STACK #136 Feb 2016

MUSIC REVIEWS

DMA’S HILLS END

T he thing which drew us in with DMA’s’ first single Delete , way back in early 2014, was the street quality of Tommy O’Dell’s vocals coupled with really sensitive melodies and arrangements. It was basically that captivating tough outer/soft inner paradox: a goodtime mutt sincerely looking for a comforting cuddle. Hills End follows through on the Madchester promise with

earnest, woozy sweetness that you suspect could turn

punch-drunkenness on In The Moment and Step Up The Morphine respectively; and guitarist/producer Johnny Took’s backwoods cowboy leanings come out in Blown Away and Play It Out . Don’t be scared if you love every single one of these, because under the crumpled sweaters lie emotionally intelligent hearts. (I OH YOU/Mushroom) Zo ë Radas

into a headbutt at any second. This version of Delete has been warmed up a little with string- synth adding to its gentle build, but the new tracks are absolutely something else: Too Soon is a perfect example of the modern Britpop feel these boys are nailing; you can hear The La’s clear dexterity and Mac DeMarco’s

STACK Picks Too Soon, Step Up The Morphine, In The Moment

DAVID BOWIE BLACKSTAR

TY SEGALL EMOTIONAL MUGGER

MUSIC

“Look up here, I’m in Heaven.” While there may be no God, there is always David Bowie. The slightly overrated The Next Day notwithstanding, it’s here in Blackstar that the elusive artist has truly opened his sacred

he’s inspired over a vast career is indeed his right, and boy does he know how to use it. It was at this point in penning this review

Footsteps approach, keys jangle, a door squeaks open, then bangs shut – and Ty Segall’s eighth record of lo-fi-glam-garage-punk begins. As a follow-up to 2014’s Manipulator , it’s obvious the man has developed somehow, but just where that evolution’s tentacles have sprouted is enchantingly difficult to pin. The guitar is still furry, but more unflappable; the

I learnt of Bowie’s unbelievable death. Hearing the tracks

closet of curiosities, again, for us mere mortals to peer in. Back in November the title track attacked the senses to shock and critical awe, bravely showing his physical maturity (no mean feat for a functioning narcissist), and diving headlong into experimental elongated rhythms and pseudo kraut-jazz. It’s so listenable you’ll find yourself constantly hitting repeat, with gusto, on the mere seven tracks on offer. Akin to Station to Station meets elements of Black Tie, White Noise (vastly underrated) via Robert Smith’s penchant for dreamy doom, this is classic Bowie: challenging and infectious. Lazarus offers masterful landscapes with danger and darkness always lurking under each movement. Girl Loves Me enters Outside territory with dashes of Heroes, Low and Lodger for good measure; reflecting those

again, it’s cliché to read more into it all... but knowing his theatrical humour and grave seriousness of intent, it is all laid out to decipher and debate. The last offering from our androgynous saviour, a lingering taste to elongate until the palate is bone dry, leaving us to ponder ‘why’ when in reality it doesn’t matter. It’s the personal mindscapes and sheer joy this artist with no peer shared the past five decades that transcend sorrow and shock. Let 2016 be the year of the Diamond Dog himself; the lad insane, the Duke of milky- white slender and the man who fell to Earth only to teach us of the stars he’d soon return to. We will miss him, yet we have much to enjoy and digest in his wake. There is no God, but there is David Bowie. (Sony) Chris Murray

drum lines are ‘60s-crisp, but the style is still often really slushy; and he’s doing far more of that fantastic device wherein the drums follow every relaxed syncopation of the lead guitar’s riffs instead of just keeping a backdrop metronome (particularly on opener Squealer ). I think that’s the genius behind Emotional Mugger – you can’t argue any of this is a fool’s accident, because of the union between rhythm and melody, even as all his weird little ideas hiss and purr around the place. The best parts include the very I AmThe Walrus vocal vibe and excellent drum pattern of Emotional Mugger / Leopard Priestess , the duelling guitars and atonal robotic jag on Baby Big Man ,

the brief, frenetic tempo bursts in California Hills , and all that grubby guitar on Mandy Cream (the reference to Milky Joe couldn’t be more apt, as this one sounds just like a homemade puppet flinging about). So much freaky fun to discover between these layers. (Spunk) Zo ë Radas

FEBRUARY 2016

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