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Friday 6th April 2012
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On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

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Album Review

Wild Nothing
Gemini Captured Tracks

Article written by Ged M - Jul 17, 2010

Wild Nothing: Gemini

The album is infused by the ‘80s, in all its electronic drum, squishy synth and glacial guitar glory. Which is quite odd since Jack Tatum, the native of Blacksburg, Virginia who is Wild Nothing, only just scraped into the 1980s himself (he’s 22). It means he sees the decade in the round, influenced by the era rather than specific periods or movements as many of us who lived through it do. It basks in the sounds of the Cure, the Smiths, Pale Saints and the Field Mice, all blended in a base of late Factory Records pop, and worryingly even sounds like A Flock of Seagulls at one point (living through the ‘80s gives you the advantage of knowing the crushing dullness and inconsequentiality of that band).

The shimmering guitars of ‘Our Composition Book’, the melancholy tones of ‘Live In Dreams’, the fatally romantic acoustica-meets-synths of ‘O, Lilac’, the soaring, ethereal vocals of ‘My Angel Lonely’, are all musical signifiers of that decade and all are worked to stunning effect. He covers the same hazy, chiming and melodic pop territory on the brilliant ‘Summer Holiday’ as the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the obvious difference being that while the Pains represent collective teen ecstasy/ misery, Wild Nothing’s imaginings are the work of a bedroom laptop artist. But that song is as good as anything the Pains have done. Sadly there’s no room for his wonderfully inventive cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’ but this is a brilliant evocation of the 80s without sinking into the quicksands of nostalgia – good going for a bloke who wasn’t there for most of them.

Links:
http://www.capturedtracks.com/bands.php
http://www.myspace.com/wildnothing