It's No Time To Be Young

It aint no time to be young kids. In the last year I have regularly been heard complaining about getting old, be it the stiffness in my bones or an increasing propensity to wear cardigans I just don’t enjoy the feeling of losing my youth. It’s easy to become distanced from this idea of what is fresh and new by the simple additions of all the trials and boring mundanity that adult life throws your way but with the new found maturity that growing older has granted me I can honestly look back and see that being young aint really all it’s cracked up to be and in this day and age they really are gunning for you. With the proposed raising of the fees chargeable to students we saw an uprising of the youth and with the planned scrapping or at least reorganising of the EMA scheme the young un’s where once again left hopping mad. But I don’t really have a heartfelt compassion for the plight of the student and some of their arguments where laughable and unsurprisingly childish, it’s the bleakness of the future I empathise with them about. I know it’s the same future that we also share but we have chosen our paths and are fighting through the storms cast on the industries and careers we have chosen but to be at the start of it all trying to choose between the devil and the doomed now that could be worse than the occasional mug of coco and the wearing of slippers.

It seemed like everyone had their hands out this week squabbling for scraps from the table of a government with a dwindling budget and a insatiable desire to cut, every day there was a different organisation, service or lobbyist popping up to tell us how jolly well important they are and how chopping their money would be of grave danger to us all. I soon became de-sensitised to the bleating and moaning even more than my callous self usually is, I mean you can’t please all of the people all of the time and as much as It pains me to agree with ‘The Man.Plc’, no I don’t think the £30 a week to poor students will be being spent appropriately I mean notebooks I ask you. But the poor mites there is a damned if you do damned if you don’t kind of feeling about growing up today and it seems no matter who you are or what decisions you make your going to get screwed maybe this is a sad and bleak outlook or maybe it’s a real education in how life will feel.

Now before I get to music I must praise one bit of cinema and one bit of TV, firstly my first visit to the big screen to see 'The Kings Speech' although the hordes flocking to see this film would usually put me off I’m very glad I ignored my usual  frowning at whatever popular culture is up too and got in on the action, this film was a real joy a genuine, interesting and very engaging story that got people in a very real and sympathetic way, and odiously no surprise that Colin Firth has been nominated for an Oscar, I mean he didn’t go 'full retard'. And on the smaller screen we had the start of the eradiate witty and brilliant '10 O'clock Live', with the pithy banter of Jimmy Carr, the scalding cynicism of Charlie Brooker, the Kid in a sweet shop politician come geography student David Mitchell and Some Blonde useless baby bag filling segue. The tone is so left wing it occasionally flicks right over into fascism and points the finger directly at 'The bad people' but I always revel in the fact that we live in a country where such political dissent is not only broadcast but is so entertaining.

Now I have been finding it hard to listen to new music this week, not only because of the misplacing of my headphones but mainly due to the state of my life making me need old friends, I needed Biggy to cheer me up, I occasionally needed to wallow in Mr. Cohen and sometimes I needed to thrash angrily to The Volta. But there has been some great releases firstly and mostly ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will' by Mogwai Nobody holds bombast at their fingertips like these boys, the deepness of the sound they have always created gives them a quite addictive quality and when you've bought into it your clucking for more and hanging on each fraction of riff like it could be your last. Atmospherically they are the kings and this album doesn’t disappoint, there's a warmness to the sounds that is very comforting and the songs are as massive as they are delicate. Describing Mogwai albums is like trying to put into the words the feeling of riding a train when you have no idea where you’re going and you’re loving it, stepping out into the cold night with the sounds in your ears making you feel invulnerable. Put on some headphones and walk in the night even if you haven’t got anywhere to go and this album in your ears will make you feel like you can break through walls - its powerful stuff

With great power comes great responsibility and here are another bunch of Celts wielding power and volume with reckless abandon 'The Big Roar' by The Joy Formidable after the start of the first song you can see that the title is no lie this is indeed a wall of sound something big full and possibly scary. The shallowness and breathiness of the vocal does help to cage the beast but when the full force of the guitar halo is unleashed it really is something to behold. I like it, I like it a lot but at times I can’t help feeling that it lacks direction which is fine if they aren’t searching for any but I think there is a hint of the poet being hidden behind the roar, but what a roar. In Guitar terms it’s very textural with layer upon layer of repeating patterns soaring together towards cataclysm. Even in the more lyrical moments the guitars seem to hum in the background like angry indie punk bulldogs waiting to smash everything else out of the way and administer their dominance.

