28/03/2015

Bellow - Spiers & Boden

Track list:

1. Prickle Eye Bush
2. Sloe Gin Set: Frozen Gin/Vinegar Reel/The Sloe
3. Courting Too Slow
4. Dawn Chrous
5. The Outlandish Knight
6. Jiggery Pokerwork/Haul Away/Seven Stars
7. Go And Leave Me
8. Jack Robinson/Argiers/Old Tom Of Oxford
9. Copshawholme Fair
10. Princess Royal/Cuckoo's Nest
11. Brown Adam
12. Ginger Up Lustily/Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 2003
Ah, a true favourite now, indulging my folky side. Spiers & Boden (leading lights of Bellowhead) are my go-to guys for folk songs and tunes. Don't they look young on the cover!

It is a great shame that they no longer perform as a duo because I always found their gigs much better as a pair than when they had all the brass and all to back them too. I shouldn't complain too much, Bellowhead are dear to me too, but still... these two, when they were on song, were fantastic live and great on record. Assuming you like that sort of thing. Many a well known Bellowhead track appears on this album (which features Benji Kirkpatrick in places too) but perhaps my favourite track here is Brown Adam, one of 5 that as far as I am aware were not redone with Bellowhead. Most of them are grand, though, so on with it!

Prickle Eye Bush is our opener, a criminal's promise to go straight if given a chance. It is a catchy tune, but a repetitive one... three times telling the same tale with a new person coming to see the condemned and - mayhap - to pay for his freedom. Naturally the first two don't but (spoilers!) the third, his true love, does. The repetition makes it a song that does not work so well on record. You can forgive the retreads much more in live performance where the mannerisms of the performers make up for the sameness of the song.

It has been too long since my last post, but things have gone a little awry and not made progressing this one before now easy. I am doing it now after a long day's gardening with sore hands and a head with no focus for anything more strenuous (like writing up yesterday's RPG session). Good job I know this one well and like it well too.

That said, the Sloe Gin Set is a bit of a bête noire of mine - I have been to so many Bellowhead gigs now that I am truly bored of it as it was ever present until last years tour of Revival where it didn't feature at the date I made. In truth it is the first tune in the set that bores me, the latter two being a bit more lively and here it works better than with the full band. That goes double for Courting Too Slow, where the wider arrangement available on Burlesque offers so little extra that the slow number is just a weight against the songs it accompanies. Here there is a great mournful tone to the combination of fiddling and squeezing that I cannot picture in my head for the Bellowhead version and it saves the song for me.

Dawn Chorus is the first track not repeated with Bellowhead - it simply wouldn't work as it is really a John Spiers solo (I wouldn't swear it, but I think I have seen him perform it as such) with a bit of support. This tune is one of the first by Spiers & Boden that I remember being fully sold on - the rise and fall of the melody, the slightly twee change up, the phasic pattern of how it returns through the theme. Its repetition done in a way that does not get old.

Ah, that staccato violin... from the first second The Outlandish Knight is thoroughly recognisable and totally arresting. I love this song for its improbability, its roots and its implementation. I love this stripped back rendition, I love the full band effort. Here, like many other pieces, I am continuously surprised and delighted at the apparent complexities that a fiddle/squeezebox duo can get into their playing, the themes they can support alongside each other, the variation in the playing. That sense only increases with the next track, a medley which is probably also my favourite Bellowhead track. The haunting nature to the tune that Spiers carries on Jiggery Pokerwork sets a tone that is then snapped in balls-to-the-wall gusto as it opens up. I maintain it is impossible to listen to Haul Away without being compelled to tap your feet and to sit still whilst hearing Seven Stars. Actually, Haul Away is such a favourite that even as I am trying to concentrate on writing this I find myself starting to mouth along with the simple shanty lyrics. To me, this set is a perfect representation of why I fell into folk music - energetic, emphatic, enthusiastic and simply about enjoyment and entertainment. If I could only take one folk track to listen to on a trip, I reckon it would be this one.

Jon Boden is if not the most charismatic person I have had course to see in the flesh then very close to it. His command of a stage is mesmeric, his love of performance highly infectious. His voice is strong, but whilst I increasingly see it as rather one-tone his sheer showmanship makes up for that and then some. It is John Spiers though who inspires me - since getting into their music I have several times thought fleetingly about the idea of getting some kind of organ and trying to learn to play. Every time one of his tunes comes up I imagine being able to produce such engaging sounds from the often ungainly-looking apparatus he uses and find myself wondering about what it would take. The expense and likely terrible realisation that I have no talent at all stay my hand (to the relief of my neighbours).

Copshawholme Fair was how I found myself getting into these guys. I don't much like this song now (I think the playing is exemplary mind), but Bellowhead's version came up on a LastFM station I was listening to based on The Imagined Village and it was a very interesting sound, which I was compelled to follow up on after reading a little about the band and their make-up. From there interest expanded and remains strong. However it is the more stripped back sounds of the duo that I find myself drawn to. At this moment I cannot think of a song done both by Spiers & Boden and by Bellowhead where I prefer the Bellowhead track. I don't know why this is, perhaps as I grow more curmudgeonly I resent having to track quite so much with my ears and mind when I have such good "simple" versions? Hah, as if.

