New


THE ATTENTION! The Attention! Screaming Apple LP www.screamingapple.de


It would be overstating it to say that what The Cramps are to rockabilly, Austria’s The Attention! are to 1964 vintage R&B. They do


however vary between butane-fuelled attempts at period recreation such as ‘Shimynizer’ and ‘Blank Love Boogie’ and finding their own shaking neo-garage niche with ‘Alina’. As with all the Screaming Apple artists I’ve


heard, The Attention! seem to be predicated on volume, sweat and fun in equal measure. It’s a joyous, raucous sound that reminds you why you were turned onto R&B or rock ’n’ roll in the first place. Eight of the 10 songs are originals and even


album closer ‘See See Rider’ turns into something of a rave up. If you’re looking for a 30 minute fix of


stomping frolicsome fun to cure what ails ya, this’ll put the smile right back on your face! Paul Martin


THE BESNARD LAKES The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night


Jagjaguar www.jagjaguar.com


As quick fix indie hits and weekly pop flavours dilute themselves further into each other (we can only pray that a vacuum will one day


follow), that big, bold and earnest rock sound is one that has grown increasingly more allusive in recent years. One might be led to believe that the crown


lies heavy in the court of “rock with reason”. Although one person in that kingdom who would never admit such a thing is the ever autonomous Jace Lasek and his fellow Lakes. Three albums in and more stirring than ever before, …Are The Roaring Night pours over impressive and beguiling West Coast sounds, driven home by hardworking production ethics. Drowning us in everything from Dennis Wilson’s mesmeric legacy, decorated flourishes of ELO and enough MBV post-rock earthquakes to keep singer Olga Goreas busy narrating the dawn of creation. As she does to devastatingly breathless effect on standout track ‘Albatross’. Richard S Jones


WAY OUT WEST JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS rounds up the latest in rural rock sounds.


When opening a new occasional column about music inspired and born of the great state of California it only seems right to start with Swedish


performer CITIZEN K.Sad and melodic, any number of forlorn mid-70s private press folk/singer-songwriter albums spring to mind. Somewhere Up North (Paraply) is a very lovely, honest and bare record, with an undeniable Swedish edge.


72


KEN CAMDEN Lethargy & Repercussion Kranky www.kranky.net


When it comes to one-man guitar exploration albums, I tend to find one of two things. Either guitar players – and this is true of even the most


virtuosic sometimes – fall foul of concepts so convoluted they are guilty of nothing more than technical onanism. But on the other hand there are records so imposing they serve as micro- showcases for gifted talent. Like this gem by Chicagoan Ken Camden. With home recording equipment costing less


these days than a packet of posh crisps, guitarists can really afford to experiment and Camden certainly does just that. Channelling delayed phasing and cut/paste rhythms throughout ‘Raagini Robot’; turning his guitar into an entire progressive library track, mimicking synthesizers, electronic dialogues and lush choral soundscapes. Closing epic ‘Jupiter’ too is shaped less as a gratuitous recital and more as a modern marvel of orchestral movement. In short Lethargy & Repercussion is time seriously well spent for all parties involved. Richard S Jones


THE DUSTAPHONICS Burlesque Queen King A Ling CD www.reason2b.net


Since 2000, the London-based collective Raison D’Etre has held club nights that allow outsider artists from a variety of musical


backgrounds to collaborate. The Dustaphonics are one of numerous side-projects instigated by the cooperative’s founder Yvan Serrano- Fontova AKA Healer Selecta, a DJ, promoter and former ace surf-guitar face with Guitarman Showman & The Thunderous Staccato. Led by Selecta as axeman and joined by


regular Aina Westyle on soulful, sultry vocals, along with Brian Iddenden on sax, The Dustaphonics mix it up as their greasy garage- soul revue blasts out hip-shakin’ rock ’n’ roll (‘The Jinx’), boppin’ midnight cool jazz (‘Catwoman’) and pounding Hammond organ to a go-go-surf beat on ‘Tura Satana’, an ode to the bodacious actress in Russ Meyer’s classic Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! In fact, the former exotic dancer wrote the


CELILO, from Portand, Oregon, have a bigger sound with elements of The Jayhawks about them. Counting Neil Young and Blitzen Trapper as MySpace


friends it’s clear where they’re coming from, and Bending Mirrors (Homesweet) consists of bourbon soaked husky voiced harmonies, pedal steel and some fine country-rock tunes.


