Welcome to the first regularly updated CD review section I've done in ages, outside of the Scottish and selected English (& Australian) independent music scenes.
This section, however, is devoted to bands who are signed to labels, and outside of the Scottish music scene.
Basically, the thinking behind this bit, although inevitably it's my own humble opinion, is that if someone's produced a CD that is so stonkingly good in its field that no fan of that style of music should be able to live without it, then it's reviewed here - all styles, all artists - all thing considered - but only the best included. Now, read on......

JIMMY AGREN - Various Phobias CD
As a musician and writer, you're actually pretty clever if you can take a genre such as rock or dance or punk and do something different with it that works. But if you can do the same thing to a genre such as blues, yer a positive genius - and this is exactly what Agren has gone and done right here.
The album opens with "Smokin' France", a short piece that features this clattering percussive rhythm, sharpened lead guitar ducking and diving below the lurching beats and lightly phased vocal with its American lilt, as the track drives forward,a brief slide guitar shines through before settling to the back of the mix as the minute or so comes to an end. With a pause for breath, you're taken headlong into the strident intro to "Little Devil" which, bearing in mind the title and its coincidence, sounds uncannily like The Cult hitting the blues bottle, as the driving beats give foundation to some searing slide and electric guitar riffs and licks, the vocal soaring on top as the rhythms twist and turn, the distinct air of later period Beefheart really letting loose as the slide guitar just glows and the lurching solid beats underpin some scorching guitar riff undercurrents, the song sailing down the highway to joyous effect. "Light Show Bob" races in on interweaving strands of fiery guitar work before the massive mix settles abruptly into the song portion of the track, the vocal delivered with yearning intensity as the rhythms beef up, the guitar work lurches from staccato riffing to searing slide melodies, as the lurching pace recalls Beefheart once more but with more of a Steve Ray Vaughan tinge in there too. An incendiary if brief, guitar solo erupts from the system as the song returns and the whole thing tumbles forward to mighty effect, the blues never sounding so attacking or full of bite before, and yet with all the emotion that the best in blues has to offer, well in evidence. Stunning! "Blow Me Hard" is instant - the moment you hear that addictive mid-paced rhythm, that steaming slide guitar, the multi-tracked lead vocals, the stumbling beats and the infectious chorus, all wrapped up in this full-sounding arrangement where the electric blues is king and yet commercial potential is paramount, you can't fail but to get caught up in the splendours of what is a truly awesome track, that will be rattling around in your head for hours after, the sort of track you just never tire of hearing. "Jeff's House" is as close as Agren gets to "trad" blues, with a rolling rhythm, electrifying slide and lead guitar licks and riffs, lurching beats, and throaty vocals that just fit the bil to a tee - this is real electric blues but performed with such passion, it's absolutely amazing. "Goodnight Austin Texas" is a driving instrumental that lets Agren show off his amazing electric lead and electric slide guitar work, as solos soar and dive in and around one another over a forceful sea of rhythms and some attacking playing overall. "554023", also an instrumental, is more acoustic and brooding with a deep bass undercurrent and brush stroke drumming, almost dark in many respects and a neat change of direction but still one that keeps you hooked, as it's played with such conviction and emotion, the acoustic and electric slides almost restrained compared to what's gone before, as the whole thing oozes atmosphere for its length. Then it's into the next song which is "Waitin", introduced by this big, deliberate lurch of a rhythm section, the slide guitar gliding up and down the stumbling beats, as the song enters and Agren's vocals sound seriously impassioned over the flowing sea of electric blues. A scorching guitar break lights things up even further, with some of most direct blues-rock soloing heard on the album so far, leaving you jaw-dropped in admiration, as the song portion returns and the track swaggers to its end point. The final four tracks on the album - two songs and two instrumentals - carry over all these elements and more to make up four smoking tracks that are every bit as cohesive, consistent and solid as the rest of the album you've heard so far, with plenty of seriously exciting lead electric and slide guitar that pours out of the speakers in unstoppable and sheer emotive fashion. This is writing, playing and arranging of electric blues on a plane that 99% of the blues artists would kill to sound like for just one track, never mind a whole album. As I said, utter genius, and an album that every electric blues fan should own - now!!

