Carina Round has certainly been around for a few years but I’ve only discovered her in the last 18 months at best. Her latest album is nearing completion so I think it’s high time we gave her some love here at Higher Plain Games and told you all to buy her most recent EP “Things You Should Know”.
Opener “Backseat” is stunningly beautiful working from a simple ditty on a keyboard to slowly swell up with strings, brass and a chorus of vocals singing over and over the same two lines as is bursts into a fanfare. It feels like you’ve burst into a new life. In contrast the sultry “Please Don’t Stop” feeds off sparse guitar arrangements and strong vocal performances as the song ebbs and flows in places that song’s aren’t traditionally supposed to. The result is something fresh and effecting as it evolves and builds into a rocking finale.
“Thief in the Sky” is another excellent track which is acoustic guitar led but gets leg slapping angsty for the choruses. It leads perfectly into the epic “Do You” which is predominantly a guitar/vocal track that is hypnotic and enticing because the vocals are so hushed and the guitar melodic you don’t expect it when Carina suddenly bursts into frenzies at certain points in the track. The closer is the title track and it is wonderfully understated with its marching percussive edges muted behind the collage of guitars and vocals.
Carina Round shows that while she can easily rock it out with massive riffs, she can equally match them with some of the most smoulderingly beautiful melancholic quiet rock too. One of the best EP’s in recent years.
Francis Bowie is a Danish singer/songwriter/artist/painter/sculptor/design/gallery owner. As you do. As a result of that cluster of arty goodness – we get a slice of rather excellent pop! Here’s Franny!
Kim Edwards is a singer/songwriter whom branches off into various styles of music although more of it is underpinned by guitar and piano. Her voice is beautiful and her brass marching single “The Show” is wonderfully whimsy.
Having been privileged to play a few sets before her once a few years ago in Essex, Cara Winter has returned with her third disc release which will be reviewed later. For now though feast of “Butterfly” which has been re-recorded for the new CD.
Lauren Edman released her debut album “It’s Always the Quiet Ones” earlier this year and after dipping into a couple of genres alongside other artists and bands, it’s nice to see what standalone Lauren can do.
Opener “Wasting” is a nice juxtaposition of serenading wispy vocals alongside a gritty bassline. The track doesn’t go for the jugular, instead it chips away at making an atmospheric haze, much like a reminiscence of drama gone past. I love the vocal montages that appear here and also in “Slate” which brings Lauren’s soft vocals to the fore while swirling piano echoes and percussion is faded to the very background to create a dreamlike soundscape. The result is hypnotic and heady. “Change” then rolls back to electronic pads and a more dramatic tom heavy drum loop. Even in these more dramatic tracks Lauren’s vocals remain like a siren – warm, soaring, delicate and enticing. “Be The Light” is the first track that breaks that mould as Lauren lets her reins go in the choruses in a beautiful song full of lots of interesting quirky electronic keyboard effects.
“Sweet Girl” reminds me strangely of Soft Cell due to the metallic pulsating rhythms that the song exudes. It’s the closest the album gets to a straight forward single with simple chord structures and an immediacy to the track as a whole. “Red Wings” is a softer ballad full of lush vocals.
“Desperate Times” sounds almost like a musical with its chord structure on the piano and along with “Silent” form a more olden edge to the album. The latter specifically has the piano and banjo have a certain filter on them to sound almost honkytonk ! “This Is It” gives us the first acoustic guitar lead track on the album with an excellent use of the banjo to act out the lead melody. I really connected with this track and Lauren’s vocals hit the spot perfectly. The closing track “She’s Not Here” is a beautifully broken down track with sparse piano for verses slowly thawing into fluid melodies and vocal collectives for the choruses.
Lauren Edman’s début is beautiful from start to finish. It’s one of those albums that you’ll listen to the first time and it may not grab you immediately but then that is where the album title comes in. The album is quiet and sparse. It will chip away at you and suddenly you’ll have favourites on repeat without really noticing or picking up some of the expertly penned lyrics. Then you’ll realise that is was the quiet ones that got you all along.
Heima are a wonderful duo from Iceland with their roots firmly planted in the lush folk world. This is the kind of stuff you can wander around in a forest to for hours. The vocal and guitar interplay is sublime. We’re looking forward to hearing more from these two.
Winning our album of the year in 2011 with the devastatingly awesome “Dancing on Needles”, Charlotte Martin returns with “Hidden Places”, an EP/Live Concert hybrid that’s sure to excite fans.
