maandag 18 maart 2024

Steve Harley (1951 - 2024) RIP

On Sunday 17 March, I heard on the news that Steve Harley had passed away. He died of cancer in his home, after an over 50 year career in music. For me he is the singer and writer of that one hit single from 1975 Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me). I loved it then, I loved it in between and I love it today. In fact my band Sweetwood covers the song at nearly every gig we play and usually we can get the audience to sing along at the end, in tribute to Steve Harley's fantastic song.

Not so long ago there was an item about Make Me Smile in the 'Top 2000 a-go-go' show. Harley explained his side to how the song was written in between two Cockney Rebel iterations, moving from Cockney Rebel to Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. It is a musical middle finger, so to say. The comment that resonated with me most, was his admission that 'Make Me Smile' was his pension. The money coming in from that one song, made it possible to live comfortably, next to being a radio dj and playing live until a few months before his fatal illness was discovered. People wanted to hear the song right up to his final years, after Covid lockdowns.

My introduction to Cockney Rebel was two years earlier with that rather weird single called 'Sebastian'. I could not make heads or tails of it at the time. This has changed somewhat in recent years, actually. A second single, 'Judy Teen', I have no recollection of at all. You will not find an album or cd by the band in my collection. Just that one single that I will forever associate with Steve Harley.

What makes it so good? It has an immediate attraction, starting with that rather strange, out of place intro, while at the same time Harley remains unassociated with his lyrics. It is as if he is just the impassionate storyteller, not attached to his message at all. At the same time everything around him is inviting and warm. The ooh-la-la's simply invite singing along to and the chorus is the cherry on the cake. No one hearing this will step away without singing along. What is also standing out, if not outstanding, are the full stops called tacets in the song. Every single time wondering what is going to happen next. And, of course, there's this beautiful acoustic guitar solo played by Jim Cregan. Underneath the solo the keyboard changes to a Hammond organ, making the song so much warmer and even more special. Everything about Make Me Smile is inviting and attractive.

At the time Harley had a relationship with Dutch singer Yvonne Keeley, real name Paaij, sister of Dutch singer Patricia Paaij. Keeley later scored a number 1 hit with Scott Fitzgerald called 'If I Had Words' and with her sister as 'Stars on 45'. Together with 'Make Me Smile', that is three number 1 hits. Not a bad score. The relationship did not last though. Tina Charles, who scored several solo hits in the mid-70s like 'I Love To Love', is one of the other background singers.

With 'Make Me Smile' Harley has his song for eternity. It's the kind of song that people will always come back to. In future movies and series staged in the 1970s, on oldie stations and in playlists of people from any generation with an interest in great pop classics. It's that kind of song that will have 100 million hits on Spotify soon.

And I? I get to play that guitar solo every time Sweetwood plays it. When our drummer proposed the song, I thought no way!, I can never learn that. Admittedly, I skip a few notes here and there, but overall it is very recognisable. Come up and see us some day.

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Kaizers Orchestra live. Paradiso Amsterdam, Saturday 16 March 2024

Photo: Wout de Natris
Ompa til du dør alright. Eleven years older and finally, finally we were able to go and see a Kaizers Orchestra show once again. I had missed the last one due to illness. Had I know, I would have elevated myself alright.

In 2024, the podium looked familiar. Two oildrums, the old-fashioned pump organ (shape) with all the draperies and props around it. An old-fashioned garbage bin as part of the drum kit, an old upright bass. It was all there and of course the logo with the gasmask hanging in the back.

An instrumental track started playing in the typical Kaizers style, like a loop, repeating and repeating. Keyboardist Helge Risa walked on stage, his gasmask on and a suitcase in his hand. A man going to his desk job in the city, sharply dressed in suit and tie. Except that in his theatrical way, his desk job is behind this pump organ, where he sets in motion the Kaizers' set with an atypical rhythm played on his organ.

