Amplifier
+ Mojo Fury
9.12.11 - Islington O2 Academy
This was my first visit to the Islington Academy here in London,
and an early showing thanks to the wonderland that is Propaganda
that would follow the show. My pockets grumbled as I parted
with too much money for my plastic pint, knowing full well a
mass of sweaty students would be getting the same drink for
under half the price in a few hours. But irrelevance! Hark,
it’s time for a rock show, huzzah!
Before the main spectacle got underway there was just the one
support band in the form of Mojo Fury - a Northern Irish quartet
who seem to have come a long way since I was first introduced
to them a little over a year ago. In comparison to those shows,
supporting the now disbanded Oceansize, the band were now oozing
exuberance. Their album had been out for a fair while and they
had an arsenal of tunes up their sleeves to get the party started.
They opened with an instrumental track, that exemplified the
set to come; ballsy offbeat riffs, a thumping bass tone, solid
drums and synth. Indeed the first four tracks of the set were
not taking from the debut album - but did include the fabulous
‘Grounds’ and the new ‘el’, the former of which darkly creeps
out of a gentle quivering guitar lick and explodes into a big
chorus. The other remaining new track was led by a keyboard
melody through the verses and that, coupled with semi-rap vocals
made the whole thing sound infinitely more Hilltop Hoods than
Mojo Fury - but it wasn’t half bad regardless. But then, we
returned to common ground with a scattering of album tracks.
Firstly, ‘The Mann’ - and a messy intro soon finds its way to
a gutsy rock track with the beat of an indie track but the grimy
edge of industrial rock. This was followed by ‘Deep Fish Tank’,
with all its disjointed wonderment, and then ‘We Should Just
Run Away’ which despite lacking the choral backing vocals still
wound up a great success. Approaching the end of the set, the
applause was aplenty from a crowd who had clearly been impressed
by this new young group - whose on-stage confidence contrasted
strongly with the shy quartet I’d seen a year or so ago. They
ended with another new track, which had something oddly punk-pop-ballady
My Chemical Romance about it, possibly the weakest of the set,
but still struggled to take the shine off of what had been an
incredible performance.
Next up, and indeed the headlining act of this evening; Amplifier.
The Manchester modern-proggers were back after many years away,
following last years release of ‘The Octopus’, the self-recorded
self-funded double album - an impressive feat by any means.
But what tracks would they play? With a double album which averages
around eight minutes a song and just an hour and a half to play,
what would we be treated to? The band arrived on stage dressed
in black shirts and black ties with a small white octopus symbol
near the top. There’s something cool about a band uniform, isn’t
there? A sense of order. A sense of, “we know what we’re doing,
prepare yourselves.” Joining the Amplifier trio on guitars and
backing vocals was Steve Durose, of previous Oceansize fame.
Sel Balamir took centre stage ready to open the set, gripping
his guitar in an almost harpoon-like fashion - beginning with
‘Forever and More’, the final track from the latest album. The
initial sound was a little disheartening; the guitar sound was
thin and lifeless, the vocals were muffled, and the hectic drum
intro wasn’t helping in any way shape or form. However, as soon
as the bass dropped and everything fell into place, I was immersed.
The contrast of sound was phenomenal - the deep rumbling, slightly
flangey riffs that resonated so beautifully and the faint vocal
harmonising. Quite something. This was followed by my favourite
Amplifier track of all, ‘Motorhead’ from the debut album, and
a couple more new tracks: ‘The Wave’ and ‘Interglacial Spell.
This was a band with years of experience under their belt,
and the three or four years putting this album together was
evident in their playing - one of the tightest live bands I
have ever seen. You wouldn’t catch the front-of-stage musicians
peering back to the drummer to see when he was going to smash
the end or start of a section, they would just know. Two guitars
picking intricate riffs simultaneously perfectly in time. That
is professionalism you’d be hard pushed to beat. Steve Durose
was very much included on stage as a fourth member of the band
as opposed to widdling away in the wings as it were, and this
was a Durose I hadn’t seen before. Grinning inanely, slowly
wiggling away to the big riffs that, at the end of the day are
oozing groove.
Following ‘Strange Seas of Thought’ from the second album were
more new tracks; ‘The Octopus’, ‘White Horses at Sea/Utopian
Daydream’, ‘Golden Ratio’, ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Sick Rose.’
“We never say London is the best night of the tour because,
well, it never is. But this is the best night of the tour.”
There was no light show, but there didn’t need to be. Everyone
in that room was just absorbing the fantastic sound and masterful
musicianship. A generally older crowd, but one to be expected
of a group labeled as modern progressive rock.
The set ended with ‘UFOs’ from the self-titled album, and the
encore featured solely ‘Airbourne’ from the same release. An
ending for the fans, and an ending that prompted a rupture of
applause from an audience who gawped open mouthed and tried
to piece together exactly what had happened in the past couple
of hours.
Thom Curtis
Standard
Fare + Nat Johnson & The Figureheads + Sport of Kings
18.11.11 - The Wilmington Arms, London
We arrived at the Wilmington Arms just as Sport of Kings kicked
off their set; a delightful little venue with a mere 100 capacity
in east central London. Opening with Free Jazz, a personal favourite
from the charming new Logic House EP, Sport of Kings immersed
the room in 21st Century yacht-rock. It was an interesting choice
of opener as, it really stands out as being the best track on
the EP. Regardless, the sound was fantastically similar to the
record itself – smoother than Kate Moss's nether-regions although
undoubtedly tighter. The tiny stage featured no less than seven
musicians – singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Kelly and a
posse of keys, bass, drum, saxophone, trombone and trumpet.
Now, I may have got this wrong, but I've a sneaky suspicion
the other six members were session musicians and not part of
the original line up. The recession is hitting everyone hard,
allowing only one member to make the flight over from America!
Not only did the other six look different to those featured
in their new video (which is rather good), they were all studying
sheet music throughout the set. But as I say, I could be wrong.
Jet lag was apparently to blame for the lack of rapport, although
a demure approach to crowd interaction is expected of such a
genre. The remainder of the EP was included in the set; 1964,
Preface and Some Histories, as well as one or two extra tunes
– all in all an extremely pleasant repertoire of laid back catchy
tracks that will get your head groove-a-bobbing whilst you're
off cruising on your luxury yacht. The soothing vocals of Kelly
coupled with the warm brass tones really does leave you struggling
not to be seduced completely, and if that's what the group sound
like when sleep deprivation is at play then, wow, a fully functional
band would... well, I don't know what my ears would do.
Next up was Nat Johnson & The Figureheads – headed by a
lass of previous Monkey Swallows the Universe fame. This was
however, just a selection of the new group's material from their
début album. Truth be told, the album itself hadn't really
won me over but there was something significantly more gripping
about its live presentation. There was just that added splash
of balls that seemed to give the songs a great deal more direction.
There's certainly talent there though, Nat Johnson (who had
a slightly LaVigne look about her, facially) has a capable voice
although not particularly powerful – but for someone as slight
as her, I'd probably have been quite scared if she had some
window-smashing pipes on her. All in all, pleasant indie rock
that certainly is only improved in a live setting. Not bad at
all.
And finally, the headline act, drumming up support ahead of
their forthcoming album release: it's Standard Fare. And if
the 2010 album The Noyelle Beat is anything to go by, it's going
to be a cracker. It's an absolute winner, heartfelt indie at
its very best, and we were lucky enough to be drowned in its
beauty tonight. Vocals are shared between a male guitarist (with
a great guitar tone!) and a female bassist. The band are completed
with the drummer – and there's something extra impressive about
a mere three members smashing out some fabulous tunes. Musically,
it's gripping and rhythmically insurmountable, perfectly simple
and straight-forward; a beautiful bedroom indie composition
with the punchy finish of a Jack Penate hit. Lyrically, it's
brutally honest and easy to relate to, and quite impossible
not to sing along to. All these qualities are exemplified by
the quite fantastic Philadelphia and the astounding Fifteen;
both of which were included in the (reasonably short) set. The
room were gripped, everyone present having their own private
boogie and I for one was well and truly won over by this every-so-special
trio. A perfect end to a rather enjoyable evening.
