Goodnight Louisa. ‘Human Danger’, album review.

Self released.  Availability, L.P. and digital.  Time: 40.36.

I wouldn’t normally begin a review like this, but I just love this record.  It’s virtually been on repeat since I got it, be it over speakers or various headphones to see how it sounds different on each.  And each time I play it I love it more.

Louise McCraw, who now performs as ‘Goodnight Louisa, previously fronted SKJØR (pronounced ‘sure’), known for songs such as ‘Self Control’ and ‘Living Without You’.  But since that band’s demise a few years ago she’s released a series of solo singles, and this is her debut album under the ‘Goodnight Louisa’ banner.

SKJØR was largely a guitar driven band and McCraw herself played guitar as well as providing lead vocals.  But her solo material leans more towards keyboards.  In fact the album is often reminiscent of 80s synth-pop but brought thoroughly up to date and with real, sometimes thunderous, drums.

The instrumental backings range from an almost jolly feel, as with the title track, ‘Human Danger’ (which has something of a Donna Summer vocal feel) to brooding works, like ‘Margaret’ and ‘Deep Dark’.  The latter being, for me, the standout track of the record.

McCraw’s vocals, meanwhile, show an impressive range from deep alto to high soprano.  But it’s interesting that it’s sometimes the tracks which show the greatest lightness of touch that turn out to be the most angry, perhaps most notably ‘Get your hands off my girlfriend’, a study of the sometimes appalling behaviour of straight people in gay spaces, based on a real incident when a boorish man actually grabbed McCraw by the neck when she was in a gay bar with her girlfriend, because she wouldn’t dance with him.

McCraw has said that the eleven tracks on the album each show a different aspect of “Human danger and how dangerous the world has become when we disregard others.”  And so, for example, the title track juxtaposes the isolation of a schoolchild who feels excluded as the last to be picked for a team, with a woman trapped in a dysfunctional relationship.

‘Diana’ is virtually a hymn to the late Princess of Wales and the sexist double standards to which she was all too often held.  ‘Judith’, on the other hand describes a menacing female spirit McCraw has felt was haunting her since her childhood.

‘Alchemy in slow motion’ ponders the universal dread of the brevity of life and the realisation that one day we will all be forgotten and just so much soil.

‘Only a matter of time’ describes the fear so many women feel walking alone in the dark, or the opposite danger of being intimidated into self-imposed captivity for the sake of safety.  It’s the latest of a series of deeply powerful songs on the same topic by artists on three contents: for example Strange Relations’ ‘Flight Instinct’, which is somehow all the more menacing for being sung in the voice of an angel, and Courtney Barnett’s, more overtly angry ‘Nameless, Faceless’, which uses the same image as McCraw of keys held between the fingers as a weapon and also describes the experience of being trolled on-line.

Only the closer, ‘Bad habits in gay bars’ brings release (despite the ominous title), with the sense of a love that may have started in a bad place and may not have been quite what was looked for, but is lovely nonetheless.

There has been a glorious flowering of work by LGBTQ women and non-binary musicians of late: interestingly both in real life and in fiction, and I have written about it elsewhere in a piece called ‘Lesbians Rock’.  But ‘Goodnight Louisa’ has perhaps gone further than most, not just in both in open defiance, but also (and perhaps more importantly) as a simple statement that: ‘this is me and this is normal’.  It needs to be said more often.

If I have a criticism, it’s really more of a regret.  It’s a shame there’s no CD version, not just because the sound quality is generally noticeably better, but I miss the sleeve notes.  I like to know the details of personnel etc, but especially I like a lyric sheet.  Some artists include a PDF in the download, and that would have been so nice here.

In fairness, McCraw’s diction is generally quite clear.  But the vocals are often set low in the mix and so become just another instrument.  From a purely musical point of view, this is an interesting approach, but it can make the words difficult to follow, and in material like this, they matter.  There are no lyric videos yet on YouTube, and almost no transcriptions elsewhere on-line, so we’re rather stuck.  Her SKJØR vocals, on the other hand, were much clearer.

Don’t get me wrong though, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year. I just feel it could be an even richer experience with a lyric sheet.

Hera Says.

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‘Ad Infinitum. ‘Chapter II, Legacy’. Album review.

Napalm Records.  Availability: CD, LP and Digital Download.  Time 44:40.

Swiss symphonic metal band ‘Ad Infinitum’ began life as the solo project of ‘Rage of Light‘ vocalist and songwriter Melissa Bonny.  It has since evolved into a full band with the addition of guitarist Adrian Theßenvitz, thunderous drummer Niklas Müller, and bassist Korbinian Benedict.  But Bonny remains quite literally the face of the band as the others are usually to be seen sporting the anonymity of plague-doctor masks.

Bonny has an interesting double vocal technique which mixes impressive death growl of a depth that you’d never suspect came from a woman, with a more melodic, almost Amy Lee (‘Evanescence’) style.

As the name suggests, ‘Chapter II, Legacy’ is Ad Infinitum’s second album, and follows 2020’s ‘Chapter I, Monarchy’, which has also been released in an acoustic version as ‘Chapter I, revisited’.  ‘Rage of Light’ describe their genre as ‘Trance Metal or Melodic Death Metal’, but Bonny’s ‘Ad Infinitum’ material is not a million miles different, albeit with a lighter, more lyrical touch.  It is still very definitely metal, but it has rather more soul and is perhaps a little more ‘Evanescence’ influenced (especially in stand-out songs such as ‘Your Enemy’).  It is musically more complex and more guitar dominated, with a undercurrent of strings.

The lyrics are in English and as with a lot of metal, deal with semi mythological themes.  Meanwhile the actual vocals show Bonny’s superb voice in a far stronger light, with a good deal less death growl, albeit with enough remaining to remind us how good she is at it, even if the effect is occasionally less successful, as in the otherwise wonderful ‘My Justice, Your Pain’.

Photo, ‘Ad Infinitum’.

The overall result is a powerful, exciting album which benefits from being played loud, preferably very loud!  Highlights include the singles ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Animals’ and the slower burning ‘Inferno’.

Sinister build-ups are much in evidence, as in ‘Afterlife’, which also features vocals by Nils Molin.  ‘Breathe gives a very different, Metal take on the sort of drowning songs of  which Aurora is so fond.  The latter makes the idea seem almost romantic, but Bonny’s approach is much darker, albeit, the cute little finger-cymbal ‘ting’ at the end is a perfect touch of irony.

Perhaps my personal favourite is the album’s closer ‘Lullaby’, a sinister, minor key, Metal ballad which perfectly mixes both of Bonny’s vocal styles with strings and full Rock band to produce a drama that is definitely not calculated to send your little tots off to sleep!  I love it.

This is a glorious album, and its 12 tracks perfectly walk the eternal tightrope between a collection with a clear underlying unity, and mere sameness.  There isn’t a duff or filler song on it, and the physical versions have beautifully designed artwork with full lyric sheets.  It’s a must-have for both ‘Rage of Light’ and ‘Ad Infinitum’ fans.  ‘Evanescence’ fans will love it, and so will many others that like thoughtful Metal, ourselves most definitely included.

