The Ayrtime.org Digital E.P. - Alasdair Roberts

Track list:

1. Babylon
2. Little Sir Hugh
3. Lord Ronald
4. The Calfless Cow

Running time: 16 minutes
Released: 2010

This a free digital-only EP available here. 

 

I have apparently racked up 9 scrobbles of these tracks without ever realising it or any of them sinking in so this is pretty much like a first (and possibly last) look.

I do not recall what exactly got me to pick up music by Alasdair Roberts. It may have been an appearance on the BBC's Transatlantic Sessions, perhaps but I might be pulling that out of my behind. I do not have much by him and have generally found him slightly too dry for my taste - simple and plain guitar and him singing in a voice that does not entirely sit well with me. That pretty much describes Babylon to a T - the song does nothing for me and his too-quick progression from line to line, as good as joining them together helps un-sell me fast.

Little Sir Hugh is more promising, a different tone and a slower, more structured vocal give this a more full, rounded sound despite the same minimalist approach. I actually like this song, and the more intricate and stronger guitar of the bridge just confirms this impression. Roberts' voice carries an edge that is tough to appreciate but to give him his due it works with certain tones, bleaker and darker themes suit his plaintive style whilst with more melodic or lighter songs it grates. Lord Ronald gives it too much space, for example, and I find that it sets my teeth on edge. Whilst the song is pretty dark, the instrumentation is not - lightly picked and with no backing it gives him the rope his voice needs to hang him from the tree of my disinterest.

The final song here is The Calfless Cow, which I have to say is a crap song title. It is a short number (sub 2 minutes) that has a nicer guitar part again. Unlike Little Sir Hugh though, on this occasion the improved instrumentation does not offset the element of Roberts' voice that wears upon me, so it will be joining Lord Ronald in Babylon away from my machine. Little Sir Hugh can stay with me.

That concludes my posting for 2014, and concludes the selection of albums, EPs and individual tracks listed under A in my Windows Media Player library. In the last 4 1/2 months I have managed 95 listens for this project - significantly less than 10% of the total. I am pleased to have got this far and still maintain the desire to continue. Looking ahead to B I can see some favourites coming up, as well as a load of random bits and bobs and the first occasions where I am likely to tinker with the order for reasons other than new purchases. Roll on 2015, and Happy New Year to the world.

The Awkward Recruit - Mawkin:Causley

Track list:

1. Jolly Broom Man
2. L'Homme Arme
3. Drummer Boy for Waterloo
4. Keeper of the Game
5. Cutty Wren
6. The Saucy Sailor
7. Todos Los Bienes Del Mundo
8. The Downfall of Charing Cross
9. The Cropper Lads
10. Greenlander
11. The Awkward Recruit
12. I am The Song

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2009

Awkward is a great work - wkw in the middle there is nice and unusual. Second album in a row with Awkward in the title and a second folk album at that. Not very familiar with this one though - I think I bought it on a punt and found myself less than enamoured with it... lets see if that holds true.

This is an album of largely traditional songs, with just a handful of new compositions, which could go either way. I have to say though, I am pleasantly surprised by the jauntiness and pace of the opening track. The singing is not great, and the song is so-so, but there is an energy and vitality about the track that somehow makes it work anyway - at least until it loses all pace at which point it cedes the interest for a moment. Then it comes back with French (?) lyrics and so interest is restored just in time for the song to end.

It is New Years Eve, and I am trying to finish A before 2014 is out. It should be easy enough, just this and a 4 track EP from Alasdair Roberts to go. I hate this evening, so funnelling my energy into something constructive instead of simply falling into a funk and an early night is a good thing. It would be an easier sell if I were feeling more positive about either set of tunes, but still.

L'Homme Arme is an instrumental piece for the first 90 seconds, a very jaunty number again, then it comes in with a vocal that is quite demanding - spoken as much as sung and a mixture of French (I am sure this time!) and English. My recollections of this album did not have its pace and tempo so high and merry so perhaps I have simply created a false image of the disc and damned it unfairly in the past? No sooner typed, than disproven (again!). The pace drops off for a much more sombre number - and yet the delivery of the song does not really carry the melancholy of the lyric as the arrangement is relatively bright and the singing strident. The fiddles of sadness do arrive, along with a note of remorse in the voice, but only as the song is closing. All in all, this is pretty good so far.

Keeper of the Game is the first non-traditional song on the album, to go by my WMP metadata, but it is definitely in a traditional style, lyrically and in line structure. The arrangement is less so - the guitar part in particular stands out as modern. On the other hand, it somehow taps into a simple chic, almost Parisian in the use of accordion, and I like the result. I am not entirely off the mark with my memory though - for as much as I have enjoyed the first 4 tracks, Cutty Wren is the track that turned me off the album. I have nothing remotely positive to say about this song - badly sung, repetitive lyrically in a way that amplifies the effect of the poor singing and offensively arranged. It is so awful that it is entirely possible that this one song caused me to classify the whole album as un-listenable.

Thankfully it is now in my past (and already deleted) so perhaps the other songs can rescue the disc. That said, The Saucy Sailor does little for me and will be joining Cutty Wren in my cutting room. It is followed by a piece of Spanish origin which is sort of OK I guess, but does not offer much demand to stay in my library, so that is the middle third laid waste.

The Downfall of Charing Cross is more promising, though - a darker song, it still has an element of the spiky playing that characterised the opening two tracks and generated a good impression. It swells and contracts nicely in volume and in arrangement and whilst the edge on the accordion playing is sharper than I would like the song works, generates a decent atmosphere before giving way to something that really fits a view of a traditional English folk song with ample fiddling and communal singing. I can fully understand why some people would find The Cropper Lads and its ilk difficult to appreciate outside of live performance, but somehow it is this sort of folk that has captured my heart in the last decade despite me not moving in any social circles where it is really appreciated. That appreciation is not universal, and songs and tunes still need to be played well generally, but my chief interest was sparked by Spiers and Boden where that was guaranteed. There is enough in most of the tracks performed on this album to meet my approval, though none of them have really made me go "wow".

There are plenty of nice touches at start and end of this record - it is just a pity about that middle. I am currently listening to the title track and this is, I think, the best so far in terms of its construction - powerful, atmospheric, tuneful and catchy all at once, it feels like everything comes together synergistically in a way that does not quite hold true for the other songs on the album. The disc ends with a fiddle-and accordion based number, a sort of slow dance tune that gives way to a faster paced song just shy of two minutes in. The lift in pace improves it, for purely as a tune it was too slow to be interesting. The song itself is pretty dull but the evolution of the tune with it keeps a nice feel to the track as a whole and it is not an unsatisfying end to the album.

I have enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, a quarter of it disappointed significantly and has been excised as a result but the remaining 9 tracks sit quite happily amongst the gamut of folk music in my collection.

Awkward Annie - Kate Rusby

Track list:

1. Awkward Annie
2. Bitter Boy
3. John Barbury
4. High on a Hill
5. Farewell
6. Planets
7. The Old Man
8. Andrew Lammie
9. Streams of Nancy
10. Daughter of Heaven
11. Blooming Heather
12. The Village Green Preservation Society

Running time: 51 minutes
Released: 2007

Ah Kate Rusby - a proper Northern folk-singing lass. I got into Rusby when Sleepless was Mercury-nodded and fell head over heels for her voice. I have a fair few of her discs but stopped buying more because they got a little too samey after a while. Rusby was was the subject of a TV documentary around the time this album was recorded, which I remember seeing at the time, and recently re-watched in segments on YouTube (part 1 here). Awkward Annie may also be my favourite of hers.

We open with the title track, a Rusby original and a disarmingly charming tune. The chorus in particular is a gem, a really nice roll to it and it suits her delivery perfectly - accent and all shine through. It is a song to make you smile, unless your heart is significantly stonier than mine. I do think Rusby is better at faster, merrier tunes like this. Her voice is lovely whatever she is singing, but her slower songs tend to similar arrangements that are far more forgettable than her singing deserves. I still happily listen to them, but with that pining for busier, bustling songs whilst I do. Bitter Boy is a good example. Pretty song, really nicely sung but the minimalist guitar really does not add much - it might be better a capella. To a point, anyway; I am sure that I would miss the backing were it not there but it does not support and uplift the voice the way it could.

