Girls That Own The Blues

This follows on from my previous post about Rebecca Downes. It is easy to underestimate what is going on here and the title of this post is adapted from the title of one of the songs on this next EP. 

Quite possibly you have seen me reference Joanne Shaw Taylor in the past and both are, coincidentally, from the West Midlands. The thread of live music, including recorded releases thereof, continues here.

Elles Bailey is from Bristol and her second EP, 'The Elberton Sessions', was recorded  live (self-released, 2016).

I very rarely post links like this but listen and then buy it and maybe her previous EP 'Who Am I To Me' (2015) too.  She is right near the top of must-see live artists in 2017.

Note added 7 March 2017:
Elles Bailey's full length is due in June, title t.b.a.

This next artist is one I have seen live several times before and would quite happily see once again. This is her latest LP, and the follow up to 'Dirt On My Tongue' (2013). This picture harks back to the days of that self-released début album, the interest it garnered and the touring that ensued.

Jo Harman, Cheese & Grain, Frome. 27 October 2013.

Jo Harman - People We Become (Total Creative Freedom, 3 February 2017).

She has released a live album too, for live is the theme here, and it was recorded in 2014 for the BBC, no less, and the venue was hardly shabby either.

Jo Harman and Company - Live at The Royal Albert Hall (Total Creative Freedom, 27 October 2014).

New Music 2016 - Part 54 - Yola Carter - Orphan Offering

Another post and another perspective.  This is released next week and the excitement around it is as deserved as it is palpable. What it is not is the sudden appearance of a new artist.  A change of moniker, yes, but still the star that she always was.

Yolanda Quarty as she was then known is a singer and, very importantly, a song writer from just outside of the Bristol metropolitan area of the UK. Far enough outside the city, which is significantly multicultural, to be a real problem. She toured the world as vocalist with Massive Attack, playing to crowds numbered in the tens-of-thousands, but that was no outlet for her song-writing.  She also became the lead vocalist and songwriter of a band called Phantom Limb. Yes they were good, very good indeed.
I first saw Phantom Limb live when they played The Griffin in Frome one Sunday afternoon in August 2008 playing to an audience of tens (just a few tens). I wrote about that here. They recorded two studio albums, Phantom Limb and The Pines (2012) as well as Live in Bristol (2009).

Now Yola Carter is the new best thing. This is her, writing for herself, with a band chosen to make that what she wants it to be. 
My first comment is that it is amazing. It doesn't really matter if you have or have not heard the earlier works but you might well find them interesting. There are some stunning songs on both LPs and the live versions certainly don't disappoint. In fact that is the way to seek them. Yola Carter is therefore very much towards the top of my list of artists to see live in 2017.

Yola Carter - Orphan Offering (Ear Trumpet Records, 1 November 2016).

Yola Carter - Orphan Offering:

• Home
• What You Do
• Orphan Country
• Heed My Words
• Dead and Gone
• Fly Away

Orphan country, live at The Golden Lion, 244 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol. I'm not sure who is playing percussion here but that aside, l - r, this comprises Nuala Honan (guitar), Kit Hawes (guitar), Yola Carter (lead vocals), Beth Porter ('cello) and Aaron Catlow (fiddle).

New Music 2016 - Part 45 - Lady Nade - Hard To Forget

When you are at a little gig and you hear something that seems too important to ignore...  I am glad to say I have been in that situation plenty of times. Some of those artists are now well known, some are not. There seems to be little rhyme or reason concerning which fall into one category or the other.

Any which way, this is one such; Bristol artist Nadine Gingell whom I first saw play live here in Frome, Somerset way back in 2011. This is her first full length release.

Lady Nade - Hard To Forget (Kitchen Sink Records/Lady Nade, 12 August 2016).

• Hard to Forget
• Waiting for You
• Mind's Made Up
• Those Late Nights
• Don't Make Him Wait
• I Got You Daddy
• Complicated
• Kiss This Troubled Mind
• 6AM
• Get You on My Own

The genre floats effortlessly between acoustic soul, pop and folk and that's not remotely a problem. The lyrics raise the bar and then the voice that sings them nails it.
That's what made me take notice back then. In that sense alone the title of the album is absolutely spot-on too.

Mind's Made Up

Why Bristol matters and other thoughts...

