Iconic record producer, composer, singer, and pioneer of the dub music genre LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY was born in 1936 in Jamaica. He influenced generations of
artists such as Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Clash, Beastie Boys, Max Romeo, Junior
Murvin and The Orb. He passed away in 2021, aged 85.
Yesterday, his final album KING PERRY was posthumously released
via Berlin-based record label False Idols. Order info here
Conceived, written and recorded during the COVID pandemic, ‘King Perry’ was
produced by Daniel Boyle, and features guest performances from Greentea Peng,
Shaun Ryder, Tricky, Marta, Rose Waite and Fifi Rong.
“The album was born out of a request from Perry that he “wanted to do something new, something different but still with a dub framework”. And so, armed with influences as diverse as synthwave, big beat, drum & bass and electronica, Boyle and Perry traded ideas, beats and lyrics in a project that continued to grow as its various guest performers were added, resulting in a kaleidoscopic and engaging melting pot of rhythms, melodies, and voices. Poignantly, closing track ‘Goodbye’ was Perry’s last ever recorded vocal performance.”
One month after the assumption in Argentina of the new ultra-right-wing president Javier Milei, Buenos Aires-based indie label Fichines Ruido Zafarla released a compilation calledEste Sinte Mata Fascistas / This Synth Kills Fascists featuring 18 Argentinian synth-punk bands. The idea was to bring together projects with a punk attitude and the digital sound of synthesizers and electronic drums.
The album’s title is, I’m pretty sure, a nod to legendary folk icon Woody Guthrie
(July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) who had a sticker on his guitar saying ‘This Machine
Kills Fascists’.
The compilation is a fierce whirlwind of barbed wire punk protest against Argentina‘s
new dictatorial leader who got in power only last December. Trust me, you don’t need
to understand Spanish to feel/hear here the blistering rage, the scorching frustration
and the very loud and very clear screams for libertad/freedom.
Punk started as an anti-establishment movement with politically outspoken spirit.
It still is and always be, of which this 18-track compilation is a vivacious and fiercely combative example.
Artist: OOGAN Who: Musical project hailing from the village of Akākaz, which was burned
and destroyed by The Kalkazar Tribes, who in turn sacrificed villagers at the
stake. The survivors fled and a curse was put upon the land.
“It combines an audio visual experience with minimal techno rituals.”
Striking album artwork
TUTV: Imagine Californian electro avant-garde-noise wizardsXiu Xiu
wrote an updated soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick‘s 1968 classic SF movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Well, at least that’s what my impressed ears
tell me.
It feels and resonates as if Oogan recorded this bewildering, wriggling synth paranoia
in Dante Alighieri‘s inferno studio. Enigmatic, spooky but also chillingly entertaining.
Put your headphones on at midnight, get out, watch the doomed stars in the pitch-black sky and play Helios Mahina Oogan. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine.
NME: “This memorable and arrestingly bleak debut LP feels like a loud announcement of a striking new band… noise-rock ripe with melodrama. The sense of catharsis that defines ‘Letter To Self’ is formidable and powerful. This is a dynamic album that is reflective of the muddled world we find ourselves in – delivered with a fortifying sense of honesty from an essential emerging band.” Full review here. Score: 5/5.
TUTV: Today 5 January is only the first official album release day of 2024 and we already get a RAD one. These Irish indies burst with tremendous vehemence and sharp-teethed gusto. Their high-voltage jackhammers trash and slash along their build-up/break-down course. Breathtaking hullabaloo.
Schizo guitars, unrestrained bass/drum forcefulness, and Karla Chubb‘s borderline vocals combine for exorcistic flare-ups. At times, Chubb‘s unbridled intensity brings Courtney Love‘s maddening cry-outs to mind. As I said, breathtaking hullabaloo. And the cliché no fillers, all killers can’t be more accurate here. Can’t wait to see them explode next month
on stage in Antwerp.
SINGLES/CLIPS: Up And Comer / Adore Adore Adore / Shadow Of A Doubt / Heavy
Supreme songsmith JOE JACKSON (aged 69) released his 21st studio album,
titled WHAT A RACKET! A surprising one as the record celebrates Music Hall
legend Max Champion who is credited for writing all the songs.
