with Trojan Horse, Douga and Black Market Serotonin
Night & Day, Manchester, 6/11/2011
Rating: 4/5
Right, so first up were Black Market Serotonin. I'm not going to dwell on their set long (mainly as they're on SSD), but from their live show it's evident that Andy in particular has grown greatly in confidence as a frontman over the last year. On the other hand, various things remain more raw about their nascent prog-industrial music; the tunes themselves may be polished, and an album may be on the way, but a refusal to dumb down the music live is both a strength and a weakness.
Slaved in the past to DAVE (or Digitally Automated Vibe Engine, a laptop), they now find themselves in the hands of a marginally less harsh Juno synth; nevertheless this band of exceptional musicians are still occasionally wrong-footed by the samples, and it does beg the question as to whether a fluid live show or fidelity to the record should be a band's number one priority. For my part, I don't know what the answer to that conundrum is.
Second were Douga; on the record there's a hint of the folktronica-come-alternative pop of the Beta Band, but live that's very much the dominant impression that's carried away by the pleasantly off-kilter indie rock on display (and I mean 'indie' in the sense of '90s US bands, not four-piece bands of dickheads from Shoreditch). With two strong sets of songs under their belt (a single and EP) already, as well as some decent shows, Douga's fortune looks set to improve even further from here on in.
Third were Trojan Horse. Look, I'm not even going to bother. Here, their album is free. GO LISTEN. The only thing really worthy of mention is that they trashed the stage rather more comprehensively than usual, and I had to dodge a flying Yamaha keyboard. Nice.
Finally Cyril Snear were ready to tear it up. This marked the first time I'd seen the 'Snear live since hearing the pre-masters for their new record, The Riot of Colour, and live tracks like 'Confabulation' surely rank far above all of their work thus far, both in terms of quality and sheer hard rock whallop. At the moment there's only one band on the scene that look poised to claim the Manchester prog mantle ere vacated by Oceansize; while the 'Horse may be the truer sons of Prog, there's only one home grown post-prog band that can challenge the likes of the Kscope stable in the modern progressive stakes... with their Amplifier support slot and Tool-esque hammerfalls, that band is surely Cyril Snear.
Given that 2011's not even spent yet it may seem premature to be making bold claims for next year, but let me be the first to suggest that The Riot of Colour will make at least this lowly scribe's 'Best of 2012' list. Fuck yes.
__________________________________________ And now for something completely different...
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Amplifier The Astronaut Dismantles HAL EP
Ampcorp/SPV
Rating: 4/5
From this Extended Play, the follow-up to their début Amplifier, one might never have guessed at the problems bubbling below the surface. Granted, their début had a troubled birth, but arrive it did, being later re-released on SPV. The Astronaut Dismantles HAL, however, was their first set of original material for the label, and it builds on the melodic inclinations of the band showcased on the first record, without sacrificing any of the music's complexity, or indeed length. The six (seven if you include secret track 'Scarecrows') tracks are as long as an album, and there's a gratifying cohesion and fluency to the package as a whole.
From the very first note in 'Continuum', Amplifier play the space-rock card, with Sel's voice staying subdued in tone before he explodes forth with the perplexing 'chorus' break of “JUST LISTEN!”. In fact, despite its substantial run-time, there's something joyously pop about this cut, evidenced on the surreal middle-eight vocal crescendo of “que sera sera, whatever will be, will be!” where once again vocals cut the guitar wash and magnificently ride atop Amplifier's multi-amp squall.
Other highlights include the Zeppelin-esque stomp of 'Into The Space Age' and riff-heavy single 'Everyday Combat', which has since passed into fan-favourite territory, frequently clamoured for at shows. For me though it's the aforementioned 'Scarecrows' that has the currency to go head-to-head with 'Continuum' and 'Everyday Combat'. An acoustic-led number, it shows Amplifier thoroughly out of their comfort zone, stripped-back and at some of their most emotionally affecting. They wouldn't employ an acoustic in the same way until The Octopus' 'Oscar Night', and even then the subtle atmospherics achieved on 'Scarecrows' would be lost.
Though Insider undoubtedly had its moments, it's hard to see how Amplifier ended up there based on this release; stories of label pressure, time- and budget- constraints aren't hard to dredge up, so if anything it once again vindicates their decision to go The Octopus alone, as if the quality of that album weren't reason enough on its own. The Astronaut Dismantles HAL is a worthy, indeed essential addition to Amplifier's body of work, and it is too often overlooked for being 'just' an EP. Call it a 'mini-album', call it what you like; just don't make the mistake of missing out on it.
Phew. Today has been bloody exhausting, but at least I've put a decent dent in my reviews pile. I've got one more bit for y'all before I pack up for the day though: Air Cav have kindly put up their first two singles for free download from their bandcamp. Click below to get at them, that is all.
