Trollheart

But if you'll indulge me, here is where the cracks begin to appear. Up to now the guys have been very careful to keep the setting of this story ambiguous: there has been no mention of city, country or region. It could be anywhere; it might not even be on our planet. Some of the very best dystopian stories have used this device: Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", despite the title, markedly fails to confirm where it's set, whereas Orwell's classic, while claiming the action takes place on "Airstrip One", is clearly Britain, as is Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta". I don't think there's a location mentioned in Bradbury's story, though it's a long time since I last read it. Keeping things vague in terms of location, or even year, can be helpful in some ways, as often we don't want to face the idea that it's our own country that's being painted so darkly, face the possibility that "this could happen here". So that's fine. "Frownland" could be anywhere, really. Any time. But now all of a sudden as "We are the dead" opens, Schuyler begins singing about New York, and referencing 9/11. I understand they wanted to incorporate their feelings about the Twin Towers attacks into the music, but I feel it's blurring the message. Badly.

The thing is, now we've suddenly and without warning stuck a pin in a map and said "Yeah, it's America." It may not be New York (or it may) but the Big Apple has definitely been mentioned. The news story about the attacks has been mentioned too, so now as Schuyler sings that he's hearing the reports, you start to think this can't be any more than twenty years or so in the future. Suddenly, everything is fixed in place, located, and I really don't get it. Is this just allegorical, or is Frownland in America? I just think it waters down the storyline and weakens it badly. I'll be returning to this possibly uncomfortable topic shortly, but for now, what about the music?

Well, "We are the dead" (title of course taken from "Nineteen Eighty-Four") is a slow, sad dirge, as you might expect, with only acoustic guitar, drums and some beautiful haunting violin from a lady I believe called Emily Lisanti carrying it, an almost quiet Waterboys celtic feeling about it as Schuyler talks about 9/11 and the aftermath. The lyric is inspired --- "Did you hear the twins have died?/ Our hearts are all split open wide" --- but I sort of fail to see the message here. The overriding concept seems to be that those living today are as good as dead and must build the world for those who come after us. I confess I'm confused. It doesn't help that Schuyler then talks about being dead the moment he met his lover, which would kind of make more sense: I'll never be this happy again so I may as well be dead now. But that doesn't seem to be what he's saying... But hold on. Rereading the journal I see now what he's getting at. It's the concept from "Nineteen Eighty-Four", that death occurred with the first seditious thought. Your mind betrayed you, the Party machinery tried and convicted you and in your heart and soul, the inbred sense of unquestioning loyalty to the Party executed you. You are now dead. So what the Hero is saying is that he died when he met the girl and they began to rebel. Got it now. Sort of.

Back to the music. It's actually almost three minutes into the song before the percussion hits, and it's that much more effective when it does. There's also a nice stark choir that comes in near the end. The vocal gets much stronger and more passionate as it comes towards the conclusion, but to be honest I would have preferred it just faded on "We are the dead", and they throw in a last line which I think personally does not work. Speaking of not working, "Modern everything" is played on an, as already admitted, out of tune acoustic piano, and I just don't get it. I know Waits used one, I know others have, but it takes special skill, as it were, to play badly well, and I just don't feel this gives the same sort of effect. It's also annoying that now we have a song about a hurricane, which when I heard this the first time I naturally assumed, given the 9/11 connection in the previous song, they were now singing about Katrina. Perhaps they are, in a sort of oblique way, but according to the plot this is meant to be a hurricane --- or a metaphor for one --- that hits and kind of knocks the whole story off kilter. If this were a novel I'd say it was a clumsy plot device, and I'm forced to agree that it seems a weird kind of way of throwing the story out of whack. Great vocal harmonies again and some fine soft percussion. I also like the way Schuyler and Bryan don't feel they have to make each line rhyme, so that when you think maybe a certain word is going to come up it doesn't, and it's refreshing.

"Don't vanish" then is a short little piano-led song with a low-key vocal with the line "Sometimes I'm a visionary" repeated from the previous song, and a direct lead into the next, and longest song, "We will rebuild this city", which you would imagine harks back to the hurricane spoken of in "Modern everything", but could refer to rebuiliding society after the fall of the Party and The Man. It's a very optimistic song, as you would expect from the title, with the title of the opener repeated in it and a vein of cheerfulness and looking forward in it as the guys sing "After all this time/ I'm still keeping my head up." I also like the switching around of the lines "It's been a few years but it seems like a day" later rearranged to say "It's been a few days but it seems like years." Again this song showcases the excellent vocal harmonies in cloudcover, and it's interesting to note they throw in a reference to one of their previous albums when they sing "Enter humanity".

