Album Review: Room(s) - Machinedrum

Inevitably the end of year lists always uncover a few gems you'd some how missed and for 2011 it would appear that for me that gem was Machinedrum's Room(s). I'd not even heard of Machinedrum, or Travis Stewart to give him his proper name, before about a month ago but it would appear he is rather prolific. He has actually appeared twice on a number of 'best of 2011' lists as his other album release of the the year, as one half of Sepalcure, has also got a lot of love (I'm yet to get to it).

On first listen Room(s) reminded me of the spooky urban decay of Burial meets the experimental electronics of Gold Panda but after a few more listens and a bit more time it's clear there is much more going on here. To me Burial's music always felt a bit too much like a one trick pony - the chilling vocal samples and skittering garage beats were a great depiction of the darker side of urban sprawl but they feel very one-dimensional, oddly detracted from the alternative that is the abundance of human life and the warmth of the city.

Room(s) feels like a full representation of city life. It has moments of isolation, contemplation and melancholy but also takes in parties and people and life. 'She Died There' is dark and brooding but 'Come1' starts pure Chicago house, laced with soulful keys and 'Funky Drummer' vocal snatches, before disintegrating like a move to the exit via the cloakroom - the music becoming fainter and gentler. This is an album of genres being smashed together and manipulated to make something new, yet everything feels right. It's one album, every track here sounds like Machinedrum and yet they take in house, soul, electro, techno, dubstep...

Some albums sound like their time whilst some sound like the future. Somehow Room(s) feels like both - it's unmistakably now, but it also feels like a way forward.

BP x

Room(s) is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Slave Ambient - The War On Drugs

The War On Drugs' Slave Ambient comes on like a golden sun-drenched California-born-and-raised country album, the jaunty melodies kicking off with 'Best Night', swimming in shimmering guitar work and a humming percussion backing. 'Brothers' retains the feeling but adds a bit of psychedelia, sounding like The Byrds on one of the Beatles' acid trips.

But throughout Slave Ambient each song from The War On Drugs feels like it adds a different element. 'I Was There' is sloppily gambolling around like one of the Verve's more experimental tracks which, if you put your ego aside, is still a good thing. Things really move with 'Your Love Is Calling My Name' though - the melodies and rhythms becoming more intensely mechanical and singer Adam Granduciel's vocals becoming entwined with the instruments so they feel like part of the music as much as the instruments.

It feels like a jumping off point and from here on out the ground is no longer beneath our feet. There are short slices of ambient and distorted circular instrumental and a glorious moment on 'Baby Missiles' that is a good barometer for The War On Drugs: we are basically listening to Bruce Springsteen backed by Neu!

The anthemic 'Come To The City' and its post-rock reprise encapsulate this album best though. It's a dazzling and bewildering fist-in-the-air shout of triumphant determination wrapped up in a home-coming that hits you with a bloody smile and a punch to the gut all at once. If U2 early U2 had transformed into something amazing instead of shit they might be something like this.

BP x

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

Album Review: 50 Words For Snow - Kate Bush

Confession time: I've never really listened to much Kate Bush. I don't particularly have a reason why, I just haven't ever got around to it. I've now been living with her latest album, 50 Words For Snow, for a few weeks and it's a pretty incredible record.

It feels both dense and incredibly intense. It is also so entwined with the season that I really cannot imagine ever even considering playing it on a nice summer's day. Both of these facts are front and centre from the off, with opener 'Snowflake' a ten-minute walk through a jazz melody played on Bush's piano whilst her son Albert describes a strange sense of detachment in the snow. He seems to be struggling to find the person that is the subject of the song - it feels like getting lost and left alone in a white-out at night. Lonely but strangely serene.

A fitting opener, since this is an album of moods and atmosphere. It sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a movie, it's so consistent in theme and tone. That means it simply feels like too much - it's all just a little too rich and even the shortest song is almost seven-minutes long. It loses it's footing slightly on 'Wild Man' but you can't help but be charmed by Bush's penchant for the bizarre, as expressed on this tale of finding a yeti's footprints. It is the duet with Elton John that provides the climax on 'Snowed in at Wheeler St' however, and it is another tail separation - a theme that runs throughout the album. It's aggressively climatic chorus and finale hangs around long after the music has faded, although the sheer volume almost knocks the whole album off-kilter. It feels like an epic slab of AOR in the middle of a delicate jazz album.