Into the final straight now, two tune sets and the favourite amongst favourites to go. The tunes are well and good, but it is the evocative images conjured by Brown Adam that I love. The combination of the players, their voices (often in harmony here) and the song itself has a magical quality that just works for me. It's not perfect - it has more than a hint of gender inequality about it as you might expect from traditional material. I think, though (and I hope I am remembering this right) it was the liner notes that mentioned the cult of Wayland and brought folklore into the mix that sold me completely and utterly on the song. It remains a favourite.

All has gone quiet as the disc ends, finishing before I could articulate a short thought on a 6 minute track which I started to type before it started to play. Sometimes our brains just don't behave. I'm off to see if I can persuade mine to start working again.

23/03/2015

Being There - Tord Gustavsen Trio

Track list:

1. At Home
2. Vicar Street
3. Draw Near
4. Blessed Feet
5. Sani
6. Interlude
7. Karmosin
8. Still There
9. Where We Went
10. Cocoon
11. Around You
12. Vesper
13. Wide Open

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 2007
So I have already confessed an interest in Scandinavian jazz through Esbjörn Svensson Trio - though I did not love 301 much. E.S.T were a gateway which I went through to discover more. Well, I say "discover"; I mean "randomly bought off Amazon and hoped to like".

As you might expect, this approach - and to be fair it is one I have used a lot in different genres over the years - can be a bit hit or miss. I honestly cannot remember which of those categories Gustavsen fell into so I am looking forward to diving into this one and establishing whether this was a master-stroke, a misstep or something in between.

It starts quietly, a solo piano softly opening, a slow lament of a tune, then joined by brushed drums, hints of structure. Bass eventually arrives and the track takes on the form of a jazz piece, albeit a very laid back one. I could lose myself quite happily in the wandering tune though, conjuring pictures of the 40s, black and white of course, whisky in hand. This is a good beginning - despite the potential in this disc, I had to push myself to start the listen; I am running out of days before I go away, and have had a number of things to take up my evenings. A strongly enjoyable opening track then is a shot in the arm to my resolve. It is not a busy piece but it is a very, very nice one. If the whole disc is of the same ilk as At Home then I should think I will listen to this a fair bit more.

Soft sounds seem to be order of the day, nothing overly stated or raising the volume, but Vicar Street has more intent, purpose and pace. Compelling - the percussion and structure more noticeable here, driving the piece along to begin with. Unfortunately the piece loses some of that drive over its length (and it is not a long track) but it is continued encouragement. Most of these pieces are a fairly standard 3.5-6 minutes in length, but there are a couple of surprisingly short numbers listed which promises some interest - a potential shake up.

Piano, bass and drums. It's a good combination and a versatile one. EST, Tord Gustavsen, Ben Folds (Five) and probably more acts in my library that I cannot think of from the top of my head after a long day, a glass of wine and a bleeding impossible episode of Only Connect. What? Don't look at me like that. Just because it crosses out from jazz and ditches the double-bass for an electric bass does not mean that Folds' preferred form is not relevant here. Bottom line, I like piano, and this combination provides all the structure you could want to show it off - whether in laid back Scandinavian jazz or haphazard rocky style. The bass takes the pressure off the pianist, allowing him to concentrate on melody over structure, which makes for both an interesting top end and a solid base over which to show it off.

I am a little disappointed that the first of the two short pieces - which arrive back to back - is not really energetic and changing the overall tone. It's a nice piece, don't get me wrong, but with a slow wandering melody it does not take advantage of its limitations in time. No space to build a theme, a sense of direction; by the time it does it has peaked and is in denouement. Actually the wind down is better than the climb up, and I notice now (blind, me!) that the second short piece is titled Interlude. I could have dashed my own hopes before getting them all up with a bit more attention. Oh well.

The thread of soft - though not distant - sounds is still largely with us. Even when the percussion takes centre stage it is gentle, deadened rather than bright and loud. From the promising start I feel that the album has drifted to a lower ebb. Too slow, too low, too laid back to excite, too relaxed to entice, too mellow to demand more air time. Each piece alone remains nice - well constructed and performed, enjoyable and musical. However they are much of the same ilk, and this is somewhere that I think Svensson was so much stronger in varying tempo, in raising the roof alongside the softer more reflective pieces. For all that I am lamenting the uniformity, Still There is a really gorgeous track. A slow, deliberate trip around one's own living room. It feels intimate, loving, special.

Finally the tempo lifts, and the injection of a little volume stirs me out of reflective stupor. Purpose again - deliberate striving for something, and a darker tone without swamping it with grimness. The difference is the introduction of more bass register keys, conscious wanderings into the left hand's domain, or even just the middle of the keyboard. Where We Went is the outlier that brings definition to everything that came before, providing greater context to what has been and what is to come. Oh, sure, the track slows to a crawl as it concludes, but its job has been done, its race well run, by then. The soaking bucket of active interest emptied over the nodding head that the earlier themes had brought on. The pace does not last into the next track, but the volume remains higher, the sound richer, as the Cocoon is built around me whilst I listen. There are more than shades of Svensson's playing in the latter half of this track for me, but overall the musicianship has been very different from that, emphasising different traits, strengths of the players.

