Let England Shake!

The latest addition to PJ Harvey’s highly reputable back catalogue.

Polly Jean Harvey appears to have travelled over land and sea to arrive at her latest album, and it’s been a journey capturing every salty droplet and breathy wind from lands afar. Let England Shake shows just how wide one artist can fan her tail feathers of diversity, and push ego aside to sing from the back of the stage. But still I’m not quite bowled over by it‘s brilliance…

This time around Harvey refrains from directing her own emotional experience instead to channelling the world’s angst through the eyes of the bystander. Reuniting with long-term producer and collaborator John Parish, the qualms of our native England are caressed compassionately and only exchanged temporarily whilst the country’s vocalist turns her attentions toward the eastern world.

The approach of an artist such as Bob Dylan, who was quickly labelled as a protest singer in the 1960s for channelling observations from outside of his immediate vision. But just as Dylan did not intend to sing anthems of rebellion, it must be stressed that this is not a protest album. It is instead a political commentary of sorts- not to cast the album in a diminutive light- but rather to illustrate the passive means adopted by Harvey to voice the world’s affliction.

Let England Shake starts with it’s title track, which jingles and jangles away somewhat akin to a child’s rhyme and addresses an impending doom; to be brushed off blithely by the line ‘laugh our loud’. A satirical start. The album as a whole bears an archaic quality as though it’s been hundreds of years in the making; having been crafted amidst monasteries, nunneries and far out in the Wiccan woods. Camp fire sessions perhaps?

Recording took place in a 19th Century church in Dorset which is positioned atop of cliff overlooking the sea. Is it possible to hear such an influence? I can only imagine staring out across the expanse, directed toward the countries of great conflict and venting an empathetic wind from the town I‘m most connected to. At this point I begin to wish I was in another country, with a warmer climate and less chance of getting blown of a cliff such as this…

Polly Jean IS a musical genius, and now she’s practically cemented the fact. The depth of the composition woven from sound through lyric now ascends the ages, and proves to show that what is now the eighth album from Harvey is possibly the most accomplished. A stand-out line from the song All and Everyone pertains that "Death was in the stare of sun, fixing it’s eyes on everyone". Beautifully personified and a perfectly universal metaphor.

It has indeed been worked towards, and there have been some rather impressive records along the way to contend; such as Bring Me To Life- which was brought to life when Harvey went solo in ‘93- and further down the line- Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. With lyrics including ‘I can’t believe life’s so complex when I just want to sit here and watch you undress’, and ‘How long must I suffer? Dear God I’ve served my time..’ A selfless jump has been made at some point in order to reach Let England Shake.

But with depth and intelligence pushed aside, how well can this album stand up on audible values alone? Yes it’s nice that a sense of passivity emanates from Harvey as opposed to our ears being drummed like we’re receiving history lessons on Nazi war camps by a defensive German. But what’s really important when you’re buying an album?

As much as I admire Polly Jean and so many of the moves she makes in her career; I would not spend time listening to this album once having checked what it’s all about. And I feel that I should apologise for this somehow. But compared to previous albums containing no two songs alike, we’re suddenly presented with not only a running theme- but also some very similar songs. It gets repetitive and quite hard work to identify the discrepancies between from track to track. You can hear the power that PJ has collected in her voice over the years, yet without the warrant to tap into the full emotional array of it. Some will be pleased she has moved more toward folk and away from raw angsty blues- as I am pleased that she bears the ability and the diversity to arrive at such a sound.

I will close with a line from the song England, which at track seven summates Harvey’s mindset during her fresh new decade. Let the words "I live and I die through England" align your mind for the listen; and then may you Let England Shake…

Out To Lanch!

‘Out to Lanch’ recently celebrated the opening night of a free exhibition looking at Coventry’s musical history.

The launch took place at 2-Tone Central located in the university’s SU where some of the world’s biggest names in music to this day once passed through the corridors during the days of the Lanchester Polytechnic.

As a part of the opening night, one-time wonders Jimmy Jimmy- the twosome who found their claim to fame after playing on the streets of Birmingham as buskers in the early 1980s, have not long reunited to play a set in the present-day Lanch.

