Blacklisted - Neko Case

Track list:

1. Things That Scare Me
2. Deep Red Bells
3. Outro With Bees
4. Lady Pilot
5. Tightly
6. Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)
7. Stinging Velvet
8. Pretty Girls
9. I Missed the Point
10. Blacklisted
11. I Wish I Was the Moon
12. Runnin’ Out of Fools
13. Ghost Wiring
14. Outro With Bees (reprise)

Running time: 39 minutes
Released: 2002

Change of scenery now after a brief delve into hip hop is behind me. This album was my introduction to Neko Case and may (only may) remain my favourite of her works. There are a range of sounds here, songs both slow and fast, and like Cathal Coughlan's Black River Falls this album works wonderfully as a showcase for a stunningly good voice.

The initial bright spangly guitar is just a joy, and the depth and echo when Case starts singing - filling space - immediately sets a tone that resonates strongly with the sense of a time and place other than ours. A twangy banjo adds to the milieu of the old west. Its a short snappy song, and a very strong start, but things get better from here.

Deep Red Bells is the track that when I first heard it I knew I liked Neko Case a lot. There is a resonance to her vocal here, a mellowness to the guitar. This is more dark night enclosed space music for me than bright Saturday morning but it is like a cocoon to wrap yourself in. Growing up I was always highly dismissive of country music, stereotypes abounded and all of them hid the fact that it could be like this... powerful, stirring and full of themes. There is is a richness and a blackness to some of the guitar in this piece that I would associate more with urban-inspired tunes. That edge really gives it something.

Its cheap and dismissive but when you have a voice this good it almost doesn't matter what it is singing or accompanying. Case has, simply put, a stunning set of vocal chords. She has range, can deliver tenderness or softer lines - like on Lady Pilot - but its the resonance when she really launches into things that sticks with you, or the fullness of sound when over a strong but sparse melody. When her voice gets layered on top of itself in Tightly it is a really evocative effect, but in truth I find this track, and Look for Me which follows, to be the weakest point of the album. They slow the pace down and I don't find that Case's voice does quite enough to lift the resulting plod in the same way it does with a couple of tracks later on the disc. There's no doubt that her singing on the tracks is impressive though - the finish to Look for Me being a case in point. I just find the songs a little flat.

Stinging Velvet is the opposite of flat. Punchy from the off, it gets more so after the first verse when a bit more instrumentation joins in. There is a nice rumble to this song, and a nice expansiveness to the chorus that contrasts the echo-chamber effect of the verses. I'm not sure why I feel the chorus is more open, its just an instinctive reaction to it. I would say this is my favourite track from the disc but in truth that changes based on my mood. We move on to a lament, delivered with a full sound and perhaps a bit of an edginess in the voice - disdain or anger? A stridency in any case.

Missed the point is another favourite - this is a love song of sorts. I always think it shorter than it is. Whilst it comes in at under 2 minutes, there is a whole second verse that I always forget exists. I love the sentiment, I love the way it is communicated, its just a wonderful little vignette. The title track brings in a lonely guitar - this feels like a plaintive cry to an uncaring world, a lonesome stand against encroaching night. Then possibly the loneliest track of all... but my favourite vocal performance on the album. Case's delivery is pretty much all there is to this song for the first little bit, a solo stand against a bleak backing. Even when the accompaniment joins in, it is all secondary. There is a roll, a lilt, to the singing and a glorious musicality in her voice, rising and falling with emotional investment out the wazoo. It is the kind of performance that you either love or find overwrought - and I am on the first side of that.

Then we get to Running Out of Fools, another powerful vocal showcase, the melancholic guitars behind it are almost obliterated by the sheer emotion Case imparts on climactic lines, her voice strained and pained but bringing warmth at other points. The song itself suffers in a couple of places - notably the lead out - but it all pales behind the singing. I realise now that I don't recognise Ghost Writing at all, which is laughable really because I have listened to this disc an awful lot, including in the car, but there we go. The song is a nice gentle swell but relative to what has been before it is a bit of a climb down, especially with a minute of silence on the end of it before we get to the outro. This is a reprise of the third track, with a hazy static radio effect opening us up and overlaying the initial chords. It resolves to a nice keyboard line, and Case's voice sounding very distant, like over a bad wireless signal. It could be out of Fallout or Bioshock or any number of such properties that have a 50s aesthetic and a broken world. Its a short album, made shorter by some silence and a reprise, but a very, very good one all the same.

Black Sunday - Cypress Hill

Track list:

1. I Wanna Get High
2. I Ain't Goin' Out Like That
3. Insane In The Brain
4. When The Sh-- Goes Down
5. Lick A Shot
6. Cock The Hammer
7. Lock Down
8. Lil' Putos
9. Legalize It
10. Hits From The Bong
11. What Go Around Come Around, Kid
12. A To The K
13. Hand On The Glock
14. Break 'Em Off Some

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 1993

So uh... after one disappointing dip into hip-hop, what to expect from this? Well, for one I don't think I ever took this album seriously, which probably helps, but for another my recollection is that it has some more immediately appealing samples. I am surprised to see how many of the track titles retain familiarity after 20 years.

A klaxon call opens us up, before a loaded loop drops in and then the plaintive call about wanting to lose one's head hits. I am squeezing this listen in after work, before roleplaying because I feel awake and alert enough to, which is a nice change. Working at home helps. The major difference between this track and Black Star is the level of aural interest outside of the vocal. The loop is persistent throughout, but it is hooky enough to latch onto and the scratches, bleeps and horns mean there is more texture to the track than anything covered in yesterday's post.

