Deerhoof - Juan's Basement 2008

 

So Deerhoof, crazy band, right? Lots of weird tics, art-school tropes, music theory indulgences-- and yet the San Francisco quartet has steadily veered closer to accessibility the past of couple years. Not that any of their albums ever logically followed each other, but in three years they've managed to custom fit Satomi Matsuzaki's screwy vocals with honest-to-god melodies (Milk Man), consistently tug at heartstrings with those melodies (The Runners Four), and then wrap that package into slick, replicable three-minute pop structures (Friend Opportunity). What more can you ask for from a rock band?
Well, how about bigger guitars? With newly added guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Ed Rodriguez on board, the band recaptures the dual guitar interplay of previous albums and then some. I'm not talking about namby-pamby prog fiddling, either; there's legit Pete Townshend-style windmilling here, from the "Rockin' Me" bite on opener "The Tears and Music of Love" to the Chuck Berry seventh chords that propel the "Fresh Born" verses. Inevitably, Satomi gets intertwined in all this, yet never lost. There's still a melodic quality to Maggie, and it can still sound pretty and coherent at times, but the album's heartbeat is six-stringed and often distorted. Don't worry though, Deerhoof haven't pulled the plug on their pop tangent. They're just folding their canon on itself, taking the songwriting tricks they've learned during the last handful of albums and applying them to a raw rock aesthetic somewhere between Reveille and Apple O'.
Deerhoof's never fully taken the plunge into electronics, but Maggie's trace amounts of techno-lalia are egregious. The album's all fretboard, no circuit board, and it feels most comfortable that way. Removed from the grid, the band's music follows a much more organic path, and it's interesting to note how seemingly scattershot bleeps and bloops on prior releases actually kept the songs relatively grounded. The album's second half best demonstrates this, its song structures vine-like, twisting and turning rather than firing off/on like a transistor. The dual guitar lines sneak up on each other in "Numina O" and closer "Jagged Fruit", and even if listeners have no clue what's coming next, they never get the feeling they're about to get sucker-punched.
Satomi follows suit, projecting a very biological and terrestrial sound. Past allusions to time travel, robots, and outer space are replaced with themes of the flesh as Maggie covers "The Tears and Music of Love", "Family of Others", "Fresh Born", and even basketball. Also, while Satomi's voice hasn't deepened any, she certainly sounds less like a hyperglycemic/hyperactive little girl and more sage. Her vocal phrases are at their longest and most reserved here, patiently straddling the lead guitar of "Chandelier Searchlight" or Middle Eastern tumble of "Buck and Judy" for several measures before delivering a payoff hook. And though she often sings lockstep with Rodriguez and Dieterich, it's not the same hand-holding as Reveille-era Deerhoof. Satomi may sing in unison with the guitars, but she also shows the ability to establish mood. Her opening line, "Tell me about your purple past," on "My Purple Past" is at once both curious pillow talk and hard-boiled interrogation, and the song's coy chorus only leaves you feeling less at ease.
Despite these adjustments, Maggie is hardly a new animal within the Deerhoof canon. It's got all sorts of earmarks, from the token Greg Saunier Beach Boys homage "Family of Others" to the irritating hopscotch cadence of "Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back", this album's Shaggs-like "Kidz Are So Small" or "Dog on the Sidewalk". And even with all its perfectly nailed mid-tempo ballads, which filled the gooey center of the past two 'hoof releases, Maggie balks at the chance to make your knees go wobbly, keeping its allure strictly intellectual and technical rather than hot-blooded. That ethos isn't going to win a lot of hugs and kisses from fans or non-fans, but Maggie never asks for more than a firm, professional handshake, the kind of appreciation it more than deserves.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12310-offend-maggie/

 

The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Amara Tanta Tyri (full abum)

 The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Amara Tanta Tyri - Part 1

 

 The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Amara Tanta Tyri - Part 2

 

