You are going to so love the subject of today's article: I'm speaking from my experience having already sampled the new Project Overload single "Wildfire" which comes out on Friday.

Actually you probably know & love it yourself already as it's been in their live set for a while now. I remember the first time that I heard it, I remarked to Tom that it sounded apt for a single release but such are the riches amongst the new material they've been recording with Mason Le Long at Studio Subw?f for their second album that he was equivocal at that point as to whether it would be. I'm glad that after plenty of reflection that they've gone with it as it really does represent the band at the current pinnacle of their powers (though naturally their potential indicates that this bar is only going to rise over the years).

As the follow up to "Silhouettes", it could not be more different: in fact that seems wholly deliberate on their part. Not only is indicating your range no bad thing for a band making their way into a wider and wider context, but in some ways the songs form a pair of contrasting emotions. It's great that they played both live on RawSound TV to demonstrate their versatility to the world.

The Valentine's Day release was definitely the atypical one for the band: an "evocation of romance springing into life" appropriate to the day it came out, "Wildfire" provides if not a corrective then at least a contrasting perspective of what happens when things turn sour.

Prefab Sprout of course sang compellingly of "When Love Breaks Down" as do Project Overload here but the former skirted feelings of rage & being used unlike the latter. Those sharp elbows, furled for the last single are redeployed here as Emily unleashes "an explosion of fury I can't suppress". It's made especially effective because her onstage persona has been established as one of cool, calm control. Now we learn that this is not a woman to be crossed. Her rage is visceral. Even the official press release talks of being "ready to fight".

However again, the power does not come from incoherent shouty anger: as with Izzie Derry and her stiletto sharp "If They Knew What You Did", counterpointing lyrics with a honed arrangement sharpens the blade. Project Overload's instrumentalists Tom, Lucas, Callum & Joe run a very tight ship and this keeps the focus of "Wildfire" laser accurate.

What distinguishes their own contribution to the song from previous performances though is the ferocity of the playing: not a word I've yet needed to use about them. Something adrenalised the performance you will hear as it goes even beyond the live version in my opinion: a most unusual way round & hats off to the band and Mason for capturing the mood of the song as well as the notes & words.

There are plenty of analogies to previous bands amongst the reviews they've been enjoying: to me "Wildfire" reminds me the edgy and provocative New Wave bands such as Blondie (circa ‘Plastic Letters') or The Attractions (circa ‘This Year's Model'): melodic yet with attitude to spare. Comparisons are odious but since Emily doesn't sing like Debbie Harry let alone Elvis Costello and since Project Overload don't feature prominent keyboards like those two bands, I think the analogy holds up in respect of  the attributes I've just mentioned.

"Wildfire" (and songs like it if such characterises the album) ought to kickstart audiences into even wilder behaviour than I've seen so far at their gigs and I look forwards to seeing that development. I also anticipate plenty of "Project Overload's best one to date" type reviews & just hope I get in first with that one.

They've been in our ears & hearts for a while: now they are right in our faces too.

You can experience Project Overload live & locally on Saturday 5th July at Godiva Festival (stage time 1430) & supporting Batsch for their album launch at The Tin on July 11^th.

Out for the Summer Solstice is the debut album by The Mudlands String Band.

Ten songs from America's Deep South (from cajun to bluegrass) played with love & exuberance by this local quintet, some relatively familiar like "John Hardy" (I've long loved The Gun Club's version) and others being deeper cuts for you to be introduced to, this is pretty much a roots set of arrangements. However since members of the group also play in punk mode, don't expect polite drawing room folk tunes. These aim for authenticity but also to convey the life still in the old songs and the innate dynamics which have kept people dancing to them since they were first conceived of. This is Americana as a living tradition rather than nostalgia and apt for live performance.

Half were captured in Birmingham's Mosaic Audio Labs and the others at home by Ben Jennings and you can't see the join.

The full track listing is "Up Jumped a Rabbit", "La Coulée Rodair", "Old Joe Clarke", "Old Ark's A Movin'"  "Mes Tits Cochons" ,"Pretty Polly", "Hide Away", "Turn Your Radio On", "Joe Pitre" and "John Hardy" and I loved them all. I think you will too.

We are delighted to announce ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Fifteen': eleven more of the finest original songs from Coventry & Warwickshire artists, demonstrating the staggering quality and diversity of the local music scene.

On this occasion we are delighted to share with you the following songs:

"Picking Up Pieces" by Permanent Daylight

"All Through Space" by Robert James Grey

"I Never Knew What I Wanted" by Esore Alle

"141 and 2/3% Chance" by Concrete Fun House

"Liar's Lament" by  Superhooch

"Their Eyes" by The New Obsession

"Take Me Here" by DANE-O

"Where Am I Going" by Coybito

"Loaded Weapon 1: Part 2" by Drunk Bat Rescue Team

"Psychic Flashes" by Sofa So Good

"The Jam Tasting Contest Was Rigged All Along" by BUMF

They can be downloaded for free via this link: https://hotmusiclivepresents.bandcamp.com/album/hot-music-live-presents-volume-fifteen

Fantastic live music is definitely what inspires a reviewer but the odd irony helps add a little splash of extra detail too. And last night the fifth of the ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraisers for and at The Tin was full to the brim with the former & had a few of the latter too.