The second half of the disc, then, has had more life than the first; it would be hard to have less and still be enjoyable. There is a stately air about some of it, Vesper in particular. A more measured elegance than the soft sound sculpting of the early tracks. One could also say that it drifts into much more traditional forms as the final track could almost be anyone, a world away from the soft and gentle application on the opener which was like nothing I had heard before. All in all it is a decent disc, although having gone through it in full once I don't think I would want to listen in order again. I did like everything, but I feel it would be better appreciated to sprinkle these in and amongst some livelier fare so I'll keep them with that in mind.

21/03/2015

Being Alive: Loose Wheels and Latchkeys 2000-2005 - Grand Drive

Track list:

1. Shake My Tree
2. Something to Believe In
3. I Know There's a Place
4. I Want You (And I'm Right)
5. I'll Be There for You
6. When a Champ Hangs Up His Gloves
7. Being Alive
8. The Fair Goes Slow
9. Holding On
10. Rolling Over
11. She Loves the Jerk
12. The First Time Again
13. Wing in the Wind
14. Hearts of Stone
15. The Premise

Running time: 77 minutes
Released: 2005
I first got into Grand Drive through Danny and the Champions of the World (what lead singer Danny George Wilson did next), I think. LastFM featured somewhere in there too, as their strains of Americana cropped up on more than one station I found myself listening to. There was something evocative about their best work, some ramshackle charm and simple pleasure. It was only after I bought everything I have and he saw them on my shelf that that I found out that my brother had worked a little with them on one of their albums (I forget which now), and that I crossed the road from which they took the name on the way to his last house. Or something.

This is the "best of the rest" type of offering - you know, the "we've been around X years now lets put out the unreleased material" jobbie. At least, I guess so - the title kind of implies it. There are some things on here that light my memory strongly and positively and others that I just do not recognise or cannot recall. I think this will be a fun one to listen to, but for the length - my staying power isn't great at the moment!

Shake My Tree is an odd choice to open with. Its very unlike the rest of their oevre and starts slowly. Once the vocal comes in it is more recognisable but the pacing and rhythm is still rather odd, more reminiscent of ska, or at least more claustrophobic in character than most Grand Drive tracks - like the one that follows. Higher tempo and a floaty melody to open puts me back on more familiar ground. I have always liked Something to Believe In, the constant of the guitar, the harmonies in the vocal, the expanse of the track as a whole.

"Americana" is an odd genre; I couldn't describe the genre to anyone concisely but I feel like I would be happy to assign it on hearing things. That said the list of artists under the genre on Wikipedia is rather wide-ranging with plenty of people that are not at all familiar to me. I have also seen Grand Drive tagged as alt-country, which I think is utter tripe as a catigorisation. Americana seems to fit though - certainly the larger, open sounds are characteristic - and hey, that Wiki list contains swedes, so I guess London-based Australians can qualify too.

I Want You returns a little to the slightly darker tones and less established rhythm of the opening track. I find myself not really recognising the verses, and the chorus is strident than I remember. The song is really not what I recalled at all. That is no bad thing per se, but it is a bit jauntier and less purposeful for it and I think I like the misremembered version in my head a bit more. It's like the musical equivalent of sportspeople looking like better players when they're not in the team.

Stretching the sporting analogy past credibility (I'm sorry; I've been watching rugby - still am, in fact as the women are currently losing to France - all day and am working off the disappointment of England coming up just short on points difference) this album is like the subs bench. A couple of really good players ready to come on and shake things up but mostly stocked with those not quite good enough to have made the first team. That is to say the songs are solid enough representations of Grand Drive's work but not many of them are real favourites. There are exceptions - Something to Believe in was already mentioned, and She Loves the Jerk is upcoming.  However the majority of these songs are unspectacular, inoffensive easy listens. Honestly the biggest take away from many thus far is the general atmosphere of the album. That may sound negative, damning with faint praise but I assure you it is not meant like that because I find the soft edge and open sound to these pieces a very pleasant and relaxing one.

Danny's voice is not the strongest, but it has character that serves him very well. Character is not quite enough to carry a song like Being Alive off without a hitch - it is too quiet, leaves too much to the slightly frail, quavering nature of his sound - an edge that works in more bombastically delivered songs or with more in terms of support from the arrangement, but that lets him down when left to stand along. In some respects I find the vocal a little reminiscent of King Creosote, whose singing voice I once described as "brilliant and broken in equal measure" (or something along those lines). The middle of this album exhibits the broken side of that dichotomy too much and, in a show of nominative determinism (I love that, by the by), The Fair Goes Slow is far too slow to be of any interest at all.

The chorus of Holding On, by contrast, plays on that broken edge and frailty in the voice by being both a slightly more sombre song (the title phrase is almost plaintive in nature and forms a major part of the chorus) and by offering the right kind of support from the instruments to create the appropriate crucible for it to shine. That said, I am a little glad when Rolling Over has a little bit more tempo to it.

