Armchair Critic.
Here's where I
review gigs, CDs, books, fanzines, films, low budget videos etc. I mainly want
to feature DIY/ independently produced stuff, so if you've got anything like
that which you want reviewed, send it to the address on the Shop page, or email
me at eddiewillson2000(at)yahoo.co.uk.
The only condition is that what you're doing should be available to people in
some way. So don't, for instance, send me a VHS of the film you made if nobody
can buy it or see it, and don't send me a demo of your band if you never gig.
I'll try to be positive and I'll try not to lapse into the language of your dad
watching Top of the Pops. Marvel as I throw obscure comparisons around like
somebody who hasn't bought a record since Subway Sect split up. Harumph
impatiently as I pay unwarranted attention to what the bass-player's up to.
Raise a quizzical eyebrow at the undertow of mild begrudgement when I pay a
drummer a compliment.
Under each
category of review, the most recently written are always at the top. As this
page has got really full I've decided that where I've written more than five
reviews in a category, only the five most recent ones will feature here.
Anything older than that can be read in the Armchair
Archive. I go to a lot of gigs and don't have the time or inclination to
review every band I see, but the chances are they'll get some sort of mention
on my Blog, which you can reach by following the link at the bottom of the
page.
The bullet
code for reviews is ►= CD/record/ demo. ♫= live gig. ◙=film
or video. ♥= zines and books
► Multicoloured Green – demo CD. ( www.multicolouredgreen.co.uk)
The line-up is
Sam on guitar and vocals, and Amy on drums but there’s no sense that this is
just a guitarist and a drummer. This is a band , meshed tight with a fully developed sound. They can do that stripped-down
blues-punk that we all know and love with apparent ease. Sam has a fine blues
growl of a voice and on most of the tracks the pair show they know exactly how
much variation on a simple idea is needed to sustain a song. A case in point is
If ya ain’t lyin’ next to me. A neat bassy Reservoir Dogs style intro leads
into a crashing blues riff. Every time you think you know where the song’s
going next, a new idea gets thrown in. Skill! There’s a similar sense of pacing
and variation in Little Secret. It
opens with a neat, clean, chopping riff that wouldn’t embarrass Wilko Johnson,
then relentlessly ratchets up the energy level. But where Multicoloured Green
interest me most is when they stretch the conventions of punk-blues, like the
proggy, jazz-tinged bit of guitar on Roll
On. Or the restless, skittering drums
on my fave track, Cheno. The singing’s
less bluesy and maybe less confident on Cheno
but the vocal melody’s easily the most interesting out of all the track’s here.
The delicate guitar playing on the last minute of the track is nothing short of
beautiful.
I’m out of practice at this reviewing mullarkey and I’m conscious that
this all sounds a bit over-analytical, which is odd because Multicoloured Green
aren’t a band to stroke your chin to, they strike me as a band that’s be dead
exciting to see live. Sceptics might ask whether the world needs another
two piece, boy/girl, guitar/drums combo. If Multicoloured Green keep stretching
themselves and stretching the genre, then the answer’s yes.
►
Fundamentalist – a sixteen track sampler from the Mentalist Association. (www.mentalistassociation.co.uk)
An intriguing sampler of
pretty unclassifiable stuff. Often these sampler projects feel a bit of a
mishmash, but here, although there’s no single style that dominates, I got a
sense of a shared mindset. My favourites change with every listen but my
current selections are the following, in no order of preference. Esiotrot; Bleach on my fingers. This lot
reference Joy Division both lyrically and stylewise. The vocals are mannered
but get away with it because they sound human and fragile. The guitars
alternate between delicacy and lo-fi clanging. V good. Cats on computers; Kannichhabeeinblattpapierbitte?. Casio
perkiness that works really well. A simple idea that’s sustained and developed to
a thumping conclusion. A big hit with the youngsters I shouldn’t wonder. Quite
right too. Shink; Ageing.
Sparse guitars and spoken/sung vocals. A melancholy, atmospheric treat
reminiscent of those early 80s bands with long overcoats and good A level results.
Saved from miserabilism by the vocals which are like a subdued (ish) Eddie
Argos. Roo; Seraphim.
