DEADWALL Four Songs By... EP

I was mightily impressed with Deadwall’s first recordings when I came across them last June. Since then the West Yorkshire five-piece - Thomas Gourley vocals/guitars, Christopher Duffin keyboards, Rob Simpson guitars, Tom McCartney bass and Guy Raimes on drums - have been in the studio and this month release their first EP ‘Four Songs By...’ on CD (or as free download). The four tracks keep what made the demos so intriguingly catchy but add an extra depth and polish to their indie-art-pop. Field Music and Mystery Jets might be useful comparisons but also XTC (check that opening guitar on lead track ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’). However Deadwall go much further than any of those bands in adding a fiery energetic drive to their cleverly constructed pop.


“I kept my counsel like a Russian” says ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’ but there is nothing reticent or demure about this propulsive, multipart, sub-3 minute opener - catchy, complex and perfectly formed, it’s the undisputed highlight of the EP for me. The mid-tempo ‘The Curse of the Black Widow’ opens with ornate piano motifs and falsetto vocals but layers in orchestral touches and humming harmonies – mysterious with elegant restraint. ‘Minus Two Words’ recaptures the forward momentum of ‘The Wakefield Questionnaire’: guitars alternate between scratchy and chiming, it all bounced along by a pneumatic rhythm section. Oh and there’s still time in its 2.47 running time for a Hammond organ break. The closing song is the more introspective acoustic-leaning ‘Metropolis, Sort Of’ which has some lovely horn touches in its second half but I don’t find it as inventively memorable as the earlier songs. Even so it’s still way ahead of run-of-the-mill.

Deadwall’s arrangements may be complex, even prog-leaning, but their propulsive energy, to-the-point brevity and great pop hooks keep them from sagging under any pretension or over-elaboration (no doubt aided by some down-to-earth Yorkshire common-sense too). A highly recommended purchase when released via Bandcamp at the end of this month.

The Wakefield Questionnaire by deadwall

Deadwall Four Songs [BUY]

TEMPLE SONGS 15 Bygones

The album cover – B&W home photo of skinny figure in striped jersey and bowl hair-cut, set amongst large expanse of block colour - looks like one of those early Creation Records compilations where 80s indie looked back fondly to 60s beat. The song titles could neatly come from 90s sources – the fridge-magnet-poetry surrealism of Pavement (‘Milk Fad’) or say the loaded-with-meaning wordplay of Grandaddy (‘I’m Not A Weak Old Man, I’m A Week-Old Man’, ‘Perpetual Birthday’). And the 14 rough-cut recordings here skirt these sources - and many others, particularly noughties no-fi experimentalism – but to these ears sound most like strangely disembodied out-takes from Deerhunter, some rich with melody and shape, others fragmentary and abstract.

The debut, free-to-download Temple Songs album drifts between both states. Some tracks are little more than flimsy sketches (the lo-fi prelude of ‘Oh My’) or instrumental exercises in parody (the 50s swinging exotica of ‘Log Flume’ or the slowed down piano-and-clarinet jazz shuffle of ‘I’m Not A Weak Old Man, I’m A Week-Old Man’). Then there are the ‘proper’ songs. ‘Milk Fad’ is cautiously tinny Panda Bear homage to the Beach Boys meets jubilant, twanging guitars. ‘Jupiter’s Baby Body’ shares the same summery carefree charm with an infectious bass throb and balmy, shambling drums but again the warm melodies and energy are cloaked in thick murk. ‘I’m Better Than Brad Berwick’ adopts a different tack – an animated but strained electronic pulse dipped in whistling feedback with the album’s most animated - but equally hidden – vocals. Elsewhere there is the more pastoral ‘I’ll Write You A Song’ all sweet bubbly drift and fluttering drum machine beats, whilst ‘Jello Sky’ is abstract and mournfully introspective mumbling over distant, chiming synths, like Jason Lytle on downers at the bottom of a deep well.



I’m not sure whether the murky production is an aesthetic decision from Jolan Lewis (aka Temple Songs) or caused by hesitancy about the songs themselves. But there is plenty to admire tantalisingly behind the mire. Normally I’m not averse to the lo-fi and muddy but here I find the melody and the vocals too distant, too detached and want to hear both sing out. Best to think of ‘15 Bygones’ as an off-hand collection of demos from Bradford Cox – both the full band sound of Deerhunter through to the more abstract sound collages of his Atlas Sound moniker - intriguing sketches worth exploring in themselves. But fully realised they would be magnificent.

Jupiter's Baby Body - Temple Songs by FollyOfYouth

Temple Songs - A Bee or a Shark by Temple Songs

Temple Songs 15 Bygones [FREE]

HOODED FANG Tosta Mista

Listening to this record is like opening a sealed time-capsule from 1968. Inside are 10 perfectly preserved specimens of fuzzy garage-pop replete with heart-gladdening optimism and groovy beats. It’s fantastically fresh and immediate. True if you want more recent reference points, you can hear some of that languid Strokes NYC cool in the chug of ‘Brahma’ or the peppy summer sounds of The Drums in the surf-leaning ‘Vacationation’. But rather than diminishing returns retro-nostalgia, “Tosta Mista” feels like a genuine re-tread of garage rock year zero and the Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” collection. Hooded Fang manage to capture – not recreate - the sense of possibility, experimentation and fun of that era brilliantly.



Song lyrics can sound mock-profound and deeply allusive (“they call me Poncho / but I ain’t got no partner today“) but the whole package is an immediately accessible psychedelic pop triumph. Apparently it was written in the aftermath of the end of a five year relationship between singer/guitarist Daniel Lee and bassist April Aliermo but it sounds more delirious than despondent, more exuberant than exhausted by relationship woes.


It’s a brief album: seven songs proper with three Joe Meek-meets-noir soundtrack instrumental snatches between tracks but it doesn’t feel skimpy or slight. Even those three ‘Big Blue’ interludes sound like extracts from a larger, unrealised project. This album is the Toronto collective’s second after their self-released, Canada only “Album” in 2010 but their UK debut. It did make it to these shores at the end of last year but is now picked up by Full Time Hobby for a full UK release, out today. I hope the label hasn’t added any tracks to it – they’re not needed. Half the length of most albums but twice the psyche-pop fun.

