Vole Radio 1 is a shimmering 3-Inch EP of fun from Brighton improv collection Vole, a grand mix of electronic rattlings, flute pieces and percussive works. Seven untitled tracks which respectively share their own charming peculiarity, the next tune sounding altogether different from the one that precedes it. An interesting start to the EP with cowbell clutters and clunks pervading the sound, and then a fantastic interplay of trumpet with sitar. The ebbing of synthesized chimes in the penultimate track is utterly moving – how often is one newly greeted with a song whose genuine characteristics are nostalgic and haunting? This one surely is, with an undulating and fluttertongued flute line descanting the underpinned chimes – all brilliantly exotic. The final track displays staccatoed burst of crowd noise, weird scraped animal hollers, messy percussion, a choppy, slapped tom-tom… This truly captures the excitement of live improv.

It all seems rather cabbalistic – what with this being a live pirate radio recording, supplemented by a short press release with a secretive, awkward website. Yet it’s refreshing to hear improv music once in a while – not only is form almost entirely thrown out of the picture but you can hear decisions and manipulations in ad libitum real-time. One is inclined to think the only merit of improv music lies in watching it, but Vole Radio 1 is proof that this isn’t always true.

Pascal Ansell
http://vole.info/

• Finished off uni application forms… today.
• Voice aches from singing in small local opera (Mikhail the Russian novelist!) & Karl Jenkin’s ‘The Armed Man’ at local choir. Baritone range can’t cope with top e’s.
• Playing semi-frequently with guitar&drums duo Fee Fi Fo Fum http://myspace.com/feefifofumisaband
• Listening to… Miles Davis – Porgy and Bess, Hella – Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass, Sunn O))) – Black One, The Essential Dave Brubeck, Joe Pass – Virtuoso #2, Leadbelly – Midnight Special, Don Caballero 2, Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica.
• Teaching guitar lessons to slow youngsters.
• Working on vocal & Free Compositions with the great yet terrible Sibelius program.
• Trying to keep hair on.

Posse out. Px

Songs of Green Pheasant AKA Darren Sumpner is what makes this measly company car 30k Diskant drudgery an unexpected lark. Seemingly living the sublime life; rural Sheffield artist, teacher Duncan Sumpner presents Gyllyng Street – his third release on the ever-burgeoning Fat Cat label.

Gyllyng Street expands on the now seemingly diminutive 4-track recording of his self-titled album. Twice the number of tracks were used in the mix, and it shows with the multifarious goings-on. It’s a joy to not have to listen to a nondescript ‘whole’ in a tune, and Sumpner mostly retains the attention span with all sorts of chimes, percussion and guitars (to name a few) that will please the ears. For an artist that proposes the ‘epic’-ness in every tune, this is refreshingly novel, brimful with unshakeably memorable melodies, thankfully lacking the insipidity of artists going for this same style.

Where the latter half of the album palls slightly, all this is put into perspective when considering the ineffable ‘King Friday’, the most inspiring track on ‘Gyllyng Street’. It starts off in that relatively comfortable innocuous indie/Brian Wilson fuzzy mode part of town, and then… It builds: drones, voices, cymbal tapping, then childhood chimes arrive, dark noise; a crescendo of intensity, and BLAM! The shuffling beat, the resonant chords and sultry vocal harmonies of a multi-tracking genius. One diverse musical engineering brain, releasing unexpected rapture, clinches this reviewer’s stressed head.

This album was written about the dissolute street in which Sumpner grew up by and took the name for this triumphant second long-player. It is supremely focused, an experience in motion. Buy it, listen to it, at least, for heaven’s sake, have a go with it’s zenith: ‘King Friday’. SOGP sidesteps the awful post-rock cliche of the wishy-washy epic 6-minute moment, and accomplishes the nigh on impossible. This is bona fide excellent, wholly unpretentious grandiose music.

Pascal Ansell

http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artistInfo.php?id=99

Another fantastic release from the Fat Cat label! No Age are an L.A. noise-rock two-piece, steeped in the city’s art/skate/punk scene. Having had their names teased at from all (including Wire Magazine), the double team of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall were picked up by Fat Cat after the label’s ears came to rightly acknowledge their delectable noise. The result is ‘Weirdo Rippers’, a collection of lovely messy tunes previously heard on various underground vinyl releases.

The album could not have a more fitting title: for me it perfectly encapsulates the album’s jumbled assortment of wonderfully messy pieces. You can revel in the breakneck punk sprawl of ‘Boy Void’ or get a spacey vibe in the warped distortion of ‘I Wanna Sleep’. ‘Everybody’s Down’ is a contradictory message – it is remarkably upbeat for its title. It contains a triumphant vocal strain, resounding more pleasingly than if actually hitting the correct notes.

A good duo album defies the issue of a minimal line-up. ‘Weirdo Rippers’ achieves this by full use of peculiar effects and massive head-rattling fuzz. The album’s power is in its apparent free-form abundance of beautiful noise, much like Black Dice’s ‘Beaches and Canyons’ LP. It is cunningly well-structured without being contrived: after x bars of flowing feedback, in comes a terrific rock-out sequence. The album offers a distinctive feel-good scattiness, displayed in the Animal Collective drum snaps and floor tom thumps in ‘Neck Escaper’ or the Joey Ramone hollering on ‘Dead Plane’.

