I promise to shut up about Bravo Brave Bats for a bit now, but before I do, a few words and some grainy pix to mark their support slot for EJ Esau at the Grain Barge last eve hot on the heels from their show at the Thekla.
Now the Grain Barge is no Thekla despite it being a boat, more ‘intimate’ (aka small) and the PA kit is all a bit flaky but the chaps put in their usual energetic performance despite being contained on a bijou sized stage.
No crowd mingling for Hector tonight but Dan, the bass maestro, for a change wasn’t tucked away behind the speakers and so he could throw a few rock star poses. He really does play some fine stuff, the rock that underpins all that they do, and a bit of an unsung hero IMO.
The half hour set whizzed past at a rate of knots, opening with the great Hymn cruising past 1000 Things, Robots among others. Of course the monumental The Great Outdoors was in there – I have said it before, but its such a bloody good track, it really is. They ended up with Final Song which of course is a fine song and also sounds like it should end a set, but I can’t help feel that it might be better to leave on a sonic and energy high, still its not my call and it is a track that shows their more sensitive side!
There can be few bands who put out such a consistently high energy and propulsive live set as BBB and they grow in stature at every turn. If you still haven’t seen them (and yes I am talking to you Bas and IDS!) then sort yourself out and run along as soon as you can.
OK that’s it on BBB for a while, the things I do to get a cheap ticket… (like that’ll ever work !)
I have been hopelessly in love with Shearwater for years. Each successive release has me wondering if they can match the last and each time they surpass it. The Golden Archipelago of two years ago was a fabulous album and seeing them play it live in tiny old St Bonaventures in Bristol and chatting with the chaps afterwards was one of those awesome moments. The Golden Arc found me at a time when the mellifluousness, crafted, almost prog-ness was right in tune with where I was right then, and I still play it often.
Album eight, Animal Joy has similarly connected at the right time. Now more punchy, stripped back and frankly a little more rock, it deals with the tensions and conflicts of letting things go, moving from one phase of life to another. All things that have been pre-occupying me for some time.
Jonathon Meiberg has the sort of voice I crave, combining that haunting falsetto with a deeper, richer timbre. He sings with that open throatedness that you sometimes find in flamenco or eastern European singers, no hint of restraint, a voice from deep within. He also writes the most wonderful lyrics, poetic and carefully wrought. Lyrics don’t get much better or evocative than this, “I held your name inside my mouth through all the days out wandering”
The playing on this album too is harder, sharper adding to the sense of frustration and anger. I was so ready for a greater punch and drive, the pounding and inventive drums of Thor Harris (now there’s a name) and the deliciously distorted guitar held in check in so many tracks, and Meiberg’s wonderful vocals.
First single Breaking the Yearlings (below) gives a clear marker to the change of spirit, Immaculate even more so in its rockiness, whereas the outstanding You as You Were and Insolence balance that edge and the complexity so markedly Shearwater. Closer, Star of the Age has drawn a little flak for a bit too AOR but for me its a swelling climax to a stirring album, non-one could put this band in the middle of the road.
Although there is such a sharp contrast between this more propulsive and urgent record and its beautiful almost spiritual predecessor, this is unmistakably a Shearwater album. It rises and soars, its deeply eloquent, infused with nature, heart-swellingly wonderful.
Bravo Brave Bats, Bristol’s best band (I will brook no dissent, they just simply are, and I know every Bristol band…) is having a bit of a good start to the year; a new project of writing a song a month with a view to an albums worth at the end of the year, a slew of new gigs and a Den session with BBC Introducing Bristol.
Now BBC Bristol have rightly picked up on BBB before, an acoustic set, a show or two under the BBC aegis, but a Den session is a bit more like the real thing, despite it airing at some ungodly hour. This Den session is on iPlayer until the end of 2nd March, so toddle along and listen up. There is also a podcast to be had with a mildly hallucinating Ieuan being interviewed
The chaps put in three tracks for the session, Robots from the Purple EP and a BBC favourite it seems, Highwire/Tightrope one of my favourites from the same EP (with that great guitar octave shifting thing towards the end, mmmm) and a new track, the first of this years ambitious project, The Great Outdoors. The new track is simply awesome, for me their best thing so far, I love every spine-tingling thing about it, and if this is what we can expect for 2012 its going to be a corker of a year.
