A bit of a rediscovery next….. Tusks is the pseudonym of a young woman called Emily Underhill whose music I had previously bought off bandcamp.

 

Now signed to the One Little Indian label she has released a couple of vinyl EP’s and the latest is called False

 

The opening track For You is all twitchy electronica and the closest sound I can think of is the band Grice with maybe a bit of Portishead thrown in

 

The title track False is a more traditional sounding rock song and maybe closer to what I originally heard her do on the Ghost single from a few years back but my favourite track would be the ballad, Ivy.

 

There is an accompanying EP of a remix for each song which is interesting but hardly essential.

 

All four tracks are self-compositions and show a lot a talent which hopefully won’t take too long to produce a full album

Oh dear.... The Mission return with Another Fall from Grace and I an find very little to say about it.

Three original members and a support cast list to die for (Gary Numan, Julianne Regan, Martin Gore and Ville Valo) but it's all so unmemorable.....  I couldn't even guess which track Numan was on until I read the sleeve notes and even now I'm not sure he's actually on it

It's meant to be the album that follows First & Last and Always and in a way you can see that with Adams' bass to the fore and Hussey adopting a very low register on most of the vocals but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a great Mission album - more a Sisters curio

There are a couple of great tracks though

• The first is the big dumb sing along of Met-A-Morphis which contemplates old age and the death of Bowie with a nagging chorus.
• The second is Jade which is a glorious slow burning classic in the traditional Mission manner

With 12 tracks and only the two mentioned (and the title track) showing any signs of staying power in my memory it's not a great return - It may get better with repeated listens but for now it's a disappointment

Two short reviews for two short albums.....

To celebrate 20 years, Placebo have released a six track EP. First up is a cover of Life's What You Make It from Talk Talk. Sensibly it keeps the original guitar lines but replaces the deep mournful piano chords with big squelches of keyboard which sort of works.... The other big difference is obviously the vocals and you either enjoy the whine of Mr Moloko or can't stand it so this won't change any opinions. The nominal single is a new track called Jesus' Son which is a bouncy blast very reminiscent of what they sounded like circa Nancy Boy.  There are also two inconsequential B sides but the gems are two live versions of Twenty Years. This is probably my favourite Placebo track so one full live band version recorded in France and a piano led acoustic version recorded in Russia are all the reason I need to make this purchase


The new Winterfylleth album is only five tracks long but no covers or live tracks here. Where some extreme bands are off diversifying their sound (hello Opeth and Ulver) this is the sound of a band who know what their strengths are and are happy to stick with the formula. The title track, The Dark Hereafter, is only 4 minutes long and might even be considered an attempt at mainstream metal. Rapid drums, a hint of melody and almost straightforward. After that the tracks get longer, more complex and darker. Green Cathedral is a 13 minute epic, much slower and with some very interesting choral effects. A bit like Placebo though, you either like what this band does or you don't and this new album won't change your mind either way.

Saw a review claiming September 1991 was the greatest month in rock for new releases but I disagree - the last six weeks have been the best I can ever remember for releases.....

We have had (in order) - Myrkur, New Model Army, Marillion, Insomnium, The Mission, Winterfylleth, Alcest, Placebo and Shovels & Rope

Album 18 and Marillion give us the F.E.A.R....

All Marillion albums are great (bar the woeful Somewhere Else) but it's been a long time since they released back to back albums I fully adore and now for the first time since Brave and Afraid of Sunlight we have that

The album consists of 3 multi part epics, a couple of shorter stand alone tracks and a coda which refrains an earlier track. The stand out track is four part The New Kings  which berates bankers, worries about Russian oligarchs and considers conspiracy theories of 9/11

This is being called an angry  and political album but it's a stately anger along the lines of King of Sunset Town from the first album with Hogarth rather than fist in the air calls for revolution.
(As an aside it's taken them a long time to catch up - NMA were singing about refugees in 2005 on Carnival and I was listening to Miserylab singing "too big to fail" in 2012 so well done on finally tackling the big issues)

Steve Rothery unleashes soaring guitar solo's throughout and album which is full of sumptuous keyboards. Lyrically this is up there with any post Fish album and musically there is a feel of Misplaced Childhood. Check out The Leavers v: One Tonight with the plaintive piano notes being picked out and the drum run up to the chorus - It's really just Lavender 2.0 !!

As ever with this preorder albums the packaging and artwork is magnificent  and worth the extra money

This month has to be one of the best ever months for musical releases and this is up near the top of the pile.

A very short review..... Insomnium have just released Winter's Gate and below (in full) is the track listing as taken from the album cover:

1: Winter's Gate (40:02)

Yep, that's right, one track based on a Norse Viking saga. So what do you think it sounds like?
Think Tubular Bells with way more guitar and death metal growling - This is just absurdly epic



As an aside  it appears the best format to listen to such excess is the CD.

The CD allows you to hear the whole 40 minutes in one track as it should be whereas the vinyl, for obvious reasons, has to be split in to two tracks. I-Tunes however take this even further and in their stupidity have the album listed for download as seven separate tracks, all under 7 minutes. The rationale I guess is that the sort of people who only download have the attention span of a goldfish and therefore can't comprehend the idea of a lengthy piece of music but that is their loss.....

Now this is weird.... I have a new album from the New Model Army nd it's not my go to album of the moment. This says more about the abundance of fantastic albums around rather than a comment on how good Winter is

I think also the last album Between Dog and Wolf was the best ever sounding NMA album. For that recording they broke with tradition and utilised a studio fully with multi tracking of drums and a full on sonic polish from Joe Baresi (Tool, Apocalyptica). For this album they have resorted back to a band in the studio recording and whilst there is a live energy to the music it just sounds flat compared to Dog and Wolf

But to the music - the opener is helpfully called the Beginning and stretches to nearly 7 minutes which in NMA terms is a lifetime ! It builds slowly but never drags before the crescendo. Burn the Castle is the most direct political song they have done for a while, Vengeance for the 21st Century with a chorus that just needs to be shouted.

Echo November is a short 3 minute blast of melody with added female backing vocals but the absolute jewel is Born Feral... What seems to be a brooding tale of what it's like to be the hardest man on an estate who can see the end of his supremacy. It builds on a loping beat before turning into a pulsing tribal rhythm and is easily the highlight of the album.

Lyrically it's as good as anything Justin Sullivan has written in the last 22 years - check out the acoustic Die Trying and it refugee tale

I still think 13 tracks is still too long for an album and  if it had cut 2 tracks for use as B-sides the album wouldn't be any worse for it. However that is just nit picking and what is just another fantastic set of NMA songs done in their own inimitable style.