Mr. Smth and Mr. Jones drink tea and discuss some new releases. Glue Mill - You And Me (Independent) www.gluemill.com / www.myspace.com/gluemill Mr. Smith: This is Glue Mill from New York. Their Myspace page describes ‘em as Rock / Indie / Punk. Mr Jones: Really? What the fuck does ‘indie’ mean these days, let alone ‘rock’ and ‘punk’. I reckon they’re a pop band, a rough as ol’ boots pop band - with tunes and hooks and everything else a pop band’s supposed to have. Mr. Smith: The vocals are ropey. Mr. Jones: Are they? They’re not smooth, but smooth vocals are usually bland. I like ‘em and the artwork is dandy. What is it? Looks like a screen print onto a jewel case. Mr Smith: The vocals sound a bit like Mick Jones. Mr. Jones: No relation. A lo-fi Big Audio Dynamite, with a crummy acoustic and a cheap synth. Mr. Smith: That’ll do. Hair Police - Certainty Of Swarms (No Fun Productions) www.nofunproductions.com Mr. Smith: What the... Mr. Jones: This is wild. Rock ‘n’ roll like the Stooges and Throbbing Gristle and This Heat all rolled up in one, but noisier, nastier, harder, insaner. Is that a word? Mr. Smith: It should be a word - we can let the spell-checker decide. It’s mainly just noise. Mr. Jones: Yes, yes, that’s the point, a glorious great noise, a rigid digit of a noise pointed directly at the insipid crock that passes as the mainstream. If this is the future where do I sign up. I want these lot at my wedding - teach the bastards there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Aren’t you thrilled the way the basslines and the electronics boom and fizz off each other? Mr. Smith: I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m already a convert. Check out that guitar squeal - turn it up loud enough and yours ears feedback and you’ll never appreciate the fancy bits on Virginia Astley records ever again. Mr. Jones: Sacrifice is important but that’s takin’ the piss. Obscured By Clouds - Psycheclectic (Independent) www.obscuredbyclouds.net Mr. Smith: Track 3, “Cast Close The Gate”, sounds like a tripped out Metallica. Mr. Jones: It does. It’s very riffy and pretty nippy, but with a trippy feel to it that works right. Most of the other tracks are far more trancey and progressive, in the traditional meaning of the word. It’s got a sleepy feeling to it. Is there a press sheet? Did they record it at maximum r.e.m.? Mr. Smith: I can’t see one (a press sheet) - probably best to assume that they were conscious, but probably shit-faced. Mr. Jones: Hopped up on Guinness and unhappy pills by the sound of it. They definitely own Floyd albums - thus the name - and they’re bitchin’ about something. Everything, probably. Mr. Smith: Dark shit. Mr. Jones: That’ll be the Guinness. Terakaft - Akh Issudar (IRL) www.independentrecordsltd.com Mr. Jones: A couple of these chaps used to be in Tinariwen and they made their live debut at the 2007 Festival In The Desert. Why can’t we have a Festival In The Desert? In Leicester? Mr. Smith: A desert festival suggests, at the very minimum, a couple of months without rain. Seeing as Summer Sundae can’t arrange three days, I don’t think there’s much chance of desert conditions arising anytime soon. Mr. Jones: Global warming promised so much... Mr. Smith: Indeed. It’s interesting that bands like Tinariwen, Etran Finatawa and now Terakaft are all finding an audience in the West while, at the same time, extreme Islam has declared war on the rest of the world and the popular media are doing their best to vilify everything Muslim. It’s like these bands have somehow transcended the world’s problems to build music careers. Mr. Jones: But they’ve not emerged from a void. Ali Farka Toure and his followers pioneered the desert blues sound that all these bands are utilising. Though it’s the psychedelic drones that appeal to me the most. That and the VU rhythmic loops that re-occur. Mr. Smith: So it’s nothing more than Western rock at its core, with an exotic sheen. I’m sure it’s more than that. It’s got to be more than just reminding people of stuff they already know and love. Mr. Jones: It’s likely that these bands are influenced by Muddy Waters, Velvets, Hawkwind, or whatever, and they’re mixing up all these sounds with their own indigenous music. None of them seem adverse to playing electric guitars. I do like what they’re doing a lot, though I don’t think it needs to be filed in the “world music” rack and I don’t think it matters, anyway. Everything, Now! - Spatially Severed (MFT) www.everythingnowmusic.com Mr. Smith: More psychedelia... but much poppier. The Flaming Lips are an easy reference point. Mr. Jones: Where are they from? Mr. Smith: Indianapolis. Mr. Jones: They sound like they could have come out of Liverpool in the ‘80s with the Teardrops and Wah! They’ve got that life affirming quality that those bands had. Psychedelic, but with lots of big pop themes, and rooted in the ‘60s like nearly every Liverpool pop band. Mr. Smith: I’ve definitely heard it all before, but they pull it off well. They’ve got some top song titles, too. Mr. Jones: I assume you’re referring to “The Hairy Ears of Soul Captain Serpentine”, “Save a Life with Diet Chocolate Sprite”, “In Heaven Smoking Trees”, etc. Am I right in thinking that their singer’s got a bit of the Scissor Sisters yelp going on with his voice - on their Myspace page it says he’s called Ali Baba... Mr. Smith: Magic! Mr. Jones: BOOM BOOM!... Hold on... when did I become your straight man? Next