I’ll be the disc-jockey at PIANOS tonight.
Sunday, May 17.
158 Ludlow St.
Lower East Side.
10pm
Upstairs
FREE!!!
Jay Space from A Place To Bury Strangers will be serving up the drinks.
I’ll be spinning all vinyl!!!!
Garage, Punk, Old Rock and Roll, Reggae, Ska, Soul, Rap, Hip-Hop.
Please come if you can. It would be lovely to see you! I know it’s a school nite though, so no worries if you are gonna cozy up with the Celtics game instead.
By Chris Brunelle
Castanets generally fall on the darker side of the musical spectrum, and In The Vines is no exception. The black hole of the Castanets is Ray Raposa, and it’s not hard to hear the struggle in his journey as the songs drift along gently towards a better place, and ultimately, a sense of resolution. With all the darkness and yearning in Raposa’s voice and lyrics, there’s a strong glow of hope and warmth that resonates very clearly throughout most of In The Vines, and with it, a slow, deliberate motion; there’s not a note in this record that isn’t meant to be there, and with slight movement the music swells and decays with restrained intensity.
“Rain Will Come” opens the record and sets the tone for all to follow, with a rambling acoustic guitar rhythm that drives along under Raposa’s stormy narrative and continues as the vocals yield and dissonant electronic shrieks cry out. “Westbound, Blue” is reminiscent of Tom Waits at his most country, telling his love she can have all of him that his surroundings don’t take first. “The Fields Crack” is ethereal and brooding and meanders along like a cross-country trip.
Raposa’s history involves a kind of modern nomadic living, and the music he makes with Castanets serves as a soundtrack to the film of that life. You hear a traveler at work in these songs, and the search seems to be more about understanding where he’s at than looking for something new. It’s this interest and reverence to his reality that gives the troubling task of sorting through it a subtle and haunted gleam. The instrumentation is sparse throughout, and Castanets use this space to let the tone and character of their parts fully resonate. In The Vines breathes and swells like a living human being and this darkly gentle record thus has a lot of life to it.
Originally published in Impose Magazine, it can be viewed here.
The opening track on The Cavalry of Light, “You Broke My Heart,” repeats its title over and over again many times, growing from plaintive and sweet to righteous and spirited. At first it seems like vocalist Becky Stark will never provide us with any other information. It becomes clear as the mood of the delivery constantly changes that this is a line you could easily repeat in your head millions of times when you are truly still working out your emotions. With each variation in its delivery, I can feel the different moods and colors this experience is dragging Stark through. She then breaks the repetition and goes on to let us into the story a little more. It turns into a testament to being strong in a break no matter how weak you actually are.
That first song sets the rest of the EP up to be the calm after the storm, where you still feel fragile, but your spirits are good and more importantly getting better. The remaining three tracks give the feel of someone spending the night in, reading, sipping tea, journal writing, healing, and getting back to neutral. There is an emotional sincerity to the performances throughout each song that is rare, refreshing, and very capable of taking you along on the journey. The music takes traditional folk instrumentation and string accompaniment to a place that sounds familiar yet unique with every change following the emotional arc. For “In Heaven There Is No Heat,” percussionist Ron Rege, Jr. thumps out a bass drum heart beat throughout a tune that switches back and forth between melancholy and whimsically hopeful. “Rise In the Springtime” is the final moment of rebirth after twists and turns of an emotional time. Lavender Diamond put sincerity, feeling, and engaging sounds into their brand of folk. They give what can very often be a predictable genre a nice breath of fresh air.
Decca Records
By Chris Brunelle
The Swedes get credit for incorporating good taste into their music awards. Anna Ternheim, a new voice in the US, is already a star singer-songwriter in her native Sweden, having been nominated for a handful of Swedish Grammys this year and winning in the category of Best New Artist. Ternheim’s sound is folky in a way that Nick Drake and Beth Orton would understand, with a unique and charming voice brimming with ability. Instead of weaving layers of pretension and sentimentality like many singer-songwriters, Anna Ternheim makes depth and emotion feel fresh with gently textured arrangements, straightforward lyrics and superb performances. Her subjects aren’t vague. “Today Is A Good Day” is overtly optimistic, exploring the daily struggle with a relationship that still lingers. “Lover’s Dream” reveals hopes about unrequited love, capturing the tentative yearning of longing in secret. Ternheim also tries her luck with David Bowie’s classic “China Girl”. Her somber, meditative rendition brings such a different presence to this familiar song that the meaning and story within seem to change. In addition to this new cover and another song penned for this release, the EP draws songs from Anna Ternheim’s two previous full-length albums. It’s a great introduction to a promising new voice in music.
Originally published in Impose Magazine. It can also be viewed here:
http://www.imposemagazine.com/anna-ternheim-anna-ternheim-decca-records/4032/
By Chris Brunelle
Like the introductory keyboards seemingly rallying an arena to chant “CHARGE!”, Those Dancing Days have already become darlings in Europe and now are indeed charging towards America with sunny injections of pop and soul. These five young ladies from Sweden are barely out of high school and bring an honesty and purity of youth to their lyrics and their album that’s falling into American laps just when spring begs a new slew of good time records.
With her engaging voice, one can already smell a solo career down the line for vocalist Linnea Jonsson, but it’s hard to say if she could do better; in Dancing Days, Jonsson’s soulful sweetness is underpinned by synthesized, jangley indie-pop and a consistently propulsive drum attack. It’s a slightly novel juxtaposition: most bands with a rhythm section like Those Dancing Days end up in the Twee genre. Instead, the earnest, innocent, and upbeat tones of Twee glow while Jonsson’s affecting delivery helps the music to resonate somewhere deeper in the gut.
“Run Run” wields a California-Uber-Alles-esque riff below Jonsson’s thick bellow. The chorus opens up into a child-like wonder: “The sky’s way bigger than I ever thought it could be. I really can’t see where it ends,” she sings.
“Hitten” is Swedish for “hit” meaning the girls think this is their best chance at Jimmy Fallon or whatever. It is indeed a standout track but more for its singular stance in the context of the album. There’s radio potential there, but Rebecka Rolfart’s jangly guitar and Lisa Pyk-Wirtstrom’s whimsical keyboard patch conjure something luminous.
You seem to be able, in “Hitten” and elsewhere, to hear the ladies of Those Dancing Days figuring out their lives as they come of age and it’s their idealism and hope that makes their music so infectious. It’s not hard to hear the joy accompanying their music’s performance, so let spring in and celebrate with them.
Chris Brunelle And Other Things 