Stereo Jealousy

“I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York City. I was working on the organ sounds…”

James Murphy may not have been in the loft he described in 2002’s seminal “Losing My Edge” but he’s come as close as possible to working on the organ sounds on his new single – “Bye Bye Bayou“. A cover of Suicide vocalist Alan Vega’s 1981 track this new LCD cut unveils a flexing synth bassline underneath a typically restrained Murphy vocal. Taut, without ever really letting rip over its 7 minutes, this is reminiscent more of the early LCD singles rather than anything from Sound of Silver and I’m loving it. Bizarrely, this is the first decent thing I’ve heard about first from the radio in years, and it was Radio 1! Amazon has it listed as a 12” vinylavailable from November 9.  Hopefully this is a taster of the band’s upcoming material – a new album is eagerly awaited in these quarters in early 2010.

And if you fancy seeing Suicide, the band are playing as part of ATP’s ‘Don’t Look Back’ series in May next year, performing their eponymous debut record alongside the Stooges playing Raw Power. See the ATP website for tickets.

LCD Soundsystem – Bye Bye Bayou

Morton Valence: Bob And Veronica Ride Again
Released 4th May 2009
Bastard Recordings

Morton Valence’s debut is an achingly British slab of pop, so desperate to tell us the story of the title’s namesakes that it comes packaged with a romantic novella. Thankfully, unlike many concept records, the album forms a coherent whole and begs to be listened to from start to finish. It does this whilst constantly shifting in style; dipping from Jesus And Mary Chain style shoegaze on the fantastic “I Must Go,”Said Veronica, “But I Will Always Come Back” through to classic electropop reminiscent of Saint Etienne or Black Box Recorder . The similarities to the latter don’t end there either, with Anne Gilpin recalling the glacial delivery of Sarah Nixey.

Whilst treading the same well worn boards as their pop peers Morton Valence carry the whole thing off with such charm, wit and panache that it never comes across as anything but original. I can’t wait for word to catch on about this glorious piece of work, and I suspect neither can the fans who invested in ’shares’ of the album to ensure its release. A wonderful album that deserves to be near the top of the pile come the year end reckoning.

Rating:

For our London readers there are a couple of opportunities to catch Morton Valence over the next few weeks in the city. The first is on June 25 at the last of their Bob And Veronica Book Club events at The Enterprise, and also a chance for a bit of a boat party on July 9 as they play the Battersea Barge.

Morton Valence – Hang It On The Wall (mp3)
Morton Valence – Chandelier (video)

Band site

Last.fm

Myspace
You can buy the CD version of the album that comes with the novella from the band’s website.

As the clamour grows around the release of Manners next week one remix has been ruling them all on the blogosphere – Calvin Harris’s discotastic slant on The Reeling. With this post I hope to redress the balance to a more subtle, sweeter and well, less ‘look at me, look at me’ re-rub. You can’t imagine my joy when this popped into my inbox – the press release claiming the original was screaming out for an Afrobeat take on things. Not the most obvious way of going for me but by jove it works. Wallpaper. had previously jiggled about with Sleepyhead to great effect, although this is better. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!

Passion Pit – The Reeling (Wallpaper. Remix)

Photo: Jalapeño

This didn’t quite make up for missing them at the Scala on Monday, but the band seemed on good form previewing Sacred Trixter and Antenna from upcoming LP The Eternal before letting loose Teen Age Riot. Hard to believe that this was 17 years on since their first Jools performance, and I think their last UK TV appearance, where they played Sugar Kane and Drunken Butterfly. Wonderful glimpse into the new record, still over a month away from the shops…I’m not a big fan of waiting!

UK readers can see the full show, featuring a vampish Lily Allen and a rejuvenated Depeche Mode for a week here

Sonic Youth – Sacred Trixter
Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot

Mogwai release their new LP, The Hawk Is Howling, on September 22nd on Wall of Sound. Today, however they have released a preview of that in this track. The Sun Smells Too Loud continues the Scots’ run of superbly titled, well-tooled instrumental post-rock. Doesn’t carry the Young Team -era menace, and actually sounds quite breezy at times. Something different I guess. I love the page you get the download from: check here.

Of course, I’ve included a link to it on this post too.

Mogwai – The Sun Smells Too Loud

Thanks to The Quietus for the heads-up on this, and for being generally great.

Photo: Base10