Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Phil Elvrum live for the third time in London, this time at The Dome near Kentish Town, with High Places and Parenthetical Girls supporting.
I loved the High Places set; their music is incredibly invigorating and refreshing, with a strange sort of aggression and tribalism when played live — suffice to say I bought their self titled 12″ at the close. Parenthetical Girls were not really my sort of thing, some stand out tracks, an interesting vocalist and instrument rotation made it worthwhile though.
Phil’s set was, as usual, mesmerizing and wonderful, despite his obvious exhaustion from traveling.
Downloads
Just for good measure, here are two downloads of the complete performances the last time I saw him live — recorded with permission by Sonny (via MEPS); first at The Luminaire and the next day at the London School of Economics library. Yesterday’s show didn’t top these, but to be honest that’s pretty hard ’cause they were awesome; there was even singalongs and people sat cross legged around him on the stage; it was all very intimate and beautiful.
Wow, this Numero Group keeps getting better and better. I truly recommend their collections. This is a track from disc 12 in their repertoire NUM012, the album is called “What a Beautiful Place” and was originally released in 1971 but fell into obscurity until now.
“The first ever compact disc issue of Catherine Howe’s brilliant debut album. Produced by legendary jazz pianist Bobby Scott, the album is a pastoral blend of English countryside folk and London orchestral pop, not unlike Bryter Layter or North Star Grassman And The Ravens. Originally released on Reflection Records in 1971, the much sought after album disappeared before ever hitting the racks. Booklet includes half a dozen unpublished photos and an anotated history of the album’s brief existence. The fully remastered album includes an unearthed bonus track originally intended to be included on the album.”
…Enter the Numero Group. Founded by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley in 2003, the three self-proclaimed “record obsessives” decided to approach the record business backwards. No corporate hierarchy; no company stationary. Just a big pile of music that no one had ever heard of.
The mission was simple: to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated.
Numero releases are sound with substance, living at the nexus of song and story. Scrupulously researched, painstakingly re-mastered, and with an attention to detail that is unmatched in the reissue field, the end result is a top-of-the-line compact disc.
There is no “Numero” sound; instead, Numero offers an aesthetic. A shelf of Numero discs feels less like a “record collection” and more like a library. The library to date is a mix of thrift shop soul, skinny tie pop, Belizean funk, and hillbilly gospel. Numero makes records for people who may have everything from indigenous Central American drumming to Canadian chanteuses stacked next to their CD players.
This track is from their third release “Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label” and this particular track is towards the end — merely a rehearsal. I instantly fell in love with this song, I implore you to listen to it.
I’m just using this little post to upload one of the sexiest songs I have heard in a long time whilst trying out some new code generation techniques to make posting mp3 previews a little quicker and more fluid:
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