Hera Says. ‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3

Pale Waves: ‘Who am I’, Album.

Dirty Hits.  Availability: LP, CD, cassette and digital download.  Length 33:46.

When Manchester four piece ‘Pale Waves’ first burst on the scene in 2017 with singles like ‘Television Romance’ and especially ‘There’s a Honey’ they seemed to become a major act overnight.  But there were doubters as well as believers.

Their perhaps over-generously lengthed debut album, ‘My Mind Makes Noises’, in 2018, although charting and getting reasonable reviews, came in for fire for being perhaps a little too uniform, or even samey.  Likewise their stage act was criticised, including I’m afraid by ourselves, for showing a band that didn’t really have enough original material yet to sustain a headliner slot.  The overall impression was of a great band, or at least a band that was going to be great, which had tried to break the big time slightly before they were ready.  We have thus been looking forward to the band’s second album, the rather shorter ‘Who am I’, with great interest.

We have not been disappointed.  This record is very different to the first, with driving Rock rhythms and a greater range and variety.  It is heavily influenced by the likes of Avril Lavigne, but although such influences have helped to make the album a good deal more exciting, it never quite slips into the derivative.

The first album was written by singer Heather Baron-Gracie and drummer Ciara Doran.  This time round, Baron-Gracie has handled the writing duties in concert with a number of outside collaborators.  As a result, some of the material is distinctly personal.  In fact, the record has been referred to semi-seriously as Baron-Gracie’s ‘coming out album’ and she has said several times that she’d grown tired of simply letting people assume she was straight.  Doran has, after all, long been openly LGBTQ and has recently come out further as non-binary, so Baron-Gracie has just followed something of the same path.

Most particularly, there is the glorious ‘She is my religion’, a straightforward lesbian love song for which there is a wonderful romantic video, featuring Baron-Gracie and her real-life girlfriend: fellow songwriter Kelsi Luck. The latter is another influence, particularly when it comes to her vocal style, for example with the album’s opener, ‘Change’.

‘Tomorrow’ is a broader LGBTQ anthem and another real rocker, as is ‘Fall to Pieces’ which, unusually these days, has a good old fashioned guitar solo.  ‘You don’t own me’ is the heaviest Rock on the record and perhaps shows the most Avril Lavigne influence too.  On the other hand ‘Wish U were here’ has a gentler, more complex sound which treats on the idea of god as female.

‘I just needed you’ and ‘Odd ones out’ are gentler love songs. Meanwhile, ‘Run to’ has something of the feel of 1970s punk curiosity Plastic Bertrand, and deals with the worries of a loving parent fretting over what their grown-up child is getting up to, when she’s really just being independent.

The album closes with the title track, ‘Who am I’, an emotionally impressive power ballad about the doubts and uncertainties of facing an often confusing world.

Ultimately, ‘Who am I’ is what we might have hoped ‘My Mind Makes Noises’ would be: a brilliant, exciting album without a single weak track and without falling into the previous album’s trap of pushing length generosity without enough good material to sustain it.  In our opinion this is a far stronger record and much to be recommended.

Hera Says.

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Pale Waves’ debut album.

Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something: ‘Oh Really, What’s That Then?’ LP.

Availability, CD, digital download and limited edition vinyl.

OK, I know, we’re a bit late getting round to taking a proper look at this album, which is odd because it was one we’d been particularly looking forward to. All I can say is apologies all round; things came up. For me it’s been worth the wait though, because I really like this record. It’s a fascinating, quixotic debut full length, from an always original band. But it’s also one that repays and perhaps requires multiple listenings to really get. In fact I have to confess that my first reaction was pretty much: ‘Hummn!’, apart from the tracks I’d already heard on-line. Three plays later though, and I was totally hooked and it’s already starting to live up to ‘Hera’s Law’: that my long term favourite records are often the ones that took the most effort to get into at first.

One of the tricky things about recording of course, is that the music has to stand by itself. There’s suddenly no stage show or visuals to support it. Yet this is a very visual band. Freeman, in particular uses flamboyant stage clothes and make-up, including their signature drawn-on moustache. In fact the video for one of the band’s previous songs, ‘Find a Place‘ consists entirely of Freeman’s dramatic transformation as this make-up is applied.

So, does the band’s music survive well without the theatrics? Oh yes! With their usual three-piece sound of bass, drums, guitar and vocals now supplemented by strings, recorder and often beautiful multi-tracked vocal harmonies, they manage to pull off the impressive feat of taking us on something of a tour of musical genres and eras. They even drop little homages to individual artists from the past, whilst at the same time retaining an overall unity which never ceases to be original. Freeman’s voice is particularly distinctive, with a range extending from alto to very high indeed and a tone that can be reminiscent of the rockier end of T.Rex at one moment and Kate Bush the next. It also carries a considerable emotional range, from angry to wistful, often paired with cryptic but captivating lyrics.

The band describe their genre as ‘Wonky Pop’, and OK, I’ll buy that. But another description might be simply ‘versatile’ or trans-genric, if that’s English. You could certainly say that whatever genre the particular track you’re listening to is, there’ll be another along in a minute. That could make them sound indecisive or unsure of themselves, but they’re clearly not. They just have a huge, slightly mischievous musical scope, and it works. For example, if we go through the album track by track, it opens with a good solid rocker ‘Helen is a Reptile‘.

Jemma Freeman, dressed down!

But then comes ‘Keytar (I was busy)‘ which has a distinctly 1980s synth-pop feel, a little in the mould of O.M.D. or Ultravox, but still pure Cosmic Something, especially once Freeman’s voice comes in. Then we slip another decade to the early seventies with ‘Hard Times‘, which just for the first few seconds gives a wry nod to Bowie’s ‘Jene Genie’, but then swings off into an entirely different, high energy rocker, albeit one that retains something of that same 1970s feel. It’s a fascinating journey and is followed by one of the album’s real masterpieces, the sinister ‘Black Rain‘. This has to be a contender for best song on the album and has also spawned a wonderful, if distinctly iconoclastic video.

‘What’s on Your Mind‘ has a title that echoes the top of every ‘Facebook’ page you ever saw, and mixes a disarmingly floaty, phased backing with cynical lyrics that bite harder because of the very gentleness of the music. It’s a trick not every band can pull off, but when done well as here, or in Strange Relations’ terrifyingly angelic song about the fear or rape: ‘Flight Instinct‘, the result can be distinctly disturbing.