There’s a strange, warm pastoral quality to this. Churchy organ, sweet
harmonica, and vocals somewhere between a jittery Bob Dylan and that David
Thomas fella out of Pere Ubu. Bigmanfraidycat; Sofa rap. Starts off like some nightmarish 70s spliff and bongo
number, kind of Jethro Tull playing cocktail jazz, but once the rap starts
things look up no end. Reminiscence of the Streets in its distinct Englishness,
but miles more witty and intriguing. Fischer Syndrome; Too much world. There’s a few tracks on
here with a bit of an intelligent emo/ American feel to them. This is my
favourite out of them. Deceptive opening guitar, lush overdriven bass and
lovely crisp drums. Raised above the unsurprising by the handling of these
ingredients, and by the intense vocals. Recommended. Tea and toast; Ghostly ghost cabinet. This is like a
hyper –minimalist collage of found sounds. It sounds like somebody tidying up
their pencil collection, overlaid with occasional washes of violin, and oddly,
this stands up to more listens than you’d think. Sonaura; Last wave. This is disconcerting but a
real grower. Lots of unidentifiable instruments playing a kind of psychedelia
backwards (backwardelia, anybody?), and xylophones go ting. Very nice.
►They
Don’t Sleep – 4 Track giveaway CD EP. [No label listed; see www.theydontsleep.com ]
Given my usual taste, I like this lot much more
than might be expected. And that’s not meant to be as backhanded a compliment
as it sounds. They have their moments where they drift a bit close to the indie
mainstream for my liking, but I’d stick my neck out and say they possibly have
the potential to have as broad an appeal as say, Radiohead. They’ve obviously
got a real understanding of the ‘proper music’ rules and a willingness to bend
them in interesting ways. And the lyrics are uniformly literate and interesting
without being pretentious. Scarecrows.
A sketchy, Televisionesque guitar line merges with thumping piano. There’s a
slightly proggy, post-rock feel to the unobvious melody, the stop/start playing
and the repetition at the heart of the track. It’s six minutes before the
vocals come in, but it’s worth the wait. They’re vulnerable and intense but not
in a predictable generic indie way. All
forgotten, never spoken. Probably the most straightforward of the tracks. A
piano based ballad which is really good of its kind but in my view doesn’t
exploit the more unique qualities of the band. …And then there was noone. As with the first track there’s a really
effective interplay between the guitar and piano. This, I think is what they do
best. The band seem to have a real instinct for the making the most of the dynamics
of a track. Here, the spiralling guitar melody ebbs and flows, building to
moments of fantastic intensity without lapsing into bombast. The Others. Rapid cascading piano leads
into the usual ‘sensitive without being wet’™ vocals, which are set off nicely by some neat, subtle backing
vocals. I enjoyed this a lot, despite it reminding me slightly of (erk)
‘Music’, by John Miles. The impassioned thrashathon ending, where the vocals
really come into their own, is a complete pleasure.
►Future
Kings of
Face I Know. Lovely crisp drums, a moody Sonic Youth feel but
with metally elements to the guitar -[but in a good way]. Cool thrummy bass low
in the mix. The vocals remind me of Kurt Cobain, or that bloke in
►Future
Kings of
►The
Vaults - No Sleep No Need E.P.
[Red Flag Records RF09CDS]
Ladyhell The title's a giveaway. The lyrics are about a
'lady' who's put the lyricist through hell. The sense of obviousness is
mirrored in the music. It's lively enough but pretty dated and unsurprising.
They have guitar solos! If you're old enough to remember the New Wave of
British Heavy Metal, this'll sound a bit familiar. There are shades of
Girlschool, or a politer Motorhead. The main riff is a bit of a corker in a ZZ
Top boogie sort of way and it just about carries the track. No Sleep No Need.
Again a top central riff, but the structure's repetitive and things pall quite
quickly. Leaving Here. Motorhead did a fantastic version of this Motown
track, and this feels a bit lumpy in comparison, although later it gets going
and cranks along quite nicely. But the comparison illustrates the Vaults
problem. If so many other people have done it slightly better, why listen to
the Vaults? The two problems are the songs and the production. Their own songs
follow the same pattern; neat but slight guitar riff intercut with verse after
verse. No identifiable chorus, and on the production side, not much variation -
when there's a bass break on Leaving Here it's a breath of fresh air.
