Music To Make The Easter Bunny happy

Starring

Color Green, Deep Sea Diver, DOVS, Isobel Campbell, Kelly Lee Owens, Mark Fredson, My Raining Stars

The Front Runners

Psychic Geography : DOVS

DOVS collection of electronic ambience is a masterclass in making ambient music that is interesting and surprisingly intimate.

Whoever DOVS is, their presence in this music is almost invisible. They’re not anonymous, but they’ve somehow managed to remove their performer’s personality from what you hear. That does not mean that the music itself lacks personality. Rather, in these AI days you feel that DOVS have set the parameters for what follows, flicked a switch, popped out of the building and left the machines to get on with it. What you hear is from the machines, but the art is from the person, and the art is what makes this album special.

For a start it creates a uniquely intimate experience. Intimate music usually pares down songs to something that has a musician singing and playing directly to a listener. By removing the performer from the equation, DOVS allows the intimacy to come from your response to the music, unfiltered by another’s interpretations.

And what music it is. Ambient electronica may sound dull, but its appeal and beauty come from small changes. If you refocus on a track such as ‘Verona Walls’ you can find infinite variety even at this minimalist level. It’s like thinking all is quiet but becoming aware of the sounds that are always there - the different tones of the hum of machinery, for example. Or it could be noticing the gently overwhelming sounds of a newborn baby sleeping.

On ‘Psychic Geography’ drones lay a comfortable underlay, while the music on top patterns the musical carpet. ‘Vernal Falls’ almost tumbles into a tune you can hum, cut from the cloth of Intelligent Dance Music. ‘Plant’ infectiously wraps you up in a silken cocoon. This is music that may seem to be playing hard to get but that just makes it all the more desirable.

There’s one other aspect that suggests the influence of machines. There’s a couple of punned titles - ‘Monsoon Reason’ and ‘ Rumi Nation’ that could only have been dreamed up by autocorrect. Great joke.

This is soothing and gentle, definitely music. It’s a blissful way to spend 45 minutes.

Taster Track : Vernal Fall

Bow To Love (Deluxe Version) : Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell’s take on folk pop is both traditional and groundbreaking. And gorgeous, most definitely gorgeous.

She’s had a free spirit’s career to date, refusing to be tied down to meet our expectations. A classically trained cellist and an original member of Belle and Sebastian, she soon spread her wings to release solo material, first as The Gentle Waves, then under her own name. Her collaboration with Queens of the Stone Age’s Mark Lanegan was as unlikely as the one formed between Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. The latest surprise was to demonstrate an affinity with singing in French, releasing an EP of French songs in 2022 with Jerome Didelot. That pays dividends here, as the ‘deluxe’ element here is a full translation of ‘Bow To Love’ into French. It’s an understatement to say that it works well.

The songs here are utterly charming, bringing quiet smiles and purrs of pleasure. They specialise in hushed and folky melodies. There’s grit in the mill too. It comes as a slap on the face in the opening track ,‘Everything Fallls Apart’, to hear her sweet gently harangue someone as a son of a bitch.

This is a folk album with added magic. At times, as on the English version of ‘Dopamine’, she sings as if lightly sedated. It’s the sound of Sleeping Beauty operating at a different speed. Across the album there’s a sense that the inspiration for many of the songs comes from fairy tales, nursery rhymes or lullabies. 

The tone shifts only slightly on ‘4316’, its hypnotic throb suggesting some form of transformation, Her cello isn’t the only element to draw out a Celtic feel in songs such as ‘You’. The recalled memories of ‘Om Shanty Om’ are beautiful. The addition of strings transforms her cover of Dire Straits ‘Why Worry’. If you recall the too late night vibe of the original, it’s one of the feelings engendered by these songs.

The French version of the songs is a welcome bonus. With no distraction from following the lyrics, the full beauty of the music in ‘Dopamine’ stands out. ‘Why Worry’ melts the heart. Spending 45 minutes or so in their company is no hardship at all.

Listening to this album - in English or French - is an ethereal and magical experience.

Taster Track : In English, Everything Falls Apart. In French, Dopamine

Momentum : My Raining Stars

All that’s good about classic indie pop can be found in this album. It’s a joy from start to finish.

