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ARCHIVED REVIEWS July 2009 Previews by Mike Davies Wednesday July 1 Malcolm Middleton
Last heard trying to persuade Christmas punters to celebrate the festivities with his single We’re All Going To Die, the Glaswegian singer-songwriter and former Arab Strap man returns to the fray with his fifth solo album, Waning Gibbous (Full Time Hobby). He says it’ll be his last for a while, so all the more reason to make the most of its ricketty charms, kicking off with the single, the acoustic rollicking along Red Travellin' Socks and, by way of a swift shift of mood, the ramshackle train rhythm nu folksy chugger Kiss At The Station. Tinged with personal observations and recollections, it carries the familiar air of Middleton melancholy but, as the musically mournful Stop Doing Be Good and the wistfully slow Carry Me can testify, not without upbeat threads. The electro splashes of Don’t Want To Sleep Tonight, Box & Knife (which images King Creasote in bed with early Human League) and Zero (which even has a dash of rap) I might raise a few eyebrows among the faithful, but they remain nigglingly catchy and if the title of the album’s best track, the Cohenesque Ballad of F*** All rather scuppers its airplay potential, live singalongs should be positively encouraged. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club Wednesday July 1 Michael Weston King
Last time King and his musical and domestic partner Lou Dalgleish were here, they dropped in a couple of tasters from their new joint project, My Darling Clementine, an album of self-penned classic country duets in the cheating and heartbreak tradition of George Jones and Tammy Wynette or Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. The good news is that for this visit there’ll be a lot more. The show will be in two very different sets. The first half will be King’s regular solo with Alan Cook on pedal steel and doubtless highlighting some of the material to be found on the new live album Crawling Through The USA, among them Decent Man, new number The Dancing Around and a coal-dust throat cover of Townes Van Zandt's Marie. Then, Mike and Lou joined by Cook, pianist Gladstone Wilson and a percussionist, the second half will be a one off Birmingham-only acoustic showcase for My Darling Clementine that will include pretty much the entire album alongside a couple of covers. Last time, Dalgleish held the place spellbound with jealous woman number The Other Half (a track that could have come straight from the Patsy Cline songbook), so look forward to a repeat of that alongside such nuggets as the honky tonking Nothing Left to Say, pedal steel and fiddle keening Departure Lounge, twangy delight 100,000 Words (a song that more than warrants a Mavericks reunion), the fiery bluegrassed You’ve Found Your Man, Put Your Hair Back (another tremendous Dalgleish vocal showcase) and a bluesy organ backed soulful rework of King’s She Is Still My Weakness that Penn and Oldham would have killed to have written. As of yet the album still hasn’t a label, distributor or release date, but that doesn’t stop it already being one of the best country albums of this - or any other - year. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath Wednesday July 1 That Petrol Emotion
Formed by John O’Neill, brother Damien and Raymond Gorman after the demise of The Undertones, swiftly recruiting Steve Mack on vocals, they made their album debut in 1983 with the critically acclaimed Manic Pop Thrill offering a harder edge to their guitar driven pop foundations. Following on with Babble and, after John’s departure, the more melodic indie of Chemicrazy and Fireproof with even incursions into dance territory with End Of the Millennium Psychosis Blues, , they never really matched commercial success with critical approval or their fierce live following, finally calling it a day in 1994. However, now recognised as an influence on the Britpop movement, they reunited last year and have been consolidating their return ever since. There’s no indication as to whether new material’s in the offing, but if they’re still even half as potent live then a set list that includes old favourites such as the swaggery Last Of the True Believers, Big Decision, Cellophane, Catch A Fire, Genius Moves and Hey Venus has to be worth it for old fans and the newly curious alike. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2 Thursday July 2 Elliot Minor
Extensive live work and decent reviews saw the classically trained quintet’s eponymous debut album safely into the Top 10, so now comes the difficult job of building on the foundation built by the big drama of Last Call To New York City’s Queen, Time After Time’s orchestral bombast and Still Figuring Out’s hybrid of Green Day and ELO. They’ll be showcasing material for the upcoming sophomore album that’s due to include Discover, Blinding Light and live favourite Jacky Jules. It’s trailed by the first single, Solaris (Repossession), a slightly Celtic tinged fist of anthemic mid tempo balladeering that, wisely, pulls back from the overblown production that dogged some of the first album and could well prove their biggest chart success to date. 7.30pm. £11. O2 Academy 2 Saturday July 4 Godiva Festival
Coventry’s annual free fest keeps coming up with the goods. This year, they’ve scored Idlewild as the headliners on a Saturday bill that includes local punky heroes Pint Shot Riot, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, rising stars Exit Calm and, offering an early outing for next month’s new album, Birmingham chart botherers The Twang. All that and the first sighting of the newly reformed Toploader who’ve been busy relearning the words to Dancing In The Moonlight and Achilles Heel. Noon. Free. Godiva Park, Coventry Sunday July 5 James Taylor
