It May Be Winter Outside. (No May About It!)
The Cast (Albums) : Austra, Chris Lyons, Cole Pulice, James Yorkston, Maria Somerville, SG Lewis
The Cast (EPs, Singles and Songs) : Nothing crossed the radar this week!
Lands End Eternal : Cole Pulice
Best for : Hardcore fans of ambient jazz
Ok. Let's be clear. This isn't an entry level introduction to the world of ambient jazz. This is for those who have crossed the border out of pop and travelled a few hours more into its heartlands.
Cole Pulice is a jazz saxophonist riffing and meandering as he sees fit. He writes music that seems to defy the rules of pop. It remains musical . We're not in turbulent white noise territory or a world where there's a wilful desire to create anti-music as with the industrial experimental sounds of Throbbing Gristle.
Well, not often anyway. There are moments in the opening piece 'Fragments of a Slipstream Dream' where the fuzzy and distorted ambience comes close. It's as unmelodic as it comes and, yet, you can still appreciate it as a sustained display of saxophonist skill. It's almost confusing to pass into 'In A Hidden Nook Between Worlds l' which is more accessible. If the opener is the sound of a stentorian alarm clock breaking through a pleasant dream, this is the slow awakening that follows.
This is music for when you find yourself somewhere you're not meant to be, such as heading to a coffee morning that turns out to be a meeting of a religious cult. It's somewhere outside your experience and comfort zone and hard to determine where different elements start or end. There are few discernible pauses to let you catch breath and take stock. It's tricky to find direction or progress to track how far and how long you've been there. The faint hearted are likely to experience feelings of mild panic.
I've mentioned before Pop In The Real World's 1st Rule of Jazz Listening, which owes a debt to Ted Gioia's writings on jazz. If you don't get it, just allow it to flow over you and consider what it lets you feel. Don't worry about the whole. If the fragment is there to hook you in, it will come and you will find it. Hopefully. The weakness with Lands End Eternal is that, on first listening, it didn't give me anything to feel and, consequently, no reason to return.
If I reach this impasse with any album, I like to offer an alternative view. This comes from Pitchfork who awarded the album a creditable 7.9 out of 10.
Taster Track : In a Hidden Nook Between Worlds l
Anemoia : SG Lewis
Best for: Those that enjoy or miss their night out clubbing experience and aren't really bothered about the songs
There was a time when a night out clubbing wasn't about the music. It was about dressing up, the company, the alcohol, having a laugh, the loudness and the following morning's regrets reminding you that living life to the full wasn't without its sore points. The music was secondary, no more than a hook and a beat to draw you in the door. SG Lewis takes us back to that time but he's only got the music and that's not enough.
This is an album that sets an atmosphere but can't recreate the euphoria that came from being. As well as a performer he's a go to producer, so it's not surprising that he's built into the mix a bit of techno, some House piano and the kind of trance that promises a big drop that never arrives. He's decorated the songs with bleeps and squelches but in themselves they don't make for a great song, just something that's dull.
What comes as a disappointment is that, in places, it sounds thin. That's particularly true of the opening track 'Memory' but perhaps it's intended to capture the sound of the club as you check into the cloakroom.
You can't escape the feeling that the collaborations on this album are intended as a calling card showcasing his production skills to other performers. It's not, first and foremost, for the person listening at home. To be fait, some of the collaborations are the better songs here, particularly London Grammar's appearance on 'Feelings Gone' and Shygirl's take on 'Sugar'. It's the more chilled vibe to 'Past Life' though that helps it to stand out, and it's the best song here.
We've been here before, and not just to dip into club culture. I found 2023's 'AudioLust & HigherLove' underwhelming at first, but repeated listens to a few of its songs led to it becoming one of my favourite records of that year. Perhaps that could happen here, but I'm not confident.
Conscious that others may have a different view, here's the review that appeared in Paste Magazine. Anemoia Review
Taster Track : Past Life
Songs For Nina And Johanna : James Yorkston
Best For : Those who like their music pure and moving.
This generous and lovely album is a collection of James Yorkston folk songs written to be sung with Nina Persson of The Cardigans and Johanna Soderberg of First Aid Kit. It's generous because he allows them to take centre stage with his songs. It's lovely because it's endowed with a sense of returning home to what's important musically and emotionally. This feels like an album they were destined to make.
This is a folk album that manages to combine contemporary feelings with a French Lieutenant's Woman sense of yearning and drama. Whether it's in the desperate pleading of 'I Can Change', or the unexpected flash of passion in 'I Spooked The Neighbours' they're always intimate and personal without sounding small and stripped back.
Together their voices show that two can truly become one. They fit together hand in hand. They're singing for themselves in a good way, and on this occasion that's to the benefit of the listener. This is music making harmonies in perfect harmony. It has a purity that cannot be diluted and is perfectly pitched.
In these songs, the feeling is the thing, not the performance or the production. Both are good, but they remain in the background as you take in the words and tones in which they are sung. These are songs that trigger admiration and affection for the love and understated skills at their heart.
Yorkston has worked with Persson before. The inclusion of Johann Sonderberg in the project hasn't spoilt the company and created a crowd. On the contrary, it enriched what was already a very good approach.
