Monday 3 November 2008

An ear-scything return to the credit crunch theme


A couple of weeks back, here on Heavy Soil, we indulged ourselves in topical manner with a soundtrack to the credit crunch.

Although I'd wound up that theme, musician and prolonged flickerer Mr Ally Craig yesterday sent me the following song:


In Ally's words: "Not exactly easy on the ears, harmony-wise (and that's rich coming from me), but rather good I think."

The boy jests not. It's pretty intense stuff. The deliberate, austere harmonies (bitonal, atonal) combined with a forthright, strident melodicism often apparently unrelated to its backing remind me of Benjamin Britten (one for another day, I feel).

One thing with this recording is that, on my headphones, it was almost unbearably cutting (I had to turn the volume right down to save my poor ears). Old recording. So, yes, I'd possibly advocate a bit of judicious EQing, depending on your listening context ...

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