Papernut Cambridge - Channel Suite

Humour, emotion, introspection, music biz musings, and a ton of good tunes. Could this be the finest Papernut Cambridge album yet?

 

There’s a track on Papernut Cambridge’s latest album with lyrics that are basically a list of home recording tips. It reminds me of The Timelords’ (KLF) seminal book The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way). While The Manual focussed on artistic approach and finances, Papernut Cambridge’s song ‘Grimston Green Hustle’ zones in on how to achieve a strong coherent sound while making an album – volume levels, limiting, EQ, gain, continuity of sound, mastering, reducing “s” and “t” sounds, track sequencing, keeping happy accidents. It’s invaluable, demystifying advice.

“The Cambridge” has had a changing line-up over its ten-year existence. For this album it’s something of an all-star affair which includes Robert Rotifer, Robert Halcrow, Darren Hayman, Jack Hayter, and of course bandleader/vocalist Ian Button. Not only does band leader Ian Button possess the know-how of navigating a studio, but he also puts it to good use. Channel Suite was released on New Year’s Day and is packed with songs that in a justful world would be clogging up the charts and radio playlists. While the modern world may not always be fair and just, it does allow us to access a wealth of music on a physical format or streaming service of our choosing. With that in mind I urge you to check out Channel Suite. You’ll be in for a treat.

The record kicks off with ‘End of The Downs’, a heartfelt homage to the landscape and countryside near Button’s Folkestone base. Soft wind chimes give way to strident superpop not heard since the likes of Edison Lighthouse were regulars on Top Of The Pops. The track’s joy and optimism are rendered via an uplifting melody and series of key changes. ‘La Cucina’ is a similarly upbeat paean to the joys and trials of creativity. Ostensibly about cooking, it’s really about any creative endeavour, and addresses the rewards along with the constant re-evaluation and dedication they require.

There’s an opportunity to learn something here too - ‘Cassiopeia’ is about the star constellation in the northern sky named after vain queen Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda, in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. (Yes, I did need to look that up on Wikipedia!)

My current favourite song on the album, however, is ‘Trip to America’. Such a journey, (undertaken for pleasure as opposed to business Button tells us in its lyrics), should be a joyful, exciting prospect, but here it’s sung about with a tinge of melancholia. Why that should be we don’t find out, but it’s this unexplained mystery that gives the song its strange power. “I can’t go there now wide-eyed like I did before” sings Button. Maybe it’s about loss of innocence, or loss of wonder. Whatever its subject matter, the song is curiously beguiling.

There are plenty more songs jostling for top spot though - ‘Chez Pascal’ showcases Button knack for sketching out characters. It’s a side of his writing that was given full flight on the recent Toni Tubna album. ‘Cobwebs’ is The Modern Lovers taking a drum machine for a short rejuvenating trip to the sea front. Then there’s ‘Jump in Your Heart’ – the closing catchy pop number complete with whistling. That song alone is enough to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

Pop music – just when you think it’s burnt itself out and can no longer inspire or move you, a record comes along to reaffirm your faith in its powers. Channel Suite is one such record. Humour, emotion, meta-music biz musings, atmospherics, some sadness, some introspection, and a ton of bloody good tunes. It may well be the finest Papernut Cambridge album yet.

 

For this release Papernut Cambridge are... 

Ian Button - vocals, guitar, bass, programming, percussion
Robert Halcrow - bass, baritone horn
Robert Rotifer - guitar, backing vocals
Darren Hayman - electric piano, synths, percussion
Jack Hayter - viola

 

Click here for Papernut Cambridge on Facebook. 

Click here for Papernut Cambridge on Twitter. 

Click here for Gare Du Nord Records.

 

Toni Tubna with The Stockholm Tuba Sect - When The Magic Went Wrong

Alter egos and warped tales. Papernut Cambridge leader gets conceptual.

If the mention of concept albums makes you think of long-haired, serious-minded musicians and gatefold LPs featuring sleeve art by Roger Dean, then you're living in the '70s man. Time for a re-think as the concept album is alive and well. Papernut Cambridge's Ian Button has recently released this fine album featuring a set of songs about fictional magician Toni Tubna. (Anagram fans will no doubt work out how Ian arrived at the character's name.)