A company of two has become a community of three. Help it to grow, and bring sincerity and integrity back into music.
Taster Track : I Can Change
Painters Street : Chris Lyons
Best for : Providing an enjoyable background to undemanding chores
I'm a little worried that this is going to sound like a review damning with faint praise. It's not. It's an acknowledgement that you can't have the genius and distinctive showmanship of The Rolling Stones, The Clash and all your other favourite bands without a bedrock of solid, competent and generic music to stand on. Chris Lyons is a part of that bedrock.
For Chris Lyons, the music is his personality. 'Talking Blues' introduces his classic, smooth lounge bar blues and the rest of the album continues with it. Nicely done, it's an enjoyable retro sound, the kind of sound that suggests you'd like to spend a midweek evening at his gig if the price was right. Gentle blues riffs, soft guitar and midnight keyboards abound. It's also the kind of album picked up in the January edition of music magazines when they've emptied the vaults of higher profile releases.
He had me remembering Chris Isaak. Most of us can recall 'Wicked Game' but how many more songs from his thirteen albums can you name? Lyons hasn't found his breakout song on this album, the one that propels him out of the crowd. He deserves a loyal following though to push him forward.
There's a similar feel across the whole album. Nothing stands out. It's a consistently good set of songs. He hits the mark, walks the line and attains the 40 points needed to avoid relegation to a lower league with a couple of matches to spare. In the Premier League, he's Fulham or Brentford. (Sod's law says that, as a Chelsea supporter, I picked those names before Fulham beat us, and Brentford moved above us in the table!) He's not underperforming and, on his day, would be a match for anyone but he lacks the rougher edges, maverick tendencies, energy and passion to stand out and win trophies.
'Hold On', the final track on the album, is cut from the same cloth as everything else. Its long, unhurried fade out captures his style perfectly. He's happy to stick around and, a little to my surprise, I'm not impatient to see him go.
Taster Track : Hold On
Luster : Maria Somerville
Best for : Lovers of haunting but magical music of the night.
There's a special hour of the night when it feels as if you have no right to be out in the world. It's too late for socialising and too early for the day to begin. Senses are heightened, wits have to be kept sharp.The only things that move are wildlife and people who have lost their way in the shadows. And, it seems, Maria Somerville.
This is music that sounds as if it was pulled from a deep dream, barely recollected on waking but leaving an unsettling feeling. As I listened, the image that kept coming to mind was that of an owl - strange, watchful and capable of swift and silent violence.
'Realt' sets the tone. It's a haunting wash of an introduction. It's the defining sound of the album, and the whispered vocals of 'Halo' only emphasise the impact. There's a danger that the admirable and wholehearted commitment to her musical vision can feel heavy and oppressive. Even where her vocals are allowed to assert themselves in the mix, as they do in 'Violet' with lines such as "I believe in life and love and life.", there's a clinging desperation in the mix as if she's trying to convince herself of this statement.
Musically, this is an album with the seriousness of post punk, the murkiness of shoegaze, the melodic sweetness of pop and the overarching strangeness of 4AD records. In the end what lingers are the effects rather than the songs so i's fortunate that they are well done. At their core lie the stripped back guitars and sensibilities of the likes of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers in Boygenius, but with prettier vocal lines.
I enjoyed this album,. But when it was over I turned to Aztec Camera. It felt like emerging into daylight after a long, cold night.
Taster Track : Halo
Chin Up Buttercup : Austra
Best for : Anyone who likes their pop to sound a little different
After a few years, it's easy to forget how startlingly different Austra sounds. It's taken for granted that she has her own way of doing things, and you don't query it. Press play on your chosen mode of listening and you're immediately filled with an anticipation that is renewed before the start of every song.
This is electopop with a deftly accessible touch. It has the joy, positive possibility and the sense of heading gleefully into the unknown of the first wave of synth pop. She's quirky, with a heart of childish joy but an attitude coated in steel. You want to befriend her but never cross her.
The inventiveness of her imagination dazzles. Her imagery has you smiling and thinking at the same time. Take this from 'Math Equation':
"And now I'm out of the picture
A triangle before it ever comes together"
Running though the songs is a vein drawn from childhood. The falling out in 'Math Equation' calls to mind Mean Girls friendship groups. 'Fallen Cloud' seems to call from across mountain ranges, like the sounds picked up on children's TV by Skippy the Bush Kangaroo to allow the victim of a flooded mineshaft to be rescued. ''Think Twice' with its "Whoopsie" refrain" is like a mother putting on a bright childlike tone when she's brittle and about to crack.
'Amnesia' is a great opening track reminding you of what you can respect. 'Chin Up Buttercup' is attractively wonky and unconventional. There's real emotion too in a song like 'Good Riddance.' The cheap and cheerful euphoria of 'The Hopefulness of Dawn' is a delight. 'Siren Song' calls to mind pioneers who started to pave the path Austra follows, artists such as Imogen Heap, Camille and Lene Lovich.
At a jaded time of year, Austra is the refreshing voice you need to hear.
Taster Track : Amnesia