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The Turtle's Music Commissar, Linnie Rawlinson, writes:

"These pages constitute an aternative to the mind-rotting filth proffered across supermaket outlets throughout the world (what are they thinking? You can't put music in the same shop as dog biscuits) and slurped up by unwitting teenage zombies, too hooked on The Man's evil aural drugs to realise that they are slaves to acoustic pabulum, devoid of either aesthetic, political or emotional merit. These pages are a place to find music to accompany subversive acts. It is unlikely, after all, that sweatshops will be liberated to the sound of 'Oops, I did it again', or that the Bush regime will fall to a collective hum of Boyzone."

The reviews appear in reverse chronological order...

Escape from the Backstreet...

In recent travels overseas I have been depressed by the ubiquitous presence of manufactured American boy bands. Picture this. My fifteen-year old cousin comes home from school in a small city in Pakistan, turns on the cassette player and plays Backstreet Boys and Boyzone. I flick on the TV in a hotel in Thailand the MTV Asia channel - and it's those Backstreet Boys again. Is there no escape?

Fortunately, yes. During our Southern Hemisphere summer, I will be suggesting sounds worth seeking out from this part of the world and elsewhere.

Aziz Choudry

Rose Bygrave: Walking Home

Rose Bygrave sang and played keyboards in the extraordinarily good Goanna, a band which recorded three albums: Spirit of Place, Oceania, and Spirit Returns. Her second self-produced CD Walking Home is a fine collection of songs which should appeal to those who appreciate Celtic-flavoured and jazz-tinged contemporary folk, women singer-songwriters, and one of the very best female voices anywhere in the world. And Rose Bygrave's music is filled with a very definite spirit of place -- Australia.

Voice of the Turtle readers outside of Australia might have heard Rose Bygrave's voice on Yolngu band Yothu Yindi's Treaty single and other songs on their Tribal Voice CD. The House The Boat The Lovers from Rose's first solo CD, 1999's White Bird, was covered by Mollie O'Brien on her Things I Gave Away CD. She has sung backing vocals on a number of other Australian artists‚ recordings.

Bygrave's songwriting abilities and her longstanding commitment to justice for Indigenous Peoples in Australia in her music have combined to create real gems like the title track (co-written with her partner Barry Hill), and the mournful "Shame" about the first known murder of an Aboriginal man, Curacoine, on the Bellarine Peninsula in south-west Victoria (where Bygrave lives) in 1836. Other highlights of Walking Home are the stunningly simple and haunting "Feet of Clay", "The Devil's Breath" which captures the power, intensity, and danger of Australia's bushfires, and "The Wheel", which recalls childhood memories of "the big trip to the big smoke".

"Songs come out of love and hope, memories and place", writes Bygrave in the liner notes. Rose Bygrave shares the gift of fellow Goanna bandmember, Shane Howard, in an ability seemingly to draw effortlessly powerful, evocative aural landscapes of Australia. In the Bygrave/Howard-composed "Big Blue Sky" on Walking Home she sings "Out from Mt Is a/under a big blue sky/Passed fences and concrete/Oldest land beneath my feet/And the silence goes on and on and on."Or in "Step Lightly": "There are places you'll hear not a sound/No industrial weight bearing down/Just the rain upon beasts, upon leaves, upon ground/And the shimmer of light all around".

Although the song "Here In My World" was written before the Tampa stand-off (see my articles Suspicious Minds and Advance Australia Fair? on this site for more on this) its imagery seems particularly poignant at this time when the Australian government's shameful treatment of refugees not to mention Indigenous Australia - continues. Talking about the song, Rose says that "terror comes in many forms and has many faces -- even disguises". And sometimes, as in the song, terrorists wear clean white shirts.

An independent release, distributed by Black Market Music, Walking Home is hard to track down in Australian CD shops, though it can be ordered in. It is probably best ordered direct from Rose Bygrave at PO Box 188, Queenscliff, Australia 3225, or at rosebysea@ozemail.com.au. See also this page.

