Album Review: Rose Kemp - ‘Golden Shroud’

‘Golden Shroud’ (2010), 12 Year Stretch TYS0002, CD, 43m 7s, £11

http://www.rosekemp.info/

The word ‘fuck’ has a long and proud history in non-mainstream music, and the underground in general. At one time a Fuck tee shirt was a token of political radicalism, and dropping the F-bomb in a song could have a considerable subversive impact (as in ‘Working Class Hero’). Like salt or sugar in food though, people got a taste for the hit, and it was overused, until it was nearly meaningless. Now mainstream music is full of motherfuckers and assholes, edited out for the radio cuts, but there nevertheless, for their considerable selling power.

The first syllable of this album, in its pure voiced, diatonic harmony, is the most arresting ‘fuck’ I’ve heard in music for a long time. It’s used for just the right reason as well: to express a powerful emotional response, of the sort that really does make the word come out of your mouth, in this case in the face of a realisation of mortality.

The (multitracked) choral passage that kicks off with that expletive has a sweet sound, and although it is homophonic it moves in parallel harmonies that give it a medieval feel. It gradually becomes less diatonic, in an ear pleasing, tonal way, with chromaticism creeping in, until it ends, hanging on a chillingly astringent upper-register dissonance, and then the guitar comes in. And it’s one of the most dramatic moments I can recall hearing on a recording.

Rose Kemp is the daughter of Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp of the seminal English folk rock band Steeleye Span, which makes her folk royalty. You know the kind of thing: the neatly indie looking kids you see at folk festivals, milking their parents’ reputations to get gigs and distribution for their anodyne and backward looking folksong. They usually espouse a conservatism that undermines the previous generation’s work in opening the stifling world of traditional music up to innovation and creativity, saying to the world ‘Look! Folk is trendy! It must be, because I play it, and I’m a cardigan wearing hipster!’ Yeah, the kids who think being generic is the same as being idiomatic; who think good execution on their melodeons and tenor banjos is an acceptable substitute for musicianship. Well, folk royalty she may be by birth, but Rose Kemp ain’t one of them. Praise the lord.

The moment in that opening track, Black Medik II, when the guitar comes in is  fantastically dramatic for a few reasons. Firstly, it is in stark contrast to the beautiful vocal arrangement that precedes it: it has a thick, heavy syrupy distortion, the kind of fuzz where you can almost hear the paper of the cones buzzing; and it is not just a stylistic incongruity, but a true textural contrast, from a pure, smooth, sine-like vocal sound to something deeply abrasive. And then what happens is that it launches into a riff, a slow doomy riff of nasty, noisy, headbanging intensity, and she really starts to sing.

Throughout this album there is metal guitar, idiomatic doom-metal guitar riffing (which Kemp squeezes out of her Telecaster with obvious relish). But no solos, no lead part. No need. Rose Kemp is doing it with her voice. People like to use that hackneyed phrase, ‘using the voice like an instrument’, but this shit is for real! She swoops from end to end of an extensive range; she squawks and shrieks; she screams out with rock hoarseness like Joplin; and she decorates her phrases with perfectly delivered folk ornaments. She reaches into you with her voice, she grabs you, and she shakes you like a rag doll.

Her previous two releases use the heavy guitar sparingly, like a seasoning, and they are both collections of songs, as tends to be the case with albums. Golden Shroud is different: it is a single long form piece in three movements, and it uses a restricted textural palette in comparison to her earlier recordings. There are two instrumental textures here, quiet doom metal and loud doom metal (with and without singing), and there are some passages of choral homophony. That’s not a lot to work with: it puts a lot of pressure on the quality of the composition and performance to maintain interest, particularly in tracks that are over fifteen minutes in length.

Kemp pulls it off in the first instance by making extremely creative use of the limited musical resources she has chosen to allow herself: her incredibly dramatic and arresting vocals help to generate some variety, but this album is a masterclass in arranging for a narrow range of textures, modes and harmonies, and in exploiting the dramatic potential of dynamics. And it’s not just the vocals, but also the ostensibly quite unassuming instrumental performances, that have the charismatic aplomb and dramatic force to keep you (or me at any rate) pumping the air with your fist, even when listening at a moderate volume. I mean, this is heavy!

