Week 34, 10 singles

Back from holiday, a whole new bunch of singles released in the past weeks await me. The whole backlog ran out of luck. All these songs we sent to the eternal field of oblivion, as far as the blog is concerned I hope for the artists concerned. A fresh start. Here we go.

Burning Wish. Pennies By The Pound

With the Finnish prime minister drawing more than enough attention to herself and her country, with partying a little (WTF?!), is there a need for more attention? Yes, when a single like Burning Wish is released by Finnish progrockers Pennies By The Pound. On its new, wide-sounding new song, the band brings together a whole range of influences and atmospheres. Burning Wish is the kind of song where all the musicians display their mastery of their respective instruments right at the start, in the long intro. Singer and band leader Johannes Susitaival sings somewhere between tough and kind giving the sound of Pennies By The Pound something extra. He's also the drummer of the band, while playing rhythm guitar and keyboards as well. Fans of bands like Marillion and Porcupine Tree should check this out. Burning Wish doesn't sound like the kind of music Sanna Malin likes to party to, but she can definitely be proud of her countrymen.

Gradient. Recitals

Once again a new band from New Zealand on the blog. Gradient is the third single of its upcoming album 'Orbit 1', out on 26 August. Gradient is one of this undercooled alternative rocksongs that is full of passion. The band holds back for a long time, while the emotions seep out of every little crack of the music. Expect a trumpet as the lead instrument, as the guitars are all busy playing nice patterns or broad strokes. The trumpet has the same effect as it has in Soft Cell's 'Torch', without any other musical references to each other. It brings Gradient totally alive. When the band finally let's it all go, the song's statement was long made. The wall of sound it presents only makes it more impressive. If Gradient is the standard, 'Orbit 1' is an album truly to be on the look out for.

Apricot. Rich & Marvin

Sometimes a song is as simple as can be and still do everything right. Apricot is just that kind of song. It is totally new, yet sounds as if I've known it for most of my life. Rich McCulley and Marvin Etzioni started to work together before the pandemic broke and deepened their collaboration during. Rich and Marvin is more a musical collaboration of two friends than a band. They bounced ideas around and then recorded them with Rich playing guitar and Marvin playing everything else. The result is a song that is as relaxed as the wish voiced in the song to be an apricot. The fun is all in the relaxed way of singing and the little embellishment, in the form of a mandolin that gives the song its extra. Apricot is nothing special, while at the same time it is a great introduction to this duo's music.

Knees Deep. The Beths

Practicing being interrupted by band members going bungy jumping of a bridge? Knees Deep's video is fun indeed. And so is the song. Although The Beths' sound is getting more familiar to me by now, its new song has it all, again. The drive and tempo are simply great. Liz' singing clear over all all the energy beneath it. The guitar solo scorching, like the band's lead guitarist is so good at (and then, watch the video!). The Beths' alternative rock receives a minor stab at a dance rhythm in the intro. There are some tricks in the way the first verse's music is mixed, making the song sound somewhat different without not being The Beths for one second. The song is alive all of the time even when the mix is pushing all the instruments, bar the drums, to the background, leaving room for singer Elisabeth Stokes to excel and she does in this song. Knees Deep is the kind of song that shows why I think this band to be so good.

Keine Bewegung. Die Nerven

It was silent around Die Nerven for quite some years. People taking notice will have noticed activities of individual members in other bands, but not the mothership from Stuttgart. With Keine Bewegung the band is back and how. Keine Bewegung is the kind of single that has the allure of a mid 1980s U2 single. The sound is as wide as it is impressive and aimed to be played in a stadium. The 1980s is the right description for Keine Bewegung. The other is Muse without the extreme antics of Matthew Bellamy on vocals and guitar. Die Nerven manages to bring the same sort of tension to its song. The interlude on bass and then the exploding guitar is masterfully set up. Six weeks from now we are already in autumn but with the new Die Nerven album. I am definitely curious based on Keine Bewegung. It may be the best song I've heard from the band up to now.

Cherry Bomb. The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs feat. Cherie Currie

Cherie Currie? Wasn't that the singer of the band The Runaways in 197what? The band that launched Joan Jett and Lita Ford? Yes, she was and here she is in a raw single with the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs. Cherry Bomb is the right kind of song mixing hardrock and punk in the exciting kind of way. Reading the notes to the release explains how Currie can look so good in the video. They recorded it in the 1990s. The band is working towards the release of a double album filled with covers and more to be released late in September. Cherry Bomb is a great introduction as it contained a hint of wildness mixed with danger. Currie is not to be taken on without gloves on and the band matches that in the tightness of playing and the great guitar solo. Great punkrock song it is.

