Sparklehorse
"Vividixiesubmarinetransmissionplot"
Parlophone, 7243 8 32816 2 (47 mins) Dial-a-truck code 1201
Here's a rough diamond from the wilds of Bremo Bluff, Virginia, where Mark Linkous lives on a farm with his wife, Teresa, three dogs, two horses (natch), a cat and four reptiles. Sparklehorse is loosely based around Mark's dusty, dirt encrusted songs, many of which deal with equestrian pursuits, combustion engines and beautiful widows, and this album balances plaintive, whispered ballads like Weird Sisters and Spirit Ditch with direct, guitar chomping tunes like Rainmaker and Hammering The Cramps. Linkous's picayune observations on the rural American psyche blend nicely with the gritty, tough spitting sound and the weird, country garage atmosphere. It's like watching a mad mechanic at work among the debris of Americana, fixing up rock's rusty old engines and making them chug along the dirt track once more. Sparkling.
Porno For Pyros "Good God's Urge" Warner Bros, 9362-46126-2 (38 mins)
Dial-a-track code 1311
By some accounts, Perry Farrell has ditched much of his former nihilism and now sports a happy, hippie mystical world view, but thankfully, the Frank Zappa of US Alterno rock hasn't lost his over the edge persona. Good God's Urge is a relatively mellow affair, with songs like Porpoise Head and 100 way setting a serene, psychedelic groove but Farrell and his cohorts, Peter DiStefano and Stephen Perkins still know how to tear it up a bit, as shown in songs like Dogs Rule The Night and the second half of the title track. But it's the dips and swells of songs like Tahitian Moon and Freeway which really show the Pornos at their breakneck best, while the slow strumming tunes like Kimberely Austin and Thick Of It All are dripping with enough atmosphere to raise them above the banal.
Various Artists "True Brit - 40 Essential Indie Hits"
Polygram, TV 535 479-2 (159 mins)
Dial-a-track code 1421
If you're looking for a true "indie ghetto", you'll find it on the mid price racks of most record shops, with titles like The Best In die Album In The World Sort Of In die Moods or Sing A Long A Indie. If UK indie music is such a cornucopia of interesting alternative styles, then how come the same songs seem to crop up on these compilations every time? I reckon that if you've bought every indie collection which has been released over the past couple of years, then you will be the proud owner of six identical versions of James's Sit Down, ten of FMF's Unbelievable, and 50,000 of Edwyn Collins's A Girl Like You. True Brit does at least have some more recent, and therefore less heavily recycled stuff by Supergrass, Cast, Ash and Pulp, but the nostalgia section ruthlessly plunges us right back into baggy, shoe gazing and the Scene Which Endlessly Repeats Itself.
Various Artists "The Beautiful Game" BMG, 74321382082 (79 mins)
Dial-a-track code 1531
Football's coming home ... to roost. This is England's official Euro `96 album, and footie fans up and down the country will no doubt derive the same inspiration from this album that hippies got from listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash. This sentimental celebration of "togevvah-ness" through football features contributions from Blur, Supergrass and Pulp, Britpop's First Division champions. Black Grape join up with Joe Strummer and Keith Allen for England's Irie, a typical stoned out shouting match, Primal Scream team up with Trainspotting guru Irvine Welsh for The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown, which is basically a jam session with a few crowd sounds thrown in, and David Baddiel and Frank Skinner get together with The Lightning Seeds for the chin up to heaven anthem, Three Lions. With other contributions by Massive Attack, Stereo MC's, Teenage Fanclub, The Beautiful South and Jamiroquai, there's a good turnout on the pitch, and this album should help the Loaded lads keep their peckers up as they cheer for England at Euro `96. It'll also give them something to listen to while they cry into their lager.
