The Unthanks with the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band – St George’s Bristol

Posted on September 18, 2011 by haymoncollins

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Some things just work, even if at first sight they look a little incongruous, such as The Unthanks in harness with the current British champion brass band, the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. But together they really do represented a remarkable combination, and last nights show at St George’s in Bristol was an evening to remember and savour.

Here we all were, ostensibly mostly soft southerners (there were bound to be a few hardened northerners present, but you get the general idea) gathered in a re-purposed church listening to an evening of predominantly northern stories, frequently describing scenes and hardships we had little knowledge of, and delivered by that most northern of things, a serious brass band with the unmistakable sounds of Northumbrian voices. I have to admit to some weird twinge of cultural guilt and voyeurism, but enough of that….

What inevitably bound us together was a love for the music, and with the very opening of Becky Unthanks delivery of King of Rome, with a brilliantly scored brass support, the bar was set for the evening. All the Unthanks have the most remarkable of voices but tonight Becky just about stole it for me, there is such a quality to her voice, she could sing a shopping list.

The subject matter of King of Rome; pigeons, honest working men and women looking for release, also set the tone for much of the set. Riven through were the tales of loss and disaster (not a cheery set but what did we expect!) and especially poignant, given the loss of four miners in south Wales this week, were those songs that echoed such tragedies and hardships – Trimdon Grange, The Testimony of Patience Kershaw and Gresford, the miners hymn, delivered by the BRBB on their own.

The suite written by Adrian McNally, in honour of George his son together with Rachel Unthank, commissioned as part of the project that brought The Unthanks and the BRBB together also dealt with oppressive forces. The suite had a version of Ewan MacColl’s Father’s Song at it centre, beautifully delivered by Rachel and Becky.

Both halves of the show contained a ‘solo’ session for the band to let them display their extraordinary talents and make to plain why they are national champions. As Adrian McNally pointed out later on, it is worth remembering that bands such as this are fully amateur, twining performances around their working lives.

The second half started with a moving version of Felton Lonnin, the video of which is embedded below (apologies for the artisanal quality and should its presence here somehow offend I will happily remove).

Despite a couple of more rousing songs such as a brilliant Blue Blazing Blind drunk and the Manhattan Transfer style treatment of Queen of Hearts by Chris Price, the evening was predominantly a more low key affair, and none the worse for that. An inspired partnership of two bands at the peak of their powers. The show was being recorded by the BBC apparently for transmission in two chunks in about six weeks (I guess that makes it around the end of October) slightly incongruously on BBC Radio 2’s big band show or suchlike.

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The Sea of Memories – Pallers

Posted on September 16, 2011 by haymoncollins


This sort of music normally only makes up a small part of my listening pleasure but I am indebted to Erika working on behalf of Labrador Records in Sweden for bringing it to my attention.

Pallers are a couple of chaps from Sweden, Henrik Mårtensson and Johan Angergård, one with antecedents in the arena of ambient, trippy electronica and the other with a decidedly more poptastic bent, the combination of the two being clearly evident here. Rumour has it that they have so far shunned the limelight, preferring instead to inhabit cellars, basements and villas in various exotic sounding locations whirring and bleeping their way to this their debut album. Pallers, their chosen name, is in fact a suburb of their home town Åhus.

It’s probably terribly rude to highlight sonic references and I do so just to locate them as distinct to Dylan, Angels of Death Metal or Beyonce. The set sounds a bit Royksopp …a bit Lonely Dear … a bit Husky Rescue and a bit … plain gorgeous.

With a deep velvety, chocolate and caramel type sound, blissed Scandinavian vocals and plenty of synth driven melodies inhabiting a deep space echo place; here is luxurious chilled listening material. What hits you first is that vaguely Buddha Bar type chill production, the swirl of sound, a sense of fluidity and watery motion. But listen closer and the melodies come through, the songs wrapped up in this sumptuous and crafted envelope.

Already producer Youandewan has taken the track Come Rain, Come Sunshine, remixed and transformed (as in totally transformed) the track and made it a free DL on his Soundcloud page. There is slew of particularly strong tracks in the second half of the album: Years Go, Days Pass, Wired (although lyrics like “we had our chance once before, when we were younger” sound a little strange from a duo of such tender years , this is still one of my favourite tracks), Wicked with its delicious squelchy synth, introducing  for the first and only time a female vocal in the shape of Karolina Komstedt (she of Club-8 wherein also can be found Johan Angergård, not surprisingly Club-8 are also on Labrador Records). The album ends with the lovely Nights track, a little regular piano building the underlying and recurrent track with the languid vocal over the top brings the album to a suitably chilled and languorous end.

