30th May 2012: v/a Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman / Interview with Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square) / Playlist

Featured: v/a Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman (Tompkins Square)

Michael Chapman began his career on the Cornish folk circuit in 1967. Signed to the Harvest label, home to Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, he recorded four quasi-legendary albums. The influential 'Fully Qualified Survivor' was John Peel's favorite record of 1970, and featured future Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson. After decades of recording and touring, Chapman remained an obscure figure in the States until his profile was raised by a lengthy 2009 interview with big fan Thurston Moore in Fretboard Journal.

He toured extensively with the late guitarist Jack Rose, and more recently, with Bill Callahan. Seattle-based indie label Light in the Attic began a reissue campaign of his Harvest work, and Tompkins Square released the internationally acclaimed double disc, 'Trainsong : Guitar Compositions, 1967-2010'.

All this has brought newfound attention to a singular guitarist and songwriter.

'Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman', compiled by Michael's wife Andru and Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal, features artists who have shared a stage with Michael, or share a personal connection. These include some of his contemporaries like Bridget St. John, Maddy Prior, and longtime cohort Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span), as well as young guns inspired by Michael's legacy.

23rd May 2012: Gravenhurst / Underlights in Session / Playlist

Featured: Gravenhurst - Ghost In Daylight (Warp)

Gravenhurst is the work of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Nick Talbot from Bristol, England. The Ghost In Daylight is his most sonically diverse work yet, building upon his brand of ambient noise-folk with starkly acoustic songs resting alongside densely layered pieces.

The album's lead single ''The Prize'' is a dark meditation on recurring Gravenhurst themes of compulsion, degradation and the possibility of transcendence, and contains some of Nick's finest lyrics to date. Conjured from disparate ingredients, Gravenhurst's roots lie in the melodic noise of My Bloody Valentine, the lush vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel, the alchemical guitars of Richard Thompson and Johnny Marr, and the widescreen ambient visions of Brian Eno.

"So what’s the album like? I went back to my old way of using different guitar tunings to come up with new ideas, listening to lots of Richard Thompson and Brian Eno, writing song structures on the guitar, while carving out a sonic space for them by manipulating organs, optigans, mellotrons and synthesizers. I find the divine in drone, dissonance and noise so there is a near-religious amount of controlled chaos beneath the close harmonies and finger-picked guitars. So this album is at once deep in acoustics and heavy in electricity; an emergent contrapuntal sonic phenomenon occupying four to five-dimensional phase-space. It’s a bi-limbic, stereotactic sub-caudate trachtotomy of an album and it’s a real pleasure to finally be able to present it to people who have been waiting so patiently for it for so long." Nick Talbot

Gravenhurst

Underlights - Live in Session

Underlights

16th May 2012: Marissa Nadler / Playlist

Featured: Marissa Nadler - The Sister (Box Of Cedar Records)

“Heartbreak is a great muse, but it can wear you down,” says Marissa Nadler, referring to the stormy relationships that haunted many of the heavenly hooks on her last couple records. “For The Sister, I realized I had muses all around me, whether it was childhood, betrayal, friendships, new love, nature, or hope. The narrator’s stronger in my songs now, and more able to bounce back if they choose to.”

While that may be true, the deeply personal characters in Nadler’s eight new songs—a filler-free collection that’s subtly linked to last year’s self-titled LP—are as complex as ever, from the codeine-clouded memories of the rock ‘n’ roll singer in “Constantine” to the downward spiral diatribes of the lost soul in “Christine.” And then there are the introspective turning points where the clouds part, where metaphorical wrecking balls burst through cement-clogged hearts and slivers of light slip through the cracks.

Meanwhile, the singer/guitarist keeps her confessionals as intimate as possible and hits her stride sonically, playing lead on every last song and letting only the slightest distractions—a skittish drum set, a punch-drunk chorus, a muggy mandolin—break the album’s brutally honest spell. Or as Nadler puts it, “I wanted the starkness of every song to reflect the lyrical content. Some of my biggest influences are confessional songwriters. It’s always been a very powerful thing to listen to Elliott Smith and Joni Mitchell, and feel so much from their stories.”

