THE MAGIC PLACE by JULIANNA BARWICK (2011, Asthmatic Kitty Records)

A strange and haunting album of music of eerie vocals and ambient sounds that could be the soundtrack to a surreally beautiful dreams or a Terrence Malick movie.

What Barwick is singing is completely indistinct. Her voice is an instrument that is layered and allowed to reverberate to create something truly ethereal that swells and rolls. It's quite dizzying.

Barwick is an american musician raised in Louisiana who uses her voice layers and loops. Beginning most of the songs in the album using a single refrain and building from there, adding the occasional piano or other softly played instrument. The effect is to create something sparse, haunting and intensely magical. It's all sounds bit New Age doesn't it but someone into this mix there is a distinctly Southern folk or Bluegrass echo. Perhaps it's that Barwick's musical background was in a rural church choir. There are moments where it reminds me of T-Bone Burnett's brilliant O Brother soundtrack. 

Described elsewhere as a mixture of the Cocteau Twins and an ambient Brian Eno record THE MAGIC PLACE but the act it reminds me most of Sigur Ros, though without the tendency towards the   euphoric. 

THE MAGIC PLACE is exactly that and I don't think I've heard anything like it before. Quite amazing. 

Julianna Barwick is playing Cafe OTO in Dalston, London, on 22nd November if you fancy hearing her in person.

WHITE FLAG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqS5q5JTw8Q

VOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JkSVvMn5Sc&feature=related

GIVE YOU THE GHOST by POLIÇA (2012, Memphis Industries)

Much hyped after their SXSW turn Minnesota's Polica fuse dubby and RnB basslines with electronica and shoe-gazing vocals. It's won the praise from critics and musicians, including Jay-Z and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

Singer Channy Leanagh is cooly hypnotic.  Her breathy vocals are heavily layered, drenched in reverb and auto-tuned to perfection which reading other blogs seems to be a point of consternation. The main criticism is that so many effects serve only to dehumanise her. But surely that's the point?

In an interview at SXSW she said "I am trying to meld into the three other band members and the music we're making and create a force between us that is cohesive and captivating." It makes perfect sense. Her voice completely blends with the instrumentation, rarely dominating. The lyrics to her swan songs are mostly indistinct.

Leanagh is backed by keyboards, bass and two drummers. Yes that's right. Two drummers!

The percussion is utterly restless and off it they bounce the throbbing basslines, electronic effects to create an expansive sound thats spacious and atmospheric. 

GIVE YOU THE GHOST is the kind of record you'd have hoped The XX would have made as a follow up to there debut. 

Like The XX the songs are moody and evocative ranging from the comfortably numb to the grief stricken. But despite minor key and downbeat tone the propulsive, often funky bass and dense drumming inject real energy, and keep the mood feeling upbeat, especially on the likes of 'Dark Star', 'From' and 'Leading To Death'

Along with the new Beach House record and last War On Drugs album  I think GIVE YOU THE GHOST is one of the most interesting indie records to come out of the States in last 12 months.

DARK STAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oQ5VEuHufI

FORM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX1cS6rf2YY

LEADING TO DEATH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EhjllYFf6c

IN DREAMS by ROY ORBISON (1963, Monument Records)

IN DREAMS is Roy's the fourth full album, his second on Monument following his departure from the legendary Sun Records. It contains arguably his best song, the title track.

'In Dreams' is an operatic ballad of lost love with a unique structure that builds through seven verses, no choruses and ends on a heroic crescendo. Orbison's powerful voice rises through two octaves to end as a vulnerable falsetto. It's an incredible song and performance which is given even greater weight by the tragedies that beset Orbison only a few years later. 

His Wife Claudette was killed in 1966 in a road accident and only two years later his two oldest sons were killed in a house fire in the family home at Henderson, Texas. The remains of the house were actually bought by Orbison's friend and Sun Records label mate Johnny Cash bought who planted a memorial fruit orchard on it. 

Knowing these tragedies it gives Roy's words added poignancy:

"But just before the dawn

I awake and find you gone

I can't help it...I can't help it

If I cry

I remember

That you said goodbye

To end all these things

And I'll be happy in my dreams

Only in dreams

In beautiful dreams"

'In Dreams' was a big hit back in 1963 while Orbison toured the UK with The Beatles. It was supposed to be an Orbison headline tour but given that Beatlemania was sweeping the nation it was the mop tops frequently headlined, Orbison graciously agreeing to support. But according to Beatles biographer Philip Norman  "As Orbison performed, chinless and tragic, The Beatles stood in the wings, wondering how they would dare to follow him". The audience demanded Orbison play for double the time he was scheduled for. After many encores Lennon and McCartney refused to allow by Roy back on stage, physically holding him back.