And compositionally, she’s off the scale. I very commonly get the impression that there is no necessary connection between the lyrics of a song and its musical content: another set of words could have been substituted and nothing would sound out of place. Here it’s all very much of a piece: words, notes and harmonies have been wrangled together until they are mashed up into a single twisted rope of terrifying, moving, uncompromising, and ultimately uplifting meaning.

I can’t possibly give a close analytical reading of this whole album: it would take a whole book, or at least far more words than I could reasonably expect anyone to read in a CD review! But I’d like to: there’s such a density of content here that it would be a very rewarding exercise. Lyrically Kemp’s themes revolve around paganism and witchcraft, in a very dark way, full of blood and bitterness; but this is very far from the daft, Hammer horror fantasies of the doom metal mainstream. This is serious, metaphorical language, raw with the pain of human existence, and gelid with the certainty of its cessation: there is a nuanced environmentalism in these songs (or this piece), which is alert to the complexities of the issue and concerned with it’s relationship to lived experience. And it is also, ultimately, and despite the impression you might get without paying close attention to the lyrics, hopeful. Whether this work is animated by a religious paganism, or it simply finds it a useful metaphor, I’m not sure, and it doesn’t really matter. There is a lot to get you thinking, and feeling, whatever your own perspective.

Rick Kemp, Rose’s dad, was the first bass player that I really became aware of as a musician in their own right. Despite my first musical love being punk, it was hearing his lyrical upper register lines and thunderous chords on my mum’s Steeleye Span records that helped to form my sense of what bass playing is about. He is my first major influence as a musician, so it seems I owe the Kemp family a double debt now, because in this recording Rose Kemp has given me a gift that will stay with me for life. This degree of stylistic novelty is rarely expressed in such a coherent idiom, or with such total artistic clarity. I hope you can get even a fraction of the pleasure from this music that I have.

Review: Lemonparty Presents at The White Horse in Sudbury.

Lemonparty, apparently Sudbury’s premier lunatic party band, have been given a regular Thursday slot (‘every middle-ish Thursday of the month’) to showcase the original bands they think need showcasing, and sometimes (as on this inaugural night) to join in and play a set of their own.

Opening proceedings were Two Steps Twice. This is a deluxe model ska band which. although having a keyboard stand in for a brass section, boasts a brace of female backing singers, as well as two male lead singers (or did one of them just do percussion? I’m a little hazy on the early part of the evening).

Two steps twice seem to be aiming at 2Tone, but what came out was more like punk, for a number of reasons: firstly the keyboard couldn’t quite manage to substitute for a brass section (although it played the right lines, and sounded good); second, the guitar sound was way too loud and thrashy; and thirdly, well, they just had a punk aesthetic. To be honest, they were a little bit shy of properly rehearsed to play a style of music that’s so groove based and rhythmically exacting, but their enthusiasm was infectious and their set was a lot of fun.

Following them were the always intense Luvdump, the only band of the night that I’d seen before. Luvdump’s bag is old school hardcore, with bits of reggae and ska breaking out like a rash, as it tends to around punk music. This is a band with all the commitment and passion their style demands, and the playing skills to nail it to the floor (although they had some serious timing issues in the first couple of numbers, they got it sorted after that). It’s all about the music, and they’ve got that down, with some great songs, and good arrangements, but let’s face it, attitude and visuals have a strong effect on audience response as well. The singer bounces like a nutter, in a way that’s impossible to ignore (unless maybe you’re dead), while the guitarists sling their axes so low they could play with their feet, and one of them has that same kind of prowling, skinny menace once purveyed by Wilko Johnson. Luvdump are the real deal, and they played a blinder.

Lemonparty were quite an eye opener for me: they play a frantic, skittering brand of funk rock, and their tall, insectile singer is one of the most charismatic front-men I’ve seen in a while, in an entirely offbeat, freaky way. His jerky movements and oddball vocal delivery had a little of David Byrne about them, but his low body mass and hollow cheeks make him look equally like a man on the comedown from one too many northern soul weekenders. This is not a band anyone will forget in a hurry. They have some good chops as well, keeping it tight while making sure they stay focussed on entertaining, which they are very good at, almost coercing the audience into movement! Short on artistic pretensions, and long on uncompromising, unselfconscious good times.

