The very happening Cat house venue was a scene in itself. Situated right in the heart of city centre it gives you a remarkable feeling as you ascend the luminous stairs going up to the equality lit up first floor, the higher you get up there the more music comes looming in great spirits and as something fluent.
This Thursday night performance was by a young group called ‘Dea Matrona’ headlining and ‘Milange’ to support them. Milange are a Glasgow based band, a four piece that put a skiffle into rock n’ roll and had a sense of heavy metal to be regarded. They are a fairly new act over the last few years, but they have definitely made their beginning having played live a lot and the recordings are starting to come round for them. Their originality was precious as the great many styles and influences came to a wonderfully full musical procession.
After that most enjoyable (decent 40 min set) the crowd got ready, the instruments checked with the lights out, it felt like another greatly successful Glasgow night out. The revelry of music was for not least the many fans whooping in the room.
The scene was highly jovial when Dea Matrona stepped on, with already great gusto in their fine sails, they were the second four piece who had come across the water from Ireland. Having formed in 2018 their rock music of original songs has taken to these fans as a fan is to the flame. The night was perfect for this central yet humble scene in their current tour.
It was clear that rock came from the heart of the two singers, Orlaith Forsythe (bass & vocal) and Mollie McGinn (guitar & vocal) who led the act supported further with an absolute drum and secondary guitar all proving to be a sound most recognisable.
Milange professed to being very happy to be a support to Dea…, and the whole place was under that kind of vibe, friendship and music dancing merrily, with attractive people on a stage. All was overrun with exuberance and dedication that in an exemplary way was given to the shared genre of great rock. Breaking loose of its themes and injecting into it pop styles and heavy metal grooves. Disco balls would have worked well. Their attire was spot on for the modern fringes of rock, not need for 70’s spangler’s, instead making time as travellers in thematic mode’s who connect more with their audience.
Great original writing, performing to a truly enlivened great sense of youth’s accomplishments, so fast, and with every given smile a great throw back to happiness. Glad I saw this rock gig where I really enjoyed my introduction to a most wonderful band. They kicked around the floor opening doors in an act that played to a crowd with effortless ease and destructive beauty.
Lyra is essentially a one-woman Mount Parnassus – all the muses are at play within the electric vortex of her creative soul, which explodes upon the stage in sonic supernovas, like the birth of so many stars. Thalia is there, the Muse of Comedy, cosm well, she’s funny as fuck – I mean laugh-out loud funny, as we ride her Irish bantermind in between the operatic performances of her (mostly) self-penn’d songs. That brings us naturally to Erato & Euterpe, the Muses of Music; follow’d by Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance. Admittedly Lyra pulls off some reyt moves, which she describes as ‘bad dancing’, but I’d have to describe more as physical overenthusiasm. Do they not have choreographers in County Cork?
She is also the living incarnation of Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, especially when she starts rattling on about her ex-boyfriend of whom a good few of her songs are concern’d – think Amy Whitehouse’s epic laments to Blake in Back to Back. But Lyra won’t be going back to her ex, I’m guessing, for the uberpositivity she’s declaring for this year being her year zero, & from now on she’s doing it all her own way, far from the days when record execs were telling her to not to speak inbetween the songs & to lose a bit of weight… no, those days are over, & she is now less than a month into the era after her debut album, the eponymous Lyra, has been releas’d.
Last night we were given fourteen songs; perform’d in a sparkly, pink, disco-era, thighs-cut-away outfit. Of the set, most of the album was there, & a few other gems. Her older classics, New Day & Falling, have been stitch’d into the album, which gives kudos to her ‘appreciation society’ for waiting a good few years for her debut. They are really excellent tunes, them two, a high benchmark to which most of the rest of the album manages to achieve.
With extreme confidence shimmering in every syllable, Lyra was accompanied by a super-tight, yet flourish-laden drummer, & a keyboardist who control’d that vast plethora of soundscapes that ‘jeuje up!’ each song. In the center of all of this reigns Lyra’s distinctive voice – a key deeper than most female vocalists, but with the ability to explode into nuclear majesty. At times I felt like she was hovering like Mothra at the gates of the Universe, screaming to Humanity to sort its fucking act out. Yeah, it’s that powerful!
