Six songs today, plucked from the plethera of recommendations that come my way every day. All worth your time and your money.
1) Disaster!: Neil Brogan (Near Broken Band)
Tags: alternative / DIY / indiepop / jangle pop / lofi / powerpop / Belfast
Neil: "I like making songs"
Me: "I like listening to your songs"
2) Walking Barefoot - Marche Pied Nu: Anne Gallien (single)
Credits: seagulls, Lucie the bass, thumb piano, egg shakers. scarlett 2i2, laptop, garageband.
Anne: "stand up / you can do it / you got this!"
Me: "1980s Siouxsie & The Banshees/Pink Industry downtempo vibes, with a bassline to die for and gloriously sensual French vocals."
3) T H A M E S: The Woodentops (single)
Credits: Time stretching, digital toning Acoustic guitar and voice
Rolo: “Hi, a new release here, a long ambient piece with a touch of folk in the tradition of naval and sailor song, a continuous roll, like the river itself, with audio like light reflecting and depth of water. Its not rock or club or pop or beats of any kind. Its more a throb, or a pulsation, Hope you like the mood.! ®¬ <-Rolo”
Me: "Solo Rolo, with a near 16-minute companion piece of sorts to Bathyscaphe from 2024's Fruits Of The Deep. Superb, as you might expect.”
4) The Morning Of The Trip:Andy Bell & Masal(Common Primitives)
Tags: alternative / electronic / jazz / turkish folk / ambient / harp / indie / kosmische krautrock / psychedelia / shoegaze / London
Andy: "Playing [my] guitar “as if it was a waterfall""
Me: "The follow up to 2023 debut Tidal Love Numbers promises to be an even more satisfying trip"
Everything is so laggy today (me included) that I'm going to dispense with the usual chit chat and just say that it's Bandcamp Friday and this half dozen at least are going through my checkout.
Why don't you, um, check 'em out yourself?
Hopefully, normal service will resume on Saturday.
If like me you've had a week to forget, then a bevy of beauteous, bouncy beats is just what the doctor ordered....
....as long as the doctor is Dr. Syntax, that is, former Fluke fellows Mike Tournier and Jan Burton, whose remix of AIR-adjacent Gallic gents Mellow gets today's selection off to a rollicking start.
Staying in France briefly, Fred Falke invites German chums Axel Bartsch and Asem Shama aka VanGuard back to stay at his, the results a stuttering, juddering night in the studio.
Purple Penguin was a record shop, a label, a recording artist and a way of life in my beloved birthplace Bristol. Whilst they were never as massive as, er, Massive Attack, Tricky or Portishead, they were purveyors of mighty fine trip hop music, as debut single Passion attests.
The music of Cantoma aka Phil Mison was a relatively recent discovery for me, though the song selected here - a remix of North Shore by London boys Conrad McDonnell and Dan Tyler akaIdjut Boys - was released as a 12" single way back in 2010. Like a Balearic breeze blowing through your mind.
Pet Shop Boys really need no introduction, neither should DJ and producer Danny Tenaglia, but their coming together for a remix of 1996 single Before was really rather inspired. One of my favourite PSB tracks from that period and inspiration for the title of today's selection.
Hot Chip have been circling around in my consciousness since my post on Alexis Taylor's current single on Wednesday. In 2011, Dan Snaith took time out from his Caribou day job to put out music as Daphni. Dan was invited to remix Hot Chip's single Night And Day, a Record Store Day 12" single in 2012 which hits hard and doesn't give up.
The Other Two is a tongue-in-cheek, raspberry-blowing reference to the fact that whilst New Order stalwarts Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook were getting attention for their projects, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris quietly got on with making music of their own. Ashley Beedle is on typically fine form on this dub remix of 1993 single Selfish.
Closing this collection are The Woodentops and, in keeping with today's title/theme, it's happened before. The remix of A Pact by Skyscraper HiFi aka Jon Dasilva and Jonas Nilsson originally featured last March on the Dubhed selection It's A Glamorous World, but that feels long enough ago to justify another appearance here. A chuggy, huggy masterpiece.
I hope that's got the blood flowing and the head cleared. If not, you may require urgent medical assistance!
1) Paris Sous La Neige (Vox Remix By Dr. Syntax) (Edit): Mellow (2000)
2) Back To Stay (VanGuard Remix): Fred Falke (2009)
I received a very welcome message from The Woodentops mailing list, announcing a 4-track remix EP.
Not, as you might think, a further song from last year's spectacular album Fruits Of The Deep, but a deeper cut from a decade ago.