After his last tour recycling the hits and album favourites, those lured away from their bedtime beverages can doubtless look forward to a set that mixes in the inevitable chestnuts such as You’ve Got A Friend and Fire & Rain with cuts from his current Covers (Universal) album. Soul fans already horrified by his lifeless version of Knock On Wood won’t be encouraged by the fact that he’s also draining the life out of Road Runner while his anaemic take on Summertime Blues will have rock n roll fans gnawing at their blue suede shoes. On the upside, the jazzy rework of Hound Dog isn’t bad and he does a respectable job with Wichita Lineman, Cohen’s Suzanne (which sees him in Carolina On My Mind form), Tom Waits’ Shiver My Timbers and a Western Swing version of Why Baby Why. It’s fair to say, however, that the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook isn’t exactly the richer the addition for Taylor’s reading of Oh, What A Beautiful Morning. Not exactly likely to be prancing around the stage, this is tasteful but tedious and likely to be swallowed wholesale amid the overpowering surroundings. 7.30pm. £45. NIA Sunday July 5 Poppy and the Jezebels
Having wowed them at the Isle of Wight festival last month, it must be getting frustrating that the album still isn’t ready for release. However, the momentum keeps building in the wake of the recent spiky pop single Rhubarb & Custard (Mute Irregulars) with its cocktail of glam and 60s girl group while sneak tasters keep surfacing on their MySpace site, the latest being Mr Magpie Recommends which keeps the glam with a Glitter Band beat and tops it with a jazzy-blues slow piano boogie line. Latest developments should make their presence felt tonight, and the anticipation continues to swell.
The actual headliner for the night is Gina Birch, erstwhile founder member of 80s all-female post punk outfit The Raincoats and currently to be found directing music vids for the likes of Beth Orton and The Veils. The Raincoats still gig intermittently while Birch also maintains a sporadic solo career, the music these days inclined to the experimental and angular noises of I’m Glad I’m Me Today, the bleepy psychedelia of We Had A Really Smashing Time or the bluesier tones of Sorry.
Also along, over from Brooklyn and equally prone to shards of discord, are Christy & Emily who’ll be further spreading word about debut album, Gueen’s Head (The Social Registry) with its meld of Velvets, avant garde and 60s folk influences. Switching fluidly from the guitar riff reverb of Thunder & Lightning to the dreamily folky Ocean, tropical hula swaying Island Song or the backwoods country folk of Birds, they’ll also likely be showcasing material from the two albums currently awaiting release, Superstition and, letting loose their prog rock and krautrock inclinations, No Rest produced by Joachim Irlmler of Faust. Arrive early, you won’t want to miss them. 7.30pm. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Tuesday July 7/Wednesday July 8 Eagles
Twenty eight years on from their last studio album and six years in the making, it’s taken another twelve months for the band to haul themselves over here to promote their own label double CD Long Road Out Of Eden. The wait should turn out to be worth it if they have the sense to punctuate the inevitable fan favourites and greatest hits that will doubtless dominate the set with at least a clutch of the best of the new material. Given that adds up to 21 songs, the selection process isn’t going to be easy, but several cuts here demand a place in the final. Prime choices would have to include the lengthy title track which, echoing Hotel California in mood, addresses how oil guides US foreign policy, the close harmonies of the reflective near acapella No More Walks In The Woods, classic swaggery pop finger wagging put down Busy Being Fabulous, the TexMex waltzing It’s Your World Now, How Long, a JD Souther country rocker that’s been in and out of the live set since the 70s, and Hole In The World, a power ballad on which they sound bizarrely just like Take That. Having worked out their differences ( or at least learned to live with them for the sake of the bank balances), even if they are still prone to some over indulgence and the album could have done with judicious pruning, it’s good to have them back. Mind you, it does seems a tad hypocritical to be singing songs like Business As Usual and Frail Grasp Of The Big Picture, attacking corporate greed and consumerism while charging up to a ton for a ticket. 7.30pm. £100-£50. NIA Thursday July 9 The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
Their self-titled debut album saw the art school trio parading their B52s, Talking Heads, Gang of Four and Devo influences on songs like the marvellous Under The Yews, My Son Spells Backwards and Ban The Gin. Two years on they’re back trailing the September release of the follow up, Love On An Oil Rig (This Is Fake DIY) with new single, Parrot. Judging by its angular funk shapes, throbbing basslines, spine jerking rhythms and twitchy vocals not a lot’s changed in the interim. 8pm. £5. Flapper & Firkin Sunday July 12 Suzanne Vega
Make a note now, this is Vega’s only UK date announced for this year, a one-off 10th Anniversary benefit gig for Casa Alianza, an organisation that works with Latin American street children, helping provide them with a better future. As such, expect the set list to lean heavily on the songs fans will be forking out to hear, among them the hits Tom’s Diner, Luka, Left of Centre, and Marlene on the Wall alongside a selection of album favourites, hopefully to include Zephyr & I, Frank & Ava and Angel's Doorway from 2007’s deeply personal ‘comeback’ Beauty & Crime.