It all goes back to a running joke that Ian shared with bandmates in The Catenary Wires, about him having a past life as a magician. Over time and and a series of emails back and forth Ian wrote a number of short stories about his spell as a conjuror. Whether that spell was real or imagined matters not as the resulting songs are sure to put a smile on your face.

They're now available on a CD which comes with a mini book containing the stories. Alongside these stories are illustrations by Fay Hallam. All in all quite an immersive multi-format package, one that evokes warped nostalgia and faded seaside glamour – think summer seasons, end of the pier variety shows, old music hall tunes, and that fondness for eccentrics and doomed endeavours that's somehow ingrained in the English psyche.

Anyone familiar with the mighty Papernut Cambridge will know they're in safe hands. Button's melodic and vocal gifts are showcased over a variety of musical styles, be it 'The New Assistant' with its tango feel, or 'The Painting' which comes across as a melancholic English folk song. It's the stories that drive the album however. Be prepared for tales of dubious morals, seedy undertakings, a smidgeon of Shakespeare and encounters with a whole host of supporting characters including, bizarrely, the mayor of Bridlington.

Give it a go, there's nothing else quite like it around at the moment. As Tubna/Button sings on the album's opening and closing songs “It probably never even happened”. Possibly not, but imagining that it did is entertainment enough.

 

 

Click here for Tony Tubna on Twitter

Click here for Stockholm Tuba Sect on Twitter

Click here for Gare Du Nord Records

 

Mark & The Clouds - Waves

Psychedelic guitar pop! Trio's third album is a generous, melodically memorable treat.    

 

One of my recent late-lockdown listening joys has been the new album by Mark & The Clouds. It came out recently on Gare du Nord Records and is the band's third full-length outing following on from Blue Skies Opening (2014) and Cumulus (2017), both of which were put out by also fabulous Mega Dodo Records.

I'll give the chaps this – they know how to pull me in. Opening track 'You & Me In Space' has a sound that draws on savvy Revolver-esque guitar pop, complete with backwards solos. Crashing chords and drums combine in on the opening riff, but leave enough space for a catchy vocal melody. The track is followed by the altogether gentler textures of 'Back In Time', a dreamy, wistfully laid-back ode to memory and nostalgia. Like the opening track, it too pays heed to that often forgotten rule of pop music – that melodies should be memorable.

What follows is just shy of an hour's worth of gently trippy, psychedelic power pop with plenty of little touches and attention to detail to ice the cake - The softening strings on 'Winter Song', the bombastic riff and swagger of 'No One Makes a Sound', and the spaghetti western twang on 'Somebody Else'. Oh and they have a nice line in twisting middle eights too.

So who are Mark & The Clouds? The band are a London-based trio fronted by Marco Magnani (formerly in Instant Flight, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Smokers, and Avvoltoi), along with Shin Okajima on drums, and John O'Sullivan bass, pedal steel and backing vocals. Or I should say that is the core band for live appearances. On record their sound is fleshed out by guest musicians.

Marco, the band's sole song-writer, is equally adept with lyrics as he is with melodies, as evidenced on 'Peace Not Religion' with its admirable adult-in-the-room honesty, and 'Heavy Drops Of Rain', which displays a bittersweet acceptance of life's curveballs.

Aside from the new album the band also have a 7” vinyl single out now on the increasingly happening Hypnotic Bridge label. For a committed sun-worshipper like me it takes something quite special for me to say this but here we go – Bring on the Clouds!

 

Mark & The Clouds are -

Marco Magnani – Vocals, guitar, harmonica

Shin Okajima – Drums 

John O'Sullivan - Bass, backing vocals, pedal steel


Click here for the band's website

 

Anton Barbeau - Manbird

 

Barbeau is back. A wealth of delights on this double disc concept album.

