BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17

BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham Review

 

 

 

Words by Ed King / Pics by Denise Wilson

On Wednesday 28th June, Miranda Lee Richards played at the Ort Café in Balsall Heath – with support from My Autumn Empire and Ryan Sparrow.

Traversing the Atlantic to tour our tiny isle, Richards is on the UK road promoting Existential Beast – the fourth LP in her portfolio and the second released via Invisible Hands Music, the UK based home of Tangerine Dream, Hugh Cornwell and now Miranda Lee.

BREVIEW: Ryan Sparrow – supporting Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham ReviewOrt is a good home too, one of our favourites. Just big enough to feel the safety of numbers; just small enough for an estate agent’s ‘…intimate’ up sell. Plus you’ll probably run into the band or artist that you’ve gone there to see, which whilst being an absurd obligation-by-proxy for the performer is useful when dragging a crowd off the sofa and into the suburbs.

I arrive at Ort in time to catch Ryan Sparrow “…just get on with it”, a local singer/songwriter and the first support act tonight. Lap guitar with slap tap percussion, confident, controlled; I only catch one song (indeed, the last) but pencil his name on ‘the list’. Watch out Mr Sparrow, we’re coming for you…BREVIEW: My Autumn Empire – supporting Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham Review

My Autumn Empire is the night’s second support act – the solo persona of ‘dream-pop experimentalists epic45’, or Ben as he’s called for short. Benjamin Thomas Holton is probably the safest/sanest middle ground, but my mind will now forever think of him as the bastard child of Neil Young and Message to Bears; sonorous vocals and jangly guitars, loops and peddles a plenty. Now what would our estate agent say… ‘atmospheric’.

“I’ll be playing from my last two records…” introduces Miranda Lee Richards, taking her place in front of the Ort crowd with seasoned confidence; intimate is not always a plus point, especially when there’s four of you in a corner.

BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham ReviewOpening with ‘Toyko’s Dancing’ – a melodic message of hope or dystopia (I could never quite work out which) from her 2016 LP, Echoes of the DreamtimeRichards’ voice lifts itself beautifully across the room. Her two guitar backing band (which makes three including her own) build a solid wall of Americana with country undertones, whist Sammy Smith picks up some equally beautiful harmonies. One track in; all is well.

‘On the Outside of Heaven’ picks up the pace next, with a lower range and tougher guitar punching out one of my favourite tracks from Richards’ more recent album. Then we’re BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham Reviewstraight into the “modern psychedelic trip” of ‘Lucid I Did Dream’ – another strong album track from Existential Beast, with a pretty superlative solo guitar from Randy Billings. Then back to Echoes… for ‘Colours So Fine’, more mellifluous vocals, guitar solos and melodies that boarder the addictive.

The most beautiful thing at play tonight is proficiency; Miranda Lee Richards and her band have absolute control over what their sound is, what it’s going to become and what they need to do to deliver it – even knowing “how many guitarist does it take to tune a twelve string?” (the correct answer beginning with, are we in Portugal?)

And Richards’ last two albums, released within eighteen months of each other, have shown a rounded development – two confident strides from a musician who you felt never wanted to run the majors’ race in the first place. Lyrically we’re heading more towards poetry than prose, which you could argue either way, but the overall feels immensely believable. An intelligent songwriter.

BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham ReviewHowever tonight’s set feels a touch like it’s suffering, which could be from the rigors road but could also be a tired dedication to a pitch perfect performance. There is a request to the sound desk in between each song, with an air of irritation at things most stages will have to contest with. Ha, what a criticism – stop being so good you meticulous creative. But as an audience member in a small room I want to be brought in, not just allowed.

BREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17 / Denise Wilson - Birmingham ReviewThe rest of the set moves from the country confessions of ‘Blood on My Hands’, through the “medieval folk… a template for a story” of ‘Oh Raven’, to the title and neighbor album tracks of Existential Beast – aspects of ‘Autumn Sun’ reminding me so much of ‘Thirteen’ I’ve been singing the Elliot Smith song all week. Well the second verse anyway.

