Live and local - Frome Folk Festival 2012

This is going to be a 'work in progress', quite likely over the next fortnight or more. I once (in 1990 to be precise) swore blind that "I would never write a 'book' again". Some sixteen years later blogging had come along and I fell into the trap;  the rest is the history of what happened thereafter.
This weekend's little place in the history of me goes to the first ever Frome Folk Festival.  The first thing I'm going to say is a huge thank-you to all the people that made it happen - from concept and organisation to the management of all aspects over the weekend and the artists who were willing to subscribe to a start-up. Yes, there were the inevitable niggles of almost any kind you can imagine, but that happens at any festival every time. Everyone is quite entitled to their own perspective but one of my blog philosophies is to concentrate on what I like (it's written down in one of the early posts) and I don't see any reason to change it now.
  
A few of my pictures are in the side-bar already (and I can't wait to see those from the pros!) but here is another one:

 Miranda Sykes, Rex Preston and Damian O'Kane.

Cheese and Grain, Frome Folk Festival, Sunday 19 February 2012.

She recently received a '2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award' for this song.

Bella Hardy, 'The Herring Girl', Westway Cinema, Frome Folk Festival.

My First Festival of 2012

This is going to be interesting in, I rather suspect, many ways. It is a new festival for me, indeed new for everyone, as it is the first Frome Folk Festival. It is going to be some weekend...
One aspect (apart from indoor camping, well I will be kinda as I live in Frome anyway) of FFF1 that I'm largely going to be ignoring is the promised 'market' of stalls offering such things at Tarot Reading, aromatherapy and crystal healing (whatever that is - and please don't even try me about the psuedo-science). That is possibly just a little too Glastonbury, even for Frome, but it is a certain hazard within the broad church of 'folk music' so I'll quite happily just let them be. 
Aromatherapy I could countenance - at least in so far as the allure of the conveniently located fish & chip shop in King Street is concerned - and the café in the Cheese and Grain does do rather tempting cooked breakfasts, which up to now I've always resisted.  If it involves any preparation whatsoever on my part then I won't be eating it.  In that sense I have decided it will be just like any other festival - I'm "on holiday" this weekend and looking forward to it all.
  
Tickets for Frome Folk Festival 2013 (FFF2) are now on sale...

Confusion is just what once you thought you knew.

You will probably know the electro-dominated single 'Somebody That I Used To Know' [but to be fair the album is not all like this, far from it indeed] currently doing the rounds with Australian-Belgian Gotye at the helm and featuring female guest vocals by New Zealand singer Kimbra (and probably better known as a guitarist). I like it but it is not the same as 'Someone You Used To Know' and I like this even more, which is why I'm mentioning it here.
The confusion mentioned in the post title will, along with my liking for acoustic music, hopefully become clearer here:

'Someone You Used To Know' is a totally different song, and an original, by singer-songwriter Zee Avi. If you think that Australia has a surprising musical influence you are right. Gotye is Australian but Zee Avi is not - she is from Sarawak, Borneo - and while 'Someone You Used To Know' is not actually on her latest album, 'Ghostbird', it is well worth a listen and so is the album.

New Music 2012 - Part 12 - "Oh, internet" - A love song

Not much could amuse me more than reposting this without further comment.

Later:  It is a long time since I've added lyrics to a post, so here they are:
  

OOOH INTERNET 
OOOH INTERNET 
  
this constant refresh well they say it's the death of us, baby 
but I like what you do and the way that you change on the daily 
when I walk down the street only strangers I meet 
but I can shake loneliness in just a tweet
  
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
  
oh internet 
if you were a pokémon I'd choose you 
  
oh internet 
keep me on your feed 
I synch to you pretty much constantly 
  
OOOH INTERNET 
OOOH INTERNET 
  
every now and then I go and check on the mail 
cause when there are physical letters consistency fails 
oh these bills everyday, 
lest they be autopay 
are easy to ignore 
....anyway
  
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
  
OOO INTERNET 
    
oh internet 
you're the only love that's true 
    
oh internet 
i'd make out with your face 
later tonight let's meet in cyberspace 
      
oh but I can't get by unless there's wifi 
is this a drug that I need 
there is no other way 
I am at home all day 
so that my torrents can seed 
you just don't get it 
cause you're not on reddit 
and if you want me to go out 
just make sure that there's 
     
internet 
i don't want to lose you 
     
OOH INTERNET 
   
oh internet 
boo boo be boo boo-boop 
   
OOH INTERNET 
   
oh internet 
I wrote you this song 
and if you like it then you all can sing along.
   

