Contact Note - Jon Hopkins

Track list:

1. Circle
2. Second Sense
3. Contact Note
4. Searchlight
5. Symmetry
6. 100
7. Glasstop
8. Sleepwalker
9. Reprise
10. Nightjar
11. Black and Red
12. Luna Moth

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 2004

OK, so I'm actually excited to give this one a listen. I don't think I've ever really given much time to Contact Note before, but I love Jon Hopkins' work (and am annoyed that my pre-order of the physical release of Singularity hasn't shown up yet; Amazon seem to be losing the plot slightly of late). My challenge to myself is to do this on a weeknight; did I?

Incidentally, I love the cover of this one. The lighting, the colours and the image all. That said, given the choice of subject I do wonder why the album wasn't named after the final track.

I did not manage to make this midweek in the end, and I found myself putting in two inserts before it after a couple of new purchases, but it feels like it could be a good album to round off a sunny weekend. Circle has a simple rhythmic loop that is easy to get sucked into whilst Hopkins weaves patterns over it. It feels optimistic, but it loses its way a bit when the structure that did so much to bring me in to the track is swapped out for another, leaving the latter part of the track feeling stale and distant. Its a perfect example of my fickleness I guess; it wasn't a seismic shift or anything, but it was enough for it to lose me.

I am rather disappointed by the opening to Second Sense too... not only do I not get on with the vocal insertions but it is a little too rhythm-led this time, and those rhythms can't sustain much on their own. It gets better when there's more melody added, or tuned up perhaps.

I discovered Jon Hopkins not through electronica, but through his production of low-fi Scottish indie peeps. Now Hopkins is well known for his collaboration with King Creosote, but it was his work on And the Racket They Made (from Bombshell) that really resonated with me, some years before Diamond Mine appeared. There it was his use of space more than anything else, the sparseness, the knowledge of when to dial back and support. I hear the roots of that sparseness here. Sure, there is always something going on, but there are passages when one element or other drops out or reduces to a low level that make you consider what was there, or what might be there.

I like, too, that Hopkins can take you on a journey, and may be specifically looking to do so if I recall discussion of a later work, Immunity, correctly. There it applied to the whole album, mirroring the structure of a night out, here I apply that more at the single track level.

I found this last night, too; putting thoughts to words to describe music dominated by electronic elements is surprisingly hard. Describing some of the sounds defies words, and you can't fall back on mentioning the instrument part either, because there's nothing there to identify in the same way that more... organic(?) music has. Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming for a second that non-electronic music has any primacy of place or anything like that, just suggesting that it is probably easier to describe.

There are some very different sounds on this disc, tonally I mean. 100 comes across bright and radio-friendly, almost "pop-y" which is a bit of a tonal jump. It's a good one though, breathing a life into the middle of the disc with its bold central theme. I am surprised to find I've only listened to it 6 times before as it is immediately familiar, the kind of track that could easily become an earworm. Tomorrow, as well as work I am expecting a delivery of English wine (it's getting better, they say...) and a man coming to fix my fence. It'll be nice to gain back a feeling of space in my back garden, especially given the fantastic bright, dry May we seem to have had this year. If I could bottle a day like today and carry it with me... warm but not too warm, bright, blue, full of life.

Enough whimsy. Except that the music seems to have gone that way, too... all plinky strings and xylophones.

Personally, I can't help but feel Hopkins is at his best when understated and downtempo. That isn't to say that he can't make some great tunes with more life in, but there are plenty of people who do that really well. Crafting truly engaging tracks that suit less full on moods and moments takes effort. It's easy to get tone in the right ballpark, but few manage to elevate that into something truly enjoyable in the way Jon Hopkins does. I know it's not on this disc, but I remember when I got Immunity and first heard the title track... I was absorbed, smitten. It probably helped that it includes a re-imagining of a King Creosote tune, again, and that it took me far too long to pin down what, so I had to listen to it over and over to confirm that it wasn't just similar to, but actually was the main lyric from Carbon Dating Agent (which I always loved, but since has become one of my all time favourite tracks).

I seem to be writing about anything except what I am hearing, but this has always been about where my mind goes from the music that I input as much as (or more than) about recording facts about what I hear.

There is a symmetry of sorts to this album, the first three and last three tracks have similar but reversed patterns of length, and as Nightjar begins it gives the impression that this will take the listener on a journey in the way that Contact Note did. I hope so, anyway because as it starts it is a little caught in between. Not super-sparse and considered, but not really enough going on to draw interest. On cue it opens up into a really nice simple piano, which in turn fades into more rhythm. It's not a high tempo journey, but it's going to some varied places.

Black and Red stands out as a complete oddity, blindsiding me with a load of found sound, a darker tone and not nearly as much coherence as I have come to expect from this artist to go with the absence of traditional tune, rhythm and structure. There must be a story behind this track - which ends with perhaps the most chilled sound of all of them - because it's so utterly out of place in other respects.

By ending as it does Black and Red dovetails nicely into the final track, a dreamy and ethereal number that I might appreciate more in another mood, or on another day. And that is all I could think of to write in those final 5 minutes... it must be time to start thinking about sleep and the week to come.

All That Must Be - George Fitzgerald

Track list:

1. Two Moons Under
2. Frieda
3. Burns
4. Roll Back
5. Siren Calls
6. Nobody But You (feat. Hudson Scott)
7. Outgrown
8. Half-Light (Night Version)
9. The Echo Forgets
10. Passing Trains

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2018

Another "A" insert here, and this one a real punt as I have no other touchpoint for George Fitzgerald. This was a recommendation when I was buying All Melody, and I heard a couple of samples on the storefront, said "sod it" and chucked it into the order. I've not listened to it yet, either. What's it like?

It opens with some street sounds, but they give way quickly to a synth-led structure creating a crucible like space for a top end that is... really odd. Words fail me, so moving on it garners a videogame soundtrack feel. The strange indescribable sounds aside, it has has something, but perhaps its thrust doesn't really sit well with me for a studied listen.

Reading up a little as the second track kicks in, it seems that Fitzgerald is much more club focused than I would have thought from this offering. My intersection with dance music is slim, but I have a fair amount of low-key electronica and that's where my head went when I heard the marketing samples, and why I picked it up on a whim. I suppose the fact I'm listening to this after dark on a Saturday means I got the timing right, but I am so uninterested in the club scene, and was similarly so in my youth. However my view of what gets played was skewed by that which made the radio and TV back when that mattered. This doesn't seem to share a lot of DNA with that guff from 20 years back.

There's more soft sounds, there's less repetitive "banging beats" and more growth within the tune. Crucially there's no paper thin plastic vocal on this either. I can't see how you'd dance to this, it just appeals to me in a more reflective way. But then I couldn't dance to anything, so what do I know?!

Where there are vocals, they are the weakest part of the compositions. And for all that I am finding the tunes to have some interest, they are also dragging. Roll Back has only just started, none of the three tracks before it are over-long and the whole disc is only 44 minutes but it feels like I have been going a while. So it's fair to say that I'm not falling wildly for it on first exposure. With that said, I'm not bouncing off it either. Any repellent effect that I get from the vocal segments is made up for by an interest in how he's constructed his loops and beats.

It's the most purely electronic, sci-fi-esque beeps and blips that appeal the most. They carry a familiarity from 10s of game soundtracks over the years, without being that at all. I have a frame of reference for it, even if it is not a reference the artist was consciously calling on (not that I would know). I can picture neon-lit streets of future dystopia, pulsing space-station bars, ship-stealing heist missions and more. I think this is why the vocal sections throw me for a loop; the music of my references rarely contains those elements.

Perhaps what surprises me the most is the volume level. It's not amped right up, but pitched lower. This allows for some more subtle sounds to be fused into the mix without getting swallowed whole. It's a world away from late nineties and early 2000s radio dance tracks that I recall (perhaps through stereotype-enforcing goggles, to be fair!). 

