Friday, January 18, 2019

more 2018 backblog

Just found quickly scrawled notes about these. 2018 was a busy year, musically:

Ma Poulane's Great Decline, Duke of Cumberland, Whitstable, 27/09/18

A couple down from London (plus drummer) who seem to be known and loved by the older gig-going Whitstable crowd. Katrina recommended this one. I got the bus over with Maud, visiting from Wisconsin (her first time out of N. America, first time she'd seen the sea for decades). We were both struck by how Ma Poulane's singer sounded quite similar to out mutual friend (from Central Wisconsin cult band Irene's Garden) Jenny Ludeman.
 

Llunic and Rosie Nobbs, secret woodland location near Canterbury, 14/10/18

Nick and Lucy playing accordion/fiddle duos, including some impossibly lovely arrangements of English Morris tunes! Rosie down from Bristol for the occasion, much hilarity and irreverence in between the celestial harp playing. The terrible weather stopped, almost miraculously, just before Llunic started.
 

Nelson Parade and Gambardella, Crash of Moons Club, Bramleys, Canterbury, 24/10/18

Callum and the band starting to sound more confident (this was the third time I'd seen them play the same basic set). VERY well received by the CoMC crowd. Gambardella from Barcelona blew the roof off (but had to finish early due to staff concerns about noise complaints). Looks like this will be the last full-on electric Crash of Moons night at Bramleys. Oh well.

As COMC resident DJ Professor Appleblossom, I played genre-appropriate sets before/between/after bands (tasteful synthpop gradually morphing into doom-prog, with a funky dance set to conclude):


 

Allen Family/Yiannis Zaronis/Ben Insall/Mimi O'Halloran/Garance Louis, secret woodland location near Canterbury, 28/10/18 What a day! Americana/old-time from the Allens, rembetika from Yiannis (plus some saz/oud duos with me), English folkiness from Ben, incredible singing of incredible songs by Mimi and late-night accordion wonderment from Garance. Yes!
 

Aidan Shepherd and Sonotanotanpez, secret woodland location near Canterbury, 04/11/18

Analogue synth explorations from Aidan (Terry Riley would have approved!), then something entirely unclassifiable by the Japanese duo Sonotanotanpenz (Megan had seen them in Vienna while touring with Alabuster de Plume, helped make this happen). It's like these two young women have created their own microsubculture, with its own genre of music!
 

World Peng Presents and Lazuli Lazuli, Free Range, Garage Coffee, Canterbury 08/11/18

World Peng presented a kind of ritual, with video projections, Brew Dem MC Reminisce in a balaclava spitting furious bars over Humble Pious beats, Juliet, Olivia and Emilia doing an integrated performance piece... you kind of had to be there. I discovered via Emilia that I wasn't the only one who was reminded of the on-stage goings on during Hawkwind's Stonehenge '84 set! Emilia did some seriously next-level hula hooping while Lapis played a blistering jam set. One of the best sets I've heard them play, incredibly coherent, and continually evolving...they've got a pretty deep musical telepathy at this stage in the band's existence (and even though bassist Luke is fairly new to the fold, he's tapped straight into it). Organiser Sam Bailey was finding it hard to believe that it was improvised (they were in all kinds of unusual time-signatures, this wasn't some blues-based rock jam!).

A completely different kind of crowd. Well, just bigger, really. The Free Range regulars, plus a very large contingent who never come — Lapis fans and young scene-chasers. Apparently the largest FR audience ever. And we can thank The Great British Bake-Off for this. Quick story: At the "Canterbury Sound" conference at CCCU last year, Lapis were about to play at the end, but Sam decided to go home, having convinced himself on minimal exposure (early recordings) that they weren't his cup of tea (they'd contacted him about playing FR before, to no avail). He got home to find his wife and kids watching said reality TV programme, thought (in his words) "fuck this!" and decided to head back to the venue and watch Lapis. And, naturally, he was blown away.
 

Saskia Griffiths-Moore and Sam Brothers, Bramleys, Canterbury 14/11/18

Saskia describes herself as a folk singer, but these days that seems to just mean an acoustic guitar is involved. Mostly her own songs, a Dylan song (was it "Don't Think Twice"?) was about as "folk" as it got. Sam sounding as powerful and impassioned as ever. He's been busy this year.

Luke D and a visiting friend of his showed up. Nick Drake on the PA, had a laugh about the Volkswagon advert using "Pink Moon", which brought ND to the attention of countless sensitive Americans, rather than being a regrettable case of Nick Drake being used to advertise Volkswagons, turned out to be a bizarre case of Volkswagons being used to advertise Nick Drake. I just had a look on YouTube. Hmmm, a sensitive car advert. Could have been worse. But I was glad to hear that his family never approved this (presumably the rights weren't in their hands).


 

Kristin Frederickson's "Leap of Love" and Lunatraktors, Free Range, Garage Coffee, Canterbury, 29/11/18


 

Paisley Mess, Snazzback and Lapis Lazuli, Crash of Moons Club, UCA Bar, Canterbury, 30/11/18

People will be talking about this one for years. Snazzback a wonderful surprise (far more interesting than I'd been led to believe). Lapis just on fire. DJ Special Terry had to pull out due to food poisoning, so I ended up playing a dance set until 1:30am (so nice not to have to finish at 11 as at Bramleys) as well as sets before/between after. Here are my sets (starting with 60s psych and R&B, moving through abstract jazz fusion into ecstatic disco):

I was disappointed to find that Hello Gecko had had to pull out. But it was for the best reason ever — main man Nick's partner Lucy (the other half of the duo Llunic with him) had just given birth to their first child!
 

jazz jam, Bramley's, Canterbury, 04/12/18

I'd not been down to one of these for far too long. Headed down after a guest lecture from superstar anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann at UKC. My strongest memory is of Dulcie and James Taylor (extraordinary multi-instrumentalist and unlikely crooner) singing the duet "Autumn in New York".
 

Azul, The Millers Arms, Canterbury, 05/12/18

Pianist Frances Knight plus four jazz/soul singers. One Brazilian. One Ginger Bennett, who I'd seen with the band Glasshouse a couple of times, stunning voice. A nice mix of standards and originals. First gig I'd been to at the Millers (not really a music place). Arrived in wellies, for logistical reasons, and rather sleepy. But anything Frances involves herself in is worth checking out, and I'm glad I did (she hinted that this might have been a one-off thing).
 

Mavernie Cunningham + John Paul Zaccarini/Peter Coyte, Free Range, Garage Coffee, Canterbury, 06/12/18
 


 

Lila Matsumoto + Free Range Orchestra, Free Range, Garage Coffee, Canterbury, 13/12/18
 

Unusually accessible poetry for Free Range, I really enjoyed it. And FRO were brilliant, really reflected the spirit of Free Range I thought. A great way to end the 2018 part of the season.

posted by Matthew Watkins at 4:31 PM

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