While 2020 may have seen a distinct lack of gigs and tours, it's been a back-handed gift to musicians who like to bunker down at home and get creative with writing and recording. Anton Barbeau is no stranger to either, having recorded in excess of 30 albums. His latest, released in September, does not disappoint. It's a double album featuring 25 psych-pop nuggets which form a loosely meandering concept album, one that has an obsession with travel and birds.

For those unfamiliar with Brabeau's work, his songs mix autobiographical experience with subconscious psychedelic wordplay. Musically they draw on New Wave pop and left-field mavericks such as Devo, David Bowie, Syd Barrett. But they're in no way derivative, a Barbeau song is simply that, distinctively his own. The wonderful thing about double albums is the space it allows for the artist to stretch out. Having that bigger canvas means they can make stylistic shifts, develop themes and really take the listener deep into their world.

It's all here on Manbird, Barbeau's latest  collection of cottage industry psychedelia. Homemade with the assistance of a few close friends including Sharon Krauss and Matt Sewell. So what's it all about? The album has a skewed autobiogrphical slant, focussing on Barbeau's growing up in Sacramento. It's an album about roots, reflections and flying the nest. For the most part catchy hook-laden psych-pop rules the roost but there are hand-brake turns into thrashy punk ('Featherweight'), and odd little interludes such as 'Cowboy John', which is the first ever song Barbeau created at the age of eight. It's neatly juxtaposed with a version of 'Greensleeves' that has newly penned lyrics about childhood dogs, broken toys and those peculiar early memories that resonate through later decades.If Barbeau ever decides to write an autobiography there's no doubt it would be a compelling read. For now though, this double disc of delights more than suffices.

Click here for Gare Du Nord Records.

Extradition Order – American Prometheus

A history lesson about J Robert Oppenheimer couched in angular post-punk grooves.

For the rest of the country Warrington's main claim to fame is rugby league. Musically however it tends to be overlooked by its bigger neighbours Liverpool and Manchester. As is often the case if you did a little deeper our smaller towns have much to offer culturally and Warrington is no exception. One group with roots in the woolyback heartlands is Extradition Order. Their latest album is being co-released by no less than five record labels. Those labels are Gare Du Nord, Blang, Jezus, Helen Llewellyn Product 19, and I Blame The Parents Records. That in itself is an interesting scenario – let's hope they split the costs and don't argue about who did or didn't order a starter.

Anyway back to the record. A concept album based on the life of physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, taking in US politics and the creation of the A-bomb. If that all sounds a little highbrow and decidedly “non sexy”, fear not. The band are adept at laying down tough and angular post rock grooves, laced with slashing guitars and punchy brass, with lyrics that bring the subject matter to life. While it's educational, fun is still firmly on the agenda. Imagine if the Manic Street Preachers had grown up listening to Television, B52s, The Pop Group, Gang of Four and PIL, as opposed to hair metal bands. That's the mix of history lesson and passionate musical shapes we have here. The band describe American Prometheus as “a Northern Soul album about the atomic bomb”. That may be a stretch but it's a good chat-up line. There's a lack of finger-snapping Motown-beats but that's more than compensated by the record's cliché free romp, ragged sonic landscapes, thought-provoking lyrics and passionately delivered vocals.

So what do we learn of Oppenheimer? If like me you wished you'd paid more attention to history lessons at school, you'll welcome the insights gained via American Prometheus. Oppenheimer was instrumental in the Manhattan Project, a research and development project which resulted in the world's first nuclear bombs, later to be dropped on Hiroshima. Oppenheimer was also nominated for a Nobel Prize three times but was never awarded one, most likely down to his later public opposition against the bomb. There was also his complicated love life and left-wing politics. These aspects of his life are also touched upon, making for an album that's as much about the man's complicated inner life as it is about his legacy.

American Prometheus is dedicated to founder member and bass player Nick Boardman who sadly passed away in 2018. He leaves behind some fine musical contributions on this uniquely informative and highly enjoyable album.

Click here for Extradition Order's website.

Click here for Extradition Order on Twitter.

Click here for Extradition Order on Facebook.

Clickhere for Gare Du Nord Records.

Boa Morte – Before There Was Air

Less is very often more. Cork band release their long-awaited third LP of sublime alt-folk.

