INTRO
Apologies for the delayed OUTSIDELEFT Week in Music. Yesterday was just so yesterday wasn't it? The vehicle that transports all of the equipment to the Night Out went missing and our good friend Magic saved the day amazingly well, and saved what turned out to be a magical night of ancient blues from Chickenbone John and Dave Hall on blues harp. I can only say "Oh wow, what a night." The best OUTSIDELEFT Night Out ever, someone said. If you don't believe me, come on over on the First Friday in April (5th) for Monroe Moon... Meanwhile, DJ Fuzzyfelt (3), Toon Traveller (11), Alan Rider (8), Jay Lewis (2), Ancient Champion (3) and Lee Paul (1), were listening to music made all over the world this week, from Kazakhstan to California to Nuneaton and many more points on the globe. So much so.
SINGLES
by Jay Lewis
There is a purity and timelessness to Josienne Clarke's voice that makes me want to double check the record just to make sure that I am actually listening to a contemporary artist and not some long lost peer of Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson or early June Tabor. Furthermore 'Most of All' is just Clarke and an acoustic guitar, which adds to the intimacy of the tale, lo-fi and honest. The lover in the song can write a beautiful love song 'but can barely sing at all.' Nothing is perfect, so just take stock and count your blessings. A new album, 'Parenthesis,I' is released on 10 May 2024.
by DJ Fuzzyfelt
Canadian garage punk 3-piece led by singer/guitarist Juki, no surnames, release an EP of fuzzed up loveliness with a good deal of snarl. The lead track, White Liquor, is the best but they're all worthy of your attention. If you have difficulty finding it, Chaputa Records have a Bandcamp page where you can download it.Check out Chaputas many other releases while you're there. Added kudos for the fact that the cover was designed by somebody allegedly called Eric Baconstrip.
by DJ Fuzzyfelt
SHAKE! is exactly what you'd expect from The Courettes. Hip swinging shouty and catchy.Had me dancing around the kitchen and whistling the chorus while I was collecting pine cones and kindling. YOU WOO ME didn't I'm afraid. An outtake written, recorded and forgotten about until they needed a 'not on the forthcoming album' b-side... But the record has a great cover, and the gold vinyl is so thick it could break a toe if you dropped it on your foot. So,despite the ropey b-side, 4 Big Hearts.
by Toon Traveller
A sophomore love affair ended at Jessie's 20th party. It's got it all, even the "up a key" to a pseudo anthemic/synthetic climax. West Coast 2nd love lost in the California sun. It could be any band from the pre-grunge 80s. Gawd there's even a reference to 'listening to those old Cure Albums, staring at the sea' romantic references pervade... 'Virginia Wolfe, and midnight movies'. Minor key pianos, and simpering strings, it's got all the hooks, and lyrical looks. I don't like it. But curmudgeonly man has to admit it is bloody well written.
by Toon Traveller
Guitar opening, delightful picking, and fingering, it's the voice, lyrics that make these songs, and Shaina's words and voice are subtle magic. Open, light and bright, optimism oozes as the song builds, timing changes, drums drive, and harmonies ease in. It's age, life experienced, regrets, and self-realisation. A life story song, not even 3 mins long, but oh man is there an emotional charge packed in there.
by Toon Traveller
Long enjoyed a good listen to "PJ". There's no rebel yell, no kick off, no party on down like it St Patrick's night. More a pensive introspection from PJ, soft eared voice. But this, it's riff, melody, reminded of David Bowie, Golden Years, same lyric pattern, same sense of happy go lucky joyfulness. It runs, an earworm through my head, and now it's here it stuck.
by Ancient Champion
Although Michelle Moeller's debut LP Late Morning won't arrive until April 5th, the track 'Leafless' offers the most singular and delectable sip, the aroma and the notes, the first blush if you will, and it is clear that Late Morning catalyzes from an artist fully formed. The LP is charmingly titled... "As an affectionate homage to slow movers and late bloomers,” Michelle says, and is "a culmination of years spent integrating disparate aspects of my musical practice: an attraction to otherworldly digital sound with an enduring melodic sensibility rooted in my classical piano training.” The results are musical for sure, and gently mesmerising. I already know I am going to play this record over and over again. I'll write and with Michelle's help and inspiration I'll go on to change a small corner of the world. With her wondrously controlled combination of acoustics and electronics, Michelle Moeller is like a plugged in Harry Partch.
by Toon Traveller
Seeped, swooshed, dribbled paint over a reused canvas. 70s' German Synth sounds, high on atmosphere, repeated ideas, hints of cinema and TV themes. Echoes of Prussian Forests. It trudges along, meandering through hints of industries past and gone. It's engages with it's sophistication. And a recording like crystal.
by Alan Rider
With a name like Ellie Bleach you would imagine her to be a kick-you-in-the-balls punk screamer. Instead you get a lazy Beatles pastiche delivered by a sulky faced pouter who in her dodgy promo shot sits on the edge of her bed in a gymslip, which is an uncomfortable and unfortunate image to put across. Britney Spears has got a lot to answer for when it comes to encouraging leering at schoolgirls and Ellie certainly isn't helping with that either.
