Shameless Self Promotion

River by Shura from Clive Onion on Vimeo.

Here is something what I made with my flip camera. I hope you like it.

Emphemetry – A Lullaby Hum for Tired Streets

It has been a while and for this I apologise. I have been working on a couple of other projects which have consumed my time, one of which I hope to reveal in a blog or two and which will be so massively underwhelming that it may stun many of you into temporary hair loss. So, with my privileged position of shitest writer on the internet I sometimes am gifted with the luck of the ages and someone kindly gets in touch with me to say, here is my music. This is always a double edged sword for me as I only write about things that really grab me, so for someone to give me their stuff always makes me feel a bit on the twitchy side. This time around, the twitch maker was Emphemetry with the lovely A Lullaby Hum for Tired Streets.

So any pretence for suspense was killed in the opening paragraph really. Did I like it? Well of course I did or I would not be putting finger to key, but ‘why oh why?’ I hear you all cry. Well you lucky people, in a slightly incoherent fashion, I am going to tell you exactly why and exactly why you should click on the picture above and shell out 5 banana for the beautifully presented cd.

Straight off the bat, the title pretty much describes typifies what I look for in a lot of the music I listen to. That opening the space between grim reality ting, so that was a bonus. Then I stuck it on. First listen was the actual cd via the medium of my computer and with the opening track After Catalunya I was in, I knew that this was something that I was going to like. While I listened firstly I twittered the Emphemetry to say, nice one, cheers, but really it was a somewhat misplaced communication as this is not a great first listen album. Not to put it down in any way, there are some real standout moments that snare you on the first listen and then when you don the helmet and dive to the depths you begin to really see what it is all about.

After Catalunya is a hazy blurry eyed track for the morning moments when your brain is trying to catch up with the rest of your body. It is a subtle and lapsadaisical guitar over a glorious wash of noise and I thought ‘oh an album full of this would be magic,’ and then cometh track 2. It blends almost seamlessly so that it could almost be one track, but this one has singing! And at first it sort of jars you, to come from this soft focus haze, straight into a powerfully understated vocal arrangement. However his voice is so intensely honest and works so well with the low down musical accompaniment that once the 2 seconds worth of irk is over, you are drawn further in.

The real beauty of the album overall is its subtlety. It is the almost unnoticeable little touches that bring the most joy, the hidden treasure of the grimy street in musical form. The shadowy, epic ending of Francis Thompson is an amazingly subtle soundtrack for nocturnal urban abandonment, but never gets in your face, always staying in the background tempting you towards it. There are other tracks that sound like they are escaping from a creaky old box in the attic, burrowing into human ears for the first time in half a century, showing their timelessness, their freedom from classification. Then there are clear moments of joy like Five Fields, real blue sky, bright green grass business.

It could be argued that Monsieur Birkin knows not where to put himself, does not know what kind of music he really wants to make, but this argument would be one constructed of flim and flam. A Lullaby Hum for Tired Streets is a glorious example of music playing the musician. Playing what comes out, what flows through you rather than what you perceive to be what you should be playing. This, to me, is the essence of what making music truly is, this ability to let yourself be led by it, to make what is in your musical heartbox rather than your musical brainbox. This, I stand on an old orange box, on George Square at 4 in the morning and salute this album with gay abandon.

clive onion and the bearded kitten

It does sound like a Tintin story gone wrong and in many ways it is not too far off the truth. For a small change in pace I am going to hold back the pile of music reviews I have got sitting and share the love on another front, though still a musical one. The whole reason for starting this blog was to give credit to the people who were making my world a better place via the gift of beautious music and todays love effected me so directly that it would be churlish of me not to write about it.

I had the distinct pleasure of being in Brighton the other weekend and attending Bearded Kitten’s Forties to Noughties night at the Concorde2.

Without doing any sort of looking into, apart from digging out a 300% polyester safari suit, I rocked up to the night pretty much unaware of what I was about to experience.

Straight in the door and straight into the forties. A worried war widow cradled her bump while pacing the floor and two jolly nice ladies got us to sign up for the war effort. The dancefloor was already beginning to swing to the sound of the big band. Confusion remained for only a second and once the hangover from the night before was dispelled via the gift of gin, a most incredible night began and it only took the first New Year celebration where the forties turned to fifties and the playing of Happy Days for the whole crowd to kick right in. Everywhere there seemed to be something happening and little scenes popping up, from the obvious on the stage to the chaos in the back room where sweet dirty house was complimented by crowns, catsuits and Freddy Mercurys doing stretches on a staircase. Each change in decade was tremendous, always done with panache and great aplomb and was total, apart from the obvious musical changes the whole mood changed with the delightful kittens donning period costume and throwing down era specific shapes beside you on the dancefloor.

