Halloween, Alaska - Halloween, Alaska - ESD81742

If you’ve steered clear of anything that might be described as “downtempo” on the grounds that such music is, well, vacuous, and only fit for aural wallpaper and car adverts, then you should try this. It’s definitely downtempo with content and there’s even a version of Springsteen’s State Trooper. Yes, it has real songs, with lyrics, and it’s one of the most successful blends of electronica and traditional rock/pop that I‘ve heard. You can’t hear the seams.

I was a bit wary when 50quid Bloke said how lovely it was, but he was right, even down to the three bonus re-mixes. I got it from Noside. It was only US$12 and some kind person in Minnesota sent it all the way to Sandy Beach in five days flat. Hard to beat.

The Stands - All Years Leaving - ECHCD50

The Stands are a bit of an enigma. At least they are to me but maybe not to anyone who reads the music press regularly. My understanding is that they're British and they sound eerily like Bob Dylan when he was just a lad. I have listened to (and enjoyed) a lot of Dylan in my time but frankly I never thought anyone would bother to go to trouble of recreating his sound when he did it originally so well or so badly, depending on your taste.

I can only think that one afternoon when The Stands were teenagers and bored, they raided their dads' record collection for the purpose of poking fun, found his Dylan LP's and though it would be a jolly good idea to revive the old snarler. Oddly, it works. They're not Dylan, of course, but they've got a great way with melody and, like Dylan, can create an atmosphere with just a couple of phrases. And there's a new album out shortly so catch up with this now.

The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree - CAD 2058 CD

Eleven albums in, John Darnielle and his fellow Goats just continue to get better. Produced by indie underground icon John Vanderslice, The Sunset Tree is the Mountain Goats’ most personal, most poppy at times, most beautiful and most affecting recording since their inception.

The music however, takes equal precedent with the lyrics this time, with the content mainly centered around stories of Darnielle’s abusive step father, and his upbringing. But it doesn't bog down the music at all, and the each song has the same clear infectious presentation and addictiveness that's been present since 2002's Tallahassee. There is much more instrumentation this time around too; gone are the days of one acoustic guitar and one voice, which this time touches shoulders with cellos and pianos. Also, Peter Hughes' fearsome bass work really comes forward in Broom People, one of many highlights.

All in all, the Mountain Goats don’t know how to make bad records, and this could be their best. Another gem for fans, another great starter for the uninitiated. Job well done lads, again.

DJ Shadow - The Private Press - MCA - 112937

While Private Press may not upon first listening have the immediacy of his first outing (1996’s Entroducing), within a few listens it becomes clear that Shadow’s lost none of his ingenuity and that this album can compete on an equally high footing.

The album is very difficult to summarise even after a few outings to your CD draw (…or turntable, or i-pod, even possibly your mobile phone these days). Anyway I’m digressing. There are those tracks that are more beat driven & stand out catchy (Walkie Talkie, Right Thing/GDMFSOB), and then there are those that highlight Shadow’s extraordinary ability to meld melodies & harmonies into some of the most tuneful and enjoyable tracks this genre will ever produce (Mongrel Meets His Maker, Giving Up the Ghost, and You Can’t Go Home Again).

But what all the tracks feature is an intricately constructed melody that not only rivals Entroducing’s tracks, but updates Shadow’s sound and embarrasses the soulless rubbish that fills most record stores shelves.

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan - XLCD191

You can joke all you like about Meg White's drumming style resembling cabbages being dropped on to dustbin lids, but that's just another way of saying that she and Jack keep things simple. They haven't changed that approach on this album and it also has the retro sound and energy of previous albums. So does this one sound just the same?

Well no, every track is recognisably by The White Stripes but there's variety, a lot more piano and change of pace. It's a confident step forward, borne out by the news from my mates in Diverse Vinyl that they're going back into the studio to play the whole thing through live for a vinyl recording. How's that for nerve?

Jimmy Dawkins - West Side Guitar Hero;Tell Me Baby - Fedora 5022; 5032

Dawkins was the last great Mississippi bluesman to emerge in Chicago in the late 1950s. He was mentored by Magic Sam and was ready by the late 1960s. By that time, however, there wasn’t much left of the Chicago blues recording industry. He recorded three great LPs for Delmark over the next seven or so years, then his work fell off and became pretty uninteresting, apparently until the 1990s.

