Alive 2017

Sorry it's been so long.  I've thought about the neglect I've been showing this blog but kept thinking I hadn't really heard anything so there was nothing to write about.  Thought about it again yesterday and realised I've been wrong -- I've heard quite a lot that I've never blogged on, and all quite recently -- Skepta, SBTRKT, the new Depeche Mode, the new Tribe Called Quest, and more besides.  So plenty of stuff to cover.  I've also started to mess around a bit with making music myself.  I won't bore you with the details, but it's meant that I've been listening much more deeply to the music I hear now, which has been really good; it's been a while since I enjoyed music so much in that way.  I'll take it slowly though.  I'll start here with Roisin Murphy, as I have some time at the moment.

I first came across Ms Murphy back when she was in Moloko.  I heard "Sing It Back" while visiting the UK one summer and loved it.  But that and "The Time is Now" were all I really heard by them.  I'm in the US and Moloko weren't terribly big over here; I wasn't able to follow them or Roisin at all as she never came on my radar.


(Just heard that for the first time in years -- Wow.  The lyrics are great!)

 Then, years later, "Hairless Toys" came out and I made a Petridis-review based decision, one I've not regretted.  It's a lovely album, full of electronic music that's weird enough to be interesting but still very funky and danceable.  In fact I really should get it out and listen to it some more.



 That was in 2015; then Roisin came back up on my radar again at the end of last year, I forget why now.  I started looking her and her back catalogue up and bought "Overpowered" due to more good reviews.  There are some great tracks on there, and reading more about Roisin had me regretting that I wasn't following her all along.  Luckily she's still around and still doing great work so hopefully I'll get to see her live soon.   A stand out track from "Overpowered" is "Primitive", which I'll post below.  I love the sounds, the skittery beats, and Roisin's singing.



That's it for now.  The plan is for more soon.  But you know what they say about plans.  

What I did while I was looking after my kid (1)

I'm at home these days on paternal leave hanging out with my youngest kid.  He's two months old so doesn't really do much except eat, sleep, and occasionally make eye contact with me.  Feeding him can take over an hour on a bad day, all of which means I'm spending a lot of time just indoors with not much to do.  So I've decided to be productive and go through old episodes of 'Later... with Jools Holland' that I've recorded.  And I've decided to add to that productivity by blogging about what I'm seeing.  Basically any stand out performances will get blogged, or at least that's the idea -- we'll see if I can keep up with it.

I'm going start with Grizzly Bear, who were on in 2009.  They are an interesting looking band aren't they?  I think I saw this performance before but didn't care for it as much as I did the second time around.  I really like their harmonising and their overall sound; it's just different enough to be interesting but not annoying.  And they look cool.



Next up, the Dead Weather, also from 2009.  These guys are just interesting.  It's like they achieved exactly what they set out to do -- scuzzy rock that sounds vaguely like something from the past but in actuality probably never existed.  It's like Jack White imagined a band and a sound and then it perfectly came to fruition.  Quite amazing really, that a vision can be realised so fully.  I love the organ in this song, and I like also like how Jack White's at the back of the set-up, even though he's one of the singers -- it does seem like his voice is dropping in as some kind of sample.  Great dancing too.  One thing I've wondered about Jack White -- how does he get his skin that colour??  Is it a condition?  Make-up?  Or is just the blue lighting?  Oh yeah, another thing I like about this performance is that they really seem to go all out.  I feel like often on Jools Holland musicians play in an embarrassed or self-conscious way -- probably cos they're being watched by all the other musicians.  But not these guys.

This link's got a short interview from the same show.

Lastly, some more great dancing, this time from Dave Gahan.  It may just be me, but when I see a band like Depeche Mode, bands from the 80's who've been through all the drugs and controversy, I do feel like there's a defiance there that comes from having got through it and still being around.  It's the same with Boy George.  It's good, I'm glad they're here and doing ok.  Dave Gahan still looks cool.  Another great thing about this performance is seeing how the band produces it's sound.  I've not seen them live, or really seen them perform in any capacity, so seeing the different elements work together is pretty interesting -- for instance, seeing that Gahan and Martin Gore lay their voices over each other to produce a sound that is so familiar to me, but one I'd not really noticed the particulars of until I saw them doing it here.  For a more explicit example, check out their performance of 'Personal Jesus' (though doing so may take away from the seemingly magical alchemy of the pop song).  I really liked this performance: