March 2007 Stuart D’Rozario - Songs About Now (Self Released) In a world where there’s no shortage of singer-songwriters releasing their own albums, the ones that have mastered their craft and repeatedly hit their targets should be cherished. So it is with Minneapolis native Stuart D’Rozario, who’s debut is something of a breath of fresh air in a genre choked by halitosis and chronic muffin cuttin’. His songs and solid style recall the masters of the genre, circa early / mid ‘70s, and his voice rings out beautifully clearly throughout. Apart from the album being just a little on the brief side, and a misstep right at the end, I’m happy to recommend this record to anyone partial to classic James Taylor, Paul Simon, etc. www.songsaboutnow.net Rob F. M Scott Horn - Fake As The Blue (Independent) This is an album of four well-written acoustic blues originals and five covers, including Robert Johnson’s ‘32-20 Blues’ and Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’. M Scott Horn has an unhurried guitar style and a throaty, whispery singing voice that gives a sound that is at the same time laid back and intimate. Track 8 - West Coast Clues - is quite different from the rest, an up-beat ragtime instrumental reminiscent of the great John James. This is an album of quiet authority, understated and unpretentious. It doesn’t shout at you, it asks (politely) to be listened to. And it rewards the attention. www.mscotthorn.com Paul C. Solyoni - The Princess Market (Velvet Fallopian Tube) Post-folk-pop is alive and squirming in Seattle’s Solyoni. Any band who can pay homage to the Hell’s Hairdryers in ‘The Moped Song’ get my vote. Solyoni are that kind of ‘first on the bill’ band who stick in your memory long after you’ve forgotten the main act. Quirky and compelling, this skewed pop meandering demands a few listens. A Plan B abstract. A story in every tune. As the band say, ‘even in a world scarred with apocalyptic portents, drifting in the rosy glow of Hell’s Gate, someone still needs to drive the ice-cream truck’. www.solyoni.com Carl J. Love By Design - Let The Outside In (Twin Community) It might never be fashionable but done right, as it is here, power pop, that much derided of genres can often be as thrilling and life affirming as any. The legions of Fountains Of Wayne fans for starters ought to find Love By Design kindred spirits. Punchy, catchy, tightly arranged and produced, with hooks aplenty, ‘Let The Outside In’ deserves to see Love by Design’s stock firmly in the ascendant. When front man and principal songwriter Brandon Trca proclaims ‘I’m A Specialist’, the album’s opening cut, I predict few rebuttals. And excellent debut and extra points for the great artwork too. www.lovebydesignmusic.com Geraint J. Breadfoot - S/T (Holden Records) This is an album of American folk guitar, without vocals or accompaniment. Breadfoot is a guitarist who lives in New York and writes his own tunes (which he calls songs). It is an album for aficionados. It sounds great at first, but before long every track sounds the same. Two or three of the tunes, interspersed on a more mainstream album would sound great, but one after the other they just become tedious. The final track is recorded live. It includes dull banter and fiddle accompaniment. www.breadfoot.com Paul C. The Spaceage Polymers - Invasive Species (Self Released) This music is beautiful, check ‘Vibrations’ and ‘Beautiful Blue World’. A twelve track neo-psychedelic trip with all sorts of instruments. The sound is distinguished, with great song writing and vocals. It’s full of whimsy like the first two Pink Floyd albums, and reminds me of later groups - Steppes and Plasticland. It’s enthralling and hypnotic: dreamy pop hooks, backward tape loops, spacey noises or harmonising. The harmonies are similar to Sons of Champlin; listen to ‘Sleepy Angel’. Fans of Free City Media and the departed Delirium, Woronzow and Ear Worm labels will love it. A neo-psyche gem from 2006. Recommended. www.thespaceagepolymers.com Terry W. (Neo-Realist Reviewer) The Kamikaze Hearts - Oneida Road (Tangled Up!) Nodding respectfully to both Jay Farrar and Michael Stipe as they overtake on the outside, The Kamikaze Hearts seem well placed for ‘next big thing’ status in the indie folk / alt. country stakes. Certainly a UK label helps - Tangled Up appears to be part of the well respected One Little Indian media empire - and this fine debut should speed matters along. Oneida Road does just about everything right. The ghost of Son Volt is roused on ‘Ash Wednesday’ and equally so on ‘No One called You A Failure’ and while they don’t appear to display the lightness of touch of a Mark Olson, or Ryan Adams at his early peak, they do manage to instil the timelessness into their sound that only the very best of their chosen genre exhibit. A deft achievement, all round. www.kamikazehearts.com Rob F. Ira Ingber - Here Is Where (Colonel Muscletone) With a musical history which includes leading bands for Bob Dylan, writing and recording with Captain Beefheart, and a list of credits which include paid employment with everyone from Canned Heat to Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks, it’s no real surprise that it’s taken Ingber over 30 years to release his debut solo album. Phew, so lucky it’s a good one. There’s a barb to Ingber’s voice which is instantly appealing and has gained a number of comparisons to Peter Gabriel, though the overall approach to ‘Here Is Where’ is unsurprisingly rooted deep in the classic FM rock and pop of 1970’s USA. Think the grown-up, brainier end of the spectrum - Steely Dan, Todd Rundgren, etc. - and you won’t go far wrong. There’s maybe a shortage of instant thrills on ‘Here Is Where’, but if you’re in for the long haul, there’s much to be gained and ultimately enjoyed. www.iraingber.com Rob F. Katy Bowser - All of My Friends (Independent) This is actually a duo, Katy Bowser singing and Kenny Hutson playing guitar, mandolin and pedal steel guitar. The record is presented in a brown paper bag, folded up and sealed with a blob of sealing wax (or ceiling wax as I used to call it). There are only six tracks. Both the artwork and the music are in the American 1920s style. Katy Bowser has a gentle, little girl voice, that could easily be described as delightful, and the whole thing is self-consciously old fashioned. The love she sings about is clearly unconsummated, and when she isn’t singing about love she sings about Jesus. If you were being negative you could say that the songs, like the packaging, are twee. But actually I like it a lot; I would say it has charm. www.katybowser.com Paul C. Montana - Starsign: Tarantula (Lojinx) Catch this jewel from Sydney band Montana. Lead singer, Paul Scott describes the band’s sound as ‘Supergrass meets Brendan Benson on holiday in Montana with jangly guitars’. Like the ‘Grass, they are tight and melodic. Like a holiday in Montana they are a breath of fresh air. There’s a polish to this album that shines through in tracks like ‘Rejected’ and the catchy ‘MTV’. Five new songs are tagged on to the European release of the album and ‘Wide Eyed Boy’ provides one of the highlights. The band has featured on Channel Five’s Tripping Over and, whatever they say in their song, the MTV rotation must come soon. www.lojinx.com Carl J. Various Artists - Innature (Barge Recordings) Innature is an absorbing compilation of mixed acoustic and electronic, mainly instrumental, works (The Kallikak Family and Bird Show inclusions being the exceptions). The filmic compositions inhabit territories of the natural and supernatural world with soundscapes ranging from the organic to the visceral to the surreal, via darkness and moments of enlightenment. A loose thread is present in the use of minimal, drone and repetitive forms - where less, in terms of melody, certainly is more. Animal Hospital’s ‘Late Summertime’ provides the most industrial moments with heavy, layered guitar drone whilst Tim Hecker’s laptronic wall of sound with it’s light pulsing rhythms in ‘Dungeoneering’ is totally transcending. Loren Connors and MGR put balance to these with their inspired, guitar led melancholy. The other artists: Circle, The Fun Years, Geoff Mullen and Polmo Polpo equally contribute to make the collection a whole. The film to accompany this soundtrack really does need to be made! www.bargerecordings.com Will F. Paul Mark and The Van Dorens - Trick Fiction (Radiation Records) This is a great album, original blues songs sung with a great blues voice (and pretty good guitar, keyboard and backing vocals). The band are based in New York City, and they’ve been playing and recording for some time. This album shows they know their stuff. Witty, innovative songs delivered in an accomplished and relaxed style. Songs of the joys, troubles and stupidities of life - fake preachers, multinationals, change-your-life tv, marriage, dread. The sleeve notes say that Paul Mark endorses no products of any kind. I endorse this product. www.paulmark.com Paul C. Hello Stranger - S/T (Aeronaut) I hate eponymous album titles. Hello stranger? Fuck off you lazy twats, more like. A great girl singer does not make a great band. Juliet Commagere belts them out and sweetly trills with a commendable purity. The band hang around with her, capable and slick. But they are blokes with beards. One of them wears a trilby. Get the picture? The album is produced by Ry Cooder, whose son, Joachim, plays drums. So, there’s a hint of class about the project, even if there’s little soul. They’ll be a good night out in California for a while before Commagere tries to make it on her own. www.hellostranger.tv Carl J. Organic Flood - The Source (Self Released) Coming to a field near you, Organic Flood sound like the consummate festival band: upbeat, free-flowing, dance-friendly, ego-neutral and musically, both open-minded and very accomplished. So, does music for sunny days and open spaces translate to mid-February and an office stereo? The answer’s a resounding ‘yes’ - ‘You Are The Source’ bursts out of the blocks like the bastard love child of Carlos Santana and the Fugees, ‘Kid Again’ is Bob Weir fronted, funked-up Dead circa 1970 and ‘Testimony’ brings it altogether into one hippie-friendly, spidery and stretchy, smiley soul stew. File under ‘groovey’ for easy access. www.organicflood.com Rob F. Phantom Blues Band - Out of The Shadows (Delta Groove Productions) The Phantom Blues Band are a seven-piece, five of whom played with Taj Mahal on the excellent live album, ‘Shoutin’ In Key’. The band members all have immaculate cv’s, going back many years. In fact they are all middle aged and comfortable, and it shows on this album. The vocals are shared by three different lead singers. Taj says this is a great record and it’s exciting to see these guys launch their own boat. Personally, I’m not sure. Without a leader, the band lacks identity. It’s not easy for a backing band to step out of the shadows and establish themselves as a force in their own right. Genesis might have managed it, but look what happened to The Glitter Band. www.phantombluesband.com Paul C. Phillip Walker - Going Back Home (Delta Groove Productions) This is a back to the roots album. Phillip Walker has been around a long time, and is acknowledged as an influence by Robert Cray. The album has 13 tracks, mainly covers but with three songs written by the album’s producer, Randy Chortkoff. The covers include songs by Ray Charles, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lowell Fulson and Percy Mayfield. This is a good, solid, unpretentious, keep-it-simple album of 12 bar blues played by people who know what they’re doing. Lead guitar, harp, piano and rhythm guitar play off each nicely. The voice sometimes sounds a bit elderly, but full of character. www.deltagrooveproductions.com Paul C. The Jigsaw Seen - My Name is Tom (Vibro-Phonic) Originally released in 1991, this reissue, with extra tracks, comes as a welcome gift for fans of psychedelic guitar pop. The title track is a noodling extravaganza of swirling riffs and tripped out layers of sound. While it remains the highlight of the set, and you may have heard it on the Rhino ‘Children of Nuggets’ compilation, there are some other powerful songs, including the folky ‘Black Agie’ and the super foot–tapper ‘Daily Planet’. Don’t let the track ‘Eight Lancashire Lads’ fool you, this is the sound of L.A., the sound of Americans dreaming. www.vibro-phonic.com Carl J. Sunny Sweeney - Heartbreaker’s Hall Of Fame (Self Released) Surprisingly self released, on the basis of ‘Heartbreaker’s Hall Of Fame’, Sunny Sweeney’s debut set, she ought to be deluged by label offers. Backed up by a hotter than hot band, despite being a debutante, Sweeney has the honky tonk pipes to lead the impressive proceedings from the front with outstanding confidence. It’s hard to believe she started out as an improv comedian - but if she’s only half as funny as she is astonishing a vocalist then a long and impressive career surely beckons. With no less than Jim Lauderdale guesting on the Keith Sykes penned ‘Lavender Blue’ it’s already clear she’s impressing artists of note even if key labels are somewhat slower on the uptake. Fiercely independent and about a million times more exciting than most of what Nashville currently has to offer; Sweeney’s mighty fine debut demands your attention. www.sunnysweeney.com Geraint J. Liz Albee - Quarry Tones (Resipiscent) The packaging pouch is unusual! 1st track sounds like someone trying to say ‘Old Timer’ wearing a gum shield, for 20 seconds. Track 2 sounds like something being sick to the amplified noise of insects. 3rd is jungle rhythms and whispery voices, Ace Ventura style! 4, the trumpet comes in over a monotonous beat - a little Bill Wells(ish). Track 5 tickles each ear and has some intriguing vocals. 6: the siren warns a raid of squeaky bicycles; a noise that goes ‘oooor-a-bantam’ repeatedly; goes all ghostly, then an oncoming train and a sad trumpet closes - a long track. Number 7 - trumpet and rumble. 8: Hovis trumpet, Hawkwind like effects and a vulgar rendering of Moon River! 