I have issues with Bristol. I lived there from early 1990 until late 1995.
I shall try and explain that statement elliptically, in the context of two recent releases.
The first and most recent of these is the third full length from Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Laura Kidd; it follows Disarm (2010) and Little Battles (2012).

Direction of Travel - She Makes War (The State 51 Conspiracy, 8 April 2016).

Attempt to place Direction of Travel in a pigeonhole at your own peril. It is dark-edged but often rather uplifting. The opening track 'Drown Me Out' starts with a portentious drum figure. The lyrics are uncompromising and unsettling too; that's just the opening salvo. Even a megaphone is not unknown. 

Elements of pop, grunge, folk and electronica, as well as vocal loops, slither in-and-out like Medusa's serpents and with a coterminous unpredictability. 

The one thing that this most certainly is not is comedy for, as she says herself:

She Makes War... because love is a battlefield.

The video to Paper Thin was shot in Boston and New York, February 2016.

To follow this might appear to be something of a problem. That it is not so is the result of a complete oversight on my part!

This next album should probably have been included in my selection of 'Albums of 2015'. Better late than never, I suppose, and again I will make no effort to put the content in any neat little box. Bristol, Brighton and Plymouth are involved here too.

On The Inside - Wildflowers (Caroline International, 28 August 2015).

A trio comprising sisters Siddy and Kit Bennett, and Joe Ashbury, On The Inside is their first full length release. One quote, regarding life on the south coast of England where Siddy Bennett lived between the ages of ten and sixteen, is really rather interesting.

I had a magical childhood, but Plymouth changes a person.

Taken from the album this is 100 Personalities recorded live at The Crypt Sessions, 4 April 2016.

New Music 2014 - Part 27 - The Honeyfire

Unless you have been listening to BCfm tonight you may not know about this.
North Somerset three-piece Wolfhound is no more. No line up changes, just a new name, The Honeyfire and an album of the same name to be released by Jelli Records on 11 December 2014 in the UK and is available to pre-order today.
Not much more to say about this right now except that the new material sounds good. I'll try and sort out those links but, for now, here is the album artwork...

...and the track listing.

• Road Signs
• Delusion
• Dreams
• Parallel
• Unheard Voice
• Wolves
• Can't You See
• Underwater
• Blind Eye
• Noah

You can't stream songs from the forthcoming album yet but in the meantime try this one, Starlight, released in January 2014. This is the last release by exactly the same trio that changed its collective name from Wolfhound to The Honeyfire yesterday.

New Music 2014 - Part 11 - The Cadbury Sisters

I wasn't really planning on a new post so late tonight but then these things just demand attention - now.
It is becoming clear that Bristol sibling trio The Cadbury Sisters is garnering much attention for their acoustic harmonies but not just because of them. Much inspired by Laura Marling they say, but also by artists that are much older than either her or them. The first place I heard their music played, although I was already faintly aware of them, was on Amazing Radio, where Kathryn Tickell has been on the case for some time now, hence the session below. So have others, including the likes of BBC6 Music.

It is three-part harmony but quite unlike The Staves and certainly not like Haim either. Their latest EP 'Close' is released by Bristol-based label and live event promoters Fear of Fiction in June. The Cadbury Sisters are appearing at many festivals and suchlike during the summer and it would be a mistake to miss the opportunity to see them live on a small stage.

New Music 2014 - Part 5 - Arc Iris

'Singing So Sweetly' is the début single from band Arc Iris, the new project of former Low Anthem member Jocie Adams. Here it is:

The self-titled album Arc Iris will be released by Bella Union in the UK on 31 March and by Anti- Records (North America) on 1 April. Arc Iris will play in Bristol, UK, at The Louisiana on 6 May and this doesn't sound remotely like her former band. To say that it is eclectic, as some already have, is only the half of it.

The Low Anthem is also to release new music in 2014. Exciting times, yet again.

[to be continued soon]

New Music - Part 22 - a long awaited return...

Back in 2008, my first year of properly planned festival and live music attendance, one of the new acts that I saw at Latitude and then also live at Bristol Harbour Festival a few weeks later was a singer called Beth Rowley. She is from Bristol, which in part explains her appearance at the latter where she blew away the audience in Queen Square Gardens on a sunny summer afternoon. That year also saw the release of her début album Little Dreamer by Universal. If it had a systemic fault it is that it was too timidly produced, tending towards the Radio 2 end of the market if you will.
After that she seemed to fade away but it is all about to change...

