I only found this band recently, and I am absolutely delighted with this album.  Delight is probably the right word for the music as well, which simply leaks loveliness into your life as if it had an infinite supply to spread around.  It's somewhat fitting that the last song should be called Charm School too, seeing as that is a lesson Porlolo could teach you in their sleep.

Porlolo have quite a lot in common with the likes of Laura Viers and other thoughtful, slightly introverted acoustic campfire ladies.  That's a slightly glib stereotype, but particularly in the vocals I can hear a real 'type' here, I just can't quite figure out how best to describe it.

A month or so ago, when I first wrote about them, I posted two song which I didn't realise were actually from this album, although Turning on Heels went by a different name back then.  The feel of the record is a little different from the vibe you'd pick up from just those two songs though.  There's more hush, more tension, more cinema in the record, and less folky prettiniess.  Reverbed guitar undercurrents growl away at the back of songs like I Don't Know, bringing just a little crunchiness to an album that is otherwise delivered with a very light touch indeed.

This kind of stain on such an immaculately lovely fascia gives the album a bit of depth which I rather like.  Definitely worth investigating.

Porlolo - Turning on Heels[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Porlolo-TurningonHeels.mp3]
Porlolo - I Know, I Know[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Porlolo-IKnowIKnow.mp3]

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy the album from CDBaby (it's not live yet, but hopefully will be in the next couple of days).

I honestly didn't get this album the first few times through, and now I have no idea how that could have happened. The hooks, delightful little tunes lapsing into growly guitar, it's all spot on. Maybe I was just having a dopey week - it does happen, you know.

This reminds me an awful lot of a less strident version of Ravens & Chimes' brilliant Reichenbach Falls last year, albeit without the ringing piano.  The guitar rhythms are slightly awkward, the whole presentation slipping from the melodic to the vaguely off key and abrupt, and then backagain without much warning.

It's almost like they're a band that could write a perfect pop song if they wanted, but they just chose to baffle everyone by smuggling it into their lives under the disguise of an album of discordant indie.  It shouldn't take long to grow on you, but it may start quite low on your radar.  First time through it just didn't sound very good, but once I'd separated the sound from the standard difficult indie guitar album and the hooks from the standard radio pop and started to understand quite how brilliantly the two are put together then it really started to climb swiftly in my affections until suddenly I realised that I'd decided that it really is superb.

And what do they do once the growl of the guitar and the slide of the music threatens to get a little much?  They slip in a gorgeous splash of drummer Sarah Houle's gorgeous vocals or breezy harmonies, just to set you neatly back off balance once again.  It's excellent; Mrs. Toad will hate it, but I think it's great!

Ghostkeeper - Cruisin' the Chev[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/CruisinTheChev.mp3]
Ghostkeeper - Afternoon Girl[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/AfternoonGirl.mp3]

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Saved by Radio

There's a question I just can't answer: why is it I love analogue synthesizers so much? I really don't know why, but I'm an absolute sucker for the sound of these things. Maybe it's memories of the sound of the future when I was a kid? Maybe it's a subliminal influence of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Delia Derbyshire on my listening, before I knew who or what they were? Whatever the answer, I fall for them every time.

That's why I'm currently loving Eine Kleine Nacht Musik's eponymous album - it's chocked full of wires and transistors housed in retro-futurist boxes that look like pieces of G-plan furniture. Sitting somewhere amongst a musical Venn diagram of Kraut/Motorik, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Raymond Scott and, when the rhythms are ratcheted up, more modern outings like Add N to X, Eine Kleine Nacht Musik is all highly engineered hover-cars, jet-packs and extraterrestrial Autobahns. The only downside is some nicely played but trying-to-hard-to-be-trippy sitar action here and there (especially on ‘Die Fontane').

And in turns out that Eine Kleine is Henry Smithson (also known as Riton) who once worked in Fat City Records here in Manc. This piece of minor trivia was only discovered on a post-purchase Last.fm search having already been into said outlet to see if they had the album earlier in the day...which they didn't. For a whole series of prejudiced reasons I usually avoid Fat City. Perhaps it's time to open my eyes and de-cloth the ears and pay more attention to what's going on therein. This certainly should be the case if Eine Kleine is anything to go by.

You live and learn and then you croak, but on the way you're given pleasure by little gems like this.  

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Re-hydrate your lunch and float off to buy it here

angrybonbon

Σε μια εποχή που το power metal πέφτει σε τέλμα, οι Σουηδοί Sabaton κυκλοφορούν έναν επικό δίσκο που περικλείει όλα τα στοιχεία που θα πρέπει να έχει ένας καλός power δίσκος: παθιασμένα εκφραστικά φωνητικά, συναίσθημα, λυρισμό, ατμόσφαιρα, ενθουσιασμό, δυναμικές μελωδίες και συνθέσεις που να κολλάνε στο μυαλό. Ο δίσκος είναι riff-οβασισμένος σε κλασικές metal φόρμες, με τα refrains να είναι απόλυτα επικά και ανθεμικά.

Απ' το εξαιρετικό "Ghost Division" με το υπέροχο refrain που θα σε κάνει να το τραγουδάς, το "40-1" που μετά το mid-tempo ξεκίνημα speed-άρει, το πορωτικό ομώνυμο, στον πολεμικό ύμνο "Panzerkampf" . Κάθε τραγούδι είναι βασισμένο σε μία σύντομη ιστορία, διανθισμένο από φράσεις που κατέγραψε ο μετρ της μάχης Sun Tzu, στο αρχαίο βιβλίο Τhe Art of War. Τα πλήκτρα είναι πάρα πολύ καλά και βοηθούν στην δημιουργία κλίματος μάχης, ανάλογο των ιστοριών που πραγματεύονται μέσα απ' τους στίχους τους. Το ηρωικό αίσθημα που βρίσκεται διάχυτο προσωπικά με κέρδισε χωρίς να είμαι οπαδός του επικού ήχου, όμως εδώ έχουμε να κάνουμε με αυθεντικό συναίσθημα κι όχι με λόγια "ανδρείας" προβαρισμένα στον καθρέφτη.

Οι Sabaton κερδίζουν τις εντυπώσεις καθώς ρίχνουν το βάρος σε refrains που χαίρεσαι να τα τραγουδάς. Ακόμα κι όταν ρίχνουν τις ταχύτητες καταφέρνουν να τραβήξουν την προσοχή σου και να σε συνεπάρουν. Σίγουρα δεν συγκρίνεται με το "Αttero Dominatus", αλλά το "The Art of War" είναι απαραίτητο να προσεχθεί από όσους αρέσκονται σε επικομεταλλικά ακούσματα. Είναι απορίας άξιο πως στην Ελλάδα τουλάχιστον δεν έχουν περισσότερη αναγνώριση...