There are times when it flies closer to those themes, though thus far even the most egregious of them has been mitigated by the general volume level and the low contrast between elements. 

I think Outgrown must have been one of the samples I heard online, there's a keyboard line in there adding a nice bit of melody. It's a little bit swallowed in the hailstorm of electronics and the constant halo of the structural pulses, but it's there as a little beacon of calm, and the overall effect is nice, even if the track is probably a little busier than I would like in an ideal world. This listen is the last act of the day, a day in which I have been productive but felt completely listless away from the moments of key activity. 

There are two tracks to go and having just seen off what I suspect is the weakest offering on the album I am not expecting much from them beyond carrying on the general ambience of the disc. I can't say this is going to jump into regular rotation or become a favourite, but it's also not been an instant rejection either. There are enough soft edges here to make it good for reflection, switch off and relaxation, even when it is at its busiest. In time I might want to cut the more vocal-heavy tracks back, but I think even they deserve at least a second listen.

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 6) - The Wedding Present

Track list:

1. Go Go Dancer
2. Sports Car
3. Kansas
4. 2, 3, Go
5. Bewitched
6. Venus
7. Loveslave
8. Real Thing
9. Drive
10. Montreal
11. Come Play with Me
12. Brassneck
13. Crawl

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2007

OK, so the final part of the Peel Sessions box set now. It's been a long time since the first disc almost blew my head off since I haven't managed to maintain any consistency of posting. That makes this marathon of The Wedding Present more like a series of middle-distance ambles. Crap analogies out of the way, how does this last live stuff sound?

There is a brief introduction before the band launch into Go Go Dancer, and it is a launch. A few taps of the drum sticks and its 0-60 in an instant with insanely fast drums and guitar to keep pace with. The sound is a little muted, but the essential energy of a Wedding Present tune is there all the same, peppy and two-speed, the vocal seeming to be in a different time to the backing.

It's now May, and I started this six-disc box set in January. That's shocking, even allowing for a few insertions, but life gets in the way sometimes. This is a hobby project, but it has been relegated underneath the need to maintain some kind of equilibrium. The plaintive voice on this rendition of Sports Car reminds me of how I have felt over the last bit... on edge, at my limit. It's the Friday of a week off, and I am only just beginning to feel like I haven't been working, it's taken this long.

There is something very weird about hearing a middle-aged man sing the lyrics of Kansas. I don't want to elaborate, because I don't want to think about it any more than I have.

I am feeling lost for words this morning. A few things to do today, not much going on upstairs as I find myself content to just hear tracks out without comment. It's a sign of comfort in one sense, and enjoyment in another. This listen is an oasis of calm before I have to rush out and shop for two people, do someone else's washing and other chores. Then, when I get home I have to home the bright morning is turning into a bright afternoon so I can motivate myself to do some essential outdoor work, else it's more spring cleaning. With that in mind there is reassurance in the constant guitar chords and familiar rhythms here, I don't need to think too hard about them.

Even the "new" (yeah, that doesn't mean much on an old live recording) songs are familiar, though apparently I have heard Venus just once before. The familiarity is by pattern, not specifics. Of course, then Loveslave starts and it breaks the rules. Slow pace that in some ways sits more easily with David Gedge's vocal style, which is expanded here to include imploring cries in the chorus. I'm not a huge fan of the track if I'm honest. The familiarity factor has been pulled away in that one track though and it doesn't immediately return which is a little disconcerting.

After a brief digression about a puppet (!) we're back onto firmer, more recognisable ground with Drive. When the pace drops I feel The Wedding Present lose their USP. It is the contrast between the busy guitars and bustling drums and the vocals that really sets them up. Having said that, Montreal creates more space and time and works really well, something about the melodics, and when it segues into Come Play With Me and maintains that lower pace I find my preconceptions challenged again until the closing of the second track brings its familiar refrains, and I think my favourite repeated loops (vocal and otherwise) in TWP's catalogue. It's over indeed.

Brassneck sounds very different, and I'm not sure if this is because they've changed the score or because it's not the song I thought it was. Probably the latter, but then songs do evolve from time to time. I really like the ringing on the guitar parts on the final number, Crawl. It's richer and lighter, and it feels like a good way to end the set on a positive sound even if the last lyrical utterance is a threat.

So, then... no more Wedding Presents for me for a while. On to other things...

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 5) - The Wedding Present

Track list:

1. John Peel Introduces the Wedding Present
2. Silver Shorts
3. Love Machine
4. Snake Eyes
5. Sports Car
6. Convertible
7. Click Click
8. My Favourite Dress
9. Real Thing
10. It's a Gas
11. Skin Diving
12. Sucker
13. Corduroy
14. Mini Prize Draw

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2007

So, with disc 4 of this box set we moved out of the studio and into live performances. This disc is a complete set from a 1996 BBC event, topped and tailed once more with John Peel himself. A few familiar tracks pop up again, but there are many here that haven't been heard on the previous 4 discs too.

After a break of three weeks I finally make the time for this one. I can't plead "too long" or "too much Wedding Present" because in the first instance this is a short gig set, and in the second I've hardly heard any of them in weeks. I managed to make myself (temporarily) sick of PJ Harvey's seminal Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea to and from work in the interim though!

John Peel introduces the set, then the first actual number has a tortuously long intro, but it sets up a peppy sound that the recording makes feel sparse, but I suspect in person it was a bit busier. The tune ends with an outro to match the intro... so the song itself is sandwiched between repetitive cycles that don't quite work for me. Thankfully Love Machine is straight into the meat of the song so the experience isn't repeated.

Clocks have gone forward, evenings have some light again. Hopefully this marks an uptick in weather, warmth and ultimately mood. I've been struggling for sleep lately and with work being full on I have been escaping my evenings in the cyclical grind of turn based strategy rather than more creative or expansive pursuits. I really like the lighter touch on the outro of Love Machine, sure the guitars come in for a final thrash but the tenor is nice. The crowd sound like a rowdy bunch; Gedge gives it a bit of chat between numbers (a line or two, no more), and then we're off again. The sound on this recording makes the guitars a little flat. I can hear the start of the spangly sound I associate with The Wedding Present, but it is strangled out rather than soaring free. Snake Eyes comes and goes in less than 2 minutes... it feels half baked.

The crowd noise is voracious between tracks but they drop to silence whilst the band are actually playing. It makes me wonder if this is natural or something engineered. Really like this version of Sports Car, even as I don't recognise the song from disc 3! Again, though, after the main vocal is done, the tune loses its interest. I've never seen the Wedding Present live; I don't think I've ever seen footage of them playing either... but I can imagine that David Gedge must be a pretty magnetic performer. His vision and person drives this vehicle and makes it work.

Oops! Click Click has a false start, with a predictable reaction from the crowd. Some kind of technical hitch... festivals! When it does get going the growl on the guitar part feels closer to the pickup for the recording. It's a glorious rumble, slightly fuzzy in shape but full of character, and as if to spite me for the last paragraph here it is the vocal that lets down the backing - though the tune is still better when both are in play.  Isn't it funny how taste goes in waves? I've been mostly listening to growling guitar based indie in the last week or two and forgoing the jazz and folk that formed my mainstay for much of the last year. I've been skipping more folk song on shuffle than in a long while, looking for something louder, brasher and something that will give that kick.

This is hitting the spot from that point of view.

A few of these songs have Gedge's voice backed up by a female singer; she sounds as if she's closer to the mic somehow, despite clearly being backing it doesn't always come across that way, especially on Real Thing and I find that quite jarring. The track lengths here are misleading with significant downtime scattered through the set. Much less annoying if you're actually in the audience... but there we go. I find I am warming to the sound on this set though, it has a warmth to it, which makes those guitar riffs comfortable.

