The Lost Summer Of My Discontent

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.

Hot Summer And Good Winter

Back from a field where I cast of the shackles of technology to give myself more freely to the worship of the sun and the start of a new season in the turning of the world, or to put it more plainly back from solstice celebrations sans new phone remembering that high-tech is not for me and that beating drums and swilling port in fields most definitely is. Then watched other people in fields as the self torture of televised Glasto footage enters my living room, but maybe Radiohead, Pulp, Eels, Elbow and QOTSA would have been too much for this little muso’s head to take in so I will just wish a hearty congratulations to my dear brother who proposed to his lovely girlfriend while at the festival and wish them all the best in their sun filled lives together. Meanwhile I will soak in glorious music as always and re-tell stories of my love with a big long rant about the brilliance of ‘Bon Iver’ and their self titled new offering‘Bon Iver’.

A highly anticipate release in my eyes, this is an artist who forms a beautiful soundtrack to the equally beautiful love affair I am still very much involved in. When I was worrying about the commitment I was forming with someone in a period of my life when commitment making was supposed to be very low on the priority agenda, I hesitated before booking tickets to a show four months in advance and all the connotations that might infer but was richly rewarded when we saw Justin and Co perform a show on December the 7^th 2008 at the Victoria Apollo that immediately entered my top 10 Live performances of all time (this list would be shared if interest was shown).

 Sam and I quibble over if it was during, ‘Blindsided’ or ‘Skinny Love’ that I first whispered those three special words in her ear. I can’t believe I would have been so clichéd to pick the single and after all ‘I’m not really like this, I’m probably plightless’. From then it was a single bed in a student house where we were prone to annoying the neighbours that the early morning slumbers were made the more glorious by the sounds of ‘re:stacks’ and the rest of the blissful album ‘For Emma And Ever Ago’, never a truer indication that misery doesn’t always have to breed misery and that heartbreak can nurture new love. Don’t worry it’s not the girl I’m going to talk about here it’s the music, besides I always read these ramblings to Sam out loud before posting them on that there T’internet so that has been quite enough soppiness to induce a blush on even my usually unflappable cheeks.

Justin Vernon soon became the man who went up a mountain and came down a musician, a mantle and mystery he can’t be too irritated by as the cover of the new eponymous release vaguely features  the abstract image of a red shack nestled in opaque surroundings, but I don’t feel that this is a release that could have been penned and planned alone in a cabin. There is a musical cohesion here that is born out of a group working on the same page and a rhythmic dynamacism that would be difficult to beat out alone, pardon the pretentious punnery.

The album reflects the interesting and diverse musical journey that Justin Vernon has been on since we first heard his heartbroken and weather-beaten voice three years ago. Encompassing the somewhat spooky atmospheric styling’s practiced in his side project ‘Volcano Choir’ to the vo-coded musings that have seen his work popping up in such places as Kanye West’s albums, but at the core is still the genius and honesty of a true warrior poet. This album is more an act of musical exploration than emotional desperation but it still manages to create the same mystical sense of belonging and all the depth of a perfect balance of bitter and sweet that ‘For Emma’ ever did. From a totally different place in their lives Justin and Bon Iver have created something truly magnificent, maybe that mysterious barn is inside of him to draw on that deep loneliness and no matter how far we all come we still carry the weight.  

There is subtle lairing in this music that is understated and hypnotic, the saxophone stylings of Mike Lewis give a haunting holy quality to some pieces that resonates so well with the coarse folk vocal. Each song is named after places, some real and some fictional that delivers the music from a landscape straight out of another place and gives the music a landscape all of its own, this is not a sing-along lyrical album its built upon a deeply personal poetry that bends round music that ranges from the depths of pitch bended folk to pure 80’s power ballad. Justin basks so brilliantly in the bitter but with the personally empowered vision that without this depth of misery we could never experience any joy. This is a love album with more reality and honesty than many people will ever be able to deal with, it addresses feelings of abandoning yourself and giving totally and freely to something that you are fully aware can throw you to the ground mercilessly, it talks of hiding in intoxication and learning from your mistakes by being able to criticise yourself and distract from your own self as a being of ego and become something more pure more holy. These messages are not thrown in your face they are subtlety woven into wording and music that will intoxicate and cure.

