English psych beat band The Gold Needles have made a video for Mood Elevator, the title track from their latest album: "[It] is about the mixed emotions that are part of everyday life. Things might get better one moment, before shit hits the fan without warning. Rolling with the punches is the best way to deal with the highs and lows, before taking stock and think about the next move."
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HCTF review of Mood Elevator
Multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich are almost done with their week day album series. For the penultimate one, Saturday, they decided to go long with a sprawling extravaganza, consisting of 14 parts starring off-beat characters like Cousin Waffleboat and a stoner named Benge Deltondo. Anything was allowed to happen in telling this wordless story wherein normal rules no longer apply, the very fabric of civilization comes apart at the seams, and being a billionaire has become meaningless.
The freaky free jazz sits comfortably next to ringing guitar interludes, loops go wild after a couple of repeats and there is no Hollywood ending in this dense fabric over stacked layers. Both musicians must have been grinning like Cheshire cats when they decided to give the track another pass to find space to even more shards of noise. Exhausting and exhilarating stuff that makes listening to Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica a walk in the park.
Tammy Ealom, front woman of Denver based punk band Dressy Bessy, has released another single from her solo project The Tammy Shine. Speed Date is a high energy, fuzz heavy rocker about a night that failed to deliver on its promise, because, well everything sucked, so she wrote "just another song about a broken heart". Mind you, while she all takes in her stride, it is abudantly clear who comes out on top. Yup, it's her.
Leeds based indie singer Ellur made a name for herself with a string of brutally honest singles and an EP, God Help Me Now. Two tracks from that release made it unto her first full-length At Home In My Mind and for those who have been following her career about half of the album will sound familiar, but now everyhing falls into place as the tale of an adolescent entering adulthood and all the mistakes she made along the way to reach that stage, with bad relationships and other mishaps that failed to get her down in the long run.
By taking cues from guitar-driven melodic pop music, folk and trip-hop Ellur has found closure, delivering her lyrics in an almost laconic way. She shows strength, but is not afraid to share her doubts and vulnerability as well. At Home In My Mind is about finding peace, but being aware that things can go South again when it is least expected.
I've always liked the idea of improvised music. Improvised anything. It's what conversation is.
Andy Partridge
