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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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CD
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IDA 141CD
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Despite, or rather thanks to, his cynical despair, Matt Elliott's music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us -- on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one. On Farewell To All We Know, Matt began working with the producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin (La Terre Invisible) who has continued collaborating with the Bristol-born singer. Farewell To All We Know is an instant classic based on the sensitive piano and superb arrangements of David Chalmin, the sensitive cello of Gaspar Claus, the subtle bass of Jeff Hallam (who has also played with Dominique A and John Parish). There is a clear form of alchemy in all of this and still we find Matt Elliott's usual atmospheres and scenery, the same Eastern European folk music, long songs that take time to settle over time. "What Once Was Hope" seems torn between the fear of what tomorrow may bring, inevitability and hope for the future in a permanent and progressive dramatic tension. There are touches of Leonard Cohen from Songs From A Room (1969) or Thanks For The Dance (2019) in The Day After That with Gaspar Claus's counterpoint cello. The haunted instrumental "Guidance Is Internal" harks back to the atmospheres of Howling Songs (2008) with its guitar parts full of scansions and muted threats. The music is transcendental but never seems afraid of the risk of falling. This is also what "Bye Now" tells you with its quasi-obsolete simplicity and sunburst melancholy reminiscent of the work of Luiz Bonfá, Bill Evans, on "Peace Piece" or laidback crooners of the '50s. In Farewell To All We Know, Matt Elliott incessantly alternates between the dual desires to face up to the world or to protect himself from it. "Hating The Player, Hating The Game" is a lucid statement about the dullness of our daily lives sometimes, our right to get out of the game and no longer want to be part of it. "Aboulia" speaks of the tiredness of living and of looming death while "Crisis Apparition" says that there is always a time for reconstruction after chaos. This is like initially wearying wandering in the ruins of Aleppo with the slow dilution of the melody into a hallucinated drone. However, the smell of great fires always fades and the earth always regenerates.
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LP
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IDA 141LP
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LP version. Includes download. Despite, or rather thanks to, his cynical despair, Matt Elliott's music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us -- on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one. On Farewell To All We Know, Matt began working with the producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin (La Terre Invisible) who has continued collaborating with the Bristol-born singer. Farewell To All We Know is an instant classic based on the sensitive piano and superb arrangements of David Chalmin, the sensitive cello of Gaspar Claus, the subtle bass of Jeff Hallam (who has also played with Dominique A and John Parish). There is a clear form of alchemy in all of this and still we find Matt Elliott's usual atmospheres and scenery, the same Eastern European folk music, long songs that take time to settle over time. "What Once Was Hope" seems torn between the fear of what tomorrow may bring, inevitability and hope for the future in a permanent and progressive dramatic tension. There are touches of Leonard Cohen from Songs From A Room (1969) or Thanks For The Dance (2019) in The Day After That with Gaspar Claus's counterpoint cello. The haunted instrumental "Guidance Is Internal" harks back to the atmospheres of Howling Songs (2008) with its guitar parts full of scansions and muted threats. The music is transcendental but never seems afraid of the risk of falling. This is also what "Bye Now" tells you with its quasi-obsolete simplicity and sunburst melancholy reminiscent of the work of Luiz Bonfá, Bill Evans, on "Peace Piece" or laidback crooners of the '50s. In Farewell To All We Know, Matt Elliott incessantly alternates between the dual desires to face up to the world or to protect himself from it. "Hating The Player, Hating The Game" is a lucid statement about the dullness of our daily lives sometimes, our right to get out of the game and no longer want to be part of it. "Aboulia" speaks of the tiredness of living and of looming death while "Crisis Apparition" says that there is always a time for reconstruction after chaos. This is like initially wearying wandering in the ruins of Aleppo with the slow dilution of the melody into a hallucinated drone. However, the smell of great fires always fades and the earth always regenerates.
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2LP
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IDA 027LP
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2021 restock. Ici D'ailleurs present a reissue of Matt Elliot's Drinking Songs, originally released in 2004. Comes in a reverse cardboard gatefold with printed inner-sleeves and a download card.
