Friday 13 August 2010

Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante



"Lupus Pilum Mutat, Non Mentem" – The wolf may change its fur, but not its nature.

With an opening gambit on 'Troublemaker' featuring a dead language proverb and a decidedly 'prog' album based around the concept of standing up for your beliefs and learning from history 'I, Vigilante' may already be dividing opinion as you read this. But hold your ferrum (horses), this isn't some clever, clever band lording it over the plebs. Well I can't be certain, but the album itself doesn't give out a condescending vibe.

Instead you just get a flowing, almost wistful, ride around a combination of beauty and nostalgia, perhaps tinged in places with regret – hear their peon to WWII 'Bostogne Blues' and I defy you not to hear echoes of GY!BE's 'Dead Flag Blues', another track of epic sadness and melancholy.

'I, Vigilante' is difficult for the right reasons I guess. It's not a series of easy to dismiss songs and you can't 'dip into it' easily. The very notion of listening to something from start to finish is perhaps anathema, but if your not of that opinion there's a rewarding listen here and you get the impression a CBP live show would be scintillating stuff.

www.myspace.com/crippledblackphoenix
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

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Wednesday 11 August 2010

DD/MM/YYYY - Black Square



DD/MM/YYYY (that's Date Month Year, pronunciation fans) are a spunky, punky mix of all and no styles at the same time. Verging on the musically shambolic at times but maintaining a vice like grip on core beats, the chaos at the heart of Black Square is best summed up in the No Age blitz which is 'No Life', the mad jerk of 'Sirius' or frankly insane 'Lismer'.

Combining math and experimental rock with glitch core, spazzcore and generally grinding everything to hand into a two or three minute burst of occasionally painful Crystal Castle cast-offs, the bulk of the songs here are urgent workouts which belie the musical dexterity the group clearly possesses.

As a testament to the versatility they switch the pacing and drama around over the course of their thirty five minutes. It's not all blistering, heads down charging at the listener in contempt for the usual conventions. Subtler tunes like the coolly reflective 'They' and the Grizzly Bear gone berserk, jazz-referencing 'Birdtown' demonstrate their willingness to try something different, not that the other tracks are too normal in the first place.

Black Square is a genuinely mixed bag and deliberately so, but that automatically means DD/MM/YYYY's debut won't be everyone's cup of curdled milk.

www.myspace.com/ddmmyyyy
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

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Tuesday 3 August 2010

Cours Lapin - S/T Album



As a music reviewer it's sometimes easiest to stick within familiar parameters when assessing the merits of a bands musical output for fear of getting the judgement horribly wrong, offending those 'in the know', or not grasping the scope of the intent and giving the band, the album and mostly your own ignorance what for with both damn barrels. In the face!

But hell it's worth the risk to step outside the comfort zone and breathe in the heady delights of the vast musical landscape where you’ll discover Cours Lapin (Rabbit Run) and their self-titled album.

On paper it sounds like a conceit too far, four Danish film composers conspire to write a timeless album of French songs that could well be a lost soundtrack from New Wave cinema or David Lynch depending on the song playing at any particular point.

French being a rudimentary skill for me, there's limited grasp of the content they're singing about, but that genuinely doesn’t matter as you sit back and absorb the otherworldly visions and theatrical nuances their music conjures up.

Understanding little is a bonus as the mind wanders to fill in the blanks. This is a beautifully gloomy album worthy of your time.

www.myspace.com/courslapin
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

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