Broken Records – Live at the Bedlam Theatre
This is a series of videos of Broken Records’ amazing live show at the Bedlam Theatre on Saturday, 28th March 2009. You can use the widget above to watch everything and browse amongst the videos. They are pretty good quality, so pop them up to full screen if you like – if you hit play and just leave it alone it will play through all of them sequentially. Alternatively, you can just scroll down and watch everything there. There are twelve songs in total including, at the very end, the interview video as well, where Jamie and I had a bit of chat after the gig.
Big thanks must go to Mrs. Toad, who operated camera two all evening. Camera two sounds a bit junior, but actually she is the one who got all the interesting shots, while I do all the safe stuff so we have something to fall back on when she’s moving around. Nic Rue, who can be found at nicrue.carbonmade.com, took all the phenomenal still shots I used as the title pages for these videos. Broken Records’ sound guy Kas mixed all the sound, and the reason these videos look so good is because his friend Colin McCallum did all the lighting, which made a massive difference.
Broken Records’ debut album Until the Earth Begins to Part is out now, and it’s brilliant. Their stuff can be bought from recordstore.co.uk here, and their upcoming live dates can be found on the band’s website. Enjoy these videos – they should give you some idea just how good this band are live, and why everyone in Edinburgh was so excited when they first emerged on the DIY gig scene in town just over two years ago. They’re on tour now, actually, so you really should catch them if you get the chance.
Here are the videos, in order:
Thanks for watching all of these. They were a lot of work, but I think it was worth it!
what happened to the new song?
Excellent videos though! Very impressive and professional looking. Wish I made it to that one
The new song wasn’t supposed to be made quite so public apparently, as it was such a rough run through. Just no-one mentioned it to me, so I ended up firing it up there anyway.
well done pal……awesome!!
Lovers Pact is fast becoming a my fave song
Yeah, it’s superb. For some reason Vimeo didn’t want to upload it at all last night. Eventually it got so frustrating that I considered just leaving it off.
For about half a second!
Well done. Really enjoying these. Tell them they’d damn well better come to D.C. in the fall. They sound incredible.
these videos are so beautiful! you really should be proud (and awesome camerawork mrs toad).
and the photos look amazing, thank you!
Why on Earth are you thanking me because your photos look amazing?
“Why thank you, I watched the girl take them myself. It was quite hard work, I can tell you. Phew, I need a sit down now.”
because the way you used them in the videos looks good! sheesh… try to be a little appreciative round here and all you get is sarcasim.
i have no idea why im surprised.
Well it that big long list I think they look phenomenal, but I was rather inclined to give you the credit for that. So thanks. And thanks for letting me use them.
This set really are some of the best photos I’ve seen from Nic.
And it’s not as if they haven’t got any competition from stuff she’s taken in the past..
This is really ace, I got the album at the weekend and am all about it, fair play to the lads, they deserve all the success in the world.
The videos are amazing, great quality and they do the band justice. The album is wonderful
Thanks Sharon. I do appreciate the compliments!
Oh and one from me too Matthew, never heard of them till now and I’ll be going to see them at glastonbury. Really top stuff, good job you had Mrs Toad to provide all the interesting stuff
thanks for posting all that
hi guys,
these videos are absolutely awesome; the lighting works so well.
if anybody is interested, we’ve just posted up our interview with Broken Records, there’s some decent discussion within Jamie’s answers.
Check it out: http://www.moonandbackmusic.com
Cheers!
Paul
What think you of this?
Drowned In Sound Review of Broken Records: Until The Earth Begins To Part by Neil Ashman
The debut album by Edinburgh septet Broken Records arrives riding a wave of hype, mostly generated by ubiquitous proclamations that they are ‘the Scottish Arcade Fire’. However, to this writer’s ears at least, they bear a startlingly resemblance to one other band in particular: The Waterboys. Frontman Jamie Sutherland’s tremulous, sometimes rasping pipes at times bear an uncanny resemblance to Waterboys frontman – and fellow Edinburgher – Mike Scott, most evident on the re-recorded version of early single ‘If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It’. In addition, the septet’s epic folk-rock isn’t unlike the blend of Celtic sentimentality and ‘Big Music’ that The Waterboys dealt in on the This Is Sea and Fisherman’s Blues albums in the mid to late Eighties.