This coincides with a set of three EPs; the first of which, 'Wretched Body', is released on July 8 and here is the title track from it.
It is rather a promising direction I think and, reading between the lines, I suspect that Universal is no longer involved. This is the track listing of what appears to be a digital-only release:

• Wretched Body
• Can't Stop Tomorrow
• Steal Away
• Princess

New Music 2012 - Part 11 - Rebecca Cant

This is her new song 'Field' performed live at 'Songs From The Shed' this week. To  check out more then visit the above, this was their 171st session, and also Rececca Cant on Facebook and Myspace.

  It is also my first attempt to embed audio/video in 'Thoughts On Music'.

New Music 2012 - Things to look forward to...

I've got a list, several in fact. I have always had lists in so far as I can remember. The question that matters is not so much the items on them but their very existence and what I choose to do with them.
I have been inspired to mention this facet of my life by the following blog, which I highly recommend:
listologies.blogspot.com
It is, almost by definition, in a list all of its own. For some reason I currently can't add to my side-bar 'link list' but these things happen. I can, if you are reading this, still update and add posts.  I'm wondering if I've broken it in some way or that, by accumulation it has simply become a list-too-long (it saves the no-longer displayed entries). If it disappears for a short while then fear not. I'm not interested in its long-invisible content and I am pretty sure that you are not either as it is supposed to be my recent listening list.  To that general end, and if it is not otherwise working normally by some currently unspecified time tomorrow, I shall abolish the existing one and attempt to start a new one.
*** the listening list in the side-bar is operational again, starting from scratch with an artist from Bristol who has just this afternoon come to my attention - Rebecca Cant.***

Not Least @ Latitude - Part 6 - Wilder

I mentioned this Bristol four-piece shortly before I left for Latitude 2010.  Here they are live - and yes you guessed - on the Lake Stage.

Sam plays guitar and also sings but clearly not in this shot.

  Joe plays bass while Jay (out of shot)  does the duty on synths.

So far that is quite unremarkable but there was a problem: they had no drummer that they could call their own and that is where the story becomes slightly surreal. Everyone goes to a supermarket when they need some munchies and the proto-Wilder are of course no different except that (to fan the fires of haters of a certain chain in particular) they struck lucky.  As well as what they were there for they also found their fourth piece. Drummer Beci is now also, apparently, the de facto band interviewee (and sometimes interviewer) and they didn't even have to pay for her at the checkout.

They were ferocious live on Sunday afternoon. The single Boys vs. Girls was as good as might have been expected but so was the rest of the set. The band has very recently been signed to indie label Rough Trade Records and the LP should be out around the end of this year. Wilder is, in my book at least, another one to watch.

Wet Wipes and Waterproofs

I'm all ready to set off for Latitude 2010 tomorrow morning with the aforementioned items high on the list of things to take.  All being well this time tomorrow evening I shall be in that orthogonal universe that is a three-day festival.   As an outlook it might seem as gloomy as it is pragmatic but in fact I'm very much of the opinion that festivals are more about a state of mind than anything truly measurable. Who can tell if that hypothesis will be put to the test?
The weather looks as if it will be a mixture of sunshine and showers, with a trend towards better conditions as time goes on.  The main annoyance is that Thursday and Friday look like being rather windy for July.  In that regard I'm pretty glad that I have a small tent as the large dome types tend to suffer in the wind.


I've just been listening to Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1 and he played an interesting track that I had not heard before: it is 'Girls vs. Boys', the first single from new Bristol-based electro-indie band Wilder. Huw Stephens is also, by coincidence, curating the showcase for new music 'BBC Introducing on The Lake Stage' at Latitude as in the years I have attended and mentioned that Wilder are playing...
Yet another to add to the mix that I would like to hear.

This is their first single and it appears, as limited 7" vinyl, on July 26 released by Rough Trade Records to whom the band is now signed.  On the basis of this single and another track also recorded live at the BBC Maida Vale Sessions, which was played, this is an enticing prospect indeed.
One of my few real criticisms of Latitude 2009 was that the BBC Introducing - Lake Stage was something of a disappointment: it was under utilised and, as a result, under attended.
Other new, or at least newish, acts that I would like to catch include The Middle East that is in fact from Australia and some others I have mentioned before, if only in passing, such as Jesca Hoop, Esben And The Witch, Yuck and I Blame Coco. 
On the Yuck front, and since I last mentioned them, it seems that they have so much new music that the band is now planning a side project. It will be interesting to see and hear what happens...

