Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear & Live At Heaven 21/10/09

For those at the back of the class Bad Lieutenant are New Order's Bernard Sumner and Phil Cunningham's new project along with Jake Evans. Bad Lieutenant's sound, with a casual listen does come across like latter day New Order, but closer examination reveals there is a lot more going on. Judge for yourself.

On the album "Never Cry Another Tear" they are joined by Blur's Alex James and New Order/Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris, who both appear strictly as guests only. However, Morris has been playing live shows with the group. But more about that shortly.

I have discussed Bad Lieutenant here before and I was quite dismissive about them, to say the least. However, time is a healer, or something, the single "Sink Or Swim" is real grower, and the vast majority of the album is well listenable and as good as any of New Orders 1990s and beyond output.

The key tracks for me are "Twist Of Fate", "Summer Days", "This Is Home". "Shine Like The Sun", "Runaway" and the title track. Vocal duties are shared by Sumner and Evans. The latter has a slight Noel Gallagher sound about his voice, not such a bad thing, if given the choice between Noel and his ghastly brother Liam.

The live show at the famous London gay club Heaven was a triumph, with the core trio joined by Stephen Morris on drums and an unnamed gentleman on bass, yet despite playing tracks by New Order - "Crystal", "Temptation" and acoustic version of one of the best dance tracks songs ever committed to vinyl - "Bizarre Love Triangle", Joy Division's "Transmission", "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - all great but I have heard them hundreds of times before - along with a Electronic track and a Bernard Sumner guested Chemical Brothers track - I was left wanted to hear more Bad Lieutenant material, which for me spoke volumes.

Some pics I took at the show below, and then some audio clips.

Le Trio Joubran - Masar

Check out this killer clip of the Palestinian three piece group Le Trio Joubran, with some great three-way oud action, with a live version of the track "Masar" which is featured on the excellent album "Majaz". Hypnotic stuff.

Saturday Night Jamboree

Saturday night reggae vibrations with three killer and classic tunes: Dennis Brown & Big Youth - "In Their Own Way", Mutumbi - "Music In The Air" and Jimmy Riley - "Give Thanks & Praise", all dating from circa late 1970s and are all favourites of mine.

Nothing else to be said. Run it!

The Durutti Column - A Paean To Wilson, Kings Place, London 9/10/09

Two weeks ago my old favourites The Durutti Column played at Kings Place, one of the newest and plushest venues to open in the capital for some time. Tucked away around the back of Kings Cross on York Way, this is one more nod towards the ongoing and eventual regeneration of the Kings Cross area. From grotty to snotty, if you like.

This was no normal gig for DC. Previewed in Manchester back in July over three nights, "A Paean To Wilson", Vini Reilly's personal tribute to his late friend Tony Wilson, who died in 2007. Wilson managed DC for many years, and yet Reilly claims the only payment his manager ever took for the job was an old car stereo and a raincoat.

Along with Reilly and Bruce Mitchell and current Durutti regulars - Poppy Morgan on Fender Rhodes and Keir Stewart - keyboards and bass, they were complemented by two members of DC's mid 80s lineup, namely violinist and arranger John Metcalfe and trumpet player and former member of Simply Red and Olive - Tim Kellett. Together they played an hours worth of - for me, of very captivating and moving pieces of music. The only familiar tunes to my ears were a keyboard/guitar duet between Poppy and Vini which sounded very much like "Royal Infirmary" from "Circuses and Bread" album from 1986 and the encore which consisted of a wild loud feedback-drenched instrumental version of "Requiem For a Mother" from the 2003 album "Someone Else's Party". The keyword in that last sentence was "instrumental", because Tony Wilson was never a fan of Vini's vocal talents and did everything he could to stop him from singing, so it was a fitting tribute that this this tribute is vocal free.

An album has been recorded and a "A Paean To Wilson" will be released early 2010 on Kooky Records. However, copies were available in advance at the Kings Place concert and I have to say the album is a corker, and to my reckoning the first album without any vocals from Vini since the 1979 debut "The Return Of The Durutti Column".

Above are some low quality pictures I took on the night of the concert in London two weeks ago.

Also, to give you a taster, here is a clip from the London gig, below that, a clip from one the aforementioned gigs in Manchester from September and for a very interesting interview with Vini Reilly click here.

