Starring
Bell Monks, Father John Misty, Melike Sahin, Quivers, The Shop Window, Underworld, Yannis and the Yaw
The Front Runners
Mahashmashama : Father John Misty
Wow. And that’s really all you need to know about Father John Misty’s latest collection of musical problems.
I have in my mind a painting. I may be imagining it, but in the foreground there’s a conquistador on horsebook. He sits on a ridge looking down the valley at an impossibly large and sprawling civilisation. His intentions are not clear. It would be fitting if that painting were called Mahashmashama.
Turn your attention now to Father John Misty’s album of the same name. It’s one of the most lushly orchestrated albums I’ve ever heard. It’s huge. Grandiose. Epic. Jaw dropping.
We’re often told, more or less, that less is more. Misty heads full pelt for the opposite effect, piling on the music until it feels that no more could possibly be crammed into the song. Saying everything is turned up to eleven still doesn’t do full justice to the overwhelming surges that swell the title track.
This is an album that lacks any restraint. It gives you reason to return to the album time and time again because there’s no way you can absorb everything it contains in one sitting. It marks Misty out as the greatest showman to a ridiculous extent.
Relatively speaking, there are a couple of songs - ‘Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose’ and ‘Summer’s Gone’ - that pause for breath, but not at the expense of intricate arrangements and details..
Elsewhere ‘Screamland’ grows, subsides and then repeats. ‘She Cleans Up’ is a grubbier sound that’s loud, brash and fuzzy. The greatest songs here are the rolling juggernauts of ‘Mahasmashama’ and ‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All’. Think of the impact of Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ or Costello’s ‘Tokyo Storm Warning’ and add a bit of Nilsson’s out there showmanship.
It begs the question, can he ever follow that? Mahashmashama feels and sounds like a career defining album, a winner takes all throw of the dice. It’s his masterpiece. Breathtaking.
Taster Track : I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All
AKKOR : Melike Sahin
Turkish pop that is both accessible and natural, light and substantial. Yes, you can call it a Turkish delight! (I promise, I wasn’t going to make that joke but I simply couldn’t resist.)
It’s interesting. When pop is sung in a strange language you’re more likely to listen to songs that you wouldn’t go near in your native tongue. The words become part of the sound, an instrument in its own right, shorn of meaning perhaps but buoyed by tone and emotion. The way Sahin wraps her tongue so seductively around the language of ‘Korkmasam Olurdum’, it doesn’t matter that Google Translate can’t tell me what it means. ‘Napicam’ is a beautiful song in any language, trembling on the verge of heartbreak. The emotional charge of ‘Burdaym’ comes through as clear as day.
I’m so pleased that there are no English tracks on this album. When they start to appear, she’ll be diminished.
It’s not just the language of words that she understands though, it’s the language of good pop music too. Occasionally divaesque, ‘Sag Salim is full of dramatic, almost operatic flourishes. It's a frontrunner for the first Turkish James Bond theme. ‘Ifsa’ dances its way psychedelically through smoky market places at sunset to reach you. There are enough electronic touches to balance the ethnic sounds without selling out.
This album has touched me unexpectedly and in ways I can’t easily explain. However you receive them, these are songs that linger and flow timelessly on rivers of sound. Experiencing it is like your first visit to somewhere different and foreign but exciting and a delight to hear.
Taster Track : Napicam?
Lagos Paris London : Yannis and the Yaw
This five track EP may be short but its impact will be long lasting, persuading you that you’re a fan of funk and blues in a world music coat.
The album is a collaboration between Yannis Philippakis, front man for Foals and Nigerian Tony Allen, an Afrobeat drummer once described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived". Adams died in 2020 and Phillipakis completed the songs they’d been working on as a passion project.
Passion is one of the qualities of these songs. They throw everything into them. Of course there are strong African influences at play. But there’s also the funk of ‘Clementine’, the blues of ‘Walk Through Fire’ and, above all, the urgent and heady energy of a wholehearted commitment to life.
