Grails

So I just got to see my favourite band in the whole world play in a pretty intimate venue, and it was absolutely magical. I’m still high as a kite from it and wishing I’d spent every last penny I could find to see all the shows on the tour. The core four members of the band, Emil Amos, Alex Hall, Zac Riles and William Slater, were joined by two friends Jesse Bates and Jay Clarke, who lent their talents on a range of additional instruments and were completely essential to the live experience. I’m rather incapable of being objective about this band, so I’m not even going to try…if you want a review of the show instead of an unabashed outpouring of affection, you might need to look elsewhere.

For those who haven’t heard them, Grails are an instrumental band from Portland Oregon, who draw inspiration from a vast array of eclectic music that ranges from Pink Floyd and Sun City Girls to Italian film soundtracks and library music. Their sound changes from song to song and album to album, and is sometimes dark,  sometimes exotic, but always beautiful, atmospheric and amazingly descriptive.
It was pretty great to see each musician up close and get a better grasp of their individual styles, as most of them play a number of different instruments both live and on the recordings. Standing right up the front with only a couple of people occasionally blocking my view, I watched Zac work his magic on 12-string guitar, William lay down his distinctively mellow bass-lines whilst juggling a few keys and even some vocal texture, and blood pour out of Emil’s left hand after some over-exuberant drumming (if you’ve seen Emil play with Om you’ll know this isn’t particularly uncommon).
Jesse Bates (lap steel), Emil Amos (drums) and Bill Slater (bass):
Zac Riles (12 string and guitar):


Sitting quietly to the side of the stage, Jay contributed melodica and other keyboards as well as some samples and extra percussion here and there, while Jesse proved to be an incredible lap steel player who sat up the front and played many of the familiar lead guitar lines throughout the show. He also added some extra percussion here and there, and played drums on several songs including the wonderful ‘Almost Grew My Hair’ which was possibly the highlight of the whole show for me.
Jay Clarke (melodica):

Jesse Bates (lap steel):
 
Alex Hall (guitar) and Bill Slater (bass):

If my memory doesn’t fail me, the set was opened with the semi-spooky ‘I Led Three Lives’ from their latest album Deep Politics, and then proceeded through a surprising catalog of my personal favourites from every album after and including the Black Tar Prophecies collection.  We were treated to a synth-driven re-imagining of ‘Back to the Monastery’ that gave it an awesome futuristic prog vibe, the majestic ‘Silk Road’ and ‘Origin-ing’ from Burning Off Impurities, ‘Reincarnation Blues’, ‘Immediate Mate’ and ‘Acid Rain’ from Doomsdayer’s Holiday, ‘Take Refuge’ from Take Refuge in Clean Living, and also from Deep Politics was the gorgeously cinematic ‘All the Colors of the Dark’.  I couldn’t have really hoped for a more perfect set-list, and every track sounded even bigger and more intense than I expected.
Emil Amos (guitar), Jesse Bates (drums) and Bill Slater (bass):

Not many people were filming or recording, which was actually a nice change from the majority of shows I see these days, so I doubt many videos will surface of this show, but someone did catch the second half of ‘Take Refuge’ which you can enjoy below (bummer they didn’t get the first). If you ever get the chance to see this band live, do yourself a favour and go. They don’t tour often, and when they do it’s a rare and special experience.

Thanks Grails, you’re the best!

Lilacs and Champagne

This new project by Emil Amos and Alex Hall - roughly one half of Grails who are definitely my favourite band of recent years - is ruling both my turntable and my iPod at the moment. I've always loved sample-based music, and in fact one of my first musical obsessions as a young teenager was Pop Will Eat Itself, a band with a philosophy of recycling music (hence the name) that consisted of live instruments and vocals coupled with layer upon layer of samples, some impossibly obscure and others as blatant as the vocals from Mel & Kim's Respectable which they used in Hit the Hi-Tech Groove (their song from 1987 that describes the aforementioned philosophy)....but I digress. Lilacs and Champagne bear no resemblance to PWEI and have more of a spooky instrumental hip-hop vibe, which is better described and reviewed here. Below is one of the neat videos Emil made to promote the new L&C record:


LILACS! from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.