Enjoy. Music is easy to take much too seriously and yet the themes it carries often very easy to dismiss. This is presented tongue-in-cheek and that is certainly no bad thing.   The imagined destructive power of new technology has long been over-estimated and its benefits under-sold. Neither is the way in which it starts reactionary.

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 - Part 10 - Trailer Trash Tracys

Just as a starter, what an awesome band name. It tells of something and nothing in equal measure - leaving you to contemplate the beauty that it promises in complete isolation.

It could be all-out metal, for the band name would suit that, but in fact it isn't. It is actually so 2012 that it hurts in the very best way imaginable. I'm wary of saying what I think is comparable, or indeed influential, except to say this.
I like it. You know what I like in music. The album 'Ester' has it all. It is available on vinyl (Double Six Records) and how could you not want that album artwork on 12"?
When it comes to individual tracks that is just something that will have to wait for now. It is too much to take in one go.
  
Note added February 21, 2012:
Trailer Trash Tracys was today confirmed to be appearing at End Of The Road 2012. 

Born To Die - why the fuss actually matters.

The best thing about Lana Del Rey and the album 'Born To Die' is that she has finally got many more people to bury their fears concerning on-line comment and share what they really feel about it. That is good work in anyone's book.

I don't actually care about the detail of what they feel or say, because everybody is entitled to their own opinion on a whole host of issues concerning this release... it is this virtual-audience participation that matters more than anything else. This is what music is supposed to do.
I'm not sitting on the fence as concerns the album: I like it a great deal and, some admission, I admire the decision of (major label, Universal) Polydor to take a gamble on the somewhat controversial. Whether it will stand the test of time as an album in its own right is anyone's guess. Some that don't, at least in their time and place, are later realized to have defined a moment.  Maybe it will, maybe it won't...  but that is never a reason not to try.  

History is nothing but all of tomorrow's yesterdays and much of it happens accidentally. Should she choose to quit the major-label hotchpotch, or should Interscope decide to let her go, I can imagine several truly independent labels that might be willing to take her on and probably be quite amenable to the way she wants to portray herself through her music. That is when things might become really very interesting indeed.

New Music 2012 - Part 9 - The Graphite Set

It is something of a return to Thoughts on Festivals 2011 but for a good reason I believe. This band, a rarity in featuring a trumpet player as a key member, is here seen playing an opening set on the Tipi Stage at End Of The Road 2011 (EOTR 2011).

They were, back then, known as 'Lily and The Hackabouts' and they were very good.  A recent name change has seen them become 'The Graphite Set'. The songs are dependably good - the most recent ones particularly so.  Check out Genova, Chelsea Boots and (most recently revealed) Golden Ship.
Influences? Indie and arty, yes, but never to excess. I could write a list, but not one that would be a criticism of what they do, therefore I won't waste my time doing it. 
And they are very good live too, they gig regularly in North London in particular, but deserve a wider audience.
The Graphite Set is a band to watch in 2012 - and a priority to go-see live.

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 7 - No Direction Home

No, nothing to do with One Direction at all, this is a new festival. No Direction Home comes with an impeccable pedigree and the tickets are available now. If you have ever wondered about End Of The Road Festival but thought that North Dorset is just a little too far to travel then this is for you. Same team, same ethos (and even the Somerset Cider Bus for us wurzels gone Midland!). The location is Welbeck Abbey and the dates 8-10 June 2012.

End Of The Road 2012 returns, of course, to Larmer Tree Gardens in North Dorset, for a seventh gig on 31 August - 2 September 2012 but it would be unwise to wait until June to buy your ticket for this.
Some acts have been confirmed for both the above-mentioned (see links for details) and I'm sure to comment before long.

