Another Advance Base song. This time from 2016's Nephew in the Wind. For Kitty Winn of The Exorcist and Panic in Needle Park.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Albums of the Year # 10 Gwenno - Le Kov
From March:
What I find particularly admirable about Le Kov is its pure power as artistic statement in a historical and political moment when we are most in need of them. Just singing in this dying language (sadly a conclusion that must be drawn), Gwenno potentially limits the audience for a record that in terms of its sound is more accessible to a greater audience than the one it might actually reach, but is determined to stick to its own resolve, and that determination should be respected. So a record that could easily take the path of Jane Weaver's highly successful and lauded Modern Kosmology which featured highly in virtually every end of year chart in 2017 probably won't, because of its own unshakeable principle.
March sets off in splendid style with the cracking second album from Gwenno, Le Kov. A sparkling and highly original record, sung entirely in Cornish, a language which now has less than a thousand living speakers one of whom is the artist herself. Just this fact alone would make it worthy of attention, the added bonus being that it's also an incredibly distinguished and accessible album, despite the fact that the listener may not have the slightest idea what is actually being sung about, (translations are available and have been discussed in reviews), make it even more praiseworthy.
Gwenno, (Saunders), previously in Pipettes, has been putting out records for a number of years but Le Kov is definitely a step into a new space, even from her fine solo debut Y Dydd Olaf, released in 2015. That was sung in Welsh, Saunders was brought up by a Cornish speaking father and Welsh speaking mother. Le Kov, (which translates as Place of Memory) is a defiant and determined sounding record, touching on Brexit, displacement and struggle to express identity in an increasingly uniform and often oppressive mainstream culture. But there's still much opposition and resistance. evident in the margins as this album attests
In terms of its musical palette the record melds Krautrock, Folk, artists like Stereolab, Broadcast, Super Furry Animals and Serge Gainsbourg into fascinating, captured woven textures that are the stuff of dream. Cornish is such an evocative, mythic sounding language that the sense of spell that results from all this is quite captivating, and can't help but mind me of the rich and ancient historical and cultural legacy of Arthurian legend.
What I find particularly admirable about Le Kov is its pure power as artistic statement in a historical and political moment when we are most in need of them. Just singing in this dying language (sadly a conclusion that must be drawn), Gwenno potentially limits the audience for a record that in terms of its sound is more accessible to a greater audience than the one it might actually reach, but is determined to stick to its own resolve, and that determination should be respected. So a record that could easily take the path of Jane Weaver's highly successful and lauded Modern Kosmology which featured highly in virtually every end of year chart in 2017 probably won't, because of its own unshakeable principle.
Le Kov may not ultimately achieve such success and acclaim in 2018 as Modern Kosmology did last year but this would be a shame because its an equally, and possibly (based on my initial listenings to it), an even more accomplished record. Myth, memory and melody come together to conjure up what will surely be one of my very favourite albums of this year.
Song of the Day # 1,792 Advance Base
Hey, my new favourite artist Part blah, blah, blah.... Advance Base, essentially the one man project of Owen Ashworth, not a million miles away from Phosphorescent, it's smart, literate leftfield stuff. Aptly described on their Bandcamp page as 'depressed nostalgia obsessed lo-fi pop' , this, Dolores & Kimberley is the pick from this year's album Animal Companionship. A pocket gem, almost a classic Raymond Carver short story put to song. About a guy who moves to Indiana, leaving his previous life to start anew. It all has a sad, lived-in reality.
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Songs About People # 760 Sam & Dave
Quite why Sam & Dave are getting this clarinet treatment is slightly beyond me but there you are.
Albums of the Year # 11 Bill Ryder-Jones - Yawn
Back at the end of 2015, I was very taken with West Kirby County Priory, Bill Ryder-Jones third album. It seemed to capture wonderfully a certain British ennui, of winter weather of dead-end towns, of a semi-permanent depressed state, laced with sensitivity in a noble tradition stretching back to Nick Drake, (except Nick Drake fronting an Indie band who'd listened to Pavement a lot).