ARTHUR LOVES PLASTIC - Brief Episodes Of Joy CD
There's a decided sense of hitting the brakes with a vengeance when you find that the new album from an artist, that you'd expected to have been the frenetic never-stops lifestyle of New York, turns out to be the easy-going languidity of California or the horizon-stretching expansiveness of Arizona, often both. So, you play it once - you realise that instead of readying yourself for the holocaust, you should be getting out the cocktails, putting on the shades and basking in the sunshine of a gloriously warming experience. So, you do just that, you get into the right frame of mind, you play the CD in its entirety once more - and everything falls into place.
The album opens with "I Want You" - deep electronic bass, the lightness of crash of electronic drums, flowing organ undercurrents and the most languid of female vocals clad with an inner strength that keeps it focused, as all manner of synths swoop, stutter and whoosh all around the central framework, the vocal a mix of soaring chorus and husky verse. The musical landscape becomes ever busier as the lights change before the rush goes by and we return to the march of the vehicle that hit the road first, slowly gliding by with the roof down as it heads right onto the highway without a pause to reveal a seriously mid-range emotive of a vocal that's an absolute dead ringer for our very own singer Electra here in the UK. The vocal soars into life and flies on the verses and choruses as this lurching mix of choppy and strident rhythms from the electronics and drums course their way underneath, the whole thing gathers ever more instrumental colours from the massed ranks of keyboards and synths to become huge-sounding but never losing sight of its chilled-out nature, one that makes even its busiest moments sound positively sublime. Third track in is "IZE", an instrumental that hits an altogether harder grove with thumping beats, this searing guitar loop that fries your brain and a huge sounding array of samples and electronics, all of which thunder away as the track becomes ever denser, stronger and busier, but it's all mixed to perfection so that every single sound has a role to play, keeping the track focused and not a second out of place. "Naked", also an instrumental, develops this further and sacrifices the density for an altogether more expansive array of melodies as synths and guitars weave glorious webs of tunes, varying from winding loops to ringing chords, synth verses to soaring electronic flights, the solid river of electronic drums and deep bass keeping it all driving forward, the icing on the cake being the sultry female voice sample - a lady you just HAVE to meet, on this evidence!! "Lesbian Gang" is almost drum 'n' bass, at least the rhythm is, while the swinging, diving, soaring synth leads interweave and glide around each other, a wordless female vocal chorus adding counterpoint to the sampled USA reporter's voice as the track briefly features a guitar lead then drops back to an ambient outro before, with barely a pause for breath, it dives headlong into "Love Me Right" as the strongest, most strident sea of rhythms on the album so far, comes into play with clattering and crashing electronic drums, real drums and bass providing the propulsion as this ocean of intensity from synths and guitars provides a massive sounding mix of space-rock soundscapes and searing melodies, the female vocal repeating the title to awesomely dynamic effect, as a piano melody fights to be heard over the rolling electronic avalanche, the whole thing dripping with strength, passion, emotion and beauty as ambient meets drum 'n' bass meets rock to absolute perfection. "Friendly Fire" starts with an orchestral sounding synth as the sultry female vocal enters, the rhythm is carved out from a lurching mix of electronic drums and rolling bass, before a piano melody leads into a sparkling array of synths as a space synth swoops and soars to be replaced by a soaring synth melody above a searing electronic bass and brief samples, before the piano melody retruns above deep bass and the distant orchestral synths, only to end on the fading beauty of the piano - then it's right into "It's Never Gonna Stop", this time a more direct approach providing a vocal that's right out of the old band Moloko, as a trip-hop arrangement takes centre stage and this wondrous melange of rolling rhythms, beefy beats and expansive synths above deep deep bass, underpins a high-flying vocal that just soars into the skies, lightly phased for maximum effect, the mix soon filled to the brim with a massed flight of assorted synths, guitars and orchestral sounding chords, solid and excitingly brooding. Segueing right into "Looking For A Prince", we come to a rolling slice of deep ambience propelled by lurching electronic rhythms, rolling electronic drums, soaring lead synths, vast swathes of synth washes and a deep, husky female vocal that intones the title and a bit more, almost in the far distance but it works so well, it's jaw-dropping in its delight. "Killer Bees" has an almost ambient Latino flavour to its mix of rolling rhythms and lurching beats, this swirling out-of-phase synth-as-organ central figure providing the fulcrum around which this operatic female vocal flies to the heavens. The shape of the lead work changes above the consistency of the rhythmic drive, as twinkling chords, swooping space synths and shimmering electronics provide a myriad of lights to guide the vocals on their way. "Black Cloud" is beefy in rhythm, splendid in its orchestral core, spellbinding in its gorgeous female vocalising, huge-sounding in its arrangement and as groovy a mix of ambient jazz, laid-back drum 'n' bass and smoothly flowing electronic soul as it's possible to get, the result being a slice of absolute gorgeousness, the arrangement gradually becoming busier before3 falling back to earth on a shimmering mix of organ-like synth and deep bass undercurrent. "Smile" features an array of stuttering rhythms from the electronics and electronic drums as the, initially phased then more flowing, female vocal weaves its web, as the arrangements twist and turn to take an assortment of shapes before levelling out in a sea of strong ambient beats, husky female vocals, sparkling synth leads that dive and swoop in and out of each other, as the whole thing expands on a horizon of synths before turning back into its droning brief finale. The album ends with "Unbelievable", a glorious, gorgeous sea of ambient beats, emotive organ and synth echoes, heavenly female vocals that soar so gracefully above the mix of synths and electronics, beats and rhythms, all combining to provide the most exquisite slice of sublimely graceful yet strong-sounding tracks that you'll want to hear, ending things with a retrun to strength as the whole thing gathers steam and the vocals just soar through with passion and grace, the instrumental sea one of wide-eyed delight and absolutely spellbinding captivity as you find yourself diving into its heady delights with all senses on fire and, as the longest track on the album, still one that you wish would never end, its oceans of synths and rhythms and vocals, simply out of this world in every sense - sheer genius!!
This is a stunning album by anyone's standards, and what makes it this way is that, even though all tracks bar the last one are relatively short, the arrangements are so well thought out, so well constructed, that she fits in so much into each track to keep you inexorably hooked, yet there's nothing wasted, nothing missing, no frills, no gaps, nothing overly busy and everything absolutely enjoyable from start to finish. If you wanted to reinvent an old rule book in a modern way and make it sound like the first time it'd been done, then this is the album that does it. Superb!!!

Continued...............

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