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September 1, 2017September 1, 2017

ALBUM: Music from Before the Storm – Daughter 01.09.17

Words by Ed King / Pic by Sonny Malhotra

As double edged swords go…

On 1^st September, Daughter release a new album – Music from Before the Storm, out digitally via 4AD.

Now those with more gaming savvy than I will know what I’m about to type next, but for the blindsided Daughter fans I must offer some quick clarification. This is not a ‘new album’ new album; it’s a soundtrack to the prequel of Deck Nine/Square Enix’s episodic graphic adventure, Life is Strange. I am not counting this. Not fully, anyway.

So why the review? Especially whilst being as full of hubris, Mario Kart memories and ‘issues’ around soundtrack commissions as I can be. Because it’s from Daughter, a band (as I admitted to 4AD’s press office) I would ‘probably follow under a truck’. Plus the last time I wrote about the shoe gazing musketeers was for their previous album release, Not to Disappear, so in the interests of continuity (if not objectivity) I settle down with a mug of imaginary coco and press play.

A familiar laconic twang, brooding production, scarred vocals… so far so good; ‘Glass’ takes us into what could well have been the end of the triptych I’ve been waiting nearly two years to hear. Then a growling introduction and declarations of isolation bring us into track two, ‘Burn down’; aside from a somewhat pan Atlantic lexicon, this could have been a well played part of Not to Disappear.

‘Flaws’ opens with some welcome and restrained ivory, always good to have keys, until a minute later and we are clawing our way out of something and standing triumphant on top of something else. I guess the game play will fill in the blanks. ‘Hope’ follows a similar trajectory, although with more of a march and Tonra’s vocals making a staggered cameo towards the end.

The rest of Music from Before the Storm follows the same album track style sheet – aside from ‘Burn it Down’, ‘All I Wanted’ and ‘A Hole in the Earth’ we are led by the spectre of Spector (…it’s a wall of sound pun) with only vocal embellishment.

But thirteen tracks long, with ‘three songs from Daughter’s back catalogue’ also featured in the game, Music from Before the Storm is not a half hearted affair. And you can tell, from the first mournful guitar string to the last thundercloud crescendo, that this is Daughter. But it’s also a side project – an exercise in production that screams, figuratively and at points literally, of the combined efforts from this exceptional three piece more with any desperate identity.

The narrative for Life is Strange – namely determined teen angst learning to play with power – is a near perfect fit, and if it weren’t for the occasional colloquialism and kit glove punch Music from Before the Storm could have passed itself off as album three. Nearly. But this isn’t a pop protégée or an FMCG styled indie affair, this is Daughter. And it must be tough being that good with a public to appease.

So whilst I’ll probably never play the game that brought this to my table, I am now systematically over playing the album; Music from Before the Storm will keep me happy enough, for now. Maybe through Christmas. But when we’re talking over priced green field excursions again…

‘Burn it Down’ – Daughter, as featured on Music from Before the Storm

Music from Before the Storm by Daughter is out from 1^st September, released by 4AD in partnership with Square Enix. For more on Daughter, visit www.ohdaughter.com

Before the Storm: Life is Strange is out from 31^st August, for more details click here www.lifeisstrange.com

For more from 4AD, visit www.4ad.com

May 19, 2017May 19, 2017

ALBUM: Party – Aldous Harding

Words by Ed King / Pic by Hannah & Liv

I could spend half this review trying to come up with a suitable genre, but I won’t. Nouns come and nouns go, whilst adjectives jump around and in front of a puzzling need to define. Goth Folk has been used by Aldous Harding herself, apparently, and I’m not even happy with that.

But if Party – the sophomore album from the New Zealand songwriter – is to be defined by anything, it’s vocals; the range of empathy and emotion that Harding’s voice can conjure is the head wagon in this caravan. From the breathy (almost frightening) ethereal interpersonal whisperings of ‘Blend’ – the album’s opening song, across the Nicoesque timbre of ‘Imagining My Man’, to the see-saw strength and selected high pitch of the title track, Party is an album of controlled extremes. Oh yeah, and dark stories; can’t forget the bittersweet nightmares. And the winner of Best Album Track Title goes to…

But there’s the production too, which supports, matches and carries the sliding scale of this dark to light nine track endevour. With John Parish behind the glass – a man known for his extensive work with PJ Harvey (but keep This Is The Kit, Goldfrapp and M Ward in the back of your mind) – subtlety was always on cards.

And as Parish is so adept at achieving the firm bedrock here is partnership; enough confidence to step back and step up at just the right time. Again, ‘Party’ is an excellent example of this. But in the context of the whole album, when the drip release chords and power ballet vocals of ‘Horizon’ boom out of nowhere it’s impossible not to sit a little straighter. Like you’re awaiting instruction.

