Michael Chapman — 50 (January 20, 2017)
•» ♣ Akutní emocionální reportáž s drsnou námořnickou poetikou básníkova hlasu, podporovanou klidnou, ale tím intenzívnější a důmyslnější sílou svých akustických kytarových motivů.
♣ Na tvorbě alba se sešly velké osobnosti: Steve Gunn, Nathan Bowles, Bridget St. John, Jimy SeiTang (Stygian Stride, Rhyton, Psychic Ills) a James Elkington doplňují tuto sestavu, aby oslavilo nejenom Chapmanovo 43. album, ale také 50. Pentekosté (50) hraje řadu rolí v katalogu Michaela Chapmana, které skrývá téměř tolik alb. Jak naznačuje název, je to pamětní album, v tomto případě znamení poloviny století jako umělce. V roce 1966 se mladý kytarista vydal na výstavu v jazzovém klubu Cornwall jako neznámý talent a který svou zkoušku změnil v rezidenci. O tři roky později natočil svůj debut Rainmaker (nedávno vyšlo na Light in the Attic) a hrál ve stejných etapách, jako někteří z nejvíce vynalézavých a vlivných kytaristů té éry — ačkoli Chapman se vymyká kategorizaci. Možná nikdy nedosáhl proslulosti Bert Jansche nebo Johna Martyna a jejich explozí v rockovém světě (spojující Micka Ronsona a Davida Bowieho, téměř se připojil ke kapele Eltona Johna), ty mohou zastínit jeho hudbu, ale Chapmanovy úspěchy nemůžeme pověsit na hřebík. Jeho hraní bylo progresivní dokonce i pro nejprogresivnější období britské hudby, představující komplexní gramatiku vychytávek a způsobů hraní na strunné nástroje, které přináší blues, jazz, country, raga a rock. Chapman popisoval 50 jako své americké album a zdá se být pozoruhodným, že na naší straně Atlantiku s tím čekal tak dlouho. Během své kariéry byl okouzlen a inspirován americkou hudbou a mytologií, psal písně jako krajinomalbu Západu. Natočil ne jedno, ale dvě alba (Americana I, Americana II), ale je to poprvé, co vlastně koncipoval a nahrál plné album ve státech, což zní jako vyvrcholení celoživotní fascinace bývalou kolonií. Protože vše je v produkci Gunna, skladby mají jasné zaměření, jsou stručné, bez rušení nebo drobení. Více než kdokoli jiný v této nové generaci kytaristů, Gunn se méně zajímá o sólové umění a je více fascinovaný chémií mezi skupinou charakteristických hudebníků a přenáší tuto dynamiku na 50, která není příliš daleko od jeho posledních dvou alb. Riffy jsou zvlněné a kompaktní, jako by byly poháněny nějakým vnějším zdrojem a sóla jako taková se ohlásí zřídkakdy. 50 představuje překvapivě aktuální a téměř apokalyptickou vizi Ameriky; je to album plné síry a hořkosti, pro historii snad ještě výmluvnější, než bychom si připustili. Strávil jsem moc času přehodnocováním a definováním této hudby a toto je výsledek.
Ben Tais Amundssen ♣ Chapman’ best album in decades. The underrated British folk icon Michael Chapman collaborates with Steve Gunn on what he is calling his “American” album. Greatly talented yet hugely underrated British folk singer and songwriter since the late ‘60s.
