Video Vacuum - Spectres, Outer Spaces, Wussy, Drinking Flowers

Im still a little broken after last night - let's watch some tunes.

Spectres have effectively killed their excellent 2015 album Dying by handing the songs out to various artists to reconstruct, scar and immolate, all coming together on double LP Dead. These artists include the likes of Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Andy Bell (Ride), Giant Swan, Blood Music, Factory Floor and more. The above is a total industrial scuzz of 'The Sky Of All Places' by Hookworms. The church bells, the distorted and slowed lyrics stretching the speakers... The clip itself is also great, showing three of them walking through hills and dunes to get to a naked body, drag it through the sand, put it in a box with their logo on it, and burn it. The guy? On the cover of their original album. So literal!

I know very little about Outer Spaces but was drawn to their film clip for 'I Saw You', its clipped footage of regular architecture and urban design and decay, all lines and grids. I find this kind of stuff fascinating, and it doesn't hurt that the song reminds me of early Breeders meets nuanced Veruca Salt meets Scout Niblett. Really dig this one.

Back to the feedback. Cincinnati natives Wussy have a dark and brooding film clip to go with their dark and brooding 'Dropping Houses'. Fast cuts, images of stars and galaxies, lens flares, underlit trees... It lends the song a degree of heft that you'd think these ragged rockers wouldn't need. It comes from their new album Forever Sounds which has been getting some pretty solid reviews, I will look into these guys tonight (NB: Wussy tour England April/May, hitting The Windmill in Brixton May 1).

Christos Faranas (Elephant House) has been one of my favourite electronic artists from London for some time now. He has released Talking With Remarkable Men, which 'You Have Now Found The Conditions Which...' is from. I love this film clip, the Afghan dance routines done in such a po-faced manner, it's like Jodorowsky directing a Sondheim number. Leaving over to minutes of silence as the end credits of said film scrolls across the screen is cheek personified.

Finally here is the oscillating Krautrock play from Drinking Flowers. 'Black Monday' is a but of a weird film clip - indebted to Dandy Warhols/Brian Jonestown Massacre songwise, the video plays with VHS grit, slow motion playing, strange costumes, a little moment of a suit getting shown up by a "girl" with a machine gun, multicoloured images, a flickering TV... But I love the song, so it's a winner from me.

Now get back to work!

AA Roman Typo

Another of the acts we have on Tuesday's Sonic Masala showcase, Roman Typo is a new London band that have me champing at the bit. It's clear the trio have that post-punk angularity etched into their DNA, but rather than the Joy Division route, or even the Wire route, we have a cross-Atlantic reference that we don't hear too much these days - that of seminal band Fugazi. Sure, the vocals share a tonal affinity with Mackaye and Picciotto, but there is a languid fluidity to the grooves that are laid down before things blast through the breakers. The inflections, the dragged notes, the melodies that feel ominous - it is all there, fermenting.

Many Ways In To Europe For Fraudband...One Way Out

On Tuesday is the next Sonic Masala showcase at Power Lunches. Joining us all the way from Melbourne is powerful, sinuous instrumental duo Fraudband, on their European tour launching their album Many Ways In...One Way Out. It's a great record too - there are moments of sparseness, and the entire album floats in its own fermented space, even when things get loose-limbed and frenetic. It reminds me of Dirty Three, without Warren Ellis but with his ghost infiltrating the elegant mass left behind, filtered through by crossroad blues, cathartic caterwauls and genuflecting nuance. It's a nebulous work that feeds off impulse and intuition, knowing when to slip into and out of a rhythm, when to stay clean and run roughshod over a build-up, when to hold back and when to purge. It's a classy yet rambunctious affair, and I cannot wait to see it heat up that small mirrored room next week. Buy Many Ways In...One Way Out through Kasumuen Records here.