Well hi there. Miss us? No? Fair enough. Let’s great straight to the point – here’s the first instalment of our annual Christmas countdown.
50. Trips and Falls – The Inevitable Consequences of Your Stupid Behaviour
Cutting lyrics and shonky guitar pop from Song, by Toad’s American imports.
49. Russian Circles – Memorial
Blistering, intricate riffs from monstrous Chicagoan three piece.
48. RM Hubbert – Breaks and Bone
It might not linger as long in the memory as Thirteen Lost and Found, but this was a fine effort.
47. Sigur Rós – Kveikur
A supremely dark set from Iceland’s greatest ever band.
46. When the Saints Go Machine – Infinity Pool
Snyths aren’t just for dancing to, a static thousand yard stare is just as appropriate according to these dreamy Danes.
45. Daughter – If You Leave
One of the UK’s biggest breakout bands of the year. Hugely melodic but with a dark undercurrent.
44. Suuns – Images du Futur
Eclectic Canadians. Serrated guitars bled into throbbing electro throughout this intriguing record.
43. Yo La Tengo – Fade
Comfortably their best record in years, a real mishmash of styles.
42. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle
Fast becoming England’s national treasure. Possibly her best album yet.
41. Sweet Baboo – Ships
Super-cute quirk-pop from Wales. This was about a billion times better than that sounds.
40. Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
It was looking like their best days were behind them, but this was like the paddles off a crashcart for their career. *CLEAR!*
39. Joanna Gruesome – Weird Sister
Pun-tastic fuzz-pop. By no means original but a big bag of fun nonetheless.
38. The Besnard Lakes – Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
Two-minutes cheery, hook-laden melo….. oh wait. Sorry, we meant barely penetrable, spacey epics. We get easily confused here.
37. Public Service Broadcasting – Inform-Educate-Entertain
Built nicely on the cut-up sounds of their debut EP with more samples and pounding drums on their debut proper.
36. Pictish Trail – Secret Sounds Vol 2
Tours with metal bands and a new label made this an interesting year for Johnny Lynch but this is where his 2013 began. Rather well, too.
35. And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures
Derry’s post rock experimentalists found their inner sunshine on this lively rollercoaster of an album.
34. PVT – Homosapien
Dark, pulsing techno from down under bore fruition on a record that matched their previous best.
33. Conquering Animal Sound – On Floating Bodies
Where Kammerspiel could sounds a little flimsy in retrospect, this cranked up the bass to floor-shaking levels. A real progression.
32. My Bloody Valentine – m b v
Undoubtedly an ‘event’ release and it will surely be a grower. Not quite into classic territory just yet though.
31. The History of Apple Pie – Out of View
2013 was overflowing with scuzzy guitar pop, but this was a genuine treat, awash with cracking hooks.
30. Dutch Uncles – Out of Touch in the Wild
Manchester’s musical boffins found critical and commercial acclaim, and rightfully so with the fully formed follow-up to Cadenza.
29. Rick Redbeard – No Selfish Heart
Who needs the Phantom Band, eh? Rick Anthony’s name was writ large as one of Scotland’s leading troubadours with this gentle near-classic.
28. Steve Mason – Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time
The Beta Band are now surely long-forgotten. Mason’s legacy now lies as much with his solo material than the divisive Fence pioneers.
27. Swearin’ – Surfin’ Strange
A fine follow-up to last year’s self-titled debut. Commercial success also looms in the slipstream of Waxahatchee – but let’s be clear, Allison Crutchfield doesn’t need her sister’s help to make fine records.
26. Future of the Left – How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident
The abrasive Welsh shit-stirrers surpassed themselves here. Nasties lurked alongside pop nous to create some hissing evil.
Album of the Week: Conquering Animal Sound – On Floating Bodies
Honestly, we’re struggling to think of a Scottish band more beguiling than Conquering Animal Sound.
2011’s Kammerspiel was an intriguing piece – at times utterly brilliant and never anything south of enchanting. Much of the appeal can be put down to Anneke Kampman’s breathy vocals, a weapon which is again at the forefront of their sound, helping ensure that On Floating Bodies is every bit Kammerspiel’s equal.
