The death of Mark Linkous on Saturday is a saddening reminder that for some musicians, it’s for real. He was one of a very few artists who are capable of creating beauty out of overwhelming despair – as he said himself, he only started to find his voice when he gave up on becoming a 
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If melody and the avant garde are strangers, then the dreaded Fairlight synthesiser and good music are claws out, blood letting foes, never to be reconciled. There is an exception that proves this rule. Produced by the incomparable Bill Laswell, ‘Mister Heartbreak’ contains jaw droppingly beautiful melodies and a palette of sounds varied enough to It’s as if the last twenty years were a hideous nightmare – yes folks the eighties are back! This sixth album from Groove Armada picks up, with a little bit of help from Nick Littlemore, where Empire of the Sun left off; an exuberant plundering of the best bits of the ’sound that dare not Post punk, a curious thing happened to dance music, a schism emerged, pitting the muscular rhythms of James Brown and the the P Funk nation against the saccharine soul of Teddy Pendergrass and the jazz funk of Don Blackmon. In the UK this manifested itself in a slew of lightweight chart outfits such as Five Inside this most insipid cover lurks a delicious concoction of fabulously lush dream pop. This is the album these two have been threatening to make for a couple of years now. There is a freshness to these soundscapes that comes with confidence and every note on this album oozes class. Yes, there are influences aplenty, 1994’s startling debut from dEUS gets the sumptuous repackaging treatment. The original album threw jazz, funk, indie, grunge, Frank Zappa samples and film noir influences into the blender and against all the odds emerged with an album that attained instant classic status. The repackaging involves a further cd of rareties, a DVD of live performances A welcome return to the Four Tet project for Fridge’s Kieran Hebden. “There is Love in You” retains the organic feel that has graced his best work. There is a warmth to this recording, particularly the percussion that puts it in a different league to most dance oriented albums. “Rounds”, the album that brought Four What is it about Eels? Arch miserabilist Mark E possesses the uncanny ability to conjure aural magic from an extremely limited palette. Recorded at home, on basic equipment, familiar chord sequences and the patent Mark E croak chart the end of an affair in often heartbreaking terms. Against all odds, an arresting album, uplifting even The exuberantly talented Guillemots frontman in unplugged mode. Well not really; this being Fyfe Dangerfield, an extravagant string driven flourish is never far away, in fact on the single She Needs Me he seems to be on a one man mission to rehabilitate late period ELO, but the trademark kaleidoscopic whirl has largely been suppressed Take Oboes, Clarinets and Bassoons, a pinch of hip hop, a generous helping of Killing Joke and Bauhaus and season with a healthy disrespect for prevailing trends. Wilful experimentation is something we see too little of these days. These New Puritans have risen to the challenge with gusto, producing an album that is as wonderful |
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