New


Tunes fluctuates between peaks of outright fury on ‘Great White Line’ and nadirs of creeping on broken eggshells on ‘In The Night’. Drunken backing howls and Safe As Milk guitar-assaults cement their status with the only stumbling block being the length of this long player. The Cubical work more immediately in dusty 45 bursts than on a collection of songs that test like a tiring all-nighter. But where else are you going to find this sort of sound outside of the US? Exactly. Nowhere. Liverpool is the place to be for more than just pop-beat infamy. Richard S Jones


DENNIS DIKEN WITH BELL SOUND Late Movie Cryptovision CD www.cryptovisionrecords.com


Most Shindiggers will recognize Diken as the drummer of The Smithereens, and while he didn’t write many songs for them, he did pen what is arguably their


best tune, The Beach Boys influenced ‘If The Sun Doesn’t Shine’. Those Beach Boys influences abound on Diken’s long-awaited debut, Late Movie. ‘Standing In That Lane’ and especially ‘Fall Into Your Arms’ are in sound and production almost perfect replicas of Brian Wilson’s first solo album, and ‘Long Lonely Ride’ recalls early Beach Boys. Other tunes display Diken’s love of all things ‘60s; opening cut, ‘The Sun’s Gonna Shine In The Morning’, is a nice slice of modern freakbeat, and ‘No One’s Listening’ is a pretty soft pop ballad. Besides boasting several great tunes, Late Movie also features some real luminaries playing on it, including Jason Falkner, Andy Paley and The Honeys David Bash


HEAT FROM A DEAD STAR Seven Rays Of The Sun Ace Of Hearts CD www.aceofheartsrecords.com This London based trio have more than just the same record label in common with the late ’70s Boston combo, Mission Of Burma. They also share the same


producer, Richard W Harte, whilst MOB founder Roger Miller tinkles the ivories on one track – the delectably dissonant ‘Seahorse, Seafish’. Mission Of Burma advocacy aside, at times


they’re also vaguely reminiscent of early ’80s Cure, and an air of melancholia lingers throughout. It would be easy then to pigeonhole HFADS, given these ’80s post-punk influences. Give them their dues though, they also have a distinctly modern feel to their sound, occasionally bringing to mind Cooper Temple Clause as they alternate with ease between crudely discordant punk style numbers, such as ‘Psychotic Girl’ or ‘Crown’ and beautiful psychedelic tinged melodies like ‘Daylight’ and ‘Astra’. On the whole this is a mostly satisfying


collection of songs, but their next should be even better. Rich Deakin


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MICHAEL HURLEY Ida Con Snock Gnomonsong CD www.midheaven.com


Just in the nick of time for rabid Snockophiles everywhere is Hurley’s second project for Gnomonsong –a deft mix of


ramshackle originals and oldies covers that consistently bubbles and brims with his characteristic comfy ease and overall tremelodic serendipity.All of his songs and treatments also have a slightly off-kilter yet timeless quality to them that enchants as it mystifies.


Favourites this time around include the


bizarrely philosophical ‘It Must Be Gelatine’, the barnyard blues of ‘Hog Of The Forsaken’, an existential passion plea titled ‘The Time Is Right’ and the tongue-twisting ‘Any Ninny Any’. Inimitable reworkings of both Fats Domino’s ‘Valley Of Tears’ and ‘Loch Lomond/Molly Malone’ are also noted. The minimal accompaniment by New York City’s premier acoustic experimentalists Ida is quite complementary throughout, particularly vocalist Tara Jane O’Neil’s hoots on ‘Hoot Owls’. Hurley’s debut album, First Songs, was


recorded for Folkways Records in 1965 on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Leadbelly’s Last Sessions. Mercifully, all these decades later, his muse remains at full strength. Gary von Tersch


THE HUSSY’S Super Pro Fat Cheerleader CD www.myspace.com/thehussys The Hussy’s have been playing around Glasgow for a while now, developing into a first rate pop band. In their early days they were compared to all sorts of people,


but on Super Pro they sound like no one but themselves. The songs are brimming with great hooks


and are instantly memorable. Lead vocalist Fili is outstanding throughout, and earns bonus points for not trying to hide her Scottish accent on ‘Roller Disco’. Subtle backing vocals and sensitive arrangements really add to the overall feel. The lyrics are consistently intelligent and the subjects of the songs are interesting, including early memories of Roller Disco, T Rex records, houses aglow with hundreds of seasonal lights and being stuck in the ’80s. Intelligent (but not clever-clever) pop music


with an individual personality and great tunes would suggest commercial success for The Hussy’s. Phil Suggitt


INVASION The Master Alchemist This Is Music CD www.thisismusicltd.com We’re all a bit studious when it comes to music but how often do we read about the influential merits of Barbados’s finest export Luv Machine? In fact I bet you’ve never even


entertained the possibility that had they joined forces with, say, Hawkwind or Black Sabbath, 1971 would have been twice the year it already was.


