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...

Collaborative Works, Disc 1 - Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm

Track list:

1. Four
2. Three
3. Wide Open
4. W
5. M
6. A1
7. A2
8. B1
9. Life Story
10. Love And Glory

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 2015

OK, so another impulse purchase makes its way in before I can close out the Wedding Present box set of Peel. This time it is a collaboration between Ólafur Arnalds, of whom I am a fan, and Nils Frahm, who I don't know from Adam, but might find myself interested in after this...

These tracks are named... oddly. For the most part they say absolutely nothing about what they might contain. I find the opening notes of Four to be almost brilliantly enticing. I like the tune they play but the buzzing electro edge to them is annoying in the same way a wasp or fly in the room can be. When the tune dies out and we are left with just chimes if feels empty, unfulfilling. 

Fulfillment is something I am craving right now. April was a difficult month in a number of ways and whilst I am starting May on holiday (well, not working this week; I'm at home) I am yet to get back to a baseline where I feel truly myself, or truly human. A combination of work stress and family matters, and a growing dissatisfaction with my solitary life. I am hoping that somewhere in these swirling sounds there might be some gold dust, the touchstone to reignite my velocity on this project (I'd like to get a listen in every day between now and when I go back to work on the 8th, but...). 

Three is also very mellow and feels more complete somehow, whilst Wide Open has punching static, needle scratches, giving a staccato, radio-signal loss effect. I think this is really effective. It sounds like the tune behind these breaks would work as a fluid number but the ticks shake it up, making it sound more dense with notes than it actually is. I feel like the closest thing to this I've heard before is Jon Hopkins, not Arnalds' solo work. In places it hints at a much deeper web of sounds, but they are all inaccessible, held back behind the barrier built by the static. It could be massively frustrating and a let down, but it ends up being highly satisfying. 

W sounds like videogame music... rising tension, peaks and troughs, right out of cyberpunk. I don't mean that in a pejorative sense at all, by the by. Even listening on a sunny spring evening this piece is very effective at generating an oppressive atmosphere of dark intrigue. There isn't really that much going on in the track, and yet it is gripping for most of its length. By the end the trick has grown old, and the relaxing tension leaves me cold. 

It seems that this double-disc collection was originally 4 releases, three of which make up the one album I am listening to tonight. There has definitely been a shift in tone from the laid back sounds of that first trio of tunes to this next couple, all edgy. There is a nice rhythm to this though, more staccato, pulsing, evoking sci-fi and space. 

On the surface level this is quite a bleak sound but beneath the distant beeps and clicks and whirs there is real heart, and I find myself tapping out rhythms that aren't necessarily actually there as it plays. These two composers have created a space that invites you to hear things in it. Whether claustrophobic or wide open in tone their sounds push you to imagine others, faint echoes in their chambers, tapping time. These pieces work best when they are busy, the slower, sparser moments feel empty, if only by comparison to the main thrust of the work. 

As much as I am rather enjoying this, it is awfully samey in places, and when they hit on a theme or loop that doesn't jive with me the charm falls away fast.

I see that at the start of the 13 minute long epic, B1. A low warbling sound with a repeating pattern of odd sounds that I cannot put into words. It leaves me very cold and there is not enough variation in the first 3 minutes of the track to make the discomfiture abate. The track does evolve a bit over its run, but it never really breaks from the initial mould and I find it by far the weakest moment to date. There is just too much emphasis on repetition and those odd pattern-notes. I would argue the main meat of the track is the background, where the change really happens, but it is locked away behind these unpleasant blotchy sounds which simply make the piece too unapproachable for me. And then it ends in the most abrupt fashion... just odd.

Hopefully the last two numbers return to form... early signs are good, as Life Story is a nice piano melody that, whilst very different in tone from the early tracks does have the same base engagement, the underlying warmth of the sound, framed in a way as to draw you into the web. The rustling static that serves as percussion is so soft in places as to be almost imperceptible, but I guarantee you would miss it if it wasn't there... it adds a fuzz, a glow, to the sounds of the keys which otherwise might be too stark and cold.

With all that said, there is still a loneliness to the track, and it leaves me with a little lump in my throat as it closes and we tick over into Love and Glory, which has a similar structure. This piece is more hopeful, lighter. Uncertain but expected happiness, this feels much more a celebration, as befits its title.

Overall, then... a wonderful set of tunes, one outlier aside. It's a pity that outlier was almost 25% of the disc by time.

Alela Diane & Wild Divine - Alela Diane

Track list:

1. To Begin
2. Elijah
3. Long Way Down
4. Suzanne
5. The Wind
6. Of Many Colors
7. Desire
8. Heartless Highway
9. White Horse
10. Rising Greatness

Running time: 38 minutes
Released: 2011

So we break with the Wedding Present for an unexpected interlude. Not a long time without a post (though that too), but three discs that I have picked up over the last couple of weeks.

