Paul Schiernecker

Tag: Davey Hal

  • We love it when our friends become successful.

    On 27 July I was lucky enough to attend the album launch of my good friend Davey Hal. As far as I know, I have never been to an album launch. It couldn’t have been for a kinder and more talented artist.

    I’ve known Davey Hal for a few years. If memory serves me correctly we were introduced when we both on the same bill at a Play By Fear gig at The Alex in Southend. We have had many a cuddle since. Earlier this year, Davey asked if I wanted to review his album prior to the intended release date. Eager to get my hands on the first album from someone I knew had the talent to put an album of brilliant material together, I volunteered. The resulting review seemed to mean a lot to Davey and gave a boost to my stats so we were both happy.

    Due to personal circumstances, Davey delayed the album until recently. The album launch took place at Metal HQ in Chalkwell Park, a venue not known for its ability to be a venue. I once performed at a spoken word event there and felt like I was talking about cunnilingus in someone’s lounge. Not for the first or last time. The album launch was no different. Unless you hit the sweet spot, it was difficult to line up in the space to see his support act Lillith and I was then lucky enough to see percussionist bear Benjy Adams play alongside his friend, while I tried to squeeze further into the room. Davey introduced the launch with Soothe The Grey and closed with Your Stone, both beautifully composed piano pieces that served to remind me why he is so good at what he does. In between he was joined for a full band for version of Nightwalking, Fingertips and Run With Me. I was in love.

    It’s nice to see your friends but it’s even better to see your friends do so well.

    My thanks to Davey Hal for bringing the album to us and for giving those songs the respect they deserved by playing them live. It was a joy to be a part of and something I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

    Materials Logic is available now on iTunes.

  • Davey Hal – Materials Logic

    It would be fair to say that our little seaside town is not short of talent. That’s why I was pleased to see that one of the most prominent voices on the local scene, Davey Hal, was working on his first solo album, and enthralled when he asked me to give Materials Logic an exclusive listen.

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    From the piano run on Soothe The Grey, the opener, you are invited into Hal’s world, a heady mix of late night love stories in a cocktail lounge. The harmonies present are ethereal, almost medieval in tone, grand. It’s strong without ever being overstated. The piano accompanies and underpins lyrics on royalty and death. This is immediately followed by Night Walking, a song with so much jazz club funk to its bassline that it forces a waltz quickstep into your feet as you attempt to move to the beat. It’s here that Hal’s voice is given the chance to sour, on a chorus that has been stuck in my head for at least the last fortnight.  The song that was played on TIME107.5FM last week, finally bridging the gap between those who love Materials Logic and those who are yet to hear it. It has a In The Wee Small Hours.

    White Walls sounds closer to the Davey Hal you might have seen at one of the many performances he blesses upon our town. A simple guitar track, with a strange likeness to something High Flying Birds would produce. It’s a song of attempted escape, an ode to love. The album takes a moment to recover with the instrumental track, Berdou, before Davey can pick up his guitar again and ask you to Run With Me. It’s the first real pop song of the album. It sounds like an instant classic, something beautiful and familiar. There’s a Paul Simon influence in there at times and yet another chorus worthy of being sung back by thousands of voices. Album title track Materials Logic slows matters down considerably, like a villain’s exposition in a performance, Hal’s voice starting out in a low chatter that sounds like it’s creeping before he soars, showcasing his range, crying out for an answer. The key change into the final refrain is particularly chilling.

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    “Head up, left foot against a wall” he begins on Fingertips before listing attributes of a lover in a seaside town. It’s equal parts affectionate and scathing, figuring that the subject is human anyway and does her hair while he’s asleep. Your Stone is close in tone to the title track, again going through the trials of some mystery woman Hal is observing and inspired by. Up Into Her Clouds is a straight-up love song, drawing on weather in the way only an Englishman can in order to explain his amore for anyone. The jaunty piano solo in the middle is reminiscent of something on Rubber Soul before Hal reveals that his admiration proved too much and turns the mood sour in the way love often does.

    Dear Mary creeps in like another performance piece, sung in the early hours and utilising everything Hal has to explain the situation to his Mary to the point of his own frustration. My Senses ambles in after her, the final thoughts of a man who has given everything of his own over eleven tracks and 42 minutes. It is close to Turner’s Submarine EP in production, nothing to overcomplicate and draw from the raw talent that is Davey Hal and the showcase of this that is Materials Logic.

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    Materials Logic by Davey Hal is available on iTunes now.