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Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

~ from Technology to Music

Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

Category Archives: Music Reviews

Album, gig and other music reviews

Unkle at Royal Festival Hall

19 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by mp3monster in General, Music, Music Reviews

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Tags

concert, gig, live, Music, Royal Festival Hall, Unkle

An Unkle performance is always going to be a little unusual given James Lavelle is very eclectic crossing many genres such as the groundbreaking Psyence Fiction album.

The first half of the performance was very much DJ lead by James at a desk and decks, live drums, keyboard/guitarist and Cello. This instrumentation alone really shows the diversity of the musical styling.

No live locals, as a result, the staging certainly didn’t have a central focus, everyone was with their instruments. Even Moby who crosses genres, as a live artist is in front of the other musicians or moving around the stage when not using a singer. Like any rock concert, the performance ebbed and flowed with raising and lowering of the tempo. With the slower pieces being the more cinematic pieces like Heaven.

Unlike a conventional performance the lighting didn’t pick out any of the performers, and like a club made more use of strobing light effects, but in contrast, a lot of videos were used as well including the amazing Spike Jonze directed skateboarders for Heaven.

Part 2 …

An intermission or perhaps a very long encore? Not what you’d expect halfway through a performance of this nature. But the change gave emphasis to the use of 5 different vocalists.

This changed the dynamic but also gave the second half a bit of a stuttering feel as the different singers can on stage and left.

Added to the fact that the delivery of performances originally by the likes of Ian Brown and Richard Ashcroft had the timbre of a female voice. But things got going and then just built to a thumping finale.

Interestingly even with the use of live vocalists, they weren’t lit up.

All said and done, Unkle doesn’t perform live very often and it’s great hearing the music performed live. I would love to have caught James Lavelle working with the Orchestra as he did with the Heritage Orchestra.

More photos here.

Blue Notebooks

19 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by mp3monster in General, Music, Music Reviews

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Tags

"Blue Notebooks", "Max Richter", Music, review, Sonos, Spotify

Whilst Sonos might be great for convenience, and Spotify for freedom and trying music out you still can’t beat well produced physical media (those round silver or black things) on some separates HiFi. I don’t have an extravagant setup, but what I can do with Max Richter’s The Blue Notebooks Anniversary Edition makes the hairs on your arms standup.

Take On The Nature Of Daylight and the violins float over the Cellos and eventually resolve together. It sounds so elegiac and so sad it can take you to tears. Then Iconography sounds almost other worldly with a base notes so deep that you physically feel as much as hear them.

The piano of Vladimir’s Blues each note is distinct and you can hear the decay of each and every note, so very blue.

Old Song comes on incredibly cinematic, as if you are sat listening to someone in another room playing the piano with your window open. You hear ambient background of a plane flying past and a train in the distance, a wood pigeon in the garden cooing.

The Trees brings together strings and piano, a wonderfully written and performed piece as the melody seems to move between the different instruments he other parts take terms to propel the music along or provide notes emphasising the melody. As the piece progresses the momentum gains and the the dynamic range expands with greater deeper notes and the experience becomes ever more physical as an experience.

The album closes with Written In The Sky, which whilst still in a minor key, seems to evoke a small sense of hope. When it comes to an end, you sit wanting more, but routed to your seat not wanting to move away from centre of an amazing performance.

If you go to a proper separates HiFi shop, which has listening rooms to try out audio setups, I think this would apart from the musical beauty would help show you see if the kit being tried magic of the kit being tried.

Tori Amos – Unrepentant Geraldines

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by mp3monster in General, Music, Music Reviews

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Tags

album, Little Earthquakes, lyrics, Music, review, Tori Amos, Unrepentant Geraldines

So after 20 years Tori Amos has in many respects come full circle returning to the musical style of Little Earthquakes with her latest album Unrepentant Geraldines. It isn’t a complete return, as in life a forty something can at best mimic themselves as a twenty something. After 20 years you’re going to be a bit more worldly wise or world weary. Parenthood changes your perspective in a manner that can’t be undone.

So does this relate to Unrepentant Geraldines? Well it reflects the piano lead style of Little Earthquakes with subtle other instrumentation to help and texture. But the similarities end there (although on initial listens it is those likenesses that really hit). The point I was making really applies the lyrical differences. The very direct, perhaps even brutal lyrics of Me And A Gun:

These things go through you head
When there’s a man on your back
And you’re pushed flat on your stomach

or Silent All These Years

So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thougts
What’s so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best pray that I bleed real soon

And more more subtle in delivery and less direct as they are wrapped in the story telling of Tori’s characters – perhaps a reflection of confidence and a matured skill as a songwriter. Not to mention possibly a more nuanced world view.