There is more life in this. Less heart, I suspect, but more life. The whole disc reads like a love-letter to a crappy lifestyle of drugs and guns but it's so... over the top that I can't take it seriously and therefore don't get annoyed by the bad boy advocacy. I know, it's inconsistent and fickle, especially since it seems it really is a love letter to weed. However it never quite sheds a tongue-in-cheek image, cartoonish, at least from the far side of the Atlantic.

The structures are very reliant on high pitched squeaks and scratches to supplement bassy loops and beats. I don't mind this - whilst I would prefer something with a bit more music in the treble the choice of samples and the construction of their hooks provides an engagement that survives the test of time much better than I thought it might. Lick a Shot introduces a pace that had been lacking prior to that. This tune has much less of a "stoner" feel to it as a result, a real urgency in the drum and in the pace of the rapping are a world away from the slower and more deliberate numbers.

There is a whining, strained quality to one of the primary voices that contributes a lot to my image of Cypress Hill as deliberately, and slightly camply, over the top. I can't imagine that is what they were going for but its an image I can't shake as I find myself enjoying the simple constructions allied to vocals that at worst suffice and at best complement the beats well. It is a little bit samey by half-way through but the tracks slide by fast - the whole 14 track album is less than 45 minutes - so this is not a drag.

Ah, there it is. The sample of Son of a Preacher Man in Hits from the Bong really lightens the track. This sample is always my abiding memory of Cypress Hill. Its a pity that they loop the same short sample over and over through the track though. Still it's better than What Go Around Come Around, Kid, which sounds like it samples the Grange Hill (oh the horrors of my childhood) theme tune - but doesn't. I think I have reached my limit - this listen has gone from campy fun to a chore, and my mind from fresh to yawning. A to the m***********g K homeboy. Enough said. Its funny if you squint I suppose. Take it with the over-the-top view and sit there swaying side-to-side, arms crossed and fingers extended in mock pose, serious face on. Actually taking it at face value gives a very different experience.

I would get rid but before I got tired of it I was genuinely enjoying the early parts of this album and I think the same would be true of the latter half if I heard it in isolation. My sense of humour failure mid-way through is not the music's fault. I blame the clocks going back and it being pitch black before 18.00 - its never a good time of year for me. The album ends on a pacier note again, before silence descends and I am spared from pushing my limits any more. I can't quite bring myself to part with any of this because the whole album has a similar feel... one which makes these tunes much more appreciable thrown into a melting pot with others where they can be thrown out as a change-up. Its a flimsy excuse, and maybe one driven by nostalgia; so what.

Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star - Black Star

Track list:

1. Intro
2. Astronomy (8th Light)
3. Definition
4. RE: DEFinition
5. Children’s Story
6. Brown Skin Lady
7. B Boys Will B Boys
8. K.O.S. (Determination)
9. Hater Players
10. Yo Yeah
11. Respiration
12. Thieves in the Night
13. Twice Inna Lifetime

Running time: 50 minutes
Released: 1998

So this was listed initially as "Black Star", hence fitting it in now, but a little looking into it suggested that should really be the artist name and the full album title was where Mos Def and Talib Kweli were recognised by name. I was gifted this at some point past, well beyond the days when I looked to buy rap music, and probably a decade after this was released. I have vague recollections of finding it pretty well done and worth holding onto but then it sank into the pool of things in my shuffle and never surfaced again. I am not moving it down the list with the re-titling purely because having been prompted to look into it again now by the mis-titling, I am interested to see what I make of it.

I wrote the intro above over a week ago. Things have been a little busy, and tonight is downtime that I sorely need. Downtime that allows me to kick my posting into life again. The Intro kicks in, and there is a little bit more structure to it than I expected from the first couple of seconds. Fundamentally though it is a short collection of spoken samples and some name repetition thrown in. Throwaway.

Astronomy surprises me by quoting lines from a British folk classic and I immediately see a problem here. The beats and hooks are, well, not very interesting. That on its own is one thing, but it means that any interest in this track - and possibly by extension the rest of the disc - is going to be in the lyricism and vocal performance. I cannot concentrate enough on the lyrics whilst typing to gauge if there is anything I care for in there. It is a dilemma that will surely raise its head again soon, do I listen and leave this blank or type and miss things and make decisions on only part of the pieces, and it prejudices this project against hip-hop as making the backing the star is kinda contrary to the point.

That said I don't think the surprise is backed up by anything arresting thus far. I try to multi-task and find myself not really caring for the vocal either. So far it seems to have steered clear of my biggest bugbears - glorification of violence and crass misogyny - which gets it a check mark, but at the same time there is no X-factor here. Slow and dull, I am bouncing off it pretty hard from the rhythmic point of view, and there isn't enough there to make up for that. Worst, I find most of the vocal uninspired. That is where they should be knocking it out of the park but up to Children's Story it feels very pedestrian. We finally get a half decent groove on Brown Skin Lady, pity it is accompanied by objectification. Musically it is the most interesting track so far by a mile, there is even a change up in the middle of the track, a feature that has been sorely lacking in the sparse and repetitive music served up until this point. It also feels like there might be some real depth in the lyric from the way it is delivered conversationally, as if happening nearby in a loud location. It is the first interesting aural experience for me, alas ruined by the subject.

We get what feels like an interlude next - patterns that could be interesting if there were lyrics worth a damn. Instead it is mostly empty or facile repetition. All this is doing is suggesting just how far I have drifted away from this style of music as I continue to fail to appreciate any part of what I am hearing - most tellingly I find myself surfing forums that I need to pay attention to reading when I try to focus on the lyrics. 