Although almost impossible to envision now; artists such as Oasis, U2, The Who and Elton John have all graced the halls, rooms, and undoubtedly the toilets of a building which currently hosts the sitting of exams, the grabbing of mid-morning snacks, the calling into the uni’s radio or newspaper office (the Source), or perhaps even gown-fitting for graduation.

The exhibition goes to show how the building located near to the Cathedral on University Square hasn’t always been the bearer of such mundane activity. Pete Chambers, local music aficionado and the host of the evening, had this to say about the Lanch’s significance..

"There’s a fantastic history here and we wanted to remind and educate people- the ones that didn’t know- of what actually went on here and about some of the bands because it was quite iconic- particularly in the 70s because we had the Lanchester Arts Festivals."

The exhibition itself contains memorabilia of bands and artists involved in the former art’s festivals, original photographs courtesy of local documenter John Coles (one of the many familiar faces present for the launch), hats and suits once worn by icons such as Pauline Black, old lyric sheets and compositions, badges, and videoed interviews in and amongst the collection.

The venue has previously provided a great platform in particular for 2-tone Records’ artists (on the label that received it’s name from Specials’ keyboardist Jerry Dammers) with bands such as The Selecter and Bad Manners playing the Lanch as was alongside the Ghost Town dwellers themselves.

As Pete explains, "My Ding-a-ling, that number one by Chuck Berry which was recorded at Tiffany’s, the Lacarno at the time, but it was part of the Lanchester Arts Festival so we were able to bring it in to the actual exhibition. Chuck Berry was supported by Slade and later on at the concert there was Pink Floyd playing"- almost names that span so far across the globe that it generously taxes the mind to imagine that they ever played in a city also famed for the motor car industry, and ever endearing Big Brother star: Bex.

The exhibition also reminds us about the night Coventry had it’s own Free Trade Hall moment, when thanks to the Buzzcocks; the Pistols played in Manchester to a room of about 40, which just so happened to contain future mover-shakers Tony Wilson of Factory Records, members from Joy Division, The Smiths and the Happy Mondays, and also erm… Mick Hucknall.

Pete remarks that, "When the Pistols played here in Coventry the first time before they became tabloid fodder- in the crowd that night there were members to be of the Specials and that was the night that changed everything for Coventry."

It was practically history in the making. And now we can reflect upon or in fact learn the significance of the Lanch with a chequered monochrome room selling memorabilia, and a free exhibition. Both locatable in the Coventry University SU, officially open as 2-Tone Central.

DON'T MOVE!

DON'T MOVE! represent the ultimate in shaggy-haired, woolly-jumpered, accordion-playing, decently wholesome pop bands. They are fun-loving, colourful, catchy, and most importantly- an incredibly talented bunch of lads pouring their souls out into qualitative tunes.

Think Love. The Beatles. The Byrds. The 60s! So delightfully retro, without an ounce of contrived pretention. Matt, Joe, Mason, and Cedrick Confuegos simply are.

Having come from parents who played their sort of hippy-ish, folksy – to rocky, guitar driven music, the boys found their inspiration very early on... They just had to find each other.

“Part of being a teenager is you discover your little secrets and the things that make you feel better than everyone else. We each had our musical loves that did that for us, and we shared it together and wrote songs we were kind of influenced by” reveals Mason Le Long the band’s front man.

They came together through mutual friends on a night out, when a mate of Joe’s decided to ditch him in place for couples’ capers, and Joe was left stuck with Mason. The two, living in Leamington at the time, went back to Mason’s house for a joint and a jam- where it was that Joe decided “oh man, you play like Jimi Hendrix man”. And the seeds were officially sown for DON'T MOVE!’s potential. Matt Rheeston and Mr Confuegos were then poached earnestly along the way.

The duo that is Mason and Joe, are akin to American disco band Chic. “The song writing duo of Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards were at the core of the band Chic” reveals Joe. “Mason is really into Nile Rogers’ guitar playing, I’m really into the bass playing and we both like their songs and their band- so they’re like our heroes I suppose”. Lyrics are then often crafted out of bitterness and resentment, capitalized on by the band’s first album The New Pop Sound Of. Mason jokes blithely how the “first record is pretty much a bitterness concept album”.

