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...according to our Brian on Thu 12 Nov, 2009.
You've got to grasp opportunities when they present themselves have you not? Espying a pile of prospective review CDs I took the most interesting looking ones & recalled seeing the name Githead in a Wire article earlier this year. It's Colin Newman from (the band) Wire and Robin Rimbaud AKA Scanner plus 2 compadres. I would be expecting something a great deal more challenging from these arty behemoths but what you get for your wonga on 'Landing' is a clean, driving take on "indie" rock music, brilliantly produced and undeniably powerful sounding but somehow a little bland and pedestrian in structure for my ears? Bass player Malka Spigel adds a little bit of cool European chic to proceedings with her airy, detached vocals on 'Take Off' and others, plus there's a strong Stereolabean essence in the squalling motorik groove that is blatantly prevalent on much of the album. I reckon this CD would make for good background music in a slightly left-field designer drinkerie but as far as for thought-provoking home listening, i'm surprised to hear such revolutionary minds playing so damn safe! Certainly not offensive by any means however. CD in digipak on swim.‘Landing’ marks Githead’s third album (and fourth release) since their inception in 2004. In a short career that has boasted more five-star reviews than most bands have had hot dinners, ‘Landing’ is, unquestionably, Githead's most accomplished recording to date. For the uninitiated, Githead are Colin Newman (Wire), Malka Spigel and Max Franken (Minimal Compact) and Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). However, who they are is far less important than what they are. And what they are is a band, rather than a collaboration between four individuals. Githead has developed incrementally and organically : from the Krautrock-infused roots of 2004’s debut EP ‘Headgit’, through an expansion in style and mood on first album ‘Profile’ the following year, to the self-descriptive ‘Art Pop’ in 2007, which was critically hailed as the band's zenith. Improbably, ‘Landing’ goes one better. All the familiar components of Githead's distinctive idiom remain in place - Newman and Rimbaud's minimalist guitar patterns, their supremely catchy melodic sense, Spigel's propulsive bass rumble, Franken's solid, steady drive - but ‘Landing’ broadens the band's vocabulary considerably. Adding depth, texture and shading, this album’ ten tracks are somehow simultaneously harder, edgier, more expansive, more organic, and more hypnotic. Crucially, though, while Githead might now be speaking a more sophisticated, nuanced language, they never once lose touch with their essential pop sensibility. It's this unique balance of convention and subtle experimentation that's always distinguished Githead from so many others attempting to plough the same adventurous avant-pop furrow.
Tracklisting : ‘Faster’, ‘Take Off’, ‘Before Tomorrow’, ‘Landing’, ‘Ride’, ‘Over The Limit’, ‘Lightswimmer’, ‘From My Perspective’, ‘Displacement & Time’, ‘Transmission Tower’.
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