Twenty Minutes With An Idol

(EDIT: Wow, so it turns out my humble little interview with Mr. Wilson impressed the powers that be themselves, as it was linked to from the band's main website www.porcupinetree.com; so if you've been referred to from there, please check out some other parts of the blog that will appeal to the PT faithful - and those who haven't been referred - well go check it out. Needless to say its made me a proud little puppy)

A few weeks back I had the absolute privilege of speaking to Steven Wilson. If you're a regular round these rantish parts, the name should seem familiar. He is the front man of my favourite band (next to Radiohead, of course) Porcupine Tree, as well as a vast array of side-projects including Blackfield, No-Man and Bass Communion; even moonlighting as a producer.
It's amazing he even had the time to getting around to his first proper solo record, the brilliant Insurgentes - which offered what its creator calls "the complete picture of Steven Wilson." In fact, if one wanted to, you could base your musical diet entirely on the tireless output of Mr. Wilson's discography (and one very nearly does).
Anyway, my sycophantic tendencies are getting the better of me. I was afforded the opportunity to speak to Steven Wilson (again) thanks to Beat Magazine, about the imminent release of Porcupine Tree's eleventh studio album: The Incident. A double album in which the first disc is a 55-min song cycle, and the second disc consisting of an EP's worth of standalone compositions.
I've drooled over this album's release for a while now, and what better way to prepare for my interview than a streamed preview of the album? Thank you very, very much Roadrunner records, but further thanks to Porcupine Tree for crafting another brilliant release.
Rest assured, I'll be covering the album in full in the near-future, and the resulting article from my interview will appear in Beat, but I thought I'd use this opportunity to show off the complete, un-edited interview with one of music's most talented and treasured individuals. Waiting after business hours in the back-room of my humble games retailer, my phone rings, a crackle down the line and then the sound of a familiarly accented voice, "Hello?"

Hello Steven, first of all I wanted to say - your record publicist gave me a link to a stream of the album last night, and i've got to say congratulations. It's another excellent record and it stands shoulder with your best work.

Well thank-you, we're pretty proud of it so it's good to hear positive feedback

You’ve had a wealth of material for your recent albums, yet held off a double album. Such as Fear Of A Blank Planet and the accompanying Nil Recurring EP – why the decision to release a two disc set as opposed to that format?

The answer is simply in terms of reaching the most people possible, there’s nothing like the album [format]. You never get the same attention from the record label and the public on an EP that you do on an album. We learnt that from the Nil Recurring EP, it just didn’t reach the same amount of people as the album [Fear Of A Blank Planet].

Because this was a two disc set, we wanted both sets of songs to receive the same exposure, the same attention. So it was a pragmatic decision really, the short songs were just as strong and we wanted them to get the same attention.

I don’t want to pigeon hole you by any means, but many will view a 55 minute song cycle as very prog rock. Would you say that progressive rock is becoming more overt and accepted by the mainstream?

Ambition is no longer a dirty word as it has been for so many years. Even in the early days of Porcupine Tree, in the early 90’s, grunge was in and the very idea of the guitar solo was just out of bounds. And there I was doing these twenty minute guitar freak outs. As time goes an, we’ve seen more and more of this kind of ambition and pretentiousness – whatever you wanna call it – coming back. And I think that if bands were allowed more to be more ambitious and pretentious, the music industry would be in a much healthier state. More bands and music seems to be liberated from major records labels and mainstream media and are becoming more ambitious than just fitting into a three minute pop video.

The climate has inclined our way, and there are a lot more bands that are progressive, or at least progressive as a synonym for ambitious or conceptual work that treats the album as art form.

This may be due to bands such as Muse, The Mars Volta, Pure Reason Revolution...

Mmm, Totally

... even the likes of Mastodon and of course Opeth. Do you feel like Porcupine Tree's approach has influenced these bands at all, or is part of an overall movement?

I’d like to think… well, there’s definitely an element of many bands now looking back to the 70’s influence of making records.