Vassilis Tsabropoulos & Anja Lechner

This is a wonderful piece of music from the Greek composer and pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and the German celloist Anja Lechner with a track from the excellent album "Chants, Hymns and Dances" (ECM) with the catchy title "Trois Morceaux Apres Hymnes Byzantins".

Curiously on this clip, the audio is accompanied with pictorial images of Istanbul. Always a good thing, as it is one of my favourite cities.

Lately the music of Vassilis Tsabropoulos has become the soundtrack to my daily commuting life. I urge you to investigate the recordings of this very talented musician.

Augustus Pablo - Three The Hard Way

This is one of the heaviest reggae rhythms of all time from one of my favourite producers - Augustus Pablo. Recorded in the mid 70s, below are audio clips of three versions of this killer and classic rhythm. First up, a vocal cut by Jacob Miller - "Baby I Love You So", followed by the awesome dub cut mixed by King Tubby - "King Tubbys Meet The Rockers Uptown" and then the instrumental cut "Cassava Piece" featuring Pablo himself on the melodica.

Augustus Pablo, Jacob Miller and King Tubby are all no longer with us. All three died somewhat prematurely. A common theme with many artists and producers in the reggae world.

Strictly rockers style. Enjoy!

Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita

The work of the Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem was first brought to my attention a couple of years ago by my good friend Abdel Halim El Hachimi over at Tales From Bradistan. The album recommended to me was "Voyage de Sahar" (2005). A truly beautiful recording and a revelation to me. It's simple but effective arrangements were based around the oud, piano and accordion. To me that album was, and still is one of the most atmospheric and enchanting albums I have ever heard. For me a desert island disc, no doubt. Not far behind that was "Le Pas du Chat Noir" (2001) featuring the same musicians and instrumentation. Exploring Brahem's work further on his previous recordings, I discovered that this artist is not one who sticks to the same formula. Most of his albums will of course feature the oud as lead instrument which lends itself to a middle eastern sound, but that sound with different musicians can be interweaved easily with anything from clarinet, violin, soprano saxophone, double-bass or more traditional middle eastern instruments such as the nay to create a different feel and vibe on each album, but still underpinned with a very distinctive sound, with almost a brooding haunting feel. Don't expect to be able to dance to any of Anouar Brahem's music, but expect to be moved.

This album "The Astounding Eyes of Rita" - like the recordings mentioned above, are on the ECM label. There have been some wonderful releases on this label recently such as Vassilis Tsabropoulos - "The Promise" and Jon Balke & Amina Alaoui - "Siwan". The musicians on this disc work with Brahem for the first time and they are: Klaus Gesing - bass clarinet, Björn Meyer - bass and Khaled Yassine on darbuka and bendir. The album is not as immediate as "Voyage de Sahar" or "Le Pas du Chat Noir", but much more accesaible than earlier albums like "Conte de L'incroyable Amour" or "Barzakh". "...Rita" begins to make sense after two or three plays and it is definitely one of the best new albums that I have encountered in recent months, and there has been a lot of good stuff around.

It's hard to pick highlights on this, but my current favourites are "The Lover Of Beirut", "Al Birwa", "Galilee Mon Amour" and the album's amazing title track, which there is a clip of below.

Richard Hawley - Shepherds Bush Empire, London 8/10/09

Sometimes I wonder why I bother going to certain gigs. You know the ones where you just stand there staring at the back of someones head and then people keep pushing past, and then they come back and push past again. The man next you has decided to keep his rucksack attached to his back during the show and keeps slamming it into you. The people behind you keep talking during the quiet bits and you wish they would sod off and go home. And you think to yourself, that you paid 18 pounds for this and you should be enjoying it, but you are trying to, but only as far as enjoying the muffled audio "pumping" out of the nearest speakers that are 50 yards way. For the record I am not that short, it's just that most of Richard Hawley's fans seem to be over 6 feet tall and with high hair.

