Protest the Hero - Kezia (Vagrant Records) 29/05/2006

It's taken two years for Protest the Hero to make this debut album, the Canadian band developing a loyal following back home and in the US along the way.

T: Children, listen to me. If you're at school and you're being bullied, grab the nearest ghetto blaster and play this band's album at your assailant at full volume. He will look at you in terror, as it dawns on him that you are quite clearly clinically insane to be playing such a nonsensical noise, and will run away quickly, to be forever ridiculed by his mates and labelled "shitty bum bum" for the rest of his life, eventually attaining the almighty position of trolley boy at the local ASDA if he's lucky. Then again, I'M pretty frightened myself.

N: No no no no no. Kids playing what they consider music far too fast and without any thought of a tune. Yes, they can pick a twiddly riff on the guitar, yes they can play drums as if their very life depended on it, but as for conveying a heartfelt passion, I'm sorry, I felt this was severely lacking; however if you have been in the unfortunate position to have undergone a lobotomy in the past six months, consider that it may have been music like this that put you in that hospital bed in the first place, and you probably don't care anyway, so in the words of Brian Cant, "play away". 1/10

web site

Tells - Hope Your Wounds Heal (Fire Records) 22/05/2006

Formed out of the ashes of the much loved South London outock band Delicate Awol, this is the debut release of Jim Version and Caroline Ross - otherwise known as "Tells".

T: I can't agree with the press release's assertation that "the majority of tracks wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack to a 21st century take on cult horror flick "The Wicker Man". Now, that comment just winds me up, because unfortunately Hollywood IS remaking this classic 1973 film, which has been right near the top of my all time favourites list for a very long time now, and I have no doubt whatsoever that they're going to ruin it, and I'm going to overhear some spotty teenagers talking about how "cool" the wicker man is and how "Nicholas Cage" was brilliant and the amazing explosions that happened as he escaped at the end. If that DOES happen, I think I may turn into a serial killer. Plus, the original score was a lot more fucked up and macabre than anything on this album, and you just can't compare the two, because to be honest, I don't really like what's on offer here. It's like going to the market with an elderly, slightly senile woman who keeps talking to you about the same thing over and over again and complaining about her back. But less fun.

N: Nah, not a serial killer exactly, just a grumpy old man. You'll probably get a tv deal and loads of cash and trip over the bags of loot you've left in the hall, but that's inconsequential. I found this very slow and somewhat laboured. Having picked up the CD, from the cover I thought I was going to spew. Thankfully there is a "make-up" credit on the sleevenotes, and that will teach me to eat a curry before going to bed! 3/10

web site

Tunng - Comments of the Inner Chorus (Full Time Hobby) 22/05/2006

Described as the "fresh faces of a new kind of folk music", Tunng's debut album "This Is Tunng" made the top of many critics' "Best of the Year" lists last year. What's the follow up like? Read on.

T: Though it seems like a dirty word in some quarters, I have to confess there's quite a lot of "folk" music that has appealed to me over the years. Tunng's latest album seems very much an outdoor album to me, also a very sunny one, which makes you think of camping naked using only the basic means of survival to get by, even though they've utilised a very modern production. Not that I've ever camped naked you understand.

N: I'm liking the uncluttered presentation that Mike Lindsay (responsible for production, guitars, noises - yes noises - and voices) heads up. Dirty word or not, this contains shades of the Beta Band for me, with elements that at times were certainly of the World Music plan. 7/10

web site

Glyder - Glyder (Bad Reputation Records) 22/05/2006

A young Irish rock band from a small village in the Wicklow mountains, Glyder have been steadily building their reputation since their teens, playing classic rock covers until deciding to write original material for this, their debut CD.

T: Coming across with an early Black Sabbath feel ahead of anything else, Glyder do indeed play intense rock music that could easily have been featured on any one of their idols' most famous albums of the seventies. The Sabbath reference is explained when you read further and realise that the whole thing was produced by the legendary knob twiddler - hang on, isn't that me? - Chris Tsarangides, who worked with Mad Ozzy and co back in the day. It's about time we had a "proper" rock band, rather than the recent fad of bands who parody their heroes, and for that reason alone I will not let Glyder go over my head unappreciated.

