Clayhill - Clayhill

Track List:

1. Figure Of Eight
2. Northern Soul
3. Mystery Train
4. Face Of The Sun
5. Grasscutter
6. Funny How
7. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
8. Disscordents

Running time: 36 minutes
Released: 2005

And so I come to a draft that has been sat around for a couple of years.

This post almost appeared titled incorrectly as "Acoustic", for that is how it lived in my library for too long. In sourcing the track list and image I realised my error and re-titled it appropriately so that it can appear in the right place at the right time. It is an acoustic album and "Acoustic" is often added to the name in references, it would seem. Oh well, correction made.

Clayhill are made up of bassist Ali Friend (of Red Snapper and The Imagined Village), vocalist Gavin Clark (Sunhouse, UNKLE) and Ted Barnes (who did work with Beth Orton, as well as solo). Friend's name may have been enough to get me to look them up, but I think I cottoned on to them via Red Snapper's Redone - an album of remixes and a notable cover of Odd Man Out. It isn't credited as Clayhill, but it is Friend, and Clark for sure; not sure about Barnes. The latter's voice was stunning and I was hooked.

This is the first midweek listen I have managed in I don't know how long, and I am able to fit it in only because I bailed on a roleplaying session after three really bad nights of sleep. I am far too busy to find time for everything I have to do and everything I want to do, and getting the rest and recuperation I need to function. Oh well; the late Gavin Clark delivers a soft, almost apologetic song over a simple guitar hook supported by Friend's upright bass. Figure of Eight is a tune based on simplicity for the most part. The trio play off each other well. The bass is subtle and fills in the gaps behind the guitar, which is plucky and bright as it slides under the nasal, drawn out tones of our vocalist. 

As much as I like Figure of Eight, there are two tracks on this album I really adore. The first is Northern Soul - though I am more familiar with the original recording on Small Circle, it is impressive how well the sound transfers to the striped back version here. This song has a punchier hook, a twangier bass, a firmer vocal and a chorus that strikes a chord even though I am a softy southerner not a hardy northern type. The little fussy, busy bits of guitar work are a joy and I imagine they had great fun recording this track - it has that kind of positive energetic style coming through the speaker. The other song that matches this is their cover of The Smiths' Please Please Please... (The Smiths, for disclosure, are not a band I have in my library - though like every human being alive I have a soft spot for the guitar on This Charming Man).

Ali Friend is a musical chameleon - a running thread through disparate groups in my collection, popping up backing people unexpectedly. I love his bass work. Videos of live sets and tracks from Red Snapper burned that love into me a long time ago and it has never left. The sorrowful twang that he gets onto some of his notes here is gorgeous and dovetails nicely with the hurt that Clark injects into his long vowels.

This is exactly the type of low-key music I need on a night like this. I go on holiday in a week, but I have a ton of stuff to wrap up before then... and my ability to do so may well depend on how well I can relax and find sleep this evening. Anything that helps me drift into a loose state is good, and there is a nice laziness to Clayhill's music that helps the mood. It's not chill out fare really, but the tones are low and soothing. The vocal is often challenging and emotional but it is the frequency of the instruments that I find cathartic - mostly the bass, but the guitar doesn't wander off too much either.

I am not that keen on Grasscutter, possibly because it features on three of the 4 Clayhill albums I have and as such it comes up more often than it should. It also devolves into repetition too much for my liking. I think I might trim this version. We then hit the final trio - songs which do not appear on the other Clayhill discs. Funny How doesn't ring any bells for me until Clark hits the chorus and then it finds familiarity. I really like the interplay here, but above all it is the tone - pleading yet wronged, defiant yet downcast. I find little contrasts like that throughout the song, which is a nice touch in my book, and makes up for the fact it sits between me and the heartbreak of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.

Slow, deliberate, nail through the hand hurt. Every note and word here is pitched for maximum emotional impact. As someone who has gone through periods of depression in the past where it felt nothing was going my way the song resonates. As alluded to above I am not really familiar with the original, but this is frankly so good that I don't feel the need to be. Here - I am feeling like sharing the love:

The final track is always going to be a bit of a come-down after that. It is a slow, slow number. Very sparse, drawn out words. I like it, but I miss most of it as I got distracted by a work email, just as the US working day is closing. Oh well (I seem to say that a lot).