In 2001 and 2003 he recorded for HighNote’s blues label, Fedora, and is clearly back on form. Tell Me Baby isn’t quite as good as West Side Guitar Hero, but the difference is pretty marginal. Both albums are blinders. For a guitar hero, you’d expect Dawkins to play blazing fast runs, following the title of his first LP, Fastfingers, but he doesn’t. Unlike most bluesmen, he tends to solo in the lower registers. This, and the ponderous lines he plays, gives him a grinding, grating sound which is unlike that of any other blues guitarist.

Oh yes, the titles of his songs must be spelt by his grandson, who dances on Tell Me Baby. Wess Cide Rock is my favourite spelling, but Shee Leff Me and So Wurrid and Kotten Field Jump (the latter two of which his grandson did actually write) are nice, too - AM

Oi Va Voi - Laughter through Tears - CASTE29CD

This was released in late 2003 but I've only just caught up with it - and am very glad i have. They are a north London Indie band who combine traditional jewish and east european overtones with dance rhythms, flamenco, trumpet, melodica, and a lot more. The result is unique, close to indefinable (or maybe it's just the hour) and pretty special. Urban, folk, klezmer, jazz all stirred together into an enticing mix. K.T. Tunstall provides guest vocals on a couple of tracks. Try it and see.

Burning Spear - Freeman - 5046729742

This was issued in 2003 and, according to his website, it’s the latest album of new material from one of reggae’s most enduring stars. Perhaps he owes his longevity in the business to his approach which, even by Jamaican standards, you have to say is, well, relaxed, with some splendidly simple songs. At least, the overall effect is one of simplicity but a more attentive listen soon brings out the wonderful phrase-end flourishes that lift the melody and keep the whole thing moving.

If repeated references to Marcus Garvey and Haile Salassie irritate you, then you’re probably not a reggae fan anyway but there’s a fair dose of righteous consciousness on this album which may deter some. I suppose that’s a bit like complaining about a blues album which bangs on about women doing men wrong. It’s effortlessly good.

UNKLE - Never, Never Land - Island/Mo Wax - 986 554-3

Minus DJ Shadow, this is the second outing of James Lavelle’s orchestrated trip-hop behemoth, UNKLE. Never, Never Land is an album with a vastly different outlook to its predecessor, 1998’s Psyence Fiction. Gone is the ‘Shadowesque’ eccentricity so apparent in UNKLE’s first outing, instead replaced with a far greater focus on melody.

The guest appearances are still present, although their input serves to aid the album’s cohesion as oppose to undermining it. Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), 3D (Massive Attack), and Ian Brown all make worthwhile contributions which maintain the standard of quality you might associate with such artists.

If you were seeking for a soundtrack to set a dark, provocative, and occasionally awe-inspiring film to, this would be it. It has tracks for establishing the equilibrium, disrupting it, subverting it, and establishing a new one, and makes Never, Never Land an album immense in stature.

Robert Plant and Strange Sensation - Mighty Rearranger SANCD356

I've resisted reviewing this as it's been given so much coverage in the press and, frankly, I'm taking a little heat for it among some acquaintances. However it's rarely out of the CD player at the moment. As my neighbour said, it's what Led Zeppelin would sound like now if they were still together and doing great things. And what you think of that should determine whether you listen to it or not. A lot of rhythm, eastern promise, relentless drive...Another Tribe and the title track are among the best in my view. The Guardian review said in his heyday he was not so much a frontman, more a singing erection. He's looking a little droopy these days, but the voice still has it...

(By the way my neighbours work colleague's sister is married to the guitarist. My but it's a small world ...)

Cover Me

I've more than occasionally referred to my penchant for cover versions on here (and I feel been in receipt of some silent derision for it - but then I'm professionally paranoid!) However in the hope of yet making converts I should alert you to Coverville a weekly podcast from the states which unearths some great re-interpretations and shines new light on the old and familiar. Go on, give it a try....

If this site ever gathers momentum, a podcast is the next obvious step. We could circumnavigate the globe...

James Brown - Black Caesar Soundtrack - Polydor 517135; Bernard Purdie - Lialeh Soundtrack - Lita 003

I don’t often buy soundtracks, but I can understand why people buy albums like The Sound of Music or The Benny Goodman Story in enormous quantities. (Perhaps RL might put in a good word for Lift to the Scaffold - see Comments). I’ve had two soundtracks of early 1970s Blaxploitation films for decades; The Final Comedown by Grant Green and The Dynamite Brothers by Charles Earland. Last year, I bought two more, doubling my soundtrack collection.