Thoma Curtis
Digitalism
4.11.11 - The Cockpit
Having turned into something of a Cockpit regular this month,
I wasn’t really expecting things to get going until at least
9pm, so wandering in at around half 8 seemed like a good idea.
. . German ultra-punctuality over-ruled this though and we at
first thought that there was a surprisingly talented support
act. We soon realised that the pretty lights and deep beats
belonged to Digitalism themselves and felt betrayed by our own
tardiness, but not to be defeated, we set to work at once…
The crowd had already turned some initial feet tapping into
that slow, swaying pre-dance movement, as the drummer was making
full use of his kick drum and the beardy Ismail Tüfekçi
(on keyboard) rocked away with enthusiasm. Two screens flashed
up the familiar cubist heart-shape in bright colours and a mini
city-scape of lighting towers blinked along the stage edge.
The Cockpit space was disappointedly open though; the city streets
outside being empty beforehand. People presumably had packed
out the parks and other outdoor places to watch a different
sort of lighting display, with less rhythmic explosions of sound.
A bouncy guitar strum signalled the start of ‘I want I want’
with Jens (Moelle’s) vocals causing divergent opinions again.
I enthused to my literary assistant that I was pleased to hear
such a strong voice, and he replied that Jens’ tonality would
make Liam Gallagher wince.
Perhaps there had been other latecomers, or maybe it was the
rolling bass going through them, but the crowd was definitely
less sparse and more lively now. Looking around, it seemed that
half of them were hyper trendy teens, and the rest were aging
refugees from the Nu-Rave/Electroclash era. Already we were
losing any definition between tracks as Jens busily tweaked
and slid from one into another, mixing between uplifting house
crescendos and hard techno beats. Eventually it was time for
everyone’s hands in the air as the delicate ‘Two Hearts’ opening
broke through.
The crowd didn’t need any help by now, and the band were clearly
enjoying themselves, following on by treating us all to some
legendary cowbell action. Hard industrial noises broke through
next and screeched into ‘Reeperbahn’, which to me sounds like
someone from the Prodigy finally grew up. A handful seemed to
be a little frightened of the Aryan Keith Flint and wandered
off but only to miss ‘Idealistic’, which was heralded in by
some big hand clapping from crowd and band alike.
Not stopping for breath, the big beats pushed on with drums
and synths reminding me of New Order, through into Zdarlight’s
compressed snares and spiralling electro. Jens shouted to the
crowd about having the biggest party ever in Leeds, which couldn’t
have put more smiles on faces than us beating Man U again. Trancey
undertones then led us into a big bass build up and ‘Stratosphere’,
which got folk throwing a few shapes for the fun of it, before
rising electro took us relentlessly to ‘Circles’ and left us
shouting ‘LEEDS LEEDS LEEDS’ in the dark…
My literary assistant claims to have spotted some people protesting
by sitting on the floor at this point: everyone was certainly
concerned that this was it for the night. Appearing to take
pity on us, the band reappeared punching the air to play ‘Blitz’
and appropriately enough for the jumping crowd, ‘Pogo’. By now,
I felt like I’d had a work-out and Jens was also busy unsticking
his T-shirt before he bowed out, leaving a slightly bewildered
but happy crowd behind.
Ok, so they’re not as stunningly scary as the Prodigy, or as
French polished as Justice, but they have enough bass and electro
beats to make you move, sufficient vocals to uplift you, and
an industrial repetition that will wear you out. Their strange
mixture of followers echoes their inbetweener style of music,
and although it might be quite raw at points, I like their almost
back-to basics approach. I’m not sure if people know what to
expect from Digitalism, but I do think that you need warning
that you might enjoy it a little more than you might think.
Reviewed by Amy Chadfield with assistance from Dr Chris Martin
(and no, he bears no relation to Coldplay or boots before you
ask)
The
Icarus Line
15.10.11 - Brainwash Festival, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
I liked The Icarus Line from the moment I heard about them.
That's right. I mean that. They always sounded cool. They had
the gang thing, with their Red & Black Attack; Their singer
always looked like he was four days into some kind of bender
and their (now elsewhere) guitar player wanted to fight you
while playing music you liked.
Why wouldn't that be great?
Thank goodness they sounded like they said they did!
Another thing I always liked about them was their “unless
you are the Rolling Stones, you load your own gear.” approach
to music. Especially as tonight it leads to Joey Cardamone setting
up his microphone and effects pedals, turning around, walking
off stage, the band coming on and then Joey returning, but with
his shirt off.
After a pretty lengthy time away and an almost complete line-up
change, I was still stoked to get to see them. I wasn't that
apprehensive because I'd already heard the new record and it
sounded, in the best way, like they always have: angry, quick
and all from the hips.
Saturday's brainwash line-up was mostly math-rock, do you
make The Icarus Line headline after that? Is that the crowd
they deserve? No, It isn't. On Saturday, they played the wrong
room. The Icarus line are a band with a bona fide frontman.
A band with songs that make you want to go very very fast. They
are a rock and roll band. They were the first time I heard them
and they still are.
I thoroughly enjoyed their set of fast rock and roll, from
the start, to the cover of The Flaming Groovies' Slow Death,
to the very end.
They were raucous and deserved more of the same from the crowd.
That they didn't get it was a shame, and not their fault.
After the show, Joey Cardamone was kind enough to answer some
questions. He is different to how I remember, only in as much
that this time he was sober. I enjoyed him correcting me, that
The Eagles of Death Metal opened for The Icarus Line. That is
who I wanted to see. Someone protective of their band.
I spoke to Joey Cardamone about how things had changed since
they were last touring and releasing records. His response was
that they were still able to make their way, and they were incredibly
happy about that, but they (or perhaps he) knew that while they
were mostly the same, some things were different. They weren't
trying to make perfect Rock and Roll and also BE Rock and Roll.
They were just trying to make perfect Rock and Roll.
I didn't mind that answer.
I was told that it's great to still live a life on the road,
that for him, it's a fulfilling existence. When he isn't on
the road that's just life and stopping being poor and other
things. (though he was quick to point out that parts of off-road
life are good too.)
I was left with the sort of quote I wanted.
Joey Cardamone “I'm just an animal.”
I like Rock and Roll.
Their touring cycle is now over, you can't go and see The Icarus
Line for a while. But when you can, you definitely should.
Christopher Carney
This
Frontier Needs Heroes + Manclub Babywoman + Zachary Cale
1.9.11 - The Windmill, Brixton
Brixton's Windmill has that strange claustrophobic feeling:
brushing alongside the bar to get to the stage, if you stop
for a moment perhaps you breath in some of the sweat and toil
which must have forged part of its history … it's not a bad
setting for folk music in its purest form, a place of musical
graft. No problem fighting my way through the bar tonight, a
pity for the artists present who deserve fuller support. I must
admit my friends and I were attracted to the gig by the promise
of Cate Le Bon. The Welsh freakfolk-psychedelic songstress,
who was advertized along with New York-based artists Zachary
Cale and This Frontier Needs Heroes along with British duo Mancub
Babywoman, unfortunately had to pull out due to illness.
