Brew Bar Espresso

So last weekend I rushed out of work as quick as possible to make sure I got to Hyde Park Picture house in time for Blue Roses’ performance of her new score for the 1920 version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.  I was expecting the ruddy lovely young Laura Groves to be sat at a piano vaudevilling her way through an hour of classic horror.  That would have been more than ace.

Instead, we were treated to Ms Groves with accompaniment from Hannah Peel and a drummer (was it the chap from Grammatics or just a doppelgänger…?) creating an absorbing beast of a score.  Armed with an array of synths, effects pedals, keyboards and music boxes, the trio began with a nod to the classic silent movie era, before descending into an intensely atmospheric post-rock style ambient work.  Throw in a couple of hammer horror style organs and a cymbal crash hither and thither, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the audience was treated to.  

Personally I’d sum the bulk of the score up as being like Erik Satie jamming with Mogwai (if only this could really exist…!), and it was after around 40 minutes where Groves added her haunting, angelic vocal into the wash of sound that the score found itself at its most effecting.  

Amazing stuff.  It’s just a shame to say that it wasn’t full.  Perhaps a later billing and slightly reduced ticket price might have tempted a few more along.  I hope the Hyde Park Picture House continues this sort of model in the future; my souvenir ticket stub marked ‘Special Event’ is the understatement of the century.

Talk about highly anticipated.  

I’ve been blasting Dry the River’s ‘Bible Belt’ and ‘Weights & Measures’ EPs over our speakers for a good three or four months now, boldly claiming to all and sundry that they are going to be ENORMOUS once their debut album lands on the shelves.  

Well, here it is, at last!  Surprisingly the reviews for this debut have been pretty diverse; to some they appear to be British folk-pop’s tattooed saviours, whereas to others they’re just a vaguely more credible Mumford & Sons except they sing about the Bible a fair bit.

For me they’re neither of these.  Dry the River are quite simply a bloody good band whose beautiful lyrics are delivered by a ghostly high tenor over an ever lilting melody.  It’s not revolutionary at all, but it’s certainly not the MOR slop that some of the reviews I’ve read have deemed it to be.  Their music is as intelligent as it is approachable, with an underlying visceral and emotive streak left over from their previous days in hardcore bands.  

The songwriting and arrangement is second to none in amongst their peers, and they’ve put together an excellent debut.

I have two gripes with it.

One of them is the compression on the master.  It’s just too squishy.  Music as grand as this needs breathing space in its production, and for me it’s lacking it.  Peter Liddle’s darkly angelic vocal gets lost at times amongst the ever-more distorted cymbals and hacking guitar lines, which just seems to detract from the overall quality of the songwriting a little.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from unlistenable, but I have to admit that after such anticipation the over-compressed audio did leave a slightly sour taste.  

The other is the hidden track.  Maybe some people like hidden tracks.  I don’t.  I really, really don’t.  After the thundering (sadly lost in waves of distortion) finale of ‘Lion’s Den’ we get a brief pause before what appears to be a re-written version of an earlier track by the name of ‘Family Tree’.  WHY?  It’s a brilliant song.  Fair enough if you want the structure of the album to remain as it is for the first 11 songs; if that’s the ‘work’ you’ve created, that’s fine.  But if you’ve got another song you just couldn’t squeeze into the middle somewhere, you’ve got two options - list it as a bonus track and give the disc 12 tracks, or just save it for a b-side so that people will buy your next single.

There’s a 14 year old inside me just desperate to get his latest mixtape finished, and he’s very disappointed that he has to fast forward on his old CD deck to get that last track on.  

Nevertheless, Dry the River are still one of the best bands going at the moment, and I hope they get all of the support they clearly deserve.  They’re on tour in April, go and check them out, I’ve heard their live show is unbelievable!

Hello. This is Josh of Brew Bar. As you all may be aware now, Charlie of Brew Bar is a very prolific reviewer/general banter-sitsion. I myself can’t compete with the level of, clear concise and ultimately entertaining reviews/ramblings that our Brew brother Charlie comes up with. What I can do however, is make a list of my favorite tracks my little ears have heard this week. Thus begins “Joshua Picks Pop…”

5/3/12

Okay, well it is only Tuesday, but I do have some tasty music candy for you. Lets begin.

1. Burial & Four tet team up again with the track “Nova” It’s a beaut’ people.
2. Mister Lies (New Chicago based producer) with the track “I Walk” Another haunting electronic piece, with a knowing nod back to the old days (90’s)
3. Gross Magic (saw these guys supporting Real Estate, they were darn good) Their E.p “Teen Jamz” is worth a listen, imagine Grunge mixed with T-Rex riffs, recorded on one of Ariel Pink’s old tape machines…
4. Finally, Alpine a fine disco pop band from downunder with the track “Hands” An extremely well crafted pop song, whilst retaining compositional credibility.

There you go kids!

charliebarnes:

You can buy it and own it and stuff.

And you can also help a hungry music-maker make more music and also eat and that.

