The latest releases reviewed.
KRISTIN HERSH Learn to Sing Like a Star 4AD ****
As well as being a mother to four sons, Kristin Hersh has been musically prolific over the last 20 years, amassing 15 albums by herself, with Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. Personal traumas have always informed her solo work, making it some of her finest (1994's Hips and Makers is one of that decade's best albums). This eighth solo album unites many of Hersh's past identities. Blistering rants and visceral ballads sit side by side, such as the explosive single In Shock and the doleful epic Nerve Endings. Winter, all pounding toms and tubular bells, raises the ghosts that always haunt her work. Lean piano, guitar and string arrangements provide the perfect backdrop for her off-kilter autobiography, which runs from house floods to life's disappointments. On Day Glo she says that "getting up is what hurts", but Hersh is back on form with a vengeance. www.4ad.com Sinéad Gleeson
ADJAGAS Adjagas Ever Records *****
Picture a parallel universe where Planxty join forces with Sigur Rós and you're somewhere near to understanding the brilliantly bewildering appeal of Adjagas. The Norwegian duo are ethnically Sami (the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia), and while this is very much a folk-based affair, the sound is leavened with an other-worldly froideur that transports to you a musical territory you have never visited before. Sara Mariella Gaup and Lawrs Somby don't just do the quite atmospheric sound thing - there's a rare passion to the sound here, thanks to their use of traditional "yoik" singing. And even the unlikely sound of a banjo intruding here and there doesn't disrupt from the spell they weave. Musicologists will probably have a field day trying to dissect their sound, but for the moment all that is important is that you acquaint yourselves with this understated masterpiece. Brian Boyd
THE HEDRONS One More Won't Kill Us Measured Records ***
Scottish femme-punks the Hedrons surely have in their genes (and quite possibly their jeans) the manifold values and collective spirit of the Runaways, the pioneering all-female jailbait US punk act that gave the world Joan Jett. The comparisons don't end there: just like the much maligned Runaways, the Hedrons favour tunes over muscle. The Glasgow band's debut bristles with the familiar rush of guitars that we've heard a thousand times before, but there's a deftness of touch and an assuredness of approach that marks them out as more than just plagiaristic wannabes. Whether their material can transcend ever-changing trends remains to be seen. Talent will always out, won't it? www.thehedrons.com Tony Clayton-Lea
NINE HORSES Money For All Samadhisound ****
Two years ago, successful solo artist and former Japan frontman David Sylvian formed this new band with his percussionist brother Steve Jansen and keyboardist Burnt Friedman (Flanger), and released their superb, critically acclaimed debut, Snow Borne Sorrow. Money For All is their follow-up mini-album - part palimpsest, with re-interpretations of four songs from their debut (including the rolling Wonderful World and the urgent The Banality Of Evil) remixed by Friedman, and part scratch pad, with three new songs, Money for All, Get the Hell Out, and Birds Sing for Their Lives (with Stina Nordenstam), and all roiling with a fascinating combination of lyrical introspection and political commentary. With its sensuous rhythms, elegant melodies and Sylvian's signature resonant croon, Nine Horses' sound is a sophisticated, dynamic and surprisingly muscular fusion of jazz, world and electronica. Money For All is boldly cool and beautiful. www.samadhisound.com Jocelyn Clarke
MIKA Life in Cartoon Motion Casablanca ****
A review seems a little superfluous given the amount that has already been talked and typed about Mika, the next big thing most likely to still be here in 12 months. However, the broad brushstrokes about the Beruit-born kid with the keen ear for Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan poperatics don't quite illustrate just how damn good he is. There is life beyond the Scritti Politti-friendly Grace Kelly, and if you remain unmoved by the naive, sunny joyful magnificence of Lollipop, you should put down this paper right now and schedule a meeting with your doctor. There's a flamboyance, friskiness and largeness to Life in Cartoon Motion that modern pop princes are not usually this willing to show off in public. But Mika sounds born to boogie in this way, a lad high on the fantastic, frantic sounds and melodies at his disposal. It's chirpy, playful, colourful pop and that's something that will never go out of fashion. www.mikasounds.com Jim Carroll
REST Operation: Impending Doom Out On A Limb ***
Cork-based mob Rest certainly don't outstay their welcome on Operation: Impending Doom. With just two tracks, clocking in at 20 minutes in total, it's a mini-album that packs a meaty punch despite its brevity. As with 2004's loose-limbed Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame debut album, Rest again place their trust in post-rock's designs for life. But while their Irish peers at this table usually use those templates as an excuse for a ballsy rock-out, Rest prefer to accentuate deeper, darker ideas. Some intense playing is what carries Rest away from the edgy Fugazi school of hardcore knocks and towards a more intricate and emotional score. It allows each player to showboat a little on the majestic Spare a Dime for Comrade Lonely Cripped Cowboy (the drums are particularly heavy and menacing), while keeping the collective velocity on track. For Rest, less really is more on this occasion. www.outonalimbrecords.com Jim Carroll
BLOC PARTY A Weekend in the City Wichita ***
Sophomore albums often tend to be about the tribulations of touring and the merits of the minibar; the second album by this painfully earnest London quartet is - unsurprisingly - about the shallowness of fame and the emptiness at the heart of the London social scene into which they've lately been inducted. The Bloc-rockers have been mocked for their students union socialism and campus bar angst, and both are in plenitful supply on such songs as the party-pooping Song for Clay (Disappear Here), the post-7/7 polemic of Hunting for Witches, the clone-attacking Uniform and the performance anxiety anthem of The Prayer. Kele Okereke's edge-of-paranoia vocals add a pungent tang to these tales of London high and low life, while the tightly sprung guitar lines just manage to hold back from becoming full-blown emocore. Like Radiohead, Bloc Party are palpably uncomfortable in Big Brother's brave new world, but rather than shuffle around the issue with a few desultory electronic twiddles, at least Kele's gang take the bullshit by the horns and attempt to wrestle with our consciences. www.blocparty.com Kevin Courtney
