Richard Murray - 'Fire Sale' Album Review

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Richard Murray - 'Fire Sale' Album Review

With lush, full arrangements, creative use of instrumentation and authoritative vocal performances, Richard Murray’s newest album, ‘Fire Sale’ might just be his most impactful to date since his debut in 2007.

Richard Murray is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter who specialises in expanding the pre-conceived ideas people have about country music. Richard pushes the country and western envelope by introducing alternative instruments, song writing approaches and mindsets. This record showcases all of these abilities to a tee and has really coloured-in Jeeni’s country channel.

A favourite of mine on this record is the fourth track, ‘Devils 2’. This a more contemplative and gentler moment in the album where Richard is putting his charismatic and gravelly voice to good use as he communicates an intense emotional yearning. Richard uses bongos as a part of the minimal, yet compelling percussion section along with a steady kick drum. The guitar parts here twinkle and shimmer alongside Richard’s crooning vocals as the two sections enhance each other.

‘Hard Love’, while still acoustic, really harnesses a moody rock ballad tone with a forceful beat, and almost mumbling vocals from Richard. An impressive direction to take; ‘Hard Love’ does a great job in creating a deeper and richer overall flavour to ‘Fire Sale’.

Towards the end of the album, Richard slightly showcases his Celtic heritage with ‘Sea Glass’. A fiddle doubles a jaunty guitar part in between the verses which creates a warm image of a rowdy and patriotic gathering. This track provides a last push in energy for this perfect campfire album, as its last moments wind the project down in an introspective and reflective fashion.

The last track on ‘Fire Sale’, 'You Get Wise' acts as a sort of summary and reflection on the stellar tracks that have come before it. A Jeeni and Bandcamp exclusive, the closing track holds some of Richard’s most thoughtful and tender songwriting and performances, making it a perfect choice to sum up this exciting and heart-warming album.

‘Fire Sale’ is a sentimentally tender project. At times, Richard is longing for home, where other times, he’s just walked through the door and celebrations have begun. The album has a real range in emotions, moods and sentiments and is a must listen for all country fans.

How can Jeeni support artists like Richard Murray

JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.

• We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.
• We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.
• We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.
• Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team.

Check out Richard’s Jeeni showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/richardmurraymusic/

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12
Mar

An Emerging Poetry Renaissance

The last couple of years has seen a rise in artists publishing poetry collections. In 2018, two years after his death, 'The Flame' was published. A collection of the unpublished work of Leonard Cohen, became the 13th book of poetry for the Canadian poet and musician. Was this the point an emerging poetry renaissance took hold, or has it always been there and we were just waiting for the mainstream to catch up? At Jeeni, we welcome it. Leonard Cohen poses for a portrait in April 1972 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns) Over the years we've grown up with the talents of Patti Smith, who celebrated 50 years of performance poetry this year. Smith marked the occasion with a spectacular take over of Piccadilly Circus, London for New Year's Eve 2020. We sympathised with the turmoil in PJ Harvey's tortured lyrics and Tom Waits' social commentry, but there are more varied artists now dipping their inked quills into the genre. Black literature and music are blessed with plenty of talented wordsmiths, including Linton Kwesi-Johnson, Gil Scott Heron, Maya Angelou, Tupac, and Robert Hayden. Plus, the next generation of artists who include, Vanessa Kinsuule, Malika Booker, Raymond Antrobus and the moving performance at President Biden's inauguration of the American National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman. Her performance, many claimed was the highlight of the ceremony. Amanda Gorman - American National Youth Poet Laureate There has always been verse and when music was added, the verses became songs. The emerging poetry renaissance seems to be more about an artists collective work being published as a complete and independent body of work. Individually dropping poems onto an EP or a social media post is a starting point for many and Jeeni is pleased the Poetry section of their platform is being used by many to showcase their work. Uploaded personal performances allow them to earn and reach out to an engaged audience and fanbase. The words 'cathartic', 'soul-searching', 'lost love', 'healing', 'political', 'social voice', 'mental turmoil' have been used many times to decipher the minds and thoughts of poets. Throw in a global pandemic, coupled with international lockdowns and the perfect storm is created, enticing many to put pen to paper. Facebook and social media pages have members flocking to groups such as Poetry UK, Just Poetry and Arts Group and Spoken Word Artists. Meanwhile, sites such as the Poetry Foundation offer a platform of varied works, themes and history. The best works of 2020 included, Lana Del Ray with 'Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass', which she also released as spoken word. Halsey released 'I would Leave if I Could', a body of work dealing with love, longing and the nuances of bipolar disorder. Courtenay Marie Andrews - Photo Jordi Vidal/Redferns For 2021, we are looking forward to the release from, Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan - 'Leaving California', a collection of 76 poems following on from his well received grunge memoir of last year and Courtney Marie Andrew's collection entitled 'Old Monarch', to be released in May. The Alt-Country singer has created a collection in three parts and draws on the themes of childhood, family, leaving home, falling in love and becoming an adult. www.jeeni.com

06
Jun

Mel Croucher - Multimedia Entertainment - Ahead of his Time.

