Music Review | Mr Kinski's Music Shack

Hugh Cornwell – The Fall and Rise Of Hugh Cornwell

11 10 2015

The Fall and Rise Of Hugh Cornwell is a compilation of material from Hugh’s first six solo albums. If all you know of Hugh’s work is from his time as a member of The Stranglers, The Fall and Rise… will serve as a great introduction.

The Fall and Rise of Hugh Cornwell

Opening with Hi Fi‘s powerful Leave Me Alone, it’s clear that the re-mastering by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios has really added something to the audio quality. This is more noticeable on the older material, such as Hot Cat on A Tin Roof from 1993’s Wired, where the track sounds brighter, with better separation.

Break of Dawn from Wolf is one of the albums highlights, a forgotten gem from the late 80s.

Under Her Spell has always been one of my favourite songs from the Tony Visconti produced Beyond Elysian Fields from 2004. The Who like final section on this song gets me everytime. You could say I’m under the songs spell!

First Bus To Babylon, with its mix of layered percussion and wonderful slide guitar, is a classic Hugh solo track.

“When we’ve sung the final song, get the first bus to Babylon”

Two of the more recent tracks, Hooverdam‘s Please Dont Put Me On A Slow Boat To Trowbridge and Beat Of My Heart have been cranked up a little in this remaster. Lay Back On Me Pal sounds wonderful just past the half way point on this compilation. The lovely psychedelic layers, strings and warm Laurie Latham production make this almost Beatles-like piece a definite highlight of the album.

One Burning Desire (originally from Guilty) is one of Hugh’s finest pop songs (and one of his great vocal performances). Another Laurie Latham production, One Burning Desire is almost a homage to the 60s with Hugh’s Byrds like guitar walls of sound.

From one of Hugh’s most “produced” songs to one of his most stripped back in his paean to his beloved Cadiz in Spain. The Abbey Road remaster brings out the layers in the chorus and the verse backing vocals and there is a noticeable brightness to the version on this compilation.

Long Dead Train was a favourite of a lot of fans when Guilty was released back in 1997, and it was always a great live track. I hope it’s inclusion on this compilation leads to it finding its way back into Hugh’s next full-band shows. I’ve always loved the Elvis “uh-huhs” in the chorus.

I wasn’t sure what Wolf‘s Getting Involved would sound like on this compilation, as its one of the most 80s sounding tracks in Hugh’s back catalogue but the remaster has beefed the track up a little. Yes it still sounds like the 80s – but it was from the 80s, theres no getting away with it!

The final track is a 2015 recording of the live favourite Live It And Breathe It. Guitars and drums to the fore, we are treated to a great guitar solo and more Elvisism’s thrown in from Mr C, so what’s not to like?

So if you are not familiar with Hugh’s work, The Fall and Rise Of Hugh Cornwell should be the perfect introduction. And if you like what you hear, maybe buy his most recent studio album, Totem and Taboo. You can listen to a couple of the tracks on Hugh’s website.

Buy The Fall and Rise of Hugh Cornwell on Amazon

Buy Totem and Taboo on Amazon

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Tags: Compilation, The Stranglers, Vinyl
Categories : Music Review

Japan – A Foreign Place – The Biography (1974-1984)

10 10 2015

Japan – A Foreign Place – The Biography (1974-1984) is a new in-depth look at one of the most influential (and often neglected) bands of the late 70s / early 80s. Japan - A Foreign Place

Published exclusively by Burning Shed in deluxe hardback edition, the book features contributions from former band members Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Rob Dean, with archive material from David Sylvian (who did not contribute directly to the book) and the late Mick Karn.

Anthony Reynolds 212 page book starts with the early years of the band, and provides a fascinating insight into the musicians formative years in South-East London (Catford and Lewisham).

Along with the obvious 70s musical and cultural starting points, such as Bowie, Bolan, Lou Reed and Roxy Music, other surprising influences such as Motown and New York’s Television crop up as feeding into the mix of what was to become Japan.

The influence of Simon Napier-Bell and the lack of money making its way to the band, even during their most successful Tin Drum period, is well-documented in the book. In these days of a reduced and weakened music industry, you often hear about the golden era of the 70s and 80s when artists sold millions of albums, so its easy to forget that not everyone reaped the financial rewards during this bygone era.

