Music / Albums
New solo album & launch gig from Paul Bradley
Bristol musician Paul Bradley releases a new album after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The album, Banish Cherish, will be officially launched with a hometown gig at Arnos Vale Anglican Chapel on April 18.
Bradley, three-octave singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, veteran improvisor, maverick bandleader and influencer of Radiohead, is to put out a beguiling and compelling first album of original songs under his own name on April 13.
His influences range from musical giants ranging from Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Robyn Wyatt, Nick Drake and John Martyn, to Rufus Wainwright, Bryan Wilson and Tim and Jeff Buckley. This much anticipated record was made finally in just five days, much of it improvised or extemporised, in keeping with Bradley’s style.
is needed now More than ever
Proudly over-21, Bradley – not to be confused with the actor who played Nigel in Eastenders and with whom he shares a name – and his musical essays reach back to the punk era of Belfast in the late ’70s. His then band’s only single was a favourite of a certain John Ravenscroft – a supporter of the efforts of Bradley’s later groups, including ME and Organelles (the former cited by Radiohead as a key musical influence).
Currently occupying one apex of the acoustic instrumental trio Three Cane Whale, Paul maintains his vocation in hewing-out entirely improvised solo shows – words and music – together with high-end collaborations in dance theatre via Scottish Dance Theatre’s/Fleur Darkin’s Innocence, an immersive piece for young children based on the life and work of William Blake, with live music composed and performed by Bradley.
The new record swerves from the unadorned folk soul of voice and acoustic guitar on songs like the opener All Generalisers and the pastoral The Last Sunny Day, to semi-abstract electric guitar/ambient vocal expeditions such as O Delia and Down in the Sky. Elsewhere there are “live” a cappella loop-based vignettes – Little Genociders, Too Superstitious; piano-led imaginary testimonies – One of My Favourite Weathers and Mammals, Habits, Us; as well as full “band” pop songs such as the soaring/elegiac The Overreachers.
With fourteen often short pieces, Banish Cherish comes in at a rigorous 36 minutes, partly in honour of vinyl LP lengths, but also rightly keen not to outstay its welcome.
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