Pallers – Years Go, Days Pass

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Any Way – Our Feathered Embers

Posted on September 15, 2011 by haymoncollins

 

You know how it goes, some days you hanker after the challenging, multi-layered, intricately produced; the edge of the next wave of musical whatever it is. But then there are other days (increasingly frequent for yours truly) where actually what you want is something more intimate, more immediate and human. To say ‘simple’ sounds a little patronising, but I guess I mean something that is comfortable with itself, something that it isn’t trying to be genre-busting but just doing a good job of where it’s at.

Our Feathered Embers fall very nicely into this grouping for me. A couple of young folk proto-beardies from London who are collecting some well deserved praise around-abouts. Antony Hurley has vocal, guitar, cello and harmonium duties, whereas Oscar Schumacher delivers vocals, guitar and the bits of percussion (not sure who is responsible for the banjo). They claim impeccable influences – J Tillman, Peter Broderick, John Martyn and so forth, and to me there is a welcome twang of things Kings of Convenience to them as well. I guess its the stripped back-ness to the songs, the gentle, picked guitar and two intertwining vocals, complimented from time to time with a bit of cello or harmonium. Very easy on the ear (but not in a vapid sort of way you understand), oddly familiar, comforting and quite beguiling.

If you jump around between their FB pages , web site and Soundcloud you can chance across four tracks (by my reckoning – Spires, Down the Sally Gardens, Riverboat Blues and The Runner), a couple can be downloaded if that takes your fancy.

In July it seems they recorded a single, When You Wake, for which I can only so far find a teasing 48 second promo video but there is already a full session video, produced by General Aesthetic,  for the rather lovely single’s B side, Any Way (complete with added banjo), which is embedded below (other vids can also be found on YouTube for other OFE tracks). It seems the hand crafted single will be available from September at shows (c’mon, let the rest of us get hold of it too !).

It seems the chaps are regulars around the London and surrounding area circuit (which sadly doesn’t yet extend as far as deepest Gloucestershire) but the intrepid duo are off for a few dates to Ireland and to do a photo/vid shoot as well.

Here’s hoping for more from the OFE chaps, maybe a show or two westward? and p’raps a consolidated EP offering?

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Respect – World of Fox

Posted on September 14, 2011 by haymoncollins

I am not always a big fan of covers but in the same way that I fell in love with The Czars covers album Sorry I Made You Cry, I have rather fallen for Simon Fox’s album of Eighties covers, Respect.

Released over the course of 2010 as one-by-one tracks and then, at the turn of the year, as a full album, here is a rather well chosen selection of Eighties tracks. Just recently two further tracks have been released, the result of giving two purchasers of Respect the chance to suggest a track each for Mr Fox to record as a coda for this project.

Mr Fox is part of that West Midlands coterie that includes James Summerfield (mentioned in dispatches here a couple of times and from whom we are awaiting the next album) and Scott Matthews (mentioned a bit more than a few times). There is a quality about the Fox voice that recalls the more tender and less strident aspects of Morrisey, with the same ability to imbue tracks with a wistful melancholia. He even manages to be successful in covering two of my most sacred of songs, Easter Parade by The Blue Nile and Let the Happiness In by David Sylvian. More obvious stalwarts of the Eighties such as Say Hello Say Goodbye and The First Picture of You are also delivered as something much better than mere parodies of the originals.

Given that we are a good eight months from the launch of this collection I have dragged my heels rather in mentioning this album, but it can still be obtained for a few measly quid from Where It’s At Is Where You Are as can others of the Fox oeuvre.

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Alarmist EP

Posted on September 14, 2011 by haymoncollins

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If I were to do one of those irritating ‘what-I-have-most-played-this-last-week-on Spotify/LastFM’ things, you would find a couple of polar opposites: the peerless Believers album from A.A. Bondy, and this self-titled EP from Alarmist. Alarmist are another band from the small but beautifully formed roster from the Eleven Eleven stable in Ireland. Comprising muti-instrumentalists Neil Crowley, Elis Czerniak, Osgar Dukes and Barry O’Halpin, Alarmist came to my attention via the magnificent Halves, the other (currently larger) project of Elis Czerniak.

This five track EP weighs in at around twenty five of your earth minutes but somehow feels more like an album than an EP. At the time of first listening a few weeks back I was struggling with material from a few post rock bands and finding their rather predictable approaches less than satisfying – in my mind I had lazily slotted Alarmist into that same post rock box. But that’s a mistake, their influences for me are more akin to the Thrill Jockey stable and the influential  and inspiring Tortoise – so, more jazz references than anything else – but also too the combination of instruments that include woodwind, glock and synth make for a richer more unexpected concoction.

Vitamin Saturday kicks the set off, quickly establishing the tight energetic drumming, big bass sound supporting the chiming guitars and sundry extra instruments that characterise the set. Car Park Showdown has that lovely plunky guitar sound and bass guitar slides of mid-era Tortoise and those powering drums.

