Album Review: The Sun & The Neon Light - Booka Shade

Everybody is saying the same two things about this album: it sounds like Depeche Mode in places and it doesn't have any of the big room anthems that the previous album, Movements, had.

BlackPlastic hates to agree but as statements these are both true. There is nothing quite like 'Mandarine Girl' on The Sun & The Neon Light and certain parts, notably 'Control Me', DO sound like Depeche Mode. What most are wrong about is what these facts mean.

The Sun & The Neon Light doesn't just sound like Depeche Mode. It also sounds like the meloncholic Joy Division of 'Atmosphere' on 'Sweet Lies' and the swirling bass / cowboy twang of 'Dusty Boots' is very Underworld. Yet most of all this album sounds like Booka Shade: Even
when their forebearer's inspiration is notable everything is still distinctly Get Physical and meticulously put together.

So there are no 'bangers' here. If you want those BlackPlastic suggests you a) stop reading; and b) pick up the limited version which features a continuous bonus CD of club versions. The Underworld comparison above is important because The Sun & The Neon Light as an album picks up where Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Beaucoup Fish left off: this is a mature electronic album that has been crafted into a cohesive body of work. To complain that this album lacks club hits is like complaining your car moves too slowly underwater: that is not what it was designed to do.

Booka Shade will doubtless have more work in the future that caters to your ass. This one... This one is for your head. Don't be stupid enough to miss the point.

BP x

Album Review: Apocalypso - The Presets

Could this really be yet more Australian goodness?

The Presets always struck BlackPlastic as somewhat also-rans. Sure, Beams had its moments but it never felt right for the dancefloor and it certainly lacked the depth needed for continued home listening.

Apocalypso isn't a departure, it is a refinement. Fans of Beams have nothing to fear... Whilst here is more melody there is also more bass and by stretching things in every direction The resets have been able to do more whilst retaining what made them different.

The result is an album that definately removes them from the 'also-ran' category. You should lready know 'My People'. It's a devastating migraine of a track, a true call to arms that gets better the more you hear it... Basslines chew you up and spit you out without pausing for thought whilst a chorus aches to be heard all over the radio, pop skills dripping from the pores.

If 'My People' is rewards repeat listens then Apocalypso digs itself into your heart like a series Nandos habit. Soon you can't help but life the fired-up fury and the easy entrance and exit policy. Apocalypso doesn't take itself overly seriously but doesn't undermine what it is either.

So 'This Boy's In Love' mixes tranced-up glow sticks and hands-aloft melodies with 80s lyrics and teenage rebellion, the soundtrack to a modern day Breakfast Club. 'Talk Like That' is gothic-opera-pomp and bassline-grimein turns with a chorus made of stiched-up vocals and melodic harmonies, proof that what Apocalypso does best is blend.

And what a melting-pot it turns out to be. 'Eucalyptus' is all kraut-rock, speedy punk drums until a gentle vocal tried to overpower the backing for the chorus and it all twists up into a climatic post-punk freak-out. 'If I Know You' mixes Spandau Ballet vocals with minimal-house and live keys, it's almost a ballad and, frankly, it's great.

All this and the album highlight hasn't even been mentioned. 'Together', grinding and stuttering its way to a shout out chorus, screams for end-of-night, open-air-anthem status.

The Modular collective are rapidly rendering Ed Banger redudant they have not just the remixes, but the singles and, more importantly, the albums. And there is more to come Enough has been said: Apocalypso is another great record for 2008.

BP x

Album Review: Couples - The Long Blondes

Following a set of remixes last year Erol Alkan returns to production duties for The Long Blondes and unleashes another great album for 2008.

BlackPlastic was a little slow off of the mark on this one. The Long Blondes are from Sheffield and whilst their first album lacked a certain something, coming off a bit like No Doubt in places (and who needs that?), Couples is a refinement of the band's sound.

Opener "Century" is a perfect example of what has changed: this is a track Ladytron would sell there white foundation and black mascara for. With icy synths but a live band backing them up Erol's influence is clear.

