Lionel Handy - V2: British Cello Sonatas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Bax / Handy / Hughes - British Cello Sonatas [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/07/2017

Social Crutch' is the debut full-length album of Los Angeles-based post-punk-tinged slow-core trio Gold Cage. Comprised of singer/bassist Mony Katz, singer/guitarist Cole Devine, and drummer Sage Ross, the band combines dreamy guitar loops, delicate, dueling vocals, and slow, driving tempos to create spacious arrangements that shimmer with atmosphere. Warmed with tape saturation, 'Social Crutch' is an exercise in measured minimalism, with every tone carefully sculpted to fill the vast space of each track. Shoegaze, reverb-drenched guitars evoke Galaxie 500, Yo La Tengo, Deerhunter and even Rowland S. Howard. Yet 'Social Crutch' remains very much in the present, thanks in part to the band's ability to marry a range of influences into thoughtfully structured songs. Throughout the album, Katz's and Devine's equally laconic, whispery vocals elevate each song as they drift in and out of each other, sometimes softly colliding in gorgeous harmony. Album opener InchRepeater KemberInch captures the band's ethos with a decaying guitar loop that sustains and repeats for nearly all of the song, save for a heavy climax. The crest fades shortly after it begins, highlighting the band's penchant for subtlety and restraint, even during the album's crescendos. While 'Social Crutch' is full of satisfying slow burns, upbeat moments such as InchHalcionInch and InchShadowsInch showcase Ross' drumming, which provides a sturdy backbone with enough allowance for the catchy guitar 'hooks and vocal melodies' magnetism to shine.

A key figure in the British musical renaissance, Ethel Smyth was critically acclaimed for her music and writing during her lifetime. Smyth's Sonata in C minor for cello and piano was written in 1880. The idiomatic handling of the instruments, the impressive command of form and the fluency of the melodic lines make this early work the equal, at least, of her later chamber pieces. The creative conviction of the composer Elizabeth Maconchy expressed here so eloquently, reflects her clarity of thought and strength of purpose. Her Divertimento for cello and piano was written for cellist William Pleeth and pianist Margaret Good, who gave the first broadcast performance on the BBC in 1943. The compositions of Elisabeth Lutyens are characterized by textural economy and organizational rigor. She wrote her Nine Bagatelles in 1942. The language of the work is indicative of a composer deeply connected to the music of her own era. Although Rebecca Clarke wrote most of her music in the early twentieth century, it was not until the final decades of that century that her stature was secured. Rhapsody for cello and piano is her longest and most intricate score.