I do not recognise John Barbury from the name, or from the tune that floats out of my speakers. I do like the airy piano melody though - even if it is extremely slow. This bucks the trend I mention above because it is predominantly keys not strings, I think - that old bias of mine again - though I have to say when the (non-guitar) strings join in the swell of the tune improves the track. A better arrangement this, that edge of melancholy giving me goosebumps as I take in Rusby's Yorkshire tones. When the strings fade, the tune they leave behind is nothing like as effective; when they return it lifts to excellence - a really fine track. The tone shifts significantly when it ends. Faster, rickety and a touch more upbeat, High on a Hill is a joy made of muted banjo strings and duetting.

I am pondering a return to work tomorrow following 4 days off for Christmas. The first two were family affairs, the last two a more lonesome low key affair. Today was supposed to have been full of boardgames but non-responses nixed that idea so instead I have frittered it away with a combination of dipping my toe into Steam sale-derived videogames and closing on the end of season 4 of Boardwalk Empire (if ever there is a show that wavers the line of my patience whilst just doing enough to keep me in...). This is the second listen of the day; Alt-J earlier was a torrid waste of time but it felt good to get through it. This one is a musical joy, but I am feeling obligated to write and it is killing the mood a little, making each track seem an age in length.

There are a number of Rusby's own songs here, and these tend to be the more interesting arrangements, making me wonder if reverence for the songs she sings holds back a bit of the creativity when tackling folk standards. If so, it is understandable - if you love the songs in the form they come to you, why change them? - but also why it is always nice to hear the tunes played by different artists with different takes. I am not savvy enough with track names to know where I have intersections of songs across the stable of folk artists in my library so I'll draw this sidetrack closed here, but it gives me something to think on for future perhaps. Meanwhile a couple more songs have floated by, one touched with maudlin airs, another much more bright. I have come to realise I love sad sounds - the particular melancholy that can be achieved by pairing a fiddle with other instruments is a favourite harmony of mine and one I find really lifts folk songs to the point of affecting me strongly. There is not too much of that here because fiddles feature less strongly in Rusby's arrangements than some other musicians' but still...

I am realising just how tired I am, glad to be returning to work tomorrow (to not beb sat here alone again) but also dreading getting up in the morning. The tiredness is part of what has me wishing for the end of this listen - the other factors being the encroachment of hunger into current feelings and more pertinently the excellent cover of The Village Green Preservation Society which closes the disc. This song, used as the title music for the unbearable (to me) BBC sitcom Jam & Jerusalem is a real gem. I am not familiar with the original recordings but Rusby's take is fun, light, delivered exquisitely and genuinely catchy. It is a strong end to the album which, to be honest, I think drifts a bit towards the end. The version of Blooming Heather is a bit warbly and slightly discordant, or maybe that is me projecting against the fact it is the one thing between me and stepping away from the keyboard for dinner.

There's the Village Green. I can close this album with the smile it mostly deserves now. Such a beautiful voice and a track arranged such that it lets it shine out across the moors. It is made of lovely. A fitting closer to anything, really. Now, to get me some tea...

An Awesome Wave - Alt-J

Track list:

1. Intro
2. (The Ripe & Ruin)
3. Tessellate
4. Breezeblocks
5. (Guitar)
6. Something Good
7. Dissolve Me
8. Matilda
9. Ms
10. Fitzpleasure
11. (Piano)
12. Bloodflood
13. Taro

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2012

Alt-J. There was massive hype about this album, as I recall. I think I bought it based on Latitude 2012 (a muddy occasion that my friend and I left early based on disappointment, and where I spent more time in Poety and Literature in the dry than seeing bands in the wet. I think they were late on stage. To be honest, I cannot really justify the purchase from the memories I have of that set; and frankly I think I will find it hard to justify it based on this listen, too.

The interludes are named in my library, so they are named in the track list here. I have no idea whether that is canonical and correct or an artefact of WMP's album information service - it certainly seems at odds with most online track listings for the album. This is my lack of care, for unless I am surprised here, I expect them all to be deleted shortly anyway... but lets give it a listen before then, eh?

The first thing I notice is that the final track is 12 minutes long. Joy. There is also a 2 and a half minute intro and 3 interludes. Just looking at the track list you would immediately write off a third of the tracks! The intro is incredibly recognisable, the opening of it having been used to accompany just about everything on TV for a year or so after this came out. The refrain itself is nice enough that you can see why, but when everything else kicks in the track loses something. Then strait into interlude 1, an unaccompanied short song; not the best singers but there is an interesting use of space in the construction. Not enough to save it though.

Tessellate is the first proper track and it gives me the sense that they think they are cleverer than they are. Yes, that is an uncharitable reading but as my plans for today fell through I am not in charitable mood. Musically there is interest here, but the song itself is lame and I dislike the vocal - another for the scrapheap. As Breezeblocks starts I sense a theme with me disliking their vocals - there is nothing in the delivery to like. The interest is again hidden in the construction of the backing which I cannot fully appreciate because of my antipathy to the singing, and what I do pick up is not enough to override my feeling of revulsion to the voice and the repetition in the lyric. Second interlude... just what I need to break up this long player. Oh, wait - no, you'd barely started. That said, the rambling little guitar melody is the nicest thing on the album so far by some way.

Something Good, eh? Well it opens promisingly enough, and the vocal - whilst still annoying when it comes in - is less immediately destructive of what sits around it. I somehow feel that there is something lacking here though. The hook is catchy enough, but the track feels empty somehow - like it is lacking depth that would come from wider instrumentation. Even when the sounds layer up, they are all very similar and indistinct. Overall, a decent track worth keeping but it feels like it could have been a fair bit more. Oh, ugh; I do not like the opening to Dissolve Me; ironically the vocal here works but the music is falling flat for me. It is funny how different contexts can entirely shift our perspectives and expectations. The track as a whole feels empty and lacking - I can see why people might like it but I do not, and it compounds that by being the first track that seems to go on and on and on.

When it finally ends, we get Matilda which makes a good first impression until - in a reversion to type - the guy starts singing. There is a whining quality to his voice, like he is pained by having to sing or something and it gets right up my nose. It sounds like a comedy evil voice to me and my aversion to it is completely killing my enjoyment of what might - with better vocal - be an interesting song. Too bad. They've already had as much of my money as they are going to get, and my negative impressions are not going to cost them custom so it is all academic. Ms sees the voice less grating for a second, but there is always the potential for it to slide back into the plaintive squeal, and in the meantime the interest has gone from the composition which is so thin in places as to be absent. It gets better, but the singing gets worse so I am not sure the trade off is worth it. It is not a bad song in the way I feel some of the others are but there is not enough interest there for me to keep it.

Oh god, more unaccompanied singing. Boys, that really is not playing to your strengths! Thankfully some more robust than usual sounds kick in that actually manage to screen the worst of the song, then a nice bouncy melody arrives briefly. Fitzpleasure seems to be a track of contrasts - a very interesting piece but one I find myself not really standing well, and that irritates me. It is the best composition to date by some way but the use of vocals is atrocious and it makes me weep for the lost opportunity. If only they had a decent vocalist... I will probably keep it because the interest behind those sung words was so strong here as to be compelling but it could have been so much better.

The Piano interlude comes and goes unnoticed. Pointless filler. Bloodflood has a nice opening then... a strangely sampled school choir? Something like that it seems. Clearly this is where the album title came from, the lyrics are clearer here and delivered less awfully, but that is not saying much. Unfortunately it seems that when the vocals are bearable the music loses some of its creativity - as if pairing the two takes too much concentration or effort, which might make sense in a live performance, but falls flat as a cause on record. Just like that the 4 minute song - longest bar the closer which is just starting - is done though. Honestly having sat through this I cannot see what the major hype generated from at all. There are hints of promise here but it remains almost entirely unfulfilled.

