Album reviews: Thee American Revolution | King’s Daughters & Sons | Misty’s Big Adventure | Classical | Jazz | Folk

By Fiona Shepherd; Ken Walton, Jim Gilchrist; Kenny Mathieson
Published on Monday 19 December 2011 00:00

This week’s new releases surveyed by The Scotsman’s music critics

King’s Daughters & Sons: If Then Not When

Chemikal Underground, £11.99

Rating: ***

MEMBERS of The Shipping News, Rachel’s and The For Carnation came together in the aptly named Funeral Home studio in Louisville, Kentucky to make this anti-party album of folk-flecked post-rock which is at its atmospheric best when the ensemble’s three vocalists – Rachel Grimes, Joe Manning and Michael Heineman – grace the songs with their storytelling abilities. Much of If Then Not When occupies lugubrious Bill Callahan territory, without the attendant dark humour, but accompanied instead by the ominous sense of a brewing storm which breaks, in the case of Dead Letter Office, into a compelling squall of roots rock angst.

FIONA SHEPHERD

Thee American Revolution: Buddha Electrostorm

Fire Records, £10.99

Rating: ***

EVERYTHING about this noisy, distortion-drenched collection of rudimentary retro garage grunge and acid psych from Apples In Stereo man Robert Schneider, in collaboration with Craig Morris (plus pop-up contributions from members of Olivia Tremor Control), suggests a jam band knockabout which might have been better confined to a live setting for maximum impact. The indulgent workout of Saturn Daze sounds like the sort of rough rehearsal recording which usually only makes its way on to barrel-scraping completist compilations. But elsewhere Schneider’s love of a pop tune saves the day. Blow My Mind is prime indie bubblegum with handclaps on top, which says all it needs to say in under two minutes.

Misty’s Big Adventure: The Family Amusement Centre

Grumpy Fun Recordings, £11.99

Rating: ***

THIS Birmingham-based indie troupe have been gleefully dancing to their own tune (like a lo-fi Pulp) for some years but the humble roots and jokey demeanour of The Family Amusement Centre bely its musical reach, which includes ska pop and vaudevillian odes to, respectively, Aggression and General Confusion, the latter featuring a cameo from Patrick Moore as the unsettling narrator. Elsewhere, Mickey Mouse and the monarchy get it in the nicest possible twee lounge pop way, while the jitter-prog of Atonement and haunted house prowl of The Noise Eater dig into darker, more eccentric territory.

FIONA SHEPHERD

CLASSICAL

Korngold & Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos

Naïve, £13.99

Rating: **

THERE are a good few recordings out there of Korngold’s tuneful Violin Concerto, and many more of Tchaikovsky’s. If anything kills the success of this CD it is the heaving scoops that violinist Laurent Korcia inflicts on the slow movement of the Korngold. Sure, it’s a work with Hollywood leanings – the themes come from Korngold’s lustrous film scores – but Korcia’s tonal contortions are unnerving, verging on the cringeworthy. That’s a shame, given the swashbuckling energy he achieves in many better, brighter moments. On the other hand, there’s the beautifully light-footed opening to the Tchaikovsky by the Royal Liege Philharmonic under Jean-Jacques Kantorow that supports a marginally cleaner approach by Korcia, though brash gestures persist.

KENNETH WALTON

JAZZ

Neil Yates: Five Countries

Edition Records, 13.99

Rating: ***

COMBINING jazz with folk music has been a fruitful source of exploration for a number of Scottish artists. Mancunian trumpeter Neil Yates has been forging his own variation on that same theme for some time now. On this outing he is joined by Hungarian guitarist Zsolt Bende and Irish percussionist Cormac Byrne, a combination that gives the music a light, airy, chamber feel, while never quite declaring itself outright as either jazz or folk. Each player brings both the influences of their native music and their adopted homes to the eclectic mix (the arithmetic produces the five countries of the title). Yates’ flowing trumpet and flugelhorn weaves elegant melodic lines through and around the guitar and percussion textures in attractive fashion. The dominant feel is pastoral and reflective, expressed in atmospheric if occasionally meandering studies, with the occasional up-tempo foray thrown in.

KENNY MATHIESON

FOLK

Clara Sanabras: The Emblem

Smudged Discs, Online only

Rating: ***

IS it folk, is it pop, is it all over the place? The multi-talented Clara Sanabras totes everything from psaltery to Telecaster in her own idiosyncratic songs, couched in sumptuous accompaniments from her band, with her lithe voice flitting sometimes bewilderingly from renaissance ripple to bluesy holler. Particularly appealing are the spooky vocal harmonies (with French singer Rosemary Standley) on The Owls, a French nocturne with eastern overtones, while Truth Be told echoes the jug band shuffle from the American Depression years to point an accusatory finger at today’s hard times. Melancholy Spins, with its shadowy strings and guitar chimes, blends early music credentials with contemporary whimsy. The one traditional song on the album, The Flower of Magherally, sounds a bit overdone and the jump from the multitracked vocals and chiming exotica of Tokyo Cherry Blossom to the funky pop of Woman, Girl, Juxtaposed is rather disorientating, but… well, never a dull moment.

JIM GILCHRIST

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