Starring
Hinako Omori, Khruangbin, Masal, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Peel, Uh
Under Starter's Orders
Wild God : Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave brings the full force of his passion, emotion and, yes, madness, to bear on us in his new album. It’s thrilling and, surprisingly, uplifting too.
I’ve always been intimidated by Nick Cave. He’s seemed an uncontrollable, bat releasing force of nature. His side project, Grinderman, is one of the most transgressive things I’ve heard, strong stuff indeed and too strong for some. I’ve felt wary also of being uncomfortable in the presence of the grief he’s explored at the loss of his fifteen year old son in a cliff fall. And yet, with ‘Into My Arms’ he’s produced one of the most sincere and gorgeous love songs ever written . ‘The Ship Song’ is so accessible it became a charity single in Australia. He’s duetted with Kylie Minogue and ‘O Children’ even featured in a Harry Potter film. That’s a lot of evidence you don’t have to be wary of him.
‘Wild God’, the album, gives you the best of both. It’s theatrical in the extreme. He’s a King Lear or an Ancient Mariner of rock. These are songs plucked from the dark part of his imagination and experience, full of apparitions and nightmares.
They feel like outpourings. Each song could be the album’s climax, a climax that can’t be suppressed, full of emotions held in check for too long.
Crucially, none of the songs sacrifice musicality to passion. He comes out of character in ‘Song of the Lake’ with lines such as “All the King’s horses, oh never mind never mind.” There’s acceptance in ‘Joy’ with the line “We’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.” (The line is attributed to a boy. You don’t need a Masters in autobiographical storytelling to make the link to his son.) There are some lines that jolt you - “Rape and pillage in the retirement village’ - but they’re softened by his outraged and ridiculous humour, symphonic strings and the soft piano that provides shelter from overwhelming despair on songs like ‘Long Dark Night’ and ‘O Wow. O Wow (How Wonderful You Are)’. Another feature is the backing chorus. It nods to gospel but it’s more akin to the chorus at a royal court.
At times this is exhausting, but it’s also exhilarating and thrilling, a fitting tribute to the kingdom of the Wild God.
Taster Track : Song of the Lake
The Front Runners
A La Sala : Khruangbin
Six ‘proper’ albums in and Khruangbin are…. Khruangbin. But they’re doing it ever so well.
What is it they do exactly? It’s a woozy ambient chill, lovely to listen to but it’s not always easy to remember individual songs and tunes. It’s mood music, and it’s a mood that has caught on with a number of other acts over the last decad. When it works, as it often does here, it’s gorgeous. When, occasionally, it doesn’t work quite so well, it sounds more absent minded, less intended for public listening.
They’ve always possessed a cinematic feel. Here it’s the darker sides and night time feel of South America. The softly overheard words of tracks such as ‘Pon Pon’ and ‘Todavia Viva’ add to this atmosphere. They tread as carefully and deliberately through these songs as a juggler showing off their skills while crossing rapids on stepping stones. On something like ‘A Love International’ they make it sound easy.
There are gentle surprises here. The Wurlitzer organ that softly supports ‘Three From Two’ is one. The surprising but undeniable Santana influences on ‘Pon Pon’ and ‘Fifteen Fifty Three’ are another welcome development.
The wistful, wispy vocals on ‘May Ninth’ make for the poppiest piece here. Laura Lee Ochoa vocals are definitely one of the band’s underused assets.
I started listening to this wondering if their time had come to move on. They still sound so good though that you feel there’s a lot more to come before they turn stale. This is their most consistently strong album yet.
Taster Track : May Ninth
The Chasing Pack
stillness, softness… : Hinako Omori
Hinako Omori is Japanese but moved to London when she was three years old. Her 2023 album is a collection of appealing and engaging synth music that mixes both her heritage and her Western experiences.
This is first and foremost a synth album. The music is full of gentle synth riffs and cascades that tumble forth and propel the album much more than melody, rhythm and beats. Listening to this is like watching a meteorite shower on a warm night. You can settle in for the duration and anticipate a few ‘ooh…. ah’ moments from time to time.
Inevitably, the reliance on synth sequences means that there’s a risk that the music could sound noodly. Sometimes it does - on ‘An Ode to your Heart; and on ‘Stalactites’ which, at 1’23”, sounds as if she’s playing and testing out a sound that she has recently discovered.
There’s a flow to the album that guides you through. It’s full of connecting tracks like ‘ Epigraph’ that join the more substantial pieces, like corridors leading you from one room to another in a quirky hotel.
Her background is Japanese, but her life has been lived in England. That makes for a disconcerting but enjoyable experience. The music carries light Japanese influences; the vocals have a distinctly western pop styling. Bizarrely ‘Astral’ starts with a sequence that calls to mind ABC’s ‘4 Ever 2 Gether’. Perhaps it’s demonstrating how everything is connected in the end!
At its heart, this is the attractive sound of a slightly different world. It’s also an album where its title does not lie.
