The NBT Wonderful Ones 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Kapp and the Gowns

‘Let this be said straight away, this band suits Mr. Kapp. And his style, his droll take on love, life and other potential disasters suit this band. It’s almost like, mmm, that with fellow musicians aiding and abetting his creations he can get even more personal than previously allowed‘
Photos (c)Alexander Buzek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coal Porters

Photo (c) http://www.sidgriffin.com/the-coal-porters/
‚’From mandolin to dobro and all manner of instruments in between the playing on this album is thoughtful, alive and deeply emotional, no solo unnecessary, no chorus too much. The passion conceived here stays long after the final song has played.‘

 

 

 

 

 

Cassis and the Sympathies

(c) http://www.cassisvision.com/
‚’This is new wave old romantic, ambient, impulsive, addictive, a darker Julee Cruise, a content Nico, still slightly dangerous, a sweetly lethal bubblegum, deep blue tripping over the rhythm disguised as sighs.‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boister

Photo(c)Annie Huntington ‚’Ah this delightful disturbance, this redemption in the darkness. Do you know how ghostly carnival lights seem, from a distance, on a rainy night? This is the soundtrack to that feeling‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Price

photo(c)http://www.billprice.info/‘Price may see these things, these choices, with the eye of a skeptic, but his belief in good, in the right decisions maybe being made, the fact that the future is really fragile and can be broken into something beautiful; is what makes this collection a gift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farrad

photo(c)http://farrad.comWelcome to the Pop Dramatic, landing, bang in the centre of the smoke, wrapped in enigmatic articulate harmonies and covered by pressing bass squelch, Farrad displays his intent, his desire to capture our dance-Soul from the opening track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Lily Do you fear, but love the dreaming, the letting go? Do you dread and desire travelling into the strange virulent mists of some unknown ‘other’ world? Do you find this fear enchanting, and with deep breath and heart beating hard, wish to succumb utterly to it.photo(c) http://www.darklily.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dizzy Gotheca aka My Cerulean

photo(c) Ian C Pool

The slow motion of the disco dancer, every detail of the dry ice, the coloured lights, the reflections the darkness just off the floor, the other tumblers tumbling, spinning too, are blurred howls, and every movement leaves delicate traces. You long for the explosion into focus, the release of pressure, but beauty like this has a price and instead you stay, still, entranced, haunted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wartapes

War Tapes in San Francisco @ the Regency Theater! (c) wartapes

Hurtling forwards the music the singing is twisted and detached, look for the poignant hidden behind the frantic modern hustle. This machine gets dirty gets rusty, rumbles and roars and the humans who drive it through to us, are flawed, vulnerable, brave, continually invigorated by the power of the melody, the impact of the thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Loons For Tea

photo (c)  Alicia J Rose

http://sarathan.com

She drives through a landscape of rapidly changing storms. Escaping the thrum of her sweet nightmare, sometimes the sunlight sparkles on the cold metal, sparkles turn to sparks, blue sky to night. It was easier when she just believed him.

Danika Holmes

photo(c)Missy Croquart What I particularly like here is the admission that even in this brand new hope of a day the journey may still be tough and even third chances may be needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Rosenthal

Photo(c) http://www.tokyorosenthal.com These are songs that are entranced with the Consequences of love and anger, how we travelers have too much understanding sometimes, thoughtlessness other times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richie Lawrence

photo(c) Katie Thomas

This is what music is meant to do. I am transported from a weak summer day, still losing its battle with should be long gone winter, to standup flying through the shadows and the heat and sleepy heaviness of somewhere deep in old America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

88 Kilos Of Sunshine

As John Peel was known to say, ‘this one fades in slowly’’ this is warped Americana played in the old house across the road, you stop and listen on your way home and weep, and leave strangely enriched. The ragged reserve of the (treated) singing, the two personas within connects you to this drama, traces still there even as you lock your front door walk to the living room and switch on the babbling evening news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vanishing Angels

songs still in demo form, but enough mystery and magic to make you want a great deal more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apollo‘s Sun

When the sun sneaks into a cold room, we can see the tattered posters on the wall, see the wounded proud dust collection of cardboard and plastic greatness, timeless artifacts, a record collection made for Saturday night hedonism and Sunday morning review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Mahler

‚’Somewhere in the tapestry of themes Marco has tapped into something healing and I thank him for this personally.‘‚‘Here the strange things, the dark even disturbing things, are camouflaged by the twinkled reflection of shiny minimalist pop, the hushed voice comforts, seduces, distracts, and the weird is natural now, the abstract makes sense‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frequency Theatre

One mans journey into the heart beyond the switches, travelling along the giddy current, he rides the dark sparks into a unique messy world.
photo(c) frequency theatre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krista Detor

The singer, the storyteller has a gift for noticing the small things, the colour of things, making these scenes live vibrantphoto(c)http://www.kristadetor.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pollyanna photo(c) http://www.pollyanna.org/

