Americana UK

I've just started writing for the website Americana UK. My first review was a Bluegrass album by Chris Jones and The Night Drivers. Find it HERE

 

Mark Hollis

When Mark Hollis, passed recently he wasn't someone who moved me to write an obituary. The iPod has "Spirit of Eden" and a Talk Talk best of called "Natural History" which get played occasionally, but it became obvious reading and listening to others talking about him that I had missed the point.

Talk Talk were bracketed early on with the Synth Pop crowd of the early 80s, but there was an organic quality to the sounds even then. The repeating piano motif on Life's What You Make It" pointed the way to the more acoustic feel to follow, all well and good but too much music, too little time...

When I read Nick Zanca's post over at the Listen to This blog I found someone who could articulate what Hollis had meant to him. You can read the whole piece HERE but I will take the liberty of quoting part of it.

'A little over twenty years later, [after the release of the album "Mark Hollis"] the music industry has eaten itself. As a discovery platform, streaming services reduce even the most unorthodox music down to exclusive, rudimentary listening contexts– dinner parties, “mood boosters,” “lo-fi beats to study to”–as if it wasn’t bad enough that they barely compensate. Young artists online hardly thrive, if ever, on transparency and instant validation–to keep your work close to the chest is somehow to become estranged; we assume the role of “wearing” our music beyond simply letting it sing for itself... I’m forever indebted to the standard Mark Hollis set and am inspired to stay true to all of the grey areas. I only hope the people introduced to his work for the first time this week will stumble upon a similar solace.' 

 
Zanca also talks about Hollis in relation to Susan Sontag's essay "The Aesthetics Of Silence" which Robert Fripp has also discussed with regard to his approach to Soundscapes. So, needless to say the very next thing I did was buy the "Mark Hollis" album. I would endorse Nick Zanca's final comment in his piece.

'If this is your first listen, wait for a quiet moment to press play. In his [Hollis's] words, “You should never listen to music as background music.'

I suspect I will be playing this many times in future, it's one of those records that makes you feel that listening to the ephemeral fluff that comprises most of popular music is a waste of time. If you don't know this record listen to it soon.

Record Store Day - It's a Niche

In January BBC News added to the hours spent predicting the death of physical sales and bemoaning the rise of streaming. We have also had the collapse and revival of HMV, and seen that also blamed on streaming. As it's Record Store Day again, and once again it's all vinyl, vinyl, vinyl. Time to look at some stats showing the current state of music sales and see how they measure up to the hype.

The headlines always focus on the decline in physical numbers of CD sales and the percentage growth of vinyl sales. In 2018 there were 4.2 million vinyl records sold new, about £60 million worth ^. CD sales were 32 million, while this was a decline in quantity, value held fairly steady at £450 million*.  Downloading took the biggest hit declining to £35 million worth, bearing mind that a lot of these"unit sales" are single songs rather than albums. Streaming music sales pulled in £829 million '. So overall music sales are worth around £1.5 billion. This is a decline of about 41% by value since the peak in 2000.

Some facts:

• The overall music business is worth about 4.5 billion, with live music, merchandising, exports, and publishing included. Allowing for inflation this is about the same as in 2000. So live music and the rest has grown significantly since then
• The death of HMV blamed on streaming was in fact about DVD sales collapse, which fell by 45% in 2018~. 
• The real vinyl revival is in second hand discs, which don't show up in sales figures. Talking to several record shop owners recently suggests that their sales are booming. But then so are their cd sales.
• Ebay, Discogs & Amazon Marketplace UK used cd sales amounted to nearly £500 million in 2018 ".

The biggest selling albums in the UK in 2018 accordnig to the Official Charts Company by physical & digital sales were:

What does all this tell us?

• Old folks buy cds, (vinyl in this context is next to non existent), young people buy digital, and Christmas (Now 101) makes a big difference. 
• Physical sales are more healthy than it seems on first inspection
• Physical media of all sorts are becoming a niche or hobbyist market. Knitting is worth about £400 million interestingly...
• HMV with £250 million of sales is critical to the survival of the market, Independent shops prop up the hobby end of the market but don't compete on volume sales
• The supermarkets (particularly Tesco & Sainsburys) largely exiting the cheap cd market has hit sales but not damaged value much. 
• The markets for streaming and physical media are almost totally mutually exclusive.
• Those in their 20s or younger consume music as they do video or games, it isn't "special" to them in the way it is to older demographics

So don't believe the vinyl hype CDs, downloads, and streaming all have their place. The big problem comes in a decade or so when us old people have all stopped buying physical media and the age of music as a mass market medium ends. 

