Category: Albums


The Narrow State

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February 22, 2012

Album of the Week: Rumour Cubes – The Narrow State

The Tidal Wave of Indifference bloody loves post rock.

Hopefully that was obvious with our frequent Mogwai-related drooling and our championing of pretty much everything that comes with guitars set to ‘epic’ and vocals set to ‘none’.

The arrival of the debut album by London-based instrumentalist Rumour Cubes in our inbox was always likely to receive favourable treatment then, but thankfully this is no mere run-of-the-mill jaunt.

Yes, we swoon over its glacial guitars, its unhurried build up and its massive, massive loud guitars, but it’s the use of the violin that adds that little bit extra to proceedings.

It’s not exactly a new trick for a post rock band, but Rumour Cubes bring out the best of the instrument once best known for being your weapon of choice when deliberating whether to beat Nigel Kennedy to death or not.

In amongst the thunderous guitars and portentous pontificating on The Gove Curve, the violins (and viola) are lacerating, rhythmic, and deeply unsettling. On the more lament-like At Sea, they’re heartfelt and more likely to have you staring at the bottom of a glass wondering why your beloved left you and even took the bloody cat.

At six tracks, The Narrow State is perhaps a little slight as nothing here, unlike, for example, much of the work of Mono, will have you checking your watch. But there’s plenty going on and the frequent time changes (see halfway through Rain On Titan) keep things interesting.

Triptych is a full-on blast of rock and roll and sounds like it would best appreciated live with everything, bowed or otherwise, getting the crap kicked out of it, until things break down rather beautifully. Needless to say, it then ramps up once again, conveying that sense of euphoria that makers of this kind music must all strive for.

But very few truly achieve it.

Naturally, we had a wee yarn with the band.

Are there any particular themes running through the record?

Adam Stark (guitar/electronics): One particular theme that has come out is the marketisation of education. This wasn’t particularly deliberate but there are strong political impulses in the band and so it happened naturally. Certainly, we believe that education should be a) free to all and b) free-thinking, i.e., it should not merely be the servant of a market economy, churning out ready-to-go employees – rather it should seek to empower people to challenge the society they are living in, giving each generation the opportunity to remake it as their own. These are some of the themes behind the opening two tracks, “The University is a Factory” and “The Gove Curve”. The poem that appears on The Gove Curve was written by poet Steve Willey, a good friend of the band.

Terry Murphy (viola): In a way all the songs bear the influence of the state and mood of the country at the time we made the album. I think the title ‘The Narrow State’ reflects both how we all feel about the political and governmental climate at the moment, and the mood of the songs bears that out, be it as a reflection of gloom and depression – or oppression even – or as a rallying cry of intent and hope in railing against that. Lauren Mortimer, who did the magnificent drawings for our album, really symbolised visually the marketisation of education theme, too.

How was the recording process?

AS: Brilliant! And long! We recorded the album at Café Music Studios in east London, with Mark Sutherland (producer) and Cherif Hashizume  (engineer). They injected a new life into the band and really made sure we got the best out of ourselves. We are also a picky bunch and so it took a lot of tweaking and revisiting things until we were able to sit down, listen to it and say “ok, it’s done, time to stop”. The record took nine months to make explicitly with some parts recorded more than 18 months ago. We are pleased with it though.

TM: We had to stop because we’d eaten all the supplies of ton-weight syrupy waffles from the shop next door. And by ‘we’ I mean Adam. Mark and Cherif really welcomed us into their studio and it became our second home – I’d charge Omar (Rahwangi – drums) rent if I were them! The amount of junk food required was heavy going though – that was definitely our rock and roll excess.

Hannah Morgan (violin): I had an absolutely amazing time at Café Music Studios. It’s a wonderful place that we pretty much entirely took over while we were there – we’d have one member downstairs recording, others assembling string lines upstairs, while the rest were making coffee, ordering Chinese, doing band admin on laptops… And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the jamming sessions, cover versions, filming, podcasting, etc that was going on as well. I’d live my life like that if I could.

What prompted the use of strings in your sound?

AS: I think when we formed the band, we wanted to go for a more diverse line up. A number of other musicians tried out for the band, including a cellist and a flautist. We tried our best to find a contra-bassoon player, but to no avail.

TM: One of the Sky Sports News presenters plays the bassoon – I used to play in the Merseyside Youth Orchestra with him. We could drop him a line. I wasn’t in the band when the line-up was decided, but I assume the decision to have a violin was due to not being able to find two violas (only joking, Hannah!)

