Demob Happy

Dirty Projectors -Bitte Orca 8/10 FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Dirty Projectors are a band so singularly unconventional that I wondered how they had managed to gain so much popular attention – although their recent David Byre collaboration (the excellent ‘Knotty Pine’, from Red Hot’s much admired ‘Dark Was the Night‘ compilation) [...]

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BRAND NEU ! – Various artists 8/10 BRAND NEU! is a tribute to the influential German band (aka Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother) that brings together a respectable selection of artists inspired by the Krautrock innovators. There are one note chugging guitars and hypnotic motorik grooves aplenty in this beguiling compilation, which doesn’t suffer too [...]

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Four Tet – Ringer EP 7.5/10 I was once quite seasonally adjusted when it came to music. Spring and summer inspired me to listen to more notionally natural textures – let’s say alt-country, Americana or folk – while the onset of winter used to find me needing something more machine-driven. In recent years I’ve been [...]

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FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Album Review: Magik Markers – Balf Quarry 7/10 Magik Markers are the noise rock duo hailing from Hartford, Connecticut, comprising two core members in Elisa Ambrogio and Pete Nolan. ‘Balf Quarry’ is their first album on Drag City having previously released material on – among others – [...]

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Album Review: Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years 8.5/10 In a recent Pitchfork review Animal Collective declared that it must be “weird to be in a band with good musicians”, referring to the fact that they basically view themselves as electronic collagists than a band in the strict (i.e., formally trained) sense. It is [...]

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Album Review: Crystal Antlers – Tentacles 7/10 FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Among the many acts hyped in 2008 there was a proliferation of new bands called Crystal something. Crystal Castles, Crystal Stilts and Cystal Antlers all came out of the leftfield to get blog love last year. Having been totally confused [...]

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Album Review: Dark Was the Night: Red Hot Compilation – Various Artists 8/10 Most posts of Red Hot Organization’s ‘Dark Was the Night’ compilation begin with a summary dismissal of compilations in general, and particularly those in the name of charity. If such projects are as bad as people say, ‘Dark Was the Night’ – [...]

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Album Review: Richard Swift – Atlantic Ocean 8/10 Often compared to Harry Nilsson, Richard Swift shares the 60s maverick’s category-avoiding, highly melodic and eccentic brand of pop rock. Swift, who prefers the analogue four track production techniques of the Nilsson era, recorded ‘The Atlantic Ocean’ – his latest for Secretly Canadian – in Wilco’s loft [...]

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FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT 7/10 Synth pop is apparently making a big comeback in 2009, I say apparently because I don’t listen to the radio, watch TV or live in an English-speaking country, so it’s easy to shield myself from the probably excessive hype surrounding artists such as, say, Little Boots, [...]

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FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Whiter than white 5.5/10 Norwegian producer Erlend Øye could pass as a modern day Arthur Russell. He may not play the violin but he does have the curious distinction of being at once a popular house and electronica artist/DJ and one half of Simon and Garfunkel-esque folk [...]

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