Welcome to October which is kicking off with a whopper of a release week. Today I review new albums from Parquet Courts‘ A. Savage, Vanishing Twin, reggae cult legends Creation Rebel (first album in 40 years!), EXEK, Field Music‘s Peter Brewis, Adulkt Life (members of Huggy Bear and Male Bonding), and Axis: Sova, plus vital reissues from Pale Saints, The Bees and The Darkness.
For more record reviews, Andrew listens to Sufjan Stevens, Citizen, the Paramore remix albums, Mary Lattimore, and more in Notable Releases.
Feeling behind with all these releases? Read the Indie Basement September Roundup with the best songs and albums of the month, a three-hour playlist and more.
Head below for this week’s many reviews…
A. Savage – Several Songs About Fire (Rough Trade)
Parquet Courts co-frontman gets personal on his folky second solo album
Several Songs About Fire is a quintessential solo record. After more than a decade co-leading Parquet Courts, A. Savage’s voice is unmistakable, as are some of his melodic tendencies and the chord progressions he uses, but this is pretty far from the streets of Ridgewood, Queens he called home for 15 years. (Savage left NYC recently and now calls Paris home.) Even more than on his 2017 solo debut, Thawing Dawn, this presents Savage soothed and surrounded by gentle, mostly acoustic backing. The album was made in England with producer John Parish who worked on Parquet Courts’ 2021 album Sympathy for Life, and his band on here includes Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting), Cate Le Bon and some of her regular collaborators (Euan Hinshelwood, Dylan Hadley) and violinist Magdalena McLean (caroline, Naima Bock).
Given all that it’s no surprise Several Songs About Fire has such a pastoral, bucolic feel which fits perfectly with this batch of thoughtful, introspective songs. Savage still has a way with lines that stick with you, appreciating the vibe even if you don’t entirely get the meaning. “My money melts like sugar in the shower when I don’t sing / Like a broken mockingbird that’s put in pawn / And traded in for diamond jewelry,” he sings on “Thanksgiving Prayer” over minor chords and Hinshelwood’s sax. It may just be the players but Le Bon’s influence looms large — she’s everywhere lately — like on the twin-lead-plus-sax hook in “My, my, my dear.” Savage and Le Bon’s styles are pretty simpatico and it’s just little touches here and there, but they are felt. There are a few songs that sound like they could’ve been for Parquet Courts — the rocking “Elvis in the Army,” the goodbye New York of “David’s Dead” — but most of Songs feels like a next step.
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Pale Saints – In Ribbons (30th Anniversary edition) (4AD)
This much-needed reissue marks the first time Pale Saints’ second album has been released on vinyl in the US, and comes with a bonus LP of demos and more
Pale Saints’ fantastic second album turned 30 last year but I can’t ding 4AD for being a year late with this anniversary edition reissue as it seems unlikely to exist at all. They had videos that got shows on MTV’s 120 Minutes and were reviewed in the NME but Pale Saints never reached the popularity of the label’s big hitters. But in many ways they were the ultimate 4AD band at the time, marrying the ethereal gothy gauze of Cocteau Twins with the roar and dynamics of Pixies. Lumped in with shoegaze, Pale Saints were closer to bands like Echo & The Bunnymen but frontman Ian Masters was a genuine weirdo who always kept things delightfully off-center. Both of the studio albums Pale Saints made with Masters are fantastic but I might give In Ribbons the edge over 1990’s The Comforts of Madness as the addition of Meriel Barham on guitar and vocals really added to the band’s dynamic. Here’s a bit from my retrospective feature:
For their second album, Pale Saints enlisted producer Hugh Jones who had worked with Modern English, The Sound, and the Bunnymen, and whose atmospheric style was a good match for the band’s sound. Jones was also a calming presence, smoothing out tensions between Masters — whose taste leaned more to the esoteric — and the rest of the band who enjoyed working on the somewhat more mainstream side of indie and were interested in, you know, selling some records.
That push and pull between Masters’ outsider tendencies and Naysmith, Cooper and Barham’s commercial interests is what makes In Ribbons so good. If some of the wild, ragged edges of Comforts of Madness have been smoothed off, the album makes up for it with scope and beauty. And there’s still no shortage of weird.