I will not be hesitating or feeling concerned at the four months I will have to book in advance to see this group play live in the UK again and will be very happy to be standing there with someone who has taught me so much and forced me to look at myself with a clearer view in an ever complicated world.

“Still alive for you, love”

                                                  Bon Iver – Perth

Plenty more good music been released of late and some long overdue reviews of some albums that have been on heavy rotation in my ears recently and obviously a whole host of ranting warbling amassing in my brain waiting to make it to my fingers before they surely cause an embolism in my brain. Listen to good music, eat good food and love your lives.

In Search Of The Infathomabale

Many of my late night drunkard rants and rampant belligerent scribbling over the years are related to the process of evolution to the point of being accused of racism and fascist barbaric views as I spout selectionism and the survival of the fittest notion that I see segregating a population. I have never been one to bear in mind the possible inferred connotations of a statement before throwing it out there, much more a fan of throwing things up flag poles and seeing who salutes (the nationalist sentiment rearing its head?), I have always been prepared to re-evaluate the notions I hold dear so as to be as bold to say things and then controlled and humble enough to dismiss them and am always aware of new levels of understanding along a path making previous beliefs unfounded yet no less relevant in the process of an idea evolving through this point.

As a species I see that we have reached the point of middle age spread in our evolutionary process we are no longer pushing ourselves forward with the view of survival but are sprawling ever sideward’s with the pursuit of comfort and happiness as our primary goals. What I can’t get my head around is the two dimensional and dumbed down methods we are implementing to try and achieve something while we don’t really understand or appreciate the goal, there is no long term thinking to our acceleration only an immediate quench for our never ending thirst. The Joy doesn’t lie in the knowing all and having all it lies in the yearning, in the beautiful journey. When we are striving we are at our best and as a species we have reached a plateau of complacency in a melodramatic slump.

The alternative, in my humble opinion is a retreat from the material and an evolution of our emotional states to become individually empowered people who measure our success purely on merit not against any tide mark set by others, to become a people who are vital and energetic constantly living the best days of their lives and who are so settled inside the limits and glories of their lives they feel no need to blow their own trumpets. Not adding to the cacophony of desperate needy choruses of self adoration but quietly sitting in the wonder of the whisper of other peoples open love. We would soon learn the deeper meanings in emotion’s that striving towards a notion of bright coloured saccharine happiness is not as rewarding as a path through a kaleidoscope of emotion feeling every one with no exception or exemption will lead to a true appreciation of joy with no need to have it validated or even noticed.

Feeling my emotions like great constellations across the sky, connecting the dots in grand and abstract patterns to create the monument of the heavens. Happy things won’t always make you happy and sad things don’t have to make you sad, the connection between things is never as simple as it seems and cannot be written in stone, it’s as whimsical as clouds and as easy to disconnect as grains of sand falling through our fingers. We have to give up on ourselves to be saved and find ourselves by getting lost.

Well clearly Solstice is coming up and my desire to sing the beauties of the world over the human dominion create this voice inside me that needs to beat drums and celebrate the few pure things we have left, so I’m sure I will get rained on at 4am as a bleak sun rises over a misty skyline and once again I can be refreshed in the knowledge that there are quiet places of being where we can look inside ourselves undisturbed by the trumpet blowing cacophony of the needy masses and we can evaluate ourselves against ancient stone and the life giving power of the sun and see our lives as they are, little more than dust on the wind.

And what better musician to soundtrack this world weary nostalgic melodrama than the new offering ‘Codes & Keys’ by Death Cab For Cutie The me some 5 years ago would have snubbed this music as introspective and wank but like I said we have to re-evaluate the power of emotion and what they can add to the depth of art. This is a very rhythmic album and far less guitar based than previous offerings with the repeated thumping’s of deep piano filling the space with the odd natty little hook that really are quite catchy, I guess that is the love hate appeal of ‘Death Cab’ the large sprawling soundscapes with the repetitiveness that are held together with the crunch of good riffs and some very sound turns of phrase, even if they do come across as a little twee. ‘You Are A Tourist’ is a standout track with a feel good cruising the coast feeling that really captured that feeling in my mind of feeling the happiness in sorrow. The album is a definite entire piece of work with an effortless flow through the pieces making it an enjoyable experience to be immersed in.