Day For Airstrikes
Into the Comet
Self-Released
Out Now
Rating: 4/5
Judging by their more recent material (the Adam, Wez, Ian, John, Danny, Rita, Sue and Bob Too EP), I was rather expecting a similar experience when returning to their first album Into the Comet as a recent convert to the band. Instead there's actually more of a guitar-led approach to the compositions, and to bastardize a famous quote, “is that a looper I see before me?” Yes, ha fucking ha indeed (spot the reference for +10 EXP, it's been a long day), I hear you cry; but on tracks like the densely-layered 'Quiet!!!!! Warmbear' and 'Cosmonaut', the interplay between the guitars is definitely front-and-centre as the er, selling point of this band (as if they needed something so crass). Like fellow Manchester progsters Cyril Snear, they're not above the inclusion of brass here and there, and I'm totally down with that.
Personally, my favourite cut is 'Reichstag', possibly the most timbrally interesting, not to mention arguably the most epic in scale; though I'll admit that 'Cosmic Horse' is a strong contender for the crown. In terms of honourable mentions, you've got to bring up 'Honestly Honesty Bosun Smee', which is definitely the most massive-sounding if you're listening on speakers. In particular, the combination of thick fuzz-bass and staccato drums driving through the guitar figures in the first section of the song are a clear highlight of the album. The track as a whole bears some comparison to Steven Wilson's 'No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun' from Insurgentes, except, y'know, without a vocal.
Overall, it's an accomplished first record. Let's be honest, most bands are sensible enough to stay clear of instrumental music unless they know they can do it well, and Day For Airstrikes are no exception. It's also worth elaborating that whilst this record is clearly the result of a considerable amount of effort well-spent, their newer material shows signs of a highly gratifying development of their sound, and I rightly have high hopes for album two.
Right, so in case you didn't know, I finally guest-wrote for more-or-less my favourite place for reading about rock and roll ever, Manchester Music. What did I write? An interview with the fucking excellent proggers Trojan Horse. Go read it here!
Also, if you haven't seen them live in a while, I suggest that you get down to the Japanchester show on Thursday. It's for charity, you cheapskates.
In other news, I really really really want this on RSD-
From SSD. Click here for no-strings-attached awesome music!
Available:
Nowhere Again - Plans (4/5 in MM, 7/10 in Tasty Fanzine, Positive from Subba Cultcha)
Black Market Serotonin - Deadbyfiveoclock (3/5 in MM, 5/5 on here)
Dune - Golden Snake (Single of the month in MM, 5/5)
You may or may not know I'm in Nowhere Again. We've got a new EP on the way, but here's our first single...
Ad spam over.
x
Monday, 28 February 2011
There's this band called Trojan Horse, and they're putting out their debut album this Saturday. It's kind of a big deal.
I only found about it this evening, so I've not yet had a chance to listen to it properly (expect a review up here when I have), but I'm pretty certain the new EP/mini- album by Casino Zone, Grievous Bodily Harmison, will be fucking ace. If you're into some badass alt-rock then look no further.
Hello internets. I have been a little busy over the last few days, so it's time to throw some updates on. First of all, Amplifier have released a free EP as a companion piece to the mammoth Octopus. It's called the Fractal EP, and is apparently largely improvised. I'll probably write something about it up here in the next week, but in all honesty I've not had time to digest it properly yet, so I'll hold off on judgement until a more appropriate point.
Below is a player where you can listen online or download it for yourself.
There is really only one word that can truly describe this record: bold. Long would probably be easier, but then again that wouldn't in any way do justice to the sheer audacity of a (relatively) young band making this their debut release, even if it has been three years in the making. If that weren't enough, they brazenly describe themselves as 'Prog Nouveau', at a time where, Kscope Records fanbase aside, prog has never been more uncool.
With music like this at your fingertips though, who needs to be cool? From the demented pirate breakdown in 'Mr Engels Says' to the dinner-music feel of '...and the Lights Went Down' (probably my favourite cut), Trojan Horse keep shifting the mood, feel, style and genre seemingly every minute, or at the very least whenever it suits them. It's gloriously self-indulgent, at turns witty or coarse, heavy or dreamy, and I honestly can't remember when I heard quite so bipolar a record. In short, it's bloody brilliant.
I could go through track by track and analyse it to death, but I've been listening to this album all day and I'm still having difficulty making head or tail of it. As a result, my conclusion is that you should just go out, get a copy and decide for yourself. Somewhere, buried between 3:21 and 3:56 of a track you'll find, however fleetingly, something that blows your mind; it's inevitable, because there is everything you could ever want jammed in here somewhere, if only you have the patience to find it.
As long as artists are prepared to go out on limbs like the one that Trojan Horse are straddling, you've got to conclude that in spite of downloading, falling sales et al, rock n' roll has never been in better shape.
So it's finally here. The Octopus. Two hours and five minutes of music. Dear God.
It's pretty difficult to marshall words, such is the scope of this record; it's quite simply massive, both musically and conceptually. Along with the album comes a comic of the story, which ends simply with the words 'the beginning is important in all things', as well as a block of text explaining the concept of the record. By iterating and replacing letters with symbols, gradually the text dissolves into nonsense, and only ends with the credits page. I think it's about entropy, but it could equally be about the evolution of mind; I'm not really sure, but either way it's just the kind of high-minded conceptual art that is a breath of fresh air after years of vapid electro-indie.