No Fixed Address: From My Eyes (Mushroom)

Bart Willoughby, drummer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has been a trailblazer for Australian Aboriginal rock music for over two decades. In 1978 he formed the band No Fixed Address at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music, whose best-known song "We Have Survived" has long been a favourite of mine. He was the first Aboriginal artist to appear and write lyrics for a docu-drama, and the first to score a feature film.

Now available in the Mushroom Midprice Masters range, From My Eyes, a cocktail of reggae, hard rock, country, post-punk energy, and hard-hitting lyrics, has aged remarkably well since its original release on vinyl in 1981. The title song is as good a piece of summery reggae-pop as has been released by better-known artists. Harder-edged tunes like "I Can't Stand And Look" pull no punches in pointing the finger at White Australia's dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. "Pigs" takes on the Australian police's treatment of Aboriginal people. The messages in No Fixed Address's songs are as relevant today as they were twenty years ago.

As well as fronting No Fixed Address, Bart has played with Goanna, Aboriginal rock band Coloured Stone, Yothu Yindi, Kev Carmody (co-writing Kev's 1993 single "Freedom"), and several other artists. After No Fixed Address called it a day, Bart went on to form and front the fabulous Mixed Relations whose soulful, eclectic 1993 CD Love (Redeye Records) is one of Australian music's best kept secrets.

Fostered into a white family in his early childhood, in and out of boy's homes and jails as a teenager, Willoughby has not only survived -- he remains one of the most impressive musicians and songwriters to come out of Australia. For those that have ears to hear and eyes to see, many of his songs are searing indictments of the damage wrought to Aboriginal life and lands by colonization, but also finely-woven stories which celebrate his people's survival, struggles and strength. His lyricism encompasses incisive, often barbed, social comment, passion and commitment to his land, and gentle love songs.

Bart Willoughby's 1997 solo CD Pathways also contained some pretty powerful tunes like "Ethnic Cleansing", "Message For Young and Old" and the title track. In 2000, most of the tracks from Pathways were re-released as part of the 2-CD set, Frequencies (Streetwise Records/Warners).

Letterstick Band - An-Barra Clan (CAAMA music)

I heard the tune "Tiwi Warriors" from this, Letterstick Band's debut CD, in a shop while passing through Sydney airport and was hooked. Letterstick Band deservedly won The Deadlys (the Australian Indigenous Music Awards) award for best band in October 2001. From the An Barra clan near the Maningrida community on the coast of Arnhemland in Northern Territory, the band derives its name from a traditional message tool or "letterstick". This is a piece of wood with a message or set of messages carved into it, which is handed down from father to son and taken from place to place.

The core of the band comprises two sets of brothers, the Maxwells (David on vocals, guitar and drums, Colin on vocals and guitar), and the Wilsons (Terence on vocals, guitar and drums, Tim on keyboards and vocals). Strongly connected to their community, inspired by their country and traditional beliefs, their songs celebrate the lives, lands and culture of their people. They have built up a reputation for their live performances in the Top End of Australia where they spend most of their time, and the last (title) track on this 13-song CD was recorded at a concert in Darwin with a number of other well-known Aboriginal musicians, like George Rrurrambu, of the Warumpi Band. A combination of reggae, rock and traditional music forms, An Barra Clan is full of infectious tunes and an excellent debut from a group whose music deserves to be heard far and wide.

Check out the Skinnyfish site for ordering information on From My Eyes, and An Barra Clan.

Ash: Free All Angels
Kaboom! The Ash train has rolled back into town!

Lock up your NAM bands and hold onto your hats - the summer has begun! Released in the UK to a blaze of glorious sunshine, "Free All Angels" is a return to form from our favourite Irish poprockers (after their "interesting" second album, Nuclear Sounds). Someone at Infectious Records has clearly summoned Tim Wheeler in for a firm chat, and the boy has done good. He's back on track fulfilling his contractual obligation to write upbeat dancy guitar choons.

