Kind of a quiet week in Indie Basement but as always I’ve found a handful of things worth checking out: New Orleans group Silver Synthetic have delivered a chill stunner of a psych rock debut; CFCF wrap its new album in late-’90s nostalgia; Requin Chagrin finds room to dream on Bye bye baby; Sorry are back with a between-albums EP; Ride‘s Andy Bell gets remixed by Pye Corner Audio; and there’s a new, unique book about the wonderful and frightening world of The Fall.

For more new record reviews, Andrew dives into the terrific new album from Damon Locks and more in Notable Releases. Other Indie Basement-approved things from this week: Museum of Love (Pat from LCD Soundsystem and Jay Dee’s Dennis McNany) announced their second album; The Avalanches are releasing a quadruple vinyl 20th anniversary edition of Since I Left You; Roisin Murphy is releasing an alternate version of last year’s amazing Roisin Machine; there are a bunch of Seefeel reissues on the way; and if Spiral Stairs is to be believed, carve out some time in 2022 for a full-on Pavement tour.

Also: Record Store Day announced its 2021 exclusive titles and, despite record pressing plants being majorly backed up due to the pandemic, it seems like there’s more stuff than ever, including some Basement-y stuff (Super Furry Animals, The Flaming Lips, the Other Music documentary soundtrack, The Replacements, and lots more).

Head below for this week’s action:

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Silver Synthetic – Silver Synthetic (Third Man)
Terrifically chill ’60s-style psych-pop debut from New Orleans band featuring members of Bottomfeeders and JEFF The Brotherhood

Back in 2017 or so, Chris Lyons of New Orleans’ Bottomfeeders realized he’d written a bunch of songs that didn’t quite fit with the band’s rip-roarin’ garage punk style. They were more melodic, almost gentle, and just asking for chiming guitars and rich harmonies. To help flesh them out, he enlisted his Bottomfeeders drummer Lucas Bogner, guitarist Kunal Prakash (who had played in the full band version of JEFF the Brotherhood) and bassist Pete Campanelli. Silver Synthetic were born.

You definitely want the words “garage” and “punk” out of your mind right now, as Silver Synthetic make tightly constructed, smart, tuneful, mostly chill and definitely very catchy psych-rock that draws from a whole host of inspirations spanning the late-’60s to the dawn of post-punk. (They would also fit on a bill alongside Cate Le Bon, Younghusband, and the much missed Ultimate Painting.) Their self-titled debut doesn’t have an unmemorable track on it.

Silver Synthetic is an understated album, but one that blossoms quickly and catches you off guard with its beauty and musicianship. If you’re like me you’ll go from “this is nice” to “no this is GREAT” pretty quick.  It’s also a terrific example of purposeful, concentrated noodling. The sunny “Around the Bend,” the poppiest song on the album, spends the last minute on a cyclical guitar lead worthy of Eno or Television that could’ve stretched out for a few more minutes as far as I’m concerned. Then there’s the album’s standout, “Chasm Killer,” a swaying, low gravity waking dream that seems to float on sunbeams and harmonies, with a ripper of a solo nestled tightly into the song.

Be it a Sunday morning or a Friday night, there is no bad time to listen to Silver Synthetic but the album probably sounds best on a sunny afternoon with a cool breeze blowing. It’s also so good that this may grow from side project to main project for its members. Says Prakash, “We’ve all been in punk bands and, to a certain extent, it felt like the most punk thing to do was to chill out a bit and work up a bunch of hooky, danceable rock-n-roll music with lots of guitar solos and vocal harmonies—you know, real punk shit.”

—

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: CFCF – Memoryland (self-released)
Montreal producer Mike Silver explores “the gulf between the fantasy, the reality, and the memory, and how we live inside each of those at different points” by revisiting sounds of the late ’90s.

Twenty-Twenty was a wild year with so much spinning out of control, so many things to be angry and frightened about, when we weren’t actively fighting things a lot of us slipped into comfort zones, whether it was baking sourdough, rewatching The Sopranos, or falling back in with the music of our youth. It happened with artists, too. Take Montreal’s Mike Silver who records as CFCF. “I was feeling fatigued by an overabundance of ‘calming’, productivity-oriented music,” Mike said.

