Whitney 2005
Photos | 08/04/2005 at 00:19:18
What you find stuck to the wall outside a museum on a rainy ass day waiting for James.
I Had A Hundred More Reasons To Stay By The Fire - Caroline Martin. Small Dog Records.
Words | 08/04/2005 at 00:02:25
Martins debut is an album of lonesome, under the duvet blues. Its a record thats both intimate and at arms length, the short tracks alternately spinning stories that you feel are true and then ones that you know cant be. For many of these are daydreamed, dusty tales of dead dogs and shotguns that you know never happened to any English kid. The atmosphere feels right though, with mics turned up to pick up the scratches and nicks - nail on string, tongue against teeth, thump on a hollow-bodied guitar. The ornamentation is equally spare, snatches of melodica and piano and intermittent percussion, but mostly its just voice and guitar, sombre and stark as hell. Indeed, the most successful songs here are the ones left to lie where they fall.
<b> Appeared in the April-May 2005 issue of Plan B Magazine </b>
Mellow Candles
Photos | 29/03/2005 at 13:35:46
Revelations: Personal Responses to the Books of the Bible. Canongate.
Words | 29/03/2005 at 13:35:24
In 1998, Canongates decision to publish the books of the Bible separately was something of a publishing coup. The Pocket Canons were admired and vilified in equal measure one Christian bookseller even attempted to take the company to court on a charge of blasphemy due to the controversial nature of the introductions to each of the texts. Revelations is an anthology of these introductions, written by a diverse group of writers believers, non-believers, scientists, religious leaders and pop stars among them.
For David Grossman, Exodus is a history of the childhood of the Jewish people. For Bono, the Psalms are a sort of proto-blues, a holy row he hears echoing in the music of Robert Johnson and Van Morrison. AS Byatt also finds echoes of the Bible in modern creative expression, finding the sensual and fleshy poetry of the Song of Solomon reverberating in the work of Tennyson. The Dalai Lama devotes his introduction to a comparative study of the Epistle of James with a variety of Buddhist teachings, finding within them a kind of blueprint for a happy and meaningful life. On the other hand, Will Selfs introduction relates the descent into madness, and then, finally, the suicide of a close friend who, in his last year, became entranced by the weighty language and symbolism of the Revelation of St John the Divine.
As Charles Johnson points out in his introduction to Proverbs, Culture is an on-going project. We are not born with culture or wisdom. Indeed, culture is something that is acquired it drips through the rocks and the strata of our history, its incremental development impossible to measure, so central it is to our own notions of shared experience and understanding. For better or for worse, the Bible is probably the single most influential document in all of Western literature. It has seeped into its language, art, poetry and novels. It has also been the impetus for some of the most horrifying and unjust moments in Western history. The Bible has inspired and encouraged and beaten and broken in equal measure. This anthology is not only a lively and informed discussion of the work and its influence, it is also a canny examination of our culture itself.
<b>Appeared in Time Out March 30 - April 6 2005 </b>
Cranebuilders - Sometimes You Hear Through Someone Else. Skinny Dog.
Words | 18/03/2005 at 11:39:14
The Cranebuilders are from Liverpool and make a nice enough noise. I reviewed their debut album this week - you can read it here at <a href="http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/11610">Drowned in Sound</a>.