North Atlantic Oscillation – United Wire album review

28 04 2023

United Wire is the new album from North Atlantic Oscillation, and the first release since Grind Show in 2018. The album is available as a download or limited (and it really is limited!) CD direct from the band. A streaming release will follow.

North Atlantic Oscillation - United Wire cover art

The cover-art suits the album perfectly. The bright pinks, blues and purples of the artwork match the colourful and vibrant sound of the tracks on United Wire, an album thats built to be played in one sitting, with the tracks linked to each other with no gaps.

Clock is stuffed to the brim with found sounds, deep hit you in the gut bass and jittery percussion as the sequencers swirl up and around you as the beats and Eastern synths transport you on the first part of the United Wire journey.

“Everything is a clock
A novella, a rock”

There are lots of little Easter Eggs lurking in the lyrics. Lines from previous songs sneak into other tracks almost un-noticed, and the dog from the first track (in audio-form) is referenced (but not heard) in the second track, Corridor. There is a contunuity to the sonic palette, the bright and colourful synth’s take us through the whole album, lifting and decaying to hit the listener emotionally.

I’ve always loved the drums and percussion on NAO songs, and United Wire offers us more of the same high quality rhythms, this time with the beats often mangled and distorted, but all the more powerful for it.

Rosewood adds a little classic rock flavour to the mix, I hear hints of 70s The Who in the urgency and power. Let me know if you think I’m deluded in the comments!

Glyph is one of the most immediate tracks. A laid-back vocal from Sam Healy, and a more minimal backing tick over until the song bursts into life, and as suddenly as it does, it breaks down again and mutates with a rare appearance of audible guitar on the album.

“And I’m all for breaking up monopolies
If the fragments all contain the recipe”

Glyph’s are typographic marks, and the lyrics reference this, with talk of imagery and how things are presented. Glyph the song certainly leaves its mark, referencing the power of previous NAO songs in a welcoming way.

Matryoshka is one of United Wire‘s key songs, and one of my favourite NAO songs of all time. Automaton spewed lyrics ride on top of a delicious tribal beat, that builds and builds, and then bam, it drops off to the most natural and organic piece of music on the album. A jazzy, at times quite progressive Radiohead sounding interlude, with loping drums and beautiful guitar lines, rapidly distorts before you have time to really appreciate its brief and stark beauty, turning into an industrial, visceral end section.

Coil is a slow-paced piece. Aching strings and an occasionally slightly discordant piano, with a wonderful reverb tail on Sam’s vocals, make for an emotional performance.

“The wanting builds a cage
So we crawl back, start again”

The percussion changes as the song comes to its conclusion, with an almost military precision that ushers in Torch, a dark and punishing song with the vocals laid low in the mix. On my first listen to Torch, I thought the song was a little “business as usual” but worry not, as at around one minute thirty the song drops off the edge of a cliff and ushers in a pulsating burst of electronica that almost coats an early 90s rave gloss over the song, before it sheds its skin by sleight of hand and becomes a rock song once more.

Cage dials in the electronics, with shifting time signatures, and as the longest track on the album, is given the time and space to develop at a natural pace. The mood and the arrangement shifts several times during Cage, with some parts of the song being just Sam’s voice underpinned by an electronic backing.

A feeling of familiarity coupled with nostalgia is delivered with the unfamiliar (for NAO) use of presumably sampled or VST brass instrumentation and some lyrics repeated from earlier on in the album.

The track then slips off down a swirling black and white time tunnel to greet us with Powder. The lyrics seem to reference past material, and are maybe a farewell of sorts, or possibly the signalling of a new beginning. The drum pattern reminds me a little of the iconic performance by Mick “Woody” Woodmansey on David Bowie’s Five Years, about an impending apocalyptic disaster that will fall upon Earth soon.

Whatever its meaning or inspiration, its a wonderful song, the last full track before the short, hidden piece Recoil, a mutated static filled outro to the album.

There are layers of mystery with United Wire. No performance credits are listed, so I don’t know if anyone other than Sam still remains in North Atlantic Oscillation? I presume this is the case, but NAO is still instantly recognisable in its current format, whilst touching on new horizons that bode well for future releases from an artist that has been away for far too long. Welcome back.

1 Clock
2 Corridor
3 Rosewood
4 Glyph
5 Matryoshka
6 Coil
7 Torch
8 Cage
9 Powder
10 Recoil

Released by Vineland Music

Buy the limited CD

Buy the download

North Atlantic Oscillation Bandcamp

If you are new to the music of North Atlantic Oscillation, why not pick up a copy of the excellent compilation Lightning Strikes the Library, which is well-priced (whilst stocks last), along with other NAO releases, at Burning Shed.

