The Dreaming Spires - "Everything All the Time"/"In Our Lifetimes"

(Clubhouse Records, 2011)

It’s now been nine years since Oxford’s Goldrush released their Americana-tinged debut album Don’t Bring Me Down. This eager young record-buyer had hoped that the album’s title, like the music within, was some kind of portmanteau of Neil Young’s ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ and The Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’. Regardless, it was inspiring at that point in time to see a local band that wasn’t Radiohead or Supergrass reaching a national audience. In the years since, core members Joe and Robin Bennett have become prominent movers in the local and national music scene, organizing the ever-expanding Truck Festival which has just celebrated its fourteenth anniversary. The Dreaming Spires is the Bennett brothers’ latest musical project, and they are joined here by Loz Colbert of Ride on drums – which is presumably where their self-proclaimed ‘shoegaze country’ tag comes from. However, those of you expecting My Morning Jacket or Lift to Experience should be prepared for a distinctly clean-cut, West Coast sound on ‘Everything All the Time.’

Like Goldrush before them, The Dreaming Spires wear their influences on their sleeve, and it’s not simply lazy journalism to say that they sound like Big Star and Teenage Fanclub. They really do. To their credit, the band and producer Sam Williams have managed to nail that Grand Prix sound perfectly. Like Charly Coombes & the New Breed, The Dreaming Spires ooze a kind of accomplished professionalism, and theirs is a familiar, radio-friendly sound. Unfortunately, this slickness seems to prevent them from displaying much of a personality of their own.

The opening chords and verses of ‘Everything All the Time’ absolutely smack of Teenage Fanclub, before Robin’s Tim Wheeler-eqsue voice lends itself perfectly to an infectious chorus akin to Ash’s ‘Shining Light’. It’s a solid summer tune and has just as much hit potential as you can hope to expect from a guitar-based band.

B-side ‘In Our Lifetimes’ fares less well, however. In fact, it sounds like one of the weaker Flight of the Conchords songs with its nostalgic ‘Tiny Dancer’ feel, good-time guitar licks and overly earnest and simultaneously simple lyrics that verge – presumably unintentionally – on being satirical. Throughout the song, Robin sounds shaky, singing “Will our children’s children understand/How we gave them such a losing hand?” – and while the environmental message is a worthy one, the overall execution is a bit, well, naff. (And we hate nothing more than having to resort to using the word “naff”). On the plus side, the swelling strings and life-affirming brass section in the outro positively recalls latter-day Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

Before anyone begins to suggest that we’re hating on the Dreaming Spires because of their pedigree, let us assure you that the opinions stated here have nothing to do with that. ‘Everything All the Time’ is, as we’ve stated, a well-crafted and executed pop song that will likely do well. It’s already been spun by BBC Radio luminaries like Steve Lamacq. However, the quality of songwriting and originality on display here is lacking compared to at least a handful (maybe two handfuls) of other local bands; perhaps it’s unfair to expect so much from a fledgling band.

Having said that, the accompanying press pack asserts that when The Dreaming Spires played their songs at Wood Festival earlier in May they were cajoled into doing three encores – but that’s a less impressive feat when you’re the organizer of the whole shindig…

Poet Matthew Arnold is attributed with giving Oxford it’s affectionate nickname, describing her as “that sweet city with her dreaming spires”, referring to the beautiful, iconic architecture. This proves to be a fitting moniker for the band; the songs here show that The Dreaming Spires can attempt to construct a gorgeous pop song in the same vein as pop masters Big Star, but as long as they continue to do so they continue to do themselves a disservice, as we can just listen to #1 Record, Bandwagonesque or Radio City. The Dreaming Spires show promise as writers of anthemic pop songs; let’s just hope that they can become masters in their own right rather than masterful imitators.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 01/08/2011]
http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/08/01/the-dreaming-spires-everything-all-the-time-clubhouse-records/

Khuda - Iecava

(Field Records, 2011)

Leeds' Khuda are an instrumental post-rock duo that create brooding, angular music with some heavy rock overtones but for the most part they build complex layers of guitar with the aid of digital delay and a loop station, all over some pretty sturdy drumming.

Opening track 'Seia' is a simple start to the album, one that will give you a taste of what is in store, and for a band that has a great live reputation as a heavy band they surprise us by not using distortion pedals very regularly. Khuda manage to be heavy using clean guitars and when they do bring some fuzz to the table it's usually to add a grimy overtone to an otherwise pretty assembly of chords as in 'Boreas'.

