Features music by Dudley Simpson, Sol Invictus, Steeleye Span, Caedmon, Lubos Fiser, Coil, Nico, Human Greed, The Pentangle, The Swans and Marc Wilkinson.
18 Jun 2012
Active Listener Radio - The Hare & The Moon Guest Mix
Features music by Dudley Simpson, Sol Invictus, Steeleye Span, Caedmon, Lubos Fiser, Coil, Nico, Human Greed, The Pentangle, The Swans and Marc Wilkinson.
An Interview With Beaulieu Porch
Simon Berry, A.K.A Active Listener favorite Beaulieu Porch was kind enough to answer a few questions for us. A number of which pose further questions. It's an entertaining read with tongue firmly in cheek.
What's that you say? You don't know Beaulieu Porch? a. shame on you and b. head here for a read and a listen. You're back? Good, wasn't it? Now have a read.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Tell us a little bit about Simon Berry.
SIMON BERRY : I live in a secret compartment in an empty box called Salisbury. A city in the U.K. famous for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch and a big cathedral. I do my own thing. I make my music, I love my beautiful wife and children and I am happy.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : How did you first get into music and what was influential to you at the time?
SIMON BERRY : I wanted to show off to girls, and some friends were forming a punk band, so I ordered a guitar from my mum's catalogue, bought an amp on weekly repayments and quickly learnt how to make a loud noise. My school years had been a complete waste of everyone's time, despite having attended a good quality, boys only grammar school, and I had absolutely no interest in work or a career. I was going to be the next big thing. I was destructive, arrogant, rebellious and 16 years old. It didn't really work though, because whereas Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer and co had the the look and the right poise, the zeitgeist, I was about 4 feet tall and had the angelic head of a Little Lord Fauntleroy and the squeaky voice of a glove puppet.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : What did your first songs sound like?
SIMON BERRY : My early stuff - just like the massive, vast majority of all songs and everything - was full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Thankfully,as far as I know, nothing recorded remains. I started off by pretending to be The Buzzcocks, then The Long Ryders, then The Three O'clock and The Rain Parade and eventually the Left Banke.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : You had a number of other projects leading up to Beaulieu Porch. Tell us a little about each of them. Are any of them still active? Have you always worked in the one man band format, or have you worked with others on previous projects?
SIMON BERRY : Up until Beaulieu Porch, it had always been a band, the best achievements of which being the odd, small review in the local paper. Which I normally wrote myself, under a psuedonym. I worked out recently that over the years I have been through at least 60 different band members, and I've yet to meet anyone, where I live, with any interest or knowledge of psychedelic music. I decided that I should either give up trying to flog a dead horse, or else do it all myself. So I did it all myself.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : The Beaulieu Porch album seems to have a heavy Beatles influence, but I also hear a lot of Dave Fridmann in there. Who were your main influences for this album ?
SIMON BERRY : I'm ashamed to say that I'd never heard of Dave Fridmann ! Having looked him up, yeah, I get that and I like it ! There is of course an unabashed Beatles influence and that's probably because the work of Lennon and McCartney (and George Martin) has given us the biggest, most obvious template from which to create ambitious, melodic pop music and it can't be ignored.There's a lot of other stuff that has inspired me, but it's more overall 'feelings' than actual songs. Above all, I like to think my songs represent Englishness, or at least my own, personal, romantic, made up view of England that exists only in my head.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : It's got a very cohesive album feeling to it - was this your intention?
SIMON BERRY : In the choice between cohesive and random, I would choose cohesive every time, unless I was choosing random.
SIMON BERRY : I've had some unbelievably good reviews and comments and I'm slowly collecting fans from all over the world on my websites. I had a few offers from record companies, but I decided to go with Out Of The Box Records, which is part of the Musik And Film company in America. They seem to have a bit of clout and know-how when it comes to distribution and getting stuff out there. Early days yet though.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : How did you get hooked up with the Peppermint Hill who released your excellent "Colour 55" 45?