Three years on and he's back with Yawn. And nothing's really changed at all. In many respects Yawn is West Kirby County Priory Part 2 and I'm not complaining. But if anything the shadows have lengthened and Ryder-Jones finds himself even more cut adrift and alone.
I respect him greatly for choosing to mine this particular dark seam. Before going solo Ryder-Jones was guitarist in the original incarnation of The Coral but chose to depart a relatively stable nine to five existence to do something that's more demanding but ultimately far more rewarding. Ryder-Jones marks his card here as one of the great British pop depressives in the tradition of Morrissey, Robert Smith and Ian Curtis. We should be very grateful to have him among us.
Song of the Day # 1,791 Ignace De Souza & the Melody Aces
From a wonderful record of tracks from Benin in the Seventies, African Scream Contest 2.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Songs About People # 759 Elton John
Elton John is big this Christmas, (if he isn't every Christmas), due to his appearance in the seasonal John Lewis Christmas advert. So here's a song for him.
Albums of the Year # 12 Cat Power - Wanderer
From October:
The story of Cat Power, (Chan Marshall), is as remarkable one as any in modern Rock and Roll. An 'outsider' artist who for many years made her way through the alternative scene of small venues, underground gigs and DIY culture and with a reputation for being on the edge in every way possible. She has, bit by bit over the intervening two decades of her musical career, made inroads into mainstream American culture to the point where her last record 2012's Sun, made the Top Ten Billboard Album chart.
Now she's back with Wanderer and it's a mesmerising listen. A marginalised woman and artist who has journeyed to a place where she demands attention through the sheer, undeniable power of her talent alone. Wanderer is as sparse and spartan as any of her previous records, it's just Cat's voice really plus the most minimal of instrumentation but there's so much soul, passion, heartbreak and feeling here.. In many ways she's a Folk or Blues artist, in the purest sense of those traditions (in a line from Robert Johnson and Leadbelly), and here the production has the clearest, state of the art sheen imaginable.
You get Woman, a duet with Lana Del Ray. You get Stay, a cover of the Rihanna song. You get auto-tune.You get Black, one of the best songs I've heard this year, which I hope I'll be able to post on here in my end of year rundown. The whole album's a treasure, eleven tracks to slot upon a back catalogue that's already crammed with classics. We should be grateful we have her.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,790 Gia Margaret
Two rather beautiful, glowing objects from Chicago-based Gia Margaret's first album There's Always Glimmer, a lyric that turns up in the first song here. The whole record is well worth a listen.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Covers # 98 - Mercury Rev & Hope Sandoval
One of the more interesting projects coming up early in 2019 is Mercury Rev's loving recreation of Bobbie Gentry's classic 1968 album The Delta Sweete, each song in collaboration with a different female singer. Looking at the people they're working with, it should be a rare treat. Here's a taster, their take on today's Song of the Day with Hope Sandoval guesting.
Songs About People # 758 Alexander Solzhenitsyn
My Welsh isn't good enough to confirm that this is about Alexander. But I imagine it is.
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 350 Kelis
Fine song from Kelis' debut album Kaleidoscope back in '99.
Albums of the Year # 13 Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Feel
Back in May:
'You know what they say. No-one's born to hate. We learn it somewhere along the way. Take your broken heart. Turn it into art. Can't take it with you. Can't take it with you...'
First a disclaimer. Courtney Barnett is probably my favourite contemporary artist. I feel like I know her, which is one of her great gifts. Over the last five years since I first heard Avant Gardener, she's given me an enormous amount of pleasure and no little sustenance as she's travelled from a small time indie singer songwriter and frontwoman for her band in Melbourne to a known force currently making inroads and friends and inevitably detractors wherever she's decided to go as she gains a wider audience.
And so to her second album Tell Me How you Feel out yesterday. It's a shorter record than 2015's Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit the debut which broke her big. I think it's a better one. She's certainly moved away from the narrative songs which marked that record to an inner space which tries to resolve her own evident inner discord while maintaining simplicity, sincerity and lyrical guile and dealing with the arseholes she comes across along the way as best she can. Seeking greater resonance while all the time ensuring she maintains her grace and not taking on meanness in response to the meanness she comes across. Just look at the feedback under The Guardian review of Tell Me for ample evidence of this.