'Luka Mesto', with it's demented off-kilter riff shows that other skitzo rock acts such as Hella and Lightning Bolt may be an influence, but the second half of the song plays into more familiar post-rock territory with moments of quiet melodics giving way to explosions of noise. 'Don Benito' is similar – it's a great, emotional, kinetic song based around a slowly unfolding riff. On the other hand 'Marchmen' and 'Tyche' rock pretty hard but a sense of inertia pervades both songs and they fail to do anything particularly memorable. It's like they're both on a one-way road to nowhere.

That's the problem with the album; Khuda do what they do well, but some of the songs are a little bit anonymous. 'Seia' doesn't make itself intersting enough and ends so abruptly that we thought the CD had skipped and title track 'Iecava' suffers a similar fate, washing over us without leaving much of an impression for better or worse. Some of the songs are too content to provide slight variations of the same riff for upwards of five minutes and while this occassionally demonstrates the diversity of their musical influences it doesn't show much in the way of innovation. It is hard for instrumental bands to grab (or maintain) a listener's attention; bands like Tortoise and Do Make Say Think may stretch an idea out for a long period but they reward patience with interesting diversions, subtleties, unexpected layers and well thought-out structures and while both those bands have more members to contribute to the creative process and the overallsound, Khuda could do with thinking more about structure and keeping things interesting for the listener.

Conversely, 'Haikyo' is the best example of what Khuda do well. Throughout the song they build subtle new layers upon a foundational riff to create a beautiful tapestry of sounds then change it up about half-way through to add some variety to the whole song so it feels like we're going somewhere. When the song is about to erupt into what should have been a huge distorted outro they bring it back to the opening foundational riff – they play with our expectations and then throw them back in our faces wonderfully.

Any criticisms that I have thrown at Khuda should be taken with a huge pinch of salt and a shot of tequila. Instrumental music can split opinion like no other and there is no shortage of musical and compositional skill of offer here. Iecava is an album that you could definitely have on in the background and let fill the room but don't expect it to grab your attention. There is a whole contingent of music fans that will love this album because it sticks to a formula but this reviewer would like to see Khuda innovate a little more as it feels like we've already heard this album before. You may have noticed some contradictory comments in this review but they effectively reflect how I feel about Khuda. I like them – they're very good – but there is something missing from Iecava that prevents it from being as good an album as it could be.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 14/07/11]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album/Khuda-Iecava.php

Seabuckthorn - In Nightfall

(Bookmaker Records, 2011)

Andy Cartwright, aka Seabuckthorn, has long been one of Oxford's most exciting, talented yet relatively unknown musicians. Perhaps his anonymity is of his own design but it's strangely fitting that such an insular artist could top readers polls and have only 35 likes on his facebook page (that most quantifiable indicator of popularity). Under the Seabuckthorn moniker, Andy has already released three albums as well as a handfull of home-made, self-released CDs and In Nightfall, his fourth album, is essentially a condensed hit of what he can do.

For an album with only seven songs that clock-in at only twenty-three minutes, In Nightfall is a truly cinematic affair and, as we've come to expect from Seabuckthorn, breathtakingly beautiful and evocative. The imagery that supports Seabuckthorn's releases has always provided us listeners with a starting point, or a spring-board, from which to mentally traverse vast, hushed landscapes, unforgiving deserts, solemn forests, ancient temples, hot dusty roads; locations that most of us never get to see. And the music provides us with the soundtrack for our journey.

'Address the Night,' with its slowly descending, overlapping guitar figures sets the stage for 'Journeyed Road,' a more enigmatic and energetic piece, and the album's most immediately engaging and kinetic song. 'Carrier' shares a certain tone with some of the more guitar-led songs on Four Tet's Pause, an album that evokes a similar mood. Like Pause, In Nightfall is awash with Asiatic and South American colours, crazed flamenco flourishes, arpeggios and looping guitar repititions ('The River Answered') while maintaing a kind of innate spirituality, as if the music on this album were the religious songs of an ancient civilization.

While much of the album could serve as the soundtrack for exploring arid foothills and exotic forest temples, “Gone Estray, Being Circled” is the soundtrack for entering a long-forgotten, foreboding shrine and being descended upon by malevolant spirits (you know the feeling). It is the atmospheric high-point of the album, the section that most explicitly creates a vision and a mood in our minds and where Seabuckthorn best demonstrates his skill as a cinematic composer, weaving woozy wind instruments together with deep, sparse piano notes and short, quick flurries of guitar.

