33-45 is a celebration of vinyl culture, all our reviews are of current vinyl pressings. Tom Hinton talks anything vaguely guitars whilst Miles Probyn deals with the house…

Still Corners – Cuckoo
Sub Pop
Out: 11/07/2011

http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=340904

Cuckoo is Still Corners first release on the mighty Sub Pop and serves as a warmup to their debut long player “Creatures of an Hour”, out soon through the same label. Recorded at songwriter Greg Hughes own recording studio it’s truly beautiful. Carried along in large part by the incredible vocals of Tessa Murray. The story goes that Hughes first saw Murray when for some reason he got off at the wrong stop on a train journey and she was the only other person to alight at the same time, whether this was fate, coincidence or a nice neat anecdote to feed journalists doesn’t really matter. What does is how well they compliment each other. Behind the wistful vocals the track is subtle and understated, a mournful organ, minimalist drumming and punctuating guitar riffs.

Haxan Cloak-Observatory
Aurora Borealis
Out now
http://www.aurora-b.com/shop_EU_AB.php

Sound artist Bobby Krillic has already released one of the albums of the year under the guise “The Haxan Cloak”  with his debut of the same name. There’s talk of a vinyl release for it, so it’ll get a proper write up when that happens but you really should just go and get it now. The tracks on this release were written after those on the LP and are available here in a second pressing, limited to a run of 200 on Aurora Borealis, that home of so many things dark and beautiful. The 2 tracks here showcase a different side to Bobby’s work, less brutal soundscape and more mesmerising dancefloor darkness. Observatory’s repetitive driving refrain hold that same hypnotic madness that made that Zombie Zombies album such an intense record. Honfour (Temple) on the B side is a softer more atmospheric, sprawling beast. A song to float away to.

Roundtable

Out Now

http://www2.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=340755Computer Magic is Danielle ‘Danz” Johnson, 22 years old and Brooklyn based, trendy but still lovably geeky. Her website contains a helpful NFAQ page containing things like the answer to “What is Computer Magic translated into binary code?”. This is her first UK release although the tracks have been bouncing about for a while thanks to her policy of pretty liberally throwing them up online. The music itself is a kind of bedroom synth pop. Layered, flowing synths and a casually whined vocals that make it easy to not quite pick up on the melancholy nature of the lyrics. Remixes by Deptford Goth and Christian AIDS apparently exist to be hunted down on the interwebz but they’re not included on the actual release (certain to be worth checking though). The End of Time by Computer Magic

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Tom Hinton

This entry was tagged as 33-45, aurora borealis, computer magic, fucked up, matador, roundtable, still corners, sub pop, the haxan cloak, tom hinton, vinyl.