Much of Black Caesar, from 1974, was written and arranged by Fred Wesley, and much of the music clearly relates to the presumed plot; tracks like Paying The Cost to be The Boss and Down and Out in New York City have obvious connections. Other tracks are less plot-related but do stand up without the film; in particular Brown’s new take on Memphis Slim’s Messin’ with the Blues (which he had already recorded in 1957), has some fine Ellington-style piano playing from him. Brown rarely recorded on piano, so any of the few tracks he made are valuable.

The 1973 soundtrack to Lialeh used to be an incredibly rare item only affordable by Acid Jazz DJs. It has been reissued by an obscure Seattle label, so it looks like the CD will become rare soon. Apparently Lialeh was the first Blaxploitation porn film. The soundtrack is not only very good soul jazz but the inclusion of a very New Orleans funereal version of Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Saviour reveals, astoundingly, that the film must have had a plot!

Purdie and his band actually performed in the film, in a club scene; there’s a shot on the cover of him trying to play drums with a naked lady grabbing him. Oh, the trials of a jazz musician! - AM

Beck - Guero - Interscope 988027

You never know quite what to expect from Beck, except that, in the words of another Real Reviewer, he is hideously talented so it‘s likely to be good. His previous album Sea Change was slow and sad and one or two of the tracks on Guero have the same dreamy, melancholic quality but the rest are upbeat and hideously catchy.

There are all sorts of influences - hip-hop, Latin and dance - all on display in the first few tracks and he shifts effortlessly from one to other. Listen on the move and he’ll put a new bounce in your stride. Listen somewhere quiet and you’ll be sobered by lines like “I prayed heaven today/would bring down its hammer on me/and pound you out of my head/I can’t think with you in it”.

Etta Jones & Houston Person - A Night In Roppungi - Absorb Music ABCJ338

I am SO glad this album was reissued (November 2004). It first appeared, in Japan only, on the All Art label and this incarnation (also only in Japan) is to be deleted in May 2005. This is Etta’s only live album. She sang on a couple of tracks on Houston’s album “The Real Thing”, at Watts Club Mozambique, Detroit, in 1973, and a couple more with Jug and Sonny at the Famous Ballroom, Baltimore, the same year. That is it for live Etta Jones recordings. So this is an important CD in her career.

It was recorded in March 1990. I saw the same band two months later, in New York. Then, Etta became one of only two musicians who have literally brought tears to my eyes, when she sang I’m Through With Love (the other was Prez). She sings it on this album, with almost the same effect. The other ace track on this is I’m In The Mood For Love which has a wonderful tenor solo which Houston, unlike most other saxophonists, doesn’t try to make into Moody’s Mood For Love.

In addition to Houston, one of the greatest sax players to back singers, there is the little known but inestimable Stan Hope on piano. Hope’s inspiration stems mainly from Garner, not Powell. Live, when he pulls off a particularly felicitous line, he leans back from the piano, a great big, surprised, smile on his face, as if to say, “My! Didn’t that work out nicely?” It’s impossible not to like a guy like that. And there are quite a few felicitous lines in this CD.

You can get it from Mundo, at $25; cheap at half the price -AM

Allan gets Editor's Dispensation on length for anything to do with Etta Jones, Etta James or Houston Person. My apologies for the late posting in view of the deletion date but you should still be able to buy it. I would if I were you.

Johnathan Rice - Extended Player 24:26 - Warner Brothers - 48783

Now while a lazy reviewer (especially one restricted to 150 words) might attempt to review Extended Player 24:26 simply by drawing comparisons with Rice’s namesake Damien. But no not I. This six-track EP is ideal for anyone seeking a talented, single (?) white male, influenced by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young, who’s both reflective and earnest.

Released in the spring of 2004, prior to his first full length LP, 2005’s Trouble is Real, this EP reaches great heights with variation between soft melancholy (Break so easy), up-beat intimacy (if such a thing is possible, Mid November), and bittersweet timidity (standout track the Acrobat). Rice’s unique, almost rustic voice melds contentedly with simplistic, moving guitar rhythms, occasional violins (minus the periodic Irish lilt of Damien’s violins mind) and makes this EP well worth a try.