Also this week a new offering from the not so young no more scamps ‘Suck It And See’ by The Arctic Monkeys When this band first rose to fame from the depths of the internet to the front page of the NME I was at the centre of the retail industry that pushed them to having the fastest selling debut album to date and was quite taken by their cheeky turn of phrase and hooky riffs that nobody seemed to be able to ignore, 4 albums on and wanting so much to break the American market how can you manage to keep it new and vital without spouting cliché and becoming that little bit too cool for school, how do you escalate yourself to the higher echelons of the rock hierarchy without picking up doubters along the way. This album may have been recorded in the same studio as Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ but by people who were only 5 at the time of its release this is a group with younger influences doing all they can to take it all in and make a style of their own. The Northern charm and rough round the edges charm does endear the album to me but the relaxed swagger seems a long way from the jerky snatchyness that first pushed them towards the mainstream. The track ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’ is much heavier than anything the group has done before and much more like Turners side project Last Shadow Puppets and while the riff will have you head banging for more, lyrically it pushes the boundaries of cringe worthy almost to breaking point. Is this relaxed or is it coolness boarding on lazy, well like the band prompt you too its worth sucking and seeing.

Without lyrical constraints and with an endless soundscape at their disposal is the second release ‘Gloss Drop’ by Battles this band have a sandbox world where they can play with what they will without fear of reprisal and they use this freedom to create edgy infectious and deeply engaging interesting music. Somehow the chaos of all the noise manages to be reined in and kept consistent by an upbeat swagger and some genuine musical genius, layers of sound placed carefully to compliment and create something much bigger than the sum of its parts. The sounds on this album are much less aggressive and jarring than on ‘Mirrored’ that makes the album much more accessible which seems like a strange thing to say for such an unclassifiable maelstrom of musical movements from gritty gothic industrial sounds to an almost carnival feel of steel drums and samba drums. This is a real collage of an album that is a gripping listen with a surprisingly party atmosphere.

More pleasing electric plinkyness with some nice beats on another second outing by self produced self made man ‘Leisure Seizure’ by Tom Vek I will admit to being a little biased in my review here because I have met Tom and had a jolly good drink with him which instantly endears anyone too me but despite that this is once again a very original sound that is unabashed and compelling. The tight drums really form a solid base for the trill keyboards to spike around and Tom to use his lyrical styling’s to tell a down to earth and realistic story, I am drawn in by his honesty and forced to move by the underpinning groove of this high voltage stylish release. Maybe Tom’s first release was ahead of its time and seen as odd but this style has certainly com in vogue and deserves to be filling the floors at Indie disco’s across the land.

So I’m off for now to ponder the meaning of it all some more sitting in a field under the mysterious monoliths surrounded by the best kind of stinking hippies. So look forward to more new age thinking and a new album from the truly brilliant ‘Bon Iver’. Look after yourselves and each other

30 - Entering The Wilderness Years

So I turned 30 and am being forced into embracing maturity in far too many ways and reflecting on all the ways my life has changed and the ways in which I have changed. Many people see birthdays as no different from one another that every year is just another year but I certainly do believe in the importance of milestones and that certain numbers or events can hold specific significance over us to imbibe them with extra gravitas. I can say with some confidence though that age and maturity do not go hand in hand as I am forced to deal with the immaturity of those much more advanced in years than myself. It’s a funny old game this life we lead and the different hands that it deals to people is the wonder that makes us such a diverse and dynamic species but that at times fails to deflect from what arrogant self involved pricks it can make of people. For me embracing the stories and lives of others is what makes us mature, detracting from yourself and realising there are other plains of understanding that are above our own petty needs and desires.  I remember being in middle school and looking at the sixth formers parading around their common room not having to wear the blazer which was making me look so geeky and uncomfortable, sitting in the library discussing UCAS applications and their plans for the future, I was so convinced that they had it all figured out and that when I reached that age my life too would make sense and be filled with a meaningful purpose. On reaching those same UCAS application forms and still feeling geeky and awkward I realised that this notion that I would have made sense of it all by now was far from the case and started to look at those finishing Uni, my elder brother and his friends, listening to their crazy stories of independence and bold shows of individualism and spontaneity, surely these people have it all figured out and that these lives had become full of the purpose I was yearning for, but again at that age I was left disappointed and still no closer to something I still can’t say truly exists. This forward look to a place that looks secure from the distance then feels just as fragile when you teeter on its edge yourself has continued through my years but has now become more comforting than un-nerving.  I have found great peace in my life, a knowledge of myself that I thought I would never have, I still feel geeky and awkward from time to time but maybe that’s just me, maybe that is just my way of dealing with my projection onto the earth. So as each milestone passes without revelation I think I now know that life is a constant revival that we will always be yearning for a higher understanding and I have the humility to hope that I never find it because the truth is really in the journey.