The first of these comes from Alela Diane, who I was aware of but never actually explored before picking up Cusp when it released. Once I got that into the car for a few listens to and from work, I found a charming little album that immediately made me want to explore more. This dropped through my door a couple of days ago and I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

It starts with a bolder musical line than I was perhaps expecting, but it is a nice warm one, and supplemented very nicely by our singer's voice, which has an enveloping, drawing quality to it. Obviously this is a younger performer than the Alela Diane of Cusp, since the record predates it by 7 years, but that fact is also evidenced in the contrasting performances. Here there is a strut of youth rather than the reflection of one's 30s. I ordered this, To Be Still and The Pirate's Gospel at the same time; the other two arrived first and gave contrasting impressions. Wild Divine is on the better side of those two, more in common with To Be Still. 

On the evidence of the first two tracks I think this might become my favourite of the works I have picked up. I like the bolder, bigger sound and the easy flow. Whilst I was smitten with Cusp - which compared favourably with a couple of other 2018 albums I picked up around the same time, a result I think of no real expectations, as I found my hopes dashed a little by Ruins and I'll Be Your Girl by First Aid Kit and The Decemberists respectively - its appeal isn't visceral, but considered. The early tracks of Alela Diane & Wild Divine on the other hand just feel right from the off. The arrangements are nice and full, with enough of a big-sky America feel to them to trip that switch; Diane's voice is generally louder, bolder, here but in concert with the tunes behind her. Her tones have a warm sound that I find really engaging and were one of the primary drivers for me picking up all these other albums on top of that first introduction. 

To be honest, I think there are parts of Diane's songs which could be better; I am far from convinced by her as a lyricist as I find she relies too much on repetition. As I typed that I was thinking that trait was less evident on this disc than the others, but then it appears in The Wind... not in an offensive way, but in an apt one from a timing perspective.

Oh wow, I love the opening of Of Many Colors. The simple rhythm is nice but the strings of the guitars have such a nice roll to them... very American, but it feels small town, slow pace of life, rootsy. It's a sound that appeals... the myth of inland America as a storied place different from (what I imagine is) the reality of life in those parts. The mythic America is a place to visit in the imagination, full of wondrous places and tales aplenty; the real small town America appeals to me not at all.

This album is good at feeding that imagination.

I suspect I am missing finer details, because the general themes and tones are so strong and evocative I can't help but let my mind wander with those, drifting away from the specifics of the individual songs. And just like that I am almost through. The penultimate track just began, this a punchier twang to begin with, but then growing in refinement as the track builds. It then hops around between tones a bit, giving a bit of a strange overall impression. None of those tones are bad, but they don't necessarily feel as though they hang together perfectly. 

The strongest theme running through these tracks is the warmth of both the guitars and the vocal, it feels right for an evening. It has the country-ish edge to it that keeps it honest, but which also offers favourable comparisons with similar artists; whilst not American First Aid Kit at their best are a strong point of comparison, and I think Alela Diane comes off favourably in that. This album made for a good evening; I could quite happily repeat it... in fact I think I shall.

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.

Club Anthems - Ballboy

Track List:

1. Donald in the Bushes With a Bag of Glue
2. A Day in Space
3. Dumper Truck Racing
4. Public Park
5. Essential Wear for Future Trips to Space
6. I Hate Scotland
7. Olympic Cyclist (acoustic version)
8. One Sailor Was Waving
9. I've Got Pictures of You in Your Underwear
10. Leave the Earth Behind You and Take a Walk Into the Sunshine
11. Swim for Health
12. They'll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day
13. Postcards From the Beach
14. Sex Is Boring (acoustic version)

Running time: 65 minutes
Released: 2001

First up, this is nothing like the title suggests. If you played these in most clubs you'd be out on your ear as everyone left.

I got turned onto Ballboy by a friend who now is not, their style of self-effacing Scottish indie-pop being right up my street. Looking down the track listing, there are some top songs here, but most of my favourite Ballboy tracks are on other discs.

It starts with a jaunty little riff, a snappy drum beat and a lazy guitar hook, then dives off into a story - one of the things I like about Ballboy is the stories that manifest in their songs - about a recovering glue-sniffer. Cheery start, no really, it is. The music is upbeat and Gordon McIntyre's voice is full of positivity here, despite the lyrics. It beats the crap out of the continental covers band I saw last night, when I discovered what Twitter is really for. Acerbic one-liners when you don't have anyone around you to share the joke with.

The tone changes as we head into space for the first of two visits. Lush background harmonics and a guitar hook sit underneath a spoken monologue from the point of view of a dreamer with a love of space. Here McIntyre's voice is soothing, laid back and enjoyable as he meanders through the stream of consciousness thoughts of our narrator - whether him or a construct for the purpose of the song. He has a nice style of repeating certain lines for emphasis, which focuses you in on certain ideas in the song. All the while the harmonics and guitar circle, producing a lush carpet of sound beneath. Everything strips right back then, as we head into an acoustic number, a tired, dreamlike one at that.