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Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Somapolis track-by-track album review

9 10 2022

Sweet Billy Pilgrim, now a duo comprising multi-instrumentalists Jana Carpenter and Tim Elsenburg, will release a new album, Somapolis on November 4 2022 via Republic of Music. Their story involves a Mercury Music Prize nomination, the IT Crowd, the Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival, Late Junction and The Culture Show.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Somapolis album cover

Guests on the album include Kate St. John (Dream Academy) with string / horn arrangements and Darren Beckett (Brandon Flowers / Madeleine Peyroux / Bryan Ferry) on drums.

Somapolis opener We Are The Bright Carvers is a real statement of intent. Featuring the deepest bass I have heard for many a year, anchoring a hyper addictive song with powerful drums and a hard-hitting, emotional arrangement. The use of space is highly evident on Somapolis, with real and synthesised strings flitting in and out, alongside scratchy, mournful new wave guitars and delightful tag-team vocals from Jana and Tim.

Jana and Tim’s vocals blend so well together, adding a unique colour and personality to the songs. The production is perfect, adding a warmth and clarity to individual instruments and featuring short sound-designs linking each track, to give the feel of one whole, linked piece. Cities are linked by their transportation systems, which is maybe why all the tracks on this album are linked, often with transport or people interaction found-sounds.

Bliss Maps is initially a rich slice of electronica, evolving as acoustic instruments, including spaghetti western guitar lines, are thrown into the mix. The beautiful vocal arrangement, as Jana and Tim are joined by a collection of other voices, works so well with the trumpet, saxophone and funk bass taking the song home.

“Did I put something in your Chardonnay?
Close your eyes…”

Attacus Atlas continues with the squelchy, Bootsy Collins bass and mellotrons that adorn many of the tracks, in a song referencing the worlds largest moth, whose brief and beautiful emergence lasts for just days before it dies. The chorus seeps into your soul, as Jana takes the lead on one of the albums key songs.

Instrumental lines appear and disappear when you least expect them, keeping you on your toes, and revealing new wonders on repeated listens.

“It’s the light that leads me home”

Attacus Atlas is a story of brief, breathless and fragrant love that undergoes a complete metamorphosis as Pass Muster, with its jittering rhythm (definitely not a dancer!) appears, layered with a honey-sweet vocal topping that transports the track into gospel directions that seemed impossible to imagine from the songs beginning.

The piano waltz of Down I Go (heralded by a tube-station sound-sketch, very clever) is simple but effective, with some of the albums strongest lyrics. When the synth sequence and percussion kicks in, the song hits you hard in your heart. The simplicity and directness of Down I Go‘s arrangement makes this song all the more powerful, following the previous songs rich and often complex arrangements.

“There is a river runs under the city at night, and down I go out of the light”

The arrangement builds for the songs final descent, and then washes away leaving just Tim’s solo vocal and piano. Down I Go quickly established itself as one of my favourite Sweet Billy Pilgrim songs.

Dead Man Dancing is an anthemic beast, featuring a mixture of 70s and 80s referencing synth sounds, with a hint of late 70s Bowie in the chorus. Stress Position returns to the dual vocals and a more widescreen arrangement, and could well be a tale of crime, but going on past Sweet Billy Pilgrim lyrics, the true meaning is probably hidden somewhere below the surface and is always open to the listeners interpretation.

Jana Carpenter and Tim Elsenburg, of Sweet Billy Pilgrim.
Jana Carpenter and Tim Elsenburg

The processed music-box intro of The Night Watch quickly switches to a pure Steely Dan groove. The thoughts I had on first hearing The Night Watch included how on earth did the band afford to hire Donald Fagen to produce the song? It sounds so well-produced that I fully expect to see his name on the album credits. The attention to detail lovingly painted onto every detail of this song, from the shuffling drum pattern to the multiple layered vocal, make this an album highlight that I think will resonate with so many people.

A sweetly nostalgic 1960’s back-beat and organ swells underpin Pilgrim, which like Down I Go, has a feel of simplicity that makes the magical choral sections and more expansive moments all the more powerful. With no synths in sight, Pilgrim feels like a song from a bygone, long-lost era. Along with Big Big Train, Sweet Billy Pilgrim are not afraid to head back to the past and utilise more traditional tools such as brass bands, to convey emotion and help splash colour onto their wide musical canvas. The subtle production touches lift the arrangement, making Pilgrim a song that sticks with you long after the last reverb-drenched vocals fade.

Get Back To Where You Started drops you back into the here and now. After the two lighter songs that preceded it, the mood is buoyed with such a joyous chorus. The band throw everything at the production on this song, nothing is held back. Trumpet solos, big beats and deep Rhodes piano all make a welcome appearance, along with that funky as hell bass sound that is a star of the album. In an alternative universe, when the spirit of the 80s is still strong, this song would be the big hit single.

