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ALBUM REVIEWS
FM Belfast Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
How To Make Friends Heartbeat City
Morr Music Treibstoff
Candy frosted Lady looks like a dude
Whatever your thoughts on Rage Against Sarah Goldfarb is in fact Marseille-based
The Machine getting the Christmas number producer Jean-Vincent Luccini, assuming the
one, you can’t help thinking that FM Belfast’s pseudonym after Sara Goldfarb, the tragic
cover of ‘Killing In The Name Of’ would have widow hooked on diet pills in Darren Aronof-
been more in the spirit of the season, bearing sky’s grinding breakthrough movie ‘Requiem
in mind that this Icelandic band have man- For A Dream’. So far, so slightly pretentious.
aged to make that teenage angst anthem JHK is Jean-Christophe Hallary, his collabo-
sound about as threatening as Joe McElderry rator, and together they’ve crafted ‘Heart-
in an elf costume. beat City’ for Cologne imprint Treibstoff, the
Still, it fi ts perfectly amongst the rest of FM album’s name being a nod to US new wavers
Belfast’s debut album, which is full of twee- The Cars.
sounding synth-pop songs — like ‘Under- And it’s an accomplished project. It felt like
wear’ or ‘Optical’ — about wearing no pants Luccini had previously shied away from a long
MONE
Y
or buying new glasses. format release, preferring short form excur-
SHO
T!
The interplay between the crazy little girl and sions for the likes of Toronto’s Dumb Unit and
mad male vocals of singers Arni Vil and Orvar the excellent Trapez, also based in Cologne.
might well be infl uenced by Bjørk’s former But he needn’t have worried by this evidence.
Hot Chip
band and fellow Icelanders The Sugarcubes, ‘Lights At Night’ and ‘Just A Holiday’ are both
but, whilst FM Belfast are no way as interest- throbbing, hypnotic builders, and ‘Jacki’ is a
One Life Stand ing, ‘How To Make Friends’ will sweeten up spooky, eerie, haunted house workout.
Parlophone your day for half an hour. Paul Clarke Ben Arnold
Getting better with age
In an age where even tomorrow’s next
big thing is already hopelessly out-
dated, Hot Chip are an absolute breath
of fresh air. Rather than burning in-
tensely for one album and then fading 4/4 beat, before the title track takes
away, the ten-legged South London this euphoria even further as Alexis Massive Attack Phace & Misanthrop
groove machine are a salutary lesson Taylor’s dry measured vocals fl irt with Heligoland From Deep Space
in patience and perseverance. From a rapt carnival-esque samba beat. EMI Neosignal
their debut LP ‘Coming On Strong’ This oddball brilliance is sustained
through their 2006 breakthrough ‘The throughout. ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’ Brooding Bristolian anger OCD&b
Warning’ and 2008’s ‘Made In The is Northern Soul refracted through
Dark’, each of their LPs has progressed the eyes of 21st Century avant-pop Age was never likely to mellow Massive Pioneered in the late-’90s by Ed Rush, Matrix
their sound further. Incredibly, ‘One visionaries, while ‘I Feel Better’ is the Attack, and so it proves on their fi fth studio and Optical, the neurofunk sub-genre is
Life Stand’ outstrips them all. best track that Daft Punk never wrote. album and their fi rst in seven years — Bristol, drum & bass at its most twitchily anxious and
For a band who have been compared to Hell, ‘We Have Love’ even betrays a UK it seems, still moves to its own dogmatic obsessively polished.
everyone from Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin funky bent. sense of time. Kept alive by an international coven of
and The Neptunes to The Incredible Fittingly, there are plenty of tender Mercifully, the righteous anger that was shaven-headed rave-goths, the sound has
String Band, The Kinks and New Order, moments too. ‘Slush’ avoids its overly so prevalent on the ultimately disappoint- since evolved into the most intense, OCD-
trying to pinpoint the vast array of sentimental title by transforming ing ‘100th Window’ has been harnessed to driven machine music on Earth — a perfectly
infl uences behind ‘One Life Stand’ is a itself into a late-night lament, ‘Alley greater effect on ‘Heligoland’. EQ-ed panic attack.
thankless task. What can be said with- Cats’ is touching in an off-kilter A dark and brooding collection of electronic This split LP by Germany’s Phace & Mis-
out fear of contradiction is that it is fashion, while the effortlessly moving noir, ‘Heligoland’ can be interpreted as a anthrop represents the cutting-edge of
Hot Chip’s most dancefl oor-orientated ‘Brothers’ is a testament to Alexis scathing attack on the current global malaise neurofunk in 2010.
release yet. Taylor and Joe Goddard’s relationship. — especially the eerie ‘Splitting The Atom’ Tracks like Phace’s shuddering ‘Interplay’ or
The emotive, joyous strains of early In short, ‘One Life Stand’ is Hot Chip’s and the dissonant ‘Pray For Rain’ — but deep Misanthrop’s queasy ‘Orbit’ mix gritted-teeth
Chicago house — think Larry Heard most dazzling, cohesive and assured within its monochromatic roots beats a soul- beats with the driest of analogue belches
and Marshall Jefferson — are writ album to date. Where they go next ful heart. Admittedly, you have to search for it and, if you can withstand the oppressive
large across the LP’s spellbinding is anyone’s guess, but we can safely among the crepuscular post-punk electronic sense of impending doom, you’ll be dazzled
retro-futurism. assume a trip to the Mercury Prize rage, but this is never a dispiriting listen. by the intricate brilliance of their sound
Opener ‘Thieves In The Night’ blends ceremony in September will feature on ‘Girl I Love You’ and the dystopian soundtrack design. It’s a harsh, mechanical album,
tender folk pastoralism with a techy their 2010 itinerary. Jim Butler ‘Flat Of The Blade’ effortlessly demonstrate but ‘From Deep Space’ is a dark delight
that. A spectacular return. Jim Butler indeed. Joe Madden

094
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