THE PIT: 8/10

You know, this is actually pretty good, for the most part. I'll confess, my expectations were pretty bloody low for this album, given the extreme variability of Beck's recent work.  Actually, the extreme variability of all of his work.

I loved Mutations, I liked Guero, I sort of liked Odelay and Mellow Gold, I like most of Sea Change, but albums like Midnite Vultures and The Information rather passed me by.  Maybe I need a Best of Beck playlist, and then I could just give up on expecting his albums to be great, because pretty much none of them are.  Almost all of them contain great bits, some more than others, but really only Mutations is great all the way through.

This particular outing is not bad though, and explores something of an indie-rock vibe, before settling into slightly more uneasily electronic-tinged stuff that will come as no surprise to his more regular listeners. It actually sounds not at all unlike Radiohead a lot of the time. Maybe the man just needs to release six or seven track mini-albums in order to focus on the best stuff.  If you trimmed his albums down to that length he'd look like a genius, but for the most part the material ends up being a bit thin for twelve song long players.

This is no exception.  Gamma Ray is good, Orphans is excellent, Chemtrails and Modern Guilt are both good, but then things drift a little before picking up right at the end.  So as I said, pretty good.  But that's about it.

Beck - Orphans[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Orphans.mp3]
Beck - Modern Guilt[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/ModernGuilt.mp3]

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

It also explains why Two Men with the Blues, his album-length collaboration with the great jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, not only works, but works remarkably well. Nelson, of course, will duet with literally anyone and work in any idiom of pop music, but few of his collaborations are as assured, as seamless, or as delightful as this one-- and it's probably because it used his seminal Stardust album as its touchstone. It's not just that this album finds the two veterans revisiting two of the songs from that record, it's that the whole thing is rooted in their shared love for the Great American Songbook, and, as such, it plays both to Maralis' traditionalist instincts as well as to Nelson's genre-hopping eclecticism.

Recorded live at the Lincoln Center, the album finds Nelson and Marsalis working with the latter's backing band, with Nelson's long-time harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, in tow. And if the resulting music isn't immediately revelatory, it is immediately charming. This is a loose, relaxed set that isn't out to prove anything; it's simply the sound of a group of consummate musicians enjoying each others' company and playing the music that matters to them. And so it's an assured and utterly warm record that finds both Nelson and Marsalis feeling comfortable with each other and with the material-- enough so that the record has a a warm familiarity to it, but still manages to surprise. Nelson coaxes Marsalis to take the material in directions he might not otherwise-- be it in his bluesy, blustery horn solo on "Night Life" or the cheerful swing of "Caldonia"-- and Raphael brings a bit of country grit to the band's playing, while Marsalis and his band help Nelson to relax, to stretch out with the music and give each musician room to breathe. This is music that takes its time and doesn't ever seem like it's in a hurry, and so even the more country-oriented numbers sound like jazz songs because of how each musician gets a chance to solo and to play off of one another.

Of course, any album culled from the Great American Songbook is prone to be a little too familiar, and so this one benefits from a couple of Nelson originals. Still, there's no denying that this is an album of simple pleasures, one that's important not for making a major statement but simply for allowing us to eavesdrop on two veterans cutting loose with a relaxed, gentle set of songs that plays to each of their talents without sounding quite like anything either has done before. And for that, it may not be remembered as a major record, but is is a highly enjoyable one.

As it turns out, her impressive array of influences and musical interests is her greatest asset here-- except, perhaps, for her killer voice-- while her greatest shortcoming is the fact that, well, she really wasn't born three or four decades ago, even if he tastes happen to run two or three decades older than those of her peers. In other words, No Rules attempts to be an Americana tour de force, and sometimes it comes pretty close to succeeding based on its ambitions alone, but elsewhere Howard's talents and years aren't quite enough to make it work, and she comes across as a well-intentioned poseur more than anything else. Which isn't to say that it's a bad record at all, or an uneven one for that matter-- No Rules is a consistently entertaining album, one that maintains its good-natured humor and high level of energy for the duration of its fourteen songs.

Actually, Howard's good taste is so winning that the album's best moments are its covers. The set opens with a blistering, swaggering, organ-drenched take on the soul classic "Shaky Ground," and if Howard doesn't quite have the grit or the experience to pull off the song's biting anger, she's still one heck of a funk singer, and her sheer passion for the song more than sells it. (Still, I'd love to hear someone like Bettye LaVette do this song!) Two tracks later, she does a bang-up job with "Do Right Woman- Do Right Man," a vintage soul ballad and an impassioned plea for mutual respect. Finally, "We're in This Love Together," is a cheerfully sentimental R&B chestnut, performed as a duet with an uncredited male soul singer and performed with the kind of zeal that makes it an instant standout.

There are other great moments here-- like the Stax/Volt horns on "New Twist on an Old Groove," the gentle bluegrass ballad "The Life of a Dollar," the driving rock of the scorching closing number, "Throw it Down"-- but, curiously, it's those three covers that illustrate not just her greatest strengths, but some of her greatest shortcomings. For one thing, she's got a bit of a sentimental streak, which is putting it mildly, that leads to some awkward moments on a few of her originals, both musically and lyrically. Certainly one appreciates the sentiment of a song like "Soul Sisters," which celebrates the common musical heritage of two otherwise different people, but it's just a little too cheery for its own good. But the weakest songs here are the pop songs; apparently, Howard's definition of pop if Celine Dion-styled ballads, and so a handful of cuts here are slowed-down, MOR yawners that sounds like unnecessary concessions to country radio, far too slick and schmaltzy to fit it on this otherwise stirring album. (Thankfully, Curtis never calls in the string section, but the effect if roughly the same.)

One could also complain that Howard is too good-natured even to bring herself to say the word "ass" on "New Twist on an Old Groove" (she sings the first phoneme and then lets it trail off into the ether), but at that point these criticisms become nitpicking. Howard is still a young artist, and if her youthfulness sometimes hinders her good intentions, it's still more than enough to make this a winning, enjoyable album, one that impresses both with its ambition and its talent, and one that makes one eager to hear future releases from her when she gets just a tad more experience under her belt.

