|
 t’s
been a wild ride for everyone this year. Musicians have
seen shows and tours cancelled and many have been
struggling to survive without a revenue stream, but we
are now at long last starting to see a few venues
re-opening. I am off to see the Hanging Stars soon, my
first concert in quite a while, and I am so
looking forward to it. A
lot of artists may have had a bit more time on their
hands during this year and many have (with plenty of
ingenuity and technology) managed to put out some
exciting albums. I have had my mail redirected twice
this year, so hopefully nothing that has been sent in
has been lost.
But
without further ado, off we go for our autumn edition of
Rumbles.
Brinsley
Schwarz
(the man, not the band) has a new album out on the
Fretsore record label called Tangled
a nd
it’s pretty good. It comes five years after his first
solo album ‘Unexpected’. I am sure
he will be familiar to anyone reading this as he started
recording in the mid sixties and was
a mainstay of the pub rock scene in the mid seventies,
from the late seventies he has been a long time member
of Graham Parker’s band The Rumours. We had to wait a
long time for his
first solo album so this one is relatively speedy! It
includes a fine cover of Graham Parker’s ‘Love Gets You
Twisted’. ‘Storm In The Hills’ and
the tender ‘You Can’t Take It Back’ are great new
original songs, highlighting his observational lyrics of
modern life. His economical and laconic guitar solos are
scattered liberally throughout the album and are
particularly well placed on the moving ‘Stranded’.
Elsewhere ‘Crazy World’, is an exquisite song, about
these strange times we are all experiencing over the
last couple of years. ‘Unexpected’ choogles along nicely
and album closer ‘All Day’ wouldn’t be out of placed on
a Joe Brown album, it has some fine tinkling of the
ivories and drifts out with some fat baritone guitar
notes, good stuff Brin. Available from www.brinsleyschwarz.bandcamp.com
Katie
Spencer
has released a three song EP
Hurt In
Your Heart where she, along with Alan Thompson –
fretless bass and Spencer Cozens –Piano, synth, cover
three John Martyn Songs. Katie plays both acoustic and
electric guitars and sings these classic Martyn tunes .
The piano and fretless bass add a bit of class to ‘Hurt
In Your Heart’, the opening song beautifully sung by
Katie. ‘Couldn’t Love You More’, has acres of space,
nothing is hurried and notes fall like petals all over
it. Another seldom covered Martyn song ‘Small Hours’
taken from the One World album is all the better for
being stripped back with minimal production. Katie sings
this so sympathetically, giving the song just the right
amount of space, one for the wee small hours. www.katiespencer.net
I
received a vinyl record from Heron
& Crane called Streams
which arrived from the USA unplayable, almost bent in
half with a battered cover. I did check them out on
Bandcamp though and it is a lovely record which would
appeal to many reading this www.heronandcranemusic.bandcamp.com
Following
on from 2019’s terrific debut Sector
NINE have just released the follow up titled 7027.
It’s a funky, proggy mainly instrumental kind of a
record, some of the songs are also a few fairly lengthy,
with ‘The Infinity Drive – In’, ‘The Three Guna’ and
‘NUMBER N1N3’ all being close to the ten minute mark.
They all know their way around their chosen instruments
with Rob Gould playing all keyboards and adding vocals,
guitars are played by Phil Craigie and bass by Trevor
Pollitt. It’s well worth tracking down if you like
knotty prog songs with a funky beat.
www.facebook.com/sectornineband.
The
Hawks –
Obviously 5
Believers. Dedicated
to the memory of guitarist Dave Kusworth, who often
asked of Stephen Duffy (the sole custodian of the studio
recorded tapes) to release this album which was recorded
in 1979/80. The band came together in 1979 and featured
Paul Adams, Stephen Tin Tin Duffy who had just left a
pre signed Duran Duran, Dave Kusworth, Simon Colley bass
and Dave Twist drums. They were one of the bands to from
Birmingham in the post punk scene. If you are partial to
bands like Television, The Television Personalities and
The Soft Boys then you would do well to investigate this
release, which sounds excellent due in part to the mould
with the storming, broody moves of killer song Aztec
Moon and the fact that they recorded live in the studio.
Available on seventeen records www.https.facebook.com/obviously5believers
Alula
Down
– Postcards From
Godley Moor Spring 2021. True to their word the
band has sent me a physical CDr of their new EP to
review. The record starts with bleating sheep and a
distant phea sant
as Kate Gathercole delivers a sparse ‘February Song’.
