The Monroe Transfer and Her Name is Calla – “An Enclave”

Review by John Deasey

 

It’s always interesting when you are asked to review music from a band you really don’t know much about. No preconceptions, no axe to grind – a blank sheet of paper and a clean mind.  When Echoes and Dust (www.echoesanddust.com) sent this through for me to listen to, I was intrigued 

The Monroe Transfer (from London) and Her Name is Calla ( spread between Leicester, Leeds and York) already work closely together and have toured with each other and contributed to each other’s music, but no official collaboration has ever been done until now. 

A coming together of two ‘Post Rock’ outfits would generally suggest a huge, over the top, Mogwai-meets-GYBE-meets Explosions in the Sky down a dark pub and battle it out to see who can be the most post-rock ! 

Thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the case and this EP turns out to be a bit of a charmer. 

A lot of this charm may stem from the way the EP was recorded over a four day spell which, by all accounts, includes camping out, roughing it and freezing their backsides off.

Sometime the words ‘home spun’ and ‘kitchen sink’ can be the kiss of death for music, when what was intended to be intimate and urgent can come across as annoying, irritating and up itself. Again, this isn’t the case here.

From the acapella opening of the first track (#5) to the closing ambient sounds of the last track (#7), we are treated to a lovely, mournful ocean of sonic tragedy.

There are five tracks, no titles, just numbers, and not even in sequence, but it doesn’t really matter as there is a flow to the whole thing which goes with the urgency of the recording I guess. No time for overdubs, re-recordings, second takes or any such luxury – often the first thing you hear is the best and they’ve done pretty well with this approach I’d say. 

The album opener is a mournful sea-shanty with a background drone so typical of this style and it sets the tone with an air of sad misfortune. This morphs beautifully into the second track as the same refrain continues with a lone cello which gently builds up with violins, guitars and more vocals until we have a swelling tide of folk-tinged post-rock beauty.

There are echoes of GYBE here, a touch of Radiohead there, but this is just a hint of the overall sound and nowhere does anything feel contrived or borrowed. Indeed, the fourth track has a rawness and edge to it that jolts you out any reverie that might have been setting in. This is an angry, percussive led piece with group chanting and a lead vocal almost shouting :

          “the path to righteousness is always out of reach….”

         “I screamed and I shouted … I demanded to be heard” 

Guitars start to scream in the background and we have a fantastic cacophony of demented anger, home-spun charm and a feeling that great fun must have been had recording this.

A gentle ambient closing track calms things down again and with a running time of 21 minutes, there is not a moment wasted.

A super little EP. A little different, a little rough round the edges but well worthy of your time.

For a pre-purchase listen try  www.hernameiscalla.bandcamp.com

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, long before the reflection of the ritual of work and tales of forgotten war heroes searching the radio waves there was a time when the music died alone.

Back in October 2003, ten years ago this week, a Prog super group came together  over international borders between the UK and Sweden and produced a monumental debut album ‘The Music That Died Alone’

Lead by Andy Tillison of Parallel or 90 degrees and joined by fellow members of the group, Guy Manning and Sam Baine, The Tangent was formed from Tillison’s original prog solo idea and was bolstered by other prog heavyweights Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold and  Zoltan Csörsz from The Flower Kings as well as David Jackson from Van Der Graaf Generator.

Of course this is history and well known by many of the prog rock community, and the Tangent door has revolved again and again since then , even now with the releases of ‘Le Sacre du Travail’ and ‘L’Etagère du Travail’ (2013) some of the first people to work on the debut album have returned.

Ten years has passed since and a lot has changed, and yet some things have remained the same, but it is worth remembering this marvelous release and why it is so special.

It should be considered in the context of this look-back that Prog in 2003, was still emerging on the back of a new wave lead mainly by the charge from Swedish groups as well as Neil Morse and a few American metal based groups such as Dream Theater, Tool and Symphony X, (a top ten of the time would have revealed a large predominance of Prog metal entries.)

Rising up in the UK was the development of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree and defying this heavier progression was a group that drew on Jazz influences and the Canterbury scene.  More Hatfield and the North, Caravan and National health than metal,  it was blended with a healthy love of Symphonic influences from the 70’s, Tillison and Co developed a sound that felt familiar and yet it wasn’t too retro to be seen as old.
The standout feature of the album was its truthfulness, an aspect that resonates through every subsequent Tangent album. Tillison’s lyrics lamented the loss of the music he loved in the title track, (which ironically was making a return on the back of albums like this one) and spoke openly of the issues of night terrors, a sleep disorder which affects many through their early years. These were honest feelings which felt grounded and real, a million miles from Shastric scriptures and the moans of a screwed up super rich rock star.

The album has aged well, and stands out above many of its contemporaries mainly because people could identify with it. Within the band’s own releases there have been few greater moments that the songs on this release.

Many of the bands fans rate this as one of the best from the group, indeed it was a wake up call for some who were looking for a musical belonging and found it when they listened to it for the first time. Ultimately this reflected in the end of year results when it was catapulted to the top spot on many music website polls.
2013 has been a spectacular year with a pocket busting choice of new music and yet if this album lies in amongst your growing collection of releases from the past, give it a spin, gaze into the lush artwork of Ed Unitsky and be reminded of something special.

Only 12 hours removed from seeing The Winery Dogs in my hometown, I was greeted this morning with news that Prog Magazine is streaming the new live album from my favorite Mike Portnoy band, Flying Colors.