‘Kopenhagen‘ has the feel of a 1960s movie theme, featuring undistorted syncopated guitar and floating lyrics. In fact it sounds almost cute, right up until you start listening to the lyrics! ‘Heaven on a Plate‘ with its growling Rock guitar and strong bass line is another of the album’s masterpieces, although it’s not as much about food as you might expect. Then things go gentle again for ‘Count to Ten‘, whose opening has echoes of the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’, although once again the song as a whole is utterly different and features Freeman’s voice multi-tracked into beautiful harmonies. ‘Distant Places‘, on the other hand evokes late 1960s folk-rock, especially in the close harmony vocals. Yet it’s actually real Rock, particularly towards the end.

My personal favourite, however, has to be the album’s closer ‘Tasteless‘. If this is a sign of what is to come from this band, then their second album should really be something. It’s a more complex piece, with Freeman’s voice at its most plaintive, backed by what sounds almost like a heavenly choir. It starts as a ballad and becomes more power-ballad as it progresses, until it eventually reaches a climax that is pure Rock cataclysm, before fading away to nothing. I confess it freely. I have it on repeat as I type; and it’s glorious.

You get the idea then. This is a great album, but you have to do some of the work yourself to really appreciate it fully. The lyrics, although often enigmatic, are also genuine poetry and well worth reading in their own right. Freeman sings with clear diction so they’re not hard to follow, but it’s still perhaps a pity that they aren’t printed in the CD sleeve. Fear not though, they’re freely available on the band’s ‘Bandcamp’ page.

Hera Says.

Top image, photo: Suzi Corker.

The ‘Oh Really What’s That Then’ cover.  Photo: Suzi Corker

‘Lime’, live at Jimmy’s, Manchester: 21-5-2019.

Just occasionally, you hear a new band for the first time and feel that you are witnessing the start of something that deserves to be big.  We have had the same feeling this year already, with Manchester band URF, but ‘Lime’ are perhaps even earlier in their life cycle, with just one recording currently available. This is very much a first look at them, therefore, but we are already impressed enough to feel that this is a band we want to keep an eye on for the future.

Lime.  Photo Hera Says team.

‘Lime’ are part of the phenomenal flowering of new acts coming out of Brighton at the moment. There seems to be something in the water down there, because they have started to rival Liverpool in the early sixties when a flood of bands burst forth in the wake of the ‘Beatles’. Quite a number of the current Brighton crop have already impressed us, with a range as diverse as ‘Arxx‘, ‘Greenness‘ and ‘Sit Down‘, and ‘Lime’ look set to be another.

Chloe Howard and Tippi Morgan.  Photo:  Hera Says team.

The band are an all female four piece, with something of the same configuration as ‘The Big Moon’ in that they have a singer/guitarist (Chloe Howard), a guitarist (Leila Deeley), plus bass and drums (Tippi Morgan and Annabel Whittle), but no keyboards. And without wishing to be personal, they even follow the pattern to the point that Howard is noticeably taller than the others, like ‘Big Moon’ singer/guitarist Juliette Jackson. Their music, though is very different from the tongue in cheek ‘Big Moon’ touch, which almost has a latter-day, if female, ‘Freddy and the Dreamers‘ feel.

The band’s Facebook page describes their style as “fusing together the raw live energy of 70s classic rock with the artistic and experimental use of technology”, which seems a fair description. ‘Welcome to the New World Order‘, the one track currently available on Bandcamp tends to emphasise the latter aspect brilliantly and I have wanted to hear more ever since it was posted. Hearing them live has taught me that there is plenty of the former to be heard too and it really does have the makings of a great combination.

Leila Deeley and Annabel Whittle.  Photo:  Hera Says team.

All four band members impress as musicians. As someone who at least attempts to play bass myself, I was particularly taken with Morgan’s playing and all the more so because she told me after the gig that she had only taken up the instrument this year. She tends towards an almost mesmeric style, with cycling lines that perfectly compliment Deeley’s echoey, Fender single coil sound. Whittle’s percussion reminded me just a little of Stella Mozgawa of ‘Warpaint‘ who, for my money has been one of the most interesting drummers to emerge over the last decade and who has also played with numerous others over a huge range of genres from Tom Jones to ‘The XX‘.

This is not to suggest that Whittle’s playing is in any way derivative. It isn’t. But both drummers have a gift for combining a driving beat with a lightness of touch that adds a greater musicality. Interestingly the guitar sound on ‘Welcome to the New World Order’, might also have a slight tinge of influence from ‘The XX’ – with a sparse, rather staccato feel with fret slurs, reminiscent of Romy Madley Croft’s famously minimalist style.

Tippi Morgan.  Photo: Hera Says Team.

On the recording, Howard’s vocals are just plain haunting. This is hairs on the back of the neck standing up territory, but they have a delicacy that is all too easily spoiled live and at Jimmy’s, I am afraid, she was not well served by the sound engineering, which left her mixed too low, but still distorted into a fuzzy mess. It is a shame, because Jimmy’s are usually very good at mixing vocals: something all too many venues get wrong. I don’t know what she was able to hear of herself on her foldback, but it was quite a tribute to her ability that she was still able to sing completely in tune, something one of the two all male support bands didn’t quite manage. Nevertheless, despite this one glitch, which was in no way the band’s fault, it was a great night.

We very much want to hear more of ‘Lime’ soon and the band tell us that there are another couple of tracks due out before long. We can’t wait to hear them and then, with luck, we will get a chance to hear them live again through a better handled P.A. In the meantime, take a listen to ‘Welcome to the New World Order’ – you won’t regret it.

Hera Says.

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‘The Japanese House’, with ‘Art School Girlfriend’ at The Gorilla, Manchester, 25-11-2018.

In origin, ‘The Japanese House’ is the name of the solo project of songwriter Amber Bain, but they play live as a four piece band, with Bain herself taking both the principle vocal and guitar spots. Her music has always been truly original – often gentle, swaying and ethereal, but by no means simple balladeering. Playing ‘spot the genre’ with her is futile. She has described herself as “harmony-based, guitar-y, alternative pop”, but so were ‘Beach Boys’. Elsewhere, she has been described variously as ‘Ambient’, ‘New Age’, ‘Electropop’, ‘Folktronica’ and ‘Dream pop’, but none of these really quite covers it and, in reality, she is unashamedly just ‘The Japanese House’ – a wonderful one band genre in her own right.

Electronic signal processing looms large, and this is not just restricted to the instruments. Bain’s vocals are also often heavily processed. She uses effects on her voice in exactly the same way that she does on her guitar, to broaden her sonic pallet. This seems to upset some people who regard it as somehow cheating. The same people would probably be perfectly happy with the use of synths, or guitar pedals, so why on Earth they would criticise the use of similar processing with the human voice seems inexplicable. But the results can be absolutely marvellous: with chorus, harmonies, dramatic pitch changes and other effects introduced as well as more traditional tweaks like reverb and delay. We have written about these techniques and her overall output in a previous more in-depth article, so there is little point in repeating ourselves here, but it was interesting on the night to watch her seamless melding of live performance with pre-recorded backing tracks, and the skilful way she combined both with additional layers that she built up there and then on stage with a looper pedal – for example on the song ‘Cool Blue‘.

