Category: Reviews (Page 60 of 199)

STEVEN WILSON King Ghost

9 November 2020 /

“People” sang Jim Morrison, “Are Strange” and none more so than the dedicated music fan. This has been shown in the past couple of weeks with the backlash against Steven Wilson with the new single ‘King Ghost’.

This has been rumbling on for a while, in fact since ‘Permanating’ from 2017’s ‘To The Bone’, and has percolated via recent singles ‘Personal Shopper’ and ‘Eminent Sleaze’ to the fury unleashed in certain quarters against this latest release online. And the thing is, the pitchfork wielding mob who want to torch the new album ‘The Future Bites’ before it is released are wrong.

“Where are the guitars?” they moan… “It needs real drums” they cry through gnashing teeth… “Isn’t what I signed up for”, they wail as they wrap themselves in their ‘Tales of Topographic Oceans’ blanket. The answer to this and the pages and pages of other comments is, you haven’t been paying attention.

Despite being the leader of PORCUPINE TREE all these tears, Wilson has never hidden his love of pop music, this is made all the more clear in his excellent podcast ‘The Album Years’ which he hosts with NO-MAN band mate Tim Bowness. The pointers were there on his last release, especially with the aforementioned ‘Permanating’ and, more pertinently, the brooding electronica of ‘Song of I’.

‘King Ghost’ is a natural progression, something which a recognised progressive performer should always be looking to do. The track is the sound of the artist taking himself and by extension the listener in new directions. Wilson has stated it may be one of the best things he has ever done and I have to agree.

One comment on a recent YouTube post said “…it could never be as emotional as played by analog instruments” before suggesting adding a guitar solo or fretless bass. And here we have the crux of the issue taken by some listeners; the track is synthetic so must be lesser than a full band production.

Again these folk haven’t been listening. This is by a mile the best single of the year especially when married to the stunning Jess Cope video that accompanies the release.

I have been listening with interest and a fair bit of excitement, so can’t wait until the turn of the year to hear what the delayed full album has in store, with or without a full drum kit. The tasters we have had so far promise, it will be worth the wait.

‘King Ghost’ is from the album ‘The Future Bites’ released by SW Records / Caroline Records on 29th January 2021 in limited edition deluxe boxset, CD, red or black vinyl LP, cassette, Blu-ray and digital formats, pre-order from https://store.thefuturebites.com/

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Text by Ian Ferguson
9th November 2020

BRIAN ENO Film Music 1976 – 2020

3 November 2020 /

Although Brian Eno released a 1978 studio album called ‘Music For Films’, only its final track ‘Final Sunset’ was written for an actual film as it was effectively a soundtrack show reel proposing cinematic usage.

A compilation of fragments and sketched recorded between 1975 to 1978, ‘Music For Films’ was like a cart coming before the horse, with many of its pieces later ending up in movies such as the remake of Jean-Luc Goddard’s ‘Breathless’ and John Woo’s ‘A Better Tomorrow’; ‘Film Music 1976 – 2020’ is different and could have been titled ‘Music From Films’.

Gathering 17 tracks from the five decade career of Brian Eno, the best known two are from his 1983 album ‘Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks’ which comprised of material composed for the moon landing documentary film which later became known as ‘For All Mankind’.

The hovering aural sedative of ‘Deep Blue Day’ was sweetened by countrified twang of Daniel Lanois and used in the infamous toilet scene from ‘Trainspotting’. Meanwhile, closing ‘Film Music 1976 – 2020’, ‘An Ending (Ascent)’ featured a drifting but dramatic church organ-like passage that acted as the blueprint to the intro of U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. And talking of Bono & Co, ‘Beach Sequence’, the PASSENGERS collaboration with U2 also makes an appearance.

The electro-nautical journey of ‘Under’ will be familiar to owners of Eno’s vocal album ‘Another Day On Earth’ from 2005, although the song appeared in the 1992 Kim Basinger movie ‘Cool World’ which also featured David Bowie and Moby in the soundtrack.

From Derek Jarman’s films, there are the transient sound sculptures of ‘Dover Beach’ from ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Final Sunset’ from ‘Sebastiane’. However, ‘Prophecy Theme’ off David Lynch’s ‘Dune’ sounds like it could have come from the ‘Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks’ album. All three pieces though document that 1976-1984 period when Eno all but left art rock aside to indulge in more ambient forms, apart from in a production capacity with the likes of DEVO and TALKING HEADS.

