Cherbourg Harps Assembly

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I'm really pleased with how this one turned up, especially as our initial idea was to make more like a School of Seven Bells dreamy pop song.

[neepheid]

I approve.  Cool version.  Singing's better than Nico too, but that sounds like damning with faint praise  How about "that's a really good way of making it sound different to the original"?  It's still got that disconnected, "I'm not sure I give a monkey's about this song, or anything else come to think of it" vibe of the original vocal, but being more tuneful/sweet.

 

Instrumentation - tasteful and well done as always.  Keep it up, guys.

[kevyrob]

Love Joni Mitchell and this version is great

[paime]

I'm still hopelessly addicted to this stuff. Do you take requests or is that a bit cheeky? Ah fuck it, I'd really like to hear your take on Sorrow by Bowie...

[girl anachronism]

Thanks again for listening folks- really appreciate it.

Paime- thank you for the kind words! The songs we cover are usually determined by what the guest vocalist feels comfortable singing (it has to be a song we all really like though!) and whether or not its possible for us to do a sensible arrangement with our fairly limited equipment. Great song though, and we wouldn't rule out suggestions if we can find someone who wants to sing them! :-)

[scottyboy]

A Case of You raises eyebrows, and there's a couple of moments where it gets into that sublime, shivering territory where the best post-/indie-/dream-pop/rock goes. One or two of the old Panda Eyes tracks managed this too; this reminded me of that band a little bit, presumably due to the aforementioned guitar style combined with virtuoso female vocal. Femme Fatale is also pretty cool, admittedly this the only track I'm even half familiar with and this was a worthwhile cover (a rare thing): similar spirit to the original but updating the style and taking it a bit further.

 

The other two sounded pretty incongruous (as Monster Zero opined), just not very good and disappointing given the context... Speaking as someone who dipped into Panda Eyes and Seas, Starry a bit, whenever I see Jan's name connected to a band I'm basically expecting some simple guitar work into a lovely expensive guitar and tonnes of guitar pedals. One of two of Panda Eyes' (I am 99% sure I don't have dementia and that Jan played in that band; otherwise ignore all this...) old tracks were possibly some of the best I've heard come of Aberdeen; at other times that band really seemed to use the talent of its singer as a crutch and all the guitar FX sounded insipid, superfluous and possibly even irritating. What I've heard of Seas, Starry sounds solid and pleasant but pretty (now) generic Mogwai rock (a criticism I have of more than one band I've heard on here).

 

Anyway, to get to the point: when I saw "More Dream-pop, but with... wait for it... covers!" I groaned, and thought this might be Aberdeen post-rock's version of RATM's Renegades, and the first two tracks seemed to confirm this. So I was pleasantly surprised by the latter two. I don't know who played what but these two seemed to finally have something to write home (or write a post ) about in terms of what the guitar is actually doing. A Case of You has some more expansive U2 (what? It's not an insult!) or Bends-era Radiohead vibes in terms of the style and loose, improvised rhythm feel. Femme Fatale has some country tele moments and some fun leads/bridges a bit later on. As opposed to the really simple lines/arpeggios over Sus chords I'm used to hearing with this sort of stuff. 

 

Edit: that's pretty long, and they were just once-over listens... oh well

Edited June 1, 2013 by scottyboy

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A couple of additions to this thread.

 

 

 

Let us know what you think!

[colb]

First song is great, love the cat harmonies and the guitar tone.

 

Not so sure on the 2nd one, sounded a bit too lo-fi for me. I'm all for vocals low in the mix but I still like to have a sense of what's going on and I didn't get that with this tune. Maybe needs a couple of listens to get into........

[neepheid]

Ha, superb contribution from Larsson there, although I suspect the translation of those vocal melodies is "I hate guitars"

 

As far as the second one goes, my favourite bit was the really slow buildup of a sound from about a minute in until 2:40 - I don't know what it is but it reminded me a bit of the sound at the end of Radiohead's "Karma Police" (after the end of the last "for a minute there I lost myself"), but less scratchy, more muted and understated, a bit like what I'd imagine some rapid fire sonar pings might sound like.  The transition from the delicate to the quite loud then back to almost nothing again was pleasing.  The role reversal of certain things being clear and prominent (guitar melody, rapid fire sonar, xylophone (?)) in preference to the vocals makes it interesting for me, and the vocals, even if they are held back a bit and had a fair amount of effects applied to them I can make out most of it if I listen hard.

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

First song is great, love the cat harmonies and the guitar tone.

 

Not so sure on the 2nd one, sounded a bit too lo-fi for me. I'm all for vocals low in the mix but I still like to have a sense of what's going on and I didn't get that with this tune. Maybe needs a couple of listens to get into........

 

 

Ha, superb contribution from Larsson there, although I suspect the translation of those vocal melodies is "I hate guitars"

 

As far as the second one goes, my favourite bit was the really slow buildup of a sound from about a minute in until 2:40 - I don't know what it is but it reminded me a bit of the sound at the end of Radiohead's "Karma Police" (after the end of the last "for a minute there I lost myself"), but less scratchy, more muted and understated, a bit like what I'd imagine some rapid fire sonar pings might sound like.  The transition from the delicate to the quite loud then back to almost nothing again was pleasing.  The role reversal of certain things being clear and prominent (guitar melody, rapid fire sonar, xylophone (?)) in preference to the vocals makes it interesting for me, and the vocals, even if they are held back a bit and had a fair amount of effects applied to them I can make out most of it if I listen hard.

Cheers guys for the comments.