Fig 2. The Japanese House.  Photo: The Hera Says Team.

The often delicate nature of her music makes it potentially very vulnerable live to the vagaries of venue sound systems and engineering. This has been something of a hobbyhorse of ours of late, but it has to be said that the Gorilla did her proud. Both ‘The Japanese House’ and their support act ‘Art School Girlfriend’, were well mixed and relatively undistorted, so the subtleties came through well. This was the last gig of a tour and as performers they were clearly tight and well rehearsed, so it was particularly gratifying that a good performance was able to shine so well. The band itself appears to play rather differently live, being both louder and more aggressive in feel than the recorded versions of the same songs. Purist fans may disapprove, but in fact the changes are not dramatic enough to detract from the beauty of the originals. They simply add a little more in the way of bite and robustness which makes the material a lot better suited to the live environment.

There were also a number other tweaks which gave an added excitement to the music for live consumption. For example, the song ‘Face Like Thunder‘, which is anyway one of Bain’s most commercial pieces to date, has recently acquired a rather nice guitar solo live, which does not appear on the record, but was repeated at the Gorilla gig. Bain has always been an innovative guitarist, but flourishes like this show that she is also technically better than she sometimes allows herself to appear in the more tranquil recorded versions of her songs. She also has an interesting playing style, in that she is left handed, but plays a right handed Stratocaster upside down, rather than using a purpose-built left handed model. This leaves the strings in reverse order and also leaves the strap lug below, rather than above the neck, which must effect the instrument’s center of gravity fairly dramatically. None of this seems to harm her technique, though, and she is a fascinating guitarist both to watch and to listen to.

Fig 3. The Japanese House. Photo: The Hera Says team.

To date, ‘The Japanese House’ have released four, four song EPs, which appeared between 2015 and 2017 – a total about an hour of music. She now has a full album in the pipeline, to be called ‘Good at Falling’, which fans had been expecting this year, but which is now slated for release on 1st March 2019. The Gorilla set drew on this entire legacy, something that was much appreciated by fans who have been with her since the beginning. We got ‘Still‘ from her initial EP, ‘Pools to Bathe In’.  There was the title track and ‘Cool Blue‘ from ‘Clean‘. They played the whole of 2016’s ‘Swim Against the Tide‘ EP and ‘Somebody You Found‘ from 2017’s ‘Saw You In a Dream’.  The title track of that EP was also played, but not in the form we are used to. Bain let slip that there will be an acoustic version of it on the album and she played that instead, although actually on her Stratocaster, rather than an acoustic guitar. It was played solo nevertheless, which changed the whole feel of the song. In addition, she previewed four more tracks from the album. “You Seemed So Happy’, ‘Maybe You’re The Reason’, ‘Follow my Girl‘ and ‘Lilo‘.

The first two were entirely new to all of us, and not even live versions have yet managed to reach the likes of ‘YouTube’. The other two have appeared as singles, however, and the latter comes with one of the most poignant music videos ever made. Bain makes no secret of the fact that she is gay (it is perhaps worth speculating why so many of the most innovative female guitarists of the moment are), and until recently she was in a long term relationship with fellow songwriter Marika Hackman. The song is essentially a break up record, but the former couple remain on such good terms that Bain was able to persuade Hackman to film a video about their relationship to go with the song. The result is intimate and heartrendingly beautiful. It also has a few nice little witty touches, such as a bath scene which seems to refer back to one of Hackman’s own videos: 2013’s ‘Bath is Black‘. The song has clearly become well loved by fans. Its introduction got the biggest cheer of the night and although it is a fairly new release, a large part of the audience knew its lyrics well enough to sing along. Interestingly, the new material had even more of a rock feel on the night, which might suggest that the album itself will depart from her previous serene voice and follow suite. But, in fairness, the recorded versions of the two singles are as lyrical as always, so we will just have to wait until March to find out.

Fig 4. Art School Girlfriend. Photo: Hera Says team.

We have said it before on ‘Hera Says’, but it has long been a mystery to us why people pay good money to see a gig and then deliberately miss much of it because they could not be bothered with the support acts. Well, fair enough. It is their money and if that is what they want, then who can argue. We would, though, say that we find the support slots to be a wonderful introduction to an apparently never ending stream of astonishing new talent. For example, one of our current absolute favourites is Manchester band ‘URF‘ who are quite astonishingly good and who we first saw playing to a virtually empty room supporting ‘Estrons’, before the latter’s audience had turned up.

‘The Japanese House’ introduced us to another wonderful talent: ‘Art School Girlfriend’, aka ex ‘Deaf Club’ member Polly Mackey. On the night she was playing as a solo artist, although she also appears with a full band on occasions. This was an inspired pairing and she was a perfect match for ‘The Japanese House’, being another exponent of gentle and lyrical electronic influenced music.  She herself describes her material as ‘slow and electronic with overtones of longing and undertones of gay.’ which is at least as accurate a description as any we could manage. She did, though, miss out one crucial word: ‘beautiful’. Her music really is exquisitely beautiful. Mackey has a distinctively yearning, but pure toned, voice and when playing solo, she sings to a mix of effects, drum machine patterns and her own guitar. She plays a Strat, like Bain, and sometimes has an almost Hank Marvin like reverb rich sound. She also plays bass on other tracks. It is a pity that neither act appeared on the merch stall afterwards, because we would have loved to talk to her, but she has two EPs available: 2017’s ‘Measures‘ and the newly released ‘Into the Blue Hour‘. We can heartily recommend, both and the former is even available on vinyl.

Fig 5. Art School Girlfriend. Photo: Hera Says team.

Finally, it is always worth taking a look at the audience at a gig. Indie music can all too often these days be the preserve of a largely middle aged, white, male crowd, who are increasingly older, often markedly so, than the bands they go to see. It is worth saying, though, that a ‘Japanese House’ audience is very different. The average age was dramatically lower than is often the case. There was a slight but definite female majority and a broader racial spread, especially amongst the women. As one might expect for two LGBTQ acts, there was a substantial number of same sex, again largely female, couples. Above all, though, there were a lot of people who looked to be of Japanese (or its environs) origin. The Japanese House name actually derives from a holiday home in Devon where Bain once stayed as a child, rather than from anything actually Japanese, but she has clearly won over devoted far eastern fans. In short, this was a lovely evening with two great acts playing at the top of their game.

Hera Says.

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Fig 6. The forthcoming ‘Japanese House’ album ‘Good at Falling’ and the new ‘Art School Girlfriend’ EP, ‘Into the Blue Hour’.

‘Esben and the Witch’, with ‘A-Sun Amissa’ at The Soup Kitchen’, Manchester, 26-11-2018.