This is a record that jangles. It chimes. It helps you to feel good. It’s a happy reminder that, away from the Ed Sheerans, the Beyonces and the Taylor Swifts there’s a world of great music that’s just out of sight. It’s navigating its way around the pitfalls and obstructions of the music business hoping that the wheel of fortune stops where you can discover it.

This is my favourite kind of indie. It’s music for the Beta male, shorn of bravado. It’s music that displays sensitivity but not self pity. It provokes empathy rather than a desire to avoid overwrought hysterics. It speaks to you calmly, not by shouting in your face. 

The Sarah and Creation record comparisons are apt and welcome. ‘For Good’ is like hearing early Teenage Fanclub all over again. There’s the beauty of shoegaze in ‘Stop The Time’. ‘Lovers’ has a yearning quality in the vocals that characterises the best of bands such as The Field Mice. Every track contains a great melody above the fuzz and reverb of the music. These are songs that don’t put a foot wrong.

Thierry Haliniak, the man behind My Raining Stars, has delivered an album that’s full of the traditional indie spirit and willing to please. Let’s hear it for all bands keeping the indie flame flickering. But let’s hear it especially for My Raining Stars.

Taster Track : Stop The Time

The Chasing Pack

Fool’s Parade : Color Green

Color Green manage an uncanny feat of time travel with their homage to mid 70s’ free flowing rock.

Let’s think about mid 70s America for a moment. America was in a war they couldn’t win, trying to exert influence over a population that was hearing nothing of it. The economy was heading down to the rubbish tip. By the end of the decade, eyes were turning towards a tough talking B Movie actor for President. Turn to now and…..

Think about the music of the time too. The impact of rock and roll had grown bloated, a prize fighter no longer packing the punch of old. There were signs of a reaction to this, but it was the UK spearheading the DIY punk ethic. What America was left with was musicians who knew how to play but couldn’t confine their ambition to a three minute burst of 45rpm energy. They didn’t know when to stop.

Given that, it’s more appropriate than it first appears that Color Green are revisiting that era so wholeheartedly. This is music from a time bubble that hasn’t admitted new or radical influences since 1975, and that’s not a problem. They look the part too, an off the peg mix of the Allman Brothers, CSNY and the Eagles. Every song here sounds like a set closer or an encore. These are songs that could easily stretch to twelve minute jams that allow every participant the pleasure of their moment soloing in the spotlight when playing live. 

The only slight criticism is that it sounds as if they are so in thrall to the era, that they’ve created a pastiche, rather than something truly original.  That said, listening to a band so in love with their music and playing with immense pride and respect is always rewarding.

From the outset, it’s odds on that we’ll have a slower, extended bluesy number somewhere along the line. That comes with ‘Kick The Bucket’. A little bit of cosmic rock creeps into ‘5:08’. There’s a nice, poppier closer in ‘Hazel Eyes’. It’s a kind of warm down musical exercise for the ears after the full classic rock workout that precedes it. 

It’s possible that they would claim Kings of Leon as more recent influences, particularly their debut album. That’s fair enough - they’re dipping into the same birthing pool of rock and roll after all.

Color Green may never be in a position to claim that they are the biggest band on the planet, but they’re probably going to be playing some of the biggest bars in Texas!

Taster Track : Four Leaf Clover

Billboard Heart : Deep Sea Diver

There’s a lot of energy packed into Deep Sea Diver’s pop rock music, lots of bright colours and ear catching ideas too.

Deep Sea Diver hail from Seattle, adopted home of Nirvana and the breeding place for grunge. Now, imagine if that initially grubby sound performed by men who hadn’t been looking after themselves recently was passed down to their bright spark daughter. That’s what this album sounds like.

This album is full of songs that build and build everywhere before falling back. ‘Let Me Go’ is just one example of how the band picked up Nirvana’s legacy baton. It doesn’t focus on rumbling bass or growly vocals. This is grunge brought into the light and exposed to the flashing glare of colourful strobes and fleshed out with a barrelful of production gizmos.

It’s quite busy and, somehow, a sound that could only originate from America. Nothing is left out in these songs. Every idea is shoehorned into the mix. An image that kept coming to mind is of an out of control hose pipe spraying everywhere and everyone without restraint.

