A Month In Records: June 2008

An impressive crop this month, as DiS has found it tough whittling a wide selection down to a top ten, and then a top five from that shortlist (oooh, slightly revised format).

To be honest, we’re amazed any listening got done what with the Euros on the telly and certain staffers involved in an office sweepstake. The editor – hello – didn’t win, and is now grumpy as his team ended up beaten finalists. Rubbish.

Anyway, records: here are the best of the best from June 2008, each worth your pennies and pounds.

Wooden Shjips
Singles Compilation Vol 1
(Holy Mountain)
Says Him Tall: “Wooden Shjips buck the trend of your typical West Coast psych band, holding seemingly little truck with the Californian sun-drenched blessed-out stylings of their historical predecessors, or indeed modern garage contemporaries (hello Warlocks, Modey Lemon, Brian Jonestown Massacre et al); they reference everything from serious heavy duty late 20th Century composers such as Terry Riley to the primal rock therapy of everything from the late lamented Bo Diddley to one-note synth abusers Suicide…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

Wild Beasts
Limbo, Panto
(Domino)
Says Alex Denney: “A thrillingly uneven listen, but what's important is that, like toddlers taking their first teetering steps, Wild Beasts are reeling in the instinctive knowledge they’ve set in motion an idea that’s been in their genes from birth, coursing fearless through learning limbs that seek out trauma as their cue to pick up the pen, the guitar or the microphone. As such, Limbo, Panto is shocking, funny, and above all irrevocable. Expect this lot to be around for the long haul…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
(Bella Union)
Says Tony Robert Whyte: “The door may have been more than slightly ajar for Fleet Foxes prior to this release, courtesy of peers such as Band of Horses and Bon Iver having the decency to attract plaudits aplenty, but even if it were locked tight there’s enough magic within the eleven tracks of their self-titled debut to prise any bolts clean from the timber. On they stroll, through into the light of a thousand hand-claps and audiences always on the grow, always keeping up with only themselves. Seems to have worked well so far…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

Johnny Foreigner
Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light
(Best Before)
Says Tony Robert Whyte: “Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light is an album of escapism, of sorts: sweat your troubles away, guys, because tomorrow’s another day and we can all deal with that shit then. It’s no 10/10 as Johnny Foreigner’s first EP was rated on DiS – to award such a mark for a debut album would be to ask the band to call it quits, as they’re unlikely to ever trump it – but it is a definite contender, alongside Los Campesinos!’s Hold On Now, Youngster, Foals' Antidotes and Wild Beasts’ forthcoming Limbo, Panto, for home-grown debut of the year…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

Flying Lotus
Los Angeles
(Warp)
Says Kenn Taylor: “Los Angeles is almost as seamless as it is engaging, and it subtly commands your attention from start to finish. That groovy, glitchy sound of Flying Lotus’s earlier work is toned down in favour of far more complex, multi-layered orchestrations of crackling, strings, hiss and water. It’s a mess of sounds, but controlled with some precision. You can feel that every note is in its exact right place. The album is most definitely a journey – not through sound specifically, but certainly powered by it…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

Sigur Rós
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
(EMI; read the full DiS review HERE)

The War On Drugs
Wagonwheel Blues
(Secretly Canadian; read the full DiS review HERE)

The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
(City Slang; read the full DiS review HERE)

2562
Aerial
(Tectonic; read the full DiS review HERE)

Errors
It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever
(Rock Action; read the full DiS review HERE)

Sons of Noel & Adrian
Sons of Noel & Adrian
(Shelsmusic)
Says Rachel Kellehar: “Supporting a total of nine songs and clocking in at over an hour in length, each inspirational, frequently brooding composition speaks in intricate tongues of simpler times, evocative instrumental breakdowns speaking the words the lips cannot. An intensely vivid journey into a discordantly beautiful world, Sons Of Noel And Adrian have liberated themselves from the constraints of society’s sonic status quo, and in doing so, have created something truly inspirational…”
Read the full DiS review HERE

DiScuss: There really were a lot of great releases in June – ones we couldn’t fit here include Alexander Tucker’s Portal, Russian Circles’ Station, Down I Go’s Tyrant, Daedelus’ Love To Make Music To and Joan As Police Woman’s To Survive. What’s been your favourite album of the last month?