Jay Brown's #DreamSofar

“So, Jay, you had such a massive year last year. I think it’s not an understatement to say that.” Cue a slightly awkward snigger from Jay Brown in response to presenter of BBC Introducing in NorthamptonLal Muttock’s question that is seemingly more statement than it is inquisitive. Awkward because ‘massive’ is exactly the kind of year Jay had last year.

To name only a few achievements: picked for Radio 1’s playlist; featured on Radio 2 as part of Krissi Murison, the first female editor of the NME, hosting a spoken word session; recorded with and supported fellow up-and-coming Sofarians Bastille, culminating in playing to a packed out Koko. These are not your everyday achievements; sure you might have refrained from drinking alcohol for the whole month of January and lost a whole two pounds as a result of your admittedly dwindling ‘new year, new you’ fitness regime, but Jay’s are proper achievements that spawned from her creating proper music.

Or maybe the awkward snigger because Jay’s 2013 is set to be even bigger than her 2012? In response to Mr. Muttock querying about what is to come for the Northampton-bred, London-based composer of ‘silky indie pop with a twist’ in the new year, Brown responds with just one word: gigs. Upon elaboration, it is clear she isn’t lying. To start, there are her conventional gigs (details of which you can find on her Facebook Page). It says something about the quality of Jay’s music, inspired by her ‘love of rock, soul, ska, reggae and pop’, that, at time of writing, her next gig is a showcase; the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, aka ASCAP, are putting on all that is good in the music world at The Queen of Hoxton on February 5^th (details of which you can find here).

As if all that has been mentioned thus far is not enough reason to get her involved in both a Sofar (which you can read about here) and a #DreamSofar (which you can read about below), it is the second and third ways in which Jay Brown is all about gigs that make us, and should make you, further love her so. Not only does she host tiny gigs in the room of her humble abode from time to time, Jay is also the brains behind her very own festival. Asked about Greenstone, she describes it as an “Intimate music festival where I get loads of music I like and we just all get together in a field and have a good time. That’s it, really."

It is this DIY attitude, this idea that music should be presented as music and nothing more, that is so clearly present in the previous quotation, it virtually makes Greenstone an elongated (it runs over three days in the middle of August) Sofar session, just without a roof. Probably best you got yourself a ticket(and an umbrella, just in case) and we got her to tell us all about who would be at her dream Sofar, then.

Jay Brown’s dream Sofar would consist of:

Bob Marley

‘I'm going to start with my Jamaican roots as this is what I was brought up on and has definitely inspired me! Bob also reminds me of my uncles and every time I hear this song it reminds me of family parties and when I was a child.’

The Eels

‘Would you believe this was only introduced to me properly recently by my good friend?  I have always known of 'The Eels' but never really took the time to sit and listen - I know, mad! I love direct and matter of fact lyrics; The Eels are able to do this so well. I also love how when you hear them, you can picture things instantly and relate. They also mix a lot of genres within their music, which I also love to do.’

Incubus

‘Growing up, this was my favourite band so I have a soft spot for them. A five piece from the US of A. They were lyrical, had great melodies and a massive energy on stage. I wrote a lot of poetry when I was younger so I guess Brandons Boyd's - the lead singer -  love of it got me into their stuff. Morning View is still one of my favourite albums to this day. What's crazy is I have never seen them live.’

Radiohead

‘I love both their music and lyrics, but most of all I love the way their music makes me feel: relaxed, nostalgic and thoughtful.’

Peace

‘This is a recent band that I have got into. I have had this song on reeee- peat on my iPod lately and really want to see them live! They make you feel free. Picture this jumping around the room and spinning till your dizzy and laughing your head off. Yep!’

Jeff Buckley

‘I heard this and I fell in love. That is all.’

Metallica

‘Man, this song was amazing! I want to do this so bad! Sing and have a full orchestra behind me.’

Hed PE

‘I was a massive nu-metal fan when I  was younger so this would be my blast from the past.’

