Take the first track Zorbing as an example. There’s everything for a classic pop song, great harmonies, arrangement (with trumpets!), warm harmonies, and a song that keeps moving forwards. It could fit in anywhere during the early Belle and Sebastian albums. The rest of the tracks on this EP prove that they don’t only have one trick and one song, as they continue to sprinkle their magical songwriting and arrangement over genres where so many have failed before (ballads, country jaunts, straight forward pop songs).

If you don’t get a chance to catch this lot live, then, at the very least, get over to their myspace to hear the songs.

The changing audiences of four of the last five gigs that Patrick Wolf has played in Oxford tells the story of the shift in gig going audiences. The first show was a late afternoon show in 2003 at MOMA, just Patrick and a lot of malfunctioning equipment. Everything went wrong, but in the intimate audience of 40 odd, anything was fine. Patrick had a reputation for being arty and weird.

The next year Patrick played another Trailerpark, this time in the Cellar, Patrick and a laptop. With the instruments in working order, this was the show that grabbed my attention. However my memory of Patrick, even after this most recent performance, will be at Truck 2005, turning round the corner and seeing him perform a cover of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill.

With his third album, Patrick Wolf has moved on from the melancholy and minor keys. It was a shock at first to hear him sing so happily and positively. So it was with some trepidation, I watched his show. The most immediate change isn’t how the music has changed, but instead it’s how the audience has changed. Where in the past he attracted arty types, now he seems to be a popstar attracting a teenage audience. There were teenage girls singing along to his songs as if it was a McFly concert. That was weird. For me, Patrick Wolf’s songs are about isolation and a personal ownership of them. It was strange to hear a crowd singing them back just like any singalong song.

The other big problem was the sound. On the songs which were perfect for stomping and dancing, the beats were drowned out by the strings, and the Virginal that was used for all the piano parts just didn’t sound right with the rest of the instruments. Above all these problems there were still the signs to explain why Patrick Wolf is truly a unique artist of our time. By switching between all the different instruments, he was able to show off the variety of textures of sounds that most bands wouldn’t even think up. And his voice still sounds as great and rounded as ever.

The internet is probably a big factor in the changed audience. Now that music is so easily accessible, no doubt many more people have been able to get hold of Patrick’s music, but on the other hand I’d rather have that intimate, dark, closed in feeling of his music, rather than sharing it with everyone else.

Performing to an impatient crowd, This Et Al made a difficult start. Leaving their more immediate songs until the end, the band first tried to stun us with then grandness of their sound. However, as everything was just too loud, some of the tiny details that sparkled on record were drowned out by the PA. The only tracks not to suffer from the over-dominant speakers were Wardens and You’ve Driven For Miles where they give us a glimpse of how their grandness and songs should actually sound. Still, it was great to hear a band not content to settling down to one type of sound, and continue to vary and change what they do.

The headliners, Minus the Bear are an example of how, even in the days of the internet, you can still not hear about everything. But plenty of other people had, and they filled out the room. Since the gig, I’ve found out that they are supposed to be ‘math rock’, but if they are, they are very formulaic and miss the inventiveness of similarly described band from this side of the ocean. Sounding more like a fast version of Death Cab for Cutie, everything was just too similar. By the fourth song, they had fallen into the pattern of quiet verse and loud chorus. While this may please some people, as they look to sing along to the loud bits, it would be more interesting to listen to a band that changes with every song.

The greatest thing about this album is the way there is a great variety in the styles of the songs. From the singles like Wardens and He Shoots President, which are immediate and straightforward, there are also more ambitious songs. In Catscan, the song is constantly changing, and never settling to one theme, while they try for a TV on the Radio type dreaminess in Sabbatical.

At times, the ‘journey’ of the album is a lot like the albums by Mansun. There is a similar balance between the intensity and accessibility. They are also very similar in the way how both bands clearly enjoy throwing as many instruments into the background as possible, without losing the melody edge of the songs.

2006 may have been the year for some of their Leeds contemporaries, but 2007 could very well be This Et Al’s year instead.

This Et Al

The other two tracks on this single sound a lot more like their named influences, especially the 80s indie and Placebo influences. Seas of tight guitars that swirl around creating a dark, menacing feel, particularly on the final track Vincent Vega.

This is a good strong debut release for a band, although it falls down a bit because it just sounds so much like other music that’s around. It’s early on, and there’s plenty of time for the band to build on their own sound.

Death in Public

The trouble with this album can be traced to its ambitious nature. Jumping between 50 acts there are moments when one song finishes abruptly, to be followed by another song in a completely different style. It can be quite an unsettling thing to listen to. Instead of being able to put this album on, and leave it running while you carry on with other things, it demands your full attention. As soon as your concentration drifts away, you could very well lose your way.

However the variation in the acts help to keep you alert as you listen. To prove this, in a randomly selected section of five minutes, the music goes from countryish rock, to more straightforward indie rock, some electro sampling based song, to folk (twice). The acts that come off well on this album are the ones who have conquered the challenge of writing a one minute song (instead of writing something that seems like an introduction that finishes suddenly). After Christmas does this by squeezing their 3 part song into the time allowed, as do Sennen, Jeremy Warmsley, Bobby McGees, Captain Black, Attack + Defend and roughly about 50 percent of the acts on this album.