Music Hall is a musical genre that started in the pubs and streets of London
in the mid-19th century and grew into the first form of mass entertainment to
be created by the working classes. By 1900 it regularly drew huge audiences from
across the whole spectrum of society, from prostitutes to princes, all singing along
with superstar performers in gorgeous theatres (some of which still survive). Like
its American cousin Vaudeville, Music Hall featured magicians, acrobats, and
ventriloquists – elements that we still see today in musical theatre and cabaret
shows.
One of the most fascinating of the Music Hall performers was Max Champion.
Little is known about him, except that he was born in London in 1882. He was
almost completely forgotten until the sheet music of his songs was found in Valletta, Malta, in 2014.
What A Racket! presents eleven of Max Champion’s songs for the first time
in more than a century with Jackson directing a 12-piece orchestra and singing
like a genuine Music Hall artist.
Title track with a great old footage video
Joe Jackson:: ‘These were wonderful songs in their time, but they’re
surprisingly modern, too. Sometimes it’s almost as if Max is speaking,
from his London of the early 20th century, directly to us in the early 21st’.
It’s their 39th album in their 40-year career. Unquestionably the hardest-working
band in music’s history. Their only contender are Aussie psych-prog rockers King
Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with 25 LPs in 13 years. The question of course is how
long KGATLW will be around?
PASTE Music says: Everything just fits, and there are only a few stop-and-start, proggy shifts in tempo that Pollard has enjoyed lately—all of which pay off beautifully here. There is no doubt that these songs will blast off live, as Pollard has never shied away from the spotlight. In a true “not leaving the mound until the last pitch moment,” he almost became sick on-stage singing his guts out, as the band delivered an unheard of 100-song set at a New Year’s Eve show in 2019. And there really is no precedent for a band like Guided By Voices, or an artistic visionary like Robert Pollard. With so many essential entries still being released even after his 40th year of piloting the ship, how could you not trust the man at his word when he gives it to you so plain and simple? Full review here. Score: 9/10.
TUTV: The creativity and productivity of maestro Robert Pollard is phenomenal.
I’m sure a day in his Ohio lasts for 48 instead of 24 hours and I’m sure he writes songs
while he sleeps, eats and works out. And it’s not like he produces rubbish. GBV doesn’t make bad albums. Some of them are better than others, of course. But you always get
a rip-and-riff roaring mix of rock/grunge/post-punk entertainment. Just like on this new one.
Former Smiths‘ guitar icon JOHNNY MARR worked with countless other artists
after the legendary Morrissey fronted indie band broke up. With New Order‘s Bernard Summer in Electronic, Chrissy Hynde, Bryan Ferry, The The,Modest Mouse and many more.
And 10 years ago he started his solo
journey. So far he fabricated 4 LPs.
Marr: “I’ve played a lot of arenas over the years, and in terms of songwriting,
there’s nowhere to hide. For a song to work, it has to be a banger. I know it’s
almost uncool to think in those terms, but I grew up in a house where my parents
listened to Motown, where you couldn’t get a song released if it wasn’t full of hooks.”
Marr‘s new interview with NME about bangers right here.
TUTV: If there’s one thing that is crystal clear right here on this best of is the fact that Marr is an exquisite songwriter, knowing all the tricks to compose marvelous pop earworms heated up with his sparkling guitar wizardry and colored with his velvet voice. Oh no, he’s not only a guitar hero, he’s a solid gold hitmaker too.
The 49-track collection explores the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs it features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments
of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite (the band formed by The Clash guitarist Mick Jones after he was fired) with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial. Several previously unreleased tracks are included.
Where the first Next Wave Acid Punx compilation was a personal journey for Luca, a lockdown inspired exploration of his record collection to find the thread that ran through the music that had soundtracked much of his life, DEUX is a celebration of that music let loose on the world, the thrill of music performed live, the smoke and strobe filled clubs you’ll hear it in and the artists you’ll find on those stages.
Curses at work
Curses: “After our enforced break, getting back out there and playing live again really brought home to me so much of what I love about the scene I’m in but also just how important live music has been and is to club culture over the years. Too often we think of club nights and live gigs as these separate things, but throughout the years it’s where the two meet, the friction that can cause, that you’ll find the most vibrant scenes.