As an aside, nothing to do with Latitude in so far as I aware, here is something for the music space cadets amongst us.  The band, now reconfigured, and some of its members I have mentioned before, love life, love pop and love vinyl...
http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=329142

I have plenty more to tell but it is time for an early night; there won't be any in the next few if I have my way.

Ilya lyrics, again.

The lyrics of 'Soleil, soleil' have been amongst the most sought after information on my blog in 2008. At first it surprised me a great deal but now it no longer does; if the information not readily available then the web and its most famous search engine is the obvious port of call. I do exactly that but hadn't really thought about the consequences. One of which is that, without having to trawl the likes of MySpace, I have been alerted to many artists, recent and old, that I would probably never have discovered otherwise.

Here are the lyrics to the title track of that Ilya album:

They Died For Beauty --- (San) Ilya
Farewell my lovely
You sleep so cold
And how I'll love you forever.
My darling, I suppose

Chorus:

We had everything
And still wanted more
We tore the stars down from the sky
Sometime back in '64
Now I remember the memory
Forever tonight.

Let these words be my testament
To each day that went wrong
Without you dear, I am nothing
And there's nowhere I belong.

Farewell my lovely
You sleep so cold
And how I'll love you forever.
My darling, I suppose

Chorus:
We had everything
And still wanted more
We tore the stars down from the sky
Sometime back in '64
Now I remember the memory
Forever tonight.

Let these words be my testament
To each day that went wrong
Without you dear, I am nothing
And there's nowhere I belong.

Chorus:

We had everything
And still wanted more
We tore the stars down from the sky
Sometime back in '64
Now I remember the memory
Forever tonight
Forever , fo-o-o-orever tonight.
We had everything
And still wanted more
We tore the stars down from the sky
Sometime back in '64
Now I remember the memory
Forever tonight
Forever, fo-o-o-orever tonight.

There is, in fact, no weak track amongst the nine on this album and if you think this year's release by Portishead might be a bit too much like hard work you might well like to give this a chance instead. Or just first - you might even like them both - with each for the right situation.

Phantom Limb

Spending much of Sunday afternoon in the pub is pretty decadent, and something I very rarely do, but I have to say that The Griffin is in my opinion the best pub in Frome, which has quite a few to choose from, and not least because it has its own on-site brewery. In this instance it was simply the music that clinched it!
This Bristol-based six-piece have been stirring up favourable comment since SXSW 2008, and thus a Glastonbury booking on the Jazz/World Stage, where their largely acoustic southern soul/blues caused quite a stir. It also resulted in a record deal with Irish label Naim Edge. The really impressive thing is their innate virtuosity. Their début album comprises only original compositions, recorded and mastered in Bristol and Monmouth, and was released on August 25, 2008. The vinyl release, also mastered and cut in Bristol, is to follow on September 15, 2008.

The Griffin was far too crowded to take any worthwhile photos, given that it is not huge and Phantom Limb are a six-piece band so that takes up space, but the music was quite amazing. Lead vocalist Yolanda Quarty also provides about half the vocals on the forthcoming Massive Attack album, and has toured worldwide with the same, but trip-hop this is not and they could well lose her to this project, for which she also writes the majority of the lyrics, simply because her voice and the musicians suit the material so well.

The band is something approaching a Bristol 'super-group' and it seems oddly fitting that one of Bristol's premier music venues is a pub called The Louisiana. Check out the album:

1. Don't Say A Word
2. Withering Bones
3. I'll Never Be The Same
4. My Love Has Gone
5. Playing With Death
6. Run
7. Good Fortune
8. We Will Carry
9. Spring Flowers
10. The Hard Way

This is the track list but I couldn't tell you which ones that I like most as I simply haven't decided yet, and when I do I'll probably change my mind.

They Died For Beauty

Thinking about music from Bristol, as I was a few days ago, leads me to mention a 2004 album that I still frequently listen to. I have not mentioned one for a while but, as the weather is tending towards spring (I hope), it reminded me of another.