So with some disappointment and trepidation we approached the
stage and were greeted with the sobering guitar atmospherics
of folk troubadour Zachary Cale. It felt slightly subdued at
first until I realized it's that 'pin drop' sound when an artist
genuinely has an audience under his spell. Cale goes through
the motions of introducing himself, a singer-songwriter from
Brooklyn, New York, but shuffles about uncomfortably and it's
clear that for this guy his music does most of the talking.
He takes his cue from the open tuning of guitarists like John
Fahey and Bert Jansch who often played about with atmospherics
to augment their folk and blues tunes. Something of the craftsman
about Zachary Cale then, songs performed with that nasally voice
characteristic of people like Tom Petty and Dylan, but backed
with beautiful steel-strung guitar sonics. Folk music has that
strange ability to shock and surprise ... I was truly gobsmacked!
I've often wondered what it must have been like to see Dylan
in Greenwich village in that iconic moment, or a Woodie Guthrie
or Hank Williams concert, something to savour like that? Cale's
set featured many of the songs on his latest album Noise Of
Welcome, including the memorable 'Blake's Way' and equally beautiful
'Day For Night', shades of Dylan's Blood On The Tracks/'Tangled
Up In Blue' period, but also the excellent 'Eye For An Eye'
from 2008 album Walking Papers. Cale crops up in his homeland
working with many local artists and the latest record is a collaboration
with a number of these. It shows a great maturity in a singer-songwriter
of such lean years, but recollection of the music on this night
was as a series of passing moods. The closest comparison you
could make to an artist like Cale is Kurt Vile, but that doesn't
really do justice to the former, more of a nuts-and-bolts folk
artist. Would he have plugged his guitar in with Dylan, I wonder?
Hard to imagine, and I forgot to ask him later in the bar ...
Mancub Babywoman could be mistaken for a novelty boy-girl duo
from Manchester, which probably wasn't helped by some of the
comically clumsy elements onstage, as the band struggled to
find their tempo. I've never seen Sheffield's Slow Club, but
imagine they look pretty similar, a guy picking his guitar with
with musical partner providing Emmylou-type accompaniment, often
with just a backing vocal or simple drum. But I found myself
enjoying the band's set. The guitar on opener 'A Little Too
Much' does sound ... a little too much like the classic Fleetwood
Mac 'Never Going Back Again', but the band crack on with some
neat tunes like 'Baby Don't Wait', with it's odd ghostlike harmonies
in the middle where we get an odd infusion of psychedelia before
heading back into safer territory. 'Jumbling Tower' is even
more confessional, pace is slow, you're not even sure if they'll
get to the end of it. In the end, I found it was over all too
quickly :)
This Frontier Needs Heroes are a deceptively good folk duo
from Brooklyn, New York. Let's say straight off they're brother
and sister Brad and Jessica Lauretti, but put that to one side
as it attracts unwanted attention, nobody needs to apologize
for not being the White Stripes etc. They're actually something
like Neil Young's American Stars'N'Bars, not corporate America
but the 'other' American Dream, with Easy Rider and Gram Parsons
& Emmylou Harris scraping together a buck or two, writing
about life, love … loss, simple but important things, before
we step out onto that lonely highway again, land of the free!
It's not bad either, Brad's got a rare emotion in his voice,
elements of Neil Young could always make a grown man cry, and
Laura brings a steady musical partnership so there's the makings
of a great band here, but they seemed a bit awkward on stage
at The Windmill, possibly full of warm-up gig nerves? I found
the banter a bit strange and strained as they no doubt tried
to settle down. Rock'n'roll often thrives on sordidness, so
it maybe a bit awkward for a brother and sister duo, but there
are enough good songs on their latest self-funded album The
Future to keep the audience interested. 'Space Baby' is a real
gem:
Space Baby … send them off to Jupiter all by themselves
There's nothing left on earth to do
We polluted all our kisses too
Miles of piles lie there wasted
There's no one to take care of you
So we send them off to a little ...
The stars ain't that sugary
Space Baby … send them off to Jupiter all by themselves
I got tired of yelling
So the people just blew up instead
They got tired of living, now they're dead
They took the last space shuttle
Don't forget your bottle
Sorry we didn't do better
Space Baby … send them off to Jupiter all by themselves
It'll probably take you twenty years
How about just one last ...
Hopefully you will hear our warnings
Good luck read a book to pass the time
You want to know where we went wrong
So you can sing a different song
There are some Everly Brother harmonies, a mix of spacey ballads
and some Alt. Country uptempo numbers. 'Key West' and 'Calamity
Jane', both from the album, are at the country end of their
oeuvre, and were standouts in the show tonight. Later on, brother
and sister were joined by full-on band, but it did feel rather
like a warm-up for something bigger ... the next day they were
off to the 'End Of The Road' festival in Dorset. Possibly there's
a concept here with touring legs. It's hardly 2 guys on a mission,
but with such a crazy mixed-up kind of world, there's probably
never been a better time for a couple of free-spirited Americans
trapsing around recession-hit Europe with their own homegrown
music, mending a few fences here and there. This Frontier truly
does need heroes!
Matthew Haddrill
Anita
Wardell
18.8.11 - Pizza Express, Dean Street, London
"I gotta right to sing the blues
I gotta right to feel low down
I gotta right t' hang around down around the river
A certain gal in this ol' town
Keeps draggin' my poor heart around
All I see for me is misery"
(by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler)
Pizza Express on Dean Street (aka The Jazz Club Soho) is no
ordinary pizza parlour. Just a stone's throw from the legendary
Ronnie Scott's, over the years this club has also featured some
of the best of jazz, both 'old' and 'new'; a young Amy Winehouse,
for example, and more recently, the excellent Rokia Traore.
Tonight's singer Anita Wardell can take her rightful place among
the panthion, with a foot in both camps it seems.
As the saying goes, if you laid all the songs with ‘blues’
in the title end-to-end, you’re hardly likely to reach a conclusion
... ‘Kinda Blue’, the latest album by jazz and scat singing
virtuoso Wardell, doesn’t look very inspiring on paper, but
every song tells its own story and sonically it's a collection
of blues and jazz nuggets! Anita hails from Adelaide but is
now based in London, and on the strength of tonight's performance,
South Australia's loss is definitely England's gain! She starts
the evening off in relatively upbeat mood, with the Vicki Silvers
standard ‘Learning The Blues’ and follows it with a string of
classics whisked off the latest album. It's not like she's short
of a song or 2, in less than 10 years, Wardell has put together
a repertoire of material consisting of no less than 6 CDs, along
with many other collections and guest appearances with different
artists. Ms Wardell is a hive of musical activity, but hey,
tonight it's the blues! There's Rogers and Hart’s ‘Little Girl
Blue’, a little more sanguine, but when the mood switches to
Bobby Troup and Leah Worth’s timeless epic ‘The Meaning Of The
Blues’, and it's hard not to shed a tear, actually more like
cry me a river time ... Luckily we have time to reflect, with
‘Parker’s Mood’ raising the tempo again, bebop and swing, dusting
us off and delivering us to a different place by the interval.
So a rich slice of jazz on show in the first half of the evening,
giving Wardell the chance to show off the impressive vocal range
which made her 2006 BBC Jazz Awards winner, and the stellar
band of musicians who accompany her, known as The AW Quartet,
including her current musical collaborator Robin Aspland on
piano, are given the chance to stretch their musical legs a
bit. She closed the first half of the evening with an excquisite
latin jazz number, which I couldn't catch the title of (nor
the composer), apologies ... you know who you are?!
