Some frankly remarkable music this week from Oxford and Leamington
Spa in the UK, New York and Detroit in the USA, Montpellier and
Rodez in France, Stockholm in Sweden
I had to go over to the former Bentwaters USAF airbase near
Woodbridge this afternoon. It has been a grey cold day after the 2
minute silence this morning on Armistice Day (Veteran's Day in
USA). The base was active during a whole series of "real" wars
until it closed 15 years ago after the mercifully non-violent Cold
War.
It is easy to loose sight of the fact that the soldiers and airmen
at that base may all have looked alike but they were each
individuals with their own families, hopes and fears, doing a job
that they had no say in after joining up.
Bentwaters is a pretty bleak spot at the best of times but I caught
sight of this wall near the former aircraft refueling facility. The
writing on the wall reads " POW [Prisoners of War] MIA [Missing in
Action] "You are not forgotten". Indeed not.
Darling Dear - Little Fish
(Oxford, UK)
I played Little Fish ages ago on SnC 117 back in May of last year
(2008). Now everyone seems to be playing them, which is thoroughly
good news, and they seem to be breaking into the USA.
Once in a very long while a band
comes along with a sound that is more than just music; it is raw
seductive impulse revealed through mesmerising vocals, raucous
guitars and driving drums; this band is Little Fish. Hailing
from Oxford, England, Little Fish is comprised of
vocalist/guitarist/principal songwriter JuJu, a rail-thin force of
nature (think Patti Smith meets PJ Harvey meets Chrissie Hynde),
and drummer Nez, the propulsive undercurrent of the band, backed by
a Hammond player in their live performance. Little Fish's
sound is at once sensual and urgent, yet intimate and haunting.
Recently signed to Linda Perry's Custard label via Universal Motown
Records, Little Fish's debut album BAFFLED AND BEAT is set for an
early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself,
in her Los Angeles studio.
www.myspace.com/littlefishmusic
Harry - Marc Farre (Piermont,
NY, USA)
Indie artist Marc Farre delivers
cinematic pop/rock songs shot through with a raw, poetic energy.
His voice is deep, intimate, intense. (Critics have called it
"mesmerizing.") Equal parts open-hearted and hallucinatory, his
music pulls you in like an art-house film.
Though he is based in New York, Marc Farre’s French background
imbues his music with a European, art-house feel — a seductive
ambiance perfectly paired with his driving rhythms, otherworldly
lyrics and magnetic melodies.
While his past association with 20th-century giants Merce
Cunningham (whose dance company he managed during the 1980s) and
John Cage continues to drive Farre's creative vision toward the
new, it is his visceral, open-hearted singing that really carries
you out onto a tightrope — and leaves you there.
After a label contract, he went on to release his recordings
on his own All Weather label, starting with
Unsafe songs in 1998 and
Man on the Sun in 2000. His third
full-length CD,
Secret
Symphony, was released in June 2008. His Facebook Fan Page
is at
http://tinyurl.com/yfb9s9b
http://marcfarre.com
www.myspace.com/marcfarre
"Greens, Greys, and Nordics (I Am
Robot And Proud Remix)" - Deastro (Detroit, Michigan,
USA)
Detroit wunderkind Randolph Chabot has been touring relentlessly
since the release of Moondagger, Deastro 's full-length debut on
Ghostly International. Having just completed a sizeable UK tour
with Hockey, the madness continues as Deastro unveiled a new single
("Tone Adventure #3") on September 29th, and is now embarking upon
a fall co-headlining tour with Domino Records' Max Tundra.
First, a bit about the single:
"Tone Adventure #3" is an archetypal Deastro song, as Randolph
Chabot sprints through catchy, melodic passages with maniacal
conviction, howling about feet being “strapped to cannon balls”
from behind a wall of electronically conjured atmosphere.
Glockenspiels, spy-movie guitars, orchestral stabs, and alien ray
guns all make appearances—as they should in any good adventure.
Next, the tour:
After a few dates at New York City's CMJ festival follow, Deastro
hits the road in November, co-headlining a monthlong tour with
oddball electronic genius Max Tundra.
www.myspace.com/deastro
Movember and podcrawl
I'm growing a moustache this year for Movember. I have
decided to put down my razor for one month (November) and help
raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate
cancer.
What many people don’t appreciate is that one man dies every hour
of prostate cancer in the UK, more than 35,000 men will be
diagnosed this year and that prostate cancer is the most common
cancer in men in the UK. Facts like these have convinced me I
should get involved and I am hoping that you will support
me.
To donate to my Mo, you can click this link
http://uk.movember.com/mospace/395470/ and donate
online using your credit card, debit card or PayPal account.
Details of the podcrawl:
www.podcrawl.blogspot.com/
Until the day I die - Bottle up and
Go (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
A new genre to me: blues/punk
Currently based out of a basement
in Bushwick, Brooklyn, wedged between 99-cent wholesale vendors,
BU&G consists of Keenan Mitchell (guitar, vocals), Fareed Sajan
(drums) and saxophone accompaniment by either Lucas or his twin
Andrew Carrico (alto and tenor respectively). The two-and-a-half
piece neo primitive garage rock band is known across NYC for their
frantic freak outs, described by various press sources as
'neanderthalic' and 'barbaric'.
