Mark & The Clouds - Waves

 

I love what Marco Magnani does. Mark & The Clouds are a trio that master Psych Pop that veers heavily towards Pop. For their third album that reputation is enhanced. The general feel is still very trippy UFO club, but on the slower numbers, they venture into Prog and Classic Rock.

Free Me Now is very Moody Blues, Promised Land is a delightful song that verges on Easy Listening and includes a cracking Brass interlude. Heavy Drops Of Rain could be something from the Manchester to Brit Pop interlude. It really is a corker.

Devotees will want plenty of the gentle Psych Pop that the trio are noted for and there's plenty here with the likes of You And Me In Space and Heavy Drops Of Rain. But Waves contains far more variation. The Brass Arrangements are wonderful and at times unexpected.

Winter Song is almost Folk. You Wanna Put Me Down is a classic slice of UK Beat and No One Makes A Sound heads for 70's Pop Rock territory. You could imagine Peace Not Religion on an Al Stewart album. The Same Old Dream is very Modern Prog.

The obligatory big closer is present and wow what a finish. Somebody Else is a mind blowing Psych offering demonstrating what Mark And The Clouds are best at. The instrumental last couple of minutes is the reason that I love Psych Pop. Truly wonderful!

I would have been more than happy with 15 songs of Psych Pop and there is a lot of Pop here. But there are so many surprises on offer that Waves caught me unaware. If you've always felt that the genre is all backward guitar and flower power solos, then take a chance with this splendid listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about Mark & The Clouds here.

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The Natvral - Tethers

 

I had to double check that this was the same Kip Berman before going back to listen to The Natvral, his solo project. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart this isn't. Gone is the Indie Alt Pop Rock to be replaced by something far more basic and retro.

The album is very pre-mumbling Dylanesque Rock built around Guitar Strumming and Organ. Berman's vocal is a cross between Bob Dylan and John Power, the sound very late 60's to early 70's. The surprise is that the album is such a splendid listen.

It could very well be that it is such a long while that we have heard songs in this style. Americana ate itself as it became more popular, too many similar sounding artists releasing albums in too narrow a field. Tethers seems to take the genre back towards bands like The Band into a laid back, meandering simplicity. Just because you can play a lot of notes doesn't mean you have to.

Never has Dylan And The Band been reflected more than in the opener, Why Don't You Come Around. New Moon has a Leonard Cohen vibe, certainly a Hallelujah feel in the verse. New Year's Night really picks up the pace and heads a bit more Pop-ward, hence the Cast comparison.

Sun Blisters has a real Brit Pop feel without leaving the template. Alone In London is a Gunslinger Ballad affair that picks up the pace halfway through. It is a sprawling six and a half minutes, but grabs your attention. There are two ways to close an album, big or reflective and this song is certainly the latter.

They say fashion comes back in style and this certainly proves that theory. This is the sort of album I used to listen to all those years ago and it is more than interesting to hear it updated and done so well. There's nothing complicated here, but that is part of the charm in all the Indie noise that surrounds me.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Kool Kat Musik Weekly New Release Update

Welcome to the Kool Kat Weekly New Release Update. Kool Kat are distributed in the UK and Europe by I Don't Hear A Single as part of our aim to keep CDs available and affordable. The Kool Kat Links with each album take you to further details on each release..

Please place all UK and European orders by following the details here. Links to Kool Kat's Entire Stock can be found here. Without further ado, here are seven new additions to Kool Kat Musik this Week.

Justin Benyon - In Motion (Self Released   2020)      $15

Justin Benyon is a musician and singer/songwriter based in Aberdare, Wales.  He’s played an active role in the Welsh music scene for the last 30 years, including as a member of The The Broken Vinyl Club.  Several years ago, he built his own home studio and began learning how to use new technology so that he could record the backlog of songs he’d been writing over the years.  In 2020 he decided to record “In Motion”, his first solo album, and got busy recording songs in his home studio, singing and playing most all the instruments himself.  

Kool Kat Link

Soundcloud Link

Dennis Dalcin - The Incomplete Completeness (Kool Kat Musik  2021)      $14   

New Release on the Kool Kat Musik label.

“The Incomplete Completeness” is a 17 song cache of previously unreleased tracks spanning most of Dennis’s career featuring music like the Bydsy/Pink Floyd-like psych of The Lears and The Petal Pushers. The Julian Cope/Teardrop Explodes/early Krautrock-like Perfect Strangers and The Shades are included as are solo recordings. Also here is a pre-Lears nameless studio amalgam that included Dennis, Terry Carolan and Richard Barone. All serve as a terrific and interesting introduction to this very talented musician/bandleader! 