I think what I love about sampled music is the juxtaposition of soundbites both new and familiar, arranged in unexpected and harmonious ways to create mood and texture and narrative unobtainable by conventional instrumentation or vocalisation. Perhaps it's partly to do with referencing or capturing someone else's sentiment and re-framing it to say something different, or to emphasise something that would be difficult or awkward to express more candidly...either way, it's fun and I hope L&C have more like this to come. If you're into it, order the CD or LP from Mexican Summer here, check out the L&C Facebook page here, and check out more of Emil's effed-up videos on Vimeo here.

Deep Politics 2

The new Grails album Deep Politics, from which I shared an awesome video recently, has now been released and as expected it's absolutely superb. If my word on the matter doesn't count for much, and I suspect that it doesn't, you can listen to it streaming here and decide for yourself. You even get the bonus of an amusing commentary by Emil Amos to accompany each song.

As I discovered today while I listened to it through headphones on my way to and from work, this is one of those albums that has the ability to elevate the way you perceive almost everything around you to a whole new level: the junkie lady you see every day on the tram suddenly wears an indescribable sadness on her face, the drunk meatheads on Chapel Street seem more hostile and sinister than usual, and the sun coming through the trees or the sight of a kid rolling down a hill in the park feel somehow profoundly beautiful. Inspired in part by a love of long-forgotten library records, these lush instrumental songs are like the soundtrack for a movie that's playing out in front of you in realtime, with no script and no direction - just pure atmosphere.

Something about the use of piano and strings together on several of these tracks is completely magical to me, particularly as they're instruments I'm not usually fond of; Daughters of Bilitis has been stubbornly stuck in my head since the day I first heard it. I think the thrill of discovering a love for something I didn't know I had, and hearing something unlike anything I've heard before, might be what makes this band so special to me.

Buy the album here.

Survivalist Tales!

After months of anticipation the new Holy Sons album is out, and I have eagerly commenced the relentless back-to-back listenings that accompanied the arrival of all the previous albums. I'd already become thoroughly addicted to 'Look of Pain!' and 'Slow Days', two songs from the album which were available before its release, but now I have a bunch of new songs to wrap my head around which is wonderful.  I struggle to find any appropriate words to describe how I feel about this music, which whilst frustrating is probably part of its magic; I think if you can pin-point exactly why something is pleasing to you it maybe loses some of its lustre.

One of the reasons I love music so much more than other art forms is precisely because I feel as though the creation of it requires some sort of supernatural power that I simply don't have, so it's a constant source of wonder and excitement for me. Sure, you can break a song down into its more mundane parts like words and melodies and rhythms, and that may help towards understanding why the song is successful...but no matter how great your appreciation of those elements, with truly great music there's always something infinitely more mysterious and alchemical going on under the surface of its creation. Here's hoping the mystery of why I love Holy Sons so much remains a mystery to me forever.

Appropriately titled collage by Emil Amos.



Happy

So I've just had the privilege of attending three Om shows and a Holy Sons show in the space of a week, and they were without a doubt some of the best live performances I have ever witnessed.  Biased as I may be, I don't think I'm alone in feeling that these shows were pretty damn special.

I never got to see Om with their original drummer, but I really do think Emil Amos breathes new life into their older material, and even more so into the new music that he's written with Al for the God Is Good album. A definite highlight of every set was the song Cremation Ghat from said album, which features a simple but distinctive, stomping rhythm that departs somewhat from the traditional Om ride-groove formula, and provides Rob (also of supporting act Lichens) with an opportunity for some of his incredible vocal wailing.