Pictures: James Houghton (from London) and Kiri Scully (from London)

9mary's #DreamSofar

Britney Spears: $1,000,000. Kanye West: $1,200,000. Madonna: $5,000,000. It’s fair to say these figures suggest that there are some out there who are quite impartial to a little razzmatazz in their music videos, as well as the fairly hefty bill that comes with producing it (and that’s without mentioning a certain Lady). And then there’s the likes of 9mary, aka Flo Morrissey, who cannot be placed even in the same class as the aforementioned ‘artists’. Take the video for If You Can’t Love This All Goes Away, for example. Directed by her sister, Millie, the production amounts to little more than various shots of Flo gallivanting around in a swimming pool. And this is why she is so perfect for us.

Rather than relying upon costumes which have seemingly been designed in the deepest realms of Hell whilst under the influence of who knows what or a surprisingly infectious dance move based on, of all things, how a horse trots, due to the simple nature of her previously mentioned video it is evident that she is more than happy to let the music do the talking. And it is this that Sofar Sounds is all about – when performing, we like artists to play their music, not to put on a show.

But it is not only 9mary’s philosophy that is in sync with ours. So, too, is her actual music. With influences coming from the likes of Jeff Buckley and Devendra Banhart, even Billie Holiday, Flo’s sound is one of purity, but laced with heartfelt emotion. Music, in other words, that is perfect for a Sofar. Described by This Is Fake DIY as a ‘star in the making’, one might wonder how such a young songstress (she turned only eighteen a month ago today, Christmas Day) can be capable of feeling such sentiment. Ms. Morrissey is the first to admit that her listeners are correct to make such queries, explaining that when she wrote the song Show Me a good three years ago she “hadn’t really experienced much yet”, and that she “still hasn’t, really”; a situation that so too will apply to most eighteen year olds, but an enormously mature self-reflection for an eighteen year old to make. Admittedly, most eighteen year olds weren’t “properly writing” their very own songs when they were just fourteen, like Flo was. Despite her still having a couple years of her teens to go, the maturity that inevitably comes with writing your own music for a solid four years can be seen and, more importantly, heard all over 9mary. Best we got her in for a Sofar and found out who would make up her #DreamSofar, then.

9mary’s #DreamSofar would consist of:

Jeff Buckley

‘I'd have to have Jeff Buckley at my #DreamSofar. Sadly, he died three years after I was born so I never got to see him live but I can imagine him completely silencing the whole room and sending shivers down everyone's spine. I can't even begin to imagine the prospect of it. He was one of a kind and his music and lyrics are so poetic and emotional I think if anyone got the chance to see him, let alone in such an intimate setting, they would go away feeling so overwhelmed. Well, I would anyway.’

Antony and the Johnsons

‘I've never seen Antony Hegarty live and it’s something that I've longed to witness for a long while; he's one of my favourite musicians and, like Jeff Buckley, he is one of a kind. He recently curated Meltdown Festival in the Summer at the Southbank Centre with performances from CocoRosie and Cocteau Twin's Liz Fraser to name a few. I was so annoyed because I was away at the time! His song Hope There's Someone is very special to me. I think it's one of the most beautiful songs ever; I recorded a cover version of it and made a video from Super 8 footage I filmed in LA, and also performed it at my first Sofar show. I think it'd be amazing having him at a Sofar show because his music is very raw and 'real'. It'd be a dream to see him.’

Anoushka Shankar

‘The sitar is such a beautiful instrument and one that isn't heard enough and Anoushka Shankar is an extremely talented woman and musician. I was a fan of her late father, Ravi Shankar, and am so amazed by both of their talents – the beauty must live on.’

Lauryn Hill

‘I think Lauryn Hill is such an honest, powerful and amazing performer. I've watched all her live MTV Unplugged videos on YouTube and they are so wonderful and touching, especially I Gotta Find Peace of Mind – it's one of my absolute favourite songs. She really engages with her audience and even brings herself to tears in a few of the songs for MTV; you can tell she really believes and means what she is singing about and I think nowadays that honesty is hard to come by. I like how she is human and her performances are not always 'perfect'; I think flaws in music are beautiful and allow the audience to relate to the artist in a much stronger way. I want my music to not be 'perfect' – it's those little imperfections that for me make a song mean so much more.’