I always considered Carl Barat, vocally if not lyrically, to be a sort of poor man's Joe Strummer, but on his second post-Libertines offering from the Dirty Pretty Things (who themselves are a retooled version of the latter day Doherty-less touring lineup of the former band) he slips a notch or two more to end up something resembling the homeless man's Joe Strummer. (rimshot worthy? no? fine then...)

While Waterloo To Anywhere was hardly without flaw, as an album it chugged along like a well-oiled machine lubricated with big sloppy helpings of noisy guitar, big drums and the occasional hook; anything it may have lacked in the lyrical department (namely, Pete Doherty) was more than made up for by the slabs of unabashedly pure rock fury -- not to mention an extremely loud production job with their secret weapon, Gary Powell, mixed front and centre.

Not so with Romance At Short Notice.

Whether one can chalk it up to the ever popular 'maturing' process that always seems to take hold of major-label acts at this juncture in their career or just a good old-fashioned drying up of creative juices, Barat seems to be treading water.

The songs are generally much more beige and sonically reigned in. The guitars are thin, pushed to the margins, with Melody Maker raunch replaced by acoustic sheen in an alarming number of instances -- which would be fine if the lyrics were there to complete the singerly-songwriterly sound equation, but Barat seems content to cram as many as words as possible, as many generically accusatory almost-clever couplets into each measure in order to distract us from the simple fact that he really has nothing to say about anything.

Just the same old "you did this, you did that, you did too many drugs/I did too many drugs, England's great but the Queen is kind of silly so let's go down the boozer, get pissed, and maybe have sex afterwards" sort of bullshit that he's been mining since Pete spurned him for Katie.

Elsewhere, and most unforgivingly, the drums sound like they were recorded on a single-mic boom box propped on a toilet tank in a stall of whatever suburban warehouse bathroom this steaming brown pile of product was recorded in.

But whatever. I think there's a couple of decent tunes in there somewhere and a couple of pretty little melodies, but I don't really care enough to bother searching for them again.

In closing: Pete Doherty is fucked and Carl Barat is not, but there isn't much else to say. Were the Libertines actually any good, or was it all just a dream?

Either way, Romance At Short Notice makes it clear that it's time to move on.

Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood.

The first time I saw So So Modern was in 2006. They were playing with a band called Shaky Hands (later to become Cut Off Your Hands) at a bar in Wellington called Imerst (later to become a gay nightclub). They played an amazing set, which amongst the yelling, handclaps and vocoders, included masses of props, giant dancing vegetables, and fake thousand dollar notes falling from the ceiling.

Two years later, the band has temporarily left Wellington, signed with Transgressive records in the UK (home to the likes of Foals, The Shins and The Young Knives), and can be found trekking the globe in support of a string of E.Ps and 7” singles. The band’s music has developed significantly since their formation, going from basic synth/rhythm arrangements on the very early EP0000 to more thoughtful compositions demonstrated on their Transgressive releases. “The new songs are the first to come out of a really intense period of travel, and shared experiences, of growing up and change” says So So’s Mark Leong. “We're happy because it feels like we're digging deeper than ever. The songs are very much us embodied in a moment, as a moment in a life-world-experience”.

The band have always dwelt on the importance of performance, and have been vocal in their belief that live shows are most effective way of emotively engaging with audiences. With this in mind, So So Modern shows often turn into collaborative artistic efforts. Examples of this include the aforementioned props and counterfeit currency. However the most obvious is the futuristic stage costumes that they often wear, made by Wellington designer and friend of the band, Sally Tran. A So So Modern show is more than just a drunken good time; it’s an experience. When asked what this experience may include, Mark seems wan to leave anything out. His eventual answer:“A(n):

• display of hospitality;
• encounter;
• challenge;
• invitation to engage;
• gift;
• an introversion and extroversion of energy;
• process of sound turned solid ;
• spatial and bodily experience.”

By this stage it’s pretty clear that they’re a highly intelligent bunch of guys. However you get the feeling that the cult status they achieved in New Zealand before leaving to tour overseas was somewhat unexpected. The band initially released a limited run of EPs, entitled EP 0000 to EP0003. Each of these EPs consisted of two tracks, was limited to between 120 and 300 copies, and was intended to be given to the bands friends and sold at shows. However, in New Zealand’s small indie music community, the release of a new So So Modern EP quickly became akin to the release of a new Harry Potter book, and the EP’s sold quickly.

But international fans shouldn’t despair! The band are soon to release a new EP compilation album, consisting of the eight tracks from these four EPs, as well tracks from their ‘Friends and Fires’ series of 7” singles. In the meantime, So So Modern are currently on a tour around the U.K and Europe, which (if you’re lucky) you might be able to catch.

So So Modern - Myspace
So So Modern Homepage

-Nick.

With wavelike ferocity, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath have drenched and dilapidated the crumbling ruins of dance century incarnation. Not only have they refused to pander to this particular council, but they have also aided in revitalising, re-energising, reconstructing and re-programming the formula of Electro. Or so the trendier end of the music based press would have you believe.

On the surface, there music could be construed as innovative and even after penetrating the coruscating veneer it still holds up as being something quite unlike the vapid output of the Bassline or NuRave scenes. The sound is enough to make you snort your tea and flail your arms in rhythm to the 8bit beats (provided by a keyboard fitted with an Atari 5200 soundchip) but, once your delve into the accompanying vocals and you glance over the lyrics sheets for the haunting ‘Tell Me What To Swallow’’

(‘Daddy’s let me sleepwalk/Without him I am secure/The only girl he’d never hurt/The one who smells so pure’’) or ethereal ‘Vanished’’ (‘In the dark/Come out and play/We are it’s children/Here to stay,’’) you realise these are idle lyrics from an aspirant teenage poet trying to emulate Edgar Allan Poe. Or the substanceless melo-drama of a girl who wishes she was a rape victim. Though, where the songs falter in lyrical content, they make up for in sheer exuberance of sound.

When listening to the album in it’s entirety you pass through a vortex of chiptune sampling, which instantly propels you back to a childhood of pixellated vision, and also instils a strange ominousness into the air. We also have thrashing incoherence, buoyant 80’s nostalgia and an acoustic track that is very redolent of Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’’. Each song on the album translates well to live performance, which is where Crystal Castles really thrive. There energetic sets have been described as like ‘watching a bullet travel through fire’’ and compared to ‘a tumultuous love affair where you crave the hostility’’. Having seen them perform at London Astoria, I had a revelation regarding there professed importance. When hearing and viewing them at a close proximity through the kaleidoscopic vision provided by the hallucinatory lighting, I realised what a primal force they are. Alice Glass’s choleric disposition and saliva inducing charisma infected the blood stream and this gave the presumed futility of ‘Alice Practice’’ and ‘Airwar’’ an inflated significance.

