Watch The Birdie

Another image from the tendinitis induced hour in the garden.

2014: The Year in Electronic Music

The rather belated part two of my Album of the Year series:

All forms of popular music aspire to being jazz. (I'm not sure who said this, but someone must have. If not, I'd like to claim it as it sounds really insightful.)

Arguably, electronic music comes closest to making good on this aspiration. In its ability to break new ground whilst acknowledging the genre's past and bending it into new forms and structures, it is in its own way, Whitney Balliet's "sound of surprise".

Given this, its perhaps worrying that for the past two years, the big news has been about the re-emergence of innovators from decades past. In 2013, it was Boards of Canada's underwhelming "Tomorrow's Harvest" that set the commentards chattering - I had the sense that they were so relieved that the duo had returned, that the quality of the album really didn't matter. 

In 2014, we had Aphex Twin's "Syro", which at least sounds like RDJ is having fun. But it could have been made any time in the last ten years, if not before. Wire magazine made it their album of the year - I mean, really? Adventures in modern music? Perhaps not.

So what else attracted my interest this year?

Vladislav Delay is perhaps better know as one third of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, a unit which courts a jazz sensibility in their name, as well as their music, but are currently missing in action. "Visa" is his latest solo outing, which is like a warm bath, with its gentle fizz and pop, not a million miles from, say, Oval - which is obviously no bad thing.

Kreidler and long-time associates, To Rococo Rot have both released albums this year, both of which were underwhelming. Perhaps recognising this, To Rococo Rot have decided to call it a day, leaving "Instrument" as their final release. In a bit of a departure, Arto Lindsay provides vocals on three tracks, which appears to have been a final throw of the dice that didn't produce sixes. Kreidler's "ABC" is pleasant enough, but that's as far as it goes. The problem with their warm, analogue take on electronica is that it can very easily bland-out.

Talking of Boards of Canada, 2014 saw them reissue their 1996 release "Skam". Clocking in at 32 minutes, this EP points up the bloated, purposelessness of "Tomorrow's Harvest".

Hauschka is a pianist whose aim in life is to make his prepared piano sound like a bunch of fx, to the point were his CDs are usually filed in the electronic section in music shops. Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want to do this,his latest release, "Abandoned City" is very atmospheric. In much the same way that the nature of the instrument in use has to be taken on trust, I'm not clear if the tracks have any relationship to the cities whose names they bear or whether any of this matters.

Finally, we had the sophomore effort from La Roux, "Trouble in Paradise". A rather muted affair, this lacks the obvious hits of her début, but this actually works to its advantage, the resulting album being more of a finished whole.

So, on the whole, not a vintage year.

2014: The Year in Minimalism

This year, I've decided to publish my album of the year posts as a series of longform reviews. This is the first, covering minimal music - posts on electronic music, jazz and rock are to follow. 

Vijay Iyer is an American music academic with a long history of jazz trio releases. On “Mutations”, his first on ECM, he walks the boundary – which you and I probably never knew existed – between jazz and minimalism of the Steve Reich variety.

“Mutations” is comprised of ten short sections, in which a chamber ensemble of piano, strings and electronics (natch) play fast and slow elements which shift against each other in absorbing ways. The recording is bookended by three slow piano pieces, which don’t grab me – “Mutations” is more than strong enough to stand on its own, but I don’t suppose that the other inclusions detract too much.

Talking of Steve Reich, 2014 saw the release of the début recording of “Radio Rewrite”, performed by Alarm Will Sound. This is a five movement, fifteen minute affair, which ‘reuses’ material from two Radiohead tracks – “Jigsaw Falling into Place” and “House of Cards” - and is probably as near as modern composition comes to a remix.

On the one hand, this will do nothing to counter those who say that Reich has already made his contribution – which is considerable in its influence. Reich has become America’s composer of choice for moments of national remembrance and this piece does feel lightweight compared to, say, “Daniel Variations” or “WTC 9/11”. It also lacks the ambition of landmark compositions such as “Music for Eighteen Musicians” or “The Desert Music”, both personal favourites.

However, “Radio Rewrite” works best when you stop thinking about the context or listening for the quotes and just take it on its own merits. This is very accessible stuff – those new to Reich could do worse that start here. The piece is very much a part of Reich’s unique sound world and one can’t fault him, at this stage in his career, for kicking back and doing something just for the hell of it – this would, in any case, be one definition of minimalism, which is absolutely “l’art pour l’art”.