Esben and the Witch are a fascinating band, quite unlike any other. They are also something of a mass of contradictions. They are a Brighton band in origin, who now live in Berlin and are sometimes assumed to be German as a result. They quite consciously defy genre categorisation. They are a band with a woman at its very heart, but named after a horrifically sexist Danish fairy story. Their music is complex, without the self indulgence of some Prog Rock. It is dark and even sinister, being often inspired by unsettling folk tales, yet it is seldom depressing. It is gothic, but not Goth; spiritual, but not religious; thoughtful and thought provoking, but neither preachy nor presumptuous. They have described themselves as ‘nightmare pop’ and they certainly can be, but there is also a great deal in their music that is beautiful.

With six studio albums, a glorious live album and a series of EP’s to their credit EATW are veterans now, having existed since 2008 and, impressively, they still have the same line-up they started with: Rachel Davies, on Bass and vocals; Daniel Copeman on Drums and Thomas Fisher on Guitar. Yet they remain fresh and original. Their new album, ‘Nowhere‘, which only came out shortly before the Soup Kitchen gig, is a superb case in point, and a worthy successor to their 2016 masterpiece ‘Older Terrors‘.

Fig 2. Esben and the Witch. Photo: Hera Says team.

The gig saw the band on great form, with a performance gripping enough to make the hairs at the back of the neck stand up. They were also helped by good sound engineering, for once. Fisher’s dissonant and dystopian guitar playing is a major part of the band’s overall instrumental sound and even on records it is deservedly set well to the fore in the mix. Live, however, there were occasions when it was perhaps mixed just a tad too high against Davies’ bass, and there were even times during the louder guitar passages when her vocals also became a little bit swamped. Nevertheless, these were few and far between, and the dark brooding quality of the music still came over successfully, aided by a well matched light show, which majored on eerie blue back-lighting.

As we commented in a recent article about US band, ‘Strange Relations‘, there are times when a beautiful, angelic voice can actually make the impact of a song more, rather than less unsettling, and this is something that Rachel Davies – like Strange Relations’ Casey Sowa – understands well. She has a wonderfully pure, wistful voice which really is more effective in singing about some of the darker themes covered in EATW’s songs than a harsher tone would be.

Fig 3. Esben and the Witch. Photo: Hera Says team.

A good example is ‘Dull Gret‘ off ‘Nowhere’, which is based on another folk tale, this time a Flemish story about the leader of an army of women who invade Hell. Popular depiction’s, such as Bruegel’s famous 1563 oil painting of the story, and her popular name of Mad Meg, might suggest a grating or even cackling, voice. But Davies is almost dreamy at times. She does, though, have a greater dynamic range than Sowa, which allows her to throttle up rather further to become almost imperious on occasions. Even so, she never quite looses that purity of tone. This is an impressive enough feat on record, where the artist has full control of the process, but she also managed to resist the temptation to shout live, even when her voice was being left too far down in the mix, and so managed to preserve the same quality on stage. Likewise, Davies’ vocal range extends deeper than Sowa’s, as in the song ‘The Unspoiled‘, and this can also add to the ominous atmosphere. Interestingly, although the two bands are very different, there is another parallel in that Fisher’s often shredding guitar style can sometimes resemble that of ‘Strange Relations’ long-time (if now ex) guitarist Nate Hart-Andersen.

Fig 4. Esben and the Witch. Photo: Hera Says team.

The ‘Soup Kitchen’ set included most of the new album, along with some welcome dips into the back catalogue. The latter included a number of tracks from ‘Older Terrors’ and it was gratifying to hear my own personal favourite live – the hauntingly beautiful ‘Sylvan‘. EATW do not tend to be a band where songs get a cheer of recognition from the audience as they start. Indeed, they specialise in longer pieces with slow burn introductions, which are not always instantly recognisable even to dedicated fans. Nor does the audience sing along with the lyrics very much. Instead, they more resemble a classical audience in behaviour – listening spellbound. And understandably so. This is a cerebral band who appeal to the intellect as much as the hind brain. You can still dance to them if the mood takes you, but you think while you are doing it. It is a wonderful combination. Indeed, given the band’s love of tales of magic and mythology, ‘spellbound’ seems a particularly apt term.

Support acts often appear to be picked almost at random and can create something of a jarring mix. On occasions, however, the choice is inspired and the two (or more) acts compliment each other perfectly to produce a whole greater than the sum of its parts. We recently reviewed one such example: ‘The Japanese House’ supported by ‘Art School Girlfriend’ at the Gorilla. and ‘A-Sun Amissa’ were, likewise, an ideal support for EATW.

They are the vision of solo artist Richard Knox and although they often play as a full band, this tends to be a group of collaborators with a somewhat floating membership, rather than a fixed outfit. At the ‘Soup Kitchen’ they played as a two piece, with Knox himself on guitar, and his wife Claire on bass and clarinet. They describe their genre, amongst other things, as ‘Neo-Classical’ and certainly there is much of the classical in its structure, even if not in its sound. Their other self description as ‘Ambient’ is also valid, although they are very far from the musical wallpaper that this term can sometimes imply.

Fig 5. A-Sun Amissa. Photo: Hera Says team.

As with most classical, their music comes as wholly instrumental ‘pieces’, not as songs. There are no lyrics or singing of any kind. There were no title announcements or stage banter. Indeed neither band member even had a microphone. Yet no absence is felt, just as it is not with other instrumental bands, such as ‘Tangerine Dream‘. As with EATW themselves, their appeal is as much cerebral and spiritual as it is to the dance impulse, and none the worse for that. They also take an experimental approach to their playing styles, both musicians, for example, playing guitar and bass with violin bows on occasions. The result was rather impressive and does produce a different sound to other guitar bowing techniques, such as using an EBow, or a glissando bar.

The band have a new album out (their fourth) called ‘Ceremonies in the Stillness‘, which is beautifully recorded to real hi-fi quality and very well worth a listen. We bought the physical CD version from the merch stall on the night, and it has now had multiple playings, especially of the glorious track ‘No perception of light‘. As an added bonus, it also comes with download codes for the MP3 version, along with a taster selection of other material from the same record company (Gizeh Records). One small quibble, though: be warned that there is no CD case as such, and no spine lettering to help you identify the disc on a shelf. Instead it comes in light card packaging that seems almost purpose designed to get torn and fall apart almost at once and yet be impossible to adapt to a conventional jewel case. This is a shame, because it might put buyers off actually playing what is a very good record and it would have been such an easy problem to avoid.

In short, this was a great evening of beautiful, thought provoking music, by two superb and well matched bands. Esben and the Witch have long been personal favourites of ours and anything new from them can pretty much be guaranteed to be great. ‘A-Sun Amissa’ were new to us but we will be very interested to hear more from them in future.

Hera Says.

‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3

Fig 6. The Esben and the Witch ‘Nowhere’ and A-Sun Amissa ‘Ceremony in the Stillness’ covers.

‘Dream Wife’, with ‘Dollie Demi’ and ‘Queen Zee’ at the Gorilla, Manchester: 28-10-2018.