Birth name: Michael Robert Chapman
Born: January 24, 1941 in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Location: Leeds, England, UK
Album release: January 20, 2017
Record Label: Paradise of Bachelors
Duration: 56:36
Tracks:
01 A Spanish Incident (Ramón and Durango) 5:05
02 Sometimes You Just Drive 4:41
03 The Mallard 5:45
04 Memphis in Winter 6:50
05 The Prospector 6:39
06 Falling from Grace 6:32
07 Money Trouble 4:33
08 That Time of Night 6:11
09 Rosh Pina 5:07
10 Navigation 5:14
Credits:
• Thomas Bewick Artwork, Sleeve Art
• Nathan Bowles Banjo, Drums, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Vocals
• Michael Chapman Composer, Design, Guitar, Layout, Piano, Vocals
• Alan Douches Mastering
• James Elkington Guitar, Piano
• Brendan Greaves Design, Layout
• Steve Gunn Drums, Guitar, Producer, Vocals
• Jason Meagher Engineer, Mixing
• Constance Mensh Photography
• William Pym Cover Photo
• Jimy Seitang Bass, Synthesizer, Vocals
• Bridget St. John Vocals
AllMusic Review by Mark Deming; Score: ***½
•» In the press release that accompanies Michael Chapman’s 2017 album 50, the iconic British guitarist refers to it as his “American album.” While the material does sound less idiosyncratically British than much of Chapman’s body of work, 50 could be more accurately described as his indie rock album. He’s best known as a master of the acoustic guitar, but on these sessions, the dominant instrument is the electric guitar of Steve Gunn, who also produced the sessions. Gunn assembled a band of like~minded musicians whose passions encompass indie rock, experimental rock, and the more abstract corner of Americana, and while Chapman’s impassioned vocals ride over the top and his acoustic guitar is audible in the mix, the band doesn’t bow to Chapman so much as encourage him to keep up with them. It’s significant that six of the ten songs on 50 are numbers Chapman has recorded before, and while the new interpretations are bold and often muscular, these new takes recast the music in a more aggressive and less folkie manner than one might expect from him. If the spotlight seems less tightly focused on Chapman on this album, he certainly sounds engaged with the music, and his vocals on numbers like “The Mallard,” “Memphis in Winter,” and “Money Trouble” are strong and defiant, bringing his stories of lives along the margins to vivid life. And even though Gunn and his cohorts threaten to steal the show with their folkie but clamorous brand of indie rock, the heartfelt racket summoned by Nathan Bowles, James Elkington, and Jimy Seitang fits Chapman’s music better than one might expect. (Besides, venerable U.K. folk singer and songwriter Bridget St. John is on hand to keep Chapman company and contribute vocals.) Chapman is an artist who has never had a problem with upending creative expectations, and if 50 isn’t the sort of music many of his longtime fans would expect from him, it’s also passionate, literate, and the work of an artist who wants to make the most of his late~era career. Not many artists sound this determined and engaged, especially at the age of 75.
Review
By Stephen Deusner, JANUARY 14 2017 / SCORE: 7.7
•» 50 serves a number of roles in Michael Chapman’s gargantuan catalog, which encompasses nearly that many albums. As the title suggests, it is a commemorative album, in this case marking half a century as a performing artist. In 1966, the young guitar player finagled his way into a show at a Cornwall jazz club, an unknown talent who turned his audition into a residency. Three years later he recorded his debut, Rainmaker (recently reissued on Light in the Attic), and played the same stages as some of the most inventive and influential folk guitarists of the era — although Chapman bristles at the categorization. He may never have achieved the notoriety of Bert Jansch or John Martyn, and his exploits in the rock world (connecting Mick Ronson and David Bowie, nearly joining Elton John’s band) may overshadow his music, but Chapman’s accomplishments aren’t that of a professional hanger~on. His playing was progressive even for the most progressive era of British folk music, showcasing a complex grammar of picking and strumming based on a vocabulary that commingles blues, jazz, country, raga, and rock.
•» Chapman has described 50 as his “American” album, and it seems remarkable that he has not recorded on this side of the Atlantic before. Throughout his career, he has been enamored with and inspired by American music and mythology, writing songs like landscape paintings of the West. He’s recorded not one but two albums called Americana, but this is the first time he has actually conceived and recorded a full album in the States, which makes 50 sound like the culmination of a lifetime’s fascination with the former colony. The Yanks he recorded with suggest an attempt to secure his legacy, to trace it from one generation to the next: Steve Gunn produces, plays guitar, and leads a band that includes most of the Paradise of Bachelors roster: James Elkington and Nathan Bowles, along with Jimy SeiTang and Jason Meagher.
