Trollheart

Can't you just picture it? A boozy, down-at-heel but likeable curmudgeon runs fingers far too elegant and gentle for his hunched-over frame across the keys while a femme fatale stands behind the piano, wreathed in a pall of thick smoke that curls from her loosely-held cigarette holder, the faint aroma of her cheap perfume belying her (no doubt soon to be hocked for another bottle of whiskey) faux fur coat draped with careful abandon across her shoulders. The pianist, enraptured by the lovely woman at his side, tries to chat her up while she, at once haughtily rebuking his advances while inwardly succumbing to his charm, laughs at his pathetic attempt at seduction, her voice icy and sharp as glass, but with just a hint of thawing towards the strange little man on the piano.

And so you have set the mental scene for a song which, though never released as a single, yet ranks as one of the best-matched duets in music history. Perfectly complementing each other's styles, the woman is Bette Midler, singer and actress, while the man who tries to woo her from the piano keyboard through the bottom of a shotglass is none other than Tom Waits.

Tom Waits and Bette Midler --- I never talk to strangers



Taken from the album “Foreign affairs”, one of Waits' least famous and criminally less regarded, “I never talk to strangers” is the story described above, where Waits and Midler meet in some seedy downtown bar, she wanders over to where he is tinkling the ivories and he tries an old line on her, which she rebuffs coldly as he plays the piano. He points out that he ”Ain't a bad guy/Once you get to know me”, and she asks him ”Who asked you to annoy me/ With your sad, sad repartee?” By the end of the song of course, they've come to know each other better through their exchanged barbed banter, and decide to go off together.

Waits is as ever perfection as the barfly playing the piano for the price of a Johnny Walker and a pack of Marlboros, while Midler is at her most acid and uppity, her voice a perfect foil for Waits' gruff, booze-wrecked singing. It really is a joy to listen to, almost out of another time --- you almost expect Humphrey Bogart to wander in and say “You played it for her, so you can play it for me. Play it Sam,” and Waits to turn a withering eye on him and slur “My name's not Sam, buddy!”

A great example of two icons getting together to play a very low-key, laidback and quite sad in its way song, a tale of broken lovers and two people who are looking for someone to assuage the pain of their lives, if only for a short time. Any port in a storm, as they say.

Waits seldom duets, but when he does he chooses only those who will work best with him, people he admires and who get his music, and who can provide him the sounding-board he needs to bring the best of out both performers. On this song, Midler does just that, and it's to the credit of both that the song turns out as it does. Should have been a classic.

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Ha-har! Time to climb on board, splice the --- yes, okay, point taken. Enough with the annoying pirate and/or maritime references. But it has been a while since we last searched out some of the unsigned and largely unknown talent out there, so once again we're featuring three acts who you more than likely have never heard of, but whose music is good enough for me to think that perhaps you may want to hear it, and even maybe seek out more on the artistes involved. As ever, our repository of talent comes from SoundClick - Free MP3 music download and much, much more., and these are just the best of what I have heard to date, still going alphabetically.

Yeah, I know. We're still on A. What can you do? There's that much undiscovered talent out there. And this is all just from one website: the Great Pixie only knows how much more I'll find when I eventually finish up on Soundclick!

A Minor Project
No picture at all of this band, but they say on the site that they're a cover band, although they forget to say what that band's name is. This is, as the title suggests, a small side project that the two guitarists are engaging in, but for a sideline it's pretty damn good. It's only a pity they didn't clarify what the name of their actual band is, because if their other stuff is as good as this, they seem to have quite a good future ahead of them.
SoundClick artist: A Minor Project - A minor rock pop project jut for fun
Genre Rock/AOR
Nationality Swedish
Gold Driving, Umbrella

A Monster Named Hugo
They go one better (or worse): no picture and not a scrap of information about themselves. Way to get signed, guys! In style, it's a little hard to pin them down, but I see them as a sort of cross between the Travelling Wilburys and Fleetwood Mac, with a nice poppy sound. They do however obviously have a penchant for long song titles...
SoundClick artist: a Monster Named Hugo - page with MP3 music downloads
Genre Soft rock/pop
Nationality American (Illinois)
Gold You knew it all along, I'll understand if you say to go, Let's keep this journal always, I'll take my curses this time
Silver I promised I could survive all alone (See what I mean?)


Angeles Negros (AN)
Hooray! Finally, someone with a picture! Look, don't be fooled: the last two bands are outstanding, it's just a pity I couldn't carry their image here too, but they didn't provide one. But that doesn't in any way take from their music.

