An upbeat track about a relationship going downhill…

Great Apes

I’m looking down the avenue wondering how to make my escape
And if we really merit our status among the great apes

I was driving at a hundred miles an hour till you stepped on the brakes
You know there’s islands in the lakes on the islands in the Great Lakes

You said you get out of life what you put in
I said well, you should, but that’s the thing
We’ve all got our battles, we’ve all got our cares
I once knew a tortoise who dreamed of a world without stairs
Your jokes don’t cover all your demands
You’re a taxman’s letter printed in Comic Sans
 
Every raindrop on the window’s a fisheye lens that turns the world upside down
And all I hear is your silence when I walk through the crowds in town
 

I got a reputation as an underachiever
The trouble with self-deprecation is some people believe you
I know I got some things wrong back when we were rooming
Hello Action Man, meet Consequence Woman

There’s a vanishing point on the road to hell that leads the eye far into the fire
There’s a missing rung on Jacob’s ladder that stops the likes of me getting higher

Thinking about the time when you wrote me a sonnet
Now I hear your dartboard’s got my face on it
And I’m looking down the metal stairs wondering how the fire escapes
And if we really merit our status among the great apes
If we really, really merit our status among the great apes

#folk #acoustic #guitar #singersongwriter #poetic #lyrics #demo

Great Apes

Format: CD, Download | Releasedate: 09.10.2015

It is only natural and consistent for Pete Josef to release his debut album on Berlin based label Sonar Kollektiv, since it is the very same imprint he has been featured on in numerous productions over the last three years – as a singer and as a songwriter.  The close link with Sonar Kollektiv took it's course when in autumn 2012 label manager Oliver Glage signed “Make It Good” by The White Lamp (Josef's project together with Ex-Underworld member Darren Emerson), for the label.  From there, he has made contributions to Alex Barck's album “Reunion”, to tracks with Paskal & Urban Absolutes and Marlow, and to “Broken Connection” off the debut album by ComixXx released just recently.  

The young Brit, inspired over the years by such collaborations, and socialized in the lively Bristol scene, has come up with an 11-track strong masterpiece of modern pop music.  In the opening track, “Spring At Last”, he and singer Marie Lister, accompanied by Justin “Captain” Fellow's industrious drumming and a host of Bristol String and Horn players, praise the thrill of anticipation of all the things to come.  For instance, a powerful pinch of dance grooves and soul/Jazz elements – always connected to the here and now without making any retro references at any point along the course.

“Mistress”, with screaming guitars and yet more powerful horn arrangements, reminiscent of Donny Hathaway’s “Voices Inside”, could almost be a new Stevie Wonder record.  In “Move On” Josef's Jazzpop turns Country-Ska, most notably thanks to his West African style claw-hammer guitar playing and some inspired drumming from Greg Freeman.  And on “Night Gospel” it is the piano that surfaces, over a lilting programmed, club-compliant beat.  Variety is guaranteed in every respect.. “Live Your Life” is a downright Afro-Jazz anthem complete with scat singing, off-beat double bass from Roshan ‘Tosh’ Wijetunge, and the mantra-like repeated chorus: “live your life, live it well”.  Whilst the Neo-Soul ambience of Running in series and Many Signs lament lost and broken love, new love is later expressed clearly as Josef carols.. “feeling the new; feeling cupids smile descend” on the buoyant, summery “Something Good”. 