The album closes with its longest song, Skywriting. Another initially uplifting track, using a similar musical palette to songs earlier in the album, the discordant piano adds a slight feeling of apprehension that feeds into the dual mood that the song delivers. An almost classic rock driven instrumental section is simply delicious, and the synths, strings and deep electronics that see out the last minute or so hint at an ascension as the final part of the journey, with the album having lots of references to travel within the city, whether purely physical movement or through the individual journey’s that make up our lives.

There is so much love, care and a vast array of different styles shared throughout Somapolis, which appears to be the story of a city and tales of how the people who live within interact, travel and are affected by their surroundings. Somapolis is adventurous, rich, uplifting and meditative in equal measures, making it the most fully realised and satisfying release so far from the band.

Enjoy the journey.

Order Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Somapolis CD from Amazon

Order Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Somapolis vinyl from Amazon

Buy Somapolis from the Sweet Billy Pilgrim artist store

We Are The Bright Carvers
Bliss Maps
Attacus Atlas
Pass Muster
Down I Go
Dead Man Dancing
Stress Position
The Night Watch
Pilgrim
Get Back To Where You Started
Skywriting


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CousteauX – Stray Gods review

19 07 2021

Cousteau were a London based band active from 1999 to 2005, releasing three studio albums and known for the songs The Last Good Day of The Year and Mesmer.

Core Cousteau members Liam McKahey and Davey Ray Moor returned as CousteauX (it’s a silent X apparently!) in 2016 and after releasing their first album under the CousteauX name in 2017, are back in 2021 with a new album, Stray Gods.

As I mentioned in my review of 2017’s CousteauX album, this incarnation strays far from the lighter, more easy listening style of their early 90s music. This is often uneasy listening, and the experience is all the more stronger for it.

Cheap Perfume sets the template for much of the album. Stuttering guitar lines and a steady, mid-paced rhythm give way to a delicious chorus, with “that” voice in full flow. There is a real edge to latter day music from Liam and Davey, with dirty, sleazy guitar riffs often in evidence.

Love The Sinner has an inventively percussive pace, with duelling guitar and keyboard riffs below the deepest, simmering baritone, topped by a multi-layered chorus that Bowie would have been proud of. The demons win the battle in this song.

On first hearing Karen Don’t Be Sad, I was not aware it was a cover of a song written by Miley Cyrus, Wayne Coyne & Steven Drozd. I thought it was the band’s take on the recent “Karen” phenomenon. Or maybe a tribute to the great Karen Carpenter (there are strong Carpenter vibes on this song). But nope, got that wrong on both counts, though there is a slight possibility that my ears could be deceiving me, as I think there have been some slight lyric changes to reflect current events, so maybe my first instinct was true. I guess I will find out when I have the pressed CD in my possession.

The essence of the earlier band incarnation runs through Karen Don’t Be Sad , the most gentle, delicate piece on the album. Its a doozy. As is the 60s flavoured Yesterday Eyes, which simply oozes Monte Carlo spy thriller. The smooth, measured arrangement graced with a dreamy chorus that seeps into your soul. One of my song of the year contenders.

We head towards the half-way mark with the scene setting Bloom Overture that flows into When The Bloom Has Left The Rose, with Liam’s most emotional vocal performance on the album. At this point on Stray Gods, the weather is changing and a storm is clearly approaching. When The Bloom Has Left The Rose is stripped back, with heavy use of atmospherics and mood to convey the deep emotion.

The band take a rare excursion to a 70s sound with So Long Marianne, which has some subtle country leanings, and don’t shoot me, it reminds me a little of prime 70s Neil Diamond, even though it is in fact a Leonard Cohen song. I’m a sucker for this sort of rich arrangement, with Rhodes piano, slide guitar and soulful backing vocals, so this would always be an obvious favourite for me.

Praying For Rain is pure Americana, with bar-room piano solos, and a blues shuffle driving one of the album’s darkest pieces. None of the tracks feel rushed or cluttered on Stray Gods, there is always plenty of space for the songs to breathe and for the lyrics to do their work. This Thing Won’t Fly is a case in point, with a rich chorus escaping from the leisurely verse.

Electrical Storms In Berlin is unlike anything Liam and Davey have released before. The pace is funereal, and the crackling, atmospheric arrangement feels like the film score to a dark noir movie. Its a career highlight for the duo.

“Grabs of news and ballyhoo
drone on and on
dabs of truth ‘bout me and you
so long wrong and gone”

Hush Money is the heaviest track on Stray Gods, both musically and lyrically. Guitars and drums are the main ingredients on this track, with a blues swagger rarely heard from the duo.

The clouds clear for Stray Gods finale, with the gentle, tender torch-song In The Meantime. Stinging ride cymbals and deep synth strings sit atop the piano and double bass of the shifting moods that populate this album closer.

I loved the band’s return in 2017, but Stray Gods feels like a much more rounded, rich and complete piece of work, and is my favourite of the two duo albums. The mood and pace of the album twists and turns, with so much more variety shown by Liam and Davey this time around.