N: Think of Irish rock bands, and these groups have the late, lamented Phil Lynott to act as mentor. Sure enough, from the first chug-chug it was Thin Lizzy that first sprung to my mind upon hearing these boys. That's not to say that Glyder make me groan on hearing what MAY be considered a cliched sound, far from it. I was impressed at how consistently the band performed, even down to the Gary Mooresque breaks, although I can't believe that my promo copy of the album had to note that tracks 5,6 and 10 were "suitable for easier daytime listening". When you're ready to rock, you rock! In which case, Glyder rock. Don't be put off by the bands name...or artwork, come to that...they really should be taken seriously. 8/10

web site

The Twilight Singers - Powder Buns (One Little Indian) 15/05/2006

Fourth album from erstwhile Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli's latest outfit.

T: The dog's bollocks have grown hair since his operation.

T: Hmmm...there's not really much I can say to that is there? What I can say though is that Greg Dulli is rapidly proving himself to be on a similar level of genius to Ian McCulloch, in that whatever he puts out is beautifully put together, full of depth, ballsy and ultimately very satisfying. One of the great relatively unsung heroes of our time.

N: Greg Dulli and cohorts rock out supreme, complete with cutting guitars, and exhausting rhythm and pace that any workout would benefit from, and of course not forgetting Greg's poetic storytelling.

T: Interesting that the band plays on their previous Beatles "tribute" (2004's "She Loves You") by cut and pasting several of the Fab Four's lyrics into the track "Forty Dollars". An intriguing album that proves - if proof were needed - just how good a songwriter Dulli is. 9/10

web site

Being 747 - Health & Safety (Wrath) 01/05/2006

I know it sounds like we want to have Wrath's lovechild here at Atomicduster, given the reviews we've given their product in the past, but let's see if Being 747's album can change that at all.

T: Nope. It's not going to change it at all, Listening to Being 747 is a bit like stumbling into a room full of all your favourite artists from the last 25 years and watching as they all pick up various instruments and put on an almighty performance for an hour, just for you. It really does feel they're doing all this entirely for you personally. From the perfect pop of "Strangers Have Never Been Stranger" all the way through to the fascinating lyrical brilliance of "Ghosts of Victorian Seances", Being 747 are never anything except absolute genius. I think you'll agree Nick, that this is one of the best albums - if not THE best - that we've been sent since we first conceived the idea of this website back in 1999. Or are you going to surprise me and disagree?

N: Wow, this album is absolutely stunning! Having first played this through a number of times whilst in the car, I found my foot dabbing the accelerator more and more, watching the appropriate speed limit of course, and eventually screaming my lungs out along to lyrics that were indeed strange, telling stories that I found engrossing. I heard in certain songs shades of Neil Hannon's Divine Comedy, Cinerama era Gedge, Ian Curtis, The Fall...and how do I GET tickets for this immortal "great gig in the sky"?

T: How about you just go and see Being 747 live? Anyway, trust us, this is without a doubt going to make our "All Time Faves" list if we're still going in 20 years time! This is our perfect 10.

web site

Strays Don't Sleep - Strays Don't Sleep (One Little Indian) 15/05/2006

Strays Don't Sleep are a Nashville five piece led by established solo artist Matthew Ryan who "understand the power of suggestion rather than overstatement". This is their self titled debut lp.

T: I can vouch for the value of this album as a great one to fall asleep to. Much of it reminds me of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, especially around the time of "Forest Fire", and seeing as I loved that band that's really no bad thing. Extremely gentle, soothing melodies that are more than capable of sending you off into a deep slumber with ultra pleasant dreams.

N: Chilled out? I think I'd have to comment here that the vocalist appears to have had far too little sleep the night before, he made it into this recording studio (one Mr. Lemon's in Nashville) dragging his guitar behind him before he and the rest of the band exercised a perfect performance. Why is it that when we think of "chill out albums", it always comes back to The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" et al instead of considering that bands like SDS have any tangible relevance?

