Pressure/Pressure Dub - Ability II

When it comes to your Technos, Houses and your Dubsteps, I often judge a tracks quality by just how sick it makes me feel. How it's thudding and squelching, its bumping and grinding brings me back flashbacks of sweaty gyration in dank Berlin cellars or early morning techno-shuffling in fag end carpeted house parties and how those memories make me come out in cold sweats with a balmy brow. A dance track is truly out of this world if the rise and fall of its synth line makes my stomach rise and come crashing back down with a phwop as I remember the bus journey home from a South London club at seven in the morning along with all the office workers in their crisp suits and freshly showered aroma as I melt slowly into my shoe. For years after and to this day, just the mention of London's Whirly Gig club night would make me come out in sweats and my arms start to shake at its memory. That riff from Insomnia by Faithless will always, without fail make my face hot and my eyes glaze, no matter the time of day. It's enough to make me desperately reach for the wholesome jangling of anything by Simon and Garfunkle as a sweet, sweet medicine. 

Pressure by Ability II makes me lunge for the nearest container large enough to hold the rapidly rising contents of my stomach - it's that damn good. Released in 1990, Pressure seems to be the only release from Ability II and the only other information I can find about the producer doesn't bring much excitement - apparently Ability's real name is David Duncan. Fascinating. 

The track itself builds like the best Techno does. New elements clamber into one another until there's a seething mess of grumbling bass, ticking percussion and dissonant vocals. It's quite a slow-burner but brings images of writhing warehouses just getting started at 5am and walls groaning from taking a techno bass pounding. 

It comes along with a Dub version which makes everything all the more sparse and body-warping. I think I prefer the tinkling, never ending synths of the Dub as elements gradually fade and swell in a tide of churning synths and tumultuous percussion.

The reissue from Major Problems has a remix by Luca Lozano that sounds as if it's pumping up the BPM a little, making Pressure into a dance floor killer and making me about as sick as a dog. Vomiting never sounded this good.  

Ability II
Pressure 
Major Problems
12" Vinyl out: 30/01/2017 at Phonica Records  

 

Certainty - Temples

Temples released their debut album in 2014 and it was so good that I found it unlistenable. There are some cracking tracks on that album; Shelter Song is a glorious Summer wooze, Mesmerise has a riff so sharp you can carve your Sunday roast with it, Colours to Life is a forever cascading chorus crashing around my head. The list of superlatives goes on, yet I never bought the album nor listened to it further than two or three full play throughs. There was something missing to my ears. The album was a brilliant collection of songs, but a collection none the less. Something didn't bring those songs together to create a full body of work I wanted to listen through again and again, something I wanted to own and dedicate an evening to. It's odd but the fact that every song on the album could have been the lead single made it seem like a bit of a disjointed mess. 

    
Certainty has been chosen to be the lead single for Temples' upcoming LP, Volcano and it doesn't disappoint. There's been a musical shift and it is inevitably going to bring comparisons to Tame Impala, comparisons which I am not going to dwell on here because although they are justified, the move from rock to pop is not a rare one nor a sellout and Temples have done it their own way, no need to bring Tame Impala into things. 

It starts with a killer, if slightly corny, deep synth (bass?) riff before moving into a glowing realm of squelching synths and almost candy pop style vocals and instrumentation. Just wait for the chorus. It's a bombardment of high-pitched vocals, high-pitched synths, clunking drums - I love it! 

It's a great teaser for the album and I for one am looking forward to some psychedelic pop. I just hope that this album is not quite as good as the last...

Temples
Certainty
Heavenly
Certainty will be featured on the album, Volcano, available as a CD or Vinyl LP: 03/03/2017 at Heavenly 

Wide Eyed Love - Bronwen Lewis

Granted, it has been a bit quiet here at The Irregular Riff (so do be sure to give the Facebook page a follow for some less irregular musical musings), however at Irregular Riff HQ (yes, my bedroom...) there's been the near constant sound of joyful whistling in the air and a permanent smile etched across my face, my cheeks sore with an ever widening grin and me powerless to do anything about it. Since it was released nearly a fortnight ago, I've been simply chuffed every time I listen to Wide Eyed Love, the debut single from Bronwen Lewis' debut album, Home, to be released later this month. 