The effect is to confront you with a sense of pure excitement. It’s a little too much though, like throwing a party that is going really well, but you’re unable to join in because you’re taking care of so many things. It’s how I felt in the mid 80s when everything had to be bigger, better and brighter than what came before. It means that even on a song like ‘Emergency’ which has a particularly strong riff, it’s lost in the mix.

There are lots of good things in this album but ultimately it feels like too much of a good thing.

Taster Track : Shovel

Dreamstate : Kelly Lee Owens

I had high hopes for Kelly Lee Owens’ mix of techno and dream pop. There’s little wrong with it, but it fell short of expectations.

The tone is set by the opening track ‘Dark Angel’. It’s pleasant enough but lacking the energy and euphoria that marks out a must hear banger. There’s a sense of limbering up for the main event, of practising scales as preparation for bursting into a full piano concerto. It seems as if the following track ‘Dreamstate’ hears her hitting her stride, but it’s a false alarm like watching a schoolboy runner sprint to the front of the cross country race at the start, just so they can say they led the race for a while.

I can’t escape the feeling that she’s operating within her comfort zone. It’s easy to visualise her whipping up the crowd for a rave or festival but as the warm up act not the main event. The songs feel generic. They are perfectly pleasant, but if you disappeared to the bar or loos while they played you sense you wouldn’t miss too much. They lack the other world qualities of the best dream pop. If they’re the stuff of dreams, it’s the dreams of very light sleep.

There are a few things that work. The rise and fall of ‘Rise’ is quite lovely. And if the lyrics are barely necessary on some of the songs, her vocals add significantly to their rhythm and feel. 

It’s quite possible that listening to this at home, alone and as dawn breaks is simply not the right environment. In a busy club bar surrounded by friends this could work much better. As it is, the benchmark is latter day Royksopp, when she could and perhaps should be aiming for the heights of Hot Chip or Caribou.

In the end, this is perfectly acceptable but short on individuality, excitement and euphoria. It’s Waitrose flowers rather than a bouquet from an independent florist who cares.

Taster Track : Dreamstate

Company Man : Mark Fredson

Mark Fredson recalls the musical years of smooth FM pop with a defiantly mainstream pop sensibility. And it turns out that’s just what we might need right now.

Looking like Ted Lasso’s younger brother, this shares the same old school values of  melody, courtesy and decency. (Yes it’s aimed squarely at our Radio 2 audiences but, as you listen, you wonder if it’s just a little more knowing and perhaps tongue in cheek than it seems.) Back in the day you might have kicked against this, but now it can take you back 45 years with the comforting knowledge that you’re going to survive all life will throw at you.

This is music with one foot in the smooth FM music of 70’s yacht rock and the other in the lovers synth pop of the mid 80s. The title song, ‘Company Man’, is an excellent example of the former, with a melody that will keep you company all day without irritating you. ‘Me and Sarah’ is a great marker of the latter, conjuring up the soft focus and tired melancholy of a fading relationship. Its strings and backing choir  make for a sumptuous sound.

It’s a short album, but it’s such an easy album to listen to, love and enjoy. There are a couple of brief interludes included that capture the sound and feel of the era in just over a minute each. There’s a little of the Nashville sound in there too, not just the pop focus but the sense of a medium sized town with regular lifestyles to sing about. And yes, I know Nashville had a population of 689,447 at the 2020 census making it the 21st most populous city in the United States because I’ve just looked it up on Wikipedia, but that’s not how its vibe feels from 4159 miles away.

On ‘That’s That’, Fredson sings “Finally giving up on being cool”. Well, the main influences here are the less cool sounds of Rupert Holmes’ ‘Pina Colada Song’, Boz Scaggs’ album ‘Silk Degrees’, China Crisis’ ‘Wishful Thinking’, or Wang Chung’s ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’. Less cool they may be but they’ve stood the test of time more than countless flavours of the month.

Fredson’s Spotify bio is as brief as the album, restricted to “Mark Fredson has been at it a while and shows no sign of stopping.” Thank Heaven for that.

Taster Track : Company Man

As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/42qDXrw3nLMlCSg45kCnRy?si=4499207642034207 or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.

The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7EjHZr5_M3m0Zn5LEu_F3fMm&si=OhQF-ZPaBjUn4VMT