•» There’s some intricate give~and~take between Chapman and the band, as the musicians he has influenced take the opportunity to influence him. Because this is Gunn producing, the songs are focused and succinct, with no little jamming or rambling. More than anyone else in this new generation of folk~derived guitarists, Gunn is less concerned with solo artistry and more fascinated by the chemistry between a band of distinctive musicians, and he brings that dynamic to 50, which isn’t too far removed from his last two albums. The riffs sound coiled and compact, as though propelled by some outside source, and the solos rarely announces themselves as such. Somehow the album sounds American, especially on the high~lonesome “That Time of Night” and the haunted “Falling from Grace,” and that suits Chapman’s brusque cadence and seen~it~all voice perfectly.
•» Even as it draws on new and old songs, 50 presents a startlingly current and nearly apocalyptic vision of America; it’s album full of brimstone and brine, perhaps more perfect for this moment in history than we’d like to admit. “Memphis in Winter,” which he originally recorded for 1999’s The Twisted Road and revisits here, depicts a hellish urban landscape “where the river comes a~rolling/where the levee tends to break/where to walk the streets at night well it’s not a risk that you would take.” Convoluted syntax aside, it’s a dread~filled update on the crossroads mythology, and Chapman’s guitar shudders with either fear or frost. Even direr is “Sometimes You Just Drive,” which sounds like a roadtrip through Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.” Chapman’s guitar slices and stabs, unsettling the listener as he ponders a harsh world and wonders if he’s lucky to still be alive: “Sometimes you live, and sometimes you just drive.” Chapman is still doing plenty of both. •» http://pitchfork.com/
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/ / Label: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.chapman.9085
Discography:
•» Rainmaker (1969) — Harvest
•» Fully Qualified Survivor (1970) — Harvest — UK No. 45
•» Window (1971) — Harvest
•» Wrecked Again (1971) — Harvest
•» Millstone Grit (1973) — Deram / Decca
•» Deal Gone Down (1974) — Deram / Decca
•» Pleasures of the Street (1975) — Nova
•» Savage Amusement (1976) — Deram / Decca
•» The Man Who Hated Mornings (1977) — Deram
•» Play Guitar The Easy Way (1978) — Criminal Records
•» Life on the Ceiling (1979) — Criminal Records
•» Looking For Eleven (1980) — Criminal Records
•» Almost Alone (1981) — Black Crow Records
•» Original Owners (1983) — Konnexion
•» Heartbeat (1987) — Coda
•» Still Making Rain (1991/3) — Self Release 1991 / Making Waves 1993
•» Navigation (1995) — Planet Records
•» Dreaming Out Loud (1997) — Demon Records
•» Michael Chapman Black And White (1998) — Rural Retreat Records
•» BBC Sessions 69–75 (1998) — Strange Fruit Records
•» The Twisted Road (1999) — Mystic UK
•» Growing Pains (2000) — Mooncrest Records
•» Growing Pains 2 (2002) — Mooncrest Records
•» Americana I. (2001) — Apropos / reissued on Blueprint
•» Live And Unhinged (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Kule 2 B Blue with Alamo Leal (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Dogs Got More Sense (2004) — Secret Records
•» Journeyman Live DVD (2004) — Secret Records
•» 27 06 05 Live in Brighton (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Plaindealer (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Lost (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Words Fail Me (2007)