Over the course of the box set (with one more to finish) we've definitely moved from a raw, too bright, too strong sound to a rounder, tempered one. The way the guitars are used hasn't changed that much, but the tone they impart has. They're still bright and breezy but they're also controlled, not overdone. They're not the star, and everyone has accepted that. There is room for them to be slower, not 100mph all the time. That said, right now I think I hanker for some really loud stuff... not a good desire to have this late on a Sunday, but the growl on Corduroy is perfectly aligned with that desire. As it fades back down a bit to allow the vocal to breathe the tune loses the immediate appeal it held in the moment, but finds a new happy medium.  This is the final number, after this is a recording of a prize draw, closing out the disc. Festivals!

Not sure what to look for in my library to pick up from there. The prize draw recording by the way has Peel and Gedge talking for 3 minutes, complete with Fast Show references and farce. The two clearly got on very well.

One to go.

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 4) - The Wedding Present

Track list:

1. What Have I Said Now?
2. Crushed
3. Kennedy
4. Thanks
5. Bewitched
6. Granadaland
7. John Peel Interviews David Gedge, Part 1
8. Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
9. Kennedy
10. Swimming Pools, Movie Stars
11. Click Click
12. It's a Gas
13. Spangle (Acoustic)
14. Gazebo (Acoustic)
15. Fleshworld
16. Sucker
17. The Queen of Outer Space
18. John Peel Interviews David Gedge, Part 2

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 2007

I've made it half-way through The Wedding Present's assembled Peel Sessions. What lies ahead now? We have the first repeats that I can spot - Kennedy appearing twice, and acoustic renditions of Gazebo and Spangle from disc 3.

This disc is kicked off with an intro espousing the continuation of "fabness" (or so I hear). How very British. I guess this must be a festival recording or something because the voice was not Peel's and there is a background noise on the track that sounds a bit like general crowd sounds though it is not very distinct and could be the rough edges around the instrument parts. This doesn't sound like a very clean recording. The song, for what it's worth, is a sort of plodding but pleasant indie cycle, one very prominent guitar line and some very structural drumming. There's no sense of real interest, but neither is there anything pushing me away. It's a gently enjoyable tune, but far too long for the lack of any real hook.

Yep, definitely in front of an audience. The applause is a giveaway!

OK, so I think all of these 6 discs are live anyway (as part of the conceit of the Peel Session), but these tracks being in front of an audience not just live in a studio  it lends a different interpretation. The sounds here hark back to the first disc, the tinniness of the guitars, a flatness to the overall sound and a distance in the vocal. I am sure I have a better version of  Crushed, though ironically it's on another live album; I didn't go back and buy the studio output.

There's definitely a dullness in these recordings which lends a distance to the music. It is as if the recording was incidental and unplanned. The richness that I had become used to over the latter parts of disc 2 and all of disc 3 is absent, and with it some of the engagement. That said, Crushed and Kennedy - which here both suffer by the measures mentioned - are both tunes that showcase the energy of The Wedding Present really well. The breakneck pace is evident and a key part of their makeup, it is just a shame that the sound is a little flat.

The paciness of these first few tunes is really welcome, a good jolt to what has been a lethargic Sunday so far. I've been playing Pyre, finally, and finding it a little bit of a chore in terms of the UI and the amount of clicking it appears to take to get anywhere. It sucked up most of my morning - the characterisation is great, but I wish you could move through the story a bit faster. Now this listen is serving as a break point; this afternoon is cooking and other productive pursuits, at least it is per plan.

I don't know what it says that I find myself half loving and half loathing the tuneset so far. I love the energy and pace, the solid structure and the general tone but I am massively frustrated by the distance of the sound. A few tracks in and this is not the disc 1 scenario of guitars so spangly I had to go lie down with my eyes closed to clear my head; the harsher edge to the instruments is there, but the level of the recording neuters that effect. I'm not sure which is worse... being affected to the extent of headaches or not really feeling the effect at all because of the distance. I've looked it up in the meantime and the live event covering the first 6 tracks, which all flow together well, is the occasion of John Peel's 50th birthday. The subsequent 12 tracks, including both interviews to bookend the show, are another festival performance from the mid 90s. This disc, then, has a distinctly different flavour for those crowd dynamics.

Hearing John Peel's voice, even many years after his death (14 years ago now... how time flies) is still massively evocative, oh so familiar. I have never been the biggest listener of the radio - too much guff to put up with - but somehow Peel's style and tone made it through to me. He was a giant presence, a huge influence. For those of my generation and the one before, a true legend.

The second rendition of Kennedy loses something for being included here so soon after the first. Of course when this was originally broadcast it wouldn't have had the proximity, but here only 5 tracks have passed since it concluded last. Sound quality here is better though. Oh, but I really like the opening of Swimming Pools, Movie Stars. The peppiness here is balanced perfectly by the dryness of the vocal, the pace is positive, the sound rounded. The track loses some lustre as is goes as the pattern is set and becomes familiar, but the opening is really strong. It's dragged back, too - the lull is fought off by more guitars, a little acoustic twang then an overdriven fuzz. Nice.

Isn't our mood and appreciation fickle? Suddenly I am not feeling all that engaged, in the space of two tracks I've gone from stoked to burnt out as my mind wandered. Sure, the over-long Click Click wasn't the best thing ever but neither was it that bad, so why do I now feel nothing but a desire for the listen to close out? So frustrating (as Gedge sings on It's a Gas). That frustration and ending-wish is intensified as the acoustic delivery of Spangle kicks in. Here everything feels off, its almost like a spoiler of an insert - the sound balancing is really weird. All the focus is on Gedge's vocal and the predominant instrumentation is a really shonky piano sound from some form of keyboard. The keys sound so wrong... part out of tune, part utterly incompetent rendering of an actual piano sound.

Thankfully Gazebo seems to drop the keyboard into the background more, and here the softer sound of the amped-up acoustic guitar is nice. The focus on the vocal is still a bit too strong, and the backing becomes a mess as the bonkers keyboard asserts itself some more towards the end of the track, so overall I think I can do without these acoustic interludes.

I am struggling to reconnect, and with only two short tunes and a 30 second interview clip left to go I am not sure I will. Sucker is not an easy tune to like, but I do appreciate how it plays with the formula, particularly in the rhythm. The chorus, which involves repeating the title a few times with some vocalisations before each one, is weak, but the rhythmic structure of the verses makes up for that. It hasn't drawn me back in, but it has rather arrested the slide.

I think disc 3 is likely to remain my favourite of the set. 5 and 6 follow similar patterns to this one - live performances captured and broadcast rather than true session recordings. Still I'll make my way through them soon enough.

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 3) - The Wedding Present

Track List:

1. California
2. Flying Saucer
3. Softly Softly
4. Come Play with Me
5. Gazebo
6. So Long, Baby
7. Spangle
8. Him or Me (What's it Gonna Be?)
9. Drive
10. Love Machine
11. Sports Car
12. Go, Man, Go
13. Blue Eyes
14. Ringway to Seatac
15. Shivers
16. Queen Anne
17. White Horses

Running time: 54 Minutes
Released: 2007

On to the third disc. After this one I'll be half way through John Peel's obsession with The Wedding Present. The first disc gave me headaches, the second gave me warm fuzzies, what will the third disc bring?

The first strains suggest this will be more like 2 than 1. The guitars are muted, relaxed even, giving more space to the voice, which feels for a change to be layered over the backing rather than embedded in it. There is a nice cadence to California, and an airiness which makes it both highly enjoyable and instantly forgettable, which is an odd combination but reflective of convergence with a more general trend in guitar music. It feels less clearly like a Wedding Present track is what I'm saying.

Flying Saucer disabuses me of the notion that they have lost their personality though. The guitar pattern has filled in again, and whilst there is still a certain distance in the vocal it isn't as far removed. A long bridge with just the wailing guitars reminds us where they came from - a more controlled snarl than anything from the early days, it feels a little dad-rock-ish, but it is also a lot more, dare I say, musical than those earlier energy filled blasts.

