Malcolm Middleton, Brighton Festival review - mordant brilliance

★★★★ MALCOLM MIDDLETON, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Mordant brilliance

Rare gig from the Scottish singer-songwriter is stark but mesmeric

Before starting this review a decision was taken: that the over-used description of singer-songwriter Malcolm Middleton as a “Scottish miserablist” would not appear. However, this has proved impossible. Middleton is renowned, to the coterie who enjoy his music, for songs ripe with dejection but the first half of his set tonight is especially heavy with stark soul-searching.

CD: Glymjack - Light the Evening Fire

Singer-songwriter Greg McDonald's new folk project is a well-conceived treat

There’s a crisis in popular musical vocals. They’ve reached a very naff stasis. After a decade-and-a-half of Cowell hegemony and stars that have risen during the same period, a generation thinks there are only two ways to express emotion. One is melismatic singing (for women – wandering wildly about the higher registers on every syllable, a la Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston), the other is voice-breaking (for men - cracking into a vulnerable falsetto a la Jeff Buckley/Coldplay). It’s all very boring. There are so, so many other ways to express emotion. Just ask Louis Armstrong, Ian Dury, Courtney Barnett and thousands of others, including Greg McDonald.

McDonald, once of indie band The Dawn Parade, then a solo artist, now fronts folk outfit Glymjack (Victorian slang for lantern-bearing street-child guide). He has a voice that quavers in a way that, when the song is up to muster, is wrenching. A comparative reference might be the late Nikki Sudden, but McDonald has his very own style. A decade ago he released a fantastic, underheard singer-songwriter album Stranger at the Door, which he’s struggled to match since, but on Light the Evening Fire he occasionally hits its heights, albeit in a different medium.

For fans of proper folk-rock, in the Fairport/Bellowhead vein, there’s plenty to get their teeth into, with McDonald backed energetically by fiddler Gemma Gayner on songs such as “Bows of London” and “The Sweet Trinity” which have part-song harmonies and a rich, catchy archaic feel. For me, though, McDonald’s poetic, literate, raw, unadorned songwriting is what hits best on the slow-building doomed darkness of “Night Vision”, the socially conscious storytelling of “Hope Point”, and the soulful outsider statement of “Bright Sparks”.

Glymjack sees McDonald back out there working the circuit, his unique singing style and songwriting skill both on fine form. Maybe Glymjack will finally be the making of him and his accomplices. That would be a welcome development.

Overleaf: watch a trailer for Glymjack's album Light the Evening Fire

Joan As Police Woman: 'I was going to die if I didn't have some way to express myself' - interview

JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN Cult singer discusses loss, #MeToo and Trump

The cult singer discusses loss, #MeToo, Trump and much more besides

Joan Wasser – aka Joan as Police Woman – is known as a sophisticated songwriter and a pretty groovy person. But most of all it’s her gorgeously warm voice that's earned her a cult following. Over seven albums her angst-ridden vocals have explored heartache and compulsion with a blend of soul and indie-rock.

CD: Fenne Lily - On Hold

Rising singer has a striking voice that may be the making of her

Fenne Lily is a young Bristolian singer-songwriter whose voice will take her far. Her debut album is decent enough, and there are songs on it that reach out and grab you by the guts, but it’s her extraordinary, fragile voice that stays in the mind. Lily’s oeuvre is folk-acoustica but run through with electronics and reverb, putting her in a haunted place where she sounds as if she belongs in one of Twin Peaks' more peculiar scenes.

The obvious comparison for much of this album is Lana del Rey, although Lily's voice is higher pitched. There’s something about the way she rides chords and rhythms that recalls the American singer’s drawling, louche manner. There are songs, however, where Lily swoops into a soprano that expresses vulnerability in a way that’s more directly affecting. She majors in damaged love songs and, for instance, the way she sings “You broke me there” in “The Hand You Deal” has whispered potency.