Of course this is no reflection of the music on the night. Richard Hawley is an engaging, warm and witty performer and this is the third time that I have seen him in concert. He played a blinding set, comprising mostly of tracks from his new album "Truelove's Gutter" and a small sprinkling of tracks from earlier works including "The Ocean", "Hotel Room" (from "Coles Corner"), "Lady Solitude" (from "Lady's Bridge") and "Run for Me" (from "Lowedges"). Amazingly there were no room from the likes of "Tonight the Streets Are Ours", "Serious", "Valentine", "Coles Corner", "Just Like the Rain" or "Born Under a Bad Sign". So Mr. Hawley must have some serious faith in his newer material and so he should have. The highlight for me was "For Your Lover, Give Some Time", the current single.

As I mentioned before in a previous review, "Truelove's Gutter" is a great body of work, but most of the content is "armchair business", so after 90 minutes or so of this gig (it stretched to two hours) I noticed a lot of clock watching going on and lots of bored partners of the female variety, harassing their other halves's to make a hasty exit.

For the encore a surprise guest Lisa Marie Presley was introduced on stage. It turns out that Elvis' offspring and the late Jacko's ex-wife has been working with Hawley on some tracks. It enjoyable enough stuff all round, but of course I saw more of my friend's earlobe than of Ms Presley.

Above is a picture that I managed to take from the bar during the brief few minutes that I managed to see anything on stage. It's not a great photo, but it's better than nothing.

Below is a clip from youtube of "Soldier On" from the gig.

Who Say Me Done

A week is a long time in Blogland and I haven't updated in almost a week. This is due to being extremely busy with other tasks. However, I have been listening to lots of new music, such as new albums by Anoaur Brahem, Yasmin Levy, Bad Lieutenant and Invisible System. New releases on the Pressure Sounds label - King Tubby & The Clancy Eccles All Stars - "Sound System International", a new compilation on Greensleeves - "The Biggest Reggae One Drop Anthems 2009" as well as attending gigs by Richard Hawley and The Durutti Column. Full reports and review to follow over the few next weeks, so watch out.

The Durutti Column...again

It's been about a month since my last Durutti Column post, so here goes.

Here are two fantastic clips. The first is from the Cambridge Theatre, London in 1988. Two songs are featured - "Day Is Over" aka "Finding The Sea" and "Red Shoes". The second clip is from 2006 and is taken from a session at the XFM studios Manchester. The song featured is "Alive" fearing Helen Farley Jones on vocals.

Vini and friends play Kings Place, London this Friday, so expect more on this subject. OK!

Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter

Traditionally on rock/pop albums you get all the fast tracks first and then come track 5 you get a lull with a slower track, and then the pace is picked up again until track 9 and 10 when the pace can drop back down again. Richard Hawley's album tracks are usually the other way around, with a snail-paced ballad at the beginning ("Valentine" from "Lady's Bridge" and the title track from "Coles Corner", for example) and then a couple of fast/faster tracks appearing later on. Hawley doesn't do "fast" very often. His last album "Lady's Bridge", contained the most speedier tracks Richard ever released - "Serious", "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" and "I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me". It's all relative though, because after the first track on this album, "As The Dawn Breaks", anything else sounds speedy in comparison.

So in a way, "Truelove's Gutter" is a bit like all the more boring tracks I sometimes skip past on Hawley's previous albums because there isn't one track on here that will get you doing the twist. But really, they are not really boring at all, they are just not as immediate as say "Born Under a Bad Sign", "Just Like The Rain" or "Valentine". So it's a brave move on Hawley's part to release this album. He could have easily taken another route and made more radio friendly foot-tapping material and turn into a modern day Alvin Shardust, or perhaps a Shakin' Stevens. Perhaps not. Instead he has released eight tracks - some of epic proportions, of varying degrees of moodiness and texture which makes for a more than pleasant experience. One for listening to walking along the Thames on a cold winters day. That's one way I will be enjoying this album

Richard Hawley is a serious talent, a natural songwriter and a borderline geniue. In years to come his albums will be regarded as all time classics. Mark my words, people.

As a foot note, if you are a fan of the man you will no doubt have investigated last years release by old time crooner Tony Christie with the album "Made In Sheffield" that Hawley co-produced, if you haven't, then check it out because it's brilliant.

Richard comes to the Shepherds Bush Empire, London on Thursday next week. I will be attending and will be sure to mention it here.

Here are two clips. The audio to "Open Up Your Door" and the video to the current single "For Your Lover, Give Some Time".