Tag Archives: album

Moscow Circus : Resounding LP, released June 2016

Music and lyrics can be many years in the making; this album from Nottingham-based four piece Moscow Circus was mostly written and played live during 1987 to 1991. Finally it has been recorded by the reformed band, giving a neat ambiguity to the title, is it ‘resounding’ down through the years or re-sounding for this new era? The good news is the album sounds fresh and relevant, as well as drawing confidently on its many influences.

‘Timebomb’ is the strong opening song, a mix of unrelenting bass, insistent guitar line and paranoid lyrics. It all motors along like a hybrid of late 80s Bunnymen/Cure/REM which is a good combination. ‘Bleed For You’ is densely worded, as is most of this album, this lyric cleverly showing the power balance in a relationship but not in a direct narrative. There are many well-crafted lines from twists like ‘…you ate my words like you always do…‘ to surreal ‘…I should have worn my other shoes, I can’t reason in these they give me the blues…‘. The track rocks along with a repeating guitar figure. ‘Clarity’ is a quieter piece, with spoken ending ‘…on the continuum between wrong and right…’

My favourite is ‘Princess Rainbow’, a lyrical confection about an imaginary relationship (or is it?) and a hook chorus, reminding me of Robyn Hitchcock on top form. Seeming to usually be the outsider appearing within the song, lead singer/composer/guitarist Jonathan Beckett comes up with some good lines in ‘Snapshot’ (…I need to know I’m not the only human in the race….’).

There are plenty of words to get absorbed in but the music is good too; a sensitive keyboard sound at the end of each section in ‘Wintersong’, blazing rock in ‘Ex Genius’ and swirling psychedelic organ in ‘Coconut Shy’ and ‘Between The Lines’. The album ends with the reflective mood of ‘Chances’, fragmented words over six minutes of dark, brooding drums and guitar.

Patience is a virtue, this album was worth the wait…

http://www.moscowcircus.co.uk/

Gavin Chappell-Bates, Portland Arms, Cambridge, 8 April 2016

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A double R*E*P*E*A*T Records album launch; starting with ‘Horizons’ from Horse Party, mostly a collection of songs released as EPs, singles and downloads over the last year. They are a brilliant live band, tonight the original trio were augmented by a bass player on stage and that gives these new songs even more clout.
The stealthy, sparse vocals and guitar from Ellie Langley and Seymour Quigley set the mood of the song, then the hooks crash in; the opening song ‘Animal’ showcases this to great effect with an extra power bass line and of course the ace drumming by Shannon Hope, driving the sound to new heights every time.
Highlights were the slower bluesy groove of ‘Gratitude Falling’, the bittersweetness of ‘Out Of Sight’ and the energetic final song ‘Paydirt’, this was the best performance I had seen by this electrifying band.

‘We Are The Ones’ is the new CD from Gavin Chappell-Bates (reviewed on this site) and instead of his solo live-looping tonight he was backed by a full band, Cambridge rockers Bouquet Of Dead Crows. Gavin’s songs are from the head and heart; he started with ‘Refugee’ a gradual build-up to a huge Manic Street Preachers (his favourite band) style chorus. The band stepped up to the faster ‘Church Of Rock and Roll’ and the mighty bass line underpinning the disconcerting chord changes of ‘Black Holes’.

’95’ was an anthem to get the crowd singing along to the hookline and his very personal early song ‘Last Angel’ was a sensitively sung duet, then his bitter reflection on recent politics ‘The Finest Hour’ got a full workover from the band.
There was a surprise during the end of the ballad ‘Starlight’; suddenly there were 11 more singers on stage , a choir in black who had been part of the audience. This emotional lift carried into the title-track rouser ‘We Are The Ones’ (a worthy successor to the rallying cry of the late 80s, ’68 Guns’ by The Alarm?) and finally ‘Dead End Disco Streets’ closed the show and launched the album in style…

http://gavinchappellbates.com/
https://www.facebook.com/horsepartyparty

Gavin Chappell-Bates : We Are The Ones, LP released 8 April 2016

Gavin Chappell-Bates : We Are The Ones, LP released 8 April 2016

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A track-by-track review of ‘We Are The Ones’, the debut album by Cambridge singer/songwriter Gavin Chappell-Bates.

