Hobbit House Collective - 2 x 7"

 Latest Fruits de Mer double 7” featuring covers of Fleetwood Mac, Led Zep, and a new original track!

 

The latest release from what is surely now a nationally treasured institution. I’m talking of course about the wonderful Fruits de Mer Record label. It’s 14 years since they first pressed music onto vinyl, since when they’ve put out a veritable treasure trove of psychedelia, acid-folk, prog, krautrock and spacerock. Much of it highly collectable, all worth investigating.

The label’s most recent offering is this double vinyl 7” featuring long-time friends of the label, Crystal Jacqueline, Icarus Peel, The Honey Pot and The Locker Room Cowboys. Grouped together as the Hobbit House Collective they’ve put together four tracks that draw from the early ‘70s rock scene. Crystal Jacqueline does a brilliant version of Zep’s ‘Battle Of Evermore’ featuring stellar guest violin from Curved Air’s Darryl Way. Furthering the Zep love-in is The Honey Pot’s take on ‘Ramble On’.

Icarus Peel does a storming version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’, and to round things off there’s an equally impressive original track, ‘Wolfgang Does the Nurburgring’ by The Locker Room Cowboys. The latter is a four-minute instrumental featuring full-on guitar heroics, heavy organ, and conga drum groove. What’s not to like?! 

 

1. Crystal Jacqueline – The Battle Of Evermore (Led Zeppelin)

2. The Honey Pot – Ramble On (Led Zeppelin)

3. Icarus Peel’s Acid Reign – The Chain (Fleetwood Mac)

4. The Locker Room Cowboys – Wolfgang Does the Nurburgring (Icarus Peel) 

 

Click here for the Fruits de Mer website

 

Office for Personal Development - You Are In Control

New Band, New Direction, New Era. Motivation meets Europop!

 

As we work our way through February’s slow wintry days, January already seems like a distant memory, the early days of the new year feel life a lifetime away. If, like me, you made one or two new year resolutions which have already been broken, there is still a chance of redemption. It’s not too late to re-commit.

Appearing at just the right time to help with any form of self-improvement is a new band (or should that be focus group?) called Office For Personal Development. Their latest track is called ‘You Are In Control’, the video for which is posted below. Mixing synth led Europop with a corporate branded boosterism, they’re a band for these strange, hard times, guaranteed to help you become the best version of yourself.

 Eagle-eyed viewers may spot an old friend of Harmonic Distortion at the helm. OPD vocalist Trevor Deeble released a string of albums as one half of Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou, superb folk-pop harmonists who may at some point, we hope, be back.

As we head deeper into the 21^st century however, it’s time for new directions, new ideas, new music and possibly a new you. With that in mind, please enjoy the latest offering from the Office For Personal Development. 

 

Click here for the OPD website

Click here for the OPD on Twitter

Click here for the OPD on Facebook

Click here for the OPD on Instagram

 

The Piaggio Soul Combination and Lakeetra Knowles - Soultimate

Italians do it better! Fourteen tracks of dancefloor-filling modernism!

 

Happy January folks! It's often said to be the longest, darkest, most miserable of all the months. Especially if you're a meat-eating alcoholic feeling societal pressure to give up the things you love most. (Not a reference to myself I should stress!) None of us should be giving up the joys of new music however, so it's comforting to find that January is offering up some brilliant new releases for us to seek out, listen to, and perhaps even buy.

Top of my listening pile at the moment is this cracking dancefloor filling soul album released by an Italian Mod collective called Piaggio Soul Combination. It's the group's third full-length album following Italian Boogaloo (2017) and This Is The Piaggio Soul Combination (2019) and is released on January 28th. Here in the UK we're inclined to think that the creation of the mod movement is a uniquely British thing. Or maybe just an English thing, centred on London or the south-east. It should be stressed though that the movement soaked up influences from other cultures - American soul, jazz and R&B, Italian scooters and tailoring, and a forward thinking approach to fashion in general, inspired in no small part by that of post-war mainland Europe.

It's fitting then that this album features input from Italy, the UK, and America - The band themselves formed in Pisa, Italy. Featured vocalist Lakeetra Knowles was brought up in Arkansas, USA. And the album's producer is none other than Andy Lewis, a name that will be familiar to fans of Paul Weller, Fay Hallam, and British soul music in general.

