Friday, July 20, 2007

Loney, Dear - Saturday Waits [Sub Pop single]

Just what is it about Swedish music? How does it remain so consistently lovely, and more to the point, so damn good? The latest Swede to soothe our non-Scandinavian ears, and probably the word of mouth success of 2007, Emil Svanängen – or to give him his confusingly punctuated pseudonym, Loney, Dear – returns with ‘Saturday Waits’, the second single from the much-lauded ‘Loney, Noir’ album.

‘Saturday Waits’ contains everything that has marked Loney, Dear out for praise, most notably the combination of sunshine pop melodies painted on a gentle summer canvas with a lo fi folk brush. As with many of the songs on ‘Loney, Noir’, it starts off fairly quietly before adding layers and layers of colours, hitting its peak with the Beach Boys harmonies of its chorus. Buried beneath these layers is a poignant tale of isolation that Svanängen brings to life and turn into a joyously uplifting three and a half minutes of glorious indiepop.


There is more joy to be had on the flip side of the single – if the Flaming Lips decided to pack in all ideas of giant concept albums and songs that explode to the very edge of pop reason and recorded an album of 4/4 summer pop songs it would probably sound a bit like ‘I Do What I Can’.

If Belle and Sebastian or the Magic Numbers lived in Sweden, they might just make music as effortlessly cool as this. ‘Saturday Waits’ is yet another song that makes you want to give it all up and move there – sooner or later we might just all do it.


****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Strange Death Of Liberal England - Forward March! [Fantastic Plastic mini-album]


The Strange Death Of Liberal England are the kind of band that people like to talk about. From their provocative mouthful of a name, to their instrument-swapping, mute placard-raising, ball of energy of a live show, they are a band who seem destined and delighted to be in the spotlight. Following two well-received singles, the Portsmouth-based band’s first real attempt to secure an extended stay in this spotlight comes in the form of this eight track mini-album released on excellent indie Fantastic Plastic.

As a band they are often compared to Arcade Fire due to the grandiose nature of their songs, and, while for most of ‘Forward March!’ they don’t sound too much like them, this is by no means a worthless comparison. For just like Win Butler’s gang this six piece look rather an unlikely bunch until they start playing, they seem to be considerably emotionally invested in their music, and, most importantly, they create some quite wonderful noises. It will not go unnoticed with the discerning music fan that a certain Canadian band also released a self-titled mini-album/EP before gaining word of mouth notoriety for ‘Funeral’. There is more than mere Arcade Fire apeing to this South Coast band, though. There are hints of a number of other Canadian bands, including A Silver Mt Zion and Godspeed!, and some British, but in reality The Strange Death have crafted a sound all their own.

This is thanks in part to the rather distinctive voice possessed by frontman Adam Woolway. Like the band’s name, it is an instant opinion-polariser sounding at times frail, at times harsh and always unique. It is this voice, and the grand post-rock-like nature of The Strange Death’s songs, mostly building into sweeping shout along choruses, that make ‘Forward March!’ such an arresting work. It is based around the Strange Death’s magnum opus and debut single ‘A Day Another Day’ with its delicate, tortured opening that builds to the magnificent declaration “We are Bandini, Arturo Bandini!” (citing John Fante’s hero), delivered in glorious fashion. Another literary figure, this time Keats, is referenced in the band’s second single, the anti-capitalist pastoral vision that is ‘Oh Solitude’. Preaching the qualities of art over the rat race (“I paint my dreams upon the wall cos they can’t hear me”) it finds them at their most Arcade Fire-sounding.

Quite frankly, though, there isn’t a duff track on this very promising debut. The opening ‘Modern Folk Song’ and closing ‘Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division’ are cases in point. The former begins as gently as a folk song could before exploding into a cacophony of guitars and soaring vocal harmonies, while the latter is a beautiful post-rock instrumental that provides the perfect culmination to the album. In between, the band turn their hand to a variety of folk and post-rock sing-a-longs, from the epic ‘I See Evil’ to the hypnotic sea shanty ‘An Old Fashioned War’, the sound of which is perhaps inspired by their South Coast roots. The furious duo of ‘God Damn Broke and Broken Hearted’ and ‘Mozart on 33’ see Woolway’s voice at its angriest, with a snarling bile-spitting quality to it, the latter sounding like an apocalyptic vision from some sort of musical from the underworld.

At eight songs it is would be easy to see this as a the work of a band with not enough songs, but it when ‘Summer Gave Us Sweets…’ fades out it does seem almost like the closing moment of a completed ‘work’. It is perhaps more to the band’s credit that they did not pad out the collection with some instrumental fillers or b-sides and allowed this set to stand alone. That said, it is certainly not a perfect album and ‘Forward March!’ does have the feeling of a band that are still locating and honing their sound. It is, though, a pleasure listening to them doing so.


They seem a band truly treating music as an art form, both on stage and on record, something that is a joy to behold. It is difficult not to get drawn in by the intensity of ‘Forward March’ – emotion positively drips from the speakers – and if you allow yourself to be it is guaranteed to be a rather wonderful experience. Surely one of the most interesting British debuts of the year.