What other song should Kaizers Orchestra return to the stage in Amsterdam with than this one: 'Ompa til du dør'. This is the band's declaration of intent. In the second song the signature rhythm section comes across in a fantastic way. Nearly all bandmembers get at it in ''Bøn Fra Helvete, when' they all start ramming on the oil drums with big sticks and car wheels are hit with a crowbar. All are in full swing in the song. All have different accents rhythmically. I honestly do not know how they do it. It sounds fantastic though but is also hard work.

The band did not tour after a new album. There is a "greatest hits" out, but like singer Janove Ottensen siad, "we are a no-bit wonder", until 2011 when they scored a hit in Norway with 'Hjerteknuser'. It turned the band into a one-hit wonder. Not for us in NL. Paradiso was packed with "Scandis". For them every song was a hit, as all were sung along loudly around me. The weight of the show was on the debut album for certain. 'Umpa Til Du Dør' allows for so much audience participation with all its hallelujahs, umpas, oohs and ahhs, that it only makes sense it did.

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Yes, caught the moment! Wout de Natris
I don't speak Norwegian, and only understand rudimentary words here and there. It doesn't matter. The music tells it all. The title of the song and the first album of the same name, are the blue print for what this band does. It mixes polka, umpa, (surf)rock, Tom Waits and the Netherlands' own De Kift into music that is totally charged, inimitable. In all ways the most original band I know, with De Kift that is. Despite how complex the music is, the melodies are always superior. Had I known Norwegian, I would be able to sing along to all the songs. They are that kind of songs. Totally pop but not for the average pop fan.

The return to the stage can only be called glorious. The band is so good, the music so exceptional. The big stage antics of singer Janove Ottensen finishes it off. With his greying hair, shaven to the skin, he even looks like Ferry Heijne of De Kift nowadays. The two could be brothers from a distance and certainly totally have the same presence on stage. Ottensen is able to lay down his will on the audience. The fans completely do what he wants them to do. "We would like to sing with you", when we got the encore's encore, not on the setlist. It ended that we sang "Polizei" for the band. It became our song with the band listening to us. And then we were sent off into the dark. In the hope of getting new music by the band in the near future and a new tour in 2025.

Photo: Wout de Natris

Was there nothing to complain? Yes, a little. I would have expected something like three or four songs more and not playing 'Mr. Kaizer' is near unforgivable. The only song I can sing along to in part in Norwegian, as I have accompanied my son several times during Covid when we performed it for our neighbours in our front and back garden. (And will do again coming Saturday to celebrate the four year lockdown reunion.)

Kaizers Orchestra is the best band of Norway. Sorry Madrugada, Sivert, Motorpsycho and Soup. Maybe it's a consolation that Kaizers Orchestra is better than most bands from anywhere. There's just no denying here. Man, have I missed this band. 'Live At Vega' is probably the DVD I have watched most over the years and now I'm reminded why. The real thing is back, thank you!

Wout de Natris

zaterdag 16 maart 2024

Do You Recall. Dori Freeman

Do You Recall is al het vijfde album van de Amerikaanse singer-songwriter Dori Freeman, die, nog net wat meer dan op haar vorige albums, laat horen dat ze binnen de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek met de besten mee kan.

Ik heb Dori Freeman al een paar keer een grote toekomst voorspeld, maar helaas is de Amerikaanse muzikante nog altijd behoorlijk onbekend. Hopelijk gaat het veranderen met haar vijfde album Do You Recall, dat de lat weer net een stukje hoger legt en niet onder doet voor de betere rootsalbums van 2023. Dori Freeman maakt op haar nieuwe album authentiek klinkende Amerikaanse rootsmuziek, kleurt deze prachtig in en betovert vervolgens met haar bijzonder mooie stem. De oude liefde voor de Appalachen folk is wat verdwenen, maar persoonlijk vind ik de wat eigentijdser klinkende songs op Do You Recall beter dan de songs op haar eerdere albums. 

De Amerikaanse muzikante Dori Freeman debuteerde aan het begin van 2016 en maakte wat mij betreft direct indruk. Het titelloze debuutalbum van de muzikante uit Galax, Virginia, werd in een vloek en een zucht opgenomen met producer Teddy Thompson, maar klonk echt prachtig. Dori Freeman schakelde op haar debuutalbum makkelijk tussen Appalachen folk en Amerikaanse rootsmuziek van recentere datum en maakte vooral indruk met haar mooie en heldere stem, die af en toe aan Alison Krauss deed denken, maar ook herinnerde aan Emmylou Harris.

