Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
(Full Time Hobby, 2008)
Texan mentalists' spazz-rock debut.
If White Denim's 2008 Let's Talk About It EP - all spastic guitars, barked vocals and random synth burbles - suggested a gloriously hyperactive Pere Ubu, then the Texan trio's first LP proper implied they were of the opinion that if you can mine one genre, why not mine fifteen? From Nuggets-era garage rock (Shake Shake Shake), jaunty piano-pop (Sitting), and jigsaw puzzle math-rock (Don't Look That Way At It), everything and anything is tackled with frenzied aplomb, often in the space of a single verse. Songs on Workout Holiday don't so much progress as they do suddenly transform themselves beyond all recognition; for instance, listening to WDA is like sitting in the middle of a centrifuge as Sonic Youth's Teenage Riot is spun out into disembodied fragments before realigning itself as Spiral Scratch-era Buzzcocks. However, rather than sounding like an incoherent, overly ambitious mess, White Denim's schizophrenic tendencies are reigned in by muscular musicianship (drummer Josh Block is a trained jazz percussionist, fact fans) and a charmingly lo-fi sound quality, the result - presumably - of being recorded in a disused trailer. Their more house-trained follow-up, Fits, emerges later this month.
Chris Catchpole
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 10/06/2009
Minutemen β Double Nickels On The Dime (SST, 1984)
The White Stripes β De Stijl (XL, 2000)
Hot Club De Paris β Drop It βTil It Pops (Moshi Moshi, 2006)
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
6:00 AM GMT 18/03/2010
Essence De Choogle from John Fogerty and crew. Badass!
9:54 AM GMT 17/03/2010
Matt Johnson's self-excoriating - but tunepacked! -classic.
6:00 AM GMT 16/03/2010
Metal Britannica inspires MOJO metal amnesty. Studded leather wristbands aloft!
2:32 AM GMT 12/03/2010
For connoisseurs of pop-as-rupture-in-the-space/time-continuum
6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
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