New Bits and Bobs

Posted on October 21, 2011 by haymoncollins

A few short and sharp bits on material from new and old friends

Exitmusic

New York duo (although they perform as a four-some), Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church, have released a five track piece entitled From Silence on the excellent Secretly Canadian label, where you can find a useful little biog for the two-some together with a stream of The Sea from the set (a free download of the same track is available for while courtesy of ATP’s Soundcloud). A rather delicious swirl of voices and synth based stuff that feels all rather uplifting and grand.

The Hours – Exitmusic

Milagres

Milagres‘ album Glowing Mouth album was released in September on the Kill Rock Stars label in the US and Memphis Industries label in the UK. This Brooklyn five piece have a penchant for echoey drums and poptastic falsetto vocals, a few tracks from the album can be heard through their FB pages or Bandcamp site and their website has few more bits and things on it. I am really rather taken with this lot, lifting me a little out of my current slough of despond with their spacey and splendid sounds

Halfway – Milagres

Frightened Rabbit

First of two Caledonian mentions, Frightened Rabbit have generously offered up a new three track EP for the mere offering of an email address. Originally available as a limited edition EP whilst on tour with Death Cab it can now be obtained here. Drowned in Sound have a nice little article that tells you more about each track. Two of the tracks have guest vocalists, Tracyanne from Camera Obscura on Fuck This Place and Scottish legend Archie Fisher on closer The Work.

Twilight Sad

There is something that draws me back to Twilight Sad despite their unremitting gloom, darkness and indeed threatening overtones. With a new album, No One Will Ever Know, due early in 2012, the first track (slightly disappointing) Kill It In The Morning was out a little while ago and another track, jollily titled Sick, is now playing via the Stereogum site and feels an altogether better track, with James Graham’s voice well up front and the industrial overtones replaced by a bit more regular guitar work.

Luca Bacchetti

Safe to say that this isn’t normally my sort of thing but Italian, Barcelona dwelling DJ Bacchetti does put out some interesting stuff. The exotic latin-inflected Tango (embedded below) is especially infectious. There is loads of his stuff on his Soundcloud site including some long mixes and podcasts available for free download

Massive Attack vs Burial

And finally, continuing ‘its not my normal sort of thing’ line, the recent collaboration between Massive Attack and Burial has surfaced. On super limited to 1000 hand made vinyl only output there are two tracks both around 11 minutes – Four Walls and Paradise Circus. It has to be said they are both exquisite, beautiful things with the time and space to grow and evolve. I know that limited artefact stuff is all the rage but this material needs wider access, and I am sure it will happen. In the meantime  for those like me who weren’t one of the privileged 1000 to get their gold dusted physical versions, they can be heard all over the place including (but not limited to!) Soundcloud editions of Four Walls and a radio rip of Paradise Circus (shame about the DJ talk at start and end)


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Roddy Woomble – Bristol Colston Hall 2

Posted on October 14, 2011 by haymoncollins

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The second time of seeing Mr Woomble this year, the first at the wonderful Union Chapel at around the time of the Impossible Songs launch, and this time on Colston Hall. A couple of the band members were the same too, the highly talented  Seonaid Aitken on piano, fiddle and vocals , and the young Sorren Maclean on guitar and vocals. They were joined  by Danny Grant on drums and a luxuriantly coiffured Dublin bass player whose name I didn’t retain (apologies)

For some reason the support cancelled so the band slid onstage rather unexpectedly around 8.30. The set wasn’t dissimilar to the Union Chapel one, a mix of songs from the two solo albums and nothing from the McCusker, Drever, Woomble album. There were a couple of extras in the form of Neil Gow’s Apprentice written by Michael Marra and, by way of tribute following his recent death, the Bert Jansch song Travelling Man. In the encore was the perennially wonderful You Held the World in Your Arms from the Remote Part album by Idlewild – an arrangement that works very well indeed in this stripped back form; how would an album of other selected Idlewild tracks approached in the same way sound, eh?

Maybe it was its being a seated gig, maybe it was the slightly surprised entrance , perhaps it was the customary respectful Bristol crowd, but it seemed to take us a long while to warm up our welcome. But we did get going eventually but we never really entered the spirit of things with much back chat which must have made it feel a bit hard work for Messrs Woomble & Co.