The songs themselves are a mixed bag; “well ha, fucking ha!” mocks Sel in 'Golden Ratio', a track beholden to Amp's early period, while 'Fall of the Empire', and the title track are a darker, heavier evolution of their earlier records. Cuts like 'The Emperor' are equally similar to the mood and style of Insider, but the newer, heavier Amplifier definitely predominates. The riffs will be familiar to long-time fans, but the orchestral grandeur and huge harmonies are largely a new phenomenon. In any case, it's very welcome to have sprawling space-rock tracks like 'Interstellar' and the massive closer, 'Forever and More' in the mix, for they add the textural diversity that was perhaps found wanting on Insider compared to their début.
Between the two discs there's a change in feel too; Disc One, for the most part is the more 'classic' Amplifier sound- 'Planet of Insects' in particular sounds like nothing so much as an Amplifier track. Most of the songs reflecting pretty much how Amplifier have been sounding live for the last two years; there's even a piano coda after 'White Horses at Sea' by live keyboard player Charlie Barnes to illustrate this fact. It's all just as atmospheric as before, but if anything rather more driving and perhaps a little less psychedelic. There's less of that Gilmour-esque reverb-fuzz-wah combination and I'd hazard that the bass has come up in the mix somewhat, no bad thing.
Disc Two, on the other hand kicks off with the scratchy and strange 'Sick Rose', a marked change from 'Trading Dark Matter on the Stock Exchange', which in its most Soundgarden-y moment (think 'Just Like Suicide') even includes a power-stance ready shred passage, stylishly executed. To suddenly emerge into a drifting web of heavily effected guitar textures is somewhat disorientating. The disc continues this general theme of wrong-footing the listener, and there's even an acoustic guitar taking the lead (shock horror) on 'Oscar Night' (no relation to Oceansize's recent 'Oscar Acceptance Speech'), to my mind the first time since 'Scarecrows' from The Astronaut Dismantles Hal. On 'Bloodtest' a brilliantly nuts drumbeat drills its way into your forehead while stereo guitar nonsense ensues, and though the average length of songs on the second disc is longer than those on the first, to my surprise it passed a lot more effortlessly.
These are of course, after four days of listening, only really first impressions; nevertheless, what emerges clear as day is the fact that this is the best album Amplifier have yet made, and that the listener who cares to (or, indeed has the patience to) untangle its substance will be rewarded. Whatever it is or isn't about, it's fantastic. What's even more amazing about the whole thing is that whilst it was created without any label support, entirely in a DIY manner, it's still so perfectly-formed and fully realised. There's not a note or cymbal crash out of place, and they should be proud of just how accomplished this album is. Absolutely bloody brilliant, there's no two ways about it.
Time for a story. Twelve years ago, five students met at music school in Salford. Forced to collaborate on a group project, they played set of covers at a concert together, and began to sense potential in the air. A Mogwai concert under the influence of acid was all that remained to form Oceansize, the most famous British experimental band of the last ten years behind Porcupine Tree. Three albums and several EPs in, they've returned with a new offering, Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up. With the record as musically outspoken as they themselves have been at times, HV caught up with frontman Mike Vennart in between his duties as Biffy Clyro's touring guitarist to discuss it.
How would you describe the new album vis-à-vis your previous efforts?
“Vis-à-vis? Nobody's ever said that before. Erm, I guess it's more mature sounding. It's probably the most melodic. Rather than me writing all the vocal melodies this time I actually got the rest of the band involved and we worked on things. It was much more working in factions, two or three of us rather than all five of us jamming all the time... all the old stuff is written almost entirely of jams, since we record absolutely everything we play. For a long time, I didn't think we'd ever top the second album, because I held it in such high regard. I know that it was the most unafraid, don't-give-a-fuck sort of record, but now I can hear the holes, hear a bit of immaturity which I don't hear on the new record. If I didn't think this was the best, I wouldn't put it out.”
Have side projects affected the sound? I know Gambler recently put out a record, and there's also Steve playing in Future of the Left, not to mention the guys in Kong. You're touring with Biffy Clyro at the moment, and my first thought upon hearing the new record was 'ah, that makes sense'...
“Er, the album was recorded and finished before I jumped on. I literally went from finishing the record to the next day rehearsing with Biffy, and Steven wasn't in Future of the Left at the time. I like to think that Gambler brought a lot of his solo album to the table. If you listen to 'A Penny's Weight', then there's all kinds of little things embedded in there that you might not spot for fucking ages, all of these weird textures buried in the mix. That was all him sitting there with a laptop while we were recording vocals or whatever- he kept flying in these wild sounds. He just 'sprinkles the fairy dust on', to quote the Troggs.”
The first release (before Self Preserved...) to be recorded in your studio was the Home and Minor EP, which was quite a departure from your last album, Frames. Self Preserved... is similarly a jump from that sound, so was there a conscious decision to go 'soft record', 'loud record'?
“We didn't plan it that far in advance. The whole Home and Minor thing was an experiment to see if the studio thing was going to work... it was a necessity. [The record company] needed something pronto and we were like 'fuck'. It was all pieced together- there were never two people playing at any given time. It was all one at a time and edited together on screen. We'd been talking about an ambient record for fucking years, so it was like 'right, cool,they want an EP, let's do it now. As soon as I came up with the music for 'Part Cardiac', it was like 'that's got to be first'... it's to keep people on their toes I guess, fuck with their heads a bit, and make them wonder what we're going to do next. We don't really know what kind of band we are, but we've tried to stop worrying about that.”
