Elba Sessions

Father Sculptor – Ember

I was sent this a while back and as seems to be the way with me sometimes, i promised it a listen and then it got lost somewhere along the way. I’m glad i found it again though because there’s a lot to like here. Ember and it’s also excellent b-side ‘Blue’ was released on Monday and is available as a free digital download.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bubble

Trust me, the theme this week is not forgetting to listen to stuff but I have to offer up a similar comment for this track as to the last. I got this album around the time it came out however, that portion of last year was pretty much made up of worry and daily hospital visits, so remembering to listen to new music was a bit further down on the priority list than usual. As a result my itunes bulges with tracks that haven’t had a single play and my shelves have an odd selection of cd’s pushed into any available nook and cranny just waiting for the cellophane to be ripped off.

This is yet another album I forgot about. I did listen to this once or twice at the time though but I’ll admit, i don’t always get on with KC’s music. However, I cracked it out the other week again and i must say, if i’d remembered it more last year, this album may have been in contention in some of the end of year lists. I like this track ‘Bubble’ a lot. When the banjo kicks in mid-way through, I really like this track.

Yann Tiersen – Summer 78 (Instrumental)

I think Yann Tiersen is one of my favourite film composers and this is i guess one of the ‘theme’s’ from the brilliant film ‘Good bye Lenin!‘

Yusuf Azak – Swim

Did i mention i was looking forward to Yusuf releasing his new album this year? Probably. This is from his free to download Prizefighter EP released last year. He’s playing at Edinburgh’s Ide’s of Toad Night this evening alongside RM Hubbert and Rory Sutherland.

Beach House – Myth

It’s becoming apparent from these mixtapes that ‘dream pop’ is my thing. This is the opening track from Beach House’s forthcoming album ‘Bloom’ which is released next month.

NO – Stay With Me

I think there’s some pretty strong comparisons to be made with The National on this track by LA based NO. The vocals and track brood away and build up as the track goes on. This track is on a limited run released by the turntable kitchen blog in San Francisco.

Bam Bam – Hipnodromo

I’ve not featured much any Mexican music on the blog before but when i heard this on an Arts & Crafts sampler, there was no way that it was not going on a mixtape. I have no idea what they are singing about either!

Thirty Pounds of Bone – Uyeasound

This weeks final track is from Thirty Pounds of Bone and is from his first album, ‘The Homesick Children of Migrant Mothers’. I just really like this one and don’t really need to elaborate much further only that I listened to the album this week because of the maritime themes on some of the tracks on the King Creosote & Jon Hopkins album. I like when one persons music brings you onto someone else’s.

Our penultimate annual post of 2011 comes from Johny Lamb aka Thirty Pounds of Bone. TPOB was lucky enough to be bestowed with the honour of releasing my favourite album of 2010 and whilst he’s not formally released anything this year, you should check out his Toad Session on the ever essential Song, By Toad website. Not only a great discussion but the tracks are great, in particular, The Maritime Line.

TPOB also feature on the ‘just-released’ Armellodie Records Sampler which is free and has some bloody good tracks on it.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Here is Johny’s annual contribution.

- Album of The Year

I thought initially that this would be very hard. But it isn’t. ‘Beautiful Ground’ by Something Beginning with L. There is not one blemish or flaw on that record. It remains on repeat in my car, indefinitely. That being said, I should definitely mention ‘Now Wash your Hands’ by the Great Park. It’s definitely his best so far, and the song ‘Red Barn, Black Barn, Tree’ is my current favourite song on earth.

- Song of the Year

Despite what I just said, I’m going for something else: Fee Reega’s cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘Harley Man’ is the best song I’ve heard this year. Something about her voice and character makes me almost loose my mind when she plays it. I saw her play it in Berlin a few weeks ago. I couldn’t cope.

- Best gig you played

There’s two here. Firstly a show in London with Darren Hayman. His fans were unbelievable kind as an audience. He was great too, as was Ralegh Long who played before me. I lost my shoes, but I woke up glad. I also played St Leonard’s church in Shoreditch with Robyn Hitchcock just the other day, and I can’t think of a time when I have enjoyed singing as much. I might only play churches from now on…. Besides, Robyn’s set was incredible. Jen from SBL said he was a ‘mountain of psychedelia’, a perfect description I would say. I also very much enjoyed Cafe Galeo in Stuttgart…. That’s three isn’t it? Sorry.

- Best gig you saw

Oh, too many good things to pick. A list perhaps? The Black Tambourines in Tremough, Chinese Sky Candy in Falmouth, Some Cartographers anywhere at all, Carter USM in Brixton, The Diamond family Archive at Gwithian Beach, I Am Horse in Bristol, Rae Spoon and Lianne Hall also at Tremough.