Most of the music Silver has made as CFCF has fallen into the “calming” subgenre of electronic music — from Balearic and Japanese “City Pop” inspired records to an album titled Music for Objects that was just that — but for his new album, he “wanted to explore something angsty, messy, and dark, while also applying a pop sheen.” In doing that he took a trip back through the music of his late-’90s youth, encompassing not just electronic music (house, trip hop, jungle, techno) but also noisy indie rock and shoegaze. The result is Memoryland, a loose concept album about moving to the city in your early ’20s, “Losing your sense of self to the whims of your surroundings and trends in music and fashion; the wrong people, and trying to dig yourself out of that hole,” and then trying to find your own path.

Though Memoryland covers a lot of ground, both stylistically and in sheer length (it’s a double), it’s also CFCF’s most engaging record since his 2009 debut, Continent, and despite the genre-tripping it holds together as an album. The album isn’t as brazenly nostalgic as M83’s Saturdays=Youth, but it covers some of the same ground, especially on the early tracks like the jungle-shoegaze amalgamation “Life is Perfecto” and “Punksong” which is probably closer to The Radio Department than actual punk. He also gets some help from actual shoegazer No Joy on “Model Behavior.”

From there, the album becomes fully immersed in clubland, from the rush of going out dancing every night (“Night/Day/Work/Home”) to dalliances with the lounge scene (“i regret the jet-set”), French Touch (“Self Service 1999”), chillout grooves (“After the After”), and more. Tracks are interspersed with ambient collages that feel like actual memories of hanging out, hazy half-remembered conversations, and other everyday moments of life. The album ends with “Heaven,” featuring Sarah Bonito, that ties the album’s themes and sounds into one grungy dreampop anthem about the Greek myth of Icarus. Nostalgia has its place, especially when filtered through CFCF’s forward-thinking hands.

—

Andy Bell – The Indica Gallery EP (Sonic Cathedral)
The Ride singer-guitarist hands his solo songs over to analogue synthspert Pye Corner Audio.

Ride‘s Andy Bell released his terrific solo debut last year, and is now using the songs from it for a series of EPs he’s calling “Ever Decreasing Circles.” Andy explains: “Each release in the series will be smaller in size than the last, so we start with a 12”, then a 10”, a 7” and CD. I like the idea that the EPs represent fainter and fainter echoes of The View From Halfway Down and remind me of water splashes reducing in size on a pond, much like the shots in the sitcom’s opening titles! Pretentious, moi?”

The first of those, The Indica Gallery, is out today and features six of the songs from the album remixed by analog synth wiz Pye Corner Audio. If you’re familiar with Pye Corner Audio (part of the Ghost Box stable of retro-futurists) and Bell’s solo album, you know what to expect: trippy versions of Bell’s already trippy songs, majorly augmented with gurgling vintage analogue keyboards. Which is to say it’s pretty awesome. There’s also an edit of The Indica Gallery‘s title track by GLOK, which is Bell’s electronic pseudonym, making for ever more inner-spiraling circles of meta-ness.

There are lots and lots of Pye Corner Audio songs in Adam Curtis’ amazing new documentary series Can’t Get You Out of My Head.

—

Requin Chagrin – Bye bye baby (KMS Disques)
Chilly French dreampop for fans of Chromatics and Molly Nilsson

Parisian musician Marion Brunetto has been recording as Requin Chagrin since 2014, making the kind of dreampop with a real emphasis on “dream” — a wistfully lonesome sound that’s heavy on reverb, tremolo’d guitars, icy synths and melodies that hearken back to the early days of rock n’ roll. “David Lynch music” is a bit of crutch description, but it also takes you to a specific place and I would be shocked to learn that Marion disliked Twin Peaks.

Requin Chagrin also puts her own spin on this sound that’s just a little shoegazy and a touch more indiepop that many of the artists who wish they could play the Bang Bang Bar. Singing in her native language also adds to the air of mystery — rock and the French language don’t always go together so well, but it’s perfect for instantly evoking a noir atmosphere. Bye bye baby coulda been released on Captured Tracks in 2010 with its hazy mix that falls somewhere on the venn diagram of Chromatics, Molly Nilsson and Wild Nothing. You’re probably either hitting play or skipping to the next item at this point in this review, but this is superior stuff. Someone should slide David her album as he works on his new Netflix series, Wisteria.

—

Sorry – Twixtustwain (Domino)
New EP from London duo finds them in a more experimental mood in between albums, but no less captivating.