Giraffe Centre, the fulcrum of the set, has some propulsive drumming driving the track along, turning what might be a pleasant, strolling-speed melody into something much more insistent. Overlaid above this are xylophone/glock and a clarinet led melody with wonderfully spiky scratchy guitar and plump fat bass lines. A rich and rewarding track.

Clapper is perhaps most redolent of Tortoise , especially early on, again with the great combo of rounded bass lines and tight drums. The last track Bath Time for Squid feels perhaps the most experimental, running  from a Vampire Weekend’ish opening into the jerky guitar-led section with a little brass and clarinet before a quiet interlude that moves into the rolling final section.

A very fine debut indeed that presages yet greater things. In the way that I long to see Halves do some shows in the UK, I would love to see some of their mates like Alarmist play some dates this side of the Irish sea. From this set and the rumours from those who have seen them, it sounds like Alarmist  would put out a mesmerising live show. Go buy their EP – don’t be put off by the black background to the Bandcamp front page, persevere and cough up the five euros and help the lads out.

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Message to Bears – fund raising for Folding Leaves album

Posted on September 14, 2011 by haymoncollins

The sumptuous and wonderful thing that is Jerome Alexander’s project Message to Bears is shortly to release a new album Folding Leaves as well as a reissue of the first release EP1.

To help the fine fellow and Dead Pilot Records achieve this highly desirable end, they have fired up an Indie Gogo site whereby you can spend a little cash, support the venture and get some goodies along the way, from a warm cozy glow for $2 to MTB playing their entire catalogue, in person whenever and wherever you want (I might have made that bit up, but there are indeed several excellent options to choose from). In these straightened times and the ever growing difficulties for bands to get material out there, this is a simple and mutually rewarding way to help get more wonderful MTB music out there – go join in http://www.indiegogo.com/messagetobearsdeadpilot!

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Believers – A.A. Bondy

Posted on September 6, 2011 by haymoncollins


The first track from A A Bondy’s new album Believers came out of the woodwork a little while ago. Given my love for his previous album When the Devil’s Loose, I was full of hungry anticipation for The Heart is Willing, and although I liked it, it didn’t knock my socks off, and so I kept quiet. Now the full album is due for release by Fat Possum on September 13th and being streamed by the wonderful people at NPR, and having played it full a whole day solid, this first, opening track now takes its place in the whole.

I am mesmerised by the album, its a thing of real beauty and beguiling charm, a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, which perhaps accounts for my first reactions to The Heart is Willing.

Played throughout with that melancholic reverb guitar and untreated instruments, it sounds like it was recorded right next door in the school hall, the drums up close with every little tap audible, and lots of beautiful jangly guitar and just enough electronic swoosh to build a deeply evocative sound, stark but beautiful, haunted but  personal.

Tracks like Down in the Fire and Skull and Bones are jewels of angsty ballads, Bondy at his bleak but bountiful best. Bondy said about this album that its songs were “conjured during and between dreams, in bare rooms, and on the late night streets of America” and there is such a feel of that through out this set, bolstered by the choices of key signatures and chord shifts, even in the more upbeat tracks like Surfer King.

The later sections of the album contain some achingly wonderful tracks like Drmz, The Twist and the almost-title track, Rte 28/Believers. If I could play the guitar (which I can’t) this is the sound I would want to make, sublime.

There is a much stronger sense of a band on this album, the sense of Bondy fronting something up rather than the lonesome, isolated troubadour of before, some excellent playing throughout and Mr Bondy in very fine voice.

Already this is an album that runs straight up by favourites of the year, haunting, beautiful and powerfully evocative. He will be touring the album this autumn, initially in the States but then in Europe when he supports the Felice Brothers, all dates can be found on his web site and I for one will be rolling along to get the live experience when he is over.

Late addendum: only just stumbled across the fact that the fine drumming and some (all?) of the steel guitar work is the product of one Ben Lester, who writes a blog about his trout obsession up in Wisconsin right here – you can also tag along via his Twitter account on @lesterlog. Bass on the album is courtesy of Macey Taylor

Pic: Ted Newsome

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Red Sessions – Audiocæneat

Posted on September 5, 2011 by haymoncollins



It was oddly appropriate hearing this set from Audiocæneat for the first time high above lake Constance and the Austro/Swiss alps, given that the band are German (and hence a mere stone’s throw away) and the fact that the music is defiantly cinematic in tone and approach. Red Sessions is  set of music that lends itself to panoramic vistas, the wind in your face and a chill in your heart, all of which add to the swooping and soaring sound-scape from this Euro post-rock band.

If it is true that some of this sounds a little like other shoe gaze bands (no slight intended) it is equally true that there is never the less, enough creativity and personality here to stop it being merely formulaic.

