First appeared on Never Enough Notes on July 16 2010
Live at the Eden Project, Cornwall on July 2010
Eden Sessioners are massive fans of what they know and what they like. But if they’re not sure, they’re more than happy to just have a chat with their mates which is something that Martha Wainwright has had to cotton onto tonight: “I would talk to you but I don’t think I need to, there seems to be a lot of talking going on away” she says wryly.
After a day of sporadic torrential rain, the sun has come out for tonight’s main acts, the first of two sold-out sessions from Paolo Nutini and Martha Wainwright. It is the season finale of an epic set of gigs that has seen acts from Jack Johnson, to Mika, to Doves play in the futuristic Eden Project setting.
Wainwright starts minimally with acoustic tracks including the beautifully executed ‘This Life’. The band then melt on stage for ‘Bleeding All Over You’. There is a tranquillity to Wainwright’s set and although the crowd is chatty they still seems to be listening intently. This gig is part of her ‘Martha Sings Piaf’ UK tour and she plays three of these songs now, full of passion, dedicating one to her mother, Kate McGarrigle, who died at the beginning of this year.
This along with the premature birth of her son Arcangelo has meant that Wainwright has not had the easiest 12 months, the fact that she is back on tour and delivering great shows deserves to be highly commended but a lot of this emotion is lost here.
In contrast, Paolo Nutini springs on stage vibrant and full of enthusiasm to a crowd screaming with excitement, flanked either side of his set with the dramatic theme to The Godfather, perhaps a reference to his Italian ancestors.
Unlike many chart favourites the 23 year-old singer songwriter shows he deserves to be taken seriously as he moves effortlessly moving between reggae, soul country and pop, his band is also very adaptable. Like Wainwright, he plays a smattering of covers including a version of MGMT’s Kids and a song from Jamaican reggae star John Holt.
Despite his slightly worse for wear appearance Nutini has obviously planned this set well, saving one of his biggest hits ‘Last Request’; to the encore, the perfect ‘lighter moment’ with the same stillness that marked his performances of tracks such as ‘These Streets’ contrasting the vibrancy of ‘Jenny Don’t be Hasty’ and ’10/10′.
The show is very impressive, the whole band are giving it their all; there is some skilful VJing and lighting. Although he makes the odd mistake, Nutini’s loveable rogue smile and laid back manner means that the audience is putty in his hands and he seems to reciprocate this positivity along with a sense of awe for Eden’s futuristic setting he leaves the stage with “I love you Jurassic Park”.
8/10
First appeared on Never Enough Notes on July 12 2010
Released on June 7 2010 on Transgressive Records
Mr Flynn is back, and this time he is in the midst of the annoyingly labelled ‘nu-folk’ heyday.
First cutting his performing teeth playing fiddle with Emmy The Great, Flynn will be touring the UK when he and The Sussex Wit provide support for Mumford & Sons in the Autumn. He has also created a small YouTube storm with Laura Marling covering Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck’s ‘Travel Light’, scoring over 237, 000 views. Marling and Flynn also collaborated on Been Listening for the song ‘The Water’, which sways mournfully like a small boat bobbing on lapping water.
Former single, ‘Kentucky Pill’ kicks off the album: guitar plucking and horns, full of sunshine. Chronicling the twists and turns of life in a light and airy way, songs like ‘Churlish May’ show why folk really is the best genre for telling stories and it is obvious that Flynn is a natural at bringing a story to life.
Although the music seems to be simple, the classically-trained musician also comes through in the drama and colour created by the music. The strings and brass add excitement and Been Listening is a slight departure from the more traditional debut, A Larum which was released in 2008. Keen to show that he can diversify, the next single to be released from the album is ‘Barnacled Warship’, out on August 16, a track with tones of regret but a bold fighting spirit, which also shows a sophistication and capability which means that Flynn should be taken just as seriously as his peers.
We all know that trends go round and round and right now folk is very much on a high. The nu-folk posse are not reinventing the genre completely but, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
8/10
First appeared on Never Enough Notes on July 6 2010
Live at the Eden Project, Cornwall on 02.07.2010
Lovely. The most appropriate way to describe this year’s batch of Eden Sessions. Organised to the tiniest detail the gigs are very polite and well, lovely. This year the Sessions have diversified and each night is loosely grouped into genre, but tonight’s combination of Mumford & Sons and Doves is a little uneasy.
