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Rising Seas. Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil scored its first and only major hit in The Netherlands in 1988 with the fantastic 'Beds Are Burning'. My all time favourite album is 'Earth And Sun And Moon' from 1993. Not long after that release I saw the band play a fantastic show in Utrecht. Almost 30 years after that show, for the first time in all those year I hear Midnight Oil play a song that reaches for the quality of these days. Rising Seas is a fantastically powerful song that brings out everything that makes the band so good. The propulsive rhythm driven by the rhythm section. Drums, very much the bass and the rhythm guitar. Singer Peter Garrett only has to float on it and shines automatically it seems. Of course the song comes with a message, like all Midnight Oil's most inspired and inspiring songs are. Climate change comes with rising seas. Living in the low countries I can't help wondering what the effects will be here. Mass movement, no doubt, to paraphrase another bard, Leonard Cohen.
As HareD wrote yesterday, Midnight Oil has announced its retirement. If this is its farewell single, I can only write, how incredibly well done. What a way to say goodbye.
John Cleese already said it: "and now for something completely different". Well, it's still music but the atmospheric, yet undercooled music coming out of my speakers, is truly different in all aspects. In the description I received the word triphop is used continuously. I simply do not agree. Lo Lee Ta certainly works from a concept of atmospheric music, but for triphop it has too many instruments coming from the rock side of the equation. Like The xx in the U.K. and Donna Blue in The Netherlands new ways are found to present old(er) music for (the third decade of) the 21st century. A great bass line carries the song, an electric guitar plays beautiful notes, delicately picked. There's even a guitar solo in the final part of the song. Inflatable Animals is an intriguing song. The more so because of the singing of Marie-Laure Fazioli. She drifts over the song like mist over a pasture just before dusk. The Belgian duo has released an interesting introduction for its upcoming EP.
Another new band, alternative rocking, from Rotterdam. My grandparents lived in Rotterdam, Kralingen, close to a "Tramhaus", where I tried to sneak in as a small kid, to be kicked out again as soon as someone saw me.
Anyone who likes Global Charming can start listening straight away. The guitars are always on the edge of false notes. Bending the strings just a little too far, yet within the limit of bending them too far. The result is a song that is creating attention for itself. A nervous kind of tension comes with it for free. The singing is a little deeper than necessary, causing the same sort of effect. Before I truly know what is happening, the song totally derails itself. Even this freaky part keeps the song, although barely, within the lines of what is seemly in alternative rock. All other music lovers have left long ago. I Don't Sweat is not for the musically faint of heart. This first single of Tramhaus makes me quite curious to hear more.
With Ava Vox, an Irish singer from County Meade, this weekly overview of singles appears to dive all the way back to the 1980s. Crash is a song that could have been released in between The Stranglers' 'Skin Deep' and Killing Joke's 'Love Like Blood' and fit there perfectly. The song has the darkness of both and the tempo, if not more, of "Love Like Blood'. The song may start slow and synth atmospheric, soon the band releases the brakes and off Crash goes. Ava Vox' voice is dark and doom, like 80s music is supposed to be. Her band takes out all the best of the decade. Edge like guitar ripples, Big Country lead notes and even an ABBA synth intro. Crash is not a new song at all. It was written by Ava Vox' first band, The Seventh Veil, that disbanded in 1991. This re-enactment of the 80s is totally urgent and a great introduction to the upcoming Ava Vox album, 'Immortalised', to be released winter 2022.
The year ends, where the singles section is concerned, with a single from Woven Hand's upcoming album, 'Silver Sash'. Of course David Eugene Edwards creates his dark mood that he has become famous for. Everything is relative, also Edwards, as the devil is far removed from his t(r)ail as possible. Duat Hawk is not a happy song though,far from. Edwards doesn't do happy. Life is a valley of tears, in search of redemption, most likely found in an afterlife, not here. What amazes me for close to 30 years, is that this toil and struggle, perhaps even mortal fear, is caught within interesting music. Duat Hawk has everything that makes David Eugene Edward's music so intriguing and good to listen to. Of course, this is not for everyday. For that his music is to life and death heavy. But, on those special moments it is all I need and I can't wait to hear 'Silver Sash'.
Wout de Natris
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