Just Radiohead

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AT LEAST the compilers of this remarkable band's Best Of had the sense to produce it over two CDs.

For Radiohead, since 1992's Creep, have forged a name for themselves as one of the greatest, most innovative and creative and yet consistent makers of music since The Beatles laid down their instruments.

There is nothing I could write here about individual songs that you don't know already, suffice to say all the band's big hitters are here - Just, Street Spirit, Paranoid Android, Pyramid Song, etc. etc. - minus the latest LP In Rainbows' tracks, as EMI didn't hold the rights.

So as a companion to In Rainbows for anyone who doesn't know the band's back catalogue intimately yet, this would be as good a place to start discovering the Oxford five-piece's songbook as any.

36 Crazyfists' album lacks kick

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CONSIDERING The Tide And Its Takers is Alaskan metalcore outfit 36 Crazyfists' fourth LP, you would think the band would be able to go with the flow a bit more.

Because all of the elements of a great album are here, they're just not put together quite right, as if the Anchorage rockers are trying a little too hard.

With the band's over zealous guitar shredding, bludgeoning bass and frontman Brock Lindow's savage, primal growls almost ever-present throughout the album, the band's obvious knack for a sly hook here and there is almost always lost.

It's this balance that lets the band down - there's too much going on, too many skipped or added beats scattered throughout preventing the listener from grabbing hold.

And it's a shame, as during the moments on The Tide And Its Takers it comes together, 36 Crazyfists pack a real punch.

Spiritualized in good health

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AFTER the disappointing new release from The Charlatans comes another Britpop also-ran from out of nowhere.

Yes, sorry to say it, Spiritualized fans - and Charlatans fans for that matter - but they were never colussusses like Blur, Pulp or Oasis in their heyday.

Who next - Spacehog again bringing home the bacon? Menswear back in fashion? A Sleeper awakening? Please, anything but a new Space odyssey.

The reason behind the absence, of course, is frontman Jason Pierce's near death at the hands of a severe bout of pneumonia.

And new LP, the aptly-medical Songs In A&E, shows a band that has never been in better health.

Songs In A&E is an epic, warm, human and rich yet at the same time harrowing, eerie and intense.

Floaty compositions such as new single Soul On Fire and Death Take Your Fiddle are linked together brilliantly with string and piano 'harmonies' to create an opus that should prove to be a real shot in the arm for the band.

Later Of The Pier

Just in - Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice has learnt Castle Donington-based indie rock-electronica crossover outfit Late Of The Pier have postponed their gig at Loughborough's Rapture Nightclub from May 30 to sometime in October this year.

Pendulum swing into town

PENDULUM will be headlining a double drum and bass extravaganza at Loughborough University on May 27.
As part of their promotion for sensational new album In Silico, the group are playing alongside MC Verse and local DJs to an expected crowd of 1,000 under-18s at the Students' Union from 5.30pm, and then again to an adult audience later that evening.
Tickets are on sale at £10 for the under-18s gig and £5 NUS, £7 or £10 VIP for over-18s at the Students' Union Reception and Zavvi at The Rushes.
For more information about the event or ticket sales, please Edd Kiggins on 07729 932993.

Son Of Dave top of list

JUST a quick pointer for anyone dashing down the A6 to the inaugral Leicester City Blues Festival 2008 later this month.
Sitting on Saturday, May 31's line-up alongside more well-known acts such as Gary Moore is the absolute must-see Son Of Dave.
One bluesman band Son Of Dave, real name Benjamin Darvill, has to be seen to be believed - creating rich, hip-hop influenced blues completely on his tod onstage - you can see an example of this, a performance of Hellhound from his latest album 03, here.

Classic seven - Maggot Brain pretty fly

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FOR 1971's seminal Maggot Brain, funk legends Funkadelic decided on a stark departure from their previously groove-orientated sound.

As a young pup I can only imagine what die-hard fans of the band made of it when they whacked the album on for the first time to hear 10-minute long opener Maggot Brain, where the group wander around spaced out in the realms of psychedelia.

However with George Clinton at the helm, Maggot Brain was always going to be funky - and from track two, Can You Get To That, onwards, the mould for the funk rock genre was set.

On Hit It And Quit It, the guitars roar, and You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks sees a soulful gospel side added to the mix.

Fans of any modern rock band that every slapped a bass string in anger should not hesitate to add this blistering collection of formative funk rock to their collection.

