Album review: Flutes - Flutes

It's always nice when something amazing by an artist you've never heard of before arrives in your inbox. This was the case when I reviewed Flutes' debut single Auld Archie a few months back. At least when you've listened to an artist previously you have some sort of idea what to expect. Or sometimes you've only heard a friend mention the artist, so you recognise the name when a release appears even if you haven't heard them playing yet. With Flutes, I'd heard nothing. Not a thing. Zilch. So when the Auld Archie came out of nowhere I was dumbstruck. I remember at the time listening for hours to music that was clichéd and jaded and uninspired, and I was getting tired and bored and was ready to give up for the night. Then this appeared. This sprawling, wondrous beast completely blindsided me. I listened to it on repeat for hours. So when I the album appeared a few weeks later, I first listened with a wee bit of trepidation. Could it live up to the potential the single indicated? I needn't have worried...

The album kicks off with the aforementioned Auld Archie, but I've already dressed it in enough superlatives for you to know my opinion. But essentially that high standard is achieved throughout. It's What's Between That Makes Us Happy is a jauntier affair with its picked guitar lines and laid-back trumpet, whereas This Is No Country For Old Men is altogether more brooding, its chiming guitar and sparse drums all held together with a dense, imposing bass lines. A highlight of the album is Dolores, a straight-up rock song which sounds like something Idlewild could've written between the albums 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part.

Lyrically, singer Godfrey McFall keeps things pretty vague throughout the album, eschewing any apparent narrative in favour of strong imagery and seemingly unrelated sentences placed together. The only real break with this style is This Is A Lift, which details what sounds to be a rather bitter break up. The grandiose nature of the music itself allows the obscurity of McFall's lines to work, beautifully colouring the images created. It's a difficult style to do well, and can alienate the listener if too vague, but Flutes have it nailed.

You get the sense the band have 'crafted' this album, keeping in mind how the whole thing will sound as a finished piece rather than just chucking a load of songs together to make up numbers. There's an fairly dark aesthetic throughout, but not too dark so as to be impenetrable. The whole thing works brilliantly. It is epic. Expansive. Layered. Textured. Imposing but spacious. Varied but coherent. A truly wonderful album.A real triumph.

Fin.

Flutes - Flutes: Track By Track

 I have to hold my hands up, recently I have been neglecting the blog a bit. It's not that I don't love running this site, I am still as passionate as ever about new music, I simply don't have the time to keep on top of things nowadays. Running Olive Grove, managing Randolph's Leap, being a dad, husband and having a real life job, surprisingly doesn't leave me with too much time come and have good old ramble on here. Hopefully as things calm down a bit in the New Year I'll have more time to post about music that I have been enjoying. Which in a very roundabout way brings me to the band Flutes and their self-titled debut album which came out at the start of this week. Some of you might remember that I featured them as a Fresh Meat band all the way back in September, which was followed by this review by Boab of their last single, Auld Archie.

Now for me personally, Auld Archie is up there as one of the best songs that I had heard all year, so I had very high expectations for this album and I am pleased to say that I wasn't disappointed. Flutes self-titled album is one of my favourite albums of 2012, what makes it even more special for me is that quite simply I didn't see it coming. On a daily basis I get loads of music sent to me, some of which is pretty good, some not so and some which makes me want to rip my own ears off. Flutes though had something that bit special about them that made me stand up and take notice, in what I could best describe as WTF moment.

In many ways the album reminds me of a combination of numerous Scottish bands that I love, from De Rosa to Frabbit, there's even a wee splash of what I would describe as being John Knox Sex Club-esq in there. Then again I don't think it's fair to try and pigeon hole them like that, as it's so much more than that. Anyway, it was for that reason that I decided to ask Godfrey from the band to talk you through an album that I love and I hope you do too...



Auld Archie 

I'm not really sure how this ended up sounding so massive and aggressive, but I'm glad we ended up there.  I'd had some ideas around the lyrics for a few days and had been trying to fit them around Rob's repeated guitar part which underpins the tune.  When we sat in his flat in Maida Vale, the lyrics seemed to work quite well although we were concerned the track didn't really go anywhere and had concerns around the level of repetition.  We then took it to Andy (bass, piano) and Alex (drums) who really nailed the dynamics.  Initially Alex was really anti the big swing beat although we eventually persuaded him and he now loves playing it live (I think).  The extra instruments (choir, clarinet, cello, organ, piano) were all added during the production process with Jamie Savage (from Olympic Swimmers) pushing us to experiment more than we ever had before.  We asked a couple of friends of ours to play the cello/clarinet parts referencing The Clangers (wee weird stop motion mousy looking fellas who live on a moon) and a Radiohead track called Life in a Glasshouse.  Louise (cello) and Trish (clarinet) have been playing together for years and both just went insane with their parts - I remember sitting in the studio being totally in awe of them.  The final bit was the choir which was a recorded really late at night at Chem19.  We asked the other band if they'd be up for singing in exchange for a couple of tins...and then Jamie worked his magic on the mix.  We knew it had to be the first single as I think we're all pretty proud of how this one turned out. 

