Dudebox "Track Of The Spring"

I guess this could be the last Dudebox Track Of The Season review in this format – as this year has gone on it’s become more and more apparent that MySpace is well Over. Always a slightly clunky format, it looks like it’s been finally killed off by the twin attack of YouTube and Facebook. I’m finding more and more that new bands haven’t bothered with it, and old bands aren’t updating theirs. So until Facebook allows you to listen to bands’ music without Liking them – or until I decide I’m happy to Like every single band I come across, we might be approaching a Reviewing Impasse!

Still – that doesn’t mean we haven’t got some more great local music for you to listen to right here! Get it while you can!

((As always, I am duty-bound to announce the Disclaimer that none of these bands have asked us to review their music – in fact I’d be surprised if any of them ever realise we’ve done it! – but the point of the matter is to try and shine some lights onto all the corners of this always-surprisingly-large-and-vibrant-and-various local music scene. Break out the cutlery and let’s have some dinner. A dinner of Rock!))

MMT.


“All Burned Out”: KASTAPHOR

Forget MySpace or Facebook - Kastaphor are professional enough to have their own website with music on anyway – they play gigs in London, all over the adjoining counties, and at The Stables! They’ve got that kind of ‘polished’ ‘adult’ vibe, without being dull. Singer Emma has an incredibly soulful voice, there some excellent guitar soloing, and although it’s not really my sort of music it’s unarguably an accomplished song which you can imagine going down perfectly in a smoky rock club.


“Mexican Doom”: VOMIT WHORES

We reviewed Vomit Whores way back in our first ever Dudebox Track Of The Season review a couple of years back, and at the time I wasn’t sure if they might even be a joke band – but this is much better! The kind of queasy funk-edged metal you’d expect from Mike Patton fans, muscular and relentless. A punchy treat that doesn’t take itself too seriously.


“Gangsters”: IDOLTRIBE

We discovered this on DJ Michael’s Basement Music compilation, and for me their session version of this track was the standout track on that CD. It bounces along in an incredibly jaunty semi-acoustic manner, and then when the backing vocals kick in in the chorus you think “blimey, this is something special”. There’s even a bass solo! It’s the sort of song I feel compelled to learn the words to so I can sing / chant drunkenly along to – and I can’t give much higher praise than that!


“Hold Your Own”: KEEPER OF THE RIFLE

This season’s MK Metal Korner! As hairy and intense as you’d imagine, but reassuringly still has a strong sense of melody in amongst the shouting and growling. And as we’ve noted before in these reviews, the local metal bands seem to have no problem whatsoever in producing studio-quality recordings, this could easily be a long-established national band by the sound of this track. Love the solos too. (flicks devil horns)


“Farewell Goodbye”: ROSES AND PIRATES

Another lovely song by the R&P ladeez, our Track Of The Season winners last Summer with “The Rose”. This is altogether more reflective, a gentle lullaby for the end of a long and testing night. You can almost hear the bar staff trying to clear out the audience, who won’t leave till they’ve heard the final beautiful note fade.


“Flaming Sun”: WITHOUT REASON

Surfing the quiet-loud dynamic as well as any local band I’ve heard recently, this mixes beautiful vocal harmonies, a persistent groove from the bass, a casual yet cool solo and occasional full on hard-rock choruses. Another new name to me, but I’m hoping to catch them live very soon. We don’t have enough bands who sound like this.


“Is It Real Yet?”: FALL SHORT FOR GLORY

Some beautifully intricate lead guitar ushers us right into this sugary slice of punk-pop – it feels like a sunny day in FSFG’s world and I’m happy to be in it with them! That spiralling solo effect is almost mesmerising, but the rest of the song is impressive too – melodic, upbeat, well produced and an intriguing first experience of this band for me. I’m keen to hear more.


“Don’t Believe Her Smile”: ISABELLE

One of the most prolific of local bands – I can’t believe they’ve also got time to fit in running the excellent Sno!Bar Open Mic as well as their Leighton Buzzard gigs and social lives! – are back with another new album... and they’re so prolific that thing song isn’t even on it!! I love the keyboard on this – or it could even be an actual organ! Summery, soulful, sumptuous. They can’t miss at this kind of stuff.


