THE BEAT

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album reviews (updated 29/7/07 ) links

Of Midlands Music

Put together by Matt Tyler's label, Danny Boy Music, KidsLikeDanny's an autism charity album download (on www.kidzlikedanny.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk) compilation of West Mids singer-songwriters. Featuring 16 different acts, both acoustic and electric, there's no individual information but there's plenty here worth checking out. Names that stand out in particular include Amoa (Sunshine In Your Eye), the scuffed folk beat of Angels Exist (U-Turn), Bue Nation's big music I Feel Inspired, young Jacob Lloyd's Two Souls Entwined, a quivering voiced Karl Bayley (Forever Young), the delicate folk of Subrosa (Avoidance) and, of course, Tyler himself. For me though, the standout is the two minute plaintive gentle soft voiced harmonising acoustic Shopping Trolley by Bham duo Motorcyclestunts,a track that makes you want to find out more about their new album Far From Home.

A veritable blast from the past No Memory was the Top 30 80s glampop single by the excellent SCARLET FANTASTIC (pictured left), the duo of Maggie De Monde and Rick Jones that emerged from the ashes of Swans Way. Unfortunately the equally excellent follow up, Plug Me In, stuttered to a half in the lower reaches of the 60s and the album, 24 Hours, bombed. The band fell apart shortly afterwards, Maggie going on to work as Kahal and Kahal with husband Leif and, recently the pair teamed with ex PWEI guitarist Graham Crabbe as The Mighty K and Crabbe for the moody Club Silencio album. Incidentally, Swans Way track Illuminations is being used for a Surf commercial. Now, that's why I can finally cleaning up.

However, No Memory has now been resurrected, re vocalled and given remixes by, among others, Dennis Christopher to transform it into a blissed out club anthem that could well see it back in the charts.

Trailing next month's new studio album On The Leyline, the first on Moseley Shoals since linking with Universal, OCEAN COLOUR SCENE finally have their BBC Sessions released as digital downloads. And rather fine it is too, a 15 track collection (with two versions of Travellers Tune, one rather rockier) that embraces both favourites like Sway and The Day We Caught The Train and lesser known numbers such as Fly Me, Downstream and Spark & Cindy. The highly percussive acoustic session version of Riverboat Song is something of a stunner, giving the track a whole new dimension, while, by way of extra incentive, it also features their covers of the Small Faces' Son Of A Baker and, finally, a scintillating treatment of Ronnie Lane's The Poacher.

Still churning them out MAGNUM return with their 13th studio album, Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow (SPV). It's now pretty much what you'd expect, with soaring bombast rock, vaulting guitar passages, Bob Catley's impassioned vocals and Tony Clarkin's myth and fantasy inspired songs. The band reckon it's on a par with On A Storyteller's Night, their undisputed masterpiece, and while that's overstating the case somewhat there's certainly a clutch of potential Magnum anthemic favourites here in the shape of Like Brothers We Stand, the moody opener When We Were Younger and the ballad Inside Your Head.

Sometime member of Plone, when not playing Top Trumps in Kings Heath Mike Johnston is plonking out tunes on his analog synth as MIKE IN MONO. Case in point Euro Eccentric, a 7" vinyl single for Static Caravan which, along with B side Binary, sounds like Kraftwerk at their most playful.

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Taking their name from the orchestra fronted by Johnny Favourite in Angel Heart, Birmingham five piece SPIDER SIMPSON have been together for three years, supporting Stereophonics and singer Adam Zindani getting six of his songs on the soundtrack of Global Heresy, a straight to DVD movie about a rock band directed by Ipcress File's Sydney Furie and starring Peter O'Toole and Alicia Silvestone. They went on to grab the ears of both Kerrang Radio and Dave Grohl who invited them to record the album in his LA studio with his own producer. That's due out shortly, meanwhile they make their single bow with Heavy Metal Machine/I'm So Tired (Rampant), two samples of riff driving high energy infectious rock n roll that sound, not too surprisingly, a bit like Foo Fighters. We'll be hearing more from them, mark my words.

MICHAEL WESTON-KING's been a busy boy. First up there's his recent Love's A Cover (Glitterhouse) collection of, well, covers actually. Part trawled from assorted tribute albums (some of which remain unreleased) and contributions to music mag giveaways, part harking back to sessions with The Good Sons and a few put together for this album, it is, as such things tend to be, a bit of a mixed bag of styles and genres. Townes Van Zandt's A Song For is slow, dark woods folk, disco chestnut Young Hearts Run Free gets a rootsy make over while he strips Gilbert O'Sullivan's chirpy Alone Again Naturally down to a funeral dirge complete with harmonium and turns on the dreamy orchestral silk for Scott Walker's Big Louise.

It doesn't all work, the alt-country, guitar growling You Are Everything feels like it's trying too hard and John Fogerty's Someday Never Comes is a bit limp country-pop. But, when it sparks, as on a reflectively wistful version of For No One, a simple strummed Simple Twist of Fate, a soulful reading of Marvin Etzioni's Can't Cry Hard Enough and the lovely Phil Ochs ballad No More Songs, with Lou Dalgleish on piano, then it's very good indeed.

On top of that comes the long awaited follow up to A Decent Man, A New Kind of Loneliness (Floating World). With musicians that include Mike Cosgrave, Kevin Forster, Dalgleish and long time collaborator Jackie Leven, it sees him stepping further away from the Americana veined sound that's long distinguished his work as both solo artist and leader of The Good Sons, and entering the rarefied field of classic singer-songwriters.

He's not wholly forgotten and forsaken his roots mind you, as the Texicali'n'Cajun rocking n rolling Let The Waves Break Around Your Face with its hints of Los Lobos or the Gram-like My Heart Stopped Today where he's joined by Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen so readily bear witness.

But listen to the opening, piano cascading Here's The Plan with its swelling chorus, the hymnal piano ballad The Last Hurrah, This Man Can Break So Easily with the shifting time signatures of a Broadway tune, brass flourished troubadour lament swayer Rosenkrantz and Kristian's Gate (I'm Dead) or the poignant domestic abuse regrets big building closer It Will End In Tears, and you'll hear a musician who's risen above pigeonholing genres to produce an album categorised only by its sheer class.

Be warned though, as you might guess from the title lyrically it's a bit of a downer with songs talking of loss, isolation, broken marriages, self-recriminations and, on the simple waltzing From Out Of The Blues, a collaboration with Ron Sexsmith and Don Kerr, a quietly crushing song about the parents of a murdered girl and her killer.

Appropriate then that the album's sole cover should be a harmonium and French horn arrangement of Gilbert O'Sullivan's hymn to sadness and loss, a song that both echoes the emptiness that informs King's own songs and, in the final verse, serves as tribute to his late mother. It's a perfect grace note to arguably the finest album of his career to date.

Birmingham acoustic singer-songwriter MATT TYLER's (pictured left) been knocking around a few years now, releasing a couple of albums on his own Dannyboy label, among them last year's Undercover. A collection of new material's in the pipeline for later this year, but most recently he released Brilliant Disguise, his own Bruce Springsteen tribute album. Such things should generally be approached with caution, several Springsteen cover collections having been known to send fans screaming in pain and outrage. But Tyler can count himself among the ranks of those who have done justice by the Boss, adopting a Nebraska style stripped down approach to uptempo numbers such as Dancing In The Dark, Glory Days and Thunder Road, his throaty delivery serving well on a striking a capella reading of The River that underscores its folk roots. Plaudits too for not just sticking to the usual suspects, but including his interpretations of lesser sung tracks Devils and Dust, Empty Sky and Sad Eyes.

A somewhat tinny production lets things down slightly, but there's no faulting Tyler's performance.

Variously likened to Oasis and Kasabian, the Coventry trio THE ENEMY (right) follow up 60s Brit garage flavoured debut single 40 Days & 40 Nights with It's Not OK (Stiff), a ridiculously catchy dollop of unbridled swirling and circling guitar chords spraying with yet more nods back to the British mod n acid 60s. It won't start revolutions, cure poverty or win them award nominations, but you'll be hard pushed to hear a more air fisting, bounce round the room, slice of jubilant feelgood indie pop.

Also from Coventry and comprising brothers Patch and Paul Lagunas and drummer Rachel Butt, THE RIPPS (left) have their heads firmly buried in the new wave days of The Clash, Buzzcocks and Pistols on debut single Loco (Catskills) while a jerky punk cover of Too Much Too Young seems more indebted to Sham 69 than The Specials. The hype isn't exactly borne out by the single, but with debut album Long Live The Ripps due perhaps there's still revelations in store.