It’s great to hear the material step up a gear with the help of the Beeb chaps behind the glass, but I would pay good money to let BBB’s already excellent stuff sky-rocket with some decent studio time (maybe they should start an Indiegogo type pledge project to help fund some good studio time…?)
Anyways – the three tracks are captured for posterity and are downloadable from their web site as well as embedded below for your listening pleasure; and two of the videos made from footage of the recording session can be found here for The Great Outdoors, and here for Robots. Brilliant stuff chaps! The last vid for High Wire/Tightrope will be on their next vlog posting, so go check their site.
But BBB followers know that it’s in a live show that they just tear it up, kicking dust over other more ‘established’ bands. So a main support slot for the much touted We Are Augustines at the splendid Thekla was a plum gig. From the off the benefits of a bigger stage than usual and a better sound system instantly lifted them clear of their (extra)ordinary shows.
Opening with the superlative new track The Great Outdoors, guitar was crisp, drums sharp, and Dans bass was kicking. Hector, now with his wireless axe, told the crowd, “Move up a bit or else I’ll come to you”. Well to be honest he didn’t wait too long and was soon down on the floor in his trademark way – interactive crowd management I think it is.
It had be a while since I had heard Tent City from the Red EP and it sounded refreshed after its holiday. Four of the six tracks from the excellent Purple EP (Highwire/Tightrope, 1000 Things Before You Die, Robots and Final Song) wrapped around the lone but sparkling A Hymn from the Green EP.
I have long loved BBB for their unbridled enthusiasm, their drive and verve. I love the fact that three chaps, undiluted and without the aid of sundry loops, laptops, backing singers and 27 piece orchestras, can produce such thunderous uplifting and wondrous sounds.
It has been a genuine thrill to see how far they have travelled and how transformed in such a short time. But tonight felt like something a little more. Now with enough material to fill any set they wish, the ever growing sense of maturity and confidence, their fabled ability to own the stage, this could be something great. I don’t think I have heard them sound better than tonight, and they sounded damn fine. There you go , Bristol’s Best Band, no-one’s going to tell me otherwise…
If anyone is so minded there is a bunch of my poor and indifferent pix from this gig on Flickr
I first stumbled across Windsor Airlift back in 2008, grabbed a couple of their EP’s, enjoyed them and then they slipped off my radar.
Anthony Johnson, one half of WA, got in touch (ooh a month or more ago, ouch) to flag up their new album The Meadow; I listened, and its was good. In fact I listened a lot, and it has accompanied me through a whole range of more contemplative activities, and it has firmly lodged itself in my head. The hard copy plopped through my door from Fort Worth Tx and has finally kicked me into writing the few words I promised so long ago.
If truth be told a ‘concept’ album about the life of a meadow feels a bit 1978 and not very Texan but The Meadow doesn’t have that heavy handed shtick attached to it, the tracks flow almost seamlessly together, the more ambient qualities kept firmly in check so that the melodies surface and make themselves known, and writing now on an early spring day in the sunshine, it feels just perfect.
Its a rolling pastoral slice of music, gentle and soothing, vaguely familiar, aural balm. To my mind this is some of the best work WA have produced to date and has sent me back to play again some of their earlier output.
They have also produced a little clutch of YouTube vids to sit alongside the album, little snaps about making the album which are worth a scatter through.
There seems to be an awful lot of music if this genre rattling around right now- the vaguely drone-y, slightly ambient with a touch of post rock about it.
When it doesn’t come off, its all rather dull and dispiriting, like music for a spa facility in Bracknell. But when it’s done well it can be quite glorious. Fortunately Tom Honey in the guise of GWFAA falls squarely into the second group.
Underneath the Stars, released via the rather good Hibernate Records, is an altogether more mature piece of work than he has produced before (not that earlier work was at all bad). The music feels more assured, more confident.
