Attrition - A Girl Called Harmony

Attrition, whose early work showed a similarity to other experimental and industrial artists of the time, were set slightly apart from their contemporaries by the combination of punk aesthetics and EBM-styled beats but also the inclusion of ethereal and classical touches that permeate nearly all of their repertoire. After initial releases which moved from eerily constructed ambience into standard dancefloor electro sounds, the band soon developed their distinctive texture, based on haunting synthesizer washes, strong beats, fretless bass backing, and Martin Bowes's deep growls contrasted with Julia Niblock's operatic soprano flourishes.
Attrition began after Martin Bowes issued, as part of a fanzine covering the Coventry music scene, a vinyl compilation and met Julia Niblock at a resulting music festival. After a handful of demos, fully-formed tracks by Attrition began to appear on several notable cassette compilations, such as the Rising From the Red Sand series from the fledging Third Mind label. In 1983 their vinyl breakthrough came with the inclusion of "Dreamsleep" on the influential The Elephant Table Album alongside notable experimental artists such as Nurse With Wound, Chris and Cosey and Portion Control. Coil even opened for them at their first London show, and they appearded side by side with The Legendary Pink Dots on a European tour in 1984, attracting brief notice by John Peel in 1985.
In 1984 the band moved to London, rooming and sharing a studio with The Legendary Pink Dots. After signing to Third Mind Records, they released their debut album The Attrition of Reason as well as The Voice Of God EP to moderate commercial success. At this point, Julia Niblock briefly left the band to collaborate with The Legendary Pink Dots on Asylum (where she is credited as "Poison Barbarella") but returned the following year to rejoin Attrition. In 1985, the seminal Smiling, At The Hypogonder Club was released to extremely positive reviews; the release was later picked up for American audiences by the Projekt label.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/attrition

Daisy House - Emma In The Morning

I had the great pleasure of reviewing Doug Hammond of Daisy House last year, and this time I am talking to his daughter Tatiana about her background and about the band’s beautiful new album, Beaus and Arrows. It’s a departure from their first album’s folk rock in that it introduces music hall stylings and pure pop that could have come straight from the 1960s. It is nice to see the band stretch their wings, and I wish them the best in achieving the recognition they so richly deserve.

What is your earliest musical memory? Do you have any vocal training? Because the clarity of your voice is simply superb.

First of all, thank you. It’s definitely improved on this second album. I’d never recorded anything before the first. I think the sound of my voice owes a lot to the ladies I’ve sung along with over the years, like Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny, Chrissie Hynde, Mary Hopkin, Vashti, Feisty (Leslie Feist, ha), Mama Cass, and Marianne Faithfull. All of them are truly superb singers and my Dad’s given me tips like making sure to pronounce lyrics clearly, and breath control. My most important vocal training has come out of our relationship; it’s always been my Dad’s keen ear, his funny analogies, and our shared musical references that kept me going when it was hard for me in the beginning. When I get behind the mic, we basically start speaking in hilarious code to each other. Earliest memory? If you grow up with my Dad, music transcends memory. ;) He made a mix tape for nap time for me when I was little that had Sebadoh, Talk Talk, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Clannad, and Joni Mitchell on it - all mellow stuff. So I suppose “New Grass” is my earliest memory, either that or “This Frog” by Kermit ;)

What has been your involvement in the creative process with respect to songwriting and instrumentation on this new record? I saw the video where it looks like you are playing guitar and piano.

My Dad and I have collaborated on lyrics for some of the newer songs. Lots of the songs from the second album were based on things I was experiencing at the time. He knew if he turned my anecdotes into songs, I could own them when I sang. We’ve got a new co-written song called “Battle Days” which is a sweet, “I’ll follow the sun”/Leonard Cohen/Beatles-y ballad, with half the lyrics in French, which I’ve studied for 7 years now. In the video for “Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter,” I sat down at that piano and accidentally blonked out that chord while the camera was rolling so Dad threw it on the album track. He writes and plays almost everything you hear, like 90% of it, and I interpret what he writes. I intend to write a bit more of my own going forward, but he’s been doing this since he was 10. It might take me a little while to catch up to him.

Have you and your Dad played out live with Chris since the first album was released?

Chris Stiles was a high school friend of my Dad’s and they hooked up after decades, and jammed a bit for old time’s sake. Chris had those opening chords for “Ready To Go”, and Dad, who’d been kicking around the idea of a freak-folk song collection, went home and finished it off in a Fairport Convention style for me to sing, which I’d never done before at that point. Chris and Daddy worked like that for about half the 1st album; a few chords from Chris, Daddy finishing it off. Pretty soon we had a whole album, but Chris wasn’t able to commit much time to it from the very beginning; he’s had a full time job and family to deal with, and since music is just a hobby for him, he basically bowed out. Dad and I have done about 17 shows “unplugged” locally and been invited to do some pretty amazing shows in the UK; like a 500 year old Royal Observatory! But until I graduate in May, touring is problematic. Once I graduate, look out!

What are your favorite tracks on the new album? What was the hardest song to record?

I like them all, but I get visibly giddy when I listen to “Time to Make Up For;” the instruments are so playful. I love the majesty of “Beaus and Arrows,” and the string arrangement my Dad came up with for it is amazing. I also love the melody and lyrics to “Why do you Dive so Deep in Beauty.” My Dad sings that one, and when I hear it my soul smiles. Hardest to record? Probably “Woman From Walkern,” I have allergies and they always hit when I’m back home. “Woman” was sung through a handful of tissues! I also really, really like “Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter”, which my Dad wrote when he was 21. He likes to say, “I had to wait 30 years for another 21 year old to sing it properly”. “In Between Girl” was written in about 15 minutes while we were recording my vocals on something else. We love Sixties pop music in general; that’s a favorite and Dad wrote “Time To Make Up For” about me and my boyfriend. A sweet song.

Do you only work on Daisy House when you’re home on school vacation, or do you have ideas you communicate with Doug as they come to mind?

No, we’re always swapping song ideas and Youtube videos. My musical education never ends, and I don’t think we’ve had more than three conversations in the last few years that didn’t at least touch on music. We talk all the time about it, even when I’ve been away overseas.

What has been your biggest influence musically and artistically?

The Sixties (and the folkies, also present in the Seventies). I love the sounds of the Sixties. I love the enthusiasm and the freedom they had to be playful and innovative that I hear in things like Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell especially, but also in Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Merry Go Round, The Association, The Left Banke etc. I like the fact that experimentation was more ubiquitous in pop culture. Creativity and “weirdness” and “music for music sake” seemed to be more encouraged back then by record labels. I think that creativity is coming back today, though. I think there are a lot of people turning away from over-commodified music, and a renewed search for what feels more like “authentic art and expression.”

