Ryley Walker – Whelans – Gig Review – 16-04-17

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2017/04/18/ryley-walker-whelans-gig-review-16-04-17/

Peter Broderick – Grunewald – Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2016/12/30/peter-broderick-grunewald-review/

Ryley Walker – Whelans – 2-05-16 – Live Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2016/05/03/ryley-walker-whelans-2-05-16-live-review/

Peter Broderick – Colours of the Night – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/05/11/peter-broderick-colours-of-the-night-album-review/

Album Review: Peter Broderick | http://www.itstartshear.com

Review for www.meg.ie http://www.meg.ie/peter-broderick-httpwww-itstartshear-com/

Album Review: Peter Broderick | Music for Confluence

Review for www.meg.ie

http://www.meg.ie/peter-broderick-music-for-confluence/

Preview: Most anticipated albums of 2012

I’m very excited about the year ahead, particularly the few weeks between late January and February which are going to make me very poor indeed. In no time at all this is bound to be wrong, but here goes:

Barry Adamson
The new year looks set to kick off with a bang with Barry Adamson’s new album, I Will Set You Free due on January 30th. The ex-Magazine and Bad Seeds bassist has previewed one track, Destination which sounds just like Berlin period Iggy Pop, and that’s good enough for me.

RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost and Found
Due out on January 30th, RM Hubbert’s second album Thirteen Lost and Found sounds like a real Scottish collective, produced as it is by Alex Kapranos and featuring guest appearances from Aidan Moffat amongst others.

Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Leonard Cohen’s first album in 8 years, Old Ideas recorded last year should be worth hearing judging by the previewed Show Me The Place, Cohen’s voice has deepened to Tom Waits proportions. It’s due Jan 30th.

Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral
Mark Lanegan has been a serial collaborator over the last 8 years but 6th February will see his first solo album since 2004’s Bubblegum, Blues Funeral (a satirist’s choice for a Lanegan album title), featuring contributions from regulars Josh Homme and Greg Dulli. Lead single The Gravedigger’s Song appears to be fairly standard issue Lanegan, both in sound and title, with added electronic pulsing. In related, but not strictly speaking Lanegan news Soulsavers are supposed to have a new album out next year with Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode doing vocals. This is not as big a surprise as you might think, given that Soulsavers supported Depeche Mode on their last tour.

The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
The Twilight Sad eject the baby and the bathwater for No One Can Ever Know which judging by first single Sick is a total change in sound, relying less on heavy guitars and more on programmed beats. This one is due out February 6th.

Tindersticks – The Something Rain
Tindersticks have a new album landing on February 20th, and judging by one of the tracks, the bossa-nova style Medicine, it’s well in keeping with previous material without being reheated leftovers.

Peter Broderick – http://www.itstartshear.com
After 2011’s Music for Confluence, Peter Broderick has a song-based album due on February 20th also, the bafflingly-titled http://www.itstartshear.com. Could this be the first album with a URL as a title? The link will have artwork, lyrics, credits etc for the release.

Queens of the Stone Age expect to have an album ready for release “early next year”, and Morrissey is said to have a new album ready for release once he hooks up with a record company. A song-based album from Dakota Suite, You Can Leave But You’ll Never Make It Home will hopefully emerge and Mark Eitzel has an acoustic album The Bill Is Due in the works.

The National are writing “more immediate and visceral” material according to singer Matt Berninger, Lloyd Cole is collaborating with Roedelius on an instrumental album (Plastic Wood 2?) and is also talking about another Negatives album which would be very welcome. Aidan Moffat says he has “at least two albums planned for next year”, while Portishead will be working on a new album. Pearl Jam should start work on a follow-up to Backspacer and you never know, Neil Young may finally release another instalment of his Archives series. But I'm not holding my breath.

Preview: most anticipated albums of 2011

2011 is already shaping up to be a good year for albums. The following is just what I know about, doubtless there are things I’ve missed, or some of this may not materialize:

Dakota Suite & Emanuele Errante – North Green Down

This is scheduled for release on January 14th, so first out of the blocks for this one. It’s another album of classical pieces. I have heard the title track (which also featured on live album Vallisa) which is a filmic, piano-led piece perfect for January contemplation. Would be nice to get a ‘singer-songwriter’ album with Chris Hooson playing some guitar. As far as I know there is one in the works, You Can Leave But You’ll Never Make It Home Again, due next autumn. Also in progress are The Hearts of Empty, an ambient/late night counterpoint to 2008’s The End of Trying, recorded with David Buxton, and The Side of Her Inexhaustible Heart, four pieces to be recorded with composer Quentin Sirjacq featuring string quartet, clarinet and celeste. Looks to me that Chris’ heart is really in the classical side of his work at the moment.

Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Due out February 14th (how romantic) the next Mogwai has a typically uncompromising title. They have released Rano Pano for fans like myself to have a listen. This one is rather upbeat, in the mould of The Sun Smells Too Loud from their last album, The Hawk Is Howling, though there’s some healthy distortion going on. Hopefully the whole album won’t be in the same vein, as I do like to use Mogwai to soundtrack a good brooding session.

Low – C’mon (?)

It’s been a while since Drums and Guns, Low’s last album, released in 2007. This one was a major departure for the band, with percussion and sampling a lot more prominent. What’s good about this band is that, having looked a few years ago like they were in danger of painting themselves into a corner, they now have torn up the formula with 2 very different albums, The Great Destroyer and the aforementioned Drums and Guns. Alan Sparhawk has also been indulging his classic rock side on his work with Retribution Gospel Choir.

Twilight Sad

High expectations of these Scottish guys after 2009’s storming second album, the MBV-influenced Forget the Night Ahead. Personally I’d be very happy with more of the same, but it looks like they have moved on a bit with 2010’s epic Eastern influenced The Wrong Car single. They have also done some interesting remixes of older material with fellow Scots Errors and Mogwai. I just hope they don’t stray too far into the epic, stadium-oriented territory that The Wrong Car dips its toe into.

And So I Watch You From Afar

Next year is shaping up to be a big year for Derry’s finest, capitalizing on the excellent Letters EP and some chaotic live shows. Recent single Straight Through The Sun downplays their heavy distorted side, leaving them sounding like A Little Solidarity Goes A Long Way off their first album or a proggy Queens of the Stone Age. I expect more brain-crushing riffs on their second album.

Peter Broderick

Next year should see the delayed (through injury) follow up to 2008’s Home. Broderick can turn his hand to piano pieces, acoustic folk, classical and experimental music. Previously these elements were kept apart on separate albums and side-projects, but hoping to see them all coalesce on his next.

Others of note: Mark Eitzel will be doing a ‘strictly acoustic album’, the Horrors are recording their third album. Thurston Moore is recording a solo album Benediction with doppelganger Beck. Hopefully it’ll be in the vein of excellent previous solo album Trees Outside the Academy, which had an acoustic feel but still allowed for some electrics.

Lloyd Cole will be recording an instrumental album with Joachim Roedelius of Cluster, probably in the vein of 2001’s Plastic Wood and Queens of the Stone Age are going into studio to record a hopefully much improved follow up to Era Vulgaris, though Josh Homme may be distracted with his non-involvement in the Kyuss reunion.

On the reissue front, Neil Young is planning to release Archives 2, which hopefully will contain some of his unreleased albums from his prolific mid-seventies period. Rumoured are Homegrown, a somewhat downbeat album which was shelved in favour of Tonight’s the Night; Oceanside-Countryside, an acoustic version of 1978’s Comes A Time; and Chrome Dreams, some of which surfaced on the second side of American Stars n Bars. Hopefully they will be available on a reasonably priced CD set rather than some expensive box format.

And I haven’t mentioned Radiohead!

Top 10 albums of 2010

10. Warpaint - The Fool

9. The Phantom Band - The Wants

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/11/album-review-phantom-band-wants.html

8. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Road OST

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/01/album-review-nick-cave-warren-ellis.html

7. Peter Broderick - How They Are

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/09/album-review-peter-broderick-how-they.html

6. Tindersticks - Falling Down A Mountain

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/02/album-review-tindersticks-falling-down.html

5. Neil Young - Le Noise

Who'd have thought that this feedback drenched solo album would be a return to form for Neil Young? Even when the noise is off for a track or 2, it works.

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/10/album-review-neil-young-le-noise.html

4. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Hawk

Look past the dull title to another strong chapter in this pair's collaboration.

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/08/album-review-isobel-campbell-mark.html

3. Lloyd Cole - Broken Record

The comeback of the year. Edge is gone, but an addictively relaxed collection of country-rock.

