The best new albums this week

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Electribe 101 – Electribal Soul (Electribal Soul)

As stories of long-lost albums go, it’s a good one. Although perhaps not if you were on the receiving end.

Electribe 101 formed in the late 1980s when a Birmingham four-piece were looking for a singer and answered a Melody Maker ad placed by Hamburg ex-pat Billie Ray Martin – it read “Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”. Looking back, you couldn’t have summed up their sound better.

They were snapped up by a major label who seemed to think their singer was the next Alison Limerick, Toni Braxton or Taylor Dayne, when they should have seen them as a band in the same ballpark as Coldcut (Yazz/Lisa Stansfield branch), One Dove or The Beloved.

Their debut album, 1990’s ‘Electribal Memories’, rode in on the acid house wave, a meeting of house-y chops and warm soul vibes topped off by Billie’s almighty pipes. It was sassy stuff with unmissable crossover appeal. The opening track, ‘Talking With Myself’, really chimed. It landed them in the Top 40 and on ‘Top Of The Pops’. Its cheeky lift of the ‘Mission Impossible’ refrain was irresistible, adding a 60s nod to proceedings, which was echoed in the lush production work. The megastar remixers – Todd Terry, Roger Sanchez, Junior Vasquez, et al – were lined up and it would appear that Electribe 101 were on their way.

The album duly went Top 30, but two further singles, ‘You’re Walking’ (which in time went on to become an Ibiza classic) and ‘Inside Out’, failed to make an impact. Cracks began to appear when it became clear that Electribe couldn’t be shoved around for the sake of quick major label buck. In the face of all this, not to mention disquiet in the band itself, a second album was recorded in 1991 and delivered to the label. To say the big wigs didn’t like it much is a bit of an understatement. They dropped them like a hot potato, dismissing the record as “soul shit”. The Man had chewed them up and spat them out. Brutal.

The thing is, that second album was some way from being a stinker. A mere 30-odd years later, Billie Ray Martin has taken it upon herself to personally oversee its release on her own label. And thank goodness, because ‘Electribal Soul’ is one of the great lost classics.

The first thing that strikes you is there’s two songs here that anyone who has followed the singer’s determined rise as a solo artist in the intervening years will know well. ‘Hands Up And Amen’ and ‘Deadline For My Memories’ both appear in revised form on her 1996 solo album, ‘Deadline For My Memories’, which sailed into the charts on the coattails of her biggest hit, ‘Your Loving Arms’. ‘Electribal Soul’ is also home to ‘Moving Downtown’, which reappeared on the solo album as ‘Running Around Town’. Rather brilliantly it borrows lyrics from S’Express’ ‘Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes’ which Billie guested on. And yes, that’s also her on ‘Hey Music Lover’.

The more you listen to ‘Electribal Soul’, the harder it is to understand why the label had such an extreme reaction to it. Had it been released, it would have kicked down the doors for E101. The opening track, ‘Insatiable Love’ – all rich, rolling bassline, whispered spoken interludes, rippling synths and earworm chorus, would have been a hit all day long, and most of the night. ‘Electribal Soul’ harks back to the days when an album was an album, the A-side building towards the gale-force balladry of ‘Deadline For My Memories’, the B-side signing off with a brilliant cover version of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Persuasion’.

And here’s the thing, the mistake the label made in the first place. Billie Ray Martin isn’t just a belting voice, she’s steeped in music, with influences ranging from Cabaret Voltaire (do check out ‘The Crackdown Project’ from 2010) and TG, to Martha Reeves and Motown. She knows what she likes, she knows what she’s doing, and she does it brilliantly. Do not ignore this almighty blast from the past.

NM  

Midlake – For The Sake Of Bethel Woods (Bella Union) 

When Midlake original frontman and primary songwriter, Tim Smith, left the band a decade ago whilst preparation for their fourth full-length was well under way, the remaining members had no other option but to act fast. That they did, penning 2013’s acclaimed ‘Antiphon’, in six months with guitarist, Eric Pulido, stepping up to the vocal plate.

It also somewhat spelled the end for the alternative folk rock group, as activity would weign and cease over the subsequent years. Well, regular programming has finally resumed with ‘For The Sake Of Bethel Woods’; a title steeped in meaning alluding to keyboardist/flautist Jesse Chandler’s father who sadly passed away, but would later visit his son in a dream to tell to get the band back together.