Throughout Until The Earth Begins To Part, Broken Records recall a number of other artists, but familiarity is no obstacle to great music, and the Balkan folk of ‘If Eilert Loevborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like This’ and ‘A Good Reason’ are undoubtedly two of the album’s highpoints. The former, despite its cumbersome title and pretentiously esoteric lyrical conceits, is a joyous listen, veering from urgent tremolo-mandolin led verses to a melancholic waltz reminiscent of Beirut, whilst the swoonsome strings and accordion of the chorus create one of the most beautiful moments on the album. Meanwhile, ‘A Good Reason’ could easily be called ‘If Broken Records Wrote a Gogol Bordello Song, It Would Sound Like This’, such is the similarity of the lead fiddle melody to the gypsy-punks’ single ‘Not a Crime’. Regardless, it’s an outright barnstorming romp, and the similarities are mitigated somewhat by a repeated rhythmic shift into rolling toms and sawing violins. Sonically, the band also display their prowess on album opener ‘Nearly Home’. Beginning in breathtaking fashion with restless fiddles evoking a feeling akin to a rowing boat rolling in choppy waters, the band then up the ante with stirring brass and marching snare drums reaching a natural feeling crescendo of layered strings. A reprisal of mournful violins feels rather tagged on until it segues seamlessly into the urgent bass intro of ‘If the News Makes You Sad…’
However, soon the bombast begins to grate. The title track starts off as a Coldplay-esque piano ballad i.e. insipid and uninspired. An attempt to repeat the trick of the album opener by gradually building the song into a somewhat forced crescendo just leaves the listener numb. Unfortunately a rather predictable formula becomes apparent: quiet songs building to a cacophonous climax. Things worsen with the following track ‘A Promise’. Here the quiet part is a wonderfully delicate piano melody, which Sutherland accompanies with a reasonable degree of restraint, and it’s the most touching moment on the album. Then, once again, piano chords get louder, strings start to sear, drums begin to pound and vocals begin to strain as the song reaches yet another cataclysmic crescendo. The same happens on ‘Wolves’ and the otherwise Damien Rice-esque ‘Ghosts’. Album closer, ‘Slow Parade’ is slightly more nuanced in its shimmering guitar and strings, and you’re thankful when it seems to have ended on a melodic and restrained note, but then after a moment’s silence… piano chords get louder, strings start to sear, drums begin to pound… well… you get the idea by now.
It is this desire to maximise everything in an attempt to lend the songs some gravitas that’s ultimately Broken Records’ downfall. Such cacophonies lack musical interest in their details and disappointingly fail to explore the possibilities that you would expect from such a multi-instrumental line-up. Similarly, singer Jamie Sutherland doesn’t help matters as he over-emotes almost every line, sounding terribly self-important in the process, and certainly lacking the kind of catharsis that the Arcade Fire excel in. The emotion on show just feels forced, while the blustery delivery tends to shield the listener from the actual words being sung, leaving the impression that the songs are hollow at the core and lacking intent. Unfortunately those lines which do stand out are somewhat cringe-inducing, be they bland attempts at subversive statement (“Politicians! They don’t speak for me”) or the pseudo-apocalyptic nonsense such as the album title itself.
If all this seems rather harsh it is to be remembered that some will find a great deal of enjoyment in the bombastic orchestral folk-rock in which Broken Records specialise. However, taken beyond face value, we have an album that displays a band with considerable potential, but which is disappointingly lacking in imagination: compositionally and lyrically. 5 out of 10
What do you think I am going to think of it?
Do I agree that not every song needs to be Big, and build to a massive crescendo? Yes, and I’ve already mentioned this to the band in terms of their live show. As you can see from the videos above, they’ve mixed in some songs with a lot less in them, and it works really nicely. Would I have liked to see a little of that on the album? Yes.
But I have never found Jamie’s voice grating at all, really, so while that fellow is welcome to think what he likes, you can’t really expect me to agree, can you.
And the ‘pompous titles’ thing just gets on my nerves. A couple of the titles are long, but erm, A Good Reason, Wolves, A Promise, Slow Parade, Ghosts etc etc etc… Need I say more? Need I say ‘Sufjan Stevens’, maybe? Fuck off. What would they prefer – an album full of banal, by-the-numbers love songs?
I was more intrigued as to the turn-around in opinion from DiS, rather than the tone of the review itself.
The review is, unfortunately in many respects, becoming rather common place in terms of critical reaction, so I wasn’t expecting a response to that point by point.
Well their biggest champions at DiS were always Mike Diver, who now writes for Clash and Billy Hamilton, currently of the Scotsman, so I am not entirely surprised.
And yes, this one and the Skinny one could almost have been culled from the same pub conversation, couldn’t they. Almost eerily identical in some respects.
It is a bit strange that this & the Skinny piece both seem to be point scoring exercises. It’s the tone & the angle of attack in both that give them that nerr nerr nerr, nerr-nerr-nerr! ambiance.
What on earth has Jamie done/said to these people that they are willing to publicly flog him & his out-put so? I bet it involves a woman.
I think it’s most likely to involve the length of time they’ve been ‘on the verge’ of breaking through. Maybe people have simply cooled a little in the interim, and kind of resent their early crushes on the band – they do read somewhat like ‘jilted lover’ pieces. Certainly, for medium scores, the criticisms in both have a very caustic tone to them which is odd.