I had been listening to the The Junk on the web before the gig, so I was looking forward to them. And was I disappointed? No, boys and girls, I was not. What they play is not ska as such, although there are elements of it in their music, but basically hardcore with some arse kicking brass riffs. I’m calling it brasscore, because I’m the kind of idiot that wants to pretend he’s hip by bandying about genres that no-one’s heard of. Although it might be time for some such label, because The Junk are not the only band doing this: the excellent Beat The Red Light take a similar (if more metal tinged) approach, for example, and there are others about.

The Junk’s brass section for the night was a BRASS section: no poxy saxophones here (although a quick listen to their MySpace reveals an alto reed playing a leading role too). Just a trumpet and a trombone playing tightly scored riffs that give the guitars a run for their money in terms of edgy, high energy propulsiveness. The band sometimes breaks it down into a slow reggae jam, but mostly they maintain a pretty mental pace, keeping themselves and the audience pumped.

The whole band performs to the audience: you don’t have to sell out to be an entertainer, and this is an outfit that sticks to its artistic principles without compromising on the fun factor. Heavy duty, mental, moshable, musical mayhem is their stock in trade and you should get some of this if you get the chance.

Pixelpussy - ‘This Is Meower Noise’

‘This is Meower Noise’ (2010), Moonslave Radio MOON001D, digital download, 67m 29s, $8

http://www.moonslave-radio.com/Shop.html

Diaper Bot Overload, the track from this album that happens to be playing as I sit down to review it, is a crazy soundscape of chopped up samples and confusing layers of distortion, devoid of any clear beat, and distinctly closer to ‘meower electronics’ than to ‘meower noise’. The rest of the album is very much power noise however, distorted beats aimed squarely at the dancefloor.

While it is less blatantly comedic than Caustic, for example, this is a very funny record, with a lot of humour in every track. The evil genius behind Pixelpussy pays a lot of attention to politics in his native USA, particularly the burgeoning tea party movement, and this album is full of jaw dropping audio samples of christian right lunacy: if Michael Moore made a power noise album, it would most likely sound like this.

There is more space and clarity in the production on ‘TIMN’ than is usual in power noise releases: at first it felt a little light, but I’ve liked it more and more with each listen. Pixelpussy has a liking for distortions that are harmonically unsaturated and very digital sounding, and he does not always layer them obsessively into terrifying juggernauts of sonic violence (as is common in his genre): instead he makes them fit into the soundstage with the other elements, perhaps in order to avoid drowning out his samples, which as I’ve said, are particularly choice. Sometimes he could have used a heavier kick to my ear, but that’s a matter of personal taste.

In the main the beats are straightforward stomp (no criticism implied, it’s what they’re meant to be), but there are a couple with little syncopated hooks that lift them into a zone of irresistible danceability: ‘The Ass Justifies The Means’ and ‘Toxic Testicle Nectar’ are two tracks that grabbed me in particular. As far as musical content goes, that’s it: this is a genre that’s about rhythm, and about production, but melody and harmony don’t really figure. ‘TIMN’ doesn’t have any singing either, but it’s the samples that are the stars of the show. I have no clue as to the source of most of them, although I’ve heard the insane politician talking about billy goats from ‘God and Pussy’ somewhere before: I’d really like to know who it is exhorting us not to ‘get any of that green shit in my hair, on my face, on my nipples or in my pussy’ at the start of ‘Toxic Testicle Nectar’ too (or more to the point I’d like to know where and why he found it)!

There’s a fistful of remixes to close out the album: my favourite is code 000’s ‘Just Gimme The Pussy’ remix of ‘God and Pussy’, which is exactly the kind of richly distorted, thick, full noize that most of the album eschews, and funky as hell to boot.

Power noise is one of those genres that you either like, or you don’t understand why anyone would want to do that to you when you’ve never even met them before, let alone hurt them in any way. Clearly I’m in the former camp: I know some of my readers will listen to a few seconds of this and run screaming, but there may be a handful out there who will thank me for introducing them to this style, and I know there’s a few who love it already. If you’re in the last category, this album is definitely for you: it’s a lovingly assembled slab of crunchingly heavy beats, with a distinctive production sound of its own, and some wicked comedy value.

