Album Review: Googoosh - Googoosh (Uncut)

3/5
Rare Persian pop from ‘Iran’s Daughter’

Actress and singer Faegheh Atashin aka Googoosh was an Iranian heroine silenced by the 1979 revolution until her emigration to the US in 2000. This enlightening collection of lesser-known songs recorded in the 1970s reveals a pre-Khomeini world of Persian traditions and western influences – in 1971 she even recorded in French. The passionate, string-laden lament of ‘Digeh Geryeh Delo Va Nemikoneh’, the sultry, disco-inflected charms of ‘Talagh’ and the Middle Eastern chanson of ‘Mano Gonjishkaye Khooneh’ may be an acquired taste for indie-trained ears, but no one can deny the potent romance of Googoosh’s voice.

Album Review: Googoosh - Googoosh (Uncut)

Album Review: Various Artists - True Soul Volumes 1&2 (Uncut)

3/5
Crate-digging heaven for soul funk fans

While its most famous son Bill Clinton was busy not inhaling, Arkansas’ True Soul label – run by record store owner Lee Anthony – was documenting the thriving local soul and funk scene. Though its output rarely troubled the charts, these 32 tracks, compiled by Stones Throw label manager Eothen Alapatt, are packed with an abundance of righteous grooves and crazily titled gems, especially the pysch-funk of York Wilson’s ‘Psychedelic Hot Pants’. Memphis may have hogged the spotlight, but John Craig’s effortless ‘Doing My Own Thing’ and the laidback shuffle of Thomas East’s ‘Funky Music’ prove Little Rock had a big heart.

Album Review: Various Artists - True Soul Volumes 1&2 (Uncut)

Feature: The Q&A: Anne Müller, cellist (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

As this review for the BBC testifies, I'm a fan of Nils Frahm and Anne Müller's album, 7 Fingers, so it was a pleasure to interview Ms Müller - who also performs live with Agnes Obel - for The Economist and More Intelligent Life. "My older cousin played cello," she explains, "so my mother asked him to convince me to learn, too. He showed me one and said I’d look very good with it. He was my hero, so of course I had to play..."

Read the full Q&A here or here.

Feature: The Q&A: Anne Müller, cellist (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

Feature: We Are All Norwegians - How Norway’s Bravery Is An Example To Us All (The Quietus)

Norway has become something of a second home for me. I have probably spent more time there since I moved to Berlin than I have done in the UK. The news of the appalling shootings that took place in Oslo on July 22, 2011, were therefore an especially tremendous shock. The country's reaction, however, was extraordinary. In response to the mixed feelings that the nation clearly felt as it gathered under the country's flag, due to the fact that the murders had been carried out by an extreme nationalist, I was prompted me to write a tribute to a country whose behaviour was nobler and more dignified than anyone had any right to expect.

"The old order, in which a nation’s identity is defined by the nature of its historical inhabitants, is no longer relevant. The passports we hold are simply the result of an accident of geography."

The full article is here on the Quietus, and was also reproduced by Matador here.

Feature: We Are All Norwegians - How Norway’s Bravery Is An Example To Us All (The Quietus)

Feature: Tim Burgess On Loving Lawrence & Felt, "Birmingham's Best Band" (The Quietus)

Now this was unexpected, and unexpectedly fun. Tim Burgess of The Charlatans decides to join me on a drive from London to Essen to see KORT, Cortney Tidwell and Kurt Wagner's collaborative project, as I finally drive my entire record collection from London to Berlin. A conversation about Felt ensues, and upon my return we pick up the threads and turn it into a formal interview. The Quietus has it all here.

"I remember walking down Parkway in Camden. I was walking on the street and Lawrence pulled me onto the curb and actually shouted at me. 'A rock star can not be killed by a black cab or a mini cab!'"

Feature: Tim Burgess On Loving Lawrence & Felt, "Birmingham's Best Band" (The Quietus)

Feature: Beyond The Pleasuredome - Frankie's 'Liverpool' 25 Years On (The Quietus)

Having previously written at length about Frankie Goes To Hollywood's debut album, which - for me, at least - represented a Never Mind The Bollocks for the 1980s generation - The Quietus allowed me to wax at length about its follow-up, Liverpool. It's odd that a reader's comment should perhaps nail why I felt the urge to write about this critically and commercially disappointing record, but "I've never read such a fantastically written essay on such a crap album" made me grin a great deal.

"The day-glo colours and the sense of fun and mischief at the heart of their debut had disappeared, replaced by an often monochromatic vision, a seething anger and a raw sense of injustice. This wasn't the Frankie we expected, five cheeky lads in leather waving plastic guns at us and revelling in sexual innuendo, the gang to whom we'd given our hearts wrapped in baggy T-shirts."