A new name around town THE HEATHERS variously derive from Gloucester, Birmingham and Stirling, and feature veteran sticksman of this parish Rob Peters on drums. Their early demo is promising stuff, offering classic chiming soft burred guitar rock of a Teenage Fanclub persuasion with Heartache And Hairdye and Mime Artist and scratchy urgent folk hued alt-rock on The Healer with Keeping Secrets revealing their moodier brushed acoustic folk-blues side and underscoring the early REM references.

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After all this time, they can play this stuff in their sleep so it's a mark of their vitality that they never sound as if they are. It's relaxed, off the shoulder stuff, the King's vocals gruffly brown and throaty, sounding like he's swallowing a gallon of cuba libre as he sings up a storm on the likes of Barracuda, Trapped In The Web of Love or All Or Nothing. With a clutch of instrumentals (Floyd Dixon's Don't Leave Me Baby and James Giuffre's Big Girl among them) showing off the bands chops on parping saxes, growly organs and throbbing double bass, this is another dose of KP goodtime, limb loosening stuff inviting you in, as the man sings, for Just One Drink and then giving you the run of the bar.

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Fronted by Robert Lloyd, THE NIGHTINGALES were Birmingham's answer to The Fall back in the 80s, second only to Mark E Smith's band in the number of Peel sessions they recorded. They split towards the end of the decade, but after intermittent reunions Lloyd finally put together a new line-up a couple of years back.

Now fully active, they've come up with a new album, Out of True (Iron Man), a rather splendid beast that serves as reminder of Lloyd's sharp, socially conscious songwriting skills and underline just how well his voice has matured over the years

As musically eclectic as ever, it cheerfully ranges from the Captain Beefheart meets Talking Heads (and The Wasp by The Doors) of the steam train rhythmed spoken Born In Birmingham, shades of Bryan Ferry on The Chorus Is The Title, to the mutant rockabilly of Carry On Up The Ante and Bob Luman's 50s hit Let's Think About Living, and the feedback distortion noise of Workshy Wonderland.

Add to that the contrast between the Johnny Cash slow rumble of Black Country and a marvellous dark brown Leonard Cohen style version of Ray Davies's There's A New World Just Opening For Me, with the clattering Beefheart art punk blues of the delightfully titled UK Randy Mom Epidemic and Kevin Coyne's Good Boy, and it's hard to imagine this not cropping up on several year end best of lists.

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Due for release at the start of September, DANIEL RACHEL returns with sophomore album A Taste of Money (Dust) in heel clicking joyful pop mood with a mix of bittersweet acoustic folksy ballads, lazy bluesy roots shuffles, big music belters (with brass) and rock n roll.

It's hard not to notice the influence of Bringing It All On Home era Dylan with rowdy anti-war protest rock n roller The Bucket and Broom Song (which features a duet with Willis) while, produced by and featuring vocals by Simon Fowler and recorded with the original Rachel's Basement line-up, Face The Sun is an unashamed nod to the Bee Gees. Pity though its lovely waltzing folkpop song is marred by an unnecessary thin blues guitar solo.

Still, that and the remixed Driving 'Round the Bend's baggy trousers rock n roller that sounds like a Chas n Dave knees up with Elton John's Crocodile Rock at a Madness revival night, aside, there are few missteps here.

Opening with here, Hotel Room, lyrically inspired by Edward Hopper's paintings and owing perhaps a little to Long Black Veil, Rachel's quivering warble is in fine form, wistful and vulnerable on the soaring anthemic chorus single Let It Be Mine, relaxed in the smoky jazz vibes with Tivoli Flicks, an affectionate nostalgic memoir of Birmingham's old art house cum porn cinema, now The Electric.

Two former singles, the vintage McCartney-like Dear Friend and the Northern Soul meets folk pop beat with horns of Pearl are included (though b-side An Englishman Abroad could profitably have been omitted) while among the previously unreleased material you'll find 20,000 Fools, one of his earliest songs, inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, melancholic things we leave behind strings and piano ballad Shadows and Dust (surely influenced by Tim Buckley) and the simple acoustic strummed Ode To The Fallen Heroes. Arguably though, the standout though is Hearts and Bones, a nonsense lyric jaunty accordion squeezing good time folk number designed for cider swigging sessions, produced by John McCusker and featuring not only him but the entire Kate Rusby band.

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(update December 06)

Trawling members from Stratford and thereabouts, THE DOCTOR TEETH BIG BAND are a good time boogie band, the sort that you tend to find belting out a sweaty set down the local pub. Self-penned, mostly by barrelhouse piano man Simon Kemp, their Rhythm Is Our Business (Big Bear) album pretty much what it says on the can, delivering old school swing and jive with a hefty splash of 30s and 40s jazz and a pinch of ska. They don't have the panache of a Jools Holland or Bill Wyman, but tracks like Spread A Little Love And Get High, Ruby In The Red Dress (which owes a debt to Louis Jordan), and the Tom Waits gone gospel nod Cold Cold Ground, and the piano pumping Hey Brother, Can You Spare Some Jive are guaranteed to have you cutting the proverbial rug should you encounter them in the flesh.

A Birmingham four piece, DELUKA are clearly in love with 80s electronica and casio bleeps, a fascination they then smear with scuzzy guitars and juddering beats. The result, enhanced by the delivery and phrasings of singer Ellie who calls to mind a less Teutonic Siouxie and a less gymnastic Toyah, an impression enhanced by the melodics and rhythms of Flashbacks and I'll Wait, although debut single plug track Stop Stop (Kill Sound) is surely the illegitimate offspring of early Depeche Mode, Flying Lizards and The Normal.

They may have appropriated the name, but DELTA (pictured right) have nothing to do with the late lamented and self-promotingly challenged Birmingham guitar band formed by brothers James and Patrick Roberts. Rather they're Brierley Hill duo Andrew Grainger and Naomi Coleman, he providing most of the songs and she the bulk of the singing on debut album, The Life & Times of Jim Vallie & Sweet Roslyn (Top 5), a fusion of country, soul, blues, folk, garage and indie that variously nods to the White Stripes, Joplin, Nick Drake, Neil Young, Dylan and CS&N. Shifting from the gentle 60s folk rock acoustics of Travelling Glass House Home to the bluesy country rock raunch of Ten Years In Harlem (with a riff that recalls Mother's Little Helper), the choppy Silver and Gold and the psychedelic witchywood folk of The Witch and Four Letter Word, they could well find favour with those who've latched on to The Coral or Magic Numbers but find that doesn't stretch their horizons enough.

In the works for a while now, but finally Jeremy Paige (pictured right) has come up with a RUMBLEFISH collection, 1234 (Summerhouse) gathering together their four early singles (and assorted B sides) of this much overlooked and underrated brass flavoured 80s Birmingham outfit. Formed in 1986 after guitarist Paige left Terry & Gerry to record his own material, they debuted with Solid Wood, a marvellously chirpy track with parping trumpet that recalled The Woodentops, moving on the following year to release the sublimely lovely and leafily world weary Tug-Boat Line. Picking up the tempo on the pulsing Dum-Dum and the sinuous prowl and tumbling chorus hook of Everything Electrical, a track that underscored the bubbling hint of wormy menace in the band's songs.

The urgent driving and a little messy Medicine marked their move to Summerhouse records, The Lodge, Sing Slim and So Lightly all suggesting they were eyeing up the Fall audience. Perhaps the fact two former Nightingales were now in the band had something to do with that. Delayed by the collapse of their distributor, third single, Don't Leave Me, surfaced in 1989, marking a return to a poppier indie sound that called to mind a folksier Smiths. It failed to catch the public ear, as, rather mystifyingly, did their one and only album for Warners (itself due for reappraisal and reissue), leading to the band finally calling it a day. Paige went on to form Low Art Thrill and land a deal with Island, before label wranglings and sell offs consigned their debut album to oblivion before it was even released, prompting Paige to knock the music business on the head. He says he's been playing around with some new material over recent years, so if the old fans come out of the woodwork for this compilation, perhaps he might be inveigled to give it one more round.