It may actually be even better.
From the apocalyptic Ultimate Heat Death of the Universe, everything here sounds louder. If you were to pick a fault with Kammerspiel it would be that it was a little TOO introspective and evenly paced at times. That’s not the case here.
James Scott’s pulsing synths and beats have been turned up all of a sudden. You’d still struggle to dance to the likes of Warn Me, but there’s a sense of drifting euphoria throughout, as Anneke’s looped vocals add layers of melody.
Many of the musical reference points (Bjork, Caribou, Nathan Fake) still stand up, but it seems the shift to Chemikal Underground has given the duo the confidence to cut loose a little. No Dream’s staccato vocals are totally Kate Bush and A Noise Remains’ ‘back and forth’ hook takes it dangerously close to an actual pop song – and is bloody fantastic with it.
The bruised I’ll Be Your Mirror (not that one) shares DNA with The Knife in its hissing, ominous soundscapes. Overall, this should be seen as a finessing of the Conquering Animal sound rather than any kid of reinvention. And while its influences and references are identifiable, there’s still something unique about their approach to making and performing music.
The standard of albums released in 2013 has already been remarkably high, we’ve just added On Floating Bodies to the pile.
We grabbed James and Anneke for a word (of course).
What inspired the songs on ‘On Floating Bodies’?
James: Lots of things! I think we had a clear idea of where we wanted to go with our music after the first album. We wanted more overtly electronic elements, we wanted to created more rhythmic sounds, and that came out in quite a direct fashion. Anneke had a clear idea of lyrical themes she wanted to work with, and I think that really helped in bringing the record together.
Anneke: Everything that I do feeds back into the music I make but I can’t really explain how that happens. Life is in a constant state of flux, we are in bodies, then we’re in our minds, we have bad experiences and good ones, relationships, we watch TV, we engage with the internet and its mind numbing capabailities, we use technology at most points throughout the day, we constantly come up against the structures which dictate how it is possible to live our lives. All of this affects us.
I didn’t necessarily have a specific concept for the record when we started writing it but it definitely found itself throughout the process. Around the time we were writing the record I was really enjoying the experimental neuroscience of ‘the ego tunnel’ by Thomas Metzinger, reading about discoveries in physics from ancient Greece, the films of Jean-luc Godard and Battlestar Gallactica!!!
How do you think it varies from Kammerspiel?
James: To me, the record sounds and feels a lot more confident. Kammerspiel was the sound of us two experimenting, finding different sounds. On Floating Bodies is again the sound of us experimenting, but with more focus and confidence. I think they are two quite different records, and I hope we continue to keep changing and shifting on our future recording projects.
Anneke: I think On Floating Bodies has a much more ‘3 dimensional’ feeling. We weren’t trying to write pop hits or whatever, and if some of the songs are structured in that way then that was more just a natural progression than a deliberate choice. I think we understood a lot more about our process for creating sound with this record and so we were freer to make bolder or more outrageous choices.
Tell us about the recording process.
James: The album was mostly written and recorded in the flat Anneke and I were sharing. Our friend Alan Bryden lent us a few things, we got the use of a sampler, a Jen synth and tape echo, all of which were integral to the sound of the album. It gave us new sounds and processes to experiment with. We then re-recorded vocals, drums and guitars with Paul Savage in Chem19 studios, and mixed it there too. The weight I put on due to Paul’s daily Gregg’s dependency, I am still trying to work off.
Anneke: Jamie and I were living together at the time. This was quite an intense period of time. With this record we became much more interested in how sound and texture could dictate the course of the music, rather than just letting things be led by specific chords or harmony. Sometimes we would record a sound off a synth, or another textural idea which was tuned in a really strange way, but that would have such an amazing sense of itself that we didn’t see the point of trying to tune it back to some predictable key. So we would try and fit a way for the rest of a track to work itself to that. We worked much more with machines than we did on the first record. Synths, and processing and not so many organic sounds. Everything that you hear has been created, we use no pre-sets and we don’t tend to sample from other people’s work (the isn’t a moral decision though, it’s just something that’s happened).