The second half was more low key and free form. More scat,
more vocalese (basically, scat with made up words) and a whole
lot more swing! Was it the Django Reindhart classic 'Limehouse
Blues' where singer and band just go utterly crazy, very different
from the version everyone knows from The Singing Detective,
a rollicking good time had by all? Although most of Wardell's
songs are well known jazz and blues standards, the second half
gives the band chance to open up and improvize, and later on
pay their respects to some of the singer's own arrangements,
which she delivers with aplomb and general modesty, emphasizing
the band's role in their interpretation.
My only quibble with these 'jazz-meisters' would be that if
you're gonna name an album (and evening!) 'Kinda Blue', you
can't really miss out Miles! Where was he, I didn't hear anything
by Miles Davis?! I went with the idea that the evening was going
to be a tribute to Miles ... then became enthralled by all the
other music on show. So a lesson in the blues then, from a singer
who's technically a cut above the rest, and even if the wine
going to my head wasn't as good as the pizza, Pizza Express
on Dean Street has delivered some tasty jazz again!
Matthew Haddrill
Trembling
Bells + Pengilly’s + Trumpets of Death
30.8.11 - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
After having unexpectedly caught Trembling Bells live in March
this year, when they supported the Unthanks at the Howard Assembly
Rooms in Leeds, music from all three of their fine albums has
formed a large part of the soundtrack to my summer, to the extent
that another chance to catch them live was one of three very
compelling reasons to travel all the way to the idyllic, Doune
the Rabbit Hole festival held outside Sterling in Scotland,
in early June.
The other two reasons to spend three days camped by a salmon
river north of the border, were an opportunity to see Mike Heron,
from the legendary and incomparable Incredible String Band,
and a deep desire to hear the lyrical poetry and astounding
guitar playing of Alasdair Roberts, but those are two other,
and wholly different stories.
All of which is a rather long winded way of saying that this
is not an unbiased review. Aging fan boy that I am, I was hovering
with my beautiful lady outside the doors of the Brudenell, clutching
ticket numbers 1 & 2, while all three of the evening’s bands
were still running through their sound-checks. Which in the
end proved fortuitous, because I managed to catch snatches of
lyrics, sea-shanties and murder ballads, from some of the numbers
performed again later by Trumpets of Death, which I didn’t manage
to make out over the dark cacophony of their proper set, and
so I had at least a sense of the content of some of their songs.
Leeds based Trumpets of Death had also played the Doune festival,
but despite strong recommendations from various people we hadn’t
managed to catch more than impressive snatches of their racket,
drifting over the warm summer air, very late, while lying befuddled
in our tent, so I was eager to hear them perform, as it were,
for the first time.
The trio, Ben Wetherill, (on guitar, keyboards and lead vocals),
Karl D'Silva, (bass and saxophone), and Laura Wetherill, (synthesiser
and occasional bass), had, for me, resonances of bands like
Coil and Current 93 I’d followed from the mid-eighties, shades
of Faust, art-rock, maybe David Bowie from the ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’
albums, but that’s not to say that they sounded in any way derivative,
especially given I knew, from the sound-check, that their songs
were rooted, albeit obliquely, in the English folk tradition.
Dark folk indeed. Catch them again when they play a couple more
dates at the Brudenell in late September and October.
I didn’t quite know what to make of the six piece, Pengilly’s,
also Leeds based, who came across, especially in stark contrast
to the moody drones and raucous textures of the Trumpet’s, like
a group of musically promiscuous and incredibly proficient,
eclectic, enthusiastic puppies, their lead singer almost breathless
with excitement as he introduced each song. I suspect that,
jaded old man that I am, they were just way to cute for me.
Trembling Bells are an extremely difficult band to pigeonhole.
While clearly wearing some of their wide range of influences
on their sleeves; folk, psychedelia, renaissance music, garage,
there is a uniqueness to their sound that is, for me, simply
breathtaking when they hit their stride. Coupled with the poetic,
lyrical complexity of Alex’s song writing, it seems an act of
silliness to say they sound like anyone else. Forget the limited
and lazy, folk-rock comparisons trotted out repeatedly by the
broadsheets, that’s only a small part of the story.
Opening with just Alex Neilson, (founder member, drummer, vocalist
and songwriter), and Lavinia Blackwell, (vocals, arrangements,
guitar and keyboards), delivering a suburb rendition of the
acapella, ‘Seven Years A Teardrop’ from the band’s first album,
with Simon Shaw, (bass and backing vocals) and Mike Hastings,
(lead guitar, harmonica and backing vocals) joining them on
stage for a stunning version of the title track from the same
album ‘Carbeth’. After that, overcome with excitement and forgetting
to note down song titles, my recollection of the running order
becomes a little sketchy.
With a set that drew heavily on their third and last, album,
‘The Constant Pageant’, but with many of the songs sounding
heavier, more honed by taking them on the road, this is a band
at the peak of their powers, not afraid to take chances, and
with some of the numbers sounding, if anything, even better
than the recorded versions.
Mike Hastings has matured into something of a ‘guitar hero’,
his playing sparse and emotive, more feel than flash, the perfect
complement to Lavinia’s unique, soaring and powerful voice,
and underpinning everything, Simon’s heroic, thunder and Alex’s
truly remarkable percussion.
Being originally a Leeds lad born and bred, now based in Glasgow,
Alex had various generations of Neilson family members in attendance
amongst the sparse audience and at one point dedicated a superb
cover of ‘Duchess’, a Scott Walker song, to his no doubt proud
Mother. The other cover of the evening was a song by Robin Gibb,
and while I didn’t manage to catch the title, not being that
familiar with the Bee Gees oeuvre, it sounded fine nonetheless.
The band also showcased a stunning new number, destined for
their soon to be recorded fourth album. May it bring them the
larger audiences they surely, truly deserve, along with enough
fame and riches to save them all from the necessity of taking
day jobs in these unkind times.
My abiding memory of the evening is of the band half way through
a full pelt version of the cacophonous and hallucinatory, ‘Otley
Rock Oracle’, with Lavinia ululating wildly, as if channelling
‘Angel Blake’, (a character played by Linda Hayden in the, movie,
‘Blood On Satan’s Claw’ from the seriously, politically incorrect
1970’s) with the whole band playing like the Four Horsemen of
the Apocalypse.
Another acappella encore, from Alex and Lavinia, followed by
a final number by the whole band in perfect form, reminds me
that it’s possible to sing like angels but, as they say, the
devil still has all the best tunes. As a recent convert, I am
happy to proselytise – so, go out and buy all three albums,
and catch them next time they come around. Trembling Bells are
simply one of the best bands on the planet.
Bill Howe
Thee
Faction
13.8.11 - Blow Up, London
The Blow Up Club is a little frayed around the edges these
days. DJ Paul Tunkin is still ringing in the changes with his
legendary club nights, although he’s had to down-size from The
Laurel Tree in Camden, a club graced by the likes of Suede,
Pulp and Elastica and other luminaries of 90s Britpop back in
the day, to a modest weekly residency at The Alley Cat, on Denmark
Street in Charing Cross, extending into the wee small hours.
An intimate sort of Tin Pan Alley venue, actually close to where
the Stones recorded their legendary first album in 1964 at Regent
Sounds Studios, Blow Up epitomizes British pop culture of the
last 40 years: rise-fall-rise again … and then who knows? The
Alley Cat still invites us to enter the world inspired by ‘swinging
sixties’ London, Antonioni's first feature and David Hemmings
snapping Sara Miles, and then legging it through London's nightclubs
to bump into the likes of 60s luminaries Yardbirds and The Who
along the way, all adding to the ‘cinema verite’ of the era.
‘Nostalgia’ socialism band Thee Faction advised everybody on
their website to enjoy their evening in this engaging part of
town, then drop in for a 10.30pm start to their set, before
Tunkin invites everyone to dance the night away. Right, so fight
your way through all the general hubbub of Charing Cross Road
at that time of night, and then fight back your skepticism for
a band extolling the virtues of good old-fashioned Marxism-Leninism!
