I have previously reviewed Black Casino & the Ghost’s second single “Hoboland” (where you can find more details about this London-based band), and I settled in for a few listens to the album expecting a larger dose of “Hoboland”’s rocky, indie blues, but I was surprised and delighted to hear a much greater musical variety, including acoustic ballads and even a ghostly piano-led fairground carousel instrumental , (“We’ve Seen Nothing”) so it pays not to have rigid expectations…

We kick off with all musical guns blazing, “Boogeyman”, and keep the energy up for “Johnny Boy” before exploring ballad territory.  The whole album does justice to Elisa Zoot’s clear and distinctive vocals, especially on the tracks she is not competing for space with the band, “Son of the Dust”, where she switches genders, and “If It Doesn’t Hurt” which features acoustic guitar.  But when the band ramp up the tempo, Elisa can keep up without resorting to screeching at all, I suspect her voice would suit a variety of genres. She lets herself off the leash for the chorus of one of my favourites, “Been A Bad Woman”, then immediately reins herself in again for the pretty, “Son Of The Dust”: ‘I’ve been such a good Christian son/Said all my prayers/ joined your house and children every Sunday…, etc.’   Apart from vocal duties, Elisa also proves a competent pianist on the tracks that feature piano.

The drums are well recorded, which can be notoriously difficult and production credits go to the band as well.  “Some Dogs…” has largely been recorded live which always seems to make a difference in immediacy to me, and hints at how well the band would play together live.  Guitar alternates between searing and folkish as required and the bass throbs in all the right places.  It comes across like any tensions in this band are purely creative.  Another stand out track for me is the acoustic, “If It Doesn’t Hurt”.  It begins, ‘if it doesn’t hurt it means it’s not working/ if it doesn’t burst it means it’s not burning enough’.   Perhaps the lyric is a little gothic for some, but the beautiful tune isn’t.  The lyrical content is typically on the darker side, but not depressing, that is to say, they take you on a visit to their visions without leaving you there.  Topics on “Some Dogs…” include wolves, ghosts, sinners and bogeymen, but this is not some juvenile concoction; it’s a well crafted CD exploring these night themes and despite differences in tempo and arrangement the album hangs together well.  It’s both immediate enough and has sufficient complexity to bear repeated listening; all this and the entire CD lasts just a little over half an hour.  BC&TG deserve a wider audience than the underground ‘alternative’ scene and that’s why I’m awarding them an extra half star.

Out Monday September 2^nd on Lucky Machete Records.

Ever since I first heard Aynsley Lister’s latest album “Home”, I’ve been looking forward to seeing him play live; last Thursday was my chance as he supported blues legend Joe Louis Walker at The Garage in Islington.  The majority of the audience had come to see Joe Louis Walker but were very appreciative, giving their support to a talented and charismatic support act.

Aynsley Lister live is quite an experience.  He’s totally at ease and confident centre-stage without ever appearing arrogant, but he has been doing this since he was barely a teenager and playing guitar since he was eight years old.  Bear with me here if you read my review of “Home”, but Anysley Lister is the real deal; he plays superbly across a wide dynamic range, he has a voice which is the perfect balance of power and control and he writes songs which step out of the standard blues/rock themes; how does a Gene Hunt tribute song grab you?

The set opened with “Big Sleep” and “Early Morning Dew”, from the 2009 album “Equilibrium”, before slipping in to a batch of songs from “Home” which effortlessly demonstrate the quality and variety of Aynsley’s playing, singing and writing.  The funky, clipped groove of “Inside Out” eases the audience out of the older material and into a couple of songs with a harder edge, starting with the menacing opening guitar riff of the “Life on Mars”-inspired “Hyde 2612”.

Next up is the more traditional blues barrel-house boogie of “Sugar” featuring André Bassing’s piano alongside some old-school blues guitar followed by the beautiful “Home”.  The final track from the album is another rocker, “Possession” which takes us almost to the end of the set.  The finale is a breathtaking version of the Prince classic “Purple Rain” which builds from a subtle and quiet intro to a storming climax to bring the set to a close.

The headliner, Joe Louis Walker, played to a hugely partisan audience and delivered a set which featured blues, funk, rock and gospel with stylistic nods to B.B. King and Albert Collins, among many others.  The high point of the set came when Joe Louis, in time-honoured blues tradition, invited Aynsley back on stage to jam for two songs.  The two guitarists alternated on lead and rhythm for a while before an extended session of trading licks which brought smiles to the faces of the two players, the band and the audience.  Great while it lasted but, unfortunately, it meant that the set peaked too early, apart from Joe Louis’s solo gospel song, his first encore.

