Usual Locations: KeMPR

Couple of months ago I had this urge to track down a musician I used to listen to. His name is Richard Kemp. I got to know him a few years back when I lived in Ulverston, saw him play in several open mic nights and generally got to know the guy. Then things turned a little sour, and I moved to Lancaster. And contact was lost. I sort of tried to keep at least one eye on what he was doing musically, but then it just seemed to go quiet one day. But as I mentioned, I decided to go on a little Google/Facebook hunt and see if I could track him down again. And lo and behold I find him, under a new name. KeMPR.

Now for a little background (Pieced together from some fragments of my memory). Richard Kemp (mostly known as Kempy, when I knew him that might have changed since) used to be in a band called 12ft Machete, that apparently created quite a stir on the Furness peninsula. From what I've been told mostly through Richard's phenomenal stage presence. Sadly I moved to late into that area to actually ever get to see them play.  The only track I could track down by them is a song called 'Albino Twist' but only as a remix by master local Furness producer Howie Venton. Which to be fair is a cracking remix and makes me really want to hear the original. But on this track you can hear what a great rock singer he is and why 12ft Machete managed to create a name for themselves.



 When 12ft Machete called it quits out of those ruins came essentially two(Now three, possibly four) different projects. One that I became quite fond of was/is called Runt Hörnet, who play a delightful punk rock music with some aid of home made instruments like their monobass (Usually played by Howie Venton) that is played with wrench instead of a plectrum


for cryin out loud from runt hornet on Myspace.

and Lobe which had Richard Kemp in it and they played more of acoustic ballady stuff with some folky over tones. 

Stars Above Headlights from Lobe on Myspace.

Since then Lobe has disbanded for whatever reason. (With one half now doing instrumental acoustic stuff under the name 'dogmusiC'.) I had heard that they had been active around the open mic arenas around the Furness peninsula. The last song was from 2007. And then on-line activity seemed to cease from them. The Grapevine had been telling me that there had been a few personal issues that needed to be resolved and suchlike. Which just saddened me because Kempi (Kempy, Richard, whatever!) always struck me as someone who really could go all the way with his music. Thankfully, due to some Facebook browsing and Googleing, I managed to find him. Only to find out that he had relocated to Halifax and thankfully was still making music!

Few years back I used to own a album of Richard's (Kempi's, whatever!) in which he worked with Howie Venton, and I loved it. But due to many many computer formatting, rebooting and rescheduling those music files were lost. Amongst those songs was an orchestral version of one of his most played songs



Though my personal favourite song from that album was a cold industrial song called 'February'. This song always somehow made me feel a little homesick.



Currently he seems to be making a name for himself both as a musician and as an artist. And has recently published a new album called 'Some Days are Harder Than Most'.

Since renewing my interesting in his music what I have found both excellent and surprising is the fact that he's pretty much continued with the folk/acoustic stuff from Lobe. And that's not a complaint by any means. Kempi has a very gentle singing voice which also makes you feel so much better about yourself. Most of the songs do seem to centre around not losing hope knowing that there are friends around. Even during the most dejected and downtrodden song 'Reject-0' has that element to it.

Possibly the best example of this Hope Prevails/Friends song type is "We'll be around".



In amongst those acoustic songs we get surprises like 'Supersizer' a delightful raunchy rock n' roll song.



I do hope he just keeps on cranking the songs out. Hopefully go on a bit of a tour. There is no doubt about it, he's got the song writing skills and he's got a bloody good voice, both for ballads and rock. And he's got the personality.

Usual Locations Teil Vier: Be'Lakor & The Eternal

My focus-beam will now be aimed at the land known as Fourecks, sorry I mean, Australia. For some reason whenever I think of the music scene in Australia all I can think of is AC/DC, INXS and Kylie. And I've got to say I'm not a big fan of any of those, I might listen to AC/DC but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy an album. But then again, I do listen an awful lot of Nick Cave. So there is that. There does appear to be an awful lot of different music stylings being composed and published down there, but somehow never leave the shore.  These two these two bands that I am going to discuss sound like something else, and while I'd hope that both could gain some monumental success, I'd suspect that the first one would struggle but the second one could easily win people hearts and minds, especially if they continue in the vein of their last album.


First of we'll start with the behemoth(The monster not the band) sounding Be'Lakor. First time I cam across them was when there was a fairly frequent discussion and review requests on Angry Metal Guy's Facebook page. Their description didn't exactly light my fire. Melodic Death Metal. It's a genre I've never really got into, and not for lack of trying. I tried quite a few of the Gothenburg bands that pioneered that style and I just can't get into it, besides maybe Gardenian. But these guys are a bit more special. The first album I listened to was their rather phenomenal 'Of Breath and Bone', which has pretty much got a world wide wholly positive reviews. So I decided to check them out. And boy did it blow me away. Well.... Maybe not at first. These guys have been around since 2004 and were at one point hailed as "Best Unsigned Band in Metal" by MetalSucks. That obliviously isn't true any more but listening to their debut album 'The Frail Tide' I can understand why people were getting excited. On the whole. These guys have melodies in spade. No. They have melody in barge loads.  The amount of times when I've had people in my ear complaining that metal didn't have melody and was just noise, seriously shut the fuck up and put these guys on and then get back to me. Just in the first two songs you've heard enough melodies, enough musical changes and tempo changes that would usually fill 2 albums by lesser bands. One thing that I found brilliant about their music, their last album especially, is that there is this common thread that is woven into every song making the whole album play like it's just one song. After some listens I was going to say that their weak point is their singer, but after a few more listens I realised I was wrong. He growls and shrieks at the right points, often sounding a bit like a Daemon Storyteller, thus lending a certain malevolent air to the whole thing. But seriously though, the intricacy that all member manage to play their respective instruments and weave and wave around each other with apparently very little effort is astounding. Just listen to the beginning of of 'Remnants' there seems to be a near constant guitar solo on the go somewhere in the background which have been turned into main riffs with such an elegant ease. I am aware of other bands that play similar to these guys, and I've given a fair few of them a listen. But none have the both the staying power or the pull-back power for me as these guys do. I always return for more. These guys do deserve every accolade that surely is coming their way. And if more people had sense they'd be touring the world right now.

The Eternal, now these guys have got the sound to make it big. They've been going for a while though admittedly they changed names in 2003 from Cryptal Darkness. Which was the best decision of their career. It would appear that they read Anathema's textbook on "How to Change Your Sound Successfully". They've gone from this rather generic boring Death/Doom/Grindcore and moved, successfully to alternative rock. With a half-way stop at Gothic Metal. I only came across these guys when I was trudging the muddy waters at the Dark Port. Maybe it's no coincidence that these guys have toured with Anathema come to think of it. But yeah, their last album 'When the Circle of Light Begins to Fade' is very much up the Anathema territory. Melodic, slightly meloncholic, and stadium worthy.  They still retain some of the Gothic element, but most of it has been shed away (Thankfully to be honest, generally gothic doesn't float my boat). On the whole they haven't quite reached Anathema's but they're getting there. No doubt about it. I'm not going to spout of that their last album is a classic in the waiting (Unlike Be'Lakor - Of Breath And Bone). But the riffs are there, the singing is there, the production isn't quite there though soundwise it is crystal clear, there just seems to be something missing and I can't quite put my finger on it. But until I can I will listen to the album over and over again.

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