Again, keeping with the overall HMLP philosophy of emphasising the diversity of original music making in Coventry and Warwickshire, the four bands were very different in style (though not in attitude).

First up was a treat for King of the Alps fans as it was (so far) their only scheduled live show in 2025. I hope for more, but those present can for the time being feel a little smug at catching it.

As we shall see, the four groups are in middle of very different live runs: not that you could tell. Experience, craft & I imagine plenty of rehearsal meant that King of the Alps were on top form, delivering their exquisitely crafted songs about the human condition with verve & panache. What few of the audience probably realised is that as they are currently in one of their core member duo phases of just Paul & Simon, the equivalence of the various third members was delivered via a gizmo which wouldn't play ball just before they were due on but which thanks to the ingenuity of Joe on the sound, was worked around with pretty much no practice on the new set up. Big thanks to Joe for the whole evening in fact. As I have said before, diversity has its value but sets challenges for sound engineers.

Permanent Daylight have been playing regularly in contrast to the band they followed on stage & this is another group whose reputation is rising both steadily & swiftly. Other bands on the lineup who'd not caught them were eager to do so & it's worth reporting that Mason Le Long who has worked with them since their inception felt that he'd not seen a better performance from them ever. Like King of the Alps, Permanent Daylight have adapted to a reduction in membership and with bassist Lou off to study, Faith has switched to that instrument alongside Joseph on guitar and Mollie on drums. The single "Picking Up Pieces" which has only just come out features the quartet but again: you couldn't tell, so well have they adapted to life as a trio.

At this point I'll slip in two of those ironies. One is putting on a gig mentioning the word "hot" on a day like yesterday. The searing sets by all four bands must be understood in the context of the heat onstage: it really pushed their physical comfort and should have sapped energy. But yes, you guessed it, that was not evident. All I would say is how much I admire their collective refusal to sell the audience short and their obvious love of playing which got them through. However they all made a beeline for outside as soon as they came off & so did the audience. Thanks to Caroline of Alchemista for repeatedly inviting the latter back in for the music.

Thanks too to Gutter Puppy for helping staff the door before going on stage which really helped the Tin team. The next irony is that their new (debut) album is called ‘Enjoy Hot'.. you couldn't have made that one up.

Delivered on the same stage as their Covtember set of 2023 which gave rise to the album, as usual Adam & Ryan stripped to their waists (wise) and as usual there was a great deal of jumping about and enthusiastic exuberance which is making so many waves live at the moment. As of course are the excellence of the songs & Connie's considerable stage charisma.  Gutter Puppy have been playing more than any of the bands (largely I suppose off the launch of the album) and seem in great demand: the key metric being that these gigs have all been in different towns. Their reputation is spreading like wildfire and there is no dependence on a hometown crowd.

Finishing the evening was the third band with a recent release: Monastery who brought out their ‘From the Banks of the Styx' EP a few days ago: and again a record with a title & theme not unconnected with hellfire seems ironic.

They've not played as much locally recently  as Permanent Daylight or Gutter Puppy (Liv & Josh of course also have been involved in the increasingly busy HEK who played at the first of these fundraisers back in February) and so it was good to see them back with this lineup (the others being the rhythm section of Kyle & Lewis) which won ‘Godiva Calling' a few years back. As you might imagine, there was no rustiness at all & they seemed to have a lot of fun revisiting songs they wouldn't have played in a while. Would you want to play thrash metal in a heatwave? Thankfully genre style conventions allowed for some pretty suitable options in terms of vests, shorts etc. As with King of the Alps, hopefully Monastery will get some dates on their live calendar for the latter part of 2025. We certainly got a great reminder of what we've been missing.

Next up for this series of gigs is one on July 18^th with The Session, Trust Club, Homebread & Stereotypical which I think will be completely up there with the ones to date in terms of highest quality & diversity. Most people I hope will leave having discovered a great new band. Tickets are available in advance via this link:

https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/hot-music-live-presents-the-the-tin-at-the-coal-tickets/14371533

Up Close and Acoustic is a new series of Music and Chat events with folk personalities which kicks off at the Albany Theatre, Coventry on Friday 27^th June. Rob Halligan is the special guest on this occasion and he certainly has a fascinating story to share.

Presented by  local promotional campaign, CVFolk, the show takes place in the Intimate surroundings of the theatre's Courtyard Studio.  Inspirational and much-travelled contemporary folksinger, Rob will not only perform some of his own songs but also talk about them, and the life events that influenced them.