These are traditional criticisms, but this is that sort of band.
►Flitwick
Records Compilation - Various Artists
[Flitwick Records MK45 10X]
A big range of
styles on this label sampler, but held together by the common factor of
avoiding the curse of overproduction. As usual with compilations I'll focus on
the favourites. 4 tReck; kamchatka. A thumping circular piano riff that
spirals round on itself, like one of those paintings of staircases by M.C.
Escher. The Free French; Vowels . I like the sort of lyrics where the
odd intriguing phrase jumps out. This track's got them aplenty - 'a farrago of
disclaimers' being my favourite. A headlong rush of drums and guitars topped
off with camply effortless falsetto vocals. Keith John Adams; Throwaway.
Mannered Bowieish vocals a la his Laughing Gnome phase. Casual but clever
lyrics. Avoids the trademark dullness of some acoustica by some margin thanks
to being rhythmically interesting. Host; And Nothing Changed. Full marks
for an unlikely mix of influences. Cracking ascending vocal harmonies and
stompy guitars. Like XTC if they'd listened to a lot of Blur then decided to
become a ska band. Brasil 666; Big Enough Thumb. Lovely twisting
overdriven bass line, clattering drums and percussion, seemingly recorded live.
The fine female vocals stay just the right side of jazzy. Got a nice post-punk
feel to it. Reminiscent of Essential Logic. The Beale; The New Seven Up.
Lifted above routine punkerama by the excellent vocals - barking in both
senses- , and by an irresistible, nagging, Cramps/Batman guitar line. Kenny
Process Team; Are They You? More pleasing circularity. A tune like a
builder whistling, delivered in down-home fingerpicking Country/ Blues guitar
style.
►Can't
Get Off the Ground Today/Expansion Ride - Magoo [May Go 0 Records maygozero002]
When I first
saw Magoo ages ago, they were full-on guitar noiseniks, but they've clearly
changed. Can't Get Off the Ground Today is a perfect pop record.
Beautiful harmony vocals, plucky synth strings, chugging acoustic guitar coming
in and out. Imagine the Delgados or a slicker Belle and Sebastian if they'd
listened to a lot of late Sixties West Coast pop. Expansion Ride has
later moments that sound like the old Magoo, but mostly this track is another
surprise. Opens with some old-school Kraut-rock synth and [erk!] vocodered
vocals. Once I'd adjusted to the vocals I got completely swept along by the
hypnotic energy of the track. Towards the end squalls of guitar blow in like
somebody's opened the door to the next studio. This has really grown on me. It
took a while but now I can't stop listening to it. Check out the label's
website for future releases. file:///A:/www.maygozero.co.uk
For
earlier record/CD/demo reviews go to the Armchair
Archive.
♥Shadowplay
No. 11. [Available from All That
Glitters! ]
This
♥Cartography
for Beginners No.3 [Available
from All That
Glitters! ]
This perzine
out of
♥Suburban
Sanity No.5 [Available from All That Glitters! ]
Another perzine, this time from
♥Brainscan
No.20 [Available from All That Glitters! ]
This perzine from Alex Wrekk of Microcosm is beautifully produced with a cool letter-pressed cover and the sort of neat cut-n-paste layout some of you might recognise from Stolen Sharpie Revolution. The tiny type forces you to read slowly, and the writing's worth lingering over. There are touching memories of coffee shop crushes and drinking games and break-ups. Although this zine's pretty introspective it doesn't ever get self-helpy, and doesn't resort to pat answers. Some of the content would work really well as fiction - there's a sort of quietness present that sometimes made me think of Raymond Carver ( alright, a bit- let's not go mad). The piece Making Boundaries is as good as anything I've read on a friendship turned sour.
