What Are They All Having For Their Tea

 There are far too many people in this world, this is a recurrent and often completely stifling thought that clouds my mind and at times makes moving around on the face of our overcrowded planet a tiresome and relentless struggle.  It’s the answer to all our questions it’s the solution to all our problems and although a merciless, unemotional outlook that opens you up to possible fascist arguments of selection it is a cold hearted fact that I from time to time wish there was far less of us.

“Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit

of the population, perhaps it’s time we control the population to allow

the survival of the environment.”

                                              Sir David Attenborough

We have to stop seeing the smiling or crying faces of individuals and listening to the stories that make us special little snowflakes and see ourselves as part of a species that is consuming its habitat at an uncontrollable rate. It is the natural urge of and animal to continue its hereditary line into the future but you would hope that as our species evolved it would learn to look at the bigger picture and realise there are more pressing issues to ensure this aim then purely procreating.

Myself as one of the approximately 7.063 billion souls cluttering up these 57,505,693.767 square miles of land talk about this from not only an ecological point but from a purely selfish social one. The way we have spread ourselves across the land that is available to us is a response of ease so that we are able to deal and build as a social and economic group, it all makes perfect sense but that doesn’t stop it being a perfect pain in the arse. As I get older I like less and less people, I have a strong sense of my own identity and the traits in others that I like to be around, this is coupled with a lack of time to see the people I have found that fit my criteria so I have no need for more and more humans cluttering my part of those square miles. The constant clatter and noise of all the people we cram into trains in our heaving cities and suburbs fill my brain like the blunt thud of a sledgehammer smashing my synapses into a thousand meaningless nothings, this problem is accentuated when you spend time in a country whose language you don’t understand because the blissful unawareness is so soothing it is like a mental spa. The act of trying to ignore the cramped conditions we are in screws up our faces and as hard as we try to ignore we are intrigued by the enormity of the populous and our places in it.

When I see large expanses of accommodation, be it large blocks of flats, cityscapes or driving through seemingly endless mazes of suburban dwellings I always wonder to myself ‘What are they all having for tea?’ it is a way of objectifying the mass and concentrating the multitude within realms that I understand and connect with. Most likely they are all tucking in to horse laden lasagne and oven chips and the thought of that makes me despise society even more and myself even more than that for being such an incurable snob. Society seems to cater specifically for the lowest common denominator and this is the section that seems to be expanding at a far more than exponential rate. Maybe Horse or insects or a synthetically grown organism is the only way that this world can accommodate the notion that we all want, not need a protein rich diet and the smokescreen that seems to be in place to make us believe that all is well is forcing it to be an underhand sale rather than an out and out confession. If you want to live in a Capitalist country where finance garners success then our agriculture may not be able to support your desire and we would rather lie to you than admit that we just can’t deliver on demand at the cost that lets us live in an inclusive society.

Politics struggles with these issues on a day by day basis and is stifled by the constant desire to appeal to all for the pure necessity of re-election.  How democratically elected politicians in the contemporary, polluted self-centred system effect any real change that would be productive in a real and effective way to the population when their base desire is to please and keep on side as many of their bloated constituency as they can. People will point the finger at immigration but this surely is a natural reaction to a capitalist state that forces the opportunities into a smaller and smaller space while the population spirals out of control.

Political correctness and the belief that all humans are born equal have blinded our views to the same degree that religious fanaticism lead to Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution being seen as hokum and totally offensive. Will we one day see our current reluctance to view our own lives from an outside and subjective position as repressive and stunted as an atheist may view creationism today. Climbing the busy stairs of The Natural History Museum towards the marble figure of Charles Darwin and wondering how he would view the endgame of how our evolution would continue and the ramifications of us becoming the dominant species in this world and maybe one day others. Our sense of entitlement and morality may have hidden from our hearts some harsh reality and certain of our technological advances in medicine and welfare have led to the notion of survival of the fittest being another extinct notion.

My personal sympathy is very low and is chipped away at every day but then again I am a successful young mammal who is living a comfortable life more to do with the attainment of luxuries than providing necessities. I’m here spitting rhetoric but have in my life made a conscious decision to step aside and admit that I have no desire to busy myself with human advancement but to live purely for enjoyment. I don’t want to be important or pivotal I just want to encourage people to enjoy the time they have and take the best that they can as we compete in this ever complicated game of life, I trust my fate to the power of the planet not the wills of the creatures that inhabit it.

This ranting debate in my mind could go on forever but it is more eloquently and beautifully shown in the Channel 4 Drama Utopia. Rarely has a piece of drama so acutely encapsulated visual aesthetic, political rhetoric and powerful and poignant imagery and delivered it in such a slick way to a mass audience. The freedom afforded to the media is ever increasing and this visionary drama is clear proof of that, the action is brutal and the message is applicable to the society right outside your door – this isn’t Cold War paranoia it isn’t dystopian futures this is the world we are living in today and it shows how close we could be to tipping point at every point.  I’m not going to speak about the actual plot or exploits in the series because I urge anyone who has not watched it to do so and it would be terrible to spoil any of the gripping and compelling drama so get to it and enjoy because it’s completely mesmerising and a true call to arms for the masses of people who see the world in the dim light that I do.