Our encore begins with ‘Ashes and Seeds’ – the confident opening track to Existential Beast, and closes with a track I couldn’t cite retrospectively. Although I wish it had been ‘Golden Gate’.

But the walls warm up, the room stretches out, and after being reminded to “stay for a drink afterwards” half the room falls into the relaxed punch drunk camaraderie of a successful Christmas, albeit one spent at someone else’s house. Not a bad outcome for a 10,000 mile round trip; now’s where’s the corkscrew in this kitchen…

‘Lucid I Would Dream’ – Miranda Lee Richards

For more on Miranda Lee Richards, visit www.mirandaleerichards.com

For more from My Autumn Empire, visit www.myautumnempire.co.uk

For more from Ryan Sparrow, visit www.ryansparrowmusic.co.uk

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For more from Ort Cafe, including a full events programme and online ticket sales, visit www.ortcafe.co.uk

For more for Birmingham Promoters, visit http://www.birminghampromoters.com/

BPREVIEW: Miranda Lee Richards @ Ort Café 28.06.17

Words by Ed King

On Wednesday 28th June, Miranda Lee Richards performs an ‘acoustic trio’ set at Ort Café, with support from My Autumn Empire + Ryan Sparrow.  

Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets priced at £6 (advance) – as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

‘Richards sang in school choir, but didn’t consider playing music professionally until a chance meeting with Kirk Hammett of Metallica, who taught her how to play Mazzy Star songs on guitar.’

OK, so I’ll just stop there. And the award for Best Line in a Press Release goes to….

But a hybrid of ruthless American rock and the opiate haze of Hope Sandoval is not a bad summary, albeit somewhat esoteric. The more tangible outcomes of this encounter (queue lazy writer Beauty and the Beast references) are four studio albums and a bunch of EPs, with Miranda Lee Richards’ latest long player, Existential Beast, released via Invisible Hands Music in June this year.

Initially signing to Virgin Records, Miranda Lee Richards released her debut album, The Hearafter, in 2001. Having been a vocalist with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, a model in Paris, and reached the Top 5 in Japan with her single ‘The Long Goodbye’, you’d think this would be an A&R wet dream. But the partnership with the major was not to last and ‘following a non self-imposed hiatus after parting ways with Virgin’ (Best Supporting Line in a Press Release goes to…) Richards signed with the Terry McBride brainchild, Nettwerk – releasing her Early November EP in 2008. Delivering a darker sound to the lighter Americana of her debut, Richards would stay with Nettwerk to further release her sophomore LP, Light of X, in 2009.

We’d have to wait over six years for more new material, but in January 2016 Miranda Lee Richards released her eight track Echoes of the Dreamtime through Invisible Hands Music. Her first release on the UK based independent, this was followed up just over a year later with Richards’ fourth studio album – Existential Beast. 

“It is a political album to the core,” explains Richards, “examining the issues of our time, but with an intent of tackling these difficult and sometimes taboo subjects in a poetic and heartfelt manner. The title is also a mash-up of terms, referencing the existential crisis that has in turn arisen. In essence, we are all still working with animal urges of fear, competition, survival, sexuality, which are deep-seated and manifesting in varying ways and degrees for different individuals, depending on where one is at.” 

“A more endearing outlook may be to see this as an assignment working with the inner child, who at times can behave like a wild beast. But like it or not, these tendencies have been revealed, within our leaders, our countries, and ourselves; it is indeed a pivotal and transformational time and there is much work to be done.”

‘Lucid I Would Dream’ – Miranda Lee Richards

Miranda Lee Richards performs at Ort Café on Wednesday 28th June, with support from My Autumn Empire + Ryan Sparrow – as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For direct event info, click here. 

