The Complete Kismet Acoustic - Jesca Hoop

Track list:

1. Silverscreen
2. Summertime
3. Out the Back Door
4. Seed of Wonder
5. Enemy
6. Love Is All We Have
7. Intelligentactile101
8. Havoc in Heaven
9. Reves dans le creux
10. Money
11. Love and Love Again
12. Paradise
13. Worried Mind

Running time: 56 minutes
Released: 2012

I don't recall what got me into Jesca Hoop. I mean, I remember that it was Undress, but not the whys of picking up that album. I loved it though, and still do, although to be fair my epiphany wasn't that long ago... maybe 2 years tops? It wasn't until late last year I got around to ordering more older material though, including this one; I haven't received the physical disc yet - sourcing is apparently an issue - but the digital auto-rip will do!  It is a first listen for me too... digital buys not usually getting dedicated play when they are grabbed.

The opening guitar is not quite what I was expecting... a touch classical. The vocal reminds me of Lisa Hannigan, and someone else I cannot immediately place, in its tone, breathy and close. When the chorus hits, it is more reminiscent of the Jesca Hoop tunes that first engaged me, and overall its a gentle start, but Silverscreen feels like it goes on too long at least twice; it fakes an end then finds a continuation.

I am hoping this listen will put an end to my listlessness. The past few evenings, and all day today (it's Saturday) I have done nothing of note, not feeling like I want to do anything. Brain won't countenance thinky things, body (and the woeful winter weather) not supporting ideas of doing anything more active. I pine for what Hoop is singing about now... summer; I would take spring. I dislike the dark, I care not for the cold.

So far there hasn't been any of the really cool use of rhythm that sold Undress to me utterly. Instead these seem more traditional songs, less creative, less sure. The guitar has a nice snap to it, and there is a lively beat to Out the Back Door, but it feels... young? Uncertain, following more than leading... this tune is a step up from the first two though in terms of more than a passing interest. Hoop's voice here is light, also reinforcing the feeling of youth - though I'm pretty sure she was not that young when this was recorded.

I start to hear some themes and tells that tie this to the other material I am familiar with. Nice use of lyrics outside of traditional line structures, for instance, was one of the features that made me fall in thrall of Hoop's songs, and her vocal style really supports this approach, apparent sharp short breaths punctuating long stretches with constant vocal, hold-overs with long notes as the tune catches up. I like the way it draws my ear in, I like the way it stands out, and the sense of falling forward, onward ever after.

I have had an odd start to the year one way or another, and I feel a little all at sea with 2018. I have been finding it hard to focus my mind right outside of work, which has eaten up the odd evening too. Sleep has been hard to come by, waking early regardless of what time I bed down, not wanting to crawl out into cold mornings. I have been more or less constantly tired... except when I was ill, when I felt sparkier than I had been for a while. Life is odd, as I say. I am finding this album soothing and a little soporific. I don't mean that it is boring me, but that it is relaxing. The single guitar is clear and tuneful, but also soft and repetitive. The lone female voice not always urgent... those long lines absent from some songs, lapsing into repeated choruses.

Looking down the track list at the start of this listen - which is a nice break from "Complete" works - I had hopes for Intelligentactile101. Based on the name alone I figured this would be one of the less conventional tracks. There is a child-like aspect to it, a playfulness to the simple melody. That said it also feels a little underdone, like the structure really needed a bit more (most noticeably percussion) to make it work. I suspect I might prefer the original version. Like Undress, The Complete Kismet Acoustic is a re-take of another album. I don't (currently) own Kismet but I think its fair to say that I will soon. I didn't own Hunting My Dress first either.

This line here to break up the sadly uniform paragraph structures.

Sad that I had to do that, but I haven't been flowing with ideas for short, snappy insights relating to the music. It feels like I have been listening to this for a very long time, but I am only just over half way through. I think this is probably more a statement on how restless and unsettled I have been feeling more than a stick to beat the album with though. Anyone who has read one of these posts before will be aware that I am never keen to over-criticise first listens - not that those people exist.

Ooh, Hoop has gone for French. I think I have another version of Reves dans le Creux on another disc, I vaguely remember having to rip it from physical media. Yeah. Snowglobe. I really like the effect that songs in foreign tongues can elicit, I am reminded of Julie Fowlis' Gaelic, or Regina Spektor lapsing into Russian. I don't think its pure exoticism, I think it is more the change up.

Money has more to it, there is a little more instrumentation here, another layer, and more interest as a result. This has the air of a track that could grow into a favourite, even if at the same time it seems to flout the premise (I doubt that all these extra sounds are acoustic). There is a hint here of the playing with rhythm that sucks me in every time I hear the undressed version of Tulip, for example. It's not as pronounced here, but there's a cool to it all the same.

As the music falls back into a more sparse and less immediately engaging pattern, I find myself thinking this doesn't really work as an album. Tonally something like Money, but to a lesser extent things like Out the Back Door and Intelligentactile101 too, don't sit well alongside noodle-y little songs over classical-style guitar sounds. I find myself wondering whether the same applies to the non-acoustic original. I will be able to hear in due course.

