Music of the day

A list in time

2005-12-29T20:25:00.000Z

Its the time of year for those dreadful end of year lists. They are much more fun to write than to read. Fortunately, since the ratio of readers to writers here is very low the amount of fun in the world is going to be increased.

So here we are in no particular order and indeed no particular concern that the album was actually released during the year.

My Morning Jacket, Z. A new favourite as I just got this for Christmas and it was a fortunate mistake too as a magazine CD had it mislabelled.
Kate Bush, Aerial. Can any album live up the expectation of so many years wait. I don't know, but this album is certainly better than I was expecting. It's as good as my favourite Kate album The dreaming.
Elbow, Leaders of the free world.One of the best bands around, there is no need to say more.
Sigur Rós, Takk.... Glorious, joyous music. I still probably prefer () though.
Alex Parks, Honesty. Great album, great voice and great tunes.
KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope. This is going to be a favourite for long time to come.
British Sea Power, Open Season. This band just gets better. So OK, its only their second album.
Feeder, Pushing the senses.
Leaves, The Angela test. Second Icelandic band in the list. Like Coldplay without the whine (a bit unfair, I do quite like Coldplay).
Mercury Rev, The secret Migration. I've not listened many times to this record but it has impressed me each time.
Sophie Barker, Earthbound. Surprise of the year, lovely, lovely, lovely.

A mention for the best title: Keep music miserable by Lowgold, a good motto for next year.

Happy New Year!

The Bedford

2005-12-06T10:26:00.000Z

Another visit to the Bedford. It looked a very good line up, acts I'd either seen before or have wanted to.

In the order I remember them, we first had Haley Glennie Smith. Amazing voice. She has a couple of tracks on the soundtrack album to the film Stoned about the Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. Her tracks are Love in vain and Come on in my kitchen.

Not seen Alexis Strum before. She was fairly good but I don't have anything special to write about her.

I'd seen Claire Toomey before and written about it here. I didn't say then but I was a little disappointed with how the band sounded on the previous occasion. However this time it sounded a lot better; its not the ideal environment for a rock band as just as you get going you have to stop and then start up again in the next set. However this time I could really imagine how they would sound at a bigger show.

Surprise find of the evening was Mozez who I'd not even heard of before. Smooth soulful vocals, interesting music too.

KITT

2005-11-24T23:52:00.000Z

I am way behind on writing up the past few weeks so I will jump ahead right ahead.

I went to see KITT today. They have a residency at the Princess Victoria Pub in Shepherds Bush, where they play every other month.

This is a fairly new band that has been going about six months. They are session musicians who have apparently played for bands such as the Gorillaz, KT Tunstall and the Prodigy.

Although the sound in general was OK the singers voice was way down in the mix and couldn't be heard very well. I had a chance to talk to them afterwards and its something they recognised and I am assured that this will be sorted out at the next gig.

On a quieter song there was a guest cellist, again couldn't particularly hear the cello, but the song was one of the highlights of the show.

They are playing again on the 12th January, and there should be better sound and more strings and perhaps mince pies and mulled wine. All in all I enjoyed the show and I shall be going to the next one.

Updated:No matter how many times I make the mistake of thinking that bi-monthly means twice a month, I keep on making it - so it is every two months as updated above. Also the Dec 15th gig that was originally mentioned has been cancelled. The next one is the 12th January.

Updated update:It seems that bi-monthly can mean both twice a month and every two months. So its OK to be confused I guess.

Sine Star Project

2005-10-27T23:55:00.000+01:00

This is another short catch up review, sorry....

I'd not been to the Dublin Castle for a long time. So here I was to see the Sine Star Project a band I'd tried to see before but missed them after arriving late to a gig went inexplicably to schedule.

No such setbacks here. I'd wanted to see them as I'd come across their web-site and listened to several of their songs which were all very strong. Songs with soaring melodies, multi-layered sounds and interesting instruments to boot. The pedal steel was employed on several of the songs to great effect.

