Has the late summer been making you feel lethargic? Have the heatwave, the string arrangements on Shack’s lovely new album, and Liverpool’s dismal start to the season all colluded to drain away your energy? Well, take heart because autumn looks as if it will be booting some backsides and turning all sorts of tricks in order to get our juices flowing once more. The next few months promise gigs, singles and LPs from all sorts of sweet and sour folk.

First off, I’ve just received an album through the post that sounds as if it has been recorded by a primary school remedial class on a daytrip to a Casio factory. As yet it has no label backing, no artwork, and no definite release date. I can guarantee that you’ll not hear any of the songs on Cool FM. But, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you (already) to Hit The North’s album of the year: Carrion Camping (groan) by The Vichy Government.
Where to begin in explaining the manifold delights contained therein? Well, how about a quote from their tune ‘Orange Disorder’.
“Some inbred piece of shit in a bowler hat and white gloves waves a pamphlet in my face and tells me ‘This is your culture’/Fuck You. I know my culture/It’s Roxy Music, Billy Liar, Brass Eye, Celine.”
That’s cheering you can hear in the cheap seats, by the way.
On songs like the one just mentioned and ‘The Protestant Work Ethic (Pts I & II)’, the London/Brighton based duo, fronted by exiled Nordy Jamie Manners, take the scorched earth approach to local political commentary – roasting everything from the corrupted Stormont Assembly, to Sammy McIlroy’s “second division journeymen” with a venom, articulacy, and high mindedness that really should put most of our supposed satirists to shame.
Not that their gaze rests solely on Northern Ireland. The Vichys also have interesting things to say about the horror of temping (‘Secretarial Elite’), the unchanging bigotry of small town England (‘Rivers Of Blood’), the soulless exploitation inherent in contemporary pop (‘Make Love To The Camera’), and the perils that face anyone mistaken for a member of defunct Romo-chancers Orlando (‘Death On The Instalment Plan’). Foul-mouthed, sad, and indignantly lyrical, if it was a film it would be directed by Lindsay Anderson and star (in her best Carryduff accent) Maggie Gyllenhall. Wonderful stuff. Be nice to them at [email protected] and they may even send you a copy.
From a band that’s all mouth, let’s move swiftly on to one a bit keener on its trousers. Tracer AMC – local, vocal-less, stalwarts – are on the verge of releasing their first L.P. Details are sketchy at the moment, but considering that the band have been a consistently intriguing force on the Belfast scene for four or five years, expect something of a treat. We’ll keep you posted.
As we will of Morphsville, the debut album from the cast of thousands who operate as Morph. The hardest working band in North Down are known for the promiscuous nature of their live acts – Prince and Elvis covers rubbing shoulders with dubby, slow-mo originals – so it’s going to be interesting to see how they’ve managed to coalesce it all into a satisfying whole.
And welcome news too from The Amazing Pilots. They have just finished recording their (you guessed it) first LP in Chicago, and are aiming for a release sometime before the end of the year. This lot will break your heart – mixing the skewed acoustics of The Violent Femmes with some classic melodic sensibility. Expect great things. Really.
News too that Susan Enan’s neglected Skin And Bone And Silicone EP is being re-released through the new Ruby Sessions label, and that Geoff Topley has put out his second Foamboy release – the Spoken4 EP, while ‘Running In Dreams’, Iain Archer’s debut single with Bright Star will soon be amongst us.
Which, all taken together, I think you’ll agree, almost compensates for the dark nights. Doesn’t it?