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.***

The death of music (is actually a myth).

The good news is that after the pre-Christmas hiatus, which seems to have become less prominent and lengthy over the five or six years that I have been taking more careful note, is ending and with a vengeance. I could suggest several reasons, all rather more significant than my paying attention, for this. It led me to look at some of the posts that I had written over the last two years in particular and, to be honest, I'm quite pleased with what I chose to include and why.  One strange thing that has occurred to me is that sometimes a perceived lack of interest, at others quite the opposite, makes me want to write something and I'm not really sure why that might be.
[Eeek!!!...  this is Radio 1 at 19:54 on a Monday evening and this is new trip-hop with a dub-step edge  - but it is still all ship-shape and Bristol fashion. I don't recognize it - and it might very well actually be Scandinavian, which says a lot about several trends.]
On the other hand never bet against Canada. Kathleen Edwards' - Voyageur LP is released in the UK this coming Monday - I'm now (21:24) listening to it, and quite legally so, while writing this.
Therein lies a conundrum - some would say that the last decade has seen the death of new music - what with the decline of, and therefore ever more risk-averse, major labels - but the majors have vested interests and therefore don't want [the music-buying public] to know the whole extent and context of the story.
I'm not joking here and this is just a start: If I wanted to find three or four hours of worthwhile new music (new to me or just plain new) to listen to each week - totally legally and free - that would actually be no problem at all, even given my sundry likes and dislikes, and all that is without really trying.  I probably already do so and piracy is not involved in any way. I have no problem with paying the going rate for new music and if that is primarily channelled via independent artists, labels and music stores then that is absolutely fine by me and a goal that is becoming ever more realistic.
Then again there is the balance to be found with time listening to my existing collection and not least because many of these serve as reference and comparisons to all the new things.

Just the silly season... but more seriously.

I didn't intend to add anything until Friday but something, and in this case people who came here searching, was to pique my curiosity. I've been looking through the photos that I have taken at festivals over the last few years - and I'm still open to suggestions for ones I need to go to, preferably in late June, July or early August 2012.
I'm going to state some of my recent opinions here but please feel free to disagree. Weather aside (of course it didn't help but it is beyond anyone's control) I was faintly underwhelmed by Latitude 2011. I have always gone there for the music and, in 2011, I think that the emphasis had moved too far away from that. There was much good music, no doubt about it, but not the same attention to detail. The Lake Stage is a good indicator: in 2008 it was amazing, in 2009 mostly unused, while in 2010 it was stunning again but in 2011 little thought had apparently been put in to it. Some of the acts were good, if you could find out when they were on.
The other music stages were pretty good but, as the competition in both UK and abroad improves, things are going to get tougher still. Micheal Eavis has hinted at this and, surely, he is one with the least to worry about. I can see his line of thought however; Coachella 2012 is to be a 2 x three-day festival over successive weekends at the same location and with the same acts at both. Imagine this: you go to both and, unless you chose to do so, see nothing twice. And that is not to mention that the Coachella 2012 line-up is to die for!
UK festivals might have to learn from this and fast - while there is nothing that we can do about the weather (and we are not alone as the extreme horror of Pukklepop 2011 and Indiana State Fair 2011, both caused by extreme weather that could not have reasonably been predicted showed) except to take better steps to mitigate at least the reasonably foreseeable downsides of it withoute stifling the whole scene. Everything is dangerous - its just a matter of degree.
  
I'm not wishing to sound too serious here, indeed I think that being over serious (about the content) is actually part of the problem.  
This was the Obelisk Stage at Latitude 2007 and not half as silly as the performance became... unforgettable for all the right reasons, just as festivals should be.

CSS Roxxx!

Pulling the trick off, year after year, has often eluded both bands and festivals.

New Music 2012 - Part 6 - totally acoustic.

