Ritmo Lento. Leatherette

Over the past years, I've made this comment before. Italian bands have somehow made it into my span of attention. When this blog started, nearly 14 years ago, there wasn't a single one. Today, there are several, for the simple reason that people present them to me. Leatherette is a new name. You will find a single from this album recently, but that is it.

So let's start and introduce the band. The members are called Michele Battaglioli (vocals, guitar), Francesco Bonora (drums), Jacopo Finelli (saxophone), Andrea Gerardi (guitar) and, Marco Jespersen (bass), The band is based in Bologna. Ritmo Lento ('Slow Rhythm') is the band's third album. They started out as a punk band but as you will hear on this album, the band diversified into, let's call it post punk, but there's alternative rock as well and bits and pieces aimed at going against the grain of mainstream listeners.

The album opens with 'Magic Things'. The rhythm grips me immediately. The dirty sound of the rhythm guitar makes the song truly dirty, while sounding great at the same time. The lead guitar seems to be doing what it feels like and then a saxophone joins with a scream that could also have been delivered by a female punk singer. The mood of Ritmo Lento has been set and Leatherette is like a fish in water.

'Lovers Drifters Foreigners' starts as if it is a dark 1967 psychedelic song. Then it explodes into a punk song's chorus. Next is a far slower interlude where the sax comes in. The second verse is alternative rock that makes Personal Trainer seem like neat schoolboys. The song goes from mood to mood. Leatherette is doing things very right. It may seem like a hotchpot of styles, it comes together as a great whole. If a name comes to mind, it is The Libertines. With one main difference, that band often irritated the hell out of me after a few songs. Not Leatherette.

Promo photo

The way the sax is played by Finelli, reminds of the saxophone on David Bowie's 'Blackstar'. The songs it features in don't for one second. It just has the same tone, which is different from the way saxophones sound in e.g. classic soul tracks.

On Ritmo Lento Leatherette works somewhere between the genres I've just described. So, there is no need to pull out more individual examples for you. What makes the album so attractive is just that. Add to that the element of surprise that the band manages to throw into every single song and you have an album that is up there way above the average album. I am not familiar with Leatherette's previous work but if the change in its music brought Leatherette to this level of musicianship, the change was well worth pursuing.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Ritmo Lento here: 

https://leatherette111.bandcamp.com/album/ritmo-lento 

Long March Through The Jazz Age. The Saints

Posthumous albums are not always of extreme interest. Nice to have as fan of a band or artist. Where The Saints are concerned there is no previous relationship with me. Okay, I sang background vocals on the chorus of 'Under The Milky Way', that at the time in Vilnius' town hall I was able to do to my big surprise. 'Under The Milky Way' is one of the favourites of the band I sing with at some international conferences. Never mine.

After the summer this year, I listened to a single that had been released, 'Empires (Sometimes We Fall)'. The song opens Long March Through The Jazz Age. The single struck a chord with me immediately and I made a note to listen to the album come the time. And here I am nearly three months later.

Chris Bailey is the name that I had encountered in the past forty years but the reviews never made me interested to listen to one of The Saints' albums. Perhaps, based on this album, I have whole decades to backtrack. I won't, as there's too much new music to follow already. On the release of the single, I found that Bailey had died in 2022 and this collection are the songs he left behind orphaned.

To my surprise the songs are even older, far older. They were recorded in the fall of 2018 in Sydney (that would make it our spring?). Long time drummer Pete Wilkinson joined, as did producer and touring guitarist Sean Carey and guitarist Davey Lane. Where so wished other instruments come in as you will find. Together they made a great record. There's no other word for it. Fun fact, the album can also be used in a 'Hitster' like game, as you will find several familiar quotes in the lyrics. It makes the album not one filled with leftovers but one that, for whatever reason, was not released until eight years after recording it. We are the richer for it.

Most songs are in a mid tempo, built around an acoustic guitar. Just wait until you get round to the riff laden 'Bruises', where the electric guitars are in the lead. Although several songs sound "simple" in the way of the chord structure, the way it is played and on top of it all Chris Bailey's voice is what make Long March Through The Jazz Age such a fine album. Life did make this album Bailey's swan songs, and what kind of a swan song. For me its the best the band ever released......

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Long March Through The Jazz Age here:

https://thesaintsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/long-march-through-the-jazz-age 

 

Begging The Night To Take Hold. Emma Pollock

Emma Pollock maakte deel uit van de legendarische Schotse band The Delgados, maar heeft ook prachtige solo albums gemaakt, waaraan deze week het echt prachtige Begging The Night To Take Hold wordt toegevoegd.