It's What's Between That Makes Us Happy

Probably the only tune on the album you can actually have a wee groove to.  This is one Rob penned on his tod and I contributed a couple of lines here and there.  It's got a weird structure and initially we found it really tough to play as a band.  It's unusual for us as well as it cracks in straight from the start - something only a couple of our tunes do.  I think the refrain of 'Give us love, give us loss, give us all that's in between' is beautiful and am incredibly pissed off that I didn't write it.  In fact, it's a bone of contention in the band and Rob and I regularly have bare knuckle fist fights about it mid way through the final chorus. 

This is No Country For Old Men

I think this is one of the older tracks on the album and in fact it was written when we were still called Pushboxer.  As with Auld Archie, Rob had written a cracking guitar part and I was trying to find a melody/some lyrics that would compliment it.  My grandad was on his last legs at that point and was receiving some pretty below par treatment in the hospital he was in...hence the title 'This Is No Country For Old Men'.  The song's written from his point of view reflecting on his life during his last few days among us.  I feel like this was the first song we wrote where we started to push ourselves in a different direction (from the Editors covers band we once were).  Andy and Alex really clicked on this tune and I love when the drums kick in.  Jamie then pushed us to add the massive guitar crash at the start.  We were all pretty resistant at first, but I love it now as I feel like I'm in Mogwai (if only for 3 or 4 seconds) when we play it live. 

Solo Sleep

Until we wrote This Is A Lift, this was by far the most lyrically direct and explicit song we'd ever written.  I remember Rob and I being nervous about playing this to Alex and Andy as we thought some of the lyrics were a bit clunky. Andy loved the chorus and said he could envisage some strings to compliment the vocals so we cracked on with it.  Given the lyrics I was keen to have a female voice singing alongside me so we asked a friend of ours Siobhan Anderson (formally of French Wives) to come along to Chem for a day and sing it. She also added some staccato violin at the end alongside Louise's cello part which really helped to bring the song to a close. 

Dolores

The oldest track on the album named after a park in San Francisco.  I think this was written right at the start of 2009 and initially I thought it would remain a Pushboxer song as I think it's the most poppy song on the album (despite being 5 minutes long).  We always had trouble with the arrangement (at one point it was gigantic in an attempt to copy Interpol's Not Even Jail) although settled eventually on something soft yet with a driving pulse.  The song used to be much shorter until Jamie asked us to write an extra verse off the cuff while we were recording.  The verse that starts 'As your moving west' was written in about 5 minutes so I'm extra pleased with how it turned out.  There's also a cheeky wee trumpet part in there if you listen closely.  

Kilburn

This is a tongue in cheek song about how artists and poets always seem to attract the most beautiful woman...and then treat them like shite.  The crazy sounds you can hear in the background at the start and the end were recorded very early in the morning after we'd all had a bit too much to drink.  I ended up screaming Tam O'Shanter into two mics while Jamie, Rob and Andy wandered about hitting things.  It felt a bit pretentious and stupid at the time but in fact I think the poetry and noises actually compliment the song quite well.  

This Is A Lift

I was extremely anxious about this going on the album as it's so bare and, well....not exactly abstract.  I wrote it just as we were finishing the album when we were fishing for an elusive eighth track.  Andy heard me playing it one night through the wall (we live together) and emailed me the next day so say 'potential eighth track?'.  And so it was. 

Sand 

The first time we performed this live was at our last gig as Pushboxer (Dec 11th 2009).  I remember a few people saying they liked the melody so we kept on working the track up and eventually added in the piano and cello parts.  I like how different this is to Auld Archie as they book-end the album quite well. 

Flutes self-titled album is out now, you can order yourself a copy directly from the bands Big Cartel page. You can also pick yourself up a copy at Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, where they will also be playing an instore on Saturday 15th December at 4pm. They're also headlining Nice n Sleazy's in Glasgow the night before (Friday 14th), where they will be joined by some very secret special guests (I don't think I am allowed to tell you who they are though).

If you're looking for something that bit special that your friends probably won't have heard of yet, then I would urge you to check this album. Actually anyone with ears should check this album out as it's fucking ace.

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Help Ma Boab, It's The 62 Word Review

How To Swim – It Doesn't Even Have To Be You

I've admired How To Swim for ages (the old Jockrock forum liked them – shows you how long they've been around!) but, despite their artistic consistency, they've never seemed to be able quite get beyond the cusp of greatness they've been stalled at for years. This is a gem of a single though, hopefully the album brings them superstardom. They deserve it.

Available to download for free from Bandcamp.

Flutes – Auld Archie

It's nice when you get something like this in your inbox: a band you've never heard of who just happened to have released something not just very good, but absolutely spectacular. There's a John Knox Sex Club feel throughout, but with lovely vocal harmonies and mellow flutes weaving their way towards a blazing climax, full of squealing guitar and rolling drums. Majestic.