And with such breezy sweet acrimony officially on sale at Tin Angel Records, surprisingly it takes a fair while to construct these potent emotions to the stage of completion. “I come up with a bass line, and three years later it might be a song” Joe adds with whimsical finesse.

“We spent about two years writing songs and practising them, and just sitting on our little secret. Getting stoned together and writing and not even playing our first gig until a year and a half after we started” comments Mason.

The Tin Angel is not only Coventry’s coolest cafe bar, record shop and label; but it’s also a sanctuary for DON'T MOVE! “I don’t think we’d still be around, or even alive if it weren’t for the Tin”, Mason discloses. The band came over from Leamington one night to do an open mic, and found themselves immediately ‘discovered’ by their manager Rich Guy.

“A couple years later we were working here, four years later we were living here, now we just use this place to practise and work as well” Joe muses of his home-from-home, come feeding ground. Mason too shudders at an existence independent from the Tin.

Up next for the band, is a single released early next year featuring jazz angel of the Tin Devon Sproule- with arrangements and production courtesy of fellow label-resident Mantler. But to immerse yourself in the blissfully melodic DON'T MOVE! for the meantime; the boys are doing a small UK tour in December, and their current album is available online and at Tin Angel Records. Wise investment.

Detroit Social Club

Newcastle’s answer to Motor City.

What do you know about Detroit Social Club? Other than that they’re an NME favourite band, they also happen to be one of the most prolific and unpretentious of contemporary music.

Emerging from Tyneside, their debut album Existence was released earlier this year containing singles Kiss the Sun and Northern Man. The band are currently touring the UK (occasionally dropping a date with Ian Brown), and it was in Birmingham pre-gig at the Rainbow on Digbeth Road that I caught up with singer David Burn.

They are an exceptional band for live shows. Their style may remind you of mid-seventies Manchester when alternative music turned to post-punk, and bands such as Joy Division and then later the Happy Mondays piped with industrial strength from behind keyboards and striking tinny drums. Very atmospheric indeed. Imagine a room full of pilled-up ravers thumping and jerking, very much in unison with their god-like singer-come-divinity afore the stage.

Front man David admits that it’s actually the decade of free love and revolution by which he’s most inspired; "I like more music from the 60s than any other decade, I think that’s the time that music became culturally relevant".

The band’s myspace states that they are ‘in no way inspired by Kate Nash’, which effectively leaves an entire sea of music remaining to shape in ebbs and flows the notes of their fancy. But there are certainly a few prominent comparisons within Detroit Social Club’s indie alternative genre; The Verve, Kasabian, The Doves, and Super Furry Animals to name a few.

But being fundamentally a guitar-driven band, David is concerned that there’s less and less of a place for organic rock bands at the moment. "Radio is getting a lot more picky, so therefore there are less guitar bands coming out. But that might be more of a result of a Britpop hangover, because we had the Libertines movement- then 2005 was about the Arctic Monkeys. So perhaps it’s time to take a backseat."

This would surely be a sad reality, and sadly it’s mostly true. The market seems essentially driven by synth-thetic electronica, disposable waste paper pop, and the bands of substance have a harder time making headway. "Record labels have become scared to put anything a little bit more avant-garde out and they have to go for that big hook, the pop song. New bands don’t have any platforms to exhibit their talent". A statement so observantly put by Detroit’s singer.

Fortunately for the sake of his, and every other aspiring mover and shaker’s mental state; David’s admirable attitude has ironed out the folds of fame before the big-time has become truly unavoidable. "A lot of bands think that being cool or having integrity is mutually exclusive to having commercial success, when I don’t think it is" he says. "As long as you know that you’re writing genuine music, then whether it sells records or not doesn’t matter".

Presenting Duncan Sheik...

Having recently dropped in a date at Leamington’s Assembly with Howard Jones, Duncan Sheik reveals how music and Buddhism have been his navigation through life.

To this date Duncan has composed music for many Broadway and West End shows, including Spring Awakening for which he won two Tony Awards. He wrote the original music for a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night. Some of his work has been used for the musical adaptation of American Psycho. Music is something Duncan found very early on in life, with the encouragement of one individual in particular.

