The Brigadier - The Rise and Fall of Responsibility

And if the formatting goes on this entry too, I will be very put out. The Brigadier “The Rise and Fall of Responsibility” All songs written, performed & produced by Matt Williams · Growing up is hard to do (part 1) · When will I be with you? · The language of love · Envy · Une Soiree · Under the influenza · Hot Toddy · The melancholy days · This, is why… · What can’t be fixed · The box in the back of my mind · Growing up is hard to do (part 2) · Façade What can I say? I love this album. It’s odd, feel-good, has hints (only hints, mind you) of burlesque, Julian Lennon ( know, I know, but work with me here), The Feeling…but none of it is overwhelming. He’s pretty damn unique in my hearing. And now I have to wax lyrical about it for 300 words. Oh hell, sod that, just go buy it and go for a drive. In the sun.

Celeste Lear

“Looking up from underwater” Björk, Moloko, Goldfrapp…they all spring to mind with the opening bars of Ms Lear’s CD, “Looking Up From Underwater”. In fact, a lot of things spring to mind as the cd wears on. For example: · Track 2 – weak lyrics · Track 3 – early-90s drum&bass feel summer · Tracks 4 & 5 – more early 90s reminiscence · Track 6 - moving on – feels like the sound track to Romeo & Juliet. · Track 7 - Siobhán Donaghy soundalike · Track 8 – All About Eve · Track 9 – celtic Moloko · More 90s, more Björk derivation… And so on and so on. Ms Lear has a grand strong voice and can write a tune but my problem with this album is that it all seems to sound like someone/something else. There appears to be a great effort at originality here but it ends up being someone else’s sound. Pity.

Heliopause

Heliopause EP Recorded & Mixed at Soggy Cabin Studios, Cork · paprapo · who ate the cabin boy · middle distance · maybe later · caught rotten It’s a brave band that goes purely instrumental. Charlie Don’t Surf are one Cork crowd who pretty well know what they’re doing and can pull it off with just the music alone. It remains to be seen whether Heliopause can get to the same point, without requiring the ‘lively antics of their bass player’ on stage. According to their press release, they’ve been together since 2005, meeting as students. In other words, they’re young and inexperienced. They’re learning. The laid back “maybe later” shows promise. It shows restrain and control which is not so evident in the earlier tracks. And “caught rotten” has depth to it that is refreshing. The opener “pamrapo” could do with an overhaul of the drum line as this could be a show piece for some tight, rhythmic percussion, which unfortunately at the moment is merely filler behind some not-that-interesting guitars. What’s needed here, I think, is some intensive study on behalf of the band in rhythmic and tonal intricacy. If you are dropping the lyric entirely, then the rest simply has to be wholly engaging. And, I’m sorry to say, aside from sparks in the last two tracks and the very beginning (and I mean VERY beginning) of “who ate the cabin boy”, this wasn’t. Having a great live show is good and is a rather excellent start but, unless you plan on selling solely on the basis of live DVDS, then the music has to carry without the visuals. There is promise here but Heliopause have chosen a difficult road. Music sans lyrics is a difficult market to corner as the audiences tend to be more demanding and the instruments must do so much more work. All I can suggest is that you get hold of some modern minimalist (e.g. Steve Reich) or African music (e.g. our own Niwel Tsumbu), and listen to the swirling kaleidoscope of sound and rhythm which is possible, listen to the glorious complexity of it all and, well, listen good. Heliopause: Brian Dunlea (Bass) Sean Daly (Guitar/Synth) Damien O’Leary (Guitar) Jamie O’Donoghue (Drums) www.myspace.com/heliopausecork