I say this everytime I review one of their album’s, and they always seem to ignore me, but I hope this is a run of new music. Don’t go splitting up on us again CousteauX!!!

Cheap Perfume
Love The Sinner
Karen Don’t Be Sad
Yesterday Eyes
Bloom Overture
When The Bloom Has Left The Rose
So Long Marianne
Praying For Rain
This Thing Won’t Fly
Electrical Storms In Berlin
Hush Money
In The Meantime

Released August 20, 2021

Voice: Liam McKahey
Songs & Production: Davey Ray Moor

Buy CousteauX Stray Gods (CD or download) from bandcamp

Buy CousteauX Stray Gods (CD or download) from Amazon


Buy the first CousteauX album

Buy the first CousteauX album, on CD, from Amazon

Buy the first CousteauX album, on vinyl, from Amazon


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Cobalt Chapel – Orange Synthetic album review

30 11 2020

Yorkshire psychedelic duo Cobalt Chapel (Cecilia Fage from Matt Berry & The Maypoles & Jarrod Gosling from I Monster) are releasing their new album Orange Synthetic on 29th Jan 2021.

Orange Synthetic is the second full studio album from the duo, following on from their debut and its companion album, Variants.

“Orange Synthetic is music grounded in the Yorkshire earth: its people, the surrounding nature, landscape, and its mythology, from the distant past to modern life. The story of the Krumlin Festival captures something about this island in its disaster – how you can start out with a dream and end up wrapped in a survival blanket, suffering from exposure, on a cold, wet Pennine hillside. It’s an image which reflects the lost, end-of-days feeling of where we’re at now.” (Cecilia Fage & Jarrod Gosling)

The album opens with In Company, a dark tale inspired by the 80s Neil Jordan gothic fantasy film The Company of Wolves and the story of the writer Angela Carter and her wartime experiences.

Organs fizzle and swirl over a rolling drum pattern and layers of lead and background vocals, setting the scene for the whole album. This is the duo at their most commercial, with a chorus that stays with you long after the song has ended.

The Sequel explores the creative process of writing and connecting with an audience. I could imagine this song being used as an alternative theme tune for Tales of the Unexpected. Vinyl crackles and guitar lines buried deep within the mix see the song out, as Message To rushes in. The pace is increased a little for this song of escape.

“I’ll be your hostage”

I love the psychedelic twists and turns in the arrangement, especially the heavily processed lo-fi loops that weave their way in and out of the stereo field.

A Father’s Lament tells of a family who have lost all their children, as if cursed. The bass and drums drive the song, as it evolves and mutates throughout its fairly short life. This is one of the album’s most engaging performances from vocalist Cecilia Fage.

Our Angel Polygon has a crisp, sharp arrangement and was inspired by RAF Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire Moors, and its tales of listening in to Cold War communications. The chorus of Our Angel Polygon is “We are watching”, which is a translation of the RAF Stations motto “Vigilamus”.

The versions of In Company and Our Angel Polygon on the album are the full takes, not the edits released as digital singles earlier in 2020.

Cry A Spiral is underpinned by a soft bossa nova beat, before giving way to deep bass and frenetic drums. One of the more avant-garde pieces on the album, Cry A Spiral harks back to the sound and style of the first album.

It’s The End, The End is a lively musical bazaar stuffed to the brim with discordant, acid keyboard washes and choral vocals. As soon as you get comfortable with the arrangement, it shape-shifts into something even more obtuse, and is a fitting accompaniment to the apocalyptic lyrical content.

Jarrod’s vintage keyboards take centre stage on Pretty Mire, Be My Friend with its extended instrumental section that propel the song to its delightful finish, as guitar and keyboards get caught in a duel to the death.

The twisted folklore that ran through the veins of the debut album from Cobalt Chapel returns on E.B. Another fine vocal performance from Cecilia Fage, that propels you down a time tunnel to a long-lost era. This is pure escapism, and highlights the power of good music to take you away from your stresses and worries, and transport you to another world, even if its just for 40 minutes or so. And how we need that, in this of all years.

The album ends with its title track, the longest piece on the album, and an early favourite for me. Telling the story of an infamous music festival from 1970, that was left in ruins due to the extreme Pennine weather.

“How does it feel, disappointment”

The powerful insistent drums and infectious (sorry to be so 2020) guitar lines jostle for your attention with keyboard riffs that build and give a feeling of stormy weather wreaking havoc upon those caught in the open, with no shelter within reach.

Orange Synthetic is an altogether more consistent release than Cobalt Chapel’s debut, and holds together so well as a complete album. The psychedelia that runs through the duo’s music remains, but with an increased emphasis on melodies that seep into your heart.

If you ever find yourself lost on the North York Moors, Orange Synthetic will be your company until your rescue surely arrives. Just save some battery life to call for help.