When the pace does rise, it maintains that extra musicality, and some added depths through a changes of tone. It's the natural rhythm of the pieces that carries you along though. No longer a youthful energy, but there all the same. When the pace is removed, such as on Come Play With Me, there is now a real character about the cocoon built by those slower strummings. That said, I am not sure the atmosphere created is quite enough to sustain the song as long as it does, and I am very grateful for the change up for the second half of the track even if it is just a loop.

It has been a long couple of weeks since I managed the last disc in this set. Life has been a bit too busy for my liking, so I have taken a couple of days off and eventually found time to do  this one, but not the two I was hoping for. Still have a tone of boring household admin to fit in today, too. Days off are just for a different type of work these days.

There is a significantly different feel to So Long, Baby. A relaxation, a "Parklife-esque" insouciance, a change of pace. Then for a track called Spangle, the sound is more of a dull growl than the titular bright sound. Ironically the next track has that very clearly, albeit wrapped in the deeper, gurning sounds. The tracks are flying by and I am only barely finding thoughts to commit to type. I am rather enjoying it though as a form of procrastination. I could do with some of the energy that has gone into thrashing those guitars; getting started on anything is causing me some issues of late.

This disc feels very different from the previous two in a couple of notable ways. Most obviously there are no Ukrainian folk songs to chunk up the indie tracks, but I think the second difference is actually the more impactful one and that is the changes of tempo. Disc 3 is for the most part significantly slower than the previous two. This drop in tempo comes with the consideration and the sophistication of the compositions; it is a more mature collection of performances of more mature songs, and probably my favourite of the three so far (remember this is just the half way mark of the collected Peel Sessions).

Go, Man, Go has a really nice melancholy to it, and that is part of the overall theme. I think these slower, broader songs suit the mood of their pieces better. Whilst the fast pace creates a nice contrast with the lyrical content on the earlier tracks, here the two feel in sync, building a more coherent song set.

I am falling into repetition; the only thoughts I have to share are the ones already written. On that basis I might just relax through the... oh wait. What the hell is that? Shivers is really odd, a complete change of tone and instrumentation. All muffled, old-timey strings and off-key piano. I find the whole thing rather unsettling and unpleasant. In another context it might work but here it feels off and I am not sure I want to maintain it. Thankfully a more familiar sound is back for Queen Anne - though it has a consistency of vocal approach with Shivers. There is a little more of an edge to the guitar parts here too, a nice ringing sound that fleshes out the sound on the track.

The final number is slow, percussion given prominence, the voice given a wide crucible. It is a bit slow and low for a finale and doesn't really work in its positioning here; it is a rather nice track but a huge let down on the end of the disc.

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 2) - The Wedding Present

Track List:

1. Davni Chasy
2. Vasya Vasyliok
3. Zadumav Didochok
4. Verkhovyno
5. Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
6. Unfaithful
7. Take Me!
8. Happy Birthday
9. Zavtra
10. Sertsem I Dusheyu
11. Cherez Richku, Cherez Hai
12. Dalliance
13. Heather
14. Blonde
15. Niagara

Running time: 57 Minutes
Released: 2007

So, after part 1 of this set underwhelmed me, before picking up towards the back end, what of part 2? There are two more sets of Ukrainian folk songs here, which bodes well, and an overall longer runtime which I hope means that things will be slightly less frantic.

We start where the first disc left off, in the middle of sessions dedicated to Ukrainian folk songs. Davni Chasy actually reminds me of Greek music a little, but I think that is because this sort of structure is common to a lot of different folk cultures in parts of Europe east of here. It's the slower moments that give me that link, when it speeds up, or when the vocal is present there is much less of a Grecian feel. It's nice enough, but really not likely to sell anyone on the concept.

Sunday evening. I have just about recovered from last week, and am using this as my lead in to a wind-down, knowing I have a busy couple of days, at least, to start the week. Fitting this listen in feels a little forced, and I find myself a bit distant from it in these early stages as a result. If I had more energy or people about, this high tempo, high flux folk would be much more appealing. As it is, I can't relax into it because it is unfamiliar, and I cannot share in the motion with anyone. The third track is slower, darker, and more immediately relevant to how I feel, I find myself getting swept up a little in its melodies, the big brooding vocal carrying me along.

I find this fascinating, the cultural crossover. It's not as if The Wedding Present were a folk band in Blighty, so for them to go to the other edge of Europe to get these tunes and faithfully capture them is a stretch. I'm glad they did, making them more accessible to ears such as mine. Sure - you could argue that there are plenty of traditional artists who could do with the custom instead, but without being in the region how likely was I to ever stumble across their fare?

When the true British indie returns, it is with a far more muted sound than on disc 1. There isn't anything like the harsh edge to the guitar part, freeing me up to enjoy the tempo, the growl and the peppy backing. Here the guitars are freed to sing without that really tinny, metallic ring. Yes, they get repetitive, but that structure is what carries the track forwards, gives it the momentum it needs to support the characteristic vocal.

There's something reassuring about this.

I wonder how Take Me! is going to work as an 8 minute epic at the breakneck pace that the guitars and drums go at. Chords strummed so fast they're just structure. It works though - because all the character comes from David Gedge. I suppose the energy output must've kept everyone warm; it's shaping up to be sub-zero here in the coming week, lots of boring scraping ice off the car in the mornings. Must remember that and get an early night, and hit snooze less first thing. I realise this will sound odd, but the lack of a fine melody in these tracks helps. You can sort of tune out the higher functions and get swept away on the rush of energy without losing too much. It carries you along, unworried, imparting a sense and tone rather than specific notation. The song never drags, despite never seeming to vary all that much, it just is, and that works really, really, well.

We then get an audio sample of Marilyn Monroe's presidential Happy Birthday before the guitars launch back in. I have to say I am enjoying this disc way more than the last one.

We dive back into foreign roots music again next. Three more tunes, the first of which starts very slow and dark before a crescendo starts to up the pace... then it stops, resets. Frustration, in a good way. I love things like this - the start slow, build up approach. Here we get it a few times over in the one track, though on balance the energy is killed slightly too soon on the first couple. The third is given a good run at speed to take us through and out the other end of the track.

Oh, nice. The third track of this trio is the first time the spangly Wedding Present guitar sound has felt so prevalent in the folk-inspired material, the drums are modern and snappy too, making this a really effective hybrid. It all bottoms out midway through and you hear snatches of what I guess is a more traditional sound for the second half of the track, but the synergy in style really works well.

The last four tracks are firmly back in northern England, though Dalliance is slower, with far more space than I have become used to. Busier sounds creep in as it goes and it builds up to a big sound, driven again by those guitars - harsher again, but that edge welcome as they fill in the hole that was left for them. There is a really satisfying growl to the track by the time it closes rather suddenly. I get the feeling that these are tracks from a matured band - more space, more assurance in their sound, less need for the big noise for the sake of it, but the nous to use it for effect.

I like this more considered Wedding Present, and as with the first disc I am ending the listen with more of a connection to the music than in the early stages of the album. There it was a switch to the folk songs, here it is the mellowing, the slowing, and the rounding out of the sounds winning me over. There are still big rich noises here, but they are more immediately inviting ones, encouraging that gentle head nod, or slight sway. I'm smiling as Niagara progresses. I know it will all close out soon but it has mellowed me out well. This is why I didn't cut anything from disc one... it was all too much in order, but I know this band can do good things for me; right place, right time this time. It was less frantic, it was more mature, it was more me. I liked this one a lot.

Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 1) - The Wedding Present

Track list:

1. You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends
2. It's What You Want That Matters
3. This Boy Can Wait
4. Felicity
5. All About Eve
6. Don't Laugh
7. Never Said
8. Don't Be So Hard
9. Hopak
10. Give My Love to Kevin
11. Something and Nothing
12. A Million Miles
13. Getting Nowhere Fast
14. Katrusya
15. Svitit Misyats
16. Tiutiunyk
17. Yikhav Kozak Za Dunai
18. Hude Dnipro Hude

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2007

The first of a big box set now. A former friend got me into The Wedding Present, a big favourite of the late legendary DJ John Peel, and as a result I picked up this compilation of sessions the band recorded for Peel's show. There are 6 discs in total... that could take me a while.

