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GF music review club


Carvalho Diablo
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Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther. 

 

Well, this is certainly an unusual album. Is it a good one? First listen, Yes. Second listen, No. Third listen, Yes. Fourth listen, No.

 

Certainly having a strong foothold in folk, it's catchy and bounces around nicely. It draws comparisons to early Arcade Fire at times but not to the same level sadly. It has it's own identity for sure and it's good sides are it's relaxing tempo and polished production. On the down side, it's a little bit on the 'predictable' side being a folk record. Perhaps that could be a strength in some circles.

 

Each listen seems to present something a little different but it doesn't ever move too far above or below 'above average' 6/10.

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Public Service Broadcasting - The Race for Space

 

Loved this one. First off, who doesn’t like space and astronauts and shit?

JFK’s speech (& Boston accent) - tremendous. All the mission control talk is great, but the music is pretty good stuff too. Favourite songs are probably Sputnik, Gagarin, The Other Side and Go!

 

I’ll definitely check out their other albums. Be interested to know what they do live - do they play a whole record through? Then do another one?  Might be a bit weird if they jump about with songs on different topics. 
Anyway, I’m giving this one 7.9/10

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8 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

I'm wondering if they craft a specific tune (key, tempo, etc) around chosen spoken parts or if they write a bunch of tracks then throw the spoken bits on top.

First time listening this evening, track five is like something out of pink floyd.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can I lump one in?

 

I've listened to this tonight, an old favourite, and I'm convinced it's one of the great hopelessly lost romantic albums.

 

Rusty Miller has played in loads of bands you'll know as a session musician, but never achieved real recognition for his bands work.

 

I genuinely love this album.

 

I've played 'Charlie Watts Is God' every new year since I first heard it.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Bruce Spanner said:

Can I lump one in?

 

I've listened to this tonight, an old favourite, and I'm convinced it's one of the great hopelessly lost romantic albums.

 

Rusty Miller has played in loads of bands you'll know as a session musician, but never achieved real recognition for his bands work.

 

I genuinely love this album.

 

I've played 'Charlie Watts Is God' every new year since I first heard it.

 

 

 

Sure, why not. Give the others a chance to get their reviews in before the next selection. 

I'll have a listen later. 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

 

Sure, why not. Give the others a chance to get their reviews in before the next selection. 

I'll have a listen later. 

 

 

Howie seemed keen on your selection, I've only listened once and it was certainly unusual. I'm going to listen again and post some thoughts before the weekend...

 

And my rating of The Trials of Van Occupanther has gone up to 7.5 after another listen. It sounds different on every listen, which has to be seen as a good thing.

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18 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

@Jose Jones

Just listening to The Peel Tempel - Tales again over the last week. I fucking love that record. It's brilliant. cheers again!

No worries! 
Blake Scott, the frontman from The Peep Tempel released a solo album a few months ago.

A bit more musically diverse, but it’s pretty good I think. Check it out if you like:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5n6Hu9MS7yzEHrUVKO6Qey?si=EPPhhprST0OmigqaWh7Mfw

 

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Public Service Broadcasting...The Race For Space

 

This is an unusual record, isn't it? Quite haunting opening, listening to John F Kennedy backed by a choir. It definitely has high points, the third and seventh tracks (Gagarin and Valentina) are standout tracks. Cleverly using samples to document the space race between USA and USSR, there are a couple of tracks that are a little too slow to justify their long run time (Track #9 - Tomorrow, I'm looking at you and your mysterious black hole).

 

Overall it's a really good, if slightly unbalanced album, sitting in the spot between a 6.5 and 8.5 as a reult. 7.5 it is.

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On 05/01/2021 at 21:38, Bruce Spanner said:

Can I lump one in?

 

I've listened to this tonight, an old favourite, and I'm convinced it's one of the great hopelessly lost romantic albums.

 

Rusty Miller has played in loads of bands you'll know as a session musician, but never achieved real recognition for his bands work.

 

I genuinely love this album.

 

I've played 'Charlie Watts Is God' every new year since I first heard it.

 

 

 

Some decent tracks on that but couldn't get into it overall. Lyrically brilliant at times. 

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On 08/01/2021 at 06:43, Jose Jones said:

No worries! 
Blake Scott, the frontman from The Peep Tempel released a solo album a few months ago.

A bit more musically diverse, but it’s pretty good I think. Check it out if you like:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5n6Hu9MS7yzEHrUVKO6Qey?si=EPPhhprST0OmigqaWh7Mfw

 

 

I really like it. It is kind of a bit all over the place at times but there's some brilliant tracks on that. It's added to my favourites list regardless. Cheers for the heads up. 

 

These 5 are excellent. 

 

Fever

Bullfloat Zen

Pressure

Magic

Kalashnikov

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Review: Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

 

I think I've heard of Midlake, might even have seen them at Glastonbury (not certain of that though tbh).