Two other similar bands that I have still to see are Hera Crush and Duplex Guage.

KT Tunstall, Shepherds Bush Empire

2005-10-20T23:55:00.000+01:00

I was looking forward to this gig for a long time and it didn't disappoint. She did most of the songs off the album and a few news ones that also sounded good. So perhaps there will be another album that measures up to her outstanding debut.

And that is it for this review as I am catching up...

The Seen

2005-10-13T23:10:00.000+01:00

Catching up with brief descriptions of some previous gigs...

One of the John Peel tribute gigs was held at the Purple Turtle near Mornington Crescent.

I'd never been to this venue before and The Northern line wasn't running so I nearly didn't go. When I arrived there were police vans outside and many people had been thrown out or taken away. I missed the cause of it all.

I'd gone to see Lily Fraser, this time she was with her full band and they were great as usual, but I've already written about them so I'll concentrate on the last act of the evening The Seen.

They are a four-piece from North London. They call their sound Sonic Soul and it is an interesting sound not easy to pin down. They combine funk guitar with swirling guitars with a solid rock rhythm section. I was reminded of Blink (but thats probably just me). All in all one of the best bands that I've stumbled upon.

CD: KT Tunstall, Eye to the telescope

2005-09-17T19:23:00.000+01:00

I'd known of KT Tunstall before that incredible performance on Later with Jools Holland. Playing solo using tape loops (or whatever you call them when they don't use tape as they surely don't) to build up a sound of a small band playing. I know that I wasn't the only one that was captivated.

Still that stuck in my memory although I didn't connect the name, until hearing tracks off her album on holiday, thinking they were good and having to ask who they were by. Then it was all connected together.

So finally I bought the album and I am also going to see her at the Shepherds Bush Empire in October. My favourite tracks on the album are Universe & U and False Alarm.

Claire Toomey

2005-09-14T22:22:00.000+01:00

I received the Claire Claire Toomey CD today, that I ordered from her website. Its a promo CD with the four tracks:

one last look
i can't stay here
world without windows
world without windows (acoustic version)

The songs are all familiar as they have all been on the website. I think that she is one of the best of the new singer songwriters around at the present and I am hoping that she will become well known(not that I have a very good record on actually predicting who will or course). Good as the songs sound with the full band, listening to the acoustic version of a song with just a guitar accompaniment is always a very good indication of how good the song itself is. The final track on this album (and others on her website) are very good examples of just how fine the songs are. I am totally looking forward to a proper album from her.

Earlier this year, I saw her at the Bedford. There are other write-ups of that event hereand here.

Trilla Jenna

2005-09-12T23:30:00.000+01:00

Went to the Comedy Pub today. I've been to the actual pub before, but not to the downstairs venue which is known as the Red Room. I'd found out about the gig as I'm on the mailing list of Mama Razzi who were first on. They were fine, just them both singing accompanied by electric piano.

The best act of the evening for me however was Trilla Jenna. She is a MC and singer songwriter. They started off with a cover of the Rolling Stones Satisfaction and then with songs I didn't recognise, self penned perhaps? Backed with an excellent band, the songs had a Reggae/Jazz feel to them.

The final duo were called Sketchbook (at least I think they were, I can't remember them actually saying their name). The singer had a sweet voice and some of the song quite good.

Tomokiyo, Lily Fraser and Rougier

2005-08-10T23:06:00.000+01:00

I went to the Betsy Trottwood yesterday (9th August). The pub has a really small venue room downstairs, it seems like there is hardly room for any audience a bit like being in someone's living room. A fair few people were in by the end though.

Rougier

First on was Rougier (sorry I could not find a website but see here).

Songs accompanied by accordion, angry songs, and funny. I did laugh at some of the lyrics, and although the set dragged a little in the middle, but ended well.

Lily Fraser

So after writing up the previous Lily Fraser gig I went to back in January it turns out that she is playing again and I can go, so here is the second entry for the same artist in as many weeks. In fact I wrote the previous article just to break things up a bit.