I’ve listened to bands like The Mars Volta, Radiohead and Meshuggah and they’ve inspired me in a way, I feel like I have an affinity with them, I listen to them… I know Mastodon have said they’re Porcupine Tree fans. But yeah its great to feel like a part of a wave or movement now; because remember in the early 90’s when Porcupine Tree was starting out – we felt like we were out on a limb, outsiders doing our own thing because it was so different to what was accepted. So it’s great to hear that guys like Mikael from Opeth listen to us and respect us, and I listen to them and there’s a mutual empathy between bands doing what we do.

I think what ties them all together is a changed perception of progressive as something that isn’t necessarily old fashioned. All those bands [you mentioned] make progressive music but its also contemporary, they’ve removed the stigma of progressive music being old-fashioned and redundant and incorporated all these new ideas and that’s what true progressive music should be.

Here in Australia, there’s a new wave of hard rock that takes its cues from progressive influences and tendencies. Acts like Cog, The Butterfly Effect and Karnivool – are you aware of these acts?

Yes, I’ve heard of Cog because someone gave me their CD, and also the band that supported us on our last tour, Sleep Parade. It’s good to see that they’re all bands that are very progressive but also contemporary.

Turning back to the The Incident now; How did your experience in making Insurgentes [Wilson's solo album] affect this album?

It was very liberating making Insurgentes, there are always a lot of things that are part of my musical personality that I couldn’t play with the band. That’s what makes the band so great, this exchange of ideas but there’s always things that I felt outside of them.

Because Insurgentes felt like a complete picture of Steven Wilson it liberated me from those fascinations and aspects of my musical personality. I think if I hadn’t done that there’d still be an element of frustration in wanting to exorcise those aspects, but Insurgentes managed to express those.

As a result, it liberated me and felt like ‘right, now lets come back and write a classic, great, Porcupine Tree record. I’d like to think there’s a freshness in coming back to a Porcupine Tree album too, like this is the definitive Porcupine Tree record.

It’s interesting you call it the definitive Porcupine Tree record, because I felt that recollection in listening to it – it harkens back to a lot of your albums, stretching right back to things like Up The Downstair through to Lightbulb Sun and your recent metal records.

Last time we spoke you mentioned something called “conceptual continuity” in which “certain things do re-occur in a different context”. I hear lots of Porcupine Tree’s past albums in certain ways across The Incident, would you say this is more ‘conceptual continuity’?

Yeah, there is, but it wasn’t intentional. But I think it was due to a number of things. Firstly, I turned 40 between making Insurgentes and The Incident, and there was a sense of reaching a landmark or a turning point in that age, and time to reflect and in taking stock. Not feeling such a pressure to shock and keep the sound… well the sound is still developing – but to just take stock of Porcupine Tree and our history.

Encapsulating everything that’s great about Porcupine Tree while keeping it fresh.

Plus I hadn’t experienced new forms of music like I did with metal a few years ago, so there’s no new drastic element to the sound of the band. There was a chance to meet what people recognise already, which wasn’t really dull, god know its eclectic enough already, but yes I feel it’s the definitive Porcupine Tree record.

Lyrically much of the album is written in first-person, dealing with a variety of ‘incidents’ you drew upon from the media, to humanise them in first-person - was it affecting to write in such a manner?

Well when you write a song, in a way it doesn’t matter what you’re writing about. So even when you’re dealing with things that you’ve never experienced you draw on your own experiences to make it believable. There’s not that big a divide between autobiographical and the fictional, I think there’s a little bit of fiction in autobiography and vice versa.

When creating something [like this], you have to bring the dark side of the human psyche to the surface to make it believable, like drawing on your emotional well. The things I was writing about were ugly – child abductions, religious cults, homicides – so ugly that one day I just sat down and began playing and these words came out “I was born in ‘67/the year of Sgt. Pepper”. I started getting nostalgic and exploring my idyllic childhood, these summers that stretched on forever. I guess it was a reaction to the other side, like an oasis in the desert of ugliness.