These songs wouldn’t have been out of place at the great 60s and 70s festivals. Beck, Page, Clapton and Santana - any of them would be proud to be associated with music this powerful. This is a meeting of contrasting musicians at their midpoint.
Tony Allen’s death means that your attention is inevitably drawn to his drumming. It’s very good, fractured and skittering but under perfect control. ‘Under The Strikes’ shows that it’s the drumming that fuels the music, providing its energy. Don’t overlook the guitar though. It ranges from the crunching heaviness of ‘Walk Through fire’ to the delicate and irrepressible tripping through ‘Clementine’.
In breaking down the boundaries between different genres and styles, they call to mind Radiohead, particularly on ‘Night Green, Heavy Love’. ‘Rain Can’t Reach Us’ brings synth into the mix. It still captures a heavy sound, but an urgent and exciting one.
Every track here has something that stimulates and energises. It’s not tied to World Music but it is music of the world that unites in power and harmony.
Taster Track : Clementine
The Chasing Pack
Watching The Snow Fall : Bell Monks
This is an eerie collection of songs full of sparse electronica and unearthly vocals. It will haunt you long after it’s gone.
There’s a broadly dispersed musical genre around snow. Think about Kate Bush and ‘50 Words For Snow’. Think of the wonder that accompanies the flight to the Arctic in The Snowman but, above all, think of the heart rending, quietly but inescapably cruel conclusion when you realise he’s melted away. That combination of strangeness, wonder and grief is what underpins this album.
Listening to this is an experience that isn’t quite of this world. Perhaps it’s something you overhear at a time that music doesn’t usually play, filling an empty, hidden space in the day that you can never locate again. You can enjoy it like a first experience of weightlessness - something new, promising excitement but also a little scary.
Bell Monks sings with his inner voice, the voice that usually speaks inside his head, rather than the voice that projects itself into the public world. It’s a mournful thing. At times like ‘On The Ice’ it’s almost sullen and unforgiving but, nevertheless, filled with a monster’s beauty.
The music tends towards sparse, like the sound of frost cracking underfoot. It’s delicate at times on songs such as ‘Can You Feel The Wind’ with simple notes coming at you through the dead of night. Elsewhere, the touches that make songs such as ‘I Want It To Snow’, feel like they want to remain hidden, hibernating and not wanting to stir.
Bell Monks offers a strange musical experience that rewards quiet and attentive listening. You won’t find much like it anywhere else.
Taster Track : Can You Feel The Wind
Oyster Cuts : Quivers
Quivers promised much based on a previous sample of their songs. They’ve delivered but in a slightly unexpected direction.
Perhaps it was how I was feeling when I heard the sample. (Confession - I can’t recall the title. Awkward!) but it led me to believe I was in for a jangle pop treat on a par with Teenage Fanclub or Camera Obscura. You could say I had Great Expectations but they fell upon the soundtrack to a Bleak House. That said, Bleak House is my favourite Dickens novel, so it’s by no means bad, just unexpected and requiring some adjustment.
These are songs that jangle and chime but they do so like a cracked bell. It sounds, slightly, as if they’re trying to pull songs slightly out of shape. ‘More Lost’ seems to be flexed as far as it can while remaining a pop song.
From Australia, they play songs that seem to fall between traditional Aussie rock and the band’s love of something sweeter. You hear that most clearly in the move from ‘Apparition’ to ‘Grief Has Feathers’.
All that said, they’re a nicely balanced band of equals. Choruses stick even when they’re subdued (‘Never Be Lonely’). ‘Pink Smoke’ is a nicely rousing song and ‘Grief Has Feathers’ is lovely, showcasing their sweeter side. Lyrically they’re empathic and that will help build them a solid core of listeners who can relate to the music and may even have their lives changed by it.
