Hifi Pig

Charo, or Maria del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza as her parents would have known her, is a Spanish-American singer, actress, comedienne and  flamenco guitarist well known back in the day for her somewhat flamboyant style and her catchphrase “Cuchi-Cuchi” (‘Cuchi’ is a Spanish slang term for a woman’s genitals. However, Spanish speaking countries often have local dialect for the term. In Venezuela, it refers to something pleasing to the eye.” Thanks Ask.com). She’s done films, television (she was a regular on The Love Boat by all accounts but that was all before my time)… and she was voted Best Flamenco Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine…TWICE! More »

The Koto is the traditional 13 string Japanese instrument and Kimio Eto is widely regarded as its master. He began training on the instrument at the age of eight and composed his first work aged eleven. Amazingly he was blind from the age of five according to the sleeve notes and this makes this record all the more astonishing. More »

I stopped listening to BBC Radio 1 a long time ago but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy dipping into that totally uncool territory that is the hit parade as I believe it’s called by the younger people.

We bought last year’s Live Lounge sessions and enjoyed it a great deal despite my preconceptions and so getting hold of this year’s CD seemed obligatory. For those that don’t know Live Lounge is where Radio 1s DJ Jo Whiley gets in current big names and some lesser names to perform live on her show. Some perform their own tunes while some perform other artists’ songs, indeed most of the tunes herein are covers: Arctic Monkeys perform Hold on “We’re Going Home “by Drake, Vampire Weekend do a version of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Mumford and Sons have a bash at “Tesselate” by Alt-J. More »

Now Sounds have raided the vaults of Hollywood’s Capitol Records to bring us 24 slices of psychedelic pop pie from the late 60s with many of the tunes being on CD for the first time, all sourced from the original master tapes and compiled and produced by Steve Stanley.

Needless to say I was a babe in arms when these tracks first made their way onto the Dansettes and radios of the US but that’s not to say they’re not worth a listen. Indeed the collection here harks back to a much more innocent time, but it’s good fun and shows us why Capitol were the undisputed kings of pop in this era. More »

Another band I missed first time round as I was in full on house and techno mode in 1991 when Quality Street, the band’s only album, was first released. This re-release on the 3 Loop Music label is a two CD package with the original album, a CD of selected B sides and two Radio 1 sessions plus a 24 page booklet.

World of Twist were seemingly a great influence on a lot of bands and Noel Gallagher apparently almost named Oasis after the second track on the album, “Sons of the Stage” and Liam Gallagher’s band Beady Eye even covered the track. More »

Let me go on record by saying that I’m a bit of a fan of The Polyphonic Spree. Let me also say that I’m a bit of a sucker for all things festive. So I was quite excited when “Sounds of the Holidays Vol One Holiday Dream” dropped through the letterbox recently. More »

There’s been a bit of a trend recently towards metal supergroups (the heavy music community is practically salivating at the prospect of Killer Be Killed), but Mutation is one that may slip under the radar.  Well I’m gonna do my best to see that it doesn’t.

Describing themselves as a “collective”, the band is comprised of a seemingly disparate group of musicians.  Shane Embury (Napalm Death), Ginger Wildheart (The Wildhearts), Mark E. Smith (The Fall), Jon Poole (Cardiacs), Rich Jones (Amen), Chris Catalyst (Sisters of Mercy), Denzel (Young Legionnaire), random members of alt metallers Hawk Eyes and Japanese electro-terrorist Merzbow…. plus heaps more which are too numerous to mention. More »

Arcade Fire.  The Canadian indie heroes have been pretty quiet of late… the only murmurs that have permeated our newsfeeds were allegations of pop diva Delta Goodrem ripping off their classic track “Rebellion (Lies)”… Until they announced they were releasing a double album! More »

Bird Radio (Mikey Kirkpatrick) is originally from Hereford, is a graduate in music from Goldsmiths College in London and has his own production company (Avacado Music) which has produced over 30 recording projects.

The world needs more artists like Bird Radio who are not afraid to stand apart from the mainstream musical dross with which we are bombarded on a daily basis. Bird Radio eschews the X Factor-radio-friendly format and very much walks his own path. Indeed, he is a one man band armed with a suit case that takes the role of kick drum, a flute which he loops in on itself along with other instruments and an interestingly quirky vocal delivery that lies somewhere between medieval troubadour and a wicked Daevid Allen. He sets his stall out from the very start of the album as being that little different from the norm – and that’s a good thing! More »

Nu metal.  Time has made a generic misnomer of  the term.  It’s no longer “nu”, and in many pundits’ eyes & ears, isn’t even metal.  Whatever your opinion of the bands lumped into that category, general consensus is that Korn were among the pioneers and just about the cream of the crop.  This is either a compliment or means they’re guilty of the greatest crime in the history of recorded sound depending on your musical bent . 

