Vogelenzangranks : Best of Jan – Mar 2010

VOGELENZANGRANKS : BEST OF JAN – MAR 2010

Vogelenzangranks has been secretly squirreling away the best tracks from each of the reviewed albums on the site.  You can download the 17 track mix HERE or  HERE.

The plan is to upload a mix each quarter so baring sudden deafness, finger amputation or incarceration in a debtors prison Vogelenzangranks : Best of Apr – Jun 2010 should appear later in the year, although one hopes it won’t take 5  months to write 3 months worth of reviews next time – in any case, as the Vikings used to say, huzzah!

Track listing.

1. LAWRENCE ARABIA look like a fool 2. FOUR TET love cry 3. CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG master’s hand 4. ADAM GREEN bathing birds 5. SPOON i saw the light 6. RJD2 walk with me 7. JOHNNY CASH ain’t no grave 8. BUILT TO SPILL hindsight 9. WATSON TWINS midnight 10. EMMA POLLOCK i could be a saint 11. MASSIVE ATTACK splitting the atom 12. ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT magnetic warrior 13. GORILLAZ sweepstakes 14. DRIVE BY TRUCKERS get downtown 15. HOLLY GOLIGHTY AND THE BROKEOFFS escalator 16. THE CONGOS up on the roof 17. SCOUT NIBLETT meet and greet.

March mini review and round up

EMMA POLLOCK THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS Chemikal Underground Released 01/03/2010.

There was much bewailing on the announcement of The Delgados split in 2005 – as well as producing chamber pop masterpieces such as ‘The Great Eastern’ the band had been central to the Scottish music scene renaissance of the early 90’s with the founding of their Chemikal Underground label. Delgados fans needn’t have fretted though as Chemikal Underground continues to exist and is releasing music from, among others, former Delgados vocalist Emma Pollock, who’s solo sound is not a million miles away from that of her former band.  The album opens in tip top form, ‘Hug The Harbour’ and especially ‘I Could Be A Saint’ are as good as anything on the last few Delgados albums, both feature snaking song structures that coil and twist unpredictably with impressively muscular drumming and heavy bass lines prominent.  Nothing else quite matches those tracks but the maturer sound of ‘Hate’ or ‘Universal Audio’ is echoed in the piano pop of ‘House On The Hill’ (co-written with Kim Edgar) and the fizzy, hook laden ‘Confessions’; that said the jazzy ‘Nine Lives’ does prompt a move away from any previous signature sound.

VOGELENZANG RANK : 6.90

Sample Track: Emma Pollock ‘Hug The Harbour’

V O G E L E N Z A N G R A N K S   S T A N D I N G S - March 2010

1. 7.45 – Spoon ‘Transference’ (Anti) 25/01/2010
2. 7.29 – Gorillaz ‘Plastic Beach’ (EMI) 08/03/2010
3. 7.15 – Drive By Truckers ‘The Big To Do’ (PIAS) 15/03/2010
4. 7.13 – Four Tet ‘There Is Love In You’ (Domino) 25/01/2010
5. 7.08 – Watson Twins ‘Talking To You, Talking To Me’ (Welk) 08/02/2010
6. 7.00 - Lawrence Arabia ‘Chant Darling’ (Bella Union) 04/01/2010
7. 6.92 – Built To Spill ‘There Is No Enemy’ (ATP) 15/02/2010
8. 6.92 – Holly Golighty And The Brokeoffs ‘Medicine County’ (Damaged Goods) 29/03/2010
9. 6.90 – Emma Pollock ‘The Law Of Large Numbers’ (Chemikal Underground) 01/03/2010
10. 6.80 – Archie Bronson Outfit ‘Coconut’ (Domino) 01/03/2010
11. 6.79 – The Congos ‘Back In The Black Ark’ (Wrasse) 22/03/2010
12. 6.71 – Adam Green ‘Minor Love’ (Rough Trade) 11/01/2010
13. 6.70 – Massive Attack ‘Heligoland’ (Virgin) 08/02/2010
14. 6.69 – RJD2 ‘The Colossus’ (Electrical Connections) 01/02/2010
15. 6.69 – Charlotte Gainsbourg ‘IRM’ (Because) 25/01/2010
16. 6.60 – Johnny Cash ‘American VI – Ain’t No Grave’ (Mercury) 22/02/2010
17. 6.55 – Scout Niblett ‘The Calcination of Scout Niblett’ (Drag City) 18/01/2010
    

Holly Golighty And The Brokeoffs -Medicine County

HOLLY GOLIGHTY AND THE BROKEOFFS

MEDICINE COUNTY

Released: 29/03/2010

Damaged Goods

Holly Golighty is probably best known for a guest appearance on The White Stripes ‘Elephant’, perhaps less so for her long time collaborations with art Stuckist and garage rock contrarian Billy Childish, both as a member of The Headcoatees and a solo artist. In fact she’s been a fixture in the British underground scene since the early nineties but she has rarely sounded particularly British, for most of her career she has shown more interest in American folk – from early sixties garage rock through blues and country to hillbilly music – over it’s ‘bastardized’ post British Invasion offspring.

For ‘Medicine County’ Golighty has teamed up with her long time musical partner Lawyer Dave, credited as one man band The Brokeoffs, and between them they have produced  a more upbeat album than some of Golightly’s recent work but it essentially draws from the same pool – Weird Old America- and in order to foster as much authenticity as possible the pair have adopted the musical equivalent of method by actually immigrating to rural Georgia to breed horses and record the album in an old farmhouse.

Opening track ‘Forget It’ takes the form of a Julee Cruse weirdo lament plucked straight from some obscure David Lynch movie with ghostly tremelo guitar and odd atmospherics courtesy of a wheezy and ancient organ. ‘Two Left Feet’ is a bit more straight forward, a standard swampy blues track with some gritty bottleneck guitar that growls and jutters as the song ambles along to a primative beat.  Title track is a nasal country and western track of the old school where the dual vocalists bemoan the temperance of a dry county in the Deep South and asks ‘How the hell did we get here?’ – perhaps a reference to their recent move to rural Georgia.  ‘I Can’t Lose’ is an top tapping barn dance song with some Earl Scruggs style banjo and country fiddle.

A number of cover versions crop up across the album and two of them provide both the albums nadir and epoch.  Some where in the middle is call and response murder ballad ‘Murder In My Mind’, a Hitsville House Band cover (Wreckless Eric by any other name). However ‘Blood On The Saddle’ an old traditional folk tune drags rather despite the guest contribution of baritone voiced retro cowboy Tom Heinl. However although not performing this time, Heinl does provide the albums highlight as a songwriter when Holly and Dave cover ‘Escalator’, a twangy backwoods track on the perilous dangers of moving stairways to simple country folk; the track features a tremendously catchy chorus and amusing lyrics delivered deadpan serious and stands head and shoulders above anything else on the album.

VOGELENZANG RANK : 6.92

Sample Track : Holly Golighty And The Brokeoffs ‘I Can’t Lose’