Le Quesne – Love And Death

Tyler (and Stu) of Le Quesne

Tyler Edmonds has long been known as frontman of Last Of The Light Brigade and more recently for being one of the founders of the School of Popular Music but he has now released his first solo record, under the name Le Quesne, Love And Death.

Featuring long time band mater Stu Carre on drums and produced by Mikey Ferbrache the EP/mini-album sees Edmonds taking his known indie-rock sound into more acoustic and thoughtful territory.

The album is available through iTunes and on Spotify.

My full review was published in the Guernsey Press on Saturday 19th August 2017 and you can read it below.

School of Popular Music and Guernsey Gigs Summer Show – The Fermain Tavern – 04/08/17

The Lemmings

For the last few years Guernsey’s School of Popular Music (SOPM) have held a week-long summer school where they put youngsters together in ‘bands’ and, with the help of the school’s teachers, put a set together to busk in town on the Thursday before performing for friends, family and well wishers at The Fermain Tavern on the Friday evening.

As with last year the event then continued with a group of more experienced bands organised by Guernsey Gigs.

Once again the bands pulled together by SOPM were very impressive given their ages and mixed experiences with each one of the eight having at least one highlight moment.

Avocado Geff

The Lemmings started the night off with some pop punk before what looked like the youngest band of the night, Thee Unloaders, delivered the a truly unique version of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Clash of the Bloosers and the improbably named Squidward On A Chair both went down well with the crowd before Avocado Geff (featuring The Violet Diversion’s Kiya) delivered some grunge-tinged acoustic songs with Kiya continuing to stake her claim as a true up and coming front woman.

Purple Paradox and World On Fire featured some of the best moments, particularly on the latter band’s version of Sweet Child O’ Mine before Lady And The Tramps closed the first part of the event with some semi-acoustic songs.

The second part of the night when, unfortunately, due to the awkwardness of Guernsey’s licensing laws anyone under 18 had to leave, began with relative newcomers, The Buried Kings.

The Buried Kings

Made up of Elliot, Harvey and Steve Falla they are something of a family band, but, I’m pleased to say, that while that sounds like a rather naff concept that isn’t what they were.

Taking Elliot’s style of blues and adding in a nice dose of modern folk, with the inclusion of Harvey’s mandolin and Steve’s double bass, made for a broad and deep sound with all three providing vocals as well.

More lighthearted than Elliot’s solo material many of the songs contain Guernsey and Sark references including Bec Du Nez (the cider rather than the place) which sounded like something of a family favourite tipple.

While they had a few technical issues with the upright bass it wasn’t enough to entirely detract from the overall performance which was a fine way to start the evening, even if the crowd was woefully small.

Lifejacket

Its been quite a while since Lifejacket have graced a stage and it showed during their first few songs as they seemed to struggle to find their usual intensity.

By the time they got to the celebrity baiting Meanwhile In Hollywood though they hit their stride and the last half of their set was heading back to their past form.

A few new songs showed that, while they sticking to the same formula of powerfully hard indie rock, strongly inspired by the likes of Mclusky, they are developing it in their own ways with different rhythms slipping in behind the barked vocals.

While this wasn’t their most slick outing, with a set at the Vale Earth Fair coming up I hope we get to see more of them and hear more new material soon.

Gay Army

Another band who haven’t been seen in a while are, Gay Army. Despite this they were as darkly intense as ever as frontman Rolls prowled the Tav’s dance floor while Jo, Ian and Jay owned the stage with the swirling wall of dark disco noise that has become their trademark.

Rolls once again showed that he is genuinely one of the island’s most charismatic frontmen whether playing to 5 or 500 people (I’ll let you guess which number tonight’s audience was closer to) and with tracks like Cracked Amerika sounding enormous Gay Army proved they’ve lost none of their power over the years.

Blasting into a set with a raft of songs from their early days Thee Jenerators seemed reinvigorated playing the back to basics trashy garage songs that made their name. As the set went on newer songs came too with the same energy driving them.