Review: Wytchazle and Justin Tracy at PJ McGinty’s in Ipswich

http://wytchazle.co.uk/

http://justintracy.com/

In stark contrast to the venue at which I last reviewed a gig, PJ McGinty’s has an excellent upstairs space set aside for music: there is no reason for anyone to be there except to listen to the performers, and it is just the right size and acoustic, with its high wood paneled ceiling (although I suspect a noisy rock band might come a cropper sonically). The two acts I saw on this occasion were served perfectly by the space.

Justin Tracy is a performer with whom I was unfamiliar before I saw he was on the bill for this evening, and did a bit of listening on the intarwebz. The night was actually put on for him by his father (although he generously took the opening slot) as he is based in New York and temporarily on manoeuvres in the UK (I think ‘tour’ would be too strong a word: his website says he is ‘planning an extensive tour for 2011’, but I imagine that will be in support of his forthcoming album Simple Things.)

Justin writes songs that seem to convey a sense of positivity in the face of challenging circumstances, which is to say it’s pretty uplifting stuff, although I have to admit it’s hard to get into detailed literary analysis on the basis of watching one gig. Musically, the material takes some interesting harmonic twists and turns, with successive voicings often relating modally, and has melodies that, while accessible, are not obvious. Not being obvious seems to be his stock in trade, in fact: his guitar playing employs a percussive, rhythmically intricate fingerstyle, very much in the John Martyn school, which decorates and implies the groundbeat as much as laying it down explicitly. His vocal delivery, similarly, is highly melismatic with complex, syncopated phrasing.

This is an approach which requires an exacting degree of technical precision: there was the odd moment when Justin Tracy could be heard to waver on the edge of rhythmic incoherence, but he always pulled it back from the brink. Also impressive were his readings of John Martyn songs (of which he performed a brace). The challenge with that material is to match the incredible dynamic control of the well known recordings, and it’s impossible for the listener not to compare the performance to that very tall yardstick. So, did he play them as well as Martyn recorded them? No, but he played them excellently, and it was a joy to listen to.

In fact, his entire set was a joy to listen to. His voice moved easily between a throaty but gentle natural register and a husky falsetto, and his body language was always that of a man totally engaged in performance. He had a relaxed, but reserved and self-effacing manner that engaged the audience, and a few interesting tales to tell, which he conveyed without rambling, pitching it just right for the crowd.

Wytchazle, on the other hand, I know well, but only in its component parts. Robert Foster I had seen perform once, briefly, as a solo lutenist, while I’ve seen Daisy Windsor performing on many occasions with her previous band The Floozies. Some of their material tonight dated from The Floozies era, with (I guess, I can’t pretend to be an expert) a fair bit of new original material, and a few standards thrown into the mix.

Daisy has been performing an awful lot over the last ten years, and it really shows. I know her voice pretty well, as I’ve recorded her for a track of my own, and since I last heard her sing she’s continued to build on some already solid foundations. She has a smooth, open contralto (actually I’m guessing, but she can go pretty deep) and a notably unaffected delivery with a light vibrato, which can be moving, or just involving, as the material demands. This was always the case, but in timbre, control and phrasing she’s continued to develop, and is singing now better than I’ve ever heard her.

The real eye opener was her reading of the standards that peppered their set. To be a jazz singer requires a particular set of skills. Singers that think it’s just a question of learning a style are easily spotted: they sound as clichéd as hell. Singing a standard well requires the performer to inhabit the lyrics, and to bring out their nuances through the controlled application of a wide range of expressive devices; it also requires a great precision of intonation, hitting notes that are sometimes very odd to the ear of someone used to a more diatonic harmonic palette. Daisy’s delivery on standards is noticeably different than on her own material, with a very well judged approach to the use of terminal vibrato in particular. I have to say, she nailed it, and I was surprised, not because I doubted her abilities, but because most decent jazz singers start learning their craft early.

