Reversal of The Muse - Laura Marling

The Irregular Riff is supposed to be about upcoming musical releases but today I am nudging my own rules to one side. What I'd like to talk about is something of great importance and something that consumers of music such as us are perhaps not fully aware of or not as engaged with, especially in such an honest and interesting way as through the Reversal of The Muse, a recently launched podcast series hosted by Laura Marling. Briefly, for those who don't know Laura Marling, she is a female singer-songwriter from England who has released five albums to date, each of which have been critically acclaimed and celebrated. 



Stating on the Reversal of The Muse website, Marling says that in 10 years of making music she has only encountered two female engineers working in music studios. Through her conversations with women in the industry, thus far with studio engineer Vanessa Parr and the all girl band Haim, Marling ponders on why there might be a lack of women in the industry and what this deficiency means for music and for music creation. The two available podcasts bring up interesting points and Marling has a natural way of allowing her interviewee to fully delve into the topic whilst reigning them in and putting her questions and opinions forward.

The first podcast with Vanessa Parr is striking for how few female audio engineers studied alongside Parr at university with as little as 5% of the course participants being women (4:10). Parr muses on the stereotypes of jobs such as engineering traditionally appealing to men and says that as a very social job, one where you have to work long hours with artists and other people (men) in the studio, it is an environment where people have to "pal around" (6:38) and that this already male orientated environment is difficult to break into unless you are more of a tomboy. To my mind it also brought up questions of other such industries typically associated with men such as in the sciences, and just how difficult it is to deconstruct such solid stereotypes.  

One of the most striking moments is when Marling asks Parr whether she had ever met a female producer (14:33). Parr's response; "No. Isn't that crazy". It is crazy and not something that your average music consumer, such as me, would necessarily think about or think is the case. The consumer is often only open to the artist themselves and we are lucky in that gender in music seems to not be such an issue, as Haim agree in the second podcast (21:00), and that gender is not seen by the consumer; Grimes is a fantastic example of this as a young woman making her own music in a genre as androcentric, as focused on men, as the electronic music scene.  



The Haim podcast includes Haim's (male) producer who says that although he has worked with numerous female artists, female engineers make up less than 1% of the people he has worked with (14:09). Their conversation on sexism when going into a guitar shop is troubling, with one of the girls saying that she often feels she is demeaned and judged by those in the shop simply for being a woman and that this feeling often makes her want to prove herself and her ability simply to gain acceptance in this male environment (15:18-18:57). It's interesting to hear Marling say how commonplace this feeling of competition and of having to fight for acceptance is for a "threateningly talented female musician" (20:44). It makes me think how there is inevitably a feeling of competition in a guitar shop as there often is between bands or in other hobbies and areas where ones skill can be clearly ranked above anothers. Women are the ones that men feel they can almost immediately assert their feeling of superiority over before asserting it over as many men as they can rationalise a feeling of musical superiority over. That need to be the best means that the weakest are eliminated first and are trampled on to make you feel better, it's just that the weakest are seemingly perceived as women first, regardless of skill and talent. 

Reversal of The Muse has been really eye-opening and made me consider that although there are many incredibly vocal and strong female performers and musicians, within the music industry, the creatives behind the scenes, something is being lost. Do tune in to Reversal of The Muse as it is that podcast and not this blog that can really enlighten and shock on this interesting and often disturbing topic. 

Laura Marling
Reversal of The Muse
Check out the podcast at the official website: http://www.reversalofthemuse.com/   

Jump Into - Uffe

One of my favourite albums from 2014 was Max Graef's debut LP, Rivers of The Red Planet. It's one of those albums which hangs together as an entire album incredibly well. It's a full listening experience with different moods and tempos flowing throughout but without it feeling like a playlist or a collection of individual songs which sit together a little disjointedly. It's something that I've always found especially difficult to achieve with electronic music but Graef's mix of jazz and soul samples into deep house and hip hop is infectious and brilliantly done. The concept is great with even the album cover itself really fitting into the feel of the record and helping to bring that concept to life. Check out the full album stream below, it's really fantastic, even for someone, such as myself, who wouldn't describe themselves as a house or "club-music" kind of guy.

 
So when I heard that "the next Max Graef" is due to drop a new album in October, I was excited, if also a little wary. Wary because this new Graef, who goes by the name of Uffe, an electronic producer and DJ from Copenhagen who already has an LP out from 2015, is releasing his next LP through Tartelet, the label that released Graef's LP. That should make me feel at ease as Tartelet are a very solid label, but instead it immediately made me think that it was Uffe's connection to Graef's label rather than to his music that would make him "the next Max Graef", as so often happens with the hypemachine.