Now, to any readers who don't know me personally (aka Kevin in Stockport - keep on the funk Kev!) I should explain that it's super strange for me to be writing anything about Bronwen Lewis. Bronwen has always just been Bron to me because she's one of my oldest friends (since the age of 3 along with the rest of the CC Crew - you know who you are) and to finally see her achieving what she's been striving for is brilliant. 

I hope this doesn't get too soppy as I know there's nothing Bron and myself hate more than that but inevitably I'm gonna say some embarrassing stuff so apologies to Bron as I scupper any chance she has at fame by revealing all those embarrassing stories from primary and secondary school. Sorry Bron.  

Nah, won't do that, too many, too little time. 

Let's just get to the music. My initial reaction to watching the video for the first time was, "Bloody 'ell, what's she done to her hair!", but that might be because I haven't seen Bron in awhile. You're not able to dwell on anything as trivial as that for very long though as the music sweeps you up and carries you along through a dark, shrouded mystery of a track, with Bronwen's vocals piercing through like shards of comforting light. 

Bron's voice has always been brilliant right since choir in primary school and here it has a magnetism that really creates drama, raises the curtain and puts you and her centre stage. There's an intimacy and vulnerability throughout that immediately draws the listener to its raw honesty, but there's also a surging defiance in the chorus that hooks you in and gets you punching the air. 

The chorus is what'll be bouncing around your head for hours after you've turned the track off - it's super catchy, almost power-ballad like and is guaranteed to have people pouring their heart out at the steering wheel of their cars. The vocal harmonies and the fading echoes remind me a little of the operatic drama that Amy Lee of Evanescence had in her dark pop tunes - so it looks like those 15 year old Emo days that we went through aren't quite over then Bron!  

So whilst not wanting to sound like a complete numpty, Wide Eyed Love gave me a massive sense of pride. It's a great debut and any success that goes Bron's way is deserved; what with the 6/7 days a week gigging and the fact that she is completely self taught and writes and performs herself. Check out all of her social medias, she's a right laugh, and tracks from her EP below. Get over to Amazon and pre-order her album, coming out on the 18th of November.  

http://www.bronwen-lewis.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BronSaraLewis/

  

Da iawn Bron, gwelai di am bint o gwrw yn Spoons cyn bo' hir beii!  

Bronwen Lewis

Wide Eyed Love

Gwymon

Single out: NOW, follow this link

                 

Musica per commenti sonori - Puccio Roelens

Library Music sounds like a contradiction in terms, but rather than being music to soundtrack your favourite library visits, Library Music is music composed for unknown projects; music stored away in an archive until someone needs to inject a certain mood into their upcoming movie, television show, TV-documentary, exc. That's exactly what we have here from the Italian library composer, Puccio Roelens. 

Library Music happened (and maybe still happens, although I'm not entirely sure whether in the same way as it did in the '60s and '70s) across different countries and was often commissioned by television broadcasters, for example by the BBC in the UK and RAI in Italy. The composer would often be given a vague theme; exotic, erotic, energetic, enthusiastic, and they would be required to create a sound that could fit a TV sequence of such an emotion. These compositions would then be filed away until found by a producer or a director. Many compositions would stay hidden away for ever, gathering dust and being forgotten. 

Italy seems to have an incredibly rich heritage of composing Library Music, probably due to the surge of popularity and creation of film in and around Italy after the Second World War. Music by composers such as Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Piero Umiliani and Puccio Roelens, who wrote soundtracks to specific films alongside Library Music and other projects, has been gaining attention recently with reissues of some gems, up until now being the reserve of dodgy Youtube videos and wealthy record collectors. 

So is the case with Musica per commenti sonori by Puccio Roelens. Original vinyl copies from 1979 go for around £300 so thankfully the guys and gals at Schema, a fantastic reissue label who have recently reissued much of Morricone and Umiliani's work, are releasing a reissue of Roelens' funky groover. 

The tracks are 3 minute grooves, each with its own '70s funk feeling. A favourite of mine is Cobwebs, a dusty, sultry track with a killer moog bassline that surges and dissipates, as if the breathing of some electro-giant. The middle of the track surges with blissful strings before being reigned in again with that infectious bassline and percussion. 

Effuse is a slow, moog drifter, with some scratchy guitar fading in and out behind some floating moog that sounds like it has a life of its own, drifting along in the wind. Lipstick gets things moving, with some pure funk that could easily have a dance floor grooving. Its piano notes jump in and out before a beautiful sleazy saxophone breakdown, classic move. 