Marissa Nadler

Radio Playlist 16th May 2012 (HERE)

James Yorkston & The Athletes - Sweet Jesus [Moving Up Country {10th Anniversary Edition}]

Gareth Dickson - Noon [Quite A Way Away]

Marissa Nadler - Your Heart Is A Twisted Vine [The Sister]

**

Jennifer Castle - Powers [Castlemusic]

Mazzy Star - Wasted [So Tonight That I Might See]

The Heavy Eyes - These Men Are Wolves [2]

**

Marissa Nadler - The Wrecking Ball Company [The Sister]

Patrick Watson - Morning Sheets [Adventures In Your Own Backyard]

The Goner - Hello Friend, Today I Will Sing Beautifully For You [7"]

**

Marissa Nadler - Love Again There Is A Fire [The Sister]

Devotional - Dream With Me [7"]

Caitlin Rose - Coming Up [Own Side Now]

**

Lucie Thorne - Whatever Floats [v/a Take Something Beautiful: The Songs Of Jesse Younan]

Peter Broderick - Blue [http://www.isithear.com]

Marissa Nadler - Constantine [The Sister]

**

Brad Barr - Bouba's Bounce [The Fall Apartment: Instrumental Guitar]

9th May 2012: Father John Misty / Playlist

Featured: Father John Misty - Fear Fun (Sub Pop)

Father John Misty – the moniker of former Fleet Foxes’ drummer J Tillman, has announced the release of a new album, ‘Fear Fun’. Produced by Fleet Foxes’ producer Phil Ek (who has also worked with Band of Horses and Modest Mouse), ‘Fear Fun’ has already spawned key single “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”, of which the video features comedienne Aubrey Plaza.

When discussing ‘Father John Misty’, Tillman paraphrases Philip Roth: “It’s all of me and none of me, if you can’t see that, you won’t get it’. What I call it is totally arbitrary, but I like the name. You’ve got to have a name. I never got to choose mine."

He goes on, “‘People who make records are afforded this assumption by the culture that their music is coming from an exclusively personal place, but more often than not what you hear are actually the affectations of an ’alter-ego’ or a cartoon of an emotionally heightened persona,” says Josh Tillman, who has been recording/releasing solo albums since 2003 and who recently left Seattle’s Fleet Foxes after playing drums from 2008-2011. “That kind of emotional quotient isn’t sustainable if your concern is portraying a human-being made up of more than just chest-beating pathos. I see a lot of rampant, sexless, male-fantasy everywhere in the music around me. I didn’t want any alter-egos, any vagaries, fantasy, escapism, any over-wrought sentimentality. I like humor and sex and mischief. So when you think about it, it’s kind of mischievous to write about yourself in a plain-spoken, kind of explicitly obvious way and call it something like ‘Misty’. I mean, I may as well have called it ‘Steve’”.

Musically, Fear Fun consists of such disparate elements as Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Arthur Russell, “All Things Must Pass,” and “Physical Graffiti,” often within the same song. Tillman’s voice has never been better and often sounds like Roy Orbison, “The Caruso of Rock”, at his most joyous, while the music maintains a dark, mysterious and yet conversely playful, almost Dionysian quality. Lyrically, his absurdist fever dreams of pain and pleasure elicit, in equal measures, the blunt descriptive power of Bukowski or Brautigan, the hedonist-philosophy of Oscar Wilde and the dried-out wit of Loudon Wainwright III.

Father John Misty

Playlist 9th May 2012 (HERE)


Cian Nugent - My War Blues [VHF 7”]
The Falls - Home [Hollywood EP]
Father John Misty - I’m Writing A Novel [Fear Fun]
**
Poor Moon - Illusion [Illusion EP]
Rusty Bear - Hollow Bird [Source To Sea]
Hollow Mirrors - Amber Eyes [S/T]
**
Father John Misty - Funtimes In Babylon [Fear Fun]
Helicon - Panic, Everything Is OK [Drinking Of You EP]
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Panic In Babylon [Aufheben]
**
J. Tillman - My Proud Mountains [v/a Introducing Townes Van Zandt Via The Great Unknown]
Dawes - My Way Back Home [Nothing Is Wrong]
Father John Misty - This Is Sally Hatchet [Fear Fun]
**
Cave Country - Hard To Love [Just A Little Coal EP]
Melodie Nelson - Six Six Six {feat. Geoffrey O'Connor} [ 7”]
Jonathan Wilson - Morning Tree [B-Sides]

2nd May 2012: Kim Churchill / The Maple Trail in Session / Playlist

Featured: Kim Churchill - Detail Of Distance (Indica)

At just 22, Kim Churchill is already lauded for his intricate folky finger picking style and on his second album 'Detail Of Distance' Kim turns it up a notch or three with the inclusion of deceivingly simple sounding electric rhythms that sit underneath dreamy finger picked guitars, lulling you into an intermittent reverie, the same way a sun shower might before jolting you back to reality with the true nature of the beast.In this case, the beast being steely, incessantly grinding guitars that form the spine of half of these songs.