So what does Robert Foster bring to the party? Well, pretty much everything and the kitchen sink! On the night in question he played acoustic and electric guitar, bazouki, banjo and piano. I should start by saying that he’s a proper class act: in terms of technique and musical knowledge he’s a consummate professional, with all the bases covered. Mostly what he does with stringed instruments is to accompany Daisy melodically, while she provides a bedrock of strummed acoustic guitar, although he used his jazz electric to accompany her on one standard, while the piano was principally employed on the standards, while Daisy put her guitar aside to concentrate on singing.

Rob’s guitar playing is fluid and melodically inventive, and he utilises it to produce a cascade of shimmering obbligatos to Daisy’s vocal parts. There were occasions when I felt he could have held back a little, not because he was noodling, but more for the opposite reason: at times there was so much melodic content in his playing that it became the main feature. In the main however, his accompaniment was the epitome of tasteful, supportive embellishment; his right hand tremolo on tenor banjo and bouzouki was employed to great effect.

Daisy’s own material is mainly upbeat in theme, although it ranges from the movingly melancholy to the whimsical, and is very well directed towards the sort of audience that singer songwriters get: people who want to be entertained, but who are willing to do some work themselves, and will listen closely. Her unaffected and totally genuine stage persona is similarly well suited, setting the audience at their ease and getting them on her side before she sings a note.

Between them these two acts provided an evening of very high quality listening, entertaining, engaging, amusing and moving their audience in equal measure. I recommend you grab any chance you get to see them (Justin Tracy in particular, as the opportunities to see him play may be pretty rare).

Review: Kamikaze Test Pilots - ‘Diaspora’ and ‘Into The Sun’

Into The Sun (2008) self released, 22.4 minutes, £4.74

Diaspora (2010) self released, 23 minutes, £4.74


both available on iTunes

http://www.kamikazetestpilots.co.uk/

It’s not often I encounter a band that grabs me as immediately as Kamikaze Test Pilots: soul, groove, passion, creativity, imagination and musicianship are just oozing out of both these releases and making a mess of my floor.

This is heavy rock, but it’s a rare brand of rock music that is as eclectic in its reach as I am in my tastes. There’s a lot of funky, bluesy, heavy rock riffing, but there are so many other stylistic elements it’s hard to keep count. On Diaspora ‘The Inmates Have Taken Over The Asylum’ has a death metal chorus, complete with blast beat, tremolo picking, and growl vocals, but the solo is a perfectly crafted, inventive twin-lead melody that reminds me of Brian May. ‘Kenny Rogers (With A Shotgun)’, which follows immediately afterwards is built on a rolling, hammered-on country rock riff, with a jew’s harp twanging away contentedly as though it was featured in metal songs all the time. ‘Chikken’ has funky riffs that would sound at home in a RATM song, and a sneering, angry, funny lyric (which I didn’t quite get, but then I rarely do ‘get’ lyrics). ‘Betterway’ is a deeply moving acoustic number that closes the release, an exile’s lament, whose lyrical intent is unmistakeable when you know that two of the four band members are young migrants from Zimbabwe.

The earlier Into The Sun has an opener (‘Abattoir Jazz’) put together with parts cannibalized from a straightahead swinger, while the amazing ‘Kumusha’ mixes its rock riffery with chimurenga style guitar, and several tracks have strongly punk flavoured moments. So how can all this stylistic diversity be tied together into something that sounds like a band? In theory this should all add up to an unlistenable mess; in practice it sounds entirely coherent, because this is a group of musicians simply letting their enthusiasms guide them, and not letting generic labels stand in the way of a good sound. In other words, it’s not at all contrived: if you artificially hatched a plan to put all those sounds together the result would probably be rubbish, but these two releases sound as though they have come about in a very natural, organic way.

Another reason that it all hangs together so convincingly (and so engagingly) is the consistent guitar sound, which while sometimes pretty damn heavy, sticks to a warm, clear, natural overdrive that is capable of responding beautifully to the demands of the band’s smorgasbord of compositional devices, and is very recognisable across both these releases. The same can be said for the deep grooving bass and drums: funky and propulsive, but with the lightness of touch that’s required to cop some of the wide variety of feels they tackle, the band’s engine room has a locked in sound that is very recognisable as its own.

