BIC RUNGA ****
Close Your Eyes (Wild Combinations)
New Zealand’s queen songbird has given us an offering of mostly covers, but it’s her own compositions that are more intriguing. The two originals are 60s-throwback breathy pop perfection. Though she doesn’t better Flack’s unsurpassed The First Time… (who can?) or Saint Etienne’s Neil Young version, she certainly does alluring justice to the Beach Boys’ The Lonely Sea. She even takes on Kanye West with a fine, non-delusional, sanitized Wolves. Let’s not quibble – just drown in her enthralling, winsome voice and irresistible arrangements. RLR
CASTLES ****
Fforesteering (self-released)
It’s been a long time coming, but CaStLeS have finally managed to put out their debut, which owes as much to the lo-fi surroundings of its recording as it does to the surf-style guitar and accomplished harmonies recently favoured by Krautrock/psych bedfellows Django Django. Lead single Amcanu, the brooding Argau and the hypnotic riff of Tynnu Tuag At Y Diffiethwch provide the highlights of an album suited to the time of year for its innate ability to warm one’s cockles. BG
HOWE GELB **
Future Standards (Fire)
Howe Gelb is a musical shapeshifter. Over the past 30 years he’s mashed elements of post-punk, alt.country, mariachi, blues, garage, lo-fi, punk and flamenco; his 2006 album Sno Angel Like You was recorded with a gospel choir and is an absolute joy. For Future Standards, he’s gone smooth cocktail jazz. The gruff, laconic vocals are still there, and his lyrics are as candid as ever, but unless you’re a major fan of jazz standards, just buy one of the 40+ Giant Sand LPs. GT
LETHERETTE ****
Last Night On The Planet (Ninja Tune)
There’s a surprising amount of electronica/hip-hop/dance hybrids out there at the moment making it particularly difficult to stand out from the crowd. Letherette, however, demonstrate they are more than capable of doing so with their latest effort which is full of rich textures, minimalistic earworm melodies and indelible beats. Pay particular attention, if you will, to the late-night, feelgood atmospherics of Dog Brush and Frugaloo – most assuredly best enjoyed on the dance floor. CPI
LISSIE *****
Live At Union Chapel (Lionboy)
This stripped back 13-song live record, recorded at the eerie Union Chapel in Islington last year, hits every possible high note it can. The simple production leaves the Midwestern American open to the elements and exposed all along, but the formidable vocal just keeps giving and giving. The album warrants a thumbs-up from start to finish: Daughters, a pro-feminist war cry, sounds brilliant, while a pretty raw cover of Joni Mitchell’s River hits the spot. OS
MANU DELAGO *****
Metromonk (Tru Thoughts)
An album consisting of the exploration of the emotive and dynamic limits of the Hang, a steel UFO-shaped instrument from Switzerland, all underpinned by live electronic manipulation, may sound a little worthy and a little dull. Yet Manu Delago, alongside Björk producer Matt Robertson, teases out eight tracks of beatific beauty that haunts and embraces the listener. Metromonk floats by and floats into your mind, body and soul. This is perfect music to work to, to bathe to, to get lost to. Totally hygge. SE
THE MEMBRANES ****
Inner Space/Outer Space (Louder Than War)
The Membranes came out of Blackpool at the height of punk. They survived the gloss and sheen of the 1980s and their noisy sound can be described as being a cross between The Birthday Party and Nirvana. Their rather spectacular recent album Dark Matter/Dark Energy is indeed ripe for remixing, and the standard of the remixes here is pretty damn high, with amongst others, Keith Levene (ex-PiL guitarist), Mark Lanegan, Killing Joke and The Pop Group all leaving their dirty mark. DN
MR HUW ****
Make Your Mind Down (Cae Gwyn)
Mr Huw’s fifth album is 35 minutes of catchy pop-rock beats. Songs are short – the longest being three minutes and 53 seconds – many similar in tone and tending to blend into each other. Thirteenth track Du is a very gentle number with a churchy feel. Not being able to speak a word of Welsh, I can only imagine what such titles as Raw Meat, Different Fat and Parts Of Our Bodies are about, though with enough repeat listenings I’m sure it won’t matter. LN
PALE ANGELS *****
Daydreaming Blues (Specialist Subject)
Pale Angels’ third LP continues Specialist Subject’s fine run of releases this year (Doe, Bangers) and provides the transatlantic collaboration between Ergs, Cut Ups and Arteries members with a chance to demonstrate their total mastery of their gritty, varied and raw take on post-punk. Reverb drenches the record, songs like Don’t Leave ricocheting around the cranium. Tendrils of melody cling to downbeat dirge Funeral, immediately followed by the clattering, Ramones-esque Loveless, demonstrating a sense of freedom to experiment beyond genre restrictions. HR
PETER DOHERTY ***
Hamburg Demonstrations (BMG/Clouds Hill)
A fairly self-explanatory title, as it happens – the whole album was recorded in Hamburg, Germany, where sometime Libertine Doherty always wanted to record, apparently. If you’re down with recording equipment, the 11-song LP was recorded using an eight-track 2” StuderA820 tape machine and mixed onto a quarter-inch Telefunken master machine. Quite a mouthful, but sounds cool. The poignant Hell To Pay At The Gates Of Hell, written in the wake of last November’s Paris attacks, should strike a chord. OS
SEX SWING *****
Sex Swing (The Quietus Phonographic Corporation)