There is no doubt that BU&G has a slight obsession with death
and bones, taxidermy and bootleg whiskey. Keenan writes
lyrics that mix the language of the bible with the spirit of
ancient blues hollers, western iconography, murder ballads, drunken
dreams, morning tremors, hospital visits, jail time--rhythms that
are indisputably alive as they call for their own death. They are
narratives that mix their own lives with the myths of their blues
forefathers, and that emerge as neither, a new blues form that is
as much a Leadbelly song as a noise collage.
www.myspace.com/bottleupandgoband
Let's run - John Garrison
(Leamington Spa, UK or New York or London)
The playwright Tennessee Williams
once said, “There is a time for departure even when there’s no
certain place to go.”
This oddly serene notion is something quite familiar to musician
John Garrison, his life having served as the muse to his brilliant
new work, aptly titled DEPARTURES. The most notable of these life
changes was the transition from an established life in London to
starting anew in New York. The City, replete with its clichéd
dreams of life and love and open-endings, agreed beautifully with
Garrison, even if his leaving London was at first uncertain.
DEPARTURES is as multi-dimensional as New York, a tapestry of song
and emotion, its true artistry apparent when experienced as a
whole. Garrison’s haunting voice and raw lyrics backed by the
equally lingering instrumentals affects each and every listener in
some way, everyone being able to relate to loving and losing.
We first heard Garrison's signature vocal quality on his band
BUDAPEST's 2002 debut release, TOO BLIND TO HEAR (out through
Universal Records in the USA and Sinnamon Records in Spain), and
later on their album HEAD TOWARDS THE DAWN (out through Sinnamon
Records in Spain). The single “Censored Memories” off of TOO BLIND
TO HEAR was the second most played song in all of Spain in 2004,
the year the album released.
Despite critical acclaim for his work with BUDAPEST, a new music
scene was calling out to Garrison. Heeding that call required great
sacrifice – it was during this period Garrison made the decision to
uproot himself in favor of New York. “When I first moved to New
York, I really left it all behind...my friends, my home country,”
he explains. “It was like being a little boy all over again in this
big city.”
Departures was released yesterday 10 Nov
www.myspace.com/johngarrisonmusic
www.Garrisonmusic.com
Dream Walking - "Big" Walker
(Stockholm, Sweden)
Derrick "Big" Walker was born in
Lawton, Oklahoma. He grew up in an artistic family, his mother and
aunt both working in theatre, and his Uncle owning a blues club in
Cleveland. Walker began to learn harmonica at the age of 7, and
over the years has taken lessons in harmonica from Paul
Butterfield, and lessons in saxophone from Bobby Forte, known for
his work with BB King.
Walker writes and sings his own music and
plays harmonica and saxophone in accompaniment. He is extremely
versatile, mixing American folk music, blues, country, soul, rock,
and funk. Walker played in Albert Collins band as well as Luther
Tucker and Michael Bloomfield's bands. Touring with Luther Tucker's
band for 10 years he opened for artists that included Lowell
Fulson, Percy Mayfield and Big Mama Thornton. He's also recorded on
six of Eric Bibb's CDs. Now based in Stokholm Sweden, he tours with
his band throughout Europe.
Big Walker
"Dream
Walking" (mp3)
from "Still Dream Walking"
(Blue Skunk Music)
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album
www.blueswalker.com/
Granier Mix - Nex2012 & DJ
"H" (Rodez, France)
From the album
Ultime Outrage
Muzikhâl.
Nex2012 & DJ "H" ce sont deux
iconoclastes co(s)miques à poil long et moins qui s'imaginent que
l'informatique peut servir à faire de la "musique". Quelle drôle
d'idée !!!
Nous mélangeons quelques notes et des échantillons afin
d'obtenir des morceaux plus ou moins audibles. Appelons ça du
bricolage sonore !
Nous faisons cela à temps perdu et surtout pour le plaisir ! Si Si
! A entendre nos album on dirait pas mais on s'amuse en faisant ça
et en plus on le fait exprès !
Voilà ! Voilà ! Bonne écoute !
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/nex2012
Vote early and vote
often!
Podcast Alley:
Codger
at 7, SnC at 9 but
AMPed
is at 4. Vote if you'd like to it's just a bit of fun. I'm not
going to ask you to distort the polls. There is enough of that in
Afghanistan and Iran.
www.podcastalley.com
Sauda dub-pao - Volfoniq
(Montpellier, France)
Founded in 2004, Volfoniq is a
"one-man-dub" from the south of France (Montpellier). In a
retro-futuristic mood, he uses his classical formation (clarinet)
and a rich musical history to produce a dub that goes farther than
tags, respecting the jamaican roots, but adventuring into new lands
of experimentation. Sometimes digital, sometimes roots, clearly
electro or acoustic, reggae, ragga, ska, with slices of tango or
triphop riddim, the generosity of Volfoniq's music equals its
humility.
Just like SnC you are allowed to share Volfoniq releases under a
Creative
Commons by-nc-nd 3.0 licence.
www.volfoniq.com/
One more thing...
Playing for change live in
LA Nov 13 w/Toots Hibbert and Ziggy Marley
www.playingforchange.com/