So, back to Aynsley Lister.  He was even better than I expected; he writes, sings and plays beautifully live and, even playing a support set, he’s so engaging that he wins over the audience from the outset.  You really should have a listen to “Home” for starters and then make the effort to get out and see him live.  His tour dates to the end of 2013 are:

September

05/09/13     WIMBORNE                 Tivoli Theatre           www.tivoliwimborne.co.uk

06/09/13     PUTNEY                       Half Moon                www.halfmoon.co.uk

13/09/13     MILTON KEYNES       Stables Theatre        www.stables.org

14/09/13     SOUTHAMPTON        The Brook                www.the-brook.com

15/09/13     DARLINGTON             R&B Festival

20/09/13     BLAKENEY                  Harbour Rooms       www.blakeneyharbourroom.co.uk

21/09/13     IMMINGHAM               Golf Club

26/09/13     FARNHAM                   The Maltings            www.boogaloopromotions.com

27/09/13     SUTTON                      Boom Boom Club    www.feenstra.co.uk

November

07/11/13       CHISLEHURST         Beaverwood Club  www.feenstra.co.uk

08/11/13       KENDAL                     Bootleggers           www.bootleggersbar.com

12/11/13       CHESTER                  Telfords                 www.telfordswarehousechester.com

16/11/13       PRESTON                  53 Degrees            www.53degrees.net

22/11/13       YORK                        The Duchess          www.theduchessyork.co.uk

23/11/13       REETH                       Buck Hotel             www.buckhotel.co.uk

29/11/13       NEWCASTLE            The Cluny               www.thecluny.com

December

01/12/13       EDINBURGH            The Caves              www.thecavesedinburgh.co.uk

05/12/13       FARNHAM                The Maltings           www.boogaloopromotions.co.uk

06/12/13       DERBY                      The Flowerpot        www.rawpromo.co.uk

 

I may even see you there.

For the uninitiated, Layla Zoe is an accomplished Canadian singer-songwriter who has conquered much of Europe with her unique take on the blues.  But there is none of the ‘poor me’ blues here, the writing is both spiritual and positive –even when dealing with ‘bad love’; “But I’ve learned all I could from the drugs and from the booze/ Now I’m learning to love myself with a new way to sing my blues” (“I Choose You”).  Zoe opens with an a cappella version of “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” and this sets the tone, if not the content, to “The Lily”.  She was raised on her father’s diverse record collection and first took to the stage at only fourteen.  Since then Layla has been widely praised for her emotional performances that have been likened to Janis Joplin, although her voice is not so raw.

She has even gained praise from Jeff Healey after working his club in Toronto: “All the compliments, comments and credos going around the city about her are not unfounded.  She is wonderful.”  Clearly though, she has become more than merely a local phenomenon.  This, her seventh album sees her team up very successfully with German guitar hero and multi-instrumentalist Henrik Freischlader, who also plays drums and bass and takes production credit.  The songs are co-written with Layla providing the lyrics and Freischlader, the music, with the exception of the traditional gospel of the opener and Neil Young’s ‘Hey, Hey, My, My’ –a song she fills with the rock ‘n’ roll verve it requires .

There is range and variety with this album; she can soar, she can swoop, essential qualities of a blues singer, but there is real soul here too whether she is chasing down the beautifully sculpted guitar or balladeering.   Every song here has something to offer whether it’s the writing, instrumental, vocal or delivery and more often than not all of these which amounts to quite a high hit rate.  My personal favourite, “Gemini Heart” is a slow burning blues about her own Gemini heart and that of a sometime lover; Layla is a strong believer in astrology and although the track is about a rather one-sided love she affirms “Cause I’m just a strong, sensitive, strong, kind of woman/ Just a Gemini heart.”  Another slower-tempo track, ‘Father’ gives free reign to Henrik’s lead guitar, mirroring the bitter-sweet pain of the love of her father.  Her writing is strong and she has even written a self-published book of poems “Diary of a Firegirl”, proof, were it needed, that her lyrics can also stand alone.  Most of the tracks weigh in at well over five minutes but that’s just how long the songs are, not because of ambling, self-indulgent production, and it helps you to feel that you are getting good value.  “The Lily” is certainly not an ear-busting listen.