Her greatest beauty as a performer is the pub-crack banter in-between the songs, which is so endearing, familial even. I lost count of how many times she said she was ‘mortified’ about some event or other in her life. As for reaching out to the audience, her flatterpatter comes from a truly genuine place. It was such natural warmth which first got me interested in her as an artist – I’d seen her supporting Westlife a couple years back, & was really tickl’d by her chat – the aforemention’d ‘funny as fuck.’ I’ve never, ever, seen someone so musically talented who is also funnier than most of the Edinburgh Fringe.
As she proceeded to whip up her sonic storms, I look’d around the audience & could see people tilting their heads back, looking, not at Lyra, but above her, to some celestial presence, their souls & lips singing along to this pantheon catchy tunes. It’s early days for Lyra away from Ireland, where she seems to be a household name – her album’s number one there I noticed -, but I’ve got a feeling by the time the next album’s being tour’d, & she’s not singing moody songs about her ex anymore, but infusing her music with the beautiful energy she shares with us when she’s not singing, then I’m sure something special is gonna happen.
I have this dream that I’m on a stage Singing singalong songs with my friends And in this dream we’re floating in space And we all wake up in the end
So what makes a classic album? I’ve listened to quite a few over my time on this music-adoring planet, & I think the answer is quite simple. A classic album is made up of classic tunes. Not album fillers, not decent tunes, but classics; both sides of the LP, when so much so as soon as the last song is play’d on side 2, you flip it straight over to side 1 again.
I mean, come on, Sgt. Peppers, every tune is bangin’. Graceland is a massive feast of classic tunes, while the Stone Roses first album is only let down by the weird backwards track. Then the Morcheeba Album… if only they could have maintained the quality of songs throughout the album after such an opening 5 or 6, etc., etc.. I mean, we could go on for hours & hours analysing the merits of all the classic albums, but we are here in my kitchen to take a look at Scottish sonic-sensationalists, Mickey 9s, brand new album, releas’d tomorrow, May 2nd, 2024
On asking the band’s frontman, St. Kool, what was the, well, essence of the album, he replied, “we’ve abandon’d our punk pretensions and produced an unapologetic collection of indie-funk pop tunes on themes of love, death, and mental health. Odes to old masters such as Eurythmics and Daft Punk, as well as current acts such as Hot Chip and Death Cab For Cutie. Personal and searching, but dreamy and fun, an album to dance and singalong to. You can cry if you want to.”
IMPRESSIVE SNAKE was recorded in the second half of last year in the two home studios of Scottish singer-songwriter, James Grant (Bicycle Thieves), & also the band’s guitarist, Anthony Paul. Song-writing credits have been split 4-ways equally between the band – no egos here -, & we’ve already heard two of the tracks in the form of ‘Impossibility’ (released 06/10/23) and ‘Moments Go’ (released 01/12/23). The latter was the last BBC Radio Scotland Single of The Week of 2023.
So – is it any good? Well let’s slap it on & have a little dance shall we?
IMPOSSIBILITY
Opening tunes announce the direction of the album. This is Mickey 9s, so of course the bouncy bass-driven beats are there, but now they are nestling in soundproof’d, undrafty studios we also get waves of super-clear vocals, both from Kool & his band harmonies. A poppy opener with a repetitive, dancefloor pleasing swathe of ending verses, including mythological references such as;
Feels like I’m on the brink of breaking down Feels like I’m all tuned into monotone Feels like I am Prometheus bound Feels like I’m living on the coast of this ghost town Well, you know, you’re not alone pal
I want to lie on Sisyphus’s stone I want to lie in the myth of my old home I want to lie in the depths of the burial ground I want to lie in the mystery of sound Well, you know, you’re not alone pal
Then you look at the album title, & especially the cover, with the Book of Genesis references, & yer like, ah this is gonna be a deep ride indeed.