^ Source  - The Vinyl Factory 4.1.19
* Source  - UK Investor magazine 3.1.19
' Source  - Music Business worldwide 3.1.19
~ Source - Variety 9.2.19
" Source - Den Of Geek 12.3.19

Bristol and Bath boys (and girls) make more noise...

Bristol's music scene, if you think of it at all, probably conjures up Trip Hop, Drum & Bass or if you are a bit older Reggae. Back in my day it was a diverse mix of all sorts of pop, rock, funk and noise.

The year is about 1981 to 83, and my friend Neil and I are as usual in either The Bridge Inn or The Green Rooms at the end of King Street to see one of the local bands. Top of our list were Streets Ahead and Misdemeanor. Streets Ahead a five piece band with quite a varied set of songs. Bluesy poppy, all sorts. They did two EPs, but from memory had better songs in their set, always good value to see but seem to have vanished from the local memory. Unlike Misdemeanor, a genuinely great rock band who should have been contenders. Their leader Kevin McFadden has recently passed away, but leaves two albums that show what could have been without the useless manager and a bit better luck. So, most Saturdays you could see three or four great and a lot more less great bands. Umo Vogue a synth-pop band who attracted a fair bit of interest. Automatic Dlamini who were a truly amazing live act who never got properly recorded.  Polly Harvey joined them later on and the band sort of morphed into P.J. Harvey in the end.

Over in Bath you had Moles where all the cool bands played, including ones that would become Tears For Fears, and a great band now largely forgotten called Interview. There were name bands as well, including one called Discipline who would stop denying they were the 80s incarnation of King Crimson a few gigs later. On the cover of the KC collectors club cd of this date you can even see a picture of a slightly scared looking 17 year old me in the background...  Down at The Bell in Walcot Street there were less well known bands, most of whose names have been lost in the mists of time. One remains however, a synth duo called "Micro" that, rumour had it, included the brother of someone who had been in Tangerine Dream for a bit. Memory has them as sounding great, but as the internet is silent about even their existence I can't tell you much more.

Why the nostalgia? A while ago an acquaintance pointed me towards a book called "The Granary Club: The Rock Years 1969-1988" by one time local rock DJ Al Read. Wallowing in the past sent me to look for more and I found Richard Wyatt's list of gigs he attended, many of which I was also at I'm sure. Another friend who played in a leading local band at the time has talked fondly about many similar memories to mine, he gets numerous mentions in the gig list in the Granary book, to my three.


The best book on being in a band is Giles Smith's "Lost In Music". Giles was in Bristol at some point in the 80s and we must have met, as he mentions people who are clearly mutual acquaintances. If you were ever in a band, wanted to be in a band or went to see bands, read it.

I will get back to the subject of local bands, and my part in some of the most appalling noise ever inflicted on unsuspecting ears. I may even tell you about how I got my Wikipedia entry on a famous band's page...

Over The Rhine - Love and Revelation, album review

Over the Rhine are one of the people who have made a success out of crowd funding. Using their own web portal and a fiercely loyal fanbase they have used it to make independent musical choices that have resulted in some of the best music of their career.

Their last two albums were produced by Joe Henry, but this time they have kept it to themselves, and produced an album that reflects on their 30 years as a band. Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler have been a couple for most of that time and songs like "Betting On The Muse", inspired by Charles Bukowski which examines the search for life's second act are also meditations on where they find themselves at this time. The first song, “Los Lunas” sets the tone of the album. “The very first words you hear on the project are ‘I cried,'” said Detweiler to Rolling Stone, citing the opening lyric. “When I told my 87-year-old mother about it, she said that sounds like the Psalms.” Seemingly surprised to find themselves still in business after 30 years he also said “We wanted to keep growing as writers and, at the end of the day, that’s the most important business plan for any artist: keep going.”

The highlight of any Over The Rhine album is Karin's singing, there are fewer duets than on the last album "Meet Me At The Edge Of The World" but she sounds better than ever. Linford's presence is felt more in the songwriting this time. It seems that the more personal the lyric the more intense the mood of songs that can feel at first listen sombre but reveal themselves as celebrations of life, longevity and a musical bond that they reinforce with each release. My favourites, "An American in Belfast",ironically wordless, "Let You Down", and "Given Road", but ask me again tomorrow...

Working with a small band on the road in the US, they usually tour as a duo, and have visited the UK twice in the last 18 months. Hopefully the reception for this album in Europe might prompt a wider U.K. tour to match the 7 or 8 dates they generally do in Holland and Germany. As the crowdfunder also included a Linford solo piano album and a set of devotional songs there will be plenty new to hear. A new live album would be good as well.