Thankfully this first disc is a packed one, 16 in 46, and it kicks us off with a number which sets a tone I expect to be kept. All frantic guitars, northern vocals and pacy tempo. The title is a little rebuke, too. I'm not good at keeping in touch with anyone, friend or otherwise.

I feel a little like there is a time and a place for this sort of guitar band, and that time and place doesn't really feel like mid-afternoon on a Sunday in January when I have other things to do, but I am squeezing this in to try to keep some kind of rhythm up. My weeks have been so tiring that finding space for more than one listen in 7 days is unlikely at the moment. If I can stick to one a week I'll be doing alright in general. That aside, I am dissing the music a bit that sentiment... I have never been a big fan of guitar for the sake of guitar, which is what a whole load of indie bands feel like to me. There is more to The Wedding Present than that - David Gedge's lyrics and vocals are a real touchpoint - but when crunching a lot of these tunes into a short period of time it does get a little overbearing.

The super-fast nature of the playing gives a level of intricacy that I struggle to follow, so I am left with a more generic sense of tone and pace that becomes a bit wearing after a while. There is a sort of similarity with the hardcore of, say, the Minor Threat discography I listened to recently in terms of the dominant feeling, but there are a couple of key differences. One, these tracks go on a little longer, and two the edge is a little less. This means that each track has a less powerful impact and also has just long enough to tick over into trying. This makes a complete works like this quite punishing.

I suspect that, too, it catches me in a bad frame of mind for this up-tempo, slightly downtrodden but spangly combo. I really feel like I need space and time right now, and these claustrophobic guitars are a polar opposite of that. I like the songs better when the guitar work recedes to play second fiddle to the vocal, it feels a little as though the balance isn't quite right elsewhere. Part of it is that the guitars are really stark and harsh, a metallic spangle that rattles around in my head, echoing off the inside of my skull and causing my temples to flare. I suspect this might be something that is less of an obstacle on their studio albums, when post-production may have toned down some of the rougher edges. At points here and there I find snatches of more refined sound that I really like, but that burning itch of annoyance at the harsher sounds is not going away.

It must sound like I hate this, right?

Well, that's not entirely true. I think it's fair to say that I don't like consuming it like this - my problem is the concentration of tracks not the songs themselves. I would never choose to take this disc and play it in a scenario like this one, where I have to listen to the tracks in order again, but remove the persistence and things look a lot nicer. A single track or really fast and busy guitars supporting that distinctive melancholic half-spoken vocal? Much more appealing. Likewise the rhythms - it's all a little one-paced (express!) to be consumed like this.

Every time the guitar is toned down a bit - its harsher edge tempered or the volume lowered, either one - the songs come alive for me. A Million Miles (yeah, we've got that far without a single tune being called out by name after the first) is a really nice track, the guitars are still urgent, fast and incessant, but they are flattened so that they don't feel like someone is rattling my head around. That carries over to Getting Nowhere Fast, too. These tracks have all the energy and attitude of the earlier numbers but tempered, the instrumentation lacking the piercing qualities that have made enjoying this tough.

We then dive into the Ukrainian folk songs. I don't really know anything of the story about how a northern English indie band ended up playing folk tunes from the eastern edge of Europe. I suppose I could and should Google it. I immediately find myself relating to this though. Sure, it's a little cheesy and conforming to stereotypes in places, but there is a sense of fun and joy in these tunes that the original Wedding Present material didn't quite share, despite some common characteristics. These tunes also lack the vocals (for the most part), not surprisingly.  I am as surprised as anyone else at how when you take away the bit I most enjoyed from the earlier tracks you end up with tunes I enjoy more... but of course there are other changes. Here the forms that are being followed are more respectful of space and time than the frenetic indie tracks, the sounds are more dictated by tradition than individual vision.

As the final number begins, starting at a stately pace, but promising to speed up - quickly delivered - I am left wondering what to make of this disc. It is just one sixth of the peel sessions. It was tough going for me to being with - the latter half has been very pleasing. I do like the combination of high energy and blue emotion that characterize the band, but those strings need tempering to become something I can truly appreciate. Tempted to scrap a large part of this, but I will hold off for now to see how the rest of the box set goes.

Complete Madness - Madness

Track list:

1. Embarrassment
2. Shut Up
3. My Girl
4. Baggy Trousers
5. It Must Be Love
6. The Prince
7. Bed and Breakfast Man
8. Night Boat to Cairo
9. House of Fun
10. One Step Beyond
11. Cardiac Arrest
12. Grey Day
13. Take It or Leave It
14. In the City
15. Madness
16. The Return of the Los Palmas 7

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 1982

Why did I buy this? I'm not sure.

I am shocked at the release date. I remember a number of these tunes from my childhood, yet this best-of was released when I wasn't yet two. They were clearly baked into the British psyche of the 80s.

OK, so that opening line is a little unfair. The very first chords of Embarassment remind me why I picked this up... there's a grubby but honest charm about Madness' upbeat tones. It's never ever going to touch "favourite" levels, but its good for injecting a simple small smile into a grey day. It's been trying pathetically to snow outside, so the warm brassy sounds are a nice antidote.

That these 16 old tunes are crammed into 45 minutes like sardines in a tin means the listen will fly by fast and I can move on to more considered musical selections. There is a definite element of lowest common denominator about these lads, but popular does not have to mean bad. I am actually surprised at the amount of space and time there has been in the first two songs given the sub-3 minute average running.

I don't find these tunes to be very provoking of thought or words. There's something too familiar about them I guess... a sort of comfort space that has my mind switched off. That said, as Baggy Trousers starts, I am reminded that this song formed part of my English lessons at school, some 25 years ago. OK, only one lesson, but it came out of the blue, and unfortunately I can't remember the explanation or outcomes that would make that odd anecdote more interesting. I guess with the state of my music library now, this era of Madness is the equivalent of a palette cleanser between courses of a posh meal, though one that can throw occasional surprises.

It Must Be Love is one of those tunes that is so heavily scorched into my mind through over-saturation, and cheesy though it undoubtedly is, I think it holds up pretty well. That doesn't mean an awful lot since we can be frighteningly uncritical of things that have become second nature in this way, however for my purposes this un-self-conscious and mushy track manages to bring a smile.  This ballad is followed by a bouncy number that has me thinking of The Beatles over and above the other influences, one song in particular which I cannot recall the name of (as I have never been a Beatles fan).

I have made that admission on this blog before. It's almost a crime in the UK to be a music snob but not see the Beatles as the best thing ever, though I somehow suspect that is not so true for the generation behind me in snobbery. Wait, did I just call myself a music snob whilst listening to Madness? Something doesn't add up there.

Snob cannot be the right word.

I try to avoid the term "fan" as far as possible, because fandom is not something I identify with at all. Sure, the point of this blog is to go through my music, calling out what I like, what I don't like, what surprises me, etc., and in the course of that we'll encounter several artists I value very highly, but fan carries connotations that go beyond any level of devotion that I have been able to find.

I remain surprised by how much space and time these tunes seem to have, by the by. They pack a fair bit into short runs, perhaps because the general tempo is high. The other side of that is that yes, I am finding my thoughts riffing off general themes and trends rather than specific cues in the songs, which, thinking about it, might come back to the level of subconscious familiarity, not the conscious one. What do I mean by that? I think with the tunes that I am consciously familiar with - those that I have sought out and played to death, I would be more inclined to spout off about why I am so attached to them. Here the patterns are kind of ingrained, rote, unthinking. I am not following the grooves, the melodies, the beats of the tracks, rather I am letting my mind wander off whilst old patterns unwind around me.