There are two other pieces on the disk. Vicky Chow provides a fairly pointless reworking of “Six Pianos” – never one of my favourite Reich compositions - as “Piano Counterpoint”, which replaces five of the players with recorded parts. Ho hum. The other is a new version of “Electric Counterpoint” by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, obviously returning the favour.

Greenwood is well known for his tendency to bother ‘serious’ composers, Krzysztof Penderecki being a recent example. Apparently, Greenwood often plays “Electric Counterpoint” at Radiohead gigs – one has to wonder to what sort of reaction.

It’s too tempting to compare this new version to the ‘standard’ interpretation by Pat Methany which appeared on the same disk as the Kronos Quartet’s reading of “Different Trains” in 1989 and my initial impression was unfavourable. Greenwood’s version is much brighter, with a clear, brittle guitar sound with very little sustain, which verges on being cold and clinical. However, I've warmed to it (pun intended). It’s certainly more ‘rock’ were Methany’s is more ‘jazz’ (perhaps another example of that boundary which Vijay Iyer is currently exploring), with significantly more low end. It’s interesting that the piece allows the players’ respective backgrounds to come through so strongly.

Michael Nyman is the man who applied the term minimalism to Reich’s music – Reich wasn't pleased, but the designation stuck - and 2014 also saw the premier performance of his “Symphony Number 11: Hillsborough Memorial” at Liverpool Cathedral. It’s more than unfortunate that it took twenty-five years to get to a point at which the service of remembrance could happen, but we’re here to talk about the music and the fact that MN Records have released a nicely packaged recording of the piece.

The composition is very much in the minimalist idiom, which is probably why some of it feels a bit generic. If you’d told me that the third movement was from Glass’s trilogy – say one of the more dramatic sections of Akhnaten - I’d have believed you. In the accompanying essay, Nyman admits that some of the material for the piece was recycled, especially the fourth movement which has appeared in a number of guises.

On the upside, sentimentality is avoided, despite the presence of a youth choir, who sound rather like a celestial terrace sing-along, especially in the second movement. Kathryn Rudge gets stuck into the “Singing of the Names” with a gusto that one imagines could easily tip over into anger, which is not wholly inappropriate.

This is a worthy addition to Nyman’s oeuvre which will probably suffer the fate of its earlier incarnations. It’s difficult to know how to relate to such a piece as entertainment, shorn of its original context as part of an act of remembrance, which is the only way that it can have any longevity.

Finally, we turn to another version of Terry Riley’s “In C”, which was released this year. This time, it was the turn of Africa Express to have a crack at this old chestnut of high minimalism, re-branding it as “In C Mali”.

The first signs weren't good. The involvement of famous World Music aficionados - step forwards Damon Albarn, Brian Eno – didn't bode well and the piece features an odd mix of African and European instrumentation. One also has to wonder why the Arts Council is funding yet another recording of an American composition created in Africa and Germany by an international cast and crew, but maybe I'm being a bit parochial.

In fact I probably am, because the results are surprisingly good, easily surpassing last year’s rather tired attempt by Adrian Utley and friends. The instruments mesh creating a shimmering, slowly morphing wall of sound that demands attentive listening. The introduction of a spoken word section in the middle of the forty-odd minute rendition works really well and adds to the atmosphere of place, which is maintained despite the fact that the finished recoding was hacked together in a studio in Munich. I find it difficult to believe that the rise and fall of the performance was in no way premeditated, but I actually find that I don’t care and this is probably my favourite recorded version of “In C” since Ars Nova’s vocal arrangement from 2006.

Poppycock II

Another image of a California poppy, growing in our garden.

Album of the Year 2013 Part II

Part two of my round-up of the platters that matter, released in 2013.

Post-rock

Kveikur by Sigur Ross

Last year, I wrote a post arguing that their next release was a make-or-break affair. So, here it is, and its certainly darker and rockier that recent outings, it has a scary picture on the cover, and they lost one member in the process of recording. But, sitting here, I'm finding it difficult to form an opinion because the record failed to make an impression on me, and therein lies the problem.

Reissues

Lipslide by Sarah Cracknell

Cracknell's one and only solo outing gets the deluxe treatment, with a second CD of demos, remixes and outtakes. A mixed affair – some cracking tunes with top-notch production along with generic dance numbers, all with throw away lyrics. Charming in a summer afternoon kind of way and thoroughly British, which is nice. I was rushed £20 by HMV for my copy, which is outrageous when I come to think of it.  

