The Best Thing Since Chocolate Marmite

chrisweeks1020
4 hours ago
8 min read

Starring

Adam Camm, Barker, Chrissie Hynde and Pals, Kuma, Madi Diaz, Magnetic Skies, Mt Misery, My Raining Stars, The Suncharms

Stochastic Drift : Barker

Best for : People who like their music to stem from science rather than art.

This is, in a good way, an interesting album nestling in the sweet spot where intelligent dance music meets ambient. Freed from the need for furious beats, it’s an enjoyable listen.

It's an album that feels as if it draws on science and maths more than art. For example elements like the deliberate timing of the beat in ‘Reframing’ rest on precise calculation to take you by surprise. The balance between the metallic notes of ‘Force of Habit’ and its more chiming, plunked notes sounds like the product of experimentation to hear what works.

There’s perhaps some random chaos theory at play in how the separate pieces fit together. They called to mind an electronic jigsaw of similarly shaped and sized pieces scattered across the floor with no picture to guide you to the correct assembly. And in those circumstances, you may discover new magical combinations. It’s a strange sensation to hear music that could be as individual as the sound of blood coursing around your body or as universal as the sounds that come from across galaxies.

Scientific it may be, but it’s a kindly, gentle science with a heart. Tunes slowly unfurl like a sleeping child stirring towards wakefulness before settling back into sleep under the watchful eye of their parents,.

Towards the end something surprising occurs. You hear it in ‘Fluid Mechanics’ as it gently washes over you, a lovely demonstration of how Barker can take a jazz bass and make it all his own or in ‘Stochastic Drift’ where jazz drumming is absorbed as if all the percussion in the album has fallen through the tracks to settle in the final number.

I’m left feeling that Barker’s take on music bears the same relation to ambient electronica, as The Cinematic Orchestra or Thievery Corporation bore to the chill out genre with which they were lazily packaged at the beginning of the 21st century.

Taster Track : Fluid Mechanics

Fatal Optimist : Madi Diaz

Best for : Those who show empathy for honest and raw emotions.

It’s certainly not a hummable record, despite the melodic vocal lines. You’re listening too intently to the lyrics for that, lyrics such as these from ‘Good Liar’.

“Someties I just wanna be a little angry

Sometimes i just wanna feel a little bitter”

If you can’t bring your empathy to the turntable, you may find listening to this is a difficult experience. Her style is rooted in folk, singer songwriter and Americana. In truth though these songs are so deeply personal that they transcend genre. I suspect that believing you know her music from this album is like thinking you know Springsteen from ‘Nabraska’, or The Rolling Stones from ‘Sister Morphine.’

There are moments, not of hope exactly, but of turning a corner. These are on songs like ‘Heavy Metal’ which seems a little less inward looking, seeking explanations rather than exposing feeling. The matter of fact logic of ‘If Time Does What It’s Supposed To’ is the closest the album comes to qualified hope. The album could never be described as upbeat, but the boost of energy that fuels ‘Fatal Optimist’ gives a reason to believe that there’s a spark in the embers of devastation that could yet lead to a brighter, warmer future. Without it, we’d have been left with the feelings contained in ‘Why’d You Have to Bring Me Flowers?’, those of a shattered life without the possibility of a happy ending.

Hopefully, though, this album will have been cathartic and therapeutic for Madi. For everyone else it’s a chance to witness a level of loss, anger, bitterness and hurt that is rarely exposed to public view.

Taster Track : Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers?

It Depends Which Wolf You Feed : Kuma

Best for : The thinking person’s soundtrack for Halloween.

There are many reasons to listen to music. For pleasure, to feel emotion, to accompany exercise - the list is endless. I doubt though that many lists will include an ability to trigger uneasy reflection.

That’s the power of this album. Over the course of ten electronic instrumentals, this takes you from marvelling at things you can’t understand to wondering if there’s something sinister beneath the surface. It’s a little like AI - should we embrace this awe inspiring music or fear it? It’s an album that is never harsh, always musical, sometimes unsettling and often unknowable. It manages to convey that there are serious questions to ask, without suggesting what they might be. That’s the mystery at this music’s core.

It begins in a less disquieting mode, a luxurious ebb and flow of electronic ambience. ‘Herd of Ruminants’ is musical like a satellite sending out a call sign from deep space, reassuring and bleepy. ‘Eyes Like Gunpowder and White Alcohol’ has the widespread, stately feel of forces at work in the cosmos, something astral. These early pieces combine a luxurious end product with the mechanics that bring it into being. The scratchy clicking just beneath the surface of ‘Deification of Absence’ shows it best. ‘Comet Ferret’ is quietly hypnotic, and even elegiac. It slowly dawns on you though that sentiment and emotion from machines is not quite right. There’s more tension detected in the pulse of ‘Communal Harmony Bees’. Textures and atmosphere are the selling points here, prompting unvoiced concerns that your only choice is to place your faith in someone you’ve never met.

The album sags slightly in the middle.’Six Lords’ sounds as if it is inviting you to watch a satellite docking rather than marvel at its beauty and technology. ‘It Depends Which Wolf You Feed’ seems to have no particular place to go and, unlike the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, takes its time about getting there.

If you have smart speakers scattered around your house, this album would sound very good coming out of them simultaneously, but remember - special forces may be listening too.

Taster Track : Comet Ferret

Duets Special : Chrissie Hynde and Pals

Best for : Lovers of haunting compilations, curated with love and feeling.

