Original Pirate Material - a retrospective.

The other day I was in Birmingham having an interview for a position at an exciting new store opening soon in the bullring, after the very promising (I really really really hope I get this job) interview I went into the Music and Video Exchange and went for a little flick round the CD's. I picked up a copy of The Streets first album and I immediately fell in love with it.
It might be a little late to do a 10 year anniversary blog as it was released on the 25th of May 2002 but I'm going to do one anyway.

2002 wasn't really the best period for UK Hip Hop, or arguably any Hip Hop. In the UK Roots Manuva had released his brilliant 'Run Come Save Me' album the year before and in the same year, Ms Dynamite released her land mark Début 'A Little Deeper'. Both these album's caused an impact and (Roots Manuva's album in particular) both still sound fresh yet I think it was through the Streets that UK Hip Hop truly found it's voice, Mike Skinner's laid back delivery has clearly had an influence on rappers such as Ghostpoet or Wretch 32.

On the first few tracks Mike Skinner sounds as if he's playing word association games with himself, picking lines that sound good and compliment his flow every bit as well as they detail the lifestyles and stories he's describing, E.G "don't take the short-cut through the subway, it's pay or play, these geezers walk the gangway deep seated urban decay". Skinner proves himself to be a brilliant story teller such as on 'Geezers need excitement' or 'Don't Mug your self' a tale of a morning after in a 'greasy spoon cafeteria'.
Throughout the album Mike Skinner shows himself to be such an ordinary bloke that he's almost extra-ordinary, he tells his stories in first person, intelligent enough to realise the ironies of his tales but not enough to stop himself from being an active part in them. At times he's parodying laddish behaviour, and makes the case for the fact that it's really just a distraction from the boredom of everyday life. There's something for everyone to relate to on this album but "If you ain't feeling it, just be thankful that everything's cool in your world"

Musically the album is complety of its time, its a hip hop record but its rooted in the garage sound of the 00's and since garage is what dub-step evolved from I believe you can hear the genre's roots in this record. The range of sounds is hugely diverse. At times is bouncy and fun, at others is loud and dramatic (such as on the brilliant intro) while tracks like 'Weak Become Heroes' are more laid back and melancholic.

It's impressive how fresh and modern this album still sounds after 10 years, despite its 00's garage sound, it's partly down to the production but mainly because its 14 brilliant songs. Original Pirate Material is one of the best and most important records of the 00's and it was made by a Brummie.



I nicked the picture from another good article on this album.
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/music/the-streets-original-pirate-material-the-album-that-changed-my-life/

A Strange Encounter

A while back I was taking a few photographs of Birmingham from a car park for a college photography project. After I'd taken a few shots these professional photographers arrived with proper kit and started taking photos of a Birmingham band.
It was a bit awkward at first, I sort of hung around being the shy person I sometimes can be, but i figured i like music and i like photography so this is worth investigating.
I remember the band describing themselves as being a local band with an 80's folk sound, I think they said they were called 'Moss Graves'. Since then I've found absolutely nothing on them online. So if anyone thinks they might know who these people are then please let me know.
I thought I'd share this as it's an example of the great random encounters you can find yourself in if you hang around Birmingham.

Laura Mvula - Sing To The Moon, Review

Laura Mvula's album is out Monday. Unfortunately I don't have any first-hand tales of seeing her live or meeting her so I thought I'd give her album a review. Aside from all the B-Town bands Laura may be Birmingham's biggest new star. So the question is, is Laura Mvula just another dinner party friendly singer-songwriter? or is she like Lianne La Havas? - a soul singer who defies convention and mediocrity?

The album begins with 'Like the morning dew' which is a good example of why she has been dubbed 'gospeldelica' it's a mellow yet expansive song, that flits between a big chorus and laid back verses. Its quite a unique sound that hints that Laura is trying to stand out as an artist apart from other soul singers.
'Make me lovely' moves onto a jazzier style complete with horns and harp sounds and a continuation of the loud-quiet dynamic that the album began with. Green Garden is an early highlight, its a more structured song, with a strong rhythm, yet it's also pretty weird, there's a Xylophone riff that loops throughout and strange 'ohhh ahhh' vocoder backing vocals, howver its also sounds very soulful, with a blues style stomp for the rhythm. 
'Can't live with the world' is more what I expected to hear, a stripped down piano ballard with added backing vocals and an orchestra, it's mellow and actually quite lovely. I'm now starting to think of Bjork on her Vespertine album. In a way Bjork is a valid comparison, despite the varying styles, both have a sense of ambition and experimentation, it says a lot about Laura that I see fit to compare the two.
'Is there anybody out there' continues with the same mellow vibe. By now she's settled into her sound and it feels less experimental than the first few tracks. After the also rather lovely, mellow 'Father Father' 'Thats Alright comes back to the Bluesey stomp of earlier tracks with a constant rhythm and Brass band backing and more distorted back vocals, the album starts getting weird again.

'She' was one of the album's early singles and it brings back the xylophone which now starts and stops rather than loops. Its got the Vespertine Bjork-inan feel and it all leads up to a wall of sound. Production wise this album is fascinating, its full of original ideas and sounds, Soul music can be very dull sometimes but Laura's worked hard to make something more unique.