The music poured out, and I didn’t rewrite or edit I just let it flow. It became Time Flies, which I think is the heart of the record that everything spirals out from. And I think it makes the record work, it gives it balance.

Indeed, it certainly feels like the record's centrepiece. With auto-biographical material, such as Time Flies, were you concerned with the lyrics that are actually personal and those that are integrated as a first person view of incidents getting confused?

I didn’t think about it, but I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone. Like I said, there’s an element of autobiography and fiction in everything, so there’s even a little bit of fiction in things like Time Flies and vice versa. There’s a little bit of me in all the other songs too, It’s not always clear-cut but I think it’s pretty obvious what content is which.

The second disc of four songs from the same sessions, is there a separate theme that links them also – or are they standalone compositions?

Pretty much, there are themes on there – that I keep coming back to again and again and again, but they’re all different from the main part of the record. They were unplanned children. They were pieces of music that came out of writing The Incident but simply didn’t fit into that scheme and were too good to throw away. The analogy I use is that the novel is on one disc, on the other you have short stories.

As it is a 55 minute song cycle – how will this affect the performance on tour, will you be performing the work in its entirety or just specific movements?

We’re going to start the first leg of the tour, which runs up to new year with the first half being The Incident in its entirety and the second half being back catalogue. We wanted to perform the whole thing and retain the intensity and musical journey of the record, and there’ll be lots of new films for The Incident too.

Will you be touring in Australia again in the near future?

Absolutely, probably January or early Feburary. (Hell Yes!)

You’re a prolific worker – your solo album, your production work, the King Crimson re-issues - can we assume that you’ve already started work on your next project?

Actually, I haven’t. I need a bit of space. I’m moving out at the moment, and there’s other things going on in my life… it was a very intense period from doing Insurgentes straight into The Incident, so I think I’m going to take a bit of time off, recharge the creative batteries

Fair enough too, as his intense labour has borne very sweet fruits indeed, if anyone’s earnt their rest - it’s Steven Wilson.

The Incident is due out tomorrow and if you're still not convinced of its greatness then check out the Roadrunner Records website, including the edited Time Flies video as well as interviews with the entire band.

Now, if you'll excuse me... i'm off to take that amazing musical journey again.

Like Father, Like Son

It's been a while since I did a playlist round these parts, partly because all the themes I came up with seem a little contrived compared to just doing some good honest reviews - but mostly cause i just got really sick of having posts taken down cause of links and such. As you (should) know though, this Sunday is Father's Day, and to celebrate I thought i'd give another mix cd a shot. Now I won't bore you all with a full autobiography, but my own father was integral to my musical development - always having the radio or vinyl on around the house - and he certainly encouraged my flourishing musical tastes and rabid appetite for collecting cd's. On top of all this i think he's been endlessly supportive of all my musical writing - compostion and critical wise - and of all my pursuits in general. So this list is dedicated to him, and though he probably won't like most of the selections (he's a hip-hop/R&B kinda guy), MediaMark, this one's for you.

Father's Day Playlist

Super Furry Animals - Father Father #1
The most famous Welsh outfit in indie offer a sunny instrumental that induces a kind of shimmering nostalgia that'll set the mood for the tracks ahead.
Bluebottle Kiss - Father's Hands
Jamie Hutchings offers a semi-autobiographical tune about seeking out his family's history. It's road-weary and intelligent but also offering a kind of naive innocence in its imagery and narration. The kind of song every artist wish they'd written about their own dad. Well, unless you're Yussef Islam...
Cat Stevens - Father and Son
Forget all the bad cover versions and cut straight to the classic original, with its timeless lyrics and Stevens' cracking voice that renders the emotion so palpable. It offers a darker side to father-son relationships but in doing so provides a slice of tangible realism in which the emotion is powerfully visceral.
George Michael - Father Figure Though it's artificial production air and backing gospel choir screams early nineties, this is still an intriguing ballad. It not only showcases Michael's still-impressive breathy timbre but also mixes an ambiguous sexual element with its yearning romanticism. In any case, it also serves to remind us that fathers and hereoes don't have to be biological.