Although she is yet to play live in the UK, Layla Zoe said she hopes to come next year as a guest of Freischlader, where I’m sure both will receive a warm welcome but you can catch her on tour in Europe throughout September and October this year at various venues and festivals.  Layla says this is the album she is the most proud of and I’m certain it will garner both critical and popular acclaim, it’s certainly on my list for album of the year.

Out August 30 on Cable Car Records.

Already a hit in their native Niger, Tal National are ready to head to the world stage, beginning their tour in Chicago in September.  This is their first release for FatCat records, due out September 9^th, and it delivers a heady mix of West African drum and guitar based music and Saharan trance; it is their third release.  Due to their heavy performing commitments, up to five hours a night, five days a week, the band is a kind of collective of up to 13 members, although usually only 6 perform at a time.  Their town is on an established trade route in a former French colony and this is reflected in the eclectic music and ethnic diversity of the band, led by musically free-thinking Hamadal ‘Almeida’ Moumine, who is also an ex-football player, part time judge and teacher; African musicians are rarely full-time professionals.   For this album, imagine a throbbing Ali Farka Toure on speed, with talking drum and electric guitars; they have also been compared to Mbalax and Highlife.  “Kaani” is a seamless mix of new compositions and contemporary takes on traditional West African songs, but with no understanding of the lyrics, I can’t tell which is which, a testament to the unique style Tal National bring to all of their music.  The songs are sung out loudly, there is no room here for whispered nuances, but these guys are not studio-based but instead are used to playing the sweaty, noisy clubs of Niamey.

Jamie Carter, a Chicago-based producer was brought in 2011 to record “Kaani” in just two weeks, an astounding feat given that the studio was dilapidated and most of the instruments broken!  The energy of their live performances has been captured here with full force.  Apparently the band would record all day, then step out to their live gigs immediately after, but there are no tired lapses of concentration here just full-on beats and these guys sound like they are on fire throughout the album.  They barely drop pace from the opening title track which initially sounds like the drummers were given different briefs, but repeated listenings reveal a method out of the trancey chaos.” Zigda”, the second track has lovely guitar melodies weaving in and out of the beats.  All but one of the eight tracks weighs in at well over five minutes allowing the songs to build with manic and looping rhythms; it could be an exhausting listen in the wrong environment, but the repetitive musical themes definitely build rather than bore.  If anything, the songs could have been better differentiated maybe by rotating the instruments so that they have a different musical variety; it sounds like no-one wanted to be left out.  Also, some contrasting tempos would have given the CD different themes, but Tal National found their beat and stayed on it and it is uplifting all the way.  Some of the high tuned virtuoso guitar could almost be Hendrix, especially on the last track, “Banganésiba”, which does sound like a finale.  All in all a great listen, but I’d love to catch them live and dance.

Out September 9 on FatCat Records.

Julia Holter is still an experimental artist but this, her third album, puts her voice in a clear spotlight with the fog of last year’s outstanding “Ekstasis” having almost completely cleared with a brightness and more straightforward mood taking its place. With Holter straightforward equals a concept of sorts that references “Gigi” the book, film and musical which starred Audrey Hepburn in the title role and also contemporary celebrity culture. It’s interesting that” Loud City Song”, her most accessible album to date, shares themes that have already been appropriated by pop queens Madonna and Lady Gaga but rest assured neither generation of pop icon is likely to make an album that sounds anything like “Loud City Song”.

An angelic acapella cry of ‘Heaven’ is the first thing heard on “World” which slowly introduces piano and then strings with lyrics about hiding behind the brim of your hat in a city that’s too interested in you. She wants to live in a city, in her apartment block on the fifth floor, but is exhausted and bored by the intense scrutiny of strangers.  Like many of the songs here, this starts quiet and pure but becomes increasingly crowded and tense as things progress. Like the climate in her native LA, occasional volatile moods can disrupt the calm but the release is restorative.

Maxim’s was the restaurant favoured by judgemental Parisian society featured in “Gigi” and there are two variations of a song named after it here which form the foundations that the remaining material sits upon. “Maxim’s I” is played in slow motion, dreamy and not fully conscious; it toughens up for a piano and violin-pricked middle eight and then dissolves again. Later on in the album “Maxim’s II”  is experiencing the restaurant when it’s reservations only, noisy and overly stimulating with snatches of isolated senseless conversations ‘Tonight the birds are watching me, do they have more important things to do?’.  It has a big beat and is sung-spoken by Holter in a way that is reminiscent, as is the whole track, of art-pop Grande Dame Laurie Anderson during her most commercially successful, early eighties period.