London duo Sorry released their debut album right when COVID hit, and were actually in NYC for their first-ever US shows when the city went on lockdown. It was good music for the times, dark and moody, woozy and boozy, and just a little claustrophobic. It’s was also a big sounding album, and very well produced. Weird, but with a sizeable budget. As a way to stay busy during the pandemic and work on new ideas before spending a lot more of Domino’s money on 925‘s official follow-up, Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen have given us a new Sorry EP that’s decidedly smaller in scale but no less enticing. The five songs on Twixtustwain are glitchier and more idiosyncratic, and also more creative, with a throw-it-against-the-wall attitude, and more of it sticks than not. Sorry are very good at “mopey” and there are a couple great bummers here: “Things To Hold Onto” sounds like a perfectly dreary day, with bloopy percussion as fat raindrops; while “Separate” revels in its bad mood, a musical equivalent of despairingly kicking the dirt. Sorry can also do sweet and romantic, too — “Favorite” charms like a modern day version of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You,” with Asha still exuding a sad vibe, but seeming happy to have someone with whom to share it.

—

Excavate!: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall (Farber & Farber)
A unique exploration of Mark E Smith’s endlessly influential band, featuring rare art, lyrics, new essays and more, edited by Bob Stanley.

There are already a number of great books about The Fall, including bassist Stephen Hanley’s The Big Midweek, Brix Smith’s The Rise The Fall The Rise, and Mark E Smith’s own Renegade, not to mention the compendium of ex-members, The Fallen. The iconic band’s lifespan is too big, too messy for a traditional rock bio, so Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley (who wrote the amazing Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop) and Tessa Norton have put together a unique book — Excavate! – The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall — that offers insight on the band via band fliers, rare artwork and photos, lyrics and other handwritten material, as well as essays by a variety of fans. “This book is not about a rock band,” Stanley and Norton say “This is not even about Mark E Smith. The book is for Mark E Smith more than it is about him.”

That last part is probably a bit of a joke, but it sounds like Excavate! will lovingly be poisoned with Smith’s style of bilous wit. The book is out now in the UK and will be released June 22 in North America. There’s an audiobook too, read by Maxine Peake, Pat Nevin and Dean Williamson, and as to what really went on there we only have this excerpt-uh:

—

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

—

A 15-SONG THE FALL PRIMER

“Repetition”

It all starts here with this b-side from The Fall's three-song debut EP, Bingo-Master's Break-Out, that became the band's maxim, all set to a nagging beat: "Who are sick of fancy music? / We dig repetition...this is the Three R's: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition!"

“Totally Wired”

Another of The Fall's early signature songs, IDLES frontman Joe Talbot called "Totally Wired" Mark E. Smith's "opus as a song." Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys' other band The Last Shadow Puppets covered it on an EP and in their lives shows. It's powered by a two-note bass hook, a pounding beat, an instantly catchy shout-along chorus, and Mark E. Smith's love of stimulants: "I drank a jar of coffee...and then I took some of these!" MES also remind us that "You don't have to be weird to be wired."

“Lie Dream of a Casino Soul”

The Northern Soul scene was huge in England in the early-'70s, with kids dressed to the nines, flooding clubs to dance to obscure Motown singles. Mark E Smith was a fan, and The Fall's 1987 cover of R. Dean Taylor's Northern Soul classic "There's a Ghost in My House" was their biggest UK hit. But MES was less a fan of those who went to clubs -- like the famed Wigan Casino -- and pretended like it was still 1963. (Or the bands who did, for that matter, like Dexy's Midnight Runners.) "Meanwhile in the sticks / Proles rich, dance in cardboard pants."

“Kicker Conspiracy”

A song that juxtaposes football hooliganism with the music scene at the time because of a similarity that Mark E Smith saw going on: that violence became the only interesting thing about either to the press. The references to both may go over a lot of people's heads but the band, banging out the kind of droning post-punk rockabilly The Fall always did so well, is killer, with MES shouting "FANS!!! Remember, you are abroad! Remember the police are rough! Remember the unemployed! Remember my expense account!"

“Hip Priest”

While Mark E Smith said over the years that the lyrics were a bit of a joke (and are either about how people saw him, or are a takedown of cooler-than-thou journalists), "Hip Priests" is more known for its methodical, decidedly sinister vibe. It was that unrelenting dark tone that had filmmaker Jonathan Demme use the song in the tense climax of Silence of the Lambs.

“C.R.E.E.P.”

