elcome
to the first Rumbles of 2022. Spring is now upon us,
please sit back, grab a brew and settle down for a few
reviews of some of the recent releases, which may well
have flown under your collective radars.
So
without further ado, we kick off with a group with a
relatively unknown British band fronted by Matt Wool,
namely The
Fugitives whose new album Everyman
on Woolgang Records present a sort of grown up rock with
prog overtones. Indeed John Helliwell from Supertramp
features on a couple of tracks blowing some distinctive
sax. Matt’s electric piano announces the album and again
it is very distinctive, very much like sticking on a
tramp album. Some of the tunes are very radio friendly,
like the sardonic ‘15 minutes’ and ‘In Your Life’. The
band are comprised of Matt who plays keyboards and
sings, James Hender gets to grips with all the guitar
parts and never strays far from serving the songs, the
rhythm section is ex Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
Stephen Irvine drums and Michael Captain bass. It’s a
nice melodic album, with enough variation to maintain
interest. Contact matt at woolfgangrecords@gmail.com
Up
next is a new album from Trail Records by Sky
Cries Mary entitled Wandering
The Vastness, which features the noted Seattle
guitar player Jack Endino. It’s a sprawling affair which
has some pretty good moments, if you can get past the
opener ‘Crystal Gazing’, which for me is the weakest
song on the album and could just do with some calming
down, but patience is rewarded on the following ‘L
Train’. ‘Red Red Fox’, is one of my favourites, it
features vocals recorded on a cell phone inside a piano
from up on Lookout Mountain. The instrumentation on the
album is varied taking in all manner of strange
instruments, like Darkglass Microtubes, Occult
synthesizers, Behringer, Deepmind 12, Moogs, various
guitars, wooden flutes and drone boxes. The band is made
up by Roderick Wolgamott, Ben Ireland, Jack Endino,
Kevin Whitworth, Curt Eckman, Debra Reese.
There are some great collaborative songs like the
expansive ‘Chaos At The Port’ and ‘Raga Metal Machine’.
The album ends with the trippy ‘Dream Yourself To
Sleep’. www.trailrecords.bandcamp.com
A
man who sure knows his way round a Weissenborn guitar is
Steve Dawson
whose new album Gone,
Long Gone has
been on my stereo plenty since arriving a month or so
ago. He is a master guitar player, who since moving to
Nashville in 2103 has been busy surrounding himself with
some fine musicians like fiddle player Fats Kaplin, in
demand drummer Jay Bellerose, Hammond player
extraordinaire Kevin McKendree etc. But the show belongs
to Steve whose slide guitar playing is up there with
some of the top players like David Lindley and his
vocals are on the warm side think JJ Cale or Jim Croce.
It ranges from the brass inflected opener ‘Dimes’ and
rocks out on ‘Skeletons In A Car’, through to sublime
Hawaiian style songs like ‘Kulaniapia Waltz’. Favourites
are ‘Bad Omens’, and ‘Just Get Lost’, it also features a
very cool cover of the old Faces song ‘Ooh La La’, his
playing is fabulous on point throughout this album.
Apparently he is going to putting out an ambient pedal
steel album in the not too distant future! Find it here
www.stevedawson.ca
It
wouldn’t be a Rumbles column without an album on the
Sounds In Silence label and so this one is no exception
featuring their four latest releases OjeRum
Stovfald gets to put out his second album for the
label following on from the acclaimed Alting Fader I
Samme Rum in 2019. It is the solo project of Danish
musician Paw Grabowski. This new one consists of two
long –form compositions which prove to be a balm in this
mad time we are living in. Built around the swelling
hypnotic drones which he is known for, they have a dream
like quality, shot through the fog; they possess an
ambient film like quality, soothing and gentle. Julien
Demoulin gets to release his third album for the
label Everything
Forgotten, Everything Remembered again built
around ambient drones and delicate layers of
electronica, the album is a distillation of his sound,
beat less and cathartic, drifting icy synth tones, loops
and hypnotic melodies. The seven pieces here accented by
the ethereal vocals of Maryam Sirvan and the vocal
drones of Alex Copeland. I’m reminded of artists such as
Harold Budd and it would appeal to fans of Stars Of The
Lid and A Winged Victory For The Sullen. The
Kids
And The Cosmos Ambient
Mix Tape Volume 1 a
new artist to the label is British Composer Justin Lee
Radford although he did release an EP entitled Warmer
Weather in 2019 on the label as one half of HIN with
Jerome Alexander. The back story to this is pretty sad,
born out of Justin holding his Nan’s hand as she passed
away; it is a meditation into the life and spirit cycle
of a human being. It is again cathartic and gentle,
found sounds, electric piano, synths, subtle beats and
choral voices are all beautifully arranged to form
another beautiful set of ambient songs, delicate and
ethereal, calming and meditave. The final new release on
the label is Sweeney
Stay For The
Sorrow Australian Jason Sweeney gets to release
his fourth full length album on Sounds In Silence. This
one is a beauty, tellingly mastered by ISAN’s Anthony
Ryan. It features songs centered around Jason’s fragile
vocals, these melancholic, wistful atmospheric tunes are
rendered with warm synth drones, piano, saxophone,
electronic glitches, found sounds and minimal
percussion. Sounding not unlike a more electronic
version of Japan or perhaps Tindersticks. It features
songs of loss, acceptance and of hopeful new beginnings.
