Rate this sparkling soultronica

Jamie Lidell – Jim

It’s easy to see how newcomers to Jamie Lidell’s soulful radio-friendly pop would be a might bit confused when confronted with his first album Muddlin’ Gear, released on Spymania in 2000. A downright weird collection of frantic sample chip-choppery laced with trademark electronica pops and glitches, Muddlin’ Gear wasn’t so much the showcase of Lidell’s impressive vocal range and talent for good foot-tappin’ tunes but more for showing his finesse and maturity in high-end electronic composition. Multiply, Lidell’s Warp debut five years later, was a more conventional approach in songwriting through which the quirky and sometimes irksome electronic tendencies of his debut album could be heard. His latest release simply titled Jim is a further distillation of Lidell’s vocal influences and every bit as tuneful as Multiply.

The nigh-on complete lack of electronic wizardry makes Jim a sweet and tender affair which somehow seems to transcend motown pastiche and find it’s own niche as a genuinely enthusiastic and unabashedly upbeat record for the summer. Nothing beats putting it on first thing on a sunny Saturday morning with the windows open, it’s absolutely guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone who hears it. This perhaps isn’t a fair comparison but I do wonder sometimes whether in Lidell’s pursuit of breezy pop perfection that he has in some ways created an album reminiscent of anything made by surfin’ strumpet Jack Johnson, albums which can only be listened to during hazy, lazy days. There’s nothing appealing about listening to Jack Johnson during a typical British winter, hearing one of his songs played in a supermarket when it’s cold and raining outside is frankly one of the most depressing experiences you can have.

At the moment Jim has remained on rotation since I snapped it up but the real test will be towards the end of the year, judging by Lidell’s past efforts I’m confident however that it’ll prove to be an excellent pick-me-up rather than a maddening example of some guy crooning about how good his life always is at one particular point in the year.

Rated: 5 out of 7

Rate this spiralling guitar haze

Isis – Panopticon

In addition to whatever current releases I decide to throw down the bob notes on I’ll also be doing retrospective reviews of other stuff that I’ve been getting along with just fine thank you very much. First up is the third album from Isis, the art metal outfit fronted by Hydra Head Records founder Aaron Turner.

Rate this skittering collection

Rate This Day is (kinda) back!

What a crazy past few months. My other project at www.silenceincminor.co.uk is coming along nicely and while we gear up for our run of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe I thought I’d somehow resurrect the beast that is Rate This Day. The content of the site will change slightly and from here on in to plain ol’ music reviews. It’s always been about music for me and the decision was made after I realised that when not reviewing car parks, food or time, the majority of my serious articles were music reviews.

So from here on in it’s all about the tunes and the rock shows here at Rate This Day and to kick things off here’s a review of the new(ish) album from my favourite band, along with a lengthy introduction on the subject of DRM, piracy and my own rabid opinions on the state of modern music.

Rate this bewildering spectacle *Star Review*

Take That Live at The O2 Arena, November 30th 2007

 

Happy New Year, everyone! As a special 2008 treat follow the jump to read a dazed yet heart-felt review of the almighty live experience that is Take That…

Rate this guttural electronica

Murcof – Cosmos

Fernando Corona continues his run through the Murcof moniker with the letter ‘C’, more precisely with his new release Cosmos on The Leaf Label. It’s a marked departure from previous work in as much a new Murcof album can be a marked departure. His records previous have been very cold orchestral glitch imaginings gleaned from a huge palette of clicks, pops, white noise, sine waves and real world instruments, though while each one has been a spellbinding listen, the range of development from one album to the next isn’t really that noticeable and certainly the two-year interval between releases becomes hard to justify. That said, Cosmos is ever-so-slightly different from the rest.

About half the tracks favour the tried and tested minimal glitch-house approach but the remaining pieces are a curious mix of ambient, beat-less dronescapes. All these tracks are big, using sweeping, deep pads and massive sub-bass attacks. Corona clearly has invested a considerable amount of time painting these tapestries with care and his patented OCD approach to the finer details is very much apparent. Cosmos sparkles from within and there are so many small treasures buried in the huge canvas of sounds. It’s a majestic album which, rather surprisingly, is quite commanding considering the subtle leanings of the electronica that underpins it’s very foundations. Maybe that’s why it’s so different to the previous albums; take away the rhythms and Murcof has made a record that finally demands to be noticed. It’s more an idea album than a concept album which from the start feels like a precursor to something great and breathtakingly beautiful, which thankfully is the final track.

