sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog - Tumblr blog

[sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog]

Strobes – Brokespeak

Strobes are an emerging trio from the UK who have recently released their first full length album, Brokespeak. This exciting new math-rock trio features Dan Nicholls, whom first gained notoriety playing with Squarepusher, on key boards and synthesisers. Nicholls' incredible ear for sound design is evident throughout the album, with synthesised sounds ranging from spacey pads to dark crunchy bass tones. On guitar duties Matt Calvert of Three-Trapped-Tigers delivers nothing less than an incredible performance throughout, his guitar melodies always remain strong despite the shifting time signatures and long poly-rhythms from keys and drums. Calvert also shows an incredible knack for sound design, the use of effects pedals creating a versatility of sound for him which some guitarists only ever dream of! Completing the trio is Joshua Blackmore, a drummer who's career has sky rocketed in the past few years, he has performed with Bill Laurence and Troyka. This band is something of an Electronic-Math-Rock-Jazz super group, with each member being well accomplished in the industry and having played with some of the top names in their field. As you would expect, the musicianship on this album is second to none and all of the tracks feature multiple time changes. Brokespeak is certainly a study into rhythmical complexity to say the least. Though the album, in parts tends to how a very formulaic approach to composition, with very fast and jarring poly-rhythms which build up an enormous amount of tension before releasing into slower, more groove based sections. The second track on the album BRKSPK, which is presumably a very clever contraction of the album title, Brokespeak, is definitely a highlight. Starting out very spacious with guitars and synthesisers drenched in reverb being complimented by electronic drums. Nicholls shows his great skill and coordination on the keyboard by maintaining a massively syncopated bass line with his left hand whilst playing separate melodies with his right. Anther great has got to be Guns, Germs and Steel. This track has probably the most catchy melody in the time signature of 10/4 that has ever been written. This Album is probably my favourite release of 2016, it explores a huge range of textures sonically as well as rhythmically, harmonically and melodically. It can be very hard to find a good balance between musical complexity and listenablity but I believe Strobes have certainly made a good attempt at that here.

[sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog]

Bill Frisell – Is That You? - Album re-visited

Bill Frisell is one of the most productive Jazz guitarists in history, Since 1983 he has released 37 albums under his own name and featured on countless records as a side-man. From the infamous Naked City lead by John Zorn to the Paul Motian and Joe Lovano trio, Frisell's career has covered almost every possible genre between Heavy Metal, Jazz and Country. So it is interesting for a Frisell enthusiast, such as myself, to look at an album released 7 years deep into his solo career. A point in his career when the music seemed to stray further from Jazz traditions with every release, an important milestone in Frisell's journey to the unique sound he has perfected today.

Looking back in time around 27 years to the year 1990, it is extremely interesting for me to hear how my personal favourite Jazz guitarist developed his sound. Bill Frisell has forever been pushing the boundaries of what can be considered to be Jazz, this album is without a doubt his first great testament to that.

Is That You? Was Frisell's fifth album as a band leader and his first to be released since his involvement with John Zorn's Naked City. It would appear that Frisell had quite a deep connection with this band as he has Wayne Horvitz on keys and Joey Baron on drums, both were members of Naked City and both feature on this album. There are also some clear stylistic influences from Naked City. From start to finish the album explores a vast range of genres, starting out as heavy Progressive Rock, before nose diving straight into Folk and coming out into the world of contemporary Jazz towards the end. However the approach genre crossing is extremely more subtle than that of Zorn's work, exploring different soundscapes and moods for much longer periods of time. Even earlier examples of Frisell's work show this tendency for cross genre playing, such as his album Before We Were Born, but nothing to the same extent. The album's first track, No Man's Land, is something of a Prog Rock homage, the first minute and a half of which would not sound at all out of place on a mid-70's Pink Floyd record. Wayne Horvitz's use of the synthesiser and organ sounds are certainly reminiscent of Shine on You Crazy Diamond to say the least. Frisell's hugely spacious acoustic guitar intro builds an incredible amount of tension which only continues to build when the over driven electric guitar comes out and the synthesisers become heavily distorted. Frisell shows us how comfortable he can be in a Rock setting with his long wailing and distorted David Gilmouresque tones from the guitar. This heavy rock influence is continued through to the second track, Someone In My Backyard, this track is just half the length of the former and is much more to the point in a musical sense. There is also a curious over dubbing of banjo over the guitar parts in the later half of the tune. At times in this album it can be hard to tell where live performance and studio production meet or diverge. The difference between over dubbed, heavily processed guitar sounds and the sounds coming from the synthesisers can be difficult to tell apart as well. The album soon takes a sharp turn away from Rock music with it's third track, Rag. This piece is almost too much of a contrast to the first two tracks for any logical person to put them on the same album, but it feels right. This beautiful Folk bordering on Baroque composition is a duet between Bill Frisell and himself. The album reaches it's height of Folk and Country influence with the haunting Twenty Years, another duet between Frisell and himself in which he plays acoustic guitar and banjo. The cover of Aretha Franklin's hit single, Chain of Fools, is a strange choice for this album and threatens to border on the style of a Power Rock ballad of the 1980's, perhaps the sound was nostalgic in 1990 but today it seems dated and overdone. However a massive highlight of this album is also a strange choice, the classic jazz standard Days of Wine and Roses, in typical Frisell fashion this tune is played very spaciously using the guitar in a less then typical Jazz fashion with long ringing chords using open strings where his instrument will permit him. Overall this album is somewhat of a curiosity in Frisell's back catalogue, an album which may be passed by by many true fans of his music. An album that could be written off by the casual listener as too disjointed or even a little clunky. But I see it as an important milestone in Frisell's journey, a time in his career when he tried to rid his music of genre boundaries. It is certainly worth a listen.

[sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog]

Prince's Estate Seeks to Sue Long-Term Friend

As of the 20th April 2017, many fans of the late pop-star Prince will be sadly disappointed to hear that the release of the late mega-star's first posthumous E.P has been delayed indefinitely. The news has come only one day before “Deliverance” was initially set to be released. This is following a lawsuit between Paisley Park Enterprises (Prince's estate) and the co-composer and producer of the six track E.P, Ian Boxill. Boxill had been working with Prince since his 2006 release “3121” and has received multiple song-writing credits on his albums on top of being Prince's go to sound engineer and producer. The two had been collaborating on the six song release before Prince's untimely death in 2016, since then Boxill had taken it upon himself to finish the work as a tribute to his long term friend and collaborator. The title track Deliverance which was released on the 19th of April has been pulled from all streaming sites and the E.P's release postponed. Yet again we have an example of a late artist's estate selfishly denying the public access to music which should rightfully be theirs to pay for and listen to. Prince's estate and Paisley Park have filed the lawsuit against Boxill on the grounds that he has been “trying to exploit one or more songs for his personal gain at expense of the Prince's estate”. Of course this only seems natural when you consider that a long-term friend of a huge pop-star like Prince has tried to release his music independently rather than through a huge record label. One may easily argue that case that Boxill has tried to release this music independently to avoid having to pay out huge sums of money in royalties to parts of Prince's estate and Paisley Park. The estate have stated that the release of the EP would “permanently” and “irreparably” hurt their interests. If by interests they mean income from royalties, then they are probably correct, but what use does Prince have for royalties from beyond the grave? That question is of course a cynical one, but not without merit. The royalties system is extremely important to the “fair” functioning of the music industry but it certainly does not fully work in the case of recently deceased artists and their posthumous releases. In this case, the music for Deliverance was unfinished at the time of Prince's death, this means that without the work that Boxill has put in to finish the EP, it would have remained an unfinished work. Just a few stem recordings of Prince's voice and chords, perhaps drums and bass, but nothing to substantiate a full release. Boxill has taken the time to finish writing, recording, mixing and mastering these tracks for the enjoyment of Prince's fans around the world. The fact of the matter is that, although Prince is still that star of these recordings, they would not be in the state they are in without all of Boxill's work and talent. Therefore Boxill should rightfully be able to release them however he likes as the majority owner of the works. Prince's estate should have no right to claim full ownership of this music regardless of any agreement made between Boxill and Prince pre-dating his death. The story is even more telling when you consider this quote from Boxill, “Prince once told me that he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public. When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that’s what Prince would have wanted.” It is all too clear in this day and age that no major record company will ever truly care about what a recently deceased artist “would have wanted”, they will only care about how much money can be made from the release and who gets to see it. The moral question around how people can earn money off the back of a dead man's work should of course be tackled with care. Sadly, in this case it is not. Either way in which this case goes we can be sure of one thing, Prince himself will never get to see any of the money or tell us what he truly thinks of the situation. That is the true shame.

[sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog]

Court Case Over Prince's Posthumous E.P

Paisley Park Enterprises, the estate of late musician Prince Rogers Nelson has today filed a lawsuit against music producer Ian Boxill, the lawsuit comes as Boxill was set to release a posthumous E.P on behalf of Prince. The E.P entitled Deliverance, was set to be released on 21st April, the one year anniversary of the singer's death. Deliverance is a set of six songs based on recording stems from a 2006 recording session with Prince and Boxill, the music has since been completed by Boxill with the intent of an independant public release. Prince's estate has claimed that the release was “unauthorised” and that by releasing these tracks, Boxill is in breach of his recording contract with Prince. According to the estate Boxill, as with all producers and sound engineers whom worked with Prince over his career, signed a contract stating that all recordings were to remain the sole and exclusive property of Prince. Other terms stated in the contract were that Boxill was never to use any of the recordings in any way what so ever without the permission of Prince and that he was to return any and all recording masters to Prince upon request. The estate claims that Boxill is in clear breach of this contract and has demanded the return of all masters, copies and reproductions. The estate claims that the release of Deliverance deprives Prince (estate) of the choice what material is released and when it is released, they have said that this will permanently and irreversibly damage the interests of Prince and his estate.

Boxill has stated that his intention to release the music on an independent basis instead of through a large label came from a conversation he once had with Prince. According Boxill Prince once told him that “he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public.” As of April 20th 2017 it is unclear whether the Deliverance E.P will be released by Paisley Park in the near or distant future, or whether the recordings are destined to simply gather dust in the back of Prince's estate for ever.

[sellerswritesaboutmusic-blog]

Feature The high life and hard times of the modern function musician

It has never been more difficult for a performing musician to make a living entirely from performance than it is today. With bands of mid-teens to early twenty-somethings lining up outside every small venue in the UK awaiting the chance to play their music for free to paying customers, it is sadly all too easy to see why most of the general public would have a hard time believing that someone who isn't a world famous pop-star would be able to make a living from playing gigs. The problem of course lies with both with young bands for not expecting to be paid for playing their music and also with venues for not expecting to have to pay for live music. But why should a venue have to risk their money to pay out for what may well be an unsatisfactory product? After all, a great deal of the general public are not going to want to see a group of under rehearsed 18 year-olds fumbling their way through Seven Nation Army, and they certainly aren't going to pay for it. However, there is still room in the world for musicians who provide a high quality service. The world of the modern function musician is one of stark contrast to the armature performances in the Northern Quarter clubs of Manchester or the dingy bars in outer Leeds. To venture into this world I have enlisted the help of professional function musician Sam Lowther. Sam is a 23 year old guitarist from Leicestershire who is currently based in Leeds. I asked him to tell me a little about himself and his background as a musician “I'm not from a musical family, my parents are both in dentistry. So I only started playing guitar when I was around 11 years old, I never really saw myself making a living from it, I just wanted to be John Frusciante y'know”

So the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are of course one of Sam's earliest influences and one of the reasons he picked up the guitar in the first place, along side this his also states Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck as other early influences for his guitar playing. “ All that guitar music was where I started yeah, but I think I only really got into studying the guitar when I found Jazz. Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, Bill Frisell, thats the music that really made me think!” But how does one person go from Rock guitar to Jazz and then end up playing pop music at private and public function events for a living? “it's just about broadening your horizons, having a broad taste in music helps too. You've also really got to be able to play any kind of music as if it is your favourite music, even if it isn't, for it to be convincing!” I went on to ask Sam about what it is like to be a function musician, how it feels go to a wedding once or twice a week all year round, what sacrifices have to be made to live such a life style. The picture he painted for me was one of many different shades. Of course weddings are great places to be, the atmosphere is almost always jovial and people are having a great time, but the musician must at least try to remember that he is actually at work. It is quite a serious business really, the band have got to be on point, especially hen they are being paid a serious amount of money to perform at someone's big day, there must be energy in the music, it must be tight and it must be music that the people can dance to. Sam also told me that he hasn't got a free Saturday night between May 2017 and October 2018, Of course this means that work is aplenty and he will not be struggling to make ends meet as it were, but it can make it difficult to pursue music as a hobby again. “sometimes it all gets a little too serious for me, I'm in a few originals bands playing Jazz and Rock music and that is really the stuff that I enjoy most but a lot of the time I have to turn down those gigs because I have to play at a wedding that night and I really cannot afford to turn down the money” So it would seem that the life of the modern function musician is something of a double edged sword for people like Sam Lowther. It is enjoyable work playing music for people and it is paid well enough if you can get the work regularly enough. But it can be very exhausting, for example many days will start with loading the van to go to the gig at 1 pm and end unloading the van at 2 am after driving home. There is also the fact that after a while one may loose touch with why he started playing music in the first place, there may come a point where music becomes simply a job and no longer a passion. Sam is currently a member of two function bands, The Rebel Sounds and Something For The Weekend. Both of these bands have regular gigs playing a mixture of classic pop tunes from Earth, Wind and Fire and Micheal Jackson to 90's House hits.