The Million Sessions

 

Without trying to bewilder you with messages, there's something else to tell you about regarding I Don't Hear A Single. This is partly as a response to why we've been a bit quiet lately, partly to celebrate a milestone and to provide info on the long planned live concert series.

Let's start with the milestone. When I Don't Hear A Single started it was never intended to be what it has become. IDHAS was a reaction to people continually saying all new music was crap. We wanted to show that that wasn't true and set up a place to celebrate the new stuff that we liked. 

The place may have evolved over that time but it still remains as a celebration of albums by the new and under appreciated. Bearing in mind that remit, we never expected it to be a popular and at times mainstream thing. 

But sometime this year, most likely October, we will witness our millionth hit of the Blog. Pretty amazing in just six years. We wanted to celebrate that and so have started to plan a week of Live Sessions for October, Seven daily shows in fact.

We did something similar noting the 100th Episode of The IDHAS Audio Extravaganza which was incredibly popular. This time it is looking like it will be a much bigger affair and we've started early to plan it, hence why July has been a bit haphazard. 

You will still hear artists that you would expect to hear, we won't forget what we are about. But this time round we have some high profile names wanting to provide a session. Artists that have a much bigger following and are neither new or underappreciated. Bands we love that are fans of IDHAS and want to be involved. 

So we have started to send the invites out and each show will have three or four sessions, so technically there are 28 up for grab although we may extend the period by a couple of days or add some specials or make the shows longer. There you have the outline of The Million Sessions.

You may also remember that we had planned a year of Live Shows throughout the UK until the lockdown started. We agreed here never to go on about the Lockdown, so we are now starting to finally get the initial planning of those to kick off in 2023.

I Don't Hear A Single will continue as always. Don went back into real life work earlier this year after being in semi retirement. So there won't be masses of reviews Monday to Friday, one a day at best, but the weekend content will ramp up and there will still be regular IDHAS 10 Song Mixes which is taking on a life of its own in popularity lately.

Finally, although I have updated the post, an apology in the delay of review of the Ness Album. The series is a goer, but just as we were about to publish the review, we have managed to get the band involved who want to add some background stuff to the piece, It will be more all encompassing, but sadly a little delayed.

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The Maple Mars Album Launch

 

Last night was the launch of the new Maple Mars album, Someone's Got To Listen at SIR Studios In Hollywood.  You can read the IDHAS review of the album here. The venue was packed out, the band were at the top of their game. The Merch Stall was hammered.

A great band on a great label with a great album. Big Stir are a label built on community that promote their artists and treat them as friends. Maple Mars have kept us waiting for 12 years and last night was worth the wait. 

To show what community is about, Rick's son did the catering, Rex's kids manned the Merchandise Stall, Christina's husband was the photographer and Rex ran the live stream. Sponsors also got involved. 

Many artists return and promise much and all too often, disappointment is the result. For Maple Mars to return in such style with such a live performance promoting what may be their best album ever is just heart warming and splendid.

Build it, Promote it and be proud of it and the people will come. Who says people don't attend shows any more?

You can see the full show here. The band come on about ten minutes in.

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Richard Turgeon - Rough Around The Edges

 

Richard Turgeon is extremely prolific and in the wrong hands this could affect quality control. However, thankfully, Turgeon always seems to hit the spot and in the past five years or so has created his own space, a space that relies on consistency and excellence.

I've compared him in the past to a one man Art College. From Screenwriting to Photography, the man seems to have it all and so the ability to continually write and perform top notch songs with all this going on deserves large applause.

He has carved a place in what is essentially California Guitar Pop without ever being afraid to move into other areas such as Power Pop, Classic Rock and Pop Rock. The Template though largely resides somewhere between a jangling Tom Petty and a riffaholic Matthew Sweet.

Rough Around The Edges is classed as an EP, however buyers on Bandcamp and purchasers of the Kool Kat CD get an additional four songs which takes the release into album territory. The six standalone songs offer great variety. 

Goodbye Home is a little latter day Stipe, Fire Drill sounds very Chris Church like and Better With You is one of the best Power Pop songs that you will hear and has a slight Country Twang in the vocal. I Never Loved You is classic AOR and the pace is only reduced with 7 Stories which edges towards Yacht Rock.

Turgeon does get compared to Matthew Sweet a lot and I'm gonna do it again. The best song here is Please Take Me Back and it is possibly the best Sweet song that he hasn't written. If only the real thing produced something as great these days. I will leave the 4 Bonus Tracks as a surprise, but assure you that they are just as excellent.

You can listen to the album on Bandcamp here. When you purchase the album you are automatically supplied with all 10 songs. The Kool Kat CD also contains all 10 Tracks.

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Toni Tubna And The Stockholm Tuba Sect - When the Magic Went Wrong

 

I have The John Sally Ride's John Dunbar to thank for recommending this. John correctly describes it as the sort of album that Martin Newell should make and I feel a little guilty, as I've long been a fan of Folkstone's Ian Button through his many adventures, but I had no idea he was up to this.

Ex Death In Vegas and Thrashing Doves and currently Papernut Cambridge. Co- Founder of the superb Gare Du Nord Records label and Producer of Lawrence's Go-Kart Mozart, the man never stops. It was during a tour as drummer for The Catenary Wives that the story of Toni Tubna began.

I won't go into the whole story as you can read that on the Bandcamp site. Briefly, Button wrote emails to his bandmates during the tour about an ill fated magician called Toni Tubna, an anagram of his name. Those stories became a book and eventually a team up with art historian and lyricist, Scott Thomas Buckle. This album is the result.