by Toon Traveller
Spanish Guitar in the morning, is redolent of white washed villages, card playing pensioners, coffee and Anis, domino's and chatter, Churros n Coffee. I Love it and all of that magic is here for me. Simple, evocative, almost timeless... Except it's a chimera, a lovely one, but these faded scenes are vanishing. Death, urban migration, and Tourist Invasions (that I am the last of the Freddie Laker generation leader of) are all taking their toll. Repeated themes, gradual quickening of pace, the slow throb of rumbling electronics drowning the guitars simplicity, summate rural social and cultural changes. The guitar's final motif - wistful tears for times past. Listen relax, find the moment, let your mind float into those journeys, places, capture your memories, before all it's packaged experiences only.
by Alan Rider
Yes, I read their name as 'Howdy' at first too. Maybe that's intentional. 'Meant' is an odd little single. I really like the instrumentation and found sound/radio static feel of it though. Vocals let it down a bit, but its odd and off kilter enough to make me sit up, and that's a rare thing these days.
by Alan Rider
Isaac Howlett is possibly better known as the voice of UK synth-pop band Empathy Test (who currently seem to be on hiatus), but this takes that synth-pop theme even further. It brings to mind Churches, or even A-Ha with its breezy vocals, shiny synth lines, and 80's drum machine beats. It is VERY '80s retro (everyone is doing that these days) and as chirpy as they come. Do we need more retro synth pop singles? Ok, go on then.
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
There's lovely guitar playing, words of hope, and love, delicately phrased harmonies, lyrics not sung, but rapped in time to a melody. There's all the questions, self-doubt, self-analysis, loss, and, where are we going? No question, a delightful voice, great guitar picking. 'Putting a soul in a robot body' a recurring theme. Questions of reality, are we a projection? Human or Posthuman? Is this real. Themes many of us discussed at 18/19, and never resolved, neither does this song, how could it. It's a Who are we? What are we? Where are we going? What are we doing 'here' - a line we all recognise.
by DJ Fuzzyfelt
Les Big Gets one of those tracks that sounds like intro music for a band about to appear on stage. A swirling synth, guitars build but never quite crash leaving you waiting impatiently for the main event, in this case the new album which arrives on March 21st. Can't blooming wait!
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
Yeah there's a rapid machine gun fire guitar, a dah-dah-dah, hit those bass strings with hammers, catch beaten to death drum skins. Almost a good as fast cycle, machine spin. An Aural ear assault, rapid speed metal, and raw throated visceral roar. "Yrrgj grwwh baarrrrrhhhh huuuurhh", yeah bro' I feel your pain. "fuurrgghhhh daaaeeggghhhh", duuddgrraghh, waaarrrccccgghh", what's that, she's gone? Vaaaargghh, eggguuuhhsss, raghhhurgghh, saarrouughhdoughh, what eggs on sourdough was that? If there's no Ivan Novello award for song writing here, there's no justice in the world.
by Toon Traveller
Soft backed, delicious voice, looking back; revisiting memories. They are wistful, poignant, full of pensive sadness, such are lost love's reminisces. There's a "wish we could go back in time, to days that made us what we are", sensibility. A singer, unable, like their lover, to move on; forlornly clinging, in desperate hope of reciprocation. Perchance would we, could we 'dance in the kitchen at night until the morning light'. If chasing that, one, special, painfully-missed, past, passionate love, comforts you, or you're looking for something to replace your scatchy hand-me-down Art Garfunkel records, See You Soon is your song.
by Alan Rider
'Not Like The Rest' may be the title of the song, but it is certainly not a description of the sound Girl band make. This is very much like the rest. Also like the rest is the accompanying video, which follows the well worn 'point a camera at the windscreen and drive around a bit' formula. Yawn.
EPs
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
Gawd it's depressing on a rainy English morning, or any time for that matter.
LPs
by Jay Lewis
This week's winner of the Outstanding Record by a Band with an Awful Name award goes to...Champagne Dub. To be accurate, they're not so much a band as '...a collective of selected artists who come together to practice psychedelic dub' - and they're led by drummer and producer Betamax from The Comet is Coming. Just in case you get asked!
The opener 'Sink' could be the soundtrack to a disorientating nocturnal chase through the less elegant parts of town - and sets the scene for what is about to follow. Hallett's drums mesh with bassist Ruth Goller (aka Goth Ruler) to create the trippy core of the collective. Ed Briggs brings a distinct menace with electronics and Mr Noodles adds voice and percussion. At one point Hallett Senior (Clive Bell), brings along melodica, toy panpipes and shakuhachi. The closing title track is their most unnerving and finest moment, a throbbing, bass-heavy bass dream. Gloriously dark.
