2010 - The Year that...

What a year for music 2010 is turning out to be.  When, back at the end of 2009, I was trying to predict what it might bring I was fairly sure that nu-folk was finally coming to prominence.  I underestimated that, particularly the contribution to it that has come from outside the UK and from North America in particular.

It has bothered the UK charts throughout 2010 and that is reflected by the fact that of the twelve albums nominated for the 2010 Mercury Music Award three are of this persuasion:

Becoming A Jackal  ---  Villagers

I Speak Because I Can  ---  Laura Marling

Sigh No More  ---  Mumford and Sons

All three acts appeared at Latitude 2010, along with two of the other nine, and all credit to the organisers for their foresight. Of those three the only one that I didn't see live, owing to the inevitable conflicts of timing between the different stages, was Villagers. Everyone that I spoke to rated the performance highly and now the least I can do is get the album.

An artist who falls in to the Americana/roots part of the equation as mentioned above is Lissie and her 2010 album 'Catching A Tiger'; I was unable to see her perform live at Latitude.  That was a pity and it was the result of a first for me: four music stages and acts I wanted to see on all of them simultaneously! To some extent I had to go with choices that minimized the time spent between stages and maximized the time listening to music, but that is surely far better than being at a loose end?

That is not the say that the UK music scene is being overwhelmed by such things, far from it in fact, and that can only be good.  At the moment you can pretty much have anything and not be a pariah... Dub-step has moved to new levels of sophistication and, like it or not, new audiences to the point that it is bothering the charts too.  Artists such as Plan B, Professor Green and Example have all revealed albums that have proven major hitters in the chart.  If you want good old pop and all that comes with it that is still there too, along with all the rest.

Then there is the latest talent to have burst from the Brit School of Performing Arts - she is Katie B and her début single is entitled 'Katie On A Mission'. If that were just the title then so what? Hear her interviewed and, this is what has struck me about many in 2010, she comes across as thoughtful, intelligent and very much involved and immersed in the music scene as a whole.

Finally,  Eminem' 'I Like The Way You Lie' is a cracking return to form for him and the collaboration with Rihanna, whose world weary vocals actually make the song, is nothing if not inspired.

I've mentioned cover versions too, especially daring ones, and here are two more:

• Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray   ---  Patsy Cline/Eddie Miller
• Dead Flowers  ---  The Rolling Stones/Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

They both come on one 10" vinyl offering (NAMES40) - and Caitlin Rose's 'Dead Flowers' is nothing short of astonishing. Except, that is, perhaps I do have a secret liking for country after all...

Her début album 'Own Side Now' was released in the UK today (9 August). Of the ten tracks on it not one is reproduced from the seven on the item mentioned above and, as well as the Nashville country influences, it has many that are reminiscent of the West Coast music scene in the late sixties and early seventies. 

This just skims the surface of what I might mention - no rock in here for example - but if music can get better than this and I don't see any reason why not, then I want to be around to hear it.

This theme is, in many ways, continued in another post above:
New Music 2010 - Part 16 - Across America in music.

New Music 2010 - Yet another wants-list.

It is time that I retuned to this again, it is in effect 'Part 12', and is there anything
more to wish for? Let me tell you that, at least in my world, there most certainly is.
I'll start with some items from the US including this one that was released in 2009 but I only discovered recently and received in physical form today.  It is surely no secret, unless that is you have been Google-transported here on a whim in which case I can only apologise and welcome you, that I am a fan of folk, acoustica and Americana amongst other genres.

It is true that buying music essentially unheard, based on a hunch and the odd review by who-knows-who, is something of a risk but I don't regard it as gambling; for a start the odds are better and the risk is commensurate with the reward.  You might win big-time, in terms of new music, but you will never lose more than you pay for the item in question.  Based on two listenings this evening this one is a winner: quietly optimistic and plaintive by turns, but not by numbers.
Many have made the Bon Iver comparisons; Bowerbirds toured with him and aside from that I can see why they are made.  'Upper Air' also made me rediscover my CD of Laura Veirs' 2004 album 'Carbon Glacier': It is less melancholy than 'For Emma, Forever Ago' and rather less icily wrought than 'Carbon Glacier', but certainly none the worse for that.  If you like 'A Fine Frenzy', and therefore wonder about pain and piano, then you might like to try this.


You might by now have realized that my definition of new is not something concocted by a major label, or for that matter any other but it seems less likely, nor will it be predictable.  Formed in 2004, and on their fifth drummer before the release of their first album later this summer but until now little known in the UK.
Los Angeles present:

Today there was also an historic victory for new music of all kinds...  the BBC trustees ruled against the proposed shut down of Digital Radio BBC6 Music.  This is no time for complacency however; we need to build on that victory for the benefit of public service broadcasting worldwide.

A Lily for the Spectre

While 'New Young Pony Club' was clearly an act far too metropolitan for the Sunrise Arena at Latitude 2007 it is actually also difficult to imagine an act for whom it could be a setting so absolutely perfect...

Her nu-folk songs - a genre I rather like anyway - are mostly trans-Atlantic rather than obviously British or American so that they are largely without place or time. Add to this the fact she is an artist who also has the folk-tradition of 'patter' between songs - it veered randomly but effortlessly between musings concerning disturbing the owls in the woods and the various hazards of festival toilets - down to a fine art and you can imagine this gig had all the potential to be a memorable one.

While she had swapped the sylvan glades of her native Wisconsin for those of rural Suffolk on a sunny Saturday lunchtime she clearly seemed quite at home there. The other thing is that I had never even heard of Stephanie Dosen until I bought my 'Festival Programme' when I arrived on the Thursday evening.

She is now signed to UK label Bella Union and her début UK album A Lily For The Spectre is available now from all good independent music stores.

While this is her UK début she has previously released an album, Ghosts, Mice and Vagabonds, in the US that is not currently available on Amazon.co.uk or seemingly even from the usually ever so dependable independent UK establishments. I have found four copies available from Amazon Marketplace sellers but the cheapest of these is GBP 25 and all are sent from the US anyway. Amazon.com, for what it is worth, is little better either.

You could however try buying it direct from her website: http://www.stephaniedosen.com/buy.htm It is currently available on CD for US$ 12.00 (about GBP 6.00) but do check whether you will incur shipping and also customs charges as these may well be very significant extra costs. [This information is provided in good faith but I can offer no warranties or guarantees - it is solely your responsibility to ensure that you are confident in the supply of the goods offered and of the security of the services provided by this seller.]