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AAAAH! POM
Until today the title 'AAAAH' was taken. The fantastic debut single of The Hague band Taymir, long since gone, had the exclusive rights as far as I was concerned. Luckily this can remain the case, as POM has only named its EP AAAH! and not one of the songs. The songs are about wanting to shout AAAAH! So, I do not have to choose and can simply praise the songs on the EP. POM can be found on this blog for several years. First with its singles and then with that great fun album 'We Were Girls Together' and then some more singles. The trend you find there is that POM is a band with a sound that is fairly unique due to the voice of singer Liza van As. She blends something girlish with maturity. The band provides her with a modern, alternative rock sound, while the vocal and musical melody provides the songs with a pop feel that makes the music irresistible. Take 'A Craving'. The songs rocks, loud even, contains almost more energy than anyone can handle, but creates the urge that makes me want to sing along for the whole of the way. The song is one of POM's best and it already has a few of those for a young band. With 'We Were Girls Together', my #5 album of 2023, POM set a standard for itself. The only thing to complain about concerning AAAAH! is that it's not a full album but only a four song EP. 'Nough said.
There are times that a song is just nice to listen to. Gratitude is one of them. Adam Sherman knows how to write a song somewhere between different genres, not unlike Tom Petty could and The Beatles set the standard for. Not to forget where it all came together in a brilliant mix: The Traveling Willburies! Gratitude has a nice rhythm and the electric guitars provide some nice licks, strokes and twangs at the right moment. Over the music Adam Sherman sings with a somewhat aged voice. The song is a 100% duet with Robin Lane, who we met on this blog exactly two years ago with her own album 'Dirt Road To Heaven'. Sometimes a song is just nice to listen to. Let me leave it at that.
King Garcia is from the original Athens in Greece, a town that can look back on thousands of years of history and the place where a form of democracy started about 2500 years ago. The band consists of Alex Orfanos – Trumpet & Clarinet, Kamil Kamieniecki – Drums, Kornilios Kiriakidis – Bass and Kostas Konstantinidis – Guitar. Yes, you've read right, it starts with a trumpet and clarinet player. There's no singer and you may hear a more traditional Greek instrument along the way as well. King Garcia formed in 2019 with all members bringing in a lot of experience from their respective musical past. They play their own brand of progrock with several musical climaxes in one song. Sweat starts off with a dry drum sound, not unlike Therapy's in the 1990s after which a dark riff kicks in and the song develops from there into highs and lows, light and dark, but often with traditional Greek rebetico elements woven into the hardrock. Very much worthwhile the listen to Sweat is. I love how important the drums are in this song. And you can guess what the lead instrument is, right? Album 'Hamelin' is out on 18 April.
From the Northern Beaches of Sydney comes another new name to this blog, Ocean Alley. This six member surfer dudes band seems even more popular in New Zealand than in Australia, its home country. To me the band is totally new, despite it started in 2011 already and releasing records since 2013. Left Of The Dealer is a super relaxed song with a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival influences seeping into the rhythm and rhythm guitar. In the singing a little psychedelia seeps in. On the one hand the song is upbeat but due to the singing of Baden Donegal the song has a downbeat element as well. But then listen to that ooh ooh in the chorus and the sun comes from behind the clouds immediately. Left Of The Dealer may not be the best song I've ever heard but it provides Ocean Alley with a great introduction to this listener for whatever comes next.
Will Stratton released his album Points Of Origin two days ago on this day of posting. Bardo Or Heaven? is one of the singles coming from the album. The song is a sophisticated singer-songwriter song aimed at the more serious music lover. Where the song starts with a fairly straightforward arrangement, Stratton allows for more and more instruments to come in, until there is a near cacophony of woodwinds, and horns when the song, abruptly, ends. The start is drums, bass, guitar and a piano that is the most present instrument, there. It gives Stratton the option to sing with his soft voice over it all. Slowly but surely other instruments come in. At first, accompanying but in the end they kick Will Stratton out of the song. We don't need you any more, singer, they seem to say. Bardo Or heaven? is a listening experience in more than one sense.