The live concert is superb and although it only clocks in at just over an hour, showcases a lot of songs from last years album and a few others in piano/vocal fashion. Each song translates effortlessly across and sounds fresh and new. In particular Animal, Dancing on Needles, Truth Cerium and The Dance show such raw emotion, power and range you are frequently blown away. What is apparent however is that the concert is filmed from two static cameras and while there’s good production values to try to keep things from looking very static, the camera work doesn’t quite do the concert justice. Interspersing the songs are little clips of Martin chatting away about her music, her ordeals and her inspirations which is great to see.
The CD accompanying the concert has eight tracks. Three of which are acoustic versions of previously released tracks. “The Dance” and “Stromata” are massively powerful and sound brand new. “Animal” actually feels more fragile when stripped back and feels newer and sadder than before – something I didn’t feel would be possible! Of the new tracks “Mission Control” feels like a natural progression from her more recent work, once again veering towards the more electronic edges of her world with catchy choruses and sweeping electronic workings. “Tough” is delicately beautiful and feels like a lost song from aeons back as does “The Last Song” are they both feature some beautiful piano work and have that whimsical reflective sway to them. “In a World” features some big tom drums to up the ante which pound out hard towards the end of the song which feels like Charlotte Martin’s ode to Lion King in some ways. “Warrior” closes the EP in typically disarming fashion with some light pads and strings supporting a fragile song in which the vocals absolutely win you over from start to finish.
As always with Charlotte Martin, you know you are getting something special. While the bonus tracks are great to have and should find their home in any fans collection, the concert shows a truly magical live performer in her element, that even a budget recording cannot blemish it.
A while back we interviewed Jeff Kinney who had been working on some solo material. Well a year has passed and he’s back as part of electro-rock duo The Way Back. They have two songs available on their website, one of which is free if you sign up to their mailing list. “I Don’t Want to Let You Go” walks the fine line between mysterious atmosphere against soft vocals and big powerful choruses perfectly. “Ordinary Lives” is more pop orientated with swinging beats and some excellent bass guitar work.
Pop over to http://www.thewaybackmusic.com/ and listen for yourself! I’m looking forward to hearing much more from these two.
Lay Low is a lovely cute Icelandic singer/songwriter and I love the way she mixes effortless guitar melodies with complex beats. Here is Bye Bye Troubles.
Lauren Edman has some beautiful music that straddles fragile electronic led piano pop and introspective thoughts. She has a wonderous voice too. There’s very little available on her online at the moment but hopefully that will change with her new CD “It’s Always the Quiet One”. Here is the song “Be the Light” taken from her CD from her YouTube channel.
Soap&Skin’s debut album was an absolute corker and one of my favourite album obscura’s as I like to call them. Returning with an eight track album entitled “Narrow”, Anja’s music still holds the same scary drama as before but is fuller than before.
“Vater” the opener starts of as a simple, by Soap&Skin’s standards piano and vocal track that then flips into some angry and harsh electronic percussive explosion towards the end. The track, as the rest of the album feels like, is almost so lethargic and deconstucted, everything feels like it’s beautifully falling apart. “Voyage Voyage” has some beautiful string arrangements while Anja’s vocal’s lament over lots of minor chords. Again, darkly intimate.
“Deathmental” is like a sibling to DDMMYYY and the wholly electronic side of Anja’s music with beeps, beats and lots of chewed up vocals being spat out like an angry elf on a rampage. “Cradlesong” is the quiet track that along with “Wonder” feel like they belong side by side. The latter is especially emotive with its softly hushed vocal layering over rolling arpeggios and underplayed bass piano notes. It’s perfectly pitched to make you feel melancholic and introspective.
“Lost” is a very short track which to me feels strangely like a hymn or a Anja’s Christmas Carol! “Boat Turns Towards the Port” takes some of the electronica side and merges it fully for the first time really into a usual song structure instead of making it a stand alone set piece. The result is a powerful song that showcases everything Soap&Skin stands for with aplomb. The closer “Big Hand Nails Down” is a darker tone than the previous entry but seems to be setting us up for where Anja is heading with the merging of the two sounds – reminding me of a more dramatic and aggressive Zola Jesus.
Narrow is a fantastic album. If I had to complain, it’s too short – but that’s a testament to how fantastic the material is and how much I’m left yearning for more.
SoulEye, the man who got every one of his tracks from VVVVVV stuck in my head returned with a new album entitled Adventure. It’s more of the same awesome stuff and here’s a full on trailer for it!
Charlotte Martin returns next month with a CD/DVD album entitled “Hidden Places”. You can hear the track Mission Control here. My winner of best album in 2011 may well have it 2 years running…
Justin Levinson has recently released his latest album with the Valcours. Here Justin talks to HPM about the new album, working with other artists and whom he’d take on a desert island:
Having already had some solo work behind you – what brought you to The Valcours and whom are they?