Hooded Fang - ESP by fulltimehobby

Hooded Fang Tosta Mista [BUY]

THIS MANY BOYFRIENDS Starling

Following my first proper introduction to This Many Boyfriends supporting Allo Darlin’ recently, I’ve been playing catch up buying in quick succession their three releases: 2010’s “Getting A Life With...” EP, 2011’s “Young Lovers Go Pop!” single and this year’s two track single “Starling”. One of the tracks from that first EP (and the opening song of their set at the Deaf Institute) is a neat statement of intent: ‘I Don't Like You ('Cos You Don't Like The Pastels).’ For This Many Boyfriends side with that defiantly shambolic strain of indie-pop that can be traced back to The Television Personalities and then the name-checked Pastels. The earlier releases are a joyful clatter of “mildly talented, ferociously proud” (as ‘Trying Is Good’ would have it) lofi bubblegum pop. Melody and organisation creep in amongst the sugary spikiness, Northern vowel inflections and name-dropping of other bands, but randomly rather than in a linear progression as though polished sophistication was accidental rather than intended.


And so to ‘Starling’ released last month by the Leeds quartet as a fanzine with download code. It was recorded with their guitarist Pete Sykes who died suddenly last November of a brain haemorrhage. Lord knows what this did to the other four as individuals but all credit to them as a band for moving forward and be able to release this, in part a tribute to their friend. Both songs are slicker and tauter and more richly layered than earlier efforts. The title track is a two-and-a-half minute lean-and-fast rush of angular pop, sweetly-shrill guitar riffs and pattering drams, matching wonder and infatuation (“I think you have the soul of a new born”) with a single line chorus about living for a long time. The second half adds in an infectiously giddy ba-ba-bah-bah-ba-ba refrain which is so effective they repeat it on the following song ‘Just Saying’. This song continues if not ups the singalong poppiness of its companion finishing with a screamed denunciation of pet dislikes: “And I hate chillwave / and I hate witch house”.

This Many Boyfriends - 'Starling' by Angular Recording Co

Such petty denunciations, the hero worship roll calls and releasing your single as a hand-drawn fanzine (with “stories, recipes, pop quizzes and other lesser spotted sightings”) could all leave This Many Boyfriends as indistinguishable from the wheeling flock as the bird they sing of. But in the same way the band find beauty in said feathered friend (“I think you have the soul of a starling / so precious and careful and clean“) This Many Boyfriends have familiar but rare qualities – not least resilience – amongst their clutch of superior indie-pop songs. It’s been a rapid but fun conversion.

This Many Boyfriends Starling [BUY]

Open publication - Free publishing

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: March 2012 Pt.1

Nights are getting lighter and the months are getting busier for live music. Many, many great gigs over the next thirty-one days but highlighting just one night that has two bands on the mixtape below. Veronica Falls, whose excellent debut album was one of my Top Ten of 2011, return to Manchester on Friday 9 March with support from Novella, whose debut EP is out this month “with influences spanning the classic 4AD sound to Flying Nun to Brian Jonestown Massacres ‘Methodrone’ album”. Opening the bill is the much hyped (and in some quarters distastefully leered at) local band PINS.

As ever a mixtape [65 mins / 74 MB] of bands playing Manchester this March to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: March 2012 [65 mins / 74 MB]

Shrag Tights In August [3.35] (21 Mar The Castle BUY TICKETS)
The History of Apple Pie Tug [7.23] (30 March Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Gabriel & The Hounds The World Unfolds [10.02] (1 Mar Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
The Wave Pictures Little Surprise [12.47] (24 Mar Kings Arms BUY TICKETS)
Tall Firs Hairdo [16.12] (16 Mar Trof BUY TICKETS)
Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell Down In Adairsville [19.55] (18 Mar Cornerhouse BUY TICKETS)
Cass McCombs The Same Thing [26.04] (5 Mar Band on the Wall BUY TICKETS)
Shearwater Breaking The Yearlings [29.11] (31 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Veronica Falls Come On Over [33.44] (9 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
The Phenomenal Handclap Band 15 to 20 [38.31] (2 Mar Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
Memoryhouse The Kids Were Wrong [42.37] (26 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Diagrams Antelope [45.08] (15 Mar Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
Cold Bones No Need For Names [48.39] (3 Mar Big Hands BUY TICKETS)
Earth Divine and Bright [51.36] (7 Mar Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
So Many Wizards Nico [54.07] (10 Mar Roadhouse BUY TICKETS)
Novella Don’t Believe Ayn Rand [58.16] (9 Mar Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Lambchop Gone Tomorrow [65.15] (6 Mar Manchester Cathedral BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
1 Mar The Duke Spirit Ruby Lounge / 1 Mar Phantogram The Castle / 1 Mar Toy Horses Roadhouse / 1 Mar Bleeding Knees Club Trof / 1 Mar Little Dragon Academy 2 / 2 Mar Sex Hands, Sauna Youth + Human Hair Fuel / 2 Mar The Jezabels Ruby Lounge / 2 Mar Momus IABF / 2 Mar Soko Islington Mill / 2 Mar Sleigh Bells Sound Control / 2 Mar The Kabeedies Deaf Institute / 2 Mar Willis Earl Beal Trof Fallowfield / 3 Mar The Silver Seas Ruby Lounge / 3 Mar Monument Valley The Castle / 3 Mar Brown Brogues Soup Kitchen / 4 Mar Theme Park + The Cast of Cheers Deaf Institute / 5 Mar Three Trapped Tigers Ruby Lounge / 5 Mar Pale Seas The Castle / 5 Mar Mark Lanegan Academy / 6 Mar French Wives Dry Bar / 6 Mar Air Cav Kraak / 7 Mar Gang Colours The Castle / 8 Mar Alice Gold Ruby Lounge / 9 Mar Mayer Hawthorne Ruby Lounge / 9 Mar The Aristocats Night & Day / 9 Mar Halls Kraak / 10 Mar Portico Quartet RNCM / 11 Mar The Megaphonic Thrift Ruby Lounge / 12 Mar Cave Painting Trof Fallowfield / 13 Mar Xiu Xiu Ruby Lounge / 13 Mar Dog Is Dead Deaf Institute / 15 Mar Wu Lyf The Ritz / 15 Mar Kill It Kid Deaf Institute / 16 Mar Summer Camp Night & Day / 17 Mar John Head Ruby Lounge / 17 Mar Rook & The Ravens Night & Day / 18 Mar Felice Brothers Academy / 18 Mar The Slow Show Deaf Institute / 19 Mar Being There The Castle / 22 Mar Kindness Soup Kitchen / 23 Mar Driver Drive Faster Deaf Institute / 23 Mar Tanlines Night & Day / 24 Mar Jacuzzi Boys Kraak/ 25 Mar Spiritualized Academy / 26 Mar Last Harbour Band on the Wall / 26 Mar Los Campesinos Academy 3 / 26 Mar Feist + M. Ward Apollo / 27 Mar Victorian Dad Band on the Wall / 28 Mar The Doozer Night & Day / 29 Mar Breton Islington Mill / 29 Mar Blondes Soup Kitchen / 29 Mar Halo Halo Night & Day / 29 Mar Duologue The Castle / 29 Mar Strange Boys Deaf Institute / 30 Mar The ABC Club + Blessa Roadhouse / Frankfest with The Fall + The Lovely Eggs Jabez Clegg