Was it an easy decision to get involved with Chemikal?
James: Very easy. Personally, I’m a fan of many of bands they’ve released – Arab Strap, De Rosa, Mogwai, Sluts of Trust – so in that sense I was very pleased. But getting to mix the record with Paul Savage in Chem19 had a large bearing on the direct sound of the record, we really benefitted from that. We’re not really like any other bands they’ve released before, but they are so easy and enjoyable to work with that that has never been a concern for us.
Anneke: For me, the decision to work with one label and not another is about trust, not necessarily about creative ‘similarity’. For me the best labels are those which represent a particular musical community and it doesn’t matter if there is an intrinsic aesthetic driving that. Chemikal have consistently given opportunities to musicians living and working in Scotland and are successful in doing so partly because they are able to spot creativity across a broad range of genres. It is a community of people working towards the same goal, to explore and celebrate the diverseness of Scottish music without prejudice and that makes me happy!!
On Floating Bodies is released on March 25 through Chemikal Underground.
Album of the Week: Miaoux Miaoux – Light of the North
There was always an air of inevitability around Miaoux Miaoux (aka Julian Corrie) teaming up with a big outfit like Chemikal Underground. His polished brand of beats-led pop has won him many fans around his Glasgow base in the last few years, and now that first full-length record has landed, we’ll wager on him getting plenty more.
Light of the North is stuffed full of pounding synths and gentle guitar riffs and Corrie’s voice is strong enough to hold things together, thus avoiding sounding like Hot Chip. Like a supercharged James Yuill or a more vocal-led Four Tet, Miaoux Miaoux takes guitar-y dance music to a new place and is music to get both feet moving and brains churning.
Not one of the songs that has provoked much of the positive pre-release commentary, Cloud Computer sits at the heart of the album and is potentially the diamond in a bag of gems. It’s like LCD Soundsystem’s Tribulations, just without the vocals. Oh, and better too.
Bookending it are the superior dance-pop of Better For Now, which arguably would have been a better single than the album’s weakest point Hey Sound, and the first of Light of the North’s guest appearances, Is It A Dream, an intelligent brew of cut-up vocals by Maple Leaves’ Anna Miles.
Edinburgh rapper Profisee pops up for some Q-Tip-esque mumbling over some thumping beats on Virtua Fighter before taking over the song entirely towards the end. From the epic Stop the Clocks onwards the album winds down with a post-club vibe* taking over from the high tempo first seven songs making it sound like a complete record as opposed to a bunch of songs just lobbed together.
With the Scottish Album of the Year competition hotting up for an announcement later this month, we fully expect this to be in the reckoning next year. It’s a bloody great record. And we’ve not mentioned the fact that Miaoux Miaoux sounds like a cat once. Ah crap.
We spoke to Miaouser-in-chief Julian about the release.
How did you get involved with Chemikal Underground?
I guess they’d been following me for a while – I’d put out my first album, an EP and a single on my own label and was trying to do things off my own back, then Stewart (Henderson) and Paul (Savage) came to see me play at Stereo supporting Adam Stafford. We had a chat in the bar afterwards and Stewart mentioned working together, I think I was far too excited and a bit pissed, so tried my best to not make an idiot out of myself. Thankfully I got away with it and here we are.
How does it feel to finally be releasing an album?
Really great – this marks the culmination of about two years’ work, so it’s immensely satisfying to see it finally come to life. I honestly couldn’t have finished it without the help of Chemikal, and Paul in particular – if I’d mixed it myself it’d probably still be unfinished, but having Chemikal behind me and Paul’s skills gave me the impetus to finish it. Plus he made it sound better than I ever could!
How did the collaborations come about?