Mumford & Sons have risen to mainstream fame since forming in 2007, reaffirming that waistcoats, beards and banjos are where it’s at. Still peddling their album ‘Sigh No More’, they also play new tracks tonight. ‘Nothing Is Written’ starts off slow and melancholy but the crowd are clapping along from the word go, and when it kicks in fully they erupt becoming a sea of jumping bodies. There is something resembling a small barn dance in the middle of the audience, a party which continues for the rest of the night. Another new song, ‘Lover of the Light’, has a tone full of optimism and hope, perfect on this clear evening. The new material is not a departure from the expected Mumford sound but there is a maturity in the arrangement and lyrics which shows growth.
The band capture and keep the audience’s attention with every song, full of energy and enthusiasm and audience also goes crazy for favourites like ‘Timshel’, ‘Feel The Tide Turning’, ‘Little Lion Man’, finishing with ‘The Cave’ before leaving everyone screaming for more.
Doves have some hard work to do: When the gig was announced Mumford & Sons were still emerging and Doves, with their solid following and previous storming set at the Eden Sessions in 2002, were a steadfast finishing band. And although the crowd is still up for it when they take the stage, it is clear that many are Doves virgins.
The band grab the audience well to start; Jimi Goodwin’s memorable voice and the moody and atmospheric music is the perfect soundtrack for the sun setting over the stunning Eden Project scenery. The band have worked hard on this ‘greatest hits’ tour and put on a good show with dramatic visuals including some interesting videos, my favourite being the ‘hoodies’ filmed for Black and White Town. The band relies heavily on the crowd being right there with them and affectionately coining the audience ‘Edeonions’, Goodwin manages to gain friends in most of them, especially when he offers to pay any council fines if the sound techs cranked up the volume.
Although transfixed by songs like Kingdom of Rust and The Cedar Room, the audience wander during lesser known songs. However, an encore is called for and those leaving to try and beat the traffic miss out big time. There is a new energy to the band, and the audience, and the party is at last starting as the band play out with the ecstatic Space Face from the band’s previous incarnation Sub Sub. Although Mumford & Sons and Doves turn out to be uneasy bedfellows, Doves’ experience shows through in their triumphant finish. I just wish they played their set in reverse.
7/10
First appeared on Never Enough Notes on June 30 2010
Released on June 7 2010 on Outsiderhood
With comparisons to PJ Harvey and Kate Bush as well as scoring collaborations with Bernard Butler and Liam Howe, Catherine AD, Catherine Anne Davies to her mother, has a lot going for her. Surrounded by highbrow hype, she has collaborated with Nitin Sawhney and was subsequently asked to be one of the London Southbank Centre’s Emerging Artists in Residence.
This dramatic EP is fourth in a line of DIY offerings and is billed as being a raw example of original demos, altered at home for release. The tracks actually sound a lot more polished and produced than that but she has a beautifully pure voice with dreamy ethereal qualities. Catherine is also a prolific multi-instrumentalist with a vast repertoire including including guitars, piano, organ, melodica, accordion, banjo and some clever programming on her trusty MacBook.
‘Skeleton Songs’ begins in a slow, otherworldly way, I imagine ‘Over and Over’ as backing music to an old fashioned jerky and silent video of children running around, playing on rope swings and jumping over rivers. The momentum is built to a gutsy, swinging finale with ‘The Heart Wants to Be A Hammer’ exiting with the sentiment: “a hammer, a bulldozer, maybe a knife” summing up the sweetness of the EP but a sweetness that can’t hide something altogether more sinister below the surface.
8/10
First appeared on Never Enough Notes on June 18 2010
Released on June 21 2010 on Trash Aesthetics
Unfortunately, dictionaries are for words not phrases but if they were then the definition of Middle Of The Road (or MOR for fans of pretentious abbreviations) would be this album. Treecreeper are from Wendover, a sleepy village between Oxford and London. Wendover is somewhere, after a sneaky look on Google Streetview, I imagine weary travellers may have stopped back in the ‘olden days’, tethering their trusty horses outside the local pub as they travelled between the two cities. Juniper is a good theme to being trapped somewhere like this in a state of depression.
It could be argued that the re-released album should be compared to a long, lolloping summer’s afternoon; the tracks are all very thoughtful and self indulgent in length, the work of tortured souls who write poetry alone and lament what could have been.
