Brainleak Station 12

"One musical instrument appears in nearly every programme: the concert hall. True, a hall makes no..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:17:01 +0100

“One musical instrument appears in nearly every programme: the concert hall. True, a hall makes no sound of its own. But it acts as an extension to every instrument by reverberating sounds, selectively enhancing or absorbing various frequencies as it does so. Take the hall away and the sounds of instruments are reduced to a shadow of our expectations.”

- Robert Jourdain from Music, The Brain, and Ecstacy

It’s not my fault. I blame @tastelikedeath

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:09:21 +0100

It’s not my fault. I blame @tastelikedeath

Wishing my wonderful parents a very happy Pearl Wedding...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:26:08 +0100

Wishing my wonderful parents a very happy Pearl Wedding Anniversary!

"If somebody asks you what’s the smartest species or who’s the smartest person,..."

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:57:14 +0000

“If somebody asks you what’s the smartest species or who’s the smartest person, it’s the equivalent of asking, what’s the best tool, a hammer or a screwdriver? Well, what’s the problem you’re trying to solve?”

- Brian Hare - http://brianhare.net/

12-for-12: Appendix

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:40:00 +0000

A month ago I posted my year-end-list/stealth-manifesto, and I’ve noticed a few trends:

There seems to be more brass than usual. This, in the year I started to learn the cornet. This is clearly a) the cause b) an effect c) sheer coincidence d) some unquantifiable combination of the above.
The list veers heavily to the folkier end of the spectrum.
Despite listening a lot of radio (3-4 hours a day for parts of the year) it only introduced me to a couple of tracks on the list. (These two.) (And, to be fair, they did play a couple of others I’d already been aware of.)

There was also a bunch of tracks that didn’t make it into the twelve, (some of which I’d begun writing up before I actually thought to count how many songs I’d picked) which I’ll throw in here:

(Please note: the extended list slightly invalidates some of the previous trends…)

Tilly and The Wall are a band who vigorously scratch my itch for joyous, shambolic, stompy indie pop. The last word there is kind of strange, given that they don’t really command the kind of audience numbers which would usually classify as popular or even hew to the currently favoured template of generic commercial music. I think the quality I’m attributing as “pop” is a combination of dancibility, upbeat vibe and hooks. Massive, ridiculous, grin inducing hooks.

Bass driven, foot stomping, hipper-than-thou, earworm fodder made hugely endearing by the slightly awkward insertion of gender politics. It’s always good to be able to dance to a defiant assertion that the possessive language of a relationship shouldn’t mean a possessive relationship.

Huge post-rock guitar textures, wooshy takeoff noises, thunderous bass and anthemic vocals play second fiddle to some truly spectacular drumming. The drums dominate, fully in charge and explosively driving the track. It’s the sort of track I would describe as epic; if that word didn’t feel a touch devalued thanks to linguistic hyperinflation.

(huge thanks to @catvincent for the recommendation.)

Jewel in the Night by ColChrisHadfield

I think I’d love a song recorded on the ISS out of principle, but this is a genuinely gorgeous Christmas song. The beauty of the Earth from a rare vantage point is present in every note. Proof that manned spaceflight ought to embrace creative expression if it’s to provide something a robot can’t.

I’m a fan of emotional intensity in music and Xiu Xiu push into full on hysteria, frequently with uncomfortable subject matter and confrontational instrumentation. “Hi” is towards the more accessible end of that spectrum (I wouldn’t even know where to start with “I Luv Abortion”), an addictively bangin’ piece of self loathing.

Sometimes I just want to curl up inside a heartfelt love-song, buoyed by sisterly vocal harmonies and built around references to iconic country romances. I think I was a little over specific there. Lovely track though.

Channel 4 Paralympics - Meet the Superhumans from IWRF on Vimeo.

After weeks of coverage convinced me that music and the Olympics was a recipe for mediocrity (at best), Channel 4 dropped an advert that is almost certainly the music video of the year.

The Gotye original is a well produced pop song with hooks to spare, and I’m always a sucker for tracks which use different vocal parts to tell different sides of the story (especially with male/female harmonies). Walk Off The Earth lose nothing from the original but do throw in a spectacular gimmick, that is not only fascinating to watch, but adds a degree of intimacy and immediacy.

&amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://noahchevalier.bandcamp.com/track/why-be-born-list” data-mce-href=”http://noahchevalier.bandcamp.com/track/why-be-born-list”&amp;amp;gt;why be born? (list) by Noah Chevalier&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

Yep, we’re all gonna die. (Probably.) How pointless that makes life is entirely a matter of preference, but I tend to believe making rudimentary recordings of passionately existential songs pretty much justifies the whole shebang.

