Konstantiranks in it's entirety here >>>
http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9800
UPDATE 8th August 2005
New On The Chart
Clor were, until now, best know as
Roots Manuva's live band. However this debut is about as far away from
Roots Manuva as you could possible get. Instead,
Clor give us a heady brew of early 80's music wrapped up in a defiantely New Pop package.
Unlike most bands of the moment,
Clor haven't made referencial selections form the hipster approved back catalogue. Rather, so it would seem, they have simply thrown the damn period into the pot and quaffed the high-in-E-numbers concotion in one swift gulp.
It's all here. The
Kraftwerk influence, heaps of chart friendly New Wave like
The Jags,
Martha & The Muffins and
The Cars, the occassional nod to
Talking Heads, early
Prince and, not surprisingly,
Gary Numan and other UK electro pop acts.
This album will most likely be anathema for those who take their music seriously but the hooks and tunes are usually good enough to stick to the inside of your head like a Post It note from
Howard Jones.
Clor scores 6.72 and enters Konstantiranks at no. 28 from 44.
In this age of hyperbole everything is apparently "super fantastische". But how often do you read a review that lays it on the line and says "
This is the album of the year"? Not often in my experience, but such was the claim I was confronted with when I read of
Two Gallants and their debut album the
'The Throes'. It's an album that lives up to such claims.
The album art features endless tracts of desolate, snow patched prairie amidst which lies the bloodied corpse of an eagle. It's an image which matches the music perfectlly, embracing, as it does, the depression era folk of
Woody Guthrie and the 'outlaw' music of country stalwarts like
Willie Nelson or
Waylon Jennings.
The most striking influence, however, is that of
Bob Dylan of which they share much of their sound but to mark them down as a copy cat act would be to do them a great disservice. The facts are much of the music on this album can comfortably stand comparison with that of their musical influences.
Pick of the bunch is the eight minute, Old West murder ballad
'Crow Jane' with vocalist Adam Stephens fugutive croak
"Somehow I ain't got no hope, cos I'm still running from the Sheriff's rope....All I know is I'll still run". You can virtually taste the dust, feel the bruises.
An extraordinary record,
Two Gallants score 7.66 and enter Konstantiranks at no. 1 from 44.
RELATED LINKS
Find out more about Clor here
>>>
http://www.clor.co.uk/
Video and Audio of Two Gallants can be found here
>>>
http://www.twogallants.com/audio.html
KONSTANTIRANKS 2005 (CURRENT STANDINGS)
1. two gallants - THE THROES 7.66
2. edgar 'jones' jones - SOOTHING MUSIC FOR STRAY CATS 7.62*
3. mogwai - GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONS 7.40*
4. the fiery furnaces - EP 7.40*
5. antony & the johnsons - I AM A BIRD NOW 7.38*
6. the broken family band - WELCOME HOME, LOSER 7.23
7. the white stripes - GET BEHIND ME SATAN 7.16
8. edan - BEAUTY AND THE BEAT 7.16
9. arcade fire - FUNERAL 7.15*
10. king creosote - ROCKET D.I.Y 7.12*
11. roots manuva - AWFULLY DEEP 7.08*
12. mark mulcahy - IN PURSUIT OF YOUR HAPPINESS 7.00*
13. laura cantrell - HUMMING BY THE FLOWERED VINE 7.00
14. mek obaam - YOU AND I 7.00
15. the go-betweens - OCEANS APART 6.94*
16. caribou - THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS 6.94*
17. teenage fanclub - MAN MADE 6.91*
18. amon tobin - CHAOS THEORY 6.90*
19. four tet - EVERYTHING ECSTATIC 6.88
20. matt sweeney & bonnie prince billy - SUPERWOLF 6.86*
21. spoon - GIMME FICTION 6.85
22. whitey - THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS A TRAIN 6.85*
23. thievery corporation - THE COSMIC GAME 6.80*
24. smog - AIN'T TOO MUCH TO LOVE A RIVER 6.80
25. fog - 10th AVENUE FREAKOUT 6.76*
26. malcolm middleton - INTO THE WOODS 6.75
27. low - THE GREAT DESTROYER 6.72*
28. clor - CLOR
29. lcd Soundsystem - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM 6.66*
30. aesop rock - FAST CARS, DANGER, FIRE & KNIVES 6.64*
31. eastern lane - THE ARTICLE 6.63*
32. emiliana torrini - FISHERMAN'S WOMAN 6.62*
33. sons and daughters - THE REPULSION BOX 6.60
34. stephen malkmus - FACE THE TRUTH 6.54
35. cagedbaby - WILL SEE YOU NOW 6.50
36. brakes - GIVE BLOOD 6.50
37. beck - GUERO 6.43*
38. bloc party - SILENT ALARM 6.42*
39. sufjan steven - ILLINOIS 6.41
40. jose gonzalez - VENEER 6.40*
41. minotaur shock - MARITIME 6.36
42. the shortwave set - THE DEBT COLLECTION 6.30
43. the national - ALLIGATOR 6.19*
44. momus - OTTO SPOOKY 5.53
tbr - quasimoto - THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LORD QUAS
tbr - field music - FIELD MUSIC
