Nick Williams - Anniversaries EP

Folk musician Nick Williams has a habit of taking his songs on a route that you weren't quite expecting. But it's a welcome habit: sudden syncopation cleverly diverts from the beat you were anticipating, that high note you were waiting for is avoided in favour of one that gently shakes you, and sometimes even the song ends at a point that might be deemed unconventional. And with a band that covers violin, mandolin, double bass, piano, drums and guitar as well as providing beautiful vocal harmonies, it sounds as though Brighton-based Nick has everything he needs to express himself however he desires.

He describes his Anniversaries EP as a "study in the poetically fragile", and it was recorded in the Summer during a time of family tragedy. As a result, the theme of loss unavoidably predominates the music, and - as is the folk tradition - it glimmers with sincerity and the self-acceptance of emotion, backed up by Nick's sympathetically restrained falsetto voice.

Although the four tracks explore grief and death in different ways, the record does not leave you with overriding feelings of sadness or morbidness. 'Anniversaries' talks of nostalgia and inadvertent distance. 'Birthday Letters' speaks of acceptance and satisfaction of a life that may be reaching its end, but was filled with love. 'Ghosts on the Water', although the most lyrically sparse, feels like the most emotionally complicated song. The line "you never stayed when we're sleeping" hints at a sad memory of disconnection, yet the departed one persists in surrounding the singer. Finally, the aptly-named closing track, 'Closing Time', seems to carry the thoughts of someone that stands blinking at how joy and heartache can coexist.

As the piano strikes the final chord you are forced to marvel at how Nick Williams and the band have delicately created such a tight collection of thought-provoking songs; and they've done so whilst steering clear of producing the kind of contrived tearjerkers that many others attempt.

More... please!



Official: http://www.nickwilliamsmusic.co.uk
BandCamp: http://nickwilliamsuk.bandcamp.com
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nickwilliams/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/njwilliams1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nickwilliamsuk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickWilliams_uk

"I'm just a very primate, infantile folk singer." - Robert Wyatt

Zelliack - Noir Tone EP

Texas duo Zelliack are striving to inject a little soul into our downtrodden lives. Their name might be a little unoriginal and cliched in its source (a portmanteau of the pair's forenames: Zack Ordway and Elliot Coleman) but their music takes jazz's relaxed approach to structure and combines it with a unique concoction of smooth guitar grooves, melodic acrobatics, and vocal playfulness to ensure that what we hear is anything but hackneyed.

There's always a worry that anything experimental might just push our boundaries a little too much; but whilst Zelliack definitely seem to enjoy writing themselves out of any genre-defining pigeon-holes (soul? r&b? progressive rock? jazz?... they cover a lot of ground), they are also very careful to ensure that no second on their EP is superfluous.

Zack's work with the instruments is hard to fault. Whether we are being beautifully sedated in some of the quieter moments or pumped up during the busiest sections, every strum and slap seems to have been chosen with a cunning precision. This guy knows what he's doing, and he's doing it well.

Equally, Elliot shows off his vocal range to glorious effect and does so with no arrogance: it's satisfying to hear him belt out several higher-pitched lines on one song, and then flow flawlessly through his lower range. In fact, some of the key points on the EP are those that push and pull us through pitch and tempo - a flurry of words and beats here, a focussed pause there.

Lyrically there is a charming lack of brevity in Zelliack's words that, importantly, steers well clear of pretentiousness. It seems that they want to say as much as possible in each song and - whilst metaphor and imagery isn't used particularly often - their directness gives the music an honesty which fits perfectly.

This debut EP is full and gratifying, with Zack and Elliot complementing each other in a way that resembles the best moments of Tears For Fear's Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, and with a smooth style that's been profoundly absent until now.

Since the release of Noir Tone in February this year, Zelliack have kept us interested with the release of a further track ("Smoove") as well as covering Michael Jackson's "Baby Be Mine". I hope to hear a great deal more from them in 2013.


http://zelliack.bandcamp.com
http://zelliack.tumblr.com
https://www.facebook.com/Zelliackband

"The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially" - Alex Kapranos

The Bold Type - Welcome Back

Massachusetts quartet The Bold Type (Travis Richard, Ben Dicke, Antonia Navarro, Schuyler Whelden) have been working on their debut album for much of this year, funded in part by eager backers on Kickstarter, and it is now available for digital download as well as CD. Describing themselves as playing within the broad genre of rock'n'roll, their ten tracks show some pleasing diversity whilst avoiding disparity.

