Song, by Toad

Navigator – Bad Children

When I first started playing this album around the house Mrs. Toad’s series of reactions were instructive.  ‘What the fuck is this discordant shite?’ was the first.  By the third time around she was asking ‘Who are these guys?’  Then where they were from.  Then she was looking them up on the internet.  The Mrs. Toad Seal of Approval is a rare and elusive thing but Braden J. McKenna, from Bone Valley, Utah, has it.

To be fair to her initial, somewhat horrified reaction, the production values on this record are, deliberately or otherwise, as rough as a bear’s arse.  There are even times when all the crackling of amps and peaking of microphone channels threaten to overwhelm even my own somewhat obsessive taste for this kind of low-fi style.  It was, as a matter of fact, all recorded in bedrooms and living rooms, so the phrase ‘bedroom production’ is quite literal in this case.  Ten songs, half an hour, a simple but excellent album.  McKenna has recorded pretty much all of it himself, bar a very little cello and trumpet, occasional guitar help, and a couple of different drummers helping out.

Good tunes are good tunes, however, and as low-fi indie rock goes, this is really good.  What leads the album, for the most part, is the following: firstly, a fairly constant rhythm, which comes from the guitar playing as well as how the songs themselves are written, not just the drums; secondly, a wailed, emotive vocal rendered somewhat distant and smothered by the production values; and thirdly, a constantly growling electric guitar.

The guitar has just a little country in it at times, especially when picked, but that frequently gives way to impassioned, distorted solos in tandem with crashing drums and mewling keyboards.  The lyrics can be difficult to make out most of the time, but when those crescendos build there is a wounded anger to the noise, albeit muffled and disguised by the recording style.  It gives the strong feeling of an album recorded in the grip of confused, retaliatory hostility born of misunderstandings, miscommunications and relationships that threated click, but never quite did.  That may be nonsense, but that’s the impression I get from the music, and I honestly can’t understand enough of the lyrics to contradict it.

It doesn’t come across entirely as an album of alientation though, despite that impression being very strong in a couple of the tracks.  There are comfortable, happy places to be found, providing a reassuring balance to the less harmonious moments.  As its centrepiece, the truly gorgeous, acoustic Work is Done breaks the wall of fuzz at the perfect time, and with the final two tracks, Jesus Christ and Found a Fox, it winds down with a lovely sigh of acceptance.  A job well done indeed, and an album perfectly executed.

Navigator – Danger Dragon

Navigator – Work is Done

MySpace | More mp3s | Download for free from Magic Goats Music (Click the album cover for a rar file)

Gobble Gobble – Neon Graveyard

Gobble Gobble come out of Edmonton in Canada, part of a small but apparently quite determined experimental music community down there under the Hydeaway umbrealla who seem to be doing some very good things.  I was sent a CD sampler by this group a while ago, and it was interesting – it certainly showed that there seems to be a good bit of collective energy forming in that part of the world.

Cecil Frena, who sent me this, has assembled an eclectic and fascinating album of scratchy electronica which casts its blanket of crackling subversion over a few different genres.  This makes Neon Graveyard, for me, rather more than just another collection of indie pop songs smothered in electronic clicks and whizzes and a constant hiss of artificially created background noise.  Yes, admittedly, there is a lot of that particular technique to be found on this album, but it is never treated as the raison d’etre of the whole piece, as can happen in this particular part of the musical landscape.

What defines Neon Graveyard in my eyes is actually more the undercurrents than the surface eddies.  Songs like O Sacred Dandruff and Piles of Salt seem to actually take a lot of cues from contemporary R’n'B, particularly in the style of the vocal delivery.  They sound almost like R’n'B songs which have been put through a rather severe cycle in your dishwasher and this, you will probably not be surprised to hear, I like.  At other times a form of Gameboy pop swirls into focus, then this same approach fixes itself to an interlude of piano (Ash Fountain, for example) which sounds superfically far more like classical than anything you’d happen across in an indie pop landscape.

This flitting from one underpinning genre to another, all held together by a more uniform style at the surface, gives the album both a really solid coherence and a happy variety. The style, in fact, fits the title very well indeed. I like.