****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Strange Death Of Liberal England - London, Summer 2007

The Strange Death Of Liberal England are not, they tell me, as we sit in Soho Square before their headlining, balloon-filled show at Oxford Street’s Metro, a political band. Despite the distinctive mouthful of a name, songs about ‘Good Old Fashioned War’ and a debut mini-album entitled ‘Forward March!’, it is very clear that whatever their political views may be it is solely the music that governs this peculiar slice of England. Nor are they a band that is afraid to be different, stating early on in tonight’s opening number ‘Modern Folk Song’: “Thanks but I think I’ll go my own way”. It’s in everything they do, from their music and the emotion they put into it (a rare commodity these days), to their stage show, to that name again – an opinion former before you’ve even heard the band. Is all this meant to be as provocative as it might seem?

“Andy suggested the name after a history book he was reading and it just seemed to fit from the start” Adam Woolway, the mop of hair of a frontman explains, “But I do think it is a provocative name that stands out – something we try and do with our music too. All that that name suggests is also quite apt given the climate we are living in at the moment, including our own political standing, though I for one would never call us a political band. Everyone’s got a political view whether they realise it or not and that’s going to come across if you’re in a band on a stage”. Andy Wright, strummer and basher of a variety of instruments, continues: “Unless what you do is a very conscious performance, which ours isn’t. We’re just ‘how we are’ on stage and you and your personality is going to come out. It’s not like we’re Rage Against The Machine or Billy Bragg or anything. We didn’t set out with a communist agenda or anything!”


Anyone witnessing the Metro performance would surely be convinced of how much this band cares about the music they are making. As they power their way through most of their outstanding debut mini-album ‘Forward March!’, the walls of this underground club are virtually dripping in the raw emotion of the songs and their delivery. They hover between several genres, but perhaps take more from post-rock than any other. In the landscape of ‘rock’ music, it is a genre that commands more presence than almost any other, basing itself around the dichotomy between violence and beauty. Yet despite the increased emphasis on vocals (these are at their heart ‘rock’, or even ‘modern folk’, songs after all) The Strange Death more than match this level of power. That they are able to carry this off is thanks in part to the arrangement and instrumentation of the songs, in particular the quiet/loud divide symptomatic of post-rock, but perhaps most of all it’s down to Adam’s voice. At times tonight and throughout the album, like the start of ‘Modern Folk Song’ or the delicate beginning to ‘A Day, Another Day’, it is the epitome of fragility, almost at cracking point. Yet when necessary, it transforms to a tortured wail or the bile-spitting anger of ‘An Old Fashioned War’ or ‘God Damn Broke and Broken Hearted’.

Adam is undoubtedly the centre of attention on stage, both from his role as frontman and the presence he inspires from his performance, but you get the impression that in this band everyone is as important as everyone else. This is something reinforced not just by the continual swapping of instruments between each other, but also the way that each individual member of the band gets so emotionally invested in the performance – whether their role at that time is banging the drums, attacking the guitar or bashing some percussion, they are all equally caught up in that one moment. The odd a capella break where they all sing as one, or any of the number of sing and shout along choruses that mark the most exhilarating moments in their music, confirm this feeling of a band that is addressing the audience as one entity.

The Strange Death first came to many people’s attention because of another thing for which they stand out: the eccentric nature of their stage show, during which no member speaks to the audience and any dialogue is replaced with large placards bearing firstly the name of the band and subsequently the titles of, or lines from, the next song. It is something Brecht used to do in his ‘epic theatre’ and I wonder whether this was an influence on the bands decision to use the technique? “It’s actually something that never crossed our minds when we were doing it”, Adam admits, “but it’s been mentioned before and when it was first mentioned we thought ‘Oh that’s quite fun, we can use that in interviews!’, so for the sake of the interview: yes! In all honesty though, I think we use them for the reverse of why Brecht did. He used them to distance what’s on stage from the audience, whereas we are trying to keep an atmosphere going, we’re trying to keep something going and actually trying to draw people in with it. It’s more like the signs that come up in silent movies in actual fact. We hope people will get something more from it rather than distancing ourselves from them. I think if we were to stop what we were doing after a hugely emotional piece of music, and stop and have a bit of banter with the audience, I think that would be more akin to what Brecht was doing than the reason we use [placards]. So ‘yes’ for the sake of pretentiousness and ‘no’ for the sake of truth!” Andy continues, “Our motivation was always to communicate with the audience without having to talk so it is the reverse of Brecht: instead of alienation hopefully people can connect more between songs.”

They do, though, seem to be a band that treats music as a true art form, as an expression of themselves that is almost redemptive in nature. When asked how the six members of the band came about playing in a band together, Adam replies “Mostly just out of dead-ends and desperation I think. Andy and I both went away to Uni, got home and found we didn’t have much to do, all of a sudden our lives were shit and we were unemployed or working shit jobs. We all knew each other anyway and came together to play music without any grandiose aims or anything. It was just a way to express yourself and just something to focus your energy on. And now it’s two years later and we’re sitting here with a record deal.”

As well as being named after a book, The Strange Death’s songs reference several literary figures, including Arturo Bandini (the hero of John Fante’s masterly novels) and Keats, and I ask whether they see themselves as being influenced as much by literature and other art forms as they do music? After careful thought Adam explains: “I’d say it’s all art forms really. When you write music you express yourself – those feelings come from somewhere and are feelings which are emanated from other things, whether it’s an art form or just looking at a tree on a certain beautiful evening or whatever. I don’t think I ever have written a song about that, but it might come! Art is a passing emotional expression and people pick up on that, like the way you interact with a certain painting. And that’s how you become influenced by it and it gives you the desire to express yourself. I think you’d be hard pushed to find original emotional expression or original ideas, it’s just a kind of interpretation of ideas.” Amongst other things, it is the purity of this approach and the commitment to their own way of doing things that gives The Strange Death’s music such emotional resonance.

