Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Albums of the Year # 46 C. Duncan - Alluvium
Scotsman C. Duncan is one of the most remarkable Pop practitioners we have in the world right now. Somehwere between Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Paul Buchanan, his records paint a picture of a verdant, abundant expanse of cultivated arcadian bliss.
Latest album, Alluvium, for the most part, (there are a couple of tracks which don't quite fit), unfurl in the most graceful, assured strides. He could just as easily be an architect, or an engineer who really know their trades, as an alternative pop musician.
It would be better in some ways if he weren't a low profile alternative musician really. It woud be preferable that he were mainstream. Then at least we would know we were in safe hands. But this is a post Gary Barlow world unfortunately, not a Brian Wilson or Burt Baccarach one, so Duncan will not get the attention and acclaim that he deserves.
I love the record though. As I say, a couple of tracks don't fit the overall design so he gets docked a point. But still, this is another fine, fine record to add to his excellent body of work.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,206 Ingrates
Punk / New Wave. Old school Punk / New Wave. Nowt wrong with that.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Beware The Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray # 15 Our Dog
A sad dissolution and decline as drink tears Jake apart in his late years. His marriage ends, he stops writing and playing and struggles financially. Eventually he dies in sad circumstances. This is a great tribute to an incredible talent.
Songs of the Day # 50 The Black Angels
I'm getting old. This one slipped my mind so I'm going to double up and catch up for a couple of days. Black Angels, never a bad place to start.
Albums of the Year # 47 Papercuts - Past Life Regression
A cursory look through Jason Quevey's Spotify playlist is enough to tell me that he practically has the same music taste that I have. Bunnymen, Silver Jews, Nina, The Clean, Vashti, Velvets, Aldous, Belle & Sebastian. Otis. What more could you want. No wonder I like his own stuff so much.
Papercuts, for Quevey is essentially Papercuts. have produced a complete dreamland for those of a certain musical disposition with latest album Past Life Regression. Anyone who was traumatised by The Byrds, Zombies, Turtles and Psychedelic Folk at an impressionable age then went on to Creation Records, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Chills , Felt, Galaxie 500 and the like will lap the record up..
You'll very rarely come upon a record that epitomises Some Velvet Morning principles as utterly as this. It embodies jangling, dreaming pastoral bliss to the nth degree.
Quevers, has been refining this vision for the best part of twenty years and Past Life Regression may be the realisation on the vision he's been pursuing all these years. Fans of Notorious Byrds Brothers, Oddyssey & Oracle, Ocean Rain and Kaleidoscope World will lap this up.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,205 Laura Jean
I've seen Laura Jean, (Australian Folk Indie Rocker), play support a couple of times in Newcastle over the last few years. First with Courtney where she returned later with Courtney to sing rather lovely harmonies on an altogether special cover of The Go Betweens Streets of Your Town.
Then in May 2019 with Aldous Harding. We had a really great chat afterwards and she was very gracious and friendly. But enough of the support stuff on It Starts for Laura Jean. She has a new album out, called Amateurs.
And it's really something quite splendid, notwithstanding a slightly awful album sleeve with an extremely amateurish portrait of Laura, some kind of bird and a microphone for some reason. Disregarding this. it has numerous very alluring selling points.
It's been on constant rotation on my place for the best par of a day at my place, a sure sign in itself. Immediately recognisable to anybody already wedded to the quirky vision of Courtney and Aldous without being indebted to either.
But there's something else here too. Something unmistakable. The beautiful classical grace of the string arrangements which bring back the timeless feel of Nick Drakes' Five Leaves Left and most of all Laurel Canyon Joni Mitchell.
This is certainly Remembrance of Things Past, The first words of the record are 'When I was seventeen.' As the record spins you realise you're in the company of something of a classic. From innocence to experience/
This album probably won't get the attention I deserves. That happens. For me it puts her in the company of Courtney and Aldous. It's that good. Make sure you hear it.
Monday, November 7, 2022
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 547 Bing Crosby
Enjoyable pint and hot dog after my Book Club with the lovely barmaid in an empty Telegraph on a Monday night.
Albums of the Year # 48 Daniel Rossen - You Belong Here
The two new albums I was most looking forward to hearing this Friday couldn't have been more contrasting. The Linda Linda's debut Growing Up, which I've already posted my impressions on today. Brash, teenage and pre-teenage punky energy.
And this, Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen's own debut You Belong Here, refined and highly adult. Artistic, poetic and almost classical in its approach. Grizzly Bear, one of my favourite bands of the millenium appear to be on hold, at least for the time being as Ed Droste, the band's founder has apparently left to become a therapist. An odd turn of events but Grizzly Bear were always the oddest and most particular of bands.