Pre-order Cobalt Chapel – Orange Synthetic from Amazon

Pre-order Cobalt Chapel – Orange Synthetic (orange vinyl) from the official store

In Company
The Sequel
Message To
A Father’s Lament
Our Angel Polygon
Cry A Spiral
It’s The End, The End
Pretty Mire, Be My Friend
E.B.
Orange Synthetic

Words and Music by Cecilia Fage & Jarrod Gosling.
Cecilia Fage: Vocals, choral arrangements, recorders, clarinets.
Jarrod Gosling: Organs, Mellotron, electric pianos, tone generator, effects, drums, percussion, guitars, bass, tape loops, glockenspiel, flute.
Nick Gosling: Guitars


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Iamthemorning – Counting The Ghosts EP review

29 11 2020

Following the success of their most recent studio album The Bell in 2019, Iamthemorning are self-releasing a new EP Counting The Ghosts on 4th December 2020.

Consisting of four tracks and recorded in isolation in the UK, Russia and Canada, Counting The Ghosts features two new original songs from the duo of Marjana Semkina and Gleb Kolyadin, alongside two traditional Christmas choir pieces that have been reimagined by the band.

The EP is perfect for this time of year. Evoking the magic of winter from times long past, I wonder as I wander is a beautiful, dark choral piece, based on an arrangement by John Rutter. A minimal string backing, with reverb-drenched bells and moving vocals from Marjana would make the perfect backing for a BBC Ghost Stories For Christmas episode, if you are looking for inspiration TV producers!

I wonder as I wander offers an intensely emotional listening experience. The direct and simple arrangement makes this a timeless piece of music, that for me sits amongst the finest in the duo’s catalogue.

Cradle Song is a newly written, original Iamthemorning song. Stripped back, with just vocals, keyboards and subtle dual guitar accompaniment, the song builds slowly, and then fades to a misty soundscape. The attention to detail in the gentle performances gives Cradle Song a magical power to hit you hard as the bass notes summon the beautiful, slowly decaying end section.

Counting the Ghosts is the final original Iamthemorning song on the EP. A commentary on 2020, surely the worst year most of us have lived through, the song wisely focuses’ on the human cost and emotions of a bleak 12 months.

I love the arrangement, which reminds me a little (particularly the fine fretless & double bass and Gleb’s piano work) of Never For Ever period Kate Bush. Counting the Ghosts has one of my favourite vocal performances, full of well harnessed restraint, from Marjana. The song is a perfect example of drawing on the past to build something new for the future.

“This year is ending but nothing feels right,
we have come a full circle while burning alive”

The EP ends with Veni Veni Emmanuel, a 12th century hymn that dials up the reverb to take us back to a feeling of a mist-fuelled winter and a nostalgic Victorian Christmas, full of fading memories and lonely ghosts. This is a song that would be so powerful heard in a live setting when this dreadful health emergency is over. Nothing beats the raw emotion of hearing choral music live, so I hope we get the chance to hear these songs performed in a year or so.

Counting The Ghosts is an essential purchase for fans of the duo, and will make a fine addition to any seasonal / winter playlists that you put together. I will take great pleasure in playing these four songs every winter, for many years to come.

Buy the physical EP or the download version from the Iamthemorning Bandcamp site, and support Marjana and Gleb. Now more than ever before, musicians need us to support their art and creativity where we can. Here’s to a better 2021 for everyone.

  1. I wonder as I wander
  2. Cradle Song
  3. Counting the Ghosts
  4. Veni Veni Emmanuel

Gleb Kolyadin – piano, synths, guitar on 2
Marjana Semkina – vocals, backing vocals, guitar on 2
Vlad Avy – guitar (2, 3)
Zoltan Renaldi – fretless bass, double bass (3)
Mr Konin – marimba (3)

Buy the EP from the Iamthemorning Bandcamp site


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Tunng – Tunng Presents…Dead Club album review

15 11 2020

An album about death, dying and grief in 2020? I’m not sure I can listen to that was my initial reaction, but as soon as I read that the album was inspired by Max Porter’s novel Grief Is the Thing With Feathers (I saw Enda Walsh’s mind-blowing adaptation at The Barbican, starring Cillian Murphy in 2019) I dived in headfirst and what an uplifting experience this turned out to be.

Tunng’s Good Arrows was one of my favourite albums of 2007, but this new release takes the band’s sound to another level. For a start, the instrumentation is less electronic, glitchy and is so much more organic and natural. There is space for the music, and lyrics, to breathe in these arrangements. Opening with Eating the Dead, based on the Wari indigenous people of Brazil who used to, well, you have read the title. The song is heart-beat paced, and talks of devouring the memories of the person who has recently passed. Like the majority of the album, the song is incredibly moving, because of, not despite of, its unsettling subject matter.

