TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2012

Once again the year ends with the number of albums I still haven’t heard or will only get round to late into next year far outweighing those I actually did listen to. But of what I did wrap my ears around in 2012 I enjoyed albums from Allo Darlin’, Ambulances, Yusuf Azak, Andrew Bird, Blind Atlas, Boletes, Cheval Sombre, Cold Pumas, Cousins, Adrian Crowley, Devoted Friend, Eat Lights Become Lights, Fanfarlo, Goat, Ghost Carriage Phantoms, God’s Little Eskimo, Darren Hayman, Island Twins, Richard James, Jesus H Foxx, Johnny5thwheelandthecowards, Kaatskill Mountains, Lazarus and The Plane Crash, Jens Lekman, The Leg, Jack Lesser Lewis' Awkward Energy, Les Liminanas, Huw M, Moonface with Siinai, Onions, Plank!, Pulco, Race Horses, Randolph’s Leap, Sex Hands, Shearwater, Sone Institute, Standard Fare, The State Broadcasters, The Sufis, Temple Songs, The Wave Pictures and James Yorkston.

And if I allowed myself to break the self-imposed ‘Top Ten only’ straitjacket a 11-20 list would look like (alphabetically) Euros Childs, Clinic, The Douglas Firs, First Aid Kit, Golden Fable, Hooded Fang, Damien Jurado, Kiran Leonard, This Many Boyfriends and Woods.

Huge thanks for those artists and bands who shared their thoughts and reflections on 2012 namely (in order of appearance) Seamus Fogarty, Tigercats, Laura J Martin, The Douglas Firs, The Eccentronic Research Council, Mowbird, Richard James, Hooded Fang, Whistle Peak, Land Observations, Easter and Kiran Leonard.

So following that excellent wrapping up of the year, here is my Top Ten albums of the year. Yes it’s subjective. Yes it’s a rum bunch which at first glance appears wilfully random with no connection or shared stylistic approach between them. But – to my ears anyway – they are all formed by a distinctive and original voice (even when indebted to forebears) which delivers consistently – no weak links - across the full length of the album. You may disagree with this or with entries on the list. But hey that’s the fun of lists.

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2012

10. JULIA HOLTER Ekstasis [BUY]
The second album from LA multi-instrumentalist and composer is a beguiling dream-world of layered electronically processed and natural sounds and voice; coolly arty but gorgeously accessible.

9. LAND OBSERVATIONS Roman Roads IV-XI [BUY]
Minimal motorik instrumentals about the Roman highways that criss-cross ancient Britain and Europe from ex-Appliance man James Brooks. Again (visual and musical) artiness and accessibility go hand in hand.

8. WHISTLE PEAK Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls [BUY]
A happy-sad electro-folk shuffle from Louisville, Kentucky. An excellent set of “children’s songs by grown men” to luxuriate in.

7. THE ECCENTRONIC RESEARCH COUNCIL 1612 Underture [BUY]
“Practical Electronics enthusiasts from Sheffield, make spooked out spoken word LP with Maxine Peake.” Understatement for the underture to the story of the Pendle Witches then and now and a side-swipe at contemporary society, shallow politicians and Jeremy Kyle.

6. TIGERCATS Isle Of Dogs [BUY]
A joyous, edgy and infectious declaration-of-independence that touches on Talking Heads, Hefner and Los Campesinos. Music that makes you want to be a teenager again indeed.

5. LAURA J MARTIN The Hangman Tree [BUY]
Can I use (someone else’s) phrase again? “Liverpudlian flute-wrangler” goes on magical excursions – from deserts to Morecombe Bay to Japan – switching from child-like (but never infantile) innocence to breathy sultriness. Heart wrangled.

4. COLD SPECKS I Predict A Graceful Expulsion [BUY]
Gospel-flavoured folk-noir from Al Spx and her Anglo-Canadian collective that is subtle but stirring, underplayed but over-powering. I cried when I saw them live (big softie).

3. SEAMUS FOGARTY God Damn You Mountain [BUY]
The James Yorkston-endorsed and Fence Records-signed nomad from County Mayo delivers rough, earthy ruminations with a transcendental other-worldliness. Wayward folky sounds on guitar, banjo, fiddle and cello with the added curious spaciness of analog synthesisers, laptop interventions and sea-shell percussion.

2. EASTER Innocence Man [BUY]
Crumpsall pipe-dreams, heavy US alt-rock hooks and riffs and experimental post-rock meet for an "immense, brooding and ruggedly beautiful journey, as monumental and carefully hewn as the carvings at Mount Rushmore or the implacable Victorian brickwork of Strangeways prison".

1. CATE LE BON CYRK [BUY]
"“Cyrk” is an album inspired by the Isle of Eigg, recorded in Cardiff, named after the Polish word for ‘circus’ but sounding like none of those places. It is at once grounded and otherworldly, cryptic and cool but curiously compelling and warm-hearted. Each listen pulls you deeper in, revealing more but telling you less. At the beginning of the last decade ‘New Weird America’ was coined to describe outer limits folk music looking at the world askance but rooted in heritage, myth and elemental forces. Welsh psychedelic music has been on a parallel course for many decades and hasn’t needed a short-hand description. Whatever the Welsh version is called, with this record Cate Le Bon proves she is at the forefront of the contemporary wave of that movement".

I was fairly certain when I wrote that in April that this record would be one of my top five of the year. By early November it beat Easter in my affections to secure top billing. But the SCANDALOUS omission of this record (and many others above) from record shop, magazine and website end-of-year lists shocked me.

