theartsdesk on Vinyl 67: Squid, The Beatles, Beach Riot, Black Sabbath, Quantic, Heiko Maile and more

THE ARTS DESK ON VINYL 67 Squid, The Beatles, Beach Riot, Black Sabbath, Quantic and more

The biggest, most wide-ranging, regular vinyl reviews in the galaxy

The first of two December round-ups from theartsdesk on Vinyl runs the gamut from folk-tronic oddness to Seventies heavy rock to avant-jazz to The Beatles, as well as much else. All musical life is here... except the crap stuff. So dive in!

VINYL OF THE MONTH

Simo Cell Yes.DJ (TEMƎT)

Album: Arca - KICK ii / KICK iii / KICK iiii

★★★ ARCA - KICK II / KICK III / KICK IIII Gothic darkness, ultrapop, high art, street music and haughty aloofness collide

Gothic darkness, ultrapop, high art, street music and haughty aloofness collide

Alejandra Ghersi – Arca – is one of the most influential musicians on the planet in the last decade. Even aside from working with huge names like Björk and Kanye West, her ultra-detailed, high drama, electronic abstractions have set the pace for a legion of artists from very underground to ultra-pop.

Album: Nightmares On Wax - Shout Out! To Freedom...

Leeds via Ibiza's space-soul master heads skwyards

George Evelyn is one of British music’s more interesting characters. With equal parts Yorkshire bluntness, hip hop swagger and cosmic dreams, he has filled Nightmares On Wax’s beat collages and soul grooves with soundsystem heft and endless inventiveness for over three decades now. Ever since the N.O.W.

Album: Finneas - Optimist

★★★★ FINNEAS - OPTIMIST Brother and collaborator of a big star steps out on his own

Brother and collaborator of one of the biggest stars on earth steps out on his own

This record is a heck of a metatextual experience to listen to. In releasing his debut album, 24 year old Finneas O’Connell is attempting to step out of the shadow of one of the biggest pop cultural behemoths of our time – his own sister, Billie Eilish, who he also writes and produces for – and mark out a creative lane of his own. And he’s documenting this in many of these songs, which touch repeatedly on his experience of fame, struggles with identity and the like.

Album: James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart

★★★★ JAMES BLAKE - FRIENDS THAT BREAK YOUR HEART An engagingly varied set

Our James Blake-phobic reviewer has to admit the singer's latest has much to admire

There I was, gleefully prepared to give this a good kick-in but, annoyingly, it’s defied my expectations. I’ve come to associate James Blake’s singing with the worst excesses of I’m-so-vulnerable-me, post-Jeff Buckley, falsetto-voice-breaking, and his public persona with joylessly prescriptive and enfeebled ultra-wokeness.

Album: Vangelis - Juno to Jupiter

★★★ VANGELIS - JUNO TO JUPITER Septuagenarian electronic don maintains course to the stars

The septuagenarian electronic don maintains his course to the stars

Along with Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis is a key figure in the development of - to be loosely colloquial about it – trance and chill-out electronica. His 1970s work was proggy trip music, laced with classical aspirations that later came into their own. Artists from Sven Väth to Air to Enigma owe him a debt, as do those involved in the current boom in soothing electro-classical sounds.

Album: Black Dice - Mod Prog Sic

★★★★★ BLACK DICE - MOD PROG SIC The raw electronic trio get to the hub of things

Twenty-three years into their career, the raw electronic trio get to the hub of things

There’s a strand of music that a friend of mine once referred to as “Caveman Electronics”, which snakes through the decades, never quite becoming a genre. It’s surfaced in scenes and moments like postpunk and electroclash, you can hear it in bands like Add N to (X) and maverick house/techno producers like Jamal Moss and Funkineven. You can trace it back through Cabaret Voltaire’s breakthrough and Suicide back to “Popcorn”, and even Joe Meek’s productions.

Album: Amon Tobin - How Do You Live

Perennial electronic wizard pushes yet further into unexplored, sometimes loud, always compulsive terrain

Amon Tobin is hard to pin down. His music has mutated over the years. He initially fitted in with Ninja Tune’s late-Nineties/early-Noughties roster of post-hip hop stoner breaks, heavily jazzed. But in more recent years, he’s wandered into an area where glitchy soundscaping and avant-classical experiments are laced with warped sampling. Then there’s his industrially heavy Two Fingers crunch-step project.