reviews for ‘The Caretaker’
In Vinyl Magazine, March 2017
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Album der britischen Sängerin Lianne Hall – „The Caretaker” ist eines der Sommer-Highlights auf Schallplatte!
5* from VINYL FANS
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Un disco precioso. Excelente. Me ha gustado muchísimo el trabajo de Lianne Hall publicado bajo el título “The Caretaker”… diez canciones exquisitas…
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reviews for ‘Brave The Woods’ by Haunted House
“Haunted House’s first release is the single “Lost in a Forest/Shoulders”. “Lost in a Forest” is an underground hit waiting to happen”
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reviews for ‘crossing wires’
Lianne Hall can boast an impressive list of accomplishments: running the Brighton venue West Hill Hall, recording with Paul Hartnoll (of Orbital fame) for his new solo album, plus the recording of a duet with The Cure’s Robert Smith. After listening to this album she can definitely go ahead and proudly add ‘Crossing Wires’ to her list.
What’s more, she had the John Peel seal of approval when he described her as “one of the great English voices”. At the risk of understating all of these achievements, they all add up to make a CV that ain’t too shabby.
Hall’s first album in 4 years combines an interesting balance of accoustica, electronica and even a bit of trombone. If this doesn’t intrigue you then you and I, my friend, are on two very different musical pages.
Continuing her list of accomplishments, Hall can add: knocking folk into the 21st century with a charming effortlessness whilst retaining the integrity of the genre. She has done this almost single-handedly; playing and recording most of ‘Crossing Wires’ herself – she’s even releasing the album on her own label: Malinki Records.
The sincerity in Hall’s lyrics remains constant; this sincerity ties the album together and makes it feel personal. Put across with a voice to rival Joni Mitchell, it’s hard to ignore Hall’s discernible talent.
In case you haven’t picked up on it, I’d like to make this clear: I love it.
By Emily Anderton
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10/10
When the late great John Peel has described someone as “One of the great English Voices” you have to presume it’s something special. Can you imagine the heart & riot grrrl soul of Kimya Dawson with a stunning, heart wrenching singing voice & astonishing originality? Don’t even try. Just click the link at the bottom of this review & buy the record.
I would desperately love to see a list of all the instruments used on this records (the large majority of which were played & recorded by Hall herself. The album title referring to the number of wires used to record it). If it was printed & bound it would be thicker than the phone book. Yet each song has an honesty & beauty that is never over layered or produced.
Each track tells a story & has its own identity & feel, but they are also part of a larger picture, or shoebox of faded old photographs that you pull out from time to time & sit & smile at how everyone used to look. It captures a set of times & places so vividly I feel I could have been there with her.
DIY can be pretty & folk pop can be modern. This record proves this & also what an incredible home grown talent we have hiding in the south.
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RUTH BARNES, THE OTHER WOMAN RADIO
Lianne Hall is someone who I feel immensely embarrassed about. How could I not have come across her before? John Peel was a huge fan and she performed a ton of sessions for his Radio 1 show with Pico. Lianne is one of those artists who makes TOW feel very good about what we do. She should by rights, be huge! But as with all women who make music like Lianne, outside of the manstream, outside of a particular marketing box, they will forever be outsiders. However, with the ground swell of bloggers and websites supporting not only women artists but all the great specialist music makers out there – there is hope! With the demise of any radio (Save 6 Music!) or TV platforms for them we just have to hope for the best. The interent will prevail! Right, rant over. Lianne has a fantastic voice (Brighton’s own Nina Nastasia at times, and described by Peel as ‘one of the great English voices’) and writes frankly awesome tunes. Her new album Crossing Wires is out on Malinki Records soon – BUY IT.
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5/5
I like this record. I think she has a great collection of songs with a voice so strong and true. She recorded/played most of this album herself and has released it on her own label. The name of the album comes from how many wires she had to cross while recording it. Class! The songs are extra brilliant when she sings, I almost hear violins. My favourite songs so far are the second song “Telephone in a Foreign City” which discusses the ethics of squatting, and the hauntingly brilliant “Cry Wolf”. (not an A-Ha cover….) I don’t know what this songs about though as the lyrics are quite oblique. All-in-all an emotional, heartfelt disc that is served up on the thickest whitest(?) vinyl. Shine a light!!!!
