A Decade of Calamateur, Part 4: 2004-2005

Part one of this series is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here.

First of all, thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments. Please keep them coming…

Have a listen to this while you read if you like:

(if nothing appears for you to listen to then click here)

(Calamateur – ‘Half Truth’, from The Old Fox of ’45)

2004:

This year started with me making the difficult decision to leave Oldsolar, the band I’d been in for over 6 years.

There were various reasons for my departure; I was now living nearly 200 miles away from the rest of the band (which had grown from having two members to six) and that obviously didn’t help.

I was also frustrated at us having had some interest from record labels over our new material but that this had, once again, amounted to nothing.

I played my last gig with Oldsolar at the 13th Note in Glasgow, one of our favourite haunts. Here are some pictures from that night:

We had just finished recording a second Oldsolar album – ‘In Every Embrace There is Loneliness’ – just before I left the band. It features some of the best music I have ever been involved in making but the album has, unfortunately, never been released.

You can hear tracks from it at the Oldsolar MySpace page.

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In July I put out my debut album, The Old Fox of ’45.

Rather than being a collection of brand new recordings, ‘The Old Fox…’ was a bit of a rag-tag affair.

The album consisted of an Oldsolar track from days gone by, a couple of songs left over from the ‘Autocity’ sessions, two re-worked songs from the Son of Everyone EP, another two songs recorded for an EP that was never released, and only two songs actually recorded specifically for the album itself.

It’s a pretty noisy, eclectic, badly recorded set of songs but, listening to it again this week for the first time in ages, it still has plenty of moments that make me happy.

It received a few good reviews but this one remains my favourite:

“Based in the Scottish countryside, released on the miniscule Autoclave label, Calamateur’s stunning album is a work of beauty that deserves to make Autoclave very rich people indeed.

What took Snow Patrol’s 3 albums and 4 people to accomplish, Calamateur’s Andrew Howie manages straight off with songs of desolate beauty underpinned with a savage hope.

Shivering, yearning epics, as sublime as his Blue Nile cover is it’s not the best song here by any stretch. Buy it. 8/10″ – John Earls, Planet Sound

(note – Planet Sound was Channel 4’s Teletext page for music news, reviews etc. I have been reading it religiously for at least 15 years. The service sadly came to an end only a few  weeks ago. You can read more about it on The Guardian music blog here. But wait till you’ve finished reading this one first 😉 )

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The next release I was involved in was Deep Peace.

Two of my friends had recently become involved with Trident Ploughshares, a campaign to “disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner”.

My friends had been involved in protests outside the gates of Faslane Naval Base and had both been arrested several times as a result.

Too cowardly to be arrested, but still wanting to make some kind of contribution to the cause, I decided to put together a compilation album, with all the profits from its sales going directly to Trident Ploughshares.

All of the bands involved with Autoclave Records generously contributed tracks for free, as well as Aereogramme, Brahm, Frog Pocket, Spare Snare, Lewis Turner, Apologist, alicebelts and tenyards (the last two being pseudonyms for Oldsolar’s Mark Russell).

All the songs are amazing, as is the artwork by Heather Small. You can buy the CD here.

I feel like I did a pretty good job of putting the album together but, looking back, I can see that I let Trident Ploughshares, and the bands involved, down by not making more of an effort to distribute, advertise and ultimately sell the CD – a lesson I’ve hopefully learned.

Here are some of the reviews it got:

“…that rare artefact, a consistently great compilation. And all profits go to Trident Ploughshares. Buy it and feel good about yourself into the bargain.” – Is This Music?

“The Beauly-based Autoclave label specialise in moments of raw beauty. The 14 bands/artists here overlap and merge and create a coherent album of many highlights. Aereogramme’s ‘Fireworks’, Calamateur’s unexpectedly gutsy ‘Deep Peace’, Brahm, Frog Pocket – pretty much every track! A fine compilation.” – Inverness City Advertiser

“…an ace compilation in aid of a good cause.” – Norman Records

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2005:

There was only one Calamateur release this year: Tiny Pushes Vol.2 (All the Wrong Buttons)

I know I’m biased, but I really like this mini-album. Probably more so than any other Calamateur release I’ve written about so far in this series of blogs.

Filled with samples of second-hand records I’d collected from charity shops over the years, and featuring some short acoustic songs interspersed with bursts of experimental noise, there’s just something about it I still connect with.

A couple of the tracks were played on Radio 3’s Late Junction.

Here are some of the reviews it got:

” A free download, they confidently suggest that you feel guilt at their generosity. Certainly, when my pools coupon comes up, I’ll be sending Autoclave a cheque. 4.5/5.” – Is This Music?

“…the songs, however short, pack a real emotional resonance, and their subtle textures remind me of Low and, at times, recent Hood records. It’s an album which is available free to download, and I can’t complain about that value. Not that this is this some kind of quickly knocked-out freebie, it’s cleanly and nicely put together, reflecting – it would seem – a genuine altruism in trying to share some high quality music with whoever wants to hear it.” – Diskant.net

“…the album is full of uplifting beats, textured samples and heartbreaking simplicity. From the vinyl scratch of the Aphex Twin-influenced opener ‘Upper’, to ‘Nectarine Juice’, an acoustic ambient masterpiece, to the truly stunning electro-acoustic ballads ‘Belong’ and ‘Don’t Understand’, this album exudes confidence and quality in equal measure…there’s more ideas in these two albums than Travis or Franz Ferdinand could muster in a year. 8/10.” – whisperinandhollerin.co.uk

You can download Tiny Pushes Vol.2 here.

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In 2004-2005 I also started to spend some time recording other people in my home studio, something I really enjoyed. The music I worked on was:

Peter Noble – The Glee Man or the Saga Maker?

Mark Jones – Selah

Kenny & Cathil – ‘Songs from the Attic’

(note – I’d hoped to have finished this series of posts by the new year but that obviously didn’t happen! I’ll write more soon….thanks for reading.)