Deer Shed Festival 3 - New Music 2012 - Part 23

You might have suspected that this was coming. Festivals for me are, as much as anything else, a chance to go and catch up with some new artists that either I have never heard live or sometimes that I have never even heard about. This first trio of acts all fall into the former category and they all featured on the Saturday. I present them simply in the order in which I saw them play:
First off, and indeed the first music artist to perform at Deer Shed 3 on the Saturday, was North Yorkshire's own Pip Mountjoy on the (Far from the) Lake Stage. The stage was thus re-named as it had finally been erected far from where it was originally intended to be, owing to the very wet conditions prevailing before the festival took place.

She accompanied herself on acoustic guitar and played most of the six tracks from her début EP 'Louisiana', which I have already mentioned here and also included a couple of very recently written new songs that were extremely promising, not least the one that she introduced with some obvious reluctance and embarrassment, yet to considerable acclaim thereafter. I had already bought the EP digitally but as it is now available hand-made, including the sewn CD sleeve and CD-R, I bought a real one for £4 and here it is. 

These are now also available on-line, also for £4 (p & p extra) from her website.

She is off travelling, something that features in many of her songs and may impact on the availability of the CD, but returns to the UK for a tour in October/November 2012. 

  

This next, who played on the main stage at 3.40pm, is a trio of sisters from Hertfordshire who perform under the title of 'The Staves'.

This, their three-track 'Mexico EP' from 2011 has already appeared in the side-bar of this blog but here they are live and acapella.

And in standard mode - this is Mexico from the aforementioned EP.

The Staves release their début album in autumn 2012, hence the new music category. 

The final act of today's trio is in fact the only one to have released an album so far. That is Leeds' five-piece Ellen and The Escapades and I have mentioned their 2012 début album 'All The Crooked Scenes'. In fact it is a great example of what I like to do...

I was idly listening to Amazing Radio a couple of months ago and, having no previous knowledge of the band at all, a track from it came on. I didn't even attempt to listen to any other tracks on it: I just ordered the album from the band's website, all the more so because I found that for little extra cost I could have it on gate-fold vinyl. It arrived very swiftly and it certainly didn't disappoint.

My next mission was to see this band live and Deer Shed Festival soon came to the rescue as Ellen & The Escapades headlined the Lake Stage on Saturday evening and here is something from that set.

Ellen Smith has a way with song-writing and a voice that matches it perfectly.

  

You could just possibly compare her to Amy Macdonald at her very best but, more than anything else, it makes me think that backed up by such an amazing band she both writes and sings songs that are the modern equivalent of Lowry paintings but never quite so modern as to alienate those who know the originals.

That is an astonishing achievement.

Ain't Nobody - Clare Maguire

It is time to tackle lyrics again and this is one that has proven to be harder than most.  It is also one that I have wanted to do more than most; ever since I saw it performed live in front of a public audience for the very first time almost three months ago.  The usual caveats apply but here goes regardless.


Ain't Nobody
Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Open up your torment
And bury me inside
I can see us changing
Like the seasons over time
The silver old river
Reflections of your love
Tell me in the silence
You'll never come undone.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

The shadows are falling
Tomorrow's closing in
Stay with me till morning
And open up your wings
I can hear your whispers
Calling out my name
Will you promise me that
We'll steal the night again?

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)


Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.


For what I have gotten wrong I am sorry.  On the up-side, I hope at least something is better than nothing!  These lyrics are the best that I can divine from her live performance of it, as recorded in the BBC Maida Vale studios today. It is released as a single on 18 October in the UK.

For more pictures of Clare Maguire, live at Latitude 2010, see here:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-3-clare-maguire.html

The album 'Light After Dark' is released (UK) on February 28, 2011.

Not least @ Latitude - Part 3 - Clare Maguire

Her first single, Strangest Thing, is released shortly and it is now appearing like a rash all over BBC Radio 1. It is also available for free at http://www.claremaguire.co.uk, at least for the moment, and I suggest that you do listen.  I am already a fan; her first proper live performance was this time (14:45 UST+1) just eight days ago.  That was on the Lake Stage at Latitude 2010, yet again, and I was there...

She is in some ways both the best and worst kept secret of 2010 - at least in the domain of major labels - as she has been at the centre of a bidding war.  It is therefore perhaps time we were allowed to discover what all the fuss is about.

I'll tell you this, she can sing and then some but pop this is not. Certain comparisons have been made that might easily be seen as promotion that flatters to deceive. I feel only slightly risqué in suggesting that this time we, as music listeners, might actually be the butt of the joke and I think that Universal-Island have done right here.  In one sense it should pain me to write that but, if lessons are being learned and as an optimist, it gives me hope for the future.

