Absentee - Victory Shorts

The countdown to End of the Road begins here...

Absentee's Schmotime was one of my favourite albums of 2006. It was one of these records which was remarkable in its unremarkableness. Nothing striking or original, but there was just something in Dan Michaelson's gravelly vocals and the rough and lovely warm guitar sounds that totally charmed me. It's still an album that I return to regularly, and its place at the top of the artists list on my iPod only helps this.

It's been a couple of years and there have been some changes in the Absentee camp (drummer departed) and various members have pursued their own projects (check out Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, Wet Paint and The Bronsteins for decent music that isn't a hundred miles away from the parent band). Now they're onto their second LP and if it initially seems like a bit more muted or low-key than before, that's probably because there's less of Schmotime's brassy exuberance. Only the ace single Bitchstealer features the parping horns that seemed so ubiquitous on the previous record. This time the tinkling of keyboard player Melinda Bronstein seems much more to the fore.

Brass aside, it's a direct continuation of what Absentee do best - Michaelson's ravaged drawl and these hugely pleasing riffs from Babak Ganjei, all of which calls to mind past favourites - a much less polished Teenage Fanclub, a poppier Pavement perhaps. Victory Shorts has an energy and life of its own, and there's plenty exubarence too - Bitchstealer and Pips at least are proof of this - although it's maybe the more measured moments that linger the best. It's taken me a bit more time to appreciate this album - where Schmotime was pretty much an instant favourite, Victory Shorts has taken me longer. But it's been time well spent, and there are new pleasures to be found each time round. I suggest you try it out.

mp3: Absentee - Love Has Had Its Way
mp3: Absentee - Pips

Pre-order Victory Shorts from Memphis Industries. No doubt it'll be on emusic too.

Magic Arm - new single

One of my favourite records of last year was Magic Arm's Outdoor Games EP, a delicious 10 inch on tiny Manchester indie Switchflicker Records. I haven't really been watching very closely though, because it's just come to my notice that Marc Rigelsford (Mr Magic Arm) sneaked out a cracking little 7 inch single in July. It's called Widths and Heights and it's nicely skewed pop in the Beta Band style (listen to it on last.fm). The b-side is a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg classic The Ballad of Melody Nelson, where in the tradition of all good covers, Rigelsford makes the song very much his own. The bonus good news is that there's an album on the way too.

mp3: Magic Arm - The Ballad of Melody Nelson

Buy Widths and Heights from the Magic Arm website.

Friendly Fires

Since this blog is all about music that I like, I'm not much given to negative reviewing, but you might find the occasional jibe. If you have a cursory scroll down the blog, these jibes may sound a little like ...bah spiky guitars... bah skinny jeans... bah synth rock electropop... bah trendy scenesters/ no substance and so on. You get the message. All of this is very well, and generally this sort of attitude should be employed against many of the bands who inhabit Camden and Shoreditch, but sometimes it can get in the way of a good thing.

I had already dismissed Friendly Fires by the time I gave their debut album a half-hearted listen a few weeks back, but this was unwise. It was only on giving it a proper hearing at the end of last week that I perked up. Here is a band that doesn't just casually namecheck Talking Heads, but actually takes the best bits of David Byrne and co. and gives them a full 2008 makeover. Friendly Fires also take more than a few leaves from the books of James Murphy and even funk and end up crafting a hugely accomplished debut. This is proper punk-funk, whatever else that means. For a former hardcore outfit, this young Hertfordshire band know how to take indie rock and make it bang for the club. It's even more impressive to find out that they've produced the whole thing themselves - except lead track Jump in the Pool for which they enlisted uber-hot producer Paul Epworth, but amusingly that song is nowhere near the best on the album.

