02.12.15
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Snowapple – Leicester Musician – Wednesday February 11th

On Tuesday evening, I went to the Y Theatre to see the wonderful performance poet/comedian Rob Gee deliver his new stage play, Icarus Dancing. It was an absolute joy to behold; bittersweet, well-constructed, funny and intelligent. On the surface, you might think that this has very little to do with Snowapple (even though their songs are bittersweet, well-constructed and intelligent) – and you’d be right.

As I waited for the Rob Gee performance to begin, I got chatting to a guy who was sat at the same cabaret table. “Have you seen John Etheridge before?” asked the man. I considered his question a little odd but did my best to answer. “I’m a massive Soft Machine fan”, continued the man, “and I can’t wait to see them tonight.” At this point, I had to jump in and correct. “This is a comedy night you know?” The man looked at his ticket, cursed loudly and sheepishly confessed that he had got the wrong night. The Soft Machine gig was happening the next night. How I laughed at his foolishness.

They say that he who laughs last laughs longest (or something like that) and I have now experienced how true that is.

Tonight, I had it in my diary to see Snowapple. I’d been put onto them by the brilliant Louis Barabbas (who runs the record label, Debt Records, on which the latest Snowapple album, Illusion, has recently been released). Louis had kindly written to me asking if I’d take a listen to the album and come along to review their show at the Leicester Musician on February 11th. I had a listen to the record and thought it was brilliant. I replied saying that I’d love to go and added the show to my diary (for February 12th).

At least the man who got the wrong date for Soft Machine was able to resolve his error.

When Louis was describing Snowapple to me he said, “They’re a Dutch group comprising three women of very different musical backgrounds (Laurien is an opera singer, Una is the daughter of South African jazz saxophonist Sean Bergin, Laura’s more into synths; they tour with a fashion designer who makes weird outfits for them between gigs…), they mix pop, psychedelia, folk and classical elements. Beautiful harmonies throughout and always quite theatrical.”

I thought there and then that I’d be foolish to miss such an opportunity. I am foolish.

The video to the first track from Illusion , ‘Small Stone’, is worthy of watching. Get your fill on this if you’re not able to see them live.

 

02.12.15
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Gaston Light – Wake up and fight

It’s been a tough week at work. There’s a lot going on and I feel like I’m juggling more balls than I ever have. I could sink under the stress of it all but that’s of use to nobody. Instead, I need to look forward to the light that’s at the end of the tunnel and take on the challenges head on.

Today’s Sonic Breakfast song provides perfect motivation. Gaston Light’s new single, ‘Wake Up And Fight’ is a rallying call for those of us who need an early morning boost. This is the song that’ll have us punching the air as we get out of bed; a positive mantra that today we’re going to achieve and nothing’s going to get in the way of that aim.

Dallas-based artist Jason Corcoran is the man known as Gaston Light. He started writing his new single “Wake Up and Fight” with nothing more than the song title in mind. “It’s taken from a list of Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions,” he explains. “As a song title, it felt ridiculously huge to me. I thought that with such an overtly optimistic sentiment, I might be setting myself up to fail. I wanted to write a self–fulfilling prophecy,” he says. “I wanted to force hope into my life. I wanted a good life, or at least a better one. The song is me telling myself that I have things to be grateful for and to just keep going.”

26 year old Corcoran has a fair few reasons to be grateful and to keep going. He’s now a happily married Dad but it wasn’t always thus. He’s fought drug and alcohol addictions, been on psychiatric wards, spent nights in jail and flitted in and out of treatment centres. There can be no doubt that the path to recovery has been a torturous one for such a young man.

We’ve not all had to fight such extreme demons. But, chatting to friends, colleagues and other regular Sonic Breakfast readers, I realise that we’ve all got things going on in our lives today that might mean we’d rather just stay in bed hiding under the duvet. I can see the attraction. But, today, I am going to ‘wake up and fight’.

 

02.08.15
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Guts Club – The Arm Wrestling Tournament

The year is 2010. There’s a man selling newspapers in the Welsh valleys. He’s been doing so for many a year, ever since his music career came to an almighty halt. He remembers Merthyr Tydfil’s RM Rock Club fondly. It was here that his playing reached a pinnacle (of sorts) – the Hendrix tribute band. He pins a poster to his kiosk, taking no notice of the content and settles down to another dead-end day. The poster simply says, “Fire Guts Club“.

