Our Worn Shadow
Despite having the feeling of being landed on a kindergarten prom in the middle of nowhere, the music at Rhaaa Lovely was at times magnificent. A big shoutout to Hood (despite sound difficulties, great show), Stafrænn Hákon (who looked like a sweet Vincent D'Onofrio and produced super music but should be enjoyed at a much later hour with a good glass of wine in a more mythical place than a tent) and Red Sparowes (gloom & doom rock on, plus fantastic visuals!).
Major relevation though proved to be Chris Cole aka Manyfingers. I'm listening now to his latest album "Our Worn Shadow" which I purchased at the festival for 12€. This may turn out to be the best 12 bucks spent this year. The album is just absolutely amazing. Beautiful stuff that sometimes remind me of Four Tet's Rounds (but very different though!)
However I have no clue where you could pick up this cd. A google search only returned me this link. Plus it seems to be a handmade cd-r. Hopefully it will get a full release soon.
In the meanwhile fans can listen to a few snippets of his first self-titled album over at boomkat . It sounds equally great!
other relevant links (& interviews):
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/manyfingersiw.htm
http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo/manyfingers.htm
http://www.moteerrecords.co.uk/
Which leads me to a few other recommendations. Moteer records also released an album called Songs by The Sea. Again check boomkat, those samples sound good.
And then there's more Bristol with Matt Elliott, who used to be The Third Eye Foundation. I really dug his performance at rhaaaa as well (with Manyfingers on cello). Only his shouting/singing was sometimes slightly more strange. The two boys seem to love their whisky though, good one on you fellas.
But I need to catch up with Elliott properly, his Drinking Songs looks great (artwork by Vania Zouravliov) and prolly sounds the same.
Plus check what he has to say in this interview:
5. When we spoke on the telephone you said that you were slightly nervous about how 'Little Lost Soul' would be received. You mentioned that you didn't feel the musical climate was particularly good for a record like this. What do you see as the main problems? What can we do to make things better?
I think the problem is that people just don't care about music anymore. They've heard it all, or just want something undemanding like trance; that is the main problem. I will expand on this one when I get more time.
9. What is the mood in Bristol just now? We don't feel we get to read about it just so much. Was it frustrating that FSA/Movietone/Third Eye was so under-documented compared to the media-frenzy over Massive Attack/Tricky and subsequent coffee-table trip-hop scene? How do you feel that whole wave of music stands up in retrospect? The famous stuff...
Bristol is boring at the moment; the students have taken over and you can't spit without hitting 2 musicians and 7 djs. I never thought I would compete with Massiveportistricky; they are the major players, and make music for mass consumption, but I have lots of respect because they changed pop music forever and have almost a punk ethic. Did you see the help Bosnian war child video thing a couple of years back? Everyone's video was them in the studio sort of thing, 'oooooh look at me'. Then Portishead's video comes on, and they took like a tourists video showing all nice beaches the weather, nice tourist attractions etc, then interlaced war footage. It was fucking brilliant; it summed up the war and how it effects a place and its people. To me that's definitely punk. Things are a bit slow here; I think the Bristol thing is over to be honest, but it will surface again. There will always be a grassroots Bristol attitude that people outside don't get to see or hear; it's the hiphoppunk attitude. The older stuff is the best, although Mezzanine is my favourite Massive LP. That new Tricky record is rubbish though, which is a shame cos I had a lot of respect for him. Never mind.
11. I like what you said about the Bristol musicians. There's such a fast turnover of music and ideas just now that everyone wants to be the first to declare something unhip. It's like a race to replace one cliche with another. Which 20th century music would we be wise to take with us into this century?
That is a tricky one; there is too much music that is amazing from before this century, let alone this one, but saying that we'll end up with happy hardcore, to be honest. I don't know what people want; I've spent a lot of time thinking about what people like to listen to and why, and just when I think I might have sussed it, out Eiffel 65 come on the telly and I just think, hey? I'm not sure what's happened, I think people have stopped looking for music the way they used to, maybe there is too much choice and people just go for Cafe Del Mar as their monthly record cause they saw it in The Guardian. I truly think that music lovers are a dying breed.
15. Are you a religious person Matt? I suppose I was thinking about some of your artwork although maybe I'd think of you as more Old Testament, if anything.
I was brought up religious; my mother veered from Catholicism to Russian Orthodoxy. I preferred the Russian Church cause it had nice music, and at 5 or 6 it makes quite an impression. Unfortunately a side effect is guilt although I'm dealing with that. I love the imagery of religions and the fact it has inspired great art and music. All religion interests me just because they are generally good stories. I know about most world religion, but I haven't got round to Sikhism yet. Fundamentally I hate all organised religion because of the hierarchy business. I think it's fine to base a religion on any book, but you have to make your own conclusions. I could go on forever about this. I am religious, but I'm not a Christian. Will explain further next time see you.