De albums van Dori Freeman worden vooralsnog zeker niet bedolven onder de aandacht, maar ook met Letters Never Read uit 2017, Every Single Star uit 2019 en Ten Thousand Roses uit 2021 leverde de muzikante uit Virginia uitstekende albums af, die een beter lot verdiend hadden. Na drie albums die werden geproduceerd door Teddy Thompson koos Dori Freeman op Ten Thousand Roses voor haar echtgenoot Nicholas Falk, die ook het deze week verschenen Do You Recall produceerde.

Op haar vorige album koos de Amerikaanse muzikante voor een net wat moderner en ook wat gevarieerder geluid en dat geluid is ook weer te horen op haar nieuwe album. Do You Recall doet me met enige regelmaat denken aan Loose Future van Courtney Marie Andrews, die ook niet meteen werd omarmd door de liefhebbers van Amerikaanse rootsmuziek, maar met haar vorig jaar verschenen album flink wat jaarlijstjes haalde. Ook Dori Freeman is met vijf uitstekende albums op haar naam klaar voor de doorbraak naar een groter publiek en haar nieuwe album is wat mij betreft haar beste album tot dusver.

Do You Recall klinkt wat warmer en moderner dan met name de eerste drie albums van Dori Freeman, maar verwacht geen heftige flirts met pop op het album. Het is een album dat binnen de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek in meerdere hoeken uit de voeten kan, maar Do You Recall blijft de rootsmuziek elf tracks lang trouw. Dori Freeman maakte haar nieuwe album in haar thuisbasis Galax, Virginia, en tekende samen met haar echtgenoot Nicholas Falk voor een groot deel van de instrumenten.

Snareninstrumenten domineren in het geluid van Dori Freeman op Do You Recall, maar net als op het eerder genoemde album van Courtney Marie Andrews zijn ook op dit album subtiele elektronische impulsen toegevoegd. In muzikaal opzicht klinkt Do You Recall bijzonder aangenaam en ook de songs van Dori Freeman zijn zeer aansprekend, maar ook dit keer trekt de Amerikaanse singer-songwriter vooral de aandacht met haar stem, die sinds haar debuutalbum uit 2016 alleen maar aan kracht heeft gewonnen.

Bij ieder nieuw album van Dori Freeman begrijp ik niet waarom ze niet veel bekender is, maar zo sterk als bij haar nieuwe album heb ik dit nog niet gehad. Do You Recall is zo’n album dat je direct na eerste beluistering wilt koesteren en dat vervolgens zeker niet verzwakt, bijvoorbeeld omdat de persoonlijke teksten de aandacht trekken, prachtig snarenwerk je nog wat meer betovert of je nog wat steviger wordt gegrepen door de prachtige stem van Dori Freeman. Eind november is geen hele handige tijd voor het uitbrengen van een nieuw album, al is het ook een tijd waarin een prachtalbum als dit hopelijk net wat minder makkelijk ondersneeuwt.

Erwin Zijleman 


Je kunt Do You Recall hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://dorifreeman1.bandcamp.com/album/do-you-recall

vrijdag 15 maart 2024

2024. Week 11, 10 singles

This week we see three old favourites return to the blog, of which one for the first time, but also some true newcomers and a few acts that debuted within the last year. Once again it's a very diverse set. This is the fun of the approach I take here. The songs all, very little exceptions permitted, are presented in the order they have been presented to me. The only thing you do not know, is which songs I've decided to skip. This week about half is my guess. I do not want to write on songs I do not like (or worse) or think are not memorable enough. I skipped one that I will mention for once, 'Bored' by Waxahatchee. Into the second listen session I still did not hear what I could focus on as a reviewer. So, out it went. The rest is here, so enjoy.