My listen of Taro is interrupted by a phone call from a friend 2 minutes in. I wonder about restarting the track to give a fairer picture but to be blunt: sod that. It is an OK-ish mood piece but nothing special and the biggest question I have is when will the dead air kick in, or will it somehow strive to fill the time allotted? It seems to be dying at the 5 minute mark, which leaves 7 and a half for dead air ans secret track bollocks which means although the titled piece was quite decent I will not be keeping it - dead space is not desired. Five minutes later something comes back in. Nice melody, but not worth waiting for even before you factor in the shite voice. I have just realised that he sounds like someone else that I am familiar with... but alas I cannot pin down who. I think it is someone who harnesses a similar affectation of whining squeal - maybe Mumford? I never liked their vocal much either.

Then silence, blessed silence. Does not live up to the hype; what the hell was I thinking?

Aw C'mon - Lambchop

Track list:

1. Being Tyler   
2. Four Pounds in Two Days
3. Steve McQueen
4. The Lone Official
5. Something's Going On
6. Nothing but a Blur From a Bullet Train
7. Each Time I Bring It Up It Seems to Bring You Down
8. Timothy B. Schmidt
9. Women Help to Create the Kind of Men They Despise
10. I Hate Candy
11. I Haven't Heard a Word I've Said
12. Action Figure

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2004

Following the largesse of Christmas (way down on previous years; very little alcohol because I was driving home at the end of each day; not over-stuffed with food) I have split out the double album into its constituent parts. No You C'mon will appear much later. I fell in love with Lambchop's alt-country sound with Is A Woman, but recall being less than impressed with either part of this as a follow-up release. I remember virtually none of it, to be frank, and whilst I must have heard plenty of the songs here on random play over the last decade I am drawing a substantial blank on anything past that initial opinion. So this could be interesting.

The opening is different from what I would expect, a lot more orchestral. I like it - strong melody with a busy and well constructed general sound to back it up. Only... well, I keep waiting for it to grow, change and flourish. Whilst it does change, it feels too little too late, or in the wrong direction. It is a nice piece, but it disappoints through inhibition - a failure to go on to the grand things the opening lines hinted at. Ah well. It is an instrumental piece, and we do not get to hear Wagner's voice until track two. This is a short number, which works really well. It has an old movie score feel to it, and is gone before you know it whilst leaving a good impression. More songs should do that: impress a strong image on the listener and leave it with them rather than drawing it out, diluting the effect.

Lambchop are pretty recognisable through tempo as much as anything, a gentle sway, a hint of swagger in the cool of the vocal and separation between the melodies and the main structure of the songs. It is the vocal that really sells them for me, though. The strains and refrains are nice and all, but there is something about the delivery of their words that sticks with me and warms the cockles of my soul a little. Of course. With this project no sooner have I typed a paragraph based on the songs to date, the next one starts and blows my words out of the water. The Lone Official sounds nothing like what I expect from Lambchop and has very little in common with the attributes I just listed as their identifiers. I like that. That sense of surprise, that constantly having my opinions and thoughts challenged and changed. That seems to be the primary joy in a lot of these listens, quite apart from actually taking the time to try to appreciate what I have. That said, I do not like the tune much. It is another instrumental, a bit faster, but with a dull structure and the same repetition and failure to evolve as was evident in Being Tyler, so I am grateful when the vocals come back with Something's Going On.

I glance at the track list, and find we are entering a zone of interesting titles after this song which, whilst lyrically very boring, does return to the exquisitely crafted musical space that originally sold me on Lambchop. Soft strings, percussive guitar, laid back gravel voice - they add up to a comfort sound. I find myself surprised that I do not listen to them more, and have not picked up any releases since Aw C'mon/No You C'mon. Maybe I should remedy that but there seem to have been quite a number...

I think maybe some  of the reason is that the bits I like are the bits that tend to the samey. This runs counter to my normal self-image of my musical consumption, but as I age and examine what I like and why, a sense of familiarity is definitely one of the traits I now find endearing. I guess there is at least a grain of truth to the idea that you fix your musical tastes somewhere in your 20s - ancient history now; I have never liked that idea, but it is certainly true that I find less new stuff now that I used to. That idea saddens me.

Meanwhile Kurt has continued serenading in his distinctive style, the strings have continued somewhere over his shoulder and guitars and drums encircle him loosely and time has passed agreeably. The tracks whistle by - and not in an Andrew Bird kind of way - as most are fairly short and sweet. That, too, is a nice touch that distinguishes it a little bit from Is A Woman, where longer tunes lent a different overall vibe. My inclination is to say that album is better than this one, but at this point it would be entirely based on memory and assumed familiarity; certainly it is fair to say that I appreciate the differences, even whilst liking this most based on some of that which is the same. Another difference here is the blend of instrumental pieces amongst the songs. Some work better than others, but it is a good way of changing up, breaking the mood and preventing every track blurring together.

Blurring together... hah. The second time I have been immediately contradicted by the experience. I have just somehow lost 1-3 tracks in a blur as my mind went elsewhere for a while and now the disc is almost done. I do not begrudge it that though, for though it is certainly not a quality that one would actively look for, the fact that nothing bad jumped out to break the reverie I found myself in at least means that a consistent level was maintained. I am thinking though that blurring is probably one of the reasons that I have not listened more. To contrast, I have been listening to Fiona Apple's early albums in the car over Christmas and there is no way those songs blur at all. Two albums of superb songs with a strong voice and distinct characteristics, both Tidal and When the Pawn... are discs that I return to time and again because they offer something more than just the familiarity that is the biggest draw here.

I have, in the end, decided to pick up some more Lambchop releases, but I left others based on reviews of the same sameness that I have identified as liking here. The problem with sameness is that it is OK within an album, but I do not need it across albums. Sameness is a reason to stick, not to twist. I hope the purchases will justify themselves, but if not they will likely slot in to a nice comfortable place to blur into what I have just been through.

Avalanche - Thea Gilmore

Track list

1. Rags And Bones
2. Have You Heard
3. Juliet (Keep That In Mind)
4. Avalanche
5. Mainstream
6. Pirate Moon
7. Apparition #13
8. Razor Valentine
9. God Knows
10. Heads Will Roll
11. Eight Months
12. The Cracks

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2003

Thea Gilmore is my second most listened artist to on LastFM after King Creosote (and the two of them are way out front in that regard), but it feels like I have loved her work longer. Her more recent material is less to my taste than her earlier work but she has more than enough credit built up for me to buy first and think later all the same.

When it was released Avalanche felt like a step towards a more accessible, radio-friendly sound in some ways but I remember loving it for the brasher tunes whilst not being so fond of some of the softer ones. I look at the track list with familiarity and a smile, but I think I may find the songs I love now are not necessarily those I loved 10 years ago. 

Typing that brought home the passage of time in a fairly major way.

Rags and Bones is an interesting start, because I remember the song for the chorus more than the verses, and the introductory verse is actually pretty sedate, thus having a very different feel to the strident sounds I associate with the song. Gilmore has often been criticised for not having the musical chops to go with her intelligent, self-aware and otherwise engaging lyrics. It is a view I do not fully subscribe to, though I can see why it arises - her words tend to be sharp and pointed across a number of different subjects, but her songs are not necessarily pushing any boundaries... but then who does push music forward with every tune? The criticism is somewhat unfair on that point. Have You Heard is one of my favourite examples of why it does not matter. It is a fairly pedestrian hook, but it is really well executed and the structure of it accompanies the words really well. Maybe not the best composer ever, no, but a damn fine singer/songwriter.

Juliet was a single, and it really shows. Much more radio friendly faire, especially the chorus. It was never a preference of mine, and that is still true today - I find myself bored by it, but like some other works already discussed slight downturns here are not at risk of cutting for sentimental reasons. It is followed by the title track. This is a softer, slower number and one that I enjoy more now I am a bit older and appreciate a little more than the instant hit to my ears - appreciating the space, the wave-like (and well, I guess Avalanche-like) rumble of the backing in places and the poetry of the lyrics. Mainstream is a reaction song - louder, angrier (I always found Thea Gilmore more interesting when the angsty young woman shone through) - against the mainstream of the music industry, which she chose to ignore - and I for one am glad for that. The song does not resonate as much 10 years on though - I do not know much about the workings of the music business, do not want to, but appearances have it as a very... particular industry for 20-something women in a way that ceases to be quite so relevant a bit later in life. Good riddance to shallowness.