Veteran Brum outfit THE MOODY BLUES get another compilation of their early singles and B sides with An Introduction To (Fuel) claiming to offer a 'new unique collection'. Well, they have been given a 24 bit remastering. but the 'new liner notes' are pretty much as basic as they come, simply a cursory trot through their 60s history prior to Days of Future Passed while despite a sleeve flash promising unreleased rarities this seems to consist of just People Gotta Go from a French EP. Greatest hits? Well, there is Go Now, but this incarnation only managed to throw up a couple of other minor chart entries, albeit with the admittedly good soulful pop ballads From The Bottom Of My Heart and I Don't Want To Go On Without You. Other than that, you get debut single Steal Your Heart Away, Time Is On My Side, American flop Stop/Bye Bye Bird, Denny Laine's last outing Boulevard De La Madelaine and last gasp pre Deram resurrection release Life's Not Life. Strictly one for nostalgia completists.

MIKE BETHEL's been plying his trade as singer-songwriter an consummate acoustic guitarist for some years, generally around small clubs and pubs with the occasional arts fest for good measure. It's time he moved up a notch and self-released new album Fenêtrapocrypha might well be the one to do the trick.

A stripped back, sparse and dark affair, at times (I Have Your Outline) he calls to mind early Cat Stevens, while on numbers like Compromised (what it says) and Kalashnikov (a meditation on dubious fame as names become inextricably linked to creations) you'll hear the ghost of Nick Drake (whose work he covers in 'tribute' act Riverman) and strong shades of Roy Harper.

The songs heavy with the smell of dank, autumn leaves, hewn from emotional and political collapse, Camouflage hides an attack on American self-centred misanthropy, This Is Not America affords a cynical look on the state of this nation, while desperation and hope battle together on Daybreak. Elsewhere the impact of drugs boil through Running Out Of Blood, while Weatherman addresses political extremism, leaving only Not Even Dust with its medieval fingerpicked guitar melody to sound a note of optimism. The musical moods could be more variegated and the production sometimes does no favours as he shifts gear from deep growl to near falsetto pitch, but its sombre intensity rewards close listening. And no, I have no idea what the title means.

JENNIFER BOLTON's been busy laying down more demos, still generally within the dance soul pop market, throwing up a couple of impressive results in her self-penned beats slouching Oh Let It Go, moody soul ballad First Time and crunchy Euro club umber Psycho Love. Best though is an inspired slow torch burn cover of old Supremes hit Stop, In The Name Of Love that has all the makings of a radio hit if she can get it out before someone else realises what a great idea it is.

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The Future Crayon (Warp) is a collection of EP and compilation tracks released by BROADCAST (left) over the past decade. It's a trip that takes them from the outer reaches of European Library Music to the inner sanctums of 60s psychedelia, Trisk Keenan's blankly sweet vocals a constant delight in between things like the jerking, brittle post-industrial instrumentals One Hour Empire and Violent Playground or Minus Two's collaboration with BEAST for cut up and mash samples of the Haha Sound album

Elsewhere you'll be happy to find the Kraftwerkian electrostrobepop of  Still Feels Like Tears (also from the Pendulum EP), the hazed narcotics of a druggily lovely Illumination and the swirling spacey swashes of Where Youth And Laughter Go from Extended Play one and two, the spooky folk B side Distant Call, 1998's beats clattering Hammer Without A Master, the stormy sonics from the following year's Test Area, a Morricone influenced Belly Dance and the hard to find pulsing krautrock DDL lifted from 2001's All Tomorrow's Parties compilation.

Given the latent melodies that vein their poppier offerings, it's hard to understand why the band haven't had a higher commercial profile over the years, but as long as they keep turning out such melancholic lullaby delights every few years the faithful will at least remain deliriously fulfilled.

Things seem to have exploded for GUILLEMOTS (right), what with a hit single in the summery splendour of Made Up Love Song # 43 and their debut album Through The Window Pane (Polydor) making the Top 20 and scoring a Mercury Music Prize nomination, one of the few to actually warrant it.

One of the most eclectic and exciting acts to have emerged in the past year, the album's testament to their colourful tapestry of sound, one moment sounding like ELO with Trains To Brazil the next all lushly ambient with the synth washes of come down chill out folk ballad goes Brill Building Little Bear. Then they dive into the magnificent 11 minute epic Sao Paulo with its ambitious kaleidoscope of musical textures (Elton Johnisms included) sweeping away into a vast widescreen kitchen sink presentation before a Latin American fiesta section and an 1812 crescendo (and music box fade out) that bears testament to frontman/keyboard player/songsmith Fyfe Dangerfield's classical training.

And that's not just bombastic pretension. As 20 year old Fyfe Antony Dangerfield Hutchins he wrote a choral piece, O Emmanuel, that was included on a collection of Christmas music alongside work by Britten and Tavener.

The album is a wonderful musical panorama, at once organic and electronic as it pursues its running motif of travel through the carnivalesque Through The Window Pane's world music flavours, the swooping celebratory electropop Annie, Let's Not Wait with its Latin American beats and the gorgeous pastures of romance on Redwings.

Aside from a tenderly fragile yet joyous voice that sounds though he's been possessed by the soul of Jeff Buckley, Dangerfield (and to no lesser extent band cohorts Greig Stewart, MC Lord Magrao and Aristazabel Hawkes) has an expansive musical vision that touches upon genius and madness, producing tracks like A Samba In The Snowy Rain and the six minutes of dreamy, ethereal melancholy that is If The World Ends which are etched with an impossible beauty rarely heard since the vintage days of Scott Walker, Bacharach, Brel and Jimmy Webb.

Wisely keeping their more experimental moments to B sides in favour of the album's classic timeless orchestral pop notes to be found on We're Here and Through The

Window Pane, they've created an album that casts a light of such exuberant optimism as to illuminate the darkest corners of the modern world and find 'majesty in a burnt out caravan', persuading you that life may just be worth it after all.

One of 80s Birmingham's must underrated outfits, the AU PAIRS - drummer Pete Hammond, bassist Jane Munro, and guitarist/vocalists Paul Foad and Lesley Woods - released two albums, Playing With A Different Sex and Sense and Sensuality, before imploding when de factor leader Woods suddenly quit.

Post punk feminist, lesbian/straight agit-funk with a line in scratchy guitars, nervy funky rhythms and left wing socialism that echoed Gang of Four and Wire, they addressed social and gender politics with both dry ironic wit and intellectualism while never forgetting to deliver rhythms that struck straight into the blood stream

Good news then that Sanctuary have released Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology, bringing together both albums and bonus tracks of BBC sessions, 12" and single versions, remixes, live recordings and previously unreleased demos. Perhaps best remembered is the classic gender relations single It's Obvious (here in both album and single versions) with its Joy Division rhythmic beat and Woods intoning the title phrase, but the first album was packed with potent material like the controversial pro-Republican Armagh, Unfinished Business, the jittery sardonic We're So Cool, sexual neurosis nugget Come Again and the wonky, reggae beat Repetition. Among the tracks fleshing out the bonus material is the poky punky pop BBC session of Monogamy, three EP cuts (including Kerb Crawler) and single B side Diet with its scathing 'he works the car, I wash the sink' attack on gender stereotyping.

Reissued here with the 200e remastering, Sense & Sensuality was an even more confident album, reggae influences increasingly in evidence, Munro's bass playing and Woods' fierce Siouxie-like vocals proving the band's molten core. However, for all the potency of tracks like That's When It's Worth It (with greasy horns), the grindingly funky Instant Touch, musically playful jazz skittering Tongue In Cheek, Don't Like Back where Woods channels an indie avant jazz Peggy Lee and the mutant lounge/cabaret Fiasco, the lack of any obvious commercial single kept its exposure strictly within already established circles while reviews were generally less enthusiastic.

Included among the extras, the rough, echoey 1983 demos among the bonus tracks suggest they were starting to look for more accessibility with the folk chant flavoured Runs With Honey, American Colonialism bating rock reggae calypso number Hokka He He with Foad taking vocals, and the previously unreleased pop directed What Kind of Girl. But with Woods' departure the band's fire and sense of purpose flickered out, leaving another name to add to the city's musical list of unfulfilled potential. This is a good time to give them the respect they deserve.

