The Glasgow PodcART

Thursday the 19th of November was etched in bold black ink upon a piece of paper in my wallet, for some weeks beforehand. I often get facebook reminders, and set little memory joggers in my BlackBerry and I am thankful for such technological developments. However, if I REALLY want to remember something, the good old hand written note-to-self gets slotted in front of my cash card. It is often the favoured option for life’s important but less inspiring ‘must remember moments’ such as, credit card bill due … Remember to buy bread … Working overtime Wednesday, and the like. This time however, the purpose of said note-to-self was to make sure I made it to Pivo Pivo in Glasgow to see Campfires in Winter LIVE for the first time. I remembered. It was important. I was inspired.

Also gracing the cosy boards of Pivo Pivo on this typically wet November night were Heart Beats, Macabre Scene and The Morgue Party Candidate. Heart Beats were first up, and I don’t think they were too impressed at this fact. It seemed to really effect their performance, and this, along with some volume issues led to a visibly uncomfortable set from this trio of Jesus and Mary Chain/Velvet Underground inspired Glaswegians. A definite uneasiness appeared to be hindering proceedings, however this is a band that I think I would like to see live again when they are happier with their surroundings and the evenings order of proceedings, as I feel enough of an audio-taster was offered to warrant a second LIVE experience. Visit Heart Beats on Myspace at the link below – ‘We Make Jesus Cry (Death By Misadventure)’ is my starting point track.

Next up were Macabre Scene. Hailing from our fine Glasgow too, this happens to be another band that I am relatively unfamiliar with. I know we have played them on previous podcasts and I have always enjoyed their interesting and diverse efforts. I must say that getting to experience the LIVE energy in addition to their recorded material, has warmed me further to this band. They clearly aspire to construct well written and challenging songs. There is a great deal going on, but never quite too much to annoy, and activate the ‘for the sake of it sensor‘. Getting this balance of infectious hook and intricacy right is often rare in form for the many bands that try to strike it. The fruit of Macabre Scene’s labour is clear, and abundantly fuelled with love and dedication for what they are doing. Further evidence of this is apparent when the band meander through the crowd chatting to people and offering FREE cd’s of their most recent recording. That is what building a following is all about. Get on the case!!! Visit Macabre Scene at the link below – ‘We Eat Light’ is deliciously representative of that perfect balance.

The Morgue Party Candidate are the last offering before Camfires In Winter. Ross Stewart & Co. have written some awesome tracks. I love listening to this band, and I think that when they find their feet live, they will be a real force to be reckoned with. Sean and I spoke of the fact that there is a problem easily fixed when this band try to deliver their tracks live, in comparison to when they record them. I just don’t think they can hear each other, or themselves properly on stage. Simple as that. As a result the perfectly amalgamated mayhem that is MPC, becomes a little too untidy at times to just be untidy under the wide collective umbrella of Alternativeness. I say this with the best possible intentions, and cannot stress enough how much I genuinely believe that MPC have the potential to create an almost cult like following as they develop and grow. My gran always told me that it is sometimes necessary to be cruel to be kind, and that is as relevant in music writing as it is in any walk of life, as long as it is constructive. There are moments of true genius that excite me to the point of wanting to have a good old dance about, and I have heard a million bands with a better developed live sound that inspired no such feeling. MPC have the hard bit right, and that is a damn good position to be in. Visit The Morgue Party Candidate at the link below and get some ‘Iron and Thieves’ in your ears. I defy anybody not to hear the gigantic potential within.

I am now set for the moment where my excitement and eager anticipation is going to be justified by my first LIVE taster of Campfires In Winter. I always much prefer it when I catch a band live first and subsequently pick up their recorded material, so I am certainly wary of being disappointed. I have met Boab from Campfires a few times now in and around various Glasgow gig happenings, and when I meet the rest of the band I am surprised to find that they all look like they should be in different bands. There is an Emo, an 80’s rocker and a couple of checked shirt beardy faced fellas too (Merely observational application of very loose and wide reaching stereotypes). I love it that this band do not conform to that whole scene look of the current moment. I merely observe this books cover. I don’t judge it. I think it is immensely refreshing that this band don’t yet worry about creating a cohesive band image for their machine. It’s either not on their radar at all, or they have chosen not to do so as a master stroke of anti-polish so that muso types like me will be even more blown away when they hear them play. Ultimately, sounding so good they don’t need an image, IS their image.

