Memo's by Nina Walsh

On all accounts that's a positive for me; commercial usually means contrived and often short lived - appealing, to me, indicates well crafted works carrying memorability and longevity - and give me experimental genius anyday!! Moving effortlessly from the beautifully understated folk feel of 'Sail' to the trippy soundscape of the excellent 'Long Way From Home' then onto the ethereal and stunning 'Sweetest Cure', Nina slams her cards on the table and reveals a pretty high scoring hand.

I'm not sure Nina Walsh's work will take the Nation by storm - it's actually not that sort of medium. However, she certainly has the ability and talent to leave a massive mark wherever she's heard. Less commercial than some maybe - more music for the mind than for the dance floor of juke box. Works to be listened to, marvelled at and enjoyed from within - works sung and arranged with real sincerity to cunjure serene images and provoke myriad emotions as haunting sounds echo around the room. Played loud or turned right down it makes no difference - the songs remain the same!

'Memo's' has certainly got me firmly hooked. Nina Walsh's depth and creativity is something to be reckoned with and long may she continue to provide us with her amazing art.

DJ MAGAZINE REVIEW AUGUST 2005

Nina Walsh - Memo's

You might say it'd be rude to refer to a songstress like Nina Walsh as a veteran. After all you should never ask a woman her age, let alone infer that she is old enough to be a veteran. Nonetheless that is exactly what she

is - in the nicest sense of the word of course! Having cut her teeth with the likes of Primal Scream, Andrew Weatherall and The Orb, lets just say she knows a song when she writes one and knows a melody when she plays one. Two qualities that come across in spades within "Memo's," an album that evokes emotive memories of Canterbury style folk, the haunting song-writing prowess of America's country greats and the subtle electronic magic of Delia Derbyshire and The Radiophonic Workshop. A fine combination if ever there

was one!

4/5 Found Sounds

From: http://www.boomcat.com

NINA WALSH - Memo's

CPIJ

If you're one of those folk whose brain soaks up music trivia like a box-fresh sponge, there's a fair chance the name Nina Walsh may seem familiar... Having worked with the likes of Andrew Wetherall, Primal Scream and The Orb, Walsh has taken a Goldfrapp-esque route to solo recording, with 'Memo's' her debut album despite knocking around the fringes for years now. Sharing a dreamy predilection with St. Etienne, Walsh's songs combine a lyrical immediacy with quite bouncy instrumentation that conspires to lend a very tacit sense of pop-rock to proceedings. Songs like 'Darkest Light' (think Drugstore collaborating with Psapp) and 'Love Leech' (honky-tonktronica) rattle along with an infectious glee that happily references Delia Derbyshire and Petra Jean Phillipson. Memo to self; have a listen!

From: Warprecords.com

You know and you don't know Nina Walsh commercially recorded vocal performance was on the Primal Scream track Original Sin, re-mixed by the famed DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall. Nina and Andrew went on to set up and successfully manage two techno record labels, Sabres of Paradise and Sabrettes.

She has also recorded with producer Youth and recently collaborated with Andrew Weatherall again, this time with Two Lone Swordsmen outfit on their album 'From the Double Gone Chapel'.

Two qualities that come across on "Memo's,"are the emotive memories of Canterbury style folk, the haunting song-writing prowess of America's country greats and the subtle electronic magic of Delia Derbyshire and The Radiophonic Workshop.This is an album that sits in comparison to Broadcast or an updated female Byrds.

From:Rob da Bank BBC RADIO 1

To: contact@c-pij.co.uk

yo nina, got the memo's CD! thanks.

great lp so far - got to track 5 and lovin it

will deffo play on the show asap.

From: "Annie Nightingale" BBC RADIO 1

To: contact@ninawalsh.com

Hey Nina. thanks for sending me your cd. I think you sound like a 21st century girl version of The Byrds. I mean that

as the highest praise and hope you will take it that way. Get some vid footage and you should be away.

I will pass it onto the Zane Lowe show.

very very best of luck with this!

annie n

From: Nick Luscombe XFM

To: contact@ninawalsh.com

Many thanks for sending your album to me at XFM.

Totally love it.

Will play a track on XFM Flo-Motion Sunday between

10pm-midnight.

Any live dates planned?

all best,

nick

nick luscombe

xfm flo-motion

From: "Rob Da Bank" BBC RADIO 1/BESTIVAL/SUNDAY BEST/THE BLUE ROOM

To: contact@ninawalsh.com

yo nina, love the cd..all 3 tracks amazing!

im gonna play sail tonight on the peel show & i believed in you next week...if youre still awake!