'Detail Of Distance'is an album full of thoughtful content and the production by Todd Simko, who also steps up on backup vox, vibraphone, omnichord, taurus pedals and upright base gives additional depth and clarity but undoubtedly, most brilliant of all is Churchill himself who, having already wowed Byron Bay Bluesfest this year is set to hit the road with a string of intimate shows to promote his new album.

Head to the link below for more details... 

Kim Churchill

The Maple Trail - Live in Session

Show regulars and favourites The Maple Trail will be coming down from the Mountains in advance of the Cable Mount Warning album launch for a Session live on Sideways Through Sound.

The Maple Trail

Radio Playlist 2nd May 2012 (HERE)

Sam Moss - Spiders On The Ceiling [Neighbors EP]

Grave Robbers - Clarisse McClellan [Burgundy]

Kim Churchill - Coded In Concrete [Detail Of Distance]

**

Cave Country - This Great Spinning [Demo-April 2012]

Jason & The Lyre Bird - In A Tee Pee We Shall Lay [In A Tee Pee We Shall Lay EP]

Two Suns - A Thousand Times [A Few Pieces At A Time{question marks.}]

**

The Maple Trail - Manuscript [Cable Mount Warning]

Aidan Roberts {The Maple Trail} - Take Me To Barcelona [Live On Sideways Through Sound]

Aidan Roberts {The Maple Trail} - Sailors Song [Live On Sideways Through Sound]

**

Kim Churchill - It Will Be Morning Soon [Detial Of Distance]

Tehechapi - Sweet Water [Land & Four Seasons]

Bowerbirds - Tuck The Darkness In [The Clearing]

**

Kim Churchill - Wander The Tracks [Detail Of Distance]

Early Autumn Break - The Dark [Swimming With Children]

Jack Rose - Luck In The Valley {live} [Athanaeum, Fredericksburg VA, 18-06-2009]

25th April 2012: Mirel Wagner / Iain Chambers in Session / Playlist

Featured: Mirel Wagner - S/T (Kioski)

The great Townes Van Zandt once said there are two kinds of music: "The blues and zip-a-dee-doo-dah."

According to this, Mirel Wagner's self-titled debut falls solidly into the blues category. "Songwriting can hardly be more minimalistic, no-frills, more strict as Mirel Wagner's sparse music," according to German magazine Spex.

Mirel Wagner was born in Ethiopia, and grew up in peaceful conditions in Espoo, the second-largest city in Finland. At age 7 she was given violin lessons, at 13 she switched to guitar and at 16 she wrote her first songs ("To The Bone", the opening song from her album, is one of those early tunes).

Jean Ramsay, a Finnish journalist, came across Mirel at an open mic session in Helsinki. He was particularly convinced of her talent, raved about her in an early article and recommended her to others. So, without producing a demo or contacting any record labels, Mirel found herself sitting in a real recording studio. Over two days she recorded 12 songs straight. Nine of them can be found on her debut and those who have listened closely are full of praise for this unique young talent who has appeared, seemingly out of the blue, with her otherworldly gloomy folk.

This debut is quiet and intimate. It's a minimalist record, in the best sense: stoicly picked, almost trance-inducing acoustic guitar, a voice you wouldn't expect to hear from a 23 year old, and songs that mostly avoid classical folk song structure. Everything is stripped to the bone and maintains a beautiful, strangely fragile tension and as the ghostly mood floats through her album, Mirel's lyrics deal with equally dark themes: necromancy, love, death and the devil. These are not happy songs. But Mirel avoids any overly theatric gestures and instead imbues her songs with a subtle lyrical grace, even when the songs are about dead lovers and equally dark topics.

All of which begs the question: how can a young woman sound so sad? In an interview with the German Rolling Stone, Mirel said: "I think it's a bit lazy to say that I make sad music. Of course you might say the lyrics are bizarre or dark. But for me, the songs are first and foremost filled with desire. And there's this hope in them that love overcomes everything. What I find sad is the soulless music that is on the radio most of the time, music that is simply product. If there is no life in it... is this not much sadder than a melancholic song?"