Songs are allowed to build, to breathe, and to whisper through, notes follow on hesitant notes and the haunting takes place. The uneasy desire is stretched, the wanting tightens internally and like a Hitchcock film of the soul we long for the release the singer craves but cannot quite dare find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anais Mitchell

Hadestown is also beautiful. This may not be a pre-requisite for everyone, but for this reviewer an aesthetically pleasing artwork is always preferable to a work that is provocative but not evocative. I could listen to Hadestown anywhere, in any company. It will reward the casual listener and the listener who wants, needs to be broadenedphoto(c) http://www.anaismitchell.com

Aaron English

Melodies are more intricate than the traditional guitar-based singer-songwriter, and the production has more depth and more tapestry than rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small City Calling

Slyly the castaways get you to dance, something you never expected, but this is the opposite of frantic or forced, this dance is the natural jive, the thinkers take the romantics hand and cavort shy, as the tunes glimmer and glow.

Mach Fox

Mach FoX – Nu Dead Pretty front cover – original artwork by Paul GerrardSet the controls for mirror ball and strobe light, where the dancers are mysterious and the shadows skitter shatter, conceal and deceptively reveal. This is nightclub music with a dark pulsing heart, and a pop grin, it is alien rock Guitar shot out at girls with fizzy drinks and sly sweet smiles. It is post new romantic, nostalgic new wave twisted modern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count To Fire

The band add colour to this set of ruefulness with shadings of Johnny Cash swagger and Long Ryder feistiness, but never distract from the mood that binds it all together, again in this era of the downloadable track versus the whole album debate, this demands to be listened to as a complete, satisfying whole.photo (c)http://www.robertdarch.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tori Sparks

Photo Credit: Wayne Hall

Another hit in the dreaming, the subliminal brass touches deep inside, why is this not a mainstay on all the alternative playlists?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Minnikin

This is one of those albums that make you fall in love all over again with the Possibilities of music.photo(c) craig buckley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt

Imagine yourself out on a cold winter’s night, looking up at complacent hunks of residential buildings, lives shining from behind curtains far up above you. Add a sense of humour and horror to the experience and you are close to this.photo(c) http://www.myspace.com/seandcmarquardt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Doran photo(c)http://peterdoran.bandcamp.com/album/sleepless-streetthere is a wounded rawness at the heart of this, a frazzled moody Phil Ochs ghost wandering the chords and the choruses. It’s just that Doran doesn’t need to be strident to get his thoughts across, his song writing is sincere and pure

Adventure Spirit

this album affirms The Adventure Spirit’s readiness to reach larger audiences in australia and abroad.photo(c)http://theadventurespirit.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca Turner

She says she loves Country and it shows, what also is very clear is her love of classic pop song craft and her infatuation with the art of the warm easy hook. She says pretty important things with a soft smile rock’n’sway, a lightness that make her thoughts utterly believable.(she says about the picture:The photo attached is of me in my yard with our Airstream, towards the end of the summer. I’m holding an eye because my singer-songwriter hero Kim Richey asked her fans if we wanted to be in the video for her song “Wreck Your Wheels,” and if we said yes she gave us a word and told us to hold up a sign. My word was “eye” so I took a picture with an eye sign, plus one with the letter “I,” (They chose the one with the “I.”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orange 1

It is the detached view of the human fever, how the normal becomes sci-fi(c)http://orange-1.jimdo.com/music.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird Eats Baby photo(c)http://www.birdeatsbaby.co.uk/If earlier BirdEatsBaby releases were indicative of those small towncinemas from stranger times, all romance and slightly twisted in the way theyspread the dream, this EP dares to go widescreen, the cabaret grows epic, thesoundstage morphs into a garden of distraction and the players now become realindie pop stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Ellen Kirk
We dive into the drama, edged on by sighing bells; we are soon drifting along the most somnolent of melodies, these tunes taking on the character of dreams, unhurried thoughts, and their intent flexible, serene and devious even.fireflyfotophoto(c) http://www.merryellenkirk.com/

Elika

photo(c)Will Joines (http://www.willjoines.com). If those butterflies in our tummies were pop stars they would sound like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Histrioniks

This is a kind of fearless indie pop, a nervous lyrical artistvibrating up against the normal, their songs a blur in the sunshine photo(c)http://www.thehistrioniks.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tallulah Rendall Caught in the ripple, caught in the pulse, a good time to jump, the song builds outwards…photo (c) Dylan Walker

19 Mirrors

Battle synths of the pop republic! Marching along to a Joy Division beat the pure vocals bewitch and beguile, the light sitting strangely comfortably on top of what is a very nihilistic piecephoto(c)http://www.facebook.com/pages/19-Mirrors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iCON

This is bright bang (pow !)party music.(c) http://www.myspace.com/iconsmashmybox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MacU

This music captures the thoughts of ghosts drifting. The ghosts of machines throbbing, thrumming, forgetting what they are for moments in time then sighing back into sequence, the ghosts of children, girls women searching, finding, inviting. This is a waking dream, where the willing listener floats (standing upright) through the opening Wasteland.http://macu1.wordpress.com/