rescuing musical virtue in distress.
I’m always interested to find out just what genric description an artist is happy to use to describe their music. Most generic descriptions are limiting at best, at worst irrelevant, but occasionally you stumble across a gem. Meghan Pulles has used the term “emo-positive” at times to describe what she does and I find myself... Continue Reading →
I’ve listen to a lot of folk music in my, not so short, time on this earth and I’ve never come across anything quite like this before! To be honest, the term folk music probably doesn’t really do the album justice, for whilst there is folk music at its core, and a number of songs... Continue Reading →
This recording starts with a beautifully spacious sonic landscape that took me back to the time when Kate Bush experimented with the latest in Fairlight synthesizer technologies. Towards the end of the first track, big crescendos build from nothing to a dazzling ball of musical complexity. 'Bluebird' is driven along by a lo-fi 8 bit... Continue Reading →
There is an art of building a song, to creating understated atmosphere and tingling anticipation before unleashing into the musical Sturm und Drang that is the pay-off. And if part of that art is to keep the listener hanging on for as long as possible until they have abandoned all hope that there is even... Continue Reading →
Music tends to fall into one of a few categories; there are the musicians who deserve the title, they know their instrument inside out, know music theory inside out and can create and structure a piece like an architect. Everything in its correct place, the building blocks are the chords, melody and rhythm, yet they’re... Continue Reading →
As 2019 ends and we move into a new year it was with much excitement that I grabbed a cd from my haul of things to review but without knowing it I had a small pile of albums from last year that had somehow fallen by the by so the first album of the year... Continue Reading →
I sometimes cast my ears around the current pop scene and do that cliched, grumpy old man thing…"it was all better back in my day". It wasn't but with the onslaught of TV talent show wannabes and the synchronised dance routine driven videos which pour out of the ivory towers of the “music industry,” it’s... Continue Reading →
Given the musical theatre surroundings which formed Maxime’s formative years, it is hardly surprising that the drama and style of some of that world has crept into his music. But this formal approach is tempered by the fluidity of pop, folk and indie sounds and the result is an album which benefits from the best... Continue Reading →
Anyone can write a song! You want proof, just turn the radio on. It isn’t even that hard to get it recorded, modern studio technology being what it is. No, the art of ending up with something that really stands out is having a song which was worth writing in the first place. Something meaningful.... Continue Reading →