This was an acoustic gig with Lily singing, Milly Pay on harp and a new guitarist Greg Edwards, who had joined the band since I last saw them. The guitarist was very good and the harp and guitar work very well together.

The news is that there is going to be a new record out in about a month.

Tomokiyo

Last on were Tomokiyo They are said to mix elements of Coldplay and the Killers but I don't know about that, couldn't really hear either and its a strange combination. Never mind though, they were very good. I was going to leave early, as I had to be up early the next day, but ended up listening to their whole set.

The shortwave set

2005-08-07T21:43:00.000+01:00

I was listening to the CD that came with this month edition of the Word magazine with it just playing in the background and there was one song that leapt out as being good. It was Repeat to Fade by the The shortwave set. So I found out a bit more about them.

There are many samples, textures and out of the ordinary instruments and yet it remains a totally melodic gorgous song. Their album The Debt Collection was released last month.

They are playing a few support gigs with Goldfrapp this week.

Lily Fraser, 20th Jan, Bush Hall.

2005-07-31T20:40:00.000+01:00

This is a gig I went to earlier this year, but it is worth mentioning as it was fantastic. The gig was on the 20th Jan 2005 at Bush Hall. If you've never been to the venue I can recommend that you go and see what it is like. There are chandeliers hanging from the intricately decorated ceiling. On this occasion there were tables in front of the stage, were we sat.

I'd mainly gone to see Lily Fraser. You can hear a couple of tracks on her web-site, one of those reminds a bit of Kate Bush, but has also been compared to slightly more mainstream versions of artists like Frou Frou, Zero 7 and Portishead. Her band consisted of harp, cello, bass and drums which makes for a distinctive sound.

While I was there I bought the CD, as did several of my friends. The track listing for the CD is as follows.

It's You
Disagree
Man2Man
About You
Exposed

The previous band to play was Winston. I can't find a website address for him, he was going to be playing with his band, but as it turned out he played with just a drummer.

First on (unless I've forgotten someone, which is always possible since it was a few months ago) was Haley Glennie Smith. What a voice!

A place for music

2005-07-17T20:59:00.000+01:00

Its about time that I did the 'first post' thing to say what this blog is all about. I live in London so it will mostly be about bands that play in or around London that I have gone to see. It may also include the occasional review of a CD or website that is related to music. So that you know what to expect some of my favourite bands are Radiohead, Marillion, Elbow, Sigur Ros, The White Stripes, The Flaming Lips, Talk Talk, All about Eve, Kate Bush. Still I am more likely to feature lesser well known bands in this journal, since there is so much written about the bigger bands and everyone knows what they are like and can hear them on the radio.

Earthbound by Sophie Barker

2005-07-17T15:39:00.000+01:00

I recently bought Earthbound by Sophie Barker. It was a bit of an impulse as I can't really remember where I had seen the album cover before, although I was certain that I'd been to the website before.

Anyway it is good, there is a certain hint of the Cocteau Twins about it, which turns out to be not surprising as Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau's is one of the collaborators on the album.

She has written songs for Zero 7 before, a band I hadn't heard of who seem to be frequently described as being like the French group Air.

Filed as: music

French CD's

2005-06-26T22:52:00.000+01:00

I was recently in France on holiday and thought I would buy a couple of CD's of French artists to make the trip complete. Not knowing of any French artists I did the usual thing of looking at the covers and picking the ones that looked the most interesting. (People say that this explains a lot about my CD collection). The first one I picked was A prendre by Miossec. I was told that this was very good when I payed for it. I do like it a lot. I don't normally listen to lyrics that much, so them being in French isn't much of a problem for me. There are a lot of lyrics though and they are almost spoken rather than sung, they are said fairly quickly too. The second was L'envers du décor by Sita. The cover made me think of Dido. The songs can be compared to Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. Several of the tracks are in English, the rest in French. It seems that she may be from Holland originally though - I will find out more.