For this galvanic effect on your brain and the rebuking of convention that Kath’s sound has achieved so brilliantly, the Crystal Castles two-piece may well be considered leading lights of 2008. Watch the stars in space.

So what the hell happened to FatCat? Time was it was a label you could rely on to come up with interesting stuff that knew no boundaries, crossing classical, electronica, folk and rock. Whether it be the noisy data-rock of Xinlisupreme, the epic landscapes of Set Fire To Flames, or the warped electro-folk of Múm, there was always something pretty unique and hard to pin down about the records they put out.

The sampler given away with the August issue of Plan B was the only reason I bought the magazine, so it was a real disappointment to discover that so much of it is crushingly ordinary. It kicks off with a Vashti Bunyan track from 1965 that proves that she was never cut out to be a swinging sixties pop singer, and despite the best efforts of Jagger and Richards, she sounds really awkward trying to do straight pop. The next half dozen or so tracks range from the forgettable to the excruciating (Tom Brosseau's contribution) but with a large dollop of twee shared between them. Charlottefield's “Snakes” at least has some life to it, but they strike me as a poor man's Aereogramme.

Things do pick up along the final stretch. We Were Promised Jetpacks kneel at the feet of Franz Ferdinand, but they do have a bit of spark about them (and a great name). The Twilight Sad's contribution growls along nicely, although they forgot to pack a tune. Max Richter's “Return To Prague” is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it miniature that's really too short to work outside the context of his forthcoming album of very brief pieces. Our Brother The Native's “Augural Wrath” is an excellent piece of mellow free-folk. The blurb in the magazine claimed that they'd left the best till last with Hauschka's track. And so it proves. “Blue Bicycle” is far richer and more expansive than anything I've heard by him before, and easily the best thing on a disappointing collection.

As for the magazine, there's Kevin Martin, Philip Jeck and Leila Arab and a whole host of other stuff. For some reason, I've never got on with the publication, even though they write about a lot of interesting stuff that often gets ignored elsewhere and don't seem to have any agenda other than “if we like it, it's in”. I don't know if it's the dead hand of Everett True clouding my judgement!

Tracks
1. Vashti Bunyan – I Want To Be Alone
2. David Karsten Daniels – Martha Ann
3. Gregory & The Hawk - Ghost
4. Nina Nastasia – Your Red Nose
5. Vetiver – To Baby
6. Tom Brosseau – True to You
7. Silje Nes – Dizzy Street
8. Ten Kens – Y'All Come Back Now
9. Charlottefield - Snakes
10.The Rank Deluxe – Tightrope
11.We Were Promised Jetpacks – Tiny Little Voices
12.Frightened Rabbit – I Feel Better
13.The Twilight Sad – Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
14.Max Richter – Return To Prague
15.Our Brother The Native – Augural Wrath
16.Hauschka – Blue Bicycle

But there was something else that stood out, as well-- the fact that Joe Henry, producer extraordinaire, officially became the go-to guy for singer/songwriter albums, stealing the crown from his one-time mentor T-Bone Burnett. There was, of course, Henry's own self-produced record, Civilians, an expertly-crafted musical state of the union that remains my favorite recording of 2007. But there was also Strange Weirdos, by Loudon Wainwright III, and Mary Gauthier's terrific Between the Daylight and the Dark. All three of these albums were produced by Henry, and featured roughly the same band of backing musicians. (Wainwright sang harmonies on the other two records, for that matter!) The same studio talent meant that all three albums were, in some sense, of a piece, but they were also very distinct in some key ways-- Henry's was a contemplative, understated masterpiece of poetry and songcraft; Wainwright's was a deliriously joyful, celebratory album of small, simple pleasures; and Gauthier's was a dark, brooding album of bluesy, boozy storytelling.

Henry's production style and the unique talents of his musical henchmen have almost made the man a genre unto himself-- there's no denying the similar aesthetics to those three records, no matter how vivid the differences might be-- so it should come as no surprise that, in 2008, he's produced another pair of singer-songwriters albums, working again with the same studio band, and that those two albums exist at roughly the same musical crossroad as the three from last year. Similar though they may be, however-- and to be sure, there's no mistaking these productions as the work of anyone but Henry-- each of these two records, like the three from last year, has its own unique character, and ultimately stands on its own. Both are exemplary in terms of production and studio craft, but of course, half of Henry's brilliance is in how selective he is with the talent he chooses to work with, and these two albums are knockouts thanks to their songwriting, first and foremost.

One of the new Joe Henry joints is Rodney Crowell's Sex and Gasoline, an album that's every bit as snarky and droll as its title suggests. Recorded in a very brief studio session, cut live on the floor with Henry's crack backing band, the album sounds a bit like a sequel to Civilians, which is both its greatest shortcoming and its greatest strength, as it means that the album sounds great and the songs are given sympathetic, unobtrusive arrangements, even if it also means that, every now and then, Henry's familiar style is just a tiny bit too predictable. But that's a very minor flaw, because this album distinguishes itself from other Henry productions in some crucial ways. It's a significantly more upbeat and energetic album than the meditative Civilians, and it's also much more country-oriented; clearly, this is the same Rodney Crowell who was once married to Roseanne Cash and dueted with her pops, Johnny. But his talents have always blurred the lines between genres, and this album is no exception. He covers a lot of ground on it, from simple country and folk songs to some strutting blues numbers, a gospel-tinged closer, and some laid-back, propulsive rock.

The record's press material calls it an album about women, which is a bit like saying that Raging Bull is a film about boxing; most of these songs use women as its characters, but it's not an album about gender politics so much as the human condition. There are mothers and daughters and lovers here-- one song is actually about how Crowell wishes he could be a woman, if just for a day-- and from there Crowell is able to offer up his most eloquent and reflective set of songs in years, one that's filled with ruminations on love and sex and humanity in all its complexity. And what songs they are! Crowell has rarely written with such compassion and humor, and every track here is a gem. The title track opens the album with its feisty, country-rock momentum; "The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design" is as cheeky and irreverent as its title implies (but don't tell Ben Stein); and the absolute album highlight, "I've Done All That I Can," is a simple and heartbreaking ballad about fatherhood, performed as a duet between Crowell and Henry, himself a devoted dad.