Mirel Wagner 

Iain Chambers: Live in Session

Iain Chambers started playing guitar in his late teens and he didn't hear John Fahey's music until much later after being introduced to it by friend.

Discovering John Fahey opened the door to the range of influences running through the so called Takoma school, from Charlie Patton to Bartok. He particularly admired Charlie Patton's use of slide, how it seemed focused and aggressive.

However, listening to Iain play, one is quickly lured into a world without reference, of wonder, charm and mesmerising beauty and someone who has such a generous expression and who can alter the senses by striking just one notedeserves your absolute attention.

Sideways Through Sound is thrilled to have Iain as a guest on the show, it is bound to be one of the year's live highlights!!

Iain Chambers

Playlist 25th April 2012

Low - {That's How You Sing} Amazing Grace [Trust]

Yo La Tengo - The Fireside [Popular Songs]

Mirel Wagner - The Well [S/T]

**

R.C. Johnston - I Love My Blind Joe Death Steam Engine Tattoo [The Fahey Project]

Fort King - Trouble [7"]

Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell - The Breaking Hands [v/a The Journey Is Long]

**

Iain Chambers - Rituals & Pastimes [Rituals & Pastimes]

Iain Chambers - Port Authority Bus Station Blues [Live on Sideways Through Sound]

Iain Chambers - Letter To Val [Live on Sideways Through Sound]

**

Mirel Wagner - No Death [S/T]

Sea Vines - Heartbeats [Demo]

Steven John Hopkins - In Christ There Is No East Or West [Demo]

**

Mirel Wagner - Despair [S/T]

Arborea - Blue Crystal Fire [v/a We Are All One In The Sun: A Tribute To Robbie Basho]

18th April 2012: Spiritualized / Playlist

Featured: Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Double Six/Domino)

The last disc by Spiritualized, 2008’s 'Songs in A&E', lacked the hermetically sealed feeling of the group’s best albums. It had guest vocalists and cover songs and other unhelpful reminders of the existence of the outside world. Their new disc, the great, airless “Sweet Heart Sweet Light,” rectifies this problem.

Sweeping and grand, overdone to perfection, it exists at the four-way intersection of space and psych rock, Brit pop and blues. This is familiar territory for frontman Jason Pierce, who constructs 'Sweet Heart' from the same materials as most Spiritualized albums, jumbled together in mostly the same ways: There’s the usual fascination with American musical forms (especially gospel), Madchester nostalgia, references to Jesus, drugs, death and early ’70s Bowie nostalgia.

There’s nothing here that comes close to popcorn music — Pierce doesn’t do popcorn music — but by Spiritualized standards, 'Sweet Heart' is almost accessible. Songs come in at reasonable lengths, and although most don’t have hooks, they’re almost conventionally structured, and anchored in way that keep them from floating off into the ether.

'Hey Jane' is eight-plus minutes of wobbly organ and a pinballing beat; it’s one of only a few songs that don’t make reference to Pierce’s health problems (which include double pneumonia and liver disease). “Sometimes I wish that I was dead,” he croons on the rollicking roots-rock-meets-space-opera 'Little Girl'. because “only the living can feel the pain.” And that’s one of the happy songs...

Spiritualized

Radio Playlist 18th April 2011 (HERE)

Tall Firs - Edge Of The World [Out Of It & Into It]

Rickard Javerling - Heavenly Birds Pt.3 [The Valleys]

Spiritualized - So Long You Pretty Thing [Sweet Heart Sweet Light]

**

Matt Elliott - The Pain That's Yet To Come [The Broken Man]

Tobias Cummings & The Long Way Home - Come & Goes [Join The Dots]

Howlin' Rain - Nomads {acoustic} [Three From A Phantom Saloon EP]

**

Spiritualized - Hey Jane [Sweet Heart Sweet Light]

Voice Of The Seven Woods - Heatwave [Tchantinler EP]

Black Mountain - Mary Lou [Year Zero OST]

**

Chatham Rise - Gone [Demo]

Mono Stereo - Tambourine Dream [Who Built The Pyramids?]

The Laurels - Tidal Wave [1 track album advance]

**

Spiritualized - Get What You Deserve [Sweet Heart Sweet Light]