Listening #5

This is a long overdue catch-up of the albums I've bought over the last few months, so I'm going to try to keep each album to less than 100 words so as not to bore you.

Daft Punk Random Access Memories (2013)
Columbia www.randomaccessmemories.com
Ok, so you'd have to have lived under a rock for the last 6 months to have not heard this one, but one thing Daft Punk haven't done over the last 20 years is stand still. RAM forays further into funk than they have before, recruiting Nile Rogers helps add an old skool flavour but on the slower tracks the album does flag somewhat. That doesn't change the fact that when it's on it, it's the party album of the summer.
Highlights: Give Life Back To Music, Lucky, Doin' It Right, Contact.

Wampire Curiosity (2013)
Polyvinyl record Co. www.wampiremusic.com
Less familiar will be less familiar to say the least, and the duo hail from Portland, Oregon. Curiosity is at times a blissful, lo-fi psych-pop affair that reminds me of Of Montreal and to a lesser extent Kurt Vile. I have two main complaints about this album, first all the best songs are at the start, and some of the songs veer into generic driving indie.
Highlights: The Hearse, Orchards.

Savages Silence Yourself (2013)
Matador www.savagesband.com
Savages are an all-girl post-punk four piece from London who wear their influences on their artful sleeves, Siouxsie & the Banshees being the most obvious. It took me a while to get into this album but now I love it, and it seems like it's been a while since there's been a band like this. If you like your haircuts angular, basslines chugging, and drums that sound like they've been recorded in an aircraft hanger you'll like this too.
Highlights: Shut Up, City's Full, She Will.

Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)
Warp Records www.boardsofcanada.com
The return of the elusive scottish electronica duo after an 8 year absence was greeted with almost as much online hysteria as My Bloody Valentine's. Tomorrow's Harvest's minimal soundscapes are full of contradictions sounding in turn alien and natural, futuristic and nostalgic, gentle and menacing and it is these juxtapositions that make it so enthralling.
Highlights: (None/All)

Chelsea Light Moving Chelsea Light Moving (2013)
Matador  www.chelsealightmoving.com
Chelsea Light Moving is alt-rock god Thurston Moore's new side project band, and it all sounds very familiar, in the best possible way. Thurston's drawl, the teetering on the edge of tunefulness melodies, the sudden lurching changes of pace, the pounding drums. The one way this seems to differ from Sonic Youth's output is that it plays with heavier, metal sounds at times as well as looking back to hardcore punk's fury. What's not to like?
Highlights: Sleeping Where I Fall, Alighted, Burroughs.

She & Him Volume 3 (2013)
Merge Records www.sheandhim.com
Alt-Folk axe for hire & Bright Eyes collaborator M. Ward and kooky actress Zooey Deschanel might seem like an odd pairing, but a shared love of Phil Spector and pretty harmonies and it all makes perfect sense. Now I have to admit to having a crush on the delectable Miss Descahanel which colours my opinion somewhat, but Volume 3, is as close to perfect as pop music gets for me, the sunbeams practically urst out of the stereo speakers.
Highlights: Never Wanted Your Love, I Could've Been Your Girl, Somebody Sweet To Talk To, Sunday Girl.

Danny & the Nightmares Death of Satan (2013)
Munster Records www.vampisoul.com
The familiar lisp, the themes of love, Satan, and painfully lo-fi production will for many may be welcome, others will be mystified about the adoration he receives. For me it's the former, Daniel Johnston makes some of the purest music, honest, full of the joy of just making music, and in a full band setting as here it's really a joy to behold. He's probably best known for the simpler, just him & guitar songs but this is probably closest to what he's heard is in his head all these years.
Highlights: Mentally Ill, Satanic Church, Lucifer Tonite, Walk In The Truth

These New Puritans Field of Reeds (2013)
Infectious Music www.thesenewpuritans.com
I somehow lost track of Southend's These New Puritans after their taut art-rock debut and skipped the second album so Field of Reeds came as quite a surprise to me. Gone are the tumbling beats and angular guitars, replaced by orchestras, jazz & electronica subtleties, exemplified on Fragment Two. The skittering beats return to an extent on V, but with a more organic feel than on their Beat Pyramid debut. Move over The Horrors, you're no longer the best band from Southend.
Highlights: Fragment Two, V(Island Song), Organ Eternal.