 

This year seems to be continuing in the comic book style that it started with more Sickapedia material being produced every day with the crazy goings on of the world, be it Horse filled burgers, resigning paedophile protectors or the unfortunately/fortunately timed shootings by paralympians. I have once again withdrawn slightly being taken over by the comings and goings of my own life and the frustrations of a malfunctioning keyboard. Music is having a real hit and miss output with more music flooding into my ears with nearly 60 albums making my 2013 folder so far but there are a few that are standing head and shoulders above the noise – in honesty I cant keep up but I will at least attempt.

  Us Alone – Hayden

                                                I have always liked and sometimes even rolled over into loved the voice and work of Paul Hayden Desser, even though casting my mind back to first discovering his music doesn’t find me in a good place it fills me with the joy of sadness that it seems his heart and voice are still wallowing in. Little has changed in the style since his first release in ’95 a sparse sort of folk that tells small and lonely stories that conjure a wonderfully painful and artistic world. There is a poetic slowness to his work that is laid back and faltering steady to the point of almost stopping. The breathy vocal and occasional empty stage ghostliness is as eerie as it is effective; it speaks to heartbreak and the feeling that nobody could ever understand the longing or the injustice, it is candlelight music that is painfully personal yet held in that heartbroken part of all of us. Some might feel threatened by the cavernous emptiness of this sound but I think it is very fragile yet totally musically assured and engaging. Try it drunk and when you feel that the world is against you and you will feel that you either have a friend in misery or at least you aren’t as low as this guy.

This isn’t an expansive album its subsinct and lonely even but its oozing with  atmosphere and heart and really honest and gritty real emotion.

   Jim James – Regions Of Light And Sound Of God

                                                            An unfortunate tumble from stage leads Jim James to be bedridden with time to reflect and in the company of some inspiring literature and possible concussion related delirium and at the other end we have this album and a look inside a musician with great scope and ingenuity. With the 2011 album ‘Circuital’ Jim and his main project My Morning Jacket opened themselves up to a much larger audience and hit the true stride of all their output was capable of, here we see the underbelly of that with a mash of concepts and feelings that while still delivered with that same tone that lures us in to Jim’s voice there is a freedom to explore and throughout the album go further down the rabbit hole into personal and religious exploration.

The album title inspired by the lithographical pictorial book by Lynd Ward a Methodist minister who charted his struggles through life and the divine with black and white prints, this audio interpretation is at times quite haunting and questioning, yet is studded with a laid back funk and groove that really draws you in. The sound is expansive at times unnerving but when you view it alongside the art that inspired it gives another dimension and an artistic experience that is quite vivid. The new background image for this blog is a Lynd Ward piece, I can see the attraction for an artist laying back and viewing their place in this life their ability to connect to art and ultimately their mortality.

  AMOK - Atoms For Peace

                                                It’s good to have friends, especially when they are super talented and share your vision and want to do things like form Super groups with you and produce cutting edge music that everyone will hang on every crotchet of. This line-up was originally the touring band that Thom Yorke took out to play songs from his debut solo album ‘Eraser’, they obviously enjoyed the experience and to have such creative people together and not to create would have been a loss so we have this group and this album. The name comes from an Eisenhower speech and a movement he forged to assist the public moving forward into a nuclear age so in Yorke’s dystopian mind it must have fit perfectly.

Much has been done in the world of sketchy, glitch electronica that I truly hate many bands that will fawn at the feet of this release are to me pretentious inaccessible and so much style over substance that it sticks in my ear canal and makes me truly hate it. What they all miss and should learn from this release is the addition of tune, of letting the layering and technology mix with instrumental prowess, song progression and dare I say it tune.

Far from saying this is a straightforward rock album, it is a digital dream that seems sparse from humanity and somewhat cold but it also delivers on substance. The noises are warm and atmospheric and the ghostly presence of Yorke’s voice is as intriguing as always. 

The sound can be stifling and disconcerting but maybe that is indeed the message there is a dystopian feel yet it is all underpinned by a tribal beating that grounds it within the realms of the human.

This endeavour could have been labelled as indulgent and ridiculous but infact it is as organic as it is electronic as jazz past as it is glitch future and while it isn’t soothing or easy it is listenable danceable and above all enjoyable.

    Local Natives – Hummingbird

                                                            A much mellower and understated offering in this much anticipated release from the LA that could be much more ‘their’ sound than the attention grabbing first release.  There have been many differences and difficulties in the production of this album that have seen the members shrink in size but grow possibly quicker than nature in age and maturity and release an album from a much darker more personal space.  The loss of the lead singer’s mother is a reflection in this album; it is not based around excess and the frivolity of youth it is based around that shrinking world feeling and a tenderness that ages us faster than time. On first listen The Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ may seem like a love song for a jilted partner but in honesty it was about the loss of McCartney’s mother, this is a deep love that connects us to the earth and everything we are as people and hearing its sorrow in the opener ‘You & I’ is a touching way to give flight to this intricately vocal album.