The most interesting part of the book for me was the pre-fame years – especially stories about the early gigs, where Japan shared the stage with acts as diverse as Blue Öyster Cult and The Damned. The often negative audience reaction seemed to give the band the strength to ride the criticism that was to come their way over the next few years.

As well as talking to the band members, Anthony Reynolds also gives a voice to key-collaborators such as guitarist David Rhodes, along with school teachers and friends of the band. This helps to frame the time-scale of the story, as the band moved from being a guitar-heavy, new wave inspired band to the more electronic, layered experimental outfit that eventually found chart success and critical acclaim.

The Tin Drum album and the farewell tour are covered in depth in the book. Listening today to the bands most famous song Ghosts reinforces that its as moving now as it was when originally released all those years ago – late 1981 to be precise. The songs stark arrangement has certainly helped the song age gracefully.

The role of producers – particularly John Punter and Steve Nye (who worked with David Sylvian on several of his post-Japan solo albums) is explored and the sections on the recording of the later albums makes for fascinating reading.

Some awkward moments are also touched on in the book – including the falling out between Karn and Sylvian that led to the band’s disintegration, and the Gary Numan misunderstanding on a Japanese tour.

Reading Japan – A Foreign Place made me listen again to the bands catalogue with renewed enthusiasm. I rediscovered songs that had passed me by at the time, such as Fall In Love With Me and Alien. I also fell back in love with the Tin Drum album, especially the percussion work of Steve Jansen (Visions of China has such a unique drum pattern).

Japan – A Foreign Place is well-paced, and clearly written by a fellow musician who is a lifelong fan. The words and (many) pictures give a flavour of the various stages in the bands short but colourful career. It is also pretty fair in the amount of time devoted to individual members – its not the David Sylvian story, and its good to hear more about the contribution and personalities of Richard Barbieri, Steve Jansen and Rob Dean.

My only criticism is that the period covered by the book ends in 1984. I would have liked to have read about Rain Tree Crow, the post-Japan collaboration from 1991 that remains one of my favourite 90s albums, and is a period that is not really well-documented. Also, because of the timescale, there was no opportunity to discuss the time Jansen, Barbieri and Karn spent working with no-man in 1992. Maybe Anthony Reynolds will consider writing a post-Japan book?

Ok, I’m off to listen to Quiet Life and Tin Drum, followed by Gary Numan’s Mick Karn infused Dance. Why don’t you join me?

Buy Japan – A Foreign Place – The Biography (1974-1984) from Burning Shed

Buy Gentlemen Take Polaroids on Amazon

Buy Tin Drum on Amazon

Buy Exorcising Ghosts on Amazon

Buy Quiet Life on Amazon

Buy Gary Numan – Dance on Amazon

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Tags: 80s, Synth-pop
Categories : Music Review

Elbow – Lost Worker Bee

26 07 2015

Lost Worker Bee is a new EP release from Elbow, recorded to “…tide fans over until the next album.” Often EP’s contain fillers, such as remixes or alt takes, but that’s not the case here. Lost Worker Bee is formed of four new songs that would not sound out of place on any previous Elbow album.

There is a sense of mystery around the EP, with little in the way of information online, other than a few short quotes from Guy Garvey informing us that the songs are all set in Manchester and that the band are proud of the EP.

In these days of information overload, its a pleasure being able to listen to new music and use your imagination to try and figure out the meaning and influences behind songs.

Powered by urgent, jittery percussion, the title track from the EP twists and turns over Guy Harvey’s searching vocal. A Baba O’Riley referencing synth line runs through the middle section of the most musically adventurous track on this release.

“Searching the earth like a lost worker bee”

The instrumentation on Lost Worker Bee, especially the trumpets, conveys a feel of the past and also places the song in a clear northern setting.

“I know that somewhere a hard drinking girl
With kindness in reservoir looks to the sea”

My favourite track on the EP, And It Snowed reminds me a little of Bell X1, especially the piano and bass interplay. The simple, un-fussy arrangement give the lyrics an opportunity to shine through.

“You’ve done your leaving
Livid in your splendour and alone”

I love the way the music drops back to just drums and guitar midway through the song, which gives the feeling of the quietness that follows heavy snowfall.