She Loves the Jerk is apparently a cover (yes, I just looked that up). I loved it the first time I heard it, mostly for the narrative imagery and the capture of a feeling of frustration of being on the outside. We then get treated to a much more richly arranged number, brass and all sorts appearing. I generally prefer Grand Drive when they have a bigger sound... or at least, I think I do but I am sure that does not always hold true.

Just a few to go now, and I know the last track well, but not the two preceding it. Wing in the Wind is stripped back again, back to soft, pleasantly relaxing. There is a nice sway to the verse, a decent enough arrangement. It works without ever standing out. Oh, turns out I do recognise Hearts of Stone - the chorus at least rings a bell. Its a little too slow for me really, at least at this time of night on a day of disappointment (England Women have indeed just succumbed to defeat to go with not quite taking the men's title earlier).

The Premise is our closer, it is almost like one long outro really... an 8 minute instrumental number with a catchy, clappy, rhythm a hooky guitar melody. I have heard it a number of times on shuffle, and the first few I had to look up who it was by as I could never place it as it really does not sit obviously alongside the very song-centric output of Grand Drive's other work. I kept thinking that it must be from some soundtrack album or other because it feels like title credits music more than anything else. The repetitive nature of the track plays into this pretty hard - its like a one-trick pony, relying on its trick so long and hard that you think in its original form there must have been something else to back it up somehow. Thankfully its a pretty pleasant trick and it plays into the overall atmosphere of the album.

So as it closes, I will be getting rid of one track - in addition to being too slow, The Fair Goes Slow is also too long. The rest... everything has a place. Largely in Grand Drive's case that place is in a playlist of similar material for me - but that is a playlist I can see myself returning to in future.

18/03/2015

The Beginning and the End - Clifford Brown

Track list:

1. I Come from Jamaica
2. Ida Red
3. Walkin'
4. Night in Tunisia
5. Donna Lee

Running time: 34 minutes
Released: 1973
This came in a big box of jazz albums that I picked up as a collection relatively recently - the same box that saw me acquire 8:30 by Weather Report. I am not at all familiar with his work as I go into this one.

The disc is made up of two short pieces and two epics with the closing track somewhere in between. The two shorties up first. I come from Jamaica surprises my by being a song; I was expecting instrumental jazz going by the cover. Despite Armstrong, I do not associate trumpeters with singing. It is a raucous number, short and not overly sweet. The second track is also a song, but I was ready for it this time. It has a pleasantly familiar cadence (a word I might start over-using, it's been in my head so much of late). I think I realise why its familiar... Dr John's medley including My Indian Red on Trippin' Live. Clearly this is just a rewording or alternate lyric - probably more PC, though I doubt that was an issue in nineteen seventy-three.

Now for the two long tracks. The first is more what I was expecting to hear. Fairly traditional jazz sounds with an emphasis on the trumpet. It is fairly high tempo, not racing along but not a sedentary number. A couple of solos come and go. There is a bustle in the background of the track... whether that is a recording artefact from the good old days or, no - the applause confirms it is a live audience. You can hear the hubbub of folks chatting. This is interesting because you might think it would detract from the tune and I guess in a way it does seeing as I am straining to listen to it. However it works for the recording, giving it a sense of atmosphere akin to actually being out and about. The tune itself meanders back and forth, keeping up the pace, giving everyone a turn - have I mentioned before that I dislike the "mandatory solo"? I think I have, but I really do - in a very stereotypical way. It never elevates to the point of being arresting, but neither does it sink to disappointing.

However it does get a bit stale; 11 minutes is a long time to keep one piece going without any pause or slow down. I think it is the uniform pace that gets to me most, and I am glad when it finally comes to a close. The next track is only a shade shorter and picks up a very similar rhythm. The initial impression is of a more interesting composition this time but I am afraid that I find that sitting like this concentrating on the music is not a good fit for this type of jazz. Sure, I pick up things like the nicely dirty squeeze that underlies the main melody in places, a real sleaze about it, which I would miss in a busier situation, but I find that I want a drink, darkness and bustle, a conversation to concentrate on, and to just pick out the best refrains out of the mix. Night in Tunisia gives the impression of some of that until the piano solo which kills the mood; the track has lived on the brass and dropping both trumpet and sax to give space to the keys completely changes the complexion of the track. After Walkin' I thought I would be all for any type of change, but in fact it rips the heart out of things, and even when the horns come back... the energy, the sense of presence have been lost a little and the tune is poorer for it.

The final number races into things at a million miles an hour. Tempo is definitely up here, and it was not slow on the previous pieces. I can imagine this was an energetic performance to witness. The leading trumpet is slightly squeaky - as if notes are being pinched off because the track rocks onwards so fast. I do not get the impression of Brown as being virtuoso, but more of him being a showman, someone who lived for the stage. Of course that could all be guff; can't really tell anything like that, but it is funny how our minds give us ideas beyond those we could reasonably expect to get.