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: March 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: March 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - March 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [64 mins / 74 MB] here.

FANFARLO + RACE HORSES @ STATIC GALLERY, LIVERPOOL 25 February 2012

My last encounter with Welsh wonders Race Horses was a cramped and rushed affair in the back room of The Castle following a 6Music session. Tonight's gig at Static Gallery (what's it like I asked, "a bit Islington Mill, a bit Tan Hill Inn barn" was the perfect and accurate response) was a bit rushed for band too - a swift set-up with minimal checking of sound levels following opening band Pixels. But from their near-faultless performance and the excellent sound, this clearly wasn’t a band feeling any pressure. In fact I think this was the best set I've seen from Race Horses: energetic, tight, sweaty and both fuzzy and ferocious in the excellent ‘My Year Abroad’ or sweetly melodic and playful in ‘Pony’ or ‘What Do I Have To Do’.







Four-fifths of the band (the male four-fifths) are all tall, gangly and looked a little - well - awkward setting up their kit on stage. But once the playing starts they move seamlessly between instruments and stage positions. And singer Meilyr becomes a magnetic front-person – electric-shock twitches whilst playing bass during ‘Grangetown 02920’, towering erect with eyes closed and singing direct into hand-held mic for the final section of 'Marged Wedi Blino' or kneeling on the concrete floor amongst the crowd to whack the hell out of a bass-drum for ‘See No Green’. The new songs – a bit raw and rough-at-the-edges last July - here sounded sharp, well-drilled and immense. Only question is when is album number two with these new songs on out?





The Race Horses Set List:

Furniture
Mince
Pony
Grangetown 02920
What Am I To Do
My Year Abroad
See No Green
Sisters
Marged Wedi Blino

My last live encounter with Fanfarlo was also after a 6music session, in November 2011 when they followed that recording with a set at the Deaf Institute. And guess what? The new songs that then sounded tentative and even a little rough-edged, tonight sounded slick, assured and sat beautifully alongside the re-arranged older songs.





The set started in near-darkness with ‘Replicate’ lit only by a red spotlight initially and occasional strobe flashes. As the set progressed, more sophisticated lighting was introduced plus video projections on to a hexicon-shaped screen at the rear of the stage. However this wasn’t what made this such a compelling performance. Again it was the excellent songs performed by the five-piece – the rhythm section sticking with bass and drums throughout but the multi-instrumentalist front-line of singer Simon Balthazar, Cathy Lucas and Leon Beck moving between guitar, keyboards, violin, trumpet, saxophone, bell – and the largest tambourine I’ve ever seen.



I had been playing new album “Rooms Filled With Light” fairly constantly all day, it slowly worming its way into my head and my affections. I don’t think it will supplant 2009’s "Reservoir" in my affections but the mixture of songs from both tonight in this modest-sized venue, with great sight lines and superior sound was an utter delight. Possibly gig of the year so far (despite some stiff competition already).





The Fanfarlo Set List:

Replicate
Tightrope
Feathers
I’m A Pilot
Lenslife
Comets
Deconstruction
Finishing Line
Atlas – A Flood
Luna
Dig
Shiny Things
Harold T Wilkins
---
Bones
The Walls Are Coming Down

Tonight was a Harvest Sun promotion and this joint tour has three more UK dates left before Fanfarlo head to the States.

ALLO DARLIN, THIS MANY BOYFRIENDS + STANDARD FARE @ DEAF INSTITUTE 23 February 2012

I’ve written about both Standard Fare albums on here plus run a Q&A with Emma and Dan in September 2010 but until tonight I had never seen them live. And despite the overdue nature of this encounter, I’m pleased to say the Sheffield-based trio did not disappoint. There’s a casual nonchalance to Standard Fare on stage – plainly dressed, nothing showy, no stage moves, no between song chat except putting down a brief moment of anti-Yorkshire sentiment – but as the nine song set progresses they subtly but surely up the aggression – and the shouting - on their spiky power-pop punch.



My only quibbles: no ‘Suitcase’ and no lighting. What is that strange ‘etiquette’ that forbids opening acts to have the same lighting state as following bands? To my mind, Standard Fare should not only have the spotlights but should be headlining venues this size. Sheer class.