To continue the theme of overpowering noise we have 'Rolling Blackouts' by The Go Team! Don’t adjust your stereo's ladies and gentlemen the lo-fi dance crew are back to pump you continually up into some kind of modern soul bloc party frenzy. I can see why this is good, I can see why you might like it but I just don’t, I feel like I’m a fish being forced to listen to Junior Senior 'Don't Stop' over and over again through the glass of my tank. They do make me want to party and have a good time but not listening to their music, whack on some Budos Band or go back further and get The Furious Five out on vinyl and listen to the crackle and pop of music originating not stagnating - actually fuck I’m halfway through the album now and I feel like I’m stuck on a very long journey with 'The Wiggles' and they have been fucking cheerful for hours and all I really want to do is reach over to the car stereo put on 'Debaser' and smack them all in their grinning gobs.

On that note i will leave you for now, in the process of sorting out a brand new life for myself so i will return when the dust has settled and the internet connection has been returned with more ranting and possibly even a little bit of raving. Be good to each other.

Anger in the streets, Music in our ears

There is a lot of anger in the air it's almost palpable, not the shouting arguments fighting in the streets sort of anger but the silent brooding building anger that is in so many ways much more malevolent breeding an itchy distrust of every person you walk by. We started the Week with mixed messages of an increased terror alert that always remind me of a scene from 'Red Dwarf' where stepping up the danger alert from green to orange would mean changing a bulb, I mean there is no context to these warnings and it only feeds the public feeling of guilt that if something does happen it was surely down to their lack of vigilance and that they might as well been personally harbouring a terrorist under their overcoat. While we look out for the foreign enemy one of America's own picks up a gun and becomes an enemy from within. One act of rage starts a blame game that splits the nation in a rhetoric mix of rage and confusion it is not till the country's leader stands up and speaks sense that the true horror of the situation becomes apparent - in this crazy nation there is a man speaking sense and there is every chance he will be knocked from power by the very people who support the carrying of weapons that ended up with 12 dead and who turned this tragedy into a political stomping ground. 

The earth itself continues to show its anger and dramatic rage in continuing floods in Queensland and a mudslide in Brazil that have killed many and displaced many more a reminder that as much as we believe we have tamed this planet it can always without warning rise up and strike us down.

The anger rose through the week, for me personally a very tense and edgy time where i am being forced to bottle up emotions and show the appropriate face to the appropriate people plenty of taking it on the chin and turning the other cheek that seems to have got too much for the people of Tunisia. An actual eruption of anger floods onto the streets and becomes the very real visual and damaging anger of a people oppressed by corruption angered by powerlessness and goaded into a corner where it seems the only way is to heed the words of Zak De Le Roach and come together to "Take The Power Back". A president flea’s and a government is overturned and while the media concentrates on the evacuation of British holiday makers and the impact on the tourism industry they possibly ignore the growing dissent on home soil and the spur this might be to the rebellious masses that sometimes violence and dissension will have to be noticed and as much as you feel that you are backed in a corner when we rise together it can be a strike at the heart of those we feel the oppressors may be. So as Milliband and the new New Labour supporters celebrate a win in the Oldham by-elections as a strike at the government and a clear message towards the coalition maybe another public coalition dream of the message they want to get across.

            The anger continues unabated if maybe sometimes without meaning with the second album from Kentucky scamps 'Thank You, Happy Birthday' by Cage The Elephant' if you can see past all the misplaced and forced aggression in this album then it is really quite good, there are a lot of sounds here that make me want to not like it but for every one of those there is an edgy lyric or a slicing hook that lures me back in. This definitely could get placed in the 'too cool for school' category at times dumb and rebellious while still managing to fall into some of the traps and following some of the rules of a genre (see pointless screams into spoken repetition of "you are so cool"), but in some ways this is them pointing there finger at the very people that they are inadvertently being. But there are mellower moments when the singer’s voice has a more fragile edge that is redeeming. While at times i doubt how genuine it is the album has heart and an energy that is quite infectious.