I am not that taken with Donna Lee - too fast, too garbled for it; more about sheer weight of notes rather than the quality of those notes. As such it is a little overwhelming and so underwhelming. It feels like a mess on record, but was probably amazing to see performed. As it comes to an end - rather catching me by surprise, the pace having made seven minutes fly past in what seemed like seconds I don't know what to make of this disc. Donna can go for sure, Night in Tunisia is a keeper even with the drop off at the tail. The other three follow Donna Lee out the door too. Walkin' had its moments, but 11 minutes of the same moments repeated is too much, and as for the two songs, I was lukewarm on the first, and have a more preferred version of the second. Disappointed, but not too much so. You are bound to get a dud or two in a big box of varieties.

16/03/2015

Begin to Hope - Regina Spektor

Track list:

1. Fidelity   
2. Better   
3. Samson   
4. On The Radio   
5. Field Below   
6. Hotel Song   
7. Après Moi   
8. 20 Years Of Snow   
9. That Time   
10. Edit   
11. Lady   
12. Summer In The City

Running time: 47 minutes
Released 2006
I got into Regina Spektor late - Far too late - and it wasn't until Live in London that I really fell for her work. Picking up her other albums I found her maddeningly inconsistent. When she is good she is wonderful, but I find there is a tendency there to go weird and awful too often. 

Some of my favourite tracks originate on this album but I am only really familiar with the live versions. I am looking forward to this, but with a certain trepidation. How many hits? How many duds?

I often think of Regina Spektor as a female counterpart Ben Folds - and as such someone I really should have got into sooner: a slightly nerdy piano-driven genius. They should collaborate more (I am aware of one track which will come up when I start mainlining Folds in a few discs' time); my nerdgasm would be massive. Anyhow, Fidelity is one of those tracks that I love from Live in London, and I find this recording quite hard to listen to as a result. The balance between voice and instrument seems to be wrong and there is not quite the impact in the singing. The song is the kind of number that sends my mind racing all over the place to my detriment, but it is such a beautiful sentiment that I would forgive it much more.

My impression is that this album may be her most consistently good work but I am basic that off the 5 I know well. There are 7 other tracks here that I have not paid much - indeed enough - attention to in the past. Better is the first of those. It is likeable enough here but it leaves me with the feeling I need to hear it a few more times if it is going to grow on me. This project and the culling of tracks that are not up to standard is good for getting me to pay attention to the vast array of tunes that I have accumulated, but it is not really very good for making informed decisions. These days I find that new material needs time to bed in and build an impression, being better with each listen until I am familiar enough to make more informed judgements. Still, there has to be something there to warrant returning more than once.

I digress about that because Samson and On the Radio are both also on Live... and second nature to me now as that disc is a regular when I am driving. On the Radio in particular offers a very simple pleasure, plinky in places it has a childlike nature to it that is really appealing. In both cases I prefer the live version, though I guess that is only to be expected given the level of familiarity I have with them. Field Below is new to me (though I have apparently scrobbled it a few times before), unrecognised. I rather like the soft singing, but the jingly nature of the piano in places is off-putting. In all honesty I find the track too slow for my current mood, sapping the energy I had to start this piece. I think, though, that in other circumstances I would really appreciate it.

OK, so that recording I like. Hotel Song is nicely put together and the differences from the live version are interesting this time rather than slightly flat. A punchier rhythm/percussion is a nice touch but it is the muted backing to Spektor's voice that adds depth which I really like, it sounds like a choir but could be any number of other things. It is a little too soft for me to find it distinct but I don't mind that. Après Moi is a song that I don't overly like most of, but it has always had magic to it when she starts singing in Russian - I believe I saw somewhere that it is quoting a Russian author or poet, but I don't recall... I find it fascinating and incredible to listen to despite not understanding a thing. Her inflections and voice help, but largely it is, I suspect, the musicality of what is, to me, an impenetrable language shining through.

I thought initially that was the last track here that I recognised but now I notice That Time is on here, too, making it a 50/50 split between those I know well and those I do not.That song is not a favourite and I certainly do not need both versions. I don't need 20 Years of Snow - playing now - either. These two tracks are definitely Spektor veering into the weird and not so wonderful, indulging herself. Trading on quirky is one thing, but for it to be worth trading on quirky needs to be backed up by more. Thankfully for us, it is, just not - generally speaking - on the same tracks that the quirks come out in force. Edit may change that... using percussive staccato forms and an almost spoken vocal this track blends her strengths with the sometime weaknesses and forms a pretty, compelling track that feels like it has purpose (and that is a trait that quirky can often ride roughshod over). The song does get a little repetitive by the time it draws closed but I like it.

Last couple now, neither of which I am overly familiar with. Lady, like Field Below earlier, feels a little slow for what I want just now but it has a lovely lilt to it, the composition feeling semi-classical in places, the delivery evoking crooners, old time singers in smokey bars - an effect that is magnified by the saxophone notes that come drifting in over it in. When the vocal gives over to the brass for the denouement the track loses much of its atmosphere - I don't think the piano plus sax works as a primary pairing. The final track is also a slow number, very simple notation with the singing carrying most of the interest; I don't mind that at all.

All told, this was a nice 45 minutes or so. Given the choice, I probably wouldn't listen to the album versions over the versions of any of the 6 tracks from Live in London, except Hotel Song, so I think to trim down is acceptable there, and 20 Years of Snow will go too. The other tracks though I need to listen again at some point to really appreciate.