Free All Angels opens with "Walking Barefoot", a charming, sweetly melancholic ode to summers gone. Hooray! Ash aren't trying to do anything clever. Yes, to an extent this is a formulaic record, but when the formula is so good... Shining Light, the longest track, first single, and perhaps dullest track on the album, is accessible to the Hear'Say audience. But the highlights are " Burn, baby, burn", the blissed rock delight that is " Cherry Bomb" and the Velvets-meets-James Bond- soundtrack A-list glamour of "Candy". Tim's muse has returned. "Sometimes" has the surging guitars we remember, but its layered vocals add a tenderness to the rising sap. The other band members add a heavier thrust when they input - Ash let themselves rock out in the Scream-esque "World Domination", "Shark", and "Submission" - but they never forget to inject a catchy chorus. "Someday" shimmers with confidence and ambition, and pulls it off spectacularly - better than anyone since Suede:Suede.

It helps that they're beautiful. And their time out has allowed them to develop a richer sound - Charlotte's guitars and vocals add a depth - but in spirit, Ash's energy still springs from the founts of rock and youth. The tunes are catchy (Pacific Palisades) and the lyrics - well, they were never their strong point, but as before, sometimes Tim hits the nail on the head "Teenage dream, a sweet gamine". But lyrics, in The Rock's words - "It doesn't matter." They're still the youthful darlings of the indie scene, swaggering with guitars, swigging vodka and bathing in the light from their ironic disco ball. More rejuvenating than AHAs and a vegan diet. And a lot more fun.

Air: 10,000 Hz Legend
Progression into outer space

If, in 1979, you had put Roger Waters' and Barry Bulsara's genetically-produced children in a spaceship and, 22 years later, listened to their galactic compositions beamed back across the vaccuum, they might sound something like this.

The comparisons with Pink Floyd are fair. Their fingerprints are all over this album. But, with their latest offering, Air are prodding a far more subtle, more elusive part of our consciousness than Roger Waters ever dreamt of. And Leonard Cohen and Jean Michel Jarre's shadows dapple this most elegant, lush record as shadows over a deep flowing river.

The blended melodies are there; the synthed vocals shine like before. But 10,000 Hz Legend is miles away from Moon Safari. These boys have travelled way out of orbit. It's a far more difficult, yet far more compelling record. Yes, it's as proggy as everyone has said. But this really is progression in its purest form. While there's no doubt that Nicholas Godin and Jean-Benoit (JB) Dunkel wrote this record - it's still heartfelt - a lot of their naivety has gone. Air have grown up. By becoming more abstract, Air's essence has purified into an existential exploration of the human soul and body. But before they allow themselves to become a pastiche, theiy deflate their own balloon with sharp stabs of humour.

The Beck liaison is magnificent. To have such talented musicians collaborating could result in a cheap competition, yet their strengths complement and parry off each other. By refusing once again to conform, Air have created their own astral space. It stretches for miles. "How does it make you feel?" is an interplanetary Bond soundtrack to die for. "Radio #1" gently but insistently subverts Queen's "Radio Gaga". Once again, this record questions everything, yet answers nothing.

The Avalanches: Since I Left You
File on the coffee table, next to Dido

Their A&R did well to negotiate a release date prior to Air. Any time after their release, this record wouldn't stand a chance.

Heralded as the sample-spotter's wet dream, and given a firm leg up by the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, this record fails to be more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it's very clever, Yes, it's probably "cool" in Hoxton. But substantially it fails to deliver.

Which is a shame. The seamless shimmer of the eponymous first single, "Since I Left You" and the hilariously 'crazy in the coconut' "Frontier Psychiatrist" deserve better bedfellows. But other people simply do this better. Capturing the zeitgeist? See our French friends above. Scratchy samples? Saint Etienne have been doing this for years. Pastiche playalong? See Zoot Woman or Daft Punk.

