Sonic Youth, Grime and a stupid band name...



!!! - Louden Up Now

Much anticipated new CD from the band who have the stupidest name in the existence of time: '!!!' , apparently if you actually want to say there name you just need to repeat 3 repetitive noises, "chk chk chk" being the traditional version - I'm sorry but just fuck off, that's crap, get a proper name... Now that I've got that out of my system let's get back to the issue in hand, ie the album. Well, like anything that gets hyped to death - it's all a bit of an anticlimax, don't get me wrong there are some great tunes here: kicking off with the excellent When the Going Get Tough, The Tough Get Karazee and Pardon My Freedom, but then they start to calm down a bit... until we get to the song with one ofg my favourite breakdowns ever Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard, but that's been out on an EP by itself and seems a bit out of place on the album. I'm probably being a bit too harsh on this CD really, it's very danceable and makes doing the ironing much more fun - I just think there's material here for a truly great EP rather than a quite good album.



Grime

Grime seems to be what the kids are calling the newest form of urban music, I always had the impression that it grew out of the garage scene, but from what I've heard here it's got much more in common with drum'n'bass. Of course this CD may be completely missing the point as there are only three artists on display here: Mark One - who seems to be the star of the show, Plasticman - who uses the vocal line from Technotronics Pump Up The Jam and completely gets away with it, and Slaughter Mob - who bring a bit of dub terrorism into proceedings. It's all pretty intriguing stuff.



Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

I've been listening to this album pretty much non-stop since Monday, and I'm damned if I can pick a track I don't like. Absolutely blinding album that should put bands half there age to shame and in my opinion is the best thing they've done for years.