Sparkling gig for Young Knives

VETERAN pop rock act Sparks have enlisted local band The Young Knives as support for one gig of their 21-night stand at the London Astoria.
Belton brothers Henry Dartnall and The House Of Lords and Ashbien Oliver Askew will perform on Saturday, May 17, before Sparks perform, in its entirity, their 1972 album A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing.
The gig forms part of the group's back-to-back performances of their entire studio album back catalogue in order, including 1982's Angst In My Pants and 1995's Gratuitous Sax And Senseless Violins, ending with the group's 2008 LP Exotic Creatures Of The Deep.
Ah well, it can't be the Venture Theatre, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, every week.

Foxboro Hot Tubs are lukewarm

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IMAGINE Green Day dressed as Austin Powers and you've got Foxboro Hot Tubs, the pop punk pioneers' latest side-project.

A swinging '60s inspired take on the band's distinctive sound, Foxboro Hot Tubs' Stop Drop And Roll album is a refreshing outing from the once-goofy band, especially after the decidedly serious American Idiot.

However, were it not for The Reverend Strychnine Twitch AKA Billie Joe Armstrong's unmistakable vocals and the mojo-growing drumming and bass work, song wise this would be a pretty forgettable affair.

Stop Drop And Roll is a pretty groovy collection of '60s-inspired rock, but I'd still prefer to see Green Day doing what Green Day clearly do best, not doing what McFly do better.

Hello Holloways

CELEBRATE the music that makes you feel better this Saturday when top 40 band The Holloways come to Loughborough.
The band, best known for their smash hit feelgood summer song Generator, will be playing at Room 1, Loughborough Students' Union, alongside town act The Voom Blooms.
Bryn Tremayne Fowler, bassist for The Holloways, told Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice: "When we started playing live we decided to try to get around a many places as possible, especially where people don't get to see as many top bands, although I think this will be the first time in Loughborough.
"I'm sure people are going to be up for it.
"We heard one or two songs by The Voom Blooms before we gave them the thumbs-up – they sounded good and we're looking forward to seeing them live."
Tickets to the gig, open to anyone, both students and non-students, as long as they're aged 14 years or over, cost £10 and are available online here and here or from the Students' Union Reception.

Keeping Múm

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MY MOTHER told me to steer clear of strange folk - how wrong she was.

As although experimental electronic folk music makers Múm's output is definitely unconventional, it is sweeter than an illicitly-offered double dip.

Rerelease Yesterday Was Dramatic Today Is OK, first issued as the Icelandic band's debut in 2000, is a gorgeous soundscape of ambient electronic twitters and rich yet sparse instrumentation.

The ponderous yet enthralling tracks stretch into one another, equally at home with melody as silence, and the result is a journey you'll want to take over and over again.

Obviously Múm do - next Monday is the album's third release date, and in 2005 they even toured the album in its entirity as a live set!

Oceansize should make waves

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THE mere words "prog rock" are enough to make toe-curling images of grown men in fancy dress fiddling about with their organs spring to most people's minds.

Well, it does to mine...

However Oceansize, whose third album, Frames, is set for a rerelease next monday, are the bright future of this much-maligned genre.

Mixing the heavy metal prowess and technical wizardry of Tool with the emotion and sheer Manc-ness of Elbow, Oceansize's critically applauded Frames was pretty much ignored first time out last year.

True, the band aren't exactly radio-friendly, with the album clocking in at over an hour and the average track length around the eight minute mark, but tracks like the slow-burning Trail Of Fire and Savant are pure genius.

So if you're a fan of 65 Days Of Static, Biffy Clyro, Tool, Elbow or Mogwai, why not take a dip?

Opposites attract

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ODD couple Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan return on Monday with Sunday At Devil Dirt, the pair's second collaboration.

And it's no surprise the duo of Belle & Sebastian singer and cellist Campbell and former Screaming Trees singer Lanegan are back - Mark Lanegan has proven to be one of the hardest working men in music over the past 12 months.

However here the grizzled singer is not as firey as on electronica outing Soulsavers or the rockier The Gutter Twins - instead on Sunday At Devil Dirt Lanegan has a wistful Leonard Cohen quality to his voice.

And backed up by Isobel Campbell's irresistably sweet vocals, tracks like Salvation and Back Burner are like walking through the set of a spaghetti Western movie.

This outing is ultimately more of the same from the unlikely pairing, but as the Mercury-nominated Ballad Of The Broken Seas was such a resounding success, why not?

Date with Destiny for Late Of The Pier

CASTLE Donington rockers Late Of The Pier will be appearing on The Nokia Green Room on Channel 4 at 1.40pm on May 11.
The show, which features diverse acts mingling backstage between exclusive performances, will see the local lads hobnobbing with indie group Guillemots and former Destiny's Child Kelly Rowland.

Pendulum swing high

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WHEN drum and bass group Pendulum were announced for Download Festival I imagine more eyebrows were raised than tradional devil horns.

