ioktember

If you like your post-pop rock to be angsty, folksy, dramatic and lovely all at the same time, then ioktember, have recorded some songs in the basement of an old mental institution, that should get your hairs on the back of your neck standing on end.

I was ear wigging a conversation, during my weekly supermarket shop at the weekend, between a security guard and the till assistant. They began discussing and analysing their attempt to chat up two Swedish ladies, who had chanced upon the checkout of these budding romeos, which became the highlight of their day. The gist of the conversation was based on how the guys' charm and smarm could have been more finely honed, as their tactics evidently bombed. The opening gambit of asking the girls "where are they from?" quickly followed by a "Where's Sweden?" then culminating with the killer lines "Isn't that the country full of trees? no wait! are we confusing it with the the land of lakes?" the outcome of this charm offensive was a miserable strike out and the guys were left ruing their opportunity and lack of geography knowledge, as they contemplated the rest of day processing the meagre food rations of hordes of poor, disposed, music blog writers and middle class credit crunch refugees. I yearned to interject, that Sweden actually should be currently be known as 'the land the great bands' and here's another one..

Hailing from Stockholm, ioktember, risen from the remnants of a previous incarnation known as Infinite Regress and have leanings towards the big commercial sound of say Snow Patrol with the finely crafted songwriting of The Blue Nile and finely wrought offerings of This Mortal Coil.

The band list My Bloody Valentine, Godspeed you! Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, Joy Division, Wu Tang Clan, Johnny Cash, Chris Isaak, Einsturzende Neubauten and The Pixies, so as influences go, you can see an interesting mix going on there.

The collective names of ioktember are Emil Henricson,Johan Augustsson, Daniel Andersson, Hanna Eklöf, Hannes Holmqvist and Max Håkan Holm. They describe themselves as "People gathered behind the old dumpster, randomly at first, to play the organ and have themselves an occasional sing-song" Actually, judging by the songs on their myspace.com/ioktember site, they're creating something very mournful but marvellous.

There are just the four tracks up on this website: Shine, Be There, For The Last Day Of Spring and My Love Something, of which the latter is the stand out tune for me, making good use of the boy/girl duet vocals singing an emotionally wrought tune, with a with a lilting horn arrangement.

The only significant blips on the blogging radar so far come from http://meadowmusic.se/en/?p=261 and http://absolutnoise.blogspot.com/2009/05/from-old-mental-institution.html

http://ioktember.com/

http://www.myspace.com/ioktember

A Broken Consort - Box Of Birch

A Broken Consort is the moniker for one of Lancashire artist Richard Skelton's musical projects, it's meaning is originally, to stand for an ensemble whose instruments are not all from the same family (read more here)

Richard Skelton is an artist from Lancashire, UK, who has created and collaborated in spine tingling music under a number of guises including Heidika, Riftmusic, Carousell, Harlassen and Clouwbeck. He has released two albums of A Broken Consort material on his own private press, the Sustain-Release project. This creative press was born as a commemorative tribute to his late wife Louise, with the intention of publishing her artwork alongside his own musical offerings. The second A Broken Consort album Box of Birch, originally released in 2007, has recently been picked up and given a second airing via New York label Tompkins Square

It's difficult to encapsulate the type of music this is, classically orientated, yet adventurous and experimental, with a twist of an ambient brooding film soundtrack thrown in; a hybrid of musical families if you like! The promotional material suggests "Skelton creates powerful, instrumental music out of densely-layered acoustic guitar, bowed strings, piano, mandolin and accordion, often laced with delicate, shimmering percussion. The result is something utterly unique" It's hard to argue with that description and fans of Peter Broderick would do well to investigate further.