It’s purely unintentional (of that I’m sure) but, five years later, the world is about to see the release of ‘The Arm Wrestling Tournament’, the debut album of Guts Club. This is a lo-fi, anti-folk beast; armed just with a battered-sounding acoustic guitar, Lindsey Baker gives us an insight into her world. “I want to give you all my guts, I want you to have my intestines“, sings Lindsey in the opening verse of the album. It’s a skewed re-take of the fairy story, Rapunzel; a lovely, love song for those of us who have scant regard for the most cliched proponents of the genre.

 

 

Take it on face value and you’d probably find Lindsey’s vignettes a little creepy. Songs about keeping people tied up in the boots of cars will not be a choice cup of tea for many. ‘Old And Ugly’ begins as a proclamation of everlasting love (“I will always love you”) but then heads off on a warped tangent. Her lover leaves but the love doesn’t as the song heads into new haunts.

 

 

To take it on face value misses the playfulness and humour within. Like Courtney Barnett or Jeffrey Lewis, Guts Club takes a scenario and then twists our mind with child-like wordplay. The humour is dark but I defy you to not smile. The videos that have so far been released from ‘The Arm Wrestling Tournament’ amplify the approach. For ‘All Of The Babies’, grainy home videos of babies, lined up on a sofa, are contrasted with home drawn, cartooned borders. The effect is unsettling and delightfully distracting. I get Guts Club.

 

 

The man selling newspapers is still at his kiosk. He’s forgotten the headline from five years ago. He will never hear of Guts Club. It is his loss.

02.06.15
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Skinny Lister – Cathy

I had to get away from the fortress. The exuberant house music was playing havoc with my head. People that I’d never seen before were smiling as if they were long lost friends. Perhaps they were long lost friends. I doubted it.

I walked towards the main stage. The relentless beat in the heat was stifling these dancing feet to a walking pace. Skinny Lister were about to come on the stage. I’d seen them before. A bit of folk was surely what I now needed to recharge my batteries. I could sip at a pint of cider whilst chilling on the grass.

Little did I know.

Skinny Lister became my favourite festival band that day. There’s something contagious about their enthusiastic, inclusive approach. You might watch them from a distance when they take to the stage but, by the end, you can’t help but be immersed in the throng they create. Here’s what I said about their gig at Beat-Herder:-

“Skinny Lister on the Saturday afternoon are a case in point. Their well-rehearsed folky festival set doesn’t fail to get the skin blistering as those that are assembled work up a sweat with their energetic bouncy dancing. The flagon of rum that gets passed amongst the crowd is communally quaffed by thirsty onlookers. Laura Thomas takes a break from her vocal duties and waltzes with the audience. People wake from an afternoon slumber to find a double bass being plucked next to their heads. This is how Mumford and Sons should be.”

I saw them twice last year at different festivals. After both sets, I walked away beaming. Hangovers from a previous day of drinking were forgotten about. It was time to get back on it.

Skinny Lister are building up to the release of a new album, Down On Deptford Broadway, in April. They’ve pre-released two tracks from it although these are folky-punk lunges that live show regulars might already be familiar with. Singer Dan says about latest single, Cathy, that ‘It’s an ode to addiction and recklessness. A declaration of desire for something or someone you know is bad for you. The classic wrestle between head and heart.’

 

 

Previous single release, ‘Trouble On Oxford Street’, had an accompanying video full of beer and rebellion to entertain us.

 

 

It might be grey and dismal outside but I can sense festival fields not far in the distance. This makes me smile.

02.04.15
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Nozart – Orphanage

Every now and again, I have a recurring dream. I am, once again, in the company of an ex-girlfriend. We’ve not met since we were both teenagers but, in the dream at least, the years have been kind. Our conversation and laughter flows in much the same way as it did when we were dating. We’re older now and the arguments that were always a feature of our real time together have diminished in this dreamland.

Sometimes, we kiss. Mostly, my alarm wakes me just as we’re making plans to see each other again. “Let’s not leave it so long until we next catch up”, she says with that infectious giggle she seems to never have lost.

As ridiculous as it might seem, this recurring dream derails me. I’ve got no desire to find out what has happened in the life of this ex. But, I find myself overwhelmed with a sense of loss; for a short while, I’m an awkward teenager again. Life, with all of its uncertainties and anxieties, is spanning out in front of me. I’m clinging to a child-like romantic ideal. I’m refusing to allow myself to grow up.