Chrissie Hynde has a reputation for spikiness but that hasn’t prevented her making strong musical friendships over the last five decades. Back in 1980, the Pretenders toured their debut album supported by UB40. Five years later, they were duetting their way to No 1 with a cover of Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’. Once you make it into Hynde’s contact list, you’re not lightly discarded.

Some cynicism can be expected when a pop veteran releases an album of covers and duets with big name ‘friends’, but Duets Special is emphatically not a cash in. It’s so much better than that. The great thing about these collaborations is that they feel completely unforced. The album overflows with mutual respect and feeling for the songs. Everything fits together naturally.

Duetting with kd lang on ‘Me and Mrs Jones’ recasts it as a queer love song. It’s beautiful. These are songs between longstanding, older friends who could call each other in the early hours. It’s almost unbelievable to think of Chrissie Hynde as being 74 and to recognise that her duet of ‘Try To Sleep’ with Debbie Harry (80!) is a duet between two of pop’s grand dames.

Is age important? It is when it allows you the experience to invest these covers with the haunting feel of recurrent memories. The songs may have slowed down in her treatments, and she’s not belting any of them out, but her voice is smokily pure and the treatments uncover deep feelings and emotions.

The cover of The Beatles’ ‘It’s Only Love’ with Julian Lennon is spinetingling. It’s as if she is singing with the ghost of his father. ‘Love Letters’ with Shirley Manson is transformed with the feel of the greatest Christmas song that never was. ‘I’m Not In Love’ with Brandon Flowers shows that beneath the uncanny effects of 10cc’s original, lay a simpler but very good song.

Here, Chrissie Hynde has recast herself in a Sinatra-esque way to be the sponsor for a great pop songbook.

Taster Track : It’s Only Love (with Julian Lennon)

Love In Mind : Mt Misery

Best for : Lovers of early Teenage Fanclub

Don’t be put off by the name of this band. The music within is as far from a place you’d call Mt Misery as you could get. It’s music that is bathed in warm sunshine, not shrouded in clouds of drizzle.

There’s something appealing and youthful in the mix, the bright optimism of a band still excited by making its dreams come true. The verses here ferry you to choruses that carry the perfection of exploding fireworks brightening the sky. There are unshowy bedroom air guitar breaks to inspire the Beta male in your life that they have a future in pop if they want it.

The songs here jangle their way through an imagined summer of love. In under three minutes they provide perfect structures, that sound unhurried but free of all padding. The guitars sound as if they’ve been playing outside all day in the mud, supporting vocals in perfect harmony sung as if they’ve just arrived home from choir practice. That’s ‘Don’t Remind Me’ anyway. Mt Misery write songs like ‘Driving Through A Dream’ that are plaintive and hopeful in equal measure. ‘Waking Up’ is nothing less than a rush of pure pleasure.

The album is bookended by their best songs. ‘Hey’ has the same effect on you that the sound of a car pulling up outside has on a puppy about to welcome their owner home, all excited anticipation and happy belief. ‘Heatwave’ provides a whisper of bitter sweet, nostalgic, sun soaked euphoria that brings everything to a blissful close.

I loved this album, but there’s a caveat. It’s very indebted to early Teenage Fanclub. That’s a big compliment, but it’s a situation they’ll want to evolve if fans are to rush out to buy the next Mt Misery album rather than scramble back to their record collections for a booster fix of their Teenage Fanclub favourites.

Until then let Mt Misery guide you back to happiness.

Taster Track : Heatwave

EP and Singles Roundup

I haven’t tried this before so I’m having to get my head around how to approach it. With an album, it helps if it grabs your attention quickly but it’s not essential. With a single it has to engage immediately because four minutes later it’s gone. EPs give you more of a chance for refelction but I’ve learned this morning that you can’t hang about waiting for inspiration!

Fortunately, here we have four artists who clearly gathered that understanding a long time ago.

Starting with Adam Camm, I liked his 2023 debut album which was a promising and solid achievement. On the evidence of this EP though, he’s found the magic sparkle that makes for something rather special. His songs are brimful of ideas sewn seamlessly together. ‘Word To The Wise’ is overflowing with riffs and hooks. It’s a glorious blend of psychedelic glam and a singalong chorus. ‘Average Love Song’ wears sunlight on its sleeve. There’s nothing average about it at all. There’s a stream of Welsh pop that includes Soft Hearted Scientists and Ynys. Adam would make their ideal English neighbour.

Magnetic Skies sound the most established of the four acts here, although their debut is not released until next month. With ‘Everything’s Alright’ they’ve clearly taken a leaf out of the Olympian’s Handbook, and their performance is peaking at exactly the right time. There’s an assured confidence in their work which is reminiscent of mid 80s synth pop at its most impressive. ‘Everything’s Alright’ is a luxurious and richly textured experience.

Just in time for Halloween, The Suncharms bring you their Halloween mix of ‘Monster To Me’, and aim to summon ghosts on ‘Tuesday Afternoon Seance’. In April I described their sound as a mix of shoegaze and post punk. They’ve gone a little poppier with this single. It’s slightly discordant, but joyous too, as if the Jesus and Mary Chain had recruited an indie pop trumpeter. As for that seance, it’s still related to shoegaze but with an attractive added sway.

‘Helpless’ from My Raining Stars is well named. It describes how you will feel in the face of its charms. There’s a sense of falling willingly and helplessly in love with it. I love Thierry Haliniak’s vocals. On ‘Gaping Wound’ they’re accented, wide-eyed and on the verge of bewildered hopelessness. It’s pop, seasoned with emotional echoes of shoegaze.

Four records. Four styles. Four reasons to have faith in the current health of pop.

Taster Tracks : Oh go on then, all of them