9: rhythmic roadwork's with some ‘ooh ahhs’ and a jungle tom tom finale. Not for me - Don’t think these Quarrymen (and woman) will become Beatles. Kafkaesque quote. www.resipiscent.com Terry W. (Neo-Realist Reviewer) Triple Chicken Foot - Meeting in the Air (Independent) This is an album of 14 traditional American folk songs, with fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and upright bass, recorded live around a single microphone. There are some rattlin’ good tunes. The voices sound far away and the fiddle is scratchy. The singing is in the style of the Carter Family, who TCF acknowledge as one of their influences. The Carters famously sang about religion, sobriety and decency, but this album is somewhat more varied. While there are songs about salvation, damnation, redemption and the terrible consequences of drink, there are others about murder, furtive dancing and the ownership of a rabbit. Brings a smile. www.myspace.com/triplechickenfoot Paul C. The Naomi Star - Sunshine Girl (Pleiades) It’s apt that The Naomi Star, risen from the ashes of acclaimed combo Hannah Cranna, cover a Beatles track on this fine album. They aspire to the chiming magnificence of ‘Paperback Writer’ and they take you on a voyage of delicious discovery as they explore the hooks and crannies of the fab four, The Posies and various other power pop influences. There are rays of luminous imagery in the writing, with ‘Sunshine Girl’, ‘Hazy Sunshine’ and ‘Enlighten’ giving a summer - breezed balm to ease through the darkest of hours. Finely crafted songs and catchy melodies make this my feel-good hit of the winter. www.thenaomistar.com Carl J. Blue Cartoon - September Songs (Aardvark Records) For their 4th release, Austin’s Blue Cartoon move a safe distance away from their trademark guitar-pop sound for something a touch folkier, a trifle more sophisticated and, dare we say, a little more Californian. Guitarists and songwriters Jeff Tracy and Lee Elliott are both native to the Golden State, so perhaps it doesn’t come as a great surprise, but what does startle on first listen is quite how they’ve nailed the harmony-rich Laurel Canyon sounds of their youth. Despite this new complexity, they retain their instant charm and invest ‘Just A Little More’, ‘She Comes In Threes’ and ‘She’s A God’ with an infectious, effortless, sunshine buzz. www.aardvarkrecords.com Rob F. Death By A Thousand Cuts - S/T (Dynamosound) Its winter, midday an rainin, you’re sittin downstairs on a double decker bus, second seat on the left. Gettin into the droney dynamo vibe of the windscreen wipers. An old lady with long grey hair all pinned up sits down in front of you. You smell something lousy and think she maybe wearin a colostomy bag and goin to the toilet right now! You swiftly move upstairs. The bus travels too near to some bare trees; the branches beat an scrape against the windows. There are occasional snatches of conversation from someone on a mobile phone. You dig? Like a Suicide record but, without Alan Vega. Tommy Blast an Tara Struck is Death By A Thousand Cuts. Wow 43 minutes of Loopzilla! Nice packaging and all ten track titles are cool. I’m keeping my copy. www.freewebs.com/dynamosound Terry W. (Neo-Realist Reviewer) Table Nine - Everything I Thought I Knew (Self Released) The third album from Table Nine sees them moving their feast from the greasy spoon to the swanky caff. Tight harmonies and subtle arrangements allow their acutely observed lyrics to offer more than the lazy ‘folk’ tag they’ve been saddled with. This is quality songwriting of depth and intelligence. Live favourites ‘Thoroughly OK’ and ‘Thursday’ finally find themselves on a CD, where they meet their new friends ‘Old Friends’ and ‘We All Go A Little Mad Sometmes’. If you value simple fare, check out Table Nine. www.tablenine.net Carl J. Twang Dragons - Love Junkie (Independent) Twang Dragons are a four piece country rock band from Milwaukee. This album has 13 original songs, mostly written by the guitarist, Tommy Dixon, and sung by Lisa Hannon. The songs are clever and well crafted, many of then tongue-in-cheek - ‘Cliché’, about country music lyrics and lifestyles; ‘Downsize’, about a relationship break up, told in business-speak. But there are also some sad songs, and these are particularly effective. ‘Born With Wings’, about the death of a child, feels strongly like it’s about a real event, which is quite chilling. By the time you’ve got through it you need to get back to the twangy stuff. www.twangdragons.com Paul C. Travis Hopper - All The Lights In The City Tonight (Self Released) A deceptively appealing record that kind of passed me by, albeit pleasantly enough, on its first airing, subsequent listens reveal Travis Hopper to be quite an accomplished songsmith. Produced by Salim Nourallah (Nourallah Brothers, Happiness Factor) ‘All The Lights In The City Tonight’ is a tightly played, engaging set of high quality roots pop. With an occasionally hushed quality to his voice, Travis Hopper’s opening 10 song salvo conjures memories of early Freedy Johnston and perhaps Josh Rouse at times and though not vocally, ‘Can’t Tell You Why’ in almost every other respect is very reminiscent of early Elvis Costello And The Attractions. A very promising start from another fresh talent, well worth keeping an eye on, a few more of this calibre and Hopper would deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as such esteemed company much more often. www.travishopper.com Geraint J.