Both Sides - Moonrakers

Track list

1. Sweetheart Reel
2. Both Sides the Tweed
3. Blind Mary
4. Carolan's Welcome
5. Maid of Culmore
6. Castle Kelly
7. Northern Coast
8. Sheebeg and Shemore
9. Never Be the Sun
10. Delbury Revisited
11. Swallow Song/King of the Faeries
12. Jock O'Hazeldean
13. Kathleen Ashore

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 2005

This was a gift - the sort of well-meaning gift you get if someone knows you like folk music, but knows nothing about the folk music scene, or what about it appeals. Moonrakers are, apparently, an Oxford-based group, and this local aspect probably plays in to that somewhere.  I have never really given it a chance so now it gets its moment in the limelight, to suggest to me why I was wrong to ignore it until now. I expect it to be fairly twee and cliched, but to probably enjoy it despite that. My suspicion is that it would be better experienced live than recorded however.

It certainly starts to expectation, flutes and harps - no great surprise, they are right there on the cover. It is very different in feel because of that though, the other reels I have amongst my library are almost all pipe and fiddle jobs and this combination has a distinct sound. It sounds... older, but no more authentic. There is an echo on the piece I guess from the harp which makes me think of medieval TV show music. We drop into a song next and the vocalist has a much more pleasant voice than I was expecting, and a nice harmony. I think it is fair to say that - albeit just two tracks in - my expectations were pretty much spot on.

So despite being off work, I failed to fit a listen in on Monday - time just vanished somehow. I am not letting two days pass like that though. The third track is much pared down, harp and another stringed instrument - I'd guess that thing (bouzouki?) the bloke on the right is holding on the cover. The flute only arrives later, but it is a welcome arrival, lifting the tune from dull to gently enjoyable, whilst still skirting with the limits of what is acceptably twee. Thus far the tempo has been lower than I expected, more chamber performance, and I think it is that angle of this piece that grates on me a little. Folk is more interesting when it has a bit of spice somewhere and this is all a little stately and staid. It might be good soundtrack material though.

Maid of Culmore I think I have other versions of. Looking it up, indeed I do: Cara Dillon. I prefer Dillon's version, a little richer in sound and a more polished voice. When this song draws down Castle Kelly has a bit more percussion and a higher pace, making it immediately more interesting. It is not a world-beating tune or anything, but there is life and energy in the playing - the harp included - and it makes for a nice little insert. Replaced by something that sounds more modern - by which I mean 70s popular folk... definitely twee but again the voices work well and the simple melodies are pleasant enough. It is more palatable than most of the fare on The Best of British Folk [Castle] - Various Artists whilst treading similar ground.

Back to more traditional-sounding material, then for a quiet piece that evokes memories of some of the soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies - particularly scenes in The Shire. This is less polished than my memories of those soundtracks (which I don't have) but there is a definite similarity in how the flute is applied in particular. This is followed by another 70's-sounding number which again just manages to stay the right side of trite so as to remain pleasant. The vocal combination - one guy, one gal - is really a high point for this group and I am a little disappointed that it isn't employed more often (half the tunes are instrumental) or with less cliched tunes to back them up.

All that said, I find it rather soothing. I suddenly really feel like I am on holiday today because whilst I prefer punchier, livelier folk music the use of the flute in particular sets a quiet tone that translates to a calm frame of mind and the harp in place of a fiddle at least sets this group aside from the rest of the folk artists that I have. So I gripe, but as I predicted before I began I am rather enjoying it. I would prefer not to simply be listening to this, though - it is not really arresting enough to demand and keep my full attention... so much so that I look up and suddenly I am on the last track. The sounds all blurring together as one, pleasing but easy to tune out to.

Overall, actually I find myself coming away from this more positive than I expected to be. My predictions were largely right but the disc has delivered a little more - largely because of the great harmonies on the vocal numbers and because the flautist and the harp offer something different to the rest of my folk stable. A pleasant surprise.

Achtung Bono - Half Man Half Biscuit

Track list:

1. Restless Legs
2. Corgi Registered Friends
3. For What Is Chatteris...
4. Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
5. Surging Out Of Convalescence
6. Upon Westminster Bridge
7. Joy Division Oven Gloves
8. Mate Of The Bloke
9. Asparagus Next Left
10. Depressed Beyond Tablets
11. Bogus Official
12. Letters Sent
13. Twydale's Lament
14. We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2005

I think I wrote way back that I really ought to pick up more Half Man Half Biscuit records; I didn't until Boxing Day this year when, spurred on by a couple of random plays of HMHB songs in the days before Christmas, I finally found the impetus to do so. I failed to fit a listen in yesterday because I was board gaming all day, so had a shuffle on in the background instead. However as England have polished off South Africa early today I can fit this in this morning.