All their pre-gig publicity pointed to a night of heavy politics,
so I thought perhaps the place would be awash with political
agitation, people selling Socialist Worker or skinheads picketing
the place, just like in the 80s with Thatcher and the Miners?
My fears were unfounded, the band took to the stage and launched
blisteringly into the first of their R&B numbers. I think
it was opener ‘366’, from their promising album Up The Workers!
The pace hardly let up for the next hour or so.
For the uninitiated, Thee Faction play a mix of blues, rock
and R&B, with a call to return to the ‘good old days’ of
left-wing politics, when left was left and right was right and
we all knew about it! Something like you'd expect Dr Feelgood
to sound like if they'd ever met Karl Marx. The sound in the
club is quite battering and intense, the place is relatively
small and the stage barely fit for the 6 or so musicians so
they have to line up in a military-like formation. But they’ve
judged it about right, the place needs the intensity that the
band give it. They have a pair of ‘non-sexist’ dancers but you
have to move really forward to see them properly, limbs flying
everywhere in the crowd, with flashing lights and various bits
of communist regalia projected behind the band, a lot of red
I seem to remember ... I’m not sure how seriously we’re meant
to take it all but, politics aside, when you settle back and
enjoy the music, you notice songs like ‘Ready?’ and ‘Deft Left’
from the album are just quality pub rock, and ‘Customer’ although
it’s so clichéd you could wash your face in it, has a
real energy and drive. The place calms down as Kassandra Krossing,
the band’s backing singer and keyboard player, promises that
communism will surely work this time if we give it a chance
(the song ‘Only’), backed by the night’s guest player, actually
Ivan “Chuck” Chandler, Dusty Springfield's keyboard player and
'musicologist'. Thee Faction play like they mean it, which is
a bit worrying, but they could certainly give bands 20 years
their junior a run for their money. Let’s cut to the chase here:
these guys have all been round the block (a few times!), so
their strength is really in their playing. They’re a cracking
live band and I can see their logic: if you want somebody to
believe the unbelievable, it’s better to sound like Dr Feelgood
than the Gang Of Four. And anyway it was nice of Billy Brentford,
singer with the band, to buy me and my friend a drink just before
the show, a real gent you are sir … erm, sorry, I mean comrade!
The Guardian said Thee Faction were taking the government down
one song at a time, but it’s hard to see much evidence of that
on the strength of tonight’s show. The place was barely half-full
which was disappointing, to say the least, for such a good live
band. Let’s hope word gets around, I guess the left needs to
dream a bit more … maybe tone down the politics guys, ‘cos it
can be a bit scary! But where next for London, Blow Up or blow
out? Thee Faction’s nostalgia politics may be serious, or it
may be a joke, but it leaves me wondering where we are all heading
…?
Matthew Haddrill
Laetitia
Sadier + Alan Lacroix + Alex Monk
3.8.11 - Cafe Oto, Dalston, London
Cafe Oto is on the trail of the esoteric and avant-garde again,
with 3 London-based artists who seem to have little in common
except perhaps bonds of friendship and a need to get their creative
output heard at the present time.
First up, musician and producer, Alex Monk, creater of ambient
spaces and moods. An artist like Monk is always likely to stretch
to the limit the ‘vocabulary’ of the hapless reviewer. He draws
on all sorts of influences, from the medieval music of Hildegard
of Bingen as reflected in many current day freak-folk artists
like Tara Burke aka Fursaxa, but also the ambient sounds of
people like Eno, synthrock and loops that were so prevalent
in the German Progressive Rock movement of the 70s ('Krautrock'),
and the classical motifs, chanting and drones of people like
Moondog and Laurie Anderson. I don’t know what he eats for breakfast!?
Monk released his second full-length album earlier this year
The Safety Machine which is currently available on vinyl and
digital format and can be purchased from his website: http://alexandermonk.com/
The live set featured a lot of the music from this album, which
created some very special atmospheres around the café.
Monk will often put drums and vocals on loops and keep feeding
sounds over the top. There's a synthesizer which creates a dark
‘gothic’ organ sound, but then he'll throw in a bit of guitar
which lightens things up a little. A song like 'Masks Survive'
starts out like freak-folk and could easily be early Pink Floyd,
but then it whoops and hollers with strange chants and echo
effects, stops off briefly as a light pastoral symphony before
returning with chanting and bells which take it up another sonic
notch or two (and no hallucinogenic drugs were consumed on the
premises!). Hard to identify the pieces individually, as I need
a greater knowledge of the album, but 'Cabiria' and 'Light Separation'
were also there gleaming and bright. The set ebbed and flowed
thoughout, but occasionally hiccuped as the artist struggled
with all the effects pedals, quite ambitious to pull off a sound
like this in front of an audience. Might be worth adding a visual
element to enhance the rich sonics for future performances,
and bring in some extra musicians to ease the guy's load, Mike
Oldfield never had this sort of problem!
Next up, the crystalline guitar sounds of Alan Lacroix, probably
more for the experimental purist than the casual observer, presenting
his latest work Cycle No. 1, a set of 24 pieces for the 12-string
guitar. Lacroix takes his cue from the open tuning of guitarists
like John McLaughlin, John Fahey and Bert Jansch in the 60s
and 70s, and more recently probably inspired by James Blackshaw's
experiments with Indian ragas. It’s that “early morning sunrise
with coffee” feeling (ever been camping before?), the 12 string
guitar always brings rich sweeps of colour and texture, creating
some beautiful ambient moods. However, one wonders if it rather
fell on deaf ears even among Cafe Oto's appreciative audience?
A live event, particularly one late evening, alcohol being consumed,
hearts and minds (and feet!) becoming restless for the main
act, hard to keep people's attention under these circumstances
… Lacroix also played the set of instrumentals without any talk,
so my attention rather wandered and I went outside to grab some
air. Magically, the music followed me into the cool evening
and I got a true glimpse of 'ambience'! You can hear parts of
Lacroix's work Cycle No. 1 on his MySpace page, and hear his
style of playing to good effect on a recent collaboration with
former Sneaker Pimps singer Kelli Ali on her version of 'All
The Pretty Little Horses': http://www.myspace.com/alanlacroix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ynqbc7Vb0Y
And so we come on to the final stage of the evening, with
what seems to mark a new chapter in Stereolab singer Laetitia
Sadier's career. Fair to say that she's had her share of sadness
and tragedy in recent years, with the death of bandmate Mary
Hansen in 2002 a huge blow, and one which Stereolab never fully
recovered from, and the inevitable hiatus since 2009 has no
doubt left a creative vacuum to fill. Sadier’s response has
always been to busy herself with collaborative work: her side
project Monade deserved more recognition, and 2010 solo album
The Trip showcases some neat new songs which she recorded with
elements of Monade, but also with Rebecca Gates, April March
and the sublime Richard Swift. She clearly still has the creative
itch, and is searching for the right vehicle again for her music,
although tonight's set at Cafe Oto is very much a solo performance,
a sort of 'confessional' with just singer and guitar.
Sadier concentrates mainly on the material from her album,
with acoustic renditions of US psych-folk duo Wendy & Bonnie's
'By The Sea' (“my hit”, she quipped!) and 'The Million Year
Trip' both highlights. The latter is actually a song dedicated
to the memory of her sister who committed suicide just before
the recording of the record. There are also some bits of new
material and lyrics which she adds to the set, but the mood
is quite relaxed and low-key, she knows her audience well and
they love her. Incidentally, there's quite a lot to admire in
this artist's tenacity, and the solo performances are an interesting
foil to those who found Sadier's hypnotic vocals occasionally
a bit insipid and robotic (always at odds with the message behind
the Stereolab songs, often very ‘warm’ and emotional).