Do film and literature ever come into play as an influence? It appears so since your song “Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenter” is a J.D. Salinger title.

Definitely. “Raise High” is an old song of my Dad’s. It’s his nod to Dylan. We like to give our songs lots of richness, so if any art form inspires us, some of it’s mojo will go into our work. Folk tales are also a really good starting point for cool spooky things. So the Child Ballads and other old stories are inspiration for a lot of our folkier numbers (“Two Sisters,” “Why do you Dive”, “Emma”, “The Woman From Walkern”, “Beaus And Arrows”). Most of them have either a folk tale feel or were adapted. You may also notice we reference Cain and Abel in “Beaus and Arrows,” which is possibly one of my favorite songs on the album, and definitely our richest, in terms of its epic sound and story. The Bible, like folk tales, has big sin, big mystery, and big poetry in it. There’s nothing out of bounds for what we do.

Besides conquering the world, what would you like to see happen with Daisy House?

More radio. More press. More shows. More videos. When I think of Daisy House “conquering the world,” I think of our songs reaching across the world and I imagine people I’ve never met smiling the way I do when I hear these songs. I also think it would be nice to have the opportunity to inspire kids coming up, the way I’ve been inspired, to explore wit and creativity, rather than accepting conformity to a standard that tells girls they have to get breast implants and tattoos and be “transgressive” or something like that. I’d like our music to remind people that you don’t have to get things “perfect”, that the boundaries of life and self-expression are much wider than currently understood.

What can fans look forward to with upcoming musical works?

I think after the first album, we had come up with a solid folk-rock template, so we developed that theme a bit further on “Beaus And Arrows”. We had a lot of fun playing with hybrid folk/pop themes, so there’s “molten-folk” as my Dad calls it on “What’s Your Time Bought?”, 60’s folk go-go on “In Between Girl”, Baroque-folk… you get the idea. We really enjoyed making the pop stuff on B&A so I think we may be ready to drop our “El Camino”. I’d rather become the first “Daisy House”, instead of the next Mumford, and do for Folk-Rock/60’s Pop what the Black Keys did for blues-rock and the White Stripes did for mid-Sixties British invasion/Garage rock. We go to sources like they did, but it’s a slightly different vein of forgotten greatness that we mine that translates to modern kids as something fresh. Daisy House is generous music, and very old school at heart. Who knows? It might even be revolutionary.

From: http://active-listener.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-chat-with-in-between-girl-tatiana.html

Buckethead - Spokes for the Wheel of Torment

So Buckethead has someone send us some mp3’s of his new album without any comment or album art. We are struck by the “Spokes” track and instantly visualize animated Hieronymus Bosch in our heads. We scan a few of his paintings in and make a 15 second test animation. A week or so later we drive to Buckethead’s secret headquarters and play him the test. He freaks out and takes us into his recording area, right there on the wall is a huge Hieronymus Bosch poster. Buckethead had been imagining the painting coming to life when he wrote the song. This was one of the most effortless things we had ever done, it felt like it was meant to be. This video was created almost entirely from Hieronymus Bosch paintings with a few extra paintings from Frankensuess. Compare BH’s body to HB’s “Prodigal Son” painting to get an idea of how things worked.  From: https://mindbombfilms.com/projects/buckethead-spokes-wheel-torment/

Buckethead is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic figures in American underground and experimental music since Parliament-Funkadelic birthed their bevy of cosmic characters in the mid-'70s. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist best known for his virtuosic command of the electric guitar, Buckethead is one of the instrument's most recognizable contemporary innovators, his rapid-fire riffing, near-robotic fretwork, and idiosyncratic lead lines combining elements of Yngwie Malmsteen, Adrian Belew, Slayer's Kerry King, P-Funk's Eddie Hazel, and avant-improv artist John Zorn's Scud-attack sax abuse. His first group, the San Francisco-based metal-funk combine the Deli Creeps, were a regional success, but disbanded before they could release anything. Buckethead's solo career has been more productive, thanks mostly to the motivation of Zorn and Bill Laswell, the latter of whom Buckethead has also recorded and toured with in Praxis. Laswell has also produced a number of Buckethead's solo albums (including Dreamatorium and Day of the Robot) and included him on more than a dozen one-off recordings with the likes of Hakim Bey, Bootsy Collins, Anton Fier, Jonas Hellborg, and Bernie Worrell. In addition to releases including 1998's Colma, Buckethead has also contributed soundtrack material to such films as Last Action Hero and Street Fighter. Buckethead returned in 1999 with Monsters and Robots, after which he joined the short-lived re-formation of Guns N' Roses. A steady stream of releases followed into the 21st century ranging from the contemplative Electric Tears to a more electronica/rock hybrid, and collaborations with San Francisco's underground hip-hop scene. In the following decade, he averaged a few releases a year, teaming up with dozens of artists, including Les Claypool, Iggy Pop, and Mike Patton, and in 2008, he collaborated with actor/musician Viggo Mortensen for Pandemonium from American.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/buckethead-mn0000594765#biography

Spirit - Live French TV 1970

If I recall correctly, Spirit got the biggest label push of its career around the time of the band's second album, The Family That Plays Together. Fueled by the Top 30 success of the single, "I've Got A Line On You," the album was prominently featured on every album rack of nearly every store I frequented at the time (including old-line discount retailers like Grand-Way.) Unfortunately for Spirit, the roster at Columbia Records and its affiliate labels in 1968-69 was HUGE! With high-powered, high-profile acts like Simon & Garfunkel; Chicago; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Bob Dylan; etc, all demanding label attention, I think if you didn't have a hit single burning up the charts, you tended to fall off the CBS radar. As great and innovative as Spirit was musically, CBS never seemed to find a way to push them over the top to that mega-stardom-success level that other label acts achieved. To their credit, CBS did stick by the band and retained Spirit on the company's own Epic label through the "Feedback" album (after the original Ode distribution deal ended in late 1970.) Without question, Spirit is one of my favorite '60s bands and there is no denying they should have been more successful.