25 years later while his career was in the doldrums the song got a new lease of life. In the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet, Dennis Hopper's murderous psychopath Frank Booth is obsessed with the song. We also see Dean Stockwell's character lip-syncing along. Orbison initially refused the songs usage but Lynch ignored him and used it anyway. 

IN DREAMS is worth having for this track alone but there are plenty more classic Orbison cuts on here. In fact if its 'classic' 60s Orbison your after, get this rather than one of the numerous Greatest Hits packages.

It also features the excellent 'Shahdaroba' which appeared in a recent episode of Mad Men, the country-tinged boogie 'Sunset', his cover of the Everly Brothers hit 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' and the southern lament 'Blue Bayou'. IN DREAMS ends as it began with another operatic crescendo, 'My Prayer'. (the iTunes albums also contains sone classic bonus tracks like 'Falling' but we'll skirt over these modern bolt-ons as they weren't part of the original vinyl LP)

Between 1960 and 1964 Orbison racked up 22 top 40 singles on the US Billboard charts and as IN DREAMS comes smack in the middle of this period, it is quite simply, vintage Orbison.

IN DREAMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbxsmcT7GOk

SHADAROBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXe3gnBsg0o

SUNSET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKL9nateWjc

ONE DAY I'M GOING TO SOAR by DEXYS (2012, Mercury)

And so after a 27 year break, two lacklustre solo albums, financial and mental meltdowns Kevin Rowland finally returns with the band that made his name and they've made a great record that stands up against the previous three. 

Returning with three previous Dexy's members "Big" Jim Paterson, Pete Williams, Mick Talbot and a gaggle of new recruits they have fashioned a album of raw and unrefined soul delivered in Rowland's unique way. Sure he's not a great singer in a conventional fashion, but that was never the point with Dexy's. It's soul delivered with the punk DIY attitude. Passion and commitment over ability.

Much of the album seems to deal with Rowland's paranoia and erratic behavioural tendencies, most obviously in tracks like 'Me', 'Lost' and 'I'm Always Going to Love You'.

'She's Got A Wiggle', despite having a throwaway title, is the kind of dark and sultry soul track Al Green would have recorded back in his heyday, as is 'Thinking of 'You' which has a gorgeous sax solo at then end. Stunning. 

The one criticism I have of the record is Rowland's dieting partner, singer Madeleine Hyland. She has a strong voice but being from an musical theatre background some of her performances a bit, well, acted. On the relationship breakdown of 'I'm Always Going To Love You' the performance just isn't convincing. Never for a moment do you believe that she and Kevin are a warring couple. But despite this minor gripe though its still one of the best tracks on the album, and infuriatingly catchy. 

Apparently there's an episode of The Simpsons where Homer prophesies that "you haven't heard the last of Dexy's Midnight Runners". Gladly he was right. A great return.

SHE'S GOT A WIGGLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzs3anrUOyA

FREE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_XUWQym-wg

I'M ALWAYS GOING TO LOVE YOU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ehNquC4y4

PLUMB by FIELD MUSIC (2012, Memphis Industries)

There are some records that no matter how hard you try, you just can't get. 

Mercury nominated this year (though unlikely to beat Alt-J) PLUMB is Field Music's fourth album.

Less an album of songs, more a record of abstract sketches and musical doodles many barely lasting more than a minute or two. It's a bit like listening to The Beatles White Album but with all the good stuff removed and being left with only the bits when the Fab Four were fucking around.

How would you describe their sound? It's a mixture of Beatles or ELO pop with a touch of Devo angular avant-garde and a heavy dose of Beta Band experimentation. Musically Field Music are very inventive. They pack more ideas into two minutes than most bands would cram into an entire album. Every track is brimming over with something new and complex. Whilst you can be full of admiration for what they've create you can also be very irritated. 

The funny thing is for a band that are clearly trying so hard to create new sounds and explore new ideas Field Music sounds very, very retro.

If be lying if I said there weren't some enjoyable moments such as 'Sorry Again, Mate', 'Start The Day Right' and 'Guillotine' but generally speaking, this is the most annoying album I've heard in ages. 

