Back in October of last year at the end of the 52nd edition of the RW/FF round-up HERE, I said that I would "see you next week". I wasn't lying, or at least I wasn't intending to. A new full-time day job and my newly-engaged marital status forced the RW/FF round-up into its most lengthy hiatus yet, and even posts on the RW/FF website became less regular than before. But my passion for music will never die, and neither will my determination to share and spread it to others. So here for the first time in nearly four months is a brand new round-up of new music. If you want to catch up with everything that would've been featured in between October and now, it's all at the RW/FF website HERE.
Experimenting and moving forwards while never misplacing that gift for brilliant songwriting, 'Matador' is the most vital and consistent Coombes record has delivered in at least a decade. Aside from a few contributions from drummer Loz Colbert and keyboardist brother Charlie Coombes, all the instruments on the album were played by Gaz himself, and it looks like this new independence and increased creative control has paid off.
Piano chords hang over glitchy rhythms on the opening 'Buffalo' before tumbling into a grand wallop of a chorus, and on the sparse, slow building earworm '20/20', flourishes of electronics evolve into a busy, authoritive groove. The European flavoured energy bolt 'The English Ruse' channels the influence of Neu! and Can, while the dreamy swoon of 'The Girl Who Fell To Earth' pairs elegant acoustic guitars with sweeping melotron strings, and spacious highlight 'Detroit' runs on an easy moving kinetic pace, countering dark lyrics with dazzling melodies and the anthemic power of its magnificent chorus.
Rolling out some psychedelic gospel funk, the intricately layered 'Needle's Eye' delivers an uplifting chorus reminiscent of 'Young Americans' era Bowie, while the introspective piano and cinematic tones of the carefully textured 'Seven Walls' play brilliant accompaniment to the hungry, yearning quality of the voice. 'Oscillate' takes a trip through eastern percussion and psychedelic atmospheres, while the progressive confidence of 'On The Wire' sees more stellar melodies tied to a refreshing backdrop of panicked drum loops and superbly placed chords. The intimate closing title track finds the sun setting on a fine record which builds something effectively focused out of a thriving array of diverse influences.
20 years after bursting onto the scene, Gaz Coombes is on a roll once again. 8.5/10
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Due to having less spare time than before, RW/FF Radio has had to come to an end. Maybe one day I'll revive it, but due to various problems behind the scenes at Melksham Town Sound (which I won't go into), the show has been put to bed for now. The final edition (which I didn't know was the final one at the time) can be heard HERE. Regular listeners to RW/FF Radio may have also enjoyed Dance Class With Jason B, which used to follow afterwards. That show is still broadcasting every Monday at the new time of 6pm, and Jason B is also releasing a series of monthly mixes, which can all be heard via his Mixcloud page HERE. Melksham Town Sound is also attempting to break the world record for the world's longest radio show. More info on that can be found HERE.
What with The Charlatans and Gaz Coombes both releasing great albums last week, the brand new one from The Phantom Band has fallen under the radar for some... but it's fucking excellent. On the first few listens it's recognisably darker than 'Strange Friend', which came out only 7 months ago and was recorded at the same time as most of these tracks. Far from being a bunch of leftovers or being a mere "companion album", 'Fears Trending' is a solid record. Give it a listen here: http://www.clashmusic.com/features/premiere-the-phantom-band-fears-trending
British indie legends The Charlatans have scored another Top 10 album with their brand new 'Modern Nature'. It's their twelfth studio album, and the first since the tragic death of drummer Jon Brookes in 2013. Mixing haunting melancholy with touches of funk and soul, the LP is a real grower, and possibly the finest thing they've done since 2001's 'Wonderland'.
Featuring eleven new tracks, the album was produced by The Charlatans and Jim Spencer and mixed by Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Portishead). The album features a cacophony of contributors from their three temporary drummers - Pete Salisbury of The Verve, Stephen Morris of New Order and Gabriel Gurnsey of DFA's avant-disco group Factory Floor, to Kate Bushs’ backing singers Melanie Marshall and Sandra Marvin, strings by Sean O’ Hagan and brass courtesy of Dexys’ Big Jim Paterson. Q have already described the album as “ one the finest of their career.”
The live shows in March will be The Charlatans’ first full UK tour since 2010. Pete Salisbury (The Verve) who plays on much of the album will be drumming on the dates. A list of dates can be found HERE.
