STACK NZ Apr #72

REVIEWS MUSIC

Lontalius I'll Forget 17 The processed vocals and minimalist beats of the opening track on the debut album fromWellington teenager Eddie Johnston – AKA Lontalius – suggests we’re in for a tasteful but safe collection of modern pop: after all, he first came to attention with his YouTube cover versions of chart hits. But after a minute or so, A Feeling So Sweet glides gracefully into a languid acoustic jangle and it soon becomes clear that Lontalius is coming from a much more organic place than the plastic pap that dominates the charts. While the hushed electronic grooves of All I Wanna Say wouldn’t sound out of place on commercial radio, I’ll Forget 17 is mainly about chiming guitars and lovelorn melodies, no more so than on dreamily melancholic tracks such as Kick In The Head , Glow and It’s Not Love . Clearly a talent to watch. John Ferguson

Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals Call It What It Is The reunion of any band after nine years would seem to signify a return to familiar, if not nostalgic territory, but Ben Harper is mostly right-on when he says he and his band are "here to forge new ground." When Sex Was Dirty is a suitably filthy fuzz-rock workout for starters. Deeper and Deeper is steeped in Tom Petty harmony. Things get more predictable in the agitated slide blues and seething social comment of the title track, which posits that "it's a crime to be black" and "what it is" out there in America "is murder". There's shades of John Lee Hooker, reggae and a cheeky grinder called Pink Balloons . Whatever can he be thinking of? Mostly there's 11 good reasons to do what these guys do: hit the road. Michael Dwyer

The Last Shadow Puppets Everything You've Come To Expect

Small point of order: It's not actually a supergroup when only one guy is anybody. But the presence of Arctic Monkey-chief Alex Turner made The Last Shadow Puppets a major British indie event even before his 2007 debut with Miles Kane (The Rascals, apparently) and James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, for

heaven's sake) turned out to be so damn good. They almost blow it on the follow-up, long delayed due to escalating Monkey business, with an opening track that jangles and sneers in the generic northern indie mold of The Verve/ The Charlatans et al. Miracle Aligner is where Everything You've Come To Expect suddenly lives up to its title as a rapturous, ascending melody rides the luscious '60s pop melodrama that was the Puppets' original calling card. Dracula Teeth is James Bond meets Shaft, with the crucial strings of Owen Pallet properly unleashed. The panic of Bad Habits breaks the swooning spell at the midway point but the Orbison-esque Bolero of Sweet Dreams, TN snaps back on track like a good whack to the side of a black-and-white telly and John Lennon's ghost makes The Dream Synopsis the finale worth hanging around for. "Is it boring when I talk about my dreams?" Not when you invite the string section to breakfast, darling. Michael Dwyer

MUSIC

Parquet Courts Human Performance

Yeasayer Amen & Goodbye This NewYork outfit have spent several albums inventing and reinventing new modes of operation and musical expression. From their early expansive psych-pop jams to abstract electronic and deconstructed dance music, very few songs have trodden the same path twice. The making of Amen & Goodbye took Yeasayer from their home in the city to the Catskill mountains and back again: an intensely creative process beset with obstacles, such as studio invasions from goats or the time when rain damaged a large portion of their recorded work. The resulting songs here are among their most adventurous to date, blending the analogue with the digital, and the spiritual with the physical and chemical. Lullabies for end times and experimental pop forms for the next world. SimonWinkler

The Dandy Warhols Distortland If you were ever to be jealous of a band’s projected lifestyle, these cats would be atop the short list. “Rules be damned, we have all our own sh-t and we’re cool, man!” was clearly the mandate from Courtney T-T as The Dandys promptly drove their magic bus through valleys of LCD Soundsystem, all the while looking like nonchalant elders and confusing their tired peers. Catcher In The Rye will warm your heart and loins in equally pleasurable measure, as will the hard-edged tech of Semper Fidelis . But it’s STYGGO that ticks every Dandy box with a bouncy and infectious gusto, all the while oozing effortless panache. An amazingly trippy, arrogantly fun and reflective record – further proving not only does this band not care, they don’t need to. Hats off! Chris Murray

Babymetal Metal Resistance

With a golden triangle of mood and sonic similarity possessed within this one outfit (Modern Lovers, The Strokes, Talking Heads), Parquet Courts are easily one of today's most exciting indie outfits. There’s a sublime maturity to the punkish fun always present: “Mid-sentence tremors, mind at its weakest – one way of shaking the thoughts that it sleeps with” is just one of the poetic ditties from the title track. Dancing between avant-garde ( I Was Just Here ) and the squint-and-you-can-easily-imagine- Iggy-singing-it-late-at-night of Steady On My Mind , you’re soon thrust into the sermonic urgency of Berlin Got Blurry, complete with a Shadows guitar and a knowing snarl Elvis Costello could relate to. A flag-waving addition to the prolific output of these creative anomalies. Chris Murray

Despite what many believe to be the case, the heavy metal genre is the most diverse and accepting of all musical styles, even if it’s a manufactured entity like Babymetal. Like all things Japanese, Babymetal is quirky and eccentric, but what else would you expect from an act that labels their music "kawaii metal", as in “cute metal”? The biggest hurdle for many will be their ability to adjust to the sickly sweet J-Pop vocals of Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal. The music itself is a mixture of the recognised aspects of DragonForce, Meshuggah and in some instances, Prodigy, making for an interesting experience. Simon Lukic

31