RUNNER UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Red, Green, Black”: SOUTH SEA COMPANY

We may have reviewed them last time round as well, but this track especially shows a definite step on since we first heard them. It’s confident, mature (in a good way!) – the bass drives along a slowly building indie-pop gem. This is a really impressive song, indicating not just a good present but a very good future if they’re already at this standard!


DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Shyrite”: HOUSE OF JOHN PLAYER

Whatever else, it’s the different stuff that I really get excited by! Loops, synths, shuffly beats and vocals drifting between emotionless droning and an emotional falsetto. This is an excellent track – a standout among a bunch of almost-equally as impressive tracks. This dude played at the Sno!Bar a month or two back and I missed it – will be looking out for him in action again though. Hypnotic, a midsummer day’s dream.

ON AIR:MK CD Review

“ON AIR:MK” – Live Sessions Of ‘Basement Music’
Review by MMT.

Basement Music on MySpace
Basement Music on Facebook

We’ll get to the other reasons to buy a copy of “On Air:MK” in a minute, but #1 and surely the Main Reason – it’s a really good compilation by a load of MK acts! Musak technology has improved to the point where it’s actually reassuringly easy to get together a collection of local band recordings these days – but that doesn’t always mean they’re going to be good collections!

But this 21-track extravaganza, culled from roughly a billion live sessions (give or take) recorded by DJ Michael Andrews and his team over the first year-and-a-bit of his “Basement Music” show on CRMK? This is good. So that’s reason enough alone – from the opening clatter of “Crash & Burn” by the excellent SuperMassiveMonkeyMen via the rolling “The Call” by City By Dawn to the scattergun rap of Soul which closes the CD – it’s a great mix of the sorts of bands they have on every single flippin' week!

People are downright sick of me & Phil banging on about the great local acts we see all over the place at acoustic open mics, full on gig gigs and all sorts of super festivals in town, so it’s a pleasure to hear so many of the performers we enthuse over collected together by someone else who appreciates them: people like Seeking Salvation Through Love, Isabelle, and YC Olie are familiar treats to us by now. But there’s new stuff here too, bands we’ve never heard before. The jaunty but tuneful “Gangsters” by Idoltribe is one of the best tracks featured, I’ll definitely be looking out for them on the local circuit now. Likewise Beds act Embrace The City, whose full electric sound doesn’t lose any energy in this acoustic translation.

One of the things I like best about the compilation is that they’ve left in some of the rawness of the sessions. Several of the tracks open with the artist’s own introduction from the show, and on occasion we hear DJ Michael himself chatting with the acts. So it may be a bit rough round the edges, but that’s all part of the ‘live session’ charm. Having said that, several of the bands manage to create a full sound despite the tinyness of the CRMK studios (the excellent dance act Dusque especially).

Though not every single track is necessarily My Cup Of Tea, it’s also a nice mix of genres – though there is a lot of acoustic stuff (due to the nature of the studio) it covers lots of differing flavours therein (folky, soulful, lo-fi, poppy, rocky), and there’s also dancier sounds (hip-hop n’ scratching from Soul & DJ Kraze1 and funky grooves: Dusque again). And some of the acts do something a little different from their usual work – there’s a beautiful ukulele version of “Old Rosie” by Dudebox regular, the artist formerly known as Project Wolverine.

Reason #2. Though we absolutely and loyally support Basement Music and all who sail in her, we’re just not able listen every week. It’s a crying shame given how much work Michael does for local music – and so if you, like us, can’t listen to every single show, buy this instead! Use it as a handy compendium of all the great stuff you’ve missed!

Reason #3. It’s for charity. And a charity close to home to some of the people involved in the compilation too (Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund). And that’s a reason you really can’t argue with. Dig deep. And rock on.

