The Complete Anthology (Disc 3) - Stump

Track list:
  
1. The Queen And The Pope
2. Seven Sisters
3. The Rats
4. Warm In The Knowledge
5. The Song's Remains
6. Safe Sex
7. The Lipstick Maker
8. Maggie
9. Love Is Too Small A Word
10. Ice The Levant
11. Thelma
12. Angst Forecast
13. Heathers In Shelter

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2007

More Stump now, such is the way with multi-disc retrospectives. You may wonder, if you are reading in order (as if you are) why I jump from Disc 1 to Disc 3. Where is Disc 2? Well, that is filed under the album it represents, A Fierce Pancake. I'm not sure why but I am not about to go and restructure things for consistency - it simply wouldn't be in the spirit of this band!

Disc one was a mess, but with some interesting bits and pieces mixed in, and I kept more than I thought I might. That was the last post of 2017, this the first of 2018. What does the new year bring?

My first thought is that the sound is more matured than yesterday's fare. There is more obviously a tune, albeit one realised through odd sounds and weird lyrics. The Queen and the Pope is much more clearly a song than Tupperware Stripper was (or many of the other offerings). It feels milder, too... watered down somehow. This is both good and bad. If the more extreme tendencies have been reigned in then there might be some more palatable sounds here, but on the other hand if it dulls the spirit, then it might end up with a bunch of dull tripe.

Early impressions are more the latter.

I was not expecting folksy sounds. The Rats opens with a very exaggerated Irish vocal, and a twangy little string accompaniment. I rather like it, moreso for the surprise, but it really does not belong on the same album as the first couple of tracks. It is over quickly and replaced by more of the quirky electro peaks and troughs that remind me of the small volume of Devo tracks I acquired at some point. It's spikey, hard to get into, but I think it largely works. The fast-paced vocal offsets the janky sounds well, though it goes a little tuneless in places and the end is bizarrely sudden.

This disc is jumping all over the place as the next number goes slower and darker. There is a nice atmosphere to it, the thrum of the bass in particular. The top end is light touch, soft, subservient and layers well for the most part - but then it takes over as a focus, a sort of evil magic tingle (if you've seen the same films or played the same games I have that might mean something) and it's an awkward, unpleasant central passage. Thankfully order is restored on the track so as not to sour me on it.

Then ugh. Safe Sex is just noises, unpleasant noises - bubbling sounds and nasal vocalisations. It does not belong on any record, ever.

It's a struggle not to be distracted by shopping... my brain is clearly in an "acquiring things" mode and with the sales on, I have a couple of wardrobe requirements to fill. Yet I haven't been motivated to look for things when not sat here listening. Classic attention and focus problems that have affected me for a few months now, and I am not sure why. In any case, after the horror interlude, the sounds have returned to something more tuneful. It is all very dated, but there is an 80s charm to Stump when they are palatable, and an 80s horror to them when they are not.

I have not been as immediately aware of, and uncomfortable with, the nonsense lyrics today. My instinct is that they are as all over the place as before, but they are less of a front and centre feature. Now there is a repeat of a track from yesterday... Ice the Levant has improved marginally on this later recording. Like many of the tracks here there is a more definite sense of a tune behind the screams and proclamations of oddity. It's still not worth holding on to, though there is a really pleasing resonance to some of the lower notes that I don't recall from disc 1. The screeches are too much though, as they were before.

Now that I am most of the way through, I will re-assert that yes, this is a more mature sound. By the time these tunes were recorded Stump had obviously refined their songwriting and performance. There is less random cacophony and more consideration. More of a standard pattern to subvert with their randomness rather than noise for noise's sake. There might not be anything as iconic as a man shouting "does the fish have chips?" but I prefer this more harnessed, controlled weirdness. They still have the interesting sounds here, they just use them in the production of tunes that are more, well, tuneful. For all my distractions and reluctance to fit this in today I have rather enjoyed it and am surprised to find myself keeping much more than not. The last track puts me in mind of Laika & the Cosmonauts, which is a very positive thing. Happy New Year.

Coconut - Archie Bronson Outfit

Track List:

1. Magnetic Warrior
2. Shark's Tooth
3. Hoola
4. Wild Strawberries
5. Chunk
6. You Have a Right to a Mountain Life / One Up on Yourself
7. Bite It & Believe It
8. Hunt You Down
9. Harness (Bliss)
10. Run Gospel Singer

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2010

Oh dear lord. I remember not getting on with this at all, after buying based on their cover of a James Yorkston song on the collectors edition of When the Haar Rolls In. The covers disc there led me to some beautiful things - not least Cathal Coughlan and on to Microdisney but I recall the sounds I heard as I was ripping Coconut made me sure I would never play it. Perhaps it was one bad track, perhaps there is something here... now is my time to find out.