I hope they didn’t feel too dispirited for they put out a good set (Seonaid’s set list pictured), the newer and older material blending seamlessly together. Of course old favourites like Waverley Steps and My Secret is My Silence elicit the greatest reaction, but Make Something and Old Town , as examples, will become favourites in their own right.

Roddy seemed at ease and comfortable, which he sometimes didn’t with Idlewild, he looked a bit like the Wild Man from Auchterader, but still has the best voice. There is s quality about it which, combined with Caledonian timbre, makes him just about my favourite singer.

The Lad and I agreed that on so many fronts Idlewild is our favourite band which makes their haitus/dissolution all the sadder. But Roddy Woomble has made that tricky transition from one, very particular, music to another, all the time keeping hold of that special quality he has. In so doing he has managed to remain fresh and improve his longevity without becoming a parody of what we first loved him for.

In addition to the footage of Tangled Wire below, there are videos of Waverley Steps and You Held the World on my YouTube channel (grovelling apologies for missing the start of the later, forgive me), oh and a few snaps on Flickr

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In Passage – Immanu El

Posted on October 10, 2011 by haymoncollins


In Passage is apparently the third album from this Swedish band. Three albums from five young chaps who can only be about 24 years old is reasonably impressive in its own right, but to produce an album of such polish and finesse is surely a testament to a little more. That little more must be the fact that they have been playing together since they were 16, and have honed their skills during their 150 shows around Europe.

In Passage has a decidedly nautical flavour about it. It seems some or all of them have been spending time on full-rigged tall ships of late, they all come from the western coast of Sweden and nautical references abound – track titles like Into Waters, To An Ocean are clear enough, but opener Skagerak refers (I believe!) to that difficult stretch of water between Denmark and the Swedish/Norwegian coast, the video from the album closer On Wide Shoulders (embedded below) has terrific footage up the mast of a tall ship and so on and so forth , no doubt more nautical-ness is in there as well.

The sound is determinedly smoothed and polished, not a note out of place, a work of careful craftsmanship. From ones of such tender years this is a hugely mature sound with impressive playing throughout. The guitar sound is especially noteworthy, that ringing chiming guitar reminiscent of The Boxer Rebellion to my mind.

Should you need to, its rather hard to categorise Immanu El – a little indie here, a bit post-rock there, a dash of good old fashioned pop as well. But whichever pigeon hole you might  choose to place them in, the more you play In Passage the better it sounds, not quite enough to jolt me from my post-classical obsessions of late, but an album that is beautifully put together, delivered with heart and good intent from a band with obvious talent and ability who must surely live up to the good notices they have been receiving.

The album is released on 29th October through their self managed And The Sound Records label. Their autumn tour shows no signs of UK dates, but they are getting around the rest of Europe, maybe they’ll pop over one day…

PS for all you vinyl types I have been told that Kapitän Platte will be issuing In Passage on vinyl – pop along and place your order!

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Felt – Nils Frahm

Posted on October 9, 2011 by haymoncollins


Although it is only fourteen months since I first heard him  play his extraordinary music at the St Bonaventure’s in Bristol alongside Shearwater, it feels like I have known the music of Nils Frahm for a long, long time. The Bells and Wintermusik frequently accompany me when I want to withdraw and close into my own space.

Felt, the latest project is now released via the excellent Erased Tapes Records (whose roster cannot be too highly praised imho). Even more than his previous work, Felt has a remarkable intimacy about it, taking the listener into what feels like a private place accessing the most fleeting of sounds.

Fearful of disturbing his neighbours if he played into the night, Frahm laid thick felt dampers over his piano to cover the sound, placed the recording mics down close to the strings and hammers, and  played softly. The result is not just the capturing of the sound but the capture too of the mechanics of the sound, the movements of the piano, the floorboards beneath, the breathing of the artist.

The tape noise, the movements, the hammers preparing to strike the strings might easily just be distractions from the music but instead they add an entirely sympathetic and necessarily symbiotic and synergistic element. All together these components draw you deep into the music where no one element is quite what it seems. Tracks like Less are built as much from the energies and preparations to make the music as it is of the music itself.

Calling the album Felt must too be a duplicitous title, not just the felt that was use over the instruments but the fact that the music itself is so deeply felt. Quite delicious in its sparseness, Frahm again has demonstrated just how powerful is his talent despite his tender age of 23, Felt will be another of his records that I go to when I seek to block out the press of humanity and the crush of daily life; well nigh perfect.