Gobble Gobble – Meteor Eschat

Gobble Gobble – Eggs in Carrion

MySpace | More mp3s |I have no idea where you can buy this, incidentally, but try getting in touch via MySpace

The Seventeenth Century

I discovered The Seventeenth Century courtesy of Halina and her team of devilish minions over at Glasgow PodcART a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve tried emailing the band to see about buying a copy of their EP, but no response,  so I ended up having to just rip it off MySpace.  Still, I’m sure I’ll get the chance to make up for it in the future as I am pretty confident we will be hearing more from these lads over the next year or so.

People seem to be talking their folky-sounding acoustic indie with a liberal portion of electronica these days, so this sort of beautifully-conceived, gently swaying and rather sad music is appearing less and less on the iPods of your average skinny-jeaned hipster about town.  This is a shame, because when it is done as well as this, however familiar we might be with the general approach to making music, stuff like this still makes for a genuinely lovely, affecting experience.

The lead vocals are reedy, but the choral backing on songs like Traffic give a fullness to the sound.  The instrumentation is nicely managed, which creates a sound which is never too crowded.  Also, the rhythm has a lovely, slow rise and fall to it which gives the songs their air of slightly indulgent sadness, somewhat like witnessing a grey, rainy morning in the hills, but all whilst sat comfortably inside with a nice cup of tea.

So sonically we may have heard this before, to a degree, but this is still extremely well done and really gorgeous listening.  I await developments with considerable interest.

The Seventeenth Century – Mid October

It’s only four songs long, so you can only have one download I’m afraid – I don’t want to take the piss – but here’s a splendid video of Traffic to make up for it.  This is a really gorgeous song.

Fur Hood

I received an email the other day from a friend of mine who records under the name of Scuff (MySpace here) tipping me off about a band he plays in called Fur Hood.  And they’re good.

It’s sort of twee, with lazy harmonies and an unhurried pace, which creates something of the atmosphere of a prohibitively hot Summer’s day.  They use quite staccato rhythms and some genuinely eccentric percussion, which sounds like their playing the contents of their dishwasher.  On top of these two elements drift washes of melodic electronica, somewhat reminiscent of the likes of Dubstar and Saint Etienne’s dreamier material.

I think that why this works for me is the interplay between the retro-sounding indie pop of Always Tomorrow and the far less mellifluous rattle and stumble of Yellow Yellow Always Yellow.  They seem to be able to veer between the lush and comfortable one one hand and the weirdly experimental on the other that you find yourself never really knowing what to expect.  This makes each song something of an emotional challenge – a relief when it stays pretty and exciting when it doesn’t.

From five songs you can’t always tell that much, but this is a really promising start if you ask me.

Fur Hood – Circles & Stairs

Fur Hood – Yellow Yellow the Colour Yellow

Animal Magic Tricks at Homegame

Anyone who has bought Animal Magic Tricks lovely Soil album (available from her MySpace page) will know of Frances’ electronic low-fi scratching, which brings a mysteriously elusive atmosphere to her songs.  Anyone who hasn’t bought her album should.  Her voice sounds fragile, but when she opens the valves she actually has a pretty impressive set of pipes on her.  Her voice is gorgeous actually, and complements the roughness of the music beautifully. Recently she’s been playing with a cellist – Pete from the Leg, specifically, who also plays with Alex Cornish – and the combination is bloody lovely.

There’s something rich and comforting about cello sounds, which gives a lovely warmth to her songs.  It’s as if the alienation of the wavering keyboard sounds and the tremble in her voice are being offered the promise that it is all alright after all.  It’s like reading the saddest part of a book with a comfortable knowledge that there’s going to be a happy ending.  Frances has recorded three songs with Pete when she was in Edinburgh recently, and played with him both at Homegame this year and the warmup gig beforehand, so hopefully this is something that we’re going to see a little more of in her recorded material because I love the combination.

These are a couple of videos from her Homegame set, so you can see what I’m talking about.

Fence Collective Homegame Festival, April 17th-19th 2009

I love Homegame.  Have I mentioned that before?

For the uninitiated, the Fence Collective’s Homegame Festival is held once a year in the small fishing village of Anstruther in Fife (well, it used to be a fishing village but it seems to be largely touristy now – neighbour Pittenweem seems to be more of a working harbour).  A huge pile of Fence Records acts, bolstered by friends and neighbours, get together and play lots of gigs in the town halls, school halls and beer halls of the town, and about six hundred or so lucky punters get to go along.