I have not listened to any of these songs before, really... voyage of discovery, but I have an idea of what I am in for. Amusing lyrics and simple but catchy tunes, short and sweet. I was not expecting a (disgraced monster) Rolf Harris reference though. The problem with listening to this for the first time whilst writing a post is... well, to appreciate HMHB you really need to be free to hear the words. Add to that the short over and done nature of their tunes - packing 14 into 40 minutes here - there isn't really much spare time to comment. Or if you do comment, you are missing much of the point. That being the case, and sticking to generalisms, they manage to pack an awful lot into each track. There isn't much empty space - if you have much of a stretch of music with no lyrics you have a longer track than the usual. And in context that still means sub 4 minutes.

Musically, the simple little rolls pretty much exist purely to support the rhythm of the lyrics and as such the two dovetail really well. Execution is proficient not masterful and the heavily (natural) accented vocal is a breath of fresh air, even if the singing is not the most musical you'll hear. Style varies from ballad-like ditties to punkier numbers and tone from jovial to pissed off so all in all it is a pretty varied ride. I am 5 tracks in now, and Surging Out of Convalescence is probably the most musical of them so far, it has a bit more body to it, it builds a little more, interplay between the guitars and drums adds a dimension lacking from earlier tracks, even if what it builds to is repeated loops. It is really hard to dislike this, it feels like music made with a giant smile on their faces one way or another, which lends it a charm that carries it past whatever deficiencies are present.

Cheery lines about wanting to shoot other bands aside, the funniest part of Upon Westminster Bridge is a reimagining of Partridge in a Pear Tree that works surprisingly well. We are almost half way. It feels as though the listen has been going for longer than that but in a good way. Rather than dragging, the density of the tunes means each gives the impression of a couple of minutes longer than they are and rattling through many of them means by the end it may feel like a double album! I am not so taken by Joy Division Oven Gloves, love the title but the actual song is basically nonsense rather than a comprehensible tale of some kind. The offbeat stories are the best bits of HMHB so when they present random strings of things instead the veneer chips off and the limitations of their structure becomes much clearer. The stories often make no sense, so out there can they be, but they are almost guaranteed to raise some kind of smile.

The flip-flop from ambling to crashing, ditty to punk, and back is a nice way of getting you on side too - injecting energy now and again and preventing the parade of comedy songs from becoming too samey and trite.

I have reached Letters Sent. This seems to be a nice song composed of concatenated open letters to various recipients, the joins apparent in context but not explicit. It begins as an acoustic trill, then goes electric, but this doesn't (as I would have expected) coincide with the letters becoming more vitriolic; missed a trick there perhaps. Vitriol is certainly present in Twydale's Lament, though it fizzles before the end of the song and I get the feeling the album is petering out.

The final track title is genius, or at least I think it is knowing and amusing both. The track itself a simple little number and probably a very fair example of a Half Man Half Biscuit song. Little light melody, solid repeating hook, smile-inducing lyrics, a bit of chanted harmony. A fine ending rather than the damp squib Twydale promised. I need to listen to this more to get a sense for most of the lyrics, but I am already glad I picked it up.

The Best of Polish Jazz 2005 - Various Artists

Track list:

2. Jazz is Cool - Pink Freud
10. Conversations With a Life Jacket - Pink Freud

Running time: 10 minutes
Released: 2005

This is random. Two tracks that must have been freebies, both from Pink Freud - which truly is inspired as a band name. I guess I have this as a result of getting into Skalpel and then finding download links somewhere. The full album itself was 18 tracks and included other artists, but I never picked it up, so I am left with a short stub to examine.

The 10 minutes here is actually closer to 11 and breaks down into 7 and more than 3 1/2 in the order listed. Why WMP doesn't round up is beyond me. Jazz is Cool is definitely of modern sensibility, all programming around a solid drumming and Scandinavian trumpet - think Molvær. As the track gets going the influence of the DJ increases, samples and/or scratching added to the mix. The feel is a little kitchen sink in some ways, busy for busy's sake. Some of the less organic sounds are not exactly ear-friendly and yet, the structure of the track creates a laid back overall mood with a little bit of progression.

I think it does a bit too much though, really - it might have been better shorter, or with more clearly defined boundaries. Still, a reasonable track. Conversations With a Life Jacket is very different, a glassy, fragile sound opening it up into a softer, late night track; at mid-morning, this is probably not the ideal listening hour. This is much more melodic, less concerned with being on it, more considered listening. There are hints of programming here and there, an influence that grows over the course of the number, but it is in essence a neat bassy loop with the trumpet leading the melody. I am quite taken with it.