“Lay you on my kitchen table
Cut you open tenderly
Eat your heart and eyes and mouth
Every word you spoke to me”

The pure, infectious pop of Death Is the New Sex hides the dark message in the lyrics.

“Death is the new Sex
Coming soon to fuck us all”

SDC (aka Swedish death cleaning) is the lyric that hit me hardest, for very personal reasons. SDC is a song about the process of organizing and de-cluttering your belongings before you die, so those left behind don’t have to do this heart-breaking task. Deciding what remnants of someone’s recently ended life gets thrown in the bin or kept within the family as a keep-sake is a harder task than you might first imagine. Something that might have been intensely personal and precious to the person who has passed could be seen as something to be tossed away, as simply junk. That faded picture, or creased and barely legible hand-written letter could contain so much of the person, their hopes and dreams and if not cherished, could be lost forever to landfill.

Three Birds features a delicious bass-line, underpinning a gentle percussion free arrangement. A Million Colours is a simple, Love Cats like song that builds as layers of guitar and strings are dropped onto the topic of not being able to comprehend the impending loss of a loved one.

“You, I can’t quite imagine you gone
You a million bright colours all strewn about”

Carry You and The Last Day touch on the memories that remain after we have gone and what physically happens to us after the process of dying, along with the need for us all to live in the now, living our lives as fully as we can. This film only plays once.

The arrangement on Tsunami is one of my favourites on the album. A decaying note under a simple piano line and lead vocal slowly builds like the incoming deadly wave, getting closer and closer. The band leave us with just the vocal line that soon becomes isolated, stranded and alone in a silent sea. Such a thoughtful and powerful piece of music.

Scared To Death is one of the jewels on this album, featuring luscious strings and feeling like a classic album track from the mid-70s.

“You’re so scared to be what you’re not yet
Hoping love is its own reward”

Derren Brown features on the intro to Fatally Human, another album highlight due to the strong production and string arrangement. I love how disembodied voices float over the slowly departing musical track, as silence finally reigns over all.

The genesis of Dead Club, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, rounds off the final quarter of the album with two tracks written and recorded in collaboration with its author Max Porter. No punches are pulled on Man, and the album’s final track, its companion piece, Woman. It might be uncomfortable at times, but there is a searing honesty that the subject matter demands, throughout these two tracks and the album as a whole.

If you want more than just escapism in your music, and appreciate honesty, beauty and a little dark humour, then please give this album by Tunng a listen. Prepare to be moved.

Buy Tunng Presents…Dead Club from Amazon

Eating the Dead 07:14
Death is the New Sex 04:14
SDC 05:38
Three Birds 03:59
A Million Colours 05:41
Carry You 04:53
The Last Day 05:32
Tsunami 03:11
Man 03:32
Scared To Death 04:53
Fatally Human 06:20
Woman 04:22


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Lunatic Soul – “Through Shaded Woods” album review

16 10 2020

Lunatic Soul release their new album Through Shaded Woods on KScope on 13 November 2020, on single CD, limited double CD and vinyl.

Lunatic Soul is the solo studio project of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mariusz Duda (Riverside). Album number seven Through Shaded Woods explores the darkness of Slavic and Scandinavian folk.

Previous Lunatic Soul albums have been very electronic affairs. Through Shaded Woods is a virtually electronic free zone, with more acoustic and electric guitars than previous releases and for the first time, Duda plays all the instruments.

Through Shaded Woods opens with the hypnotising and trancelike Navvie, an upbeat and rousing call to arms that conjures up “the souls of the dead” and along with several tracks on the album, signals a feeling of rebirth and positivity. Not a bad feeling in these strange times we are currently living through.

The second longest track on the album, The Passage, is one of the most rewarding tracks as you journey Through Shaded Woods. This is the darkest Duda gets on the album, with a piece that starts off relatively bright and sparse, working towards the razor-sharp dark metal riffs that propel the powerful middle section.

“I’m thinking out loud
passing former gods
turned into trees
am I in the real life
or am I in the realm of make-believe”

The riffs fall away quickly but the tempo remains high on one of the strongest tracks on the album.

The title track twists and turns, with light percussion underneath the trademark Lunatic Soul harmonies and a feeling of paranoia, amplified by the heavily processed lead vocal. Lycanthropy lingers in the dark forests of Duda’s lyric.

“eyes on every corner
shining in the dark”

As we hit the half-way mark, the mood of Through Shaded Woods lifts. Oblivion has a wonderful drum and guitar interplay, as melodies sneak in and out of the intriguing rhythm arrangement. Where previously synths would have laid the textures, on this album the same effect is offered by vocal layers.

Summoning Dance is the longest track, and as throughout the whole album, it offers up its secrets over repeated plays. The guitars give the main rhythmic thrust, underpinned by a simple kick pulse. I dare you to keep still whilst listening to Summoning Dance. The music hints at a simpler, more pagan and earth-connected time, and works so much better if you give your full attention and immerse yourself in the performance.

