Drunken walk around Gilling East, Christmas Day 2014

Note Commando anthology book for 50p....

Album Releases of 2014: A Personal Best

In no particular order, and no excuses for reissues.......

Aphex Twin - Syro (Warp)

Scott Walker and Sunn o))) - Soused (4AD)_

Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit (Harbinger Sound)

St. Vincent - St. Vincent (Loma Vista)

Nat Birchall Quintet - Live in Larissa (Sound Soul and Spirit)

Dylan Howe - Subterranean (Motorik)

John Coltrane - Offering: Live at Temple University (Impulse!/Resonance)

Jon Hassell and Brian Eno - Fourth World Vol. : Possible Musics (Glitterbeat)

Marshall Allen Presents Sun Ra And His Arkestra - In The Orbit Of Ra (Strut)

Miles Davis - Miles at the Filmore 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (Columbia Legacy)

Jane Weaver - The Silver Globe (Finders Keepers)

Captain Beefheart - Sun Zoom Spark: 1970-72 (Rhino)

King Crimson - Starless Box Set (DGM/PANEGYRIC)

Jazz Goes To Leeds 87.7FM Radio Show 9th December 2014

As part of the ELFM "Tuned In" festival of live FM broadcasts I produced a show of jazz, improvised and experimental music broadcast 6pm Tuesday 9th December 2014. The show was originally broadcast on 87.7FM. 

"An hour of jazz and improvised music from in and around the Leeds area, illustrating the diversity of styles that the music can incorporate. Jazz Goes To Leeds will feature recorded music from around the region in conjunction with live music and discussion with Sam Jackson and his latest “Drawing Hands” project"

Link to a stream of the live FM show originally broadcast 6pm 9th December 2014

Link to Drawing Hands Bandcamp page

Fusebox at Leeds Carriageworks October 3rd 2014

As part of Light Night Leeds a group of improvising musicians performed, in a variety of combinations, at The Carriageworks in Leeds. Audience members were invited on to the stage to "conduct" the musicians, who could respond to their movements and actions. At one point this even included a baby. 

Steve Lawson and Jon Thorne – “Diversion: Live at the London Bass Guitar Show”

Capturing a special event in time and music can occasionally be a matter of good fortune, as this recording of Steve Lawson and Jon Thorne improvising at the London Bass Guitar Show in 2014 illustrates. As can be the case with well-executed improvised music the listener is drawn into the moment with the players, and can, with enough time and patience, almost become part of the performance itself. “Diversion” is a gently undulating aural massage with the occasional provocative shard of eddying electronica. The overall mood is one of fragility held together with a restrained tension that pulls the listener further and further into the traded phrases. The fretless bass guitar sound has a melancholy all of its’ own, and here we see it used to add further levels of poignancy. Slightly shorter in duration, “A Place of Beauty” has all the exquisiteness of an improvisation held together with a sense of premeditated composition. Double bass guitar solos and improvisations often hold a further organic quality as the sound of the strings being plucked and manoeuvred can add human textures to the sound. Layer this with sensitive electronics and the overall experience can highlight the symbiotic relationship between the acoustic and the electronic.

Two pieces in all, and twenty minutes in total, “Diversion” feels that the collaboration could have produced some intricately moving pieces of improvisation. But, as we have considered, capturing these moments is not always something that can be premeditated, and we must console ourselves with the knowledge that there are players and events that can facilitate these luxurious recordings.

Helicopter Quartet – “Leading Edges”

“Leading Edges” is the latest full-length release from Leeds based duo Helicopter Quartet. Immediately disrupting the thought patterns by calling themselves Helicopter Quartet, Chrissie Caulfield on violin and synthesiser and Michael Capstick on guitar and bass have succeeded in producing unsettling, yet fragile, swathes of sound, that are at times swaying with prettiness and delight whilst at others jarring the ears with dissonance and discord. Whilst these two states of being may seem incongruous, “Leading Edges” succeeds in melting them together in a glorious miasma of otherworldliness. Born out of the remnants of Catscans, Helicopter Quartet set out on a mission to create new musical spaces in an attempt to create “…confusion and often fear”.  “The Way It Never Was”, for example, opens this release with pulsing violin and guitar reminiscent at times of early experimental Philip Glass circa. “Music in Twelve Parts”. Before too long, however, the mood veers off into a sinister pastoral violin monologue that brings to mind King Crimson’s “Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 1”. If these comparisons are whetting the listener’s appetite, then please read on. “Refuge (2014)” balances gentle and mournful to perfection. Droning violin crying, over lightly undulating guitar and electronics, makes for a seamless mood changer.