Over the course of the album's 14 tracks we journey through Northern soul stompers, latin-flavoured boogaloo, and sophisticated toe-tappers. All very groovy, all infectious and most importantly all very uplifting. Perfect for lifting one's spirits and shifting those damn January blues. It will also make you want to get up and dance. With this in mind the album is available on a very DJ-friendly physical format, a gatefold double 12" 45rpm set. Perfect for spinning at your local vinyl-only all-nighter.

 

The current line-up is: Lakeetra Knowles (lead vocals), Marco Piaggesi (lead & backing vocals, organ, piano, mellotron), Michele Malasoma (drums & timbales), Gio Renzo Baccelli (percussion), Saverio Grasselli (guitar), Michelangelo Pardini (bass), Andrea Milano (alto sax), Manuel Vanni & Cesare Errico (tenor sax), Gaspare Vinto (baritone sax).

Hoo - We Shall Never Speak

Hoo take an atmospheric journey mixing soft sonic textures with emotional heaviness.

Another fine record I've had the pleasure of immersing myself in recently is this second long-player from Hoo, the follow-up to 2019's Centipede Wisdom. Hoo's musicians include Nick Holton (Black Hearted Brother), Neil Halstead and Ian McCutcheon (both ex-Slowdive). Guest musicians on We Shall Never Speak include Farmer Dave Scher (Beechwood Sparks, All Night Radio), and folk singer Jackie Oates. Together they've concocted a slow-burning, atmospheric set of songs that blend of floaty dream-pop, shoegaze and soft electro. 

There's a glacial majesty that coats the album's nine tracks, along with a subtle but insistent emotional pull. The vocals for the most part sit deliberately low in the mix, a production decision that aids the cumulative moodiness. We Shall Never Speak is part soundscape, part cinematic Krautrock, and part score to a modern ballet that may or may not exist. The record opens with 'Ghost in You', a track that features subtle unsettling pitch shifts and expert use of guitar effects atop synth washes and bold chord changes. The mood is set then for a meditative exploration of one's own headspace. The aptly titled 'Cranium' follows with its foreboding electronic pulses.

Jackie Oates makes her first appearance on 'The Mighty', which also features flute played by Robin Bennett. It has a simple but haunting melody and spectral guitar lines which slowly build in force and momentum. 'Still Dream' is based around a rumbling bassline and brings to mind a soft-focus version of Echo & The Bunnymen. Another perhaps unintentional touchstone is OMD's Dazzle Ships, most specifically via the electronic squelches on short track 'No One Can Ever See This'.

The album's centrepiece is its title track. It's also the album's most experimental moment, full of cascading synth notes and dub-laden echoey vocals. Jackie Oates returns on 'Powder Moon', which opens with vamped piano chords before her authoritatively beautiful vocal performance. She also sings on 'You Changed The Way You Smile', a relatively poppy affair which also features Farmer Dave playing a lap steel solo. 'Sea of Glass' closes the record while maintaining its beguiling mix of soft textures and emotional heaviness. It all adds up to an album that's best listened to in a solitary one-sitting, start-to-finish manner, perfect for those still moments that mid-winter provides.

 

Handsome Jack - Get Humble

Timeless American rock 'n' soul stew. No reinvention of the wheel but they sure can roll it!

It's a well trodden musical path but damn it still sound good. Handsome Jack are a trio based in Lockport NY whose music is an timeless amalgam of southern rock, soul, gospel, blues, R&B, with a little bit of funky country thrown in for good measure. Their latest album Get Humble was released last month by the always reliable label Alive Records. Gutsy locked-in grooves and raspy vocals are the order of the day, delivered with aplomb and conviction. The addition of harmony vocals, a touch of brass here and there and the party is good to go. It may only be rock and roll, but Handsome Jack avoid the trap many bands make – with these guys the emphasis is on the roll, not the rock. A massively important point here.

There are highlights aplenty - the slide guitar solo and tasty drum fills on 'High Class Man', the call and response vocal lines on 'Get Humble', the low bass rumble of 'New Home In The Sky'. It all makes for a compelling feelgood listen, one that's suere to bring a little bit of sunshine and warmth in these dark winter weeks. If the likes of The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers Band, and the rootsier side of ZZ TOP are your bag, this will be too. Good times guaranteed.