Recorded last year in The Netherlands, the album captures the lineup of Neal Morse, Casey McPherson, Steve Morse, Dave LaRue, and Portnoy playing their debut album – a blend of rock, pop and, yes, prog – and rounding out their performance with tracks from the members’ previous bands, such as Spock’s Beard’s “June” and Dream Theater’s “Repentance,” which DT fans will know as part of Portnoy’s “12-Step AA suite,” featuring Portnoy on lead vocals.

Prog fans will no doubt enjoy the closing track, “Infinite Fire,” the 12-minute epic showcasing the vocal and instrumental talents of the entire group.

“Flying Colors: Live In Europe” will be released in numerous audio and video formats the week of October 13th. You can listen to the stream here: http://www.progrockmag.com/stream/premiere-flying-colors-live-album-in-full/

 

An aside: Having saw The Winery Dogs last night, I can’t recommend them enough if you like a lot of playing in a hard rock format, plus you’ll never see a harder-working rhythm section than Billy Sheehan and Portnoy, who treated last night’s club setting as if it was Radio City Music Hall.

I am fortunate enough to contribute the odd review and article to this wonderful website, and I also write some reviews for some guys in London by the name of Echoes and Dust  www.echoesanddust.com . It is well worth a visit to their site to find some amazing bands which tend to be of the dark, heavy and very powerful variety.

I recently reviewed the latest Blackfield album for Echoes and Dust and wanted to share this with fellow Progarchists.

Most of our Progarchy reviews are very positive, effusive and done from a ‘fan’ perspective.

For a change, this review is decidedly negative.  I have not listened to an album that annoyed me quite as much for a long long time ….. but I make no apologies if only to make it known how little this release has to do with the current Prog movement, particularly at this marvellous time with an abundance of quality music being released almost weekly.

 

 

I’ve never really quite known what to make of Blackfield – the vehicle for Israeli artist Aviv Geffen – and where he (they ?) sit in the progressive scene despite now being on the marvellous KScope label.

 For sure, the connections with maestro Steven Wilson have added gravitas and undeniable ‘box office’ to what might otherwise be a relatively unknown artist in the current scene, where top quality releases are becoming the norm, not the exception.

Before commenting on this latest release, we need to take a quick look back at previous Blackfield offerings.

The first album, released in 2004, is a superb piece of work and has the distinctive mark of Mr Wilson who contributes several lead vocals and writing duties.   There are some very strong tracks and the album has a flow and energy with tracks like ‘Open Minds’, ‘Glow’ and ‘Pain’ that would sit comfortably in the quieter sections of any Porcupine Tree album. 

The second album from 2007 carried on in the same vein but never reached the heights of the debut album.  We get the same short, snappy tracks, crisp production and that distinctive influence of Wilson but the nuggets of brilliance become a little more diluted. One highlight of this album is the stunning ‘My Gift of Silence’ – a brilliant track and one of my all time favourites, but this quality is not maintained throughout.

For me, where it all starts to unravel for Blackfield is with the release of their third album in 2011 – ‘Welcome to My DNA’ – where tellingly, all songwriting duties bar one track are by Geffen himself.

Despite looking forward to this album enormously I was hugely disappointed to find a mix of trite lyrics, bland melodies and crass sentiments very poorly expressed. There is one track in particular that is virtually unplayable it is that bad – ‘Go To Hell’ – where the repeated ‘F…k you…’ lyrics are just an embarrassment. This album has rarely been re-visited except prior to this review when it just confirmed my original thoughts…..

So to this latest release – ‘Blackfield IV’. 

Is it a case of getting back to past glories or pushing forward from ‘Welcome to My DNA’ with a fresh sound and new direction ?

With the opening track –‘Pills’ – it is a promising start. A sweeping track with a touch of drama, this is a vast improvement and has lovely touches in the structure and recording.

‘Springtime’ starts to worry me though. The second track is bland beyond bland and is virtually unmemorable which sadly, becomes a theme throughout the whole album.

Vincent Cavanagh of Anathema adds a song with ‘X-ray’ which is pleasant enough, as though he recorded it in passing, but it does have a nice refrain with a tuneful Anathema-lite feel to it.

‘Sense of Insanity’ which follows is where the album starts to collapse though. For me this is a terrible track with woeful lyrics

Mother – have you seen the world today

The shooting all over town

I’m a sinner

I’m not the one you one you prayed for

 … and it just gets worse if you care to seek out the You Tube lyric video (if you are brave enough…)

If this is supposed to be a protest song, or a political swipe at the Israeli military, it sadly fails in my opinion.

We then have a truly bizarre couple of tracks with ‘Firefly’ sounding like it’s from a third rate musical. Brett Anderson of Suede contributes vocals but has no chance of rescuing it.  At least it’s not as bad as ‘The Only Fool is Me’ which continues this mini-musical theme which sounds like an outtake from a 6^th form performance of the Phantom of the Opera.

Another couple of bland, plodding inconsequential pop songs follow with no redeeming features then we get to ‘Faking’ which raises the quality by several notches and in context with the rest of the album is a great track.

The one thing that overrides this album is it’s misplaced earnestness and seriousness – there is no hint of humour, edge, feeling, protest, energy -nothing.  Geffen seems to have a high profile in Israel with a famous family, and an energetic outspoken take on politics, but none of this comes through in the music. It is this blandness that so irritates me – there were enough talented, creative and respected people involved in making the album yet how such a bland offering can be released is beyond me.

I hope this album finds it’s market, but I fear that people buying it thinking it is part of this magnificent Prog movement will be hugely disappointed.