•» Vanity and Pride (2008) — self release — limited edition — Michael Chapman and Ursa
•» Sweet Powder (2008) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Time Past & Time Passing (2008) — Electric Ragtime
•» And Then There Were Three Live in Nottingham 1977 (2010) — Market Square Records
•» Wrytree Drift (2010) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Fully Qualified Survivor (Reissue) (2011) — Light in the Attic Records
•» The Resurrection and Revenge of The Clayton Peacock (2011) — Blastfirst Petite
•» Pachyderm (2012) — Blastfirst Petite
•» The Polar Bear (2014) — Blastfirst Petite
•» Fish (2015) — Tompkins Square Records
•» 50 (2017) — Paradise of Bachelors
•» Growing Pains, Vol. 3 — Market Square
_____________________________________________________________
♣ Na tvorbě alba se sešly velké osobnosti: Steve Gunn, Nathan Bowles, Bridget St. John, Jimy SeiTang (Stygian Stride, Rhyton, Psychic Ills) a James Elkington doplňují tuto sestavu, aby oslavilo nejenom Chapmanovo 43. album, ale také 50. Pentekosté (50) hraje řadu rolí v katalogu Michaela Chapmana, které skrývá téměř tolik alb. Jak naznačuje název, je to pamětní album, v tomto případě znamení poloviny století jako umělce. V roce 1966 se mladý kytarista vydal na výstavu v jazzovém klubu Cornwall jako neznámý talent a který svou zkoušku změnil v rezidenci. O tři roky později natočil svůj debut Rainmaker (nedávno vyšlo na Light in the Attic) a hrál ve stejných etapách, jako někteří z nejvíce vynalézavých a vlivných kytaristů té éry — ačkoli Chapman se vymyká kategorizaci. Možná nikdy nedosáhl proslulosti Bert Jansche nebo Johna Martyna a jejich explozí v rockovém světě (spojující Micka Ronsona a Davida Bowieho, téměř se připojil ke kapele Eltona Johna), ty mohou zastínit jeho hudbu, ale Chapmanovy úspěchy nemůžeme pověsit na hřebík. Jeho hraní bylo progresivní dokonce i pro nejprogresivnější období britské hudby, představující komplexní gramatiku vychytávek a způsobů hraní na strunné nástroje, které přináší blues, jazz, country, raga a rock. Chapman popisoval 50 jako své americké album a zdá se být pozoruhodným, že na naší straně Atlantiku s tím čekal tak dlouho. Během své kariéry byl okouzlen a inspirován americkou hudbou a mytologií, psal písně jako krajinomalbu Západu. Natočil ne jedno, ale dvě alba (Americana I, Americana II), ale je to poprvé, co vlastně koncipoval a nahrál plné album ve státech, což zní jako vyvrcholení celoživotní fascinace bývalou kolonií. Protože vše je v produkci Gunna, skladby mají jasné zaměření, jsou stručné, bez rušení nebo drobení. Více než kdokoli jiný v této nové generaci kytaristů, Gunn se méně zajímá o sólové umění a je více fascinovaný chémií mezi skupinou charakteristických hudebníků a přenáší tuto dynamiku na 50, která není příliš daleko od jeho posledních dvou alb. Riffy jsou zvlněné a kompaktní, jako by byly poháněny nějakým vnějším zdrojem a sóla jako taková se ohlásí zřídkakdy. 50 představuje překvapivě aktuální a téměř apokalyptickou vizi Ameriky; je to album plné síry a hořkosti, pro historii snad ještě výmluvnější, než bychom si připustili. Strávil jsem moc času přehodnocováním a definováním této hudby a toto je výsledek.
Ben Tais Amundssen ♣ Chapman’ best album in decades. The underrated British folk icon Michael Chapman collaborates with Steve Gunn on what he is calling his “American” album. Greatly talented yet hugely underrated British folk singer and songwriter since the late ‘60s.
