1980s/90s


THEE GNOSTICS Archival Cassette-ography Bennifer Editions, 2-cassette/booklet beniffereditions.blogspot.com


New


AGENT RIBBONS Chateau Crone Antenna Farm CD


www.antennafarmrecords.com Victorian punk. Burlesque folk. Cabaret country.You could go all Lewis Carroll and label it “Barrocky” if you’re hankering after a portmanteau phrase to get that all-important


triple word score. Truth is, any one or combination of the above could help you describe Sacramento three-piece Agent Ribbons. Formed in 2004, never have they sounded as


Far from being an ironic piss-take, the cassette tape underground is alive and well and knocking out numerous volumes of experimental rock for the consumption of white bookish males the world over.Thee Gnostics were/are a jam band in the Hawkwind, Ash Ra Temple tradition who recorded all the music on offer here between 1992 and ’96. The audio quality is utterly terrible, though


whether this is due to the fidelity of the format or the actual recording of the music I wasn’t 100% sure. The whole package is certainly attractive with a cool full colour booklet of weird appropriated artwork in dizzying colours. If you like communal style space jamming and


you’ve heard literally everything else in the genre you may want to give this a go. To the normal human this may all appear to be tuneless jammy noodling wankery, recorded in a toilet and put out on an obsolete format. This may be exactly what some listeners are looking for though quite frankly I’m not even sure people on drugs will like this. Austin Matthews


PSYCHEDELIC WARRIORS White Zone Atomhenge CD www.atomhenge.com


Never afraid to push the envelope as far as musical experimentation is concerned, as rave culture collided head on with the free festival movement, Hawkwind


typically embraced the burgeoning techno scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s with ease, and in 1995, using the pseudonym Psychedelic Warriors, they released this instrumental album of electronic ambient psychedelia. Sonically speaking, they’d been experimenting


with soundscapes like this for years, but ’82’s Church Of Hawkwind is perhaps White Zone’s most obvious predecessor. Largely eschewing the traditional rock element of their sound in favour of keyboards, synthesizers and sequencers, White Zone might be similar in style to contemporary outfits of the era like Banco De Gaia, and even The Orb at times, but it also harks back to the likes of Tangerine Dream. It sounds as refreshing now as I imagine it


would have done in a trance room or a dawn chill- out session in the mid-90s. Certainly worth investigating if it passed under your radar the first time round. Rich Deakin


For more reviews visit www.shindig- magazine.com


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persuasive as they do here on Chateau Crone, parading their sound through that dramatic Le Lido we call life’s cabaret with a copy of Odessey And Oracle in hand. From turn of the century Europe and soviet yelps and accordion plods of the fantastic ‘I’ll Let You Be My Baby’, they travel through ’30s America, corrupting the harmonious influence of those good-natured Boswell Sisters with rousing garage-rock (‘I’m Alright’). If Maureen Tucker had been born an all singin’ Wiggin – bringing some much needed musical dexterity to The Shaggs – then Agent Ribbons could have very easily proven their muse. Richard S Jones


BUSHMAN’S REVENGE Jitterbug Rune Grammofon CD www.runegrammofon.com


There aren’t nearly enough Swedish instrumental jazz-punk trios in the Yellow Pages for my liking, so the ongoing evolution of Bushman’s Revenge –


apparently named after a colon-vaporizing chilli sauce – is sufficient cause for hallelujahs. Jitterbug, recorded eye-to-eye with little or no overdubs, nails its belligerent colours to the mast with an industrial-strength nail gun straight from the Yoda-phrased opening track ‘Always In Motion The Future Is’, which starts tumultuously unravelling at the 3.10 mark and continues doing so for a further six minutes and 50 seconds, sounding like a band hurled from Beachy Head. Their brutish, hard-ass virtuosity resembles MX-


80 Sound butting skulls with Tony Williams’ Lifetime and Nomeansno, while a scorched earth reading of Motörhead’s‘Damage Case’ displays the admirable breadth of their influences. ‘Too Old To Die Young’ and ‘Waltz For My Good Man’, by way of contrast, are sublimely pretty: fearless guitarist Even Helte Hermansen is a bit of a find. Marco Rossi


CAROLINE AND THE TREATS Bad All Over House Of Rock CD www.house-of-rock.no


If you’ve ever bounced around the room to Nikki & The Corvettes, you’re in for some fun. Fronted by Caroline Andersen, ex- porn star and practising go-go dancer with The


Fleshoticas, and backed by her guitar-wielding boyfriend Morten Henriksen (Cosmic Dropouts), bassist Glen Glitter and drummer Ole Nesset from garage-psych band Death By Unga Bunga (amazingly, unsigned), these Norwegians provide the pedal-to-the-metal counterpoint to Detroit’s


’80s powerpop princesses. Produced by Henriksen, Bad All Over fizzes with


14 infectious powerpop gems, including 10 originals co-written by the couple – they’re all a blast. Caroline’s voice bubbles with punk attitude on comic-book songs about her love of sticky treats and making out with boys, while the lads let rip on a sinewy, melodic rampage. “Go, go, go till you make me pop”, the lusty lady sings on ‘Let’s Do It’. Don’t let the cover put you off – these are pop-punk sugar lumps to savour. Alan Brown


DAVID CELIA I Tried XXI CD


www.myspace.com/davidcelia


There’s no doubt that this Canadian is a guitarist and vocalist of considerable talent but the Jack Johnson singer- songwriter schtick ain’t really my bag at all, and


the jokey vaudevillian undertones tend to grate on one’s nerves after a while. Parts of I Tried are kind of quaint in a quirky, upbeat, poppy sort of way, but that’s half the problem – he really does try too hard. It’s ironic then that Celia probably comes up with his best song – the title track – when he doesn’t try too hard. ‘Instant Puppy Love’ and ‘Running Out Of Time’


are reasonable efforts too, but elsewhere one gets the impression that Celia is trying out for a Walt Disney soundtrack – I know the sentiments on


Fabienne Delsol: bittersweet introspection.


‘Bug’s Apocalypse’ might be admirable but the lyrical attempts at making an analogy between the planet’s demise and that of insects trapped in amber is clumsy and cringeworthy to say the least. In future, be yourself or don’t even bother trying


at all. Rich Deakin


TOULOUSE ENGELHARDT Perpendicular Worlds Lost Grove CD www.lostgrovearts.com


Cinematically impressionistic guitarist, brilliant composer and humourist Toulouse Engelhardt was born in Madison, Wisconsin but has been steeped in


Southern California beach culture for the past four decades. He was an original member of The Takoma Seven, who were celebrated pioneers of avant-garde finger-style guitar that recorded for the Takoma label from 1965 to ’76 and included John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke. This 13-track project is divided into two


sections – inner and outer space – and features three cover selections (including an effervescent version of Davy Graham’s‘Angie’ and a “wet” surf/world beat-accented take of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Third Stone From The Sun’) alongside his own poly-melodic, visionary, tonally sophisticated compositions – a transfixing medley called ‘Convergence: The Blind Watchmaker/In Christ There Is No East Or West’, the category-defying


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