The whole thing about it and basically what Bearded Kitten appear to say on their massive tin, is that everyone was together. Aside from the fact that I was doubled up with laughter more than any other night of my life, danced carefree to tunes I would normally pretend to be too cool to dance to and all that, it was the atmosphere that they created that was the special factor. We were all together. Never before have I been to a club where I have shaken hands, hugged and chatted to so many strangers, all without the aid of drugs! Because of the madness and the costumes and the dedication of the Kittens we were all part of the one big family, to the point that we all started to help out when the performances were in the centre of the dance floor. There were gifts handed out every decade to cement that inclusion factor and to keep the overall mood of the decade going.

The music was perfect and although there is no way to fiddle with the order of the decades, the music just seemed to build and build, getting better with each new year. Ringing in the 80s to Eye of the Tiger before getting lost in crazy B-Boy action, breakdancers going at it to La Isla Bonita, it was all an amazing sonic experience.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Bearded Kitten making an appearance near you and get yourself along and try your very best not to take your preconceptions along with you.

Save 6music

So, another voice in the crowd rallying against today’s news that the BBC is to scrap 6music, but the more voices that are heard the better I would imagine, so it is time the Onion puts in his 10p worth. Or should that be £10 worth, as if we the listeners all chipped in this paltry amount every year we could own the place. And how apt that would be for such an open and welcoming station, a station that doesn’t have to try and be friendly, but simply is. The bulk of my listening comes from the daytime, where it feels like you are listening to well informed mates playing their favourite tunes and giving you an insight into the future.

And it is this point which is my major one in this whole affair. We live in a time where we are constantly being told of how under threat the music industry is. How illegal downloading is destroying the livelihood of this most ancient and necessary of art forms. With 6music you have a genuine 24 hour platform for pushing new talent, exposing people to things which they have not heard before, getting them buying their ep’s or releases on small labels, getting people out to gigs. Supporting the music industry and encouraging it to grow and reveal its splendour once again.

With 6music, the BBC is doing what it does best, providing a genuine public service. Allowing people to see the breadth of talent that the music world produces. It is taking chances on things that are new while giving us enough of what is old and worthwhile and tying it all together with insightful, erudite hosts. It is ITV’s job to knock out any old shit, just for profit, but my deep love of the BBC has always been its ability to see beyond this and to give the people true variety.
With this move, Aunty Beeb is making us all eat McDonalds, when we are used to having the choice of what we would like to consume. We are being forced to choose between the norm and the norm which is no choice at all.

I implore the BBC to stop and think about their output, to think about what made them great and would continue to do so. We have ITV and Channel 4 for mass produced American shite tv. We have a million commercial radio stations to pump out sensible shoe wearing contemporary pop. We need someone who is bold, we need someone willing to push the boundaries and it is a shame that it seems the beeb is no longer willing to stick its neck out and do what is needed to keep music alive.

Rant over. Fight, just begun.

Clive Onion Presents Week 7

Here it comes, struggling out of the etherial musings of the chop chop onion head and late again! This will be the last time the lateness has this crap excuse, but the new laptop purchase is being made within the next hour and even though the bile swims within me at the thought of spending the virtual money, it is worth it to keep my little cherubin masses happy and well informed on the music front. You see how selfless I am, what a champion of social and moral values. What an advocate of the credit card debt system. I am Broken Britain, now come and take a bite from the Onion.

Ok, so the lateness has also played into my favour a bit too, because this week+ I have not been able to shake the tunes that I have been listening to, such is their masterful kung-fu grip. I have been immersed in their varied beauty and only recently have been able to stick my head above the parapet and see that there is other musical offerings in the world. In time honoured tradition you can listen along to todays scribblings by clicking on THE PLAYLIST THAT TIME LOOKED UP TO and dance while you read. Also if you have a click on the photos, you can go somewhere local to buy this weeks glorious recommendations which I telepathically urge you to get on to. And so, the match is lit and before the wind blows it out, let’s light the fuse.

First up and I am breaking you in gently with the sound of post apocalyptic ash/snow falling that is The Road OST by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

I havent seen the film, which may be strange or not depending on your slant on life, but I don’t imagine that this is one of those soundtracks that you want to tune into to try and recapture the lovely moment portrayed in the movie. I hear it is very close to the book, in which lovely moments are not order of the day, but I totally recommend that you buy the book due to it being written in such a stunningly engaging manner. And that concludes this weeks book club.

The soundtrack is based on simplicity, with the bulk of it being only cello and piano, but it is massively evocative to the point that I could easily guess which scenes were being portrayed from only having read the book. You are gently guided through this work with the apathetic, staring into space piano, the background filled with ambience that can change the mood of the track without you even noticing. The whole album tweaks the emotions, a dark dread filling you one moment can be instantly lifted by the simple sweep of the cello bow, bringing light to the arrangement. Though the bleakness of the world of The Road is far removed from our own, the similarities ring out while staring out of the bus window with the soundtrack massaging your ears. The crumbling buildings, the lack of love for what we have all stand out and are bolstered by the sounds of despair swimming in your headphones, then the mood changes and your eyes are lifted to seek out something more positive to accompany the music. It is a real experience listening to The Road and once which I would urge everyone to indulge in. Sidestepped a massive pun potential there, hooray for me.