♥Propaganda
No.3 [Available from All That Glitters! ]
♥Nude
No.4 Sept /Oct 2004. [Email
info[At] nudemagazine.co.uk for availability]
This mag's
been around for a while now. It's fairly slickly presented and doesn't quite
fit my usual review criteria but it's really worth checking out. It might
appear on a casual glance to be the sort of thing that's written for trendy
Hoxton twats, but the content proves it at least isn't written by that
particular species of wanker. There's real thought and substance to most of the
writing. Highlights are an interview with Jamie Reid which digs deeper than the
predictable territory of his involvement with the Pistols, and an excellent,
unexpected, article on the kitchen sink novel that's both personal and
well-researched. Also good are the interviews with
A neat idea
this; a punk/hardcore zine lifted out of the ordinary by the fact that each
issue has a theme [spirituality/religion in this ish], which crops up across
interviews, rants, think-pieces and memoirs, without ever really getting in the
way. The think-pieces and memoirs are particularly good - thoughtful without
being pompous. The strength of the zine is that there's an exploratory feel to
it. You get to see somebody's curiosity at work, rather than being force-fed
their conclusions. Fave bit for me was a story on a bonkers spiritual cult
called the panacea society - priceless.
Band
interviews with Dina and I Excuse are great. Will avoids the predictable
Q&As of some zines, and comes up with varied and considered questions well
suited to each band. The results are like eavesdropping on a good pub
conversation. You don't need to have a clue about the bands to get something
from the interviews. Similarly the music reviews are consistently good, and
don't rely on your background knowledge. They actually give an idea of how the
bands sound. Top oil, owden!
Another themed
issue, this time on work. The zine takes a broader approach to the theme this
time eg using comic strips, reminiscences from family members etc. The longest
think-piece on the theme is all the better for not having any pat conclusions.
A childhood memory of visiting a deserted factory is really atmospheric. In the
interviews there's a sustained, informed interest in how bands operate on a
practical basis, which is just as demystifying as any amount of DIY rhetoric.
Having said that, I got the feeling the interviewer had his work cut out
getting much of interest out of Altaira.
I like the
look of both issues I've seen of EFA. There's that cut and paste feel but it's
really readable and the use of nicked pics, comic strips and quotes is done
really well.
♥Running
On Empty No.3 Jan Feb 2004 [See http://www.runningriotrecords.co.uk/ for availability]
Highlight of
this zine is the reviews section which has the most lively writing in the whole
zine. The reviews are enthusiastic, honest and funny and Jon's clearly got
pretty unpredictable, open-minded tastes. The how-to article on DIY PA is also
excellent. I really enjoyed the report by Kirkt on the Leeds festival although
I was less keen on the other guest contribution, a column from Steve Scanner
where he comes across as one of those smart-arses who see themselves as
travellers and everyone else as tourists. I'd say generally the columns aren't
the strong point of the zine. There was a bit of a lack of passion so I had a
kind of a 'So what?' response. To be fair, they don't go on too long so it's
not a big deal. Where ROE does fall down for me was in the interviews. The one
with Geekscene big cheese Paul is interesting but despite the questions rather
than because of them. All the interviews in this issue were done by email. For
me, that took a lot of the energy out of them. Overall though, despite my pissy
litle whinges, still well worth getting hold of.
♥Zine World: A Reader's Guide to the Underground Press. [See http://www.undergroundpress.org/ for availability]
This
is essential reading for anybody with an interest in low-budget and diy
produced printed matter. It offers a
complete immersion in the world of zines as well as news articles on related
matters. In the news section, the story on the relationship between Fox news
coverage of
Equally well
written are the good, varied columns, which range from the funny,[Christopher
Meyer] to the passionate[Grant Schreiber's Pigworld]. Standout though is Jim
Sumii's beautifully drawn account of his family's experience of internment
during WW2. I was so engrossed I nearly missed my stop on the bus.
There are
pages of reviews of zines, and the pool of reviewers is big enough for the
coverage to be varied and fair. Each review is an interesting read.
What holds the
whole mag together is a likeable, spiky tone that shows even in the routine
'housekeeping' parts of the editorial. My favourite example is; 'If you are not
fully satisfied with Zine World, tough shit.' My only criticisms are
that the layout of the news section was confusing at times, and the letters
section could be safely dropped if people are only going to write in with
lame-arsed contributions of the 'I still don't like Zine World' variety.
