hissyfit: Let Me Tell You About: Max Malagnino

Friday, 12 April 2013

Let Me Tell You About: Max Malagnino

Whenever a new release comes around I'm invariably on the scrounge for favours etc and I'm always gobsmacked at the MM support system that always seems to kick in.

With that in mind I'm going to do the odd piece on the back room boys (and girls) who help keep the Miracle Mile/Jones wheels a spinning...

Let me tell you about Max:

In the mid nineties, before 'Bicycle Thieves' was released we had a 'demo tape' (remember those?) doing the rounds.

It was called 'Bluer Skies' and contained maybe half a dozen songs, some of which went on to a promo CD ('God's Own Swimming Pool') that then went on to shape 'BT'.

I received a call (before emails) from this Italian journalist Max Malagnino who, as well as writing for 'Rockstar' (Italy's version of 'Q') was an enthusiastic support of Scottish bands.

His pride and joy was his fanzine website 'Rainsound' (which was subtitled 'The Scottish Music Club').

Max had the 'Bluer Skies' tape:

Max: "I got it from the guy who was my 'Rainsound' mate at the time that it was still a paper 'magazine'. I remember him telling me how great that record was..... He'd got it from a Scottish friend somewhere in Britain, I think. After I wore out the tape, I found this ad in Q mag. Some guy had it on catalogue and I sent him a letter to see if I could buy it on CD as my tape was hardly playable..."

Max was convinced that MM were Scottish and sang our praises to a (largely) indifferent world.

He was the first journo' to rave; since then he's been an ever present spirit, encouraging, supporting (and giving all too honest views about) the music as it developed.

When we needed a website but couldn't afford one, Max stepped in and painstakingly taught himself how to design and host one.

He's redesigned the current one: www.miraclemile.co.uk
Now married with children and little time for himself, he continues to enthuse (in a typically dry, droll way).

Every band needs a 'Max'; someone who cajoles, criticizes and supports.

I've a sneaking suspicion that Max's favorite MM album still remains 'Bicycle Thieves' and yet he still, I'm sure, looks forward to each release.

I've only met Max once, we went to a gig and had a beer in Islington.

The night ended with us ducking flying glasses and chairs in a classic bar room brawl in The Angel. Nowt to do with us.

There's nothing fawning or unnatural about him, he just loves music and forever lives in the hope of finding something new to rave about; a kindred spirit indeed.

Max is about to relaunch 'Rainsound' and is keen to air other folks enthusiasms.

He's asked me to write some stuff, do some reviews etc. I'm looking forward to it.

If you fancy the idea of writing something for him, or just supporting a good guy's passion, drop him a line at: nerothezero@gmail.com

There are other media folk who have been ceaseless in their support and kept our heads up (Barry Cross/Nick Reddyhoff/Mark Edwards/Peter Beckmann/Simon Holland/Andrew Geddes/Derek at Backs/Johnny Black/Jeremy Searle/Ken Kessler/Bob Harris/Steve Morris/Mike Davis/Rob Quicke/Fred Dellar/Folmer Jepsen and many more) but Max was there first and remains the original 'Friend of Miracle Mile'.

We've only met once, but he is my mate; I'm blessed by his friendship.

If you ever meet him, please buy him a drink from me, but for Christ's sake don't mention Juventus...

2 comments:

Anonymous12 April 2013 at 22:09
In my early internet days 'Rainsound' was the first site I checked daily, so to hear it's about to be relaunched is fantastic news.
Max gave me my chance to review an album and interview a band,( the rather wonderful Hollow Horse), aswell as turn me on to some great music. I think I discovered the Scottish band Splendid on his pages.It's a band I cherish and will soon appear on my top 20 list,
If I ever meet Max I'll buy him a drink from you ,Trev, but not before I buy him a drink from myself.
Phil
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Hissyfit13 April 2013 at 00:46
'Community' eh?
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‘Jones’ is Trevor Jones; principle songwriter with the critically acclaimed duo Miracle Mile, where he works alongside collaborator, arranger and musical partner Marcus Cliffe. Together they have produced nine albums, the latest of which was 2012’s ‘In Cassidy’s Care’, rated ‘Album of the Month’ by HiFi News, with respected journalist Johnny Black noting that Miracle Mile were “far and away the most unfairly unsung musical wizards ever to emerge from this sceptered isle. Big on memorable tunes wrapped around honest-to-goodness emotionally involving lyrics.”

Trevor Jones has also previously produced four solo albums: ‘Hopeland’ (2009), ‘Keepers’, (2010), ‘To the Bone’ (2014) and ‘Happy Blue’ (2016). Co-produced again with Marcus Cliffe, ‘Carver’s Law is another triumph of intimacy.
Previous critical acclaim for Trevor Jones:

“Gorgeous, as ever. Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; gently beautiful and genuinely moving. You may cry.” The Sunday Times

“Masterpieces of subtlety and observation clothed in sumptuous, lush melodies.” R2

“Jones is in a class of one. Near-perfect explorations of the human heart. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me.” Americana UK

“Achingly tender.” Folk Radio UK

“Intellectually as well as emotionally engaging.” MOJO

"Meticulously orchestrated, careful and complex, this is canny songwriting leavened by bona fide humanity." Q

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.” Maverick

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard.” Uncut

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised. Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving” The Times

Miracle Mile: A User's Guide by Johnny Black

Despite being based in a home studio in a rural backwater on the outskirts of West London, Miracle Mile chose to name themselves after a fictional gold rush main street half a world away where, according to adventure yarn spinner Jack London, ragged 49ers would blow their hard-won nuggets on booze and broads.
They apply a similarly unorthodox approach to their career in general. The band’s core duo of singer/guitarist Trevor Jones and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Marcus Cliffe have been relentless in their pursuit of the perfect song. Not the fastest, the gnarliest or the loudest, not even the most instantly commercial, but the song whose melody, lyrics, arrangement, performance and spirit might stand the test of time, giving pleasure to listeners not just for years but centuries.
They’d be the first to admit they haven’t yet found that perfect song and maybe never will, but I’d argue that their albums — the documentary evidence of that search — deserve a place alongside the best work of time-tested tunesmiths as elevated as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello or Tom Waits.