Ovalprocess by Oval

During the summer, Oval (aka Markus Popp - not his real name, one imagines) made several albums from his back catalogue available for free download via Bandcamp. This largesse has now been withdrawn, which is a shame as there were a couple of gems amongst them. Ovalprocess features Popp’s signature…well…process, of distressing CDs and then sampling the results. Here, he sculpts the resulting fizz, pops and clicks into surprisingly beautiful peaks and troughs of sound, spreading out across fifteen tracks and nearly an hour of music.

It’s still worth getting onto the Oval mailing list as he continues to chuck out the odd freebie, with SO – a collaboration with Eriko Toyoda - being the latest, on free download for a couple of days just before the end of last year.

Rock/Pop

MBV by My Bloody Valentine

Released after a 20-odd year break, MBV manages to avoid most of the bear-traps which reforming bands tend to fall into. The album starts exactly were Loveless left off and then moves things forwards by degrees, until you realise that what you have is a very different beast from the one you started with, which is not a million miles aware from, say, Battles.

Is it as good as Loveless? Well, I always preferred Isn't Anything, so who am I to say?

Soundtracks

Les Salauds by Tindersticks

This time last year, I predicted that we wouldn't see another Tindersticks album until 2014. In the event, 2013 saw the band release two long players, which just goes to show how poor my predictive powers are.

Tindersticks have collaborated on many occasions with French filmmaker Claire Denis, and I used to think of the resulting soundtrack albums as pleasant distractions from the main event of their studio albums. However, we seem to have got to the point where the soundtracks are the vehicle for Tindersticks most effecting and inventive music.

Les Salauds presents a sparse electronic soundscape, with occasional whispered vocals – not your typical Tindersticks product, by any means. How this relates to the film is beyond me as I'm never likely to see the movie, but it works as a standalone album.

The other release in 2013, Across Six Leap Years, is comprised of re-recorded tracks from ‘Sticks albums and Stuart Staples solo output, plus one very slight new track. We’re told this re-recording was conducted at Abbey Road, although how this benefits the listener is unclear – perhaps we’re supposed to be able to hear the difference from a ‘normal’ recording studio.

I'm also puzzled by the choice of tracks, and in fact the whole purpose of the enterprise is a bit of a mystery to me. On first listen, many of the tracks, like Marseilles Sunshine, don’t sound that different from the way they appeared the first time round. 

Album of the Year 2013 - Part I

The somewhat belated first instalment of two (probably), listing my favourite releases of 2013, with links for your listening pleasure.

Country/Folk

Seasons of Your Day by Mazzy Star

More like a Hope Sandoval solo release, this doesn't really capitalise on the presence of David Roback or Bert Jansch (no, really...) for that matter.

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight… by Neko Case

Another instalment of Neko Case’s development away from country into a country/pop/rock hybrid of her own making, with a distinct lyrical vision and plenty of catchy tunes along the way. Not sure about the title though.

Electronic

Exai by Autechre

A double CD set from the rejuvenated duo, with – as the cover sticker proclaims – over two hours of music. The only downside is that I still haven't managed to get my head round disk 2 yet.

Tomorrow’s Harvest by Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada have a formidable reputation in the electronic music community, backed up with some seminal releases in their back-catalogue so it’s a shame that this release is so dull. The post-apocalyptic concept is hackneyed, with some woolly environmentalism apparently at the heart of it all. Yawn.  

Beautiful Rewind by Four Tet

Kieran Hebden generally has a way with a vocal sample, so it’s a pity that he over-utilises them on this release, to the point where they become annoying. The sonic backdrops are less inventive than on previous outings, with a general feeling of someone running out of ideas. Overall, a bit of a disappointment.

English Electric by OMD

Much, much better than The History of Modern, this album sees a return to the classic electro pop song writing of old. A couple of cuts - Night Café, Helen of Troy for example - are up there with their best, Architecture & Morality era work. A couple of the other tracks are marred by the production - the kick drum on Metroland is way too intrusive, for instance. Ironically for a group of futurists, the 21^st century sheen detracts from this record rather than enhancing it. Still, I'd rather have them back than not.

Jazz

Part Two by Basquiat Strings

The title says it all - this is another instalment in a similar vein to the Basquiat’s first album. Fortunately, this is no bad thing.