“so why do I feel
like I already failed”

Photo: Tomasz Pulsakowski

The Fountain features one of my favourite Mariusz Duda vocal performances. There is a real lightness of touch, and a lovely slightly rasping timbre that suits the aching melancholy of the song perfectly.

“stream of sounds
wash away the darkness from my soul”

Through Shaded Woods stands alone in the Lunatic Soul catalogue. It works so well as a complete body of work, as it flows with more consistency than previous albums. It has quickly seeped into my soul and is one of my favourite albums of 2020.

Navvie [04:03]
The Passage [08:57]
Through Shaded Woods [05:51]
Oblivion [05:03]
Summoning Dance [09:52]
The Fountain [06:04]

Bonus tracks contained on disc 2 of the Limited Edition CD:

Vyraj [05:32]
Hylophobia [03:20]
Transition II [27:45]


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News: The Bathers Marina Records trilogy (vinyl & CD reissues)

30 09 2020

The Bathers Marina Records trilogy received it’s first vinyl release in October 2020. Lagoon Blues, Sunpowder and Kelvingrove Baby were released on 180g vinyl and CD in remixed and remastered versions on 23 October 2020.

Scotland’s best-kept secret The Bathers will appeal to fans of The Blue Nile, Tom Waits and David Bowie. If you enjoy orchestrated, emotional, literate music that swerves from the standard rock template, The Bathers might become your new favourite band. You can thank me later.

Lagoon Blues

A 2020 remixed and remastered version of the album that was originally released on Marina Records in 1993. Lagoon Blues is an ambitious and emotional journey. Listen to the beautiful Venice Shoes, with its evocation of empty ballrooms and rainy nights on the lamp lit streets and city squares of Glasgow, below.

Lagoon Blues Pt. 1
Venice Shoes
Gracefruit
Never Too Late
Fermina Fair
Easter – for Edda Van Heemstra
Pissoir / The Ornella Mutiny
Through The Old Holmwood
Sweetheart Sessions
Lolita
Via D’Oro
Ave The Leopards
Carnival
Easter Sorbonne
Lagoon Blues Pt. 2

Sunpowder

A 2020 remixed and remastered version of the album that was originally released on Marina Records in 1995. Elizabeth Fraser of The Cocteau Twins contributes vocals to several tracks, most notably on the free-spirited The Angel On Ruskin (listen below).

Danger In Love
The Angel On Ruskin
Delft
Faithless
For Saskia
Weem Rock Muse
The Night Is Young
Send Me Your Halo
She’s Gone Forever
The Dutch Venus
Sunpowder

Kelvingrove Baby

A 2020 remixed and remastered version of the final album in the Marina Records trilogy, originally released in 1997. Kelvingrove Baby features contributions from Justin Currie (Del Amitri) and James Grant (Love and Money).

The personal highlight on the album is my favourite song from the band, the achingly beautiful If Love Could Last Forever.

“They flutter down like fireflies
Tugging at your sleeves
Somehow rise to shame you
Bring you to your knees”

Thrive
Girlfriend
If Love Could Last Forever
East Of East Delier
Kelvingrove Baby
Dial
Once Upon A Time On The Rapenburg
Girl From The Polders
The Fragrance Remains Insane
Hellespont In A Storm
Twelve

The Best of The Bathers

To listen to more of my favourites, listen to my Spotify playlist – The Best of The Bathers


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Blancmange – Mindset album review

22 05 2020

Mindset is the third album to be written and co-produced by Neil Arthur with Benge (Wrangler/John Foxx And The Maths), and follows last years excellent Wanderlust album.

The title track is a strong opener, with familiar drum patterns and an addictive guitar and synth interplay that sticks in your head for days.

The synth lines on Warm Reception and This Is Bliss will surely warm the hearts of fans of early 80s electronic music.

“Drinking to forget, or was it to remember”

Arthur spits out his distaste at the unaccountable keyboard warriors hiding behind their screens and spewing bile in Antisocial Media. Initially sounding genuinely pissed off, but with his tongue firmly in cheek, Arthur’s Antisocial Media feels truthful, but also makes me smile. Anonymous truckers indeed!

“Two faced anonymous truckers… Correct me if I’m wrong”

Clean Your House is the most commercial track on Mindset – bright sparkling synths and clap-happy drum patterns sit at odds with the lyrical tale of a messy relationship coming to it’s bitter end.

Despite it’s darker lyrical subject matter, Insomniacs Tonight is an optimistic and warmly uplifting track. The music really fits the lyric and at times displays a nostalgic feel of earlier Blancmange, but this is definitely more a tale of restlessly lying wide awake staring at the ceiling, rather than living on it.