Yet in doing so, this is turning out to produce more words than most listens, even if fewer of them directly relate to the sounds playing out. There has been no comment on the style, little consideration of the instrumentation etc. Perhaps that is because I rather expect everyone else to have had Madness baked into them too, which will not be true for children of the 90s, or anyone not British. It seems to me that there is no point me typing out a summary though since I can link to one instead.

Ugh, I got distracted by reading the Wiki link, bad form. I pull myself away as some less familiar songs hit. Sure, the same old patterns are evident in the music but I am not sure where they are going this time. It's nice to be mildly surprised for a change though. There are some odd, but effective vocalisations on In the City, for example, that make me think of old videogame sound effects.

My typing has run out of steam, my brain run out of words. The denouement is in effect, this Madness is over. I think I will cut a couple off the end in the final reckoning, as the fun quotient dipped sufficiently to not make the tracks interesting.

Comments of the Inner Chorus - Tunng

Track list:

1. Hanged
2. Woodcat
3. The Wind Up Bird
4. Red and Green
5. Stories
6. Jenny Again
7. Man in the Box
8. Jay Down
9. It's Because... We've Got Hair
10. Sweet William
11. Engine Room

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 2006

As much as I like Tunng, my favour has always fallen on Good Arrows and And Then We Saw Land. outside of those two albums I haven't listened nearly as much. I suspect that's probably a mistake and I hope this listen will back that up and convince me I should give them more time. We shall see.

Post-Christmas haze. First day back home alone without the family around. Blessed quiet, and space for a listen, albeit competing with the sound of the washing machine in the kitchen. Can't have everything. Hanged starts with precarious found sounds, wandering light beeps and rustling percussion. There is a structure to it though, and it begins to coalesce into something more... then abruptly ends with a vocal sample. An idiosyncratic start, very Tunng, very good for setting the tone. Then we get into a picked guitar loop to start Woodcat, and Sam Genders' soft whispered vocal.

My two favourite Tunng albums sit either side of Genders' split from the band, but I love his vocal style. It's comforting, familiar, understated. It is like a little aural cushion to fall back on to. It wouldn't fit with the bolder sounds of And Then We Saw Land, but Genders-era Tunng were lower key, and labeled with the horrible portmanteau "Folktronica." I can see where the genre-labelers were coming from but really... It's not folk, and it's not electronica. It's not really even between the two, though it is hard to argue against it containing elements of the latter. Tunes are almost incidental as the intriguing array of found sounds and samples predominates over the instrumentation in terms of how the tracks are built and structured. For a man who wasn't keen on being the centre of attention, Genders situates his vocal very much at the fore of these pieces, too - though I don't think anyone could call the lyrics visionary, or insightful.

There is a nice emphasis on structural elements to these tracks, the counterpoint to the relative lack of melody. On Red and Green, for example the tune comes from the variation in the vocal to begin with, whilst the rhythm is prominent, up front and all squeaks and beeps - yet somehow without any harshness to them, and not out of place either. The higher pitch beeps used to form the beats has a tinge of birdsong to it, despite clearly being electric rather than organic. In some respects this is a strange album. It's harder to get into than the more tuneful works that followed but quietly rewarding once you get past the rather odd first impression.

Their tunes are quite hooky, too. As in they all have some little quirk your ear can latch onto and have your brain replicate again and again. I suspect I might be hearing the main loop of Man in the Box for the rest of the day.

Huh. I just noticed that the track list I pulled had 13 tracks for the album, but I only have 11. I wonder if I am missing a couple of bonus numbers? It could also be to do with some hidden tracks in the final number as its 8 minute run time is a little suspicious.

In some ways these songs are all vignettes at heart, a core idea. The group then layer little explorations and theories expanding around that core to build neat little baubles. This listen feels more like wandering through a gallery of things than it does sitting down to appreciate a composition. The Science Museum made into music. A hundred different little things to peer at and move on. It's quite a special feeling, but not really one that this project sets out to capture. I mention that because my attention is wandering... less so from appreciating the sounds presented to me, rather from being able to formulate coherent notes to tie it all together.  The little intricacies and aural oddities that crop up here and there, the somewhat off-kilter sounds, they all pull thought away from typing.

Ah, the final number, Engine Room, is the one track I really recognise from its opening notes. A really strong guitar hook, with a nice roll to it over an ominously tight picked center. It moves away from that core as it goes but its a very strong opening. By the time it becomes a space-y metallic fade out I am not quite sure where the time went. That is about the 4.20 mark, so there are some hidden track shenanigans here, but thankfully there is next to no silence (so it escapes the tag). I am not so enamoured of the postscript though... it's perfectly fine, but no more - and frankly the majority of this album is so much more than merely fine that this waffling final few moments is a complete anti-climax.

I really liked this one; I am not surprised by that, but it has made me think that I should expand the range of Tunng albums that make it to the commute-box.

Comfort of Strangers - Beth Orton

Track list:

1. Worms
2. Countenance
3. Heartland Truckstop
4. Rectify
5. Comfort Of Strangers
6. Shadow Of A Doubt
7. Conceived
8. Absinthe
9. A Place Aside
10. Safe In Your Arms
11. Shopping Trolley
12. Feral Children
13. Heart Of Soul
14. Pieces Of Sky

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2006

I have a strange musical loyalty gene or something, because I keep buying records from artists long after I stop actively enjoying their current releases. I think this is such an example. I loved early Beth Orton... Trailer Park, Best Bit and Central Reservation all. Then was much less enamoured of Daybreaker, yet I bought this album at launch. I also picked up last year's release, Kidsticks, though nothing in the decade between this and that and I can't recall actively listening to it at all. Time to reappraise this one.

In truth I remember little. Worms actually starts things off in a promising manner. Simple backing supporting a song that thrives on its vocal. It's such a simple composition that it really works, all the melody comes from Orton's voice. The song is nonsense, but like most of this disc (14 in 44 mins) it is also short so it doesn't have time to instill any feeling of distaste at the oddities. If this is a sense of things to come then I might actually enjoy this album. I don't have that many shorter songs really, and this type of punchiness - there, formed and gone - is actually a nice thing. Brevity can be welcome.

It is the Saturday before Christmas and I have surprised myself by basically being ready. Yesterday was massively productive and the family commitments only begin on the day itself so I have a couple of days to relax before it hits. On the record, things are breezy and warm, its not really speaking to me the way that Orton did on Trailer Park but it's not bad either. Pleasant background music I guess. Not maintaining a constant rhythm on this project doesn't help with approaching this sort of thing with any consistency. I'm sure that in the past I have binned tunes that were simply "fine" or "nice" like this. I could here, too, but I am not really feeling that decisive today.

It's true that the music is not giving me much to write about, but that is as likely to be because the tracks are gone before relevant and coherent thoughts are formed. None of the numbers on this album go over 4.30 in length and many are sub-3 minutes. I've reached the title track already and it feels like I have barely started. This song is the first that makes me feel actively indisposed to it. The vocal sounds a little flighty and a bit more broken, and the sparse backing is more fiddly and offputting than supportive. Compared to Worms, which has a similar high level structure, the execution is off.

I find that the goodwill I felt a mere 2 tracks ago fading, the unwillingness to call this bland and cull is suddenly replaced by the opposite urge. I cannot quite place why.

The general tone of this record is I guess a gentle warmth, it feels a little self-indulgent, self-congratulatory for a nice life. A little comfort bubble, but one that I feel I am outside looking in on, cynically so. That's me being the cynic. I find myself disengaged, distant and unable to find a thread to follow in these tunes. There is a lushness to the sound, and I find that doesn't play well with Orton's voice for me. This is probably ossification of taste, an indication of how I loved earlier material that I am more familiar with. My impression - whether accurate or not - is that the first couple of records were a bit rawer, a bit more visceral, and this one is overdone. 

That said, I rather like the tune on Safe In Your Arms, the longest runner on the album. It has a nicely tilting simple back-and-forth guitar lead and while the arrangement is still a little on the warm and fuzzy side of things, the sounds all rounded off, no hard edges, the tune has more room to grow. The piano deployed here adds something where elsewhere on the album I felt it superfluous. Tellingly, the point at which it feels it might be getting too much is also the point it chooses to close. A good decision, and a gem amidst the pile of stones.

