The Driving Test
A Musical Car Ride
Whilst we would love to give every album/EP/single a full indepth review,we are only human and don't have a time turner so we aren't able to give every release the time and attention it deserves.
In the past that would have ment that we either reviewed a release or we didn't, but now we have a third option, a middle way.
The solution here has been a simple one. Rather than review individual artists' CD's at length, we play them one after the other on a long car journey. The simple listening test is: "are they bearable in the car - interesting, enjoyable, not distracting". This may not be how the artists want us to hear their work, but it's how a lot gets listened to for the first time and at least raises awarenes! The rating system is simple and provides a shorthand for reference.:
Louis Brennan - Louis Brennan ***
www.louisbrennanmusic.com
With his deep baritone reminiscent of Mark Eitzel, Stuart Staples and a less gravelly Tom Waits, I've been an admirer of the Dubliner's previous albums with their wright emotional and political themes. Created after a traumatic period in which he lost both parents, got sober and entered therapy, this, his third, he on mandolin, Joe Harvey Whyte pedal and lap steel, and vocals from Angela Gannon, Jack Francis and Hannah Nicholson, is a rather more uneven affair. It starts out magnificently with the emotionally anthemic 'Brendan The Navigator' ("there must be something more than this/In the darkest night a light that exists/Something tells me I'm not meant to be/Just another tourist staring at the sea") and the regret and acceptance stained piano-backed 'Days Of Wine and Roses' (now I'm full grown/Talking to a therapist on the telephone/Trying to explain, the source of my pain/I turned thirty-eight today/And I'll never play the Dane"). The soft-shoe shuffling cabaret blues 'Booze Glorious Booze' is clearly about struggling with the bottle, and the vocally echoing, strings-dressed 'Death Is An Illusion' is another cinematic sweeping ballad, But, beginning with the near six-minute meandering fingerpicked post-lockdown Cohenesque lament 'Blood Is Thicker Than Water' with its references to his father's funeral, while the emotional heft remains, the melancholy-heavy songs ("I'm just a little boy lost/Trying to find his way back home") become less musically and melodically memorable (the closing eight-minute Lindisfarne with an overlong jazzy jam playout), the clattering jiving swing 'The Doing The Thing' a brief returning spark. Intermittently recommended. MD
Pharis & Jason Romero - These Are The Days That Turn Into Years ****
www.pharisandjason.com
Four years since their last release, the Canadian old-timey bluegrass duo return in fine fettle, she on guitar he on banjo with Trent Freeman on fiddle and Patrick Metzger on bass, with an album that offers an upbeat listen even when the lyrics may seem less positive. 'Big Time World' gets the ball rolling with a song about weathering the storms when "thieves keep picking at your pocket". Resilience is also at the heart of the jaunty getting older-themed 'Last Call' ("I could have died in my sleep last night, on the side of the road 'fore that/I've lost track of how many times I thought that was that"), thoughts of mortality also bubbling through the piano-backed 'Last Night' ("Last night he wrote to all his friends/Especially the ones that don't call him/Maybe they're just waiting for/The phone to ring, or a knock at the door") with Pharis's sister Marin Patenaud adding vocals, and the banjo-heavy coffin train 'Left My Home'. Elsewhere the ups and down of relationships provide the substance for the likes of the warbling 'Always Losing Track', 'Hey Babe' and the savour the time you have 'These Are The Days' while restlessness underpins the moodily lazy blues 'Cannonball'. 'I Got Away From Myself' speaks to finding some sort of salvation ("I'm gonna move a little slower, drink a little bit less/See if I can't accept some advice from myself") and 'Georgie' hints at political commentary a she sings "We say Georgie you can't sing that song here anymore…We were born to ramble, we were born to roam/Across this very land that sometimes does not feel like home", the album ending with the banjo instrumental 'Lost Lula'. There's no fake polish here, just open-hearted, unfussy music with the smell of mountain pines in its nostrils. MD
Various Artists - Léve Léve: Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds 70s-80s Vol. 2 ****
lesdisquesbongojoe.bandcamp.com/album/l-ve-l-ve-vol-2-sao-tom-principe-sounds-70s-80s
Straddling the Equator, São Tomé and Príncipe the tropical island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea off the western coast of Central Africa, and the second-smallest country in Africa, certainly seems to punch above its weight in terms of music. This second Volume of music from Bongo Joe Records shows that there is certainly a wealth of gems still to be mined. Vibrant in the extreme, the music blends traditional African rhythms with influences from Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, the Caribbean, Congo and Portugal. The energetic puxa beats, along with other island-specific rhythms, define the sound, which reached its zenith, prior to the clamour caused by the re-issues, in the 1970s and 80s. Always lively, and more than occasionally with lyrics dipping into the realm of social conscience and protest, check out 'Apoiámos a luta dos nossos irmão' from the magnificent África Negra. Four tracks from Sangazuza hold a high-line in terms of tempo, whilst Pedro Lima e Conjunto Popular Os Leonenses bring a welcome touch of reggae-infused ambiance to their puxa song Sossegado. Conjunto Equador contribute a couple of two-tapping treats in 'Maia da môle' and 'Pecado dy mundo', whilst Conjunta Minelo's 'Queima Roupa' fairly fizzes along. This album is ideal listening on a long journey, dynamic, rhythmically persuasive with effervescent "sunshine guitars" aplenty, it is music to stir and lift spirits, as embodied in the title phrase léve, léve, meaning "take it easy DP
