Feature: Rockettothesky (The Quietus)

Jenny Hval aka Rockettothesky is one of the most talented singers and writers I've come across. She's also splendidly articulate: "I wanted the lyrics to come slowly to the listener, like water dripping onto your head in a dark, scary cave." Norway should be proud. I spoke to her for The Quietus: http://thequietus.com/articles/03523-jenny-and-the-jets-the-musical-universe-of-rockettothesky 

See the video for the extraordinary 'Grizzly Man' here:

Feature: Rockettothesky (The Quietus)

Album Review: Delphic's 'Acolyte' (The Quietus)

And so Manchester does it again. And, inevitably, Ewan Pearson does it again too, producing Delphic's debut album and coming very close to justifying the hype. "Expectations are high but the ghosts of bands like EMF and The Soup Dragons litter the path behind them. Fortunately, for the most part, Delphic do not disappoint."

Read my review for The Quietus here: http://thequietus.com/articles/03495-delphic-acolyte-album-review

The remarkable video for 'This Momentary' - filmed around Chernobyl - can be watched here:

Album Review: Delphic's 'Acolyte' (The Quietus)

So We Sing: a lyrical collaboration with Cortney Tidwell

I can't resist posting this footage of Cortney Tidwell performing an instore at Grimey's Records in Nashville last year. I've been managing her for a while now, and am also proud to have made my own little contributions to her music. This song, 'So We Sing' -  released as a limited edition single at the end of 2009, and also available on her last album, 'Boys' - saw the two of us collaborate on the lyrics. We also worked together on its partner track, 'Oh Suicide'. "Sour mouth and glum keeps me out..."

So We Sing: a lyrical collaboration with Cortney Tidwell

Album review: Musee Mechanique - Hold This Ghost (Uncut)

3/5
Portland duo’s shyly restrained debut

Celebrating the same creaky nostalgia as the Californian penny arcade game museum that lent them their name, Sean Ogilvie and Micah Rabin’s debut takes the innocent simplicity of folk and gives it a little French polish. Openers ‘Like Home’ and ‘Two Friends Like Us’ could be Parisians Cyann & Ben and Air respectively, their acoustics softened with tremulous vintage keyboards. But ‘The Things That I Know’ treads similar ground to Belle & Sebastian, albeit with less twee enthusiasm, and hints of Elliot Smith (on ‘Fits And Starts’) and Pink Floyd (on the gently pyschedelic ‘Somehow Bound’) make this a twilight pleasure.

Album review: Musee Mechanique - Hold This Ghost (Uncut)

Album Review: Trans Am - What Day Is It Tonight (Uncut)

4/5

Career-spanning live album / DVD from misunderstood Washington trio

Lazily associated with post-rock through virtue of label-mates Tortoise, Trans Am have always been more interested in reclaiming and exploiting classic rock and electronica clichés without ever mocking them. Their live shows – complete with vocoder vocals, semi-ironic rock poses, flaming cymbals and drum solos (evidenced here on ‘Outmoder’) – make this transparent. What Day Is It Tonight? – culled from fifteen years of recordings since 1993 – captures their tight ferocity in full force, with the splendidly titled ‘Tescos vs Sainsbury’s’ like Big Black covering Eno, and ‘Futureworld’ offering a witty but thunderous tribute to Kraftwerk.

Album Review: Trans Am - What Day Is It Tonight (Uncut)

Album Review: Christy & Emily - Superstition (Uncut)

3/5
Brooklyn duo sidestep folk clichés

After the recent deluge of folksy revivalism it’s refreshing to hear two women sing simple songs free of Wicker Man references or Devandra Banhart’s psychedelic mysticism. Unlike her punk partner Christy Edwards, presumably responsible for the more threatening gothicism of ‘105 & Rising’, Emily Manzo is classically trained and drapes their haunting twilight serenity with uncluttered string arrangements and intriguing instrumentation like the mournful bassoon on ‘Gueen’s Head’. Long delayed by record company politics, Superstition is largely the sound of Mazzy Star sat round a campfire, and its imminent follow-up, already recorded with Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler, promises much.

Album Review: Christy & Emily - Superstition (Uncut)