Tracks like the outstanding Another Way Out are especially beautiful, binding together the electronica with the organic. The use of field recordings of rain, storms, children etc is carefully judged, adding colour without over playing their hand. For me this track suggests the way forward for GWFAA, reminiscent of some of the excellent artists of Erased Tapes, and suggestive of the emotive potential of A Winged Victory for the Sullen or Dustin O’Halloran.
I appreciate that the initial drive for Tom Honey’s music here is to soothe the effects of his tinitus, the need to reach a calm place, and this is achieved with ease across this album. As someone who has been struggling to get a good nights sleep of late, here indeed is music that can put you into the right space and frame of mind (that sounded vaguely insulting and wasn’t meant to be!), I don’t mean dull and boring, much more calming and soothing.
Tracks like Aurora pick up the vibe set by Another Way Out,and helps punctuate the more immersive and ambient tracks around it. The long, closing track Theroux is slow building, meditative track that needed skill and precision to pull off, but creates the ideal, swirling finale to this rather accomplished set.
Tracks from Underneath the Stars and other, previous material can be heard on the Soundcloud site and all the GWFAA material can be streamed (or better still, paid for) on the Bandcamp site. It appears that there may be some live shows in the offing for GWFAA which would be very interesting to see.
As if the album itself wasn’t already enough of an extraordinary, moving suite of music; seeing and hearing A Winged Victory for the Sullen play (most) of it live raised it yet further into an almost spiritual experience. What is it that can turn some music into something transcendent? To what extent do the artists themselves know that they are creating something remarkable?
Last weeks all too brief show was one of those rare gigs where everything else disappears for the duration and you find yourself totally and completely absorbed by what is taking place in front of you. I have bleated enough recently about my self absorbed emotional state, but here is music that simultaneously is exultant, deeply private and heart rending, it makes your chest swell with emotion and your eyes grow misty as a result.
Messrs O’Halloran and Wiltzie occupied the left and right hand portions of the stage. Wiltzie was effectively invisible for much of the time, back turned to the audience, shielded by the wings of the stage, manipulating his guitar, knobs and keyboard to produce the most un-guitar like sounds possible – strings, bells, trumpets and great washes of sound all seemed to emanate from stage right. O’Halloran was more evident and more audience friendly behind his keyboard and occasional forays to the mic to say a few words.
So it was the remarkable three girl string section that occupied the majority of the stage and hence much of our view, during the evening, their sounds either swelling the sound-stage to an almost orchestra-like scale or playing with delicacy and control to layer minute sounds and musical suggestions around the output of the two main collaborators.
In so many ways I think the album deserves to be played straight through, no breaks for applause, nothing the disturb the extraordinary atmosphere created by this music. Although everything here was quite sublime it is Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears that I find the most affecting.
Support was from Sleeping Dog, who I saw once before when they supported Low in Bristol. I enjoyed them then but for this show they seemed to have moved up a notch; greater variety and nuance, the voice of Chantal Acda still that crystal clear instrument of hers, and this time I recognised Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie for who he was… how foolish did I feel not making the link before?
An evening of rare and extraordinary beauty, an evening that felt like a privilege and an evening that only comes around once in a very long while.
Well if this is how 2012 will pan out it will be a good year – the first two releases of the New Year both long awaited material from favoured artists, first Wise Children and now Message to Bears.
With the Departures album on regular play for many-a-month since MTB first pierced my consciousness a year or so ago, I was one of those many people more than happy to pitch into the Indiegogo project to help the next MTB album see the light of day. So here we are, edging towards 18 January 2012, and the launch of Folding Leaves on Dead Pilot Records which can be bought, amongst other places, through the MTB Bandcamp site, with artwork courtesy of Jake Blanchard.
Jerome Alexander’s solo project under the aegis of Message to Bears has already produced some deeply wonderful, heart-warming music in the form of the first EP and the Departures album – both of which are being re-issued (I think) around the time of this, the latest album.
There is something sumptuous, almost indecently gorgeous, about Mr Alexander’s music, and never more so than here on Folding Leaves; music that at one and the same time makes your heart feel lighter, but has riven though it a sense of the melancholic.
