New Music 2014 - Part 43 - Trash Kit - Confidence

When I wrote this post, about their self-titled début album back in 2010, I didn't really anticipate reviewing its sequel. Although I had liked it, as the years passed I thought nothing more of it. It seemed just to be a case of the three artists doing exactly what they felt like doing on the spur of the moment with little thought to convention, let alone thoughts of the future, as it blasted through seventeen tracks in twenty-seven minutes. I am glad to say that once again I was wrong!
The core trio of Rachel Aggs, Rachel Horwood and Ros Murray remains, as does the contribution (brass in this case) of Verity Sussman, on recent release 'Confidence'.

In this the eleven tracks make up a play-length of just over 29 minutes. The second one 'Medicine' nears the four-minute mark!
Fear not - the self-imposed restrictions on song structure, particularly the lack of chorus, and the ways and means to avoid problems with that are reason enough to persevere. So too the often almost impenetrable vocals, that are usually low in the mix. This tendency is brought over from Murray and Sussman's previous life in Electrelane - I'm really thinking 'No Shouts, No Calls' (2007) in particular, though the prog tendencies are much less pronounced here.

Discuss: "Warpaint is an Electrelane rip-off."

I have just remembered why I still love blogging so much. The title of this post is the enquiry, to a 'well known search engine', that led an unsuspecting reader to 'Thoughts on Music' barely ten minutes ago.
Good on you, anonymous reader, and I can see your line of thought. I have, rather luckily, mentioned both the aforementioned acts several times. We could all use much more of this kind of provocation and then some reasoned comments: be they in agreement with the motion of the debate or not does not matter one bit. Neither is it the time for me to lay down my thoughts on the matter - I have never considered it in these terms until just now.
Over to you, dear readers! You start and I'll reply.

New Music 2010 #22 - Trash Kit - mayhem matters.

This may be one of the stranger posts of the year.  I've said before that I'm quite happy to buy new music without having previously heard any of it.  This falls in to that category. A few months ago I mentioned, and even posted about, Brighton's 'Help She Can't Swim' (HSCS) from a few years back. Further investigations lead me to the conclusion that it/they are no more - lost at sea, presumably? What is more, and perhaps even worse, is that fellow (former) Brightonians Electrelane seem to have disbanded too.  If you know something different about any of this then please just let me know!


Anyway, and for some reason, it came to my attention that Trash Kit's eponymous 2010 album might fix a gap and that amazon.co.uk were almost giving it away (£2.99 - with free delivery - but no longer it would seem). It arrived here this morning and it is destined to mess with Halloween quite gloriously!

I've got tomorrow's play list pretty much done but it is a bit heavy on long, brooding, and often largely instrumental, songs.  Rather like HSCS, Trash Kit doesn't do long drawn out songs but on the other hand is not quite so shouty (well just maybe). Be that as it may this takes some feat of précis - the album is composed of seventeen tracks but runs to just 27:48 in total.  Only five tracks exceed two minutes while track 9, the positively languid Natascha, exceeds three but not by much. Brevity can be a virtue and in this case, as with HSCS, it is.
Ros Murray (of Electrelane) plays bass throughout here whilst Verity Susman, also of Electrelane, plays saxophone on three tracks. Rachel Horwood sings and also plays drums throughout, while Rachel Aggs sings and plays either guitar or violin.
This is certainly no case of brevity for the sake of getting it over with. I like this album; in fact I like it a great deal.
It is Upset! The Rhythm UTR036.  They blog too: http://trashkitrules.blogspot.com/


The links below feature comment on Electrelane or members thereof:

• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2008/03/listening-today-not-new-and-without.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-shout-very-good-call.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/07/music-i-want-in-2009-part-9-new.html

I'm now reminded of another Brighton-based, at least in part, band that I feared may be no more. It is one that I have seen live and I now know that this is not true. Their third album is due in early 2011.

Music I Want in 2009 - Part 9 - New European

I'm pondering strategies for a wet weekend at Latitude 2009 but the issues involved are not devolved; the weather is no less my responsibility than it is that of the event organisers and neither of us can blame the other for it. They have contingency plans too and so, even if not ideal, I think it will probably work out OK... Rather than say which acts I'm hoping to see, though I have mentioned a few already, I thought I'd tell you of a few that I won't be seeing because, in so far as I know, they are not playing. It is not criticism, rather curiosity, that got the better of me...