The full story is here.

Feature: Beyond The Pleasuredome - Frankie's 'Liverpool' 25 Years On (The Quietus)

Album Review: Felt - Bubblegum Perfume (Uncut)

4/5
Collector’s compilation of cult band’s Creation albums

The kind of band beloved by 80s indie fans who considered The Smiths too mainstream, Felt’s ten albums combined Lawrence (no surname)’s erudite lyrics and Tom Verlaine intonations with ornate instrumentation, often provided by keyboardist Martin Duffy (now of Primal Scream). This 1990 compilation of their time on Creation boasts a revised tracklisting, but highlights the fragile beauty of ‘Be Still’ (from the ‘Space Blues’ EP), the instrumental cocktail jazz of ‘Book Of Swords’ (from ‘Train Above The City’, for which Laurence only named songs) and 86’s breathless, claustrophobic but joyous ‘Ballad Of The Band’ 7”.

Album Review: Felt - Bubblegum Perfume (Uncut)

Album Review: Digitalism - I Love You, Dude (Uncut)

3/5
Hamburg duo get nostalgic for the 90s

Like Delphic, Jens Moelle and Ismail ‘Isi’ Tuefekci share a love for late twentieth century ecstasy-fuelled euphoria, and their second album sounds at times like the Mancunian quartets’ update of New Order, especially on ‘2 Hearts’ and the Julian Casablancas collaboration, ‘Forrest Gump’. Elsewhere, the Kitsuné endorsed duo lean heavily on The Prodigy for ‘Reeperbahn’ and The KLF for ‘Antibiotics’, while the low-slung crunch of ‘Miami Showdown’ gives Jan Hammer a Chemical Brothers rubdown. It’s far from original, but nonetheless highly effective, and the sweaty, lad-friendly nature of the title betrays its inherent good humour.

Album Review: Digitalism - I Love You, Dude (Uncut)

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (Uncut)

4/5
The musical prankster goes symphonic

Amidst a flurry of one-liners – one track is titled ‘Shut Up And Play The Piano’ – Gonzales relocates his rhymes to an orchestral setting for his ninth album. What could be a novelty record is transformed into a deeply satisfying and intelligent experiment thanks to the Canadian’s charm, with ‘Self Portrait’ riffing on Dorian Gray references and ‘Rap Race’ a confessional look at his motivation. Frequently self-referential and flippant, he skewers hip hop’s excesses – “No, I haven’t said the ‘n’ word yet” – against a melodramatic backdrop composed by his brother Christophe Beck, albeit more in the style of Danny Elfman than Gustav Mahler.

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (Uncut)

Album Review: Brian Eno & Rick Holland - Drums Between The Bells (BBC Music)

Two albums from Brian Eno in less than a year, and still the man proves he's got more ideas per release than U2 and Coldplay, the stadium acts that presumably pay for his buzzcuts, have had in their entire careers. Combined.

"Drums… operates within the realms of electronica, ambience and spoken word, full of the kind of subtle studio trickery that has made Eno such an intriguing personality."

The BBC prints more words like that here...

Album Review: Brian Eno & Rick Holland - Drums Between The Bells (BBC Music)

Feature: We Dream On Cardboard - Staff Benda Bilili's Rise From The Streets (The Quietus)

When I first heard Staff Benda Bilili, I was so inspired that I actually considered flying to the Democratic Republic Of Congo, their home - if you can call the grounds of capital city Kinshasa's zoo a home. These formerly homeless, disabled musicians have since gone on to seduce people all over the world, while I haven't travelled further than Norway all year.

But the release of Benda Bilili!, a documentary about their last five years, was a great excuse to write about the band without risking my life in the world's most dangerous country."'I’m working for our children’s future,' Ricky explains. 'If I die, what will I be leaving them? A sewing machine. They won’t have anything, not even a roof over their heads. With the music I’ve composed, it’s different. If it’s successful in Europe, it’ll bring in money every year. My kids will be saved."' Mumford & Sons they are not. Find out why here.

Feature: We Dream On Cardboard - Staff Benda Bilili's Rise From The Streets (The Quietus)

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (BBC Music)

He just keeps getting better, and having confounded people with the brilliance of his live two-pianos-and-two-drumkits performances in 2010, he's back with an orchestral rap album that he believes is the world's first. Is it any good? Well, since you ask, "where most rappers would need to reach for their sampler, Gonzales most likely sat down with his brother to hatch the plan over a bag of weed. It certainly sounds that effortless."

There's more on the subject here...

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (BBC Music)