13/03/2015

Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps

Track list:

1. Low Place Like Home
2. Tesko Suicide
3. 6 Underground
4. Becoming X
5. Spin Spin Sugar
6. Post-Modern Sleaze
7. Waterbaby
8. Roll On
9. Wasted Early Sunday Morning
10. Walking Zero
11. How Do

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 1996
Going back 20 years again now. I remember when 6 Underground and Spin Spin Sugar were released as singles and not liking either. We change with time I guess, because I got into them later. This album, although it is the one with the songs everyone remembers, is probably the weakest of the three I have (Splinter and Bloodsport are the others). A grubby overtone to this permeates the later efforts, too, but here there the female vocal dilutes it a little compared with Chris Corner's later on. And to be clear I think that grubbiness is welcome here.

It starts right on the money with Low Place Like Home where the loop sets the tone with a ramshackle edge to it, the percussion sounding almost improvised, dulled. The choruses, when they come, inject an edgy guitar and the effect is atmospheric. It is background music, really - better experienced as the soundtrack to some other activity as the loops and hooks lull you into a head nod that feels like it should be in a dark and murky club. This sets the tone for the whole album really - on edge somewhat, seedy, rhythmic.

Friday night and I am doing this; too old now for the "going out" - not that I was ever much of one for that. Relevance? Well I never really hear music like this in the context it was created for - but that's fine; it has a life outside of that context. 6 Underground is a little more melodic, with a softer backing. The loops are there but there are more expansive themes there - an effect of space outside the walls created by the hook. I don't really know why I didn't like this originally... there's nothing to dislike. It is not a masterwork though, actually hearing it back now it sounds a little bland, a bit too radio friendly. The song lacks the grit and grime and it removes the most effective ingredient from the composition. This makes it accessible and pleasant - inoffensive.

Not that the dirtier, darker tracks are offensive at all, but its that slightly seedy atmosphere that makes this music tick, drawing you in and wrapping its tendrils around you. There is an urgency, a desperation, to Spin Spin Sugar. This song stands out from the others to date for that... it is the first time where the vocal really sets off the track behind it and sparks a synergy, the sort of seductive mix that sparks a purchase. I think the tracks generally stand up OK, even when it goes more expansive and away from the inglorious undertones that make the biggest impact.

Waterbaby starts to drift a bit - it has the right tone, but the more ethereal vocal and simple instrumentation over the loops are a bit too empty to have much punch and my attention wavers. Suffice to say that Mastermind is not very interesting on mute! My attention strays further with Roll On - I have a problem with songs like this that use adult imagery (IYKWIMAITYD) in lyrics in that I find it impossible to take seriously and dismiss the entire composition as a bit of a joke as a result. Its a shame because actually here the lyrics actually work with the theme of the album, encapsulating that seediness I keep banging on about, but to be honest the track then loses me totally in its outro as it builds a bigger sound which is a little bit of a mess.

Into the climb-down now and I have to admit that I cannot bring Walking Zero to mind at all before it starts. Every other tune here I have had some kind of aural imprint confirmed (or dismissed) by the play, but that one I am staring at blankly as the singer whitters on about Sunday morning drop outs. This album really is the poor relation to its follow-ups - less of a complete end-to-end album than Splinter (which I would flag as my favourite), and not as many stand out tracks as Bloodsport, which may have the best songs. Actually, the holding up is more marginal after the second half - which suffers from coming after the apogee and not doing well in direct comparison. Fair to say that drifting away is quite commonplace over these last few tracks.

How Do is an interesting closer, though. It ditches all the dirt, climbs up and takes flight - a much more melodic, floaty song. It could have come from an entirely different record but it stands out and works for that reason. There is a nice build and the rise and fall of the melody work really well with the lighter touch in the singing to create an open soundscape. To the point where the electronic loops and hooks that were making the atmosphere earlier on in the album are really out of place here, and actually detract. I don't ever recall being so overwhelmed by them before to the point of them spoiling the song for me but this time, perhaps as I am actually paying attention, they are just a little distracting.

So what to do then? Part of me wants to strip these right back and keep just the highlights - part of me says keep the whole lot because whilst I tuned out a little in the middle there it has always been a tone I come back to this for not the specific tracks. On balance, I don't need chaff, and I have the tone elsewhere so time to wield the scythe.

12/03/2015

The Beauty and the Sea - Mor Karbasi

Track list:

1. Roza
2. Shecharhoret
3. Fuego
4. La Pluma
5. Mansevo del dor
6. En la kaye de mi chikez
7. La Galana i la Mar
8. Komo el Pasharo ke Bola
9. Nuestros Amores
10. Adios estrella brillante
11. Puncha Puncha
12. Be'enaim tsohakot
13. Judia

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 2008
Where to start with this? An Israeli singing in Hebrew must be pretty close to the most unlikely thing that I have in my music library - and, to be fair, I have a reasonable number of oddities. I first heard Mor Karbasi through LastFM I think, on a station populated by several similarly non-mainstream material. I loved the emotion in the performance, but never really listened to it once I owned it - I am not surprised, and even if I reaffirm a love of these tracks I am unlikely to want to listen to them often.

