The Long Season That Suits Us Best

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 13^th 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.

The Debt and The Payback

Back in the saddle and feeling quietly confident about the road ahead, just as the whole of Europe looks as if it may fall into financial ruin my finances are given much needed and appreciated assistance so I can finally head towards a debt free future. I will often rile against the greed and avarice of our species  and society when I know that I am racked with it myself, but luckily I don’t believe in hypocrisy or wait maybe I do believe and just don’t care enough not to openly flaunt my own. Maybe it’s a perfectly survival trait to take the easiest option and to always look for a way to get things as quick as possible as we never know when we might get eaten by a lion, but as usual we will fall back on the excuses of primeval instinct when the world we live in is far from primal and it’s not so much Lions we have to worry about now as much as the jaws of the Fat Cats. It is hard to live the life you believe in sometimes because your own views will not always run concurrent to the opportunities and restrictions that are imposed on you by the society in which you live, life is about compromise and carving your own place in a larger sculpture. It’s quite dour advice to hand on to future generations but I sometimes feel like telling them that rather than daydreaming of adult freedoms and the sparkling example they are going to set to mankind probably best to start working on some coping mechanisms before the entire population becomes either ravaged alcoholics or gun wielding fanatics. I took out all the loans offered to me and then took out more to pay for the repayments I couldn’t afford, I’m still repaying debts that I can’t remember acquiring and have been scratching around skimming the interest of the top of a large pile each month, but hey most major governments have been doing it for years so I won’t get too down on myself. Money confuses me, it scares me and as hard a s I try to live a bohemian life it seeps in to motivate me, I don’t like numbers at all, they immediately put me into a place in my brain when I feel small, dumb and idiotic which I then go on to perpetuate by acting in exactly that manner. I want a world that is fair, which may well be impossible, and Money is the greatest or at least most obvious indicator of the disparities in apparent fairness, you can’t on reflection asses someone’s apparent happiness or their level of contentment so we rely on the outward indicators that would suggest this veil of happiness but obviously we are lying to ourselves, these possessions and outward trappings don’t breed happiness but that sure as hell don’t stop us wanting them and giving it a try, so we borrow and accumulate and try to make ourselves into the smug prick in the nice car drinking the expensive wine who in reality is probably drinking to drown the sorrows of his unopened red statements and silence the sound of a bailiff knocking on their door. We are slaves and fools to the people who offer us more and until we learn to live on our own merit and to our own means we will continue to wallow in the bottom of their pockets. Every individual has their own needs and desires, wants and wishes and sadly it is unlikely that everyone will have the means to achieve these but is it right to have the idea that we could flaunted in our faces. Over a period of 2 years I successfully sued NatWest Bank for unfair charges that they had applied to my account but could it not also be feasible to sue them for letting me walk down a path it was so clear I had little chance to return from purely so they could turn a profit from my misfortune. Viva la Revolution Viva La Apocalypse.

On a strict diet of new music I find brief time to listen but when I do cram in as much as I can, it’s hard to put anything too interesting on in the work environment as it does hinder concentration and as much as most music makes me happy I do get moaned at for my “miserable” taste in music, but what the hell do they know, I mean listen to the jingle jangle riffs on ‘Portamento’ by The Drums although the sound is initially upbeat the lyrical content is sour and scathing, I can’t decide if this album is annoyingly infectious or infectiously annoying, I guess this lies with the contrast in the music and the lyric with the constant up-strumming of the guitars and the lifting hi-hat is sounded under tales of death and disappointment. Even after this their second album the band are apparently on rocky ground and don’t sight themselves as having a long shelf life but on listening more to the second album this does seem like a shame although the lyrics might be simple they are effective and there are some lovely sounds that give the record that addictive quality that is easy to get lost in. This isn’t a big album the success of the first album has maybe made them retreat into themselves rather than become grandiose and they have taken up business with a smaller label so as to produce something that is probably very personal and whether you like it or not, quite engaging.

The winner of ‘The Mercury Prize’ was awarded last week, a prize I watch with eager anticipation and occasionally mild annoyance, after working in music retail when the award was handed out I notice the opportunity the award offers to open people’s eyes to new types of music. Although I do think that the awards are adopting a taste all of their own and there are always so many formulas and ideas that they will pick the outsider but on reflection I think they are at least an interesting reflection of what is on offer even if you don’t agree with the eventual winner, and as Guy Garvey said in Interview they are apparently the best party for artists in the calendar. So in the spirit of discovery and with a breath of relief that neither Adele or James Blake walked away victorious I listened to ‘On A Mission’ by Katy B as much as I might want to say that this isn’t my thing at one point and in one part of my musical soul it most certainly is. When an artist is lauded with rising star status it can be a lead weight around their necks especially when the artist comes from a ‘Brit School’ education and is trying to compete in the highly fickle dance and urban music genres. I guess what has stopped my musical hackles from being raised is the quality of the songs, there has been no single band wagon jumped on and there has not been a endless list of collaborators and remixes filling up the dub step dance floors. The main ingredients is definitely Katy’s voice and although there are other unsung heroes whose voices have adorned D&B classics for years it is a good thing that these sounds are getting rediscovered with some professional credos behind them. There are a couple of smashers on the album but I think it is the subtler songs that attract the attention and showcase Katie’s voice the best. I think there is no surprise that this album attracted Mercury attention I mean they are the people who chose Roni Size over The Prodigy and Radiohead in 1997.

More power to PJ Harvey though two time winner with a very original concept and a corking album.

More little scampsters who seem to have their music well back on track much to my relief as shown in this realisation of where their talents really lie on ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’ by Bombay Bicycle Club even at such a tender young age these London Folk/Rockers have had quite a musical journey. I have always been stunned by their talent and craftsmanship threaded through their work and although I must admit I was slightly bent out of shape with the direction they had taken on the last record I am smiling now listening to a band do what they do best, imbuing that British Folk sound into pointed and perfectly executed heavy guitar driven rock. The album is well textured and pitched with Steadman finding space for his folk fascinations between songs that will have them being toast of the live stage with the young and the older admiring their great playing ability. There are songs of massive enormity and pomp and circumstance there are tender and sweet moments and there are pop hits and sometimes all three collide inside a four minute song. It is great to hear them on top form and continuing to carve a career for themselves as interesting and dynamic musicians.

That’s all for now and although there are many great Records in my airwaves there is never enough time and sometimes you need just that one last listen to make your mind up for sure, so speak soon and keep your ears and minds open.

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.