I am disappointed with this and with myself. It just took my phone ringing (I have given literally no-one that number. Bloody telecoms company selling my deets!) to make me switch back to this tab and start writing again. It just so happens to coincide with a more interesting tune - Respiration - which has more going on, enough that for the first time I can see why I might have held onto this disc prior to now. Alas as the track progresses I find myself slumping lower in my crouch (still typing at a coffee-table) and losing the will to continue. Thankfully there is not too long left. On reflection, I think it was Thieves in the Night that I based the chuck/keep decision on. This is more tuneful and feels purposeful, message-bearing - I suspect some of what came before might be, but I missed it. In any case, this is the nicest of the tunes, but still not enough for me to want to keep.

I suspect this experience plays into the general trend to become more musically conservative as you age and finds me not as open to essentially (re)discovering hip-hop as a genre. I don't think this repulsion is necessarily going to be universal, that I cannot like rap or hip-hop any more. No, I think it is more a case that I am unlikely to find new stuff within those spheres that I appreciate (to be fair, that is not least because I will not be looking). I suspect some nostalgic appreciation of other odd tunes in my library, but for most of the album tracks to be jettisoned in the same way I am deleting all of this disc as soon as it draws closed. A pity.

Black Sands - Bonobo

Track list:

1. Prelude   
2. Kiara   
3. Kong   
4. Eyesdown   
5. El Toro   
6. We Could Forever   
7. 1009   
8. All In Forms   
9. The Keeper   
10. Stay The Same   
11. Animals   
12. Black Sands

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2010

We circle back now to Bonobo. I loved, and still love, Animal Magic, but I have been disappointed in pretty much every other Bonobo release to some degree. I seem to keep buying them though. I am not certain why... perhaps because I want to believe the magic of that downtempo classic will be recaptured. I doubt it will be, and here we might pick up on some reasons why.

As I start this, I expect that there will be some decent tunes on here as well as disappointments. The question in my mind is in what ratio?

The Prelude has an oriental air to it, a piercing string melody that is very harsh to begin with but softens as a mellow keyboard appears underneath it. Not what I was expecting from a prelude at all; this I had almost already chalked off as for deletion but that is very unfair in truth. I like it as a starting point. There is no track break and so Kiara starts by seamless transition; somehow it completely changes the dominant theme almost immediately - whilst those strings appear again later, the track is centred around a pulsing electronica, beats and squeaks alike, clashes. It feels lacking in cohesion. Not all over the place and disconnected, just not brought together optimally. Or something. It isn't bad, it's just no Sleepy Seven or Terrapin. The curse of loving something so much that it means nothing can live up to it!

Kong is more immediately likable. From the name I was expecting more bombast but this is sweeter, lighter. The central theme, a wavy, floaty loop, gets old quickly though, and there is not quite enough else going on to cover for that until it drops out just after the 2 minute mark. Now my ear fixates on the drum loop and I am finding that has the same issue - initially interesting then turning to tripe on repetition. Funny how fickle we find we can be eh? I somehow cannot escape the feeling that I have heard it all before, to the point of desensitisation. It feels like... background noise? I don't want to damn this with the same breath as I did Quantic because it is better than that. It is more that this sort of music is so... institutionalised now, everywhere, and it is hard to call any of this particularly distinctive.

Eyesdown introduces vocals - quiet, indistinct vocals, but vocals non-the-less. This is one area where I was expecting disappointment but actually the vocal makes this tune work better than if it were not there, adding a dimension that is just not there without it and breaking up the generic tedium of indistinct shuffling patterns that feel so familiar as to be a little dull. When did I get quite so cynical? Again, not bad just a little lifeless. Thankfully you cannot say the same for El Toro. Taking a leaf out of the Prelude's book there is a strong string theme to lift this number, and the percussion is more prominent, louder and more central than the preceding tracks. These two factors elevate the tune to a

level above, more immediate and more engaging than its predecessors. It is still, alas, nothing like as immediately charming as the best tracks on Animal Magic but it is a cut above the rest of Black Sands to date. 

The next track keeps the stronger percussion and a more contrasting central theme, making it feel like he has found the voice for the record, but it has a cheesier edge to it that makes me shudder and think of bad 80s Hawaiian disco scenes in the movies of the day. Ugh. It gets better as it goes, losing the bad bongos feel to a degree but there is something in the staccato nature of the sounds here that really encourages images of gaudy shirts, floral necklaces and fat men with maracas. Do not want.

1009 returns us to more recent, but still bygone, days, its opening conjuring instead the sound of dial up routers connecting. This is just not relaxing to listen to at all, and if Bonobo does not have that, then frankly it has virtually nothing going for it. The tune gets a little more interesting and less bleepy as it goes but not enough to assuage that initial strong negative reaction and make me want to ever hear it again. I think its fair to say my disappointment is really kicking in at this stage - self-fulfilling prophecy or not. Ah, now that is better. There is a shimmering air to the opening of All in Forms that I rather like. I almost wrote "dig" there, but then I remembered this is not the 70s (when I wasn't alive to be so uncool). The track title seems odd, because the appeal of this track lies in it almost but not quite taking form. It seems to be a shift away from completeness at every step, like it is out of phase with itself somehow, and this is a really evocative ambiance for me. About half way it pulls together, losing the shimmer and taking shape as a simple little tune over a distant backing. Best tune on the disc so far - whilst El Toro was stronger and more stand out, this just has an x-factor, a secret ingredient that inexplicably binds it into a more immediately enjoyable tune.

Today is not the day I hoped it would be; not bright enough to tempt me outside, I was lethargic about rising this morning and that slowness is still with me. The music I am listening to half reflects that back with The Keeper which feels sleepy in its tempo. The vocal annoys me though - it turns what is a nice lazy tune into a bad RnB track (and there will be more of them in later listens, for sure). In my late teens I would probably have loved that, but those days were long gone before this album was released and so despite a good core composition for the way I am feeling right now, the fact I can't get past the vocal means another one for the scrap heap. If I can't enjoy the track when my brain is moving in slow-mo then I never will. I am happy to hear that mood is jettisoned for the following tune, but my hope sinks when a vocal comes in. Be fair, though... it isn't in the same boring lifeless class as what went before, and fits better with what is around it. There is a smoky, wispy quality to the vocal, a duskiness blown away by the clear melody that soars over everything else, drawing my ear away from the repetitive nature of the patterns at play. As the track ends I find myself pulled in two different directions by it which at least merits giving it another chance.