I think the skepticism in my intro is justified by my experience of listening through. There are brief moments here and there when the music within swells and gives joy, but the overwhelming senses I take away from this is apathy and disengagement. Songs that disappoint may contain some nice ideas but then fail to deliver on them - Heart of Soul is a good example of this, where I rather like the approach to the chorus, and the way it breaks the structure from the verses, but I find the vocal does not work for me.

In closing, whilst very little of the album is actively bad, by the same token very little of it has me enthused. I wouldn't complain if someone put this on, but I wouldn't choose to do so myself. Damning with faint praise is damning most of these tunes to the recycle bin.

Come Up With Me - Thea Gilmore

Track list:

1. Come Up With Me

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2008

This was a Liejacker-era single or promo or such, and in my library at least shares the album's cover art. One song, not sure when or where I picked it up, but Gilmore remains one of my all-time favourites (and her latest The Counterweight is her best for years). I think I can hear this tune in my head, but how does it go really?

It's gentle folk-rock intro, layers one guitar on to another. The song is fine, I guess, but it's hardly Gilmore's best work. Her voice is good here, and the tone is brighter than a lot of how I hear Liejacker in my head, so that's good, but ultimately this is filler. I think I can live without this one, however much I may like some of her other work.

Come From Heaven - Alpha

Track list:

1. My Things
2. Rain
3. Sometime Later
4. Delaney
5. Hazeldub
6. Slim
7. Come From Heaven
8. Back
9. Nyquil
10. Apple Orange
11. With
12. Firefly
13. Somewhere Not Here

Running time: 68 minutes
Released: 1997

I can't remember when I picked this up, but it was long, long after it was released, and solely on the basis of a Massive Attack connection. That said I do have some one-off tracks by Alpha scattered through my collection it seems so maybe they led me to the album. I recall being profoundly disappointed with it and don't think I am consciously able to identify any of these tracks, but now it is time to give it its fair shot.

It's straight in to its first loop, no intro. It's a fairly slow, long pattern and the top end of it is not the most interesting. I have a feeling that this listen could become a slog in at least a couple of ways already. To be fair one of those is not the fault of Alpha; that this is the first full weekend I'll have at home in 3 weeks; that I've spent most of the day thus far (and all of the last weekend at home) doing chores, that I've been ridiculously busy of late. But the fact this is downtempo stuff really doesn't help.

Downtempo isn't necessarily bad, far from it, but it does rather lead to a sleepy atmosphere, and when tired that has a knock-on effect. Paying attention for close to 70 minutes of this will test my wakefulness, regardless of what I think of the music. So far, so little. Second track, Rain, has a vocal that sounds pretty phoned in over a similarly bland loop as the opener. The repetitiveness of it is a major drawback - both in terms of my staying alert and in terms of how enjoyable the track is. The loop itself is too strong, too forceful, too central. The variations that really should be making and breaking these tracks are subservient to the structural pieces rather than the other way around. It's all a little turgid, a little stolid and a little guileless.

It probably also doesn't help that I think I am coming down with something... can't keep my throat clear, so I am on the whisky to try to burn whatever it is out. That kind of discomfort and grogginess doesn't make the glacial pace any more palatable though. Three tracks in and I am sorely tempted to write off the whole lot and be done with it. The third is the worst yet - a 7 minute long trudge with nothing of any interest. The vocal is uninspired, the backing seems to alternate between two long-held notes ad nauseam.  Yawn. I am struggling to find something positive to comment on to break up my negativity - I don't like to be too monotonously scathing - but not finding anything.

At least the 7 minute thing is over?

The soporific nature of these tunes is only matched by the sheer boredom of waiting for a couple of minutes every so often for the screen to catch up with my fingers as I type. For some reason Firefox is hanging with a worrying degree of regularity. I really should make the full-time jump to Chrome as FF seems to get worse every week by comparison.

Stopping early is against the spirit of the project. I really shouldn't do it... but I want to, so much, as this is pretty much the worst thing I have encountered to date in my listens. Not worst as in most offensive, not worst as in unlistenable, but worst in terms of simply having nothing to get even remotely interested or excited about. Hazeldub, playing now, is the least worst track so far but even this feels quite poorly stitched together.

A lot has happened since I did my last listen, at the end of a week when I got up a head of steam again. That was 20 days ago. Since then I've been to Moscow for a long week of meetings, and had weeks either side of that in which I have barely had room to breathe, certainly no chance of sitting down to really listen to anything. From that point of view I was dead keen to fit a listen in today. If only the album had been at all interesting. For the sake of not becoming even more of a broken record I am going to stop typing for a bit and really try to search for something to break the monotony of complaint. Fingers crossed, here goes...

There is a nice bit! A break in the pattern as Slim turns in, the vocal is set free a bit and the support goes nice and light. It's nothing special, but in the context of what is around it it's like a droplet of ambrosia.

I don't think I am mellowing to this disc, but at the same time it seems to have got less unpalatable in the last few minutes. I think this is to do with a couple of quieter tracks, background reduced, focus on vocal.  It's not enough of an improvement for me to want to keep any of the tunes yet but it is a noticeable step in the right direction. Here and there some more thoughtful, more impactful sounds are coming to the fore.  Just three tunes and 15 minutes still to go. Somehow I have broken the back of this listen... by largely switching off from one of the core conceits of this blog. I don't want this one to set a pattern.

Thing is, Come From Heaven is not bad in a way that is amusing, that can be joked or laughed about easily. Its bad because it's so mediocre, so middle-of-the-road, so dull and bland that there are simply not enough talking points. Even the improvements in the second half of the run time have been baby steps - from dull and boring to pleasant and boring. I am glad I stuck with it, happy to have had a little bit more life in the later tracks even if it is not enough for me to say any of them are worth holding on to.

The album ends with a slow, dreamy track, spoiled by its duration (7 minutes) and its context. It's a high point, not just because it signals the end, but alas the peak is too late, and too low.

Afterglow - Jon Boden

Track list:

1. Moths in the Gas Light
2. Afterglow
3. Bee Sting
4. Wrong Side of Town
5. Fires of Midnight
6. All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight
7. Dancing in the Ruin
8. Burning Streets
9. Yellow Lights
10. Aubade

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2017

New release time. Jon Boden's first solo release after the end of Bellowhead is a return to the apocalyptic visions of his previous effort, Songs From the Floodplain, which I loved. I am catching his tour next month (alas not at a full band show) but picked this based on a prompt from the mailing list. This is a first listen so not likely to represent a final opinion.

The first surprise is the lushness of the sound, it's filled in. The vocal doesn't necessarily have the space it needs to create the picture the album sleeve suggests, and the wind instruments in the bridge feel out of place. It is not immediately a winner, then, but I suspect it might grow on me.

Sunday afternoon, this my penultimate thing to do before the weekend (and my week off) is out. The other is a stack of ironing. Joy. It's been a productive week, but I don't really feel like I've had a break because of that. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't, because if I'd taken the full stop I needed then I'd have still been in a terrific mess and feeling bad about not having done anything. Oh well; tomorrow morning is sorting through a week's worth of unanswered mail and figuring out what changed whilst I was out. In light of that I could do with something a bit more immediately positive or energetic than this. Jon Boden is a fantastic performer, very charismatic on stage, but so far that charisma is lacking in the recording.  The title track is pedestrian, dull rhythm leading to a staid overall effect. I hope this is not representative.

The drudgery is brightened a bit by the light guitar work on Bee Sting, but there is still no sense of pace or rhythm in the piece, even when the drums come to the fore, it's more emphasising the stop of the flow rather than providing positive impetus. Sure, not everything needs to be quick, pacy, intense, but the sell on this album is meant to to be big screen, not back room. It isn't working on that score. The imagery not supported by the sound; the concept not realised as well as it was before.

