Bo Ningen – III

In 2012 Bo Ningen announced themselves to the UK as the most badass thing around with their second album ‘Line The Wall’. It was a spectacular display of uninhibited rock ‘n’ roll that was going to be a tough act to follow.

‘III’ opens with ‘Da Da Da’, which has has explosive drums, spiky vocals and catchy riffs reminiscent of ‘Soko’ and ‘Daikaisei’ from their previous helping ‘Line The Wall’. ‘Da Da Da’ though, treads new paths with the interludes of escapism driven by the guitars. They are dreamier than their predecessors, Mercury Rev, on speed.

The subtle new direction they have taken is again evident on ‘Psychedelic Misemono Goya (reprise)’. The initial moments of the song plod along with Japanese vocals, building up the suspense before you’re hit with the release. On ‘Line The Wall’, this would have been followed by an explosion of noise and euphoria. Here though, rather than a big gear change was cruise control, it allows the garage rock element of the track to remain throughout like a dance beat whilst the more idyllic noises are allowed the freedom to float in, out and over the top at will.

The new direction of this album might not be encased in the fall to the floor excitement of yesteryear, but this is still an album of intensity and vision. ‘III’ has a feel of The Clash’s ‘Give Em Enough Rope’, it won’t be your favourite album by the band but it will be one to revisit.

Thou Shalt Always Get Better

In 2007, the Skins generation was given a much needed voice and a sound to follow into battle. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip combined social commentary and hip hop with elements of nu-rave and dance culture to create something truly unique and at Bestival this year, they called time on their partnership. So, TT wants to take a look at their journey and the impact they have made.

Hearing ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ for the first time was a life changing event for many, this writer included. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in 2007, who after university was stuck in a rut feeling like the world was full up for anyone with ideas of change.

Dan Le Sac’s aggressive sound combined with Pip’s lyrics provided the perfect tonic for anyone needing proof that the future is unwritten. Reputable journalists still talk about the time Joe Strummer sang ‘finally Beatle mania has bitten the dust’ on The Clash’s ‘London Calling’. ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ has this power. To hear Pip list the greatest bands of all time and proclaim they are ‘just a band’ is the modern day equivalent of being told ‘here are 3 chords, now go write a song’. 

However, we don’t want this retrospective to be about just one song though, so, we are going to make it about two songs (for the record, they have 3 killer albums together!!!!!) When Pulp headlined Reading festival in 2011, Jarvis said before playing ‘Common People’, “if Pulp are only ever remembered for this song, I don’t care it’s a good song.” ‘Get Better’ should have been that song for Dan and Scroob. Everything about this song is beautiful. Vocals, synths, lyrics, delivery, everything! Perhaps the most poignant moment of the song comes from the Billy Bragg reference:

‘Like Billy says / Whether you have or have not wealth / The system might fail you / But don’t fail yourself’.

This line becomes prominent in hindsight because the system seemingly failed them. XFM has given Pip a show recently but where was the airplay? How can the Mercury Music Prize be taken seriously when all 3 of their albums were overlooked?

We don’t want to end on a sour note though. Standing in the big top tent at Bestival with 12,000 fellow fans was a moment to cherish forever. Watching Pip perform amidst a frenzied crowd and Dan deliver his trademark banter and technical wizardry will live long in the memory. This might have been the end of their double act but there is too much creativity in their fingertips for their future projects to be silenced as well.

The Crookes – Soapbox

The Sheffield four piece returned in April with their 3rd installment ‘Soapbox’. As they are about to end their current UK tour we revisit what is surely to be a mainstay in the end of year top 10 polls.

Last year’s ‘Hold Fast’ album saw the band adopt a more aggressive attitude to their exploration of US rock n roll music. The opener ‘Play Dumb’ begins with said combative guitars but also adopts synths which evoke memories of The Cure circa ‘Pornography’. These subtle touches pop up throughout the album demonstrating yet another step up in class from the band.

As ever with the Crookes, the lyrics are fantastic. Daniel Hopewell has consistently churned out the goods but on ‘Soapbox’ he has hit top form. ‘Echolalia’ is a melancholic look at repeating the same mistakes whilst attempting to move on from a former love:

‘I should brush aside what The Strangers tell me,

That those on the outside are born to be lonely,

Still I keep chasing the cheap fix ‘til I wake from this crisis on my own,

My mind unfolds and I resolve to forget her but still I hear the echoes come the low.’