‘Oort’ is the absolute pinnacle of Murcof’s talents at this moment and twelve minutes of divine perfection. It comes at such a crucial moment in the record and just when the album starts to slow down this cataclysmic masterpiece shows you exactly what Corona is truly capable of. Given that are only the tiniest of hints of the mastery that lurks around the corner makes it all the more enjoyable, Murcof demonstrates with these commanding ambient soundscapes early on in Cosmos why you should be listening in the first place. Now that he has your attention it’s time to show you exactly how good he really is, in case you’d forgotten over the course of three other albums.

Rated: 6 out of 7

Rate this spellbinding cacophony

Battles – Live at the Koko, October 11th 2007

The Field Day event held at Victoria Park earlier this year was an interesting one. I’d been to music festivals for just one day before but not a one-day-only affair. The atmosphere was nice enough, the organisers made some mistakes but that’s only to be expected from an inaugural festival of this nature. The biggest let-down however was for Battles, the four-piece super-group and current darlings of alternative music circles, who were mystifyingly billed quite early on in proceedings and only given a 30 minute set. It proved to be a good performance in the end but they were having difficulties setting up in time and actually didn’t start until 20 minutes after their allotted time. You could tell they were tired however, the band seemed stressed and a bit wound-up, deservedly so in all fairness.

Their performance on the other hand at the Koko was the polar opposite in overall tone and mood. The band were absolutely staggering in their execution of impossibly tight piece after piece . It was relentless and spellbinding, uber-drummer John Stanier locking everything together like a huge sweaty anchor. Every member of the quartet seemed so much more energised than last time (including their stint at the Scala several months previously) and it was abundantly clear that they were enjoying the experience as much as the audience. While not being ones to rely on witty banter between pieces the mood was very much ‘up’ nonetheless. At one point Tyondai Braxton and Ian Williams, the team of not one but two dual-wielding guitar and keyboard virtuosos, seemed to have trouble getting Stanier’s attention to kick start the next section in their blistering rendition of Race: In. Never mind, there were smiles all round and the song just went on a little bit longer than was perhaps intended.

All in all, a blinding experience from the group that just get better and better with every second that passes.

Rock rating: 6 out of 7

Lack of cover versions means they get rated: 4 out of 7

Rated: 6 out of 7

Rate this return to tender

Venetian Snares – My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)

Another two months passes and it’s time for a new Venetian Snares release. Generally Aaron Funk’s long-players on the Planet Mu label are the ones to watch out for and ‘My Downfall’ is no exception. Very much the companion piece to 2005’s ‘Rossz Csillag Allat Született’, right down to the near-identical art pressing on the disc itself, ‘My Downfall’ feels strangely comfortable as a collection of out-takes which didn’t seem to fit on what might have been his finest album. This new collection features reverb-soaked mood pieces interspersed only very occasionally with Snare’s trademark Amen loop firestorms. The work here is a lot more tender than previous releases, tracks like ‘If I Could Say I Loved You’ really do tug at the heart strings but this is where this album, while considerably more accessible than most of his material, actually falls down (so to speak)

Snares has crafted some of the most painfully beautiful and haunting music for ‘My Downfall’ but it’s not entirely clear what the true intent is. Always a master of genre-subversion and armed with a keen sense of self-awareness the only sticking point on this album is what Snares is actually trying to achieve, it could be a classic case of making this music because he has the technical ability, not because he necessariy believes in it. A vinyl-only release entitled ‘Sabbath Dubs’ was a tongue-in-cheek take on the dubstep phenomenon, this came out probably a fortnight before ‘My Downfall’. A few months prior to that he assumed the alias Last Step and put out an album of warm 303-laced acid tracks, capitalizing on the acid genre revival spearheaded by Aphex Twin in his ‘Analord’ series.

So where does this leave ‘My Downfall’? Either way it’s an interesting and disturbing release. I worry about a guy who can make music of this high quality just because he can and it’s all part of his scatter shot approach to releases. On the other side to that if he really, really means it this time then the man needs help.

Rated: 5 out of 7