Featuring undead orchestras and oven-cooked gentlemen, Plays Wagner is dramatic, stirring, pompous classical music which has been turned into a drab boring emulsion, except when the source material fights it’s way to the surface, and then I see discolouration and ‘grey loam’, stars sparking on and off, terrible things that I wish I hadn’t seen.
Author Simon Gurney
Hag – Hag
Hag are a Hungaro-Swede-Englander three-piece carving out some excellent stoner / sludge Metal… Approach, if you dare…
Black Tambourine – Black Tambourine
This is basically a re-issue of the original Complete Recordings released by Slumberland in ’99, 10 tracks of monochrome distortion and fuzz laying over twee pop songs, with a Phil Spector methodology behind it all.
Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise
Are we going to see a shallow, easy to forget, Indie-crossover flash in the pan? No, no we are not. It’s every bit as good as This Bliss, swirls of calm summer’s day currents, mixed with some newly emphasized bassweight. Like Can’s Future Days reinterpreted by techno. Well, kinda.
Basia Bulat – Heart Of My Own
An outwardly full and substantial sounding album, Heart Of My Own can actually be easily reduced to Bulat’s voice and the melody, really a folk sound at heart with sometimes unnecessary dressing up.
The Drums – Summertime! EP
The thing with this EP is that it’s just a gesture at the moment, it’s too early (the material too scant) to really tell what they’re like. But it’s promising.
Mountains – Etching
This limited edition LP captures the spirit of Mountains live performances, like pulling very slowly back from a warm orange colour until you realize you’ve been looking at the sun, and that your face has been melting.
Rameses III – I Could Not Love You More
It may very well be different for each person, but I can’t possibly see how someone could not have a strong reaction (whatever that might be) to I Could Not Love You More.
Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
Kurt Vile’s latest has all these cool aesthetic choices, vocals through a megaphone, slacker vibes, grainy electric guitar theatrics, off-the-cuff cool; but it’s not quite all there for Simon Gurney.
Taken By Trees – East Of Eden
What really works on ‘East Of Eden’ is the warmth it exudes, the field recordings of street noise or people talking in the street are done in such a way as to draw you in and soothe.
The Voluntary Butler Scheme – At Breakfast, Dinner, Tea
The Voluntary Butler Scheme is one-man band Rob Jones, who makes songs that recall the mundanity and ordinariness of 20th century Britain with a grin – all wrapped up in a mild eccentricity.
Theoretical Girl – Divided
Do not mistake Theoretical Girl for the infamous no wave band Theoretical Girls from the late 70s, there’s certainly no correlation as far as sound goes. Simon Gurney reviews a frustrating debut.
Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall
Watch Me Fall is mostly a very buoyant album, definitely poppy, with just the slightest hint of that insistent punk edge showing through to add zest to the songs.
Lovvers – OCD Go Go Go Girls
With Lovvers debut album OCD Go Go Go Girls the harsh sharp punk edge of the EP has been dulled somewhat, whilst the carefree classic 60s garage rock, and touches of post-punk, have been emphasized.
The Declining Winter – Haunt The Upper Hallways
Haunt The Upper Hallways is all a-clutter, traipsing across wakefulness and sleep, blurry night-time scenes, tiredness clinging to the eyes.
Bowerbirds – Upper Air
‘Upper Air’ is of a similar quality to Bowerbirds first album ‘Hymns For A Dark Horse’, but reached by a slightly different path, the lyrics focus on relationships and love and being astounded by nature.