Frahm will be playing a series of European dates to accompany the launch of this album, including just a few in the UK, they can be found listed here (although it is worth noting the Reading date is now in the Reading Minster). From my singular experience of seeing him live it is a captivating and moving experience – go get.

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Living Room Songs – Ólafur Arnalds

Posted on October 8, 2011 by haymoncollins

I have been following Ólafur Arnalds project all week, it has been a touching, intensely human experience with a rare intimacy. Each day he has created a new song, recorded a download mp3 and and accompanying video and made them immediately available under the banner, Living Room Songs.

Recorded, perhaps not surprisingly, in his living  room in Reykjavík, he is joined by a varying number of friends, largely but not exclusively on strings, and together they have produced some remarkable music. Across them all is this strain of sadness and melancholy, perfectly in tune with the time of year, music that is almost the definition of autumn.

As if the music itself wasn’t enough, the accompanying videos of the recording are an unexpected joy and add to the sense of intimacy. Rather beautifully captured, apparently by Gussi of the Sleepless in Reykjavík project, they add something further to the music. For instance, the slow reveal on Lag fyrir Ommu (for Oli’s grandmother I think) is so nicely done and , alongside the music, contributes to the opening up of the song to include the 14 piece string ensemble. It would have been easy to have some rather cheesy videos but they are wonderfully in keeping with the spirit of the whole project.

Whilst the songs can all be downloaded right now, they will be released in various formats towards the end of the year and can be pre-ordered at Erased Tapes.

It is worth mentionning what a great roster Erased Tapes has – not only Ólafur Arnalds, but Nils Frahm (more about him shortly), Peter Broderick, A Winged Victory and a number of others – its rare to find a label with such outstanding artists, a label that seems to care greatly about its artists and the coherent musical offering they represent.

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Hall Music – Loney, Dear

Posted on October 5, 2011 by haymoncollins


I was head over heels in love with Dear John when it came out a couple of years ago, there was something about the sub-orchestral style, the haunting Scandinavian vocal qualities, the songs that got right under your skin to be on repeat over and over.

So when at long last Hall Music appeared I was was full of hope and anticipation, perhaps just expecting a Dear John II. Straight from store to player I was left feeling a little underwhelmed if I am honest, I didn’t get that punch, that lift. It sounded just fine but nothing more. It sounded like Loney, Dear but almost like at half power.

I persisted and played it over a few times. For sure it has much less of the upbeat flavour to it, and so it is more like chamber music than full orchestra. But it is an album to be listened to, whose sonic qualities need to be uncovered. Perhaps surprisingly, given the shift from basement recording to a grown up studio, I had expected a bigger sound rather than this more parred back approach. This is altogether more introspective stuff when Dear John threw out suggestions of filmic aspirations, Hall Music is more intimate on the whole.

There is a spaciousness to the whole sound, leaving Svanängen’s vocals sounding even more vulnerable than before, less polished but even more endearing. The album seems to grow in confidence as it progresses, from the sensitive openers like Name and My Heart, through to the held-back grandeur of Young Hearts and onto Durmoll (Major/Minor muscial keys) and the final What Have I Become where vocal duties are handed to Malin Ståhlberg. The final track feels like the culmination of the rest of the album, the track where the vocals ride atop the strings and brass, the rhythmic percussion and the swelling end to the album.

It feels to me that actually Hall Music may  well be one of those slower-burners that lodge themselves into your consciousness. Not what I thought on first play, and I am more than happy to have been proved mistaken with my first impressions.

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Dear and Unfamiliar – Birds of Passage and Leonardo Rosado

Posted on October 2, 2011 by haymoncollins


A year or so ago I became aware of Birds of Passage aka Alicia Merz, perveyor of dreamy and ethereal music from New Zealand. Her rather lovely album Without the World was re-released on Denovali Records (home of, amongst others, Her Name is Calla)

She has been dabbling with long distance collaborations alongside people like Roof Light producing great tracks like Gable Larch. I know there is more stuff like this around but it seems to have disappeared – lets hope it re-surfaces.

At the end of the month sees the release of a new album on Denovali  of material this time working with Portuguese Leonardo Rosado, entitled Dear and Unfamiliar – he providing the electronics and she the vocals. Both are clearly in the experimental camp (a little more about Leonardo can be found on his Subterminal Tumbr site and music can be found on his Soundcloud pages) but the coming together here on this set of music seems to be a fruitful and enriching combination for the two of them.