She’ll be performing with guitarist, songwriter and producer Gerry Leonard while opening act will be criminally underrated Stourbridge troubadour Eddy Morton who, aside from having a warm burr of a voice, a bagful of brilliant Americana infused storytelling songs like King Of My Own Country and Queen Of Stourbridge Town, also happens to co-manage Katy Fitzgerald’s, the Stourbridge music venue that’s actually responsible for arranging and presenting the show. 7.30pm. £27.50. B’ham Town Hall Monday July 13 The Twang
Heading back to the studio to try again when it was felt the original Youth-produced version wasn’t up to scratch, the Quinton quintet finally came up with a sophomore album both they and b-Unique were happy with. Chances are the fans won’t exactly be disappointed with Jewellery Quarter either, though they’re now going to have wait until next month to lay hands on a copy. It’s trailed by new single Barney Rubble, a summery bubble of shuffling clattery drums, twittering guitar line, and catchily simple lyrics with Phil Etheridge’s speak-sing vocals suggesting that working with Mike Skinner may well have rubbed off on him. That’ll be prominent and, alongside favourites from Love It When I Feel Like This, they’ll be offering some other substantial tasters of what to expect from the follow up with the set list pretty much guaranteed to include recent free download Another Bus, a swaying ballad that provided the first hint that the new material might be about more than getting drunk and having/not having sex. Indeed, with lines about sending ‘a message to the stars tonight for me and you’, Twit Twoo positively borders on the soppily romantic while, harmonies and hooks sparkling, the soulful piano pop May I Suggest, moping breaking up number Answer Me, and the breezily loping Encouraging Sign reveal they’ve entered an era of meaningful relationships and emotions that last longer than a can of lager. They’ve grown up a bit musically since the first album too, and although you’ll still hear Happy Mondays/Flowered Up baggy funk influences on things like Took The Fun and Put It On The Dancefloor they both have more bubbling within the grooves than just party vibes. Live The Life doesn’t quite cut it as the clubby flamenco funk to which it aspires, but the New Orderish walking bass line of Got No Interest serves a soulful wistfulness, Back Where We Started nods to the jangly jauntiness of The Las and Williamsburg even harks to the cool summer breeze of West Coast soul. Not, perhaps, what anyone was quite expecting, but a finely cut gem worthy of the title. 7.30pm. £12.50. Rainbow Warehouse, Digbeth Monday July 13 Flo Rida
Borrowing from and blowing a sexual innuendo across Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record), Right Round saw Tramar Dillard not only score his first UK No 1 but enter the history books by becoming America’s fastest ever million-selling download. His third UK hit after 2008’s Low and Elevator (both lifted from debut album Mail On Sunday), it was the first single from sophomore album R.O.O.T.S. and while follow-up, Sugar, stalled at #18, new single, the Nelly Furtado collaboration Jump, should safely see him back in the Top 10 for the tour. After his debut album’s failure to make the UK Top 20, the single’s success also ensured R.O.O.T.S. received an added boost, propelling it to #5 and to the top of the R&B charts, all of which should ensure a fairly substantial turn out for the gig, though how the material fares live without the benefit of the studio guests remains to be seen. 7.30pm. £25. O2 Academy Tuesday July 14 Reverend & The Makers
While there were undeniably shining moments like Sex With The Ex and He Said He Loved Me, given its general glut of workmanlike electro funk with old school garage soul roots, it was perplexing to see the praise heaped upon debut album The State of Things while Jon McClure’s tales of humdrum Northern life hardly justified comparisons to those of his Arctic Monkeys mates. Still, the bubble’s not yet burst and, following his excursion with political issues indie ‘supergroup’ Mongrel, McClure and the boys return now with follow-up A French Kiss In The Chaos. Preview copies weren’t around but first single Silence Is Talking (Wall Of Sound) suggests they may well have had a substantial direction change, keeping the dance element but ditching the funk for 60s flavoured psychedelic electro-rock and sounding rather like Stone Roses doing Low Rider. Whether the same sound applies across the rest of the album and tracks such as No Wood Just Trees, Hard Time For Dreamers, Mermaids and the unpromisingly titled Professor Pickles only time and the set list will show.