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Sporting a mission statement that describes them as a blend of funk, blues, soul and reggae with the attitude of punk, four piece GOJO MUSIC (pictured laft) is the latest project from Tipton based singer-songwriter Gary O'Dea. A four track EP produced by Martin Stephenson and featuring the liquid guitar of Garry Oliver, Twenty Years of Love & Pain...they hurt the same marries angry protest and world weary hope. Inspired by the story of the late Afghan freedom fighter Abdul Haq, Tell Me Please, Is This How The West Was Won? is a brooding folk-funk groove questioning America's involvement and agenda in Afghanistan while (Get Me On A Bus To) Betterville is a bluesy, harp wailing, slow train chugging song about depression, Distant Friend is a gently strummed folk-blues song about a breaking relationship (Stephenson's influence apparent in the Northern lights ambience) and Time Out a six minute lay back and chill number that namechecks both Hoagy Carmichael and Sweethearts of the Rodeo.

It's a bit rough and ragged in the production stakes and O'Dea's voice isn't always easy on the ears (more Mick Jones that Steve Winwood, which are the two names mentioned in the blurb), but it does a decent enough job furthering his reputation as the Joe Strummer of Tipton.

Over the past couple of years Nuneaton born, Birmingham based singer-songwriter CHRIS TYE has been slowly building a reputation with a constant string of low key pub gigs, demos and a couple of self released EPs. I've always said his time would come and, with the release of debut album Somewhere Down The Line (Headwrecker) it seems it's finally approaching.

His soul drawn to the 60s folk roots of London and Greenwich Village, Tye's blessed with a soft Buckleyesque voice that sounds like it's been on the earth forever and a guitar style than calls to mind the work of Davy Graham and Bert Jansch.

According to Tye the album's a "series of statements documenting how I became a songwriter", so fair enough then it opens with Joanne, a sadness drenched tale of lost love and one of the first songs he wrote. To the best of my knowledge, it and Electric Tracks are the only numbers to have previously surfaced on record.

Pegging itself on themes of home and change, it's not ashamed to wear its influences like a badge of honour, Like Wild Fire, a song he as yet never played live, dating from a period listening to Van Morrison while the beautiful Come Undone is haunted by both Paul Simon and Nick Drake, Sidesteps nods to early Dylan and Beautiful Morning is coloured with tones of an ambient John Martyn.

Though most is hushed and low key, the closing Slow Sad Swing Song does show him lifting the sonics up a notch or two with scraping violin, guitar storms and jazzy drums, and it also plays out into the bonus hidden live version of Fall Like The Sun. He's already recorded tracks for the follow up, among them All There that will feature contribution from Stephen Fretwell. Get in now before the 'new Ed Harcourt' headlines start appearing.

Formerly lead singer with 60s beat combo The Sorrows who scored a 1965 Top 30 hit with Take A Heart (originally a B side for The Boys Blue trivia buffs), Coventry born DON FARDON is probably best known for his 1967 recording Indian Reservation. Coventry Boy (Castle) is the first complete anthology of his recordings, going back to the first two flop singles by The Sorrows and coming up to date with Belfast Boy 2006, the revamped version of his 1970 minor hit tribute to George Best.

Spread across two CDs, its a collection of 60s r&b beat that includes meat and potato covers of The Letter, Back In The USSR and Running Bear, bubblegum (Gimme Gimme Good Lovin', Mississippi Woman), psychedelia (Sally Goes Round The Moon, I'm Alive), clumpy pop (turntable hit Follow Your Drum) and ill-advised attempts to crack the long John Baldry ballad market with the likes of Girl and Delta Queen. And let's not mention his cover of Lola complete with 60 piece orchestra. A footnote at best, but still one worth an ear.

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(update May 06)

The latest compilation from Barry Tomes and GOTHAM RECORDS, Creative Insight Vol 1 (contact barry@gotham-records.com) is a better than usual assemblage of local, mostly unsigned, talent. Sleepyhead lead the charge with the brief but sparkling folksy indiepop of How Was I To Know (think Nizlopi meets Proclaimers), then next up are Butterfly Catchers, a multicultural acoustic jazz-tinged soul quartet whose Doin Time, sung by the sweetly lazing voice of Melissa, slips down like chilled wine. Nuneaton's indie rock The Juliana Down are another promising outfit who might, vaguely, be said to sound like a mix of REM, Oasis, Keane and Blakbud, dance pop soulster Norma Lewis is a regular to these collections and In Your Eyes is no better or worse than her past disco flavoured offerings.

Meredust feature Aaron Yorke on piano and quivering vocals, Meredust are an acoustic indierock combo who've already completed their Topography of Love album Letting Go a catchy soaring midtempo ballad that makes you want to seek out the rest.

In the competent but less interesting ranks: Jon Baz is electropop with Erasure and Soft Cell influence The Valuable Fools a seasoned acoustic rock crew whose line-up includes Druidspear viola player Paul Miller, Amanda Greenwood does folk disco and sounds like a less big lunged Jennifer Rush, The Yesmen play throaty guitar pop with 60s and surf twang influences, 400 Horses are your standard female fronted old school pup hard rock outfit, G.o.r.g.e.o.u.s much in the mode of the punkier side of The Levellers, but (on the poppily rowdy The Prodigal scum) with trumpets and Jamie Watson (who had a No 1 in the 1995 HiNRG charts with All Cried Out) another electro pop boy with Erasure aspirations.

There's two fairly well known names here too. Alex Vann has been around for a few years, solo, fronting Lift and, you may recall, as a duo with Liam O'Connell. He's a talent, though Project 10, a soundtracky instrumental with sampled voices and sounds, is probably not the best representation of what he does. And of course Ben Calvert's already a familiar face on the acoustic live circuit, Valopicella Girl a shuffling summery 60sish folk blues with harmonica solo and a definite touch of the Donovans.

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(update April 06)

Four years ago Maggie Kahal (left) aka Maggie K de Monde, formerly Maggie Edmond of Swans Way and Scarlet Fantastic fame, and hubbie Leif surfaced as Mighty K and the Golden Claw with a torchy Nina Simone like track called Mystery Trail on the Brazil 5000-2 compilation. Now it's found a new home as part of their debut album Club Silencio (Dirtbag Baby) as the shortened MIGHTY K, a collaboration with Crabbi from Pop Will Eat Itself on a set of heady, atmospheric late night chill out come down soul blues that serve ample witness to a list of influences that encompass David Lynch, French and Italian cinema, Portishead, Royksopp and 60s TV themes.

Wonderfully enervated and druggy, So Far Away sets the mood , slouching its narcotic way into the bloodstream in spooky Twin Peaks fashion before fading out on a rewritten borrowing from Ashes To Ashes.

Moscow Underground again shows their cinematic inclinations, a gypsy flavoured rippling beats instrumental with choral soarings, Groovy is pretty much the trip hop party tune it sounds to be, Heart So Wild a nod to Leone and men with no names, Leif's spoken drawled slightly tongue in cheek Remember My Name (Cowboy Song) introducing a hint of Lee Hazlewood country into the plangent chords panorama.

Never Lonely could be a mutant Automatically Sunshine, Airless Careless a doo doo da doo pop skipper stapled to fractured club beats, Never Lonely allPeggy Lee for the 25th century and closer Spleen bringing things back to what a meeting between English trad folk and Angelo Badalementi in the Andalucian mountains might sounds like. Pretty stunning really.

Coincidentally, Maggie's brother, photographer PAUL EDMUNDS, is also in the limelight with his recently published Duran Duran Unseen (Reynolds & Hearn), a collection of candid and casual photographs taken of the band between 79-82 , annotated with recollections and anecdotes from the band but also such names on the Rum Runner/Holy City Zoo scene as fashion guru Patti Bell, Fashion mastermind Mulligan and influential DJ cum promoter Mike Horseman.

It's not all about Duran either, while the book contains some great hitherto unseen posed and unposed images of the band (including live shots from a Cedar Club gig) the memory net is cast wider too to include shots of the fabulous creatures that made up the Rum Runner and HCZ nightlife, and such idiosyncratic characters as Kahn and Bell, Martin Degville and designer partner Jane Farrimond, Jimmy the Hoover, Steve Gibbons and, of course, Swans Way. Essential nostalgia for ageing New Romantics everywhere.

After umpteen formative years and changes of style and line up, LINER finally release their debut album, Proper Tunnel Vision (Solar). Opening up with recent single Mirror, a meld of Bloc Party retro funk and Duran, it also features previously released tracks One Kiss (Police flavours), Money (Oasis meets Gang of Four) and a revamp of excellent debut single Strung Out Boy (Paul Simon meets Coldplay and surely still with potential to be a hit).

