Quick little link – a playlist of 15 tracks from Donal Dineen (Today FM/Small Hours).
Has some great tracks on there, including an opener from Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero’s who I tipped from SXSW last year, one of my favourite tracks of last year- Cable Dazed, a cracking Jape remix of Patrick Kelleher’s Wonder which was previewed on Donal’s Fresh Air show with Patrick Kelleher in November, and then on nialler9’s blog the following day (boy that dude is quick). I’m loving the Floating Points track (donal played with him at POGO last year) and the last track on the set- The Echoing Green is just gorgeous, has led me to listen to the whole Gentleman Losers album.
I didn’t really go for Soap and Skin at DEAF last year, she shows great promise but the theatrics seemed a little forced, and the music was not quite so interesting and complex live as I hoped, but the remix of Marche Funebre on this set has stopped me from writing her off.
My favourite track is the brilliantly funky Triple Trouble from ex-Cane 141 Galway man Mike Smalle:
Itchy feet are programming 4 great gigs in Sligo this February under the banner of Quattro and the second last date has really caught my eye. Happening at The Factory on Thursday Feb 25th it’s with a group called The Portico Quartet from London who have a hang drum (or two?) as part of their make up.
I only discovered the nuts-looking hang this november as one of the Fresh Air Festival artists; Roland Gomez is a hang player. It’s a hugely unusual instrument that is hand made by panArt in Switzerland and therefore very hard to come by, but seemingly very instinctive to play if you are already proficient in another instrument. It looks like a spaceship and sounds equally otherworldly. Have a listen to Roland playing on Donal Dineen’s show here>
The Portico boys have been nominated for a Mercury Prize and are not shy on great press quotes, of which this is just one.
“A band who make experimental and adventurous music sound wonderfully accessible, Portico Quartet are like nothing you’ve heard before.” Straight No Chaser
At first listen they seem as likely to turn up on a Cafe del Mar cd as on a jazz or contemporary classical one, so I’m looking forward to hearing what they have in store for Sligo.
Not quite sure why music network don’t have any web links for the quartet on their site, but you can listen to them on their myspace or visit their rather nice site. They seem to be on tour to a few places around the country- full list here. The Sligo gig tix are €12/15 and avail from The Factory on 071 917 0431
Feb 6th – Frisk Verde (Ireland/Denmark/USA) Guitar maestro, Mike Nielson’s latest Jazz Combination Followed by “Grapevine” Sligo’s newest club playing: soul, funk, dancehall jazz and blues! with DJ’s Pedro and Barra
Feb 14th – Netnakisum (Ausria) Astounding and quirkingly entertaining classical musicians play Motzart to Harmonic yodeling from the alps (Back due to popular demand)
Feb 25th – Portico Quartet (UK) award-winning foursome that play a unique style of jazz featuring the world famous hang drums of Switzerland
Feb 27th – Niwell Tsumbu and The Songs of The Nations Band
(Congo/Cuba/Germany/Holland/Ireland) Gifted Guitarist, Niwell has put together an stunning international group of musicians to play his original and spell-binding compositions.
I seem to spend more time thinking about blog posts I’m going to write than actually writing them, as demon time gets in the way. This one has been brewing for a long time, ever since the end of November last year. I was working on a month-long musical series with Donal Dineen for his Small Hours show on Today FM called Fresh Air (all sessions still available to listen back to here) and the month brought so much new music to my ears that I’m still trying to recover. But still, wonderful new albums keep coming; I bought Four Tet’s – There is Love in You (on vinyl with free mp3 download! love this) and Beach House – Teen Dream today, so I think it’s case of getting theses songs out of me before I forget.
The premise of Fresh Air was simple and brilliant; Donal selected a series of the finest irish sound makers producing fresh new music and invited them on to the radio show to chat about their process, or their loves, or their inspirations, or all three. They often played live and always brought in some of their very own fresh air- tunes they loved- be they new, or new to Donal. Of course that resulted in a multitude of new must-listen-to tracks and artists every night that I was scrabbling to list (for the fresh air blog- so I do have a clickable list), but it’s interesting to see which ones have really stayed with me since then.
Some took me off on tangents of discovery. The blues selection that Jeremy (R.S.A.G) brought in reminded me of how much I loved Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and how I’d always planned on listening to more blues to really get a handle on it. My dad loves the blues and I’d listened to a ton of it growing up, but I’d never really sat back down and listened to it. I asked him to pick a couple of the seminal tracks for me to make a start, and he ended up giving me an amazing list of over 400 tracks from one of the earliest blues recordings of the 1920’s up to Rock and Roll and beyond, right up to the present day. How amazing! and how much I’m loving taking my time through it. But this is what happens, a song choice flickers a memory that can take you off on a whole little journey of discovery.
But back to the point…of the ones that were new to me, here are the ones that I had to buy immediately, and can’t stop listening to. Some of these aren’t strictly artists’ choices- some Donal played a lot during that period, or out on the road for the live gigs, but here they are. my little joys that closed 2009.
(song name brings you to a listen-able stream- or head to the end of the post where I’ve embedded a soundcloud set of all 11 tracks)
@fionakearney wait till you get to Tourism Ireland who talk about themes "Composed in Ireland" "Written in Ire" & omit "Painted in Ireland" 16 hours ago