They are all currently available from www.soundnsilencerecords.bandcamp.com
Chris
Church Darling
Please On
his new album the prolific Chris plays all the
instruments himself. The guitars sound pretty visceral
in Crazy Horse kind of way, the songs are in the power
pop style and he makes a decent fist of it, wisely
bringing in Nick Bertling to create the kind of big wide
open sound he is clearly aiming for and succeeds in
achieving. Taking in all points from REM, through to a
Teenage Fanclub vibe. The songs rattle through, ‘Pillar
To Post’ is a fuzzy delight, ‘Never So Far Away’ has
some nice slide guitar and adds plenty of atmosphere
‘Atlantic’ rocks pretty hard and features some fine
guitar playing. ‘Bad Summer’, would sound pretty fine
crackling through the radio waves and deserves exposure.
There are a couple of nice slower songs too with ‘I Wish
I Could Say Sorry’, given plenty of room to breathe. The
album ends on a high with ‘Triple Crown’, drenched in
beauty and reverb. www.chrischurch1.bandcamp.com
The
Pawn Shop Saints hail
from The Berkshires in Massachusetts they have a new
album Ride My
Galaxy out on Dolly Rocker Records. Led by Jeb
Berry who wrote all the songs, plays guitar, bass and
banjo, even designing the cover! This is the band’s
third album and they deal in a kind of loser’s
Americana, Jeb’s forlorn vocals are very much in the
slacker mold. The band comprise of Michael O/Neill
acoustic guitars, Josh Pisano drums, Chris Samson bass,
Alan Taylor keyboards with Amy Attias fiddle and local
surf punk legend Jimmy Blister adding a few guitar
solos. Classic car songs such as ‘Chevy Nova’ and
‘Outlaws’ rub shoulders with some Big Star vibes
delivered on ‘Diane’ with kudos for mentioning Material
Issue in the first line. ‘I’ll
Be Missing You Again’, is a haunting sparse song about
lost love. ‘Too Low For Tupelo’ is a ramshackle country
song infused with psychedelic style lead guitar.
‘Wicked’ aims for the Dead and the Stones and is
highlighted by dobro and slide guitar and comes across
to me a bit like East River Pipe in country mode.
Available from www.jebbarry.com
The
prolific Clara
Engel is back with a new album Dressed
In Borrowed Light. Hailing from Toronto Clara is a
singer songwriter who plays a kind of dreamy folk music,
the songs are given acres of space to develop and stay
in the brain through clever use of words and melodies.