His father also adorns the cover, visiting the Woodstock Festival as a teenager where he would continue to live and grow and eventually take his own son to visit the bethel woods.

It’s that depth, respect and vulnerability that allows this collection of material to be some of the most profound and dark of the Midlake canon. As if these songs needed to be written, recorded and offered to the world, regardless of reception. 

The minimal folk intro of ‘Commune’ perfectly careens into the semi-haunting title track, with its hypnotic keys tiptoeing yet bolstering the frenetic rhythm of the piece, echoing the likes of Elbow at their most mysterious.

From the nuanced, math-rock leaning arpeggios of ‘Glistening’, to the ever-shifting ethereal, ‘Feast Of Carrion’, there’s a painstaking attention to delicacy and detail peppered throughout the forty-five minute runtime, which feels far too brief, never overstays its welcome.

Midlake’s return is one of quiet triumph, reflection and self-examination, told through these windows into grief, isolation and revitalisation. A revisit to the woods has never had such endearing, intriguing musical companions.  

ZB

Sergio Messina & The Four Twenties ‘Sensual Musicology’ (Hell Yeah!)

Creative polymath Sergio Messina arrives on Hell Yeah! Recordings with a breathtaking 11 track album, ‘Sensual Musicology’. The Lombardy-based artist has been embedded in the Italian music scene for decades, having been present at the birth of the country’s pirate radio scene in the mid-’70s, before subsequently being drafted in to produce radio art for the national broadcaster, Rai.

Messina is credited with helping establish the Rome hip hop scene, while he began earning his live performance chops back in 1989, taking the stage with a combination of samplers, tape recorders and PCs. Counting the likes of Frank Zappa as fans, Messina has gone on to manifest all-manner of creative intentions, from producing Neapolitan reggae and producing solo albums to writing for monthly music magazine, Rumore. ‘Sensual Musicology’ is delightfully agile stylistically, blending Balearic sensibilities with library music and esoteric outernational charm. Some of the many highlights include the blissful haze of opener ‘Goodbye Porkpie Hat’, the miraculous cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, and the divine instrumentation of ‘Jon Hassell Beach Bar’. Vivacious, eclectic, and delightfully hard to predict, ‘Sensual Musicology’ finds an ideal home in the always surprising Hell Yeah! Recordings fold.

PC

Broadcast – BBC Maida Vale Sessions (Warp Records)

When the BBC announced intentions to close the iconic Maida Vale Studios in 2018, confirming the broadcasting powerhouse would vacate the building by 2025, the response spoke volumes. While the site had been in use for classical, popular music, and drama recordings since 1946, giving some ideas as to how not-fit-for-purpose it had become in the 21st Century, in culture heritage and nostalgia count for plenty. As such the outpourings of love and respect for the soon-to-be-no-more facility were expected, albeit perhaps much more vocal than many would have predicted.

Over the years, the London address — once a roller skating ‘palace’ — has been the site of many signifiant sessions commissioned by the late-tastemaker John Peel. This complete collection of performances by Broadcast are among them, showcasing the development and evolution of a pivotal indietronica outfit from their early, embryonic and experimental phase to the status of internationally acclaimed cult heroes. Exactly how important these sessions were in that growth is hard to quantify, but given the reverence Peel demanded in those days, and his role as a guiding rod for innovative new music, we’re guessing these were wholly impactful in terms of the group’s rise through the ranks.

Supporting notes complete, fans get four stages of Broadcast in all their glory, starting in 1996, with renditions of three key early singles and a prototype of what would become ‘City In Progress’, presented four years prior to its official release. Returning one year later, and confidence is aurally bolstered, Trish Keenan’s vocal delivery proof enough of this. Further down the line, we have sets from 2000 and 2003, the latter around a year before Peel’s death, evidencing just how far they had come by that point. A real piece of musical history, then.

MH

Springtime – Springtime (Joyful Noise) 

Last year saw the unveiling of a new Australian “supergroup” comprised of members of some the most dynamic and respected acts in their scenes. 

Gareth Liddiard, originally of The Drones and more recently, the mind-bending Tropical Fuck Storm, initially set out to pursue a solo project before linking up with drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White) and the ivory-tickling Chris Abrahams (The Necks, Laughing Clowns), to form Springtime. 

