Live Review – Lonely Robot – The Big Dream Album Launch by Gary Morley

The following was scribbled on my phone as I watched from the vantage of the Merch Desk’s Forward command post (thanks to Brigadier Nellie Pitts).

It’s a good crowd of people with hair that time forgot… I’m jealous. My locks decided to leave me years ago, sacrificed to the trinity of job, mortgage and respectability. A plethora of tour t shirts…  Yes, sundry variations on a theme of keep calm and prog /play on.

I can report that Nellie doing a brisk trade in robot paraphernalia
everyone seems to know each other and the atmosphere is good, a smell of anticipation in the air. I’m amazed that my hometown has all these like minded people.

Where do they hide? Why don’t I know anyone?  Is the Lonely Robot me?
Perhaps Mr Mitchell and his crew will enlighten me. It will be an experience, seeing him on stage rather than nodding in passing as we orbit around Reading.

Sub 89 is filling up nicely and the band are on stage…

And they’re off, a quartet of songs from the debut album setting their stall out with panache and style. John Mitchell’s on stage banter is honed to a fine precision.

Craig Blundell on drums – he’s not shit!”, being the first bon mot to raise a groaning cheer…

And the robot appeals to all,  as can be seen from the Reading wildlife grooving to the first new song,  a slow burn with gorgeous guitar and a hypnotic vocal.

More banter, Ian Holmes, on bongos…”, then it’s their theme song, Lonely Robot, with its chiming guitars and thunderous drums… Some fine piano over that hypnotic drone, a robot’s soul exposed as a dark broody labyrinth of noise .

John is on fine form, singing with vigour and passion, then peeling off intricate guitar parts casually,the way only a true expert can. Equal parts Peter Gabriel and Chris Martin, he has a distinctive voice, suited to Prog or Pop.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Robot, they mix rock, prog and pop into a swirling mix that, like a black hole, draws you ever deeper in. There are flashes of Porcupine Tree guitar, those thunderous drums, a solid bass rumbling throughout and keyboards that fill out the few spaces left.

John now introduces his special guest, Kim Seviour to perform a track. Much more pop and upbeat, their voices fit and the music steams on. The hook line, “don’t forget me”, is an instant earworm and the song gets heavier until the middle 8 breaks down to a heartbeat drum pattern with some fine synth layers draped over it.

There is a commonality in Mr M’s work, from The Urbane through Arena and It Bites to The Robot clan, a melodic core, songs that burrow and charm in equal measure, vocal harmony as important as the instrument. “Are we copies” demonstrated that, with the impassioned vocals equal to the guitars.

We are then treated to a lighters in the air moment, as the next track floats over us, building the castle of sound, the voice and guitar increasingly emotive and the crowd rapt in attention, following the melody and swaying with the chorus. It was a beautiful moment. And finally, a vocal tour de force, Mr Mitchell and keyboards drifting weightlessly across our event horizon before Mr “Not Shit” thunders and bashes a drum piece, more demolition job than drum solo. He hits as hard as John Bonham and the electronic percussion effects add to the Bonham groove.

We are then warned that we are getting a velociraptor riff, a T- Rex, according to it’s creator  , and the next track does just that, guitars roaring and snarling to a climactic finish.

Now for a short personal interlude, fellow passenger, Jane Armstrong has retreated from the front to recuperate and berates me for looking nothing like my Facebook avatar!  It’s loud but very clear here at the merch desk, the band are in full flight now, and what a band they are, jamming away, first the keyboards taking the lead then John and his cybernetic guitar scything through the mix.

We then are treated to another of the new tracks, Sigma, which is all Nirvana approved quiet/ loud /quiet and another earworm chorus, great keyboards and stun guitar, in fact a fitting end to a great set.

So, there it was. The 4th Law of Robotics – “Thou shall Enjoy the sounds emanating from the Robot Clan , even if you know no-one, are run down and in need of a battery charge”.

After that set, my life meter was reading full again and I slipped off into the night, clutching a copy of the new CD that Nellie insisted I purchase as, “It’s alright and they’re OK people …”

Far be it from me to question the wisdom of a Prog Queen, but sat here listening to the CD, you know what? She had erred on the side of caution. It’s a great CD, well worth investing in.

I know, I was that Lonely Robot.

Order ‘The Big Dream’ from Nellie Pitts at The Merch Desk

 

 

 

Review – Lazuli – Nos âmes saoules – by Kevin Thompson

Cover

Bonjour mes amis et bienvenue à un examen de la très merveilleuse bande la plus récente de libération de LAZULI. Il est si bon de vous de prendre le temps de lire cet éloge de leur nouvel album ‘Nos âmes saoules’.

Enough of my schoolboy French, I hope any misinterpretation doesn’t offend.

Hello my friends and welcome to a review of the quite marvelous band LAZULI’s latest release. It is so good of you to take the time to read this praisee of their new album ‘Nos âmes saoules’.