She is a highly distinctive musician who has produced an
atmospheric album of wonder. Utilising a subtle palette
of instruments from cello, lap steel, shrutti box, morin
khuur to layers of atmospheric electric guitars and
found sound, the album is a winner, albeit a little one
paced, populated with songs about birds, flowers, and
the wonder of nature. Lyrics like “sowing seeds in a bed
of snow” songs such as ‘Flame Tree Sings’ remind me of
bands like Coil and the album closer ‘Silver Scythe’, is
cloaked in a narcotic, nocturnal atmosphere, accompanied
by yearning lone lap steel notes and fluttering
percussion. This is an album to truly get lost in,
highly recommended indeed. www.claraengel.bandcamp.com
Rodney
Cromwell Memory
Box
Founder member of the band Saloon which
featured Alison Cotton in its ranks has put out a solo
album very much synth based echoing the classic kraut
rock bands such as Neu and Kraftwerk but also early
Human League. Robotic treated vocals and presets are the
order of the day. Bouncy nuggets such as opener Intercom
mix with haunting tracks such as the title track Memory
Box, whereas tracks such as Fluctuations are firmly in
the motorik style. He has supported bands such as Pram
and Death And Vanilla and was part of Damo Suziki’s
backing band for a while. Rodney is not his real name
that would be Adam Cresswell, the album was recorded in
South London over the past couple of years and is varied
enough to hold my attention throughout, standout tracks
for me are Calculations with shades of Brian Eno and the
icy strains of the closing track The Winter Palace a
pure synth pop song. Available from www.happyrobots.co.uk
A
CD arrived in the post from a band called The
Mentulls entitled Recipe
For Change. It didn’t come with a note or as press
release and is firmly in the prog flavoured adult
oriented rock bag, I’m reminded as it spins around of
bands like Mike And The Mechanics or Asia. There is some
fine playing throughout and a little investigation
reveals that they have opened for bands such as Wishbone
Ash and Focus and they certainly have the chops. This is
their third album and the first to feature new vocalist
and multi instrumentalist David Neil Crabtree. This kind
of band would do very well with enough exposure; I can
just hear these songs blasting out of Radio 2, with some
excellent lead guitar, sparkling keyboards and a driving
rhythm section they are a fine melodic prog/ pop rock
band. It’s available in a signed or unsigned version
from www.themerchdesk.com
Sometime
something turns up quite some time after it was released
and so is the case for an EP by a band/person called Bearhug
a lo-fi CD, released in 2020 in an edition of forty
copies and sent out with a hand written note. It
immediately reminds me of indie bands such as Hefner,
indeed the vocalist could well be Darren Hayman. The
note says he will be releasing new EP every month , some
better than others, all under different band names, well
most of them and all with different themes. The songs
were mostly recorded on the fly, some in less than an
hour on an old 4 track cassette player found in the
loft, he/they play ukulele, acoustic and electric
guitars, bass. Cryptically the note says he was bored by
the recording process of his last band, it was all
becoming a little stale and when he discovered the old
cassette player it reminded him of a time when recording
was fun. I wait to see if anything else materialises, it
has certainly piqued my interest. I can’t give you any
order details as there aren’t any.
Werewolf
Hair
S/T
is the work of Andy Godwin guitar player and amateur
pedal steel enthusiast. I would say that this is a
pretty ragged affair, mostly home recorded or in the
back of his car, even recording some parts on a park
bench, it is low fi in the extreme, testing the limits
of this reviewer’s tolerance. I can’t get to grips with
it and needed a lie down afterwards. I can definitely
see potential though, but he just needs to calm down, he
says in the blurb that he was aiming for a kind of Aphex
Twin being in a country band type of vibe. www.lauurecords.bandcamp.com
Rick
Kemper
has featured a few times in the Rumbles section over the
last few years and releases something every three or
four years or so it would seem. His latest EP is called
Omnavibe and
consists of 6 tracks; it was complied during extensive
research into his family’s history, the tracks all
differ wildly, kicking off with the title track which is
basically a two and a half minute guitar solo. This is
followed by a vaguely Eastern sounding, snake charmer of
a song, then a heavily amped, guttural slide guitar
appears and someone stamps on a bagpipe. The next track
is a Native American number replete with howling wolves,
oh I see this is still the same song! All of which gives
you some indication as to the eclectic nature of these
songs. It is released as a C60 cassette with download
available at www.omnavibe.bandcamp.com
The
Remittance Men
Scoundrels,
Dreamers & Second Men Some Classic Americana
now from the Northwest of America on the outskirts of
Boston. The Remittance Men are basically the vehicle of
singer songwriter Tom Robertson who on first hearing
sounds like Ryan Bingham. If you like grizzled
singer-songwriters then you feel quite at home with the
songs of Tom. Pretty piano fills, drifting steel,
fiddles, fine baritone guitar licks and a sympathetic
rhythm section frame these songs of high seas, hit the
road songs and wide open spaces, the fine details
observed on songs like Avery Hill show a keen eye. A
Room In Birmingham, England 1919 features Eileen Jewel,
Tom also covers Tom Petty’s Down South to fine effect
and Hacienda Santa Rosa is decorated with barroom piano
and accordion. This album represents Tom’s first time in
a recording studio but you wouldn’t know it as he sounds
like seasoned pro. The album is well produced by
guitarist producer Andy Santospago and was recorded at
Mammoth studios by Dave Westner. It is released on the
Blonde On The Tracks record label and is available from
www.theremittancemen.com
The
Davey Johnstone Band Deeper
Than Roots.
Released by Cherry red records and licensed from Spirit
of the Unicorn Music is a new album, (almost 50 years
since his debut) by Elton John’s longstanding guitar
player (and one time Hookfoot member! - Phil)
Davey Johnstone, who for this album gets to do his own
thing. He has written all of the songs on this
delightful album along with co writer Rick Otto.