MOMENT’S GO
Just as the album opens with the first single releas’d from it, the second track is the aforemention’d BBC single of the week. Moment’s Go is pure 80’s sexysynth. I mean if you were gonna suck the sap out of the tree that holds the decades up, the 80s branch, then distil it’s quintessence into a single song, you’d pretty much get Moments Go. The song itself is a semi-whimsical plea to an old lover for some kind of romantic restitution, but is perhaps a little sparse lyrically to have us truly engage with the message.
WHO DO YOU LOVE?
This is the first track on the album I’d say was a true classic. An immediate muscle-grabber, I’d imagine the dance floor would kick off to this one big time. All the parts work together in a solid block of funk here, including our first taste of female vocals, Imogen she’s call’d, a little too Annie Lennoxey perhaps, but still an absolutely excellent addition to the band’s uberconfidence – this is who Mickey 9s are, this is how we do it, & why ya not dancin’ yet?
So, a third of the way into a nine track album & I start thinking in tryptychs. Act One is over, the three segments of which seem to paint a picture of heroically attaining a high level of amorousness with a probably idealistically imagin’d lady. Eve, herself, perhaps. Let’s bang on Act Two to see if I’m right…
IF I GET LOST
I was right about the love thang, I think; check out the lyrics of this proper snappy popsplosion.
If I get lost, I get lost from you babe I run around, run around, run around, run around When I can’t find you
Minor altercations seem to escalate Gotta hide the baby when we reach this state Anger starts to grip me Time to run away Fight or flight my instinctual urge to stay
The second verse has an even better couplet, reading; ‘Talking, becomes tackling, becomes attacking / Defensive manoeuvres become entrenchments.’ Overall, an infectious earworm of a tune, dripping in melody.
WAVES OF LOVE
Track 5, the keystone, half-time oranges, the centre of gravity, etc.. Waves Of Love is dreamier, mellower affair, tho’ of course retaining the signature highway-driving, beat-focuss’d quintessence of Mickey 9s. And yes, we’re still in the love zone, whose ending is, lyrically, pure poetry
Somewhere underwater We wander under waves of love With secret hearts
Waves of love Wash over us Waves of love Will surely drown us
So it is a love album, after all! I’m definitely getting those vibes now!
HEADLIGHTS
Or not! This track had no real love references, while musically it struck me with an astonishing immediacy of coolness. I liked it, I liked it a lot. Classic bass line, chord structure & melodies given new life, with some lovely lyrics transporting us to a late night drive thro’ Scotland, probably after a Mickey 9s gig. Classic tune number two, for me.
DAEDALUS
This album is definitely getting mellower. It’s also brings us back to the mythomemic opening, in which we have Daedelus, the man who built the Labyrinth & also the wax-melty wings which his son, Icarus, used in his attempt to fly to the sun. A third conscious-surfing driftalong in a row, in whose fabulously broken & riveting ending we are definitely entering the realms of Art Rock.
DREAM
So, to the penultimate song, which is almost as important as the finale, for it, of course, sets that up psychically. Happy to say Dream is the third classic tune of the album; more restrained musically – which is a nice for the album, texture is always important-, & flourishes along to its harmony-inducing & hypnotic main lyric which we should all end up singing in the bath at random some day.
Song list in the studio – 9 made the final cut
DAVE PUNK
Impressive Snake’s lengthy finale ties up all the threads we’ve encounter’d so far; grasping for love, Art Rock & that ever-moving beat given flesh by the band’s ever-slick guitar work. This really means that the entire album is more concept album than an attempt to make a classic, tho’ like I said 3 of the tunes should become perrenial favourites.
We even get a wee bit of French among the lyrics – ‘sous les lumieres stroboscopiques,’ means ‘under the strobe lights’, which is the main theme of the song, as in;
I never knew I loved you Til I saw you in the strobe lights I thought I would never find you Til I saw you in the strobe lights
So, well done lads, a proper album to listen to for 2024. I mean, that’s just me in my kitchen with a coffee listening to it’s riotous stream of beauties, tippy-tappying on my keyboard, like. I’m deffo up for seeing how the album effects me in the future, either on a drive, or having a cheeky rave in my living room, but wherever it is, I will be listening to it in its entirety, again, I am sure of that.
Mumble Music 