The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud was an Austrian musical duo composed of Albin Julius and Alzbeth. Their music reflected their deep fascination with myriad aspects of European medievalism including ritual, clerical chants and the daily experience of the peasantry. Their music combined modern electronics, tape loops and samplers with medieval instruments such as hurdy-gurdy, shawm, and Hexenscheit. Alzbeth was the primary vocalist for the group and often sang traditional songs in numerous archaic languages including Middle High German, Latin and Old French. Julius provided distorted and backup vocals.
When performing live, the band often played in old churches, fortresses, medieval prisons and theatres that provided an appropriate atmosphere for their static, militaristic performances. Early on, the band provided no official photographs or any more information outside of a Swiss mailing address found inside of the albums. The band rarely appeared live or granted interviews. No songs were ever given official titles. After their split, both of the duo were considerably more vocal and promotional images were released.
With each subsequent release the band presented themes traveling further into European history and becoming more martial, choral and bombastic in approach, culminating in their final album; the largely World War II-inspired The Smell of Blood but Victory (1997). In 1998, the duo, also a couple, parted ways and recorded no new material. All of the group's music was released on their own Arthur's Round Table record label and distributed by World Serpent Distribution.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Lay_Hidden_Beneath_a_Cloud

The medieval runs deep within the sounds of this excellent group, whom originates from middle Europe. The essence of authenticity is undeniably strong, an impeccably accurate fusion of modern electronic and traditional music themes. Quite appropriately, the title of this project can also be applied to the people behind it... those whom bring us this mag-ickal music, whom have also been hidden by a mysterious cloud. They stepped out par-tially to let us know more and we are very pleased to present this rаrе interview which was loaded by Wren, amended by Tyler and polished by myself...
Please momentarily lift the cloud which hides the moon so to give your entranced listeners a however brief glimpse (or a complete divulgence of) whom the enigmatic creators of this medieval opus are. Does anonymity present freedom?

We, Alzbeth and Albin Julius founded The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud in 1992. Since then we have released 6 CDs - on some of them we have been supported by friends like Lina Baby Doll (Deutsch Nepal, with him we also recorded a MCD), David Gibson, or Alan Trench. Of course anonymity presents a certain freedom, but for us naming our personages is not that important as we rather see the importance of the music itself rather than who stands behind it.

There are obvious strong semblances and deeply intriguing sense of spirituality when meditating on these arcane, euphonic, yet haunting incantations. What are the main sources of cultural mythologies, spiritual creeds, or рagaп beliefs which you most naturally relate with or which compellingly inspire thee?

We don't declare ourselves to anything but the strength of the individual. Personally we don't feel any need in running after a certain confession or ideology. We're against each form of religious oppression and conversion. As the Christian and Islamic churches were some of the most oppressive institutions in European history it's only a logical consequence that we're against them.
Nevertheless we're against all monotheistic and totalitarian confessions and religion itself. Rituals, grown from nature, are much more earthbound, realistic and native, not artificial and forced as with monotheistic religions. We have big interests in pre-christian European myths, but rather from a cultural point of view than from the religious side.

As I understand the whole of the medieval era to be a grim yet behoven time of de-spiritualization through the ascension of humanities' to be "unlimited" torsioned power over the оncе revered earth. What is the prioritized significant aspect of this period which TMLMBAC conveys when conjuring these authentic soundtracks to this chronological theme? Is there an allegorical message to promote spiritual awakening (or even social political awareness) through using the middle ages as a predominant basis for your music?

We're both occupied with all aspects of medieval life - music, literature but also with the circumstances of life of the normal people, but we don't see it as a predominant base for our music. We agree with you that in the middle ages the spiritual honour against earth turned (very slowly and over centuries) into, as you said, "torsioned power" over earth. But this was mostly propagandised by the Church, that turned the natural grown respect of the people for Nature into the subject of mankind, Nature had to serve us. This increased during the last Century, when we developed the skills to rape the Earth.

TMLHBAC powerfully conveys presence at the ritualistic site through the musical construction of individual tracks such as "The Plague Procession', "The Witches Begirt The Cauldron" and so forth. To what extent have you musically studied or trained to successfully grasp the theory of medieval composition? Are there non-electronically performed instruments used? Please give us an idea of your general musical background.

