Album Review: Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood

Coming on with all the effortless unforgiving intimacy of a friend that has seen you change more than you realize, Polly Scattergood does for female singer-song-writing what a shot of Jack Daniels does to Coke.  Sweet it may be, but there's darkness here.

If you want lazy comparisons then Scattergood's début has the strong uncompromising femininity of PJ Harvey, the creativity of Kate Bush and the unhinged beauty of mid-career Radiohead. Far more important is the delivery, which throughout the course of the album varies from the good to the sublime.

Fluctuating from fragile yet doused in misplaced aggression (I Hate The Way) to curious and hopeful (Unforgiving Arms) Scattergood is able to perform vocals with a greater breadth and depth than anyone BlackPlastic has heard in far too long. There is a certain a level of sophistication that ensures the angst on display never veers close to anything as crass and needing as a Alanis Morisette record, yet the songs nevertheless display an unashamed accessibility - just listen to the rubber ball bouncing guitar line and hand-claps of Please Don't Touch.

And here's the thing. What makes this album good is not just Scattergood's ambitious vocal delivery and experimental songwriting - it's the backing provided by a producer not content to take the backseat. When the combination really delivers the result is pretty astounding - album highlight Nitrogen Pink carries Scattergood's vocals on a runaway mine-train of fuzzy melodic distortion like My Bloody Valentine on Top Of The Pops. The glorious crescendo of the building rhythm track feels like you are being dragged along by an out of control horse and cart. If this is a taste of her future work it's a ride BlackPlastic is more than happy to take.

Released on Mute on 9 March 2009. To pre-order on Amazon.co.uk click here .

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Single Review: Tomorrow - Ladytron

Next month sees Ladytron release their new single from their last album Velocifero.  Entitled Tomorrow it has been freshly remixed for some radio airplay - the re-work is actually quite subtle but definitely to BlackPlastic's preference - the vocals sit slightly higher in the mix and the drums pack just little bit more punch.

Potentially more interesting are the remixes and the gorgeous video, shot in Kansas and Barcelona by Neil Krug:

As a sample of the remixes, check out the Vector Lovers remix we have to share. It takes things in a much more dancefloor orientated, minimal direction but the whispered vocals are gorgeous and with a lush little bouncing melodic bassline at the end it is well worth a listen.  Download here (right click & save as).

Tomorrow is available as a digital download on 3 March.  Ladytron - website & MySpace

Album Review: Choral - Mountains

Mountains is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp and Choral is their third album and marks a watershed as it is the first not to be released on their own Apestaartje label, but on Thrill Jockey. Ambient in nature, Choral takes it's cues from Eno and post-rock in an effort to create a serene, emotive sounscape that could be the soundtrack to a Alejandro González Iñárritu movie - it has that same feeling of chaos in slow motion.

And the understated, slow-moving sounds are beautiful.  What is perhaps more surprising however is that they pack an emotional punch and a degree of technical brilliance too.  It might be easy to make music to visit the spa to - all new age imagery incorporating the sounds of nature - but to aliken Choral to that would be to cheapen it.  The sparse us of guitar and the melodic patterns give the album a level of emotional gravitas that can be all to easy to lose in ambient music and the technical brilliance is obvious - much of Chorals was done using no overdubs and when they were used it was to add a larger, choral sound.  Sounds of nature have been incorporated - Telescope for example features the sounds of a thunder storm - but these have been utilised in a way that makes them simply another musical instrument that Mountains have at their disposal, the origin of the sound disguised behind layers of sound.

Relaxing, considered and defined by space, yes but boring never - Choral is a beautiful piece of work.  You can download an MP3 of the opening (title) track here (right click - save as).

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Single Review: Method of Modern Love - Saint Etienne

In which Saint Etienne prove they can out-do Girls Aloud at sounding like Saint Etienne. If Girls Aloud 's The Loving Kind sounded like a relatively enjoyable Saint Etienne rip-off (it did) then this is the real thing.

Back in our hearts again this track deserves to be huge - it has the accessibility of the best pop singles yet doesn't struggle to squeeze in words like disinclined in the way that The Loving Kind does. What's more the production starts with the gorgeous washes that made the afformebtioned track feel fresh and builds on them... This feels like a hot coffee and a winter coat on a cold day like today.

Also back from the brink is Richard X, who provides his first remix in ages (as far as BlackPlastc can recall). Unsurprisingly it's good - he always was great at getting the most out of this kind of cotton-candy-with-female-vocals sound - if slightly more conservative than expected.

Available on iTunes or on 7" now.

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Single Review: The Day (We Fell In Love) - Appaloosa

One of the best tracks from Kitsuné Maison Compilation 6 that we never actually mentioned at the time is Appaloosa's The Day (We Fell In Love).  Now it is getting a single release it is definitely worth checking out if you are yet to hear it.

What makes this track so great is the humble beginning - a girl and a piano - that gradually blossoms from a coy ballad into a stirring electronic anthem.  What's so beautiful is that the path of the song is a metaphor for love itself.  It starts out like a relatively simple and innocent feeling yet soon, in the words of Tears For Fears, something happens and I'm head over heels: I never find out until I'm head over heels.

To give you a taster of track in case you haven't heard it here is James Kane's remix (whose talents we have commented on in the past).  James strips away the intro to make the song a little more dance floor friendly but other than that this remix is quite faithful to the original, retaining the feelings of cautious optimism.

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