If I remember correctly this is a matter of a fantastic voice and abundant raw emotion, the tremulous effect of her notes packing a punch like any hay-maker. The opening track is less melancholic than that though, carrying a balkan/Romany edge to it, and a jaunty rhythm. It is perfectly fine for it, but lacks any real impact on me, but when the second song starts the emotion is very present. The compositions are suitably sparse because it is the voice that is the star here. Too much accompaniment would risk drowning out the qualities exhibited by the style and execution. It is remarkable. That said, a solid hour of it is probably more than I would want short of a live performance. Over its length the song does indeed build up more of an arrangement and it does, I think, lose some of its power.

I am feeling compelled to do this now rather than really actively wanting to. I did not want to leave it a full week again but I have been fighting a general lethargy and constant tiredness which makes long periods of real concentration difficult. It would have been tempting to skip it for something shorter and more accessible - something at least in English - but this is what is in front of me. Not all in Hebrew, mind - there's some Spanish here too (I think - neither are languages that I know, despite working with 2 Spaniards). Looking it up, it is in fact Ladino or Judeo-Spanish. Learn something every day, though I have an inkling I knew that. Fuego is a word I recognise though. Again we are distinctly lacking the raw melancholia that I had been anticipating, the tempo is up and the arrangement is strong. The wailing, wavering voice is there too but so far I am definitely not rating my recollection of this disc. I was expecting fado-like levels of anguish and instead I am hearing light-ish songs with a certain grace and beauty but without the sheer stopping power.

OK, that is the first time it has really made me sit up and take note, and not in a good way. Mansevo del Dor has a blunt aspect to it, repetitive and rhythmic rather than musical. It is short, thankfully, as I find it atonal and undesirable. Thankfully the follow up is back on track, and this does have the mournful base to it, lending it an authority and appeal that had been lacking in part until now. There is a touch of the medieval about some of these tracks - it's the plucked strings that do it, I think, though some of the pipes/whistles add to the feeling. I do like that it harks back like that - in the modern world big brash sounds and overproduction seem to rule more often than not and the sense of times past works as an antidote to today's electronic jungle. Even though I have not done many of these posts of late I feel like I spend an inordinate amount of my time in front of this screen typing something  up. Committing to actual play of the Albion game doesn't help there, for sure, and I would be lying if I said that had not contributed to the paucity of postings here. I am in a position now to consider what I do with these tracks as I listen. There are similarities running through the album - simple strings, occasional pipes, a great voice and - to my surprise - more upbeat songs than I remembered. I have not loved any of them, but have only disliked the one. Whereas other material I have been lukewarm on has been cut, here I am tempted to keep everything except that one track simply because I have nothing else like it and as a change up it is really rather nice.

There is some real musicality here too, Adios Estrella Brillante is definitely the pick of the bunch as it carries a gentle melody and a beauty in the piece, though it is spoiled by over a minute of lead out which is atmospheric but out of place on the end of such a lovely song.

Truth be told, I am slightly disappointed that my memory was so off; I think I put more stock in the final track - Judia - than anything else... watch me prove myself wrong again when we get there! Snippets and slivers of that heartfelt pain are sprinkled here and there but the overall mood is much more positive and the playing is very reminiscent of Spanish guitar. I am probably under-selling it because there is nothing wrong with a more uplifting, positive tone and yet I am doing it down for not being able to hear the pain...

I can now though, Judia living up to my recollection from the first word, I can feel the hairs on my arms standing up with the edge, the plaintive cries of the song's title. Slow, stately, and sung to the beams in the roof from a lonely spotlight - or so I picture it. This is the take-home track, fitting that it should be the closer for it really is the most striking by far, possibly the most personal I guess, it feels as though she finds another level of commitment in delivering it.

Overall then, a somewhat surprising album, tonally off from what I recalled but despite that a good listen - one song excepted. I cannot say I am likely to sit down and choose to hear them together all at once again but that is not everything, and variety is a good thing.

07/03/2015

The Beautiful Lie - Ed Harcourt

Track list:

1. Whirlwind In D Minor
2. Visit From The Dead Dog
3. You Only Call Me When You're Drunk
4. The Last Cigarette
5. Shadowboxing
6. Late Night Partner
7. Revolution In The Heart
8. Until Tomorrow Then
9. Scatterbraine
10. Rain On The Pretty Ones
11. The Pristine Claw
12. I Am The Drug
13. Braille
14. Good Friends Are Hard To Find

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2006
It has been a week since I posted - not a case of not having the time, more not having the right frame of mind. Time enough to need to force this one or risk losing the drive.

Ed Harcourt. For a time he was a real favourite and I am still very keen on the odd song here and there, but in general I found the quality of his output to deteriorate album by album. This is not the last of his albums that I have but it probably should have been. Looking at the track list, it starts strong and then drops off markedly into the sort of nothing songs he became prone to. Or so my impression is to begin with.