This is another post that starts with an act that I have seen live at a festival, in this case EOTR 2010. This is Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell and I doubt that you can imagine any much more rustic than this at a festival. This one wasn't muddy at all but when travelling light it is best to fear the worst and go accordingly booted.  It certainly isn't some clever get-up and the music will, if I have failed to so, soon dispel that impression.

Kite - Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell is already released (Rabble Rouser Records, 2011).

I'd love to think that they will be back at the nicest of festivals in 2012, for they are the nicest of people. If I had to put a bet on it (which I'm in no position to do) it would be either of 'No Direction Home 1' (8-10 June 2012) or 'End Of The Road 7' (31 August - 2 September 2012). Be that as it may you need to check out the artists and acts already announced...
  
The next acoustic artist you might already have heard of, but probably not for the reasons that she took a year off for music before going to university - and that was over three years ago. Then things happened and she has only just this week started to do what she intended to start then, which is to record her first album [no release date, no title].
A whole lot of writing, for that is what she originally intended to do and also did, will stand her in good stead and I think it not unlikely that she will appear at one or the other of the above-mentioned festivals.

An ingenué she certainly is not, neither is she an attention seeker, and so while it was not her intention when she moved to London to then spend two years recording and touring with Bombay Bicycle Club, it is quite some achievement. Her solo vision is however undiminished - probably much enhanced by the experiences - and it remains her original aim.  Various comparisons have been drawn but in most ways they are unwarranted as neither she, nor indeed they, seem willing to become enemies over any perceived musical territory. There is quite enough space for them all.  If Lucy Rose is at a venue near you in 2012 then that is somewhere you need to be. 

New Music 2012 - Part 5 - Something, Chairlift

It seems a long time since the début album - Does You Inspire You? - was released and then I had the pleasure of seeing the band perform live. It has in fact been a long time; the album was released in 2008 and I saw them at Latitude 2009 but it is still an album that I listen to quite often.  I had become aware that there had been certain 'band issues' and just before Christmas I was wondering when and indeed if we would hear more but never got around to searching, so thanks to Addi and the blog Listologies for letting me know.

  
The result, from a reconfigured band and a reinvented Caroline Polachek on vocal duties, is 'Something'. The US release date appears to be January 24 (Columbia) but from what I have read the UK release will be through Young Turks on January 23.
Any which way I'm looking forward to this release. I liked much of the electronic-based indie music that was coming out of Brooklyn in the period 2008-10 but, at least to me, it doesn't seem to have been as prominent in the last eighteen months or so. Perhaps I have just been distracted by other things, but that could be about to change.
You can stream the track 'Sidewalk Safari' here.

New Music 2012 - Part 4 - Europe, Cyrk and things

Two more sophopmore albums, as it happens I said it might be like this, both of which are by acts/artists I have also already seen live and this makes me more confident about saying that they are unlikely to disappoint.
   
The first is London-based Allo Darlin', although singer and ukelele player Elizabeth Morris is Australian. Here they are (she has a band too) playing the 'Big Top Tent' at EOTR 2011 and I don't think I've used any pictures from this set before.

At the start of the gig there were a couple of hundred in the audience, by mid-way it was something else and prompted the comment that, "If we look nervous it's because we are. We've never played to an audience this size." It didn't show but before the end and the result of a much-passed bit of paper she read out a request from Joe to his girlfriend, both somewhere mid-way back in the crowd as it now was, and she said "yes".
The new album, 'Europe' will be out soon, released by Slumberland Recordings and distributed by FORTUNA pop in, erm, Europe.  You could call the music twee-core, but only at your peril. Who cares what it is "labelled" anyway?
  
In some ways you could say much the same sorts of things about this artist too. One who as it happens performed on the Garden Stage at EOTR 2010 in support of her début album 'Me Oh My', so here she is doing exactly that.

The new album, released on January 17 in the US by The Control Group, is Cyrk.
  

Note added January 10, 2012:

If you want to hear the above-mentioned 'Cyrk' on free, legal stream try this:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/01/video-premiere-cate-le-bon---fold-the-cloth-2.html

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 2012 - welcome to the New Year...

Just a few things to think about...