Songwriter Hopewell’s sorrow laden take on the human condition to belong and simultaneously be individualistic is a triumph and should be heard by everyone!

For anyone who, in the naivety of youth fell so hopelessly in love they had no idea what the rest of the world was up to then ‘Holy Innocents’ is a must listen. Not since Kevin Sampson’s ‘Stars Are Stars’ novel has a young burning love been so intelligibly illustrated:

 ‘I just wanna hide like holy innocents,

I met you at the fountain outside the station,

Nothing else mattered ‘cept dumb conversation

Our world in holy innocence’

The piece de resistance of the album and the track that sums up The Crookes more than any other is ‘Outsiders’. This is an anthem for anyone who treads the snakebite sodden floors of their indie disco and sinks too many red stripes at the local 200 capacity gig venue. If anyone ever wanted to make a mix-tape to depict the character of Jimmy from Quadrophenia this track has to be on it.

The current cultural climate is far less tribal than the era or mods, rockers, punks and skins but this only serves to make this song better. It is easy for a wolf to don some sheep’s clothing these days but make no mistakes, The Crookes are the real deal. Also, in Hopewell they have lyricist who should be given as much airtime as possible so his words can make you laugh, cry and inspired.

Fat White Family – Champagne Holocaust

Fat White Family hail from Brixton and have gathered a lot of attention because of their offensive lyrics and their so called deadbeat look. Frankly, they are what bands always used to look like when starting out. Skint. All the best bands have been on the breadline at some stage so here’s hoping are another one.

The album opens with Auto Neutron, which, for our money is the standout track. The genius of this song lies within Saul Adamczewski’s guitar playing. Adamczewski has all the rock psyche skills of Hookworms’ MB but also has a rhythm similar to Wave Pictures David Tattersall, both of which never lose sight of a good melody when letting loose. 



It’s not all about Adamczewski’s axe skills though. The vocals, especially on ‘It’s Raining In Your Mouth’ are the definition of cool. They combine the ‘I’m not bothered’ attitude of Johnathon Richman with a throatier version of Lou Reed. Bliss!

Another part of their charm is the outrageous lyrical content. Many articles have pinned them down as anarchists or intentionally antagonistic. For our money, they are just a bunch of mates with dark humour pissing around. Why else would you accuse Bobby Davro of shooting Lee Harvey Oswald? 

Throughout the album there are nods to Iggy (Wild American Prairie) and The Velvet Underground. Many attempt to use these icons as influences but few succeed. With Fat White Family though, you get the impression their influences are going to change like the wind as the years roll on by. Their ramshackle approach gives you a sense they are willing to try and do anything that they are into, it just so happens they have framed the majority of this album in this context. ‘Borderline’ and ‘Garden Of Numb’ are prime examples of this. Rather than continue down the road of Iggy and the Velvets, they sound like recordings made at 3am in a squat. The confidence to commit this kind of track to record is to be lauded in an epoch of short lived careers. If more bands could exhume this breed of self-determination then the British rock scene would undoubtedly become centre of the world again. 

Elbow live at the 02

Tonight is Elbow’s 3^rd sell out appearance at London’s 02 Arena. That, in itself is one hell of a feat when you consider how difficult it is for a down-tempo indie band to get airplay on any radio station these days.

When they first played the 02 in 2011, it was a cause for celebration. Everyone was jubilant the humble mancunians had finally hit the big time. 3 years on, this reporter was wondering what they could do to produce the magic of similar to those gigs.

The answer comes in the form of the word intimacy. This reporter has been enthralled by Suede, Noel Gallagher and The Verve at the 02 but the corporate setting always left a feeling of detachment between band and crowd. Elbow, through the wit of Guy Garvey and the richness of the ballads, transport you to the ballroom of a holiday camp you cherished as a kid with loved ones all around.

The warmth they generate is astonishing, especially when you consider songs like ‘Fly Boy Blue/Lunette’ and ‘The Night Will Always Win’. These are tales of loss of Garvey’s closest friends and are so personal it’s impossible to not relay his emotions to you own experiences of loss, something which never gets any easier no matter how much time passes.