Paul Simon - Father And Daughter
Taken from his 2006 "comeback" album Surprise, this track originally appeared in, of all things, The Wild Thornberrys Movie. Nevertheless, it doesn't play it so much cute, as breezily honest, Simon's love for his child beautifully captured in the simple efficiency of the chorus:
"As long as one and one is two/There could never be a father/ Who loved his daughter more than I love you."
Loudon Wainwright III - Daughter
Another song with a movie connection, playing over the credits of Judd Apatow's dramedy Knocked Up, a cover that betters Peter Blagved's original. It's an interesting choice for Wainwright too, considering the strained relationship he has with his own kin, Martha Wainwright, who obviously didn't return the favour when she wrote Bloody Motherfucking Asshole.
Radiohead - Sail To The Moon
One of the group's most beautiful moments from a catalgoue that has no shortage of them. Written as a lullaby for his son Noah, Yorke croons and sways his way through an aching melody and ethereal backing, ruminating on the future of his child "maybe you'll/be president/but know/right from wrong/or in the flood/you'll build an ark/and sail us to the moon." Sumptous without being sentimental, it's actually one of Radiohead's most deceptively direct songs.
Neil Finn & Liam Finn - Two Of Us
The son of the Crowded House/Split Enz/solo star is not only a spitting image of his dad (be it with a great grizzly beard), but he also followed in his father's musical footsteps. Here they cover The Beatles for the I Am Sam soundtrack (mmm detecting a theme yet?), there's something beautiful about hearing the nearly indistinguishable voices of the Finns singing in harmony about the simple pleasures of life. One of the rare instances of a father and son musical duo captured in a recording.

Keith Urban - Song For Dad
Forget George Michael, here's the cheesiest song on the list. A shamelessly schmaltzy ode from the country superstar better known as Mr. Nicole Kidman, to his old man. Despite the cringe factor, if you pay attention there's quite a lot to endear to; such as the images of jangling car keys, wrapping of fingers on table tops and Urban's realisation that he's become the image of his father even despite his stoic upbringing. It's not quite Father and Son but it can't be so easily dismissed either.
Ugly Kid Joe - Cat's In The Cradle
A fleeting one-hit wonder band best remembered for their snotty band character and this, their take on a 1974 Harry Chapin number. Interestingly, the original lyrics were actually from a poem written by Chapin's wife of the time. Still, it was Ugly Kid Joe who gave the song a resurgence into pop culture, later referenced in the likes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, Scrubs and even Shrek. Everclear - Father Of Mine
Everclear's strength always lay in bolstering their cartoon-rock with Art Alexakis' unique world-view of confusion, anxiety and personal experiences. Father of Mine is perhaps then the band's watershed moment. In brutally honest lyrics, Alexakis turns his semi-confession of anger and bitterness into a resolve to better his own role in fatherhood to his little girl. Equally rocking and meaningful.
Glasvegas - Daddy's Gone
Another song about a dad who up and ran out on the family, and the resulting repercussions. The little boy longing in this case is James Allan, whose Scottish brogue - broad as the English channel - renders the song with a highly personal touch. It's a symptom in Glasvegas' overall pattern of tear-jerking fuzz-rock, but no less powerful for it.

Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill
Aparrantley written by Gabriel after a spiritual experience he had atop the titular hill after qutting as the frontman and chief songwriter of Genesis. Nevertheless, there's a fatherly vibe thanks to the jaunty off-kilter acoustic pattern (in 7/4 for you music buffs) and key line of "son, he said/grab your things i'm going to take you home".
Wilco - On and On and On
Changing pace from previous songs in the list about fathers writing about their children, here's a song written by a child to their father. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy wrote the closing statement to 2007's Sky Blue Sky as a comforting hymn to his grieving father after his wife passed away. The bittersweet mood is reflected by the circling dissonance, the resulting effect is a song that, ostensibly is about death, but manages to be forthright and uplifting without pandering to sentimentality.
U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
A slow-burning ballad written by Bono for, and about, his father. Even though it was written four years after his passing in 2001, Paul Hewson as he was known to his papa, is obviously still smarting - and learning - from his loss. Rather than a grieving, funereal tune however, U2 turn in a wonderfully understated performance that balances Edge's guitar echoes with the slow-chug of the rhythm section. Rising to a chorus that acts as a perfect bed for the call and response falsetto of the chorus "and it's you when I look in the mirror/and it's you when I don't pick up the phone/sometimes you can't make it on your own."
Super Furry Animals - Father Father #2
Bringing the mix to a close is the second half of SFA's Father Father instrumental, bringing everything full cirlce - much like the relationship between a father and son. Awwww.

BONUS TRACK:

Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo Though it doesn't quite fit in the tracklisting, I just had to include this swingin' ditty from the '50s.

Happy Father's Day for Sunday to all the Papas out there

Singles Sometimes Is...

As much as I bang on about the cultural importance and artistic creedence of the album, I understand the potential power of the single as well. In fact it's hard not to in this, the iPod generation, when the twin forces of the internet and iTunes conspire to make sure that each week has a handful of new tunes by fresh young faces to slay the world with a three minute hit. So this post is dedicated to some of those great singles that have triumphed so far this year

Animal Collective - My Girls

Even from its first appearance way back at last year's Coachella Festival, the song formerly known as House was always going to be an anthem. It's a deliciously vibrant cross-over hit, bridging the pop gap with its cylclical lyrics and dance-floor abandon; but also satisfying stern-browed musos with its psychedelic layering and futuristic Beach Boys harmonies. It only helps that its subject matter, an endearing wish for domestic bliss, is wholly unique in singles charts filled with stuff about roaming rock star lifestyles, cheap hook-ups and fleeting rendezvous' - the very things that the song is rebutting against. Most obviously too, as the lead single from Animal Collective's sixth studio album, it is the crystallisation of Merriweather Post Pavillion - an album bound to pop up in the end of year lists for music blogs far and wide. Personally, I don't think there's anything on the album that reaches the dizzying heights of this track - from its bubbling synth build-up to its cathartic "whoooo!" before it hits the second chorus. For my money, there will be few tracks greater this year - that whe it first emits from the speakers at a club or party, so many people will rush together to sing, dance and be merry. And isn't that what it's all about?

check out The Official Video

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

Another indie favourite from an album that will also be doing the rounds come end-of-year time. Much like Animal Collective too, Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca is an experimental affair that also satisfies the base urges of energy and melody. Stillness Is The Move is an excellent microcosm of that approach, penned by the lovely Amber Coffman (isn't she great?), this mixes the band's usual jangly guittar squiggles with a funky R&B inspired backbeat to create a bouncy, groovy sing-a-long propelled by Coffman's ever rising falsetto hook. Stillness Is The Move has great pacing too, just as you think all the tricks have been used up, it introduces a bed of sweet strings that also empahsises the vocal's yearning and also sets the end off into an airy finish. If nothing else confirms its brilliance, take note of the fact that its the only song that's ever been officially released as a single for Dirty Projectors.

Check out the quirky Official Video

The Galvatrons - Cassandra

Though the blogosphere seemed to swoon in unison upon their first appearance, there seems to be an increasing faction of people who are now finding it cool to dislike The Galvatrons. Now i'll be happy to admit that their recently released debut, Laser Graffiti didn't quite live up to expectations, but as I said when I first ears upon them, the question of whether their 80's throwback shtick would last a whole album (and it nearly does but that's a story for another day). Still, all this gets away from the cracking pre-album single Cassandra, it manages to continue the blueprint laid out by When We Were Kids, namely: arena sized synth hook, squealing guitar, electro drums and yearning call and response chorus - circa 1987. Part of the whole appeal is that the Geelong based four piece are entirely unapologetic about their derivative sound, in fact they're a lot like metal/glam rock satirists The Darkness, you're only going to enjoy it if you're in the joke. As long as you know the punchline though, it's a joke worth telling again and again - at high volumes.