Taster Track : Foundation
The Galloping Cat : Masal
Masal is a collaboration between Al Johnson and Ozlem Simsek. Ozlem is a Turkish multi instrumentalist whose middle eastern background is entwined with her western studies in classical music. Al performs psychedelic electronic music as Alien. It’s a sonic mix worth exploring.
First things first. The only thing that’s galloping amidst the ambience of the music is the cat in the album title. Musically, if there’s a cat involved it’s the kind that’s sprawled out in the sun at the top of the wall keeping a wary eye on life below.
These are slow moving compositions, occasionally weighed down by their own deliberateness. They’re like a large air balloon held in place by steel guy ropes. They’re quite earnest, reminiscent of cinematic overtures. It’s music for that point in the day that emerges from the night, not quite dawn but getting ready to face the day ahead.
It doesn’t rely on melody, but a piece such as ‘Black Beards’ is anchored to it while roaming and improvising freely. Its strength is its persistence and the ambience it creates, playing in with different musical textures. ‘Dokuz’ fades in, out and between melody and sound. It’s an engrossing effect.
The Turkish influences aren’t overdone, but when they appear they add spice to the mix. ‘Gul” for example, conveys an impression of hearing music from across Istanbul’s rooftops at sunrise. The percussion across the album adds something different too, treading a path between jazz and club
In the sense it creates of quiet and thoughtful, cinematic watchfulness it calls to mind David Boulter.
This is an album that, more than most, will reward patient and attentive listening. Return to it as you would a secret place in your favourite city.
Taster Track : Dokuz
Acid Star : Peel
This is a quite lovely album from former members of Foster The People. It straddles a few influences, combining them into a collection of songs that grows into something special.
Think about the clues you receive that set your expectations for listening to new music from a new band. They’ll include their history, their current bio, the album cover and the sound of the opening track. Peel have somehow managed to misdirect listeners through these.
First, their history is as members of Foster The People, who most people remember for the joyous ‘Pumped Up Kicks’. That’s not Peel’s tone which settles down into something more relaxed, less, well, pumped up!
Secondly they describe themselves as being partly influenced by Creation Records and acts such as Happy Mondays. I’m not at all sure about that. There’s none of the distorted noise of creation artists such as My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream or Oasis who, for me, are most representative of the Creation sound. They don’t have the swagger of the Happy Mondays either.
The cover is perhaps the best guide. The blurred primary colours are certainly representative of what lies within, songs full of gauzy, dreampop tones that caress you from the headphones.
Finally the opening track ‘Y2J’ creates a false first impression. It’s busier than what follows as if it’s trying to cram too much in. My immediate thought was of a band that weren’t yet completely comfortable in their own musical skin.
I was wrong.
‘Climax’, the second track in, soon slips into something more confident and relaxed. ‘Manic World’ brings appealing dream pop, gentle shoegaze to the fore. The ideas in ‘Mall Goth, especially the moments of House piano are great. ‘Acid Star’, ‘Pavement’ and ‘The Cloak’ are all reasons to give this album a listen.
Perhaps I should play the game and provide some clues that might persuade you to play this record and fall in love with it. How about, they wouldn’t be out of place on the 4AD record label. Or, think of the Radiohead that made ‘No Surprises’ They’ll take you close.
Perhaps the best thing about this album is that, good as it is, it contains so much promise and potential for the next album to be even better.
Taster Track : The Cloak
Humanus : Uh
This album of what is best described as Gothic electronica is an impressive achievement. That doesn’t stop it being a rather strange work.
There’s no gentle introduction to set you up for the listening experience. ‘Prelude’ is creepy, in a mad woman in the attic kind of way. It’s poetry to an electronic backing, more performance than pop. It’s the second track, ‘ Attention’, that eventually breaks into music. It’s worth waiting for.
The album borrows a concept from film - the psychological horror story. It’s music as it might come to you in a feverish nightmare or as you recover from a drug induced sleep. To take just one example, ‘Rocky’ is the sound of a complete breakdown
The rhythms are hypnotic and addictive. They do as much to create the sense of madness that runs through the album as anything else. It creates its own world. Whether or not it makes sense, it’s an intriguing listen.
Sometimes the music sounds lucid. ‘Mama’s style of chamber electronica is a highlight. The dream pop of ‘500 Ascended’ is genuinely uplifting. Musically it’s very good electronica that continually blindsides you with performance vocals that are more of an acquired niche taste. That happens when the music lines up behind the madness of Dominic Kennedy’s vocals. His sister, Fionnuala, provides a Celtic Kate Bush feel.
Despite the undoubted strangeness I took a lot of pleasure from this album. All bands make artistic choices and Uh have chosen to travel a road less travelled. You sense that if they wanted to write an out and out pop album, it would be a good one.
Taster Track : Mama
Playlists
As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cSveL7NpVp1xgrKxPe4av?si=SkFlSnvySeuYFpgG0WJFmA or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.
The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7Eh_sy55y6i18Qj7w_Z3CQft
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