SIMON BERRY : That came about after I'd spoken to Adam Mattson on his Smiles And Frowns band myspace. I'd sent him a drooling fan message, saying how much I was blown away by his instantly memorable, quirky, psychedelic pop/folk. He replied saying that he liked my stuff too, and before I knew it, he'd offered me an exclusive one-off deal on the single. It was the last thing I had expected, and the result was a beautiful, lovingly hand crafted piece of work in a fold out sleeve and on coloured vinyl.It gave me a right old kick start.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Do you write your material intending it to be for a specific project, or write and then work out where it belongs?
SIMON BERRY : I used to have to write a lot of songs for my live bands, so they were simpler and more direct. Now I can be as self indulgent as I like, and disappear up my own backside whenever I want !
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Is Beaulieu Porch an identity that you intend to release further material as, or are you moving on to something else?
SIMON BERRY : When I get my Mercury Music award and make a massive fortune from Beaulieu Porch, I will carry on with it. And when I don't, I will carry on with it.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Any other projects in the pipeline you'd like to talk about?
SIMON BERRY : I have a seperate release on Bandcamp under the name Spider 72 ( reviewed here - ed. ) . This is basically stuff I recorded for my last live band, British Light Music. We had a good bash at it for a couple years, played at a few festivals, got a bit of radio play and played at The Cavern club in Liverpool as part of the International Pop Overthrow festival. The reason that it never really worked out was that we couldn't get anywhere near replicating the recordings in the live performances.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?
SIMON BERRY : I've always been happy being a bit of an outsider, I think it's good and necessary for some people to take a sideways stance and stick two fingers up to the lowest common denominator. It's also quite cozy though to feel a part of something, and it's encouraging to know that there's a world-wide community of talented psychedelic musicians and enthusiasts out there !
17 Jun 2012
Black Mountain - Year Zero
Surf music used to be damn cool, but somewhere along the way the definition of surf music evolved from the likes of the Surfaris and Taman Shud to Jack Johnson and Donovan Frankenreiter. It's heartening then to see that balance beginning to be readdressed with Black Mountain being asked to provide the soundtrack to new post-apocalyptic surf film "Year Zero". In order to capture the atmosphere of the film the band have elected to use four tracks from previous albums, as well as five new tracks.
This is where it gets problematic. The previously released material makes up more than half of the album's playing time. These four previously released tracks are no doubt the best choices for the scenes they're used in, but don't really show Black Mountain at their best, which makes their inclusion on the soundtrack a bit superfluous as a sampler of their music. It doesn't really work as an album that you would recommend to a Black Mountain beginner, and the fans will already have these tracks on the proper releases and in unedited form. Sensing perhaps that this is likely to be a niche release, it's only been released on vinyl and mp3 which will make it appeal more to collectors, but no doubt frustrate strangers to the band who've seen the movie and just want to buy the soundtrack.
The new material is a mixed bag, with Amber Webber taking the lead vocal duties on them all. Mary Lou is the most fully formed and stereotypically Black Mountain track, riffy with a catchy vocal refrain. Good stuff. Breathe is another heavy piece with big shoegazy guitars, which is something a little different for them. The other three tracks are moodier, more experimental pieces with spoken word lyrics that manage to evoke Hawkwind, Pink Floyd's One of These Days and the Blade Runner soundtrack amongst others.
It'll be interesting to see whether this is signposting the direction of their next proper album back to the darker, more experimental work of "In The Future" or whether they've used this soundtrack as an outlet for their more esoteric ideas so they can knuckle down and follow the more concise route offered by "Wilderness Heart". I'm hoping for the former. Buy Year Zero On Vinyl Here
16 Jun 2012
A Quick Chat with The Paperhead
Walker from the Paperhead was kind enough to take some time out from his busy schedule to have a quick chat about their single "Pictures of her Demise" ( reviewed here. )
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : Pictures Of Her Demise and it's b-side are much more focused and concise hits of pop psych than the more experimental material on your albums. Is this an indicator of where your sound is headed or a case of you writing specifically for the 7" format?
THE PAPERHEAD : It's both. We wrote those songs specifically for a single, so we made them short and to the point. A single can't really meander the way an album can. I guess both songs are more performance-oriented. The studio is less of an instrument. We recorded them last August, after about a month of touring, so the concision of playing live probably also influenced the songs. That tour was kind of eye-opening in terms of playing more cohesively and powerfully live. Since then, I guess we've been more interested in a more direct sound in our recordings, so maybe that's the direction we're headed in.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : How do you go about capturing such an authentic late sixties atmosphere?