Vocalists are mainly Elliot Johnstone with one by
Vanessa Bryan and Davey himself on a couple. It’s a real
family affair with no less than four Johnstone’s on many
of the songs Elliot, Charlie, Jesse and Davey, it also
has some nice vintage sounding mellotron. The
instrumental ‘Walt Dizney’ is an early highlight. Old
sparring partner Nigel Olsson fills the drum seat for
the gorgeous ‘Melting Snow’. The double tracked guitar
in ‘You Lied To Me’ sounds great, and ‘Deeper’ is a real
tour de force with many guitar parts, it maybe a tad too
over emotive. Another instrumental highlight is ‘Black
Scotland’ with some cool sitar and biting guitar. The
tootling mellotron is back for a well placed Beatles
cover of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’. This varied
record ends with the gospel moves of ‘All The Time In
the World’, complete with choir. Find it here www.cherryred.co.uk
About
ten years ago I bought a promo CD by Jeffrey Foucault,
it was his debut album and I was quite blown away. Since
then he has released many albums and has now started a
new record label called Blueblade records, which neatly
leads us to new signing Dietrich
Strause whose
new album You
And I Must Be Out Of Our Minds is terrific.
Dietrich is a
new name to me, but apparently this is his fifth album,
he has played with some of the classic modern American
folk artist such as Anais Mitchell and Sarah Jaroz and
played as a session musician for artists like Kris
Delmhorst and Rose Cousins. He is
also a noted luthier, carpenter and illustrator. He
started out playing Trumpet and is the son of a preacher
and public schoolteacher. Dietrich is currently in the
process of moving to the UK, his songs are full of light
and shade, incorporating instruments such as muted
pianos, farfisa, ace tone organ, vibraphones, marimbas,
analogue tape delays, moogs, wurlitzers, mellotron and
synth trumpets. This would appeal to fans of Bon Iver
and Sufjan Stevens. I’m already a big fan and he really
uses the spaces in between the notes to fine effect,
making the record a delight to listen to, it has oodles
of space and nothing is hurried. Highly recommended
indeed and available here from www.dietrichstrause.com
A
few releases now from the small but perfectly formed
bedroom label that is Folk Archive. David C Briggs has
been quietly releasing some CDs in very limited editions
of 40 or so copies. His latest David
C Briggs S/T
Folk Archive is a quirky; it starts with on a nautical
theme with the eccentric ‘I Am A Cuttlelfish’, a fishy
tale of limpets and barnacles. Psychedelia is never far
from the surface especially when he cuts loose on the
many, electric guitar solos, peppered liberally
throughout the record. Groovy moves abound on the
twangfest that is ‘His Head Was Turned’. ‘She’s A
Nightowl’ is another winner, echoey and spacey. It’s
lo-fi with a home recorded feel, but never fails to draw
you into his world, a world which is not a million miles
from that of some of our eccentric singer songwriters
such as Robyn Hitchcock or Julian Cope. Another new
record out on David’s label is Zeuk’s
Minutes
which delivers 24
songs with a duration of about a minute each, hence the
title. It’s an eccentric thing with songs about
Lemmings, Sleepwalking, Meat Vans, Museums and Mushrooms
as well as topical songs such as ‘Emily’s Mask’. He
accompanies himself on guitar, keyboards and various
percussive instruments and adds samples and dialogue;
obviously the songs are in and out in the blink of an
‘Opal Eye’. If you don’t like one then you don’t have
long to wait until another one hoves in to view. He
would appear to be another English eccentric not a
million miles away from Syd. The latest release on
David’s label is by Enslave
The Zombie S/T
on which Albert, Erik, Gave and Kenneth Zombie deliver 8
psychedelic songs. The record was recorded at Big Pink
studios in Kongsberg in the spring and summer of 2021.
It’s purely instrumental, kicking off the rockedelic
stomp of ‘Surf Rock Chicken’, through the grunge of
‘James Bunghole’ and ‘Electric Foetus’, with its buzz
saw fuzzy guitar fest. ‘Captain Crimson’, does indeed
take in Frippertronics, as does the excellently titled
‘Squirmy Wormy’. It ends with the progtastic grunge of
‘Darkbone’, which shape shifts halfway through. It is a
short, sharp record with no fat on the bones, just
guitars, bass and drums.
Find them all at davidcwbriggs.bandcamp.com
Horde
Of Two I
Knew I Was A Rebel Then Out
on Shrimper records is the vehicle of guitarists David
Lester and bass player Wendy Atkinson. It kicks of with
‘Durruti : A Life In 8 Parts’, a twenty two minute song
in 8 separate parts, based on the life of Spanish
anti-facist Durruti, it twists and turns its way through
various phases, a lone guitar with a spoken word
beginning yields to speech segments, distorted guitar
and warm entwining bass figures, it’s a bit of an epic.
