Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX

We're New Here



Gil Scott-Heron - NY is Killing Me (Jamie XX Remix)

Comeback err.. Granddad Gil Scott-Heron released his album I'm New Here this time last year after a 16 years hiatus. Regular attendance to prisons for drug charges kinda got in the way. A spectacular album I'm sure, more interesting however is that XX mastermind Jamie Smith is releasing a remix album of I'm New Here, entitled We're New Here. By now we've all heard NY is Killing Me and we've all agreed it is an absolute stonker. Like it's ridiculous how on the money that tune is, I couldn't think of a song better suited to the demands of the average Warehouse Project goer. It's almost enough for me to hate it, but I don't. The ghostly organ with that bouncy bass really does raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

The other big one off the album is I'll Take Care of You which is the polar opposite of the danceable aforementioned tune. It's a soulful, bluesy one of Gil's which is the main feel the original album. It starts off subdued with his raspier, age-weathered voice against a single piano and then it breaks into the trademark XX ethereal guitar. Midway through the song the vocals are chopped and it turns more dancey. The Crutch is an uptempo glitchy one contrasted against Gil's spoken word which actually does well not to sound out of place. My Cloud is a soulful lullaby that is beautiful in its simplicity.

The whole album, together with a few jazzy interludes is an interesting listen. You don't find many remix albums, especially not as debuts, so it is quite a bold move of Jamie's. It is varied and you could invent a different genre for most of the tracks. I think fresh would be an apt word to describe it. Amazing is another.

8.5/10

Release Date | 21st February

Benni Hemm Hemm @ Buffalo / Cardiff / 28.01.11

Last Friday I had the pleasure of seeing Benni Hemm Hemm live at Buffalo Bar in Cardiff. To some up the gig in one word: Melancholy (but in the best way possible). Who said melancholy is bad anyway, I like melancholy. Sometimes I'm melancholy and I even like saying the word, it sounds nice. The trio that make up the brass section looked bored to the point of tears, raising their gaze from the floor only to play a high note on the trombone or trumpet (The girl on the french horn only changed position to empty a globule of spit from the valve). The drummer however, he was great, he had the comedy drummer facial expressions down to a tee.

Front man Benedikt H. Hermannsson has a truly amazing voice and is incredible on the guitar. The number of members at his shows range from 3 to 40 so this particular event was towards the bottom of that spectrum. Between songs he showed himself to be quite the comedian, in his own melancholy way. The band finished the gig with a great freak out and quick exit. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was enthralled by the level of respect the population of Buffalo offered. Here is a beautiful video from their latest album Retaliate.

Benni Hemm Hemm - Retaliate .

Purity Ring

Two For Tuesdays

Toro Y Moi "New Beat" by carparkrecords

When I saw Toro y Moi in Cardiff last November I remember him announcing that he wanted to play a new song and proceeded to play a distinctly more funky, dancier number than the rest of the Causers of This catalog. Since then I have been trying to locate it and finally its here. It's called New Beat and it's taken off the forthcoming LP Underneath the Pine



The Kills - Satellite by DominoRecordCo

Thanks to that slag Kate Moss, we have had to wait 2 years for the new Kills Album. It was rumored that the supermodel threw Jamie Hince's laptop into a swimming pool resulting in the loss of 6 new kills tracks. It may also have something to do with the Dead Weather, I dunno. Anyway the new album is called Blood Pressures and this is the first sneaky taster from it.

Mogwai

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will



Right, lets get the obvious out the way. Shit name. I mean really shit name unless I'm proved wrong by some intelligent, uncontrived reasoning that in noway is related to the Hardcore music genre. Good, now lets talk about how this is completely different to any previous Mogwai album. Sure, its got music you can fall asleep to. Sure, its got music you can bathe in your miserable, deadbeat life to. BUT, it is different I promise.

Ok, maybe not to the untrained eye, but the seasoned Mogwai fan will notice that this is the most accessible album to date, with songs rarely pushing past the 6 minute mark. The album is not void of vocals like Hawk is Howling nor does it prominently feature vocals Mr. Beast. Hawk is Howling was produced by Mogwai confidant Andy Miller (One half of the production team of the legendary 1997 Mogwai Young Team album. Whereas, Hardcore brings back the other half, Paul Savage.

You know when you here a song that defines your music taste you feel that its your song even though its quite clearly not? Too Raging to Cheers is that song for me, even though it's clearly by Mogwai, I feel like I wrote it. I hope you know what I mean so I don't sound arrogant

San Pedro is formulaic and aggressive. A song that bellows from the Scottish Highlands. Multiple layers of noise rock guitar that although has melodic breaks, is an unrelenting power trip. Although it does sound like the soundtrack for a montage on a Halo 3 advert.

Mexican Grand Prix has a Kraut Rock feel with synthesized drums, vocoded lyrics and primitive sounding synths. This is set to be the popular track from the album and proves that sometimes branding Mogwai as Post Rock is a wee unfair, nay, a lazy misnomer. It would have been easy for them to have song after song of melodic build ups and ethereal cruscendos like the rest of the Post rock bunch. But Mogwai have once again proved that they can shake up a stereotyped music form and have produced a varied album which provides all the right answers to why you search for good music and wait great lengths for albums such as this.

Even after all this though, I'm still left wanting. Maybe it's because that although the form of the music is undefined and diverse, it is predictablty so. But I prefer to think it is just because I am used to Mogwai's standard of excellence and because it is near impossible for them to better themselves. I doubt Hardcore will go down as their best album, but it is a Mogwai album nonetheless and I love it.

8/10

Mogwai - White Noise

Merry Christmas !

Saw these guys at Cardiff Arts Institute a few weeks back, reet good fun. They do a cracking cover of the Dr. Who theme and now especially for Christmas, a cover of 'Walking in the Air'. It's Smerins Anti-Social Club!

Vessels

Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute

Vessels - Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute (feat. Stuart Warwick) from Vessels Band on Vimeo.

Leedian Post-Rock band Vessels are back with a new single in anticipation of their album 'Helioscope' which is due in Feb 2011. The first thing that you'll notice and will be suprised by is that it has vocals which you'll think would be courtesy of Thom Yorke. You'll then be even more suprised to hear that its actually the sounds of the big-time LSE academic Stuart Warwick. The second thing you'll notice is that its one of the most beautiful songs you've heard all year. Lazy percussion until a textbook post-rock crescendo that doesn't sound too formulaic, maybe due to being thrown off by the vocals. They are performing a major European tour with the massive Oceansize; an event that I could only imagine as being earth obliterating.

Gruff Rhys - Shark Ridden Waters

x