Brown Paper Bag. DIIV

DIIV has been more often on this blog than I remember. The one I forgot is the LP I bought in 2019 'Deceiver'. 'Oshin' in 2012 and 'Is The The Are' from 2016 all came before this single. The music has not changed much from what I remember. DIIV still plays slow and dark, slightly psychedelic rock music. Zachary Cole Smith still sings with a soft voice, hovering above the band. He still takes his time to produce a new album. Four years, three years, five years. I know the sixties and early 70s are long over. This is the new normal. Also five years down the road, I dive into the band's new single with glee. DIIV simply knows how to play this music right and provides Brown Paper Bag with the little notes and slow riffs that make it so much fun to listen to. It's time to pull 'Deceiver' from its shelf, until the new album is released. 'Frog In Boiling Water' is released on 24 May.

Stray. The Mysterines

The Mysterines is a band from the U.K. and active since 2015 but with 'Afraid Of Tomorrows' only releases its second full length album, after 'Reeling' (2022). The name did not ring a bell but it turns out I wrote a favourable review of the single 'Begin Again' late spring last year. It's not surprising I did, as Stray is a delightfully sleazy alternative rock song. The Mysterines do not for one second pretend to be respectable. Singer Lia Metcalfe's voice receives a treatment making her sound a bit mechanical. Just like the guitars get a dirty treatment. Just listen to that little solo and the eruptions. The rhythm is tight keeping the song confined as it were, with the chorus escaping that straightjacket in a gloriously convincing way. Sure, poprock aficionados will recognise enough familiar sounds. Stray is a nice addition to what's already out there.

Hello. Girl And Girl

"Hello, who's that speaking please?", is the opening of my first or second The Kinks single's B-side called 'Party Line', still one of my favourite The Kinks songs. Girl And Girl's first single of its upcoming debut album 'Call A Doctor' (24 May) is also about a phone call and also an up tempo song, somewhere between happiness, the tempo/music, and despair, the lyrics. Hello is a bouncing song, making it easy to mistake for a happy song instead of the darkness that shows in the lyrics about a "private hell". Just listen to how the song begins with two sprightly guitars, the band joins and a third lead guitar comes in. Better described perhaps as the higher of the two guitars playing two different riffs. The Australians, Kai James (singer, guitarist), his Aunty Liss (drums), Jayden Williams (guitar) en Fraser Bell (bass), may be tormented in the lyrics, in the music they push all the right buttons to get a crowd moving. Hello is an excellent introduction, with even a reference to 'The Sound Of Music', if I'm not mistaken.

When I Was Younger. Bonny Light Horseman

Bonny Light Horseman is trio Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman. They signed with Jagjaguwar and to celebrate release the single When I Was Younger. 30 or early 40 somethings looking back on when life was fun. Lighten up, because they certainly can become fun again when the brats get a little older. When I Was Younger's mood is exactly as if the times of being 20 are over forever. They are, but 40 up certainly has its fun moments. The lyrics between Anaïs Mitchell and Eric D. Johnson are divided in the way it probably is between a woman and a man. The former resigned to having children, the latter more desperate, tearing at the leash, far more in pain of the loss. In the "aah" section over the harsh guitar solo in the twine they meet. It all contrasts with the looseness with which the rhythm section and piano play their parts, with a starring roll for Cameron Ralston, the bassist. He's so relaxed and has seemingly encountered the 40 up phase fun.

After The After Party. Gramercy Arms

Gramercy Arms enters this blog for the third time with a single. Once again the band around Dave Derby and producer Ray Ketchum manages to blend glorious pop from the past with a good sense of urgency for the now and then. The band makes music like it was made in the first half of the 90s by bands like The Caulfields and The Loud Family. U.S. pop-rock music with a touch bordering on Beatleslesque. Just listen to the harmonies in After The After Party and the directness of the music. This is 90s indie rock alright. With a nice, almost tough guitar solo over a rhythm section that is definitely rocking. In the approach to making music and musically Gramercy Arms reminds me of the Canadian - U.S. collective The New Pornographers. The pop element in both band's music is always sticking out, while they both know how to rock as well. Late in April the album will be released, 'The Making Of the Making Of'. Based on this single, it something worth waiting for.