The Cinematic Orchestra Presents: In Motion #1 - Various Artists

Track list:

1. Necrology - The Cinematic Orchestra
2. Lapis - Austin Peralta
3. Outer Space - Dorian Concept & Tom Chant
4. Dream Work - Dorian Concept & Tom Chant
5. Entr'acte - The Cinematic Orchestra
6. Regen- Gary Reverend
7. Manhatta - The Cinematic Orchestra

Running time: 79 minutes
Released: 2012

I love The Cinematic Orchestra. There is something about their style of modern jazz that clicks for me. I am not sure that this will exemplify that though, as it is not really a Cinematic Orchestra album - a greater number of the tracks are contributed by others. I don't remember this one at all really, so it's a step into the unknown a little.

This is a collection of 7 long pieces, soundtracks to short films I think. The opening track is the shortest at over 8 minutes, so I anticipate plenty of time to reflect over the next hour and a half. There are 4 tracks in the middle by invitees, but the album is bookended by the Cinematics. Necrology gets us underway with an assertive rhythm-led piece, keys sparkling above it, light touch space forming around it. As we hit the halfway mark there is a more fully formed melody that shares the track with the drum riff, when suddenly both drop out giving a pause for breath, a sense of wonder and reverence. When the tune picks up again, the drum influence is gone for a while; it rejoins, softer than before, still central, but not as dominant.

I have to say, I rather like it. It doesn't have the same instinctive appeal as the works that drew me to The Cinematic Orchestra in the first instance, but it is very much enjoyable.

Austin Peralta's piece, Lapis, is more strings and classical forms. My initial impressions are so-so. Nice enough but not compelling. That feeling persists 3 minutes in, and whilst the track starts to grow it isn't stirring any great emotion in me as I sit with my breakfast and (decaf) coffee. The first point the tune really grabs my attention is 2/3rds of the way through, it goes still, sparse; every note more important for that. Alas, it is dealing with really high ranges, at which I find the strings more of a screech than a pleasant sound. The overall effect of the piece is pastoral. Whilst those straining high notes introduce a tension to it, that tension is quickly sliced through and comes at the expense of me being thrown out of whatever picture I conjured to the tune prior. From there, we head into space...

My first thoughts about this first of two contributions from composers Dorian Concept and Tom Chant are... well, it doesn't really sound that space-like. Devoid a visual to accompany, this feels decidedly less space-like than, say, Mogwai's Atomic does, to pick something I had cause to listen to part of recently. The disconnect between the title and the actual tune grows wider when a horn pipes up and takes centre-stage. Despite that, I find that the tune is sliding by quite fast, certainly not dragging or feeling unwelcome. Unfortunately I miss the rest of the track as I find that I need to fiddle with my bike lights, charging by USB, as I will be cycling later. Bloody USB splitter was only directing any power to one of them, so I had to play about, unplug my mouse and get them both charging that way. Ugh.

Ironically, Dream Work has plenty of the spacey sounds that Outer Space was lacking, an effect conveyed by soft electronic edges to many of the sounds, and a lot more room to breathe around the major themes. For all that, I don't find myself enchanted by it, there are hard edges to a lot of the sounds - the horns in particular - and it is a touch disjointed for me. It feels like the roomy sounds, smooth strings and the staccato horns are all from different compositions that just happen to be overlaid and playing concurrently. This track does feel like it is dragging by the time it starts to wrap up, to be replaced by a 20 minute epic from the Cinematics. I am grateful for the shift.

The opening of Entr'acte is very soft, quiet and understated. When the sound does rise, it is clear that whilst The Cinematic Orchestra might be the artist credit, this is not in the same vein as most of their work. The long drawn out string notes are nice, the sense of space is very much in keeping with their other work, but this is not a lush jazzy sound. This is a mood piece more reminiscent of a Vangelis or a Sigur Rós; I find myself thinking of Soil Festivities in some places, and the general feel of the Icelandic group's quieter tracks at others.

About 6 and a half minutes in there is a shift in tone, it gets a little darker and more tense. That feeling is intensified as we get a creeping bass sound, which is then overlaid by a sort of shredded pulse sound that I cannot work out. Sounds build around this unsettling centre and it swells until we hit a clear call of a note. Then silence. A piano - a melody like To Build a Home from Ma Fleur. Stirring, beautiful. This sits in the middle of the piece, a clear shift from what went before. I don't think this is really one piece in any real sense. The silences between movements belie that. The melody grows into something only to then immediately die out and shrink back. Strings come to swell the overall sound, but at the same time restore that love of the note unplayed, which seems to be a feature of Cinematics compositions.

This time we get a nice crescendo, a real sense of something building up, a subtle groove to the tune, jazz drumming under the classical swell. Oh yes. The top end gives out to frenetic strings as the drums grow in volume and pace. Those strings open out into more beautiful long notes, contrasting with the tight, breathy drums. The latter half of this piece has been top notch... as I say that we hit a snag in the last couple of minutes, as it turns into a twee little ramble then ends on a dark discord. All a little out of place. That detracts from the brilliance of minutes 12-18 in an unfortunate way, but cannot spoil my overall impression of the piece.

Two to go, and another 20 minutes. The Grey Reverend track, Regen, is also credited as a J. Swinscoe (the driving force behind the Cinematics) composition in my file metadata but I have no idea whether this is true. Googling Grey Reverend shows him to be another Ninja Tune artist, a collaborator with The Cinematic Orchestra, and a guitarist. That makes sense as the centrepiece of Regen is a guitar melody which acts as the frame to hang some emotional strings from. The tune meanders along pleasantly but unremarkably, then drops dead at around 7 minutes. It starts again very different, again re-enforcing the idea that these aren't really single tracks. The guitar is sharper, crisper, in this new tune, it stands more or less alone this time, there are other sounds there but they are distinctly second-fiddle and subservient. It is gentle, a stroll, though there seem to be the odd stray notes here and there that make it less comforting than I feel it should be. I don't dislike this piece at all, but at the same time I find it hard to really like, too.

