Manafonistas

Great Show. Can´t get this out of my mind. Not perfect, just a take :)

„What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long?“

Now, after the radio show, the car ride. EPIC45 playing on cd, their new album WEATHERING. This record will run all night long. It is a long car ride. Everything on the verge of falling apart in their songs,  the birdsong,  the church bells in the distance.  Old damaged synthesizers (dying sounds like a gift from heaven), violins never sugaring the songs, softly intruding, softly disappearing. Here, the end of the world is Staffordshire. Your town always has a name, a list of former lovers,  a map of  nearly forgotten places: go there, and you know how it feels to be a ghost. Demons,  curses and laughter.  EPIC45 are masters of whispering. It is an old art: in their record collection we should find Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis, some early Syd Barrett stuff.  Ben Holton and Rob Glover  avoid big gestures: even in their most catchy moments, they are prepared to dissolve into air. Like a dying breed. These songs are lullabies for grown-ups that, strange enough, do not lull you into sleep: they keep you awake; there is always a  glass of fine Merlot for your favourite ghost.  Catch a pale memory and turn it into a song:   hush, baby, hush. If you go to heaven in a car, be sure you´re drugged up with campfire songs.   Everything merges with  foggy shades.  The houses of your childhood have to keep their dusk.  Listening to EPIC45, is a wonderful affair. Tears are allowed to run, you drink miserable coffee, you´re running on empty. But, the funniest thing of all, at some point, you start smiling. Rewind. Peace out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajFeaAWBzt4

„There is a long tradition of pastoral music capturing a quintessential Englishness, running from Vaughan Williams through the English folk tradition to more recent names like Robert Wyatt and Talk Talk. Further down this line you’ll find Epic45.“ (monoeits)

Dieses Video zu einem  wunderbaren Song aus der neuen CD FAMILY TREES von Carlos Forster (produced by M. Ward!!!) enthält so ziemlich alles, was man falsch machen kann, wenn man einem Lied eine visuelle Ebene hinzufügt. Schliessen Sie also am besten die Augen, und lauschen Sie! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMMJEQPQd0

“Just believe that when you die/you better know your campfire songs”. Mit geschärftem Witz und großer Lässigkeit werden hier ernste Dinge verhandelt, ohne die Dummheit der Allwissenden, ohne die Ignoranz der Fundamentalisten. Merke: wer Songs schreibt, in denen Gott, der Tod  und der Teufel vorkommen, braucht ein paar hintersinnige Zeilen, damit das ganze nicht zu weihevoll wird. Und das gelingt Carlos Forster auf dem schönsten Song seines Albums ganz vorzüglich.