I really hope that on reading these reviews you don't think I'm some miserable curmudgeon. It's just with increased quantity comes lower quality control. Anyone can get release a below par record nowadays so there's more coming out. Anyway, if i'm getting you down, just skip to the end. See? I'm not harsh all the time!
Love O
f Diagrams – Mosaic (Matador)
Love Of Diagrams are a trio from Melbourne and are decidedly more twee than the usual bands that come out of Australia. Ordinarily this would be cause for celebration, but in this case it’s resulted in a rather drab and uninteresting end product. Most of it passes you by in a rather murky and muddy mess, but the gothic The Pyramid and the female post-punk skewed guitars of At 100% are worth a listen.
The Ponys – Turn The Lights Out (Matador)
Ok, let’s cross the Atlantic and see if The Ponys from Chicago can brighten things up a bit. Turn The Lights Out is their third album so you’d think they’d be assured in their sound by now. Not so. The only things to recommend this album are the spiralling wall of guitars on Shine, the spooky prog psychedelia of Pickpocket Song and the title track. The latter is rather fine indie, taking a Gruff Rhys tune and adding a J Mascis slacker yawn and producing a cool thing indeed. It’s just a shame you have to wade through the rest of this below par album to find it.
The Scaramanga Six – The Dance Of Death (Wrath)
And so we have to return home to find the best album of the batch. The Scaramanga Six are one of those delightful bands that refuse to be pigeonholed by moving too fast for you to keep up with. I mean, look at this. You want something that starts like Pinball Wizard before hopping off into hyperactive pop psychobilly with all the spookiness of Ghost Town? Here’s The Throning Room. You want to cross the Kaiser Chiefs and Misty’s Big Adventure? I give you Baggage. A grandstanding song in the manner of eighties Julian Cope? The Collector. An eccentric taleteller with metal hammering moments? We have Vesuvius. Add to all that songs that sound like they’re from weird musicals about different typing fonts (Helvetica) and big clanging stomping and yelling metal pieces (I See Red and The Towering Inferno) and you have an incredibly weird and wonderful album that you really ought to check out.
Love O
f Diagrams – Mosaic (Matador)Love Of Diagrams are a trio from Melbourne and are decidedly more twee than the usual bands that come out of Australia. Ordinarily this would be cause for celebration, but in this case it’s resulted in a rather drab and uninteresting end product. Most of it passes you by in a rather murky and muddy mess, but the gothic The Pyramid and the female post-punk skewed guitars of At 100% are worth a listen.
The Ponys – Turn The Lights Out (Matador)
Ok, let’s cross the Atlantic and see if The Ponys from Chicago can brighten things up a bit. Turn The Lights Out is their third album so you’d think they’d be assured in their sound by now. Not so. The only things to recommend this album are the spiralling wall of guitars on Shine, the spooky prog psychedelia of Pickpocket Song and the title track. The latter is rather fine indie, taking a Gruff Rhys tune and adding a J Mascis slacker yawn and producing a cool thing indeed. It’s just a shame you have to wade through the rest of this below par album to find it.
The Scaramanga Six – The Dance Of Death (Wrath)
And so we have to return home to find the best album of the batch. The Scaramanga Six are one of those delightful bands that refuse to be pigeonholed by moving too fast for you to keep up with. I mean, look at this. You want something that starts like Pinball Wizard before hopping off into hyperactive pop psychobilly with all the spookiness of Ghost Town? Here’s The Throning Room. You want to cross the Kaiser Chiefs and Misty’s Big Adventure? I give you Baggage. A grandstanding song in the manner of eighties Julian Cope? The Collector. An eccentric taleteller with metal hammering moments? We have Vesuvius. Add to all that songs that sound like they’re from weird musicals about different typing fonts (Helvetica) and big clanging stomping and yelling metal pieces (I See Red and The Towering Inferno) and you have an incredibly weird and wonderful album that you really ought to check out.
That's harsh on The Ponys. Massive fan of the band. This 3rd LP is more accessible than normal.... but it's still good. They're a great live band too. :-)