The final piece, back in the hands of the Cinematic Orchestra, is very much movie-music. You feel like the track title is missing the final n, but the piece reflects nothing of Manhattan to me (though I've only been there the once; what do I know) so I wonder if that is meant to be an association we draw or not. The tune is nice, if not enthralling, but I have to admit I find my attention wandering. This has been a long listen and whilst it has been primarily positive, much of it is not the kind of thing you really get into, you know? The tracks are too long for that, and they are cut adrift a little without the visuals they were meant to accompany. As such I feel a tinge of gladness as the final refrains kick in then die down. There is a time and a place for these tunes, and I don't really feel that that is one after the other like this.

Capricornia - Allo Darlin'

Track list:

2. When You Were Mine

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2012

I have a quickie to fit in. A singleton from a single, I guess. I think I picked this up from Bandcamp after already having the A side as an album track but I could be wrong. I loved Allo Darlin' and frankly since then have picked up everything I have seen them do (rather than everything they've done) to somewhat mixed results. When they are good, though, they are very, very good indeed.

When You Were Mine is upbeat and tuneful, a guitar tootling around over a pacy rhythm. It has me tapping my foot immediately. The song is washing over me, I don't think it is the singer's best moment - there are points in the song where she sounds flat - but it serves mostly to counterpoint the tune and rhythm with a different sort of sound, obscuring the repetitive nature of the composition enough for it to be enjoyable. Not their strongest effort, but a pleasing little 3 minute pop song. And that is me done!

Brugada - Sweet Billy Pilgrim

Track list:

1. Brugada

Running time: 5 minutes
Released: 2012

It appears this was actually a track from another album (Crown and Treaty), but I think I have it listed on its own because it was promotional gubbins; I certainly never bought Crown and Treaty. Whilst I was suckered into the hype around Twice Born Men, which included a Mercury nod and an appearance in an episode of The IT Crowd, that didn't turn into sustained interest and I therefore surmise this must have been a freebie. 

It starts with a nice trembling sound, but the fragile vocal is affected and adds nothing. The sound is better in the chorus where the singing is stronger. The strain in the voice in the verses doesn't come across as an emotional one (though as this song is reportedly about a sibling's untimely demise that wouldn't be out of place). I find that, when they release themselves, they can pick out a nice tune, and I shall maintain this for the chorus which soars and swirls in a pleasant fashion, but I shall not be looking up any more.

Broadside - Bellowhead

Track list:

1. Byker Hill
2. The Old Dun Cow
3. Roll the Woodpile Down
4. 10,000 Miles Away
5. Betsy Baker
6. Black Beetle Pies
7. Thousands or More
8. The Dockside Rant / Sailing With the Tide
9. The Wife of Usher's Well
10. What's the Life of a Man (Any More Than a Leaf?)
11. Lillibulero
12. Go My Way

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2012

Bellowhead are no more. By now they have played their last gig, which is sad - but then all things must end, and better they went out whilst still darn good than living on to drop in quality. Anyhow - I said a while back that it would be a few folk-packed weeks, well the infrequency of my posting put paid to that. However I do still have to get through a couple of Bellowhead albums before I can move on to C after what seems like being stuck on the Bs forever; almost 18 months now!

Broadside never received much play from me as an album before, but spawned their biggest single, one of my favourites, and probably the worst thing Bellowhead ever did, all in one. It starts with Byker Hill, which - my only other referenced for Byker being the Grove of BBC childrens TV of the early 90s - I guess must have been from the North East. Ooh. The talk of colliers fits, at least. This has an anthemic feel to it, the whole band joining in on the chorus, and a consistent pace thumping it forward. It is let down as a song by the sheer reliance on repetition, but the sense of place and purpose in the piece redeem it.

The Old Dun Cow makes good use of bassy brass to set the tone - fitting more with a gangster film than its actual subject. There is an urgency in the vocal here, breathy and quick in places, which gives the song character and contrasts with the structure from those deep horns. The break out into saxophone solo was unexpected, and didn't add much really. Crowd favourite next; I like Roll the Woodpile Down - any tune where Paul Sartin pulls the Oboe out has an appeal - but I have never quite understood why this is every other Bellowhead fan's #1 tune. Its nice and radio-friendly, which explained why it did so well, it's short and snappy, but with that it is also very formulaic. I find it doesn't quite have the really sweet melody of a Betsy Baker or the jaunt of a Haul Away. I guess I am just being a bit curmudgeonly here; it's a fine tune, just not a personal fave.

I heard a number of these tracks twice yesterday; not thinking about this project I was re-listening to the first disc of the Farewell Tour live album in the car to and from both work and gaming in the evening. Whilst I normally try to avoid that kind of action, I don't really mind. Save one or two tracks, even if I am not being openly positive here, my general take on Bellowhead is one of a comfortable familiarity. Their best work turns that into losing myself but mostly its just relaxing. I have to forgive Betsy Baker for being from Swindon - I first saw them play it live there in the steam railway museum - because the oboe melody is probably my favourite tune in all their work. It's not my favourite Bellowhead track (I think I would have to say that's Across the Line from Burlesque), but it is right up there... despite most of what I said about Roll the Woodpile Down applying equally here - the repetition certainly applies to the melody, yet I give it a pass because it is so light, fanciful and lyrical.

