At Llangennith - Charlotte Greig

Track list:

1. At Llangennith
2. Willie O'Winsbury
3. That man
4. Free fall
5. Perfect wave
6. Walk on
7. The snows
8. Gotta get you home
9. Over the water
10. Leave it blue

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2001

Ah, an old favourite. Comfortable in the way only familiarity can be. This was a real punt in the dark when I bought it. It is a record for a winter's night, snug and warming. A real gem. It is so much a favourite that when I dragged it into "now playing" to see the running time when creating the header of this post immediately after finishing Astronomy for Dogs it tempted me in about 4 notes to run on and do the whole listen immediately.

A cooler head prevailed, and I then found out that Charlotte Greig passed away earlier this year from cancer. Now it is time to tell you why I love this so much and will forever be grateful for one of her creations.

From the gentle opening you get an immediate feel for this disc. Tendrils of soft sound wrap around you like a blanket, offering you cocoa in the bargain. The title track, which opens the disc, is a simple guitar melody, layered a little bit to make a deeper palette and a soft vocal. It is like sitting out on a starry night, looking up into the blackness above and wondering. It is no surprise that it struck the 20(some) year old me, prone to contemplation as I was (am). The main refrain is a strangely compelling one, and even though the song meanders a little towards the end of its run I still find it incredibly compelling.

Next up is a folk classic, which has just a perfect backing here - acoustic hook, haunting soundscape behind it - and is sung with a warmth that transfers fully to the listener. I lose myself if the natural roll of the delivery and the simple repetition of the structure - though it is crafted better than that, little touches abound that break up what could otherwise become monotonous so that each verse is accompanied by subtly different sounds.

In truth, these are the two stand out tracks, but they imprint the album in my mind so hard that everything that follows basks in their glow, then and still. That Man drops the guitar in favour of some keys to lead it and for once this does not work so well - the keyboard is a little too tinny - but the song itself is a simple little tune: rise, fall, rise, fall. A nice lilt that reinforces the sleepy idea of the blanket and hot chocolate. Free Fall brings back the strings and with it the easy, calm invitation that characterises the album as a whole. There is nothing overly complex here, fairly simple melodies, uncomplicated composition and musicianship... just somehow coming together in some kind of magic. In any tune of nearly 9 minutes length you would expect the odd dip, and they are here, for sure. I am more like to overlook the foibles of a record like this though, where the general tone and ambience are so inviting and welcome, like seeing an old friend.

I have a number of other albums by Charlotte Greig, they will turn up here eventually. None of them has ever caught me quite like this one though. Right album, right time of my life or something. I am sure that if I was hearing this for the first time now I would glaze over and miss the charm. It is not a modern album in any sense, and that is welcome. I get a very strong sense of it countering the immediacy of everyday modern life with deliberately slow pace and simple pleasantries. I enjoy it in that spirit, a rejection of fast pace and instant gratification.

Walk On brings back the keys as the primary tune-carrier and here it works better. A melancholic air stirs in me when I hear this tune - it is not a particularly nice narrative, but it is beautifully delivered. In a wise move there is a momentary silence after it ends before The Snows begins. This is a version of The Snow it Melts the Soonest - another folk staple, and one I like a lot. My favourite version (as I had cause to mention before) is by James Yorkston, but the song itself is a strong one, and this version is sufficiently different that it does not fall into the same problem that some others do of direct comparison. The playing here occasionally offers the impression of flickering firelight which keeps the winters night theme going nicely.  We then have a song that I really should not like, but do. Its a love song of a certain type that honestly I think only works in the context of the album as a whole - playing into the long dark night, the need for warmth and, well, companionship. You get the picture.

