Well it seems that July and August fell off the edge of the calendar for me, really not for lack of anything to report but possibly completely the opposite my life became swamped with the constant barrage of work and the chaos, emotion and high jinks that creates. Sometimes I have no idea why i do the job i do because on paper it looks so daft but at others i couldn’t wish for anything i want more. But here is not the time to talk about my job, this is not the space for the disgruntled chef part of my I.D that would be a different and more curse word filled blog altogether, but like i say under the title of this blog, the world does get ugly and i have been driven to one or more violent outbreaks last month and not so much fits of depression but definitely despair and it is only now on drives home with the stereo turned up high in the middle of the night that i am finding the musical ropes to pull me on to a more manageable September.
The world is once again showing us its ugly side, its wanton desire for destruction and ability to create individuals who are so detached from the moral compasses to which most of us steer that they will hold their dominion of death and destruction no matter what. I managed to escape the business of life for a week in the Lake District where it was easy to retreat into the feeling of the smallness of life and our own inconsequential existences against the vastness of nature. But on my return the news was full of stories of great anger and hatred as someone’s cold blood had boiled and massacred innocent children in his retaliation of what he couldn’t understand about the direction our population is taking with its decisions. There are so few platforms of legitimate revolt existing that people are pushed and pushed in a highly restrictive pressure cooker where there possibly tainted views are twisted and left to fester and the desire for outlet becomes more and more vicious and as their views become more outrageous the walls that restrict them seem higher and the force needed to break them becomes greater and more bloody. Whenever a massacre of this nature occurs and people are shocked and outraged i am never in the crowd saying 'I don’t know how someone could do that', or 'It doesn’t make any sense' i am too enthralled with looking at the systems that restrict peoples outlets for their thoughts, no matter how bigoted and backwards and wondering how these incidents don’t occur on a day to day basis.
And then London burned, then the apparently disenfranchised youth raised their hoodie covered
heads and demanded to be listened too, they took to the streets to show those in power that they will be heard - if only that were the truth. For anyone with the spirit of Punk coursing through their veins it is a pleasing sight to see London Burning to feel that the anarchistic rebellion is upon us and that blows are being struck right at the centre of the rat race, that displays are being made that Capitalism is not unshakeable, but in reality this was just a sad indictment of the throttle hold that consumerism and avarice has over the young and how utterly unmotivated they are for change. With people rising together in anger we can show a message to a holidaying government that we will not stand for their impositions but instead it is seen as an opportunity to add to one’s personal collection of material possessions and show utter dependence on the simple and benign. When you hear riot and rebellion you think of fighting for a cause and a struggle of an oppressed people, like the Greeks condemning their governments spending spree and showing their anger but all we have here is a pathetic show of how terminal the consumerist tumour is that the desire to own will so easily bury and moral's and the self preservation is a distant memory in the land of the selfish.
Television channels parade the most vacuous and puerile members of our community happily handing out 15 minutes of fame to those with very little to offer. This is not documentary making designed to highlight a problem that needs to be solved it is sensationalising the ridiculousness of our society for the pure amusement of others, it’s a carnival freak show that sends me to the darker places of my psyche where i feel that a serious cull is in order. Lowest common denominator has become aspirational, brats and idiots spout celebrity as the only career they would consider entering and the perspective of our youth is bent so badly out of shape they take to the streets to parade their idiocy and mediocrity in the public eye.
Well as summer came and went in the flash of an eye and for me was spent inside feeling the heat of a different kind it is maybe even more important to have the sounds of a good 'Summer Album' to brighten up our days, by this i don’t mean a collection of BBQ tunes but an album that sits well alongside a long road trip or that uncanny feeling when you think life should and could go on
The Tripper by The Fruit Bats this great band have whimsy and great story running through all their songs and have a style that has laid back written all over it. An Acoustic groove is created in repetitive patterns and the vocal tells us tales of another place that seems so enchanting. With this offering the band are layed back to the point of reclining fully horizontal and there is a relaxation in their music that is hard to ignore. By this their 5th album they don’t have anything to prove and if you have already enjoyed previous offerings then this album will sit well with the maturing band who are settled in to a relaxed groove, this is one for a stoned afternoon in a field in the middle of nowhere, not a festival just a field and the characters conjured will prove all the friends you need for a summers picnic.