Black Beetle Pies is awful by comparison. An experiment with discordance. It is actually far more palatable on record than live. Here the recording de-emphasizes the more cacophonous elements, allowing me to appreciate their intent without the roundly negative responses I always felt hearing this in concert. We pass on to a track that probably encapsulates the standard Bellowhead song in terms of the basic structure, tune, melody and style, but which lacks the true character of the band. Thousands or More is just... flat, missing something. Tunes... the other side of the band and, probably, my natural bias in terms of enjoyment. I don't think The Dockside Rant is a short and approachable pair but not a set that ring any bells for me. Nice enough, and with enough character to be enjoyable, but not their finest.

There is a darker tone to The Wife of Usher's Well - chanting over a taut and insistent string striking, a more expansive chorus, but still with contrasting voices building that feeling of tension and disquiet. I actually really like this for the sense of drama it creates, a good reset after the tune set. Hearing What's the Life of a Man I cannot but think of Tom Waits. Whilst this is a traditional number, here it is rendered in true Waitsian style... oompah, rapid chanting, tempo shifts, vocal gruffness. Very vaudeville. It is another song that relies overmuch on a repeated chorus, but the tone of the track and the energy of it carries the day here (I found the live recording went on a little too long when driving yesterday, but I don't notice that now).

Time has flown by and we're into the last couple of tracks. Lillibulero was a live staple, but to be honest it has always been an underwhelming number for me. I am maddeningly inconsistent and fickle on this, but I find the repetition of the title in this track a bit of a sore point compared with the repetition of other elements in other tracks. Go My Way is unfamiliar to me, never a live track, but I like its overall tone and it works as a closer... right up until the point it drops out suddenly and then, after a moment of silence we get a fiddle melody which shifts the nature of the track. Thankfully this builds up with the percussion and horns coming into it and there is another, fitting, crescendo before the track, and the album conclude.

After sitting through Broadside, I can see why I never really listened to it much. By now I was already used to seeing them live; I had established favourites; there are noticeable weaker tracks. However there are also some nice highs and it forms part of a catalogue that I am glad to have in full.

Break it Yourself - Andrew Bird

Track list:

1. Desperation Breeds
2. Polynation
3. Danse Carribe
4. Give It Away
5. Eyeoneye
6. Lazy Projector
7. Near Death Expereince Expereince
8. Things Behind The Barn
9. Lusitania
10. Oprheo Looks Back
11. Sifters
12. Fatal Shore
13. Hole In The Ocean Floor
14. Belles

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2012

Whistling man time. That's how I think of Andrew Bird, even if it doesn't necessarily reflect in all of his works. My introduction to him was a track that had a lot of him whistling and so he is forever described.

This album starts with a jolt - a discordant noise startles me as I press play, before it settles into the sort of soft acoustic fare I would expect from Bird, his voice lying above a simple little melody. Arguably his pieces are better in the bridges, away from the vocal. There those simple ditties become more elaborate tapestries of a variety of sounds, all of which are fairly relaxing, fairly straightforward, but which mesh really well. That said, Desperation Breeds has a couple of really sharp tones and warbles which are a little too high and too acute for my taste. It is the end of a week off and I have come over all tired and despondent about going back to work tomorrow. Or rather about not having really managed to achieve enough whilst off. I completed and checked off a number of tasks, but some key goals for the week remain unmet even whilst unconsidered items got tackled. This post is me running away from any more, into something I promised myself I would find time for.

Polynation is a weird little interlude before the third track. Danse Carribe has a nice gentle flow to it, strings and guitar with drums. It has a pastoral air to begin with before sounds that I guess approximate steel drums with other instruments and lend the name pop up, along with our first instance of whistling on the record. It then morphs into a folky dance number. Overall it is a bit of a hodge-podge of a tune, but a very pleasantly diverting one. This sort of meandering number is typical of what drew me to Bird's music. This is, of course, not the first time he has appeared on this page. Bird's style is idiosyncratic, I can't really say I have anything else quite like this - wandering all over the place. Give It Away is staccato to the point of obnoxiousness for a large part of its run, but it is tailed by a lovely little tune and duet.

There is another different tone at the start of the oddly-named Eyeoneye, a more standard structure in some ways. This is the track that gives the album its name, a song about self-heartbreak? More whistles in the middle of it, but that quirk aside the form of the song could easily be any number of other artists, but the style... I can't quite decide whether I like it a lot or whether I am bored by it. It wavers between brilliance and a flatness that I can't quite describe.

My challenge for the coming week is to keep up the momentum of these listens that I have, largely, been able to establish over my holiday. Sure, I missed a couple of days but I broke the habit of mooching instead of addressing the task, albeit one I set myself and only I care about whether I continue (let alone complete). It's one thing to pick these up when I am free and haven't expended mental energy by doing a day's work; it's another to find evening time during working weeks and amidst other plans. Lazy Projector is a nice Birdian number, it has passed by whilst I mull my immediate future, and then we get another oddly titled track. I'm not sure I want to experience the Near Death Experience Experience, but here it is. It has a nice motion to it, a roll, muted strings and percussion carrying the tune effortlessly, jauntily, along. Odder sounds appear in and around this core, but the song's charm is in the basic pairing,

Ugh, mental tiredness is making finding anything interesting a chore to type. Another little interlude has sailed by before we land on Lusitania. Sinking ships indeed. I mentioned on Armchair Apocrypha that I like Andrew Bird's voice. It isn't just the timbre, its not necessarily pitch perfect delivery. Its just a homely, welcome sound. On this album he seems to be sharing vocal with a female voice, and there is a particularly nice harmony on this track. The jauntiness is back, with distinct echoes of... I guess Penguin Cafe Orchestra; Orpheo Looks Back is probably the nicest track on the album thus far. There is a real sense of... something to it. A folky edge? I dunno... hard to articulate, too tired.

Some of the sounds on Sifters are a little too flat for me, but the song itself is pleasant; when Bird isn't singing, it feels a bit pointless, lifeless. When his emotion-infused vocal is applied it gives the track that second layer that it needs to really click. This latter part of the album seems to lean toward the sparse which is a shame, not where I think the artist's strengths lie. He builds and intertwines sounds very well, and so when stripped right back to a melody and some percussion as is the case on Fatal Shore my interest suffers. This tune is also soporifically slow, relaxed, chilled... not helping! It's far too early to go to bed yet, though an early night (and a chance to read a couple of chapters before getting it) are the only other things on my to do list for this evening other than dinner.

Hole in the Ocean Floor is 8 minutes long; I really hope that it has something to it to justify the length, some heft and weight to sustain it that far. It does not start well from that point of view... too slow and sparse, but a nice enough little melody. It continues stumbling on this route for 4 minutes, at which point I start to lose interest. It's not that the tune is unpleasant, it's just a bit of a wander - which allows my mind to do the same. At which point it loses my attention and offers little by way of an attempt to draw me back.

The final track is humourously named "Belles" as it is all chimes. It reminds me a little of Sigur Rós for some reason - particularly warm winter scenes from the film Heima. The chiming lasts a couple of minutes then departs, without ever amounting to more. It leaves a strange silence - they felt like they should have been building to something, or at least fading out a bit more gently. I am left feeling less enthused than I expected to be before I began... I put that down to my state of mind rather than any real fault in the music.

Blood Speaks - Smoke Fairies

Track list:

1. Let Me Know
2. Awake
3. The Three of Us
4. Daylight
5. Blood Speaks
6. Take Me Down When You Go
7. Feel It Coming Near
8. Hideaway
9. Version of the Future
10. Film Reel

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 2012

Hmm, I guess it must be three years since I last went to a festival then, if this came out in 2012. I say that, because I am pretty sure I picked this up of the back of Latitude that year, and a quick Google suggests - thanks to preservations of the lineup - that I am right. God, that makes me feel old.

The musical structure that kicks us off is interesting, lush rounded sounds that sound pretty good this Sunday morning. Alas it is spoiled some when the vocal comes in and obliterates the fullness, puncturing it by dominating and, in my opinion, not fitting with what was there at all. When the track returns to instrumental the interest returns; completely frustrating this, there is a lot to like but it is placed behind a screen of disinterest. Is that going to be a pattern?

The vocal is less immediately irritating on Awake, so hopefully it was a specific confluence of factors. Here the loopy themes are integrated better with the voice, at least until the two singers harmonise - then they push out the accompaniment again. Normally I like a good harmony but here I don't feel either of the singing voices on exhibit are particularly good. I am definitely more drawn to the atmospheric guitars, wrapping around like smoke in a burning room, enveloping the ear, so things that detract from that are damaging to my appreciation of the track. This is definitely better than Let Me Know, though so there is hope.

Engaging guitar swells are the defining feature here. It isn't something that normally grabs me, but there is something attractive about these riffs. There is something PJ Harvey-like about The Three of Us and it is better again. If each track continues to improve on the last, by the end of the disc it will be seriously good. I find myself listening more closely, and then pull back to the observer's view that allows me to type as well. The reason? The interest falls down on closer scrutiny - there is too much repetition in the structuring of the lines to stand a determined inspection, but the fact the atmosphere is created by repeats is secondary to the nature of the atmosphere itself on first contact. I prefer the latter position here.

The pattern of constant improvement is broken, alas. Daylight is so utterly bland that my mind wanders off and by the time I re-focus to start describing why I dislike it it has finished and I never have to listen to it again. The title track also does not grab me much - it seems to have ditched the strongest parts of the earlier songs, putting far more emphasis on the vocals. It does manage to create a bit of tone, a full shimmering sound accompanies the lyrics, but I can't escape the fact that I really don't rate either of the Smoke Fairies as singers when the vocal is placed so front and centre as it is here. That it then descends into repeating one (nonsensical) line over and over just seals its fate. Get out! At least the hooks come back when it ends, but I wonder if this couplet have soured me.

I'm sat here with a peppermint tea in dirty (painting) clothes. Not because I have been or will be painting, but because today is all about cleaning. This listen was supposed to be my "me time" - to make me feel human between extracting myself from my bed and getting on with the business of the day. I could have done with a positive impression to kickstart the chores but so far I am cutting more than I shall keep. There are little nuggets of pleasantness in and around these tunes and I can see why I might have enjoyed a live set and been prompted to pick it up, but there are too many low points to go along with that and since The Three of Us those weaker moments have overrun and outnumbered the positives. Tracks four through seven all for the chop.

I feel like Hideaway is the album in a nutshell. Interestingly rich guitar gives brief hope to begin with, then a voice stretched way past its ability to be musical tramps in and ruins all sense of enjoyment. The track then evolves and the voice integrates better as it goes, but so does the interest in the tune wane. Ultimately it is a disappointment. I could get a similar vibe from Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea without the weak points. Much as I love that album, not many things make me actively think "I wish I was listening to PJ instead".

I am more enamoured of Version of the Future for some reason. The track just holds together a little better I think - the vocal is much improved and whilst we don't have the warm enveloping richness in the backing that we had on the early tracks there is just enough there to give it a sense of place and purpose. The improvement in the singing is unreal - earlier it felt like they were straining, aiming at some kind of waifish vision, haunting. Here its a much more "normal" singing voice and suddenly it doesn't annoy me or try to be something it isn't. Alas they don't persist in that vain and the ethereal attempts are restored for the final track, and with it my sense of being let down. The atmosphere is "nice" on Film Reel, but it is uncontextualised noodling which means it feels like a teenager sat in their room feeling sorry for themselves more than something that should actually have been recorded. This purchase was a mistake.

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.

Bending the Dark - The Imagined Village

Track list:

1. The Captain’s Apprentice
2. New York Trader
3. Wintersinging
4. The Guvna
5. Sick Old Man
6. Nest
7. Fisherman
8. Get Kalsi
9. Washing Song
10. Bending the Dark

Running time: 55 minutes
Released: 2012

The Imagined Village. I liked their first album a lot but then soured on them a bit. I have, however, stumbled across a very positive BBC Music review of this album in the process of preparing for this post so perhaps it is a good thing to be revisiting this again. To not influence any reading of this piece, I leave the link to the end.

I have been a bit quiet here of late - nothing for over a week. I may be back from my holidays but I have been tied up one way or another - busy evenings, a weekend with the niece and nephew, tiredness and, significantly, the cricket commentaries coming from the West Indies where England are playing. These have filled up the evenings when I have been around, and I can't listen to two things at once. I have other things on the go that I haven't got to in my evenings, too - for example i am now 2 sessions behind writing up my Albion game. I was going to address that yesterday until I got caught in an accident tailback (two, actually) and it took almost 3 hours to get home from work, normally 40 minutes away, and so I was not in a mood conducive to writing.

Enough grumbling, I have just about managed to find a window for this within 2 weeks of the last post so lets dive in. The opening is an unaccompanied female voice, Jacqui Oates, that I recognise as one of The Winterset backing Rachel Unthank on The Bairns; we then get percussion and eventually a top end joining in. When the vocal returns it is, instead, Eliza Carthy. This is one of the things that attracted me to The Imagined Village - the range of musicians involved. This line up is different from that on their debut; there is overlap but some have gone, some have arrived.

Of course Carthy's vocal is also a different track to Oates' and so, I presume, was the top end. I just missed the transition... rustiness showing immediately. It makes more sense this way, mind. New York Trader is quite a rich number, blending a lot of different influences - another plus from The Imagined Village concept and range of contributers - compared to the sparseness of the short opener.

Two and a bit tracks in now, and I am again reminded about how thin the lines between genre can be, and in places you may not expect. Here on Wintersinging the percussion is persistent and incessant in a manner not unlike something you might hear in a club, weighted by the bass of Ali Friend of Clayhill and more pertinently Red Snapper, who I have seen (on video alas) doing Drum 'n' Bass live with an upright bass. The difference is in the composition of the top end - what instruments are involved - and, crucially I think, the relative volumes of the parts. I really like this track, both as an example of the fragility of genre as a concept and more simply as a piece of music. I am already much better disposed to this album than I was expecting to be before reading up on it.

The Guvna is a disappointment as a follow up - I think it misses something from not having any vocal. I recall this track being called out in the BBC piece but I read that nearer 3 weeks ago and cannot recall why. I still worry that it is influencing my opinion, but the track is simply lacking engagement. It's not unpleasant or anything, just... bland? Thankfully a singer is reintroduced for the next track, which includes Raggle Taggle Gypsy, which I am more familiar with from The Waterboys. This track again features Friend's distinctive twangy bass, with which I am very familiar, the notes he leaves phrases on, the structures of his hooks here, could come straight from a Red Snapper record, which is a fine thing as far as I am concerned.

Tonal shift. A softer song, less bassy, percussion relegated to supporting role rather than dominant structure, and back to Oates as vocalist, albeit sharing some duties with Carthy and a male voice - which one of the candidates I can't pin down by ear. Nest is alright, but I am immediately drawn in to the dark tone of the following track, a sleazy but enticing schmooze with a rich arrangement that pairs really well with Carthy's signing. This feels less folk, more noir despite being titled Fisherman. I love it.

Its not as if I have been completely music free in the weeks intervening between this and posting Beat the Champ - but it feels good to give time to some music again, even as I simultaneously distract myself by typing and glancing every now and again at the silent snooker on the TV. I have not managed to immerse myself in listening to anything else in the interim. Even in yesterdays snore-fest of a drive home there was no music, TMS kept me entertained instead as the cricket is back on, and forms one reason why I am forcing myself to do this listen mid-morning, else it could be another half week before I get to anything.