A Pact was originally song two on 2014's Granular Tales and has been reworked here by Bushwacka!, twice by Skyscraper HiFi (aka Jon Dasilva & Jonas Nilsson) and Spatial Awareness. Great remixes, one and all.
But don't take my word for it, have to listen to them and the album version, the latter of which will take you back to Granular Tales, well worth a visit if you're not familiar with it.
A Pact (Remixes) is available on vinyl and digital from the usual places; I've bought the latter.
Mark posted Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado by Ana Lua Caiano as a contender for Album Of The Year and it's easy to hear why. Ana Lua Caiano’s debut album "melds rural Portuguese music traditions
with layered vocals, synthesizers, insistent beats and field recordings", but it hits hard, takes some unexpected twists and turns, and packs a hell of a lot into less than half an hour.
As a paying Last Night From Glasgow member for the second consecutive year, I've received another steady stream of quality new releases and reissues on gorgeous vinyl, frequently in a variety of unexpected colours and hues, as well as access to dozens of albums via their digital vault.
Included in my vinyl package was Holding Up Half The Sky by Xan Tyler. Xan's got previous on this blog, notably Clarion Call, her collaborative album with Mad Professor in 2021. Holding Up Half The Sky is produced by Boo Hewerdine and immerses the listener in the "life stories of some incredible women [...] a journey shaped by adversity and challenges [and] arriving at a place they were seemingly destined for." The songcraft is superlative and a big hit with Mrs. K too.
I first heard Steve (A Weekend In Egham, 1996), the second album by Billy Reeves, via the LNFG digital vault shortly after it was released in the spring. I enjoyed Billy's first album very much, but this one had an immediate impact on my and over the course of the year, I have become obsessed with the album. Definitely one of my most played.
The vinyl album wasn't included in my LNFG membership so of course I had to buy it. I kept meaning to write about Steve, but I procrastinated so much that Billy released two further albums since, a live set with Gavin Laird and, in November, his third solo album. I've heard the former - it's great - and the latter is on order.
There have been many triumphant returns for artists this year, including China Crisis and The Blow Monkeys (both also on LNFG), The The (their first album in a quarter of a century) and Ultravox, albeit via a deluxe 40th anniversary reissue of Lament and decent remixes by Steven Wilson and Moby.
Some comebacks were a complete surprise, and exceeded all reasonable expectations. Gavin Friday's album Ecce Homo is produced by Dave Ball and is supercharged music for the heads and the hedonists. Why slow down at 65? As good as any of Gavin's previous albums, which were frankly brilliant.
Fluke's return seemingly came out of nowhere, Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier joined on this new adventure by the stunning vocals of Leah Cleaver. Two singles - Insanely Beautiful and Real Magnificient - and a standalone song (Jack) that are up there with their best material. The world is a better place with Fluke's music in it.
I knew of Lisa Moorish in the 1990s, though more for the pop press and tabloid features than her music. Drawn in by a David Holmes remix, the single Sylvia is a statement of intent and then some. A song about poet Sylvia Plath, set to urgent rhythms with a sublime vocal and hooky lyrics ("where do I end and you begin?"), it got my attention and Lisa's album Divine Chaos is equally worth your attention (and money). A powerful and very welcome return.
Less comeback and more career change, Dan Wainwright released the first of two solo albums this year. I was familiar with Dan's psychedelic electronica/dance/dub music and remixes. I'd also picked up on social media that he'd decided to turn away from that, learn to play the ukelele and write songs drawn deep from the soul and his lived experience. I reviewed Dan's debut back in February and I stand by every word. A shock if you're familiar with Dan's previous work, but stick with it and the songs reward with each play.
Creativity seemed to be in overdrive this year, with an astonishing quantity of quality music from Richard Norris and A Certain Ratio. Hifi Sean and David McAlmont recorded enough music for two (themed) albums and that's exactly what they've done. The first of these, Daylight, was out in August and is packed with poptastic tunes, including the anthemic Celebrate. The follow up, Twilight, is out February 2025 and, if preview single Star is anything to go by, will be as good as if not better. Truly a perfect musical partnership.
Ghost Tapes 1 To 9 by Jo Bartlett is another album that I've played repeatedly all year and it just gets better with each listen. When I posted about the album in April, I reflected on "the soundscapes that Jo has created, not least the bringing together of electronics, acoustics
and voice resulting in an album that feels organic, human and warm."The songs were infused with the spirit of Jayne Casey and Nina Walsh, whilst holding their own with contemporaries Tor Maries (Billy Nomates) and Angel Olsen. In other words, right up my street.