I have to confess had this one nearly slipped through the net, as I was alerted to it earlier in the year, yet put it on the back burner, despite taking to the music and being particularly impressed by the sumptuous packaging "It was originally published in a boxed edition that contained, among other things, birch twigs collected from the West Pennine Moors" Skelton showed beautiful attention to detail that pushed this release from being being just 'a product' into an artifact, longing to be treasured. It took a nudge from that venerable music magazine Mojo - designed for ageing rock collector bores, a demographic circle in which Scratchy hits right in the bulls eye, who have given Box Of Birch a favourable write up in their 'The Vinyl Countdown' column in the July 2009 issue.

buy it here via the New York label Tompkins Square, it comes in all the usual formats including the all important heavy vinyl.

A Broken Consort - Box Of Birch - Available from 28th April 2009



http://www.myspace.com/abrokenconsort

http://www.tompkinssquare.com/

http://sustain-release.co.uk/

http://richardskelton.wordpress.com/

More References:

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/a_broken_consort

http://www.discogs.com/A-Broken-Consort-Box-Of-Birch/release/1042209

http://antigravitybunny.blogspot.com/2009/03/mp3-broken-consort-elder-lie.html

http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new-a-broken-consort-the-elder-lie_064242.html

My Brightest Diamond

"String Players Wanted: If you like Pierre Boulez as much as PJ Harvey, call me!"

This was the ad posted by Shara Worden to bring together a motley crew of esoteric performers, that became My Brightest Diamond. It also perfectly sums up their music, which straddles the twin colossi of music genres; classical and rock.

Shara Worden was born into a house of diverse musical aesthetics and was something of a musical prodigy, starting to write songs from the age of three. She was the granddaughter of an epiphone playing travelling evangelist, her father was a National Accordion Champion and her mother was a pianist.

This background, immersed in diverse musical influences, coupled with formal music training via a degree in opera from the University of North Texas, has led to a song writing technique, that tippy toes through lush, orchestrated, dramatic and delicate fields of sounds. A move to New York City opened the door to various musical collaborations, most notably with Padma Newsome of The National and with Sufjan Steven's on his celebrated Illinois album and the 2003 Christmas E.P project.

My Brightest Diamond released their first record in 2006 called 'Bring Me The Workhorse' on Asthmatic Kitty Records This was followed up by 'A Thousand Shark's Teeth' in 2008 with an album of remixes entitled 'Tear It Down' sandwiched between these two full length albums. The following video accompanies the track 'Inside a Boy' taken from the most recent album. It is a cute, dreamy animation and is well executed in a style reminiscent of Jamie Hewlett (Monkey, Tank Girl, Gorillaz etc)

Any artist who uses 'crepuscular' in their promotional blurb (one of the finest words in the English language) is worthy of a Scratchy thumbs up.

My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy

Upcoming Gigs

21/03/09 Lookout Mountain, GA, Covenant College, U.S.A

22/03/09 Lexington, KY, Al’s Bar U.S.A

http://www.mybrightestdiamond.com/

http://sharaworden.com/

http://asthmatickitty.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Brightest_Diamond

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Hewlett

Fiction, My Empty Phantom, My Education

Austin, Texas has always been receptive to an alternative music scene and has played host in the past to pioneers of experimental rock, Go Roky, go! There currently appears to be a burgeoning wave of ambient post rockers willing to push the envelope of conjuring sound scapes.

Fiction originated, in 2005, as a collaboration between Jeremy Roye (vocals, laptop, effects) and Michael Zawodniak (keys, synths, bass, vocals) The following year, the duo later expanded the line up, with the addition of multi-instrumentalists Matt Latour (drums, flute, bass, vocals) and Henna Chou (cello, keys, bass, vocals) and starting playing live.

Their sound is experimental, with an evident influence of the Radiohead style of pushing the boundaries ethos, particularly in the vocal styles and wobbly head technique of the lead singer. Thrown into the plot are an assortment of strings, synthesizers, multi-part harmonies, electronic beats, live looping/sampling, and flute, all culminating in a satisfying musical page turner. The tempo of the melodies has a slightly twitchy, claustrophobic feel with repeated listens revealing extra layers of sounds, hidden under the nervy, chanty vocals.