Today, Jeeni has returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “I admit we're ahead of our original schedule, but there's still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases. Then we can hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” If you want to see our pitch click HERE. Mel has been writing the best-loved column in top-selling tech magazines for over 30 years. Now he's agreed to share his work with all our members. He's a video games pioneer and musician, and to to find out more about Mel check out his Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Croucher. Here's one of Mel's latest! I produced my first multi-media entertainment at the age of eight. It was a birthday gift for my mum. I called it Smellyvision. TV sets had begun to appear in the cleaner homes down my street, but my family was still years away from owning one of those magic boxes with their nine-inch screens. So I made my own. I took a cardboard box and cut a porthole in it, and used my mum's crank-handle mangle to scroll up the storyline that I drew on the reverse of a yard of wallpaper. The soundtrack lasted just under three minutes, which determined the length of my entertainment. It was a recording by the singing cowboy Roy Rogers, played on a shellac disc that spun at 78 revolutions a minute, also driven by a manual crank. But the best bits of my Smellyvision show were the different pongs that accompanied each segment of the story. I can still feel the sting of my mum's flattened hand because I had used her special perfume to enhance the production. The scent was called Evening In Paris, and had been maturing in a little blue bottle too precious to use since the 1930s. I sourced the smell of horses after the coalman's wagon had passed by, and that didn't go down well with my mum either. But how can you have a multimedia show about cowgirls and cowboys without perfume and horseshit? Capcom had exactly the same idea for their videogame Resident Evil 7, and I was not in the least surprised to discover that it too was horseshit. It was marketed as a "4D candle smelling of old timber and blood", with the brand name Blood, Sweat And Fears, and a burning time of 18 hours. The idea was to fire up the stinking candle to enhance gameplay, having handed over fifteen dollars for the privilege. As I have already said, it was crap, unless of course you managed to knock over the candle during your gaming frenzy, and emulate the zombies in the game by setting fire to your face. It wasn’t the first time that Resident Evil had been used to extort money for idiotic multimedia ideas. Back in 2005, there was a crummy accessory for the Nintendo Game Cube device called the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller. It was nothing more than a standard Game Cube handset with a vibrator unit and a "realistic chainsaw roar", that sounded like a wasp trapped in a jam jar. But gamers seemed to be willing to lay out fifty dollars for the privilege of acting like dorks, so what do I know. In fact Nintendo are serial abusers when it comes to dopey add-ons. Who can forget their Super Scope wireless light gun? Well, just about everybody, it turns out. It was a truly dreadful lump of overpriced plastic that only worked with a handful of games, and devoured AA batteries at the rate of six every four hours. And how about the Nintendo Power Pad which cost anything up to two hundred bucks way back in the 1980s. This was nothing more than a little shiny mat with a dozen or so pressure sensors in it. The idea was to jump around its red and blue squishy bits in order to trigger actions during video gameplay, and break your ankles in doing so. That's why most players resorted to cheating, by going down on all fours and using their fists to bash it into submission, My favourite Nintendo multimedia device is the DK Bongo. It's a totally stupid pair of miniature bongo drums, which suits me just fine. There's a built-in microphone to monitor my bongo-playing skills, and help track my progress as I play along to some of the worst music tracks in recorded history. To be honest, it works just as well if I clap my hands or produce fart noises, but sometimes honesty is not the best policy. After years of misuse, my DK Bongo still works fine and gives me innocent pleasure. Which brings me back to Resident Evil. Since its launch, the Resident Evil series has generated just over one billion dollars, making it the most profitable videogame spin-off in history. The only reward I ever got for my Smellyvision efforts was a sore arse. But I have never claimed to be a profiteer in these matters, only that when it comes to multi-media innovation I have always been way ahead of my time. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

16
Feb

Big Frank & MazeyJune - ‘Sun Outside’ Single Review

This chilled out hip-hop callback from Big Frank beckons the summer with the help of MazeyJune’s soulful voice. London based chillhop producer, Big Frank releases his first single since his brilliant ‘Phases of Nature’ album from 2017. Another new Jeeni artist, Big Frank’s resurgence on the scene is certainly one to watch and Jeeni can’t wait to build up our soul, hip-hop and RnB channels with his upcomming tracks. His 2017 album fully showcased Frank’s understanding, appreciation and prowess in instrumental hip-hop. Although some of the best producers often release unaccompanied beat tapes and projects such as Madlib and the late J Dilla, it seems now that Big Frank is looking to collaborate, beginning with the up-and-coming MazeyJune. ‘Sun Outside’ sees Frank with his staple effortlessly serene and well-rounded beats accompanying MazeyJune’s free-flowing, enchanting melodies. Frank does well to leave plenty of room for Mazey to shine with scaling vocalisations and expressive passages of lyrics. The steady strums of a nylon-stringed guitar bounce around and reverberate across all other parts of the instrumental and it creates an almost eerily large space in which the single sits. This, along with nearly unplaceable background notes and drones provide a strong sense of atmosphere for this short, yet promising single. MazeyJune’s voice is fluid, dark and velvety smooth. Occasionally, her soulful and wavering vocal tone is reminiscent of Celeste and other times, she steps low and deep like the legendary Nina Simone; an adaptable and impressive voice from MazeyJune. Considering how well ‘Sun Outside’ turned out, let’s hope that this single means that more is coming from both Big Frank and MazeyJune. Check out the brand-new single here: https://jeeni.com/sun-outside-mazeyjune-and-big-frank/ And check out Big Frank's showcase on Jeeni here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/bigfrank/ How can Jeeni support artists like Big Frank? JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience. album review album review album review • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make. • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way. • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect. • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team.

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