The Portland-based sextet Loch Lomond has grown in popularity in the Pacific Northwest after a number of releases and touring with the Decemberists.
The band’s second full-length album, “Little Me Will Start A Storm,” was released Feb. 22 and is proof that the emerging chamber-folk subgenre, which incorportates elements and instruments of classical music with modern indie folk/folk rock is quite viable.
Frontman Ritchie Young leads the band with his distinct vocal talent, weaving in and out of falsetto and displaying his wide singing range. Clever orchestration fills in the rest of each song with a variety of instruments, along with singing from other members of the band.
These elements are combined in such a way that each song sounds elaborate but never cluttered.
The album in its entirety is elegant, intriguing and a little dark at times but still catchy with simple, amusing melodies.
The opening track, “Blue Lead Fences,” is upbeat and rhythmically driven, but the album soon descends into slower tempos,
lighter melodies and a more soothing atmosphere. This descent continues throughout the album with a more contemplative mood replacing the lighter, more comforting one.
The second track, “Elephants & Little Girls,” opens with an absolutely beautiful melody on the clarinet that reworks itself throughout the song. This track is undoubtedly the prettiest piece on the album and is a clear illustration of the band’s talent in knowing where to insert
what instrument. A clarinet pops up here and there, a viola entwines itself around the melody at key points and aglockenspiel chiming is present occasionally, among incorporated instruments.
“Elephants & Little Girls” is followed by the darker “I Love Me,” the more traditional folk-sounding “Blood Bank,” with its simple sway in triple meter, and the pretty instrumental piece “Water Bells,” which features the always lovely musical saw.
However, the dénouement of the album is reached on the seventh track, “Water In Astoria.” The song employs all of the best techniques featured on the album to create a natural and harmonious atmosphere.
“Little Me Will Start A Storm” is short, at a total of 34 minutes, but it is exceedingly sweet and never actually feels short. Each song is
given just the right amount of time to shine and merge with the others in an intricate tapestry. The album can sound dark at times, but the lyrics maintain a lighthearted feel, and the music never allows itself to become entrenched in a dark and somber mood like other music can.
Anyone with a slight interest in today’s folk music scene will enjoy “Little Me Will Start a Storm” and it’s subtle, yet effective,
variations on the genre.
Tune in to KSLC 90.3 FM to hear tracks from “Little Me Will Start A Storm.” The track “Elephants & Little Girls” is available for free download at
www.tenderlovingempire.com.
Loch Lomond will play its record release show on Feb. 26 in Portland at the Alberta Rose Theater.

Braden Smith KSLC 90.3

Brian Eno: The ubiquitous British musician, producer, theorist and father of ambient music released his latest album, “Small Craft on a Milk Sea,” Nov. 2 in the U.S. on Warp Records. He collaborated with Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams.
It’s been more than 30 years since Eno’s first ambient album, “Another Green World,” was released in 1975, and the musical mastermind has not lost his touch.
The new album is thrilling and mysterious with an array of electronic sounds combining to form an exciting narrative experience.
Fans looking for Eno’s true-blue, ambient style will not be disappointed with “Small Craft,” but they may also be pleasantly surprised by some of the new, heavy twists Eno takes with the album. The variance truly defines the album and sets it apart from Eno’s other work.
The album begins with Eno’s traditionally calming, peaceful music with the opening track “Emerald and Lime.” The song eloquently features soft, smooth tones and lulling melody.
However, in true narrative fashion, this peace quickly turns to dread and tension with the next song, “Complex Heaven,” which features an eerie pulse in the background and dark, haunting piano and guitar melodies.
The tension builds with the next few tracks, particularly on “Flint March,” an intense chase scene showcasing talented percussionist Jez Wiles.
This tension snaps two thirds of the way through the sixth track on the album, “2 Forms of Anger,” which builds up with Wiles’ forceful drumming until heavy, jolting electric guitar chords burst onto the scene in climactic fashion.
The action begins to descend over the next few songs, although it is still dark and upbeat.
“Dust Shuffle,” the last track to feature Wiles, and the following track, “Paleosonic,” conclude the more rousing sounds of the album with upbeat drumming and shadowy electronic and guitar melodies.
This falling action ends by returning to the eerie and ghostly sounds from earlier in the album, reaching a peak with the cold and hallow “Calcium Needles.”
The last three songs are more traditional Eno, starting with the song “Emerald and Stone,” a cathartic continuation of the first track, “Emerald and Lime,” and ending with the 8-minute-long mystery world of “Late Anthropocene.”
This latest work by Eno is one of his greatest, perhaps even surpassing his first ambient music masterpiece, “Another Green World.”
For those who are unsure about the boundless world of experimental and ambient music, Eno is the perfect album with which to start, and “Small Craft” is a fantastic showcase of Eno’s talents, unique style and eccentricities.
Eno first entered the music scene in the early ’70s and has risen to become one of the most influential musicians in the modern musical world. From producing albums for Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, U2, Coldplay and others, to composing the six-second start-up music for the Windows 95 operating system, Eno has done it all.
“Small Craft,” his 25th solo album (not including his 19 collaboration albums), is a scintillating continuation of Eno’s rich musical legacy.
Tune into KSLC 90.3 FM to catch a glimpse of Eno’s newest musical voyage, “Small Craft on a Milk Sea.”

Braden Smith/Music director
Braden Smith can be reached at kslcmusic@gmail.com.