The song itself seems to be broken into two distinctive parts, so much so that were it not that you know it not to be the case you would think this was two separate songs. Slighlty into the third minute of the seven it runs for, the synth builds up and then breaks down as the second part comes in, a slower, more ballad-centric song, but again I'm confused. He's talking about someone saying "We'll carry you if you can point the way" and "We'll guard your life/ We won't lose you again". Who's he talking about? Freedom? Human dignity? An actual person? Again, I'm at a loss. There are some lovely ELO-type touches in the guitar and then it powers back into the riff that opened the album. Whether that's a warning that The Party is on the rise again or just advice not to let your guard down I don't know but it's very clever. They also reference "Independence Day" in New York, so again we're unavoidably located. Perhaps "she" is New York? Again it's a little ambiguous, maybe it's meant to be that way.

A very optimistic end, but then it's not, because the closing track (after some audio of people cheering and chanting) is "Give her my best", which seems to refer to the death of the Hero in a car accident. He knows he's dying, or dead, and hopes his lover will find happiness with someone else. It's touching, but a little, again, confusing. When it starts I think for a moment I'm hearing "Stairway to Heaven" --- surely that was planned? --- and the song mostly proceeds on soft strummed acoustic guitar, and works along the same lines as the very last Roger Waters song with Pink Floyd, the closing track to "The final cut", "Two suns in the sunset", leaving really a rather bleak and rather unsatisfactory ending. The song gets harder in the last few moments as Schuyler sings "I'm not coming home anytime soon/ Trapped behind a tombstone/ Trying to get a message through." Sobering, but leaves me feeling a little empty. I know in general dystopian stories, from "Brazil" to "Soylent Green" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" to "V for Vendetta" rarely if ever have a happy ending, but I would just prefer to have taken a better message away from the album than that, after all his struggles to make the world a better place --- and possibly succeeding --- the Hero dies in a senseless accident. Just seems a little unfair to him, after all he's been through, and having shared those experiences with him throughout the album and come to know, and care for him, I feel it's a bad payoff in the end, realistic and pragmatic though it may be.

TRACKLISTING

1. The fire this time
2. One private moment
3. Welcome to the Party
4. Independence Day
5. Diluted
6. Your existence is in bad taste
7. Keep up the pace
8. Small stones
9. We are the dead
10. Modern everything
11. Don't vanish
12. We will rebuild this city
13. Take it to the streets
14. Give her my best

I certainly don't want to come across as overcritical and I think I have already pointed out that I love this album and think it could do extremely well if it gets the right attention, but the above niggles, well, niggle at me. The story is progressing fine until "We are the dead" and then it just seems to veer off in a sharp turn, kind of coming back by a circuitous route right at the end, but it's too roundabout a journey for me to stay focussed on the plot. Had the story ended with "Small stones", that might have been preferable, but then of course "We are the dead", "Modern everything" etc are all superb songs and I wouldn't want to have missed them. But someone listening to this for the first time would be excused for thinking these were bonus tracks, and had nothing to do with the concept running through the album.

No doubt the guys will tell me I got it totally wrong, and I probably did. But I'm trying to understand this and I really can't. The change in direction, focus and story from that track on is just bizarre to me, and while it most definitely does not come close to ruining the album, it does taint it a little, making it that much harder to follow a pretty great storyline, something not always the case with concept albums ---"Lamb lies down on Broadway" I'm looking at YOU! I think the guys have done a fantastic job here, and I'm amazed by the talent, the cohesiveness of the vision they have, the dedication to and execution of the album, and the deep understanding between Bryan and Schuyler. I just wish I hadn't had to have these little criticisms, some of which are not so little.

But notwithstanding all of that, you need to hear this album. I mean, physically need to. It's tremendous, and should go down as a future classic. I hope they get a recording deal, or at least interest from someone who can promote and distribute this music as it should be. This is an album that needs to be heard, and by as many people as possible. It does not deserve to languish on bandcamp, soundcloud or anywhere else, forgotten and ignored. The work the lads have put into this album needs to be recognised, celebrated and shared with the world. When you consider they wrote, played, recorded, engineered, arranged, produced and released this themselves, with no help from even a minor label or any professional entity or person, well it just beggars belief and reaffirms my contention that with passion and talent and a whole lot of determination, great albums can be produced without the help of record labels. Considering how much music I've been listening to this past two weeks, it's one hell of a statement that the music I sing and that goes round in my head as I go about my daily life is from this album, exclusively. And isn't that a sign of a really successful and special album?

