My New Blog

Why, thank you!

^Mine's on Thursday...I don't have tickets for anything.

But who cares...I'm the Main Stage Manager for the OJBF.

The Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival starts on June 3rd and I get a weekend of great live music FREE ! This year...Friday Night's main act is The Legendary Downchild Blues Band and on Saturday Night the main act is 2010's Best New Band winner of the Maple Blues Award and 2016 Juno Nominee Blackburn then Sunday closes with 2022 Blues Album of the Year Juno Nominee Miss Emily.

13 bands overall on the main stage Friday to Sunday.

Thanks Steve; of course I will.. 

As you can imagine, Karnataka were very enjoyable and put on a solid show. As usual, no support, on stage 8.30, a 2 hour set comprising material mostly from Flame, Light & Angels, with a 30 minute break, finishing just after 11. Around 90 in the audience, with precious few under 50.. 

New vocalist Sertari has an excellent, mid-range Mezzo voice (not sure where Ian finds them) which is very powerful and comes across really well live. They played quite a bit off 'Gathering Light' and in terms of vocal range, Lisa's material is where she is the most natural fit. By contrast (and this is purely subjective) she can't replicate the earlier Rachel material; her voice is too powerful for the delicate, frail, ethereal sounds created there... Delicate Flame was anything but, with the drummer also being too prominent. In time, when they create more new material around her, I'm sure she will come into her own, but I hope that they can move on and leave the Rachel material behind; it is after all, 20 years old now and no-one can do justice to the nature of that material as well as her.

On this subject, they played 3 new tracks, all fairly expansive. Two will require further listens, but the 10 minuter, 'Forgiven', they played prior to the break is really excellent and one to look forward to on a forthcoming album. At present, they are a four piece and to be honest, Ian really does need to find himself a keyboard player, rather than playing to a backing recording; it's just too integral to their sound. A final word for their guitarist; not sure how Ian managed to get Luke Machin (The Tangent/ Cyan/ It Bites/ Maschine) on board, but he's of course a real talent; I just hope they write more progressive, guitar oriented material like 'Forgiven', for him to shine....  

Really interesting review, thanks Jared. Firstly, a real shame about the attendance. I don’t know how this is going to improve, and I suppose the stop/start nature of Karnataka probably doesn’t help a great deal.

I’ll see if I can find any footage of the new singer, but it is interesting about your comments re leaving Rachel material behind. I actually thought that we would get that with Illuminae, but there we go. 

Machin is a class act, and I hate backing tapes. I am surprised that Ian went out on the road using them.

I do love a bit of Somali Yacht Club!

[EDIT] both are good reviews (as can be expected, I guess), and I particularly liked how constructive you were with Carpani’s which I probably would have only been able to damn with faint praise! Not that I’ve listened to the new one, but anything of his I’ve heard in the past has indeed been perfectly good, but not set my world on fire.

Is this the first SYC album you’ve heard, or are you familiar with the previous two/too?

Cheers Nick! Re Carpani, I had to listen to it a few times. If I had reviewed after a couple of listens, it would have been more challenging, but there are some nice elements to the album. Plus, as you know, how you treat artists with words is exceptionally important.

I have been listening to The Sea by SYC over the past few weeks as well, and it is one of those albums which will feature as a new review in the relevant year on the website when time allows.