Not Lame Recordings blogs about The 17th Pygmy

THE 17TH PYGMY
"Ballade Of Tristram's Last Harping"

JANGLE ON!
The closest this psych-pop outfit comes to jangly tracks is “New Generation” and “Let It Shine.” However, the album is a delightful romp from start to finish – taking seasoned listeners on a journey through the past that will remind them of classic Stones and Moody Blues psych-rock. The boy-girl vocals also bring back fond memories of Sweetwater and the Washington Squares. Eric Sorensen

Lunar Hypnosis reviews Paper Wraps Rock

Cult With No Name is a relatively new band formed around 2004 and they come from London in the UK. Their style is self described on their Myspace website as post-punk electronic balladeers. I'll be perfectly honest with you and tell you right from the start that I don't understand the post-punk qualification since they could have also labeled themselves as post-Beatles and I would have never noticed.

Having said that, while they definitely play nothing but ballads, the term 'electronic' makes me wonder as this piece of work is more of a piano based work and it only gets enhanced by electronic keyboard notes and chords. For good or for bad I have got used to associate the term 'modern electronic' to music that has some sort of drum beat which would be more consistent with disco which this album completely lacks.

At any rate, this is an album full of mellow and lush melodies that while never reminding you of pop artists, it also rarely crosses the rock boundary. While I don't want to make an attempt to compare voices, many of the sung structures remind me of a young Elton John when he used to sing against a solo piano. Other times their singing style reminds me of David Bowie in his Hunky Dory or Ziggy Stardust era. Again, only the style, not the actual voice.

Other times the music reminds me of some of the more mellow moments in some of the work of Porcupine Tree without the progressive elements found on the later mentioned outfit. The singing is never loud, but it seems always full of emotion. Rhythms and melodies both border into a simplistic pattern rather than become complicated which makes the music easy to enjoy.

This is a good CD for a sunny afternoon where you want to sit and relax, let the piano melodies carry you through its length and enjoy moments of relative calm without getting too complicated. 7/10

Carlos - Lunar Hypnosis

SUBBA-CULTCHA reviews The 17th Pygmy

The 17th Pygmy

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'Ballade Of Tristram’s Last Harping' Trakwerx

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Forty years on, the sixties are still cool

Take a look at the weather. It’s pissing it down. The wind is howling. the clouds are grey and foreboding. The storm is gathering outside the window and lashing London with icy cold rain and ripping branches from the trees, hurling them across the tracks and delaying the trains. And on the stereo, like a little ray of psychedelic sunshine, comes The 17th Pygmy.

I don’t know if it’s down to the sorry state of things outside or whether this is just a really good album, but in contrast to the stormy clouds ‘Ballade Of Tristram’s Last Harping’ sounds so refreshing and uplifting that it’s hard to tell. Drawing on sixties influences such as the first ministrations of Pink Floyd and The 13th Floor Elevators, the band have created 10 tracks that sound as if they could have been lifted straight from the psychedelic decade and transplanted somewhere in the millennium, stealing vocals from Grace Slick en route. ‘She Get’s High’ is the standout track, the nicely distorted guitar riff and the Velvet Underground-eque vocals combining beautifully.

There are of course down sides to this. The production is too crisp, detracting from their influences and sounding sometimes more like an impression than an original piece. You can’t help but think that had they recorded this upon sixties studio kit with lots of pre-Dolby and digital crackle, the results would have been quite staggering. Also, there is a slight pretentiousness to the lyrics (and to the album title) that can grate from time to time. But overall, this is hugely enjoyable. Come the summer and the heat of the sunshine, it’ll no doubts sound a lot better with a spliff and a cold beer sat in the garden.

By: Steven Fanning

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Do you agree or disagree with what's been said? have your say here:

You agree or disagree with what's been said? have your say here - click here

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If you like the sound of this, then check these out?

13th Floor Elevators
Barrett-era Pink Floyd
Jefferson Airplane

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Links of interest?

www.myspace.com/17pygmies
www.myspace.com/subbacultcharawks

RELIX MAGAZINE reviews The 17th Pygmy!!

