Are You Live Here? EP. Iskander Moon
When
does an EP stop being an EP? An interesting question, because with
seven songs, each, minus the intro, clocking (well) above the four
minutes I would opt for mini album. That said, Iskander Moon presents
itself as an atmospheric live act. The songs were recorded live in the
Funkhause studio in Berlin. A live album that is not a live show.
Iskander Moon is the moniker Belgian (Ghent) singer-songwriter Iskander
Moens releases his work under. Start listening to Are You Live Here? and
you will be sucked into an atmospheric musical work, that will make you
recall albums by the likes of Patrick Watson and City + Colour, all
artists that work somewhere in between pop, ballads, atmospherics and
mystery. You will hear traditional instruments for pop bands, but at
some point a trumpet can come in like it does in a song like Soft Cell's
'Torch'. The instruments are played in a way that can mesmerise a
listener, dreamy, floating, tense, yet relaxed. Iskander Moon is also
not afraid to give a song body, like it happens in 'Berlin'. The tempo
goes up. Drums and bass gain prominence and a guitar starts shredding.
In 'Saturday Silence' the mood is brought down immediately, but as you
will notice a spine in a song can return in a totally different way.
There's no need for tempo or noise to do so. This band masters that
expertly. For six songs Iskander Moon plays with the mood and responses
of the listener and succeeds to do so with ease.
The
Dogmatics, so I'm told, played in the Boston area in the 1980s before
folding, after which members played in a host of other bands. Some
recordings have surfaced recently on Rum Bar Records. Now decades later
the band is back and shows that it hasn't lost any of its tricks.
Library Girl starts with the kind of chord-riff that started 1000s of
great rock songs. Library Girl is no exception. It's the kind of song
that sounds almost familiar, one you want to sing along to, beer in one
hand and fist in the air with the other hand. While your head is going
up and down as if there's no tomorrow. Library Girl is the kind of rock
song any fan of this kind of music should get to know to draw The Dogmatics out
of the Boston circuit. Yes, Library Girl is that good, believe me.
What
a story. A guitarist unable to use his right hand, turns to an
electric organ and only plays it with his left hand. It results in one
of the most bare songs I have heard for some time. It's just Greg
Mendez' downcast, melancholy voice and the chords played on the organ.
The only embellishment is literally a few single notes in the outro.
Greg Mendez had released his debut album, that received good reviews and
then fate struck. Mendez needed surgery on his wrist and could not play
and preform for four months. The result is an upcoming EP, 'First Time /
Alone' to be released on 18 October. An EP the world might never have
heard, as it rose from a forced break from performing and guitar
playing. The mood of the single reflects the down side of life Greg
Mendez will have felt, after the twist of fate. The result is an intens,
yet sweet single.
In
the week before 'In Limerence' is released Black Doldrums is found on
the blog for the third time. Summer Breeze is a song that combines the
darkness of Joy Division with the light side of The Cure in its new
single. And in a successful way. Singer (and guitarist) Kevin Gibbard
has a dark voice with which he is able to return to the doom and gloom
of the early to mid 80s with ease. When around him the rhythm guitar has
this light sound, the sun starts to shine a little as well. There's a
host of guitar overdubs and a synth adding to the atmosphere. The London
trio, besides Gibbard, Sophie Landers on drums and new bassist Daniel
Armstrong, creates a sound that is impossible to recreate on stage as a
trio. That is for them to figure out. On Summer Breeze the band does a
lot right, if not all. Black Doldrums manages to weave a little pop into
its early 80s new wave sound. This makes Summer Breeze a very
attractive song to listen to.
Orange
Background is a nostalgic song in a few ways. To explain, I have to
point out that Crash Harmony reformed after more than three decades
after calling it a day in 1988, during the bandmembers' college days in
New Haven, CT. The song is on the one hand a message from the then young
men to their older selves today and it is musically a trip down memory
lane to the music that was emerging on the U.S.' east coast at the time.
Think The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, etc. Crash Harmony obviously liked
the bands at the time and still does. It brings good memories back for
me as well and adds a song very much worthwhile hearing to a well-liked and known roster. Note
also how Crash Harmony plays with the tempo within the song and its mood by
adding an organ. Well done. So, Dave Derby, who can also be found on
this blog as a member of Gramercy Arms, Nils Nadeau, Jon Nighswander and
Mike Potenza came back together and now did record an album, so it may
be the band with the longest wait for a debut album ever, 38 years. No
One Asked For This' is out on 18 October.