This Many Boyfriends are another band I hadn’t seen previously live and only know via the odd song from compilations. But an opening song called ‘I Don’t Like You (‘Cos You Don’t Like The Pastels)’ and a new song called ‘Tina Weymouth’ instantly endear the Leeds-based four piece to me. This Many Boyfriends could almost be a walking indie-pop cliché: said Pastels reference, a song about being bullied at school and a new single released as a fanzine. But there’s a punkish energy, a we’re-uncool-but-we’re-going-to-enjoy-ourselves-anyway vibe and great deadpan Beat Happening/Moe Tucker drumming behind it all that for me was a winning recipe. This was their first gig since November – and only five months since the tragic death of band mate Peter Sykes – but it all felt positively fresh and upbeat. Two singles bought, I await the album eagerly.



Now Allo Darlin’ are a much more familiar prospect live and on record but tonight they are touring their new album “Europe” which is not out until May. But lack of familiarity is no barrier to enjoying their excellent set – six new songs plus older favourites. They open with current single ‘Capricornia’ which still delivers on its promise to sound “somewhere between 'A New England' by Kirsty MacColl and 'Cattle and Cane' by The Go-Betweens”. Other new songs are more subdued or reflective like the quiet, almost acoustic ‘Some People Say’ which contrasts with the bouncy energy of ‘The Polaroid Song’ or ‘Dreaming’ but the smart song-writing still shines through.





Three-quarters of Allo Darlin’ maintain the dress-down, no frills casualness of this evening. But Elizabeth Morris is a world apart, an unassuming but magnetic front-person in short black dress and Doc Martens who can switch between the skipping joy of ‘Kiss Your Lips’ (here added in before final song ‘ Heart Like A Drummer’) and the heart-breaking, closed-eye stillness of Go-Betweens cover ‘Dive For Your Memory’. I’ve seen Allo Darlin’ consistently livelier on stage before night but as the enthusiastic cheers seemed to agree, as the breadth of their song-writing expands they can still maintain the assured quality. ‘Indiepop’ can be a dead-end street of a tag but tonight showed three very different takes on how vital and smart and varied it can be.

FIRE ISLAND PINES Rickie Lee Jones

The cover artwork for the second release from Fire Island Pines portrays that idealised picture postcard glamour of hotel life in Post-War America, before the optimism – and the short-lived opulence – faded. The band name also turns out to be an upstate and upmarket New York holiday resort. But the six-piece are in fact from Cornwall. And rather than living - or vilifying - the American Dream, Fire Island Pines are instead maintaining some very British traditions.

‘Oh Therese’ perfectly demonstrates this is a limber two minutes: the shy sophisticate sensitivity of Felt meets the swoon of early Postcard jangle as covered by a wet-behind-the-ears Tindersticks with some lovely muted trumpet. (The Stuart Staples comparison is also found in the faltering anguish of third track ‘I Was A Runaway’). ‘Carpathian Elegy’ extends this in a more leisurely manner reminding me of lighter moments of The Pale Fountains: sunshine pop guitar jangle tinged with brittle regret. Final track ‘Rickie Lee Jones’, all finger-clicking bounce and sway, delicately recounts an fixated encounter with one of the eponymous singer’s albums in a second-hand record shop (“in 2003”). It is sung with the soulful croon of young Edwyn Collins but so bashfully done it refuses to look you in the eye. From here return to the opening track and you realise just how (relatively) confident and upfront ‘Oh Therese’ is.

I hope I don’t make this EP sound overly inhibited or retrograde. Fire Island Pines may know their indie-pop lineage but are never in thrall to it. And yes they maybe softly reticent but they have also turned in a bittersweet gem, opulent and optimistic in its own neatly formed way.

Oh Therese by Fire Island Pines

Rickie Lee Jones by Fire Island Pines

Fire Island Pines Rickie Lee Jones [BUY]

RANDOLPH'S LEAP The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones

Listen to any of the songs on this 15 track release and it is no surprise to discover it was recorded in singer Adam Ross’s bedroom. It has a casual, no-frills feel: the drums (when they feature) are tinny and up-close-loud with the sweetly fragile vocals placed shyly further back. You cannot help but picture the band cosily huddled around a single microphone (and probably an unmade single bed too). What does come as a surprise is discovering that Ross’s band Randolph’s Leap actually numbers eight members in total - for the stripped-bare acoustic folk-pop on “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” sounds more a solo turn accompanied by occasional recorder. And it turns out many are: “the rest of the band don't feature much, but at least I don't have to share the profits with that miserable rabble".


There’s a curious decade-spanning feeling to these homespun tunes. Sometimes, a trad Scots folk take on 60s coffee-house folk revivalism permeates the broken spirit laments of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ or ‘Cassie O’Tone’ with quietly strummed guitar and mournfully triumphant fiddle. At other times, a 30s comic ballad whimsy takes hold, like when Woody Guthrie dropped the politics and anger and penned childish rhyming ditties, in songs like ’Dying In My Sleep’ or ‘The Will To Shave’ – the former about “my long term plans....a distant goal but one I’ll share / I’m dying in my sleep / at the age of 103”. Elsewhere there’s a happy-go-lucky naiveté and unspoiled simplicity to ‘The Nonsense In My Soul’ like King Creosote at his most spartan and softly melodic. To wrong foot the listener there’s also the console game sound effect interludes ‘Level One’ and ‘Level Two’ plus the neon cover artwork to interject some garish 80s references. ‘Bile’ is the moment when you feel there really is eight people crammed into that bedroom and the frugal alt-folk switches to distorted casio-fuzz pop.

For all its rudimentary recording properties and suggestions of whimsy or simplicity, “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” is a direct and deeply affecting record. The emotions – whether playful or serious – are honest and open and engaging. The closing song ‘Suitable’ softly asserts “you make me feel wonderful”. This is a heart-lifting and off-the-cuff collection of songs that has the same effect. It’s available now digitally or on limited edition cassette tape on Peenko Records.

 Randolph's Leap - The Nonsense In My Soul by peenko

Randolph’s Leap The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones [BUY]

SEX HANDS Season 1

The ‘zine quality, single colour cover with grinning skulls pasted on to heads of the cast of “Friends” suggests diehard DIY movement. Then the music of Sex Hands confirms it or rather screams it: clanging guitars, sludgy drums, distorted, shouted vocals are all lost in the murky, head-pummelling noise. Everything about “Season 1” suggests hastily assembled cassette release home recording. It was in fact “recorded by Patrick Crane in 2011” - but clearly with the aim of capturing raw abrasiveness rather than nuanced sonic clarity - and is released at name-your-price via Bandcamp (“it’s fine to put zero in there - we won’t judge ya”). There is melody and jangle and more here too – plus a cover of New Zealand’s The Clean – but all lies shrouded in various shades of no-fi murk.