Handsome Jack are:-

Jamison Passuite (guitar/vocals)

Joey Verdonselli (bass/vocals)

Bennie Hayes (drums/vocals)

Click here for Handsome Jack's website

Click here for Handsome Jack on Facebook

Click here for Handsome Jack on Twitter

Click here for Handsome Jack on Instagram

Click here for Handsome Jack on Bandcamp

 

The Fishheads – Pleasant Valley Sunday / Let's Get Together 7”

Fruits de Mer all-stars cover version single, just in time for Christmas!

 

We love a decent cover version here at HD, and here's a piece of 7” black plastic featuring two of them! The Fruits de Mer label have assembled an all-star band of their favourite acts to record versions of The Monkees' 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' and 'Let's Get Together', a song written by Chet Powers aka Dino Valenti, and covered by loads of people. Perhaps best known is The Youngbloods' version as featured on their eponymous 1967 LP.

The Fishheads feature Astralasia's Swordfish, Anton Barbeau, Crystal Jacqueline, Icarus Peel, John Chinn, Paul Chousner, Holly Bowler and more. Their version of 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' is a fairly faithful take, with that lovely folk-rock guitar motif and lovely layered harmony vocals. 'Let's Get Together' gets a spirited upbeat makeover, its communal cooperative vibe enhanced with suitably festive flute flourishes. In a just and fair world it would be a contender for Christmas number one. Unlikely I know but should you purchase this 7” single I suggest you play it loud in the run up to the big day.

As an extra incentive to purchase the mono-mixed vinyl, it comes with an accompanying CD featuring stereo mixes and a 40 minute mix by Swordfish that takes the songs as a starting point but branches out into new sonic realms. Well that certainly beats hearing Mud's 'Lonely This Christmas' for the millionth time while queuing at the checkouts in Tesco.  

 

Click here for the Fruits de Mer website.

 

 

Bearhug - Eight Song EP

  

The rediscovery a four-track cassette recorder sparks a series of homespun CDR releases.

The rise of affordable digital home recording over the last couple of decades has in many ways been a great boost to musicians. Not only can they save massive amounts of money by not hiring expensive studios, the technology's boundless capability has theoretically made anything possible. You can literally recreate a 40-piece orchestra in your box bedroom. 

A good thing then surely? Well yes but there has been some negative knock-on effects. Firstly the struggle to survival experienced by some dedicated full-time recording studios. But even sadder than that, to my mind at least, was the almost overnight extinction of four-track cassette recorders. In my late teens and early twenties much of my spare time was spent laying down rudimentary tracks, experimenting with drones, tones, tape speeds. It was a voyage of discovery that led me to find out about mic placement, how to double track vocals, and the instant psychedelia achieved by flipping the tape over to enable a backwards guitar solo or the effects of reversed cymbals.

I'm reminded by all this by way of a self-released CD that I received in the post recently by an artist called Bearhug who makes music on a rediscovered four-track recorder that had been laying dormant in an attic for several years. Bearhug plans to release a new EP/mini album each month, some under different names. There will be 40 numbered CD copies of each release and a video posted online to accompany one song from each release.

I'm heartily in favour of this homespun cottage-industry approach. It's done not in pursuit of perfection but to celebrate spontaneous creativity. And before you start thinking it's marginal and twee, I bet you'll have records in your collection that were made in the same lo-fi spirit. McCartney's debut solo LP, Beck's early work, or Michelle Shocked's The Texas Campfire Tapes are just three example that spring to mind.

Featuring eight songs with a total playing time just a chorus shy of 13 minutes, Beahug's first mini album is a playful affair. Kicking of with 'Harry Hooper', a song about the baseball star with lyrics read from the blurb of a book. It's a sweet melodic affair, recorded quickly featuring just ukulele and vocals. Elsewhere there's lo-fi electronica, industrial fugs, experimental indie, a delightful untitled ukulele instrumental, a track about Sylvester Stallone, and my personal favourite track 'Graham's Melting Circuit Boards'.

It would be nice to think that this is somehow the start of a revival of lo-fi four-track recording, and that there'll be a groundswell of cottage industry CDR labels. Unlikely perhaps but the music here, along with the attitude in which it was made is something to be celebrated. It will be interesting to see what Bearhug does next.