I did wonder about the wisdom of playing songs in French to
a largely English audience. Sadier has always sung in both languages
and recorded songs in each, but the lyrics seem to be taking
on a growing importance in her oeuvre, so how to cross over
and make sure your audience stays with you? Translation is a
tricky thing to negotiate, perhaps they could project up English
translations (and vice versa in France). She may lose a part
of her audience if they are monoglots like me!
So a lot of warmth in the performances of all the artists tonight
and a responsive 'home' audience. Laetitia Sadier has clearly
developed and established herself as an artist in her own right,
and 'Gentlewoman' of the world (as she put it!), it’s just a
question of where to go from here? The sky is probably the limit,
but I bet most of the audience were wondering when she'll be
back with a band …
“I lost someone precious
In the depth of my lining
At the heart of my loss
My little sister's voice
Forever muted, inaudible, inert
She went on a million year trip
And left everything behind
Her skin, her hairs
She has a long way to travel
So I will open my heart
And let the pain run along
As there is no point in holding on
Precious little sister I open my heart
Pour out the painful laughter
Which can only help to heal
And help me to fly you away
To take off the worlds
We've lost days
Here I hope you will find solace
That you needed
Forever, there's so many
Dear little sister
I let you go, take the pain with you
And throw it in a [Incomprehensible”
(‘The Million Year Trip’ by Laetitia Sadier, from The Trip)
Thomas
White, Nick Hudson & Tandy Hard
30.7.11 - Studio Ping Pong, Brighton
Great music springs from wanderlust, one thinks of George Harrison’s
spiritual journey in India in the 60s and 70s which infused
the Beatles later recordings, and indeed Harrison’s solo opus
All Things Must Pass in 1970. Thomas White’s latest solo project
Yalla is more modest in scale than its predecessor 2010's Maximalist,
but a recent trip to Egypt has spawned a nice breezy collection
of lo-fi recordings made with just a travel guitar, which explore
that sense of ‘otherness’ which comes from being somewhere different:
“Took a trip out to see a friend
Don't even know if I'll be back again
The sun beats down on desert climes
And fallen leaves
Took a trip out to god knows where
Don't even know when I'll be back again
I miss Brighton town cold leaden brown
All the fallen leaves
Took a trip out to see a friend
Don't even know if I'll
The sun beats down on desert ground
And fallen leaves”
The music for Yalla must have flooded out of White's subconscious,
so the artist best known for his work with Electric Soft Parade
quickly posted it up on YouTube with dreamlike images, prior
to its official release, and has been playing a series of low-key
concerts around his home town of Brighton to promote the work.
Artists like this have many musical ‘sides’ to explore, and
after all the hurly burly of the Electric Soft Parade, which
often sounded like a history lesson in British pop of the last
40 years, it's nice to see Thomas and his brother Alex re-shaping
their careers with the help of the locally vibrant Brighton
music scene. And local is where I found Thomas White last Saturday
night, performing the latest of his 'Yalla' concerts, this time
in so-called 'Club Ping Pong', a friend's home recording studio
in downtown Hove. The set was acoustic, just 2 guitars and an
entourage of friends singing as a choir, all decked out in colourful
tunics, evocative of some sort of Arab mafraj or bustling suq.
It was a nice evening, but with all the eastern promise, the
music on show tonight was really something akin to the folk
of Crosby, Stills and Nash's classic first 2 albums, or Simon
& Garfunkel and George Harrison. It's a bit of a musical
trek from ESP, but a nice diversion … and he shared the bill
with two other very promising local artists.
First up was Tandy Hard (Andrew 'Wills' Willis) who has an
ear for melody, but more crucially an Edwyn Collins'/Orange
Juice-like drollness and slightly sardonic narrative … or is
it straight back to 'Jesus' and 'Pale Blue Eyes', from the Velvet
Underground's eponymous 1969 album? You don't get tired of music
when there's a basic honesty behind it. Nick Hudson has an almost
overpowering musical presence, which he keeps under wraps as
he goes through his repertoire of pyschedelia, folk and wonderful
orchestrations … with just a guitar! He's clearly the modern-day
troubadour, with songs heading off in different directions but
all coming back to central themes: love, loss and cruelty, or
“falling from different heights” as the singer put it! Hard
not to feel you're in the presence of something great and wonderful,
worthy of further inspection, the most obvious reference-point
probably being Scott Walker. Ears around the room pricked up,
even when he stalled with some of the songs. 'My Antique Dead',
'Nocturne' and 'Idiot Song' all have a special resonance, apologies
that I can't do justice to the music in this paltry review.
Thomas White and his band played the whole of Yalla right through
without stopping for applause, a useful lesson in reclaiming
the album in times of cherry-picking the best toons. 'All The
Fallen Leaves' kicks the set off, its simple honesty draws a
veil over some of the cliches: when we're a long way from home
we miss it most! 'I'll See Her Again' sounds eerily familiar,
maybe something of the first CSN studio album, with that haunting
picture of the building which was demolished soon after? There
are travelogue reflections on “The delicious chaos of Cairo”,
but oddly the music sounds more like 'Mrs Robinson' and Simon
& Garfunkel set to images of the Egyptian capital. ‘Ocean
Green’ is an album (and live) highlight for me, along with 'King
Of The Kingdom', both with the kind of open tuning which gives
the guitar that rich 'sunrise' crystalline tone. Put that with
some Beach Boy harmonies provided by White's band of singers
and a Monkees pop sensibility, by the time we reach fade-out
track 'The English Sargasso', Yalla has injected a little bit
of sunshine back into our lives … when I mentioned to a journalist
outside the venue that I thought the it was all a bit hippie,
I got a volley of abuse, but for music 'hippie' isn't insulting,
my friend!
“Gave me just what I want and I don't want it now, I just don't
want it now
Put me in a box and told me find a way out
I just can't figure how when all I need is in the trees
So why do you lie in the street? The world is spinning
How's lying in the street gonna help, I'm just waiting for my
house to go by
And on we go inexorable
Everybody is hungry for something each hungry for food, I'm
hungry for freedom
From all the ties that bind the life to the little guy and the
king of the kingdom”
What's the story about Electric Soft Parade? Well, happily
the 'adventure' continues, the brothers White are in the studio
with the band and adding the finishing touches to new material
which should appear early next year. We can expect more songs
like those on excellent recent release A Quick One ep, but to
be sure Thomas White will continue to explore his other 'sides'
musically … and in music, the good tends to float to the surface,
like his sunblessed Yalla.
