New Music 2015 - Part 44 - Eloise Keating - Working Late

It is not unknown for me to write a post about a single song but it is far from usual. This is one of those exceptions and here is how it came about. Less than an hour ago I was listening to one of my regular doses of new music, on Amazing Radio as it happens, and went to the kitchen to check how my meal was doing. I came back part way through a song and my immediate thought --- is this a Lana Del Rey song I haven't heard?
The next thought was that Amazing Radio wouldn't be the vehicle for that; her label --- UMG/Polydor/Geffen according to territory --- would have that covered, at great cost, all over the world on more levels than I care to even contemplate.
I was right about that for this was not what it sounded as though it might be. You'll see in the style why I was so easily led. When it comes to the lyric a little listen will make you realise that the detail isn't quite from the same surroundings, be they cultural or physical, in which Elizabeth Grant as her alter ego portrays itself.

This is the latest song from Portsmouth-based Eloise Keating. She doesn't have major label backing. Maybe that is not what she seeks. What I do know is that I should expect some flak here - is it pastiche, parody or whatever else one might suggest? My opinion is that if she can get the measure of it as well as this, then there are no limits.

Drown Your Heart Again - New Music 2010 - Part 18

This really follows on from my post yesterday.  It is a discovery I made just days ago and somehow it seems a very appropriate one given the topics, as they pertain to my return to festival-going in 2007.

The Strange Death of Liberal England was one of the first bands that, until the moment they walked on stage, I was completely unaware of.

Here they are on the then 'Uncut Stage' at Latitude 2007 on Saturday. Starting in 2010 this is now sponsored by 'Word Magazine' but la plus ça change... 
They were the band that did not speak however - they just sung and played - hence the placards!  I thought over the last year or two that, for all their relevance in 2010 and not least as a rock band, they might have gone the same way as Liberal England.  I'm very glad to report that the Southsea band, it is actually a five-piece then and now, is still going strong.

Forward March! (2007) was a solid production even if it was slightly at odds with the prevailing trends at that time. I'm just thrilled to see that they are back and firing on all guns and I would like to see the band live once again.

The follow up could well prove to be an important step: bad times and good music are often contradictory in the sense that they are complementary.  The album is released (Republic of Music) on CD and d/l on 13 September 2010.

The Strange Death of Liberal England.

I've been hearing whispers about this Portsmouth-based band for some time now and most of them have been as intriguing as they have been favourable. This could however cut both ways; I was thus glad to have the opportunity to check them out live on the Uncut stage at Latitude where they were playing the opening gig at lunch time on Sunday.

It was timely as their first eight-track mini-album Forward March! had been released the previous Monday on Fantastic Plastic Records, which ensured a sizable and enthusiastic turn out.

It was quite clear, even before the set started, that they have a loyal following and it was soon very clear to me why that is. In a set that could only last 40 minutes, why waste time talking? They didn't say a word, other than the sung lyrics, introducing themselves and the songs using hand-written and hand-held placards.

It was very effective and reminded me rather of the occasional frames, conveying plot details, that appeared flickeringly in the days of silent movies. What is more, if you look carefully at the these pictures, you will notice that this is a band very flexible when it comes to who plays which instrument on any particular song.

It all suits their ambitions and circumstances well, I have to say.

This may well be quite deliberate because as the band's name suggests (it is taken from a book of the same title and I'll let you find it and what it was about) they quite wilfully hark back to earlier days in their lyrical content but without any discernible influence from traditional music. The real issue is that they do it incredibly well and had they gone on for two hours longer I'd have happily missed whatever other acts I had planned to go and see!

In some ways, while less obviously obsessed with historical narrative, they reminded me of iLiKETRAiNS and that is another band I very much want to see live.