‘Parker’ yokes a hippy-trippy 60s freak-beat swing to garage-rock bludgeon. In ‘Janice’ math-rock churn with a hint of warped Beefheart blues sits under barked tannoy announcement vocals - but sludgy no-fi wins out again. There is a melodic chug to ‘Jingle Bitch’ despite the wailing vocal despair but again more of that sludgy no-fi. The band claim “these are songs about Joey, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe”. ‘Rembrandts’ with its “I’ll be there for you” vocal refrain is the most explicit reference despite sounding filled with bleak desperation rather than the cosy unity of the show’s theme music but other than these fleeting references or character names as song titles I really can’t hear this. But the angry, head-pounding caterwaul of Sex Hands is exactly the reaction I have to the smugness of that long-running TV series so maybe there’s a deeper truth at work here.

The latter half of this eight track mini-album has less impact as the rickety punk flail becomes familiar or when the instrumental shredding guitar duelling of ‘Jam Sandwich’ stretches itself too thin. It finishes with the surprisingly almost-triumphant, quasi-indie-rock swagger (still buried in no-fi murk) of ‘The Moist Maker’. It’s a closing statement that makes you want to punch the air rather than say punch the faces of the cast of a US TV show. “Season 1” is over in 27 minutes but is one series that has episodes definitely worth re-running. The next live outing for Sex Hands is Sunday 19 February on a seven band bill of fellow-travellers from Manchester and beyond with Pheromoans headlining. Kicks off at 5pm with tickets just £4 in advance.


Parker by SEX HANDS

Sex Hands Season 1 [BUY]

ROB ST JOHN Weald

Rob St John is one quarter of Edinburgh’s anti-drum core (but wavering) post-folk ensemble eagleowl. But his own music is a very different strain of alt-folk to that of the full group. “Weald”, his debut album for Song By Toad Records, is eight songs of darkly atmospheric and steady-paced freak-folk exploring the “imagined contour between the bleak Lancastrian moors and the cobbled wynds of Edinburgh”. Like David Thomas Broughton fronting Mount Eerie or Alexander Tucker conducting a psycho-geographical field study.

Songs vary from 2.5 minutes to over 7 minutes but all conform to a similar pattern: opening with roving, liquid golden electric guitar notes, gently droning harmonium and St John’s deep booming voice before adding in denser layers of sound and instruments – bowed saw in ‘Vanishing Points’, haunted, distant piano in ‘An Empty House’, violin in ‘Stainforth Force’ and even underwater hydrophone in the same song. Picking out individual instruments doesn’t convey the combined effect of layered textures that swell and contract, making the album sound cavernous despite a lingering intimacy.



Throughout Rob St John’s voice is peculiarly astonishing: blunt Lancastrian tones that spill and surprise and waver like his guitar, sometimes a deep bottomless pit boom as forceful as granite, other times a darkly forgiving sigh. It’s a voice that speaks of years of experience ruminating on eternal mysteries – extraordinary then that Rob St John is in his early twenties. The graceful beauty of the seven-minute ‘Stainforth Force’ is the epic midpoint of the album (or opener of side two if you buy the vinyl) but ‘Domino’ that follows usurps its centrality by notching up the intensity with a bleak prison-irons clanking tale of guilt, cross words and cold beds. It’s so anguished and intense, ‘Emma’s Dance’ the sprightly Bert Jansch-like instrumental that follows is blessed relief. “Weald” is an album rich with a thick, marshy atmosphere but proves a rewarding and uplifting journey. The record came out last November and I paid it scant attention until earlier this year. What a terrible disservice to an exceptional recording.

Rob St. John - Sargasso Sea by Song, by Toad

Rob St John Weald [BUY]

WHISTLE PEAK Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls

The emerald green waters upon which the couple float on the front of ‘Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls’ reminds me of a copper sulphate-saturated lake in North Wales I saw as a child: a welcoming, brightly coloured pool of mineral-enriched balminess. The Louisville electro-folk of Whistle Peak is a similarly buoyant and luxuriant experience: eleven tracks of melancholy-tinged Vaudevillian alt-pop floating on banjos, xylophone and egg-shaker with washes of electronic flutter and mechanical scrape that soothes and surprises.

At the gentler end of the album’s spectrum ‘Sleepy Pants’ is an unhurried early morning stretch of the arms, a mellow half-asleep, half-awake lullaby. ‘In A Boat On A Lake’ chimes and bobs with carefree calypso-flavoured contentment on strummed ukulele, wobble-board and brushed drums. Elsewhere ‘Us Two At Play’ is darker and more ponderous, with metallic twanging guitars over mysterious rasps and rattles, like a poppier version of Califone. ‘Hurry Hurry’ is infectiously downbeat, the sound of a troupe of sad-faced sideshow barkers who know no-one is listening but persevere with their morose melodies and pots-and-pans percussive beats regardless.


This is the sophomore release from the Kentucky quintet (David Boston, Billy Petot, Mike Snowden, Jeremy Irvin and – missing from the above photo - Garrett Crabtree) coming four years on from their debut and being my first introduction to the band. But what a delightful introduction. At first listen these “children’s stories told by grown men” appear almost unremarkable but the album’s curious combination of old and modern, of acoustic and electronic, of dreamy and dark provides a deep tug on the head and the heart-strings. It’s subtle but sure-footed, introspectively glum but also strangely celebratory and at various points reminds me of Panda Bear, Beirut, Joe Henry, Eels and Tuung. ‘The Laws’ closes the album, a gorgeous undertow of deep soul melancholia combined with a suppressed sense of triumph, all in a lo-fi happy-sad shuffle. And it only makes we want to float off on another boat-trip around Echo Falls.