“Burnt Offering” is the perfect ending to a stunning piece of art. A peaceful, lulling arpeggiating waltz – romantic 7^th notes and all – plays the album out, while notes so thoroughly drenched in reverb ring-out and bend that you can practically see and smell the smoke circling up into the ether.

As David Murphy wrote of Seabuckthorn's previous album A Mantra Pulled Apart, “picking favourite tracks is academic, your best bet being to let the record wash over you whilst staring out of the window into the evening.” You can scan In Nightfall for the most dynamic songs (“Journeyed Road”), the most atmospheric (“Gone Estray, Being Circled”) or the most beautiful (“Burnt Offering,” “Carrier”) but, as is often the case with artists like Seabuckthorn, the album seems to be a thematic whole that doesn't benefit from being segmented and broken apart. It feels like there is a natural progression in the tracklisting, like the songs are steps in a list of directions to some forgotten place.

You simply must listen to Seabuckthorn, a most transcendental artist.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 09/07/11]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/07/09/seabuckthorn-in-nightfall-bookmaker-records/

The Graceful Slicks - Demo

The first time I encountered the Graceful Slicks was more than a year ago in the Port Mahon, where they were somewhat awkwardly wedged between an experimental instrumental artist and a local sludge outfit. In this context their keen take on the trippier, dronier side of sixties psychedelia was a little out of place. More than that however, their songs seemed to lack direction, and the vocals were nothing more than the various members mumbling into the microphone in between five minute wig-outs. Part of this might have been down to the less than excellent sound system in the Port Mahon at the time, but it nonetheless left a lasting impression of the band with me. There was certainly something promising about them, but so early in their existence they were a little clumsy and clearly happy to accept gigs with bands that didn’t necessarily compliment their style.

Since then their name has continued to pop up in the Oxford music media regularly, and with each performance and recording their sound seems to be getting more clearly defined, their songwriting more focussed. This is without a doubt the best sounding recording the band have so far proffered, and while there was a rugged charm to the previous (presumably home-recorded) demos, this new emphasis on making their songs sound good does their songs wonders.

‘Bul Bul Tarang’ is the side of the Graceful Slicks that I remember from that night in the Port Mahon: hypnotic, slow, groovy, repetitive riffs, but where there was once a barely audible vocal there is now an assured, confident vocal performance from Patrick Coole, one that is reminiscent of Gomez’s Ian Ball. In fact ‘Bul Bul Tarang’, with its Indian overtones and subtle groove, would fit well into Gomez’s early catalogue, and when the drums crash in the combination of atmospheric guitar shimmers and bending lead parts suggest a slight Happy Mondays influence. Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence of mutual influences, as the Graceful Slicks strike me as the kind of band that would sooner smoke a joint than pop a pill. Either way, the song strikes a great balance between melody and drone, fitting for a song inspired by it’s namesake, an Indian banjo with one string for creating drones and another for playing melodies.

‘Fire’ is the most impressive song in the collection; something about the way the song segues from the driving beat of the instrumental section and descends into the riotous, bouncy chorus is infinitely pleasing. The call-and-response vocals screaming “There’s smoke and there’s no fire” is reminiscent of the Monks and, in the spirit of such things, this band manages to recapture the energy of those they seek to emulate. The same could be said for ‘Jalapeno’, which sounds like a combination of early Rolling Stones and 13th Floor Elevators – it’s kind of a throwaway song, but it’s fun.

The best compliment that I can offer the band is that while I was listening to these songs, I was able to forget that they were made by a bunch of young guys from Oxford in 2011. On repeated listens their attention to detail reveals itself, and their obvious love for sixties pysch and garage rock bands is so genuine that I was able to trick my brain into thinking that this was one of the many long-lost sixties bands – and that I had just discovered them.