Check out the video

Phoenix - Lisztomania

It's questionable whether the song has anything to do with the movie of the same name, or indeed Franz Liszt - but it does have to do with is happy, up-tempo, carefree, breezy indie rock. The kind of thing Phoenix have crafted so well ever since their debut. As the opening track on their excellent new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (another classical reference, mmmm?) it sets a bubbly tone and pace that the album never seems to disappoint in upholding. The main appeal of the track aside from its great propellent guitar line and keyboard breakdowns is Thomas Mars' understated vocal delivery, Who else could turn potentially garbled lines such as "Lisztomania/Think less but see it grow/Like a riot, like a riot, oh" into a sure-fire chorus? His French-inflected instead creating an intriguing pattern of rhythms and melody that you can't help but sing-a-long to.
A big shout out to the Melbourne Comedy Law Revue gang for including a choreographed dance of majesty to the tune of the Gallic four-piece in their closing.

Check out the vid here

And now for some other great singles that are heralding some future releases:

Muse - Uprising
The opening track from the forthcoming album The Resistance (due to drop in two weeks - can you feel the thrum of excitement?). It blends political revolutionary dissidence with glam rock, and Dr. Who synth with Blondie's Call Me punctuation.

Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words (click link for free download)
Radiohead are nothing if not unpredictable, first there's an article from Thom Yorke saying that fans shouldn't hold their breath for a new album, then they turn around and drop not one, but two, new tracks - a dedication to war veteran Harry Patch and this, a typically airy experimental affair. The kind you'd expect from the 'head but no less welcome.
The blogosphere is abound with rumours and speculation concerning a new EP, perhaps called Wall of Ice, but for now we can revel in the fact that the band are indeed working.

weezer - (If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
There was a time when weezer were the only band I loved, then came the hinterland years between 1996's Pinkerton and their re-invention as a slightly different form of pop-rock with 2002's self-titled green album. A series of increasingly bland albums later and I was ready to give up on my childhood heroes, then along came last year's self-titled red album, and it was actually pretty good. I'm certainly hesistant with another album being released so quickly in response, their new album Raditude (amazing!) is due before the end of the year, but if this tongue-in-cheek, peppy single is anything to go by - it's red album Pt. 2, and that's just fine with me.

There's Plenti To Discover(y)

Boy, i've been trying to break this run of just plain ol' album reviews - but it's hard when more and more great releases come out. 2009 just really has been a great year for music, and it's still hard to believe that some of the biggest releases are yet to come (Flaming Lips, Muse, Porcupine Tree), it's safe to say that the summer season of festivals is going to be amazing (the line-up for Falls already whets the appetite some). Anyway, i digress, but here's a couple more great albums to add to 2009's already stellar output. A couple of sideprojects to the great bands Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot and Interpol.

Discovery – LP (XL Recordings, 2009)

Side projects have a nasty habit of being obscure, disappointing affairs – especially in recent years where the term has become synonymous with the word ‘super group.’ You don’t have to cast your mind too far back before a frown forms across your dial (Angels & Airwaves and Velvet Revolver anyone?). Luckily, here is a dalliance you’ll want to investigate.

Discovery is the recording name for the duo of Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles, better known as members of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot respectively. As if the glowing reputation of their respective day jobs wasn’t enough, they’ve ventured off on a colourful expedition that will surely whet the appetite for indie lovers the world over.