Being an experimentalist can be a lonely place and although I was always enthralled by Birds of Passage saintly and ethereal qualities, coming together with Rosado deepens and opens up the music. Two tracks are available to play on the taster Soundcloud page an bode well for the full length item due for release on 28th October (with a lovely red splatter clear vinyl version available), Alicia’s vocals have seldom sounded better than on We’ll Always Have Paris and Rosado’s atmospheric and haunting music creates the ideal swirling sounds against which to place her. Lovely, spacey and captivating stuff, mastered by the great Nils Frahm no less.

Addendum: thanks to Mr Rosado for pointing out the Vimeo video to accompany a third track from the album – Here’s Looking at You Kid – directed by Hugo Goudswaard  , an appropriately opaque approach to this fine track

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The Valley Wind – Tyler Ramsey

Posted on September 27, 2011 by haymoncollins

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After what seems an age Tyler Ramsey has released his next solo album, The Valley Wind. Seems he now has to have the, ‘guitarist from Band of Horses’ tag after his name now, but I did first catch his beautiful album A Dream About Swimming just before he joined BoH and started putting in his excellent workmanship into that band.

This new album is current being streamed in its entirely via AOL and is downloadable from the usual places as well as the release label Fat Possum, but not yet it seems in physical form in the UK (like the brilliant A A Bondy album)

From a few plays you quickly see how this album will snag  itself onto you and remain around. There feels more space on this one than the last, clear as shards of glass, with  a Neil Young quality to his voice now, the arrangements like American frontier sounds, a sparseness and directness that seems to fit with the rugged picture on the sleeve.

A thing of beauty and rawness, stripped right back from anything BoH might do, he manages to produce something decidedly his own and with a maturity and craftsmanship that shows he is no mere ‘band member’ with a solo side project -excellent stuff.

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Scott Matthews – The Thekla, Bristol (and a little bit of Glee Club, Birmingham)

Posted on September 25, 2011 by haymoncollins

Arriving too late to eat yet too early to queue, Mrs HC, the Lad, the fair Natalie and I sauntered past the Thekla en route to a slightly over priced drink at the River Station. As we did, I had the briefest of groupie exchanges with young Sam the drummer for Scott Matthews – a taste of what would be an up-close sort of evening. By the way where else but Bristol could you sip your Bath ale and have a boat load of pirates sail past, cutlasses aloft yelling ‘aha’s’ to anyone who might hear?

The Thekla is a favourite with me, a boat moored in the Mud Dock, host to many a good gig. Best positions secured on the balcony we settled in for the first support (whose names I have sadly not retained). Fine voiced and nicely played, I couldn’t but think how much more appealing they would have been with one or two tunes not about death and dying.

Lotte Mullan and Alex Reeves and together played a more than pleasing set from Plain Jane, Lotte’s recent album. Ms Mullan had a fine set of pipes and Mr Reeves managed to add vocals, play drums and the bass keyboard – as was commented; see, men can multi-task. Together they delivered a great set of country-tinged folk. Hailing now from east London (although originally a country girl from Suffolk) she really seemed to appreciate the typically attentive but enthusiastic Bristol crowd, letting them play a few more of the quiet sort of songs. Mrs HC was much enamoured, and the cd was duly procured from the merch desk at the end as well as a little chat with Ms Mullan which was an added bonus – I wonder if they sold enough to guarantee the curry they were hoping for? ( I know that @IDSupremo had a chat with her the next night in Brum and of course got her set list duly signed).

As with the Wolverhampton show back in June at the bijou Newmarket Arts Centre, Mr Matthews started tonight with the exquisite Myself Again (a slightly flaky vid of this can be found here), one of an understandably large number of tracks from the brilliant new album.

The trio of SM, Greg Stoddard on guitar, vocals, mandolin and lap steel, and Sam Martin (I know both Mrs HC and Mrs IDS have a soft spot for Sam ….) on percussion, vocals and the occasional bass; feels like the ideal combination to me. It’s a combo with enough depth and flexibility to do justice to the material but not so large a group to over blow the more delicate and intricate stuff.

As usual with an SM gig there are lots of gaps for tuning, calls for less lights, more or less reverb and sundry other distractions. For some bands this might just feel disorganised and spoil the flow but here it just feels intimate, almost domestic, slightly matey and further connects the audience to the band. The domesticity was echoed with the feathery lampshade, the (slow to function) lava lamp and the furtive joss stick in the background.