Joe's other joint is a second album with Loudon Wainwright, but this one's a little different. Their first record together, Strange Weirdos, was the soundtrack to the film Knocked Up, though it was a strong enough album to stand on its own (and was much more rewarding than the movie, funny though it may have been). This new album, Recovery, isn't a soundtrack to any movie, but one could almost call it the soundtrack to Wainwright's career. Every song on it is culled from Wainwright's first three records (with the exception of the closing track, "The Man Who Couldn't Cry," which comes from his fourth). This gives the album a distinct advantage-- namely, that it can pull the very best songs from one of our very best songwriters. There are thirteen old-school Loudon tracks here, and each one is a gem, ranging from the sweet storytelling of "New Paint" to the misanthropic humor of "Old Friend," from the punchdrunk humor of "The Drinking Song" to the wistful ache of "School Days."

But there's another advantage, as well-- the fact that these songs, previously recorded as bare-bones, guy-and-a-guitar arrangements, are fleshed out here by Henry's studio musicians, giving them a fuller, broader sound than ever before. This is, of course, relative-- they're still fairly sparse, and Henry's production keeps the focus squarely on Loudon and his songs. But certainly there are some welcome embellishments, like the woozy guitar work on "The Drinking Song," the banjo-and-mandolin bluegrass twist on "Black Uncle Remus," and the graceful, elegant piano and steel guitar work that adds depth and dimension to the ballads.

But there's still another advantage to this kind of collection: The sheer, simple delight of having all these songs arranged together like this. Wainwright and Henry didn't pick these songs arbitrarily-- they picked songs that take on new meaning now, forty years down the line, songs that have fermented with the years of wisdom and experience the singer has accumulated since writing them. Thus, it's much more than just a collection of Loudon's greatest hits-- it's a meaningful meditation on age and experience, on the life of an artist, on how our perceptions of love and humanity and creativity change with time. There are songs about the pursuit of fame that mean something very different now than they did when he was first setting out, and songs about relationships suddenly sound wistful, reflective, and wise.

It's a fine, often stirring collection-- a great addition to Wainwright's body of work, and a nearly-flawless introduction to such a singular talent.

I'll post longer, full-length reviews of both albums as their release dates draw closer. For now, I'll note simply that they're two additional arguments you could use to make the case for Joe Henry as the finest producer around for singer/songwriter albums. They're also two of the best albums I've heard in 2008, which just might turn out the be The Year of Joe Henry, part 2.

Είναι πραγματικά πολύ ωραίο να βλέπεις συγκροτήματα που μας έχουν χαρίσει όμορφα τραγούδια κατά το παρελθόν να έχουν ακόμη έμπνευση. Μπορεί το φάντασμα του Steve Perry να στοιχειώνει την μπάντα, όμως ο φιλιππινέζος Arnel Pineda που βρίσκεται πλέον πίσω απ' το μικρόφωνο είναι εξαιρετικός! Υπάρχει ένα συναίσθημα βγαλμένο κυρίως απ' τα 80's χωρίς όμως να γίνεται νοσταλγικό προς αυτή την εποχή, αντιθέτως. Οι φίλοι του AOR και του hard rock θα βρουν εδώ έναν απ' τους λόγους που αγάπησαν αυτό το ύφος. Τις μελωδίες. Πολλοί από εσάς θα θυμηθείτε τα πάρτι, τότε που ψήνατε το γκομενάκι υπό τους ήχους συγκροτημάτων του συναισθήματος των Journey.

Το καλό είναι πως οι Journey μπορούν να γράφουν ραδιοφωνικά κομμάτια που ακούγονται ευχάριστα και καθόλου παρωχημένα. Oι κιθάρες είναι "ερωτικές" αλλά όχι γλυκανάλατες, τα πλήκτρα και το πιάνο εμπλουτίζουν τις συνθέσεις χωρίς να τις κανιβαλίζουν. Ο δίσκος περιέχει μερικά τραγούδια που άνετα μπορούν να μπουν στην λίστα με τα καλύτερα του συγκροτήματος. Το "Never walked away" που ανοίγει το album είναι πολύ καλό κι έχει μια αύρα από τα παλιά, το "Faith in the heartland" είναι αρκετά καλοκαιρινό, το "Where did i lose your love" είναι ένα πολύ όμορφο τραγούδι με κολλητικό refrain, η μπαλάντα "What I needed" θα ραγίσει καρδιές, όπως επίσης και το "Τurn the world down tonight". Γενικά οι μελωδίες, τα ευμνημόνευτα refrain, τα όμορφα φωνητικά είναι ακόμη εδώ, όμως αρκετά φρέσκα και φυσικά βάζουν κάτω πολλά σύγχρονα mainstream rock groups. Καλώς τα παιδιά!

THE PIT: 8/10

]]> http://marknefilim.wordpress.com/?p=843 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:36:27 +0000 R2B http://marknefilim.wordpress.com/?p=843

Ένα συγκρότημα που στο κοντινό μέλλον θα μας κάνει περήφανους, φαίνεται ξεκάθαρα πλέον. Η τάση του ανθρώπου να ξεπεράσει την φύση του, οι διαστάσεις, η μυστικιστική αύρα των Arcturus και το black των Dimmu Borgir (και όχι μόνον) συναντούν την μουσική του Danny Elfmann που έχει "ντύσει" τόσες ταινίες. Ο δίσκος είναι γεμάτος εκπλήξεις, ακολουθώντας μια νοοοτροπία avant garde τόσο στα ακραία όσο και στα ατμοσφαιρικά/συμφωνικά μέρη. Αρκετά βίαιο, μελωδικό, σκοτεινό, με blastbeats και "ματωμένα" φωνητικά, γρήγορο και απρόβλεπτο.