Contrary to myth, guitar music is most definitely not dead.  It’s not even feeling poorly. Many older Rock fans bemoan the decline of the so called ‘guitar hero’ and tell us that no one is producing good new Rock any more.  But rumours of the death of Rock are, as always, premature.  As Hera has pointed out in the past, if you can bring yourself to stop assuming that for something to be good it must also be male then what we have actually seen is a transition not a decline.  In other words, we have seen a shift from a generation of remarkable male guitarists to one of equally remarkable guitar heroines.  If we were to list the most innovative guitarists around at the moment, we would have to include the likes of Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females), Annie Clark (St. Vincent) or Courtney Barnett (especially when she plays in her wife, Jen Cloher’s band).

Fig 2. Alice Go, of Dream Wife. Photo: Hera Says team.

We would mention the dystopian freestyle playing of Gemma Thompson (Savages), the gentle dreamscapes of Amber Bain (The Japanese House) or the fluid riffing of Holly Carter (Berries).  These are six superb musicians – all female, and there are others we could also name, others such as Tash Sultana (non binary), Whitney Petty (Thunderpussy), or Gabby Logan (Txlips).  They are not, in those patronising words that are still heard all too often, “Pretty good for a woman”.  They are just good – period – end of story.  More than good, in fact.  They are brilliant – as good as you get – and Dream Wife’s Alice Go is another one to add to the list.  Like Barnett and Bain, she is a left hander and it would be interesting to speculate whether or not it is a coincidence that so many of the best guitarists of the moment are.

Fig 3. Dream Wife’s Rakel Mjöll Leifsdottir.   Photo: Hera Says team.

Go has an extremely distinctive and instantly recognisable playing style, which is hugely influential on Dream Wife’s overall sound as a band.  She does not bother much with the grandiose, self indulgent guitar solos of the male dominated generation.  Instead she is an ensemble player, with spiky, discordant and constantly shifting riffs and power chords which on record often take an equal place in the mix with the vocals – for example in songs like ‘Fire‘.  Melodic she isn’t.  Relentless is more like it and her slightly unusual choice of guitar perfectly suits her jarring style. Because she plays the Burns ‘Marquee’, a physically attractive British, single coil pickup design which was specifically engineered in the 1960s to give a hard edged, treble heavy tone.  It has been described as more Jag than a Fender Jaguar.  Certainly it could have been created with Go in mind, and she tends to play right up against the bridge for even more bite.

It is unfair, of course, to single out one member of a band.  I happen to play bass and usually for gigs I check on YouTube to see which side of the stage a band’s bassist tends to occupy and take up station there to watch their fingers from as close up as possible. Dream Wife’s bass player Bella Podpadec is damn good.  She has also recently taken to playing a Fender Mustang bass, like me, and it is always great to watch someone really play on your own instrument.  Likewise, the third member of the core, three piece band (they also have a male drummer, Alex Paveley), Rakel Mjöll Leifsdottir, is a great singer and front-woman but I’m sorry, I love guitar and I wanted to sit at Go’s feet and be blown away.

Fig 4. Dream Wife’s Rakel and Bella. Photo: Hera Says team.

I was not disappointed.  We have been fans of the band for a long time on record and video.  We were hugely impressed by their self titled debut album earlier this year, and have written about them before.  But thanks to a number of date conflicts and a very badly timed bout of surgery last year, this was the first time I had managed to see them live.  But oh I do hope it won’t be the last, because they are a great live act.  Rakel is an exhilarating performer who fronts the band brilliantly.  She banters with the audience well between songs and can hold a crowd in the palm of her hand.  Like all of the acts on the night, she was let down by the sound engineering, which, as so often, allowed the drums and guitars to all but drown out her voice.  But she coped well – managing to get herself heard without resorting to shouting and running her voice ragged.  It is a pity, though, that this is such a common problem.

As for their set, they played all eleven songs from their album, including the big favourites, such as ‘Fire‘, and the glorious feminist anthem ‘Somebody‘, with its refrain of ‘I am not my body, I am somebody’.  They also included an older song, ‘Lolita‘.

Fig 5. Dream Wife’s Rakel. Photo: Hera Says team.

Dream Wife are known as a proudly feminist and LGBTQ friendly band.  They have also taken an admirable stance in trying to ensure that their gigs will be safe places for women.  One of their nice touches is their call for “Bad Bitches” in which they call the women in the audience to the front to give them a chance of a decent view.  One of the irritants for a woman, or even a short man, at a gig is that you can almost guarantee that some 6 foot Herbert is going to decide that he urgently needs to stand right in front of you and block your view, so the move gives everyone a chance. Another welcome touch was getting both support bands back on stage (top picture) to join in with the final song of their encore – the riotous ‘Let’s Make Out‘, which is about exactly what you think it is.  It was a great set by a great band right at the top of their game.  It was also nice to get the chance to talk to them properly on the merch stall afterwards.  ‘Goat Girl’ a couple of days before at the same venue did not appear at all on their stall, but I got to talk to Podpadec about basses and Go about her playing style and went away very happy.

Fig 6. Dollie Demi.   Photo: Hera Says team.

The support slots began with ‘Dollie Demi‘ from Manchester. They are another four piece of three women plus a male drummer. They call their genre ‘Sassy Pop’, which seems like a pretty good description, and they too take guitar very seriously, thanks to Ella Risi, who is another wonderful player.  Somehow their front woman, the eponymous Demi, managed to be less short changed by the sound engineering of her vocals, and the band’s Facebook page has a brief video clip of their performance that night in which she comes through loud and clear as the singer she undoubtedly is.

One of the joys of getting to gigs early enough to see all of the bill, rather than just the headliners, is the discoveries you make of acts you had not come across before.  We have never understood why anyone would miss this opportunity, especially as it is also the best way of getting a good spot by the stage – but each to their own.  We are certainly glad we saw this band and we would like to see them again playing a longer set.

Fig 7. ‘Queen Zee’. Photo: Hera Says team.

Dream Wife’s Rakel declared during their set that ‘Gender is only a social construct’. The second support act ‘Queen Zee‘, pretty much proved that.  ‘Hera Says’ specialises in female acts, or acts where one or more women play a significant artistic role.  We are happy to support the ‘T’ end of the LGBTQ spectrum and to us a woman is anyone who identifies as such.  There are women in this band alright.  Quite how many is not entirely clear and I suspect that the band themselves would question its relevance. They may well be right.  Ash Summers on keyboards and vocal is a fair bet but ….. Look, they’re loud, brash, bloody brilliant and huge fun, so just go and see them.  You won’t regret it.

Hera Says.

‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3

Fig 08 The ‘Dream Wife’ Album cover.

‘Goat Girl’ with ‘Black Country New Road’ and ‘Sneaks’ at the ‘Gorilla’, Manchester 23-10-2018: 23-10-2018.