The last two tunes are longer, both over 6 minutes. This is a little bit of a concern when the style in general relies on loops and repetition to the degree that it does. However the opening minutes of Animals is pretty glorious, the percussion a rata-tat-tat of snares keeping a good pace whilst the melody wanders and wavers above. The blueprint changes up entirely just before the 4 minute mark too, meaning that the worry of long-term repeats is taken out of the equation. The high tempo beats recede a little - still there, but less audible behind a sparser and tinnier percussion and a jazz-like melody. I'm not sure which animals the track (or at least its title) is meant to make us think of, but that is an irrelevant detail I find myself unduly considering as the timer runs out on the tune. We are left, then with just the title track. 

It starts with an uncharacteristically slow pace, much more focus on the melodic than the rhythmic portions of the tune. When it develops into what sounds like a sad French movie soundtrack, a mournful quality in the clarinet(?) which carries the central tune lending the track its dominant tone. The quiet horns that rise in support further reinforce that Gallic air, whilst reminding me a little of Beirut. As the percussion picks up and becomes more of a central player you could picture Paris receding into a credits sequence. I really like this track - everything hangs together well and despite the sadness that comes through from the themes it feels as a whole like a very positive and affirmative way to close. It probably drifts on a minute or so longer than it needed to, especially as the themes are given that time to die out, sucking the life out of the track rather than closing with a positive decision but it ends the listen with me feeling much better about the album as a whole. There were tracks I will cut, but only a quarter of the disc in the end, when I feared it would be more. 

It isn't really fair to dismiss Black Sands on the basis that it isn't Animal Magic. If the same album was being trotted out several times then it wouldn't be so special, and I would likely have ranted about lack of evolution or creativity or something instead. It is totally fair to say that I don't hold this album in the same place in my heart, but there are some pretty neat tunes here all the same that I am glad to have and retain.

Black River Falls - Cathal Coughlan

Track list:

1. The Ghost Of Limehouse Cut
2. Officer Material
3. The Bacon Singer
4. Black River Falls
5. Payday
6. Dark Parlour
7. Out Among The Ruins
8. God Bless Mr X
9. Frankfurt Cowboy Yodel
10. NC
11. Whitechapel Mound
12. Cast Me Out In My Hometown

Running time: 51 minutes
Released: 2000

Ah, now I get to revisit a real gem, a true favourite. Black River Falls might be 15 years old now but its been in my life a bit less than that. I've written briefly on Big Sleeping House about how I stumbled on Cathal Coughlan and his fantastic singing as a result of a cover version on a special edition I bought because James Yorkston is one of my favourite ever music people (even if his most recent work drifts out of my interest more than I would like). Coughlan absolutely nailed his cover of Tender to the Blues and so I just had to go find more of his material. Whilst I love Microdisney as a result, it is this album as my perceived pinnacle of his solo work that shines brightest and longest, and it has a timeless quality to me.

It is from here I took the title for my Albion game - Out Among the Ruins - and from the very opening thrum of The Ghost of Limehouse Cut through to the sinister sounds of Cast Me Out In My Hometown it is a magnificent aural journey we make, traveling on the back of that rich and emotion-filled voice. The first number is an example of crime that doesn't pay, a nice tempo, a threatening riff, real darkness in the construction. This post is coming 3 days later than planned after evenings wiped out by bad circumstance. A pity, as I was really looking forward to to doing it Wednesday evening. Now it's Saturday and I am just about starting to feel human again. Coughlan's acerbic vocals are perhaps not what you might think of as relaxing, but there is a warmth in there too. Somehow he manages to be both welcoming and dismissive at the same time.

Officer Material has a very different feel, wistful, and more melodic. I really like the lilt of this one, gently rolling with a much slower pace to the song and open and accessible passages, not closed off and tense as in Limehouse. The piece degenerates a little in its closing but not enough to make me think anything other than fondly of it, before a driving percussion and stand-up (I reckon) bass combination comes in to drive The Bacon Singer. This tune was never the favourite others here are and I am forever thinking this track is actually on Foburg rather than Black River Falls. It moves at a clip, which I rather like, but it is the chorus that falls slightly flat for me. I do love the mic-drop at the end though, and the way that gives way to a really tense acoustic guitar opening for the title track.

Black River Falls gives Coughlan ample license to show off his vocal talents. Light little guitar, haunting strings, melody floating up and then diving down, there is drama in this telling. It feels like a performance or a tale to be shared rather than a simple song, the atmosphere dripping off it is just fantastic, mournful and compelling without being overpowering. I am hard pushed to call a favourite tune from the disc because it is filled with moments like this, and the next tune up is no different. A really solid base, with a nice little melody layered on it, then expression galore from Cathal's voice. Payday is a dark song, dark and slightly crazy. I think my love for these songs can be tied up nicely with my appreciation of the dark, thematic aspects of  urban fantasy/modern occult stories. They share that atmosphere and tension, yet with moments of lightness that surprise you. The capacity of music to create vivid imagery never fails to astound me. A strong lyric can help a song build a really clear picture but it is far from required. 