Support’s provided by New Jersey born 19 year old Devonian multi-instrumentalist singer-cum-filmmaker Cosmo Jarvis who, like Kid Carpet, is another wannabe male Lily Allen. His Mel’s Song single (Wall of Sound) lopes along on a Jamie T-like rap bemoaning his success or otherwise with girls. Rude but catchy and amusing enough, and if the accompanying gloomy lurching folk n rap He Only Goes Out On Tuesdays is a rather less attractive affair then, with what sounds like a wheezing squeezebox, Little Wasted Angel keeps the prospects bright with a dash of the young Billy Bragg. 7.30pm. £12.10. O2 Academy 2 Tuesday July 14 Jo Hamilton
Having delivered an impressive if slightly chilly album launch set at the Glee Club earlier in the year, the willowy songstress sheds he backing band for this stripped down set that sees her accompanied by just a double bass. This will likely enhance the jazz flavours to be found percolating through Gown (Poseidon) and allow the likes of Bush infused Pick Me Up, the African tinged How Beautiful and the Gaelic colours of Think Of Me a chance to flex their deeper emotional colours. 8pm. Free. Yardbird, Paradise Place, B’ham Tuesday July 14 The Temper Trap
The UK debut of moody synth pop single The Science of Fear a couple of months back didn’t exactly support claims that this Melbourne outfit were going to be among the hotter names of the year. However, things look a little brighter with the arrival of the rippling summery pop Sweet Disposition (Infectious) and its appearance on the soundtrack to upcoming sweet romcom 500 Days Of Summer, paving the way for next month’s Conditions album which, with titles that include Soldier On, Down River, Drum Song and the lazy burbling bontempi lounge-soul Love Lost, suggests the hype may well prove to be justified after all. 8pm. £6. The Rainbow, Digbeth Wednesday July 15 Carina Round
Label wrangles meant the Wolverhampton singer-songwriter’s third album, Slow Motion Addict, never had a UK release, so chances are that 2003’s The Disconnection was the last most would have heard from her. However, she’s been busy building her reputation in America and putting together new material, surfacing now with the own label Things You Should Know EP There were a couple of numbers on Slow Motion Addict which suggested what might be the result of splicing together Robert Plant and Kate Bush, and that’s the prevalent mood here too as she gets in touch with her inner fecund folk goblin. Where she previously erupted with raw, sexual aggression, now she’s darkly sensual, a change superbly evinced by Please Don’t Stop with its spooked folk blues, spare piano notes and quivering electronics, her voice showing a remarkable new sense of control and emotional subtlety. With a musical atmosphere conjuring images of dank ferns and cobwebbed undergrowth, it’s a mesmerising number. So too Thief In The Sky where the narcotic jazzy feline vocal and the melodic ebb and flow from woozy verse to dreamy chorus surge sounds like Enya possessed by faerie sprites while the confessional Do You with its icy guitar fingers recalls cult duo Pooka. Building from skeletal reverb guitar pulsing torch blues to a musical box in a storm climax, For Everything A Reason is another break-up number that sinks hooks into the heart and soul, However, in strictly commercial terms, the stand out has to be the Gary Go co-write, Backseat, A bubbling synth motif intro sets the dreamy scene before Round’s caressing vocals pick up the thread with a light kiss of innocence and reflections of a brief love that couldn’t last but remains forever in memory as the melody line sweeps up towards the sky and, burnished by melancholic warm brass and angel voices, the sadly beautiful repeated chorale refrain “it should be forever, God told me, we're born into the wrong time”. A taster for the fourth, work in progress, album and a stunning reminder that while, in a world that lavishes disproportionate superlatives on the likes of Little Boots, she may indeed be ‘born into the wrong time’, she remains one of our finest unheralded talents. 7.30pm. £8. O2 Academy 3 Saturday July 18 Manchester Orchestra