How to describe Sanctuary? My musical ear and experience tell me new age. As the music is more a composition, a modern composition than a song, but at the same time the song has some resemblance to Enya's 'Orinico Flow'. Where that was a song with atmospherics, Sanctuary is atmospherics with the rudimental traces of a song hidden in it. Rebekka Karijord is a Norwegian composer, living in Stockholm, Sweden's capital. She has composed numerous filmscores and music for performances, but also solo records. Her upcoming record, 'The Bell Tower' (25 April), is a collaboration with the vocal group Roomful of Teeth. The singing takes place over swaths of electronic music and a crackling sound, in which the song disappears and comes back to. The melody is carried by the voices. This is straight 'Kairos' material. If I have to compare it to anyone else, Norwegian singer Susanna is the only one coming to mind, besides the already mentioned Enya. Intriguing is the right word to describe Sanctuary.
A new song by Supersister? That ought to be a surprise but with its drummer living down my street, it's not. (My band Sweetwood even performed once with Léon Klaasse at our local street party.) So much for me thumping my chest. Supersister and I go back for over half a century, when I got a compilation album with Dutch artists containing 'She Was Naked', that outrageous single for more than the title only. By the time I had money to buy albums Supersister was long something of the past. For a few years the band is back on the road, with songwriter, singer and keyboardist Robert Jan Stips as the only original member, former Golden Earring bassist Rinus Gerritsen and Klaasse on drums. Anywhere The Wind is a dreamy song. Stips sounds as if he is still in the early 1970s where his singing is concerned. The most distinguishing instruments is the grand piano he plays, letting wide ranging notes escape from it. A dark synth takes care of the bottom line. What to expect from a band over fifty years down the line? Well, a song like Anywhere The Wind is the right answer.
Another new name on the blog this week is Robin Jackson. The Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter had to make up with someone and came up with Back To Your Heart. It doesn't say whether he succeeded but a person could be quite pleasantly surprised when someone writes a song like Back To Your Heart. Jackson sings with a modest tone striking the right tone when asking for forgiveness. The song has two parts, the quiet first three quarters and the more upbeat final quarter where the beat comes in and lyrics are superfluous. "li-li-li" seems enough here, suggesting a happy ending? I guess so. This song is for fans of e.g. James Blunt's hit 'You're Beautiful'. Album 'Silver Lining' is out already.
And, yes, another new name on the blog. How is it possible to have so many on one day? Vundabar is a Boston band that has not reached me through one of the three record companies or pr agencies from that town/region. Even that is possible. Brandon Hagen (guitar, vocals), Drew McDonald (drums) and Zack Abramo (bass) form Vundabar, which is a take on the German word Wunderbar I suppose. (Remember that great Tenpole Tudor single from the early 80s?) Spades is an alternative rock song, with a little of the doom and gloom sound of the early 80s because of the way Brandon Hagen sings. The music is far more eclectic though, if dark. Where the early 80 postpunk bands were afraid of the bomb, Vundabar musical sets it off. There's postpunk galore here but with an energy and big sound bands then could not even dream of. Album 'Surgery And Pleasure' is out.
How else can we end this week then with another new name. New Zealander Serebii (Callum Mower) presents a track that any lover of singer-songwriter music will recognise as Nick Drake influenced. The bio speaks of a jazzy track and that is the sort of arrangement Nick Drake's producer Joe Boyd laid underneath his voice and acoustic guitar. Serebii does not just copy. For that the sound of Dime is far too modern. The basis of the single is Mower and his (I presume) acoustic guitar. From there the story starts. His voice is treated, unlike the live version on You Tube which is more organic. All through the song other instruments join in, only to disappear again just as abruptly, while that guitar is plucked all throughout. Album 'Díme' is out on 28 March.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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