I am but half-way through but it feels like it will be over too soon, cocooned as I am in wonderful swirling melody and most pertinently the highs and lows of Coughlan's vocal. Out Among the Ruins is another real favourite, again combining a light touch composition with air and space with expression that goes from intense to soaring. There is a line in there that mentions Opus Dei that makes me long to run a conspiracy game, but it was the title itself (also a chorus lyric) that flooded to mind when I was thinking about how I might structure a game in Albion - a post-environmental apocalypse Britain where modern life has returned to renaissance-level technology, even though the song itself does nothing to speak to that. 

The next couple of songs are probably the weakest on the disc, but I would still choose to listen to them over much else that I have waded through in recent posts. At the risk of becoming repetitive, which even the best creators do sometimes (and I am not that!), it is all in that voice. There is no end of expression in there, depth and range that gives us tenderness, sadness, tunefulness and anger, oh my the anger. This is not screaming mindlessly. No, this is rage enunciated and delivered with precision and disdain. I am fond of a little bite in my music... the principled angst that appears on early Thea Gilmore records was one of the main draws for me. Coughlan takes that to another level. Where conveyance of that bite is often reliant on sharp and witty words, lest the song not carry a tune well, here I get the impression he could make a child's bedtime story sound like the world's worst insult whilst still keeping impeccably in tune and building an audible pleasure.

I am mildly distracted by both hunger (I am snacking on crackers, not great for me, but tasty!) and the closing moments of the first quarter final of the Rugby World Cup where Wales are just edging South Africa somehow. I think part of my problem is that I am very familiar with these tunes - the disc has been in my automotive selection for as far back as I can remember and it regularly gets pulled out of the 50 or so offering to serenade me as I make my way to work. As the disc winds down (in concert with the Rugby where the Springboks have just taken the lead at last) we are treated to a slow, descriptive number with menace present in the cleverly used guitar. I am struck by how much atmosphere is smashed into these tracks with relatively little instrumentation. A few well-chosen notes are all that is needed to create that tense, gloomy and oppressive sound - as typified by the final number. This sort of composition is simply made for Coughlan's voice and it delivers time and again on this record. So there, a true favourite, and one that I would heartily recommend anyone who likes broody atmospheric songs, performed with an unmatched aplomb and which manage to enthrall rather than overwhelm.

Black Light - Diagrams

Track list:

1. Ghost Lit
2. Tall Buildings
3. Night All Night
4. Appetite
5. Mills
6. Antelope
7. Black Light
8. Animals
9. Peninsula

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 2012

I remember when I first heard of Diagrams. It was in the run up to the one time I went to End of the Road, where they were performing. I heard a radio piece and thought "that voice is familiar" before twigging that it was Sam Genders who had been part of Tunng. I rather liked what I heard, and bought the self-titled EP, saw them live at the festival (good set as I recall) and bought this album when it followed. I also bought the 2015 follow-up Chromatics recently and was disappointed. Not sure where I'll stand on this one, other than the 27 minute duration of last track Peninsula fills me with despair.

It is later than I would normally think to start an hour-long listen, but I am 99% certain that there is about 20 minutes of silence in Peninsula so I don't anticipate sitting through it, and I need something to fill up time until I can reasonably go to bed! Ghost Lit is an odd starter, I like what they've done with Genders' vocal a lot, the effects give it depth whilst the composition and arrangement spin around it. There is not really much to the song though and some of the kookier sounds in the melange are out of place and end up detracting from, rather than adding to the ambiance.

Tall Buildings is more what I was expecting. A bright poppy guitar, a bit of pace and a similarly treated vocal - echo effect giving it weight and volume which is an interesting contrast with the very stripped back feeling I get from the super clean sound of the main riff. It fits better with the other sounds drafted into the mix, but it is that black-and-white polarisation between the main elements that makes the song interesting. The song feels very 80s but with updated modern electronica rather than awful synths. Like the preceding number, I don't think the song has much merit, but the track as a whole works really nicely. I am happier that there is more heft to Night All Night though. I remember the chorus of this one despite not having heard it (by my estimation) for 3 years or so and there is a really pleasant roll to it, and a nice change up between chorus and verse. It feels like quite a downbeat song, but the tempo for most of the piece belies a more positive air. Rather than getting caught being neither, it somehow manages to be both and really work for me.

I am casting about for things to do to wind down - I've had a long day at work, a cancelled set of evening plans, another failed run at doing something about loneliness and finally come off watching the opening episode of River on the BBC. Nicola Walker stealing the show as a manifestation of Stellan Skarsgard's dead partner in a show penned by Abi Morgan. Too many good people involved to be dull - but I came out thinking it had some excellence and a lot of guff too. Need more to draw firm conclusions. 

Not so about Black Light - I am liking it a lot for reasons I find melt into intangibility as I search for words to explain. Tracks feel very different - there are commonalities of course but musically there are also significant distances between them to my ear. Appetite is the weakest so far but even this has some energy that makes it more than bearable. That said the interesting little riff that opens Mills is very welcome, much more worthy of attention - its a strong opening that the rest of the song will do well to live up to. Here the vocal doesn't work so well, it fits with the theme alright but the echoed effect is at odds with the arrangement and jars a little. Contrast is all well and good, but using it well is an art, and here it seems to have strayed into crassness rather than consideration. The song is still interesting but I suspect it would be better with a cleaner singing voice.

I have spent too much money today. Two new pairs of shoes and another new board game; the latter something I have had on a wishlist for years but needed to wait for a recent reprinting, the former a weakness of a sale, but one where the nice bright colours I wanted weren't available in my size. Boo! Antelope is, along with Night All Night, the point at which I first engaged with Diagrams. Nice staccato structure, softly spoken lyrics, funky little rhythm. I don't think it is as good now as I thought it was when I first heard it, and were I in a less charitable mood I might be dismissive. I find that aspect of this self-defined project interesting, the effect my mood and my prejudices about what I am about to hear play into how I actually appreciate things. Good moods engender good listens and it probably takes a really bad album to bring me down in those circumstances. I love the title track. It has a really positive, happy bounce to it. Reminds me weirdly of Paul Simon for some reason, which in turn makes me think of Allo Darlin' and an all time favourite tune of mine from their self-titled debut. For something I like, I sure am avoiding actually talking about it, eh? I find it hard to describe and do justice, but suffice to say it is far more about the overall feel and optimism of the track than any specific facet of the musical construction. Nothing else matters at all (lyric stolen for appropriateness) indeed.