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THE BRIGHTON SOURCE
There are many artists ploughing the various folk furrows at the moment, and its definition dilutes with every new emergence. Lianne Hall takes its earthy essence and peppers it with a surprisingly appropriate melange of disparate backings, from crunchy electronica beats and grungy guitars to jazz piano. Her vocal is the consistent standout asset throughout however, once described by the late John Peel as “one of the great English voices”. This is an outstanding piece of work and comes highly recommended.
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reviews for ‘making spaces’
From (sic) magazine
d_r is for death row. Not Doctor Radio, not Democratic Republic of Radio but death row radio. Great station this, a notch above Chris Evans. This time the d_rradio boys are joined by the sassy, Brighton based folk singer, Lianne Hall. Personally I thought it was a great idea of the IDM duo to augment their sound with vocals. Not only vocals but a singer of great repute. Hall is something of a festival legend and her voice is pretty special. I’d pitch her somewhere between Hope Sandoval’s siren drawl and Anna-Lynne Williams etherworldly embrace. I feel clumsy doing so because Lianne Hall really is exceptional. “One of the great English voices” according to Peel and the man had it spot on again. Such a wonderful way with vowel sounds, Hall deserves special mention in her own right.
So to the album and before we discuss how the marriage of vocals and music might go it’s first worth noting that the whole matter depends on which d_rradio shows up. I called them IDM but the last album Leaves was such a serene exercise in ambience it makes John Cage seem noisy by comparison. Before that, they’d been beat-crazed remix kings. The contrast could not be more striking. Making Spaces instead is a kind of jazz-infused trip hop. Trip Jazz then. Whatever. It’s also very good.
Baring in mind d_rradio’s previous release was a two-hour, two disc marathon, Making Spaces is refreshingly punctual at 30 minutes with plenty of variety on display. ‘Full On’ is an acoustic busk, ‘Under Water’ is a jaunty stylistic hybrid, while the likes of ‘Stormy Weather’ and ‘Berlin Winter’ accentuate the jazz aspect. Special mention has to go to the impishly delicious ‘Up’. ‘Up’ has Peggy Lee guesting on a Boards Of Canada track, remixed by Lemon Jelly. …or something. I need more coffee. Scratch that, I just need to play ‘Up’ again.
More please.
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From Norman Records:
Newcastle IDM/post rockers D_rradio team up with folkster Lianne Hall for a collaboration album which had me concerned that it was going to be more skittery electronica meets folk a la Tunng which on the evidence of the first track thankfully it isn’t. The band create circular melodies with loops, strings and what appears to be backwards clarinets while Hall wraps her strong voice around it all creating a lovely aural stew. The second track is more straight. Simple acoustic guitars and jumpy rhythms form the basic track but Hall’s voice is a little composed for this type of material. Better is ‘Stormy Weather’ which almost comes across as folktronica’s answer to Donna Summers’ ‘Love to Love you Baby’. Thankfully Hall doesn’t over folk the melodies and acts more of a soul diva than anything which works brilliantly on this track as the rhythms build up over the keening vocals. The album has moments of downbeat introspection but overall the album works better when both band and singer take chances with the material and move outside their chosen oeuvre. A success I reckon! Clinton.
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From Boomkat:
Helpfully, this album’s press release begins with a guide to pronouncing d_rradio’s name – a topic i’ve often ruminated upon over the years (no, really). Apparently it’s “D.R. Radio” which itself opens up a whole new avenue of confusion. I for one lose count of how many times I’ve read “D. R. Congo” as Doctor Congo, failing to identify the Democratic Republic part. Incidentally, if there isn’t already a band out there called Doctor Congo, I urge you all to go out and put that right. I digress. Making Spaces is a collaborative outing between Newcastle’-based electronica stars d_rradio (famed for their output on Static Caravan) and Brighton singer-songwriter Lianne Hall, a veteran of several Peel Sessions and a guest star/co-writer on Paul ‘Orbital’ Hartnoll’s Ideal Condition album. One of the first things to strike you about this new project is the ease with which the two separate parties come together for a general cause. It would be all too easy for Doctor Radio (oh whatever) to immerse Hall’s songs in a bath of electronics, programming and effects, and yet this is a beautiful balanced production, offering a very full and effective backdrop to Hall’s folkish, string-adorned musings. Shuffling, trip-hop style beats and glistening post-rock elements float elegantly across ‘Under Water’, while the jazzy 4/4 of ‘Stormy Weather’ has a Matthew Herbert-like quality to it. There’s much to enjoy and admire here, and the tone of Making Spaces is very much that of a unified whole. This album is a first outing for d_rradio’s new Sentence Records, and a very fine debut it is too.