The band deliver an undeniably powerful and captivating performance at Metro, and if you take the time to look around almost all of this gathered London audience has their gaze fixed on the six-piece throughout, soaring away with them and their harmonies. With songs like ‘A Day, Another Day’ with its communal “We are Bandini!” refrain, and the call to arms of ‘I Saw Evil’s “Is this all you care about?” create a real sense of this being more than just a performance by a rock band. It’s as if this strange group of figures on stage are preaching some sort of gospel. This kind of group experience, both between themselves on stage, and by dragging the audience along for the ride with them, is something the band seems to revel in. When questioned about a possible military theme running through the album (due to the title, artwork, a song called ‘An Old Fashioned War’, and lots of military style drumming) they dismiss this as, at best, a subconscious indicator of the times we are living in, preferring to see it as “Having a rallying call, creating an army almost, followers, people who won’t just look at you and think “Oh that’s nice music” but will feel something emotionally and want to come and join in. It’s certainly not a concept album about war, it’s more a general sense of having an army. There’s nothing more beautiful than a group of people coming together, not necessarily as an army to go and kill people, but to fight for a cause.”

Most people witnessing a performance by The Strange Death would find it difficult not to want to join this eccentric army after being thoroughly absorbed by the power of the music and magnetism of those on stage. There are, though, a few ‘after work’ types in suits in the Metro crowd that occasionally afford each other a curious glance at the noises that come from this motley crew, particularly the almost indescribable voice of this frontman with his orange candy floss hair that sprays out above a face that contorts into a variety of pained expressions throughout the show. This is nothing new to a band that developed playing the pubs and clubs of Portsmouth. As Andy freely admits, it wasn’t an easy place to cut their teeth: “People didn’t really get us straight away in Portsmouth. We’ve always kind of polarised people but in Portsmouth it was never the most open-minded of music places so to start off with, so quite a lot of people didn’t like us, but we always had confidence in what we were doing”. Adam chips in with some support for those on the South Coast: “I think certain people ‘got it’ and are still really supportive of us today, and we’ll never forget those people but I don’t know if it was the majority of people or just the loud ones [that] really, really didn’t dig it. And I think that was one of the first and probably the most important lesson we learned as a band: not to listen to those people. Even now as a band we certainly get bad reviews, but if we’d listened to bad reviews or bad press we would never have played a second gig. In some respects it was difficult at first, but if you’re not prepared to fight your corner, what are you doing here?”

As is entirely palpable, both on and off-stage, the band are loving being afforded this opportunity to parade their art in front of other people and as Adam confesses “We’re quite an ostentatious band – we’ve got the stupidly long name, we move about on stage, we want people to look at us”. They also seem to be enjoying all the things being in a band comes with. When asked what their favourite part about it is, Andy gives a very considered answer: “If you play a really good show that’s a real exhilarating feeling. But then also that creative spark of when a song really comes alive, that’s also great”, before Adam chips in with a far more honest assessment: “Getting drunk every night!” In fact, though, it seems clear that Adam and the rest of the band believe in the importance of music: “I think it’s just having an outlet or a vent for your own expression. And to have people listen to you, whether you’re political like Billy Bragg or whether you’re talking about wearing the same jeans for two weeks or whatever, the fact that people stand and listen to you is great – I think the best bit about being in a band has got to be the audience. And we did this thing called ‘Jail Guitar Doors’ organised by My Luminaries recently, the aim of which is to buy prisoners musical instruments to help them rehabilitate and give them some other way to vent their anger or frustration or whatever it is, and that just goes to show how important it can be to have something in your life, a medium to express yourself, rather than kicking a bus shelter or whatever.”

While this chaotic mob are still just starting out, they are already excited about the prospect of developing further. Speaking about the decision for a mini-album, rather than the full-blown version, Adam says: “Well we do think of it like one piece of work, but on the other hand because we’re such a young band and we recorded it quite quickly after signing a deal it’s also a way of us tying up the loose ends – this is the band from its beginning up to now. Now we can get on, and we’re all looking forward to the future and writing and recording again. That’s us established now [musically-speaking], and by the time you get to the end of track 8, ‘that’s the band’, that’s everything you need to know.” Andy rounds things off nicely: “Next time we go to write something we’ll be able to write it all from the beginning…”, and that’s a new beginning I, for one, can’t wait for.

As Adam says at the end of our interview, it’s nice to get things off his chest – “’Repent, repent!’ and all that” (referring to the slogan on one of the placards and the specially printed balloons that litter Metro tonight) – and “it feels a bit like being Catholic and going to confession”. You get the impression that each performance is the same for this band such is the emotional intensity, and it is a feeling shared by the audience. For, just like a band they are often compared to – Arcade Fire – watching The Strange Death Of Liberal England at the top of their game, like tonight, has the feeling of a religious experience. It took the Canadian band a while to gain the universal acclaim they now hold, and on this evidence there’s nothing to say that our own British incarnation won’t be worshipped just as much.