Then there's six (to the best of my knowledge) new numbers, a rousing man the barricades acoustic Turn To Dust, fuzzed up indie rock The Pressure, a very noisy Under The Lights sounding like Oasis and Franz Ferdinand having a bust up, the meandering six minute acoustic slow builder Already Dead (sort of the band's power ballad) with its harking back to their folksier times, Beatlesesque closer Sing The Alarm with its Oriental Harrison-like guitar figure and Lions, no relation to their earlier Late Night Lions, another annoyingly catchy 80s flavoured slice of retro indie pop.

They've been building a solid gigging reputation and getting noticed in the right places, so hopefully there's more than enough here to launch them on the heady seas of indie pop stardom.

The late CARL WAYNE gets his (mostly) Roy Wood produced/written material compiled on Songs From The Wood And Beyond 1973-2003 (Castle), a collection of singles and previously unreleased material by the former Move and, more recently, Hollies singer. It's the unheard numbers that hold the most interest, not least the full version of the Wood penned Aerial Pictures and Hazel Eyes, both of which sound like vintage Move numbers.

Wood's tendency to overproduce hampers Colourful Lady and Hot Cars and I'm not sure the world needed Wayne's chorale version of Miss You Nights, but his cover of Jeff Lynne's Steppin'Out and a showtune piano ballad take Tanya Tucker's Never Said No Before are ample reminder that the man had a underrated voice.

Another, more exhaustive anthology, spanning his 50 years in the business and including previously unreleased cuts by Carl Wayne & The Vikings, ELO and The Move is due later in the year while a remastered Roy Wood collection, Outstanding Performer, featuring solo and Wizzard material appearing on CD for the first time is also released by the same label.

The Birmingham beat scene is documented too on double CD Brumbeat (Castle), an impressive document of the 60s Midlands scene that includes such usual suspects as Spencer Davis Group (Dimples), The Rockin' Berries, Moody Blues (Go Now, naturally). The Ugly's (sic), pre Slade outfit The N Betweens (Young Rascals cover You Better Run), The Move (Night of Fear), Montanas, Idle Race (Days of Broken Arrows), and Jimmy Powell alongside lesser sung names as The Wolves, The Hellions (featuring Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi), Gary Aston, Jefferson (The Colour Of My Love), ex Move man Ace Kefford (a gutsy demo of For Your Love) and Velvett Fogg.

Most tracks hang around either the beat or r&b boom, but there's also a couple of folk entries with The Settlers' classic Early Morning Rain and even the Ian Campbell Group having a Bo Diddley knees up on Joni Mitchell's Doctor Junk. A useful document for music archivists though it's a pity they couldn't do some cross label deals and have included The Fortunes too.

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Updated 23/6/06

Other than a couple of acoustic gigs as a duo, the year's seen a low profile for Wolverhampton Americana outfit SALTFLAT. However, they're back to kick up a storm now with long awaited new album Cold Morning Light (Bonedry), their first new material since Asphalt Good back in 2004.

There's no major departures from the blueprint (which the web sites calls a cross between the Replacements and Wilco, but which also features a fair dab of Neil Young and Green On Red), but it's served them well so far and it's far from broken. So, cranked up ringing guitars, throaty dust coated vocals, swaggering rhythms, and twangy melodies then, kicking out of the traps with Mindshakes, a gutsy slow burning guitars on fire song about screwing up things at home by not keep your 'damn mouth shut'.

They keep it amped up and rolling with the circling guitar riffing Sore Eyes, a track that hints to the country side of the Stones as well as more current Americana heroes, keeping the pace moving with a Scorchers-ish Map and the jerky Dixie boogie Still In Love.

But it's probably the slower numbers on which they shine best, here ably represented by a plangent Fair Warning, highway keening closer Windshield Blues with its speed bump time signatures and, arguably the album's highlight, Coming Home, a weary gravel under heel ballad that recently scored pole position in the Cosmic American Radio charts. They may never find the wider audience and sales enjoyed by such kindred spirits as Ryan Adams and Wilco but, along with the likes of Broken Family Band and Michael Weston King, they're a solid shining reminder that Americana is a matter of mind and musical attitude rather than geography.

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They've yet to find their way to chart favour, but each GUILLEMOTS release brings them a step closer to inevitable galactic stardom.

The latest is We're Here (Polydor), a fabulously soaring lush orchestral ballad that conjures thoughts of vintage Scott Walker and The Blue Nile as it sweeps away into the stars. And, just to keep their musical options open, Burnt is a spare weary come down ballad played out over a minimal piano accompaniment while I've Got A Problem throws all that out of the window to sound like PiL having a tantrum before launching into a surging rocking thrust of yowling clattering indie pop.

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OCEAN COLOUR SCENE seem to be making a habit of making their debut release for a new label a live album. They did it with Sanctuary and they're doing it again for the first release on their own Moseley Shoals Records imprint. Live At The Jam House was recorded, as you might possibly guess, in the intimate environs of the Jam House in Birmingham. Released as a limited edition on May 8 as prelude to an acoustic tour, stripped off the band's electric voltage (well, not totally, as Steve's searing flourishes show) and joined by Carleen Anderson, fiddler John McCusker and pipes man Michael McGoldrick, it throws the melodies and Simon's wistful folk inflected vocals into higher relief.

There's no surging rock tracks like Hundred Mile High City or Riverboat Song and while It's A Beautiful Thing has the crashing piano chords and Make The Deal does give good Spector, the big swelling anthemics of Get Blown Away or Golden Gate Bridge are toned down in favour of the more rootsy and tremulous numbers, such as the Bee Gees-like She's Been Writing, the jaunty This Day Should Last Forever and Foxy's Folk Faced, a fiddle enhanced Here In My Heart and the moody, blues inflected Fleeting Time.

As with One For The Road, they've included a clutch of new numbers too. The Word is a classic OCS builder, climbing up the chords to a rousing climax, Still Trying takes the pace down for a smoky blues slow waltz with Craddock's guitar pinned to Chris Isaak tremolo, Great Man In Waiting sees Fowler in emotive mood but doesn't quite live up to expectations of the title while, finally, Matilda's England is a pure cut folk song, dark of hue and heady with the tang of broom and the smell of woods after rain, clearly an outcrop of Simon's collaborations and friendship with McCusker and Kate Rusby. Isn't it about time they got offered a slot at Cropredy?

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Updated 28/2/06

2005 saw a low profile for Kings Heath based Anglo-Italian songstress CARINA ROUND as she worked in America on her follow up to 2003's The Disconnection.

The silence is soon to be broken with Slow Motion Addict, her debut release for Interscope.

Listening to advance unfinished mixes, it's clear this is going to figure large on the Best Of lists in 11 months time. Armed with a scorching set of musicians, it's a major leap forward in musical terms, the PJ Harvey touches still in evidence on something like Gravity Lies but substantially less of an influence. Indeed, the brooding glacial blues The Disconnection (you get two album title tracks for the price of one here) finds her sounding like a cross between Billie Holiday and Bjork, Take The Money and Ready To Confess choppy sonic burning rockers in the Queen Adreena school and the fecund pagan moods of January Heart and Slow Motion Addict both conjuring memories of the goblinesque Pooka and suggesting what might be the result of splicing together Robert Plant and Kate Bush.

She slinks like a predatory vixen too on Down Slow, a scratchy pulsing breathily sensual number that partly takes a semi-spoken cue from Madonna while Come To You has all the markings of her first hit single, a glorious slow build to soaring radio friendly chorus hook that fuses the attitude and vocal muscle of Chrissie Hynde and Charleen Spiteri.

Having build a solid cult following, she's been on the fringes of breakout discovery for a while. This is the one that turns her from star in waiting to full blown phenomenon.

Mike Davies

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OCEAN COLOUR SCENE have parted with the struggling Sanctuary Records and set up their own Moseley Shoals label, a new album is due or release in early 2006. Meanwhile former bassist Damon Minchella's new outfit, PLAYERS (below), have Just released their second album. Minchella and Style Council veterans Mick Talbot and Steve White remain the core trio but guitarist Aziz Ibrahim has taken a session back seat to be replaced on the New York recorded From The Six Corners (Discotheque) by brothers Ken and Carl Papenfus from Irish outfit Relish on guitar and percussion and, more significantly, the arrival of fellow countrywoman Kelly Dickson to introduce vocals into the mix.

And, as the gutsy opening What's Your Problem? swiftly reveals, that's some voice indeed. Vocal tutor at Westminster Kingsway College, she's been hugely acclaimed for her own solo jazz work with such luminaries as Jamie Cullum, Gene Perla and George Carzone singing her praises.