Ray Rumours is the semi-solo project of Ros Murray (Electrelane) and it sounds nothing like their electronic output and this is the second album released under this moniker.
Recorded in St. Martin l'Ardèche, in the autumn and winter of 2007-2008, it is entirely acoustic. It is released on CD by StitchStitch (March 2009) and it available either direct from either of these links or from some independent record stores.

More Scandinavian surprise, this time in the form of ambient folk-electronica from Sweden, comes in the form of the début album 'Aurora'.

The Deer Tracks (2009) - Aurora

And here is another recent release...

Lau are battling with Bellowhead, in press reviews and more, for the crown of best folk-inspired band of 2009 and it is quite obviously a discussion to be had over a couple of pints in the pub(s) of your choice (The Bourne Valley and The Griffin would be mine) but beyond that it means little except to say that we are currently spoiled by such talent and long may it remain so.

As Fools We Are

I wrote a Halloween/All Hallows' Eve themed post last year and this year I decided to have another go with the theme being the connection between Halloween, which has become increasingly "celebrated" or at least commercialised in the UK in recent years; the event known "Bonfire Night", held to celebrate the failure of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspiritors to blow up Parliament in 1665 and, this year only, the dénouement of the most fascinating US Presidential contest in my lifetime!
This wonderful cocktail of superstition, religion and politics needs a soundtrack and a dark one at that - of shock, fear, change, possibility and perhaps ultimately redemption. Here is my condensed selection of music for the next week:

To start with is the album 'Rock It To The Moon' by Electrelane. The fairground ride has the word 'pleasure' on it, the lights are lit, but the whole scene is deserted.
The music is similarly almost devoid of voices: On the first track a dog barks in a distorted electronically-warped sound-scape. When voices do fleetingly appear on tracks they are often indecipherable souls - the snatch distinguishable is "some fallen angels". This is what I imagine happens when the 'Piper At The Gates of Dawn' reaches the end of the road and is negotiating with Charon. Much of the later output by Electrelane is similarly obscure and, while less obviously so, instrumental, and seemingly concerned with some journey - the 2007 album No Shouts, No Calls would be suitable too.

In the last couple of years the UK has seen a huge explosion in music perhaps best termed nu-folk which, although not at all a unique phenomenon, has produced some remarkable artists and when dark, disturbing songs are required few can hold a candle to Laura Marling. Last Monday 'Night Terror' was finally released as a single but it originally appeared in 2007 on the 7" EP 'My Manic and I' and the title track is no less disturbing.

Not everything is so scary and, sticking with the nu-folk acoustic genre, here is a band that have been around for a couple of years now but are finally getting some well-deserved recognition. They are called Fireworks Night and take a slightly more mellow approach and, to support the Halloween theme, their female co-vocalist is Rhiannon; for those with long memories the very same as the benevolent mythical Welsh witch who was made famous, at least in music, by Stevie Nicks.

Their first release was a 7" single in 2006 rather prophetically titled
'The Day We Fell Through The Ice'.

It was followed in 2007 by the album 'As Fools We Are' and, while not exactly cheerful, it is quietly optimistic about the way things will turn out and I like it for that.

They have not been idle since and their new EP 'A Mirror, A Ghost' will be available on Organ Grinder Records very soon.

Like music, like life.

Listening today... not new and without lyrics.

I'm liking two albums very much at the moment. Neither is new, but to me they are as I've only got them this week. They are both largely without vocals but, aside from that, they are really very different indeed.

Re-released in 2007, and made by the Type Records supremo himself, it is just awesome. That said it is also important to realise that this is total electronica.

Rather different is this live CD, recorded and produced in Chicago by Steve Albini, released by sort-of-Brighton-based Electrelane. Absolutely revolutionary it may not be* but it is a fine release and only makes me want to see them play live even more than I already do!

