On with the latest reviews: here’s Steve Palmer to guide
you through a few releases that have come his way.
“Winning
Combination” by The
Safes is an amalgamation of quirky, well played
and not unmelodious songs, opening with the quirky and
tuneful ‘It’s True,’ which as with all ten songs on this
album is little more than two minutes long. ‘On Top’ is
heavier but equally as tuneful (and as well played
and recorded), while ‘Open Your Eyes’ and ‘Baggage
Claim’ have a charming folk feel to them. ‘Dreams That
Ignite’ has a nursery rhyme feel to it, in no part due
to the instrumentation and ¾ time. The closing two
numbers come over like an ambient MGMT, with the tune
quotient kept satisfyingly high. A very good album in
all respects, particularly with regard to some inventive
songwriting. Nice, and a winning combination indeed! (www.thesafes.com)
Just
Jay & His Sonic Sphere Of Acquaintance (a.k.a.
Baltimore guitarist Jay
Grabowski) on his collection “1971 – 2019”
presents an anthology of the man’s work in the field of
plank spanking. Various genres cover this varied
collection of tracks: metal, prog, weird, um… well,
pretty much everything actually, from faux-jazz in
unusual time signatures to rawk… although I suppose
progressive would be the overall theme. Vocalists are
varied, as are many other musicians, with Grabowski’s
guitar talent underpinning the whole thing. Some of it
(‘Primal Scream’) is proggier-than-thou, but there are
some great cuts, for instance the poppy ‘Diane’ and
‘Maiden Voyage,’ which has the oddest retro/Fleetwood
Mac vibe. A bit of a curate’s egg, then. (www.OHOmusic.com)
If
gracious, melodious tunesmithery is your bag then “Under
Blue Skies” by Armstrong
might be your thing. Presented as akin to Aztec Camera,
Teenage Fanclub and Prefab Sprout, those flattering
comparisons aren’t at all inaccurate. Opener ‘Love Hate
Passion and War’ is a bit Aztecky, ‘Crazy World’ hits
that button even more, while third up, ‘Baby You Just
Don’t Care’ adds an earworm to the mix. There are twelve
main tracks here from 2007, and eight extras from
various times in the band’s history. The main album
keeps the quality up: ‘Ralph And Gustav’ is infectious
and adorable, while album almost-closer ‘Still Miss You’
has another great riff and tune. Definitely one for pop
fans of a certain age – very enjoyable. (www.countrymile.org)
“Icereport”
by Francesco
Paolo Paladino with many friends, is a chilly slab
of dark electronica with the emphasis on glaciation,
coldness and other forms of wintry temperature. The
musical palette is large: synths, found sounds, and a
host of acoustic string instruments, alongside some
piano, some brass and a little by way of the human
voice. It’s remarkably creepy music, very well layered
and produced, and just right for an icebound winter
afternoon with the sun about to set. The tracks are all
pretty short, but merge into a very effective whole. The
longest track at twelve minutes – ‘Nel Vento’ – includes
a mysterious electric guitar, as if soloing atop some
Alpine mountain, and brilliantly judged synths and
strange vocals. Minimal, yes – but not too minimal. Also
highly atmospheric. (Silentes
Records,
Italy –
no contact details given)
Deniz
Tek & The Godoys
on their album “Fast Freight” make US indie noise as a
trio (Tek and two chaps named Godoy), recalling very
early REM and perhaps a few UK acts like The Skids. They
describe themselves as skateboarders, tatooists and punk
rockers. The music is stripped back, well played and
entirely recorded on vintage equipment – these songs
have tons of energy and were recorded in two days live,
and not overdubbed. There’s not much by way of tunes,
admittedly, but plenty of attitude. ‘Bo Diddley Is A
Surfer’ is enjoyably New Wave, while ‘Shanghai Cab’
(opening side B of the LP) should perhaps have been the
opener – best cut on the album with its drawled lyrics
and snarly attitude. An
album for fans of that unadorned live sound. (www.deniztek.com)
A
split album seems a strange concept (want one band? have
two instead) and here’s one from Career Records
featuring Donovan’s
Brain and Fraudband.
The Donovan’s Brain tracks are standard retro psych, but
the Fraudband cuts have a bit more zing, although, it
has to be said, they don’t sound as good. All these
latter tracks are metal-surf instrumentals. The album
ends with a Donovan’s Brain track ‘Tad’s New Cymbal
Stand,’ which is a bonus at least as good as their best
other cut. Ironic! I guess this is for fans of Donovan’s
Brain, for whom this is an eleventh release. (www.careerrecords.com)
Who
is
Chris White?