Have you got to the stage that it's... not irrelevant, but not something you can worry about anymore then?
“I've always said that if we did kind of know what we were supposed to be doing then that's when we'd fuck it up. If you start writing to a blueprint, if you start thinking 'oh, we're this kind of band, we've got to write this kind of music', then I think we're going to come a cropper.”
Do you feel it's taken a long time to get to where you are today?
“Well, not really. Maybe what comes with this history and this body of work is people going 'fuck, are they still going?', but you get a bit of respect, I think. [We've been going] twelve years, and I'm not sure it's something we should be shouting about.”
There were quite a few bands that emerged at the same time as you- My Vitriol, Vex Red, Cooper Temple Clause- but yourselves and Amplifier seem to be the only ones left standing. Do you see yourselves as survivors?
“It sounds like a cynical and nasty thing to say, but over the years we've seen so many people in bands who get their first album out and it doesn't hit the top ten, so they quit, or jump into another band because they think that'll be the one that hits the big time... it's so careerist. We've never been like that, it's just a compulsive need to do it [that drives us]; it's a fundamental requirement to each of us. I'm married, I've got a nice home life, a cat, but I don't think about anything else. It's not a matter of wanting to do it, but that you have to do it.”
The talk then diverted briefly to his friend Sel's band, Amplifier, and their white whale, the double album Octopus, with Mike laughing,
“I'll fucking believe it when I see it. I've been singing on it for about four years. It's Chinese Democracy, man. Y'know, back in the day, in like 1992 I had tickets to see Guns n' Roses. He [Axl Rose] showed up five days late, played for an hour, and it was fucking awful. That was it, I never listened to them again. As it happened, it was Faith No More supporting, and I was like 'this is the greatest band in the world, where have I been?'”
Speaking of Amplifier- Sel talks a lot about being 'entrepreneurial' as a band. Do you think today's bands need business sense where perhaps they didn't before?
“Well, I think Sel is going completely DIY. There's a lot of stuff to consider, like paying the right amount of tax. All this kind of stuff I don't have any idea about, it's why we have a manager. I just write songs, put them out, go out and play gigs. I couldn't even tell you how much it is to book our band. No idea.”
What would you say are your biggest influences, musical or otherwise?
“Tim Smith from Cardiacs. Just that unwillingness to do anything other than what he does. He's a friend of mine, but I can't get over the fact that he's so fucking talented. He's the only genius I'm ever likely to meet. To me, he's created another language.”
Have you got any hard-won advice to give your younger self?
“Don't start smoking, I've stopped now... I think that when I started doing interviews, when we first got signed, I regret a lot of the shit that I talked. I came across as really bitter and cynical, and I'm actually not; I'm really settled these days. Back then I was a really pissy little guy, but it's that hangover from being a teenager. 23 was when I just went 'I don't have to behave like this anymore'. It just takes a while for you to know who the fuck you are and accept who you are.”
Do you listen to any contemporary bands?
“Rolo Tomassi. That's probably my favourite album of the year so far. The new album by the Walkmen...[pause] The Vessels album is fucking great... [checks his iPod] Atlas Sound. The Books. Deerhoof. I Am Kloot. Jesca Hoop. The Melvins' new album, the new Mogwai live album, Part Chimp, St. Vincent... and it sounds so patronising, but however fucking good Charlie Barnes is now, imagine how good he's going to be in five, ten years' time. Oh, the new Autolux album too...”
It seems that at the moment there's an explosion of progressive, or 'eclectic' music at the moment, from a shoegaze revival to bands like Anathema, who are reworking the prog-rock template. Do you see yourselves as a part of this?
“We don't get invited to any parties, we aren't in any particular gang. I can't even say we have an affinity with band A or band B, because it might be insulting to them... I'd love to think that we have a lot in common with Rolo Tomassi, but they're fucking incredible, from another planet. We're slowly growing into our own skin, but we don't know what it is. I think when we do work out what kind of band we are, that's when we're going to be shit, start making shit records.”
Kind of like that guitarist's feeling where, looking back, you feel you were better when you started out than when you actually learned how to play properly?
“Yeah. That's absolutely true.”
What's your favourite bit of kit?
“Kit? Really? Erm, I just got a new amp- an Orange custom shop real Bad Motherfucker, I paid actual hard cash for it. It's fucking amazing. It's the amp that Steven Malkmus uses, I'm such a Pavement fanboy. It was like, whatever's making that guitar sound, give us it. Sel used to lend me his Green Big Muff back in the day, because they sound so big. Now I use a clone, because they take up so much fucking space- it's that huge bass end, the 'hoover guitar' as Mark calls it. I still play the same guitar my mum bought me for Christmas when I was 11.”
Everyone has a guitar soulmate, right?
“Yeah, absolutely!”
Can you remember the best show you've ever played?
