FEATURE:
Queen Róisín and Her Amazing Machine!
Saluting an Icon and Her Highly-Anticipated Fifth Solo Studio Album
___________
FOR anyone who follows this blog…
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Samson
they will know that I have reviewed and featured Róisín Murphy quite a lot! The legend from Arcklow, Ireland, came to my attention when Moloko’s debut album, Do You Like My Tight Sweater?, arrived in 1995. That album turns twenty-five next month, and it was a terrific introduction from Murphy and Mark Brydon. I am not sure whether there was a particular reason why I was attracted to Moloko and especially Róisín Murphy’s voice and writing. I had heard a lot of other Irish singers/bands before 1995, but I think there is something about Murphy’s way with words, her particular phrasing and delivery that elevated Moloko’s work - and it continues to make her music so much stronger than anything around! Things to Make and Do of 2000 was one of their biggest albums, and The Time Is Now is one of their all-time classics! Look back to 1998’s I Am Not a Doctor and the incredible hit, Sing It Back, and that was a golden period for the duo. It is a shame 2003’s Statues was the last album from Moloko, but they went out on a high! I would encourage people to buy Moloko’s albums - and go and get Róisín Murphy’s albums - as she is an icon of our times, and an artist who seems to get better and more astonishing as time goes by! I have previously reviewed the tracks, Narcissus, and Incapable, and I was blown away by these songs! Both tracks will be on Róisín Machine, and recent singles, Something More, and Murphy’s Law will also be on there.
IMAGE CREDIT: @roisinmurphy
Go check out the great bundles for the album (which you can own from 2nd October), as you’ll definitely want to spend a bit of money on an album that is going to be one of 2020’s best and finest-received! I love Róisín Murphy, not just because of her incredible music, but her as a human being. I am going to bring in a couple of interviews before I wrap up, but I have covered Murphy before in my Modern Heroines feature, and I recently included one of her albums, Overpowered, in Vinyl Corner. I have not seen Murphy play live, but I was keen to see her at the 6 Music Festival earlier in the year. From her incredible and unique outfits to her incredible stagecraft and always-stunning performances (check out how she was reviewed by The Times for that 6 Music appearance!),she is one of those artists who can seduce an audience and create these shows that live long in the memory! I will have to catch her in London if things get better next year, as she is top of my list of modern artists to see live and interview. If you follow Murphy on Instagram, you’ll see that she has been keeping us entertained and uplifted; I wonder whether, if we go into another national lockdown, she will do kitchen discos like Sophie Ellis-Bextor did. Not to divert slightly, but Ellis-Bextor has just dropped a new track and her album, Songs from the Kitchen Disco, is out next month.
Last year, I argued why we need a full-on Disco revival, because artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Róisín Murphy are a rare breed! To me, Murphy is the Queen of Modern Disco, because she has taken the genre and brought it to a new audience. It is hard to say whether her music has more in common with groups like CHIC or Earth, Wind & Fire or it is more similar to Italian Disco or Post-Disco. I think Murphy has crafted her own space, and she combined the sun, fun and sexiness of classic Disco acts, but there is something harder, more experimental and unique that we will hear on Róisín Machine (she is great when it comes to titles!). I am going to bring in a couple of interviews, but if you want an ultimate Róisín Murphy playlist of her best Moloko and solo hits, then I’ve got you sorted – just to keep you busy until the album comes out. I think Róisín Machine will be a blockbuster! The Irish Times have already tasted the album and they love it:
“Simulation was also the unofficial starting point of her collaboration with longtime friend Rob Barratt aka DJ Parrot aka Crooked Man, a veteran of Sheffield’s house and dance scene. His influence can be heard on the hazy, slowly eked-out clubby throb of that song, on the shoulder-shaking New York house vibe of We Got Together, and even on the snappy twitch of Shellfish Mademoiselle.
Elsewhere, however – in particular on the five brand new songs on this album – the funk and groove is as undeniable as it is irresistible. Something More’s disco breakdown sounds like a spiritual sister of CeCe Peniston’s Finally; you can imagine hearing the insouciant shimmy of Murphy’s Law in a nightclub at any point from the 1970s until the present day; and the thumping, unbridled hands-in-the-air joy of Narcissus will rouse even the most fervent nonbeliever.