HM: Actually I seem to recall it being me who suggested a viola player! We wanted something to complement and contrast the violin, and toyed with a few different instrumental ideas but the viola was by far the best choice – it’s a more mellow and fuller sound than the violin, but still has a similar range, whereas a cello would have been an octave lower.

Any plans to tour? Scotland perhaps?

AS: We do plan to tour later this year, yes. No specifics as yet, but we’d love to come up to Scotland – anyone wanna put us up?!

TM: I went to a wedding at a place called Crear about 20 miles from
Lochgilphead on the west coast of Scotland in the summer (I mean I went there in the summer. I assume it’s on the west coast of Scotland all year round, rather than being migratory). It runs residential courses for musicians I think. It’s in the middle of nowhere, so chances are we’d be playing to a field of sheep, but it would be an awesome setting!

HM: Touring is something we absolutely, desperately want to do. We just need to find time to do it! Co-ordinating seven people is difficult at the best of times. But we’ll definitely get there soon.

The Narrow State is available on Monday on Bandcamp.

Rumour Cubes – Triptych (live) from Rumour Cubes on Vimeo.

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Dead Wolf Situation

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February 15, 2012

Album of the Week: Hysterical Injury – Dead Wolf Situation

Death From Above 1979 and Blood Red Shoes. Right, now we’ve got the ubiquitous ‘sounds like’ reference out the way, we can get on with reviewing this rather splendid record by Wales’ Hysterical Injury.

Really though, they can expect nothing less – a boy/girl duo combining drums with a stringed instrument equals an instant Blood Red reference. Add that the instrument in question is a bass, then your DFA link is sealed too.

Thankfully, Dead Wolf Situation can stand on its own four feet. Absolutely as ferocious as you’d expect, it goes immediately for the jugular with Halo Alkanes, swiftly followed by Icebreak and Cycle One, combining vulgar power with a canny sense of melody. In fact, we’d argue that this is as strong an opening blast as on any album this year. Annie Gardiner howling “Everybody knows its rattling his cage” on Cycle One simply won’t leave your mind for weeks.

And sure, the bass has its limitations as a non-rhythmic instrument, but you wouldn’t guess that by listening to this album. Six string chords are simply not missed and it’s great to see a band doing something beyond yer standard fare. While the above comparisons are valid, they’re far noisier than Blood Red Shoes and a little less hairy (and considerably prettier) than DFA 1979.

Annie’s brother Tom is the man behind the kit, adding propulsion to the relentless racket. It can be slowed down a touch when required with Vex and showing restraint, and there’s lyrical depth on display with the scything Skyline Interface dealing with that whole unpleasant Meredith Kercher/Amanda Knox business.

Tipped by 6 Music for big things this year, Hysterical Injury are probably way too awkward for the mainstream, but Dead Wolf Situation is quite an introduction.

We spoke to Annie last week.

How does it feel like be a ‘tip’ for this year?

It is very very nice to hear that people like our music and so being a ‘tip’ is an honour.

What on earth is a ‘dead wolf situation’?

Dead Wolf Situation can be a kind of fairy tale metaphor to have slewn your fears! It was a happy accident we had a few choice words written down and assembled them until it sounded nice, and luckily the album has a lot of content about fear so it fitted.

Tell us about what’s influenced the album.

For a long time I’ve wanted to make an album that had the kind of psycho-ness that Joy Division got in Unknown Pleasures. I dont think we or this album sounds like it at all but that album has been a big influence on me to follow my curiosities about what sound and lyrics I would want to put on a record. I am also a huge David Lynch fan and have always been intrigued by his unfolding of seemingly mundane situations to find the abstraction. I wanted to make something that was something too… you know took you somewhere, that had energy in it… like when I first discovered Lightning Bolt I was just blown up by their energy. It is otherworldy, its almost a physical being, you are really aware of the physical change in energy when they play – you know air pressure turning into electrical currents, turning into kenetic responses… It made me smile and I wanted to do that too… and a huge urge to do what we like despite the world we live in….keeping rebellion alive and all.

Can we expect to see you in Scotland any time soon?

I would love to come to Scotland. My family are Scottish, although Tom and I were born and bred in beautiful Wales, our roots are in the North for sure. There is talk that we shall make it this year and I cant wait !!