We use electronic equipment (such as sampler, tape loops and effect processors) as well as acoustic and also medieval instruments, such as shawm, hurdy gurdy, rebec, recorder, dulcimer and percussion. We like a lot of different styles of music - industrial definitely is something we're into, but also a lot of classic, medieval and Alzbeth, our singer, is also into Metal.

War is a dominant force which is a foundation for the inevitable. Certain excerpts or songs appeor as militaristic marching recitals invoking glorious visions. To the victory of whom or what are you exalting in this case?

There's no victory.

The transparent banality of socially conditioned human relations are never really challenged or questioned. Suppositive intimate relationships revolve around meek insecurities and restrictive emotions. Friendships revolve around mundane obligatory greetings and material interactions. In your experiences, how were such falsehoods of community remedied? What is уour reflection of the frivolous love that today's society has smothered itself within?

Each person has to make his own decision how to cultivate his social relations. You can't always make the society responsible for everything, be awake!

As industrial music seems to be the relative backbone of a portion of your material, what is your connection to thew apocalyptic reality of decaying machinery that shapes, almost biomechanically, many of our declining cities?

If it was decaying it would be inspiring. But as there's the tendency to erase everything decaying and invest into new stuff there's no more freedom to decay, no more "romantic, melancholic grief". We're more touched by the melancholic, morbid side of decay, what we find here all over Wien.

You have recently worked with other artists, among these Deutsch Nepal. The outstanding results on both ends made me wish to inquire further about this collaboration. Perhaps an elaboration?

We already worked on some songs together with Deutsch Nepal which we plan to release as MCD, that will fulfill the first issue. There are also some other plans that are not to be mentioned yet.

Is it fairest stated that you honour not only the bulk of the physical with regards to resolution? Also your opinion on the benefits/misfortunes of superstition?

This is only for weak people.

Lastly, do you consider your work cyclical, continuing to develop from and beyond the initial recordings? What does the current phase of past/present/future hold in regards to you and TMLHBAC?

Of course our personal phases do influence our musical work, but also we can't really foretell what will come in the future. Of course we hope that our work develops, there's nothing as boring as repeating yourselves.

From: https://drugie.here.ru/achtung/mlhdesc.htm

 

Southern Avenue - Don't Give Up

If Southern Avenue were a superhero group, like the Avengers, my origin story would be the wildest one. I’ve been playing guitar for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Tel Aviv, listening to my dad’s blues records like Chess, Verve, Alligator, Stax, ZZ Top and all I ever wanted to do was play like the guys on those albums. When I was 8, my dad found me a guitar teacher turned into mentor, a Black American musician out of Birmingham, AL who had played with Tina Turner and James Brown. He became my mentor for 10 years. Every week, he taught me how to play the blues, how to play jazz, and most importantly, how to respect the music and where it came from. He was a sign of what was ahead, even if I couldn’t see it then
Fast forward to 2012. I was touring Europe with my own band, and my lead singer at the time was my "high school sweetheart". I heard about a competition that could get us to Memphis - the home of the blues! We won the first leg of the contest, flew to Memphis, and made it to the semi-finals. From there, I managed to book a full U.S. tour. For two years, we hit the road together. Me, my girlfriend, and the band. Along the way, early on, I met a guy who treated me like family. He became our “manager” and helped us book gigs. Everything felt like it was moving forward. We all shared a house together and just had a great time. Felt like I am living the dream.
Then one night, she told me the truth. They had been sleeping together. They were in love. I was crushed. I was now alone. I went outside, laid down on the front lawn, looked up at the sky, and asked God, why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? Please… show me this is leading somewhere. Imagine being forced to play shows every night with your ex and your ex-best friend, knowing what happened. It was like out of a movie. I had nowhere to go. I was living in our van, bouncing between Walmart parking lots around Memphis. I felt like I was buried. I needed to be bring myself back to life. So I did the only thing I knew how to do… I worked. I wrote Don’t Give Up for myself and used it as a mantra.
Then I asked someone who’s the best singer in Memphis that also writes? They said, “Tierinii Jackson.” I saw a video of her and instantly felt like I was looking at a queen. Not just someone who could save my career, but someone who could be the creative partner I had always dreamed of working with. When she told me her sister TK played drums, I said, Bring her in! Then I saw TK play. She was 19 and already playing with more fire and soul than most drummers twice her age. I knew this was something rare.
The few months we toured together - still under my name - were healing. Every day felt lighter. I started to feel joy again. I remember dropping them off at home after tour and heading back to sleep in my van at Walmart. But I wasn’t broken anymore. I felt alive. I felt like God had answered my prayer. That’s why I didn’t give up. That’s why I had to go through all that pain. Little did I know that in just a few years the Jackson sisters will become my entire universe.
Southern Avenue was born when the three of us realized we had something real. We trusted each other. We shared values. We made each other better. It starts with Long Is the Road, which is my story. Then Upside brings in Tierinii’s voice, telling me to leave the pain behind and keep looking up. Found a Friend In You is about how we met and found real, honest friendship. So Much Love captures how we felt during that time - full of hope, healing, and joy. If I hadn’t been cheated on, lied to, and left with nothing, Southern Avenue wouldn’t exist. Our paths never would’ve crossed. God works in mysterious ways. But we trust those ways. We stick together. This album is special because it’s the truth. These songs are our real stories. And I thank you for tuning in. -Ori Naftaly.  From: https://www.southernavenuemusic.com/post/the-story-behind-long-is-the-road

