Category: Reviews (Page 37 of 206)

TIM BOWNESS Butterfly Mind

15 June 2022 /

Accomplished musician Tim Bowness celebrates four decades of playing in bands and working with the likes of Robert Fripp, Phil Manzanera and Richard Barbieri by presenting his seventh solo album ‘Butterfly Mind’.

Co-produced by long-time collaborator Brian Hulse and mixed by NO-MAN bandmate Steven Wilson who he began his recording career with, ‘Butterfly Mind’ has been hailed as Bowness’ most surprising release yet. Eclectic it certainly is and this is not to be unexpected given his vast knowledge of music history as articulated on ‘The Album Years’ podcast with Wilson.

The success of his Burning Shed label and online retail platform has only driven his own artistic integrity even further; Tim Bowness said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in 2019: “The good thing about the success of Burning Shed is that it’s meant that I’ve become even more bloody minded and idealistic concerning my own music. I only ever release what I believe in and what I believe deserves to be heard in the wider world.”

After ‘Late Night Laments’, ‘Butterfly Mind’ is not that much more cheerful and begins with ‘Say Your Goodbyes, Pt. 1’, an intense art rock barrage with flute from Ian Anderson of JETHRO TULL and additional vocals from Peter Hammill of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR. Meanwhile, ‘Always The Stranger’ funks up it with noted bassist Nick Beggs in tow as Bowness comes over vocally like a cross between Thomas Dolby and Paddy McAloon.

‘It’s Easier To Love’ exudes the chill of winter featuring sax from one-time David Sylvian and Harold Budd collaborator Nicola Alesini, but as ‘Lost Player’ offers a haunting atmospheric ballad, ‘Only A Fool’ surprises as a brilliantly feisty synth driven number swathed in a Cold War presence with “so much blood on our hands”.

Continuing that aesthetic theme, ‘Glitter Fades’ crosses forlorn piano with a light but dramatic synthetic rhythm construction while the lengthy ‘Dark Nevada Dream’ imagines THE BLUE NILE meeting TALK TALK with MAGAZINE’s Dave Formula working his magic on a Hammond organ and Ben Coleman providing the solemn violin.

Given the quality of its supporting cast, the musicality of ‘Butterfly Mind’ cannot be faulted while Bowness remains as intense and grumpy as ever. Despite the forlorn melancholy expressed, as with all good popular music, there is some hopefulness too.

‘Butterfly Mind’ is released 5th August 2022 by InsideOutMusic / Sony Music as a limited 2CD and vinyl LP+CD editions via https://timbowness.lnk.to/ButterflyMind

The album launch gig takes place at The Everyman On The Corner in London’s King’s Cross on Monday 8th August 2022, tickets available now from https://burningshed.com/store/timbowness/tim-bowness_chilvers_everyman-on-the-corner-kings-cross_e-ticket

https://timbowness.co.uk/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Mark Wood
15th June 2022, updated 4th August 2022

KID MOXIE Better Than Electric

9 June 2022 /

For Elena Charbila, the talent behind KID MOXIE, her new album ‘Better Than Electric’ is a statement of personal and emotional liberation while also “a blending of everything I love to listen to, every song is a cinematic scene, and the lyrics are there to ideally serve the picture”.

With two albums ‘Selector’ and ‘1888’, several EPs including ‘Perfect Shadow’ and ‘Love & Unity’ plus the soundtrack for ‘Not To Be Unpleasant, But We Need To Have A Serious Talk’ which included a stark cover of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’, ‘Better Than Electric’ is her most honest work to date. Developing on her brand of continental cinematic pop, ‘Better Than Electric’ is more inspired by Charbila’s adopted home of Los Angeles and its Downtown skyline, an imagining of night calls in a retro-futurist setting where unrequited and forbidden love finally get to be realised.

Compared with previous KID MOXIE’s works, there are darker and harder aesthetics at play and these are all epitomised by the opener ‘Shine’ in collaboration with German EBM producer FADERHEAD. Declaring that “I’m taking the lead in the back seat” in a fine homage to DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’, the mood is assertively provocative.

Issued as the first single from the album, the ‘Better Than Electric’ title song in collaboration with James Chapman of MAPS (who can be very audibly heard harmonising) is in retrospect, something of a red herring. Reflecting on the distance that can keep lovers apart, it reimagines the Roy Orbison song ‘A Love So Beautiful’ and Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ for a trip to Twin Peaks.