These are tunes that are equally happy coming out of your home hi-fi on a sunny afternoon as they are coming out of huge bassbins in some darkened, sweaty room. Although this isn't the sort of thing that I normally listen to, I can't really find anything wrong with this album - maybe the need for them to rein in their epic indie tendencies, but that's a small quibble - and it's all highly recommended. And I'm sure that they've even better live. So lesson learned - there may well be less sniping from me in future.

mp3: Friendly Fires - In the Hospital
mp3: Friendly Fires - White Diamonds

Friendly Fires is out today on XL. Buy from Rough Trade. Download other Friendly Fires tracks from emusic.

Paperplain

Legendary record label Too Pure may be no more, subsumed into the growing 4AD empire, but it still lives on for the time being in the form of the Too Pure Singles Club. They've been putting out limited edition 7 inches since last November, and the latest installment in the series is by Paperplain.

Paperplain is the analogue-loving 18-year old Helen Page, knocking out bedroom songs on an old eight-track recorder. Two of these are on the single, and provide proof that even in a crowded market for sensitive female acoustic types, Page can more than hold her own.

mp3: Paperplain - Spin Wheel

11:30/Spin Wheel is released on 8 September. Buy it (and other sevens) from Too Pure.

Xrabit & DMG$

Here's something else good and new from my inbox. I'm usually favourably disposed towards fellow Eastenders, so here's Dalston-dwelling (though German-born) producer Xrabit, recently signed to Big Dada (so recently that he hasn't even been added to their artists list yet), who brings some tough beats and lets the Texan MC duo Damaged Goods (DMG$) loose all over them. The press blurb says that these two are "Andre 3000 worshipping Texan MCs", though from the evidence of the photo, the influence doesn't seem to be sartorial. Anyway, I don't really go out dancing anymore but if I did, this is the sort of thing that I'd want to hear this weekend.

mp3: Xrabit & DMG$ - Killin' 'Em (Xrabit remix)

Little Boots

These days, just releasing records isn't enough. All the cool kids are doing mixtapes as well, and not just the hip-hop ones. Here white-hot electropopstrel Little Boots (aka Victoria, formerly of Dead Disco) presents her latest mixtape as part of her ongoing quest for world domination.

mp3: Little Boots - Computer Fairyland Mixtape

You can buy Little Boots' new 7 inch single Meddle from Pure Groove. Debut 12 inch out in America in November.

"I'm really not a man, you see. I'm an angel"

"...as an angel I can do a lot of things"

The other day, I was pointed to this interview with the mighty Sun Ra, which is brilliant. The interviewer is clearly out of his depth, but still does a decent job keeping a lid on things, because let's face it, interviewing Sun Ra is never going to be an easy task.

On a similar note, I'd also highly recommend tracking down a copy of the 1974 film Space is the Place, for some more wigged-out Sun Ra Egyptological and space-related craziness.

mp3: Sun Ra - Message to Earthman

Stereolab - Chemical Chords

Some bands have such a recognisable sound that they always manage to sound like themselves no matter how much they experiment and play around with their core components. A good example is Low, who followed up the big, expansive, almost mainstream sound of The Great Destroyer with the stripped back minimalism of Drums and Guns. Yet all the time they remained quintessentially Low, sounding like no-one else. Stereolab are another good example of a band who are always instantly recognisable, mainly through the combination of their particular synth sound and Laetitia Sadier's vocals.

Like Low, the difference between Stereolab's two most recent albums is marked. The collection of 7 inch singles that made up 2006 compilation Fab Four Suture was Stereolab at their abstract best, making no attempt at commercialism, whereas new album Chemical Chords takes a very different approach. Where the previous record was low-key, the new one, on new label 4AD seems to have a much higher profile. It seems like I can hardly turn on BBC 6Music these days without hearing the title track. So they've definitely gone for radio-friendly. And it's all quite pop.