New music will come from somewhere. Americana will, almost certainly, not let you down. This, Aunt Martha - Norway, ME is well worth a listen.
Furthermore, if you like Dylan LeBlanc's first album Pauper's Field (2010) his soon to be released sophomore album might actually be even better and there is no more apposite time than early January to dig out some new pictures of live music in the English summer.
  

Dylan LeBlanc -  Garden Stage, End Of The Road 2010.

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.

New Music 2012 - Part 2 - First Aid Kit - Lions Roar

This, as it happens, is another sophomore LP and the follow-up to 'The Big, Black and The Blue' (2010) and the EP 'Drunken Trees' (2009). That is to mention, furthermore, that 2012 is most certainly not the year in which to underestimate music from Scandinavia, always a dangerous game as it comes in all moods and not least this from the Söderberg sisters - First Aid Kit.

Woolly jumpers and fingerless gloves notwithstanding they do barbed lyrics far better than many much older but there is competition. New album 'The Lion's Roar' is released early in 2012 by Wichita Recordings and First Aid Kit is confirmed as appearing at End Of The Road 2012. Tickets available now - see you there!

New Music 2012 - Part 1 - Phantom Limb - The Pines

Where better to start than with this?  'The Pines', released in the UK on February 13, is the second studio album by Bristol-based Phantom Limb and the follow up to their 2008 eponymous début. The more recently released 'Live In Bristol' only me makes me want to hear this LP more, and then live once again.

It has long escaped me why Phantom Limb is not already better known. This, I would like to think, is the album that will finally make amends for there is nothing even two-dimensional about the whole deal: A remarkable vocalist for sure, but most importantly a band that is supremely able to cope with the considerable demands she places on them. Better still is the song-writing and the arrangement is top-drawer.

  

February 9, 2012.

The reviewer at The Independent (London) seems to like it too...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-phantom-limb-the-pines-naim-edge-6699396.html

Driving Home from Christmas...

I did this early this afternoon and it was slightly mad. All the vehicles with 'Baby on board' stickers were weaving between each other and flashing past like they couldn't care less. I decided that ten minutes late (for nothing in particular) is better than a life lost and, in the slow-lane between the few trucks on the motorway,  we almost kept pace with the train on the line alongside that was carrying about 650 tons of timber!
I wonder what everyone else was listening to?
I was in a particularly electro-mood so when the mad ones did their thing I trundled along at about 65 mph listening, and perhaps even singing along (very badly), to an artist who might just be one to watch in 2012.  It is one of my guilty pleasures.

Latitude Festival 2012

I have been to five Latitude Festivals, 2007 - 2011, and loved them all in various ways.

This time you really need to persuade me that I should do so again in 2012.  I feel a change is as good as a rest and, to this effect, I have several alternatives in mind.  I could still be persuaded but I'm certainly not buying a pre-sale ticket this year.

My Latest 'Thought on Music'

Is a stunningly simple revelation:
Much of the best music is that which I failed to find, appreciate or write about last year. My year-end report says that I must try harder.
If you want an alt-Christmas song then Pulled Apart By Reindeer might just be for you and the guilty party is London-based Kimmy Reader, who is one to watch in 2012.
If you want a cover song then here is her take on Temper Trap's 'Sweet Disposition'; covered acoustic and unplugged on a late night Metropolitan Line tube train. Why not take live music to unsuspecting people and record their reaction?

2011 in Music - EPs and mini albums

Several people have mentioned that, along with vinyl, the EP is enjoying a welcome and long overdue return in all formats and for reasons that are entirely practical.  It provides a way for artists to release a connected piece of work whether that be on vinyl or download, rather than just odd tracks, and for whatever reason.  It can be a new artist with only a small collecton of completed material or an established artist with a collection of material that in some way does not sit well with the bulk of their output.  Whatever the reasons for this revival are it has been a good year and I'm going to start on a year-high. When I discovered this my 2011 in music changed. Very few people can do that.

 
The next one is equally different and difficult to classify but I'm going to continue with this, which comes from an artist that few had heard of at the start of 2011 and myself included. It is difficult to describe its genre - tenebrous, intellectual, indie-dance does it for me.