The album’s coda, ‘Escarpment’ takes off where ‘Weirdo Rippers’ began: waves of mushy static ebb and flow whilst the ear is grounded by pleasant chimes. Yet another testament to Fat Cat’s excellent discrimination and the power of the duo.

Pascal Ansell

http://www.myspace.com/nonoage
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artistInfo.php?id=118

However…

George Bush, dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnnM4C7q_zA&mode=related&search=

Boris Yeltsin (RIP) smashed, dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5FIoocja4k

Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw

Thanks a lot.

One of the beauties of this job (well, it’s not a job really) is that you get sent stuff that in now way in hell you’d get your hands on normally. And it’s a joy.

The Japanese hardcore/jazz four piece, Z is a great example. Their 2006 album, ‘Mikabe’ is blessed with a palpable nervous energy, stricken with stress lines and angst. As with most interesting music, Z are terrifically difficult to pigeonhole – a most indirect reference would be Shellac panic attack or an At the Drive In that chooses to avoid the contrived structures, aiming for a still cerebral yet masterly flowing whole. Fu-manchu’d frontman Jun Nemoto yields an outrageous sax, eschewing the novelty of it all squealing with a unique abrasiveness, a fraught edge augmenting the wholly original Z sound. Jun’s vocals are strikingly edgy whilst singing and magnificently spluttering whilst shrieking. I like the fact I don’t know what he’s so desperately screaming about – the element of the unknown is a thing to revel in.

You’ve got to listen to ‘Mikabe’ just for the third track, ‘Zushiki Man’. After a minute-long blustering sax solo, an unexpected blast ensues, and the band follow a steadfast and sublimely grinding motif. It’s addictive.

I’ve listened to this album many, many times, and the sound never gets dull by being familiar or even recognisable. Perhaps this is because there is no definite tonal key or easy-to-pinpoint melodies – just chunks of slow-paced riffs and piercing saxophone squirls. Add a bit of Japan to your record collection, you Anglophile fool.

Pascal Ansell

Rose Kemp has a lovely voice, and she is pretty. And she has a band. That’s all I know about her and that’s all I’m worrying about for the time being. Her single, ‘Violence’ was released late last year, and since then she’s been touring like a mad(wo)man. ‘Violence’ doesn’t start off too well, it sounds like any generic ‘dark’ indie song, but soon an onslaught of distortion kicks in and I know I’m in good territory. The choruses don’t have vocals, just blistering noise, and you have to wait another four minutes before it gets interesting again: an unsettling riff set to a perfectly danceable beat which then fades out way too soon. The second and last song, ‘Fire in the Garden’ picks up form instantly, with Rose’s elegiac crooning looped over and over, much like the beginning of Björk’s sublime ‘Medúlla’ LP. ‘Fire in the Garden’ defines Kemp’s unusual experimentation, and it’s when she is daring enough to turn a song on its head that her real forte is revealed.

Pascal Ansell

The piano is undoubtedly the king of all instruments. It’s extremely versatile, has a huge range and it is probably the easiest instrument to express oneself on, and that’s not to mention the extensive timbres accessible through the push of a pedal. ‘Room to Expand’ from Fat Cat’s latest artist, Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann to his mum) furthers my point. This Düsseldorf-based pianist decided that, in the same vein as minimalist maverick John Cage, he’d chuck a bunch of screws inside a piano and then see what happens. Well, not quite. He ‘prepared’ the piano: clamping wedges of leather, felt or rubber between the strings, weaving guitar strings around the piano’s gut, that sort of thing. The result is fantastic: the album collates various clicks, pangs, scrapes and modified notes in layer upon layer of texture into a lovely multifaceted listen.

‘Paddington’ is a sprightly bundle of timbres and knockings, and it swells with tiers of assorted piano clatters, which is the idea running through ‘Room To Expand’. The ingeniously titled ‘Watercolour Milk’ slowly builds up one chord with sundry embellishments and one driving knock, and ends with echoing string scrapings. The serene beauty of ‘Sweet Spring Come’ is the album’s standout track – rather poignant considering the dismal English weather of late. It’s lead by a clever piano plonk acting as a snare, then minutes after a florid piano line, in comes a delicate bassline and a ethereal strum on the piano’s strings.

‘Room To Expand’ largely resembles the masterful piano vignettes of Aphex Twin’s ‘Drukgs’ album, and a more condensed version of John Cage’s ‘Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano’, yet Hauschka’s effort will take many, many listens before it becomes tired or predictable. Through close listening over time, the album unravels – it’s possible to discover a new sound in each song with every listen. This already has to be a contender for the most outstanding, even unique, album of 2007.

