94
TheWeek
PLANET
OF SOUND
By Kernan Andrews
Angel Olsen - Burn Your
Fire For No Witness
(Jagjaguwar)
“A COLLECTION of
songs, grown in a year
of heartbreak, travel,
and transformation,” is
how Olsen has described
her second album.
“I started dreaming
just to be around you,”
the Missouri-born
singer-songwriter
declares on opening
track ‘Unfucktheworld’, but the song’s lonely,
desolate guitar, and Olsen’s detached vocals, hint
that the lyrically bright opening is deceptive. Indeed
the mood darkens instantly with the next line:
“Here’s to thinking that it all meant so much more”,
while its closing refrain, “I am the only one now”, is
less a declaration of independence than an
admission of aloneness.
The fizzing guitar and pounding drums of
‘Forgiven/Forgotten’ up the tempo considerably, but
lyrically the mood remains dark, and again, the
closing lines, strike an emotionally painful note: “I
don’t know anything/but I love you/Will you every
forgive me for loving you?”
Despite that ‘death before dishonour’ indie rocker,
the core of this album is shaped by country music,
as revealed on two of its finest songs - ‘Hi-Five’ and
‘Lights Out’.
The former boasts the classic loping rhythms of
country and a big vocal performance - which Olsen,
who possesses a magnificent voice, is more than
capable of - but the fuzz and tremolo drenched
guitar accompaniment make this more Twilight
Zone Nashville than regular Grand Old Opry.
The album does suffer from a number of
undistinguished songs, but closes on a high with
‘Windows’. Singing at a higher pitch than elsewhere,
Olsen’s trembling, vulnerable vocal performance,
like the music, finds a perfect balance between
restraint and emotional catharsis.
Overall, ...Witness announces the true arrival of a
major new talent.
February 13 2014
English folk duo to play
two Galway shows
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
THEY HAVE been praised for “gorgeous
vocals...[and]...harmonies complementing
each other beautifully” by For Folk’s Sake,
while the BBC called them “upbeat and kinda
a lot of fun”.
They are English folk duo David Harbottle
& Freya Jonas who play two gigs in Galway
next week - Monroe’s Live, Galway city, on
Thursday February 20, and Joe Watty’s, Inis
Mór, Aran Islands on Friday 21.
Hailing from Totnes in southern Devon,
Harbottle and Jonas describe themselves as
“hardworking songsmiths that place an
emphasis on musical independence,
originality and breathe new life into
Traditional English Folk songs”.
The duo have gigged extensively with The
Friendly Cats, with whom they have released
the EPs Strangers, Ferrara Girl, and Dawn
Breaks. To check out their music go
soundcloud.com/david-harbottle/sets/dawnbreaks.
For more information contact 091 - 583397
(Monroe’s) or 099 - 20892 (Joe Watty’s).
Lisa O’Neill to
play Róisín Dubh
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
SHE HAS played support
at David Gray and Glen
Hansard’s recent Galway
concerts, but next week
Lisa O’Neill takes top
billing when she plays the
Róisín Dubh.
Lisa O’Neill, who is
currently promote her
new album, Same Cloth or
Not (Song Seeds Records),
plays the Róisín on Friday
February 21 at 9pm.
Same Cloth or Not is
Lisa’s second full-lenght
release, following 2009’s
Has an Album. It was
recorded in a cottage in
Wicklow in the winter
with singer-songwriter
David Kitt producing and
Karl Oldum engineering.
Musicians featured
include Stina Sandstrom
(vocals), Mossy Nolan
(bouzouki), and Londonbased string duo Geese
(Emma Smith and Vincent
Sipprell).
Lisa’s folk-influenced
songs range from forlorn
love ballads to shady tales
of wheelbarrow
smuggling.
Tickets are available at
www.roisindubh.net, the
Ticket Desk at OMG
Zhivago, Shop Street, and
The Róisín Dubh.
Get
ready to
Shuffle
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
LEADING SOUL DJ Dave Barry returns
with another of his excellent Shuffle nights
to the Róisín Dubh on Friday February 21 at
11.30pm.
Expect to hear the very finest funk, soul,
disco, reggae, ska, Latin boogaloo,
dancefloor jazz, jump blues, and hip hop,
all spun on vinyl. The music policy is as
varied as its clientele but as James Brown
said what ever it is its got to be funky!
Admission is free. Find out more on the
Shuffle facebook page.
Keith McDonald to
launch new album
Ásgeir - In The Silence
(One Little Indian)
ALREADY A star in his
native Iceland, Ásgeir
Trausti Einarsson’s
debut album could be
described as father-son
collaboration.
The 21-year-old set 10
poems by his 72-year-old
father Einar Georg
Einarsson to music and
saw the resulting album, Dyrd í Daudathögn,
become a massive hit, before being re-titled In The
Silence, with the poems and vocals translated into
English for an international release.
What makes it succeed is how Ásgeir has
composed music which complements so well the
mood and feel of each of his father’s poems. His
vocals also find the right tone and expressive form
to make it hard to conclude otherwise than that the
son views these words as being as much his
emotional worldview as that of Einarsson snr.
Musically ...Silence is mellow acoustic folk-pop
with electronic touches, yet the best songs here ‘Higher’, ‘Summer Guest’, and ‘On That Day’, all
boast a presence and an individuality, but none
more so than ‘Torrents’, with its quiet/loud
dynamics and epic vocals. A marvellous debut.
Ásgeir plays the Róisín Dubh, Saturday April
12.
Freya Jonas and David Harbottle.
Kygo @
Electric tonight
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
NORWEGIAN PRODUCER and DJ Kygo, who caught
the attention with his remix/edit of Marvin Gaye’s
‘Sexual Healing’, plays Galway tonight.
Kygo has a knack for taking chart hits past and
present, and completely transforming them, applying
the ‘Kygo effect’ to songs by The xx, Ellie Goulding, and
Ed Sheeran.
The Nordic producer learned his trade by observing
his favourite DJs and watching YouTube tutorials. His
sets are characterised by uplifting, melodic chimes and
warm, ethereal, sometimes tropical, outcomes.
Kygo plays the Electric Garden & Theatre tonight.
Doors are at 11pm.
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
JAZZ AND swing singer
Keith McDonald releases
his new album Vida this
month, ahead of shows in
the Caribbean, Shanghai
in March, and Irish shows
in May.
Vida features Keith’s
swing version of ‘Dirty
Old Town’, arranged for
full big band, and
featuring trumpeter
Danny Healy; Van
Morrison’s ‘Irish
Heartbeat’; U2’s ‘One’; and
jazz flavoured
interpretations of songs
by The Beach Boys, The
Beatles, and
Bacarach/David. Four
tracks on Vida were
arranged by Golden Globe
nominee Brian Byrne and
recorded in Prague.
This month, Keith will
tours the Caribbean and
play Shanghai in March.
On May 12 he plays the
National Concert Hall,
Dublin and on May 22 will
perform with RTÉ Concert
Orchestra.