It’s a bit of a coup for this intimate pub venue to be welcoming the Atlanta five piece whose debut album, Like A Virgin Losing A Child, with its brooding emo-esque and 60s psychedelic rock seemed set to pave the way to more stadium sized stages. Don’t think that this means the band have lost any of their impetus though. Whatever the reason behind this low profile jaunt it’s got nothing to do with the quality of sophomore album Mean Everything To Nothing (Columbia) which finds Andy Hull and co in tighter and even more muscular form, sounding not unlike a teenage version of Kings Of Leon on the catchy riff rocking The Only One and the driven guitar urgency of Shake It Out while You, My Pride And Me turns things over to a grungier dirge that imagines Kurt Cobain nodding to Tony Iommi riffs and I’ve Got Friends builds from a deceptively quite intro into something Alice In Chains might have claimed as their own before the chorus singing arms aloft anthemic finale. Like the Kings, Hull comes from a religious background, so it’s not too surprising to find the songs steeped in such references and imagery, most notably the southern gospel fiery baptism themed The River, the faith questioning I Can Feel A Hot One and In My Teeth’s teenage reimagining of the Second Coming delivered in Hull’s tonsil chewing timbre. My Friend Marcus calms the pace down for a swaying ballad about child abuse but the dominant mood here is one of seething power informed by self-questioning, anger, defiance and frustration. They place won’t know what hit it. 8pm. £8. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Sunday July 19 The Warlocks
The fuzz and feedback Los Angeles rockers have had a disappointingly low profile over here since leaving Mute and relocating with Tee Pee Records. Here last year at the Academy 2 with a belated push for 2007’s Heavy Deavy Skull Lover album, they return to an even smaller venue with latest release, The Mirror Explodes. Unfortunately, neither it or its predecessor were made available for review, so there’s no real indication of where they’ve moved on to since Surgery’s Mary Chain inspired rohypnol storms and barbiturates ballads gave way to more shoegazing inclinations and the departure of bassist Jenny Fraser. A taster available on their MySpace in the druggy cosmic drone, mind expanding form of Red Camera promises great things and if titles such as There Is A Formula To Your Despair, Standing Between The Lovers Of Hell, and Frequency Meltdown live up to that standard then this should be a case of narcotic heaven. 8pm. £7. The Rainbow, Digbeth Friday July 24 Hjaltalin
Their country may have melted into financial collapse, but the Icelandic octet can at least look forward to encouraging investment in their chamber pop debut album, Sleepdrunk Seasons (Cargo). Imagine a bit of quirky Bjork and some symphonic Sigur Ros then run that through a collection of upbeat melodies festooned with clarinet, bassoon, cello, accordion and violin. With boy/girl vocals shared between Hogni and Sigga, the production’s a bit cold in places when a more mellow, smoother ambience would have suited things like Debussy, I Lie and the classical influenced Sleepdrunk Seasons 1. But, punctuated by Sigridur intoning an Icelandic hymn, Goodbye July (currently featured on a Wichita compilation of sessions from Radio 1’s Huw Stephens) is dreamily catchy mazurka pop complete with a touch of la la la while The Trees Don’t Like The Smoke is essential listening for anyone who ever wondered what Sufjan Stevens might sound like were he to be backed by a chamber symphony orchestra with a love of Mussorsky. They’ll also be featuring recent woozy summery clinky pop single Traffic Music and Suitcase Man, a part spoken new track with a sort of spag western drama feel they’ll be recording for the next album. 8pm. £5. The Rainbow, Digbeth Sunday July 26 Saving Aimee
Hailing from St Albans and presumably taking their name from the musical about Canadian evangelist and 20s pop culture icon Aimee Semple McPherson (a pioneer of radio religion), the sextet created an instant buzz with last year’s race along poprock friendly free download single Small Talk. They now set out to translate that into commercial success with the release of We’re The Good Guys (Hey You!), the first single to be taken from their upcoming Justin Hawkins produced album. It’s another radio friendly cocktail of short of breath indie punkpop sounding (perhaps not too surprisingly) like the Darkness with less falsetto. They would certainly seem to share Hawkins’ fondness for Queen if High Fives All Round is any indication though, rather worryingly perhaps, both the single and the pointedly titled Fresh Since 88 also calls to mind synth driven hair rock outfits like Toto and Journey. And they look such fresh faced fellows, too. 6pm. £6. O2 Academy 2 Tuesday July 28 Emiliana Torrini