Producers have also, er. produced some incredible music this year. Cruelly missing from today's selection are Hugo Nicholson and David Harrow's Revolvalution or CTRL+S EDITS 2024, an album of excellent edits by Neil Parnell aka Tronik Youth.
Joe Thornally, son of legendary producer Phil, released his 5th (or 6th) album as Vegyn, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions, in the spring. I came to Tales From The Infinite Loop or What Goes Around Comes Around by Nigel Butler via a recommendation from former bandmate and founder of theaudience, Billy Reeves. Both albums are very, very good and the latter is going on Bandcamp at the ridiculous price of 50p!
The Woodentops came back with a bang last year, the superb single Ride A Cloud, with a brilliant video and remixes and the promise of an album to follow. Another April release, Fruits Of The Deep, delivered far beyond the promise of the lead single, as I wrote about at the time.
I've not yet mentioned DJ Helen's inspired fusion of David Holmes' remix of Orbital's Belfast and Mike Garry's updated recording of his poem Tonight. The 4-minute version tells you what you need to know but you really need to go for the full 12-minute monty with this one.
And a highlight of my many new dub purchases this year has been The Mood EP by French punnilinguists Prince François Far I and ShaYaman, available in 5 flavours, including a remix by Owl Trackers and all in tribute to Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
Then it's back to LNFG for Amelia Lironi and Naomi Mackay aka Quad 90, the '90' presumably referencing the year that advance single Anodyne calls to mind, not least a lost single by New Order. Not included simply to fill that difficult 'Q', I'm looking forward to their debut album in 2025.
Oh, and I nearly forgot Metronomy! Suffice to say, I love the Loose EP and the short, snappy, poppy collaborations, encapsulated brilliantly by Pan Amsterdam's spoken word vocals on Nice Town.
Finally, a very special mention for Ernie's African Odyssey over at his 27 Leggies blog, with concluded on 13th December after over 60 posts, 57 countries, 550 artists, 350 songs and 200 videos. The majority of music and artists were completely new to me, including sisters Leah and Pendo, aka The Zawose Queens, who featured when Ernie visited Tanzania in October. Maisha ("Life") is the title track of their debut album and a joyous close to today's selection.
Note on Sunday:
If you were here earlier this morning, you will have read that the majority of the above sleevenotes were to follow later, as my usual blog writing routine flexed to accommodate an extended Clan K over the festive period.
Various family members left this morning, giving me some time to return to the keyboard and finish off this post. Of course, that kitchen full of dirty pans, crockery and cutlery isn't going to wash itself, so I will sign off now and be back here on Monday with another reflection on some great music this year.
Casa K is well and truly back to it's chaotic norm!, and so is this blog! Thanks for sticking with me xx
1) De Cabeça Colada Ao Chão: Ana Lua Caiano (Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado)
2) I Know Who Trashed The Blue Peter Garden (Part II): Billy Reeves (Steve (A Weekend In Egham, 1996))
3) Where You Coming From (Jane Weaver Rework): A Certain Ratio (Christmasville UK EP)
Even now and then, I do a mix on the fly that lands just so, really hitting the sweet spot. I like to think I've managed it again today with a 63-minute selection of songs that have come out in the first half of 2024.
I say this every year, but it's been a bloody good year for music. If there's ever a moment when you think you've heard it all before and there's nothing to lift the spirits, along comes something to dissolve that cynicism. My longlist was at least twice as long as the 11 songs that made the final selection. I love every second of it and I hope you do too.
Fluke's surprise comeback this year was a delight, not least with the release of the, well, insanely beautiful single Insanely Beautiful. All of the mixes are worth your time, but I have been obsessed with their remix featuring lead vocals by Leah Cleaver. I think it's one of the best things they've ever done and I can't wait to hear what's next.
Likewise, Fruits Of The Deep, the first new album in 8 years by The Woodentops was like a gift from the heavens. Ride A Cloud paved the way in spring 2023, followed a year later by Dream On, which frankly should be mandatory listening. Rolo supplied a wonderful dub along with a superb, uplifting remix from Balearic Ultras which I've included here.
Pete Paphides has delighted me on two fronts this year: firstly, a belated catch up with his autobiography, Broken Greek; secondly, by signing Iraina Mancini to his Needle Mythology label. Following up on last year's Saint Etienne remix, Richard Norris and Erol Alkan have got together again as Beyond The Wizards Sleeve to re-animate the title track of Iraina's debut album, Undo The Blue. I'm so glad that they did as they have created a thing of exquisite beauty from a song that was already special.