But while her own album has her working through such mellow jazz standards as I've Got You Under My Skin, Stella By Starlight and Cheek To Cheek, her collaboration here is firmly in volcanic soul funk and jazz scorching mode with comparisons having been drawn to Marlena Shaw.

She keeps the steel molten on the big fat jazz swing of No Big Deal, Latin flavoured r&b stormer Quinta Del Sordo and Scott Engel's speed waltzing Little Things but she's not the only vocals at work on the album. The Papenfus boys take over duties for the choppy Stevie Wonder meets Steve Winwood double act of Nobody Told Me and Find Your Way while laying down a mellow Clapton blues groove for It's Not Over Now. Elsewhere the three of them mesh in the fiery furnace of Wonderful while the laid back vibes mood All The Good Things and the surging Isaac's Boogaloo let the instrumental factors take care of business with Talbot's keyboards positively in groove overdrive.

Mike Davies

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Having recently compiled a best of The Good Sons, MICHAEL WESTON KING now turns his anthology attentions to his solo career with The Tender Place (Phantasmagoria), a collection of tracks from 1999 to 2005 culled from God Shaped Hole, A Decent Man. Absent Friends and (bending the rules slightly) one number (the Springsteenesque ballad I Fall Behind), the Good Son's album Wines, Lines & Valentines.

Frankly you'd be hard pressed to ask for a better introduction to one of the country's finest singer-songwriters, not just in the realms of Americana-flavoured rootsy pop but contemporary music per se. Embracing the haunting balladry of Beautiful Lies, The Wooden Hill, Mother Tongue and 35 Regrets alongside more uptempo nuggets like High Days and Holy Days and Celestial City, every track here is a celestial gem. And, if you already have all of the source albums, there's two previously unreleased tracks to tempt you to with the waltzingly sad From Out Of The Blue, a compassionate song about the mother of a child murderer that sounds like a Gerry Colvin tune, and a cover of Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate (taken from a Mojo freebie actually) with keening pedal steel. A new album's due next year, so if you've only just woken up to the man this is a good place to play catch up.

Mike Davies

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Taking another swerve after last year's Dear Friend that prompted thoughts of vintage Paul McCartney, DANIEL RACHEL (right) moves further towards wider awareness with Pearl (Dust), a sterling slice of fist in the air anthemics embellished with blaring horns to go with its Northern Soul meets folk pop beat and a chorus that deserves to ring out round football terraces the nation across. The more sedate slow swaying Face The Sun again turns the comparison to OCS's Simon Fowler (who produced the track) and Robin Gibb though it's lullaby chiming melody is somewhat spoiled by overlaying a bluesy picked guitar line but remains a bit of a gem while a live version of The Last Time I Danced from debut album A Simple Twist of Folk should be sufficient encouragement to see him do his stuff on stage too.

guiLLeMoTS (left) is the latest home for multi-talented Brum songwriter and classical composer Fyfe Dangerfield (aka Hutchings), joined here by percussionist Rican Caol, guitarist MC Lord MagRaO and double bassist Aristazabal Hawkes for debut EP I Saw Such Things In My Sleep (Fantastic Plastic). Touted as making 'modern lullabies for uneasy times', they trade in adventurous, experimental but catchily infectious offkilter pop that, for example, will lounge its way through the easy white soul pop swing of Who Left The Lights Off Baby? but then catch you offguard with a sudden flurry of bleeps, a soft shoe shuffle and a jazzy sax solo outro. Also featured on the EP there's the late night dreaminess of Cat's Eyes which begins like some world wearily romantic Parisian boulevard waltz and turns into something psychedelic off the Sgt Pepper carousel, the cascading night sky stars sparkling love struck tumble of Made-up Lovesong #43 with an urgent skitter of beats behind Fyfe's classical Brill Building pop delivery and tinkling keyboards, and, a cosmic breeze blowing quietly through the northern lights atmospherics that lead into the churchy tones of a strung-out Over The Stairs, a number that evokes warm thoughts of Jeff Buckley, Coldplay and bruised angels as it pulsingly takes off into the fire escapes and rooftops of a Scott Walker landscape. They're going to be huge.

Mike Davies

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Observers of the 80s Birmingham music scene will remember AUSGANG, fronted by Max Freeth and formed from the ashes of Kabuki, they were pioneers of the whole batcave/goth/death rock movement and seminal influences on any number of subsequent American goth-punk artists such as Marilyn Manson.

They called it a day back in 87, Max going on to play with Andi Sex Gang before setting up a career teaching yoga. Their collected works are already available, released four years ago via Cherry Red, the ace Kabuki single I Am A Horse, included. That stirred up interest in the band, a reunion gig followed for a 40th birthday bash which led to festival in Munster which led to a clutch of three New York shows which in turn has led to Licked, a self-label comeback album.

Nodding back to their own formative influences, it opens with a snarly cover of the Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog before plunging into a set of new material with Big Big Love, a sort of punk disco affair with a pop sensibility chorus and Marc Bolan influence, a moshing dance direction also evident in the rock n roiling Lick and a flailing rockabilly Wasted Land that conjures an unholy alliance of Talking Heads and Theatre of Hate.They may be older and responsible citizens these days but they still know how to whip up a sleazy dark throbbing frenzy or prowl through underbelly skeletal riffs like mutant swampoid freaks. Listen to the staccato pulsing I Fear The Fear or the larruping stomp Your Role Is To Tease (As You Roll In The Lens) which sounds like the neu-metal lovechild of PiL. Only a six minute experimentalist Ten Year Old Bastard Children feels unfocused and undernourished.

With the slow swaggering Itchy Fingers A Go Go with its Link Wray rumble surf guitar a personal favourite, it's good to hear them back though quite where its psychotic air of menace fits in with the tranquillity of meditation Max's yoga brings is anyone's guess.

Mike Davies

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ALBUM REVIEWS

BON JOVI

Lost Highway (Mercury)

On which JBJ gets in touch with his inner Nashville but still turns out your basic hood down, highway cruising FM stadium rock album. They play their best card first with the title track and its line about 'dashboard Jesus', twangy guitar and 'hey hey' chorus whoop. After that it's straight into crunchy Arena friendly pop with Summertime, lighters aloft power ballad swayer (You Want To) Make A Memory and then being good ol'boys partying with We Got It Goin' On, quite easily one of the most banal empty-headed things they've ever recorded. Any Other Day heads back to Garth Brooks plays The Eagles territory and they pretty much then repeat the same formula to the end, roping in Leann Rimes to throw some mainstream AOR country cred into the mix, their version of Kenny & Dolly I assume. As someone once sang, they're a little bit country, a little bit rock n roll, and as fence sitters go this is as eminently listenable as it is eminently forgettable. Mike Davies

DIESEL PARK WEST

Blood & Grace (Danville)

Once touted as Leicester's answer to Moby Grape, John Butler and co peaked with debut album Shakespeare Alabama. That struggled into the bottom half of the Top 50 but still proved the biggest selling of their seven studio albums to date. Butler's solo projects fared no better. Dumped by EMI, and several successive smaller and smaller labels, having split and then reformed they've finally taken to releasing their own material. Like pretty much everything else they've done, it gets half way there but never quite gets past the final hurdle that would bring them wider attention beyond a loyal fanbase.

Not that it's a bad album by any means, the Blair baiting Tony's Garden sounds like a meeting between Ray Davies and The Long Ryders while the equally politically charged If They Ever Turn the Lights On, the Dylanish tumbling Men Of Blood while a 12 string jangling There's A Grace oozes melody and Faithless sees Butler doing his Orbison bit. But, ultimately, like so much of their output, it's solid and reliable rather than inspired. And it's hard to see their star shining any brighter now than it did before.

Mike Davies

THE WHITE STRIPES

Icky Thump (XL)

Actually it should be 'ecky thump'. but what's a bit of dialect confusion when you can have Jack and Meg recreate the sound of Led Zep's first two albums of crunchy, raspy garage blues on the title track, Catch Hell Blues and Rag And Bone, stomp in some dirty country Neil Young water with You Don't Know What Love Is and welcome along some mariachi trumpet for a fuzz throbbing guitar cover of Corky Robbins' Conquest. Bizarrely Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn is even a sort of trad folk-raga with Hare Krishna finger bells while the instrumental with spoken Meg St Andrews (This Battle Is in the Air) splashes out on bagpipes.