You can read the whole feature here but in addition to In Ribbons being back on vinyl for the first time since its initial release (and first time ever in the US), the 30th anniversary edition also comes with a second LP of demos and rarities. Like on The Comforts of Madness reissue, the demos are already pretty close to what they’d sound like on the studio versions. There are a few songs where Masters is “la la la-ing” placeholder vocals, but the arrangements are 85% there. The disc also includes a demo of their cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Kinky Love” which was on their Flesh Balloon EP and marked the vocal debut of Barham. Here it’s Masters singing and I’ll just say I’m glad Meriel ending up taking lead.
Best of all, the bonus disc includes the two reimaginings of “A Thousand Stars Burst Open” and “A Revelation” by the Tinwhistle Brass Band that came on a bonus 7″ with the original vinyl release. What sounds like a novelty on paper (and it is kind of a novelty) is actually rendered beautifully with sublime brass arrangements. Plus: this new vinyl edition just sounds so much better than the original as, by 1992, CDs had fully taken over the market and vinyl felt more like a contractual obligation than a prefered format. It’s a fantastic treatment for an underappreciated album and if you’ve never heard Pale Saints, In Ribbons is a perfect place to start.
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Creation Rebel – Hostile Environment (On-U Sound)
First album in 40 years from these reggae cult legends. As always, orchestrated by dub maestro Adrian Sherwood
Creation Rebel formed in the late ’70s, initially as the backing band for toaster Prince Far I but they soon became known on their own as the UK’s preeminent dub band. With guidance from producer Adrian Sherwood (for all intents and purposes a member of the group) and Dennis Bovell, Creation Rebel were championed by John Peel, taken on tour by the Clash, and released groundbreaking cult classics like 1980’s Starship Afrika that still sound like the rest of the world hasn’t caught up.
The band called it quits in the mid-’80s — bassist Lizard Logan was jailed for marijuana importation and Prince Far I’s 1983 murder were contributing factors — but members of the group became part of Sherwood’s stable of On-U Sound players, appearing on many, many records. When Sherwood started playing live again in 2019, he called on guitarist Crucial Tony, drummer Eskimo Fox and vocalist Ranking Magoo, and they next thing they knew they were back in the studio together. Four years later we have Hostile Environment, the first Creation Rebel album in 40 years.
As usual, Creation Rebel and Sherwood are mixing dub, cut-and-paste collage sonics and fiery politics and the title is a reference to former British Prime Minister Teresa May’s controversial policy toward asylum-seekers. Sherwood told The Guardian, “It was against the backdrop of the Windrush scandal, and after one of those Nazi home secretaries said they want to create a hostile environment to stop those seeking refuge,” said Sherwood. “It’s the perfect title for the record, ’cause all our crew’s foreparents came from the Windrush generation.”
Even if you’re not up on British politics, you can feel the tension on Hostile Environment and they’ve created some killer grooves to push it along. Sherwood, who’s busier than ever working with Spoon and Panda Bear/Sonic Boom when not busy twiddling knobs for Horace Andy and Jeb Loy Nichols — has not lost his touch in the producer chair, delivering a rich satisfying record and a most welcome return.
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EXEK – The Map and the Territory (Foreign Records)
Australian post-punks channel Wire and embrace melody on their fifth album (and best yet)
Australia’s EXEK seem like they probably own a bunch of records Adrian Sherwood produced, as their claustrophobic, reverbed-out sound feels directly influenced by The Pop Group and The Slits. The band’s fifth album, though, is a little different. Bandleader Albert Wolski calls The Map and the Territory “perhaps less ambitious than some previous EXEK releases,” before adding, “In a positive way, obviously.” Where previous releases were top-to-tail dystopic, here EXEK are using pop melodies and song structures to lure you in…and then give you the creeps. It’s a bit like Wire, who in the late-’70s and ’80s embraced big hooks and choruses but still did so with their intrinsic weirdness at the core. The performances are also impressive, especially the rhythm section who help give the album a jazzy, krautrock undercurrent. It’s not an about-face pop turn to the level of Wire’s “Kidney Bingos,” but brass-inflected songs like “The Lifeboats” and “It’s Just a Flesh Wound, Darling” might leave you humming while instilling a quiet unease.