 

Track 1, Roscoe, starts with a MASH like jingle. I really like the vocal melody in this, a bit Belle and Sebastian (which is no bad thing).

Good start and best song on the album for me.

 

Bandits starts with lovely jangly guitar and piano. Again very Belle and Sebastian vocal.

Unfortunately the song goes nowhere, no memorable hooks or anything to grab me.

 

Pleasant soothing flute and more jangly piano amble along. Head Home us a touch Fleetwood Mac but without the Nicks / McVie magic.

 

Van Occupanther plods along, a rad morose but not entirely unpleasant.

Could I get a hook or something memorable please?

Good bass but the song is boring.

 

Young Bride has the foot tapping, nice bass drives this along.

Slightly more upbeat and better for it.

 

Branches wants to be Radiohead but has none of the magic.

Decent Thom Yorke impersonation though.

 

In This Camp bores me rigid. A slow start followed by a nothing chorus. Next

 

We Gathered In The Spring start, "I'm tired of being here...". I know the feeling pal.

My interest peaks though with those synths, a nice flavourful hook? The vocal is really boring me though.

One of the better songs thus far.

 

It Covers The Hillsides is one of the bouncier, more upbeat tracks.

Pleasant enough I suppose.

 

Chasing After Deer is shite and should never have made the record. A nothing song.

 

You Never Arrived takes a nice minor turn early on, the chorus teases and is one of the stronger, catchier passages on the record.

 

So to sum up, The Trials Of Van Occupanther bored me. Nothing at all exciting or memorable to me me go back and listen again, I found this album a real struggle to get through.

Thankfully it's only short.

 

Good to have the boy Skids back in the club but I can only give this Midlake effort a measly 3/10. Boring.

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On 05/01/2021 at 21:38, Bruce Spanner said:

Can I lump one in?

 

I've listened to this tonight, an old favourite, and I'm convinced it's one of the great hopelessly lost romantic albums.

 

Rusty Miller has played in loads of bands you'll know as a session musician, but never achieved real recognition for his bands work.

 

I genuinely love this album.

 

I've played 'Charlie Watts Is God' every new year since I first heard it.

 

 

I'm going to give this a crack. Been listening to some less famous Pink Floyd tracks tonight and it's got me in the mood for some new music.

 

@Skidfingers McGonical

@ZonkoVille77

@TheHowieLama <---

@Jose Jones 

@Carvalho Diablo 

@Fluter in Dakota

 

As I believe it was Howie who selected the Professor Longhair album, I'm expecting great things. No pressure.

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Review: Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space

 

Never heard of them.

 

[Presses play]

 

The Race For Space - ethereal synthy sweeps and angelic voices greet JFK, setting the stage for the entire album.

Intriguing.

 

Sputnik gets down to business with a thumping kick drum a driving bassy synth track. Gets the feet tapping and the body moving.

I like.

 

Gagarin is more upbeat, victorious. Like a splashdown in the warmth of Cuba, shake the booty with a Cuba Libre.

Love the funky guitar. Best song yet

 

Fire In The Cockpit is ominous, oppressive (as it should be), the sunshine of Cuba replaced by the dark side of the moon.

Not much of a song here.

 

E.V.A. starts like a cross between Eye of The Tiger and Another Brick In The Wall.

We're going for a spacewalk, bold yet tense, cautious, never really cutting loose until finally breaching the airlock before were floating in the (near) silence of space.

Another good track.

 

The Other Side follows the ship's journey around the darkside.

Love the sampled vocal track on this one. Tense, edgy, doubtful.

The music creeps ever closer towards us before swiftly sweeping round into the darkness before re-emerging triumphantly.

A very dancey track.

 

Valentina sweeps in with luscious reverbed guitar chords, strummed and picked around.

One of my favourites, gentle and tender, like a warm embrace in the cold.

 

Go! is a belter, possibly my favourite on the album, a more complete track.

Great syncopation of the sampled vocal and the music, it locks in and takes off organically.

Somehow this reminds me of Trainspotting.

Excellent track.

 

Tomorrow closes the album and sounds wonderful. The xylophones sound tremendous, hypnotic, fitting.

A fine way to touchdown.

 

I really enjoyed and admired this album, perfectly paced, the instruments chosen wisely, the production out of this world.

Many highlights but my favourites probably being Valentina and Go!

 

8/10

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I finally got to listening to F+ by Jackpot last night. I quite enjoyed it, seemed to have a kind of Australian rock band vibe about them. Reminds me a lot of Powderfinger/JET/Wolfmother but perhaps not quite reaching their standards. I am going to assume though they are not Australian as the singer does seem to perform with a heavy American drawl.

 

Definitely happy to have heard it and would give the album an overall 7/10. Some tracks are way better than others but at no point were any of the tracks skipped.

 

Good stuff.

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