On his “The Chris White Experience Volume 2” we find out
that he was in The Zombies, wrote much of “Odessey &
Oracle,” and also wrote the classic Argent hit ‘Hold
Your Head Up.’ The opener on this album ‘Good Good
Morning’ does sound a bit like that classic track
(chorus anyway), but it has a satisfyingly melodic base.
Great song! There follows a stream of delightfully well
written, nostalgic, vaguely Zombies-esque songs – lots
of descending chord sequences of course – all of them
well sung and produced. I really enjoyed this; it shows
a man doing good work. Most of the cuts here are
previously unreleased, which is amazing considering
their quality, and some (‘Don’t Go Looking’ and ‘Normal
Heart’ – both ace) feature the immediately recognisable
tones of Colin Blunstone: even better. Highly
recommended, and, of course, essential for Zombies
fans.(www.thechriswhiteexperience.com)
“Safari”
by Mooon
(hmmm…) is an album of Dutch psychedelic frippery
featuring much by way of harmony vocals, in which life
away from the big city deep inside the wildnerness is
considered, to the accompaniment of wide stereo
separation, fuzz guitar and everything else by way of
the ‘sixties. As with all albums like this, the thing
depends on the quality of the songs. Well, they’re not
bad. Tunes, for a start: ‘Leaving Town’ and ‘All By
Myself’ for instance. The vocals are particularly well
sung throughout – this is a band who
understand the central role of multiple harmonies to
‘sixties retro music. Some nice organ and Rhodes add to
the mix, and there’s plenty of tremelo guitar.
Definitely one for retro heads – a superior example of
this kind of thing. Groovy, in fact! (www.bickertonrecords.com)
“Global
Warning/The Good Earth” by The
Treat is music that wants to be prog so much it
hurts, even to the extent of having their CD on-body
design echo that of Harvest Records. This double concept
album though is a bit more than some lazy, indulgent
prog mess. Various world music interludes for instance
(Australian, Mongolian) intersperse the prog rock fare,
and there is much variety in mood and tone. Some of the
music sounds a bit like Jethro Tull without the flute
crossed with early Deep Purple, as evinced on the
opening main cut ‘Global Warning.’ Tull and Arena may be
influences, but Zeppier vibes (they pretty much copy
‘Kashmir,’ even down to the mellotron) somewhat spoil
the originality. Highlights include the clever
‘Multinational’ and ‘Down In The Flood’ with its Neil
Young-esque environmental concerns, cosmic backing
vocals and gorgeous slide guitar. I have to say though,
despite mis-steps, for musicality, originality and cheek
this isn’t too shabby an album. On vinyl I expect it
would be a three-sider. (www.thetreat.co.uk)
Thanks
for that Steve, and here are a few items sent my way
over the last few months.
Woodford
Halse
is a record label which really should be on your radar.
To date they have produced
three cassettes in an ongoing series entitled Undulating
Waters. The first three volumes have been released
only on limited edition cassettes, each featuring a
whole host of artists some of which will no doubt be
familiar to our readers.
Volume
One
features songs by Polypores,
Time Attendant,
Pictogram and
Michael Plater
amongst others. It’s a great introduction to the label
with particular note going to Panamint
Manse with Harmony Borax and
Floodlights Cold Floors.
Volume
Two
has songs by the Midwich
Youth Club, Spaceship,
Vert:x, The
Heartwood Institute, Grey
Frequency and Field
Lines Cartographer plus a
few new names to me
Bill Foreman, Azyss and Slow Glass. Black tempest’s “Rama”
and Smith/Jones “Whitechapel” are both excellent
highlights.
Volume
Three,
features songs by Bell
Lungs, Widow’s
Weeds - ft Kitchen Cynics, Keith
Seatman and Emily
Jones, artists that I am familiar with and a
whole host that
i’m not like
Misty Bywater, Folclore Imressionista, The Twelve Hour
Foundation, Yumah
and Simon
McCory. Highly recommended and available from www.woodfordhalse.bandcamp.com
Another
label quietly going about their business is Sound
In Silence whose latest releases keep up the
quality with The
Green Kingdom’s “Seen And Unseen”, Western
Edge “Prowess”, Sweeney
with “Human, Insignicant” and Mis+ress
with “Dispellers”. Western
Edge is the new ambient/electronic project of
Richard Adams he of Hood fame. It has drifting
synthscapes, hypnotic drones, deep bass lines and
minimal beats. Mis+ress
is the ambient solo project of Brian Wenckebach who
is/was one half of Elika and currently in Measured, a
band consisting of Brian alsong with Ulrich Scnauss of
latter day Tangerine Dream and Evagelia Maravelias.