My Little White Rabbit - Secret

In this winter season where the sky is dark and the mood is gloomy, some psychedelic and colorful tunes are much needed… And so as soon as I saw the news of Wucan announcing a gig at Hamburg’s intimate venue Logo, I was beyond excited. This show was quite special for certain reasons. Firstly, the show was officially the last concert of 2019 for me, which will have a special place in my heart. Secondly, not only the headliners Wucan were announced but they brought two other amazing acts, My Little White Rabbit and Motorowl. So this gig was a perfect opportunity to get heavy and colorful!
My Little White Rabbit is not a foreign name to me as I already experienced their magical performance last year for the first time– surprisingly also around autumn/winter, when they opened for Lucifer. These Hamburg-based rockers make an interesting mix of psychedelia, blues rock and 60s pop. Their newest release “Bullets & Poor Hearts” was released this year and so it was time to celebrate and get lost in the beautiful tunes!
There was a bit of everything that MLWR offered for the chill Hamburg audience; the ‘rock’ sound with songs like “Neckbreaking Ride” and “Bullets” but also the ‘soft and mellow’ approach as in during “Poor Hearts”. As a matter of fact, this nice harmony of both aspects of their live show was what made them different than the other two acts of the night. This is indeed their interpretation of this style and there were many perfect moments – from the keyboards to the frontwoman Rike’s vocals – for everyone to just lose themselves to the music and enjoy the organic and sincere tunes. Overall, MLWR was the perfect opener for this night. Personally, I could also feel and see that the band gets better with each performance and it will surely be a delight to watch them live in the future and listen to the tunes they will deliver!  From: https://tempelores.com/?p=31878