Matthew Haddrill
Kath
Bloom
26.7.11 - Café Oto, Dalston, London
Kath Bloom is rumoured to have learned the blues by reading
the headstones in her local cemetery, the sort of mythology
that often passes for folklore, but certainly something to admire
about an artist who lives out every moment of their art, Bloom
has ‘bottled’ the blues for us over the years with moments of
aching beauty and tenderness. Inspired by a whole generation
of artists in the 60s and 70s, you can hear qualities of Joplin,
Mitchell, Baez, Emmylou in the Connecticut singer’s voice, but
her collaborations with avant-garde guitarist Loren Mazzacane
Connors in the 80s added another crucial element in the mix
and ‘fragile’ blues was born. Kath Bloom can silence a room
with that rare stand-alone quality that artists possess when
they are struggling through a moment and baring their souls
completely:
“When you smile set me free
When you’re happy be happy as you can be
When it’s dark keep your road
When life ends you’re come into this home
It takes your smile it makes you pain
It gives you night it gives you too much day
Then you’ll know how far to go
You can’t be sure when your love
Up in the stars my tree
Then you’ll know that nothing fits …”
(‘When You Smile’ by Kath Bloom & Loren Mazzacane Connors,
from 1981-1984 )
She is perhaps best known for the inclusion of the song ‘Come
Here’ in Richard Linklater’s 1995 film ‘Before Sunrise’, the
bit where Judie Delpy and Ethan Hawke swoon over each other,
and yet there are still more chapters to write in this artist’s
story: her collaboration in 1999 with guitarist Peter Friedman
Come Here: The Florida Years marked another high watermark in
the career, and last year saw a beautiful tribute by the likes
of Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan and Mark Kozelek, with the
compilation Loving Takes This Course. To get an idea of what
lies behind the living legend which is Kath Bloom, have a look
at this link: http://thisrecording.com/today/tag/kath-bloom
Bloom is currently touring with musicians Levi Strom and Jim
Reynolds, from California, with a series of dates at select
venues around the UK, and whether you call it roots or old-time,
folk or blues, there’s something rather sacred and timeless
about the music on show. Nice then to be greeted by the warmth
of these sounds on entering intimate venue Café Oto in
Dalston, on Tuesday 26th July 2011. Reynolds has a deep boom
in his dulcet tones and twangs his guitar like a goodun, Strom’s
folk is a bit more edgy with vocals cracked and interesting
(‘Unbroken’ will induce tears wherever it’s played!). All at
once, you get the feeling the music they’re playing has been
around for centuries. Kath joined them on harmonica for their
rendition of ‘Oak Tree’ before we took an interval.
The café was quite full but the atmosphere remained
low-key and intimate, and when Bloom finally came bounding on
for the second half of the programme, she played a handful of
songs solo before being re-joined by Strom and Reynolds. Interesting
to watch this waif-like singer thread her music through the
evening, warbling voice and guitar, struggling to hold it all
together … but you quickly realize this is all part of the show,
the struggling life force holding the audience under her spell,
and yes, she ‘bottled’ that moment for us again. It was a night
of lazy journalism and I’ll admit more than a drop of the local
brew had been imbibed … but a very enjoyable one at that!
Strangely, when her bandmates did eventually join her, the
night had moved on and felt a bit out of joint. Attempts to
jolly things along didn’t seem to work as well, Kath’s presence
on stage is very subtle, the guys would do well to hang back
a bit. So, really an evening of two halves, the booming timelessness
of classic folk followed by some of the most fragile blues you’re
likely to hear this side of the Mississippi Delta. As they played
out with a relatively upbeat encore, ‘Not Through With This
Yet’, from Kath's latest album Thin Thin Line, a thought struck
me about the whole thing: you strip away music until you have
the whole punk aesthetic there in your hands, all heart and
aching humanity! And when an invite to ‘hang’ with Kath was
politely refused, my friends wanted to check a punk band down
in Camden Town … Bravo legend Kath!
“Stay awake go out to a job I don't like
I come home turn the TV on face a long night
You know this life it takes about all it can get
'till you feel my heart ache
I'm not through with this yet
I'm not through I'm not through I'm not through with this yet
Or face trauma or sickness and eternity
someone bring me a witness, tell me how it will be
you know my fear takes about all it can get
till the real story breaks
I'm not through with this yet
I'm not through I'm not through I'm not through with this yet
Hold your head up hold your head up
You've been set up
Look to nature it's greater
Then your despair find your stealth there
Pack your bags come with a snap into the dream
Get your boat and we'll go down a long lovely stream
Dumps us into the ocean we don't know where we go
You're not through you're not through you're not through with
this yet”
(‘I’m Not Through With This Yet’ by Kath Bloom, from Thin Thin
Line)
(CD’s available at gigs, or from Vow Records, PO Box 82, Big
Sur, CA 93920)
Matthew Haddrill
Folk & Dagger
19.7.11 - Zigfrid Von Underbelly, Hoxton Square, City of London
“All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing
a song.” Louis Armstrong
Horses obviously excluded, Tuesday nights is 'Folk & Dagger'
at Zigfrid Von Underbelly in Hoxton Square: “5 fine and unusual
songwriters and bands musically make waves - clunky, dense,
intricate, warm, slicey, jazz-fringed, complex, true, absurd
stories and oh so easy on the ear....winning!” Americana and
British folk rub shoulders for a night of live music from a
roster of singer-songwriters well ahead of their years and supported
ably by their respective bands. A variety of styles that could
loosely fit under the 'folk' banner, and strong single-minded
individuals determined to see their music through.
Unfortunately, Louise & The Pins, who toured recently with
Laura Marling, were involved in a car crash earlier this week,
and while thankfully the band are fine, they were shaken up
by the experience so decided to pull out of the gig, no doubt
to concentrate on their appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival
later this month. A sad omission, but it didn't seem to phase
the rest of the bands or spoil the evening. My own omission
was to miss the first artist Will Robert, 7.30pm on a rainy
London evening was always going to be pushing it for me, sorry!
So we'll kick off with Jamie Thorne & The Mystery Pacific,
a powerful set of mostly blues and gospel numbers, but nice
to hear Jamie also playing unaccompanied, like on 'Simple Man's
Blues', which has some nice finger-picking and the singer crooning
away in that classic raw folk idiom. He won't be the first (nor
the last!) to be compared to Bob Dylan, as he cuts a serious
figure on stage and the songs often seem driven by the lyrics,
a young Donovan type maybe, but I somehow doubt the audience
shared my opinion, enjoying the band rocking out alt-country-style
for most of the set. They ended with classy driving southern
blues, I couldn't catch the title of the song but a nice touch
of slide guitar and it only really needed a gospel choir and
we'd be transported off somewhere to the deep south rather than
Hoxton, London.
While Thorne and band are cut from the same cloth as new-folkers
Mumford & Sons and Noah & The Whale, the three unassuming
figures taking to the stage next took the evening in a slightly
different direction. Seated and surrounding themselves with
a vast array of instruments to provide some nice homespun bluesy
folk, Jenny & Stuff (sorry, not a great name but persevere
please!) is a musical collective featuring songwriter Jenny
Hall, supported (on this night, at least!) by harpist Bella
Chipperfield and her brother Joe on a variety of other stringed
instruments. All three musicians textured each song, to create
an immediacy and warmth set to Hall's voice, which reminded
me a little of American fragile folk singer Kath Bloom. 'Tonight'
is a beautiful song with the sort of timeless quality and eery
familiarity that drives a lot of folk music, and the personal
honesty reflected in songs like 'Believe' (“Do you believe in
life after love?”) will always have the power to go darker and
deeper! I guess with this sort of stuff you either like crying
into your beer or you don't … personally, I do!
The last band of the evening, while technically the best, didn't
quite seem to 'fit' the bill. Mark Hole is a precociously talented
singer-songwriter, and delivers his songs on the keyboard with
an 'epic' sort of quality and Freddie Mercury opera-singer vocal.
The music he and his band delivered was more like cabaret rock
really, and while the guy's also a talented wordsmith, as songs
like 'Dirty Base' and 'My Friend' demonstrate, he struggled
to find his audience at the Underbelly. At times desperate to
be taken seriously in a steadily emptying venue half-filled
with drunkenness, it was a case of more dagger than folk, unfortunately!
Every dog has its day, but this one belonged to Jamie Thorne
and the unassuming folk peddlers from Bishop Stortford. Golly,
this sounds like 'Battle Of The Bands', which it was never meant
to … next week's Tuesday evening's entertainment at the Underbelly
also features 4 interesting young artists, if the rain's giving
you the blues go and exorcise them at the 'Folk & Dagger'
on 26th July. You can find details on the website: http://www.underbellyhoxton.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1
Ever since 'Betwen The Wars' provided him with as big a platform
as any mid 80s agit-folkist could want, Billy Bragg and his
music have travelled the circuit of benefit gigs and festival
appearances, some of them less and others more outwardly political.