Roll Call is the longest track on this release and powers along at a fair old pace. A chugging twin rhythm guitar line is a highlight of this song, with Guy singing about “a kid in a bath tub” and what seems to be a song of the city, offering short glimpses into the little stories that pop into view as you speed by on the 6 and a half minute journey through the track.

photo credit: tom sheehan

Usually Bright ends the EP at a slower pace. A stripped back acoustic arrangement, lightly played piano, guitar and bass provides the backdrop as Guy sings of the “Hotel in my hometown, The saddest room I ever woke in.”

The song ends abruptly as soon as the lyrics end, bringing this short EP to a close. A new Elbow album may be a while off, so I hope we are treated to another taste of new music from the band soon, either in the form of a another new EP or a single. But until then, enjoy the Lost Worker Bee EP.

Buy the Lost Worker Bee EP (MP3) on Amazon UK

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Tags: Alternative
Categories : Music Review

Tim Bowness – Stupid Things That Mean The World

1 07 2015

Stupid Things That Mean The World is the the third solo album from
no-man / Henry Fool singer Tim Bowness, and comes just over a year after his acclaimed Abandoned Dancehall Dreams release.

Stupid Things That Mean The World displays much more variety than its predecessor. A case in point is album opener The Great Electric Teenage Dream, a powerful, aggressive early 70s Bowie-esque piece driven by dirty guitars (courtesy of Bruce Soord and Michael Bearpark) and thumping drums from Sanguine Hum‘s Andrew Booker and Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson.

“Once a record, now an unpaid stream.”

Sing To Me evolved from a 20 year old previously unreleased no-man song, with Bowness adding new lyrics and an expanded arrangement. Hazy violin lines from Anna Phoebe flit amongst the performances delivered by the regular Bowness band of Stephen Bennett, Colin Edwin, Michael Bearpark and Andrew Booker.

The Celtic sounding twin-guitar solo (Thin Lizzy eat your heart out) from Michael Bearpark really lifts the end section of the song.

Where You’ve Always Been is one of the early surprises on the album. A gossamer light piece that evolves as the song progresses, its a perfect summer song. The sad lyrics with remarkably uplifting music (a co-write with Roxy Music‘s Phil Manzanera) work surprisingly well together, and the end result is a song that sounds unlike anything Bowness has released previously.

Some lovely piano work from Stephen Bennett and moving guitar lines from Manzanera transform Where You’ve Always Been into one of the highlights of the album.

“Quoting lines from books you borrowed – the way you’ve always been.”

Photo by Charlotte Kinson

Stupid Things That Mean The World sits well in the sequenced album – its always a good sign when an album is well-paced. The albums title track is a naggingly addictive song, underpinned by Run Like Hell sounding echo guitar lines, and an outro section that reminds me a little of the quiet beauty of Virginia Astley.

Know That You Were Loved is one of the most moving songs Bowness has ever recorded, up there with no-man’s wherever there is light. Underpinned by soft backing vocals from David Rhodes (Kate Bush / Peter Gabriel) and guitar lines from Bruce Soord and Rhys Marsh, the simple arrangement reminds me of a lot of the mid 70s and the work of David Crosby (particularly If I Could Only Remember My Name…) and the sonic experimentation of bands like 10cc.

It’s my favourite Bowness vocal performance on the album, with lyrics that are very personal and touching.

The frailty of Know That You Were Loved is quickly washed away with the most brutal track on the album, Press Reset. Harking back to when no-man were flirting with the industrial, beat-driven material of Wild Opera, Press Reset takes the power of no-man’s Bleed and feeds it into my favourite track on the album.

“Tanked-up boys and weekend girls
Lying wasted on the pavement.”

A song dripping with isolation and rejection, the restraint shown by the musicians throughout the first half of the song ends abruptly and the remaining section will probably blow your speakers (and your mind) with its unbridled power.

All These Escapes drops the tempo back down, and revisits a song originally written back in the late 1980s. Sounding like it could have been included on a late 80s Peter Gabriel album, All These Escapes does not overstay its welcome and fades out as the beatless Everything You’re Not creeps in.

By far the most unusual song on the album, violins and proggy synth lines interweave the backing vocals provided by Bowness & Peter Hammill. An added bonus is the inclusion of brass in the arrangement. Whilst not exactly the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band, think more Peter Skellern and the mighty You’re A Lady. Listening to Everything You’re Not fuels my desire to hear more colliery brass in my pop music. Make it so, Northern musicians, make it so.

Everything But You is a lyricless, short companion piece with some lively Jethro Tull-like flutes from Andrew Keeling and violins from Charlotte Dowding.