Throughout the album Laura proves to be a talented singer, her voice is always restrained rather than over-egging it as so many singers do these days. Musically its all very complex, there are many instruments playing and it adds up to a unique full band sound. Overall it can feel a bit overworked in places and a bit weird as her trademark sound takes some getting used to, but 'Sing to the moon' is an album of moods, at times it's beautiful at others it's eclectic and buzzing with ideas.

So there you have it, Laura Mvula has proven herself to be one of Birmingham's biggest talents and possibly  its first true breakout star from the current scene.

8/10

 Image from http://www.lauramvula.com/uploads/uploads/bin-packshots/albumpackshotstd-300x300.jpeg

Pink Violence/Neon Asylum

I've known Jason Tyler, Aka Neon Asylum, Aka Cassius Neon, Aka Pink Violence for some time now. I first met him in 2009 in a gig queue with my friend waiting to see Florence and the machine, back then we used to wait from the afternoon being the first ones there. We met Jason along with his mad friend called Dom, Jason was definitely the sane one next to this fat bloke with a tattoo of Florence Welch on his leg, telling me stories of how his Superman sock ripped the day Christopher Reeve died.
Anyway moving on, me and my friend ended up seeing Jason a few times after this coincidentally at the same gigs, then one day I went with him to see Crystal Castles. Jason may seem like the worlds biggest fan of Crystal Castles at first- he's been to nearly every gig they've done in the UK and thanks to him I got to meet them- but he's actually a very good friend of theirs and he's known them back from his days in a cult death metal band (who I can't remember the name of).
This relationship with crystal castles is most likely what gave Neon Asylum its sound, the few tracks he put out under the name are thumping rave pieces, similar in style to the music of Crystal Castles. 'Destroy Mika' is probably the best example of Neon Asylum's sound, it's a 3 minute mash up of 8-bit style squelches and loud techno beats, its unpredictable, messy, uneasy listening.

Despite being reasonably successful with Neon Asylum Jason has now started a new project called 'Pink Violence' the music is more or less the same genre but he's smoothed out the rough edges of his previous work for a more house based sound or at least that's what his début single 'Fresh Air' seemed to indicate,  the new unmixed preview for 'midnite' suggests that he's continuing with abrasive rave. 

Jason's been at this music business thing for a while now but its exciting seeing what he's now working on, hopefully he might now start getting the success he deserves.

https://soundcloud.com/pinkviolence
http://www.facebook.com/pinkviolenceofficial
http://www.facebook.com/neonasylumm
https://twitter.com/cassiusneon
http://www.myspace.com/neonasylum

James Thomas, Comedy at the Solihull Theatre.

And now here's a little bit about me. It has always been a bit (a lot) of an ambition of mine to become a professional stand up comedian, so last year I took part in a local  stand up comedy course run by local comic and 'Poet Laureate' Theo Theobald  it was a few weeks preparation for a very successful gig at the Solihull library theatre, its a bit old as you can tell by the subject matter but this was one of my best gigs.

SOLDIER

http://www.facebook.com/soldiersmusic

They say that there is '15 degrees of separation' with everyone in the world, what this basically means is, you know someone who knows someone who is related to someone.....  to someone famous. Well I'm related to someone who's Boyfriend is a friend of  'Scotty Balboa'  the singer of Soldier. Ok, its not a great claim to fame but it's how I heard of this band. I first properly head about Soldier from my Aunt telling me that her and the BF were seeing this lot support someone called 'Brother' (The BF told me that the next time he saw brother Soldier blew then off the stage).
'Brother' or 'Viva brother' as they are now known are the Voldermort of Indie mention them to any Indie kid and you will see them get slightly uncomfortable. However the band I saw Soldier support way back in 2011was MONA (another hopeful from 2011 but unlike Brother these guys really did deserve to be huge) Though it was Soldier I came to see.
A friend of mine saw them live doing an acoustic gig  and wasn't impressed, yet I keep telling him you have to see Soldier as a proper plugged in Rock band, because when you do they are brilliant. Their songs are the sort that Oasis or The Manic Street Preachers would have played to stadiums back in the 90's. Their song 'We love you' is slightly reminiscent of the  Manic's 'You Love us'. On stage 'Scotty Balboa' is the ultimate weekend rock star* he obviously models himself a little bit on Liam Gallagher, but not enough to be a pastiche, he's a good singer and has a lot of character and presence,  I remember him saying on-stage 'well see some of you at our next gig... at Wembley' that quote pretty much sums up Soldier, it was obviously a joke but these guys are rock 'n roll dreamers, and in an alternate universe they are probably playing Wembley right now.

Their Broken Bones EP has 5 tracks on it, 'We love you', Hurricane, Lifeline, Time on my side and Broken Bones are all full of riffs and choruses and pretty good production quality despite the band being unsigned. unfortunately as far as I know to get a copy you'll need to meet the band and ask for one.
since the gig I saw them at they've carried on supporting bands and playing local gigs, and building up a following, they've been a little quiet these past few months but their facebook shows signs that they're gearing up to make 2013 a big year, give these guys your support, they're one of Birmingham's best bands.

http://www.facebook.com/soldiersmusic
http://www.soldiersmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/soldiersmusic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesmartin...

* I don't mean that as an insult, just that his main day job is a bit more ordinary

Just announced -Swim Deep