Mr M seemed on very good form, and once the openers were over, relaxed and at ease. The set was largely a blend of the first and latest albums with some of the stalwarts like Sweet Scented Figure and City Headache having a level of muscularity and proficiency resulting from their regular playing. Mr M mused that he could play guitar with tabla backing all day and I guess we would all be happy to listen, but sometimes I wonder what a fully off-the-leash Scott Matthews might sound like…

Newer songs like Bad Apple, Walking Home in the Rain, the sublime Echoes of the Lonely and of course the outstanding Ballerina Lake have already established themselves  in the canon and feel like old friends.

The Thekla crowd was warmly appreciative of both the excellence of the playing and the unquestionable quality of the songs. Although he most likely says it to all his crowds, SM proclaimed the Bristol crowd to be “fu**ing awesome” and ” the best of the tour”. Well be that as it may, he must have been left in no doubt about the esteem in which he is held. A comment like “Thanks for remembering me” let slip the inevitable worry any one might have about keeping the attention of a fan base – but fans of artists like SM are loyal and patient coves one and all and it would be hard to see how that would change if music of thus quality is sustained.

An all too brief (altho’ still 75 minutes) but brilliant show gave way to our evenings up-close coda with all three emerging from the bow of the Thekla to regale us outside on the pavement with an acoustic version of Up on the Hill – superb – a suitably shaky vid of the moment is below.

Satisfied but hungry we made our way back to the Waterfront and I introduced the gang to the wonder that is Falafel King

Coda from Birmingham Glee Club, courtesy IDS

Following on; the SM Glee Club Birmingham gig, the next night, was a stunner… I guess a very similar play list as the Bristol gig… delivered with passion and elegance, as ever. SM and the guys even treated everyone to a little Hungarian Folk jam mid set – tres coolio. PS the lamp is called Brenda and Scott and the guys are looking for a “Tour Tattoo” design that incorporates Brenda (personally think that is a little gauche, but there you go!)… Great chat with Lotte and Alex after – she proposed, but I had to knock her back! (joke Mrs IDS!!!) then quite a discussion with Scott, his brother Darren and his Mum and Dad – top folks! Top night – great memories.

IDS pix from the Glee can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjguestltd/6184175539/

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A Winged Victory for the Sullen

Posted on September 19, 2011 by haymoncollins

 

We live in difficult, and in some ways terrible, times : wars, a shattered economy, social unrest; turn on the wretched TV and its there all the time. Some will rail and rage against it all and in the past much excellent  music has been created, and come to represent, such times – Ghost Town, War, take your pick there are many such tracks.

On a personal level I have found myself slipping more and more into introspective, ever quieter music – the outstanding folk/electronia of Jon Hopkins and King Creosote, the trippy drone space of Stage Hare and more recently Wyld Wyzrd, the astonishing piano of Nils Frahm (also on Erased Tapes), and here is set of music that seems almost explicitly made for my state of mind.

A Winged Victory for the Sullen is a collaboration between American composer Dustin O’Halloran & Adam Wiltzie ex of Sparklehorse (a helpful run through how this all came together is on the  Erased Tapes pages). Here is music of that post/neo-classical bent, created in vast spaces such as the Grundwald church in Berlin, using huge seven foot grand pianos, strings, horns, bassoon and synths, that whilst sombre and calming is triumphant and uplifting. O’Halloran and Wiltzie are joined by Icelander Hildur Gudnadotti on cello and Erased Tapes label mate Peter Broderick on violin.

Sparkelhorse this ain’t, although the two part Requiem was written for Mark Linkous on his untimely death. Some track names clearly tell you not to expect any indie rock stuff here: A Symphony Pathetique, We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced for the Earth had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year – but a blending of the classical, drone infused and post-rock in the most sublime of combinations.

This is truly heart-stoppingly sublime, magnificent, intensely moving and emotional stuff. Unutterably wonderful, I cannot stop playing , not only will it be up there for that most vacuous of  ‘prizes’, “Album of the Year”, but in many respects might also define the year in question.

I am not the first to say that the track Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears seems prescient, Vicodin is a painkiller for moderate pain and here is a track that soothes, calms and insulates

Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears – A Winged Victory for the Sullen

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