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January kicks off the year in fairly unspectacular fashion, but this
is pretty normal after the Christmas excitement and sales frenzy. The new year did see
the comeback of those loveable quirky scousers
Space
with a typical piece of catchy, slightly unorthodox (just hear that 1930's classic style
bridge) pop called
Avenging Angels.
It went straight into the top ten to give us a little hope for the rest of the year to
come.
Scottish hot-tips
Mogwai
released their debut album
Young Team
last year on the increasingly popular and famous
Chemikal Underground
label, but a copy only recently came into my hands. It's amazingly popular with the critics
and has had the sometimes fatal word "classic" attached to it a couple of times, so what
can I tell you? Well, its different. Drawn out, largely vocal free, building atmospheric
guitar tracks, some short, some over 6 or 7 minutes long (closing track
Mogwai Fear Satan
weighs in at a heavyweight 16 minutes 19 secs!). It rarely feels too much though, there's
enough ideas and effex here to hold your interest for a long while. A real classic? Not
quite, but enough originality to bring a welcome breath of fresh air between the mounds of
guitar rock/pop we have surrounding us these days.
Ian Brown
made his return with the long awaited single
My Star,
and interesting listening it is too. It's basically a simple groove with a chiming, varying
two note riff and a few spacey samples over it and Brown's reconing on the space race and
its military involvement. Not fantastic, but strangely catchy, debuting at #5 in the
charts. It's most intriguing to see
The Stone Roses
split into a couple of its component parts - the intricate, structured guitar moves of
The Seahorses
and the now traditional baggy grooves of
Ian Brown's
solo work, said to be in evidence all over his album,
Unfinished Monkey Business,
but more of that when I hear it.
Another interesting comparision is the one between
Ian Brown and
Bernard Butler,
who released his first solo single
Stay
this month. It proved he still has a pretty big following these days. It's a gentle, building
number - all candles, no explosions, that does grow on you but is ultimately a bit tame. It has
proved he does have some singing ability though, so his album will certainly be interesting
listening once it hits the shops.
Elsewhere,
Radiohead
released
No Surprises,
technically the 4th single cut from
Ok Computer,
with a couple of far-out b-sides. Unsurprisingly it entered the charts high and dropped
like a stone.
Saint Etienne
returned from a couple of years out, during which they insist they didn't break up (true!)
with
Sylvie.
They haven't changed a bit, and it isn't their finest moment, but it did only just miss
being their fist top-ten hit.
Ever wondered what happened to
Kinky Machine,
those responsible for the very cool
Cut It Down
of a few years ago, and a host of other ignored tunes?.. Welcome
Rialto,
comprising of at least some of the ex-members, cetainly singer/guitarist/songwriter
Louis Eliot.
They announced themsleves as one of the hopes of '98 with the #20 single
Untouchable.
Perhaps they're due some real success. Watch this space!
Oh yeh,
David Bowie
turned 51, but we didn't hear much about it this time around. He hasn't got a record out
of course...
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