I think people who weren't around in the 60's and 70's have a hard time understanding how competitive and evolutionary pop music became, how music marketing was at that time. Throw in the dynamics of keeping a band together amidst a lack of money and you can see why the era unfolded as it did. These were the adolescent years of pop music - it was growing too fast to keep it’s attention focused on anything but a few key artists. There was a 'leading edge' of 'current' sound. Just one year could make a difference as to whether your sound was 'dated', whether you would get billed for a show, or recorded, or given airplay. There were only so many radio stations and so much time in a given month/year. Crowd this finite amount of time with the exponentially increasing sophistication of pop music, the numbers of artists and albums coming out, and its easy to see why a lot of great artists got shunted to the B and C tiers. It didn't necessarily have to do with talent.  If you decided to have a rockabilly revival band in 1969 you were a goner. There would be no one stepping up with money to market you or your sound. If you decided to do this within the last twenty years or so - you could make a solid paying career out of it. As for Spirit - I remember them getting decent radio airplay around the turn of the 70's. The song Mr. Skin off of Dr. Sardonicus was a 'top 40' type radio hit in 1972. So it’s not like they were unknown. They, like a lot of other great bands then, just didn't get the same exposure as the biggies.

From: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/why-wasnt-the-group-spirit-a-bigger-success.187989/

 

Tim Hart & Maddy Prior - Bring Us In Good Ale

In 1969, Ashley Hutchings was keen to leave Fairport Convention, the group he had founded with Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol and others. Fairport had just made Liege and Lief, an album of traditional songs performed by a rock band, which is regarded 25 years later as “seminal” in it’s fusion of two diverse musical styles. Hutchings knew little of traditional folk music until he began researching the songs on Liege and Lief at Cecil Sharp House, the home of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, when he became aware of the unique value of the EFDSS as a resource with details of thousands of traditional folk songs. Previously favouring American Music (Bob Dylan, etc.), Hutchings was instantly hooked on traditional music, but it became clear that the majority of Fairport regarded Liege and Lief as a one-off project, and were not prepared to commit themselves to further pursue that direction in the immediate future despite the acclaim which greeted the album—vocalist Sandy Denny, who had known about traditional material for several years, particularly preferred to pursue her own original songs rather than follow the traditional route. As a result, Hutchings left the band, after a discussion with Hart & Prior in which he found them kindred spirits, as Hart recalled: “At Keele Folk Festival, we all sat around and got annoyed by the fact that electric input to folk music was coming from the rock side rather than from the folk side. We had a long discussion one night, Dave & Toni Arthur and Maddy & I and Ashley, then Maddy & I gave Ashley a lift back to London and we got talking further. At the time, Ashley was trying to form a band with Sweeney’s Men, and we were good friends of theirs and knew they were about to split up. As Sweeney’s Men collapsed, Andy Irvine and Johnny Moynihan left to go solo, and that left Terry and Gay Woods, who joined with Ashley and Maddy & I, and decided to form a band. It was a fairly sort of vague thing, really.” That “vague thing” became Steeleye Span, and between 1969 and 1978, the group released eleven albums, several of which reached the UK chart; Hart & Prior were the only members of the band to feature on all eleven. Some of these albums have been reissued on CD by BGO records. In the early 1970s, Hart & Prior were given the opportunity to make another LP, Summer Solstice, as a duo while still fronting Steeleye: “We were more than happy—it wasn’t a restriction, it was a chance to make a record with a proper record company. Maddy & I were still working as a duo at that time and had a live repertoire to which we were adding new material all the time, so we just recorded our current repertoire, but we did it in 8 track or 16 track studio then, which was quite an advantage—we were able to do overdubs and put strings on it and all sorts of exotic things, and cover up our mistakes. There are lots of mistakes on those first two albums—when Maddy & I got our words tangled, the producer said ‘Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, what’s the next track?’, so we carried on.”  From: https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/records/timhart.html

Cheer-Accident - Like Something To Resemble

Emerging from the incredibly diverse crucible of music that is Chicago, Cheer-Accident embodies and re-affirms the “promises made” by previous generations of progressive rock, post-punk, and post rock bands — the creation of a thoroughly new rock-based music. There are bands with pretty melodies, bands that rock, bands that dazzle with exalted technique, bands that make you laugh, and bands aiming to perplex even the most intrepid listener. Cheer-Accident is all those things and more, truly a band for the 21st century. Cheer-Accident wrap creativeness inside an inviting enigma of honeyed vocals, harmonious pop melody, and thorny dissonance. They have the rare ability to synthesize and juxtapose pure pop, thundering rock, and avant-garde complexity and ambiguity, intuition and intellect, sweetness and sarcasm, to create a stunning signature sound.

When I was five years old (or maybe younger; I know I had not yet made it to kindergarten), my favorite activity was to bop around to Herb Alpert's rendition of "Zorba The Greek." You know the part of the song where everything stops, there's a brief silence, then it starts back up, slowly and quietly? Well, from there, it just builds and builds and builds in volume and intensity, the tempo making it’s way from slower-than-adagio to faster-than-fast high octane über-polka in the course of sixty seconds... and I would work my five-year-old self into a frenzy, racing around the ottoman in the living room, faster and faster, matching the song's energy, and finally, collapsing into ecstatic oblivion at the song's conclusion (at 4 minutes and 25 seconds).
By the time I'd reached that aforementioned age, my parents had acquired five of his albums, all of which I listened to voraciously. Herb was my guy. I was obsessed. He's the reason I started playing trumpet in 6th Grade and drumming (or, rather, cereal boxing) well before that, probably before I'd learned how to walk. When I'd entered junior high, and found myself in the school band, I'd managed to track down almost every one of those thirteen original Tijuana Brass albums that came out in the '60s. Most of these I'd found in the "easy listening" section at the record store, where I'd noticed another familiar name that would consistently pop up: Burt Bacharach. I'd become enamored with him as well, initially by learning that he had written an impressive number of songs that Herb would go on to record, but also because he had achieved ubiquity on the airwaves, via artists such as The Carpenters, BJ Thomas, and (most notably and prolifically) Dionne Warwick.
Fast forward three decades later to this scenario: Phil Bonnet (our guitarist for the entirety of the '90s) and I are talking at Solid Sound (the studio in Hoffman Estates, IL where he'd become quite beloved, engineering a multitude of local bands from Chicago and its nearby suburbs), as we take a break from recording the basic tracks for "Salad Days" (along with Jeff Libersher and Dylan Posa) on Sunday, January 31st, 1999. Phil is very excited to have recently gotten his hands on the Burt Bacharach box set, and we are listening to it in the control room. As we sit there together, blissing out to the sublime strains of "Our Day Will Come," he looks over at me and says, "I never use this word, but he's a... (pause)... (sheepishly)... genius."
But Phil was not merely "our guitarist" or "our engineer" - he was also a dear, dear friend. He and I lived together (in Streamwood, then Palatine) from the fall of 1990 to the summer of 1992, and we became very close during this time period. Sometimes eerily close. On one summer day in 1991, after we'd been living together for over half a year, I had decided to cut off all of my long hair. Phil came home that night after a lengthy studio session and, as he walked through the front door, we just looked at each other in shocked silence: he, too, had cut off all of his long hair. On another day that same summer, we tooled around Streamwood in his Suzuki Sidekick, cranking my Herb Alpert mixtape. Did that Sidekick have a sun roof, or can I still feel the sun's warmth on my face and arms because that moment unlocked one of my earliest and fondest memories: riding in my mom's Galaxy 500 convertible, listening to "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" on her car's 8-track player?
How perfect was it that Phil and I were in a dissonant/abrasive/aggressive rock band together, and yet our strongest convergence was in the area of "easy listening?" Indeed all four members of this '90s incarnation of Cheer-Accident shared a deep passion for this music, and there were murmurs of dedicating an entire album to this genre, starting in the mid-'90s. These murmurs grew louder and more insistent (accompanied by serious demos being recorded by all involved), and by early '99, there were specific plans being made to record this selection of songs - just in time for Phil's sudden and devastating death on Tuesday, Februrary 2nd, 1999.
And now, one year after Burt's death and 25 years after Phil's death, we have unlocked this treasure chest of heartfelt songs (three of which have the latter's stamp on them), and Cuneiform Records has taken on the noble task of availing them to the public. Pandemically recorded by one Steve Albini (whose name is virtually synonymous with "easy listening") at his charmed studio, Electrical Audio in Chicago, this is surely our most severe example of "delayed gratification" to date. I know that "severity" and "easy listening" do not exactly go hand in hand, but we always have had a rather BachAssarach way of doing things. Thank You For (Easily) Listening. -- Thymme Jones / Cheer-Accident.  From: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/cheeraccident.html