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Plumb

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February 7, 2012

Album of the Week: Field Music – Plumb

When eyes unexpectedly turned to the North East of England in the middle of the last decade looking for the next big thing, no one really expected Field Music to be the ones with staying power.

But here we are in 2012 with the Brewis brothers about to release their excellent fourth album while the Futureheads and Maximo Park have largely drifted out of the public’s consciousness.

Maybe it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise? Field Music were always alchemists – full of awkward, staccato rhythms which should take down the catchiness level of any song, but somehow still keeping their songs in the drawer clearly marked ‘pop’ – but certainly not throwaway popsters.

This formula hit its peak on 2007′s wonderful Tones of Town and while it’s follow-up Measure overextended itself at 22 tracks, it still oozed quality, thicker than any Geordie accent.

So in theory, 15 tracks over barely half an hour on Plumb should see Field Music stripping things back a bit?

Nuh-uh.

Short and sharp some of the songs may be (three fall short of the minute mark), but the band have woven in complex time changes all over the shop and some songs like opener Start the Day Right manage still be multi-part Bohemian Rhapsody/Paranoid Android-esque epics while barely scraping past two minutes.

And the tracks come at you so thick and fast it can be difficult to differentiate between one of those time changes and a new piece kicking off altogether.

The Brewis voice has alway been a strength and the brothers are in fine voice once again with vocals that must surely now be described as ‘unmistakable’. First single (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing certainly needed no introduction on the first of its many radio plays.

In amongst all the musical intricacy is woven a gorgeous sense of melody (Choosing Sides and Guillotine particularly standing out) and some superb guitar sounds, like on Who’ll Pay the Bills.

To date Field Music have been seen as little more than well respected cult heroes who don’t sell as many records as they should. Here’s hoping that Plumb changes all that.

We were delighted to catch a word with David Brewis last week.

How has your approach to writing and recording differed since Measure?

As ever, we’re just trying to get better at what we do. There was definitely a feeling this time round that we should embrace some different approaches to structure, especially given that a lot of the songs on Measure were quite conventional in that respect. In terms of recording, we’ve had to get used to working in a new space, as we moved to a new studio just before we started recording. That’s allowed us to be a bit less inhibited with regard to instrumentation.

What are the key themes we can hear on Plumb?

Musically, there’s an incredibly wide range on the record. I think the more-fragmented structures have led to a few sections which really draw on musicals and film; maybe using the music as narrative in a way we haven’t done in the past. But on the other hand, there are plenty of songs where that wouldn’t be apparent at all!

Lyrically, quite a few of Peter’s songs deal with nostalgia and how memories impinge on the here and now. In my songs, there’s quite a lot of existential frustration! How do you communicate with people without diluting your ideas to make them more easily understood? Can you hold onto your ideals as you get older? Isn’t there something more useful to do with your time than making music? The usual.

Looking forward to getting out on the road again?

I am actually. I think the band is sounding really good and I think some of the songs will be quite surprising for people to see and hear live. I wouldn’t want to play as much as we did after Measure – I don’t have the mental stamina to play the same songs night after night that often and still enjoy it. It’s great to go out and play but, for me, that has to be balanced out by quiet, solitary time when I can let some new ideas percolate.

You can catch Field Music on the following dates:

Feb 10, Newcastle, The Cluny (SOLD OUT)
Feb 12, Newcaslte The Cluny (Extra date just added)
Feb 18, Glasgow Stereo
Feb 19, Manchester Deaf Institute (SOLD OUT)
Feb 20, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Feb 22, Nottingham, Bodega
Feb 23, Bristol The Fleece
Feb 24, Kings College London

Some of the camerawork on this unofficial video is on the shaky side, but it certainly captures the essence of (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing.

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No One Can Ever Know

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February 1, 2012

Album of the Week: The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know

Much has been made of the Twilight Sad’s ‘change of direction’. You know the one – that famous wall of noise now morphed into dark, swirling synths.

True, it sounds strange at first. There was a definite transition between debut Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters and 2009′s Forget the Night Ahead, but this is something else entirely.

Maybe that’s why the band and their chose to trail the album so heavily in advance. Three of its nine tracks have been available for advance download, two for free, so music fans that were already into the band have had plenty of time to readjust. Those who weren’t have a clean slate of course, but seeing them live may make them wonder just what’s going on.

If reports are to believed the band have lost absolutely none of their power – and let’s face it, volume – live, even on the less guitar-y new songs. Impressive, as it’s hard to see some of these songs turning into true foundation shakers.