Well Anna and I used to play together in a band called Maple Leaves, and shortly after I left I wrote a tune that I thought she’d be perfect for. She nailed it in an hour, she has such a great voice. Profisee was a friend of a friend and I’d really liked what I’d heard of his stuff, so he was the first person I thought of when I needed a rapper. Again, he smashed it. I’m very grateful to have such talented friends.
Tell us about you launch shows!
Okay! So the Miaoux Miaoux band will be playing Mono in Glasgow and Electric Circus in Edinburgh. We don’t often play as a band together (I usually do solo shows) so it should be great fun. We’re being supported by the awesome Conquering Animal Sound (who have new material on the way that will blow your mind) and the newly reformed and brilliant Mitchell Museum. Plus a couple of great DJs – Auntie Flo at the Glasgow show, and Killer Kitsch in Edinburgh.
We like cats. And you’re the latest cat-friendly sounding band to appear on Tidal Wave. Is Miaoux Miaoux an ACTUAL feline reference or are you alluding to anything else………
I love cats! It was kind of cat based, but was supposed to be more of a kind of ‘whatever happens, happens’ sort of name. Deliberate nonsense, in a way. Plus it’s easily googleable, although not quite so easy to spell right.
Light of the North will be released on June 11 on Chemikal Underground and will be marked by gigs in Glasgow (Mono) on June 7 and Edinburgh (Electric Circus) on June 14.
*We feel at pains to point out that we haven’t been in a ‘club’ in about ten years, but we’re pretty sure that’s what it feels like…
The recent announcement that the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) was creating a Scottish Album of the Year Award has been met with mostly positive noises from the industry and bl*g*sph*re. With some big cash prizes backing up the prize, this does, in our eyes at least, look like the long-awaited, high profile means of recognising Scottish music that many of us have been looking for.
The longlist is now out with full details below. We’ll be honest, we’re not familiar with a fair few artists here, but that’s the beauty of a diverse judging panel (we’re not on it by the way, so please direct that roll of twenties elsewhere, thanks). There’s plenty of great stuff in there though, including no less than five albums that made Tidal Wave’s own top 25 last year, plus a rather nice surprise in the shape of Happy Particles.
There’s one band in there that if they win, we’ll probably leave the country in disgust, but we’ll let you work that one out. We’ll probably be going for King Creosote or Mogwai in the public vote, the winner of which will guarantee themselves a place on the shortlist, due for publication on May 17, to be followed by the winner’s announcement on June 19.
Interesting stuff and we hope you’ll support this initiative and its noble aim of supporting great Scottish music.
The longlist is as follows:
– 6th Borough Project “One Night In the Borough”
– Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat “Everything’s Getting Older”
– Bwani Junction “Fully Cocked”
– Chris Stout’s Brazilian Theory “Live In Concert”
– Conquering Animal Sound “Kammerspiel”
– FOUND “factorycraft”
– Fudge Fingas “Now About How”
– Happy Particles “Under Sleeping Waves”
– Jonny “Jonny”
– King Creosote & Jon Hopkins “Diamond Mine”
– Mogwai “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will”
– Mungo’s Hi Fi “Forward Ever”
– Muscles Of Joy “Muscles Of Joy”
– Remember Remember “The Quickening”
– Richard Craig “Inward”
– Rustie “Glass Swords”
– Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell “Ghosts Outside”
– Tommy Smith “Karma”
– Twin Atlantic “Free”
– We Were Promised Jetpacks “In The Pit Of the Stomach”
And that can mean only one thing – the BAMS (Blogs and Music Sites Scotland) are back. The unofficial guild/club/clique voted High Violet by the National as our album of the year in 2010 and I* was delighted to be a part of voting once again. The top ten – in reverse order – was as follows:
10= PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
10= The Moth and the Mirror – Honestly, This World
10= FOUND – factorycraft
7= The Son(s) – The Son(s)
7= Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
5. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine
4= Mike Nisbet – Vagrant
4= Bon Iver – Bon Iver
2. Adam Stafford – Build a Harbour Immediately
1. Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Now then. Bearing in mind that each blogger only had three picks, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll note that my top three is nowhere to be seen. Metronomy is lurking just outside the top ten and Ringo Deathstarr are considerably further down – no great surprise to see a slightly obscure US fuzz-pop three-piece making little impact in a Scottish poll.
