Album Review: Folk Songs - James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players

James Yorkston is already somewhat of a critics' darling. As such this stop-gap album consisting of selection of traditionally arranged folk-songs, which sees Yorkston divorced of usual band The Athletes and is instead created in collaboration with The Big Eyes Family Players, probably inspired audible drooling from some guy with a beard that writes for Mojo.

Over at BlackPlastic we may be slightly more youthful and, dare we say it, suspicious of somebody doing something quite so honest and understated. But one thing is for sure: we still know a bloody good tune when we hear one.

And there are definitely some here. Folk Songs is a meandering, wistful body of work but it never feels anything less than heartfelt. Whilst an album full of traditional folk music undoubtedly risks feeling downtrodden and lacking in excitement Yorkston has seemingly pitched things just right here. On 'Martinmas Time', for example, a penny whistle is combined with a fiddle to create a piece of music that sounds so real and honest and it's this feeling that Yorkston has managed to nail several times throughout the record's length.

Listening to 'Thorneymoor Woods' you cannot help but rue the trappings of modern life as Yorkston describes the walking of dogs and other countryside pastimes. It's enough to make BlackPlastic want to pack up and head off home for a sit beside the fire with a mug of scotch. Probably best of all is 'I Went To Visit The Roses'. It's a warm, worldly wander of a song that smacks of charm and character like a well-loved rascal that troubles the regulars at the local pub.

Folk Songs is what it says then - folk songs about folk doing folky things. There is no real innovation here as such but it's an interesting and accessible entry-point both into James Yorkton's work and into folk music generally. Folk Songs just demonstrates how much love and joy there is down here in the dirt.

BP x

Folk Songs is released on Domino on 10 August 2009 - available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk on CD, Deluxe CD & DVD and LP[Affiliate Links].

Album Review: If You Know What's Good For Ya!! - Woolfy

Woolfy's first album (as Woolfy vs. Projections) totally passed BlackPlastic by and if the fanfare that greeted this release, If Ya Know What's Good For Ya!!, is anything to go by then it's no surprise. Released on DFA/Rong with very little marketing (just why can't DFA send emails to their fans, huh?) last month Woolfy don't even seem to have had much coverage from the blogging world.

Which is a shame because If You Know What's Good For Ya!! is pretty bloody good as it happens. With a sound that perfectly encapsulates the two labels collaborating on its release - the slightly tongue-in-cheek, indie dance of Rong and the gritty rocker chic of DFA all in one package.

Whilst there are a couple of tracks that fail to standout this is generally down to the quality of everything else on offer. The sleazy garage funk of opening track 'The Warehouse' sets the pace nicely and it is clear from the off that this isn't an album made for the dancefloor, it's made for the grimey come down afterwards or sun-baked afternoons laying in the park.

And the pace doesn't really let up - 'Oh Missy' is all angular gutars and yelped vocals and whilst the progressive sounds of cosmic disco on 'Loa The Disco' break the run of catchy vocal tracks you can't really deny its quality.

If Ya Know What's Good For Ya!! is actually at its best when it is serving up more contemplative numbers. The dreamlike 'Looking Glass' sounds like MGMT collaborating with the Chemical Brothers on one of those blissed out numbers they normally get Beth Orton in for towards the end of the album. The result is very striking. Equally brilliant is the battered and bruised 'Sonic Monday', with the vocalist capturing Bernard Sumner's stilted delivery on New Order's 'Temptation'. It's a track that sounds so hot you could stick it on and work on your tan.

So it may not be grabbing headlines but If Ya Know What's Good For Ya you'll grab this. Ahem. Sorry.  But seriously, don't sleep on Woolfy.

BP x

Album Review: The Strange Dreams of... - Paul White

Relative newcomer, Paul White's début album The Strange Dreams of... follows on from a series of singles and an EP from the past year and manages to capture the brilliance of both Jay Dee / J Dilla and DJ Shadow at his most hip-hop influenced, all in one. The result - a cinematic, curious combination of film samples and epic joints is lush.