Went out swimming earlier, first time in a long time. Tired now, so I find my eyes wanting to shut as the simple keys and guitar combination lulls me into relaxation. The guitar in particular is soothing, simple patterns of repeating notes at a slow enough pace to make every pass out but insistent enough to not leave holes in the sound. When that bottoms out for the final part of the track it feels slower, duller. Thankfully Ballboy tend to drift around in terms of tempos and fullness of sound, and they follow that sparser number with a lush, expansive one. Strings, guitars, drums creating a backdrop for the vocal - somewhat swallowed by the enveloping soundscape, until they leave him clear to sing over an acoustic for the chorus. One of the things I like about Ballboy is the way they use these lush sounds to support a singular and often quite lonely song, one that could just as well be told with one guitar. And then they switch between modes simply and effectively.

There is also the natural urge to self-deprecate. It is a British thing, not restricted to Scotland, but these guys do it very well. I must have mentioned here before how this sort of doing oneself down resonates with me.

After some very spangly sounds on our second space-themed track we hit the number that was my first introduction to Ballboy. I Hate Scotland (from a Scot, remember) is a grungy repeating low guitar riff, a dirty kind of sound, supporting another monologue, about how modern Scotland doesn't always meet expectations or standards. That said, it begins with a hark back to childhood and school PE lessons. The darkness in the thrum contrasts with the clarity of the spoken vocal. It frames the mood of the lyric, without overpowering it, crafting a powerful overall effect. There are lighter injections into that underlying noise, the equivalent of choruses I guess. I prefer the darker moments though if I am honest. After laying out his mind on Scotland, the narration returns to the PE analogy. It's a little non-sensical, giving everything up for the equipment and ability to execute a singular exercise... I guess I see it as calling back to a perfect moment, a point of pure exhilaration.

There is life in the action of their guitars. I don't play, but I imagine that most of these songs are pretty simple, musically. Rather than going for great technical challenge they focus things down and execute well. Keep it simple stupid, and do it perfectly. Of course as soon as I type that it goes off at the speed of lightning. Whilst fast is not necessarily complex, I guess, it torpedoes the confidence I had in my statement all the same. The opening sentence of this paragraph remains valid though: the band give it some and when they want to the really drive pace through their strumming. It reminds me a bit of The Wedding Present (which I am pretty sure was a reference point at the time I was introduced).

Oh, spangly. I don't really recognise the opening to Leave the Earth Behind You and Take a Walk into the Sunshine. The general form of the track is very recognisably Ballboy, but for whatever reason I think I have not heard this so much. McIntyre's voice here is more ethereal and removed, perhaps fitting for a song which seems to have some existential angst to it ("are you happy with your life" indeed?), but the guitars fall into a familiar pattern. My complaint about this track is that it drones on a little bit - 8 minutes without any real change-up is too long however comfortingly familiar the sounds are. I am tired of it by 6 minutes for reference.

I get the impression that the end of this album will arrive quite suddenly, as the track lengths drop off a bit from this point. That said, I find Swim for Health to drag me down, the horn that has appeared for this track not really fitting - not carrying the burden of the tune as well as the guitars, which have been relegated to support acts. We lurch from that to a stripped back downbeat song. They'll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day sounds like a positive title but the song has a weary air to it that means it comes across as more circumspect.

The closing is rather low key, too. There's a sense of resignation to Postcards from the Beach, clearly a break-up song, and Sex is Boring is... I dunno. I know the song, I like the song musically but it's a weird one, as it's opening line suggests the listener take him back for BDSM, that he then claims will be dull and unrelated to his purpose for visiting. It progresses into an angry diatribe or rant and, well... I ran out of words, and ran out of time as the song concluded, and with it the album. There are a few sketchy points on this one if I am honest - or maybe its my post-exercise brain failing me.

The Charm And The Strange - Simon Wilcox

Track list:

1. Les Yeux Sur Toi

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2007

Odd singleton here. No clue where it came from - or whether this should, in fact, use the English version of the title, Eyes On You, which is also a song on this album according to my search results. This Simon is female - maybe that isn't uncommon in non-anglophone locations.

It is a Wedding Present-esque riff that opens us up. The singing is definitely in French (well, Quebecois I guess) so that settles the version question.

It has a very 2000s indie vibe to it over the pretty stark guitar base. The higher piercing notes that ring out behind the vocal are reminiscent of a whole string of tunes whose names escape me in the moment, lending the track a familiarity despite my long-latent French (I have a reasonable A level from almost 2 decades ago) not being up to the task of following the lyrics.

The song is alright, I guess. That familiarity perhaps offering it more appeal than it merits in and of itself. I see no compelling reason to keep it around though.