What is a surprises me is that it looks suspiciously like – from the breakdown of voting – is that the The Tidal Wave of Indifference is the only site to have voted for Mogwai’s superb latest. EH???
The winner’s something of a surprise too. I have the Wells/Moffat album but am less than blown away by it. It’s had a few listens and I’ll certainly come back to it but it’s not album of the year for me. But who are we to argue? Naebody, especially when it comes to actual factual science of a poll which has again been put together by blogging ledge Lloyd ‘Peenko‘ Meredith so big thanks to the friendly fella from the west for taking the time to do it all again.
Lloyd also managed to catch a word with this year’s winners and the full interview is below.
Congratulations Bill and Aidan, you are this years’ winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel? Does this rate as a career highlight then?
Aidan: I think it might be the first award I’ve ever been presented with, with the exception of the joint 4th Year English Prize at Falkirk High in 1989, so it’s very exciting indeed. Not sure about a career highlight – that accolade is always reserved for the work itself, and Everything’s Getting Older is certainly one of my favourites, yes.
Bill: Feels good – though when it dawned on me, obviously quite some time ago, that awards are only ever decided upon by other people, not by some almighty, all knowing, arbiter of taste and quality looking down from the clouds, I thought it always best to never get too excited about any of them coming my way, not that there’s been much occasion to, right enough.
How did you end up collaborating together in the first place?
Aidan: Bill says we found ourselves at the same table in a pub and I immediately asked him to play on some Arab Strap songs. I have no recollection of this at all, but at the time I was very much in love with his Also In White album so I’ve no reason to doubt him. After he played on the Monday At The Hug And Pint album, we did one song together and then took years to book a studio to do some more. We always seemed to have other things to do, but I’m glad we waited because I can’t imagine the album any other way. It would’ve had an entirely different theme and tone if we’d finished it in 2005, and I really don’t think it would have been as good from my side.
Bill: Indeed this is what happened – I was very surprised and flattered actually because although I was a huge Arab Strap fan, and though we were all from Falkirk, or, more likely, because, it never occurred to me that we’d ever all be in a studio together, so it did, for me at least, even at the time, feel like quite an occasion, and looking back, even more so now.
"Yay! Go us!"
I am guessing that you’ve spent a lot of time in each others’ pockets this year; has this bonded your love for each other, or are you sick of the sight of each other?
Aidan: We haven’t really spent that much time together at all, to be honest. We haven’t done a lot of touring, although what we did do was quite hard work. There’s more gigs being planned for next year, so hopefully we’ll have more to do, but it’s not as though we’re a young rock band out on the road and in the NME every week, there’s not a lot of fuss or constant attention to deal with; there’s been a minimum of upheaval, thankfully.
Bill: Yeh, sorry, you’re guessing wrong.
If the love is still there, are there any plans to work together again in the future?
Aidan: We’ve just started talking about our second album now, so it will happen but we’re not sure when. Certainly not next year, we’ve both got a couple of albums each planned for 2012, so we might try and have it ready for 2013. There’s no rush though, it’ll be ready when it’s ready; the last thing i want to do is dive into it and force it out, that’s why a lot of second albums these days are a bit shit. Bands and labels are desperate to hold onto any momentum and profile a new band has, but we’re lucky in that respect because we’re not really a new, young band; we’ve both been making records for ages and there’s no pressure on us at all. So 2014 at the earliest!
Bill: Just to add that I’m really looking forward to this, the musical ideas for first album were pretty much all on one cdr I gave Aidan ages ago, then the EP happened pretty quickly this year so, personally, I’m more hopeful for the 2013 result but, whatever and whenever, it’ll be great to get working together in the studio again.
Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of 2012?
Aidan: I would’ve said Slow Club’s Paradise a couple of weeks ago (which I still love) but it’s been pipped at the post by the last-minute release of Josh T. Pearson’s limited live LP, The King Is Dead, which I think is far superior to his studio album. There’s been a lot of very good music this year though, but my memory can never work when it’s put on the spot, sorry!