There is a real cohesion in this band and a precision that let them take soaring flights of fancy with a underpinned rhythm and structure, that adds to the vocal centre. Great use of techniques and the space in which they record gives an echo and realism to the sound that is as simple as it is complicated to capture. The songs feel like they are part of the place they were recorded and the very presence of the band is changing and adding to the sound, it is a subtlety to production that relies on faith in the sound to leave an amount of the polishing to the air itself.

“Haven’t stopped you smoking yet, so I share your Cigarette”, these are personal songs drawing from the simple things that become so much more in their absence. This band are not pushing upwards into melodrama as high as they did with the likes of ‘Airplanes’ or ‘Sun Hands’ but they are giving the same flourish and panache inside a reigned in approach. The same lift is still present in songs such as lead single ‘Breakers’ where that reverb seems to shake like a tightly coiled spring as the drums rattle along to give real urgency to the cooing waves of harmony. Still present are the stabbing hits of ‘Math Rock’ genius that wriggle with synth pips and plonks as the drum layers grow in their simple lines on top of each other.

This album is a wonderfully reflective place, I didn’t pay enough attention at first as the striking impact wasn’t there but that was only because I wasn’t listening closely enough to a band that have delivered a great advancement of their sound but on reflection it has all the punch and wit of the first release and I’m refreshed in its tender subtle brilliance.

    Holy Fire - Foals

                                 It’s only February and it’s already time to start gushing, I suppose it is Valentines so a good opportunity to declare my love and tell all albums to follow that you have got your one to beat. It is hard to know where to start, so I guess I will try the beginning. When you are met with an opening track called prelude your guard goes up and you are worrying that you might be walking into a pretension minefield – I should set the scene that my first full listen took place on a drive between Reading and my house through the tri-counties country lanes and with a rather large spliff in my mouth. The opener was immediately reminiscent of the rambling and excellent ‘Break into Heaven’ on The Stone Roses much maligned but for me much loved album ‘Second Coming’, if the baggy guitar beat had blended in to album first proper and first single ‘Inhaler’ then we would have had a perfect start but after that I have literally no complaints so I may be picking at straws. This album sets its stall out quick and manages to hold that intensity, swagger and dance floor cool throughout the 11 track playlist.

‘Inhaler’ is an absolute stonker with a blend of infectious beat and riotous guitar ferocity. The quality of the production wraps us in a drum beat that fits perfectly amongst the maelstrom of guitar noise while Yannis Philippakis’s voice soars above like a crooked angel before ripping itself against the rocks of chest beating chorus wonderfulness, the hair came down for this one, I went full Viking for what is the best guitar solo I have given myself neck ache to in some time. All this praise and we are still on track one.

Quick drop into the second track and the mood lightens in a contrast that makes me swoon and we are bobbing our head after thrashing it so piously – this is dance floor rock with no sense of triviality or trite flowerings but lashings of cool and toe tapping joy.

There are such a catalogue of noises in this album that the tracks form around that are not gimmicky or overdone they are quite simply perfectly set to enhance core songs of true strength.

There is a strong tone that runs throughout but it is punctuated and added to in a way that makes each track grow in new ways – which is praise indeed for an album with such a strong opening. ‘I’m the loudest Cowboy in this town”, what a line.

I am reminded of many other bands while listening to this, the floating subtle guitar twiddling’s of John Squire, the northern bombast and psychadelia of shouda woulda coulda hair rock wannabes The Music, the big bag of toys glee of The Cooper Temple Clause but on top of all of these it is more like a completed message a coherent package that delivers in all the other areas where others have fallen short. The Breakdowns are pure Funk which is such a solid backdrop for that Bez dancing bounce, we have glockenspiels we have a snare sound so tight even Martin Hannett would be satisfied and the album is still riding high. Plucked strings and syncopated hand claps, over a wall of what sounds like rainfall it rises into a drumbeat and takes us to a euphoric cloud of indie enjoyment – I am totally in love.

The band apparently toned down their consumption of marijuana when going in to produce this album which shows, it’s a professional and highly polished piece of work that has all the hallmarks of the knowledge of blissed out excess, it is brooding and sexy at times fragile and at others has all the strength to break down walls. Much muck has been slung at British guitar music in the past few years but I can’t help but declare my admiration for this well-crafted album and how well it reaffirms the Brits ability o make such engaging and truly powerful works, it fills my chest with pride especially as they hail from Oxford I mean I truly believe there is something in the water.

Once again its been too long, while I have had plenty of time my head is awash with ideas as I try to push my life in new and exciting ways but I must always remember to come back to this warm space where I can be saved by music.  I look forward to speaking to you all soon and keep any suggestions flooding in, im always wanting to know what is making your hearts sing.