New Music 2012 - Part 8 - Anxiety, Ladyhawke

Well I just had to mention 'Anxiety', the very welcome follow up to her self-titled début album from 2008; not simply because I heard the first stuff from it today and I think it sounds good but also because I saw her live at Latitude 2009 and that was very good indeed.

It is currently slated for release in the UK (Island/Universal) on March 19, 2012.
More to follow including, with any luck, some UK festival dates.
  

I could, and intend to, add quite a few more acts that have that same potential and given enough on one festival bill I could still be tempted to venture out to another. Anxiety is also very much a part of life for festival organizers just at the moment:

There is no shortage of worthy acts and artists seeking bookings, far from it indeed but that is a double-edged sword.  Selling festival tickets in 2012 is going to be tough, there is no doubt about that and the 2012 Olympiad is not going to help as much as it hinders. Booking the acts of the moment will be more important than ever but that will only come at a cost - one many festivals can barely afford, let alone risk and that they are extremely unlikely to be able to pass this on in ticket prices, 'up-front costs', or indeed 'on-site costs' such as catering (the latter would surely come back to haunt them in 2013).
If, and it is a big if, the general economic situation were to show real signs of even a modest revival, particularly towards the end of 2012, then 2013 (including the return of Glastonbury that is absent in 2012) might actually turn out to be tougher still.

The focus will be firmly on festivals that provide quality in all aspects;  great entertainment, good facilities, and also value for money. There may be some disappointments, some festivals that vanish, but I think that the sector will rebound from this and quite possibly in ruder health.

  

Note added March 30, 2012:

The current, revised date for the release of 'Anxiety' in the UK is May 28, 2012.

New Music 2012 - Part 3 - a.k.a. Electra Heart

I seem to have started this thread on the subject of sophomore albums and I'm going to continue with another few before, probably, heading off in the direction of new acts and artists.
This particular story started back at Latitude 2009 when I saw one of the first festival performances by the band, about which I was reminded while driving home last week and ended up listening to the first album 'The Family Jewels', which was to come later. She had arrived at the event in the nick-of-time and had no time to prepare, which was perhaps telling. Just occasionally there are acts or artists that, whatever the circumstances, have quality written through them like a stick of seaside rock. I've had the great fortune to see several over the last few years; it's not something that you realise later, you know it in an instant. Marina Diamandis is one such.

The album 'Electra Heart' is another slightly dangerous game as it introduces a new character that, rather than her alter-ego, is her antithesis. It will still be the strong pop that we know - as 'Radioactive' and newer still while not a finished "single", 'Fear & Loathing' demonstrates but just don't expect unchallenging lyrics - as if you would had you ever heard her appearances on the BBC Radio 1 'Review Show'.
Now listen carefully to, and in particular 'Hollywood' from, the first album again and take an educated guess at the world that Electra inhabits.

Smoke Fairies - EOTR 2010 - Part 3

Note added November 10. 2010:

UK tour dates in January & early February 2010 now on sale.

Now call me obsessive if you like - I know that I can deal with it - and as regular readers might well have noticed 'Smoke Fairies' have appeared in my posts on several occasions over the last few years.  I had seen them live two or three times before, most recently in the Film & Music tent at Latitude 2009, but this was their first time at EOTR. They were on The Garden Stage at 14:15 on a glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon.  The day's proceedings had been commenced by Rough Trade artist Dylan LeBlanc, who was also excellent.

Me, watching you, watching Dylan LeBlanc...

Surreal it is --- probably only EOTR lends itself to this.

Jessica Davies and Katharine Blamire met on their first day at secondary school in Eastbourne and soon discovered a shared love of music. Since then it has taken them to places as far afield as New Orleans for extended periods - Jessica now frequently plays slide guitar as a result I suspect (as she is doing in the image below) - which adds much to their sound and Vancouver and it all shows on the album Through Low Light and Trees.

On this occasion they also had pedal-steel guitar, bass and drums to accompany them.  Some that I talked to afterwards were of the opinion that it distracted from their fundamental sound; I appreciate where they are coming from but my own opinion is that it worked out quite well on a larger stage.

