Tag Archives: music review

Milk Maid – Mostly No | Music Review

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As the late, great Mark Twain once said, “plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities”. On listening to Milk Maid’s 2nd album, ‘Mostly No’, it becomes abundantly obvious that chief protagonist Martin Coren is a subscriber to the school of though that simplicity is often the best path to tread. ‘Mostly No’ is a great record for it’s simplicity, not in spite of it. It doesn’t matter what you do to it, what effects you layer over the top or what wizardry you imagine into things – great music comes from the simple stuff, great melodies and great lyrics.

The record begins with ‘Dolpamine’, which builds slowly and beautifully from a campfire strum (one with electric guitars, natch) into a beautiful fog of distorted guitars. ‘Do Right’ starts with that fog of distorted guitars and emerges into a cleverly crafted slice of Lemonheads-esque pop before descending into a beautiful cave of feedback and distortion. ‘Stir So Slow’ is Coren’s Nirvana Unplugged moment.

As the record continues on the turntable the one thought on it is that this is probably the sort of music that grunge would be playing if it were alive today. There’s a hint of shoegazing in there too. Acoustic numbers ‘New Plans’ ‘No Goodbye’ and ‘Picture of Stone’ bring to mind Swearing at Motorists and even The Stone Roses. A lush, rich sound that is oh so achingly beautiful.

Whilst ‘Mostly No’ isn’t reinventing the wheel, it certainly deserves its place in any decent record collection. It’s Martin Coren stepping away from being ex Nine Black Alps and into being Mr Milk Maid in his own worthy right. Play it lots and play it loud!

L.A. Salami – Jianni’s From Australia (She’ll Get By Fine) | Music Review

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Lookman Adekunle Salama aka L.A. Salami is a bright young new London singer. I’ll call him a singer-songwriter because others will but I think we can both agree that calling someone that doesn’t actually give any information away.

His new single ‘Jianni’s From Australia’ is, apparently, “a nod to Nigerian Apala music from the Youba tribe. It straddles the lines of indie and folk with a voice that is both enchanting and hypnotic. This single is two tracks of gorgeous pop-indie-folk magic that suggest he’s one to keep your eyes on. Go forth and listen!

 

‘Jianni’s From Australia’ is released on 11th June 

 

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Mari Wilson | Music Review

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The “Neasden Queen of Soul” is back with an album funded by fans and a glamorous “attic sale”.

 

The voice, the music, the all-round talent.

 

Wilson had done an album of cover versions with a difference: she really brings her own spin to the songs. Wilson first broke through 30 years ago with the 1982 hit “Just What I Always Wanted”. Although she already has an army of fans, hopefully Wilson will come to the attention of an even wider audience now.

 

Wilson had a career artists half her age could only ever dream about. She played Dusty Springfield in Dusty the Musical in 2000. Her brilliant version of Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be With You” is on the album. Her version is slower and more emotional. Wilson’s voice is just absolutely divine; soulful, powerful, emotional. She is a storyteller as well as a singer, and that is the description of what makes a great singer.

 

Wilson had been described as the “British Bette Midler” . That is about right. Buy her new album and have a look at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/mariwilson to get your hands on some of her memorabilia.

http://www.mariwilson.co.uk/

 

 

Thomas White – Yalla! | Music Review

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In August 2010 Thomas White, after a decade on the road with The Electric Soft Parade, The Brakes and British Sea Power and following the death of his mother, took himself off on holiday. Firstly to Dubai, then onto Egypt. On arrival in Egypt, White realised he didn’t much like it and wasn’t having the time of his life. Fortunately the troubador was armed with an acoustic guitar and a laptop and so spent his days in his documenting backwards a story that has often been; the story of a man somewhere quite drab dreaming of glorious sunshine. White was somewhere beautiful in the sun but was dreaming of home; specifically Brighton in the drabness of autumn. Whatever the circumstances, though, a delicious record came of it.

White’s previous record, The Maximist, was his David Bowie moment, a bombastic stop of glam-punk. Yalla! is White’s Beatles moment. The spirit of Lennon and McCartney run down the spine of this record, as if they were sat in that hotel room in Dahab.  Opening track ‘All The Fallen Leaves’ oozes regret; ‘I’ll See Her Again’ is a tale of lost love that appears to have picked up the baton from Elliott Smith, the same one that was mistakenly picked up by Graham Coxon. ‘The Heavy Sunshine Sound’ is his finest Lennon/McCartney impression with the moods and shades turning from dark to light and back again as quick as his voice moves.

At times White sounds like he’s about to enjoy himself with a big soaring chorus but then he pulls it all back to the bleak; that post-tragedy feeling where life should never be enjoyed again and that any feelings to the contrary are self-indulgent. ‘I’ve Seen the Sunrise’ documents lost love and loneliness but muddles it with the highs and the feeling that all is not lost.

The one criticism of this record is that the pill tastes a little bit dull after 7-8 songs of the same shade. A stunning record but one to be eaten in reasonable sized chunks but if you’re feeling melancholic then pop it on repeat and it’ll soothe your soul.

Throughout Yalla! White seems as homesick-for and rooted in Brighton and his favourite landmarks that he lists, as it is possible to be. He’s a veteran of the music scene there having burst onto the scene aged 17 with the much-hyped Electric Soft Parade and having been around for over a decade and been in more bands than Mike Patton (possible exaggeration), it is easy to think of White as a veteran but at 27 you hope he’s just getting started and has enough melancholy to make a record like Yalla! at least once more.

Deer Chicago – Lantern Collapse / Rolling of the Ocean EP | Music Review

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I’m going to start by saying something totally unpleasant but very necessary. Once I have done this please read on. In fact I assume since you’re still reading this you’re probably in my thrall and that my subtle form of hypnotism has been successful. So please, read on. Ok, here comes the unpleasant bit; Deer Chicago sound exactly like if Biffy Clyro had made their first album using the singer from The Wombats.

Ok I’m glad we got that out-of-the-way. Ignoring that fact, this works. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This limited-edition two-track EP was released in November by the Oxford trio and physical copies sold out almost immediately. It’s two tracks of fairly typical post-rock, quiet/loud with Jonathan Payne’s vocals flying excitedly over the top of them. What the band do well are volume spikes, long crescendos, and the cumulative effects of repetition over long periods with subtle changes. At the risk of boxing the band in, though, they sound like nice boys who you’d happily take home to meet your mother. Not the most alluring of things for a rock n roll band – if they can develop a nastier edge then expect to see them disappear like those other Oxford geniuses, Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia, otherwise catch them while you can!

 

 

Tenors Unlimited Viva La Vita | Music Review.

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Calling yourself the ‘Rat Pack of Opera‘ is quite a grand statement, and one you only make if you can back it up. Lord Richard Attenborough certainly thinks they can, calling them “fantastic…a unique and wonderfully entertaining act”. Sting simply says: “Bravi!”. Well, hard to argue with that.

The Trio, Scott Ciscon, Jem Sharples and baritone Paul Martin, who formed in 2002, have made their new album Viva La Vita an album of greatly requested numbers from their live show with two original songs thrown in for good measure; Viva La Vita – the title track, and Fall in Love. These songs were written by the band themselves.

This album is a triumph, it take much loved classics and gives them a fresh, operatic twist. It helps that they also have a few of my favourite songs like ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ and ‘Summertime’.

By including non-operatic songs in the album the band could have been called opera-lite, but they manage to by-pass this. Their voices are divine, their take on the songs sublime. It is a beautiful album. The original songs are good and so is their take on the classics. I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I definitely recommend it. It is rousing music. A good mix of the popular and the grand.

www.tenorsunlimited.com

Viva La Vita