I must feed my cat”, accompanied by a psychedelic polka, must rank as one of the finest chat up lines ever. Thank Boyce & Hart for not only that (on “Girl, I’m Out To Get You”) but The Monkees’ “Steppin’ Stone” and “Last Train To Clarksville”. The songwriting duo prove that as frontmen they can mix music and self referential humour better than all but Lee Hazlewood, with whom they also share a warped, complex pop sensibility. Tarantino favourite “Out & About”, meanwhile, deserves its own film. Cheeky brilliance.

Album Review: Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite – The Best Of (Uncut)

Album Review: Marc Hellner - Marriages (Uncut)

 4/5
Debut solo album immersed in late 80s and early 90s dreampop

As the shoegazing revival gathers pace, Hellner (better known in Chicago as one half of audio-visual artists Pulseprogramming) seeks inspiration from its more ethereal proponents, most notably Bark Pyschosis: their subtle tensions and semi-whispered vocals permeate tracks like “Asleep on The Wing”. There’s more, though: the warm but frugal co-production will be familiar to fans of The Blue Nile – “Both Of Use” could sit comfortably on Hats – while short instrumental sketches recall the incidental music to Hal Hartley’s Amateur. Tortoise’s John Herndon is among the guests on an outstanding debut that manages to find a common thread between disparate influences.

Album Review: Marc Hellner - Marriages (Uncut)

Album Review: Martin Denny Exotica 1 & 2 (Uncut)

4/5
Groundbreaking, era-defining collections available in both mono and re-recorded Spectra-Sonic stereo

It’s hard these days to separate so-called Easy Listening from notions of kitsch, but dismiss Denny’s Exoticas at your peril. Despite his confession that they were “unrealistic”, these two volumes were revolutionary, integrating Hawaiian and African rhythms into lounge bar arrangements alongside birdcalls and ambient noises. Initially ignored upon their respective 1956 and 1957 mono releases, Denny capitalised on their otherworldly appeal by re-recording them two years later using brand new “High Fidelity” technology, inspiring vividly imagined post-war American fantasies of technicolour sci-fi Tiki Bars. Accompanying sleevenotes place these two versions in their historical context, illuminating why Denny has been celebrated by avant garde figures like Genesis P.Orridge.

Album Review: Martin Denny Exotica 1 & 2 (Uncut)

Album Review: Susuma Yokota - Symbol (Uncut)

 
3/5
Classical music inspires Japanese ambient master's partial return to form after recent house excursions

Attempts to integrate classical music into electronica have led to many follies like William Orbit's mortifying Pieces In A Modern Style, but fortunately Yokota has always been a master of subtlety and imagination. Symbol is successful when it refuses to respect its stolen elements, recontextualising familiar snippets of composers like Mahler and Ravel as if they were samples from more standard sources. 'Purple Rose Minuet' works best, Debussy's 'Clair De Lune' floating over a minimal heartbeat, and while overall it's patchy, it's fortunately far more than Hooked On Classics for the laptop generation.

Album Review: Susuma Yokota - Symbol (Uncut)

Album Review: Lemon Jelly - '64-'95 (Uncut)

3/5
Colourful and playful third album succeeds in departing from their gold selling template

Those expecting Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen to retread the idyllic pastures of their first two albums will be shocked as the kings of Day-Glo downtempo up the BPMs. With each track built around an unlikely sample – from Masters Of Reality to Flanders & Swann – the results are as varied as the sources. Opener “‘88 aka Come Down On Me" shoots for Orbital’s crown, and the album’s closing spoken word cameo from William Shatner is shattered by a decidedly “rawk” climax. In between, familiar acoustic guitars and pastoral meanderings abound, but the tone is less whimsical, occasionally ecstatic, and at times surprisingly reminiscent of big beat.

Album Review: Lemon Jelly - '64-'95 (Uncut)

Album Review: Psapp - Tiger, My Friend (Uncut)

4/5
Anglo-German collaboration reaps rewards in derelict Kings Cross studio

With a distinctly honeyed voice hovering between Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier and Dani Siciliano, Psapp’s cat-obsessed Galia Durant weaves languid and inventive melodies over colleague Clarim Classman’s strikingly raw production. The enchanting results – not unlike Siciliano’s husband Matt Herbert let loose in a toy shop – combines found sounds as diverse as pneumatic drills, dial tones and cat’s toys with a delightfully fresh and playful melange of electronics and old instruments. With hauntingly naïve choruses, unexpected harmonies – especially on the fragrant “Calm Down” – and Durant’s pure and mellifluous delivery, it’s hard to find fault with this uplifting debut.

Album Review: Psapp - Tiger, My Friend (Uncut)

Album Review: Francoise Hardy - Tant De Belles Choses (Uncut)

3/5
Blur and St Etienne endorsed Yeh Yeh Girl makes a sultry return to form

Eternally elegant French icon Francoise Hardy – now a successful writer of astrology books – leaves behind, for the most part, the rockier sound of 1996’s Le Danger in favour of the more intimate, gentle sounds of ‘70’s albums like La Question. With several appearances by her son (by French legend Jacques Dutronc) Thomas Dutronc, who contributes mature jazzy guitar licks, and contributions from Ben Christophers and Benjamin Biolay – a rising star of the French nouvelle chanson – this is a welcome return, even if at times it suffers from an ‘80’s production style that, on the title track, recalls the worst excesses of Pink Floyd .

Album Review: Francoise Hardy - Tant De Belles Choses (Uncut)