Mitchell Taylor ALBUM

“Tales From Albion” by MITCHELL TAYLOR

Review: Phil

The record opens in a pub barroom with “Pub Politics” in which a carefree Mitchell tells us "we're all going to die, so let’s enjoy tonight, let’s not fuss and fight." Casually throwing caution to the wind for one more pint over conversation involving furniture and revolutionary politics, the record plunges us into the uncertain world of being 18 and in England in the first decade of the 21st Century. It’s a world he paints clearly as he lets us glimpse fleeting images of life through his eyes that capture all the joy, heartache, ambivalence and certainty of life just on the edge of adulthood.

“Tales From Albion” is the exceptional debut album from Mitchell Taylor - at 18, the artist formally known as Project Wolverine has recorded something of a masterpiece carefully assembled into ten superbly crafted songs. Yes, it’s high praise but it’s well deserved as the culmination of several years’ hard work. In 2009 and 2010 Mitchell Taylor (under the name Project Wolverine) released two albums - 2009's “Life, Love, Loss & Politics” and 2010’s “Lost Boy Blues”, two great lo-fi records that sometimes played more like demos but showed an artist with a burgeoning talent - and it is songs culled and re-recorded from these two collections that make up the bulk of “Tales From Albion”. But even then, with two lo-fi albums and a string of impressive live performances under his belt, the leap to “Tales From Albion” is still a very big one and not just in the production or the addition of a smattering of extra instruments - or the near perfect performances captured in these recordings. It is in the songs he's chosen and the order they play. If being an artist is about making decisions then Mitchell has made all the right ones here. He has recorded an album that is above all shockingly cohesive and single-minded in its vision.

On “Daily Mail” Mitchell proclaims that his generation just need some clarification that they are the future of this nation, sliding the statement next to the image of him and some friends being moved on by a policeman for loitering. He explains it wasn’t like they really meant to cause any trouble, they were just looking for somewhere to hang. On “Cold Baked Beans”, Mitchell sounds defeated and lonely in a world consumed by rampant consumerism, and he takes the same tone later on the album with “England”, an alternative anthem that paints an England defeated and cold - yet the song still sounds patriotic, the sadness conveying the curious love we all have deep inside for our cynical island. On “Socialism Is For Lovers” Mitchell worries about the life of debt he's destined to live after university while he expresses his darkest fears for the future on “Coalition Blues” when he paints a dystopian future without a National Health Service.

Mitchell’s 21st Century England is a dark and cynical place, obsessed with consumerism and rampant with lazy tabloid journalists and overzealous policemen ready to pull apart today’s youth at every turn, but it is also an England cluttered with characters - friend and foe - whose encounters fill the lyrics of every song like Polaroid snapshots tacked onto a bedroom wall. The album’s final two tracks take us even closer to home; what picture of teenage life would be complete without the girl he pines for on “Loves You More Than I” and asks “is there a man who loves you more than I?” The final track ("Some Girl"), framed inside an encounter with a police officer who tells Mitchell he looks like a thief, has him responding that he's not looking to steal, he's just looking for love. There's hope still for Mitchell in his dark world of policemen and politicians. Yes, his subject matter can be heavy but this doesn’t stop the album being enjoyable and uplifting in its youthful exuberance.

“Tales From Albion” is a meteoric step forward, well arranged and almost perfectly crafted, and with just enough fray around the edges to retain the rawness we loved on his earlier records. Throughout the record the smattering of extra instruments is just enough to keep the record interesting but not so many that it takes the focus away from Mitchell as a solo artist. From the drums on “Cold Baked Beans”, the strings on “Coalition Blues” and the uprising of instruments on “Some Girl”, the balance is never over-powering leaving Mitchell with his tunes and his lyrics to take centre stage. “Tales From Albion” is nothing short of a masterpiece from the prolific Mitchell Taylor, for forty minutes or so he lets us see the world through his eyes and this is his greatest achievement. He sounds like the voice of his generation; he shows us how the youth see the world of today and he dares us not to ignore him. And ignoring an album as good as this would be criminal.

CELLARTAPES

The Cellartapes Experience
(Reviewer - MMT)

There’s something infinitely mysterious about the Cellartapes label. Or maybe it’s just that my ordered librarian’s mind seeks always to define and classify – Cellartapes seem to defy definition, and that’s what I find so perversely intriguing about them. A superlative example of how groups of creative minds can come together via the Internet and create whole scenes under their own steam – in Cellartapes’ case a brilliant batch of electronica, dance, ambient, trance, jam-band and other types of music I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe.