♥Deptford
Second only to
maths, history bored the piss out of me at school. But if it had been presented
like it is in this booklet I'd've taken much more of an interest. This pocket
guide to the history of Deptford and New Cross does what good books can do, it
makes you pay attention again to the world you're in. It's beautifully written
- just the right mix of clarity and down-to-earth friendliness- and is shot
through with a genuine affection for the area.
From the
kick-off, with accounts of WW2 bombings in the area, Gordon-Orr really gets
across the sense that history happens round the corner, not on the telly and in
books. Throughout the booklet he's also good at putting over the political
context of the making of the area without seeming worthy or dull. He pulls this
off with a nice knack for letting the facts speak for themselves; e.g when a
mainly peaceful march in response to the New Cross fire is reported in The Sun
under the headline 'Day the Blacks Ran Riot in
Part of the
pleasure of reading this comes from the wealth of peculiar trivia and detail
mixed in with the more stirring stuff. My favourite is the worker accused of
stealing two herrings and a haddock from a strike-breaker's pocket. Eww.
The way the
booklet's structured works perfectly. It loosely follows a route you can walk
around here so there's plenty of room for digressions. The overall effect is to
give a sense of things being untidy but connected.
♥Unpeeled
Fanzine- March 2004. [£1. See http://www.unpeeled.co.uk/ for availability.]
Describes
itself as 'what the NME used to be'. The layout is dull but the writing isn't.
If there's a house writing style it's based on gusto and attitude rather than finesse.
There are plenty of contributors so the chances of getting bored by any one
voice are remote, although I did find this happening on the singles review
pages. The highlight is the gig review section, where nobody is afraid to put
the justifiable boot in, in a 'whoever signed this band needs their head read'
sort of way. The best of the live reviews are by Ian Scanlon - clear,
intelligently written, but passionate with it. The zine's main weakness is in
the editing. An interview with Ragazzi is presented without context or
background so I failed to give a toss from the get-go. The decision to put
uninformative tabloid-style headings in every paragraph break thoughout the mag
exhibits a similar editorial doziness. I could also have happily done without
John Peel's playlist. I used to wish he was my dad but now I just think he's a
smug old wanker. But Unpeeled is still worth a read for all that.
♥Get
in the Van - No. 2. [£1 probably
plus postage. Ben Smith c/o Suspect Device,
If you like
naiveté and enthusiasm, you'll like this. I did. This zine is really
idiosyncratic and personal to the extent of featuring an interview with a
friend who did Ben's first tattoo, and including diary excerpts. Sometimes this
can make for a disconcerting read. I found some of the diary entries just too
open for comfort. Partly this was due to a lack of context, almost a feeling
like overhearing a conversation between close friends on a bus, without knowing
the people referred to. There's a good variety of content - band interviews,
crap cartoons, CD and book reviews, a discussion of veganism and some recipes.
The attitude here is infectious; I might have had a cynical smirk to myself
when reading the veganism article [How long have you been vegan? Dunno, what
time is it?] but it still made me think about going back to vegetarianism. For
at least ten minutes after reading this zine I felt twenty years younger.
Recommended.
♥A
Dysfunctional Success- Eric Goulden.
[the Do Not Press]
I normally wouldn't
give a pop star's biog house-room, but I'm glad I made an exception for this
excellent autobiography of Wreckless Eric. For a start, he writes beautifully.
He's got an absolutely lovely way with a simile, whether he's describing an
early bandmate as 'like a big dog in a small room', or comparing the armchair
in his first
No books/print reviews have been consigned
to the Armchair Archive.
♫ Wet Dog - Spitz, Shoreditch, 23rd
January 2005.