But even such oddities can't disguise the fact this is the duo getting back to their basics, catchy honest riffs, loose limbed scuzzy guitars, blues wailing and solid stomp rock n roll. The only question you need ask about the album is are they dressed in mariachi gear on the cover or as pearly king and queen?

Mike Davies

THE GET QUICK -

See You In The Crossfire (Rainbow Quartz)

Nuggets era psychedelic garage rock and Mersey beatisms from Philadelphia pretty much says it all, though you might add that Blossom Rock also nods the influence head to Marc Bolan. It can get a bit stodgy at times, not least on The Blinds, but if you've a thing for cranked up lysergic retro guitar rock with plenty of rhythm thump then tracks like My Enemy, a warbling Angels With Powdered Roses and their cover of the Beatles She Said, She Said, as played by The Troggs, won't disappoint.

Mike Davies

MELLOWMEN

Tomorrow`s Sound Today (Rainbow Quartz)

They're from Sweden and they just love the Beatles. Which is why they've made an album that would have been right at home back in the late 60s, full of those Merseybeat melodies and harmonies. Occasionally, they leave Lennon & McCartney aside, but only to emulate Fab Four proteges like Badfinger or (on Sunshine Shell) sound like later copyists such as 10cc. By way of radical departures, My Dove has a Duane Eddy guitar intro and fancies itself more in the company of Frankie Avalon or , er. Cliff. There's nothing here to warrant shelling out full price, but it's worth picking up from the bargain bins.

Mike Davies

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

Traffic and Weather (Virgin)

Anyone looking to substantiate claims that the band peaked with Welcome Interstate Managers need look little further than the follow up. There's some spry lyrical wit and wordplay about everyday life and catchy power pop melodies with nagging hooks, but it all sounds like a band simply rehashing a proven formula and often winding up a poor man's There Might Be Giants or Bare Naked Ladies. Sure there's a couple of stand out numbers, notably the wearied loveliness of Michael And Heather At The Baggage Claim, the bluegrass dappled Seatbacks and Traytables and the Glen Campbell echoing Fire In The Canyon with its rip off piano intro, but for the most it sounds like they could do with a new sprinkler system.

Mike Davies

MARC FORD

Weary And Wired (Provogue)

Formerly (twice) guitarist with the Black Crowes, Ford's second  solo album not surprisingly stays within much the same Southern  bluesy rock field, recalling his old band but also, as on Smoke  Signals and It'll Be Over Soon, showing distinct Neil Young  influences. He's not got the strongest or most distinctive of  vocals, and the songs are mostly about as memorable as you might  expect from titles like Bye Bye Suzy, Running Man Blues and Greazy  Chicken, the latter a funky barroom blues instrumental work out  where Ford shows off his axe chops. Still, Americana twanging  rocker It'll Be Over Soon, a Petty-esque slow chugging Dirty Girl  and heads down old school hard rock blues riffers like Medicine  Time, Just Take The Money and an eight minute wah wah workout on  Willie Dixon's The Same Thing should keep him in smokes for a while  yet.

Mike Davies

GRADY

Y.U. So Shady? (Tex-Tone)

A Canadian outfit playing Texas blues rock of the early ZZ Top  persuasion, the trio's made up of Grady Johnson from rock-reggae  crew Big Sugar, former Stevie Ray Vaughan sideman Chris Whip Layton  and Big Ben Richardson from Toronto hardcore rock blues reggae  combo The Phantoms. Musically there's no surprises here, just solid  swampy fuzz and slide guitar, rumbling bass and thumping drums put  to the service of hard driving, dirty bar room rock n roll, though  it must be said Joe Louis does sound like the Lovin' Spoonful had  they been put through a Texas metal grinder. They play fast, they  play loud, there's a bit of Motorhead thrash there, a lot of  throaty bourbon and nicotine stained riffs and a bunch of songs to  do with women, booze and living life in the fast lane. Pretty much  a case of what you see is what you get.

Mike Davies

GREAT LAKES

Diamond Times (Track & Field)

From the same Athens scene as Apples In Stereo, the Elephant 6  Collective and Neutral Milk Hotel and founded on the songs of  vocalist Ben Crum and co-founder Dan Donahue, this is upbeat  psychedelic indie pop with jangly guitars, chirpy bounce along  melodies and strong hints of their southern country raising, even  skirting hints of bluegrass with The Moon and the Lunatics and  Night Hearts. Crum sounds a bit Richman-like on Shaky Faith,  Farther's a big stomping stride along number, Hot Cosmos is Beach  Boys glam rock with sax from down the honky tonk saloon and steel  guitar pops up all over the place. Not quite Americana, but the  likes of Precious And Reckless and the Gram-like ballad Eagle And  Swan are close enough to earn temporary membership. Mike Davies

THE PROCESSION

Musique Magnifique (Nude)

Another LA band in love with all things Beatles, 60s Britpop and  California surf, in another life they might have been Jellyfish or  Klaatu churning out happy sunny songs designed for skipping down  the street to. As pastiches go, they've got it down perfectly,  Major To Minor patently evoking Penny Lane while Don't Let Go  cheerily blends Hermans Hermits and Weezer. Synth pop gets the nod  on the apparently witty MTV Song while, says the blurb, lovelorn  Living Alone frisks around in 70s AM pop and In The Least bears  witness to Wilson-esque attention to detail with reversed noise,  woodblocks, bells etc etc. And the whole thing closes with Don't  You Wish sounding like They Might Be Giants let loose in the  toyroom. It's all very perky and bright, but at the end of the day  you can't help but feel it's too pleased with its technical  proficiency and ironic referencing to notice that it soon becomes  very irritating.

Mike Davies

March 2007

JOSS STONE

Introducing Joss Stone (Virgin)

After two albums you might think you had Stone pegged. You know, Devon's answer to Aretha and Doris Troy whose love of 60s and early 70s soul and whisky and pain coated voice earned herself a gold disc in America for Mind Body & Soul. Well, apparently not, at least according to the now 19 year old Stone herself who declares this, her third release, is who she really is and what she's really about as opposed to someone new to the business doing what the label told her. Hence the title.

So, ignoring here dubious judgement in getting ex footballer, faded film star now making TV commercials and generally unpleasant hardman thug Vinnie Jones to provide an introductory monologue about, er, Change, who is Ms Jocelyn Stoker really?

Well, you'll be glad to hear quite a bit of her is the same girl she used to be, ignoring the ill-fitting clap track beats to choogle through Girl They Won't Believe It like it's 1966 and she's heading up some girl group on Soul Train, channelling clean up woman Betty Wright and some Franklin respect with Tell Me' Bout It, and turning up the Motown dial for Baby, Baby, Baby and Arms of My Baby. The unapologetically sex leaking Put Your Hands On Me suggests she's dug out her Millie Jackson discs too.

However, she's also been rather over enthusiastic in her enthusiasm for contemporary r&b and while the voice doesn't falter, there just doesn't seem the same sort of passion, commitment or confidence to it on things like the drab shiny beats of Headturner, scuffed hip hop Proper Nice, Diane Warren's meanderingly forgettable Bruised But Not Broken or the appropriately titled overwrought Houston lite What Were We Thinking? However, none of these come close to the crushing tediousness that is Music which interpolates the Fugees The Mask and features a rap by Lauryn Hill during which you may feel spurred to go and make a cup of tea.

Indeed, the only track where her embracing of the modern groove pays off in any meaningful way is Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now where she finds the fire while rapper Common shows Hill how it should be done.

If Stone says she was dominated by label pressures on the previous albums, here she seems to be equally in thrall to and dazzled by nu soul pioneer, producer and writer Raphael Saadiq whose client list includes Mary J Blige, Houston, Jill Scott and, oh dear, Kenny G, giving the feeling that whatever she may say, this isn't the real her either. Until she finds out who is, can we have the old Joss back please.

Mike Davies

KAISER CHIEFS

Yours Truly, Angry Mob (b-Unique)

The middle point between Oasis and the Buzzcocks, their debut album was a steamrollering collection of hook packed, chorus friendly pissed off, cocky and sarky young man songs. Now they try and pull the same trick off twice. And like all good tricks, while you're still impressed with how it's done, you've still seen it before. Not a huge amount has changed, the song still often relying on having the chorus or title line repeated over and over (seemingly forever on the end of The Angry Mob) while Thank You Very Much even repeats the same vocal and musical phrasings of I Predict A Riot. And, maybe because anticipation is so high, the songs don't seem as catchy, as instant or as lasting. First single Ruby relies almost totally on its chorus, everything around it rather ordinary, while Highroyds and the drawn out almost boy band balladeering Try Your Best with its yawnsome eyes squeezed shut stadium guitar solo sound like fillers and, for all the clever title, Love's Not A Competition (But I'm Winning) is just Oasis lite.