The production of “The Travelling Song” has just a hint of the legendary Steely Dan productions, albeit with a modern almost hip-hop slant, and builds to put the listener into a firmly euphoric space with a Samba-funk rhythm section crafted by the virtuoso percussionist Rory Francis.  In short, “Colour” is every shade of the rainbow, from bright light, to contemplative dark.  “Hope” has all the colours in one, with lyrical positivity set against almost mournful Afrobeat ballad accompanied.  It is a setting of the poem by Emily Dickinson (“hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul”), and features a glorious improvised solo by free-Jazz trumpeter, Nick Malcolm; in which he virtually embodies the bird described in the verse through his fluttering expressive melodies.  In closing, as the album's finale, we are treated to the title track “Colour” ..and it is here where Pete Josef reveals where much of his inspiration, his optimism and his balance of mind springs from: it is his love of nature, in all it’s wondrous colour that is subtly expressed throughout his music.  Therefore not only the song “Colour”, but the whole album is de facto an ode to nature, together with the shades of emotion we all experience in our lives.  No surprise here then that Mr. Josef recently settled in a cottage in rural Somerset amid forests, meadows, and close to the natural world he loves so much.


Colour

Night Gospel

03 - Pete Josef - Night Gospel

Sunny

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

The first album from the latest installment of the Penguin Cafe with Simon Jeffes' son, Arthur. Limited print-run.

“Penguin Cafe continues to occupy a unique place in music: nothing else has ever sounded quite like it. Eccentric, charming, accommodating, surprising, seductive, warm, reliable, modest and unforgettable: it's a true friend” ∼ Brian Eno, February 2010

The Penguin Cafe Orchestra were a uniquely innovative, exploratory set of musicians who enjoyed a cherished period from 1972 to 1997, and continue to hold a special place in many hearts. Their inception was as original, imaginative and idiosyncratic as the music they created…

During the summer of 1972 the English composer Simon Jeffes had a dream, experienced during a severe bout of food poisoning in the South of France
"I was laying in bed delirious, sort of hallucinating for about 24 hours. I had this one vision in my mind of a place that was like a modern hotel, with all these rooms made of concrete. There was an electronic eye which scanned everything. In one room you had a couple that were making love, but lovelessly. In another room there was somebody just looking at himself in the mirror, just obsessed with himself. In another room there was a musician with a bank of synthesizers, wearing headphones, and there was no sound.
This was a very terrible, bleak place. Everybody was taken up with self-interested activity which kept them looped in on themselves. It wasn't like they were prisoners, they were all active, but only within themselves. And that kept them from being a problem or a threat to the cold order represented by the eye.
Next day when I felt better, I went to the beach. As I sat there a poem came to me. It began ‘I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe. I will tell you things at random.’”
The music of the Penguin Cafe, Simon broadly regarded as "a very big yes to the survival of the heart in a time when the heart is under attack from the forces of coldness, darkness and repression." When forced to describe it more precisely, he called his music "imaginary folklore" and "modern semi-acoustic chamber music." He very much liked the comment of a Japanese girl who attended a Penguin concert in Japan and who said afterwards that the music sounded strange, because it was as if she'd heard it a long time ago.

To realize this somewhat fevered dream, Simon utilized many different instruments and orchestrations including elements of African, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Classical & Minimalist music, using a variety of instruments from strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas, experimental sound loops, mathematical notations and more.

The last official Penguin Cafe Orchestra release was Concert Program recorded 1995, a document of the touring set they were playing at the time...

Sadly in 1997 Jeffes passed away, marking the closure of that period of Penguin Cafe’s history. However, in 2007, to mark ten years since Simon's death, his son Arthur Jeffes, re-assembled the original musicians to perform a last run of concerts, spanning three nights at London’s Union Chapel, in tribute to both his father and the music that he created. The reception to these concerts was an affirmation that the music held a vibrant life of its own and subsequently Arthur felt that it was appropriate to embark on a more extensive revisiting….

Commissioning a fresh set of musicians ranging from luminaries from The Royal College of Music to notable performers and members from bands such as Suede, Gorillaz, Delakota and Razorlight, the newly envisioned incarnation of the Penguin Cafe undertook a series of performances under the name Music from the Penguin Cafe.

The first of these would be invitation from The Teenage Cancer Trust to perform at The Royal Albert Hall, to be filmed for a future charitable release.