That’s not to say they’re lacking in other qualities, of course. Present and correct is James Graham’s anguished howl, the OTHER defining trait of the Twilight Sad. It blends magnificently with the creaking door synths on opener Alphabet.

That unsettling ’70s horror soundtrack feel runs through the album and on Dead City it kicks on into a cracking chorus. Sick’s difficult lyrics announce a different tact – slow and breathless – and it’s maybe an odd choice for a single, but hey isn’t The Room one of the ‘Sad’s best-loved songs?

The closing doubler – Another Bed and Kill It In The Morning – you’ll already be familiar with and if you’ve any sense, utterly love.

The Twilight Sad have progressed their sound certainly, but have lost none of their intensity. No One Can Ever Know is an album to be proud of and one you’ll keep coming back to. Trust us.

We spoke to James from the band last week.

It feels like a breakneck few years for the band. Fancy slowing down any time soon?

Ha! I suppose we’ve been kind of busy, although we’d have liked to have been even busier. We’re a working band and playing live is what we love to do, so we’re not planning on slowing down anytime soon. 2012 looks like its going to be a really full on busy year for us, which is great. The only way we’ll be slowing down is if we split up or end up killing each other over the next year.

Much has been made of your apparent change in sound – how do YOU think you’ve changed?

Personally, I don’t see it as that big of a change. We’ve just done what comes naturally. I’m not the same person I was when I wrote the first or second album. I mean, I’m still the same person – I haven’t had an identity crisis or anything – I’ve just got older. I still write in the same way I’ve always written, the songs are still about where I’m from and things that have happened to me/my friends/my family but I think musically we always want to try new things whilst staying honest and true to ourselves. We never wanted to make the same sounding record on any release so we’ve just done things that have interested us musically and tried to move the band forward in a direction that keeps us interested and excited. I mean, I don’t listen to any of our old albums, so people that have recently or occasionally over the past few years, might think it’s a big change. But to me we’re the same band and hopefully that comes through on this new record in a new and exciting way.

Is there a particular influence that’s now coming to the fore?

No one in particular, it was more something that happened at the song writing stage. The songs just took on a sparse/bleak approach, which actually helped to add certain new elements to the sound of the songs, if that makes any sense. Andy was listening to stuff along the lines of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Can, PiL, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire, Wire, Bauhaus, Magazine, D.A.F. etc. Which probably helped influence the new songs. As far as the vocal melodies and lyrics go, I just did what came naturally when I was listening to and writing along to the music that Andy gave me. That’s the thing with this band, we just do what comes naturally and we’re not trying to be anything we’re not.

Can we expect to see you out on the road again soon?

Yeah, we’re touring the UK at the start of February, beginning a four-week North American tour at the end of February which ends at SXSW. Then I think we’re off to mainland Europe in April/May, then it will be festival season. Then in the second half of the year we’ll be releasing something else with the new album so hopefully we’ll be touring the world again. We’re really hoping this new album will take us to countries and cities we’ve never been before. Life on the road is what we’re hoping for.

Those tours dates as follows:

Feb 9 Glasgow Grand Ole Opry
Feb 10 Manchester Ruby Lounge
Feb 11 Sheffield Queens Social Club
Feb 12 Birmingham Hare and Hounds
Feb 13 Bristol Fleece
Feb 14 London Cargo
Feb 15 Nottingham Stealth
Feb 16 Leeds Brudenell Social Club

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Have Some Faith in Magic

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January 25, 2012

Album of the Week: Errors – Have Some Faith in Magic

Thank fuck for Errors.

In these times of economic Armageddon, Middle East unrest and what seems to have been a spate of rather grisly murders of late, you can always rely on Scotland’s finest exponents of math-funk (© The Tidal Wave of Indifference 2012) to transport you to another place as they beam down their altogether pleasant sounds.

2010′s Come Down With Me was a classic of sorts, and one which saw them start to throw off the supposed shackles of post rock, which were ill-fitting anyway. The dancefloor-friendly Supertribe and A Rumour in Africa sounded sod all like Mogwai, and hey, while we’re at it, just because bands share a label doesn’t mean they sound alike, eh?

Those shackles are well and truly off on Have Some Faith in Magic. Like its predecessor, it’s ten sharp sounding rhythmic blasts, but far from a facsimile, this is more focused on synths and beats than anything they’ve done before.

And there’s vocals too. The signs were there on pre-release freebie Earthscore as mumbled wisps of human utterances chased spidery guitar and juddering bass over the whole song, and it’s a theme that’s carried across the whole album.

