Paul Schiernecker

Tag: Southend

  • Carousel EP – a review.

    From the opening strains of Show, it is clear that Southend-on-Sea’s very own Carousel have a goal in mind, and that’s to lift you up. There is nothing to stop the smiles spreading as their sublime vocal melodies explode and their joyous mix of folk and blues push on like clockwork. Their take on Americana is infectious.
    Carousel are Thomas Eatherton, Chris Hobart, Sarah Holburn and Toby Shaer

    It takes a lot to stand out in this age of music being available everywhere and nobody giving a shit about artists who are actually doing something, playing instruments, trying hard. It’s not particularly “in vogue” to be in a band. There are plenty of bands doing it, especially locally, so when you hear something that actually makes you feel feelings, makes you feel like you might be an actual human being, why not go for it.

    You may be familiar with Dead Horse, which has been doing the rounds on Facebook ahead of the EP launch. It sounds like a road trip soundtrack song. It drives itself and you should too. Again, the vocal melodies rise up during the chorus which features painfully relatable lyrics.


    Porcelain, the middle child of the Carousel EP family, is the slow, considered ballad  in the midst of the thriving city soundtrack. Like the title’s subject matter, it’s beautiful and fragile. Sarah takes the lead on vocals to devastating effect. I’m not crying, there’s just something in my eye. It’s followed up by Throw Me To The Wolves, the polar opposite. Packed with distorted guitar and a layer of scuzz to the vocals, it’s a stand out track for me. It’s all well and good to be able to craft something melodic and sublime, but to show you can still have an edge is an exciting prospect. It’s Carousel Go Electric.

    Comfortable Skin closes the EP like it is wishing you goodnight, Thomas’s lyrics about staying true to oneself matched in tone with backing melodies to make your hair stand on end.
    If you’re looking for range and you’re looking for treatment, then you’ll want to get in with Carousel.

    Carousel EP is out on 22/09/2017.
    You can find out more here.

  • 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.