Latest releases reviewed
The Secret Migration V2
Mercury Rev created a whole new genre when they came down from the Catskills with Deserter's Songs in 1998. Call it phantasmagorical Appalachian alt.rock. We now take magical Americana for granted and don't bat an eyelid at a bowed saw or a dreamy cloud of classical gas, so it's getting ever harder to dazzle our imagination. It's to Mercury Rev's credit that they damn near succeed in sweeping us back into a dream realm of the senses, and such beautiful, shimmering tunes as Secret for a Song, Diamonds, In the Wilderness and In a Funny Way glimmer like the work of seasoned craftsmen. On the band's last album, All Is Dream, Jonathan Donahue sang from the soul of a child; here, he's speaking from the heart of a man in love, and the emphasis is on big-hearted melodies and wild, galloping choruses. But there's also a sepia-toned, saccharine hue to Black Forest (Lorelei), Vermilion, The Climbing Rose and First-Time Mother's Joy (Flying), which can get a little bit cloying at times.
www.mercuryrev.com Kevin Courtney
Superwolf Domino
Will Oldham has teamed up with ex-Zwan guitarist Matt Sweeney for this leg of his long journey into the ancient heart of Americana. The project came about when Oldham challenged Sweeney to write music for his lyrics, and the result has the cool, collected air of a task well accomplished. Superwolf is steeped in blood right from the opening track, My Home Is the Sea, in which Oldham dreams of being devoured by sharks. Elsewhere, he brings his elegiac, old-world lyric writing to bear on Beast for Thee, Goat and Ram and Bed Is for Sleeping. Sweeney, for his part, puts a diesel-powered rock sheen over the folksy acoustic guitar ruminations, and nicely counterbalances Oldham's world-worn vocals with whooping harmonies. The pair have been playing together for years and, if it's not quite telepathy at work on Lift Us Up, Only Someone Running and the powerful Blood Embrace (featuring a spoken word cameo from Sue Schofield), there's plainly a pure brotherly bond.
www.dominorecordco.com Kevin Courtney
Music for People with Long Ears Sofa Records
It is surely only the inveterate peruser of music listings who would recognise some of the names on this compilation of Irish and Irish-connected acts; other names might be known only within back yards, coal sheds and snugs. Yet for all its notions of obscurity and nominal abstraction, there is much on this 19-track collection that shouts out far louder and clearer than a number of other Bright Young Thing compilations. Overall, the quality is very high. The likes of Salthouse and Stanley Super 800 - more than likely the most recognisable names here - come with something of a pedigree, but the likes of Waterford's The Siam Collective, Dublin's Rafter, Belgium's Busty Duck Duck and New York's Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers are newcomers pure and simple. There's a lot to wade through (a baker's dozen might have made for more astute pacing), but with everything from ambient, electronica, rock and funk to house and acoustic tastes catered for, this is as good a starter kit to 2005 as any you care to mention. And there's not a wispy-bearded, earnest singer-songwriter in sight.
www.sofarecords.ie Tony Clayton-Lea
Vincent and Mr Green Southern Records
Vincent and Mr Green are two parts hip-hop avant-garde to one part folkie nostalgia. Vocalist Jade Vincent has collaborated with T-Bone Burnett on a number of soundtracks, and a cinematic lustre infuses her dusky croon. Mr Green - aka multi-instrumentalist Keefus Ciancia - pushes an eerie conjunction of urban beats and creepy electronica that would come off as schtick if it wasn't so icewater-down-your-spine efficient. Thematically, their début picks over the driftwood of pre-1960s Americana, Peggy Lee references and bluesy flourishes evoking a sepia sensibility. Sonically, Mr Green has crafted a carnival freakshow, where snatches of hooks flutter past like goods trains in the night, a drowsy experimental rumble underpinning all. Were this record a movie, it would be David Cronenberg remaking Preston Sturges. Sweet and scary, glowering with secret contradictions.
www.vincentandmrgreen.com Ed Power
