Nite Songs

  Captain Future is the alter ego of Alex McGowan, frontman of the Future Shape Of Sound whose 2018 album Shakedown Gospel  was one of the surprise triumphs of that year, mixing swampy voodoo blues, soul and classic rock 'n' roll to devastating effect. With FSOS having their plans disrupted by the lockdown last year, McGowan has opted to put out a solo effort and as the opening duo of the smoky sinister Holy Waters  and the lurking Zombie Lover  (which sounds oddly like Tom Waits trying his hand at reggae) prove, it's just as much of a varied and intoxicating brew as Shakedown Gospel  was. And so it continues as the record swings from the Screamin' Jay Hawkins indebted Oh People through the haunting minimalist seven minute Rowing To The Pub  to the almost rockabilly style Wrong And You Like It  with minimal fuss. I Liked You When You Were Gone even sounds like Paul-Ronney Angel fronting the Cure which is a weird image but works better than it real...

Now a decade and a half into their career, the Urban Voodoo Machine have very much become an institution of the British alternative music scene in recent years. Their style of throwing everything from New Orleans ragtime to East European folk influences into the melting pot really does mark them out as a one-of-a-kind band and their legendary Gypsy Hotel club nights in North East London were a regular haunt of this writer during his first year or two living in the capital. Indeed, if anything, this tribute album to the UVM is a fond throwback to those long wasted nights at places like the Lexington near Kings Cross or Barden's in Dalston watching whoever the Voodoos had decided to book this month. The Great Malarkey (always a personal favourite) get things off to a fine start with a suitably chaotic tear through Orphan's Lament  followed by Jim Jones' swampy blues take on Killer Sound and the Future Shape Of Sound (another band whose last album really deserves a look if you...