‘Ship In A Bottle’ from ‘The Lovely Bones’ is serene in its presence while ‘Decline & Fall’ from ‘O Nome da Morte’ displays some exquisite sound design. From 2020, ‘Reasonable Question’ from ‘We Are As Gods’ explores a lesser heard electro-rhythmic side to Eno. Also rhythmic but in a more understated manner is ‘Late Evening In Jersey’ from ‘Heat’, where brushing is the tool to add tension.

An almost acoustic folk ballad comes in the shape of a cover of William Bell’s ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ from ‘Married to the Mob’ which was directed by Jonathan Demme, but the two song inclusions do spoil the flow for listeners seeking a more environmental instrumental tracklisting. But these are offset by ‘The Sombre’ from ‘Top Boy’ which does as its title suggests and the wonderful ‘Undersea Steps’ from the 2004 George Chan movie ‘Hammerhead’ which will delight Eno’s ambient fans.

This collection is of supreme quality throughout and with the majority of ‘Film Music 1976 – 2020’ being gathered from material not on Eno’s own albums or previously unreleased tracks, it is essential for completists and acts as a fine introduction to his more esoteric work.

‘Film Music 1976 – 2020’ is released by Universal Music on 13th November 2020 in double vinyl LP, CD and digital formats

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
3rd November 2020, updated 12th November 2020

NEW SPELL Of Time (Remixed) EP

1 November 2020 /

With their thoughtful dark moods influenced by the likes of MASSIVE ATTACK, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, RADIOHEAD and PORTISHEAD, San Francisco’s NEW SPELL are an enigmatic project that began releasing music in 2011.

Spearheaded by vocalist and songwriter Leanne Kelly in collaboration with drummer Jacob Frautschi and producer Max Savage, their most significant release to date has been the ‘Of Time’ EP trilogy, an exploratory fusion of dreampop, trip-hop, goth, folk, glitch, dance, synth and indie, best exemplified by songs like ‘Future’s Wild’ and the ‘Of Time’ title song which could be mistaken for Hannah Peel.

NEW SPELL are stylistically hard to pin point. But with their newly released ‘(Remixed)’ EP, they hand over six of the tracks from the ‘Of Time’ trilogy to various collaborators for a fresh electronic spin. The best of the bunch is the VANDAL MOON remix of ‘Home’.

The two parties first worked together on ‘We Live Forever’, a moody synthwave ballad from the gothwavers’ most recent long player ‘Black Kiss’. This new version falls in a similar vein with Blake Voss from VANDAL MOON joining in with his subtle baritone, adding a glorious harmonious resonance that wasn’t on the original while still maintaining the chill of Kelly’s forlorn air.

‘Easier’ sees Akiyoshi Ehara of THE SESHEN offer a shimmering leftfield direction that remains pop but also compliments Kelly fabulous voice with a sympathetic laid-back backdrop. Meanwhile the CTRO Remix of ‘You Win’ plays with an experimental uptempo dance flavour that unfortunately loses the song part of the way through.

From pop rockers DANGERMAKER who once covered David Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’, their frontman Adam Brookes presents a phat rhythmically focussed take on ‘Like Water’. It manages to avoid death by four-to-the-floor by throwing in a few off-beats for some subtle variation and is all the more enjoyable for it as a song about connecting with others in the digital age.

With NEW SPELL having already contributed to ‘Mythic’, cybersynther SENZATIMORE returns the compliment by building up the intensity on ‘Never Change’ before letting off his drum machine-assisted attack propping up a barrage of heavy anthemic keys.

An arpeggio-laden cinematic rocker in its original form, ‘Rain’ remixed by MAITRE D is tightened into a hypnotic club friendly tune that also plays with skippy machine beats and some deep synthbass towards its rainy conclusion.

With her willingness to collaborate in a variety of spears, Leanne Kelly has already revealed her eclectic cards and this remix EP is another facet of that. Her strengths are her introspective songs and her strong voice.

So while her blend of styles and interests might confuse some, there is likely to be something for someone in the music of NEW SPELL, especially in its reflection of the present and an unpredictable future.

‘Of Time (Remixed)’ is released digitally on 30th October 2020, available direct from https://newspell.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
1st November 2020, updated 5th December 2020

HYPERBUBBLE Banks Of The Ohio

30 October 2020 /

Traditional murder ballads being given synth makeovers are all the rage at the moment.