The other tracks showcase the two musicians in playful
mode; this is especially evident on ‘If I can’t Dance’,
which has grunts and bursts of laughter. ‘No Own Owned
Anyone’, features a cool walking bass figure and
interesting percussive sounds. Sounds form the Toronto
subway inform ‘The Third Rail’. Punk rock rears its head
on ‘Courage And Fortitude’, a song based on the lynching
of Wesley Everest, which clatters and clangs its way
merrily along for a while, until we hear a snippet of an
old workers tune which then dissolves to more rifferama.
The record ends with the suitably abstract ‘Time On
End’. Contact hordeoftwo@gmail.com
Un-Scene!
Post Punk Birmingham 1978-1982 Various
Artists
New out on Easy Action records comes a cracking album of
artists from the classic era of punk, featuring bands
such as The Hawks, The Nightingales, The Prefects and
Swell Maps amongst others. It features recently
unearthed studio recordings, demos, and fairly rare and
obscure tracks. I think this may be the first deep dive
into this scene; London and Manchester are the usual
ports of call so to speak. Highlights are ‘Idiot
Strength’ by The Nightingales, ‘Big Store’ by The Hawks,
the excellently titled ‘The Bristol Road Leads To
Dachau’ by The Prefects, ‘Birmingham UK’ by Dada and TV
Eye’s ‘Radio Station’. It was put together by notable
Birmingham musician and designer Dave Twist and features
sleeve notes by Stewart Lee. Available from www.easyaction.co.uk
James
Domestic
Carrion Repeating
released on Kibou Recordings. Suffolk based punk
musician James is many things, a former bandleader of
The Domestics, was in Tokyo Lungs and numerous other
bands, he also holds a doctorate and is a published
poet. On the opening track ‘Itchy Itchy’, which begins
with a basic rudimentary guitar figure before the first
words are expelled, much like the way in which our
national treasure Ian Dury would start his songs “Are
you a right fucker, or just a fuckee, are you fine
cuisine or own brand beans”. Think Mark E Smith crossed
with John Cooper Clarke. ‘Faze Out’ is fairly hardcore
punk and he obviously has a distrust of authority, which
is apparent in songs like ‘Bean Counter’. Other
touchstones would be Madness and The Sleaford Mods.
There’s plenty of humour too in songs like ‘Giblets’,
‘Weekend Carbs’, and ‘Holiday’. My favourite though has
to be ‘Manana’, all about things you are intending to do
in the future and of procrastination. www.kibourecords.bandcamp.com
Terry
Edwards And The Scapegoats
My
Wife Doesn’t Understand Me.
Terry is a notable saxophonist and has played on more
sessions than I have had hot dinners. This album was
first released on CD only in 1995 and now gets a vinyl
release. It covers a lot of ground with politics,
alienation, humour and sarcasm all rearing their heads.
The Scapegoats consist of bass player Jem Moore, drummer
Ian White and his old sparring partner from the Higson’s
Ian Watson on Trumpet. It’s a punky, funky, jazzy album,
which works well as a whole. It also features a couple
of cover versions with A Taste Of Honey and Jean Pierre.
It is released in an edition of 500 x vinyl copies, in
store for this year’s record
store day.
Also
there are a couple of essential 7” singles to tell you
about, the first is by Burd
Ellen The
High Priestess
and the Hierophant’ which is out now on Thread
recordings and well worth tracking down. Burd Ellen are
made up of Debbie Armstrong and Gayle Brogan and
together they create an immersive folk sound. The A-side
is a version of the Child ballad Fair Annie, a song
which takes a look at arranged marriage and maternal
love. The B-side is also a trad song which Debbie
learned from Eliza Carthy find it here www.threadrecordings.com
The other 7”
single is from the excellent record label out of
California Hyponitic Bridge, they released my favourite
single of last year by The Chemistry Set (who also have
a new album due to be released on Fruits de Mer records
very soon). It’s by Mark & The Clouds and taken from
their most recent album Waves. The A-side is ‘You
and me in Space’ and the B-side is the rather
lovely ‘Clocks’.
www.hyponoticbridge.com
Well
that about wraps it up for the time being, hope you are
all doing fine out there in these strange times and
thanks for reading.
Terrascopic Rumbles for Spring 2022 was brought to
you by Andrew Young.
Artwork, layout & direction by Phil McMullen - ©
Terrascope Online, 2022
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