It's a fine balancing act she's undertaking and on Tell Me I think she's done it. The ten tracks here are thoughtful, melodic and sweet, if troubled. She's moving on as an artist, has written several career best songs, kept what was already wonderful about her and supplemented it with greater depth and emotive power.
Nirvana is the obvious touchstone for the angrier songs here as they were from the start with Courtney and her three-piece band. On Hopefulness and I'm Not Your Mother I'm Not Your Bitch and Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Self Confidence, In Utero is definitely a starting point, but the end destination is all Courtney's own. In some ways she's gone back to her early simplicity as a way of forging forward and I think that's exactly the right move.These songs don't detonate as Nirvana's later ones often did in unresolved pain, grief and rage. They stay afloat.
So while Courtney's troubled, she's still grounded in friends, family and community in a way Kurt sadly never seemed to be. She's still got a wonderful way with words, a delivery that's warm and affecting, and no little skill as a guitarist, (perhaps her least appreciated talent). These seem like ten friends to get to know and there's nothing on here I'm uneasy with or I think is a false move, the result of overthinking, something she probably was guilty of on occasion on Sometimes I Sit and Think...
The band placed the lead off single from Tell Me last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon as part of the album launch in New York last night. The record seems set to shift in large numbers and Courtney's star will surely ascend yet further. If she seems uneasy with this course, (who can blame her?), I'd say she's taken the right approach with Tell Me. Keep it close to home, (final track Sunday Roast well and truly drive this point home), keep it real and try to make it more real, the next step on the journey as the road broadens. It gives more than enough and keeps you wanting more.
In summary, it's a fine record that occasionally howls but maintains its manners and an uneasy smile on its face. This should be another great year for Courtney and she very much deserves it. And for my friend Darran who turned down the opportunity to see her with me in a small venue in Newcastle a few years back, she still doesn't brush her hair and is all the better for it. And she won't ever be back there again...
'Don't come with your arms swinging. Throw them around me...'
Song of the Day # 1,789 Jimmy Reed
The original of a much covered song; by Elvis, Bobbie Gentry, B.B.King and many more. From 1960.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Songs About People # 757 Rita Hayworth
Boston's Darlingside offer short but sweet tribute to Rita Hayworth.
Albums of the Year # 14 Trembling Bells - Dungeness
Back in March:
Trembling Bells are not a phenomenon that I've really been aware of until this year. I'm catching on late as Dungeness, just out, is their sixth album in all, they've worked with Bonnie Prince Charlie and been endorsed by Stewart Lee and Stuart Maconie along the way and create a big, (undeniably pretentious), but highly distinctive Folk Prog sound.
Christ's Entry Into Govan, the quite brilliant single which heralded it at the turn of the year is probably the most conventional thing on here, and it's not really conventional at all, except in the way that it recalls that strange time at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies in the UK when quite batty Folk acts would find themselves in the UK charts and on Top of the Pops.
It's here and on I'm Coming where the band push forward Lavinia Blackwall, their wonderfully pure- throated singer, undeniably reminiscent of Sandy Denny in her prime and the band aspire for and achieve the wondeful otherness of Fairport Convention at their peak. In the video the band dance in kaftans with flowers in their hair across a sunny meadow.
Elsewhere Prog often takes centre stage. Not generally a style of music that floats my boat much but there's something that's quite infectious and immersive about the way that the band handle it. Blackwall transmutes into Shocking Blue's Mariska Veres or Grace Slick by turns and the band generate a series of Medieval metal hoedowns.
They will probably enrage many. Drummer, main songwriter and leader Alex Nielson is completely forthright, (and probably to some minds daftly pretentious), in interviews about the cultural and literary inspirations and allusions of their work.They're somehow made for The Quietus, the modern online site that faultlessly documents the obscure and arcane and suitably that august journal bites, giving the band no end of documentation and Dungeness a fully appreciative, thumbs up review.
I have to say I concur too. But not really because of its affectations so much as the fact that it's just a big bold, proud and thoroughly enjoyable record. A band having no end of fun with the treasure chest of Folk, Prog and alternative possibilities and dressing up and frolicking across car parks and fields in ludicrous outfits in their promo videos. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.