The Sorcerer’s Intern featuring my Mum on shaker Most of...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:07:13 +0000

The Sorcerer’s Intern

featuring my Mum on shaker

Most of the stuff we’re working on at the minute is pretty time intensive, so it was a bit of relief to do something more spontaneous.

1/12: The Fire Eater by Kaki King

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:05:00 +0000

One thing comes after another. I’ve tried to sequence this list with some sense of flow (albeit not as tightly/forced as last year) because music is never static - how each moment flows to the next is usually more important than what happening in any given moment.

Kaki King is an extraordinarily accomplished technical guitarist, watching her play, it’s a joy to see the dazzling layered tones coming from one guitar. The Fire Eater (from Glow but I went for the unnacompanied version) flows through several distinct regions, moving through different aspects of her style, from sparse tension building to rhythmic release and a gentler harmonic comedown.

But her playing never becomes tiresome, ego-driven showing off (as can be the risk). Despite the complexity there’s always a thread of beautiful simplicity to follow: no section is incomprehensibly dense, no transition feels bolted on or jarring, the playing never overwhelms the track. Beautiful.

2/12: The Morris Man Cometh from The North Sea Scrolls

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:54:02 +0000

Ok, I promise to stop complaining about my own one-track rule after this, but context is important. It’s why I prefer albums to singles. It’s why I still buy hard copies. It’s why I’m writing these.

North Sea Scrolls has done a lot to create context for itself: a concept album with spoken word introductions/narrations, an accompanying time-line, paintings, and live shows where they dress appropriately and use a projector to inject extra context into proceedings. Weaving a surreal, sprawling, interconnected, alternate history of our green and pleasant land. Context.

Fortunately, a heavy folk song about brutal morris dancers is gonna be awesome whatever the context.

l i n k

3/12: The Walkers Lament by Legba & Sons

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:53:20 +0000

My favourite part of the Matrix series is the haunted/glitching house segment of the Animatrix. It managed to be quiet and beautiful while remaining completely faithful to the rules of a world more obviously tuned for hectic thrills.

The Walkers Lament pulls off a similar trick, embedding a moment of stillness and beauty into a zombie apocalypse. A post apocalyptic folk ballad capturing the deep sadness of having to shoot your loved ones before they eat your brains.

<a href=”http://legbaandsons.bandcamp.com/album/the-walkers-lament” data-mce-href=”http://legbaandsons.bandcamp.com/album/the-walkers-lament”>The Walker’s Lament by Legba & Sons</a>

It also manages the rather magical feat of not sounding like a new song. There’s something about the way the structure is stripped to the most resonant elements, where easy rhymes and certain lines invite a singalong on the first listen, that feels like it’s been passed through the refining process of an oral tradition.

Of course, even if the song had been around for years, I’m pretty sure Tara Bratton’s gorgeous performance would still count as a definitive version. A beautifully clear voice that pours a lot of heart into what could have been very alien subject matter.

4/12: Dawn Chorus by Beth Orton

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:06:28 +0000

I can’t help but think Call Me The Breeze is the wrong choice of single from Sugaring Season. Oh, it’s a lovely tune and I can see why it might be considered an easy entry point (especially in a market where Laura Marlin has been successful), but: Beth Orton is one of my absolute favourite singers and, from an album that acts as an broad yet subtle showcase for her voice, it’s a track which does little to accent the idiosyncrasies that make me love her voice so much.

Dawn Chorus has a relatively sparse backing of delicate guitar, warm double bass and shuffling brushed drums, where the vocal takes centre stage, vocals which are unmistakably Beth Orton, crescendoing in a rush of syllables that, through rhythm and repetition, shake off semantic shackles into a bubbling cascade of the human body as musical instrument: a sonic sculpture poured from a mould of lungs and vocal chords and tongue and teeth and a lifetime of singing, from cradle to studio. Lovely.

5/12: Dorcus by Kemper Norton

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:44:35 +0000

One difficulty in selecting individual songs is losing a sense of context. In the case of Dorcus, that loss is especially severe because its position on this list has a lot to do with how I first heard it.

It was a month of strange gigs, one of which was a night of electronic musicians, mostly sitting and poking at electronic musical instruments. Heck, one laptop musician may well have pressed play and sat checking Facebook for all I know. Kemper Norton alleviated this somewhat by having several instruments, walking around the stage to play/trigger different segments of the music.

But Dorcus*, played on the harmonium and with sung lyrics, stood adrift on the night as something magical. Now, I’m not the sort of preposterous snob who goes on about “real instruments” - any tool for making music is a “real” instrument – but I have to confess, the human voice is something that has a fundamental resonance. A human anchor in a sea of ethereal, electronic sound.

