18/11/2018: 2018 In Review, Part 1

God, is it that time already? The end of a long, exhausting year is finally on the horizon, and, as we all look ahead to what fresh horrors 2019 might visit upon us, we must also spare a moment to look back at BEM's progress this year and some of the music we've unleashed on the world. This has been a slightly quieter year than last, but we still have plenty of albums to get through - let's get to it!

2nd February: A Map in Fragments

All these moments, like tears in rain...

As is traditional (kinda), the BEM year started in the early days of February, this time with art-rock outfit Tonochrome and their first new music in almost five years. With an impressive array of guests - both strings and brass! - and Charlie Cawood, by now a BEM veteran, on guitar, the bar is set high, but A Map in Fragments surpasses it with easy, genre-melting aplomb, delivering a characteristically unclassifiable collection of songs with elements of everything from grunge to jazz. The big challenge of writing for BEM has always been in describing music with very few clear points of comparison, and... well, "damn good" feels like a bit of a cop-out. But there it is.

23rd February: Close to Vapour

This is what Amazon delivery drones looked like in 1850.

Dutch duo Fractal Mirror have been releasing music since 2013, but they climbed aboard for their fourth album this year, and it was a delight to host and to listen to. This is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time for relaxation - there's enough subtlety to the arrangements that you can tune in and dissect them to your heart's content, and enough depth to keep the songs alive for multiple listens, but Close to Vapour doesn't demand that kind of close examination, and is equally effective as a chill-out album for a long, slow afternoon such as the one on which you might be reading this.

23rd March: Where the Moonlight Snows

"What's that noise? Why's the ground shaking? Is this a volcano?"

"Um... kind of?"

Mothertongue made a huge impression on us, and on the listening public, with their BEM debut two years ago, and Where the Moonlight Snows is a truly worthy successor. You wouldn't expect a band with three guitarists and complex vocal arrangements to be this good at sharp, carefully crafted moderation, but they pull it off. More so than many, this is an album that feels like a genuine collaborative effort, everything working in concert towards a magnificent, harmonious whole that'll have you humming the hooks for days to come.

6th April: Six Questions, Twelve Answers

This is what passed for a professional recording studio back in '99.

Our fourth major release of the year was actually a charity effort: a collection of unreleased tracks, almost twenty years old, by brothers Jem and Simon Godfrey, compiled and sold in support of Tim Smith, legendary frontman of the Cardiacs. These twelve instrumental pieces, six apiece composed in response to the same set of six very vague questions, are a fascinating insight into the musical development of these two great names, while also being smart, eclectic, and downright listenable in their own right.

Status Update

BEM continues to wind down for the winter and hatch plans for the year to come. Be cautious and watch the skies.

Review Roundup

Kev Rowland's hotly anticipated review of Dial is out now! Like Kev, we can't quite believe that it's been five years since Shineback's debut, but he seems to agree that it's been worth the wait.

And The Great War has picked up another review. Unfortunately for us, it's in Polish, but I've enlisted the help of a Polish friend of mine and, according to him, it says the album's an appropriately difficult listen for appropriately difficult subject matter, and well worth the effort.