Flowers Must Die – Kompost. Swedish krautrocking kollective – pinch of Can, bit of Amon Duul II, touch of Hawkwind, hint of Bjork… Variable, but overall pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbmbPdzCtWs
Oxbow – Thin Black Duke. Arty noise rock types who’ve been around for enough time for The Wire to run a profile on them (probably). Worth spending some time with if you’re a fan of provocative if melodic music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcx4DAiqiCA
The Sword – Greetings From… Never heard this lot before, but seen the name around for years. This is a live ‘best of’ apparently, but to these ears, second division stoner prog. Didn’t get to the end.
The Heliocentrics – A World Of Masks. Another band that seem to have been around for years without threatening to move into the top league. Decent enough in places, but they’ve still ploughing a turn of the century jazzy trip-hop furrow. Addition of Amy Winehouse-a-like singer probably seemed like a good idea at the time…
Dream Machine – The Illusion. Just a great album. A little insubstantial perhaps, but irresistibly hooky.
VA – Back On The Street Again. Australian ‘rare funk/soul/psych’ comp. It’s OK, but was abandoned after a particularly cheesy TOTP-style take of ‘Superstition’.
VA – Barry 7’s Connectors 2. This on the other hand is one of the finest comps ever. Superb Italian library selection from Add N To (X) bloke, every track a gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiM1QtJr69A
Listen With Father:
Queens Of The Stone Age – Rated R. Kids currently in the grip of a School Of Rock obsession, wondered what they’d make of this. Not much – “It was too loud for me to listen to”. Tut. This album really helped put me back on the righteous path of rock. Killer single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0nzPpvbFs
G is for…
Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby. I had forgotten just what a brilliant album this is. Made in 1993, it’s like a continuation of late 80s US post-hardcore, but with added groove – in fact, in places it’s quite like what QOTSA would do, while still being indebted to Big Black etc. It also somehow manages to bypass grunge, which must have been a pretty tough thing at the time to do for any noisy American band. Trivia fact: The publisher that originally put out Marlon Jones’ Booker-winning ‘A Brief History Of Seven Killings’ was founded by one of the guys from GVsB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc0pQV4ekNs
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