Come Apart. Fazerdaze

Well over five years ago, I found myself wondering whether Fazerdaze would be one alternatively rocking, female fronted bands too many. It was not, as Morningside received a favourable reception on this blog. I have to admit though that I forgot all about Amelia Murray and her album in the mean time. Five years plus later she returns with a single for an upcoming album and I have no doubts whatsoever. Come Apart sort of does everything right. An acoustic guitar, tightly played, starts the song. Murray joins and slowly but surely all the other instruments join in and provide the song with its body and melody. Come Apart is well-built up and Amelia Murray's voice is singing full of confidence. She knows this song is totally okay and sounds it. Nirvana for the twenties with a female twist to it. Exit anger, enter reflection and observation. Impact? Idem.

Pathfinder. Blacklist

Blacklist is a band that still lives like it is 1985 with Killing Joke and The Cult being at the top of their game. Pathfinder is a song that is in search of that darkness in its music and finds it. On the one hand the band may sound a bit a darker having let in a little of what happened in the past near 40 years, but the atmosphere of the past is well caught. Blacklist has not released an album since 2009, so the upcoming album 'Afterworld', out on 28 October, can be called a comeback album. If anything the band has caught a big sound, starting with the tribal drumming that drives Pathfinder forward for the whole of the way. The drumming is fully matched by the bass. This fills up the sound no little. It allows for the guitars to spread out over the whole of the song. The double tracked vocals match the rhythm perfectly. Pathfinder is a well-balanced rock song like they used to make them in the U.K. a long time ago. The music found its way to N.Y.C. and received a new leash on life.

Mistaken Information. Alexisonfire

In the middle of the previous decade a totally unknown singer really touched me with his album 'If I Should Go Before You'. Dallas Green under his moniker City and Colour delivered a fantastic double LP in 2015. After that I totally lost track of him and nothing he released previously made that kind of impression on me. His band Alexisonfire is back with an album after an hiatus of 13 years without a new album. Mistaken Information has that mystery City and Colour offered. For what I understand to be an emo band, this single is an exercise in restraint. Long held notes that fit more with a progrock band before the instrumental pyrotechnics begin. The interplay between singers Green and George Petit work really well. The emotions go wild in the shredded guitar solo, not in the singing. Mistaken Information is a lot tougher than City and Colour, the quality is certainly identical. I may just have to check 'Otherness', Alexisonfire's new album, out.

Thousand Trees. Interstellar Bungalow

Interstellar Bungalow is a trio from Graz in Austria. With the single from its second EP 'Cargo' the band shows its alternative and slightly slacker rock from its best side. The music is described by the band as lo-fi, recorded on one of their couches, the result of the three working together on their musical ideas. From the feedbacking start, I can imagine what the neighbours must have thought, perhaps even said. With the rest though any alternative rocker in the neighbourhood should have been quite happy. Interstellar Bungalow emulated a lot that has gone on before, but knows exactly how to strike a new match to shine just a little more. A few nice lead melodies on the guitar, a nice but tight rhythm underneath it all, with an extra rhythm guitar shining just a little bit more underneath the lead one. Thousand Trees mixes a little darkness with the light sparks flying around in Graz. An intriguing single it is.

Wout de Natris

Aerodrome Motel. Nick Frater

Listening to Aerodrome Motel is like stepping into your favourite record shop where they play one song after another of your favourite bands, that you do not recognise, only to find out it is the new album of a Croydon, U.K. artist called Nick Frater.

This is the best compliment I can give to Aerodrome Motel. From the best albums on Dutch Excelsior Recordings label, to pop songs of old from the U.K., to Big Star and all the bands that followed it after 1972, while finally The Beatles come within earshot.

Aerodrome Motel is Nick Frater's 10th album, but his first on WoNoBlog. Listening to the album, this might be some major omission going on. The most important thing is he's on the blog today, with an album that is a joy to listen to. The songs on Aerodrome Motel simply tickle a lot of my fancies without ever giving me the impression that I've heard it all before. There's too much joy and positive musicianship in the individual songs.

Promo photo

Right from the start the album tickles, with a poppy song that certainly has a touch of Steely Dan in the the way the chords change and the piano is played and then add decades of U.S. and U.K. pop influences from dozens of bands and there's even a mild Zappa sequence. Only in describing the song this way, I can come close to write down what I'm hearing during 'The Pleasure Is Mine'. Mr. Frater, the feeling is fully mutual, I can assure you.

Aerodrome Motel holds ten songs. I could do the same for each one like I've just did for 'The Pleasure Is Mine'. I'm not going to, which makes this a fairly short review. This album does not need more words, as I've wrote all you need to know. Except having to add that there are some nice textual references worked into lyrics as well.