It’s admittedly difficult to pin down the precise vision at play across the trio’s seven-track self-titled debut, which arrived at the end of 2021 but is now finally seeing a worldwide vinyl release. 

Naturally, there’s inspiration taken from all contributors’ past works, but they’re blended in such an impenetrable yet simultaneously accessible manner. 

Jilted, muted noise-rock, improvisational free jazz, and heart-rendering, tortured blues reveries culminate in a hypnotic, entrancing, seductive and ultimately devastating collection that echoes the likes of Nic Cave or Tom Waits at their most delicate and despondent. 

The jangling, razor-wit of opener, ‘Will To Power’, sets down a patchy blanket of twisted sonics; with an enveloping atmosphere as lush and welcoming as it is ugly and disgruntled. 

Covers such as the warped yet respectful take on the traditional Irish folk ode, ‘She Moved Through the Fair’, as well as their truly crushing rendition of Palace Music’s ‘West Palm Beach’, are startling in the decrepit beauty they conjure, while the 9-minute opus, ‘The Killing Of The Village Idiot’, makes a definitive claim for one of the purest, most beautiful demonstrations of artistry from any of the trio’s careers to date.

ZB

Jóhann Jóhannsson – Drone Mass (Deutsche Grammophon)

The untimely death of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson in 2018 was a monumental loss. You felt he was yet reach the peak of his powers, and yet from his early indie band days to electronic-influenced albums on 4AD and Touch right through to Oscar-winning film scores (‘Arrival’ in particular is breathtakingly good), he left behind a peerless body of work. And thankfully there is still more to be discovered.

Commissioned by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble for a string quartet, eight voices and electronics, the electroacoustic oratorio ‘Drone Mass’ was premiered in New York in 2015, with Jóhannsson himself on electronics duty in the early performances. ACME worked and toured with Jóhannsson for a decade, so when it came to making this debut recording, they were the natural choice. Working with the Grammy Award-winning Theatre Of Voices they’ve done their old friend proud here.

The vocal ebb and flow and clambering strings of ‘The Low Drone Of Circulating Blood, Diminishes With Time’ is brilliantly unsettling, the processed and distorted sound files on ‘To Fold & Remain Dormant’ flicker in and out like faulty connections, while the beautiful ‘Divine Objects’ adheres to Steve Reich’s idea of “music as a gradual process”, swelling slowly to an vast crescendo before backing off again.

Jóhannsson was just 48 when he died. What he would have gone on to achieve doesn’t bear thinking about. We should be thankful people like ACME are guarding his magnificent legacy in some style.

NM

Blue States – World Contact Day (Memphis Industries)

Much has changed in electronica since Blue States’ debut album, Nothing Changes Under the Sun, arguably one of the best-loved of all millennia-era Sunday afternoon chill out albums, with follow up Man Mountain proving the emotional quality and subtly rousing power of that record was no stroke of luck. Things have become less innocent in these sonic ends, forging paths so far left of the centre they risk getting people lost. So where exactly do Andy Dragazis and comrades fit in 2022, six years after their last outing, which itself came took seven years to land following its predecessor, which came in the form of a retrospective B-sides collection?

The answer is, perhaps rather predictably, exactly where we left them last time. Calling on influences as diverse as Vangelis, The Carpenters, and Morricone, a slew of quality guests — such as members of Italian band Malihini and English folk gem Rachael Dadd — help realise the stylistic breadth that is a clear goal here. Switching from jazz-y brass warmth, to icier, beguiling downbeat tones, this is all the evidence anyone needs that Blue States are more than capable of keeping pace in an age so void of genres.

MH

Taking Meds – Terrible News From Wonderful Men (Smartpunk)

The third full-length from Taking Meds was one of the most criminally overlooked alternative rock albums of last year. The New York four-piece (made up of current and former members of Such Gold) blend emo and punk with simultaneous sincerity and snarky wit.

Produced by legendary producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, ‘Terrible News From Wonderful Men’, is their biggest swing for the fences yet, managing to be both their most accessible and gritty project to date.

Singles such as the fuzzed-out pop-punk of ‘Lifesaver’ and hypnotic post-hardcore bop of ‘Daylily Gardner’, manage to situate the most infectious of earworm hooks amidst their Dinosaur Jr. leaning guitar lines that chunk with 90’s sonic aesthetic.