Don’t expect a lyric sheet though. Most of the wordsmithery is incomprehensible and simply acts as a additional instrument in an already heady mix where nary a second of …Magic’s running time goes to waste.

Also where Come Down With Me blasted out a number of instant toetappers, the, approach here is more measured. Magna Encarta takes it time, but is still a big, big tune stuffed with time changes and synths that will get you whirling both physically and mentally, helping you forget that horrible big world outside. By the time the soung wraps up with crashing drums you’ll be bloody beside yourself.

Blank Media is a woozy affair before Pleasure Palaces well and truly hits the spot with some uptempo techno. The keen of ear may even be able to pick up a lyric or two with ‘my soul’ seemingly cropping up regularly.
Once we pass the thumping Earthscore, it feels like the album is starting to hit a comedown but then along comes Holus Bolus to up the ante fizzing out on wall of feedback.
Overall, this feels like at least the equal of Come… and god knows we need more records like this to help drown out the DEATHDESTRUCTIONPESTILENCEMELTDOWN happening right outside your door.

We grabbed a chat with the band’s Steev Livingstone last week.

It feels like a non-stop few years for the band – ever plan to take your feet off the pedal?

On the inside it doesn’t really feel like that. I get guilty if I’m sitting about not doing very much, so that kind of ensures that we are quite productive. But I’m still in bed typing this up and it’s one in the afternoon so it’s not like i’m Mr Motivator or anything.

What’s the album title about? Has one of you been practising witchcraft?

We argued about where this came from and who came up with it. Simon believes it was words of wisdom that he gave to Greg before recording a guitar part that he was unsure about. As with most of our titles, to us it doesn’t really mean anything, other people always will explain what it means for you so we could really call our albums anything we wanted and people would interpret them or read into them in what ever way they wanted to. In our video for Earthscore, there is a white witch performing a ritual where he blesses a crystal for us to protect us on tour, he sent it up to us on the post and now I carry it with me everywhere.

How do you feel your sound has developed since Come Down With Me?

I’d say this is our most consistent sounding record yet. It also has a lot more space in it and we’ve learnt how to give things space to breathe a little better I think. Most obviously we’ve included vocals on nine of the ten tracks on the record, so I reckon for a lot of people that will be a big difference for them. We adopted a sort of stream of consciousness approach to writing on a lot of the tracks where we were trying not to repeat or return to sections that had already happened. The tune “The Knock” is a good example of this.

Touring again, we see – ever get sick of it?

The only thing I don’t like about going on tour is not being able to write any music, I’ve tried it in the past and it’s a very frustrating experience.

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Illuminated People

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January 21, 2012

Album of the Week: Islet – Illuminated People

Cardiff four-piece Islet have slowly but surely built up a profile over the last 18 months, courtesy of two acclaimed mini-albums, festival slots and a burgeoning reputation for unhinged live shows.

When a band becomes known for its on-stage mania, the challenge is always how to channel that energy into a record that is both coherent and exciting.

With Illuminated People, we’re pleased to report that Islet have pulled it off. Think what would happen if Can ever produced Slow Club or Broken Social Scene and that ought to give a fair approximation of what to expect here – both wilfully awkward and melodic, usually within the same bar.

The band have maintained their DIY ethos and refused to compromise on their principals. Kicking off an album with the nine minute sprawl that is Libra Man, hardly smacks of a band chasing the Yankee dollar, but even that feels like it’s merely building up to the pounding syths and hammering drums of This Fortune.

After the playful Entwined Pines, we strike gold dust. It’s What We Done Wrong that really lights up Illuminated People. Almost following convential song structure and with something that, with a bit of imagination, could even be described as a chorus. It’s a full-on pop song and in its searing instrumental outro, it’s easy to how that live reputation has become such a talking point.

At the other end of the scale is We Bow, as stripped back as Islet get. It’s simply main man Mark Thomas’ voice, an acosutic, light brushed drums and lady harmonies. And it’s bloody lovely too.

The second half of the album pulls back the wall of sound a little but Fillia stills ebbs and flows towards bursts of noise and album closer A Bear On His Own hits those ‘pop’ buttons we heard earlier on the album.

This isn’t technically a debut but as a first full length record, but it feels like this exciting band has made peace with the conflicting needs of doing exactly as they please and entertaining people.

We’re confident this will be  a huge year for Islet.