Any Color Black - You

Any Color Black's filthy electro rock and roll puts me in mind of some of The Black Keys recent album, El Camino. I've never been impressed by them previously, and it's not really the kind of thing I'd listen to but strangely I found myself humming it at work today so there's definitely something there. Decent, I'll be keeping an ear out.

Fin.

Fresh Meat Monday - Flutes

Would you care to introduce yourself? 

I'd love to.  My name is Godfrey Charlie McFall and I sing (and sometimes attempt to play guitar) in a band called Flutes.  We released our debut single 'Auld Archie' at the start of September (2012) and have been startled that anyone has taken any notice of it.  Now we're gearing up to release another song 'Sand' on November 5th followed by our debut eponymous album on December 3rd.   


How would you describe the music you make? 

Unsettling anti-wedding music full of heart and dripping with earnestness.  We also sound a bit like Oasis (Peenko - trust me, they don't).   


How did you start out making music? 

I think each member of the band started out playing music when we were pretty young.  I was a violinist, Andy [Bruce, bass, piano, organ, vox] is a classically trained pianist, Rob [Marshall, guitar, piano, vox] had a crack at clarinet and is a pianist, while Alex [Walker]...well he plays drums although I do remember him briefly attempting to learn the harp.   All of us played in bands in school and university although it wasn't until I moved down south after uni and met Rob that we started to put the wheels in motion to form Flutes (that was 7 years ago).  Rob had already written and released an electronic album [rjmarshall - Forever Minus A Day] when he lived in Japan and so I was more than a little intimidated when we met given I'd spent most of my musical years at the school of four piece 'no messing' indie rock.  Luckily we managed to write a few half-decent tunes and played some acoustic shows in and around Oxford.   A few months later we moved to London and started to play as a full band with Andy and Alex.  Fast forward 7 years and we've managed to record 8 songs for this debut album.  Almost a song a year.  Prolific.  


What process goes into the way you write songs? 

It used to be that Rob and I would write fully formed songs (melody, lyrics, guitar) and then bring them to sessions at a wee room we rent in West London.  A few years ago though we realised it would be better if we eached focused on our individual parts.  These days Rob will send me guitar melodies and then I'll work on vocal melodies and lyrics before we meet up and try to work those ideas up into a song.  Equally when we then bring the demos to Andy and Alex they focus purely on their parts (bass and drums respectively).  Without fail, those two amaze me in the way they can interpret what we've written, tear it to pieces and then stick it all back together again.  It's horrible and scary when you think you've lost a song through over-arrangement however we're all pretty honest with each other if we think something's not working.    

We then demo as a four piece and up until we met Jamie [Savage, producer at Chem 19] didn't think much about anything after we'd got our individual parts down.  He changed that for the better.  After 8 days at Chem 19 we came away with the bare bones of the album and then set about tearing into tiny little pieces again.  As we started to build it back up we realised we wanted to experiment a little more which was where the clarinet [Trish Clowes], cello [Louise McMonagle], trumpet [Jack Davies] and violin [Siobhan Anderson] all came from.  We spent a few weekends playing around with ideas and then spent 8 more days with Jamie recording another 8 or 9 instruments across the album.  It was cracking fun.  


What can people expect from your live shows? 

I wish I knew.  We haven't played live together for three years.  The hope is that we'll be able to get as many of our friends to play with us as possible to disguise the fact we've forgotten how to play the songs.  We've now got a pianist and are seeking a third guitarist so we should be able to produce a bit of a racket.  In the past I've been known to go a bit mental on stage but I reckon I'll have to tone that down as some of the parts on the album are actually pretty hard to play [I blame Jamie for that].  We're also hoping to have a choir at our London [Thursday 6th December @ Monto Water Rats] and Glasgow [Friday 14th December @ Nice N Sleazys] shows.   


What are you all listening to at the moment? 

I've made a vow to myself to stop listening to only Scottish music although it does fill me with pride how much absolutely tremendous stuff is being created North of the border.  Outside Alba: I'm obsessed with a record by Sarah Jaffe called The Body Wins; I had a fanatical phase with a band called Daughter who recently supported Beirut on their UK dates; and I was recently caught weeping into a hip flask at a gig by a band called The Magnetic North who have written a beautiful album about the Orkney Isles based on a dream the singer Erland had [an Orkney boy himself].  Others non-Scots worth listening to: Au, VCMG, It's a Musical & Cheek Moutain Thief.  From home, I fell for the Olympic Swimmers album earlier this year, think the new Twilight Sad album is tremendous and saw Errors, Emma Pollock and RM Hubbert lately - all of whom are writing brilliant tunes.   


What can we expect to see/hear from you in the future? 

I reckon I've spouted enough so I'll keep this short.  We're hoping to record an EP next year.  Something perhaps a little lighter.  Maybe a disco record.  Mika really likes us, so we'll see. 




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