I have found the more percussive numbers, the grungier less folky numbers more interesting on this disc but I do appreciate the wandering styles, and Washing Song being predominantly stripped back to Carthy, a keyboard and fiddle is a strong counter to some of the earlier sounds. As I head into the last track I can honestly say I have really enjoyed this listen, but I am concerned it might all be destroyed by stupid silence given the 12 minute length of the title track. Hopefully its actually all music all the way - seems quite likely with the way the piece has started - a sort of rolling amalgam of the various styles of the individual contributors, rather than a coherently directed effort. As I type that it drops into sparse wandering, which would be dull except it brings to mind summer days. When it starts to build again I find it less interesting, a return to the busy but flat sound that The Guvna brought.

I hear in there a melody that I recognised, but could not place. Checking liner notes, it references The Cuckoo's Nest which immediately makes sense. That phase passes and we enter some serious drumming. To be honest I find this a shambles. The best songs on this album were tightly crafted works, using the different influences and contributors but pulling in one direction. This closer is undirected which means that whilst different aspects of it are quite decent the overall impression is not strong.

So, a disappointing close, but overall a very worthwhile album with a few tracks I enjoyed immensely. That title track goes. The other disappointing ones... I think I need another time through, or perhaps to listen to them isolated from the pieces that were so much better.

The BBC review I mentioned is here, by the way.

An Awesome Wave - Alt-J

Track list:

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

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Area 52 - Rodrigo y Gabriela

Track list:

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

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Archipelago - Hidden Orchestra

Track list:

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

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Happy Day - Ólafur Arnalds

Track list:

1. The Land of Nod
2. Through the Screen
3. Before the Calm
4. Lynn's Theme
5. Alice Enters
6. The Wait
7. A Family Stroll
8. Poland
9. Out to Sea
10. Autumn Day
11. Everything Must Change

Running time: 33 minutes
Released: 2012

Another soundtrack to a film I have not seen. A theme emerging strongly in the discs covered to date. We are back in Iceland again, though this time just for the music. Depending on how this is, I might buy some more of Arnalds' soundtracks but probably not. I expect to quite like this, but not be blown away - how right or wrong shall I be?

As I hit play, I am immediately struck by the tone. Much more sombre and downbeat than I would have expected given the title. The first track is named The Land of Nod, so I was not expecting anything bombastic and big but I was, perhaps naively, expecting a little more positivity. It is instead a dark track that devolves to static. The next tune clears the decks, a moving piano piece - slow and sad. And short. The majority of these tracks are short, and there are not a lot of them. Perhaps it is a very short movie. It is pretty much Arnalds doing what Arnalds does - and if you like his themes as I do there is a fair bit to like. The constant sad edge to things does run the risk of grating after a while, of wearing one down, but the tracks are beautiful in isolation.

Together they blur into much of a muchness, at least for my sleeplessness-addled brain after a late night yesterday and a long day today. I toyed with doing a post for the gig I was at, but shot it down as it would (sadly) ram home just how few I go to recently.

The Wait is the first track over 3 minutes. It is heavily string themed, mournful as ever with lots of pauses between the sighs of bow on hair. The theme is picked up by keys as the track rolls into the next one, a link that I quite like as I notice it for the first time. One thing I will say is that I love the way Arnalds uses those pauses - either brief silences or longer notes that hold pause-like before being let up and something else played instead. Those spaces, hesitations, are constructs that I have come to really appreciate as I have grown older, as I have learned to listen to what is not there, as well as what is and accept silences or inactivity as part of compositions.

Poland has a happier air, not actually happy, but not immediately sad either. Simple piano tune, warmer sounds, wrapped in the familiar strings like a blanket to ward off the cold and dark... until the keys stop and we are back to a very similar sound to those we have been hearing before. There is less bite to the notes though.

Drive. There is finally some drive injected. Out to Sea builds up in an urgent manner, building, threatening, delighting before receding. I was drifting away mentally when I suddenly cottoned on to what was happening and snapped back. Easily my favourite track so far, the change of pace being very welcome even if it is not sustained. The sounds have filled in a bit in the latter half of the disc, more depth, less stark, lonely strings and more melodic harmony. The pauses and the space given to each refrain are diminished or gone and the tracks, whilst longer, go by quicker as a result. I am glad, for as much as the pauses were delightful, the increase in depth and notation means there is more going on to listen in to and out for. It also means that the soundtrack manages to change tone at the right time to retain interest and avoid becoming too much of a one-tone affair as looked possible early on. I do not think I have consciously heard as much staccato playing of strings as on Everything Must Change, where they provide the core structure around which other movements wander. Of course, at the point I type that, they subside and the track melts away until only a haunting theme harking back to the first few tracks emerges, bringing the album to a close on a note similar to how it began.

7777777 - Allo Darlin'

Track List:

1. Only Dust Behind
2. Dear John
3. Kings & Queens

Running time: 8 minutes
Released: 2012

So it turns out there were a load of Allo Darlin' B-sides and E.P.s available on Bandcamp. I had never checked before, but now have a handful of new tunes, including this set.

I have never heard two of the three tracks before this but it starts very breezily, if quietly. Only Dust Behind is charming enough but there it is lacking something I cannot quite put my finger on. Dear John is a little poppier, more sparkle to the guitar. The vocal is uncharacteristically subdued in places though and it is not amongst their better songs.