Ireke - Ayô Dele ****
ireke.bandcamp.com/music
The sounds of summer echo throughout the second album from French duo Ireke, plus their guests. Building on their well-received Tropikadelic debut, a blend of Afro-funk and Hi-Life, Ayô Dele reflects their self-confessed musical influences, Afrobeat, funk, soul, jazz, the reggae legend King Tubby, Fela Kuti included, along with a smattering of Hip Hop, and sees a more multi-lingual approach to lyrics, less of the French, with singing in English, Martinican Creole, Spanish and Yoruba, with the female voices very much to the fore.A compulsion to want to move throughout the album is possibly not ideal for listening on a road journey from a safety viewpoint, the danceable rhythms of 'Tout est Bizarre' being a great example. However, other tracks are more soulful and smoother, 'Vi Vi' fitting the bill here, whilst 'Soulshine' is an upbeat, bright offering with a great groove. Ayô Dele is a Yoruba phrase meaning "joy comes to me", and this emotion will readily transfer to the listener too. DP
Nuevos Ríos - Nuevos Rías****
nuevosrios.bandcamp.com/album/nuevos-rios
Intercultural music projects between Colombia and Toulouse may not readily spring to mind when looking for The Driving Test candidates. However this eponymous entitled album can be recommended to banish the interminable motorway minutes, (or local snarl ups). Imagine a mélange of Afro-descendant traditions of the Colombian Pacific, elevated by electronic and amplified elements, with the resultant sounds instantly catchy and always irresistibly upbeat. As we are warned, the tropical heat melds with the sweat of the European dancefloors in a unique cocktail. Enjoy 'Sumba Ale', which presents a vibrant tapestry of sound, woven around marimba and guasá, (percussion 'rattle instrument') blended with electric guitar, bass, and keyboards, creating a joyful groove, an atmosphere replicated in 'La Vida es un Baile', with its captivating merengue rhythms. In contrast, the crystal-clear lead vocal of the funeral song, 'Si Yo Fuera', and its attendant choral accompaniment will hold the listener captivated. To paraphrase the lyrics in 'La Vida es un Baile', this album is full of "la buena vibra", ("good vibes"), and is a worthy addition to a road play-list, whilst also warranting serious audition in the solitude of a domestic environment. DP
The Hanging Stars - Just A Day ***
www.thehangingstars.com
The chiming 12-string and four-part harmonies constantly draw parallels with The Byrds and, co-produced by Sean Read and Teenage Fan Club's Gerald Love, who also plays and co-wrote, the sixth album is no great departure, again delivering the catchy hooks and hummable summery melodies. Opening with the tumbling breezy notes of the upbeat 'All Your Yesterdays', the rockier 'The Glasshouse' (with its lyrical reference to The Doors 'The Crystal Ship') is a have not's envy of the haves with the warning "All your treasure cannot save you" and 'Sister Of The Sun' is all late 60s hazy psychedelia while 'Let It Slide' is a kiss-off number and' Big Red Car' leans into country gospel drone. On the lazing side you get 'Time Is Nothing' balanced out by the bluesy funk of '(Keep On) Making Me Wait' and bassist Paul Milne's "Show Me The Way" which sounds like a lost early 10cc track. The title track closes up with organ and a slow sway that calls to mind REM's 'Everybody Hurts', ending things on a warm, melancholic glow. MD
ES Pearl Present Ed Snodderly - Baggage Flies Free ***
www.edsnodderleymusic.com
Of Appalachian folk roots, this is Snodderly's first album to use his new stage (family) name of ES Pearl, but little else has changed in his musical world, still delivering nimble fingerpicked acoustic blues filtered through a Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack prism with songs that touch on both the everyday personal and, on 'Will Your Down Home Be Unbroken', land-grabbing socioeconomics ("A man come walking/And knocked upon our door/In his hand he held paper and pen/His voice had an offer …Mama said to him …speaking with no spite or scorn/She told that poor feller nothing here's for sale/Cept' eggs and good sweet corn"). The sprightly opener 'Coming Down This Road' is about someone coming home after a stint behind bars, 'Willow Tree' a celebration of nature, 'Fixing This Old Gate' conjures the reality of country living, 'That I Need You More Than I Ever Have Before;' is a kind of talking ragtime blues love song while nostalgia veins 'The Place' and 'The Grandest Tail' is a moral allegory about vanity and self-importance. There's several tracks with music at their heart, 'Malcolm Holcombe' a tribute to his songwriting collaborator, the self-explanatory ragtime 'When Doc Watson Come To Johnson City', a love letter to 'This Old Guitar' ("This old guitar played on the stage of The Grand Ole Opry elbow to elbows with the Smoky Mountain Boys…This old guitar long time under the bed/Old dusty case fifty years waiting/In the night be held again") and, featuring Amethyst Kiah, 'High In The Rhyme', a eulogy to an unnamed musician though everything suggests it's probably about his father. MD
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.