Album Review: Electric Penguins - Goodbye From The Electric Penguins

Goodbye From The Electric Penguins, in which BlackPlastic gets lost amongst slightly wonky, spaced out vibes.

On this, their debut, The Electric Penguins have attempted to make a contemporary, somewhat ambient, album using 1970s instruments, and, for the large part, it works.

Featuring the same repeated vocal hook over and over, just a moan really, and a gentle piano, album opener 'Gelb' is a deep steamy breath out into an icy mornings. It's a relaxed coffee on your own. 'Transatlantic (Part 1)' is more uplifting - electronic pop music with a slight 80s feel that melts away in 'Transatlantic (Part 2)' like to different mixes of the same track on one album. 'Transatlantic (Part 2)' is slower and more contemplative but continues with the same melody. At the albums centre these two tracks undoubtedly form the cornerstone of Goodbye From The Electric Penguins' feel.

'Lonnie' sounds like a boy band, if boy bands made quirky, organic, abstract pop records. Elsewhere thing get slightly bizarre - 'Supergirl' sounds like Bent whilst the plodding 'Answer The Phone' sounds like nothing you've ever heard, a time stretched, twisted Beatles or Pink Floyd possibly? Whilst 'Answer The Phone' manages to sustain interest for most of its seven minutes, 'Supergirl' is probably the weakest track on the album.

'Too Far' nicely puts the album to rest, deep sea echoes giving the haunting impression of the vocalists singing as they sink to the deaths. Goodbye From The Electric Penguins beautifully conveys feeling and atmosphere; the sound of loss, loneliness and melancholy, and, provided 'Supergirl' gets left behind, it will be interesting to see how they follow it up.

Album Review: Dan Sartain - Join Dan Sartain

BlackPlastic has sat on this one too long... When someone gives you an album and describes it as the post-punk Johnny Cash (a quote from NME) you pretty much expect to be disappointed, so it is in trepidation that BlackPlastic approached Dan Sartain's new long-player, Join Dan Sartain.

With producer Liam Watson (The White Stripes and The Kills) on board Join Dan Sartain oozes attitude from the moment opening track 'Drama Queens' tumbles out of the speakers like a drunken lover falling out of a bar into the Alabama sunshine. 'Gun vs. Knife' offers more of the same, , razor sharp raw guitars flying alongside furious drumming and Dan's vocals - "Well he's got a vendetta and he thinks he's right, you can bring your gun and I'll bring my knife".

Elsewhere, on 'Flight of the Finch' and 'Replacement Man' true rockabilly and Americana shine through.

Throughout it's short 37 minutes Join Dan Sartain never does quite what you would expect and the result is fantastic. One minute Sartain is coming on like the American Willy Mason on 'The World Is Gonna Break Your Little Heart', a bluesy anthem that reveals the facts of life and would probably be enjoyed by your parents, the next he's throwing a torrent of abuse at 180mph to the 'Hangers On'.

The creativity, passion and production on display here is never short of excellent. Sounding like a cross between White Blood Cells-era White Stripes, Johnny Cash and a collection of the best post-punk bands (old and new) is bound to be a thrilling mix... Join Dan Sartain isn't good, it's fantastic. Quite possibly the freshest record BlackPlastic has heard this year and one that most definitely deserves NME's dangerously promising description. As the beautiful instrumental album closer 'Love Is Black' draws to a close you will know you've just witnessed something special.

Belated Single Review: Jarvis Cocker - Still Running The World

BlackPlastic has been without a broadband connection for so long that this little gem has pretty much been and gone, nonetheless, it's too good to let it go under the radar.

BlackPlastic's opinion of Pulp and Jarvis Cocker have changed somewhat over the past few years, and our feelings for 'Babies' have already been detailed previously. 'Still Running The World' is the punk anthem of the year. Fantastic production and insightful lyrics come together to create something good enough that it ends up getting played six times in one morning. That doesn't happen very often these days.

When Jarvis sings "Well, feed your children on lobster and crayfish tails, find a school near the top of the league; in theory I respect your right to exist, but I'd kill ya if you moved in next to me" you just know there's a nation of Daily Mail readers out there living it for real. And the chorus. What a chorus.

Cunts are still running the world...

Easy enough on the ears that it's almost punk for radio two, were it not too punk for radio.

Album Review: The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love

The Rapture undoubtably landed in the right place at the right time when they decided to follow up their debut LP with a dance infused record produced by The DFA back in 2003. Three years later Echoes is still fresh in the mind yet there is a feeling that this is a band that are yet to achieve their best.

Yet it is with some trepidation that BlackPlastic approaches Pieces of the People We Love. Gone is the support and production of the DFA label and it's time to see if Luke Jenner and Co are the real deal.

First single, 'Get Myself Into It' offers a promising glimpse of what is to come. The usual strung out vocals complement a spacey dubbed out sound in a manner that proves Dangermouse can do more than just hip-hop.

It is 'First Gear' however that really gets things moving. Over six minutes long it is an acid-pop-rock epic and by the fourth chant of "My, My, My, My Mustang Ford" BlackPlastic challenges you not to wonder why all bands can't be this fucking balls-out brave.

Nothing else comes quite as close, although 'The Devil', 'Whoo! Alright Yeah... Uh Huh' and 'The Sound' all try. Sadly elsewhere Pieces of the People We Love gets a little to The Charlatans for comfort (see 'Down For So Long').

It's a shame, since Pieces of the People We Love is not just good, it's great. Here The Rapture sound here like they want to simultaneously kill the naysayers, re-invent pop music and have a bloody good time, it's sad that at times these aims get in the way of each other.

Single Review: Imogen Heap - Headlock

Imogen Heap releases another single off of the back of her re-released LP Speak For Yourself.

Slightly re-tooled for the radio, 'Headlock' this time features a few more strings in the intro but little else has changed.

The single is backed with a mix by Hospital Records' High Contrast. Drum 'n' Bass meets Heap is much as you would expect, but this, lacking the sensitivity of the original and the edge needed for the dancefloor, certainly does not stick in the mind as a potential anthem.

'Headlock' is by no means a major album highlight but does benefit from a certain fragility. It just seems a little suprising a release when there are stronger tracks elsewhere on the album.