Pirate Moon is slower again, more wistful and certainly more classically poetic and again I find I have more time for it at 34 than I did at 23. The soft lull and flow of the melody is easy to relax into, I like it a lot. Then we get a call-back (in name at least) to Rules for Jokers, which was the album that introduced me to Gilmore's work. This tune is a little bland in many parts (inviting the critique raised earlier) but I love the chorus, and the way it changes tone from the verse, gaining a level of urgency and purpose that is missing from the lazy looping hook. Edgy is good where this lady is concerned and when that comes through in both music and words, that is where she is strongest for my money. This is why I feel her earlier work stands up more - she retains the fire to date but it is channelled through cooler air of a more settled life somehow.

Razor Valentine could be a Tom Waits tune - same vaudeville style, same air about the lyrics. Waits was always cited as an influence, so that is no surprise. The surprise (to many, I would think) was that Gilmore does it so well that, the obviously female singer aside, it really could be a Waits song. We now hit the weakest song on the album (though Juliet pushes it close). God Knows has never worked for me... partly because as an atheist the title rubs me up the wrong way for some reason (I use the phrase "God knows" as much as anyone else so it is not simply the turn of phrase) and partly because the song is bland throughout. There is no high point, no real change of pace, tone or volume to break up its predictable sway. It is followed by my favourite, and the shortest track on the disc. The urgency the short length gives Heads Will Roll is like ambrosia to me, and when the backing comes in on the second verse it gives the song a shot of adrenaline that kicks it up a gear. Angst again. Anger fuelling creativity is nothing new but it remains a real path to glory when resentment and injustice can be harnessed like this.

In recent years the track that has rivalled Heads Will Roll to be my favourite on this album is Eight Months. I found it dull originally, but now I think it is now right up there with her best songs. More relaxed again in pace, its cadence is reassuring and its airs are wistful and yearning. It resonates with me for reasons that I cannot quite pinpoint, quite apart from being nicely executed. I find myself almost paralysed for something to write about it as I sat here mesmerised, and look back on the younger me, who would at this point often skip the album to track 1 again, thinking "stupid!"

We close with a lament of sorts, a song that veers off part way towards Waits territory, but definitely stopping short this time. Razor Valentine ploughed right on down that road into uncanny valley, but The Cracks stops up and loses out because of it. It retains a melancholic charm and an interest but ultimately it seems to be a little caught between two (or more) stools in terms of what it wants to be. It is a slightly weak end to the album for me, given the strength of what it contained. The sways of mood and tempo were handled well elsewhere, but placing this last leaves me, as the listener, with a more sombre, less positive view of the prior 46 minutes.

I cannot let that overrule the main point though which is this album is classic Thea Gilmore and it remains a favourite today. She is one of the few artists I would recommend to everyone because I rate and value her work that highly. Avalanche is not my favourite Thea album - that would have to be The Lipstick Conspiracies - but it is a very good one.

At Llangennith - Charlotte Greig

Track list:

1. At Llangennith
2. Willie O'Winsbury
3. That man
4. Free fall
5. Perfect wave
6. Walk on
7. The snows
8. Gotta get you home
9. Over the water
10. Leave it blue

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2001

Ah, an old favourite. Comfortable in the way only familiarity can be. This was a real punt in the dark when I bought it. It is a record for a winter's night, snug and warming. A real gem. It is so much a favourite that when I dragged it into "now playing" to see the running time when creating the header of this post immediately after finishing Astronomy for Dogs it tempted me in about 4 notes to run on and do the whole listen immediately.

A cooler head prevailed, and I then found out that Charlotte Greig passed away earlier this year from cancer. Now it is time to tell you why I love this so much and will forever be grateful for one of her creations.

From the gentle opening you get an immediate feel for this disc. Tendrils of soft sound wrap around you like a blanket, offering you cocoa in the bargain. The title track, which opens the disc, is a simple guitar melody, layered a little bit to make a deeper palette and a soft vocal. It is like sitting out on a starry night, looking up into the blackness above and wondering. It is no surprise that it struck the 20(some) year old me, prone to contemplation as I was (am). The main refrain is a strangely compelling one, and even though the song meanders a little towards the end of its run I still find it incredibly compelling.

Next up is a folk classic, which has just a perfect backing here - acoustic hook, haunting soundscape behind it - and is sung with a warmth that transfers fully to the listener. I lose myself if the natural roll of the delivery and the simple repetition of the structure - though it is crafted better than that, little touches abound that break up what could otherwise become monotonous so that each verse is accompanied by subtly different sounds.

In truth, these are the two stand out tracks, but they imprint the album in my mind so hard that everything that follows basks in their glow, then and still. That Man drops the guitar in favour of some keys to lead it and for once this does not work so well - the keyboard is a little too tinny - but the song itself is a simple little tune: rise, fall, rise, fall. A nice lilt that reinforces the sleepy idea of the blanket and hot chocolate. Free Fall brings back the strings and with it the easy, calm invitation that characterises the album as a whole. There is nothing overly complex here, fairly simple melodies, uncomplicated composition and musicianship... just somehow coming together in some kind of magic. In any tune of nearly 9 minutes length you would expect the odd dip, and they are here, for sure. I am more like to overlook the foibles of a record like this though, where the general tone and ambience are so inviting and welcome, like seeing an old friend.

I have a number of other albums by Charlotte Greig, they will turn up here eventually. None of them has ever caught me quite like this one though. Right album, right time of my life or something. I am sure that if I was hearing this for the first time now I would glaze over and miss the charm. It is not a modern album in any sense, and that is welcome. I get a very strong sense of it countering the immediacy of everyday modern life with deliberately slow pace and simple pleasantries. I enjoy it in that spirit, a rejection of fast pace and instant gratification.

Walk On brings back the keys as the primary tune-carrier and here it works better. A melancholic air stirs in me when I hear this tune - it is not a particularly nice narrative, but it is beautifully delivered. In a wise move there is a momentary silence after it ends before The Snows begins. This is a version of The Snow it Melts the Soonest - another folk staple, and one I like a lot. My favourite version (as I had cause to mention before) is by James Yorkston, but the song itself is a strong one, and this version is sufficiently different that it does not fall into the same problem that some others do of direct comparison. The playing here occasionally offers the impression of flickering firelight which keeps the winters night theme going nicely.  We then have a song that I really should not like, but do. Its a love song of a certain type that honestly I think only works in the context of the album as a whole - playing into the long dark night, the need for warmth and, well, companionship. You get the picture.

Over the Water is probably the weakest song on the album. For me it is a mood killer. The change of sound - to a harsher, twangier performance - is not a welcome one. The warmth is still there in the vocal - the style of delivery there is pretty consistent throughout and one of the strongest points of this record - but the music is more distant and less engaging as a result of the shift. The edge to the notes (I think from a dulcimer) is off-putting like nothing else on At Llangennith. Thankfully it is a one-song blip, and the easy roll and gentle strumming of Leave it Blue is a nice way to end the album. Just enough musical interest to keep your attention and the vocal - slightly more floaty than earlier tracks - as fitting as ever.

When I first bought this album I was surprised and enchanted. Coming back to it now I am reassured and contented. I was saddened last night, after I found out about Charlotte Greig's passing, and that was entirely down to my love for this work. Amongst the many things she created - she was a writer, too - I was only familiar with her music and really only with this record; At Llangennith's simple beauty is a worthy monument though.

Astronomy for Dogs - The Aliens

Track list:

1. Setting Sun
2. Robot Man
3. I Am the Unknown
4. Tomorrow
5. Rox
6. Only Waiting
7. She Don't Love Me No More
8. Glover
9. Honest Again
10. The Happy Song
11. Caravan

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2007

The Aliens. What the Beta Band did not become, but some of them did next. No Steve Mason here, but rather Lone Pigeon is back to front up. My recollection of this one is that it is a bit of a mess with the odd high point worth celebrating, but I am looking at the length with a sense of trepidation. I doubt I will have all 71 minutes intact.

