New


and its environs in the last 10 years – California’s Painted Hills unleash their debut long-player through long-time admirer and drummer to the stars Ric Menck’s Birdsong label. The Hills’ Buffalo Springfield meets The Rain


Parade lineage is easily the handiest with which to lure in unsuspecting onlookers but there are tangents aplenty, most notably in the whiff of British drug-rockers like Primal Scream and – at the other end of the patchouli-flavoured spectrum – the creaking indie country-blues of Will Oldham. It’s all good gear but ‘Morning Light’ and ‘Everybody’ in particular deserve to be heard by anyone with a taste for heavy-lidded, backwards-looking guitar rock. Andy Morten


PLASTIC SOUL Peacock Swagger Self-released CD www.plasticsoulmusic.com


Los Angeles-based alternative pop rockers Plastic Soul was formed in 2003 as a vehicle for singer- songwriter and multi- instrumentalist Steven


Eric Wilson and his long-time collaborator Marc Bernal, who released their debut Pictures From Long Ago to critical acclaim in 2005. This sophomore project adds guitarist Daniel


Conrad, drummers Kevin Holden and Carlos Nieto and keyboardist Brandon Schott to the line-up along with a host of guests and complementary sound effects and contains 12 meticulously crafted songs that pleasurably veer from the fragile beauty of the Coral electric sitar-enhanced ‘Fishwife’ to the roaring, one-chord anarchy of ‘Cock Rock 101’, with the latter featuring Wilson on “pots and pans” and Nieto on “metal pole”. A densely produced, psychedelic-shaded, Beatlesque sheen pervades throughout, proving especially buoyant on titles such as the jaunty ‘Champion Tragic Boy’, the mellow put- down song ‘What Do You Know About Rock And Roll?’ and an enchantingly kaleidoscopic ode to ‘San Francisco’. Gary von Tersch


POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE Go Ape Nasoni CD www.nasoni-records.com This is an odyssey into the realms of


SHADOWS & REFLECTIONS Buttoned-down sounds for today’s modernist.


THE ABOVE The Above Killer Diller CD www.theabovebrooklyn.com The Above really breathe new life into the ’60s revival scene, having been around a few years, still sounding fresh, full of enthusiasm and toting


a bag full of song writing chops. Moving with great ease between garage-punk and hard Brit R&B, it’s all topped with near perfect Mersey harmonies. ‘What She Said’ is the kickoff that takes Kinks riffage and roughs it up in the alley


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superlative out-there psychedelic jazz-rock. A glorious hotchpotch of jazzy vibes, elongated space jams and monster grooves of epic proportions


interspersed by experimental weirdness. ‘A Letter to Albert H.’ (in five parts) is a sonic collage of perturbing qualities, whilst ‘Etude #27’ is a freeform freak out akin to something by The Red Crayola or Fifty Foot Hose. All manner of other noises, spoof news broadcasts and sound effects conspire to add to a general air of psychic disturbance throughout. It’s hardly surprising that they cut some fine


chops worthy of Krautrock antecedents like Amon Düül too, given that they’re German themselves. To these ears the many other influences on Go Ape are legion too, and the spectres of Hawkwind, Gong, Sun Ra and even The Tubes are obvious. But Polytoxicomane Philharmonie perhaps worship most fervently at the altar of Frank Zappa – Mothers and later! Go Ape can’t come recommended highly enough. Rich Deakin


DAN REEDER This New Century Oh Boy CD www.ohboy.com


Quirky, sharp-witted songwriter and Nuremburg, Germany- based one-man band Dan Reeder just keeps improving with each project. While


his third album for John Prine’s Oh Boy label is a trifle more polished technique-wise (good thing) it still gloriously remains Reeder recording solo in a makeshift studio with a menagerie of homemade acoustic instruments and singing in that laid-back sort of fashion that encourages listener reflection on his brief yet potent, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Favourites include several that feature


Reeder multi-tracking doo-wop-styled harmonies with himself (gems like his ode to ravioli titled ‘Angels May’, the bawdy birthday song ‘She Won’t Even Blow’, his wonderful take on retirement ‘It Feels So Good’ and the ‘Heart And Soul’ send-up ‘Two Songs That I Know’ are particularly imaginative), his incisively pithy title song – an image-laced commentary on the current generation’s political ineptitude – along


whilst incendiary Yardies styled rave-ups abound on ‘Special Somethin’’ and ‘You’re Gonna Cry’. They even tackle sublime Britpop à la


Grapefruit with ‘Don’t Believe In The Light’ and sound convincing! Eric Colin Reidelberger