Aerodrome Motel is a fine pop listening experience in which Nick Frater presents his listeners with everything he has to offer. Each song is perfectly worked out and every avenue and byway of them explored to find that extra melody and harmony. It's all there and more it seems. Beyond the call of duty they call that in the military. It fits here as well.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Aerodrome Motel here:

https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aerodrome-motel

I Mean To Shine. Linda Hoover

In 1970 nam de piepjonge Amerikaanse muzikante Linda Hoover, samen met de muzikanten en de producer van Steely Dan, een mooi en bijzonder debuutalbum op, dat echter nooit zou verschijnen, tot nu dan.

Ik ging er even van uit dat I Mean To Shine van Linda Hoover een gloednieuw album was en dan doet het wel wat ouderwets aan. Het debuut van Linda Hoover heeft alle recht en reden om wat ouderwets te klinken, want het album stamt uit 1970, maar zou nooit worden uitgebracht. Het is een klein wonder, want het album dat werd geproduceerd door niemand minder dan Gary Katz en waaraan stevig werd bijgedragen door Steely Dan muzikanten Walter Becker en Donald Fagen, was zeer waarschijnlijk zeer succesvol en invloedrijk geworden. Het liep voor Linda Hoover helaas anders door een zakelijk conflict tussen platenbonzen, maar 52 jaar na de geplande release ziet I Mean To Shine gelukkig alsnog het licht. Het is, ook met de oren van nu, een prachtplaat.

Tussen de recente releases vond ik I Mean To Shine van ene Linda Hoover. Bij beluistering van het album raakte ik onder de indruk van de stem van deze Linda Hoover, maar de wat gedateerd klinkende jaren 70 productie stond me uiteindelijk toch wat tegen. Ik had I Mean To Shine al bijna terzijde geschoven, tot ik het album tegen kwam op de lijst met de Record Store Day releases van deze week en het bijzondere verhaal achter het album las. 

Dat I Mean To Shine wat gedateerd klinkt blijkt niet zo gek, want het album stamt uit 1970, al is het destijds nooit verschenen. Linda Hoover was veertien jaar oud toen ze in 1966 werd ontdekt door producer Gary Katz, die in de jaren 70 onder andere bekend zou worden door de perfect geproduceerde albums van Steely Dan. Gary Katz beloofde de piepjonge Linda Hoover een platencontract wanneer ze haar school zou hebben afgerond en kwam deze belofte na toen Linda Hoover in 1970 de universiteit al snel verliet en koos voor een onzeker bestaan als muzikant. 

Gary Katz produceerde I Mean To Shine en riep voor de muziek op het album de hulp in van de op dat moment nog onbekende Steely Dan voormannen Walter Becker en Donald Fagen, die ook meeschreven aan flink wat songs op het album. Er kwamen nog flink wat andere topmuzikanten naar de studio in New York, want de platenmaatschappij had grootse plannen met Linda Hoover. 

Er ontstond echter een wat suf zakelijk conflict over de rechten, waardoor het album uiteindelijk op de plank terecht kwam. Walter Becker en Donald Fagen zouden niet veel later wereldberoemd worden met Steely Dan, maar Linda Hoover verdween gedesillusioneerd in de anonimiteit. 

Decennia later kreeg de Amerikaanse muzikante de originele tapes van I Mean To Shine in handen en na een aantal bijzondere bewerkingen, waaronder twaalf uur in een oven, bleek alles gelukkig nog loepzuiver op de band te staan en kon worden nagedacht over een release van het album. Die release is er nu, 52 jaar nadat het album werd opgenomen. 

Het is misschien even wennen aan het toch wel wat gedateerde geluid op het album, maar dat gaat een stuk makkelijker wanneer je weet dat het gaat om een vergeten klassieker uit een ver verleden. In muzikaal opzicht is I Mean To Shine overigens een interessant album, zeker als je flarden van het zo herkenbare Steely Dan geluid hoort of topgitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter hoort schitteren. 

I Mean To Shine is een behoorlijk veelzijdig album met invloeden uit de folk, country, jazz en pop. Het is een album met misschien wat ouderwets aandoende, maar toch ook verrassend tijdloos klinkende songs, die net als de muziek beter tot zijn recht komen wanneer je weet dat ze ruim vijftig jaar oud zijn. 

Linda Hoover maakt zelf de meeste indruk met haar bijzondere stem en al het gevoel waarmee ze haar songs vertolkt. Het is een prestatie die nog wat knapper wordt wanneer je je beseft dat ze tijdens de opnames van het album pas 18 jaar oud was. Het is ook nog eens een stem die mooier wordt naarmate je het album vaker beluistert. 

Het is niet moeilijk om je voor te stellen wat er was gebeurt als I Mean To Shine in 1970 wel was verschenen. Ik ben er zelf van overtuigd dat het album in dat geval nu bekend zou staan als een klassieker. Dat gaat het debuut van Linda Hoover vast niet meer worden, maar een vergeten parel is het absoluut. Vast niet de meest populaire RSD release van dit jaar, maar wel een hele mooie en een hele bijzondere.