He'll be interviewed by local musician and folk podcaster Bill Bates who will also encourage questions from the audience – and sing a couple of songs himself. In between some powerful and thoughtfully-written material, the conversation will unravel some of Rob's fascinating journey from troubled teens to headline musician whose personal spiritual strength has proved a powerful influence for many people. With his distinctive folk-rock style, Rob explores loss, faith, and redemption through moving lyrics, foot-stomping tunes, and a performance that connects deeply with audiences.

Rob's story is particularly interesting and often moving. He has worked with leading folk and rock musicians in the UK and USA and key events of his life – the loss of his father in the 9/11 attack, and Rob's involvement in the charity work of Global Care, putting him in direct contact with the fight against Third World poverty and its appalling impact on children – all of these experiences have given him a truly global and human perspective which enriches his writing and his music.

As the ‘Michael Parkinson' of the evening, Bill Bates is a very popular and well-known musician in his own right and recent years have seen him growing in stature as a podcaster who knows how to inject humour and personality into his conversations.

More dates for the Up Close and Acoustic project are lined up for the Autumn and Spring with Marion Fleetwood, Kevin Dempsey, Keith Donnelly and Lauren South among the forthcoming guests.

The show on June 27^th starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £14.50 or £10.50 concessions (including students and pensioners). Call the Albany Theatre Box Office on 02476 998964 (Monday – Saturday 10.30am – 1.30pm), or book online at www.albanytheatre.co.uk.

I've decided to take the plunge & to refer to Stone Bear in the singular now since the band consists entirely of David John. It'll take some getting used to my end of years of plurality in the matter but you are probably better at managing change than I am.

Today he has dropped two more of his solo pieces under the collective title of ‘In My Own Time': one is a track of the same name, the other is called "Many Miles". Both therefore slot perfectly into the conceptual framework of his recent work which taken together give an ever more detailed description of an individual on a journey but to a timetable of their own choosing: the immediately preceding releases being "Long Way Round" and "Suitcase in My Hand".

I'm coming to the conclusion in my own slow way that this growing body of work may well be as (if not more) philosophical than descriptive and perhaps related to the changes in his own life & adjustments made to it as a consequence. The clincher is of course the parallel evolution of his sound & possibly there is a chicken & egg debate in there somewhere between the form and the content. 

What is certain though is that although solo & contemplative, these tracks are not wholly acoustic as such: "In My Own Time" is played on an electric instrument though its partner features an acoustic one. Which makes me realise in my trying to describe his paradigm shift over the last few years in which his style has moved from urban to rural blues forms, I may have over-generalised to the point of suggesting much more homogeneity of the recent songs than is the case. This is neatly exemplified by this pair: neither to be sure is exactly speeding down the road but one has a taut spring in its step while the other ambles along. If you met them, you might see one turning round to urge the other on while the latter doesn't break a sweat.

What struck me after a few listens was how, although "In My Own Time" is blues song, it's the sort of blues song Bob Marley used to take and make his own. If you only know his later highly produced international hits, check out The Wailers' earlier work from the late 1960s with Lee Perry. There are loads of gentle acoustic songs which draw from soul, pop and the blues which have a charm later smothered in the studio. David even sings with some of Bob's mannerisms of that period.

If this one was clipped, Caribbean & precise, then "Many Miles" brings  the form closer to traditional English folk music with his finger picking not just conjuring up a gentle compulsive melody but enfolding its arms around the beat which helps produce that contrast in gait I remarked on just now.

This in turn helps shine light on one of the crucial aspects of David's writing. Potential charges of cultural appropriation are always in play when the blues are played by people who palpably did not go through the same experiences as those who created the form. By melding the structures and conventions with others from closer to his own roots, ones which never were prominent in the first generations, a hybrid yet fresh and above all honest new version emerges. 

Beyond that lies an even more drastic shift: roads may still be long & journeys tiring, but the traditional pessimism is replaced in Stone Bear's music with greater optimism (homes are not only yearned for but occasionally reached). In fact David is making this cycle of travelling blues sound less of an ordeal & more like therapeutic mindfulness: a chance to slow down, appreciate life & muse upon it.

If only the uncut meadow parts of St Nicholas Park in Warwick had contained a few more (wild) flowers to provide the perfect setting for WLDFLWRS this afternoon. As it was, the band themselves bloomed in the sun so I get to work an analogy in.

To be honest, I've seen so many formulations of this group/project that I've lost count of which ones I've caught & which I haven't: last time it was the four founders: Wes, Katherine, Jack & Jono. This time drummer Chris was with them & so we enjoyed  the core lineup for their debut EP, the contents of which provided much of the set alongside picks from their "Last Waltz" repertoire.