Over the Water is probably the weakest song on the album. For me it is a mood killer. The change of sound - to a harsher, twangier performance - is not a welcome one. The warmth is still there in the vocal - the style of delivery there is pretty consistent throughout and one of the strongest points of this record - but the music is more distant and less engaging as a result of the shift. The edge to the notes (I think from a dulcimer) is off-putting like nothing else on At Llangennith. Thankfully it is a one-song blip, and the easy roll and gentle strumming of Leave it Blue is a nice way to end the album. Just enough musical interest to keep your attention and the vocal - slightly more floaty than earlier tracks - as fitting as ever.

When I first bought this album I was surprised and enchanted. Coming back to it now I am reassured and contented. I was saddened last night, after I found out about Charlotte Greig's passing, and that was entirely down to my love for this work. Amongst the many things she created - she was a writer, too - I was only familiar with her music and really only with this record; At Llangennith's simple beauty is a worthy monument though.

Astronomy for Dogs - The Aliens

Track list:

1. Setting Sun
2. Robot Man
3. I Am the Unknown
4. Tomorrow
5. Rox
6. Only Waiting
7. She Don't Love Me No More
8. Glover
9. Honest Again
10. The Happy Song
11. Caravan

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2007

The Aliens. What the Beta Band did not become, but some of them did next. No Steve Mason here, but rather Lone Pigeon is back to front up. My recollection of this one is that it is a bit of a mess with the odd high point worth celebrating, but I am looking at the length with a sense of trepidation. I doubt I will have all 71 minutes intact.

I am starting this listen tired. It's just prior to 9pm and I wish I was in bed. I made that mistake yesterday and managed to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up and being up the rest of the night. Joy. So I am trying to push back bedtime to something more usual. Setting Sun does not go kindly with this mindset, jangly and loud - very retro. It is not a song for a tired man, my state of mind makes it feel dull somehow though... like it has a lot of body but no soul. Big sounds fall flat, the riffier bits are more successful but still lacking something. I feel it would be better as a shorter track (its 5 minutes) where the punch would be more effective. It loses strength as it drags on. There is a hint of a less good Assessment about it if you sniff hard enough.

Robot Man is all trippy sounds - this feels like something the Betas could have done, a feeling only strengthened when the keyboard appears. The rhythms are not necessarily all that, but the other lines hang together surprisingly well given the song is basically "I'm [I am] the Robot Man" repeated ad nauseam.  This cohesion is also present in the next song, similarly stunted lyrically, though this is threatened when it gathers a big sound (and expands lyrically) rather than concentrating on meshing the various odds and ends together. It ends up being pretty dull after a good start - especially as they take to repeating "We are The Aliens" a lot as it closes. "I know that you chump, it's right there on the cover!"

Tomorrow reminds me more of Lone Pigeon's solo work - a bit more stripped back. I am half surprised not to find it on the work I have of his. This is nice, diverting rather than engaging, but very easy to end up nodding your head to. There is more of a song there, a more recognisable structure, but it suffers from overrun and by the time it starts drawing down I am bored. If I called Robot Man trippy, the start to Rox beats it out for that. However after the awful beginning the rhythm it adopts if surprisingly infectious - the touchpoint that immediately springs to mind is Woke Up This Morning by Alabama 3 (insert unshared anecdote here). The track veers all over the place - messy is a good term for it - but it does maintain a neat beat and an edge to it that keeps it interesting. It would never become a favourite but I like it more than I was anticipating.

So obviously that signals the time to throw in some really dull, repetitive guitar riff. That is disappointing, and whilst the track builds a little past that Only Waiting is a sharp reminder that this album is not of consistent quality. The very fast vocal is the only point of interest, and mostly that is because it masks the backing which remains consistently unpleasant. On the plus side, it gives way to the nicest melody on the album, the keys that introduce She Don't Love Me No More are a nice touch, and the structure of this song is a tuneful interlude where the vocal gives hints of Pip Dylan (not a massive surprise, as that is one of Lone Pigeon's two musical brothers) - enough that I have to check to see whether he contributed backing vocals here (not that I see credited). The song itself it pleasant enough but there just is not quite enough to it - certainly not for its full length. It should have closed at the 4 minute mark as the vocal fell away. Instead we get an extended outro, then the keys appear to take up a new melody, with string backing... its all a bit unnecessary, the song already ended.