Born in New Jersey and then quickly uprooted to his grandparents’ house in South Carolina when his parents separated, Duncan’s early musical inclination gained praise and approval from his doting grandmother, a graduate of Julliard.

"There was always a piano in the house" explains Duncan, "and my Grandma would play Rachmaninoff. She was really encouraging to me".

With his mum dating the odd musician from time to time, there always seemed to be appropriate guides around who would teach Duncan more about his gift, from all about "Gibson hollow body guitars" to "what a delay pedal does".

As he grew up, music became his catharsis and his safety line when facing the "emotional turmoil everyone goes through when growing up". Modestly put, but not every raging adolescent has the ability to formulate their anxiety into song form the way that Duncan has done.

Now closer to 40, the singer songwriter has a new reason to write music. "The most important thing is that music moves me, as the person who’s made it- and therefore you have the hope that it might also reach somebody else".

Yet since finding Buddhism, Duncan believes that there’s more to life than selfish motives- even in song writing. On Buddhism, he agrees that it’s "largely about overcoming obstacles and understanding that the reason why we are here is to create value for everyone".

"When you really do have compassion for other people, then it really does affect your work- therefore your work becomes something that other people can respond to".

Duncan is currently touring the UK with Howard Jones through to the beginning of October.

Charles Dexter Ward and the Imagineers

Tales chattered through shattered teeth of witchcraft and necrophilia from the depths of Arkham Asylum- depicted for the first time from the last breaths of singer Aaron Malin.


On a murky murderous moor passed a poor forsaken band called Living With the Bear, crossing the haunted forest under a full moon to make their midnight appointment at the practise rooms. Determined, yet untalented they strived to learn their instruments as best they could in the hopes of only, if possible making an impression amongst their peers within the crypts of Coventry City.


Whilst crossing the forest, lain there before their pokey dilated eyes appeared a rusted tin dappled with silver fingerprints, and they opened it. In the swift flurry and a frosted haze appeared the ghost of Charles Dexter Ward himself! He consumed the members where they stood (regurgitating a fresh new member entirely), wrote all of their songs and taught them how to use their instruments so to strike discords of orchestrated brilliance into the hearts of the masses.


"I’m fed up of all these songs about being in a dole queue, eating a bag of chips bla bla bla. And all that telling you how it is on the street, I don’t want to know about that. So I started writing gothic songs, and I wrote one about the witch-hunt" explains singer Az Malin.


Charles Dexter Ward and the Imagineers have undeniable identity, and surely enough a following to go with it. The name comes from a dark story by H.P Lovecraft- a certified influence imprinted on the band’s facebook page. Their sound is decidedly blues rock psychedelia with twinges of Victoriana suave- in their music and their dress. Embellished dapperly in waistcoats, pocket watches and top hats; Az, Leigh, Chris and Ben spur furies of psychedelic memorials from the amps like possessed banshees. The likes of Tom Waits, John Lee Hooker, Kings of Leon and Kyuss drip from their sleeves as they shake rattle and groan through the microphone.


"That’s why I like recording, because the way I’m singing them no one knows what the fuck I’m saying" comments Aaron. "Image is massively important. We made up this mad story and everyone’s taken to it!"


Laughs aside, the band take themselves as seriously as any other group of musicians securing a local stance and trying to push their appeal as far as it‘ll go. But it’s about having fun with it too. Aaron admits that creation lies in "something that’s got a tune, and that’s got a groove. That’s the way we want to write songs. There’s an art in writing a good song, and having all the influences in there, but mostly having the basis of a good song".


In regards to getting signed, Az is often annoyed at people’s surprise to hear that they’re not a signed band. He laughingly demands to know just "how do you do it?!", though reassuringly admits: "we’re just trying to do something different on our own terms". Yet his tone turns understandingly a little resentful over the fact that "there are no rock bands at the minute, listen to the radio- it’s all pro tools synthetic shit. Even the rock music."


CDWATI would like nothing more than to yield depraved lunacy over the sound waves from the wrenches of their guts- and just how many bands can you name that sing about debauched gothic horror and Eskimo Escape? For instance "The Ballad of the Necrophiliac is about an ex-lover" Az explains, "and the point of the story is she’s dead and I’m going to dig her up and have my wicked way with her". And Witch Hunt is an equally delightful tale about spooning the eyes out of villagers suspected of witchcraft. Nothing you wouldn’t read about in Mary Shelley really.