Hats off to them for transcending the several sound issues with patience, stoicism & acerbic wit (I'm not sure Van Morrison wrote "Caravan" about his holiday). I'm afraid we are into the season of the bane of my life over the last few years: the proliferation of "lifestyle" festivals of banal titles & purposes where great musicians are treated like commodities. Most, if not all, of the problems could have been prevented by allocating time for sound checks: to exclude these is an affront to musicians and audiences. Thankfully once the feedback had more or less been dealt with and the band figured out which mics worked, what we heard out front reflected their talent. Sorry to raise this again but I feel strongly on the matter and wish I didn't have to annually bring it up.

The harmonies & playing were uplifting and the choice of what to play well made: I'd like to single out I particular the dedication of encore Neil Young's "Long May You Run" to the memory of both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. To be honest, the originals in the set outnumbered the covers and I think it's exhilarating how the original idea of a sophisticated tribute gig to raise funds for Stratford's Street Arts project has evolved into four highly talented & individual writers and performers pooling their considerable abilities and visions to such wonderful effect: it cannot have been foreseen even by them I suspect.

I am not wholly sure of all their planned gigs (probably in various permutations) but don't forget their big one on November 27^th at Birmingham Town Hall. MGM used to boast of having "more stars than there are in heaven" under contract. If you look at WLDFLWRS lineup of guests for Birmingham, they've trumped even that studio. (Tickets via: https://bmusic.co.uk/events/a-celebration-of-the-last-waltz)

WENDY JAMES ANNOUNCES UK TOUR IN OCTOBER 2025

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

NEW ALBUM ‘THE SHAPE OF HISTORY' OUT NOW

"The Wendy James of 2024 is an older, wiser and far more intriguing prospect. (The Shape of History) never dull, and certainly never predictable" Classic Pop

"Charming" Classic Rock

"The album sounds like a patchwork of memories – victories, heartaches, the feeling of racing down California highway, no destination in mind" The Independent

WENDY JAMES has announced a UK tour in October in support of her recently released new album 'The Shape of History'. 

Written, produced and mixed by James and recorded in West London and New York City, ‘The Shape Of History' is the tenth solo album by Transvision Vamp lead singer, and it is available digitally, on deluxe vinyl and via deluxe CD.

Wendy will be accompanied on tour by a full band, including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Jim Sclavunos on drums and Alex Ward on guitar. They will be playing songs from across all of her albums, from TVV Pop, to New Wave Punk to Lo-Fi Racine No.1, through to the big productions of Queen High Straight and The Shape Of History, picking off favourite songs from each.

The full list of dates are as follows: 

WENDY JAMES - 2025 TOUR

• Wednesday 1st October - 100 Club, London
• Thursday 2nd October - HMV Empire, Coventry
• Friday 3rd October - Hangar 34, Liverpool
• Saturday 4th October - Sugarmill, Stoke
• Tuesday 7th October - Met Lounge, Peterborough
• Wednesday 8th October - Cluny, Newcastle
• Thursday 9th October - Brudenell, Leeds
• Friday 10th October - The Brook, Southampton
• Saturday 11th October - Old Bakery Studios, Truro
• Wednesday 15th October - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
• Friday 17th October - Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool
• Saturday 18th October - Pryzm, Kingston upon Thames
• Tuesday 21st October - Deaf Institute, Manchester
• Wednesday 22nd October - King Tuts, Glasgow
• Thursday 23rd October - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh
• Friday 24th October - Georgian Theatre, Stockton on Tees
• Saturday 25th October - Tivoli, Buckley
• Tuesday 28th October - Fleece, Bristol
• Wednesday 29th October - One Ninety Four, London
• Thursday 30th October - Patterns, Brighton

Reflecting on ‘The Shape of History' Wendy James says:

"My songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally reflect the different music and references I have and love. ‘The Shape Of History' was recorded on Scrubs Lane, West London with Alex Ward, Harry Bohay and James Sclavunos. I then went off to NYC and Brooklyn to record the pianos and organs with Dave ‘The Moose' Sherman. Overdubbing continued with Al Lawson at the engineering helm in his Shepherd's Bush studio and then I went back to Berkeley, CA to mix with Jesse Nichols before mastering with Fred Kevorkian in Brooklyn NY. I have spent so much time with this music, I know it note-for-note and love it and am so happy for you to make it your own now".

"‘The Shape Of History' has a lot about love in it, a lot about appreciation of oneself, one's life and importantly, of others. It is life's arc of starting out, blooming into something and in some ways maturing. I don't think my music has got older, I know I've not gone mellow! My attitude can be more ferocious and fearless than ever, but there is an acquired wisdom, which naturally comes after having been alive for a few decades! ‘The Shape Of History' is a love letter and a Thank you note to life so far. The culmination of my tenth album is the result of co-musicians and engineers who I've worked with previously and with whom I share a language. We know each other, we choose to work together. We enjoy each other's talents and personalities. There is a happiness, a belonging, when we meet up, and an open and determined desire to achieve what we know we have to".

