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We Are Fucked. Spilt Milk
There were days that The Avonden front man Marc van der Holst sang in English. His music was recorded as lo-fi as possible. I have the impression I can hear him switch on the recorder and walk back to the spot where the mike is standing or hanging. The result is a small song. One man, one acoustic guitar and a female voice, slowly changing into a small choir. Listening again, I think I can hear an organ as well in the background or is it my brain adding it? I have mentioned Norwegian singer St. Thomas several times over the past years. The whole concept and choice of music of St. Thoams is recognisable in We Are Fucked.
Musically the music may be
more bare than The Avonden's, the hand of Van der Holst is undeniably
there. We Are Fucked may be a weird title for a song, at the same time
it is a small, very sympathetic song. Having been released on cassette
only somewhere around 2010, Spilt Milk's repertoire is to be re-released
on cassette soon. We Are Fucked is an extremely nice introduction to the
two albums to come. The video is just as sympathetic as the song is. In
my book the only one fucked here is the person not taking a listen to a
small, beautiful song with a bit strange title. Knowing The Avonden and
now We Are Fucked, I'm getting more and more convinced that Rivella
must be Marc van der Holst favourite drink.
Early
each month The Puzzle Is Cast, a duo from Athens, Greece, drops another
song, on its way towards an album. Two of the songs have come by
already and no, it is not the easiest music to digest. Bell-Like E A R
starts out like a meditation, new age kind of music. The bells with
different but dark tones set the mood. Had it stayed this way, I would
have refrained from writing. Slowly but surely moods are added, sound
hovering or crawling like a snake over the sand, in twisting and turning
muscle retractions, are added to the deep bells that play the same
sequence over and over. An acoustic guitar joins in with a long flourish
of notes. A bass joins and that point it is possible to imagine a drummer to join, to change the whole direction of the song into prog rock territory.
It doesn't, lending Bell-Like E A R it's unique character. It's like
listening to a soft interlude on the 'Tubular Bells' album, with a distinctive eastern
flavour. Interesting and certainly a candidate for .No's radio show
Kairos.
From mysterious instrumentals to psych rock is a smaller step than one might imagine. The key word is mysterious. This element is always a part of the best psychedelic rock music. And Control has this quality. Not that Hooverii, an L.A. band, is unique but at least in Control it offers all that a band like this should. Besides having enough of mind-expanding sounds in its music, it has that old organ sound that is allowed to step forward into the spotlight regularly, giving Control a great melodic injection in all the right moments. It defines the sound of Control. The guitar is distorted beyond recognition every once in a while, but mixed nicely into the mid-level of the mix, so it does not get dominant. My final comment is on the melody of the vocals. Nice and sweet the changes are. Like in most psych bands the singing is a part of the mix, but not as rigid. This is a front man singing and not a band member as in several psychrock bands. Most likely because he's a good singer. The melodies deserve this spot as well and then again comes that descending progression of the organ. What more can I write then Control is one of the nicer singles in this genre I've heard over the past months and make me look forward to the album 'Water For The Frogs'.
The label Secretly Canadian announced a new signing recently, Current Joys. An album was announced and introduced with this single. Nick Rattigan the man behind Current Joys has been active for some time already but for the first time crosses my ears. Amateur may describe Nick Rattigan adequately, but not what happens on Amateur. Despite the fact that the heart of the song is repeated over and over, listen to the piano and the matching singing, the song becomes more complex by the 10 seconds. How many themes can be found over the same note progression? So whoever arranged Amateur, is all but. There are so many musical motives to follow that having two ears only is not enough to follow all what is going on at the same time. A new variation invariably draws my attention away what from went on before, except for that prominent piano. I knew nothing of Current Joys until today. The introduction is quite nice though. In May 'Voyager' will be released.
More music from
Greece today, but the music could not be more different. The sleeve
picture on Spotify shows a Guns 'N' Roses like art, the music is even a
tat tighter. Khirki plays metal in style of Therapy?. A drummer who
punishes the skins of his drumkit instead of playing them. The bass
fills in all the holes so that the guitar is free to fulfil all other
duties. A tight rhythm, dark power chords and lead lines. Yes, there a bunch of overdubs in the song. The singing is rough as it should
be without overdoing it. Not being a metal fan, there's no denying there,
there are songs that I do like and Black And Chrome is one of them.
Clocking in at 6.30 minutes, with a long, long intro. The band gives the
impression to be an instrumental band, without me wanting to turn the
music off. And yes, I've heard this all before and so will you, and yes,
Black And Chrome is worthwhile to get to know.