Now i am put in a position to release my anger in my first slating of the year directed towards The BBC for their championing in the Sound of 2011 poll but mainly towards the artist who releases this eponymous sack 'James Blake' by James Blake after listening through the whole of this album i still don’t feel that i have a better idea of what Mr. Blake’s voice might sound like that is unless he actually is a robot with a broken voice box that seems to be accidently and at random operating his vocoder module. There are sketchy snatches of vocal with repeated melodramatically trite lyrics over huge echoing sounds of a keyboard thrown into an underwater chasm and attacked by angry octopus's or octopi. After the first few tracks i already want to hit somebody and this piece really takes the biscuit 4 minutes and 52 seconds of senior Blake repeating the self indulgent lyrics "My brother and my sister don’t speak to me, but i don’t blame them" well either do I, what did you do to piss them off so much? I'm guessing you played them this album. Auto tune and modulated voices are all well and good but unless a genuine brilliance in your voice is on display and/or a lyrical poetry then you are gilding the lily to an inordinate amount and apparently the BBC are eating it up voting him second in their ridiculous prediction poll for this year. My advice. If you feel like buying this record go home and put on 'The Eraser' by Thom Yorke and listen to a master at work.

Now i don’t know if it’s the Tories being back in power or some depressing loop that we as humans seem to be stuck in but it would seem the 80's are back. Two albums that show the good and bad side of this trend follow, let’s start with some more bitching 'The Ritual' by White Lies pounding industrial clanging loops starting on synth's and  echoed melodramatic vocals, drum loops that sound like Casio demo's but used with no with or character, you would think we would have learned. There is nothing new or interesting about this record the keyboard is relentless and the sounds aren't even nice they are dated strings and throwback electro drones, the vocal stays within a three note safe zone and the lyrics are cliché and pointlessly vague. Now i wasn’t really aware of the music of the 80's at the time being too young to take an active interest so i guess if there is still work to be done in this style then it may be being done here but myself and for now i find this quite trite and almost embarrassing.

and in The female corner we have 'Anna Calvi' by Anna Calvi the strength in this ladies voice is evident and it is caged behind an aching yearning growing of strength reminiscent of Kate Bush or Annie Lennox, a breathy sexy gasp that wraps it's lips around every word and gives real guts to the performance. If you wanted to make modern comparisons i would mention Florence and The Machine but there is a maturity to this album that sets it apart. 'Susanne And I' at times has a James Bond theme sound that retrospective 80's nature that doesn’t feel dated but let's a powerful female voice take flight. I'm not completely sold by all the song writing and for some reason the song 'First We Kiss' reminds me of the theme to 'Banana Man' but the voice is maybe enough to carry the sound into the modern age and make it an interesting if at times clogged album.

But ahead of those 2 bitches and 2 tainted praises was the excitement of a new elbow track previewed on the Zane Lowe show. 'Neat Little Row's' will be the lead single from the album expected in March. I am reserving judgment until the entire album is out and because the sound quality i got to listen to the track on was not what i would call excellent not allowing me to get my ears round all of Garvey's masterful lyrics. I am very glad that this track and what is being said about the album is a more sedate affair with a return to the Bristol Trip-Hop sound of the first album, after 'On A Day Like This' the band could do with steering clear of anthems and go back to the aching beauty that made me love them. Listen here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/zanelowe/2011/01/hottest_record_-_elbow_-_neat.html

So it's goodbye for another week and here's hoping for a change in the tides.

