Vice v7n2 Record Reviews

And So I Watch You From Afar
And So I Watch You From Afar
Smalltown America

8 Just when the barrage of vacuous Pelicisis clones threatened to take the whole ‘instrumetal’ ship down to the deepest depths of irrevocable mediocrity this weirdly clothed beast turns up and reminds you that once upon a time it was all rather exciting to mix Mogwai, Neurosis and a dollop of not really caring what came out the other end.

Perry Nutkins

NLF3
Ride On A Brand New Time
Prohibited Records

7 You always have to be a little weary of people who insist on punctuating their names unnecessarily but F.lor and his equally improbably named buddies Don Nino and ‘Mitch’ have consistently produced the kind of joyful, day-glo riot through Can’s back catalogue you’ll find here for a long time so we can forgive them that errant full stop just this once.

Jerry Homely

The Bastard Noise
Rogue Astronaut
Gravity

10 Six new jams from perhaps the most consistently unrelenting, uncompromising musical odyssey in western music. I don’t think Wood is wired to comprehend the concept of ‘stop’ so on we go unto an apocalyptic near future where the Earth is raped and mankind are imprisoned on dead prison satellites while all the while the sonic spheres grate, scream and convulse with noise enough to decimate whole populaces at will.

Gordon Ranks

Human Hair
Human Hair EP
Sex Is Disgusting

8 Human Hair is the side project of the unhinged but totally lovable hippy guitar player guy from Lovvers. Someone told me that he’d stopped smoking industrial quantities of weed the other day but you’d never have guessed from these four frenetic, unraveling tracks on up and coming Brighton DIY label Sex is Disgusting.

Julio Incognito

Vetiver
Tight Knit
Bella Union

3 Nothing much changes in Andy Cabic’s dusty, husky world of frayed, hushed Americana. Which is a good thing if you are into stuff that’s gentle on the ear and makes for good filler on that mixtape you are putting together to mark the three month anniversary with your photography undergrad girlfriend but am I the only one who’d prefer it if 16 Horsepower were still around to spit some brimstone amidst all the bucolic reverie?

Jam 69

Polly Scattergood
Polly Scattergood
Mute

2 When did Mute go from releasing stuff that made you confused and scared to putting out someone who can’t decide if she wants to be Kate Nash or Kate Bush?

Milky Bones

The Invisible
The Invisible
Accidental

8 Bands should be banned from releasing eponymous debut albums. Unless your band name is almost a Grant Morrison comic title or the music you make is so good that you can pretty much go on to own the name forever.

El Mirador

Wino
Punctuated Equilibrium
Southern Lord

9 Can you believe that St Vitus have reformed? It’s got to be between that and Sleep doing Holy Mountain at Minehead for stoner-rock event of the year hands down. Considering his dizzying output it’s almost a surprise that this is Wino’s first solo record but it is and guess what? It’s incredible.

Circle Jams

V/A
A Psychedelic Guide To Monsterism Island
Lo Recordings

9 If you have to make one crisis credit crunch CD purchase this month you could do a lot worse than this musical representation of what life is like inside the head of the guy who does the Super Furry Animals sleeves. Luke Vibert, Jonny Trunk, Jerry Dammers and whole heap of other folks contribute so you’ll easily get you pennies worth. Or you could just download it.

Jaykwon

Sebastian Grainger
Sebastian Grainger & The Mountains
Saddle Creek

3 This guy was always the one who looked less like he might kick you in the balls and elope with your girlfriend out of the two seven foot lugs that made up DFA1979 so I really wanted to like this. Sadly it sounds like out takes from the first Killers album sung by a narcoleptic Graham Coxon. Oh well.

Million Jam

Made In Mexico
Geurillaton
Skin Graft

2 Just when you figured that Skin Graft had finally cemented itself in the ‘extinct’ section of the almanac of forgotten 90’s noise rock once and for all a couple of ex-members of Arab On Radar pop their heads back over the precipice on the back of a song your little brother will know from Guitar Hero 2. Life is just full of surprises.

Leadjelly

Action Beat
The Noise Band From Bletchley
Truth Cult

8 Despite possessing by far and away the worst name for a record this month and looking a little like a sectioned, naturist version of the Polyphonic Spree this is one of the closest things to a genuinely exciting British debut in years. Who’d have thought it would come out of Bletchley? I have absolutely no idea where that even is.

Alexis Petri-Dish