Following this, over the next six months, Music from The Penguin Cafe appeared at various festivals, venues and Arts events over the summer of 2009, initiated by a debut at The Manchester Royal College of Music. This was to be followed by appearances at Port Eliot Literary Festival, Glastonbury, Bestival, The Big Chill, Womad, Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Snape Proms, and the arts festivals of Galway and Milan. Each performance was met with glowing receptions, and heart-warming reviews.

It was during this period that Arthur Jeffes had also began to incorporate his own new material, universally received as natural yet inspired extensions to his own father’s work, thus marking the beginning of a new episode in the Penguin Cafe's rich and turbulent history...

By the end of this run the band was newly invigorated, and the music now seasoned into a fresh, confident and redefined style. With this in mind, it was then decided to bolster the Royal Albert Hall filmed footage with a live studio recording of the set performed over the summer shows. These recordings book-ended this first chapter in the new band's history, mirroring the last record made by the original Penguin Cafe band.

On the 9th day, of the 9th month of 2009, at 9.00am, these 9 musicians walked in to Air Edel Studios and over the next 9 hours recorded 21 tracks live. So much for numerology….

The CD of tracks recorded that day have now been coupled with a DVD of the filmed recitals from The Royal Albert Hall, to be released as a single package under the title 'Music From The Penguin Cafe - Live at the Royal Albert Hall', with all proceeds from this release are going to The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Moreover as everyone involved in this project generously donated their time and talents for free, from performing, filming, editing, recording, mixing, artwork, mastering and manufacturing, when you pay £10 (plus vat, sadly) for the album, Teenage Cancer Trust receives £10.

ARTHUR JEFFES “We're immensely proud of the music on this record, the performances therein, and being able to donate it all to Teenage Cancer Trust. This whole process has proved to be the first steps on this new journey for the Penguin Cafe and 2010 will see both a new album and tour.”

Inspired by the both the process & reception of this endeavor and the events of the previous summer, it would seem that the doors to the Penguin Cafe have opened once more.

From The Colonies

Backstreets

Don't Panic is the new album from British virtuoso acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter, Jon Gomm. 

Don't Panic is the follow up to debut album Hypertension, released way back in December 2003. Why the long wait? ''I made the first record shortly after I d put together a solo acoustic set and wanted to start touring: it was just a demo to get gigs. I made it a full length album because back then the gig fee was barely covering my petrol money, and I needed something to sell!'' This plan worked a little too well, and Gomm has been touring hard ever since, taking his unique brand of virtuosic acoustic guitar-playing to prestigious festivals around Europe and a punishing tour schedule centred around the UK and Italy, and a new album has had to wait. 

The new CD features stronger songs, exhibiting Jon's genuine grasp of a wide range of genres from blues to jazz to rock to country, which comes from his lifelong experience as a session musician and musical academic. Throw in some Urdu lyrics and you're getting the picture: a one man melting pot. The songs range from dark laments, to sweet melodies, to frenzied romps and there's even elements of the humour for which Jon's live shows are renowned. The guitar playing here is perhaps even more technically demanding than the previous CD too: ''Every time I arrange a new guitar part I make sure I can t play it without practice. I love the technical aspect as much as the creative process of songwriting, although they are very much separate affairs.'' And as with the debut album, there are no overdubs here, although it may sound like it: there is never more than one guitar on every track. 

Jon's fiercely independent approach to the music industry has meant that the CD was home recorded and is released on his own label.

Jon Gomm - Afterglow

Jon Gomm - Temporary

Jon Gomm - Gloria

Jon Gomm - Topeka

Jon Gomm is an independent, non-corporate musician. He sings songs, writes songs, and plays guitar, and spends a lot of his time travelling around playing gigs. He's basically just trying to be an individual in a world that wants everything to sound the same. He's not famous, but don't worry he doesn't want to be, and you've heard of him and that means a lot. 

Jon doesn't reply to messages on Soundcloud. Please email via his management at info@jongomm.com 