Illuminated People is out on Monday. We’d planned to use this space for an interview with the band – this will hopefully happen shortly!

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Voyageur

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January 10, 2012

Album of the Week: Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur

Leg-ups can be the making of some careers. Canadian songstress Kathleen Edwards has been making a name for herself in an unfussy fashion for the last decade with her last record Asking for Flowers being nominated for her home country’s Polaris Prize in 2008 (eventually losing out to Caribou).

But things feel different this time. A lot of that may have to do with the involvement of one Justin Vernon a.k.a Bon Iver, who, not content with hauling Ms Edwards out on tour for a run of sell-out shows, has produced her fourth album, Voyageur.

And it’s delightful.

Vernon’s pawprints – such as the rumbling guitars and military drums on A Soft Place to Land, more than reminiscent of Perth – are occasionally audible, but he’s not the only guest on the album.

However, aside from the familiar vocals of Norah Jones on For The Record, it’s hard to detect the involvement of other luminaries like British folk-pop foursome Stornoway, demonstrating that this is very much Edwards’ album.

Lyrically, the themes of Canuck disillusionment, a hangover from …Flowers are picked up again from the off on Empty Threat, as our narrator warns of “moving to America” over the fast-paced opener.

Change the Sheets is an obvious single with big melodies and a poppy arrangement but not everything here takes an easy path. The guitar sound on Mint is coarse as sandpaper and the bleak Going to Hell could have sat on For Emma, Forever Ago, and is appropriately maudlin.

The aforementioned For the Record closes Voyageur – simply French (Canadian?) for traveller by the way – and as you would imagine, given Jones’ involvement it’s a downbeat slowie, but at the same time, arguably the album’s high point. “For the record, I only wanted to sing songs,” indeed.

We caught a word with Kathleen this week.

Welcome back, Kathleen, it feels like a while since we’ve heard from you! What have you been up to since Asking for Flowers was released?

Herding cats, moving cities, writing a new album, picking my nose, but mostly just recording and writing a record.   
 

Bon Iver has been a significant figure for you in the last year or so – how did the collaboration come about?

We started out as email friends and before too long we were talking about recording some songs together. And then when it seemed like that was ridiculously fun and amazing, I ended up doing my whole record with Justin Vernon.

What have been the key inspirations for Voyageur – both lyrically and musically?

Musically I’d say the inspiration was to be more adventurous than I had been before. All the people who played on this record were so instrumental (pardon the pun) in shaping how the songs developed sonically, but I did have an initial goal to really delve more into musical territory that I loved esthetically but hadn’t yet achieved on record. Lyrically, the album is obviously very personal, which is a blessing and a curse. It feels good to stand up on stage and feel like the honesty of your work is intact, but some of the material crosses over into a difficult period of my last few years and there are days where you’d like to not be reminded of it. 

Finally, can we expect to see you back on UK shores soon?

Yes.  Thank God the Internet exists to help answer the when and where.

Internet Schminternet. Kathleen’s UK dates are right here:

Feb 24, Glasgow Oran Mor (www.gigsinscotland.com)
Feb 26, Manchester Ruby Lounge (www.ticketline.co.uk)
Feb 27, Birmingham Glee Club (www.glee.co.uk)
Feb 28, London Islington Academy

Voyageur is out on January 23.

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Last Post on the 2011 Bugle

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December 21, 2011

Iiiiiiit’s Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaas!

And that can mean only one thing – the BAMS (Blogs and Music Sites Scotland) are back. The unofficial guild/club/clique voted High Violet by the National as our album of the year in 2010 and I* was delighted to be a part of voting once again. The top ten – in reverse order – was as follows:

10= PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

10= The Moth and the Mirror – Honestly, This World

10= FOUND – factorycraft

7= The Son(s) – The Son(s)

7= Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel

5. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine

4= Mike Nisbet – Vagrant

4= Bon Iver - Bon Iver

2. Adam Stafford – Build a Harbour Immediately

1. Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older

Now then. Bearing in mind that each blogger only had three picks, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll note that my top three is nowhere to be seen. Metronomy is lurking just outside the top ten and Ringo Deathstarr are considerably further down – no great surprise to see a slightly obscure US fuzz-pop three-piece making little impact in a Scottish poll.

What is a surprises me is that it looks suspiciously like – from the breakdown of voting – is that the The Tidal Wave of Indifference is the only site to have voted for Mogwai’s superb latest. EH???

