A Sunny Day in Glasgow

There's been much talk over the past few years of a shoegaze revival, with bands such as Serena Maneesh, M83 and Amusement Parks on Fire (among others) being touted as taking the "genre" into the 21st century. Another band have edged their way nervously to the fore, championing the classic shoegaze aural delights of whispery indistinct vocals and wall of noise instrumentation. And what better time than now to be listening to this slice of summer as the UK's three weeks of summer heat finally seems to have arrived.

Three-piece A Sunny Day in Glasgow began as the bedroom recording projects of Ben Daniels and Ever Nalens. Ever moved to Glasgow to go to art school, Ben moved to London. Both returned to their native Philadelphia after a couple years and pooled their musical ideas in the summer of 2005. After a couple of months Ever left the project while Ben enlisted his sister, Robin, to handle the vocals. After a few months of recording as a duo, Robin's identical twin and Ben's other sister, Lauren was brought in to fill out the sound. The songs were all recorded in Ben's apartment in West Philly, with most vocals being recorded at their parent's houses in the suburbs.

The three put together a few songs they had been recording and released them as The Sunniest Day Ever EP in March 2006. Eventually Pitchfork gave their song C'mon 4 stars and the band started getting label attention. In October 2006 the band signed to Notenuf Records for the release of their full-length record, Scribble Mural Comic Journal released in February 2007.

Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive) is a slice of Brian Wilson-inspired summery bubblegum pop infused with a shoegaze aesthetic and is pretty typical of the album it's taken off. This track pushes the guitar to a background element swelled with cavernous metallic reverb, alongside insistent tambourines and vocals swirling across the stereo field. Elsewhere on the album, you'll find gritty rhythms, languid bass figures and synth textures, but all held together with the twins' ethereal vocals.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive) MP3 from Scribble Mural Comic Journal (Notenuf, 2007)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow on Myspace

Nancy Elizabeth Update

Those nice people at Leaf gave me a copy of Nancy Elizabeth's new single 'Hey Son' to pass on to you. No more words, joe needs sleep. Just enjoy it, I really did.

Nancy Elizabeth - 'Hey Son'

Dirt Zvuk

Sorry to break with tradition here, but the blog's been getting very ambient and folksy, so to keep up the JUNKY side of things here's a glimpse into yesterday's record bag - with no thoughts of mixing or continuity or anything technical - I've selected a few tracks which went down well last night. There's something old, something new, something borrowed and something brainmelting.

So with out further a do:

• God Put A Smile Upon Your Face - Mark Ronson
• Pump It Up (Dirt Zvuk Edit) - Elvis Costello
• A Cause Des Garcons (Riot in Belgium Mix) - Yelle
• Love Hate (Blamma!_Blamma! Morgasm mix) - Headland
• Rock El Casbah - Rachid Taha

I should think that there's something for everyone here. And I know that there's going to be cries of derision over some of the more populist tracks in this - but strangely it's what people enjoyed dancing to last night.

Nancy Elizabeth

I have had a very pleasant evening, one of those rare, marvellous summer nights that mix exuberance with calm, and I'll tell you why. I ventured out into a part of town I have never been to before, wandered into a church and gave eight pounds to the studenty-looking gentleman sat inside the door. I then joined the congregation sat cross-legged on the joyfully rug-strewn floor and listened with great awe and (environmentally apt) reverence to two wonderful acts (with one diabolically dull one in between them). Headliner of the night was the magnificent and graceful Colleen; if you're a fan of experimental, instrumental loop-music with a slightly unsettling folky texture, go grab any one of her releases on the Leaf Label, because they're all great.

First up though was brand new Leaf Label signing Nancy Elizabeth (formerly Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe, truncated as 'this is too much of a mouthful, plus no one outside of Wigan can pronounce Cunliffe properly').

In a world where, it seems, any old monkey can learn a few picking patterns, adopt an airy-fairy voice and call themselves a singer-songwriter, it's nice to finally see one so startlingly different from the current trend, they come across as a poised ballerina amongst a herd of lawnmowers.

The live, solo style of the music is much in the tradition of classic European folk, accompanying her rich, mellifluous vocals with acoustic guitar, a small harp and a suitably creaky-looking, golden stringed instrument I didn't recognise. Great care and attention has been placed into the composition of each song, lending the music an air of supreme craftsmanship I think is quite rare. I hope I am forgiven for finding it even more shocking that a sound so graceful can emerge from Wigan.