I’d like to start by ignoring the band and thank a couple of people without whom I might never have heard of our French import. Firstly the lovely Nellie Pitts (The Merch Desk), if not for her efforts in bringing the band to these shores, they may have passed me by. Secondly the big man that is Derek William Dick, for inviting these fine gentlemen to support him on his last tour.

I have to admit I saw them live before I bought any of the band’s output and what a revelation. The band did split in 2009, thankfully, some of the original members continued and recruited new musicians to form the current, extremely talented bunch who recorded this latest offering.

Mesdames et Messieurs puis-je vous présenter, sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you:

Claude Leonetti (Leode), Gederic Byar  (Guitar), Romain Thorel (Keyboards and French Horn), Vincent Barnavol (Drums and Marimba) and Dominique Leonetti (Vocals and Guitar).

Band live

Now to the meat of the matter, or tofu for any vegetarians among us, the album, ‘Our Souls Drunk’, sorry, ‘Nos âmes saoules’…….

Le Temps Est À La Rage: (Time is to rage)

Starting with slow, melancholy piano and Dominique’s distinctive vocals on this, the first and longest track of the album, may to newcomers, not seem the best way to start. But, keep faith you will be rewarded as the tone changes to a brighter key, picks up tempo into a swaying melody and the band’s familiar ‘musical box’ melodies drift in. Muted guitar throbs in the background then the rest join the fray as the track builds to finally burst out into some wonderful ‘Floyd’ style soloing..

Le lierre: (The Ivy)

Romain’s flourishing keyboards open proceedings and, for me, this is the track on which Dominique’s vocals really excel as he hits the highs from a whispering start. Now, it’s at this point I have to confess that, unless I am watching them, I sometime’s find it hard to distinguish who’s taking the lead between Claude and his wonderful Leode and the soaring guitar of Gederic, but, when a band plays this well who cares? I find this really uplifting and feel this would sit very well as part of a film soundtrack.

By now my pitiful knowledge of the French language is lost and in the emotion of the music I have somehow forgotten this is not being sung in English, this only seems to enhance the experience, and so on to track three…

Vita est circus: (Vita is circus)

Roll Up, Roll Up, listen to the show. A veritable ‘whirlwind’ of instruments, including acoustic guitar and vocals, as we waltz through the verses and a chorus vaguely reminiscent of Yes, round and round we go in circles to the circus style rhythms, Gederic’s rocket of a guitar solo spacing out, leave you pleasantly dizzy,  as the tune echoes away from us.

Fanfare lente: (Slow wind)

A lovely musical interlude, the shortest track on the album, with Romain demonstrating his skills on the french horn (well it wouldn’t be an English tuba, would it?), is the band’s entry for the next Hovis advert. This wouldn’t be out of place on a Big Big Train release. It floats slowly past you, as a brass band would, and disappears toward the horizon, drifting into the distance.

Chaussures À Nos Pieds: (Shoes at our feet)

This is a slightly more serious sounding track, with Vincent’s marimba taking the lead in alongside the vocals. Again the rythms swirl, round and round, rising and dipping, in and out the track turns, tripping into a funky groove until guitar and leode cut in and speed up into a fine piece of shredding/soloing to climax abruptly as if the needle were lifted from the disk.

Band in train

Le Mar Du Passé: (The march of the past)

Pulsing keyboards beep and fizzle, this could be mistaken for the start of a Riverside track. At times, there is a hint of Peter Gabriel in the composition, whispered vocal passages burst into passionate choruses with a doomish guitar. It all ends with just the vocals, pleading.

Le Labour D’un Surin: (Plowing a Superintendent)

Static, sound effects, a heartbeat rythm and background dialogue slither along in dark corners, finishing in an eerie scream on this creepy little instrumental passage that leads to…

Les sutures: (The sutures)

Breathless vocals and music which could have been used as the soundtrack to the current ‘Vikings’ TV series, drifting instrumentation woven with a sense of  ambient dread, adding menacing guitar and a little middle eastern flavour, conjuring visions of a passing caravanerserie of the doomed, toward it’s finale.

Nos âmes saoules: (Our souls drunk)

Drifting, dreamy keyboards from Romain and ‘theramin’ type ribbons of music, (Mercury Rev anyone?),  interlace with Dominique’s vocals, all of this in ambient patterns, until you find yourself sinking into the music and becalmed.

Which leads us along this journey to the last but by no means least track….

Un Oiel Jeté Par La Fenêtre: (A look thrown out the window)

Oh look! A balloon floating by on the gentle breeze, conjured by a wonderful piano refrain. It bobs, it weaves and dances gently away as we look wistfully on wishing we could follow.

And there we have it, not an album to be technically examined , but a wondrous tale of which you can be part. Lay back and revel in the versatile elegance of the wizards, LAZULI.

Released 20th January 2016

Buy ‘Nos âmes saoules’ from The Merch Desk

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