Lisa Knight's Blog, page 33

STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: SUNIL THAKKAR – SHADES OF YOU

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

Where people like me scour the east for sounds, ideas and rhythms, it’s nice to see that fertilisation come back to the west in the form of eastern musicians scouring the west for inspiration and sounds. Sunil Thakkar is from Mumbai in India and along with his city neighbour Prash conveys a western rock sensibility that is spot on in every way. Not really copying, more like transcending the genre and making it their own. So, the burning question of the moment is what do they put in the water in Mumbai to produce such detailed, accomplished musicians? OK, Sunil is a great example of this. He says he was inspired by people such as John Lennon, Nick Drake, Neil Young and even the most casual listen will show you just how close he comes to that impossibly high standard.

Sunil apparently got the idea for the song (yep, vocals) while wandering about the streets of Amsterdam which – having seen it myself – has a splendid autumn (fall to the ‘mericans) display that is eye candy personified. The soft, acoustic setting Shades Of You comes wrapped in certainly conveys the atmosphere as does the very 1960′s production and arrangement giving the song a fresh, bubbly feel that I found charming and – if you like the whole pop rock thing – I think you would too. I mentioned Sunil’s musical references purposely because Shades Of You could well have been sung by Nick Drake but in this case features guest artist Nimit Vaishnav on vocals and – it says here – keyboards.

I wonder if the piano tinkles are also courtesy of Mr Vaishnav? If so I must say that not only do you have an exceptional rock voice and style of delivery, but you play a mean keyboard too. Those piano tinkles make this winsome, light tune. At almost five minutes, this is a long song to take in but it won’t feel like 5 minutes while listening and therein lies another accomplishment, the ability to connect the listener to the content long enough to remember the experience. It was only after listening to this n dozen times that I found my own particular musical reference and it surprised the bejeebus out of me. There’s a section in the track where it echoes Peter Sarsted’s classic 1960′s hit Where Do You Go To My Lovely in a delightfully teasing way that I guess only an old fart like me would pick up on. What you should pick on is a classic pop experience told with a more than convincing reverence of the style.

A great tune, say no more. Highly Recommended.

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

Written by Steve Gilmore

POETRY: DEFACING MY…BY PAUL TRISTRAM

Anger, Hatred, Resentment,

Baggage, Issues & Bad Temper.

Neurotica, Mood Swings,

Impatience & Stubbornness.

Depression, Anxiety, Stress,

Insomnia, Screaming & Whispering.

Nervousness, Suicidal Bravery,

Alcoholism & Careless Drug Taking.

Anorexia & Self-Loathing,

Megalomania, Insanity & Paranoia.

The Fighting, The Police Sirens,

The Shame & Embarrassment.

Frustration, Noise Intolerance

then Weeks & Weeks of Partying

followed by Days of Cowardly Fear.

You Deface all of This and More!

With Gentle Love, Respect,

Caring & Unselfish Understanding.

How Dare You, It’s Not Fair,

I cannot possibly win against that?

Written by Paul Tristram

STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: ENCRYPTION COMPLEX – PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED

You can listen to this artist on MP3 Unsigned

While I am most definitely not partial to the spacey, look at me I’m flying side of electronica, I am most definitely keen on the more rhythmic varieties: drums and bass in particular if done well. I first encountered Encryption Complex last month when I reviewed All For You and I have to admit that – on balance – it was a cool introduction to this duo (that’s two people to the vowelly challenged). Obviously the hesitant tone in my voice right there means that it wasn’t without its niggles. I found that as nice as the track was – and it is an enjoyable listen, it kinda missed the overall point and was, to my ears anyway, a bit sparse in the ‘variety is the spice of life’ department. There again, it was based on the music of DWD’s* so I guess that would pretty much tell the story.

People Are Divided carries the same attention to sound detail that first impressed me about this MP3 Unsigned artist and – thankfully – this one is a little more angled towards my preferences in style too. Where All For You lacked focus, People Are Divided comes straight to the point and then proceeds to poke your ears with it. It’s a surprisingly rhythmic track, although it tends to veer into sound madness at the drop of a hat; those effects being complemented with some very cools swish yer ears out production tricks that assist the track enormously to get itself across. It helps that the intro quickly builds a brooding atmosphere, because, once the track slams into your ears, the sub bass sounds pick up that mood and make this track work for its bread and butter.

There have been some comments about the tracks levels, which have since been adjusted because I certainly couldn’t see anything that could be much different about the version I have. There is a out-of-control element in this track that takes that brooding mood created by the bass end and gives it a knifes edge; the musical equivalent of chalk on blackboard and I bet it will tighten your sphincter up a treat. That chaotic touch is – to me – the masterstroke of this track and what will make me come back to it more and more. There’s also a corresponding tightness in the production too that allows the track to explore the mood, with some particularly nice touches with the stereo positioning. When I first that synth fart around 3:00 or so, I thought it was my doorbell. Whadda ya mean, nobody has a farting doorbell? Life, my friend, is full of surprises. Speaking of which, People Are Divided is surprisingly good, well put together, intelligent electronica that contains all the main food groups.