Bill: I look at these end of year lists and realize I haven’t heard so many of these records, so it feels like a very uninformed opinion. The last time I was asked I said the re – release of Annette Peacock’s ‘I’m The One’ which is truly one of the greatest records ever made. However after writing that I realized that “That’s Reality’ by Yumbo, which is Koji Shibuya’s (bass player in Maher Shalal Hash Baz) Pop masterpiece, came out in Japan in early 2011.
If the above list seems to be lacking in links, I’m writing this in a rush and don’t have the time to link everything just now but I’ll come back to it. Most are linked at the bottom of the page though!!
Finally, as Christmas is approaching I’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that’s read the Tidal Wave of Indifference in 2011. There genuinely seems to be more and more each week, which is a lovely feeling on top of this being a big year generally. My first gig in September was a roaring success, I’ve done a stack more writing for Radar and my inane witterings have even popped up on scotsman.com and theskinny.co.uk and I’ve even done a bit of DJing and some radio presenting for Freshair (with hopefully a bit more to come in 2012).
The site will be back with more album reviews, band features and random bullshit in the middle of January. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s some Christmas cheer…
* Grammar pedants like Last Year’s Girl will note that I’m writing this in the first person as it’s a more personal post.
So this is it. The REALLY good stuff. Without further ado…
25. Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls
There’s always one, and by ‘one’ we mean ‘one album that we only come across in late November that makes a late run for our countdown’. Enter Veronica Falls, formed from the ashes of the Royal We, among others, coming on like an undead Ronettes. Both spooky and lovely.
24. Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
The haunted vocals of Anneke Kampman soundtracked much of the early part of our year. Backed by the twitching, looped beats of Jamie Scott, Kammerspiel was both experimental and accessible.
23. Vessels – Helioscope
Post-rock with a twist this, in that – shock – there’s vocals scattered throughout. The Leeds five-piece sounded rhythmic and ominous and despite having been around for a few years now, moved squarely into the ‘ones to watch’ category this year.
22. The Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps
Twilight Singers albums are always welcome, but we’re going to stick our necks out and suggest this might be their best yet. Consistently great all the way through unlike some patchy previous efforts, Greg Dulli is still one of the finest American artists out there.
21 Battles – Gloss Drop
We’ve been waiting four years for them to follow up Mirrored and with last year’s news that Tyrondai Braxton had buggered off, we were worried that album number two may never appear. Never fear, though, guest vocalists like Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino and – bizarrely – Gary Numan filled in the blanks rather well. Hooray!
So, there are two albums worth highlighting that don’t really fit into the ‘artist album’ category that we’d like to talk about before we reach the main event of our top fifty countdown tomorrow. There’s no order here, these are both just excellent albums.
The Fruit Tree Foundation
Idlewild’s Rod Jones has been behind this project to raise awareness of mental health issues for a few years now and while this was “technically” out last year, the physical release only came out in early 2011 so it definitely counts. And it’s all for a great cause, so we’re not going to pass up an opportunity to mention it. James Graham (Twilight Sad), Scottish Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop), Emma Pollock and James Yorkston all featured prominently and with artwork by Aiden Moffat, what are you waiting for. Buy it HERE, tightwads.
Jonnie Common Presents Deskjob
A unique piece of work where island electro popster reworked a number of songs by other Scottish artists such as eagleowl, Panda Su, Meursault, Conquering Animal Sound and more. We suppose it’s a remix album of sorts but most tracks are merely subtle rearrangements of existing material with Common’s little flourishes a unifying theme. All told, it’s lovely stuff. Don’t believe us? The album is previewed below.
Everyone’s favourite muscially-challenged Dundonian (no, not Kyle Falconer) is back on the podcast beat with tunes from Tidal Wave faves Conquering Animal Sound and the Joy Formidable, unknowns (to us anyway) Holy Other and Yelle and a tear-stained tribute to the White Stripes, who are no more.
