Author: Matthew Barlow

Public Image Ltd. The Public Image is Rotten (Songs from the Heart) Virgin PiL hasn’t been on Virgin Records in a long-time, since the early 90s, before the official break occasioned by John Lydon returning to the Sex Pistols to make filthy lucre on tour.  But, here we are, with a 5-set compilation from Virgin that includes some tracks of the two most recent PiL albums, This is PiL (2012) and What the World Needs Now (2015), both of which they released themselves.  There isn’t really a lot to report here in a lot of ways. Despite vague promises of never-before-heard tracks and remixes, there isn’t a lot here a dedicated fan hasn’t heard, and most of it was on the Plastic Box boxset in 1999.  But, it is worth noting that this compilation is the soundtrack to a new documentary about PiL of the same name. But what I found interesting about this compilation is that I have always thought that whilst PiL is Lydon’s bus, it is impossible to take its ouevre as a single, digestible piece.  PiL is best understood in periods.  The first period, which included the brilliant Jah Wobble on bass and Keith Levene on guitar, officially ended when Levene wandered off in 1983.  Wobble had left in 1980. From 1983 to 1985, PiL was essentially Lydon and drummer extraordinaire Martin Atkins (one of the best Twitter follows...

Deafhaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love Anti- Deafhaven ain’t your average metal band.  They’re also hard to pin down, their albums all sound divergent from each other, which is unusual, really.  Bands usually find a sound and stick with it, or at the least, their evolutions are more predictable.  And even across albums, the sound evolves and changes, incorporating elements from everything from metal to post-rock and everything in between.  Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, despite its cynical title, is both a beautiful and heavy album. It starts with a spoken word story read by Nadia Kury over a beautiful piano riff and soaring guitars on ‘You Without End.’ Vocalist George Clarke’s howling madman vocals get buried in the mix on this track and it generally remains so throughout the album.  So, in a way, Clarke’s voice becomes another instrument, and one that remains at odds with the shimmery guitars and steady rhythms of the band on Corrupt Love.  On ‘Honeycomb,’ the second track, a heavy Black Sabbath by way of Faith No More riff holds sway and Clarke’s voice shimmies over the guitars and beat before a lulling ending punctuated by a hypnotizing bit of guitar.  And this is what seems the biggest difference in this album from earlier ones, the two guitarists, Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra, play melodic, shimmery bits more than gut-slamming riffs and shredding metal guitars, though the...

Santigold I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions Downtown Records Santigold has always struck me as an exhaustive artist, meaning she is careful about the curation of her public self as viewed through her music.  So it was a surprise when The Gold Fire Sessions dropped as a sudden mixtape last week with no real warning.  Actually, no warning at all.  Suddenly, there it was. This is new territory for her, essentially the mix is a dub-fired collection of Jamaican-influenced music.  Working with Dre Skull in the studio, on music for someone else, she suddenly got influenced and inspired to do this.  She describes it as a mixtape because it’s her with someone else, though she acknowledges that a true mix is usually the artist with a bunch of different people.  Whatever, don’t care. This is her first mixtape since 2008, and she’s been, uh, rather busy of late, giving birth to twins (she recorded parts of this mix whilst 9 months pregnant) moving to the City of Angels and prepping to open for Ms. Lauryn Hill’s coming tour, though Ms. Hill appears to be busy cancelling dates on that jaunt.  This is her summer party mix. And it is that.  With big, phat dub beats, Santigold’s beautiful voice wraps around the spaces in between the beats, smoothing over classic reggae guitars and other flourishes.  She has described the lyrics...

Iggy Pop & Underworld Teatime Dub Encounters ep Caroline International Back in 1996, Iggy’s ‘Lust for Life’ opened up the absolutely brilliant Trainspotting soundtrack, whilst the other book end was occupied by Underworld’s amazing ‘Born Slippy NUXX.’ It wouldn’t be an understatement to declare that that track set Underworld on a new course, both musically and in terms of fame, especially in North America.  And there they were again on Trainspotting 2‘s soundtrack last year.  Teatime Dub Encounters literally arises from tea time, and a chance encounter between Underworld’s Rick Smith and Carl Hyde and Pop in London. Recorded in the wake of both Underworld’s (criminally under-rated) last album, Barbara, Barbara, we face a shining future and Pop’s Post Pop Depression, this ep seems more a means to work out a few more ideas than a full-on collab.  Musically, this plays to Underworld’s sound, ethereal sounds, big beats, and occasional big sounds.  Hyde’s voice, though, is reduced to the background, which is kind of unfortunate as he is as much Underworld as Smith’s beats.  As for Pop, he is larger than life.  Because he’s Iggy Fucking Pop. Over four tracks, Pop alternates from singing and speaking, sounding at times like he did with the Stooges 40-some-odd years ago and sometimes like the septugenarian he is.  But he’s still Iggy Pop.  The first track, ‘Bells & Circles,’ is classic Underworld, all menace and beats, but Pop takes...