A quarter century on from the TOTP appearance that firmly cemented
his position as our most prominent leftist singer songwriter,
Billy Bragg walks onstage with a two hour long act that has
been honed to near perfection over the decades and none of his
audience, regardless of their own views or voting preferences,
are going to walk out feeling either short changed or disappointed.
Troubador, historian, comedian, actual politician - Bragg gleefully
ticks all of these boxes and then does exactly what he wants
to do. He talks at least as much as he sings, but doesn't reminisce
about his time in the army, his travels with Andy Kershaw, or
the night he bought John Peel a curry. He does give turn in
some lively renditions of Woody Guthrie songs, complete with
background info on how Woody wrote 'Stromboli', and delves into
his considerable back catalogue of songs with genuine enthusiasm.
His guitar playing is sharp and resonant, and Bragg in person
really does look and sound a lot like Paul Weller, with a flat
top instead of a mod trim. Woody Guthrie spent much of his life
with his hand down the front of his trousers, I now know. There's
a streak of pub comedy in Bragg's material that all the political
correctness in London's left circles will never quite remove,
and a more ideologically mixed crowd than that he might find
at a Trafalgar Square end-of-demo performance chortles appreciatvely.
As for the songs, the best known ones that is, Bragg's matey
persona and a significant number of what's almost his personal
fan club turn 'The Milkman Of Human Kindness' into a rousing
singalong. Over twenty years since it was first heard, 'Sexuality'
still needs a bit of a brass neck to carry it off with credibility,
and Bragg has lost none of his ability to make the awkward sound
easy, or of his mock-naieve charm. Billy explains himself as
an of-his-generation Clash fan (it's practically a members drinking
club, he says) and reminisces about attending his first Hyde
Park anti racism demo. He also has a lot to say about the politics
of his native Dagenham, and I didn't catch the title of a very
clever and funny song about a wealthy banker fleeing to Dubai
that ends with 'and we've all bought the bastard his ticket'.
Bragg's voice cracks during a strident 'Levi Stubbs Tears' and
he laughs it off, pausing only to jibe at Mick Hucknall as he
does so. It's easily my own favourite of his songs and its chords
set my teeth on edge just as they did when I first heard it.
'Power In A Union' is the most obviously political song of the
night, and it's given a rousing treatment that, while it's appparent
that the interpretation of the word 'union' is open to question,
has a few clenched fists pointing at the ceiling. And finally,
'A New England' is far from the folksy ballad it was when first
recorded, and Bragg dedicates the song to Kirsty MacColl and
cranks up the distortion in tribute to his own declared guitar
heroes, AC/DC.
Billy Bragg is something of a unique figure in our music. Since
his first recordings he's trod a narrow path that has proven
a tightrope for many of his contemporaries, and emerged still
smiling and with his music hall instincts completely intact,
able to win over even the most cynical of his audience and continue
to inspire nostalgic admiration from all those other greying
patrons of The Strummer Arms. It's just a pity that TOTP is
no longer with us, Billy Bragg would probably make it back onto
that stage today.
JG
PS
I Love You at The Cockpit
6.5.11 - The Cockpit, Leeds
It might have been a portent. The feeling you have when you
suddenly wake up after a little nap. The sweaty disorientation.
Puzzling where you are and what you were about to do. This lassitude
not only hit me when I awoke from my irritating nap, but the
irritation remained when I found myself in The Cockpit. In the
upstairs room I found myself observing a remarkable thing. The
third support band Sonny and the Sunsets performed such a wonderfully
anachronistic crossover of rock, beat and Americana. Still being
dazed, songs like “Death Cream” made day-dreaming about this
gig taking place in a hay barn in the American countryside.
Did I actually wake up in Leeds? The Californians abducted me
to a sound hardly be heard outside of the room. The cheering
thirty people crowd must have felt similar. Sonny and the Sunsets’
beat ‘n’ roll was as anachronistic as irritating in a city like
Leeds.
More irritating, even frustrating, was PS I Love You’s performance.
The people surely enjoyed Sonny and the Sunsets more than they
did PSILY, only ten people stayed to listen to their post-rock.
Songs like “Facelove” and “Get Over” come along very powerful
on record, but the small venue of Cockpit 3 just could not provide
the sound for the complexity of the songs. The songs degenerated
to bland noises, the good ideas of the rough post-rock as well
as the angrily depressive howling of singer Paul Saulnier did
not come through. The result was a very dry wallow of sound
in which the fine nuances of the Canadians only remained as
sere florets.
Wolfgang Günther
Sound of Guns+ The View
10.4.11 - The Cockpit, Leeds
I prepared to join in the canon about the death of indie-rock.
We all know how the story goes, legions of young guitar bands
copying 70s post-punk, 80s new wave or 90s britpop, not being
able to create something new and exciting, caught in the rat-race
of an uninspired music industry. The audience being confronted
with the repetition of the same game all over again. And please
guys, get out of your skinny jeans, come on, they are not comfortable
but childish; and Topshop can make enough money without you
lads.
Then I entered the Cockpit. And was surprised. Sound of Guns
was only supposed to be the support group, but the club was
already nearly packed with a cheerful crowd. And not many of
them wore exaggerated skinnies. The sound was brilliant, and
the show was bursting with energy. I was a little sceptical
when I listened to their recorded songs, they all seemed to
be too well produced indie-rock standard. The live show, however,
proved something different. I was very pleased to see that “Architects”,
which is really not my favourite, was presented with a powerful
verse. The chorus, however, still is one of dullest I’ve heard,
but at least was better presented live. I was afraid the more
pompous influences of Echo and the Bunnymen would turn the live
sound into boring pathos, but the live account was far from
that. The songs went down powerfully and the band surely was
enjoying the music they were playing. “Alcatraz” had a blasting
drive and made the audience feel like the Liverpudlians were
the main act. Singer Andrew Metcalfe also played a role in the
active atmosphere with his powerful passion in his voice and
performance. Although band and audience behaved like this was
already the main act, there was more to come.
Sound of Guns made room for The View, welcomed by the audience
with a “the view are on fire” choral. You had to look carefully
not to mix up the singer Kyle Falconer with the Sound of Guns’
frontman, the semblance of the hair and the timbre were astonishing.
The new single “Grace” was well received among the revellers,
followed by “Wasted Little DJs” which put a fat smirk on my
face, reminding me of the time when I was nineteen. “Wasteland”,
“Skag Trendy” and “Superstar Tradesman” were more classics to
come up, producing fierce cheering, dancing and crowd-surfing
just cooling down for “Typical Time”. Latest for “Same Jeans”
everyone in the crowd was either jumping around or cheerfully
dancing. Good to see they saved some energy from the acoustic
gig at Jumbo Records the afternoon before; bassist Kieren Webster
was still proudly wearing his Jumbo Records t-shirt; surprisingly
for me, he didn’t get enough applause for this! Talking about
Jumbo, one more nice surprise was their record-store-day single,
the The Tweeds cover “I Need That Record” that just fitted perfectly
to their sound and in the whole jolly show.
Sadly they did not play any encore. However, The View and Sound
of Guns put on two blasts of shows, which was pleasant enough;
but you know, decency demands...
One thing the night surely has proven for the hyper critical
critics, indie-rock is not dead at all, it’s just taking breathing
space to recover from last years, and from this gig. Though
still, I hope for the new guitar wave the skinnies won’t get
any skinnier. Come on lads...