One of the most original bands to emerge over the last few years is London all female four piece ‘Goat Girl’. They have been releasing material since their ‘Scum’ / ‘Country Sleaze’ single in 2016, but their self titled debut album, which appeared earlier this year put them in a different league. By tradition an album is a simple parade of songs, which follow one after the other, usually with a few seconds silence between each one. ‘Goat Girl’ is more of a suite, however. There are songs in the conventional sense to be sure. Some are even quite commercial in form, notably single release, ‘The Man‘, and the gloriously eccentric ‘Viper Fish‘, which has since been blessed with an equally quirky animated video. There are ballads like the haunting ‘Throw me a Bone‘ or ‘Slowly Reclines‘. Others, however, although recognisably still songs, are less conventionally rock songs, for example ‘The Man with no heart or brain‘ – whilst others are as much statements as songs, notably ‘Creep‘ – an angry piece about being harassed as a woman on public transport. Meanwhile, all of these pieces are embedded in a mixture of short musical and spoken interludes to form a uniform whole, rather than a simple list of separate individual tracks.

Live in Manchester, the band played as a six piece, with the four band members being supplemented by a male keyboard player and a female violinist. The latter was not identified on the night, but she played the beautiful violin part from ‘Creep’ which on the album, is played by Tina Longford. She also added violin lines to other songs and had a wonderfully fluid style, reminiscent of Graham Smith of the superb, but much neglected, 1970s Prog Rock band ‘String Driven Thing‘.

Fig 2. Goat Girl. Photo: Hera Says Team.

‘Goat Girl’ are not great ones for banter with the audience, but they put on a wonderful set, which included many of the songs from the album, plus debut single ‘Scum‘, with at least one cover version thrown in for good measure. One of the most striking features of the band has been the fact that however strange their music can sometimes become, it sits on a foundation of superb musicianship and this was as apparent live as on record. The two guitarists: Ellie Rose Davies (who uses the stage name L.E.D.) and singer Lottie Pendlebury (Clottie Cream) are perhaps the most obviously strong in this respect, but ‘Goat Girl’ have an interesting tendency towards giving songs solo bass introductions and as your reviewer also plays bass I had made a point of arriving early enough to get a spot leaning on the right hand side of the stage, where bassist Naima Bock (a.k.a. Naima Jelly) usually takes up station, so that I could watch her fingers. To many, the words innovative and bassist do not readily go together (although I have no idea why – just watch ‘Kite Base‘ and say that), but she really is and she has a lovely warm sound. Witness, for example, the into to ‘Throw me a Bone‘ where she manages to make a Squier Precision bass sound like an acoustic double bass, rather in the style of the intro to ‘Pentangle’s ‘Light Flight’.

Fig 3. Goat Girl. Photo: The Hera Says team.

In her role as singer Pendlebury excelled. She has a most distinctive voice, often quite low in pitch for a woman, but with a considerable range. Sadly, as so often, the vocals were mixed too low for all three acts at the ‘Gorilla’, with ‘Goat Girl’ as the headliners faring little better than the support acts, but Pendlebury refused to fall into the usual trap of trying to compensate for the poor sound engineering by shouting. She sung as she would have done if she was being mixed properly. As a result, she preserved all of the subtlety of her vocal parts, they just came out rather quietly, but that was hardly her fault. In fact, we applaud the line she took and more singers should follow her lead. Their performances would be better. They would be less likely to damage their voices, and it might even force sound engineers to get their act together rather more. It’s hardly rocket science after all. Perhaps whoever did such a superb job on the mixing desk for Aurora’s gig at the ‘Academy’ on October 10th should give lessons.

Fig 4. Sneaks. Photo: The Hera Says team.

Goat Girl had two support acts, one of whom was part of the tour: ‘Sneaks‘, from Washington DC, which is the project of solo artist Eva Moolchan. We had not come across her before, and she perhaps suffered more than most from the poor engineering of vocals on the night. But she was a real revelation that had us wanting more. Her music consists largely of funk influenced ballads with hypnotic rhythms, and sung in a beautifully gentle voice, somewhat reminiscent of early Suzanne Vega. She sings alone on stage, although she employs a chorus effect to multiply her voice. For about half of her songs she plays bass, interestingly with quite an aggressive twangy style that contrasts markedly with her voice. But otherwise, her only accompaniments are backing tracks and drum machine patterns played off a laptop computer. The results really are stunning. She had her current record, ‘It’s a Myth‘, on sale on the merch stall and we have been very glad we bought it.  Whether, you would call it an album or an EP is something of a moot point, because it is somewhere in between. At a little over 18 minutes it has the length of a generous EP, but it has 10 tracks. She simply does not go in for long pieces. We can heartily recommend it, and she has a new album ‘Highway Hypnosis‘ out in January 2019, which will be available on CD, Vinyl or as a download.

Fig 5. Black Country New Road. Photo: Hera Says team.

The opening act was ‘Black Country New Road’ (a.k.a. BCNR), who were both wonderful and maddening. Their music was absolutely wonderful. It is heavily sax driven and has something of the Jazz Rock feel of Daevid Allen period ‘Gong’, but heavier, and with added violin. Their music is largely instrumental, occasionally with something of an element of Near Eastern crossover – and what lyrics there are were often spoken rather than sung. On the night, they were a six piece, with male guitarist, drummer and sax, and female bassist, violin and keyboards. The frustrating bit is that this is currently about all we can tell you about them. They don’t talk to the audience. They did not appear on the merch stall afterwards. They do have a Facebook page, but it says virtually nothing, least of all who the band members are, and to add yet more confusion, there seems to be another band with the same name. So, all we can really say is that they are wonderful, and I mean seriously wonderful, but who they are or whether they have any records out, I have no idea. The latter, in particular, is a shame, because if we knew of any records, we would already have bought them.

This was a great evening with three great acts. It is a shame that ‘Goat Girl’ did not come out to talk on their merch stall, as ‘Dream Wife’ did three days later at the same venue, and it is a shame that ‘BCNR’ are such a secret, but it was still very much a night to remember. We already have ‘Sneaks’ new album on pre-order and we will look forward to seeing what ‘Goat Girl’ do next, because whatever it is, it is bound to be memorable.

Hera Says.

‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3

Fig 6.  The ‘Sneak’s’ ‘It’s a myth’ and ‘Goat Girl’ self titled album covers.

Jen Cloher with ‘The Finks’ at St. Michael’s, Manchester: 2-11-2018.

Jen Cloher is an astonishingly versatile artist. She is often described as ‘Folk’, but things are not that simple.  As we wrote in a recent article about her, her recorded output ranges broadly in style from, yes pure acoustic folk – in songs like the beautiful ‘Dark Art‘, from her most recent, self titled album, or the equally lovely ‘Shady Grove‘, which are respectively about, and performed in collaboration with her wife, Courtney Barnett.  But she can rock, as in ‘Strong Woman‘.  She gets close to Punk on occasions as on ‘Stone Age Brain‘, and she can even take on something of a late 1960s west coast feel, as in her magnificent cover of ‘The Loved Ones’ 1967 hit ‘Sad Dark Eyes‘.

