SPECIAL FEATURE: A Retrospective on Reuben

Well now. I WAS going to review Reuben's brand new posthumous b-side compilation "We Should Have Gone To University", but after collecting my thoughts, decided that there's no point in reviewing it. If you like the band, you love the band and so would already be willing to spend £20 on two CDs of their rejected material and a DVD of Jamie (that's the singer btw) running around backstage with various bits of cardboard stuck to his face. You don't need me to tell you that the money has already left your wallet.

SO instead I decided to offer anyone who might not have heard this band a bit of indication where to start... and a SLAP IN THE FACE! WHYYYYYYY!?!

Barring their early demos and EPs (all tracks from which can be found on this new release), the 1st place to go has to be their debut album; "Racecar Is Racecar Backwards". Many will argue that this is their best album, and it's true that listening to it feels better than realising the album name is true. Pretty awesome eh?

The big singles all come from this album, including "Let's Stop Hanging Out" and "Freddy Kreuger", as well as brutal numbers like "Stuck In My Throat" and "No One Wins The War". There are a few less exciting numbers here, but even these are pretty good.

Their second full length "Very Fast, Very Dangerous" is a much more consistent number. While there are no specific stand out tracks, the overall standard is much higher. They also experiment with strings, programmed beats and longer unconventional song structures, prime examples being "Return of the Jedi" and "Every Time a Teenager Listens to Drum & Bass a Rockstar Dies".

The album seemed a bit more main-stream orientated. There was more singing than screaming, and lead single "A Kick In The Mouth" got a proper in video with girls in and everything! That said, this was the 1st Reuben album that I got, being it the latest release when I originally heard "Lights Out" on a free RockSound CD and got hooked, and it took me two months to get into it because I thought it was too heavy! Bear in mind that I was listening mostly to Korn at the time, so take from that what you will.

Then came the third album; "In Nothing We Trust". This was the "ideas" album, and introduced fans to cheeky pianos ("Agony/Agatha"), delay pedals ("Suffocation of the Soul", yes I gasped audibly) and super detuned filth ("Blood, Bunny, Larkhall"). This album, released on the bands own label after being dropped and produced by Biffy Clyro's old producer, sounded like a statement of individuality. Before, Reuben were a pretty awesome big-riff metal band who wrote straight up songs with provocative lyrics and catchy melodies. Now though, they were proper musicians. Over the 1st 3 tracks, there might only be 30 seconds that sound like it was definitely Reuben doing the playing, but it was awesome.

So yeah, my analysis? If you haven't already checked out this band, I suggest that you go in chronological order from the start. And if you've heard the band but not really taken any notice, go back and listen to the awesome lyrics. Notice how you know them all by the 3rd play through, and most of the drum fills too!

So yeah, I'm gunna go hang up my fanboy hat and cry for half an hour. Laters!
Chris/Audio Bigot. xx

ALBUM REVIEW: Temporary Pleasure by Simian Mobile Disco

Right, well after what now feels like an EPIC hiatus to focus on my own original music in it's various forms, I'm back. And if you're lucky, I may have a brand new rap. Although I've gotta say this is unlikely. (And yes it went very well thank you. I got paid! *Gasp*)

Ok, I fell in love with SMD when I saw them play live at Reading festival last year. Quickly hunting down the album after the weekend, I discovered that I was not the only one to rate this long player as a class piece of electronic music. But now the sophomore album rolls around, and people seem to be turning in far less glittering reviews of their once fabled "saviours of dance music".

This album takes a much more poppy line than prior efforts, with collaborations from Beth Ditto, Hot Chip and Gruff Rhys amongst others, and the tendency is start throwing the "sell out" shit around your cage. (See what I did there? That's a monkey joke.) But the truth is that it just won't stick. TRUE, opener "Cream Dreams" sounds like a Gruff Rhys track Ft. SMD, and I don't know WHAT they were thinking when "Turn Up the Dial" made the cut, but for the most part the inclusion of big name collaborators doesn't bother me.

And I'll tell you why.

Anyone who claims Simian Mobile Disco have focused too much on the guest artists and are using this to shift units, or whatever, are clearly forgetting two things; first, that 50% of SMD is James Ford, who has produced tracks for Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine, and so working with pop/indie artists is nothing new for him; and second that 10,000 horses can't be wrong.

You see, while there are some tracks that are incredibly poppy, there are others that retain the hard edged, minimal house feel of the SMD that people loved, and indeed improve on it. "10000 Horses Can't Be Wrong" is an amazingly gritty, blippy and exciting club chooon, and "Synthesize" has all the hallmarks of classic hard dance music. Yet these harder tracks sit well in the album, and never feel out of place.

This gives me the impression that while this album is certainly different to the other, it is not a cynical attempt to hit the mainstream, but mearly a natural progression of a band trying something different. They might be suffering from "Oh, now everyone likes them they aren't as cool anymore" syndrome, but fuck it- its still 4/4 right?

Cheers.
Chris/Audio Bigot. xx