JosieJo's Great Big Pair
of Tips
The JosieJo Show 3
Greetings to the third
JosieJo Show. Each show I bring you two great tracks from two
different bands or musicians that you may, or may not have come
across before. I can't promise that you'll like everything I play,
but you may just find your new favourite band. The JosieJo Show –
let's give it a go.
My first track is by the
stunning duo Golden Fable. They are Tim McIver and Rebecca Palin. I
heard their beautiful choral backgrounds, folk textures and
electronic creations at the End Of The Road Festival 2013 and they
recently supported Charlotte Church on her recent British tour. They
have also played The Union Chapel in London, a venue which used to be
a church and, I image, lends itself beautifully to the range and echo
of this band. True to their Welsh roots they are due to play the SWN
festival in Cardiff (swn is the welsh word for sound. It should have
a little roof over the “w”, but I can't find it on the keyboard.
Everyday's a school day on the JosieJo Show). Their delicate sound
has been captured in a recording studio in North Wales on their debut
album “Star Map” by David Wrench. They really are a delightful
band. Hauntingly captivating live and just jolly, jolly nice. Plus,
because they come from North Wales I have a huge soft spot for them.
You can buy the album via
their webpage www.goldenfable.com
and if you buy the deluxe CD you are not only buying a low carbon
product, you are also getting detailed drawings that have a
folk/fable sense about them. You get a poster that is hand stitched,
an origami case printed with vegetable based inks, a twelve page
booklet and the CD is signed and numbered. These a rea limited
edition though so don't hang around.
They are, at the moment,
working on a new album, but this track, “Always Golden” is from
that first album “Star Map” and it has a beautiful video on You
Tube which showcases Rebecca's incredible eyelashes and stunning
ear-pieces as well as the pulsating off-beats and layers of sound.
It flows in and out of monochrome to colour a little like the music
itself. This track reminds me of a life enhancing rainstorm and it
ends with big chords of sound like raindrops on soft eyelashes.
Enrich your life with Golden Fable and “Always Golden”.
Now ICHI. An artist from
Japan who plays with sound in a way you can't even imagine, even if
you have seen him live. I've been lucky enough to catch him live
twice now, both times at festivals and he is always unexpected and
always endearing. He communicates articulately through his music and
quite frankly charms the bees from the flowers. One of the genuinely
nicest things about seeing Ichi live is the way that children respond
to his music. They really get engaged with his performance watching
and listening closely as he moves from instrument to instrument. You
really have to see what he does as well as hear it, which is why I'm
going to point you to a YouTube video, but you can see more of his
work by going to his website www.ichimemos.blogspot.com
or follow him on twitter @ICHIcreator...and he really is a creator.
I'll try to describe some of the ways he creates music, but frankly I
probably won't even get close. He blows up a balloon through a
megaphone, bounces a ping-pong ball on a bat and launches it into the
audience, he uses his wedding ring as a percussion instrument on the
steel muffler of a trumpet, he brushes his teeth to produce a tune,
he has a harp that is also a wind instrument, a bass that also
doubles up as stilts and he puts water in a steel drum and rolls a
ball around under a microphone to create a very weird sound. He also
concludes his shows with a wonderful finale involving his hat, but
that's all I'm going to say.
This track is called “Wakka”
(Ring) and is about the letter “P” on the Japanese alphabet. You
don't have to be fluent in Japanese to enjoy the pure, playful
pleasure of the alliteration of this track (do you see what I did
there?) When I saw it live, his wife, the wonderful Rachel Dadd
joined him on stage and harmonised with “Peter Piper picked a peck
of pickled pepper” whilst they played a clapping game. There's no
point on talking any more about this track you have to hear it and
see it. Watch it right to the end to see the lengths he goes to for
his music. Ichi and “Wakka”(Ring)
For extra content including
a doodle I did of Ichi and Rachel as well as photos and videos check
out my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/JosieJoShow
For news, events, gigs and
releases follow me on twitter @josiejoshow
Easy links to all this and
links to the bands can be found on my website www.josiejoshow.com
Cheers and thanks for
reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment