Album reviews: Kae Tempest | Gina Birch | Gwenno

Island Records ★★★★☆

Gina Birch: Trouble

Third Man Records ★★★★☆

Gwenno: Utopia

Heavenly Recordings ★★★★☆

As his wry fifth album title suggests, Self Titled is a revealing release from Kae Tempest which coincides with coming out as a trans man earlier this year. The acclaimed performance poet has drawn in the past on epic poetry, hymned London and wider society and told kitchen sink stories across preceding works but, with the encouragement of his producer Fraser T Smith, shines his light back in his own face and circle in typically eloquent style.

I Stand on the Line is an epic filmic soundtrack for big sentiments on lineage and identity, as Tempest zeros in on his experiences of transitioning (“going through a second puberty”) and transphobia (“how many strangers today will I upset with my existence”).

Statue in the Square moves further from performance poetry towards hip-hop with lightning delivery, swagger, skittering beats, klaxons, foreboding chords and deeply personal beseeching lyrics (“it’s not a disorder or a dysfunction”) about the daily askance glances.

The electro swirl Know Yourself is Tempest’s tale of being saved by hip-hop (“I was learning how to capture a room with two phrases”) while Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant brings his usual mournful empathy to bear on the softer melancholy of Sunshine on Catford. Guest-wise, Carl Jung weighs in - via sample, of course - on Hyperdistillation and Edinburgh’s brilliant Young Fathers are immediately identifiable in the resonating coda of Breathe.

Elsewhere, Tempest folds in gospel and soul influences to the contemplative Prayers to Whisper, provides a Venn diagram of neurodiversity acronyms on Diagnoses (“ancient conditions with brand new solutions”) and salutes the progress in understanding, before putting a human face – his own? – to mental health issues on the tender closing track Till Morning with its compassionate declaration that “I wish I could travel through time, find that child, guard that door, I would sit on the floor outside your room till morning”.

Former Raincoats singer/bassist Gina Birch was the poster girl for the Tate’s 2024 touring Women in Revolt exhibition, depicted screaming in a still from a 1977 Super 8 film. Now aged 70, she remains at the punky edge of lo-fi art, penning odes to comfortable footwear on her 2023 debut album I Play My Bass Loud. She teams up again with producer Youth for the follow-up, Trouble.

I Thought I’d Live Forever addresses the gradual onset of decrepitude with the same wry wit, supported by reggae rhythms, acid guitar and dreamy backing vocals. Cello Song (Tape Echo) names two of its instruments. A third – Birch’s voice – is impactful in its weathered croakiness. Keep to the Left is a distorted mantra on her political leanings, while Doom Monger teams heavy thoughts with light, dubby pop and Train Platform weaves whispery spoken word, pattering percussion and foreboding cello into a hypnotic Laurie Anderson-like concoction.

Causing Trouble snaps out of the experimental reveries to appropriate Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control as the basis of another riot grrrl agitation, on which Birch has invited fellow female artists to make a roll call of inspirational feminist trailblazers from Mary Shelley to Kathleen Hanna.

Trilingual artist Gwenno sings in Welsh, Cornish but predominantly English on her fourth solo outing. Utopia is an unashamedly nostalgic autobiographical album with a dreamy flow. Gwenno explores her family’s roots over trip-hop beats, undulating guitar and shimmering percussion on London 1957. She names the title track after the Las Vegas club she would frequent back when she was performing in Lord of the Dance and elsewhere flashes forward to deliver a woozy ode to her daughter – “she’s growing inside of me and I wonder who she will be” – on the indie psych easy listening of St Ives New School.

CLASSICAL

Franz Xaver Mozart: Piano Quartet | Violin Sonatas

cpo ★★★★☆

Imagine how Franz Xaver Mozart must have felt being “his father’s son”: how much would have been expected of Wolfgang Amadeus’ offspring. There are sure signs of accomplishment in the piano quartet and two violin sonatas included in this delightfully honest release featuring Freiburg-based chamber collaborators Hansjacob Staemmler (piano), Muriel Cantoreggi (violin, Johannes Erkes (viola) and Juris Teichmanis (cello). The opening Piano Quartet in G minor Op 1 journeys from lengthy sophistication and deliciously-crafted Adagio to the simplicity and charm of the final variations. The Violin Sonatasare every bit as touching, built to formula, and delivered with the same eloquence as the music itself. Franz Xaver inherited the essential Mozart genes. Finding his own distinctive musical voice was another matter.

Ken Walton

FOLK

Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin: Stay Here All Night

self released ★★★★☆

Highland fiddle and guitar duo Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin adopt their “Birl-esque” alias in this relaxed mix of new and traditional tunes and contemporary songs. They’re joined along the way by guests such as trombonist Chris Greive, who gruffly bolsters Swimmy Tunes, and piper Angus Mackenzie who blends into a gentle slow reel, Tune for Keith. Martin’s guitar work provides considered accompaniments to Shaw’s fiddle while his pedal steel lends a country vibe to the title track, a wistful song written by Shaw. Two Lighthouses, adapted from a Tim Dalling song, is a winsome excursion in waltz time featuring Casey Dreissen’s western fiddle and Willie MacAskill’s harmony vocals. In contrast, a no-nonsense trio of Highland jigs kicks off with The Thief of Lochaber jig while The Braes set sees familiar strathspeys and a reel, crisply accompanied by Martin.

Jim Gilchrist