Animals is a disappointment on the back of the rich positiveness of Black Light. Slow, disconnected and lacking in life. Its a mess. None of the poppy craft of earlier tunes, nothing catchy, no interesting effects employed. Just a rather dull lyric and a cacophony of bits and pieces that fail to mesh; this has to go. The same will likely be true of Peninsula if my fears of Hidden Track Bullshit are confirmed - and from the opening bars that would be a shame because this has a really nice guitar melody to open, and a lovely light tinkling around it. Thankfully Amazon Music to the rescue. Because I buy the vast majority of my music through Amazon, retrospective Autorip applies and I have been able to get me a 6 minute version of the track without the silence on the end. Pleased about that, because whilst it is not as immediately vital and enthralling as Night All Night or Black Light itself, Peninsula is a pleasant little tune, even after the bad synth line takes over. Having said that, another minute or so after that point it seems to lose the plot in a most upsetting way. What started as a lovely light melody ends by diving into a morass of unnecessary experimentation and repetition that removes all of what made the opening enjoyable. Its probably still worth holding onto all the same.

As the minutes of silence start I wonder what Genders was hiding... I doubt it was much as the most egregious offenders of Hidden Track Bullshit (hello new tag!) are often those with the least to offer in return. Sound returns just shy of 23 minutes. Actually its a pretty neatly modulated vocal, and what sounds like a helicopter fading in and out softly behind it. There is something of the appeal of a Gregorian chant about the vocal on this secret track. I have to take my opening of this paragraph back - this hidden track is pretty darn good. It's a pity that there are 15 minutes of silence to get to it. I would rather like a version where that is not the case, and this could exist separately. Alas, my knowledge of how to mess about with music files is severely lacking, my Google-fu is weak and my morals probably wouldn't extend to grabbing the fruits of someone else's separation anyway so I have the choice to stick with a 28 minute track in top and tail format or ditching 2 tracks which both held my interest. Arse.

Black Gold - King Biscuit Time

Track list:

1. C I Am 15
2. Izzum
3. Impossible Ride
4. Kwangchow
5. Lefteye
6. All Over You
7. The Way You Walk
8. Paperhead
9. Rising Son
10. Metal Biscuit

Running time: 39 minutes
Released: 2006

What to say about this as an introduction? Start with the obvious, I guess. King Biscuit Time was a moniker used by Steve Mason - I think of all the artists in my library, this guy shows up under more names than anyone else having been with The Beta Band, and also released under his given name and as Black Affair. Talk about an identity crisis?

I remember really loving this a while back - hard to believe it is still less than a decade old actually - and  it only just missed out on selection to go into the wallet of CDs I keep in the car when I last changed up the bundle. However I do wonder if an extra few years may not have been kind to it or its place in my affections. Time to see!

This is my second listen of the day because I am too braindead to do anything else but feel a desire to not play games or watch TV... I am left with music. I toyed with the idea of messing about doing this as an Audiosurf log of the album for kicks but at the end of the day that would mean no comment on the listening itself. I am starting with a digression because the opening track is not really worth anything else. Every bit as weak as I remembered, C I Am 15 is not representative of the rest - or such is my memory. Bland rhythms and a guest rapper are not really what I was buying this disc for and they won't be missed.

Izzum is really where it starts. Pretty simple musically, it is the vocal style that makes it work - fast, peppered lines with barely a breath between them chanted as much as anything. Husky, framed by minimal music but given an ethereal, echoing quality. The sounds that are placed alongside this remain low key, and in contrast. Bass dark, treble rare but very light when it emerges. For what it's worth I'm already glad I didn't include this in the new selection for the car but not because I dislike this piece, its just not good driving music, and the album is on the short side anyway. The final rites of Izzum are a little repetitive, alas not knowing when to end is a very common fault in music. What picks up is a weird spacey sound, again structured so that Mason's voice fills the consciousness. I find it interesting how someone who doesn't really sing much has constructed everything around the vocal, so much so that if you took it away you would wonder what the hell the point of the tune was (as I do because the vocal ends early on in Impossible Ride). It isn't even as if the lyrics are stunning or deep. No, the appeal is all in the charisma with which they are imparted, a warm texture that wraps you up.

If I'm honest, the only reason I was considering Black Gold for the car was because my memory of the next track is so damn good. Kwangchow is electric, vital and so, so shonky. It really isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but I love it to bits. I suspect because it is very much like a misplaced Beta Band track in that it would fit right in on Heroes to Zeroes. Listening now, the track is nothing like as strong as my memory of it would imply but it still has something intangible that makes it just work. Lefteye starts with what sounds like a Western theme, something about the guitar loop that makes you think of dusty savanna and cacti, I guess it is the slightly uneven cadence that speaks to horses hooves. Again the appeal of the track is all in Mason's voice; even if the compositions aren't genius, how they are shaped for his singing really is. The synergy between the rhythms, melodies and vocal is as good as anything I can think of, the voice integrated seamlessly into a cocoon of music that feels empty and unnecessary whenever he is not signing.