"Forget 24 hour bingeing, raucous antisocial behaviour, even the gin-soaked balladry of The Band of Holy Joy or the likes of Eazy E, The Beastie Boys and Schooly D singing the praises of their favourite brew. Matt Elliott emerges shyly from the shadows of Third Eye Foundation alias to celebrate the drowning of sorrows rather than the exuberant pissing away of our leisure hours, Introspective and alone, breathing in the fumes of some neglected cellar, his drinking songs withdraw themselves not simply from polite society but from all society. How else can one dream or contemplate what might have been? Opener 'CF Bundy' has a woozy charm. Evenly paced and alive with the strumming of acoustic guitars, it sets the mood for what is to come. Evoking the regrets and indiscretions of a bygone age, one grown sick and enfeebled by fantasies, 'Trying To Explain', 'The Guilty Party' and 'What's Wrong' would all seem to be taking place in a world teetering on the edge of some great fall or cataclysm. 'What The Fuck Am I Doing On This Battlefield?' and 'A Waste of Blood' are both moments of rude awakening. As a coda and extended finale, the 20 minute 'The Maid We Messed' sees Elliott returning to the wordplay and hypervelocity breaks of his Third Eye Foundation recordings. Overall, however, Drinking Songs remains a work to be listened to with eyes closed -- it's about the only way you can keep the room from spinning." --Ken Hollings, The Wire, April 2005.
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2LP
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IDA 049LP
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2021 restock. Ici D'ailleurs present a reissue of Matt Elliott's Howling Songs, originally released in 2008. Howling Songs is the magnificent third and last part to the Songs trilogy. Ici D'ailleurs are back to this Slavonic tune, without any definite frontier, whose only and constant heritage finds its roots in European music. This is a very haunted and personal piece of music which is the testimony of a unique talent where moving melodies follow other moving melodies balancing between ballad songs and folk music, madness and reason, revolt and despair. Howling Songs sympathizes with the surrounding world, it is a definitive observation in which one can feel, throughout the songs, an outraged sensitivity which is the signature of the artist. It is all the more sensitive that Matt's voice is sometimes present without any chorus in the background, bringing to the whole both confidence and unquestionable heat. Howling Songs is, without a doubt, the most introspective album by Matt Elliott and the one which best carries his musical personality.
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4CD
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IDA 067CD
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2016 repress. Originally released in 2010. Matt Elliott's Songs trilogy - Drinking Songs (IDA 027CD, 2004), Failing Songs (IDA 037CD, 2006), and Howling Songs (IDA 049CD, 2008) - with seven failed songs in an extra CD.
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CD
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IDA 102CD
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Matt Elliott presents The Calm Before, the seventh album under his own name, following his 2013 album Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart and the 2016 20th-anniversary reissue of his 1996 debut as The Third Eye Foundation, Semtex (IDA 111CD/LP). For The Calm Before, Elliott is joined again by producer David Chalmin, who coproduced Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart, as well as the musicians who contributed to that album. The six masterpieces collected here fit the logical continuum of Elliott's previous work, but a deeper listen reveals the true strength of the music and lyrics, capturing the essence of what Elliott's art is all about -- folk guitar virtuosity influenced by the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe; songs that start with whispered melodies and end with noisy storms; Elliott's deep, strong voice reaching new levels; and a tendency to avoid any well-known way of making music. Elliott's poetry is also an art in its own right. He prefers to leave his words open to interpretation, but offers a few thoughts about The Calm Before here: "'The Calm Before' is obviously a reference to the expression 'The calm before the storm'. The song itself is about those points in life when a storm arrives, be it a circumstance or a person & the mix of feelings, turbulence, trouble that comes with it but a storm also brings something, it clears the air & can push you into a new situation. . . . 'Wings & Crown' is a song about those who ride high oblivious to the precariousness of their power. It discusses a grand fall from grace. . . . 'The Allegory of the Cave' is very obviously about Plato's famous allegory. . . . about humanity in relationship to the great universe and what lies beyond the Pale. . . . The song is an existential ramble, are we just a bunch of cells? Will what makes our minds carry on after death?" Elliott would argue that we simply cannot know, and that endless return and eternal void are both ideas too tragic to contemplate. Nevertheless, with The Calm Before Elliott delivers another masterpiece, adding a precious stone to his path through contemporary folk music.
