Ancient Melodies Of The Future

Next week I start a new radio show in Cam FM. It's called Ancient Melodies Of The Future which - aside from my love of Built To Spill, as if that wasn't already obvious from the name of this blog - is a reference to how popular (and not so popular) music's past goes on to shape its future.

This show is not meant to be some mere nostalgia trip, more a celebration of how the finest artists of today draw upon their influences; in some cases, the similarities are obvious, but as time goes on, and new music genres and sub-genres are created, deconstructed, and spliced together, it's quite interesting to see just how far the apple can fall from the tree. I revile those with the attitude that popular music reached its peak in Year X, and that those who achieved a particular sound aesthetic first are by default its best practitioners. It's those narrow-minded individuals (Rolling Stone writers, in general) who permanently affix Sgt Pepper or Pet Sounds to the top of every Greatest Albums Of All Time Lists without a moment's thought (not to say that these aren't great records, but for those similarly sceptical of the unanimous acclaim heaped upon these records, Kill Your Idols by Jim DeRogatis should provide a satifying read).

At the risk of contradicting myself, however, it's becoming increasingly difficult to see how even the greatest albums of today can ever be allowed to join the pantheon of those aforementioned "classics". Every publication, from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to Mojo, will have its own particular spin on the All Time List, but whoever the compiler is, you can guarantee that certain names - Beatles, Dylan, Bowie and so forth - will feature somewhere, and that's because by virtue of being there first, they got to shape both the pop and underground music scenes forevermore. Radiohead - who in 1997's OK Computer and 2000's Kid A have at least two albums which are ubiquitous with those All Time Lists -  are perhaps the last ever band that will ever achieve that level of crossover recognition. As the music scene becomes increasingly splintered into genres and sub-genres, it's almost impossible for a consensus to be reached on any record. With the great commercial success of last year's The Suburbs by the Arcade Fire, we might hope to see 2005's Funeral find its way onto those lists for good. But what about Merriweather Post Pavilion? Sound Of Silver? Return To Cookie Mountain? I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Perhaps the very concept of The Greatest Album Of All Time is defunct. Let's just embrace the sheer diversity of today's music scene; with Ancient Melodies Of The Future, I hope to do just that.

Catch the first show on Tuesday 4th October 8-9pm, and then every Thursday 8-9pm, on Cambridge 97.2FM or www.camfm.co.uk

Gig Review: Titus Andronicus @ The Haymakers Thu 18th Nov

I spoke to a number of people at the gig on Thursday, and the general consensus was this; The Monitor is the best album to be released all year, bar none. I don't expect to see it topping too many critics Best-Of lists, as there are too many other artists out there which seem to have reached a wider audience (Arcade Fire, Deerhunter et al), but those who have stumbled across The Monitor seem to hold it dear and know it word for anguished word. The visceral delivery of Titus Andronicus appeals at the very lowest level, but they offset this with passages from Shakespeare and famous figures of the American Civil War, and clever poetry ("reasons for living are seldom and few, and when you find one you'd better stick to it glue"). Placed in the cauldron of The Haymakers, and you had the makings of an unforgettable gig.

To say that the band didn't disappoint would be a gross understatement. Stripped of some of the embellishments of their records (no horns, no sax), the band let their sheer punk energy do the talking, and the crowd duly responded. Things really took off  half-way through No Future Pt.3; Titus Andronicus cast out angst-ridden mantras ("The enemy is everywhere"/"It's us against them"/"Your life is over") like particularly tasty bait, and the crowd ate it up like bloodthirsty piranhas. The only let-up subsequently was on the histrionic ballad To Old Friends And New (the ever-affable Patrick Stickles joked that they would play slow songs for the rest of the night).

The only remotely anticlimactic moment was the lack of bagpipes on The Battle of Hampton Roads, but by the time the band had wound up a particularly explosive version of Four Score And Seven, my voice was shot and I was soaked in sweat (lord only knows how Stickles keeps it together). Over the last year the Haymakers has emerged as a terrific music venue in Cambridge, and this really felt like a gig for the ages.

Here's some pics; a special mention to the guy who responded to Stickles' comment about the brit who's done the most for the band with "what about Shakespeare?".

Live session from C Joynes this Sunday on Cam FM Breakthrough!

Tune into Cam FM Breakthrough on Sunday 7th November for an exclusive live session from Cambridgeshire musician C Joynes. Currently signed to Bo'Weavil Records, Joynes has been wowing audiences both as a solo artist and with a collective of artists known as The Restless Dead. Calling his technique “Anglo-naive and contemporary parlour guitar", C Joynes' masterful and highly unorthodox playing of the guitar, banjo, and anything else with strings is not to be missed.