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After releasing the Black Reindeer album 'Shop Til Dead' in early January, Jones surprised fans with a Babybird LP entitled 'Roadkiller', featuring "tracks that were recorded in various studios and homes across the world. On cassette/CD/studio tape/mini disc/DAT and memory" and "made in in-between time as demos that time ran out on, or didn't fit the flavor of Babybird albums." Listen to 'Roadkiller' HERE. A few days later a second volume of these archive tracks appeared under the title 'Roadtripper', which can be heard HERE. That same day 'Roadfiller' was also released as an "accompaniment" to 'Roadtripper', and features 'Screaming 4 Jesus', which can be heard below. 'Roadfiller' can be found HERE. February kicked off with the release of the fourth archive tracks album 'Road', which can be found HERE. Jones reveals that the tracks are "from cassettes recorded over 30 years and added to through those years. Recorded on standard C90 C60 and C45 cassettes, and when desperately and skint recorded over other people's cassettes. Most of the earlier recordings were made on Wella Hairdressing instruction C45s cassettes."
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The track is released on February 23rd, a week before the album 'Chasing Yesterday' arrives. The LP was produced by Noel himself: “I didn’t like it to be honest" said Noel regarding producing solo for the first time, "I’d taken it to my producer, Dave Sardy, who has worked with me for the last 10 years and for whatever reasons he couldn’t do it… I enjoyed the freedom with it but I didn’t enjoy managing the sessions. The end product is great but it was a pain in the arse,” he said. Noel described the album's sound as “very eclectic... You could take a pair of tracks and play them together and think, ‘fucking hell, he’s gone insane, what’s he done there’ but then you could take another pair of tracks and think ‘well it sounds like a rock ‘n’ roll album’” said Gallagher. “I don’t think it’s one kind of thing or another. But I think it’s good though. Don’t think Spandau Ballet, think Pink Floyd.”
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Cumbrian four piece The Lucid Dream’s 2nd album is a self-titled release, which comes out on March 30. As well as this superb new single, the LP also features the previous singles ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Unchained’, both released in 2014. Formed in Carlisle, Cumbria, in 2008, throughout 2010-2013 followed a string of sold-out 7”s, an EP and the debut album, ‘Songs Of Lies and Deceit’. These releases coincided with support slots/tours with Death In Vegas, Clinic, Spectrum, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Magic Band, The Aliens and Dead Skeletons, to name a few. Always a band with the ability to combine melody with experimentation and noise, it came as no surprise that earlier releases gained plaudits across the board.
New album ‘The Lucid Dream’ demonstrates the band covering new areas, as always is the ethos of band. ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Cold Killer’ channel the influence of German geniuses Can and Neu!, through to the free-form jazz/noise freak-out that is ‘Darkest Day’/’Head Musik’. The success of ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Unchained’ has already shown the ability to have appeal across the board, whilst ‘Unchained Dub’ (already a live favourite) expresses the love of King Tubby/Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, already noted by fans and critics alike that The Lucid Dream are the only band of their ilk touching across so many areas. ‘Morning Breeze’, throughout its 7 minutes displays feedback experiments in the vein of Sonic Youth, through to the spaced-out bliss demonstrated by Verve. The album closes with ‘You + I’, a nod to early 60s pop, meets Mazzy Star, meets Spiritualized circa ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’.
https://www.facebook.com/theluciddreamhttps://twitter.com/TheLucidDreamUKHypnotic choral sounds, vintage acid techno vibes and lots of odd, brilliantly indistinguishable multi-layered instrumental elements combine to excellent effect on this new offering from Glasgow trio Errors.
It's also the title track from their upcoming fourth album, which will be released on March 23 via Mogwai's Rock Action label.
Their previous 'Have Some Faith In Magic' (which you can read a review of HERE) was one of RW/FF's favorite albums of 2012, so this new one is something I will be anticipating eagerly.
In support of the LP, the band will be touring the UK in March and April.
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The vinyl version of the album comes with a reversible sleeve featuring a USA Sleeve on one side and a USSR on the other.
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Following three decades of working with the creme de la creme of the reggae world, Winston Williams aka Horseman released his first LP in November 2014. As fearsome a drummer as he is an MC, Horseman has worked with musicians and producers Tippa Irie, Max Romeo, Gregory Isaacs, Sugar Minott, Jah Shaka, Mad Professor, Barrington Levy, Eeka Mouse and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with John Holt - to name but a few - most recently performing with Hollie Cook and Prince Fatty. It was while playing with renowned outfit The Ruff Cut Band in 2003 that he met producer and long term collaborator Mike 'Prince Fatty' Pelanconi. 'Dawn Of The Dread' was recorded at Studio Dub in Thailand before being mixed at Prince Fatty's Ironworks studio in Brighton. "Mike just asked, "you ever been to Thailand?" and we went. There were great vibes, we walked in and it all fell into place. We were looking to get that 80s digital sound and all that original equipment was just there waiting for us. It was fate".
'Dawn Of The Dread' features in RW/FF's Albums Of 2014 list, which you can find HERE.