Type O Negative - The Dream Is Dead

In 1996, metal was in an interesting and not very promising position. Metallica by this point were in the beginning stages of their much maligned Load (1996)/ReLoad (1997) era, which saw them become more rock and less thrash. Grunge had been the vogue form of rock for the last couple of years that ended with Kurt Cobain’s exiting of the mortal coil in 1994. R&B and hip-hop were slowly becoming the next musical zeitgeist. Alt-rock also rose to prominence with the rise of successful young punk adjacent bands like Green Day, Blink-182 and The Offspring. If you wanted the heavy stuff, you still had to tape trade and follow zines. Black metal was well into a second wave, the golden age of death metal would see a last great album in the form of None So Vile (1996) before the genre would hibernate for roughly a decade and nu metal was quickly rising to the forefront with bands like Korn and Rage Against the Machine leading the charge. Yet, there was still a strong fanbase for a genre that began earlier in the decade that still held a sizable following: gothic metal.
The earliest traces of the gothic metal sound could be linked back to the forefathers of doom: namely Candlemass, Trouble, and Saint Vitus. Doom would continue to evolve into the early part of the 90’s with albums such as Paradise Lost’s seminal Gothic (1991) being seen as the true launch point for bands like Theatre of Tragedy, The Gathering, Katatonia, and countless others, but while most of those European bands focused on more of a theatrical and grandiose form of gothic doom, a band right across the pond, in the Big Apple, would begin to infect the subgenre with their Halloween-esque image and melting pot of influences. That band was Type O Negative. To understand the unique position that this band was in at the time, you must dig into the past just a little bit. While we know the Drab Four for their popular MTV hits, their origins are much more sinister and heart wrenching as you’d expect.
No matter how you spin the story, the Type O Negative saga begins and ends with Petrus Thomas Ratajczyk, who would come to be known the world over as Peter Steele. The Red Hook, Brooklyn native began small with childhood band Fallout, which included his friend from youth: Josh Silver. The group recorded a two track single before breaking up soon after. A few years would pass by in which time Steele would form Carnivore. Compared to most other crossover thrash bands at the time, Carnivore’s self-titled (1985) debut eschewed politics and teenage beer runs in favor of barbaric lyrics involving “fighting, feasting, fucking…” in nearly every track. The S/T was and remains a controversial piece of underground metal and the ante was upped even more on 1987’s Retaliation, which saw such family friendly titles as Race War, Jesus Hitler, and S.M.D (Suck My Dick). By this time, Steele had begun to see that playing apocalyptic NY crossover wasn’t satiating his musical appetite. The artistic direction that Steele sought was then kamikazed by an event that is still semi shrouded in mystery but would alter his life and the lives of untold millions.
Shortly after Carnivore’s disbandment, Peter Steele would experience one of the worst things anyone can be acquainted with: his significant other cheated on him. Filled with self-hate and an unquenchable rage, he said, “October 15, 1989, I slashed my wrists. All I can say is that I fell in love with the wrong person.” This extreme response would lead to Steele contacting his old Fallout bandmate Silver, to form a new band called Repulsion with guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Sal Abruscato with Steele himself again handling bass and vocal duties and Silver on the ebony and ivory. The group hastily recorded a demo entitled None More Negative that would eventually attract the attention of Carnivore’s former label: Roadrunner. At the time, the band wished to re-record all the material from the demo to which Roadrunner responded with a resounding no. During this time as well, the band had to change their name due to it already being taken by the Flint, Michigan grindcore band. They would change the name to Subzero shortly after with the band members also getting matching tattoos with a circle and minus sign. Frustration would strike again when the group discovered that Subzero had also been taken by a local band. Steele, understandably frustrated, tried to think of something that would link the tattoos with the band’s image as doom mongers gone hardcore. Lo and behold the prophetic Red Cross radio advert asking for type o negative blood donations that day. Thus, Type O Negative were born.  From: https://www.heaviestofart.com/post/type-o-negative-october-rust-retrospective  

Mellow Candle - Sheep Season

Mellow Candle were a band that started in 1963 in Dublin, Ireland. In their time they managed to press two singles and release Swaddling Songs, which is still highly regarded among fans and collectors of psychedelic folk. Album was released by Deram in 1972. Swaddling Songs is an extremely well crafted progressive folk rock album with beautiful female vocal duets.

Mellow Candle began at Dublin’s Holy Child Convent school in 1963 with three very young girls – Clodagh Simonds, Alison Bools (later O’Donnell) and Maria White. They were singing some cover songs and were influenced by another Irish schoolgirl trio called Maxi, Dick & Twink. Before adopting the name “Mellow Candle” they were called “The Gatecrashers.” 

Who were some major influences?

Clodagh: Before meeting David – Omar Khayaam, Phil Spector, Dylan, the Beatles, T Rex, Paul Simon – that would have all been schooldays. Later, Dave brought a whole raft of other influences…..the most enduring of which – for me, anyway – were probably The Incredible String Band and Joni Mitchell.