“Horns Surrounding Me” starts with a recording of a man running and breathing heavily, being chased by what can be presumed to be the paparazzi. It doesn’t disappoint with its horns pay off and is sonically grand and classical in a traditional sense.  “Hello Stranger” is a cover of the Barbara Lewis r’n’b classic from the early sixties and Holter treats it as an ironic David Lynch Julee Cruise standard. Suspended keyboards and haunted vocals leading to eventual confusion and distress which is continued through to the plaintive, Angelo Badalamenti-like piano ballad “He’s Running Through My Eyes”. The throbbing double bass and deadpan repetition of the line ‘there’s a flavour to the sound of walking no one ever noticed before’ of “In the Green Wild” is all quirk and twitch in the best possible sense.

“Loud City Song” is certainly Julia Holter’s most musical album to date and is structured in a way that is, more than anything, typical of a musical play, much like its reference points. It is simultaneously very old-fashioned in its use of instruments and arrangements and modern in the way it stops short of any clear categorisation. The songwriting itself is maybe less evolved than “Ekstasis”; nothing quite matches that album’s “In the Same Room” for simplicity and immediacy, but its strengths lie elsewhere. As an artist Holter and her LA-based work keeps moving forward at a tireless, restless place and on “Loud City Song” she has made something that is intimate, warm and far more approachable than ever before.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way a love of music can link episodes in your life, even when they have nothing else in common.  When you meet someone and discover that you were at the same incredible gig years before or that you both love an obscure country, soul, blues or rock artist that no-one else has heard of.  Or when you’re managing a venue and your entertainments manager tells you that he’s booked an artist for a St Patrick’s Day gig called Johnny Fean and you realise that it’s the Johnny Fean who played with Horslips twenty years earlier.  Then, another fifteen years later you post something on a social network and the same Johnny Fean “likes” it.  That’s the kind of link I mean and I want to tell you about the band and the album that triggered these coincidences.

Horslips had released five albums before “The Book of Invasions –  A Celtic Symphony” was released in April 1976.  This was the first album the band recorded for Elton John’s label, DJM, and despite heavy promotion (including coloured vinyl singles) and good reviews, it only achieved an album chart position of 39 for one week in the UK.  One of the reasons it’s so memorable for me is that it was part of the soundtrack for my “A” level revision through the long hot summer of 1976 (alongside Gallagher and Lyle’s “Breakaway”, Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” and the Joe Walsh live album “You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind”).

So, what makes the Horslips album a Closet Classic? The band had experimented with various permutations of rock, Irish folk and Celtic mythology on their previous albums, but it was on “The Book of Invasions” that everything gelled with the long-cherished idea of creating a classical symphony from these components.  Just to wrap some context around “Invasions”, this was the era of the concept album when virtually every artist or band was trying to create a theme to link a few dodgy songs (yes, I do mean you Rick Wakeman) to create a pseudo-classical work.

Is it a symphony?  Well, it’s split into three movements and it has a leitmotif which crops up throughout the album in various guises. “Daybreak” opens the album with the “Tá ‘na lá” (“It is day”) theme from a traditional Irish drinking song, in one of its many appearances, as a trumpet major key triad followed by a guitar harmonic version which leads into a harmony guitar version. before modulating into a more menacing minor key.  And that’s just the first track.  I’m not going to list all of the folk tunes used on the album because you can find them for yourself on the Horslips website; I’ll just say that it’s quite common on this album for a song to morph from a traditional ballad into a classic 70s riff-driven rock song.

If you’re looking for classic Celtic rock songs, then you’ll find plenty of those on this album.  “Trouble (With a Capital T)”, “The Power and the Glory” and particularly “The Warm Sweet Breath of Love” (a dead ringer for the under-rated Thin Lizzy song “Running Back”) would all sound perfectly at home on “Jailbreak” which was released in the same month.  But it’s not just the rock songs which work on “Invasions”; the folkier “The Rocks Remain”, “King of Morning, Queen of Day” and “Sideways to the Sun” (the story of the downfall of the Tuatha De Danann) and the instrumental interludes are all beautifully played.