Yet another Icelandic export, Torrini’s biggest claims to fame are writing Kylie chart topper Slow and for singing Gollum’s Song on The Lord Of The Rings, but, as her current album, Me And Armini (Rough Trade), shows, there’s considerably more to her than that. While you can hear the accent, she doesn’t make such a quirkily pronounced show of it as Bjork and, when she turns on the silken purred vocals you’re more likely to think of Joanna Newsom while her excursions into the brushed dreamy pop of Fireheads, Ha-Ha and the kittenish Big Jumps would surely send Jack Johnson fans into swoons. Her previous release, Fisherman's Woman, was a fairly introspective affair, but she’s much more playfully upbeat this time round, sashsaying on to the dance floor with the skirt swirling, tropicana Latin flavoured Jungle Drum, the handclapping narc-jazz pulses of Heard It All Before and the title track’s intriguing meld of reggae loping rhythms and dark-eyed snake-charmer vocals. As the reverb guitar speckled and hypnotic spooked atmospherics of Gun demonstrates, the does a nice line in understated unease too while the softly swaying electronica and waltzing keyboards of the largely instrumental Dead Duck highlight her willingness to play with sonic textures. But if you prefer more languid, warmer acoustic shades then the crooning whispers of the folksily pastoral Birds, the Spanish guitar romance of Hold Heart, and the stripped back, barely there Beggar’s Prayer and Bleeder should soothe you into dreamy reveries. A night of exquisite pleasures, I suspect. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club Thursday July 30 David Celia
The name may mean little here unless you’re a Bob Harris listener, but back in Canada Celia’s apparently regarded as the bees-knees among Toronto songwriters. Over here with a full band touring 2006’s sophomore album This Isn’t Here (Disques Experience), UK audiences may prove harder to persuade, even if they can be enticed out to see such an unknown quantity. However, with free entry you’ve got nothing to lose but the evening and who knows, you may find yourself quite taking to his well crafted musicianship (the instrumental I Found You shows his guitar prowess), thoughtful lyrics and catchy tunes with a mix of pop, blues, folk, bluegrass swing, 60s psychedelic rock and country. Influences aren’t too hard to spot either. There’s the Rubber Soul Lennon & McCartney of the title track, some George Harrison (She’s A Waterfall), echoes of Simon and Garfunkel (Speak To Me, Brothers), Wilco (Best Thing Ever), Dylan (Infinity), and James Taylor (Plain To See) while a general air of Jackson Browne tends to hover over proceedings. The gig’s unlikely to prompt any overnight conversions, but it might well sow a few germinating seeds. 8pm. Free. Katie Fitzgerald’s, Stourbridge Friday July 31 Cornershop
Pretty much unheard from in the seven years since the release of Top 30 album Handcream For A Generation and accompanying single Lessons Learnt From Rocky I To Rocky III, Leicester based Wolverhampton ex-pat Tjinder Singh finally resurfaces with a new line up and a third album, Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast on their own Ample Play label. Musically and lyrically, things remain little changed with the pop sensibility meld of Indian and Indie with dashes of electrofunk and disco and songs that variously address socio-political issues, relationships and a general disillusionment with the music biz. Lead off single The Roll Off Characteristics (Of History in The Making) trundles along on a catchy rolling Cornershop melody line that recalls the classic Brimful of Asha with some added parping brass and anti-war/pro-people lyrics. Joining it on the album’s summery groove there’s gospel, glam and boogie rocking music industry rant Who Fingered Rock’n’Roll?, Punjabi folk n psychedelia groove Free Love, the title track’s laid back soul stroll 70s funk, the sample laden, electro-bleeping beats chug Shut Southall Down’s commemoration of the riots and The Constant Springs with its New York synthsoul namecheck of Phil Fearon and Galaxy and the dub bhangra Chamchu. At 16 minutes, the loose limbed Asha riff rave party gospel sprawl of The Turned On Truth rather overstays its welcome and a rather plodding cover of Dylan’s The Mighty Quinn could really have done with a ragga break out to liven things up, but otherwise this is a welcome return for a greatly undervalued outfit. 6.30pm. £12. O2 Academy 2
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