THE 17th PYGMY
Ballade Of Tristram's Last Harping • Trakwerx

Their second album within the span of a year, California's The 17th Pygmy, once a side-project for members of Savage Republic, take their psychedelia seriously. Much like Kendra Smith's Opal, Pygmy play hypnotic, unhurried tunes that glaze with chiming guitars and vocals that thrive in a catatonic state. Nothing rushes them. New vocalist Meg Maryatt never oversings. She lets the chips fall where they may. The eight-minute "Beautiful Lie" resembles a walk in the woods where paths meander and occasionally stop you in your tracks with their unexpected pleasures. "Just Like Brian Jones" resembles the blurry cascades of the Stones' own Satanic Majesties pursuit. Backwards effects and other trippy experiments work naturally. Yet, despite its '60s antecedents, the retro vibe is more directly '80s Paisley Underground.
* Rob O'Connor
February/March 2008 issue featuring an interview with The Black Crowes

http://www.relix.com/

Radio Centrum Plays Cult With No Name

Re: Utwory w Centrum w Mroku

Postnapisał kuba dn. Fri Lut 01, 2008 1:21 am

NICK CAVE – where do we go but nowhere?
DEPECHE MODE – home
DEPECHE MODE – useless
SOLAR FAKE – your hell is here
GOLDEN APES – blind-eyed boy
GOLDEN APES – ferryman
GOLDEN APES – the scheme of things
THE CURE – all I want
THE CURE – how beautiful you are
HANNAH FURY – no man alive
HANNAH FURY – girls that glitter love the dark
NICK CAVE – far from me
FRANK THE BAPTIST – if I speak
FRANK THE BAPTIST – call the tune
GOLDEN APES – satin gardens
GOLDEN APES – tempest
THE CURE – one more time
THE CURE – the perfect girl
THE CURE –a thousand hours
CULT WITH NO NAME – that’s the power of tv
CULT WITH NO NAME – girl
SOLAR FAKE – creep (radiohead cover)


http://www.centrum.fm/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=47580

Nosferatu opens Lake County Film Festival

Classic Silent Film Nosferatu Gets New Score from Del Rey & The Sun Kings

WHAT: F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" with Del Rey & The Sun Kings score
opens Fifth Annual Lake County Film Festival
WHEN: February 28, 2008
WHERE: The Libertyville Civic Center, 135 W. Church St., Grayslake, IL
COST: FREE!!

GRAYSLAKE, IL- Del Rey & The Sun Kings, the band led by Jackson Del
Rey, founding member of influential L.A. postpunk bands Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies, have produced a new score for F.W. Murnau's classic 1922
silent vampire film "Nosferatu" The film, with its new score, has been
selected as the premiere screening of the Fifth Annual Lake County
Film Festival.

ABOUT NOSFERATU: Released on DVD on 12/31/07, "Nosferatu" is Del Rey &
The Sun King's second installment in a planned set of four new
soundtracks for classic films made during the silent era of motion
pictures. Their first release was a radically re- worked (and
surprisingly, highly popular) score for Sergei Eisenstein's 1925
classic film "Battleship Potemkin."

F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (subtitled Eine Symphonie des Grauens (A
Symphony of Horror) is the first screen version of Bram Stoker's novel
"Dracula." "Nosferatu" was unofficially adapted from Stoker's novel,
with the names of the characters changed in an effort to disguise the
source. In the case of "Nosferatu," though, the ruse failed, and on
the film's release Bram Stoker's widow sued, seeking the destruction
of all prints. Fortunately, for the sake of posterity as well as
anyone who just enjoys a well-made film, she did not achieve her goal,
and "Nosferatu" survives today as one of the great silent classics.

Due to the popularity of the bloodsucking subject matter, there are
many new scores for "Nosferatu," some vibrant and interesting, others
less so. But for Jackson Del Rey, something seemed to be missing in
all of these soundtracks, because at its core, "Nosferatu" is more a
love story than a horror story. To express this sentiment, Del Rey &
The Sun Kings chose to blend classical instruments with industrial
sounds to help enhance the film's themes of duality (light and
dark/man and woman/man and monster/woman and monster, etc.). And so as
there are indeed many "pretty" passages of music, there is a healthy
amount of dark and edgy material.

"Nosferatu" also pays homage to several of Del Rey's favorite film
composers, most notably Tangerine Dream, Popol Vue, Rachel Portman and
Thomas Newman.

With a number of live performances planned and a built-in audience
composed of (or is that decomposed of?) those who enjoy the
death/glam/Goth lifestyle, not to mention the potential of midnight
performance for actual vampires, Del Rey & The Sun Kings' "Nosferatu"
should have no problem building upon and surpassing the strong
commercial showing of its predecessor "Battleship Potemkin." From
there, it's two down and two to go. Do I hear boxed set potential,
anyone?

Del Rey & The Sun Kings NOSFERATU DVD
Track Listing:
1. Main Title/You Can't Escape
Destiny By Running Away
2. Land Of Phantoms
3. Blood! Your Precious Blood!
4. Coffins…coffins Filled With Earth
5. Carniverous Plant (Nina's Waltz)
6. Captain Of The Black Ship
7. Destiny Redux
8. I Too Have Been Saved
9. A Woman Pure In Heart

For more on Del Rey & The Sun Kings, visit
http://www.myspace.com/thesunkings

For a complete list of films at the Lake County Film Festival,
screening times and locations, visit www.lakecountyfilmfest.com . More
information can also be obtained by calling the Lake County Film
Society at (847) 362-5666.