The virtually wordless vocals make sure that you ascribe your own chosen meanings and flavours, the predominant use of real instruments – guitar, piano, mandolin, xylophone and especially the violin and viola of Laura Ashby (who has also played on Erased Tapes signed Codes in the Clouds material) – ensures that everything feels organic and rooted, making sure the electronic elements are kept in their place. The use of field recordings of birds and the outside world genuinely only add atmosphere and not the vague hippy-trippy stuff found on some more drone inflected music.
I am far from sure that a track by track account is terribly helpful, but you know from the outset of the wonderful Daylight Goodbye, with its distant but soaring guitar and slowly building structure, that this album is going to be a triumph. The sound is unmistakably MTB of course, but this time around with some welcome extra touches like the scratchy/distorted guitars on Farewell, Stars for example, a little more sung lyrics, and an even greater sense of lushness.
There is a rhythm and common thread that, for me, make this a set one that should be listened to in its entirety – the slow build and fade of tracks, sometimes gently falling apart at the end, the overall feel is like being on a boat drifting on a gently swelling sea.
The turn of the year has found me in an unusually shaky emotional place and Folding Leaves is, at one and the same time, allowing me both to wallow a little in my melancholia but still feel a degree of ‘everything will be alright-ness’.
Folding Leaves is an album that brings back those hard to capture feelings, redolent of the end of summers of your youth, with limpid golden sunshine falling through the gently-turning-to-brown leaves. Here is the sound of hope and optimism with a trace of the loss and sadness that acts as the counterpoint to all our lives.
MTB give a rare performance, and the first in new home town of Bristol, at the Grain Barge, Friday 27 January before heading off a little later for a short spring tour of near Europe – there is a vague promise of more UK dates perhaps to follow later.
After waiting in anticipation for an album, I often worry I might feel let down somehow, but not here. This is transcendent music, and having it in your life can only make your life better.
I am indebted to Sophie at The Sound is not Asleep for the chance to hear Folding Leaves in advance of receiving my official bundle
The five tracks on this EP from Mouse Deer, aka multi-instrumentalist Holly McIntosh, clock in at a tad over 21 minutes and by her own admission cover topics such as ‘dreams about strong breezes and fires, unrequited love, and dull nights out in crappy club’. Well what else would a Bristol lass sing about?
Imbued throughout with strong melodies, and nicely judged chord changes, as the songs progress there is an unexpected and entirely welcome edge that cuts through what could easily be nicely delivered but perhaps unremarkable, songs.
Instead there is some good bubbly bass lines, some fuzzy and satisfyingly rough-edged, reverby guitar, and sundry other instruments woven around the strong vocal. I know Holly would like to draw comparisons with Joni Mitchell to a degree but I can’t stop thinking of Curved Air’s Sonja Kristina (put it down to my age!) when I hear her voice.
I have played this set a good deal now and it gets stronger listen by listen, the initial slightly fey charm is soon beaten into submission as the less comfortable traces of disappointment and frustration make themselves felt.
I am horrendously late with this post and have no decent excuses, Holly sent me her eponymous EP in good time for a few words prior to its release in mid-December. Missed too was her show at the Left Bank in Bristol just before Christmas, but the EP can be obtained through iTunes or her own Bandcamp site (though the download option seems to be missing) or get in touch via Facebook and I am sure she would be happy to sort you out a copy.
You can’t help but like the five songs here, and why would you not want to? Catchy and upbeat but never trite or formulaic, always with just enough of the unexpected to keep you on your toes; good job Ms McIntosh!
At long last a few new tunes from the talented Robin Warren-Adamson, aka, Wise Children. The Woods was released on Boxing Day 2011 (there is a level of perversity releasing new material then, surely) and free to download via his website, as well as being available through his Soundcloud site amongst other places. It has been a wait it must be said, but The Woods is a thing of real beauty.
I can scarcely believe that I first stumbled across Wise Children back in November 2008 with the initial eponymous EP, and I penned a few hurried words on these pages at the time (the dear fellow can’t have been long out of primary school. Don’t you hate the unholy combination of youth and talent?) . In April 2010 followed the Absence and Reunion EP. Both EP’s can be downloaded for free via the Bandcamp site (tho’ you would have to have a mean spirit not to cough up a few quid IMHO) and of course all can be streamed via Soundcloud.