Some have said that funk is dead now — that it died off once the Bee Gees were done “Stayin’ Alive.” Others say that it was beaten to death by Les Claypool’s bass. Still others say that it gracefully committed suicide with Amiri Baraka’s “Twenty Pound Note.”
But, come now, don’t be sad, for I am pleased to be the first to say funk is back. Funk is back, and it is Blacc.
The second album by 31-year-old recording artist Aloe Blacc was released by Stones Throw Records on Sept. 30.
The album, titled “Good Things,” may be familiar to some of you, as the opening track and leading single “I Need a Dollar” is the theme song for the HBO series “How to Make It in America.”
Some local radio programs play other songs.
You may also be more familiar with two of the collaborating producers Oh No and Madlib on Blacc’s first album, “Shine Through.”
Blacc, along with the album’s cowriters and producers Leon Michels and Jeff Silverman, is breaking onto the music scene armed with his velvet voice, exciting energy and plenty of funk and soul. His performances have garnered flattering comparisons to Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye by prestigious magazines NME and Dazed & Confused, while Blacc himself calls out to other greats such as Buffalo Springfield and Jay-Z in his lyrics (“Loving You Is Killing Me” and “Good Things”).
“Good Things” is a fitting name for the album, as there are plenty of them on it. In keeping with the political theme of the record, many songs (“Miss Fortune” and “Life So Hard”) serve as excellent vehicles for Blacc’s deeply rooted, social-minded conscience while just as many others, like the climactic title track and the horn-heavy postlude “Politician,” are upbeat and soulful enough to cheer up even the stormiest of days. Some songs do both.
The album, being as cohesive as it is, gets you lost in the Shaft-like wah-wahs of “Hey Brother” while still giving you plenty of time to get your groove on before having to class it up for the funk-waltz of “If I” and the soulfully honest ballad “Mama Hold My Hand.”
Tune in to KSLC 90.3 FM to hear “Good Things” by Aloe Blacc. For more funk, listen to The Funk Hours with DJ Funky Phil, Mondays 4-6 p.m.

Phil Yovetich/KSLC 90.3 FM
Phil Yovetich can be reached at kslcmusic@gmail.com.

U.K.-based band Allo Darlin’ released its self-titled debut album in early October on British record label Fortuna Pop. Photo courtesy of www.allodarlin.com.

This week on the review rack we have some great music from across the pond: the self-titled, freshman effort of Allo Darlin’, a U.K.-based band with folk and pop inclinations.
It’s rare to have such a well-polished first effort from a newcomer, and while this isn’t the sort of catchy music you’re likely to hear on top 40 radio (either from the U.S. or the U.K.), none of the songs off “Allo Darlin’” stand out as singles. They are all equally good, and best of all, they’re fun to listen to.
This is an ease-into-fall album: nothing too over the top or experimental, but it’s extraordinarily comforting music.
In listening to an album these days, there’s often a bit of judgment from any newer band — a sort of uppity, in-your-face, we’re-artists-and-so-we-know-what-the-world-is-really-like, angsty, teenage one-upmanship. I suppose it’s the lack of this rebellion in “Allo Darlin’” that partially accounts for why it’s so cheerful.
There’s a childlike innocence captured here in “Allo Darlin’,” and it’s nothing if not charming. Brilliantly optimistic and possessing the fluff and vocabulary of a teenage girl’s diary, Allo Darlin’ reminds us of why we like unpretentious music.
As with anything that’s well-made, it’s incredibly difficult to find a “single” in this album. However, there are a few tracks that stand out above the rest as not necessarily the most refined but certainly as the most interesting: “Kiss Your Lips,” “The Polaroid Song,” “Heartbeat Chilli,” and Allo Darlin’s magnum opus “Let’s Go Swimming” are songs worth giving a first listen to.
My favorite track of this album would certainly have to be “Let’s Go Swimming,” which has a definite, American country twang to it, although overall it sounds like a combination of Midwestern influences and West-coast beach breeziness. It’s a meeting of different genres, there are influences from Belle and Sebastien, the twang of The Cure’s guitars, the vocals of Club 8 and a bit of the trippy soundscapes of Boards of Canada or Great Lake Swimmers. It’s got a bit of every sound tailored into a single track, and it’s a full-bodied showcase of the band’s musical potential.
This being a first album, there are some rough bits that could use some polishing out; the lyrics in most songs on this LP are crammed into the music or are merely overlaid, as if both music and lyrics are unaware of each other. This works, in a way, but the lyrics usually make little sense, anyway, or are downright sinister in some cases. Perhaps it’s best that we don’t notice them, such as with “Heartbeat Chilli”: “It seems silly, but spaghetti has two heartbeats in the recipe/so come over and give your heart to me.” Awkward and slightly creepy.
If there is a second, hopelessly Achaean flaw about Allo Darlin’, it’s Elizabeth Morris’ and Paul Rain’s strange vocal choices, which occasionally backfire with results that will make the more cultured listener’s ears hurt from the funky discord.
This is best illustrated with “Dreaming,” the opening track. Starting mid-range, Morris’ vocals build pleasantly higher with the instrumental backing, and this seems like a good song initially — that is until Paul Rain’s deep, bassy voice awkwardly breaks in, without either singer attempting to harmonize with the other. This track is out of place given the gentle tone of the rest of the album. Abrupt and discombobulated, it is this album’s single greatest disappointment.
Overall, this is a great album, with a few, small weak spots. This is not life-changing music; you aren’t likely to find some poetic wisdom in the lyrics, but it makes the listener happy, and what’s not to like about that?
Tune in to KSLC 90.3 FM to hear Allo Darlin’s debut album.

Eric Tompkins/KSLC 90.3 FM
Eric Tompkins can be reached at ksclmusic@gmail.com.