Above Them - Are We a Danger To Ourselves?

I had some trouble getting this album and, strictly speaking, this is the second copy of it I bought (although I never actually saw the first). I'm a big fan of Above Them and when I was living in South Wales we saw them play all the time. I try to go and see them play now whenever I can, but it's less often these days. I pre-ordered the LP as soon as it was announced from Yo-Yo records and waited eagerly. The album was released and people started getting their copies but mine was yet to arrive. I spoke to Jan at Yo-Yo who said some records got stuck at customs. The postman would often leave records on the doorstep, so there's the possibility it got stolen that way, or maybe the postman fancied it. Either way, I never received that record. 

I eventually gave up waiting and bought this copy from Banquet when they got it in. I passed comment on Twitter about my missing copy and the guys in the band said they'd sort me out with a copy (proving what excellent guys they are). I didn't take them up on the offer - I thought that of the four parties involved, Yo-Yo Records, Above Them, Banquet and me, it'd be better that I pay twice than an independent business/band take the hit (plus, two copies of this LP still costs less than most new records these days). Also, I was mostly just really keen to actually hear the record.

Are We a Danger To Ourselves? is as strong as Blueprint For a Better Time as far as I'm concerned; again are the huge hooks and great songs - there's nothing not to like. It starts off strong with A New Year and Concrete Forgiveness (two of my favourites), Feel Alive and Something to Keep You Positive are great too. In fact, the final trio are all really strong and "woah-ohs" are a brilliant note to finish on. I like it.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 09/07/12
Colour: Brown
Etching: Side A: "Rainbow, riches and cider", Side B: "Regenbogen, Reichtum und Apfelwein"
mp3s: no

PJ Bond - You Didn't Know I Was Alphabetical

I've put this record on for the first time in a very long time and I'm enjoying it far more than I remember thinking I did. I think when I bought it I was massively underwhelmed and probably never gave it the chance to grow on me. At least I'm realising it now.

I first heard PJ Bond when he played CMC at Fest 2011 and it was a pretty lovely set (CMC is one of the hidden treats at Fest as far as venues go). A few weeks later he was playing in Kingston along with Great Cynics and Into It. Over It (and Broadway Calls, who I don't particularly care for. For £2 more than buying the ticket you could buy the ticket plus a copy of the Broadway calls EP Banquet were putting out so I went for that option. The record isn't one I play often). I had a nice time watching PJ Bond again and picked up this LP at the end of the night.

Upon first listen it wasn't what I expected - on record PJ Bond comes across much more like a folk musician than he does live. Or maybe it's because I've only ever seen him on punk bills that I assumed there'd be stronger hints of punk than folk? Anyway, the songs are nice and it's definitely the sort of album I could put on in the background when people are round (I've realised recently that I have very little music that fits this situation). "Good background music" is hardly the highest praise for a record but there's a time and a place for it. There are some strong highlights though - Stop Being Bad (despite the slightly cringe-worthy lyrics), Grow Your Smile Wide, You Know the Drill and No Theme Summer (which is possibly my favourite).

It's been good listening to this record critically after a while of not hearing it - a lot of good has shone through and I suspect I'll be listening to it more often now. Who knows, in a few months it might be my new favourite record.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: gig
When: 08/12/11
Colour: Blue
Etching: None
mp3s: Download

Chuck Ragan - Covering Ground

Another day, another Chuck Ragan record. Covering Ground is his third studio album and a pretty strong one at that. With his last three albums (so all of them except Feast or Famine, which I've loved since the first time I heard it) I'm finding that they don't blow me away on first listen but over the months and years more and more of the songs stand out as being excellent songs and the album gradually changes from being a solid Chuck Ragan LP to being an incredible one. It happened with Gold Country, it's happened here and I can already see it happening with Til Midnight. It's strange that Feast or Famine grabbed me so instantly when the rest take much longer.