Song of the Day # 1,788 Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Gainsbourg is back. Nothing particularly new from her in musical terms but still state of the art.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 349 ABBA
Olivia, the barmaid at Rosie's is an ABBA fan so this went on.
Albums of the Year # 15 Blood Orange - Negro Swan
From September:
All power to the Blood Orange elbow and maybe I should listen to my nephew more. Negro Swan is a graceful and beautiful creature. As with Dirty Computer it focuses on the marginalised at a moment of great and explicit political threat but in contrast chooses to internalise, and in doing so traces out a significant and impressive landscape of consciousness.
A couple of years ago I asked my oldest nephew what music he was listening to. He mentioned the name Blood Orange. I didn't follow it up. Kids, what do they know.? The previous time I got recommendations from he and his siblings they were pushing Mumford & Sons on me.
All this time later I've finally got round to Blood Orange, largely because he, (the name, is a moniker for Dev Hynes), put out a new album recently, Negro Swan, which has made some waves. And no wonder listening to it. It's a fine record. Soulful, considered and clearly an extended comment on the world we live in and particularly America, as turbulent now as it's been since the late Sixties.
In many ways this feels like a companion piece to the Janelle Morae record Dirty Computer that I wrote about in such glowing terms yesterday. This is not such a strident album but it is a State of the World address in a different way. Like Morae it totes no guns and seems at times like an almost academic investigation into black experience, spirituality and soul.
In the man's own words: ' My newest album is an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the dark corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer / people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of HOPE, and the lights we can turn on or within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.'
All power to the Blood Orange elbow and maybe I should listen to my nephew more. Negro Swan is a graceful and beautiful creature. As with Dirty Computer it focuses on the marginalised at a moment of great and explicit political threat but in contrast chooses to internalise, and in doing so traces out a significant and impressive landscape of consciousness.
Monday, December 10, 2018
Songs About People # 755 Angela Rippon
Crass have a rant about mainstream media and dedicate it to Angela Rippon, the first woman to take the role as main news presenter on BBC in the Seventies.
Albums of the Year # 16 The Goon Sax - We're Not Talking
From September:
Back in the late Sixties the Velvet Underground let their drummer, (the diminutive Mo Tucker), sing a couple of songs, After Hours and I'm Sticking With You. They were lullabies for the cool set and wittingly or otherwise they established a whole Rock and Roll sub-genre of which Brisbane Australia's Goon Sax second album We're Not Talking is just the latest marvellous example
The Goon Sax are three young people struggling with the concept and actual experience of living through and documenting their late teenage years. They take these two Velvet Underground songs, the early Jonathan Richman sensibility and the awkward but equally knowing presence of The Go-Betweens Robert Forster, (father of Louis, one of their number), and mix it all up with their own gawky, hormonal concerns to come out with a small but perfectly formed classic. Twelve songs too. Like so many of the very best records, going back to my first great musical love, R.E.M.'s Murmur.
All three of the band James Harrison, Louis and Riley Jones sing and their instruments, guitar, drum, bass and other assorted instruments harmonise. Sometimes, the band are happy, sometimes sad, sometimes confused but you know they'll actually be OK because they're whip smart even if they don't want to let on that they are. Louis is the only one who's actually related to a member of the band but they've all inherited the early Go-Betweens genes, And that's a wonderful thing. And this is a wonderful record. Destined to go Top 10. At least in my end of the year album list! (Not quite as it transpired)...
Song of the Day # 1,786 Lily Allen
Skimming through the Lily Allen album of this year which is getting some attention in the end of year polls. For the most part it's not for me, but it has its moments. Such as this.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Songs Heard on the Radio # 282 Sharon Van Etten
BC Camplight playing a fine set standing in for Guy Garvey on 6 Music on Sunday Afternoon. Here's just one offering.
Albums of the Year # 17 The Lavender Flu - Mow the Glass
Back in July:
A project driven by Chris Gunn, (also of The Hunches), and a rotating circle of like-minded friends and associates, Mow The Glass is an album that just invites the description lysergic and comparison with golden and possibly long since unplayed records and bands in your collection.