I find myself not really remembering these tunes well; it's clearly been a while since I listened to any in earnest. All Over You is, after Kwangchow, perhaps the one I recall most clearly, a low key and simple guitar loop over a basic percussion but it manages to be catchy and affecting at the same time. Again, not a masterpiece by any means but a pretty little break up song nonetheless. This is rattling through, but then it is only a 40 minute album, and I had 2 tracks amount to more than that last week so... The Way You Walk takes until the first verse is delivered before it really kicks in. There is something in the roll of this tune that makes it work. Again here the elements that have been shunted together to produce the track are deceptively simple and the charm is all in the combination, with the chorus being particularly effective. I should detest its love-y dove-y tone and schmaltz but yet somehow I find myself swaying in time as I type. It's funny how things can make us see (or hear) the same thing very differently, eh? If this was anyone else I would run a mile... and yet.

Paperhead is more like the material on Mason's later offering, Boys Outside. That album is better than this one but I wouldn't call this track as effective as the last few... I think because the vocal feels further removed from the music here that at any point since the guest rapper muttered his last on track 1. Its all fairly low key, the brief interjection of a repeating guitar aside, before it ends rather abruptly. I find myself more glad with every minute of every track that I did not waste a wallet slot on this CD but I have little desire to get rid of anything other than C I Am 15 either. Rising Son gives me cause to question that statement as it fails to deliver anything interesting whilst providing what is quite a pleasant little loop to sway gently along with, and then we hit the final track. Metal Biscuit has a more electro sound, and is a short little outro more than anything else but its a bright little finish, upbeat and happy.

So, it's nothing like as good as I remember. Full of tracks that would be dull by anyone else. Made as a vehicle for a singer who doesn't sing much and yet... its also really nice when considering how it sits with Mason's other work. It clearly bridges the Betas to Boys Outside and even hints at the darker themed content of Pleasure Pressure Point in places.

Bitches Brew (Disc 2) - Miles Davis

Track list:

1. Spanish Key
2. John McLaughlin
3. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
4. Sanctuary
5. Feio

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 1970

So after the first disc of this so called classic was a major disappointment, what of the remaining hour of music from Bitches' Brew? My hopes aren't high, but the fact that these tracks are a touch shorter might be a good sign.

Another week has gone by since I gave time over to the first disc in this set, and I am still massively disappointed with it. I am heartened then, when the initial sounds of Spanish Key are really very appealing. The length of the piece concerns me, on past form, and the hour length of these 5 tunes together is what sealed not listening to anything during the week. Now though, it is a bright Sunday morning and I am putting off the thought of having to garden in the brisk October air.

A forceful trumpet, sultry sax and a rhythm that wouldn't feel out of place in noughties electronica is a good introduction though. The addition of synth notes lightens the mood and it is this lightening that makes the first theme change work, the tone of the brass pieces changing to be more of a floating sound, sitting above the continued structure rather than wallowing in amongst it. The threatening percussion fades a little as we approach half-way, and there is a full on tonal shift to a brighter, funkier piece. Oddly, whilst I felt that disc 1 was a child of its time, dated horribly, this piece feels like it was ahead of its and still sits nicely. If I didn't know who I was listening to here, for those stretches when Davis' trumpet is quiet or placed other than front and centre I would be guessing the creators as more likely to be a Ninja Tune affiliate of some kind. What a difference a week makes?

The shuffling nature of the percussion maintains the consistency throughout this track, addressing the worst of the issues I had with Pharaoh's Dance, and the lines and shapes woven on top of that by the keyboards and horns are given license to meander precisely because they have boundaries drawn within which to do so. I cannot escape the feeling that the piece goes too far and too long - everything past about 10 minutes feels unnecessary - but unlike with what I heard last week it does keep me engaged and doesn't stray far from the path in other ways. Its not a complete wash out for Bitches Brew, then.

John McLaughlin stands out on this album because it is sub 5 minutes. Musically it definitely feels like it comes from the same place as Spanish Key, but there is less reliance on horns here - keys and guitars carry the piece instead and half way through I am not sure I have heard Davis' trumpet once. It ends up feeling much of a muchness - too samey throughout to generate any real feeling. It could have been another movement in the prior track (though I am grateful that it wasn't) and probably only survives a cull because of its relative brevity making it a more appropriate inclusion in a shuffle.

There is a nice feel to the start of the third track. Trumpet back to lead the main theme, percussion slowed down giving a more southern bayou feel to things (should that be capitalised?) which the top end has to work to shake off, and does. The horn theme is the most musical we have had on the album to date and this really does feel like a fusion between a more classical jazz with sounds that post-date it because the combination sits well here. Fusion implies a joining, and on the first disc things were simply not linked up right. It feels to me as if the group as a whole maybe learned from that and by this point in the recording sessions had realised the importance of continuity and connections in enabling the freewheeling chop and change that drives the melodies (such as they are). This disc feels a world away from the two tracks that made up the first half of the record.

I've hit a lull though as the midpoint of Miles Runs the Voodoo Down falls into blandness - the horn melodies have gone and whilst there is still continuity of bass the rest of it has gone tits up. Experimentation on the keys overrides anything else that forms part of the piece, like a black hole sucking away any merit. Thankfully the section is gone as suddenly as it arrived but it leaves a sour note for the first time in this listen. There are two more tracks to go, and its another 20 minutes. I realise suddenly that the bland moment may have brought upon a fatigue with the listen as a whole which may prejudice the approach to the last couple of pieces.