Opening track ‘They Looked Just Like Fallen Leaves’ is a phenomenal slice of unsigned Scottish music. It is a track I have listened to several times on my mp3 player, and as the band play it live before me I realise I am going to be satisfied not saddened by Camfires.. live. Thoughts of Jimmy Eat World and Idlewild at their best fly in to my head. The musicality of the broad and natural Scots accent will be a reason why some people don’t like this band, and the reason why some particularly do. I personally love it. The relaxed delivery of the vocal is clearly a visual guise for an emotive lyric which is quite apparently connected with, and imparted on the audience by the voice that delivers it. I think also of a Scottish Editors for a brief moment before I am drawn to a very discrete rhythmic flow comparable to Snow Patrol. The direction this track takes in the last 2 minutes is absolute confirmation that this is a band I know I am going to love and follow very closely. I am certainly not alone, as my PodcART buddies Sean, Nic and Lou are equally aghast at the phenomenal instrumental build up before us. There is a brief, subtle and perfect introduction of keys and some perfectly executed time changes too that really impress. It is mighty loud in Pivo, but I manage to hear Lou yell to me that the Camfire boys may be her new favourite. Similarly, Sean can barely keep still to film and Nic looks about ready to bolt around in manic excitement like a kitten after a laser pen. This is collective appreciation of fine music, at it’s finest once again.

The Other highlight of this set for me is a track called ‘Mortigi Tempo’. What this means I am not sure, but in terms of music, tempo is time… and since most musical terminology is in italian (arpeggio, molto, allegro, etc.) i’d say it’s likely that it’s Italian, and that it means something to do with dead time because of the “mort-” in mortigi. Good effort??? I could be completely wrong, but it is way more fun to have a guess than it is to look it up, right? Whatever it means, it is a song I am happy to kill my time listening to over and over again, never knowing. Ok bollocks, I need to know. When I googled it, the phrase “ne purvivajo nur mortigi tempo” came up, which is apparently an Esperanto* phrase meaning Not Living, Just Killing time. I was close eh? This phrase was popularised by it’s use in the packaging of Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’, and the Radiohead track ‘True Love Waits’ includes this phrase as lyrics.

Perhaps the use of an international language is a reference via the vehicle of the track title (‘True Love Waits’) that the true universal language is that of love. If so, then it makes perfect sense to me that Campfires in Winter have referenced this, and attached a portion of it to their own track, as ‘Mortigi Tempo’ is a track I absolutely associate with goings on of the heart. Regardless of what the lyrics mean, or whether it is intended to or not, everything about this song makes me think a whole lot. It is a smouldering, moody and immensely provocative piece of music. It has a military rhythmic element to it that sounds like a thousand beating hearts. Hearts slowly building towards the realisation that they have no idea what they are beating faster for, yet completely unable to deny that they are. The doubled-up vocal in places makes me think of a voice inside ones head that mutters along with your thoughts, using the very same words but just in a completely different, and wholly significant tone of voice. This is a song that makes me have a definite physical reaction when I hear it. It stimulates thought. The meandering rhythm of the first couple of minutes, combined with the haunting vocal, really take me on a journey. A drop in intensity provided by an instrumental break lifts the tension, before the cycle repeats itself. We are transported around this sequence to a gradual drop that brings almost complete silence. Just beautiful, descending piano leads us in to a false sense of calm, returning our heart rate to normal, and then one of the fiercest and most epic conclusions to a song, and indeed tails of the heart I have heard in a long time kicks in. For two minutes I am blessed to be in the room. The point where it kicks in feels like an actual physical boot to the chest. Anybody not effected on some level by this song in some way is dead, like stone. All that is really left to be said is Thank you Campfires In Winter. You made a miserable and rainy night memorable.

*Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language, by the way.

www.myspace.com/campfiresinwinter
www.myspace.com/themorguepartycandidate
www.myspace.com/macabrescene
www.myspace.com/weareheartbeats

Ally Burton