"From meeting Nick Christian Sayer and forming Transvision Vamp, the two of us walking into EMI Records and demanding to see the head of Artists and Repertoire, Dave Ambrose. Getting signed and making our hits of the late 80's and 90's. From collaborating with Elvis Costello and mixing that album at Sunset Sound in Hollywood where The Stones mixed ‘Exile On Main St', then moving to NYC to start writing and recording as a solo artist, all the gigs I've played and the friends I've made around the world, the astounding, incredible, wonderful people whose lives I've crossed paths with... I am so grateful for it all."

The Shape of History' is out now, and available digitally, on deluxe vinyl and CD. BUY 'THE SHAPE OF HISTORY' NOW

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• www.thewendyjames.com 
• www.instagram.com/thewendyjames 
• www.facebook.com/THEWENDYJAMES
• www.bsky.app/profile/thewendyjames.bsky.social
• www.x.com/THEWENDYJAMES
• www.youtube.com/user/THEWENDYJAMESVIDEO

*****

FURTHER PRAISE FOR WENDY JAMES

"The confidence of a musician who has paid her dues and emerged liberated by unfettered creativity" ⋆⋆⋆⋆ The Scotsman

"A very mature new solo album... There are delicate moments... But it's when the volume is cranked up that we welcome the Wendy that Vamp fans remember" The Daily Express

"(The Shape of History) perfectly encapsulates her musical journey from punk to electronic experimentation... An impressive album" 8/10 Maxazine

"Infused with glamorous sounds and humanist songwriting" Impatto Sonoro

‘Hot Music Live' stories come in a variety of shapes & sizes & so I suppose in themselves reflect the diversity of the music we are talking about.

You can enjoy the songs of course without giving a hoot about the backstory but I think it can add layers of meaning & gives me an overview of local music's broader issues which is handy for a cultural commentator.

The tale behind the forthcoming new Superhooch album ‘Gallons Of Gold' certainly interested me before I played any of the songs on it & I hope it does you too.

It also says a lot about the band, its resilience and its persistence.

We had a wave of "Covid songs" then we had a few years of material affected either thematically by musicians' experiences or logistically as bands reconvened & picked up the pieces. To be honest, I thought that the final ripples of that era had played out but I should have known better than to make assumptions.

The pandemic knocked the band off its schedule and I'm delighted that after five years of presumably off & on endeavour, they are finally sharing it next month.

It's been worth the hard work & I suspect that the process became so obviously long term that they were able to polish it even more than they would otherwise have been able to do.

The other time dependent aspect is that six year old Frank Worsley  features vocally on "Ain't Dead Yet" and "Would You Like a Receipt With That?": I seriously doubt that you'd have had the chance to hear him do that if the album had come out in 2021/2.

Since I've named two of the songs I'd best given you the others straight away: "Liar's Lament", "Attack the Rat", "Such a Shame", "Sitting on my Best Horse", "No Sin", "Kicking Off", "Tracks (Acts I-V)", two tracks called "Le Campane" and the title track itself.

Even if you plunged into the album before spotting the visual cue of the sleeve, two songs with the Spanish for "bell" and others about gold & a horse are suggestive of the Old West and you'd be right.

I tend to avoid the phrase "concept album" which to me has yet to recover from historic abuses, but ‘Gallons Of Gold' is intended as a cohesive narrative: in this case "a soundtrack to a spaghetti western that was never made" which seems fair enough to me.

Was it an effect of Covid or the idea of an outlaw gang or just that they are a very democratic and collaborative bunch, but I like how teamwork seems to have built the album: all music was composed by the band, they produced, mixed and engineered as a unit and all four sing. Benign dictatorships proliferate in bands (and less benign ones) and sometimes that is the only way to achieve unity of purpose. However I'm impressed by Superhooch's approach and maybe you wouldn't be able to play the record had it not applied.

The lyrics are by Chris Worsley and Johnny Kingham, either separately or together and bassist Steve Clarke mastered the whole. (The final band member, if you don't already know, is Anthony "Peanut" Marshall who sings and he plays drums & synthesiser).

The band have long projected a very piratical image so I suppose the evolution to the current context is fairly natural: though I don't anticipate their donning cowboy clobber, the outsider vibe remains. And it's quite a swaggering one.

This attitude endures though another key element of the necessarily long creative process was one of self reflection & going back to first principles.

On one hand this was a concrete exercise as they created a self-made record with plenty of technical trials & lessons. On the other it seems to have been a conscious effort to retain their psychedelic rock reputation & skills but not to replicate any sense of a Superhooch formula: thus potentially diluting their music & its value.