One of the reasons I find Library Music so enthralling is that across a 30 minute vinyl LP there are so many different moods and feelings and musical techniques, yet all have a distinct feel of the composer and of the time the recording was made. As each track has such an identity, having been written around a concept or a theme, the tracks have so much narrative within them, giving them such a rich visual feeling. So allow Puccio Roelens to provide the soundtracks to the films he conjures in your mind and get down with the groove. 

Puccio Roelens

Musica per commenti sonori

Schema 

Vinyl LP out: 14/10/2016 at Norman Records 

Perfect Illusion - Lady Gaga

- Heya mate! How's it going?
- Hey. Welcome to The Irregular Riff...
- Woah, come on now, why so glum chum?
- Sorry, it's nothing.
- Is it because I was so rude last time we spoke? Those were the early days of the blog, things are picking up now. 
- No, it's not you. You're the blog's biggest fan. 
- Well, I'm not sure about that. But I am worried about you, there hasn't been a blog post in awhile. The last one was a cracker though. 
- I'm just a bit glum that's all. I think I've heard the death throes of modern music. 
- You what? 
- Music has finally come full circle and gorged on its own juicy chorus.
- You're not making much sense. Have you tried a paracetamol? Normally works.
- I don't know why but I had so much hope you know, ever since the last album. But I should have known. I was let down then and I shouldn't have got my hopes up for a second time.
- What are you talking about?! Spit it out! 
- It's Lady Gaga isn't it! It's Gaga, it's always Gaga! 
- You're this glum about Lady Gaga? Friend, can I call you friend? don't rant about her as the death of music, there's so much worse out there, believe me.
- I know, it's just that I had some hope for her in 2013 when she released Artpop. I thought she was the mega star who could challenge musical norms, create something exciting and experimental. She didn't. 
- But that was three years ago. Why are you telling me this now?
- Well, she's gone and released a new single hasn't she.
- Has she?
- Yes. What's more she only went and teased me with the potential of making something new and exciting again. It's like some kind of donkey and carrot situation and the carrot's just turned out to be some kind of mouldy orange sock on a stick and frankly, it's left me feeling like an ass.
- What did you think the carrot was gonna be?
- Only two of the best and most experimental producers of pop music of our recent times; Mark Ronson and Kevin Parker.
- Him from Tame Impala?
- The very same. They worked on this "Perfect Illusion", Gaga's new single.
- They're both great though! Uptown Funk's a blinder and Tame Impala are just brilliant!
- Well exactly! I thought if anyone could drag Gaga's potential for experimental, challenging and catchy pop into a song then they could but instead she's pushed them into the mud while she stands wailing and frothing at the mouth as she always has done. 
- Come on let's hear this. It can't be that bad. Ronson and Parker are so good! 
- I can't have it sully The Irregular Riff. This is a blog about good, upcoming music, not disappointing and insulting pop that's written by numbers and wiggles it's bum in front of anyone willing to pay the itunes fee.
- We need to hear this now. A fair and rational debate needs to be had.
- ...

- Oh God. Oh Lord no. 

- It's not...

- One second, the wails are still rattling around my skull. Will be with you in a second. 

- So ye, it's not a...

- Wait, still trying to get over that key change. Might take awhile. 

- But I've got a pithy one-liner...

- Are you sure that Mark Ronson and Kevin Parker are on this?!

- Yep. 

- It's just all so horribly bland isn't it? Why does she insist on belting it all out like that?! 

- Ye, you'd expect them to be able to deliver the high-art-pop that Gaga keeps pronouncing her songs to be. But this is as far from a Perfect Illusion as...

- Ye, it's just so incredibly meh, and it's the lead single too! 

- Can I say my one-liner now?

- It's neither perfect nor an illusion; it's so incredibly awful and oh so real. 

- Well, there's my one-liner gone! Thanks, I'd have said it better too...

- It would have been better to have stayed an illusion.

- That one's quite good. 

Lady Gaga

Perfect Illusion

Don't Know

Don't Know and Not Gonna Spend The Time To Look Up. Give Us Back Kevin Parker!   

Nigeria Soul Fever - Compilation

Sometimes the stars seem to align and you find your interests slotting right into the Zeitgeist. That's the time I find myself in right now and it's bloomin' great! 