Beyond comprehension then? Not for London three piece Invasion who’ve torn my mind a new one with their debut The Master Alchemist.


Essentially a metal album forged in the fire


of mystical forests, singer Chan Brown channels soul deep from the belly of a volcano as one three-stringed guitar derails the type of detuned riffs Iommi would screw Satan’s sister for. Where ‘Moongazer’ and ‘Evil Forest’ afford Brown lots of wailing time, drummer Zel Kaute hammers skins stretched from the bodies of Gods and monsters throughout. Metal it may be, but never has wizardry


sounded so soulfully apocalyptic. Richard S Jones


DANIEL JOHNSTON Is And Always Was Feraltone CD www.feraltone.co.uk


Cult folk artist and Oddfather Of Grunge Daniel Johnston’s inevitable rise to fame (or critical acclaim perhaps) has been a long time coming and one that


many will have you believe is unquestionably deserved. It is of course, and there’s no doubt that this latest effort goes some way to mending the broken big label accident that was Fun (1994) and challenges more than ever the image of Johnston in The Devil And Daniel Johnston documentary as a guy best left to his own cassette recorder and idiosyncratic devices. (Check out his reworked version of ‘I Had Lost My Mind’.) Given some gloss by producer Jason


Falkner he revisits the same old sketchbook and records for influence in that we get superhero songs about domestic pets clapped to childish cheers of ABC folk (‘Queenie The Doggie’), even more heartbreaking paeans to that girl (‘Without You’) and enough Beatles licks and guitar lines to warrant inclusion in any ’60s pop lover’s record collection. Richard S Jones


KING KHAN & THE BBQ SHOW Invisible Girl In The Red CD www.intheredrecords.com


Whatever your opinion is of King Khan and The BBQ Show (Khan’s Spaceshits cohort Mark Sultan), I’m sure that opinion is nowhere near as


significant as the opinion they have of themselves. Anti-heroic they may be given their preoccupation with that lost art of showmanship, but there’s no doubt that Invisible Girl is one of this year’s must-hear albums. After a slow start suggesting Khan may have mellowed since last year’s Supreme


Genius… LP with The Shrines, the impressive ‘Spin The Bottle’ and ‘Animal Party’ pick up the pace with good ol’ fashioned doo-wop by way of LA punk. More achingly cool songs follow, most


notably album closer ‘Do The Chop’ but on the whole it’s one curious experience. Like James Brown’s cape routine, Little Richard’s androgyny or Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper’s missing plane. It’s black gospel soul and white trash. It’s King Khan & The BBQ Show. What else


was I expecting? Richard S Jones


LEFT LANE CRUISER All You Can Eat!! Alive Natural Sound LP www.alivenergy.com


Continuing exactly where they’d left off on last year’s debut Bring Yo’Ass To The Table, Left Lane Cruiser still make Fort Wayne, Indiana seem more South


than North. I used to say that they sound kind of like Son House with his guitar plugged in, backed by a Viv Prince-like loony type drummer. Come to think of it again, they still do, but it’s more like a sweat soaked, booze fuelled jam session with the likes of Captain Beefheart on occasional vocals, Ronnie Wood on slide or Billy Gibbons throwing in a riff or two as well, all adding up to the delta-punk sound as they call it themselves. Some of the song titles like ‘Crackalacka’,


‘Hillgrass Bluebilly’ or ‘Broke Ass Blues’ will have you wielding your air guitar even before you hear them, and when you do, you’ll be doing the Jeff Beck in Blow Up scene in no time. Goran Obradovic


LONELY LONDON LAD Lonely London Lad Lonely London Lad CD www.myspace.com/lonelylondonlad LLL is the brainchild of one Robert Savage, who, along with two other “artists handpicked for their genius”, has created a sprawling array of largely


electronic-based, experimental lo-fi psychedelia. Clocking in at over two hours and spread


across two CDs, the variegated soundscapes are bolstered by some fine guitar work, displaying occasional flourishes of Robert Fripp. ‘The Love’, ‘Pura Vida’ and ‘SPQR’ are particularly enjoyable, as is ‘Drop Dead Lizzie’, a delightfully sinister ditty to a murderous femme fatale delivered in a theatrical falsetto vocal.


Whilst certainly not afraid to explore


different musical styles, there is definitely an undercurrent here that smacks of what might loosely be described as art rock, even if somewhat trite at times. Eccentric in the same grand tradition as any number of lo-fi musical mavericks over the years though, given the right kind of breaks, LLL is a name you could be hearing more of in the future. Rich Deakin


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