Perhaps the most distinctive element in the sound is the vocal delivery: warm, throaty, powerful and heartfelt, often (along with the lyrical content) sounding angry, but only in the same way we all get pissed off about shit. That doesn’t tell you what’s distinctive about it, I know, but some things just have to be heard. It’s something in the combination of accent, rhythmic phrasing and modulation of timbre, and you should just follow the link to their page and listen (or better yet, go straight to iTunes and buy it).

Despite the melancholy or anger in some of the tracks, (and let’s face it, where would punk and metal be without a good dose of angry?) the overall feel of this music is totally joyful: you can tell from listening that every gig will be a party, and I’m going to see these boys play live the first chance I get.

Review: The Jim Jims at Twisters Bar in Colchester

I like that special feeling you get sometimes, that a band is playing just for you: The Jim Jims are good at creating an intimate atmosphere, although the impression was aided by the fact that there were only five of us listening for most of their two sets! A heroic struggle through trying circumstances is probably the best way to sum up the evening…

Twisters Bar put their bands on in a small area of floorspace, separated from the bar only by the route to the men’s toilet, and facing onto the main thoroughfare to the garden: I imagine it felt a bit like busking in a shopping centre. To add insult to injury, there’s a good bit of corner space the bands could play from, which is occupied by a ludicrously grandiose DJ booth. The band were using the house PA, which could charitably be described as a complete heap of shit: the sound was boxy and horribly feedback prone, and the supplied mic stand had to be stopped from spinning uncontrollably through the judicious application of blu-tak and masking tape! (In fact, someone had to go home and get another mic stand because the bar only supplied one: it was an act of great selflessness to come back, rather than pretending to have been taken suddenly ill.)

So how did The Jim Jims respond to the situation? They stood up (about three feet away from their audience, who were backed up against the wall to let smokers go to and from the garden), and did what they do, with their customary good humour and mellow, happy vibes. They play a mixture of bossa, chanson, standards and originals, singing in French and English, with a light but firm groove and sweet harmony. High points for me were ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, and a swinging original in waltz time, titled ‘In The Middle Of The Sea’, but the material was outstanding throughout. Beccy sings with a lovely, smooth timbre and nuanced phrasing, while Vince’s guitar work is a model of restrained, tasteful melodicism, and I enjoyed every minute (even when the ignorant wanker at the bar was trying to steal the show with some shit he was playing on his phone). A very enjoyable and entertaining night out.

Review Of The Year 2010: 12 Albums

This is my review of the musical year. Not the world’s musical year, but my musical year. It’s been a year that involved very little live music, and not a huge amount of new recorded music as I’ve been very short of both money and hard disc space, but I have certainly heard a lot of interesting new releases. Enough to pick out a cool dozen that have made a particular impact on me, anyway. I’ve included links so you can listen (or in some cases just buy): so get reading, and don’t forget to comment at the bottom!

Vex’d - ‘Cloud Seed’

Planet Mu ZIQ260CD

http://mysp.ac/hXPMJZ

Dark, grimy dubstep which takes more than a passing glance back at trip-hop, and displays a distinctly experimental bent. Of the new music I’ve acquired this year, not much has been in this vein, so this isn’t a best-of-the-bunch selection: it’s just one of the most creative and interesting listens I’ve encountered recently. Featuring a variety of guest vocals, from the Martina Topley Bird/ Beth Gibbons impression provided by Anneka, to the more badass sounds of Warrior Queen and Jest, this is a very varied album, on many grounds, but still very coherent as a whole, with its consistently dark and ominous atmosphere. Not much electronic music experiments with such a probing sense of enquiry.

Faderhead - ‘Black Friday’

L-Tracks LT006

http://mysp.ac/f0Cz3A

I’ve previously reviewed this album at greater length, here:  http://bit.ly/fSD7mw Faderhead is pretty uncomplicated stuff, in terms of its artistic strategy: it is industrial music, built for the dancefloor. Accessible, heavy, dark and irresistibly danceable, these tunes are crafted to perfection. This doesn’t have quite the audacity, or the ferocious intensity, of his previous two albums, but it has a lot of good tunes. Faderhead is one of the most skilled melodists and lyricists on the industrial scene, and those who appreciate the use he put those skills to on ‘FH2’ and ‘FH3’ will probably love Black Friday too.