The first strains aren't exactly encouraging. There is a nice menace to the riff but the edge into the performance is a little too fuzzy for my liking, and the drowned vocal is not really my cup of tea either, though the riff dominates to such an extent its easy to overlook the vocal almost entirely. Well, this will certainly keep me awake. In now customary fashion I remark about how few posts I make here, or rather the length of time between them. I ran out of excuses, even to myself, hence I am defying droopy eyes to listen to something I have been putting off. Magnetic Warrior's cacophony is a million miles away from the cover of Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes (weird song title alert!) that led me to take a punt on Coconut. The incessant noise is pulsating... I can imagine it creating a good gig atmosphere even as I struggle with it.

The second track tones things down a little to begin with, but the echoey effects around the edge of all elements of the track is really off-putting. It is clearly a deliberate aesthetic choice rather than poor recording, but it makes me feel like the songs are rattling around my skull, concussing me rather than opening spaces for me to enjoy. For all that, I will praise them for having personality. I may not like the effect they have chosen to style the opening tracks on but it gives the album identity.

Archie Bronson Outfit seem to build songs on riffs, and filling them with sound. There is a nice solid drive to Hoola and here, the echo absent except on the vocal, their strong guitar lines are better defined, better employed. A good energy sweeps the song along, and without the brain-battering fuzziness and with a few more open holes in the wall of sound I find I rather like the song that is left. Of course, it then fills in those holes no sooner have I typed that, but it remains a marked improvement.

It has been an odd week. Many board games played, many days worked from home. Today was my first day in the office for a week and I am remote again tomorrow; it's all rather thrown me some and I need to try to establish a better pattern to life again. Clear evenings, some energy and drive at weekends... these things would be nice and conducive to building a healthier lifestyle. So far my intent to get out on the bike more have been frustrated, and I can only blame myself. After another noisome number, we hit on something that reminds me a little of Devo - quirky rock, with high pitch sounds. This lacks the offense of the louder tracks, but also the personality. Whilst there are riffs here, they are less compelling even for being clearer. It ends up being a bit of a nothing track as a result, which is a disappointment as when I first heard the change in sound I thought there might be something there for me. The track drags on a little too long, just to rub that in.

This must read as a hate on. Whilst it is true that I will be culling most of the disc when it concludes, there are elements here I appreciate. The decision to build the songs around strong central riffs is a good one, and the riffs in some cases are bold ones - statement making ones - that have real power to them. Employed with more careful support I think I could have really enjoyed some of them. It's the buzzy, fuzzy constancy of the sound that wears me down rather than the core concepts. Sometimes that sheer volume and layered sound can work, drawing me into a bubble that (stupidly) makes the ringing in the ears when it subsides feel good. Mogwai do that well, I find - building noisy but demanding crucibles. Here the edge is wrong, and it sets everything out of place. It is not a million miles from something I could really like, but the couple of postcodes are far enough in the majority of cases. Bite it & Believe it steps back the right side of whichever imaginary line in the sound I am talking about. Like Hoola before this track drops some of the overwhelming elements in the arrangement. The sound and noise is still constant, but it is constrained, kept manageable by a smaller scope.

I think it is unfortunate that when the songs are most accessible, they are probably also most dull. Hunt You Down is a good example of this phenomenon as nothing here is too loud or too challenging. It slips into a nice little rhythm early. It's nice. Then it just stays there, rinses and repeats, being nice for 4:22 without once becoming engaging. I can see more to like in tracks like the opener which I actively disliked than in ones like this which are simply "alright".

Oh, now that is more application, Harnessed (one might say).

This track has the strong riff, the driving pace, the same affected vocal as Magnetic Warrior, but a sleeker construction, less noise but more sound - refining the formula into something still powerful but more pleasing. The drive, in particular, is really nice - and whilst it does rather become a loop (and no track over 5 minutes should devolve that far) the energy is indeed Blissful, relatively speaking.

OK, that is two horrible puns on the track title in two paragraphs. I should stop. I blame the YouTube video on punning that I saw earlier, and the reminder of how good the wordplay in Arrested Development is.

It approaches time to sum up, and well... Coconut is not for me. I am less hostile to it than I thought I would be, but there are too many tracks where the sheer volume gets to me. I see nice threads running through it but ultimately too many of the songs didn't work, either noisome and violent or lacking enough beyond a riff. My ears are ringing a bit despite the fact I turned the volume way down for this one; that ain't so clever. I will however hold on to a few tracks - not really undiscovered gems, but better examples of a fine idea that didn't quite hit the mark.