Finisterre
Since hitting the music scene with the scorching debut Foxbase Alpha in 1992 and the fantastic 1993 follow-up, So Tough, Saint Etienne is a band that constantly looked as if it was losing its way as the years progressed.
A heap of singles compilations, label changes and some so-so studio albums between 1993 and 2000 saw Saint Etienne descending into the realms of the has-been. While 2000's The Sound of Water went some way to putting the band back on top, the material was still sorely lacking in the clout and Englishness that personified the trio on their early albums.
Although still far from recreating the band's glory days of Foxbase Alpha, its sixth album sees Saint Etienne breathing fresh life into its peculiarly English ambience, albeit in a post-Brit-pop and more mature manner.
From the opener, the pumping disco infused hit Action through Soft Like Me, a bubble-gum pop number, singer Sarah Cracknell's melancholy ice-cream-pop-styled vocals are in fine form. As are the combo's keyboard and programming gurus, Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley, whose thumping computerized 60s pop/70s infused disco sound is once again firing on all cylinders.
It's on the instrumental tune, Language Lab, however, that listeners get to hear the never-before-heard side of Saint Etienne. With Stanley and Wiggs incorporating rueful guitar themes and swooning strings into their predominately keyboard driven sound.
Surf
While still in his teens Roddy Frame had already crooned his way into the hearts and minds of the British public as the singer/songwriter for the Glasgow-based new wave/college band, Aztec Camera.
While the happy-go-lucky jazzy/folksy/pop crossover melodies of the combo's 1983 debut, High Land, High Rain, ensured its entry into the UK album charts, it was to be Frame's lyrical compositions that became the talk of the music press.
Lauded in nearly every UK music publication for his mature poetic compositions that told of love won and lost, Frame soon found himself being compared to Elvis Costello.
While the comparison was certainly flattering, the East Kilbride-born Scot quickly shed himself of any resemblance to Costello. Disbanding Aztec Camera in the mid-1990s, Frame released his debut solo album, The North Star, in 1998. The album and its jangle guitar-loaded melodies proved that Frame was not simply another Costello, but a top-notch balladeer in his own right.
Making a welcome return to music store shelves late last month with only his second solo album, Surf, Frame continues to prove his balladeering mettle.
Recorded at home with nothing but an acoustic guitar, Frame's latest album presents the gifted singer/songwriter in an undiluted format with Frame's considerable talents caught in the raw, so to speak.
Frame's accomplished guitar work and his wonderful pop hooks along with soulful and emotive vocals make the album accessible to all. Tunes such as Tough see the Scot in pseudo-60s mood and producing some exceptionally wistful hooks and a laid back but upbeat chorus, while numbers like the slow-moving Big Ben and the simple folksy love song, Mixed Up Love, are just a couple of the album's unhurried emotional masterpieces.
Live It Like You Love It
One of the UK's most underestimated bands, The Charlatans' passion for blending dance-orientated rhythms with 1960s-style swirling-organ-driven psychedelia and Brit-pop has always ensured the band's material was fresh and exciting.
While many expected the death of keyboard player, Rob Collins, in a car crash in 1996 to bring the curtain down on the band, The Charlatans defied critics and have gone on to produce a string of great albums.
While it looks as if we won't be seeing any new material this year, the band's record companies have been busy ensuring that nobody forgets about the combo. Hot on the heels of this summer's collection of hits, Songs from the Other Side, Universal has recently released the band's first live album, Live It Like You Love It.
Recorded live at the Manchester Arena in December last year, the album provides stalwart fans with an earful of great sounds and the uninitiated with an excellent introduction to one of the UK's most energetic guitar and organ-driven dance bands.
While focusing heavily on the band's newer, less upbeat and more soulful material such as Love is the Key and You're So Pretty, We're So Pretty, the album includes a few of the band's early dance-fuelled swirling-organ-driven tunes such as the awesome 60s styled The Only One I Know. The album's highlight, however, is a powerful re-working of the band's 1992 tune, Weirdo, featuring ex-Smith and fellow Mancunian, Johnny Marr on guitar.
Mother Earth 大地
It's been more than two years since Taitung's singing policeman, Chen Jien-nien (陳建年), became a household name after scooping the award for Best Male Performer for his 1999 debut, The Ocean
Since his surprise victory, Chen has been caught on vinyl only twice, with the movie soundtrack of How Deep is The Ocean (海有多深) in 2000 and a year later sharing space with fellow TCM folk artist Panai (巴奈) on a live album. Neither release, however, was construed as a follow-up to his award-winning Ocean.
While still chock-full of original folk hooks and riffs, Chen's long awaited second studio album, Mother Earth (
All of which, whilst sounding pretty odd, not only ensures Chen's material remains fresh, but works incredibly well and makes Mother Earth one of the most complete albums to have been released by a local artist in quite some time.
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
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