I am starting this listen tired. It's just prior to 9pm and I wish I was in bed. I made that mistake yesterday and managed to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up and being up the rest of the night. Joy. So I am trying to push back bedtime to something more usual. Setting Sun does not go kindly with this mindset, jangly and loud - very retro. It is not a song for a tired man, my state of mind makes it feel dull somehow though... like it has a lot of body but no soul. Big sounds fall flat, the riffier bits are more successful but still lacking something. I feel it would be better as a shorter track (its 5 minutes) where the punch would be more effective. It loses strength as it drags on. There is a hint of a less good Assessment about it if you sniff hard enough.

Robot Man is all trippy sounds - this feels like something the Betas could have done, a feeling only strengthened when the keyboard appears. The rhythms are not necessarily all that, but the other lines hang together surprisingly well given the song is basically "I'm [I am] the Robot Man" repeated ad nauseam.  This cohesion is also present in the next song, similarly stunted lyrically, though this is threatened when it gathers a big sound (and expands lyrically) rather than concentrating on meshing the various odds and ends together. It ends up being pretty dull after a good start - especially as they take to repeating "We are The Aliens" a lot as it closes. "I know that you chump, it's right there on the cover!"

Tomorrow reminds me more of Lone Pigeon's solo work - a bit more stripped back. I am half surprised not to find it on the work I have of his. This is nice, diverting rather than engaging, but very easy to end up nodding your head to. There is more of a song there, a more recognisable structure, but it suffers from overrun and by the time it starts drawing down I am bored. If I called Robot Man trippy, the start to Rox beats it out for that. However after the awful beginning the rhythm it adopts if surprisingly infectious - the touchpoint that immediately springs to mind is Woke Up This Morning by Alabama 3 (insert unshared anecdote here). The track veers all over the place - messy is a good term for it - but it does maintain a neat beat and an edge to it that keeps it interesting. It would never become a favourite but I like it more than I was anticipating.

So obviously that signals the time to throw in some really dull, repetitive guitar riff. That is disappointing, and whilst the track builds a little past that Only Waiting is a sharp reminder that this album is not of consistent quality. The very fast vocal is the only point of interest, and mostly that is because it masks the backing which remains consistently unpleasant. On the plus side, it gives way to the nicest melody on the album, the keys that introduce She Don't Love Me No More are a nice touch, and the structure of this song is a tuneful interlude where the vocal gives hints of Pip Dylan (not a massive surprise, as that is one of Lone Pigeon's two musical brothers) - enough that I have to check to see whether he contributed backing vocals here (not that I see credited). The song itself it pleasant enough but there just is not quite enough to it - certainly not for its full length. It should have closed at the 4 minute mark as the vocal fell away. Instead we get an extended outro, then the keys appear to take up a new melody, with string backing... its all a bit unnecessary, the song already ended.

A nice punchy beat and chord progression introduces Glover - the kind of thing that works really well for 10 seconds but when it continues unabated and does not get much accompaniment can start to really drag. Guess what happens here? It persists for too long anyway. It softens over the middle of the piece and there is a little bit more going on as it is replaced but much of what comes in is experimental balls. The track lacks structure, cohesion. Instead it plays with strange sounds and samples for sounds sake. FOR EIGHT MINUTES! Could really have done without that, guys...

Nearing the end, I think? Well yes, but there is still 16 minutes of Caravan to come. Gulp.

Honest Again is a poorly realised track - it half feels like a reprise of She Don't Love Me No More even thought it is not (actually that is part of what makes Caravan so long). Blandness abounds... but it does well to clear the aural palette for The Happy Song which is just deliriously silly. My abiding memory of this track is of seeing King Creosote (no surprise there, because KC is the other musical brother) play it live and a whole crowd jumping like loons - its the only thing to do when you are happy right? It is not a complex song but there is something infectious about it; the uplifting quality is definitely enhanced by the simple repetition of the word "happy" - hear, sing, think, be. It smacks of self affirmation after Lone Pigeon's troubles with mental health, but whether that was actually the muse for the song is another matter.

Caravan has begun. Boring start. Not very musical loop, dull rhythm, odd vocal skit. It has plenty of time to build (and I am sure it will) but it is not a promising start. It meanders along, and individually some of the sounds that contribute to the way are alright, but as a whole? No, it is a total jumble of incoherence. I am not even bothering to write anything because it is just so devoid of form, purpose and quality that there is nothing to say. An awful way to close the disc. The reprise appears for the last couple of minutes or so, which means there is 12 minutes of crud and 2 of silence. And I listened to it all.

Yeah - on reflection this is getting cut down a bit, but nothing like as much as I thought I might reduce it. There are some neat songs on this disc but there is no consistency of quality so you get some utter dross too. I liked them enough at the tie that I bought The Alien's second album, Luna, too, but we shall have to wait a year or two to find out what I think of that.

Asleep Versions - Jon Hopkins

Track list:

1. Immunity
2. Form By Firelight
3. Breathe This Air
4. Open Eye Signal

Running time: 24 minutes
Released: 2014

Jon Hopkins is something of a favourite of mine, and I loved Immunity when I picked it up. So when it was re-released with some new versions of the tracks on a second disc, well I bought it again. To be honest, I had not realised when I hit "buy" that Asleep Versions was not a standalone e.p. but rather a second disc repackaged with Immunity but never mind. Free gift!

The first track here is the closer on the parent album, a wonderful work harking back to other collaborations between Hopkins and King Creosote - my most listened to artist on LastFM, a lot of him to come (starting in B). It is a very different version of the song. Asleep is about right, at least for the first 2 minutes until the vocal comes in, much clearer than on the album version... clear enough for me to finally confirm that the words are (some of) those from Carbon Dating Agent (from KC's album Vintage Quays). That has bugged me for 18 months(!). There is not much else to this one - just a dreamy sound; it is not as good a version in my book, but it plays very differently.

I cannot remember the other tunes from Immunity with such clarity so as to make comparisons, but I am immediately struck by the fact Form By Firelight has a vocal here and does not feel familiar at all. There is maybe a theme running through it that lightly tinkles a bell somewhere but this aural landscape is richly built for volume - that should be space - I can easily imagine drifting off to these tunes and having some trippy dreams as a result. These two tracks were from the quieter end of Immunity, rather than the more club-inspired opening. I cannot remember where I saw it but I found a description of the album as charting a night out, starting big and busy then dying back to chill. The second pair of tracks are reworkings of busier, livelier tracks and are massively changed as a result. There is still the pulse of a beat there, but rather than slaving the other sounds to it, they harness that in reverse, suborning the rhythm to a quiet role of servitude. It is amazing that these would even be called versions of the same tracks. Chalk and cheese.

Open Eye Signal is 11 minutes in length here (8 originally) and slow to get any sort of life, drifting through a haze. I have Hopkins albums going back more than a decade and this is as empty as anything he has done in terms of how much void there is left to rattle around in your ears. I am astounded by the relationship between this and a really up-tempo track that was to Immunity what Wire was to Insides. In some ways what it reminds me of most is the sheer poignancy that Hopkins' production gave to And The Racket They Made, the closing track from Bombshell - the first KC album I shall reach. The song helped in that case, here there are no words, is no structure like that to craft around. Built in a vacuum. It is pretty moving whilst at the same time managing to disappoint a little because I cannot hear even echoes of the track with which it shares a name. It may have been a little too subtle there.

Overall I am not sorry I picked this up at all. I think these versions have less immediate appeal and, by their nature, less accessibility in a random playlist, but they sculpt sound nicely and are certainly different enough to maintain them alongside Immunity.

A-side B-side Seaside - Randolph's Leap

Track list:

1. Please Don't Belong   
2. What Have I Done?

Running time: 6 minutes
Released: 2009

A two-track e.p. that I believe I got free - indeed I did - I do not know what to expect from this. Randolph's Leap fit into that bracket of band names I can place but cannot put a sound to... you know, the sort of band there seem to be 1500 of in Glasgow alone. That sounds pejorative but it is not meant as such; lesser known Scottish bands feature quite heavily in my library as a whole. The truth is, though, that I only have this because it was free, and even then it was a relatively recent download. Time to see whether it should be kept.