<a href=”http://kempernorton.bandcamp.com/track/dorcus” data-mce-href=”http://kempernorton.bandcamp.com/track/dorcus”>Dorcus by Kemper Norton</a>

It has a similar effect thanks to it’s position on Carn, the rest of the ep provides context with Kemper Norton’s woozy, “slurtonic” atmosphere. But I’m picking individual tracks: I can’t just site the rest of the ep. Fortunately, it’s bloody good in its own right.

It builds on a drone with washes of static and slurtronic ambience in a way that hardly draws attention to itself, but provides an open space for the warmth and beauty inherent in the human voice. The immediacy and character that can be heard in singing is hard to beat, and this song showcases that in a gently poignant way.

*Given that I went to the gig a while before the ep came out it’s possible I’ve gotten muddled up with a different track. Nonetheless, the effect is equivalent and Dorcus is a sublime track either way.

6/12: Illuminations ג by Quetev Meriri

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:50:00 +0000

“Weird/strange/odd/not-normal” is only an insult from someone scared of new things.

At the very least it should be neutral, but personally I love that feeling of acclimatising my brain to the unfamiliar. Which I mention because I’m struggling to find a more precise description for Quetev Meriri than beautifully strange. A conclusion doubtless accentuated by the fact I don’t speak Hebrew, but also an inherent part of the disorienting collage of sounds coming from their music.

&amp;lt;a href=”http://quetevmeriri.bandcamp.com/track/illuminations-3” data-mce-href=”http://quetevmeriri.bandcamp.com/track/illuminations-3”&amp;gt;Illuminations ג by Quetev Meriri&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

There’s a lot of gorgeous brain melting stuff on BeEle HaYamin, but Illuminations ג has the added bonus of cramming a lot of brain twisting stuff into a rather short span of time. I’m a big fan of density, and cramming animal noises, discord, off kilter timing, springy noises and a piano pushed into music box territory, into less than two minutes is welcome blast of dense strangeness.

Photo

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:21:23 +0000

7/12: The Coventry Carol by Madam

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:14:13 +0000

There are two main kinds of Christmas song: one is tinsel and stockings, excitement and bright colours; the other is curled in front of a fire on a cold night, a full belly and a glass of mulled wine. Madam’s interpretation of the Coventry Carol is certainly the later, although I think someone’s spiked the wine.

<a href=”http://madamband.com/track/thou-tiny-child-the-coventry-carol” data-mce-href=”http://madamband.com/track/thou-tiny-child-the-coventry-carol”>Thou Tiny Child ( The Coventry Carol) by Madam</a>

It’s a 16^th century carol and one of my favourites. It has a beautiful, tragic melody and, usually sung as a choir, uses some harmonies that are somewhat strange to modern ears. It also focusses on the death of countless children which is a minor story beat in most tellings of the Nativity.

On top of a gorgeously fragile vocal and ominous cello line, Madam accentuate the strangeness and the darkness with various studio techniques. I particularly like the heavily panned reverse reverb on the drum.

It may not be the most joyous of festive tunes, but it is an marvellously sinister version of an incredible carol.

8/12: King Of Rome by The Unthanks

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 18:38:19 +0000

Diversions Vol. 2 is a warm, effortlessly moving album combining the folk tradition and charm of the Unthanks with the rich, expansive sound of Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. If I had to pick one song, and I do (it’s the rules), it would have to be the utterly magnificent King Of Rome.

Musically stunning and emotionally moving, it’s a truly wonderful song about a somewhat unlikely subject: pigeon fancying.* If you’d told me 2012 would find me welling up in the street as the radio plays a song about a pigeon being blown off course I, well, I might have believed you, but it’s still kinda surprising.

It’s a superbly constructed piece of storytelling, establishing the pigeon as a source of everyday hope and joy, before throwing all his dreams into peril. The warm, intimate vocals of the Unthanks carry every beat of the story, illuminating every moment of yearning, defeat and victory. There’s a deeply personal concern for Charlie: even “I told you so” is sung with love.

And Charlie’s response catches in my throat every time.

Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band paint the picture with a subtle brush, holding back when a light swell carries the mood and pushing to the forefront when emotional release is needed. The instrumental section towards the end builds layer upon layer, lifting up on shining wings through radiant sunset clouds, always finding home.

I’ve avoided ordering this list in any sort of ranking, but if I had this probably would have been number one. Every element is exceptional and they work together in beautiful harmony.

*Despite picking a song about pigeon fancying played by a brass band, I am, in fact, a southerner. I know.

9/12: Kaksi by Lepistö and Lehti

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 20:16:52 +0000

There are few things as satisfying as musicians who know their instruments and each other well enough to let the music go wherever it wants without fear. That golden point where each musician is worthy of centre stage, but never slips into the realm of overbearing ego likely to trample the emergent beauty of a heartfelt collaboration.

