Hmm, I am really not so sure about this at all.  The band have been buzzy as hell for a while now, and I kind of assumed – partly for some obscure reason related to the name, I think – that they were going to be another tedious London nu-folk band, so I was really pleased the first time I actually listened to them properly and heard a wall of loud guitar noise.

I was expecting to really like this, on the back of that little epiphany, but in the end I really don’t.  If I were to use the description ‘vaguely like a somewhat more upbeat Portishead but with more shoegazey guitars’, it’s a description which could go either way.  As all such one-line descriptions necessarily are, it’s a little bit vague and flippant, but I can imagine music fitting that description being really, really good.

And occasionally, that’s just what it is.  The lead single Warpath is excellent, for example.  Album opener Argyria takes its time, but eventually explodes into life around the halfway mark; both loud and impressive.    This side of Esben & the Witch I really do like, and makes me wish I had been in Edinburgh when they played Sneaky’s last week.

The problem for me is that this represents only a relatively small part of what makes this band who they are, and I am not that keen on the other facets.  The one thing I disliked the most about Portishead was Beth Gibbons’ vocal, and this is the one aspect where these two bands bear the closest resemblance, and I like it no better with one than I did with the other.

They take their name from a Danish fairytale, by all accounts, and there are times when this music drifts from waves of guitar noise to what I guess I might rather awkwardly describe as Beowulf Prog.  A little like My Name is Calla, I find myself listening to a band who do a lot of things I really like, but who have a tendency towards the melodramatic which seems at times to take them into the realm of self-parody, and this element is the one I can’t really get my head around, and which prevents me from really enjoying this album.

Esben & the Witch – Argyria

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Esben & the Witch – Marine Fields Glow

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Well I am down in Lahndan at the moment, hence the picture of jellied eels.  I am the sort of undignified trougher who will eat more or less anything but not, it seems, jellied fucking eels.  Dreadful things.

When I was living down in London between 2002 and 2005 I actually lived on a boat (£12,ooo instead of, say, £300,000 for a shitey one bedroom flat thirty miles out of the city centre).  I was moored down at Nine Elms Pier, but went up to Brentford to get the thing gutted and the hull repaired, so I could start rebuilding it.  Here is a picture of me working very hard – don’t I look industrious.

Whilst going out to the yard to work on the boat I would pass what I suppose was an old-fashioned London shellfish stand, and I would try cockle, mussels and all sorts, and pretty much enjoyed them all.  The one which I couldn’t stomach, though, was jellied eels.  As I’ve said, I will eat more or less anything, but the cold, nasty, gelatinous nature of this particular delicacy stumped me.  It was utterly flavourless and completely digusting; one of the few foodstuffs which has ever defeated me.

I hope you all enjoyed the Let’s Get Lyrical post from yesterday.  Having decided not to write an essay so as not to be rude to my parents, it ended up taking me far, far too long to write, but hopefully it’s worked out nicely enough in the end.

And once again here we are, at that time of the week: the slow waste of Friday afternoon talking bollocks on the internet.  Wheesh.  So give us five quick and silly answers to five stupid questions first, and then prattle away all you like.

1. A fantastic song lyric.
2. Food you absolutely cannot stomach.
3. Music from this year you’d be most likely to play to your parents.
4. Last long train journey you took (‘long’ is flexible here, Britain is a pretty small island).
5. Last time you were on a boat.

This week’s five songs are taken from the albums I was listening to on the train on the way down to London (proper reviews coming soon).

Black Tambourine – Black Car

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White Wishes – Happy and Afraid

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Monster Island – Looking for a Leader

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Psychedelic Horseshit – Unseen Voids

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Esben & the Witch – Marching Song

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It’s relatively quiet in Edinburgh this week, but next week is going to be a bit mental, so perhaps taking it a bit easy for a few days is advisable, eh.  Oh well, perhaps not then.

First up is the Lets Get Lyrical Festival.  A bit more cerebral than your average stale beer-scented alternative music show, and hopefully as far as possible from the Drew Barrymore/Hugh Grant carnival of horror you see illustrated on the right.

Their full lineup of events can be found here, although sadly the King Creosote/Ziggy Campbell one at the Caves to tomorrow is apparently sold out.  And then I am away down South for the rest of the week.  Arse.

On the plus side, though, I am away down South to do a wee interview with BBC Introducing on Wednesday and then hang out with some of my long-neglected London pals for the next few days, so it should be an extremely good week for me, I reckon.

Thursday 3rd February: Born to Be Wide Music Photographers Night at Electric Circus.

This is almost sold out, apparently, so if you want to go I would recommend getting your tickets in advance.  Sitting through seminars may not seem like the best way to go about doing something which most people do as a creative outlet, but I promise you that these things can be extremely useful either the more you go to, or the more specific the

Friday 4th February: Esben & the Witch, Trophy Wife & Wintergreens at Sneaky Pete’s.

Presumably because of the name I think I dismissed Esben and the Witch as just another London (slightly)alternative folk band, but actually they are a bit more of a somewhat shoegazey guitar band.  I’m not massively familiar with the album yet, but what I have heard sounds really quite promising. The Wintergreens are an Edinburgh band who are a little less loud, but who also make rather promising sounding atmospheric guitar songs – they’ve been around for a while actually, and I have still not managed to see them play live.  Shame on me, I think it’s safe to say.

Esben & the Witch – Marching Song

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Friday 4th February: The Go Team at the Liquid Room.

This should be really quite fun.  I’ve always been a passive fan of the Go Team for ages – never wildly excited, but nevertheless happy to enjoy their stuff as and when it has crossed my path.  They have a new album out shortly too – in a week, I think – which I will review as and when I have had a chance to listen to it, which isn’t quite yet.  Still, there’s a four hour train ride to London to deal with.

The Go Team – Buy Nothing Day

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