Hannah Peel - The Broken Wave (Album)

The route Hannah Peel has taken on the way to her day job as a solo recording artist has been quite a circuitous one, taking in various projects both musical and otherwise, but the arrival of her debut record finds her cast into an unenviably competitive scene replete with artists both male and female making similarly quirky folk music. In such a saturated market, particularly one encompassing so much ethereality, it can be difficult for an artist to separate themselves from their contemporaries or break free from the cliches of what folk music represents.

Unquestionably, Peel’s work comes more from Newsom’s end of the scale than Marling’s, carrying with it more than a hint of the otherworldly which stems in part from the ghostly, frail quality of her voice, which at times can be spellbinding here. It’s clearly one of her strongest assets, but it’s nice just how sparingly she exercises it, keeping it for the most part reined in rather than letting it overshadow the songcraft, an economy which is truly crucial in the album’s success. Because there is little doubt here, The Broken Wave is a hugely impressive piece of work, which showcases Peel’s adroitness with a melody quite beautifully, with the simple, elegant swells of ‘You Call This Your Home’ and ‘Song For the Sea’ being wonderful cases in point.

Peel’s previous musical meanderings with the likes of The Unthanks and Tunng have proved to be beneficial in the construction of The Broken Wave, because it has meant that she has been able to call on an impressive cast of collaborators, including the latter’s Mike Lindsay who is responsible for a strong production which is equal parts clean and off kilter. Also present is Nitin Sawhney who lends a hand composing the beautiful strings on ‘Don’t Kiss the Broken One’ and ‘Solitude’, resulting in two of the album’s most bewitching moments.

Amid the prettiness of the music, there is a profusion of melancholy in Peel’s stories of love, loss and longing, but in spite of the tone, you can’t help but feel ultimately comforted by the songs because there is such warmth present in the delivery and the music which accompanies it, particularly on those occasions such as ‘Unwound’ or tradition Irish folk song ‘Cailin Deas Cruite Na Mbo’ when she revisits an old music box which was used in much of her earlier work. It’s genuinely surprising to learn that the album was recorded in a mere three weeks, because The Broken Wave is certainly not an album which sounds like it was hurriedly assembled. Indeed, one of its greatest triumphs is how full, and beautifully put together the whole thing sounds.

The release of The Broken Wave heralds the arrival of a genuine creative force in British folk music, and one of the scariest things about it is that you get the impression that Peel hasn’t really even got going fully yet. The record inspires a feeling that as she grows in confidence and experience she will get even better, which is quite a prospect.

8/10

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Album)

Due to their status as demi-Gods of beard-caressing experimentalism, any new music recorded by Mogwai will inevitably be accompanied by gallons of hyperbolic messageboard bullshit both positive and negative which, if you aren’t careful, could completely distort your perceptions of the music before you even hear a note. Hardcore Will Never Die... has inevitably continued this grim trend, prompting all manner of bitter bollocks about the band having been shit for ten years. Stepping away from the vicious context for a moment, the record is possibly their most direct effort yet, and one of their most upbeat too. Indeed, the propensity for straight-up rock instrumentals like Death Rays and San Pedro comes as a slight surprise after the misleadingly murky pre-release download of Rano Pano. There’s unmistakably less introspection here than normal, with the gorgeous Letters to the Metro representing the only moment where the album skulks into its shell, and even the quiet is shortlived, as the band immediately resume their mission to live out their alt-rock fantasies. It’s all pretty exhilarating stuff, and just because their pant-destroyingly brilliant previous work might still shade it, that doesn’t mean you should believe the naysayers that Mogwai are dead as a creative force.

4/5

Yuck - Tips for 2011

My bit from Muso's Guide's Tips for 2011 article:

Yuck spent much of 2010 tantalising the blogosphere, gradually drizzling songs out on their own blog, in the process slowly whipping fuzz-rock aficionados like me into an ever-intensifying tizzy about how flipping brilliant they are. Then, over the summer, in a move seemingly designed exclusively to peeve anybody with a computer keyboard, they temporarily changed their name to Yu(c)k, and put a brilliant, if slightly baffling, EP of piano-led slow-burners. Not a predictable band, this lot, then...

