Wolfendale's Mysterious World

With a mutual background in cinema and animation Sander Strick and Marc van den Boom started making a record. Both are from Eindhoven, the town where big multinational Philips produced its first light bulb. The band Woldendale was formed, named after British astronomer Arnold Wolfendale. In an old Philips building they put down a studio to write and record songs. After they got signed by V2 Benelux the album was finished by no one less that Joe LaPorta, who has worked with Foo Fighters and Vampire Weekend in the past. The result is Foghorn, named after the first line in the mysterious David Lynch TV series 'Twin Peaks' from the nineties: "The lonesome foghorn blows", spoken by Pete Martell, a character played by Jack Nance.

Wolfendale - Foghorn (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
And so we run into the cinematic background of the duo everywhere. Since not only the album's title, but everything in their music is breathing cinema. And this movie world that they created is mysterious and dark. In a clever way they patiently use their musical landscapes to shape this world. As they put it themselves: "Music that's looking for dusk instead of sunlight". And for that matter the title was chosen effectively. It raises images of misty landscapes and twilight worlds, a mystical fantasy world, with a little surprise behind every tree. Master filmmaker Lynch couldn't have thought it up any better.

The music if full of variation; progrock-like pieces are alternating with more jazzy and folk-like songs. It reminds of Pink Floyd, Radiohead and sometimes Motorpsycho too. But the atmosphere is always the binding factor on the album. The highlights are mostly in the first part of the record. Dreamy guitars in 'Dr. Henry Kazoo', the beautiful 'Red Sparrow' that fluently transforms into title track 'Foghorn'. And then the wonderful 'Ending Up' with its nice harmonies. The sound effects complete and intensify the the atmospere even more.

Like a ship that slowly moves through the fog, passes Foghorn steadily along. With closed eyes you perceive a foghorn in the distance through the splashing water. David Lynch could come up with a movie for it easily. Every spin discloses new discoveries. Wolfendale is a worthy addition to the Dutch music catalogue with international potential. They could even make to the elite league of the Dutch music scene.

This review has been published on ROAR E-Zine in Dutch over here.

Listen to 'Keep You Close' on Spotify.

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Early Christmas Present With Smith & Burrows

What do you do when you're in a big rock band and after making albums and extensive touring you have some time to spare? You make an album with a good friend and play some club shows. Just for the fun. That's exactly what Tom Smith of the Editors did. He teamed up with good friend Andy Burrows, ex-drummer of Razorlight, and they made an album named Funny Looking Angels. It even turned into a Christmas album.

Smith & Burrows at Paradiso, December 5 2011 (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)



The songs on the album are mostly covers and only a handful of new songs. It hardly feels like a Christmas album. Although it's lighter than the Editors, it has a bit of a dark feel to it, which suits that time of the year. For the occasion Paradiso has put down chairs so half of the audience is sitting down. The stage has some Christmas lighting to get us in the mood. The funny thing is, that today we're celebrating "Sinterklaas" in The Netherlands, which to us definitely isn't about Christmas trees and lights at all.



They start off with the nice cover of Black's 'Wonderful Life'. Smith's voice is perfect for it and it definitely does the song justice. Andy Burrows is behind the piano, that's positioned in such a way, that the right side of the crowd can hardly see him. Unfortunately this includes us and so we only get to see him when it's his turn to sing a song. This is the setup for tonight: Smith and Burrows take turns in singing a few songs while the other is playing the piano. In the meanwhile their band is staying in the background but doing a great job at the same time. Isabelle Dunn's chello is fitting the music really well.



Of course one album isn't enough to fill a concert and so they throw in some Editors and Razorlight songs. Especially the Editors songs lend themselves really well for this more or less acoustic setup. The already brilliant 'Papillon' grows even more as we could already hear on Studio Brussel a while ago. But also there are great versions of 'The Weight Of The World' and 'Walk The Fleet Road'. Burrows cannot compete with the strong vocals of Smith. His voice is just not as solid, although he's definitely doing a decent job. Razorlight's 'America' and 'Before I Fall To Pieces' even have the crowd hesitantly clapping along.



Most of all the two are having lots of fun. There's time for joking around and even screwing a few things up. Smith starts off Yazoo's 'Only you' too fast and they have to start over. That song, like on the album, feels really out of place with Burrows' falsetto vocals. At one point there's a small intermezzo with a tombola where people are winning a Barbara Streisand vinyl record, a t-shirt and a mug. Smith even goes over to the winner of a bottle of booze on the balcony to hand it over personally, while the band is playing the Rocky tune. And so this is just one great merry get-together with some great musicians. From time to time it turns magical, like in the final song of the night 'When The Tames Froze', where they are both wearing wings. And so everyone is already feeling the Christmas spirit when we leave. I hope Sinterklaas doesn't mind.

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Setlist
01. Wonderful Life (Black)
02. Funny Looking Angels
03. Papillon (Editors)
04. The Weight Of The World (Editors)
05. If I Had A Heart (Andy Burrows)
06. Only You (Yazoo)
07. America (Razorlight)
09. No Sound But The Wind (Editors)
10. Walk The Fleet Road (Editors)
11. Half A World Away (R.E.M.)
12. On And On (Longpigs)
13. Before I Fall To Pieces (Razorlight)
14. In The Bleak Midwinter (Gustav Holst)
15. The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé)
16. As The Snowflakes Fall
17. This Ain’t New Jersey
18. When The Thames Froze
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The Dukes Not Victorious Yet

in 2010 singer/guitarist Shanka and drummer Greg Jack formed The Dukes, after they had been playing together a lot in a band named "No One Is Innocent". They did a small European tour and recorded their debut album Victory. They already played the Melkweg in support of The Subways in October. According to themselves they were inspired by bands like The Dandy Warhols, The White Stripes and Nirvana. And the album holds thirteen of those raw garage rock tracks.

The Dukes - Victory (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
And indeed those influences can be clearly heard. Some of the songs like 'Resilient Lovers' strongly remind you of especially The Dandy Warhols. The band is lacking their own sound here. The song named after themselves on the other hand is a rough song with screaming guitars. Slower songs are following it and there's quite some variation. In title track 'Victory', where Garbage clearly can be heard, the monotonous vocals in the choruses aren't helping the song. The vocals aren't always that great throughout the album anyway.

The production is pretty smooth now and then, maybe even a bit too much. The music loses too much of its edge and energy in that case. Since especially in the energetic songs, where the band is going full force, that's where The Dukes are at their best. The strong 'The Mangler' is a song that does work. The musicians sound more in their comfort zone there and that's where their strength is. They should stay clear from wanting to sound too much like their inspirations. This was evident in their half an hour in the Melkweg. The boys have enough quality and experience to put down something of their own.

Victory is showing too many faces. The album is flying into every direction. Sometimes it's strong, but it has just as many weak moments. When the band are able to focus on their strong points and continue into that direction, it could lead to something nice. It's not a bad album, but they are definitely not leaving a lasting impression.

This review has been published on ROAR E-Zine in Dutch over here.

Listen to 'Victory' on Spotify.

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