Next on THE PLAYLIST THAT TIME LOOKED UP TO you will find the little known but much loved Volcano Playground with their ep Waiting

Yet another random meeting through the nudging and pointing network that is Myspace, the lovely Volcano Playground dropped me a line and after a few seconds of audio time, I knew that they were something I needed to indulge in a bit more. A genuinely well put together ep, well produced and mixed with the tracks themselves varied with a solid rod of shoegaze brilliance to hold them together. To categorise anything as shoegaze however is starting to annoy me as never once have I been inclined to gaze at my shoes, but rather to look right through my surroundings to see if there is anything between my brain and what lies beyond, but I guess shoegaze is a bit more catchy.

I drove down a motorway with the low winter sun in my eyes when Blinking Lights came on and it took me right away. The deep resonance of the church organ combining with the otherworldly vocal gave my situation the space to breathe. Strangely the sun filtered through trees and added a blinking light effect to the pink tinge of my cinematic, super-8 surroundings and it was one of those moments that music clicked perfectly with life. The pace of this song is incredible, the drums hammering away with a subdued intensity while you are surrounded by the echo and reverberous vocal, guitar and organ bringing a clash of styles that merges all too perfectly. There are moments when the production reminds me slightly of the Crystal Stilts, so deep and comforting that the immersion into Waiting is all too welcoming. Click on the photo and purchase this ep. It is the bargain of the year, no doubt.

And so to the gent who has managed to kidnap several hundred hours of my musical listening life and lo, he has returned with another Stockholm Syndrome inducing masterpiece. I refer of course to Four Tet with There is Love In You

To be fingeronthepulsy, I was going to review this a couple of weeks ago when it got released on Soundcloud but to be fair, I like to see what music does once it’s out and about, so just listening through a computer is never going to do it for me. This said, I electro-turtled along to Angel Echoes and Sing on the pc when I should have been doing other things like, oh I don’t know, writing this blog, and knew from the brief listens that as soon as I got the album I was going to fall deep. And how I did. Four Tet was one of the things I picked up on back in the old days when I used to be able to flip though vinyl and take out whatever I pleased. His first album was one of those lucky finds and it really opened my eyes to the broken, wonky side of electronic music.

There is Love in You is still broken, however on this outing Keiran Hebden has produced something that is broken so perfectly that even its off-kilterness makes beautiful sense, like a mirror that has been dropped and smashes into perfect equilateral triangles. The album goes from the more housey side to the wild electro, from the feeling of blissed out, hands in the air, surrounded by thick dry ice, to the feeling that you are attending Buck Roger’s Wedding in a Japanese super mall. There is a broad range of ideas of madness level 13 attached to it and it is all structured to make the madness reveal itself naturally.

This last weekish I have also been hitting the Essential Mix that Four Tet did for Radio 1. It has now disappeared from the Iplayer, but I am sure if you look around you might find ‘someone who taped it off the radio.’ An amazing collection of tunes and a virtual larder for me to raid for future blog posts. Yum. Although the year is young, I can almost guarantee that this will be in the album of the year post come December, so there’s one you don’t have to read! Get it, I promise you that it will fill your cup.

Last off this week we have a sneaky peek at the future of Bonobo who is about to hit us with Eyesdown

You can download percentage of this new tune by clicking here and getting a generous free download to tide wet your whistle. Although you will find that this tune is not what is on THE PLAYLIST THAT TIME LOOKED UP TO but rather an older track, to be fair I am putting it up just in case you are unaware of the power of the mighty Bonobo. If not, then Recurring is a pretty amazing place to begin. One of life’s great tracks, so profoundly incredible that I heard big Dave Attenborough was considering doing an hour special on it.

And so to Eyesdown, the first snippet of the forthcoming Black Sands Album which is due out early in March. It’s a laid back, phased out affair with a sort of latin step beat going on in it. The layers are so refined and silky, a ton of different sounds all putting in such a nicely balanced appearance that it like they popped round to the musical barbeque, like you are catching the brass from three gardens down on a hot summers eve. Even the big squelchy bass when it comes in, sounds like it is just taking it easy tonight, nothing over the top, everything co-existing perfectly in the song. This is another must purchase album and surely it will make an appearance on here as March rolls around.

Well, thats the lot this week. Long time coming and as ever, not massively worth the wait. I shall just close with a little free tantalising action from Efterklang. They have released a preview of 3 tracks from the forthcoming album which you can check out right here. Indeed seems like they may well be going down a more structured route, but more on this when the album lands in my earwells.

