Green Man 2018 - a few thoughts and pictures.

If there is a discernible thread to this post then it is that it encapsulates why I like festivals so much. I treasure the ability to explore music I might like, a result of the one ticket for everything ethos, as much as the freedom to wander away from what it turns out I don't much care for and go in search of something else instead. As well as new music I quite purposely choose to see artists again. That even includes ones about which I was undecided on my first live acquaintance. Photography started as a basic aide-memoire when most of the acts I saw were entirely unknown to me at the time of observation.

I attend festivals as a free agent and this entirely selfish approach has a corollary; I am, in so far as it is reasonably possible to be, immune to peer-group pressure or the crowd mentality and open to recommendations as to music worth hearing from anyone I meet. I shall start with three artists that I had never seen live before. I could happily have listened to any or all of these for three hours straight...

Jim Ghedi, Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

Nubya Garcia, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

The three that follow are acts/artists that I have seen live before and were more than happy to see live once again. This first is one of the artists of 2017 - 2018, both recorded and live.

Courtney Marie Andrews, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

Amber Arcades, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 17 August 2018.

Joan As Policewoman, Mountain stage, 17 August 2018.

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

New Music 2016 - Part 33 - Alice Phoebe Lou - Orbit

I listen to and read about far more music than I ever write about. I'm going to make absolutely no secret about why I have chosen this right now. De krenten uit de pop, a blog based in the Netherlands, with which I seem to share more than a little musical affinity, mentioned the South African artist Alice Phoebe Lou and her recent release 'Orbit' only this morning. I knew absolutely nothing at all about any of this but, despite my very sketchy ability to read Dutch (maybe I have a reason to try harder now?) it seemed interesting.
The acid test was of course to listen to it, whilst also trying to find more about the places and influences from where this is coming. It also made me think a bit more about artists from South Africa...
I think that I might have mentioned only one such specifically in the almost 1200 posts that I have published to date and surely that can't be a fair reflection of the situation? That act was Dear Reader, the vehicle of Cherilyn MacNeil, that I saw live at Latitude Festival 2009 and in particular the album 'Replace Why with Funny'. I mentioned that here and clearly I was of the impression that my thoughts about this might have been in the minority though I cannot remember why that was. It's been a long preamble but there is a reason. Why did both artists ultimately choose Berlin?

Alice Phoebe Lou - Orbit (6 May 2016, OMN).

• Girl on an Island
• Society
• Red
• Take Flight
• Haruki
• Walking In The Garden
• Amsterdam
• Orbit
• The City Sleeps

I must say that I am struck by this release on the basis of just a couple of listens. What makes me even more impressed, and it is probably more reliable guidance as regards my impression of where this might be going, is just how this is a reflection of her live performance roots on the streets of European cities. This video of a performance near Warschauer Str. railway station in Berlin is actually two years old now. 

I always have an eye and an ear for live potential. This is just tailor-made for a certain kind of music festival.