However after listening to the group's second LP In Silico, the Australian outfit have clearly developed the kind of crossover appeal not heard since The Prodigy's Fat Of The Land was released.

Where on debut release Hold Your Colour the focus was straight down the line Andy C style drum and bass, with the emphasis on bass, Pendulum have now added detail to their song structures.

Tracks such as Visions and new single Propane Nightmares demonstrate there's real talent hiding underneath the traditional junglist beats and pulsating buzz basses.

While the group are still a little rough around the edges, this could well unite the two disparate genres, if only for the duration of their half-hour onstage at Donington Park this Summer.

Fair Maiden

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RUN to the hills - Iron Maiden are back!

Sort of.

Somwhere Back In Time is the latest "best of" from the band, who have racked up double figures of compilation albums, let alone studio efforts, since their inception in 1975.

So I won't bore you with the details - surely you've heard the group by now.

For some they will live up to their name as sheer torture, for other's the Leyton band are thoroughbred rock gods, and for the rest of you they're pure comedy genius.

This outing, covering 1980-1989, has nearly all the household hits - Run To The Hills, The Evil That Men Do, Number Of The Beast, Can I Play With Madness - although I would still say Edward The Great is a better "best of" bet.

However if the album increases interest in Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson's new movie Chemical Wedding, which has my brother Jared Ashe in it, then rock on.

Young Knives Live

ASHBY-de-la-Zouch was the town where local band The Young Knives first plyed their trade – and a secret homecoming gig was held at the Venture Theatre on May 6.

The three-piece band, made up of Belton brothers Henry Dartnall and Thomas "The House Of Lords" Dartnall alongside Ashby's Oliver Askew, admitted onstage: "We never thought we would do this."

However after a riotous set the band, who have just released their second album Superabundance to critical acclaim, were making suggestions that it become a regular slot – if the venue invested in air conditioning "for the fat boys on stage".

The opening salvo of the night, organised by Gaymers cider for a select crowd of competition winners who had travelled to Ashby, press, TV and the band's family and friends, was the blistering She's Attracted To.

And with the splendid Counters and recent single Terra Firma following on, the small theatre was shaking as the crowd began to move.

Also standing out from the Young Knives' songbook of quirky, angular rock were Fit 4 U, the thumping Up All Night and the always-exceptional Weekends And Bleakdays.

The band also excelled with their new single Turn Tail – in the shops now, kids – where they were joined onstage by four "string people" for a passionate rendition of the song.

"Grim" Loughborough Suicide got an outing, before the sweaty set concluded with the anthemic The Decision.

The Young Knives may not be back to their old haunt for a while – on this form stadiums and TV studios may will be the next step.

Young Knives' old haunt

TONIGHT The Young Knives performed their socks off at a secret gig at the Venture Theatre in Ashby-de-la-Zouch - and very exciting for the good folk of Ashby it was too.
Here are some pictures from the evening - look out for a full review here, in the Loughborough Echo and in the mighty Ashby Trader And Echo paper too.

Queue the audience...

Failing to prepare...

Cam on, cam on.

Rock and or roll

The super Dartnall brothers

Henry Dartnall

The House Of Lords and Oliver Askew

With some "string people"

Classic six - Need Naveed

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INTERNATIONAL readers of Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice - yeah right - may be more familiar with Our Lady Peace than Brits.

For example Naveed, the band's 1994 debut album, was sadly only a minor hit in their native Canada.

This alternative rock album, which spawned five singles, did provide the springboard for the group to go on to write five more studio albums and do good work in the US and Canadian album and single charts - yet it is unlikely many of you will be familiar.

Time to correct that, I say.

For Naveed is a grungey and full bodied affair, showcasing the band's proficient Pearl Jam style musicianship and a singer, Raine Maida, blessed with a gift of a rock voice, equally at home growling down low or soaring up high.

To this day the group still open and close their live shows with Naveed and Starseed, which demonstrates the lasting quality of this album.

Vine and dandy

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IN A strange sequence of events, Australian garage rockers The Vines are releasing their The Best Of... compilation ahead of a new album, Brain Dead, this summer.

Compiled by the band for release by their recently-dispensed with label Capitol Records, it is a testament to the group that a greatest hits of this quality can be made with just three albums of material to pluck from.

Showcasing the groups' trademark mix of Beatles-style '60s pop and Nirvana-style '90s grunge, fans of the group will be able to predict the obvious album highlights in the likes of Outtathaway, Get Free and Ride.

And if you're not yet a Vines fan, what better place to start before their fourth album is released, on a new record label, later this year.

Up, up and away...