The other track that had me grinning stupidly from start to finish was 'To the Shrinebuilder' from Om's split with Current 93, (as seen in my previous post here) during which Emil's drumming reached it's most exciting and bombastic, as did Rob's seriously enthusiastic tambourine playing. I've never had so much fun watching a live band before, and it really struck me how sad it is that Om get lumped in with the stoner metal and doom genre when to me they have very little in common with any of those bands, aside from the fact that Al was in Sleep.  Anyway, I enjoyed every performance immensely and can't wait to hear what they record next, which shouldn't be too far off according to an excellent interview with the band that you can read here.

As for the Holy Sons show, I wasn't quite sure what to expect that night because he doesn't play live often, and when he does it's usually with a band. I was thinking that being a solo show he might do some of his simpler songs accompanied by an acoustic guitar, perhaps in the style of 'I Want to Live a Peaceful Life', but instead we were treated to entirely new and stripped back arrangements of some of my favourite, more layered songs like Drifter's Sympathy (original here), More Mind Briars and Gnostic Device, played on an electric guitar with what seemed like a fair amount of improvisation, on both guitar and vocals. Needless to say, they sounded absolutely stunning and I feel extremely lucky to have witnessed such a unique and rare performance. I also had the opportunity to chat with Emil briefly after several of the shows and he was remarkably warm, funny and friendly, which was just the icing on the cake really. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Holy Sons Wisdom Part 2

"Open yourself to the world, and see if it loves you back."

Om live.

I am so incredibly happy that Om, one of my favourite bands, will be touring Australia next month. In fact I'm sure that most people reading this are sick of me banging on about it, and about (drummer) Emil Amos in general, but I get like that about my music and I'm not gonna fight it.  Besides, I want everyone to come along and support them so the shows will be awesome and they'll come back again...and maybe they'll bring Grails with them next time! Although I think the excitement would kill me.

Anyway, in anticipation of the three Om shows (!) I'll be going to in July I've been watching lots of live clips and I thought this one was was particularly noteworthy.  As it says in the YouTube comments, "cymbal ecstasy"... enjoy.

Black Tar Prophecies IV

Emil Amos has just uploaded another one of his tenebrous film collages that I love so much. This one is a sort of commercial for the new Grails release, Black Tar Prophecies volume IV. I can't fucking wait.


GRAILS- BLACK TAR IV COMMERCIAL from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.

Drifter's Sympathy

Holy Sons makes me feel a little bit happier when I'm sad.  Watch this clip, it rules.


DRIFTER'S SYMPATHY from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.

Holy Sons Wisdom

"What do people who want to confront serious matters in their life do with blunt statements like 'Don't Worry be Happy'? You have to point an arrow towards redemption or finding Love in the Universe... to just come out and say "Life is Great, Sit back and enjoy the Party" is to do a disservice to the audience's ability to deal with serious issues that lead to a greater understanding of why life is precious. " 


"Companionship with the like-minded blob, relief of individual responsibilities, and the pressure to join, in most societies, seem to be too hard to avoid for many people..."


" It's important to me to join the force of creativity in the universe as opposed to worshiping it as a subordinate. "


"I think we're collectively going through some sort of aesthetic crisis these days. When I look at the covers of the records assaulting the public daily there seems to be a type of general aesthetic confusion going on. I have a friend that's older and grew up just before punk really hit and he often laments how the punk phenomenon took away the ambition of bands to really learn how to play their instruments or make more 'developed-sounding' records. That's pretty analogous to how Photoshop has put the formerly-respected craft of visual art into the hands of the non-visually-inclined these days. ...We're kind of languishing in a post-modern graveyard y'know? "

I feel a new obsession coming on....

Holy Sons is the solo project of Emil Amos, current drummer for Om and member of the almighty Grails, an amazing band that I've been listening to a lot lately. This video is the first I'd ever heard of Holy Sons and it really stayed with me so I'm sharing it with you here. I'm still too intrigued by this man and his music to really know what else to say, so I'll leave it at that for now.

The Feral Kid from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.