Take it easy

robby

A portrait of a sarf London bird

I know Nina Walsh, and I also know a real artist when I see one. In this world of old rags and bones, yesterdays news and petrified music Nina is a composer, performer and producer of the first caliber. Through the cross-pollination of fate and her own gifts she began to blossom as an artist in London during that period in the late eighties when bands like the Orb, KLF and Primal Scream began to turn music on its fat head for the first time in over a decade. But the truth is her path in music began well before that, when at age thirteen she decided it would be cooler to learn the guitar than the oboe. Her instinct didnt let her down. She studied classical Spanish music for four years and was soon writing her own compositions.

Her first commercially recorded vocal performance was on the Primal Scream track Original Sin, re-mixed by the famed DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall. Nina and Andrew went on to set up and successfully manage two techno record labels, Sabres of Paradise and Sabrettes. Those at the Brighton Festival in 2000 may remember the Sabrettes tent as being the last one standing!

Following the success of several Sabrettes bands in Iceland, Nina helped kick off the techno scene in that country when she co-organized UXI, Icelands first ever dance festival in 1995. The star line- up included The Prodigy, Aphex Twin and Bjork.

Nina herself performed at Glastonbury and the Phoenix Festival with SLAB - a phat-beat creation she set up with Lol Hammond. During the mid-90s, the band - said to out-chemical the Chemical Brothers - released 5 singles and the albums Ripsnorter and Freeky Speed on the Hydrogen Dukebox label.

As she said recently about that period: Slab was largely electronic and sample based and after three years of touring, writing and recording I decided that I needed an outlet for my songs so I picked up the acoustic guitar again and started writing.

Nina met Alex Patterson of The Orb when they both lived in the same block of flats in Battersea. Together they co-wrote two tracks, Ghost Dancing and Plum Island, both of which appear on The Orbs highly acclaimed album Cydonia (Universal/Island).

She has also recorded with producer Youth and recently collaborated with Andrew Weatherall again, this time with his Two Lone Swordsmen outfit on their album From the Double Gone Chapel on Warp Records.

Not restricting herself to the world of studios and stages, Nina has also taken a few steps into the realm of film, landing feature roles in the Jesus and Mary Chain promo video Cracking Up and Kasabians Lost Souls Forever. She has also made a bit of a nexus between acting and music by composing for film. Her work so far includes a BFI commissioned piece for the Kenneth Anger film Rabbits Moon which she performed live at The Royal Festival Hall. The shape of things to come? Quite possibly. And yet knowing Nina as I do Id say that even if she does conquer the world of movies she will always remain a sarf london girl at heart. Her one concession to Hollywood might be riding her own little rabbits around in a limo and calling them Snookums and stuff like that. And shed probably want an hour glass shaped swimming pool for her dog - but thats it!

Aside from managing a pro-audio suite in London, Nina runs her own specialist experimental underground label, C-PIJ Records, as an outlet for what she calls her electronic dementia, a rare condition characterized by consistent flashes of creative brilliance. The labels first album, Wah/Fuzz/Swell, was preceded by four 7 singles. Any sounds resembling an oboe on this album are purely coincidental.

She also recently performed an electro-acoustic gig under the name Obscura at the Spitz in London, with the San Francisco punk band Erase Errata. Reaction was so strong that she decided to release a limited edition CD of the gig through C-pij Records.

Right now Nina is finishing production on her own album, a collection of songs she has written over the last few years. Still having a keen interest in electronics, she has engineered and produced most of the songs herself.

I myself am yet another example of Ninas many and varied creative pursuits. My name is Max, a.k.a. Prints (once upon a time). I first got to know Nina through Youth, and even better later on through the wonderful Lisa Grayley and my old friend Doc Paterson. Im an American poet of ill repute and little renown as well as an old school punk rocker who spent ten of my most formative years in London (class of 76) flogging bootleg records on Portobello Road and indulging in internal chemistry experiments (shhh!). Of course this suspect behaviour was really just a smokescreen behind which I cunningly hid my fabulous writing talents ;)

As Nina and I got to know each other the idea of a collaboration, with her handling music and vocals and me writing lyrics and maybe doing a bit of spoken word, just seemed like a natural. Aside from liking her work a lot (to put it mildly) Nina has this weird thing called energy, which makes people do spooky things, like work hard. Im a lazy bastard but the weird thing is that this energy of Ninas makes me want to do a little hard work myself. So Im gonna try my best to keep up my end of the deal. Oh yeah, and I want a swimming pool for my dog too.

Anyway, there you have it: A portrait of the artist as a sarf London bird.

Nina Walshs songs are simple, beautiful, seductive to the ear, and honest. Her singing is lovely and reminiscent of legends like Marianne Faithfull, the difference being that Ninas feet are firmly planted in the artistic terrain of the 21st century. Shes always in the here and now and at the same time taking a little peek into the future. In fact with each step she takes Nina seems to move further and further into a new artistic time zone. So dont forget to adjust your watches if you wanna keep up!

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