Although I have become distracted from the news of the modern world by long hours and the drama of peoples personal lives it is hard to escape the tirade of coverage and publicised excitement surrounding the royal wedding that will take place in two days time. So does this event fill me with nationalistic pride or send me into a blind rage of Bank holiday based fury. I am very proud to be English and although sometimes spouting the words of a would be Communist Anarchist I am at least intrigued by the Royal family and the sense of reflection they give us into the past magnificence of our nation. The attention and fawning that the Americans feel towards our royals is an indication of their knowledge that there is something lacking from the nation they often tout as being close to perfection and getting one over on the yanks certainly provokes my national pride. My annoyance does come from The governments notion that by making this day a public holiday it is a gift to the nation that will bring us together in shared pride, for as usual I will be hard at work in front of the stove helping to add to the enjoyment of investment bankers and other vacuous fuck-tard’s who will be enjoying their extra day not sitting on their ass looking for new ways to screw the common man. I am not only selfishly thinking of myself or my hospitality industry brethren across the nation but of all the others for whom a bank holiday’s often mean extra work for no extra reward and to add insult to injury have to endure targeted marketing constantly reminding them how much extra fun every other fucker will be having while they slave away, They are probably all sitting around laughing at us gullible mugs. On the whole I am pleased at the attention that we are getting even if it is for something archaic and outdated but I’m sure that on the day I will be cursing the names of every person I see with a smile on their lazy 3 day week smug faces.

I know I am posting this quite a long time since writing it mainly due to the post 30 malaise that I thought would hit really did and I have been left in a quite torrential rain of uncertainty and good old fashioned hiding from your worries with the ever present help of booze. I know that nobody ever really has it fully figured out and that it would be so dull if we did but that doesn’t stop every decision we are forced to make being harder and harder as the gravity of time grow longer and stronger. But before this becomes some sort of speech given as sharing at an AA meeting I must remember the ropes that save me from the pits I throw myself into, maybe my life is just one long quest to compile the saddest playlist of all time or to find the songs that can save me from any misfortune, this week I was greatly helped by ‘Directors Cut’ by Kate Bush always bringing back memories of inappropriate behaviour in low life drinking establishments in Australia this cool seductress pops into my sound waves with an album of exquisite eccentricity and beautifully controlled and poised sensuality. It’s a tour de force for an artist who knows how to use her voice to invoke a reaction that is both visceral and intoxicating. Lyrically tied up in a world all of her own as she always has been the album creates a world that you are left dying to be part of. Essentially these tracks are reworking and rein visioning of earlier pieces recorded in an analogue studio to recapture the eclectically original sound that first made her such an engaging and vital artist but paired down and laid bare for me it is the honesty and compelling nature of the lyrics and the fantastic use of vocal technique that make this release a compelling and engaging listen

More musical elder statesmen returning to the studio to turn out ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part II’ by The Beastie Boys returning from a health scare Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA return to finish a body of work they started some time earlier and sound as vital poised and cool as they ever have. The sounds are reminiscent of the jazzier In Sounds from Way out but given a gruff dirty sound that sets them apart as dirty funk masters. How these aging hipsters don’t sound ridiculous I don’t know but they don’t possibly due to the humour and tongue and cheek attitude that they have always had towards an industry so full of fakers and people with small musical minds. Passing the mic to ‘Nas’ and delving briefly into a dub sound we see the boys not stuck in their ways without forgetting what endeared them to us in the first place.

That’s all for today folks keeping it short and sweet and trying to keep my head together, the broom cupboards of my life are being cleared out and I am trying to return to a more creative and inspirational place so watch out and keep it vaguely imaginary.