Φτύνουν πάνω στις ταμπέλες με έναν τρόπο σχιζοφρενικό και προκλητικό θυμίζοντάς μας πως είναι άτοπο πια να αντιμετωπίζουμε μπάντες τέτοιας κλάσης ως ελληνικές. Απ' τα πρώτα λεπτά του album θα μπλεχτείτε σε έναν εφιάλτη όμοιο των ταινιών του Tim Burton. Κομματάρες όπως το "Dimension Hell", "Music of the Spheres" και "Irreversible" δεν γράφονται κάθε μέρα. Κυρίως οι Θεσσαλονικείς φαίνεται να ακολουθούν τα αστρικά χνάρια των Arcturus χωρίς όμως να αντιγράφουν το μεγάλο νορβηγικό συγκρότημα. Δεν το έχουν ανάγκη. Οι Transcending Bizarre? είναι πολύ καλή μπάντα που έχει όλα τα φόντα να γίνει μεγάλη. Αξίζουν την στήριξή μας και την εκτίμησή μας. Ακόμη και η παραγωγή είναι σε υψηλό επίπεδο αποδεικνύοντας πως οι έλληνες μουσικοί και θέλουν και μπορούν!

THE PIT: 8/10

]]> http://thefourohfive.wordpress.com/?p=385 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:02:48 +0000 nrmiller http://thefourohfive.wordpress.com/?p=385 Hey there! My name's Nick. I'm from Wellington, New Zealand, and I'll be writing a fortnightly post about bands from NZ that you might not have heard of, but who are definitely worth checking out. So, without any further ado: Tiger Tones.

New Zealand was no exception to the new-rave phenomena that gripped the music world a while back. Overnight the music scene here became crowded with electro-punk bands that used crazy synths, chips and loops to create exciting new indie music. Unlike some, I’m not going to start shouting from the rooftops that I’m glad dance-punk has gone so out of vogue, because I loved it. A lot.

One of the bands that sprung up during this time was Tiger Tones. However they're far from a novelty act. Sure, they’ve got the prerequisite choppy guitar riffs and contrasting synths that continue to characterize the sub-genre: however their music expands considerably upon the basic new-rave template. Where other bands threw a few catchy hooks in with some siren sounds, Tiger Tones followed in the footsteps of NZ label-mates The Shocking Pinks, creating intelligent pop music that’s also intensely danceable.

The band toured NZ on the strength of a few singles, and were subsequently nominated for best new act at the 2007 bNet awards. A full length, self-titled LP followed earlier this year, and it fulfils promises made both by the early singles, and by the bands forceful live performances. ‘Macho Italian Boys’, ‘I Love You But I Hate You But I'm Just Not Sure’ and ‘Let’s Get Minced’ utilize thick bass lines and repetitive, Nick Harte-esque hi-hat beats to make you shake about, while later tunes such as ‘Giorgio, What Have You Done To Me?’ and ‘Dismay’ recall the Manchester post-punk and rave scenes. But, despite how this might sound, Tiger Tones have made an album that doesn’t sound a tired pastiche of the 80’s; rather they’ve incorporated the best parts of it, whilst remaining original enough to be relevant.

Listening to the Tiger Tones is like listening to New Order, The Fall, The Rapture and My Bloody Valentine, all at the same time. Listening to the Tiger Tones make me wish I could dance without looking like a complete idiot, but it also makes me not care. Check them out:

Tiger Tones - Dismay.mp3
Tiger Tones - PopEatsPop.mp3

Tiger Tones Myspace
Buy 'Tiger Tones'

If you like that slow, southern groove, check them out:

Rogue Male - Animal Man (1986/2008 reissue, Metal Mind)

1. Progress
2. L.U.S.T.
3. Take No Shit
4. You're On Fire
5. The Real Me
6. Animal Man
7. Belfast
8. Job Centre
9. Low Rider
10. The Passing
11. Rough Tough (Pretty Too)*

(* bonus track)

Band Lineup:
Jim Lyttle - Vocals, Guitar
John Fraser Binnie - Guitar
Kevin Collier - Bass
Danny Fury - Drums

Producer: Steve James

Total Time = 50:16

Rogue Male unofficial MySpace page
Rogue Male at Encyclopedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
Listen to ANIMAL MAN at Vibrations Of Doom
Metal Mind Productions

With the fame and fortune predicted by Kerrang! magazine a false promise, Rogue Male regrouped in the U.K. at the end of 1985 to begin work on their new album. In order to capitalize on the buzz created from their tour supporting FIRST VISIT, the band quickly churned out the BELFAST E.P.

The E.P. contained three songs: 'Belfast', 'Take No Shit', and 'Rough Tough (Pretty Too)' of which the first two would be included on the new album.

By 1986, the whole Metal world was overcrowded with new bands coming from all over the world and the L.A. Glam scene was starting to take over. Obviously that had an effect of Rogue Male because one look at the ANIMAL MAN cover and you get some sort of scary Mad Max gone Glam concept. Take a look at Jim Lyttle and tell me he doesn't look like Adam Ant! I remember seeing this record back in the day and comparing it to FIRST VISIT's cover, I just knew that something changed. This also marked the debut of new drummer Danny Fury who is credited with playing the drums on ANIMAL MAN but they are really the work of an unnamed session drummer.

The Music:
The reissue contains the 10 song proper album plus 'Rough Tough (Pretty Too)' from the BELFAST E.P. Giving this album a spin for the first time since 1986, it's hard to believe that this is the same band that made FIRST VISIT. Gone is the complete raw sound that made the debut so good and in is a mix of Pop-flavored Hard Rock with some Metal mixed in. Maybe the band's lack of initial success made them re-think their direction and came up with a "more accessible" sound. Obviously the image got a little out of hand but so did the music. There was a direct NWOBHM influence on the debut and that's all but gone on ANIMAL MAN, the songs all sound like a batch of different styles and are not cohesive together on the album. Where FIRST VISIT had a rawness to the production, ANIMAL MAN sounds too slick and loses it's power. The drums sound awful and both the vocal and guitar levels vary in the mix, there's also a non-existent bass sound. This CD is remastered and everything is clear but it is also subpar Metal music, take a listen to 'The Passing', it sounds like heavy New Wave at times! There are a few good songs, I like 'Take No Shit', 'Belfast', and the bonus track.....no surprise they were from a slightly earlier recording.

The Package:
Like the other reissues from Metal Mind, each reissue is limited to 2000 copies and numbered. Each CD comes in a full-color digipak and includes a color booklet with additional liner notes and lyrics. The music is remastered using 24-bit technology on a gold disc. The big thing is the bonus track, 'Rough Tough (Pretty Too)', from the rare BELFAST (1986) E.P. added on to the proper album.

Bottom Line:
Metal Mind has made another nice reissue but the album suffers from a lack of direction from the music made 22 years ago. It's nice to have ANIMAL MAN alongside FIRST VISIT in the collection but I would suggest this as a "collector's only" type of album. Getting the non-album track 'Rough Tough (Pretty Too)' as a bonus is cool so you don't have to track down BELFAST to complete the Rogue Male recorded history but I'm not sure that is enough to want to give this CD regular listens. Comparing both albums, the debut beats ANIMAL MAN easily with more raw Metal. For collector's, completists, and diehard Rogue Male fans only.