“No light”

Sleep With Mannequin has more than it’s fair share of sonic twists and turns, though the tempo remains constant throughout, at a metronomic pace. Benge’s work on this track reminds me a little of Richard Burgess’ Landscape.

The album’s longest track is the six and a half minute trip that is Diagram. A sparse but slowly building arrangement topped with a spoken tale of searching for transparency and truth, Diagram does not overstay its welcome.

“I want to hear, hear silence”

Not Really (Virtual Reality) is an oddity on the album. An almost glam-rock stomper, heavy on guitar and stuttering sequences, before dropping off to usher in the final, atmospheric piece in When, with the beats slowed down to a heartbeat pace topped off with dark electronic pulses as Arthur contemplates “When is anything about what it’s about”.

Mindset is much less oblique proposition than its predecessor Wanderlust, and it works well as a complete album, with a wider sonic spectrum than it’s predecessors.

Lyrically the album is strong – Neil Arthur looks at the consequences of our living in an increasingly digital world and the way we communicate and how some people use words to harm others and distribute fear and untruths.

Buy the Mindset CD from Amazon

Buy Mindset on vinyl from Amazon


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Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours track-by-track album review

11 10 2019

Bruce Soord, the songwriter and frontman for The Pineapple Thief, has released his second solo album, All This Will Be Yours via Kscope.

An interesting mix of the personal (family life and birth) and the bigger picture (austerity and Brexit) makes for a slightly different take on recent releases from The Pineapple Thief.

Electronic textures and acoustic guitars drive the majority of the songs. The Secrets I Know works well as an opening track, with its sparse arrangement, mainly piano, guitar and layered vocals.

“Move forward at all costs
Protection at all costs
I’m already mourning your loss”

Our Gravest Threat Apart dials up the electronics, and has a naggingly addictive mantra-like outro.

All This Will Be Yours works as a complete album, with songs flowing in to one another, as two distinct pieces (replicating the vinyl experience), so you find yourself adhering to the vision of the album as a thoughtfully curated art-form, not a source of playlists to dip in and out of.

The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man has some interesting production touches, and a memorable rhythm track, and contains the album’s first Soord guitar solo. The vocals and harmonies are especially strong on this slowly building key album track.

The title track is one of two longer songs on the album. The piano line reminds me a little of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies when in isolation, but is soon sent to the back of the mix, as powerful psychedelic guitars and a shuffling drum pattern accompany the sirens and mood of an austerity ravaged urban landscape.

The more optimistic Time Does Not Exist reflects on the beauty of new life and new hope triumphing over the world outside, and is Soord at his most personal. The track contains a warm and evocative vocal performance that will be an album highlight for many listeners. I love the evolution in the arrangement and slightly out-of-character drum pattern that takes the song to it’s conclusion.

One Misstep is the nearest to a more traditional Pineapple Thief sound, with the ever-present sirens of modern life seeping through the mix. I love how found-sounds are almost used as instruments at times in All This Will Be Yours.

“This new darkened future, Is this who we are?”

You Hear The Voices is the longest track on the album, coming in at just under 7 minutes. Whether a lament to climate-change, or a breakdown of a relationship (physical or economic) makes no difference. Loss is painful and reverberates forever.

My favourite track on the album, You Hear The Voices builds layer by layer, with a gentle nod towards the soundscapes of the earlier collaboration with Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse on the Wisdom of Crowds.

“You can’t re-write your dreams
Or re-negotiate your terms
This is our ocean now”

Images by Steve Brown

A bleak, neglected cemetery is the location for Cut The Flowers, with its brutal tale of time moving on, leaving love and memories to decay and eventually disappear. A heavily distorted bass-line duels with synths and drum machines, reminding me of Mariusz Duda’s Lunatic Soul albums.

The theme of loss continues with final track One Day I Will Leave You.

“So don’t mourn my passing
I was always passing through
And I’ll always be with you”

All This Will Be Yours is book-ended by songs referencing our short time on Earth, whilst touching on the effect we have whilst we are here – either through introducing new life, or damaging what we are leaving behind for others (through our political choices or through our trashing of the planet’s resources).

The mix of the personal and the political is a brave decision, and whilst Soord makes clear his anger at the state of our world, there is optimism to be found within the songs. And like many of us, I feel maybe he sees the younger generation as the ones who can drive us away from the cliff-edge.

“This new darkened future, Isn’t who you are”

Buy Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours Deluxe Edition BoxSet from Amazon
Buy Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours on CD from Amazon
Bruce Soord – All This Will Be Yours on 180gm vinyl from Amazon

The Secrets I Know [02:24]
Our Gravest Threat Apart [04:14]
The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man [03:44]
All This Will Be Yours [06:04]
Time Does Not Exist [03:33]
One Misstep [04:00]
You Hear The Voices [06:54]
Cut The Flowers [04:35]
One Day I Will Leave You [05:17]


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