Thee Jenerators

While it was one of their more physically restrained sets until the very end, possibly down to the sadly small audience, the band were more relaxed than I’ve seen them in a while.

Mark Le Gallez lead them in a non-stop garage rock blast highlighted by the best rendition I remember hearing of I Hate You So Much along with classics like Mystery Man and Burn Down The House to close the night on an energetic, if disappointingly barely witnessed, high.

You can see more of my photos from the show on the BBC Introducing Guernsey Facebook page

BBC Introducing Guernsey: July 2017 – Chaos, Sark Folk Festival and more

Vice and Track Not Found

Click here to listen to the show

On the July 2017 edition of BBC Introducing in Guernsey we had a festival special of a show with more besides.

For my look back at Chaos Voodoo 13 I spoke to the winners and runners-up of the Chaos/Sound Guernsey Battle of the Bands, VICE and track not found, while hearing music from some of the weekend’s highlight acts.

I also heard from some of the artists who played the Sark Folk Festival including Burg & The Back Porch Band, Joe Corbin and Ukuladeez.

On top of that mura masa told us about releasing his self-titled debut album with a special signing at Guernsey’s HMV store and I had a brief look ahead to next month’s Vale Earth Fair.

You can listen to the show by clicking here.

Tracklist

• KINGS – Drowning
• RentOClean – Opium War (live)
  
• mura masa and Charli XCX – 1 Night
  
• SUGARHOUSE – Love Anyone Else
• Jordan – Fisherman
  
• VICE interview
  
• Graveyard Johnnys – One Day Or Forever
  
• The Recks – Low Life
  
• track not found interview
  
• WaterColour Matchbox – The Wall
  
• Static Alice – Warriors
  
• Lord Vapour – Crossroads
  
• Burg & The Back Porch Band – Bangin’ On My Door
  
• Joe Corbin interview
  
• Buff Hudd – Shinpai Shinaide
  
• Ukuladeez – Antiques Roadshow Blues
  
• The Space Pirates of Rocquaine – I Fly
  
• Robert J. Hunter – Wonderful Life
  
• The Surfin’ Birds – Baby I’m A Man

And here’s a new video from The Recks that also came out this month, as a little bonus bit:

Vale Earth Fair Fundraiser – The Fermain Tavern – 22/07/17

Rentoclean

Every year The Vale Earth Fair gears up for their summer festival with a series of fundraisers but this year, they come with a slight difference, as the collective are raising money for a new van and have even set up a crowd funding campaign to help.

With that in mind they presented a night of live music at The Fermain Tavern headlined by the return Rentoclean, a band who, a couple of years ago, had a strong reputation as the band to book if you wanted a party.

With only a handful gathered around tables at the back of the venue Jacques Evans started off the night with a set of reggae tinged acoustic balladry. While he’s always shown a raw talent on both acoustic and electric guitar Evans’ set here showed he has begun to pull it together into something more coherent.

Jacques Evans

Gone are the extended jams of old, replaced with a series of enjoyable, if slightly melancholy, love songs, alongside a few customary reggae covers that are always going to go down well with the Earth Fair crowd (even if they are slightly lost on me).

In addition to this Jacques employed some strategic use of a loop pedal to augment the solo acoustic guitar sound in a way that some who some who rely on the trickery of the loop pedal would do well to learn from (Ed Sheeran and acolytes, I’m looking at you).

An instrumental track later in the set did lose the focus somewhat as its mix of loop work and intricate Spanish style playing led Jacques to become a little too self-absorbed on stage but otherwise he provided a good warm up for the evening.

Lord Vapour

For the second night in a row Lord Vapour took to the Tav’s stage (before heading into town for a later session at The Vault, making it a three gig weekend) and for the second night they brought the impressive, heavy grooves.

They may have been in slightly loser mode than the previous night but still held it together well with new songs providing some highlight moments along with subtly titled set closer, Sugartits. While the audience weren’t as receptive as the youngsters at Sound the band seemed more relaxed making for a highly enjoyable set.

