.:Media
Thieves Among Thorns
>On Head Heritage (Album Of The Month), review by Julian Cope :
Note: As I prepared this review, I dutifully checked Nick Grey’s myspace site to make sure I wasn’t overlooking any obvious details, and immediately fixed my eyes on Holy McGrail’s Slomo project there among his ‘friends’. Excellent. Most of the time, McGrail and I live industrious indoor lives with our heads down in front of a computer, he in mysterious Yorkshire and me in mysterious Wiltshire. So it was great to have arrived at this record and chosen it naturally, to discover that we’re both reading from the same heathen hymn sheet. Rock’n’roll or watt.A Quick Fix of Melancholy
There’s a place in the heart of almost every Englishman between the age of 40 and 70 that exists in the rarely used front parlour of his mother or father’s parents’ house, a place where he remembers sitting in school shirt and short trousers enduring what seemed like endless childhood hours self-consciously swinging his legs on an overly-large Victorian settee, his heels occasionally accidentally kicking the velour in an abstracted manner to the obvious displeasure of his father, as both of his parents chatted endlessly to grandma about the weather and Auntie Maggie’s bad back, while a slightly de-tuned radio set in the back room broadcast the kind of Radio 4 drama that was always accompanied by eloquently played but fragmented and tinny schoolroom piano; beyond the net curtain freedom was the stifled chatter of children and cars passing silently.
Nick Grey’s new album reminds me of those days, technically pre-psychedelic but still rather mind manifesting in a too-much-sugary-tea and not-paying-enough-attention-to-the-grown-up-conversation kind of way. THIEVES AMONG THORNS shines in a blissful times-lost-that-never-really-existed manner, its pastoral chords and hymnal air constantly undermined by little Roger in the other room fiddling with some new and too noisy mechanical invention and getting his hand slapped for it by mother. The piano based songs on THIEVES AMONG THORNS all recall tunes I’ve known all my life, yet this collection rings, nay zings with newness. It gleams with a clarity and poetic truth heard only in the work of the most confident of artists. For the lovely genius of this record lies in its adherence to its own metaphor, probably located initially with great effort by the artist but thence defined, executed seemingly effortlessly. On this album, nothing kicks the listeners out of their melancholy for one moment, and I was careful when making tea to select not my usual large Orkney mug depicting heathen temple The Ring Of Brogar and the Viking cathedral of St. Magnus and the Old Man of Hoy, but instead this English Republican chose to drink from a fine china beaker celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee presented in 2002 to all the local children by Cherhill Parish Council. For, as I’m always at pains to point out, acceptance of the artist’s own metaphor is essential in order to maximise one’s enjoyment of that art.
There’s little point in describing each song that Nick Grey has brought before us on this exceptional album. Suffice to say, nothing is out of place and nothing stands out except ALL of it, yet it is neither an album of songs nor an album of purely experimental works, the record standing shamanically and entirely successfully at the doorway between both genres just as John Cale’s THE ACADEMY IN PERIL attempted but ultimately failed to do. For whereas Cale was tempted to undermine the pastor within him by adding inappropriate elements that made us not wince perhaps, but most certainly flinch, instead Nick Grey’s masterful acceptance of his own metaphor ensures that - as all has been dedicated to ensuring the completeness of the trip – nothing up-ends the continuity of our listening pleasure. Indeed, this album is one of the most truly ambient records I’ve heard in many a year, and rotating it endlessly can send the listener close to catatonia and nudging sleep.
The preponderance of fizzing technology and cut-ups keeps the record far outside any so-called Keltic zones, placing it firmly in a Germanic realm, as though Grey were sitting at the piano in the sitting room, but hemmed in by a VCS3 synthesizer half-inched from the physics lab by an older brother, as self-animating mechanical toys and half-broken robots interrupt the proceeding from time to time by bursting suddenly in to life. And yet there are no disruptions that shake us too much from Grey’s spell, even the American radio voices are appropriate to the overall downer atmosphere. THIEVES AMONG THORNS sounds most of all as though a thoughtful radio DJ had created a special Sunday afternoon selection made especially to accompany the hours between 2.30-6pm. For this is no midnight album, neither is it an evening album, but invokes that time-honoured Sunday afternoon time-slot after the World War 2 movie but before SONGS OF PRAISE. I know because I’ve played it at all hours of the day and never yet on a Sunday, but the music of THIEVES AMONG THORNS conjures up that ultra specific moment every time and without fail.
