Friday, September 07, 2007

Mac Review 15 & 16


O.T.W – Red Blood Shoes
A Harsh, in your face Brighton two piece with as much spunk to make it sound like a four piece, this is the wonderful yet quite deranged end of musical abandonment.
Their most recent single It’s Getting Boring By The Sea is more a statement than a tale of boredom by a seaside town that escaped being closed down, and yet if Pinkie and the gang still ran the show they would, you think be driven out by such passion, such thrall, such energy and such knack for a tune.

Brash, beautiful and with such charm Blood Red Shoes are such much more than the British White Stripes, not only is Laura-Mary Carter such rare beauty in the world of rock and roll, her talent alongside Ansell’s controlled yet reckless drumming producers a band far from just being there, as they say they want to be in a band, they want to make music, and it’s just a strange coincidence others have loved it too, no coincidence, not in the slightest.

On The Road/Off the Record – Glastonbury Part 2
So Saturday, and yet more rain fell which led to the missing of Cherry Ghost, and Ed Harcourt. Pete Docherty arrived as soon as the brief and slightly battered sunshine of the day, was god mocking us or is the now blonde haired Docherty the second coming, well Jesus had limited talent also. Maximo Park entertained the masses as I fled to see the delightful fox in wolves clothing, Patrick Wolf.

Dancing delightfully with the devil for 45 minutes, Wolf eclipses the nature of enjoyment and beauty with such innocence, maybe only 24, but age has matured around him and made him sense life’s battles and fight them face on, such the highlights from his most recent album The Magic Position are entwined with his previous brilliance, he still is understated, but surely he can’t be for long.

The Editors latest blandness is played out to its fullest, whilst the whispering of pear cider and the brilliant John Fogerty eclipse everything great and good. A wander to the techo dome and later musings along the path to the stone circle, Saturday ends with the path less travelled and the mud more sticky, roll on Billy, roll on MSP for Sunday was the finale of this fine fine festival.

Sunday was wet, quite wet, indeed so wet that the rain would allude into Monday, and end the festival on the lowest note possible. Ironically it started with Sunshine Underground , who were typical of many bands around. Gravenhurst followed for the second time in the weekend, when they muttered and muddled through a classic set of brilliance and bewilderment.

And so to Billy Bragg, you expect politics with Billy you also expect love and loss and Billy never let up, the heart strings were torn at, the new songs among his very best and all of this done on a borrowed acoustic guitar, sublime. So how to follow it with Ocean Spray, well not quite. The Manics knew the crowd, Nicky was sulking but after being spoilt to the hilt on the tour I expected little else, Imperial Body bags however is a tune, the best in years by MSP, however it could have been bettered with the inclusion of a little bit extra, maybe Masses, maybe a longer set. Who knows, the rest was The Who, the Chemical Brothers and a delightful and beautiful set by Gruff Rhys, that’s how it ended, the rain pelted down like the pity of a thousand souls, at least it didn’t flood I suppose.

Album of the Week

The Antlers – In the Attic of the Universe
The Antlers universe is cold, its murmurs of this and slight hesitations of that. As beautiful as it plays and as distinct as it sounds In the Attic of the Universe is the attempt at creating a meaningful sound, without a conclusion. It’s brilliant but it’s not. The tools have failed, but they failed after the job had been done, this isn’t a criticism its fact or is it. This may sound confused or a little too much of a ramble, sure Shh! holds the delicacy of childhood but is this actually going anywhere, maybe it’s the best album I’ll ever listen to, or maybe the worse, then again I’ve heard the recent Sum 41 one The Antlers, however are spot on, this is abstract and I’m undecided but I fall on the side of brilliance. 8/10

Single of the Week

Gravenhurst – Trust
Trust marks the return of singer songwriter Nick Talbot, taken from his forthcoming album The Western Lands. Lyrically its bitterness overshadows a tune which is probably his most commercial to date, then again when you make See My Friend a seven minute epic, any three minute song with a slight balance of the more subtle and chirper sound is always going to appear that way. Trust also stands out live, whilst most of the back catalogue apart from the Velvet Cell seem experiments in the human mind, Trust gages a more melancholy feeling and will possible appeal Talbot to the masses, well to a further audience at least. 9/10

My Vitriol - A Pyrrhic victory (Ep)
Fucking hell, new material from My Vitriol it suddenly came out of the blue. After what seems five years, it’s probably even more, and with Finelines forgotten in a distance how come this took so long. Well does it matter, My Vitriol are currently filling the gap left by the now dollar sucking cock rock Cooper Temple Clause had become, oh they’ve split, sadly probably for the best. War of the Worlds is a cold statement of intent, and Toy Soldiers has a revitalised feeling a victory of sorts, a victorious return. 9/10

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