by Alan Rider
'Northwest & Nebulous' is Luce Mawdsley's sixth album, but the first of hers I have heard myself. Instrumental, orchestral in nature, and sinuously evolving across each track, its an intriguing mix and quite distinctive. Each track is different yet retain the same feel like a watermark running through it. Some are playful and almost music hall in places (the title track), others stretch out more, drawing from folk, Americana and soundtrack influences. None feel the need to give in to the gloomy melancholy and plodding tones that most pop/rock artists who delve into an orchestral sound (step forward Vince Clarke) feel they need to adopt. Orchestral needn't be downbeat. In fact it really should be inspiring. Luce seems to have captured the knack of doing that, but then I am guessing Luce has a background in this that makes it second nature for her. Inspired by the Northern English coastline at Formby, and recorded in a Grade II listed Scandinavian Church in Liverpool, the eight pieces on 'Northwest & Nebulous' together form a sonic landscape that Luce says "feels a lot like setting off on a journey". This feels a lot like that to me too. On Bandcamp→
by Alan Rider
Lush and filmic, this reminds me strongly of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, with its bluesy story telling, ethereal sixties tinged guitar and melancholy air. And Also The Trees have a long pedigree, having toured with The Cure back when people still regarded them (The Cure, that is) as a skinny punk band rather than overweight Goths, and Mother of Pearl Moon has a very acoustic feel to it, though fed through an overly spacious reverb (why do people always insist on overdoing the reverb??). If I had to find fault I would say it strays into overblown/pompous at times, yet at others, it is quite beautiful. It may not be quite a classic, but is decent and competent and it's clear to me, with my obvious lack of technical expertise at twanging a guitar or prodding away at a keyboard, that they really know their way around their instruments and this is a very carefully crafted work of love. You might just want to turn down the reverb a bit next time though guys!
by Toon Traveller
Lively tom-tomo opening, a mumbled voice, straight out of late 80's synth-electro bands. It's got all the hooks, the machines, volume rises, and falls. Ethereal vocals float, over the song. There's talent here, there's dexterity too, sparking enthusiastic flashes, but it all disjointed. Good ideas have been cut, pasted, and partially erased, left on the cutting room floor, or the Computer's 'paste' file.
by Lee Paul
'Stels' is Vika Kuchak's debut LP. A complex and compelling narrative cascades though this emotionally layered recording. Vika's voice is a moody and sometimes ethereal presence. It's the humanity among the whizzbang electronics. Part Eno, part lo-fi house and all intrigue. Vika back pages look like this Kazakhstan-born, California-based artist, seduced by EDM. There's a hauntology of course employing the sounds the machines have made for us over the past forty years. And while that's all here. It's Vika that emerges from this history as an exciting talent.
by Alan Rider
There is a lot of what is often described as 'Pop Noir' out there, effectively the next progression on from Goth, and a lot of them are, frankly, pretty awful. That is absolutely not true of Black Nail Cabaret. From the opener 'My Home is Empty' you know you are on to a class act. Singles 'Autogenic' and 'Darkness Is A friend' (reviewed here last week) are both present and excellent they both are too. The Hungarian duo aren't afraid to mix it up a bit either with electro and techno elements in tracks like 'Neurons' and 'Teach Me How To Techno'. Singer Emese has the perfect soaring voice for this, showcased on tracks like 'Godspeed' and the album closer 'Faceless Boy'. There is a very dark pair of hearts beating here though. "We know that the grim reaper will come to us all and bring the end, which turns us into fear-filled jars...we are surrounded by a constant static noise of despair that is waiting to take over" they say. This is the sound of dark corners and rainy nightclub back alleys. They are over in the UK in April to promote this, so you may even be able to catch them live in one of the usual major cities plus, oddly, Nuneaton! The Chrysanthemum is a deathbed flower, but is beautiful nonetheless. I'd say that is the perfect title for this album. Bandcamp album listening party is on Sunday 3rd March 8pm CET/7pm UK time, find it here
by Toon Traveller
Sounds and mystery, distant voices. minor key piano, barely there chords, all dark and streets sleepy eyed waiting to come alive, gives way to harmonies, voices, any period, maybe the past decade It's all mid-term, mid-life, mid-despair. They know the solution, action and change, but mumble on about indecision, tied down, bumble around, anchored. Light and insubstantial at times echoes of (bizarrely) Simple Minds, or Run Rig. What is it all about, love lost, family breakdown, broken memories? Five tracks in, it's downhill all the way from opening.
Other Materials
by Ancient Champion
From David McComb's superlative debut solo LP 'Love of Will' released in 2004 following the demise of the Triffids. 'Setting You Free' the voice, the wide open spirit.
by Ancient Champion
Everyone has their own favourite Beatle, their own favourite porn star and everyone should have their own favourite post-metal band. Mine is Mountainscape and Acceptance is so soaringly, cinematically post metal, I am barely making the connection to the Gods of the Norse. Maybe the hair?
by Alan Rider
Nuneaton's Bron Area prove just what could be done with the most basic instruments and recording equipment imaginable back in 1980. Taken from their 'One Year' cassette issued on their own Ambivalent Scale label, which they shared with Eyeless in Gaza, 'You Would Be Amazed' is a fragile, yet beautiful piece of simple song writing, if poorly recorded on a mono tape machine. Despite the very basic nature of the recording, the song shines through and they were to go on to greater things (and better recording facilities!) after signing to Glass Records. This is what we mean when we say 'hidden treasure'.
Essentials
Main image: Josienne Clarke
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