Starring
Bonny Light Horseman, Colouring, Lauren Mayberry, Magnetic Skies, Mogwai, P:ano, Stacks
The Front Runners
Love To You, Mate : Colouring
Deeply personal, these slices of downtempo electronica tell a compelling story.
That story concerns the early death of Colouring’s brother in law, Greg Baker.. To make this album, Colouring draws on the sense of togetherness and unity felt across the wider family as they struggled to comprehend the tragedy an, manage and care for Greg. In turn, that’s what gives these songs that unique blend of sadness and positivity.
This is pop in the real world at the moment when everything changes irrevocably and you face your darkest hours. It’s bred from darkness but it’s never self pitying or mawkish. Instead it’s a celebration of strength that can’t be celebratory because it doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s a record of how to endure the unendurable without crumbling.
Step aside from the power the situation exerts over the whole album, and you’ll hear that these are all strong songs. They’re uncluttered and clear, sober and restrained electro songs. Music that could easily move you to tears still finds a place for sweet melodies. Their simplicity is fuelled by a bare honesty. You never feel manipulated into an emotion that wasn’t felt at the time. There are discreet backing vocals on songs such as ‘This Light’ that add a spiritual, choral dimension. A song such as ‘How’d It Get So Real?’ has just the right amount of energy to rise above the prevailing grief and worry without undermining the seriousness of the songs.
‘Love To You, Mate’ is a deeply personal album and that’s what gives it an emotional power that Coldplay can only dream of. These songs are influenced by The Blue Nile, but with stronger melodies, or by a lighter Blake.
It’s a fact of musical life that you should write and sing about what you know. When what you know is a tragic loss, it’s a towering achievement to use that experience to create something this good.
Taster Track : How’d It Get So Real?
The Bad Fire : Mogwai
Mogwai show us that, sometimes, beauty can be found in the most unexpected places.
Over the course of 52 years, only two bands have intimidated me into avoiding listening to their music. You’re ahead of me in recognising that one of those bands was Mogwai. They’re a band I associated with dark music, based around white noise and being very, very loud. I was wrong.
I suspect that no one has ever written this next sentence in connection with Mogwai before. I felt the need to turn up the volume. I’m no expert but I think that if you compress the sound of a song when you record it, it sounds louder. The trouble is that in doing so you lose some of the content at the margins, so I’m speculating that Mogwai have chosen not to make this sacrifice. And the first thing for this Mogwai virgin to note is that their songs are densely packed with details you don’t want to miss. The interplay between the different components is intricate, and pretty much the basis of their sound.
Mogwai are the Beauty and the Beast of rock. Their songs can sound like raw meat. They are relentlessly repetitive, with the beauty of a raging fire. In the midst of their hypnotic guitar you can hear drones and, yes, something verging on white noise. If their peers are the musical equivalent of a brick wall, Mogwai are more the equivalent of industrial concrete slabs. Part of their attraction is their potential for strength and aggression. They don’t need to realise it in every song for you to know that it is there, but if that’s the element that appeals to you. ‘Lion Rumpus’ is a good place to start.
The beauty comes from their deliberate guitar work, full of crystalline notes hanging in the air, signalling for you to follow. I read that this is a more accessible album than some of their past work. If that’s true, this doesn’t sound like a compromise.
What comes as a surprise to me is the loveliness of the melodies. ‘God Gets You Back’, ‘Hi Chaos’ and ‘Pale Vegan Hip Pain’, amongst others, hook you with their tunes and carry you safely through the noise. There’s a welcome low level touch of humour too, particularly in the song titles. ‘If You Feel This World Is Bad, You Should See Some of the Others’ is just one example. It’s also a song that captures the squeaky guitar strings of quiet and intimacy.
It’s not an endurance test to listen to this. It sounds like music from another dimension and you should take courage and listen to it.
Now, bring on Slipknot!
Taster Track : Pale Vegan Hip Pain
ba ba ba : P:ano
This sweet and stylish album of quietly ambitious pop is an absolute joy.