This long preamble does have a purpose. Last week, Nozart sent me the video to his new song, ‘Orphanage’. I’m a sucker for delightfully romantic, sentimental gush, especially when it’s all wrapped up in a story-based song. This ticks all of those boxes. The beautifully animated video just adds to the sense of ‘awww’.

Nozart is from New York. He’s currently playing piano on tour with a chap we have featured regularly on Sonic Breakfast, Elliot Moss. I hope that they’re having fun. ‘Orphanage’ is taken from a yet-to-be released album that Nozart has been working on for the past two years.

He says about ‘Orphanage’ that “this is a story about being in love before you know how. It’s about losing that love too soon and being afraid to grow up, because you don’t want to grow up without it. It’s about holding on even when the person you loved might not be the same person at all.”

For me, it evokes much the same feeling as that recurring dream.

 

02.03.15
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Hayseed Dixie – Derby Flowerpot – 27th January 2015

You’ve got to hand it to Hayseed Dixie. When they first registered a ripple of praise for their bluegrass covers of ACDC songs back at the start of the century, few might have predicted that they’d still be rock n’rolling with the same gimmick years later. But, look around this sweat-laden, attentive, squashed in like sardines crowd at the fabulous Derby Flowerpot on this wintry Tuesday evening and the evidence suggests that there’s still a good few miles to travel yet on this highway (to hell).

Maybe, it’s the recent boost of an appearance on Jools Holland’s hootenanny that sees Hayseed Dixie resurgent. Maybe, this fusion of rock and bluegrass (rockgrass) is particularly lauded in Derby. Or maybe, word has got around that the latest album, ‘Hair down to my grass’, is actually a top notch exploration of stadium rock classics from the 1970’s and 1980’s. As front man John Wheeler (Barley Scotch) explains, “success in Germany had eluded us. During a Spring tour of Germany, we heard the song “Eye of the Tiger” 6 different times on 6 different German radio stations in a single day while driving between Dortmund and Frankfurt. We knew we had to cover it.”

There’s a fine mix from Hayseed Dixie’s back-catalogue expanding across this show. They play just shy of two hours. It’s a relentless journey in which the pace rarely drops much to the delight of the hollering crowd. You expect that the ACDC covers will be met with much moshing but it’s great to see that the songs from the new album, such as Twisted Sister’s “We’re not going to take it” and Def Leppard’s “Pour some sugar on me” are received rapturously as well. For me, it’s their ‘Rockgrass’ version of Bohemian Rhapsody that really sets the place alight. Strings break on instruments, such is the frantic pace with which they’re strummed.

You cannot fail to be impressed by the quality of musicianship on display. Apparently, current banjo player and relatively recent recruit, Johnny Butten, is listed as the worlds fastest in the Guinness Book Of Records. His playing merges in with Wheeler’s on guitar, whilst the other new(ish) member, Hippy Joe Hymas, prances around the stage like a Tasmanian devil, plucking on his mandolin and occasionally sticking his tongue out in rock posture. The collective is made up by Jake Byers, imposing with epic beard, who plays acoustic bass with such rhythm that there’s no need for any extra percussion.

We’d seen Brother Jake earlier in the evening when he joined support act, Tom Copson, on stage. Tom might have sported a pair of braces as a concession to the fashion sense of the band he was supporting but, in many other ways, this was an unlikely alliance. Very much a singer-songwriter, he entertains this audience with songs about splitting up with girlfriends after they’d accused him of drinking too much (‘Empty can’) and not being afraid to make great mistakes (‘Afraid To Fall’). With a nod to Hayseed Dixie’s love of covers, he launches into his very own (Prince’s Kiss) displaying a neat turn for a falsetto vocal. He gets the Derby crowd on side by saying that the Flowerpot is his Dad’s favourite venue in the country (his Dad lives in Cambridge). There’s enough roguish charm and nomadic spirit about Tom Copson to see why Hayseed Dixie chose him as their main support on this tour.

Hayseed Dixie’s set is drawing to a close. We know this because they’re playing one of their own tunes, ‘Merchandise song’, a simple piece that implores the audience to buy something on their way out. There’s time for a banjo duel before an epic mash-up of an encore that begins and ends as Hotel California whilst dipping into Careless Whisper and Eternal Flame en-route. Derby goes wild. The crowd realise that they’ve just been in the presence of a bunch of professional performers. Over the years, Hayseed Dixie have honed their craft to such a degree that they now put on a gig that’s pretty much perfect. We head home smiling.