The 'You Will Never' E.P was released back in late October 2008. A debut album provisionally titled, American Hologram, is pencilled in for release in early Spring 2009.

I have to give them an 8.23 out of ten! Usually I would shy away from clumsy 'marks out of' reviews but I will make an exception just this once, in order to shoe-in a superfluous librarian in-joke, indulge me please.



Your next chance to catch Fiction live is on the 13th December 2008 @ The Space Cave, 3109 Walnut St, Austin, Texas with D.J Mos Jeficit, Hello Lovers, Many Birthdays, and Little Stolen Moments in support.

http://www.cantrememberthewords.com/

http://www.myspace.com/cantrememberthewords

http://www.virb.com/fiction_austin http://www.myspace.com/thulsadoompete

http://thatotherpaper.com/austin/a_fiction_in_the_writing

They also play Lamberts on 24th January 2009 with My Empty Phantom and My Education, which sounds like a jolly good night out, if it wasn't a three thousand miles trek, I'd be tempted to pop down and catch this triple trippy toe tapping toasty of a show.

My Empty Phantom is basically a one man show from Jesse Beaman, who creates a very pleasing Eno-esque ambient soundscape, chilled but lively enough not be soporific. Have a break from the twenty four hour rush hour of twenty first century living and check out this live version of the hypnotic Field Of Flowers.



http://www.myspace.com/emptyphantommusic

My Education have been creating epic sonic post-rock with a twist of Americana since 1999 and have four albums under their belt. It comes as no surprise that they've been involved with two original film soundtracks for Angels Egg and Sunrise, as their music has a definite cinematic quality about it. I can imagine one of their tracks, as the backdrop to a Wim Wenders movie or an indie flick, set in in a Texas trailer park.

The latest album 'Bad Vibrations' was released in June 2008 and this is the video of the title track, which is laconically lovely but a little bit eerie as well.



myeducationmusic.com

http://www.discogs.com/artist/My+Education

http://www.myspace.com/myeducation

Air France

November: it's cold, dark, miserable, the economy imploding and it's raining down in biblical proportions.. time to jet off to sunnier climes, for a feel good three minute escape, courtesy of Gothenburg's chill out pilots Air France.

Surely it can't be an expertly cut montage of clips taken from David Hamilton's 1983 romantic film 'A Summer in St Tropez' set to the song 'Windmill Wedding' Yes it is and don't call me Shirley!

This was originally on their E.P 'No Way Down' which has just been re-released in an expanded form, including tracks from the 2006 'On Trade Winds' E.P The stand out song, spooky dreamlike 'Collapsing At Your Doorstep' with it's hypnotic loop"It's all like a dream, isn't it, no, better" will lift you off in business class, heading towards the Maldives, with it's lush tropical arrangement and sensual ambiance. File these guys next to The Avalanches, Air and Lemon Jelly and let them whisk you off into the clear blue sky.

Air France - Collapsing At Your Doorstep



David Hamilton is renowned taking controversial photos, favouring fragrant young ladies as the subject matter. This style of soft focus has become his calling card and periodically been de rigueur with fashion style magazines like Elle and Vogue throughout his career, influencing many other photographers with his grainy, blurry technique.

Watching the video below, reminded me of when I spotted the soundtrack to Hamilton's 1977 film Bilitis, with music composed by Francis Lai, resting in the vinyl bin at a local chazzer. From the saucy cover, featuring wistful maidens getting sapphic, I deduced this was a come on for what was obviously going to be very average ambient music. I left it, determined not to be a sucker for such an obvious merchandising ploy, yet a few weeks later, curiosity got the better of me and I shelled out the dosh in a moment of weakness, reasoning that it might actually be a lost classic soundtrack. However, on first listen, yup you've guessed it, very mediocre Vangelis lite music seeped out of my speakers, never to be played again: if only Air France had been around at the time to provide a proper soundtrack!

Air France- Windmill Wedding



http://www.myspace.com/theairfrance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hamilton_(photographer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilitis_(film)