Highlights are Nothing Left to Prove, Nomad By Fate and Meet You in the Middle but there are plenty of other great songs too. There are a couple of slower ones that don't grab me so much but they don't take away from the record. It's a nice package too - gatefold sleeve and a huge poster with the lyrics in the newspaper-style layout. Strangely, there's a gap of (mostly) silence between Lost and Found and the "hidden" track, Camaraderie of the Commons, which is something you don't see so often these days; I thought silent gaps before hidden songs was a thing of the late-90's but clearly I was wrong (or maybe it's because I don't buy cds that often anymore). Still the extra song is a nice surprise and great despite having to move the needle to get to it.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, 24x12" poster
Tracks: 10
Cost: £14 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 14/09/11
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: Download code

The Ex - Catch My Shoe

The Ex were quite possibly the highlight of the Shellac-curated All Tomorrow's Parties in 2012. The line-up was quite strong, but we mostly went because Shellac are awesome and because they have an excellent taste in music; there were loads of bands we'd never heard of, but they came with Shellac's stamp of approval which counts for a great deal. In the end, we saw some of nearly every set that weekend. It was tiring but rewarding. On the final night we went over to the main room to see The Ex + Brass Unsound without any idea of what to expect, but they blew us away.

The Ex are a Dutch punk band who have been around for more than 30 years. In that time they've released countless albums and experimented with a lot of sounds. The fact that a punk band (probably) in their 50's can still impress me as much as punk band in their 20's says something about how good they are. I've since seen them two more times and they never fail to impress me. I bought this copy of Catch My Shoe from the singer at the merch table when they supported Neutral Milk Hotel after the whole Jabberwocky clusterfuck.

[Side note: I was hugely looking forward to ATP's Jabberwocky festival in 2014 - the highlights for me were NMH, Electric Wizard, Jesu, Caribou and The Ex. At some point I'd jokingly said to a friend "I'd pay £35 to see any two of those bands" which, ironically, was what ended up happening - a few days before the festival ATP cancelled the whole event and promoters scrambled to put the bands on elsewhere in London. Someone booked NMH and The Ex together in The Forum and I for one was incredibly pleased (especially since The Ex were going to be playing on the day I didn't have ticket for so would have missed anyway). As it happened, the NMH performance was by far the best I saw that year (of the four NMH shows I went to). I think the last-minute nature brought a slightly different crowd and people went mad for it. I loved seeing both bands and had a nice chat to the singer from The Ex at the end.]

Digging into the back-catalogue of The Ex isn't trivial in this country and I very rarely see their records meaning that I still only have this album and the double-cd of their 30-year anniversary best-of compilation. I therefore can't speak for the majority of their albums, but I do know that I absolutely adore this album. It's a punk record yet most of the songs hover around the 6-minute mark. Their incredibly eclectic musical backgrounds are evident throughout - the excellent riff on Maybe I Was the Pilot comes from a Ugandan harp player and Eoleyo is an Ethiopian song. There may only be nine songs but they're all excellent and I had vivid memories of most of them being played live across all three times I've seen the band. Particular highlights for me are Maybe I Was the Pilot, Double Order, Cold Weather is Back, Tree Float and Keep on Walking which I realise is the majority of the record; that's how great Catch My Shoe is.

I can't recommend The Ex strongly enough, which I have to do because they are largely unknown in the circles I move in, despite the fact that most people I know who like punk/alternative music would lap this up. I wonder how many years would have passed before someone introduced The Ex to me? Suffice to say, I'm pretty grateful to Shellac for doing that job.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 9
Cost: £9 new
Bought: gig
When: 15/08/14
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: no

Max Richter - Memoryhouse

A couple of years ago, I wrote about Max Richter's brilliant Infra on this blog. At the time it stood alone in my record collection; two sides of incredible neo-classical music surrounded by countless punk, post-rock and metal albums. However it represented the beginning of a journey of musical discovery I'm still on. Digging through the other albums Max Richter has released, finding the section in my record shop called "Neo-classical, experimental, noise and other" and converting friends has been very rewarding indeed.