Alison: Helen Shapiro, The Incredible String Band.

Did you play many gigs? What were some of the venues you played? Who were some of the artists you appeared with?

Clodagh: We didn’t actually play out all that much. Our manager, Ted Carroll, tried in vain to get us to firm up our live experience and our fanbase in Ireland before heading off to London, but here weren’t many venues in Ireland at the time which would have been available to us – Ireland then was still dominated by showbands and dance halls. Our very first gig was at Liberty Hall, Donal Lunny booked us to open for the Chieftains on St. Patrick's Day. They weren’t big stars then – they were all still working at their day jobs – and had a small but intense, mostly middle-aged or elderly, following. Who hated us – I remember clearly some old biddy literally trying to hit me with her handbag when we came off. We had a residency for a while at Slattery’s on Capel Street, again thanks to Donal. We played the Wexford Festival, and got noticed there by John Peel – we played the first Ballyvaughan festival in Clare, and we played the National Stadium a couple of times, opening for the likes of Thin Lizzy and Steeleye Span. We opened for Donovan at the RDS once. But any other gigs were pretty small and local, civic parks, tennis clubs, and so on – and I think in retrospect Ted was right, we were fairly wet behind the ears when we arrived in Kilburn in 1971. We hardly played at all in England, just a handful of gigs – I think we played at some kind of festival where Genesis were headlining, and somewhere along the line we shared a billing with Lindisfarne – but were rather harshly criticized by agents Ted had invited along. And he had his hands very full with Thin Lizzy, the other band which he managed – so the whole Let’s Move To London thing went a bit squiffy really.

Alison: We didn’t play as many gigs as we would have liked due to the fact that it was difficult to place a band that was both folky and rocky. Some of the Dublin venues we played were Liberty Hall, The Mansion House, The National Stadium, The RDS, Slatterys and The Marquee in London. We appeared with Alan Price & Georgie Fame, Donovan, Arthur Brown, Genesis, Thin Lizzy, Steeleye Span, to name a few.

What was the writing and arranging process within the band? Did anyone else in the band write?

Clodagh: In the schoolgirl version of the band, I was doing all the writing and we’d work out the harmonies together. But when Mellow Candle Mk II started, Dave was a big influence, he was older than us, and very much more experienced – he was a big fan of Yes and Zappa, amongst others – and Pat the bass player was a huge Jethro Tull fan – so we’d work out quite complex arrangements together for the backing, and also for the vocals. Alison began writing then, and Willy did some lyrics, so there were four of us writing – we co-wrote Sheep Season, which I think in retrospect was one of our best songs.

Alison: Clodagh Simonds, Dave Williams and occasionally William Murray all wrote within the band so the songs were quite varied with four of us in the writing process.

Swaddling Songs was released by Deram (Decca’s imprint) with David Hitchcock taking care of production. The album was recorded in a very short space of time in December of 1971. Alison recalls: “The sessions were full on and lengthy but thoroughly consuming and enjoyable. I was delighted with the finished product. I felt it was extremely creative.” What can you say about single “Feeling High” / “Tea with the Sun” (1968), released by SNB Records? Did it garner much airplay or chart in any markets?

Clodagh: Being completely clueless about the music industry, I had decided (at the ripe old age of 14) that the way to go was to send a demo tape to a Radio Luxembourg DJ. So I borrowed a reel to reel tape recorder and one afternoon, myself, Alison and Maria recorded about six or seven songs, and I sent it off to Colin Nicol. Several weeks later, he got back to me and said that he could get us a contract with SNB, which was a subsidiary of CBS. A certain amount of negotiation took place between him, and the parents – he came over to Ireland in order to convince them he wasn’t a child molester or a conman – and off we went. It was an amazing experience recording it – seeing London, being taken to Carnaby Street! Walking into the studio and hearing a big grownup orchestra play my funny little songs was a pretty unforgettable experience too. But the highlight, for me, was bumping into Marc Bolan coming out of a lift at Trident Studios. I was utterly gobsmacked – I was a huge T Rex fan. The single got very little airplay, and only on Radio Luxembourg as far as I know – but that didn’t stop the three of us staying up practically all night, for weeks, waiting to see if it would be played.