I'm still undecided as to whether Jump Into, the debut track from the album No!, makes Uffe into the next Graef or not but ultimately, I don't really want another Graef, the one we've already got is doing a great job. I can certainly see the Graef comparisons; Uffe has created some killer jazzy deep house with many of the same squelching synths and bursting effects as Graef. Jump Into seems more of a bona fide club tune than many of Graef's tracks and has a searing bass that thuds its way through swirling effects for the track's full 7 minutes. The shimmering effects which pop in and out of the track in almost a random manner keep everything super interesting and fresh. The first minute and a half before the vocal breakdown is super cool, like walking through a rainforest at dusk with only the distant croaks of creatures and glisten of stars to be heard. The vocal breakdown is incredibly generic with its echo effect and dull, disconnected voice saying something relatively artsy about music. But Jump Into is a solid track that's brought me back for listen after listen and I for one can't wait to hear more from No! in October.

Uffe
Jump Into
Tartelet
2x Vinyl LP out: 14/10/2016 at Tartelet  

Fast Silver - TOY

I've spoken previously about how my first ever gig was also my favourite. It was to see The Horrors perform on their tour of the album Skying, an album which remains a favourite of mine. The gig was special for a number of reasons. It was pretty far from my house in the countryside and we needed to travel on the train to the big city and back again that same night - something of a thrill when you're 17 years old. I went with a friend of mine who had probably taken pity on me for whining about wanting to go to this gig and being without anyone to go with. She'd be the first to say that The Horror's blend of shoegaze and psychedelic rock had no place on her ipod playlists alongside Tinie Tempah and Girls Aloud so I remain so grateful to her for coming with me. She might have been regretting her decision as the gig started with the psychedelic noise rock of the support act; Bo Ningen. We spent a lot of time debating which of the band members were men and which were women. It turns out they're all men but the lead singer's scream and long hair had us fooled. The venue was a tiny student's union so there was no escape from the reverb and the crashing drums and all that screaming. It was noisy, it was raw and it was a bit much for us at the time. 

The second support act to come out was a little more what I was expecting. Skinny white dudes with hair in their eyes seemed to fit my expectations of a Horrors gig. TOY were an unknown band who played dark rumbling psychedelia with krautrock drumming surging it forward. They were great and the perfect warm-up to The Horrors who were fantastic, especially in such a tight venue. Still my favourite gig.

Since then I have seen Bo Ningen again doing a Dada poetry reading with the all female (actual women this time) punk band, Savages. Once again it was pretty intense, one for another time I think. I haven't managed to see TOY again but I have watched and listened to them grow in popularity to become quite the hot ticket themselves. TOY are now getting ready a third album after a cracking debut and a second album that may have passed me by slightly, not grabbing me for some reason. Fast Silver is the lead single from the album, Clear Shot, which is due out on October 28th. It's a dark wall of calculated noise, punctuated only by the whisping vocals and stabbing keys. For the full 6:19 the track seems like it wants to build to something before it scuttles back from whence it came. The keys remind me of a cheap horror thriller from the '70s and are the perfect soundtrack for a Nosferatu type figure to creep along to. Fast Silver seems anything but fast and its predominant colour is crepuscular black if anything but it's enough to keep me on my guard for what else might come lurking out of Clear Shot come October. 

TOY
Fast Silver
Heavenly
Vinyl and CD out: 28/10/2016 at Record Store   

Talkin' Bass Experience - Keni Okulolo

I recently re-watched the BBC TV series Detectorists for the third of fourth time. It's such a wonderfully twee British comedy-drama about the most mundane of people and things and celebrates the everyday lives of the average Joe in such an engaging and simple way. It's written by Mackenzie Crook and stars him alongside Toby Jones as two Detectorists, the blokes who do the metal detecting around England's sodden fields, looking for Saxon gold and Viking hordes but ultimately finding tin cans and ring pulls. It really is my cup of tea and I'd recommend it to everyone, being fully aware that it might be the wrong brew for some but do give it a go, series one is available on Netflix and I hope you find it as lovely and engrossing as I have. 

Among the myriad of reasons why I love the show is because it boils down to men and their hobbies. Along the years I've fluttered between so many hobbies and collected so many thing, only for the majority of them to find their way boxed up in a cupboard, down the garden shed or under the stairs in my Mam's house. I've got some sort of collecting urge that has always been a bit of a man's thing and has seen me collecting pebbles in the playground at school to vinyl records in the dusty basements of record shops all over the place. As Toby Jones' character Lance says in the show; "Men have hobbies and women don't understand them, it's the way it's always been ... how many women commit to an afternoon reorganising their vinyl in alphabetical order?". 

