The Fall
Imperial Wax Solvent
Castle/Universal
By John Doran and Luke Turner
‘Alton Towers’
John says: Damn that John Peel and his way with words! Was there ever a more prescient, concise and intelligent way of describing The Fall than “Always the same, always different”? Anyway, this time out the difference is one of pure base-line quality, heaviness and […]

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Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Dazzle Ships (reissue)
Virgin
By Luke Turner
In 1983, human civilisation came closer to disappearing in a compost heap of gracefully rising mushroom clouds than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. In March, the month that Dazzle Ships was released, President Regan gave the speech in which he called the Soviet Union […]

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By John Doran
FUCK BUTTONS
Street Horrrsing
ATP/R
Noise, like anything else, needs practise, needs talent and needs inspiration. As odd as it sounds, bands like Wolf Eyes didn’t get where they are today by just standing round and making a racket. In fact it would be wise to pay little attention to their drunken idiot schtick. (Once I […]

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By Simon Price
MUSE
HAARP
A&E
HAARP comes packaged in a square box measuring 13.3cm x 13.3cm, thus standing a full centimetre taller than the average rectangular CD case. Of course it does. Muse have always thought that little bit bigger.
The way that the Teignmouth trio took over the new Wembley Stadium in the summer of […]

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The Gossip
Live in Liverpool
Colombia/Sony BMG
By Luke Turner
Live albums from your common-or-garden indie types are never an enticing prospect, generally amounting to a rough hobble through a scant catalogue. Not only is the sound still pubescent, but the whole caper can have the air of fiscal desperation about it, labels cashing in on a fickle audience […]

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