Photo by Charlotte Kinson

Soft William is a short but sweet song you might remember (in much simpler form) from the days of Tim’s Myspace page. Ah, digital nostalgia. Before you know it, the final track on the album is here.

At The End Of The Holiday is a sepia tinged shanty that ends the album perfectly. Soft acoustic guitars and gentle drums give the feel of a Martha’s Harbour for the 21st Century.

“She feels the breeze caress her skin, Wishes she wasn’t quite so thin.”

One of the saddest songs in the Bowness canon, with an almost baroque arrangement in some sections, At The End Of The Holiday is a fitting end to the most ambitious release to date from Tim Bowness.

Buy Stupid Things That Mean The World from Burning Shed – Burning Shed pre-orders come with an exclusive signed postcard and – on release day – a link to a flac download of a 5.1 mix of the album by Bruce Soord.

Buy Stupid Things That Mean The World from Amazon UK

Stupid Things That Mean The World album artwork by Jarrod Gosling
Tim Bowness photographs by Charlotte Kinson

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Tags: Tim Bowness, Vinyl
Categories : Music Review

East India Youth – Culture of Volume

8 04 2015

Culture of Volume, the second album from East India Youth, opens with The Juddering, an instrumental that starts off spitting out a synth- line reminiscent of Bowie’s title track to Station to Station, before the big synths take over.

Culture of Volume is not an instrumental album, the majority of the tracks feature vocal performances, the first of which, End Result, sneaks in some Duran Duran sounding synth flavours, and displays an intelligent, expansive arrangement.

Beaming White, though driven by mid-80’s sounding synths in the intro, has a feel of Delphic‘s Acolyte album. And that’s a key point with this album – William Doyle (aka East India Youth) is clearly influenced by the 80’s sounds of Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Foxx and Soft Cell but he writes songs that are contemporary, with vocals more inspired by Wild Beasts and Everything Everything than his apparent 80s influences.

Hearts That Never is one of the more up-tempo pieces, with a great bass-line and rolling percussion. The hands-in-the-air anthem Entirety is lifted by the sweet keyboard lines towards the middle of the pacey, at times industrial track.

The stand-out song for me is Carousel, which has shades of The Garden era John Foxx, and a real 1980’s 4AD feel in the use of long, spacey reverbs. Beatless and beautiful, it’s a moving piece of music, especially the slowly distorting outro, which has a little of the feel of The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski.

The straight-forward pop of Don’t Look Backwards has a dreamy treated piano and strings ending, which plays perfectly into my second favourite track, the 10 minute plus Manner of Words. Slow-burning textured pads and lead lines give way to disintegration and decay.

The album closes with Montage Resolution, another instrumental soundscape built from layers of jagged reverb-heavy lines underpinned by a deep synth.

This is the first music I’ve heard from East India Youth, and its piqued my interest enough to seek out their debut album, Total Strife Forever.

Buy Culture of Volume CD or download on Amazon

Buy Total Strife Forever on CD or download at Amazon

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Tags: Alternative
Categories : Music Review

Sanguine Hum – Now We Have Light

25 02 2015

Now We have Light is Oxford band Sanguine Hum’s third album, and the follow up to 2013’s The Weight of The World.

Now We have Light expands on the sound and themes of the previous album, but takes things a step further, with a concept based double album. I’ll leave you to discover the concept when you explore the CD (look into my eyes, buy the CD).

Desolation Song sets the scene, introducing the main character in the concept. Some beautifully layered textures and solo lines from guitarist/vocalist Joff Winks, plus an array of tempo changes ensure that this album will appeal to fans of Pink Floyd and Steven Wilson.

“It’s basically a tale, the telling of a story…”

The gently pastoral backdrop of Drastic Attic leads into the psychedelia of Getting Warmer, with its bubbling synths and distant bells courtesy of keyboardist Matt Baber.

Out of Mind is a perfect example of the complexity to the arrangements and performances on Now We have Light. A subtle break-down and then build-up takes place at the songs mid-point, with the rhythm section of bassist Brad Waissman and (current no-man / Tim Bowness / Henry Fool drummer) Andrew Booker really adding to the mood and drive of this key song.

The keyboards (a mixture of hard Moroder-esque sequencers and jazzy rhodes) cook up a treat on the jazz-rock referencing Theft. Derision closes the first CD – and normally a track of this quality would be a fitting album closer, but the story continues onto the second CD.