A nice punchy beat and chord progression introduces Glover - the kind of thing that works really well for 10 seconds but when it continues unabated and does not get much accompaniment can start to really drag. Guess what happens here? It persists for too long anyway. It softens over the middle of the piece and there is a little bit more going on as it is replaced but much of what comes in is experimental balls. The track lacks structure, cohesion. Instead it plays with strange sounds and samples for sounds sake. FOR EIGHT MINUTES! Could really have done without that, guys...

Nearing the end, I think? Well yes, but there is still 16 minutes of Caravan to come. Gulp.

Honest Again is a poorly realised track - it half feels like a reprise of She Don't Love Me No More even thought it is not (actually that is part of what makes Caravan so long). Blandness abounds... but it does well to clear the aural palette for The Happy Song which is just deliriously silly. My abiding memory of this track is of seeing King Creosote (no surprise there, because KC is the other musical brother) play it live and a whole crowd jumping like loons - its the only thing to do when you are happy right? It is not a complex song but there is something infectious about it; the uplifting quality is definitely enhanced by the simple repetition of the word "happy" - hear, sing, think, be. It smacks of self affirmation after Lone Pigeon's troubles with mental health, but whether that was actually the muse for the song is another matter.

Caravan has begun. Boring start. Not very musical loop, dull rhythm, odd vocal skit. It has plenty of time to build (and I am sure it will) but it is not a promising start. It meanders along, and individually some of the sounds that contribute to the way are alright, but as a whole? No, it is a total jumble of incoherence. I am not even bothering to write anything because it is just so devoid of form, purpose and quality that there is nothing to say. An awful way to close the disc. The reprise appears for the last couple of minutes or so, which means there is 12 minutes of crud and 2 of silence. And I listened to it all.

Yeah - on reflection this is getting cut down a bit, but nothing like as much as I thought I might reduce it. There are some neat songs on this disc but there is no consistency of quality so you get some utter dross too. I liked them enough at the tie that I bought The Alien's second album, Luna, too, but we shall have to wait a year or two to find out what I think of that.

Asleep Versions - Jon Hopkins

Track list:

1. Immunity
2. Form By Firelight
3. Breathe This Air
4. Open Eye Signal

Running time: 24 minutes
Released: 2014

Jon Hopkins is something of a favourite of mine, and I loved Immunity when I picked it up. So when it was re-released with some new versions of the tracks on a second disc, well I bought it again. To be honest, I had not realised when I hit "buy" that Asleep Versions was not a standalone e.p. but rather a second disc repackaged with Immunity but never mind. Free gift!

The first track here is the closer on the parent album, a wonderful work harking back to other collaborations between Hopkins and King Creosote - my most listened to artist on LastFM, a lot of him to come (starting in B). It is a very different version of the song. Asleep is about right, at least for the first 2 minutes until the vocal comes in, much clearer than on the album version... clear enough for me to finally confirm that the words are (some of) those from Carbon Dating Agent (from KC's album Vintage Quays). That has bugged me for 18 months(!). There is not much else to this one - just a dreamy sound; it is not as good a version in my book, but it plays very differently.

I cannot remember the other tunes from Immunity with such clarity so as to make comparisons, but I am immediately struck by the fact Form By Firelight has a vocal here and does not feel familiar at all. There is maybe a theme running through it that lightly tinkles a bell somewhere but this aural landscape is richly built for volume - that should be space - I can easily imagine drifting off to these tunes and having some trippy dreams as a result. These two tracks were from the quieter end of Immunity, rather than the more club-inspired opening. I cannot remember where I saw it but I found a description of the album as charting a night out, starting big and busy then dying back to chill. The second pair of tracks are reworkings of busier, livelier tracks and are massively changed as a result. There is still the pulse of a beat there, but rather than slaving the other sounds to it, they harness that in reverse, suborning the rhythm to a quiet role of servitude. It is amazing that these would even be called versions of the same tracks. Chalk and cheese.