Pascal Ansell
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=218

The North Carolina based singer/songwriter David Karsten Daniels likes a wee trick. Looking at the artwork from his latest release, you’d expect something awfully dark: the drawing of a naked man eating a woman’s intestines is cheekily deceiving. What is delivered through the speakers is a completely different picture: gentle acoustic pop with florid orchestral arrangements (courtesy of Polyphonic Spree violinist Daniel Hart) fill the airwaves, instead of the doom and gloom anticipated.

Opener ‘The Dream before the Ring That Woke Me’ is an instantly memorable journey through ones childhood, while the triumphant horns arrangement on ‘Scripts’ provide much needed variety. ‘Beast’ takes a hefty slice of inspiration pie from labelmates Amandine and Sigur Ros: lyrics whispered at double-slow speed influenced by the former and the epic clashing moments by the latter. It’s such a sweetly soporific effort that I nearly fell asleep on the bus and missed my stop.

Daniels’ voice is clear and crisp, not the most remarkable of voices even on the mighty Fat Cat label, but it’s pervasive and it heats the slightly lukewarm parts of the album well enough. A snail-paced tempo is fixed throughout the whole of ‘Sharp Teeth’, narrowly escaping the pecks of tedium of Larry Lag-behind Jaybird. There are some beautiful moments on this album, yet it’s just not lively or evocative enough to transform it from a decent to an outstanding album. Sharp Teeth? More like soft chew.

Pascal Ansell
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=215

Albums of 2006

Battles – EP C/B EP – Immense. Immense!!

That Fucking Tank – Day of Death by Bono Adrenalin Shot – quality gung-ho rock noise.

Squarepusher – Hello Everything – An updated, more major and hopeful Feed Me Weird Things which is sadly not as incredible as FMWT was back in the day. Gorgeous art work.

The Ladies – They Mean Us – Zach Hill, the drummer from Hella (all time favourite band), provides clean and quiet fills with Rob Crow from Pinback. Haven’t the slightest who Pinback are but an excellent slice psychedelic pop nevertheless.

Thom Yorke РThe Eraser Рnit-picked from depressingly huge hypermarch̩ in Calais Рnot proud of it but for once, crime pays. Mesmerizing art and beat-work.

Don Caballero – World Class Listening Problem – Damon Che is the best drummer I have ever seen – flashy but still tasteful. Some songs are even 4/4 and happy!

Kieron Hebden and Steve Reid – The Exchange Session Volume 2 – these boys really take their time – it’s pretty long winded electronic free jazz but it pays off – it’s a beautiful hypnotic journey through Hebden A.K.A. Four Tet throbbing melodies and some drummer geezer who played for the late James Brown.

Plan B – Who Needs Action When You’ve Got Words – Possibly the only album I’ve ever listened to that has made me properly empathise with a full-on, ‘shit your pants while crossing the street’ chav. Mike Skinner doesn’t get anywhere near this for shocking brutality. Ben Drew speaks, no, powerfully raps the awful truth and the truth hurts indeed.

Hella – Acoustics – Bought this one late so Muse is off the top ten. It’s the highlights of their 2 greatest albums: The Devil Isn’t Red and Hold Your Horse Is but just played on more acoustic-y instruments. http://www.hellaband.com/

Melvins – A Senile Animal – probably most accessible Melvins album, ever-idiosyncratic sludge of King Buzzo’s guitar to new bassist and two, yes TWO drummers! A colossal, heaving noise.

GOOD FOR GIGS
Polmo Polpo – Port Mahon, the most moving gig experience in all my days.
Black Dice – Oxford Wheatsheaf, cheers for the tinnitus boys.
Battles – Oxford Zodiac
Don Caballero + Todd – London Scala
Melvins – Zodiac
Animal Collective + Battles – Astoria
Suitable Case for Treatment + The Mules – last gig ever at the Zodiac

BOOKS
Haven’t read any published this year, but…
Music and the Mind – Anthony Storr
Any Human Heart – William Boyd
Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Maribou Stork Nightmares – Irvine Welsh

DVD
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
Mighty Boosh Boxset
Pixies Live (when they’re old and wrinkly, won off Gideon Coe’s breakfast show on 6 Music. We talked about porridge and muesli mainly)
Twin Peaks Series One

MAGS
Stool Pigeon: http://www.feedthepigeons.com/

2 BEST THINGS
Singing tenor in a choir full of incredibly lovely old(er) people.
and
‘Wish you Were Here’ on beautiful blue vinyl.

2 WORST THINGS
Reading Festival, Saturday.
and
I’m not being funny here, but the execution of Saddam Hussein saddened me quite profoundly. I don’t want to jump on the soapbox just yet but I think it’s awful, merciless brutality. Do like the old emperor of China and employ him as a toilet cleaner.
Phew.

EVENT OF THE YEAR
Truck Fest: Battles + Drum & Bass in the Barn!! Going on a rampage with a marigold mysteriously on my left arm…

THINGS YOU DID MOST THIS YEAR
Mostly charity work and warming the hearts of crippled children…

PLACES VISITED
Pretty local: Sheffield, France, Somerset

LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2007
New Hella album
Going to Peru and cycling down a big volcano
Driving (learning to)
Reading some classic books
Room 237 in Oxford

OVERALL
“I’ll get a mop”