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Vanishing Twin – Afternoon X (Fire Records)
Fourth album from this komische-inspired London band, scales things back which is not a bad thing at all
After three albums of kosmische-fueled tropicalia (or is it the other way around?), London’s Vanishing Twin decided to mix things up for their fourth album. That’s instantly apparent on Afternoon X‘s opening song, “Melty,” which throws pitched-up vocal samples at your ears. Have they gone Caribou, dabbling in clubby beats? No, but we’re clearly in new territory. Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti and bassist Susumu Mukai decided to take less structured band roles this time, picking up different instruments and allowing recording software to play a bigger creative role. Some of Vanishing Twin’s signature elements are still here: Magaletti, who can play like Can’s Jaki Liebezeit, and Mukai, are an awe-inspiring rhythm section as evidenced on Afternoon X‘s incredible title track. Elsewhere, though, this is Vanishing Twin 2.0, adding loops and samples to their arsenal. Afternoon X feels a little scaled back after the widescreen technicolor of The Age of Immunology and Ookii Gekkou — maybe it’s just that there’s less flute this time — but decluttering allows other elements to bubble to the surface. Still, it’s when Lucas coos over a killer groove from Magaletti and Mukai, like on “The Down Below,” that Vanishing Twin truly come alive.
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Peter Brewis – Blowdry Colossus (Daylight Savings)
Field Music co-founder dives deep into ’80s synths on playful instrumental solo album
Field Music’s Peter Brewis and David Brewis are insanely talented writers and multi-instumentalists and when not making actual Field Music albums they’re working on some related offshoot. There are many of these offshoots but my favorite is The Week That Was, a concept album spearheaded by Peter about a newspaper that also allowed him to indulge in his love of Big ’80s production, the kind typified by Trevor Horn (ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, Art of Noise). Peter goes back to that sonic well for his first ever album under his own name, a mostly instrumental album that takes cues from Yellow Magic Orchestra, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Bill Nelson. “I wanted to make something where the music was the focus.” says Peter, “With songs, the lyrics tend to carry the meaning: ‘This song is about…’ I wanted the music to be the meaning – the melodies, harmonies, sounds, structures.”
Blowdry Colossus features contributions from David Brewis, Sarah Hayes (You Tell Me), and Peter’s son Alexander, and while you can tell Peter had a blast making it, this is more of a curiosity than anything else. Some of the synth sounds also take it into (impressively constructed) novelty. The title track, in particular, seems to have all the wackiest ’80s keyboard presets all in one song and could have listeners who wandered in by mistake wandering back out — though its use of a hairdryer’s various settings as a melodic element is inspired and feels like a nod to Art of Noise’s “Close to the Edit.” But there are some wonderfully sublime moments, too, like “Lemoncadabra” and “Drumeoscene” which is one of the album’s only songs with vocals. There probably aren’t too many people who will stumble upon this album by mistake, though, and Field Music fans will find lots to love in this more minor work in a remarkably consistent body of work.
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The Bees – Sunshine Hit Me 20th Anniversary Edition (PIAS)
Underrated UK duo’s debut album gets a welcome 20th anniversary vinyl repress
Before Wet Leg put Isle of Wight on the map again in 2021, The Bees were the biggest thing to come from the idyllic island since Level 42. Founded by multiinstrumentalist crate-diggers Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher in 2001, The Bees wrote and recorded at their home-built Shed studio as cows wandered by, mixing soul, reggae, ska, folk, rock, and tropicalia into a distinct, if retro-tinged, sound. The Bees had to change their name in North America to A Band of Bees because there was already a Nashville band with that name…who then changed their name to The Silver Seas. It’s confusing, but The Bees’ music is easy to like — warm, melodic, groovy and fun. Their 2002 debut, Sunshine Hit Me, is a real treat and very well titled given the sunny pleasures it brings, from mellow opener “Punchbag,” to “No Trophy” that sounds like it was recorded at Studio 1 in 1968, to their cover of Os Mutantes’ “A Minha Menina.”
