Written by The latest to come out of the Roy Harper stable is not his long-awaited next studio album, but this little film. It’s a joke you’re probably familiar with, but it’s so well-presented that I couldn’t help but smile. I’d love to see Roy do more of this sort of thing (once he’s finished that elusive album).
Posts tagged Roy Harper
Splinters 3
Anybody wishing to get their hands on the first CD appearance of The Lunacy Board, before any official release, now has the chance with Splinters 3.
This is a double CD compilation of artists influenced by Roy Harper and includes everything from progressive rock extravaganzas to simple folk songs in a single package. At only £6.50 it’s a bit of a bargain, too.
The Lunacy Board track featured is ‘The Unofficial National Anthem‘, so if you like the song and want a copy in its full CD-quality glory, rather than the mp3 version on the website, get yourself over to stormcock.net now to order it!
Other news from the Board… Not so much to report – we’ve had a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get together for more recordings, but various factors have conspired against letting these happen, so no new songs or recordings to report. Work on ‘Stockholm’ continues, though at a fairly slow pace. More news on that front when it arrives.
Finally, I may have another slow-boiling collaboration on the way – something quite different to the Board, but it’s all a bit tentative at the moment to let any more out of the bag at this stage.
Gimme Dat Harp Girl
I investigated Joanna Newsom’s music after she featured Roy Harper as support at a recent UK gig, and having heard some positive mumblings from some reliable sources, I have to say that I was instantly enthralled. She gets labelled as ‘freak folk’ apparently, but to these ears there’s a healthy mix of not just folk, but classical chamber music, progressive rock, blues and plenty more – a real eclectic acoustic brew.
To me her vocal style and the cascading flood of lyrical images reminds me of Captain Beefheart around the Trout Mask era, which is high praise indeed. That’s not to say she sounds LIKE Beefheart, but she certainly appeals to whatever bits of the brain and soul that thrive on the Captain. Long may she continue to follow her own unique path and avoid being swallowed and spat out by the media monster – the world needs more gems like this instead of the music-by-committee z-factor drivel that the public is being fed intravenously at the moment.
Here’s a performance of a song from her new album, Ys…
Playing in the Air
I’ve been giving some more thought to the whole idea of a public performance on theremin, should I ever be in the position to do so. As I mentioned previously, I don’t think a guest spot with the band will work (unless they go somewhere with a big enough stage), which leaves me with 3 options. I could just play solo, with no accompaniment, I could have a pre-recorded accompaniment (or maybe guitar player), or I could use delay loops. I quite like the idea of the last option, having seen how well it can work in practice. I’d probably set up a backing loop on acoustic guitar, then play a theremin bassline over the top, followed by the melody.
So, that’s all very well, but what could I play?
Tempting though a freeform improvisation would be, I don’t know that it would go down very well with an audience who’ve paid to see a covers band, so that got me thinking. Our next public gig is December, and there are some festive tunes which should sound pretty good on the theremin. I tried some out today – a mixture of popular Christmas tunes like White Christmas, Rudolph, etc. along with some traditional carols – Silent Night is particularly effective on theremin.
Here’s the thing. I tried ‘Walking in the Air’ – the theme from ‘The Snowman’ – which is a song that really gets my hackles up. I don’t know why, but it always seems to conjure up in my mind the sugary, sickly, commercial worst of what the Christmas season has become. To paraphrase Roy Harper “I’ve not read the book (or seen the film), so I cannot recite”, but it just grates on me for reasons I cannot explain. It may be a lovely, touching story about one boy’s love for a talking ice-pop, but that music has put me off it for life. HOWEVER… What a perfect piece of music for theremin. It’s in the right register, it’s fairly ethereal, it’s fun to play, and it’s not Aled bloody Jones.
The band do a great version of Squiggle’s (or whatever he’s calling himself nowadays) ‘Kiss’. I have never liked Prince (as was), or any of his musical output – he always seemed like he was trying to be the best bits of Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson and Johnny Guitar Watson and ending up being the worst excesses of all of them. Maybe I’m being unfair, but he had his chance with me and blew it. Maybe I’d like him more if he wasn’t so hyped – I do tend to automatically put up barriers to hype, hence my similar dislike of REM, INXS, Simply Red; the list goes on. The point is that despite not liking the song ‘Kiss’ (including the self-mocking, good-humored Tom Jones version), the first time the band tried it out they completely rocked its socks off. In fact it is one of my favourite songs they do. Somehow or other it just fits, and similarly, somehow or other that awful Snowman tune just comes to life on the theremin.
Or maybe it’s just me?