Despite what its truly nauseating album artwork might make you think, Sex Swing does not evoke a slo-mo dousing in slug slime, expired jelly and baby spew. Rather, the primarily London-based band cook up a heavy, swaggering psychedelic nightmare via doomed-out guitars, blaring horns, swarming electronics and the zonged-out vox of ex-Dethscalator frontman Dan Chandler. Having only released one previous track, Sex Swing’s debut LP is better than even their live shows threatened: equal parts PiL, Terminal Cheesecake and Last Exit. NG
STANLEY BRINKS AND THE OLD TIME KANIKS ***
Vielles Caniques / Nouvelles Caniques (Fika)
Something like the 123rd album released by Stanley Brinks (aka Herman Dune), this double album again sees him joined by the Norwegian folk collective The Kaniks (albeit just with their fiddle and banjo). It’s filled with the European calypso sounds he’s made his own with a generous helping of bluegrass throughout. It’s laid back, like long summer days down by the river, and filled with stories about booze, life on the road, love and heartache. GT
SUN RA ****
Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection (Strut)
It would of course be wildly profligate to buy this merely for the song It’s Christmas Time!, which astral jazz geezer Sun Ra recorded with The Qualities in 1960, and put it on your Mixcloud of ‘weird and esoteric’ festive songs that most people will have either already heard or won’t care about. Because that would be ignoring the rest of the vast and beautiful output on Strut’s latest Ra collection, which spans three CDs, 65 songs and five decades. It careers from quasi-novelty fare and jaunty, agreeable piano-led stuff to category-atomising free jazz and righteous call-and-response stuff like 1982’s Nuclear War, one of the few singles here which sold (or were offered for sale) in any kind of number at the time. NG
VARIOUS ****
Action Time Vision (Cherry Red)
As ‘a punk fan’, it has been a quiet pleasure to studiously ignore all of the hogwash about punk rock’s so-called 40th anniversary – which, like the early months of the movement itself, mostly seems to have taken place in London. However, it’s also the hook for the latest Cherry Red genre box set, which opens with the first UK punk single – New Rose by The Damned – and follows that up with 110 more songs from the late-70s explosion.
It isn’t wholly obvious who Action Time Vision is aimed at: many of its selections, from New Rose to Stiff Little Fingers’ Suspect Device and Menace’s GLC are the kind of fare already licensed to a hundred budget CDs sold in Woolworths. Others, like The Jerks, O Level and Disco Zombies numbers, are legitimately obscure and/or worth hundreds if you have an original. For better or worse, the proportion of punk that was basically just scuffed-up pub rock is made clear, but if you’re ‘a punk fan’ and not a walking encyclopaedia you’ll probably fall in love with something on here. For this listener, it was The Flys, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias and (to my great surprise) Peter & The Test Tube Babies. NG
VARIOUS ARTISTS ***
Future Disco 10 (Future Disco)
Everything old is new again. Snacks has sampled a Love Committee hit from 1971 and there’s a wicked remix of Rhyze circa 1980. Hearing New Order with Kraak & Smaak (Ivar channelling the late, great Teddy Pendergrass) and Here Is Why’s Tonight (Adam Port edit). Excellent techno/funk. Divine disco diva Lapsley sounding like a seasoned pro at 20 on Operator. Pale Blue and Vimes also very good. Breakout stars: Franc Moody with orchestral- sounding house disco. So fresh and deee-lite-ful!! RLR
VARIOUS **
Speed Kills Volume VII (Music For Nations)
From 1985 to 1992, the Speed Kills compilation series showcased the freshest and most ferocious emerging talent from a worldwide thrash metal scene, giving a platform to the likes of Metallica and Slayer. With this reboot, those heights are now as distant a memory as Kerry King’s hair. Painfully dated, zero international flavour and an over-reliance on black metal, the only saving grace is the unexpected appearance of Acid Reign whose comeback is sublime. GT
WILLE AND THE BANDITS *****
Steal (Jigsaw)
Steal is a stunning album, full of solid beats and lilting guitar riffs that slip into your subconscious. Wille and the boys have got the balance right, vocals and music blend rather than compete for attention. Tracks such as Miles Away and the haunting Crossfire Memories are in no hurry, and even when the pace picks up the tone is still laid back. The Bandits are have taken blues rock, dusted it off and freshened it up. LN
A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN***
Iris (Erased Tapes)
Effective soundtracks straddle two camps – compilations of songs to play with the subtext of key scenes, with Tarantino being a marmite master, and those commissioned to accentuate the mood of the film, with Greenwood and Mansell the intelligent choice. Iris is AWVFTS’ addition to the latter, and their toil has produced a nice suite mixing the symphonic with pulsing electronica, but without the memory of the visuals to contextualise, there appears to be a lack of Woo Hoo or oil discovery moment. CS
YOUNG LEGIONNAIRE ****
Zero Worship (Superstar Destroyer)
Fresh music from a group consisting of former Yourcodenameis:milo frontman Paul Mullen and ex-Bloc Party bassist Gordon Moakes. Glued together by drummer Dean Pearson, this record is battling hard to be heard in a battlefield of noise. Anthemic lead single Disappear sounds goooood; a shout out against “the narrow, backward-thinking powers of corporatism, nationalism and fundamentalism.” Not all hell-for-leather, the lighter beat and tempo of Simone and the romantic cry of You And Me provide a slower but welcomed highlight. OS