Sarah McLachlan - The Path of Thorns (Terms)

Discovered in her teens fronting a new wave band in Halifax, Sarah McLachlan (who subsequently relocated to Vancouver, on Canada’s other coast) quickly evolved into one of the most captivating voices in pop music, yet another vital figure in Canada’s rich legacy of innovative singer/songwriters. Equally adept on piano and guitar (credit years of classical training on both), McLachlan’s primary instrument on Touch is her sweet, reedy voice, reminiscent of Sinéad O’Connor but unfamiliar with stridency. Although she was only 20 at the time, the album shows her to be a songwriter of promising lyrical insight. Only the haunting “Ben’s Song” and the single “Vox” (included on CD in original and extended remix form) boast the compelling hooks that distinguish her subsequent work, but Touch is an impressive debut.
The album made McLachlan a star in Canada; not surprisingly, the transitional Solace reflects a mood of lost innocence. “Black,” “Mercy” and “Lost” are as melancholy as their titles suggest, and only a lighthearted cover of Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” injects any cheerfulness. Atmospherically framed by producer Pierre Marchand (who would repeat the role on her next two studio albums), Solace is graced with thoughtful arrangements, sensitive playing and, most important, melodies that equal McLachlan’s sharpening skills as a lyricist. The first four cuts — “Drawn to the Rhythm,” “Into the Fire,” “The Path of Thorns (Terms)” and “I Will Not Forget You” — are outstanding. (The limited-edition seven-song Live, containing concert versions of material from Solace and Touch as well as “Back Door Man,” was released only in Canada.)
Even the cover of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy — a photo of the artist gazing happily into the camera, where previously she had averted her eyes — signals McLachlan’s growing confidence and aesthetic maturation. After touring for over a year, McLachlan had visited Cambodia and Thailand to narrate a video documentary. Exploring the emotions generated by those experiences, the twelve songs of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy are less self-indulgent, boasting a new sense of objectivity that increases the emotional impact. “All the fear has left me now/I’m not afraid anymore” she announces on the title track. “Hold On” confronts mortality, while “Ice” meditates on addiction. The jazzy “Ice Cream” balances the pervasive darkness with light.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/sarah-mclachlan/

Cadillac Sky - You Again

Me: The band went from traditional bluegrass to a hodgepodge of genres, what led to this change?

Cadillac Sky’s Bryan Simpson: simply becoming more comfortable with who we are and more confident. We just realized after playing a little while together that we were the ones who were gonna have to live with the music we made on a nightly basis and we wanted to truly be excited about the music..so we just sort of stopped doing so much editing and naturally we started to create music that was a blend of all the stuff we listened to that inspired us…there was no big plan really, we just wanted to keep ourselves interested.

Me: How did the band start?

Bryan:I basically met Matt at a benefit concert we were playing separately  and we talked about the possibility of doing something together. I had some songs, he had that banjo, and we both had a desire to do anything besides get a real job. Day after we met we got together and played a little more at my mother-in law’s house which was located in between the two of us - and C-Sky was born…for better or worse.

Me: When did David Mayfield join?

Bryan: Like Sept 2008 I think. Feels like he was always a part of the band. I don’t remember much pre- Mayfield.

Me: Who did he replace?

Bryan: Mike Jump

Me: What did he bring to the dynamic?

Bryan: Confidence. A sort of frenetic energy. A wealth of talent.

Me: What was the highest moment in the band?

Bryan: there were a lot of them. One, for me, was this little non-descript club in Des Moines, IA in like early 2010 we played on a Tuesday night. Our show was supposed to start at midnight. All day at this club they had speed-metal shows, death metal whatever…and so we pulled up and the place is packed with Metal Fest attendees - I remember we went on after Cattle Decapitation - and their show ran long. After we got there we found out we weren’t going to get to soundcheck until midnight and then there was also gonna be a band open for us that we didn’t know about, and I just figured that this was gonna be THE show - the one where its just us and the guy waiting to sweep up after us. We didn’t go on till like 1:30 and somehow, by the grace of God, there was this group of about 75 people that were at the show with an unbridled enthusiasm. They lived and breathed every song. and were crazy kind to us, and that’s when I knew - man, this thing has spread bigger than I ever dreamed it would.

Me: When did you guys become such good friends with Mumford and Sons?

Bryan: Telluride 2010.

Me: What was it like recording with Dan Auerbach (Black Keys)?

Bryan: Easy. Laid back.

Me: When making Letters of the Deep, did you know the immensity of the album?

Bryan: No. Still don’t. I knew we were making something that we liked- finally.

Me: You do most of the singing. Do you also do most of the writing?

Bryan: I wrote about 75% of the material. But once David joined the band we had another writer in the band - a great one in fact - and so me and him wrote some together, and then, you know, honestly, once you place a song in the hands of Matt, Ross, and Andy they change and become something new. So everybody sort of wrote all the songs we did - one thing that was cool, is that, unintentionally, every member had a song on Letters.