Nobody is pretending that the brand of distorted guitar pop which constitutes Yuck’s day job is particularly new, but in the same way as we saw with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart two years ago, their music is so captivating that suddenly originality seems a bit over-rated. With songs as strong as ‘Georgia’, and live shows as gloriously scuzzy as Yuck’s are, well, that’s enough, and it really doesn’t matter just how nakedly they display their influences. Having landed a spot in the BBC Sound of 2011 (but please don’t hold that against them), and with their debut album due later in the year, 2011 is pretty much Yuck’s to do with as they see fit.

Kubichek - Not Enough Night (Album)

It’s staggering how quick and easy the Internet has made our access to an utter cavalcade of bands. Obviously this is a bit of a double-edged sword, because while we are now discovering artists we might not necessarily have had access to in years gone by, there is a very real danger that music eventually becomes something we stuff gluttonously and heedlessly into our ears simply because there are three other albums queued in our eMusic download manager which also need listening to this afternoon. If we’re consuming music like this, it is an unavoidable and regrettable side effect that innumerable great bands and albums will slip off the radar, which is pretty depressing if you stop to think about it.

Now, obviously, I’m not suggesting that lost classics are a new phenomenon, but the current industry model has shown us that no matter how wonderful the Internet revolution has been for music, there will always be great records which will be overlooked, it’s just that there are now loads more of them tantalisingly sat at the end of our fingertips. All of which brings me (reasonably) neatly on to our new feature, in which we will regularly focus on exactly that sort of album, a record which is dear to our hearts but for whatever reason isn’t as well known as we feel it ought to be.

If it wasn’t for a happy accident of geography which meant that Kubichek just happened to hail from the same part of England as me, there’s every chance that I might still be completely oblivious to Not Enough Night, and my life would be a tiny bit worse as a result. The band had been mainstays of the Newcastle scene for a good few years, having dissolved their previous incarnation and waded their way through gallons of record label shite before their debut album finally emerged in 2007, sounding far sharper and fresher than it had any right to given the slog they had endured to just get the thing made. Sadly Not Enough Night would prove to be Kubichek’s only album, a tantalising case of what might have been, but, God, what a beautiful corpse to leave.

The most enriching thing about Not Enough Night is the unrelenting pace at which the whole thing is delivered. For the majority of its forty or so minutes, the album is lived out at breakneck speed with both barrels aimed at pretty much everyone, from lairy Bigg Market meatheads (‘Taxi’) to “poetic friends” who “just wanna get their ends away” (‘Stutter’). Then you have ‘Hometown Strategies’ in which some poor small-towner is indignantly berated about being “too clever by half and too stupid to notice”. And don’t even get me started on the near-perfect headrush of album closer ‘Just Shut it Down’...

In less skilled hands the seemingly endless stream of spiky guitars and universal spitefulness could quite conceivably become tiresome, but there’s never really a danger of this occurring with Not Enough Night, simply because the sheer unadulterated energy it transmits is just so fucking primal that you can’t really stop yourself wanting to jump around your room shouting, or slam your foot as hard as you can on the accelerator.

While Not Enough Night’s primary function is unquestionably served as an arse-kicking rock record, there’s another interesting element to the album too, a more wide-eyed sense of feeling which only really rears its head on the odd occasions when singer Alan McDonald drops his snarl and the band gets lost in a gorgeous sea of instrumental bliss as it does on ‘Hope is Impossible’ and ‘Start as We Meant To’. This nod to the band’s very earliest recordings means that Not Enough Night appeals not only to the feet and loins but to the heart and head too. This extra dimension is a big factor in the album’s enduring appeal, to the point that it still finds as regular a home on my stereo as it did three and a bit years ago.