Album of the Week: Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
Welcome back, folks.
Even though I’ve been clear that the Tidal Wave of Indifference is “not just a blog about Scottish music” there’s going to be a real run of Scottish albums of the week coming up.
Hopefully that says more about the healthy state of Scottish music than this site deviating from its modus operandi than anything else.
First up is the much-anticipated debut from Conquering Animal Sound.
James Scott and Anneke Kampman have been making music together under this name for a number of years so it’s a welcome development for them to finally get an album out.
Lauren Laverne tweeted a few weeks ago to say that this is the great album that Bjork and Stina Nordenstam never made together. A glib statement, perhaps, but a useful starting point, particularly if you were to add Hope Sandoval to that short list of Scandanavian singers.
Think of Nordenstam’s haunting Euro-vocals and the minimalist loops and synths that have characterised Ms Gudmundsdóttir’s more recent work and that’s a fairly close approximation of what to expect from Kammerspiel.
Musically, there’s also shades of the Antlers and Caribou – the subtle guitars buried under waves of electronica of the former and the slow, pulsing beats of the latter’s work on Andorra.
This is probably the point that I should start picking out individual highlights but that’s problematic on two points. Firstly, all eleven tracks are similarly-paced and arranged that it takes a huge number of listens for a track to distinguish itself. Perhaps opener Maschine and Tracer could be classed as being a cut above the rest.
The above point isn’t meant to make the album sound same-y by the way, as the second reason why it’s so difficult to pick out a highlight is that the whole record feels like high plateau rather than a series of peaks and troughs – or even peaks and smaller peaks.
Kammerspiel is a remarkable debut, astonishing even, and as the band gear up for a UK tour, one that deserves an audience outside Scotland.
This is a very high watermark for any other album coming out this year. It’s only February but I look forward to revisiting Kammerspiel in the final weeks of 2011 to see how it stands up to everything else I’ve heard. I’m going to guess ‘rather well’.
I spoke to James Scott from the band last week…
How does it feel to finally get an album out?
It’s great! It’s been a long process, not just writing and recording, but sorting out the logistics of it coming out with the label and making sure we were ready for it to come out. Hopefully, not rushing it, means it will come out at the right time. I’m still really happy with the record, and I’m looking forward to it finally being out.
Have you managed to balance CAS with your work on the Japanese War Effort?
The Japanese War Effort is mostly just mucking about on my own, using ideas that wouldn’t work with Conquering Animal Sound. It’s rare that I will write something alone, and then save it for Anneke and I, as we do the vast majority of writing together. Both bands have quite different writing processes, and reasonably different sounds, so I don’t feel there is too much overlap in what we do. I write with Anneke to create music and ideas I wouldn’t or couldn’t do alone, but write alone to let all the other stuff out. I think it’s a healthy balance, and I have no disillusions about doing both.
Are the upcoming dates your first proper UK tour? Excited?
Very excited. It’s our second UK tour, we went out on a few dates in May 2010 there, which was great fun, and we gained some invaluable experience (like, always make sure you are parking in a very safe place in Nottingham, and don’t go on tour without a sat-nav or map). This time we’ll be a little older, a little wiser, and we’re taking a dedicated driver, our friend Jay, who makes the very essence of life sweeter. He also has an excellent range of in-car music. And this time out we’re promoting our debut album, so there’s plenty to be excited by!
On record, the music sounds too intricate to made by just two people. How do you manage it?
We don’t think too much about “will we be able to play this live?” when we write, so we end up throwing lots and lots of ideas at the canvas until we’ve decided what sticks. It’s fun now, to go back and listen to a song, and have no recollection about how we made a particular sound, or to hear a different part taking precedence that we remember at the time. Our live set up does allow us to loop layer upon layer of sound, so I usually end up jumping about from instrument to instrument throughout a performance, which is a lot more fun than sticking to one thing.