Me: When did you decide to leave?

Bryan: Telluride 2010.

Me: When Levi Lowery took your place, were any new songs written? If so were there plans for a new album?

Bryan: I think they had plans for a new album.

Me: What caused the band to realize it was time to end?

Bryan: It never ended - just stopped for a while. “On Hiatus” remember? I’m not sure why really - I wasn’t around…

Me: What is everyone else doing now?

Bryan: Ross is playing with Mumford and Sons, Matt is doing sessions, spending time with his little girl, and playing on the road with an artist on Arista; Brent Anderson. Andy is teaching - being a dad to his two little girls - and David is leading the Parade around.

From: https://folkthisblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/cadillac-skys-bryan-simpson-interview/

öOoOoOoOoOo - Fucking Freaking Futile Freddy

öOoOoOoOoOo, also known as Chenille, is a collaboration between Asphodel, the former vocalist of avante garde metal act Pin-Up Went Down, and multi-instrumentalist Baptiste Bertrand. Based in France, this act was founded in 2013 and their music, while frequently catchy, is also highly experimental with constantly shifting stylistics and moods. Their influences seem vast, ranging from The Sugarcubes to extreme metal with plenty of forays into disparate genres such as R&B, jazz and gothic rock.

On October 21, 2016 the group released their first album, Samen via Apathia records, which also features Aymeric Thomas from the experimental metal act Pryapisme as the session drummer. Featuring a moniker which forms a caterpillar, öOoOoOoOoOo is certainly worth checking out for fans of acts such as Diablo Swing Orchestra and Mr. Bungle. This is pretty cheeky mindboggling stuff, as you should expect from the name of the band and album. There is a metal side to this, but it's not metal from beginning to end or even most of the time. Rather, heavy stuff pops up suddenly at some point in most songs and is sometimes wound down again before the listener knows it. A number of songs are metal dominated, but they come with the occasional interruption in other directions. Heavy can mean slow and fast, power and death, they do it all. Certainly they don't shy away from stark contrasts. Suddenly we get catchy art rock or even mainstream rock (No Doubt could be a reference), then again playful experimental stuff a la Mr. Bungle (probably the closest association) with funk elements and theatrical elements, brought together with a RIO-like attitude to defy expectations as soon as they could occur. A major selling point of this album is the female vocalist Asphodel. She is extremely flexible, she can do seductive, melodic rock, sharp, cheeky, evil, authoritative, sassy, rebellious, screwed up, arrogant, girly, opera, energetic, and heavy, all very convincingly. Her at times multilayered vocal arrangements are well crafted and adventurous. Her vocal work is supported by male bandmate Baptiste Bertrand in this role, who also contributes a remarkable number of styles including death growls. The instrumentation is very competent and inventive (particularly violin is used to good effect although I'm not quite sure whether it's sampled - it's hard to tell these days) if maybe a bit too perfectly polished. For all its craziness the music is pretty controlled and there is no space for improvisation. Overall this is an astonishing album full of good ideas and striking contrasts. I recommend it to anyone who likes to be surprised and who wants to discover an extremely versatile and confident female singer. Those who rather want their music to be organic and homogeneous, stay away! Oh, I should maybe add some information: They hail from France, and are pronounced "chenille", which means caterpillar, and the official written form of the band name is just that.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=9968

Big Scenic Nowhere - Murder Klipp

Anyone familiar with the terms “Stoner Rock” or “Desert Rock” have surely heard the names Fu Manchu or Yawning Man. If you’re a die hard fan of the genre, or a causal observer, you know that both bands have been dishing out quality material since the beginning. While stylistically different, both bands occupy legendary status. Fu Manchu’s sun-drenched, stratospheric, fuzz worship sound and Yawning Man’s ethereal, ambient delay have never been crossbred until now. It’s certainty a good time to be alive if you’re a fan of either band. We bring you Big Scenic Nowhere.
Like many of the best things in life, the root collaboration behind Big Scenic Nowhere between guitarists Gary Arce of Yawning Man and Bob Balch of Fu Manchu started with tacos. Specifically, Del Taco. Founded in 1964 in the Mojave Desert in California, the fast food chain has stores throughout the Golden State and the Southern US, but it remains a SoCal institution. Arce, just back from a tour with Yawning Man and celebrating the comforts of home, posted on social media of his triumphant return to his local Del Taco. Balch responded with his usual order – a regular red burrito with extra cheese and sour cream – and a band was begun. 
Of course, it’s never really so simple. Bob and Gary have been acquainted since the ‘90s, when Fu Manchu would practice in the garage of the house Gary lived in with other members of the desert scene. Gary remembers coming home from his construction job at the time, working outside in the desert summer, ready to kick back and crack a beer, only to be unable to watch television because Fu Manchu were so loud. They’d bump into each other over the years periodically and Bob eventually brought Gary in to film a piece for his instructional guitar series, PlayThisRiff.com. After the above-mentioned Del Taco post, it was Gary – whose collaborative efforts have been myriad in outfits like WaterWays, Zun, Ten East, etc. – who finally called Bob to jam. While the project would grow soon enough to encompass players like Tony Reed (Mos Generator), Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man), Per Wiberg (Spiritual Beggars, ex-Opeth), Bill Stinson (Yawning Man), Nick Oliveri (Mondo Generator, ex-Kyuss, etc.), Lisa Alley and Ian Graham (both of The Well), Alain Johannes (Them Crooked Vultures, Chris Cornell, Eleven) and Thomas V. Jäger (Monolord), Big Scenic Nowhere is founded on Balch and Arce tossing guitar riffs and leads back and forth, piecing together song parts one movement at a time. Jamming. Sharing music. Developing a chemistry to build something new based on their individual experiences. In this way, Big Scenic Nowhere is the heart of what collaboration should manifest. Something that grows stronger for the cohesion between those who make it happen.  From: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/bands/big-scenic-nowhere.htm