Take care all and catch you in week 8.

Clive Onion Presents Week 6

Whilst still in computer limbo, I have managed to type words in the spaces between real life to cobble together the long awaited Week 6 post. I know you will all be coming in off the ledge, wiping the sweat from your collective brows and kneeling in prayer to the small shrine of the Onion in your front room. Just as well it all happened really as I now have gig fun to report on as well as the usual couple of recommendations. What’s more, the day of payment has finally arrived and dark January is but a fleeting memory despite the fact that we are actually still in January.

As ever, you can listen along to reading the wonderful words by clicking on THE SENSE EXPANDING PLAYLIST and hearing a little something from each of today’s hallowed guests. As ever, you can purchase any of the music on offer by clicking on the lovely pictures although two things today have nothing to buy as yet, but that just means that you are getting cutting edge journalism. Well, the edge is slightly dull, but you could cut if you really tried. I digress. Lets play Clive Onion!

First up is a long awaited return from the embracing witchcraft providers that are Efterklang. The new album, Magic Chairs is due out in a couple of weeks and on the playlist you can find the first peek at material from it with the delight that is Modern Drift.

Immediately when this tune starts you know that you are in for a soulful, reflective experience, the mood swelling piano clearly marking out this territory. What differs from the norm in this kind of track is the Efterklang treatment of adding layers that you are not sure should be there and gently building the song up and dropping it away like a gentle sea against an aural wall. Though I have already developed a deep love for this track, it is a massive departure from the last album Parades which I strongly recommend you get your hands on should you not already have it. This song is structured in a more traditional fashion, which is not exactly an Efterklang trademark and it gives me the impression that the rest of Magic Chairs may follow suit.

Parades, which I have been revisiting this week is one of the most difficult albums to get into that I have ever had the great fortune to try. It is a quest, crafted by demons. Though I have pretty wide ranging musical tastes, much of which is on the random side, it took me a good few listens to get Parades. Well, I still don’t ‘get’ it, but I love it to death. It is pretty much the soundtrack to the war of the gods, which of course only exists in my mind and perhaps anyone else who has heard this masterpiece. Such drama and pomp and grandeur is cleverly constructed that it gets your blood pumping and your mind reeling. Normally I am looking at the real world while listening to music and sometimes the music clicks with what I see before me. Not Parades. Its vision remains solely in the realms of imagination. It is so deeply layered and arranged in such a fashion that your brain is constantly struggling to keep up with what is going on in your earholes. Honestly, sounds like madness in mp3 format and it is indeed, but I cannot recommend it enough. Magic Chairs, please hurry to me!

Next is a follow up from the last post. I have managed to track down the smoking remains of Duo Infernale. Ok, so I make that sound a bit more dramatic than it is, no smoking ruins and as far as tracking down, really Electrolytegot in touch with me, so I have not exactly done a Batman on this.

There is nothing available to purchase yet, but if you click on the picture it will take you to the amazing Soundcloud which I am becoming a major fan of. Digressing again, they had the FourTet album up a week before it came out, which I hope to get my grubby hands on for next weeks business. Anyway, Electrolyte. Ray of Light is the first tune to rise from the ashes of Duo Infernale and is getting a release on Med School/Hospital, home of the worlds greatest Drum n Bass, later this year.

Strangely and joyously enough, Ray of Light has many of the hallmarks that made Duo Infernale so good. There is the same sense of space in the track, which is something I always totally appreciated about them, the baseline has that fat reverberous squelch that swoops in and out and the hook is totally infectious. Listening to the Soundcloud version rather than the Myspace one you will get to appreciate the beautiful breakdown, one that whilst walking would stop you in your tracks to have a good look around, before the well constructed buildup pulls you right back in. Genuinely excited to hear these tunes and cant wait for more in the future.

Ok, so to finish off Dark January, I escaped my lair and went out to see Chew Lips the other night. I also managed to grab their album, Unicorn the day before and I shall have a few words to say about both.

Having had them floating about in my head since Week 2, I have been looking forward to both the release and the gig and to be fair I have not been disappointed by either. Surprised, but in no way disappointed. First off, Unicorn. From being quite addicted to their tracks on myspace, involving some manner of in-house dancing when meant to be writing blog posts, it was a bit odd to get Unicorn and not find the two main tunes on it. Both Salt Air and Solo have been omitted which at first made me a bit wary, being that they are both storming uptempo fiascos. However, brave move and a totally justified one.