For everyone else it may start to feel like a mid paced chug towards despondency. In Their jangle does not soar gloriously, and their introspection probably won’t reverberate enough for the shoegaze core.
At the end they sing that they want to be more reckless. If they follow those desires, it might help a good band to become a great one.
Taster Track : Never Be Lonely
Daysdream : The Shop Window
Indie jangle pop doesn’t come much more refreshing and cheering than this collection from The Shop Window.
When bands make the music they love, it never goes out of fashion. The Shop Window’s love for indie jangle pop shines through these songs. Don’t expect something muscular or shouty. This is intentionally light on its feet. As it floats, spins and twirls, ir
reaches out and pulls you into a world you can’t help but like a lot.
Jangle poppers don’t make for legendary idols you can hero worship. They provide the soundtrack to life with your best friend at school, your first enduring and character defining friendship. It’s for the good times, the fun times and the times that made you who you are.
The Shop Window understand all that. ‘I Run’, ‘It’s A High’, ‘Cherry Lemonade’, ‘Loneliness’, ‘Blues’ - the list goes on, enabling you to immerse yourself in a bright, colourful and optimistic world. It’s as good as a trip to your favourite, undiscovered cafe where time stands still and you’re allowed to linger for as long as you want.
You’ll know the heritage that leads to The Shop Window. It’s the Teenage Fanclub post Creation Records. It’s the stuff of Sarah and Marina records. You’ll have heard it on Gary Crowley’s programmes and in Cherry Red deep dives. You’ll already love it.
To step away from the praise for a moment. There’s a moment of enlightenment for the listener too, with ‘Who’s In Control?’ It shows how jangle nods and moves towards the chime of shoegaze at one end of its spectrum.
This is buoyant, smiling music producing one gem after another that consistently hits the mark.
Taster Track : It’s A High
Strawberry Hotel : Underworld
Underworld return with their first studio album in five years. It’s dark but stays true to their strengths and legacy.
I read recently that no fan wants to hear the words “Here’s one from our new album.” And no record company executive wants to hear a band say “We think it’s time to try a new musical direction.” Both can rest easy here, and feel confident that Underworld are on top form.
The band describe their music as being both for a night out in the club and the morning after. Here they’ve also latched onto a middle ground, the place where you’re coming down and over tired, acutely wary of potential threats lurking in the shadows. That’s when you realise that you’re entering Underworld’s world, they’re not reaching out to yours. It’s a world that Shakespeare might feel comfortable in, particularly around the time he was writing his problem plays.
You might think that you’re on safe ground with the first couple of tracks. ‘Black Poppies’ is as close as Underworld have come to a hymn. With ‘denver luna’ Underworld’s trademark propulsive beats and stream of consciousness chants feel familiar. The way the beat mutates into a throb and back again during the middle break is perfect. And the heady rush of ‘Techno Shinkansen’ is what fans come to Underworld for.
Wait, though. The world they cover in ‘Sweet Lands Experience’ and ‘Lewis In Pomona’, for example, is dark and menacing. There’s less euphoric release in this album. By the time you reach ‘Hilo Sky’ you may feel that the bleak tones are becoming a bit much. The way that it bleeds into ‘Burst of Laughter’ suggests there’s no escape. ‘Ottavia’ is a spoken piece, narrated by Rick Smith’s daughter. It’s brilliant, powerful and deeply unsettling. You’ll welcome the gentler tones of ‘King of Haarlam’ and the surprising coda of ‘Stick Man Test’ with its plucked guitar.
It’s the two longest tracks that convince you that this is Underworld at their best. The eight minute ‘denver luna’ is one. The nine minute ‘Gene Pool’ is the other, with a hook that trickles its way into your brain as ‘Rez’ did in their earlier days. It makes the case that Underworld are at their best when they give themselves the space to evolve songs.
Underworld have been with us for 40 years or so now. Strawberry Hotel doesn’t suggest they will be running out of steam any time soon.
Taster Track : Gene Pool
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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