Post by iwasonceaboy on Dec 28, 2005 17:23:35 GMT
Well, i was going to start this fanzine with some of my friends but in the end only two fo them bothered to send me anything..... my contribution was a WITW review that i wrote whilst on a train back from london... the fanzine never took off- but i kept the review just in case.... so here it is, i have no other home for it, but im sure it will feel right at home here....
Patrick Wolf- Wind In The Wires (Out Now)
In ages past, traditional troubadours would travel the length and breadth of the country playing at every nearby settlement, and collecting the sounds of the local area to cultivate into their own songs, before packing up and traveling further along the blessed road to the next town. And, just a countless troubadours before him, Mr. Wolf has collected, collated and cherry picked the very essence of Cornall and all its fantastical and magical climate into an amazing second coming of innovative 'folktronica'- meaning “the blending of traditional folk music with electronic production and instrumentation”- which is exactly what sets him apart from his lazy contemporaries and his troubadour predecessors- the dual use of electronic sounds and traditional orchestration which sum up to a highly impressive display of musical instruments and sounds, all written, performed and produced by himself.
As for the album itself- it documents his stay in the bleak and desolate landscape of Cornwall where the increasing isolation and solitude cause him to reflect and rediscover his stance as an outsider and self-confessed libertine and taking on the very notions of 'freedom' in this commercial, quick-buck-follow-a-trend music scene that constantly drives him to create more and more original songs. In the opening track 'The Libertine', the galloping piano, viola, electronic hunt (that needs to be listened to on headphones to be able to hear the fast movement of the production)describes the world he has set him self free from “ in this drought of truth and invention/ Whoever shouts the loudest gets the most attention/ So we pass the mic and they've got nothing to say except:/ Bow down, bow down, bow down to your god” declaring with the greatest of vigor that he “Can't/And I wont/Bow down anymore”. However, this unbound freedom comes at the price of not wishing to be rooted and never being sure where his heart truly belongs “to marry these untold blisses/and anchor this lost soul” on second track 'Teignmouth' and “I am not going to set myself free here/ I am following some dark fortune/some circle in me” on 'This Weather', also illustrate how free he truly is and how his freedom is constantly in danger “the golden gate/the closing cloud” from 'Jacobs Ladder', “like a bird in an aviary/Singing to the sky/Singing to be free” from recent single 'Wind In The Wires' and most notably “many a pilgrim died unseen... in that fire to be free” from the apt end of 'Lands End'- a shimmering choral hymn to all who venture to that treacherous 'wild stretch of land' in search of truth and fulfillment.
Other songs like 'Tristan'- a beating electrodinostomp hit-single-in-waiting that would make Trent Reznor wake up in a lake of cold sweat, deals with the very characteristics of the aforementioned 'live fast, die young' lifestyle of todays youth “Forever young/ I come from God nows where/ 'Cos now I'm here/Without a hope or a care.... I am Tristan/And i am alive!” he howls like a deranged coyote- which exemplifies his talent as a singer, not just a songwriter, as his voice and pitch seem to reach all levels with him layering his alluring and lustrous vocals one on top of each other, and likewise with his instruments- he creates these vast array of land and seascapes of sound that would undoubtedly swallow him whole if it wasn't for his supreme control over his work, that of which so many musicians fail to cope with.
Yet this an album of great beauty and reprise with joyous violin and percussion to such songs as 'Lands End' being Patrick's mantra to himself “Now your doing battle with the fickle press.... /its all the same/ And you've seen this before... So you tell 'em/ I leaving London for Lands End/ With a green tent and a Violin” to overcome the world that has tried so often to suppress his talent “Too many jeers/Not enough cheers/ but when you sing you've got nothing to hide” because he has conquered his complex and overcome his fears to become what he always wanted to be: a musician of visionary status, unconstrained to the the industry that so many befall.
Patrick Wolf- Wind In The Wires (Out Now)
In ages past, traditional troubadours would travel the length and breadth of the country playing at every nearby settlement, and collecting the sounds of the local area to cultivate into their own songs, before packing up and traveling further along the blessed road to the next town. And, just a countless troubadours before him, Mr. Wolf has collected, collated and cherry picked the very essence of Cornall and all its fantastical and magical climate into an amazing second coming of innovative 'folktronica'- meaning “the blending of traditional folk music with electronic production and instrumentation”- which is exactly what sets him apart from his lazy contemporaries and his troubadour predecessors- the dual use of electronic sounds and traditional orchestration which sum up to a highly impressive display of musical instruments and sounds, all written, performed and produced by himself.
As for the album itself- it documents his stay in the bleak and desolate landscape of Cornwall where the increasing isolation and solitude cause him to reflect and rediscover his stance as an outsider and self-confessed libertine and taking on the very notions of 'freedom' in this commercial, quick-buck-follow-a-trend music scene that constantly drives him to create more and more original songs. In the opening track 'The Libertine', the galloping piano, viola, electronic hunt (that needs to be listened to on headphones to be able to hear the fast movement of the production)describes the world he has set him self free from “ in this drought of truth and invention/ Whoever shouts the loudest gets the most attention/ So we pass the mic and they've got nothing to say except:/ Bow down, bow down, bow down to your god” declaring with the greatest of vigor that he “Can't/And I wont/Bow down anymore”. However, this unbound freedom comes at the price of not wishing to be rooted and never being sure where his heart truly belongs “to marry these untold blisses/and anchor this lost soul” on second track 'Teignmouth' and “I am not going to set myself free here/ I am following some dark fortune/some circle in me” on 'This Weather', also illustrate how free he truly is and how his freedom is constantly in danger “the golden gate/the closing cloud” from 'Jacobs Ladder', “like a bird in an aviary/Singing to the sky/Singing to be free” from recent single 'Wind In The Wires' and most notably “many a pilgrim died unseen... in that fire to be free” from the apt end of 'Lands End'- a shimmering choral hymn to all who venture to that treacherous 'wild stretch of land' in search of truth and fulfillment.
Other songs like 'Tristan'- a beating electrodinostomp hit-single-in-waiting that would make Trent Reznor wake up in a lake of cold sweat, deals with the very characteristics of the aforementioned 'live fast, die young' lifestyle of todays youth “Forever young/ I come from God nows where/ 'Cos now I'm here/Without a hope or a care.... I am Tristan/And i am alive!” he howls like a deranged coyote- which exemplifies his talent as a singer, not just a songwriter, as his voice and pitch seem to reach all levels with him layering his alluring and lustrous vocals one on top of each other, and likewise with his instruments- he creates these vast array of land and seascapes of sound that would undoubtedly swallow him whole if it wasn't for his supreme control over his work, that of which so many musicians fail to cope with.
Yet this an album of great beauty and reprise with joyous violin and percussion to such songs as 'Lands End' being Patrick's mantra to himself “Now your doing battle with the fickle press.... /its all the same/ And you've seen this before... So you tell 'em/ I leaving London for Lands End/ With a green tent and a Violin” to overcome the world that has tried so often to suppress his talent “Too many jeers/Not enough cheers/ but when you sing you've got nothing to hide” because he has conquered his complex and overcome his fears to become what he always wanted to be: a musician of visionary status, unconstrained to the the industry that so many befall.