The band consist of Mark Waters and Kate Gathercole and
have added a ton of field recordings, like the fast
flowing stream in ‘Bridge’ which features a loop of
steel strung guitar and nylon strung guitar throughout.
It is a mix of originals and traditional songs which
mesh together in such a way that you would be hard
pressed to know which is which.
It’s a lovely thing which is available to download from
www.aluladown.bandcamp.com.
Some enterprising label should contact the band to see
about getting these recordings out in a physical format
as together with Postcards From Godley Moor Summer 2020,
it would make for a great album of nature inspired folk.
A
couple more terrific albums have been released this
summer from Sulatron records. The first one is by the Estrada
Orchestra called Playground
and sees this Estonian band playing some cosmic space
jazz. Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space as
the monumental sole track Playground parts one and two
is ushered in, the song is split over two sides of a
(500) limited clear vinyl, each over twenty minutes
long. The band takes in the dreamy synth sounds of
Tangerine Dream and the free jazz noodlings of Sun Ra
and John Coltrane. The second release is by German
psychedelic progressive rock band Elara
Sunstreak Band whose second album Vostok
1 has been put out also in a 2- LP 500 copy
edition of transparent blue vinyl. The double album has
just 4 tracks, opening with a drowning Eastern motif and
spacey keys before a heavy riff, some skyward lead
guitar and a Sabbathesque number emerges with ‘Nexus’, a
scorching heavy rock song. They follow this with ‘On ‘A
Drink With Jim’ about the lizard king. The band is made
up of Felix Schmidt guitar and effects and Daniel
Wieland on bass and vocals and Martin Wieland drums,
with some extra mellotron and Hammond played by guest
Christian Wick. The slow burn of Vostok 1 has vocals
from Felix Seyboth, the album ends on a high with
‘Orange October’. Both are available from https://www.sulatron.com/xoshop/index.php
The
Sound In Silence label have been busy putting out albums
by The Green Kingdom whose Soleria
arrived at  the
end of March. Green Kingdom is the project of Michael
Cottone who uses various electronics and field
recordings with acoustic and electric guitars over pads
of synth and minimal beats to create a lush, rich
instrumental album. They also welcome back
Sweeney with Misery
Peaks.
Sweeney is the vehicle of Jason Sweeney who for the last
twenty years has been based in Australia either
recording solo or with friends incorporating films and
projects for galleries and theatres. Centered around
Sweeney’s gentle vocals the album features strings,
processed piano and haunting cello samples over various
electronics and drones. I am reminded of David Sylvian
or Depeche Mode fronted by Scott Walker. More recently
the label has released the Cloud Factory by Yellow 6
. Yellow 6 is the solo project of Jon Attwood who has
approached this new instrumental album in a slightly
different way, using more loops and sustain, stripping
right back to a sparser sound, nothing is hurried and
the guitars are clear and clean with plenty of ebb and
flow. The latest release is by Western
Edges whose new album Dependency
is an icy delight. Western Edges is the solo
project of Hood’s Richard Adams who has a long career
with bands such as Hood. Before he was Western Edges he
also released a few records as The Declining Winter. He
took as a theme for this new record a reimagining of the
sound of techno, garage and ambient music coming out a
car radio on an eclectic pirate radio station, mixing in
with the buffering air around the hills and valleys of
Yorkshire...a journey through remote moorland after a
90’s rave. They are all available from the mighty fine
boutique record label Sounds In Silence www.soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com
in sumptuous CD editions of 300.
RB
Morris Going
Back To The Sky “hey
I've
been to ‘Frisco, Chicago, Seattle, Moosejaw, Okemah,
Witchita and Wah Wah and woe is me, I’d go anywhere and
I’m beginning to wonder if you can get there from here”,
so go the lyrics of ‘Red Sky’ a nice slice of Americana.
I don’t know anything about Mr Morris, but what I can
tell you is that he has Bo Ramsey on board, co-producing
and adding plenty of cool guitar licks. A terrific
Dylanesque story song ‘Me And My Wife Ruth’, follows
this opening song, which is swiftly followed by another
excellent story song in ‘Missouri River Hat Blowing
Incident’ where you can see the tumbleweeds and feel the
wind, that’s a heck of a good three songs to open an
album with. David Mansfield is on hand for violin and
mandolin, he has an extensive session musician career
and Greg Horne plays some terrific pedal steel
throughout. Willie Nelson’s long serving harp player
Mickey Raphael is also on board. Elsewhere ‘Under The
Cigar Trees’ has a nice mariachi kind of vibe and
‘That’s The Way I Do’ sounds like a dead ringer for
Roger Miller’s ‘King Of The Road’. My favourite though
is the drifting title track ‘Going Back To The Sky’. It
is released on the singular recordings record label
available from www.rbmorris.com.
