Records

Ian Brown

My Way

Polydor

On Release September 28^th 2009

3.5/5

My Way is Ian Brown’s 8^th studio album where lots of sounds and lyrics are running hurriedly around the place sometimes directly and in the right direction, and sometimes into the land of all things confusing and excessively profound.

His voice, still (like it’s going to improve), has as much range as those two twerps from Dublin on the X-Factor. It’s obvious his charisma carries his voice to a level well above how it should be rated. Stellify the opening track and first single off the album is filled with exciting keyboard stabs that set an energetic tone to the LP. By All Means Necessary is an epic delivery of sound and vocals alike. In The Year 2525 is a rousing mariachi type cover of Zager and Evans hit from 1969 which transcends into a festival friendly tune due to its infectious flow. There are a lot of ideas bumbling around this album, indicating that Mr Brown has too much time and money to play around with in the studio. This is a man with a seemingly reckless ambition. My Way is a sonic cocktail spluttering out intriguing clustering’s of sounds that work, albeit, just about.

Eleanor McEvoy

Singled Out

Mosco Disc

On Release September 28^th 2009

3.5/5

My preconceived notions of Eleanor McEvoy were to label her in the same vein as those two Black sisters (Mary and Francis, you know) and I’m happy to say my ignorance was served its comeuppance. The first track Oh Uganda bursts open with an energetic splattering of African beats and rhythms with McEvoy’s vocals sitting upon the music rather fittingly. The dexterity of her sound is evident throughout the album from the piano bar cabaret of Days Roll By to the playful jazz of Suffer So Well and onto the synth-ladden prog-rock sound of Love Must Be Tough. McEvoy’s voice is both touching and endearing, alleviating some of the tracks from potentially becoming somewhat bland. Singled Out’s exploration into varying sounds and alternating of genres is largely due to the fact that this album is predominantly a retrospective compilation of songs taken from McEvoy’s four award winning independently-released albums. The album portrays a woman who has grasped the creative control switch and ambitiously guided her way through the many facets of the sound of music, and done so rather well.

E.P

Chunky Planet

Walking in My Shoes

Chunky Music

On release Friday October 16^th

3.5 / 5

After a five-year gap since their first single Pensioners Watch TV the male/female duo of Carl Anthony Plover and Linda Carroll are finally releasing their follow up E.P Walking in my Shoes. The E.P delivers an interesting amalgamation of Irish folk and punk-rock. Take me to the Stars is a highlight boasting a pulsating bluesy rhythm. It’s the gripping rhythms coupled with some wonderfully punchy vocals that make this E.P quite an exciting listen. Like any good E.P it has the listener wanting more. If Fleetwood Mac were from Ireland they might just sound like this.

www.chunkyplanet.com

- David Morrissey

7” Vinyl

Deviant/Naive Ted

‘Beauty’ 7”

Alphabet Set Records

On release now

Plug-ins, VSTs, MIDI-controllers, laptops.  All lovely little toys that make modern music-making a whole heap easier and cleaner, but it ain’t worth squat unless the person making the music has something important to say in the first place. Thus, it’s refreshing to see someone take the bumpier road towards composition these days, not content to let a computer do all the hard work.  Enter Deviant/Naive Ted, one of this soil’s truest veterans of all things turntable and scratch related, who drops his debut 7” this November on Dublin’s mighty Alphabet Set label.  Relying on a stack of obscure prog and jazz records, some battered turntables and a good ol’ fashioned warped imagination, Deviant may just have churned out the most interesting leftfield hiphop record this year. And that’s not restricted to Ireland. While current trends in the field have producers whacking off to their J-Dilla shrines and then banging out anonymous off-time beats, this release has intense dedication and individual eccentricity slapped all over it. A bit like the old tales told by the wandering blues-man, only strapped with a Vestax deck instead of a trusty ol’ six string.  There’s a definite message being put across, it’s just that its delivered through the cut-up samples and words of his heroes from yesterday and beyond.  This 200 word-limit review isn’t going to do it enough justice, but copping the wax and actually listening to it will.  The bridge says it all.

“Look at the stillness…look at the quiet…look at the discipline…look at the BEAUTY.“

www.myspace.com/deviantfien / http://alphabetset.net / www.myspace.com/stressahah

- dOObs