Finntroll - ‘Nifelvind’

Century Media 9979600

http://mysp.ac/i0kVYg

Finntroll sing in Swedish, on mythological themes, and purvey a style that mixes black metal with folk music elements: these ingredients would normally add up to Viking metal, but Finntroll are Finnish, and their lyrics mainly revolve (I am informed) around the efforts of a Finnish troll king to repel invading Christians. The musicians’ skills bridge the two styles seamlessly, paying equal respect to each: the result is a perfect fusion to my ears, mixing the unfeasibly heavy with the jauntily melodic to produce a huge, ambitious soundscape of Wagnerian power and majesty. Epic, evocative music which sounds like the soundtrack to an equally epic movie full of battles and elaborate armoured headgear.

Negură Bunget - ‘Vîrstele Pamîntului’

Code666 Code 046

http://bit.ly/g07lBE

So clearly 2010 has been a black metal year for me, with two black metal albums being the only metal in my end of year review. No apologies, I love this stuff. Negură Bunget also play a folk/ metal fusion, this time from the Romanian tradition, and this album (recorded with an almost entirely new line-up) heavily emphasises the traditional elements. So much so that where the band comes in heavy with all the speed picking and blast beats of its black metal side, the mix often makes it sound like a tremolo percussion element, rather than the autocannon assault you might expect. This is an extremely creative, musically sophisticated album, with an epic feel similar to Finntroll, but also a far more subtle, ethereal atmosphere. 

Igorrr - ‘Nostril’

Ad Noiseam adn132d

http://mysp.ac/hsULA4

Igorrr combines the least likely selection of styles imagineable. Breakcore, classical, industrial, folk and death metal all vie for space in this crowded scenario, but the beauty of it is that it just sounds like Igorrr. There’s never any sense that these sounds were not meant to go together. I mean obviously this is strange. Extremely strange. It’s some of the oddest tonal music I’ve ever heard, but it’s only odd because it is a very honest and direct expression of an individual’s creativity. It’s like an aural equivalent to James Joyce’s stream of consciousness writing, with its apparently random changes of direction and its non-sequiturs, but it is in fact highly organised music, and displays an unusually erudite mastery of its sonic palette. There’s humour, but there’s also a dead serious artistic integrity. Beautifully weird.

MC Frontalot - ‘Zero Day’

Level Up Records and Tapes B003AMAF3W

http://bit.ly/fo6OFE

Frontalot spits with a flow that skitters crazily across the beat in a way that perfectly enacts the verbal rhythm of the half-distracted nerd, but stays immensely funky. Lyrically, ‘Zero Day’ seems more focussed on daily domestic existence than his earlier offerings, which took in a broader survey of geek culture, but that’s a balance thing: there’s still a tune on here about D&D, don’t worry. There are also, as you’d expect, some hilarious skits. MC Frontalot takes a wry, somewhat distanced, comedic if not quite satirical look at his subject matter, in contrast to, say, Beefy (who guests on ‘Disaster’), who writes heart-on-the-sleeve celebrations of nerd culture. There are no major departures from form on this album: production credits are shared with long time collaborator Badd Spellah, who also contributes to the beat making, which is fun and funky as ever. Deeply entertaining music, with lots of re-listen value, thanks to its highly referenced lyrical density.

Ozomatli - ‘Fire Away’

Downtown DWT70148

http://www.ozomatli.com

There’s a scene in Jackie Brown, where Samuel L. Jackson shoots Robert De Niro dead, looks at his corpse, and says: ‘What the fuck happened to you, man? Shit, your ass used to be beautiful!’ That’s more or less where I am with Ozomatli.  This album is a huge disappointment to me. There was no question about whether I would review it for my year’s roundup: for me, a new Ozo release is a big event. This band used to combine the deepest grooves, the widest stylistic compass, the illest rapping, and the most radical social awareness: Fire Away is anodyne, middle of the road pop pap. I have no clue why Ozomatli think this is the right direction to move in, maybe it will sell records for them, but personally, I can’t think of a single reason to listen to this album. Avoid it.