Cat Factory is driven by a tight funk bassline, and reminds me a little of some of the mid-70’s Stanley Clarke albums that I listened to in my formative years.

sanguine-hum

On the Beach (no, not a Chris Rea cover version) is one of the most progressive tracks on the album, which at times also has a feel of Hatfield and the North and early Genesis.

The two longest tracks on the album are up next – End of the Line has a steady groove and addictive keyboard lines. Spanning the Eternal Abyss weighs in at nearly 11 minutes and as such has the space to fully explore the riffs, moods and multiple layers of the song.

Spanning the Eternal Abyss is made up of several parts, and I particularly love the toms and piano early section, before the track slows down (with a glitchy, funereal pace percussion loop) towards the end.

The album’s closing tracks, Bubble Trouble and Settle Down feature vibraphone work from jazz musician Jim Hart. Settle Down features the album’s best vocal performance from Joff Winks. It struck me on the early listens to Now We have Light that whilst the lyrics are an important ingredient in the songs, they are not obtrusive but make their point on repeated listening.

If you like modern progressive rock (Steven Wilson, Big Big Train, White Willow, Lifesigns et al) or progressive influenced / post-rock bands such as Radiohead, Mogwai or Sigur Ros, I would urge you to investigate Now We have Light and the music of Sanguine Hum.

Buy Sanguine Hum – Now We Have Light (Double CD version) on Amazon
Buy Sanguine Hum – Now We Have Light (Box-set – 2CD/DVD) on Amazon

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Tags: Alternative, Progressive Rock
Categories : Music, Music Review

White Willow – Animal Magnetism (digital single)

20 02 2015

Animal Magnetism is the firs white-willow t new music from Norway’s prog heavyweights White Willow since the wonderful Terminal Twilight album in 2011. The single is a cover of a song from German heavy rock band, The Scorpions.

Jacob Holm-Lupo and co have replaced the rock guitar of the original song with pulsating hard synthesizer sequences for the most part. The synths remind me a little of Tangerine Dream and the song serves as a fine tribute to Tangerine Dream’s founding member, Edgar Froese, who passed away in January.

Norwegian singer Venke Knutson makes her White Willow debut on this track, and has slotted in seamlessly straight away. The vocals in White Willow songs are usually very much to the forefront, but for this song, they are heavily treated and sit much deeper in the mix than is usual, which suits the claustrophobic, M83 on acid feel.

Don’t think for a moment that White Willow have watered down the song, it’s still very powerful, and the lyrics are very direct. Sirens and deep bass notes give a feeling of alarm, and the middle section of the song has a wild clarinet solo from David Krakauer.

This feels like a real departure from White Willow – and I can’t wait to hear the new album that’s due later in 2015. The album will apparently be part 1 of a 2 part concept album – so don’t be surprised if the prog returns with a vengeance. Welcome back White Willow.

Listen to a stream of the song below – and if you like it, buy the single on one of the links.

Buy Future Hopes – the new White Willow album, that includes Animal Magnetism on Amazon.

Read the full review for Future Hopes

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Tags: Progressive Rock
Categories : Music Review

Laura Groves – Committed Language (EP)

18 02 2015

committed This is Laura Groves second EP, the follow-up to 2013’s dreamlike Thinking About Thinking (EP).

You might be aware of Laura’s previous work as Blue Roses, and the often raw, inspired by the northern landscape acoustic songs from their 2009 debut (and only) album. The music released under Laura’s own name is much more layered and electronic, though still finding the space to add guitar and live bass to good effect on some songs.

EP opener Committed Language could have jumped straight out of your dusty old cassette copy of Now That’s What I Call Music 1984 – with it’s warm analogue Japan‘esque synths, and off-kilter percussion. I hear some of the playful song-arrangements of Todd Rundgren, and the electronic experimentation of Chimera era Bill Nelson in some of Grove’s recent material, and Committed Language is no exception to this.

Dream Story has grown from the demo version that I heard online around 3 years ago, and is now driven by production (especially the bass and drum machine) that recalls Fleetwood Mac‘s Tango In The Night. Dream Story takes a few wonderful diversions along the way, and the lead-in to the chorus is as smooth as the world’s smoothest thing. And that’s smooth.

Have a listen to a stream of the song from Laura’s SoundCloud page below.