Well in all honesty I was very hesitant to do a record without using session musicians. I had many struggles with bands in the past and found it always easier to make music with more of a business relationship. Fortunately the current lineup of session players became such good friends that I couldn’t help but want to give the band idea a second shot. We’ve been together with this lineup for about a year and I couldn’t be happier. I think it gave this album a much more organic, less sterile feel. Although I wrote the music, everyone had a say and we worked as a team to get the sound we wanted. I really began to understand how important it is to listen and put trust in the people you work with. The band consists of Simon Plumpton on drums and sampler, Seth Barbiero on bass, Sean Witters on guitar, Josh Glass on organ/synth and our producer Colin McCaffrey on guitar, bass, strings, synth and backup harmonies.
How much of a collaboration went on between you all and how did the writing flow being?
The songs were all written by me and first presented to our producer Colin. The two of us made our adjustments on the tunes and then brought them to the band. From there the group wrote the arrangements. Colin and I made the final calls on most things production wise. Luckily the band was so tight we really didn’t have to make any serious changes. Seth really added a lot to the arrangement of “Water Wears The Rock” in all honestly that song wouldn’t have been the same without him. Sean also wrote the catchy guitar melody in that tune. A huge part of our sound has been the sampler which is all credited to Simon. It’s such an honor to work with such a professional drummer who adds so much coloring to the music.
There’s a lot of different styles on the album. Are there any styles or songs that stand out as particular favourites? (I know they’re all sacred really!!!)
I think “Love You Goodbye” was a real stand out track for me. I wrote it when there was such uncertainty and pain in my life. Gregory Douglass sequenced the drum beat and Simon just kills with the real drums on top. I like the lush harmony and hip hop feel of the verses. I felt like I kinda let my guard down and screamed a bit. In previous records my vocal stylings have been very safe and less emotional
You’ve made a few music videos for the album too. I bet they were fun to make!
They were so much fun and big thanks to Bethan Wixey who shot them! I laughed till I cried in the “I Was So Wrong” video. In the very last scene our instruments are heading down stream to go off a water fall. It looked really cool until we realized that our instruments were actually about to go over the water fall. I remember watching Seth make a mad dash to save them. It’s hard to describe, but it was beyond funny. The video for “Let You Go” was fun too.
There’s quite a community in Vermont of singer songwriters that seem to band together, Is there a sense of community spirit? Does it help?
Vermont has been a great place for my career. The songwriters I’ve met aren’t part of this competitive dog eat dog stuff. Everyone is open to sharing ideas and helping each other out. I think that’s the key to success as an independent artist or maybe just life in general. I’m lucky to be based in such a great place.
Given the chance would you rather sing a one off concert to a sell out stage or go back into the studio to make a new album?
Well at the moment I think I’m going to go with the sold out concert. The songs on this record still mean so much to me and the connection with a great audience is euphoric. Hit me up in about a year though, I may take you up on the new album idea. I just live and breathe music. I’m so blessed that people buy my music and watch me perform.
Are there any instruments left that you’d like to learn or certain musical feats you’d still like to manage?
I’d really love to learn lead guitar. I play a lot of rhythm guitar and harp, but i’ve never put the time in for leads. I would also love to be able to engineer my own sessions in the studio. I’m a real novice in the technology department.
Anything coming in the future we can be privy to?
I think we are going to do a summer tour in August or September. We’ve also been talking about doing a video for “Love You Goodbye” in the near future. Our main objective is to keep pounding the pavement with our latest release “This Side Of Me, This Side Of You”
Lastly – should you ever visit a tribe that’s never heard music before. Which three artists would you take to introduce them to?
Miles Davis, The Beatles and Brahms
Many thanks to Justin Levinson and his new album is available over at his website for purchase. Best of luck!
Sometimes I need to write a huge blurb about an artist to introduce them. For Steve Katz, our Belgian turned American, I think I’ll just leave you with his beautiful dulcet tones and whimsy guitar.
Adam Fielding too has been busy. Today he released “I’ve Got Your Back” a fantastic heavy production track everyone should enjoy. Add to that a collection of downloadable out-takes from “From Out of Nowhere” and you’ve a masterful collection of so called rejects.
Module, best known for the excellent Shatter Soundtrack, is releasing an album called Imagineering and from that album we have Nantai San Sky – track 10 – available for a full preview. Click here to listen to what promises to be an excellent return.
