FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE SOUND OF CROYDON

Any live show curated by the amazing Dr Neil March aka Trust The Doc is always worth noting in your gig calendar. When it includes a debut album launch by Neil’s band The Music of Sound plus two fascinatingly diverse support acts, all for a criminally modest £7 a pop, it’s clearly a no-brainer. Sadly, the mercifully unrealised threat of riots combined with the holiday season had a detrimental effect on audience numbers but, from where I sat, those who made it to the delightful Front Room on St George’s Walk, East Croydon last Thursday loved every minute of it.

Once you get over the urban wasteland aspect of its close surroundings, The Front Room is a particularly warm and welcoming space to hear live music with the bonus of an accomplished sound engineer and friendly barman. And I got the chance to travel on the tram from Wimbledon to East Croydon. Opening tonight was a highly individual singer-songwriter, Jeanie White, from Portsmouth who combines sultry tones more akin to a night club singer with an indie torch song vibe, an inner melancholy and quirky storytelling. The latter extends to her engaging chat between songs which sprinkles a touch of humour over some darker material. Her opener, “Chemical Blues”, a song to assuage a restless mind, was peppered with unusual keyboard modulations while “Connie” stood out for its plaintive response to life’s changes. I could have listened to her all night.

He might ask for trouble with that stage name but Croydon’s own Steve Smith aka Negative Response provoked quite the contrary from tonight’s small yet enthusiastic gathering. Mixing newer material with old including one piece written 43 years ago which he followed with one he playfully described as ‘more contemporary… err 1982’, plus the odd cover, he combines composition with sound design and an analogue electronic delivery. Steve may concede that vocals aren’t his strongest suit yet he manfully delivered them when required with the aid of a vocoder. As well as a fondness for 80s synth pop, I found something else in common with Steve; namely that both our sites employ the same record desk image on the home page. Great minds obviously. I’ll leave you with the mantra-like “Til It’s Over”, which I think he included in his set, though my notes are somewhat nonsensical so apologies if I got that wrong. An entertaining and thoughtful performance accompanied by b&w slides and video clips to add to the ambience. What’s not to like.

Tonight was the first of two launch gigs for the debut album, Eleven Short Stories, from south-east London trio The Music Of Sound. The band now comprises composer Neil March on keyboards, electronics and backing vocals, Elena Trent on flute and lead vocalist Sherin who has taken the baton from Florie Namir, who has a recent addition to her family to nurture. Florie is a tough act to follow but, despite not having performed live in the UK previously, Sherin stepped up to the plate admirably. It is quite a task to take on board eleven album tracks for your first gig so perhaps with that in mind, tonight’s set was confined to five of them plus two new songs which Sherin has worked on from the start.

Opening with the bucolic “First Light”, with its air of contemporary classical meeting dream pop, the band set a relaxed, reflective tone that ran through the whole set. Sherin handled the challenging high register parts with merit though I wasn’t sure if she was using the phone to record herself or to check the odd lyric. The latter would be understandable having suddenly been handed the vocal reins. The next song, “Aanandi”, was close to home as its inspiration comes from Sherin’s real world journey traversing thousands of miles in pursuit of her dream. In both songs Elena’s flute is very much to the fore, contributing a stately elegance to proceedings while Neil's artistry underpins it all.

Photos of Jeanie White, Negative Response & The Music of Sound all by Kevin England

The five-song album live taster concluded with the gently reflective “Second Light” recalling an early Sunday morning trip songwriter Neil took to watch the sun rise, passing through deserted streets, clearing the mind and finding the time to “dream out loud.” The sense of uplift continued with the two new songs that closed the set, the latest of which was only written a week ago: “You Lost Out” and “Cold Weatherman”, each auguring well for The Music Of Sound’s continued musical health. I can only share one song featuring Sherin’s vocals with you today so let’s wind back to the opening song which crowned a successful and musically splendid evening en Croydon.

Elsewhere on the independent music scene there has been plenty of new music around despite the traditional effect the holiday season has on the industry. To conclude this week’s Fifty3Fridays I will share three songs that especially caught my ear. Manchester-based quartet, The Deep Blue, was one of my Glastonbury highlights in June and I remember picking out a new song from the band’s set, “Cynical”, which is gladly now a single release. Lyrically it charts how someone switches off their inner cynic to go blindly into a relationship only to grow more cynical when coming out the other side. Set against a relaxed drum beat, the song meanders softly yet with surety, interlaced with carefully accented harmonies and sparse guitars. The short coda in which the words “cynical of me” are interwoven is a particular delight.

It is always a pleasure to hear new material from Southend’s finest, The Trusted, a band revered here for its close camaraderie traced back to secondary schooldays, ever tuneful songs and ensemble playing. The quartet’s recent singles have displayed surprisingly diverse musical facets and the latest is no exception. “Miracle Face” is quite different to anything the band has produced previously. A pure pop song that plays with the dangers of putting people on pedestals, it features jangling guitars picking out an immediate melody and vocoder effects on lead singer Tom Cunningham’s falsetto which stay the right side of gimmickry. In a parallel universe, The Trusted is already on a world tour and I commend its flourishing repertoire to those label chiefs and booking agents currently sunning themselves elsewhere.

We close with Ella Janes, another artiste whose latest single marks a diversion from much of her past work. One of my three acts chosen for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Longlist in 2013, it was great to reconnect with Ella’s music again a few months back when she shared a compelling new live version of an old song, “No Place Like Home”. She has continued to put a different stamp on things with her new release, “One Last Night”. This song began life as a simple acoustic folk ballad. Subsequently, producer Thomas White and studio engineer Hugh Fielding worked their studio magic to turn it into what Ella calls a 'Krautrock beast'. Ella’s voice is a comfortable fit for her journey into electro pop and the result is a compelling piece of music in which she tries to rekindle an old flame with a knowing wink that suggests it’s a pure fantasy.