Het was de afgelopen negen jaar helaas stil rond Emma Pollock, maar deze week keert de Schotse muzikante terug met een nieuw album. Door het nodige persoonlijke leed is Begging The Night To Take Hold een behoorlijk melancholisch album geworden, maar het is ook een bijzonder mooi en sfeervol album geworden. Het is een album waarop de stem van Emma Pollock centraal staat en de Schotse muzikante maakt nog wat meer indruk als zangeres dan op haar vorige albums. Die indruk maakt ze ook als songwriter, want Begging The Night To Take Hold is een album dat je drie kwartier lang aan de speakers gekluisterd houdt. Wederom een jaarlijstjesalbum van Emma Pollock.

Dat Glasgow een levendige alternatieve muziekscene heeft mag als bekend worden verondersteld en die bruisende muziekscene heeft de Schotse stad al heel lang. Het leverde een aantal grote bands op als Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, Simple Minds, Texas, Travis en Middle Of The Road (!), maar nog veel meer bands die de cultstatus niet, slechts in beperkte mate of slechts tijdelijk wisten te ontstijgen als Altered Images, Bis, The Blue Nile, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, The Lotus Eaters, Orange Juice en Sons & Daughters. 

Tot de laatste categorie reken ik ook The Delgados, dat in de jaren 90 en vroege jaren 00 moet worden gerekend tot de leukste exponenten van de Schotse popmuziek. Ik ben de albums van de band uit Glasgow momenteel weer aan het herontdekken en kom hier binnenkort op terug. Reden van mijn heropleving van de aandacht voor de muziek van The Delgados is de release in oktober van Beginning The Night To Take Hold van Emma Pollock. 

Emma Pollock maakte niet alleen deel uit van The Delgados, maar was ook een van de oprichters van het aansprekende Chemikal Underground label. Na het einde van The Delgados begon ze bovendien aan een solocarrière en een aantal andere bezigheden. Heel veel tijd voor de muziek heeft Emma Pollock kennelijk niet, maar de albums die ze uitbrengt zijn echt uitstekend. Het gold in 2007 voor Watch the Fireworks, het gold in 2010 voor The Law Of Large Numbers, het gold in 2016 in nog sterkere mate voor het geweldige In Search Of Harperfield en het geldt deze week voor Begging The Night To Take Hold. 

Omdat het vorige album van Emma Pollock inmiddels al weer negen jaar oud is moest ik weer even in mijn archieven en in mijn platenkast duiken, maar bij eerste beluistering van In Search Of Harperfield was ik weer bij de les. Het is een album dat ik destijds heel vaak heb beluisterd, dat ik uiteindelijk koesterde en dat ik vergeleek met het allerbeste werk van Aimee Mann en dat is voor mij buitencategorie. 

Ook bij beluistering van het deze week verschenen Begging The Night To Take Hold moet ik af en toe weer aan Aimee Mann denken en dat vind ik nog altijd een groot compliment. Net als Aimee Mann beschikt Emma Pollock over de gave om lekker in het gehoor liggende songs te schrijven die ook interessant en avontuurlijk zijn en net als de Amerikaanse muzikante bestrijkt de muzikante uit Glasgow het hele palet van uiterst ingetogen tot uitbundig. 

Op Begging The Night To Take Hold kiest Emma Pollock voor een belangrijk deel voor ingetogen en door de inzet van strijkers zeer stemmig ingekleurde songs. Het zijn songs waarin de stem van de Schotse muzikante centraal staat en die stem is met het verstrijken van de jaren alleen maar mooier geworden. Het is een stem die nog mooier wordt door alle emotie die komt met de zeer persoonlijke teksten op het album, dat direct na de coronapandemie vorm kreeg en waarop de nodige persoonlijke misère voorbij komt en de muzikante uit Glasgow zichzelf zeker niet spaart. 

Emma Pollock is, mede door haar beperkte productie, niet heel bekend, maar heeft met Begging The Night To Take Hold een prachtig album gemaakt, dat er makkelijk uit springt. Door het album heb ik mijn oude liefde voor The Delgados weer nieuw leven in geblazen, maar het solowerk van Emma Pollock is misschien nog wel indrukwekkender.

Erwin Zijleman

 

Je kunt Begging The Night To Take Hold hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://emmapollock.bandcamp.com/album/begging-the-night-to-take-hold 

Frankie and the Witch Fingers live. Patronaat, Haarlem Saturday 29 November 2025

Photo: WdN-vdB

Dark and very wet but luckily not cold were the conditions when I got on my bike to cycle the circa ten minutes to Patronaat to go and see the Los Angeles psych rock band Frankie and the Witch Fingers. The support started so early, that I was still eating at the time.

When I walked in everything was set up with these very colourful cables on the stage and even yellow and blue coloured microphones. It looked quite special. During the show the cables seemed to change colour a little with the change of lightning. I'd never seen anything like it before.