It's a relief, though hardly a surprise, to find that You Belong Here is such an excellent, realised album. In many respects it sounds like a new Grizzly Bear record. Rossen has got the Bear's drummer Chris Bear, (Yes really!) on board. It's full of the signature, almost aquatic flourishes of the band's best music. Wonderfully and meticulously produced it's full of light, scope and space.
Perhaps Brian Wilson is the natural comparison. I always heard reminders of Wilson's best music when listening to Grizzly Bear. There's an aching reach and depth of feeling on the record. It's unusual to hear such mastery of form in a Rock record these days.
In fact it doesn't seem entirely right to label this Rock music really. It's too nuanced. Too subtle. In any case, it's a special, beautiful record that demands to be heard. Nothing like The Linda Lindas at all. In fact if anything a polar opposite. But neither record has disappointed me at all and I'll be istening to both over the coming months whenever the mood for either suits me.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,204 Bird Streets
Any record that is clearly in thrall to Big Star's # 1 Record and actually has Jody Stephens, drummer from that band, playing on a couple of tracks is going to be a record I'm willing to listen to.
This is the case with Bird Street's second album Lagoon. You get plenty of the sound of the human heart breaking. Lovely harmonies, chiming guitars and aching vocals.
The signature BS sound is so instantly recognisable and so immediate and distinctive that it's difficult to think beyond Chilton, Bell, Hummel and Stephens.. After a while I thought, why not take it off and actually listen to # 1 Record instead. Still this is a well put together record and a heartfelt tribute to a sound that's frankly eternal.
Sunday, November 6, 2022
Albums of the Year # 49 Moor Mother - Jazz Codes
The fourth unexpected treat that came my way last Friday among the new batch of releases. Moor Mother's latest Jazz Codes. A Hip Hop record really, if it needs a label, but deeply engaged with and informed by the great Black American musical and cultural; tradition and well worth cupping an ear to.
It most obviously reminded me of a couple of records, both of them classic early Nineties ones. Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets debuts, People's Instinctive Travels and Reachin'.
Both of these records have stood the test of time and I'd say t Jazz Codes should do. It's mired in the eternal. This feels like a project. Knitted together from a set of collaborators with rappers and poets, understandably focuses on issues facing the Afro American community. There's plenty of rage but this is an easy record to listen to.
The whole thing positively floats. It also crackles and resonates. Haunting and soothing in turn. Described by its key author as 'Black Quantum Futurism',it tells an old story, and one apparently that needs constant retelling.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,203 Powder, Pink & Sweet
It doesn't take long for you to orient yourself when listening to LA quartet, Powder, Pink & Sweet's debut album Little Stories. You find yourself in 1991 essentially in the middle of a Lush or Slowdive record.
That's essentially what you've got here. Shimmery Shoegaze. Add Cocteau Twins and that the pulsing bass undertow which Hooky used to drive New Order forward and you've pretty much got the record.
So not by any means the most original record you're going to hear this year. But certainly an easy and pleasing ride.
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 546 Pere Ubu
A relaxed couple of hours in The Telegraph Post Punk on the jukebox. This, a highlight!
Beware The Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray # 14 The Black Swan
Jake moves increasingly away from music and gigging and into a new career as a columnist for The Catholic Herald.
Albums of the Year # 50 Partner Look - By the Book
Hey, another cool band from Melbourne. Fanyc that. Partner Looks debut album By The Book finds the quartet in slightly quaint matching outfits and rocking a cool ringing guitar and organ sound with alternating male and female vocals that offers mmediate remnders of Feelies, Flying Nun, particularly Look Blue Go Purple, early Go Betweens and Talking Heads, Jonathan Richman.
This checklist already ticks most of my tick boxes. They transported me enchantingly back to the early days of the Dunedin and Athens, Georgia scenes..Even a whiff or the CBGB's, Postcard and Boston's original grime free art sound. A few of my favourite things.
By The Book easily maintains its course. These songs have a rather lovely childlike sensibility that it's pretty much impossible for anyone who was drawn to this kind of thing first time round not to be charmed by. Every song maintains a delightful, minimalist drive.
Twelve utterly winning songs that arrive, groove and depart at about the three minute mark and certainly intrigue sufficiently to ensure that I'll be back for one to see how deep they go. It's all quite wonderfully feel good.
Parsnip and Goon Sax, are the contemporaries that come readily to mind. Early Courtney Barnett perhaps. Even a stripped down Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever at points. Partner Look are utterly devoid of pretention. They know exactly who they are and exactly what they like. I can endorse this without reservation.
Song of the Day # 3,202 Horse Lords
Baltimore's Horse Lords are definitely taking an original approach on latest album Comradely Objects. Highly rhythmic and skilled and entirely instrumental, they mix avant jazz, Krautrock, Post Punk and African influences into the pot and appear to be having one hell of a time.