Fuck Buttons Slow Focus (2013)
ATP Recordings www.fuckbuttons.com
If Boards of Canada's style of electronica is more soothing and pastoral, then Fuck Buttons is far more aggressive and difficult. This doesn't sound very attractive I know, but it's done with impeccable skill, and using repetition even the most abrasive beats and sounds burrow their way inside your head. Fuck Buttons 3rd album, keeps pushing at the edges to see what they can make addictive and listenable with, for the most part, great success.
Highlights: Brainfreeze, Sentients, Hidden Xs.

Ghostface Killah Twelve Reasons To Die (2013)
Soul Temple www.12reasonstodie.com
Less of a solo album from the Wu-Tang Clan member, as a full collaboration with producer/composer Adrian Younge. Twelve Reasons To Die is a concept album that tells the story of a 1960's mafia enforcer killed by his employers, who returns as an avenger when records infused with his ashes are played. There are of course numerous appearances from his bandmates, but the cinematic, Ennio Morricone & blaxploitation influenced music keeps this record unlike any hip-hop record I've heard before.
Highlights: I Declare War, Blood On The Cobblestones, The Rise Of The Ghostface Killah.

Reading #3: Graphic Novels (Pt2)

Welcome to the second part of my journey into the superhero comic book universe, as you can see this time mostly from the DC Comics stable. So let's get stuck in...

Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? (DC Comics)
Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert
I'd been interested to read Neil Gaiman's take on the cowled one for a while, even more so when I learned that it was about the death of Batman. Bruce Wayne has finally been beaten and his friends and enemies gather in a backstreet bar for his funeral, and begin to tell their own stories about the caped crusader. Through their conflicting stories about his death the truth at the heart of Batman is revealed, it's a very interesting & clever concept. The art is pretty good, the advantage for illustrators is how dark and dramatic the night makes everything, plus Batman has a very iconic silhouette. The two back-up stories in the book are alot of fun, the first looks at Batman & the Joker on their time off from the page, in the second a documentary maker interviews Batman's many enemies.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 4/5

Batman: Cacophony (DC Comics)
Kevin Smith/Walt Flanagan/Sandra Hope
I picked up Cacophony when I saw it was written by Kevin Smith, I've been a fan of Smith's films since my time at university and actually bought a Jay & Silent Bob comic many, many years ago. Smith's story sees Bat come up against a new foe, the eponymous Cacophony, who is silent other than imitations of noises, this new villain seems to be hunting vigilantes. I didn't really "get" the point of Cacophony as a villain, but I did like the modern twist Smith gave to the story and the genuinely funny lines the Joker had.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 3/5

Hellboy #2: Wake The Devil (Dark Horse Comics)
Mike Mignola
The second book in the Hellboy series is as all action as the first, which makes it suffer a little as I would have liked to learn more about the characters than I did. Hellboy is once again battling Nazis who, under instruction from Rasputin, are enlisting the vampire Giurescu. I like the way mythology and history are used, and we do find out more about Rasputin and the higher power whom he serves.
Artwork: 5/5 Story: 3/5

Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? (DC Comics)
Alan Moore/Curt Swan/George Perez/K. Schaffenberger
I found out about 'Whatever...' and 'Red Son' in Little White Lies magazine's Man of Steel special, and was instantly interested in this book as I had read Moore's peerless Watchmen and V For Vendetta a year or two ago. Like it's Batman namesake, this is a death of Superman story, but sadly I did not find it anywhere near as interesting. I found the story very contrived and cliched, squeezing in every hero and villain from Superman's past imaginable including plenty a novice like me had never heard of and just found plain silly, and the artwork wasn't much better. The ending however did provide a clever little twist though, which I won't reveal here.
Artwork: 1/5 Story: 2/5

Superman: Red Son (DC Comics)
Mark Millar/Dave Johnson/Kilian Plunkett/A. Robinson/W. Wong
Red Son is an 'elseworld' story, where an iconic hero is placed into a different situation to see what would happen. In Red Son, Kal-El's ship crash lands in the USSR instead of the USA, in this version of events Russia wins the Cold War, Lex Luthor becomes president of the United States, and Batman is a russian terrorist. This was a brilliant and fascinating re-imagining of the Superman story in total contrast to the Millar's Civil War which featured in my first graphic novel post. The artwork was also excellent, drawing on the distinctive russian communist propaganda of the last century. I'll definately be finding more 'elseworld' graphic novels after this.
Artwork: 5/5 Story 5/5