Despite the overlapping of older songs with new tracks, this is a collection mixed in an old-school, listen-start-to-finish manner. While some songs, such as Kingdom of Ends, ably set the scene with atmospheric synths and snappy handclaps, others burst through speakers or headphones, peel you away from your seat, drag you on to the dancefloor and simply insist that you get down.
By the time the jittery, elated funk of closing track Jealousy rolls around, you’ll already be halfway out the door, dancing shoes in hand.
In many ways, that quality makes Róisín Machine an especially relevant album for these times: it’s a record that sounds great at home, but also begs to be heard loud, live and in a large room with other people. We all need something to look forward to, after all”.
Before I go on and grab from a couple of interviews that show why Murphy is such a fascinating and engrossing person, I am sort of speculating and postulating here. Of course, people are desperate to see her live, and I wonder whether Murphy has plans to do a livestreamed gig from a large venue. Whilst she would not be able to pack people in and get the sweat flowing, she could create her own world on stage and deliver something hypnotic and immersive to promote the new album.
Maybe she needs that direction connection with the crowd – Murphy has been known to get close and mix with her fans during her performances -, but there will be an enormous desire to see Murphy bring the Róisín Machine songs to the stage! Having heard Murphy curate the Desert Island Disco on Lauren Laverne’s breakfast show on 11th September (catch it from 1:31:53 onwards; it is only available for a short time), I think we also need a regular radio show from Murphy where she can open up her vinyl box and spin some classic Disco and Dance! I am spit-balling and pitching to an empty meeting room, but I think this year needs a lot more Róisín Murphy. I am going to end this feature by quoting from an incredible interview Murphy recently gave to The New York Times (I have credited the author and photographer, so hopefully it won’t get me into trouble!). Róisín Murphy recently spoke with a fellow Murphy, Lauren, for the Irish Times to chat about Róisín Machine. What caught me – and something I already knew – is how grounded she is, and why stardom and fame is not something she lusts after:
“But then I’m like that anyway, me; I’m the most ungainly elegant person you’ve ever met.”
She pauses. “And maybe the ‘pop star’ is not me; it’s the whole story, my catalogue. If I wanted to be famous – which I don’t, really, I don’t enjoy it – well, I can,” she says, catching herself with a smile. “I can go to a gay club and they’ll be ‘Arghhh! Róisín’s here, arrrghhhh!’ But then I can go to Tesco. And that’s what I want to project – so who can I blame but myself?”.
I think Murphy’s music and dynamics have shifted since her last album in 2016. Whether that is a natural evolution, or to do with the passing of time, I think the songs of Róisín Machine sound more immersive, expansive, and nuanced than anything she has put out. Maybe the current situation has also influenced her latest album, as she explained to Lauren Murphy:
“There is a bit of lockdown in the new songs – especially the one where I’m going on about ‘Don’t try to stop me dancing’ and all that. What a cliche,” she laughs.
“I’m writing differently than I used to. With [older tracks] Simulation, Jealousy and Incapable, I would hire a studio here in London with a Parrot track, go in with an engineer, make a very high-quality vocal recording and send it to him. But in the last couple of years, I’ve started to use Ableton at home. So it was great to be on Ableton when the lockdown came, to be able to continue working”.
I will end by quoting a section of the interview that talks about Murphy’s filmic ambitions, and I think Róisín Machine has filmic potential; maybe there will be something in the way of a film or short film that threads songs from the album around a great story – loads of people would want to see that. The influences on Róisín Machine are a terrific blend that Murphy makes her own:
“As always, Murphy’s visual aesthetic is an intrinsic part of her music. This time around, her influences for Róisín Machine were drawn largely from women in the punk and post-punk scenes, as well as the eclectic club scenes in New York and on the Continent during the 1970s and 1980s. A Cosey Fanni Tutti photography exhibition also played a part.
