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AIRPLAY:
Played on BBC Radio Scotland's
Air, BBC Radio Alba's Rapal, Radio Magnetic's Fallout and Radio Ceredigion's
Phil Olyott show.
REVIEWS
IN FULL:
Is This
Music?
"An enactment of the Biblical prophecies
to 'beat swords into ploughshares'". Scary stuff, but no less scary
than nuclear armageddon. Which is what Trident Ploughshares is trying
to prevent. Aiding them in this goal is Andrew Howie, the man behind the
acclaimed Calamateur as well as the Scottish arm of Autoclave Records,
who are releasing the record. "I've got a couple of friends who have
been involved with Trident Ploughshares for quite a while and who have
both been arrested several times for protesting," says Howie, who
confesses that he might never have got involved with the movement if it
wasn't for his friends' passion. And sharing this passion - though imminent
arrests are less likely - are some of the best bands from Scotland and
elsewhere. Howie admits that they are some of his favourite bands anyway,
bands who he'd played with or been a fan of - as he says, "There
was no cold calling as such as I'd had some contact with each band at
some point in the past anyway." The album kicks off with Aereogramme's
'Fireworks', a version of the hard-to-find track from the FukdID series
which is at the serenely chilling end of the band's usual loud/quiet formula.
In compiling the album Andrew Howie has surpassed himself - there is the
simple route of taking a few bands from the Autoclave roster, but with
quality like The Out_Circuit and The Gena Rowlands Band readily available,
that's entirely forgiveable. Calamateur also features twice on this album
- once as the title track 'Deep Peace' - despite being based on an ancient
Celtic (pronounced 'keltic'!) blessing, more rocking than anything he's
done before. But the most remarkable track is Frog Pocket, as mashed up
with Calamateur himself. Taking two of the best tunes, pure and simple,
of the past 12 months - 'Underwood Ladykirk' and 'Born Yesterday' - the
mix of glitchcore and haunting melody is an awesome marriage. As if this
wasn't enough, Spare Snare offer 'Taking On the Sides', there's a piece
from Lewis Turner (sometime Arab Strap and Delgados live collaborator),
and perhaps best of all, Les Tinglies - an obscure treasure unearthed
from deep in the Aereogramme lineage. And there's even more - lesser-known
but still worth bearing investigation, making for that rare artefact,
a consistently great compilation. And all profits go to Trident Ploughshares.
Buy it and feel good about yourself into the bargain."
ICA
"'Compilation with a conscience' in aid of Trident Ploughshares (TP)
- who campaign against illegal weapons of mass destruction - ours, that
is (www.tridentploughshares org for more info). The Beauly-based Autoclave
label specialise in moments of raw beauty. The 14 bands/artists here overlap
and merge and create a coherent album of many highlights. Aereogramme's
'Fireworks', Calamateur's unexpectedly gutsy 'Deep Peace', Brahm, Frog
Pocket - pretty much every track! 'Unfeeling' analogue electronica mixed
with fragile human emotion and guitar - that couldn't work?? Yeah, beautifully.
A fine compilation."
diskant.net
"Deep Peace is a compilation CD album from Autoclave Records.
It's 'curated' (i.e. put together) by calamateur, who I have reviewed
here before. The raison d'etre behind this - all compilations need a raison
d'etre - is awareness (and fund) raising for Trident Ploughshares, who
aim to shut down Britain's nuclear weapons capability. There are 14 tracks
here, not of early 90s deep Goan Trance (as the hippyish title may make
you think) but of a variety of (mostly) guitar-oriented independent music.
It's quite a rich variety too, taking in, amongst other things stripped-down
acoustic introspective pop (Aereogramme), moody paranoid-sounding rock
(calamateur), woozy My Bloody Valentine-like noise (Slow Storm) and minimalist
blissed-out drones (Apologist). Aside from those four tracks - my favourites
on here - the album also features Oldsolar, Brahm, Frog Pocket featuring
calamateur, Spare Snare, The Gena Rowlands Band, Les Tinglies, The Out_Circuit,
alicebelts, Lewis Turner and tenyards. What ties the individual tracks
together, beyond the Trident Ploughshares connection, is a very high standard
of production and recording, and consistently healthy quality control."
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