- Any music-based thoughts to share on the year 2011?

The next person I hear describing someone as having an ‘amazing voice’ because there is nothing else to say in their defence of their output, and because they heard it on the telly, will find the last thing they see in this world is my shadow and the flash of a meat cleaver. Is that what you mean?

- What does 2012 have in store for you?

A new album, gigs, fun collaborations, lots of time alone at Lands End and something potentially amazing that I can’t talk about yet.

As I am sure most of you are aware, Record Store Day takes place next Saturday, 16th of April. We’ve decided here at Elba to scout around a bit and bring you some thoughts from Record Stores out with our locale. Today, we feature Drift Record Shop from Totnes in Devon. I’ve only ever made a ‘record store day purchase’ once before, I didn’t get up early last year to get the limited 7″‘s or anything but a couple of years ago, Drift Record Store gave away the Drift Records back catalogue, around eight albums, along with a few other bits and pieces. The majority of the artists I’d never heard of before but I now count several of these albums as some of my favourite albums, Tandy Hard – Tandy Hard, Birdengine and Thirty Pounds of Bone included.

We caught up with Rupert to get a bit more of a lowdown on Drift as well as getting his opinion on his favourite record store.

- Firstly, tell us a little about Drift and how you got started.

Drift has been in Totnes (small town in Devon) high-street since 1994, originally as a world music specialist but for the last decade specializing in contemporary rock/pop/indie/avant-garde/house/electronicia/minimalist/soundcape/disco… amongst others.

The shop has always been run on a rolling 12/18 month schedule of the best new music we here and love to promote. We’re very lucky that we have such a good set of customers (or perhaps good fortune in that we’re one of only about five record shops in 600 square miles) and it has enabled us to get behind labels like Woodsist, Souterrain Transmissions, K, Holy Mountain, Anticon, Tri-Angle… support and stock people doing really special things. Not too bad for an indie record store in a tiny little conservative safe heaven in the farming countryside. We can pretty much do what we want and I think that people recognize that we care about… so keep coming back!

- You have an online store as well as the shop. Is it important for a record shop to offer an online option in this day and age and do you find you get orders from all over the place?

We went online about 9 months back and it has been nice to meet more people that way also.

shop: www.thedriftrecordshop.co.uk
blog: www.driftrecordshop.com

- Does Drift have any plans for Record Store Day?

We’ve got a SMASH load of new music coming in so we’ll be trying to keep calm amongst the chaos of guys in denim looking for the illusive Queen 7″. Besides this we’ve been stock piling some great treats and we’re going to be dishing out (amongst other warehouse finds) Some rare Dungen vinyl, a couple of Warp Box Sets and a few copies of Thom York + Burial + Four Tet… so there’ll be some rare stuff flying about in the shop come Saturday 16th.

Come Sunday morning we’ll drunk still and have empty wallets and full record bags I am sure.

- You also have a label, Drift Records. How did this come about and do you find having it alongside the shop mutually benefits each endeavour?

The label came about primarily as a means to releasing my first album (The R.G.Morrison – Learning About Loathing) and just got a lot of good support. We’d put out Thirty Pounds of Bone and Birdengine pretty quick after that and we got some good momentum.

I think running the label made me very sympathetic in running the shop; I listen to all promos we get, I take things on sound not press release, spread the shelf space out a little… get behind things that maybe other shops don’t have the opportunity to. We root for the little guys!

- Some of my favourite albums in my collection were actually released on Drift, Tandy Hard and Thirty Pounds of Bone, do you have any future releases planned?

Thank you!

… Having said all that I did only this week start looking into licensing Townes Van Zandt material plus I saw band called ‘Barr Brothers’ who really blow me away… so you never know!

- Other than Drift, of course, what’s your favourite record store and where is it located?

I am and have always been a huge fan of Rough Trade (“west” now). It’s just such a great outlet. Waterloo records in Austin Texas is very thorough and very friendly. Amoeba Music in LA is just something else… be careful!

I love record shops… I always make a point of going and meeting people in them. Spencer at Rough Trade is tireless, Simon Pure Groove is a genius and Stephen at Mono is a great guy also.

- Do you remember the first record store you visited and what you bought?

‘Our Price’ in Torquay – I remember going to buy Blur ‘Leisure’ … I did own ‘Substance’ before that… mmmm James maybe? Frank and Walters maybe? I also had ‘should I stay or should I go’ on 7″… that was quite early?

- What’s your preferred format?

Vinyl… A nice heavyweight 10″ always gets me most excited. I bought two copies of the ‘Factory Floor – Wooden Box 10″ ‘ as it was just so pretty.