“We played the Lowlands festival in 2004. We were on first, at one o' clock in the afternoon. Five minutes before we went on, there was nobody there, but when we walked on there were ten thousand people there who seemed to know all the songs, even though we hadn't even sold ten thousand records in Holland.”
Do you think downloading helps or hinders a band?
“If I ever found out that anybody [leaked our album], and I found out who it was, I would fucking decapitate them, it's such an abuse of power. The iTunes logo used to be a CD, now it's changed because iTunes reckon they will be outselling CDs in twelve months' time. If they're predicting it, it's probably going to happen... [but] even if the record companies all go under, people will still make music.”
How important is Manchester to the band?
“I don't we'd have got anywhere without it. I think it's a bit of a cliché to talk about how the rain there affects the mood... bands like the Smiths with a dark aesthetic... I don't know if we're a part of that, but certainly in respect of the fact that when we started everyone was ripping off Oasis or The Verve- the bad Verve, anyway- and we reacted against that, because we just weren't interested in that kind of stuff. None of us were into the Stone Roses or the Happy Mondays. It's been good to us, Manchester, even if we have never really been embraced by the 'cool' crowd.”
Could you have done as well in another city?
“No, I don't think we could have. Maybe Glasgow...”
Anyway, official looking guys from Biffy Clyro's management were hovering, and it was time to be closing up; I posed Mike my last question: what do you love about music?
“Everything. Ultimately, when you're walking down the street, there's a beat in your head, there's a melody in your head. It's literally the fucking fabric of my existence. I hear music in everything, absolutely everything.”
This interview was originally conducted for High Voltage shortly before the release of 'Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up'. I've posted it as the link I used to it the other day doesn't seem to work anymore. On a more christmassy note:
I think this was actually the video that made me come to Manchester. Mike Vennart basically dicking around in the city while some pompous yank shoots his mouth off. Classic. Also includes the brilliant quote, "the future of British music is being driven by the sounds of Oceansize and Kasabian"- errr. Not only that, but there's a brilliant cameo of Noel Gallagher doing what he does best- being a total cunt.
Also, why not check out this video about all of Oceansize's gear. It took serious geekery to get even half of this information from Mike in interview; I might have saved myself the hassle if I'd known this existed. That said, if you do want to read that interview (it's long and rather good, though I say so myself), I'd go here:
[A much-shortened version of this piece was published in the last issue of High Voltage; here's the unedited version]
So now the NME is saying what we already knew; Manchester is the most exciting city on the planet for new music. When you cut though the buzz however, there's only really one true contender for the title besides your Delphic and your Everything Everything- Dutch Uncles. Famous already in these parts for their math-meets-indie guitars and frontman Duncan Wallis’s er- interesting dance moves, Dutch Uncles have just signed to Memphis Industries, recorded an album and their days as a carefully-kept secret of the city are about to end. High Voltage caught up with Duncan before they left for tour with Tokyo Police club, and had a pleasant chat over a cup of tea.
So Duncan, what are you guys upto at the moment?
“We've just been promoting the single, the début on Memphis Industries...”
Are they putting out the record then?
“Yeah, they are with us for a whole album.”
So your current focus is the album then?
“Yeah.”
What sort of stage are you at? Recording, mixing?
“We thought we'd finished- we spent the summer doing it in Salford University. It was good to get down and it got us a label. We were just doing it to get tracks down, and then found ourselves with a little sampler, and then label interest...”
So, did you send it to them, or did they approach you?
“We sent it off to them. They'd been in touch in the past- they liked 'The Ink', so we thought, “you liked 'The Ink', let's see how you like these four...””
It's a great single.
“I like what it does as a single, but unfortunately not enough people in our camp seem to think it will penetrate enough.”
Well it's quite different, compared to say 'Face In' or 'Steadycam', the songs you hear fans calling out for at shows... that's quite a bold choice for a single.
“It was the only song we had at the time we were choosing. We wrote this album very fast- we spent about nine months writing six songs, and then spent two months getting another five.”
Was that as a result of practising more, once you knew an album was in the works?
“As we saw a vision for the album, and as soon as you've got certain degrees, and knew what was missing, your writing becomes a lot more structured rather than 'make a single, make a single, make a single...'”
What's the songwriting process then? Do the songs come out of jams, or does everybody go away and work on things?
“It's strictly eighties- music, band arrangement, lyrics.”
Well, I meant, do you approach the structure organically, or is it all very planned- section A goes after B, X will be the chorus, or whatever?
“Well we always argue over what's a chorus and what's not. I personally think that vocals make a chorus... I write the hooks, so I know where it's going to be [laughs]. At the same time, I'm playing piano in the band again-”
It's funny you should say that, because I had this smug question all lined up about being a guitar-only band, and then I heard the piano...
“Well I used to play the synth, standing up, but it looked a bit Hot Hot Heat- like I didn't know which band I was supposed to be in... [this time] I was adamant I wanted to sit down, play it two handed, give the instrument some respect...”
Like Meat Loaf? Out front of stage with the spotlight...
“More like Axl.”
You'd need to grow your hair a bit longer, get a fan-
“Get a bit more bloated, and get on the coke.”
I don't know why every interview I do at the moment comes back to slagging off Axl Rose. I wonder if it's my influence...