Layered with loops and delayed guitars, it’s heavily
processed with reverb and a slew of effects pedals, good
stuff indeed, it falls somewhere in between The Durutti
Column and Daniel Lanois more ambient side. Green
Kingdom is the project of Michael Cottone from
Michigan. The album is an ambient delight with lush
textures and haunting drones, realised on various
instruments such as kalimba, piano, synths and acoustic
guitars.
Just
arrived as we are going to print is a new 300 copy
limited edition CD on Sound In Silence from the
excellent Memory
Drawings “Phantom Lights”. Memory Drawings have a
few releases under their collective belt and this one
was brieflt available on their tour of last year. The
band were formed by Richard Adams of Leeds based band
Hood and this album sees dulcimer by Joel Hanson, Violin
by Sarah Kemp, piano by Gareth S. Brown and
multi-instrumentalist Chris Cole. 25 minutes long with
six mainly instrumental tracks, with vocals on the last
track by Yvonne Bruner. It’s very lovely indeed. All
available from www.soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com
Farina
– “The Undercliff Suite” EP on limited cassette. Mark
Brend, of Palace Of Light and Mabel Joy, Ghostwriter,
Strange Sounds Orchestra and lately of Farina releases a
new limited edition cassette.
Consisting
of five short songs full of glockenspiel, keyboards,
mandolin, piano, flugelhorn, acoustic and electric
guitar, dulcimer and autoharp, it’s lovely stuff, from
the downbeat “Ceremony” to the jaunty “Jenny’s Waltz”
via the cinematic “Hollow Sea” and “Resurgam”. Available
from www.hankypankyrecords.com
Mercvrial –
“The Stars Like Dust” CD EP. Here is a release by a new
band, made up of one Mexican and three members from
different States in the USA San Diego, Virginia, and
Wisconsin and without any previous releases, this
represents their first foray. Five tracks of a band
heavily influenced by British labels like Creation but
also citing The Flying Nuns, Imaginary and 4 AD.
Their influences shine through with maybe a touch of
Stone Roses to these ears and the guitar sound of
Shoegaze bands such as Slowdive, along with the echoing
infinity guitar of Michael Brooks. “Otherworld” is very
New Order circa 1985 crossed with Stone Roses
“Waterfall”. “Carnival” is a sweet catchy honeyed pop
rock song. “Pink Frost” is a bit more New Wave in style.
Well worth checking them out if that’s yer bag, its well
produced and has a nice pop rock sheen to it. Available
from www.mercvrial.bandcamp.com
IVY – “Home
Recordings” A various artists CD on Infinity Vine
Records. 50 copies.
Label
boss Karen Zane
tasked the artists to be free with no constraints when
considering which piece to send in, she herself has
included a song to the project, entitled “Infinity Vine”
which if it was to act as a template for the kind of
thing required here, does so in spades. Many of the acts
deliver quiet tracks of hushed beauty. Veering from Allysen
Callery’s summery vibe of “Sweet Golden Bee” to a
discordant and completely out of place “Procession Of
Chimera’s” by Moonbloom.
Favourites
are droning pipes of “Along The Way” by Joshua
Burkett, “Everything In The Dim Night”
by Joseph
Allred, “Crow Song Moonlight” by Rachel
Riverwood, “Intersolsticial” by Reticence
which right now is my favourite track and “The Drifter”
by Dark Sunny
Land. Highly recommended and available from www.infinityvinerecords.bandcamp.com
The
Lancashire Hustlers have
a new 7” single out Mindcrawl b/w The Song Of P.F
Fernandez on
Steep Hill Records. I have enjoyed their previous
releases and this acts as a taster for their imminent
fifth album. It features instruments such as Mellotron,
finger cymbals, Tablas and Taishgoto, played by members
Brent Thorley and Ian Pakes. ‘Mindcrawl
is a drowsy slightly exotic affair and the b side is an
ode to Brent’s cat, a folksy number with some nice tin
whistle thrown in, good stuff I’m looking forward to the
album.
Psychic
Lemon
- Freak Mammal.
Psychic
Lemon’s third album released on Drone Rock records is
one of the heaviest things I’ve heard in a while. The
instrumental album is five
tracks long with the opener ‘Dark Matter’, running to a
good ten minutes; it’s slow to coalesce and builds and
builds into a maelstrom. The band consists of Andy
Briston: guitars and synth. Andy Hibberd: bass and
Martin Law: drums. Fans of Hawkwind and Krautrock would
appreciate the sonic templates on offer; ladies and
gentlemen we are floating in space. ‘Dark Matter’, is
the most Hawkwind sounding of the tracks ‘Seeds Of
Tranquility’ slows things down a little, it’s a biggie
too, at over thirteen minutes, guitars trace out the
elements, the steady patter of drums sets up a rhythm
and it’s all anchored with some deep bass, there’s also
a scouring synth attack and plenty of echoing metallic
klang. ‘Afrotropic Bomb’ is nuts, a huge wall of sound
not unlike Goat at their finest. ‘Free Electron
Collective’, is also full on space rock with menacing
synths billowing about. Final song ‘White Light’ is a
motorik spacerocker, which builds in intensity as it
progresses, threatening to destroy the speakers. I have
tickets to see them next year; I must remember to pack
some ear plugs.