Apologies for spitting out whole sections of the thesaurus here but Mow the Glass is an album not only deserving of it but actually requiring it if it wants to be adequately described. In addition to the Elevators it recalls the phrasing of Dylan in his 'wild mercury' phase, the transcendental chime of The Byrds, Moby Grape, Country Joe, The Seeds and also Television who redrafted this stuff through the prism of New York street experience in the Seventies. Sonic Youth and early Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips also flit in and out of the mix occasionally.
Mow the Grass is more bucolic than much of that. It touches on Cosmic Country on occasion. But it's also wired. And strangely at the same time rather thought through and sculpted. Structured chaos.
There's plenty of stuff around these days a bit like this, (particularly coming out of America), but very little of it is both as thought through as this and yet still manages to come across as so utterly spontaneous. I've found listening through to it over the last couple of days a glorious trip, (sorry, but there you are), in terms of experiencing epiphanic moments that send me spinning back in search of their source.
Mow The Glass, the second album from The Lavender Flu, is a startling and breathtakingly smart record which came out just last Friday. The record was rehearsed and recorded in a small house in Oregon on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In other words distinctively lo-fi. But it certainly doesn't sound it. It's an album that arrestingly recalls a bygone age of psychedelic American voyage and discovery.
A project driven by Chris Gunn, (also of The Hunches), and a rotating circle of like-minded friends and associates, Mow The Glass is an album that just invites the description lysergic and comparison with golden and possibly long since unplayed records and bands in your collection.
Austin, Texas's favourite sons The 13th Floor Elevators are the most obvious and immediate reference point here. The Flu, like the Elevators are insistently frazzled and saucer eyed and come across occasionally as verging on mass-derangement in terms of their approach. But at the same time they are also acutely disciplined. Only one song goes beyond four minutes and every track is deeply imbued with fierce, righteous wonder.
Apologies for spitting out whole sections of the thesaurus here but Mow the Glass is an album not only deserving of it but actually requiring it if it wants to be adequately described. In addition to the Elevators it recalls the phrasing of Dylan in his 'wild mercury' phase, the transcendental chime of The Byrds, Moby Grape, Country Joe, The Seeds and also Television who redrafted this stuff through the prism of New York street experience in the Seventies. Sonic Youth and early Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips also flit in and out of the mix occasionally.
Mow the Grass is more bucolic than much of that. It touches on Cosmic Country on occasion. But it's also wired. And strangely at the same time rather thought through and sculpted. Structured chaos.
There's plenty of stuff around these days a bit like this, (particularly coming out of America), but very little of it is both as thought through as this and yet still manages to come across as so utterly spontaneous. I've found listening through to it over the last couple of days a glorious trip, (sorry, but there you are), in terms of experiencing epiphanic moments that send me spinning back in search of their source.
This may not reach an enormous audience, (not many of the band's obvious inspirations ever did), but it really should. The band have very little social media exposure and possibly prefer life under the radar's blip. Nevertheless, you'll do well to hear a better record of its sort in this or many a calendar year. The Lavender Flu. Listen to Mow the Glass and 'gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing.'
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Albums of the Year # 18 Richard Swift - The Hex
Written in October:
American Richard Swift died this summer and I wasn't really aware of him, I'm sorry to say. I am now, with the posthumous release of The Hex, a set of songs he was working on before his death, just released, in fitting tribute to his talents.
Pieced together for release in the months since his passing, the album was pretty much complete anyhow, '11 songs performed by me for family and friends' is how Swift announced it on Instagram. It's a haunted record. Full of wonderful studio effects, which should come as no surprise, the man after all was probably best known as producer for The Black Keys, The Shins, Lonnie Holley and others. It's drenched in echoes of Soul, Blues, Doo Wop and Music Hall, all spinning around Swift's evocative vocals.
The artists who this record reminds me of most are Curtis Mayfield , Elliott Smith and Harry Nilsson. Swift often vacillates magically between the three. But there's much more to this too.This is a magnificent, emotion loaded record and stands as a wonderful statement of legacy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)