From the sawing synths and two step beat of Orange Shirt it’s clear that LP is an unabashed record of party tunes, summer vibes and danceable electronics. Osaka Loop Line continues the high-school crush lyricism with a wonderfully harsh electric riff that skips and jumps along with a bubbling keyboard line and even takes in a chugging tempo change. Can You Discover? continues the synth-pop with the unsurprising appearance of auto-tune. Angel Deradoorian (of Dirty Projectors fame) lends her sweet burr to the gender-bending abandon of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. Later, fellow Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig colours Carby with an excellently treated vocal that laments walking home alone after another fruitless night at the disco against an impossibly peppy soundtrack.It perfectly summarises the album’s appeal, dance floor music as imagined by awkward college kids.

If there’s a critique to be levelled at the album, it’s that it has a plasticised, artificial sheen. Even if it is intentional, it can mean that its slick charms won’t rub with those who like their music raw and direct.

For the rest, it’s a joyful affair, if a short-lived one, at ten songs with exactly half the tracks clocking in at less than three minutes. But this means each cut wastes no time in getting to its own idiosyncratic delights; whether it’s So Insane’s disco inflected pop or Swing Tree and its sparkling keys, there’s barely even time to mention the excellently twee cover of I Want You Back - Yes, the Jackson 5 I Want You Back - that will leave you with a stupid grin on your face.

As far as side projects or super groups go, this is easily one of the most worthwhile since The Postal Service. It’s a record that’s honest about its intentions and easy to enjoy in its results. If Discovery is about having fun then LP is the greatest playground they could construct.

Stream the album at the band's website

Julian Plenti – Is… Skyscraper (Matador, 2009)

Never heard of Julian Plenti? Right you are, well have you heard of Paul Banks, aka frontman of pop-gloom merchants Interpol? Well, you will have already of joined the dots by the time you hear that distinct foghorn vocal on opener Only If You Run.

It might seem an odd choice for Banks to take a holiday from his dayjob, until you realise that Julian Plenti is actually a resurrection of Banks’ former, pre-Interpol, days as a solo artist. It’s probably in response to criticisms levelled at his band being a Joy Division-aping act, with little depth or variety. This is nonsense of course, Interpol’s third album Our Love To Admire introduced a whole palate of symphonic textures and Ennio Morricone-inspired soundtrack moods. Still, the band suffers criticisms of monotony and formula levelled against them.

The Julian Plenti alias offers Banks the chance to stick a hefty two fingers up to the doubters who write him off as a one-trick pony. Is… Skyscraper is filled with a variety of moods that will surprise the casual fan and delight the dedicated. Sure there are some Interpol offcuts in the likes of Only If You Run, Games For Days and Unwind, and Banks’ jagged lyricism and ruminations on love and lust remains; but for every familiar shape there is equally differing geometry to counterbalance it.

The title track focuses on a creeping acoustic pattern and sighing strings that build into a gothic construction not unlike its title’s namesake, albeit a looming, dilapidated version of one. Madrid Song loops a sparse piano line over the mantra of “come have at us/we are strong” with some odd vocal samples bubbling beneath. No Chance Survival is an aching beauty, its score of upright bass, xylophone plinks and Banks’ damaged lyrics makes for a rewarding listen.

The backbone of these tracks have their origins as acoustic numbers, as part of Plenti’s catalogue pre-Interpol when he was a troubadour slumming the venues of New York City. It’s a credit to his development and familiarity with the tools of the recording studio that the likes of Fun That We Have, Girl On The Sporting News and Fly As You Might have been transformed into something unrecognisable as ever being written and performed on an acoustic guitar.

Julian Plenti confirms Banks’ unique talents, a record that along with his work with Interpol should have critics shaking off the last remaining lazy and shallow musical comparisons; and instead begin to recognise his range and abilities as a master craftsman of idiosyncratic songs.

Boys will be boys (aka girls will be women)

My recent post on talented and beautiful ladies turned out to be quite prescient, 2009 is quickly becoming the year of the emergent female singer-songwriter. The Mercury Music Prize, one of the most coveted music awards in the UK, recently announced their nominations for this year. Included were the likes of Florence & The Machine, La Roux, former Damien Rice cohort Lisa Hannigan, and my beloved Bat For Lashes (who by the way has a beautiful new video for her latest single Sleep Alone).



