2004<\/p>\n
Turin Brakes<\/p>\n
Fowlers Live<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Just three days into January and we may already be seeing one of the year\u2019s best. UK band, Turin Brakes, on the rebound from the Falls Festival, are playing to a tiny but attentive crowd at Fowlers Live and showing just why they have gathered such a big reputation since their exceptional debut album, The Optimist<\/em>, first appeared in 2001.<\/p>\n Touted as nu acoustica, along with the likes of I am Kloot, Kings of Convenience and Starsailor, co-writers Ollie Knights and Gale Paridjanian, have now taken the obscurely named Turin Brakes ahead of the pack, especially since the release of their new CD,\u00a0 Ether Song<\/em>, with its appealingly spacious sound and intricately layered arrangements.<\/p>\n There are many things to like about these serious young insects. Their gorgeous, keening vocals for a start – and the confidence and drowsy numbness of their elegantly constructed songs. There are notable influences. Some, they admit, come from poring over folk rock albums in their parents\u2019 houses – all that Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Crosby, Stills and Nash and so on. But there is also something of the operatic, surrealistic style of Cream\u2019s Jack Bruce (and his lyricist Pete Brown), as well as links with such contemporaries as Badly Drawn Boy and the late and much lamented Elliott Smith.<\/p>\n In the limited confines of the Fowlers stage the duo, plus bass, keyboards and drums, trade a few wan remarks about the near forty degree heat and, with no further ado, take airy flight into one of their ether songs. Long Distance<\/em> – I let somebody get<\/em> under my skin<\/em>. The vocals, fired up by Knights and then welded into bright metal with the intensity of Paridjanian\u2019s harmonies, sound unearthly even in the limited acoustics of the venue. The band provides a staunch beat while the vocals entwine in hypnotic unison. We are getting all the new material – Five Mile<\/em>, with loud splashy guitar and hurdy gurdy keyboard, and the slowly unfurling Stone Thrown<\/em> – with filigree bottleneck from Gale and dreamy crooning from Ollie.<\/p>\n The new songs sound good – Self Help,<\/em> Panic Attack<\/em> – but the devotees crowding up to the stage really come alive for a cluster of Great Ones from The<\/em> Optimist<\/em>. Future Boy<\/em> sets a prescient note but it is the radio hits –\u00a0 Emergency 72,<\/em> Underdog,<\/em> and the introspective Feeling Oblivion – <\/em>that <\/em>hit all the buttons at once. The singers inhabit this older material with accomplished ease and the touring band is also having fun. I think if Turin Brakes had only ever written Underdog<\/em> they would have deserved a place in heaven.<\/p>\n But there are others in their firmament – the UK summer anthem, Painkiller <\/em> closes proceedings before the band, encouraged by the conspicuous enthusiasm of the fans, come back for encores.\u00a0 Blue<\/em> Hour<\/em> and a very boppy version of Little Brother<\/em> bring to a close what has been a magic little set – melodic, intense and yet memorably understated. If there is any justice in the world this will be a very good year for Turin Brakes. With talent like this, there should be no stopping them.<\/p>\n \u201cRewards for the Optimists\u201d The Adelaide Review, No.245, February, 2004. p.24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2004 Turin Brakes Fowlers Live Murray Bramwell Just three days into January and we may already be seeing one of the year\u2019s best. UK band, Turin Brakes, on the rebound from the Falls Festival, are playing to a tiny but attentive crowd at Fowlers Live and showing just why they have gathered such a big reputation since their exceptional debut album, The Optimist, first appeared in 2001. Touted as nu acoustica, along with the likes of I am Kloot, Kings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}