Stitched together to make up the album are 21 different cuts - all are instrumentals aside from the samples - with White's apparent short attention span resulting in an album structure reminiscent of Dilla's own classic Donuts. The short-form structure suits White's sense of joyful experimentation to a tee and the cut and shut creativity and variety that ensues ensures that the listener gets more than their money's worth.

How else could an album contain the throbbing and paranoid bass-heavy 'Time Wars' and slam it straight into the glorious summertime soul of 'City Bright Lights'? Or feature something as willfully funky as 'The Composer's Soundtrack' and as barking mad as 'Alien Nature' without it just coming off annoying.

What makes The Strange Dreams of... work however is the quality of the production work. Some of the tracks here easily live up to the work of world famous producers and yet Paul White is no household name. Yet. The soaring melodies of 'Burnt By The Sun' could be formulaic but the way they have been cut together with quiet vocals snatches and loose, loose drumming ensures they transcend the work of many better known beat makers.

Album closer 'Can't Sleep Make Music' conveys what it must be like in Paul White's head. BlackPlastic can almost picture him, head so stuffed with good ideas that he can't stop creating.

The Strange Dreams of... then: another self-made record so bloody good it begs the question what the hell the major record labels spend all their time and money on.

BP x

The Strange Dreams of... Paul White is available to stream in full or purchase now from Bandcamp.

Album Review: I'm Going Away - The Fiery Furnaces

The Fiery Furnaces have always felt like a band that like to do things the hard way just for the sake of it. From their days of performing every concert in a different genre-style through to this, their sixth album.

Because individually these song are glorious slices of pop music. 'Drive to Dallas' sounds like the White Stripes at the top of their game - a relaxed soul-country-ballad that descends into a freak-out midway through. Yet BlackPlastic can't help but feel their is too much on I'm Going Away and far too much of it sounds far too similar.

Consumed in sections it is, undeniably, great. If nothing else I'm Going Away proves that The Fiery Furnaces can write some of the best songs about relationships breaking down you will ever have heard. Take the horizontal blues of 'The End Is Near' or 'Even In The Rain' - the song writing is generally strong but as an album it needs a few of the weaker efforts thrown out and replacing with something totally different.

It's a shame because this is a band that have long since demonstrated their aptitude at variety and experimentalism - just take a handful of tracks from different releases and you will experience a wealth of different styles. As a result it almost feels like the Fiery Furnaces are laughing at us the listeners with this one, a classic case of the emperor's new clothes - is there really nothing to this beyond a few blues-soul pop songs or are is BlackPlastic just too dumb to get it?

Regardless, if you are fan there is likely to be enough here to interest you. Unfortunately if you have long been alienated by the Fiery Furnaces' deliberate attempts to be a difficult listen this is not likely to change your mind.

BP x

Out on Thrill Jockey on 24 August 2009. Available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: Illusions - Mikas

Totally unrelated to the well-known Mika, Mikas doesn't create campy hit pop music and instead prefers to focus on progressive trance instrumentals made for sunrises on open dance-floors.

BlackPlastic dislikes Mika (sans the 's') so much that almost anything else would be preferable. Illusions - a pleasant surprise then, even if that isn't saying much.

Illusions is actually alright, kinda, provided slightly ambient trance is your thing. It may fall slightly awkwardly down the gap that exists between the cheesy-Radio-One-playlisted-glowsticks-and-dance-anthems-chart-bothering Deadmau5 and a somewhat more sophisticated minimal tech-head like Gui Boratto but there are some moments here if you are prepared to sift.

Opener 'Spirit Emotion Part 2 (Extended)', (and yes, BlackPlastic is very aware of the unironic shitness of the title) is a brooding builder made of twinkling keys and mechanical basslines. 'Haze (Superclub Mix)' is, again, brooding and progressive with enough stabs of acid to make it stand out.

The problem is that Illusions doesn't really do anything new. At all. For every track the manages to capture the listener's attention there is another that passes by without you so much as noticing. So if you loved the slower, ambient stuff that Digweed and Sasha used to play ten years ago then you may find sething you enjoy but for the rest of use there just aren't enough ideas here.

BP x

P.S. Illusions has the worst album cover ever. Like so bad BlackPlastic couldn't face tainting the look of the site with it. Seriously.