As an enthusiast for Nigerian music from the '60s and '70s and a collector of original Nigerian highlife records, the latest craze for everything Afrobeat, Fela Kuti and African has given me plenty to get my teeth stuck into. Whether it's the ever growing Felabration, the annual celebration in honour of Fela Kuti on the 7th of October, or the gigs happening across Europe by some of Nigeria's greatest musicians including Dele Sosimi, Tony Allen and Orlando Julius, not to mention the numerous club nights blasting some killer grooves from this musically rich part of the world, Nigerian, African and so-called "World Music" (what a horrible phrase) is booming in popularity.

Truly cementing Nigerian music as part of the current Zeitgeist was The Guardian and Boiler Room's joint series of videos and articles all about the scene. Nowadays there's seemingly always something or someone celebrating Nigerian music and it's been a bit of a treat for me personally. Something especially exciting has been the sheer amount of reissued CDs and vinyl albums of some of the best, and previously horribly rare, music from the country. I've already written a post about one such release, the Keni Okulolo reissue on Hot Casa Records, and another about the Freedom Sounds compilation on Soul Jazz Records. 

Well, Soul Jazz just keep wanting to spoil me for some reason as they've done it again with Nigeria Soul Fever, described as a compilation of West African Disco Mayhem! As a fan of disco and funk in general, the combination of everything I love from West African music - the infectious percussion, chorus vocals, the sunny guitar playing - with classic funk and disco grooves is something pretty irresistible to me. My knowledge of Nigerian disco had been pretty much limited to William Onyeabor or the occasional funky Afrobeat or Soukous tune from the likes of Joe Mensah or Ebo Taylor. 

Nigeria Soul Fever is a fantastic introduction to the vibrant and varied disco scene from the late 1970s/early 1980s in Nigeria. Spread across 3LP (or a 2xCD), the package is typically polished with liner notes and pictures giving a taste of the time and track lists giving details of each track. 

Joni Haastrup is the star of the show with 4 tracks in the compilation, each one a perfect example of classic funk grooves with the addition of killer Nigerian horn arrangements, vocals and clunking percussion. They're all absolute bangers, from the dance-floor filler Do The Funkro, to the fuzzy guitar of Greetings and the sultry opener to the compilation, Free My People, that sounds like a funky disco banger that could easily have been a club hit in 1980s New York. 

Many of the tracks strongly show their influences but my favourites keep that Nigerian quality. Angela Starr's track, Disco Dancing, is a great example. It's a chilled out boogie track and is clearly influenced by b-boy tracks such as (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew by The Rock Steady Crew, which came out three years previously in 1983 in New York. It's got the b-boy effects and bass and the vocal delivery style but with some Nigerian style percussion in parts and Starr's honeyed vocals making it a tune to hum all night long. 

Christy Essien's You Can't Change a Man is also heavily influenced by New York disco and has a fantastic bass line and a buzzing guitar riff throughout. Afrikana Disco by Akin Richards & The Executives probably has some of the best Nigerian flavour; with highlife type instrument arrangements, traditional instruments and that unmistakable percussion. 

"Boogie boogie boogie down, Afro disco all around!"     

One of the things I particularly like about this compilation from Soul Jazz is how it treats the artists as funk and disco musicians before Nigerian musicians. I find that with many compilations of African music in particular, but also other "world musics", the music on the compilation can often be only linked by the fact that it has come from Nigeria or Africa. Imagine creating a compilation of music from Britain, from Germany, from America, or, if we're honest, from any "white country". No such compilation could do justice to the diverse music scenes in these countries so why can we get away with vague compilations of music from Nigeria? I understand that these can act as an introduction to many to the music of a nation, but a little curation and direction in the content of a compilation, like we have here, makes those featured musicians into musicians to sit alongside James Brown or Nile Rogers rather than a simple foreign curio. 

This compilation from Soul Jazz is a fascinating insight into the funk and soul scene emanating from Nigeria in the '70s and '80s and a true testament to the skill of these musicians is that these tunes are in demand and able to fill a dance-floor 30 years after they were made. Long live the Nigerian Zeitgeist! 

Be sure to keep up to date with The Irregular Riff by giving the Facebook page a Like. 

Compilation

Nigeria Soul Fever

Soul Jazz Records

Triple Vinyl LP or 2xCD out: NOW! at Sounds of the Universe 

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/