Sunshine Hit Me has been out of print since the mid-’00s but has now gotten this belated 20th anniversary reissue. The album has been remastered for vinyl from the original tapes and was overseen by Butler and Fletcher. It also comes with a bonus CD featuring five b-sides and outtakes from the time, including “Seeds” which was previously unreleased. Sunshine Hit Me was nominated for the 2002 Mercury Prize — it lost to Ms Dynamite’s A Litte Deeper — and The Bees would keep getting better. As much as I like this album, I love 2004’s Free the Bees and 2007’s Octopus even more. Fingers crossed those get reissued as well.
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The Darkness Permission to Land… Again (20th Anniversary Edition) (Rhino)
The Darkness’ awesome, over-the-top debut gets the excessive five-LP box set treatment you’d expect
There’s nothing “indie” about The Darkness, the UK band who embrace 1970s rock excess, but I unironically love every over-the-top second of their 2003 debut album, Permission to Land, which I consider to be almost a perfect record. Here’s a bit of what I wrote earlier this summer for the album’s 20th anniversary:
The Darkness can be funny but they’re no joke. They were (and still are) very serious about crafting ultracatchy hard rock that embraced the genre’s heritage, from rad riffing and incendiary solos to all the cheese that comes with it (naughty puns, outrageous singing, rawk moves, spandex). Released July 7, 2003, their debut album Permission to Land is gloriously over-the-top but it’s hard to deny the songwriting, the hooks, the riffs, the solos, and performances. It’s all hits.
With production that avoided any 2003-era sonic touchstones — and didn’t go near any Mutt Lange ’80s rawk tropes either — Permission to Land still sounds great 20 years on and holds up a lot better than a lot of other albums of the era (sorry AWK). It remains a totally ridiculous, totally awesome blast.
In celebration of the album’s 20th anniversary The Darkness have reissued Permission to Land in a few different editions, including a deluxe five-LP box set. The original album has been remastered for vinyl and there’s also a disc featuring all the b-sides from the era, many of which are great as they were really on a roll then. It’s also got their their 2003 holiday single “Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)” which throws in every yuletide musical cliche, including a children’s chorus, on top of their expertly deployed rock theatrics and ties it all up with a title that sounds appropriately innocuous but is also a rude double entendre. There’s also a disc featuring demos of every song on the album, not one but two live albums and booklet featuring new interviews, liner notes and rare photos. If you just want the album, that’s been reissued as a standalone LP too, but this box set is appropriately excessive.
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Axis: Sova – Blinded By Oblivion (God? / Drag City)
Bret Sova returns with another album of mutant glam, produced by Ty Segall
Gleaming twin leads are the first thing you hear on Axis:Sova’s third album, sounding almost like trumpets heralding some royal or oligarch. But then Brett Sova sings and sets the tone for things to come: “People / will be the end people.” It’s a grimly funny start to Blinded by Oblivion that has that glammy guitar style — made famous by Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy and Boston — all over it, transporting Sova from his DIY / low-fi beginnings into relative high fidelity and perhaps outer space in a bid to leave this garbage fire of a planet. Musically, Sova gets a lot of help from Ty Segall, who produced the album at his Harmonizer Studio in California, and the sonic upgrade does Axis: Sova good, presenting brilliant sunshine to expose some dark truths. These songs are also serious jams, from mutant punk (“Trend Sets”) to power-pop (“Join a Cult”) and caveman beat rock (“I’m a Ghost”), all given extra impact by new drummer Josh Johannpeter (Mahjong, Cave) who bashes alongside vintage drum machines. If Sova is moving on to better worlds, Blinded by Oblivion makes a great goodbye note — and invitation to join him.
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Adulkt Life – There Is No Desire (JABS)
Second album from group featuring members of Huggy Bear and Male Bonding
Chris Rowley, of ’90s cult punks Huggy Bear, had all but given up on music when he met Male Bonding’s John Webb and Kevin Henrick who convinced him to start a new group. Adulkt Life’s 2020 debut album, Book of Curses, was Rowley’s first new music since Huggy Bear and he’d clearly been storing a lot of pent-up energy and anger, as it was a stormer of a record. Three years later the group are back with their second album that finds all of their energy reserves at maximum again as Rowley lets it rip over post-apocalyptic riffage. Where was Rowley shouting in the 20 years in-between? Glad he’s found a worthy outlet.
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