There are a few things I love about this festival, so here are a couple, put as briefly as possible:
- Anstruther is small, so the festival itself has to be small, or the town wouldn’t be able to cope.
- Fence Collective music is fucking brilliant.  There will be no sets by the View, not even acoustic ones.
- It’s actually in a town, so if it pisses down you can just stay in the pub and not get wet.
- The bands themselves are all relaxed, friendly and as interested in seeing good music and getting plastered as the rest of us, which makes for a really nice, communal atmosphere.
- It’s in a seaside town so if you ever get all musicked out, you can pick up a paper, sit on the promenade and read for a bit.
- Did I mention the relaxed atmosphere?  It’s the nicest festival in the world to be at.

This year Mrs. Toad and I rented a couple of cottages in Pittenweem – we were too slow to get Anstruther – which ended up being absolutely full of bodies at the end of every gin-sodden night of debauchery.  And when I say full I mean full; every inch of floor and ever sofa or cushion covered with some passed out drunkard or other.  Fuck me it was fun. more »

Jesus H. Foxx – Matter

When I first heard about Jesus H. Foxx, they were the haircut band support act of choice in Edinburgh, and pretty much the only purveyors of spiky indie punk pop in the city.  That particular niche seems to be quite well inhabited these days, even as the Foxx themselves are leaving it behind.

This EP is very short, very very good, and a hell of a lot more than the slightly one-dimensional band I had rather hastily pigeonholed Jesus H. Foxx as being.  The jerkiness remains in their staccatto percussion and tendency to shift rhythms at surprising times, but these songs are a lot more enigmatic than anything they’ve done before.  There is brooding atmosphere of experimentalism underlying most of it, rendered almost animalistic by the constant thud of the drums.

Occasionally these atmosphere are burst with a flood of unexpected vocal harmonies, or sometimes a caramel guitar riff*.  This breaking back and forth from the easy to the difficult, and the unsettling to the sugary is what makes this such a good EP.

Another thing is the perfect sequencing.  It kicks of with Oh Messy Life, at under a minute, before smacking us round the chops with I’m Half the Man You Were, the obvious pop song, if you can say that there is one, on this record.  To end, we’re given the crunching Xa Xa Xa, followed by the mellower leave-taking of Matter, which deposits you gently back where you were when you started.  This is, make no mistake about it, a really really nice bit of work, and a very promising new direction indeed.

Jesus H. Foxx – Trying to Be Good

Jesus H. Foxx – Tightt Ideas (single from 2007)

MySpace | More mp3s

*Yes, I know I know, what the fuck does that mean.  It’s related to the perfection of the surface of caramel – shiny and clean, but with all that sweetness underneath.  I’d have changed it if I could think of a better word, but I can’t.

Yusuf Azak – Live at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Friday 24th April 2009

I have been a big fan of Yusuf Azak since I first heard his recent EP, Light Procession, last year but I’ve yet to even have the chance to see him live.  I was, therefore, really looking forward to this lineup, not least because it also included Edinburgh’s favourite mercurial musical maniac Enfant Bastard.

Yusuf’s recorded material is heavily layered and full of effects, so I was really curious to see how this would translate to what was the most basic solo acoustic setup: him, his acoustic guitar, and nothing else.  The result was that one thing remained constant: his voice; and another emerged from the shadows to take centre stage: his guitar playing.

There is a really warm breathiness to his singing voice which is instantly captivating.  He doesn’t have the hoarse growl of a barroom bourbon guzzler, exactly, nor the hushed grumble of an ageing bluesman, more accurately he sings with a really easy, scratched and yet somehow also honeyed charisma.  Some voice, anyway, however you describe it.

The guitar playing is another genuine highlight.  I don’t have the technical knowledge to know whether or not what he was doing was difficult, but it fucking well looked it, and more importantly it sounded amazing.  I don’t know how much of his style comes from his Turkish (I think – sorry Yusuf, if I’m wrong) heritage and how much comes from the acoustic influences he cites, such as Eliot Smith or Nick Drake, but it sounds faintly exotic in any case, and makes for a superb combination with his vocals.