     Through Low Light and Trees, the album, is simply fantastic: a perfect foil for fall.

Reflections...

Take one sun, one spoiled CD-R, a bit of luck with reflections on an adjacent plaster wall and a digital camera...

"It's the way of the world as you know it."
Dear Reader.

2009 Festivals - revisited - Part 2

By request here is a larger version of the side-bar image that I posted a week or so ago. It was, perhaps quite obviously, an incomplete post. That was not the original plan but, as it happened, it is now going to be an incremental one...

Well, finally, I have got round to adding another artist but this is one less well known.

Jess Elva and band live at EOTR 2009, in the Tipi Tent, early Saturday afternoon.
Watch out for more from the Swiss/Australian, and her band, very soon.

And you never did learn to let the little things go.

And you never did learn to let me be.

And you never did learn to let little people grow.

And you never did learn to see.

And I am lower now and lower still

And you did always say that one day I would suffer.

You did say that people get their pay.

You did always say that I was going places

And that you wouldn't have it any other way.

But I couldn't turn my back

On a world for what I lack wouldn't let me

But I couldn't turn my back

On a world for what I like I need it.

Lyrics from 'Blackberry Stone' by Laura Marling, an artist now confirmed for Latitude 2010.

Latitude - live with little comment...

Some more pictures from Latitude 2009 (unless noted otherwise) with little, if any, comment on each but if you want to know more about them either leave a comment (anonymously if you wish) or e-mail me.

Marina Diamandis live on the Lake Stage on Sunday.


D'où donc vient le danger - Caroline Martial? (One half of Kap Bambino...)

Hjaltalin - on the Uncut Arena on Sunday...

...followed by iLiKETRAiNS.

My America - 2009 in the 51st state...

In 2008 I was struck by the thought that much of the new music I really wanted actually needed to be imported (on vinyl or CD) from the US. That has continued unabated in 2009 but there is now a subtle change of emphasis. The two-way trade continues but now the bands are importing themselves, and I'm getting to hear them play live in the UK. I have no problem with it whatsoever and it is likely the result of a number of on-the face-of-it unrelated vectors. At the very end of 2008 I read an article that championed three New York bands, the by-line being that you should at least see one of them live in 2009.
Slightly before 2pm on 17th July some complete strangers, all several years younger than half of my age, loudly commented that they were now about to achieve this feat. I said nothing save "yeah, good band and strong songs on the album" (this was just before the band in question was on stage) and, possibly thinking I didn't know what was under discussion, they asked me really rather bluntly what I thought and, as I'd been eavesdropping in the inter regnum, they got it.

"Since you ask, I'm sorry to tell you that this is the last of the three for me." ('Telepathe' and 'School Of Seven Bells' being the others in question). I think I spoiled their ego-trip and, if sardonicism were a concept new to them, they have learnt about it now! After a few minutes of silent bravado they sidled away, crestfallen and unnoticed, which was how I got a front-row place to take this picture of 'Chairlift'.

On Saturday morning there was no sign of them when the band - that might now be regarded as the fourth in this category - was playing. I know that they were there, however, because I saw them leave, from near the back of the arena, at the end. They were clearly in no mood for a repeat of the previous day's meeting and were that a problem it was certainly not mine. I could hardly supress a wry smile!

I was exactly where I will be, if I am so minded, when 'Yes Giantess' were playing on the 'Sunset Arena' at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon. They are now used to playing the most fashionable club venues in New York so you might think that ...

... perhaps a rather leaky, tented, stage in a Suffolk wood might just be anathema to them.

Well, no! The set was special, no doubt about it, even if the setting and context was slightly bizarre. The audience response was incredible, as witnessed by the fact that the band said as much without sounding remotely trite. Aside from my very slight, and it was no more than that, quibble almost everyone else that I met at Latidude was amazing. We might have talked total nonsense (and there is certainly no doubt about that): a paucity of peroration being very much the prevailing theme but so what does that matter?