And the brilliant 'Computer' is included on 2014: The Best Of, a two-part mixtape which can be heard HERE.
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You can read a review of their superb self titled album from 2012 HERE, and you can read a review of their set from the NME Awards Tour in 2013 at the Bristol Academy HERE. Go HERE to see a selection of photos taken from that show.
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This superb remix can be found on the flipside of the single release of 'All Your Love Is Gone', which came out on January 27.
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In the words of the accompanying press release, this remix "beams the track through a prism of electronic horrorscore tension and adds chanted vocal mantas and demented ululations to suitably unsettling and portentous effect."http://theevilblizzard.bandcamp.com/https://soundcloud.com/evil-blizzardhttps://twitter.com/TeethoftheSeahttps://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Teeth-Of-The-Seateethofthesea.bandcamp.com/
"There's always been some reason why [every record] has to be better than the last. The last record was the first one back as a three-piece [after Johnny Marr's exit]. There was all this gravity and it had to be better. This one, because it's the first one of the next 10 years, you feel that gravity again." The first preview of the album comes in the form of this fuzzy grower which can be heard below... The band play an eight date UK tour in February.
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Rewind: 1995
Before the RW/FF round-up took its long break, I was in the process of writing about my memories of the year 1996, having finished doing the same thing for 1995. You can read my Musical Memories From 1995 HERE. But ever since a Twitter page called @ThisIsMyJam 1995 launched, I have decided to revisit 1995 in more detail by listening to every song that entered the singles chart that year.
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Much more agreeable were The Original's club hit 'I Luv U Baby', some rousing hard rock from The Almighty, a band who I've decided to familiarise myself with after enjoying 'Jonestown Mind'. Also impressing were 'Living In Danger' by Ace Of Base, one of my favorite pop groups ever and the third most successful Swedish act of all-time. N-Trance re-entered the chart with their classic 'Set You Free', which went in at #6. That song instantly evokes memories of running around in a large circle with lots of other kids during a school holidays activity club at a local sports center. In at number 21 was Loveland featuring Rachel McFarlane's, with the soulful house gem 'I Need Somebody'. Then of course there was Portishead's magnificent 'Glory Box'. Such a hard choice between that and Ace Of Base, but I'm going to pick the week's number 23 entry, 'Change' by the Lightning Seeds, breezy carefree indie-pop at its best. This song was the second single to be released from their 1994 album 'Jollification'. Having not released anything new since 2009's 'Four Winds', I wonder if Ian Broudie will return with another album anytime soon?
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At 37 was the re-release of New Order's excellent '1963', originally a B-side from 1987, this time remixed by Arthur Baker for a single release. At 26, Scarlet were a duo who scored a hit with 'Independent Love Song', which until a few minutes ago, I had not heard in years. Pop balladry at its very best. Massive Attack's sublime 'Protection' was the week's second highest new entry, at number 14. But I can only choose ONE song as my favourite, and Massive Attack would have won if it wasn't for the song at number 16... The bouncy excitement and carefree attitude of Britpop can be heard all over Sleeper's magnificent 'Inbetweener', which I'm definitely going to have to choose as my 'jam' of the week. The song was taken from their debut album 'Smart', while the video parodied the grocery store-set ITV game show Supermarket Sweep and featured the programme's presenter Dale Winton. Formed in 1993, the band had eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 albums before splitting in 1998. Singer Louise Wener is now a successful novelist. 'Inbetweener' was featured on the brilliant 'True Brit' compilation that I purchased in summer '96, but the wonderful 'What Do I Do Now' was the first thing of theirs that I heard, thanks to it being included on one of the tapes that Smash Hits used to give away free with the magazine. Yes, I was STILL buying Smash Hits in 1996, but immediately ceased reading it in 1997 after they gave Radiohead's incredible 'Paranoid Android' a bad review, while their Single Of The Week was Hanson's 'MmmBop'.
The latest chart is from January 28 1995. In the 'bad' pile, we have Queensryche's eastern-flavoured rock number 'I Am I' at 40. At 39, E.V.E's 'Good Life' was a slinky but disposable RnB number that was backed with a rather good Dancing Divaz remix which slighly brought to mind the Inner City house classic of the same name, while at 35, Vanessa Mae's '' features some skillful musicianship but some weak production, As well as Jimmy Somerville's predictably awful 'Heartbeat' at 28, Let Loose's number 13 entry 'One Night Stand' dealt in relentless mediocrity, and Jodeci's number 20 'Cry For You' sounds like one long outro and comes littered with lots of intolerable vocal acrobatics.
There will be more over the coming weeks. I promise not to leave you for so long this time, Or at least I don't intend to.