 

01.31.15
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Sasha Siem – Most Of The Boys

‘Most of the boys were experiments‘ states Anglo-Norwegian artist Sasha Siem in the very first line of her stunning debut album. It’s a strident, opening line and I’m not sure I can think of a better way to summarise ambition and intent.

Not quite into February and I’ve already been alerted to at least two artists who are exciting me more than 2014 ever did. Sasha is one of these. Short lyrical spits of songs which all make a stunning, haunting point. ‘There’s proof on the roof of my mouth‘, she rhymes outlandishly.

Immersed in clever, middle-class, classical stuff, it would appear that her lot has been about opportunity; playing cello at London’s Guildhall, studying at Cambridge and Harvard, all followed up with commissions from Philarmonic and Chamber orchestras. It’s easy to be sniffy about such privilege, especially for those of us who prefer our pop stars to come from the ghetto. But, doing so will deny you the chance to hear something special this Saturday.

It’s a brief album – 12 tracks clocking in at little more than half an hour. Any self respecting music critic is left wanting more. And yet within, there is so much theatrical wordplay and charmed deviance that it’s tough not to fall. Hook, line and sinker, she’s got me with her ‘entangled relationships and binding attachments’, all served up amidst classical, strange, stringed arrangement.

Recent single, So Polite, is worthy of your full attention. It’s very specially angry. If there’s a better mention of Facebook in popular music I’m yet to discover it. It doesn’t end in obvious places . The final ,orchestrated 30 seconds are a joy. Sasha herself says that this is “a rage against fakery, against fear, against hiding the truth and the isolation that can come when community and true care between people is missing.”

One cannot say fairer than that…

 

01.23.15
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Go Rogue Records

One of the common grumbles I hear from people who want to get on in the music industry is that it’s far too difficult. This is made difficult by (delete as appropriate) promoters, venues, tribute bands, TV talent shows, PR companies, journalists and record labels (the list could be longer) who all play their part in denying opportunities that should be offered with more fairness. ‘Fairness’ can mean many different things to the many different people who grumble but, when boiled down, it often means that they want the opportunity themselves.

It’s not an argument I’m entirely unsympathetic about. I’m sure we’ve all heard about bands who’ve been ripped off by rogues; acts that might have been the next ‘Coldplay’ (please, no!!) or ‘U2’ (God forbid!!) if it wasn’t for the fact that their drummer didn’t look the part. I’d love to see a world where talent trumps all but we’re a way from that now.

I’m drawn to the productive collective of ‘Go Rogue’ Records. Here, we have a group of people, based out of New York, who have decided to do something. ‘Go Rogue’ has been running for less than a year and yet is already preparing to release their fourth album, in early February. ‘Devil’s Road’ is conceived as a collection of gritty, folk-infused rock with an apocalyptic vibe.

Lilah from the label told me that, “as always, the album is a collective labor by a number of artists on our roster. As a nascent independent label in these dark days of the record industry, we’re doing our best to come up with new models for success, and for now that means releasing collaborative albums in which the creative outpouring, time commitment, and promotion is manageably shared amongst our artists. This way there isn’t too much pressure on any one emerging artist—our artists happily share responsibilities.”

Each album that’s been released to date by ‘Go Rogue’ has had a loose, generic theme. They can all be streamed, for free, on the website which can be found here. Regular readers of ‘Sonic Breakfast’ will surely not be surprised that it’s ‘Young Blood’, a collection of youthful electro-pop, that I’m returning to most.

There’s a dozen or so artists that seem to constitute ‘Go Rogue’ at the moment. I was first drawn towards A.F. Paxton, a Glaswegian living in New York. It’s hard not to fall for the electro-pop charms of his tune, ‘Our Way’. This acts as our invite into some of the other ‘Go Rogue’ acts; Goldishack’s analog collaborations with soulful vocalists harking back to a time when Motown ruled the roost; the out of the box thinking of Tyler Ewing from Nashville’s Pinewood Social Club that makes them so difficult to pigeonhole.