Aldous Harding’s eponymous debut was a sterling introduction, to an artist I suspect will have more years and surprises ahead in a carefully crafted trajectory. I hope, anyway. How many people get to open an album with Baudelaire and end with Mervyn Peake? And I’ll admit, the lack of a box-ticking-quick-draw-mainstream-marketing-strategy (née pact with the devil) is incredibly reassuring. I bet Lorde is kicking herself.

You could argue that the ‘cleverness’ with Aldous Harding will be her undoing, you could. You could call for more ‘radio friendly’. You could say that signing a three album deal with any producer backs you into a corner, and sit there waiting for the Faustian duet at an MTV event. It’s happened before. Probably not on 4AD but never say never, right?

Or you could listen, listen again, Google some references, feel foolish for Googling some references and go back to listening. For whatever compels the visceral forces of Aldous Harding’s songwriting I don’t think it wants to live in a box. So we have time and now two albums to play with, to explore an artist who should continue to avoid the iTunes taxonomy and survive on a more personal perception. You can stop reading this review for a start.

‘Imagining My Man’ – Aldous Harding

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Aldous Harding releases Party on 19^th May – out via 4AD. For more on Aldous Harding, including tour info and online sales, visit www.aldousharding.com

For more from 4AD, visit www.4ad.com

November 21, 2016November 21, 2016

BREVIEW: Kristin Hersh @ The Glee Club 15.11.16

Words by Ed King / Pics by Ella Carman

You know it’s been a worthwhile night when you wake up with a broken tooth, fresh scars and a new album.

It defiantly started well, that I remember, with The Glee Club being comfortably full for ‘An Evening with Kristin Hersh’ – rows of theatre style seating, facing a solitary chair. The wine hits hard and I take my usual place at the back, spewing scribbles into a frayed notebook by the emergency lighting. I’m having problems with honesty at the moment and my visceral attachments to The Glee are almost too much to hide. At one point, before the end of the second song, I have to stand in a corner and wince.

Kristin Hersh saunters on stage to a soundtrack of her own music. The room gives a polite applause; a middle aged audience with folded arms, staring at something they revered in less formal days.

Without introduction Kristin Hersh starts playing a song I don’t know, jumping from frenetic finger picking to strong chords whilst recalling her friend’s advice “just don’t play any new songs, people hate new songs…” I don’t think we do, tonight at least, and with the release of Hersh’s third CD/book/essay combo coming out today – Wyatt at the Coyote Palace – I don’t think anyone in this room has much of a choice.

“On fire or underwater, your people are always there waiting for you to care”, Kristin Hersh reads with a cracked timbre and darkened authority, an excerpt from what I think is her new anthology. She sounds like Burroughs or someone who’s tired and facing a long story to get out of trouble; between the words and the music we are invited into the pages of a diary, never to be fully told why.

The set rolls from one confident pause to another, interspersed with songs and readings from Kirstin Hersh’s extensive back catalogue. It’s better that I thought it would be, or remember from Glastonbury back in the mid 90’s, and my friend is moving from shoulder shuffle to fully fledged dance. She’s not familiar with Kristin Hersh, 50FOOTWAVE or Throwing Muses, but has latched onto the “husky vocals” and that sit commandingly centre stage.

“…where the hookers hang out, models they call themselves”. Kristin Hersh explains soup. My friend talks about celery. The set marches on, goading itself from one place to another, from prose to lyric, as Hersh seems to make every extra sound she needs from six strings and raw vocal chords.

I start to feel a little awkward at the theatre seating. Not embarrassed, I gave up apologising for other people a long time ago, but aware that tonight might be better experienced in a huddle. An angry bald man a few rows in front agrees and walks over to us to say “SHUT UP FOR CHRIST’S SAKE” so he can go quietly back to his seat.

I’m usually the one telling someone else this. But tonight I’m that guy, I hate being that guy, but I guess that guy can’t always be that guy. Some days it has to be someone else. And as the other side of me is looking for furniture to throw I settle for ambivalence. I call the man back, explaining “there is no reasonable need for you to be so aggressive,” and keep one eye on the empty wine bottle by my foot. “…strange sounds in the dessert. Hippies never know when to go home.”

When the first, apprehensive lines of ‘Your Ghost’ roll of stage, I want to shout. My friend lets out a “whoop” but I don’t think she knows why. I think I do. I sing as she dances; the rows of crossed arms seemingly entrenched in only tacit appreciation. As ‘Your Dirty Answer’ allows me further opportunity to show off, I put my notebook away and make mental plot points for tonight’s review, knowing I’ll need to save some money for The Glee Club merchandise stall and most likely more wine. But most likely somewhere else.

Also, as a performer Kristin Hersh is so honest on stage I want to stop writing. Or, to never stop. I want to be clever, that’s my ego, and I want people to like me. To hear me. But my words and actions can be manipulative; I don’t feel as governed by the unflinching need for honesty as I used to. I don’t like where I am.