The highlight, the only track which sounds like it was played with a band with some kind of enthusiasm for life, is the instrumental ‘Crossing’, a lovely summery affair but sadly only 50 seconds long.
‘November 23rd ‘ is a slightly redeeming feature finishing the album, a slightly different if mediocre song. It has a more filthy blues feel, like a smoky bar in a slow motion film scene. I imagine the protagonist is about to come face to face with his sweaty arch enemy or a couple is about to enrol in some up close and personal time as a band plays.
The rest of the album is seriously miserable but in a wanting to tear your hair out and throw the stereo out of the window way, not a self-indulgent have a good cry way. Everything has been levelled out to give one big drone of Americana on extra slow setting.
Maybe I just don’t get it.
3/10
First appeared on Never Enough Notes on May 22 2010
Released on 24.05.10 on Back Yard Recordings
Although most of the band met ten years ago, in high school, it’s taken them until now to release their first full album. Hyped since their self titled EP in 2008, this trendy electro outfit hail from Australia, but since being signed to a UK label have relocated to our shores.
Packed full of energy, “Sacrifice” is a prime example of the UK’s rapidly expanding indie electro scene, simmering with brooding attitude. Recorded in the depths of the Welsh countryside, it is easy to imagine some angry storms and dark drizzle going on while these tracks were penned.
The industry is all over female-fronted electro-pop at the moment, but Teenagersintokyo have a retro edge to their sound, similar to the new wave bands that came out of America in the 1970s, although tracks like “Long Walk Home” have a catchy 60s girl group vibe.
“Sacrifice” gets off to a sleepy start with “3046”, which could throw the less keen beans off the scent, but it is worth sticking through to “Robocat” which is more of a grabber and sets the tone for the rest of the album, full of angst with a strong beat, as is the single “End It Tonight”.
The band recorded with David Kosten, who has produced Bat For Lashes, and his stamp can definitely be heard on the album; the music is achingly cool. The band would be worth checking out live though if they manage to blow away any pretence and stuffiness but the mechanical sound is hard to escape on the recording; the drum machine sounding beats and perfectly formulated songs don’t have have that raw edginess that can be possible with this type of music. It just doesn’t sound dirty enough.
6/10
First appeared on Big Issue Cymru online on March 31 2010
Artes Mundi 4
National Museum Wales, Cardiff
3/5
As the old saying goes, ‘there’s nowt so queer as folk’. This year’s Artes Mundi short list reflects just that, from complex social and political struggle down to the tiny details and strange habits that make humans so intriguing.
The eight artists from around the world taking part in the fourth Artes Mundi competition are all vying for this year’s top honours. This year the works, which are judged in May, are all based around the theme of the human condition.
Fernando Bryce’s painstaking Indian ink copies of media, including newspaper articles and posters, cast their eye over history, laying bare the power of propaganda. It’s interesting to notice what and who is absent in these pictures; it’s clear the media gives only a snapshot, reflecting only the voices of those with the power to make themselves heard.
Chen Chieh-jen’s films about the position of Taiwan in the world are haunting. The stories, which are among the strongest works displayed this year, include the wives of Thai men from China and their struggle to be accepted as citizens. The imagery is dark and mesmerising – their tales told against a background of motionless women, silent in protest.
After the gloom, it is refreshing to step around the corner and lay eyes on Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev’s lively and engaging photographs capturing the fall of Communism in Krygyzstan. The country’s Silk Road route connects it with China and other parts of Europe and North Africa and the images feature a light, vibrant and rich set of characters.
Yael Bartana’s work on the formation of Jewish identity, is striking, particularly his Mur i Wieża (Wall and Tower). A serene group of people, seemingly oblivious to the walls and barbed wire being constructed around them, are shown learning Hebrew to Polish translations in central Warsaw.
The beauty of Olga Chernysheva’s work, which explores modern Russia, lies in the tiny details of everyday moments. A young boy struggles with his uncomfortable cadet uniform while a teenager climbs a pole aided by the men below who are struggling to help him.
The amount of footage displayed this year means the exhibition can be time demanding. Meanwhile, some of the concepts shown are sometimes difficult to grasp – Adrian Paci’s work about Albanian weddings is elusive.
This year’s Artes Mundi shortlist collates a very diverse set of works, but sadly Africa and Oceania are not represented. An engaging collection, albeit one that sometimes masks its deeper meanings (exhibition runs until June 6th).
Amy Hall 