In The Groove EP.10: Aldous Harding - Designer
Greetings and salutations viewers, Ed from Studio 1 Vintage Guitars here with you for another instalment of In The Groove. Brought to you by the gracious folks over at On Vinyl, an online portal of majesty and wonder where you’ll find a carefully curated selection of records and accoutrement that will have you listening to your favourite albums in the very highest of hi-fi.
Today we start our month-long journey into a new theme. Indie Folk, and the first cab off the rank is by a New Zealand native, Aldous Harding with her third offering: Designer. Aldous - real name Hannah Harding was busking in the small South Island town of Geraldine when she was approached by established singer/songwriter Anika Moa who asked Hannah to open her show that very night. As the story goes, Hannah was busking to raise enough coin to buy a ticket to the show. Kismet was afoot in Geraldine that day. Once again she was noticed while busking in Christchurch by Adam McGrath who invited Harding to join him in his NZ folk institution, The Eastern - a band that she cut her teeth in for multiple years.
Fast forward about 7 years, add in two solo albums a signing to the hippest indie label in all of the land - 4AD and you’ll land firmly at the foot of Designer. A wondrous album of distinctly weird folk tales sung by someone that seems to have a cult of different singers living inside her voice box. Flawlessly moving from rounded alto to whimsical soprano and captivating your imagination with haunting - sometimes indecipherable lyrics that will have you reaching for the lyric sheet for clarity. Doing this will get you absolutely nowhere but you’ll be sure glad you did it. Not knowing what Aldous is singing about, only makes the music and the simplicity of its arrangement, much more beguiling. A melodic and lyrical touchstone for me was British Psych pioneer, Syd Barrett. Throw in a healthy dollop of Edith Piaf and you’re on your way down the garden path to the door at the base of the magic toadstool that Aldous calls home. There you will find her sitting on a tuffet stuffed with unicorn hair, magnificently sipping a cup of dandelion tea while masterfully playing delicate, vibey acoustic guitar. On Designer you’ll hear a selection of steel and nylon string guitars and each gets the shit played out of them with taste and measure.
The intimacy of The Barrel is astounding. Every instrument is there, stark naked and captured with such refrained emotional dexterity. Opening with Harding’s deceptively tricky I-V-II-VI nylon fingerstyle motif in B major, we’re joined by an inquisitive piano melody that takes us by the hand and introduces us to the vocal. Aldous sings in hushed tones, enunciating each line as if transfixed by some aural demon. I love the discombobulating lines:
“I rushed in to hold down your page
And now I sleep beside words you do not read to me
And I hear a song from inside the maze
The very one you made”
And one cannot ignore:
“Looks like a date is set, show the ferret to the egg”
The song is underpinned by a sparse rhythm section of muted bass and woolly drums akin to Topanga era Neil Young and when it tugs your ear into the key of C# you know you’re listening to an exciting writer at play
Designer was produced by John Parish whom Harding had also worked with on her previous album, Party. Parish, an English musician that has produced albums by PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse and Eels aka some of the world’s kookiest songwriters, is a perfect match for Aldous Harding. Upon consulting the appreciated liner notes in the sleeve, it was discovered that Parish plays some stellar parts throughout the album. Drums, guitars, mellotron, piano.... Shiiiiiet.
Another standout song for me is the title track which showcases playful bongos and xylophone... think the Crash Bandicoot theme on tramadol before descending into instrumental passages of verbed up ‘60s era Beach Boys muted bass pluckings and legato woodwinds. It truly is a strange thing to roll out a spell, a la mode.
Something I feel when I listen to these songs is that when Aldous Harding is delivering them, she is totally at the behest of the song, she is it’s vehicle and she will do anything within her power to fulfil its wishes. It will take her anywhere it wants and she is cool with that. So if you enjoy your music with more than a hint of surrealism and the patience of Satie, then go forth and seek out Aldous Harding’s Designer from onvinyl.co.nz. I’ll see you again next week for another deep dive into the world of Indie Folk.
Haere Ra.