Simon Rumble’s blog

I love Metacritic's summaries of reviews. This one summarises reviews of an album by The Little Ones. As usual, NME is incoherently raving. For the NME, a band is either the greatest band ever, or an overhyped pile of crap (which is what their great band ever bands often are).

The funny review comes from The Guardian:

By the end of the album, your face will hurt and you'll be desperate for some Napalm Death.

This sounds like previously unaccomplished levels of saccharine! I'll have to check them out.

On a related note, I've always thought that if you worked in a new age shop, with all that whale fart ambient music playing all day, surely you'd have to have some death metal or speed thrash once you got home. To help you relax.

Last week I had a whinge about trying to buy one of Gotye's albums online and failing. A day later I got an email from the man himself!

I was very disappointed to hear about your shoddy experience with the Creative Vibes web store in trying to buy my Boardface album. (Google alerts got the info to me...)

He then went and offered to send me the plastic versions of all his music, which duly arrived today. Awesome!

That an artist cares so much about his fans is heartening. It helps that he's supremely talented, but it sounds like he's finally getting the recognition he deserves too. He recently signed to a label that also has this year's best Eurovision song entrant (and best ever French entrant), Sebastien Tellier. He's also playing in Europe, so get out and see him. I caught his set at last year's Homebake and it was brilliant.

Oh and Wally, I know you're reading this so hello and thanks!

Holly and I went to see Malcolm Middleton, formerly of Arab Strap at the Hopetoun last night. Brilliant gig! As well as the miserable Scot, the two support bands were excellent, which is refreshing as "Special Guests" are often lousy.

First up were PapavsPretty, a bunch of 17 year olds with amazing talent. Their cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart was excellent, and kids playing a Yamaha DX7 that's older than them is quite amusing.

Second was Sui Zhen, a woman with a voice somewhat like the woman from Lamb. Delicate but playful songs. Quite enjoyed it.

In between sets we got talking to a couple of Belfast lads. Metal fan Mick of the cliched name looked a lot like Hank Von Helvete from Turbonegro, though I didn't point out that they're a Norwegian gay metal band.

Finally out came the miserable Scot. Brilliant, as always. He's a genius with an acoustic guitar, and the Prozac clearly isn't working.

The photo? From the dunnies at the Hopetoun. I was amused while I took a piss, anyway.

I recently a rant about not being able to buy an album for a band I'd stumbled upon.. Lucy from the band has evidently been vanity googling, as she found my post and dropped me a note.

Just did a random google and found that you like our tunes. That's nice to know! Understand your frustration at not being able to purchase said tunage... but have patience, our debut album is being released on Stereo Test Kit Records later this year and then you can buy it as many times as you like!

So that's nice to hear, though August seems a long way away. The annoying part, though, is that the album they released last year isn't going to be made more widely available.

We recorded 'six feet above the ground' early last year and it was more of a demo really, we just sold it at a few gigs and stuff. Anyway. A real album is on its way. And we promise there will be a million easy ways to buy it online. All you have to do is wait till August...

This I find annoying. If it's only demo quality, stick it online and label it a demo. Charge money if you like, whatever, but it'll only help. But hey, it's their musical output! I'll just have to wait until August.

Regardless, I'd recommend checking out The Social Services and the tracks they have released. I've really been enjoying it.

BTW, I've recently subscribed to Metacritic's music feed and it's brilliant. The idea is quite simple: they aggregate the best snippets of reviews from all over the place, and score them, so you can see what the rough consensus is. The best part is that they always pull out the snarkiest quotes from the reviews.

The only annoying part about it is their insistence on using American college language when describing album. Nobody puts out a second album, it's always their "sophomore" album. WTF?

Dance music's sexiest forty-something has come out with a rather... different album this time around. It's kinda like Joni Mitchell or Tori Amos in parts, with the occasional Sergeant Peppers flick. Weird.

Its not unpleasant, but it's a bit dull. Holly likes it. I initially wasn't sure and kept listening, hoping something would jump out. It didn't. So while I don't dislike it, it just doesn't have anything to hook me.

If you're expecting stomping high-camp techno romps, you'll be disappointed.

I hope this doesn't mean her live shows will end up being much more serious. Girls in bikinis with moose antlers and horsey tails. Now that's a live show!

According to Metacritic I'm something of a minority with my opinion here. Then again, I think Radiohead are one of the most tediously derivative acts ever. Yet I love the stuff they're derived from, like King Crimson. And Radiohead have sold a few records. Then again, so has Delta Goodram.

Seventh Tree is bound to ruffle a few electro-feathered fans, but's no denying it's a venture that sets the pair into new experimental territory.
NME

Goldfrapp have shed the sex-Moroder-robot-Bolan-fuck-disco like a used condom and re-tooled themselves as a whimsical psychedelia and pastoral folk outfit for the disappointing Seventh Tree.
cokemachineglow

Seventh Tree, though in some respects an organic redrafting of the autoerotic Goldfrapp template, picks up where Supernature left off in its setting of the controls for the heart of the mainstream, and misses badly the slickly subversive tone that lifted the band from the realms of coffee table mediocrity.
Drowned In Sound

Peter Moore got me into the blog Swedesplease which is all about Swedish indie pop music. I figured I could find some interesting music, after all The Shout Out Louds are Swedish.

Much of the music has been kinda ordinary, but the hit rate has improved after they introduced me to The Social Services, introduced as a "Swelandish" band. Two thirds Scottish, one third Swedish. Beautiful, melancholy tunes in exactly the kind of style I love in indie pop.

Unfortunately, they're clearly new to this marketing thing. There's no point marketing if people can't buy your product. How the fuck do I buy their album?!?!? I know it's called "Six Feet Above The Ground" but that's it.

Come on guys, it wouldn't be that hard to set up a PayPal account and a rudimentary online ordering system that ends up with downloadable mp3s. It'd do for me!

Holly, Mikey and I were quite excited to be seeing M83 last night, ostensibly supporting Midnight Juggernauts at the Enmore. Unfortunately, his band's gear was all somewhere between Paris and Sydney, so they couldn't play. Instead, he played stuff off his laptop, which was hardly a substitute.

We weren't particularly interested in the Sisters of Mercy/Gary Numan stylings of the Juggernauts -- they're okay but we've seen them before -- so we left. And the enormous number of kids was kinda annoying too. We must be getting old.

Now I'll have to go through the hassle of trying to get a refund. Though if we get that, I can justify seeing Ozomatli next weekend.

Just heard Nicole Foote describing tonight's mix up programme as featuring someone playing progressive electro funk. With a straight face. WTF?!?!?

I've started going to the gym to get me fit enough for this bike race I'm doing in a few weeks. My music is all a bit cerebral. I used to listen almost exclusively to techno, but these days I only really dance to it.

So does anyone have any suggestions for upbeat, cheesy techno to walk/step/ride nowhere to? Ideally mixed so I don't get bored -- this is to be the soundtrack to pain and suffering, so you don't wanna get bored, you want it to take your mind off it.

As it is, I'm trawling for old-skool Goa Trance compilations.

Update: Jeremy Kerr suggests his mate Tigger's mixes but also reminds me that Digitally Imported have a heap of techno streams and I could just record an hour or so to play back while in extreme pain. Great idea, plus my ISP streams them for free. Thanks Jeremy.

The Grauniad has this great photo and caption taken by Billy Bragg at Glastonbury. Very jealous of all the people there, even with the mud!