Review Ratings: A Rant

The other night I spent an hour adding some of my records to Rate Your Music (http://rateyourmusic.com) and dutifully grading them before suddenly thinking “what the hell am I doing wasting time like this?”
It got me thinking again, though, about that age old chestnut (and a bugbear of mine since I began to read the [...]

Album: SUSUMU YOKOTA - Love Or Die (Lo Recordings LCD66 2008)

Electronic composer Susumu Yokota has always been something of an enigma. During the late nineties and the first few years of this century he had a dual career as a producer of down-to-earth, functional, dancefloor oriented techno, and also of neo-classical, experimental, ambient works. Curiously it was the more left field material that garnered the most [...]

Song of the day: FRANCOISE HARDY - Mon Amie La Rose (1964)

Simply one of the most gorgeous songs by the undisputed queen of the yeh-yeh girls.
Natacha Atlas did a fine version a few years back too.

Album: MARK NORTHFIELD - Ascendant (Substantive STAVECD1 2008)

Mark Northfield is a pianist and composer and occasional singer. Ascendant, his debut CD, is a collection of collaborations with guest singers, arranged predominantly for piano with additional colour provided by strings and occasional saxophone, guitar and drums. Its mood is resolutely of late night melancholy, at times touching on Chet Baker-like smooth jazz, classical [...]

Album: NEMETH - Film (Thrill Jockey THRILL194 2008)

Film is the work of Stefan Németh, one third of Austrian experimental electronic/rock act Radian. It’s a collection of half a dozen instrumental pieces that merrily crash through genre boundaries at will. All were composed originally to accompany short films or visual art installations. Opener “Via L4-Norte” is a fairly light and airy piece that [...]

Album: THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND - 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons (Constellation CST051 2008)

Wasn’t there supposed to be a live album coming out? I don’t know what happened to that, but Silver Mt Zion are back with a new studio set, this time rejoicing as Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band (as they were on Horses In The Sky).
Tracks one to twelve zoom past in [...]

Mikey Dread 1954-2008

Mikey Dread (Michael Campbell) died yesterday, March 15th, at his home in Connecticut. He’d been diagnosed with a brain tumour last October and it was that which killed him.
He started out as an engineer at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, graduating to his own show before quitting to go into music full time. He’s probably best [...]

Album: ALOG - Amateur (Rune Grammofon RCD2063 2007)

This is something that’s been awaiting a review for ages. It’s just on each play, it left a completely blank impression. Not good, not bad just blank.
Norwegian duo Alog are a kind of garden shed hobbyist version of Supersilent. Improvisation is coupled with modified or home-made instruments. On their previous Rune Grammofon album Miniatures, this [...]