Continued from Page 17
NOCTORUM Offer the Light
LP Reissue ( Schoolkids )
As the brainchild of producer / keyboardist Dare Mason and guitarist / singer Marty Willson-Piper , Noctorum has always exceeded its classification as anybody ’ s side project . It has been a decade since Willson-Piper severed longstanding ties with Australian psych-pop masters The Church . Noctorum ’ s four albums since then have merited interest as a worthy primary project . Originally issued in 2006 , sophomore album Offer the Light was the album that suggested the project ’ s staying power and identity with its stylish fusion of rock , electro , and Eurocentric pop . Schoolkids now presents the album ’ s debut LP release on orange vinyl . “ Alain Delon ” is smooth and sleek , with hints of Roxy Music , Burt Bacharach , Edwyn Collins , and the intrigue of classic French filmmaking . The urgent strummer “ Let
22 illinoisentertainer . com september 2023
Me Tell You a Secret ” trots the globe and runs through a list of top brands as it faces down the pervasive threat of information overload . Mason ’ s pulsing and brooding synthesizers drive the cinematic electropop of “ Lover ’ s Head ” while Willson- Piper narrates an Old Testament-era scene of a stoic King who throws an epic celebration for his beautiful queen . Can you guess the shocking twist ? “ Stop Cryin ’ Your Eyes Out ” changes the tone radically with a slice of charming and chiming Rickenbacker jangle-pop , delivering a companion song to the Kinks ’ “ Stop Your Sobbing .” The gentle “ The Muse ” is Willson-Piper ’ s romantic ode to woo his ethereal and sometimes mercurial guiding light of creativity . “ If I imagine you into reality , can we dance like man and wife ?,” he sings . With sublime electric arpeggios and burbling bass , “ The Striker ” relates the drama of victory and defeat on the football pitch . “ Surrounded ” is a slashing heavy rocker full of anger and recrimination over a rusting relationship . The grim “ Already Dead ” paints the unsettling portrait of a condemned prisoner who knows he ’ s beyond hope and deserves none . The album concludes with the shimmering “ Hopes and Fears ,” finding a couple brimming with the potential borne of young love . The pair resolve to face hopes and fears together during wartime among the factories of northern England .
Offer the Light remains fresh and inviting . This lovingly-mastered LP reissue renews hope for a fifth album to follow 2019 ’ s The Afterlife . schoolkidsrecords . com
– Jeff Elbel
8
JULIANA HATFIELD
continued from page 20
able answers or insights during the 24-hour process , truth be told . It ’ s like a big buy-myproduct conveyor belt . JH : It ’ s just the way it is . Capitalism is just so … so … Capitalism and consumerism have just taken over the culture , and it ’ s sad , really . And everyone ’ s subjected to it . It has a lot to do with just a whole new world since the internet was invented . And the internet just brings more and more conformity , I think – it opens up the world to people , but it also shows you how conformist a lot of people really are . And ( movie-wise ), people pile on to whatever costs the most money to make , so publicity is all the same thing , and who cares what it makes at the box office ? The problem is how much money anything makes or how many clicks it generates – that ’ s the news story , isn ’ t it ? It ’ s like high school blown up into this whole thing , like The Most Popular Kid , who gets the most attention . Just because they ’ re popular . And stories in the New York Times or by some ‘ Influencer ’ will tell you that this is a significant story because of the numbers , viewers , or subscribers that this thing has . But that ’ s not a story . Popularity , as a concept , is not a story . And social media ? It ’ s a sewer . That ’ s not real life . An army of people behind you on social media is not actually life . It ’ s not actually doing anything . There are certain things I watch on television , and I think , “ Why do I like this ?” But I ’ ll watch it anyway because I ’ m fascinated with certain things .
IE : But on the upside of things ? You made an entire ELO tribute album , and I am the biggest ELO geek on the planet . Out of the Blue was the first album I ever reviewed for my college paper back in ’ 77 , and I finally got to tell Jeff Lynne that in an interview a few years back . JH : I think it ’ s great that ELO kick-started your career . But I have never met Jeff Lynne , and I have no knowledge of anyone sending him my record yet .
IE : But as a fellow ELO nerd , you have to agree – the hidden classic is “ Time .” You even cover some of its songs . JH : Oh , yeah ! That ’ s a great one !
IE : So what made you record this album , uhh , out of the blue ? JH : Well , that ’ s a hard question to answer every time anyone asks me because I always work by intuition . I wanted to put out another covers album , and I was really thinking about REM , and then I started thinking about them , and they ’ re kind of so vast that I stopped listening to them at a certain point because I just couldn ’ t keep up . And then I realized that if I ’ m gonna do a REM covers album , I ’ m gonna have to listen to at least six albums that I don ’ t know , and it ’ s gonna have to be a double album , to be fair . And then it became just too daunting to me , so then I was like , “ Okay , then ELO ’ and I dunno , it just popped into my head , and I don ’ t know why so I couldn ’ t tel you why . It was like I just needed it , and then I started doing it before I had really thought about it . But then , as I got into it , I realized that the production would be a part of it , and I can ’ t replicate that , nor would I want to , and I was like , ‘ Oh , shit ! What am I gonna do with all those strings ? I can ’ t afford to hire an orchestra or book a huge studio , and I can ’ t tour behind that and leave out all these parts these ELO fans are gonna miss . So I thought , ‘ Okay I ’ ll sing some of those , play some on guitar and maybe some on keyboards as I try to figure out what to do with each song .’ But the socalled ‘ mellotron flute ’ sound that I love so much and I put on everything is not an actua mellotron – it ’ s a mellotron sound that ’ s on this modern keyboard because an actual mellotron is actually fussy and they ’ re old , so when I was making this album , I didn ’ t have access to a studio , so I did it all in my bedroom Or at least all of my parts , and then the bass and drums were recorded in a rehearsal space while I was there rehearsing the parts .
IE : How did you go about picking the songs ? Lynne ’ s catalog is so huge and varied . JH : I knew all the hits from the ‘ 70s , but I wasn ’ t a complete album listener until I started working on this record . Then I started listening to more of the deep cuts , so I have to admit that I wasn ’ t familiar with every song on every album , so then I started discovering later stuff which was great , and early , early stuff . Like , I had never heard the first ELO album before and so I was listening to everything and picking out things that I liked , and things I was relating to , things that I thought I could sing and play . And certain songs I was contemplating like “ Turn to Stone ,” I quickly realized I just couldn ’ t do it . And I was contemplating “ Mr Blue Sky ,” and then Weezer came out with their covers , and they covered “ Mr . Blue Sky ,” and I knew I couldn ’ t cover it so soon after they did it , even though I think I would have done a more interesting version , because their version was so faithful to the original they almost copied it . And then there were a couple I wanted to do that just were not working , like “ Do Ya .” I started recording that , actually , but then when I was working on it , I decided that I just didn ’ t have the right vibe and energy for it because it ’ s a groove and a vibe , and I couldn ’ t deliver that .
IE : And you chose “ Telephone Line .” And just the way Jeff Lynne thinks on that song is so meticulous , with the opening vocals approximating a phone conversation .