Week 37 2023, 10 singles

This week another surprise. After ten years Kaizers Orchestra is back. Man, what welcome news. The new song is beautiful as well. What more can a fan want? There's more of course. You will find several bands that are favourites of this blog but expect a few first timers as well. All in all, once again a very mixed set. So, enjoy!

Kaleidoskophimmel. Kaizers Orchestra

What?! Yes!!!!! A new song by one of my favourite bands of the 21st century ever. In 2013 I was ill and gave away my ticket to a friend of my son. He came back home saying "this was a farewell show". The band had gone out with a bang. Three 'Violeta' albums in about a year, the one even better than the other. And now Kaleidoskophimmel. A short, just two minutes long song, that tells about all Kaizers Orchestra is capable of. A great melody, loads of melancholy, great singing and a great arrangement. No, like always I have no idea what Jan Ove Ottensen is singing about. It doesn't matter what he means by a kaleidoscopic heaven. The music and melody tells all. Like always. The band has not changed its line up. Ottensen is grey, like me, his voice has its power. My only fear is that this is a one off, as the band fades out of view totally during the last part of the video. Don't worry, there's an album on the way and a show in March. Count me in, please, this time. Kaleidoskophimmel is utter musical beauty.

Together We Go. Pom

Pom has a subscription to this blog it seems and Together We Go is no exception. The Amsterdam band on a Rotterdam label, yes, in music everything's possible, will release its debut album in November. This is the first single and Pom manoeuvres itself  nicely in the alternative pop niche, with a very obvious nod to the, until recently, ubiquitous Wet Leg. Together We Go has that brightness and great pop feel without making any concessions to the alternative rock roots. The Beths come to mind as well, just like Personal Trainer from Amsterdam. Pom takes it own enthusiasm to the record and the result is a song that makes you jump up and down, in the living room, the venues and the festivals this summer. Infectuous Together We Go is.

Amber. Maria BC

I would almost call this a church song. Amber has nothing to do with the church or a church theme. Maria BC sings about a very personal experience in relation to another person, called Amber. No, it is the almost sacred atmosphere of the music and the deeply sensitive way of singing that excludes, somehow, all profane thoughts. Maria BC is from the Bay Area and about to release her second album, 'Spike Field' (20 October). Over an acoustic guitar, recorded with quite some echo options around it, they sing with their serious voice. Underneath there are some piano notes and chords and what I would call atmospheric sounds, sometimes recognisable, sometimes more misty. It's a made-up bed where Maria BC feels at home, totally. Whether I'm able to sit through a whole album of them, I cannot tell yet. Amber is impressive though and very much worth while listening to.

Birds In The Spring. Liz Pearson

Liz Pearson may well have the premiere on this blog of a fully a capella song. Birds In The Spring is a traditional folksong from the U.K. The song is released in the late summer because of the release of a documentary film called 'The Nettle Dress', in which it features as the only song. We have met Liz Pearson before as the singer of Chalk Horse Music, a project that revives old folk songs in a modern setting. Here you will only hear Liz Pearson. Twice actually, as she harmonises with herself throughout Birds In The Spring. The result is a beautiful song that does not need any instruments to convince. Her pleasant voice is more than enough to please. Clear, pleasant and soothing. In Birds In The Spring it is all you need for a full experience.

Wants/Social Skills. Schau Schau

More music from Groningen, released on the Subroutine Records label. The double a-side single, limited as 7", is the band's third release. Schau Schau is, I presume, a reference to the Hamburg life of The Beatles where the owner of the obscure, no doubt seedy, club they played ordered the five young men to "macht schau, macht schau". Musically the two are not related in any way, except that they make and perform music and release it. Schau Schau plays alternative rock. Wants is slightly more alternative than Social Skills. Its rhythm is more complex with the suggestion of stop-starting the whole time, over which a light psychedelic sauce is spread. Social Skills is more of an alternative The Byrds track. Not that the folky-hippies were able to contemplate a rhythm like Schau Schau's, the psychedelics are straight out of the 'Eight Miles High' songbook. I have never heard the band's the previous releases. This introduction is quite alright. This band has potential.