P:ano are a band formed by high school friends, most prominently Nicholas Krgovich and Kellarissa. This is an album that carries the flame of the band’s enduring friendship in every track. That may explain the jotter book lower case of the titles and the punctuated band name. It feels as if their ideas are still slipped surreptitiously to each other beneath the table. They’re someone’s star pupils who continue to make classy, effortless music.
It feels as if every member of the band can indulge their own likes with the full co-operation of the others. That may explain why ‘mikey’s new house’ is comfortably the loudest that I’ve heard Nicholas Krgovich play.’ The harmonies in the songs, I suspect, reflect the harmonies in the band dynamics. The arrangements feel lovingly created and supportively tweaked. Even at their most individual, they can’t let a good melody slip through the net.
There are moments that prevent the songs becoming unduly sweet, making for some less obvious pop. There’s the underlying rhythm of ‘mariko’, and the atmospheric ambience of ‘spani’. There’s the unexpected but oh so welcome use of brass - the hunting brass of ‘old shoe’ and the parping brass of ‘leaving the salon’ which provides the playfulness on which the song floats away.
It may be a long way from the band’s home town of Vancouver to Bellshill near Glasgow, where the BMX Bandits grew up, but it’s not a long way from ‘leaving the salon’ to the BMX Bandits’ album ‘Bee Stings’.
This is an album that is both sophisticated and warm, full of songs that wander without a care in the world, picking up melodies and contributions as they go. They are songs that muse aloud and tell of memories reconvening, All the while, they are bathed in prettiness and charm.
P:ano - VG and 10/10!
Taster Track : a bit of coquitlam
Want : Stacks
This is an unforgettable album of quiet electronica that casts its spell quickly and draws you into a world of its own.
Stacks have a very low presence on social media. Their wider internet presence isn’t that evident either. Despite that, more than 37000 people listen to them on Spotify monthly. There’s two things you can draw from that. First, this is an album you come to with no expectations and, secondly, more than 37000 people discovered this exquisite treat before I did. They probably felt that the act was too good to share!
For a fleeting moment, as the treated vocals announced their soft presence, I felt a shiver of concern. I’m not a fan of synthetic vocals but here they fit the songs perfectly. And they can’t hide the fact that ‘For Silence’ is the kind of timeless song that could be shaped however you want it to be shaped and still sound great. Allow yourself to be taken into the following song ‘On The Heels’ and you’ll be hooked and never want to leave. It’s so comfortable in its mood and tone, such a full sound for something with minimal components.
This is music for the kind of dream where your brain quietly makes sense of the insoluble problems that trouble you by day. Listening to this is like flying smoothly above clouds lit by moonlight. It’s music that builds its own cocoon around you. It may be a faint relation to the Gregorian Chant. It’s a long way from the new age connotations of that, but it’s similar in the way that it absorbs you fully and brings with it a sense of peace.
If you wanted to describe their approach, it’s a kind of full minimalism. There are a limited number of instruments and effects, but what there is works brilliantly. Pop is an ephemeral thing. Stacks embrace the pop sound but alchemise it into something more durable and substantial.
‘Want’ is a melody rich album that is shy to show its face. It’s a found treat.
Taster Track : On The Heels
The Chasing Pack
Keep Me On Your Mind / See You Free : Bonny Light Horseman
Twenty tracks of Americana folk might sound like a big ask of the unconverted, but this album from Bonny Light Horseman has plenty of gems along the way to keep even the least committed listener happy.
Is there a place in modern pop for stirring the porridge? Of course there is. It’s in the domestic world where the heart of true and sincere feelings can be felt and expressed, It’s where you let your guard down. ‘Rock The Cradle’ is the essence of what comes forth.
This is music found in a mainly empty bar, somewhere near the little house on the prairie on a Wednesday night. ‘Lover Take It Easy’ is music for slow dancing to, together, oblivious to your surroundings. ‘Keep Me On Your Mind’ is the kind of intimate song that comes from growing old together. It’s brimming with the kind of tear jerking emotion that Warren Zevon found in his final album.
It’s a long album that might have worked better as two separate sets, breaking around ‘Singing To The Mandolin’. For me there are times when you’d welcome a break from the style and tone but, for some , the impact of the songs will be so personal and immediate that they’ll never be able to get enough of it. The unconvinced may find the Dolly Parton and hillbilly vocals a little wearing, but that’s to overlook the melodic strengths of the songs.