Hence you get tracks you might expect to find on a soundtrack album rather than a rock one and they could let influences like Ennio Morricone into the mixture. And he's one they specifically cite. I am pretty sure I detected a nod to Ry Cooder also.

And I use the phrase mixture deliberately: there is so much in these tracks (again they had time to consider this) and Chris tells me that they also wanted to inject some aspects of the avant garde: and it shows. Like many other albums which draw me back repeatedly, ‘Gallons Of Gold' reveals more details on each play. Some tracks are especially dense in sounds and they haven't been afraid to step outside normative structures when they feel they could tell the tale better by giving us something other than the unexpected.

As the film doesn't (yet?) exist, it's impossible to map the songs to any actual visual image or narrative, but the whole collection seems to relate impeccably closely to whatever they had in their heads: so we'd best imagine that from the music we have. It's clearly a set of songs serving a story rather than a random collection of vaguely spaghetti western style tracks.

That said, the narrative arc, sampled via that avant garde,  lens is far from easy to follow: practically it calls you back to try again which works to the band's favour but also reflects the environment. The impressionistic lyrics give a good idea of people who may have been at the peyote or like the gang in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" go mad in the unrelenting heat in the vain pursuit of gold.

However there is one ingredient which I haven't mentioned which I think is essential to understanding ‘Gallons of Gold': humour. You probably got that when you saw one of the songs was called "Would You Like a Receipt With That?". Smug self-absorbed concept albums which gave the phenomenon a bad name took themselves terribly seriously: this one inserts a tongue into the collective cheek & reinforces the whole by doing so. It's not a cheap parody and it's not even "Blazing Saddles". If anything, it reminded me of "Straight to Hell" : Alex Cox's 1987 cult classic (if you've not seen it… then do).

The playing of course is immaculate but for a band described as "brutal" in their approach, the album opens options for completely different approaches and they must have enjoyed stretching their own musicianship. That said, setting aside the obviously cinematic  soundtrack orientated tracks, you could imagine the others, ripped out of their context, still fitting seamlessly into a Superhooch live set alongside earlier material: the brutality remains, only it's deployed where the story requires & not everywhere.

I don't know if the band have a single in mind & I'm in something of a dilemma: should I, having just praised the whole, be advocating singling one track out of it? To be honest you do lose something this way but given what I said above about the enigmatic lyrics (and the delivery also makes some harder to follow), it probably doesn't matter much: Superhooch fans are unlikely to mind.

The songs, despite the setting and the  intake of new influences are not pastiche pieces nor period recreations. I'm not sure when the story is intended to take place but the title track suggests that as part of their extravagant journey, time travel as well as geographical has taken place: they appear to be transported to early 1980s New York City. Or maybe it's just in their minds? It's one heck of an impressive song though.

"Liar's Lament" is less frantic and swings round an elastic bassline and acoustic & harmonic guitar parts: it's the sort of epic that the album requires & I'd be very disappointed if it didn't get into the live set & stay there.

"Attack the Rat" veers much more to the bonkers end of the album continuum while "Ain't Dead Yet" jumps back into the TARDIS to around 1970 and invites Jimi & Sly into the party. It's that sort of a record: eclectic rock which quite apart from the story throws you continually off balance. Predicting what comes next isn't an option.

Thus we also get treated to classic heavy rock ("Such a Shame": another essential for performance in my opinion), the Gothic ("No Sin"), Post-Punk ("Would You Like a Receipt With That?") and more of the bonkers ("Sitting on my Best Horse"). Something for everyone you might well say. And each rather glorious in its own individualistic way. If you are anything like me, you'll keep finding a new "favourite" until you play the next track.

Long ago, I assume reviewers received platters of vinyl (or shellac) on 7", 10" or 12" size & then played them before writing about what they heard. Nowadays music comes in from all directions and via multiple platforms: what is a "release"

I've actually covered songs which sat on a variety of online perches but not, until now, any which reached me via the medium of Patreon (as far as I can recollect)

However as per my review of the Crypt Session yesterday, the two new songs which The Silver Wye played, namely "Finisterre" and "Unfailing" are just too good not to tell you about.

So you can check them out via: https://www.patreon.com/thesilverwye but Wes advises that he may well stream them elsewhere in time and they'll possibly make appearances on a third Silver Wye EP.

I spoke about how I heard them yesterday played by the duo of Wes Finch and Matt Lakey (though to be fair I've heard "Finisterre" live previously) and was sufficiently impressed that here I am reviewing them for you. However I am not sure the last time there was such a gap between the live versions of a song or songs and what I heard when the recordings came my way.

It's not a quality thing: as I say, the live renditions were very moving. It's partly what Ben Haines & John Parker bring to the songs (and they bring so much) and partly the contributions of Mason Le Long which are so appreciated by Wes that he mentioned them from the stage. He spoke of Mason adding "bells & whistles" which of course is shorthand for the many attributes he offers between the song being recorded and the final master hitting the public ear. And talking of ears, he obviously hears things on tracks most of us can't. His production of "Politics Killer" by Loophole broke records for streaming numbers on the ‘Hot Music Live Presents' Bandcamp platform and he still then remastered it in the search for perfection.