I couldn't find any downloads, I'm afraid, but I urge you to visit her myspace and listen to the two tracks appearing on there for streaming. 'Hey Son' is from her forthcoming album 'Battle and Victory', due for release on Leaf in September. This multi-instrumental recording has extra largess and grandeur not heard in her solo performance tonight--we'll have to wait and see if this operatic production style helps or hinders her songs on the album. In the meantime, if you live in London, Southport or Manchester, you can catch her play live over the next month. She will also be appearing at the Green Man Festival in August, along with every other folk musician in the universe.

[update] Echo found this link, containing a selection of mp3s from older releases:

Nancy Elizabeth's page at Timbreland Recordings

Thanks, echo! Enjoy, all.

Mother And The Addicts

It's been almost two years since Mother and The Addicts released their debut album Take The Lovers Home Tonight on Chemikal Underground Records. And later on this summer they'll release their second, called Science Fiction Illustrated. I met up with Sam Smith (Mother) briefly in Glasgow last week and asked him about the new album. When I asked him what it was like he said it was darker than the first. The cheeky cheerful Roxy music style tracks have disappeared, to be replaced with darker edgier sound.

We discussed the darkness of the new material. Is it Empire Strikes Back dark? - I asked...

No, says Sam it is Grange Hill meets The Fall dark.

I really like it - it is edgy and gritty and does remind me of The Fall in places but it's got something very original about it too - something that sounds like lots of things but I can't quite place or are just a centimetre in front of the tip of my tongue.

I remember reading somewhere that perfumes are created from fragrances which trigger parts of the brains - some smells will trigger specific memory centres - some smells will trigger emotion centres. What the great perfumers try to do is to create perfumes that trigger centres of the brain not specifically related to memory but that give us the rewarding sensation of trying to remember positive experiences - which ultimately we attribute with names like security or love or excitement or adventure.

Mother and the Addicts - Carthage

Alexander Tucker

Kentish acoustic balladeer Alexander Tucker has been gradually making his name as a purveyor of what could be described as folktronica or perhaps even - in a pathetically transparent effort to maintain ever more spurious genres - countrytronica. With two albums released through ATP/Recordings, Old Fog (2005, from which Hag Stones is taken) and Furrowed Brow (2006).

Hag Stones is typical of Tucker's looped open-string and detuned acoustic style. Layered over this country-tinged finger picking and strumming are distant droning vocals and occasional bursts of blissed noise. On record, this is comparatively polite, but live, one man and his army of effects combine to create an ear-splitting, often highly improvised wall of noise. I recommend witnessing one of his sets very highly (and for anyone living in southwest England, he is playing at the ATP festival, 18th May in Minehead).

Tucker is also a visual artist, creating artwork for all of his album covers and side projects, including ongoing drawings and comic artwork for 'Sturgeon White Moss' (White Moss Press) and the new cover for Nordic doom-master Wolfmangler (Aurora Borealis).

Alexander Tucker - Hag Stones MP3 off of Old Fog (ATP/Recordings, 2005)

Alexander Tucker on myspace

Grails

Following soon after the Black Tar Prophecies collection on Important Records, Portland, Oregon's Grails return with their first proper studio album since 2004 release of Redlight.

Starting like some throwback psychadelic Appalachian guitar workout and ending more as a Krautrock-inspired jam, Dead Vine Blues is an example of Grails' ambition to provide some connection between instrumental post rock and more archaic song structures and formats. Rather like The Six Parts Seven, Grails make use of traditional American instrumentation (bango, picked guitar, mouth harp and lap steel) alongside the more usual electric guitars and looper pedals of their post rock peers.

Dead Vine Blues is a modern interpretation of what perhaps might have happened had Led Zeppelin jammed with the Grateful Dead high in an Appalachian homestead. Taken off the suitably moonshine titled Burning Off Impurities - their debut for Temporary Residence Ltd. - this is a rare album that not only pushes the group forward but also significantly raises expectation in where the instrumental rock genre will go next. With psychedelic, ambient and world music all playing a part in the current Grails sound, it will be interesting to note where they and bands such as The Six Parts Seven and Grail's TRL labelmates Explosions in the Sky will go next. The band themselves cite Ash Ra Tempel, Erkin Koray, Popol Vuh, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as influences and not only are these clearly seen in their output but also potentially incendiary points for their musical exploration. Post World Kraut Psychrock anyone?

Grails - Dead Vine Blues MP3 from Burning Off Impurities (Temporary Residence 2007)
Grails - Stray Dog MP3 off of Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1, 2, & 3 (Important Records 2006)

Grails on myspace
Grails webspace