Robert Forster "The Candle and the Flame" (2023)

The Candle and the Flame

release date: Feb. 3, 2023

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]

producer: Robert Forster, Karin Bäumler, Louis Forster

label: Tapete Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "She's a Fighter" - 2. "Tender Years" - 5. "I Don't Do Drugs I Do Time" - 8. "Go Free"

8th studio album by Robert Forster in his own name follows three years after the fine Inferno (Mar. 2019) and is like that released on the German label, Tapete. His wife Karin Baümler plays a more vital part than normally, as she has become the center of these new songs after having gone through cancer treatment. Aparently, most songs were already written before her diagnosis, but both album title and the first song here sets a tone that nicely fits with the rest of the songs.

Forster is as always a good narrator, and for that this album should be valued, although, you could argue that he doesn't hand us much new with this one. The first track is a bit off in respect to the colour of the album with it's rougher and energetic starting tone, which in some ways point back in time and reminds us where he began a long lasting musical career with Grant McLennan. The rest is more so-so - nothing daring in style and more simplistic folk with Forster strumming his guitar as support to his personal stories and not a whole lot in musical arrangements other than Adele Pickvance or his son Louis on bass as support to his and Karin's vocal harmonies. It's also a family thing with Robert and Karin being joined by their son and daughter Loretta, who plays second guitar.

I'm sure folk enthusiasts - people who send thanks to almighty Dylan - will embrace this as a warm and mature classic-styled album, but for me, I've heard better from this songwriter giant and it just doesn't provide me with enough substance, melody nor originality to have it on rotation that often.

[ The Guardian 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,5 / 10 stars ]

The Gist "Embrace the Herd"

Embrace the Herd

release date: 1982

format: cd (2007 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]

producer: Phil Legg

label: Cherry Red - nationality: Wales, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Far Concern" - 2. "Love at First Sight" (4 / 5) - 3. "Fretting Away" - 4. "Public Girls" - 9. "Carnival Headache" - 10. "Concrete Slopes" - 11. "The Long Run"

Studio album debut and only album originally released on Rough Trade is by Welsh band, The Gist, formed after the disbandmentment of Young Marble Giants by the two Moxham brothers, Philip and Stuart with the latter being credited almost all songs and playing most instruments on an album of twelve songs. The trio Young Marble Giants released Colossal Youth in Feb. 1980 to fine reviews, and the album went as high as number #3 on the UK independent albums list. The Gist is often mentioned as a band when in fact it may just be regarded as a one-man project of Stuart Moxham. His brother Philip plays bass on three compositions, guitarist Dave Dearnaley features on another three, Stuarts girlfriend Wendy Smith lends her voice on two tracks and former band member of YMG, Alison Statton, sings on one song, but apart from only few people contributing here and there, the album is entirely made alone by Stuart Moxham.

Stylistically, it's quite simple and yet it incorporates various styles to form a highly original stripped down soundscape. Some tracks points toward later jangle pop and twee pop styles, whereas other songs seem more bonded to a synthpop version of 70s art rock, e.g. music influenced by Brian Eno.

Embrace the Herd hasn't achieved the same status as the debut by Young Marble Giants, and it's quite likely that it goes down in music history books as the album, which includes the hit single "Love at First Sight", which also was my entry to the band after finding it on the compilation album Rough Trade Records / MNW (1983). Several songs on the album stick out as original music, and especially the composition "Concrete Slopes", which was probably inspired by Eno, however, listening to this early electronic piece only makes me think of The Prodigy and the formation of big beat electronica in the 90s.

This very album may point in many directions, and it's not a collection of memorable harmonies but it's still a quite simple and unique construct and one of musical historic interest.