Kool Kat Link

Soundcloud Link

Jay Gonzalez - Back To The Hive (Middle Brow Records 2021)      $12

A sunny, breezy time capsule of power pop and AM gold. Jay Gonzalez, keyboardist/guitarist in the Drive-By Truckers releases “Back To The Hive” builds upon the legacy of 60’s British Invasion artists and 70’s singer-songwriters without ever sounding derivative.  “Though his style is more heavily influenced by artists from the UK, there are echoes of Southern and West Coast Rock here and there.

 

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

 

Groovy Uncle - Searching For The Grown-Ups (Trouserphonic Records UK 2021)      $17

Groovy Uncle has long been an outlet for Glenn Prangnell’s love affair with sounds of the 60’s with an uncanny knack to reproduce perfectly the sounds of that golden era and make them sound fresh and contemporary.  2020’s lockdown posed something of a problem for Glenn. With his usual method of gathering a familiar posse of players out of the question, he learned how to record at home alone and digitally adding a handful of remotely-recorded brass and guitar tracks.  There is a home grown feel to it, but it is still very much that Groovy Uncle sound.

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

Brad Marino - Looking For Trouble (Rum Bar Records 2021)      $13

Brad Marino returns with “Looking For Trouble”, his second Full Length release, jam-packed with power poppin' rock and roll. Imagine Rockpile meets The Ramones, Mick and Keef get into a tussle with The Flamin’ Groovies, The Knack get all tangled up in blue. It doesn't lose that Garage Rock feel, but ventures into unexpected areas that show Marino is no one trick pony.

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

Reigning Sound - A Little More Time With Reigning Sound (Merge Records 2021)      $15

It's been more than 15 years since Greg Cartwright uprooted to Asheville NC, but this new Memphis-made record shows the songwriter in top form and wholly inspired by his birthplace. For this new record, Cartwright reunited with Reigning Sound's original "Memphis lineup" of Jeremy Scott (bass), Greg Roberson (drums), and Alex Greene (keyboards), all of whom played on the band's earliest recordings. The new songs explore fresh lyrical and musical territories, but at times also tastefully echo back to earlier efforts.

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

Various Artists - Yesterday's Tomorrow : Celebrating the Winston-Salem Sound (Omnivore Records)      $15

The impetus for this extraordinary concert was that Chris Stamey had a book fresh off the press, a song-based memoir called “A Spy In The House Of Loud”.  A portion of the book referenced his time in New York, but the first part remembered, song by key song, was the late 60’s and early 70’s creative rock music scene in Winston-Salem, NC. This was sometimes called the Combo Corner scene, after the title of a short-lived column in Guitar Player magazine.

Original members of bands such as Arrogance, Little Diesel, Sneakers, Sacred Irony, and Rittenhouse Square, including Mitch Easter, Peter Holsapple, Will Rigby, Stamey and Don Dixon - convened on May 12 2018, at the Ramkat Club. Those Fuzzbox years were recalled and this remarkable live concert recording shines brightly with the camaraderie and precise enthusiasm for those days of yore. 

Kool Kat Link

Apple Music Link

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I Am Spartacus - Trigger Happy

 

Do you fancy a Power Pop album that is for more than people wearing Big Star T Shirts? Or a Punk Pop album with all the melody and none of the robotic talking vocals of the genre? I Am Spartacus are the solution to you problem/s. 

I have often said that the more melodic Pop Punk bands have the potential to develop into Power Pop's future and the genre badly needs them. It feels like the UK Biscuit market on Power Pop Facebook groups, a dying breed. To survive it has to embrace the new. You never know, da kidz might like to hear some Badfinger.

There is a real street wise wit to I Am Spartacus. They don't take themselves that seriously and have gathered a large following from the generation below ourselves. The lazy will compare them to Weezer, just as every Indie Guitar band are compared to Teenage Fanclub. 

To me they have much more in common with The Brothers Steve and definitely Tsar. On the stand out single, Go Fund Yourself, a potential Power Pop classic, Ben Peeples vocal could be interchanged with Jeff Whalen and that is some compliment. Trigger Happy is wonderful Guitar Pop.

Only on the opener, Push And Pull, do they come anywhere near Punk Pop, this is an album of hook driven, chorus led, melodic pop. Hashtag Douchebag is classic late 70's New Wave and You Suck At Life And It's Your Fault is a real wake up and smell the coffee moment.

I Don't Like You is another Power Pop stormer and Peeples even slows it down without getting maudlin and mawkish on Promise. The only time they can be compared to Weezer is on the excellent and hilarious Quarantine Got Me Like. This is a splendid album. Just listen to it and you'll be hooked. Trust Me!

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can also find other links here. I have deliberately not embedded any songs from the album in the hope that you'll be tempted to listen to the whole album by following the two links in the the previous sentences.

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That Mighty Bumble - A Road Not Traveled

 

Hey you Pop Rock fans, prepare to be amazed! I certainly was. I have obviously gathered a bit of a reputation for uncovering the new, but The Mighty Bumble is new to me. When I listened and discovered that TMB are a one man band, I was just astounded.

