Karate Body » big eyes family players

Big Eyes Family Players / Feb. 12 @ Riverside

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:56:43 +0000

Opus Acoustics presents The Big Eyes Family Players w/ Mary Hampton Band on Sunday, Feb. 12 @ The Riverside. Tickets are on sale now.

Big Eyes’ latest LP Family Favourites is available now in our Webstore and via CTD/Saki.

Big Eyes music featured in new DVD

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:58:46 +0000

Two BEFP songs, “Doreen” and “Going Home,” have been used in this excellent film about consumerism — “Consumed: Inside the Belly Of The Beast” — made by Slackjaw Films. It is available now on DVD and to download. More info … Continue reading →

Big Eyes Family Players / Tonight @ Brudenell

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:18:30 +0000

Big Eyes Family Players perform tonight at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds with James Yorkston. Tickets are £8 in advance here. The new Big Eyes LP Family Favourites now available at our store.

Buy tix for Big Eyes/James Yorkston this Sunday

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:28:30 +0000

Link to buy tickets here for the show Sept. 4 @ Brudenell Social Club.
Copies of Big Eyes’ new album, Family Favourites, will be for sale at the show.

Big Eyes + James Yorkston

admin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:28:13 +0000

The Big Eyes Family Players join James Yorkston Sept. 4 at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Buy tickets here. Big Eyes’ new LP Family Favourites is now available from Karate Body. See the Big Eyes’ artist page to order.

Terrascope praises Big Eyes

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:25:07 +0000

By Simon Lewis / Terrascope
There is something about a slab of vinyl that perfectly suits The wistful and gentle music of James Green, the main inspiration and songwriter behind this excellent band, their music evoking days by the river, cafe nights and lonely woodland walks. On this release, the band re-visit some old single tracks and whilst I have not heard many of the originals, the production on this LP allows the music to shine through, each instrument being heard as clearly as the next.
Opening with the melancholic strains of “Amateur Dramatics”, a slow waltz with Balkan leanings, the players ooze emotion throughout the sombre piece, the mood lightened slightly as “Jack” takes over, a gentle picked guitar ushering in a brighter feel, as soft as a breeze, the chimes and strings adding fragrance and lightness.
After the short but gorgeous strains of “The Boo Girl” have finally faded from your mind, The lengthier “Otto” steals in with soft guitar and seashore cymbals. Add some beautiful violin and sweetly spoken percussion and you realise you are listening to the highlight of side One, a majestic and sweeping piece of music that could go on forever as far as I am concerned. To round off the side there is more shimmering wistfulness in the shape of “Three Wheels”, another delightful tune that floats by capturing your heart as it passes.
With a fine upbeat feel, “Bunny” is the perfect start to side Two, a jaunty piece with swelling organ and sweetly played flute giving a different character to the tune, a grove of dappled sunlight in the woodland green. Moving on refreshed, “The Chattering Lady” follows the path less travelled, a hypnotic sequence of notes chilling the air, with violins taking centre stage, creating a haunted atmosphere that is skilfully evoked.
Stepping into the sunshine once again, “Fast, Loose and Lovely” is as described, another album highlight, whilst “For Gorecki”, aches with slow-motion beauty, sounding like an acoustic version of Mono, the tension being handled with subtle splendour. Finally “Lewis” leads us out with a spring in our step, albeit a slow one tinged with a slight regret that it is all over, the players waving goodbye over a folk melody coated with a sheen of sadness.
Housed in an excellent sleeve, this could be the finest Big Eyes Family Players release, the songs flowing together perfectly, each one exactly as it should be, the whole so much more than the sum of its parts.

Big Eyes’ James Green on tweeting, ice cubes and the greatest chord change in history

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:18:07 +0000

KBR: Whitepages.com found 5,646 people named James Green in the United States. I thought you were special.
JG: There is only one in the U.K.

KBR: Explain the British aversion to ice cubes. I’ve never had more than one or two in a glass of water.
JG: That’s because we, in the U.K., like a drink to contain just that, a “drink” not a glass half-full of ice. You Americans are getting conned.

KBR: Kate and Willy: Do you think they’re forever?
JG: Forever what? I think they will die sometime.

KBR: Big Eyes Family Players has had several lineups over the years. Are you a tyrant in rehearsal?
JG: Yes, often.

KBR: You can tell me. Are you a tyrant?
JG:YES!

KBR: Mayonnaise, pro or con?
JG: Pro, though not low-fat.

KBR: “Boo Girl” is ripe for a Nicki Minaj remix, don’t you think?
JG: I don’t know who that is. Generally I’m not mighty keen on remixes. They seem a bit like things people do when they’re bored, though I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.

KBR: How do you feel about tweeting?
JG: I don’t really understand it, though I do it.

KBR: Why do none of the songs on Family Favourites have vocals?
JG: The album is a retrospective to capture the essence of Big Eyes, and 99% of that was instrumental, so to add a vocal song would have seemed wrong. Why do people expect pop music to have vocals, anyway?

KBR: What did you think of our Skype conversation?
JG: Very pleasant, though a bit unnerving that you could see me, but I couldn’t see you (bit like a confessional).

KBR: Describe chamber music in haiku form using the word “hydrangea.”
JG: This would take forever. I’m not a wordsmith.

KBR: One pet you would like to have that is probably illegal to own.
JG: A giant pug.