“Well, he did come back and make a big mockery of himself. I'm not a fan, but y'know?”
In the wake of Everything Everything and Delphic breaking though, as well as that NME article, do you feel a bit weird about the exposure you're getting at the moment, or do you think it's come at a good time and you're ready for it?
“It feels great. If we were feeling cocky about it, we could say that we've been waiting for this for a long time... I mean we have- we've been playing in bands for six years, but I've now got a small collection of NMEs for my mum with me in them. Because it's been six years, and we've seen what's happened to Delphic and Everything Everything, we're very mature about it- we aren't like 'this is happening, it's going down'. We're realistic about it, we don't want to get too excited about it... until we get recognised in the street, I don't think we have to worry about it.”
I recently saw you described as a 'young band'- I mean, you're not old men or anything [Duncan is actually about a year and a half older than I], but you have been at this a while- you've already put out an album, after all, and yet major publications I've seen haven't made any mention of it at all. How do you feel about that?
“Well, that's often our doing. Our first album, well, it's obviously an album, but we always looked at it as a very professional demo that we did at the beginning of being Dutch Uncles, our first ten songs. We thought we'd go over, get big on the continent before jumping back over and going 'AHA!' but it didn't work out like that. We never thought it was over, but we had to say 'right, let's forget that happened, but let's keep the songs that we and the fans like'... it was never released properly in the UK, in our eyes anyway- I mean, it was in HMV in the Imports section, but... our 'Face In' video never got any video play. We only started getting radio play after we joined Love and Disaster and Memphis. It felt like starting again.”
So you had to draw a line under it?
“This next album has been treated very much like a first album- we're trying to write as many singles as possible, catch as many people as we can. When it comes to the next album, we'll be a bit more reserved and go, 'let's do two really good songs, and then try and weird people out as much as possible'. We've written in 4/4 as much as we can-
That's a change.
“Exactly. The last album was lots of different time signatures that sounded like 4/4, where as this album is lots of songs in 4/4 that sound like different things.”
So we can expect less King Crimson comparisons then?
“Yeah probably [laughs]. I never knew where people got that one from.”
The other day, the BBC ran an article, that (dumbly summarised) suggested that guitar music was “dying”. What do you think of that?
“Well yeah, as a fashion it's been on the way out for ages because people give too much respect to synthesisers... it's a thing a lot of people hide behind. They make a synth-based band, then bring in the backing tracks and it all gets a bit messy for my liking. My personal opinion is that I like nothing better than two guitarists on stage, doing it like it should be. It's really good, and it shows musicianship. Guitar music is never going to die out, but I think guitarists feel like they are fighting synthesisers and synthesiser [players] feel like they are fighting guitarists.”
I guess the whole 'synthesisers putting guitarists out of a job' argument has been around for a long time- that whole Musicians' Union thing from the '70s...
“The short end of it is that guitars don't sound like guitars anymore. They've had to evolve to survive. Since 2004, indie has had two waves- guitar-based and synth-based, and it's usually pretty obvious which way a band has gone...”
Bringing it back to Manchester, do you think the descriptions of the 'scene' here have been a help or a hindrance?
“People are a lot more willing to listen to your stuff, so if they like it, great!”
You've done most of your releases on vinyl, is there a reason for that? Do you think there's been a move back to it in recent years?
“Vinyl comes with download, so you get that, you get both. Downloads alone are just crap- you can't hold your music at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.”
The 12” sleeve is awesome...
“Yeah... it's like there's a Television vinyl that's been in Piccadilly Records for years... I got Islet's new EP- saw it and bought it without thinking about it. I'm collecting them up. I got the first one, so I got the second, and I'm going to have the third.”
So you're obviously a fan of the physical product, but you've now got enough stuff out there- and especially with a new album coming out- that you must be thinking about downloading now. Does it affect you as a musician? Is it something that concerns you?
“I don't like hearing about it. I've had people tell me they've downloaded my album illegally, to my face. It's kind of funny at the time, but...”
How do you react to that?
“I just go 'good lad', whatever. If you like it, you like it. It's not my fault if you've got bad taste in music collecting... I've got morals about it- I don't do it, I only buy vinyl. In relation to being an artist, we're told for a band at our stage, if it gets leaked then more people can hear it, and we're told that the money is in live shows, unless you're Kings of Leon... although we plan for the album to be as big as it can be, we haven't thought about making any money off of it; we've thought of making money off tours, off merch...”
So you're happy to see it getting out there as its own reward?
“Yeah, but don't leak it. [laughs]”
Speaking of shows, can you remember the best gig you've played? Is there one that sticks in your mind?
“The Bombay Bicycle Club gig at Koko. It was a full crowd and we could handle it. It was a great feeling... though every time we go up to Sunderland it's always a good gig. Barry from the Futureheads has championed us up there and Frankie and the Heartstrings push us too... but that Koko gig felt like we could handle a full crowd of kids, probably on legal highs...”
I can still remember when it was legal to buy mushrooms. I feel old now. That's probably why Muse were able to record Origin of Symmetry on shrooms...
“Really? How did they play all of those arpeggios on shrooms? Was it all a fluke? [laughs]”
Kind of a change of subject, but what's the best and worst part of being in a band?
