Music RECORDS
LABELS OF LOVE
TOO MANY FIREWORKS There’s a phoenix rising in our midst, and its designate is Too Many Fireworks. Formed around 2001 by Troika’s Neil Milton (aka Beneath Us, The Waves), it was inspired by Chemikal Underground and enlightened by Electric Honey. The Glasgow-based imprint entered a hiatus in 2006, but it’s returned with guns blazing and a Warsaw HQ: hurray! What artists have you released to date?
‘Findo Gask, Errors, Macrocosmica, Titus Gein, Laeto, Flying Matchstick Men, Hector Collectors, Churn.’
Do your releases share any artistic or ideological traits? ‘Not in the past, no – it was much more haphazard than that. I’d like to find a common thread now though. There’s a lot of tremendous modern-classical music out there, and alongside post-rock and ambient artists, I’d like that style to be the backbone of the label.’ How can a small label thrive these days? ‘I think it’s important for labels to understand that old music industry ways are not viable and that incorporating things like blogs and podcasts is a necessity. I’m a huge advocate of new online strategies. Offline too, doing something alongside the label – for instance acting as a promoter – helps to build interest and a fan-base.’
Will operating out of Poland change the label, in practical or other ways? ‘The main difference now is that the label is run entirely online so it cuts most logistical problems. But whether in Poland or based online, Too Many Fireworks will always be a Scottish label.’ What’s coming up on the revitalised imprint? ‘There’s a full digital download reissue of our back catalogue, and a reissue of a very rare album by Germlin called Adventurer’s Companion Vol 1 – he recorded it to sell for one night only at a gig at the Sub Club in 2004, and I think there were only 100 made, so that’s pretty cool. My own [modern-classical] debut EP, ‘Elements’ is new, and we’ve an EP by the Graveyard Tapes and a collection of alternative interpretations of Chopin coming out – plus a monthly Radio Magnetic podcast, and a brand new website, where you can download an eight- track label sampler for free.’ (Nicola Meighan) ■ www.toomanyfireworks.co.uk
64 THE LIST 21 Oct–4 Nov 2010
GENTLE ROCK SURROUNDED Oppenheimer & Woodstock (One Little Indian) ●●●●●
On their last album, 2008’s The Nautilus Years, Swedish five- piece Surrounded were a virtual facsimile of Mark Linkous’s Sparklehorse. With their musical inspiration sadly no longer with us, the band here have eschewed the intimate minutiae of life for grander sounds, sweeping waves of layered guitars lathering singer Marten Rydell’s whispered vocal in emotive swirls. While the effect is undeniably pleasant, possibly hypnotic and certainly absorbing, there is something a tad formulaic about the gradual build of each track to an epic climax that makes you long for just a bit more variety to their songwriting and production. (Doug Johnstone) PIANO EXPERIMENTS BILL WELLS AND STEFAN SCHNEIDER Pianotapes (Karaoke Kalk) ●●●●●
This second collaboration between Falkirk’s answer to Thelonious Monk and one third of German electronicists To Rococo Rot is a languid marriage between top of the range chamber piano sketches and low- end analogue equipment. Recorded in the Dusseldorf showroom of Bechstein piano makers, Wells plays a series of contemplative scales which are recorded live on reel to reel by Schneider, then played back slowed-down or
sped up, which Wells in turn responds to. The result of this fragile call and response, complete with assorted in situ creaks and clicks, is quietly textured mood music falling somewhere between Eric Satie and Harold Budd in a deliciously impressionistic exploration. (Neil Cooper) THEATRE SCORE A BAND CALLED QUINN The Beggar’s Opera (Tromolo) ●●●●●
Theatre and pop music can often make embarrassingly naff bedfellows, but when Louise Quinn and co appeared onstage in Vanishing Point’s audacious sci-fi reimagining of John Gay’s 18th century satire, their live score was vital to the action. Decontextualised from performance, this studio interpretation remains a moodily melodramatic series of 80s electro-tinged mucky stories from some leather-clad underworld. From the Morricone- styled gallop of ‘Here’s To Us’ and the breathy jukebox croon of ‘We Are The Scum,’ a triumphal up yours attitude prevails, while ‘The Fuse’ morphs a spoken-word centerpiece reminiscent of Tom Robinson’s ‘Power in the Darkness’ with the motorik disco of Katy Perry’s ‘Hot and Cold’. Take that poshos! (Neil Cooper)
JAZZ BILL FRISELL Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz) ●●●●●
The guitarist continues to plough his idiosyncratic furrow through American music with this new trio,
featuring viola player Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston. The album also marks the switch to a new record label following a 20-year association with Nonesuch. Although new on disc, this trio has been playing live for a couple of years, and it shows. The music is a characteristically intriguing selection of Frisell originals and covers, ranging from Benny Goodman’s ‘Benny’s Bugle’ to Little Anthony and the Imperials’ ‘Goin’ Out of My Head’, and taking in folk, blues, country and bluegrass sources along the way. Frisell’s trademark spidery, evocative guitar work makes less use of effects than on many other projects, part of a rather sombre pared- down sound that generally works well on the chosen material. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ SOWETO KINCH The New Emancipation (Soweto Kinch Recordings) ●●●●●
Saxophonist Soweto Kinch was widely touted as ‘the next big thing’ in British jazz last decade. Four years on from the ambitious but flawed A Life In The Day of B-19, Kinch returns with another fusion of hard-hitting contemporary jazz instrumentals and rather less satisfactory rap/vocal tracks, including what can only be described as a couple of satirical comic vignettes on contemporary life. The mix of jazz with hip-hop and rap never gels as a unity, and I very much doubt that the spoken word sketches will stand up to repeated listening. Kinch has a very serious purpose here – the title serves to illustrate his conviction that social and racial problems have changed rather than disappeared
– but still hasn’t found a wholly convincing medium for his message. Nonetheless, there is some very fine jazz along the way. (Kenny Mathieson) WORLD THE CREOLE CHOIR OF CUBA Tande-La (Real World) ●●●●●
What an inspiring story: only weeks after the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, The Creole Choir of Cuba were working with the Cuban medical mission singing the same exuberant songs to survivors living in makeshift tents that they had sung at The World venue at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe. Listen to this album of twelve Haitian freedom songs and you understand why they received a five-star review. Individual voices within stirring choruses texture songs that reach from the heroic to the romantic, uplifting the soul. (Jan Fairley) WORLD LOS DE ABAJO Actitud De Calle (Wrasse Records) ●●●●●
Mexico’s crazy Los de Abajo – with their irresistible fusion of Latinised ska, rock, reggae and more – are here joined by a stellar list of guest musicians. Kicking off with the party ‘Fiesta’, powered by flashes of brass, this tight set stays true to their common sense politics delivered with wit and panache. Despite a few changes in personnel nothing here disappoints and let’s hope they return to European festival touring in 2011. (Jan Fairley)