This man certain has committed many an afternoon to such a thing and it looks like another is on the cards what with the state it's all looking in at the moment. My record collection is organised by genre rather than alphabetically (of course, who'd be stupid enough to organise alphabetically - although that's a debate that probably rages across many a dark, vinyl-enthusiast forum). I start off with modern psych; we're talking Tame Impala, The Horrors, some Slowdive, before moving briefly through Turkish and Middle Eastern psych and into Brazil's rich musical scene. Their fantastic culture of solo singers moves me into singer-songwriters before a brief foray into punk and reggae. Next is the biggest and fastest growing section - Nigerian music, primarily Nigerian highlife music. It's a genre of music that I stumbled into but have found ever more reason to stay and discover more. 

As you become interested in a new hobby or a new part of a hobby, you snuffle up all details about it; gorging on podcasts, tucking into Youtube videos and munching through books as if you were at an all you can eat buffet. Soon you discover the experts in the field, those you can go to for all your knowledge needs and then discover all the key players, those who make your hobby worth your time.

Talkin' Bass Experience by Keni Okulolo combines these two things. Originally recorded at Nigeria's EMI studios in 1974, Hot Casa Records represent the experts who are introducing me to this LP by reissuing this disco funk hidden gem. Keni Okulolo is one of those key players, a highly revered bassist, but another is Odion Iruoje, the producer at EMI in Lagos who produced this LP. You soon come across Iruoje's name if getting into Nigerian music from the '70s. Iruoje worked on many of Fela Kuti's tracks along with putting his unique approach to production on some of the best Afro Rock tracks. He was influenced by his training at Abbey Road studios in London alongside legendary producer George Martin and Iruoje used the production stage as an instrument itself, trying to move away from just capturing a live performance as had been the norm at this time in Nigeria. 

The LP is a funk riddled groove with Okulolo's bass hooking everything in and some killer horn arrangements keeping everything groovy and dance-inducing. The raw funk failed to make much of an impact in 1974 and the original pressings of the album now fetch high price tags if a copy is ever found for sale. Thanks to Hot Casa Records, the funk lives on. Check out their website for some sound clips and more information.  

Keni Okulolo

Talkin' Bass Experience

Hot Casa Records

Vinyl out: 26/08/2016 at deejay

   

Summer of Fear - Ex-Cult

I've no idea as to whether this band have ever been a part of a cult or not but they certainly claim not to have been. Ex-Cult are a bunch of snub-nosed, phlegm-gurgling punks from Memphis producing some killer hardcore punk. I was first made aware of them with the release of their Cigarette Machine EP back last year. There's a lot more going for Ex-Cult than three cord punk riffs and they have all the same attitude and bile of their predecessors. The EP's title track makes me want to put my Doc Martens on and kick in the nearest bin or hipster bicycle before a bit of wooziness inducing head-banging and thick snot spitting. There's something sexy to the band too, something of biker chicks in leather jackets blowing big bubbles of bright pink gum, of ripped tights and hands with chipped nail polish. Ex-Cult have a psychedelic almost prog or kraut-rock feeling as they go for energetic bursts before moving into dangerous building riffs. Check out Cigarette Machine below:



Summer of Fear is much more in the energetic burst category. Clocking in at 02:13, it's a searing, eye bulging assault of intense drumming, hardcore vocals and wailing guitar. They've moved away from the more psychedelic side which was on Cigarette Machine which is a shame because that's what hooked me in at first. They offered something different, more instrumentation to the usual hardcore punk attitude that they carry by the bucketload. However, for my money they're producing some of the finest, most raw punk music going right now. They don't feel content with using the well-trodden path of punks before. There's something new and exciting and dangerous here and ultimately that's something to make me grin like a loon when I'm bobbing my head to them. Check out Summer of Fear below and the single's B-side, 1906:



Ex-Cult
Summer of Fear 
Famous Class Records
7" Vinyl on limited red or normal black vinyl on: 12/08/2016 at Juno 

The Boys - Lisa Mitchell

I've been a fan of Lisa Mitchell for awhile now, probably a little after the release of her debut LP, Wonder, back in 2008. It's full of cutesy songs, the soundtrack to every teenage girl's dream instagrammable day and the single Neopolitan Dreams became a bit of a hit. Check it out down below for a bit of a reminder.