Here is a fantastic lockdown album that isn't acoustic, doesn't want to tell us all how bad the past year has been and has an unexpectedly big production. Waynesboro should be incredibly proud of Terry Short Jr for far more than his work on the council.

that mighty bumble · Fire

It is really hard to believe that this is a debut album. A Road Not Travelled doesn't stick in one place. World In Run is great Piano Pop, Not Who I Thought is splendid Americana and Be Still My Grieving is 70's Singer Songwriter Troubadour excellence. 

The closer, You Ain't Wrong, has a Tom Petty sneer about it and You reveals that big harmonies are in Stott's armoury. The album is at its best when the pace picks up. Hold On Fast fairly rips along. It reminds me of The Motors.

that mighty bumble · Hold on Fast

Get It Right is a real sing along with me, Stealers Wheel-ish. Fire is incredibly catchy with a fabulous arrangement and you'd like a bit more of this sort of thing. Honestly Honest is another crackerjack offering, the nearest you get to Short seeming angry.

The downside is the album is too long at 70 minutes. 15 songs is at least three too many and with the pace being front loaded, the album runs out of steam. Maybe 3 of the songs could have been used for future singles or B Sides. That doesn't distract though from what an overwhelmingly fine album A Road Not Travelled is. Highly Recommended!

that mighty bumble · Honestly Honest

You can listen to the album on Soundcloud here. You can stream and buy the album at one of the links here.

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The James Clark Institute - The Colour Of Happy

 

It has been suggested recently that I have repositioned I Don't Hear A Single to accommodate a much wider audience. I don't see that at all. IDHAS has always reflected my personal tastes. But any dissenters should be pleased with this review with an album that is in my "perceived" territory.

James Clark is from Toronto and he offers up an album of real Pop quality. Produced by Moe Berg from long time IDHAS favourites, The Pursuit Of Happiness, the collaboration is a marriage made in heaven. The Colour Of Happy is 34 minutes of Joy.

The album contains such confident mature Power Pop for what is only his second album. It sounds very UK, wonderfully so. At times it seems very Scouse Pop, when the Brass kicks in I think of The Ragamuffins and its great to hear the odd Farfisa run or two.

The main comparison that I come away with is Roddy Frame and Aztec Camera. There is also a lyrical excellence, not often seen in the genre. Little Powder Keg is in Squeeze territory, Should I Tell Her is a cross between second half of the 60's Pop and Pete Wylie.

Yellow (no not that one!) is great Beat Pop with Revue style backing, Selfish Portrait is jaunty Piano Pop of the highest order and Better Than I Remember is jingle jangle at its very best. The closer ventures close to Ben Folds.

This to me is one of the joys of Power Pop. An album full of hooks and choruses, beautifully performed and arranged, everything that a great Power Pop album should be. Listen to the album once and you will want to play it again and again. I'm well impressed. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Olivier Rocabois - Olivier Rocabois Goes Too Far

 

What a wonderful album! It isn't IDHAS's job to educate you, more of a guiding hand, but I certainly feel educated after a few listens to this outstanding affair. What I suspected to be a Singer Songwriter Piano Pop album in the mould of John Howard is anything but that.

Get ready for Prog, Baroque, Jazz and Pop, all impeccably arranged with surprises coming from everywhere. Take for instance, In My Drunken Dreamscape which begins in Singer Songwriter territory before a middle of Psychedelic mind bending which morphs into Piano Jazz. 

That is the third song. Preceding it is The Sound Of The Waves, all Al Stewart-ness and High As High is all jaunty Pop mixing Psych Pop with more than a hint of Divine Comedy. The latter ends with a Beach Boy Harmony vibe. Three songs in and you know that you are on quite a ride.

Tonight I Need is Elton John in 70s heyday with a guest appearance from John Howard that has a killer Brass arrangement thrown in. Hometown Boys is Baroque Pop of the very highest order with a closing Bowie Lodger like vocal feel. I'd Like To Make My Exit With Panache could be the centre of a Broadway show.

As an aside, I've been marvelling recently at the French Music Scene. Too many look at it as po faced chanteuse or electronica, when there is something here for everyone. You may have to look and translate reviews, but you have Google. I don't see a scene as vibrant anywhere else in the world.

Back to the matter at hand and special mentions have to be made for two more songs. Arise Sir Richard is like Andrew Gold caught in a weird dream. My Wounds Started Healing is a seven minute masterpiece. The kitchen sink is thrown at this Orchestral Pop.

Olivier Rocabois Goes To Far feels very auto biographical. At its heart it is a Pop album, but it is so much more. So much thought and inspiration has gone into it. So much so, that is hard to just pick 3 of the 9 songs to embed in this review. An absolutely outstanding album! Album Of The Year  material.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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