Recommended electronica indeed.

*Hi!! I am a footnote, hence my appearance. DWD’s are dead white dudes in case ya wuz wonderin’.

You can listen to this artist on MP3 Unsigned

Written by Steve Gilmore

MUSIC BLOG: DIG THE NEW BREED – MONDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2014

The Parade – Connector

Fungi Girls – Old Foamy

Omi Palone – Whirlwind

Deerhof – Exit Only

STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: FEAR 2 STOP – DRAWN

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

My bitching and moaning about Fear 2 Stop is legendary usually about their ‘bizarre experimental electronica’ – their words, not mine – and occasionally about the sounds they use. Since I first came across them with Science Friction (January 2004), they have both infuriated me and – again occasionally – completely surprised me. By now, Billy and Dana Castillo and Raymond Proseus, must have grown calluses in their eyeballs the amount of crap I’ve given them over this time. I’m sure they also understand the reasons I have dumped on them so often, and I guess that’s just me being the usual picky Nicky, and them getting in the firing line. By far the overwhelming thing I am looking for in almost everything I listen to is impact, drama and music with a sense of itself.

Music with its own, unique voice. Now there’s a thing.

I’d be willing to bet that right now there are some held breath’s and ‘I can’t look, tell me!’ comments over at the F2S ganghut, so let’s be quick about it. You got two versions of Drawn to play around with; the original (which I link above) and the ‘alternate’ mix version where – apparently – noise reduction was used to reduce hiss. WTF??? Fear 2 Stop worried about noise and hiss? Kerrec’ me if I’m wrong, but I thought that was their whole song and dance. Mind you, to muddy the waters even further there is an 8 bit version mix that is ‘just for fun’ too and THAT is definitely pure Fear 2 Stop. I joke, of course, and I’ll get to the point right now. The reason I link the original track in this review is because – OK hold your eyeballs in, just in case – Drawn has (gulp) impact, drama and music with a special voice.

Deja vu all over again, eh? ;D

I NEVER thought I’d get to write this about this band, and I’m really pleased I’ve been disciplined properly about judging people. Despite the obvious hiss, which in this case I find really fits the track – there isn’t really anything else I’d want to touch about this track. It’s simple, fairly lo-fi and as catchy as avian flu (aah, poor birdies). Being a father myself, I am not going to go into the reasoning behind the track’s existence, but essentially a grim affair. The music doesn’t give quite the doomy feel you would associate with the event (the loss of an unborn child) but was made in 2004 when this occurred. I don’t think I heard the original at the time, and this is obviously a remix, and what a remix. Fear 2 Stop have pitched this one just right, and I have no hesitation whatsoever in urging you to have a listen – a very worthwhile track indeed. Especially if you like what Fear 2 Stop have been doing over the past two years, this will come as a very, very welcome addition to your ‘this is all mad stuff’ folder.

Excellent electronica, with that personal touch. Big thumbs up.

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

Written by Steve Gilmore

MUSIC BLOG: DIG THE NEW BREED – SUNDAY 16TH NOVEMBER 2014

Apache Sun – The Rain That Never Came

The Districts – 4th And Roebling

Carl Barât and The Jackals – Glory Days

She Keeps Bees – Owl

Compiled by Lisa Knight

STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: STATION FOR IMITATION – DARK CORNER

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

It’s a cast iron fact that as you get older you lose track of the things that stirred you in your youth. Me, I was shaken and stirred to within an inch of my life growing up through the 1960′s (yep, THAT old) and the music that informed my early years still holds a resonance I find missing in a lot of todays music. The only place I find that resonance these days are right here on the internet. Let me clarify. There was a time when music connected with you and me – Mr, Miss, Mrs Joe Public. What’s more it passed on lessons that a lot of us learned to put to work in our own lives so if the 1960′s really was revolutionary, it was a revolution of the mind. As the artists of the time learnt more, they passed it back to us – their audience – in their music and lyrics.

Imagine that happening today? Not ferkin likely…

The only place where a musician has real immediate contact with his/her audience is right here, but that carries its own problem. As well as telling you how great you are, your average internet audience is just as likely to rip you a new butt and no one is more painfully aware of that than the now defunct Station For Imitation. All reviewers have had a hard time with this band AFAIK, even while we all seem to have a sneaking admiration for what they do. Not an easy listen by any means, and a very difficult thing to review too, especially if you don’t necessarily see the point of it which was always one of my main problems with this artist. Being one of my earliest ‘experimental’ reviewees probably didn’t help either because I’ve heard considerably wilder stuff since making SFI’s acquaintance (around mid 2003) but listening to Dark Corner (released in 2005) I wonder how different things could have been.