Western
Electric Soundsystem
- The Incredible Shrinking Man
Mirrophonic Records.
Another
new
band made up of Stephen Whitfield: vocals, keyboards.
Robert Forrester: guitars, mandolin and bass. Duncan
Forrester: drums , percussion and loops. Stephen W.
Taylor: additional soundscapes and Martin Bell: Fiddle
on one track. Gothic rock with a progressive bent, if
that’s a thing. Deep sonorous vocals (think 16
Horsepower, Lloyd Cole or Tindersticks). The band is an
interesting one, I love the soundscapes throughout the
album, it is also very well produced and executed, the
subject matter is pretty dark, a darkness at the edge of
the world. ‘Night Train’ is a great well placed
instrumental track, or so it seems until vocals appear
halfway through. ‘Lullaby’ is especially dark, this one
being about torture, arson, serial killers, priests and
popes. The title track The Incredible Shrinking Man is
split into three parts. ‘Departure’, ‘Rudderless’ and
‘Where the Wind Blows’, they create a nice suite of
songs that flow as one. It has the most progressive
structure of all the songs on this fine debut album,
interesting to see how they progress. Available at wwwwesternelectricsoundsystem.com
Another
label putting out really good releases at the moment is
Black Editions.
Since the 1980s no label has better embodied the worldly
diverse and vital spirit of the Japanese underground in
Tokyo than PSF.
PSF records
featured revered artists such as Acid
Mother
Temple, Ghost,
High
Rise and White
Heaven. Hideo Ikeeuzumi founded PSF
and through his uncompromising vision championed some of
the world’s most truly original music. The seminal
Psychedelic Speed Freaks set certainly alerted many in
the west to the wonders of Japanese psychedelic rock.
This seminal set has now been re-issued on a huge deluxe
4LP set, taking in such delights as the wonderful Maher
Shalal
Hash Baz’s tribute to him with “Ikeezumi- San”,
plus we have Acid
Mothers Temple’s terrific “Pink Lady Lemonade”, High
Rise with “Outside Gentiles”, White
Heaven’s stunning “Out”, and the wonderful Ghost
with “Blue Link”.
The
label has also reissued the excellent High
Rise 11 album which was at the vanguard of the
psychedelic rock from the Tokyo underground. It was
first released in 1986 and is a stunning album full of
lively tunes with hair raising coruscating guitars,
impassioned vocals, bludgeoning drums and sinewy bass;
this new edition has now been remixed and remastered.
Songs
like Wipe Out rock big time and Last Rights; with its
mental lead guitar, certainly clean out the cobwebs and
the slow burn of Pop Sicle works a treat. A subtle album
it’s not, but if you feel like everything is a little
too sanitised of late then a good healthy dose of this
is just
what the doctor ordered.
Black
Editions
have also been putting out some solo albums, label sales
and marketing director Steve Lowenthal has released a
few on his boutique Vins
Du Select Qualitite and Thin Wrist labels.
Michael
Morley
played electric guitar in New Zealand’s legendary The Dead
C and also Gate
and has just released “Heavens Idleness Awaits” a deluxe
2 LP set that is Intimate and Intense, meditative and
hypnotic, it slowly unfurls to reveal a minimalist
masterwork and one of his most powerful statements to
date, rendered on 12 string these four lengthy tracks
are full of wonder. Steve has also been curating some
solo guitarist’s albums. Wendy
Eisenberg whose “Its Shape Is Your Touch” is an
album of challenging deconstructed guitar music, it’s
improvisational in nature, a naked 21st-century
expression through
which she inhabits an enthralling language all of her
own.
Also
released on the label is an album by Arian
Shafiee “A Scarlet Fail” which sees 11 tracks
recorded in New York City between 2015 and 2016, lovers
of Jack Rose and albums of solo guitar caressing will
rejoice, there’s some excellent playing throughout the
record which gets the balance between attack and retreat
just about right, check them out, there’s some very good
stuff being released by them.
All
available from www.theblackeditions.com
and www.vdsqrecords.com
and www.thinwrist.com
Right
that’ll do for a while, see you further on down the
line. Happy trails! Andrew
Terrascopic Rumbles for November 2019 was brought to
you by Andrew Young. For
contact details see
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Artwork, layout & direction by Phil McMullen - ©
Terrascope Online, 2019
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