With a driving gothic allure, ‘At The End Of The Night’ channels THE CURE with THE KILLERS’ cover of JOY DIVISION’s ‘Shadowplay’ while something of a sister song to ‘Shine’, ‘Unbroken’ thrusts and stutters delightfully. The filmic glory of ‘Thunderstruck’, a cover of the AC/DC rocker, mesmerises with virtual pizzicatos and even tinges of psychedelia but adopting an uptempo electro flavour with cutting strings and sombre voice samples, the instrumental ‘Miss Robot’ is ultimately hypnotic.

Industrialised to the core, ‘Lost In Time’ sees KID MOXIE in previously uncharted territory with what is more of a thumping and throbbing art piece than an actual song, while thematically acknowledging her Greek roots, ‘Odyssey’ is a tense but euphoric declaration of love and finding the one with a meaty synthy cascade full of aggro and the knowledge that she may never be let down again. Like THE SISTERS OF MERCY but without the scary baritone, the drum machine propelled ‘Black Flower’ plays with some guitar intervention as the anxiety of nightfall is accompanied by haunting pitch shifted voices.

Way down the lane away and living for another day, Charbila takes on the role of the world’s sexiest Uber driver as ‘On A Sunday Night’ takes the nocturnal synthwave route. As the droning engine throbs in time to a beating heart while roaming the neon-lit sidewalks of Hollywood, this is a shimmering ode to Tinseltown and yearning. She said “this is my version of ‘Together In Electric Dreams’, both in context and in feeling… I’m definitely channeling my most romantic 80s neon-self in this one … one of my favourite videos and concepts of the 80s is ‘The Chauffeur’ by DURAN DURAN and in this video, I found a way to recycle it in a more colourful, playful, Hollywood way…”

Something of an empowering record, ‘Better Than Electric’ is the best KID MOXIE album yet, one that realises Elena Charbila’s vision of combining her emotional and sonic sensibilities into one lush opulent sonic sandwich. The kid has now come of age…

‘Better Than Electric’ is released by Pasadena Records as a CD and download on 10th June 2022, available from https://kidmoxie.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Neil Kryszak
9th June 2022

IAMAMIWHOAMI Be Here Soon

2 June 2022 /


First launched in 2009 with a series of mysterious viral videos, IAMAMIWHOAMI are back after a recorded absence of eight years.

Following the ambitious ‘B.O.U.N.T.Y.’ EP and two acclaimed albums ‘Kin’ and ‘Blue’, the Swedish duo of Jonna Lee and Claes Björklund embarked on solo projects respectively as IONNALEE and BARBELLE. Despite this, the pair did not actually become creatively estranged as the two IONNALEE albums to date ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ and ‘Remember The Future’ featured Björklund in varying studio roles including instrumentation, co-production and final mix.

Although both IAMAMIWHOAMI and IONNALEE were both notable for their delightfully odd cinematic sound that was enjoyed by the electronic music cognoscenti, the new album ‘Be Here Soon’ turns the clock back to Jonna Lee’s artist debut as a folk singer and songwriter in 2007.

With Björklund now a father and Lee becoming pregnant soon after starting the album, the rebonded over parenthood with a collective intent to make a record that was true to where their lives were in the present. Thus the audio / visual journey documents the growing of new life as Lee challenged society’s expectations of her as a mother and an artist.

The opening song ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ is a suitably airy in the manner of Angelo Badalamenti, but it is more organic sounding and distinctly less electronic with sax thrown into the mix, a farewell to the past and a start of a new chapter. Gently beat laden but augmented by six string, ‘Canyon’ is a duet with veteran singer Lars Winnerbäck which exudes a more folkie presence in that GOLDFRAPP ‘Seventh Tree’ fashion.

Meanwhile ‘Zeven’ adds more of a manual percussive swing before livening up and the shuffling ‘I Tenacious’ offers icy Nordic jazz. The spacier moods of ‘Changes’ recall earlier IAMAMIWHOAMI works but the live drums and flute throw off the scent. The sparse but filmic ‘Flying or Falling’ makes subtle use of timpani, castanets and operatic soprano.

Embracing piano, ‘A Thousand Years’ is suitably demure before the appearance of a choir and the surprise of tinkling ivories over a skippy backbone. The acoustic guitar driven ‘Thunder Lightning’ brings in a range of woodwinds including the big bassoon but ‘Call My Name’ recalls EXIT NORTH with an eerie feminine twist before ‘Walking On Air’ with its cosmic synth solo closes what is a very different IAMAMIWHOAMI record.

With traditional colours and jazzier inflections, these songs are presented with the minimum of electronic seasoning. If you appreciated the approach of GOLDFRAPP’s ‘Seventh Tree’, you will enjoy ‘Be Here Soon’. With Jonna Lee now a proud mother, that joy can be celebrated collectively in the music.