T: I think more about my little fluffy orbs. Anyway, this whole package comes with a second disc, a DVD with promotional videos for each track, so it's well worth your money. 8/10

web site

Centro-matic – Fort Recovery (Cooking Vinyl) 01/05/2006

It’s a strange beast this one, because if you play the album two or three times, you’ll find that there are exceptionally few particularly memorable moments, and you’d deserve a medal from MENSA if you could actually sing more than two of these tunes back to the nearest passer by. Oddly enough though, “Fort Recovery” seems to have this hidden, hypnotic draw that leads you back again and again until you’ve embraced the album so much that you’re now comfortable enough to tickle its chin and feed it the best cream you can find.

Often sounding like The Band, sometimes drifting into Neil Young territory (“The Fugitives Have Won”), occasionally flirting with Cat Stevens (“I See Through You”) and mostly competing with belated media darlings The Flaming Lips (“Patience for the Ride”), Centro-matic’s latest album - their first for Cooking Vinyl – is also probably their best, making the most of the grungy, searing guitars to effectively tranquilise the listener into an almost paralytic state.

Of particular appeal is the splendid “Calling Thermatico”, which is a bit like Pearl Jam but with all the commerciality siphoned out. It doesn’t just stop there though, there’s a whole surfeit of beauties to serenade your lugholes here and really, it’s only the sporadic sluggish tracks that let the album down. That said, this is e damn good value for money purchase with a LOT of brilliant songs. Bear in mind that this, like a good arthouse film, requires some work on the part of the listener before you can appreciate its radiance, but once you do, there’s no looking back. 8/10

Tone E

web site

Astrid Williamson – Day of the Lone Wolf (One Little Indian) 01/05/2006

This could well be a brilliant album, and I suspect Astrid Williamson is a victim of circumstance here, but I am presently bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go out and enjoy the bank holiday, and not remotely in the mood for Radiohead bleepiness meets Suzanne Vega style of “Day of the Lone Wolf”. But wait, that was just track one I was talking about, and then it moves onto “Superman 2”, which is more like Fairport Convention and, bizarrely, the third track here – “Intro”! – which is like something you get in the middle of a Biography Channel documentary.

Although I can’t get overexcited about this album, theirs is absolutely no doubt whatsoever as to the tremendous talents of this woman. Perhaps she would have fit better into the post Woodstock years of the early seventies.

You never know – I may play this again in the early hours of the morning and hear something different but for now, it’s 11am on Monday, the weather looks great and I’m off work, so I really don’t need to be sent to sleep right now… 7/10

Tone E

web site

BC Camplight – Hide, Run Away (One Little Indian) 01/05/2006

Starts off like Stan Getz and Astrid Gilberto’s “The Girl From Ipanema” and then gets a minimalist electronic overhaul that makes it sound a tad like The Divine Comedy, which is no bad thing of course. Other than that, most of the eleven tracks here could have been written by Burt Bacharach and possibly even Billy Joel at times.

One thing that’s impossible to deny is that this is a bunch of the most insanely catchy tunes you’ll have heard in the past 5 years or so. In fact, it’s not a million miles off what the excellent unsigned London artists Vic Twenty are trying to do.

Almost dreamlike in quality , “Emily’s Dead To Me” is a prime example of the formerly mentioned celebrated songmeister in its downbeat but sweetly uplifting perspective, and the title track only serves to confirm BC Camplight as 21st century Burt. Nice stuff. 8/10

Tone E

web site

Levy – Rotten Love (One Little Indian) 01/05/2006

It’s funny that some of the most high profile magazines have called Levy things like “The Strokes-meets-Morrissey” because to me, they sound far more like “Pul-meets-The-Stone-Roses”. Of course, neither of these comparisons are going to do any harm to this quartet of New Yorkers an yes, I would agree with the press release’s assertation that they “hardly sound American at all”.

It’s an enormously enjoyable listen, but I think that’s possibly partly to do with the nostalgic responses it brings to my personal old grey matter! Often the tracks here send me back to days in my bedroom at my parents’ house in the early eighties, and sometimes to my late teens and early twenties spending my days at gigs watching the likes of the previously mentioned Roses and their ilk.