Nevertheless, they'll have sold a lot of copies to young suburbanites. I guess that's not such a bad thing. They could have bought Robbie Williams instead.

Ping Pong Bitches - Ping Pong Bitches
Three dinner ladies and a drum machine

Alan McGee behind them, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) on guitar. A tour that's been cancelled due to riots at the Bournmouth gig. Three goth-pop S&M vixens. How on earth could this go so wrong?

I was hoping for entertainment in the form of fishnets and gore. But Poptones' latest darlings' mini-album left me - well, bored. Shoddy production (mushy vocals, over-long songs) and no sense of humour has buried the fun in a dusty heap of brain-numbing Donna Summer electro-beats. Pass the paracetamol. And while their contrived image steals from Fuzzbox and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Ping Pong Bitches have no F1-11 energy. All in all, a bit embarrassing, the lasting impression is one of school teachers trying to be risqué and daring - and we all know that never works.

Gorillaz - Gorillaz
Top banana monkeys around in a studio

The Gorillaz band stuff is nonsense, obviously. Good fun, but nonsense. The website (www.gorillaz.com) is great, but this couldn't be anything but a Damon Albarn record.

And it's now easier to understand Blur's progression from 'The Great Escape' through 'blur' to '13'. Damon's now without Graham's lush layered guitars, and the traditional Blur B-side quirkiness returns. Yet this time it's not irritating. Pretentious? A bit. But the man really is talented, and 'Gorillaz' makes very interesting listening. He blends hip hop beats, dubby rhythms and poppy harmonies into a delicious post-pop smoothie, while Coxon's absence leaves a stripped-down ghost town feeling to the record.

It shines brightest in "Tomorrow comes today", a haunting, hungover slither through London's trendy Stoke Newington, and "Clint Eastwood", the carefree laidback musings of a man 35 going on 19, who's confidently doing what he's best at. And while some of the token raps are a little clumsy, the record is more proof that, between them, the members of Blur are still setting the pace for all the other players in the field.

Phoenix - United
It's a great thing that the French don't really get irony. No, really.

Comparisons between Air, St Germain, Cassius and Phoenix are inevitable. French music hasn't been this good - ever. What binds these people, though, is not similarity of genre. It's their lack of self-awareness and clever-clever that made Britpop ultimately so irritating. Air's unashamedly romantic prog-dance adventures, St Germain's happy jazz - and now, with Phoenix, the Gallic invasion blows away the last of horrid 'so bad it's good'ness.

One of the best, if not the best, record I've heard in the last 12 months, don't be put off when I say Phoenix draw from MOR super-rock. There's more than a hint of Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac here. Like Air's love of Pink Floyd, Phoenix don't try to hide their Supertramp/Jefferson Airplane influences. They don't care that it's not cool. And this genuine feeling pervades their music. Adding a fresh deftness that's all their own, these are sunny, yearning songs that make you throw the windows open and dance around the room. Fantastic summer driving music. Go buy it, let your hair down and throw your inhibitions in the bin. It's time for fun. Real fun.

The Strokes - The Modern Age (single)
Red bull for the rock scene

Comparisons with the Velvet Underground falling around them like manna from heaven, the NME prostrate at their feet, The Strokes are the latest in the long line of media-hyped "Rock is dead - Long live rock!" hopefuls. But unlike Terris and Gay Dad, this lot are actually quite good.

More energy and a clearer sound than the Velvets, there's something of the Jam in here too, somewhere. The production sounds a little strange (what is it with producers hiding vocals at the moment?) but can't cover up the ebullient enthusiasm The Strokes have for rock 'n' roll. At the other end of the spectrum to the more indulgent Dandy Warhols, but at least as good, these three tracks (particularly "Barely Legal") are catchy, refreshing reminders of why Hear'say and their stablemates are, at best, a pile of overprocessed string cheese.

You'll be hearing more of these chaps.

Avanti Popolo!