THE PAPERHEAD : I guess we've just always listened to 60s records a lot. We use some old gear too.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : You're obviously hugely fond of the U.K psych scene of the late sixties. Can you tell us a little bit about a few of your favorite albums and singles from the era?
THE PAPERHEAD : That's tough. To name a few, our shared favorites have lately been The Idle Race's "Birthday Party", The Move's first album, Billy Nichols's "Would You Believe?", and The Soft Machine's first album. It's great to listen to "The Soft Machine" along with Kevin Ayers's early stuff to see how he continues the same trains of thought into his career. "The Birthday Party" and "The Move" are big inspirations for playing live. "Tomorrow" has also been a big favorite for a long time. As far as singles go, The Pretty Things' "S F Sorrow"-era singles are on the top of the list. They negate pretty much everything I just said about singles. "Defecting Grey", "Talkin About the Good Times", and "Mr. Evasion" are longish, all over the place, and digressive but still maintain a perfect, snappy pop cohesion. They're brilliant.
THE ACTIVE LISTENER : And finally, what's next for you musically?
THE PAPERHEAD : We leave for a month of tour in July. Then we're planning to make a new record when we get back.
15 Jun 2012
The Spyrals
San Francisco's The Spyrals were a new band to me when I came across this, their debut album.
They've been releasing E.Ps and 7"s since 2009, which seems to have been a wise move - giving them room to grow before committing to a full album, which has resulted in a very confident sounding debut.
It's garage rock at it's heart with plenty of psychedelic touches, but they've also obviously been inspired by more recent acts as well, which means that it's not unusual for a track to sound like early Pretty Things, the Stooges and the Black Angels all at the same time.
Which is not to say that they're derivative at all. There are plenty of original and unexpected touches in the arrangements like the mock spaghetti western intro to "Radiator" and the old-school harmonica flourishes peppered throughout "The Rain", while opener "Lonely Eyes" succeeds at the unlikely task of reimagining New Order as a psychedelic garage rock band.
"Evil Kind" is my pick with it's demented effects laden guitar riff and creepy spiralling organs. Not to mention great vocals dripping with attitude and menace. Great.
If the idea of a Mudhoney raised on early Electric Prunes records appeals to you as much as it does to me, then dive on in here.
You can buy it on LP or digitally here.
14 Jun 2012
Spider 72 - Six
Spider 72 are a new one man band from the South of England, the work of one Byron Rimes which may well be the pseudonym for someone we know and love quite well already. I'm sure it'll come out sooner rather than later, but I'll not be the one to spill the beans.
As to what they sound like, the band's press release makes mention of the Super Furry Animals, and there are certainly traces of Gruff Rhys' welsh psych pop alchemists to be found in Spider 72's chemical makeup, especially with the willfully perverse mixing of genres which usually aren't even on speaking terms, in this case sunny sunshine pop harmonies with stomping glam rock riffs.
Their debut six track E.P is a steal for a fiver, and features a concise collection of melodious pop gems, delivered with the conviction of an LSD addled Buzzcocks.
They've also released a free two track single for those that require further coercion. Click the Spider 72 banner below to be taken to their bandcamp page for downloads.
Check out the E.P's opening track Devolution here :
Paul Messis & Jessica Winter - Sunflower 7"
Fans of previous Paul Messis material will be in for a bit of a surprise from his latest offering.
Messis' earlier material bypassed the expected U.K influences in favor of a tough sixties garage rock sound that had more in common with U.S outfits like the Sonics than the Kinks.
Teaming up with Jessica Winter from the Hall of Mirrors, these two sides are a considerably different prospect to his normal fare, and a chance for Messis to show his appreciation for a much more folk-rock inspired sound, think San Francisco circa 1967 and you're definitely on the right track.
A-Side "Sunflower" is as sunny as you'd expect from the title, a chiming folk rocker with shimmering sitar accompaniment and vocal harmonies that recall those of Grace Slick and Marty Balin.