Lepistö and Lehti push their instruments far and wide (honestly, I discovered a bunch of different sounds I didn’t know an accordion could make) completely backing each other up at every turn, making the sound of accordion and double bass a phenomenally rich and diverse combination.

(You can click through, I couldn’t get it to embed properly.)

Kaksi (fittingly enough, the Finnish for “Two”) spends the first half with a pulsing accordion sound providing a space for bowed double bass to roam and play, before switching roles for the accordion to take centre stage. It’s a deceptively simple structure where each musician has his chance to shine, but each trusting their partner enough to know when to step back. The pulsing builds to a transition point (and again at the end of the track) of a tight, fluid interplay where the both complement each other stunningly.

10/12: Class by The Indelicates

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:33:00 +0000

It’s bad enough having a bloated proportion of Etonites in government, without business, finance and culture improbably dominated by private schools. It’s bad enough the top universities were overloaded with privilege before fees, without setting a price disparity that forces a financial taint into the heart of education. It’s bad enough that elites naturally favour their own kind without a government entrenching those divisions.

These are hardly new issues, yet they remain perennially, depressingly, relevant. Ideal subject matter for a politically charged song.

As valuable as it is as social commentary, as much as I agree with the scorn poured upon a system that extols platitudes of fairness while clawing against any changes happening despite it: I actually love this song for the mounting tension that explodes into woozy vaudevillian lunacy and the wonderful fat bottomed “a” when Simon Indelicate sings the word class.

11/12: This Charming Lady by Maggie8

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:57:39 +0000

The Smiths are a deeply important band to me, having influenced me at a deeply formative stage, so hearing a cover version always fills me with trepidation: will this live up to the music I love? Maggie8 go a step further and write a song that takes This Charming Man as a starting point and builds something new from it.

<a href=”http://maggie8.bandcamp.com/album/this-charming-lady-ep” data-mce-href=”http://maggie8.bandcamp.com/album/this-charming-lady-ep”>This Charming Lady EP by maggie8</a>

It’s difficult trying to top Maggie8’s description of themselves: Hindi Indie Superstars. This Charming Lady directly references the Smiths and their music shows hints of dozens of other bands, but I’ll avoid playing the spot-the-influence game: partly because it’s far too reductive an approach for my tastes and partly because my knowledge of Indian music really isn’t up to the task.

But This Charming Lady is very much its own song; the trail of influences leads to a new destination. Music tends to feel derivative from too few influences rather than too many, originality emerges from a rich selection of creative fuel, and Maggie8 certainly have their own distinctive voice.

And what a voice it is. The familiar riffs and phrases dance through a gorgeous tapestry of surprisingly complimentary sounds that diverges wildly from the Smiths. They took a song I love and added so much of themselves to it. I love that too.

12/12: Poetry Nights In Valhalla by Yair Yona

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Creating music has, inevitably, affected the way I listen to music. People frequently mention the hyper-analytical aspect (often as a complaint, which baffles me) but it also drives my tastes, drawing me to people who are already working with ideas I want to work with. Music I love to listen to inspires what I want to play which influences what I want to listen to which itself inspires what I want to play which [loop forever].

Yair Yona is a superb example of this: I was drawn to his music largely because he has key influences I share and a style of fingerpicking combined with atmospherics and arrangements that appeal to me as a player (which I was drawn to because of music I listen to), and listening to his music has subsequently pushed my tastes and my playing style.

His playing style is one that wrings a lot of sound out of a guitar, building beautiful complex structures from six strings. What I love about Yair Yona in particular is the range of ideas and influences he stuffs into those structures. Listening to the range of rhythmic and melodic ideas he brings to his playing (even without considering the gorgeous arrangements) it’s clear he’s a man of broad and excellent taste. (A supposition confirmed by reading his blog.)

<a href=”http://yairyona.bandcamp.com/track/poetry-nights-in-valhalla” data-mce-href=”http://yairyona.bandcamp.com/track/poetry-nights-in-valhalla”>Poetry Nights In Valhalla by Yair Yona</a>

Poetry Nights In Valhalla creates a rich web of 12-string guitar fit for Asgardian verse, intertwining with lyrical brass and clarinet, chiming bells for the cheerful dead, erupting into a drunken Norse festival. The sheer richness of the sound is gorgeous and when the bass guitar makes it’s presence felt the whole track goes properly fuckin’ bananas. One of my favourite guitarists at the moment.

In Love With A Robot A song of technophillia in the face of...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:00:13 +0000

In Love With A Robot

A song of technophillia in the face of capitalist harrassent.

I was reminded of this track the other day. I wrote it a couple of years ago and don’t think I posted it. Probably because the recording smells a bit funny. Still like the song though.