Ilya - They Died For Beauty

Released on Virgin/EMI it is certainly one for late at night or early in the morning - nine tracks of chilled acoustica/elctronica, with more than a little of the European lounge influence included on some, of which only two are less than five minutes long. It is however essentially summery as long dark nights don't become it; particularly the wonderful Soleil Soleil but for what my thoughts are worth it is as near flawless as it gets. How were they rewarded for this masterpiece?
You guessed - they were dumped by the label! There is a later album 'Somerset', of which more soon, but the good news is that 'They Died For Beauty' is still readily available (and that includes the 12" vinyl version too) from amazon.co.uk, or 'Marketplace Sellers' thereon, at a reasonable price. Ignore the currently rubbish illustrations of the album artwork on the above sites; the image above is of my copy of the 12" LP that I bought in early 2005 and it was taken about an hour ago. At almost 49 minutes it is long for a single LP but the quality is still good and to check that I'm listening to it as I write.

Now, if only to avoid misunderstandings, a few words of warning:
There is more than one Ilya! This is not a bad thing but it can be confusing which, I will readily admit, is how I came to discover another! The "Bristol Ilya" have released in the US as 'San Ilya'.

The cover of the US CD version of They Died for Beauty.
It is very easy to forget just how beguiling trip-hop can be!

There is however another, US based, Ilya:
To the best of my current knowledge they have released two studio albums:

• Poise Is The Greater Architect (2003)
• Leaving Sans-Souci (2006)

The first is not too hard to find in the UK:
In this ILYA Blanca Rojas does vocals (in place of Joanna Swann, plus Nick Pullin and Dan Brown of the UK ILYA). The songs and sound are certainly not the same but neither are they a million miles apart and whatever the differences I find them all very likable. Like 'Somerset' the US ILYA's second album might well be harder to track down. 'Leaving Sans-Souci' does not seem to be readily available in the UK and amazon.com don't seem to stock it either. It is available from third-party sellers but at some not insignificant price.

It does however exist and this is my CD copy ---

70% of the total cost was shipping from the US!

Finally there is a third Ilya, apparently quite unrelated to the forgoing, about whom I know nothing more than that which this link provides.

Note added 22 March 2008:

For whosoever searched for the track list of the Ilya album Poise Is The Greater Architect today, here it is:

001. Isola
002. Rana
003. BPD
004. I Want To Know
005. Blatchford
006. Lady Folly
007. Nux Vomica
008. In My Sleep
009. Disturbed
010. Guilty Kisses

And for completeness, here is that for their second album, Leaving Sans-Souci:

001. Baalbec
002. Where Are You Now?
003. I Could Tell You, But Then We Would Have To Kill You
004. Silver Kabko
005. The Magician
006. Hostile Reader
007. Wildflower
008. Wasted Distance
009. Therese
010. Lament
011. Annette

I'd like to work out the lyrics for these albums too but it will take some time! I'm always open to offers of help and you will be credited.

Looking forward ... Why does it feel so good?

What is there to look forward to?

Today was a little luxury and I have just spent a couple of hours listening to things that I should have paid more attention to before. I pretended that spring was now here and thus listened to the 2007 'Ys Street Band EP'. You may by now be aware of my various foibles when it comes to music and this conforms to several of them: female vocals, nu-folk and indie to mention just three.

Ys (the album) consists of just five tracks and is not far short of an hour long – but for those who like this kind of music both album and EP come highly recommended.That, in 2007, Bloc Party released ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ says a great deal about this phenomenon but in this case it does not apply on all levels. Joanna Newsome ticks all the above-mentioned boxes but, elfin though she is, an instrument as small as a guitar simply does not become her. As well as writing songs and singing them she plays harp – the full-size acoustic double-stringed kind – and in popular music that is less common than hen’s teeth! That in itself is odd enough but she is also an accomplished songwriter of what I am currently calling nu-folk; others may know it as freak folk or indeed by another label instead. (I'm not really bothered about what it is called but I'm wondering if there any consensus on this? +++ please let me know+++ If there is then I'll be happy to try and conform to it!)
This EP and its predecessors, The Milk-eyed Mender (2004) and Ys (2006), are in a similar vein and thus not necessarily easy listening for the unwary.

Joanna Newsome Ys (2006). [Click to enlarge.]

It is not before time that Bristol stamped its mark on music again. That ten or fifteen years ago it was famous world-wide, but certainly not for this kind of music, simply isn't relevant any longer; in Beth Rowley it has a new sound. Portishead are threatening a new album but, as good as it may be, Rowley has the ambition to rewrite the the rules on her own terms...

The album Little Dreamer is due to be released on 26th May 2008.