Album Reviews - Jun 07

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

Trabant - Emotional
Southern Fried Records, 18th June 2007

Horses. Electronic fanfares. Nursery chimes. During the first track, I did expect someone in a 118-118 running suit to appear triumphantly in front of me. Trabant's album 'Emotional' is something of an experience. And the album itself is something of a pop-up majesty once opened, which I’m very impressed about. Don’t let the slightly homo-erotic cover (if your idea of homo-eroticism is skinny, bearded men from Iceland) put you off buying it.

‘Maria’ comes which a squelch, a yelp and some industrial fighting sounds. The guitar is sharp and full of spiky attitude. The immediate comparison is Electric Six, but Trabant is better. It’s fun and rocking electro stuff. 'Nasty Boy' sounds a bit like that cheesy tune which is always used for horror games. It’s pumping. Shouts and yelps over the top. ‘I Love You Why?’ lollops in with electronic guilt and embarrassment, female vocals coming in lustfully over the top.

This one takes a while to die down, and then there's slapping percussion, screams and a definite sense of reggae and blues. ‘Pump You Up’ is a melangerie of twiddles and twirls, and Loving Me’ is a larger than life song with a dancing bassline. ‘I know you can’t stop loving me,’ croons singer and performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson, and we can’t help thinking that he’s right. ‘Galdur’ is an experimental line jazzed up and remixed differently at every turn.

‘Emotional Meltdown’ could possibly be what the band suffer every gig after plugging in all that electronic equipment – if you see it smoking, run! This one has a power ballad start, albeit a power ballad with someone skating across the middle and buzzing, while all around trees fall down and cars explode. It’s certainly melodramatic, and never ceases to be entertaining.

Next comes ‘The One’, currently still one of our favourite songs of the year, and you can see the video here if you're interested. ‘Arms’ is another retro popper, twinkling in music and the high quavering vocals. Then it rocks out and has a key change. According to their MySpace, they have a lot of glitter in their live shows and we can easily imagine that pouring out the skies to this one.

It’s a class album. If we could give it half points it would be 4 and a half. 'The One' of course gets 5 by itself. Like we said, don't let the cover put you off. This is full of life, buzzing, twinkling, popping and clanging its way into an electro-rock party.

Trabant's website

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Tiny Dancers - Free School Milk
EMI, 11th June 2007

Free School Milk. That was phased out when Tiny Dancers were far too tiny to be dancing, before they were born in fact; before I was born too. Forget 'Margaret Thatcher, milk snatcher', our playground rhyme of choice was 'Margaret Thatcher, throw her up and catch her. She's dead'. Charming. Anyway, having launched Ms T out of the way, here's the debut album by Sheffield-and-the-surrounding-area's latest upstarts.

The drums of opener '20 To 9' put me in some kind of thoughtful reverie, thinking of milk and biscuits at playschool. This song has a delightful retro sound to it, full of the grandness of some 1960s pop songs but with modern guitars. It builds and swells into a joyful, optimistic bubble. 'I guess my time has come to destroy your life'. An excellent start. Single 'I Will Wait For You' comes bobbing along cheerfully. There's something sweet and touching under the lively surface. There are also cute, almost old-fashioned and slower parts. 'Baby Love' is chirpy and shimmery with Beatles-esque chord changes. This album is full of positive uplifting tunes. 'Shame' has a twinkle in its step - and is that a Stylophone we hear? 'Ashes And Diamonds' is slower and heavier, while 'Bonfire Of The Night' is a simple singalong tune.

'Moon Song 2' starts frantically before everyone settles down in the forest to hear one man and his guitar, with everyone else joining in later. It's plaintive and thoughtful, and slower than the others but one of the album's stand-out tracks.

This is followed by the familiar reassuring guitar-pop tones of recent single 'Hannah We Know' which we recently described as 'impossible to dislike'. 'Hemsworth Hallway' starts cute and smiling with almost country-style, smooth guitar before the demented sparrow of a finish. 'Sun Goes Down' is almost too cute and quirky for its own good, with handclaps and twirly bits. Final track 'Deep Water' starts as a sparkling stream before turning into a dramatic whirlpool of a track (apologies for the water jokes).

'Free School Records' is well produced thanks to John Leckie (Muse, The Stone Roses) and nothing seems out of place. This album isn't as lively as you'd possibly assume from the singles, but it's very endearing and cheerful, like a good friend. Now, where can I get some free milk and biscuits from...

Tiny Dancers

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The Who - Then And Now
Polydor, 11th June 2007

'Then and Now' is The Who's ultimate Greatest Hits album, repackaged and updated to include a song from ‘Endless Wire’ (‘It’s Not Enough’).

I have been unkindly referring to this as the CSI: Who album, as approximately 80% of the songs on here feature on the crime programme’s soundtrack (I’m regularly informed it’s just the three, rather than 80%. Maybe it just feels like it after all those reruns).

‘I Can’t Explain’ comes in with its timeless chords a rallying call to all mods throughout the ages. ‘My Generation’ needs no explanation really. If you haven’t heard this before, then you’ve obviously just been deaf for your entire life. ‘The Kids Are Alright’ has an endearing quirky, retro swoop to it. Plenty of the band's singles have been omitted, showing this CD is including only the finest Who vintage. From the lively ‘Pinball Wizard’ to the gentler waves of ‘See Me, Feel Me’, from the call-and-answer of the charmingly rough 'Substitute' to the electronic and driving rock of 'You Better You Bet' and 'Who Are You?', there's plenty here to keep your interest.

Handily all the tracks are in date order, so you don’t have to rack your brains working out what came first (or you could just look at the booklet inside, you numpty). For me, highlights are ‘See Me, Feel Me’, and I’m a little too young to remember them but from my early TV years and repeats of ‘Sounds Of The Sixties’ I have a soft spot for ‘I Can See For Miles And Miles’ from ‘The Who Sell Out (By Selling Their Songs To CSI)’. They seem to have aged with more grace and normality than fellow Sixties/Seventies legends the Rolling Stones (most of them look as though they've been freshly embalmed) and the Beatles (Paul seems a bit too godlike, and where's Ringo?)

The Who are one of those megabands, just miles above others and still going successfully with key members of the original line-up, unlike many bands whose only original member is the guy-on-the-left-with-the-triangle-type thing.

Listening to the songs in current times, most of them have that engagingly quirky Sixties-ness about them as well as the roar of the famous Townshend windmill. Although in places heavy, it still keeps its intelligence. But any album which features ‘My Generation’, ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Who Are You’ is a classic, and this is one for any music fan who feels they don’t know quite as much about The Who as they’d like. It’s a thundering introduction to the band and a reminder of how classic yet relevant they are. They'll be selling one or two more of this CD after their Glastonbury appearance, methinks. Now excuse me while I wrestle the rest of the Native team for this particularly copy.

Visit The Who's website