http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews Album Reviews Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:00:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (Muzai Records) ANDREW'S ALBUM OF THE WEEK Auckland three-piece Bandicoot are making all the right waves right now - after last years bFM Top Ten hit Emotional & Dirty they have now released a brutally good fuzzed-up / fucked up gem of an EP - clocking in with a total ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/bandicoot-jurassic-warfare-ep/ (4AD) MATTHEW'S ALBUM OF THE WEEK Having all but disbanded for five years, seemingly disillusioned and jaded, Tindersticks surprised us all with a great new record (The Hungry Saw) in 2008. Acknowledging their lost-ness and openly petitioning their fanbase to give them another go, and now it seems the cogs are turning ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/tindersticks-falling-down-a-mountain/ (Mistletone) Talk about teen dream. The teen in me is swooning all over the lounge, with Beach House on repeat. Their third album continues the trend of what came before - with Victoria LeGrand's husky charmer of a voice echoes out across her swirling organ, while Alex Scally's guitar handiwork fills ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/beach-house-teen-dream/ (Work It! / Shock) Andy Cato and Tom Findlay are back with their sixth album. Usually if I start a review with the words "back with their sixth album" it's gonna end  with the words, "tired, regurgitated, and stale" - but I am excited to report that Groove Armada have ditched ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/groove-armada-black-light/ (Virgin) It's been seven years since the somewhat disappointing 100th Window and twelve since the amazing and groundbreaking Mezzanine. It's fair to say that that's actually practically an entire music listening generation. So, while it might be easy to sit back and wank on about about how Heligoland compares to Massive ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/massive-attack-heligoland/ (Parlophone) Andrew Tidball (the other guy, not me) was all like, "Man this is so 90s dance music" when we were listening to this for the first time, and I was all like, "Well you should review it then because you were THERE man" and we was all like, "Ok well ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/hot-chip-one-life-stand/ (Lil Chief Records) The Ruby Suns' third album sounds like a glorious synthesis of all the musical goings on inside Ryan McPhun's head - it loops and lurches and glides and slides throughout a gambit of influences and inspirations. From quasi 90s rave to the precision of modern R&B artificial beats ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/the-ruby-suns-fight-softly/ (Domino) If there's one man who knows how to turn clinically cut samples and slowly pulsing beats into emotionally resonant music that transcends any particular genre, I think we can all agree it's Mr Kieran Hebden - aka Four Tet. Founding member of UK post-rock gang Fridge, Hebden has been a ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/four-tet-there-is-love-in-you/ (V2) It's a very rare thing that rock and hip hop can be combined without it turning to utter shit. Without pulling the race card (Ok, actually I am) but it's usually poo-tastic when some wack middle class suburban white guys think that they can be hip hop but all they ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/blakroc-blakroc/ (Domino) Formerly known as Final Fantasy, Pallett is a kind of Andrew Bird meets Patrick Wolf type; a musical prodigy, theatrical and fantastical, and using looped violin (and more) to create a sound that's as influenced by role playing video games as it is wide-eyed wonderment. Recorded in Iceland, mixed in ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/owen-pallett-heartland/ (Downtown / V2 / Shock) Cold War Kids return with a 5 track EP - a collection of songs that "...were recorded some time between "Loyalty" and now. They didn't belong there but kept hanging around, started trouble, made friends, and insisted they be heard" - according to the handwritten scrawl ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/cold-war-kids-behave-yourself-ep/ (PopFrenzy) The gentle breeze that is the music of The Clientele is blowing once again, and the fifth album from the London quartet is possibly their sweetest yet. singer/songwriter Alasdair MacLean breathes autumnal life into a brand new set of songs - ranging from the upbeat hazy R&B-pop of opener "I ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/the-clientele-bonfires-on-the-heath/ (Something in Construction / Inertia) Jesus H Christ, this is good. Memory Tapes is, as is the fashion these days, just one guy (New Jersey-based Dayve Hawk) with, presumably, a bevy of electronic equipment which he deftly twiddles to meld together sleek synths, drifting vocals and kick-ass bass lines and big juicy ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/memory-tapes-seek-magic/ (Rough Trade) Howdy doody - a new Adam Green record! The former Moldy Peach has really done a u-turn on his rough-around-the-edges "anti-folk" shtick and taken on a pretty rare combo of crooner / indie darlin' / giant show off... He's also fairly prolific, Minor Love being his 6th since 2002. ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/adam-green-minor-love/ (Pop Frenzy) Songs, for the unfamiliar of you, are a Sydney based four-piece fronted by the elder Max Doyle, a successful Sydney photographer; with American born New Zealander Jeff Burch on guitar and fellow ex-This Night Creep - er Steve Uren on drums; joined by Ela Stiles on bass. They released ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/songs-songs/ (Vagrant / Shock) Sigh sigh sigh. Does anyone else remember listening to the first Eels album, all those eight records ago? Despite being still kind of downer music, it was pretty awesome and something quite different to what we 90s kids were used to. "Wow this is kind of like Beck ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/eels-end-times/ (Infectious / Liberator Music) This is the debut album from this Silver Lake, Los Angeles five piece who made some good ripples at last year's SXSW and are presently touring around Europe and UK to good receptions before returning to the Austin festival in March, this time with the album to ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/local-natives-gorilla-manor/ (Spunk) What's with these homies dissing my girl? Why do they gotta front? What did we ever do to these guys that made them so vi-o-leeeent? Dah dah, dah dah, SAY IT AIN'T SOoooooooooooooOOOOOOooooo... pull this thread as you walk away... and then a decade and a half later, the next ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/surfer-blood-astro-coast/ (Gentlemen of The Road / Dew Process) London four piece led by Marcus Mumford (and they are not his sons, at least not biologically; blinkin' liars!) are getting a fair bit of attention with their record; BBC's Zane Lowe  named the lead single Little Lion Man "Hottest Record in the World" ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/mumford-sons-sign-no-more/ (Longtime Listener) Like the first time you heard Granddaddy, like the onset of summer, and the fizzy feel of a brand new crush - Brooklyn gangsters Bishop Allen will have you bopping in your seat or up on your feet within the first thirty seconds of opening tune "Dimmer". Shit ... http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/reviews/2010/02/12/bishop-allen-grrr/