Lisa
Gerrard has a long career with the band Dead Can Dance behind her, but
somehow that all passed me by. This single has attracted my attention.
It starts off as a song from the African steppes translated into a
modern cadence. Slowly but surely the song grows and grows, until it
becomes a symphonic rock song Pink Floyd in its hey day would not have
been ashamed of playing. The way this transition is played out in the
four minutes the song takes is simply fantastic. There's a lot of power
in the synths and drums that become a part of the sound, sending the
song in a different direction. In my mind's eye I can see this song
being played in a movie playing in Africa, with shots of a setting sun
growing ever larger shadows on the ground, colours flying around in the
short African twilight. Noyalain is that beautiful alright.
From
the majestic sounds of Lisa Gerrard and Jules Maxwell we move to early
80s punkrock of The Dogmatics. Gimme The Shakes is an up tempo (of
course), light-hearted fun song. The music is steeped in early garage
rock like The Kingsmen, proto punk of The Stooges and the great pop
singles of the 60s. This single contains so much pop that I would not
be surprised if it simply popped in front of my ears from sheer pop
overload. The chorus is so nice and so easy to sing along to. Believe it
or not all band members get a solo in the 2.21 minutes the songs lasts.
Guitar, bass, drums and sax all come by. Sitting still is not an option
with this The Dogmatics classic. Yes, it sounds like it's old. It is
and was influenced by even older music. But this is a hit song if I ever
heard one. Let's party and dance, folks. Even it is in our minds or
living room these days.
'Reb
Fountain' was one of my great discoveries last year. The album made an
immediate impression. So far lasting as well. A new single is released
from the album. Usually I pass those by if I already wrote about the album.
This is the exception to the rule as Hawks & Doves is released in a
remix version by Tali. The result is an even better song. There's no
other word for it. 'Hawks & Doves' opens 'Reb Fountain' setting the
tone of the album with its serious intention and execution. Of course
that part is still there, but Tali manages to add a few layers,
including mystery and depth. The result is a different song that
highlights all that was good about it in the first place and adds to it,
making Reb Fountain shine even more as a singer. Usually I'm not a fan
of remixes, but here's the exception to the rule. A remix made in heaven
it seems Hawks & Doves is.
Time
for a little melodic metal. Manntra mixes the Teutonic sound of
Rammstein with the Armenian metal of System of a Down. The Balkan band
knows how to rock out and how to hold back, resulting in a single that
has the right mix of the light and the shade as Black Sabbath's Tommy
Iommi calls it. Manntra holds its own as well. Heathens may be a tight
metal song for 75%, it is 100% melodic and tight riffed in the right
spots. The result is a song and not noise, as many metal bands result to
and find me dropping away. The lyrics are of war, fear and no
surrender. Perhaps looking back at times long gone and of wars of
ancestors of centuries ago. They might have run away hard, should they have heard this
sort of music on the battlefield where nowadays a metal festival is
organised. Just a thought coming to my mind listening to Heathens. Music of the devil it is then.
For nine weeks I'm watching Matthijs van Nieuwkerk's new tv show and could, perhaps should have written about it weeks ago. It is not all about music but music plays a huge role. Not in the least because of that fine band standing underneath and on the scaffolding behind Matthijs' table. This Saturday he invited Colin Benders, better known as Kyteman. Benders was rumoured to have emersed himself in synthesizers and boy is that true. On the stage was a huge contraption filled with knobs, cords, plugs and one tiny keyboard on top of it all. It reminded me of the Pink Floyd film, 'Live in Pompeii' where in between you can see Roger Waters opening a box and throughout in between the movie's live sequences, twiddle with the knobs of his new synthesizers in what is to become one of the songs on 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Any Colour You Like'.
Benders does something like that here. He recreates the pulsing beats of Georgio Moroder's production for Donna Summer's number 1 hit 'I Feel Love'. Summer's part is taken over by My Baby's Caro van Dyck. I can only presume that many of the sounds were pre-programmed and Benders can call them up by twiddling the knobs of his synths all tied together by the cords.
It already sounded great, not to forget huge and then the big band, of which some of the members played in Kyteman's Orchestra, joins the electronic pulses. The real drums are added to the synth drums. The bass to the synth bass. The strings come in and the sound gets so incredibly solid. Donna Summer's version is a disco classic. It may have been the first song getting the moniker disco (and not soul). This version is the step into the 21st century for the song. If I were Benders I'd release it today as this is a number one hit if I ever heard one. It has everything. What a version. What power.
Wo.Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:
https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
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