This week we have reviews from Liverpool's own Paul Fleming, with his Baltic Fleet project, Gallows, and The Hives...
Paul Fleming Baltic Fleet – Blow Up Records
Interesting musical project from Paul Fleming, who recently played keyboard for Echo and the Bunnymen on their world tour. It’s a musical record of his adventures on tour, played and initially captured with his laptop and the musical instruments he had with him, or encountered on his journey, on tour buses, aeroplanes and hotel bedrooms, he reflecting moments as they happened, when the feelings about the places and experiences of that odyssey. This makes for a haunting and evocative album that captures the moods and emotions of life on the road. Along with Paul Fleming, this album also features, Will Sergeant, Simon Finley, and Pete Wilkinson. 4/5
Rikki Wright
Gallows – Just Because You Sleep Next To Me – Warner Brothers
Some good old rock till you drop shouty stuff from Gallows. Pass them some throat pastilles, someone… 3./5
Grace Tiede
The Hives – We Rule The World (T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.) – Polydor
This Hives remix track by Matt Helder from the Arctic Monkeys is a bit funky and a bit poppy, and very different from the standard Hives sound. Great to have the courage to experiment, but sadly, it just doesn’t work for them. Sounds a bit too much like Boney M and the Bee Gees gone wrong for my liking.
Sometimes the blending of great artists produces something better than the sum of the parts, and sometimes it just doesn’t work, somehow. Guess which one this is? 2/5
Josh Green