offramp Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 interesting music promotions presentALASDAIR ROBERTS + KITCHEN CYNICS + AMBER WILSONThursday 21st MayThe Tunnels, Carnegies Brae, Aberdeen, AB10 1BF. Phone (01224) 211121Doors 8pmTickets 6+bf in adv / 8 on doorAvailable from One-Up Records, Belmont Street, Aberdeen. Phone (01224) 642662 or http://www.ticketweb.co.ukhttp://www.myspace.com/interestingmusichttp://www.thetunnels.co.ukALASDAIR ROBERTSReturned from his voyages of discovery around the globe, Alasdair Roberts has brought a sac of assorted goods for you merchants, eight epic new songsSpoils. Alasdair Roberts is one of Scotlands best young singers and song writers, and as the years pass, his artistry borrows more and more from centuries before. On his fourth solo album, Alasdair brings with him a crew working with ancient instruments while supporting an album that is meted out evenly with an intense energy always in service of Alasdairs finest melodies. Spoils ingratiates new compositions in a deeply personal manner with the world of traditional music that has sunk beyond the horizon for too many of us. It is a gift to these latter days that a man like Roberts exists, to sing us back to our ancient home.http://www.myspace.com/alasdairrobertsofficialKITCHEN CYNICSThis is what Triptych said about Alan earlier last year. It sounds great, so we copied itagain.A one-man psych-folk vanquisher from Aberdeen, Alan Davidson aka Kitchen Cynics has cultivated wry acoustic apologues and warm machine parables since the Eighties. Hes propagated a slew of cassettes and CDRs, while live alliances include Damon & Naomi and Masaki Batoh (Ghost). Davidsons mythological, prosaic and deadpan narratives map the universal and the personal: celebrating in equal measure the sea and lasagne; fossils and love.http://www.myspace.com/kitchencynicsAMBER WILSONSolo acoustic singer / songwriter making her first proper appearance at an IMP gig. Why the hell has it taken us so long?Ex-Morcheeba singer with hauntingly beautiful vocals and amazing lyrics.http://www.myspace.com/amberwilson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Anderson Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 yey! i look forward to this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
framheim Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 hey, this one snuck past me. will definitely try and get to this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzdiablo Posted April 6, 2009 Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 MySpace.com - Amber - 19 - Female - JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI - www.myspace.com/AmberWilsoni don't think this is the right url Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 whoops...http://www.myspace.com/amberacoustic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 4 Star album review in The SkinnyAlasdair Roberts - Spoils :: The Skinny Written by: Chris BucklePublished: Wed 15 Apr 2009****On first listen, Spoils sounds like a faithful revival of traditional old Scots songsmithery and not a whole lot more. Only after several spins does the innovation at the heart of Alasdair Roberts' fourth album reveal itself, and you realise how anachronistic songs like Ned Ludds Rant (For A World Rebarbarised) would actually sound echoing round a highland bothy in days of yore (and not just because of its faint feedback). The inspirational font from which he sips may be ancient, but this is no mere musical history lesson. Songs like Unyoked Oxen Turns gentle canter and the mellow electric guitar in Hazel Forks crackle with a modern vitality that combines the expected instrumentation - fiddle, hurdy gurdy, harmonium etc. - with those less commonly heard in the folk context such as the subtle synthesiser undercurrent of You Muses Assist. The result is far more than a niche concern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted May 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 Recommended album on Drowned in Sound - 7/10Review / Alasdair Roberts - Spoils / Releases / Releases // Drowned In SoundAlmost a decade ago, Alasdair Roberts made an incomparably weird record called The Night Is Advancing with his old band Appendix Out. Incomparable for the times that is but a good stab at updating The Incredible String Bands psychedelic folk with synths and drum-machines. Maybe there was a bit of Can in there, too. Around that time, Ali also helped Jason Molina soundtrack the classic dark nights of the soul that are The Lioness and Ghost Tropic by Songs: Ohia, so the hope was that hed continue on a similarly dark path. Mysteriously, Ali then went solo and started re-interpreting Scottish folk ballads with minimal backing and the emphasis on surreal and ribald humour: one enduring image was the hanged laird dying with a raging erection in his trousers. No wonder Ali was one of Will Oldhams protgs...At last, Spoils recaptures that earlier weirdness, and the sense of being a bard from an alternative past, if not presiding over their unfathomable, Gormenghastian rituals. Unyoked Oxen Turn is the most straightforward thing here, musically and lyrically, with its tale of a cripple running about the world in search of his legs, the advice he receives on the way, and the final punchline that what he really should have been looking for was... well, youll see. Simple though it is, the interpretation remains open, so you wont groan at it, but the enjoyments frownsomely laced with the awareness of an entire world and its network of meanings that may have been lost... and thats also right there under the language you thought you knew.You could say the same of all the other tracks, where the music also happens to be richer in detail. Whether its the (Norse) souls of the dead sailing on a ship made of fingernails, or (Edward Lears) Jumblies setting to sea in their sieve, the surreal always has a resonance that the plainly symbolic may not, and Alis got a good sense of how to balance the timelessly-evocative with those images that root a song