The winner’s something of a surprise too. I have the Wells/Moffat album but am less than blown away by it. It’s had a few listens and I’ll certainly come back to it but it’s not album of the year for me. But who are we to argue? Naebody, especially when it comes to actual factual science of a poll which has again been put together by blogging ledge Lloyd ‘Peenko‘ Meredith so big thanks to the friendly fella from the west for taking the time to do it all again.

Lloyd also managed to catch a word with this year’s winners and the full interview is below. 

Congratulations Bill and Aidan, you are this years’ winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel? Does this rate as a career highlight then?

Aidan: I think it might be the first award I’ve ever been presented with, with the exception of the joint 4th Year English Prize at Falkirk High in 1989, so it’s very exciting indeed. Not sure about a career highlight – that accolade is always reserved for the work itself, and Everything’s Getting Older is certainly one of my favourites, yes.

Bill: Feels good – though when it dawned on me, obviously quite some time ago, that awards are only ever decided upon by other people, not by some almighty, all knowing, arbiter of taste and quality looking down from the clouds, I thought it always best to never get too excited about any of them coming my way, not that there’s been much occasion to, right enough.

How did you end up collaborating together in the first place?

Aidan: Bill says we found ourselves at the same table in a pub and I immediately asked him to play on some Arab Strap songs. I have no recollection of this at all, but at the time I was very much in love with his Also In White album so I’ve no reason to doubt him. After he played on the Monday At The Hug And Pint album, we did one song together and then took years to book a studio to do some more. We always seemed to have other things to do, but I’m glad we waited because I can’t imagine the album any other way. It would’ve had an entirely different theme and tone if we’d finished it in 2005, and I really don’t think it would have been as good from my side.

Bill: Indeed this is what happened – I was very surprised and flattered actually because although I was a huge Arab Strap fan, and though we were all from Falkirk, or, more likely, because, it never occurred to me that we’d ever all be in a studio together, so it did, for me at least, even at the time, feel like quite an occasion, and looking back, even more so now.

"Yay! Go us!"

I am guessing that you’ve spent a lot of time in each others’ pockets this year; has this bonded your love for each other, or are you sick of the sight of each other?

Aidan: We haven’t really spent that much time together at all, to be honest. We haven’t done a lot of touring, although what we did do was quite hard work. There’s more gigs being planned for next year, so hopefully we’ll have more to do, but it’s not as though we’re a young rock band out on the road and in the NME every week, there’s not a lot of fuss or constant attention to deal with; there’s been a minimum of upheaval, thankfully.

Bill: Yeh, sorry, you’re guessing wrong.

If the love is still there, are there any plans to work together again in the future?

Aidan: We’ve just started talking about our second album now, so it will happen but we’re not sure when. Certainly not next year, we’ve both got a couple of albums each planned for 2012, so we might try and have it ready for 2013. There’s no rush though, it’ll be ready when it’s ready; the last thing i want to do is dive into it and force it out, that’s why a lot of second albums these days are a bit shit. Bands and labels are desperate to hold onto any momentum and profile a new band has, but we’re lucky in that respect because we’re not really a new, young band; we’ve both been making records for ages and there’s no pressure on us at all. So 2014 at the earliest!

Bill: Just to add that I’m really looking forward to this, the musical ideas for first album were pretty much all on one cdr I gave Aidan ages ago, then the EP happened pretty quickly this year so, personally, I’m more hopeful for the 2013 result but, whatever and whenever, it’ll be great to get working together in the studio again.

Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of 2012?

Aidan: I would’ve said Slow Club’s Paradise a couple of weeks ago (which I still love) but it’s been pipped at the post by the last-minute release of Josh T. Pearson’s limited live LP, The King Is Dead, which I think is far superior to his studio album. There’s been a lot of very good music this year though, but my memory can never work when it’s put on the spot, sorry!

Bill: I look at these end of year lists and realize I haven’t heard so many of these records, so it feels like a very uninformed opinion. The last time I was asked I said the re – release of Annette Peacock’s ‘I’m The One’ which is truly one of the greatest records ever made. However after writing that I realized that “That’s Reality’ by Yumbo, which is Koji Shibuya’s (bass player in Maher Shalal Hash Baz) Pop masterpiece, came out in Japan in early 2011.

