MIKE DAVIES COLUMN JUNE 2023

A swift follow-up to last year’s  Vanaprastha,  ARMCHAIR GODS duo Paul Kearns and Steve Peckover return with Doubt The Stars, another outstanding collection of chilled and meditative progressive rock instrumentals, here with a cosmic backdrop both musically and thematically in what they describe as a sonic celestial odyssey.

Indeed, it opens with Odyssey reflecting the journey into space after leaving earth, awed by the majesty of the stars and feeling insignificant in the scheme of things, flowing into the darker sounding  and turbulence threatening Argo Navis, named for a constellation of stars, with its pulsing keyboard tempests and heavy drum beats transposing the myth of Jason and the Argonauts into space conjuring with the initial siren’s call and then the sea god Triton holding back the clashing rocks to provide safe passage.

Passing through the storm, things become calm with the ebb and flow of Ataraxia, named for the term meaning calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet, the drums kicking back in for Requiem, a number fuelled by anger at the contradiction of how humanity can create something like the James Webb telescope and yet still be mired waging medieval barbaric wars, the piece composed of two states representing a star moving violently though its life cycle before burning out, the monastic chant element taking its influence from Mozart's Requiem while the soaring guitar solo midway was improvised in a  single take. 

Echoing the time portal motif at the start of Ataraxia but revisited with different instrumentation, Portal II is a 30 second transition into the serene synth-strings opening title track, which,  with drums and losing guitar solo and  , is a collaboration with Derbyshire-based singer/songwriter Carol Fieldhouse who also provides the pure crystalline hymnal vocals (reminding me of Maggie Reilly on Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow)the words inspired by Shakespeare’s poem “Doubt thou the stars are fire” and the beliefs of his  day and exploring the relationship between ourselves and the perception of enduring truth in the aim of bringing light and hope to the shade. 

It ends with the steady marching beat and keyboard swirls of Red Shift Dawn, a musically stirring, guitar cloud surfing celebration of the  James Webb Telescope mission, looking back in time at red shifted starlight from the very first stars created just after the big bang. Resisting the prog-rock tendency for long, self-indulgent pieces, only one track runs anything approaching five minutes, creating a seamless flow that creates its intended impression before moving on. Like the space mission it conjures, this feels like just the start of a voyage into the vastness of the galactic horizons, long may they boldly go. 

MARK LEMON doffs the cap to the Carry On films on his infectious singalong new single All The Carry On Stars (which, he in leather jacket, comes with a great video with 60s clips, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ch7IT0TyRU) celebrating its saucy double entendres.

ELIZABETH J BIRCH is what might be called alt-folktronica, using synths and loops to create the textures and melodies that enfold her words. Her latest self-released excursion is Kenopsia, which means the eerie atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but now abandoned, a definition that well captures the atmosphere she weaves as her voice swoops and soars across and between the music. Available from Bandcamp (https://elizabethjbirch.bandcamp.com), it’s an eight track set that opens with the title number, moving through the cosmic drift of  Barely to the stabbing pulses of Night Turned Morning by way of the turbulent Wallpaper m the underwater ambience of Come Home and the heavy electric storm of the instrumental closer Stages One, Two and Three. You might detect traces of Kate Bush and the enigmatic quality of the lyrics, but Birch is very much a singular voice.

MIKE DAVIES COLUMN MAY 2023

Recorded live at the Red Lion In Kings Heath, the appropriately titled Alive (Wafer Thin) finds ROB PETERS & THE SLAPDASH COWBOYS  in blistering form, he on 6 and 12 string acoustic fronting a trio that also features Hannah Brown on vocals and, From Bonfire Radical, the incredible  Emma Reading on electric, a sort of female answer to Clapton. Pretty much the whole two part set, edited into 72 minutes with some corrected, enhanced or replaced parts, it’s a generous 16 tracks with chat intro (and tuning) that include  all bar one of the numbers off his last studio release, 2021’s The Moon That Thought It Was The Sun, opening as such with the urgent strum of A Little Box Of Forgetfulness and its reflections on getting older and proceeding through the delicate way of Inside Out, the Syd Barret-based Madam Misery, and, written for his partner, Suse Loves Cooking. As  indeed, Brown on harmonies,  was the  83 second strummed blues This Is Love, which  was a hidden track on his last album.

Digging into the past with a preamble about touring in America with Boo Hewardine, Sister Smile dates back to 1998’s Zinc album  and was co-written with Neicey Mann who recorded her own version on 20002s’ Decree Neicey album. It’s the first of three in a row from that album, next up being a powerful version of The Wheel, written by former singing partner Della Roberts (who also has a Hewardine backing vocalist connection) and followed by the  urgent, driving Jesus In The Parking Lot.

The more recent back catalogue is visited with Why God Is So Slow To Punish The Wicked before returning to The Moon, etc. for Leap  Of Faith, Scapegoat, The Bearer Of The Poisoned Chalice (Part One), When We Fall (which originally appeared on Copper Heart and from whence the title for  the 2021  album comes) and the slow swaying Alive, the set closing up with the opening psychedelic flurry of guitar notes of  Copper Heart’s near nine-minute pedal effects Finger Rain with its nods to George Harrison and, finally, from 2000’s Flatiron, the alt-country inflected poignant balladeering Our Memories. While a highly respected producer, Rob’s probably unfairly better known for his Beatles – and especially Lennon – tributes, but this is a dynamite reminder of what a great songwriter he is, one with a very distinctive voice, literally and metaphorically,  of his own.

STYLUS BOY trails his upcoming Back in the Day EP with Fourteen Days (Tortoise), , his acoustic guitar shuffle here augmented with experiments in electronic beats and synth sounds and Alva Lee on backing vocals.  The song’s inspired by  102-year-old  named John who, now blind and unable to walk, was a  WWII pilot who was shot down behind enemy lines and survived for 14 days on wild fruit and vegetables before getting back to safety, narrowly avoiding being mistaken for a spy and shot

Following on from The One That Got Away, again co-penned with mother Michelle, JAADA LAWRENCE-GREEN returns at the end of the month with another solid Euro-flavoured club dance track, You Make Me Feel Alive, this time conjuring thoughts of classic Donna Summer.

Out on May 19, COLIN HALL takes a musical swerve for Beep Beep (Money-Go-Round), a woozy fairground carousel midtempo waltzer with a kiddie chorus , fiddle  and a deliberately mannered vocal delivery that evokes  Bowie in his formative Davy Jones days and lyrics that take a swipe at political slight of the hand, wheel greasing  and schmoozing with lines like “the government’s warning/Of tight belts and wearing more sweaters to combat the chills/But the truth of the matter/It won’t get no better, we couldn’t drink half as much as they spill” in a “them and us” society where all the “I love you fakers were cupping their hands for a loan”. There’s a great video to go with it available from May 17 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC41Iiotags