KBR: Review the last book you read in three words, not including the title.
JG: Life is odd: James Yorkston – Its Lovely To Be Here (Domino Press)

KBR: I’m pitching a new show, “Music Sounds Better with Ewes.” Do you think that’s catchy?
JG: Is it a talent show to find a livestock pop band?

KBR: Greatest chord change in history.
JG: C to Em (in memory of “Shadowplay” by Joy Division)

KBR: Do you believe your horoscope?
JG: No

KBR: Current non-musical obsessions?
JG: Jim Woodring (cartoonist, creator of Frank books), Werner Herzog films, Halloumi

KBR: Family Favourites sounds remarkably cohesive for a best of. What were you smoking?
JG: Sheffield fumes. It wasn’t a best-of in the traditional sense, as all songs were recorded anew.

KBR: Who are you listening to that I should like?
JG: Bablicon – A Different City, Mick Turner – Moth, Gastr Del Sol – Camofleur, Tom Waits – This Ones From The Heart OST, The Birthday Party – Drunk On The Pope’s Blood.

The Big Eyes Family Players’ new album, Family Favourites, is available now on vinyl at our store, and digitally from all major retailers.

Deckfight praises ‘Family Favourites’

admin — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:15:00 +0000

By Brian Tucker / Deckfight
Little ideas can grow up and become happy adult versions of them. Sometimes they evolve, even transcend, and become more colorful, more extended, like endless arms as tree branches, always seeking up and outward. On occasion there are too many limbs to count but what you see is interminably intricate and unique.

The music of Sheffield, UK’s Big Eyes Family Players is like that, in that it is instrumental and poetic sounding, and far-reaching. The effect is that it elicits a bounty of emotions and imagery. Their latest release, Family Favourites, isn’t a “greatest hits” affair, but rather, a collection of what the band does well; crafting elegant and moving music based on a blend of folk, traditional Eastern-European music and orchestral sounds that is dynamic and engaging. Family Favourites is made up of instrumental and reworked songs from the Big Eyes catalogue in addition to three new songs and a cover of “Three Wheels” by The Dirty Three.

The music is akin to soundtrack/score music, something Big Eyes’ James Green is fond of as was an impetus for starting the band in 1999. Few bands do this today, namely Lost in the Trees who takes things to an emotionally operatic state or Ólafur Arnalds whose take is equally beautiful but murkier. Family Favourites, although a collection, mines the emotionality of previous works. The songs selected here push those buttons, the instrumentation flowing and dramatic. “Bunny” is playful and energetic. “Fast, Loose, and Lovely” is coy and a little dangerous. “Jack” is acoustic driven and dotted with sprightly instrumentation from what sounds like chimes. “Otto” is most heartbreaking, a beautiful track that gently strolls about and whose string playing is sensational.

At the very least, Family Favourites serves a primer for anyone new to the band. The wonderful music packaged here quite likely will lead listeners to the band’s back catalogue.

LEO Weekly on Big Eyes’ newest

admin — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:50:10 +0000

By William Benton / LEO Weekly
Despite carrying a hefty résumé of high-caliber collaborators over the years, The Big Eyes Family Players — a project primarily revolving around artist James Green — has operated just under the radar of notoriety during the band’s decade-long existence. The latest release is a reworked retrospective of sorts as it features old songs, new songs and covers. That might lend an immediate presumption that the record is all over the place, which is absolutely not the case. Family Favourites maintains a consistent flow throughout the duration. In fact, it took a couple of listens and a bit of homework for me to “get” that this wasn’t an album proper. The tracks on this instrumental collection range from dark ’n’ dizzy melancholia to elaborate, spirited folky songs that, at times, border on poppy. It can sound as if Jim O’Rourke and Sufjan Stevens are trying to cheer up the Dirty Three and Godspeed You! Black Emperor with dirty picture books, eliciting an occasional grin. Very cinematic music that takes you … somewhere — and it’s not always the most pleasant of places.

The Decibel Tolls: “Don’t Fix It If It Ain’t Baroque”

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:17:30 +0000

By Kenny Bloggins / The Decibel Tolls
When crafting a work that could be identified as chamber folk or late ’60s/early ’70s style baroque pop, you tread a fine line between pretension and technical mastery. Sheffield, UK collective and James Yorkston collaborators The Big Eyes Family Players have very successfully written soaring yet intimate orchestral post-rock, with flavors of Fairport style Anglo-folk, that’s wholly warm and inviting. No abstract attitudes, no wanky guitar noodling… The Big Eyes Family Players are cinematic sans any speck of pretense. Imagine Set Fire To Flames if they spent more time in the forrest foraging for wood, or Six Organs of Admittance if Chasney was more in tune with old western Europe than British India (though raga sounds do present themselves in “The Chattering Lady”). Their new release, Family Favourites, is a collection of reworked old Big Eyes canticles (the first incarnation) alongside new material and covers. The digital and vinyl compilation reworks and rerecords their vintage instrumental torch ballads with their most recent players, essentially closing one chapter to open a new one. Consider it a sort of a retrospective, with a new veneer … fitting since these guys have been around for over a decade, largely under the radar. There’s no better introduction than this one. Recommended for fans of Alasdair Roberts, John Fahey, Rachel’s, Josephine Foster, and Sir Richard Bishop.