SORRY AGAIN, MATE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEVCnxgkX1k

GUILLOTINE 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2fbqpB5yc4

START THE DAY RIGHT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6SdE4dDhkw

JARVIS by JARVIS COCKER (2006, Rough Trade)

As solo debuts go it's an absolute belter. Reinvigorated by freedom from the constrains of leading Pulp JARVIS is the sound of Cocker having the time of his life. The final two Pulp albums contained some great moments ('A Little Soul' a personal favourite) but they weren't much fun. Here Cocker let's go like he's not since Different Class.

Barbed and bitchy lyrics as you'd expect from Sheffield's greatest living poet, delivered with relish and all set to some brilliant catchy melodies and pure pop arrangements.

There are some standout Cocker witticisms. 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time' is a warning call to all the ladies out there being strung along by  dastardly men: "because the years go by in an instant / and you wonder what he's waiting for/ and then some skinny bitch walks by in some hot pants / and he's a-running out the door"

But the most deliciously nasty tidbits are tucked away on the best track on album, incredibly it's hidden twenty minutes after the end of the final official song. On 'C*nts Are Still Running The World' Jarvis  sings "Well did you hear there's a natural order / those most deserved will always end up with the most / That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top / well I say, shit floats..." and he has much more to say than that. It's an "anthropologically unjust" anthem for our our age and enough to justify Cocker appear on Question Time every week. Forever. Shame the naughty language will mean more people won't hear it really.

Elsewhere there are big stonking indie-rock choruses like the meaty 'Black Magic' and 'Fat Children' or 'Heavy Weather', a singalong number that could have been the catchy theme tune to an '80s starring Dennis Waterman sitcom. And I mean that in a good way.

JARVIS is the sound of Britain's most articulate pop star in his fittest, funniest and filthiest form of his career. Fab.

BLACK MAGIC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmuGTcegJak

HEAVY WEATHER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQsK91vV_io

C*NTS ARE STILL RUNNING THE WORLD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRGGbyZzuTg

A LOVE SUPREME by JOHN COLTRANE (1965, Impulse!)

Just how cool does Coltrane look on the cover? Man he's intense. But then so would you be if you were having a conversation with God through your saxophone!

The influence of the album is huge not only among Jazz fanatics but religious ones too. After Coltrane's death, congregants at the Yardbird Temple, in San Francisco, began worshipping Coltrane as God incarnate. Incidentally the Temple was named for Charlie 'Bird' Parker, whom they equated to John the Baptist. The "Coltrane church", incorporates Coltrane's music and his lyrics as prayers in its liturgy. Although sadly they've had to reduce Coltrane from God to a saint to get recognition by the African Orthodox Church which governs it. I'm not sure if I were a God that I'd be happy about being demoted by a committee. I mean who in Zeus' name do this humans think they are?

A LOVE SUPREME is a deeply spiritual album. It's a suite of four parts: 'Acknowledgement', 'Resolution', 'Pursuance', and 'Psalm.' For Coltrane the album represents a personal struggle for purity physically and in his art. Pushing his creativity to its limits and his desire to stay clean from his heroin addiction. He's also said to be expressing gratitude for his God given talents. 

It melds the hard bop style with the free jazz approach he adopted on his later recordings, but even for a Trane novice like me it's an easy album become addicted to. It's hypnotic.

Early in 'Acknowledgement' once the opening gong has quietened Coltrane's early soft solo has quietened we're introduced to the 4 note motif that over the course of the next thirty minutes will repeat, evolve and expand. We first hear it from Jimmy Garrison's double bass, but it's there throughout played by all three other musicians, Coltrane on Sax, McCoy Tyler on piano and broadly speaking by Elvin Jones on drums. The four notes a the rhythm equating the syllables of "a love supreme", and by the end of the first part the music has evolved into the four actual words - we hear Coltrane's deep voice intoning them over and over like a religious mantra. Deep, warm, calm but authoritative it's the voice of God we all imagine.

From here on in proceedings loosen up and we're treated to some extraordinary solos, in particular those by Jones and Tyler at the beginning of 'Pursuance'. Whilst it's Coltrane's name on the cover and undoubtedly the piece is his composition, all four musicians get plenty of room to showcase their extraordinary talents.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qagOblqhBhk

RESOLUTION 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6pSffe4k60

PURSUANCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRm6xG0agtE

PSALM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1xe7FDsQWY