Anyway, the many and various acts signed (well, maybe signed isn’t the right word. They’re more mysterious than that!) - affiliated to the Cellartapes label can all be seen at their page on the ReverbNation site. Which I must admit is also a site I find very mysterious! Kind of an alternative MySpace which is also able to compile local download charts… now that does interest my librarian’s mind.

OTL, described as “the producer and technical studio dogsbody at the centre of operations” is a character we know pretty well from Real Life™. But that’s about as much as we do know. Though if you’ve been beautiful and shrewd enough to buy yourself a copy of the latest “Monkey Kettle & Friends Rock” compilation CD, you might already be familiar with Invisible Rhino's “Charge Consumer”. Invisible Rhino describe themselves as making “Dancing Upside-down Music”. Which is about right. Bouncy, atmospheric mood dance. “In Imitation Of Our Better Selves” is a particularly good example, evolving into a squelchy track that’s almost industrial at times. “Credit Card Or Bust” is even stompier.

Mucky Badger has possibly the best name among the Cellartapes artists, and my favourite track by him / them has probably the best track name too: “Billie Moo Moos Again” – presumably referring to the lowing noise which drifts in and out over the jittery rhythm and cartoon chattering. While Stasis looks like it’s another name under which OTL himself records, this time in a much more ambient / dreamlike mode – and one which I enjoyed in particular, the moody “Ducks Of Midnight” a particular standout. And it would appear The Ninth Tentacle is also OTL (though you never know!!), here in ongoing dancey jams featuring spiralling electric guitars (such as “i believe in milko” (the title a subtle “Home & Away” reference I think!) and the excellently atmospheric “Developing Fluid”) – maybe the best place to start for those people who like guitars!

Definitely a band in their own right – because we’ve seen them play live several times! – are Dusque, who are a groovy synthy outfit with punchy rhythms and a summery vibe. If you ever get the chance to check them out live, you definitely should.

Some of the acts do appear to be based further afield, Alex Final who makes off-kilter blocks of robot poetry appears to be from California; Coccinella’s trancey synths are from the Netherlands; while Bachuus looks like he’s from Denmark and records the sort of laid-back stuff that someone like me who doesn’t listen to enough of this sort of stuff might call “chillwave”. But maybe this is all recorded in Emerson Valley, who knows?

So, some of the above artists may or may not be the same people. Or some of the same people in different combinations. Or some different people under the same pseudonyms, for that matter. We just don’t know. That's how mysterious the whole Cellartapes affair is, and y’know what? That’s the way I like it. The only real answers are the tracks – which are smashing. Come on in.

Final Clearance - ALBUM

The year is only two and a bit months old, and here at Monkey Kettle Towers we’ve already heard two full-length, professionally produced albums by local musicians which would be nailed-on Album Of The Year contenders in most years – but the fact they’ve come so early on in 2011 makes me agog about what else we may get to hear this year from the local circuit!

Reasonably soon, Phil will be regaling us with his thoughts on The Artist Formerly Known As Project Wolverine, but in the meantime let me wax enthusiastic about “No Love Lost” by the always exciting Final Clearance.

Obviously my hopefully-not-too-creepily-oversold love for their sound has already been covered here on The Dudebox, but this set of songs recorded at The Lodge Studios in Northampton sounds as polished, well-produced and textured as pretty much anything I have ever heard by a “Milton Keynes Band”. Perhaps the most telling moment was when the jaw-dropping “Synth Song” came on my mp3 player’s random shuffle while walking to work and for the first time ever with a local band I didn’t realise I wasn’t listening to a commercially released label act. It was only when I looked at the track display that the penny dropped. This wasn’t a Killers or Depeche Mode album track I’d forgotten I had – this was the work of an ambitious band from my very doorstep.

And that’s not to say that they sound derivative, either – in fact they’re possibly harder to pin down to a genre than any other local act. It’s indie-rock, sure, but it’s not the usual metal-tinged or punk-edged standards (though it does rock out in places: “Deadly Obsession” kicks in furiously and “Rebound” stamps along with great big seven-league boots), rather FC are occasionally folky, sometimes poppy, even Soulful once in a while.

Tom assures us he’s far happier with the songs on this – their second full album – which reflect a more mature place in his life than their previous work, but to me that’s always been one of the reasons to dig Final Clearance most of all among their contemporaries. Their sound is “Grown-Up” without being dull. In a scene where most bands have split up by the time they’re 20 it’s so refreshing to hear what comes next. Their song-writing, both Tom’s lyrics and musically as a band, is genuinely very very good. From the rumble of the drums and the choppy guitars which kick off “In This World” via the solid drive of the bass parts to the wistful piano which heralds “Sleeping” and the imperious organ which opens and underpinned the empassioned finale "Hush". They’re all extremely tight performers. You can tell they’ve been playing together as a unit for some time, that tightness don't come easy.

Of course of course of course, the haunting voice of the violin calls out to me always too, turning my heart to mush. There’s cello which hits me deep in the chest as well, courtesy of prolific orchestratess Nicole Collarbone. And trombone too! You wouldn’t get that on any tracks by this year’s latest screamo teens. Except possibly if they were skacore!

Not only are the production values of the actual music worthy of superlative praise, but the whole package is slick, professional and in this latter-day world of downloads and streaming still a CD artifact worth buying: lyrics, photos, a full-on proper insert booklet like there used to be. Cool.

On “No Love Lost” Final Clearance have set the bar very high indeed. I hope we hear plenty more from them over the next few years, I think they genuinely could have a chance of going somewhere way beyond the borders of MK – and I’m honestly looking forward to watching them try. In the meantime, you really really should try and hear a copy of this album. For real.

MMT.

Dudebox "Track Of The Autumn"

Happy Christmas, Dudebox readers, and a Merry Nu-Year too! As 2010 draws to a blissed out snowy climax, what better way to end the year than with one final Dudebox Review Of Some Local Bands’ MySpaces? This time on the 'turntables' it's MMT & Phil, musing on another great few months on the MK Music Scene!

(regular disclaimer: these bands haven’t asked us to review their MySpaces, we’re doing it because we dig local music and are always trying to bring you something new. Something you might not have come across before – it’s a big town. So jump in - and don’t forget to place your bets now as to what point in the reviewing Phil is going to first mention Sonic Youth!)


“Ideas For A Weekend”: SOUTH SEA COMPANY
[[Only formed this year, but SSC have already played some notable gigs, and their sound is an intriguingly refreshing indie rock one]]

MMT: Sounds like a slightly post-Britpop, melodic… very well produced. It’s not far off the edge of some shoegazing bands actually, got a sort of… reverby vibe to it.
Phil: It’d be good driving music, actually. The sort of thing I might put on in the morning and listen to while I’m driving along.
MMT: This is the song I like best on their MySpace.


“Let Me Go”: CANVAS
[[A boy-girl acoustic duo, though I can’t tell if they’re still gigging. If they ARE, we’re interested!]]

Phil: I’m enjoying this straight away. It sounds modern. Indieish, but slightly bluesy indieish. I like it.
MMT: Reading on their MySpace it looks like they may have evolved into a full band more recently, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen them advertised anywhere. It’s a funny world, MySpace. I still don’t like the new layout.
Phil: I’d like to see them at an open mic or a gig.


“We are here, we are waiting Pt. II”: WEAREWOLF
[[If it seems like we review an inordinate amount of intensely proggy and / or metally bands from MK, it’s only an indication of how many there are proportionately on the local scene at any one time! Here’s another, who played some high profile gigs at The Craufurd Arms in the last few months…]]

MMT: Interesting that the recordings by all the metally bands in Milton Keynes is, on average, of a much higher production standard than any other genre.
Phil: I’m liking it so far… I love all this melodic stuff at the beginning. I like the chilled out bits and pieces. There are a lot of bands doing this well right now.
MMT: Where do you stand on the Screamy Vocal / Singy Vocal dynamic generally?
Phil: I would prefer just a Singy Vocal, though I don’t mind a little bit of Screamy.


