Giddy Motors:
They’ll be
flossing in the
Porta Potty.

Motors give the impression that they’re interested in complexity, but their subtle, jazzy structures get plowed over by corrosive guitars, ferocious drums, and a bark/scream so legitimately scary you might think singer Gaverick de Vis is under attack (or perhaps doing the attacking). In carefully measured doses— say, two songs at a time—it’s exhilaratingly ugly and mean; too much at once—even just Do Easy’s eight songs—gets exhausting. JOSH MODELL

Stormy Weather
A delicate voice that will creep up on you
Isobel Campbell
Milkwhite Sheets
⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE

songs are folk standards and trad-sounding originals, and some imagine humans courting animal wildlife— metaphorically speaking, not a huge thematic leap from Seas.

 

Herbert
100 Lbs. ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Ingenious producer reexam-
ines his dance-floor roots
Well, what do you know—
before he began composing
show tunes for club kids or
sampling the sounds of body
parts, enigmatic Englishman
Matthew Herbert made rela-
tively straightforward house
music. He did it well, too, as
demonstrated on this beefed-
up reissue of his 1996 debut
album. “Friday They Dance”
and “Take Me Back” are
reminiscent of early Masters at
Work and Josh Wink, respec-
tively, but they’re off-kilter
enough to hint at Herbert’s
later productions, while “Oo
Licky” points the way to 1998’s
bustling but cozy Around the
House—all that’s missing is a
soothing vocal from collabora-
tor (and wife) Dani Siciliano.
MICHAELANGELO MATOS

As Belle and Sebastian’s original belle, singer/cellist Isobel Campbell helped transform the pedestrian lives of her bandmates— and, by extension, fans— into something more magical. Solo, her music has grown less tethered to the present, and Milkwhite Sheets is the sound of her swan dive into the cosmos of psychedelic folk that’s so widespread these days.

Campbell’s voice is a wan thing; in terms of technique, her “Reynardine” can’t touch benchmark versions by Sandy Denny or June Tabor. But the new psych-folk scene privileges vibe, idiosyncrasy, and especially mystery—a quality in

This is the sound of
her swan dive into
psychedelic folk.

tions. Throughout, MacKaye fails to hit the high notes while harmonizing with drummer Amy Farina, but his shaky tenor lends the songs a necessary degree of tension, especially on “Everybody Knows,” a strummy romp in which the president is encouraged to let the door hit his ass on the way out. TREVOR KELLEY

 

FROM LEFT: SCOTT WILLIAMS; COURTESY V2

Fujiya & Miyagi
Transparent
Things
ITUNES MYSPACE
Brit trio posing as Japanese
duo swipe German beats
Stealing shamelessly from
Neu!’s propulsive kraut-rock
rhythms, Talking Heads’ angu-
lar guitars, and Wire’s deadpan
abstraction, the three Brits who
call themselves Fujiya & Miyagi
skillfully flatter their obvious
sources. There’s tension in the
coolness of “Ankle Injuries,”
plus equal helpings of tuneful
pop, orderly art, and com-
pressed rock. On “Collarbone,”
amid a minimal arrangement,
singer David Best sighs about
shoes with classic Anglo
detachment, but the guitars
and synths interlock in engag-
ing and invigorating ways. This
is dance music downsized for
iPods but also indie rock
expanded for the dance floor.
BARRY WALTERS

Ghost
In Stormy Nights ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Free-form Japanese collective
creates a beautiful tumult
Since their start in Tokyo more
than ²⁰ years ago, the avant tree-
huggers in Ghost have created
some of our era’s most colossal
psychedelia: Their best collec-
tion, 2004’s Hypnotic Underworld,
was a brilliant combo of jazzy
suites, gruff Age of Aquarius
rock, and verdant flute peaks.
In Stormy Nights, their eighth
album, ushers in more tense,
ominous airs. Following an emo-
tive, pastoral opener, “Hemicyclic
Anthelion” is a churning 28-
minute collage of live recordings
that arcs between silence and
face-melting Hendrix bomb
scares. Elsewhere, the sextet
marches to scrawled noise,
communal chants, distorted
yowls, and insistent percussion
(timpani, buzz-saw gongs),
creating an ecstatic, angry,
gorgeously mournful manifesto.
BRANDON S TOSUY

Recorded concurrently with last year’s Ballad of the Broken Seas ( dirtbag-meets-seraph duets with gutter prince Mark Lanegan), Sheets is Campbell’s hallucination of a cozy English garden party: Reverb drenches her flutelike voice, with acoustic guitar, dulcimer, recorder, hand drums, and ominous drones providing the backdrop. The

short supply in today’s reality-obsessed pop world. At its best, Milkwhite Sheets pulses with these qualities. And the album’s seductive creepiness speaks to the common criticism of freak folk as blissed-out escapism: Campbell conjures a pastoral world that, just as you’re succumbing to its beauty, reveals itself to be as dark and threatening as the real one. WILL HERMES

Giddy Motors
Do Easy ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Londoners can’t decide
whether to groove or growl
With their bracing, flailing
brutalism—think Jesus Lizard,
Helmet, or Mclusky—Giddy

Hot Snakes
Thunder Down
Under
ITUNES
Signing off in feverish style
with guitars ablaze
Though they disbanded in
2005, Hot Snakes—the Los
Angeles art-punk crew led by
Drive Like Jehu alumni John
Reis and Rick Froberg—haven’t
delivered a proper swan song
until now. Recorded at Aussie
radio station Triple J, Thunder
Down Under culls the white-
hottest material from the
band’s three studio albums—
all of which were also cut
live—and, on standouts like
“Braintrust” and “L. A. X.,” they
pack more loose, angular
urgency than the originals. If
Thunder is your entry point to
Hot Snakes, take note: Going
backward through the band’s
discography may feel anticli-
mactic. AARON BURGESS

Just another
corn-fed farm
girl with a
dark side

W WW. SPIN. COM JANUARY^{2007 3}