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MATMOS really is a labour of love for San Francisco duo Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel - as not only are the pair a romantic couple, they go to extreme lengths together to get the sounds they need for their experimental electronica.
In the course of their work, Matmos have - among many, many things, some too lewd to be listed here - sampled amplified crayfish nerve tissue, the pages of bibles turning, slowed down whistles and kisses, chin implant surgery, rat cages, tanks of helium, human skulls, cards shuffling, field recordings of conversations in hot tubs, frequency response tests for defective hearing aids, a steel guitar recorded in a sewer, Polish trains, aspirin tablets hitting a drum kit from across the room, life support machines, solid gold coins spinning on bars of solid silver and the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun.
It really is "all" in a days work for Matmos.
So for Supreme Balloon to be a studio album, albeit entirely composed on synthesizers, is daring for the group, whose work normally straddles the grey area between pop music and conceptual art.
This time out the songs are more instantly accessible and sound like extracts from a 1970s Tomorrow's World special on the music of the future.
The results are still, as you'd expect, more chin stroking than foot tapping, but Supreme Balloon is more of a pleasure trip than previous outings.

Classic five - General brilliance

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BEING Fatboy Slim's boss, Skint supremo Damian Harris - AKA Midfield General - knew his 2000 release Generalisation had to set a good example.

Perhaps that's why Generalisation was five years in the making...

Either way, it's no surprise that the album, which seamlessly shifts from big beat and breaks with housey soul samples and old school hip-hop, is sheer dancefloor brilliance from start to finish.

However a few tracks really stand out on the album - Reach Out, the album's biggest single, is a dreamy, soulful slice of blissed out house, Devil In Sports Casual is a scowling breaks classic, and Stigs Inn Love is a drum and bass track with more unexpected twists than a pole dancer with no bones.

However the track you'll be telling literally everyone you know to listen to - just like I'm doing now - is Midfielding, featuring The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding.

A second album, General Disarray, is out this month, and with it being eight years in the pipeline surely the best is yet to come.

Album falls Short

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THE Shortwave Set's second offering of what they term "victorian punk" is the musical equivolent of lying in a field in the sun with a gormless expression.

With Dj Dangermouse at the mixing desk you would expect an album chirpier than a cricket that's just found a £20 note on the floor while walking back from making sweet crickety love to a rather gorgeous lady cricket.

However the Londoner's sun-kissed album Replica Sun Machine is like listening to The Magic Numbers, but with chronic fatugue syndrome.

Like Goldfrapp's similar laid back psychedelia experiment Seventh Tree earlier this year the album has a summery, good-time vibe that never really gets going throughout the course of the LP - why have a Replica Sun Machine when we'll very soon have the real thing out for the summer, albeit with a bit more oomph.

Wave Picture perfect

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QUAINT, pleasant, parochial, kooky, out on a limb - The Wave Pictures' home village of Wymeswold has certainly influenced the band's debut album Instant Coffee Baby.

For The Wave Pictures exude the same kind of ramshackle charm and quintessential rural English qualities as the countryside that spawned them.

Frontman David Tattersall, although not blessed with the best singing voice in the world, demostrates a likeable sense of humour as dry as a Oscar Wilde's funny bone.

For example on I Love You Like A Madman he quips "I'll buy you bras instead of pickled eggs, chocolate instead of chutney" over the band's dishevelled rural indie in a way that all boyfriends who ever had good intentions can empathise with.

My only criticism of the group, who can be rightfully proud of their label debut is that after all the promising demos and EPs, Instant Coffee Baby still sounds like it was recorded in the village hall, and not in a plush studio on a big budget where this band patently belong.

Goodness gracious...

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SO IN your face are young guns Hadouken! that even their name is a form of attack.

Luckily the title is an apt one for the Leeds-based grime group, who sound like Dizzee Rascal stealing The Klaxons' mobile phones.

For the five-piece are the furious ball of firey energy that the name suggests - from the menacing opening Get Smashed Gate Crash to the flurry of That Boy That Girl to the incessant Crank It Up.

Rough around the edges doesn't cover Music For An Accelerated Culture's grindie ASBO-disco - it's clear the group are wide-eyed with more than just the naivity of youth, which ultimately makes for a listen as frustrating as it is exhilarating, although on tracks such as the latest single Decleration Of War the group show they may have the legs to take their sound further.

I would have loved this to have come out when I was a teen - the album reminds me of The Prodgy's Experience, all energy, intoxicants and raw promise.

As they sing on the opening track: "We are the wasted youth, and we are the future too."

Young and single

THE Young Knives are set to release their third single from their cracking new album Superabundance.

Turn Tail will be released on May 19 by the band, who hail from Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Belton.

Also, a secret intimate gig in Ashby is rumoured to be taking place on May 6...