Its creator is Estonian writer-singer-DJ Maria Minerva. Were it not for this EP (vinyl & download) and my self-imposed rules concerning these lists (see previous post) her 2011 album 'Caberet Cixous' might just have been included. I chose this specifically because of its tight and distinct focus.

  

  
There will only be three items in this post - the connecting theme being they are neither depressing nor euphoric - and that is what sets them aside. 

What they mean to me, and what I feel about these songs, is like looking in a quite special mirror: one that changes like the sky and can reflect things that otherwise I cannot see.

2011 in Music - Albums - Part 2

I was planning to do the '2011 in EPs and mini-albums' section before this but that has (once again) proved more complicated.  This, which is not a second-string selection of albums, hasn't been much better and actually more difficult that the first because I have, in order to limit to a dozen, been forced to be even more ruthless.
Here it is, again in alphabetical order by act/artist and (for now) without further comment:

• Alessi's Ark - Time Travel
• Black Keys - El Camino
• Demdike Stare - Tryptych
• Eilen Jewell - Queen of the Minor Key
• Gill Sandell - Tarry Awhile
• Jackie Oates - Saturnine
• Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
• Kitty, Daisy and Lewis - Smoking In Heaven
• Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
• Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
• Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
• Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

I might attempt the aforementioned '2011 in EPs and mini-albums' this evening. I have also introduced a new rule for these lists - although I don't think that even retrospectively I have actually violated it - and that is the the same act/artist combination cannot appear in more than one list in a given year with the exception being the 'Live List', if I ever get around to posting one.

2011 in Music - Albums - Part 1

No real change in presentation here from last year; two lists of albums strictly in order alphabetical by artist. The difference is that this year I'm going to publish the lists first and, only when you have had a week to consider (and comment - see below), shall I add the links and my thoughts on why they are included and, perhaps, others are not.
In no way is this intended to be a balanced list, far from it in fact: It is quite utterly biased to what has caught my attention in a lasting way in 2011.

• Adele - 21
• Amy LaVere - Stranger Me
• Austra - Feel It Break
• Bella Hardy - Songs Lost and Stolen
• Emily Barker - Almanac
• Esben and The Witch - Violet Cries
• Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me
• Lanterns On The Lake - Gracious Tide, Take Me Home
• Seapony - Go With Me
• Thea Gilmore - John Wesley Harding
• Widowspeak - Widowspeak
• Yuck - Yuck

Please feel free to add comments, queries, suggestions or questions. It is what this is all about, whether negative, positive or simply mystified!  All comments are moderated (by me alone, so you know that I read them) and while I prefer it that you can put your real identity to your piece, because you should believe in what you are saying and be prepared to stand up and be counted, I will sometimes sanction the publishing of "anonymous" comments. Comments that are defamatory, offensive or simply irrelevant in content or context will not be published regardless of source.
I'll attempt to answer valid questions and comments either in comments of my own in reply or in a more general 'round-up' post.

Acoustic+ - November acts 1,2 & 4

This starts where the previous post left off. In some ways this is the less acoustic side of Acoustic+, but in several different ways that is rather telling.

The first to perform was Alex Veale who performed some tracks solo and some accompanied, but all acoustic.

His other musical outlet is an all-electric rock outfit...  and this is in fact an acoustic cover of a Metallica song. That is no surprise really and certainly nothing new: Lucie Silvas covered 'Nothing Else Matters' as a piano ballad on her 2004 album Breathe In. Done well, and this was, it can work even if the die hard fans might say otherwise. 

Next up was Bristol/Bath based four-piece Furlined. They were not entirely acoustic, as electric bass was involved. No matter though: so is one of the acoustic instruments much in vogue at the moment - 'cello played by Tegan Thomas.

All songs are by Neil Crossley, also lead vocals and acoustic guitar. Engaging lyrics, a band so good and this was interspersed with intelligent patter; sometimes poignant, sometimes truly comedic retrospective.  I kid you not - this is what 1990's music could have been if it were done properly.