AN (Angeles Negros) are a band from Spain who suffer (or benefit) from the unlikely coincidence of all having the same surname. Unlikely, you say? Surely not. Maybe they're all related? Yeah, to Dracula perhaps: their surname is Nosferatu! So you have Yahve Nosferatu, Shiva Nosferatu, Cristo Nosferatu, Venus Nosferatu and Hades Nosferatu. Noticing a pattern?

Yeah, they're obviously stage names, all chosen to jar with the surname. Given that the rough translation of their name is “black angels”, you should have a fair idea of what to expect. But what of the band themselves? Great stage names are all well and good, but let's not forget Venom: doesn't necessarily guarantee the music is going to live up to the promise of the names. Oh yeah, be warned: they sing in their native Spanish.
SoundClick artist: A N (Angeles Negros) - A N es una banda de metal alternativo compuesta por Yahve Nosferatu, Shiva Nosferatu, Venus Nosferat
Genre Metal, possibly black, could even be progressive. There's a lot going on in there...
Nationality Spanish
Gold Caro o cruz, Principe negro, Fuego frio
Silver Musicalmente 0

So that's it for the last Treasure Chest before Christmas. We'll be back in the New Year to ferret out more unknown bands and artistes who don't deserve to be, and let you have a chance to hear them. Until then, take care and remember, undiscovered gems are out there all over the net, just waiting to be discovered. As ever, if you're an artist on Soundclick, or even not, but want to get your music over to more listeners, get in touch with me and we can arrange a feature here for you. You never know where it may lead!

Now, would someone please tell these seagulls there is no food onboard this ship?

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Trollheart

The worm has another good one for you today. From Tom Robinson, this is “War baby”.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

The worm thought it was time to slow it down for a little while, so for the next few days he's featuring some nice ballads. Here's one from REM, this is “Everybody hurts”. No, not very Christmassy, the worm agrees. Or … is it?

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Repression --- Trust --- 1980 (CBS)


Ah yes, Trust. My first (and I guess only) flirtation with French heavy metal. What an album! I didn't expect too much really, but I was surprised by how tight some of the songs are on this, how fluid the playing and how well the vocals sound. Admittedly, this was originally released in French only, presumably for the local market, but looking to score further afield the label asked Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 to reinterpret the lyrics and so an English version was released. This was, you'll be unsurprised to learn, the version I heard.

Although my only experience of Trust has ever been this album and one track on a compilation (“Killer watts”, if memory serves), called “L'elite” --- not too hard to work out the translation to that one! --- they had, over the course of their almost thirty-five year career, fifteen albums released. Admittedly, two of these were the same, the abovementioned “Repression”, first in their native French and then in English, and also admittedly they broke up in 1984 then reformed in 1988, possibly on the back of renewed popularity when “Antisocial” (from this album) was covered by Anthrax, but it's still an impressive list.

I don't know how successful they ever were, and most of their post-breakup material seems to have been released only for the French market (but may have sold outside that of course), but if they have two claims to fame, they would be the above cover of their song and also that Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain was in their ranks. Trust's songs apparently reflected a deep-seated interest in politics, and tended to be very anti-establishment, almost as if they were more a punk than a rock band, but as most of their albums were in French and mine is certainly not up to scratch, I couldn't tell you much more about their lyrical themes. Certainly, some of the songs on this album do show that sort of leaning, as we will see.

It opens with that covered song, with a deceptively gentle guitar which suddenly gets all Iron Maiden, and the song takes off. Vocalist Bernard “Bernie” Bonvoisin has a great ragged voice, and he does a great job on this, not screaming or roaring, really showing many metal singers how it's done. Norbert “Nono” Krief on guitar trades licks with second guitarist Yves “Vivi” Brusco, but it's the former who rips off a dazzling solo, and the political lyric can be heard as Bernie sings ”Your claim to fame is law and order :/ The rich get rich and the poor get poor./ You put a price-tag on what you see :/ This one's for you and that's for me.” Very punk its its lyrical elements if not in its delivery, it's a great opener and you can see why Anthrax thought it would be a good song to cover, as it's pretty universal. It has great power, a simple message and obviously goes down (or went down) well onstage, with the shouted chorus --- to, no doubt, much fist-clenching --- ”An-ti-so-cial! An-ti-so-cial!”

“Mr. Comedy” keeps the rockin', with more undiscovered gems in Krief's guitar solos, then “In the name of the race” starts off a slow cruncher, with more heavily political lyrics courtesy of Bonvoisin: ”I'm the zombie of yesterday's children/ Born and bred in total confusion/ In the name of the race I pass/ I'll go forward but remember the past/ I'll never be your plastic image/ For you to rape and then to pillage.” Powerful, angry stuff. With about a minute to go Krief's winds up his guitar and just lets fly as the song kicks up about four gears.

