Caught up a little with some albums of the last 12 months.
First up. Achtung Bono by Half Man Half Biscuit.
HMHB albums tend to veer between those that are full of humour and those that are full humour AND are really depressing. I’d say Achtung Bono falls in the first camp, if only for Joy Division Oven Gloves alone. HMHB are a band I’ve followed off and on since the early nineties when I picked up a cheap vinyl copy of “MacIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt”, the only album to have been named after characters from an episode of Michael Palin’s “Ripping Yarns”. The main appeal of the band for me is in the lyrics of Nigel Blackwell. Like MF Doom, Blackwell has an awe inspiring verbal dexterity that allows him to drop words into a song that you’d never expect to find set to music. Combined with the actual themes of the songs, invariably the minutiae of life in Britain, makes for an intoxicating combination. That no one I know seems to appreciate. In my entire life, I’ve only run into two other people who like them.
Favourite tracks so far are the opener “Restless Legs”, about a man’s inability to keep his legs still while sleeping, the aforementioned “Joy Division Oven Gloves”, and “For What Is Chatteris…” if only because it mentions a Cambridgeshire town that is awfully close to my hometown. A good listen overall, but not quite up there with “Cammell Laird Social Club” or “This Leaden Pall” as the best of HMHB’s albums.
Second up, Cut Chemist’s “The Audience’s Listening”.
Cut Chemist is probably my favourite hip hop DJ (have we stopped calling them turntablists?). Clever without forgetting to create a tune you can hum, his contributions to Jurassic 5 were second only to Chali 2na and his collaborations with DJ Shadow and Shortkut are awesome. So it was pleasing to hear his solo debut keeps up the high standard he’s established for himself. Here’s the video for the track “Spat”:
www.hmhb.co.uk/
Cut Chemist