Kings & Queens (written with the ampersand here) is a version of a tune which appears on We Come From the Same Place. It is significantly different to the album version, much more raw and possibly a little more catchy.

Overall these 3 tracks are pretty standard examples of Allo Darlin' tracks in terms of construction and, as I like what that tends to mean, I like these tunes. I would not hold any of them up amongst my favourites but all three made me smile, which is a good thing on a cold, wet day.

'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Track List:

1. Mladic
2. Their Helicopters’ Sing
3. We Drift Like Worried Fire
4. Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable

Running Time: 53 minutes
Released: 2012

OK so apparently apostrophes count as "other" but not enough for this album to have been listed with the punctuation and numbers in WMP. Instead there is an insert in the middle of A just for this album. Computers, eh? Got to love them.

I had been aware of GY!BE (and the correct punctuation in their name) for a long time without ever buying anything. Hearing stuff friends played was the extent of it until something prompted me to buy this 2012 release. I think I regretted it immediately and LastFM suggests I have not managed to listen to the whole thing in the 2 years I have had it (3 scrobbles before this listen). I will admit I am not looking forward to this one, and expect it to be disappearing from my library once it is complete. "Its only 4 tracks, how bad can it be?" - after one 15 minute 4-tracker comes one almost making the hour. Well, no time like the present...

The 4 tracks break down as 2 super-tracks of ~20 minutes each, and 2 tracks that are in the ballpark of the regular song (albeit the longer end of that scale) at 6 1/2 minutes. Mladic, presumably named for this dirtbag, is of the former. It opens with a long sequence with an insistent guitar riff repeating whilst all kinds of layers form, play out and dissipate over the top of it. Actually this is pretty darn good. The relative volumes are right, so that repetition is very audible but at the same time it plays second fiddle to what else is going on. Rather than becoming a drone to get bored of, it becomes a touchstone of familiarity whilst the sound around it shrieks, wails, thumps and breaks into your skull with its insistence. The impressive part is the sustained intensity of the piece. The soundscape takes on elements from eastern musical traditions as the tune progresses and I find these just that little bit harsher. They are sharper edged sounds and tones which does not sit so well. I am about half way through the song's length when I realise that constant guitar repeat has gone. I wonder when it disappeared. It is no coincidence that this realisation accompanies a lightening of the load - an expansion of the sound into airier space, less constrained, more open, and slowed... to the point of almost petering out at one stage. The lull is not appreciated here other than for drawing closed those eastern twangs and heralding a return to more rounded sounds that, whilst still noisy, cut less of a hole in my eardrums. The last third of this piece has been rather dull in comparison with what came before. It keeps threatening to build to something again, but then chickens out and maintains a status quo which just fails to excite, before finally kicking any interest out the door with improvised percussion left alone to finish up. I found the first half pretty great, the third quarter alright and the last simply forgettable. Not sure what that leaves me wanting to do with the track really...

Their Helicopters' Sing takes over and is just flat for the first 2 1/2 minutes. A simple drone. I keep waiting for something to kick in, and whilst there is a gradual build in volume and assorted other sounds being layered on top of the drone it singularly fails to engage with me, the drone getting on my nerves and a few of the layered sounds being like nails down a chalkboard in terms of the response they generate. The whole 6 1/2 minutes are like this, alas, and as good an indication as any as to why I did not get into GY!BE earlier.

The opening to We Drift Like Worried Fire, the second mega-track, is interesting. A plucked string hook, and crafted sounds around that produce an eerie tone. This takes up the first three minutes, before a guitar comes in to pick up the hook and it promises for a growth in the sound, something that is sorely needed by this point. Alas it is some time coming - another minute before anything further is built on. The base remains pleasant enough, but the song is flattering to deceive a little until the stings return as a melody. There is then some progression, construction, and embellishment. The problem I find myself with is that I have just got bored in the meantime and the new, richer sound is nice, but is it nice enough to excuse the overlong build up? On balance, probably, just. Of course as I say that there are still 12 minutes to go!

The clocks went back last night. It is now 17.30 and pitch dark outside, which does nothing for my mood. The next 4 months are bleak, black and devoid of fun as I rise in the dark, leave for work in the dark, and come home again in the dark. Bleh.

I was going to compare that to what was happening in the tune around the 10 minute mark but then it got interesting on me again. This piece is really frustrating with its ups and downs. One of the problems is that the interesting bits are either too short or last long enough to become uninteresting by virtue of repetition. Unlike Mladic, it appears that the last third of this tune will be the most energetic, highest tempo, and more impressive section. I suspect there may yet be a bait-and-switch ending, but the build feels like we could be in for a crescendo and that is a positive development. Definitely an interesting end, and overall it leaves me with a positive impression on the song despite moments of disengagement or frustration with earlier sections.

The fourth and final track is another drone-based piece and I have to say I am immediately turned off by this approach. There is nothing here for me to latch on to, nothing to enjoy, just a wall of sameness pushing at my eardrums and making me want the listen to end. Even when that wall breaks there is no element introduced to liven it up, just another different drone taking over. I will be keeping 50% of this album and to my surprise it is the longer pieces that make the cut. They both have their moments of frustration or disinterest but they also have some astounding sections that really gripped my ears. As the album closes, I am left with a physical sensation of the sound having been removed. This speaks to the effect of the drones - powerful in terms of generating a response, but not necessarily a favourable one.