Rogue Male - First Visit (1985/2008 reissue, Metal Mind)

1. Crazy Motorcycle
2. All Over You
3. First Visit
4. Get Off My Back
5. Dressed Incognito
6. Unemployment
7. On The Line
8. Devastation
9. Look Out
10. The Real Me*
11. All Over You*

(* bonus tracks)

Band Lineup:
Jim Lyttle - Vocals, Guitar
John Fraser Binnie - Guitar
Kevin Collier - Bass
Steve Kingsley - Drums

Producer: Steve James

Total Time = 46:46

Rogue Male unofficial MySpace page
Rogue Male at Encyclopedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
Listen to FIRST VISIT at Vibrations Of Doom
Metal Mind Productions

Rogue Male is one of those bands that came out of the U.K. in the early '80s that is a lost piece in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) puzzle. I remember reading Metal Forces back in the day and they had some articles about this cool new band coming out of Belfast and how they blended a futuristic theme with the energy and enthusiasm of the early roots of NWOBHM. I saw this album cover and thought that this was going to be cool band with the Mad Max/cyborg concept. Then Kerrang! started predicting superstardom for Rogue Male and that was the kiss of death, the band basically got lost in the crowded Metal world by the end of 1985. By late 1984, the NWOBHM movement was starting to phase out: the big bands were already signed to big labels a few years earlier and the newer bands kind of got lost in the shuffle.....very similar to the L.A. Sunset Strip scene from 1989-1991. Rogue Male survived a couple of years and released this album, the follow-up ANIMAL MAN (1986), and had a couple of E.P.s mixed in. Now they have basically earned cult band status as one of those "lost" early '80s bands.

The Music:
The reissue contains the nine track FIRST VISIT album plus two bonus tracks from the ALL OVER YOU single: 'The Real Me' and the short version of 'All Over You' (NOTE - The 12" single contained both of these songs along with the long version of 'All Over You'). When you give this album a spin, you'll hear a rough and ready band that is as raw as they are energetic. The influences here are early Motorhead, Saxon, Tank and Judas Priest. Jim Lyttle has the Lemmy influenced vocal down pretty well and each song has that "go for the throat" guitar intensity that early Saxon and Judas Priest had. Take a listen to many of the smaller NWOBHM bands and you get a very similar sound, everyone was trying hard to be raw and heavy and the production reflected that by not being too slick. Of course, the remastering by Metal Mind makes everything crystal clear but you still get that raw sound like Motorhead and Tank.

The Package:
Like the other reissues from Metal Mind, each reissue is limited to 2000 copies and numbered. Each CD comes in a full-color digipak and includes a color booklet with additional liner notes. The music is remastered using 24-bit technology on a gold disc. The big thing is the two bonus tracks from the rare ALL OVER YOU (1985) single.

Bottom Line:
I remember holding this vinyl in my hand staring at the album cover thinking how cool it was but I never bought it.....1985 was a busy time for Metal and a 13 yr. old's money only went so far. I did get a copy on cassette from a tape trader but I ended up losing it years ago. I haven't heard this album in at least 20 years and, thanks to Metal Mind, I can have the CD. The package is nice and the music is dated but it's a fun listen. The bonus tracks are a nice addition because the single is extremely rare.

Favorite Songs: 'Dressed Incognito', 'All Over You', 'Crazy Motorcycle'

I don't know - you wait a considerable amount of time for one pioneering IDM outfit to release an album and then another one comes along straight after...tsk.

B12's Last Days of Silence double CD might not be getting the heavy rotation that Black Dog's Radio Scarecrow did and continues to do here at BBO North, but it's still a great slab of electronic wizardry. More dance floor bound, B12's offering has got a trouser-wobbling funkiness to it (particularly on ‘32 Lineup'), as well as some good old fashioned 303 squelches and rattling 808 rhythms. This is especially so on CD2 with its live recordings that sound properly shirts-off sweaty.

Yet it's on CD1 where B12's emotion and craft shines through: the remembered places conjured here are miles away from those of shared water bottles, collective air shaping and gum grinding repetition. Instead somewhere altogether less dank is fabricated, especially on the fantastic ‘Hall of Mirrors'.

Like it. Quite a lot thankyouverymuch.

Hall of Mirrors (Digitone's String Space Mix)

32 Lineup

Twisted Muva (from CD2)

Get funking da trousers, dear Sir/Madam, here 

angrybonbon

태사비애 (Taesabiae)’s 4th digital single album, L.O.V.E., is an interesting fusion of pop and elements of classical music. Combining modern electronic with Pachelbel’s Canon, the song 내사랑 (My Love) is in my opinion the strongest in the single. 내사랑 is proficient in that it combines a classical score with modern pop without annihilating the classical base. So many pop songs take classical songs as their object and subsequently destroy them with synthesized bile. 내사랑 does a fantastic (though admittedly far from perfect) job at modernizing the classic piece. The lyrics flow well aside from the lengthy (and hilariously trite) spoken word intro, and the chorus is well voiced and very catchy. 줄래 (Give it To Me), the partner to 내사랑, is a piano driven laser of a pop song that wastes no time before hitting you in the face with its chorus. It’s good, catchy, all of those trite descriptions of a good pop song apply, but compared to the more inspired 내사랑, it feels somewhat lacking in context. I find myself listening to both songs fairly equally, however, so it’s win-win for 태사비애 so far. I’ll be expecting more from these girls in the future. ※

Details: 2008, Provogue, CD

Ever on the look out for decent blues-rock releases I was intrigued by a 9/10 rating of this album in the recent Classic Rock magazine.  An artist that has been around for many years including a spell with The Bluesbreakers, and a catalogue consisting of some 15 or so albums since 1990 yet one that until now I've failed miserably to check out. However phrases like Trout "attaches his heart to his peeling Strat" and "cartilage melting rock" are enough to peak my interest and one purchase later I'm in no doubt I've picked up a corker; right up there with Joe Bonamassa's "Sloe Gin" release on the same label last year.

