Matt Elliott
Howling Songs

A Norman Records recommendation (30th October 2008)

	Description:	CD on Ici d' ailleurs
	Format:	CD
	Genre:	Baroque / Orchestral
	Label:	Ici D'ailleurs
	Price:	£12.49
	Availability:	despatched in 2-5 working days (on average!!)

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Average staff rating: five-stars.png
Based on 1 review(s).

Rating: 5
...according to our Brett on 30 October 2008.

Ten out of ten morose horses agree, the new Matt Elliott album is wikkid. I've heard a few albums he's been involved in before, from Flying Saucer Attack and the Third Eye Foundation to the Drinking Songs album a couple of years back but I've got to admit to never having been a total convert until now. I don't really feel as though I've got any choice but to delve right into the man's back catalogue (ooo-er!) because Howling Songs has literally sliced my tits off. From the first peep of the packaging on either the vinyl or the CD you know it's going to be something special, the artwork is just stunning and a perfect compliment to the musical content, it's matter-of-fact baroque grotesquery disturbing and alluring in equal measure. Then you crack open the eleven minute opener and lopsided centrepiece 'The Kbler-Ross Model', to be greeted with Spanish guitar, scratchy, anxious strings and Elliott mumbling incoherantly like Nick Cave nodding off into an emptied shot glass; the atmospherics pulling you further and further in before the first signs that this is an utterly modern release, the kicking in of a squalling electric guitar eruption over manic gypsy jazzings shot through with bursts of pure static, leaving me with an impression of a bizarre cross between Django Reinhardt and Mogwai at their most extreme. From there things generally take a slightly traditional turn into the territory I'm more used to from Drinking Songs but with the added undercurrent of Eastern Bloc folk melodies and sounds.. The more songy side of him always makes me think of being trapped inside some kind of occult carnival while Tom Waits croons his early barroom blues stuff with Godspeed! You Black Emperor backing him up from the bandstand.. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get out of there if I did happen to be trapped in that particular situation. This LP is elusive, otherworldly and full of the sort of delightful mystery that you'll want to keep attempting to unravel on repeated listenings. Maybe it's the soundtrack to a rickety knees-up at a demented, surreal lock-in.. Or maybe it's the sound of the last man in the world sat serenading a skeleton outside a Parisian cafe backed by travelling band of ghosts playing out the back of their rotting caravan. The beauty of this incredibly evocative record is that you'll constantly be coming up with your own ridiculous ideas and imagery which is a fine gift to be given. Although there isn't much of a similarity in terms of their sounds I think he and Alexander Tucker are doing very similar things, creating their own little worlds by suggesting links between aspects of our own that we wouldn't normally be able to see. Fantastic stuff!- Brett x

Based on reviews. (Add yours)

...according to Peter Lie on 09 February 2009.

I don´t like it AT ALL! It´s plain, noisy (not in a good way like "The Maid We Messed") and we have heard that he can curse.I really think he should take a deep look inside and see what he can find,This is too extrovert.

What their label says...

The 2LP is 180g transparent vinyl (print on 3 sides only). Limited to 500 units. MATT ELLIOTT has rather an atypical course... He used to work under the moniker THE THIRD EYE FOUNDATION - emblematic figure of the English electronic scene recognized for his atypical electro tinted by drum'n’bass. Since his first album under his own name The mess we made (Domino records), MATT ELLIOTT turns to compositions much more folk, forsaking the laptop and the machines - which go until disappearing, to return to more traditional instruments (guitar, piano, violin...). Drinking song put an emphasis on distant voices and ethereal ambiences. Guitars and keyboards were getting softer, almost affectionate, sometimes overwhelmed by drum n' bass beats that carried the song upward. Choirs and echoes gave an almost mystical dimension to the album. All the songs held the audience spellbound.To succeed to Drinking songs, because it’s really about songs, Failing songs turns MATT ELLIOTT into a true songwriter. He assumes completely his voice and sings dark and very personal texts. Songs whose subtle melodies contrast with the hardness of the words because Failing songs is a hard failure report. Between despair and cold anger, the texts are about the liberal military evolution of the world that the author rejects. The titles are as sublime as melancholic, bitter and sad, impressed by Slavic music, Greek, and besides, sometimes punctuated of Spanish guitars (which are now omnipresent although often combined with the cello’s languor).Howling Songs is the magnificent third and last part to the “songs trilogy”. We are back to this slavonic tune, without any definite boarder, whose only and constant heritage finds its roots in European music. This is a very haunted and personal piece of music which is the testimony of a unique talent where moving melodies follow other moving melodies balancing between ballad songs and folk music, madness and reason, revolt and despair. Howling songs sympathizes with the surrounding world; it is a definitive observation in which one can feel, throughout the songs, an outraged sensitivity which is the signature of the artist. It is all the more sensitive that Matt’s voice is sometimes present without any chorus in the background, bringing to the whole both confidence and unquestionable heat. Howling songs is, without a doubt, the most introspective album by MATT ELLIOTT and the one which carries best his musical personality. Fans of Nick Drake, Yann Tiersen, Crippled black phoenix, Wovenhand will enjoy Elliott’s powerful songwriting and outraged sensitivity Tracks : 1. The Kübler-Ross Model 2. Something About Ghosts 3. How Much In Blood 4. A Broken Flamenco 5. Berlin & Bisenthal 6. I Name This Ship the Tragedy, Bless Her and All Who Sail With Her 7. The Howling Song 8.Song for A Failed Relationship 9. Bomb the Sock Exchange