Album title and opening track 'Welcome Back' throws us some soulful vocals and little hints of Motown-esque melody, then 'Don't Be A Stranger' surprises us with a combination of rock guitar and gently harmonising "ooh"s and "aah"s. And just in case we still feel like we know what to expect, third track 'Love Is Meant To Last' goes all jazzy and signals that we should just go with the flow and throw all our musical assumptions aside for the next seven tracks.

Other highlights include 'I Won't Follow You' where a female lead vocal from Antonia shakes things up a little in a bluesy ballad; and the super-strummed shout-out 'Mind Your Business' with its amusingly nonchalant middle section with whistles, deep breaths, and a muttered urge to "keep cool" that comes just moments before it all kicks off again.

The beauty of The Bold Type's album is that it's able to show off an array of styles and sounds whilst still retaining a sense of its own theme, and the band members clearly play to their strengths throughout their music. They are confident, cool, and (it had to be said) bold.


http://theboldtype.bandcamp.com/
http://theboldtype.tumblr.com/

"Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest" - Neil Diamond

Google Play Music

Today, Google launched its music store to the UK through its service: Google Play - where Android users already download their apps, and acts as the equivalent to Apple's iTunes. Considering the dramatic rise of Google since 1998 and its recent foray into the world of smart phones, there was a certain inevitability that it would provide us with a music service. Remembering that Apple had lost favour by the start of the century, its resurgence and return to profitability can almost certainly be pinned down to the introduction of the iPod and establishment of iTunes. Apple's new life of success began with music, so perhaps it is surprising that Google has taken so long to start its assault in this area.

The US have had the music service for a year now, but today is Europe's first chance. Is Google doing anything different, or special, to encourage users away from iTunes and Amazon's MP3 service? Personally, the most interesting aspect is the new cloud feature which lets you to store up to 20,000 songs online, allowing you to stream them to a device wherever you are. Significantly, this is a free service. I believe Apple grants a very small number of files (250?) before it requires you to start paying a subscription, or certainly limits you to songs that have been bought through iTunes. Admittedly, it is very rare that I think to myself, "I wish I could access all my music right now" since I do have an mp3 player with significant storage space. But I can see how Google's cloud service could be useful to many, particularly with the higher number of files allowed for free.

For many I suppose, the key question is how they compare price-wise. And there's not an awful lot in it, although it depends on how you like to buy your music. For instance, here's a couple of recent albums and a couple of 'classic' albums:

Take Me Home: Yearbook Edition
by One Direction

iTunes: £10.99 or 0.99/track

Google: £7.99 or 0.79/track

18 Months

by Calvin Harris

iTunes: £7.99 or 0.99/track

Google: £7.99 or 0.79/track

Off The Wall: Special Edition

by Michael Jackson

iTunes: £6.99 or 0.99/track

Google: £4.99 or 0.99/track

Pet Sounds (mono/stereo edition)

by The Beach Boys

iTunes: £6.99 or 0.99/track

Google: £4.99 or £1.29/track

For the most part, things are fairly equal. Sometimes Google wins over iTunes, and sometimes iTunes comes out on top. Occasionally, Google throws up some per-track prices that are questionable yet counters this with a cheaper album price - and it does seem that, generally, Google is trying to encourage a full album purchase rather than single tracks. However, if you were restricted to just using one service for your device, I don't think there would be much to sway your vote either way. Google has kept itself in line with the competitors, knowing that a price war would only end up damaging everyone, but perhaps the cloud service might be a deciding vote for some people.

https://play.google.com/music/

"Music is the prayer the heart sings"

Rhonda Merrick - They Said Bon Jovi Died Today

I do tend to arrive a little late to the party. It's almost the end of 2012, and today I discovered what Rhonda Merrick spent each day of 2011 doing.

Born in New Orleans but currently living here in England, Rhonda Merrick - having decided that becoming a musician was something she really wanted to do - made it her mission to record a song everyday throughout 2011 and as a result has given herself several hours of material to sort, review, critique, and possibly rerecord to a standard suitable for broadcast. Given the nature of her undertaking, the often improv-style of her writing, and the raw setup of her own home-studio the quality of those daily musical moments varies in both the audio and the content, but there's no denying her motivation and commitment, and her thousands of fans appreciated her perseverance and frankness when watching her go through the whole process.

Her music is bluesy, soulful, jazzy, and she lists many of the greats as her musical inspiration: Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, Marvin Gaye. When it comes to what she writes about Rhonda is sparked by everything around her from news reports, celebrities, and self-harm to natural-disasters, sexuality and throwaway messages online. The song that struck a chord with many of her listeners and has since been rerecorded with a video to accompany it, is '27 Club': a song written on the night Amy Winehouse died.