If you're local to Cambridge, tune in to 97.2 FM from 9pm; otherwise you can listen online at www.camfm.co.uk. Missed a show? Just find it on the archive here.

Cam FM Breakthrough: Live session with Fuzzy Lights TONIGHT 9-11pm

Cam FM Breakthrough, my music show dedicated to unsigned and up-and-coming artists, made its debut on the newly launched Cam FM last Sunday. This Sunday I'm delighted to have one of Cambridgeshire's finest, Fuzzy Lights coming in for a live session on the show; expect discussion and songs from their excellent new album Twin Feathers. Tune in tonight (and every Sunday) from 9pm on 97.2 FM Cambridgeshire, or online at www.camfm.co.uk.

Cam FM: it's finally here!

Yes, CUR1350 is no more, but Cam FM, the official radio station for Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin universities, successfully began transmitting today at 1pm, launching to the sound of Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. It marks the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, work which saw the station pick up the gong for Best Student Radio Station just a couple of years ago. Now the station's reach is further than ever before; tune in on 97.2FM, or else listen online.

It's been an enormous pleasure to contribute to the station, and see it take the next step forward. I look forward to continuing to promote the best in unsigned and up-and-coming artists on my show Cam FM Breakthrough, which starts Sunday 9th October (time TBC, more on that soon)

All that leaves me to say is a big well done to all involved, you should be proud of your efforts!

Gig Review: Fuzzy Lights @ The Portland Arms, Thu 30th Sept

Still riding on the high of some fantastic performances at last Saturday's Wish You Were Here Festival, Cambridge's the Portland Arms held another spectacle in the form of local orchestral rock band Fuzzy Lights, who released their second album Twin Feathers on Little Red Rabbit Records last month. The night was made all the more memorable by the two support acts who both successfully proved that less can be more.

First up was Hitchin's own C Joynes, whose nimble and unorthodox playing of both banjo and acoustic guitar, occasionally coupled with hiss-ridden tape recordings, proved utterly bewitching. He was followed by the no-less-impressive You Are Wolf, a one-girl act (save for some sparse bass-playing from her husband) performing  forlorn folk music carefully constructed from vocal loops and melodica. As well as her wide vocal range, her ability to mimic the sound of waves crashing was second to none.

Fuzzy Lights tick all the orchestral/post rock band boxes. Female violinist? Check. Songs that start quietly and then crescendo into behemoths? Check. Guitars played with violin bows? Check. Singing saws? Actually, I wasn't expecting that so much. And that's the thing with Fuzzy Lights; whilst they undoubtedly evoke the likes of Dirty Three and Do Make Say Think, they are no mere copyists. Even the drummer felt the need to stroke his kit with a bow (no euphemism intended). Over the hour-or-so length of their set, Fuzzy Lights continuously wound up their songs into cathartic, yet graceful blasts of noise, steadily increasing the intensity, until they wound everything down again by closing with the gentle swoon of a lap-steel guitar on The Sea & The Heather, the closing track from Twin Feathers. It was a fine ending to a successful homecoming.

Festival Review: Wish You Were Here, Cambridge, Sat 25th September

The inaugural Wish You Were Here festival took place in Cambridge on Saturday. Featuring some 30 musical acts across a number of local music venues, Wish You Were is the first festival of its kind in Cambridge (at least to my recollection), and hopefully promises to be an annual event for the city. Here's a summary of the acts I caught.

Proceedings kicked off with something of a whimper at the Portland Arms with opening act Cavalier pulling out at the last minute, so I trudged across the road to catch the one guy who maybe deep down wished he wasn't there, Mark Ellis. Two years ago his band Hamfatter appeared on BBC's Dragon's Den, and when they successfully sealed a £75,000 deal with Peter Jones, it looked as though Hamfatter were on their way to stardom. But after some ridiculously harsh backlash from the press, the dream quickly disintegrated. If Ellis carries any bitterness at now having to play to a quarter-full room in a Cambridge pub, however, his warm demeanour concealed it well, as he delivered a set of pleasant, if forgettable bitter-sweet acoustic pop.

Next on the to-see list was Sweden's Sad Day For Puppets (pictured left) at the Haymakers. Save for Anna Eklund's ethereal vocals, the "nu-gaze" tag suggested in the programme was stretching the imagination a bit, but the band delivered an uplifting set of indie-rock that both them and the crowd seemed to enjoy. However, the most raptuorous reception of the day was saved for The Wilderness of Manitoba (pictured top) back at the Portland.  Coming all the way from Ontario, Canada, their beguiling blend of Fleet Foxes-esque four-part vocal harmonies, lush instrumentation (including banjo, cello and singing bowls) and innovative use of atmospherics (generated entirely by their instruments - no laptops here) made for the unquestionable highlight of the day.