Conquering Animal Sound will play the following dates in February:
2 – HULL Adelphi
3 – YORK Basement
4 – LEEDS Packhorse
5 – MANCHESTER Night & Day
7 – LONDON Slaughtered Lamb
8 – NEWCASTLE Head of Steam
9 – DUNDEE Doghouse
10 – ABERDEEN Snafu
11 – GLASGOW Captain’s Rest
12 – EDINBURGH Sneaky Pete’s
Gerry Loves Records are one of the finest, most innovative independent labels operating in Scotland today.
There you go, no fluffy opening, no flim or flam just plain fact. The tiny Edinburgh outfit has been releasing beautifully packaged vinyl from the likes of Conquering Animal Sound and Trapped in Kansas since April of this year.
December marks their most ambitious project yet, a 12″ with tunes by the Japanese War Effort who I already liked, Miaoux Miaoux who sound promising and Fox Gut Daata, who I have to say I’m less convinced by.
Also on there are Wounded Knee, a name I certainly knew, but who’s music I didn’t.
I now know that Wounded Knee is Drew Wright, a musician and experimental vocalist based in Leith. There’s echoes of minimalist techno and folk through his material that I’ve since investigated, and it all sounds pretty unique.
His contribution to the Gerry Loves opus is Tomlinson’s Rant, concerning Ian Tomlinson, the 47-year-old newspaper seller who lost his life during last year’s G20 protests in London.
Now, while I clearly have my own views on the world at large, what I write on this site needs to remain firmly apolitical for reasons that I shan’t dwell on. But whatever you think, his story is worth looking up if you’re not familiar with it.
The song itself is an unsettling sea shanty told from the perspective of Tomlinson himself. I asked Drew about his inspiration for the song, working with Gerry Loves and some of my usual facetious nonsense.
So Who the hell are You?
I am Wounded Knee, or Drew Wright, an experimental singer and vocalist from Leith, Edinburgh.
Please describe your sound in ten words or less.
Janus music. Dubh Wop. Portable port a beul.
Your song is about the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests. What in particular inspired you about that incident?
The shock of it all, watching an innocent guy get a doing from a policeman in full balaclava and no numbers on his uniform. The anger and frustration at a system washing its hands of any responsibility. And thinking of what his family must be going through. The song is sung from Ian Tomlinson’s perspective, trapped in a limbo; but his family will be the ones living in limbo. The musical inspiration comes in particular from things like the Pogues’ “Birmingham Six”, Dead Kennedys, Public Enemy and KRS1. Politically aware and engaged music that I grew up listening to. It might sound like a naïve gesture to sing about using democracy and writing to your MP but I think we have to be more active in using what is at our disposal to raise questions and engage more directly with this political system we do have, flawed as it may be. Otherwise it’s point and click protest, sign a Facebook petition and that’s your conscience saved for another day.
How did you get involved with the guys at Gerry Loves?
They asked me to do a support slot for the Conquering Animal Sound/Debutant split 7″ launch and it has progressed from there. I’ve been really impressed with how quickly the new record has come together and that’s credit to Andy and Paddy’s efforts. Cheers lads!
They’re not the only Scottish DIY indie label that’s sprung up lately – do you think that’s the future for music publishing?
It’s great to see new labels and promoters getting going and long may it continue. It’s good to see vinyl and cassettes are still going strong. It’s maybe a post-digital reaction. Hard drives and iPods stuffed with all the music in your collection; the aural equivalent of your eyes bigger than your stomach. When you play a record or a tape you have to invest in that decision a bit more. The idea of “sides” of music is worth preserving.
Wounded Knee. Fan of ethnic cleansing of indigenous Peoples?
I took the name because I played five a side football down at Porty Pitz (grotty collection of football pitches, not far from Tidal Wave Towers) and every week I would skin the same knee, it would scab up and be almost healed and then the next week skinned again. But aye, I know more now about the massacre at Wounded Knee. I have the book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Grim.
Finally, with yourself and Withered Hand what’s with musicians named after minor ailments. If I named my long-awaited musical project* Gammy Leg would you have any objections?
As long as we can release a split single together.
The Tidal Wave of Indifference 