Not The Same Old Blues Crap 3 - Fat Possum - FP1016-2

I discovered the Fat Possum label from an article in the Sunday Telegraph magazine, of all places. I can only assume it was a mistake of some kind but I remain grateful. In the words of the Telegraph, the label is run by two men who thought that a toothbrush was for cleaning their pistol and, yes, the output is all pretty uncompromising.

This compilation is worth buying for the sleeve notes alone, a sustained rant about the unfairness of life, the selfishness of their top-selling artist who has decided to stop touring (he's 72 and has led, well, a colourful life) and the perversity of his replacement who rapidly contracted a terminal disease and, well, died.

As for the music - it's definitely not the same old blues crap. There's Bob Log, Iggy and The Stooges, and The Black Keys among others and, I'm glad to say, two tracks by R L Burnside. There's a marvellous photo of R L on one of his LPs, in his kitchen, beaming from ear to ear because he's wrapped a heavy chain and padlock around his fridge to stop his relatives stealing his food. You see where they're coming from?

Deodato - Preludes and Fugues - Raven RVCD117

Deodato’s Prelude has been reissued as a single CD by CTI; however this CD, made in Australia, also contains Deodato 2. Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) from Prelude represents the start of Disco; its lush orchestration over nine minutes of funky Latin rhythms were the template for almost everything that followed. The beginnings of anything are of interest but this CD has actually got solos which, after thirty years, still sound interesting. And the sound, particularly played very loudly, as it was supposed to be in 1973, is fantastic. Of course, it’s a Rudy Van Gelder job.

Disco is generally reckoned to be dead naff nowadays, but a lot of good jazz musicians made a lot of money out of it. At the peak of the movement, 85 jazz albums made the Billboard Pop or R&B album charts in 1975; 92 in 1976; and 82 in 1977; most of them Disco albums. Jazz hadn’t been so popular since the swing era - AM

Ernie Payne – Coercion Street – Black & Tan B&T019

Unsung singer....

Ernie Payne has apparently gone unheard and unrecognised for most of his long career but he seems to have put that to rights with this album and his recent performance on Andy Kershaw’s programme will have won him even more fans.

He comes from Louisiana and he plays and sings the blues. His voice has just the right blend of edge and depth and his guitar and dobro playing employs rock and country influences. His performance on this album is effortless and intimate and draws you in from the first track, from the slower, gospel-tinged numbers to the rocky Nothing Wrong With Texas (that leavin’ won’t fix). I’d say he’s gone from unheard to unsurpassed.

Duke Ellington - Piano in The Foreground - Columbia/Legacy 512920

I heard this album in the mid-sixties, but it was already deleted. I’ve waited forty years for its reissue.

I can’t be bothered with Duke’s big band stuff, except for some commercial records, such as Main Stem, which spent four weeks at number 1 on the R&B charts in 1944. But when he plays in a small group, there are few funkier pianists. The standout tracks here are Summertime and So, from the original 1961 LP, and Piano Improvisation no 1; a 1957 bonus track which is nearly ten minutes of slow, funky blues playing. (Of course, there are a few Debussy-style tracks as well.)

James Brown is the only other pianist I’ve heard who can pull down strange chords from the outermost reaches of the galaxy into a twelve bar blues and keep the groove as low down and dirty as Ellington. This is NOT what we’re told about Ellington! (It’s not what we’re told about Brown, either.)- AM

Wild Bill Moore - Bottom Groove - Milestone MCD47098

According to Bill Haley, and generally accepted by historians, Moore made the first Rock ‘n Roll record, We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll, in 1947. Apparently, he was the first tenorman to gyrate so much he split his trousers. Moore was a Texas tenor player, involved in Bebop in LA in 1946, who moved to Detroit in 1947 and recorded his hit single. Later, he played the solo on Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me, and even later, sitting in with Houston Person at Watts Club Mozambique, blew Person right off stage!

This CD contains both LPs he made for Jazzland in 1961. The first, Wild Bill’s Beat has Jr Mance on piano; the second, Bottom Groove, Johnny “Hammond” Smith on organ. There is only one ballad but a lot of blues and funky jump numbers. And Moore’s playing is as gut-rending as anything I’ve ever heard. After decades of mono, it’s nice to hear this in stereo - AM