New
listen. Rather, it’s the aural equivalent of the Mersey ferry gently bobbing by on a calm day. Alan Brown
BING JI LING Shadow To Shine Tummy Touch CD
www.tummytouch.com
Record producer and singer Bing Ji Ling (AKA Quinn Luke) was in the pages of Shindig! last issue with the superb album
he concocted in Spain with Bart Davenport (see review elsewhere this issue) and Daniel Callas as Incarnations. Shadow To Shine isn’t a million miles away in its coked-up ’70s vibe either.With assistance from Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Scissor Sisters, Antibalas and Phenomenal Handclap Band the funky musicianship and production are faultless. ‘Bye Bye’ and ‘Hold Tight’ are hard psychedelic, soulful rockers that would honour Parliament or The Isley Brothers, but as often Marvin Gaye, Al Wilson or The Chi- Lites spring to mind, so do pioneering smooth ’70s soul loving ’80s soul boys The Style Council… and yes, the happy-go-lucky disco/pop of Scissor Sisters. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
COWBOIS RHOS BOTWNNOG Dddiau Du, Dyddiau Gwyn Sbrigyn Ymborth CD
www.myspace.com/cowboisrhosbotwnnog It’s often easy to forget that in every corner of every town, county or in this case, principality hides an impressive
– and usually unassuming – band, seemingly born fully formed into a world of
BLOOD CEREMONY Living With The Ancients ELECTRIC WIZARD Black Masses Both Rise Above CD/LP
www.riseaboverecords.com A thousand years before the birth of Christ in the ancient Greek city of Eleusis, initiates gathered to imbibe
a mysterious brew called Kykeon before submitting to wild rituals in search of a higher truth delivered by their heathen gods. Occult ritualistic ceremony survives to this day with heavy rockers whipping
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their own recording. I can’t lay claim to discovering North Wales’ exceptional Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog, whose debut album Dawns Y Trychfilod came out back in 2007, but I can say that at last, my ears have been well and truly awed by their sublime songwriting. Everything from the neat Sweetheart Of
The Rodeo country slides that slip over this album’s title track to the moving ‘Os Ti’n Dod Nôl’ display a maturity and attention almost too perfect for a band so
young.At times they fall victim to one too many moments of introspection, but when the best of them come as naturally as ‘Gan Fy Mod’ and the celebratory highs ring like The Flying Burrito Brothers (‘O! Nansi’), what more can you really ask for? Richard S Jones
BART DAVENPORT Searching For Bart Davenport Tapete CD
www.tapeterecords.de
Reminiscent of the All Back To Mine album compilations where “pop and rock stars” choose their favourite songs, Cali
golden boy Bart Davenport not only selects the tunes, but he performs and plays them in an intimate solo acoustic style as well. So what, you may say? He sings nicely
and plays finger style well, but why have Bart sing them when we could hear the originals? One review stated this verbatim and it missed the point. Bart Davenport is a shining light and hearing his acoustic breakdown of Broadcast’s electronic ‘Come On, Let’s Go’ (RIP Trish Keenan), a keen take on Mike Heron’s Stringband gem ‘You Get Brighter’, a spellbinding version of Love’s‘Wonder People (I Do Wonder)’, a
their followers into a dark fervour – though this time the intoxication of choice is industrial strength dope and doom. Blood Ceremony and Electric Wizard are two such bands screaming invocations to the black gods who demand they follow the left hand path.
Blood Ceremony have refined their sound
into a more polished doom rock since their first self-titled album. This Canadian coven is clearly differentiated from their peers by the female vocals and flute melodies that are laced across the sky-scraping riffs. Occult subject matter is in abundance across every track as portent-filled ritualistic musical sacrifices are offered up to appease their masters. The flute is a novel and creepy
stripped-down take of David Byrne’s ‘Everyone’s In Love With You’ (now sounding remarkably like an early Beatles number) and a naked and minimal take on Gil Scott Heron’s ‘Better Days Ahead’ all show how well he interprets and honours the sources. If not life changing, this is a beautiful testament to the singer’s multifaceted influences. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
FAUST
Something Dirty Bureau
www.bureau-b.com
Forty years ago, with the wild, psychedelic experiments erupting out of Germany’s underground gripping the UK to the extent
that Virgin’s flagship Notting Hill shop sported cushions and a krautrock section, Faust made an immediate impact with the freeform maelstrom of their self-titled debut album pressed on clear vinyl and embossed with a skeletal hand. Founder members Jean Herve Peron and Zappi W Diermaier have carried on causing mayhem and mischief ever since, including achieving a bestseller with The Faust Tapes (which sold for 50p), and have become infamous for abusing assorted machinery at their chaotic shows. Now joined by Gallon Drunk/Bad Seeds
guitarist James Johnston and filmmaker/musician Geraldine Swayne, Faust’s latest missive is a refreshing blast of grinding,‘Sister Ray’ meets Grinderman riff monoliths (‘Tell The Bitch To Go Home’), skeletal crawls (‘Lost The Signal’) and clanking, avant dissonance (‘Dampfauslass 2’), still prone to sudden bursts of sepulchral calm. Still gloriously on their own. Kris Needs
touch but it’s the simply stunning guitar on several songs that catches and thrills the ears most. It’s not quite the equal of the first album for me but it’s certainly atmospheric and weaves an evil wonder to create a world where (to quote an old aphorism) “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”. The seventh
studio album from Electric Wizard is not going to surprise anyone in terms of the stoner-doom rock
approach it pursues. Though most cite Dopethrone as the group’s peak due to its relentless disquieting aural assault, I prefer this later incarnation of the band as they
THE FLOWER MACHINE Lavender Lane Rainbow Quartz CD
www.rainbowquartz.com
This home-recorded effort from the LA- based songwriter Peter Quinell is the second under this name. Conceived as
a “psychedelic manifesto for the lost generation”, it’s a pleasurable romp through the psychedelic pop canon both old and new, taking in the Floyd, Velvets, Beatles, Soft Machine, Bowie, Eno, XTC, Clientele, Fast Camels, and Paisley Underground acts like The Rain Parade. Lyrically amusing, the often surreal
imagery is a walk through all the hippie references you can think of. It certainly helps you get over the lack of melodic invention. The album generally falls down on the musical originality or virtuosity front, and the production is slight enough to be occasionally annoying in a rock kinda way. The lack of a guiding hand over the whole project means we should probably file this under self-indulgent. But when it works, on tracks like ‘In A Window’ and opener ‘Traveling By Trampoline’, it’s worth dipping into for those lysergic treats on summer days. Phil Istine
THE GENTLE GOOD Tethered For The Storm Gwymon CD
www.myspace.com/gwymon Gareth Bonello (AKA The Gentle Good) has carved a reputation in recent years for the sort of singular folk that has proved less a
reinvention of Welsh tradition and more a
can craft a mean tune somewhere in amongst the brutal swathes of sludge. ‘Scorpio Curse’ and ‘Black Mass’ are particularly effective examples of monumental riffs, perfectly intertwining with soaring choruses that trough and peak in equally thrilling measures. The production is muddy as hell to the point of occasionally threatening to bury the drums under a wall of down-tuned gloom but curiously with a genre like this it’s preferably to the crisper job done on the Blood Ceremony LP. Two bands that can conjure up devotion
to a dark ideal with a fearlessness and intensity beyond normal earthly pre- occupations. Buy both! Hail Satan! Austin Matthews
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