Jackson Del Rey is available for interviews, and review DVDs of Del
Rey & The Sun Kings' "Nosferatu" are available upon request.
http://www.trakwerx.com/label.htm

Plastelin - Online magazine reviews Paper Wraps Rock

The ocean that is 80s nostalgia means many different things to different people. Some recall a time of leisure, some hedonism, some mistake the turquoise of water for the green of royalties. People are prepared to enter in in many different ways. And those that seem to always succeed are the ones for which appearance conquers everything. Short term and shallow, they are prepared to equip themselves with prejudice, blitz people with as much fluorescent gear as possible, and fleetingly entertain the fans who soon abandon them. Action is equal to reaction, remember. It's simply the laws of karma.

But then there are others, ones who actually find the taste of water interesting. They very cautiously test it over again, sometimes choking, but gradually building up the courage to leap in and swim. Sadly, save for more the careful observers, these people don't usually make a spectacle of getting in and out of the water, and these days it's hard to find a good place to watch, given that the very people you want to see are rarely on the most approachable beaches, but rather in small hiding places. All the more important, then, that such enjoyment can be seen, regardless of whether the water's clear or muddy, the weather stormy or calm.

For me, London duo Cult With No Name (Erik Stein and Jon Boux) is one such phenomenon. Their music is not some passing mantra, but rather a carefully kept secret (straight from clear waters) that should be shared. Poetic, and stacked in multiple layers of keyboards, Cult With No Name see themselves as post-punk, half-drunk, electronic, philharmonic, atmospheric, esoteric, balladeers. Their minimal approach (lead vocals, rhythm piano, lead piano, rhythm vocals) recalls singers who colour their voice with narratives, as if they were actors; Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon, Ninerain), Colin Newman (Wire, Githead), or maybe even Elton John stuck in an elevator with Howard Devoto (Magazine, Luxuria). Such distorted comparisons are rarely seen these days, even within 80s nostalgia. However, CWNN aren't nostalgists, but rather protagonists, satisfied to promote their own intricate sound with honesty in place of sloganeering.

The term 'a grower' is sometimes used by music consumers, and 'Paper Wraps Rock' is just that, a staircase where thrill an enjoyment is heightened with each successive step. With each passing minute, its clarity of concept is more exposed. If you've never been in a bar where a piano paints a background to an atmosphere of smoke, then it's probably time to try this. Their music is a touch too close to extroverted to simply come across as mindless virtuosity, although others will simply choose to daydream. The choice is yours.

A linked recommendation is Erik Stein's (lead vocals, rhythm piano) Cult Of the Week blog, where you might uncover some of the best kept musical secrets of the late 70s and early 80s. I'm guessing that Cult With No Name themselves will one day be the heroes of something similar. Isn't it interesting how some present day cults can paint a more beautiful picture of the world?



Mileta Okiljevic

DJ Ola features The 17th Pygmy on Radio Nowhere

DEAR FANS,

Ola's Kool Kitchen, Show 11 is available on podcast!

or you can check it out old podcasts at

http://www.radionowhere.org/Podcast.htm
and at

iTunes
>http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=
211531875

Featuring,
New Young Pony
Interpol
Dalmatian Rex and The Eigentones
The 17th Pygmy "Dig It (Quentin's Theme")
The Vickers
River Endings
Morning Bride

Come join me in a fabulous musical cocktail in the sun! Spread the word to your friends and fans!

Regards,

DJ Ola

Thank you RADIO NOWHERE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

WPRB Plays "Blackbird"

Not Truth, But Effect
featuring the weekly Warped Moment at 6pm
with KPC


Tuesday, January 29, 2008
17:00 to 19:00
Rock/etc

17 Pygmies' cover version of "Blackbird" from "13 Blackbirds" release (2007) makes the playlist for this cool radio show at Princeton University.



wprb.com

WPRB Plays "New Generation"

Giants Of Jazz
with Daniel DiMaggio


Thursday, January 24, 2008
21:00 to 01:00
Rock/etc



WPRB is a commercial, non-profit radio station located in scenic Princeton, New Jersey. Operated by the students of Princeton University, WPRB offers the widest selection of music on the radio today; from the heart of Classical music composition, through the spectrum and crossroads of Jazz and into the best in Alternative and Indie Rock. We even have the longest running folk show in the state. During the academic year, WPRB also offers live sports broadcasts.

WPRB's broadcast range stretches from the outskirts of New York, NY through Philadelphia, PA and into Wilmington, DE which, combined with 14,000 watts of stereo power, makes us one of the world's strongest college radio stations. This is an advantage not only for our listeners, but also for advertisers who wish to take advantage of both our wide-ranging, eclectic audience and the 15,000 square miles of coverage.

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=12860