The participating sites this year were: The Daily Dose, The Steinberg Principle, Dauphin, Ed Rock, Found In Sound, Elba Sessions, Kowalskiy, Aye Tunes, Edinburgh Man, 17 Seconds, Scots Whay Hae, The Spill, Last Years Girl, JockRock, Dear Scotland, Manic Pop Thrills, Favourite Son, Peenko, Jim Gellatly, Detour, Jenny Soep, Net Sounds Unsigned, Listen Before You Buy, Song By Toad, The Daily Growl, Glasgow Podcart, Rokbun, The Pop Cop, Radar, Blueback Hotrod, Blues Bunny, Vic Galloway, Nicola Meighan, Scottish Fiction, Rave Child, Phuturelabs and Curious Joe.

If the above list seems to be lacking in links, I’m writing this in a rush and don’t have the time to link everything just now but I’ll come back to it. Most are linked at the bottom of the page though!!

Finally, as Christmas is approaching I’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that’s read the Tidal Wave of Indifference in 2011. There genuinely seems to be more and more each week, which is a lovely feeling on top of this being a big year generally. My first gig in September was a roaring success, I’ve done a stack more writing for Radar and my inane witterings have even popped up on scotsman.com and theskinny.co.uk and I’ve even done a bit of DJing and some radio presenting for Freshair (with hopefully a bit more to come in 2012).

The site will be back with more album reviews, band features and random bullshit in the middle of January. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s some Christmas cheer…

* Grammar pedants like Last Year’s Girl will note that I’m writing this in the first person as it’s a more personal post.

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The Best Albums of 2011 – 5-1

Filed under: Albums, Random Nonsense — 1 Comment
December 16, 2011

5. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine

 Much of our feelings about this album relate to a tear-stained performance at Homegame in Anstruther back in May, but even if we hadn’t been there, we’d still be saying this is a concise but impeccably realised piece of work that rightfully saw Kenny Anderson achieve long-deserved widespread recognition for his work.

 

4. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

Rightly acclaimed as Peej’s finest work in ten years, she became the first artist to walk away with the Mercury a second  time which, whatever you think about awards love-ins, is hugely impressive. This is every bit the rival to her first win (Stories From the City, Stories From Sea), or indeed anything else she’s done.

 

3. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

They just get better and better don’t they? The Scottish lords of post rock don’t do bad albums but this may yet be their finest hour – and we’re sure we said that about 2008’s the Hawk is Howling. AND it includes a song called George Square Thatcher Death Party. ‘Nuff said.

 

2. Ringo Deathstarr – Color Trip

Best band name ever? Almost certainly, but they got the tunes to match too. With Color Trip, the Texan three-piece have created a fuzz-pop classic that doesn’t give anything on quality control over its eleven tracks.

 

1. Metronomy – The English Riviera

A wondrous piece of experimental pop that we had overlooked until its appearance in the Mercury nominations. Joe Mount and co hadn’t really done it for us previously, but this was an upbeat, funky paean to the south Devon coastline. We’re delighted to name this album of the year for 2011.

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The Best Albums of 2011 – 10-6

Filed under: Albums, Random Nonsense — Leave a comment
December 15, 2011

10. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Annie Clark is now a VERY BIG DEAL. This hotly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed Actor (in turn a successor to the wonderful Marry Me) did not disappoint, capturing both the reflective tone of her earlier work and the pumped up tunes on Actor. Oh, and did we mention we were in love with her?

9. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

That’s what 2011 needed – some scuzzed up guitar distortion. With J Mascis distracted by his acoustic solo project, a hole needed filling and this Staten Island foursome were just the band to do it. This trumped 2009’s worthy debut Why There Are Mountains, making them one of the most exciting bands in US guitar pop.

8. The Son(s) – The Sons(s)

We tipped the Son(s) for Radar at the end of last year and were delighted to see them, or let’s face it, ‘him’ produce the goods with a lovely little record. Breathless melodies and subtle psychedelia.

7. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

It mattered not that we’d heard versions of no fewer than four of these songs on 2009’s mini album A Balloon Called Moaning. Re-recorded versions and eight new tunes made for a noisy, raucous album full of huge guitars and thunderous drums.

6. Star Wheel Press – The Life Cycle of a Falling Bird

And to think were it not for a chance meeting with a dapper, ginger-bearded musician in the most inauspicious place (Edinburgh’s unsavoury stag party magnet the Three Sisters pub) we may never have come across this album that helped define our year. This album of fifteen well crafted folk melodies was taken from Aberfeldy to Edinburgh for our first gig back in September and it’s still a mainstay on the Tidal Wave stereo.

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