Jan
28
Written by:
carrie
Friday, January 28, 2011
Since forming in 2008, A Train have got people’s attention. BBC Radio Oxford and ON FM have booked them for live sets, Tom Mallows on BBC6 has had them on his playlist and the counter of how many “listens” of their songs keeps on going up and up on My Space. The Cavendish Arms has a strong commitment to new music and from the reaction of the crowd at the launch party of A Train’s second EP ‘Beginning’, they know that something great is happening with A Train and Padraig Whelan too.
The beauty of A Train singer / songwriter James and Daniel McKean’s love of a long list of styles is that they’ve created something that sounds so new. Their lyrics have a sense of nostalgia which lets you the listener join them in memories and romantic moments. The same nostalgia happens their retro sounding song titles like "The Hippopotamus Hunt" and "Morning Dream" . If you like this blurry edged soul psych vibe you'll love their visually sumptuous film for Moon Water, the sure fire hit on “Beginning“. A Train is a stylish band, musically and visually.
The sound is fun, natural and understated. James’ deep, earthy, slightly blurry vocals and acoustic guitar walks you at a gentle pace through lyrics about other times and other ages, friendship or beginnings of deep emotions. Daniel’s electric guitar is played with ever-so-slight and right amount of echo. Ben Handysides' lightly brushed drums and Ben Wooten’s bass creates a flowing, laid back rock-y sound.
But just because they are laid back, you shouldn’t underestimate A Train and their depth and ability to surprise. The band play different instruments equally well. Musically they move around their songs as they moved around the instruments with the songs. Wooten put down electric bass and picked up the massive double bass and Justas Keliuotis arrived to play guest trumpet in "Moon Water ". The McKeans took turns to lead or stand back whilst sharing the vocals in the songs.
The evening changed mood and pace as Daniel delivered a soulful, heartfelt version of “ I Saw The Light “. It got our attention. Wooten balanced his hands on the double bass, James stood back slightly in the darkness and we all watched Daniel playing the keyboard solo whilst singing beautifully from under the spotlight. Later on Daniel told us that his favourite track of 2010 was Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” and wove it into ‘Dependence’ so seamlessly that hardly we noticed it wasn’t an A Train track all through. The mix of past influences works brilliantly for A Train.
The most upbeat song on the “ Beginning” EP, Moon Water was introduced with a typical self – effacing humour: “we’re quite laid back so now’s your chance to dance “. Laugh at this comment and dance everyone did. James sung out the chorus with the trumpet giving depth in all the right places and the audience sang along. The delighted reaction from the audience is telling - Moon Water is so fantastically catchy, it damn well deserves to be an immediate hit !
That A Train and Padraig Whelan like each other’s music is easy to understand. Such is Padraig Whelan’s stance to music making and rejection of the bull that goes with selling music that despite critical acclaim for this 2006 EP “ Stand Up Pat Whelan “ when asked last year why he has only recently released his album: “ Never Be So Wicked, No More As You Once Were “, his answer was “ I’m deeply in love with the former, and care not a gnats’ cock for the latter “. Both A Train and Whelan's enjoyment of creating their own music for heir own pleasure is obvious. That audiences respond in the way that they do is great, but not necessarily the purpose for either of them.
Saying that, Whelan gave us an arresting set that made us stop dead in our tracks and listen. Building in lazy waves, his voice is layered and lyrical, ‘making grown men weep’. He writes sublime, beautiful and simple songs that you will marvel at. The extraordinarily beautiful “Off and On”, “Who Wears The Light Like You” and “What I Know, I Know With You” are played and sang with such a light touch from the band and Whelan. Every note, drum brush or slight, light backing note is entrancing.
There’s a recent production technique where as the listener, you feel as if the musicians are standing closely around you performing in a closed room. For this reason, intimacy is becoming an overused word but intimate describes Whelan’s music exactly. Whelan achieves it effortlessly both in his recorded music and live.
Be warned though, this is the sort of listening to music that you should do still and silent. That’s entirely right for Whelan who believes the silences are as important to music as the music itself. Check out his Album track “Rolling Stock”. This track is built so expertly from open silence, to a rolling but simple bass line, to the muffled sounds of a train and then onto the first line of slight, almost whispery sung lyrics. This song is a classic that could exist equally in the 60’s or 70’s as it does now. If you do one thing for yourself this week, promise you'll listen to Padraig Whelan.
A Train and Whelan are mature musicians of great taste who write original lyrics and music, sing, play, perform, don’t stumble are entirely certain of what they enjoy and want from their sound and you know what, the audience for the A Train EP Launch absolutely loved them.
http://www.theatrain.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/theatrainmusic
http://www.myspace.com/padraigwhelan
http://www.padraigwhelan.com
http://www.thecavendisharmsstockwell.co.uk/
1 comment(s) so far...
'A Train' - The Beginning E.P Review
Having listened to the E.P, heres my thoughts on whats on offer...
With all the average alternative music thrown my way over the last couple years, my initial thoughts were that this could be just another band with an E.P/short album falling into the same category. Thankfully for ‘The A Train’ this isn’t the case and there’s genuine song-writing potential on show here from James and Daniel McKean.
Opener ‘The Hippopotamus Hunt’ delicately adds layer upon layer of sound presenting you with the building blocks of a real bittersweet creation. As singer James McKean calls out ‘even in my darkest hour, we will not sway’ you are left believing the intentions of his every word. It’s a welcoming opening to proceedings, throwing the listener the keys to the rest of the E.P. There are definite echoes of Moseley Shoals era Ocean Colour Scene on show, sounding relevant whilst maintaining a commercial edge you would expect will connect with a wide variety of listeners.
‘Moon Water’s’ tone is engrossing, slowly gripping your imagination as its delicate guitar and subtle bass & drum leads you into a chorus that screams hit potential on every level. The guitar solo is sublime; it’s arguably the highlight of the E.P here. Following such a highlight, it’s important that what follows is another vibrant song namely ‘Advantages’ which definitely falls into the ‘vibrant’ category. It’s a familiar and nostalgic rock sound with enough rhythm and drive to allow proceedings to motor on nicely. A much needed lead guitar solo gives the song the kind of change of tone which separates this song from an average song to a quite frankly great song.
‘The Beginning’ is reminiscent of Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac, a beautiful and soulful song which tugs at the heart strings without the sickly edge you would expect to avoid in an alternative music environment. In fact, the fears of losing life’s great love features throughout, however songs like ‘Dependence’ never allow the record to get too complacent. It’s the most radio friendly offering on the E.P, although by no means the best song on show either.
On a critical note the band may want to take a look at the production in certain areas of the E.P as vocals can overpower the more subtle movements of sound so important to delivering the underlying folky vibe throughout. This aside, the potential is there for A Train to lead the way as the pied piper of alternative pop music for the new decade, although it will be interesting to see if there is enough cutting edge to capture a younger generation still trying to find its musical feet.
As an unsigned band, I would expect their situation change soon enough, after all, the standard of what’s on offer is spelt out in their very name. ‘A’ class songs + ‘A’ class quality = The A Train.
By Phillip Fitzpatrick on
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
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