The John Butler Trio - ‘April Uprising’

Jarrah Records 82564682450

http://johnbutlertrio.com

If you want something socially aware, emotionally literate, deep grooving and stylistically eclectic, forget about Ozomatli and turn to John Butler. This is earthy roots rock, totally straightforward yet sophisticated. There’s acoustic, electric and slide guitar, banjo, even a dash of funky clavinet in the mix, with deliberately simple structures supporting utterly spot on playing, with as solid a rhythm section as you will ever hear. There’s a lot of creativity and imagination here: on the outro to ‘Johnny’s Gone’ Butler’s electric slide morphs into a Tom Morello style noise and texture solo, and there are many other examples of sonic experimentation. It’s all so seamlessly well integrated  into the perfectly judged songwriting that you don’t really notice it: it just sounds like one of the funkiest, most soulful bands you will ever hear.

Unter Null - ‘Moving On’

Alfa Matrix AM-1096-CD

http://mysp.ac/gV62H4

Erica Dunham has never let her Unter Null project sit still creatively. The contrast between ‘The Failure Epiphany’s dark electro-industrial dance music and ‘Neocide’s powernoise is stark, and with ‘Moving On’ she is clearly moving on again. There’s plenty here that’s danceable, but this album doesn’t pander to the dancefloor: there’s no equivalent tune to her huge hit ‘Sick Fuck’, other than ‘Obligatory Club Hit To Appease The Masses’. Instead, there’s a huge variety of textures and moods, quite a lot of soft synth pads and piano parts, and the skillful employment of techniques and sonic material from right across the broad field of industrial music and dark electronica. This is creative and serious music, but still as hard and dirty as ever.

VA - ‘Noughties Niceness’

Tummy Touch Records (no catalogue number)

http://www.tummytouch.com

This album is a free (yes free) digital download, available to Tummy Touch’s Facebook fans. I don’t know if they’ll negotiate for non-Facebook people, but I think it would be worth asking, they are nice people. I’ve already reviewed this at some length here: http://bit.ly/gbItnj It is a fairly random survey of the Tummy Touch roster, chosen ‘quickly would be the honest answer. But I guess they're faves from the last few years.’ Well, there are some fantastic acts on Tummy Touch so the boss’ faves translates as ‘some real treats’. Everything here is totally individual and idiosyncratic (oddball even), and highly accomplished one way or another. A few listens to this and I had acquired more than one new favourite song. Really, I can’t overstate the quality: stylistically it runs a fair gamut, but it’s generally rock and electro of the indie/ alternative/ punky variety. Download this album, love it (inevitable), and then buy some stuff from the Tummy Touch online store, which is all very reasonably priced.

VA - ‘Endzeit Bunkertracks Act V’

Alfa Matrix AM1146FCD

http://bit.ly/fYdV3C

The latest installment in Alfa Matrix label’s flagship compilation series, this 4CD package delivers just as much juicy, stompy, noizy industrial madness as its predecessors. Pretty much every track is a potential floor-filler: as you’d expect the beats are heavy, grinding jackhammers, and the lyrical content ranges from the darkly horrific, through the ludicrously sexual, to the blackly humorous. Stand-out tracks for me are Xykogen ‘Mthrfkr’, Captive Six ‘Noizemaker’, Shaolyn ‘More Bass In All Frequencies’, Nachtmahr ‘War On The Dancefloor’ and Katastroslavia ‘Completely Normal’. But you know what?  Ask me tomorrow and I’ll name another five: they’re all good!

The Dave Holland Octet - ‘Pathways’

Dare2 DR2-004

http://bit.ly/egZVlo

Dave Holland is a living treasure: he’s the Charles Mingus of our era. A formidable composer/ arranger, a ferocious bass player, but above all, an outstanding bandleader, capable of eliciting performances of face-melting intensity and commitment from his players. ‘Pathways’ returns to the core personnel of his phenomenal early noughties quintet, with extra horns to enable richer harmonic scoring: the heart and soul of this music is the blowing, which delivers a constant stream of ideas, passion, creativity and novelty, obviating the need for major stylistic innovations. Undoubtedly my album of the year.