Birth name: Michael Robert Chapman
Born: January 24, 1941 in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Location: Leeds, England, UK
Album release: January 20, 2017
Record Label: Paradise of Bachelors
Duration: 56:36
Tracks:
01 A Spanish Incident (Ramón and Durango) 5:05
02 Sometimes You Just Drive 4:41
03 The Mallard 5:45
04 Memphis in Winter 6:50
05 The Prospector 6:39
06 Falling from Grace 6:32
07 Money Trouble 4:33
08 That Time of Night 6:11
09 Rosh Pina 5:07
10 Navigation 5:14
Credits:
• Thomas Bewick Artwork, Sleeve Art
• Nathan Bowles Banjo, Drums, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Vocals
• Michael Chapman Composer, Design, Guitar, Layout, Piano, Vocals
• Alan Douches Mastering
• James Elkington Guitar, Piano
• Brendan Greaves Design, Layout
• Steve Gunn Drums, Guitar, Producer, Vocals
• Jason Meagher Engineer, Mixing
• Constance Mensh Photography
• William Pym Cover Photo
• Jimy Seitang Bass, Synthesizer, Vocals
• Bridget St. John Vocals
AllMusic Review by Mark Deming; Score: ***½
•» In the press release that accompanies Michael Chapman’s 2017 album 50, the iconic British guitarist refers to it as his “American album.” While the material does sound less idiosyncratically British than much of Chapman’s body of work, 50 could be more accurately described as his indie rock album. He’s best known as a master of the acoustic guitar, but on these sessions, the dominant instrument is the electric guitar of Steve Gunn, who also produced the sessions. Gunn assembled a band of like~minded musicians whose passions encompass indie rock, experimental rock, and the more abstract corner of Americana, and while Chapman’s impassioned vocals ride over the top and his acoustic guitar is audible in the mix, the band doesn’t bow to Chapman so much as encourage him to keep up with them. It’s significant that six of the ten songs on 50 are numbers Chapman has recorded before, and while the new interpretations are bold and often muscular, these new takes recast the music in a more aggressive and less folkie manner than one might expect from him. If the spotlight seems less tightly focused on Chapman on this album, he certainly sounds engaged with the music, and his vocals on numbers like “The Mallard,” “Memphis in Winter,” and “Money Trouble” are strong and defiant, bringing his stories of lives along the margins to vivid life. And even though Gunn and his cohorts threaten to steal the show with their folkie but clamorous brand of indie rock, the heartfelt racket summoned by Nathan Bowles, James Elkington, and Jimy Seitang fits Chapman’s music better than one might expect. (Besides, venerable U.K. folk singer and songwriter Bridget St. John is on hand to keep Chapman company and contribute vocals.) Chapman is an artist who has never had a problem with upending creative expectations, and if 50 isn’t the sort of music many of his longtime fans would expect from him, it’s also passionate, literate, and the work of an artist who wants to make the most of his late~era career. Not many artists sound this determined and engaged, especially at the age of 75.
Review
By Stephen Deusner, JANUARY 14 2017 / SCORE: 7.7
•» 50 serves a number of roles in Michael Chapman’s gargantuan catalog, which encompasses nearly that many albums. As the title suggests, it is a commemorative album, in this case marking half a century as a performing artist. In 1966, the young guitar player finagled his way into a show at a Cornwall jazz club, an unknown talent who turned his audition into a residency. Three years later he recorded his debut, Rainmaker (recently reissued on Light in the Attic), and played the same stages as some of the most inventive and influential folk guitarists of the era — although Chapman bristles at the categorization. He may never have achieved the notoriety of Bert Jansch or John Martyn, and his exploits in the rock world (connecting Mick Ronson and David Bowie, nearly joining Elton John’s band) may overshadow his music, but Chapman’s accomplishments aren’t that of a professional hanger~on. His playing was progressive even for the most progressive era of British folk music, showcasing a complex grammar of picking and strumming based on a vocabulary that commingles blues, jazz, country, raga, and rock.
•» Chapman has described 50 as his “American” album, and it seems remarkable that he has not recorded on this side of the Atlantic before. Throughout his career, he has been enamored with and inspired by American music and mythology, writing songs like landscape paintings of the West. He’s recorded not one but two albums called Americana, but this is the first time he has actually conceived and recorded a full album in the States, which makes 50 sound like the culmination of a lifetime’s fascination with the former colony. The Yanks he recorded with suggest an attempt to secure his legacy, to trace it from one generation to the next: Steve Gunn produces, plays guitar, and leads a band that includes most of the Paradise of Bachelors roster: James Elkington and Nathan Bowles, along with Jimy SeiTang and Jason Meagher.
