Daniel Bachman / Phil Tyler / Chuck Johnson - Live at The Northumberland Arms, Newcastle

As part of a tour around Europe before returning to his home in San Francisco, Chuck Johnson starts proceedings with his solemn Last Moments At Chittor. In amongst the revolving arpeggiated chords of his instrumentals sing mysteries to match the stories in his face. With whispers of audience conversations glistening the set, the Northumberland Arms is transformed into a Mid-West bar, with souls listening a while before moving on.

The evening's curator Phil Tyler follows with his banjo melodies; first with a new composition, then a medieval carol, both showcasing tunes from his latest record, released... today! Warm applause welcomes Cath Tyler to join him on stage and together they joke and duet, starting with an adaptation of 'You Are My Sunshine.'  

Daniel Bachman, like a freak-wave rolls into his set, rumbling the strings of his guitar with aggressive, muscular strength. At first I thought he was fighting for the conversationalists in the pub unaware his performance had begun, but soon I realised he was rebelling against a much higher power. With dexterity and roar juxtaposed, his weather devastated the hearts in the bar. At the apex, he turns briefly to a Hawaiian-style guitar, and he gifts us a softer song called Sarah; a carefully constructed highlight of the night. 

[2013.06.17] for NARC Magazine.

Pea Sea / Silver Fox / Wilt Wagner - Live at The Cluny 2, Newcastle

Up on the hill, the Cumberland is alive with unapologetic derivatives Holy Moly & The Crackers and celebrations of a long Summer eve. As I trip down the steps from the party, I wonder: who will be persuaded inside the Cluny 2 on a night like this?

When Wilt Wagner (Michael J. Patterson) takes to the stage, a handful of people are there to watch. He nonchalantly intersperses drinking beer from a can whilst meandering naive keyboard melodies over gentle beats. The instrumentals are complimented with live vocal noises and the use of taped sounds.

At the changeover, Silver Fox huddle around an archaic keyboard, trying to resuscitate it. Problems are sorted, and the cheeky grins return to the faces of this quartet as they treat us to a healthy amount of newer material, whose soul is still firmly primitive and honest. 

Chris Rollen's band Pea Sea casually assemble on stage instilling anticipatory silence across the room. A vintage-style microphone colours our singer's voice in a subversive opener before he ditches it and follows up with his latest single, 'Inconceivable.'  Tim Greaves broadens the sound with clarinet throughout. The set moves between his variety of rock 'n' roll and quieter songs, such as Charlemagne. At the close, an encore is mightily demanded to which our band appease. 

[2013.05.19] for NARC Magazine.

Serengeti - Kenny Dennis LP - Album Review

"It's a metaphor for life.You gotta get up and do something!" A message from the 50 year old protagonist in the first track of Serengti's sequel to the Kenny Dennis EP. It certainly supports a remit for the Anticon record label from which he has been a member of since 2009. Serengeti's contributions to this family give a warmth and lighter humour than you might find in other residents' outputs. These songs lovingly describe the anecdotes and philosophies of our fictional moustached subject Kenny Dennis, using simple repeated phrases in amongst fuller raps, performed in character. Occasional tracks are straight, instrumentally-supported monologues. The fluffy crackly beats are provided by label staples, Jel and Odd Nosdam. Each re-listen feels like a return to a favourite photo album.

[2013.05.19] for NARC Magazine.

Tom McRae - Live at The Sage, Gateshead

As the final red sunset of the Bank Holiday weekend burns through The Sage's glass exterior, smartly-dressed families and couples peruse the merchandise stand. With options such as Tea-Towels with lyrics on, and Baby T-shirts, there seems to be a harmony between the artist and audience as to what point in life they have reached together. 

Numbers are considerably reduced in Hall 2 as SWANN (a trio realising singer-songerwriter Chloe Swann) open proceedings. She performs haunted by the spirit of Nico and with her last note applause registers far beyond politeness. 

The room fills up, and McRae walks on to hearty applause. The tone is set with Lately's All I Know, balancing well-written songwriting with performance tricks from a seasoned sleeve. Along with the dry-wit of his miserablist introspection, he bonds 99% of the audience. Sadly one attendee may have enjoyed too much sun over the weekend and chose to bellow along with every word; the excellent acoustics of the room meaning often they were as loud as McRae. He was humble in trying to diffuse the sabotage, but sadly the etiquette took a duration for them to learn, in spite of the crowd and himself opposing it more and more pointedly. In closing, McRae acknowledged such challenges as part of a live experience, and the audience were admiring of the bravery he showed throughout the show.

[2013.05.06] for NARC Magazine.

Mister Lies - Mowgli - Album Review

As the final track of Mister Lies’ first full LP, Mowgli, expires in swirling looping motifs, and reaching (but inaudible) vocal samples, this new set of music from Chicago-based musician Nick Zanca has left me optimistic and refreshed. The album title refers to the name of the feral child in Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and, along with the cover-image (a cosy cub shown protected by hands) we are put in mind of nature and nurture. This record is the wealth grown of such parenting and a testiment to the constructive aspects of this humanity. 

The opening track, Ashore, finds a minimalist beat from qwerty ratatats and stretched guitar harmonics, and steadily washes us onto the island. Zanca paints the gentle nature moving in amongst the trees through short flute melodies, whilst hinting at a potentially penetrating sky above, shown through carefully placed reversed cymbals and triggered clicks. He then unleashes us into the moonlight of the glade with suspended synth sprays. Without pause, he expands our tour through Dionysian and brings us to the dance, with a society of syncopated steps and our first vocal samples, espousing a necessary behaviour for growth: ‘Now the time has come, need to stand up and be true.’ Perhaps we are witnessing our composer responding to such a command, in the ambition of this fuller release. 

His pseudonym, adopted to express the importance of imagination over naturalism in his music, is dissolved in its relevance here. The construction of Mowgli’s narrative suggests a maturity of understanding, placing nature itself as more imaginative than any individual’s construction of lies. Although the ambient landscaping of his Hidden Neighbors EP and the sentimentalised rights-of-passage tracks on the Mass EP (his collaborative effort with Rafa Alvarez) contribute positively, this new lengthier study allows Zanca the freedom to bravely take on more varied emotions through multiple adventures in a larger space.

Where as other peers in such sonics are drawn to compose testaments to more claustrophobic environments, nurturing cynical responses in their albums (often created in the roar of city-living,) Zanca provides a hope rarely celebrated in these sounds. He created this album remotely, based up in the hills of Vermont, and he has channelled the peacefulness of this retreat into instrumentals, confidently embracing imagination, wise to the knowledge that with experience, there is the possibility of growth. Mowgli is truly encouraging.

[2013.03.02] for NARC Magazine.

Lower Plenty - Hard Rubbish - Album Review

Relishing in the muffled tones of guitars and the rustles of irregular percussion, Lower Plenty disguise their tight musicianship, framing their concise and impressionistic songs about failing connections in a faint, off-centre lamp; which flickers on them for a mere twenty-three minutes before Close Enough and ‘the fading of the light.’ Hard Rubbish is more of a troubled conversation between friends around the kitchen-table late at night than an album. 

Isolation and loneliness become increasingly compelling topics in our times and these Melbourne musicians concern themselves ultimately to these causes here. The mix of Sarah Heyward and Al Montfort’s vocals create a tension throughout; sometimes by the juxtaposition of both sharing a close space in a song but communicating with apathetic deliveries (as Strange Beast) and at other times by solo performances articulating a character’s tormented escape (as Nullarbor). 

Further developing these themes, the music is relentlessly melancholic with approximately tuned instruments throughout and estimated vocal melodies - the opener Work In The Morning laying out this ethos, and tracks like Nullarbor and White Walls stretching the limits of our taste for the unperfected. This deliberate achievement, along with shunning enthusiasm from the songs in an audience further by including rough primary captures for the album, make Hard Rubbish a depressed character in itself. Lower Plenty ask for the same effort coming to these songs as you would need to give to a troubled friend: when you offer hope by listening, they cannot or will not speak to it, and progress may not be visible to you.  

This material would certainly create odd moments in live conditions. At best, the songs would create a unity between members of a crowd; audiences recognising these testing positions outlined in the lyrics. At worst, the sentiments would be lost in a dull slouching sound, unable to contribute to anything less than a completely focussed room. 

It is a complicated record, kicked out to sulk through the world, lost. It requires generous listeners to invest in its small heaviness. It will not meet you half-way, but it seems for Lower Plenty, your company is not a requisite. As the mantra of their sixth track enforces, ultimately ‘Friends wait.’

[2013.03.01] for NARC Magazine.

Nancy Elizabeth - Dancing - Album Review

Nancy Elizabeth's third album, has more persuasions to the 'Traditional' party than a beaming moon-faced friend at the door with two kegs under their arms: reductive triad and pentatonic harmonies throughout the supporting instruments, whilst her boundless prodigious vocals take the tunes through various octaves and modes. Guests, we have another who won't be 'the Devil's whore.' This album of songs is attractive for describing a heart both brave and vulnerable; as if alerted, creeping the stairs in the night, issuing bluffs to an invisible intruder. It is beautifully recorded, the piano birthing specters from its notes, filling a dining-hall empty of mortals. 'Dancing' could have been a truly intimate expression if it wasn't so precisely performed and produced.

[2013.02.12] for NARC Magazine.