The songs are as carefully and expertly crafted as always, but this time there's much more focus on the tunes. Then comes along Sean O'Hagan with his strings and brass, and the whole thing ends up sounding, well pretty lush really. It's not like these are components that Gane, Sadier and co. haven't used before, but they've been embraced with fresh enthusiasm. It's a polished album, but in a very good way. The songs have catchy hooks, they swoop and soar and even when, as with all Stereolab records, the songs start to feel like they're replicating themselves, the band hit us with another curveball, like the deliciously bouncy Daisy Click Clack. It's all top-notch stuff and Chemical Chords is easily their best album since Dots and Loops, perhaps even better. Stereolab may always remain comfortingly familiar, but that doesn't mean that they can't thrill us afresh.

mp3: Stereolab - Daisy Click Clack
mp3: Stereolab - Chemical Chords

Buy Chemical Chords from Rough Trade.

Singles going steady 27: The Flaming Lips

Time I got back again to raking through my old CD singles. It's been a while.

Next CD I come across is The Flaming Lips. And this is value for money. Now kids, please don't ever buy music on the primary basis that it offers value for money - that really isn't a good criterion. But it's sometimes a nice bonus. In this case, it's because back in 2003 Oklahoma's finest released an EP that not only boasted seven tracks, it seemed to be genuinely trying to offer something new. The title track Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell isn't even present in its original form, instead appearing as two different, both rather good remixes. Then there's a reworking of their classic Do You Realize?? and four brand new (at the time) tracks.

Musically, these newbies offer a stylistic as well as chronological bridge between Yoshimi and At War with the Mystics, though to be honest the latter wasn't exactly a huge departure from the former. Maybe just lacking in as many obvious big pop tunes. Anyway, I love the Flaming Lips - they're good value, even though they've been peddling the same live show for almost a decade now - and these are top-notch tunes.

mp3: The Flaming Lips - Assassination of the Sun
mp3: The Flaming Lips - Ego Tripping (Self-Admiration With Blow-Up Mix)

Buy the Ego Tripping EP from Amazon.

Singles going steady 1-26.

Minotaur Shock does a Radiohead

...except he doesn't. Since last October, how many bands have been described as 'doing a Radiohead'? Artists from Cliff Richard to Nine Inch Nails have been said to have followed Thom & Co's footsteps into this brave new digital world. Yet, although some albums have been given away free online, as far as I'm aware, no-one has done the whole pay-what-you-want thing. Bloc Party releasing their album online first is hardly something that's not been done way before even In Rainbows came along.

As it turns out, what Minotaur Shock, aka David Edwards is doing is exactly the opposite of what Radiohead did last year. Yes, his new album Amateur Dramatics is available online, but he's dictating exactly what you should pay for it. It's not like he's only just stipulated a price for the whole album (£6.41 by the way) - he's actually specified what each track is worth, and they're all different - ranging from 33p to 77p. How'd you do that, then? The answer is quite complex - head over the the Minotaur Shock website for a track-by-track breakdown of the component worth of each, and through a detailed scoring system taking into consideration things like 'technical difficulty rating', extra musicians rating' and 'fun/replay rating', the price is arrived at. That may explain why Beekeeper is more than double the price of Two Magpies, if you're really interested. And if you think this is all a gimmick to increase sales, you might be right, but David needs it - reading between the lines it seems clear that there was no way 4AD was going to give Amateur Dramatics a proper release, so he's opted for an online one instead, but with an added quirk.

But what about the music? Well, it pains me to glibly refer to it as pleasant electronica, especially since Edwards has not only spent a long time crafting each tune, he's also put so much effort into classifying and describing each one. But that's sort of what it is. Nothing too frantic, the beats never really intend to whip the listener up into a dance frenzy. Instead they burble and glide past smoothly and carefully, electronics merged with real instruments, and even the occasional real human voice. Apart from a couple of more abrasive numbers, the whole virtual record makes a pleasant, if unchallenging listen. But then again, on my tube journey home tonight, I don't want to be challenged. I just want to listen to something soothing while I read and try not to get too crushed and sweaty on the Central Line.

Finally, I'm probably doing David a big disservice here by posting a couple of his carefully-priced songs for free, but they won't be up there for long, and if you care for this sort of thing, I'd strongly encourage you to show your love by buying Amateur Dramatics for the required price.

mp3: Minotaur Shock - Jason Forrest
mp3: Minotaur Shock - Snapdragon