Review: Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

[By Jamie Halliday]

Artist: Akron / Family

Album: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Label: Crammed Discs

It’s nice when this happens. Having risen fast to the absolute top of my profession, it can be easy to become jaded and tired; my worn, greying eyes seeing nothing but bottom lines and tax deductions – but sometimes this happens, sometimes something truly inspiring and exciting falls onto our desks and rocks our worlds*. In this instance it happened with a Crammed Discs release (coming through our friends in Proper Note) by the name of SET ‘EM WILD, SET ‘EM FREE. The offending artist? AKRON/FAMILY.

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

 

Review: Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Artist: Akron / Family

Album: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Label: Crammed Discs

It’s nice when this happens. Having risen fast to the absolute top of my profession, it can be easy to become jaded and tired; my worn, greying eyes seeing nothing but bottom lines and tax deductions – but sometimes this happens, sometimes something truly inspiring and exciting falls onto our desks and rocks our worlds*. In this instance it happened with a Crammed Discs release (coming through our friends in Proper Note) by the name of SET ‘EM WILD, SET ‘EM FREE. The offending artist? AKRON/FAMILY.

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

Now it seems everyone on the internet has long since discovered and loved Akron/Family but never bothered to tell me (and what exactly am I paying all these taxes for?) – so as irritatingly late and excitable as that guy who always hears ‘hilarious’ novelty songs a bit too late and still wants to sing them to you (they all congregate in Croydon), I discover the latest release from this wonder band.

BANG! Kicking off with some pulsating Afro-Beat rhythms that the Kuti clan could be smug about before injecting some Sabbath sized chords that Tony Iommi could be equally chuffed about comes Everyone is Guilty as good an opener as modern music will allow. Despite the tinkles of folkish string plucking and the occasional power-chord sneak through the mix there’s no real reason suspect that the album could turn out to be such a genre-hopping, life affirming, convention defying, neighbour bothering classic – but that’s what it is (or will turn out to be when we’re all living in orange bubbles on the moon). The album is bloated with creativity; a gasp of folk; a rumble of afro-beat; a wheeze of gloss-pop and a nasty belch of thrashing industrial metal (on the office shattering MBF).

Is it a rock record? Is it a pop record? Is a folk record? No. Is it an experimental record? Not really. Is it a record? Yes. The awkward tag of ‘alternative’ for once makes a lot of sense, Akron/Family offer an alternative to genre without ever appearing strained – can it even be considered experimental if it sounds so organic and comes so naturally? I don’t pretend to know, I also don’t pretend that Akron/Family are really, really good – because they factually are awesome.

If you like melody, if you like harmony; and if you like to rock, dance, weep (chicks only) and love, then this is an album that could see you into your twilight years. It’s as original and inventive as any album I’ve come across in my stellar career within ‘the industry’.

Although the album is slightly reminiscent of pleasing pop/rock rebels Modest Mouse, ‘pre-grunge’ survivalists The Pixies, African superstar Seun Kuti and Brit-folk revivalists The Fleet Foxes and Great Lake Swimmers – I recommend this album to most people. Fans of pleasure? Fans of life? Fans of stuff. This is the album for you.

*Full disclosure. I have loved, cherished and celebrated every record to ever surface under the banner of Proper Music Distribution and am financially and artistically satisfied in my lowly position of Product Assistant. I was merely being hilariously funny.

---

Click here to get back to the main page

 

Surprise Find! Nynke Laverman!

This is another section dedicated to some of the unsung gems of our catalogue which no-one seems to talk about.  They have been found when I’ve got nothing else to do (or probably do but aren’t doing it) and have a good rummage through our stacks of promo CDs which are lying round the office hunting for unknown goodies.  Having said that, there are probably some of you out there who can’t believe I’d never heard of Nynke Laverman but there you go.

Nynke Laverman - De Maisefrou (The Cornwoman)

This album is a vast mix of modern classical arrangements with elements of polka, ska, salsa, flamenco and bossa nova influences; the instrumentation incorporates classical and steel strung slide guitar, double bass, rich string harmonies, marimba with the occasional bandoneón thrown in.  Percussion ranges from sparse accenting to rhythmical backbone.

Throughout Nynke’s voice floats over the diverse range of backing music adding consistency to the otherwise ecclectic soundscape.  At all times breathy, etheral and haunting she sings in her native Dutch.  Much of the lyrical content comes from the poet Albertina Soepboer with Nynke contributing in places.

To draw a fairly easy comparison I’d say that it sounds a bit like Björk but without sounding like an acid trip.

She also has an album entitled Sielesâlt.  You can find out more about her on her website.

 

Surprise find: Kirk Lightsey!

Being fortunate enough to work in a CD warehouse has its advantages; being surrounded by more music than you could possibly listen to is certainly one of them.  However, this of course means that there’s a lot of our CDs that we never have time to listen to, begging curiosity about what hidden gems may be stashed among our precious polycarbonate cargo.

As any of who know anything about our company will know, we are big fans of supporting music from independent labels that otherwise may not get heard.

To draw this to its logical conclusion, i’ve decided to pick out some random CDs out of our promo racks, listen to them, put the ones i don’t like back and tell you a bit about some of the good ones.  These are albums by artists i’ve never heard of before so it’s a fun experience to get to hear some brand new stuff.

First up:

Kirk Lightsey - Lightsey to Gladden

The album has a classic hard-bop sound, circa late ’50s to early ’60s.  Comparative-wise after bounding around a few names around the office we’ve concluded that this would be a good record for fans of Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon and the recently deceased Freddie Hubbard (which just so happen to be some of the names mentioned in the sleeve notes).

The album features this line-up:

Kirk Lightsey: Piano
Marcus Belgrave: Trumpet, Fluegelhorn
Craig Handy: Tenor Sax, Flute
David Williams: Bass
Eddie Gladden: Drums

The album is dedicated to Eddie Gladden who died in 2003.

*************************

Some other albums we’ve been listening to this week:

Jon Boden – Songs From The Floodplain
(Don’t get too excited; it’s not due out until March)

Al Kooper – I Stand Alone/You Never Know WhoYour Friends Are…Plus

Black Sabbath – Past Lives

Portishead – Dummy

The Pharcyde – Bizarreride II