Both tracks offer something, and whilst I think the first strives too hard to deliver it, that does not stop me liking it. All in all a good little interlude, and what I heard streaming when searching for the origins of this disc suggests that the wider album is possibly worth picking up.

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.

The Beast - Nathan Michel

Track list:

1. Dust

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2005

Singletons are in vogue, don't you know? One follows another here. Again I am not certain where this came from, but I think I know why I have this one at least. Michel popped up in some of the free music efforts earlier in the piece and I think appeared on a sampler somewhere too. That said, I have no clue what these 3 minutes will bring.

I am pretty certain from the opening notes that it will be a one-off listen though. Brassy electronic sounds that make me think Soap Opera titles with slightly odd repeat patterns. The vocal sections are pretty neat but the instrumental parts are not, and frankly it grates a bit after a while - so bright and loud are the sounds. A "not for me" then, so whilst singletons might be in vogue (hah! As if) I am no follower of fashion.

Balkan Beat Box - Balkan Beat Box

Track list:

1. Cha Cha
2. Bulgarian Chicks
3. Adir Adirim
4. 9/4 The Ladies
5. Shushan
6. Ya Man
7. Gross
8. Sunday Arak
9. Hassan's Mimuna
10. Meboli
11. La Bush Resistance

Running time: 52 minutes
Released: 2005

This is an oddball and one I cannot think why I have. I suspect it must be something I picked up after getting into Beirut and loving the balkan-themed tinge to their work. This is nothing like that and, if my memory is anything close to accurate, it will be gone by the time I hit publish on this post!

We start with a cock crowing and a beat kicks in with some rudimentary overlay which gradually offers a little more as well as a horrible vocal that appears sporadically. In truth it is less annoying than I thought it would be, but equally it does nothing for me and sets a tone of prospective boredom rather than one of unpleasantness. Am I in for a long hour?

I like the themes appearing, which do indeed remind me of the first times I heard Beirut, but not the specific presentation of them here. A little too persistent, a little too much of a tremor coming through from all the instrumentation. Jaunty is all well and good but it can be taken too far. I find myself tiring of the structure of the tunes more than anything else, with the rhythms particularly to blame here, hammered home with less subtlety and a little more repetition than I would like.

There is no doubt that the aesthetic, pointed and stylised as it is, makes for an acquired taste. On the one hand there is something compelling about the muted and staccato tunes, chants and obvious performance element that this material would have been rooted in. On the other it is awfully oppressive after any period of time, boring away at the same spot over and over in a way that can easily infuriate. I am 3 complete tracks in and my head is already pounding from repeated sounds. As with a number of other things I have listened to, I find myself disappointed, seeing potential but having it overshadowed by a facet of the composition that I cannot live with. I am in for a long one, but for different reasons than I thought.

9/4 The Ladies actually softens a lot of the problems, at least compared to the first three tracks. As a stand alone track it is much more palatable, rebalancing the presentation to date. I have a weird moment during Shushan where the rhythm reminds me quite strongly of a Busta Rhymes song from way back (maybe I will remember which when I come to Extinction Level Event) but the very fact my mind wandered in that direction tells you a lot about how I am not engaged with what I am hearing right now. In fact, it is largely blurring into a continuous drone over which I occasionally hear something that stands out and drags my mind back to what I am supposed to be doing - almost invariably it is not a good type of drag back, either.

So far, however, Gross has been anything but. This track seems to have ditched the incessant repeats of single notes in favour of actual tunes and melodies whilst keeping the distinctive tones that lend the music its Balkan identity. This I can approve of. In fairness, I could see everything I have heard here so far going down brilliantly with the right crowd getting up and engaging by dancing, spinning, clapping and whooping along whilst sinking generous amounts of alcohol, but ultimately that is not me here now on my sofa on a January evening as the temperature outside sinks and the first snow for a year or more is on its way. The second half of this album seems to be less demanding than the first, or maybe I am accustomed to it now and the pounding has receded some.

Oh, now that is interesting. A genuine change of pace which feels like it has been a long time coming. Much more airy rhythm giving a feeling that things have opened out a bit and sped up. For the first time I hear a real change in the tone and thrust of the music - the construction too. I am not sure I like the result in Hassan's Mimuna but I do appreciate the difference which is, as much as anything else, a result of a much softer percussion and not using the harsher sounds for structure for the majority of the piece. I am caught slightly off guard by Meboli starting as an homage to jazzy drum and bass but there is really nothing to the track of note - at least not understanding the vocal. The end of the album is definitely in a very different mould to the start - much more relaxed, smoother, "cooler". I do not really feel it does that cool well enough to recommend it but it does at least show range, and a better use of the dominant themes than simple mash it into the skull omnipresence.