That’s not to say Levy are a pastiche of what’s gone before however – they are very much “of today” and could happily sit with The Killers or Kaiser Chiefs as the great white hopes of the millennium’s music industry. Personally I’d take the former over both of the latter, due to the far greater depth displayed on “Rotten Love” than either of their rivals.

I’m not even going to pick out any favourite tracks from this album, it’s simply a great album. 9/10

Tone E

web site

Clayhill – Mine At Last (Eat Sleep) 01/05/2006

“Suffer Not” (not “Surfer Nob” as I initially read it) is one of the most appealing tracks Clayhill have ever put out, sounding like a rather cheerful Zombies number and the Jeff Buckley like “One Nerve” is a perfect follow on.

I definitely think Clayhill should pursue Uptempo Avenue a bit more though, as it seems to suit them. Unfortunately though, they seems to be rather fond of rambling down Subdued Street instead and as a result, those optimistic moments are highlighted even more as the…er…highlights while the morosity of the others is magnified tenfold. Maybe that was the idea? Anyway, sometimes this album is a work of genius, and sometimes it’s just too depressing. And hey, I generally LIKE depressing music!

Of course, regular readers may point out that I suggested last time that Clayhill should stick to acoustic releases as I felt THAT was their forte, but now I’m convinced – they are only four or five steps away from being one of the greatest rock bands ever! Hmmm…what’s my wife doing with that straitjacket? 7/10

Tone E

web site

[DVD] Johnny Cash – The Unauthorised Biography (Demon DVD) 13/03/2006

If you, like me, were moved and enthralled by the 2005 movie “Walk the Line”, you should look no further than this in depth look at this larger than life country music icon as your next viewing reference.

“The Unauthorised Biography” documents all the highs and the many, many controversial lows that the man went through in his career and this time, there is less artistic licence, with Cash’s brother Tommy taking a pivotal role in several talking heads scenes and bringing his own fascinating memories to the viewers’ attention in such a way that you can almost feel like you were there.

From the early days, growing up with and idolising his elder brother Jack until his untimely and tragic death at age 15, to the glory years of fame, fortune, love and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along the way detailing failed marriage, depression, alcoholism and drug addiction, this DVD still, above all, celebrates Johnny Cash as one of the greatest musicians that ever lived and as a truly legendary man in his own right.

Kris Kristofferson once referred to Cash as “a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction” and the folk interviewed herein will not argue with that sentiment one bit.

Other than Cash’s story, we are blessed with scenes from the US version of “This Is Your Life”, which are actually quite touching, and exclusive tours of Johnny and June’s home in Tennessee as well as his own private recording studio.

Anyway, you can win this DVD in one of our competitions this month and believe me, it’s well worth it. Go on, you know you want to…

Tone E

web site

Erasure - Union Street (Mute) 18/04/2006

Messrs Bell and Clarke rework eleven previous tracks from their albums of yesterday. Guitars instead of synths - should be interesting.

T: Wow, Erasure with guitars sounds bewilderingly like the little known Morrissey championed band of the late eighties, Bradford. Remember "In Liverpool"? Actually I don't find them half as irritating in this guise. In fact, I can almost find myself enjoying some of these tracks, despite having disliked the band intensely since they began. As far as gay duos go, Soft Cell and the Pet Shop Boys piss all over them. Perhaps even literally. Still, this has a lot more going for it than the camp Europop they usually bombard us with.

N: The band's idea of showing their material in a fresh light is a clever one, if not entirely original. I don't even recognise Andy Bell's vocals. Some of these do tend to stray into the comedic though, hitting lows that we're otherwise unused to, and the general feel of the music is one that is tinged in a country light, which is another anomaly we thought we'd never hear. As for my colleague's comments (some of them at least!) being far less bathed in the light of a carnival in Rio, this should find a whole new audience willing to accept Erasure as a band, rather than what they have made for themselves prior to this, that is, if they're willing to cast aside their preconceptions. All in all this is a very chilled out affair.

T: But I still can't get the nightmare of the thong wearing Bell appearing at the second half of a gig I was dragged kicking and screaming to with my ex-missus out of my head, so I don't forgive them THAT much...

N: Fair point. 6/10

web site