New Music 2013 - Part 8 - Wolf's Law

One of the things I am really coming to like now is the fact that there are some bands and artists that I have followed, often as a result of festival performances, since the early days and who are continuing to flourish. This is one of them, The Joy Formidable, and here is the band early one day on the small but lovely Sunset Stage at Latitude Festival 2008, before the release of their début mini album 'A Balloon Called Moaning' (2009).

They release their second full LP 'Wolf's Law', and the follow up to 'The Big Roar' (2011) on Monday, 21 January - on Canvasback Music distributed by Atlantic Recordings. To say that their live performance is energetic would be litotes of some order.

They are touring the UK and Ireland in support of the album between late January and early March and I'm much minded to try and catch them during the latter stage of the campaign.

I Tried To Do Hand-stands For You...

It is time for some new 'thoughts', more lyrics and a whole lot of new music, but I tend to fail on the vaulting of my ambition.

The most evident utensil

Is nothing but a pencil

and, from different tracks on the same album...

Permanently black and blue

Permanently blue for you.

All the garbage that you have thrown away

Is waiting somewhere a million miles away.

Your condoms and your VCR

Zip-lok bags and your father's car

Dark and silent, wait for you, yea-hey

And so much garbage will never ever decay.

And just four hints for now:

Esben and The Witch

iLiKETRAiNS - album #2

The Joy Formidable - album #2

Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This

...and a whole lot more to follow. Guess what? I am not a robot...

'White Holes of Mole Hills', anyone, Ruth Theodore (2010)?

Some thought it was facetious on my part and others saw it for what it was. It is real and another worthy of note in the nu-folk canon, artist and album both. It is released on February 15, 2010 by River Rat Records.

Was It Worth It - Jeremey Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey (aka Summer Camp) seem to think so...

..and (for what it is worth) so do I, very definitely.

A Balloon Called Moaning

A Balloon Called Moaning - what does that mean as an album title? Well nobody seems to know except those responsible, and they are not telling! This is the first release from a band that I had not heard of until I saw them play on the 'Sunset Stage' at Latitude 2008 and I think I've found live picture from that gig that I haven't used before.

L -R: Justin Stahley, Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Daffydd.

Ever since it has been on my list of bands not to forget.

When I discovered in January that Pure Groove Records were to release their début album I could hardly wait.

Eight tracks and 29 minutes: some would call it a mini-album. It is however several minutes longer than they were allocated to play their set at Latitude - but it doesn't take long, for better or for worse, to make a lasting impression.

Call it what you like but there is no point reviewing the tracks individually.

I could easily have been disappointed by the weight of my expectations here, as has happened many times before, but this is just brilliant and I'm so glad that I saw them live first.

More albums I want - 2008, part 6.

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago, I couldn't find much enthusiasm for new music.

I knew that it was my fault but to appreciate it fully is to be faced with the opposite problem and now is the time to indulge in new music. Some things just have to be good and, right now, it doesn't bother me if that happens to be unashamedly reinvented retro-pop, but not either 'The Pipettes' nor 'Los Campesinos!', and the totally strange album title doesn't do any harm at all.

Sweden's Those Dancing Days - 'In Our Space Hero Suits'.

Positively post-Abba, Sweden is fun again, though if you have been reading here that is not always so obviously true. Without any doubt one of my most-listened-to albums of the last six months is by another Swedish band, Oh Laura, and the album 'A Song Inside My Head, A Demon In My Bed' seems to have gained very little recognition in the UK.

For the last six months or so I've been hard pressed to avoid falling for new music from America, so here is yet another one to add to the list. It was released in the UK last Monday (13 October) and in the US almost a fortnight earlier.

'Deranged' - Stacee Lawson is an album that in essence is very much in tune with much of the new-folk/pop/rock currently so popular in the UK. It should, if there were any justice, find popularity this side of the Atlantic but then, while I'm usually an optimist I often find that it is tainted by realism. If I had it my way Stephanie Dosen would be hugely successful here for 'A Lily For The Spectre' is a wonderful album that has become one my most played of the last year or so.
That's just two, and I can think of many more, but it is way past bed time!

If you get the chance, and want to see a band that is worth far more than the hype that is starting to gather around it, I'd choose The Joy Formidable; just watching their live set is exhaustingly wonderful so goodness knows about the performance aspects...

Latitude 2008 - first thoughts

Latitude 2008 is where I've been these last few days. This will be brief, because I got back not long ago and some things such as a hot bath and some proper mugs of tea (simultaneously!) came before blogging.

I must say that, despite doubting it could be as good as last year, I wasn't disappointed. More importantly, perhaps, is that the many others that I discussed this with were largely of the same opinion. Everyone can think of a few things that they would change at a festival, were they in charge, but once again, although the weather was rather cool and gave us a few showers, there were no problems with that. It remains so genuinely friendly and real and, although it is a very selfish point to make, we all hoped that it isn't spoilt it by making it too big next year.

In one sense it the biggest little festival and that certainly goes for some of the music too. Sure the headline acts probably sell the most tickets - and Joanna Newsom and Sigur Rós are two that are about as diverse as one could wish for - but that is not to say that lesser known acts are any less important and that is what really matters at Latitude.
I'll mention some of both, and add pictures of my own, in the next week but to start off here is one that I took at the Sunset Stage on Saturday morning:

Wallis Bird live at Latitude 2008.

Also live on the Sunset Stage, but on Friday morning, were the now London-based three-piece 'The Joy Formidable'.

Ritzy (guitar and vocals) trades venom with Rhydian (bass and vocals) to good effect while Justin, drums and vocals but not visible in this shot, ensures that the whole show keeps on track!