So, what to do with this lot? Well most is going. I think I might just keep 9/4, Gross and Sunday Arak which seemed to walk the line of interest and offensiveness the best. The rest I have no place for.

All Maps Welcome - Tom McRae

Track List:

1. For The Restless
2. Hummingbird Song
3. The Girl Who Falls Downstairs
4. How The West Was Won
5. Packing For The Crash
6. It Ain't You
7. Strangest Land
8. My Vampire Heart
9. Silent Boulevard
10. Still Lost
11. Border Song

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2005

Tom McRae burst into my consciousness with his eponymous debut album, which was Mercury-nominated. I saw him tour it and then bought 4 more over the years that followed. To be honest, my impression now is that I should have stopped after the second (Just Like Blood) as the consistency dropped with the years. This is his third album, and whilst there are still a couple of good songs that I recognise and will definitely be keeping in the track list, I anticipate cutting some chaff here after the listen too.

McRae has a distinctive voice, somewhat strangled and strained. Quiet but edgy. It is the standout element of the opening track, which is otherwise quite plodding and far from engaging. The lyrics repeat too much and the music is uninspired. The general ambiance it creates is pretty strong but, maybe it's the tired mood I am in, whilst it evokes a solid image, it provides very little engagement with it. It is like looking at a painting on a TV screen - one step removed. The same goes for Hummingbird Song, which has a very similar structure. Vocal over very sparse but deliberate tune. This is less taught than the first song, but there are elements of tension in the sharp electrics. Neither song has engaged, and in parts this one feels like a less interesting retread of an earlier song, whose name escapes me this second. If that same flawed memory serves the next three songs are the heart of the album however, so maybe things will improve presently.

Certainly they introduce more music. There is a greater tunefulness, more songcraft and more to listen to. I find McRae to have a problem with repetition though, it just feels as though there is too much chorus and not enough verse. I do not believe that is a fair criticism, but it is the honest reaction that smacks me in the face listening to The Girl Who Falls Downstairs. I quite like it, but it just feels like I have heard everything within the first moments of a five minute track. It is an odd impression.

How the West Was Won is probably my favourite tune from this album. This is the example of how McRae did not completely leave me behind. The song as story. It is long, but lyrical, it is pretty and arranged with haunting strings that pull at emotions. The overall tone is quite sad, reflective but there are swells and lulls in the course that means it always offers something. Choruses are delivered differently, bridges put focus on brass. It is not a pop song (as I see them) for it lacks the uniformity. I have always liked its lyrics as companion to the tune. They would not win any awards when read, but they fit the piece as presented on record and beat some of the other efforts on the disc. Like Packing for the Crash where the title is pretty much the only lyric, repeated too often to be interesting. The music is pretty bland too, but it does at least have some depth of sound.

I will be honest here: whilst I recognise about half of the remaining song titles, they do not breed any sense of interest for me, or conjure the songs to mind. This is the problem with mid-to-late Tom McRae, too much is eminently forgettable. His voice and vocal style are very recognisable and he has it within him to write some decent songs, Tom McRae was packed with tight songs, dripping with angst and developed enough to work. These songs? Half have no arrangement of note, the other half have nothing of interest either lyrically or in delivery.

OK, that is a bit hyperbolic but I am prone to that. In truth, I have just drifted a little from this style of music. I went through a phase of loving singer/songwriter stuff almost exclusively, and probably buying the approach more than the actual output. From where I sit now, albums like this one do not stack up well against the wider nature of my library. It is not that he cannot write, cannot play, cannot sing - just that he does not do so in a way that speaks to the me of 2014 with his songs of 2005. There is a lot more depth to the second half here than I have conveyed here; were I interested in a fair criticism I would mention the ache of My Vampire Heart. Instead I am just going to opine about how much more I got from his first album which, hell, may not even stand up when I eventually get to it in a year or more.

I got into Tom McRae at the same time as I got into Ed Harcourt and the two have had similar career paths in terms of the impressions their albums left on me. Good starts, tailing off into mediocrity whilst still providing me with the odd reminder of why I liked them to start with. I should really have bought fewer albums by both, not bought on name and regretted it later but made informed purchases. But if I had done that I would never have heard How The West Was Won or Visit From the Dead Dog which appear on albums I am otherwise indifferent to.

I cannot honestly say how much of this I want rid of. I am in an odd mood this evening which is perhaps colouring this post and I can see merits in several tracks here. I am just not sure they are merits that warrant keeping them. Something to think on.

