Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology. Eek, have purloined a promo of the new JW. Just one listen so far, and fair to say that fans will be pleased. Less quirky than The Silver Globe and less interstellar disco than ‘I Need A Connection’, but it’s full of gloriously melodic neo-kraut goodness. There’s one track in particular that will have Broadcast fans swooning, and in places it sounds quite like the last Radiohead album. Overall, probably her most consistent release so far. https://soundcloud.com/jane-weaver/slowmotion
Blown Out – Superior Venus. A band where you know exactly what you’re getting each time ie. blistering cosmic riffadelica, but who manage to keep tweaking the formula enough to remain vital. This newie sounds bigger and better than ever: https://blownout.bandcamp.com/track/impious-oppressor-preview-edit
VA – Brown Acid: The Fourth Trip. Latest comp of obscure US early rock singles. Entertaining stuff, though it’s the occult prog of Axas that takes the honours with their track ‘Lucifer’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HgD4m5jFVI
VA – Running The Voodoo Down. There’s something about the title/presentation of this psychedelic soul/R&B comp which feels a bit uncomfortable, but it’s a decent selection. Features the usual names plus a few less well known ones (well, to me anyway, which isn’t saying much) – for instance, Fugi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOmHzYhVb0Q
Hawkwind – The Machine Stops. OK, I must have had some very grumpy ears on when I first listened to this, because on second hearing it’s much more agreeable, and yes, ‘a return to form’ I guess (though the production is still a bit flat). However, it’s watching various clips from the last tour that’s really piqued my interest, with Brock out front again sparring with new bassist Haz Wheaton, who is decidedly Lemmy-esque in his playing style. They look and sound like a really exciting live band again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0GIZqU5qd4
Robert Calvert – Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters. As The Seth Man succinctly put it in his HH review of this, this is like Hawkwind if Paul Rudolph had replaced Brock rather than Lemmy. Super stuff, and the various skits still raise a smile: “They don’t always crash, you know” “It would be an honour to crash in such a plane!”
Listen With Father:
Ladytron – Light & Magic. Overlong and cheekily derivative in places, but it’s hard not to like the machine-tooled, leftfield pop of this album. On saying that, the girls seemed fairly unmoved by it. Best at its most uncompromising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7bSYz1-QY
E is for…
Echoboy – s/t. Another one of those talked up, next big things that somehow never quite materialised (despite a series of releases on Mute after this self-released debut). Tellingly, I remember really liking this at the time (1999), but couldn’t actually remember what it sounded like. And of course, it turns out to be very of its time, on the one hand being on nodding terms with Neu! (Krautrock starting to hit the indie mainstream around now), while on the other sounding very much like a bedsit Spiritualized. Still very listenable though, and in places really rather great (though as I’ve just discovered, pretty much entirely absent from YouTube).
Live:
Blown Out / Shitwife – The Windmill, Brixton. Having listened to the new album, I was gripped by an uncharacteristic fit of spontaneity when I saw that Blown Out were playing that very night at the other end of the Victoria line… Small pub with a stage at one end, whereupon said band proceeded to rip a tear in the space/time fabric, like Hendrix rocking out in the ruins of Chernobyl. Suffice to say my ears are still buggered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JshdF-Z8Bzw Props also to support band Shitwife, one bloke on drums, another on sequencer/keys, a hell of a tasty racket including a version of Aphex’s ‘Come To Daddy’.
