January Vice Reviews

Here arre the reviews I did for the January 2007 issue of Vice. Again, not all made the cut so you are getting exclusive content right here. Big.

Dub Stories CD/DVD
Discograph/Uncivilized World

7 From Radiohead trooping off stage to One-Drop to a bunch of kids from Croydon revitalising UK urban dance music, something’s up. Dub is in the air again. This documentary argues that from the day King Tubby killed the vocal on the mixing desk at Treasure Isle and created the first version track it never went away. It’s hard to argue, imagine a world without Rhythm & Sound or Basic Channel. Scary eh?

Ballads Of The Book
Chemikal Underground

8 Hello everything that’s great about Scotland encapsulated in an 18 song collaborative collection! Knowing and arch lyrical ballads of heartbreak and booze spoken and sang by everyone from those folky Fence Collective dudes to Ian Rankin and Idlewild. Who wants a guided tour of the 52 states? I’d far rather hear about waifs from Fife, love that destroys and Calvinist preachers.

Grinderman
Grinderman
Mute

6 If you’d asked me what a record involving Warren Ellis, Nick Cave and a couple of Bad Seeds would spit out I’d never of guessed it would sound like an abrasive No-Wave racket that can morph from agitated Beefheart spoken word dirges to bluesified whig outs to moments of stark beauty. Hold on, that’s exactly what I would have thought it would sound like. Yep, it’s another Cave/Bad Seeds record but with another name.

Harmful
7
Koolarrow

1 There is a reason why this band is only big in Germany. If I wanted to listen to middle of the road riff-driven noisy rock that’s done the same thing for a decade I’d put Lungfish on. If I wanted to hear it done well I’d listen to the first couple of Helmet records. No one cares that Billy Gould used to be in Faith No More, Butch Vig once produced Nirvana, he still went on to play in Garbage. They’re so bored of their own music that they’ve even given up naming the albums, “here you go world: your seventh sack of shit”.

Wolf
The Black Flame
Century Media

10 Not sure if I’m meant to enjoy this as much as I do but listening to Wolf makes you feel like you’re at Castle Donnington watching prime-Maiden jamming with Rush and making wank fantasy NWOBHM. Fuck Dragonforce, this album has a song called ‘Steelwinged Savage Reaper’. Incredible.