Opening song "Welcome To The Human Race" has it all as far as blues-rock goes.  Ripping guitar solos, superbly toned guitar work throughout and a gravelly vocal delivering lyrics clearly autobiographical but effective in ensuring that your attention is grabbed for the whole album.  "The Next Big Thing" follows and is a perfect comment on the 15 minute celebrity wonders of today's media driven world.  Again an example of excellent blues, its not fast paced rock but its oh so effective.

If your after the harder stuff then "Don't Wanna Fall" is as good a stab at it as you could hope for.  A slow and atmospheric opening gradually builds to the first chorus where the edge in Trout's voice perfectly compliments a great riff that grinds away behind his lead guitar wailing.  This is the song that drove the Classic Rock reviewers cartilage comments and its a fine number for sure.  The amusingly titled "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Bluesrock" is another uptempo song that hits the spot too, with a  traditional blues riff driving a song that sees Trout's guitar temporarily replaced in the spotlight by some stirring organ for the first solo.

Now it is a long album.  Thirteen songs in all, and I've mentioned four of the first five in describing some of the highlights yet that doesn't mean it tails off.  The lengthy "Can't Have It All" is another traditional blues rock number that feature great guitar and organ again towards the end of the album, the lighter "Gone Too Long" offers variety as its gets both funky and reflective whilst reward for perseverance to the very end comes with the exquisite smoking blues of "The Outsider" itself.

It really is one of those albums that has no filler, and I return to the opening few tracks to select the one that for me is the most memorable.  The world-weary countrified blues of "All My Life" is one of those simple numbers that just sticks in the head thanks to a memorable chorus.  As with many blues songs, they may not be original in terms of style or content but it and just about everything else on here is wonderfully effective and warrants attention.  Something I've neglected to do with his previous work and a situation that thanks to the evidence presented here I now must quickly remedy.  A fine album indeed.

Highlight : All My Life

Score : 4/5

-----

BL

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One of the things I get asked often is: "What is your most popular post?".

Today I'm going to list the Top 5 posts and the Top 6 album reviews (with the publish date and stats) at Heavy Metal Addiction from day 1 to right now with a little commentary.

Top 5 Posts at Heavy Metal Addiction

1. Poison members involved in onstage fight - breakup? - (8/27/06 -- 23,732 views)
2. Journey (with Arnel Pineda) - Festival Vina Del Mar 2008 complete set from Chile (video, 2/21/08) - (2/23/08 -- 20,573 views)
3. First official band picture of the new Journey with Arnel Pineda - (1/8/08 -- 19,768 views)
4. Press Release: Arnel Pineda is the new Journey singer! - (12/6/07 -- 12,064 views)
5. Gene Simmons facelift post-op picture - (4/2/07 -- 10,576 views)

The Poison fight post has been the top dog for a long time, the day I posted it I ended up with the best single day ever with close to 17,000 hits! Before that, I think my best day was couple hundred readers. The Poison video is going to get taken out by Journey with their new singer Arnel Pineda. Like them or not, Journey has always been a worldwide band and with Filipino Arnel on the mic, they are now more than ever. If I were to expand this list to the Top 20, there would be four more Journey related posts! A lot of people are getting a chance to see/hear the new Journey from the full video of the Festival Del Mar 2008 in Chile and the two press releases. Personally, I like the fact that Gene Simmons is at #5 not just because my favorite band is KISS but because look at that train wreck! Like I said in the post, too bad they didn't fix his vocal chords while they were at it!

Top 6 Albums Reviews at Heavy Metal Addiction

1. Quiet Riot - Metal Health (1983) - (1/21/07 -- 10,014 views)
2. Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain (2007) - (6/1/07 -- 8904 views)
3. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death (2006) - (9/13/06 -- 7439 views)
4. Black Sabbath - Forbidden (1995) - (12/19/06 -- 6279 views)
5. Legs Diamond - Town Bad Girl (1990) - (2/22/07 -- 5132 views)
6. Lita Ford - Out For Blood (1983) - (1/12/07 -- 5048 views)

Quiet Riot makes the top spot unfortunately due to the news of Kevin DuBrow's passing. Unfortunately, the hits for this post picked up when Kevin died.....RIP Kevin. No surprise that Ozzy's last record made the list because the guy is just popular with all Metal fans. BLACK RAIN made my 5 Worst of 2007 list at #4 and I have had a ton of email pointing out what an idiot I am for calling it a subpar effort. Another no brainer was Iron Maiden's last album making the list, this album review seems to get a fair amount of hits every week.

The next three surprise me because they are in my Top Posts list everyday. Of all the Tony Martin era posts I did, FORBIDDEN gets a ton of hits everyday. I consider FORBIDDEN the weakest effort of that Sabbath era but people are searching and reading about it. Legs Diamond and Lita Ford are duelling for the #5 spot, that's why I post six on the list. Everyday I see both of these reviews getting a ton of views, both are definitely "cult" albums but I didn't think they would get that much attention, especially the Legs Diamond review.

So there you have it, some of the top posts.....now click the links and check'em out!

Where am I? How did I get here? I remember I was following a trail, I glimpsed something glinting between the trees…I set off in pursuit. Moss gave way to mulch, which in turn gave way to mire. I walked off the edge of the map, and off the end of the day. Darkness is dripping through the canopy, and energy is draining from my legs. I’ll stop here, rest a while by this stream. Close my eyes. Just for a few minutes.

Where am I? How did I get here: I remember I was following a trail, a trail which connected the music of Xela and the music of A Broken Consort’s Rich Skelton. I heard there was an enigmatic character operating under the name of Seasons (Pre-Din), someone who’d gone way up-river. I tracked him down, and for my trouble ended up with hours of these curiosities in handmade cardboard sleeves, wrapped in tissue and stuffed full of little paper leaves. The first to have been released was Above The Tides Fold, which features singing bowl whine buffeting wet wood, and lush organic-sounding drones, forested around a middle section of pregnant near-silence. The Canopy Falls takes this approach further from source, sampling idyllic river sounds and reinventing them as a nightmarish static which eventually melts away into daylight and birdsong. By The Banks Go Through is a collection of rough-hewn fragments, field recordings and delicate instrumentation; guitar, dulcimer and distant-sounding percussion permeating the early morning haze. It seems somehow appropriate that the track listing for this is in a state of constant fluidity: new channels are etched into the river banks, new roots sink deep into the water table.

This is music of the trees, of the river, and of the earth; yet this is music for the head and for the heart. Stop here, rest a while. Don’t close your eyes, keep them open, watching the inexorable changing of the Seasons – more new material is expected, but as is the nature of this music it seems, God only knows when.