The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar Preview (Album)

It’s only been four years since they formed, but somehow it feels like it’s taken The Joy Formidable forever to get around to releasing a debut album. Having spent the last three or four years consistently appearing in ‘ones to watch’ lists and diverting us with an array of awesome dream-grunge singles and a barnstorming mini- album, the Welsh three piece have finally deigned to bless us with their first full-lengther The Big Roar which will land on record shop shelves on January 24^th. It’s worth ignoring the post-Christmas credit card bill just a little bit longer in order to grab yourself a copy, because this is a band who have been consistently growing in strength with every release, making The Big Roar a candidate to be the first great record of 2011. The album blends a load of new songs with a few that have been around for yonks (Whirring, Cradle and Austere), but sadly there is no place for the ridiculously moreish Paul Draper collaboration Greyhounds in the Slips or ‘festive’ single My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Thousand Dead Christmas Trees. To a glass-half-full type like me, this would suggest that the songs which have made the cut might be even better. Besides, if you’re peeved by the absence of the aforementioned oldies, they feature on the stupidly comprehensive double CD and DVD box special edition, so indulge yourself. The band play the O2 in Newcastle on February the 8^th too, so if they are still strangers to you, there’s no excuse not to familiarise yourself with their music in the coming months.

Frightened Rabbit feature

The Frightened Rabbit review and interview ended up being melded into one feature, so this is the end result of the editing:

As the scene of my ‘education’, Northumbria University will always hold a special place in my heart, primarily because of the many sweaty, boozy hours I spent in its Student Union watching bands good, bad, and fucking terrible. However, as I have gradually degenerated from a hip ‘n’ happenin’ snake-hipped teen to a doughy late twenties office drone, so too did Northumbria fall from its pedestal as a regular fixture in Newcastle’s gig scene. Now though, after a major refit which has included reducing the capacity of the upstairs room (and in the process massively improving its atmosphere), it appears that the place is slowly trying to claw its way back into favour, having recently nabbed a couple of gigs which would usually be shoe-ins for one of the Academy venues. If you’ve ever been to the Academy, you’ll agree this is undoubtedly no bad thing.

Frightened Rabbit’s visit to Northumbria comes at the end of a year of great success, where their third record The Winter of Mixed Drinks has very nicely consolidated the massive critical acclaim which was so freely lobbed at its predecessor The Midnight Organ Fight. Singer Scott Hutchinson, speaking to us after the show, definitely feels happy with how 2010 has turned out: ‘I think it’s been great. We’ve always said that as long as we’re moving forward then we’re happy. I never pay too much attention to people saying that it’s going to be your year or whatever, because, well they can say what they like, but I’ve had a fucking fabulous year, I’ve really enjoyed it. The reception to the record has been good, and the more time that people have had with it, the better the reception to the songs has been’.

In keeping with all the good cheer surrounding the band (although Scott will hear nothing of the festive season until we’re into December), they are in wonderfully relaxed and amiable form tonight. The set is a pretty thorough trawl through the last two records, with Be Less Rude the only song from Sing the Greys to make an appearance, something which just illustrates the massive bounds Frightened Rabbit have made as a band since their earliest days. There’s little doubt that The Winter of Mixed Drinks has taken a while to fully worm its way into people’s consciousnesses but now that we’ve had nine months or so to live with the newer songs, they are sitting very comfortably alongside their older counterparts. Indeed, Swim Until You Can’t See Land, and set closer The Loneliness and the Scream are two of the evening’s high points, providing just as much singalong potential as the likes of I Feel Better and The Modern Leper.

As time has gone on, Frightened Rabbit’s recordings have unquestionably grown ever more polished. Clearly, this isn’t always a positive step, and it’s been the death of plenty of bands before them, but in this case, it has felt like a logical, organic growth, taking place as they have gradually accumulated members and grown in both confidence and stature. Scott can’t help but feel that he may have got just a little bit carried away with the extra instrumentation employed on the new record though: ‘It was huge, and I went a bit over the top, I’ll be the first to admit, and it was symptomatic of me feeling that The Midnight Organ Fight wasn’t quite right. I didn’t get to finish it, if you like, and doing The Winter of Mixed Drinks was almost like venting my frustration and getting everything on there, and then going fucking way over the top. I think now is the time to pull it back.’