Beck

‘Beck is so innovative and forward-thinking, I love his experimentation. It'd be really interesting to see what he'd pick to play as his repertoire is so vast and of different genres of music. I think Mutations andSea Change are brilliant albums and his cover of The Korgis' Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime is one of my favourite songs ever. Apparently he may release two new records this year!’

On a final note

‘Finally, it'd be a dream for all these artists to collaborate at the end of the show. That'd surely be a night to remember forever.’

As if 9mary hasn’t given enough to the music world already, she’s recently released an EP which you can download for free at her bandcamp.

Pictures: Sophie Harris-Taylor

Review of Birds Vs. Planes' 'Narrow Angles' for Artrocker magazine

Jenny Jones, lead vocalist of Carlisle band Birds Vs Planes, is an emotional gal, and she and her band don’t half make you feel it on their debut EP, Narrow Angles. Things start off bright and breezy, with Jones’ allowing her seemingly extravert personality to shine through on opener and lead single, Relative Worth, whilst the outfit sound especially similar to very-LA based duo Best Coast, only less glum and sounding as if they’re actually capable of raising a smile.

Matters turn for the worse towards the end of the record, though by no means musically: the first half of Little Blue being not too dissimilar to The xx illustrates an ultra-sensitive side most wouldn’t have expected the five-piece to have in them, with the fact that Jones transformed this sorrow into anger being especially evident on moody closer Shock Tactics. Both the band and listener dabbling in the entire emotional spectrum, then.

What’s remarkable is that although they provoke such feelings in so many dimensions, when it comes to producing the music BVP stick to so few – there are no frills, they don’t try to be anything they’re not, and the EP is enormously listenable as a result.

4/5

Released by Music Bakery in late January 2013

Review of Darwin Deez's 'Songs For Imaginative People' for Artrocker magazine

Mikhail Gorbachev. Not the way most would expect a review of Darwin Deez’s Songs For Imaginative People to start but the former Soviet statesman is to play a surprisingly large part in this piece. To start, he is given a mention in just the second song of the album, You Can’t Be My Girl. It is not so much his inclusion in the lyric that is important (Deez merely uses a female’s fascination with the ex-General Secretary for another reason as to why she cannot ‘be his girl’), rather it is what his inclusion represents – the utterly haphazard, though wholly intended, nature of this LP.

In Alice, for example, Deez jumps between pre-chorus and chorus as much as he changes note on guitar (a lot), whilst on No Love it is the vocals that aren’t too sure whether they are coming or going. Similarly to Gorbachev’s dissolution of the Soviet Union, the whole affair is bittersweet – just as those in charge before Gorbachev’s time found that though the old Chairman of the Supreme Soviet’s plans were at first difficult to listen to, they and the country as a whole would soon go onto (quite literally) greener pastures, so too will the listener initially struggle to muster Deez’s seemingly disorderly approach, only to come to realise it is exactly this that gives it it’s character. For example, just as it is easy to imagine the heartache felt by the aforementioned law graduate of Moscow State University when he lost his childhood sweetheart to leukemia in 1999, so too can one feel the hurt of the multi-instrumental New Yorker when he describes on Chelsea’s Hotel how he never got the chance to lose the love of his crush as he never attained it in the first place.

Just as you weren’t expecting this review to be more history lesson than musical opinion, upon first listen to Songs For Imaginative People I hadn’t a clue which way the music was to turn (and I still don’t!) – and yet both of us are far richer for it. It is here where today’s lesson is concluded.