On a far softer note, HARPER SIMON (do you know that surname? Yes indeed – it’s Paul Simon’s son) keeps closely to the family tradition with a voice you could mistake for ole pa. Live online clips show Simon doing a neat


title track for this steaming seven-song debut mini-album herself – a reverb-drenched slice of tassel-twirlin’ jazzy surf raunch. Go, baby, go! Alan Brown


ELEPHANT9 Walk The Nile Rune Grammofon www.runegrammofon.com


Of the many things that could be said about Norway’s leading exponents of acid tabbed avant-jazz, Elephant9’s biggest triumph is knowing


how to entice a bashful Hammond organ out of shyness and creating on tape the type of sounds only an acid casual can hear in his own mind. Take opening track ‘Fugl Fønix’, which propels


itself into the sort of calculated prog freak-out you might well find on Graham Field’s 1971 Fields album. Powerful riff-laden organs of this ilk are not easily wielded but Elephant9’s Stale Strookken (he of Supersilent) does so originally, mixing heavy-funk and psychedelia with Eastern flavours that’d force The Mahavishnu Orchestra to revaluate their place in the cosmos. As well as exploiting elements of Tangerine Dream, everything from intense dirges (‘Hardcore Orientale’) to space jazz numbers are conjured. Few bands produce this sound well.


Nobody however, seems to be doing it quite as well as this. Richard S Jones


FARRAH Farrah Lo-Jinx CD www.farrah.co.uk


There’s something both satisfying and frustrating about listening to a Farrah record – like tasting one innocent and delicious cream bun


and then wolfing the lot and feeling sick and not a little angry with yourself. Maybe it’s the way Jez Ashurst’s undeniable


affinity with a tune – he would appear to fart ultra-commercial potential mega-hits into the ether on an hourly basis – is just a little too geared towards stylistically aping existing pop landmarks? Cases in point: ‘Stereotypes’. Is it Britney Spears? Is it McFly? Is it Foreigner? Oh fuck, I can’t remember! ‘Scarborough’ is less puzzling – it’s Fountains Of Wayne’s ‘Valley Winter Song’ in all but the lyric’s geographical transposition, right down to the tone of the


line in raw Dylan vocalising too (‘You Ain’t Going Nowhere’ is perfect), but on the truly sublime Harper Simon album he veers between Simon &


Garfunkel circa Bookends, semi-sunshine pop and kooky hippified country-rock. Even if he is undoubtedly cut from the Simon cloth, Harper is more than capable of penning decent songs in his own right. Highly recommended.


Another Californian band OLD CALIFORNIO have that ’69-73 West Coast beardy sensibility down to a tee. In fact, if Westering Again (Californio) was an old album, it’d be highly


guitars and the brushes on the drum stool. This “chameleon of pop” (as I just decided


to call him) will continue to be big in Japan for as long as he can assimilate, liquidise and reconfigure his wide and wise array of influences but ultimately it could well be to the detriment of ever sounding like himself. Andy Morten


HAG Hag


Noisestar CD www.noisestar.co.uk


After 30 years of unsubtle reinvention and heavy (yes) but ultimately misplaced homages by lesser bands not worth their salt, it’s great to hear


a trio who are essentially just paying their dues to the Gods of plain ol’ fucking loud. The gloriously named Hag have steered


clear of the temptation to stop dead at Sub Pop 200 on this debut long player and instead have chosen to travel that bit deeper into the rock/metal-centric depths of early C/Z recordings and bands like Coffin Break, The Melvins and Skin Yard. Opening track ‘Truckstop Queen’ for instance may be heavy but heavy-metal it certainly ain’t. Reverberating to the sound of juggernaut drumming and Harvey Milk-ish bass lines, produced by Part Chimp’s Tim Cedar it truly is as ugly as it is angry and bloodcurdly. And with track names like ‘Gummo Vs. Mum’ it would appear they have a sense of humour, quite literally to boot. Richard S Jones


HOLLY GOLIGHTLY & THE BROKEOFFS Medicine County Damaged Goods CD/LP www.damagedgoods.co.uk


After 2008’s spit ’n’ shined country-blues studio album Dirt Don’t Hurt, Holly Golightly and Lawyer Dave, the one-man band that is The


Brokeoffs, are back to basics on their third outing with cracking results. Recorded down on the farm they share


together just outside Athens, Georgia, Medicine County finds the duo picking up the beat. There are still the haunting country duets that come on like a backwoods Nancy & Lee (‘Medicine County’, ‘Don’t Fail Me’), grinding slide-guitar


regarded by now. Calling it slavish imitation would be a crime, but if you like Moby Grape or The New Riders Of The Purple Sage you’ll


certainly love this. There is enough of today about it too to hopefully see these guys achieve the same sort of success as Wilco. A fantastic record, with the superb psych-rocker ‘Warmth Of The Sun’ oozing hairy, Cali-freak cool.


www.paraplyrecords.se www.myspace.com/celilo www.pias.com www.myspace.com/oldcalifornio


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