If I were to compare this record to others, I should say its pleasure centres would best be paralleled by making up a compilation from any of the less gothic/more rural tracks from Nico’s DESERTSHORE or MARBLE INDEX LPs, ‘Are We Dreaming?’ from Kevin Coyne’s 1978 LP DYNAMITE DAZE, ‘Vowels’ from Ulver’s wonderful A QUICK FIX OF MELANCHOLY E.P., the harmonium-based ‘Window Shopping For A New Crown Of Thorns’ by my own The Teardrop Explodes, almost anything from David Wrench’s epic and criminally underrated LP BLOW WINDS BLOW, Armand Schaubroeuk’s exquisite version of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, most anything from the out-of-character Cale-obsessed fourth album of Japanese band Overhang Party , several of the piano based Residents tunes that appeared on NOT AVAILABLE, moments of NEU 75 and large chunks of Cluster’s SOWIESOSO. Luckily, however, that compilation is unnecessary because Nick Grey’s new album reaches all of the above and much more.
For foreign listeners, I would recommend THIEVES AMONG THORNS if you wish to know what was the essence of the post war English living room. For it is not the self-regarding too-drum heavy jangle pop of the perpetually mournful Morrissey and The Smiths, nor is it the wonderful but too dark northern Englishness of Joy Division, rather it is the slightly out of reach simultaneous ebbing and flowing of joy at what we once had tempered by gentle grief at what we’ve lost. For the Englishman does not, I believe, really wish to kill himself, nor does he wish to kill others. Like this fabulous record of Nick Grey’s, the Englishman probably most wants just to be left alone and… well, to contemplate his own inevitable death whilst fiddling with his own stuff in a shed or back room filled with meaningful artefacts accumulated over his life, and with enough light to see properly and, of course, a brew.
>"Thieves Among Thorns" is one of the best albums I have heard in years - one of my favorite albums Dark Holler Hand/Eye has ever released (though, to be fair, I am rather biased to them all). Still, I find this work enchanting and haunting in all the right ways. My highest recommendation.
TIMOTHY RENNER (Stone Breath)
>My first impression was of a pastoral, quite orchestral, feel to the sound. Soon I was more aware of something darker, perhaps even brooding, going on. Nick Grey's lyrics are sometimes reflective, at others oblique and, especially on the pieces featuring piano from Jasmine (or "hamsig") Pinkerton, I formed the impression that Mr. Grey might have a few Peter Hammill albums on his shelves. Mysterious songs swathed in autumnal mists… oh - they're rather nicely packaged too! (JC)
BOA MELODY BAR
>...An album that hits deep and has a tone that is utterly hard to escape from. Even though it’s stripped to the bare bones and the presented mood is haunting to say the least the folky sound is still somewhat fleshed out, with broad orchestrations that from time to time truly make you feel that the end is near.
The Broken Face
>On his myspace page, Nick Grey offers a few adjectives for summarizing his music, ‘Snorecore’ being a particularly apt one – not because his music is boring, far from it. It’s just that the whole of Thieves Among Us sounds as if it was performed and recorded in a somnambulist state. Though held together by definite songs, and by no means ambient in the strictest sense, there is an opiated quality that conjures a kind of dreamscape aesthetic. That said, Thieves Among Us is a dynamic work, ranging from the hectic drum clutter of ‘Failure (Is A Lonesome Bitch)’ to the Eno-influenced effervescence of ‘Devolun Inis’. Possibly the finest thing here is the utterly majestic elegy, ‘All Lives Revolve In Bright Circles Of Quiet Light’, in which Grey’s mournful voice is given a halo of funereal horns and quiet string plucks. Finale, ‘The World Mountain’ perks the album up a little delivering something approaching a slowed down psych-rock jam.
BOOMKAT
230 DIVISADERO
>(...) 230 Divisadero deliver a one-track, half-hour EP that ebbs and flows in the minimalist, ambient snorecore style of Windy & Carl, Stars of the Lid, Aarktica, et. al. (...) There's a metalic industrial sheen to some of the middle passages that again invoke cinematic images, this time of the barren landscapes and factory scenes form David Lynch's “Eraserhead.” In fact, the album often recalls that wonderful soundtrack, particularly in its creation of unsettling scenes of loneliness and hopelessness.
