MATT BERRY
Kill The Wolf (reissue, 2013) ACID JAZZ
7/10
Actor’s second album of prog folk-pop gets 10th-anniversary reissue
While perhaps more renowned for his comedic roles in shows such as Toast Of London, What We Do In The Shadows and The IT Crowd, Matt Berry has an equally longstanding and impassioned relationship with songwriting. Aside from creating music for numerous TV shows, he’s been releasing a steady stream of solo albums now stretching into double figures. His second LP is a charming and quietly infectious blend of prog, psychedelia, folk and melodic pop. While Berry’s unmistakeable voice is at the centre of many tracks, such the catchy and breezy folk-pop of “Medicine” or the string-heavy and propulsive drive of “Devil Inside Me”, he also knows when to step back and let the music sing. Perhaps most notably on the epic nine-minute “Solstice”, which combines Berry’s clear love for Jarre-esque electronica with sprawling and au dacious prog-rock, resulting in an album centrepiece that manages to sound both deeply serious and wildly fun.
Extras: 9/10. 12 extra tracks of outtakes and demos.
DANIEL DYLAN WRAY
BETTIE SERVEERT
Palomine (reissue, 1992) MATADOR
8/10
Pass the Dutch to the leftfield side
Signed in America by Matador on the strengths of a demo, and licensed in the UK to Guernica – 4AD’s admirable, if short-lived, early ’90s boutique label – Bettie Serveert were, albeit briefly, the Netherlands’ hippest band of all time. A suitably murky Sebadoh cover, “Healthy Sick”, helped establish their lineage, but there was much more to their debut, Palomine, with Carol Van Dijk’s guitar lines tangling with Peter Visser’s while her sassy yet sensitive vocals offered hints of Patti Smith and, particularly on the dynamic “Tom Boy”, Chrissie Hynde. At times, as on the affable title track, they jangled like The Velvet Underground, but elsewhere they traded in sprawling, Crazy Horse guitar jams, especially on the filthy “Kid’s Allright”, the frantic “Balentine”, and opener “Leg”, whose early, quietly dissonant guitars indicate the predominant, ambiguous mood of upbeat gloom to come.
Extras: 7/10. All three tracks from original bonus 7”, “Brain-Tag”, plus early demo “Maggot”.
