Reviews: Radiohead; Carl Orr; Matty T Wall; Bombino; Satin Jackets

There are moments on Radiohead’s new album that are nothing short of terrifying.

ROCK

A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead

Remote Control

4.5 stars

A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead

There are moments on A Moon Shaped Pool that are nothing short of terrifying. Take the opening track, Burn the Witch, a song that has been knocking around Radiohead rehearsals and recording sessions for 17 years. Leave aside singer Thom Yorke’s typically eerie falsetto and a lyric that, in its gloomy vision of a society corrupted by evil (“avoid all eye contact/do not react”, is chilling. The clincher comes in the screeching menace of the strings, played with great gusto by the London Contemporary Orchestra, that sit high and mighty alongside Yorke, driving the song at a relentless pace to a thrilling climax. But then comes Daydreaming, on the surface a piano ballad with Yorke at his most morose (”we’re at the point of no return”), but what suddenly makes you want your mum are the seemingly disconnected tunes floating around underneath — fractured, backward loops, delicate synth motifs, twisted harmonies and, most of all, a kind of deep, disturbing wail that has to be coming from somewhere under the stairs.

This is one of the great strengths of Radiohead’s follow-up to 2011’s The King of Limbs. There are plenty of the band’s familiar strains — Jonny Greenwood’s delicate, intricate guitar melodies, the intensely musical rhythm section and Yorke’s unnervingly demanding voice. What the band has taken to another level is the filmic quality of the music, a shift influenced no doubt by Greenwood’s second career as a film composer (There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice). A band that likes to experiment and create in the studio has taken that modus operandi into new terrain here, aided once again by producer Nigel Godrich. It takes several listens to fully appreciate how much is going on. This undercurrent creates a mood, a mesh that makes A Moon Shaped Pool whole, yet each song stands tall on its own. The pervading gloomy sentiments, which seem to centre on the state of the planet, are matched by music that is joyous and adventurous; angst pitted against carefully crafted dynamics.

Highlights include Desert Island Disk, with its vaguely Spanish acoustic guitar introducing Yorke in folkie mode. “Different types of love are possible,” he sings, and then it’s gone. Ful Stop is a sinister sonic assault of bass, drums and synths forming a bed for Yorke’s aching falsetto. It is hauntingly beautiful. So too is the short ballad Glass Eyes, where Yorke’s compelling, weary vocal offsets the romantic piano and strings. The Numbers has the feel of a 70s rock band jam, while Present Tense is an almost poppy shuffle. “I’m not living, I’m just killing time,” Yorke sings on the stark closer, True Love Waits. Not much room for optimism in his world view, then, but once again he and his colleagues have created a complex, affecting, original work of art that is worthy of praise and celebration. Twenty-five years into its career, Radiohead can alarm and surprise — and be a little scary.

Iain Shedden

*

Forbearance by Carl Orr

JAZZ

Forbearance

Carl Orr

Independent

3.5 stars

Expat Australian guitarist/composer Carl Orr has been London-based since the 1990s. There he has appeared with some impressive names: Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker, Ernie Watts and many others. Orr has been an exponent of jazz fusion using heavy guitar distortion but this, his eighth album, is a soft and melodic world away. The guitarist speaks of this music as his contribution towards creating a peaceful, harmonious world. His acoustic guitar is beautifully recorded in this London production, with a host of sidemen over 11 tracks, nine of which are originals. The opening title track is a perfect introduction, with Orr’s solo classical guitar and added glockenspiel delivering a semiclassical piece of deeply calming ambience, beautifully played. American Daydream continues the tranquil mood, adding rhythm via piano, organ, bass, drums and percussion, while the largest ensemble (13 members, including vocalist Jasmine Nelson plus strings, brass and reeds) undertakes Lennon/McCartney’s Mother Nature’s Son in a quietly restrained rendition. Though lyric-less, the title People Need Healthcare, Not Guns conveys Orr’s social conscience. As with many of these pieces, Ironbridge, with guitar and string quartet, has a folk feel conveyed in a softly melodic way. This unassuming and peaceful collection goes a long way towards achieving Orr’s stated aim to make the listener calm, optimistic and invigorated. Though it uses some jazz features, the album is really more of a soothing, mood-inspired portfolio of quiescent classical/folk.