On top of these brilliant artists, lets not forget that Australia has had a lot to offer this year too with the likes of Bertie Blackman and Sarah Blasko releasing excellent new records as well.

So keep your eyes and ears peeled, because come the end of the year there's bound to be some of these names, or more, decorating the critics' end-of-year lists - this writer included. Just to add fuel to the fire, here's a couple of reviews of some more excellent female fodder released recently:

Cortney Tidwell – Boys (City Slang, 2009)

You’ll be hard pressed to find a greater juxtaposition between two opening tracks on any album this year than those found on songstress Cortney Tidwell’s latest. No sooner has the hazy late-night paean Solid State finished drifting off, than along comes Watusii with a spate of brash electronics, throbbing bass and propulsive percussion. The aural effect is like leaving a smoky jazz bar at night, only to step out into the mardi gras happening in the street.

Throughout Boys Tidwell draws from a diverse palate of musical styles and moods, that never once seems contrived. This won’t be surprising for anyone who discovered her debut Don’t Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up. A record that answered the hypothetical: what if Bjork was an alt-country star, or alternatively what if Neko Case had a bash at electronics?

Boys follows a similar template of risk equals reward, a series of songs that at their heart are experiments in genre but with some delightfully entertaining results.

Oslo builds from atmospheric piano and reverberating guitar drones into a drifting stride of strings and bubbling vocals. The fabulously titled Being Crosby features Jim James (of My Morning Jacket fame) comparing his dreamy croon to Tidwell’s. Elsewhere is Son and Moon, a tune more than worthy of Bjork, and even a couple of guitar-driven rockers in the form of the upbeat So We Sing and the cacophonic 17 Horses.

While Tidwell’s versatile voice ties the affair together, partial credit must go to her husband Todd’s engineering and production work, turning what could have been a frustrating mish mash of flavours into a congenial, consistent recipe with Tidwell’s timbre as the main ingredient.

If 2009 is the year of the female singer songwriter (Bat For Lashes, La Roux, Florence & The Machine) then Tidwell should certainly find her name with the best of them.

Check it out:
her MySpace and the video for Watusii

Orisha – Falling Open (Vitamin, 2009)

Orisha, the self-described ‘electro-glitch-chanteuse act’, is the working moniker for singer/songwriter Emah Fox and programmer Shane Kavanagh. For an artist who has received ecstatic praise from the likes of Rolling Stone and Ministry Of Sound, it’s a wonder that Orisha have to rely on a government grant and not a record label to bank their debut. Don’t let the Arts Victoria leg-up put you off, here is an artist with a completely realised creative view already formed. From the mysterious crimson artwork, to the equally enigmatic music encased within, here is an artist already in command of their creative persona.

Falling Open migrates between warm electronica and dub grooves and inevitably there will be comparisons to mid-90’s era Bjork and trip hop underground kings Lamb. But Orisha isn’t derivative of these bands so much as they are cut of the same cloth.

Left Alone opens the album, content to lavish in an envelope of languid beats, while second track – the brief Smile – introduces a spare instrumental, which take up nearly half the album.

Occasionally these moments recall Brian Eno’s ambience, such as Creature which features some lovely programming and gamelan in co-existence.

Orisha has an engaging voice too however, in the form of Fox’s understated vocals, Waiting For A Change beats like rain against the glass as Fox ruminates “the air is thick with what we won’t say/everything’s confused.” Elsewhere her calming voice guides the listener through Cottonwool, which unravels solemnly over its eight minute running time without ever overstaying its welcome.

Falling Open is a record of such restrained quality and creative consistency that it won’t be surprise that, come Orisha’s next release, they’ve found themselves at home with a larger label.

Check it out:
on MySpace and on Vitamin Records' website