New Music 2011 - Mirror, mirror - l want it all.

There is much to write, and most of it concerns (forthcoming) festivals too, but I'm going to start with this instead. After a fortnight away from writing I have decided that, with the numbered run of 'New Music 2011' having reached #14 by the end of March they will, at least for the foreseeable future, become unnumbered.  There is just too much that I'm excited about...
  
First off the fourth studio album from Domino Records stalwarts and Glaswegian institution Sons and Daughters. The  2008 album 'This Gift' was good but, produced by Bernard Butler, a rather unsurprisingly polished affair. It seems as though their fourth LP - to be called 'Mirror Mirror' marks a return in many ways to their glorious 2005 album 'The Repulsion Box' and if you need to listen to one S&D album before the new one appears, in early summer I believe, this is it.

Deciphering the lyrics will, almost certainly, prove a challenge but you will probably forget to try because the insistent drumming and the venom of the songs is quite remarkable. That the album actually runs for less than thirty minutes is something that you will also not even notice at first.
Always a good album for getting rid of party guests that have overstayed their welcome and to make a statement when played way too loud in the car with the windows wound down!
  
Still as scarily good as it was when it was released; for me it is now a 'classic' LP.

This Gift - Sons and Daughters

The Gift is here and released in the UK on Monday 28th January on both CD (and also a limited bonus version with a live CD included) and on 12" vinyl (again limited) with a gold-foil sleeve that makes it almost impossible to photograph. I know this - I've just tried several possible ways of doing it and it is much like trying to take a picture of a mirror without seeing oneself in it!

Success is a two-edged blade and they knew it. What could they do next given that in 2005 their second album was both fantastic and so criminally underrated? No band had pushed boundaries as far and not only got away with it but made it their own territory.
That said 'This Gift' is amazing. 'The Repulsion Box' (2005) was always going to be an extremely tough album to follow but they've certainly done it. As it only arrived this morning I'm still undecided on the best tracks. There are plenty to chose from...

This library image really doesn't do it justice and I'll try again in daylight tomorrow morning but, as Domino vinyl always seems to be, the quality is untouchable. Some reviews have hinted that, with Bernard Butler on production duties, this is the album that sees Sons and Daughters go pop.
Well, unless your idea of pop is pitch-perfect in its twistedness - and this album is - then you might just be disappointed. More pop than The Repulsion Box for sure but that is hardly difficult and it is no less recognisable as Sons and Daughters. If this is the future of pop then so be it.

Incidentally someone sent me an e-mail today that contained an interesting suggestion: Once Amy Winehouse is packed off to rehab one of the therapies should be listening to Adele Bethel singing (presumably The Repulsion Box) as the songs are probably as messed-up as they come but Bethel (by all reports) isn't!

To listen to in 2008 - Part 1

Things are hotting up after the Christmas hiatus and the next month is going to see a whole slew of releases that I've been waiting ages for.

Here are two for starters:

The London five-piece release their second album, following on from 2005's Cuts Across The Land. In place of 'Loog' it is released on a new label, 'You Are Here', but this album is also released on 12" and so no complaints from me! Touring their first album cemented their live reputation and this one may demonstrate that, with Liela Moss on lead vocals and as principal lyricist, 'The Duke Spirit' are now the most remarkable female-fronted rock band of the 21st century so far.

If that wasn't enough then Glaswegian four-piece 'Sons and Daughters' also have a new album - This Gift - the third from the 'Domino Recordings' artists.
In so far as it is possible to pigeon-hole their music they are the finest exponents of folk gone punk.

Unless they have turned seriously soft since 2005's The Repulsion Box, which took no prisoners whatsoever, do not expect anything approaching a ballad and even if it sounds like one the lyric will almost certainly suggest something very different. What makes The Repulsion Box quite remarkable is that, while it is performed with military discipline, it was written with unbridled vengeance.

It is to be hoped that This Gift will be available on 12" too, as their previous releases both have been, but I can't confirm or deny that yet. If you know better then please let us all know...