First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Monday, July 16, 2007

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [Anti album]

Perennial All Tomorrow’s Parties favourites Spoon return with their latest collection of Texas-fired indie rock nuggets, the curiously titled ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’. Despite the relative US commercial success of 2005’s ‘Gimme Fiction’, the band remain relatively unknown on these shores some 11 years since their first release. While perhaps not surprising given the glut of British indie rock bands, it is a mite frustrating seeing as their approach is generally considerably better than a lot of the MOR home-grown fare.


If you’ve heard one Spoon album, you’ve pretty much heard them all. That is not to say they are without invention, but they have generally stuck to straightforward melody-driven indie – most notably on ‘Gimme Fiction’. Despite the familiar sound of 4/4 guitar music, though, Britt Daniel and co have managed to create a musical identity that is very much their own and their songs are instantly recognisable. In that sense, ‘Ga Ga…’ sticks to the Spoon formula, but at the same time finds them fiddling about with it just a little.


After the stripped down ‘Don’t Make Me A Target’ that gets the album off to a bluesy start, the most startling moment of the album hits you like the keyboard player from Sparks has just slapped you round the face. ‘The Ghost Of You Lingers’ has a staccato piano rhythm reminiscent of one of Ron Mael’s, and the intermittent otherworldly vocals and noises that come simultaneously through both channels are just as spooky as the man himself. Along with the cocaine-referencing ‘My Little Japanese Cigarette Case’, ‘The Ghost Of You Lingers’ proves that Spoon are not quite that straightforward.


In fact it becomes apparent that there has been some sort of shift in the last two years. ‘Eddie’s Ragga’ and ‘Rhthm and Soul’ are pared down numbers similar to the opening track and prove that Spoon are not desperate to cash in on any perceived commercialism present on ‘Gimme Fiction’. Even the poppy ‘Finer Feeling’ sounds more reserved than it might have on previous albums, and Daniel states on that song: “Sometimes I think I’ll find a love, the one that’s gonna change my heart. I find it in commercial appeal, and then this heart it could get chased away”, perhaps revealing the reason for this restrained approach…


Complete with a Motown backing track and hand claps ‘You Got Yr Cherry Bomb’ is one of a couple of 60s pop-infused numbers that prove that there is still a bigger sound to Spoon, albeit more sporadically than usual. The glorious romp that is ‘The Underdog’ continues the flirtation with that decade thanks its lively brass and more handclaps, while the busy album closer ‘Black Like Me’ is a fine way to end things.


‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ is, like pretty much every other Spoon release, an immensely enjoyable album, and one that is difficult not to be wooed by. For those not familiar with Spoon’s work, this is as good a place to start as any. It is certainly more stripped down that possibly would have been expected but in the end this just proves that Britt Daniel’s song writing talents are as on form as ever.


****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Magic Arm - Outdoor Games [Switchflicker EP]

You could create quite a physical figure with the names of contemporary bands: a Radiohead, a Blood Arm, a Magic Arm and some Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! with Stiff Little Fingers. The bottom half of the body would probably prove more troublesome, but the members of Towers Of London would of course suffice for either male or female genitalia.


The ‘Magic’ Arm in question is Manchester’s Marc Rigelsford, who has rather resourcefully made this debut seven track EP at home on his computer. It is easy to be a little suspicious of so-called ‘bedroom’ artists and wonder why they can’t do the normal thing and form a band, but it seems Mr Rigelsford was once in a band called Escape Pod so he is probably ‘normal’ after all.


The gentle title track of the EP is a good indication of what is to follow on ‘Outdoor Games’. Opening with a folky mix of guitar and banjo, the hushed vocals are reminiscent of the American folk of Iron and Wine, but the song builds to an understated psychedelia that gives it an atmosphere of its own. ‘You Should Know’ on side two of the EP is a more upbeat folk song that again places emphasis on a plucked banjo and layered banjo, and it is these moments which bring Magic Arm most success.


‘People Need Order’ brings this formula up to date with the addition of a tinny drum beat and touches of synth, with multitracked vocals contributing to a sound very much like Simian’s work as a band. ‘I Want You You Want Me’, too, adds some programmed beats, while ‘Move Out’ is the most unsettling number of the lot: a menacingly discordant track with hints of a frog chorus behind it.


‘DAQ’ is apparently Magic Arm’s “uninformed take on electronica”, and to be honest that’s exactly what it sounds like. It is by no means terrible but does give the impression of someone messing about on their computer and the insinuation that it is rather tongue in cheek detracts from it being taken too seriously as a piece of work. In truth, the mostly instrumental ‘I Want You You Want Me’ is a far more successful take on the genre.


This EP is certainly eclectic and it’s clear that Rigelsford has some ideas, some talent and a lot of time on his hands. Though eclectic, each track can loosely be placed in a leftfield folk bracket, with the ‘psychedelia’ and ‘electronica’ knobs twiddled to varying effect at each step. On the experimental evidence of ‘Outdoor Games’, Magic Arm would fit nicely with the Eat Your Own Ears stable of Adem, Four Tet et al, but there is plenty of honing to be done before truly competing with them for quality.