Although in fairness, they may need the assistance of some sort of label if this excellent music is to get to the mass market they clearly want and need to reach. If they can get the right backing, cloudcover could be damn huge. I just hope they remember their number one fan when they make it big! Front row seat, guys! Front row seat, and backstage pass.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Whale ---- Planktons Odyssey --- 2014 (Smokin Baby Records)


Note: When I reviewed this originally I mistakenly took an "unfinished" copy of the album Plankton had kindly sent me, and so some of the songs were not on it, and some of the ones I wrote of below are now removed from it. Apologies to anyone (especially the writer of the work below) who read the review. It has now been amended to reflect the proper running order and tracklisting of the album. What else can I say but "D'Oh!"?

I'm told by the man himself that this is the third in a trilogy, and indeed I did review “Krill” last year, but at that point was unaware it was one of three. The liner notes tell us that the album is a concept one, focussing on one Jonah (the one in the Bible? I'm not sure, but that has to be where the name came from) who gets swallowed by a whale and is absorbed into the creature, both transitioning to a new and perhaps better lifeform. The album looks like it veers a little from the theme in certain places, but then, what concept album doesn't?

Hard as it may be to credit, this is almost completely a one-man effort, with Plankton playing all the guitars, basses and where they occur, keyboards, and the drum track supplied by a software package called Hydrogen.

The opener is a short one, with sound effects and water sounds as “Cetacea” describes the hero, Jonah, being swallowed by the whale. Vaguely eastern-sounding guitar riffs contribute to the alien sound of this opening piece, and it takes us into “Jonah”, wherein that much harder rocky guitar that those of us who have heard his work associate Plankton with comes punching in, chugging and riffing all over the place with a steel edge. Stop-start riffs punctuate the piece, and the percussion complements them. I assume Plankton uses several guitars here, as one keeps the rhythm while the other does the solos. And what solos they are! You definitely get a sense of the panic Jonah must feel as he realises he's in the belly of the great seabeast, and unlikely to escape.

The centrepiece then comes with “Eye of the storm”, with a big growling rocking guitar that could give many of the supposedly heavier metal bands out there today quite a run for their money. Hard, punching drumbeats punctuate an angry, snarling guitar which may represent Jonah's fear and rising resentment at his situation, or even that of the whale as it tries to digest the annoying thing that has swam into its maw. There's a real sense of power and rage in the piece, one of Plankton's best to date, to rival “Screaming at an empty canvas” and “Son of soothsayer”. It ends on a sort of almost acoustic, gentler line that perhaps signifies acceptance of the situation?

The oddly titled “Wiggles” is I believe dedicated to one of Plankton's friends, and features what may be a talkbox, some odd effects and a funky guitar with squealing, screeching little synth lines. Where it fits in I don't know, but it's an intersting track with a great smooth little groove. If I'm brutally honest though, I didn't like it and it really breaks up the flow of the album. I hate to say that, as I know it means a lot to him, but I can't see why it's here. There's no problem writing a song for his friend, but it stands out here like a vegetarian shark. Sorry man, just can't get me head around this one.

There's a sort of spoken intro to “You're not to blame”, like someone (it's Plankton) impersonating a Wookie (!) and then the heavy chugging guitars are back, but this time I'm pretty amazed to hear singing! Up to now, all of Plankton's stuff has been instrumental. When I first heard this I thought Oh God! Don't tell me he can sing as well! I hate this guy! but it turns out this is his friend Tommy H who is on vocals. And he has a very strong voice too, reminds me of a mixture of Hetfield and Di'Anno, quite raw and powerful with a hint of the better punk bands in there. The song is about coming to terms with death, and apparently “You're not to blame” is very personal to Tommy, who had to watch his own father die in front of him. Heavy, as they say, stuff. Superb soloing on the guitars gives a real feeling of frustration and anxiety building to boiling point, as Tommy yells ”I don't blame you no more!” and Plankton leads us out on a scorching solo.

There's one small note of concern I'd like to voice here. This is not a criticism, just an observation. When you expect an album to be instrumental it's a little jarring to hear vocals, sort of like my recent review of "The Endless River". My own personal belief is that it breaks up the flow of the album, perhaps mars the theme it's been built on, and just really takes you by surprise. I think if I was rating this album I would deduct a point or two for the change; although the vocals are fine I did not expect them, and in retrospect even now would have preferred a fully instrumental album. Of course, it's Plankton's music and he's free to play it as he sees fit, and what do I know after all? But just personally, it's a little like the "Shoveled" track on "Krill"; doesn't quite spoil the album but sadly gives me something --- just one thing --- negative to write about it, which I would have preferred not to have done.