Erwin Zijleman

Ancient Astronauts. Motorpsycho

With the artwork of its new album, Motorpsycho clearly draws a line with the previous three. Here's something new the Norwegian prog, psych and what not rockers seem to want to convey to the world. Don't expect something new musically though. Motorpsycho does what it does best and adds some extra muscle to the mix it seems. Not just 'newby" drummer Thomas Järmyr is flexing his, the whole band does. Despite slowly moving into their mid-50s founding members Saether and Ryan go all the way as well.

The new music, in part, was created during a collaboration between two dancers and the band. Due to Covid not many people were able to see this performance. This may change, due to another project the band was involved in, making a movie instead of an online performance like most bands did. This remains to be determined though.

Somewhere in the mid 1970s I heard an album called 'In Search Of Ancient Gods' by a band called Absolute Elsewhere. I have a strong feeling Ancient Astronauts has been influenced by this album. The slowly developing instrumental pieces that work towards giant eruptions of sound. Musically there are many, many differences between the two albums, in spirit and outset they are similar. This gives this album something doubly familiar: The Motorpsycho sound that is obviously present and the Absolute Elsewhere vibe that shines through loud and clear.

Take the fourth and final song, with an impossible title, 'Chariot Of The Sun To Phaeton On The Occasion Of Sunrise (Theme From An Imagined Movie)'. After a storm of instrumental fireworks in the previous song, the mood goes all the way down for what could be a film soundtrack. Here it is an imagined movie, with Absolute Elsewhere it was inspiration by the books of Erich von Däniken. The cosmos and its mysteries is never far off here. The song is as mysterious as the suggestion of forest ghosts depicted on the sun-laden cover photograph of the album. Or, are they ancient astronauts? and here we're back with Von Däniken's theories set to music by Absolute Elsewhere.

Promo photo: Terje Visnes

All this aside, is Ancient Astronauts good? That answer, again I can add, has to be yes. Motorpsycho delivers once again. For long time fans there may not be enough to call it new. The four new songs are strong and add significantly to what came before though. For people who are new to Motorpsycho, there's nothing to be ashamed of here. Ancient Astronauts is an as good as any album to step in and meet the band for the first time.

The album offers a long jam, that is clearly structured around agreed upon points and three somewhat shorter songs that show the louder side of the band. It's all here and instead of what happened to me with the band's albums from around 2010, this time each new album comes to me as a pleasant present from Norway.

Wout de Natris

Beatopia. Beabadoobee

In 2020 Beabadoobee, Bea Laus, debuted with a nice album, 'Fake It Flowers'. It verged on pop and alternative rock. With time it slowly faded from active memory, but has been played a few times in 2022 and that is more than most albums can claim.

To my surprise there's already a new album, on which Beabadoobee not only continuous where she left off. She certainly has enriched her work. Creatively Beatopia is all over the place. She's not holding back anywhere, is my personal conclusion reached at from the outside listening in.

Let's start with the creative part. This sees to the music and well as the production and mix. Expect production tricks in the form of distorted vocals, mixed away lead notes, treated sounds in general, etcetera. The songs can go off into all sorts of way. Alternative rock in the best Sparklehorse tradition, modern beats, interludes and intro's. Wider productions and small songs dressed down to more elementary levels. Beabadoobee presents it all on her Beatopia and it's her world alright.

Despite all this, going through the album I do get a sense of uniformity. I know, it sounds like a paradox with the above in mind. This feeling disappears immediately when the songs are listened to individually, as with each the richness of the music comes forward immediately. So, it may be more a matter of concentration than anything else.

Promo photo

Bea Laus wrote most of the album with her live guitarist Jacob Bugden, assisted at times by friends and colleagues who happened to come by. Of course many songs came about during lockdown. That may explain why several songs are kept so small. At the same time Beabadoobee has let in many influences into her songs. Folk from the 1970s can easily get mixed with an oh so slow funky bass, only to get supplanted by a fiery alternative rock song, that is not afraid to tip the hat to New Zealand acts like The Beths or Wiri Donna. Variety is a keyword on Beatopia.

In a modest way Beabadoobee dares to be eclectic as The Beatles on its studio albums. No, I'm not claiming Beatopia is as good as a 'Sgt. Peppers' or 'Abbey Road', she dares to take on music in a similar way though. Her music is one without obvious boundaries. Influences can come from anywhere and anything and it shows on this album. Beatopia is rich in sound and in imagniation, in other words a giant step forward by a singer-songwriter who can only be seen as a major talent.

Wout de Natris

Beatopia can be listened to and ordered here:

https://beabadoobee.bandcamp.com/album/beatopia