I have plenty more Latitude 2009 highlights to mention and, if you don't know this already, pre-sales for Latitude 2010 go on sale on 1st September 2009.

Tale To Tell - of strings and things.

I'm no longer sure what should surprise me and what should not. I can however still be surprised - and Mummers did it for me.

It wasn't a case of thinking that I wouldn't like it but, equally, it wasn't in the least bit like what I had imagined it to be either. Here they are on the Uncut Arena on Friday. They are also appearing at 'The End Of The Road' in September. Another Brighton-based outfit, the album 'Tale To Tell' was released in 2009; and Londoner Raissa Kahn-Panni's music and lyric actually have much to do with an unhappy year spent as a waitress in Brixton.

I might dispute everything...

It goes without saying that constructive disagreement is the source of all virtue but what I believe to be so is, as likely as not, your poison. My delight was a relatively little known band from South Africa, 'Dear Reader', that however split listener opinion in half...

I'm on the loving side here, as must be quite apparent, but that is not to say that the detractors have no less reason for their opinion other than the fact that they are wrong.

If you don't like them then that's fine by me but here they are anyway.

The current album 'Replace Why With Funny' is just one of many on the list of those that my trip to Latitude has resulted in.

We have stage (and desolation)...

In four days spent with a crowd of thousands the concept of emptiness is perhaps not just improbable but almost unimaginable.
That such preconceptions are totally wrong is possibly one of the best things...

The 'Sunrise Arena', deep in the woods, was quite deserted on Saturday morning.

Back to the barricade: the sound tower on the Obelisk Stage on Friday morning.

A ghostly scene... 12:30 Sunday afternoon in the Uncut Arena.
There were four of us sat chatting, backs against the crowd barrier, looking out at the fifth and sixth persons in a tent that holds about 5750!

Past midnight Sunday @ Latitude 2007.

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.

Latitude Festival 2009

It is easy to say that it was amazing, because it served up what I wanted in terms of the less well known, but to deny that I was in thrall of some more main-stream acts would equally be a travesty.

Little Boots live on the 'Sunset Stage', Friday 17th July 2009.

One is just not enough.

I haven't even posted any real thoughts on Latitude 2009 yet but I will do so soon. Suffice it to say that, while it had the occasional and inevitable flaw, it was simply wonderful and so here a few photos to run with just for now.

Ladyhawke live on the Obelisk Stage on Friday afternoon.

Kap Bambino on the Sunset Stage on Friday...
Such good, if rather curious, behaviour would not last very long!

I don't think I can survive 2009 by going to only one festival... and now I don't have to because I'm going to 'The End of the Road' in North Dorset too. Even as the storm builds, a bit of acoustic never did any harm, and this was in the 'Film and Music Tent' last Thursday evening.

If You Want Mud, You've Got It...

I'm resigned to it and so I'm going to enjoy myself. The first band on the known agenda is tomorrow evening, assuming we are not all swimming, and is one I have mentioned before. As it happens their 'Frozen Heart EP' arrived with me today.

Not remotely like the recording the post-title parodies but one that I anticipate with much enthusiasm.

That's actually just made me think of something quite different:
Gossip are performing at Latitude 2009, so how about an AC/DC cover version?
'Whole Lotta Ditto'. The more you think about it the less you should but the lyric would need little alteration. She could surely do the original Bon Scott vocals proud and it would work alongside 'Standing In The Way Of Control' admirably.

Technical things:
The link to the Bellowhead tour dates and website, to the left of this post, now works as it should. I screwed it up yesterday evening.

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.

Yeah So?

It is almost as far as is imaginable from the boisterous indie of Arctic Monkeys but no less genuine for it - Slow Club is the other shimmering face of Sheffield indie music. They are appearing at Latitude 2009 for a third successive year, which may be a record, and this time it is just after the release of their first album, Yeah So, (Moshi Moshi, release date 6 July 2009)!

and then they are off to tour it in the US and Canada.