Electrelane - Axes

* In both cases I've meddled vicariously with the album art-work a little (in part because neither album had the title or artist on the cover) but, while on the subject of altering things, The Partisan (Track 10 on Axes) is actually a rather remarkable cover of a cover! It started life not as French Resistance anthem Chant de Partisans but as an earlier (White Russian) one by Anna Marly, who had later adopted France as her homeland. It was then translated into French, but in England in 1943, and used as propaganda on BBC radio. Later still was an English translation (origin currently unknown to me) and it was made notable by Leonard Cohen (1969) and Joan Baez (1972), only to reappear here interpreted in a yet another different way! This one does have vocals but, as is very often the Electrelane way, those of Verity Susman are not prominent in the mix. It is certainly true here, and perhaps the exact intention is that they are almost indecipherable?
I'm delighted to say that, for the curious like me, versions of the lyric, in Russian, French, English and also Persian can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chant_des_Partisans

Halloween -- instrumental rot -- To Rococo Rot -- or rot in hell?

I've been asked recently what I thought about 2007 and what I might expect of 2008. If I were able to do the latter with any reliability then I most probably would not be doing the job that I do now.
As it is only the start of November I'm going to keep my partly evolved thoughts, such as they are, a secret for now and focus on other music I have and like. I had intended to compile a playlist for Halloween but I never got around to doing it. In fact it seems that it doesn't matter at all as it will be just as appropriate for all the dark winter nights, bonfires, feasts, fireworks and the like regardless of what the remembrance is for.
Lyrically this kind of situation is a minefield but there are plenty willing to take the challenge however. Instrumental rock and pop is rather conveniently in the throes of a revival and, while it has its roots in earlier times, I think it still has a great deal to offer.

For spooky listening just start here (and suggest your own favourites):

Rock It To The Moon - Electrelane (1998)

Yes, it is almost ten years since this was released and it was their first album but this is still so good. There are no decipherable lyrics (except on the 'hidden track' at the end) but that is no problem! There are human voices on some, on the first track there is just a dog barking, but the arrangements are amazing.

Far more recent (2007), and perhaps rather more electronic, is abc123 by To Rococo Rot.

This EP (an 8-track 45 rpm vinyl 12") is released by Domino Records and it is well worth having.
What is more, and particularly if you find it too cheerful, try playing it at 33 rpm instead; while rather different in mood it still seems to sound authentic!

If you really crave absolute authenticity, and a desire to rot in hell circa 1970, then Black Sabbath and the albums Black Sabbath and Paranoid are prerequisite and these should really be on original vinyl (Vertigo). That would take some beating!
November 9:
That temporary image is no more! Here is an image that is the real deal instead.

The album was released over thirty-seven years ago and, quite coincidentally, on the very same day that I started at primary school aged almost 4½! I don't remember the original release, of course, but the image above is taken, notwithstanding, from the cover of an original 'Vertigo' vinyl copy from 1970 that I now have. (Click the image - as often is the case in this blog - for a larger version of the image that, in this case, is 800 x 800 pixels.) To take the story to the present I actually took this image this evening using the original vinyl album, a digital camera and nothing else particularly clever.

I didn't intend to vanish for five weeks...

All sorts of theories about my disappearance have been suggested by my friends, but they are all untrue. I have not been kidnapped, in prison, or even any of the far more improbable suggestions! In fact - as well as still being very much alive (thanks to the people that e-mailed me to ask me just that, or various versions of it) I'd love to thank, above all, absolutely everyone who has looked after me or out for me in one way or another.

I did at least do the whole 2007 "environmentally friendly" thing by being an unwilling victim of a carbon-neutral road traffic accident. I was a pedestrian who was run over by a pedal cyclist... the cyclist luckily suffered no injuries but I ended up in hospital in Lancashire for eight days. It was simply an accident - nothing more or less - but, having experimented when I certainly didn't intend to, I can say without doubt that I don't regard this kind of contribution to an environmentally friendly lifestyle in any way worthwhile.

You might think that I had therefore had so much more time than usual to listen to, and blog about, music but actually it didn't quite work out that way. At first, and maybe apart from an intermittent headache, I couldn't understand why I felt this way but I simply had little interest in listening to any music at all. After a few days I had the desire to listen to music, but only a few albums out of those (thirty or so) that had stayed with me. The one that I listened to most - and it was the one I had most recently acquired - it had actually arrived at home, on vinyl, from a record store barely a mile from the hospital I ended up in - but the better part of two hundred miles away! This fact actually never occurred to me until I got back home and, while I've since regained my interest in all the other music I have, I've certainly continued to play that one and it is the subject of my next post. The only other I played to death in that time was very predictable: 'No Shouts No Calls' by Electrelane.

No shouts, but a very good call!