With the audience still rather on the small side and content to stay at the back of the room Citizen-X took to the stage for an audio/visual experience like no other in the island.

Those at the back probably missed the visual side of the show thanks to the location of the projector, but for those who bothered to head forward we were treated to one of the good Citizen’s best performances yet.

Citizen-X

With new tracks alongside older ones it was clear he has added a darker tone to his electronic sounds, with creepily surreal imagery to match and the two far more in sync and smoothly presented than in the past.

While one of his tracks made it more explicit, there was a sense of harmony being created from an underlying anarchy and chaos and, while there is still a slightly missing performance element (I’m confounded as to what that could be, mind you), Citizen-X’s show continues to develop into something genuinely fascinating.

After a brief pause for some more reggae, dub and punk sounds from Earth Fair Collective member and regular DJ Rob R, Rentoclean took to the stage and hit the ground running in the manner they always did as tight reggae rhythms with a punk edge filling the Tav.

Unfortunately the small crowd that had gathered earlier seemed to have already started to leave meaning, beyond a handful of enthusiastic fans on the dance floor and another handful lurking at the back, Rentoclean were playing to a nearly empty room.

Rentoclean

One of the band’s hallmarks has always been that they are best with a vocal and energetic audience in front of them and as the set went on it wasn’t surprising that things began to drag.

While they remained tight and sharp during the songs, in between they took time to chat with each other more than the audience losing whatever energy may have built up every few minutes and, while they didn’t resort to the extended jams they sometimes have in the past, it still felt like more of a challenge than a show.

While Rentoclean haven’t really changed what they’re doing I can only think that Guernsey audiences have found newer sources for their fun, punky, reggae-ish party music, particularly since the arrival of Honest Crooks and, in a slightly different vein, Buffalo Huddleston, which meant the return of this band wasn’t greeted with the excitement it might have been a few years ago.

On top of that, with the proliferation of live music events around the island, a simple Vale Earth Fair fundraiser no longer attracts the kind of crowds it would have done five or ten years ago making what on paper should have been a great, high energy night, fall a little flat.

You can see more of my photos of the show on the BBC Introducing Guernsey Facebook page

Sound Guernsey School’s Out Party – The Fermain Tavern 21/07/17

Unclassified

Following on from the Battle of the Bands at Chaos 13, Sound Guernsey’s Summer Of Sound continued with a School’s Out Party at The Fermain Tavern on Friday 21st July with Unclassified, Blakalaska, The Phantom Cosmonaut, Lord Vapour and Kings.

Unclassified opened the show and continued Sound Guernsey’s ethos of giving new bands a place to get gig experienced and showcase their music.

While their performance could do with a bit more power and conviction they got a nice bounce going with their pop rock covers as the set went on and went down well as the night’s audience were arriving. 

Lee of Blakalaska

After quite some time away Blakalaska made a rare appearance next. While they took a couple of songs to get in their groove and for the sound to be levelled out, once they did they were as tight and huge sounding as always.

Going on so early I think did a disservice to a sound that is custom but for late night dancing but they still had the audience interested and got some dancing as the set went on.

While they are perfect on a big stage in the more intimate confines of the Tav they did lack a little connection but it’s always a treat to hear their unique take on dance rock.

After The Phantom Cosmonaut assaulted the crowd with their brand of Strong Style a Rock ‘N’ Roll things got a bit loose and groovy with Lord Vapour.

Joe of Lord Vapour

With tasty riffs and heaviness aplenty the trio did exactly what we’ve come to expect, taking their songs and jamming them out into that psychedelic space beyond.

With a few new tracks (including one inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, following in the footsteps of Whitechapel Murders and winning them many bonus points in my book) amongst numbers from their first album they too sounded huge and really got the young audience head banging away and loving it.

With one of the most varied lineups I’ve seen in sometime the night’s headliners continued that trend as Kings launched into a set of polished precision pop.

