NYC is Kieran Hebden’s (aka Four Tet) fourth collaboration with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid and while I won’t pretend that I have heard the other three, the word in the blogosphere is that this is the most equal of their partnerships, with Hebden given much more license to stamp his mark on the record. Certainly fans of Fridge and Four Tet would be foolish to overlook this, a beautiful and intensely atmospheric mini-album. Although I didn’t have the cover artwork to hand at the time of writing it is impossible to listen to NYC and not picture a seething, rain-lashed megatropolis. It’s a murky, cavernous record easily redolent of old Scorcese films: steam rising from man hole covers, pimps lurking in shadows, dealers dealin’ (to borrow from Bobby Gillespie). The percussive energy and gently building tensions and atmospherics make it less wilfully difficult than such jazz-electronica collaborations might lead you to expect. Continue Reading

 ’Part 1, first chapter!’ yelps singer Aaron by way of introduction to ‘Nothing’s Gonna Spoil My Day Today’, the album from his band Olympus Mons. On opener ‘Martial Law’ indie-styled guitars mix up with a punky chorus before leading into, well, more indie. The band is clearly not striving for musical originality, as already admitted in their own press, but they do have enough in them to make their music sound individual. Whether they’ve arrived too late to hitch a ride on the twangy guitar gravy train remains to be seen, but they’re making a reasonable stab at it with ‘Nothing’s Gonna Spoil My Day Today’. Continue Reading