Classic four - Automatica choice

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OF ALL the bands you'd have expected to spawn a side project of groovy dance-floor filling hip-hop, screaming hardcore outfit Glassjaw would be pretty far down the list.

However frontman Daryl Palumbo, whose inimitable vocal style is more heavily influenced by his Chrone's disease than any singer, created Head Automatica in 2004 to indulge his love for the distinctly un-Glassjaw genres of hip hop and Britpop.

With Dan The Automator of Gorillaz and Handsome Boy Modeling School fame at the mixing desk, the resulting Decadance album is a triumphant clash of styles.

With raggae-influenced skanking hip-hop beats meeting glittery electronica and funk-soaked indie guitar licking backing a toned-down Palumbo, Decadance was a classic that woefully slipped under the radar.

However, lucky for us, 2008 should see in long-awaited third albums from both Head Automatica and Glassjaw.

Pier here

CASTLE Donington-based indie rock-electronica crossover outfit Late Of The Pier are bringing their soon-to-be massive sound to Loughborough's Rapture Nightclub on May 30.
The town date is the last leg of a UK tour for the group, whose sound is like Frank Zappa jamming out with The Klaxons.
The local boys are also releasing a new double A-side single, Space And The Woods and Focker, on May 19.

Wave hello

THE best ever band to come out of Wymeswold ever, The Wave Pictures, are all set to release their debut album Instant Coffee Baby on May 5.

Single Strange Fruit For David, the second to be taken from the forthcoming album, will be released on April 28, and The Wave Pictures will also be undertaking a short UK tour including a date at Nottingham's Social on April 27.

Expect good things from the band's dishevelled indie sound.

Back to The Futureheads

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JUDGING by The Futureheads' forthcoming album This Is Not The World, the band are looking to their past for inspiration.

Following an underwhelming response to their difficult second album News & Tributes and a split from their label, the Sunderland band have returned to the angular post-punk of their debut for their third gamble.
And on tracks like opening salvo and single Beginning Of The Twist and title track This Is Not The World the band sound back to their ferociously quirky best.

However the album soon becomes too full of filler - for example Think Tonight sounds like an Andrew WK b-side - to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their eponymous debut.

This is not The Futureheads back to their best, but it is a good start.

Crystal balls

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ACCORDING to the hype, Canadian electro duo Crystal Castles are, and I quote, "the most exciting and original band in the world right now".

Crykey!

So I was more than a little excited about hearing the group's eponymous debut album, released here a little later than most places on April 28.

I shouldn't have been - Crystal Castles, who take their name from a 1983 Atari arcade game, sound like they are playing for their own amusement.

The band have been reported to say that it's not like they fell on a keyboard and these songs just happened, but listening to the repetitive computer game soundtrack bleeps and squelches it's hard to believe them.

The beats on Crystal Castles are pedestrian, the vocals are inaudible and annoying, and this reviewer really can't see what makes this group "innovative" sat alongside the likes of Hadouken! and Does It Offend You Yeah?.

As far as I'm concerned, do not insert more coins.

Arctic Monkeying about

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THE Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkey Alex Turner and Rascal Miles Kane's side project, is like listening to music in widescreen.

With a cinematic, Bond soundtrack feel - courtesy of the 22-piece orchestra backing the pair - opening title track The Age Of Understatement has a real epic quality to it, and this is followed in quick succession by forthcoming single, the steamtrain of Standing Next To Me.

The album is a real showcase for the duo's undeniable talents, and on the standout tracks such as the opening flurry The Last Shadow Puppets sound a force to be reckoned with.

At times the widescreen feel can leave the listener cold - where in their respective bands they come across as cheeky loveable scamps, here that appeal gets lost in the space they have given themself to fill.

Nevertheless, this will not be the last of The Last Shadow Puppets, rest assured.

Smoking Js

AS THE hype machine kicks into gear, NME pleasers Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong will be appearing at Loughborough University on Tuesday, April 22, for what should be a cracking gig, one of the first in their headline UK tour.
To coincide a six-track teaser for their rumoured to be self-titled album, currently being tweaked for an August release, was rushed to Echo towers - and it promises good things from Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong's Super Furry Animals meets The Cribs sound.
Although my full judgement and rating is being saved for the full album, tracks such as Where Do you Go and Dear Rose, as well as already-released single Lucio Starts Fires, sound like big hits in waiting.

Third class

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NOW this may sound like stating the bleeding obvious, but come April 28 there will be a few depressed fans of Portishead.

For the band's new album Third, the first studio outing since 1997's eponymous offering, is a massive departure from the acheingly beautiful trip hop that has become synonymous with their name.

Instead this is Portishead at their rawest - where before the Bristol-based band were brooding, now they are sinister, where before they unsettled now they outright menace the listener.