It was great to hear something so unashamedly energetic and fun and clearly designed to get an audience jumping and singing along, and that they did.

Eli of Kings

Strategic and well done use of samples and backing tracks elevated their sound in a different direction and, along with the pop, there was a constant hint of an edge that kept it interesting and away from becoming too saccharine.

Frontman Eli Crossan had the audience in the palm of his hand throughout with a non-patronising manner and impressive voice, while Casey-Joe Rumens took a massive, arena rock, guitar sound and made it fit in the Tav perfectly closing the night and launching the summer holidays on a high.

You can see a full gallery of my photos from the show on the BBC Introducing Guernsey Facebook page

Burg And The Back Porch Band & The Electric Shakes

In July 2017 two albums of rather different styles were released by Burg & The Back Porch Band and The Electric Shakes.

While one is a roots and Americana live album and the other a powerful example of heavy garage rock ‘n’ roll what links them is their frontman, Burg aka Steve Lynch.

Originally from Guernsey and now based in Bournemouth the prolific Mr Lynch also recently played both Chaos 13 and the Sark Folk Festival.

My review of Burg & The Back Porch Band Live At The Anvil and The Electric Shakes’ Electrohypnosis was published in The Guernsey Press on Saturday 22nd July, you can read it below:

Mura Masa – Self-titled

When I first encountered the person that has become Mura Masa (aka Alex Crossan) he was the shy and retiring lead guitarist for deathcore band So Cold The River at one of the Rock of Ages events at Guernsey’s Carlton Hotel.

Since then things have changed slightly from a few demos made in his bedroom which first came to my attention in early 2013 to a Soundcloud mixtape that gained international indie distribution on vinyl under the name Soundtrack To A Death to signing to Polydor Records, setting up his own imprint (Anchor Point Records), selling out tours of the US, Europe and Japan and now the release of his self-titled debut album.

The album opens with a funky scene setter, Messy Love that throws together many of the aspects to be developed as the record goes on.

Along with rhythmically satisfying dance beats that combine classic funk and disco with more current electronic sounds, Mura Masa’s lyrics provide an interesting take on fairly well trodden formula for young musicians dealing with angsty, post-teen life in a refreshingly direct way.

Mura Masa

From there the first half of the album heads into more hip hop inflected territory and the first batch of collaborators make their appearance. Regular performance partner and label mate Bonzai is first of these on the rantingly intense Nuggets followed by A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX and Desiigner.

While all their tracks have their own spin on the style Mura Masa’s writing and production style threads them all together. While Love$ick (a reworking of earlier track Lovesick Fuck) and 1 Night are both single style numbers, All Around The World provides the album’s most intense moments before another track, almost an interlude, without collaborators, provides something of a transitionary moment that feels very much like an intentional ‘end of side one’.

The second half of the album then heads into more ambient territory with the alt.pop feel coming further to the fore (though 1 Night lands in that area too) and once again gets going with a track featuring Bonzai that is one of the record’s highlights.

With Nao, Christine & The Queens, Jamie Lidell and more it’s fair to say the record is an impressive who’s who of current alt.pop but it is Mura Masa’s music and production that makes the album a whole. At first I thought it might sound a bit like another mixtape but it does coalesce into a collection of complete songs with an obvious through line to become a full product in itself.

Mura Masa and Bonzai (David Cabrera)

Nothing Else, featuring the aforementioned Lidell, brings an extra bit of soul to the record before it all comes to a conclusion on the magnificently genre defying Blu.

This has an extra surreal quality given the presence of Damon Albarn (frontman of Blur and founder of Gorillaz) who, for music fans of my vintage, has been one of the top names in pop for the best part of three decades.

All of this comes together to make for a very impressive debut that sets out Mura Masa’s place as a defier of convention and creator of a vein of alt.pop that borrows from many places to create something his own that can connect on several levels to wider audience than one might at first think (it even got me moving as I listened).