That is, as I say though, the only vocal track on the album, as one of the standouts hits, “Sunshine express” beginning like a mid-paced folk tune with acoustic and slide guitar (I think) trotting along nicely in a sort of blues vein. I wonder is this the dobro of which he speaks in the notes, given to him by his cousin and which proved “a birthday gift that exceeded my wildest dreams”? Yes, I see it is. Very distinctive instrument. Love the dobro. Definitely puts me in mind of the late great Rory Gallagher. Change is the theme here, he says in the notes, a change for him in his playing and a change for Jonah as he becomes one with the whale, absorbed into its essence and effecting his own kind of change on the animal.

“Gleaning the Tuesday sun” is certainly an odd title, but then when you're writing instrumentals you can call them what you like, can't you? I think this reminds me a little of “Son of soothsayer” off the previous album, but I'll have to go back and check. Bit of jazzy fusion coming in here now, as Plankton boogies along and basically just has fun with the tune. The drum pattern is interesting too, kind of sparse and minimal, leaving the guitars to take centre stage. It's a real jam, and very impressive it is too. Also one of the longer tracks, pushing the five-and-a-half minute mark. Skitching is apparently the practice of grabbing a car's bumper while on a skateboard, a la Marty McFly in “Back to the Future”, and in colder climes can also be done in the snow, presumably on skates rather than a skateboard. It also, Plankton tells us in the liner notes, occurs underwater, where smaller fish catch a ride on a larger one.

This then is the theme of the next track, “Skitch”, which has a big heavy growling guitar driving it, with a sort of echo or feedback effect making it seem very expansive and vast. A great little bassline then near the end as the guitars take a backseat, then they're roaring back for the conclusion, taking us into “Not quite the end”, an expressive, reflective song wherein the dobro makes its appearance again, and some soft keys too, sounding like a choir humming and also conjuring up a sense of cavernous space. Apparently this won first prize in an “unplugged” contest Plankton entered it for, and well deserved. He makes the dobro sound like a mandolin at times, and there's some truly lovely instrumentation here. Kind of a mixture of folk, blues and even progressive rock I feel.

And all too soon we're closing, with the striding, swaggering “Hollow city limits”, with a great resounding bass line and a much slower, not quite grinding but almost majestic rhythm, a great overall melody that brings to mind maybe Jonah exploring the innards of the whale before he realises where he is, or while he has time, waiting to be digested and absorbed. I guess it could be the only time a human has been in side a whale and maybe he wants to at lest take what he can from what w ill be the last experience of his life. It's quite a poignant track, one of my favourites now that I've heard it. Love the way the music seems to echo as if Plankton were playing in a large empty space, conjuring up the inside of the leviathan.

Having spoken to the creator though, I find I am completely wrong in my assumption above. This is, in fact, where the newly-created organism that is now known as "Jonah" --- whether it's a melding of whale and human (?) or something else I don't know --- arrives at the enigmatic Hollow City, which he will apparently be exploring in the next few albums (hooray! More albums!) so so much for my interpretation! Either way though, it's a powerful end to a very powerful album, and bringing to a close the trilogy of transformation and transcendence that he began in “The Dream”, which I now have to listen to as a matter of urgency.

TRACKLISTING
1. Cetacea
2. Jonah
3. Eye of the storm
4. Wiggles
5. You're not to blame
6. Sunshine express
7. Gleaning the Tuesday sun
8. Skitch
9. Not quite the end
10. Hollow City limits

And so we have another fine, fine album from this guitar virtuoso who will surely sweep the award in this category in the MB 2014 Awards, and if he doesn't then there's no justice in the world. A four or five-piece band could scarcely put together such an album, and as you all know, I've waxed poetic more than once on how hard it can be to review an instrumental album, even listen to one without getting bored. But that never even entered into this here. This album keeps the interest all the way through, and the only disappointment is when it ends. If you've heard it (and you should) you may find yourself rethinking your album of the year.

Yeah, there's no doubt that Plankton can stand up there with many of the big boys, and in fact if the world is anyway fair he should be joining them. Whether that happens or not though, this album stands, once again, as a testament to one man's talent and creative prowess, and to his determination to share this music with the world, by which we are all a little richer.

No, I will not say I had a whale of a time! I have some pride, you know. But this is certainly a beast of an album, and one you need to acquaint yourself with. Now, where's that tape of whale song I've been meaning to listen to?

(Note: although I have stopped the practice of illustrating my reviews with YouTubes, Plankton asked me to include a few, so they're above. They will at any rate give you an idea of what you can expect once you put on this powerhouse of an album).

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018