So, the weekend is once again upon us and we’ve decided here at Elba that it’s a weekend worthy frittering away the few remaining pennies that we carry in our pockets, before an eagerly anticipated payday!

This year’s Glasgow Film Festival launched last night and there is loads to get your teeth into over the next few weeks (see Kim’s preview here). A quick glance around Elba’s schedules shows that the Film & Music festival will be keeping us entertained over the next few weeks but you should check out the full programme as there are a few gems in there. This weekends showings of Faust/Alex Smoke, Howl and the aural assault of 65days of static appear to be highlights you might want to check out.

Tonight sees the return for a second month of the Barmellodie night at Bloc in Glasgow. We had a hoot last month spinning some tunes after great sets by Battery Face, The Douglas Firs and Le Reno Amps. Highlights included Kim getting a high five for playing Sonic Youth and Pavement ‘filling’ the dancefloor! Tonight’s music comes from The Scottish Enlightenment, Randolph’s Leap and Thirty Pounds of Bone who we won’t stop urging you to check out. He really is that blody good! Post band entertainment is provided by the Podcart DJ’s.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you may do and feel free to add any other things people should check out in the comments below!!

Our final annual comes from Elba Sessions’ constant and reasoned voice; Phil. You will be well acquainted with him by now I’m sure.  For those of you who are not: he is a man of great taste, intelligence, wit and charm.  As a great driving force behind everything Elba I’ve found him to be exceptionally motivated and particularly good at knowing what buttons to push to get the most out of everyone he works with.  It is holding all these elements together and only ever snapping when things have reached well passed boiling point which leads us to his alter ego.  With a quiet and calm demeanor, a patience like no other, an ability to maintain organization even whilst working under potentially incendiary conditions and the occasional (and very understandable) melt down, who else could we select?

All that sucking up needed balancing out with something ridiculous. Ironically he will, of course, love this comparison. Here is Phil’s account of 2010:

Album of The Year - This is a tough one. There have been quite a lot of albums I’ve really liked over the course of the year and the title of ‘favourite’ constantly seems to change. I think ‘Method’ by Thirty Pounds of Bone gets the win though. It is an honest album and really nicely put together and produced. For the first couple of months, Los Campesinos! and Field Music would also be in with a shout as well as notable mentions for Chris T-T, Meursault, Super Adventure Club and The National.

Best Gig - There have been several people I have really enjoyed seeing this year, RM Hubbert, King James, Super Adventure Club (possibly the most fun that can be had watching a band, as well as the most jealous at how ridiculously good individually they are). Best gigs are usually defined for me by notable things or songs that were played. In that sense, there have been two or three great gigs for me in 2010. The National, which seems to be on everyone’s lips really stands out just for the whole occasion. Mr November, including a tour of the crowd by singer Matt Berninger, was a biiig standout as well as the completely unplugged sing-along to Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.

Also, on two occasions I’ve seen a band play a song this year that has just made the hairs on my neck stand up. When The Scottish Enlightenment bellowed into Little Sleep at the end of the set at their album launch in the 13th Note and when they played it at The Liquid Ship on one of our Elba gigs, i knew that there was something pretty special happening.

Favourite New Band(s) - Probably could make a lengthy list here but I’ll try to keep it short. Bella Ruse play the kind of sweet indie folk pop that I’m just a sucker for. I’ve also been digging Caitlin Rose, The Mariner’s Children and more locally Johnny Reb, She’s Hit, Yusuf Azak and The Douglas Firs.

Musical Memories of 2010 - Putting on some great bands at The Liquid Ship as part of our Elba Sessions gigs…Chris’ boundless enthusiasm for Springsteen…Kim’s boundless enthusiasm for music and her awesome writing…Kim and Chris’ support and patience when I get ‘the rage’… The National at the Academy…Willy Vlautin at the Captains Rest (if indeed that was this year)…The return of Le Reno Amps…Making some new musical acquaintances…oh, and being thanked in the sleeve notes for the Thirty Pounds of Bone album was pretty sweet.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011 - To kick on with Elba a lot more. I really want to get a good focus going on the blog, going for a bit of a wider viewpoint on the music we all love here at Elba rather than the same old. We’ll also get the Elba Sessions gigs going again in a few months, peepers on the lookout for bands to play already. I’m also looking forward to Dj’ing at the first BARmellodie night at Bloc on January 21st. Also, I want to start getting along to a lot more gigs and seeing some bands to get excited over.

So that’s us for 2010. Have a grand old time this evening!  We wish you a bonne année and we will return before you have fully recovered fully from the celebrations.

