Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Letter from God to Man
[Pictured left]
[Released 28th July; Sunday Best Records]


Your honour, you have me bang to rights. Lulled I was, totally - I'd got past the first few bars, and was just readying the lazy "Oh it's just Planet Telex looped over a DJ Shadow-lite beat" opening, when it all went brilliantly screwy and doomy and dislocated, and this lucid, calm, scarily insightful, brilliantly imagined manifesto from God/Scroobius Pip to, well, all of us pinned me into a state of rapt attention. It's a shame to have to pick out one part of the piece, it's all fabulous, but to give you a flavour -:

 "...The last time I sent down a message you nailed it to the cross / So I thought I'd just leave you to it, let you be your own boss.
But I've been keeping an eye on you, I have, and it's amazing how you've grown / All the technological advances and the problems you've overthrown.
All the beautiful art you've created with such grace and such finesse / But there are a few things, I'm afarid, that have impressed me less."

And then it gets a bit heavy....but to give you a bit of a clue, well, this God doesn't seem ready to take the blame for the fact that everything is broken. Top of the pile by a country mile.

Artist website: www.lesacvspip.co.uk



Linkin Park - Leave Out All The Rest
[Released July 14th; Warners/Machine Shop Recordings]


Oh great, again!! Have I unwittingly stood on the Twisted Ear budgie or something? But what's this - No shouting, no swearing, no monster riffs...this must be the new 'mature' direction. And why not, there's the blockbuster movie theme tunes of the future to be pitched for. Now, many a band has lost the plot when they look for some kind of new direction, some form of musical growth, but when you're down in the dregs of the pit to start with...well let's just say there isn't only one way to go. It clearly can get worse.

Artist website: www.linkinpark.com

My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy
[Released 4th August ; Asthmatic Kitty Records]


Blimey - how much can you pack into three-and-three-quarter minutes whilst still keeping a sense of flow, balance and continuity? From the sheepish, plucked opening to the soaring vocals to the insistent drumming to the turbulent bass to the cinematic strings, it would be easy for My Brightest Diamond to lose control of this wonderfully constructed song, but everything is just....right. Yes there are nods to Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, Portishead and others, but nods and no more. It is strikingly of its own identity. The extra tracks, which include the more experimental 'song sketch' I Had A Pearl, lend the whole thing a dollop of VFM, but the real value is already evident after the lead track.

Artist website: www.mybrightestdiamond.com

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Midnight Man
[Released July 28th; Mute Records]


A relatively sedate and apparently unassuming effort from Nick Cave this time round, edited from the album version. I say apparently as it sounds somewhat 'meh' at first, but it snakes its way into your brain with its underpinning mix of bluesy/'twinkly' guitars and organ, before allowing the noisier guitars off their leash at the end. It feels effortless; it probably is. Bastard.

Artist website: www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com

The Shortwave Set - Now Til 69
[Released 4th August; Wall Of Sound Records]


Bowie-glam-(semi)stomping English pop nugget ahoy!!! Apart from a nagging sense that the tempo could do with being a wisp quicker, that the whole thing could be a notch bolder, I'm more than a little taken with this. Maybe if the song actually was 'relentless swirling psychedelia' as the press release suggests that doubt would be erased - pyschedelia it is, the first two I'm not so sure. All the same, I've once again been snagged by harmonic splendour and melodic craft, and there are many things less desirable you can be snagged by.

Artist website: www.theshortwaveset.com

Crystal Castles - Vanished
[Released 21st July; Different Records]


Riot. Clash. Brutalist. Noise. Kraftwerk. Darkly Hypnotic. Nihilists. All cool words to use when you're in a band, even better words to use when you're in the business of promoting/describing a band. These are not the words I will be using in my review. These are mine.....limp, fey, montonous, dumpf, irritating, handbags, muesli.
 
Artist website: www.crystalcastles.cc

Melee - Built To Last
[Released 21st July; Warner Bros Records]


What the buggery happened to Warner Bros!?!? First Linkin Park and now this! Lenny Waronker and Mo Ostin will be turning in their graves / retirement islands. (I know given the vastness of the Warner/WEA empire over the years they've probably had loads of shite on their books but it doesn't suit my argument, right!). Makes The Feeling sound like Slayer. Apparently they've been touring with Motion City Soundtrack and Bowling For Soup. Oh to be young again? Nah, Beckett was right, my best years may be gone, but I wouldnt want them back, not with a soundtrack like this.

Artist website: www.meleerocks.com 

The Go! Team - Milk Crisis
[Released 21st July; Memphis Industries Records]


Sadly NOT a vicious diatribe depicting the dark days of Margaret Thatcher's reign as Minister for Education. Happily a re-recording with a mix of Japanese and English vocals that you can bag for free from the band's website. There's nothing that much to tell that isn't really known already; if anything the tune is as restrained as the Team get, still heavily and fantastically groovy, but a little less crash-bang-wallop than they sometimes are.

Artist website: www.thegoteam.co.uk

Pram: Prisoner of the 7 Pines EP
[Released July 2008; Domino Recording Co]


Well, it looks like a proper EP, but the extra tracks are all remixes of other tunes, so they kinda win the punters' award for value. The extras back the lead track (from Pram's latest album The Moving Frontier) Beluga, and I guess like the delicacy, it's an acquired taste. Moody, minimal, redolent of both classic 60's sci-fi and modern soundtracks to such as Twin Peaks, Beluga does draw you in, though when you hear the extra tracks with the vocals in place, I'm left wondering why this piece wouldnt have benefited from the kind of sonic counterpoint Rosie Cuckson's voice offers in others.

Artist website: www.dominorecordingco.com/artists/pram

Tokyo Police Club - Graves
[Released 18th August ; Memphis Industries]


Ontario's TPC come out sounding refreshingly un-Canadian on this track; indeed, they're more handily placed snugly between the spikey Bloc Party constituency and the more strident, Snow Patrol / Killers let's-get-this-festival-bouncing end of things. I know I'm killing them here, but it's not bad....though that is perhaps more due to some of the competition which purports to be in the same field as them on offer this fortnight.

Artist website: www.tokyopoliceclub.com

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