Brix Smith, who both married Mark E Smith and joined the band in 1983, brought new ideas like choruses and pop hooks to The Fall. Almost overnight, Brix reshaped the band into something much more commercial, without really changing the band's M.O. One of the first singles she co-wrote is one of the poppiest things the band ever released, with "La La" backing vocals and an earworm keyboard riff. It's makes for a nice contrast to MES' lyrics about a "horrid trendy wretch" that might've been about former Fall bassist Marc Riley (who would later form The Creepers).

“I Am Damo Suzuki”

A noted krautrock fan, Mark E Smith paid tribute to Can yowler Damo Suzuki on this track from what many consider to be The Fall's finest hour, 1985's This Nation's Saving Grace. Smith drops in references to Can albums and singles throughout -- "What have you got in that paper bag? / Is it a dose of Vitamin C?" -- while the rhythm-heaving music is very clearly modeled on Can's Tago Mago classic "Oh Yeah."

“Hit the North”

The Fall's first experiment with a sampler yielded their biggest UK hit that wasn't a cover, as well as an enduring anthem for Manchester and all points North. Stephen Hanley notes in his memoir The Big Midweek, "Hit the North" was "initially inspired by Mark's dislike of Norwich... On the way back from playing there, Mark said, 'I don't like it round here! It's too flat. I can't wait till we hit the North.' And a couple of days later he had the words to a new political anthem." One of The Fall's all-time bangers, with one of MES' most iconic screeches.

“New Big Prinz”

In 1988, The Fall collaborated with choreographer/dancer Michael Clark on a ballet (!) called I Am Kurious Oranj that was kinda done in honor of the 300th anniversary of William of Orange's ascension to the English throne. (As you'd expect, the stage had a giant cheeseburger on it.) For it, and the accompanying album, they reworked their song "Hip Priest" into a shuffle beat glam rock stomper and "New Big Prinz" became a new instant Fall classic (which has also been covered by the Pixies).

“Bill is Dead”

A rare sincere, genuinely pretty (and admittedly Smiths-y) song from The Fall which came at a point in their crossroads, as 1990's Extricate! was their first album after Mark and Brix's divorce. Some posit that the song is about Brix, while others say Mark wrote it as a reflection on pre-rave Manchester. Such are the very open to interpretation lyrics of MES, but it's clear that with its chorus of "these are the greatest times of my life," this one meant something special to him.

“Idiot Joy Showland”

Mark E. Smith took great pleasure in mocking scenes and fads, and this song from 1991's Shift-Work takes aim at the the "Madchester" scene that overtook his hometown in the late-'80s and early-'90s with hoards of baggy-dressed ravers and bands aping Happy Mondays and Stone Roses. He pulled no punches: "Idiot groups with no shape or form / Out of their heads on a quid of blow / The shapeless kecks flapping up a storm / Look at what they are: a pack of worms."

“Hey Student!”

The Fall took an early songs they never recorded ("Hey! Fascist") and reworked it to be about the grunge/slacker college scene for 1994's Middle Class Revolt (which came out in the US on Matador which made them, at the time, labelmates with Fall fans Pavement). It's still a punk song, minus the crunchy power chords but with extra bile: "When walking down the street, it's always you I seem to meet / Long hair down and sneakers on your feet / As you listen to Pearl Jam in your room / I pick up a knife and I sing this song."

“Touch Sensitive”

While it only hit #90 on the UK charts in 1999, "Touch Sensitive" -- and its infectious "Uh hey hey hey hey!" chorus -- became something of a hit a couple years late thanks to being used in a Vauxhall car commercial. The riff nicks a little from The Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man" but The Fall, as always, make it their own.

“Dr. Buck’s Letter”

After a dodgy mid-'90s, The Fall rallied in the early '00s with some of their best records in ages, including 2000's excellent The Unutterable. The album is loaded with classics but none better than this one where MES reads an "essentials checklist" from celebrity DJ Pete Tong that was published in an in-flight magazine, over a killer, dubby groove. Mark E. Smith cracks up reading it at one point, which is one of the song's highlights.

“Blindness”

"Blindness," from The Fall's last great album (2005's Fall Heads Roll) features a fearsome bassline and shuffling beat that was apparently inspired by UK rapper Roots Manuva. This one was picked by Fontaines D.C. drummer Tom Coll, who says, "I still remember the time I heard our manager DJing it in the Workman's in Dublin and I had to go up and ask him what it was. It's just the best Fall tune there is."