>(…) On peut savoir gré à Matt Shaw (Tex La Homa) et Nick Grey (48 Cameras), ainsi qu'à leur violoncelliste prodige (David Widmer) d'avoir ranimé la mythologie noire des marins. Ce EP, constitué d'une seule pièce musicale de près d'une demi-heure, tisse, entre drones, soundscapes, sonars lointains et omniprésents d'un côté, ponctuations acoustiques discrètes de l'autre (violoncelle lancinant et crève-cœur, voix d'outre-tombe), une trame fluide et pourtant riche de nuances qui happe l'auditeur, l'immergeant (littéralement et métaphoriquement) dans les eaux troubles de la déréliction
>“A Vision of Lost Unity” is one long (28 minutes) piece of music from 230 Divisadero , which slowly engulfs you like a rising tide, as you lie, shipwrecked, on the rocks far from your home. Filled with swirling synths and slow motion drones, the music is desolate and lonely, compelled to look inwards for the answers. At 12 minutes the music seems to reach a crescendo of loss before slowly retreating back into itself, with some exquisite strings adding to the atmosphere, the music slipping back into the ocean of silence from whence it came.
>...Un trip superbe dont il faudra à l'évidence sonder les différentes escales avant de statuer sur ce "Dit du vieux marin" musical, moderne et enchanteur.
Guts Of Darkness
> (...) one 28 minutes long underwater ceremony constructed from all sorts of misty drones, pulses, non-word vocals, hallucinogenic electronics, feedback attacks and mournful cello playing. This is good stuff that manages to surprise by combining subtle drone characteristics with repetitious aggression.
Review from Broken Face
>Entre post rock et electronica vaporeuse, ce EP redonne au sens d'aventurier une âme, loin des balises Argos et des gps, loin de la technologie et des avidités de records, plus prêt de la vie et de la mort.
Review from A Découvrir Absolument
>A long track of almost half-an-hour, “A Vision of Lost Unity” reminds me of Sunn 0))), Earth, Pink Floyd, Clock DVA, and the Tear Garden. Pulsating waves of sonic acid weave through the tapestry that was expertly mixed with precision. Interesting and yet wildly disturbing all at once.
Review from Smother magazine (Editor's pick)
>(...) Réalisé par transmission de données entre Canada et Angleterre, A Vision of Lost Unity présente un amalgame sourd, ambiant et nébuleux, que fracturent en douceur sons de cordes désenchantés et psychédélisme rampant. Le drone est dans la place
D-side magazine
°catlandgrey°
> °Catlandrey° - Les Inrockuptibles n° 555 du 18 au 24 juillet 2006
Electronica – Des ballades oniriques mais sous menace, par un duo virtuel.
Remercions une fois de plus l’autoroute de l’information pour avoir relié entre elles des îles et autorisé la libre circulation des idées et des sons. Rien, ainsi, ne prédisposait un Canadien, Nick Grey, et un Japonais, Nihiruneko, exilé poétique à Paris, à travailler ensemble : les rêves et les songes y auraient beaucoup perdu, tant cet album onirique se fait un malin plaisir d’accompagner, avec une délicatesse insistante, chaque instant d’abandon. Un genre de psychédélisme miniature, éclairé à la bougie plutôt qu’à la pyrotechnie, empruntant son bucolisme au folk, mais aussi son anxiété à l’electronica et au free-rock. Il y a un lézard sur la pochette, mais aucun dans ce disque.
Céline Rémy / Les Inrocks
>(…) Catlandgrey prend sans doute au pied de la lettre l'idée selon laquelle le rire est la politesse du désespoir, et en joue à merveille. D'aucuns y verront un album de plus qui explore les tréfonds de l'âme humaine avec ce qu'il faut de résignation pour en percer quelque mystère - dans la lignée d'un Will Oldham, pour ne citer que lui. D'autres, dont je suis, y trouveront une tentative souvent fructueuse de soulever l'enthousiasme - pour le coup, au sens étymologique, et donc divin du terme - qui sied à une introspection sans concession.
Popnews
>(…) Combien de larmes pour faire que nous nous rencontrions un jour…Juste assez suite aux écoutes de Dead Fabrizio, tout juste assez après the colony ou the night before thanksgiving, tout juste assez après l'envie de vous prendre dans mes bras. Quelque chose d'éternel et de charnel à la fois. Poignant.