All Is Violent, All Is Bright - God Is An Astronaut

Track List:

1. Fragile
2. All Is Violent, All Is Bright
3. Forever Lost
4. Fire Flies and Empty Skies
5. A Deafening Distance
6. Infinite Horizons
7. Suicide by Star
8. Remembrance Day
9. Dust and Echoes
10. When Everything Dies

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2005

God Is An Astronaut were another LastFM find, on some kind of Post-Rock station, probably based on Mogwai, though there is not really much resemblance between the two - with this Irish group being much more electro/synthy in their approach. I remember being taken in by, I think, From Dust to the Beyond (on The End of the Beginning) and then just picking up a few albums blind. I have no real familiarity with these songs by name, but I am sure I will recognise a few as they play.

Fragile is an interesting opening, slow and gentle to start with, it feels - and this is something I find myself saying about a fair few opening tracks - more like a closer than an opener. I could not say whether this is just me though, perhaps I look for different things in the first song on an album than others. Primarily I want one of two things:

1. A statement that sets the tone for what is to come; or

2. A slow build that grows into the rest of the album.

 (3. Bloody lists don't play nicely with the image opposite).

The latter is half true here, but overall Fragile has no build - it starts pretty one-paced and one-tone and maintains that slow, low feel throughout. It is far from an unpleasant listen but it just lacks any X factor as an opener. Thankfully the title track picks up the mantle a bit better, and has some real energy about it by the time it comes to close.

As Forever Lost starts I am noticing a pattern here though. The sounds used in these tunes are all very similar. There is distinction between the songs in tempo, volume, etc. but fundamentally they all sound... if not the same then a bit too close together to really enthuse about them. Moreover I think that extends past this album to the other 2 and a half (one is very short) that I have. I am getting a picture of God is an Astronaut as a "do one thing, but do it well" sort of band forming - but it is unfair to judge that description final just 3 songs into the first listen on the basis of my (already documented to be wonky) memory.

Synth/programmed keys, guitars, drums all present. It is a formula that seems to be doing them well and I'll be clear here: for all the over-familiarity of each song there is nothing here that would move me to remove this album from my library. It just feels as though the tunes are a little too uniform for back-to-back appreciation of the sort this blog is about. The combination of the programming with the live recording settles into a regular pattern. The guitars do "X" the keys do "Y" and the drums do "Z". Often - in the case of the keys and guitars, using similar tones and changing the patterns from song to song. This is almost certainly a grossly unfair criticism in terms of the actual process; I am not a music critic just some dude writing a blog with no real experience.

But you know what? I have a sneaking suspicion that what I see as sameness between the tunes is probably a fundamental keystone of their appeal. GiaA are a "safe" band, you know what you are going to get and if you happen to like that, its all good. And how many people today actually consume music in the way that I am doing for this project? I would guess relatively few, which means those similarities becomes less of an issue, less of an irritation. Those similarities though? They make it really easy to identify a God is an Astronaut track in a rotation.

For my part, I prefer the louder and brasher tunes on this album. When the volume and tempo go up the (by now) genericisms of the format and reuse of the same notes fade as issues, getting lost in the more vibrant sounds, the fuzziness introduced by more notation and the energy transmitted through the songs. The slower, sparser pieces - whilst possibly more melodic - allow my ear to latch onto the common theme(s) and refrains more easily. I wish I could transcribe by ear to investigate my own point more thoroughly, but alas that is beyond me.

Wow, this has been an overtly negative post for being about something I like and will be keeping all of... how can I address that?

First the oddity: there are a few tracks here where the smoothness of playback is interrupted near the end of the song. I cannot tell whether this is an artefact of the rip from CD or a genuine article in the work (where perhaps the original track lines were different). I suspect the former, but if so to have it occur 3 or 4 times in one disc when I do not consciously recall every having heard it elsewhere it interesting to say the least.

Finally, to end on a positive note: do one thing and do it well. We could latch on to two different sentiments in that sentence: limitation, or quality.  The rest of this post bleats about the limitation. The quality though? Well, until the last track (which to be honest has a problem with dead air and a hidden track that should probably not exist) they keep track length well in hand, which is unusual in this sort of instrumental rock and there is not a single unpleasant song here. There is a good mix of slower melodies and faster riots and examples of both are sculpted into compelling soundscapes and catchy loops that will stick in your head and be recognised whenever they pop up again. It takes real craft to be that immediately identifiable in a field populated by everyone and their dog using the same tools to sculpt the same material.

It's just that you will never be sure which statue you are looking at.