The album plays like an album, not a collection of good songs. It has a definite start, middle and end to it and you are guided through it in the most understated way. The focus, production wise, are Tigg’s vocals or so it would seem at first. She is the vehicle that the band seem to be being promoted under and rightly so, her voice traveling straight to the pleasure centre of your brain. The music behind the voice though is so well produced and mixed that it flows along quite the thing without you really focusing on it, until suddenly you have been drawn in by a song, not by the up-front vocal but by a delicious hook bubbling away in the background. I love it. It has legs, rather than just being a couple of good songs propped up by other padding. Many albums in this sort of genre tend not to go much past the singles, but Unicorn definitely will and with the great press it has been getting, Chew Lips are definitely destined for VG Gold Star-ness, if not utter greatness.

As a live act Chew Lips brought undiluted love for what they are doing and really this is all that you could possibly ask for in a live performance. The sound was incredible and like the album showed that they have worked hard to make everything work just right. Everything was hitting your ears at perfect levels, though in contrast to the album, the music, the rhythmic merry go round synths and the subtle but beautifully toned bass were a more in your face, like they had been let out for the evening and this really worked for me. I loved this feeling that the album is an album and the live show is a full on club experience. Not being much of a scenester, it was a bit mental to be surrounded by the full on 80s business, but after a few songs and the blocking of all but the experience from my senses, I felt like I was spending an amazing evening lost in Heaven 17 the computer game. Being my first true musical love, this is high compliment. They are still on the road for a few weeks yet and it really is a chance to go and see a great talent before they go MASSIVE.

The last wee bit is just a nod to the first support band for Chew Lips. By some bizarre twist of fate I actually managed to catch the support, perhaps a first for me. Fair enough, I only caught the last song of Midnight Lion but it stuck in my head enough to want to mention it on here.

A super melodramatic power pop 2 piece that seemed to have a great attitude backed up with heartfelt, passionate music. All Greatness Stands Firm was luckily the track that I caught and it kept my pint from my lips for all of its 4 minutes of splendor. A track of well tamed power, self assured musicianship and the balance of drama, emotion and another beautiful breakdown that made an instant and massive impression on my half drunk brain. A song screamed from a stormy sea cliff top, definitely one for the future and more than certainly a band that I will keep my beady wee eyes on.

Another week, another triumph of the human fingers. In next weeks ideal world I will have a new laptop and you will notice a smoother pattern to my words because of this. Or, perhaps it will be the same old rubbish. You decide. Cheers.

Error in Transmission

Due to extreme technical breakdown and subsequent mental breakdown, Clive Onion Week 6 will be delayed for (hopefully) a couple of days. Normal service will be resumed as soon as some sort of laptop amnesty has been reached.

Clive Onion’s Album of the Year Show

Ring the bells, blow the trumpets, hark the heralds, the all singing all dancing Clive Onion Album Review of the year has landed. I know that all the gifts you have received and the parties you have attended in the last week have been tarnished by the thought that this blog was not out there, but rest easy, because here it is.

I have very much enjoyed music this year and have mined myself some beautiful stuff, but I am only going to go for 5 albums, in no particular order, that represent what has been my mainstay of listening pleasure this year. Though I must have listened to something like 200 different records (pardon my olde english wording) many have been nice, but transient and have flowed though me leaving only traces of their goodness. These 5 have left a lot more, even taken part of me for their own, such is the love I have for them.

There are probably a couple that are on every review of the year list, but I would speculate that this is for a reason. As ever, have a listen to a selection of tunes from the artistes featured on my PLAYLIST OF LORE.

First up and once again it’s The Joy Formidable with A Balloon Called Moaning

Jesus, that’s 3 out of 3 blog posts with mentions of The Joy Formidable. If this keeps up, soon I will be selling blurry photos of them hanging their washing out and rubbing my face in extracts from their bin. Anyway, the reason I keep mentioning them is that they are fucking magic. so there. Though A Balloon Called Moaning is technically not an album, but an 8 track self release, it is more than definitely going in my album of the year spot. Since I got hold of it in March it has been a constant on the mp3 player, dosing myself at least once a week just because I know exactly what I am going to get from it. 8 tracks of overpowering goodness. Songs rammed full of emotional content, of spacey echoes and static crescendos, music that draws you in, shakes you up finishes you off with giddy release and an eye spinning feeling of powerful happiness.

I am a massive fan of both the loud/quiet and the repetitive arpegiator type arrangement and opening the album with The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade has enough of both to bring great pleasure to my brain with every listen. It’s not the words that provoke emotion but the composition, the patient building or the dropping in high energy at just the right moment that gets me. It is almost like the music fills you until you start feeling it pour from your fingertips and to be honest, I am right into feeling like that. All 8 tracks have something to keep me going back to them and for only 7 nick nock you are getting tremendous value for money out of it.

Let the stalker fest continue! Again, I mentioned him last week, but Ólafur Arnalds and Found Songs is definitely one of the finest albums this year.