A Formal Horse - Bee

The band "A Formal Horse" from the United Kingdom has been dilly-dallying around since 2014, and in that time has released 4 EPs. Finally, after 5 years at this, they released their first full-length in November of 2019, the intriguingly titled album "Here Comes a Man from the Council with a Flamethrower". Over the time they have been together, only the lead singer has changed. The band currently consists of Hayley McDonnell (vocals), Benjamin Short (guitars and vocals), Russell Mann (bass), and Mike Stringfellow (drums).
The album has an interesting track listing with 16 tracks in all. The overall run-time is around 45 minutes. None of the tracks quite reach the 4 minute mark. Sound intriguing? It should, especially with tracks that are named "Magazine Zooey Deschanel", "I Just Called to Say I Like You", "Last Track on Side Fun" and, of course, the title track. The band calls itself an "avant-rock quartet", but the music tends to be a blend of Belew-era King Crimson with the thoughtful, yet heavy attitude of Black Mountain. You will see what I mean as the music shifts around as it moves from one track to another, connecting the tracks together, but making it very obvious when one song changes to another. There are often some excellent complexities in the rhythm and heavy guitar exchanges that makes it obviously progressive. The songs, even though they are short, are well developed and each one has a lot going on in it, but each single track is focused on its own purpose, not a miasma or confusing mish mash of style so much in each individual track, yet there are still changing moods and meters within most of them.
Haley's vocals are quite good and fit the musical style perfectly. She is able to adjust her style and sound to match the ever changing musical style of each track. Just listen to "Bee", the 6th track, and you'll also hear her amazing phrasing and range as she jumps smoothly around octaves and interesting intervals with the grace of Joni Mitchell. Sometimes, its hard to believe that the instrumentation is as basic as it is; guitar, bass, drums. Regardless of that, the organic, dynamic sound is quite impressive, spot on, and often can fool you into thinking the band is much larger than what it is.
The melodies for the tracks are not made out of the typical "verse-chorus" structure, but are more complex than that, yet they remain fairly accessible, kind of. The angular guitar work can explode at a second's notice into a complex KC-like pattern with the impossible meter shifts, only to soon pull back to a more melodious style, but the overall feel is a little on the dark side, yet that often shifts also. A great example of this is on the dynamic track "Lonely Doe Young Doe" that manages to touch on all of their styles while staying cohesive in a track that still manages to stay under 4 minutes. If you like what you hear there, then you will love the rest of the album. It is probably one of the most amazing individual songs of the year.
Ok, so we have established that the guitarist and the vocalist are amazing, what about the rest of the band? Take a listen to the title track and the following instrumental "Unison One" and even it's sister instrumental track "Unison 3", and you will get an idea with the complex bass and drum lines that support the crazy guitar, and you'll be convinced that this is a band that knows who it is and what they are doing. It's quite a display of dynamic mastery and technical prowess. And, what a way to end the album with the explosive "Anyway". Just perfect!
So, you can chalk up another one for the best albums of 2019, at least for my list. It is definitely one of the best that I've heard, and I've heard a lot of them this year. Those that loved the sound of "Bent Knee" on their recent release "You Know What They Mean" should also be impressed with this release. Think of that album with even more dynamic and mood shifts with many leanings toward KC's later sounds, then you'll know what you will be getting into with this amazing album. This is definitely another band to watch out for. Don't miss this one and make sure to leave room for it on your best of 2019 lists, because I think a lot of people would be impressed with it.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=63927

Balduin - Which Dreamed It

The DJ and production duo Balduin was united in 2015 and has been fascinating fans of Electro Swing and familiar genres with their original sound ever since. Over 11 million people have listened to their Original Songs and Remixes on Spotify, Youtube and Soundcloud. The two minds behind the project are like Yin and Yang, lightning and thunder, light and shadow: While the eccentric multi-instrumentalist Benedikt Kuhn likes to fascinate the crowd with his live sax and clarinet performance, Martin Straka, the introspective sound designer, tries to advance towards his vision of the perfect sound in the studio. These awesome vibes get the crowd on their feet in no time. For some time, Balduin has worked together with Wolfgang Lohr, one of the big players of Electro Swing. The high quality productions of this Frankfurt-Berlin connection, which are released on the in-house Label Balduin Music are sure to delight any connoisseur of Electro Swing music. These collaborations are mixed in between other selected hits of the genre during the live shows.  From: https://estlink.de/balduin/

Heart - The Second Ending - Live at KWSU TV 1976

‘Live On Air’ with Heart is a real wet dream for any fan of the bands early material. This is a recording with the band from very early days when the original line-up was still intact and the band were first breaking out, before they were a household name. This was recorded live at the KWSU-TV (A public TV station out of Washington State University) in Feb-March 1976 and the show was called Second Coming, right before the release of the debut album ‘Dreamboat Annie’. This is a terrific show, taped in front of a small audience. The set featured 9 songs at an approx 55-minute show and I’m doubtful anyone left disappointed even though probably none realized they were witnessing the beginning of a superstar career. The Second Ending was a show that was broadcast somewhat irregularly in the Pacific Northwest beginning in early 1976 and ran for at least 2 years. If you go through the Archives Department at WSU you will find that this show was aired on Saturday the 9th of April 1976 at 10:30 pm with a re-run on Sunday they 10th of April at 6:30. Many newsletter clips from student magazines at the time refer to the group as ‘Hart’ and that they are from Canada. This really proves how unknown they were at the time. The director of ‘The Second Ending’ series Michael J. Costones would actively seek out local artists to showcase on the series. The studio is very small and held between 50-75 people, mostly WSU students. On this date for the Heart performance, it is clear the majority of the crowd had never heard of the band and are visibly blown out by this unknown band from the Pacific Northwest. This show is a real treat to hear. The sound quality is better than most Live On Air series albums I've bought before. Very listenable considering the performance, which is excellent. It even has Roger pulling out the bow and doing a Dazed And Confused type thing on his Les Paul. The tracks are all from Dreamboat Annie except for ‘Heartless’ and ‘Devil delight’ that were written around the same time and would appear on the album ‘Magazine’ that was delayed and released first in 1978. The productions and rarity of the show makes it a must have for any old time Heart fans. British label Plastic Head has during the last ten years released a lot of re-issue under their side labels Back on Black and Rock Classic records. Now they have found a ‘copyright gap’ when it comes to American live radio broadcasts. Radio broadcasts that are under the public domain in the States are legally public domain even in the UK. They started a new side label called Southworld to release this kind of material. I have seen people saying these are bootlegs because the bands which music they release have nothing to do with them. However the gap in the copyright law seems to make these legal. The might look cheap on the cover and lacks any fancy booklets as the label can’t use the bands’ real logo and they can only use photos for which they can get the copyright too. Even though the discs looks ‘cheap’, the music in many cases is splendid and features unique live material from an era in the band’s history which might not have been released on any other official live albums.  From: https://tpl.se/music/heart-live-on-air-1976/

Zoot - Eleanor Rigby (Beatles cover)