Here we are another two years on and, given successfully completing his Masters and moving around a bit, perhaps we can look forward to a little more frequent output from Mr WA? Lets hope so, for here is something that deserves greater exposure and wider acclaim.
What draws me into all his songs is the clarity and simplicity, the lack of unnecessary over-dubs and general fiddling around, the honesty and directness. In a time when there seems to be a demand that everyone comes from Brooklyn, have some exotic connections or, in other ways, is from ‘somewhere else’, how refreshing it is to have something so unmistakably English. Mr WA’s vocals are as clear and crisp as glass, the instrumentation careful and supportive, everything with the same attention and deftness of touch.
The Woods has its moments of occasional electronic ‘colour’ but remains true to the spirit of high quality song-smithing and atmospheric delivery. Perhaps not as musically upbeat as some tracks on Absence and Reunion, The Woods feels introspective and personal, both qualities that I, for one, value.
Winter’s Wall is a gorgeous opening track and a great example of how adding a few extra layers has only enriched, not obscured. Both Sins and Compost manage to deal with a sense of wistfulness and regret but are delivered without any sense of mawkishness. Ironically, given its topic, Bed on A Ward is the most optimistic and rhythmic of the tracks here, followed immediately by Gold, a characteristic, almost signature sounding track.
Throughout there are deft harmonies, delicately wrought, and the proximity of the voice in the soundstage is central, demonstrating the attention to detail in the recording (even if it might have been done in bedrooms and spare rooms). Thanks is given via his Tumblr blog to all those involved in making The Woods,including Steve Bega who played bass throughout.
I am totally charmed and seduced by the fragility and musical purity across these (too) few tracks. There is sometimes a careful path to walk to achieve authenticity and honesty but you know, listening to Wise Children, that this is the real thing; it is personal, direct and deeply ‘felt’. That’s why it connects and resonates, that’s why it matters and stands apart from the bland and formulaic – I have no idea how you sustain that, but lets hope that Mr WA manages that trick of alchemy – taking the simple, elemental parts and turning them into gold.
Operation Rolling Thunder was the name of a long and sustained aerial bombardment against North Vietnam between 1965 and 1968 and is the chosen name of this New Zealand two piece, and with good reason.
Brothers Adam and Rob Falconer, now of Dunedin, recorded this album in three days alongside Dale Cotton (producer of HDU stuff) back in 2007 and it has sat languishing (maturing?) for a few years until it was finally released at the end of 2010 via Monkey Killer Records, a vinyl only label in NZ ( they will sell you a copy, together with a download code, for a mere 35 NZ dollars).
The ever reliable Peeblemeister brought this to my attention, ardent fan as he is of HDU and especially hero worshipper of Tristan Dingemans, who truly has produced some of the most astonishing guitars sounds. Not to say that ORT are an HDU look-a-like, but the guitar sound is so redolent of that Dingemans wall of noise, it is obvious that guitarist Falconer shares a passion with the Peeblemeister.
That only two people can produce such a monumental sound is amazing, that it doesn’t end up as some cacophonous mess is all the more so. Drummer Falconer provides some really rather amazing, pinpoint sharp, dynamic drumming that propels the tracks along.
Thanks are due to the Off the Cuff sessions from NZ Radio 1 for the rather fine live video of Behaviour in the Presence of Strangers. Alas, alack I fear, like HDU, we will never see them this side of the globe, so we will have to make do with this…energising and exciting stuff indeed.
I promise to shut up about Bravo Brave Bats for a bit now, but before I do, a few words and some grainy pix to mark their support slot for EJ Esau at the Grain Barge last eve hot on the heels from their show at the Thekla.
No crowd mingling for Hector tonight but Dan, the bass maestro, for a change wasn’t tucked away behind the speakers and so he could throw a few rock star poses. He really does play some fine stuff, the rock that underpins all that they do, and a bit of an unsung hero IMO.
There can be few bands who put out such a consistently high energy and propulsive live set as BBB and they grow in stature at every turn. If you still haven’t seen them (and yes I am talking to you Bas and IDS!) then sort yourself out and run along as soon as you can.
The "Music Always Gives Me A Lift" Blog 