Easy Music for Difficult Ears

Hi everyone,
A couple of reviews here and there – I’ll post them up here (if and) when they ever get published…
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LPX
“Seventeen EP”
LPX, or Leigh O’Gorman to the tax-man, is one of those musicians who steadily plug away at their craft over a number of years, not really knowing – and perhaps not really caring – whether anyone is actually paying attention to them. The ambient-electro purveyor (a Kildare native, currently based in the UK) has been a fixture on the Dublin scene since before his debut release Easy Music For Difficult Ears in 2006, and considering his lack of mainstream success, one imagines that his career is fueled solely by a love of creating soundscapes. It’s something he does adeptly, too, if his latest EP Seventeen is anything to go by; a collection of five inventive and agile instrumental tracks spanning 25 minutes, O’Gorman scores a coup with the sinister Jake’s Lament, the demonically-possessed-Lemon Jelly-style bitterness of Now Put Your Feet Up and Relax.., and the twinkling, informal shuffle of Dementia In Space and Time. Though it’s occasionally a tad sharp on the eardrums, Seventeen showcases an artist who may not be completely groundbreaking in his approach, but who is making music that’s an unmitigated pleasure to partake in.
3 out of 5

© 2008 Lauren Murphy, Entertainment.ie (February 2008)
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Newbridge native Leigh O’Gorman, who works under the name LPX, has released his latest EP and if you’re a fan of melodic electronica then you’ll love “Seventeen“. The EP opens with the piano based title track which is an extended cut from the mini-album, “Experiments in Dub and HiFi” that was released last year.

LPX often draws comparisons from the like sof Fout-Tet, who trade in similarly organic electronic sounds, but there’s far more to him than that. The five tracks on the EP are prime slices of lush electronica with an edge of dub – atmospheric, at times dark and menacing, at times soaring and energising.

The final track on the EP, “When the Gods Punish Me…“, is over eleven minutes long and sounds like a fall from heaven to hell, as beautiful swooping strings descend into minimalistic, almost industrial resonance, which was created using sampled percussive sounds.

This is really beuatiful stuff, so support a local artist and purchase “Seventeen” from RoadRecs.com for just €4.99. And while you’re at it, “Experiments in Dub and HiFi” is available as free download from http://www.alphabetset.net/ so you’ve no excuse for not getting a hold of this fabulous album either.

© 2008 Aoife Barry, Kildare Nationalist (January 2008)
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I posted this the other day but for some reason the MP3 information got lost on the way to the hype machine so I’m putting it up again in a shameless attempt to get more people to listen to it.
The fact that it sounds like Four-Tet jamming with a Glockenspiel wielding Patrick Moore should be recommendation enough.
Music Like Dirt (February 2008)
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LPX is Irish based electronic artist Leigh O’Gorman and he has previously released under the name lube: Project_X. This is his third collection of mellow electronic sounds on the Electric Fix label and features five slices of subtle dubby electronic sounds.

The album features four [five] short little pieces of lush electronica comparable at times to the likes of Four-Tet along a longer closing track which uses a selection of sampled percussive sounds to create something almost resembling early industrial music meets the minimalism of Steve Reich. Top notch stuff yet again from LPX.
It can be picked up from here.
© 2008 RoadRecs.com (Road Records – January 2008)
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I dream of a night that might feel like this song sounds. It makes me want to sit in the backseats of cars, paying no attention, going nowhere, and looking forward to getting there.
It pushes along in its city way, dirty old town, casting itself in a lead role of a small scale epic: not that this song is all style, it’s more than that, it’s a feeling, like the title track of Kid A with fully grown legs, jazz put through tapped out electronica. LPX makes fine music from these things, you can download his record here if you like. You should.
© 2007 The Torture Garden Blog (September 2007)
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Current Listening:
BBC Radio Collection “Doctor Who and the Highlanders”

Sweet
- Leigh

Some mates of mine from Newbridge and Dublin (namely Super Extra Bonus Party) have just won the Choice Music Award Prize for best album of 2007. The self-titled, self-promoted, (partly) self-financed release hit the shops in April 2007 and deservedly picked up rave reviews in both the media and audience circles.

