(World Circuit/Fuse Music Group)

Superb new album from Afrobeat pioneer

Younger audiences will be familiar with Tony Allen as drummer with Damon Albarn side-project The Good, The Bad & The Queen. However, his true musical legacy is the 15 years he spent as drummer and musical director for Fela Kuti’s seminal Nigerian band The Africa 70. With this outfit, Allen basically invented Afrobeat, by blending traditional Nigerian rhythms with soul, funk and jazz influences. This legacy is vividly captured on his new album Secret Agent, an excellent record that presents many of the rhythms and harmonics of classic Fela Kuti albums such as Open & Close. However, like the new Lee Fields effort, Allen isn’t content to merely replicate old sounds. For example, Ijo boasts superb interplay between Cameroonian guitarist Claude Dibongue and subtle touches of electronica, all driven by Allen’s trademark shuffling Afrobeat rhythms. In addition, the appearance of vocalist Oribiyi Adunni a.k.a. AYO adds a contemporary R&B edge to the album. The man himself murmurs lead vocals on the record’s first and last tunes, the wah-wah laden title track and the more leisurely groove of Elewon Po (though the latter tune’s summer vibe is brought down to earth with its “too many prisoners” refrain, illustrating Allen’s links with Fela’s fiery political activism). But ultimately, Secret Agent is a good-time album, effortlessly melding Allen’s highlife roots with African funk and Western soul influences. It also displays Allen’s blend of technical virtuosity and modesty – there are no drum solos on Secret Agent, but his shuffling beats form the backbone from which every other instrument flows. It’s a truly organic record.

****

MATT THROWER

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(Dine Alone/Shock)

Canada’s greatest post-hardcore band tweaks formula, reaps rewards.

From the onset of their career, Alexisonfire have always marched to the beat of a different drum. The eclectic songwriting style found on their self-titled debut and ethereal follow-up Watch Out! all but disappeared by the time 2006’s Crisis was released upon the world. Exploring more rock & roll influences and the vocal chemistry between vocalist George Petit and guitarists Wade MacNeil and Dallas Green, Crisis was a bold step forward and a successful one at that. Old Crows/Young Cardinals comes on the back of Green’s successful second album as City & Colour, and MacNeil’s debut project Black Lungs. While this may thwart the creative chemistry of lesser bands, it has in fact galvanised Alexisonfire, a fact none more evident than on Old Crows/Young Cardinals – a continuation upon the style of Crisis and their third record co-produced with Julius Butty. The production sheen is gritty and heightens the raw rock elements of Alexisonfire’s sound, never shown better than on the two title tracks; Old Crows being a stomping, syncopated call to arms, Young Cardinals producing a sweeping chorus that even Bono would consider with awe. Petit’s screams have evolved into a raspy melodic shout, becoming a perfect counterpoint to Green’s impeccable vocals in the verses of anthemic Midnight Regulations. The Northern is a haunting, majestic slab of everything that makes Alexisonfire so unique amongst a genre of tag-alongs. Lyrically, the album is far-reaching, from comments on the global recession to the religious repression contained within Accept Crime, its chorus of “there’s no police between two beating hearts” proving itself to be both powerful and endearing. Across the board it may not prove to be Alexisonfire’s greatest work, but it does however show that they are not resting on their laurels, and that through continually pushing themselves they are creating a resounding catalogue of music.

****

LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON

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(Shock)

A man walks into a bar. Oh, you’ve heard this one before…

Two of the main facets of humour relate to timeliness and insider knowledge. A joke is much better within days of an occurrence than six months down the track – although this doesn’t stop radio shock jocks wheeling out tired Bill Clinton jokes – while there’s a perverse satisfaction in knowing why something is funny when others don’t. Back From The Dead (both the album and stomping title track, teeming with trademark innuendo and overzealous guitar solos) is up against the wall in these two respects. The 1984 release of mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap was met with equal parts amusement and bemusement, a riotous portrayal of the easily-swayed David St. Hubbins, dim-witted Nigel Tufnel and troubled intermediary Derek Smalls as their long-running heavy/glam/hair/cock metal band slowly faded into obscurity. Lampooning bands from the era like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and most notably Saxon with fantastic detail, there are urban legends of heavy metallers questioning why the director didn’t film a more famous band. So can Spinal Tap continue as an insider joke when everyone is in on it, and when most of their target bands have disappeared into the ether? Well, yes and no. Thankfully, musicians will continue to do very stupid things, while the best songs on this album are the new songs nestled alongside re-interpreted older material. The straight-faced prog wankery of Warmer Than Hell is much more satisfying than a reggae (Listen To The) Flower People, while the appearance of Jazz Odyssey brings more of a knowing smile than prolonged enjoyment. Still, Back From The Dead is likely to be more enjoyable and believable than the next Wolfmother release, if only for realising when a joke is a joke.