Going into the home straight in this year’s Elba annual with just a handful of posts left, the last installment before Christmas comes courtesy of Al from Armellodie Records. It’s been a fairly hectic year for Armellodie (must be hard releasing all those excellent records!) and it shows no sign of slowing down in the New Year with a Glasgow residency (more on that at the foot of the post) and a pile of great releases planned.

We decided not to go with the Armellodie logo adorning the top of the blog, instead, here’s Al looking like a crazy fool!

Album of The Year

Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom.

And another two on me…Ivory Tower by Chilly Gonzales. American Gong by Quasi.

Best Gig (by someone else…)

Have three on me… Joanna Newsom at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow (September). Randy Newman at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow (May). Pavement at All Tomorrows Parties in Minehead (May).

Favourite New Band(s)

Depends on your definition of ‘new’ but have another three on me…

The Douglas Firs.
Nosferatu D2 (so new they’ve split up already).
Honeytrap.

Musical Memories of 2010

The year that Armellodie became a little less tiny and the great records that made it so, Super Adventure Club, The Scottish Enlightenment, Kill The Captains, and Thirty Pounds Of Bone, the pleasure was all mine.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011

BARmellodie is where it’s at in 2011. From January to June, Armellodie Records is going residential in Bar Bloc in Glasgow on the third Friday of every month, with Armbands, and guest acts performing, plus guest DJs and ArmelloDJs spinning Armelloditties at the Armellodisco. You couldn’t accuse us of not driving the brand home. Good times and more good times.

As Al mentioned, Armellodie are launching their monthly BARmellodie residency at Bar Bloc in Glasgow from January. I’ve had a peek at some of the line ups and they look absolutely cracking. January sees Elba blog favourites Le Reno Amps take the stage along with Battery Face and The Douglas Firs as well as the ArmelloDJ’s and yours truly taking on the wheels of steel. This all takes place on January the 21st. If you need any other info, head over to Armellodie HQ. Some future dates will include Thirty Pounds of Bone, The Scottish Enlightenment and Super Adventure Club playing their hit-laden albums in their entirety

Instalment two in this year’s Elba Annual features one of our favourite musicians/persons/wanderer (delete as applicable) here at Elba. I came across Johny a few years ago when a friends band released a record on the same label as Johny had released his first album ‘The Homesick Children of Migrant Mothers‘. His music has since featured prominently at my wedding, we’ve had him and King James cohort Laurence up to play one of our nights at the aptly named Liquid Ship and now he’s gone and released an album on Armellodie Records. The record is called Method and it doesn’t need us to tell you that it’s bloody good.

If you haven’t yet sampled Thirty Pounds of Bone, we’d really urge you to. As a wee treat, and we don’t do this often round these parts, you can download The Jonah Shanty which Johny recorded at Elba Studios during our podcast in February. This track is taken from his EP released last year on Woodland Recordings. And apologies for the size of the file. The blame firmly lies with Stephen at Elba Studios for that!!!

Hello Elba Sessions, I’ll probably change my mind about all of this tomorrow, but nevertheless:

Album of The Year – This is really tough…. Not because there’s a lot to choose from, but because I’ve not paid attention. I’ve listened to a lot of Harry Parch, and lots of really old field recordings. Will that do? No? Ok. Both ‘The Scottish Enlightenment’ and the ‘Super Adventure Club’ albums are great, and I’m not just saying that. Oh, I don’t know, the three records I like the most aren’t out yet but I suppose I’ll big them up anyway. ‘Lakes, Meres, Ponds and Waters’ by the Diamond Family Archive, ‘Music at Court’ by Birdengine, and SBL. Worthy of a mention also are Chris T-T’s ‘Love is Not Rescue’ and the Great Park’s ‘If You Can Hold It You Can Throw It’.

Best Gig – I had a great gig in Berlin, but I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the venue. It was the first night of a run of shows and I was nervous and tipsy, and I jabbered and stuttered like a fool. Luckily the audience forgave me and were great. It was one of those gigs that could collapse at any moment, so you have to concentrate almost till you pass out. Those are the best. I should also mention Hasenschaukel in Hamburg. The Audience and Staff were just impossibly kind. A great night.

Best Gig (by someone else…) - Absolutely no question on this one and I’m sorry to those people who also did amazing shows, but this was just amazing. Bygrayvpartynmyrytarm at the Performance Centre at Tremough in Cornwall. Jaw droppingly brilliant. Possibly the best guitarist on earth as well, which is to not even get to the drummer and extraordinary frontman/ synth player.

Favourite New Band(s) – See above. There’s also a young songwriter down here I’ve got my eye on. Proper writer.