With their début album God of Love about to hit the stores in the next few days, we grabbed Stereo Alchemy’s Christopher Tin for ten minutes to go over what is undoubtedly a smashing album in waiting and all the juicy bits behind it:
Stereo Alchemy is a collaborative effort. Tell us how you came into being and what attracted you to working together?
Kametron and I have known each other since college. Over the years, he’s worked on a number of projects with me, playing Japanese taiko, programming beats, etc. We’d always talked about doing some sort of collaborative project together
Two years ago, I was contacted by a fashion photographer named Yu Tsai, who was doing a video for Lindsay Lohan, and needed something that was dark and trip-hoppy… sort of like Massive Attack. I gave Kametron a call and said that this would be a great way to kick off a project, and so within a matter of a few days, we wrote our first song (“A Rapture”), had it placed in the Lindsay Lohan video, picked a band name, set up a website, and basically launched the project. Since then, we’ve been pecking away at the full release while juggling our own commitments (I have my scoring work and solo orchestral work, he has his world-fusion bands that he plays in and produces). Finally this winter we were able to finish off the album and launch it.
Working together as a duo, you’ve created your début album “God of Love” – tell us about the fun concept behind it, as we here at HPM do like a concept!
We’ve basically taken Renaissance and Romantic Era poems about love and death, and turned them into dark and melancholy electronica! It all started with the aforementioned Lindsay Lohan job… we were in a rush to get a song together, and didn’t have any ideas for lyrics. Then I remembered a poem that I read in college (I was an English Major) called “A Rapture” by Thomas Carew, a Renaissance poet. It was highly erotic, and worked brilliantly in the context of the video. We then decided that the rest of our songs would follow a similar pattern, and started scouring old anthologies for poems that fit well into the context of our album.
The Lindsay Lohan video, by the way, can be seen here:
With each of the ten tracks on the album veering off into different types of electronica, how did you work together? Would say Kametron supply a rhythm for you to work from or would the melodies come first?
It went both ways, really. Sometimes I’d come in and Kametron would play me a beat or a synth riff that he was working on, and I’d say, hey, that’s great, let’s add some verses and chorus to that. Then we’d crack open a few books, look around for something that fit, and then make it work. Sometimes I’d be sitting at home reading a book of poetry, and I’d find some fragment of text, and a melody would immediately jump into my mind. Then I’d sketch that out and send it over to him, and he’d add a beat to it. It was a very fluid process. Some songs got reworked over and over and over. Some ideas got initiated in one song, then ported over to another. The idea of a dubstep wobble bass, for example… Kametron was really insistent that we try to incorporate that somewhere, and at first I was hesitant. He put it into “God of Love” first, which was a song that I initiated. I sort of freaked out at that point… I’ll admit, I hated dubstep when I first heard it, and I was thinking to myself “What is that god awful noise that you’re sticking into my beautiful song?” (I’ve since become more of a dubstep fan.) Then we ported the dubstep sound over to another song and tried it out there, but that didn’t work either. Finally we ported it over to Monster of the Sky, and that seemed to be the most natural place for it. And now I’m a fan, and I’m glad he was so insistent that we incorporate it somewhere. (I’m still glad that it’s not in “God of Love”, though.)
Tell us about the guest vocalists that came on-board with the project as they really add a depth to the album too, almost as a separate voice to the work.
We have a trio of great vocalists: Melissa R. Kaplan (of the bands Splashdown and Universal Hall Pass), whom we turn to for our darker, more trip-hoppy songs. Mozez (from Zero 7), who handles all our male vocals. And Lia Rose (singer/songwriter) whom we turn to for our more pure, innocent, and dream-poppy songs. They’re all great singers, and each brings a different energy to their songs. It’s nice to have variety.
With all the success from your previous solo work “Calling All Dawns” being rooted firmly in the classical/world genre – this is a completely different side to Christopher Tin we’re seeing. Do you see the projects as completely separate? Is there anything you prefer being part of Stereo Alchemy over being a solo artist or vice versa? Or is it just about being free to express each layer of music you’d like to explore?
The two sides don’t have much to do with each other, really. I’m just exploring something that I’ve wanted to do for awhile, and having fun doing it. At the same time, I’m still working on my orchestral/world releases. I just need a change of scenery from time to time, that’s all. There are pros and cons of working in a collaboration, and working as a solo artist. It’s just nice to be able to balance both.
As a team of many genres of music – are their any particular influences that set up the “God of Love” sound, because in a very fresh way, it feels like a homage to a certain period of music?