in a time. This is as true of the musical motifs and arrangements, as it is of the lyrics: Hazel Forks initially uses a roundel thats a little dull to listen to, coming from a time when music didnt have to be as dramatic, because it was always social, and interactive... but then a solo on phased guitar introduces a more colourful movement. The song turns out to be another weirdly plotted quest narrative (named for the fact the heroes set off with dowsing rods), and the verses catalogue various strange occurrences, leading up to the courtship in the penultimate act: heres the gift of the infant suitor / a cask of ash and a flask of pewter / a map of the cities of the future heres the dowry of the leper / a walnut shell and a peck of pepper.At the end, the suitors turn out to be hazel twigs in a bush where a songthrush is singing, and the tangling of the branches suggests them surrounding her and trying to win her heart. Maybe. In any case if you thought the pre-literate world was dull, well, it may be hard to convey now, but people were forced to think in far more complex analogies to figure out how it all fit together.There are plenty of fine moments in all the songs, whether it's a sudden burst of harmonies, or unexpected instrumental flourishes, from behind the singer. The best here may be The Flying of Grief & Joy (track 1) with its own quest narrative, and the (inevitable) loss of members from the party as they proceed, hence the refrain the Devil take the hindmost after each verse. Flinging in references to Mithras, Buddha, and Allah, as well as an odd assortment of instruments, Ali obliquely reminds us that this is what authentic folk music does it isnt purist or fundamentalist; it just uses what comes to hand, because history isnt linear so long as you can summon the past in song. You dont need to get the references, or understand the finer points of a song like Ned Ludds Rant (For a World Rebarbarised) to get the sense that the past isnt dead yet, and all ages are contemporaneous in the mind. Overall, this is one to file alongside Joanna Newsom (especially The Ys Street Band EP), not just for strangeness, but for the ambition to create worlds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 It's very good!I'm hoping to have a new Kitchen Cynics one ready for the night, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted May 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 It's very good!I'm hoping to have a new Kitchen Cynics one ready for the night, too.Nice one. It seems like ages since you last played live...Amber makes her IMP debut proper as well.Smashing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted May 15, 2009 Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 I think it's my first K Cynics one since early January....it'll be my 3rd last one, too. I'm going to stop for a while to concentrate on recording. Then, if I ever do solo stuff again it'll be under a different name.I'm looking forward to seeing both Alasdair and Amber again......always enjoy both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Was told today that Alasdair was dancing onstage recently in Glasgow ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Was told today that Alasdair was dancing onstage recently in Glasgow !Alasdair who? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted May 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 This gig is tonight, yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkt Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Will this be finished 11? I'm considering this but dont fancy paying an extra 9 for a taxi... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 I'm not sure of stage times...maybe Graeme/Offramp can help.Penultimate Kitchen Cynics one in Aberdeen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted May 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 This one is Graeme's...over to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Will this be finished 11? I'm considering this but dont fancy paying an extra 9 for a taxi...I have to say the way things go probably not...sadly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Owl PhD Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 I thought Alasdair was great last night - probably the best I've ever seen him. He was really 'rocking out' at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest idol_wild Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 That was exactly what I needed. I thought all three acts were sublime, especially Kitchen Cynics.A concert of extremely high quality all round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted May 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 I reckon that's the best I've seen all three artists, and one of the best nights we've done in T2.Thanks V much to everyone who came down on a pretty miserable night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 I thought Alasdair was great last night - probably the best I've ever seen him. He was really 'rocking out' at times.I really liked Alasdair "rocking out". With his funky new guitar sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silversurfer Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 A most enjoyable evening - three first class acts. Sad to hear that this was Alan's second last performance as the Kitchen Cynics, but look forward to seeing/hearing more of the Matricarians.Also picked up C.D. number 65 of the K C's - Disconnected. Another masterpiece from Alan.I particularly liked 'The Wind', 'When Father Hanged The Children' and 'The Carousel Hare'.Brilliant stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 I'm really pleased you like it, Silversurfer....I thought it turned out OK, but it's great to get positive feedback Thanks too, idolwild and offramp.....I was relieved that I did OK...plus I enjoyed listening to Amber and Alasdair's sets a lot, so I enjoyed the evening massively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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