Bright Black. London Plane
Listening to New York City's band London Plane is like stepping into multiple time machines all at once. A lead surf guitar interacts with late 70s, early 80s postpunk, where the recording quality is totally contemporary. The clarity of sound that is attainable for everyone with the right software and tools was not even within reach for bands of old. London Plane seems to have it all. Bright Black is a steamer of a song, full of energy, with the enthusiasm fully under control, as to make all the individual parts shine, fully. Male - female vocals, lead guitars, solo sounds from the keyboard (or whatever effect), it all comes through loud and clear. 1980 meets 2022 successfully on Bright Black
Speaking of time machines. This song not only brings you back in time. It's as if it transports you right into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. A dreamworld full of elves, orks and whatnots. Hannah is a song full of seeming tranquillity. Listen more carefully and suspense is everywhere. Parabola West is the name under which New Zealand artist Amy Tucker West releases her work. New Zealand is the land where Tolkien's movie version of Middle Earth was created, so it is fitting that Ms. West creates her own world of mystical, mysterious visions. She mixes Celtic and Scandinavian traditional music with electronic sounds. The tradition underscored by the Swedish instrument nyckelharpa, a bowed string instrument with keys. There's a droning sound all through Hannah, so I suppose this is the nyckelharpa. The slow music brings well-know Celtic artists to mind, yet Parabola West sounds far more modern. I doubt whether a whole album would work for me, the single is good. The album, 'Stars Will Light The Way', is out since late April.
When metal meets pop rock, at times great combinations are made and Lift Me Up is one of those. A louder version of Heart's breakthrough single, 'Magic Man'. The intro already is quite strong. The eastern motive of the lead guitar makes the metal rock song feel different immediately. For the verse things drop down to the rhythm section to create impressive dynamics. Later on the rhythm guitar joins in with that huge sound. Singer Elena Justin is joined by Carla Harvey of Butcher Babies, singing together but also contrasting between an ultimate, angry shout "I've had enough", moving all the way to a whisper. Lift Me Up contains it all and I did not even speak about the fine melody, although the combination of pop and rock was a dead giveaway of course.
With 'Family Dinner' Belgium rock band Sons entered my life in 2019. A record that still comes by every once in a while, an album still not filed into that great stack of musical oblivion called record collection. With a new album underway, 'Sweet Boy', the band released this single. Again, a great rock track, not necessarily groundbreakingly new but certainly with the energy in all the right places. Drummer Thomas Pultyn lays down the basis. From here everything else starts on Succeed. The song may start as if the operator of the air raid system has to learn how to test this essential device, from then on Pultyn takes over and directs everyone in the right direction. So much energy comes from his drumming. In this century I will compare it to that great Arctic Monkeys video, where you see just a drummer hard, hard at work. Sons manages to create that sort of energy with Succeed, and yes, that air raid siren noise goes on all through the track, fully functional and operational, task learned.
Bloomsday returns to this blog with another single from its upcoming album 'Place To Land'. Again, a soft and modest song. A little in a style that reminds me of Adriana Lanker's solo album from a few years back. Soft, almost acoustic and somewhat hesitatingly. Almost as if ISO doubts its right to exist. This contrasts somewhat with Iris James Garriso's vocal delivery. They sing with a clear, double tracked voice, leaving no doubt about ISO, should there be any. Everything about the song is subtle though. The acoustic guitar strumming, the electric solo notes, the modest, soft percussion. All together it amounts to alternative folk, combined with dreamy electronics woven all through the song. ISO works as a song on a few levels, beautiful and intriguing, mysterious and totally clear. 'Place To Land' is worth waiting for I dare to write on the basis of ISO and 'Phase'.
We all know or should know what happens when conservative powers get lazy and hand their power over to the far right. The collapse of democracy, like what happened to the Weimar Republic in Germany. I sincerely hope that politicians of almost 100 years later, i.e. today, have remembered these essential lessons. Some have but some certainly seem to have not. The kind of thought that can jump to mind when listening to a band called Weimar. The band members are men of a certain age that still play (or once again play) and manage to muster the power of the 1980s post punk bands still. The singer, Aidan Cross, sounds his age, but has the right kind of voice for the enactment of the early 1980s. Bass player John Armstrong has certainly listened to Peter van Hook, kicking The Girls Of LA's butt, the song, not the girls', for the whole ride. I love that sound. The rest that happens, like 60s style The Who harmonies and guitar riff, are all nice adornments. The song's bedrocks are clear.
Abrasive Trees returns to the blog with a double single. Moulding Heaven With Earth starts as an atmospheric song. Soon spoken word is added about someone trying to mould heaven with earth. Next the song is expanded in a way that reminds me the way the Fish-era Marillion would build up a song. (I've stopped listening to Marillion long ago, so perhaps they still do.) Abrasive Trees lays down a beautiful instrumental track with a few overdubbed guitars leading the way. Matthew Roachford's project has expanded, as this single is the first to contain the full live band. Kali Sends Sunflowers captures the same mood. The kind of song that starts small, yet beautiful. A voice, a guitar, a second guitar. Only after quite some time, the band kicks in, giving the song an 80s kind of boost, while the synths add a dreamy layer, accentuating the quality of the vocals. In Kali Sends Sunflowers Abrasive Trees manages to mix the modern folk of Modern Studies and synth rock from the 1980s. The combination is mesmerising. The single comes with a remix of Moulding Heaven With Earth by Rothko.
The Netherlands has Donna Blue, Greece has Σtella. The former is a bit more mysterious and mondaine,1960s pop is all over both artists. It gives Up And Away a kind of lightness that is far removed from 2022 and almost everything that happened musically in between. The high organ sound that opens Up And Away sets the tone immediately, exactly like Donna Blue, and Dutch The Kik are able to do. Yes, here's that time machine once again. It makes Up And Away truly different. Vocally Σtella, sings with a dreamy voice. This does link her to a more modern band like Warpaint e.g. Up And Away is her second album but first international release, on the Sub Pop label no less. This is the title song of her upcoming album, to be released on 17 June. It tastes like more to me.
The second single of Friendmaker shows another face of the Irish band. In a way this a modest attempt of scoring a stadium size hit. Through the use of dynamics the band is able to bring the song from a modest beginning right to giant size by way of a few steps. "I feel weird when I wake up", well that may happen one day when that stadium lies around the corner, waiting for Friendmaker to get on stage. Besides thinking of stadiums, this band looked closely at the details of Weird. You will find a lot of fine details embellishing the song, adorning it with either power or with extras. The combination makes that Weird works at a few levels. It holds something for a lot of people and above all, that giant chorus.
Smoke is a band from the south of The Netherlands and at the end of this month releases its album 'The Mighty Delta Of Time'. Described as something with sludge and psych and rock, I had no clue what to expect. It starts with a hard hitting drummer, who takes care of a huge part of the sound mix of Motion. The bass player lays down a deeper end behind the drums. The singing is dark and slow. The mood does remind me of sludge, so o.k. there. The guitar sounds clean, moves to slide and back. All through the song the idea of motion is brought across. There's no stopping. In the meantime Smoke builds up the tension, as seems to be holding back perennially. This gives the song the quality of expectation. In other words, the right kind of song to make me want to hear more. 27 May is the date.
Wout de Natris
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