C.A.R. is Chloé Alexandra Raunet, who I was vaguely aware of from her time in Battant and associations with Timothy J. Fairplay and Andrew Weatherall, but came back to in her current incarnation via a remix by (and for) GLOK aka Andy Bell. I previously included the Anzu EP in my 2023 'best of' singles. However, Anzu was re-released in March with a brace of Hardway Bros remixes that will make you fall for the song all over again. I've opted here for the dub, which is equally precision tooled for the dancefloor.
In February, Matt Gunn released the Elexperimental EP, four tracks self-described as resembling "something akin to Kraftwerk & LCD with a bass after a big night on the sauce". Drive Thru Century, featured here, is labelled as "Matt Gunn vs The Death Rattle Of An 80’s CR78", which may tell you all you need to know. Matt released a brand new track on Friday, Dub Clone Rising, too late to make this mix but well worth a listen, nearly ten minutes of bass heavy vibes.
Another February release on the always excellent Paisley Dark label was the 3-track PoPoPom EP by Spanish artist Stylic. Second track Like This is a thunderous beast, laden with vocal samples and locking into a hypnotic groove that's hard to resist. A remix EP followed in April, with both Keith Forrester and Mindbender aka Mårten Attling eager to get their hands on the track, and with good reason.
From there and a superlative remix from the aforementioned Andy Bell in his GLOK guise. David Holmes' album with Raven Violet, Blind On A Galloping Horse, is astonishing and between February and May, a steady stream of remixes and versions have emerged. Andy seems to be steering GLOK in a slightly different direction, if this and other recent remixes are an indication, though similarly transporting the listener to a wholly different headspace.
Easing a little bit of funk back into proceedings is Steve Cobby & Third Attempt aka Torje Fagertun Spilde, with the closing track from their Offshore Sunsets EP. Feeling Seen is fuzzy funk (is that a thing?), perfectly connecting Kingston upon Hull and Tromsø, Norway.
Another international partnership that continues to deliver the goods is Jezebell aka Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell. Weekend Machines is the lead track from a 4-track EP landing on 3rd July and it signals a further evolution in the duo's work, which never fails to excite and entertain. If this doesn't get you moving, check your pulse.
I enthused about the México 24 EP by La Guardia De La Luz and Picotropico in May and I'm still feeling the love. I've inevitably gone for the best song- and remix title of the four, and it's chock full of chug, to put it mildly.
The closing track isn't new at all - it was released in September 2022 - but is new to me as I was gifted it on Saturday night. I'm on the mailing list for Lithuanian label Electric Shapes and they are extremely generous in dropping emails with free download codes for their back catalogue. Unfortunately, without fail I've seen the emails when the codes have long been used...until last night, when I just happened to be checking emails when their latest gift landed.
So, I am now the happy owner of the Crouching Tiger EP by Jokios Kultūros aka Dovydas Platakis. Jokios Kultūros loosely translates as 'uncultured' though this release is anything but. I've enjoyed all seven tracks, though the remix here by German DJ/producer Tassilo Vanhöfen has currently nudged ahead as my favourite.
I usually include Discogs links to the artist's names. This time around, I've gone for Bandcamp links so that you can check out purchase their releases if you like what you hear.
1) Insanely Beautiful (Leah’s Mix): Fluke ft. Leah Cleaver
2) Dream On (Balearic Ultras Brooking Bass Remix): The Woodentops
3) Undo The Blue (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation): Iraina Mancini
Happy birthday, Rolo McGinty... or belated happy birthday, as I'm not 100% sure if it falls on the 14th or 15th June. Call myself a fan?!
Well...yes, I do, not least because earlier this year, Rolo gifted the world with a brand new album by The Woodentops, Fruits Of The Deep. Head off to Bandcamp to buy it straight away and later, you can read what I thought of it back in April.
To celebrate in slightly different style, I'm not posting a selection of The Woodentops' many indie classics from the 1980s, as you might reasonably have expected seeing as one of them popped up in yesterday's Indie Top 20 post.
Instead, I'm focusing on Rolo's beat-heavy excursions, taking in The Woodentops from 1990s and the past couple of years, and squeezing in several tracks from his other projects Pluto and Dogs Deluxe, the latter with Rob Miller. There’s also a collaboration with Andres Y Xavi and a remix for Dubversive, featuring Boy George, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.
Several of the featured tracks have been gifted via Rolo's WebArchive page and remain otherwise unreleased.