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/10/album-review-lloyd-cole-broken-record.html

2. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

An austere collection of icy finger picking, perfect for wintry mornings.

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/08/album-review-sun-kil-moon-admiral-fell.html

1. The National - High Violet

Not an original choice. But unignorable. Any doubts were dispelled by an incendiary live show. A collection of songs which on paper shouldn't instill euphoria but actually do.

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2010/05/album-review-national-high-violet.html

Album Review: Peter Broderick – Home

Peter Broderick has released a lot of music for a young fellow. This 2008 album was his first in the ‘singer-songwriter’ vein. On the face of it, it’s fairly unremarkable acoustic music. Yet it has some undefined quality which makes it stand out from the rest of the acoustic rabble.

Broderick is classically trained and plays all the instruments and provides all vocals here. Second track, And It’s Alright is typical of most of the songs here. It gently unfurls, with a deceptively simple melody over a gorgeous picked guitar. With The Notes In My Ears, Below It and Not At Home are also examples of this style, and equally good.

He also does a couple of instrumentals which use similar elements. The best of these is probably the six minute Sickness, Bury which starts with sparse, picked guitar before being joined by banjo and keyboard. The tune creates an unsettling atmosphere, sounding like it could soundtrack a journey over a wide expanse. Shards of electric guitar and percussion are thrown in, and even when the brief, wordless vocals come in, it maintains the tense atmosphere.

Later in the album, Maps is a bit of a departure in that it starts out as a plainly sung acoustic track before adding electric guitar midway through and building up to a choral climax, all celestial vocals and crashing cymbals.

It’s a charming bunch of songs, which I think holds the key to why this album stands out – songwriting.

Concert Review: Peter Broderick at the Pavilion, Cork, October 20th 2010

An odd thing to do on a midweek night, drive to Cork to see a gig. Still a good friend of mine lives in Cork so it was a good chance to catch up. Little did I realise that I was going to a gig with 3 Peter Broderick groupies! The venue is cool, an intimate converted theatre.

The first band were Ambience Affair, who showed some nice instrumentation, almost shoegazer-y, though they were let down by the singers Glen Hansard-style shouty vocals. Next on was Tsukimono, a "Swedish guy with a Japanese name" as he said himself. He peddled a glitchy brand of electronica which reminded me of Christian Fennesz.

Meanwhile Peter Broderick had passed us a few times in the crowd, and shortly afterwards he came on stage. He started his set standing rigid with the song Sideline (from How They Are), which is acapella for the first minute or so. A courageous way to open the show.

Broderick is a talented multi-instrumentalist, and he played a fine piano on Pulling the Rain. After a brief interlude where a saw was produced (!), he reverted to guitar for Not At Home, even at one point entering the crowd playing the fiddle.

He even managed to play the piano and the guitar simultaneously during Guilt's Tune. A bit of a show-off maybe but all the while he was backed up by some very strong songs, both on guitar and on piano. It will be interesting to see how he develops from here.

Album Review: Peter Broderick – How They Are

Peter Broderick is an American musician/composer in his early twenties who has played with Efterklang but also has released a considerable amount of music. Some of it is classical pieces, and some is fairly conventional singer-songwriter stuff. This is more of a ‘mini-album’ as it features only 7 tracks.

The first track, Sideline, opens with just his voice for the first 2 minutes. His singing voice is somewhat unremarkable, making the moment when the piano joins quite welcome! Actually it’s a good track, which works well as does following track, the oddly titled Human Eyeballs on Toast, which is also piano-led, and a deceptively cheerful vocal from Broderick, as the subject matter sounds far from cheery! His vocal reminds me of Nick Drake, or Irish singer-songwriter Paul O’Reilly.

He has a wonderful light touch which makes his songs sound kind of slight and simple at first, but they pull you in. He puts this into play with a great, ‘sketchy’ guitar on Guilt’s Tune, which also features piano but no actual singing, he merely speaks the lyrics on this one. When I’m Gone and Pulling the Rain are piano instrumentals, very fine pieces indeed, particularly the latter, which is as stately and refined a piano piece as one could hope to hear in 2010.

Final track, Hello to Nils has no piano, just Broderick’s guitar, which is a nice closing track, probably the most conventional on the album with a proper chorus (“I say goodbye too often”).

