UPDATE 29th September 2005

New On The Chart



With a membership that includes former Williard Grant Conspiracy member Josh Hillman, Viarosa come to the table with a debut that offers a brooding gothic folk music similar to that of Nick Cave, Gallon Drunk's later albums or, most evidently of all, P. J. Harvey; indeed Richard Neuberg's lyrics, vocal phrasing and even guitar playing clearly owe much to the Yeovil songstress.

Although often replete with the ghostly influences of Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta, Viarosa rarely sound anything less than British. True, 'All This Worry (Will Soon Be Over) is a straight ahead Johnny Cash style stomper but it's a track that very much stands out amidst the dark dramatics that surrounds it. Opener 'Blindfold' sounds like the aforementioned Polly Jean crossed with the pharmaceutical madness of Suede's 'Introducing The Bands' while 'Boy' could be a disgruntled, stripped down version 'A Day In The Life' performed by the less savoury inhabitants of a Constable painting.

If the album starts off strongly, and indeed it does, it loses no momentum in it's closing stages. Rather, if anything, it improves as it inexorably reaches it’s conclusion, with the final three tracks which bookend the album amongst the best on the disc. 'The Violet Hour', perhaps to throw a spanner in the works of anyone trying to pigeon hole the group, could be straight off Mogwai's 'Young Team' before the more indicative sounding 'Soul Light', a windswept, mandolin-and-steel guitar dramarama, marks the high water mark of the LP. ‘Wake’, a FM radio tune gone masonic and sinister completes the album and with it forty seven minutes of thoroughly engrossing music.

Viarosa’s ‘Where The Killers Roam’ scores 7.18 and enters Konstantiranks at no.7

RELATED LINKS

Find out more about Viarosa here
>>> http://www.viarosa.co.uk/

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. viarosa - WHERE THE KILLERS ROAM 7.18
8. edan - BEAUTY AND THE BEAT 7.16
9. arcade fire - FUNERAL 7.15*
10. the white stripes - GET BEHIND ME SATAN 7.12*
11. king creosote - ROCKET D.I.Y 7.12*
12. roots manuva - AWFULLY DEEP 7.08*
13. smog - AIN'T TOO MUCH TO LOVE A RIVER 7.00*
14. mark mulcahy - IN PURSUIT OF YOUR HAPPINESS 7.00*
15. laura cantrell - HUMMING BY THE FLOWERED VINE 7.00*
16. the rakes - CAPTURE/RELEASE 7.00
17. mek obaam - YOU AND I 7.00
18. the go-betweens - OCEANS APART 6.94*
19. caribou - THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS 6.94*
20. teenage fanclub - MAN MADE 6.91*
21. amon tobin - CHAOS THEORY 6.90*
22. four tet - EVERYTHING ECSTATIC 6.88*
23. matt sweeney & bonnie prince billy - SUPERWOLF 6.86*
24. spoon - GIMME FICTION 6.85
25. whitey - THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS A TRAIN 6.85*
26. holopaw - QUIT +/OR FIGHT 6.81
27. thievery corporation - THE COSMIC GAME 6.80*
28. fog - 10th AVENUE FREAKOUT 6.76*
29. low - THE GREAT DESTROYER 6.72*
30. clor - CLOR 6.72
31. sons and daughters - THE REPULSION BOX 6.70*
32. lcd soundsystem - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM 6.66*
33. the clientele - STRANGE GEOMETRY 6.66
34. aesop rock - FAST CARS, DANGER, FIRE & KNIVES 6.64*
35. eastern lane - THE ARTICLE 6.63*
36. emiliana torrini - FISHERMAN'S WOMAN 6.62*
37. stephen malkmus - FACE THE TRUTH 6.58
38. malcolm middleton - INTO THE WOODS 6.75*
39. cagedbaby - WILL SEE YOU NOW 6.50
40. vanessa and the o's - LA BALLADE D'O
41. brakes - GIVE BLOOD 6.50
42. beck - GUERO 6.43*
43. bloc party - SILENT ALARM 6.42*
44. sufjan steven - ILLINOIS 6.41
45. minotaur shock - MARITIME 6.41*
46. field music - FIELD MUSIC 6.41
47. jose gonzalez - VENEER 6.40*
48. the shortwave set - THE DEBT COLLECTION 6.30
49. the national - ALLIGATOR 6.19*
50. momus - OTTO SPOOKY 5.53

tbr - quasimoto - THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LORD QUAS
tbr - coco rosie - NOAH'S ARK
tbr - king creosote - KC RULES OK
tbr - sebastian tellier - POLITICS

All of Konstantiranks can be found here
>>>> http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9800

Wow, you do make that Viarosa does sound interesting. I read some about them in the past at the americana.uk place and they seemed a little lukewarm, something like a 6/10 rating. The review sounded much better than the rating but I never followed up, even though I'm a huge fan of WGC and Cave and Cash and the Walkabouts and other bands they mentioned. Have to see if I can find some samples.

Have you heard the latest from Richmond Fontaine? The Fitzgerald. Very stripped down affair on this one. Talked about it in that last 2005 thread - really like it, though not for everyone. I know it's got a couple other big fans around here and was released over in the UK way before here in their own US.

http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=179994#179994

I made something sound interesting. Talk about the ultimate compliment!

Such is my ignorance, I don't think I've even heard of Richmond Fontaine but since you seem to know what your talking about I'll put it on the now very long Albums-I-Might-Pick-Up-With-Christmas-Vouchers list.

My CD budget doesn't much go beyond one album a week these days and I like to pick up new releases.

Darin, has that Andrew Bird album been released over there?

Seems like something you might like.

And Viarosa goes to the top of the wish-list.

Yeah it has and your not the first person to suggest I pick it up. I'll probably pick it up at some point but [hint of exasperation] there's just so many albums come out that I'd like to get but can't.

I'm sure we're all in that boat.

It's frustrating, isn't it? I need to make more money.

It's nice that you hold my opinion in such esteem but perhaps you should try before you buy. If I thought for a second people were spending hard earned cash based on my opinions, well, that would be terrifying.

If I can find any official MP3's I usually link to them but Viarosa don't seem to have any on their site. I'm sure you would be able to find some unofficial ones on Google though.

I figure I've spent about $50 before my feet hit the floor every morning, so the cost of a cd (or 6 or 10) ain't going to impact my lifestyle one way or another.

Besides, I can look at what's in your rankings and get a pretty good idea whether or not our musical tastes share enough similarity to chance something. I've spent hard-earned cash based on Davey's opinions before, too, but that's another thread....

I find it hard to believe that any of your cash was hard earned.

davey wrote :

This is currently in my Top 10 and starting to creep its way up. Davey's correct in stating this record might not be for everyone. It's mostly a stripped down, stark collection of songs about casino life in the vein of something the late Raymond Carver might write. At times, haunting.

Hey, now- I work my hands and effete to the (monkey) bone and still wind up baroque before payday.

Hey! No mixing of metaphors or music boards!