1. Church Of Rock ‘n’ Roll. This is a blasting punchy rocker. The meticulous care and attention to detail that Gavin puts into his music is evident from the start and we get an early reference to his favourite band (Manic Street Preachers, a band whose cult status and influence continues to grow).

2. All Ways. A sort of ‘you and me against the world’ feeling, over some ringing guitar and hefty bass and drums.

3. 95. See my earlier review of this standout anthem, making 1995 sound like a good place to be.

Gavin Chappell-Bates : ’95’ single, released July 2015

4. Refugee. The musical centrepiece of the album, an abstract lyric over a gentle beginning then full-on guitar (check out the scenic views of Cambridge on the video for this one).

5. We Are The Ones. The title track is a companion piece to ’95’, less specific in its references but similar sentiment. And very catchy.

6. Writing In The Sand. An acoustic ballad with increasing layers of backing, as Gavin can show to good effect when using his looping techniques in live performances.

7. Black Holes. Improbably low bass riff underpins a tale of regret as life’s moments succumb to the gravitational inevitability of the title. Definitely one of my favourite tracks.

8. Dead End Disco Streets. A big sweeping song, the lyric populated with a cast of lost characters whose only escape is music. Good strings on this one.

9. Follow The Light. Simple optimistic sentiments, evolving into another catchy chorus.

10. The Finest Hour. A rarity amongst current music, a political protest song. Some sharp commentary about unfulfilled promises over a nice Celtic riff, and possibly the first time I have heard Neil Kinnock mentioned in a lyric.

11. Last Angel. This is a heartfelt and uncomfortable track about despair with a sung note of goodbye ‘…tonight will be my last night on Earth’ featuring a guest vocal from Kathryn James.

12. Starlight. As a contrast to the previous song this moves from the individual to the universal with astronomical contemplation linked to a touching tale of love. And another big chorus.

This is an impressive collection; I recently caught a warm-up show preparing for the album launch on 8 April at The Portland Arms in Cambridge and these songs work very well with a live band….

http://gavinchappellbates.com/

The Scissors, The Boathouse, Cambridge, 12 March 2016

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After ten years on the Cambridge music scene The Scissors release a new album, the grammatically challenging ‘The Scissors Is The Haunted Mirror’.

The four-piece promise ‘carnival freakshow organ, primitive synths, and rock’n’roll guitar powered psychpunkpop.’ and much of this manifesto is to be heard in show starter ‘Come With Me’, the opening track on the LP. In the week that Keith Emerson of ELP became the latest rocker to die in 2016, it was good to be reminded of the great Hammond organ sound as it pushed its way into the chorus of this punchy bass-driven song.

‘No Go The Lowdown’ is a rocker with a cryptic lyric and the clever effect of all instruments and voice sharing the hook line. We had a brief acoustic interlude featuring antique accordion and acoustic guitar for ‘Attack Of The Phantom Teardrops’ then ‘Phone Calls From The Dead’ and final track ‘Your House Has Ghosts’ are back to noisy pop-rock. Best of all is the slow-burner blues of ‘Why Don’t You Cry’, with theremin textures (always fascinating to watch), guitar fireworks and the vocals from Stewart Harris making the most of the straight to the heart melody.

It was a good advert for the album (although I would have liked to hear the keyboard rushes and emotional turmoil hidden behind the title of of ‘Don’t Hate Me Just Because I’m Yours’).
Their free lyric sheet proclaimed it was ‘a phantasmagorical entertainment to thrill and beguile the senses…’, they certainly proved again that they are one of the best live bands in Cambridge.

http://www.thescissors.co.uk/

Psychic Lemon : Album released 4 March 2016

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At last, the debut long-player from premier Cambridge consciousness-expanding rockers Psychic Lemon arrives on the scene.

