So the nights draw in and the wind starts to bite at our bones in a way that draws us indoors and has us pulling on our jumpers and coats, even when the sun is bright there is a chill to the air which will be passed off as just “fresh” by all those who are still desperate to stay outdoors. Soon I will drive to and from work in the dark and although I will gain an extra hour sleep on a Sunday it will be followed by mornings scraping ice from windshields with jumper sleeves pulled over my knuckles as makeshift gloves. The long dark grey will fall over our glorious England and once again we will remember who we really are. I love this time of year and the gloomy weather and temperature that goes with it, I love my jumpers – from the oversized baggy ones that may have never seen the inside of a washing machine to the preppy smart ones which are that bit too tight. I love my coats, from the ¾ length black I got as a present when I passed my ‘A’ levels, to my large green army jacket that has seen me through nights asleep on the beach, I pine for them over the summer because as much as we may try to disguise it this is what suits us. Rolling up the legs of our jeans on a surprise hot day or the people queuing to buy beer on Brighton beach dripping from the sea in their underpants shows how blissfully unprepared we are for summer, the pasty arms and chicken drumstick legs of the English are not meant for tropical climbs.
As a chef the start of a new season is always an exciting time when new ingredients become available and the colours of your plates changes and you bring out the cooking techniques that have hibernated over the summer and you slow braise and casserole meats and serve up hearty hot bowls with billowing steam billowing over your dishes drawing people in on undulating tides of smell. Everything shall be topped with a drizzle of truffle oil and once again we will resist the Spanish urges of summer cooking and dig into our grandma’s English recipe store for the true heart of British cuisine. Though it may be a real pleasure to sit in a beer garden eating Tapas enjoying a long glass of Alcoholic ginger beer spiced with Rum on a seemingly endless afternoon during an Indian summer it is not truly me or indeed us, we have taken it from other countries Australian Ginger with Jamaican Rum on an afternoon that seems so out of place we even name it as a time from another place. Glorious Englishness is alive most at this time, in the spring we show our wilful optimism in the summer we show our quirky idiocentricity, the Winter is for our stiff upper lip and stoicism but the Autumn is where we are ourselves, wistfully melancholic in the hinterland between two extremes where we make do and mend and remind ourselves of our true nature as we kick piled leaves and hide our heads in hats.
Heir Commander Cameron gave a speech extolling the virtues of our nations great and malevolent past, quickly I passed this ideal around my International friends mainly my friends The Celtic Tigers in Ireland (who’s Colony is well overdue an inspection) it was an act of amusement that might be derived from our pompousness and presumption of making light of a situation that in reality had our elder brothers pointing guns at each other. But while I might see this type of political positioning as puerile and disingenuous I also see the method behind the Magner’s in his intent to remember the alliance and cohesion that has been achieved in most or at least some of those post colonial countries and use the avenues of our history as a good tool to explain or exemplify our current existence. Some of our youth are unaware that the English empire once governed over India and without this knowledge of history how can we expect them to understand the integration of Bradford the rise of Islam and the evolution of the chicken tikka masala. Without the facts of the thirteen states and the Canadian domination how can the “close relationship” make sense and the subtitles of Comedic differences of opinion on the uses of sarcasm be truly appreciated. From the sublime to the ridiculousness and far too often veering into the disturbing stories from our nations past how can we expect to understand the present and move to the future?
And then we ‘Occupy’ our own country in a means of protesting against the ownership and government which controls us, I mean I have lost all my faith in the process of protest it seems to be mindless looting or some sit down yoghurt weaving process that only seems to irritate the most mundane among us. I yearn for a time of change and for blows to be struck against the heart of the capitalist consumer culture but I don’t believe putting a few tents in front of a church is going to make a blind bit of difference it only goes to make people look desperate and think and hope that next time they can store their energies up for something a little bit more spectacular. Wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularised in the film ‘V for Vendetta’ gives some pretty violent backdrop to what is in essence a sit down process – we need explosions, we need gunpowder, we need a light lighting under peoples arses that can’t be ignored. Two blogs in a row and I’ll say it again Viva La Revolution.
And then Music shows us both the quirky nature of Britishness and a connection to a by-gone age of brilliance and simultaneously shows the capitalist desire for cold hard cash as ‘The Stone Roses’ announce a reunion and some hometown shows that are sure to pad their bank balances to quite a comfortable level. As a nation we have undoubtedly created some of the greatest musical groups of all time and pushed our style and influence all over the globe an empire of music that there is really only good things to say about. Our home music scene is fiercely competitive and local in nature that has created alternative scenes and musical feuds within the confines of our small island nation, The Stone Roses where at the crest of a wave for a seemingly short amount of time but there influence was huge and there are many bands and indeed entire scenes that owe their existence to these Manc chancers. For me the band marked the end of my days obsessed with the music of The Beatles and an opening of my ears to a wider array of sounds and musical possibilities, I bought their eponymous classic on a market stall in the centre of my mining town homeland and remember rushing out of the urban hub so I could sit in a park and get enveloped in a new sort of sound, not only were there great songs here it opened my ears to new sorts of music and broadened my horizons. I fondly remember ‘The After Dark Club’ in Reading and there weekly Indie night where I would grip my plastic cup of rum and coke between my teeth so I could raise both hands in the air in riotous appreciation of the first few bars of ‘I Am The Resurrection’ so booze soaked and brain addled it is a band I will always be pleased to hear. That doesn’t make me suspect them of being untimely musical whores who will play to an enormous crowd of diehard fans who will be easy to please and make a massive pay day out of it, I guess that the proof of the pudding will lie in any new music and if they can manage to muster the same level of exciting newness in there sound – I wait with baited breath.