•» There’s some intricate give~and~take between Chapman and the band, as the musicians he has influenced take the opportunity to influence him. Because this is Gunn producing, the songs are focused and succinct, with no little jamming or rambling. More than anyone else in this new generation of folk~derived guitarists, Gunn is less concerned with solo artistry and more fascinated by the chemistry between a band of distinctive musicians, and he brings that dynamic to 50, which isn’t too far removed from his last two albums. The riffs sound coiled and compact, as though propelled by some outside source, and the solos rarely announces themselves as such. Somehow the album sounds American, especially on the high~lonesome “That Time of Night” and the haunted “Falling from Grace,” and that suits Chapman’s brusque cadence and seen~it~all voice perfectly.
•» Even as it draws on new and old songs, 50 presents a startlingly current and nearly apocalyptic vision of America; it’s album full of brimstone and brine, perhaps more perfect for this moment in history than we’d like to admit. “Memphis in Winter,” which he originally recorded for 1999’s The Twisted Road and revisits here, depicts a hellish urban landscape “where the river comes a~rolling/where the levee tends to break/where to walk the streets at night well it’s not a risk that you would take.” Convoluted syntax aside, it’s a dread~filled update on the crossroads mythology, and Chapman’s guitar shudders with either fear or frost. Even direr is “Sometimes You Just Drive,” which sounds like a roadtrip through Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.” Chapman’s guitar slices and stabs, unsettling the listener as he ponders a harsh world and wonders if he’s lucky to still be alive: “Sometimes you live, and sometimes you just drive.” Chapman is still doing plenty of both. •» http://pitchfork.com/
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/ / Label: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.chapman.9085
Discography:
•» Rainmaker (1969) — Harvest
•» Fully Qualified Survivor (1970) — Harvest — UK No. 45
•» Window (1971) — Harvest
•» Wrecked Again (1971) — Harvest
•» Millstone Grit (1973) — Deram / Decca
•» Deal Gone Down (1974) — Deram / Decca
•» Pleasures of the Street (1975) — Nova
•» Savage Amusement (1976) — Deram / Decca
•» The Man Who Hated Mornings (1977) — Deram
•» Play Guitar The Easy Way (1978) — Criminal Records
•» Life on the Ceiling (1979) — Criminal Records
•» Looking For Eleven (1980) — Criminal Records
•» Almost Alone (1981) — Black Crow Records
•» Original Owners (1983) — Konnexion
•» Heartbeat (1987) — Coda
•» Still Making Rain (1991/3) — Self Release 1991 / Making Waves 1993
•» Navigation (1995) — Planet Records
•» Dreaming Out Loud (1997) — Demon Records
•» Michael Chapman Black And White (1998) — Rural Retreat Records
•» BBC Sessions 69–75 (1998) — Strange Fruit Records
•» The Twisted Road (1999) — Mystic UK
•» Growing Pains (2000) — Mooncrest Records
•» Growing Pains 2 (2002) — Mooncrest Records
•» Americana I. (2001) — Apropos / reissued on Blueprint
•» Live And Unhinged (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Kule 2 B Blue with Alamo Leal (2001) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Dogs Got More Sense (2004) — Secret Records
•» Journeyman Live DVD (2004) — Secret Records
•» 27 06 05 Live in Brighton (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Plaindealer (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Lost (2005) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Words Fail Me (2007)
•» Vanity and Pride (2008) — self release — limited edition — Michael Chapman and Ursa
•» Sweet Powder (2008) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Time Past & Time Passing (2008) — Electric Ragtime
•» And Then There Were Three Live in Nottingham 1977 (2010) — Market Square Records
•» Wrytree Drift (2010) — Rural Retreat Records
•» Fully Qualified Survivor (Reissue) (2011) — Light in the Attic Records
•» The Resurrection and Revenge of The Clayton Peacock (2011) — Blastfirst Petite
•» Pachyderm (2012) — Blastfirst Petite
•» The Polar Bear (2014) — Blastfirst Petite
•» Fish (2015) — Tompkins Square Records
•» 50 (2017) — Paradise of Bachelors
•» Growing Pains, Vol. 3 — Market Square
_____________________________________________________________