True, sometimes songs like ‘Old Dutch’ may need to find and grow into their melodies, which take a little time to emerge. But they will emerge as perfectly formed hooks that make many of these songs special. Americana and American folk can be washed in despair and depression, These songs always remember that there is beauty and prettiness in the least likely surroundings and they’re as adept as bringing them to the fore as a fossil hunter is when he releases prehistoric history from a stone. The woodwind in ‘Your Arms All The Time’ takes you towards a classic torch song. The melody and sweet sadness of ‘Singing To The Mandolin’ makes for four minute perfection.
Take this album and listen to it to rediscover the quiet, enduring emotions of what’s important in life. Take a break midway through and return later for a second helping.
Taster Track : Singing To The Mandolin
Vicious Creature : Lauren Mayberry
Lauren Mayberry breaks from her role in alternative indie band Chvrches to unleash her inner pop goddess.
It sounds as if Mayberry may have been at the head of the queue, when the shout went out for someone to make a glossy, chart and teen friendly album. She’s thrown herself into it and surfaced with an album that is energetic and hitting its chosen spot.
This is full of tight, shiny songs with rousing choruses. Mayberry is the drummer and percussionist with Chrvches (as well as their co-writer). If she has played the percussion here, she’s a good one. It’s the driving force of ‘Sorry, Etc’ and across the album. Elsewhere, a song like ‘Punch Drunk’ shows a bevy of supporting musicians who would be happy to strut their stuff in the limelight with her, and a production style that makes the most of the gizmos at its disposal.
It feels a little mechanical at times. It has everything you could want from a radio friendly pop album but it has little you could need in your album of the year. Her vocals tend to be half spoken and half sung before spiralling away into the world of a diva soprano in the choruses. In the verse the vocals are religiously aimed at hitting the beat, and they don’t often miss.
There’s a touch of the Mean Girls generation in ‘Shame’ and the influence of Taylor Swift in her imperial pop queen phase in several songs including ‘Change Shapes’. If it’s a sell-out, it’s a good one and no different from the path taken by many others.
‘Vicious Creature’ is full of consistently strong playlist material. Taken as a whole, it feels too corporate, more McDonalds than your favourite independent bistro. And like a tool box that looks shiny and metallic in a brochure but turns out to be made of plastic, it’s not as durable as you might wish.
Mayberry has made a proper pop album, a good pop album, and she doesn’t care what you think about that.
Taster Track : Something In The Air
Empire Falling : Magnetic Skies
Welcome the return of escapist synthpop. Magnetic Skies’ album is confident and secure in its strengths.
From the start ears prick up, and a smile of satisfied pleasure crosses your face. ‘Into Paradise' is the smoothest of take offs. It sounds like A-Ha in full synth pop grandeur. One thing you can be sure of is that there’s no minimalism here! At a time when much electronic music feels despairing, hunkered down and intense, this is refreshing.
It’s also a reminder of a time when synthpop was in love with itself. It was the future and filled with confidence. The music it produced was, after the initial breakthrough, polished, shiny and bursting with colour. Despite drawing from the golden age of 80’s synthpop, you only have to listen to a song like ‘Magnetic Skies, to know that it still sounds modern.
Shrinking violets don’t succeed and there’s no doubt that Magnetic Skies are a band that want to be pop stars very badly. They have the image, the sound and the positioning to make this happen. You might call it arrogance, but it’s tempered by the fact that they are making music that is very good. And it’s good to hear a band developing as it grows. Four of the first ten songs are remixes - for remix read improved. There are four remixes tagged on the end too - a bonus boosting the album to nearly an hour’s worth of good songs.
It’s ironic that, for some people, these strengths will also be their biggest weakness. Its colourful brightness doesn’t allow for the real world with its grit, genuine emotion, intimacy or heart. This could be more at home as part of a video soundtrack, rather than as a record that could change your life. It should appeal to folk missing the golden age of Duran Duran.
Above all though, this is a record that celebrates synth music at its best.
Taster Track : Into Paradise
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
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