The album fended off competition from Cathy Davey (who I, and others, must admit thought would win it out), Dry County and Adrian Crowley amongst others.
Congratulation s lads – well fucking deserved…

They are also playing at the Childline Rocks 2008 show at the Academy on Middle Abbey Street tomorrow night with Cathy Davey, Ham Sandwich, Future Kings of Spain and a whole bunch of other acts. The show is in aid of Childline Ireland and promises to be 7 hours of fun and mentaldom. Tickets are 23 Euros from Ticketmaster.ie
myspace.com/superextrabonusparty

Current Listening:
The Strokes “Is This It?”

Sweetness,
Leigh

A happy-go-lucky Monday to you all. Those of you who know your cult musical history with regards to “Madchester” and clubs like the Hacienda in the late-1980’s, will be quite familiar with Dave Haslam, author of “Young Hearts, Run Free“.

Haslam was not only a DJ in the Manchester club, the now defunct and torn down “Hacienda”, but also one of the period’s leading DJ’s often pairing with Mike Pickering, John DaSilva and Little Martin.

With “Young Hearts, Run Free“, Haslam writes about growing up, music and social-political culture in the bleak 1970’s and attempts to shatter the illusion of a decade that is often remembered for flares, glam rock, disco pop and slapstick comedy television (later to be parodied in the early-80’s by shows such as the Young Ones).

Parts of the book are not just UK based and occasionally dwells the development of funk in the era of soul giants and the Black Panthers in the United States, while also examining the culture and sounds of Northern Soul and the inherent bleakness of the north of England as the country slid further and further into recession.

Pop culture retrospectives, by their very nature, tend to review the past with a sense of delightful nostalgia and a distorted vision of history. Unfortunately hindsight rarely has 20-20 vision and the truth is often muddled and blurred and it is somewhat ironic that that accusation can also be leveled at this work.

This is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of music, social and economic politics, but while this is all very interesting I often wondered if Haslam’s own memories are somewhat tainted and one-sided. Worth a flick.

Currently Working:
…on my Music and Entertainment Law Coursework

Waploooo,
Leigh

Yip Yip Yip,
I went for an eye-test yesterday (it’s that time to pick up new spectacles) and happily enough my eyes have apparently reached a plateau where they’re “not going to get much worse”. My chances for laser surgery in the next few years have increased because my peepers are now fully formed.

Still next to blind and needing new glasses though which at first I thought were really expensive, but on second thoughts with no cover they’re not too bad – certainly no more expensive than in Ireland. Come Saturday week I’ll throw some shapes for a camera, which reminds me I’ll post up the picture of our garden gnome in a couple of days.

Current listening:
Super Furry Animals “Hey Venus”

Ha!!
Leigh

I heard about a month or two ago (my memory is dying a death) that various muso’s were recording a Ronnie Drew tribute song. My initial reaction was “I didn’t know he was dead” and my second reaction (upon reading the full story) was “uh-huh… interesting”.
For those of you who don’t know Ronnie Drew was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006 and is currently undergoing continuous treatment to rid himself of the disease. The former-Dubliner was originally meant to be making a guest appearance on the recording, but unfortunately ailing health prevented this from taking place.

However Drew gave his approval for the project that features members of U2, Kila and other bands with solo-star turns from Andrea Corr, Shane MacGowan (why, oh fucking why???), Paul Brady, Mick Pyro and many others. All very talented people, but there’s one problem… it’s a mess.
I’ve already stated on State.ie (note to Nialler9 – I got the name right this time) that the song reminds me of the Simpson’s episode during which Bart falls down a well (as Timmy O’Toole) and a bunch of celebrity’s get together to record a song of hope and love – it really has that ramshackle feel. There are simply too many people trying to do too many things and as a result the song ends up getting caught up in a wire-mesh of sound.