Open Eye Signal is 11 minutes in length here (8 originally) and slow to get any sort of life, drifting through a haze. I have Hopkins albums going back more than a decade and this is as empty as anything he has done in terms of how much void there is left to rattle around in your ears. I am astounded by the relationship between this and a really up-tempo track that was to Immunity what Wire was to Insides. In some ways what it reminds me of most is the sheer poignancy that Hopkins' production gave to And The Racket They Made, the closing track from Bombshell - the first KC album I shall reach. The song helped in that case, here there are no words, is no structure like that to craft around. Built in a vacuum. It is pretty moving whilst at the same time managing to disappoint a little because I cannot hear even echoes of the track with which it shares a name. It may have been a little too subtle there.

Overall I am not sorry I picked this up at all. I think these versions have less immediate appeal and, by their nature, less accessibility in a random playlist, but they sculpt sound nicely and are certainly different enough to maintain them alongside Immunity.

A-side B-side Seaside - Randolph's Leap

Track list:

1. Please Don't Belong   
2. What Have I Done?

Running time: 6 minutes
Released: 2009

A two-track e.p. that I believe I got free - indeed I did - I do not know what to expect from this. Randolph's Leap fit into that bracket of band names I can place but cannot put a sound to... you know, the sort of band there seem to be 1500 of in Glasgow alone. That sounds pejorative but it is not meant as such; lesser known Scottish bands feature quite heavily in my library as a whole. The truth is, though, that I only have this because it was free, and even then it was a relatively recent download. Time to see whether it should be kept.

The first track is a song sung over a very sparse and quiet background, with a harmony introduced for the chorus. It is a self-deprecating number with a certain charm to it, but not something that I would listen to through choice. What Have I Done starts similarly, though the vocal is less tuneful on this occasion. More instrumentation is added instead and this crafts a pleasant strum-along sound. In contrast to the song which seems to be about someone arseing up a relationship really badly. Ultimately there is not quite enough here to keep me interested past this listen, but two short free tracks are worth the time if you like acoustic indie Scottish stuff. It's only 6 minutes, and the price is right.

Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird

Track list:

1. Fiery Crash
2. Imitosis
3. Plasticities
4. Heretics
5. Armchairs
6. Darkmatter
7. Simple X
8. The Supine
9. Cataracts
10. Scythian Empires
11. Spare-Ohs
12. Yawny At The Apocalypse

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2007

I forget what put me on to Andrew Bird, but I remember which track it was that gave me my entry point: a freely downloaded version of The Trees Were Mistaken from LastFM - not that it is free anymore. I was struck by something - possibly the whistling - and immediately bought more of his material, though not all of it. I follow his releases still, but I listen less often than I should, which is why I do not really know what to expect from this disc.

It has quite a start, a repeated guitar chord for 15-20 seconds. OK, expectations were all over the place, but I am fairly confident this was not how I thought it would open. Live and learn. Bird's vocal style is a lilting one and when his voice joins in it is definitely moving towards ground I could peg as his were I catching a random listen of the track. In fact the first instance of whistling would probably have given it away first but still. I would not put Fiery Crash up there as a song but I also do not think it will be representative of the album - and I am immediately validated on that point when Imitosis brings a very different arrangement and style, softer and more rounded somehow. It gives his song more room to breathe, making the vocal the star of the show.

