Skulk reviews

Re: Skulk reviews

tgreul — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:53:03 +0100

I posted a 5 star review on amazon. Boy, it takes a lot to overcome a 1 star review

Re: Skulk reviews

redpete — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:00:27 +0100

Thanks for the insights into the recording of the album and what lies behind it, which are really enlightening. B)

Since first listen, the CD's rarely been out of my CD player, or out of my head either.

Amazon review written...

Re: Skulk reviews

bigsnitch — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:21:01 +0100

Matt,

I think I've just mis-interpreted what Jim said about the electric portion of the album, and maybe a bit of wishful thinking too. As long as it gets Skulk the notice it deserves that's all that matters in the end.

I see that we're in agreement about Seven Long Years, it's simply a stunning song and it's replaced Nightvisiting as my favourite Jim song. I think it's going to be interesting to see how the new songs fare in the next Top 10 poll at Christmas.

Martin

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:30:21 +0100

Re : 18th of June - well spotted Martin, I hadn't noticed that. Don't hold your breath though, her album has been in the pipeline for such a long time that I wouldn't be surprised if we have to wait another "Seven Long Years" before it finally gets released.

Looking at your review on Amazon, I don't think that there's going to be an electric version of Skulk. More of a sort of companion piece to Skulk, that Jim has referred to as the 'electric portion', which will actually sound nothing like it.

Re: Skulk reviews

bigsnitch — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:34:06 +0100

Two more reviews (5*, naturally >:D<) posted on iTunes and Amazon.

Martin

Re: Skulk reviews

bigsnitch — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:53:12 +0100

" Her album (Dream Life) is finally coming out on 18th June "

Spooky!

Martin

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:48:29 +0100

You've certainly had a good day on Amazon Jim. You've managed to pick up four 5 star reviews. Thanks for spurring us into action to put the naysayers in their place. Interestingly, within the positive (4 & 5 star) reviews, no less than 8 tracks are mentioned as standouts. Only The Eighteenth Of June and Courting Is A Pleasure are missing.

One final thought on Mary Epworth ... are you sure that she's not still making up her mind about whether to join you on Jenny Of The Moor or not ?!?

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:29:04 +0100

Jim - Re Mary Epworth : That's really interesting, I didn't know that. I'm actually glad that she turned you down. If she'd accepted, you'd still be working on it and wouldn't even have released In Modern History yet, let alone got around to thinking about Skulk. I'm joking of course, on the strength of her two singles (and their B-sides), her album should be terrific.

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:21:02 +0100

Re James Lord's post above - I too find it incredible that Sweet England was criticised on the grounds that Jim was a 'fraud lacking musical abilty' but this was the folk scene in 2003 that we're talking about. Thankfully since then we've had people such as Jim & Jackie, Spiers & Boden, Adrian McNally, Erland Cooper, Elle Osborne, Nancy Wallace, Jason Steel, Bella Hardy, Alasdair Roberts, Johnny Flynn, Trembling Bells, Dyer:Cummings, Fay Hield, Lucy Ward, Laura Marling and others to give the genre the overdue boot up the bum. After all, it wasn't fair leaving all the work to be done by June Tabor & Eliza Carthy now was it ? Also congrats to Ian (A) Anderson, editor of fROOTS for running with it, even though some of their reviewers seem to have a down on Jim for some unknown reason. As Ian suggests, punk & folk, two sides of the same coin.

On another issue, if you're reading this Jim - will you be sitting in the producers chair again for anyone anytime soon ?

Re: Skulk reviews

jimmoray — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:20:09 +0100

Ha! Mary was one of my first choices to duet on Jenny Of The Moor. I don't know why she didn't in the end. I'm really looking forward to Dream Life and I'm glad she's doing so well.

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:03:24 +0100

Jim - re your point iii) above - please don't ever feel tempted to make an album with Mary Epworth, I don't think that we'd ever hear from you again...

Her album (Dream Life) is finally coming out on 18th June I believe. I hope/suspect that it will be worth the (seemingly interminable) wait.

Re: Skulk reviews

jameslord — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:47:41 +0100

Have added another positive review to Amazon.

Not wishing to sound overly grovelly but I really find it hard to believe that anyone slagged off Sweet England. It is one of my all time favourite records and the (trickery laden) 'Lord Bateman' and 'Two Sisters' are as damnded near to perfect as I can imagine music being.

And I'm up for some electric quitar and proggyness next time out.

Cheers

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:44:19 +0100

Wow, Jim !! What a response. Looks as if my review has given you the chance to get a few things off your chest !! As a 'prog-minded' fan I certainly wasn't disappointed with Skulk.

As a (slightly) connected aside, have you ever thought of 'marketing' (for want of a better word) your work more than you do at present to the prog community. Sort of being the prog fans 'folk-singer of choice' rather than the folk fans 'oh that Jim Moray he's far too prog/punk/radical for us'.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you change what you do musically in any way whatsoever in order to undertake this strategy.

I'm really looking forward to the 'electric portion'. More of those Bristol Harbour guitars and that Public Image Ltd. drumming please.