Another maze of an album from Arnalds, a maze because getting lost is the purpose, getting lost and enjoying every second of it. I am not going to rattle on too much about this album as I gushed over it only last week, but the way in which you are able to switch completely into this albums world is all consuming and utterly beguiling. I see that he is mastering a new album as I type this, so there is more new business to come soon, but if you have not checked out this musical landscape builder, then do so as soon as is humanly possible. I have been switched on to Ólafur’s record label, Erased Tapes and there is more quality on their books than on Radio 2′s annual playlist, so expect more reviews coming from that direction.

Iceland is quite an expensive place to get to and hang out for us mere mortals, so if you fancy a cheap but immersingly beautiful trip there, just buy Found Songs, whack on your headphones and close your eyes.

Next up is definitely on many end of the year lists and for good reason. Its The XX with The XX

XX is a strange album. Not strange like off key and avant garde and wonked up, although there are elements of that involved, but I genuinely can’t think of anything I have heard like it before. Again this is strange because the music is not a smack in the face of wow, there is no drop everything and listen factor about it, it is just a beautifully made record. There is no real hint of influences in the album as it floats about somewhere in between indie pop and electronica and floating about it really what it does best, it resides somewhere in your brain, but doesn’t take up any space, the ghost of music future.

The singing and the structure of the voices is comforting, you feel like you are being encouraged, like they have their hand on your shoulder though sometimes their fragile voices seem to need you in the same way. Again it is not because of what they are saying it, but how they say it and it works on so many levels. Their instrumental opening track is destined to be played on countless ‘next week on Smallville’ type bytes and rightly so, because it opens the door incredibly well, sets the tone for a truly special album that everyone should own. And you can, by clicking here you lucky people.

Next up I am going World Music for the sheer, shake your head in disbelief of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba’s I Speak Fula

This album is incredible. The energy that comes through the recorded music is something that grabs you straight away and takes control of the rhythm displaying parts of your body. You get the massive smile, the small circular head movement and the spasming feet when the infectious groove of Kouyate kicks in. For those of you that are not in the know (like me until a couple of months ago) Kouyate plays the Ngoni, a traditional West African instrument, which to ignorant outsiders like me, looks pretty basic. Perhaps it is the shock factor that something so basic can produce such an incredible sound that adds to the quality of the album, but to be fair it is more likely the fact that the player of the instrument is incredible.

Kouyate is like Hendrix or really any one of your mad talented fretboard dancers, with the exception that Kouyates fretboard is pretty much a stick. Lightning fast fingers, pacing gracefully over the strings to produce complex, off beat and occasionally off kilter rhythms that drive his excellent band. Onstage he is about as cool a customer as I have ever witnessed, he knows that he can lay it down and he is more than happy to show people just what the Ngoni can do. I have to include a Video Clip just so you can fully appreciated how staggeringly amazing this is to watch as well as to listen to. He is accompanied by his wife Amy Sacko on lead vocals and there could not be a better vocalist to compliment the music. Where the Ngoni produces a very trebly sound, Sacko’s vocals are richer than the Sultan of Brunei adding copious amounts of soul to an already superb spread of music. Although I have no idea what is being sung about, I have been deeply moved by this album and it shall remain on my mp3 for many moons to come.

Lastly comes the triumph of ethereal beauty that is Riceboy Sleeps by Jonsi & Alex

This work of art comes from Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi and his partner Alex. It is so delicate, so beautifully crafted that it almost lives and breathes symbiotically with you. So gentle, it seems to exist on a plane all of its own, melting away your headphones and giving you the impression that the music is coming from somewhere inside your head. With the foundation of many of the tracks being from field recordings, the album has an atmosphere that makes you part of it and again it matches with your surroundings, revealing the beauty in even the dullest of scenes.

The comparisons to Sigur Ros have been thrown about in the reviews for the album and of course they are there, it would be weird if they weren’t, but with Riceboy Sleeps, Jonsi and Alex seem to have managed to distil the magical element of Sigur Ros’ Music and given it space to live on its own. I can’t recommend this album highly enough and would spend a lot of time under the headphones lying on your living room floor, sinking into its otherworldly strains.

Have a cracking New Year one and all and I shall see you on the other side of it for more of the same.

Clive Onion Presents Week 2

Unbelievably my resolve has held and here I am for week 2 of the wonder blog.  Busy week in the world of music eh?  who will win the race to xmas number one?  will Coldplay sell all their tat successfully?  not really that bothered to be honest.  Selfishly I am more concerned with what has been entering my earholes and what has hung about in the groaning sponge living in my skull.

Its been a bit of a myspace week, listening to things with anticipation of pending albums and gigs.  With all the end of the decade listmaking that is going on at the moment I was thinking about doing something like that, but to be honest I’m having trouble navigating the maze of what is going on just now that stepping into the biblical mass of what I have been listening to for the last 10 years may prove a bit much for my brain to deal with.   I will probably do an album of the year type thing in the next couple of weeks instead.  Exciting eh.  Schedule a day for that bombshell in amongst your xmas revelry.