The first track is a song sung over a very sparse and quiet background, with a harmony introduced for the chorus. It is a self-deprecating number with a certain charm to it, but not something that I would listen to through choice. What Have I Done starts similarly, though the vocal is less tuneful on this occasion. More instrumentation is added instead and this crafts a pleasant strum-along sound. In contrast to the song which seems to be about someone arseing up a relationship really badly. Ultimately there is not quite enough here to keep me interested past this listen, but two short free tracks are worth the time if you like acoustic indie Scottish stuff. It's only 6 minutes, and the price is right.

Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird

Track list:

1. Fiery Crash
2. Imitosis
3. Plasticities
4. Heretics
5. Armchairs
6. Darkmatter
7. Simple X
8. The Supine
9. Cataracts
10. Scythian Empires
11. Spare-Ohs
12. Yawny At The Apocalypse

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2007

I forget what put me on to Andrew Bird, but I remember which track it was that gave me my entry point: a freely downloaded version of The Trees Were Mistaken from LastFM - not that it is free anymore. I was struck by something - possibly the whistling - and immediately bought more of his material, though not all of it. I follow his releases still, but I listen less often than I should, which is why I do not really know what to expect from this disc.

It has quite a start, a repeated guitar chord for 15-20 seconds. OK, expectations were all over the place, but I am fairly confident this was not how I thought it would open. Live and learn. Bird's vocal style is a lilting one and when his voice joins in it is definitely moving towards ground I could peg as his were I catching a random listen of the track. In fact the first instance of whistling would probably have given it away first but still. I would not put Fiery Crash up there as a song but I also do not think it will be representative of the album - and I am immediately validated on that point when Imitosis brings a very different arrangement and style, softer and more rounded somehow. It gives his song more room to breathe, making the vocal the star of the show.

It has been another slow week for me on this project; its a busy time. Since the last effort - a one-tracker at that! - on Tuesday I have neglected this for one evening, but otherwise been too occupied to find time. It is now Sunday evening, after a couple of solid days of roleplaying, on the back of a Christmas party. Thursday was the night I took off, and that was because I was so darn tired I could only collapse and watch bad football on the TV all evening. I am hoping that Andrew Bird will ease me into a relaxed state to get a good nights rest, because I bloody well need it. Most of his material that I have does have a fairly easy pace to it so the hope is there. This album thus far has a bit of a brasher sound than I would generally associate with Bird, a touch more prominence for the electric guitars, but that could be misremembering his other material as much as anything else.

I find Bird a good singer. Tonally his voice appeals, the up and down style fits nicely with the tunes and I feel his music is coming across most strongly when the song is central. I say that, but I am not picking up on lyrics here again so the song is not really central to my enjoyment. My mental state is not configured for that level of attention, and I have mentioned before that picking out the artists words when I am trying to write my own is unfortunately difficult and does not seem to occur naturally. The delivery though, the swells and falls, the roll, the pauses and the emotion it carries, that does come across nicely. Dramatic at times, I mostly get a sense of warmth from his singing and a sense that because I am not following the songs I am missing out. A pity, that.

Whistles. How many artists use whistling? I cannot think of any more off the top of my head though there must be plenty; for Andrew Bird, I would call it a signature of sorts. Darkmatter starts with a whistled intro, the third or fourth time this type of human-produced sound has been employed that I have noticed, but the most prominent by far. After the intro it does not appear again until the denouement, but it leaves a mark on the track. I am surprised at the relative rarity of the technique, if only because I often find myself whistling along to tunes when I am listening in private. I would never submit anyone else to the horror of my attempts at accompaniment but there is something strangely satisfying about singing or whistling along with a favourite song. Not something I find myself doing now (or for other posts here) because - again - of the attention it requires that takes away from the exercise. I guess the big test for that will come up when I start hitting more familiar material - the stuff that always has me badly belting out something in approximation of tune and time - but I don't see it happening.

I realise I have not written too much specific content about the tracks here - this post appears to have taken a more general form, speaking to the artist, their techniques, and a load of irrelevant stuff about me. So be it. Somehow I am three quarters through the disc already, and it has been a pleasant path that my ears have been travelling. Most of the early brashness has faded, the tracks taking on a more acoustic nature and to my taste this is an improvement. Scythian Empires was the one tune that I thought I would really recognise when I looked at the track list, however now I reach it, the vocal is not quite what I recalled. The general pattern of the track is as remembered but the vocal is much softer, much less strained, the whistles are back. There is a constant loop provided by some plucked instrumentation I cannot fathom which gives the structure to a song which is somewhat lacking in the lyrical department (in terms of how many there actually are, again I lost the track of them). It is suddenly over without ever quite taking off. Memory, lose 10 points.

There have been no bad songs here; some better than others, certainly, and I was not 100% taken with Fiery Crash, but I think that Spare-Ohs is probably my pick of the bunch, even as it re-electrifies. The combination of the harmonious vocal (a female voice appears in company), the whistles and a tune that made me smile just works. I am at a loss at this point to communicate why but it clicks in a way that the other tunes here did not quite manage - like brining in the best bits from across the disc into one place. Of course, I say no bad songs; there is the closer which is garbage - it is an atmospheric piece that just manages to be actively unpleasant somehow. I am going to get rid of it so I have a nicer end in future, assuming I ever deign to listing to Armchair Apocrypha as an album again.

Overall I was entertained and uplifted by this one. Now off to bed to see about the relaxed...

Ariel e.p. - Alpha

Track list:

2. Ariel

Running time: 4 minutes
Released: 2008

So this must have been free somewhere, but damned if I know where; I only have the title track to this EP and a few other bits and pieces from the artist.

It gets into its loop immediately, no intro, which is quite a stark beginning for what is otherwise shaping up as a zone-out track - repetition of the loop layered with voice samples (French, mostly) and a couple of other musical lines to add texture. The loop then drops out two thirds of the way through, which makes the latter half of the track feel incredibly disjointed around that section. 

I get the feeling that in context of more work, there could be something about Alpha, but I lack that context right now and see no reason to hold onto this track. Done and dusted just like that, a nice easy one for tonight.

Area 52 - Rodrigo y Gabriela

Track list:

1. Santo Domingo
2. Hanuman
3. Ixtapa
4. 11:11
5. Master Maqui
6. Diablo Rojo
7. Logos
8. Juan Loco
9. Tamacun

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 2012

I could debate whether adding the "and C.U.B.A." to the title here, but I see no real reason to. This album is full of re-recordings of other Rodrigo y Gabriela tracks, some of which I have already listened to, others are still to come.

The first half are re-recordings from 11:11; the sound is immediately different though - more orchestration, and a really strong Latin feel... all of which is explicitly part of the brief here. My immediate impression is positive; I think i may enjoy this more than their rawer sound. It has the same pace, the same intricacy and virtuosity but more body, more soul and more joyousness.

With them coming from a metal background, there is perhaps an inclination to darker, harder sounds in their duo recordings, and by choosing to consciously play up the Latin influence this acts as a natural counter to this even before the deeper arrangement is added. I was not overly taken with Hanuman before, and I am still not bowled over by it here, thought I have to smile at the disco-esque sounds it carries here. So far the two tunes have been strongest when the ivories come through the avalanche of guitar to add contrast; it is an addition that really works for me - as does the brass - much more so than the electrification of the guitar.

OK, so Ixtapa maybe takes the Latinisation a bit far... it almost sounds like a stereotype, but pulls back from that edge at the last moment, whilst dipping its toe in the water constantly. Then it goes all weird - ditching the Cuban sound for one more at home in.. India? Something to do with the muting of the tones, I guess. I can really imagine that they spent the entire recording sessions for this album smiling though - playing around with their tunes and the backing of the C.U.B.A orchestra. The output so far makes me wonder what might arise if the pair went seriously into wider orchestration. Now that the unexpectedly Asian sounds have subsided the track is on firmer ground again.

As far as I can tell, from a single concerted listen 3 1/2 months ago, all the same intricacies are maintained, just with elaboration from the parts the orchestra gives them. Notably they do not choose to add constant percussion, still taking most of the rhythm and structure from the guitars. Or are my ears doubting me now? I was so sure a moment ago, but now... argh - I am not cut out for this critic lark, my ears are not good enough and my understanding of the theory of composition if bollocks all. I know what I like though, and I am much more fond of this rendition of 11:11 than the one on the album bearing that name - even if the airy wail of the electric guitar melody seems out of place when it bombs into the scene. The introduction of a call-response solo/choir to close out the track is a very interesting one - and proves just how much horse dung I can spout when I get on a roll. Without elaborating further, this whole paragraph never happened, right?