Hurry Hurry - Whistle Peak by FollyOfYouth

In A Boat On A Lake - Whistle Peak by FollyOfYouth

Whistle Peak Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls [BUY]

TOWN HALL Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps

Town Hall declare they are "not your run-of-the-mill Brooklyn folk group" and claim kinship with Woods, Beirut and The Middle East. The core three-piece – multi-instrumentalists Stefan Weiner, Phoebe Ryan and Jesse Kranzler – recall from that list a miniature The Middle East, smaller in numbers and less expansive than the now defunct Australian chamber-folk six-piece but just as intricate and precise in their gently orchestrated alt-folk musings.


Supported by a host of string and woodwind players and a respectfully-in-the-background rhythm section, their second EP release is a name-your-price digital five track EP. The quiet simplicity of ‘Just Watching My Breath’ opens “Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps” with gently picked mandolin, breathy, sweet harmonies and understated string arrangements and clarinet; it’s as fresh as the morning air it sings of. ‘Alright’ is more complex affair: Weiner's flat-toned rendition of more obtuse lyrics over subtly undulating backdrop of shifting time signatures, clicks and whirrs and the softest hint of campfire-psychedelic guitars. ‘Pandora’ has a more straightforwardly enjoyable bluegrass-and-banjo jauntiness. It is the band at their liveliest but briefest with Phoebe Ryan's alluring but cutesy yodel undercutting any darkness of the genre. ‘Mary A Longden’ is a more muscular and intriguing track, a quasi-historical biography in song of a mysteriously ageless woman. The EP finishes with the contrasting ‘Charlie’, a gentle, meandering piece that is so frail it can fade away from attention if the listener isn’t fully attentive.

The EP title suggests a messiness and random approach that just isn’t present. If anything the five varied tracks are a little too meticulous, a little too studied in their delicate preciousness. The You Tube covers of Jimmy Eat World and a 1930s blues song discovered via 78rpm recording maintain the intricate acoustic arrangements but being played live lends them a slightly more playful looseness. Despite these minor gripes, it is clear Town Hall are indeed not “run-of-the-mill” and there is plenty here to stoke anticipation for the band’s debut album due this March.

Just Watching My Breath by TownHall

Pandora by TownHall

Town Hall Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps [BUY]

BAPTISTS AND BOOTLEGGERS ...Of The Wolves

The first release on new record label and publishing enterprise Baptists and Bootleggers is a limited edition, five track, white 12” vinyl (or CD) EP. But “...Of The Wolves” is part of a larger and very impressive assemblage – two short stories, four pieces of art, a CD EP from one of the musicians Vei plus a cloth checklist-cum-credits for all involved. And the price to own this handsome collection? Zilch. Because on Baptists and Bootleggers “everything released will be completely free. We are strong believers in the idea of free music and free art and feel it’s a fair way to give back to the people who support your work.”


The music on ““...Of The Wolves” is five instrumental pieces from different musicians sound-tracking an extract of a 1930s film of “Dante’s Inferno” (the stories and artwork are a response to this too). Sounds arcane but it makes for a cohesive listen: the five tracks are near-identical in length and though varied not dramatically so. Many of the pieces are largely digital creations but possess depth and richness; and although a creepy mood pervades the EP it never tips over into full-blown spook-out.

Borland’s ‘Nightmares’ alternates passages of tense, dark throbbing beats with drifting whirrs and whistles that effectively flips the mood of the piece at uniform intervals. The live improvisation ‘Decaying Bodice’ by Vei creates a more consistent and reflective mood: slowly drawn-out phrases with echoing string-like plucks that mimic gentle drops of water in an ornamental temple bowl. As it progresses the layers thicken and intensify but it remains serenely haunting.

A low droning foghorn creates an eerie undertow to Stagger’s ‘And The Flaw’ over which kettle drum-like beats and eerie swooshes of sound appear. ‘When The Game Is Over, The King And The Pawn Go Back In The Same Box’ by Daffyd Jones is not as ornate as its title – a distant female voice recites instructions just out of ear-shot over mechanical churning, like a looped air safety demonstration announcement stuck at the bottom of a ventilation shaft.

I’ve seen one live version of changing musical collective Go Lebanon indulge in noisy math-rock workout. Here with ‘Ishtar y Tammuz’ the nine musicians are all restraint for the first half before frantic distorted guitar is introduced but as quiet background texture rather than in the foreground. The guitar(s) build into louder, regular pulses which coalesce with anguished saxophone into an intense squawking conclusion.

Normally I’d link to where you can buy this release. But “...Of The Wolves” cannot be bought – it will be shared amongst these collaborators and their communities of supporters and fellow artists to distribute free of charge - and it will be given away at the label’s launch event at Islington Mill next week. Four illustrators, five bands and two writers plus the label all collaborated on this: a free physical release launched at a free-entry gig enabled by support from Umbro Industries. Great exposure but I hope that all the artists find financial reward for their creative endeavours at some point down the road. The political model behind the label’s name helps give an extra insight into this seemly contradictory stance for a publisher. I hope it pays dividends for all concerned – it richly deserves to.

Decaying Bodice - Vei by FollyOfYouth

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: February 2012 Pt.1

A couple of record launches nestle discreetly amongst this leap month’s gigs. Nova Scotia’s Gabriel Minnikin’s launches his new album “Parakeets with Parasols” with a gig (or rather a 'Record Release Concert') at the Martin Harris Centre. The ex-Guthries member has been making solo country-rock records in Manchester since 2004, with this latest a collection of piano songs recorded in a Whalley Range church. The concert will be “the new record live, in its entirety, from start to finish. I will be playing the piano, accompanied by a chamber orchestra consisting of strings, woodwind, brass and singers.” Sounds lush.

In a grittier part of a different city two days before, Salford’s Islington Mill hosts the launch party for new label Baptists and Bootleggers. Three of the bands from their debut release. “...Of The Wolves” (more on this later this week) play: Go Lebanon, Borland and Vei. A free entry night of glitch, noise and experimentation plus - get this – a free copy of the EP too.