1958 Breaks - Skalpel

Track List:

1. Break In (Backini Remix)
2. 1958 (Quantic Remix)
3. Break In (Dr Rubberfunk 'Live @ No.10A' Remix)
4. 1958 (Skalpel Remix)
5. Break In (J's Remix)
6. Break Out (Skalpel Remix)
7. Low
8. Low (Reconstruction By The Amalgamation Of Soundz)
9. Break In (Paradowski Remix)
10. 1958 (Extended Version)
11. Laboratorium

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 2005

To be honest, I suspect this is not going to be a great listen for me. Too many remixes and I have a nagging suspicion that I ended up only liking one or two Skalpel tracks despite the stable of tunes (I have the eponymous album and Konfusion too). I guess I will find out in due course. However I went through a phase of digging Ninja Tune (blame Bonobo and The Cinematic Orchestra) so picked up the odd thing here and there.

I  think that I picked this up as part of the purchase of Skalpel but I really don't recall now. The tracks on 1958 Breaks are mostly reworkings of tunes from that album, with Low and Laboratorium the exceptions, thus everything is somewhat familiar in the general sense, if not the specific. The folk doing the remixes are not familiar though, except for Quantic. In truth I think Skalpel have more than a hint of the shuffle about them so I am not massively surprised to see Quantic pop up here.

The fact that the first six tracks cover two tunes (I am making the assumption here that Break Out is a reworking of Break In - that does not seem like a stretch), and there are thus only 4 different base tunes comprising the 11 on this collection is one of the main problems I have looking back at old single purchases - where your reward for buying the main track is 3 more versions of it you will never listen to. Gone were the days of meaningful B-sides. Having said that, Dr Rubberfunk's take on Break In feels sufficiently different to the Backini mix that started the listen and J's mix is a whole minute shorter so there may just be enough variation in approach to make the whole work better than feared. They may all blur into one and drawing specific distinctions may prove troublesome but so long as I am not utterly tired and bored by the end of it... no foul.

Whilst I think "inoffensive downbeat shuffle" is a fair tag, I think it applies in less accusatory manner than against The 5th Exotic - which I guess is just be a pretentious way of saying I like this more. The general tone of Skalpel's stuff does tend to be inoffensive, downtempo and low key but there is more variety and more going on to change that tone in the overlay. Not all of it works, Break Out is a bit of a mess, its variation on the Break In base not to my taste at all but I am pleasantly surprised by how 1958 Breaks maintains an interest. Low comes in to change things up at the right time though. It is a pleasantly atmospheric soundtrack piece, putting me in the mood of hardboiled film noir and nighttime shots of LA in the 40s or 50s.

The reconstruction, which follows immediately, has a very different tone simply because the percussion is highlighted more, and the tempo is higher. It gives the piece a tension that was not necessarily there in the base tune. I find myself grateful of both and listening to them back to back is no chore at all. It is as I go to try to check LastFM for how these are recorded there I notice that somehow the scrobbler has not activated for this listen, so my record of having done it (aside from this post) is incomplete. Well, no-one cares but me, and I can live with it!

It tickles me that the "extended version" of 1958 is a whole minute shorter than the other mixes on this album. It is, of course, extended in reference to the version on Skalpel which is a minute and a half shorter still. To be honest, the other mixes were better and if this is just an extra 90 seconds of the same base, it is unwarranted - but I am not about to check, and S is a very long time ahead.

I am glad as Laboratorium begins and the album is winding down but on the whole it has been a lot more enjoyable than I expected. There is no drive to excise any tracks; one or two would probably be no loss, but neither are they bad enough to demand being shown the door.

'64-'95 - Lemon Jelly

Track List:

1. It Was...
2. '88 AKA Come Down On Me
3. '68 AKA Only Time
4. '93 AKA Don't Stop Now
5. '95 AKA Make Things Right
6. '79 AKA The Shouty Track
7. '75 AKA Stay With You
8. '76 AKA The Slow Train
9. '90 AKA Man Like Me
10. '64 AKA Go

Running Time: 53 minutes
Released: 2005

I held off getting this album for a very long time. I was warned against getting this album by my brother who worked with (or moved in circles with) Lemon Jelly back when he was an audio engineer and still has artwork produced by Fred Deakin's art studio adorning his living room wall - received as a gift from Deakin, I think. Come to think of it, there may be a second (and possibly third?) piece too.

I loved Lemonjelly.ky and Lost Horizons so I gave in eventually and picked this up. Last FM suggests only 3 listens to tracks from this album though, so bought and appreciated are certainly not the same thing.