It is so tempting in these situations to name one form "better" than the other and although I have no issues with others having their preference, personally I consider them complementary & refer back to the inherent strength of the composition such that it prospers in various guises.

To me the key lies in the dynamic of The Silver Wye itself. Conceived by Wes back in 2018 as a route by which to explore a more "electronic" side to his songs, the first recordings featured him plus various collaborators who over the years have been replaced by the current combination. This evolution in personnel has had a range of quite subtle effects. The "electronic" strand remains. You can't miss it on the recorded versions of these two songs & given Mason's own experimental work with his band Batsch, he brings continuity to the original concept. Matt also helps here: his guitar treatments actually provide close to all of this aspect when they are playing live.

On the other hand, John is an acoustic musician whose playing anchors Wes into the world he was in before 2018 and which he remains. It also allows him to play traditional acoustic guitar himself in situations like yesterday. Ben on the other hand straddles the two worlds with ease, being equally comfortable on traditional & electronic drums and percussion.

Hence Silver Wye songs now exist in two worlds simultaneously. Or they do in my opinion.

"Finisterre" as it's name suggests, has its genesis in Wes' walking of the Camino de Santiago.

It's a complicated narrative which seems to take in the practicalities of the pilgrimage (no access to barbers), the effects on the walker's mind (not always purely beneficial as the distance takes its toll) which appears to resolve itself into a respectful separation from others on the road while lost in individual contemplation. There is a lot of soul searching (as presumably is intended by the centuries' old tradition) but even when reaching the end of Europe & gazing out on thousands of miles of empty ocean, the song is not bleak as it might have been nor as any electronic over-arrangement might have made it. I think Wes asked himself questions, the song reflects this & if he's answered some but not others or only partially done so, then "Finisterre" is about this resolution or lack thereof.

"Unfailing" is both archetypical Wes Finch in theme and at the same time the more "extreme" of the pair in terms of the production: this is the one which sounded the more different when I heard it. However much he explores electro-sound for the accompaniment, Wes tends not to process his voice terribly much, but here he does as much as I've ever heard him do so.

It's spiritual too I think: a contemplation on the wonders of creation both big & small. Throughout the Siver Wye project, Wes has repeatedly come back to such themes: light reoccurs time and again in these songs and for a while each release was timed to coincide with an astronomical event like full moons. I think what they do in these instances is trying to find ways of expressing warmth which is relatively easy with traditional instruments, using generated music, which too often defaults to that bleakness. If so, then maybe not only is The Silver Wye a quest for using electronic music in this way but also its become a search of how to reconcile two traditions of music (or approaches: has electronic music been round long enough to be called a "tradition"?) "Unfailing" thus comes across as a significant episode in the adventure.

I must surely have been to gigs on Fridays the thirteenth before & go away with it. However this was definitely the first in a crypt (the Wyley Chapel underneath the Coventry Cathedral ruins) which added a frisson. It also inspired Izzie Derry to go very gothic in her apparel.

However there were antidotes to any sense of dread: Izzie was performing with The Silver Wye to raise funds for the Coventry Food Union and that act of giving must have dispelled ill spirits. Given the number of songs about light, reaching the sun, carefree youth, luck and love generally, these too had the right effect. And there was an altar with plenty of candles too. Wes omitted "The Getting Place" from The Silver Wye set and (though I think he doesn't really agree with me) since I feel it has a Mephistophelian theme, that was appropriate. Much as I love it.

The gig's reason alone should commend it, but of course the chance to see such great talent in such an intimate space (it was much smaller than I'd anticipated) was hugely enjoyable too. Both are amongst my favourite artists (I'm not sure how many reviews they've mustered from me over the years) and I've seen them inside & out, in small spaces & larger ones, yet I still think their impact is amplified up close & in intense proximity. It's also the first time I've seen them both on the same bill: not least because because they have not done so for a long time nor many times. Which is a curious quirk of fate now rectified.

There were other uniquenesses or at least rarities: I certainly had not seen Izzie in such a space for quite some time and I honestly cannot recall having heard her song "Young and Free" live before. So a double pleasure. It was the second time I'd caught her inside a fortnight though the context was completely different & was greatly appreciated. In fact given the bout of laryngitis she was coming down with on the previous occasion & which led to a cancelled gig last weekend, it was equally good that she was there at all.

On the other hand, I'd never seen a two person variant of The Silver Wye before: in the absence of drummer Ben Haines and (double) bassist John Parker, Wes Finch & Matt Lakey  retweaked their arrangements  accordingly & it worked really well: one might question whether there was adequate room for all four anyway.