‘Ticktoc’, a song they have been honing live for a while is a strong opener, a solid bass riff and punching drumming then some vocals airily drift in, countered by walls of sound from their double guitars. I last saw them in December at the Mill Road Winter Fair, with a flute player really adding an extra layer….and here he is on this track too! An unexpected bonus as the flute fizzes through an energetic coda.

From a pastoral acoustic guitar and choral introduction, ‘Death Cult Blues’ bursts into life, with more starry flute. The sound on this track and most of the album is intricate and multi-layered, it must have been compelling to stand outside in the garden listening at the home-built Psychic Studio “5 minutes down the road from Syd Barrett’s old place”….. and I think his spirit lives on in the instrumental ‘Analogue Summer’, from the birdsong bookends to tremendous slide guitar this is a beautiful season indeed.

‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ is another live favourite from their current set as is ‘Dilator’, a rocker with an epic feel and strange paranoid punkish lyric. The final track ‘Horizon’ is more than ten minutes of many of the elements from the rest of the album, woven into a widescreen psychedelic spectacular.

This album has captured the experimental dynamic of the band very successfully; it draws on their influences from a much loved style of music and then adds some powerful edges with the as-live feel of the recording.

https://psychiclemon.wordpress.com/

Psychic Lemon, The Grapes, Cambridge, 13 Dec 2014

Psychic Lemon, Corner House, Cambridge, 16 May 2015

T-Shirt Weather : Pig Beach, released January 2016

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T-Shirt Weather are a pop/punk trio from Durham, making their mark with this first long-player.

‘Devin O’Leary’ is a boisterous opening track spiced up with thrown-in violin, sounding like a powerful hybrid of Arctic Monkeys and something off an early Roxy Music album. ‘Gum’ keeps the momentum going, plenty of brass, a sublime middle eight and a sharp play-out. There is a singalong chorus on ‘The Undersigned’ to splice together some deft instrumentation including a bit of keyboard in there.

I thought that ‘My Dad’s Black Polo’ referred to cool parental 1960s Gallic upper-body wear but it is the car that the singer reminiscences about wistfully. Don’t worry, its not a slow lament and neither is the next song ‘Sometimes’, a punchy tale of not quite coping, with some choice lyrics (“I wear my face to keep my brain in place…”) .

The widescreen sweeping sound of ‘Spaghetti Western (school reunion version)’ is a heartfelt ballad, different in tone and pace from the rest of the album (“it’s not the films I miss, it’s someone to watch them with…”) The last tracks are two more frenetic energy bursts; taken together they sound like a mini-musical with contrasting sections crammed into very short running times.

Noisy, intense, edgy…a great debut!

https://www.facebook.com/tshirtweather

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard : Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, released November 2015

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Banish any winter blues with ‘Paper Mâché Dream Balloon’, the latest album from Australian psychedelic troubadours King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. The energetic seven-piece band sing and play an array of acoustic instruments (except Eric Moore credited with ‘nothing’!) and each of the songs is a musical burst of summery optimism, although some of the lyrics are a bit darker, such as ‘Cold Cadaver’….

Opening track ‘Sense’ starts with laid-back clarinet over a jazz groove and a lyric of bewilderment. Two more songs with a similar flavour then the sumptuous title track adds punctuations of unpredictable drums, lots of flute, harmonica and kaleidoscopic words (“stuck in a daydream, under a moonbeam…”). ‘Trapdoor’ is a fast paranoid work-out, ‘The Bitter Boogie’ is a longer blues reminiscent of The Doors.

The elements used in the songs recur and drift in and out, seemingly almost random at times but always mesmerising. I saw the sound praised somewhere as ‘tightly shambolic’…
The final track has the flute playing the opening part of all the songs that came before on the album, then rewound fast to a concluding explosion!

They are gaining a reputation for brilliant live shows, I will be seeing them soon!

http://kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com/index.html

Dos Floris : The Widowed Earth, released November 2017

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Based in Italy, Dos Floris is the performing and recording name of Florence Donovan. Her debut album ‘The Widowed Earth’ is a dense, multi-layered collection of atmospheric vocal and electronic pieces. Each track is crafted and complex, substantial yet brittle enough to slip through your fingers.