That said, with repeated plays some tracks dig deeper; the lurching spidery folk rooted My Kind Of Guy, a Beatlesy singalong I Can Do It Without You, all too brief piano ballad Boxing Champ and, the very Buzzcocky Everything Is Average Nowadays. The Adam and the Ants drumming of Learned My Lesson Well is fun too, though they may yet regret the line 'life could be worse, you could be a nurse'.

They've sharpened some of their edges, taking a swipe at tabloid readers with 'we like who we like, we hate who we hate. But we're so easily swayed' of Angry Mob, but not only does Wilson remains lyrically very much in the doggerel kennel it's also worrying that on things like Highroyds, Thank You Very Much and the bitterly sour Retirement he sounds so worn down, ruefully nostalgic and old before his time. Cheer up, it may never happen. There again, with this generally underwhelming album perhaps it already has.

Mike Davies

SOULSAVERS

It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land (V2)

A vehicle for moody electronica chill out merchants Ian Glover and Rich Machin best known for remixing the likes of Doves and Starsailor, this warrants attention beyond the genre market since the collaborators this time around feature Will Oldham and, more essentially, Mark Lanegan who co-wrote 5 of the tracks and sings on eight of them. He's in brooding shape from the opening Johnny Cash meets Knocking On Heaven's gospel country Door of Revival,a haunting Man In Black mood that also bleeds into Kingdoms of Rain, fusing with Leonard Cohen along the way. The dissonant shards and industrial storms of Ghost of You & Me is more Tom Waits getting down with Nick Cave and Johnny Dowd with John Coltrane in the background while his other co-writes, Paper Money and Jesus Of Nothing are respectively voodoo swamp funk and an Eastern infused black cloud mantra.

Of the numbers where he just drops by to add voice, he's in calmer, less tormented mode, sounding soothingly relaxed and soulful on the floaty gospel infused Spiritual, a cosmos gliding cover of Neil Young's Through My Sails and the slow empty desert piano nightfall reading of the Stones' No Expectations. With the spare, feedback fuzzed Ask The Dusk and a fragile brooding piano and sax Arizona Bay electronica instrumentals fleshing out the album's epic spine shivering grandeur, this has to be one of the year's more special offerings.

Mike Davies

DARTZ

This Is My Ship (Xtramile)

A pop punk alt rock Sunderland trio out of the same stylistic stable as Futureheads and Bloc Party, their debut album's a punching collection of whiny vocals, pounding drums and piston whipping guitars spliced with skewed cut n paste tempos and rhythms, Teaching Me To Dance's indie funk even throwing in cowbells and dissonant trumpet. Dipping into the art rock dance of bands like Talking Heads and Gang of Four (notably so on Prego Triangolos and St Petersburg), they do like to make you work at the difficult shapes of things like A Simple Hypothetical and Fantastic Apparatus with even the more direct numbers such as the catchy single Once, Twice, Again! and ska rooted Cold Holidays demanding concentration as well as limb twitching. Far too jittery and splintered for mainstream success, but they should keep the student dance party market happy.

Mike Davies

THE KBC

On The Beat! (High Voltage)

Preston indie disco with wiry guitar grooves and choppy rhythms (and on Poisonous Emblem a dash of reggae), this lot are being touted to follow in the footsteps of the not entirely dissimilar Franc Ferdinand. Given the elbowing bass staccato swagger of Trippin', the beat banging twitchy pop Test The Water, Pride Before The Fall (which at times echoes Debbie Harr's New York disco days), the melodic vague New Orderish drive of Not Anymore and the dance floor blitzing of Best in The Business and Zeitgeist, that might not be too far wide of the mark. Plus they offer a chance to chill down with Busy Hands too. Oddly though, listening to the electro filtered pop of Mad With Me and Not Anymore, the name that keeps bubbling up is actually Haircut 100.

Mike Davies

TRACEY THORN

Out Of The Woods (Virgin)

It's only been 25 years since the Everything But The Girl chanteuse released a solo album, during which time she's obviously been musing on what might happen if you mixed up fragile breathy folk with electronica disco and laid back rave. Here's the answer. Opening with the delicate acoustic Here It Comes Again with its rain washed leafy glades ambience then switching straight into the hypnotic pulse beats of A-Z and from that to perky Latino pop dance It's All True and the rave funk rework of Arthur Russell's Get Around To It.

Inevitably given Thorn's voice, it's all very cool sounding, at times even mannered, as musically matured and steeped in wisdom and weariness of the years as are the often wistful and reflective lyrics. To be honest, the clubbier material like Grand Canyon (which sounds desperate to revive the days of Missing) and Raise The Roof are the least convincing tracks. Thorn's far better when she just eases back on the soft flame torch balladry of Hands Up To The Ceiling, the brass and piano warmed Nowhere Near and the gauze shimmering By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept, and its these refuges for bank managers too old to hang around wine bars that will prove the biggest selling points.

Mike Davies

 ORMONDROYD

Hit & Hope (Hackpen)

Named after cult 90s footballer Ian Ormondroyd and their musical inspiration from shoegazing outfits such as Ride and Spiritualised, the Sheffield five piece trade in dreamy atmospheric guitar arpeggio pop soundscapes with dreamily melodic valleys and soaring epic noise mountains. Although Scarlet surges and fades in just over two pop minutes, the tracks tend to hover between the four to five minute mark, reaching melodic peaks on Perfect Designs, the highway cruising Eyes On The Road and the gentle tinkling folksy If I'd Known It Was The Last Time I'd Have Opened By Eyes before taking off into the ether with the slow building crescendo of The Storm. Unlikely to find the sort of acclaim enjoyed by The Flaming Lips or Explosions In The Sky, but worth exploring by similarly inclined ears.

Mike Davies

THE HOURS

Narcissus Road (A&M)

As mates of Damien Hirst (who's designed their sleeve covers), a background that includes Elastica, Pulp, Joe Strummer's Mescaleros, Black Grape and a lengthy smack habit, indie duo Antony Genn and Martin Slattery are pretty much guaranteed to be declared cool by the music press. Much compared to early Radiohead, Blue Nile and Talktalk, as you might imagine their debut album is a collection of textured pop music with spiked edges, dense atmospheres and a handful of pretty decent songs to go with them. The encouragement to getting back up again that is Ali In The Jungle shows off their indie pop chops, Murder And Suicide bears its Jarvis cynicism proudly, while Back When You Were Good, I Miss You, and Icarus put their mellow moody balladeering in the shop window, leaving Let Me Breathe to show off their big closing flourish chest swelling.

A surfeit of cultural references (they mention Beethoven twice) and some lazy lyrical rhymes let the side down and the album's probably at least three tracks longer than it warrants, but time may well prove to be ticking in their favour.

Mike Davies

THE DUNES

Socializing W/ Life (Curve Music)

A guitar based alt-rock outfit from Canada, the Dunes make music that probably sounds good when you're surfing the wavebands as you drive and happen upon one of their tracks, but don't quite have the necessary qualities to persuade you to go out and buy the album. Hurry Up and Sunflower Eyes have echoes of big ballad earnest U2 while Calling All Cars, Rio Grande and Do It All The Time show they can do the burning rock tension, but nothing here is distinctive enough to indicate a life beyond their hometown club circuit.

Mike Davies

CAREY OTT

Lucid Dream (Dualtone)

A former bank clerk, the Nashville based singer-songwriter's been variously likened to aspects of Radiohead, the Kinks and Beatles, by which you'll gather he trades in lush tunes, soaring melodies, eruptions of guitars into choruses and slightly bruised vocals set to wearied songs about life and relationships. He's at his strongest on the album's dreamy summer evening acoustic numbers, Sunbathing, Mother Madam, Virginia, You Got Love, the lazy heat haze titled track and the McCartneyesque Kicking Stones, lulling you into a gentle reverie drifting slumber. But when things move up a sonic notch or two with the fuzzing guitars of Daylight where he sounds like a meeting between Rufus Wainwright and Ron Sexsmith with Thom Yorke on the chorus, or the Ben Folds pop minded I Wouldn't Do That To You, you get the sense that he could deal some hefty rock punches too if the mood takes him.

Mike