The set is closed with the inspiring ‘Lippy Kids’ and the euphoric ‘One Day Like This’. Both tracks are so awe inspiring you would be hard pressed to find anyone who walked away tonight in anything other than a state of glee. One onlooker was heard saying ‘it was even better than Wet, Wet, Wet’, so, there you have it.

New Band Spotlight: Emperor Yes

Emperor Yes are a 3 piece from London. They recently played at the Barfly as part of John Kennedy’s XFM Xposure night. Although in their fledgling stages, TT has no doubt that they will soon be considered space-rock and multi layered rock royalty along with The Flaming Lips and The Postal Service.

At the end of Feb they released their latest single. Here is our review:

End Of The World

If only more pop music was as good as this. The music and vocals are drenched in sunshine and optimism but underneath, lies the depressing theme of Armageddon . The London trio are clearly inspired by Flaming Lips, this track could be on their classic ‘VOID’ album and not be out of place. Compliments cannot come much higher than that!

Don’t They Know

The b-side is a lot more experimental and nowhere near as catchy. It is like Tame Impala exploding inside Wayne Coyne’s mind whilst he was listening to Air and Hot Chip.  

The Rifles – None The Wiser

The original Chingford quartet is reunited for their fourth album and it has paid dividends. ‘None The Wiser’ is not their most riotous affair but is definitely the most accomplished. The album is an amalgamation of the bullish ‘No Love Lost’ and ‘Great Escape’ and the luscious production of the third instalment ‘Freedom Run’. 

The opening three songs embody this combination perfectly. ‘Minute Mile’ opens with an angular riff which launched the likes of The Rifles, The Rakes and Milburn back in 2007. As it’s the only one of its type on the album, it is a refreshing look back on the late 00s indie boom. ‘Heebie Jeebies’ follows which, is more akin to their earlier raucous tunes like ‘The General’ or ‘Local Boy’. Up third is ‘Go Lucky’, a rapturous indie gem circumnavigated via The Jam. 

These three tracks are more than just a rehash of the past though. All have their own nuances and idiosyncrasies breathing new life into the classic Rifles sound. In merging their previous styles they have created a start to album which eases fans in before they truly set off down new paths. 

‘Catch Her In The Rye’ is the standout track which treads new ground. It begins with a Talking Heads riff and drifts away with a blissful yet resolute ninety second reprise. This venture is the perfect soundtrack to a tale of an elder informing someone they need to do more to succeed in life. Elsewhere on the album, the song writing embraces Dylan-esque harmonicas (‘All I Need’) and new found sense of melancholy on ‘The Hardest Place To Find Me’. 

The aforementioned ‘Hardest Place To Find Me’ is a splice of indie gold that only The Rifles can produce and a feat they rarely credited for. Being repressed is arguably one of England’s biggest social diseases. So, when a band write a song about the subject matter and get the tone bang on they should be lauded. However, unless your singing in a generic high pitched squeal, your yesterday’s news to the mainstream music press (Mojo aside, they gave a decent review of the album in January). 




Joel and Lucas have always written great love songs. For a band associated with football, boozing and The Jam, they are really classicist romantics at heart. Their debut album featured ‘When I’m Alone’, a venous anthem about unrequited love. ‘The Great Escape’ had the hit single that never was ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (it was featured in Gavin & Stacey at least ninety seven times) and third album ‘Freedom Run’, is almost exclusively about the theme in some form. Yet despite such an easy on the ear subject matter, no airplay comes for them. They are living proof that post-Oasis, the industry doesn’t want real people running amok spoiling their marketing meetings. Maybe they’re afraid their clear desk policies will be used for snorting all their coke we just don’t know. 

This album, for TT, is a triumph. It has anthems to sing to, it has production of such quality, it will keep surprising you on every listen. The only criticism is that they haven’t got any songs which would rate nine or ten out of ten but with every song a solid seven or eight there is enough excitement and quality hear to keep The Rifles flag flying high and hoping they catch a break like Frank Turner did couple of years back. Only through word of mouth can The Rifles achieve the success they deserve, so drag your mates, missus or dad out to the next tour. They will not be disappointed.