The B-Side " As Nightmares Turn To Dreams" explores the darker side of Summer of Love, and is a much moodier piece built upon a base of twelve string Rickenbacker with ghostly dual vocals with Jessica coming into her own here.
Two very different, but equally appealing sides to this coin.
Enough from me though, this is what Paul has to say about it:
"'The new 45 rpm single, is a west-coast psychedelic style contradiction, featuring the 'up' Sunflower and on the flip side is the rather downtrodden 'As Nightmares Turn To Dreams'.
I wrote these songs in around November last year and recorded them in December/January. Jessica Winter from London Pop-Psych group, The Hall Of Mirrors joined me on vocals, to give the song a true, San Francisco vibe and sound.
Influences include The Jefferson Airplane/ Great Society, The Fairport Convention, Gentle Soul, The Growing Concern and Blackburn and Snow.... things like that, which no-one else really has attempted within the psych genre.
It's more rooted in an American form of psych rather than a British style, which gets on my nerves at times, even though folks have told me that Sunflower has a very British Acid-Folk vibe.
The 45 is a product I suppose to express my internal being, the UP and Down, the light and dark.... as weird as it sounds, it's a by-product of my depression, there are a lot of elements to the 45, it's pretty rooted in the esoteric, which is cool because anyone listening to the songs have no idea what the hell point of view I was coming from."
Check out the promo clip here :
Buy it here.
Active Listener Radio - Jacco Gardner Guest Mix
Features: Bo Grumpus, le Systeme Crapoutchik, Billy Nicholls, The Rising Storm, Duncan Browne, Truck, The Ballroom, Sunforest, the Folklords and Pearls Before Swine.
13 Jun 2012
The Magnetic Mind - Maybe The Stars, Maybe The Sun 7"
Reviewed By The Active Listener.I'm constantly digging for new psych sounds and find a lot of great stuff, but it's not often that I'm stopped in my tracks the way I was by the A-Side of London based psych revivalists "The Magnetic Mind"s first 7".
"Maybe the Stars, Maybe the Sun" is undoubtedly one of the most authentic slices of sixties style psychedelic pop/rock you'll find this side of the millenium.
Classic west coast vocal harmonies, a stomping mod / motown inflected beat, fuzz guitars to die for and a fantastic breakdown which leads into a killer organ break that would fit in nicely on the first Mandrake Memorial album.
Think the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, a far groovier Judy Dyble era Fairport Convention, early Jefferson Airplane and the likes.
The B-Side "Laser Fingers" mines the same rich seam, with tremulous fuzz guitars, intricate psych organ and an anthemic, repeated refrain of "try it now....." which crystalizes the sound and innocence of 1967 into another bite sized piece of psych pop perfection.
More please.
Buy it here.
Listen to the A-Side here :
12 Jun 2012
Wicked Lady - Psychotic Overkill & The Axeman Cometh
Reviewed By The Active Listener.
Guerssen Records are a label that I have a lot of affection for after releasing two of my favorite late sixties LPs July and the Rainbow Ffolly on vinyl.
Rejoice then lovers of proto doom metal, for they've now turned their attention to the Wicked Lady back catalogue.
For those who are unfamiliar with them Wicked Lady were active between 1968 and 1972 and specialized in a fairly primitive, but highly appealing mixture of hard rock with early doom influences and amazing heavy psych guitar from Martin Weaver.
Weaver is more well known as the guitarist and vocalist behind Dark who's privately pressed LP "Around the Edges" changes hands for cripplingly large prices.
While his relaxed vocal delivery may not be for everyone, his fantastic guitar excursions certainly are.
Those looking for subtlety should definitely look elsewhere, but anyone with a taste for big bludgeoning riffs ala Budgie and the Sabbs, with peals of heavily wah-wahed lead breaks should definitely check these out.
They were previously released on CD by the Kissing Spell label in the nineties and while I never heard those versions, the general consensus seemed to be that the sound quality was rudimentary at best.
It would appear that either psych fiends are an extremely picky bunch or that Guerssen have done some work on this - as these are two of the nicest sounding private press / demo recordings I've heard from the era.
You can hear "Ship of Fools" ( from the earlier Kissing Spell release) below
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