| CD REVIEW Lone Wolf |
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Band : Lone Wolf Not to be confused with French Metal act Lonewolf (already 5 albums to their name), the Hip Hop artist by the same name, the Dub/ Industrial/ Breakbeat artist by the same name, or the Chicago based Lone Wolf Band which plays a mixture of Americana, Country & Classic Rock, THIS Leeds based Lone Wolf is in essence the alter ego of British singer-songwriter Paul Marshall, whom “in a former life” released at least one completely acoustic solo album (sorry if I ain’t more specific, and by the way, the “lone wolf” thing and the “solo” thing…get the connection?). In early 2008, Marshall started travelling all over the globe, picking up influences wherever he went to play. Along the way, he decided some changes were gonna have to be made, not only with his name, but also with the way he records and performs his music. There was always something in the back of his mind to make his compositions a bit fuller but never dared to express because exactly, the fact of having been a “lone wolf” for so long, see!? Eventually, he spent a couple of months in Sweden where, along with friend Kristofer Jonson, he put down the basic ideas (and quite a bit of the music as well, I gather) of what would become this album onto tape, recording in several locations (setting up gear in small village churches, sneaking into concert halls late at night to use the piano, and other places…including a barn and an old warehouse in the middle of nowhere). In September of last year Marshall took all the recordings back home and together with James Mabbett from the band Duels, started on the final stages of mixing the album. With the album already due out on the Bella Union label, and mixing done, Marshall set about organizing a live band to perform his music (another change from the lone wolf tactics, see?), and with Mabbett already in place, he recruited Jon Foulger (of Napoleon The 3rd) and Lins Wilson (cellist of Grammatica, but playing bass, cello or synth depending on the needs of possibilities to temporarily use other members, like Neil “Wu” Widdop whom played the bass during some April UK shows, James Kenosha, or Laura Groves), and the band actually did its first live appearance at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club on February 9 as supports to Shearwater. Meanwhile, the band put a first song (“Soldiers” on their MySpace page, at the same time announcing the upcoming release of the album’s first single “Keep Your Eyes On The Road”, release to coincide a bunch of UK dates with Wild Beasts during March. During February the band worked on a video for their single. At myspace.com/iamlonewolf you can view that video, as well as a video of an older version of the track (recorded on a bus trip to the 2009 SXSW festival in Austin, TX). When listening to the two tracks on the MySpace page (oh, and the blogs there?…check iamlonewolf.com for more extensive liner notes from the artist), you may find the acoustics of Lone Wolf somewhat difficult to get into, and I asure you that listening to the complete album is even more trying, because there’s a seeming similarity going throughout the album’s songs. However, if you’ll allow yourself to give the album enough sessions in order to analyze all the different details of the music, you’ll find there’s really a nice layered element here. If anything, the music works soothing, and given enough time off this Summer, I can very well see myself giving the album additional listening sessions while sitting on the porch at the end of a hot day (ach, wishful thinking, eh!?). 84/100 Tony. |