However at Ronnie Drew’s request, the money raised from the single is going to cancer research at the Irish Cancer Society and I’m sure it’ll be bought in large numbers (who the fuck would want to download it??). It’s available for download from tomorrow and the CD single is out Friday week. Anyway, should folk want to preview it, the song’s video is below – just wait for the chorus to come…

I also came across the Foals album today and shock horror, it’s lost on me. I’ve heard some previous demo’s and they’re not a bad band, but something about this album doesn’t… quite… click…. into place. It feels like tin can music – in other words…

1. you pop open a can
2. empty contents into bowl
3. put in microwave
4. turn on
5. ping!!
6. it’s ready

Apart from that, it just grates very quickly. I had the same problem with CSS (and countless other bands in the last few years) where it’s great for a few listens but becomes boring very quickly (and I’m not going to rant about the Loudness Wars here yet, but it will be written when the research is completed). It’s a shame that an act of such potential have ended up producing a product that has an overriding sense of style over substance.
Anyway I will bollock on about that at a later date, but In the meantime I’m just going to grab some sleep.

Current Listening:
The B52’s “Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation”

Sweetos,
Leigh

Ehhh…
Anyone got any tips for hiding deep spiraling embarrassment..? Business been getting me down y’see. Oh and while I’m at it, at what point does someone get so paranoid that they
might need to seek help from outside parties??
Anyhoo, the picture to the right represents my frame of mind at the moment… oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…

Current Listening:
BBC Radio6 Music “Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone (TX: 17th February 2008)”

Aww shudder,
Leigh

Edit:
I am now officially a leather-clad, motherfucking ball of hatred!!!

If anyone here has seen my opening blog, I reminisced about performing the first LPX gig to about twelve bemused people. Well I have an opportunity to do that all over again this coming Sunday (February 24th) as I will be playing my first ever UK show at a place called the Brixton JAMM.

There’s a lot of gear on and doors are at 1pm with live acts going right through til 11pm, but I’m on about 5 o’clock, after which (but most probably during) I’m sure people will leave. To be honest, my set will probably not deviate that much from what I played at the EP launch last month,, but it’ll probably be a series a small changes.
It’ll probably be along the lines of:

“Promises”
“Running on Empty”
“Seventeen”
“Seasons”
“People Are Pictures on a Wall”

I’ll only be doing twenty-five minutes, so I think I might just keep it at that before I frighten people with some truly awful singing. Oh dear………………..

Current listening:
BBC Radio 3 “Late Junction with Fiona Talkington” (TX: 12th February 2008)

Sweet,
Leigh

Hi everyone,
Just a small update date here – Belfast indie/alt band, Escape Act, will be releasing their next single “God Saves” in a few weeks. It’ll be the first single of their debut album and the bits I’ve heard so far sound bloody good.
I’ll be posting up info about upcoming gigs and official release dates when I get them, but for the moment check out their songs and stuff at their MySpace – MySpace.com/escapeact

Current listening:
Super Extra Bonus Party “Super Extra Bonus Party”

Ha!!,
Leigh

I was meant to post this earlier, but it kept slipping my mind. Sadly, Irish band the Chalets have split up after nearly 7 years together. Starting in 2001, they gigged relentlessly before releasing their debut album – the marvelous “Check In” – in 2005, but the band had a number of EP and single releases as well. Their music has also been featured on the prime-time American TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” (with their track ‘Sexy Mistake’) which was eventually released on the shows’ soundtrack (Volume 2) in 2006.

However, after “Check In” was released the band went into silent mode to start work on their second album and unfortunately never re-emerged. As far as I know, two of the members are also currently in the band Warlords of Pez (who also released an album last year), but at the moment there’s no news at the moment of other side-projects on the horizon.
Anyway, I wish them all well in their future endeavors and hopefully we’ll be hearing more from them soon. See below for the music video – “Feel the Machine”.

Current listening
Bob Marley “I’ve Got the Action (Dub Side)”

Sadly,
Leigh