For something as basic as a bloke with an acoustic guitar, this felt like a band gig, somehow.  It was a great performance which was enveloped in a strangely self-contradictory aura of shyness and confidence, and one which makes me really want to see him play again. For those outside the half-dozen or so people in this audience, missing this gig was a mistake which you should rectify as soon as possible

Yusuf Azak – 19.19

Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground

Phil & the Osophers – Toward Conquering the Invisible North

One of the finest, most perfectly polished pop acts you’re ever… no, actually, this really is fucking rough as hell.  It really is – rougher perhaps than anyone bar the likes of Maxwell Panther and the Wave Pictures (before their Moshi Moshi days).  And do I love it?  Of course I fucking do.  Cast iron proof that really all you need in order to make a great album is a cast-iron knack for an infectious tune, and the ability to write good lyrics.

This has both of these qualities in spades.  The rough recordings seem to be used as an extra instrument, because Phil himself sings in a lazily casual sort of a way, so I get the impression none of this is all that accidental.  There are only two of them as well, and they’ve known each other since school too, so the parallels to the Wave Pictures continue.

They seem to take a perverse pride in not really being able to play things all that well.  The recorder (or whatever it is, I’m not sure) on I Will Reverse It sounds like a primary school music class, and apparently the drummer, Kevin, didn’t learn the drums all that recently and there were one or two teething problems early on.  Honestly, though, it really doesn’t seem to matter.  They clatter and wail their way through their songs and somehow it all just seems to work.

It’s largely upbeat and oddly infectious, with a sort of careless enthusiasm which seems to pervade the album.  Sure, it might be a little inconsistent but I’ve really enjoyed listening to this, and I look forward to raising eyebrows when we invite my parents round for dinner next and it slowly dawns on my Mum that, no, it’s not the fucking Lighthouse Family.

Phil & the Osophers – Third World American

Phil & the Osophers – La Bastille

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from the band’s website

Jesus H. Foxx – Live at the Bowery, Edinburgh, Friday 27th March 2009

I haven’t mentioned Jesus H. Foxx much on these pages and that is because, if I’m being brutally honest, I had my doubts about them as a band.  They were good, and they were lots of fun, but for the most part it seemed to lack a bit of something. The music could be very uniform and one-paced over the course of a whole gig.  I wasn’t entirely convinced by the lyrics either; whilst they seemed to use them effectively as an instrument to provide rhythm and melody, they seemed to fare less well as actual words.  They were using vocals, basically, rather than lyrics, if you know what I mean.

Well since then I’ve ended up chatting to the band from time to time, talked to other people involved and generally got to know them a little better and, you know what, they had similar concerns themselves for the most part.  They weren’t entirely happy with playing an entire set of short, spiky pop songs and also weren’t entirely happy with being pigeonholed as the angular indie rock support band of choice for the Edinburgh.  They didn’t have the haircuts, for a start.

Over the last couple of years they’ve really worked worked hard to develop their sound, and they now sound like they are turning into the kind of band they want to be.  No disrespect to earlier stages in their development, but to hear them talk about the music now, there’s a very solid, very believable confidence about them.  Their new recordings sound extremely promising, so I was really excited to see them live for the first time in ages and judge for myself.

And in the end?  Well, I was very impressed indeed.  The music just sounds more sophisticated.  They’ve shuffled the lineup a little, varied the pace greatly within their set, and they sound much more like a band who know where they’re going these days.  There’s depth, I suppose I’d call it.  They still have that bouncy, energy to call upon, aided by the raucous battering of twin drumkits, but they really are able to shift things around.  The cornet is a welcome addition to the sound as well, as are the female vocal harmonies.  It just all rounds things out nicely and gives a real presence to the music.

So now I am looking forward to their upcoming EP release really rather a lot.  I reckon Jesus H. could make a real impact this year if they play their cards right.  They have a base level of public awareness, general support from the grass-roots within the city, and now a good fistful of exciting new tunes they should really be able to make a splash with.  And they’re from Edinburgh.  And they aren’t alt-folk.  Imagine!

Jesus H. Foxx – I’m Half the Man You Were (Old Version)

Jesus H. Foxx – I’m Half the Man You Were (New Version)

Jesus H. Foxx on MySpace

P.S. Apologies to the other bands on this bill, but I was finishing the Pictish Trail Toad Session and only arrived at the venue very late.  So I’m not ignoring them, I just didn’t get there in time.