Delving further into the emotive territory of their influences, there’s a debt owed to ‘Dear You’ era Jawbreaker on the likes of the solemn ‘Tangerines’, while smashers like ‘Musclehead’ and ‘Overripe’ dropkick the energy back into first gear with little to no notice.

Complete with utter oddball moments like the post-punk dissonant weirdness of ‘Crepehanger’ or ‘Moving the Stash’, there’s so much to keep any emo, grunge, punk, alt rock fan satiated and revisiting for spins to come.

Leave no doubt, Taking Meds are one of the most vital bands in modern emo, whether they’re aware of it or not.

ZB

Vile Ritual – Tongues Of The Exanimate (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

Although shrouded in an air of self-imposed mystery, Vile Ritual are the latest in an ever-expanding scene of American extreme metal acts that continue to show little to no concern for boundary or parameter.

To label the group simply, one could categorise their malicious sound as most firmly rooted in death metal, but the further one delves into the unsettling maelstrom continuously conjured throughout ‘Tongues Of The Exanimate’, points of reference begin to dissolve and decay.

Taking a blackened approach to their audible dissonance and engulfing their tech-death stylings with frosty ambience, avant-garde blackness and even moments of muted post-metal, its difficult to ignore or classify Vile Ritual as just another standard death metal act.

After initially making waves with their arresting self-titled demo, this new pressing finally gives the tracks a physical home, bolstered by the addition of three new cuts which combined creates the full-length introduction for many.

From the brutal death squelches of ‘Spectral Fold’ to the caustic abyssal ‘Bygone Crypt’, few releases this year will be unfortunate enough to traverse the cavernous depths which Vile Ritual call their home.

ZB

Various Artists – Jane Fitz & Jade Seatle Present the Sound of Night Moves (For Those That Knoe)

They say good things come to those who wait. We say great things emerge from the minds of people who have the patience to conceive and then fully realise those ideas. Six years after their first encounter at a Brixton party, Jane Fitz and Jade Seatle launched the now hugely respected Night Moves party in London, which has subsequently spawned offshoots Day Moves and Field Moves, offering dedicated dancers a tech and deep house playground where fresh selections and a seamless approach to blending count for plenty.

A decade after its inception, and as you’d expect the session has well and truly established its own set of subtle but commanding go-to tracks, some of which are included here. But The Sound of Night Moves goes well beyond the reductive ‘anthems’ approach to laying down a record inspired by a club night or venue, and instead looks to capture the style and rhythm of the tunes that first brought the pair together. So much here is what you’d call music for DJs, offering infectiously mixable workouts that are never full throttle nor lazy or lackadaisical. For want of a better phrase, these are beats to make pretty much everyone move.

MH

Pictish Trail – Island Family (Fire) 

Eccentric Scottish songsmith, Johnny Lynch, has made quite the name for himself within the UK underground spectrum while never tethering himself to one particular crowd.

This purposeful, almost self-imposed alienation is what has allowed Pictish Trail to remain such a darkhorse within several scenes.

His fifth full-length, ‘Island Family’, is easily the most cohesive, confident and expertly crafted project to come from Lynch since his true 2008 debut, ‘Secret Soundz Vol. 1’.

Drawing from a well of estranged influences, such as Hot Chip, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Beck, to name but a few, there’s a perplexing duality between nuance and absurdity that permeates through every piece.

Take the opening title track for example, with its repetitive electronic percussion pulsing incessantly under bizarre, on the nose folk inflections, equal parts homage and parody.

Elsewhere, the 8-bit glitch euphoria of ‘In the Land of the Dead’ melts seamlessly into the emotive, semi-industrial anti-pop standout, ‘It Came Back’, which falls somewhere between Nine Inch Nails at their grooviest and John Grant at his darkest.

As a seasoned vet of the Scottish indie scene, as well as a sonic chameleon, Lynch never ceases to expand and improve upon the seemingly endless directions you can take (The) Pictish Trail. ‘Island Family’ is fun, adventurous, frightening, confusing, and most importantly of all, entertaining. It’s a trip to a land not so much better or worse than our own, but refreshing in its absurd differences. 

ZB

This week’s reviewers: Patrizio Cavaliere, Neil Mason, Zach Buggy, Martin Hewitt.