For more on Miranda Lee Richards, visit www.mirandaleerichards.com

For more from My Autumn Empire, visit www.myautumnempire.co.uk

For mroe from Ryan Sparrow, visit www.ryansparrowmusic.co.uk

______________

For more from Ort Cafe, including a full events programme and online ticket sales, visit www.ortcafe.co.uk

For more for Birmingham Promoters, visit www.birminghampromoters.com

ALBUM: Binary – Ani DiFranco

ALBUM: Binary - Ani DiFranco

Words by Ed King / Pics by Katja Ogrin – taken at The Glee Club for Birmingham Review

On Friday 9th June, Ani DiFranco releases her latest studio album, Binary – out on Righteous Babe Records and Aveline Records.

Touring the UK, Ani DiFranco will be performing at the Birmingham Town Hall on 30th June. Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets priced at £28 (+booking fee) – for direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Ani DiFranco’s twentieth solo studio album… just let that sink in for a while, Binary is rooted in the principle ‘that nothing can truly exist except in relationship with something else.’ As Flaubert propagated, truth is just an individual’s perception of the subject. So we’re all right and all wrong. Kinda.

Galvanized by the seesaw co-dependency of most modern democracies, Ani DiFrancio has given Big ‘P’ politics an unashamed spotlight on her latest LP – turning her attention to the machinations and administrations that control everything from foreign policy to what a woman can do with her body (check the video to ‘Play God’ below). None of these topics are ever off the table with DiFranco, but the shift that Binary makes is about being more than just a personal context – and this, to a member of the post Pax Britannica generation, self publishing on the day a duel of fear and anger filled rhetoric ended in a hung parliament, feels like a pertinent move.

Ani DiFranco @ The Glee Club 17.09.14 / Katja Ogrin - Birmingham ReviewThe title track opens the album and outlines this concept, with some Latin beat percussion to hold your hand along the way (I think Maceo Parker is in there too but I haven’t got an inlay card to check). Next up the six string story returns with ‘Pacifist’s Lament’, as DiFranco and a subtle horn section implore us to “stop in the middle of a battle and say you’re sorry” and not run to the solitary ideology of our “prime evil caves”. Love your neighbor, I guess. Even when you don’t like the colour of their pin badge.

There’s some beautiful production on Binary as a whole, with the ‘Little Folksinger’ of albums past embracing a wider ensemble for a much richer sound. Nothing new with this (circa Knuckle Down, at least) and whilst I’ll always be a fan of the raw edge this recording room maturity gives weight to the message Binary is delivering. And track three, the dreamlike ‘Zizzing’, reminds me of The Velvet Underground’s outtake homage to the big blue… never a bad thing. That and our responsibility to (and culpability for) the ever crumbling world.

The problem with politics defining an album, is just that; at best you sound like a garrulous soapbox, at worst you give birth to a one sided manifesto that has no recourse for debate. Most land in the middle.

Ani DiFranco @ The Glee Club 17.09.14 / Katja Ogrin - Birmingham ReviewBut what DiFranco has done with Binary is healthier – challenging the predisposition that one side is ever right in absolute and championing the call, even need, for collaborative evolution. To quote the title track: “Consciousness is binary, consciousness is spinning. Consciousness is a circuit when consciousness is winning”. Be they thoughts or mandates, be they liberal or conservative (small caps), if you only listen to one voice then you are pandering to autocracy. It’s that simple.

So Binary is an album that everyone can enjoy, or appreciate, or at least sink their DiFranco dentures into; wherever you want to shove the Electoral College or Northern Ireland Assembly, there’s a seat at this table.

What you make of Binary musically is, of course, up to you. As it should be; as it needs to be. But honestly I’ve only had a chance to listen to the album a few times and would need more plays to make an informed declaration.

Although, in my opinion…

‘Play God’ – Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco releases Binary on 9th June, through Righteous Babe Records and Aveline Records. Ani DiFranco will be performing at the Birmingham Town Hall on 30th June – for direct gig info, click here.

For more on Ani DiFranco and the wider Righteous Babe roster, visit www.righteousbabe.com

For more from the Town & Symphony Halls, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.thsh.co.uk