 Despondent guitar and violin characterise “110” which succeeds in instilling not only a mood of apprehension and foreboding, but also an insidious sense of inquisitiveness. The mood remains constant for over seven minutes as the music slides laboriously over an unnatural, yet organic, landscape. It is not until the end when the guitar rears it’s ugly, yet majestic head, that the texture is disrupted. A sense of alien longing permeates “Trailing Edge” which continues the familiar drone, but infuses it with soaring, and somehow medieval, qualities. The crescendo that is hinted at through these pieces comes with “Hothouse”, which mutates into an intense flare of restrained noise bringing the album itself to an expansive conclusion.  The Pierrotechnique remix of “Refuge” adds some muscle and further consistency to the original, with a tender pulse underpinning throughout.

The influences cited give some idea as to how to approach this release with The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Sonic Youth, Karlheinz Stockhausen (whose “Helicopter String Quartet” bears an uncanny similarity in name to the duo), Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Curved Air and Dimitri Shostakovich all apparent throughout. If any of these names are unfamiliar to the new listener, then “Leading Edges” by Helicopter Quartet, should, in all fairness, be approached with care.  To the listener who reads this and nods with approval inside, this release will not disappoint. Who can fail to enjoy an album by a band whose interests are listed as “Effects pedals and mains hum”?

Crow Black Chicken – “Rumble Shake” album review

It may be inevitable that a blues band originating from the Cork area of Ireland will be compared to Rory Gallagher. Add to that a blues band with beards, and thoughts immediately go towards ZZ Top. Throw away any preconceived ideas then dear listener as “Rumble Shake”, the second full length release by Crow Black Chicken, maintains the organic, languid texture of the first album, and adds an extra serving of melodic blues, to give it a depth and originality that can so often be lacking in this field. “Hang ‘Em High”, which opens the album, would have the most cynical blues-hater singing along to the chorus and strapping on a weather-beaten air guitar. As an album opener “Hang ‘Em High” has everything the listener could possibly need; the tempo, the hook, the searing guitar. Little respite before “Two-Seven” and by now the overwhelming feeling is that, listening to this album, you are having a good time. The music is uplifting and engaging and takes the listener to a place where they are free to engage in basic hedonistic behaviour. What more could one want from the music? “Bitter” and “Little Paths” slow the tempo right down without losing any of the personality. The soloing on these pieces has an originality that is inspirational and exhilarating to hear.

The title track “Rumble Shake” is a gloriously uplifting romp through a number of styles and influences that suggest that Crow Black Chicken could be something very special to see in a live setting. “Black Asphalt” and “Black Man’s Gold” contain a gritty sensuousness that is both charming and dangerous in equal measure. “Rumble Shake” has a number of levels on which it parades its allures however. “Priest Hunter” has a gentler, but no less poignant atmosphere whilst “Jessie Mae” is a straightforward, languorous blues.  Almost coming full circle “Sit With Satan” revisits the mood captured on “Hang ‘Em High” and closes the album with a crescendo of blues guitar passion.

“Rumble Shake “ is undoubtedly a blues based album that will appeal not only to aficionados of that genre, but anyone prepared to listen to candid imaginative music in general. The production on the album is just the right side of grubby. It would not be out of place to add the label “progressive” to this description of Crow Black Chicken’s music, as they are certainly pushing the envelope of blues based music which will hopefully open up whole new audience possibilities for them.

Crow Black Chicken website