Alison: We were very young girls when we recorded Feeling High/Tea with the Sun for SNB. It was a surreal experience to go to London and record with an orchestra and Cliff Richard’s backing singers, who were also on ‘Alfie’ by Cilla Black, arranged and recorded with Burt Bacharach. I watched a clip of that on YouTube a while back and was blown away by how good they all were. The single got a bit of airplay to begin with. I got very excited when it played in the early hours of the morning on Radio Luxembourg. I didn’t get much sleep hoping it would come on the radio just after it was released. It was difficult to get me out of bed in the mornings and I always had to run up hills to get to the train for school. I often missed it and spent the time waiting for the next one calming down my aching lungs.

What can you tell us about cover artwork?

Clodagh: It was a take-off of W Heath Robinson – I remember going to see it when it was still being completed, we all liked it a lot. I was never too sure about the goofy sleeve notes though, I think Willy wrote them.

Alison: Unusual black and white cover by David Anstey, who worked mainly for Decca Records.

Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?

Alison: I think the songs should speak for themselves. “Boulders on My Grave” has some Irish style lilting in it although we didn’t know what lilting was back then. There’s a whole competition for it in the Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland. “Reverend Sisters” is widely recognised as a reference to our convent school upbringing and I mentioned something about “Messenger Birds” earlier. A lot of my work has religious references, i.e. Heaven Heath, something I am still doing in recent songwriting. It’s difficult to get away from the Catholic influence.

To what do you attribute the album continuing to be held in such high esteem among music collectors?

Alison: Swaddling Songs is a niche cult classic and held in high regard amongst musicians and listeners as well as collectors. It has been an influence on a number of musicians working in the late 80s, 90s and onwards. It is completely original and has cross-genre appeal in a rather offside way.

How did you see the acid psych folk scene back in the late ’60s, early ’70s? What were some other bands, that you would like to mention? Any band, that perhaps didn’t make a record, but were extremely good?

Clodagh: I was completely unaware of that scene before David came along. Nobody thought of it as “psych folk” back then – there were just some acts which were a bit more folksy, and some which were a bit more prog rock, and some that were neither quite one nor the other (like us!). I resonated more strongly with the folksy ones, like the String Band, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Laura Nyro. It was a huge honour to be asked to play and sing with Thin Lizzy – that was my first ever session. Phil was a bit of a God in Ireland in those days. Willy was into some pretty cool alternative music – he’d been with the Canterbury set – Kevin Ayers, Mike Oldfield – for whom I did my next lot of sessions, but that wouldn’t have been folk, really. And yes, there is one person who really stands out who seems to have been totally forgotten, and knocked me out – Michael Hurley, whose album Armchair Boogie, Ted Carroll introduced us to – to this day his song “The Werewolf” is the only song I can play on guitar. And it remains one of those “I Wish I’d Written That…” songs, for me. He was something else, he was his own man – completely outside of fashion. And brilliant.

Alison: Sometimes there were music jams that had they developed into a proper band, they might have made some great records. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, a lot of musicians hung out and improvised together, including the trad music players. It was an extremely fertile and creative time with far too many excellent groups to mention. We had the same manager, Ted Carroll, as Thin Lizzy whom we admired for many reasons, not least because Phil Lynott was exceptionally cool. There were quite a few superb Irish bands around at the time and we had a lot of respect for each other. Then when we got to England, we found there was a great music scene going on there. We never got to the U.S. which was a pity.

Would you discuss some of your most memorable moments in Mellow Candle and what made them so?