This project was always as much about what the works made me think and feel as it was about sharing them, and occasionally I have lost sight of that. This album, with its revelling in Cuban expression transports in a way that is quite marvellous. Personally I feel that is most effective the further they push the Latin theme over the core composition. The more of the orchestra are involved, the more engaging and uplifting the pieces become. Yet they cycle through different contributions in a way that fits with live performances really well. I have written before about hating the "everyone must solo" attitude in some jazz performances, but here it works to make you feel as though you're sat at a table surrounded by musicians who simply riff off each other to blanket you in warm sounds. Now where is my rum? Yeah, this is not music for a dark December night... or rather it is, perfectly shutting down thoughts of sub-zero temperatures and de-icing the car in the morning and replacing them with thoughts of drinking leisurely under terraces as the sun goes down, whilst looking out over the bay.

Holy smoke that playing just got so fast I cannot keep up - it feels like I am hearing everything on time-lag. Totally engrossing and overwhelming, it needs its own chaotic visual but my senses, so assaulted, cannot keep up and conjure one. I like that as the next tune, Logos, begins it is piano only, and the pace is glacial - cool. It is a nice breather before the guitars strike up. This was a piece I really enjoyed before and again here, calm amidst the energy of the rest of the disc. The guitar riffs are hypnotic, the recording warm, fuzzy, making me feel like I am trapped in a bubble - it is a wonderful track.

I feel like I get to be overwhelmingly positive about these guys, more-so than for people I listen to all the time. I am sure that in 10 years time if I were to read these posts back - or hell, if any odd folk stumbled across this electronic molehill - the impression that will come across of who my favourite artists were in 2014 will see me loving things that I would not now consciously call favourites, and being lukewarm about discs close to my heart. Still, artefacts of the format, and of the sheer amount of good stuff that I have piled up that I have not deigned to really explore. I could never consciously describe Rodrigo y Gabriela as a favourite artist of mine, but damn if they aren't wholly compelling and awesome. I suspect, though, were I to start listening regularly it would lose its lustre, become demystified, and perhaps slip back into a horrifically under-appreciated genre-bucket. With only occasional exposure I can continue to be surprised and delighted by the sheer magnetism of their performance.

The past hour has flown by - no sense of it taking time, no sense of effort, or of watching the clock, just sustained aural pleasantries, infectious rhythms and warm thoughts. Long may that continue as we head into the darkest most depressing time of the year - albeit one sprinkled with holiday cheer. Although I have other versions of all of these songs there is no question of any de-duplication, for that is not what it would be.

I am nearing the end of A now - just 12 to go and 4 of them are short. I have kept with this better than I expected to in truth and that encourages me to continue, like a virtuous circle. I may have no readers, and even those who know about this may not care, but I am finding pleasure in the process on nights like this, and that makes slogging through the less pleasant ones worth it. It will be interesting to see how the library ends up looking when I am done... but that is for the future. For now, it is goodnight.

Archipelago - Hidden Orchestra

Track list:

1. Overture
2. Spoken
3. Flight
4. Vorka
5. Hushed
6. Reminder
7. Seven Hunters
8. Fourth Wall
9. Disquiet
10. Vainamoinen

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2012

I am pretty sure that I saw these guys live at The Big Tent festival one year - three or four ago now, I think - and was struck by how not only had they ripped off the style of The Cinematic Orchestra, but they had copied them in nomenclature too! I jest, but pointedly so: there are some pretty significant similarities there, though my ear (or my experience of them both) tells me the Cinematics are simply a cut above.

Truth be told, I am not quite sure how and why I ended up acquiring this album, because I was not particularly impressed by that live showing. Acquire it I did, though, so now I will listen to it and try not to prejudge based on a fading memory.

We open with a track that is recorded so low I need to up my volume to really pick anything out. A fairly fast number, Overture has a strange feel to it: busy, but empty. Either that, or I am prejudicing myself based on a BBC Music review I read last night. It is possible that I have formed a similar opinion to that reviewer purely naturally, but the seed of the idea was undoubtedly in my head before I began, so I cannot claim clear originality of thought. The track itself is so-so. Lots of drums, a melody, but not much else in the mix. Its alright, I suppose, but was a little too soulless for me. The next track opens more promisingly - trumpets providing lonely calls over the percussion (I want to say programming but...). There is not that much heft to it though, and the intermediate line - a strumming guitar note? - leaves much to be desired. Overall this is flashing me back to Quantic and The 5th Exotic again. Inoffensive Downbeat Shuffle; desirable enough structure, but not enough to go with it.

This is a 10 track album that lasts an hour, and it achieves that length through most tracks going on a bit. There are a couple of noticeably longer tunes, and 2 that are "radio friendly" length but most are in the 5-6 minute range. Why do I mention this? Well, because already it feels like it is dragging a bit and I am only half way through track 3. This does feel like there is a bit more going on though. In a funny kind of way the sounds conjure images akin to that on the cover of the album - of activity amongst flocks of birds. Given this track is called Flight that is almost certainly deliberate, so despite the fact the piece is wearing on me I have to applaud Hidden Orchestra for that, at least. At this point I am fairly certain that the underwhelming live performance has indeed instilled a bias in me; I am predisposed not to like this much and that is becoming self-fulfilling prophecy. Were I reviewing I would take a break here, clear my head and come back to finish up at a later date, with more energy, in a different mood etc. However I am not, and therefore I plough on into Vorka which loses the sense of imagery that Flight had. It also suffers from lacking any real tune. There are fragments of melody here and there but they are too disparate and too subservient to the looping percussion to offer any real interest. One of the higher parts is a "wailing" sound, too, which is never good.

I am not even half way through yet, trackwise; it will have been a long hour. Hushed is more melodic again, though so it is at least respite from the slaving of tune to the needs of rhythm. This time the beats are still a little too prominent in places but the balance is far better overall, and there is more coherence to the themes played out over the loops. It is a pleasant - that word again - piece, but there is little compelling about it. Reminder starts with a pretty naff little looped piano riff, adds a pretty naff drum riff, then adds lukewarm water and serves... cold. Ugh. I cannot tell what the group were aiming for with this one, but it really falls into "generic movie tension" music trap. Slightly high strung, cheesy "break it up" brass and bass drum rumbles. The problem is that it just does not have the edge to it to really carry it off, and the constant trilling of one of the quieter parts is actively harmful to that. The piece just fails... fails to excite, fails to unnerve, fails to innervate, enervate, innovate or to project a strong sense of, well, anything. I do not want to be too scathing, it is perfectly listenable, in that way that the shuffle normally is; it is just uninspired.

Seven Hunters is the long "epic" on the disc - almost 10 minutes. It opens brightly enough, with a little more top end and a real contribution from the "orchestra", but it seems to lose direction after 2 minutes or so and become a soupy mess of different parts overlapping and interfering with each other rather than combining to tell a consistent story. I have hope when the cacophony dies down. Stripped back to basics, the tune can build again... back comes the early refrain (a loop I rather like, shockingly!) and layers are added to it. This is better. Again the title seems to fit the piece well: the tangle of sounds at its messiest fits quite nicely with the image of a hunter stirring up his prey then feeding on the confusion his agitation has wrought. The cleaner parts of the track maybe do not back that up so much, but they are not too far away. It is certainly one of the better, more consistent and enjoyable tracks here to date, and as I start to consider which tracks will be kept, this one is up there despite its length.

We are back to bad movie music when it ends though for the first of the two shorter pieces. Fourth Wall does not seem to be about breaking it as much as it is about enforcing it - hammering home the idea of watching some other passive media. There is a little bright spot in the middle of the piece but the general timbre is generic movie tension all over. There - coining a new bumper-sticker tag for LastFM! That was a long 4 minutes. Home stretch now, just 2 tracks and about 10 minutes left.