Irish synth songstress FEMMEPOP presented her stark rendition of ‘Tom Dooley’ just a few weeks ago. And now, Texan Bionic Bubblepunk duo HYPERBUBBLE head north to the ‘Banks Of The Ohio’, a song that originated from the 19th Century.

It tells the story of a guilty party inviting their lover for a walk during which their marriage proposal is rejected. Once they are alone, a murder is committed although much sorrow and regret later gets expressed. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the best known versions was by Olivia Newton-John and it was actually her biggest UK hit until her imperial run of singles from the movie ‘Grease’ in 1978.

‘Banks Of The Ohio’ has also been recorded by Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and Charley Pride while there have even been reinterpretations in Swedish and Czech. Updating this urban legend, HYPERBUBBLE have produced a wonderfully haunting synth cover with an eerily Gothic Theremin solo by front woman Jess DeCuir that is perfect for Halloween.

The accompanying self-directed video features zombies, graveyards and murder with our heroine playing a supernatural ghost bride while her hubby Jeff DeCuir is cast as a gravedigger. But she is searching for something! Who is in the grave??? It’s a Roland SH-01 Gaia! Is this symbolism for the death of synthpop?

Although not including ‘Banks Of The Ohio’, HYPERBUBBLE recently released an album of covers called ‘Love & Bionics’. Not content with having delivered a cosmic country covers album three years ago inspired by ‘Switched On Nashville’ called ‘Western Ware’, that put the “MOO” into Moog, Jess and Jeff DeCuir have always enjoyed adapting their style of Texan electro artpunk to a range of standards and obscurities emerging from many unexpected genres.

The most interesting electronic covers often come from outside their regular habitat, particularly from soul and country music.

The Halloween Country Goth Horror Synth of ‘Banks Of The Ohio’ is another example of HYPERBUBBLE’s fun and quirky take on music.

‘Banks Of The Ohio’ comes from the soundtrack of the forthcoming full-length HYPERBUBBLE documentary film called ‘Cowgirls & Synthesizers’

‘Love & Bionics’ is available now as a free download album from https://hyperbubble.bandcamp.com/album/love-and-bionics

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
30th October 2020

ALANAS CHOSNAU & MARK REEDER Heavy Rainfall

28 October 2020 /

From ‘Children of Nature’, the excellent first album by Mark Reeder and Alanas Chosnau is ‘Heavy Rainfall’, a song seemingly having an environmental reference but actually reflecting on the world’s increasingly disturbing political climate.

“Just a week or so before the US presidential election, we can expect some heavy rainfall” said Mark Reeder, “So, I’m releasing the soundtrack to go with it.”

‘Heavy Rainfall’ is about hope and having strength in adversity. It is about the unfortunate re-emergence of totalitarian regimes and how they can easily creep upon you and change your life, in an instant.

Alanas Chosnau grew up in the former Soviet Union, so he knows how his life could have turned out if the Communist regime had not collapsed. He would never have been able to live his dream to be a singer. Mark Reeder has lived in the divided Berlin since 1978 and had first-hand experience with the mind-controlling East German authorities. He even discovered after the Iron Curtain finally was dismantled down that there was Stasi file on him!

One of the best songs of 2020, ‘Heavy Rainfall’ could be a grooving NEW ORDER disco number with Reeder’s rhythm guitar syncopating off an exquisite range of electronic patterns while some spacey magic flies within the exquisite soundscape. Chosnau solemnly announces the storm warning, yet his message to hang on remains positive.

The video’s imagery of hazard warning tape and destruction through consumption eerily strike home as the Lithuanian gives his impassioned delivery, but there is light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of solar panels.

Alanas Chosnau told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK that “‘Heavy Rainfall’ transmits the message of the unfortunate rise of totalitarian regimes and strengthened social and even digital control over people”. Meanwhile, Mark Reeder added “‘Heavy Rainfall’ is a song about how our thoughts are manipulated, about how our attention is diverted by trivia. It’s a warning, to be aware, but also the message is positive, that no matter how much heavy rainfall we get, we just have to wait and ride out the storm”.

‘Heavy Rainfall’ comes from the hearts of two men who have witnessed things first hand. Released under the title of ‘Storm Warning’, the EP contains the Cats & Dogs Mix, Mark Reeder’s sub-10 minute Dripping Wet Remix and the Extended Weather Front Mix.

‘Storm Warning’ featuring three mixes of ‘Heavy Rainfall’ is released by MFS on the usual digital platforms including https://markreeder.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Martyn Goodacre
28th October 2020

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