Singer
songwriter Malcolm
Holcombe shows no sign of slowing down and has
just released his umpteenth album called Tricks
Of The Trade. He is the real deal, with a
grizzled, rough as a cob voice, which suits his tight
funky, country kind of songs. Opener ‘Money Train’, has
some great cooing female backing vocals, cool rhythms
and concise, stinging little guitar solos, one of which
almost sounds like prog at one point. Imagine Tom waits
singing ‘Street Fighting Man’ by the Stones which might
give you an indication of what sort of territory we are
in. ‘Misery Loves Company’ is a well observed song about
barfly’s and would suit Terry Allen down to a tee.
Of
particular note throughout the album is Jared Tyler’s
handling of the various stringed instruments on the
songs, he never fails to serve the song. Other songs of
note are ‘Your Kin’ a song about inequality. ‘Higher
Ground’ about hurricanes and migrants, ‘On Tennessee
Land’ about self serving politicians and the knowing
title track ‘Tricks Of The Trade’.
Available on the Need To Know Music record label.
www.malcolmholcombe.com
Gard
Du Nord have
put together another of their excellent compilation
artist albums, highlighting some of their eclectic
roster of acts. Ashford
International compilation Vol 2.
It’s
a collection of digital releases, lathe cuts, remixes or
alternative versions and sees quite a few highlights
scattered throughout from Twink’s
‘Dreams
Turn Into Rainbows’ to Papernut
Cambridge’s
‘The Bins’. Julian’s
brother Joss Cope plays a calliope inflected ‘So Said Sun Tzu’. It is an
eclectic mix with 23 tracks and along the way it has
some nice chamber pop from Aldous
Templeton with ‘Are You Happy’. I rather liked Farmer
who delights with some whimsy on ‘Light’. Ex
Hefner’s
Darren Hayman
puts in a plea for a little railway and speaking of
Hefner Jack Hayter’s ‘Oh Daedalus’ is an icy thing of beauty.
 Elsewhere
Ralegh Long’s
‘Night’ (The River) quietly impresses. I have been quite
a fan of The Cold Spells since buying their debut album a few years ago, they
also put in an appearance with ‘Colours Of Death’ which
was released a couple of years ago as a digital single.
And there’s plenty more to discover too, like The
Forensic Report with ‘They Made A Film About Spike Island’, Ziggy
Heroe with ‘Dream Of A Princess’ and Extradition
Order’s ‘Turn Off The Engine’. https://garedunordrecords.bandcamp.com
Collecting
various songs from their career Brainiac
5 have released Another
Time Another
Dimension which brings together some of their
early stuff like the first six tracks which were
recorded in Cornwall in 1976 – 78 and are in a punky
reggae type vibe, this period ends with a cover of
Tobacco Road. They add two live songs from the White
Horse in Launceston from 1980 with Flying Tonight’ and
‘Do Ya’. The following two are listed as from somewhere
in Cornwall ‘I Feel Good’ and ‘The Warning’ which
contains some great psych jamming as it progresses. We
also get one from 1995 from a trip to the USA with ‘Pain
In A Bowl’ then we move on to 2019/20 for the remaining
tracks. It’s a mixed bag really, but never less then
enjoyable. I really liked their last album and for me
personally I prefer the later ones from Ship To Shore,
simply because they have been recorded with more clarity
and headroom. www.recklessrecords.co.uk
A
few cassettes now from the boutique tape label
Bluetapes. The first release on the label a few years
ago in 2012 was Matt
Collins who released a tape with one long track
‘The Grin Without The Cat or The Cat Without An Outline’
Blue One, Now comes Blue
One Plus. It was super limited and Matt has
revisited it, reinterpreting its ‘aleatoric’ score,
mostly beat less but when the beat from the drum does
finally arrive, you really notice. Blue
Forty by Bulbils
the duo consist of Sally Pilkinington and Richard
Dawson. They have created a calming piece of music
that is both comfortable and spontaneous. Sally’s organ
melodies and Richard’s simple repeated bass lines over a
motorik drum kit. They include a near forty minute piece
entitled Journey Of The Canada Goose and on the other
side The Easter Bunny and Holy Smoke.
Richard Youngs arrives with Blue Thirty Nine.