Another
new name to the blog Jon Chesbro is. See You Again is the lead single
from his latest EP, 'Outta State Outta Mind', released on 25 September.
See You Again is a dreamy single of the kind that allows you to travel
in your mind, in the way Chesbro travelled around the United States, to
come back to New England with a bunch of new songs in his bag. He starts the
song with a lot of oohhs over the solid music, providing a dreamy vibe
to See You Again from the start. I have reached the 0.50 second mark before the vocals starts. All the time there is a prominent drum part.
Whoever is playing, Jon Chesbro is promoted as a multi-instrumentalist,
he's having a great time. Even if it's a machine it obviously is. The
musicality Chesbro is capable of, shows in the many guitar parts that
both adorn and solidify See You Again. Beware, a new guitar part can come in
any second. It makes for great listening.
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Now
what can I call the music presented by Then Comes Silence on Stay
Strange? It's rock, it has a metal edge, it is postpunk in the style of
Killing Joke et al, maybe even goth. So, have your choice. What is clear that Stay
Strange contains loads of energy that Then Comes Silence was able to
capture in the studio and share with its fans and other listeners. On
the single the Swedes are joined by Vision Video's frontman Dusty Gannon
a.k.a. Goth Dad. The two singers really go for it but in the background
it is guitarist Hugo Zombie and drummer Jonas Fransson that kick life
into the song. That is not all though. There's a wild guitar intro and a
bit mysterious interlude that gives the rock song a little psychedelic
edge, before the song is kicked towards its end in full rock swing. On an
average day a song like Stay Strange will be a bit much for me. On the
right day it is all I need.
I
will probably have written this before but Pixies totally passed me by
around 1990. It was a few years later before I became interested again in music by new bands. That did not stop right up to today. Not so though in 1987 or 1988 when
Pixies broke in the alternative rock world. In 2024 I am again listening
to a new single by the band and I like it. Where fans of old may not
like it at all, I love the way this single develops. The little
darkness, the voice of new bassist Emma Richardson of (or ex?) Band of
Skulls. Boy did I love that band's 'Diamonds and Pearls'! The chorus of
Motoroller is simply so great. The lead guitar underneath it. Black
Francis taking his voice down and Emma Richardson challenging him for
the whole of the way. There's an album announced for 25 October, 'The
Night The Zombies Came'. It may well be that for the first time I have
to check a Pixies album out.
Time
for some dirty, low down electric blues. Larking Poe returns to the
blog with a great blues rock song. The sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell
are on route to release their ninth album, 'Bloom' on 25 January since
2014. With If God Was A Woman the tone is set for some dirty blues rock.
Dark distortion and a wining, even darker slide guitar say it all. God
help us men if Larking Poe is right that if God is a woman, the devil is
too, turns out to be true. "I will pray for you", Rebecca sings. It's
better to be an atheist, just to be sure. Musically you will have heard
it all before, from artists and bands like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Heart,
but who cares when it sounds as good as If God Is A Woman does. Larking
Poe, the name of the sisters' great-great-great-great-grandfather and
cousin of Edgar Allan Poe, is smoking on this song and I have no doubt
'Bloom' will as well.
We end this week's singles post with a very serious song by British singer Sophie Jamieson. You can find her on this blog with her album 'Choosing' in a review written by Erwin Zijleman. For me she is a new name though. I have to say that I'm impressed by the way she builds up I Don’t Know What To Save. With her voice that is somewhere between deep and higher, she commands listening. Jamieson sings with a lot of emphasis stemming from the use of her voice. Always in full control of the words. Musically, the song contains great dynamics, including beautiful details. In the small parts, the music is very elementary. Like in the intro, where only an electric guitar accompanies her voice. A short interlude brings solo notes from a second guitar. After the second verse slowly but surely more instruments come in, including a string section. Then drums and bass kick in, giving the song a boost, that is reflected by the singing. Beautiful melodies adorn the music and I Don’t Know What To Save just grows and grows. The album ' I Still Want To Share' will be released on 17 January.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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