I've got no clue why I haven't written a live review for so long, but Wet Dog are a good reason to start again. When band's are described as exciting they often turn out to be fast and jumpy abouty, and when labelled interesting, too often they prove noodly and tedious. So I'm left with the option of saying Wet Dog are the least boring group I've seen for a good while. There's nothing odd about the basic ingredients; properly squelching bass, simple solid drums and a perfect guitar sound, but it's the songs that do it. The theory I've just invented says that there's two methods of songwriting. The primary one starts with chord sequences and bolts them together into the usual verse chorus blah blah blah formation. The secondary one, which seems to be more the Wet Dog way of things, is maybe more about making up 'good bits' Ô and fitting them together. The result is a steady supply of surprises. They've already got their own sound but it never feels like they're repeating themselves or running out of ideas. It's always hard describing a band's sound without making comparisons. I've read a review that compared them to some late 70s/early 80s post-punk bands, and there maybe are elements of that early Rough Trade sound in what they do. The vocals on the last song of the set proper reminded me a bit of the Raincoats, and some of the later songs had a bit of a Fall stumbling rockabilly (rockastumblabilly) feel about them. But really, there's all sorts going on. Folky finger-in-the ear harmonies, backing vocals straight off She Loves You by the Beatles, and Beefhearty skronky guitar bits. The fact that the band got an encore even though they haven't been around that long really says something. Wet Dog are loads easier to recommend than they are to describe.
♫ Princess
Headbutt - Vibe Bar, Shoreditch 30th June 2004
Another free night
out, another new favourite band. Princess Headbutt have got it all. The nearest
I can come to describing them is that they put me in mind of a collision
between Billy Mahonie and the Monkees. The Billy Mahonie element comes in the
way they play it slant, in the winding off-balance melodies, but the Monkees
flavour comes from the way the songs somehow feel rooted in a basic sense of
pop. To complicate matters, there's even a bit of Northern Soul about the
tracks that feature trumpet. Most of the set is instrumental, but when the
vocals arrive, and they can be heard, they're clear and beautiful. What holds
it all together is a casual grooviness - not some bolted on funk thing, but a
suggestion that Princess Headbutt are the sort of people who surprise acquaintances
by turning out to be unexpectedly good dancers.
♫ Fruition
- Purple Turtle,
Apparently
they all live in a tiny Hertfordshire village. I'd expect this to result in
them producing music that's a derivative mish-mash of influences, but instead
they do something really fresh. Loads of bands around rely for their
'difference' on a Pavement/ Sonic Youth/ post-hardcore tonal skewiffness.
Fruition show their individuality rhythmically. There's a unique feel to the
beat of the songs. Like rough-arsed Trad Jazz, although there's nothing jazzy
about the tunes, thank Christ. There's a simple, unfussy energy about the band
that reminds me of the Small Faces, although they sound nothing like them.
Despite the rhythmic trickiness they stay tight. The vocals have got a nice
rough edge where it's needed, but are spot on throughout, even when the tune
goes through the occasional weird little modulation. If they've got a weak
point, it's where they stray into a pretty conventional ska feel on two tracks.
That whole cod-reggae thing's been done to death for me, and this band's got
enough style of its own.
♫Me Against Them - 93 Feet East, 29th
March 2004.
I've seen this
band once before and they seemed a bit scrappy, but since then something's changed,
something's gelled. I'd put them in the top 20% of bands doing this sort of
thing curently. They're not 100% there yet. They still have occasional moments
that sound a touch derivative, in particular, one song with a definite Talking
Heads edge to it, and another with a slight Mott the Hoople feel. But mostly
the influences are well assimilated. That late-70s
♫The A-Lines - Artrocker Club, Buffalo Bar, 9th March 2004.
The A-Lines look like they're having fun and that makes it hard not to like them. But there's loads more about them to approve of. There's a sort of genuineness about them, both in the sense of them not being full of shit, and in the feeling they give that what they do is properly in their bones, and isn't something they decided to do last week because everybody else is doing it. This shows up in the songs. The tunes have all got that garagey, slightly surfy feel where they almost qualify as being in the public domain. That to me is often the mark of a good song i.e that it sounds pinched but isn't. And yet the set doesn't seem samey. There's other stuff to enjoy too. The singer looks like an extra from 'the Vicar of Dibley' going on 'Stars in their Eyes' as Fay Fife without a change of costume. And the bass sound represents a bit of a first for me by being a tad too fuzztastic even for my taste. Me, I like the sound of a bass amp just before the speakers have blown. I'd see them again. I just hope they don't get any slicker than they already aren't.