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LP
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IDA 102LP
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LP version. Matt Elliott presents The Calm Before, the seventh album under his own name, following his 2013 album Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart and the 2016 20th-anniversary reissue of his 1996 debut as The Third Eye Foundation, Semtex (IDA 111CD/LP). For The Calm Before, Elliott is joined again by producer David Chalmin, who coproduced Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart, as well as the musicians who contributed to that album. The six masterpieces collected here fit the logical continuum of Elliott's previous work, but a deeper listen reveals the true strength of the music and lyrics, capturing the essence of what Elliott's art is all about -- folk guitar virtuosity influenced by the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe; songs that start with whispered melodies and end with noisy storms; Elliott's deep, strong voice reaching new levels; and a tendency to avoid any well-known way of making music. Elliott's poetry is also an art in its own right. He prefers to leave his words open to interpretation, but offers a few thoughts about The Calm Before here: "'The Calm Before' is obviously a reference to the expression 'The calm before the storm'. The song itself is about those points in life when a storm arrives, be it a circumstance or a person & the mix of feelings, turbulence, trouble that comes with it but a storm also brings something, it clears the air & can push you into a new situation. . . . 'Wings & Crown' is a song about those who ride high oblivious to the precariousness of their power. It discusses a grand fall from grace. . . . 'The Allegory of the Cave' is very obviously about Plato's famous allegory. . . . about humanity in relationship to the great universe and what lies beyond the Pale. . . . The song is an existential ramble, are we just a bunch of cells? Will what makes our minds carry on after death?" Elliott would argue that we simply cannot know, and that endless return and eternal void are both ideas too tragic to contemplate. Nevertheless, with The Calm Before Elliott delivers another masterpiece, adding a precious stone to his path through contemporary folk music.
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CD
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IDA 027CD
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2016 repress; originally released in 2005. "Forget 24 hour bingeing, raucous antisocial behaviour, even the gin-soaked balladry of The Band Of Holy Joy or the likes of Eazy E, The Beastie Boys and Schoolly D singing the praises of their favourite brew. Matt Elliott emerges shyly from the shadows of his Third Eye Foundation alias to celebrate the drowning of sorrows rather than the exuberant pissing away of our leisure hours. Introspective and alone, breathing in the fumes of some neglected cellar, his drinking songs withdraw themselves not simply from polite society but from all society. How else can one dream or contemplate what might have been? Opener 'CF Bundy' has a woozy charm. Evenly paced and alive with the strumming of acoustic guitars, it sets the mood for what is to come. Evoking the regrets and indiscretions of a bygone age, one grown sick and enfeebled by fantasies, 'Trying to Explain', 'The Guilty Party' and 'What's Wrong' would all seem to be taking place in a world teetering on the edge of some great fall or cataclysm. 'What The Fuck Am I doing On This Battlefield?' and 'A Waste Of Blood' are both moments of rude awakening. As a coda and extended finale, the 20 minute 'The Maid We Messed' sees Elliott returning to the wordplay and hypervelocity breaks of his Third Eye Foundation recordings. Overall, however, Drinking Songs remains a work to be listened to with eyes closed -- it's about the only way you can keep the room from spinning." --Ken Hollings, The Wire, April 2005
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CD
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IDA 037CD
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2016 repress; originally released in 2006. Because it's really about songs, Failing Songs turns Matt Elliott into a true songwriter, with subtle melodies that contrast with the hardness of the words. Between despair and cold anger, Elliott's lyrical subjects include a rejection of the liberal military evolution of the world. These sublime, melancholic, bitter, works are influenced by Slavic music and Greek music, and are occasionally punctuated by Spanish guitars.
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CD
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IDA 049CD
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2016 repress; originally released in 2008. Howling Songs is the magnificent third and final part of Matt Elliott's Songs trilogy. A work without any definite frontiers, whose only constant heritage lies in European music, particularly Slavic music. A haunted, personal piece of music; its moving melodies follow other moving melodies, balancing between ballads and folk music; madness and reason; revolt and despair. Howling Songs sympathizes with the surrounding world; it is a definitive observation in which one can feel, throughout the songs, the artist's outraged sensitivity in Elliott's lone voice. Howling Songs is, without a doubt, the most introspective album by Matt Elliott and the one that best carries his musical personality.
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2LP
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IDA 088LP
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2013 reissue; originally released in 2003. First vinyl release; mastered for vinyl by Matt Colton. Features new artwork. Matt Elliott's first release under his own name, following his work as The Third Eye Foundation. "Arrangements are complex and orchestration never blends entirely for the sake of being easy to listen to; Elliott maintains a range of cacophonous identities that simply tolerate each other. The opening track, 'Let Us Break,' is in this regard as haunting as it is entirely captivating. Warped, exaggerated vocals share track space but never yield scope or priority to strings, piano, accordion -- elements stand out by virtue of their original form and within the same dimension create layers of distinct separation" --Prefix. "Elliot has pulled off a tricky feat here: stripping down his sound to more orthodox 'rock' instrumentation, without losing his edge." --Stylus
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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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