Hayden Besswood - Colors & Vows

 

Synth-led psychedelic pop from France? Yes please!

If there are any regular readers out there, they’ll know that that we thrive on eclecticism here at Harmonic Distortion. Any genre is welcome, be it jazz, pop, any rock offshoots, improv, afrobeat, or indeed anything that’s totally unclassifiable. The only prerequisite for the music we cover here is that it’s made with passion and can move you. My own tastes have broadened in ways I would never have expected since I first became hooked on listening to music as a young boy. One constant passion throughout the intervening years has been my love of folk music – the stories, education it offers, its often-direct presentation. It’s a touchstone that I keep returning to when I need any kind of renewal.

I mention this because I’ve been enjoying the debut album by Hayden Besswood recently. Besswood (AKA French musician Quentin Le Gorrec) started out making folk music, and it’s from this spark that his music has exploded and expanded into new sonic territory. Colors & Vows is far from a folk record, apart from the song ‘But Not You Anymore’ where Quentin shows he’s also a skilled finger-style guitarist in addition to the talent for arranging and layering synths he displays on the album’s other tracks. If forced to pin it down I’d say Colors & Vows is more of psychedelic synth-pop record, though trying to pin out down to a genre does it a disservice.

Quentin started his musical journey playing in the folk scene in his hometown, the port city of Saint Nazaire, before moving to nearby Nantes. It was here that his music became more kaleidoscopic, using a wealth of vintage synth sounds, and really getting to grips with studio and tape manipulation. For all its experimental aspects Colors & Vows maintains a homespun DIY charm and has a brace of ultra-catchy tunes with lyrics that have human contact and emotion at their core. It’s brought to you by the good people at the Requiem Pour Un Twister record label who have previously released music by HD favourites such as Triptides and The Young Sinclairs. I recommend you give it a good listen, it’s sure to move you.

 

Click here for Hayden Besswood on Instagram.

Click here for Hayden Besswood on Facebook.

Click here for the Requiem Pour Un Twister on Bandcamp 

 

Willie Gibson - Saint-Ex

Reach for the stars. A synth-driven tribute to aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Out now on CD and 10” vinyl. 

We hear a lot of talk these days about society “dumbing down”. I'm not sure if that's truly the case – all the young people I meet these days seem impressively well-informed and give me much to be optimistic about. And while recent events have highlighted the dangerous combination of low-information voters and lower-information politicians, it's reassuring to find that the musicians the planet over continue to embrace the cerebral. One recent release that educates as well as entertains is this here disc from Willie Gibson. It's inspired by Wind Sand And Stars, a book by aviator and author Antoine de Saint Exupéry, who's perhaps best known for writing children's book The Little Prince.

Saint-Ex is a self-penned eighteen minute instrumental journey broken down in five distinct sections. As on Gibson's previous work, Vivaldi:Seasons Change, modular-synths are used throughout though there are additional live drums and the occasional vocal lines from Deerful's Emma Winston. The overall effect is meditative and calming with the modular synths lending a mid '70s feel – think Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk's Autobahn or side two of David Bowie's Low. It's fair to say however that these artists would not be at the forefront of Gibson's mind when composing or recording these works, this being a tribute to Saint-Exupéry.

Each of the five distinct sections is a musical representation of an aspect of Saint-Exupéry's life or work. There's the propulsive opening section titled 'Wind, Sand And Stars' where one man's conquering of the elements is rendered in musical form, followed by more tranquil sections recalling childhood memories and joy-filled flights. Sadly Saint-Exupéry went missing over the Mediterranean on a routine reconnaissance flight in July 1944, with neither the aircraft or his body ever recovered. The final section 'July '44' closes the album in a suitably climactic way, filled with both drama and celebration.

I have to admit to not being very familiar with the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, my knowledge extends only to having watched the recent film version of The Little Prince. Thankfully there are musicians and composers around like Willie Gibson who continue to broaden our horizons where others would have them shut down.

Click here for Willie Gibson on Bandcamp

Click here for Willie Gibson on Twitter.

Click here for the Gare Du Nord Records website.

Jean-Jacques Perrey

(This first appeared in issue #70 of Shindig! magazine.)

The missing link between Spike Jones, Joe Meek, Kraftwerk and Fat Boy Slim? Duncan Fletcher celebrates the life of Jean-Jacques Perrey - composer, entertainer, electronic revolutionary and self-described “passenger here on planet Earth.”


Jean-Jacques Perrey's life sadly ended in November last year but he leaves behind an indelible stamp on modern music. His classically trained musicality, love of entertaining and innovative studio and tape manipulation helped make a wealth of groundbreaking music. Quirky musical jokes, sci-fi eeriness, concrete sounds and dance-floor friendly grooves are all found in his work. The Beastie Boys, Fat Boy Slim, and even The Beatles have all been influenced by, or sampled his music. A pioneer of electronic music, he helped popularise the Moog synthesizer and his music still sounds fresh on TV adverts to this day.

Perrey was born Jean Leroy in Paris in November 1929 and grew up during World War Two, an experience that affected his outlook towards life as well as music. Perrey's daughter/manager Patricia explains - “He witnessed a lot of suffering. He grew pessimistic on mankind. This is possibly why he mostly wanted to make people happy. He considered it his mission in life to bring joy and happiness through his music. His biggest reward was when he saw people smile when they heard his music.”

(Click over the jump to continue reading...)

Butch Walker And The Black Widows - The Spade

Life's a blast! Top US producer step out of the control room for latest album of scorching rock-pop.

Producer of choice for Weezer, Pink, Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne among others, Butch Walker proves with his latest record that his songwriting skills are also up there with best of them. The Spade is a ten-song blast of feelgood rock, full of good humoured observations about being middle aged but still rocking. There's also some telling recollections from his (partly misspent) youth, with references to Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, and bizarrely Frank Poncherello. The songs are interspersed with snippets of studio banter, and contain lyrics which show Walker as being as good with words as he is with melodies. A good story teller like Walker is not the only raconteur on the album, his friend Patrick Keeler (Yes he of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes) is on kick-ass form on drums throughout.

There's no pushing of musical boundaries, the songs all being in the mould of classic American guitar rock but they're catchy as hell and literally jump out the speakers at you. Listening to the album is like meeting up with a valued and jovial friend down your local pub, it's familiar but at the same time fun and you know there'll be new stories, laughs aplenty, and you need its rejuvenating effects.

Click here for Butch Walker's website.

Click over the jump for a video of the track "Synthesizers".