Go here!

http://charliebarnes.bandcamp.com/

I’m very, very, very careful about using the word genius.  It’s the kind of buzzword that gets thrown around at every too-far-up-its-own-arse awards ceremony, and every time they make the Radio 1 DJs cover one of the UK summer festivals.  Dictionary.com defines genius as: ‘an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work.’, and I think it’s the word ‘exceptional’ here that gets all too forgotten.  

In terms of popular music, there aren’t many people I’d happily brand as ‘genius’, and certainly not those of contemporary popular music.  There are, of course, exceptions (remember, exceptional..?), and one of those is Son Lux.  Son Lux’s ‘We Are Rising’ record released last year was perhaps too good.  It was pretty criminally ignored over here, in spite of being one of the most ‘exceptional’ electronic/pop/classical/acoustic/indie releases of the year.  What I find peculiar is how incredibly popular James Blake’s similarly left of field, yet almost hookless debut album became, whilst most people I mention Son Lux to don’t even know who I’m talking about.

Anyway.  This week he’s released instrumental versions of the tracks from ‘We Are Rising’ along with a 6 track live EP recorded at BreakThru Radio, and it’s the live EP I want to discuss here.  With the electronics (for the most part) stripped away to leave just piano and Ryan Lott’s unearthly, heartbreaking (and above all else, NOT tediously exaggerated to sound cool…) vocals, the compositions become absolutely bewildering.  The structures, progressions and harmonic movements are so disjointed and unusual that it feels like rather than being written they just sort of happened.  But it’s far from bizarre, experimental art-music.  It’s pop.  It’s great pop.  The hooks are everlasting.  The melodies are filled with drama.  And perhaps most importantly, the lyrics are fragmentary and delicate, exemplified wholly by Lott’s beautifully fragile voice.  

It’s hard to find a review of Son Lux that doesn’t at some point mention Stravinsky.  So I’m not going to mention Stravinsky.  What I couldn’t help being reminded of while listening to this live EP however, was a literary movement from Stravinsky’s contemporaries.  The Imagistes were firm believers in the idea that writing (in this case, poetry) should have an immediacy and simplicity, without any unnecessary romantic ornamentation.  Their writing mixed abstractions with more concrete ideas, using simple, informative language to deliver a work free of indulgence.  When Son Lux reduces his compositions to these simple live versions, it strikes me that the ideals of the Imagistes live on in the work of a young American pop musician.

I can’t really think of any other popular musicians with whom I could compare Lott’s work.  Oddly enough, one of the few that come to mind is Scott Walker, specifically his later work.  Lyrically, Walker’s similarly fragmented music is sparse, bleak, and cold, and I always get the feeling that rather than being put together in the tradition of the singer/songwriter, these pieces of music just happen.

You can get hold of Son Lux’s live EP from his bandcamp page at http://music.sonluxmusic.com/album/son-lux-breakthru-radio-session for any price you wish.  Spend plenty, and help fund a young, important musical visionary.

So.  I’m a huge Oceansize fan.  I was pretty gutted when they split up last year.  Both of these are massive understatements.  I’ve been desperate to hear something from one of the many ‘Post-Size’ projects British Theatre since its announcement, and one year on, here we are.  It’s a fairly understated release with pretty much the only real promotion being some over-excited hints emanating from the Twitter feed of former Oceansize frontman Mike Vennart, and a few viral videos cropping up on the duo’s Tumblr page in the fortnight preceding the EP’s release via Bandcamp. 

Anybody stupid enough to be expecting Oceansize v2.0 was bound to be disappointed.  British Theatre has clearly given two of the band’s members the chance to further explore influences that they perhaps couldn’t fit into the Oceansize sound.  The sound is typically dark and brooding, with Vennart’s voice (here much more reminiscent of that other famous Mike we all really like) being the main point of reference for the duo’s previous incarnation.  Glitchy beats and electronic warmth refer us to Gambler’s solo music under the monicker of Richard A. Ingram, albeit a little less on the lines of 12k records inspired ambience and more in keeping with the softer end of Nine Inch Nails.

Nonspecific clips and clops with some abstract voice and guitar wobbling over the top this certainly isn’t.  The songwriting within is as innovative as ever, with clear influence from the likes of Mew, Son Lux and maybe a pinch of 65daysofstatic or solo Thom Yorke.  As with (well, in my opinion anyway) Oceansize, it’s the vocal melody that really gives this stuff its edge.  Gentle meanders through a wide vocal range, this time round making much more use of vocal fx and studio gubbins to exemplify its extremes. 

Put simply, this is a shit hot debut that I cannot stop listening to, and I definitely can’t wait for more.  Even the band’s first ‘Press Shot’ is an indication of the project’s calm, introspective and home grown nature, with the pair sat at opposite ends of a really quite comfy looking sofa.  The only thing that stops it being two chaps hanging out having a chat is the guitar in Vennart’s mitts.

Dear British Theatre, we bloody well can’t wait for more.  GIVE.

http://www.britishtheatremusic.com

http://britishtheatre.bandcamp.com