Note added 19th January:
A wet weekend is the perfect excuse to stay home and listen to music while also reading about it! This Gift is definitely available on 12" and the latest single Darling is out now and available on 7".

The above is the artwork of the CD single but I'll put that right as soon as I can! I've heard much of the album already and all I'm going to let slip is that it's been well worth the wait. It was produced by ex-Suede co-writer and guitarist Bernard Butler: a name that is going to recur in 2008.

Added 26th January:

The 7" vinyl artwork, as promised.
By the way the 12" LP of This Gift is indeed a treasure to behold.

Cardiff is where the sŵn shines at night!

It all makes more sense when you know that 'sŵn' means 'sound' in Welsh and that the (indoor) Sŵn Festival is taking place in venues across Cardiff this weekend. I rather wish I was there but originally, for reasons of a prior commitment, I couldn't really make it. As that fell through I actually could have been! What is worse is that the list of artists includes two I mentioned a couple of weeks ago - The Duke Spirit and Sons and Daughters. Well, at least I've got their new vinyl releases as a consolation and here is one of them...

The Ex Voto EP, on 10" vinyl, signed by all five band members.

The Ex-Voto EP is an indication of the direction that the second album from the London five-piece, entitled Neptune and recorded in America, is likely to take and that would seem to be somewhat less intensely heavy than was Cuts Across The Land (2005). When heard live then I suspect that it might be less so but it is still stunning. Not much has changed otherwise; Liela Moss is still singing in her distinctive style and the four others are still (largely) keeping her covetousness for their instruments at bay! I saw them live in at 'The Astoria' in London in May 2005 and it was an absolutely blistering performance.
Not so long ago I mentioned their December 2006 7"-only (at least in a physical format) single 'Covered in Love', which was a tribute single to Desmond Dekker and Arthur Lee. The 7" (Velo Records) has rather sensitive cover versions of '007 Shanty Town' from the former and 'A House Is Not A Motel' from the latter, while the download version has four tracks. The others are Jessie Mae Hemphill’s ‘I’m So Glad’ and another track by Love, 'A Message To A Pretty'.

Irresistible vinyl...

I've just had a weekend that involved a lot of listening to music that I already have but some of which I had quite forgotten. The thing about that is that it is a dangerously counter intuitive experience for it reminds me only of more music that I would like. I certainly have the necessary will power to overcome that but only most of the time.
I can be broken down however and it happened this weekend because two of my favourites have decided to gang up on me, which is thus just far too much to resist...

London band The Duke Spirit are back, and while I could have had the Ex Voto EP on CD from Amazon, I have it ordered (on 10" vinyl and also signed) for the same price from the ever surprising Pure Groove Records in Archway, north London.
If that wasn't enough then Glaswegian band Sons and Daughters are also back, with the single Gilt Complex on 7" vinyl.

I can't wait and will review them as soon as they arrive!

These releases may even give some clues to the forthcoming albums by these bands but I wouldn't place a bet on that as neither band has been much inclined to the predictable.

Those 2005 albums... (part 1)

Well I said I'd get back about this subject sooner or later...

I have finally got around to thinking about the 2005 albums that I still listen to on a regular basis. This is no order of merit - it is just what comes to mind here and now - but 'Sons and Daughters' 2005 album The Repulsion Box remains right up at the top of the listening list.
Why this band has not been more successful beats me; their 2004 EP Love The Cup was almost as good too. They are signed to Domino Records and both the EP and LP mentioned above are readily available on CD and also, with a little bit of searching, on quality vinyl. So are the singles - the pick of which is probably Dance Me In c/w Drunk Medicine - but without a moment of doubt 'Sons and Daughters' is truly an "album band".

They fuse elements of punk and folk with dark and often quite surprisingly brutal lyrics and all accompanied by some seriously martial percussion. The vocals are never less than fantastic - Scott Paterson has a great Glaswegian growl - and when Adele Bethel is angry, as she often seems to be, there is no mistaking it!
If you want to try the slightly less intense, lyrically somewhat more ambiguous, side of 'Sons and Daughters' then I recommend starting with the Love The Cup EP and it is never better demonstrated than on the closing track Awkward Duet.