My introduction to the band was through its last album, 'Trash Classic', but there are eight in total already. I heard a few familiar songs during the show but also a lot I'd never heard before or did not recognise. It didn't matter one bit. The band came on stage and went off and kept going at it until the very, very last note.

The start was impressive though. Over fast synth notes played by new member Jon Modaff, the other four played starts and stops that seemed to go on forever, in all sorts of variations, without missing a beat/chord/note. What a way to start a show! Very impressive. It was all led by a drummer who has the energy for a thousand shows in one. Nick Aguilar simply doesn't know how to stop playing, yet always falls back into the rhythm. There's so much power in his drumming that the band just has to follow. No one can let up for even a second. Aguilar impressed me the whole show long.

Photo: WdN-vdB

For the rest. Each song effortlessly melted into the next. Some without stopping. What they were singing about? I have no clue. At best a word could be picked out. Harmony vocals? I saw it, but heard it? Not really. Except for a "ballad" somewhere in between the set, it all just went on and on for circa 75 minutes. The storm only died down when the band left the stage, when all was said and done. No encore, as it wouldn't have added one iota to the whole presented. The European tour was over and the band can go home satisfied with their Haarlem show.

Finally, what to call this music? In the live setting, I can't tell you. There was a little of everything, like punk, trash, garage, something-core, etc., and yes, some psychedelia, at the moment the keyboard managed to get over the rest that is. Loudest that is the right word. Great fun to look, from a bit at the back for me. Not counting the insane trio The Forty Fives, the only louder show I've ever been was A Place To Bury Strangers. There were elements in the guitar swaths played that reminded me of that show, but it stopped there. The song was always present with Frankie and the Witch Fingers and that makes it a winning show. I was smiling the whole of the way home, rain or no rain.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght 

Beanpole. Georgia Knight

Something odd happens at the beginning of Beanpole. A radio being tuned across the dial can be heard, with stations fading in and out fast. Does it still work like that in the digital transmission age? It brings me back to my early youth and the cat's eye on old radios belonging to my grandparent's generation. But, also to 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels', Dexys Midnight Runners' debut album. The band made a statement with it, as Kevin Rowland said when the radio faded out, "for God's sake burn it down" after which the northern soul exploration and revival began.

Georgia Knight's statement is so much more subtle. No noise, no excitement, just a woman with soft songs composed on an autoharp and extra instruments added when needed, but all in a slow motion setting. Making her statement just as impressive by the way. It just takes a little more effort to get it.

Knight is from Melbourne, Australia, but came to me personally by way of New Zealand. This in my ears perfectly makes sense as her music fits right in with NZ artists like Vera Ellen and even Aldous Harding. From slow and fairly bare songs something big can grow. And yes, she does add some pepper in some of the songs, like in the single 'Mingle', that was her debut on WoNoBlog, just like the mentioned colleagues can.

Hearing it again in the album setting, it stands out immediately because of the drum part, the loud synth and the rhythm that keeps chugging along. Because of the way of singing, the link to Georgia Knight's living or bedroom where she composed the songs is evident. The combination of the two settings makes 'Mingle' the most mysterious track on Beanpole. Again, I'm totally caught off guard by it. In 'Rockabilly' things even get louder, with a drumpart that reminds me of the way G. Love and Special Sauce spiked its folk songs in something hip hop inspired, circa 1994 (did we have trip hop then?). For a short time, it got a lot of attention.

The change from the soft to the louder is a little controversial. Listening to the first three songs brings other expectations in the mind of the listeners. For myself, I notice that I love the change, surprising though it is. Georgia Knight has these two sides inside herself and wants both to show, the soft and the loud.

Photo: Laura May Grogan

Another amazing fact is that this album lay on the shelf for two years, which even by the standards of these modern record releasing days is long. A year appears perfectly normal. Compared that to the weeks in which new singles were released in the days of the Beatles and the Stones. Why, I ask myself?, but is not for me to judge on.

Georgia Knight went into the studio with Andrew ‘Idge’ Hehir. When they were ready, they brought in several musicians, Nick Finch, Holly Thomas (Quivers), Rosie Noyes, Dan Luscombe, Joe Orton, Jethro Pickett and even more the bio says. Together they made Beanpole come alive in a grand way.

Near the end, the album winds down again. First the hybrid track 'Not Bad At All', to end with the impressive 'Cut You Loose', that swells like waves on the beach, to recede once again.

With Beanpole, Georgia Knight has released an album ripe for the end of year lists. You'll have to be patient a few more weeks for that one though.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght 

 

You can listen to and order Beanpole here: 

https://georgiaknight.bandcamp.com/album/beanpole