Friday is a piano and rhodes ballad, that slowly builds as sugar-sweet backing vocals flit around the lead vocal. The most direct arrangement on this 4 song EP, and a moving song.

lgroves

The EP closes with Mystique, a slow-burning jazzy track. Hazy chorused guitar washes through a song Steely Dan would be proud of (if they didn’t spend 45 years perfecting the reverb on the snare). Mystique repays your faith after repeated listens, as new highlights make themselves known to you as this haunting song really gets under your skin.

I recently bought a wonderful yacht pop / yacht rock compilation called Too Slow For Disco, and the tracks on this EP would not have sounded out-of-place in that era, the magical period between 1975 and the mid 1980s. The 80s are often described as being a light, superficial musical decade, but a lot of colourful, adventurous music was released during that time – it wasn’t all Wham! and Haircut 100.

The jazz inflections, bold arrangements and synth / rhodes layers give the music on this EP a warm, nostalgic identity that fits the sad songs on Committed Language. Now, where is that album Laura?

“I think I’m ready now, bring back the mystery…”

Buy Laura Groves – Committed Language (EP) on bandcamp

Buy the Blue Roses CD on Amazon

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Tags: Electronic, Synth-pop
Categories : Music Review

White Willow – Storm Season (Expanded Edition)

2 01 2015

storm-season White Willow‘s best-selling album is available again, in a remastered / expanded format from Termo Records.

The 2014 expanded edition of Storm Season includes extras in the form of Headlights (previously only available on the Japanese edition of the album) and excellent demo versions of Nightside of Eden and Sally Left.

The 2014 remaster of the album really does improve the sonic quality. The drum / synth interplay on the outro of Chemical Sunset sounds amazing. So even if you already have the original version of the album, its worth picking up this definitive version.

If you are new to Storm Season, or indeed the music of White Willow, have a listen to the selected Spotify streams in this review and then head over to Amazon if you like what you hear.

Album opener Chemical Sunset sets the scene, with its mix of prog and folk-rock and a slight touch of metal. Storm Season is an album of light and shade, power and calm, and Chemical Sunset is a well-chosen opening track.

Sally Left would not sound out-of-place if played alongside any of the current prog releases. The demo version on the 2014 re-issue offers a more electronic take on the track.

Endless Science is a rare gentle piece, driven by acoustic / classical guitar and awash with vintage analogue synths and real strings.

Soulburn is the centrepiece of the album. A gothic sounding intro gives way to crunching metal guitars. The track is a duet between Finn Coren (who sounds like Peter Murphy from Bauhaus) and principal album vocalist Sylvia Erichsen. I must admit that the metal guitar riffs do detract a little on a couple of occasions in this song, but that’s probably because I was never a fan of mid-90s metal.

Insomnia is powered by organ and a deep bass-line, along with a side-helping of prog’s favourite keyboard, the mellotron. I love the vocal treatment towards the middle of the song. White Willow’s Jacob Holm-Lupo is an excellent producer, I love the way he makes his productions sound so warm and colourful. Insomnia is my favourite track on the album – have a listen below.

The title track to Storm Season would not have sounded out of place on a mid-period Mike Oldfield album (that’s a compliment, if you were wondering!).

“Lost on a raging sea, lost on a raging sea,
I am the voice to lead you home.”

Nightside Of Eden closes the original album. The heavier guitar lines on this track hark back to the early 70s rock riffs of Black Sabbath and Rainbow, more than the 90s metal scene. A wonderful riff crops up on a couple of occasions, most noticeably in the middle section, and reminds me of Blue Oyster Cult.

Take a listen to the wonderful demo version of Nightside Of Eden – if you are a fan of Porcupine Tree circa Up The Downstair / The Sky Moves Sideways, and those album’s heady mixture of psychedelia and dance, you will surely appreciate this track, as it goes off-piste towards the middle of the song.

Apparently Storm Season is the most popular White Willow album. It’s certainly a very good album, but has not quite stood the test of time (due to the metal leanings) as much as earlier releases such as Sacrament, which was also reissued in 2014.

My favourite White Willow album (and one of my favourite progressive album’s of all time) is 2011’s Terminal Twilight. If you haven’t heard Terminal Twilight, especially the beautiful Floor 67, I suggest you rectify that mistake immediately.

A taster of the next White Willow album is due in January 2015, so visit the band’s website and sign-up to their email list if you want to hear when this will be made available.