Another song that stands tall amidst this collection is “Top to Toe”, Fenne Lily’s calling card and a song she wrote, unbelievably, when she was only 15. The quavering tone she adopts takes what is already a good song much further. Her breathy intonation becomes gradually more faltering, as if the singer is revealing too much of herself. It has a soft power.

For much of On Hold, the songs maintain a mood but blend into each other and are not, in and of themselves, classics. She revs up a little on the indie-rockier title track, while “Brother”, a song dedicated to her kin, has an Irish lilt to it, but the best material is the quietest stuff. The less there is going on, the more alone she seems to be on the sonic landscape, and her forlorn, lovely voice comes into its own. It’s a voice we will be hearing more of.

Overleaf: watch Fenne Lily perform "Top to Toe" live at Sofar, London

10 Questions for Musician Malcolm Middleton

10 QUESTIONS FOR MUSICIAN MALCOM MIDDLETON Scottish songwriter talks music, Brighton and much else

The Scottish songwriter talks music, books, musicals, Brighton and much else

Malcolm Middleton (b.1973) is a Scottish singer-songwriter whose music has a devoted fanbase. Instead of the faux-vulnerable, non-specific, sub-Jeff Buckley flannel touted by many of his contemporaries and younger peers, Middleton’s work is grounded in the physical grit of the everyday, boasting a social realism underpinned by mordant humour and, often, heartbreaking emotion.

Middleton first came to the attention of music fans as a member of pithy indie observational duo Arab Strap with Aidan Moffat. By the time they wound down in 2006, he had already launched a solo career defined by literate, downbeat indie/acoustic songs. He released five albums in this vein then changed musical direction, swerving into the more abstract, experimental Human Don’t Be Angry project. In 2014 he made the foul-mouthed, funny Music and Words album with the artist David Shrigley, and in 2016, after a seven-year break, he released a new solo album, Summer of ’13, only this time bedded in his own brand of off-kilter electro-pop.

Shrigley is guest director of this year’s Brighton Festival and has invited Malcolm Middleton, one of Britain’s most talented but undersung songsmiths, to perform a rare solo set on Thursday 24 May. To celebrate this coup, theartsdesk caught up with him, snowed in at home in Anstruther, Fife. His first words were these: “As long as there are no questions about music we’ll be fine.”

Listen to "The Ballad of Fuck All" by Malcolm Middleton

THOMAS H GREEN: Are you and David Shrigley friends?

MALCOLM MIDDLETON: We did the album in 2014 but we’ve been mates for longer. He did the artwork for my album A Brighter Beat in 2007 (pictured below right) so we’ve known each other since then. I originally got in touch with him because I liked one of his photographs and wanted to use it for an album cover. I emailed him and he came round. The plan was to do a new piece for the album cover and we tried a few things but I wasn’t really into them so we went with the balloon image.

beatWhat are your plans for the Brighton Festival show?

It won’t be anything unique. I don’t do unique. He’s asked me to come down and play an acoustic show of my songs.

I thought you’d knocked acoustic shows on the head?

Did I say that? I probably did. I think that was back in 2009-10. I got a bit sick of it so I did some Human Don’t Be Angry stuff and the David Shrigley record, then I did my half-electronic album a couple of years ago, so I certainly knocked it on the head for a while, but in the last year I’ve been picking up the guitar a bit more and enjoying it. Saying that, I’m just going into the studio to record a new album which is song-based, but apart from this Shrigley thing in Brighton I’m not really into the idea of playing the songs live too much. Sitting on stage with an acoustic guitar doesn’t really thrill me. Even though I’ve done the record I’m not too much into doing live stuff.

But on a practical level isn’t that how you earn money?

Not really. It can be. I like writing songs and recording them but I don’t like performing them. I’m trying to think of other ways to do music that isn’t sitting with my guitar on stage.

I recently bought a 2004 7” single of yours, “Ryanair Song/7” Cigarette”, that isn’t on any album. How did that come about?