Dreamers. Blaudzun

Dutch band's do influence each other. Dreamers could be a Direct song in my ears. With one difference. I'm usually indifferent to Direct and am a Blaudzun fan for over a decade now. Dreamers delivers exactly what the title promises. The song is exquisitely dreamy. Directly recognisable as a Blaudzun song and yet, with a much lighter touch. The central riff sounds like a sampled whistle, supported by lightly touched piano notes, until the solo that is played on a piano. Years ago I wrote something like "world beware, here's Blaudzun". The world does not seem to have heeded my message at all. Their bad, without doubt. The same goes for Dreamers. The song is just so nice and listening to it once is enough to never lose it again. The question is: who convinces the rest of the world?

Bread & Roses. Already Dead feat. Felipe Collazo & AnnMarie Collazo

Had the band's name been Dropkick Murphys, I might just have believed it. Bread & Roses is a traditional song turned punkrocker like Boston finest Irish punk band are famous for. Already Dead is quite alive considering its name. The band revives a song written in support of a 1912 strike in the town of Lawrence in Massachusetts. What makes these punked up traditional so much fun to listen to? I have asked myself that question a few times over the years. The original (folk) songs I don't like, while I certainly do not appreciate all forms of punk either. The combination though is often like shining gold. The answer may lie in the recognisability of the folk tunes and the energy the punk brings. Together there is only one thing left to do: sing along and dance/jump around. No matter how sad and serious the 1912 origin and inspiration of Bread & Roses was, in 2023 singing and dancing is what is left of the bad conditions the factory workers had to endure over a century ago. Some of their children may still be alive, but even they are fading away. The song is what remains of the hardships, so sing it loud and proud, in commemoration of all striking today for better wages and climate.

Alright Alright. Ghost Woman

With Alright Alright Ghost Woman works towards the release of its third album in about 18 months. The previous two were on my longlist but never made it to this blog, i.e. a review by yours truly. Two singles did and here's the third. In the meantime Ghost Woman evolved from a one man project to a duo. With co-writer and drummer Ille van Dessel on board, the band is now Canadian, Evan Uschenko and Belgian. This song is darkness incarnated but also a mix of 60s surf, a little Link Wray and 1980s postpunk. Musically this is 100% Cari Cari. The Austrian duo excels in this kind of music for a few years already. Ghost Woman adds darkness to that mix and gets away with it fully. The final component is a hint of psychedelia in the style of The Black Angels. Alright Alright is the correct title for the single.

Loneliness. Bear's Den

What to do, write or discard? It was a close one for Loneliness. So what convinced me to write? The better argument is the warmth of the song. The less good, that I thought it would be good to add a ballad to the whole. Back to the warmth. This is what a better Snow Patrol song could sound like, if that band didn't adhere to its urge to fill every single song with empty pathos. Bear's Den just plays everything a bit louder without resorting  to empty loudness. The voice remains warm and searching. The drums give the song body and the trumpets a little playfulness. "I thought I was over this shit, but I'm not", is the conclusion of Loneliness. The world can be glad Bear's Den never got over it, as we would not have heard the song, would we? From a piano the song is built up until it has a huge sound, without screaming guitars, without whole string sections, large choirs singing nor huge cymbal crashing. Loneliness does it all by itself. So, now you know why I decided to write.

Living With The Moon. Karamelien

With Living With The Moon, Léanie Kaleido, Karamelien's singer and songwriter, in a way rewrote Dave Edmund's famous lyric "From small things, one day big things come". She turned it into from bad things one day good things come. Kaleido wrote the lyrics after a bout with depression. Near the end of her sessions, her therapist said to her: "it's like living with the moon". And that provided the title and basis what Léanie Kaleido used to write her new single. Living With The Moon is an upbeat song, with a beautiful chorus, that has a bittersweet edge giving the song a little extra. A little light and a little shade. Kaleido plays most instruments. Bandmember Mark Foster plays nearly all guitars. Lee Pomeroy adds the bass. Once again Karamelien convinces me totally with a new song. The duo deserves to be heard more widely than it is.

Today I learned that the Japanese see a hare with a hammer crunching rice on the moon's surface. Something to look forward to to discover with the next fool moon.

Wout de Natris