Album Review: Serotonin - Mystery Jets

If Twenty One threw a splash of eighties passion on the prog-rock experimentalism of the Mystery Jets' debut then Serotonin, with it's Talk Talk-esque cover, is an eighties-soaked emotional Molotov cocktail.

The trade-off is most apparent on second track 'It's Too Late', the first proper ballad the band have ever indulged in. And an indulgence it is - one that has turned off some reviewers and may alienate some older fans. How you feel about this one track will probably affect much of your view of Serotonin itself - it's either an unimaginative mainstream retread or, in it's unashamed honesty and willingness to leave aside unnecessary agendas, an irresistible emotional anchor for the album that lets the boys love for the eighties bask in centre stage.

And maybe BlackPlastic is just a sucker for a romantic agenda, but we can't help but plum for the latter. To accuse Serotonin of lacking variety would be fair, yet the result is an album that feels in many ways even tighter than its predecessor if less exciting. From the running-so-fast-you-might-trip opening of 'Alice Springs', with its rousing chorus of "I'd stand in the line of fire for you / I'd bend over backwards for you / I'd do anything that you want be to do / 'cos I don't have nothing if I don't have you my love" this is an album wearing its heart on its sleeve:

Sometimes some people love some other people. And the Jets have clearly fallen head over heels somewhere along the line because every song on here deals with this most basic of emotions in one way or another.

On the whole it's a storming success - the beauty being in the variety of takes on love that the album illustrates. 'Flash A Hungry Smile' is bumbling and hopeless bare-cheeked lust. Title track 'Serotonin' feels like coming up from underwater - the drugs analogy is obvious but BlackPlastic will place faith in the reality being that this song is noting the similarity of love to drugs, and celebrating the former's natural ability to mimic the latter rather than the other way round.

Best of all is 'Show Me The Light' - a celebratory anthem-to-be complete with bouncing house beat. It's the sound of boundless enthusiasm: sure, things may not work out... But then, they might, right? It's so blinkered and keen that it's bloody difficult not to be won over.

Serotonin may feel like a curveball after the maturity and relative subtlety of Twenty One. It is certainly less ambitious but it's inability to do anything other than express just how much it has a crush on you is pretty charming. If you've ever gone a bit gooey over someone you may find it tough to resist the feeling of Serotonin.

BP x

Serotonin is out now on Rough Trade, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Movement In A Storm - James Yuill

Okay, BlackPlastic admits it. There are times when we would much rather a hug with the right person, a sweater and a cup of tea than a night out on the sauce raving past dawn. Maybe we are getting old. Maybe it is just all about maintaining a balanced lifestyle.

Either way, some of BlackPlastic's favourite music is the stuff that sounds like it has been made for listening to whilst wearing sweaters and hugging cute girls on dance floors. And that is exactly the type of music that James Yuill makes.

Stuck midway between Hot Chip and Metronomy, Movement In A Storm is a needy thinking man's electronic soundtrack bliss. Last year's popular Prins Thomas mix of 'This Sweet Love' is as good an introduction to Yuill's work as any. It doesn't feature here but the same considered melodies run throughout 'Foreign Shore' and beyond.

What makes Movement In A Storm so great is the combination of musical flourishes - check the the twinkling bells and crunchy thick bass lines that open 'On Your Own' - and gut wrenching lyrics. These really are songs to well-up to: 'Ray Gun' is without doubt the sweetest song BlackPlastic has heard that is named after fictional weaponry and it is Yuill's lyrics that betray his innocence as he croons "Never was my ray gun on you". Geeky, sure - but that is kind of the point.

Movement In A Storm lacks the utterly irresistible immediacy of it's predecessor Turning Down Water For Air insofar as there being nothing quite as thrillingly head-over-heals-in-love as 'Left Handed Girl'. Yet what you do get is, in essence, more of the same with a bit less instant accessibility but a bit more consideration. And when it is this good BlackPlastic won't complain - we'll be on the dancefloor in a cardigan.

On that note, if you haven't checked out 'Left Handed Girl' then you really should - it is on Spotify.