***

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies [Rough Trade album]


‘Rubies’ is the seventh studio album from Dan Bejar, AKA Destroyer, the sometime guitarist of Canadian ‘supergroup’ New Pornographers. Not specifically a brand new release, ‘Destroyer’s Rubies’ came out in America some 17 months ago on the fantastic Merge records. Its official UK release on Rough Trade gives a timely opportunity to re-examine this startling piece of work afresh. While not necessarily Bejar’s most ambitious work it is perhaps his most fully realised, combining his trademark poetics with sweeping pop songs that almost defy categorisation.


In fact, all you really need to know about this album is contained within the eponymous nine and a half minute opus that kicks off the album. ‘Rubies’ the song is essentially an epic poem set to a soundtrack that falls somewhere between lo-fi folk rock and laid back lounge pop. The dense conversational lyrics that open with the forceful statement: “Cast myself towards infinity / Trust me, I had my reasons”, twist and turn alongside a meandering guitar line, developing into a chorus of soothing “la la la la”s. Fitting both succinct couplets like “Blessed doctor, do your worst / Cut me open, remove this thirst” and seemingly awkward run on lines like “Don’t worry about her / She’s been known to appreciate the elegance of an empty room” seamlessly into the flow of his tale, Bejar proves that this kind of cerebral approach can function perfectly well as accessible, even ‘pop’, music.


Much of the album follows this formula, and this is no bad thing for it is both an affecting and effective one. It is Destroyer’s lyrics that tend to take many of the plaudits and much of the attention and this album is no different, for Bejar is a true poet and there are gems throughout. Mixing elements of Dylan’s imagery, Cohen’s overt but eloquent masculinity (almost all the songs are directed at, or discuss, women) and Lou Reed’s dark wit, these tales are an indulgent treat for those who like their songs full of allegory, wordplay and more simply, interest.


If there is a criticism of ‘Rubies’, it is that after nearly an hour of it, the album can become musically a little repetitive. Several of the songs end up with similar, generic “la la la” vocals, to the point that some of them are difficult to distinguish from each other. As a result of this, Destroyer’s music can sometimes be viewed, perhaps justifiably, as simply a vehicle for Bejar’s song-poems. However, for the most part Bejar’s individual style provides perfect accompaniment to his lyrics, and it is through the delicate aural touches of these deeply layered and expertly arranged epics that the quality of the wordplay is allowed to shine through. Despite the convoluted lyrics and the distinctive voice, ‘Rubies’ remains an extremely accessible album.


The finer moments on ‘Rubies’ are numerous. ‘European Oils’ is a gentle piano-led number that boasts some great use of the tremolo and builds to a fantastic, if short-lived, fuzzy guitar solo, and some typically obtuse but intriguing lyrics: “When I’m at war I insist on slaughter and getting it on with the hangman’s daughter. / She needs release. / She needs to feel at peace with her father, the fucking maniac…”. This, along with ‘Painter In Your Pocket’, is where Bejar gets closest to Leonard Cohen with his pointedly artistic treatment of words, the latter including the perfect: “I didn’t stand a chance, I couldn’t stand at all”. Though similar, both ‘Looters’ Follies’ and ‘A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point’ are individual joys with more lines of pure poetry such as the alliterative “Girls like gazelles graze, / boys wearing bells blaze new trails in sound” (‘Looters’ Follies’). Later in the piece, ‘Priest’s Knees’ and ‘Watercolours In The Ocean’ are pure pop songs that belie the density of what is held within them.


‘Destroyer’s Rubies’ is the sound of a half-mad drunkard soaked in bourbon, sitting at the piano in the corner of some dingy Vancouver bar, rambling verses tinged with brilliance and invoking the power of some hellish lounge band. Whatever you think of Bejar’s voice or his dense, elaborate lyrics and wordy approach to song writing, it is an album that, despite the length and meandering nature of many of the songs, remains generally captivating throughout. The perfect antidote to modern watered-down singer songwriters, Destroyer’s music is interesting, intellectual, intense and delivered with the shameless integrity of a true master. Quite simply this is the work of an artist.


****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

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Candidate - Oxengate [Snowstorm album]


I am not generally in the habit of reading what other people think about records before I review them, but in the case of Candidate’s fifth album ‘Oxengate’ I accidentally stumbled across a review of it in the Sunday Times’ Culture section. And not just any review, this was an ‘Album Of The Week’, five star declaration of greatness that struck me with some surprise seeing as on initial listens it had inspired little above a pleasant apathy. Time for a re-evaluation perhaps…


It is of little surprise that the likes of the Sunday Times and Q magazine are full of praise for the trio’s brand of song, for they peddle a brand of classic songwriting that borrows from the accessible end of everything from 60s folk, to 70s singer songwriters, to 80s power ballads. The album does, though, begin in impressive form. ‘Furlough’ is a timeless slow-burner that centres on the bewitching repetition of the phrase “I will wander through your dreams tonight”. Joel Morris’s vocals are as impressive as the understated instrumentation that avoids any temptation the band may have had for the overblown.


The follow up to ‘Furlough’, however, is the middle of the road country song ‘(Going Back To’ Amsterdam’ which has little going for it past the annoyingly catchy opening harmony. When relying on classic songwriting, as Candidate do, there is a very fine line between excellent and average and it is this dichotomy that proves to be Candidate’s downfall. On an album totalling 16 tracks, there are a number of very good songs but their individual qualities are tarnished by the lesser ones, in the minority though they probably are.