Apart from this novelty, they ranged across their ever growing body of work and included two new tracks, "Finisterre" and "Unfailing" (review to follow) which they've worked on with Mason Le Long and which you can get via their Patreon page. It says much about the quality of the songwriting as well as playing that their songs, which actually feature intricate and sophisticated arrangements as integral parts of their being, work well live even when you subtract half the performers & especially two of the finest players of their instruments around.

So everyone went home very moved & very happy and the Food Union was boosted accordingly. I do commend the series to you though on both artistic and altruistic grounds.

Next up in the Crypt (again for the Food Union) are The Treble Makers & Sophie Hadlum on 11^th July: the former are a quartet from amongst WorldSong. Well can you imagine fitting them all into a space that limited? (tickets via: https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/events/the-crypt-sessions-4)

The singles are coming in a bit of a deluge from Luke Concannon & Darius Christian: you can hardly have finished getting your head around "Stick Together" and now "Shine" is here for you.

I'm still struggling to process the rhetoric coming from the supposedly left of centre government whom I naively voted for which in recent days has included preparing for war against a vastly more powerful nation, building multiple attack submarines while cutting benefits to the most vulnerable & launching an offensive on inclusion & diversity: two central ideas to what I strive towards. Since Luke and Darius are US based, I shudder to think that their experiences must be even more traumatic.

I therefore especially admire them for their optimistic and rousing continued approach to music making: it is now even more defiant: not necessarily in its own terms (Luke adopted this position a long time ago) but because the context has got so much worse. I think the more the world moves away from their ideas, the more they feel that they wish & need to counteract the dynamics of intolerance & selfishness. It's worth remembering too that Luke self-defines as an activist: his songs are not disconnected commercial artefacts nor even sad observations. They are purposeful exhortations to rise up and challenge contemporary norms.

It would be trite to call them a "two person crusade" as part of their approach is predicated on their knowledge that they are far from alone: they are speaking to kindred spirits, albeit ones battered by current political trends which try & break community.

Luke says of "Shine" that it is "…about the need to play, let loose and connect" and he also  hopes that you can dance. Connection is key here: it's central to these songs the pair are producing at the moment  (the previous one was of course named "Stick Together") and is neatly illustrated by Luke's continuing joy of small, intimate (packed) performances and his (ever since I first saw him) habit of abandoning his starting spot to wander playing amongst his audience: to be as one with them.

They are not however dogmatic, puritanical ideologues: that "dance" element is also vital and it is clear that any vision of community includes the sharing of joy as well as defeating negativity. 

Music has an incredibly long & honourable tradition of sustaining even the most oppressed of cultures (if you've not yet read Joe Boyd's comprehensive "And the Roots of Rhythm Remain" then I strong advise you too: quite apart from tracing musical threads, this theme reoccurs so many times in so many places) and thankfully "Shine" and similar songs are not (yet) illegal is this country nor the USA (I bet you can't play it in some sad states though) and so we must hope that its sentiments bear fruit before the malign powers clamp down further.

The big problem I suspect is balance. Luke & Darius want to accentuate positives & help us life ourselves, but too jaunty a song & they'd run the danger of looking like they might be trivialising the pressures people have to deal with: too solemn on the other hand and we'd not get that boost.  I think they are very alert to this and a clue as to how they've reconciled this may lie in Luke's comment that it ".. might be the best thing we've put out yet..". A case of a challenge met perhaps? The inspiration apparently comes from sitting in a friend's garden (the activist Deborah Frieze) in Boston (I get the impression that all Luke's songs nowadays have an outdoor genesis) and reflecting on ways to re-energise her in the wake of overwork: so it can be extended to any situation of stress and anxiety and seeking a remedy for this: keep it simple, acknowledge the problem and move straight towards a solution.

When I say "simple" that's me being relative of course. Darius brings so much to Luke's music in terms of arrangements and extra instrumentation but he also deserves a medal for following his idiosyncratic structures and bringing the most out of them.

"Shine" is pretty much the most overtly commercial of this run of singles and probably could reach the largest audience and so bring them within their embrace. Possibly the best bass part to grace a Luke song since Nizlopi days, wonderful, fresh brass parts which dance adeptly past the predictable and female backing vocals which add more joy to the mix. I'm totally happy to endorse Luke's analysis of its place in their growing body of work. It has all it needs to do well which in turn means more people will hear it, dance to it, feel cheered up & embrace each other. Which is why they made it of course.

At the danger of seeming a bit precious, I'd like to end with a quote by Andy Morgan, manager of the Tuareg band Tinariwen as firstly I came across it while writing this piece & secondly because it seemed so apt in relation to what Luke & Darius are striving for.  "Music expands the heart's capacity. It can make emotional connections across barren distances and frontiers of culture and language. It can create empathy where none would otherwise exist".