“It was so beautiful, and they’re so subversive, the imagery,” she says. “I just stood in front of it and thought, Where are these women now, that don’t give a f**k? So it was very inspiring. Then I was reading about Danceteria in New York, and the mix of music, goth music and house music . . . and Sheffield was very much like that”.
Murphy revealed how she wants to move into film. I can see Róisín Machine being the soundtrack to a great feature! It is clear that the importance of the visuals are as important as the music and songwriting to her:
“I’m more fascinated with making a visual story out of it ... Maybe it’d be a biopic, or maybe I’d twist it a bit and make it fictional,” she says. “Depending on who comes into my planetary orbit to help me make this happen, and how it happens and on what budget. But really, by the time I’m 50 I want to start to concentrate on film, and leave the music a little bit more in the background. It will never be forgotten, but I do want to concentrate more on film in my 50s”.
Róisín Murphy recently spoke with Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times from her London home…and it is a profile/interview that was shared widely on Twitter. This is sort of the point of this feature: highlighting how original, lovable, and truly down to Earth Murphy is.
She is this stunning and innovative artist who is also a style pioneer, one of the best live performers around, and one of the most charming and funny interviewees – and someone I can see having a successful film/directing career in a few years. In the interview, Murphy explained how she wants her music to transcend Disco; it brings in so many strands and feelings:
“I didn’t want to be as simplistic as a disco queen, because this music has come out of disco, proto-house and Goth, Throbbing Gristle and [expletive] Cabaret Voltaire and Donna Summer,” the Irish musician said of her new album. “It’s not just Black music, it’s not just alternative music, it’s not just dance music — it’s all of them things clashing and beautifully melding and becoming something that’s about individualism and freedom. This is what we need”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Marks for The New York Times
When Vincentelli charted Murphy’s career progression and her live shows, she examined how there is much more to her sets than the songs and a little bit of banter:
“Her live shows escalated into sheer delirium. At a New York gig, she wore a deer-shaped houndstooth cape by the maverick designer Christophe Coppens and ended the show on the floor with her backup singers, fake-brawling with her backup singers in punk chaos. Four years ago at the Glastonbury festival, she started the song “Overpowered” in a neon safety jacket and brutalist dark glasses, before putting on a headpiece that looked like a blueberry doughnut; the arrangement involved a banjo and synthesizer gurgles.
“She’s her own planet, with its own language,” the Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf wrote in an email. “This is what true mystery is for us, a dark glamour that we can’t quite grasp but that attracts us so much. It is very rare nowadays to find this sense of mystery.” The designers mentioned Murphy’s performance at their 2010 Paris show “pregnant and singing live on a high pedestal. She was fierce”.
On Róisín Machine, the Irish musician has been working alongside her Sheffield (a city she has a great affinity for) producer/DJ friend, Parrot (a.k.a. Crooked Man). It is a wonderful partnership, and the true have a simpatico and chemistry that has resulted in some of the strongest material of Murphy’s career.
I will end by quoting a passage that shows why so many people love Murphy. She is someone who is effortlessly charming and has helped so many people during a very tough time. Long may her regency and wonder continue:
“Tellingly, the joyfully eccentric home videos Murphy made during lockdown this past spring stood out from the earnest messages of hope and solidarity that flooded YouTube. “They are pop videos for this moment, when you want more than somebody on a nice beach or just [expletive] lip syncing,” she said. “Who wants that now?”
Who, indeed, when you can have a siren in German Expressionist eyebrows and madcap designer outfits, crooning to propulsive backing tracks? Carried away, dancing up a storm while performing her recent single “Murphy’s Law” in May, she stumbled on the hem of her enormous polka-dot dress only to bounce right back up, shouting “I’m all right!” The crowd in her virtual nightclub cheered. One can only imagine what she’ll dream up when her fans are standing adoringly before her once again”.
I shall conclude in a second, but go and order Róisín Machine, as it an album that proves Murphy is among the greatest artists of this age! To boot, she is a wonderful person and a definite icon! When the album arrives, clear some space in the living room, brace yourself and…
TURN the volume way up!