***½

MITCH ALEXANDER

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(Truth & Soul/Daptone)

Them Daptone artists sho’ is funky!

Lee Fields has been creating his own brand of gravelly soul/funk since the 1960s, but has been largely unrewarded for his efforts. If there’s any justice, his latest release on the noted Daptone label (home to Sharon Jones) will bring him that long-lacking recognition. As fits a Daptone artist, his latest album My World is funky soul music with authentic grit – many of these songs could have come from the Apollo in the 1960s, or pre-disco dance clubs of the 1970s (think Delfonics and Stylistics). What’s particularly satisfying about My World is the way Fields and his Expressions (studio musos who have played on records by the likes of Amy Winehouse and even TV On The Radio) manage to hark back to the past, while simultaneously sounding utterly fresh and exciting. For all its retro grooves, Fields’ music frequently hits a contemporary note. The wonderful Ladies, for instance, shares melodic qualities with the likes of Gnarls Barkley or N*E*R*D. Opening track Do You Love (Like You Say You Do) has a great combination of slow-burning rhythm and divebombing Hammond organs, while Fields emotes like the finely aged master he is. The album manages to sound both smooth and dirty at the same time, as lush horn and string arrangements are wonderfully soiled by an array of raw, bass-heavy grooves. Fields is the DJ trainspotter’s wet dream, as indicated by his recent work with French house producer Martin Solveig. However, his all-inclusive sound should also cement Fields as an exciting discovery for anyone who digs no-frills rhythm and blues.

****

MATT THROWER

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(Inevitable/MGM)

All India Radio and The Church head honchos’ ambience-radiating collab 

Ever since Air’s Moon Safari came out in 1998, the term ‘chillout’ seemed to be forever hijacked by Ibiza compilations. Fortunately Martin Kennedy, the man in charge of All India Radio’s downtempo instrumentals since 1999, knows that while cheese and fine wine complement each other, their respective musical equivalents don’t. So does The Church supremo Steve Kilbey (who would have a couple of trademark snipes ready if anyone described his latest effort as ‘easy listening’); firm adherents to the quality aesthetic, the two share a similar approach to music-making. Nearly four years in the works, Unseen Music Unheard Words is a calm, slow-paced record tailor-made for Sunday mornings, its twelve tracks sung by Kilbey in his inimitable half-hushed manner (with periodic high harmonies from brother John). Stately opener Eyes Ahead is followed by the similarly unhurried, yet more melancholic My Will Be Yours, its lazily-picked minor pattern chiming over warm synth whirr. Built over a textbook acoustic guitar progression, Maybe Soon nevertheless possesses a solid dose of charm and would be perfectly at home on The Church’s latest opus Untitled #23, as would Thought Of Leaving, Kilbey revisiting his own You Took’s opening bass harmonics to gorgeous effect. The sombre double of Naked As A Star and Friends Are Gone comes as a deft finishing brush, and while Steve might wince at the dreaded ‘C-word’, I doubt anyone else is going to disagree about UMUW’s essence: excellent chillout music. 

****

DENIS SEMCHENKO

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(Samadhisound/Fuse Music Group)

Melancholic British trio create appropriately arty soundscapes for David Sylvian’s label

After the dreamlike blend of spoken word and ambient electronics of opening track Here It Begins, Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s second album seamlessly flows into the folk-jazz of Truth Only Smiles, which resembles a slightly more epic interpretation of Talk Talk circa Spirit Of Eden. More challenging fare appears in the slow, scraping percussion and brooding, shivery vocals of Longshore Drift, the group sounding like a stream-of-consciousness Scott Walker or Berlin-era Bowie. Interestingly, guitarist/singer Tim Elsenburg often resembles an elder Bowie in his vocal style, his gloomy croak sometimes bringing to mind the quieter moments of the former glam rocker’s 1995 conceptual opus Outside. The record has been receiving rave reviews in their home country of England, with Uncut presenting the band with breathless five-star praise. For this listener, it’s not of such classic calibre, but Twice Born Men remains a subtly powerful record. Suitably signed to David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label (with the former Japan mainman even acting as director for the album’s artwork), Sweet Billy Pilgrim are one of the most confident blenders of acoustic folk and laptops, the crackly samples perfectly in tune with rainy-day jazz rhythms and meditative roots influences. The epic sweep of Future Present Tense also shows the group know their way around a good pop melody. It’ll take a few listens to kick in, but when it does, you’ll be happy to file Twice Born Men alongside your Tuung or Vetiver records.

***½  

MATT THROWER

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