Clodagh: The whole MC journey was so vivid, and there were so many rites of passage. The exhilaration of going to London and making the first single – the sense that your dreams could actually come true. The rather forlorn period where I thought I was going to go solo – the realization that I just had to accept whatever landed on my plate, adjust, and keep moving. The exhilaration of returning to Ireland and David forming MC Mk II – the enormous excitement of working with electric instruments, roadies, PA systems and so on. The wobbly feeling when the first bass player, Pat, left, and the gnawing suspicion that “being in a band together” might not be all that simple after all. The sense of camaraderie when we first arrived in London, with a new bass player, Frank – and shared a house. The anxiety that followed the news that Ted Carroll wasn’t going to be managing us any more. The disbelief and massive anxiety that came with the revelation that all our money (such as it was) had been handed over by our new manager to a con man who claimed to have been organizing a tour of Holland – this, at a time when things were already looking challenging for us, to say the least. The return of the wobbly feeling when Frank said he was leaving because we weren’t doing enough drugs. The even more wobbly feeling when Steve, the new bass player, started saying he wasn’t too happy, and then Willy joining in the chorus. And then the horrible sense of inevitability when the band broke up and we went our separate ways. Many moments of joy and exhilaration, and just as many of anxiety…. it wasn’t an easy ride, to be honest, but it was full of important learning curves!

Alison: Because I was young, the entire period of the existence of Mellow Candle was memorable. Going to London for the first time, rehearsing whole days cut off from the rest of the world, living with the other members of the band (I remember that house and garden in Mill Hill so well – No. 1, Sunnyfield), traveling and hanging out with other musicians, the album and so much more. To this day I have a good relationship with our decent, music loving manager Ted Carroll.

Would you mind answering question about psychoactive substances? Did in your opinion psychoactive or hallucinogenic drugs played a large role in the songwriting, recording or performance processes?

Clodagh: The reason Pat, the first bass player, left was because he felt we were smoking too much dope. The reason Frank left was because he felt we weren’t dropping enough acid. So I suppose drugs played a part in that sense…. but we could see people around us getting really fucked up, and none of us really wanted to go there…. we were relatively tame, fun-loving hippies.

Alison: Mind altering substances and spiritual influences played an auxiliary part but hard work was our driving force and creative fulfillment our main focus.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2016/03/mellow-candle-interview-with-clodag.html

Glass Skies - Light Rays

Glass Skies are a psychedelic rock band who write tunes about the good times and feeling good. Since beginning in late 2012, Glass Skies have played local shows with: Pond, The Datsuns, Brant Bjork, Everclear, The Delta Riggs, Kingswood and Deep Sea Arcade. Now they've been announced as the support act for Regurgitator's Adelaide show... sweet. The band also have a fascination with documentaries, and which musicians they think would make great narrators. “As much as we’d like David Attenborough to live forever, we are going to need new blood.”

1. John McCrea (Cake)
A documentary on how the human race is destroying the environment. John’s lyrics are usually about his ill feelings towards the human race, so this could be the next logical step. He could be the next Attenborough as he has an interestingly calming, yet serious voice. If our band blew up this would be one of the first passion projects off the rank.

2. Max Cavalera (Soulfly/ Sepultura)
A documentary about fire ants using his brutal singing style. Fire ants defeating another colony would be a great start as it involves his favourite topics: uprising and war. He could continue to release his rage through film well into his old age without ever having to tour.

3. Snoop Dogg
A documentary based on Yellowstone National Park. Narration on the trippy sky, the animal’s use of camouflage and their mating rituals. Constantly comparing all things to getting high, the hood, 'being gangsta' and his love of the ladies.

4. Marilyn Manson
A documentary on gun culture in America. He is a really smart, funny and insightful guy who has already done a lot of research on the topic. It’s a no-brainer.

5. Ghostface Killah (Wu-Tang)
A gangster-based children’s documentary series about the animal kingdom similar to ‘Totally Wild’ or ‘The Most Extreme’. Constantly getting blazed and interacting with the animals, telling the female zookeepers how ‘fly’ they are and then finishing with a segment at the end of each show where he raps about all the animals he has met.

From: https://scenestr.com.au/music/5-musicians-we-d-like-to-see-narrate-documentaries-with-glass-skies