The Go-Betweens' frontman dies

Just a quick post to share the shock of hearing Grant McLennan, singer of The Go-Betweens, has suddenly died in his sleep aged only 48, one year after releasing Oceans Apart, the latest album of the band, once again critically acclaimed and well received by the audience. The Australian band went from the new wave success of Cattle And Cane to the guitar pop hit of Streets Of Your Town, with a break between the late 80s and the late 90s which gave space to the solo careers of Mc Lennan and Robert Foster.

I don't have all their albums, but their compilation '1978-1990' is one of my favourite records and I've always liked the most of the stuff I've heard, the earlier sounding like quality new wave and then developing into something which could have been placed between the lighter guitar pop of The Smiths and the sophisticated approach of Prefab Sprout.
Their music always sounded like anticipating the next step in the trend of alternative guitar pop and has been influential to bands like REM and Belle And Sebastian, though I've always found The Go-Betweens far superior in talent and style...
Read more on The Go-Betweens website.

Gabrielles Wish - Reformer

You won't believe me, I know. But I won't change my mind just because of this. It's quite a paradox, sometimes to be honest you gotta lose your credibility. I'm just writing what I feel. I feel Reformer by Gabrielles Wish is the album of the decade. So far. But we're already in the second half. Yes, even New Order's masterpieces of these years, Get Ready and Waiting For the Sirens Call, have a tough time against this astonishing record.
You know I'm a Gabrielles Wish fan. I started a fan site three years ago and they asked me to make it official. But this is all a coincidence. Or maybe not. Of course, if they hadn't blown me away so much when they supported New Order in 1998, I wouldn't have discovered them, and I wouldn't have become such a fan. Everything that happened since then made me an even bigger fan. I bought the first two EPs, and they were even better than the expected. When I started the site, they sent me some records I hadn't found yet, and those were still even better than the expected. But what I mean here is if I hadn't ever heard about them and I heard Reformer by accident, I'd be still totally blown away, even more than the first time I saw them.

Because Reformer is even a major further improvement to anything they've released before, the absolute beauty of this record, from the first minute to the last, is truly amazing. It's virtually flawless, and there are so many different sound and emotions here. I'm getting used to the fact the best bands are remaining a secret kept in underground cults, but once again I can only wonder why people are wasting time and money with bands which won't ever give them anything remotely comparable to the majesty of Reformer.
You won't believe me. Well, believe your ears at least. You still know when music is good, don't you? On the Gabrielles Wish official site there's a section named Sounds, packed with downloadable MP3 files, mostly full length singles, rarities and live material. There's also a special page for the Reformer Sampler. This link opens into another window, so you can download and hear the files and read my post at the same time and get an idea of what I mean.
I had been lucky enough to hear recordings of recent Gabrielles Wish gigs and I had been already impressed by the new songs. The best of the new songs, for me, was definitely Claw (check file 07 for the full live version and 01 for the album sample), and I'm happy they've chosen it as the first track on Reformer. In the live version Rob's voice was filtered like through a megaphone and the chorus choir resembled a bunch of drunk hooligans and I found it really cool. The studio version is much cleaner and is the best example of the excellent production of the whole album, the choir has been changed to an equally fabulous ethereal choir backeded by female vocals. The sound is fantastic, great bass and guitar... we just gotta hope Paul Ryan has still time for the band though he has announced he has been forced to reduce it because of work commitments, but his guitar plays an essential role in Reformer... and you also gotta notice, in the whole album as well, that the entry of Karen Leatham (formerly in Wonky Alice, The Fall and The Sons Of God, the band of The Chameleons' Mark Burgess) in the band has brought a further improvement. She plays bass and guitar too, but it's her keyboard which really stands out on the whole album.
After such an epic start Gazelle (sample 05) brings us back to the angular post punk we can expect from Gabrielles Wish at their best, enhanced by a liquid bass which echoes New Order's Peter Hook and a minimal trumpet (unusual for this band) which recalls the best A Certain Ratio.
Unfortunately there's no sample for the sound hurricane which is 2 Much (so you'll discover new songs when hearing the album you can buy at Piccadilly and Vox Pop), where the guitar goes from the merciless noise of the verse to the delicate harmonics of the chorus..
Flu Jab has a strong rhythm in the verse and spooky noises in the melancholic chorus, with the bonus of a wonderful piano in the interlude, it's like Brian Eno producing Happy Mondays jamming with Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the result is better than what you could ever expect.
Say (sample 02) is a perfect example of the incredible variety of sounds and emotions in this album, it's an acoustic song enriched by atmospheric sounds, touching female backing vocals and a wonderful violin.
This delicate moment is brutally followed by New York Girl (sample 06), a heavy rock monster and a growing grand finale pumped by a trumpet bringing the tension to the max.
A similar technique in Elizabeth, where a long instrumental part growing slowly to a powerful ending brings us to Rob's emotional voice.
The 12 minutes of Optical One have the essence of the whole album in one song, it's a powerful rock song with an ambient interlude which reaches moments of astonishing grace like this passage (sample 03) from the heavenly raindrops of the keyboard to a delicate guitar recalling the best Vini Reilly from The Durutti Column.
The album is closed by the instrumental Position Oldham St Manchester (sample 04), the fabulous late night trip of a guitar in the most lively street of Manchester, between atmospheres recalling Robert Fripp, clear sounds and acid noises. Once again Gabrielles Wish make the perfect soundtrack for their own city, just like they did with the electronic Hood in the Golded Up EP... when you hear music like this you just can see again Manchester, if you've ever been there... if you haven't, you can hear what it looks like, or see what it sounds like... you know what I mean.
The vast audiences have missed 10 years of great music by Gabrielles Wish. They'll probably miss this masterpiece too. But what about you, are you going to miss the album of the decade? Maybe it won't be your album of the decade, but are you sure you're going to hear anything better this year at least?