One of the highlights is Memoryhouse, an album I'm very glad has recently been reissued on a lovely double white vinyl. Late in 2011 I found the cd of Memoryhouse in a second-hand shop in Soho and was pretty excited to hear it. I had no idea if it would be anything like Infra or whether I'd enjoy it at all, but my fears were unnecessary. I don't know if it's fair to call it an "album of songs" (any themes are less evident than they are on Infra) but it certainly works well in that sense; most of the songs stand well alone with a handful of notable highlights along the way. Listening to it as an album, some of the songs become more incidental and add to the overall flow. At 18 tracks, it's not a quick listen, but if I put it on my headphones at work it makes for a very enjoyable hour.

The highlights I mentioned before are spread pretty evenly throughout the record - the opener Europe, After the Rain, Sarajevo with its piercing vocals and violins, the more electronic Untitled (Figures) and the haunting Arbentia. However, the two most exciting songs for me are November and Last Days which are both hugely tense and overwhelming pieces of music. Those two songs sit perfectly between the worlds of classical music and post-rock, which is quite something.

The reissue was expensive but definitely worth it. The vinyl is particularly noisy but the crackles and pops really do add something here. Whilst electronic instruments are used and it's a very modern classical album, it already sounds timeless and all that surface noise adds to the idea that this LP could have been knocking for 60 years. I'm not sure why it's quite so noisy (it's only had one careful owner - me) but I like it.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 18
Cost: £25 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 26/07/14
Colour: White
Etching: None
mp3s: Download

Dirty Projectors - About To Die

Sometime I find I buy records just because I'm spending money; on the day I found this I'd picked up a couple of other records I fancied and just added this one to the pile. It's by no means an essential purchase and £7 for a four-song EP isn't exactly a bargain. That said, Dirty Projectors have been on a roll recently and their last two (proper) albums, Bitte Orca and Swing Lo Magellan, were both incredible. 

About to Die is a single from the second of those albums, sandwiched between the two highlights - Offspring Are Blank and Gun Has No Trigger. On the album then, About to Die never really caught my attention due to the strength of its neighbours, but it's a pretty good song. While You're Here isn't the most interesting song, but is apparently written about the death of the bassist from TV on the Radio. The two songs on the b-side both have more going for them, but show a simpler side of the band; the arrangements are more basic and it leaves room for the song to do the work.

Anyway, it's a nice enough EP but certainly isn't the sort of record that will change anyone's life. Despite it being second-hand the download card worked fine, much to my surprise. 

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £7 second hand
Bought: Vinyl Exchange, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: Download

The Smith Street Band - Sunshine & Technology

Young Drunk was the first Smith Street Band song I heard, on one of the Fest 2013 mixtapes on Bandcamp. The mixtapes had steered me well when we went in 2011 so I was keen to discover some more bands for our next trip. Young Drunk was one of the biggest highlights that time around and I immediately went to their Bandcamp to listen to the rest of the album. The first time I heard Sunshine and Technology was sat at my desk in my very boring, very corporate office job. If ever there was a soundtrack to the exact opposite, this was it.

A good summary of Sunshine and Technology (and, in fact, all Smith Street Band albums) is that it's just good sunny day punk music; uplifting, upbeat and enjoyable. Some of the choruses are so huge it's almost impossible to not sing along (just have a listen to I Can't Feel My Face or Stay Young) and there's an incredible urgency to the vocals which I love. The final trio of Young Drunk, When I Said Us I Meant Them and Don't Mention the War make for one of the strongest album-closers I can think of right now.

I've got a lot of time for this band. I think some of what it comes down to is that they just absolutely nail the whole "being Australian and in your 20's" thing (which is understandable because they are). But because I spent some of my 20's living in Australia I feel a stronger connection to the music; even though that was long before these guys were releasing music, I can imagine being on three-hour drives between cities listening to this album. It's quite a strange feeling to retrospectively soundtrack my time there, but it works. It's hard not to have good memories of Australia (because it was always so sunny) but I've somehow wrapped those memories up with these songs and it's nice.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: Fest
When: 03/11/13
Colour: Grey marble
Etching: Side A: "The Smith Street Band loves to tour" Side B: "The Smith Street Band Loves Jeff Rosenstock"
mp3s: Download