Yes this is my list, it’s personal and wilful and random but surely by any objective standards “CYRK” should be lauded as an eerie creative triumph? How could it be overlooked?? I started this blog to record - for myself - what I liked and why; and if anyone read it and wanted to listen too that would be a bonus. All the above records from 2012 are truly important to me but also all in different ways are under-appreciated in this cruel, inattentive world. I recommend them all to you. Maybe more than just listening, together we can over-turn the under-appreciation that hangs too heavily around them? Over to you...

CATE LE BON @ SOUP KITCHEN 24 April 2012

“The worst thing a singer can do is tell you how hungover they are” said Huw Evans aka H. Hawkline before telling us how hungover he was. He later went on to tell us the next song was about a dream, apparently another unwritten cardinal sin for singers on stage. If H. Hawkline was breaking any rules – real or made-up – he’s allowed to in my book if turning in a support slot this strong, especially if worse for wear poor lad. Alone on stage he played seven songs on electric guitar - some written to be played with a band, some not - about toffee-apple cheeks, sex-cult druids, broken fingers, love and suffering that gently veered from fractured folk lament to terse garage-rock with a touch of lovelorn blues too. Even if never predictable which kind of H Hawkline live experience you will get – raucous or quiet, solo or full band – he continues to be a consistently excellent, engaging and witty rule-breaker.



If H Hawkline had been sunny of disposition and brightly lit, the headline set was of much darker and mysterious hue. Largely in darkness with surreal Casey Raymond videos playing in the background, Cate Le Bon and three-piece backing band – including H Hawkline on organ and Sweet Baboo on bass – played a set largely made up of faithful but loud and frazzled versions of songs from new album “Cyrk” plus a few extras. The murky darkness and the flickering films – from Victorian freakshow dancing dogs and conjoined twins to the pastoral simplicity of horses roaming in fields – could have been a distraction except the magnetic performance of Cate Le Bon.



I’ve already swooned over the new album so hearing these songs live was odds-on to be a joy but Cate’s compelling stage presence plus the tautness and power of the playing made this extra special. That cool, almost glacial intoning and middle distance stare whilst at the microphone I was expecting but less so her assured stance behind the guitar or a lost-in-the-moment swaying and singing through hair plastered across her face.



Cate Le Bon started the evening telling us how she had thrown up before going on stage in London the night before. Really? My first time seeing Cate Le Bon live was at the Far Out Stage at Green Man in 2009, just after "Me Oh My" came out, and yes she appeared a little nervous then. But with two years plus of gigs under her belt including recent US tour plus two acclaimed albums, not only should she have no reason for nerves, there was not a hint of it in tonight’s performance. A jaw-droppingly great gig that was as cleverly sequenced and as full of dark twists and enigmatic mystery as the new record – so good it was easy to block out the few drunken hecklers and assorted chatterers. “Manchester I love you but tonight your creeping me out”. Apologies for the creeps Ms Le Bon but please keep coming back with your own superior brand of musical creepiness.





The Set List

Julia
Fold The Cloth
Eyes So Bright
Cyrk / Seaside
Greta
Falcon-Eyed
The Man I Wanted
Puts Me To Work
Me Oh My
Ploughing Out Pts 1 + 2
---
Camelo
Ole Spain

CATE LE BON Cyrk

‘The Welsh Nico’ was a short-hand description that sadly hung around Cate Le Bon upon the release of her debut full-length English language album “Me Oh My” in 2009. And for the release of follow-up “Cyrk”, out in the UK at the end of this month, it may still hang around. Listen to the vocals of ‘Greta’ or the opening of ‘Ploughing Out Part One’ with their thickly accented glacial intoning, rolling over words with chilly allure, and the German singer does indeed come to mind. But there is so much more to Cate Le Bon than monochromatic and heavily accented froideur. The Nico tag doesn’t convey the sheer vitality and richness of “Cyrk” – or indeed its enigmatic oddness.



Whereas half of “Me Oh My” tended to the quiet, stripped back and spectral – often just voice and guitar – “Cyrk” is more consistently expansive and heavily layered, and definitely a ‘band’ record. Opening with the taut straining-at-the-leash rock-chug of ‘Falcon-Eyed’ and ‘Puts Me To Work’ the album switches to playful and reflective for the wandering synths of the stately and joyous ‘Cyrk’. Sinewy guitar twirled around vintage synthesizers also feature on the later ‘Fold The Cloth’ and ‘The Man I Wanted’, haunting mid-tempo songs which both finish with frazzled drones and crackles. Earlier in the running order, the pair of songs named after women take the record to the astral plane, particularly the latter ‘Greta’, an out-of-this-world and downright odd lullaby addressed to the young keyboard player in the above video (her niece?) “you existed in moonlight before you were born / from the turn of each calendar inside and outside / observatories clocked you in the skies”. Weird yes but it certainly beats a book token from your aunty for your birthday. Towards the end both ‘Through The Mill’ and ‘Ploughing Out’ have quieter, melodic almost tame starts but both ramp up the psychedelia with loud, crashing finales and curious lyrics about trophy bones and birching on the beak.



“Cyrk” is an album inspired by the Isle of Eigg, recorded in Cardiff, named after the Polish word for ‘circus’ but sounding like none of those places. It is at once grounded and otherworldly, cryptic and cool but curiously compelling and warm-hearted. Each listen pulls you deeper in, revealing more but telling you less. At the beginning of the last decade ‘New Weird America’ was coined to describe outer limits folk music looking at the world askance but rooted in heritage, myth and elemental forces. Welsh psychedelic music has been on a parallel course for many decades and hasn’t needed a short-hand description. Whatever the Welsh version is called, with this record Cate Le Bon proves she is at the forefront of the contemporary wave of that movement, despite whatever reductive tags get hung around her neck. Highly, highly recommended.



Cate Le Bon Cyrk [BUY]