On the other hand, this does mean that for the most part the songs sound like rehashes of existing songs and sounds. ‘Bul Bul Tarang’ certainly seems to take some cues from more recent bands, but the other two songs here could be outtakes from Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, a compilation that the Graceful Slicks have clearly immersed themselves in. But there is never any pretence that the band is trying to create anything new, so if they’re happy to keep making summer-of-love garage rock then I’m happy enough to hear it.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 04/07/11]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/07/04/the-graceful-slicks-demo-3/

Seven Churches Festival, The Fighting Cocks, Kingston - 25/06/11

Seven Churches Festival went ahead on Saturday 25^th June in spite of some high profile cancellations (Jucifer) and even bands breaking up between agreeing to the gig and the event itself (Groan). The Fighting Cocks in Kingston played host to the Terrorizer-endorsed all day event which claimed to be a “sermon to the blackened and the occult,” but in reality was just a bunch of great bands playing some seriously filthy music to an enthusiastic crowd of degenerates.

Dopefight kicked things off in suitable fashon. The first of two gigs for them today (the other being a rather enviable support slot with Church of Misery and Eyehategod in Bristol) the guys were clearly well rehearsed and well up for it. Their sound is similar to Weedeater and Buzzoven; in fact a fellow punter (Tom from Greg(o)rian) described their sound as a “ten-car pile-up of riffs” and I'd be inclined to agree with him. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon it was a bit too early for Dopefight to make the audience do anything but nod their heads in approval but if they'd played later in the evening as originally planned they would no doubt have elicited a far more enthusiastic response. Nonetheless, they were awesome and one of the highlights of the day.

Next up were Rise of the Simians who had some great moments where they evoked the desert scene with some sand-swept grooves but the start of their set was a little uninspired in places. However, things improved three or four songs in when they took their time with an atmospheric, suspenseful intro into a song with interesting dynamics and arguably the best songwriting in their set with hints of Crowbar. By the end of the set they'd won me over and I, like many others, was keen to grab one of the free CDs on their merch table. Good stuff.

Bast are seriously fucking heavy; their guitars are down-tuned so many steps it should probably be discouraged but they sounded amazing. Throughout their set slow, deep grooves gave way to blast beats and moments of hushed exploration. The use of samples added an unexpected exotic ambiance to their set; at times they sounded like they were playing from the bottom of a tropical cavern (seriously) and for a three-piece they made an amazing amount of noise, with a sound similar to Eagle Twin in places. The initially slight crowd grew significantly during the course of their set which is surely a sign that Bast were one of the revelations of the day.

I can't speak for anyone else in attendance, but I really enjoyed playing with my band Undersmile – the crowd was great, the sound was huge and we all concurred that we gave one of our best ever performances. I can safely say that I have never been so thoroughly drenched in my own sweat after a gig. You've got to hand it to the musicians today – The Cock Pit is one of the hottest places on earth and the combined effect of the lighting and a crowded room left even the best of us stewing in our own filth.

The excellently named Bong arrived on stage a good twenty minutes late leaving the two organisers a little flustered. But fortunately the organisers had the good sense to make allowances for such incidents (these are, after all, stoner bands) but even more fortunately Bong were well worth the wait. Given their name it's not surprising what Bong sound like – they played one long jam based around one never-ending groove, with guitar solos and some stellar drum work adding some variety to the hypnotic mix. The zither-like instrument being played by one of the members added an exotic sound and contributed to the mystery of the band and their monolithic groove. With elements of Sunn O))) and Zoroaster (due to the subtle vocal melodies and chanting) Bong sounded like a bad trip at a Grateful Dead concert. Awesome.

Winterfylleth brought some black metal to the thus far stoner and doom-filled event and to their credit they provided a welcome jolt to the system after Bong lulled us into a weed-induced haze. They're not to our tastes in all honesty and rumours of some diva antics and their emphasis on their proud Northern European heritage don’t help endear them to some of us either. On the plus side, their songs rely on a frenetic, driving melody which elevates them beyond many of their contemporaries. That being said, I'd definitely heard enough after two songs. It's hard to please everyone at an all day event like this and I'm clearly missing something as the crowd was singing along to their songs and generally gave Winterfylleth a hero's welcome.

Unfortunately, as an out-of-towner who was relying on a lift from someone who didn't particularly want to hang around till the bitter end, I was unable to stay beyond the opening moments of Black Sun and it would be unfair for me to give an opinion based on a few fleeting moments. Reports from attendees who stayed-on were more than enthusiastic however. I will endeavour to check them out in the future.