New Decade New Music

I can’t say that it was a positive start to the decade, I’m cold and feel the flu in my bones and see it across the faces of the population trawling through rain and the final remains of exhaust stained snow. The nation searches for a killer and we are reminded that we are a population that will murder strangers, abuse children and generally be foul to one another.
            The hangovers of new year are hailed by newsreels as the last decadence as VAT rises and the government tells us this will be an age of austerity - stay indoors and don’t mention 'the event'. The powers that be seem more like liars, hypocrites and turncoats than they ever have and we will feel the pinch in a year where the banks that the public bailed out will yet again hand out bonus's and see if London does not again become a battleground of protest.
England do pull of a colonial victory and retain that tiny trophy to remind us there are still some sports that we invented at which we can compete on the world stage, but when a percentage of the country we defeated is under nine meters of water it is hard to feel  like gloating.
But to counterpart the misery there is always the music. That in essence is the core of why I am writing this - that line that is thrown by the sounds in my ears to pull me from the gloom. who knows what will face us as a population this year and personally what trials I will be forced to overcome but I know there will be the tunes to make me ride it out like a defiant warrior poet I hope i can share them and ride the storm together.
Now I must implicate myself in crime in way of an explanation and apology. In a time when the financial misery's of the country seems even to infiltrate the bastions of music and HMV are facing possible closures and hard times ahead I must admit that I do not buy all the music that I listen to and that I will talk about. This fact makes me feel occasional shame especially when i admire the struggle of the music retailer and hope for the sake of my friends and for the good name of one of this country's fine market leaders that Nipper manages to weather the storm and adapt to the market i am in part helping to kill. Does this make me less or more of a music lover I’m not sure, I need this music my emotional state would severely suffer if i did not have access to fountains of new music the internet provides, So as the worlds fattest man takes our taxes to keep himself alive I’m afraid i must take the music I need to feed my addiction.
So if you will forgive and indulge me we have songs to sing and tales to tell.
I remember being very disappointed last year all geed up to document the year in music that the year seemed to start weak and I was let down by some albums that I had high hopes for namely The Gorrilaz and Massive Attack and all I heard on the radio was people blowing smoke up the arse's of the New Young Puritans who had produced an album I struggled to listen to start to finish. This year was the opposite as the first new music I am treated to in this decade is a free online podcast of 'Valhalla Dancehall' by British Sea Power on The Guardian website and I am grinning from ear to ear. The band tempted us with an EP called 'Zeus' at the end of last year and I resisted putting that straight into my 'Festive 50' in anticipation of this album striding across the start of 2011. There is a very D.I.Y ethic evident in the sound of this album with a big echoey sound that the band have been perfecting from album one. There is something here that is so sorely lacking from so much commercial indie and rock these days and that is a genuine emotion that grabs me from the get go and doesn’t let go. Scott Wilkinson has an aching desperation in his voice a breathy anger that makes the subtle yet sharp jabs of the albums lyrics and theme's seem even more poignant and relevant and swoons along wonderfully with the expansive sound of the record. This isn't new territory for this group it’s a stamping declaration of all they are and the sound they have got to offer, it is built out of the necessity in them to make music and forged together in the fires of Valhalla to deliver a combination of sounds all as genuine and vivid as the last. But don’t listen to me - go to 'The Guardian' website and listen for yourself. There's a simple brilliance to this album that I think it will be hard to beat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jan/05/british-sea-power-valhalla-dancehall-exclusive?INTCMP=SRCH.
'The King Is Dead' by The Decemberists now here is an album I have been looking forward to and we see the band have the good sense too not escalate the grandeur of their last album 'The Hazards Of Love’ but to deliver a great folk sound with great lyrics and an upbeat swagger of chords that has you wishing you where swigging and spilling a pint in good company. The opener 'Don't Carry It All' has a great atmosphere that could brighten up the most miserable of morning and as I say sometimes a song gets you when you need it most; whilst mopping out the toilets for the first time of the new year this really helped me through and the album continued and continues to make me smile.
'Showroom Of Compassion' by Cake this band have always been a sort of guilty pleasure, I don’t know why the guilt I mean they are never going to change the scene or break artistic boundaries but they deliver on a pared down funky level with catchy riffs and nice additions of sounds with the horns that make it hard not to see the charm and bop your head to the groove. The singing style may not be to everyone’s taste with the half spoken delivery but the lyrical style has an offbeat kilter of sarcasm which fits the infective sound of the songs.
'Red Barked Tree' by Wire Legends of the punk and post-punk scene return with a stylised and raucous attack of a record. No the original youth of punk is not there but who's to tell older punks what to do and though the sound has received a polish i think it reflects a more modern aesthetic of gritty punk, a band can inspire people then draw from the very bands that they influenced to create a modern record with all the gusto and panache that they ever had in their heyday. For every lull of mellower wistfulness there is a direct scathing attack that brings the album right back to the visceral viciousness we can expect from the elder statesmen of fuck the establishment.


So there we are the first part of the year in sound for me, but please do share, let me know if you have heard anything that is catching your ear or falling at the right time for you to ease you into a new decade. Until next time...



'So raise a glass to turnings of the season,
And watch it as it arcs towards the sun,
And you must bear your neighbours burden within reason
And your labours will be borne when all is done.'
                                          'Don't Carry It All' by The Decemberists from the album 'The King Is Dead'