I have fond memories of that. A guy called René over in Amsterdam had this label, Nowhere Fast Records, and he wanted something original after my first album came out. They were songs that were quite throwaway and “Ryanair Song” was quite funny and youthful, even though I wasn’t that young. They sound raw because they were recorded in my house… badly.

What is your impression of Brighton?

There isn’t anything much I can say, on the record. The first time I went was in ‘96-‘97 when we [Arab Strap] supported Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, or maybe it was Mogwai, Last summer Arab Strap played there and we had a day off so we went down the beach; however, we’d come straight from Scotland and weren’t dressed for sun, sitting there in black jeans and black shirts.

Listen to "Solemn Thirsty" by Malcolm Middleton

What book are you currently reading?

Oh God, do I have to say? I’m reading a book called How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. My wife gave me it. It’s a Sunday Times bestseller which I wouldn’t normally pick up because it’s got an introduction by Richard & Judy but I’m enjoying it as throwaway pulp. It’s kind of a thriller about a guy who doesn’t age very quickly.

For your last solo album. Summer of ’13, you worked with the electronic artist Miaoux Miaoux and it was a much more synth-led work than anything you’d done before. Will we be seeing more of that?

I hope not. There are a couple of songs on my new solo album that are electronic things but I’m trying to stay away from it. It’s always hard talking about your previous release because you need 10 years to go back to it and warm to it. Right now I’m not that keen on it but at the time I remember thinking it was good, just before I released it. After that, it involved me learning how to play keyboards for about three months, fiddling about with leads and stuff, which I didn’t enjoy, so I’ve knocked all that on the head.

How would you feel about a jukebox musical being made from your songs?

waxingI’m not sure that’s possible. The songs don’t have that vibe where they could be played at family fun days. I don’t have a repertoire of happy songs so people sometimes book me but then look at me as if to say, “Why are you playing these songs?” while I just think, these are the songs that I write. I can’t imagine there being any need for a musical or it being that popular. You think of a musical being something to go and see and enjoy and I don’t think my songs are about enjoyment. Maybe some of the songs… maybe you could look into that and come back to me…

Finally, when you look at the drawing of you on the album Waxing Gibbous (pictured above left), do you like it?

No, no, but, also I can’t not like it, it’s of its time. It’s better than the first version which looked a bit more like Frank Bruno. I like it, it’s funny. I showed my son it and he didn’t even know it was me, didn’t recognise it. I like the way the art was done but its certainly not an iconic cover.

Overleaf: Watch Malcolm Middleton perform "Autumn" live

Diana Jones, The Lexington review - at the crossroads of folk and country

★★★★ DIANA JONES, THE LEXINGTON The singer-songwriter with a voice to break your heart

From Tennessee via New York, the singer-songwriter with a voice to break your heart

The delicious flame-grilled burgers and the vast array of bourbons on offer at the Lexington, hard by yet another “King's Cross Quarter”, added atmosphere to the opening night of Diana Jones’s European tour. Finger licking is (quite rightly) not allowed during the music so those arriving early for a bite might have spotted Jones herself, refuelling with friends between sound-check and curtain-up.

CD: Snowpoet - Thought You Knew

★★★★ CD: SNOWPOET - THOUGHT YOU KNEW Restrained melodicism packs depth of feeling

The London group's restrained melodicism packs an intense depth of feeling

While some albums cram in more fillers than a Christmas stocking, Thought You Knew, the second recording from the London-based group led by the 2016 Jazz FM Vocalist of the Year Lauren Kinsella and multi-instrumentalist Chris Hyson, is all about restraint and depth of feeling.

“The Therapist” ushers you gently into the album’s delicate sound-world, underpinned by guitarist Nick Costley-White’s rippling chordal work. “Under the Tree” acts like an instrumental postscript – a dancing, minimalist contrapuntal web which skilfully interweaves layers of percussion, acoustic guitar and sumptuous synth washes.