It has been another slow week for me on this project; its a busy time. Since the last effort - a one-tracker at that! - on Tuesday I have neglected this for one evening, but otherwise been too occupied to find time. It is now Sunday evening, after a couple of solid days of roleplaying, on the back of a Christmas party. Thursday was the night I took off, and that was because I was so darn tired I could only collapse and watch bad football on the TV all evening. I am hoping that Andrew Bird will ease me into a relaxed state to get a good nights rest, because I bloody well need it. Most of his material that I have does have a fairly easy pace to it so the hope is there. This album thus far has a bit of a brasher sound than I would generally associate with Bird, a touch more prominence for the electric guitars, but that could be misremembering his other material as much as anything else.

I find Bird a good singer. Tonally his voice appeals, the up and down style fits nicely with the tunes and I feel his music is coming across most strongly when the song is central. I say that, but I am not picking up on lyrics here again so the song is not really central to my enjoyment. My mental state is not configured for that level of attention, and I have mentioned before that picking out the artists words when I am trying to write my own is unfortunately difficult and does not seem to occur naturally. The delivery though, the swells and falls, the roll, the pauses and the emotion it carries, that does come across nicely. Dramatic at times, I mostly get a sense of warmth from his singing and a sense that because I am not following the songs I am missing out. A pity, that.

Whistles. How many artists use whistling? I cannot think of any more off the top of my head though there must be plenty; for Andrew Bird, I would call it a signature of sorts. Darkmatter starts with a whistled intro, the third or fourth time this type of human-produced sound has been employed that I have noticed, but the most prominent by far. After the intro it does not appear again until the denouement, but it leaves a mark on the track. I am surprised at the relative rarity of the technique, if only because I often find myself whistling along to tunes when I am listening in private. I would never submit anyone else to the horror of my attempts at accompaniment but there is something strangely satisfying about singing or whistling along with a favourite song. Not something I find myself doing now (or for other posts here) because - again - of the attention it requires that takes away from the exercise. I guess the big test for that will come up when I start hitting more familiar material - the stuff that always has me badly belting out something in approximation of tune and time - but I don't see it happening.

I realise I have not written too much specific content about the tracks here - this post appears to have taken a more general form, speaking to the artist, their techniques, and a load of irrelevant stuff about me. So be it. Somehow I am three quarters through the disc already, and it has been a pleasant path that my ears have been travelling. Most of the early brashness has faded, the tracks taking on a more acoustic nature and to my taste this is an improvement. Scythian Empires was the one tune that I thought I would really recognise when I looked at the track list, however now I reach it, the vocal is not quite what I recalled. The general pattern of the track is as remembered but the vocal is much softer, much less strained, the whistles are back. There is a constant loop provided by some plucked instrumentation I cannot fathom which gives the structure to a song which is somewhat lacking in the lyrical department (in terms of how many there actually are, again I lost the track of them). It is suddenly over without ever quite taking off. Memory, lose 10 points.

There have been no bad songs here; some better than others, certainly, and I was not 100% taken with Fiery Crash, but I think that Spare-Ohs is probably my pick of the bunch, even as it re-electrifies. The combination of the harmonious vocal (a female voice appears in company), the whistles and a tune that made me smile just works. I am at a loss at this point to communicate why but it clicks in a way that the other tunes here did not quite manage - like brining in the best bits from across the disc into one place. Of course, I say no bad songs; there is the closer which is garbage - it is an atmospheric piece that just manages to be actively unpleasant somehow. I am going to get rid of it so I have a nicer end in future, assuming I ever deign to listing to Armchair Apocrypha as an album again.

Overall I was entertained and uplifted by this one. Now off to bed to see about the relaxed...

Ariel e.p. - Alpha

Track list:

2. Ariel

Running time: 4 minutes
Released: 2008

So this must have been free somewhere, but damned if I know where; I only have the title track to this EP and a few other bits and pieces from the artist.

It gets into its loop immediately, no intro, which is quite a stark beginning for what is otherwise shaping up as a zone-out track - repetition of the loop layered with voice samples (French, mostly) and a couple of other musical lines to add texture. The loop then drops out two thirds of the way through, which makes the latter half of the track feel incredibly disjointed around that section. 