This is the sound of Portishead suffering a panic attack in an industrial estate in Dusseldorf.

This is the sound of Portishead sitting listening to Kraftwerk in a car being crushed into a teeny little cube by heavy machinery.

This is the sound of Portishead naked and seething in a cold shower after being winded by a burly man.

This is the sound of a band delivering the truly original, instant classic of an album they always promised they would.

New look

TO MATCH the Loughborough Echo's swanky new look, which hits the streets this Thursday, April 24, Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice has also undergone an overhaul.
Whaddya think?
However regular readers - if there are such things here - you can rest assured that my trademark mix of music reviews and other associated drivel will continue in the same, stuck-in-a-rut fashion as it always has.

Stars In Their Eyes

GLASTONBUDGET, Europe's number one tribute festival held in Wymeswold this May, has announced it's complete line-up - and, although I cannot say how good or bad the acts will be, some of the names are simply genius.
This year gracing the stage, among many more, will be Maybe Winehouse, the Kaiser Thiefs, Letz Zep, One Step Behind and Oasish.

Beyond the pail

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OSCAR Levant famously said: "There's a fine line between genius and insanity."

And although he was referring to himself being committed to a mental hospital, that infamous line is without doubt the one straddled by Buckethead, a man that dribbing oddball Ozzy Osbourne deemed too wierd to be in his band - although Buckethead did manage to get into Guns 'N' Roses.

Enter The Chicken, a reissue from 2005 available for the first time in the UK, sees Buckethead - a mysterious creature with a Joe Satriani, Steve Vai level of guitar-playing ability and a KFC bucket on his head - reigning in his experimental tendancies showcased on his 17 previous releases, and everything he's done since.

Instead here Buckethead welcomes guests including System Of A Down's Serj Tankian, Iranian singer Azam Ali and spoken word rapper Saul Williams on an 12-track album ranging from Evanescance-esque ballads to ear-shredding guitar exhibitions.

And it's finger pickin' good.

Background material

FIFTY not out!
To celebrate achieving a half-century of posts, without the powers that be at Echo towers taking my blog away and slapping my wrists, I have created a must-have, limited edition piece of spin-off Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice merchandise.
Yes that's right - Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice wallpaper for your computer desktop background can be yours, but for one week only.
And as a reader of my blog, you can get your sweaty hands on this delightful adornment for your computer, compatible with both PCs and Macs, by e-mailing me at Isaac_Ashe@mrn.co.uk, stating "I want my wallpaper!".
But hurry, the deadline for applications is April 24.

Name game

EACH week in the Echo I compile a Gig Guide for the paper of bands and singers and suchlike plying their trades locally, and every now and again a band name crops up that makes me smile.
This week, Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel are playing at the Three Nuns in Loughborough on Saturday, April 19 - how the hell do you think up a name like that?!?
It's the best one I've heard since the Ministry Of Beaver came to town.
If you know of any great band names, funny or foul, clever or plain stupid, local or otherwise, I'd love to hear them - for the record, the bands I played in were called Asbestos Lung and FX-15.

Band Head Off into sunset

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CHOPPERS at the ready – Swedish glam metal band The Hellacopters are back.

Again.

However this outing will be their last - following this album, Head Off, and the associated tour, the group will call it a day.

After 14 years and seven albums, their Sweet meets Alice Cooper garage rock sound is so polished you can see your face in it.

However as a result the leather-clad, glitter-sprinkled pomp is overcooked – there's no meat on the bones of the songs.

While the music plays, you're partying with the devil, but as soon as the music stops, the tunes just fly away.

A most greatest EP

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DESPITE the title, System Of A Down's Lonely Day EP is like bumping into an old friend.

Poor grammar aside – "the most loneliest" indeed – the title track is a polished, atmospheric track taken from their 2005 album Hypnotize that typifies the band's stadium-shaking sound. However this is followed by a glut of older rarities beginning with Shame, a glorious cover version and collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan which sees Serj Tankian stepping into ODB's larger-than-life shoes.

Accompanying this are System Of A Down's reworking of Black Sabbath's Snowblind and a cover of Berlin's Metro, and completing the spread is Marmalade, a track originally cut from the band's eponymous debut.

Although there's nothing new here for the band's hardcore followers - which will not dispel the rumours the band are not to record together again - Lonely Day is a timely reminder that the metal landscape is all the more desolate without them.

Not Four Tet's forté

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FOUR Tet, human name Kieran Hebden, has returned to the studio under the Four Tet banner for this mini album, ahead of a full-length album later in the year.