Hattie Briggs, Buff Hudd and Gregory Harrison (and a little Pirating at the Castle) – The Fermain Tavern – 14/07/17

The Space Pirates of Rocquaine at Castle Cornet

Every summer Castle Cornet, the medieval castle that stands at the entrance of Guernsey’s harbour, is thrown open on Friday evenings for the Castle Nights events featuring a selection of live music in different areas of the fortification. Before heading up to The Fermain Tavern this evening, I went to the castle to catch The Space Pirates of Rocquaine.

Its been a while since I’ve seen The Space Pirates and they’ve had a bit of a shake up in that time with fiddle player Jess Nash moving into a more part-time capacity (though she did sing a couple of songs tonight) and Nick Dodd joining to add some subtle electric guitar to the mix. Despite this, the general feel of the band’s high energy, fun, rock infused folk remains unchanged and was on fine display.

While the older more well-known songs had a large number of the audience singing along and were the backbone of the set three new songs were included. While the first got a bit lost thanks to sounding like it would need a big sound with lots of harmonies and the likes to be totally effective, the other two continue the band’s style perfectly.

Nick Dodd and Tim Corbett

One, written by mandolin and guitar player Tim Corbett brought a slight country and indie tone while Guppy’s, SS Briseis, was a rabble rousing drinking song, suitable given its subject famously sank with a load of Algerian wine off the island’s coast.

Despite the line up change the band, if anything, felt more focussed and tighter than some past performances and Nick’s guitar added a nice country twang and a slightly different dynamic in places. A few technical issues didn’t seem to faze them and they left the crowd, packed into the castle’s middle ward, calling for more.

You can see a few more of my photos of their set here

After their set I made a swift move up to The Fermain Tavern where a new visitor to the island was playing, alongside a couple of more familiar faces.

Gregory Harrison

Gregory Harrison started the night off in solo mode, without either longtime bass player Nathan or recently added drummer Peter. This provided an interesting contrast to his more recent outings and shone more of a light on his guitar playing and his deeply lovelorn lyrics.

While his performances used to sometimes feel a little mannered it seems his time back in a full band (now he’s in The Recks) has made him more relaxed on stage, giving a new honesty and openness to his songs adding a real passion to his performance along with his deep and rich vocals.

Also flying totally solo tonight was Buffalo Huddleston frontman Buff Hudd. With that in mind he had chosen to expand his sound with a stomp box at one foot and tambourine at the other, along with his didgeridoo and guitar.

Buff Hudd

With the audience more focussed and quiet than at many of his gigs (this couldn’t be much more different from his recent outing in The Peace Tent for example) he chose to add an even more intricate side to his playing, or maybe it just came across as more, really showing off his unique skills.

I Don’t Care What You Think About Me added a nice light-hearted touch mid set while Mono-Limb-Tastic did its usual job of wowing the crowd with its ‘one-handed’ style making for a stand out performance for Buff Hudd.

While she had never visited the island before and, as such only drew a small audience, it was clear that Hattie Briggs came highly recommended as a number arriving commented that friends and family in the UK had sung her praises to them.

As soon as she began her performance (backed for a majority of the set by Gregory Harrison on guitar and violin) it was clear why.

Hattie’s songs have a slightly melancholy feel spanning the area between pop, folk and the singer-songwriter movement, with tales of lost love and love never found, amongst other subjects.

Hattie Briggs

What really stood out though was her voice. While there are many good female voices of a similar style doing the rounds something about Briggs went beyond that, leading to more than one to comment that, if we hadn’t known better, she could have almost sounded like a very well record CD. This captivated the audience in a way rarely seen at the Tav, bringing almost all to a focussed silence.

While, for me, it did get a little musically same-y as the set went on that is a personal taste criticism and I seemed to be alone in this feeling.