John McBeath

*

Blue Skies by Matty T Wall

BLUES

Blue Skies

Matty T Wall

Only Blues Music

3.5 stars

For a place its inhabitants like to call one of the most isolated places on Earth, Western Australia has always seen its fair share of guitar talent. Rockers John Meyer and Johnny Diesel, slidemeister Dave Hole, pedal steel king Lucky Oceans, roots legend John Butler and blues gurus Phil Manning, Dave Brewer and John Heussenstamm are among those to have called it home.

Now there’s a new talent breaking out of the dusty west and his name is Matty T Wall. Wall has been impressing West Aussies for some time and his debut album demonstrates why. Recorded in Perth and New York, Blue Skies is mostly modern electric blues and it’s obvious from lead track Burnin’ Up, Burning Down that Wall not only knows his way around a fretboard but can pen a decent tune.

All but three songs on the album are originals, the exceptions being a drum-driven version of Robert Johnson’s spooky Hellhound On My Trail, an upbeat rendition of Keb’ Mo’s Am I Wrong? and a solid cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile. Hall has a decent enough voice and can shred with the best of them, romping through songs such as Scorcher’ with fiery skill and the able backing of Jasper Miller on drums and Stephen Walker on bass. But he also demonstrates a good feel for slower numbers in Love Has Gone Away, a song reminiscent of Gary Moore’s Still Got the Blues, while showing a thought-provoking flexibility as a songsmith in cuts such as the soulful This is Real and instrumental number Smile.

This impressive debut marks Wall, now on his inaugural national tour, as well worth watching as he develops what are already striking skills.

Steve Creedy

*

Azel by Bombino

WORLD

Azel

Bombino

Partisan

3.5 stars

Having aligned with the Black Keys’s Dan Auerbach in Nashville for his beefed-up 2013 blockbuster Nomad, maverick Tuareg guitar-slinger/singer Omara “Bombino” Moctar has opted for a different US producer, Dave Longstreth (of the Dirty Projectors band) in upstate New York, and a less raucous approach for his third studio album.

Several tracks on Azel take up where the previous record left off, with Bombino hitting the ultra-repetitive grungy and modal electric guitar groove and tone that has become his trademark — a cross-cultural sound seemingly positioned midway between North America and the North African Saharan desert of his native Niger. There are salient points of difference between the two releases.

The new album introduces a fresh rhythmic inflection that Bombino has termed Tuareggae, denoting that it’s a blend of reggae bounce and backbeat and circular desert blues, but one in which his raspy, sand-sprayed traditional Tamashek vocals are layered over strident top-end guitar riffs. This fusion occurs in the mesmerising Timtar, but also in the slower burning Iwaranagh. Even more intriguing is Bombino’s move towards an intricate acoustic fingerpicking guitar technique and what appears to be a Celtic-cum-Mark Knopfler influence, in Igmayagh Dum and Ashuhada. His playing in Iyat Ninhay, is closer to incendiary Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page licks.

Bombino is evolving stylistically with increasing exposure to international festivals and bands. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.

Tony Hillier

*

Panorama Pacifico by Satin Jackets

ELECTRONIC

Panorama Pacifico

Satin Jackets

Eskimo

4 stars

German producer Tim Bernhardt and partner Den Ishu have been pushing a lush brand of electronica for a few years, preferring vocal-led emotion and melody to up-tempo dancefloor fare. It’s a formula that has seen their sun-drenched original productions and exotic remixes find favour worldwide. It’s hardly surprising, then, that they’ve enlisted a clutch of names from the US, Britain, Belgium and Australia to contribute to debut album Panorama Pacifico. This is a beautifully mellow and largely laid-back journey traversing nu-disco, electro-pop and house, as Bernhardt’s smooth, layered production enables the eclectic guest roster — which includes Marble Sounds and IsaacO — to work its magic. Say You is, according to Melbourne’s Jane Elizabeth Hanley, aka Kids At Midnight, “about being afraid of being happy”, and her sensual vocal paired with Bernhardt’s squelchy synths and production flourishes make for a contemplative groove. Fellow Aussie KLP contributes a similarly sultry vocal on the moody For Days.

Recent single We Can Talk is a standout, an upbeat and melodic key-led affair that lets Emma Brammer’s vocal come to the fore, while last year’s much checked Shine On You raises the tempo with its four-to-the-floor kick underpinning Londoner Esser’s vocal hook. Bernhardt has said songs are ultimately about making people “feel something”. Summery and emotive, Panorama Pacifico delivers those feels.

Tim McNamara