I’m not saying “The Book of Invasions” is a perfect album, but it does have its perfect moments (the segue from “The Power and the Glory” to “The Rocks Remain”, for example), and at a time when everything can be found online, it would be a shame to miss this one.  The scope of the album is quite breathtaking; Irish mythology rubs up against folk melodies, rock arrangements, symphonic themes, a huge range of instruments and bags of style to create a genuine classic album.

This album was the chart highpoint for Horslips in the UK and, although the subsequent “Aliens” and “The Man who Built America” were popular in the USA, the band split in 1980.  Like many bands from this era, Horslips reformed for selected gigs in the noughties and can still be seen live occasionally.  If you’re into rock or folk or both and you haven’t heard this before, you really should give it a listen especially after I’ve made it so easy for you.

 

We’ve been giving you a few teasers about the Bandhouse organisation over the last year or so and now things have moved on a little and ideas have been translated into material ready for release.  I must admit I was confused when I saw the title and the artwork for the debut Sullivn single “Come Back”.  I thought for a few seconds that it was a cover of the 1984 Wah! single and, to be fair, the picture of singer John O’Sullivan does look a bit like mid-80s Pete Wylie.  Anyway, it’s a John O’Sullivan original and sounds nothing at all like the Wah! song;  it’s also very good.

On this single, John is joined by Simon Goudarzi and Joe Shimmin (guitars), Jon Mar Ossurarson (drums), Layla Kim (keyboards) and Sjur Opsal (bass) and despite featuring five musicians and a vocal, there’s actually a lot of space in this mix because none of the musicians overplay their parts.  The structure of the song is very simple; it’s a lost-love and missed opportunity ballad with a simple chord pattern which relies on the performances and arrangement to make it work.

The song opens with just a lead vocal and keyboard chords (and slight hints of guitar) for the first verse before the drums thunder in and the song gradually builds up to a full-on 70s style power ballad with the injection of a couple of prog-influenced breakdowns where John delivers some very effective Percy Plant-style wails just behind the guitars before coming to a close which is almost a cappella with just a touch of guitar harmonics.

The song is strong and you can’t fault any of the performances here, particularly the vocal which manages to convey fractured and splintered emotional intensity without ever quite losing control; never an easy balance to strike.  As a debut single, this is a statement of intent from Sullivn; I’ve heard more material in demo versions which suggests that this is just a taster for upcoming material; I’m looking forward to hearing more of it.

And don’t forget to keep an eye on MusicRiot for details of the Radio (in my) Head project in the next few weeks.

Out now as a free download (for a limited time).

Black Casino And The Ghost are a London band formed in 2010, which surprised me as they have the kind of ‘swamp’ rock Americana sound that had me reminiscing about my old Cramps albums, although this is a layered sound with a more sophisticated lyric.

Black Casino and the Ghost are: Elisa Zoot (vocals, piano), Ariel Lerner (guitar), Gary Kilminster (bass) and Paul Winter-Hart (drums).  “Hoboland” is the second single taken from their forthcoming September release, the intriguingly-titled “Some Dogs Think Their Name Is No”.  This is a strong offering that gets my curiosity going for the album.  “Hoboland” has been recorded live and captures that energy very well, but still remains more disciplined than many live recordings and it is self-produced, hinting at talent in the studio as well as with their instruments.  It really sounds as if they are happy with the resulting three minutes of tight, bluesy rock they produce, and as a listener, so am I.

According to their press release, the song is about the moment ‘when dreams turn into obsessions and ambitions become consuming like a virus,’ as the singer looks in vain for Hoboland; although not all of the lyric is completely discernible, it is certainly dark and anthemic-sounding.  It opens with menacing bass guitar and drums before the vocal comes in, ‘Nicotine days and nicotine nights, it might be a phase or just wait and sit tight…’.  The vocal is distinct and unlike any other female vocalist I can think of.  ‘Someone stole my love, like the eye of a scarecrow taken by the bird,’ bewails Elisa and she sounds very present and ‘in’ the story of this energetic song.  The chorus is where the boys join in with ‘Whao-oo Ooh’, etc and is very effective to sing along with especially at their live gigs, if this is anything to go by.  Definitely worth a listen, they deserve more than just indie success, or wait for their album and get both singles and more besides.

Out now as a download.  It’s somewhere between 3 and 4 stars so let’s call it 3½.