As ever a mixtape [56 mins/64 MB] of bands playing Manchester this month to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: February 2012 - download/stream here.

My Sad Captains The Homefront Pt. II [4.21] (3 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
Allo Darlin’ If Loneliness Was Art [7.50] (23 Feb Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Standard Fare Suitcase [10.53] (23 Feb Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Hanni El Khatib Build. Destroy. Rebuild. [13.50] (1 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Gentle Friendly Ride Around Shining [16.35] (4 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
Blouse Videotapes [19.31] (6 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Butchers Promise To The Act [22.41] (3 Feb Fuel FREE)
Withered Hand New Dawn [25.17] (6 Feb St Ann’s Church BUY TICKETS)
Still Corners Into The Trees [29.14] (3 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
The War on Drugs Baby Missiles [32.44] (27 Feb Sound Control BUY TICKETS)
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr Morning Thought [36.16] (16 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Dawes When My Time Comes [40.19] (18 Feb Academy BUY TICKETS)
The Deep Dark Woods Westside Street [45.23] (20 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
The Unthanks Lucky Gilchrist [50.13] (10 Feb Band on the Wall BUY TICKETS)
Vei Decaying Bodice [56.15] (9 Feb Islington Mill FREE)

And not forgetting:

1 Feb Jonathan Wilson Ruby Lounge / 1 Feb Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry Band on the Wall / 1 Feb Laura Veirs The Lowry / 2 Feb Everything Everything Islington Mill / 2 Feb Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Academy 3 / 2 Feb Lindi Ortega The Castle / 3 Feb Janice Graham Band The Ritz / 3 Feb Golden Glow Fuel / 4 Feb Way Through Kraak / 4 Feb Jesca Hoop Cornerhouse / 6 Feb King Creosote & Jon Hopkins St Ann’s Church / 6 Feb Friends Deaf Institute / 6 Feb The Black Keys Apollo / 7 Feb Dead Wolf Club Night & Day / 8 Feb Niki and the Dove Islington Mill / 8 Feb Ren Harvieu + Dry The River The Ritz / 9 Feb Go Lebanon + Borland Islington Mill / 9 Feb Holly Throsby The Castle / 9 Feb Totally Extinct Enormous Dinosaurs Deaf Institute / 9 Feb La Femme + Great Waves Kraak / 10 Feb The Twilight Sad Ruby Lounge / 10 Feb Errors Islington Mill / 10 Feb The Electronic Exchange Kraak / 10 Feb Runaround Kids The Roadhouse / 11 Feb Molly Nilsson The Ape & Apple / 11 Feb Novella The Castle / 11 Feb Mozart Parties + Daniel Land and the Modern Painters The Roadhouse / 11 Feb Gabriel Minnikin Martin Harris Centre / 12 Feb Quiet Loner Briton’s Protection / 12 Feb Kobo Town Ruby Lounge / 12 Feb Deadbeat Darling The Castle / 13 Feb Rachael Sermanni The Castle / 13 Feb Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six Band on the Wall / 13 Feb Casiokids Deaf Institute / 14 Feb Midnight Lion The Castle / 14 Feb Vieux Farka Toure Band on the Wall / 14 Feb The Family Elan Kraak / 16 Feb Driver Drive Faster Dulcimer / 17 Feb We Have Band Ruby Lounge / 17 Feb Real Estate + Outfit Deaf Institute / 17 Feb Pulled Apart By Horses Academy / 18 Feb Ghostpoet Sound Control / 18 Feb Spector Deaf Institute / 19 Feb Grouplove Ruby Lounge / 19 Feb The Pheromoans Kraak / 19 Feb Field Music Deaf Institute / 20 Feb Michael Kiwanuka Ruby Lounge / 20 Feb Django Django Deaf Institute / 21 Feb Joe Pug The Castle / 22 Feb Ron Pope Night & Day / 22 Feb Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny Deaf Institute / 23 Feb SBTRKT The Ritz / 23 Feb Lights Sound Control / 23 Feb Benjamin Francis Leftwich Academy / 23 Feb Deaf Club Trof Fallowfield / 23 Feb Heart-Ships + Douga The Castle / 24 Feb Dead To Me Night & Day / 24 Feb The Longcut + Victories At Sea The Roadhouse / 24 Feb First Aid Kit Academy / 25 Feb Cold Specks Deaf Institute / 26 Feb Kathleen Edwards Ruby Lounge / 26 Feb Funeral Suits Night & Day / 26 Feb The Minutes Sound Control / 27 Feb To Kill A King Deaf Institute / 28 Feb Jamie N Commons Sacred Trinity Church / 28 Feb This Is The Kit Band on the Wall / 29 Feb Rod Jones & The Birthday Suit Ruby Lounge / 29 Feb Hooray For Earth Night & Day / 29 Feb The Whip Manchester Academy

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: February 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: February 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - February 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [56 mins / 64 MB] here.

FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS @ THE CASTLE 29 January 2012

Tonight’s gig was not a planned outing. Meeting an old friend for a drink turned into seeing a sold out gig thanks to a kindly promoter who secured me the only returned ticket. The fact it was sold out appeared at first to be down to the local support for Butcher The Bar. The five piece led by Joel Nicholson play a mellow Americana-tinged folk-pop, gentle strums and plaintive grooves with soft, mild-mannered vocals. Touches of clarinet, miniature xylophone, some fantastic drumming and a song based on a William Blake poem all sound more interesting than it was. Very pleasant on the ear but I found it all a bit too mild-mannered and forgettable on first encounter.



Lead guitar was played by Matt from Walton Hesse who to me are a much more interesting proposition. Which shows how much I know. Butcher the Bar have just finished a European jaunt supporting Death Cab For Cutie and Walton Hesse remain unsigned and without an official release. A damn shame.