There's much to admire about bands who are into making music for the long haul, neither swayed by fashions or bandwagons, and not into changing their vision in the hope of “making it”. It's especially admirable when those bands live and work in places at a distance from where the music industry is traditionally based. Boa Morte are one such band with a singular vision, one based on making quality music that stands the test of time, however long that might take. They formed in 1999 in the beautiful city Cork in the Republic of Ireland and have just released their third full length album Before There Was Air, following 2009's The Dial Waltz. OK, so three albums in 20 years is not the most impressive rate of productivity, but great music can't be subject to time and motion studies, we're talking art here, not factory-produced goods.

Before There Was Air is full of intimate, cliche-free folk, parsimonious but with an ambience and mood that when listened to in a solitary setting, imbues what I can only describe as an optimistic melancholy. Plaintive piano, softly plucked guitars and understated vocals are enhanced with unobtrusive synth drones, violin, viola, cello and even close-mic'ed floor creaks. You can literally hear the room and the atmosphere within. The lyrics have a poetic timeless beauty, referencing nature, landscape and bodies of water. It's welcome contrast to listen to a record that drenches itself in the eternal given how most of us are drained by by the constant noise of news and political debate. (OK, it could just be me that's drained but you take the point.)

As we head towards the year's shortest days and we search for the peace, stillness and contemplation that mid-winter brings I can think of no better elegant set of songs to accompany those moments of much-needed quiet reflection. Peace, goodwill, and happy listening to you all. x

Click here for Boa Morte's website.
Click here for Boa Morte on Facebook.
Click here for Boa Morte on Twitter.
Click here for Boa Morte on Instagram.
Click here for Gare du Nord Records.

The Cold Spells - Interstitial

The Cold Spells' new LP captures the mood of the nation.

interstitial

/ˌɪntəˈstɪʃ(ə)l/

adjective

adjective: interstitial

of, forming, or occupying interstices.
"the interstitial space"
*ECOLOGY
(of minute animals) living in the spaces between individual sand grains in the soil or aquatic sediments.
"interstitial fauna" 

noun COMPUTING
noun: interstitial; plural noun: interstitials
an advertisement that appears while a chosen website or page is downloading.

The Cold Spells released their self-titled debut last year. Not only was it one of my favourites from 2018, I can honestly say it's way up the list of my all-time favourite albums. The record took around four years to make. So when a follow up was announced, only a year on, anticipation became mixed with trepidation. What if it fell flat? The history of music is littered with bands who released classic debuts only to then put out some lacklustre facsimile second time round. Or perhaps worse, they changed tack stylistically in a misguided attempt at being radical and risk-taking.

I need not have worried. Interstitial is, if anything, an even stronger record than its predecessor. There's a pleasing continuity of sound - the blending of of acoustic guitars and gentle electronics is intact, as is the Estuary English dialect and accent, but it's the songs that impress most. The Cold Spells invoke a world that's familiar but ethereal, with story songs featuring small moments with a bigger emotional resonance. You could call it 21^st century folk but that would infer an optimistic sheen that's not present here. The sentiments are street-weary rather than street-wise. Sample lyric - “Half-cut as I duck in the Crown, a too regular thing. It's a shit-hole, a rough house, I know. I guess it beats staying here.”

Much like fellow Thames Estuary band The Singing Loins, The Cold Spells make Folk music that's aware of its tradition but in no way reverential. They're not trying to be Heron or Comus, or pretending to live with faeries in their local woods. They're more likely to reference Poundland or Plusnet in their lyrics, than they are Pentangle. (That said, Ezra Pound or TS Eliot might get a look in.) In short it's music that's very much on the frequency of modern Britain, with all it's faults and foibles. In twenty years time when record labels will be putting together compilations that give a sense of the music of Brexit Britain, Interstitial should be one of the first ports of call.

The Cold Spells are -

Tim Ward (songs/guitar/vocals)

Michael Farmer (keyboards/vocals)

Click here for The Cold Spells on Twitter.
Click here for The Cold Spells on Facebook
Click here for Gare du Nord Records.