I caught only a few songs from The Brute Chorus, but was impressed by a confident display, of frontman James Steel, and their pummeling reimagining of 50's style rock-and-roll. I then returned  to the Boathouse for what turned out to be an ark-less Alessi's Ark, as Alessi Laurent-Marke performed a 45-minute solo set. However, her beautiful voice and shy-but-sweet banter meant that she was more than able to hold her own, even with a few gaffs (which nobody would have been any the wiser of had she not said anything).

If any band's moniker was indicative of their sound then Pulled Apart By Horses (pictured right, tearing up the crowd) was that band. Their explosive post-hardcore, the perfect anthithesis of Alessi's set, tore up the crowd of the Portland Arms, whose confines provided the perfect setting for the ensuing mayhem. After their phenomenal performance, the big-haired guitarist (by now half-naked) triumphantly surfed the crowd, booting me in the face in the process. I regard it as a trophy from one of the most memorable performances I've seen in the Portland for some time. After such highs, the hearts-on-sleeve rock of Lonely The Brave at the Haymakerswas never going to quite compare, but that wasn't for want of trying on their part.

On the basis of both the attendance and the performances, Wish You Were Here was a huge success, and an enormous amount of credit has to go to the organisers, as well as all those who played. Hopefully this will be the first of many such festivals in Cambridge.

Did you attend? What did you think? Who were the highlights for you? Please leave your comments below

CUR1350 Breakthrough: Live Session with The Miserable Rich

Brighton orchestral folk group The Miserable Rich played a cracking live session in the studio last session, and spoke to us about their new album Of Flight And Fury (out now on Humble Soul), their forthcoming single Chestnut Sunday (check out the splendid video below), and adjectives beginning with the letter V. Catch it all on the CUR1350 archive (apologies for the fan noise, it was a very hot and cramped studio, what with the double bass and all):

CUR1350 Breakthrough with The Miserable Rich, 6th June 2010

Gig Review: Crystal Antlers @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge, Tue 4th May

N.B. Picture taken from the Lexington, January 2009

Long Beach, California five-piece the Crystal Antlers brought their swampy psych-rock to Cambridge on Tuesday. Following on from their explosive debut EP, the band released their debut full-release Tentacles to disappointingly luke-warm reviews, so it perhaps wasn't surprising that their set was rather light on Tentacles material, focusing much more on new songs from their forthcoming sophomore album.

The new stuff was notably mellower, airier, and more melodic, with singer/bassist Johnny Bell not always resorting to shredding his vocal chords. There's no question that the band will need to display a greater range on their second album to regain some of the plaudits lost with Tentacles, but how this more toned down approach will work on record remains to be seen. Reassuringly though, the band played with the same vigour throughout, in particular live-wire percussionist Damian Edwards, who proceeded to get steadily more naked as the set wore on.

Ultimately though, it was the EP material which provided the highlights. The various ebbs and flows of A Thousand Eyes still make it the finest amalgamation of everything the Crystal Antlers do, whilst their scorched set-closer Parting Song For The Torn Sky demonstrates why the band should break the shackles of the 3-4 minute song more often.

All in all, it was an excellent performance from a band that finds itself at a difficult crossroads, but it remains hard to say just how well the Crystal Antlers will navigate it.

CUR1350 Breakthrough returns!

So CUR1350 Breakthrough returned to the airwaves last Sunday, and it was a very special show, as it featured a live session with The October Game, a band which Breakthrough has maintained a close following with since the show's conception. I hold my hands up and admit that the live recording isn't the best I've done, but it was a great session nonetheless, and you can catch it all here:

CUR1350 Breakthrough with live session from the October Game

CUR1350 Breakthrough is on every Sunday, now at the slightly later time of 9-11pm on CUR1350, Cambridge's student radio station. You can catch it on 1350AM locally, or stream it live, or from the archive via the CUR1350 website.

CUR1350 Breakthrough: the place for unsigned and up-and-coming artists on CUR1350

Hello, and welcome to my blog! To kick things off, let me introduce you to my student radio show, CUR1350 Breakthrough. It's the station's flagship show for unsigned and up-and-coming music artists, and frequently features live in-studio sessions. CUR1350 Breakthrough goes out live every Sunday 8-10pm: well, actually, the show's currently taking an Easter break breather, but will return in full swing in late April. In the meantime, you can listen back to earlier shows by visiting the station's archive (and check out some of the other fine shows that grace the station's airwaves whilst you're at it):

http://cur1350.co.uk/index.php?section=43

You'll be hearing plenty more about the artists I play on Breakthrough on this blog!