What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (VOL V)

Everybody should hear this album at least once as it is the most strikingly original recording I have heard in years. Quite often song writers play safe, but Basia Bulat's music is like of torrent of passion encapsulated in a musical setting. I'm inclined to say the original Rough Trade album works best without the additional track - In The Night - but then again why not have it between the first collection of songs and the next.

Basia is a singer-songwriter from London, Ontario, who now lives in Toronto (home of the wonderful Martha and the Muffins). Basia recorded Oh My Darling, which was engineered and produced by Howard Bilerman at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal. Howard Bilerman produced Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Arcade Fire, but don’t hold that against him. Basia is not from the earnest female singer/songwriter school - this is music for music’s sake and it’s great. Recording her debut album in Arcade Fire’s studio means comparisons are unavoidable and you do get that 'what on earth is this?' feeling when you first hear Basia.

Put simply Oh My Darling is folk-rock album with some jazz overtones and some superb string orchestration and a touch of ragtime. Basia's vocals are viscous and full-bodied. Her chamber-folk orchestra includes her brother Bobby on drums, Dave on viola, Holly on backing vocals, percussion and ukulele, Seo-Jin on violin, Sebastian on cello, Stephanie on piano and Jay on guitar.

True I’m often excited by great new music; but I believe this to be the best album I have heard in years. Obviously, HMHB are my favourite band and from the 80s onwards restored my faith in popular music, a genre that I believed was becoming forever lost amidst the dross of disco, new romantics and boy-bands. In the 90s some other bands came along to shake things up a bit and give popular music new life (most notably Garbage). The 00s seem to have found the resurgence of great popular music especially for somebody like me who likes the influence of folk music on today’s culture. So whereas, in the 80s Martha and the Muffins This Is The Ice Age stood out from the crowd, it was not nearly so easy for a record to stand head and shoulders above the rest in 2007. Basia’s Oh My Darling is the one record that achieves this. I must have listened to it 100 times since I bought it and it is surely one the most played records in my collection.

Basia’s music and her performance is never pedestrian. There is always great attack in every part of every song. Every musician that contributes seems as if he or she really means it and believes that are participating in something special. However, this music is not self indulgent, it doesn’t sound like somebody singing from an experience of being put through the mill. It does not try to put across any message or explain how awful life is. It's pretty music, catchy and played with pace, rhythm and timing. The songs are short and there is no padding, no pyrotechnics (not that I mind a bit of pyrotechnics) nor repetitions. When a song is done then it’s done.

Basia's bitter-sweet little gems are enhanced by delicate string arrangements, urgent drumming and lovely little touches like Katie Saunoris' flute cameo on The Pilgriming Vine. The songs here are so unusually put together that they become addictive - the brief opening track Before I Knew being a case in point. Beginning with a simple ukulele, it incorporates handclaps and harmonies and is finished in just over a minute. The fact that it leads into the wondrous, Tilly And The Wall-like percussion heavy standout of I Was A Daughter just makes it all the more listenable.

Then there's Basia's voice - sometimes fragile and whispy, and at other times strong and passionate, she can sound heartbreaking on the samba arrangement of the aching Why Can't It Be Mine, or urgent and imploring on the fantastic Snakes And Ladders. The latter in fact is possibly one of the tracks of the year, mixing plinking piano chords and a haunting string section to create something quite beautiful.

Maybe Oh My Darling won't be for everyone - she may not break into the mainstream, but it's refreshing to hear a songwriter unafraid to take risks and not settle for the 'family favourite' spot on the Terry Wogan show.

In fact, there's not a duff track on Oh My Darling. By the time that ukulele reappears on the closing track A Secret, the first thing you'll want to do is play the album again. One of the debuts of 2007 - of any year.

Before I Knew
I Was A Daughter
Little Waltz
December
Snakes And Ladders
Oh, My Darling
Little One
Why Can't It Be Mine
The Pilgriming Vine
La-Da-Da
Birds Of Paradise
A Secret

One of the many great things about the album is the way the drums are played on songs like Snakes and Ladders. They hurtle at double-speed, ratatat-tat, chasing the singer breathless. So many female songwriters take-it-always-easy, languishing in slow piano chords and then the occasional strident bit. Here it's like the band (Basia, drums, strings) are throwing themselves down a hill, feet scarcely keeping up with their feelings, this close to tumbling head-over-heels into something. And indeed so it is: It's the way we come undone / what a perfect accident / oh we danced around them all / like we didn't even notice / oh / at the way we'd come undone.

The last song recorded for the Oh My Darling sessions was The Pilgriming Vine - what a great song to end on as it conjures up thoughts of Christmas lights twinkling, when in through the door troops a marching band - bass-drum, cymbal, flute, string section, a guy with a piano balanced on his open palm. And suddenly they know exactly where the song's headed, where it ought to be headed, the path that leads from the girl and her acoustic guitar, hopes in hand, to the moment at 2:55 when with her voice doubled-up we hear every trembling angle of what we're all waiting for: Tell me I'm always your Only / Down by the maypole. If you go.

I borrowed some of the words from other commentators, but I agree with them all.

I wonder if her next album will be as good.

ATB Rotf

Why might anyone be interested?
To gain a seconds relief from the inanity that is our existence upon this world. Maybe I have been listening to too much Peter Hammill?

I'd seen this singer mentioned in this room but I hadn't heard her so I borrowed this from my sister.