Of the four acts performing the only one that I had seen before was the last, and the youngest, Amplified Silence. To state the obvious, they are in the "+" category as they are not acoustic at all! I think I could have a good guess at some of their musical influences. I'm not going to do that - they don't need it. They perform as a five-piece outfit except for a couple of instrumental numbers...

  

...leaving their vocalist in the rôle of on-stage muse.

The Daturas - Acoustic+

Frome's very own Acoustic+ is something of a regular on these pages now - and with good reason in a local scene that, as well as thriving, has many competitors. The most recent event was last Friday. Sometimes I cover the acts/artists in order of appearance but this time that has gone out of the window.  The Daturas were actually the third of four acts to play and, although they were very good, I've chosen to mention them first for this reason alone... 

Earlier this year, when commenting on unusual instruments that had appeared at Acoustic+, I mentioned that it would make my day if pedal steel guitar were one of them. I first became acquainted with it in the live environment at festivals a couple of years ago and thought it as remarkable as the sound is distinctive. The stranger thing is that, despite the above comment, it is a sound that with judicious consideration can fit well with many genres of music (in that sense perhaps like saxophone) in which it is non-traditional. To be honest I'd have liked the sound of The Daturas even without said instrument - they have presence, something that actually applied in its own way to all four acts - and songs to pull it off.

Not to mention a distinctive and charismatic front man.

The next thing, you might reasonably wonder, is how the other three acts measured up in comparison. 

Dead season? Songs don't write themselves...

Some things have disinclined me to blog for a couple of weeks. They are mainly music related but that is not a reflection on the music. It is indeed rather the opposite and while the major train (I shall comment specifically on EMI later) heads for the comforting buffers of compilations and bankers in an attempt to shunt sales into a slightly better place in the run up to Christmas, sometimes saying nothing is a sign in itself.
We know that the current economic climate, even if steps are being taken to address that, is entirely poisonous. Things are tough, no doubt about that in almost all sectors, but the UK music industry is still a net exporter - and this applies to the independent sector almost exclusively. There is much said about the decline of manufacturing - don't forget that music is in fact a manufacturing industry right from point of song writing...
When the up-turn comes, as sooner or later it will, there will be serious opportunities both creative and commercial and UK music will be in a good place to take advantage.

Live and Local - Archangel

You could spend Saturday afternoon driving to some impossibly distant 'branded retail experience'. On the other hand you could take advantage of that which is local. Call me old-fashioned if you like but I rather prefer walking for ten minutes to get where I want to be. That applies to the shops. This is a bonus - it is much cheaper and more satisfying than retail therapy too.  

Nicky Swann and Katie Marie @ Archangel, Frome - November 5, 2011.

Acoustic Moon 3 - Without words and in other tales

I shall continue with the performances of last Thursday evening, and not before time, with a trio of artists whose principal weapon is acoustic guitar. If you think that might be a recipe for tedious similarity then think again.

The first of those to play was Chris Woods and while he was very talkative between tracks they are all entirely instrumental. I must admit that I'm pretty tolerant of instrumental music but even if that were not the case it would have pushed me to think that way and, apparently, most others thought the same. It did however make me think about the way he was playing, and how to take photos of it. I never did quite succeed in doing the latter. No excuses on my part --- it was astonishing just to watch and wonder. In retrospect it is amazes me that I took any pictures at all. I've seen more than my fair share of live acts this year and this was right up there with the most remarkable.
  
When it came to it Cole Stacey, who has recently been touring the UK sometimes with and sometimes without Chris Woods, was certainly in competitive mood.  I should say that this was the closing date of that tour and a coup de grâce.
It was a contest of a kind...

Cole sings his own songs; he also picks judicious cover versions too. He then conjured Jennifer Clark, up from Devon, to sing on some songs and even got the audience singing too. There were only winners here.

This one was 'The Boxer'. There is however no animosity.

   

Together unplugged, at Acoustic Moon 3, with Chris Woods on banjo.

  
Top of the evening, and dealt a tough hand, was Mark Abis. Have no worries about this for he thrives on songs about that sort of thing...  and a new album is on the way soon.