Storm Season (Expanded Edition) – Buy Storm Season at Amazon UK

Sacrament (Expanded Edition) – Buy Sacrament at Amazon UK

Terminal Twilight – Buy Terminal Twilight at Amazon

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Tags: Progressive Rock, re-issue
Categories : Music Review

Tears for Fears – Songs From The Big Chair (Box-set)

16 11 2014

big-chair No I am not going mad, and slipping back in time to the 80’s to review the second album from Tears for Fears. This is a review of the 2014 six-disc deluxe edition.

It’s amazing that what was initially an 8 song release back in 1985, can justify a 6 disc release in 2014. Songs from The Big Chair threw up so many remixes, edits and alt-takes, and this new box-set collects just about everything you would want to see (and hear) from this part of Tears for Fears history.

Disc one is the original album, with what sounds like the same remaster as the 2006 (2 disc) re-issue. After the 8 songs from the original album, disc one contains some of the key “b sides” from the era, including the Fairlight showcasing The Big Chair and one of my favourite Tears for Fears b-sides, Pharaohs.

Disc two is titled Edited Songs From The Big Chair and opens with non-album single The Way You Are, which surprisingly the band are not keen on. My favourite Tears for Fears song, Mothers Talk, with its driving, hard synth riffs, gets plenty of representation on this box-set, and the single mix is a shortened, to the point take of the song.

Everybody Wants To Run The World, the Sport Aid version of the song from 1986, with it’s amended lyrics and added instrumentation is a welcome addition to the box-set, as is the “Running Version”, a mostly instrumental take. Mothers Talk (video version) has a piano intro verse that doesn’t appear on any other versions of the song.

Disc three, Remixed Songs From The Big Chair – well it’s obvious what you will find on this disc! Standout tracks for me include the wonderful Mothers Talk [Extended Version]. I’ve always loved the delayed bass on the outro to this mix. Broken / Head Over Heels / Broken (Preacher Mix) is notable for having a studio version of the end section (the main album outro section is a live cut).

Everybody Wants To Rule The World [Urban Mix] has a radically different middle section, plus a Simple Minds Waterfront sounding bass riff. This remains one of my favourite Tears for Fears remixes.

Disc four in the set contains Unreleased Songs From The Big Chair. Opening with three Richard Skinner sessions, the highlight of which is a wonderful performance of Head Over Heels (the keyboards sound great on this session cut). Next up are six tracks recorded in Toronto, including The Hurting’s Memories Fade.

An early (vocal-less) mix of Mothers Talk – with some great Shaft like rhythm guitar is a revelation. The Way You Are [Early Mix] is the other highlight on this disc.

big-chair-5.1 Disc five – ahh disc five. This is the highlight of the collection. This disc contains a brand new 2014 5.1 surround sound mix of Songs From The Big Chair by Steven Wilson. If you know Wilson’s solo work, or his recordings with Porcupine Tree and no-man, you will be aware that his productions always sound amazing. He has recently remixed albums by Yes and XTC into 5.1 surround sound, and Songs From The Big Chair is another 5.1 success.

Its pure joy hearing the separation on these tracks – bass lines, keyboard layers and guitar riffs jump out of the speakers like never before. As with other Wilson recordings, the album is presented as a flat transfer with no additional mastering. I hate the current trend for brickwall mastering, so this pleases me greatly. This does mean that there are noticeable differences in volume during sections of the songs, so you really notice the performances. It’s a wonderful listening experience, and it’s like hearing a new version of an old favourite.

My only criticism of this box set is that the Steven Wilson stereo mix is not presented in CD format – so if you want to put these 2014 mixes onto your digital device, you are not in luck.

The final disc in the box-set contains a mix of promotional videos, BBC TV appearances and the Scenes from The Big Chair documentary. You also get a replica tour programme and extensive, enlightening notes written by Paul Sinclair from SuperDeluxeEdition, with contributions from the band and key collaborators, plus notes from Steven Wilson about the 5.1 surround mix.

This is the definitive version of an 80’s classic, and a great example of how to put together a value-added re-issue package. Now EMI, how about a Steven Wilson 5.1 surround mix of Kate Bush‘s The Dreaming and Hounds of Love?

Buy the box-set

Songs From The Big Chair – box-set on Amazon

Buy The Hurting deluxe on Amazon

Songs From The Big Chair vinyl from Amazon