A couple of well-chosen versions of songs previously done by Eva Cassidy later in the set brought the performance to a rousing close before the audience called Briggs back (in a slightly subdued way) for a final rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah that had most of the room singing along and ended the night on a definite high and I would hope if Hattie makes a return to the island more venture out to hear her as I know a large number of people would enjoy her music and missed out.

You can see my photos of the show on the BBC Introducing Guernsey Facebook page

Ministry – Psalm 69 (The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs)

25 years ago industrial metal band Ministry unleashed what is arguably their magnum opus launching them into the hard rock mainstream and making them one of the cornerstones of the sounds that were to become a large part of heavy metal in the mid to late 90s.

While still credited as the duo of founder Al Jourgensen and longtime collaborator Paul Barker, Psalm 69 (aka ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ) saw Ministry develop on the sounds of The Land of Rape And Honey and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste with Mike Scaccia’s electric guitars coming to the fore over their previously established bed of harsh synths and distorted vocals and samples.

This is demonstrated from the off with NWO, an abrasive statement of intent that sets the scene for the first half of the album.

Along with the developed industrial metal sound the song’s subject matter is something that has been a mainstay of Ministry’s music before and since as it openly attacks the American foreign policy (in this case the Gulf War and George H. W. Bush) and hints ideas of conspiracy theories, a formula that saw the band reach their second peak in the early 2000s during the presidency of George W. Bush.

Jourgensen and Barker in 1992

Just One Fix, a partial collaboration with Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs, as the title suggests, deals with another of Ministry’s long-standing preoccupations, extreme drug use.

There are many stories about the band’s drug consumption during the production of this record (with one Jourgensen himself saying they were spending in excess of $1,000 a day of the record companies money on the pass time) and its strongly reflected here.

The combination of militaristic rhythms and distorted, swirling vocals and samples hurls the listens down a dark and twisted rabbit hole like little else, and that if we believe Jourgensen, is a first hand account of what was going on in his and the rest of the band’s heads at the time.

TV II and Hero continue the sociopolitical themes before the album’s highlight arrives in the form of a demented slice of Americana, Jesus Built My Hotrod.

With a near gibberish vocal performance from Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes, it has a quality that is oddly revelatory in an entirely inexplicable way with slide guitars added to the mix creating an undisputed heavy metal floor filler that has become something of a deranged classic.

Haynes in the video for Jesus Built My Hotrod

After this Scarecrow slows things down from the manic first half of the record and begins a descent into a kind of apocalyptic reverie that is highlighted by the (sort of) title track that combines the intensity of the first half with the later heaviness in the best of ways.

The record is then rounded off by Corrosion and Grace that pull things into a kind of hellishly enjoyable black hole of noise.

While Psalm 69 is a highly enjoyable album purely on its own merits (especially when played at extreme volume), hence its place in music history as a defiantly underground album that crossed over into mainstream consciousness, its place in the history of heavy music is one that, 25 years on, marks it out as a classic.

In many ways it defines the mainstream industrial metal genre which was developed, in various directions, by contemporaries Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and more with only NIN ever reaching a similar level of intensity and power (the others were unashamedly more pop).

Ministry on the 1992 Lollapalooza tour

On top of this it sits alongside the work of Rage Against The Machine, System of a Down and their ilk in reintroducing a truly subversive streak into the heavy metal mainstream following the self-absorption of 80s glam and the nihilism or internal depression of grunge.

This all comes together to make Psalm 69 an album that set the scene for a lot of the music that was to follow, even reaching as far as nu-metal (for its sins), and marking Ministry, who have had a patchy career before and since, as one of the most influential metal bands of the past three decades here if nowhere else.

Blue Mountains – Hummingbird EP

At the recent Sark Folk Festival Guernsey based folk band Blue Mountains release the follow-up to their Refusing To Die album, the four track EP Hummingbird.

Recorded at Stretchy Studios in Guernsey the EP marks a development for the band expanding to a four piece from their original duo line up and being made up predominantly of original songs rather than the traditional material heard on their debut.

My review of the EP was published in The Guernsey Press on Saturday 15th July 2017.