“The best part is if you can be successful- there's nothing better than calling it your job, than being able to treat your friends, or get gifts around Christmas- if the band can pay for you to be a social, giving person. The worst part is the rest... [laughs] seriously, though the worst part is becoming your own harshest critic; there's a lot of negative thinking.”
The post-record blues?
“Probably. It's not like post-natal, but I do feel exhausted; I don't feel like I could write any more lyrics for a while now.”
Well, that's pretty much all of my questions exhausted, so to wrap up: what do you love about music?
[BIG pause] “...It makes you feel good to feel weird? I like singing along like an idiot. Also it's my job.”
To love music?
“Yeah, and I love that it is my job. You aren't going to write down every word I say right...?”
Dutch Uncles' new album is out soon on Memphis Industries. Their last two singles, The Ink and Fragrant, are out now on Love & Disaster and Memphis, respectively. They are playing a one-off special show on Monday the 29th of November at St. Phillips in Salford where Duncan assures me, “we're gonna play pretty much the whole album, plus some old ones... I get to play a xylophone solo.”
Wow. There are a lot of great gigs happening this month. The latest in the spree I've been to comes courtesy of Oceansize, and boy, was it welcome.
But first, there was Tubelord. Whilst they did put on a mighty effort, and their songs showed some interesting twists and turns, it was all rather business as usual in the we've-bought-some-post-y2k-Sonic-Youth-albums-and-want-to-play-prog camp. Their better passages were reminiscent of the guitar howl of Biffy around Puzzle, with some Errors-esque electronics thrown into the mix, but my overriding impression was of a band not yet fully there. Nevermind.
Of my regrets (and there are many...), in recent times one stands above all else- my rather lukewarm review of the new Oceansize album, the verbose Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up. On repeat listens of a appropriate quantity (a minimum of twenty, in case you wondered), all of its subtleties really do unfold, and, let's be honest, for 'Silent/Transparent', 'Pine', 'Oscar Acceptance Speech', and 'It's My Tail...' even from play number one the quality was obvious.
This isn't an album review however; this is a live review. After a serious setback to my day, not to mention the unwelcome rain, I arrived in the lowest of spirits only to find the venue had been downgraded from Academy 2 to 3; a venue I really have spent too much of my Manchester life in. I felt a little sad that a band with as extensive a back catalogue and ostensibly as loyal a fanbase hadn't grown in size since their last album, the expansive Frames. Their new album even got 8/10 in the NME, for chrissakes, so where were the punters?
I needn't have worried though, because Oceansize provided an answer to all of my questions. Point by point, it went something like 'Part Cardiac', the rarely-played 'Music for a Nurse', 'It's My Tail...', 'Pine', 'Ornament', 'Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs'. Let's be honest, I could quote the entire setlist, but those were the highlights. In purest reviewing terms, 'It's My Tail...' won hands down for its frantic, spitting vitriol, echoed in gestures and shouting from the crowd, and framed by a meltdown of strobe lighting. Emotionally, however, it was clear that their lighter-in-the-air moment was 'Music for a Nurse'; looking around, everybody was singing along, and there were even tears in a few eyes. Well, why not? They scarcely come more moving than that. For 'Unfamiliar', some moshing started at the front, whilst handclaps were the order of the day for 'New Pin'. By the time that the circle pit had worn itself out in 'Ornament', it was abundantly clear that both the crowd and band were playing off each other in that special chemical way that only sometimes manifests itself.
Encoring with 'Women Who Love Men...', the band departed one member at a time, and spurred on by the audience keeping a regular clap where the beat had been, their three guitarists kept playing the outro riff. One minute passed. Two. Three. Four. The crowd and band gradually became less distinct as the notes became simpler, less defined, somehow hypnotic; the band were unmoving, the crowd transfixed. Then, suddenly, it was over; like a well-executed crossfade, the guitars left, replaced by cheers that lasted long after the band had left the stage.
I said of the new album that it wasn't the work of the same band that made me decide to move to Manchester. Maybe, maybe not, but that band was definitely the one I saw on stage tonight, and I'm glad I came.
Oceansize
With Vessels & And So I Watch You From Afar
Manchester Academy 3
2/2/2010
Rating: 4/5
After less than two minutes of the first band on tonight, And So I Watch You From Afar’s set, I already can’t believe that I haven’t heard of them before. Their math rock-meets- heavy grunge sound is so heavy that it rattles the bones, making a mockery of metal posturing, and yet their attitude is still identifiably alt rock, busting out the Sonic Youth stage moves and post-rock delay freakouts. Their last song sounds a little like a post-rock version of Radiohead’s ‘The Tourist’, but it’s ace anyway, so I’ll let them off.
Band two, Vessels, are rather less exciting. The stage becomes crowded with an additional member, and there’s a sense that the five-piece always has one person who is surplus to requirements. They go for a more pronounced math-rock sound, using fewer chords and a lot of modal riffs, blending it with a 65daysofstatic style electronic/shoegazing wall of sound. At times it’s very compelling, but in equal measure it sometimes falls completely flat.
