The latest releases reviewed.
LISA GERRARD The Best of Lisa Gerrard 4AD ****
Along with Liz Fraser and Diamanda Galas, Lisa Gerrard occupies a niche for the most gifted, unconventional vocalists of the past 20 years. Like Fraser, she favours an imaginary vernacular and shares Galas's multiple-octave range. As one half of Dead Can Dance, she created epic, often gothic symphonies that were rooted in world music and medieval orchestration. This retrospective unites various projects, including DCand solo work such as Sacrifice and Swans. In recent years Gerrard has been better known for soundtrack compositions, including the Golden Globe-winning score for Gladiator and music for Ali and Whale Rider. Gerrard's voice soars frantically on Elysium, before pitching us the child-like ululations of Cantara and the ominous baritone of Yulunga. There's a resonance to Gerrard's oeuvre that makes it linger long after the CD ends: this is music for the soul from a passionate heart. www.lisagerrard.com Sinéad Gleeson
BENJY FERREE Leaving the Nest Domino ***
A spell as a Hollywood babysitter (keeping an eye on David Lynch's sprogs, apparently) convinced Washington, DC native Benjy Ferree that he'd probably have more fun singing his folksy rock tunes. It turned out to be a good call, because Ferree's songs exhibit a kind of lovely plaintive soul and trippy buzz that pull you closer to the speakers with every listen. Produced by Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, Leaving the Nest has old-fashioned charm in abundance. It's an album rich with wise tales, playful choruses and cheerful rushes of sound, where Ferree's bluesy voice takes the listener deep into the more idiosyncratic folds of American pop. Based on the idyllic twists of In the Countryside and Hollywood Sign, the smart, subtle way he replenishes the Johnny Cash-favoured A Little at a Time, and the psychedelic sheen applied to much of the sound, it's obvious that Ferree knows his way to a treasure trove of hooks and melodies. www.benjyferre.com Jim Carroll
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone Bella Union ***
It's not just the instrumental rock freaks who appreciate the quiet-loud-quiet splendour of Explosions in the Sky. The Texan post-rockers can currently be heard shilling on a Cadillac TV advert Stateside, while they also cut the film score for the Friday Night Lights yarn about college football players. Back at the ranch, their fourth album is a gorgeous, spellbinding affair that calls for sonic cathedrals and faraway satellites to be employed as descriptive bookends. Yet, like fellow starry day-dreamers Sigur Rós, the beauty of Explosions in the Sky comes to the fore in the detail. The wonderful, dusty twangs on Catastrophe and the Cure and the shimmering effects set off throughout Birth and Death of the Day are what keep proceedings here on track. At their most delicate and brittle, such as on the closing So Long, Lonesome, where pianos light the way towards the horizon, they're a band who twinkle like no other. www.explosionsinthesky.com Jim Carroll
ELLIS ISLAND SOUND The Good Seed Peacefrog ***
Pete Astor, longtime English pop/ rock/ambient musician, teams up once again with regular collaborator David Sheppard to produce something altogether different, altogether fresher and altogether naturalistic. Piecing alongside each other bucolic reveries, rustic sideswipes and the kind of tunes that run through your head as you're cycling in the countryside while thinking about nothing in particular, the music contained here is as if Penguin Cafe Orchestra had taken it upon themselves to rewrite Brian Eno's instrumental back catalogue. With added found sounds from a few picture postcard villages in East Anglia. Summer has just arrived, people. Get it while it's hot. www.ellisislandsound.free.fr Tony Clayton-Lea
THE TRIFFIDS Calenture Domino ***
The Perth band led by David McComb enjoyed huge critical acclaim but, like fellow Aussies The Go-Betweens, never really turned that acclaim into massive record sales. Still, they came up with at least two classic albums - Born Sandy Devotional and this one, an ambitious, opulent collection that features one of their best-known songs, Bury Me Deep in Love. Led by David McComb, with his brother Robert on violin, Triffids traded in the so-called "big music" of the time, playing huge-hearted, emotional anthems that evoked the wide, lonely expanses of western Australia. While The Triffids struggled to make a mark on the world, McComb struggled with drug and alcohol problems, and died following a car accident in 1999. The band's back catalogue is now being rereleased, with additional tracks, B-sides and demos; listen to the dusty, glittering gems here, which include Hometown Farewell Kiss, Holy Water, Vagabond Holes and Jerdacuttup Man, and you should get the widescreen picture. www.thetriffids.com Kevin Courtney
BILL COLEMAN I'll Tear My Own Walls Down Bill Coleman Music ***
With that scruffy lad from Celbridge enjoying huge success on the back of a few half-baked folk songs, it's no surprise that a slew of Irish singer-songwriters are busking on the bandwagon and hoping to bag themselves a Hollywood girlfriend. Corkman Bill Coleman is one of the better ones, and he can at least write a tune that doesn't wander off into the woods halfway through. Catholic guilt has been transformed into Celtic lad guilt on such songs as Devilette, Bound and The Pull of the Pint, Coleman lamenting his own very Irish flaws, and looking for salvation in Offer Up the Hope and All There Is. Coleman's finger-picking style keeps the songs fluid, and there's a solidly rocking backing band to keep it all from getting too cross-legged. www.billcoleman.com Kevin Courtney