I've chopped, sequenced, faded and edited tracks together to deliver an hour-long selection that will have you up, down, up, down...then staying down. Consider it your weekend workout!
Love and respect to Mr. McGinty, I hope the sun shines and all is fine. Have a good one, Rolo.
1) Dream On (Rolo Dub): The Woodentops (2024)
2) Stay Out Of The Light (Midi Mix): The Woodentops (1991)
3) Because Of You (Dub): The Woodentops *
4) Tainted World (Kid Batchelor Rub): The Woodentops vs. Bang The Party (1991)
5) Chainsaw: Ambient Mic **
6) Indian Runner: Pluto (1995)
7) Ambient Filth: Bad Apples ***
8) What Do You See In Me (Max Essa Dub): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty (2022)
9) Smokin' (Original Version): The Woodentops *
10) Police And Thieves (Dog's Deluxe Mix) (Cover of Junior Murvin): Dubversive ft. Boy George (1998)
11) Ride A Cloud (Xavi's Campfire Mix): The Woodentops ft. Kyoko Sato (2023)
12) Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub): The Woodentops (2024)
1991: Stay Out Of The Light EP: 2
1991: Tainted World EP: 4
1995: Rising: 6
1998: Police And Thieves EP: 10
2022: What Do You See In Me EP: 8
2023: Ride A Cloud EP: 11
2024: Dream On EP: 1
2024: Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub) EP: 12
* Because Of You eventually turned up on The Woodentops' 2014 album Granular Tales. This dub and a vocal version date (I think) from the 1990s. The same goes for Smokin’.
** One of three "Experiments with video game play sounds" available online, date unknown.
*** "A bunch of songs written with Richard Thomas and Konrad Kinard", which Rolo recorded with Richard in Somerset. Date unknown, poss. late 1990s/early 2000s.
Indie Top 20 was a visible presence on the record racks everywhere from your friendly neighbourhood record shop to HMV and Our Price, Woolies and WH Smith.
A modest start in 1987 saw Volume 1 issued by Band Of Joy Music Ltd., stating that "This high definition Ferric Cassette contains 20 full length hits by the
original artists selected from the National Indie Charts in the weeks
immediately preceding this release."
The cassette was repackaged and relaunched in conjunction with Melody Maker and Beechwood Music, the latter continuing with the series (and expanding to vinyl) until volume 23 in 1996.
Volume 1, side 1, track 1 was Mickey Way (The Candy Bar) by A Certain Ratio. The final song on volume 23 was Andrex Puppy Love by Orange Deluxe.
Today's selection culls from volumes 1-10. Not an original idea, by any stretch of the mark: Beechwood themselves issued their own 'best of' in the 1990s and, before that, the self-explanatory CD88, the series' first shiny disc issue and an essential snapshot, in my opinion.
I wasn't an avid collector of the series, to be honest. I got a couple of the early issues but I pretty much bailed out after CD88 as by then I was more interested (and financially able) to pick up the individual singles and albums of the artists I liked. That said, I'd always pick up a copy of the latest issue for most of the 1980s, just to have a look at the track list.
So, why an 11-track selection? Indie Top 20 Volume 4 (1988) was issued in two separate volumes. Part 1, sub-titled State Of Independents, featured The Smiths, The Woodentops, Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wedding Present. Part 2, sub-titled House, was a nod to the inescapable wave of club music, so S'Express, Coco, Steel & Lovebomb and Smith & Mighty.
The latter appear in my selection, though the remainder is more firmly rooted in the guitar-based alternative scene, whether jangly (Talulah Gosh, The Field Mice) or jarring (The Leather Nun, Thee Hypnotics). Some of these I will have first heard on the radio, courtesy of Janice Long, Andy Kershaw, Annie Nightingale or John Peel. Considering A Move To Memphis by The Colorblind James Experience was a Peel favourite and swiftly became one of mine too.
As the first volume noted, these songs were hits as far as the National Indie Charts were concerned, but none of the choices on this selection particularly troubled the UK singles charts. So, what better way to bring things to a close than with a bonafide smash hit from The Charlatans? The Only One I Know was their second single and on this day in 1990, was sitting at a high of #9, the second of three weeks in the Top 10. And it still sounds fantastic today.
1) Please Don't Sandblast My House: One Thousand Violins (1986)
Last Sunday's post about The Woodentops and the chasm between the cost of creating music and it's monetary value in a world of instant gratification provoked a lot of visits, interest and reflection.