“Water Baby” begins with icy string tremolandos courtesy of violinist Alice Zawadzki and cellist Francesca Ter-Berg before settling into a gentle cradle song rhythm. Pre-recorded sounds of birds, snippets of speech and someone taking a walk call to mind John Cage’s Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake.

With a larger textural palette and slightly harder edge, “Love Again” features seraphic layered vocals from Kinsella and some great, in-the-pocket playing by Hyson, Costley-White, pianist Matthew Robinson, drummer Dave Hamblett and saxist Josh Arcoleo.Two contrasting covers form the album’s centrepiece, the a cappella delight of Gillian Welch’s “Dear Someone” followed by Emiliana Torrini’s doleful, string-laden “Snow”.

In terms of telling detail, the album reaches its acme with “Pixel”, in which a constant vibration between major and minor is finally resolved in a pristine, glowing C major, while the stream-of-consciousness “It’s Already Better Than OK” contains a nod to Samuel Beckett’s Worstward Ho (“I’m constantly failing but I’m failing better”) and, by its very title, a poignant look back to the final line of the album opener (“I spoke to myself and I told her it’s going to be OK”).

An album that evokes memory, loss, hope and more, and one that never fails to leave its alluring melodic mark, Thought You Knew is a beautiful statement of the heart.

@MrPeterQuinn

Overleaf: Watch a clip of ‘The Therapist’

CD: The Fiction Aisle - Jupiter, Florida

Third from Electric Soft Parader's newish band maintains a high quality songwriting threshold

The third album from Thomas White under his Fiction Aisle moniker is a match for its delicious, under-heard predecessors. White remains best known for his output with The Electric Soft Parade and Brakes but the prolific Fiction Aisle (three albums since 2016) deserve to gain wider purchase. This time round the mood is more tentatively upbeat than previously, and White’s Pink Floyd-ish tendencies are on the back burner, but, at its core, cosmic easy listening is still the game.

The Fiction Aisle aspire to John Barry’s cinematic orchestrated scope, but tinted with hints of Morrissey’s vocal tics, and a broader electronic palette scoping about underneath. “Memory” even has a touch of late Nineties/early Millennial chill-out about it. However, it’s White’s characterful lyrical pith that sets The Fiction Aisle apart, giving his catchy songwriting extra reach and heft.

The Fiction Aisle prove to be mining original, thoughtful and often lovely territory

Previous outings have broached depression in an occasionally desperate or hedonistic manner but “Ten Years” hints at a newfound peace, or at least looking the issue in the eye (“It’s up to me to find any positivity – do I have the strength?”), while indie-ish opener “Gone Today”, despite its summery vibes, may be about existing in the moment rather than letting the past and future nag at the mind.

Another stand-out track is “Sweetness & Light”, a very straightforward, unembarrassed modern love song that’s also contagious. As the album goes on, White relaxes into it, spreading out, letting the sonic stylings grow ever more blissed, notably on the multi-tracked vocals of “Black River”, which bring to mind sunshine in 1970s LA, and the lusciousness of “Some Things Never Die”, until he eventually ends up drifting off on the final ten-minute “Will I Get Where I’m Going Before I’m Ready?”, with its extended instrumental passages heading into balminess.

Jupiter, Florida is as sunny as its title suggests, but cut through with a realist’s lyrical perspective, albeit a realist with a tendency to dream. Once again, The Fiction Aisle prove to be mining original, thoughtful and often lovely territory with a class that’s a cut above the usual.

Overleaf: watch the video for "Gone Today" by The Fiction Aisle

theartsdesk Q&A: Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant

Q&A: VOCALIST CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT The US jazz singer talks Bessie Smith, visual art, obsessive listening habits and more

The US jazz singer talks Bessie Smith, visual art, obsessive listening habits and more

The vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant first came to the attention of the jazz scene when she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition in 2010. In 2013, her Mack Avenue Records debut WomanChild garnered a Grammy nomination. Two years later, she picked up her first Grammy Award when her follow-up release For One To Love won Best Jazz Vocal Album.

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