T T T Technicolour Melodies

Sometime earlier this year I vowed to write shorter snapshot blogs on albums I enjoy. This hasn't happened! I still set out to write feature length blogs and end up with half written blogs sitting in my drafts box for months on end - many stay there!

And this one has been unfinished for a couple of months - I originally intended to finish and publish it back in April. With Super 8 planning the follow up in the summer, I thought I'd better get this one out there!

Read on for a review and interview.

T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies by Super 8 is an album I stumbled across earlier this year. The modern art/psychedelic cover art was captivating in its own way, but delving into the album brought great reward. It's homemade, warm, melodic and lovely and all the work of one person - who goes under the guise of Trip.

The home recorded album is full of warmth, from the opening Tomorrow's Just Another Day through to closer My Sweet Baby Jane. There are all kinds of instruments, loads of melodies, unexpected breaks and a lot of love.

Opener Tomorrow's Just Another Day has one of the unexpected breaks mentioned above and also a stunning little add on at the end, just when you think the song is about to finish it takes a glorious turn.

I need you in my life

Yeah I need you in my life

You in my life to make it alright

Catsuit is a favourite of mine. It reminds me of The Lemonheads/Evan Dando in the way it is written and flows so naturally.

Renting a lighthouse for you

Taking a right hook for you

Sticking my neck out for you

Saving my last smoke for you

Even at only 2 minutes 23 seconds, there is still time for Trip to add on a little refrain, he has an uncanny knack for being able to find an extra little melody and hook.

Last Final Cigarette and To Morocco are two more brilliant examples of how naturally talented Trip is. Acoustic guitars, melodies, stories, thoughts and dreams pour out of him.

The title track has a bit of the Beta Band to it. Homemade groove based psychedelic pop. Then we have the simply gorgeous Just A Serenade. This is a gem. Trip's voice is raw and pure as he pours his heart out.

S.K.Y (Stop Killing Yourself) was a title that immediately grabbed my attention and a dreamy intro leads to a gorgeous song and I love the line pick yourself up off the ceiling. 

You can stream and buy the album below from the Super 8 bandcamp page. Read on for an interview with Trip - the man behind Super 8.

1. Who are Super 8? Ha! Ha! Who indeed? Just Me, Myself and I!

2. What have you released to date? Just the one album … so far! I’m currently busy working on the next one.

3. How did you find the label you have released your latest album on? I didn’t - they found me as it turned out! They heard my cover of Serious Drugs and got in touch. When they heard my own original songs, they wanted to get involved.*

4. Do you have any plans for the album or touring? No real master plan as such. I guess I’d just like as many folk as possible to hear this music I make. Of course, I realise that touring helps to promote music but I recorded this entire album at home on my own. It would be pretty hard to try & recreate it in a ‘one-man-band’ style I’d imagine. That said, I’m not completely ruling the idea out, I’m just saying it would be difficult! I’d need to keep an eye out for one of those bass drums you strap to your back for starters plus I’d need some cymbals, a cello and a trumpet that I could somehow operate with my feet whilst simultaneously strumming guitar blowing on a harmonica. That should do it!  

5. What influenced the album? Well, I’d been playing stripped-back acoustic versions of my songs at open mic nights through in Edinburgh but, whilst playing them acoustically, I was hearing them in a more ‘symphonic’ way inside my head & needed to find a way of recording these definitive versions. After a few botched attempts in so-called professional studios, I finally realised that the way to do these songs justice was to go into self-imposed exile, batten down the hatches & just record everything myself at home … using a battered old portastudio. After much blood, sweat and tears, the finished result you hear on “T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies!” is the closest I’ve been able to get to how this particular batch of songs plays inside my head.

6. How do you write? Does it vary from song to song?  I tend to start off with my old faithful acoustic guitar. It could be a chord progression or a riff then, off the back of that, I’ll hope that what I’m doing reveals some kind of vocal melody that I’ll jam over the top with. If it does I’ll press record then, on playback, try to find any seeds of an idea that I can begin to work up into a finished, realised song.    

David Bowie Never Had To

One of the most pleasing things I have noticed in the Scottish music scene over the last few weeks has been a little bit of recognition for Pii 2, the second album by Stephen Solo, an artist I am incredibly fond of.

Readers of Is This Music? (another blog with a nod to Teenage Fanclub) voted Pii 2 second best album of 2017, The Herald highlighted Internet Song in their top 100 (17) songs of 2017, while Jock Rock also found Pii 2 to be second best album of the year.

Nothing crazy, but I know that it means a lot to Solo, an artist who recorded his debut album simply because he had found out how to use his iPhone and didn't need to limit himself to acoustic demos.

Solo hasn't even played two handfuls of shows in that time, so word of mouth is the way that his music gets known.

I've blogged about Solo a few times over the last couple of years;

Introduction and interview
The Pii 2 album launch at La Chunky
Pii 2 album review

Stephen is unique, using easily accessible and relatively cheap modern technology (his iPhone) to capture the songs, melodies and ideas that pour out of him on a regular basis.

The songs range from the gorgeous fragile Crying Because, to cinematic Soundtrack to Unfilmed, to Albarn-esque moments of beauty mixed with craziness, plenty of Beatles-y moments of homemade psychedelic wonder like Think Strange and LocoCoco and nods to Bowie, the harmonies of The Beach Boys, electronica via Kraftwerk to Hot Chip and even Scots comedian Limmy.

His 2 albums to date contain genuinely jaw dropping moments of sheer raw talent and imagination. No Pill For What I've Got and Secrets You Keep are spine tingling. And it is worth remembering that Solo no only wrote and played everything on these 2 albums, he recorded, mixed and produced it all as well - sometimes in his car, sometimes under the stairs and sometimes in the bathroom - even in the bath! Internet Song is so funny, captivating and catchy that is has recently prompted one fan to make a video for it.

There is one song on Pii2 that I listened to about half a dozen times in a row on first listen to the album. The talent, humour, cheek, imagination, stark reality and heartfelt plea to the artist who inspired it, the twist at the end, the little riffs.... David Bowie Never Had To is a quite incredible song, in fact it is more of a work of art.

As Glasgow celebrates the life of Bowie this weekend ahead of his birthday and anniversary of his passing, I thought I'd highlight this song that the great artist inspired. Stephen is a real Bowie fan and introduced me to Bowie's 80's classics Modern Love and Lets Dance.

Back to the song, that you can stream below. Pulsing electro synth and beats back Stephen Solo as he lists things that David Bowie Never Had To do;

Change kitty litter at 5am

Take out the bona after a gig still wearing his gig clothes

Switch to store brand breakfast serial for financial reasons

Carry a washing machine up 4 flights of stairs

Downgrade his home entertainment package because he is on a zero hours contract

Consider using his house keys as a makeshift weapon at a dodgy bus stop

Provide evidence of job searching for a job he doesn't want

Solo breaks off between verses for a glorious melodic and melancholic snapshot of his mind;

Don't want my own universe

But I'd be happy in my own little world

There is a lovely twist at the end as Solo finds himself having a conversation with Bowie from beyond his grave. I'll leave you to check that out yourself. Please do so and please check Solo's albums. He plays the Hug and Pint supporting The Gracious Losers at their single launch and I'm led to believe some friends will be joining him on stage to help recreate his incredible songs.