And it's clear from this four-track, thirty minute effort that after sharing Tongues with jazz drummer Steve Reid - not a pleasant mental image I grant you - Hebden now has his focus firmly on the dancefloors.

Ringer is a surprising shift away from Four Tet's forté of chin-stroking free jazz meets cut-and-paste turntablist electronica.

Here the beats are predictable and pounding, providing an unusual anchor for Hebden's incessant knob-twiddling.

But although the results are, as you would expect from a Four Tet release, abstract and engaging, there's still not enough in the way of melody to lift this above the mundane over the course of a half-hour - unless it's 4am and you're still on the dancefloor, that is.

Thrice in their element

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CALIFORNIAN rock group Thrice's now-complete Alchemy Index series of concept EPs has been the perfect showcase for all the band's elements - songwriting and musicianship, the pulsating and the poignant.
Completing the quartet which started last October with parts I and II, the blistering Fire and the soothing Water, are soon-to-be-released parts III and IV, Air and Earth.
I ducked out of including the first instalment in my albums of the year 2007 at the 11th hour in favour of Dillinger Escape Plan's Ire Works, but when I heard the opening tracks of Air I was blown away.
Air is a continuation of more traditional Thrice fair, an alternative rock six-track section with a lighter touch that really showcases the band's technical abilities, but it's Earth that really stands out.
A dustbowl of an EP, the band's songwriting really comes to the fore in the concluding chapter, with a more acoustic, country tinged sound, and tracks like Moving Mountains and Come All You Weary up there as career bests.

Unplex

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OF ALL the unexpected comebacks, a whopping 16 years after their last album, the B-52s are back - and they're desperate.

After all, there are acts in the charts that hadn't been born when they last had a hit.

Funplex is essentially the goodtime, shimmying, head shaking sound of the B-52s that we all knew and loved - albeit if only on Love Shack, Shiny Happy People and at a push (Meet The) Flintstones - but while they're trying to be sexy.

And lets be frank, the last people you'd want near you while you're gettin' it on would be an ageing pop group that resemble the Scissor Sisters' demented parents.

Top exclamation marks

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DISORDER, more than any other word in the English language, encapsulates the work of Leeds' ¡Forward, Russia!, in every sense.

For not only do the band write chaotic, rabble-rousing, proletariat-inciting At The Drive In-style rock, up until 2006 they also named their songs the number of the order in which they were written.

Therefore their singles to date have been Nine, a double A-side of Thirteen and Fourteen, Twelve, a re-release of Nine, then Eighteen, Nineteen and, most bizarrely, Don't Be A Doctor.

So with Life Processes, as you would expect, you can count on the band for more of the same punk-funk emo and jarring alternative indie that dares the listener not to hate it.

And for the best part, for all ¡Forward, Russia!'s spiky eccentricity and refusal to conform, Life Processes is the album you love to hate – sure, it's a shaken fist rather than a pat on the back, but sometimes, not every day, but sometimes, you just want to be challenged.

Pop charts

AN ARTICLE in The Sun tickled me today, showing representations of songs in chart form. If you wish to be similarly tickled, you can see some examples online here.

A Cut above

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AUSTRALIAN electroclash trio Cut Copy's second LP In Ghost Colours is, if you'll excuse the pun, a spirited affair.

The indie dance acts' album begins with a derivitive half-Bob Sinclar, half-Phil Oakey hybrid of a track called Feel The Love, which lacks substance and fails to set the right tone for what is actually an inventive and entertaining opus.

Luckily it's not long before the group get their guitars out, and In Ghost Colours steps up a gear.

There's more Blue Monday-style indie-influenced fare here for existing fans, as there was in their debut Bright Like Neon Love, but the group now flex their electronica muscles more, such as in tracks like Hearts On Fire.

On this showing, Cut Copy definately deserve to be pasted across both charts and dancefloors.

Orchestra not the pits

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AS THEIR name would suggest, in this live recording made at the Royal Albert Hall the Cinematic Orchestra create soundscapes as much as they do play songs.
The British group, a six-strong trip hop and jazz outfit, are so laid back here they're almost upside-down. Think a contented version of Portishead and you're not far off.
However that's not to say this recording is soporiphic - in fact the engaging Live At The Royal Albert Hall is as warm and rich as a contented Bill Gates wearing a woolly jumper eating chocolate cake by the fireside, thanks to the 24-piece orchestra backing the band.
At times the group erupts into skittering drum and bass-influenced acid jazz, at others such as on Familiar Ground and All That You Give, led by female vocalist Heidi Vogel the set just concentrates on atmosphere.
I spoke previously, in my review of Shine A Light by the Rolling Stones, of a sense of occasion coming through on live records - and you can clearly tell here that the Cinematic Orchestra, a band very much on the periphery of the mainstream, clearly relished every moment they had in the Royal Albert Hall's limelight.