Sad Sack. Faulty Cognitions

Another debut band and debut single. Faulty Cognitions is a band from San Antonio in Texas, formed after singer Chris Mason relocated from Portland, Oregon to the Lone Star State. He formed a band there with his long time friend Yole Centeno and others. The result is a melodic alternative rock song, close to punkrock. The upcoming album's title 'Somehow, Here We Are' may tell it all. Against all odds the four have formed a band and are playing like they've not only always done so but also as if they do not have a host of experience in other bands and everything left to prove. The title Sad Sack should be understood in the context of "another sad sack song" that the band hopes you will sing along to anyway. Chances are you will. If you are a fan of the likes of Buffalo Tom there's no escaping even. A faulty cognition is not be applicable to Sad Sack.

Perfect Day (Piano Komorebi Version). Patrick Watson

Perfect Day was never a single, let alone a hit for Lou Reed. 'Transformer' is one of Reed's best loved albums, given the push by the Bowie-Ronson production, Bowie's voice in 'Satellite Of Love' and the hit 'Walk On The Wild Side'. Through the decades Perfect Day became better and better known and loved for the fantastic ballad it is. Recognition sometimes takes time to receive and Perfect Day has received it. Patrick Watson has released a piano only version of the song. The song is in the style of, what I disrespectfully call, the modern piano tinklers style. Recorded with loads of reverb and echo on the piano, while playing slow notes. It will come as no surprise that Perfect Day remains a beautiful composition. It may even come across more subtly this way than ever before. Watson adds melodic notes to the vocal melody enhancing the power of the melody no little. A perfect rendition this version of Perfect Day is.

Gimme Some Kinda Sign. UB40

I think there are two UB40s today. This is the one with the elder Campbell brother in it and most of the original members. UB40 came into my life with the single 'Food For Thought'. Although I did (and have) not a lot with reggae music, this single resonated with me, as did many other singles that followed through the years. I even have a few albums and saw them live in 1983 as support act for David Bowie. After 'Rat In Me Kitchen' the band sort of drifted from my conscience, into that state where a single comes by on a radio or something here or there. I was surprised to find the announcement of a new single on my digital doorstep. For old times sake, I decided to give it a listen. 44 years after 'Food For Thought' the band sounds like the veterans they are. Nothing much happens but all is played in (very) good taste. UB40 knows how to please its fans and most likely does. Robin Campbell and new singer Matt Doyle come close to Ali's delivery, so the band is alright here as well. They will not get me back as a distanced fan but I will certainly not turn of the radio should Gimme Some Kinda Sign come by.

A Heart Cries. Lovelorn Dolls

Belgian duo Lovelorn Dolls returns to the blog with this huge song called A Heart Cries. The song uses dynamic to the max. The verses softer and the chorus as big as if 'The Final Countdown' is rewritten as an electronic anthem. Kristell Lowagie's voice gets a metallic, slightly ghostly treatment matching the long held synth chords underneath the chorus and intro/interludes. Bernard Daubresse's music shows how he has been influenced by (Nordic) 1990s bands with a love for Teutonic greatness. He knows how to pump up musical muscles till the sinews nearly snap. The music gets a metal feel, yet is far too melodic to be real metal. A trick Rammstein plays to great success, without wanting to compare the two acts. Lovelorn Dolls as Rammstein's opening act is totally imaginable though. A Heart Cries is a big song in several ways.

Get Back To Myself. Slamdinistas

We finish this week with a dose of good old rock and roll from and for the first quarter of the 21st century from California's Slamdinistas. Like Dirty Sweet from San Diego around 20 years ago, this band rocks with a nice raspy edge to the singers voice and a slide guitar to top things off. Get Back To Myself may not be a song that I play in my living room every day but is played by a band that I would love to see live one day. A beer in one hand and the other up in the air, with a mouth that can't decide between the beer and singing along, with my mind telling me softly in the back of my head, you better finish up the beer now before it's all spilled thanks to the enthusiasm around you. Get Back To Myself is that kind of song and Slamdinistas that kind of band. It's all good, honest and full of rock and roll quality.

Wout de Natris