Psychedelic Furs' leader's solo album

Preview Richard Butler's CD, download rarities and win signed stuff!
In the post-punk scene, The Psychedelic Furs were a truly special band. Sounding like David Bowie (with a kinda sexy sore throat after too many smokes) fronting a punk band, they enjoyed mainstream success mantaining credibility and a rock sound at a time when 'rock-ism' was an offence. The songs kept an alternative attitude, but had a great talent for accessible tunes, a powerful deep bass, acid noise guitars and most of all a fabulous saxophone player. Their self-titled debut album remains a masterpiece more than 25 years later and still sounds fresh. An interesting frontman, an interesting sound, songs balanced between the innovative and the commercial, the hits came with Sister Europe, Pretty In Pink and Love My Way...

In the late 80s the Furs started having a tough time in a scene which was rapidly evolving and the cruel mainstream system didn't wait too long to reject them. Richard Butler founded Love Spit Love but while the scene kept changing the cult of The Psychedelic Furs didn't cease, it did increase actually. Successful artists like Annie Lennox and Elvis Costello, established and emerging bands like Buffalo Tom, Counting Crows and The Rapture, and a techno guru like William Orbit, they all covered the Furs' songs. The mainstream realised that while they weren't going to sell like in their golden years they still had a considerable following and so their albums got reissued and the band reunited for a tour.
Butler, though, never gave up the idea of a solo career. After a couple of soundtracks, in 2004 he recorded a song for the ironic Johnny Bravo cartoon with Vince Clark from Erasure. Nothing strange if you think 20 years before he was doing synth-pop versions of Kurt Weill's The Three Penny Opera. How cool is daring to be so different?

This year finally sees the release of his debut solo album, simply self-titled Richard Butler (out April 18th), on Kock Records, one of the biggest and most varied indie labels in America (Ringo Starr, Howard Jones, The Kinks' reissues, classical, jazz, country, rap, and... Barney the cartoon!). What we can hear so far is really promising, emotional music and a sophisticated sound for sensitive lyrics and just a more intimate feel than The Psychedelic Furs. Butler wrote and produced the record with Jon Carin, a musician who worked with artists like Bryan Ferry and David Gilmour, and says he had a great influence on this sound.
You can hear the excellent single Good Days Bad Days streaming from a special page on his site, Richard Butler Online.