What an album it is! Essentially a concept album, When The Magic Went Wrong is a wonderful slice of Toy Town Psych Pop mixed with Baroque Pop and Music Hall. Gentle but intriguing, at times it is Inspired Pop Music.

Clash Of Minds even treads into 60s Kinks territory. The Mayor Of Bridlington stands alone as a special song that would be lauded from the rooftops if written by Andy Partridge or Robyn Hitchcock. When The Magic Went Wrong, the opener, has an arrangement more in line with Alan Price or Peter Skellern.

This isn't a joke album, it is a quaint beautifully written and arranged affair. Having been through email, book and album, it would probably stand being a musical. A complete surprise to me, this album is getting played and played. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here. A reprint of the original book can also be bought here.

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Das Phaedrus - Dark Winning (Name Your Price)

 

I love surprises and Dark Winning certainly caught me by surprise. It also reminds me that assume makes an ass out of u and me. Seeing the name Das Phaedrus made me think of something that was dark Post Punk. Noting the band came from New Zealand, you expect high quality pop that is a tad twee.

This quartet are none of those things, but plenty of much more. When they do threaten something Crowded House like on This Land Wasn't Made For You And Me, there is added crunch, lots of crunch, that ensures it is nothing like this. 

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The directions and influences here are so varied, aided by having Andrew Spittle and Jeremy Taylor alternating on vocals. This lead swapping compares apples and oranges, one has a voice in Pop Rock territory, the other adds a much darker adventurous avenue.

There's a real Glasgow 1989 Jangle to Stop At Nothing, not the only time that the band hit that comparison. Yet Turkish And Domestic could be The Church at their most psychedelic. All My Mother has a wonderful Indie Drawl, a sort of Oz 1983 drawl that was hip with a hypnotic riff. The song breaks out splendidly.

Passing Through is great 70s Pop Rock with a killer riff and a big chorus. Dry Land goes all mid 80s UK Indie Pop in a wonderfully chaotic riff. Are We Good sounds like Lou Reed fronting The Smiths. Every song provides unexpected twists and turns allowing repeated listens.

Dark Winning is on Bandcamp as a Name Your Price. So is its equally excellent predecessor, Ghosts Of The Dunedin Music Scene. So what have you got to lose? There's plenty here that IDHAS followers will enjoy and more than enough to take you in unexpected directions.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 32

It's time for a new 10 Song Mix. Volume 31 again hit the Mixcloud Global Indie Pop Top 20 Chart. Thank you to all you listeners and I do hope you visited the artist pages to listen to more.

Our 10 favourite songs this week come in at almost 38 minutes. A fine mix of everything from Psych Pop to Pop Rock. They are in no particular order, just positioned in what we think provides the most engaging track list. The Mixcloud link is below and at the foot of the page is the Mixcloud Player which takes you directly to the music. 

Here is the playlist of the ten songs this week :

01 Maple Mars - Someone Take The Wheel

02 The Valery Trails - Jaisalmer

03 Elf Power - Undigested Parts

04 Phil Yates & The Affiliates - Trash Carrots

05 Andrew Weiss And Friends - A Beginner's Guide To Being Famous

06 Gentlemen Rogues - Your Armageddon

07 The Sevs - What's Mine Is Ours

08 Lawn - Down

09 Automatics - Wild Ride Through Wonderland

10 Day Wave - See You When The End's Near

IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 32

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Maple Mars - Someone's Got To Listen

 

The return of Maple Mars was flagged up a while ago and I've been growing more and more impatient. The band's back catalogue is second to none and 12 years after Galaxyland, the fifth album is finally released and it couldn't come at a better time.

The year got off to a great start, but the past six months has seen the mood change. Pop Rock has been crying out for a stellar release. It is a scene that just seems a bit unmotivated lately. Writers are writing less, moaning seems to be the default mode and the days of Radio have shattered in to a thousand Internet Stations that are the good, the bad and the ugly.

It is easy to blame streaming and radio, but to take that on, you have to have the quality and Pop Rock and Power Pop just seems to want to talk about the old (again). This is that quality, an album that should be played on CD and Vinyl. 

Downloads are fine for your ipod and streaming is convenient but at times does no justice to an album's production, dragging sound down to a lowest common denominator. Not only do you want to hear the quality of this album, you want to revel in it.

My biggest concern was that Someone's Got To Listen wouldn't live up to my expectations. There seems a little less Psych Pop than days gone by and far more steps towards Classic Rock, but the variety is outstanding.

A song like Anchors Away is big Rock, not a million miles away from Rush at their poppiest and Silvercraft stands even more of a comparison, it could easily appear on Hold Your Fire. It is an absolute monster of a song.

Crooked Smile channels 70s Yacht Rock and Teenage Dream heads towards big American AOR with matching Guitar Solos. Someone Take The Wheel is instrumentally chaotic, it isn't any one thing in particular, but splendid at everything it is and even a tad Psych Pop.

Sleepwalking is great classic 70s Pop Rock, part Pilot, part Cheap Trick, part Blue Oyster Cult. Redemption is a fine example of Prog Pop that morphs into a Toytown close. Useless Information is the song that I yearn Cheap Trick to write.

I mentioned in the previous album review that I was disappointed with the lack of choruses, well here you can't move for them. But for all the pace on show here, the stand out is a slower affair that is truly West Coast. Goodbye California has a hook and harmonies that will floor you.

Beautifully played, beautifully produced, I Don't Hear A Single may have already found its Album Of The Year. The only bemusing thing is that I don't see hundreds of reviews around. The IDHAS coverage doesn't end here. The popular Mick Dillingham Interviews Series features a planned lengthy career defining interview with Rick Hromadka in August.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download. You can find out more about Maple Mars here.

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