Music For The First Glass Waiting Room

chrisweeks1020
8 hours ago
8 min read

Starring

Cate Brooks, GoGo Penguin, Maridalen, Neuzeitliche Bodebelage, Sweet Water, Ynys

The Front Runners

Gressholmen : Maridalen

I used to work with a man who was great at his job, caring and decent. We weren’t close friends but we got on well. He was a good and compassionate man and, as it turned out, a sad one who’s no longer with us. The music on ‘Gressholmen’ triggered memories of that man - sadness at his passing but quiet happiness at the good things he’d achieved by his own efforts and example.

Maridalen are masters at creating other worldly atmospheres. They jolt you gently, like the sight of an Amish community on holiday. The slow throb of ‘Innront’ grows steadily urgent, while the faint ambient sounds add colour. They are as adept at the sinister and unsettling undertones of ‘I Nattens Mulum Og Morke’ as they are at surprisingly poppy bursts of double bass and keyboard on ‘Mysig’ and in the skipping simplicity of ‘Fuglefangeren’.

It’s an unusual set up as it means there are no instruments here that play chords. They rely on trumpet, double bass and woodwind with the occasional import of piano and guitar. It’s Emil Brattested’s stretched guitar on ‘Smeigedag’ that adds to the sense of the music coming from another time and place. This is absolutely a jazz record but it seems to be jazz that captures local musical traditions that go back centuries. This is jazz, that eschews complexity and busyness to make moving and beautiful music.

Listen to this when you can give it your full attention. The melodies are memorable, but sometimes they’re just below the surface. Maridalen take themselves seriously and so should you. They’ll reward with a few smiles along the way if you do.

Taster Track : Mysig

Shine On : Sweet Water

As a teenager I listened to my share of classic rock played my air guitar liked the Gods and writhed my way through imaginary Keith Moon drum solos. Then, as mainstream music began to fragment classic rockers and I took different paths. As classic rock expanded into opera and spectacle, my tastes grew smaller. We kept in touch through bands like AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and, yes, the farce of Spinal Tap, but I hung out every night with the singer songwriters, the twee brigade and the indie kids. I took my references and recommendations from ‘Q’ and ‘The Word’ not from ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Classic Rock’

Listening to Sweet Water’s new album (released on 18th September) I realised that somewhere along the way I lost something. I lost the sense that music with power can be as moving as music full of hushed intimacy. Sweet Water are a whole different prospect from, say, Motley Crue. The wild life and outrageous antics have been left behind and the music is back in control and centre stage.They’re all about the music, and nothing about the ego, the pose and the bombast.

Nine albums in, and this feels and sounds like a band attaining fulfilment. They’ve adopted the mantra that “sometimes more is more”, but in a considered way. It’s good to hear something that takes you back to basics, but it’s better when music is rebuilt from the ground up, keeping the riffs and rhythms intact but embellishing them with carefully judged flourishes such as the quietly emotional strings, as on the opening track ‘State of Grace’. On ‘Laser Beams’ they nail the guitar solo for the diehard rocker, but they offer a cosmic creativity for the home listener that spirals upwards, opening up new vistas. I haven’t felt so wrongfooted by new music - in a good way - since U2 took a left turn into ‘The Unforgettable Fire’. This is rock under an empty blue sky crying out to the Heavens and it’s a spinetingling experience.

Don’t fret. Sweet Water can do fast and hard too. ‘Kids’ and ‘God’s Eyes’ are just two examples that show that they remember how to make some noise.

The production is excellent throughout. This is an album you can love just for the sound of it. It’s polished, yes, but also human and sincere.

I loved this album for itself and for reminding me that old friends that grow up shouldn’t be abandoned. They are still good friends.

Taster Track : State Of Grace

The Chasing Pack

Prismatics : Cate Brooks

Cate Brooks has given us the future as we imagined it might be back in the very late 70s at the dawn of synthsisers. It’s bright and it’s shiny, managing to sound modern and retro at the same time. It’s also a little troubling in its big brother corporacy.

What strikes you first is that this is a form of sonic branding. It feels busy and brisk and important. You can believe it was commissioned by a corporate events director, as an aural message at a sales conference to bring the self-congratulations to an end. “Back to work” it says. “We need to get on and move on.” It’s perky though, offering a bright start to a day in which there’s no time to waste. The future has arrived and it sounds so retro.

The sonic branding feel is evident from the start, in the repetitive and relentless top layer of ‘Blue Chip Fever’. It’s strongly evident in the album’s centrepiece ‘Technology Suite’ - ten minutes and eighteen seconds built around a thirteen note ear worm that will drive you mad, even as it leaves pleasure on your face.

What makes this more than so much musical froth on a corporate cappuccino, is the vaguely sinister undercurrent that carries it along. There’s no sense of human interventions or emotion on this record. This is music made by machines. Cate has a low social media and internet presence so there’s little insight into the creative spark that brought this to light. The music is warm and listenable but also anonymous. It’s computer driven ambience destined to remain in the background or the library. It’s the musical equivalent of L.E.D. lighting.

There’s much to enjoy, but little to remember. It sounds in places like the early days of electronic disco, when a record could be played while the DJ took a break causing no noticeable disruption. ‘Energens’ has a stronger sense of purpose. ‘Econet’ is one example of a tune with a playful, perhaps improvised, evolution.

The question is : Is that enough? And maybe it is enough, in these days of creeping AI, to be asked to confront and consider that question.