“Death instinct” concentrates on the one-time Public Enemy Number One in France, Jacques Mesrine, and deplores the treatment of prisoners as an example that France is turning into a police state, with a stark closing line: ”Order reigns, death and silence.” One of the standouts on the album is up next, in “Walk alone”, a great rocker with some excellent solos and a real sort of boogie beat behind it. Bonvoisin growls ”Walk, walk in front of me/ But my eyes are never dulled with fear/ Walk, walk in front of me/ But my eyes will never shed a tear.” Some really special guitar work from Krief in this, then it's followed by the actual standout, the tremendous, ponderous, tragic and angry “Paris is still burning”.

Bass guitar really plays a central role in this song, and there seems to be some confusion as to who plays that, but I'm going to take a chance and say Brusco. There's a great flurry of guitar solo from Krief, then the song settles into an almost blues vibe as Bonvoisin snarls ”Paris is still burning/ With the flames of wasted youth/ But in the fields of Flanders/ The poppies cry the truth.” It's a moody, dark and disturbing song, a real triumph for Trust, and really gets across the anger and frustration of lives wasted through senseless wars. Bonvoisin's views on nuclear power are also made clear when he snaps ”The flames get bigger by the hour/ But we stand still/ We've got tomorrow's gift of genius/ Atomic power!” Beautiful blues guitar licks just add to the class of this song, which should have been a proper classic.

“Pick me up, put me down” and “Get out your claws” are straight-forward rockers, though I could swear I hear piano in the former, even if it's not credited. “Pick me up” even features sax, though again there's no information as to who's playing it, but it adds a real sense of heart and fun to the song, even if the lyric is angry and full of resentment: ”They judge you, accuse you, sentence you to life/ Your only sun, a commercial bomb/ The modern-age push-button control/ Just a robot with no fixed emotions.” Following this, “Get out your claws” is a kind of strutting rocker, much more guitar-driven with a real call to action: ”A man condemned will never understand/ The veins of plastic propaganda/ So he pays them back with diction/ That the media look at with wounded eyes./ But you're the man who'll pay his way/ Then be told you're off to war/ To die as a sacrifice to no one.”

There's little doubt the original lyrics suffered in the translation to English, as there are some ideas here that just don't make sense (“pays them back with diction”?) but even were I to listen to the original I wouldn't understand it as I don't speak French, so we'll have to work with the lyrics we have. The anger evident on this song makes me think of the likes of Fish expounding against the futility of war in “Forgotten sons”, or maybe some of the more socially-minded rappers: definitely a man with a social conscience who uses his music to channel it.

“Sects” attacks, not surprisingly, religious offshoots and particularly Jim Jones, who caused so many people to follow him to their deaths. It's a fast, angry rocker with lots of guitar and a real punch in the song. When Bonvoisin screams ”Murder! Murder! Murder!/ The zero hero!” and Krief racks off a superb solo, you really feel the song getting to you, then at the end Bernie snaps ”I die, you die, don't ask why!” as the song crashes to an end.

The closer, the only song not translated, begins with a spoken vocal by Bonvoisin, joined by bass guitar as “Le mitard” gets under way. I've looked for translations for this, and been told it's both “the hole” and “the longest yard”, but at any rate it appears to go back to Jacques Mesrine, but of course being in French I can't tell you what slant it takes on the criminal. It's a good mid-paced rocker though, and closes the album in atmospheric style, Bonvoisin's anger and vitriol somehow more effective in his native language.

As I say, when I heard this I was really impressed, considering I had never heard of the band before. Listening back to it now, thirty years later, I'm wowed all over again. It's a hard album to get your hands on (believe me, I tried, and ended up having to use YouTube clips to review it: thanks by the way to the guy who had the foresight to upload the English version. You can get the French recording, but the English one seems to be like gold dust), but if you take the time to seek it out --- or just watch it on YouTube, I believe you'll be similarly impressed.

One thing is for sure, as representatives for a long time of heavy metal in France, Trust did their country proud.

TRACKLISTING

1. Antisocial
2. Mr. Comedy
3. In the name of the race
4. Death instinct
5. Walk alone
6. Paris is still burning
7. Pick me up, put me down
8. Get out your claws
9. Sects
10. Le mitard

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Time to let those ladies do what they do best again. Here's some songs from sterling female artistes. Starting off with a classic from Kim Wilde, this is “Kids in America”.


Who wouldn't want Avril Lavigne as their girlfriend?


How about some Florence and the Machine?


We'll have a review of her new album soon, but for now here's Katherine Jenkins with the lovely “Abigail's song”.


And one of my favourite female singers to close, this is Lana Lane, from her album “Love is an illusion”, with “Through the rain”.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Hey, the worm promised you ballads --- at least, for a few days --- and ballads ye shall have! Try this one, from Dire Straits, the powerful and moody “Private investigations.”

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018