Oh, this is a richer sound. Space is occupied, arrangements more intricate, Bellowhead band mates invited to play a part in building a busier tapestry, but that extra "stuff" is not employed as effectively as it could be. The sense of identity projected by Afterglow is more after-party... come down, soft and easy. I am not picking out the lyrics clearly whilst I am tapping away here, but I don't get the sense of a vivid and lively world from these tracks.  It feels all very... safe?

All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight injects a bit more of a rhythm but whilst this is a crescendo of sorts, it manifests with all the ambition of background noise. The tune is staid, predictable. So whilst we gain a bit of urgency and, towards the end of the track, some more distinctive delivery from Boden's vocal, that is in service to an uninspiring song.

I am better disposed to Dancing in the Ruin, but... from my point of view the same concept was carried off with more gravitas on Songs from the Floodplain's Dancing in the Factory, where the sense of ruin and life in a world amongst the ruins was conveyed far more effectively. So what appears to be the strongest song thus far is weaker than a previous offering. This tune then devolves into an out-of-place instrumental outro.

I might just be in the wrong mood for this. Burning Streets brings a sense of urgency and stridency to the party but I bounce off the arrangement pretty hard. This is the first time that the apocalyptic vision really feels like it belongs, but the song itself leaves me cold. This is followed by some tension... a slow, dangerous tension, rather than a knife-edge or action-pumping tension. Yellow Lights has the most compelling marriage of theme and execution on the album. I wish this was saying more than it is. Having said that, it is not a particularly enjoyable song musically speaking. The vocal is great, and the arrangement does support it, but it doesn't draw you in. It is more keeping you at arms' length, wary. Apt, perhaps, but not the best of selling points. That said, the track's 7 minutes slide by easily enough.

Suddenly we reach the end. Aubade has a more immediate relationship with the folk roots and past work of the performer, or so it seems to me. This track is approachable, familiar, and whilst not the strongest composition Jon Boden will ever pen it remembers to a) make his voice the star and b) deliver on basic principles. It ends up as possibly my favourite track on the album because it remembers to cover the key points first, though the closing with birdsong is a little... off. Overall I find myself very disappointed. The disappointment is keen, because I so loved his Floodplain dystopia, and I had high hopes for another similar vision. I will give it more of a chance to grow on me - a chance albums from other performers whose other work I admired less may not get - but I can't see this becoming a favourite.

Art in the Age of Automation - Portico Quartet

Track list:

1. Endless
2. Objects to Place in a Tomb
3. Rushing
4. Art in the Age of Automation
5. S/20005S
6. A Luminous Beam
7. Beyond Dialogue
8. RGB
9. Current History
10. Mercury Eyes
11. Lines Glow

Running time: 50 minutes
Released: 2017

A new purchase now. I was idly casting an eye over what had come out recently when I spotted this I bought Portico Quartet's Mercury nominated debut, Knee Deep in the North Sea at the time of its nomination, thought it interesting but not outstanding and barely thought of it since. That was about 10 years back I think. I spotted this, recognised the name and then got surprised by the write up in a way that made me want to buy this. How good or bad was my decision? Time to find out.

The opening reminds me of LCD Soundsystem (I have that one album, y'know... Sound of Silver, but tired of it fast). That sense quickly dissipates though as the jazzier elements come in. The resonant sounds I remember from my other Portico album are here, but supported by a lusher construction. Layers of percussion, a solid wall of background swell and strings above. I'm quite taken with Endless as an opening track. Today was originally planned for gardening, but a wet week and uninspiring skies put paid to that early. I fill my afternoon with this instead, wimping out of biking in the cold. If the rest of the disc follows this lead, it will be a worthwhile choice.

There is a soundtrack-like quality to the early sounds... TV more than film perhaps, an instrumental where the top end could be suppressed to give a swirling background suitable for many a scene. It feels a tiny bit soulless, actually in places. Cold, lonely and distant despite that constant movement. Cold may be appropriate for grave goods though, so there is that. I am reminded a little of the Cinematic Orchestra, but without the genius use of space and emptiness to give tracks more warmth. As that track ends and we rush forwards to the next the repeated piano chords that gave me the LCD vibe are back, and left to go on longer. Too long, really.

The track gets better when that pattern is broken - or at least harnessed better, less obviously - but it is flat. Again it has the air of a soundtrack - music to accompany something else, not music to drag you in. A little over half way through there is a major shift in direction; I like that, and yet it does not really address my issues with the track. It remains at arms' length, nice enough background but no centre, no heart, no soul. The trumpet which provides the main narrative is decent, but it provides a melancholic lead not really supported by the fast tempo of the drums... and this sort of sad horn against a background of electronics is done better by others. I hope that there are tracks here which expose more warmth and draw. The first impression was bad, that was reformed quickly, but as it settles down into its stride, so far I am finding it a little empty.

The title track has more to it. Deeper, rounder sounds. And a less obvious percussion. They can do it, but it seems they don't always manage to.

I can't quite shake the feeling that I have heard this before... the best moments are reminiscent of the Cinematics, or Molvær, etc. It's a feeling that keeps me from really engaging with the album, even whilst quietly appreciating certain elements. The best tracks seem to be the ones where they employ the deep resonant tones... I can't for the life of me remember the name of the instrument, but I seem to recall that it was one of their gimmicks. This works well for me, perhaps because it harks back to their debut and matches expectation, but I think mostly because that timbre of sound appeals strongly on what is a very autumnal day. It is fair to say I am not relishing the onset of fall and winter, inevitable though they are, I prefer the lighter and warmer months.

There are moments here, though. For all that negativity above, I find the opening 90 seconds or so of RGB a joy. The track goes a little off the rails thereafter - a little bit flighty, all trills in the top end - but after a solid opening that had me nodding appreciably. This tune - those high notes aside - seems to fall just on the right side of background soundtrack vs. engagement. Those around it fall on the other side of that imaginary fence. Pleasant enough sounds but with a blandness to them. I am hearing nice rhythms, I rather like the background soundscapes but those things alone don't necessarily make something good to listen to. The main themes are just a little too absent, lines are there but end up subservient to structural elements rather than being supported by them.

One to go now and it opens brightly, its electronics painting a different, livelier tone. They are soon faded down - not out - and moved behind the percussion as the main element of the piece. The melody doesn't arrive for over a minute, and when it does the horn is a little lost in the forest of beats. Oh, you can hear it cleanly enough, but again it is not the star, not framed and promoted in the way that more practiced hands manage. That may be a deliberate choice on the part of the group (who am I to say?) but it does not really work for me. The rhythm dominates too much. It isn't that wonderful, but it is sharp and punches firmly through the other sounds.

Overall then... an album with a few high points, but primarily a sea of serviceable background tracks. It's a real shame that they don't manage to do just a little more, focus just a little bit differently on one or two of these tunes and they could become really nice pieces. My final impression though is of a largely empty shell or a house without furnishings. The structure was all in place, but the key elements that would make the house a home were absent.

Collected - Massive Attack

Track list:

14. Live With Me

Running time: 5 minutes
Released: 2006

This is a singleton, because I bought this just for Live With Me, having all the other tracks from the compilation on their original discs. This one track made a huge impression on me when I first heard it, combining Massive Attack's core sound with the wonderful vocals of Terry Callier.

The strings have a mournfulness to them, and the beat is ominous. Callier's light but soulful voice offers a counterpart, but the lyrics are possessive, obsessive. It's a creepy track in a certain light - though probably meant from a protective, loving standpoint the atmosphere is darker than that.

I didn't but the single track back in 2006; I bought the whole 20+ track greatest hits for this one song; I scrubbed the rest from my library as duplicates long ago. I don't regret the purchase one bit. Callier's voice sets things off perfectly for me and I rather like the dark moodiness of it all despite the creepier interpretations. I do think it has dated some in the last decade, but it's still a darn fine tune.