And I was worried about coming to The Glee Club tonight. I was worried about delving through such a personally pertinent portfolio, with too many reasons in this room to make me feel old and full of wasted time.

Maybe that’s why I bought a bottle instead of two glasses. Maybe that’s why I’m wearing this scarf. Maybe that’s why I’m standing up. Maybe that’s why I’m singing. And as I try to show how well I can deliver other people’s words, I remember the reasons why I wanted to be here and why not to feel so broken. I remember self worth and private memories.

I turn to my wide eyed, loud voiced, friend – smiling at the music she’s discovered – and repeat, “it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault you don’t love me…” She smiles and keeps dancing. I keep singing; we’re at play and it’s fun. But truthfully I’m talking to someone else.

For more on Kristin Hersh, visit www.kristinhersh.com

For more from The Glee Club, visit www.glee.co.uk

November 12, 2016

BPREVIEW: Kristin Hersh @ The Glee Club 15.11.16

Words by Ed King

On Tuesday 15^th November, ‘An Evening with Kristin Hersh’ comes to The Glee Club in Birmingham, where the singer/songwriter and author will present ‘songs and readings from works spanning her entire career.’

Doors open at 7pm with last entry at 7:45pm – tickets are priced at £17.50 + booking fee. For direct gig info & online ticket sales, click here.

So, this is the kind of gig to invite a preamble; let’s start at the beginning… (cue wavy dream sequence…)

Kristen Hersh and her bestie/step-sister, Tanya Donelly, pick up teenage guitars and form a duo. About a year later they recruit some schoolmates. A band grows. The name of the band grows. The name of the band shortens, and after meeting a couple of limey label execs Throwing Muses release their eponymous debut album. This is still the mid 80’s and Throwing Muses’ indie rock paves the way for further US signing to 4AD, including Pixies – a good few years before SubPop would sign Mudhoney and a couple of nihilists from Aberdeen.

Throwing Muses were heralded as a break to the norm; traditions and song structures be damned. Throwing Muses became a success, both critically and commercially, with Kristin Hersh writing the majority of the songs – lyrics that fused a still-water anger, folk storytelling, visceral self-dissection and a good old rock war cry.

Three albums later and Sister Donelly leaves to form and front Belly. Three albums later still, after ‘a band who’d leave me one by one’, and Sister Hersh goes solo – piping the final Muses’ LP to the post with her own debut album, Hips and Makers. Cue the single ‘Your Ghost’, cue Strings EP, two novels, a children’s book, eight further solo albums, and we’re queuing up for tickets to spend ‘An Evening with Kristin Hersh.’ And if I was to give you some more Google/Spotify fodder, Sunny Border Blue.

I should, also, not skip quite so quickly past the literature that Kristin Hersh has penned and produced: Toby Snax (2007), Rat Girl/Paradoxical Undressing (2010), Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt (2015). Truthfully, I’ve not read them, so it’s a little presumptuous to comment. But I can tell you the first is an illustrated children’s book, the second is about Hersh’s early touring days with Throwing Muses, and the third is a posthumous celebration about her friendship with singer/songwriter Vic Chestnut. And added to the ferocious honesty and habitual nature of Kristin Hersh’s musical accomplishments… well, fuck me.

Kristin Hersh has also released a triptych of book/CD combos, starting with Throwing Muses’ first studio album (including Sister Donelly) in a decade, Purgatory/Paradise (2013) – apparently named after a intersection on Rhode Island and not Dante’s infernal struggle. This collection was followed up with Hersh’s solo release, Crooked, in 2015.

The lasted installment is titled Wyatt at the Coyote Palace, an anthology of ‘essays and lyrics with two CD’s included’ – released as a hardback on 15^th November (the day of this gig) and named after the exploration of an abandoned building behind the studio the LP was recorded in. Wyatt is Kristin Hersh’s son.

So, that’s us all caught up then… kinda, sorta. 50FOOTWAVE. There you go.

The last time I saw Kristin Hersh was shortly after her solo debut, Hips and Makers, had been released; Hersh was playing in the New Bands tent at Glastonbury Festival. I think it was 1994, but it could have been a year later. Or even two. There were a lot of drugs in my system during the mid 90’s. But the girl-guitar on stage stuck in my mind, with a flicker of precocious excitement that I’d be able to see her perform again. Only took me about 20 years.

Plus this is ‘An Evening with…’ so I may get to extend my knowledge, with readings from her prose also being performed.

But in the interim, I ‘m going to leave you with an album track from the LP that started this solo machine. One of my favourites. So look down. Click. Listen. And I’ll see you next Tuesday..?

‘Me and My Charms’ – Kristin Hersh

An Evening with Kristin Hersh comes to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Tuesday 15^th November – alongside the release of Wyatt at the Coyote Palace. For direct gig info & online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/kristin-hersh

For more on Kristin Hersh, visit www.kristinhersh.com

For more from The Glee Club, visit www.glee.co.uk