The new Broadcast album, in the company of Julian House’s Focus Group, has proved to be one of those records that resist, in some way, being written about. Perhaps it may be something to do with how “Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age” is a slippery, fragmentary listen; a collage of 23 disjointed, often dislocated snippets that feel as if they’ve been harvested from a dusty collection of neglected old soundtracks. An album that slips in and out of focus and of your attention, sneaking up when you least expect it.
I’ve been blown away this week by the first album from a New York band called Endless Boogie. The name was vaguely familiar, and reading through the press release it transpires that the band played Slint’s All Tomorrow’s Parties a few years back. There are some earlier singles, I think, which Bubba helpfully linked to here.
Paul Schrader deals with intriguing, uncomfortable issues here, but with, for him, a slightly saddening conservatism. Telling the story of Bob Crane, the '50s star of Hogan's Heroes, whose career nosedived as he became increasingly addicted to filming his own sexploits, it's initially vibey and buzzing, with a terrific turn from Greg Kinnear, but later lapses into soggy moralising and mopey depression.