The first track, from the Massives to the Masses, does indeed sound like a soundtrack to a moody film, complete with characters grunting, crunching of  gravel, coughs and sundry atmospherics.  Kalypso, the second track, sees the band marking out its own territory a little more clearly, largely with the introduction of the vocal track. The occasional use of electro bits and pieces (such as on The Truth Unfolded) also helps to lighten the mix in a rather welcome way.

The man riff from Painting the Earth with Night Flares takes me right back to early Black Sabbath or perhaps the odd Deep Purple track and underscore the variety of source references that run through these numbers.

Idylla the closing track weighs in at a mighty 16 plus minutes and clearly is felt by some reviewers to be the stand out track. Whilst the musical content is fine, if still a tad over-long in my view, I am not a big fan of the gothic, Michael Moorcock-esque storyline that is overlain at the start and towards the end, they don’t need this sort of histrionics, its a little wearing and overdone.

But don’t let me put you off, Red Sessions is well worth the listen; cinematic and soaring at its best, pleasingly inventive and easy to see why Belgian label Frontal Noize, have added them to their roster. They will be out on tour in Germany in October with dates in the UK promised for February next year.

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ALT-J

Posted on August 29, 2011 by haymoncollins

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In my world of opposites, a post on some blissful ambient/drone from Good Weather for an Airstrike is followed by some irrepressibly fine pop stuff from ALT-J; colour me eclectic.

There is something beguiling and enchanting about these four demos from ALT- J. The vocals carry an odd, quirky quality (in a good way) that makes you think they may be from Scandinavia rather than Leeds. Right now there seems to be jst the four demo tracks rattling around, although there is a 6Music session and a video of them performing Rush of Blood to the Heart on the Going Deaf for a Living site. ( a few more of the Maida Vale sessions can be found on Youtube)

Of the four tracks on Soundcloud and downloadable from their FB page Matilda, although not initially not my favourite, weaves it’s idiosyncratic way leaving you hard to imagine never having know it.

Breezeblocks is an insistent little blighter, already with a fair popular following, has some oddly gamalan reminiscent xylophone elements and is notable for managing to introduce the brand name Germolene into the lyrics somehow.

The fourth track Tessellate is my personal favourite from this clutch of tracks. A brilliant plunky baseline and foundation piano line. “Triangles are my favourite shape” is a class line and presumably accounts for the bands ident. Perhaps I am having a funny turn but there feels to be a hidden eroticism and vague sense of threat to the suggestion ” Let’s Tessellate” –  a charmingly bizarre song and a quite excellent track from a band who seem to offer much.

Having missed them at their recent Bristol show, here’s hoping to some more outings soon and maybe some more material?

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A Summer – Good Weather for an Airstrike

Posted on August 28, 2011 by haymoncollins

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Just before the summer holiday kicked in I became the proud owner of A Summer by Good Weather for an Airstrike and it duly accompanied me to the sunshine. A Summer can be downloaded for a paltry £3 from the associated Sonic Reverie Records  Bandcamp site. More GWFAA stuff, including the A Winter suite,  can be found on his own Bandcamp site.

It appears that Good Weather For An Airstrike (hereafter GWFAA) started at the beginning of 2009 as a project  for Tom Honey (also of Sleepless Dreams & Damn Robot!) to try and help his sleep problems that resulted from his tinnitus; creating sounds and music that might induce some sleep. GWFAA is, it seems an approximate translation of Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása, the Sigur Ros track from their second album Ágætis Byrjun. Indeed Sigur Ros was Mr Honey’s introduction to the ambient/post rock world but in truth I find echoes of other artists rather than our Icelandic friends.

To my mind A Summer plays best as a suite of music, from start to finish. Given that I grew to know this music under bright blue skies, the heat of a middle eastern high summer and the cooling breezes of sparkling starlight nights; this album will be for ever reminiscent of such atmospheres, but it could equally be the soundtrack to many other places, many other environments – it is soundtrack material.

Throughout there is that ambient/electro-drone quality that soothes and calms in a way that reflects the motivation for recording music such as this. But across the tracks other elements add balance and texture; for instance the  Nils Frahm type piano around 27610.
The Beginning of the Rest of Our Lives is one of the more ‘lively’ with it’s drum track, courtesy of brother Rob Honey. In part this suite is reminiscent of some early Tangerine Dream with its hypnotic qualities; qualities that become progressively more apparent as the album develops.

Although A Summer will play anywhere, it is particularly well suited to balmy starlight evenings with everso slightly too much wine consumed, where it takes on a particular post-hippy vibe. As a huge red harvest moon drags itself over the mountain skyline it has an appropriate portentous symbolic significance for  track The Sun Sets Over Us , We Are Happy.

This is not an any anywhere , anytime, anyplace album for sure, but given the right conditions A Summer is a suite of great beauty and charm.  A mesmerising suite of music accurately suited to the season. I wonder if Mr Honey gets to sleep these days?

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