2013 marks 20 years since the band released their first demo, so it’s a  bit of a milestone year for them.   However, in the current musical climate of an incalculable number of bands spawning an inconceivable number of heavy sub-genres, a group widely perceived as irrelevant has-beens or never-weres releasing an album entitled ‘Paradigm Shift’, is either a really brave, or really fucking stupid move.  Which is it?  Read on, dear reader…. More »

Of the slew of ’90s/alt/grunge acts releasing albums of late, Pearl Jam is pretty much the only one which boasts a steady line-up and a consistent timeline of releases dating back to their debut.

They’re late to the party if you choose to compare the most recent release dates, but they’ve been omnipresent for the last two decades.  This could work either for, or against them; on the one hand the members’ experience and familiarity with each other may contribute to the album’s cohesion, but on the other hand they may be missing some youthful exuberance and simply going through the motions… 20 years is a long time and Lightning Bolt is their 10th album… More »

“Hey there sugar with your eyes so blue, ridin’ around in your red HQ!”.  Haha, those lyrics… they warm the cockles of my rural Aussie heart!

After releasing a couple of well received EPs, the four Findlay siblings and best known band from the tiny rural town of Darraweit Guim if you can believe it, have finally launched their debut album. More »

Seasoned readers of the Album review section of Hifi Pig will already be aware that you have a bit of a space-case fanboy of the undisputed kings of the spacerock genre in the form of yours truly and so it was with a good deal of excitement that I went and collected the latest release from Mr Brock and his boys from the mail box.

Essentially the “Spacehawks” album is a run through a few remixes of recent tunes and reworking of well trodden tracks and is released on the Eastworld label and kindly sent by Daz at Plastic Head Distribution. More »

“So much to see here in the darkness…” 

Australia (and indeed the world) is enjoying a wealth of heavy music right now.  Metalcore, new-school thrash, death and progressive metal are all thriving and our newsfeeds are chock full of new releases, gigs, tours, mind boggling arrays of sub-genres and all manner of heavy goodness. Yep, metal is alive and well.

Enter Circles.  Hailing from Melbourne, their debut 2010 EP ‘The Compass’ was released to universal acclaim and (willingly or otherwise) immediately had the mark of “progressive” stamped upon it.  The band seemingly has a most promising future.  ‘Infinitas’, their self produced full length album has been (to use a hackneyed cliche) ahem… highly anticipated. More »

Kathryn Williams is Liverpool-born but resides in the fine city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Crown Electric, the company Elvis used to drive for before finding fame, is her tenth album and her first solo record in four years.

The album is the distillation of over sixty songs that were narrowed down to the thirteen we hear on Crown Electric. The album was recorded live in three days at Bryn Derwen Studios in Snowdonia with Neill MacColl as guitarist, bandleader and producer, Lamb’s Jon Thorne on double bass and Cinematic Orchestra’s Luke Flowers on drums. It was mixed by David Wrench with sumptuous strings added later at Ray Davies legendary Konk Studios, arranged and recorded by cellist Ben Trigg (Dexys, UNKLE, Arctic Monkeys). There are collaborations on the record with Ed Harcourt appearing on three of the tunes and James Yorkston on another. More »

If you’re new to Drugstore (and I am) then here’s a brief history lesson. They’re labelled as a dream pop (whatever that is) band who formed in 1993 and debuted with an eponymous album which reached 31 in the UK charts…their second album from 1998, “White Magic for Lovers”, reached number 45. In total they’ve released four albums and had a top twenty single with “El President which was a duet between the band’s Brazillian singer-songwriter and bassist Isabel Monteiro and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. “The Best of Drugstore” takes, not surprisingly, songs from these albums. More »

This, on the Righteous label, arrived in the post on Friday and come Friday night it was on constant repeat on the CD player. Northern Boys is an album crammed full of Northern Soul tunes made “famous” by clubs such as the Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino and it is a really infectious collection.

Most of the twenty six tunes herein were originally released in 1959 and 1961 on obscure 45s (remember those?) and will be nigh on impossible to source now and so perhaps just for the rarity value this album is worth having – but that’s missing the point a bit I think. More »

It’s been 8 long years since The Arctic Monkeys first smashed their way onto the indie rock scene.  They sure came out swinging, brandishing the adrenaline fuelled foot stomper “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” and its parent album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ which both went straight to number one on the UK charts. 

Despite having a predilection for inconveniently long titles, they knew how to write a damn good rock song and deliver it in no uncertain terms.! However since that initial burst of energy and creativity, the band hasn’t been able to reach the bar they set so high early in their career.

Enter ‘AM’.  The title’s short… good start, but does it fulfil expectations?  Initial sales figures say yes, but that’s never any real indication.  Stew says…. More »