THEE ATTACKS That’s Mister Attack To You Crunchy Frog CD www.crunchy.dk


If the first 60 seconds of opener ‘Love In Disguise’ don’t set out Thee Attacks’ battle plan in vivid colour then I’m a Danish pastry. “Recorded in aggressive


mono” screams the artwork and, while this aggression is thankfully channelled through a big


with a gospel-driven slice of soul music called ‘James Brown Is Dead And Gone’ and the bluesy ecology lesson ‘Long Ago’. Gary von Tersch


SNOWBYRD Diosdado Saustex CD www.saustexmedia.com


Snowbyrd is


psilocybin-soaked psychedelia; a peyote ritual to evoke the emanations of San Antonio’s musical legends. The spirits of


these ancestors awaken and breathe again with new inspiration. Many musical styles are encompassed in the suites that segue from song to song. This cultural unity from ethnic diversity expresses the ideal of “E Pluribus Unum”, the all-seeing eye at the top of the pyramid. Diosdado means “God-given” and was the


middle name of departed drummer Manuel Castillo. Scott and Chris Lutz are the voices and guitars, while Dale Johnson plays bass. Scott started with The Drop Outs and has become a Hickoid. His tunes are psychedelic epiphanies while Chris builds lyrical themes with extended metaphors. These songs evoke the fragrance of homegrown skunk weed that pervaded the patio at music cantina Tacoland. Curtis Cottrell


SUNRISE HIGHWAY Sunrise Highway Songheads Music CD www.songheads.com Just in time for summer, New York City-based retro power-poppers Sunrise Highway (named after a local interstate) – led by


singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Silvert and formerly known as NEO and The Sunshine Boys –


surface with this inspired 12 song project that not only delightfully and self-assuredly channels the likes of the Brian Wilson-era Beach Boys, The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Association but also Burt Bacharach, early Kinks and Byrds, The Young Rascals and Todd Rundgren among others. Not to mention those Mamas & Papas-like, joyful, mirth-barely-


pile of old guitars and drums as opposed to a punch in the face, it’s plain to hear why these four young Danes have been leaving jaws dropped and stages soaked Europe-wide over the past year. Recorded under the watchful eye of Liam


Watson at London’s Toe Rag Studio, That’s Mister Attack To You contains 12 short, sharp shocks from the mid-60s Brit mod school, dressed to kill and recast for a 2010 audience. The likes of the snarling ‘Won’t Break Me’, the rumbling ‘Rip My Heart Out’ and the acoustic guitar-driven ‘Love In The City’ bring The Birds, The Sorrows and numerous Scandinavian and even Dutch ’60s beat monsters to mind. Andy Morten


THE GONKS Float Yer Boat Green Cookie CD www.greencookie.gr Antwerp based mod band The Gonks have


suppressed vocal harmonies. Lead vocalist Greg Schlotthauer is


particularly impressive on titles like the bittersweet tale of a ‘Lonely Guy’ and a dreamlike ‘Life On Mars’ while some creative drum programming enhances both the swept away ‘Baby Be Good’ and the chiffon textured ‘Roundabout’. Also noted is the clever tale of the 14th floor ‘Mini Bar’. Gary von Tersch


THE TINY Gravity & Grace DetErMine CD www.thetiny.net


The third album from Swedish duo The Tiny, Ellekari Larsson and Leo Svensson, is an extremely unusual and starkly emotional record. The pair, a


married couple, deconstruct a relationship on this album with such candour and pain that it’s the aural equivalent of eavesdropping on a Relate session. The powerful narratives on Gravity & Grace


speak words that you find it difficult to say even in your own head. It’s a portrait of a love when it’s been tilted, and neither party knows where it’s going to go; dripping from Gravity & Grace is the uncomfortable power to squash another human being – and the fear that it could be done back to you. Svensson’s cello and Larsson’s piano are


beautiful, and the atmospheric haze brought by producer Paul ‘Rustin Man’ Webb (reminiscent of his underrated 2002 album with Portishead’s Beth Gibbons) are also important factors in making this a gleaming album. This is the find of the year so far for me. Jeanette Leech


TREMBLING BELLS Abandoned Love Honest Jon’s www.honestjons.com


When we first featured Trembling Bells with a lump in our throats and a beat in our heart, news that the band were going to throw their genius


up into the Scottish air to see where it landed for album number two intrigued us greatly.


been quiet for a while after having played all around Europe three or four years ago. It’s good to know they still exist, as this album is full of


melodic, well-crafted tunes that hold your interest. Chief Gonk Colin Gould really nails that


soulful mod R&B vocal style. Gould is also the songwriter and is ably supported by the backing vocals of keyboard player Eleanor McClean. The tunes are consistently well arranged, with occasional horn parts and relaxed, subtle playing, rather like the good parts of The Style Council without the bad ’80s bits. The Gonks’ own description of their music as “contemporary vintage” floor- stomping soul-pop is accurate. Phil Suggitt


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