Disquiet is not disquieting. It is lacking soul though and I find myself very much agreeing with that BBC review I linked earlier in practice as well as from memory. For background music, not paying attention sound, yeah I see a significant appeal here. For attentive listening there is just too much missing - the intangibles that make something engaging rather than bland, likeable rather than unobjectionable. The BBC man reckons it is a sense of narrative development, and certainly that comes with consistency. It is thus of little surprise to me that the most coherent and engaging tracks, for me, were those where the sounds and the titles combined to build pictures, images and themes in my mind. Sure, you could argue that generic movie tension does that too - I invariably picture some black and white 40s or 50s detective movie - but that is almost certainly not what was intended, and that picture is, after all, a mocking one. Overall I give myself a slap on the wrist for an impulsive and against the grain buy, and I quietly trim down to the three tracks that inspired any sense of welcomeness. The hour has passed, and it is time to hide the rest of the orchestra where I cannot find it again.

Aqualung - Aqualung

Track list:

1. Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)
2. Falling Out of Love  
3. Good Times Gonna Come
4. If I Fall 
5. Just For a Moment 
6. Tongue-tied  
7. Can't Get You out of my Mind  
8. Everything Changed  
9. Gentle  
10. Nowhere  
11. Halfway to the Bottom 

Running time: 46 minutes
Released 2002

I suspect this album may get short shrift, and mostly get dumped. I was, like thousands of others, charmed by Strange and Beautiful when it appeared on TV ads for a Volkswagen Beetle. I obviously liked it enough to buy not only this album, but also Still Life which followed. My instinct tells me that I have almost certainly drifted away from interest in this in the intervening years, and that both are likely to be gutted down to stand-outs or removed altogether after their listens. I might be wrong though. Lets see... 

The album opens with its iconic track - a classic case of shooting its bolt too soon? - and what a track it is. A bit slow and slightly one-note in delivery, but the simple piano melody is gold dust. I am honestly surprised to still like it this much. The song is quite stalkerish in an uncomfortable way, but the tune is gorgeous and (can I say this after a decade?) timeless.

Hales' voice is not inspiring, which drives a bit of a wedge between me and the music. Falling Out of Love is in a similar vein, sharing a general tone and similar musicality with his smash hit. However the tune is nothing like as charming, and it exposes the indifference of the rest of the composition and performance. The whole thing just gives off too much of a downbeat vibe - a sort of depressing inevitability; I desperately hope that there are some more cheery tracks in here because otherwise I might be past help for the evening after 46 minutes of constant downer. I am frantically looking down the track list trying to recall hints of the music that accompanies these names and, uniformly, failing to do so. I will have to steel myself, and instead look for the magical patches in a quilt made of interminable sameness.

See, I have to believe that the writing team that came up with Strange and Beautiful must be able to recreate a similarly good tune here or there - even for a single bridge - and it is piano driven which gives me a predisposition to like it if the dullness can be pierced. So far though, the star turn stands alone; the 3 tracks since have been like wandering through a building where every surface is painted beige and there is no other sensory stimulus at all - and the... I can only assume heavy breathing at the end of If I Fall is hideous.

It precedes the next best this album has offered so far. Just for a Moment has a nice whimsical turn on the keys; pity it is hidden behind a vocal smear that is pretty unpleasant and lyrically dull, repetitive. When it ends we get a few seconds of a richer sound - still distant, but a hint that Tongue-tied might have a sturdier arrangement, if a quiet one. This song I could see myself liking in another context and with another singer. Strong vocal performances are not Aqualung's forte, but there was enough behind it to suggest that he can compose. I am, on hearing them, finding some familiarity and recognition of the tunes. Or is that because I have heard 7 different takes on the same theme now, some executed much better than others?

That is a touch unfair, there have been a few tracks now where the melodies have stood out, and they were all similar, sure, but different enough to provide a sense of change. What does not it is the vocal - stylistically and tonally dragging itself through each song in the same pitch and dragging everything down as a result. Its like this: a sad piano tune can be appreciated, have a beauty that reflects that sadness but does not pass it on; an empty vocal like this singing a sad song or straining over that tune destroys that appreciation almost wholly. His voice is grating so much by this stage that my gut says I should not keep those tunes where I liked the composition because they are too stained. Actually its worse than that, the disc has not even finished playing and I am not sure I can identify them! Too much similarity.

All snideness aside, I think I might hang on to a few. When not listening to a whole album of it, his voice would not offend so much, and I was genuinely enjoying the meandering of fingers on keys at points in the middle of the disc. Three tunes is plenty: Strange and Beautiful (obviously), Tongue-tied and Just for a Moment will do it, I think. The rest will likely never be heard again.

Apron Strings - The Memory Band

Track list:

1. Blackwaterside
2. Come Write Me Down
3. Brambles
4. Green Grows The Laurel
5. I Wish I Wish
6. The Light
7. Want You To Know  
8. Deltic Soul
9. Why
10. Reasons
11. Evil  
12. The Poacher

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 2006

I am almost but not entirely positive that I bought up albums from The Memory Band after hearing something I liked of theirs on some form of LastFM station. I am damned if I can remember the parameters of that discovery, mind... maybe Tunng? My suspicion is that these albums (I have this plus The Memory Band) are chock full of songs that I will not recognise enough to have associated them to the group without looking, but which I rather enjoy when they come up in random plays.

Now is the time to find out.

We start with Blackwaterside - experiment to cram three words together? - which has a catchy enough hook. The strings overlaying it are a touch sharper than I would like but there is an easy rolling charm to the tune that comes out of the marriage. With no vocals to play against, the meander of those strings provides the main element and whilst a flatter, smoother sound would have been welcome in places it is a promising start. The cut-over into the next song is rather abrupt, and this very definitely has an early Tunng-like feel. The sounds are stronger but the style of the vocal is very reminiscent of Genders-era Tunng. The vocal itself is not as strong, and the bolder volume of the instrumentation offsets this a little. I find the hook slightly sub-par though - a little too much repetition, reflected in the vocal with the chorus featuring over heavily. It is half brilliant effort, half disappointment - so near but so far. I should not be surprised, of course, by the early Tunng similarity, since Sam Genders and Stephen Cracknell - the main brain behind The Memory Band - went on to be The Accidental together.

Brambles has a promising start, layered loops that hint at much to like if the tune will break out from them. Unfortunately, there is not quite enough variation on the theme for me to really fall for this track. Like Come Write Me Down before it, it does not quite live up to its potential. 3 songs in and I am frustrated; almost very good, it just falls short each time. I hope the tunes to come break that pattern in a positive way, because it is literally just round the corner, over the hill, the next step that counts, etc. etc.

I see from their entry on LastFM that Lisa Knapp was a member at some point. Her vocal would add something - love her voice a lot, but she's not on either of the albums I own. However whilst I worry about that, I Wish I Wish has brought everything together brilliantly... at least to the point where the denouement overstays its welcome by about 2 minutes (which includes another chorus before it closes). I am prepared to forgive an unwillingness to end a beautiful song though - it is certainly a lesser crime than just failing to entice and excite. I am happy, too, when the next song starts with a stronger, jauntier guitar part. Positivity is maintained, energy transferred, head nodding engaged. The Light really is that - a ray of light in a dark evening, a breath of fresh air and just on the right side of the balance that was underweighted earlier.

The first refrains of Want You to Know are very promising, reminding me of Eagleowl (and specifically mf). It evolves away from that a bit, but remains in the same vein generally. This I approve of - Eagleowl are one of the best bands you have never heard of, one of the finds I am happiest with over the last few years. But enough of someone I am not listening to... after a short interlude, we get a nice fiddle/guitar tune which comes with a song. This is nicely put together; the album is winning me round after the early near misses. The tunes are hanging together better, the songs sung nicely.

Evil breaks that pattern. It is duller, less tuneful and less interesting. The vocal suits the style of the song, but is not to my taste. Overall the album is a bit of a mixed bag, and nothing shows this off more than the final track which is like none of those before. Slightly dodgy harmonies, more purposeful strumming and wandering melody. It is a little bit of a mess, but a mess that has a certain charm to it. My overall impressions have been mostly positive - enough so that I am searching out the two albums I am missing. It is a strange little collection though and I reckon more time (which it probably will not get, to be honest), would benefit the impression.