Indeed, this is one of the many charms of ‘Go Rogue’. As new releases are issued, we see the artists heading in new directions and revealing new angles to their sounds. It feels like this ‘collaborative album’ model is providing the freedom to experiment and develop fairly.

I am in no way saying that ‘Go Rogue’ exists to raise awareness for the plight of unfortunate drummers but it does seem to be adding some collective fairness back into this world that we all love… And, for that I salute them…

 

 

 

 

01.20.15
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Koudlam – Benidorm Dream

Drunk, after a weekend of excess, I missed my early morning flight to Alicante. No worries – I was able to get one later in the day. This was last July. I was picked up at the airport and taken to Little Britain, ex-patriot central. We dived into bars run by people called Dave and witnessed fights between proper English sorts who couldn’t cope with the combination of Sun Cream and alcohol required.

We bypassed Benidorm on the way to better parts of Spain.

Perhaps, if we had taken time to explore, we might have bumped into Koudlam. For his new record, Benidorm dream, the French producer holed himself up in one of the many high rises that dominate the Benidorm horizon. Like a modern day JG Ballard, Koudlam clearly saw rich pickings in his surrounds. Here we have a very postmodern, dystopian dance vision; a dream that conjures up scapes of land and sound that have an almost hymnal element – futuristic and yet rooted in the here and now.

It’s an album that was never conceived to be an easy listen. It’s not something to play if you want to snuggle up with your loved one on the sofa. There’s something pretty rotten going on in the Benidorm streets and Koudlam wants us to know he’s angry about it. But, it’s not all bluster and beats. The waves subside and a wash of calm saunters past – a temporary oasis amidst the fights, the seediness and the monstrous desperation. Almost hypnotic, this is how this part of Spain could be if we dare to dream with a positive spin.

We wander around, darkly dysfunctional. We head to a new party and pretend the drugs are designer. We wear flags on our shaven heads to be both symbol and sun-block. We pretend we’re having fun as we piss against walls and tag unfinished building sites.

We reach out to the mountains in the distance. Up there, we might get a fill of clean air; a swim in a waterfall sent from paradise.

Benidorm dreams.

 

 

01.19.15
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Femke Weidema – Stranger Than A Stranger

I sense that I’ve probably not embraced Twitter like a good blogger should. Sometimes I’ll get DM’s (I’m reliably told this is the abbreviation for a direct message) from artists who might want me to check them out for Sonic Breakfast. But, these artists often seem to struggle to capture my imagination within 140 characters. Indeed, I often just feel sullied by the brevity of the experience and rather suspect that the approach is the PR equivalent of a mass mailshot in which, if I’m very lucky, I’ll be a guaranteed winner.

This makes it a little bit surprising that I gave Femke Weidema the time of day. A couple of months back now, I got a DM from her twitter account that simply said, “Hi! Thanks for being awesome, would love to know what you think of my new video!” I didn’t let such praise swell my head. I didn’t think for a minute that Femke thought that I was any more (or less) awesome than the many other people she probably DM’d with the same request.

Despite this, I am, of course, particularly susceptible to blatantly inaccurate flattery and so I clicked on the link to the video. Typically with such approaches, I will regret doing so almost immediately. But, this was not the case with Femke. The link that Femke had sent was for her song, “Mixtape”. It was a perfect, perky, upbeat pop song. It brought a smile to my face to see the quirky Femke and her band dancing around the lounge, bedecked with studio equipment. I needed to find out more.

A quick internet search revealed that Femke was originally from The Netherlands. Periods of travel took her to America and she’s now holed up in Nashville with her fingers in all sorts of musical pies. She recently won a Latin Grammy for her work with Beto Cuevas on Transformation. (Beto Cuevas anyone?)

I watched further videos. ‘Leave The Lights On’ inhabits a similar space as ‘Mixtape’ – a credible pop song with Latin rhythmic influence. It might not change the world but it’ll make your day happier. I was now chuffed that Femke thought I was awesome because I was coming to the same conclusion about her.

It’s difficult to catch up with Femke’s output. Just a few days ago, she posted a new track on soundcloud, ‘Stranger than a stranger’. On hearing this less upbeat beauty, I knew I had to write a Sonic Breakfast post. You suspect this is a pretty autobiographical piece. It’s about being away from home and trying to fit in to your new surrounds whilst fighting loneliness. It’s pop with a Nashville country twang. And it’s brilliant.

Thank goodness for the Twitter.