HOME

REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

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”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

The Burns Unit
Side Show S/R (Proper Music)

Article written by Matt H - Aug 29, 2010

The Burns Unit - their rejected design for the Scottish Parliament just had to be built somewhere

The Burns Unit starts off seeming like something of a low-key super group from the edges of Scottish folk, the only surprise shaping up to be that serial collaborator James Yorkston doesn‘t stick a banjo in. So as things kick off, the principals bring familiar textures - Since We’ve Fallen Out kicks off with King Creosote’s trademark ebbing and flowing drones married to Karine Polwart’s more traditional delivery. Trouble has Emma Pollock’s more jaunty Delgado-pop in the lead. Only then does the record true reveal the true extent of its ambitions pace changing up completely with Soom T’s politically bhangra-charged Send Them Kids To War.

So there’s a broader Scottish cultural background being drawn on and, having introduced the parts, Future Pilot A.K.C. (geddit? - no fear of a pun here) blends the lot together in impressive style, all sinuous beats and gently heartfelt vocals. After that it feels a little odd for the record to break back into its constituents, with Karine Polwart to the fore with the Blood, Ice and Ashes; a less histrionic Tori Amos with unexpected bursts of loud guitar amplifying its minor chords. But the quality never drops: Sorrys is classic King Creosote break-up; You Need Me to Need This goes from stately ballad to drunken waltz and back bringing in Michael Johnston; Future Pilot AKA’s pop sensibility is matched by that of Kim Edgar on Majesty of Decay; What is Life? is nothing less than gentle Indian circus-ska of all things; Helpless to Turn is the sort of lush but downbeat song writing that gives grown-up music a good name.

That each of the collaborators has retained their individual sound stops this becoming the sort of bland musical soup that can too often result when musicians come together. That it genuinely makes sense as a whole is even more impressive even if the reason is elusive. But make sense as a lovely, but hard-centred whole it does.

Links:
http://www.theburnsunitband.com
http://www.properdistribution.com/
http://www.myspace.com/theburnsunitband