“Lemonade Pockets”: DUKE OF MARMALADE
[[A hard-edged indie rock act who we were lucky enough to see play live recently when they stepped in at the last minute to help us out in our ‘dress rehearsal’ for the new “Monkey Kettle Presents…” music promotion!]]

MMT: One of my favourite things about them when we saw them live was the little… footwork the lead singer was doing while he was playing – what he was playing was quite complex as well. Clearly very tight musicians, performance-wise. They made it look deceptively easy.
Phil: I liked the diversity of their set too. I liked the deliberate feedback – too many bands try and go for a polished sound all the time. I enjoy this track.


“No Tomorrow”: SAHARA C
[[Zimbabwean-born but living in MK, Sahara is an RnB singer who’s done very well in national songwriting contests over the last few years.]]

Phil: I have to say, RnB isn’t really my genre –
MMT: (astonished) It’s not?
Phil: - but I’m liking her voice, and the little flourishes of the production. It breezes along. You can imagine hearing it in a bar somewhere.
MMT: It sounds like mainstream RnB. I mean it sounds ‘national’, not ‘local’. It’s summery.
Phil: It’s professionally put together.
MMT: Have you ever liked any RnB?
Phil: (long pause) … I kinda liked the first Rage Against The Machine album.


“Ghosts”: PROJECTNOISE
[[A diverse-sounding bunch: indie, dub, post-rock, instrumental, punk, hip-hop, folk – s’all on their MySpace!]]

MMT: It’s an eclectic mix of styles… It’s good that you can’t pigeonhole them into one thing.
Phil: Yeah, I enjoy the random sound. I really like them.
MMT: I like this bit that’s gone down into just bass. And I really like their band manifesto on MySpace [which includes ‘…if you can’t understand us, f**k off and listen to the radio”].
Phil: I think that’s right. That’s why it reminds me of Sonic Youth, really. When you get things that are really ‘different’, it’s hard to say if they’re good or bad. It’s preference.
MMT: I really like how this has turned out, the kind of chuggy reggae-beat bounce…
Phil: What I liked when I saw them live [at the “Shocktower” Halloween festival] was how their songs would blend into each other as well. It’s music without rules. It’s definitely something I like. They’re a box of tricks – you don’t really know what you’re going to get.


“Alejandro”: INVOCATION
[[A bit of fun, maybe – but definitely worth a listen! Last we could tell, Invocation was the side project of one of the guitarists in the brilliant Machinist – this is a genius prog metal remix of a pop fave!]]

Phil: It makes her sound like Evanescence!
MMT: It’s actually one of my least favourite Lady Gaga singles, but he’s made it better…
Phil: I think it sounds great!
MMT: I just love the fact it even exists!
Phil: People should do more of that, playing around and messing around with music.


“Ophelia”: GLASS TEARS
[[An experienced folky jazzy trio such as you might see on the Stony Stratford circuit or at a chilled out festival in a field]]

Phil: I quite like this straight away, it’s very Joni Mitchell, very 60s / 70s kinda vibe. It’s very folky. Folky pop music. Thoughtful, lyrical stuff.
MMT: The recording is very clear, you can hear the nice calm bass. It’s gonna sound very muso-ey, but I like the sound of the guitar. And I love the way – though this isn’t necessarily ‘my kind of music’ – that it’s built into a more emotional…
Phil: I like the building. You get sucked into it. She’s got a great voice. It’s done with heart.


RUNNER-UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE AUTUMN

“Thalassophobia”: SCARED OF THE OCEAN
[[Yes, it’s another Milton Keynes metally outfit – but definitely at the ‘upper end’ of the genre]]

MMT: Thalassophobia means ‘fear of the sea’, hence ‘Scared Of The Ocean’, that’s very clever!
Phil: It’s good – I’m liking the bass just now.
MMT: It’s ‘broken down’. I love that echoey vocal in the middle – and there we are back into the metal! I mean, fair enough, it’s metal – but it’s got angles to it. Layers. I dig it.
Phil: Really like them. Definitely my favourite of the more metally bands this time round.


DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE AUTUMN

“Never Returned”: FAULTLINES
[[We saw this off-kilter progressive indie trio play at one of the Sunset Acoustic Lounge’s spin-off music nights at the Red Dot Bar, stadium:MK this Autumn, and absolutely loved them! And their MySpace recordings are just as impressive!]]

MMT: I love that guitar sound. I dunno what effect that is? Is it distortion?
Phil: Distortion, definitely. Though it might be flanger and / or a phaser. They were the most exciting band on that night.
MMT: Some of it is reasonably straight-forward hard rock, but just some of the… sounds being created by the guitarist, and the unpredictability about where each song was gonna go… ‘where are they going to go next? Oh, they’ve gone that way, that’s brilliant!’
Phil: To me, this sounds timeless.
MMT: Lovely solo as well, one of those ‘space solos’ I really like. Beamed back by satellite. And then back in with the riff. Cool.

BASEMENT MUSIC

"Basement Music On CRMK", or "A Short Article About Something Really Great"

Words by: Phil W.

Back in January 2010, I attended a small launch party for a new show on Milton Keynes's internet based local radio station CRMK. The show was Basement Music, the brain-child of budding radio DJ Michael Andrews. The Concept: to promote original local music from all over Milton Keynes, covering all genres. Every week he'd get a different act in the studio, interview them and get them to play a few songs... and in-between he'd play nothing but music recorded by Milton Keynes bands and artists, and talk about and plug everything from open mic's to gigs at the Sno!Bar. It’s a home-grown Milton Keynes story of a passion for local music, rather like CRMK itself.

CRMK (Cable Radio Milton Keynes) has its roots at the very start of Milton Keynes along with the Milton Keynes TV station. The TV station is long gone but CRMK still struggles along with unpaid DJ’s and local volunteers, and a criminally small listenership. At some point, around the time that local radio began its slow extinction, CRMK was taken over by Horizon. Under Horizon things weren't too bad really but once Heart took over CRMK lost its analogue signal and was only accessible via the internet. The upshot of course is that they can basically broadcast what they like (though if you go on the show you have to try not to swear!). It’s still broadcast from the same studios as it was back in the 80's and stepping inside the small, wood-panelled studio with the huge mixing desk and the red "On Air" lamp is an exciting experience for any aspiring DJ or artist - and the first stop for numerous DJ hopefuls over the years including, from January this year, Michael Andrews.

"The Milton Keynes music scene is so separated into lots of different groups and each one is very insular," commented Michael. "If only we could bring them all together in one place." And that’s pretty much exactly what Basement Music does. Since January over thirty acts have walked through his studio doors including Footswitch, Project Wolverine, Roses & Pirates, Phil Sky, Dusque, Seeking Salvation Through Love, The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy, Scribe, Bine The Peg and Tombstone Bullets to name a few. When Dusque performed live they arrived an hour before their set and carted their entire arsenal of stage equipment into the tiny studio for a fully plugged in set. This really is a great thing going on. And there's more to come, Michael tells me he's fully booked with acts until January now.

I was in the CRMK studio again in October and have been a regular listener throughout the year. In the 21st century, a show like Basement Music is a more relevant thing than ever before. Macbooks have given every aspiring artist studio-quality recordings and across the board the standard of the tracks Michael plays is universally good. And there really is something to be said for the diversity of the Milton Keynes music scene, even if it can be a little insular. There’s something about this being a new city - that so many different groups of people have come together relatively recently into one place that gives Milton Keynes such a thriving arts scene, music included. In a world where bands big and small are more and more frequently going it alone, free of the record labels, an independent radio station like this just makes sense. Never before have so many high quality recordings been available to capture a thriving local music scene.

But despite this, The Man is always lurking round the corner. Rumour has it that Heart FM, CRMK's current owners, would like to close the studio down, ending the last bastion of local, independent radio in Milton Keynes. And to lose it really would be a sad thing. If you're in a band, it’s unlikely you'd be able to get your song played on Heart, let along drop in the studio and play a live set.

So if you can find the time, tune in to Basement Music, 7:30 till 9 every Thursday evening and support local music and local radio.