Re: Skulk reviews

jimmoray — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:15:57 +0100

Thanks a lot Matt.

I'm sure there are a few prog-minded fans who were disappointed with Skulk but I'm proud of it for loads of reasons -

i) it contains Lord Douglas and Hind Etin. I've tried re-writing trad songs on every album, starting with (the totally unlistenable, and excruciatingly embarrassing) 'As I Roved Out' on I Am Jim Moray, and then Seeds Of Love on Sweet England etc. But this is the first time I think I've properly cracked it with the tune and pacing of the words. Lord Douglas especially took a long time, but I'm happy to say that every single word is now correct. I hope I do better again in the future, but in terms of the mechanics of putting together something like this, LD is head and shoulders above anything I've achieved before.

ii) I sent it to a few other people to be mixed (because I feel like I massively dropped the ball on that front on In Modern History) and then I ended up using my own mixes for half of it. I am really proud of the sound of If It's True especially, which was mixed in a bedroom on the same monitors that I've had for years but, again, is head and shoulders above anything I've ever mixed before. The drum sound on Hind Etin is another thing I'm proud of.

iii) the album would have been ready for Summer 2011, but I decided to keep going. All my other albums have been clamped down in to a certain extent by managers or other people setting out a timescale and then taking it out of my hands when I didn't consider it finished. The second album was particularly spoiled by this, and In Modern History and Low Culture were incredibly rushed in the finishing stages, often at a point when I'd run out of money so had no leverage to fix them. The argument is always "oh Jim, you'd never finish it if we let you have more time. Thats what you're like". This time I almost cut off contact with everyone else and knuckled down to finish it properly and was totally proved right. Some tracks were, no kidding, recorded *hundreds* of times (I was adamant that the main guitar part of Lord Douglas had to be recorded in one pass. I did at least 100 takes over six months trying to nail it and I often thought I'd got it then listened the next day and realised I hadn't. Rather than make do I started again). It's stupid and labour intensive, but if is not right it's not right. Too many records in this genre are put out with out-of-tune vocals or out of time drumming or rhythm sections that aren't together. It's not "good enough for folk" and it never was.

iv) I am really proud of the cover. I hate having my photo taken, but David and David have always made it a joy.

v) I took the critisism of Sweet England very personally. To the day I am still accused of being a fraud who relies on gimmicks and technology to make up for my lack of ability in certain circles (even good reviews still tend to start "controversial folk artist..."). This time I think I've delivered an album that fits inside the folk revival world and can't be accused of relying on trickery. This record is the most like the ones I heard growing up - its my parents record collection essentially. At this point, having reached the age my mum and dad were when they had me, this felt the right music to make - something substantial that fits into a lineage of some sort, and that has a more grown-up attitude.

It would be nice to play some electric guitar again next though...

Re: Skulk reviews

MATTG — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:27:25 +0100

I've added another 5 star review on Amazon, albeit I'm fairly sure that I'm hearing different things in Jim's music to many other people who post on here. Still, differences of opinion are one of the things that make following music so interesting I reckon. It's still only averaging 3.5 stars though, more contributions required to get that rating up to where it deserves to be.

Re: Skulk reviews

Jen — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:22:44 +0100

You're very welcome! Must get mine on iTunes too while I think about it...
J

Re: Skulk reviews

jimmoray — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:37:40 +0100

Thanks Jen and Martin...

Re: Skulk reviews

bigsnitch — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:03:41 +0100

Say no more Jim, I'll do iTunes too (tu)

Martin

Re: Skulk reviews

jimmoray — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:42:58 +0100

meanwhile, the commenters on Amazon aren't impressed... [www.amazon.co.uk]

Far be it from me to suggest that if anyone disagrees with those they write a review on Amazon to balance it out, but...

Re: Skulk reviews

jimmoray — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:15:22 +0100

Two more reviews from the Sunday papers.

Observer - [www.guardian.co.uk]

Independent on Sunday - [www.independent.co.uk]

If you see any more (we can't get the Murdoch papers online...) then let me know.

Re: Skulk reviews

RecordOverplayed — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:58:07 +0100

bigsnitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neither of them are particularly impressive
> reviews IMHO, in fact they could both have been
> written by the same person

Definitely some similarities between them aren't there?

> The gig review is excellent

That's very kind, thank you. I hope you enjoy the Liverpool gig.

Re: Skulk reviews

bigsnitch — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:19:03 +0100

Neither of them are particularly impressive reviews IMHO, in fact they could both have been written by the same person - I reckon we did Jim a much better service in our reviews when Skulk first appeared back in January.

The gig review is excellent - it reminded me of the Liverpool gig that Jim did in 2011 and will hopefully do again im just over a week's time.

Martin

Skulk reviews

RecordOverplayed — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:25:42 +0100

For anyone who hasn't seen them, here are links to a couple of reviews of Skulk:

Guardian
Independent

And since I'm here, here's a Knaresborough gig review too on Record Overplayed.

:)