Every one of these cinematic soundscapes is given plenty of time to construct the right instrumental mood and reveals more on subsequent listens.A brief intro of a cassette loading gives way to ‘Rivers’, a pastoral theme built from a simple flute figure with the addition of ever-changing keyboards. The vocal simmers and yearns before final resignation. The electronic waves of ‘Before You Loved Me’ pulsing through the track, the gentle and unpredictable piano chords like droplets of rain in ‘Water’, the loose drum patterns in ‘The Other Side’ supporting simple vocal phrases; it is all elegant and addictive.
I really like the title track ‘The Widowed Earth’, huge swathes of synthesised strings in the introduction then the sustained vocal interweaves like another instrument.

In nearly an hour of music there is plenty more to get lost in, including the two part epic ‘To The Wolves’. As a change to guitar music, give this album a late-night listen.

https://www.facebook.com/dosfloris

12 Highlights from 2015 : A Sampler of The Year

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A distillation of tracks taken from some of the memorable albums and shows of 2015…

1. Mammoth Penguins: Work It Out
Pure pop pleasure from the album ‘Hide and Seek’

2. Wave Pictures: I Can Hear The Telephone(3 Floors Above Me)
Great live show featuring this and other tracks from another high quality album release ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’

3. Chorusgirl: No Moon
Indiepoptastic live show and debut self-titled album

4. Model Village: Sorry
Super set played after Chorusgirl to launch irresistable new album ‘Healing Centre’

5. Ryley Walker: Hide In The Roses
Supreme guitar at an intimate live show and on thoughtful album ‘Primrose Green’

6. British IBM: We Were The Stars
Mature crafted lyrics and arrangements on their second album

7. Motor Tapes: Falling Away
Cambridge four piece return with four distinctive and vivid tracks

8. Tellison: Orion
From third album ‘Hope Fading Nightly’, subtle start then hear those guitars crash in…

9. Wilko Johnson: Going Back Home
Triumphant and emotional live return from still the coolest guitarist around

10. Van Morrison: Carrying A Torch
The Master, returning with ‘Duets’ album. This is a sublime, sumptuous ballad with jazz singer Clare Teal

11. Public Service Broadcasting: Go!
Impressive live show with space, Everest, electronica, colour…listen and learn!

12. Bouquet Of Dead Crows: Just A Little More
Album launch for ‘Of The Night’ was a show to remember..

Smoke Fairies : Wild Winter, released November 2015

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While on the lookout for another seasonal disc to complement the grizzled optimism of Bob Dylan’s ‘Christmas In The Heart’ I found this atmospheric offering from Smoke Fairies, originally given a limited release last year and now reissued.
Opening track ‘Christmas Without A Kiss’ sets the tone for the album, as deep bass pedals and distant sharp-edged guitar underpin a world-weary lyric ‘I don’t have the one I love, I want snow I get rain’. This album is clearly no jaunty collection of clichéd sleigh bells and happiness revolving around the big day.

‘Steal Softly Thru Snow’ showcases the duo’s hypnotic harmony vocals with an attractive instrumental break in there too. ‘Give And Receive’ has abstract references to the Christmas story, all floating over an elegant instrumental backdrop. ‘Circles In The Snow’ is a shimmering delight, ‘Bad Good’ is a more disquieting affair, then the title track ‘Wild Winter’ is like a sinister walk in the woods, followed by an acoustic interlude, ‘Snowglobe Blizzard’.

‘So Much Wine’ is a disturbing tale of domestic disharmony, then final song ‘All Up In The Air’ is a distillation of what has been before, the gentle introduction building to an impressive finish.

So ideally sat in front of the fire with mulled wine in hand (or perhaps some ‘Wild Winter’, a 6.8% beer brewed for this release?), slow down, hibernate and listen to this bittersweet album, contemplating the unchanging rhythms of the winter solstice.

http://www.smokefairies.com/