For the release of Zoot's inaugural single, "You Better Get Going Now," the band draped themselves, as well as the gaudy Berties discotheque venue, in bright pink. Pushing the slogan "Think Pink - Think Zoot," the band would later burn their pink suits and bare their backsides in an act of defiance that ultimately was unable to resurrect their forever pink-stained careers.
Forming in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1966 and calling themselves "Down the Line," a soon re-badged Zoot achieved local fame on the dance scene before moving to Melbourne in 1968. Shortly after their pink-fuelled launch, their second single, "One Times, Two Times, Three Times, Four," peaked at number 32 on the Melbourne charts and the band began playing the Melbourne TV show Uptight regularly. Their next single, "Monty and Me," hit number one in Brisbane and the band, along with local contemporaries the Valentines, the Flying Circus, and New Dream, developed a strong teen following with their blend of disposable pop. Replacing guitarist Roger Hicks with Rick Springfield saw the band's sound begin to mature, and they toured with the cream of Australian pop on the national Operation Starlift Tour in September 1969. They ended the year by being voted Top Australian Group in Go-Set magazine's Pop Poll.
Despite burning their former pink outfits for the cameras and baring their backsides for Go-Set, their next single, "Hey Pinky" (April 1970), failed to chart. Nevertheless, the band placed second to the Flying Circus in Hoadley's National Battle of the Sounds final in July 1970 and released their debut album, Just Zoot, the following month. The band achieved their biggest hit with their next single, a cover of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," which peaked at number four on the national charts in March 1971. The single later achieved gold status after being re-released by EMI in 1979 and Zoot formed a reputation for performing heavy covers of well-known songs. Zoot's next single, "The Freak," failed to achieve chart success and, still haunted by their former teen-star status, the group disbanded in May. Several of the band members continued successful careers in music and film, including Rick Springfield, who went on to achieve international success as a singer and actor in the U.S.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/zoot-mn0000813009#biography  

The Story - So Much Mine

The Story’s debut Grace in Gravity no doubt escaped many folk-pop lovers, but The Angel in the House made its presence felt subtly at adult album alternative stations across America. Syncopated percussion and bossa nova rhythms mark the sound of the Story's second album, while a more formed feminist, and at times metaphysical, sensibility permeates the lyrics. Virginia Woolf inspired the album's title, and liner notes explain the other literary thoughts (from Germaine Greer, Horton Foote, et al) that underscore individual songs. Angel concerns itself with the psyche of womankind - how woman is affected by the struggle to find herself, to find love, and to hold on to both. At times, it's a dark process. "The Barefoot Ballroom" begins with Brooke stating, "sometimes I'm happy. mostly I'm not. I like to be alone a lot." The beautifully arranged "At the Still Point" features shifting time signatures and percussive nuances such as hand drums; "Missing Person Afternoon" uses congas. The a cappella opening of "In the Gloaming" is breathtaking; a piano comes in on the second verse, and the two women sing lyrics inspired by playwright Harold Pinter.  From: http://jenniferkimball.com/cds/f/The_Story

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Going To A Go-Go

Though it’s title track ignited a nationwide fad for go-go music, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' Going to a Go-Go LP certainly wasn't just a cash-in effort. It's one of the best records the group put out, and the first six songs make for the best side of any original Motown LP of the '60s (granted, all but one are also available on dozens of Miracles compilations). The four biggest hits were among the best in a set of Miracles archetypes: the throwback to the aching '50s doo wop ballad ("Ooo Baby, Baby"), the flashy up-tempo dance song ("Going to a Go-Go"), the dancing-with-tears-in-my-eyes jerker ("The Tracks of My Tears"), and the mid-tempo orchestral epic ("My Girl Has Gone"). "Choosey Beggar" is one of the sweetest of all Robinson's lead vocals, with stunning background work by the rest of the Miracles. Even the album tracks shine, with "All That's Good" and "Let Me Have Some" working as excellent additions to the program.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/going-to-a-go-go-mw0000872358#review

Plurabelle - Our Fires

It's all about the ominous vibes with Plurabelle's Our Fires, a track imbued with such an oppressive aural quality that it's kind of impressive. Couple that with the 2 tone music video by Mattis Dovier, who seems to be taking a few queues from Maruo Suehiro's muzan-e (A more violent ukiyo-e) stylings and low-fi PC graphics and you've got yourself one hell of a horror music video. The track is taken from Phantom Pyramid LP, set to release on June 16th via Stellar Kinematics.
Adolescence, embodied by the mutation into a monstrous beast, is a tribute to B-movies, drawing references from John Carpenter's or illustrator Charles Burns' universes. Symbolism in the transition into adulthood is seen as a rite of passage, requiring the death of a human being and the birth of another. The haunting mystical song immerses us inexorably into the intricacies of this transformation you can't avoid, whatever you do.  From: https://awesomerobo.blogspot.com/2014/07/plurabelle-our-fires.html

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

The second music video for "This Too Shall Pass" was co-directed by Damian Kulash and James Frost. Similar to the band's video for "Here It Goes Again", the "This Too Shall Pass" video features a four-minute, apparent one shot sequence of the song being played in time to the actions of a giant Rube Goldberg machine built in a two-story warehouse from over 700 household objects, traversing an estimated half-mile course. As the song and machine operate, the members of the band are seen singing alongside the machine, with the members being shot at by paint guns at the song's finale. Parts of the machine are synchronized in time with the music; in one instance, glasses of water are used to repeat part of the song's melody in the fashion of a glass harp. One part of the machine shows the "Here It Goes Again" video on a television before it is smashed by the machine. The MAKE magazine 1993 Ford Escort racecar, used for the 24 Hours of LeMons, appears in the video along with a miniature LEGO version of the car. Alongside the LEGO car, several LEGO mini-figurines are displayed as a reference to the marching band video.
The floor plan for the Rube Goldberg machine used in the video covered two floors of a warehouse and had several distinct stations that worked in time with the music. The video's inspiration was from the band, who wanted "a giant machine that we dance with", a long-term aspiration of the band and inspired by other Rube Goldberg machines shown in videos on YouTube, including the interstitials used on the Japanese children's show PythagoraSwitch. While they considered the idea of the machine for each song on Of the Colour, they opted to use "This Too Shall Pass" to make the end result "majestic and epic", even though it already duplicated the previous marching band video. They sought help through online science message boards, eventually coming in contact with Syyn Labs. From a pool of talent at a Syyn Labs-hosted "Mindshare LA" gathering, about 55 to 60 people from Syyn Labs, the California Institute of Technology (including some who work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and participated in the Mars Exploration Rover program, hence the model rover seen in the video) and MIT Media Lab helped to design and construct the machine. Damian Kulash's father (Damian Kulash Sr.) also participated in the machine's construction.
The team had to work on a limited budget, using recycled trash for many of the props in the device; after filming, the total estimated cost was approximately $90,000. The team avoided the use of "magic" — automated devices like computers or motors — and instead focused on purely physical devices. The total time to create the video from conceptualization was about six months, with two months of planning and four months for design and filming. The warehouse where filming took place was in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, and was secured by Syyn Labs in November 2009. The final construction within the warehouse took over a month and a half during January and February 2010. The band members helped in the last two weeks of construction, having spent the previous four months on tour.
Once the machine was completed, the filming, using a single Steadicam, took two days to complete on February 11 and 12, with an estimated 60 takes for the machine to properly function. The first day of filming included 47 takes, none of which successfully completed the entire machine and necessitated a second day of filming. Many of the takes ended only 30 seconds into the process, at the start of the song's chorus, where a tire would fail to roll properly into the next section of the machine. Syyn Labs had a group of 30 people to help reset the machine after each failed take, a process that took upwards of an hour depending on how far the machine ran. There were no significant injuries during filming; Tim Nordwind once was hit hard with paint at the end, while the Steadicam operator nearly got hit with one of the barrels at the end of the mechanism in the shot used for the final video. His reaction may be seen in the released version of the video.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Too_Shall_Pass_(OK_Go_song)#cite_note-wired_video-8