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From Textura:
Had one only been exposed to Leaves, the double-CD set d_rradio (pronounced ‘D. R. Radio’ and short for ‘deathrowradio’) released on Symbolic Interaction last year, one reasonably might have expected the Newcastle trio’s follow-up, Making Spaces, to be somewhat similar—that is, an immersive plunge into long-form, instrumental soundscaping of ambient design. Well, said expectations are dashed by the new release because the material is worlds removed on many counts from that earlier opus. First of all, Making Spaces is the first release on d_rradio’s own newly established Sentence Records imprint; secondly, it’s an EP-long half-hour in length; thirdly, it’s a collaboration with Brighton singer-songwriter and vocalist Lianne Hall; and finally there’s precious little in the way of soundscaping but a whole lot of song-oriented material of wide-ranging stylistic character, and there’s even beats. The project came into serendipitous being when the group —Michael Todd, Chris Tate, and Paul Patterson—and Hall met by chance at Amsterdam’s Paradiso club and the idea of working together took hold.
Her vocals account for a major part of the recording’s appeal. Pitched somewhere between Susanna Wallumrød and Edie Brickell, Hall’s voice is a remarkably expressive and emotive instrument, whether it’s waxing rapturously in “The Moral at the End” and “Up” or fragile and delicate when floating o’ertop a stuttering hip-hop base during “Under Water.” d_rradio is no slouch in the arrangement category either, with the songs boldly sewn together from a richly atmospheric blend of guitars, strings, piano, bass, and drums. Driven by a funky acoustic bass figure and swinging 4/4 pulse, “Stormy Weather” pushes the collaborators into trip-hop territory, while “Full On” strips things down to acoustic folk song form. In fact, virtually every song finds them tackling a different style—compare the dramatic torch song “Dressing Up,” with Hall’s velvety voice accompanied by an orchestral backing, to the wistful, REM-like folk song “Spring” as an example of the kind of contrast that extends throughout the set. If I’m still a tad confused about exactly who and what d_rradio is after hearing its two most recent releases, I’m nevertheless enjoying both, despite their diametric differences.
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From Buzzin Music:
Terry Lane.From The Crack:
The always inventive Newcastle outfit d_rradio hit with another fabulous album and this time they’ve added vocals to the mix by roping in Brighton singer/songwriter Lianne Hall who lends an unflashy but supremely bewitching air to proceedings. d_rradio have previously dipped their toes into everything from flinty pop to monumental drones, but this shuffling, occasionally jazz flecked suite of songs is their take on modern folk. A resounding success. DP.
From Unpeeled:
RELEASED? Out now.
SOUNDS LIKE? Fractured melodies, dusty jazz, evocative strings, chiming guitars and folk sensibilities combined to create an otherworldly landscape that gives Lianne Halls fragile voice plenty of room to breathe and explore.
IS IT ANY GOOD? D_Rradio have been creating their own brand of electro/acoustic soundscapes since their debut in 2003, infusing many different influences to create a unique sound that pulls you down to a world hiding familiarity in a labyrinth that is very much their own design. Add “one of the great English voices”(John Peel) in the shape of Lianne Hall to populate this ethereal world and you have one of the most captivating and individual releases your likely to hear this year.
WHERE IS IT? http://sentencerecords.bigcartel.com/From Bearded magazine:
On this debut release for their own Sentence Records label, d_rradio return with a brand new album which broadens the band’s sonic horizons. Making Spaces is a marked departure from their terrific u_nderscore full-length – issued on the excellent Static Caravan label – and finds them recruiting singer-songwriter Lianne Hall for an arresting collaboration.
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Lianne Hall 