Tag: CRASS

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CAROL HODGE – Hold on to that Flame – New Release – PUNK BALLAD URBAN SOLO ALBUM

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carol

CAROL HODGE – Hold on to that Flame – New Release – PUNK BALLAD URBAN SOLO ALBUM

Punk Ballad Urban Vocal crafter and pianist Carol His back on the Manchester music scene with a new punk power ballad album of strong tracks that has taken reflection and time in the making.

She is constantly on projects, so whats new ? (Carol Hodge is a well known face on the Manchester music scene, performing solo as singer/pianist Crystal Grenade. She is also backing vocalist and pianist for Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life, and provided female vocals on CRASS songs for The Last Supper tour)

This time it’s her Solo work.

Fishinabox have followed the journey with interest from the first writings for this solo album which started to form into songs from as far back as 2015, at a time when Carol penned, wrote and voiced the powerful lyrics on “The Power of Willful Ignorance”for one of our own ethics and animal rights projects.

Not having seen a major focus on her Solo career back in 2012/2013 we wanted more; but so did the music scene, the collaborations, other bands and artists and as a result, “Hold on to that flame” has taken time to get to general release.

This Album culminates the many aspects of her work succinctly, mixing and story to sweeten the bitter pill of daily life  issues. and frankly is the one to buy.

Tracks like “Stop the world in it’s tracks, and “First world problems” are easy to identify with, and there are the welcome inclusions of some older material “The witch is dead and “Weather the storm”

Carol’s songwriting talents over the last 15 years always seem to be caught up primarily in other artists projects (including ours…… Mea Culpa) which have all benefited greatly from her extensive talent and a writer performer and her keen understanding of social issues that she often puts at the heart of her work.

Carol brings a strong classical element to all work that she touches and provides accessible depth to core lifestyle challenges and at times along with satirical lyrics exposing the globalization “dream” for the nightmare it represents ethically and morally.

Carol’s move to set up her own record label as well as focus on her solo career is a sound and welcome step. There is some bleakness, but not broken, some melancholy, but not darkness, in her work and being the relentless optimist that she is, there is always light that shines through the cracks so to speak, the work here enlightens.

https://www.chopback.com/music

Our advice from Fishinabox – pick up the album, as far as the Carol Hodge story goes to date it is the chance finally get the album , “buy the T-shirt” and open your ears to a song writer who captivates, yet remains, a soulful realist.

in Carols words -“Don’t be so selfish , Don’t be introspective , and broaden your mind to the global perspective”

Track List:

  1. Stop The World In Its Tracks 04:36
  2. No Holds Barred 03:03
  3. You Don’t Dream Enough 04:17
  4. First World Problems 03:58
  5. Your Heart Is Breaking 03:59
  6. Fallibility 03:50
  7. Weather The Storm 04:36
  8. Bullet In The Moonlight 04:08
  9. The Witch Is Dead 03:20
  10. Undone 04:04
  11. Bear With Me 04:13

Pick up the Album here – https://carolxhodge.bandcamp.com/

CAROL-HODGE-COVER

CAROL HODGE – Other links:

https://www.mudkiss.com/carolhodgeinterview.htm

http://www.fungalpunknature.co.uk/FUNGALPUNK/Interviews/CarolWrecks.html

 

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WILFRED OWEN The Pity of War – Penny Rimbaud’s WHAT PASSING BELLS – March 25th 2016

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WILFRED OWEN The Pity of War – Penny Rimbaud’s WHAT PASSING BELLS – March 25th 2016

The recordings in this post were filmed at the Vortex, Dalston London and are used with kind permission of Penny Rimbaud.

http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/penny-rimbaud-and-liam-noble-present-the-pity-of-war-the-complete-war-poems-of-wilfred-owen-2/

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Wilfred Owen’s poetry has been reworked into a vast range of different formats. some of the most moving  of which were Benjamin Britten’s use of eight of Wilfred Owen’s poems into his War Requiem, along with words from the Latin Mass for the Dead (Missa pro Defunctis).

Derek Jarman also adapted it for the screen in 1988, with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack.  Though these were striking they  only touched on Owen’s works.

Penny Rimbaud’s intense and thorough exploration of the works of Wilfred Owen allows the listener to journey deeper into Owen’s works,  the order of the poems , the haunting almost hypnotising presentation and audio setting push back the air around you creating almost a sense of silence that reaches out like shadow before pouring emotion into the space around you.

The remastering has been done, the recordings flawless, the CD and photobook hailing back to Owen’s home and surround area, quite stunning.  The job could not have been done better and we would recommend all take a serious looking at the below interview and sales links and pick up a copy of the finished product before stocks run out:

http://thequietus.com/articles/23279-penny-rimbaud-wilfred-owen-what-passing-bells-interview

Penny Rimbaud ‘What Passing Bells: The War Poems of Wilfred Owen’

http://indian.co.uk/shop/what-passing-bells.html

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What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

On 11 November 1985, Owen was one of the 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.

The inscription on the stone is taken from Owen’s “Preface” to his poems: “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.”

Where today we are so very desensitised and conditioned to the daily existence of mindless fruitless destruction, Where children are born to “order” , fodder for the battlefield, a death before life, a soldier a killer before being a child, where mothers wombs are sacked by Governments out of so called duty to the nation. Before life even begins they are consigned to death.

The destruction of men, as pigs to slaughter, whether they be English, French, German or anything else, a prerequisite of so called of civilisation. It is a crime of hate, a crime of power and corruption and a crime of society to take the innocent, and all that is left when done,. if we are able to feel a mother’s loss, is that breathless wheezing feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by living the sufferings and misfortunes of others.

Penny Rimbaud’s “What Passing bells” presents the pity in Owen’s works at the deepest most comprehensive and accessible level to date in the presentation of this writer’s works.

You’re already dead (for the mothers) 1 of 2alreadydead001

You’re already dead (for the mothers) 2 of 2alreadydead2

Media and Artwork – With Thanks to: Paul Fletcher, Andie Handei Kumafaro, Philip McCulloch-Downs (https://www.facebook.com/PhilipDownsArt/)

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