There is plenty of quality though. ‘Field Recording I’ utilises some attractive CSN&Y harmonies, while ‘Harryhausen’ is another classic low-key pop ballad with its enduring “It’s almost just like the first time” chorus and witty poke at artificiality of its lyrics. The touching ballad ‘Tiny Tim’ is also expertly delivered, the unsettlingly atmospheric ‘Avro No. I’ adds depth to the album and ‘The Sky’ is a suitably anthemic end to the album. One can’t help thinking that this ending comes a little late though as the instrumental vignettes and half-songs dotted throughout the album mean it does drag on a little. And not everything is quite as good as the above either. ‘When They Rose From The Reeds’ attempts an Indian mysticism and half gets there, the a capella ‘Wesley’ repeats the mass vocal trick of ‘Amsterdam’ with similarly undesirable results, and ‘Swear It Will Snow’ and ‘Marie Alexander’ are merely decent ballads. It seems my initial thoughts were about right, and, in truth, if ‘Oxengate’ was a 12 track rather than 16 track album I am sure this would be a much more positive review.


This is by no means fashionable music, and that is in no way a criticism but a mere statement of fact. ‘Oxengate’ benefits from purity of songcraft, technical excellence and great production and should by rights be gracing a larger number of coffee tables around Britain than it probably will. It is, though, bereft of much in the way of excitement. Not every album needs to be thus, of course – some bands are able rest safe in the knowledge that they make good, listenable music. Candidate is one such band and ‘Oxengate’ is just that: a ‘good’ album.


***

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Nine Black Alps interview - London, 05/07/07

After two long years touring much-lauded debut album ‘Everything Is’ in the UK, Europe and beyond – in the face of a lot of largely unwarranted and certainly unwanted ‘new Nirvana’ rhetoric – Manchester’s Nine Black Alps are finally back out on the road in anticipation of the follow up ‘Love/Hate’.

Slightly worse for wear after the previous night’s ICA performance alongside Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the band’s vocalist/guitarist Sam Forrest, bass player Martin Cohen and drummer James Galley took some time out over breakfast to talk candidly with rockfeedback about everything from kazoos, to the dark heart of the music industry, to talking bollocks in interviews. And what lovely fellas they were too.


Rockfeedback: You played with BRMC at the ICA last night – it must be nice to be playing some new songs after touring the last album for 2 years! You must have had these new songs ready for a while by now?

Nine Black Alps (Sam unless otherwise indicated): Yes! It felt like we were going to play that set forever almost. The songs on this album have been building up since we started touring the first record but we had never played a lot of them live much before this round of touring so that part of it is strange.


RFB: How has the reaction been to the new material?

NBA: We get people singing along to key words of some of the songs which is weird, but it’s hard to tell really. Whenever other bands play new songs live I don’t really know what do with myself! We are doing half and half old and new at the moment – you can’t try and impress people with new stuff, you just have to know what sounds good to you as a band.


RFB: Is playing live still the bit you like best out of being in a band?

NBA: Even after we’ve been on tour for a while it’s just fun to get out there and play. When you’ve been sitting in the van all day it’s always the bit you look forward to and the focus of your day.


RFB: You spent a lot of time touring in America last year, what was that experience like?

NBA: There’ are lots of really long drives between shows! You tend to play a show, drive for a 3 or 4 hours through the night to a hotel in Nebraska or somewhere, then get up early and drive for another 8 or 9 hours to get to the gig, usually end up there late, panickingly set everything up and there’ll be nobody there! Then you pack down and do the whole thing again… We did that for about two months. It was a good experience though, but definitely not easy. In the UK things seem to happen very fast, whereas over there nothing happens – everything’s very slow. It was character building, though, and we got to see lots of places that I’d never dreamed of seeing, which is usually my favourite part of touring abroad: going to places like Japan or America – I’d never be able to go to places like that if I wasn’t in a band.


RFB: Are you excited about finally releasing your second album (‘Love/Hate’)?

NBA: Yeah, it just keeps getting pushed back! We finished recording it at the end of February and I wrote the last song for it last June [2006] so I just want to get the f**ker out really. It’s kind of frustrating but I guess that’s the mechanism that the industry works in so there’s not much we can do about it. But I much prefer the sound of this one to the last record.


RFB: Was that a conscious decision or just something that happened organically? Did [‘Love/Hate’ producer] Dave Sardy have much input?

NBA: We just tried to give the songs more dynamics rather than just going flat out the whole way through, and just tried to make it more interesting from start to finish. It’s got a crisper sound with less saturation and lots of technical nonsense that I’ve forgotten already! It sounds harder. It was very much a collaborative thing [with Sardy] with lots of searching for weird sounds to make it more exciting. Whether it’s drums in an echo chamber or approaching the vocals in a really different style –lying down on the floor singing or just anything to get more atmosphere around it than just a straight out rock record. That’s what we aimed for with the first record, a straight rock record. There was sort of an unwritten rule on that one that “we can’t use pianos”, “we can’t use tambourines” and we kept the harmonies to an absolute minimum. This time we’d be like “stick three harmomies there” and “bash a tambourine there” and we’ve got the odd bit of organ, the odd kazoo in there too…


RFB: The first album seems very much concerned with being an outsider, both in terms of the subject matter of the songs and externally the way you were determined to follow your own path as a band rather than fit in with any kind of ‘scene’. Has that changed with time and success? Has the subject matter of the lyrics changed with that success and different lifestyle?