So after some adventures into more classical arrangements (Gold Dust) we have an album with the end result that is musically brilliant and will be much loved by Tori’s original fan base. With lyrics that will not doubt reaffirm her relationship with those fans as well. A recommended album.

 

 

Ed Harcourt – Time Of Dust

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Music Reviews

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Tags

Ed Harcourt, Kathryn Williams, Music, Parliament of Rooks, review

So we’re not even 2 weeks into 2014 and its time to get excited about a new album release. Ed’s latest is more of a mini album available now as a download and physical media at the end of month.

Unlike the more acoustic work of late, this release takes the piano lead performance to but leverages rich orchestral and synth layers giving a more of widescreen drama.

The widescreen drama coupled with some really amazing lyrics from the horrors of war (Parliament of Rooks) “we were only doing what the captain said, we all went down with the ship” to the safest of love songs “love is like a minor key, a jaded weeping willow tree, it hooks its claws until blood is drawn“.

Finally a bonus of Kathryn Williams on backing vocals you really can’t go wrong with your £3.49 on iTunes or £8 on Amazon for the CD and immediate auto rip download.

Ed, we want more….. Play it again Sam

Ed’s site – http://edharcourt.com/

Kaiser Chiefs – Southampton Guildhall

16 Thursday Oct 2008

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Music Reviews, Technology

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We managed to catch the Kaiser Chiefs on the small venue part of their European tour to promote the new Album Of With Their Heads.  Initial impressions of the new songs is that good ones are very good, the  others are only so-so, B side material, and leaves a me with the feeling that the album was rushed so that the pre-Christmas sales season could be exploited which is a shame.

I took some pictures at the gig with a new Samsung Soul mobile phone with what seemed to be a nice 5mb camera.  Although its ability to focus in the conditions of a concert appears to be disappointing. To help with that I started using the multi-frame mode and discovered that when you do that it reduces the image resolution notably without any warning. I think I need to experiment some more with poor light conditions but at the moment I’d would say that the lower resolution Sony Ericcson K800i coped better at gigs.

 

Photoset at filckr here.

 

Technorati Tags: Kaiser Chiefs,southampton,Guildhall,Samsung,Soul,K8001,gig,concert,review,live

Matthew Ryan vs Silver state – Review

15 Tuesday Apr 2008

Posted by mp3monster in Music Reviews

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Matthew Ryan’s latest album – Matthew Ryan vs The Silver State or MRVSS has finally reached my ears, and boy has it been worth the wait.  It is very much deserving of the good reviews.  Matthew Ryan has been a songwriter of note for some time writing about subjects that can by deeply touching such as The Complete Family where his brother has been sentenced to 30 years in jail on the last album (From a Late Night High Rise) and the heart felt Hummingbird about wanting to be good enough for the woman you love.  In this department, I might even be so blasphemous as to suggest he may even be on a par with Bruce Springsteen; he can certainly match for other lauded new generation songwriters such as Ryan Adams.

Musically Ryan’s voice has a slightly timbered and rough edge to it. This is combined with a musical style which for MRVSS has a live feel (we can only hope he tours the UK to here these songs live) although other albums (particularly Strays Don’t Sleep have had a more study polished feel). With the live edge to it the grittier songs such as Drunk and Disappointed bring to mind the likes Paul Westerberg or perhaps Jesse Malin and the quieter songs such as Hummingbird hinting at Tom McRae or Springsteen on Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad.

 

Useful links:

  • MySpace
  • AllMusic
  • Home website
  • UK Record label
  • Wikipedia
del.icio.us tags: Matthew Ryan, Reviews, Album, MRVSS, music

Delays – Love Made Visible

13 Tuesday Nov 2007

Posted by mp3monster in Music Reviews

≈ 1 Comment

The Delays are back with a new EP as previously mentioned. I now have my copy of the limited CD run.  I have to say – we’re pleased with what we are hearing.  Love Made Visible continues with the Delays signature high vocal harmonies with an upbeat rhythm, bright splashy guitars and synth fills.

The EP comprises for five tracks of which for are new songs and the fifth is a radical remix of the title song, so radical you might as well consider  it as a new song in its own right.