I mentioned this album in my "want to listen to" list last week. It is released Monday 30th April but thanks to the great folks at Boomkat Records I had the vinyl version arrive in the post on Friday. I have already listened to it at least half a dozen times and it is quite something.

Let's just start with the LP itself: it is two very well pressed discs of heavy vinyl, as there is no attempt to cram the 44 minutes on to a single one, each in its own illustrated slip cover and both contained in an outer sleeve (as illustrated above, with the logo in glossy foil rather than merely printed), plus there is also an A3 poster/lyric sheet. All this for £2 ($4) more than the regular CD - no contest I'd say! It is the most beautifully designed and executed LP package I have seen in a long time. To be quite honest if I didn't actually like the music, and since I had never heard anything from it or indeed either of Electrelane's previous output it was quite possible, it wouldn't have mattered too much!

Now for the music: It is actually quite difficult to describe because it mostly relies on textures and the creation of soundscapes quite heavily, indeed four of the eleven tracks are entirely instrumental and the and lyrics don't tend to be an overpowering element on the others. The result is best described by that often double-edged term 'atmospheric'.
To me it reminds me of walking through a familiar landscape on a very foggy day, or perhaps a vivid dream that has that strange feeling of being real but somehow distorted. I suspect that it will split opinion as I can see that if it doesn't in some indefinable way "make sense" on first listening then it is going to prove hard going. [Writing this review certainly is proving hard going.]
I won't suggest anything it sounds like because I can't think of much that will help in that way. Although in no way the same it is worth noting that Electrelane supported Arcade Fire on the UK leg of their recent tour and if you are a fan of the less "chart-orientated" end of indie then you might find this is well worth a listen...
...and also another album that will baffle your friends with when you play it in the car!

2007 so far, and my "want to listen to" list (Part 2)

I better finish this topic pretty quickly because the list of things I want to listen to is getting longer faster than I can possibly add them to this blog or - importantly and also much more expensively - to my music collection!

The first is a Brighton-based band, Electrelane, that has recently come to my attention due to the fact that they supported Arcade Fire on the UK leg of their world tour. That I had not heard of it is rather inexcusable as they have been together for the better part of a decade and are to release their fourth studio album on 30th April.

No Shouts No Calls will be available on 12" vinyl.

The second is also Brighton-based; in this case an eight member collective that I had already heard of although perhaps maybe most people haven't! In 2006 Shoreline released a brilliant 5-track 10" EP, From Eden, Home And In Between - on vinyl only - on 'Yesternow Recordings' (YES001) .
Their début album, Time Well Spent, should follow fairly soon, also on 'Yesternow Recordings'. I say "Brighton-based" advisedly; the leading lights in Shoreline are main vocalist Beatrice Sanjust di Teluada, who is from Italy, and Tom Cowan who hails from Burton on Trent. What does their music sound like? Well I've seen it described as 'acid folk' a couple of times but how much does that help most of us? It is however certainly not 'alt-folk' either...
Entirely acoustic, it has a indefinable child-like quality. Often dream-like the lyrics sometimes seem to make sense and sometimes they don't, but they are a source of wonder and their actual meaning utterly unimportant. Most strikingly, Sounds Like may not even have any meaning at all but these are truly musical nursery rhymes for adults.
The reason that I have not made any comparisons between Shoreline and other acts is because, at the moment, I quite simply can't think of any!
Last but not least is this one:
Laura Marling - London Town (EP)

This was released only on 7" on Monday 9th April, by WayOutWest Records. If you can still find a copy available - and don't even think about quizzing Amazon about it - then it is well worth having!
She is not actually a 'Londoner' at all but comes from Eversley, on the fringes of Reading. Her music sounds more like alt-folk than acid-folk, but does it also overlap with anti-folk? I think so - and the problem with all these so-called 'genres' is that they are so numerous as to be quite meaningless. Almost as numerous indeed as the new generation of (mostly) guitar-wielding UK singer-songwriters, that are variously so labelled, and with whom I have no problem at all!

"Britain Has Talent"and we certainly don't need Simon Cowell's latest reality TV idea (of that name) to prove it.
From the ever-so-delicately picked 'hardly there' sound, to the full punk-rock blast of bands such as Glasgow's 'The Hedrons', it is already a fact; Maxïmo Park even provided an apposite summary with the track 'Girls Who Play Guitars', which features on their new album 'Our Earthly Pleasures'. Long may it remain the case!