Marcus Cliffe wasn’t yet on board when the first album, Bicycle Thieves, arrived in 1997 but already it was evident that frontman Jones didn’t fit in with the prevailing mode. There was no rage, bitterness or self-loathing in his songs and nothing at all turned up to eleven. Instead, he offered meticulously orchestrated slices of ordinary human life, transforming the mundane into the marvellous with carefully crafted lyrics sincerely delivered. Even here, though, the hypnotic sample-based "Recycletwo" revealed a willingness to experiment that marked Jones out as more than just a pop craftsman in the vein of Crowded House or Aztec Camera.

What had started essentially as a recording project had become a five-piece live band by the time the follow-up, Candids, was released in 1998. Loaded with nagging guitar hooks and dynamic vocal interplay, it included one particularly affecting piece, "Small Ad," which featured just one line of lyric, the heart-rending couplet, "Baby’s shoes, never used." With those four words, Jones conjured up a yawning abyss of grief that other writers might struggle to evoke in an entire album.

Jones quickly realised that live performance was not his forte and retired to the womb of the studio for 1999’s third album, Slow Fade, which also saw the birth of the partnership that would lift Miracle Mile higher still above the norm. Marcus Cliffe, in demand as a player for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Mark Knopfler and others, was drafted in on upright bass.
Immediately the music took a more intimate turn, with Jones exploring the little things that illuminate the big things. Almost every song offers up at least one unforgettable line, like "I'd rather be ashes than dust" in "Everybody Loved You," or the concept of filling the void left by his loss of faith "with despair and metalware" in "Starwatching."
Slow Fade was further enhanced by the delicately filigreed swirls and swoops of England’s finest steel guitar maestro, B.J. Cole, whose style sat so well with Jones and Cliffe that he has become virtually a full-time member of the band.

And then, out of nowhere, catastrophe struck. Trevor Jones’ beloved sister died in tragic circumstances. It’s typical of the man that, rather than wallowing in his grief as he had every right to do, he dealt with his loss in the quiet, honest dignity of "Sister Song," the achingly lovely tribute that concludes the fourth album, Alaska. It can’t have been coincidence that the album, despite its meltingly beautiful musical landscape, was named for one of the coldest places on earth.

By the time of Stories We Could Tell in 2004, Miracle Mile were drawing critical plaudits in every significant British magazine and newspaper, along with comparisons to such pop pluperfectionists as Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile. Critics were noting that Miracle Mile was fast becoming a repository of timelessly romantic music fueled by the same shamelessly emotional human concerns that inspired the great standards. More than this, it was being noticed that while most bands go into decline after two or three albums, Miracle Mile were getting better, perhaps because they’d avoided the trap of trying to be contemporary, and had no need to be more outrageous than the competition, largely because they didn’t see music as a competitor sport.

The sixth album, Glow, showed up in 2005 and found Jones and Cliffe further expanding their musical palette mixing Celtic folksiness with slow, semi-industrial percussion on the inspirational "An Average Sadness," blending Badalamenti guitars with Bacharach horns on "What Kate Did Next," and opening "Strange Sympathy" with a beautifully synthesised string orchestration before letting the song melt seamlessly into a laid-back country-rock rumination on the gap between aspiration and acquisition. Glow was also their most lavishly packaged disc, gorgeously presented at no small cost to themselves.

Album No. 7, Limbo, offered fifteen songs overflowing with sensitively wrought melodies and heart-fluttering lyricism. If it’s not a contradiction in terms, Limbo was even more quietly passionate than usual, deliciously understated and, at times, devastatingly tear-jerking.

‘Cassidy’s Care’ followed in 2012 and received similar critical acclaim.
Miracle Mile may just be too concerned with timeless quality for their own short-term commercial good. They’ll never sink a fang into the jugular when they can plant a whisper of a kiss on that sensitive spot at the nape of the neck and set off a tiny ripple that will, in the fullness of time, explode in the heart. I, for one, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Johnny Black

“Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; Marcus Cliffe anchors it in the sweetest pop. Gorgeous as ever. You may cry.”
Sunday Times

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard."
UNCUT

“Gorgeous melodies, hooks galore, intelligent lyrics that demand and repay careful listening, beautifully produced instrumentation, and an overall effect that combines poignancy and joy in equal measure. Music and words come together in a state as close to perfection as makes no difference, and leaves you with a delicious ache that makes you hug yourself with the sheer overwhelming joy of hearing such wonderful music. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me."
Americana UK

“A little oasis illuminated by musical creativity, glimpsed like a lovely mirage. Intelligent tunefulness that doesn’t kowtow to passing trends has always been as rare as fish fingernails, but it’s here.” Mojo

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised” The Times

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.”
Maverick

“A tender sadness. Songs that have universal resonance.”
Netrhythms

"Trevor Jones has produced a gorgeous pop album that few will hear — unless there’s justice in the world.’ The Wall Street Journal

“Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving”
The Sunday Times