See, I have reviewed shedloads of this artist’s material and in all that time NOT ONCE have they given me a track like this. Had they done that, then I might have adopted a whole different outlook. Why? Because Dark Corner is sublime, is why. Sure it’s as rough as my grandma’s left boot and as lo-fi as you can get but its as moody as my wife at ‘that time’ of month and thrilling in a way that I could never have imagined SFI to be. Why o why has it taken this long for this track to come to my attention? The thing that most defines it for me is because it’s a song, although somewhat unconventional structurally and full of flubs and errors, has a power that reaches beyond all those things. Not sure who is doing the vocal honours here but its f*** you tone and lazy bastard delivery fit it like a glove. It reminds me slightly of the early Velvet Underground in sound and feel and I suppose that is one of the reasons I like it, but there’s a definite power and fury to this track I have never heard from this quarter before.

Recommended. A flawed, extremely lo-fi, lo-rent sound but dammit, it has something…

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

Written by Steve Gilmore

MUSIC BLOG: Dig the New Breed – Friday 14th November 2014

Gwenno – Fratloish Hiang Perpeski

Fader Friend – I’m Still Waiting

Kina Grannis – The Fire

Matthew Squires and the Learning Disorders – Echo

Compiled by Lisa Knight

STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: ALCHEMYSTIC – INTO THE REALM MYSTICAL

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

Gotta love this. Get what Alchemystic has to say about this track: ‘a bloody cross-genre catastrophe’ Having read a description like that I defy you NOT to hear the track. I mean, is that a great come on or what? Not that this artist has to resort to such low and cunning tricks because, over the past few months, this electronica artist has been coming on like gangbusters. So much so that anticipation of his upcoming album – due to be released shortly – is rising amongst his known fans including myself. As you know, I am not much of a one for long, drawn-out instrumental epics but no-one does epics quite like Alchemystic and although there are artists involved in similar work to him, there is a specialness about Alchemystic that I find appealing.

T’wasn’t always the case of course. As is typical of me, I didn’t really notice what this guy was about until we were two or three tracks into the usual cycle. Maybe the Games Soundtrack genre listing was what first caused me problems but by the time Prelude rolled around (November 2005) I was hooked on this artists spectacular musical vision, as indeed are several hundred other folks who consistently visit this artists Soundclick pages. So what exactly does a ‘bloody cross-genre catastrophe’ sound like we ask ourselves? Sounding as if it were set in the Amazon rainforest, Into The Realm Mystical soon establishes that this an Alchemystic track; splendid instrumental choices, clever arrangements and detail, detail, detail…

One of the things I’ve always like about this artist (despite not really getting on with the genre he works in) is his unerring ability to write melody and Into The Realm is no exception. Full to the brim with strong aural images, the track is a movie set to music; epic in scale with a definite nod towards lands and people of a far, far distant age. Having been totally immersed in Civilization IV for a couple of months, I feel that this track could have fitted into the game soundtrack as if it were made for it. That, to me, is the defining mark of this artist. This is music you can SEE belongs in a game and what a game it would be, if the music was anything to go by. I’ve given up thinking about how exactly to describe what this is, other than a tantalisingly good instrumental, and I have some time ahead of me yet to pick out the many features set within it. Not my favourite Alchemystic track but definitely worthy of his talent and for those people still to discover what true game music SHOULD sound like, get a listen to this.

Highly Recommended, if a bit soundtrack-y…

Written by Steve Gilmore

POETRY: HIS SISTER BITCH-SLAPPED HIM IN FRONT OF US BY PAUL TRISTRAM

There were around ten of us

aged between 12 and 14 years old.

We had just come back

from ‘The Old House’

(A gang graffiti covered derelict)

down by The River Neath.

Where we had all taken

a couple of handfuls each

of Welsh magic mushrooms.

We’d sat around until we’d come up

properly then jumped the fences

crossing the railway tracks

back into The Melyn.

Deciding to hide away in the Woods

for a few hours to enjoy our trip.

When in the first street we beamed down,

the little guy saw his youngest sister

who was a year older than him

and she asked him what he was up to?

He told her with a squeal of excitement

what he’s taken and was right there

and then tripping his box off,

with a look of genuine happiness

upon his young and shifting face.

BANG! she open-handed him

right across the chops, a stinging blow

and his face turned white then green

and filled with terrified horror.

Some of us laughed uncontrollably,

some of us looked away in disbelief.

He just stepped away from her

traumatized without saying a word

and we continued on our way,

uninterrupted up to the Woods.

Where he sat on the edge of our circle

for the rest of the entire day

without opening his mouth once.

Written by Paul Tristram