As ever you can listen to a track from each of the artistes featured by following This Futuristic Link

Ok this week I am going to start off with the as promised album review of  White Rabbits – Its Frightening

After using Percussion Gun as my go do stuff track last week, I delved into the rest of the album to see if I could find similarly nutritious offerings on the inside.  First off, let me say this.  Its a good album.  Sharp, on the ball journalism bursts from my keyboard once again, but i just wanted to point out that it is a good album and that I would recommend giving it a few listens before making a decision as it is le grower.  There are moments that you lose yourself in a cinematic world of 50s american spies, peering over your shoulder to check that you are not being followed.  Its ultra clean production is perhaps what kept it from being an outstanding album in my wonky eyes and there is also the argument that occasionally their influences come out a little too strongly, but there is enough good material on there to warrant dishing out a tenner on it no question at all.

Next couple of things for you are pretty much myspace only at the moment, with albums arriving in the near future along with tours for both of them.  yum yum, drool with anticipatory pangs.  First of the two is  Beach House

They already have a couple of album knocking about from 2006 and 2008.  While the last album Devotion sounded like they could be the cabaret band in the Overlook Hotel, with their haunting bontempi sound oozing its way through open space before entering the ears, the new stuff sounds like they have ramped it up a good few notches.  Norway is the only track on myspace from their forthcoming album and it is a beautiful, woozy number.  If you removed the fear from falling from a great height, Norway would be the perfect soundtrack.  Either that or being in the fairground scene in the lost boys on particularly strong acid.  Looking forward to the album and tour early in the nooyear.

In a similar vein, I am chomp a chomp at the bit for the Chew Lips album

A magical slice of charming electro cake, chew lips have been building a bit of airplay and are deservedly building some momentum towards the release of their album, Unicorn,  early next year.  The day I got put onto them, they had played the night before in my town, so its nice to see that they too are packing up their synths, beep boxes and enchanting vocals and touring in January.

There are shades of some good 80′s business, but refined, not as in your face as a lot of the other 80′s dredgers on the go.  Slick is a fine Ethiopian leather suit of a song that gets your hands flicking imaginary switches to bring in and drop out bits of the song while the head bobs with an urgency all of its own.  At the moment they have a free download of Rising Tide and you can get it from myspace.  Check the links in the ‘free stuff bit’, down there.

Lastly I have been lost this week in  Ólafur Arnalds - Found Songs.

Simply a work of a clever clever man.  If you haven’t done any of Arnalds stuff in the past all I can do is to urge you to sort that out this very second.  Found Songs is his third album and was recorded in a week, 1 song per day and then released on twitter.  Being the razor sharp, internet warrior that I am, this totally passed me by, but it was probably because I was staring out the window, my head so deeply mired in his other albums that nothing else mattered.

Basically he is part of a new wave of classical music.  Turned off?  Then you need to check your head.  Arnalds provides you with a soundtrack to your life.  The moving, wide open arrangements guide your emotions gently, transporting them through everyday life and giving it a keen shine that was previously lacking.  His work is such that you can transform any scene with his music washing over your brain like a nautical masseuse.  Suddenly the freezer isle in Sainsburys = Arctic Wonderland, a woman standing 10 paces away from you at the busstop = your long term love walking away from you.  It compounds your imagination, gives colour to grey and I am totally besotted by it.  Many thanks and much praise to this fine gent.

And that about wraps it up for this week except to say that there are a couple of xmas presents around in the form of free downloads.  The kind Chew Lips are giving us Rising Tide until the end of the year which is not going to be on their album.  The ever wonderful The Joy Formidable are handing out My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees which is a festive treat indeed.  The last little gift that I would recommend you pick up is from Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi, who after the outstanding Riceboy Sleeps, with his partner Alex, is releasing a solo album next year titled Go.  The free track is Boy Lilikoi and is a swirling jaunt through his hyper creative brain.

Thats yer whack.  Catch you next week.

Clive Onions Week1

So for a first post this is really going to nail some kind of colour to a badly made mast.  Despite my musical map being like a childs scribble on a page, today I am plumbing for 4 bands which more or less fall into the ROCK category.  Its just the way things fall to be honest.  What I am listening to on any given week depends on any number of random factors and this week it just so happens that the factor is not so random and is suspiciously guitar shaped.

So I went to a gig this week, which is going to form one of the reviews.  I got an album through the post which gives me the opportunity to blither on my favourite musical subject.  And the other two are an album that I am loving just now and a song that wont leave my head.  I imagine that this is going to be the basis of most posts, well apart from the gig bit.  Hopefully I will get out to gigs about once a month, but life is a big dirty walrus and getting round its oily girth to get out sometimes proves a little difficult.