Indeed, as it turns out, the fleeting instances where the band do strip things right down tonight are probably the greatest moments of a set not lacking in focal points. Scott delivers Poke and Good Arms vs Bad Arms solo, and it’s raw, gut-punching stuff. These songs serve to prove that no matter what strengths Frightened Rabbit develop as a band, ultimately, the thing they will always do best is to articulate the bleakest depths of lovelorn sorrow, and drag you down there with them.

This propensity with miserablism makes the band unlikely fodder for marketing types, yet still they have recently found their music thrust into millions of households thanks to a certain National Lottery advert. In spite of the odd bit of indier-than-thou vitriol, Scott sees no reason for self-reproach: ‘Until very recently, we were label-less, so we were paying for everything. I’m completely unapologetic about all that stuff because I do this so that I don’t have to do anything else and stuff like that goes back to the culture of downloading meaning you don’t make money from selling records. I have to make money somehow, and that’s one of the ways of doing it. A couple of people have been a bit... And I came to understand it, and now, I think I probably would be more wary of doing that in the future. I understand now that that album, and that song, will mean a lot to some people and to hear it in that setting might cheapen it a little bit, but, well, I don’t really care, because it’s going to be on for about two months, and it’ll be forgotten about by Christmas time. I won’t listen to too much stick, because you try working your arse off for four years for very little return financially, and then see if you’re going to give me shit for it! I don’t care. I haven’t actually even seen it. We’ve actually turned a lot of adverts down in the past, and there are a lot of companies I wouldn’t advertise. My thinking is that if somebody hears it and likes it, then it’s one more way of hearing the music.’

After a busy year, the band have one final blowout planned at the Bowlie 2 weekender which is being curated by Belle and Sebastian, and they intend to make the most of it: ‘It’s insane. I first looked at the line-up about two months ago and they added some more bands about a month ago, and it’s fucking even better. I think it’s probably one of the best festival line-ups I’ve seen this year. It’s our last show of the year, and it’s going to be our office party. It’ll feel extremely Christmassy.’

After Bowlie 2, don’t expect too much from Frightened Rabbit for a while, as Scott plans to go to ground to make album 4: ‘We’re going to really spend a long time doing it, I’ve got almost nothing written, so I’m going to have to go and do that at the start of the year, and I want to spend some time at home too.That’s my favourite part of it all. Touring is fine, but recording is why I started the band, so I just want to keep making records.’ There’s no question that Frightened Rabbit deserve their brief respite, and you can’t help but feel total faith that the next album is in safe hands, and it will be very surprising indeed if it doesn’t carry them still deeper into the hearts of the general public.

Frightened Rabbit Interview

After a successful 2010 which has seen Frightened Rabbit firmly cement themselves in the hearts and minds of an ever-increasing section of the record-buying public, the band are rounding the year off with a UK tour. We caught up with singer Scott Hutchinson after their show at Northumbria University for a chat about how life is treating him...

At the start of this year when The Winter of Mixed Drinks was coming out, following the fantastic reception The Midnight Organ Fight received, I think a lot of people were expecting this year to be your year. How do you feel it’s gone?

I think it’s been great. We’ve always said that as long as we’re moving forward then we’re happy. I never pay too much attention to people saying that it’s going to be your year or whatever, because, well they can say what they like, but I’ve had a fucking fabulous year, I’ve really enjoyed it. The reception to the record has been good, and the more time that people have had with it, the better the reception to the songs has been, because I think the Midnight Organ Fight was an album that so many people took really strongly to...

It was a very intense record...

A completely intense record, and we were never going to repeat that. You don’t write two Midnight Organ Fights, so I think people were, like, ‘oookaaay...’, and now they’re getting used to it and I think it’s been fantastic.

It must be nice seeing a room of this size so full for you?

Yeah, we’ve been talking about trying to move forward in a lot of ways creatively and developing the songwriting and stuff, but, hell, we want to see more people getting into the music and this tour we’ve seen that.

In comparing the two records, The Midnight Organ Fight was very obviously a break-up record, but you didn’t have that ready-made subject matter in place this time out, so was it difficult, or was it liberating having to start from scratch?

It was a challenge, but it was a good challenge, because it came to the point where I could write these songs about heavy angst, torrid times and black periods easily, it’s an easy language to get used to. It’s more difficult to write a song about being content and happy and enjoying yourself without sounding too cheesy, so that was a challenge for me, and I liked it. I don’t want to repeat myself.

