@MOJOmagazine's July '11 covermount, focusing on the London-based musician's collective Communion, tests my limits of tolerance. Communion began as a monthly salon, evolving into an intercontinental record label. The disc is heavy on acoustic folk from group participants; to convey my exhaustion with it I'll take a phrase from Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie: "All those fucking earnest men in beards." I've never seen such a collection of humorless moaners. There's also plenty of handclapping campfire music, and people with names like Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Only "Jay Jay Pistolet" (who later decided he's a garage rocker and formed The Vaselines under his given name) lends levity, but with too-precious pablum. That leaves us with soul singer Michael Kiwanuka, whose entry is so much better than everything here that his participation in Communion does not compute. (Laura Marling, not on this disc, is also a Communion alum; along with Kiwanuka, she shows it's not all bad.)   1

covermount 2 Apr 2015

!vicio

luizcapucci 2 Apr 2013