And so to reviewing, the whole purpose of my onionic existence.

I will just write in the order that they appear on the beautifully styled accompanying link to the playlist for this weeks full force wittering that you can follow right here.

First up White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

At the moment it is just this song rather than anything more that i have pacing through my head like a deranged Fonzi.  It is terribly shameful to admit to being drawn into a particular song just because it sound cool, but that is how Percussion Gun has snared me.

A kinky tribal call to war marches you in to a low stepping, paced out bit of rock cool.  The beat is constant throughout punctuated by a tidy variety of instruments sounding like the rest of the band are just chipping in occasionally when they remember that they are recording a song.  It builds slowly and comes to the top but never bubbles over, restrained by the laid back nature of the song.

Ive only got the myspace tunes to go on at the moment but the album is in my possession and i am looking forward to delving into it.  i shall give the album a quick review next week after a good few listens.

Next up Royal Bangs – Let it Beep

This album has been constant on the mp3 player for the last couple of weeks.  from knoxville tennessee, the Royal Bangs are a nice fresh bit of off kilter rock to blow away the cobwebs of the laid back stuff i had been listening to in the last couple of weeks.  Basically the album makes you want to spin around, its always up tempo with not even a smigeon of cheese.  It is a totally positive, dizzy making experience.

I stuck War Bells onto the playlist but it really is the tip of the psychadelic iceberg.  Its one of those albums that gets a gentle sway going as you walk down the street, taps your foot complete with knee lift, on the bus.  Its rakishness kicks in with the occasional stop/start moments and some first rate fatasfuck arepegiators, you know the looping, rising doot doot doot bits.  Really its an all round charmer of an album, nothing hard hitting and nothing to lose yourself in, but a total triumph of modern excellence.  What with the current rock darlings being Them Crooked Vultures and The Dead Weather, it is nice to hear something fresher, more innovative, something with implied humour rather than straight rock nonsense.

My gig review comes courtesy of  The Pains of Being Pure at Heart who I went  along to see last week.

The only downside about the gig was having to explain to mates who I was going to see.  The name is a bit on the long side and there is something about it that made me feel pretentious when I ws saying it, but that is not the bands fault, my wandering brains fault entirely.  Missing both of the supports due to a fondness for drink, like a real good music journalist type, we eventually made it downstairs just before the band came on and lit up the stylish dungeon.

Really The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (trying my best to avoid the horror of abbreviation) are the most perfect hazy sunshine pop band going around at the moment.  They have a golden sound and effortless cadence that is mirrored in their playing style.  Its not that the music is downtempo or any such thing, its just the way they play it is such a lazy style and I mean that as a total compliment.  It harks me back to Blake Babies and the way that they managed to put you in a certain place, a lying on grass staring at the sky spring sun warming your body kind of place.  The other total bonus of the night was going along to see a band who nobody you talk to has heard of and being in the middle of a large and appreciative crowd, closing my eyes and losing myself a couple of times.  Their college chic, their harmonies, the lack of the loud/quiet of which I am such a fan, was all massively appreciated.  Tours over after All Tomorrows Parties this weekend, but next time you see the name, get out there.

Ok, last up it is a fortuitous bit of Royal Mail action that prompts me to review First You Have to Get Mad by The Joy Formidable.

Right, so I just checked and this limited release live album is now sold out, so pointless review anyone?  However, this was never going to be the point of the review at all.  While the live album is fantastic, twisting and evolving the tunes from A Balloon Called Moaning and offering a glimpse of what the future has in store for the band, really I just wanted to glorify them, kneel before them and say ‘nice one.’

Without getting way out of hand on the praise front, they are kinda what inspired me to sit down and start doing all of this.  A Balloon Called Moaning is such an invigorating piece of work, something totally absorbing about it with that magical power of dragging you away from wherever you are and losing you in the beautifully crafted atmosphere of loud/quite that i love so much.  After mainlining the album for a few weeks one night I was playing count the band members, based on what instruments were being played on the album.  I reckoned definitely 5 but potentially 6.  Then came the clarity, the half drunk remembrance that I could actually just look it up on the internet.  Fuck me, there is only 3 of them!  Using my ridiculous geekness I fathomed that by playing a Rickenbacker bass they were able to double up and make it sound like they had 2 guitars and a bass on the go…..anyway i digress.

The bottom line of this is that The Joy Formidable are going from strength to strength.  The live album is tremendous and showcases a couple of new songs which truly hit the mark, Anemone standing out as the track to take over your very being for a crisp, moody 4 minutes of total immersion.  They have all of my meagre love and respect and seeing as you cant buy the live album anymore, go and buy a t-shirt or summit.  Support those who are bursting their arses to make good music still exist.