This album makes a very useful source for those awkward minutes in mixtapes, but you should also clear 50 minutes in your day to give this your full attention.

Exercise 1 Records

So, concluding three saturdays of Oxford based line ups at the Zodiac, this time upstairs, and for the third week in a row it was another sold out show. The success of these shows certainly show that there is support for live music, and there are more people who have an appetite for watching bands than we know (see all those discussions about getting people to come to gigs).

The stage upstairs suits The Keyboard Choir. Where in the past they have had to cram all their keyboards and members and assorted robots on to a tiny area, they were able to spread out and fill the room tonight. Their ambient electronica works even better in a room the size of the Zodiac, with space for the sounds to drift and grow. While other electronic artists will make a point about their art by standing motionless during their performance, another joy of the Keyboard Choir show are all the visuals. It’s almost like being at a fairground show, there is so much to watch. From the return of the robots (these v2 robots now featured lights, mechanical arms, electronic games and phones), the projections as well as watching the band members too.

Another band whose visual side add to the strength of the band are The Rock of Travolta. They have always been slightly cheeky with their music, mixing in just the right amount of Spinal Tap references with their highly melodic postrock. Their new material seamlessly mixes in with their slightly rejigged older songs, and they have achieved the near impossible of maintaining the same attitude to their music throughout. While many other bands would lose sight of the unique points about their bands, TROT are still writing punchy, epic, and most importantly, fun songs, and long may they continue to do so.

Asking other gig goers why they liked Fell City Girl, the word epic popped up many times. Well, apart from the band being epic in the sense that all their volume controls were turned up to maximum, even the two support bands were more epic than FCG. Weaker Light is a good song, but everything else just seemed to sound exactly the same. Yet the audience in the room lapped it all up, and even screamed for more. The only way to understand why FCG are epic is if their average fan thought that Razorlight were rock, and The Automatic are punk, and their musical mentor was Jo Whiley. Advice to FCG fans, if you really want to listen to some epic indie rock with melodies, go and find the Ultrasound album instead.

Grrr. The uselessness of the public transport system meant that while Baby Gravy were playing their fantastic set (so I was told), I was waiting at the bus stop for a bus that very nearly didn’t come. The reward for persevering however was to arrive just as Witches were starting off their set. The experience within the band is clear, as they manage to create rich, beautiful arrangements with their songs that most bands at this level wouldn’t even attempt. If only they had some more memorable tunes, then they would be amazing.

There are bands who gig so much that it’s difficult to miss them. Harry Angel have played (almost) everywhere this summer, and it shows. The tension in the set is racked up with every song, building up the intensity. It’s a bit like Muse in the epicness, but without their pompousness, which makes for a truly exciting band to watch.

The Half Rabbits are another band who are building up the intensity in their sets. They have some fantastic songs (three of which are on their current EP), but the other songs are disappointingly average. They show with their good songs, that they know how to structure a song with variety, so their average songs are even more so disappointing. They do rescue the gig with their two best songs, to remind us that when The Half Rabbits are on form they are extraordinary.

In the endless cycle of ‘Oxford music is going through a rubbish phase’ vs. ‘oh no it isn’t!’ arguments, we can definitely say that the ‘scene’ is healthier than it has been for a very long time. If you need any evidence take a look at this show, and the next two Saturdays at the Zodiac. In these three shows eleven bands will play, all of them from Oxford and its surroundings.

How ever music fashions come and go, Oxford bands will always play post rock, and And No Star helpfully ticks off that box. But while bands can fall into the trap of creating 11 minutes long songs with one repetitive refrain, And No Star have built in structure and variety into theirs.

Meanwhile Foals’ time is very now. While the show at the Wheatsheaf last month was scrappy, tonight (after 3 weeks of touring) could be one of the defining moments of this young band. They have taken the best bits of The Rapture (irresistible bass lines and drums, cowbells), and some of the manic-ness of Battles, to create something that is quite hypnotic. But their references to styles that are so current could also be their downfall. While scenester kids will no doubt fall under their spell in the next 12 months, I wonder will they still be as popular in two years’ time? But why worry, it’s better to enjoy them now.

Headliners Xmas Lights have picked up loads of attention recently, so I had high hopes for their set. After the tuneful nature of Foals’ set it was difficult to listen to half an hour of Xmas Lights’ metal screaming and guitars. While there are people out there who would appreciate this type of music (angsty teenage boys perhaps?), this style was something that bewilders me.

Another interesting result of this project is how far the remixers have let loose their musical fantasies. The track remix by Lee from Smilex is immediately recognisable as it makes the Evenings’ track into something that would be suitable for the Prince back catalogue. In fact, guessing the remixer is a game that could be played while listening to the CD. Another remixer that can be identified quite easily Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element, whose remix is suitably dark and industrial sounding.

The joy of listening to this record is in teasing out the bits of the Evenings’ songs in amongst all the other bits that the remixers have thrown in. And also to see just how many ways a single track can be re-interpreted. The ambitious nature of this remix project means that not all the remixes work well. There are some that have cast a new angle on the Evenings’ songs, but there are also some remixes that makes me reach for my unremixed Evenings CDs.

The Evenings
Freedom Road Records