‘Be Here Soon’ is released on 3rd June 2022 by to whom it may concern as a nude vinyl LP, CD and download available from https://twimc.se/release/301039-iamamiwhoami-be-here-soon

https://ionnalee.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by John Strandh
2nd June 2022

ULTRAFLEX Rhodos

30 May 2022 /

Those ULTRAFLEX girls are in the holiday mood and their latest offering ‘Rhodos’ celebrates those favourite sunny destinations such as Mallorca, Ibiza and of course Rhodes.

Icelander Katrín Helga Andrésdóttir and Norwegian Kari Jahnsen take their wispy electronic disco pop to the Aegean Sea for their own 18-30 holiday, inspired by their own experiences of binge drinking Smirnoff Ice while laughing at boys with pale beer bellies and avoiding sunburn.

As playful as ever, the lip licking video directed by Sigurlaug Gisladottir sees ULTRAFLEX enjoying themselves during what appears to be a cloudy day in Athens, “OK”.

With a desire to escape and party, ‘Rhodos’ was written at the height of the pandemic in Berlin with the girls “Longing after people yelling in our ears, everyone bumping into each other, stepping on our toes and the sensation of cold beer flowing down our backs. Writing Rhodos immediately transported us to a hot and sticky beach, a place we loved and loathed equally.”

‘Rhodos’ follows up previous singles ‘Relax’ and ‘Baby’ in the lead up to a new album scheduled for Autumn 2022. Their sumptuous debut album ‘Visions of Ultraflex’ was released in 2020 and won ‘Best Electronic Album’ at The Icelandic Music Awards 2021. Although FARAO and SPECIAL-K have been respectfully Jahnsen and Andrésdóttir’s artier solo projects, the pair are simply have too much fun together as ULTRAFLEX.

With their kitsch and conceptual dancefloor weirdness and ambiguously sexy overtones, ULTRAFLEX are back to provide some groovy seductive distraction from the troubles of the world.

‘Relax’ is released by Street Pulse Records and can be listened to via https://song.link/ultraflex-rhodos or https://ultraflexband.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
30th May 2022

FIELD GLASS Kin

27 May 2022 /

FIELD GLASS are brothers Dan and Jacob Mayfield; although they founded the School of Noise workshop as a platform for children and young people to explore music and the science of sound in 2015, FIELD GLASS is the sibling’s first creative adventure together.

Jacob was once in a dreampop duo with Vicky Harrison from POLYCHROME and a 2013 album to their name while Dan was in the folk flavoured combo ENDERBY’S ROOM who released a self-titled long player on Fika Recordings in 2017.

Issued on Happy Robots Records, home to Rodney Cromwell, Alice Hubble and Roman Angelos, the appropriately titled ‘Kin’ is a wonderfully sedate suite of electro-acoustic instrumentals, sharing an affinity with OBLONG and their rustic organically farmed work ‘The Sea At Night’ from 2019.

Doing as the title suggests, the opening track ‘The Bell Organ Company’ sets the album’s manifesto, mixing Victorian instruments with analogue electronics and drum machines. ‘Gardens’ takes this template further by adding even prettier keyboard runs and synthbass. Making effective use of Dulcitone and its plucky vibe, ‘Fulgurite’ gives the impression of an English AIR in the 19th Century, with a windy Dickensian air thrown in for good measure.

With the haunted moods of ‘59’, it’s no surprise to learn that the album was were recorded at deconsecrated chapel in Ramsgate, now the renovated base for Big Jelly Studios run by Mike Collins who incidentally mixed Alice Hubble’s ‘Hexentanzplatz’.

But the lively ‘Everyone Was Beginning’ adds subtle glitching which draws attention and plays with the mind of the listener. Continuing with the glitch techniques, ‘Rooftops’ is a stuttering music box interlude that leads into the nautical overtures of ‘Landings’ while the noise laden ‘A Boat Turned Turtle’ ends the album on a sombre note by soundtracking a disaster at sea as a vessel capsizes.

With many of the tracks improvised and recorded live in one take, ‘Kin’ captures a heartfelt spontaneity that can only come from centuries old traditions of musicianship while applying modern technological treatments to bring proceedings into the landscape of today.

‘Kin’ is released by Happy Robots Records is released as super limited edition 12″ lathe-cut clear vinyl LP and download available from https://happyrobotsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/kin-2

https://www.happyrobots.co.uk/field-glass

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Steven Mayfield
27th May 2022

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