Guitars, guitars, guitars.
I remember Adam once underlining the different kind of approach to music that people can have.
Those who play an instrument and those that do not.
Having started playin' guitar at the age of 13 i have somehow and often more fun in listening to records that are pure guitar acts.
Electric guitar in particular.
I guess it's a kind of imprinting promoted by the young age and the fact that a guitar was in the house and close at hand.
So sometimes i buy records like this.
Nothing transcendental and surely not the record that will win the contest of time and yes, sometimes i have to look for it under hundreds more that lie on the floor.
But here we have 12 honest tracks that recall different flavours and possible settings.
Here you can find a list of records where Bennett played and those he produced:
http://www.richard-bennett.com/

This is my first foray into some of the more current jazz I often see posted here. First play coming up!

How could I not after that impassioned plea from ROTF?

Sometimes, just sometimes, one wonders if Lily Allen is a fan?

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Thought i would give this its first play through the Active SBLs.

It sounded great before.
But now, I have John live in my room.

Active SBLs??????????????
Now i am really envious!!!!!!


Stu.
Take a trip in Youtube under Steve Jordan.
He's a great guy!

These are good news!

What makes a good record?

Funky!

Good pedigree here and surprisingly hdcd to boot, nice blues chugging along here

The shape of jazz to come?

quote:

Originally posted by Voltaire:


This is my first foray into some of the more current jazz I often see posted here. First play coming up!

Gordon - how did you get on with it?

Because Cale is never far of the mark for me, and he's hit the bullseye here

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:

I often find that some of the best musical experiences happen when I am actually on the move. I have played some albums recently that were just so right for the journey I was on.

I last played this album some 15 months back whilst driving from Melbourne to Sydney having just picked up the CD in a record store in Wangaratta. Have not played it since until I saw ROTF's write up this evening. So thought I would try it on the 5.32 out of London Victoria.

It is all very pleasant but it is not music that grabs me in the way described up above. Maybe it is not music for travelling to and instead to be listened to sitting in front of the system so will try it one more time on the main rig to see whether it grabs me.

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:


The shape of jazz to come?

What do you think of this disc Nigel?

Listening to miles benjamin anthony robinson here.. This follows a SXSW wrap up programme on npr's all songs considered. One of the presenters thought he was great. Some acoustic stripped down bluesy americana stuff but way more than that on his myspace. As a weak comparison think of Ray Lamontagne/Connor Oberst. Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio people are in his band and produce I think.

"I'm not sure that I want to stay alive / it's so expensive, it's cheap to die"

Very good and playing this country of England and Scotland in May.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:


The shape of jazz to come?

What do you think of this disc Nigel?

Sounds excellent, but then I'm a fan of Wollny. Exhilarating versions of Hexentanz and the Chaconne, with some lovely delicate playing going on around them. Must get Tarantella by Lars Daniellson - I saw Stefan (and you?) ravi ng about it the other night.

Cheers
Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:

Sounds excellent, but then I'm a fan of Wollny. Exhilarating versions of Hexentanz and the Chaconne, with some lovely delicate playing going on around them. Must get Tarantella by Lars Daniellson - I saw Stefan (and you?) ravi ng about it the other night.

Cheers
Nigel

Tarantella is very good. I have the Wollny album but have not found the time to play it properly yet. Will try tomorrow night.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
On the Black Stuff.

This album has never sounded so good.

Listening to my new Fear of a Blank Planet tour CD

Ilosaarirock

March 2009 Transmission 10.1

Tracks
1. Intro (2.02)
2. Fear Of A Blank Planet (7.32)
3. Lightbulb Sun (6.04)
4. Open Car (5.59)
5. Anesthetize (17.23)
6. Blackest Eyes (5.18)
7. Way Out of Here (7.43)
8. Sleep Together (8.52)
9. Trains (5.59)
10. Halo (7.20)

Recorded live at Ilosaarirock Festival, Finland on 14th July 2007, includes the band's complete performance remixed from the multitrack recording made by Finnish radio. Sent out only to members of the Residents of a Blank Planet ticketing club, not available elsewhere.

Stu - you'll need to join ROABP to get a copy.

after a pleasant double concert with Esmeralda Spalding and Triband

the brilliant

quote:

Originally posted by sjust:
after a pleasant double concert with Esmeralda Spalding and Triband

the brilliant

Stefan - I found this one of his more difficult to like albums. I should probably give it another listen to see if I like it better the second time.

Both are good records in their own right. The Kühn / Wollny is a milestone in my books. It is not easy listening, but has so much to offer each time I play it (in small chunks). Incredible interaction. A gift was made tht this was released - unplanned before.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:

Sounds excellent, but then I'm a fan of Wollny. Exhilarating versions of Hexentanz and the Chaconne, with some lovely delicate playing going on around them. Must get Tarantella by Lars Daniellson - I saw Stefan (and you?) ravi ng about it the other night.

Cheers
Nigel

Tarantella is very good. I have the Wollny album but have not found the time to play it properly yet. Will try tomorrow night.

Partially agreed, Adrian, but I like very much this concept of having several people play the same instruments (bass and drums), which is the case, here. Disturbing, challenging and attracting my interest and attention.

Also, just for the sake of moving on and doing something different, this gets credit points from my side. With each "new" Keith Jarrett Trio disc, I am reminded that other people try out things, some times

cheers
Stefan

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by sjust:
after a pleasant double concert with Esmeralda Spalding and Triband

the brilliant

Stefan - I found this one of his more difficult to like albums. I should probably give it another listen to see if I like it better the second time.