More links, including the lyric for the 2008 EP Let's Fall Back In Love:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2008/09/lets-fall-back-in-love.html

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2008/09/to-whoever-just-asked-about-slow-club.html

The Devil is in the detail

The devil is in the detail and that makes Latitude what it is. There are the headline acts and there are others including those that have been long known, to me at least, but that is only just a part of what matters. The currently less well known acts on all music stages are an equal part of the experience and I don't expect 2009 to be any different. Here are two more such - very different, one from the other - both with a ferocious attitude to live performance!

No 'Florence and The Machine' but that is no problem! 'Marina and the Diamonds' come from Wales and appearing on the Lake Stage at Latitude 2009, which is once again curated by Radio 1 DJ and champion of music from Wales, Huw Stephens.

He is also the power behind the ever growing Sŵn Festival (held in venues across Cardiff in 2007 and 2008 and to be repeated again from 24 - 26 October 2009) , which is showcasing Welsh bands, and any others that make waves, in both Wales and across the UK throughout the year - everywhere from Brighton's recent multi-venue indoor festival 'The Great Escape' to the surprising venue that is housed within the surplus shed of the still very much operational Wrexham Central station.

Is this the price we pay for progess?
Taking one step forward...
...for every six we take back.
Does your dirty, oil-stained money make you happy?
Do you just want to be remembered
...book your place in history?

Another band confirmed for Latitude 2009 is Leeds' iLiKETRAiNS, which can hardly be a bad thing in my world. Would I like to hear 'The Beeching Report' live? You bet I would!

Oral or aural - Ritalin or Hjaltalín?

If Ritalin were a band it would of course have its detractors. In fact it is a drug, capable of addiction and a variety of other side-effects, that is increasingly used to treat ADD and other such disorders, most commonly in children. That it not to say that it doesn't have an important rôle to play or that, very possibly, better treatments will be developed from it.

Hjaltalín, while not clinically trialled, is about as good as any homeopathic therapy ever could be. You don't need a prescription, certainly shouldn't swallow even one of them, and it is available as a totally legal download. It might however do exactly the job it is supposed to...

Band members slightly variable, typically seven to nine, always both male and female.

The UK and Iceland may have fallen out about fishing, and much more recently banking, but when it comes to music it is unthinkable. Sigur Rós (Latitude 2008) clones they most obviously are not; nor really quite like any of the many others you can probably call to mind.
Aurally narcotic the album 'Sleepdrunk Seasons' might be and they are confirmed as appearing at Latitude 2009.

Black velvet...

A fortnight ago I became the custodian of a few dozen (more) 7" singles originally dating from the late 1960s to the late 1980s that had lain, forgotten and unplayed, for more than a decade. They were quite unsurprisingly very dusty, and thus in need of some basic tlc, but otherwise they are mostly fine and I can imagine few better uses for a wet and windy Saturday afternoon than dealing with a stack of 7" vinyl!
One of the most recent (1989, Atlantic A8742) amongst them happens to be one of my favourite pop songs from the 1980s...

While never a major artist in the UK, Black Velvet was a big single (reaching #2 in the UK) and still frequently appears on mainstream radio play-lists some twenty years later. It is neither pop-rock nor is it a ballad but it does what few try and fewer still succeed in doing, which is both at the same time.

Another classic, and also a blast from the past, is this single...

Twenty-seven years old and by a band appearing at Latitude 2009.

Latitude 2009

Just a very quick note: Tickets for the fourth installment of Latitude, held as always at Henham Park, Suffolk, went on sale at 7pm UST (GMT) this evening - 23 March 2009. It sold out well in advance in 2008, so don't ponder too long before joining in. The dates are 17 - 19 July 2009, with the camping area opening from around midday on 16 July.
The main stage headline acts are:

Friday: Grace Jones
Saturday: The Pet Shop Boys
Sunday: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

For the latest additions see here Latitide 2009 - news and for criticism see here.

I was there in 2007 and 2008 and, don't even doubt it, I'm going again in 2009.

See you there?