Everything We Hold by Kairos4Tet

This might be okay if it wasn't for the bloody awful lyrics. Best avoided.

Citadel by Plaistow

Plaistow follow up last year's freebie Lacrimosa with their first commercial release. This seems to be something of a retreat, with eight short-ish tracks that veer back towards generic piano jazz, away from the two long-form tracks of its predecessor. Fortunately, I listened on Soundcloud rather than shelling out.

Outstairs by Christian Wallumrod Ensemble

Another album of Christian Wallumrod's sparse, Morton Feldman in a junk shop shtick recorded in loving detail by Manfred Eicher. Absorbing or irritating, depending on your frame of mind. 

Minimalism

In C by Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra

Portishead affiliate Utley lends his name to this attempt at Terry Riley’s landmark of high minimalism. I suspect that there are many people who collect recordings of this work, as it’s impossible to produce a definitive rendition. This is my third – Bang on a Can and Ars Nova being the other two – so I sense that I'm on that slippery slope which leads to anorak-ish completism.

The Sinking Ship

It's amazing how fortunes can change in the music business. A few years ago, Sigur Ros had the world at their feet. A track taken from their fourth album “Takk…” and used in a high profile BBC wildlife documentary brought them widespread public attention, which they capitalised on with a series of releases that welded Jonsi Brigardson's choirboy-on-helium vocals to an increasingly pop-folk oriented backing, eschewing the epic post rock of previous outings.

They went global, despite a general lack of any obvious rock star charisma and without any apparent concessions in their musical approach – they even continued to sing in Icelandic. They had, by all appearances, squared the circle of being successful on their own terms.

Then it all went horribly wrong. The past couple of years have seen plenty of product – live albums, re-recordings of older material, concert DVDs, etc. – but little new music. This seems to have been the outcome of intra-band strife and creative inertia resulting from that “we've conquered the world, so what’s next?” point in a global rock band's career. Jonsi released a solo album, and another record as part of the Jonsi and Alex duo.

Sigur Ros looked over, making the title of their last album (2008's “With a Buzzing in Our Ears, We Play Endlessly”) seem rather ironic.

Now, apparently against the odds, we have “Valtari”.

The sticker on the packaging announces this as “The new studio album…”. The truth is that it’s been pieced together from recordings made over the four years since “With a Buzzing..” was released. Bearing this in mind, the album is surprisingly coherent, perhaps too much so. There are eight tracks, none of which are shorter than five minutes or longer than eight and all proceed at roughly the same mid-tempo.

The whole things clocks in at around fifty-five minutes, which is probably a touch on the long side. By the time that you get to the final track, which is a something-and-nothing piano instrumental stretched wafer-thin across eight minutes, there is a feeling of exhaustion in the air, a sense that the band collapsed over the finishing line, having only just made it before their metaphorical legs gave way.

All that said, I like this record. I like it more, in fact, than “With a Buzzing..”, but I like it as a whole. None of the tracks here stand out– there is no “Festival” for example. But as an album it manages to conjure up a certain sense of something-or-other which is very attractive if you’re in the right frame of mind.

So, what if this was to be the last Sigur Ros album? I think it would be seen as a bit of a footnote, a gathering together of unreleased material – which it is in any case – and something of an anti-climax.

And if it isn't? Then, it's a stop gap, a pause whilst the band regroups.

From the band's website: “There are rumblings from within the band of a “hard left turn” in terms of what these changes might constitute. Suffice to say, for now it's set to be a compelling "watch this space" scenario.”

Quite.

Either way, “Valtari” doesn’t represent a brave new beginning for Sigur Ros. That is what the next album needs to be, if there is one.

The Hit Factory

Do we really need another Tindersticks album?

Twenty years ago, the band's first two albums – confusingly, both eponymous – were big, bold grab bags, full of ideas and tunes jostling for attention. The production values improved on the second (“II”, we'll call it), with what sounds like a full orchestra present on most tracks. The third, “Curtains” was shorter and more focused with the formula from “II” honed to a sharp point that should have brought them commercial success along with the critical plaudits.

It didn't. The follow-up “Simple Pleasure” and its companion piece “Can Our Love…?” adopted a back-to-basics approach, employing a band setup playing live in the studio. These albums, nine and eight tracks respectively, barely made the forty minute mark and included the odd cover version. There was a sense that the band was in retreat, their creative energy expended and the commitment to their distinctive dramatic, cinematic sound gone.