4/5

Released by Lucky Number Music on 11th February 2013

Review of rerelease of Satellites' 'SATELLITES.01' for Artrocker magazine

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” “Don’t be silly, Mr. Savile didn’t touch you there!” “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That’s what all our parents used to say, isn’t it? And they were always right, weren’t they? Wrong. Although the first two remain fairly sound to this day, it’s a different story when it comes to the last two. I’ll let the BBC attempt to explain their way out of the second to last one, and I’ll take issue with the last one. I believe, after all, that SATELLITES.01 can be massively judged, quite literally, by its cover. The cover is a combination ofmatte and metallic silver, the artwork printed onto the actual CD looks like asatellite – it all points towards the idea that Satellites is inspired by everything otherworldly. So why does this lead to my doubting that a book should never be judged by its cover? Because SATELLITES.01 sounds exactly how it looks. It produces bleeps and bloops, just as a satellite would – the beats on Railway Line are not so dissimilar to those which used to be favoured by The Postal Service and Best Days Of Our Lives could well fit in on Paul Banks’ recent LP, both of which are connoisseurs of music verging on the ‘techy’ side of things. It’s complicated, just as (I imagine) a satellite is – throughout the album there is much going on, with the multiple layers of Sale Of The Century and the curious combination of acoustic guitar and electronica on Mindreading. Although it is easy to admire the complex nature of Satellites’ style, the appreciation becomes that much higher when it considered that Satellites is comprised of only one man – Englishman living in Copenhagen, Johnny Vic. Come to think of it, maybe Johnny’s getting more help from outer space than we first thought?

4/5

Released by Vesterbrother/Pias UK on 21st January 2013

Review of Dan Mangan & Jason Collett at Scala, London for Artrocker magazine

The audience is in a surprisingly jovial mood. ‘Surprising’ not in the sense that the ability of the performers tonight are a perfect excuse to bring on the Winter blues a few weeks premature, ‘surprising’ in the sense that, more often than we’d like to admit, gigs can be slightly stressful affairs. Why is it that the token abnormally tall man always has particularly frizzy hair and chooses to stand in a place which blocks my view? Why is it because we’re near the front of the stage we choose to unnecessarily bunch ourselves up like sardines? Is that guy in the mosh pit trying to hurt me or does he always make such good use of his elbows? Whilst it’s unlikely even the beginnings of a mosh pit are to form tonight (support act Jason Collett is an alt-country kind of guy), you get the point. It’s the crowds wooping reaction to Mr. Collett revealing his originating from Toronto that reveals why exactly the good vibes are so plentiful this evening. Chances are a good percentage of the room have guzzled down an amount of maple syrup a dietician would recommend in a lifetime just today – yep, I’m surrounded by Canadians.

Despite my being conscious that the Britishness inside me is doing its utmost best to combat against such communion amongst strangers, it has to be said that Jason Collett, unfortunately, is a little dull. This is not to say he wasn’t good; his guitar plucking was more than adequate, his vocals particularly well suited to the style of music. His membership of Canadian indie-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene only confirms this. It was the style of music that was the problem. Whilst Collett’s sweet tunes are perfect to have on whilst chilling in your bedroom or in the background of a dinner party, they are not the most engaging in a live setting. What’s especially frustrating is that, with a particularly strong set of chords here and a patch of vocals that excitedly rises beyond a whisper there, every now and then he threatens to break out of the plod-along pace he’s evidently grown used to but never quite makes it.

You can imagine the shock, then, when Dan Mangan and his backing band burst onto the stage with a fierce pound of drums to signal the start of new song We Want To Be Pleasantly Surprised, Not Expectedly Let Down.

It’s possible that the content solidarity of Collett is having an influence, but Mangan & Co. seem remarkably layered. So often bands with multiple members believe strength comes in numbers and, as a result, each musician desperately tries to cram their personality into an already overcrowded song, but Dan Mangan is not one of those bands. Time and time again the four remaining members (Mangan included), musically and even sometimes literally, take a step back to allow one of their comrades to have their moment (particular beneficiaries of this attitude are a violin solo stretching to five minutes and a closing of Robots with Mangan standing on some speakers to be best placed to conduct the adoring audience below in unison). 

This ‘there’s no ‘i’ in ‘team’’ philosophy displayed by the indie-rockers really typifies the atmosphere and evening in general. It’s fitting, then, that the set is brought to a close with Mangan amongst the audience, singing So Much For Everyonejust like the rest of us.