NBA: I don’t think it’s necessarily anything to do with being outsiders as such. With the first album it was about just making a noise, a real aggressive sound, so that’s obviously going to come across as more of an outsider thing than a tender personal thing. I wrote the words to the first one [‘Everything Is’] just to fill up the songs because I had the melodies already, and it was just pretty much whatever came into my head. I honestly didn’t realise that it was going to be released or that I’d ever be interviewed about my lyrics! A lot of stuff on there is overly dramatic in a way, but it’s very pure which I think is good. Whereas this one I think I probably was more aware that people would be hearing it so a lot more care went into it. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing but I think it’s just something that I don’t want to be embarrassed about. On the first one there’s lines like “I’ll take my life” and “Not everyone can turn you on” and they’re not really things that I feel that good about singing necessarily – I think some of it makes me sound like some sort of loony! The songs on ‘Love/Hate’ are more conversational as opposed to a madman sitting in the corner talking bollocks like ‘Everything Is’!


RFB: Is there any reason behind the title ‘Love/Hate’?

NBA: A lot of bullshit theories keep coming up as to why we chose that one – maybe it’s because the first album was all ‘hate’, this one is kind of in the middle of ‘love’ and ‘hate’ and the third one will be all ‘love’. That could be complete bollocks though. It sounds cool and it looks good written down, that’s probably the main thing.


RFB: When you first got into the band was it because you just wanted to have a laugh just making some music rather than any pretensions of fame and fortune?

NBA (James): Absolutely. We had no ambition or goals to get a record deal or anything, we just wanted to play some songs...

(Martin): …and play some gigs. That was pretty much our one ambition – just to play a gig.

(Sam): That’s not to sound naïve or anything, we just thought if we could get a set of songs, maybe we could play a gig – that was the only dream at the time.


RFB: So how have you reacted to it all kicking off for you over the last couple of years then? Do you like the glamorous (or not!) side of things like interviews, videos, photo shoots etc?

NBA: We just turn up to things! We just turned up to this interview. For one I don’t think there’s any way of coming out of an interview without feeling like a tosser. You can either say the same thing every time, try and go for something deep and insightful or you can just take the piss and talk absolute bollocks.

(James): Whatever happens you never feel like you’ve said the right thing.

[At this point I point out that I generally feel like an idiot when interviewing a band – it’s good to know that the feeling is mutual.]


RFB: Many of the best bands through history have always recorded songs with a pop melody at their heart, however they’re dressed up. This is something that also seems to come through in your music, is that just the way you write songs or is it more of a planned decision?

NBA: Good songs are just good songs. There’s something about a well balanced song that… I think there is almost a science to it. But it always has to have some kind of twist or it just becomes kind of formulated generic chart pop. But ‘pop’ is undeniable and every year there’ll be at least one song that you don’t want to like but it gets you and moves you. Even Motorhead write pop songs – they write better pop songs than Celine Dion does. I think you can stretch pop into as many different directions as you want, from Beach Boys on ‘Smile’ when they just completely exploded everything – like Flaming Lips on ‘Soft Bulletin’, that’s still pop music to me, but they took it to its maximum limit. A lot of the time, though, it is very safe ‘verse, chorus, verse, middle 8’ which can be very hard to get out of. It’s about testing yourself, but a good melody will always rule all.


RFB: Are you all still big music fans? Do you follow new bands?

NBA: We don’t really read the press or listen to the radio – once you’re inside the mechanism you end up just thinking things like “Oh, they’ve got that photographer” or “Oh, they’re getting interviewed for that magazine”, it’s kind of horrible. I’m still a music fan but I find modern bands hard to get your head around. Once you’ve seen the puppet master…


RFB: Has seeing inside the industry changed the way you feel about being in a band then?

NBA (Sam):I think it definitely has, yeah. Without wanting to sound ungrateful, playing things like gigs with corporate sponsors end up having a very strange atmosphere.

(James): It ends up becoming that the performance is the least important part of the night, the promotion and the advertising becomes much more important.

(Sam): You end up thinking, “is anyone actually enjoying themselves”? I’m sure they are but… I don’t know if that’s just the way things are going, with things like [independent record shop chain] Fopp closing down as well – you seem to need much more these days than just music. We get asked to do a million things, like Bluetooth video downloads – it just seems like they try and make you do as much as possible to cover every medium because no-one knows what the hell is going on! I’m kind of envious of bands from the 70s because they just played gigs, made records, occasional photo shoots and that’s it. Now it’s videos and web chats and you end up doing so many events that you don’t know why or who it’s for. I think eventually the performance is going to suffer because you end up diluting it and spreading it too thin. But also you don’t want to turn anything down because you want to do this, to make music is what you’re here for. I think it’s probably all just evolving really…


RFB: Do you have any views on the way the industry is evolving: moving towards downloads etc?

NBA (Martin): I think when you make a record you actually want something to show for it, a material possession, so I hope physical formats like vinyl never go away. It’s really unsatisfying when you get emailed your album…

(Sam): Yeah that’s weird. I’m sure everything will be digital soon though, I’m sure books will be burned and turned into digital media files that broadcast themselves to you and turn their pages automatically and things. It’s the future – it’s undeniable!