A Decouvrir Absolument
>(...) These two artists have found a common language, which obviously has nothing do with words. Which is another reason, why “catlandgrey” is better off without the help of a smoothly running promotion machinery – none of their cool slogans could ever capture the essence of this release, without sacrificing its meaning. Neither can this review, of course. But as long as this duo continues to communicate with us thorugh their music, they are more than welcome to further defy the rules of modern marketing (and our interview requests).
Tokafi (Tobias Fischer)
> « Whispery secret songs sung by moonlight in hidden meadows and abandoned buildings (...) a haunted feeling of desolation »
Review from Dream Magazine
>(…) des complaintes acoustiques et hypnotiques, un doux psychédélisme auquel se mêle un field recording discret ou plus perturbateur, et des textes empreints d'humour et d'absurde. Une féerie opaque et étrange se dessine alors tout le long de ces minutes accumulant une folk dégénérée et intemporelle. A écouter les soirs de pluie et, si possible, en compagnie de vos animaux les plus gentils.
D-Side
>The most interesting part to Catlandgrey is the uncertainty of its origin and sheer diversity. So many styles leave the release impossible to pigeonhole and with each listen, a new sound or discovery is unearthed from within. A baffling but beautiful release that improves with each play.
>(…) les compos de CATLANDGREY et consorts sont irritantes de perfection, belles à mourir comme l’étaient les verges pour un Genet, fleuries de crises en thèmes jouissives. Nick, vous êtes un arrache-pLeur, soyez-en gracié au Xanax des cieux !
> Nick Grey is involved with this, and anyone who has enjoyed his orchestral work will find this equally intriguing I daresay, as he teams up with a demented Japanese guitarist, Nihiruneko. Together they make what the press release insists is ‘eerie stuttering fostpolk, which I hope is a typo.
Review from Mick Mercer
>Every month I hear some great music, and I feel privileged to be able to recommend it to Back On The Tracks subscribers, but this is the kind of CD that makes my job positively magical.
Review from Back On The Tracks
Les eaux territoriales
>« Nick Grey & Nicholas Davis Les Eaux Territoriales (Milk & Moon) This CDR release comes housed in a black sleeve with a small square of mirror glued to it’s center. Nick Grey emanates moody mysteries as British guitarist Nicholas Davis undulates and dissolves in shadows. Sustained overtones stumble in a slow motion haze, while other more discernable instruments bob to the surface, and perhaps a ghostly male voice whispers, intones, or chants occasionally. Truly underground feeling. » - Dream Magazine
> Nick Grey's work has always fascinated me, being both minimal but complicated somehow. Taking simple sounds and twisting them into interesting tones and rhythms. (...)Nick Grey is an enigma in the music industry and he's always put out the most bizarre albums and conceptual visions. As a result his work will either piss you off or become a staple in your late-night sessions of estrangement. It can at once push your mind to the limits of sanity (...)Grey is certainly not easily pigeonholed and I can barely find a way to compare him to other artists – but if you're looking for a truly surreal trip to "somewhere else," then Les Eaux Territoriales can certainly take you there. - Legends Magazine
> (...) Silvery guitar lines, distant drum poundings, warm vocals and chords meandering like a milky stream floating on the bed of the moon. The title track has the kind of groove you can nod your head to when lying alone in your bed at four o’clock in the morning and “Deathships of all flags gather around yr shores”’s backwards-sounds, organ sadness, accordeon-tristesse and subdued voice creaking and humming like the floorboards outside of Arthur Gordon Pyms cabin will have you touched and frightened all at once. - Mouvement Nouveau
> (...) Pour un résultat rivalisant de superbe avec le "i don’t want to be the one" des regrettés COIL. - In_Tension
> Somewhat eccentric, slightly touched by decadence but definitely stylish down to the hand-made package - Connexion Bizarre
> Nick Grey donne une ampleur aquatique à des mélopées cinématographiques pouvant évoquer le voyage, ou sa fin (« Deathships Of All Flags Gather Around Yr Shores »). Inclassable, l’œuvre semble s’affermir autour de choix évacuant le désir orchestral pour toucher l’essence. - D-Side
> J'aimerais trouver les mots pour inviter chacun d'entre vous à se plonger dans ces titres hypnotiques mais à part les noms précités, ce Nick Grey ne ressemble à rien de connu et possède vraiment sa personnalité propre. Les innovations de ce type sont si rares qu'il serait regrettable de passer à côté - Elegy
> Magnifique - Guts Of Darkness
... Complete reviews on www.nick-grey.com