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Album Review
JOOKABOX – DEAD ZONE BOYS
Jookabox
Dead Zone Boys
[Asthmatic Kitty]
8/10


The opening track of ‘Dead Zone Boys’ is the frankly startling ‘Phantom Don’t Go’, an early pointer to the crazily scattergun approach to style and genre taken by Jookabox. What sounds like looped native American singing sits uncomfortably atop an overridingly loud rhythm, whacked out frenetically and there’s a touch of electronica in there too. Somehow, it all works brilliantly. Occasionally, the album is slightly more conventional, but no less engaging. ‘You Cried Me’ is a ninety-miles-an-hour rattle through melodic chaos held together by a cartoonish vocal refrain, ‘Gonna Need The Guns’ is crunchingly heavy and laced with funk, and high point ‘East Side Bangs/ East Side Fade’ is simply sublime. Sparse in places, rich in others, the overall impact is both exciting and energising, a powerful testament to the virtues of originality and invention.

By Chris Watkeys


ZOMBY – NOTHING
Nothing
[4AD]
6/10

Your worst fears about ‘Nothing’ are probably right. The late-year, post-album extended-play sounds like the runoff of a few constructions that didn’t make the cut for ‘Dedication’.

MILAGRES – GLOWING MOUTH
Glowing Mouth
[Memphis Industries]
3/10

Milagres are a Brooklyn-based quintet fronted by a certain Kyle Wilson, whose soaring vocal style sits somewhere between Thom Yorke and Chris Keating of Yeasayer.

FOE – BAD DREAM HOTLINE
Bad Dream Hotline
[Vertigo]
6/10

On first encounter, ‘Bad Dream Hotline’ is your standard emo-goth release – black on black cover art, tracks called things like ‘A Handsome Stranger Called Death’ and ‘Dance & Weep’.

STANDAR FARE – OUTS OF SIGHT, OUT OF TOWN
Out of Sight, Out of Town
[Melodic]
3/10

‘Out of Sight, Out of Town’ is an album that concerns itself, in the main, with casual sex.

LA VAMPIRES – SO UNREAL
So Unreal
[Not Not Fun]
8/10

When LA Vampires first released ‘So Unreal’ on a limited vinyl run in 2010 it sold out in a flash, perhaps because of its superbly kitsch artwork by Spencer Longo.

DAN MANGAN – OH FORTUNE
Oh Fortune
[Merge]
8/10

Dan Mangan is a husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriter who does all the things you expect husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriters to do.

FAVOURITE SONS – THE GREAT DEAL OF LOVE
The Great Deal of Love
[Low Rent]
7/10

Favourite Sons is the most recent project of Ken Griffin, formerly of nineties outfits Rollerskate Skinny and Kid Silver.

FRANK ALPINE – FRANK ALPINE
Frank Alpine
[Weird]
7/10

Synth enthusiasts must have been veritably jumping with joy of late (would a synth enthusiast do that sort of thing?).

MARK SULTAN – WHATEVER I WANT, WHENEVER I WANT
Whatever I Want, Whenever I Want
[In The Red]
6/10

A long lasting member of the American garage rock scene since the late Eighties, Mark Sultan has cooked up a hotpot of a new album.

THE SOUND OF ARROWS – VOYAGE
Voyage
[Low Rent]
5/10

Some very big noises are being made in the mainstream press over this Swedish duo, and their calculated pop sensibilities go a long way to explaining that.