Of the few tunes that I have made my way through so far, the one that I have particularly enjoyed is 'They Said Bon Jovi Died Today'. A song written following a false online report, it speaks of the lies within a relationship and the positivity in moving on, and was the 354th song for that year. I like the Jovi reference, I love Rhonda's soulful vocals, and it feels more substantial and complete that some of her other work.

As far as I am aware, 'They Said Bon Jovi Died Today' has yet to be rerecorded or shared anywhere else except on Rhonda' own website. The link below directs you to the page featuring the audio player and lyrics for the song, though I must sadly warn you that the website isn't the easiest to view or navigate. However, it is well worth ignoring the site's aesthetics and instead just take notice of the music whilst remembering that it is just a demo so the audio is a little rough at times.

'They Said Bon Jovi Died Today' : http://rhondassongs.com/song354.html

RhondaSongs.com: http://rhondassongs.com/

I hope to hear more from Rhonda Merrick as she continues to write, perform and release music.

"Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable" - Janis Joplin

Family Machine - Skeletons And That

Somehow, unintentionally, I have found myself listening to (and commenting on) the output of bands from Oxford. ToLiesel, Message To Bears, Perfect Fiction: they all hail from the city of dreaming spires, which also just happens to be the place I was born. I've stepped from one to the other via links between them so it  was inevitable that they'd all be from the same area, and Oxford has an excellent musical history, so I could do a lot worse than focus my attentions there. Thus I have no qualms in mentioning Family Machine's acoustic/indie-pop.

It's been four years since their LP was released, "You Are Family Machine", but they have kept their audience interested since then by releasing the occasional single track. 'Sleep' was short but unwaveringly sublime. 'Quiet As A Mouse' kidnapped We Aeronaut's Anna Log for some sweet vocal work. And, on October 31st, they released a new free download: 'Skeletons And That'.

Although the lyrics do talk of ghosts, monsters, and skeletons, the link to Halloween ends there - this is not a song of thrills and horrors. No. This is a song of loss, growing up, and regret. Whilst certainly mournful, the vocal delivery is so beautifully sincere and the instruments so softly bridled, you can't help but think that there's an adjacent joy being expressed at the existence of memories. As the guitar strums the final chord, it is clear that Family Machine weren't trying to throw us head-first through three-and-a-half minutes of forced forlesing; rather, they were nudging us gently with an acceptance of loss and grief. Through subtlety this band have achieved more in a single acoustic song than some do on an entire album of angst-ridden blues.

http://soundcloud.com/thefamilymachine/

http://www.youarethefamilymachine.com/

"Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever." - June Masters Bacher

Perfect Fiction - Another One

A friend of mine on Facebook had an upcoming gig, and mentioned the other bands attending. That's how I came across the music of Message To Bears. Later, browsing Message To Bears' Facebook page showed me a similar list that they had provided, with some bands they'd been sharing the stage with. That's how I discovered the song by ToLiesel. And then, recently, the guitar player from both those groups followed me on Twitter. Viewing his profile, I saw that he had his own solo material...

And that's how I found Perfect Fiction - the music of Adam Harvey James.

It's rare for me to explore the details of my (currently very few) Twitter followers, mostly because there tends to be a lot of accounts that come and go which mainly exist for the purposes of spam. However, on this occasion I did take a look. And I'm glad I did.

Adam's music stands defiantly, and happily, within some classic genre labels: raw, stripped-back, and acoustic. In the same way that so many have done before him, the songs consist of just him and his guitar, but there's no shame in following the mould set by his influences (Neil Young, Jose Gonzalez) if the final result is worthwhile. And when it comes to this particular song, "Another One", I feel it is.

As the first track of his debut EP 'The Sound Of People', "Another One" is a wonderful start and also my personal favourite. Later songs explore Adam's lower register, or cover potentially more sombre themes, but this song is far stronger musically, lyrically and - crucially - vocally. Adam's key talent clearly lies in his strumming and plucking; a skill that is wonderfully showcased during the lyric-less guitar portion of this song. His singing style throughout the record is appropriately rough and untouched but, in this particular song, it deals out the words with a glorious aptitude that outshines the others on the EP.

Whether he focuses on his own work or chooses to concentrate on the bands he is involved with, Adam James is proving that he has a lot to offer.


http://perfectfiction.bandcamp.com

"Life is like a piano: what you get out of it depends on how you play it" - Tom Lehrer