I love the hook in the opening track, and whilst I am less keen on what goes on around it until we hit the chorus it is enough to engage. The more audible vocal on the chorus makes it work in a way the ethereal nature of the signing in the verses does not quite match. The outro loses the plot a bit, subsuming what was good about the song to a noisy presence that, for me, adds nothing. Visit From the Dead Dog is the one song from the listing that I recognised immediately as a favourite. It's a strange title and a strange tale but the vocal performance harks back to the Ed Harcourt I first got interested in, the melody is accessible and the arrangement comes together nicely - its a lazily lovely song: never demanding, just supplying. It harks back in another way too - the trumpet; I went through a period in the late 90s, early 2000s of really liking the use of a trumpet in "pop" music and Harcourt's work with (I think) Hadrian Garrard was one of the drivers for that.

The tone turns maudlin now, slower and more orchestral initially, I recall this song as having a horrid end - chanting the title over and over. I wonder if I am conflating it with something else as what I hear now does not at all match my recollection of You Only Call Me When You're Drunk. In fact it puts me in mind of a TV show, orchestral, slightly sad. Oh, no... I was right. It goes harebrained and scattershot, a sonic mess that is really not pleasant. At least on the bright side my memory (so often exposed as fraud in these pages) is proved correct for one, and thus not wholly useless! The maudlin returns and this is the abiding emotional association I hold with The Beautiful Lie. As someone who has never smoked it takes a lot to make me care about cigarettes and this song does not manage it either, especially when Harcourt's voice goes all strained in places - like the perfect embodiment of my disillusionment with his later works.

My thoughts turn away from Ed Harcourt and to Fiona Apple because I cannot see the title "Shadowboxing" without thinking of Shadowboxer, which is a vastly more compelling track. This one is jingly percussion and muted melodies. The delivery of the chorus is pretty good and saves the song from being a complete waste, but all it has really served to do is make me wish I was listening to Tidal instead. That won't be for several years though - not in this context anyway.  So why have I not been able todo any more posting this week? Honestly I am not sure; going back to work after a week off was not particularly stressful, but I did end last weekend feeling that I had not done enough with my time. Being busy Monday through Wednesday evenings did not help, and the drive to come here to write and listen simply did not appeal on Thursday, when I was writing up game notes instead, or Friday when I deigned to shoot digital tanks. I have decided to ditch the Bloodbowl league for the time being though; stresses of scheduling are better avoided now I am GMing again, and a terrible final game left me cursing the overly dicey nature of it. That happens every now and again and the tanking has a similar problem. Both together is a recipe for stupid frustration and misplaced anger so only one persists.

Another song drifted by whilst I was whittering on there, the sort of nothing tune that Harcourt seems to have drifted toward over his career, but there is something more palatable playing now as we hit half way through. Unfortunately I dislike the chorus and bridge that follow - the composition and arrangement toward the start of Revolution in the Heart is great, but the harmonies in the singing and the devolution into "shanananana" that follows is a terrible progression. Time for an execution of the track, I feel. Spooky black and white movie music: that is what Until Tomorrow Then feels like - but somehow it works. A fuzzy not-quite jazzy arrangement and a pained but controlled vocal which is charged in the chorus to the point of desperation... its really well done. Maudlin but not depressing, hard to listen to but not unpleasant and above all pretty darn evocative. I can just see those 1930s cityscapes and old cars, downbeat bars and femmes fatales.

Unfortunately the jumpy and inconsistent nature of this album which allows for such interesting little tracks is the same nature which produces awful songs like Scatterbraine. It is, I think, Harcourt's career in microcosm; capable of genius but pulled in so many directions that the output suffers for it. This was true even on Here Be Monsters and Maplewood, but less so. Thankfully Scatterbraine is sandwiched by two of the better examples as Rain on the Pretty Ones is also nicely crafted, tugging at the heartstrings in a way that some of the earlier tracks tried to do unsuccessfully.

Hmm The Pristine Claw was not a name I associated with anything, but when the song starts it is immediately recognisable and it is one I rather like. It is a very simple string melody and a very softly sung lyric but unlike some such songs it trades on its simplicity for good effect. Tonally speaking Harcourt is all over the place on this disc. It is not a new sort of inconsistency but it is a source of frustration both from the standpoint of wanting something more cohesive to write about and tie together but also from the perspective of jumping from mood to mood along with the changes of tempo and life when consuming it. He can, however, be beautifully eloquent at times, very effective at pulling you around emotionally. Braille is a fine example of this, and again trades off the aural equivalent of soft focus in the voice recording. It belies my preconception that the album drifted out to nothing but providing a track that leaves you feeling like you have nothing. It is crafted to make you feel empty, lost, bereft... well, probably not, but such is the skill with which the song has been put together that it really had an impact on me hearing it now. It is a glorious track that I had never appreciated before. The final song plays on similar emotions but not nearly so well - the playing, the singing, the arrangement... the same triggers are present but they just will not pull. This does end up the nothing song I expected and even the trumpet cannot save it.

So I now have to pick over the track list and spit out the casualties. I thought I would be removing more that I will delete in actual fact, but actually it comes out to just over half the tracks being jettisoned even so. Many of them not bad (only 2 were actually unpleasant), but simply not good enough for me to want to listen to again given the wide array of other things I could be hearing.

I will try not to make it a week before the next post; if I got into that habit, I would never finish.