The title track pounds a long at a fair rate carrying you with it.  If this had been released earlier in the year and we’d had a good summer then I think it would have been successful reminding us of those brighter days and correspondingly a hit.  Sadly the weather was poor here, and the EP has only just been released in November. 

Panic Attacks and Slow Burn, slows down the tempo, and have a more Autumnal feel to them dealing with less cheery subjects than love.  You See Colours, the title of the last album, moves back to a brighter feel with a stronger synth presence. This leads us into the Together We Make A City (Love Made Visible) which takes the vocal from the title song and lays it onto a chilled out synth base with real stabbing blasts of keyboard and what could almost be a sample of Moby’s Go in the background – brilliant stuff.

Recommended listening.

del.icio.us tags: Delays, CD, EP, review, Love Made Visible

Dragons – Here are the Roses — Review

06 Friday Jul 2007

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Music Reviews

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Dragons – another new artist worthy of some attention.  Their debut album Here are the Roses is a marvelous blend of pre-stadium rock Simple Minds, early Depeche Mode and Joy Division/New Order.  The heart of these similarities come from the way they use synths and guitars, they intertwined often providing both rhythm and melody; the keyboard sounds are very synthetic like those used by the Minds and others during the earlier 80s – looking at the kit in the videos on their website it also looks very 80s.

 

The lyrics are pretty dark in content and delivery, something that David Gahan would be proud of, and enough for Ian Curtis to take note if he was still with us today. Unlike both, the vocal delivery is slightly smoother and sweeter on the ear.

 

Finally, the drumming, it doesn’t saturate the rest of the performance, they’re even edging towards sparse. But they really down pound – as the producer Hugh Padgham would say – if you stand next a drummer giving it some welly – its bloody loud, and correspondingly that should be the case on record. The drumming certainly isn’t muted – driving the music along brilliantly without dominating.

 

If you like some rocking, synth based music then go give them a try – or at least have a listen to what they’ve posted on their MySpace site or the clips on their own site.

 

Websites:

home page : http://www.dragons.cc/

MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/dragons1

 

 

del.icio.us tags: Dragons, Simple Minds, New Order, Depeche Mode, synth, music, album, review, CD, Joy Division, Hugh Padgham, David Gahan, myspace

Review: Bitter Bitter Weeks – Peace Is Burning Like a River

25 Monday Jun 2007

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Music Reviews

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Rather than reviewing an obvious release like Ryan Adam’s latest release, I’m continuing with the less known stuff. 

Bitter Bitter Weeks latest release Peace Is Burning Like a River have diverged from their more somber sounds in a big way. This is full of bright shiny 60s style guitar work, imagine The Delays swapping their synths for guitars. Brian McTear’s vocals match the mood beautifully with a light and sweet vocal.  Even the lyrical content feels more cheerful.

 

I’ve been listening to this album, both in the car and on my MP3 Player – I have to say it does sound far better when given a chance to breath in an open space than with earphones – even these cracking Sennheisers.

 

My recommendation is atleast have a listen to the tracks on Bitter Bitter Weeks’  MySpace site.  If you’re a Delays fan then don’t waste time – order the album NOW!

 

Lots of thumbs up from the Monster.

 

del.icio.us tags: Bitter Bitter Weeks, Peace Is Burning Like a River, review, artist, album, CD Pricing

Tom McRae – Shepherds Bush Empire

16 Saturday Jun 2007

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Music Reviews

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We got to see another fine performance by Tom McRae at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire as he tours supporting his latest album King Of Cards.  I managed to capture some pictures with the mobile phone – more can be seen here.

Tom McRae on stage

Tom, has over a number of albums proven himself to a fine singer songwriter. But, for me the songs taken on something special when you hear him perform them live.  Even last night, whilst suffering ‘man flu’ sounded good, and delivered the songs with passion and emotion that lyrics carry.

 

Not only does he perform well, everytime we’ve seen him, he engages with the audience joking and telling stories, something that really makes it feel that he is there for you.

 

This time around Tom’s support was Steve Reynolds, who played a great little set, and went down a treat with the audience (no mean feat for a support artists). All that and playing his guitar while struggling with a broken collar bone. Steve’s performance was engaging enough that we’ve ordered the album (another import).

 

The final gem, of the evening is picking up a EP of Tom’s that I’d not heard of – The Strongroom Sessions (autographed as well).  Having not heard about it, I thought I’d search around for it today on the web and can’t find any reference to it – is his record company letting him down?

 

 

del.icio.us tags: Tom McRae, gigs, EP, CD Steve Reynolds, Shepherds Bush Empire, London
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