In our modern, technological age where music is available at our fingertips and more and more artists are focusing on selling quick-rotation singles to the masses, Opium Denn is making the conscious choice to create songs that are best considered as a part of a larger body of work – the concept album. Self-described as “Pink Floyd meets Blue Oyster Cult and the Phantom of the Opera”, Opium Denn has concocted a sound that sits somewhere between prog-rock and art-rock and feels entirely unique in its mysteriousness. 

His latest concept album, Demarkation, is the first of a three-part series. Instrumental for the most part, this record is introspective by way of dark, ethereal sounds that are at once eerie and alluring. Opening track ‘I Am A Feeling’ is a slow-burner with a larger than life atmosphere indebted to spaced-out sounds and a lathering of reverb. Accompanied by a shimmering piano which breaks up the track’s darkness like dappled sunlight, the vocals make a late entrance in the song’s final minute with one short verse: “I am a feeling, maybe nothing more/A journey for a time and open door. I have a feeling there’s so much more/Sensations are all and forevermore”. Revealing an unexpected classic-rock ruggedness to his voice, the singer sets the tone for the album to follow with these enigmatic, almost mantra-like lyrics. ‘Leaf’ is one of the more minimal and mellow songs on the record while ‘So Many Faces’ and ‘Demarkation’ groove with a slightly bluesy-feel – be that a psychedelic, off-kilter brand of blues. ‘A Drone’ is set alight with a face-melting guitar solo before fading to nothingness and seguing into ‘Eyes To The Sky’, where the album takes an ‘80s classic-rock turn. 

Demarkation is a hypnotic record. At times soaring and at times zoned out, there is an air of mystery across this album that deserves a few listens to truly appreciate.

Demarkation is available from Amazon & iTunes.

From The Deep are a duo comprised of Nick Marsh of Flesh For Lulu and Katharine Blake of Miranda Sex Garden. Whilst Marsh’s group were unknown to me other than by name, Blake’s were a favourite many years ago therefore an inkling of what to expect here existed prior to playing the album.

From The Deep was recorded over a number of years and completed prior to Marsh’s untimely death in June of this year. It is a fitting musical record of the couple’s life partnership and love for each other as well as a great example of the grittily sensual brand of music that is both artists’ stock in trade.

Other than the cover of Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Summer Wine’ (a song the original version of which I think it’s impossible to improve upon) this is an album which has the feeling of being conceptual, such is the overall feeling produced despite it containing a number of styles (a cappella, Appalachian swing, folk etc.). Like all good song cycles or stories it draws you in right from the opening bars of ‘The Lovers’. Whiffs of Weimar era cabaret & the likes of Kurt Weill et al permeate the album throughout, particularly on ‘Vagabond’.

As expected Blake’s voice is the high point of the work around which all the other elements coalesce. Instrumentation and even Marsh’s vocals all really seem to be present only to compliment her languid and sultry tones. There’s therefore nothing approaching a frantic pace reached at any point. Instead the strong sexual overtones are more the shutting-out-the-world-in-the-afternoon variety rather than the anywhere will do, quickie sort.

That said it’s also a great album for consumption at night with a couple of bottles of good red. How and whenever you listen to it though it should ultimately leave you uplifted and inspire you to hunt out the earlier works by its talented creators.

From The Deep is available here.

American Man brings to mind Grand Funk Railroad's '(We're An) American Band' and that level of patriotism and love of country is a unifying theme throughout album number two by Boulder, Colorado's The Yawpers. The fact they take their name from a Walt Whitman poem though amply points up the fact that theirs isn't merely some goodtime, flag waving, Bill & Ted style celebration of their home and what it means to come from there. Considerations a la Springsteen are more what the trio are about.

This may only be their second album (after just three years together) but they've a clear idea of what they like about where they come from and what they dislike about both home and the impact that place has on the wider world. Delivered at a pace you'd associate more with metal acts, their dual acoustic guitars battle and bludgeon away whilst the drums are hammered on by Noah Shomberg and Nate Cook's raw vocals clamber atop and through the music.

Opening track 'Doing It Right' is a searing beginning to the record, with some fantastic slide guitar work from Jesse Parmet. Starting off slow and then springing the driving riffs and pounding drums on the listener is the band's favoured style, allowing each song to build (some for longer than others) up to a pitch of righteous indignation, joyful abandon or what have you before running off at speed and dragging you along for the ride.

Eighteenth century Edinburgh councillor and burglar Deacon Brodie (albeit with a surname spelling change) bizarrely appears to get a song to himself mid-way through the album. Possibly as a plea to understand the duality of the nature of the individual concerned, his nights being that much different from his days.

All in this is an assured release from a fresh act who, unfortunately, don't look to be touring the UK or Europe anytime soon but they should be checked out once that's remedied in 2016.

American Man is available from amazon & iTunes.   

Hawaiian slack key guitarist Stephen Inglis holds one impressive resume. Barely out of his teens, 1998 saw Inglis form a band with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann; in 2009 his song ‘Redwood Slack Key’ was nominated for a Grammy, and in 2012 he recorded an album with one of the greatest legends known to Hawaiian music, the late Dennis Kamakahi, a CD held in such high esteem it’s now on permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Inglis’ latest release is Learning You By Heart. The 13-track album is brimming with raw, straight-from-the-soul emotion, narrated no truer than by a voice and an acoustic guitar. In fact, Inglis’ connection with his guitar has aged like fine wine - a palpable synergy engendered by a simple but endlessly deep love of music. Title track ‘Learning You By Heart’ is a heavenly number, adorned with shimmering mandolins and light female backing vocals that lend ethereality throughout. ‘Troubadour’ plays with country-blues influences in Inglis’ trademark soothing setting, while ‘Lay Your Dagger Down’ employs a mellow rockabilly groove - think Elvis Presley’s version of ‘Mystery Train’ but more sedated. Inglis writes about the strains touring puts on a relationship in ‘Carousel’: “This carousel, it can be a sweet ride/ But you know it’s so much easier when you’re riding by my side. Sometimes it’s hard to keep belief, there’s a golden ring/But it’s damn sure worth a try when I feel the love you bring." 

Learning You By Heart is an album that revels in the beauty of simplicity. Stephen Inglis is able to blend genres so fluidly and easily that his changeability almost goes straight over your head – a testament to his exceptional song-writing ability.