A week on and I'm surprised and delighted to say that the eagerly anticipated album, Fruits Of The Deep, is suddenly here with us. Since receiving the mailing list announcement on Saturday afternoon, I've only had time for a few looped listens to the album so far but...wow, it's fantastic.
Thirteen songs, fifty three minutes and thirty six seconds, with a bonus fourteenth track taking the album into an hour of varied and wonderful sounds. As Rolo McGinty notes in the album release mailshot,
It is like any album form the Woodentops, a scattershot of different ideas, originality and stretching as much as possible the idea of a rock and roll band, from songs to the cinematic.
The opening quintet of Liquid Thinking, the singles Dream On and Ride A Cloud, then Too Good To Stay and Lately set the tone, indie pop par excellence bathed in the Balearic sunshine. You're hopefully familiar with the two singles by now, so you'll be right to sense that this 5-song set is an incredibly strong opening statement.
The cinematic adjective feels particularly apt when describing Hotel and City Wakes, both feeling like they're excerpts from a film, where things have become somewhat unhinged and unsettling for one of the lead characters. Hotel contains (to paraphrase Rolo) a "sad robot" vocal. City Wakes is an instrumental with deep bass horn from Jeff Miller, and Rolo's nighttime field recordings of trains rattling on tracks at the back of his home and the glass clatter of empties being tipped into the recycling bin at the local pub.
It's worth mentioning at this point that the Bandcamp page for Fruits Of The Deep also includes lyrics and sleeve notes which provide a brief insight into the origins, inspiration and recording of the songs. It's been a decade since The Woodentops' 'comeback' album Granular Tales, though elements of the songs on this album stretch back even further.
I Can Take It was developed and completed following a period where Rolo was studio neighbours with Richard Thomas, though the lyrics scribbled down by a 16 year old Rolo after a
week in jail. The accusation was false and the appeal was a success, but the words capture the period between the two.
Singing as a man
words written as boy [...]
It fed my resilience
You achieved nothing that day
when you put me away
I can take it
The closing song of the album is The Fishermen Leave At Dusk. In the accompanying notes, Rolo writes "I do not think I will ever write anything better than this" and you may be forgiven for thinking, "What? But what about [insert list of classic Woodentops songs here]?!"
But you know what? Rolo knows what he's talking about. He goes on to describe The Fishermen Leave At Dusk as "not a quick pop tune, its a more a movie with the visual content in your imagination" which is far better than anything I can come up with to describe it.
The song reflects on Rolo's long stay trip in the Paradise Beach cabanas in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. There he got to know the locals: the very young people in the lace
works along the shore; a man with a book autographed by Rick Stein, proclaiming his tiny seafood stall offers "the best hot seafood sauce in the world".
This would have been late 2004 as shortly after Rolo left, Indonesia was devastated by an earthquake and consequent tsunami that resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million people. Rolo's lyrics reflect on the people he'd met and the horrific though that, if they were going about their business that day, they will not have escaped.
It's a heart-wrenching eight minutes, swirling acoustic strums, found sounds, ringing keyboards and sad sax flowing in and out of the song. It's incredible.
The bonus track is also eight minutes, an instrumental called Bathyscaphe which as the title suggests is inspired by the deep sea submersible ("that magnificent machine") used to explore that alien world within our own world, still full of mystery, uncharted territory and life that evolved, survived and thrived in an environment that we could not without a thick metal shell around us, with oxygen pumped in, carbon dioxide pumped out and pressure regulated to keep us alive.
Bathyscaphe is driven by "drum hits" from Simon Goodchild and split into two sections (or "dives" as described in the notes) with a brief moment of calm separating the two. Rolo does everything else, including "razor blades to get between the wire wind of the strings" and it's an - excuse the pun - immersive experience. Fitting then, that this version is the stereo mix, with a Dolby Atmos total immersion mix of Bathyscaphe coming soon.
All of this as a digital purchase for a tenner. If you hear the album, you'll know that it's worth more.
I'm holding off my purchase for a little bit longer, partly because I don't get paid until the end of the month but also so that I can buy Fruits Of The Deep on Bandcamp Friday (3rd May). I know that this will impact on the album's first week sales performance, but I'd rather that as much of the money I pay gets to the artist as possible.
On which note, there was a helpful reminder on the back of last week's post to avoid using PayPal if you can. Whilst Bandcamp waive their fees on the titular Friday, PayPal do not!
I think I say this every year, but 2024 has been a brilliant year for new music so far and the addition of an album by The Woodentops has just made it so much better.