The start to the set by French four-piece Fránçois and the Atlas Mountains was delayed by the rigging up of the copious amounts of kit. The five-piece were dressed in outfits lost somewhere between beach casual and prison scrubs. As another lost moment passes chasing faulty leads, things do not look promising. Following the gentle palate-teasing opening of ‘Azrou Tune’ however things swiftly pick up. The band - two drummers, two banks of keyboards and Monsieur F. Marry on vocals and guitar (although several instrument changes occur) - deliver waves of shimmering polyrhythmic joy in their “songs of the seaside and the desert” accompanied by a vast array of exotic percussion.



As the set progresses programmed beats are added into the mix, locking the band into hypnotic and steadily more intense grooves. For ‘La Vie Dure’ Fránçois goes walk about in the crowd, at other times the (shifting) frontline of players indulge in synchronised arm lifts and dance moves. It is both heavily choreographed but also loose-limbed and spontaneous, Fránçois at times adopting an intense Ian Curtis stare, at others swaying with double-jointed robotic abandon. The slinky Gallic grooves, with hints of North and West African rhythms, were subtle but deeply infectious.



After a seven song set the band dispense with the ritual of walking off stage and returning to play a three song encore. Still entrancing it didn't match the rapture of the second half of the main set but I’m converted. Vive la République.

The Set List:

Azrou Tune
Les Plus Beaux
Edge of Town
City Kiss
Royan
La Vie Dure
Way To Forget
Slow Love
Piscine
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Do You Want To Dance
Be Water
Buried Treasures

CHRIS DEVOTION AND THE EXPECTATIONS Amalgamation and Capital

This year BBC4 are repeating, week by week, Top of the Pops from 1977. Next January when they get to 1978 I wouldn't blink an eye to see Chris Devotion and the Expectations on screen. The music of the Scots four-piece fast-forwards from lively new wave guitar pop of that era (‘Tell The Girl’) to the ferocious garage revivalism of The Hives (‘I’m Already Home’ ) and the rapid, righteous rock ‘n’ roll of Rocket From The Crypt (‘Pinhole Suit’, ‘You’ve Got It All’). Along the way there’s some variety – the brief ballad ‘Eyes Open Now’, a Woody Guthrie cover plus the strummed acoustic and double-tracked lead guitar of ‘Blister’ wouldn’t sound out of place on Sugar’s “Copper Blue” – but most of these sixteen short songs (two have the impertinence to break three minutes) tend to fired-up feistiness.



Despite an album title that sounds like an Economic Studies primer, the band’s loud drainpipe-jeans pop majors on girlfriends and failed relationships rather than fiscal policy. Chris Devotion does link the two (“relationships (amalgamation) on a subconscious level are a matter of what we want from the other person (their capital); what they offer us”) but relationships – starting them, leaving them, wanting them – prevail with the political bite being left to the caustic ‘Surveying the Young Professionals’ and the rowdy folk-protest anger of Woody Guthrie cover ‘I Ain’t Got No Home’.

Full-bodied and fiery, "Amalgamation and Capital" packs a potent punch for 38 break-neck minutes even if not all of its many hooks stick in the mind once it’s over. But at its best, caught in the (two minute) moment of punky exuberance and pop hooks, it is a refreshingly off-trend and fine place to be.



Chris Devotion and the Expectations Amalgamation and Capital [BUY]

LAURA J MARTIN @ DULCIMER 22 January 2012

Tonight’s gig opened with Jo Gillot playing finger picked acoustic folk-blues that sang of red and grey squirrels, travelling rafts and the stealing rich in sweet and crystal clear tones. She may have been using a borrowed guitar (“mine’s in Preston”) but if she hadn’t told us, I don’t think anyone would have been the wiser. Lovely stuff played to a sold out crowd at this Imploding Inevitable Festival Night.


By the time Emily and the Faves took the stage, things were definitely cosy if not imploding. The four-piece play a punchy psyche-pop – a limber and funky rhythm section given an added emphatic thump from a single band member dedicated to percussion and backing vocals. Over the top, Emily Lansley (one third of Stealing Sheep in a different life) plays guitar that alternated between rapid pop strumming and languid psychedelic twang, all delivered with precision and confidence. It was odd then that Emily was less confident between songs – checking the sound levels, apologising for consulting a hand-written set-list and confessing to have forgotten to bring any of their CDs to sell (a shame because I had cash in hand). A beat group for Liverpool to be proud of.



Tonight was part of a short tour marking the release of Laura J Martin’s debut album “The Hangman Tree”. Having repeatedly missed her at Green Man festival for the last two years it was a delight to catch her in somewhere as intimate as the packed upstairs room of Dulcimer. Also having not seen her live I wasn’t sure what to expect – solo performance or large backing band? Laura was accompanied by Pete Williams on drums but only for three songs. For the remainder she played on flute, mandolin or keyboards expanding the sound through live looping or pre-programmed backing tracks. The effect – with projected backdrop – was nothing less than stunning.





Opening with instrumental ‘Doki Doki’, Martin showed off both her skills on the flute and the looping stations, adding in layers of sound with a stockinged foot whilst hardly pausing for breath during highly animated playing. Following songs saw her seated at the keyboard or switching between mandolin and flute – often in the same song. She may be a diminutive figure but alone on stage she is a powerful presence. Songs were given an extra theatricality through hand gestures, rolled shoulders and hip shimmies, or wielding the flute like a Kendo baton, repeatedly punching it towards the audiences. Nine songs including an encore sounds a slender set but it felt rich given the variety of instrumentation and the swing from the quiet (‘Tom’) to loud (‘Spy’) plus a new song too in ‘Sour Grapes’.



The final song of the main set was ‘Salamander’ which on the album is sung with Euros Childs – I can think of no higher compliment than to say tonight he was not missed. The song finished with solitary repeated notes on the mandolin and a dramatic flourish and then silence – spell-binding. The encore was a Kathy Smith cover (“discovered thanks to Andy Votel’s ‘Folk is a Four Letter Word’ compilation”). I don’t know the original but Laura J Martin made it sound convincingly like her own. A very talented woman. Her album alone is worth chasing down. But finally based on experience I can say that seeing Laura J Martin live is equally essential.



The Set List:

Doki Doki
The Lesson
Fire Horse
Tom
Jesse
Sour Grapes
Spy
Salamander
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It’s Taking So Long