BP x

Album Review: Latin - Holy Fuck

The start of Holy Fuck's new album sounds like big things happening. '1MD' opens the album on a building crescendo of distorted melodies. It is initially calm but it quickly becomes apparent that this is merely the calm before the storm.

And a storm it is: 'Red Lights' barrel-rolls in like a professional hit man, slinky bass lines and snappy drums painting the sky. And it's obvious that Holy Fuck continue to create a kind of music that many try to make but few succeed in delivering.

There are echoes of Gang Gang Dance, !!! and others here but no-one manages to create quite the same psychedelic acid trip and make it sound so real. Latin is an album that builds to a fever pitch - midpoint track 'Silva & Grimes' is rabid driving music for thunderstorms, incessant and rapid fire and faster than anything that precedes it. It feels like a kind of climax on first listen but that's only because you don't know what is still to come.

'SHT MTN' is low-slung, squealing and industrial and then 'Stilettos' is pedal-to-the-metal-with-the-top-down. Closing on 'P.I.G.S.' only increases the sense of bewilderment. This is mechanical art-rock for destroying cities. A solid groove builds and eventually hits a melodic breakdown midway through before heading stratospheric. This is music for space, not puny-Earth - it sounds like an ode to the majestically uncontrollable power of the Saturn V. This is being strapped to five-megatons of explosives and flicking the match.

Latin is not just a selection of fantastic tunes, it's a epic journey sandwiched into 40-minutes.

BP x

Latin is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: The Thorns Of Love - Antoni Maiovvi

The follow up to Antoni Maiovvi's eponymous release The Thorns Of Love is short, at six tracks or forty-minutes, particularly for an electronic album. But that just makes it feel that much sweeter.

The Thorns Of Love could be described as cosmic disco, but it's a bit more than that. Opener 'This Is The Beast' may well fit that bill, with shades of Jean Micheal Jarre and Tangerine Dream, but 'The Sigh From The Sky Was A Lie' feels as much post-punk as disco - a warm mix of Italo and New Order style synth and bass-work. And it works pretty damn well.

And the album gets only more varied as it progresses. 'Treason' is a solo piano piece and packs an emotional punch whilst forming a key centre point for the album. Finally things close on 'Horsehead Blues', a muted, dubby trip into Antoni Maiovvi's head with vocals that sound like Bowie going through an emotional breakdown, it's Joy Division forced to go on holiday to Ibiza, but not in the suddenly blissed-out sense that New Order achieved on Technique.

The contrast between tracks is stark, leaving the listener unsure of what to expect next, and as a result The Thorns Of Love is a brief yet engaging, emotional ride.

BP x

The Thorns Of Love is out now on Caravan, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, MP3 and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: Fabric 52 - various mixed by Optimo (Espacio)

Fabric 52 delivers. Optimo have long been heralded as innovators and legends and their mix albums have always been good. But good isn't always enough.

This is better. From the angry Soft Cell-esque 'Lady Shave' Fabric 52 feels like it falls through the door without so much as a glance in your direction. A drunken adolescence of a record, it is quite happy being self-obsessed and arrogantly unaware of your thoughts or feelings. It sounds like it would go on playing itself even if you tried to stop it.

Optimo have made a thrilling, wobbly, bubbling, acid-washed, squelchy set full of reverb and trouble and doubt. Whilst previous Optimo efforts may have been distracted and deliberately eclectic (How To Kill The DJ Part Two, anyone?) Fabric 52 proves they can work a groove.

This is an album that progresses through several themes and styles but knits things together closely enough that the joins aren't even visible. Even the anthemic 'Don't Call' from Desire is disguised beneath bleeps, rhythmic stabs and shouts - letting the track ride into town on Oni Ayhun's 'OAR003-B' is a stroke of genius and successfully transforms the track. It's one of those rare moments where a mix between a couple of tracks makes something completely new and manages to improve on the original. It's really that good.

Fabric 52 really feels like an important album. Sometimes mix albums are able to point to the future far better than an album from one individual act can. The dark, spiralling acid trip of Optimo's set feels like just such an article. As on the tripped out mish-mash of Nakion's 'Heartbit' and Xex's 'Heartbeat' that closes the album, this is a fantastic collaboration between the past and the future.

BP x

Fabric 52 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].