Taster Track : Energens

Necessary Fictions : GoGo Penguin

Jazz has always polarised opinions and been the subject of an adversarial approach to music. First it was between different generations, the old and the young. Then it became a matter of jazz versus folk, before both took arms against rock and roll. Throughout its history it’s been at war with itself, with different sub categories commanding loyal disciples of the true faith. More than anything though it has been seen, in all its forms, as a rearrangement of order. It’s a genre that threatens to break the rules.

GoGo Penguin fit right in with that, but they do so without forsaking melody and beauty. ‘Umbra’ kicks off the album. It marches forth, gloriously out of step. The bass line punches its way through the song. The drums try but fail to impose order. The keyboards run amok over the top as everything flirts with breaking down. It’s held together by a compelling sense of rhythm, the different parts meshing together somehow to create a piece stronger than the sum of its parts.

Often, bass and drums are a song’s foundations. Gogo Penguin treat them as equal partners up front. That helps to draw connections and blur boundaries. ‘Fallowfield Loops’ retains a melody to keep you hooked. ‘Forgive The Damages’ is a rare example of a GoGo Penguin song with vocals provided in the smooth tones of Daudi Matsiko. Set against the irregular backing, the only comparison is with an alternative rock outfit like Radiohead. ‘What We Are and What We Are Meant To Be’ is a piece of entrancing beauty and ‘Background Hiss Reminds Me Of Rain’ is ambient bliss drawn from the everyday.There’s always something unexpected to catch your ear. ‘State Of Flux’ darts, swoops and soars like a flock of birds, startled by predators. On ‘Luminous Giants’ they wander into chamber orchestra territory.

This is an album from the recording studio that is as much at home in the club as the concert conservatoire. It’s down amongst people, not on stage and remote. Perhaps we should call it Kerbside Jazz. It’s well worth a visit.

Taster Track : Background Hiss Reminds Me Of Rain

Neue Kreise : Neuzeitliche Bodebelage

A few people have mentioned recently that I’ve been selecting many, many unknown bands. Here’s another one. I can almost guarantee that, like me, you’ve never heard of Neuzeitliche Bobebelage before.There’s no apology for that. I’ve always tried to promote acts - some good, some less good - that are under the radar of national radio and lacking the support of corporate entities to make their mark. More importantly though, as in music as in life, to find treasure, you have to dig deep.

Some of you may be thinking that, from the name alone, you’re in for a dark and challenging experience. And in some of the vocals you may be right especially if you don’t speak German. There are no concessions to an international audience here. Remember though, that the striking band name ‘Neuzeitliche Bodebalage’ translates to ‘Modern Flooring’. Even the worst flooring crises aren’t s bad as they seem.

In any event, the music is drawn from a completely different well. You might expect the heavy and hypnotic basslines, but there’s an unexpected warmth too that may come as a surprise.

‘Durchug’ is Kraftwerk with added, soft bass funk. It’s peaceful - the closing 4AM song in an unjustly overlooked club. There’s cool midnight jazz in the mix too, and it’s not the last time you’ll hear that on the album. And yet, this remains music that gradually brings warm delight, not frozen emotion. ‘Jar Um Jahr’ breaks into a restrained carnival feel in the middle of a festival. ‘Kaltes Asche Und Orchiden’ is stylish but also down to earth. ‘Puma’ is like a designer car cruising effortlessly down the Autobahn at night. The second part of ‘Landung’ defies all expectations about the heaviness of German electronic music; it is as light as fireflies dancing over a lake. It’s lovely, optimistic and happy.

This is the kind of music that, if it had been around in the 70s,would have had Eno and Bowie queuing at the door for a preview. It’s very good indeed.

Taster Track : Landung

Dosbarth Nos : Ynys

This album came out in July 2024. It’s the perfect release for the Summer holidays.

Ynys provide perfect holiday camp music. I’ll expand on that, because I don’t want to create the impression of damning with faint praise. The standard heritage circuit is often populated by bands in decline who have dropped out of the charts, through a series of shrinking nostalgia festivals and into whatever they can scrabble for as a jobbing band. Ynys are way beyond that. They’re the reason to visit, a licence to let the holiday good times begin.

Like Super Furry Animals, with whom they have much in common, Ynys have a confidence that suggests they know you are going to be impressed. They have the bright breezy pop that’s a direct descendent of ‘Good Day Sunshine’ by the Beatles, and an affinity with the mildly psychedelic feel of ‘Revolver’. As a result you’ll join in with the chorus to ‘Aros Amandant Ti’ even if you don’t understand a word of Welsh.

Here, more is more. This isn’t in the sense of over the top crash, bangs, wallops and the kitchen sink but in the way that they repel stripped back minimalism until it’s needed. They’re a five piece band who sound bigger than they are, boosted on something like ‘Dim Ond Ni’ by a battalion of brass. It may strike some as noisy, but most will feel the sense of release from the soaring choruses emerging from every song.

It has a wide screen cinematic feel that does more to welcome you to the holiday vibe than any number of Tourist Board promotional films. This is music guaranteed to produce happiness with the scent of candy floss and freshly roasted honey coated peanuts in the air.

It’s a lovely touch that the album’s coda - ‘Ynys’ - is completely different from what precedes it. It’s the sound of regret that the holiday is over, bringing you gently back to earth.

This is the shot of joy you need each Summer.

Taster Track : Aros Amdanat Ti