But it was with “Waiting for the Moon” that the quality control really slipped. Good tunes were fewer and further between and lyrically there were no new ideas, with themes from previous releases being rehashed. Key members left. Vocalist Stuart Staples moved to France and released a solo record. A “Best Of” collection came out. By 2005, Tindersticks was over.

Then, in 2008, “The Hungry Saw” appeared, made by Stuart and a few friends at his “Lucky Dog” studio in France. And it wasn't half bad, but was it a Tindersticks album? Despite the presence of a couple of the old ‘sticks players, what we had was essentially a Stuart Staples solo record in terms of its musical and lyrical vision.

But, when you have a fan-base to exploit, why not do so?

“Falling Down a Mountain” followed in 2010, with much the same setup. Now, in 2012 we have “The Something Rain”. There appears to be a pattern emerging…

Okay, so much for the background and the baggage, what about the record itself?

Well its business as usual, really. The opener, “Chocolate” is a spoken word piece, detailing a romantic encounter with a not-all-that-surprising twist at the end – it would like to be “My Sister” or “Ballard of Tindersticks” but just isn't. Elsewhere, the usual kitchen sink dramas unfold against a tasteful backdrop of guitar, piano, sax and organ with discrete strings and brass on some cuts. Nine tracks, fifty minutes and see you again in 2014.

There are a couple of standout tracks which are, for some reason, hidden away in the second half of the album. “Slippin' Shoes” and “Medicine” provide a welcome one-two, just when you're about to give the whole thing up as a dead loss. The final track is a pretty but inconsequential instrumental number. Elsewhere, weak melodies are hidden under layers of instrumentation (“A Night So Still”) or enhanced with perky backing vocals (“Show Me Everything”).

Having said all that, the trend here is a downward one. When “The Hungry Saw” was released, it represented a welcome return and there was a sense that the record operated as a whole, and may in fact have been intended as a concept album. There were even some good tunes. With its lack of hooks and lyrical invention there is a general sense that “The Something Rain” is a placeholder, a product of people turning the handles and cranking out another unit from the production line.

So, to answer the initial question: No, in 2012, we don’t need another Tindersticks album. Or, more accurately, we don't need this Tindersticks album.

Albums of the Year 2012

Its been a while since I've bothered to post anything. That's because I've had a bit of a fallow period photography wise and I've been preoccupied with other stuff. So, to ease myself back into it, I thought that I'd post something about music.

I'd always intended to write about music and my interest in it. Unfortunately, I have no talent for it, so I'm a fan rather than a performer. But I hope that, after thirty-odd years of listening to various types of - mostly popular - music, I have a reasonably well honed ear.

To give you an idea of my tastes, I'm going to post my list of favourite albums from the year just gone. There are a couple of them for which I've written full reviews and I'll post those over the coming days. And at some point I'll get back to posting about photography.

So, here's my list. I've provided links to the stuff that's (legally) free to download. Of the two here, the Plaistow album is a cracker which I would have been happy to pay good money for. I have netlabelism.com to thank for guiding me through the plethora of free-to-download music that's out there. In particular, I've downloaded a lot of music from Bunkai Kei records which is a bonkers Japanese netlabel, whose stuff is fun, but never going to light up the world.

But more of that in another post. For now, here are "Dave's Faves". Enjoy. 

Best Remix Album

Battles - "Dross Glop"; 

Joseph Nothing Orchestra -  "Super Earth Remixes";

Best Piano Jazz Album

The Bad Plus - "Made Possible";

EST - "301"; 

Tord Gustavson Quartet - "The Well";

Phronesis - "Walking Dark"; 

Plaistow - "Lacrimosa"; 

Best Post Rock Album

Efterklang - "Piramida"; 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "Don't Bend, Ascend"; 

Sigur Ros - "Valtari";

Best Singer Songwriter Album

Mark Eitzel - "Don’t Be a Stranger"; 

Sun Kil Moon - "Among The Leaves"; 

Susanna - "Wild Dog";

Best Doomy Gothic Album

Dead Belgian - "Love & Death"; 

Dead Can Dance - "Anastasis"; 

Tindersticks - "The Something Rain";

Best Electronica Album

Monolake - "Ghosts"; 

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - "Fetch";

Best Pop Album

Saint Etienne - "Words & Music";

Best Reissue

My Bloody Valentine - "EPs 1988 – 1991".