Louise Mary Martin and Christian Moss Excite and Engage at No.15
Charles Paxton February 24th, 2008
Wow! Rob Heron’s done it again. We have another main act double-bill at Penrith’s No.15 and again it is a very nicely balanced offering. First, it was Ulverston’s slinky and soulful Louise Mary Martin with backing from Barrow’s Jay Rollins and then some gutsy but melodic acoustic power performance from Christian Moss to follow. February 15 marked a double debut for both acts at Penrith’s hip music cafe. The candle-lit tables were filled, the atmosphere charged with expectation as Louise and Jay took their places under the bright lights. Louise describes her set as eclectic and engaging. “As a performer”, she says ” you want to drag people into your own little world. It pays off to really listen; there’s so much to hear and so much to feel”. In terms of style she talks of her music as a mixture of styles influenced by soul, Jazz, and R&B. She’s sweet-voiced, sometimes edgy with a great range, tuneful throughout, and holds her long notes very well. Amongst her influences she lists PJ Harvey and Erykah Badu, expounding further, along with R&B she says “our influences go into ambient, electronic, experimental, indie, rock, metal, shoegaze, trip-hop” and her lyrical composition is influenced by literature and poets such as Carol Ann Duffy, who Louise says “writes about love in an incredibly fresh sort of way”, as does Louise herself. If good songs are fine poetry set to music then Louise and Jay’s songs qualify. The self-taught Louise has been singing live from age 5, at school, in talent contests and so forth and it’s clear that she loves it. She and Jay started playing together two years ago and they’ve been writing their own music since they met. They’ve played around Barrow and Ulverston and now are testing the water further afield. This show is exemplary of the duo’s plan to play to a lot more people this year. They are spreading their wings and ready to soar.A five star song! I love the bouncy calypso beat and uplifting, lilting vocals in ‘Mask’. This band’s got hit potential. Can you feel some Spanish influence in Louise’s sweet and soaring vocals? They contrast well with Jay’s Staccato guitar in ‘Reeling’. Louise spent a year in Spain before hooking up with Jay. Louise and Jay opened with ‘Control’, a superb song that is very representative of their innovative and soulful R&B. How is she going down with her public? Her eyes shine as she describes some of the positive feedback that she’s had about her live show, “I get a lot of compliments on my voice particularly”. When I put it to her that their act looks pretty well-polished she smiles and says “We’ve worked very hard and it’s there. Now we are just about where we want to be, performance-wise.” Louise has a lot of style, she sometimes swings and sways seductively as she sings, using her upper body and arms naturally as the music moves her, Jay giving her sound backing on guitar and sometimes with confident and competent vocal percussion. Tonight they used the loop machine for one song for the first time in public and perhaps that was the only element that could have done with a bit more familiarity. I still enjoyed that song a lot and I expect it will emerge as one of their most popular numbers, it elicited enthusiastic applause.
Eclectic their set was, and the variety was refreshing, their fifteen songs included: “Control”, “Onestar”, “The Sanctuary”, “Lonely Man”, “Yoga” (a Bjork cover), “Deeper”, “Shapes”, “Your Music”, “Revelation”, “Mask”, “Pic Doves”, “Favourite Drug”, “Rewind”, “Beauty” and “Reeling” (one of Louise’s favourites). I particularly liked “Control”, “Mask”, “Favourite Drug” and “Reeling”. I loved the bouncy calypso beat and sweet lilting vocals in ‘Mask’. The resounding applause was well deserved.
For More on Louise Mary Martin see her Myspace
Then for quite a change in tone and mood, Christian Moss took the stage. With a five track CD titled Miscast Rhinos to his name, I expected something quirky and feisty from this alternative rock-hard singer songwriter — and that’s what we got. A super set of original no-nonsense acoustic songs that varied greatly in terms of theme but cohered in their honest derivation from Christian’s personal experiences. Before stepping under the spotlights Christian shared half an hour with me in an interview that was as relaxed and affable as the man himself. His family background is musical, his aunt’s an opera singer and while his mum favours classical music and his dad likes old school rock and roll, he is a fusion of them both. He started playing music 12 years ago in Manchester and the past nine years he was in Newcastle, which has a very active music scene. He studied Zoology there and hooked up with an alternative rock band “Columbus Dixon”. He likes to listen to a lot of rock music: ACDC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath for instances, he also likes Bluegrass. Christian’s tastes are “open to most genres” and so his influences are broad. He writes at home, all his own material as well as stuff for Columbus Dixon. Since moving to Penrith he’s been working for Cumbria County Council in their transport section and is now becoming musically active here. He’s played at Penrith’s Plug and Play and intends to do more gigging as he has amassed a good repertoire.
Christian Moss’s playlist this evening included: “Brick Wall”, “Scrape Escapes”, “Headwound”, “Control”, “The Odds”, “Sideline/Temp God”, “No Connection”, “Killing My Time”, “No Pianos”, “The Flies”, “Celebritedium”, “Lungful” and “I Need”. Commenting on two of his songs he said Celebritedium is about celebrity fatigue, it’s unscathing, but an amusing and mild indictment of the media obsession with the current hatch of somewhat mediocre, minor celebrities. His song Lungful is more upbeat and advocates not taking anybody for granted.
Describing his live performance as “relaxed, good natured and no-nonsense” he served us a varied set that was melodious, entertaining and well received.
Christian Moss performs “Brickwall”
Christian Moss getting out of trouble in “Scrape Escapes”
Imagine finding yourself a deity for a while? Christian imagines what that might be like in “Temp God”
Christian Moss muses upon his unwarranted injury in “Head wound”
It was a fine set and I particularly liked Headwound and Temp God. The first about an unwarranted and unexplained concussion that he had received in a Newcastle Nightclub and the latter about what it might be like to suddenly find yourself a deity for a while! His work is obviously experimental in terms of thematic exploration, but the performance is polished, guitar work distinguished, and his voice has a very mellow tone, making him sound at times not unlike REM’s lead vocalist Michael Stipe. I enjoyed his part of the show too and didn’t neglect to purchase his five track CD Miscast Rhinos not least because I was fascinated by the title. Was that a harking back to his zoological background, I wondered ? Well that may have had some bearing on its selection, but he informed me that it is one possible anagram of his name. The insert has a great list of others that could also have been selected, some of them are very amusing and a touch riske. Buy his album for more insight and some cracking good songs. It’s a snip at £3.
For More on Louise Mary Martin see her Myspace
For More on Christian Moss see Open Mike’s Plug ‘n’ Play Review
For No.15’s Myspace
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High resolution Poster of Louise Mary Martin at No.15
High resolution Poster of Christian Moss at No.15