Musical Memories of 2010 – mostly E flat major and all associated minor chords in and around that key. Drones in C. Not singing quite as well as I’d like. Harry Parch, and Ewan Macoll singing ‘Isles O Sicily’.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011 – Tour in the UK as much as possible, sell out of copies of this new album, finish writing and most of the recording of the next one. I’m very excited about it. It’s in three different places. There’s lot’s of field recording and guest players. A much more complicated kind of thing. I’d like to do another King James album. Laurence and I are discussing another, slightly different collaboration. There’ll be loads. Oh, and an album of trad songs for Woodland Recordings, some recording with ‘Danny Kendal’, maybe something exciting with Le Reno Amps and hopefully a full band album for Chris T-T too. Busy busy.

‘Method’ is released on Armellodie on Monday 6th December and you can pick up your copy at the Armellodie store.

Thanks to Stephen at Woodland for the following link! Most kind!

Download The Jonah Shanty – mp3 – 5.54mb

The Jonah Shanty (Elba Sessions – Feb 2010) by elbasessions

We spent a brilliant 8 hours with Laurence and Johny of King James last Friday (19th Feb) culminating in an effortlessly awesome set at Elba Sessions Presents…at The Liquid Ship. After a gruelling overnight drive from London, looking a little startled, we welcomed them into Elba Studios to have a wee chat and let them play a couple of their songs.

Also, we’re pretty happy that for your comfort and pleasure, this is the first Elba podcast that you can download, so you can always have us handy on your portable music device.

King James Podcast by elbasessions

King James the album will be out soon so keep checking the Lynched Recordings site for further info.

King James
Thirty Pounds of Bone
Diamond Family Archive

I think I speak for us all when I say the sooner we see them back up north the better!

Time for another Elba gig methinks.

We”ll be back at The Liquid Ship on Friday 19th February and we’ve assembled somewhat of an eclectic, but totally rad (excuse the outdated slang term but I’ve been listening to Pavement) lineup. Heading up the bill for our first gig of 2010 are King James. Hailing from somewhere between the Cornwall coast and Berlin they are made up in numbers by an amalgamation of Thirty Pounds of Bone and The Diamond Family Archive. Their music is a collection of folk-tinged gospel music (according to The Source, ‘with a bit of Hank Williams thrown in for good measure’) and is actually pretty uplifting listen to! We’re really excited to get them up (and over) to Scotland before they head over to Germany for a string of dates.

Also on the bill for the night are Glasgow’s very own Maple Leaves. Tipped for big things this year they have the ability to surround me with a warm glow everytime I listen to them so they should have no trouble in putting a spring in the step of everybody’s weekend. Next up we have Craig Davidson, a singer songwriter hailing, like myself, from the chilly north east of Scotland. His influences range from Elliot Smith and Nick Drake all the way to The Teardrop Explodes and Pink Floyd. There’s a definite element of psychedelia to his work which you can check out on his myspace.

Plus, if three bands weren’t enough, we’ve organised what can only be described as a ‘wee treat’. Called out recently for being nothing but angry on their debut album, we’ve taken up the role of therapist to try and tame the beast that is Cuddly Shark. We’ve twisted their arm, and some more, and persuaded them that whilst turning their amps up to 11 is great, that we think they would sound just swell stripped down to nothing more than some quiet guitars and percussion. This could go either way folks…(!).

So there you have it, first lineup of the year. Will hopefully see some new faces along and as ever, kick off is at 9pm and the gig is free!

At the risk of sounding older than my 25 years, they don’t do cd’s like they used to! I suppose it’s just so easy to buy on the internet these days that most record companies don’t spend much effort on producing some cool artwork and packaging. I’ll always be one for having a physical copy of an album but records shops can be so hellish these days (notable examples excluded) , it’s sometimes more preferable just to ‘i-tunes it’.

Therefore, I was delighted to arrive home from a long day in the office to find a parcel all the way from Berlin. Enclosed was the latest Thirty Pounds Of Bone EP, ‘And They Go Down To It In Ships’, (previously mentioned on this very blog) from Woodland Recordings. I have to say it’s a marvellous effort! Limited to 100 copies, the CD is individually handmade and wrapped in starched sail cloth with a hand stiched booklet. It’s good to see that there are still people out there doing it themselves so round of applause to Woodland!!!

The total bonus is that the music is as good as the packaging! If you haven’t already, I’d really recommend checking out Johny (TBOP). You can download his recent Berlin set for free here (incredible!). There are also a load of other downloads by Woodland Recordings which I plan to work my way through very soon. The Great Park is also worth a listen.

In the words of Woodland…

“Home Taping, Is Music”