Tag Archive: Tim Buckley


ARBOREA’S RED PLANET

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June 12, 2011

Shanti & Buck Curran (Arborea)

I blogged on 18th May 2011 to draw attention to Arborea’s beautiful and sensual cover of Tim Buckley’s Phantasmagoria In Two.

At that time I hadn’t fully absorbed the complete album (Red Planet) but having done so my positive first impression has proved to be well founded.

Saying what I love about such an emotionally intense record proved tougher than I imagined but today I managed to put down some thoughts for Whisperin’ & Hollerin’ which you can read here.

As I say in this review the husband and wife duo’s quiet, unhurried approach makes this an album that demands to be listened to with the same degree of care and attention to detail with which it was made.

You can get it from Strange Attractors Audio House.

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ARBOREA : PHANTASMAGORIA IN TWO

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May 18, 2011

Today I was pleased to receive a review copy of the new album from husband and wife duo Arborea (thanks, Buck!),

The album is called Red Planet and I look forward to setting aside time to listen to it properly over the next few days.

The first impressions are overwhelmingly positive not least because of a marvellous cover version of Tim Buckley’s ‘Phantasmagoria In Two’ and the lovely, atmospheric video they’ve made  for this song.

Light a candle, find a quiet space and enjoy:

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KISSING THE CONTEMPORARY BLISS

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August 27, 2008

Like many, I first came across the name of Dredd Foole in David Keenan’s cover feature article in the August 2003 ‘Wire’ magazine about the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival. Foole’s album ‘Quest of Tense’ was cited as a major influence on artists like Matt ‘MV’ Valentine and Sunburned Hand of the Man so helped to give birth to the New Weird America scene.
Foole, real name Dan Ireton, is now 58 years old but it’s good to know that the fire in the soul that burned for ‘Quest of Time’ is still aflame for his latest release on Family Vineyard records – a magnificent double album entitled ‘Kissing the contemporary bliss’ remastered from a limited edition release on MV’s Child of Microtones label in 2005.
The album demonstrates that the mind over matter ethos, much vaunted during the recent Olympic games, also applies to creative arts. To do what Dan Ireton has been doing for over three decades demands stubborn intransigence and unwavering self belief.
Above all, there is a wilful disregard of trends at work here. This is music far removed from the dictates of fashion or passing fads. What you hear is the paradox of sounds which are disjointed and chaotic yet at the same time miraculously coherent. Take for example his deconstruction of ‘Girl From The North Country’ where one of Dylan’s simplest songs becomes fragmented and is thrillingly reinvented by Foole.
It’s hard not to think of Tim Buckley as you listen to his vocal gymnastics because Foole has the same way abandoning the idea that songs need to be direct and tightly structured to work. Instead the tracks follow an internal logic of their own which only works because the performers inhabit the pieces, you can’t imagine any two versions of the songs here being alike. There is the invigorating quality of capturing something immediate and unique. Like Buckley, improvisation and spontaneity comes to play a key role in the emotional expressiveness of the singing, the voice serving as an instrument to communicate raw feelings not abstract ideas.
For this to work requires performances heedless of the barriers that come with heightened self consciousness. Dredd Foole never gives the impression that he is holding himself back as primal yelps and moans replace any notion of adhering to static verse-chorus-verse conventions. In lesser mortals the whole could become pretentiously Arty or a disastrous mess but Foole never strays into either territory.
That this album embraces the true meaning of ‘free’ music is evidenced by the sense that you feel alive and empowered just by tapping into its brilliant energy.

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Fleeting visions

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June 29, 2007

Tim Buckley

About 20 years ago I borrowed a vinyl copy of Tim Buckley’s 1970 album ‘Starsailor’ from the local library. I’d liked to say I was immediately impressed by his avant garde/ free jazz approach to song structures but at that time I didn’t get it. Apart from the relatively conventional ‘Song to the Siren’ I returned it without committing it to cassette.

The fact that this album is currently not available on CD might lead to the conclusion that I, together with the critics who slammed it and other listeners who shunned it, were right BUT seeing the electric footage of songs performed from this album on the excellent DVD ‘My Fleeting House’ I can see now that Buckley was ahead of the game.

It’s time to acknowledge Starsailor for its boldness, daring and innovation.

The versions of ‘I woke up’ and ‘Come here woman’ on the DVD are quite stunning and indicate that the recorded version was only a hint of Buckley’s true ambitions. Unfortunately the album’s commerical failure forced a retreat but at least we now have a collection that does justice to this great singer.

‘My Fleeting House’ is highly recommended as it is a vivid portrait of an artist committed to experimenting with sound in a way that demands you listen with the same spirit of openness .

It’s taken some time but NOW I get it!

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