Now the band plan to drag their shackles and chains through the forest of Charles Dexter Ward and onto pastures old, grey and quite possibly dilapidated- perhaps Dickensian London. "We’re waiting for the winter to come again. It’s been too sunny, and we’re not a summer band" states our host of scriptures. He leaves with one last statement to chew on; "Now with Halloween coming, we’re ready to emerge again".


Ensure to embrace the wrath of Charles Dexter Ward.

Black Carrot, For a Change

The king of obscure instruments Olly Betts, reveals the near-miss themes that the Carrot don’t quite have along with the rest of all that jazz…

The alternative art rockers are somewhat like a refresher course, whimsically feeding anyone who dares gamble a taste on the Carrot. Using a variety of unheard instruments including fender rhodes, a basshum recorder and a rhino sax- Black Carrot have become part of the jazz fusion genre, paying homage to Impulse! Records legends like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. They’re different, to say the least.

Different yes, but not so obscure that the only appeal is a pretentious cry for help, heard only by the upper class art school elite above extended silences in some jazz impromptu playing on their European sound system, as they saunter in their Italian loafers.

Not quite a blow-off-your-head-if-you-stand-to-near-to-the-speakers band, it is in fact the sound, or the mood that is most prominent about the Carrot. Stewart Brackley’s vocals are a gibbering warble woven through an avant-garde tapestry- never quite coherent, yet always an impression. And in terms of theme, it’s fair to summate that preconceived notions are never really an important constituent for the band. "They’re not particularly about anything, there’s a bit of a war theme going on. We’ve got a single out in October, and that’s got a bit of a theme about it. But no, they’re not really about anything in particular" Olly Betts, Carrot mastermind assures me.

The first misconception about Black Carrot, is that they have Eastern European roots. Olly justly announces, "People were saying "you sound like Faust or Neu! or like all these German things of which I’ve never owned a record, before we started doing it".

In actual fact they’re signed to Coventry-based label Tin Angel Records, and have gained a mostly bohemian following within the city and across Midlands; despite dwelling mostly in home town Market Harborough. The UK may have been the feeding ground for Black Carrot- and a tour around the country is not unlikely- but they have previously stepped outside of the UK to measure the acceptance in Eastern Europe. Two trips to Poland can be sighted on their résumé- if not purely to see how a jazz fusion band might go down in the country famed for ‘disco polo’.

"We’ve got a mate over there, who organised this little thing- a tour sounds a bit grand- we just played down his local. It sounds a lot grander than it was… It was fun. The first night we played we had cleared the place, bar from one, which is quite an achievement", states Olly unassumingly. He continues on to say "The second time we toured there, we took our storyteller with us, and we even more bad press".

The fact is that the band don’t really care if you like them of not. They're respectfully of a more mature set these days, never needing to actively seek approval. They are instead applying themselves to an experiment, of a kind. Now after working away for round about 10 years, the general temperament can be summarised by; "We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing. No one’s going to get us anyway, so it doesn’t really matter!"

Rousing words from the Carrot’s musical ‘let’s pick it up and see what happens’ frontrunner, who reveals no ostentatious background in sight when it comes to instrumental competence. "I’ve played woodwinds forever really, and I think keys is just something I fell in to. We haven’t been trained, Stew knows what he’s doing musically, but the rest of us- we don’t- we just sort of find it and play it". He continues to disclose that "We started off trying to be a bit of a, not a jazz band, but an out-there Sun Ra sort of jazz thing. And it gelled into what we’re doing now".

So when there is a theme? Well so far they have composed a soundtrack to works on Edgar Allan Poe, and Franz Kafka amidst others, which they recorded with temporal bard Nigel Parkin. But that’s old news, and presently fans can look forward to a new record on the horizon... "They’ll be a new album next year, possibly" Olly just barely prophesises. "Hopefully be a double one- out in the Tin Angel, at some point. We’re sort of just thinking about it at the moment".

So if you maybe, sort of, might quite like to give Black Carrot a listen, then previous albums are available at the Tin Angel or on the band’s website.