The opening of Sanctuary has a soft and mellow tone, harking back to earlier in Davis' career and, to me, creating images of a nightime city-pan scene in 40s LA. Why does that setting still resonate so strongly in the modern day? From novels to film to RPGs and videogames, LA in the 30s and 40s retains a very definite draw - a strong sense that is incredibly rooted in that one city and not generically in the America of the time, or even the California of the epoch. I guess it is a confluence of factors - the glamour of the birth of Hollywood being one of the big ones. In any case, being moved to think of this swept away any negative worries of what the track might be like and firms it up instead as something that I both like, and which might have soundtrack utility in future. Sure there are electronic keyboard tones there that simply didn't exist in the 40s but the overall impression is far more important to its potential re-use than any worries about historical accuracy. This one short paragraph has had me thinking, engaged, for the whole of the piece. As that runs to 11 minutes that means not a lot of words for the time, but it speaks well to the sense of, well, sanctuary that the tune creates: a safe space for the mind to wander freely. I like this tune a lot, and whilst its star fades a little in the closing moments as the too-bright keys take over the sound a little more than I would like I have no hesitation in pronouncing Sanctuary the best of the Bitches' Brew recordings.

Will that be challenged by Feio, our last piece? I suspect not but we'll see. It starts as a very open piece, with lots of quiet layered onto a few longer, drawn out sounds. I rather like it, but it is not instantly catapulting me into another world of thought and inspiration or demanding that I pay it every heed. It is a little too slow, I think. Whilst I like the sense of space it feels like this one is just empty, almost dead. I catch myself not concentrating on the piece - wandering fingers and eyes having pulled up BBC News stories instead. That is not the intent of these posts, but it does illustrate just how little there is going on at any one point in Feio. Whilst the piece is never silent and, to be fair it does have a consistency to it that makes it work as a whole epic, at any given moment there is just not enough there to be interesting and I find myself lulled into a sleepy, bored state. The sounds there are, warm and enveloping, are pleasant its just lacking anything to elevate it from a nice sound to something you'd want to listen to. Then suddenly it is the end and a creepy voice closes it out, a shudder hit me when it spoke up it was so unexpected.

So, not a strong end, and a bit of a wobble in the middle, but overall a vast improvement on the first disc of Bitches' Brew, enough to restore my faith in the purchase and to see why the album was so lauded. Where next is the question.

Bitches Brew (Disc 1) - Miles Davis

Track list:

1. Pharaoh's Dance
2. Bitches Brew

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 1970

What to say to introduce this? Two epic-length tracks.  So much so that I am not sure I have ever sat and listened to either before, despite the classic status of this album.

It is a soft and low-key start, brushed drums and a distant organ. A bit discordant too. Waffling. Hopefully the piece improves and gains a bit of structure, a few more bold sounds and sommething to hung interest around because my first impressions are not positive. This is supposed to be a classic though; it must have a bit more heft to it later.

It's been an odd week; I have not managed to make good on the promise of last week's return to frequent posts. I took Monday off, and then two evenings of gaming in person (RPG Tuesday, boardgames on  Wednesday) and two of gaming online (Far Cry 4, co-op) wiped out the time available to post. It doesn't feel that long since my last effort, but it is. Time flies, eh? Whilst I bemoan that, and Japan take a commanding lead over Samoa in the rugby, the Pharaoh's Dance has sprung into a little more life. Not a great deal, but some. It was welcome but I cannot help but feel this is just random musings, the wanderings of a stupid improv session rather than considered genius. As I approach the half-way mark on the first of the pair I have yet to find a theme to latch onto, anything that binds my attention and asks me to appreciate it. This may turn out to be a short post because the lack of tracks mean there is less cohesiveness to discuss.

Look - there are nice moments and movements buried in these pieces but it feels like a slog wading through everything else to get to them. The whole thing feels very dated, aging poorly and worse with every second. I can certainly see that something like this was once avant garde and of genuine interest because of that, but it feels tired, directionless and clichéd now, the epitome of what people would point to and sneer at for being jazz - structure-less and never-ending. Moments lost in the sea of irrelevance. It's a real shame for me, because finally as the track closes there is a real theme that I like, Davis' trumpet carrying a fair amount of weight. It's just too little too late as it comprises maybe the last couple of minutes of the Dance. Whether something better is brewing up for the second part - half as long again as the first - remains to be seen.

It is a bolder start, stronger sounds. However it is also disjointed, and when one set of sounds is completely jetissoned after about 3 minutes and replaced with another, much softer set it feels like a bait-and-switch. More life to it though, even in the softness. There is a more considered air to things which goes a long way - it doesn't feel directionless even if the change up was rather abrupt. The rhythm, I think that is what sets Bitches Brew on a higher plane than the Pharaoh's Dance. Something about the percussion is more compelling, something about how it survives whilst other sounds fade in and out keeps a thread running. There are still breaks in that thread though, clean tears that separate different sections of the piece from each other. This works to cut up the length into smaller chunks and ideally these would have been track breaks, allowing each section to be appreciated for what it is rather than forcing it into some unwieldy whole. I rather like the sections so far as the track hits halfway, but my patience for listening to them all right through in future is probably not there. If they were in practice the shorter 3-5 minute variations that they appear to be in the actual composition then I would happily sit and enjoy many of them.

It's all gone very quiet. There's a lot of busy little staccato sound going on, but all rather soft. This feels like regression, back to the meandering of Pharaoh's Dance. Its the first part of the title track I have not enjoyed in some way and it comes nearing the 20 minute mark. Just such a shame it's all one thing. Even as this phase strains my patience there are bits an pieces to like in there, just like in Dance. It feels like it is dragging on a bit now though and could do with another injection of theme and life as we enter the final stages. I am shivering cold, despite the thermostat reading above 20, and at this point am looking forward to the piece ending so I can shiver and wrap myself warm rather than sit arms-out typing. That reason is secondary to the dirge-like air that the tune has chosen to end on, piercing trumpet cries screaming out over a bleak landscape as the silence draws in.

Well that was disappointing. Anything but classic from my perspective, and the long uninteresting lead out killed any final chance of me wanting to maintain Bitches' Brew for the earlier movements. Hopefully the second disc will be more appealing.