Pogo: Bangarang Review

He's done it again. Another dreamy track of wonder, that reminds you of your childhood and almost sends you into a trance. Surely soon someone important will recognise just how good he is, and give him some sort of deal? Illegal Art perhaps, the label that specialises in risky releases, like Girl Talk's output, that infringe on copyright? However in every interview I've seen he says he doesn't want to sell his music, he produces for the sheer fun of it; I find this approach admirable, but he definitely deserves a much bigger audience than he's currently getting. In the song itself, the samples he uses fit perfectly, and their manipulation sounds almost natural. What has become his signature use of "a custom sine wave bass" helps to hold the song together, and propel it to it's end, which I was dreading as I was enjoying listening to it so much. Hopefully soon we'll see some sort of full length effort, his myspace banner seems to suggest that he's working on songs based upon Winnie The Pooh and H.R. Pufnstuf, an American puppet based children's show from the late 1960's.

8.5/10

Holiday

Don't you just love it when 8 year olds pirate music onto youtube, don't know how to edit a video without making the bottom half of the screen green, squishing their head, and pretend they're a video DJ? However, the section that actually contains the song he's done well with, the audio quality is decent.

The actual track is Holiday by Dizzee Rascal, produced by CALVIN HARRIS :O
He's done a good job with this: the stabbing synths are catchy, his own lyrics don't detract from the song, and the breakdown at the end of the song is brilliant. Dizzee himself is on good form, with fluid rhymes and his cheeky personality brightening the song. Compared to his early and bleaker tracks, he sounds a lot more upbeat: here's hoping the album is as good as his last 3.

8/10

I Buy Some Shoes, AND I'M READY FOR THE WEEKEND

I don’t listen to the radio. People find it amazing when I say I haven’t heard “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas at all. Why should you be dictated to by someone on a hundred grand plus salary, who “thinks” they know what you want to listen to? These days, with music easily available cheap and legally, or even free in the case of Spotify (granted you can’t put it on your mp3 player), it’s just as easy to listen to exactly what you want when you want. This brings me to my next point: today I heard a song drifting through the house that had what I thought was possibly the most cringeworthy lyric I had ever heard, it went as thus, “OOOOOOOOH, I buy some shoes and I’m ready for the weekend” Admittantly it didn’t sound quite as camp as that, but it did sound bad (Even worse than some of Kele Okereke’s lyrics on Bloc Party’s third album, some of which are frankly hilarious in their rubbishness)

I buy some shoes and I’m ready for the weekend? WHAT ABOUT YOUR SOCKS, AND UNDERWEAR, AND OTHER CLOTHES????? Although taking this a bit too literally, it gives you an idea of just how irksome I found this lyric. Anyway, after just hearing this lyric, which I admit made me chuckle, I decided to find out whose song this was; turned out it belonged to a Mr Calvin Harris, and that I had misheard it, it actually was “I put on my shoes and I’m ready for the weekend”, while better, is still not that great a lyric. After discovering this Mr Harris, I then decided to listen to your song properly. And that one lyric summed up the whole song for me: not very good. Can you think of any original ideas Mr Harris? At times the autotune makes it sounds like the themetune for a childrens show, the chorus evokes no euphoric emotion as it should to me whatsoever, the intro could have been made by the Scissor Sisters, and weirdly at some later points his voice sounds like Frank Zappa, which actually is a bad thing. Compared to another song based upon the weekend subject “I Can’t Wait (For The Weekend To Begin) by Michael Gray, where the the drums are punchy, the bass is bangin’ and the synth line is a classic, this pales in comparison.

So next time Calvin, remember that making a decent song doesn’t only involve wearing a pair of snazzy shoes, it’s individuality, and finding a hook, of which your latest has neither.

5/10

Original G - eorge

Hello. I’m new to this neck of the woods. You like music. I like music. We can make sandwiches.

Liquid Swords

I admit, ever since buying the infamous Wu Tang Clan’s first album, I’ve only listened to it on a couple of occasions- sometimes it sounds disjointed, other times it has sounded pure genius. Which gets me onto my next subject- GZA, one of the numerous members, also known by the moniker “Genius” (and unlike most of his clan members, little else). Through the wonderful tool that is Spotify, I started exploring the clan’s solo attempts, and the first album I turned my attention to was Liquid Swords- GZA's sophomore release. At the moment, there’s no question this is my favourite rap album in the collection; the samples RZA uses to back GZA’s wordplay are genuinely spooky and mysterious (Unlike on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, where they sound almost comical in my opinion) , and definitely add another layer to GZA’s excellent wordplay, shown on songs like “Labels”, where he manages to rap about what seems like hundreds of record labels in a form of rap double entendre. Killah Hills 10304 is another stand out track on a stand out album, where he hardly takes a pause to breathe to tell a story of smuggling and bribery, which contrasts heavily with the last track on this album, B.I.B.L.E (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth), which is much more upbeat, complimented by a holistic sounding organ and more excellent beats by RZA, where Killah Priest guests and nearly steals the show. This album to me is a classic, and the next time you're in your local record shop looking for a genuinely top dollar rap album, leave the Wu Tang's first record on the shelf and pick this up instead- you can always add it to your shopping basket on the next visit.

10/10

Art Brut vs Satan

I won’t lie, I’m addicted to Art Brut. Since a chance encounter with a YouTube clip of ‘Formed A Band’ just two weeks ago, I can’t stop listening to them, and yesterday I finally found a CD of theirs at a HMV in Leeds. Art Brut vs Satan is their most recent effort, released in April this year, and by golly it is a good one. Topics range from heart-wrenching stories of being unable to talk to girls (‘Am I Normal?’) to rants from Eddie Argos about the public and their stupidity (‘Demons Out!’), all delivered in Argos’ distinctive ‘singing’ (read: talking) voice, to a backdrop of twangy guitars and thick, meaty basslines, made to sound all the more impressive by the marvellous Black Francis on production duties.

The aforementioned ‘Demons Out!’ is the album’s centrepiece, figuratively and literally (it has five songs either side of it), a tongue-in-cheek stab at the music charts of today. “How am I supposed to sleep at night when no-one likes the music we like?” Argos laments, before proclaiming his hatred for the record-buying public, and adding that “this is Art Brut vs Satan,” the line from which the album takes its title. Other lyrical highlights include ‘The Passenger,’ a tribute to public transportation, and ‘Slap Dash For No Cash,’ where we are told about the records Mr Argos likes to buy (“some call it lo-fi, if you say so, cool your warm jets, Brian Eno”). There are humorous asides aplenty, with every song leaving me with a big, dumb smile right across my face.

“How have I only just found out about The Replacements?” is the chorus to the album’s 8^th track, ‘The Replacements.’ All I can say is, how have I only just found out about Art Brut? Even Eddie Argos' apparent tone-deafness can't ruin this fantastic album.

9/10

Welcome

Welcome to Dino Reviews, the site where I will be reviewing music from a wide variety of genres, except drivel you'd find in the charts