So is the next record already in your mind?

I’m formulating ideas, and I’m thinking about it a lot just now, although I’m not actually acting on it just yet because I don’t write on tour. I’ve got bits and pieces floating about and it’s going to be different again. I want to strip it all back, strip all the shit that went on on the last record, all of the orchestration and stuff...

Yeah, The Winter of Mixed Drinks was definitely a much fuller sound...

Oh, it was huge, and I went a bit over the top, I’ll be the first to admit, and it was symptomatic of me feeling that The Midnight Organ Fight wasn’t quite right. I didn’t get to finish it, if you like, and doing The Winter of Mixed Drinks was almost like venting my frustration and getting everything on there, and then going fucking way over the top. I think now is the time to pull it back, yeah.

These days, we’re living in a world where it’s commonplace for people to help themselves to music off the internet, particularly before albums are released. How do you feel about that, and what sort of impact do you think it has on Frightened Rabbit specifically?

I’ve never really known a period of time when people make money from selling records, so actually it’s not changed the way that I feel. I think that it makes it easier for people to hear your music and that can only be a good thing. You can’t replace a live show, so as long as people have heard us and they want to come to a show and they want to buy a t-shirt and all that, then bands can survive, and I think, actually it’s put the power back into the bands’ hands. Labels are wondering how they can survive because records aren’t selling , but lots of people are coming out to the shows, and you get a much broader ocean of competition. There’s so much for people to consume, it’s really easy to get lost.

For a punter, there’s so much out there to explore, you almost feel like you’re not spending enough time with an album to do it justice...

Yeah, I mean I’m still seeing people writing on the internet about ‘giving this new Frightened Rabbit album a listen’, and it’s been out since March! It’s understandable, at one point I’d have maybe been a bit dismayed by that, but I think of myself as a listener as well. For instance it was only a week ago I got into the Bon Iver record, which is fantastic. I’d been thinking, ‘ah, fuck it, I’ll do it sometime’, and then last week it happened, so I completely understand that point of view.

In order to keep yourself ticking over, do things like the Lottery advert become a necessity to be able to continue doing what you do?

Until very recently, we were label-less, so we were paying for everything. I’m completely unapologetic about all that stuff because I do this so that I don’t have to do anything else and stuff like that goes back to the culture of downloading meaning you don’t make money from selling records. I have to make money somehow, and that’s one of the ways of doing it.

Have you had much stick for it?

A couple of people have been a bit... And I came to understand it, and now, I think I probably would be more wary of doing that in the future. I understand now that that album, and that song, will mean a lot to some people and to hear it in that setting might cheapen it a little bit, but, well, I don’t really care, because, it’s going to be on for about two months, and it’ll be forgotten about by Christmastime. I won’t listen too much stick, because try working your arse off for four years for very little return financially, and then see if you’re going to give me shit for it! I don’t care. I haven’t actually even seen it. We’ve actually turned a lot of adverts down in the past, and there are a lot of companies I wouldn’t advertise. My thinking is that if somebody hears it and likes it, then it’s one more way of hearing the music.

You’re playing Bowlie 2 soon. Are you excited about the festival?

It’s insane. I first looked at the line-up about two months ago and they added some more bands about a month ago, and it’s fucking even better. I think it’s probably one of the best festival line-ups I’ve seen this year.

Who are you looking forward to seeing?

This year I was surprised how much I loved the Foals album, it’s fucking amazing, because I didn’t really like the first one, but this one’s got something extra to it, so I really want to see them, and really want to see Wild Beasts again, I like them. I want to try and see all the Scottish bands! It’s our last show of the year, and it’s going to be the office party. It’ll feel extremely Christmassy.

Just to close things off, what does next year hold for the band?

Writing and recording the next record. We’re going to really spend a long time doing it, I’ve got almost nothing written, so I’m going to have to go and do that at the start of the year, and I want to spend some time at home too. It’s my favourite part of it all. Touring is fine, but recording is why I started the band, so I just want to keep making records.