Available to buy HERE

In a holding pattern

Once again life has taken over and time to write here is at a premium. (Ab)normal service will resume in April, if the world keeps gets any madder I may have nothing else left to do by then. In the meantime here is the news.

Blog favourite Bill Nelson has been interviewed to destruction in the wake of Be-Bop Deluxe reissues. Vintage Rock.com talked to him HERE and Record Collector HERE. You can safely ignore Classic Rock, Prog etc as they think he stopped recording in 1977.


Another favourite Over The Rhine have issued a new album Love And Revelation , and it's their best since Ohio. I'll be back with a review of this soon. In the meantime buy it HERE.


A gig I went to in February was reviewed at Americana UK. Laura Gibson has been bubbling around on my radar for a while without ever getting the attention she deserved. I was initially drawn by the Jolie Holland comparison that comes up regularly. However there are elements of Mazzy Star and similar that are closer reference points. Her album "Goners" is fighting with the OTR disc for space on the iPod at the moment.

The failure and resurrection of HMV, closure of more independent shops and the general expectation that the vinyl revival will save the world were news for a moment recently. Vinyl won't save the world, CD still outsells it. What will save the world is a well run large chain pushing music in all formats that gives the record companies confidence to produce music in all genres, because there is someone who will take in enough stock to let them make money. The closure of Fopp in Bristol is a loss to me, but if it wasn't making money then it had to go.

And finally

I went back for some more of the lucky dips at Missing Records I talked about previously. My daughter was delighted with her Abba & Taylor Swift discs, and I got Dylan at Budokan and Sylvian/Fripp's "The First Day" along with a pile of stuff I have yet to listen to. Why am I telling you about this you will only go and buy discs I could have had...

A bit of interaction goes a long way

This started life as an appreciation of a musician I like and follow, but turned into a business blog, so while it is posted here, it's true home is my Linkedin platform.

Back in 2001 I read and occasionally contributed to an email newsletter called The Armada, basically about the band Asia but drifting into other related artists. I commented on a then new album called Ceremony of Innocence by Radioactive. A few days later I got an email from the album's creator Tommy Denander thanking me for my comments and after a brief exchange of emails that was it. Or so I thought...

Having seen his name appear on albums regularly I did make an effort to look out for him, as he seemed to be a stamp of quality on a rock album. The recently re-released Rainmaker album is a good place to start. In a slightly surreal moment he also popped up on an album by Big Time Rush, a TV show boy band loved by my then 12 year old daughter and her friends.

Tommy is typical of the way the music industry works in the 21st Century. His Wikipedia entry, which I assume to be largely accurate, gives hundreds of albums he has played on, written, or produced. It's an impressive list, and crosses all sorts of genres, which is what you need to do to make a living in music these days. However it's clear his heart is in rock, projects with his own name on them, Radioactive and as an integral part of work by House Of Lords, Robin Beck, Houston and many others in the Hard Rock/AOR world. These names may not mean much to you but in the rest of Europe, particularly Scandanavia, this genre is huge, and Tommy is one of the leading lights.

The interesting part of looking at Tommy's website and social media are the parallels between the way he manages his business, and it is a business with all the requirements to feed and house his family that the rest of us have, and the way pretty much any other business owner will operate. OK so we aren't working with Deep Purple and Alice Cooper, but the networking required to secure that work, presumably through producer Bob Ezrin is the same process that I go through at an FSB or 4Networking meeting. Interestingly we are second connections on Linkedin as well, (happy to help you make a bit more of your Linkedin Tommy!). The basic rules of networking work in pretty much any arena, and as I am looking at new avenues for my own efforts it is a timely lesson. We all get a bit jaded by the formulaic approach of many business networks, but it works, at least it does for me and Tommy. So, get out there and talk to people, on Linkedin, in the queue at the bank, any venue that business people gather, you never know where the next opportunity is going to come from.

Recently he started a new line called Platinum Demo's Worldwide, offering professional quality demo's for €250. As, from reading his social media, he has a young daughter he clearly wants to work from home more, this is a cracking way of doing that, with potential to root out new talent that can be presented to his contacts in the biz, as well as making money on the actual demos themselves. Oddly as my venture in Marketing 4 Music gathers pace I could see myself using his service, in fact I have a client just now...

To learn more about Tommy Denander's music start here

Radioactive - Ceremony Of Innocence and F4UR
Sayit - Again
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Deep Purple - Infinite
Frederiksen/Denander - Baptism By Fire