14th April: Baritonia
"David, can you think of something witty to say about a literal coffee stain?" "Nope." "Aight."
How do you explain The Bob Lazar Story? Well, the men behind the project, New Zealand-based noodlers Matt Deacon and Chris Jago, have called it everything from "ProgMathsyFusion" to "tritonal wankery", but honestly I still don't think I'm any further forward. Nonetheless, an album with track names like "Toptop Switcherooney, Elbow Patch Man" surely deserves a listen, and such curiosity would indeed be rewarded - this is an odd album, but a thoroughly satisfying one, with equal parts moderation and flair and superb musicianship across the board.
28th April: Field Recordings
Efforts to establish a BEM annex in the Hell Dimensions are still underway.
Field Recordings is proof positive of that there's nothing quite like The Fierce And The Dead live. After Spooky Action, we and the band wanted to give everyone a taste of the TFATD live experience, a finely honed wall of guitar that hits like a goddamn express train, and this album, featuring some extremely pretty artwork by Mark Buckingham, is effectively a half-hour chunk of concentrated, unfettered power.
There's more to come from the boys in the new year. In the meantime, present your face for melting.
5th May: Unlike Here
"Morning, Greg." "Morning, Hal."
Italian prog-fusion quartet Syncage were unleashed on the world in full this year, dragging us headlong into an unsettling world of "manner masters" and "unaware actors" in their first full-length album. A smart, vibrant concept piece that tells of an escape from a strange, repressive society, Unlike Here is a highly experimental record that draws elements and themes from so many genres that it's easy to lose count. It also gave us one of the best music videos I've ever seen, a dazzling display of both musical prowess and screwball humour.
The band put together a half-hour documentary film about their experience of putting together the album, and it's well worth a watch (don't worry, there are English subtitles). In a musical field that can tend towards staleness, Syncage are an injection of youthful energy.
19th May: This
Scientifically proven to be our most anxiety-inducing album cover.
Simon Godfrey, eh? First he, as Shineback, gave us an impressive slab of intelligent dance music in Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed - BEM's first ever release. Then he showed us his singer-songwriterly cred with the two volumes of Black Bag Archive. And this year, we got this. And by this I am, of course, referring to This. (We've gotten a lot of mileage out of that joke and we're not stopping anytime soon.)
This (by which I mean... oh, alright, I'll stop) is a kinda-sorta-supergroup fronted by Simon and filled out admirably by Echolyn's Tom Hyatt, Cold Blue Electric's Joe Cardillo, and Stone Jack Baller's Scott Miller. By their powers combined, we received a collection of eminently singable pop-rock tunes that are as diverse as they are brilliant. With influences from XTC to 10CC, it's often unexpected and always a delight to listen to.
Status Update
Murder and Parliament is out now! Stream or purchase the whole album from the Bandcamp page now and see what magic Tom Slatter can achieve with no lyrics whatsoever.
And the Elephant hopes to see a few of you at Masquerade 2 today, featuring Tom, Big Hogg, and plenty more great music!
We're into December now, and Christmas approaches on swift wings. That means a lot of cloak-and-hopefully-not-dagger operations in the dark corridors of Elephant Towers... and not just for presents. Stay tuned.
Review Roundup
Anyone here read Greek? Against the Silence just reviewed The Divine Abstract and Google Translate only gets us so far - but we certainly agree that this album is "a really impressive moment in 2017". Tap into that moment here.
Our year's review is halfway done - next week, we'll have another one! Well, four. But that doesn't rhyme.
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