The whole album has a kind of onset of winter feel to it. It’s fine music. If you like his album Home, which is one of his more accessible albums, this is almost as accessible.

Review of the Decade - Part 1: New names

Here I go then, jumping on the end of decade/best of articles, just like everyone else. Here is a snapshot of new bands in this decade.

The older I get the less easily I discover new music, but the early part of this decade threw up a few. Doves released their debut, Lost Souls in 2000, a welcome dose of widescreen Manchester misery, following in the downtrodden footsteps of Joy Division and the Smiths. In a similar vein, Elbow released their debut, Asleep in the Back in 2001. Though Doves’ album was the more impressive, by the end of the decade it was Elbow who had gained the plaudits, helped in no small way by their Mercury Prize win in 2008. In my view neither has surpassed their debut, indeed, Doves’ subsequent albums seemed to consciously move away from it.

On the Irish front, David Kitt emerged in 2000 with a series of low key, goose-bump inducing gigs and a wonderful mini-album, Small Moments, showcasing his soft vocals, acoustic guitar and electronic beats. Subsequent albums (and gigs) went for a bigger sound, and ultimately diminishing returns. Word is that he is playing with Tindersticks now.

Gemma Hayes’s debut album Night on my Side was an interesting blend of Nick Drake-esque acoustic folk and rougher pop with shades of My Bloody Valentine. Unfortunately the record company got hold of her and airbrushed any roughness out of her music, and her follow-up albums concentrated on smooth pop, much less endearing.

Mark Kozelek junked his Red House Painters band name and re-emerged under the name Sun Kil Moon. It wasn’t a major departure from RHP, though it did give him the freedom to be even more indulgent, with long-drawn out Crazy Horse style rockers and pretty acoustic tracks on the albums Ghost of Great Highway and April. His songwriting remained as strong as ever, which is why it was somewhat of a surprise to hear his cover album of Modest Mouse tracks, Tiny Cities. I guess it can be filed alongside his ACDC cover albums.

Mark Lanegan evolved from tortured solo artist to serial collaborator. Apart from 2 solo albums, he also found time to guest on Queens of the Stone Age albums, record 2 albums of largely folky tracks with Isobel Campbell, collaborate with Greg Dulli as the Gutter Twins, and interestingly appear as lead vocalist on 2 albums by electronica duo Soulsavers. His singing remains as strong as ever, irrespective of the backing, truly a great voice of the decade.

The National began life in 2001 with an unremarkable country-tinged self-titled album. Happily, this template was blown out of the water by 2003’s Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. The title says everything to me about their music, describing it a lot better than I can. While they have been compared with Tindersticks, Morrissey and other ‘miserabilists’, singer Matt Berninger proved a more varied vocalist on this album, letting rip on a couple of songs. They fine-tuned this further again on the follow ups, Alligator and Boxer. In my view, best new band of the decade.

The Strokes got a lot of attention for their debut, 2001’s Is This It, which distilled a New York attitude, reminding many of Television’s Marquee Moon. And pretty damn good it was too, 11 shortish songs delivered in half an hour. Their follow up albums didn’t quite deliver on the first. It was a similar story with Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights, their debut released in 2002 was a great collection of songs, drawing heavily on Joy Division. They also spawned a series of imitators of the imitators (Editors, Boy Division, can’t believe it’s not Ian Curtis… ok I made the last 2 up but they’ll probably mean more than the bands who did actually surface).

After the demise of alt-country band Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams launched his solo career with the critically acclaimed Heartbreaker. He spent the decade recording and releasing as many albums in as many different styles as he could, some brilliant (Love Is Hell, 29), others less so (Rock N Roll). Although he was inclined to annoy with his interviews, erratic live shows and general attention-seeking, he has proved himself above all else to be a talented songwriter.

Woven Hand sprung from the ashes of 16 Horsepower. While not a huge departure, if 16 Horsepower were fire and brimstone, Woven Hand were burning embers for the most part. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, essentially Bible bashing Goth with Americana overtones but it does. Their self-titled debut set the template for future albums, all in a similar vein.

Towards the end of the decade, Peter Broderick emerged from the shadow of Efterklang, releasing beautifully crafted albums of alternately classical and acoustic music, though I suspect the next decade will see him release something definitive.