Music has been flooding over me in the last month great soothing tides of brilliant albums which makes it difficult to decide what to mention and not to seem like I have become a gleaming goon who thinks everything is fantastic but I will attempt as always to be subjective and let you in to what has been keeping a grin on my tired face over October.
‘The Year Of Hibernation’ by Youth Lagoon is an instantly engaging album that has enough familiarity coupled with a ghostly newness that makes it an at times haunting and yet reassuring sound that is quite an accomplishment for a 22 year old musician all alone in his quiet Idaho suburb. The rise of the bedroom producer has re-sparked an interest in the Lo-Fi production that started with a raw grunge sound that now encompasses some intensely professional offerings that make up a large segment of the accomplished indie scene. The melodies at use in this album are beautifully crafted and used to poetic effect to rise through the song to change their timbre from spooky chants and whispered memories to chest beating anthems in recognition of who we are. It is easy to draw comparison with the work of bands like The xx who have given new focus behind the simple sound but young Trevor Powers seems to have accomplished this without any of the posturing and faux coolness that make The xx almost intolerable and incomprehensible to me, he shares more with the vast sounds of Sigur Ros and as far as to the pounding yet placid heart of Mogwai. The Year of Hibernation as the name suggests does not seem to be a desperate attempt to become part of the IT crowd, to be a trend setter or push any scene forward it is an album that can be deeply personal to anyone who has the pleasure of listening to it and can perfectly soundtrack that descent into the wonderful maudlin feeling of autumn. I can’t fault this record for its sounds or its ambition without the need to be pushed into a limelight that only helps to shadow the music, you can take The xx and James Blake and shove them up NME’s arse because this level of brilliance is what studio’s and bedroom producers are going to have to rise to. A treat of an album and quite obviously strongly recommended.
Recommended to me by a good friend who has loved this artist for as long as I can remember but has never managed until now to batter down my resistance is the latest release by a Cardinal’s free release ‘Ashes & Fire’ by Ryan Adams It’s been a long road for this Alt/Rock troubadour and he has seen scenes rise and fall as he produced music through it all and has always been an under rated champion of true love of musicianship in all its forms but with this his 13th release he seems comfortable at home and back on top form. Set to quit music with the end of his band The Cardinals and an illness that damages his balance and hearing he was driven back to the music of deeply personal and engaging music by pure love of the art and by a competitive spirit as he listened to releases by artists such as Laura Marling who are taking the genre of Alt/Country and modern folk to new extremes. So Adams comes back with ferocity and knowledge of production that spans over a decade and creates a great future for his music that resonates with the strength of his back catalogue. The southern twang in his voice gives a history to this man singing the blues and he pulls on rich use of instrumentation that give the songs an inviting warmth and hospitality to them. There is a great deal of sadness peppered through the album that casts the singer as a ghost in his own life viewing events with a detached sense of reality that can give at times feelings of hope and helplessness, its powerfully emotive while still being musically engaging and will have you pounding the door of your car as you sing along with the soaring impassioned vocal. It is never going to have a raw edge with such polished production but that too leaves no room for error and a great sounding board for a great singer and lyricist.
Stepping up the pace for the need to drive quickly and feel that pumping in your chest is the second studio album ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ by Justice having mainly heard the first album at ear splitting volumes from speakers meant for rooms far larger than the ones they have found homes I pressed play on this the French duo’s second offering with trepidation of torn ear holes to follow and was richly surprised and delighted. The band themselves have dubbed this as a mellower album of ‘Daytime music’ but in reality it sets them apart as innovative musicians with a lot more to offer than we may have first thought. The album is a pastiche of everything from 70’s glam to Big Stadium rock without forgetting to nod a head to the creators of a scene closer to home. Few artists can span War of the Worlds, Ac/Dc, and Led Zeppelin while still mastering your hero’s style with Daft Punk robot precision. It might not be the powerful bombast of the first album but it is humorous and well paced outing and a stroll around the odd scenes that have influenced the artist. Most music is retrospective and draws heavily on influences and it is one of the great gifts of dance music that you do not have to be shy of tipping your hat or blatantly taking segments of music from other producers to create something of your own. When this is done with reverence and humour it can make music that can’t fail to put a smile on your face.
That’s all for now but I would like to just spend a sentence to dedicate this post and my thoughts to my friend Loncey John Ngahooro who died this month and left a lot of people thinking back to happy days with him in places past and far away. He was a true gentle giant and I will always remember him with the sun on his back and a smile on his face. Keep your ears and hearts open people because it’s all just a fleeting chance.
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