“There’s an energy, an atmosphere that you get with live music, an unpredictability where
at any moment something can go wrong or even better right in a way you never expect.
I think about a live set we played at a Lebanese festival where our MPC drum machine froze
up because of all the dust and sand trapped in the pads. We had to improvise half our set, jamming bass and guitar and pedal FX and vocals, embracing this surreal environment and experience, something that could only happen in the moment.”
With Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX I wanted to celebrate those bands and artists, past and present who, to me, represent that spirit. Both full live bands and makeshift electronic duos alike, the kind of acts that you might have found wedged between DJs back in the day at The Hacienda in Manchester in the 80s, Trash in the 00s or today at nights like Berlin’s MILK ME, EXBTN in Paris, Night Terrors + SC&P in London, New York City’s Synthicide or Ukraine’s Worn Pop.”
TUTV: This new mammoth compilation is paradise for all nightclubbers out there who
like to go bonkers at a 24-hour party like it’s Madchester all over again. It’s a versatile and multi-sonic sort of anthology with a mix of electro-darkwave-pop-punk-rock. Different tunes for different moods. All you need to get up, stand up and fight for your right to party. A must-have for dancing night owls.
“All PROCEEDS go to innocent victims of war in Palestine. WAR IS OBSOLETE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO BENEFIT FROM WAR IS THE 1% THAT MAKE PROFITS ON DEATH FEAR AND DISRUCTION – END ALL WARS NOW – WHO NEEDS ACTIONS WHEN YOUVE GOT WORDS?? LOVE IS THE ANSWER – HEAVEN IS NOW – STOP MAKING IT HELL BUCKY AR LA – TAKE CONTROL!
“Some of The 1% are investors in the great big industrial war machine – the clearing / repairing of war torn cities / countries and rebuilding them along with there big pharma – food n supplies companies ect they make massive profits on all levels of war from the bullets n bombs fired to the food n medicine and everything you can imagine in between – this collection of sound scapes and anti war songs on this guerrilla ontological discordant meditation Ep are our SMALL way of trying to help raise money for the innocent human beings being punished and hurt because of other people’s ignorance – hate – fear – oppression!! ALL THE PROCEEDS OUR DIGITAL SALES NOW AND UNTIL THINGS INPROVE WILL GO TO THESE PEOPLE!!”
TUTV: The Barbiturates care about our messed-up society, about humanity, about the weak, the poor and the outsiders, about tolerance, about inclusivity, about the desperate need for global peace. Couldn’t agree more.
Unfortunately, all the caring in the world can’t avoid (another) dirty war. After Russia invaded Ukraine early last year, Israel and Palestine started a filthy, deadly war in Gaza two weeks ago. Horrible, just horrible, again. One day a devastating world catastrophe will end it all.
War Is Obsolete is a serene and gripping work of music that’ll make you silent now and then, sonically with its, mostly instrumental, psychedelic jams with Eastern vibes here and there, and lyrically with loud and clear words describing the evil terror caused by war-and-power greedy scumbags. The late great pacifist John Lennon never understood these murderous maniacs either, as we know it.
Who: Synth punk act from Vancouver (CA). They have released
three (the new one included) concept albums, so far.
New album: PLAY COBRA
It’s inspired by and the third is inspired by experimental New York
saxophonist John Zorn’s musical improvisation system Cobra.
TUTV: Be ready to discover these electronic multi-media freaks and their
new sledgehammer album. Play Cobra is a maniacal mishmash of synth/drums extravaganza. Deafening disco-punk (Mouth Yellow / Palm Black / Some Open Hand
Cues/ Eye Orange), brain-breaking metallic synthesizer drones (Head Redr Blue /
Tactics and industrial havoc throughout. Yes, they’ll blow your mind and your
poor head.
Sounds like a diabolic Doomsday soundtrack to my bewildered ears. Well, if we all
have to go one day why not with this Götterdämmerung opus. If you like, FRONT 242,
NIN, Ministry, The Young Gods and Cabaret Voltaire you need to add Play Cobra to your record collection.
Single ‘Ear Blue’
Put on a Pussy Riot ski mask
and dance as if Dante’s Inferno
has become real.
