New Music 2018 - Part 16 - Bryde - Like An Island

I had wanted to see Paper Aeroplanes live for some time but before I took the chance that project had ended. Thereafter Sarah Howells and her guitar started a new adventure, Bryde (with occasional help from others). I wasn't aware of the connection until, at Green Man Festival 2016, our paths crossed.

Bryde, Rising stage, Green Man Festival, 20 August 2016.

A pair of EPs, both showcasing this from-the-heart brand of songwriting, followed. It is more direct than her work with Paper Aeroplanes but certainly none the worse for that. The recently released LP takes it to another dimension; raw, uncompromising and yet both compelling and relatable.

Bryde - Like An Island (self-released, 13 April 2018).

It is right up there with the best releases of 2018 that I have had the pleasure to hear and of those there is no shortage. I can't wait to see Bryde live once again.

Why festivals matter - a photo gallery.

I have been thinking about 2018 festivals of late and that has, in part, been responsible for reminding me about all the artists that I saw in 2017 that, at least in some cases, I have never mentioned before. This is a case of 'Live With No Comment'. I have added the act/artist and the stage to each photo but that is as much as you get.  
All of them were taken by me at End Of The Road Festival 2017 and I own the copyright in these pictures. Feel free to share away but please give credit to the artists. These pictures are in no particular order, by date or any other criterion. I flicked through the photos I took in an haphazard way and simply chose the ones I wanted as and when I found them.

Even more importantly please listen to artists, buy their music, go and see them live.

Julia Jacklin, Garden stage, 3 September.

Goat Girl, Big Top stage, 1 September.

Lisa O'Neill, Tipi stage, 1 September.

Shovels & Rope, Woods stage, 1 September 2017.

Tasseomancy, Tipi stage, 2 September.

Jens Lekman, Garden stage, 1 September.

Girl Ray, Tipi stage, 3 September.

New Music 2018 - Part 15 - Beelzebub Jones - A Good Day To Be A Bad Guy

Not many artists choose midnight at the end of Easter Sunday to drop a new release. I guess if they do then there are not that many people just waiting to discover it and listen there and then. As it happens I was and not because I had any prior knowledge. I'd been out doing something completely different and got home in no mood to turn in. I needed some wind-down time first and needless to say this immediately caught my attention. Some things are just meant to happen and this collaboration between Andrew McClatchie (Half Deaf Clatch) and Richard Wall is, to paraphrase their own description, dirty cinematographic Americana.
It is the soundtrack to a spaghetti Western that you have never seen simply because it doesn't actually exist. You can therefore imagine the plot to suit yourself. The cover art might look rather daunting but do you judge everything by its cover? Music is as much about your imagination as it is about the people who make it.

Beelzebub Jones - A Good Day To Be A Bad Guy (Speak Up Recordings, 2 April 2018).

It is based on a short story by Richard Wall and that accompanies the limited edition of the physical release (CD, 100 copies) as part of the 26-page A5 booklet. Here's the play list to contemplate:

Nicotine, Liquor & Blasphemy

Whiskey For Breakfast

Dry, Dry Bones

Rattlesnake Interlude

The Heist

Death Of The Teller 

Never Take Me Alive

Sinners Last Request

Vultures

The Crossing Place 

Working For The Devil

Revenge Is My Only Friend 

Showdown

I can only presume that title 'Beelzebub Jones' is taken from a comic strip, with a Wild Western theme, that ran in the Daily Mail from December 1938 - December 1945. If that is true then it is quite something, if not it is an astonishing coincidence. The clapperboard is all yours.