This is an album that wears its roots on its sleeve. The aformentioned "Century" sounds like early Human League, particularly when it is cut up by some nasty electronic stabs in the closing minutes. Harking back to the sounds of Sheffield's best bands (there are elements of Pulp here, not to mention the usual post-punk suspects) not only gives the band something on which to define themselves and gives Couples a cohesive feeling.

Within the cohesive whole there is plenty of variation to keep things interesting. "Guilt" combines electronic rhythm together with vocals that veer from pop to icy cold. The vocal whispers at the beginning and the deadpan delivery of "You know what it's like, it's happened to everybody once or twice..." give way to a swagger that could only exist a pop record. "Here Comes The Serious Bit" punks things up with a rapid join-in chorus and bags of attitude and "Too Clever By Half" goes for a minimal approach, setting up vocals against just a rhythm section to create a raw but sassy atmosphere.

Couples single-handedly makes The Long Blondes ones to watch, a mish-mash of differing takes on the same town it is as quintessentially 'Sheffield' as taking the bus up to Crookes or taking a stroll down Eccleshall Road. Much more than their considerably more successful peers, The Artic Monkeys, The Long Blondes capture what is great about their home town.

BP x

Album review: Music For An Accelerated Culture - Hadouken!

Some bands can be defined by good taste and burgeoning record collections and geeky knowledge of their predecessors - LCD Soundsystem would be an obvious example - whilst others rely more on attitude.

Most bands fall somewhere between these two extremes, yet the debut album from Hadouken! very much positions them as the new extreme in the later category. Whilst their taste in music may be good (indeed a guest spot on Radio 1 earlier this year suggests it is) their actual sound derives little from it. To describe Hadouken! is to describe nothing anyone with any taste would like - Mike Skinner style raps and thick garage basslines combine with Euro-pop melodies to create a wide- boy nu-rave soundtrack Channel 4's Skins would kill for.

Yet it's the attitude that saves it. If its opener 'Get Smashed Gate Crash' is too loud you're at the wrong house party whilst 'That Boy That Girl' sets a commentary on modern day micro-cultural groups to a industrial backing. More than anything Music For An Accelerated Culture sounds young... It positively reeks of modern-day teen spirit and whilst you might think you've got better taste H! sound like they truly don't give a shit what you think (Grandad).

Music For An Accelerated Culture is difficult to assess - in places it gets so close to cheese that it's not worth worrying whether it is cool or not and it sounds so 'now' that in two weeks it will probably be passé. This time is theirs however and if, in several years, you wish to recapture 2008 then the synth lines of 'Decleration Of War' and the aggression of 'Crank It Up' just might do it.

If you don't like it you're too old: Music For An Accelerated Culture is an up middle finger to today's washed-out pop mainstream.

BP x

Album Review: Saturdays = Youth - M83

The cult film Donnie Darko contains a scene where the camera films the occupants of a school going about their business in slow motion to the sounds of Tears For Fears' 'Head Over Heels'. The combination of the extraordinary sounds and camera work in combination with the somewhat ordinary subject matter to lift this small section to a place that makes it rank as one of BlackPlastic's favourite scenes in a film, ever. Saturdays = Youth as an album feels the same, like a slow-motion dream of your teenage years observed with the benefit of hindsight.

Given that this is the very thing M83 sought to capture it is instantly clear, in one respect at least, that their latest album is a success. Don't let BlackPlastic undermine the beauty of the songs themselves though - 'Kim & Jessie' is the closest M83 have come to being a pop band yet and has single all over (SebAstian remixes please!) whilst 'Skin Of The Night' is eighties shoe-gazing at its best.

The excilerating rushes of Before The Dawn Heals us may have gone but in their place is a delicate, refined and somewhat melancholic sound. Cinematic in nature, Saturdays = Youth sounds not just like Donnie Darko but is reminiscent of all those eighties teen movies... This album is your own Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, even exhibiting touches of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero. It is the feeling when you are 15 that nothing is more important than whether you get laid next Saturday at your best friend's party. Combine this album with the Teenagers' recent Reality Check and you have two superb albums to soundtrack a youth that carry a sense of wonder that trancends the moment of youth itself, capturing what it felt like to be young no matter how old you may be now.

If Tears For Fears had taken over the world rather than writing 'Woman In Chains' it would have sounded like this.

BP x