I sort of see it as an homage to maybe a mid-90s way of doing things. We sometimes joke that the name ‘Stereo Alchemy’ is really more of a 90s-sounding name… a little bit pretentious, a little bit on-the-nose.
Now that the album is finished about about to be released, where can we find it and will we be seeing you at any promotional events to support it?
It’s online at iTunes, Amazon, and our own website www.stereoalchemy.com. It’s also on my solo website, www.christophertin.com. We’re looking into some potential live possibilities… some of which might really appeal to HPM fans, in fact. Hopefully more will develop. We’ll see.
On a personal note, how does it feel to be a Grammy winner?
Pretty good, man. Pretty good.
Thank you so much to Stereo Alchemy for giving us their time and we wish them best of luck with God of Love.
Lila Rose’s new album “Heart Machine” is a wonderful work of art. Genre bending to the point where it becomes a new genre in itself, I could brand it Alt-Pop but it wouldn’t do the album justice.
“Obsession”, the album opener is a slow burning waltz full of layered vocals, swirling keyboards and clunky percussion. The result is something slightly off kilter yet haunting and intriguing to make you sway like the undead. The title track Ft Lynx then veers off to something like a more angrier My Brightest Diamond track with growling bass and guitars simmering away under lots of vocal technical trickery and rumbling drum beats. There’s something very lethargic about the production too where everything feels like it’s about to give up and break down and it gives the whole sound a certain charm.
“Like Champagne” then rolls over to a pop route with sexy beats, straight forward riffs and a collection of vocal bending antics to keep you amused. It reminds me a bit of Nelly Furtado. “Casting Shadows” with Eric Denniston then jumps to Bat For Lashes with some fantastic vocal work and some of the best creepy chorus lines I’ve heard in a while. Every nail is hit square on the head. Perfect.
“Lost Your Senses” takes all broken bones of the first four tracks and turns it into something almost dance worthy with a track the straddles a perfect balance between catchy and arty. It’s not something you’ll have in a club by far, but it’ll stick in your head to jig to all day long. “Unbroken” is dark but sweet ballad which has a wonderful middle section which is effectively a vocal solo where Lila’s wonderful voice soars and bellows in epic beauty.
“Give You My All” is pretty much the first time a guitar is heard clearly in this quiet track which slowly stumbles musically while Lila speed sings over the top. It’s a nice breather before the dark gets bloody in “Get Gone Again” which some fantastic chord changes a vocal flick that reminds me of the Cranberries. It’s just wonderfully realised – as the album is throughout. “Bang Bang” is another track that isn’t afraid of going all out with some great percussive work to work the titles theme. It’s a track that stands out on first listen for one reason but stays with you because it grows on you insanely quickly.
“In the Dimmest” brings all the electronics to the fore in what is a relatively low-fi and smooth track in comparison to the rest of the album but it is very catchy and immediately accessible. “Couldn’t Have” is the most upbeat track on the album with a great bass line and a swinging beat as the piano flies around the place. The album closes with the equally magical “And the Beat” in typically dark industrious fashion with quirky vocal delivery, euphoric bridges and hauntingly alluring riffs that pulsate in your mind long after the track ends.
Heart Machine is a stunning album. It holds a dark industrial atmosphere that encompasses everything shown on the front cover. It’s the perfect marriage between technical wizardry and really dark thoughts. It’s easily the most impressive album I’ve heard from a new singer/songwriter in 2012 to date and firmly sits in the middle of fight for our 2012 Album of the Year Podium. This is an album that fans of the thinking mans pop can not afford to miss.
Some artists do enjoy going back to their older songs and revisit them, tweak and sometimes improve them for a new pair of shoes to be walked in. Gregory Douglass has recently done that with eight of his tracks for Retro Active 3.
“Time” is a Gregory classic and is reworked into a more ethereal version tuning from an anthemic track to one that is still catchy but one that’s more layered and without drums it still has a real push behind it. “Innocence” sounds even darker than before with some great new electronica workings. “American City”, a very early track is given the Lucid treatment full of smooth, warm keyboard expertise. “North Star” is given the piano/cello stripped down edge and is every bit as dramatic as the original.
“Hard” is too given a Lucid feel with lots of glistening keyboard twinkles and bells while “Rotunda” is taken from a rocking growling menace and something that sounds like Soft Cell could have written in their Last Days in Sodom era – spooky and gritty. “Slipping” and ”"Hang Around” turns the fantastically catchy originals into a heart wrenching piano/cello/vocal ensemble which packs a real punch and closes the collection perfectly.
Gregory Douglass manages to keep the spirit of the originals whilst moving their goalposts and this will be a must have for all fans.