What I strongly suspect is that, by this time next year, you would have heard of Clare Maguire anyway.

Note added September 22, 2010:

I'll have to revise the last sentence in the original post (above).  Clare Maguire is already blowing fuses big time on the radio in the UK now. The 'Breakage' remix of 'Ain't Nobody' is largely responsible for that...

Ain't Nobody - lyric - see here:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/10/aint-nobody-just-best-i-can-do.html

  

The album is released in the UK on February 28, 2011 and the track listing is as follows:

  

Light After Dark - Clare Maguire

1. Are You Ready?
2. The Shield and The Sword
3. The Last Dance
4. Break These Chains
5. The Happiest Pretenders
6. Sweet Lie
7. I Surrender
8. Bullet
9. You're Electric
10. Ain't Nobody
11. Light After Dark
12. This Is Not The End

Not least @ Latitude - Part 4 - Esben and The Witch

It is no secret that I have wanted to see this band for some months now.  On Friday at Latitude I did so, again on the Lake Stage, and they exceeded my best expectations. Named for a Danish folk tale, but from Brighton, the three piece are both powerful and involving.  The format means that they have no drummer but they are certainly not without percussive tendencies. Armed with just one drum and a cymbal, at one point all three were wholeheartedly engaged thereon!  As fellow Brightonians Blood Red Shoes amply show, and that is another band I want to hear live, it can actually take only two - Stephen Ansell and Laura Carter in that case - to make a captivating racket.

Between the three of them they handle the material admirably. The wait for their début album should not be too long and I can hardly see it making anything but waves.

Added November 27, 2010:
Here it is revealed in intent and artwork: Violet Cries

Not least @ Latitude - Part 1 - Yuck

To be honest this is not before time. I alluded, in my last post, that the real virtue of Latitude lies in the acts less well known.  Now it is time to give those that I saw a bit of the attention that they so richly deserve. In 2009 I was rather disappointed by the Lake Stage and I said as much. This year it was transformed, without the BBC Introducing branding, but with Huw Stephens still at the helm. To say that it was much better in 2010 would be nothing other than litotes. I don't think, in my four visits to Latitude, I have ever spent so much time there and it certainly wasn't wasted!

I can only remember one act that I saw on that stage last year. That however was a memorable one that has since gone on to greater things - it was Marina and The Diamonds. The first act I saw at Latitude 2009, on the Thursday evening in the Film and Music Tent, was 'Smoke Fairies'. This year, in the same venue, it was Kitty, Daisy and Lewis and given the performance and the reception it garnered it will be interesting to revisit this post a year from now.

As a result of unavoidable scheduling conflict there was no way that I could see all the acts on my list, and I knew this would be the case.

I'm proud of those that I did see and it has nothing to do with my efforts. I just put myself there and they did all that could be asked and then more!

I mentioned here before that I wanted to see them live: I did and so here is Yuck live at Latitude on Saturday afternoon. With a name this good how could I possibly resist the temptation even if the band were rubbish?  The thing is you can't and they aren't!

Yuck live on the Lake Stage on Saturday: likely not the last we'll hear of them I might add.

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.

That which can only be imagined...

Latitude 2009 had a few flaws and one of them was the line-up on 'The Lake Stage', some of which was not available in the progamme and also thereafter. I hope that this will be sorted next year but that is not to say that it was derelict in 2009...
It was home, on Sunday, to a new artist to whom the epithet 'estrella' could hardly be more appropriate.

Marina and The Diamonds was simply awesome; the band members were very good indeed and Marina had both them and us, the audience, exactly where she wanted --- wrapped around her little finger --- and it didn't hurt one little bit.

Two more bands that amazed me...

British Sea Power were, as I have already mentioned and had also been led to believe, simply terrific live. What I did not anticipate is that I would soon feel the same way about two other bands, both of which come with at least some kind of reputation that might possibly have presaged a disappointment.

Foals - live on the Obelisk Stage @ Latitude 2008.

While Foals have been hotly tipped since they first appeared, and never more so than for their live performances on which their reputation is built, it does predispose one to worrisome thoughts. Their set was, however, one of the best I have ever heard and I now understand what all the fuss is about! If this is what "math rock" really means then I'm a convert now...

I have mentioned acts on the Lake Stage (BBC Radio 1 - Huw Stephens - Introducing...) before and I spent a great deal of time there at Latitude 2007. While I did not spend as much time there this year it was, regardless, the venue graced by the last of my "top three" bands!

The Beep Seals live @ Latitude 2008 on 19th July 2008.

The break-down to the final track of the set was just incredible - in both scope and disciplined execution - and without doubt it takes a lot of practice to make such apparent ad lib chaos so perfect...
They did it, with no second thoughts, and it was quite simply AWESOME.