50 Words For Snow is one of the most intriguing albums I've heard in a long time - it's themes and movements incredibly bold. It is over the top but you can't help but applaud Bush's willingness to experiment, whether it is with Stephen Fry reading out made up names for snow or in the folklore themes than run through some of the lyrics. Winter undoubtedly has a magical feel to it and this record probably captures that feeling better than any other I've ever heard.

BP x

50 Words For Snow is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Soul on Soul (Deluxe Edition) - Jean Wells

I'm sure I point this out every year but December onwards always tends to see a dearth of decent music releases as the industry focuses on milking the valuable casual market for Christmas. The result is all X Factor, greatest hits compilations and deluxe reissues of the year's best (selling) albums.

Soul on Soul is a re-release, albeit one selected from an artist who deserves more exposure rather than less for once. Wells was never a massive star in her own time - her biggest single was the desperate and lovelorn 'Have a Little Mercy', which reached number 25 in the R&B charts on release in 1967. But her voice simply boasts bags of soul, and these songs always leave the gloves off.

Whether it is wallowing in the depths of emotion, as on the aforementioned 'Have a Little Mercy' or the similarly themed 'Sit Down and Cry', or being forthright and commanding respect Wells' songs are beautiful and gloriously sung. ’Somebody's Been Loving You (But It Ain't Been Me)’ is a brilliant example of the latter - a slamming put down to a cheating partner, Wells making it clear that she hasn't had anywhere near enough (ahem) attention lately.

Particularly mind-blowing is the synthesiser backed 'Roll Up Your Sleeves, Come Out Lovin' (Winner Takes All)’. Recorded in the early seventies it feels like a rough take on 80s disco but the fuzzy charm of the bass line gives it an incredible grounded feel. Best of all is 'What Have I Got To Lose', a soaring, string-led epic Philly soul joint that is all butterflies and sunshine of spring love - the all too short moment of contemplation before making your move on a new love.

If, like me, Christmas tends to drive you loopy with the disposability of it all then you could do much worse than keep this on standby throughout the next five weeks.

BP x

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

Album Review: Soft Pack - Ruede Hagelstein & The Noblettes

Ruede Hagelstein's Soft Pack is not what you expect from a release on Tiefschwartz's Souvenir Music label by a DJ that has dabbled with electro-clash and been featured on Kitsuné Maison and Mathew Dear's Fabric album.

And that is because this is a laid back, experimental album and, together with his band The Noblettes, Hagelstein has made a set of contemplative jazz-influenced folk songs. The benefit of Ruede's producer-background are clear though, as this album is spoilt by a myriad of tiny flourishes and little moments that elevate these songs to greatness. Listen to 'Berlin', a tribute to the band's home, and it is full of detail - the clicks and shuffles of the percussion in the opening half, the disconcertingly slowed down break half-way through and then the shimmering jazz chorus that seemingly breaks out into flight for the song's second half. The layers of keys, the guitars, the traffic sounds that close it out.

There are more overtly electronic moments - the static and distortion of 'Blue Straight' or (an admittedly more laid back take on) previous single 'Emergency' - but even these moments are not going to bother any dance floors. This is an album of atmospheric pop, as close to Sufjan Stevens and Animal Collective as anything else.

And it is best when it is at its most free. The looping bass and rhythm of 'Leaving the Centre' feels improvised, the lyrics an unbound stream of consciousness. Despite the weighty bass it skitters around your head in floods of reverb. You can't help but worry the whole thing might fall apart if you were to concentrate too hard. 'Romance' is similarly unconstrained, a five-minute instrumental that feels like an extended snapshot of a single moment in time, the melodies unpacking and re-packing themselves over and over.

Ruede Hgelstein and The Noblettes have made an album of joyful ambient pop. It features the kind of music that can only come from the mind of an extremely talented producer. At its best, it is no less than beautiful.

BP x

Soft Pack is out now on Souvenir Music, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].