It Was... is just a short intro, so there are really only 9 tracks here. With a 50+ minute runtime they're long ones. Each samples a song from 19XX where XX is the year at the beginning of the title. None of them are recognisible to me, though track 10 has Shatner on vocal. The Shat will appear a couple more times before I am done.

I can see from Come Down On Me why there was not much enthusiasm for this one. It is a complete departure from the sounds of their earlier work. Bland, repetitive and boring. Only Time is, on the face of it, more like Lost Horizons era Lemon Jelly but it is one quite short loop repeated ad nauseum which is old before the track is half done, but continues still. It is a relief when it cuts out, but what replaces it does not have much to recommend it either and the distorted vocal is disturbing rather than tuneful. It peters out then segues into Don't Stop Now which has a very weak beginning. The backing for this gets a little more interesting, but the base loop is quite unpleasant and the oft-repeated vocal is really not musical. It is a shame, there is a half decent tune in the constituent parts, but it feels like they have been assembled in the wrong order, like IKEA furniture put together by a blind man and his guide dog. This is, so far, a tremendous fall from grace and I am ruing my decision to go against the grain.

Make Things Right has enough of the old magic to raise a smile. A solid loop and enough variation over it to keep it moving and from getting too staid. That said, keeping it going for 6 minutes seems like it will be a stretch. I have got past 3 and the variation is just dying to the point of gone when it drops out and changes, saved from the edge by an interlude. Half-decent song this, but it is no Ramblin' Man or Tune for Jack.

A title like "The Shouty Track" worries me, but whilst it starts with a louder sound than you might expect from Lemon Jelly it is not immediately shouty or horrid. Quite bland though, and I am glad it is short. Not a fan. The odd shouts here and there are just that... odd. At this stage, I am thinking that this album fits the "casualty" tag nicely, but I reckon I should keep Make Things Right at least.

Stay With You starts to feel a bit like Quantic. It has the air of shuffle about it. Pleasant enough, a lighter sound, but it quickly devolves to boredom and a feeling of "can the music start now please?" In general I feel that this album relies far too strongly on repetition - of beat loops, of vocal samples, of general tone. Each track feels very samey as a result, a problem exacerbated by their length. Once or twice this is broken up mid-tune but overall it is left to linger too long to the detriment of the overall effect. I am hoping that Shatner can alleviate this, but there are a couple more tracks to get through first. Slow Train again starts reasonably positively, but drifts into stasis. By the time it gets a bit more life the track is almost half done, and that life is lost as quickly as it was slow to arrive. Too much of a pattern to deny. I have to say that given this, I am glad Lemon Jelly stopped producing music together when they did so I did not pick up any more than 1 album's worth of dross.

Man Like Me feels like a re-hash of Come Down On Me, adding further still to the sense of repeated content. Like many of the other tracks there are some interesting sounds captured. Like many of the other tracks this does not help to cast off the perception of a homogenous blancmange that simply cannot really be enjoyed.  It is almost as if they lost their magic touch and started mixing the same ingredients together but coming up with divergent results.

I wonder how much of my opinion is based on loving the other discs too much, and thus anything that strayed too far was doomed to mediocrity in my eyes? Preconception also does not help, and having been warned off, I certainly had that. And yet, I do not think that alone explains the disparity. Shatner is talking now but the levels seem off. Backing too loud, vocal too low. Backing too... ugh. No, this post is becoming like the album, overdoing one theme, and not even Shatner could save it.

Casualty definitely fits, even if I do keep Make Things Right. And hang on to the physical disc.

... Waltzing Alone - The Guggenheim Grotto

Track list:
1. Philosophia
8. A Lifetime in Heat

Running Time: 8 mins
Released: 2005

I do not know where I picked this up from and can only suspect one of 2 things:

1. A free download from LastFM; or
2. Sample music that came with WMP on a new PC sometime in the past.

I only have 2 tracks from the album, and listening to Philosophia for what I thought was the first time, but which LastFM suggests is actually the 10th in 6 years, I wonder if I should not pick up some more.

It is genre-tagged as folk; I am not sure that fits. They have a pleasant sparse, lo-fi sound though, and as A Lifetime in Heat starts I am reminded of Nick Drake by the softness of the vocal. There is nothing like the same level of craft here, though.

I also had no idea where the band were from until I Googled them. Ireland makes a lot of sense as they fit snugly with the quieter moments of Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. I could see them providing a reasonable soundtrack to a chilled evening lounging around somewhere. However I think I will pass on getting any more... there is not quite enough interest to warrant a purchase.