There's also a contest where you can win handwritten lyrics (framed and signed, with a CD cover), signed promo singles and signed photos.
Check also Richard Butler on MySpace, where you can hear three songs streaming: the single (you also find the breath-taking lyrics, dealing with the concept of undoing your life, rewinding back everything, with words like 'I want to unread every book that my eyes laid on, unsay everything I've said'), Broken Aeroplanes and most of all the amazing California, a touching song with a wonderful keyboard which could be on Bowie and Eno's Low if it was made today.
The Psychedelic Furs site Burned Down Days is also recommended. In the media section you'll find the covers by Costello etc. I've mentioned above and another page with Richard Butler's acoustic sets, interviews, soundtracks and yes, that Kurt Weill song and even that Johnny Bravo thing.

Opium - Under A Daylight Moon

Alright, you might guess my excuses for writing the first post of the year by half March, so I better not give any. Right to the subject of the post, which is a forgotten gem of the Opium discography, their debut album which was released back in 1995, already on the Neuropa label. Now you can rediscover it by catching one of the few copies which are still left directly from the core of the project, Alex Macpherson (formerly a bassist of The Wake, a great Factory band). Just write him here: neuropa@talk21.com
You can bet it's really worth it, the quality of this early release is amazing. The first two tracks will be re-released on the Atlantean single in 2003 (reviewed here almost one year ago), with Mirage being retitled TranSaharan.


But it's the following Nocturne the best song on the album, and probably Opium's best song ever, the one that should definitely get a re-release on the next Opium album we hope to see soon as 11 years is quite a long wait, though there have been some excellent singles in the meantime... This song is extremely emotional, with touching vocals from Jane Jardin Love and a wonderful deep bass which somehow reminds New Order's Peter Hook's best works when he plays the rhythm bass. You could almost think it's Vini Reilly from the Durutti Column playing that delicate guitar solo in the middle...
Macpherson shows almost a classical sensitivity in songs like Morpheus, graced by a piano which could have been composed by a romantic artist of the 19th century, like Chopin or Liszt.
It's the dub of Monsoon and Slowlove which brings us back to the modernity, though there's always a dreamy atmosphere which goes from the ethnic to the esoteric.
The modern and yet mysterious beauty of the woman on the artwork of the cover is a good metaphor for Opium's sound.
The eclectic and original inspiration from this album is shown once again at the end, when the surreal glockenspiel Ostraloid introduces a fabulous cover of Wild Is The Wind, a song brought to success by such artists as Nina Simone and David Bowie.
You find much of what the current music scene is missing on this album (which is closed by the hidden extra of the instrumental of Atlantean), the experimental attitude of bringing the most various influences to make modern music which is looking forward, mantaining the accessibility and the emotional power of the music. You'll wonder where this album has been all these years while you bought a lot of disappointing records and you didn't know it existed. Well, now you know it does, so get it while you still can.

The Best Of 2005 (and Merry Christmas)

01 NEW ORDER
Singles
02 NEW ORDER
Waiting For The Sirens' Call
03 REVENGE
No Pain No Gain - Live 1991
04 MARLENE KUNTZ
Bianco Sporco
05 OFFLAGA DISCO PAX
Socialismo Tascabile
06 TSUJI GIRI : Tsuji Giri
07 SANTO NIENTE
Il Fiore Dell'Agave
08 MORRISSEY : Live At Earls Court
09 PLANET FUNK : The Illogical Consequence
10 ULAN BATOR : Rodeo Massacre


11 MADONNA : Confessions On A Dance Floor
12 DEPECHE MODE : Playing The Angel
13 COLDPLAY : X & Y
14 DIAFRAMMA : Passato, Presente
15 FRANK BLACK : Honeycomb

Other good albums bubbling under came from Jovanotti (Buon Sangue), Bjork (Music From Drawing Restraint 9) and The Darkness (One Way Ticket To Hell).
Excellent singles came from New Order (Waiting For The Sirens' Call), Gabrielles Wish (Here From The Neck Down EP) and Opium (Clarisse).
For the first time in quite a long while we have the best new bands: check out Tsuji Giri in England and Offlaga Disco Pax in Italy.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2006, waiting for some more releases from New Order, Gabrielles Wish and La Skarnemurta!