However, there's a lot more to Mitchell's music than Instagram fodder. The instrumentation is varied and fun and she has great variation as a songwriter but it's Mitchell's vocals that are the standout. They are just so enthralling, comforting and endearing, full of warmth and feeling and you know that she truly cares for what she's doing. Her second album was also pretty fab and incredibly varied, even moving towards sitar drenched pop tunes like The Present, another great tune, if a little wishy-washy-hippy-dippy, but hey, I'm more than down with that.

Mitchell's been pretty quiet since then except for a breezy single, Wah Ha, which is a blend of Italian lounge and Brazilian bossa nova, all together with Mitchell's effortless vocals and some stellar, charming lyrics. It's become one of my favourite songs from her and a great one to ease you into a sunny new day if feeling a bit blurry eyed.

Mitchell's latest offering, The Boys, came out on Monday and it continues her airy, blissful songwriting along with some gently tinkling percussion and glistening synths. It's less acoustic than many of her previous songs but feels just as simple and effortless whilst retaining that feeling of innocence and freedom that Mitchell gives so effortlessly. Check it out below and be sure to watch out for more of Mitchell's stuff before the launch of her new album in October.

  
Lisa Mitchell
The Boys
CD and Vinyl LP out: 14/10/2016 at Lisa's Official Page

The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

As someone with a large collection of vinyl records and a blog to rant and rave about music, I'm often asked what the first album I bought was. I've never been totally sure of the answer but I was always a little embarrassed by what I believe to be the honest truth. I think that I went through a stage of lying and saying that it was a Beatles CD, something by The Kinks or another of those so called classic albums from classic bands, or in other words, something I couldn't be mocked for, or that didn't expose my poor taste (no such thing as "poor taste" by the way).

So it's good to purge myself of any first-album-paranoia by stating here, on a public, if not very widely read, blog, that my first album was The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. Actually My Chem, as we used to call them, were my first two albums because I'm pretty sure that I bought their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, at the same time as The Black Parade at my local HMV.

So why the embarrassment? Probably because of My Chem's connotations with Emo subculture, not because I am/was against the Emos - as the old saying goes; an Emo never hurt anyone but themselves - but I was never really an Emo myself so saying that The Black Parade was my first album often gives people the wrong idea as to what I was getting up to during my teens. Yes I had some dodgy long hair but that was mainly due to me not wanting to go to the barber. I did dabble with mascara once, but the less said there the better. 

With the news that My Chemical Romance are releasing a 10th anniversary special of The Black Parade, I've been reliving my youth and giving the album a listen. What struck me after all these years is not just that I remember so many of the lyrics, but also just how incredibly camp the whole album is. It's a raving rock opera of incredible pomp, posturing and pop. It's pretty unfair that the band's been pigeonholed into the Emo genre, with its depressing death connotations, although it's fair enough, the song titles alone aren't the cheeriest; The End, Dead, Cancer to name a few, but it turns out that there's a load of fun to be had with this album. Opening track The End is a mental barrage of rock riffs and mood changes just like Welcome to The Black Parade. I challenge anyone of my generation not to get a little emotional at the opening piano notes, which are immediately recognisable as this operatic ballad. The song goes through three movements, each one being more dramatic and over-the-top than the last. Its wailing, Brian May like guitar is so incredibly camp alongside Gerard Way's performance, and it can only be called a performance - there's so much charisma, emotion and power in his voice, it's magnetic, it makes me want to join the Black Parade and march off to the Costa del Emo. Remind yourself of that video below. It's just brilliant isn't it? 

There's more to the album than just pop rock tunes to wail away to. There's a great level of light and shade and Way's voice can move from searing rage to trembling pain with ease. Tracks like Cancer and I Don't Love You are up there with some of the best heart-wrenching songs of all time and they sit perfectly alongside the anthemic, Teenagers - a classic punk/rock n' roll song that perfectly captures the ludicrous fear that "respectable society" can have of a group of teens. 

The Black Parade is a bonkers album. Its creativity and fun are often hidden beneath connotations of eyeliner and military jackets but this goes far beyond any superficiality. It hits at our deepest emotions and a wide array of them at that. It's a great album with every song a winner and blending together to make an album to last through generational fads and "growing-up". The 10th anniversary LP comes with a MCR flag and I might just fly mine high. Any first-album-shame has well and truly gone. 

My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade
Warner 
Triple Vinyl LP with FLAG!! out: 23/09/2016 at The Band's Official Page