How To Destroy Angels - The Space in Between

This is the album and video version of ‘The Space In Between’. After opening with a looped drumbeat, ambient and delayed guitars enter, followed by a deep synth strings bassline and  Mariqueen Maandig's softly-sung verse. The chorus features more guitars layered on top of the differing bassline and harmonized vocals, followed by a second verse characterized by echoing Swarmatron manipulations. Even more guitars enter for the final chorus, which builds its harmonies as it repeats twice, matching the building layers of guitars. The entirety of the song cuts off suddenly at the end of the second chorus repetition.
The video, directed by Rupert Sanders (who is primarily known for creating video game advertisements) is set in a hotel room, and opens to the corridor outside. It cuts to a shot of an ajar door, and of an over-running sink, to show that something surprised the room. Once the vocals come in, we are given a shot of a recently-murdered (albeit singing) Bride (Maandig) sitting against a bed, surrounded with blood. Following close up shots show that a struggle had occurred, and show a long-burning candle near a stack of papers and a shot of another, unmoving, dead body; that of the Groom (Reznor) in a pool of his own blood.  We are then shown a woman (Molly McDowell) speaking on the phone, and a man (Atticus Ross) watching motorbike racing on the hotel's television. The pair are totally oblivious to the scene beside them despite the carnage. The video shows the weapons beside both the Bride and the Groom (a glass and knife respectively), to convey to the viewer that they killed each other. The video cuts to show that the candle has ignited the stack of papers, and gives us the close up of the murdered man's face.
The remainder of the video shows the spread of the fire engulfing the corpses and their half of the room, and the apparent nonchalance of the supposed murderers. The video also reveals that there is apparently another man in the bathroom, but only his feet and hands are ever seen. The video cuts out abruptly as the Bride and Groom are totally consumed by the fire.  Director Rupert Sanders has said that this video is a metaphor for how neglect can allow love to die, symbolised by the self destruction of the married couple, totally ignored by the pair opposite. The video can also be seen as a partial rebuke towards much of the negative response that Maandig and Reznor received after their engagement was made public, a reminder that everyone is human and that everyone can be hurt.  From: https://www.nin.wiki/The_Space_In_Between

Motus Tenebrae - Deathrising

While this may be my first experience of Italian doomsters Motus Tenebrae, they’ve been together since 2001, a miserabilist five piece that have released an impressive four full length albums prior to this slab of grief. Look, before we get down to the review proper, there’s something we have to talk about. This may save you some time. Your enjoyment of this album is going to be directly proportionate to the extent to which you enjoy Paradise Lost. While it is true to say that there are a plethora of different influences to be heard on this album, anyone with even a passing knowledge of the more downbeat corners of our beloved heavy metal will prick up their ears on hearing the music, perhaps with a slightly upturned Spock-ian eyebrow raise. You see, it’s entirely fair to say that “Deathrising” passes more than a fleeting resemblance to the sonic mastery of Paradise Lost circa “In Requiem”. It wouldn’t be fair to say that they are an exact copy, though certainly to my ears, there are enough parallels to make this more than accidental. Take, for instance, the vocal phrasing of vocalist Luis McFadden on (admittedly excellent) track “Black Sun”. Having been a fan of Nick Holmes for his entire career, the singing is almost an exact simulacra of his pipes. Given that I’ll listen to pretty much anyone with the slightest audio resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne-era Sabbath, I can’t claim that this gave me any cause for concern.
Elsewhere, this is thoroughly meaty, full-fat excursion into the depths of misery. Listening to the album in a single, concentrated sitting with no distractions it’s possible to hear a refinement of the modern, polished be-doomed metal. In particular, the bottom-end grunt of Andreas Das-Cox (bass) and the drums of Andrea Falaschi (drums) underpin the tracks really effectively. On third track, and all-round-stormer “For a Change”, it’s great to hear the band loosen up a little and up the tempo.
Title-track “Death Rising” exemplifies the album’s approach. It begins with a gnarled, appropriately grim guitar tone, before opening up with delicate, minor-key melodies and guitar touches, and an almost-dream like wash of keyboard news. Long-time readers may recall that in general I approach the presence of keyboards in my heavy metal like I approach the presence of Jeremy Clarkson on my tellybox; I know that they appear to be popular, but I just find them irritating. Harvey Cova manages to do a cracking job on the keyboards here, mostly, I think, by being sympathetic to the rest of the music and not drowning everything else out. It’s a mark of the musician that he has been relatively subtle throughout the album in how the keyboard has been deployed.
The production has that modern punch and sheen that we have come to take for granted, though pleasingly, the guitars have had their grit and attack well preserved. Through a decent pair of headphones the whole thing sounds like it has been given a really expensive production, easily sitting shoulder to shoulder with anything produced by the “big name” producers, though as a minor gripe, I would have liked to have heard the guitar melodies pushed slightly louder in the mix, as occasionally I felt they were drowned out by the bottom end. There’s a lot to enjoy here, and while the Paradise Lost comparisons are too close for comfort at times, they wouldn’t be the first, nor indeed the last band to do a decent job of producing something that they can claim as their own while using that mighty outfit’s blueprint – it certainly hasn’t done any harm for Gothic-era boredom-inducers Katatonia, for instance.  All in, I found myself agreeing that “Deathrising” had done enough to satisfy the “would listen again” test by some margin. An accomplished, if not entirely original, treat.  From: https://avenoctum.com/2016/01/19/motus-tenebrae-deathrising-my-kingdom/