Space Is The Place (again)

Can it really be true that Windy & Carl have been making records for 20 years?  I guess the fact they are just about to release the "3rd & final installment" of their celebration of their "20th year of releasing music" on their own Blue Flea imprint means that it is!


That single and their adorable recent 7" for The Great Pop Supplement provide ample evidence that they are creating some of the most touching, effortless-sounding music of their career.  "Carnivale" - the B-side of the GPS single - is particularly great and is undoubtedly the single song I've listened to most to date in 2014.  Over a tinkling, all-percussion backing, Windy Weber sings in thee most heavenly voice, foregrounded as never before, about a scene that could have been lifted straight from a David Atttenborough nature documentary:

"Little crabs on hot sand
 Dancing on the hot sand
 Claws outstretched toward the sky
 Snapping claws, feet in time"

It just so exquisitely expresses the wonder of small, everyday things.  Both sides of the Blue Flea release and the A-side of the GPS 7" are more typical of their previous records (shimmering guitars, subdued atmospheres, buried melodies) but done so beautifully and with such understated emotion as to make them career highlights.  With Grouper's steady rise to a certain level of prominence over the last few years, hopefully the conditions are right for Windy & Carl to receive a little more recognition again.  There's no doubt that they deserve it.

Around the time I was first fully immersed in the spectral music of Windy & Carl and their Michigan peers (Fuxa, Auburn Lull, Mahogany, Once Dreamt etc.) I bought a little 4 track cdep of demos by Alison Statton's post-Young Marble Giants group Weekend.  It was flawless from start to finish and seemed to sit just right alongside the similarly elegant music made by those groups.  Earlier today, I was jolted from the tedium of work when I read the Twitter announcement from Norman Records that Blackest Ever Black is set to restore these demos to print, this time on 12" vinyl.  Now the end of February can't come soon enough!

Irma Vep

Those who bought Golden Grrrls' corking debut lp from Monorail Music in Glasgow, also received a cd-r of other people's songs compiled by the group.  Tracks by The Dovers, West Coast Pop Art Experimental  Band etc. provide ample evidence that they know their history but it was "Guilt" by Manchester's Irma Vep which piqued my interest and sent me scurrying to Soundcloud and bandcamp for a dig around.  That's when I came across this dizzying dose of dirge pop:

Turn it up and crawl inside!  "The Jerk" is slated to appear on the a-side of a 7" on The Great Pop Supplement, proving once again just what well calibrated ears that label has.  Folks within striking distance of Glasgow have the chance to see the group perform live at The Old Hairdressers this Tuesday, 30th April*.  Go on, give the Champions League a miss, for once - you won't regret it!

* - As with the recent Brilliant Colors Old Hairdressers gig, the promotion on this show hasn't been great so far.  Putting up a few posters in sister venues isn't really enough in 2013.  At the very least it should be listed on the venue's website or facebook page.   I know it's a lot of work and they could be short-staffed or whatever so I'm loath to be too critical but either the promoter or the venue owes it to the acts appearing to do their best to spread the word about the show.  Mind you, maybe I'm just too old and subscribed to the wrong forums and condemned, therefore, to be forever uninformed.

Update:

My brain's a bit pickled!  I didn't have the GG cd-r to hand when I rummaged online and wrote the words above.  Now that I do, it turns out that the track labelled as "Guilt" is actually The Jerk" which, I guess, is great news as it'll tide me over till the vinyl is released.  Hurrah!

Violet Woods "Raw Love"

On a recent work trip to Cambridge I asked my musically inclined colleagues the usual question, "Are there any good groups from round here that I should be listening to?".  Without exception, they all answered with an emphatic "No".  A few weeks on, however, and thanks to The Great Pop Supplement, I now know that they were all wrong as Violet Woods' debut 7" is a thing of easy beauty.  Both "Raw Love" and its flip "Cyanide Suns" are small screen psychedelic pop wonders that lack any of the self-conscious seriousness and overbearing heaviness that mars so many modern pysch records.  Both sides have the lovely looseness of Former Bullies but also the succinct jangliness of The See See.  Amazingly, both sides also feature guitar solos that can be enjoyed and not merely endured.  "Raw Love" is bound to find a spot in Not Unloved's top 10 singles of the year.  Love it!

Glaswegians: Monorail still has some copies - get on it!

One old, one new

Lately, there's been a distinctly classic pop flavour to the sounds emanating from Not Unloved's speakers  This is largely due to finally (it only took 13 years!) picking up Wall of Orchids' fabulous "Great Blue" cd e.p. (The Bus Stop Label) and the arrival of  The See See 's latest single, "Gold and Honey".  Across 5 superior quality songs Lane Steinberg and his fellow wallflowers demonstrate an ability to craft the kind of melodies that can part even the blackest of clouds and as if to prove the point, 2 minutes and 7 seconds into "No One's Looking At The Rain" the strings arrive like a kind of audio sun to dry up any lingering puddles.  It's a great moment which I look forward to each time it plays.

"Gold and Honey" may be much newer - it dates from the last month or so - but it, too, knows its pop history.  It's a serious-minded but thankfully never po-faced amalgam of sun-bleached mid-60s California vocals and non-wimpy, first generation Mod jangle.  Recent releases on The Great Pop Supplement label have been of a remarkably high standard and "Gold and Honey" certainly doesn't buck the trend.

(I'm guessing that it's this Paul Kelly who directed the video!)