♫New
The first band come on when I'm in the toilet, so I miss them introducing themselves. I assume that they're Hail Caesar, and because they're good I have the idea of starting their review with the words, 'I come not to bury Hail Caesar but to praise them.' I'm so pleased with myself at this that I consider giving myself the rest of the week off. Unfortunately it turns out the first band are actually called Pure Reason Revolution or something. Despite this I like them. They do the sort of garagey, new rock and roll type thing with some panache and some added keyboardy and metally elements. Worth a listen, definitely. The real Hail Caesar didn't float my boat at all. A clumsy mix of snottiness and foot-on-the-monitorness.
Then, New
♫Art Brut -
Not particularly in the mood for this. A dull day at the day job. On the way to the gig I got sausage and chips. The sausage tasted like it'd been formed from particles of meat salvaged after some days from between the teeth of old men. Then, for the first time ever, a queue to get in the venue. I stood for half an hour behind a big-mouthed drunken racist, who, happily, wasn't allowed in. Once inside it's only three-quarters full. Presumably hipsters in the know need more space; must be some sort of fire regulation. To their credit Art Brut are genuinely hard to compare to anybody else. They've been likened to ATV but that's lazy crap. They've got a cool slightly distorted bass sound of the sort only women bass-players seem to get. The 2 guitarists often seem to be playing different songs, which is a really neat effect. But somehow they aren't quite there for me yet. What seems lacking is better songs. Even the track from the Angular sample [see above] sounds a bit similar to everything else. The last song they play [Brand New Girlfriend, I think], with it's fantastic joyous leaping-about-inducing riff, shows how great they can be with the right songs. So, the jury's still out for me, and other cliché's. I just hope they don't get too much attention too early and bollocks things up for themselves as a result.
For
earlier live gig reviews go to the Armchair Archive.
◙ Super
Size Me - directed by Morgan Spurlock
You'll
probably know the set up by now. Writer and director Morgan Spurlock goes for a
month eating nothing but McDonald's food. Over that month, his weight rockets
and his health nosedives. Spurlock is a personable frontman for the movie and
it's hard not to be entertained by the film. Praise is due for making a
documentary that's so entertaining, and making politics with a small p so
easily digestible. But I can't help feeling the p on those politics needs to be
bigger. There's a lack of anger here. Nobody who's interviewed really gets put
on the spot and few uncomfortable questions get asked. When things get slightly
uncomfortable for the head of a grocery industry body and a spokesperson for
school-meals providers, the film backs off. There's no Michael Moore styled
doorstepping here. This is a documentary of the quizically raised eyebrow,
rather than one of righteous indignation. The sort of issues that got the
McLibel duo sued don't feature here. The film's conclusion seems to be that
eating too much McDonald's is bad for you. No shit, Spurlock!
◙ Dogville
- directed by Lars Von Trier
On paper this
film has the potential to be pretty disastrous. It's three hours long, chock
full of big Hollywood actors doing an 'independent' film for a bit of cred, and
it's all shot on a studio sound stage with the minimum of props, and locations
chalked out on the floor. But Von Trier just about gets away with it.
The film tells
the story of Grace, a glamorous woman with criminal connections. On the lam,
she holes up in a small town called Dogville where the locals initially take her
under their wing. Gradually the atmosphere in the town changes and Grace
becomes a different kind of victim until the film's climax.
This film's
saved by the performances. The washed out, shaky camerawork starkly shows up
some excellent, detailed, naturalistic performances, particularly from Paul
Bettany. In fact, a major turn up for me about this film was how shit the
actors looked physically, like real people rather than just '
But ultimately
what stopped me from getting more from this film was the feeling of being
buttonholed. Von Trier seems to have a pretty bleak view of the human race but
I think here he's expressing it in a heavy handed way. I'd be the first to
concede that people can be pretty shit but I think that happens in the details
and fine shading of behaviour and psychology, not in the extremes of behaviour
shown in this film. In a peculiar way Von Trier's morality tale takes the soft
option. By focussing on human actions at the extemes he gives the audience the
get-out clause of feeling that evil is about other people, and not something
done by people like themselves.
Oh yeah, and
the relentless parade of
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