Deus add Vantage

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HAILING from the country that brought us sprouts and Tintin, it's no wonder that rockers Deus have caused quite a stir on home soil.

However Belgium's finest's fifth album Vantage Point is not as almighty as its creators' moniker might suggest.

A blend of experimental indie crossed with electronica and raw funk, with a heavier tone than golden-era Deus circa Little Arithmatics, the band now sit in the no man's land between Talking Heads, Sly And The Family Stone and Henry Rollins.

Sadly, for too much of this album the results are laboured, and I know that English is their second tongue, but lyrics like "I feel at home in your pleasuredome" are never going to help.

However when it all comes together, for example on Eternal Woman and the magnificent Architect, Deus truly are divine.

Stones Shine on

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NORMALLY, unless you were actually there, a live CD would have to be something pretty special to warrant your attention.

However if a band with nearly 50 years in the industry, that has penned some of rock's greatest hits - Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash etc. - and been behind some of rock's biggest headlines - Mars Bar, father's ashes etc. - team up with names like Jack White and Christina Aguilera for a live double-CD directed by Martin Scorcese, then it might, just might be worth a listen.

And the Rolling Stones' Shine A Light is everything you'd expect - on the top-notch set list Jagger is at his strutting best, and Keith Richards proves he is still the daddy when it comes to churning out those inimitable licks of his.

Yet the album, for me, lacks a sense of occasion - you have to remember that the for Rolling Stones, this is live album number nine.

However as the soundtrack to the accompanying Shine A Light rockumentary it's sure to be perfect - in fact, the music of the Rolling Stones is so perfect for the movies, Jagger has joked that Shine A Light may be the only Scorsese film that does not include Gimme Shelter in its soundtrack.

So, judged by the Stones' own high standards, Shine A Light gets a three rating for now, though more marks may be on the cards if I give the film a glowing review.

Jools rules

I thought I should leave just a quick note, without my patent Sound Advice Reviewer's Hat on, to say congratulations to a small pianist.

Last night I caught a glimpse of the Neil Cowley Trio on Later... With Jools Holland, and I was thoroughly excited by the angular jazz wot I saw.

Now I must wait for a copy of their latest album, Loud Louder Stop, to wing its way to me in the post to hear more, but I anticipate great things.

In the past vertically-challenged music savant Jools has introduced me to some bloody brilliant stuff that I may never have heard otherwise - Acoustic Ladyland, Son Of Dave, Beirut, Ida Maria, Seasick Steve, the list goes on and on.

Although the chances of the great man himself actually reading this are slim, may I just take this opportunity to say "ta".

Ta.

Hangover for Moby

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LAST Night, the latest album from Moby, is the soundtrack of a night on the tiles in New York city, but while drinking water and wearing slippers.

Moby has long been a figure of fun – from his recent ridiculing on Never Mind The Buzzcocks for being boring to Eminem rapping "you're too old, let go, it's over, nobody listens to techno" on his hit single Without Me.

And true to form the vegan DJ, real name Richard Melville Hall, does little to excite the listener with this latest long-player.

A house dominated dance record with nods to the past of dance and hip hop, all the elements are here and no doubt a single or two from Last Night will trouble the charts.

The problem is that for a night on the tiles record, there's little here that is fun or fast-paced enough to demand it be a soundtrack to nights out that are yet to happen.

A break from tradition

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DESPITE me having written news articles for the Echo smaller than the title of this release, the new 65 Days Of Static EP itself is all too brief.

The Distant and Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties is a 17-minute long experiment by the instrumental math rock band, whose usual sound is primarily guitar driven, sounding like Mogwai with hammers, mixed with a splash of sampled drums.

However here the Sheffield band would be more at home on the dancefloor than in a mosh pit, having turned for four tracks towards breakbeat and techno.

And the results are an intense, brooding, atmospheric, dense scuffle between thumping beats and post rock growls.

According to some sources the band take their name from the amount of time it takes to render a listener insane with white noise, however here the noise just doesn't last long enough - perhaps a full length dance album would not be such a crazy idea...

Don't Do It!

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DO IT!, Liverpudlian band Clinic's fifth studio outing, really didn't do it for me.

The critically-acclaimed, publically-ignored group seem to have set out to be deliberately obtuse with this record, and as a result it surely won't be the shot-in-the-arm for their commercial shortcomings they so desperately need.

For the normally fast-paced indie band's distinctive raw sound is, on this LP, ramshackle and cumbersome, and near-totally bereft of hooks or tunes.

And as a result, without some reconstructive surgery next time around, the eclectic Clinic could tragically no longer be in operation.