I get the feeling that in context of more work, there could be something about Alpha, but I lack that context right now and see no reason to hold onto this track. Done and dusted just like that, a nice easy one for tonight.

Area 52 - Rodrigo y Gabriela

Track list:

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

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Archipelago - Hidden Orchestra

Track list:

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

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aqualung - Aqualung

Track list:

1. Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)
2. Falling Out of Love  
3. Good Times Gonna Come
4. If I Fall 
5. Just For a Moment 
6. Tongue-tied  
7. Can't Get You out of my Mind  
8. Everything Changed  
9. Gentle  
10. Nowhere  
11. Halfway to the Bottom 

Running time: 46 minutes
Released 2002

I suspect this album may get short shrift, and mostly get dumped. I was, like thousands of others, charmed by Strange and Beautiful when it appeared on TV ads for a Volkswagen Beetle. I obviously liked it enough to buy not only this album, but also Still Life which followed. My instinct tells me that I have almost certainly drifted away from interest in this in the intervening years, and that both are likely to be gutted down to stand-outs or removed altogether after their listens. I might be wrong though. Lets see... 

The album opens with its iconic track - a classic case of shooting its bolt too soon? - and what a track it is. A bit slow and slightly one-note in delivery, but the simple piano melody is gold dust. I am honestly surprised to still like it this much. The song is quite stalkerish in an uncomfortable way, but the tune is gorgeous and (can I say this after a decade?) timeless.

Hales' voice is not inspiring, which drives a bit of a wedge between me and the music. Falling Out of Love is in a similar vein, sharing a general tone and similar musicality with his smash hit. However the tune is nothing like as charming, and it exposes the indifference of the rest of the composition and performance. The whole thing just gives off too much of a downbeat vibe - a sort of depressing inevitability; I desperately hope that there are some more cheery tracks in here because otherwise I might be past help for the evening after 46 minutes of constant downer. I am frantically looking down the track list trying to recall hints of the music that accompanies these names and, uniformly, failing to do so. I will have to steel myself, and instead look for the magical patches in a quilt made of interminable sameness.

See, I have to believe that the writing team that came up with Strange and Beautiful must be able to recreate a similarly good tune here or there - even for a single bridge - and it is piano driven which gives me a predisposition to like it if the dullness can be pierced. So far though, the star turn stands alone; the 3 tracks since have been like wandering through a building where every surface is painted beige and there is no other sensory stimulus at all - and the... I can only assume heavy breathing at the end of If I Fall is hideous.

It precedes the next best this album has offered so far. Just for a Moment has a nice whimsical turn on the keys; pity it is hidden behind a vocal smear that is pretty unpleasant and lyrically dull, repetitive. When it ends we get a few seconds of a richer sound - still distant, but a hint that Tongue-tied might have a sturdier arrangement, if a quiet one. This song I could see myself liking in another context and with another singer. Strong vocal performances are not Aqualung's forte, but there was enough behind it to suggest that he can compose. I am, on hearing them, finding some familiarity and recognition of the tunes. Or is that because I have heard 7 different takes on the same theme now, some executed much better than others?

That is a touch unfair, there have been a few tracks now where the melodies have stood out, and they were all similar, sure, but different enough to provide a sense of change. What does not it is the vocal - stylistically and tonally dragging itself through each song in the same pitch and dragging everything down as a result. Its like this: a sad piano tune can be appreciated, have a beauty that reflects that sadness but does not pass it on; an empty vocal like this singing a sad song or straining over that tune destroys that appreciation almost wholly. His voice is grating so much by this stage that my gut says I should not keep those tunes where I liked the composition because they are too stained. Actually its worse than that, the disc has not even finished playing and I am not sure I can identify them! Too much similarity.

All snideness aside, I think I might hang on to a few. When not listening to a whole album of it, his voice would not offend so much, and I was genuinely enjoying the meandering of fingers on keys at points in the middle of the disc. Three tunes is plenty: Strange and Beautiful (obviously), Tongue-tied and Just for a Moment will do it, I think. The rest will likely never be heard again.

Apron Strings - The Memory Band

Track list:

1. Blackwaterside
2. Come Write Me Down
3. Brambles
4. Green Grows The Laurel
5. I Wish I Wish
6. The Light
7. Want You To Know  
8. Deltic Soul
9. Why
10. Reasons
11. Evil  
12. The Poacher

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 2006

I am almost but not entirely positive that I bought up albums from The Memory Band after hearing something I liked of theirs on some form of LastFM station. I am damned if I can remember the parameters of that discovery, mind... maybe Tunng? My suspicion is that these albums (I have this plus The Memory Band) are chock full of songs that I will not recognise enough to have associated them to the group without looking, but which I rather enjoy when they come up in random plays.

Now is the time to find out.

We start with Blackwaterside - experiment to cram three words together? - which has a catchy enough hook. The strings overlaying it are a touch sharper than I would like but there is an easy rolling charm to the tune that comes out of the marriage. With no vocals to play against, the meander of those strings provides the main element and whilst a flatter, smoother sound would have been welcome in places it is a promising start. The cut-over into the next song is rather abrupt, and this very definitely has an early Tunng-like feel. The sounds are stronger but the style of the vocal is very reminiscent of Genders-era Tunng. The vocal itself is not as strong, and the bolder volume of the instrumentation offsets this a little. I find the hook slightly sub-par though - a little too much repetition, reflected in the vocal with the chorus featuring over heavily. It is half brilliant effort, half disappointment - so near but so far. I should not be surprised, of course, by the early Tunng similarity, since Sam Genders and Stephen Cracknell - the main brain behind The Memory Band - went on to be The Accidental together.

Brambles has a promising start, layered loops that hint at much to like if the tune will break out from them. Unfortunately, there is not quite enough variation on the theme for me to really fall for this track. Like Come Write Me Down before it, it does not quite live up to its potential. 3 songs in and I am frustrated; almost very good, it just falls short each time. I hope the tunes to come break that pattern in a positive way, because it is literally just round the corner, over the hill, the next step that counts, etc. etc.

I see from their entry on LastFM that Lisa Knapp was a member at some point. Her vocal would add something - love her voice a lot, but she's not on either of the albums I own. However whilst I worry about that, I Wish I Wish has brought everything together brilliantly... at least to the point where the denouement overstays its welcome by about 2 minutes (which includes another chorus before it closes). I am prepared to forgive an unwillingness to end a beautiful song though - it is certainly a lesser crime than just failing to entice and excite. I am happy, too, when the next song starts with a stronger, jauntier guitar part. Positivity is maintained, energy transferred, head nodding engaged. The Light really is that - a ray of light in a dark evening, a breath of fresh air and just on the right side of the balance that was underweighted earlier.

The first refrains of Want You to Know are very promising, reminding me of Eagleowl (and specifically mf). It evolves away from that a bit, but remains in the same vein generally. This I approve of - Eagleowl are one of the best bands you have never heard of, one of the finds I am happiest with over the last few years. But enough of someone I am not listening to... after a short interlude, we get a nice fiddle/guitar tune which comes with a song. This is nicely put together; the album is winning me round after the early near misses. The tunes are hanging together better, the songs sung nicely.

Evil breaks that pattern. It is duller, less tuneful and less interesting. The vocal suits the style of the song, but is not to my taste. Overall the album is a bit of a mixed bag, and nothing shows this off more than the final track which is like none of those before. Slightly dodgy harmonies, more purposeful strumming and wandering melody. It is a little bit of a mess, but a mess that has a certain charm to it. My overall impressions have been mostly positive - enough so that I am searching out the two albums I am missing. It is a strange little collection though and I reckon more time (which it probably will not get, to be honest), would benefit the impression.