When performing live, however, she tends now to come in two very different modes. Firstly, there are ensemble performances, with a truly astonishing band, consisting of long-standing collaborator Jen Sholakis on drums, Courtney Barnett on lead guitar who, freed from vocal duties, often plays even more amazing solos for Cloher than she does at her own gigs.  And, finally, on bass, Bones (Andrew) Sloane, Barnett’s friend and band-mate since her days with ‘Immigrant Union‘.  On other occasions, though, Cloher plays completely alone, with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.

Fig 2. Jen Cloher. Photo, Hera Says team.

Manchester has been blessed this year with a view of both sides of the coin.  On Valentine’s Day, the Jen Cloher Band played the ‘Deaf Institute‘ and on the 2nd of November we got her all to ourselves at St. Michael’s.  The venue itself is a small former chapel – an attractive and intimate all-seater space, not much known to rock fans as it is run by the Hallé orchestra.  But it has lovely acoustics and suited Cloher down to the ground.  She is a force of nature live.  She has a quiet charisma that lets her hold an audience spellbound from the moment she reaches the mike.  The songs she plays solo are often pretty much the same ones she plays with her band, although as she herself said, the acoustic performances do make it easier for her to move away from the “And here is the whole of my latest album” school of set list and reach back into her rich back-catalogue.

For example, she played two tracks from her first album, ‘Dead Wood Falls‘ from 2006: ‘Rain’ and ‘The Longing Song’ – the second of which is reputed to have been her late father’s favourite of her songs.  ‘Mother’s Desk’ and ‘Fear is like a Forest’ appeared from 2009’s ‘Hidden Hands‘ album, the latter having also been covered recently by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile on their collaboration album ‘Lotta Sea Lice’. Meanwhile, ‘David Bowie Eyes’, ‘Needs’ and ‘Kamikaze Origami’ hail from 2013’s ‘In Blood Memory‘.

Fig 3. Jen Cloher. Photo Hera Says team.

For all of this material, though, and that from the new album, the ‘unplugged’ approach gives an entirely different perspective.  Classical music fans are used to being able to compare multiple interpretations of the same piece, with different conductors and/or soloists putting their own slant on a composition.  But with rock/folk we are usually given just a single definitive recording.  True there may be live variants, and other artists may produce markedly different cover versions but, for the most part, you get what is on the original record.

Inevitably, there are times when something from the band version has to be sacrificed when a song is played solo, for example Barnett’s two gloriously simple but melodic guitar solos from ‘Regional Echo‘.  At first thought it seems almost impossible to envisage the track without them but, in practice, it works perfectly.  The song just becomes still more of a hauntingly gentle lament.  There is a feeling of loss to be sure, because that is what the song is about, but no feeling that anything is missing from the music itself.

Many of Cloher’s acoustic versions go a lot further than simply extracting the percussion and electric instruments, however.  Some of the songs undergo a dramatic change of character.  For example, with a full band, ‘Strong Woman‘ is a feminist rock anthem, but solo it becomes a lilting ballad, which brings out its autobiographical side more clearly, whilst the yearning pain of ‘Sensory Memory‘, becomes all the more apparent in this softer treatment.  The song is about a lover (Cloher) enduring prolonged and frequent separations when her loved one (Barnett) is away on tour. But anyone who, like ourselves, has had to cope with a long distance, international relationship for any length of time will recognise the opening words only too well: “I start missing you days before you leave”.

Fig 4. Jen Cloher. Photo, the Hera Says team.

The delicate nature of the acoustic approach makes it emotionally revealing in a way that the electric version, although more powerful, cannot quite match.  The tender purity of Cloher’s voice shines through, as does the fact that she is an extremely good folk guitarist. In the band context she plays rhythm guitar to Barnett’s lead and her playing is inevitably somewhat overshadowed as a result.  But on her own she has a lightness of touch as she plays endless subtle variants of chords, which is really lovely. Better yet – unlike so many of the recent gigs we have reviewed – that subtle quality was considerably assisted on the night by excellent, hi-fi quality sound engineering, that brought out the full beauty of her performance.

Cloher is a raconteur as well as a musician and the songs were interspersed with stories, sometimes about the background to a particular song, but sometimes just chat. For example, she started a conversation with the audience at one point which ended up with us discussing the venue name, St. Michael’s, and the use of the same name as the Marks & Spencer’s clothing marque.  Even here, however, the audience remained in the palm of her hand.  She never for a second looked like loosing control.

To get a flavour of the night – or indeed a memento – Cloher recently released an EP called ‘Live at The Loft and Loew’s‘ on her and Barnett’s own label, Milk! Records.  It has four of her acoustic set songs and for the tour she had a special limited edition vinyl version, on sale only at the gigs.  But a digital edition can be obtained as a download, and is very well worth a listen.

Fig 5. The Finks. Photo: Hera Says team.

One of the nice things about Barnett and Cloher running their own record company is that they are able to bring over other artist from their stable as support acts, and they have signed up some real gems. In February Cloher brought Hachiku (a.k.a solo artist Anika Ostendorf) – a genuine genius with loopers, who builds complex multi-tracked music there and then on stage.  Barnett was in Manchester in June and introduced us to ‘Loose Tooth‘, a 3 piece, two thirds female rock outfit who also greatly impressed and who have both an EP and an album available.  We hope that at some point one of them will bring another Milk! act, ‘Jade Imagine‘, but this time it was the turn of ‘The Finks’, i.e. solo artist Oliver Mestitz.  He was a great choice and formed the perfect foil for Cloher.  His music consists of gentle, lyrical ballads accompanied by an electric guitar, but played in something of an acoustic, slow and lingering style, albeit often with a good deal of tremolo pedal.

He currently has a new album called ‘Rolly Nice‘, which was on sale on the merch stall, along with most of the rest of his output and let’s just say that we were impressed enough to buy one of everything he had to offer.  Courtney Barnett’s early material is often filled with deadpan humour and social observation, and so is Mestitz’s, although their musical styles are very different.  He has a yearning, slightly high pitched voice which, along with his guitar style, is serene and restful.  But his lyrics are full of philosophical meaning mixed with meandering reminiscences that are very well worth following closely.  Good examples are ‘When what changed us changed us‘ and ‘Body Language‘ – the latter being perhaps the artist on tour’s dream of home.  It was enthralling, and the intimate space and good sound quality again made a big difference, with every word audible.  It may seem strange for a feminist music site to recommend a male artist, but we’re not sexist, and we do.

In short, this was a magical evening with two marvellous artists.  Cloher has been a personal favourite of ours for years, but even so her prodigious talent and magnetic stage presence continue to impress anew every time we see her.  And we now have a memento to treasure: a signed vinyl copy of ‘Live at The Loft and Loew’s’ dedicated to ‘Hera Says’.

Hera Says.

‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3

Fig 6. The ‘Finks’ ‘Rolly Nice’ and Jen Cloher ‘Live at the Loft and Loew’s’ covers.