And so Seven Churches festival came to a close. Throughout the day the bands and audience were friendly, encouraging and enthusiastic to be together for a celebration of heavy music, a day that displayed the diversity and creativeness within the alternative community. It was a warm evening as we left Kingston and I'm sure I can speak for everyone else when I say that we look forward to the next instalment of Seven Churches festival. Congratulations and thank you to Matt, Josh and all the staff for putting on an excellent event.

[Originally published at The Sleeping Shaman, 06/07/11]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/gig/SevenChurchesFestival-2011.php

[Later published on Doom Mantia, 07/07/11]

http://www.doommantia.com/2011/07/seven-churches-festival-2011-fighting.html

Fragment - Home

(OPN Records, 2011)

Fragment is the kind of artist that music journalists hate to have to review because with almost no information available on the musician behind the music we are forced to disregard pseudo-important factoids or irrelevant context and actually write about the music. What we DO know, however, is that Fragment's music is more or less written and performed solely by Thierry Arnal, a Frenchman with a penchant for slow, long, simple arrangements inspired by Low and Jesu.

We're not sure whether Home should be regarded as an album or an EP as it is just two songs which, together, clock-in just under the fifty minute mark but ultimately that's not important. Home is a lush couple of songs that take in elements of drone and shoegaze with a keen but subtle emphasis on melody, or rather a sense of melodics. Like Jesu's Silver EP, Home juxtaposes slowly building layers of extremely down-tuned guitars with atmospheric electronic instruments and loops to create huge, swirling soundscapes that need to heard loud.

"Home I" begins with a few minutes of ambient noise before a stuttering drum beat and a repetitive, simple riff form the backbone of a song that slowly develops, breaks and reforms over the course of twenty-six minutes. The overall tone of the song, as suggested by the emotionally-charged title "Home", is of a nostalgic longing. Vocally, Thierry takes cues from his low-key heroes Low and Jesu, as well as other shoegaze greats such as My Bloody Valentine, allowing the voice to act more like an instrument, one that is mixed in such a way that the barely discernible lyrics are ultimately unimportant. The human voice carrying the melody simply adds another layer of nostalgia to proceedings in stark contrast to the programmed, regimented drums. Around the twenty minute mark things get pretty mellow and the soaring ebow recalls Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins allowing the song to conclude peacefully after the racket has subsided.

"Home II", the shorter of the two tracks, is completely devoid of vocals or heavy guitars and instead delivers the same emotional punch as the previous track with a wall of ambient noise and atmospheric guitar work. The song is kind of a drone sound collage and sounds like it could be an extended remix of the aforementioned mellow section of "Home I".

So an interesting set of songs then and one that fans of drone and shoegaze should definitely investigate but don't come to this release expecting much in the way of riffage or variation. This is a record to tune out to, to come down to and to get lost in. At some points, particularly in "Home II" the length of this release feels a little bit gratuitous but if you enjoy it as a whole it's a surprisingly cohesive work. If you want a record that will send all the stragglers home at the end of a party, Home is the record for you.

(originally published on The Sleeping Shaman, 27/06/11)

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album/Fragment-Home.php

The Cellar Family - Flab

(self-released, 2011)

With rapturous praise of their live shows sweeping the local music media The Cellar Family have certainly proved themselves to be a riotous presence in the flesh but can they translate that sound onto a static recording? Fuck yes. “Oestrogen” kick-starts the EP, a wonderful cacophonous blend of Pixies, Holy Bible-era Manics, and Fugazi style sloganeering. The strangely sexy “What Did I Ever Do to You?” sounds like the Bees slowly turning into Nirvana while “My Love is Everlasting” and “Victimize” both recall scarier versions of early Young Knives songs. “Secret Admirer” is a demented, obsessive ode to “child-bearing hips.” The way the singer screams “Ee, el, ess, EEEEEE!” is without a doubt the best thing put on record by anyone this year and the guitar-work is instantly familiar but never derivative. “Your Stomach Will Never Touch Your Back” lasts just long enough to spit out its title in a bilious bath of demented discordant notes. “Testosterone’s” riff sounds like a slight nod to Final Fantasy VII (could be mistaken) but this train of thought has us thinking that the Cellar Family display the same sense of fun and dynamics that made The Rock of Travolta such an exciting prospect when they first turned up on the scene all those years ago integrating “The Imperial March” into their songs. So if this is Flab then pack it on and call me a fat bastard.

(originally published in Oxfordshire Music Scene, issue 14)

http://www.oxfordmusicscene.co.uk/images/oms_issue14.pdf