RFB: Another thing with the changing nature of music and the internet is that bands are somewhat obliged to have a dialogue with their fans through MySpace and forums. Is that something you like, or would you like to keep your distance from that side of things? Some fans can get quite obsessive…

NBA: It’s kind of a love/hate thing. Sometimes it can be fun, sometimes not. Luckily I don’t think many of our fans are that hardcore, but also I do like the mystique of rock bands.

(James): I think those days have gone because it is now so easy for bands and fans to interact via digital means, so there’s really no escaping it. And if you don’t do it fans can get pissed off because you’re maybe perceived to not be ‘giving’ enough. We do look after our own MySpace and do a lot of the website stuff ourselves and we’ve done that from the start so it’s been great to keep that going.


RFB: So it’s two years down the line [after looks of horror from the band, this is quickly changed to one year] and you’re done with ‘Love/Hate’ and everything has gone great – where do you see Nine Black Alps going next? Your ‘love’ album?

NBA: I don’t know, you can never tell. One thing I’ve learned is the minute you plan something it doesn’t happen – as soon as you say “I’m definitely not doing that”, you find yourself doing it. So we won’t tempt fate!


First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Enemy, Lethal Bizzle, The Harrisons - live at the London Astoria 21/06/07


As I leave the London Astoria this June evening, there are several things that are puzzling me. The first is that I am once again reminded that this venue, a cornerstone of the London live music scene for several decades is facing inevitable closure to make way for who knows what kind of shiny new retail development or similar. With the demise of the Hammersmith Palais, venues like Infinity and the proposed redevelopment of Camden, it is a worry how much musical character will be left in London in a few years time.


The second puzzle of the evening concerns opening act The Harrisons. Quite how they never made it big when Sheffield was raided by A&R men post-Arctic Monkeys fever is beyond me. While the likes of Little Man Tate and Milburn were given widespread exposure for peddling watered down versions of their city-mates, the Harrisons’s seemed to miss out somewhat, despite what always seemed to me to be better songs. On the strength of this show, which they seem to grow into as it proceeds, they certainly deserve more. Rousing versions of ‘Blue Note’ and new single ‘Dear Constable’ are slotted alongside a host of other energetic tracks that get the crowd going. Their time may still be yet to come.


The main question I have about Lethal Bizzle’s position on the bill is how the Grime star has managed to retain such a close relationship with the diverse ends of the indie scene, warming up crowds for everyone from Jack Penate to Gallows. Still it obviously must work, and tonight’s is certainly an entertaining performance that does its job. At times, though, with little opportunity for reflection on the insightfulness/incitefulness of Bizzle’s lyrics, the pastiche MC stylings of the former More Fire Crew member threaten to become as farcical as the oversized plastic chain hanging round his neck. When the audience gets split in half to see who makes “the most noise” it’s a bit like being at a kids party and if you squint a bit, it could almost be PJ and Duncan on stage so clichéd are some of the on stage moves. It is however, all good fun and allows the first ten rows of the Astoria crowd to warm up their moshing muscles before our headline act takes the stage.


And so to the Enemy, who, to me, provide the most intriguing puzzle of the evening. Just where in the hell did they come from? In the space of a few short months and three decent enough singles, they have been catapulted to NME cover stars (hopefully for more than the phonetic similarities) and now sold out Astoria headliners. This velocity of this transition is exaggerated from where I sit, high up in the 2,000 capacity venue, and the vast Astoria stage seems to dwarf these three youngsters from Coventry when they stride on stage to a rapturous response. Having made their name thus far with singles ‘It’s Not OK’, ‘Away From Here’ and now ‘Had Enough’, all rock’n’roll songs recalling a ‘Definitely Maybe’ sound and leading to countless Oasis comparisons, it comes some surprise how heavy their rendition of first track ’40 Days and 40 nights’ is.


In fact Tom, Andy and Liam tear through the majority of their set. With few words spoken to the thrilled crowd, save to introduce one or two of the songs, the three-piece concentrate their energies on making as much noise as possible. They make an interesting contrast between each other, with Tom static at his mic, Liam set back at his raised kit and Andy making the most of the wide open spaces on the stage by taking his bass on a few tours of it before periodically returning to his mic to belt out some backing vocals. Showcasing songs from their forthcoming debut album, the Enemy play fast, hard, and loud and while the band’s commitment to the songs can’t be questioned, they do tend to run into each other somewhat, with few moments that standout as anything better than average. It is very difficult not to be won over, though, and the startlingly passionate crowd seem to enjoy every second of a set that flies by, including a stirring version of ‘Away From Here’ – a song made to be played live to an audience who will hang on every “whoah”.


It is only during the bayed-for encore that the Enemy fulfil my expectations with the more anthemic ‘It’s Not Ok’ being the moment (both live and on record) where they most live up to their Oasis comparisons. But in actual fact, they are a decent enough rock band in their own right and their songs have certainly won themselves a fair few fans already. On this evidence they are devoid of anyone of the charisma of a Gallagher, but the British public love to get behind a band who put their frustrations with life into rock’n’roll songs that they can sing along to. Hence Oasis. Hence The Enemy. I, however, will reserve judgement until that album…


***

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.


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