Torches by Foster The People it became somewhat impossible to ignore this band as every radio station and TV interlude started to use a snippet from one track to segway through their shows so when you actually got round to hearing the song proper you where sure you already knew it well. Maybe the album is a bit of a pop cliché, but maybe that is what the perfect "summer album" is all about giving validation to feel good sounds that us uppity musical snobs would usually pass off as meaningless and passé. The formula is all well worked out and extremely well delivered with vo-coded voices and a whistle you can’t help but purse your lips too, there is an infectious feel good nature to the songs and a definite air of celebration that I think imbues the album with sunlight.
Circuital by My Morning Jacket I’m sure that this will not feature into many people’s idea of a summer album but my perspective is sometimes slightly different and hell I’m not writing this for anybody but myself so you will have to listen to my strange pigeonholes. Although the album came out in May I have been somewhat behind schedule and this album hit me at just the right time. There is a magical quality in Jim James’s voice that have always made this band a standout act for me, surfing so effortlessly between the gloom and the sun I think they are the perfect band to play out a wet English summer. The album is comprised of some songs destined to have been played by ‘The Muppets’ in a project that fell through that shows the whimsy with which the band can approach songs that others would see as heavy. The band have a big sound but they use it to conjure a wonderful rhythm and drama, there are layers of sound and great rhythm in guitars and tambourines that create the image of a jamboree of musicians that are somehow always on point with retro sounds used to create a very individual and unique sound. Songs like ‘Holding on to Black Metal’ combine a James Bond esque brass stab with a choir of children which lends its innocence to a song about well Black Metal, and what a understated yet excellent guitar solo. Bringing the big band sound straight together with jangle pop and an epic sound the album is a not to be surprised at exceptional achievement.
But with little thought needed strolling to the top of the summer album charts and more than likely straight into the top ten of the year for the second year running with typical style and swagger comes D by White Denim This album is quite simply a tour de force of a group of musical maestro’s that have honed their complexities into a coherent album that is overflowing with killer riffs and more styles and seamless transitions than a Conservative spin doctor. Type the band’s name into Wikipedia and there style is described as so:
“Their music draws influence from dub, psychedelic rock, blues, punk rock, progressive rock, soul, jazz, experimental rock with home-based recording, jamming approach, intense looping work and unusual song structures.”
I mean what’s not to love and the band flit through the styles and forms without dropping a beat are fluttering an eyelid. The rhythmic complexity is as engaging as it is jaw dropping and the layered intricacies of the guitar pattern is as mesmerising as it is face melting. There is a sense of dropping in to the middle of a Zappa esque freak-out after walking away from a jam with Fela Kuti, just before a jazz flute epic that would have Ron Burgundy spitting with jelousy. The band have scratched around with lo-fi recording techniques and moderate obscurity but with a second guitarist in place and access to a modern studio the band have delivered a masterpiece without diluting the kudos and spirit of the blues band that they had created in their previous recordings. There are very few moments of relaxation in this work it’s a driving sound of technical brilliance and counterpointed precision, does that all sound a bit over technical and musician wanky because the album certainly doesn’t, there is whimsy in the vocal and pure blues rock keeping the album securely on the rails and more than likely straight into another top ten placing from me.
So there it was the summer of 2011, and while I baton down the hatches for a rain filled September I am firmly back on the search for the new and interesting sounds which will fill my autumn with aural sensations. My finger is back on the pulse and will be poking at a keyboard a lot sooner this time, until then remember to live life like the captain of a sinking ship and I will swim in your escapades soon enough.
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