Friday, November 4, 2022
Albums of the Year # 51 Kurt Vile - (watch my moves)
A quiet Friday for new music releases where the main point of attraction seems to be the new Kurt record. It's fairly clear what the man brings to the table by now and (watch my moves) doesn't really disappoint or frankly surprise too much.
'Playing in the music room. In my underwear,' as he himself confesses early on. It's all Freewheeling Stoner Stream of Consciousness once more.
It takes a while for this to hit its stride but once it does, there's much to enjoy. There are some worthy additions to his back catalogue some of which I've posted here. You do have to do some searching, as what once seemed an inspired formula seems less so here. But there's still gold in these here mountains. Nobody does it better.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Albums of the Year # 52 caroline - caroline
A new record I've been aware has made something of a splash without getting round to yet. Well better late than never. The eponymous debut album from British band caroline, apparently five years in the making, has finally made it, and for those who have been waiting for it, it will be well worth the wait.
I'm not one of that number, but I'm very pleased to hear it too. It's a repetitive, minimalist guitar driven record, apparently at least partially aligned to the Brixton Windmill Post Punk scene. But don't let that put you off. It's a lot more immediately pleasing to my ears than Black Country High Road for example.
Instead I can only compare it to an unholy marriage between an Appalchian Mountains fiddle folk operation and the opening section of Sonic Youth's Teen Age Riot before that unstoppable riff section kicks in. It's mournful. It takes its time, but establishes and maintains a hypnotic, graceful trance, track after track that's really something else.
An octet of musicians who certainly don't look as if they should be in a band together, caroline stand slightly apart from pretty much anything around at the moment, although comparisons could probably be made with the likes of Mogwai and God Speed You Black Emperor who establish similar sonic atmospheres.
What the songs are about are anyone's guess frankly.It's all rather end of the world stuff and given world events since the band started ten years ago, you can't be too surprised. Anyway caroline is a text book lesson in taking your time. Sometimes it's the right thing to do.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Beware The Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray # 13 Sister Josephine
The book's big reveal. Jake's alcoholism.
Albums of the Year # 53 Gently Tender -Take Hold of Your Promise
A lushly produced and rather lovely start to the weekend, and in my case a week of holiday. Produced by Matthew E. White in Wales during Lockdown. From the group of musicians who played in Palma Violets, Gently Tender's debut has indie roots, I heard Waterboys, The Verve, the Antipodean swirly feel of bands like The Triffids or the Chills and the vocalist veers into Ian Curtis territory on occasion.
From here they move into anthemic mode. It's a really interesting, yearning and soulful record evocative of broad mountains and open spaces. Feels like one to get to know and love. The theme of the album seems to be a quest for home. Its a record that marks out a space for itself highly successfully. By the end of the record I confess, I'd been swept away.
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Songs About People # 1,358 Frances Sokolov
The Nightingales continue to plough their particular furrow on latest album The Last Laugh. Here's a song from it called Frances Sokolov. Better known a Vi Subvesa, lead singer, rhythm guitarist and singer of The Poison Girls.
Beware The Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray # 12 One of Them
Jake loses his mojo and suffers writer's block. After years on the road.
Albums of the Year # 54 Ty Segall - Hello, Hi
I was in something of a quandry, listening to the latest Ty Segall album, Hello Hi, this morning. The question I was actually asking myself was 'Do I actually like this?'
I've been asking myself this about Segall for a while. Also about his near California contemporaries Oh Sees, who I underwent a long immersion on social media recently with a group I belong to.
Oh I'm not saying that Segall and Oh Sees don't put out good product. They put out very good product. They're consummate musicians and know their rock history better than you ever will, all of it's twists and turns. I'm sure they own all of the original albums, annuals and badges.
They're immersed in the musical past, well and truly. In Segall's case that means mostly Marc Bolan, who seems his formative and key influence, (his voice uncannily has the same elfin quiver), but also Hawkwind, Sabbath, Gong and various other Hippie and Metal standbys of the early Seventies.
If you like that stuff you'll probably like this. It's almost consumately replicated. I really like this kind of approach generally. I'm perfectly happy to unwind in the company of an Allah La's or Cool Ghou's album, as they reproduce the sound of Californa's original Golden Dawn one more time or some San Francisco indie band, making like they're in the South of England in 1986 and the C-86 compilation is coming out with the NME next week.
My abiding issue with both Segall and Oh Sees, is that what they do comes across to be as a rather cold and calculated exercise much as I like the actual music. I felt the same when I saw them both live within a short period a few years back. They don't entirely rock my boat as other practitioners of similar skills can.
So, that's where I stand with Hello, Hi. I'll give it further spins over the coming months. By the end of play one I was pretty much won over so I'm sure I'll be further committed to further spins. I'll probably alternate it with listens to Tyrannosaurus and T. Then see what I feel as I begin my own personal rundown of personal favourites in mid-September.
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