Recorded in Spain, away from their now globally-scattered homes, the group’s extended latter-day line-up, built around -- but not subservient to -- the long-running core membership of Jon Langford, Sally Timms and Tom Greenhalgh, have delivered an eclectic exemplar of well-matured musical mind-melding.
Album review
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Perhaps because of other commitments, Behind Closed Doors is only her third album since 2014 and although coming from a place of loss and sorrow, still manages to sound uplifting and vivacious. The core quartet of violin, piano, bass and percussion is augmented across the seven tracks by vibes, trumpet, lute, oud and the resonant voice of Stratis Skarakis to ensure a varied and satisfyiong journey.
Using the likes of Hardanger fiddle, mouth harp and langeleik, the duo seems to have taken it upon themselves to take original recordings of these venerable pieces and manipulate them to their own ends, then thrusting them into a modern environment to see how they might exist amongst their younger siblings.
It has been seven years since Building Instrument's previous album, not that the three members have been quiet in the downtime. Mari Kvien Brunvoll was involved in last year's Barefoot In Bryophyte, while Øyvind Hegg-Lunde has been involved with Erlend Apneseth and Electric Eye, among others; but when they and Åsmund Weltzien reconvene with their combination of glockenspiel, electronics, subdued beats, found sounds and dreamy vocals, you know that there is magic in the air.
The story behind this live album is quite a poignant one, with guitarist Billy Marrows originally writing the studio album Penelope as a legacy to his mother, who was dying of cancer. Thankfully, she heard some of the pieces before passing, but as a further memorial and as a way of raising money for charity, he chose to bring together a twelve-piece band to do full justice to the songs and perhaps to enable something beautiful to be wrung from such a sad circumstance.
Dutch trumpeter Ian Cleaver has put together a quintet for whom the sounds of Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker and the arrangements of Nelson Riddle are something to aspire to. With fine accompaniment from bass, drums, piano and sax / clarinet, his sweet, smoky trumpet tones are cast adrift evoking the sort of dancefloors where snappily dressed characters move sharply, cigarettes aloft and smiles beaming.
Back in 2021, when the geographically challenged duo reconvened for some live action, they also involved accordionist Lazar Novkov and Broodmen was stretched to a trio, the sound changing again as the accordion, at times melancholic and at others joyful, set them on a new trajectory. Recorded live in a single session, Liminality explores the pushing of boundaries, the interaction of disparate sounds and the sheer thrill of playing live and seeing where it may lead.
...singer Owen Williams is doing quite well with the latest Tubs album, but where that tends to take as its starting point the classic British indie sound of yore, to my mind, Ex-Vöid looks more across the pond, aligning itself with the kind of flurrying '90s indie purveyed by the likes of Velocity Girl and Tsunami, but containing the essential melancholy that comes with a British perspective.
Whilst such output has fleetingly tipped the hat to his formative enterprise along the way and Galaxie 500 songs have regularly reappeared in recent solo ensemble live shows, it’s taken until now for a fuller recorded reconnection with the most atmospheric elements of the hallowed group’s aural palette.
The production is dub-heavy and indolent and reverberates around us while a big, lazy heartbeat tries to smother the textured backdrop which is alive with echoing, half-hidden sounds. It can move at pace, lively yet elegant, with chiming guitars that are a little reminiscent of Michael Brook, but their jazz influences do peep through and they come on like a cavernous cousin of the Portico Quartet.
the fact that Hersh’s recent recordings have confirmed a renewed creativity means fresh rewards for those of us who have kept the faith over the years. Arguably providing the biggest late-reblooming flourish – following on from 2022’s rowdy yet textured Black Pearl with 50 Foot Wave and 2023’s sonically diverse Clear Pond Road solo outing – is this new nine-track set from Hersh’s mothership enterprise, Throwing Muses.
They like their guitars heavy and their riffs to circle as cymbals crash, but there is a dreaminess to their distance and there is a feeling, particularly on opening track "One Thousand Years", that they are making their way slowly up a mountain, the guitar gradually winding tighter, preparing us for an incredible view.
Having totally missed their recent Bristol outing, I’m glad Upset The Rhythm are now offering a tantalising taste of Earth Ball in action. A duo of live cuts, each gig filling a whole side each.
...there are ten players including Martin to bring this eclectic selection to life and sees the assembled throng veering through jazz, prog, psych and funk with what can only be described as aplomb. In fact, there is little opportunity for respite over this fifty-five-minute blast and each song seems to consist of numerous parts; some segues sympathetic while others are unexpected.
DO 555 PS is his first solo outing, utilising ideas formulated with his Pelican System album, but pushing them further and attempting to create a suite of songs for an imagined world from saxes, samples and electronics, and what an impressive feat it is. Over ten tracks, real and imagined sounds roil and reverberate, generating an atmosphere that picks at the edges of reality, uncovering a universe hidden in the shadows; one for which we need to take a deep breath before entering.
Upset The Rhythm It has been seven years since the last Rattle album and it feels as though in the down time Theresa Wrigley and Katharine Eira Brown have chosen to strip their drum and vocal sound down to the absolute bare bones, as if Sequence was too busy. They have stuck with the formula of two tracks per LP side but, with one being substantially longer then […]
Although Swiss melodic post-indie rock trio Ventura has been a unit for the best part of twenty years, this is only their fifth album but what a great discovery for these ears. Using the power of the guitar/bass/drums line-up, they cue up ten strong yet diverse tracks on Superheld that run from the slow strength of "Bubbles" to the rhythmically awkward "Advertiser", passing through all manner of other stylings to keep the listener constantly engaged.
His playing on Sidewalks In Motion bears a fair amount of resemblance -- a drummer that's worth listening to. Lots of big dynamics in paradiddles, ever-present and holding things down, but rarely bandstanding. A lot of skittering goes on, but never into the realm of free improv.