Richard is nothing if not prolific, releasing his first
album back in 1990. He has released stuff on Jagjagwar,
VHF, Volcanic Tongue and Appolloaan amongst others. It’s
a playful fun project that sees his wordless vocals run
through a looper and his 7 string nylon guitar playing
still impresses. The press release says of it “I can
imagine flappers dancing to it in the 1920’s, stuck in a
psychedelic Charleston time - loop”. Also out on Blue
Tapes is Obsidian
Shard, operating in the same sort of area as say Ratkiller or Suren
Seneviratne. It inhabits the area between freeform
squalls and a studied composition. Not much is known
about Obsidian Shard who is the author of this engaging
stuttering mini symphony. Find them all at www.bluetapes.co.uk.
Arriving
too late for the last set of Rumbles was Silica
Gel whose debut album May
Day attempts to adapt songs from the 12th
– 14th centuries and bring them into the
current one. They are part of the underground music
scene in Alabama. They create a kind of Pagan vibe ala
Catherine Ribeiro singing Wicker Man out-takes. There
are cut ups, woodwind instruments and medieval drones a
plenty. It’s possibly the most out there thing that I
have heard for quite a while. It is certainly uneasy
listening but quite addictively so. I particularly dig
the vibe in ‘Judy’, which could be the imaginary theme
tune to a movie about Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker.
‘Dance of The Swine’ and ‘Pan Pan Medico’ are most
discombobulating too. Well I’m wide awake now, after
that little gem! Also
out on the label is Double
Vanities ‘How Come Your
Sister Doesn’t Know My Name Anymore’.
The project of Matthew Goethe who improvises a
two part album on a Ukelin, which apparently is an early
20th century psaltery, it’s a difficult
listen to be honest, and could do with a whole lot more
variation. Available from www.sweetwreath.com
Minimalism
in music time now, with a release from Bill
Brovalds’s
Stone Soup. Bill was involved in various New York
bands like Larval and the Rhys Chatham Ensemble as
guitarist and has artist Michael Goldberg to thank for
the inspiration for this record when they had a chat in
the Bowery a number of years ago whilst discussing
minimalism and Michael asked “could you make a
minimalist piece that wasn’t repetitive and meandering”.
As expected with releasing a project such as this,
things move along at a glacial pace, this is the result
of that challenge and I think it works and nails the
brief, it is quite soothing and obviously, unhurried. www.publiceyesore.com.
The
Burner Band
recently released the album Signs
And Wonders on Shed Load records They have
supported the likes of The Legendary Shack Shakers, The
Coal Porters and Bob Log 111, it’s a good time British
take on Bluegrass really, they make a good job of it.
It’s the kind of fare as practised by The Austin Lounge
Lizards (f they were relocated to cold, damp London).
Lively banjo on ‘Block out The Sun’, tasty pedal steel
playing on ‘Company Man’, which shuffles along very
nicely. A highlight is ‘You, The Devil And Me’ propelled
along on some delicious electric and steel guitars. Cool
country rock moves abound on ‘Don’t Have To Listen’. The
subject matters veer from murder to mental health.
There’s nothing new here but it is certainly one of the
better Brit versions of Americana I have heard. www.lewisburner.bandcamp.com
Yonder
Boys are
a Berlin based Americana band who have released Acid
Folk on Blue Whale records. Recor ded
with renowned producer Tucker Martine it’s a never less
than interesting record. Slippery fiddles, frailing
banjos, acoustic guitars, mandolins, keyboards, bass and
occasional drums. The band consists of three members who
all sing and play; they are also joined by a few guests.
‘Eagle Song’ marries Berlin Life to the freedom of a
gliding bird. I have no idea what the ‘The Great
American Pussy Grab’ could possibly refer to. ‘Look At
what You Done’ rattles along at a fair pace and is not
unlike early Dillards. ‘High
On A Mountain’ is Bluegrass with harp and tuba. ‘Mosey
On Down’ adds slinky saxophone to a syncopated amble.
There’s a sparse and mournful song with ‘House
Carpenter’ and the record ends with the bizarre 11 Pece
Spada. It’s eclectic but it’s not Acid Folk. www.yonderboys.com
 Arriving
just too late for this edition but looking very
interesting is ZEUK - CROW SPANNER it is limited to just 40 CD copies so I
thought I would include details of it before it sells
out. Available from
davidcwbriggs@bandcamp.com
Right
that’s just about it from me until next time. Thanks as
ever to the supportive Terrascope family. Happy trails,
I hope to see some of you down the line.
Terrascopic Rumbles for October was brought to you by
Andrew Young.
Artwork, layout & direction by Phil McMullen - ©
Terrascope Online, 2021
|