Finally the band of the moment take the stage. They play most of the new Home and Minor EP, as well as some songs off their upcoming album. The best of these is a slower number that gradually builds to a washed out, echoing crescendo, and also worthy of mention is a more downtempo number called ‘Ransoms’ that even features a traditional-style guitar solo. Playing from their extensive back catalogue, the band reach for all three albums, playing ‘Unfamiliar’ from Frames, ‘Massive Bereavement’ from Effloresce (and live a reminder of why this band rightfully deserved more attention than their first record brought them), as well as ‘You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down’, set highlight ‘Calm Offensive’, and penultimate song ‘A Homage to a Shame’ from Everyone Into Position. Bizarrely, they chose to end on a newer song, that whilst not bad really felt like sticking two fingers to the eager crowd. The two previous times I’ve seen the ‘size, they’ve closed on fan favourites ‘Catalyst’ and ‘Ornament/The Last Wrongs’, so when they left without an encore, the crowd having chanted ‘Catalyst’ excitedly at the band for the last fifteen minutes of their set, the mood in the room definitely took a turn. Even with the disappointing end, it was nevertheless a great set. Roll on album four!
Vessels
with Stuart Warwick and Plank!
Deaf Institute, Manchester
14th November 2010
Rating: 4/5
Apparently I missed the first band on. My bad, really. Worse than that, I actually got chatting to them by accident at some point, and have since forgotten their band name and failed to look them up. I suck.
Right, so apologies out of the way, let's talk Plank! As luck would have it, they are actually about as essential as the exclamation mark that concludes their bandname; from an unconvincing start, their songs became gradually more and more interesting, until with a righteous guitar solo in their penultimate number, they'd completely won me over. They are great, and if you're into that kind of looping, math-meets-prog thing, they are definitely the band you've been waiting for. They even did a kind of stadium rock flourish in their last song that was distinctly Who-like. Excellent!
Now, when you go to a lot of gigs, you're eventually exposed to a little of pretty much every genre out there, and you quickly become very hard to be surprised by anything. The most pleasant surprises of all are when sheer musicianship wins through and somebody merely doing what they do incredibly well becomes the greatest virtue, ahead of originality, stagecraft or whatever.
That's not to say that Stuart Warwick doesn't have an original sound- he has, but at the same time it's definitely from that same bizarro-world of popular music from which Imogen Heap and Charlie Barnes have descended. Simply, it's one man and a piano (or, for one song, two men and one guitar) playing post-rock-pop, with a lot of loops. Stuart's voice is definitely of the Buckley school, and it's very compelling, to say the least. The songs themselves are occasionally bitter, occasionally sweet, and rather more often, bittersweet.
The crowd is finally won over when Stuart abandons an out of sync loop and cashiers a track, saying “I guess this is God's way of telling me I shouldn't play that song”. I think I speak for everyone present when I say we were sad to see him leave. If you're reading this, open up another tab and go and find him on teh internets. It's not hard (I managed to) and you will be rewarded.
Finally it was Vessels' time in the spotlight. I've actually had the good luck to see this band a surprisingly large number of times, both at festivals and in support slots, sober or too-drunk-to-remember, and everything in between. The thing I can't help thinking tonight as I sit in the strange theatre seat section of Deaf is how much better this band get every time I see them. My first impression, way back when, was of a band rather too mathy for my tastes, but today they are on fine form, sprawling and dramatic.
I'm not going to go into the nature metaphors; it's post-rock done well, and you should know what that sounds like (hint: Hammock or 65daysofstatic). Most encouragingly of all, the tracks I don't recognise (the newer ones) are much stronger than the ones I do, suggesting that their impending album is going to be a corker. Stuart obligingly hops back up to the stage to sing recent single, 'Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute', and again reminds me of that little itch I felt when first hearing it and wishing that this collaboration would become more permanent. Oh well.
That dispensed with and the audience satisfied, Vessels cracked out a hammer-of-the-gods finish and then made their exit, but not before thanking the crowd for actually being arsed to come down. Nice.
A theatre review. Saw this a while back and it was great.
Tom Stoppard
Arcadia
Lowry Quays Theatre
4/10/2010 Rating: 4/5
Way back when, I was dragged kicking and screaming (well, not exactly, I was 16; more like frowning and brooding) to a performance of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll at the Duke of York Theatre. As it turned out, the name was more than just a clever ploy to try and get uncultured ruffians like me into the theatre (if indeed that was their intent, they failed, for I recall the bar was largely composed of fortysomething academic types loudly debating communist ideology)- it genuinely was pretty rock 'n' roll- subversive, emotive, and, like all the best songs, pleasurable enough to make you want to repeat the experience.
After that I was a fan, and caught his excellent earlier work Arcadia sometime later (again at the Duke of York, oddly enough); in its clever juxtaposition of classical and romantic themes within individual time frames and across the course of the narrative (around 1809 to the present), it certainly trumped Rock 'n' Roll for symbolism and metaphor, but I wasn't sure if it trumped it for substance.
So, off the boring stuff and onto a review- from having seen the play before, was the Library Theatre company's production any good? In a word, yes. In two words, yes, outstanding. Whilst Samantha Bond clearly played the character of Hannah (characterized as a sceptic female academic with intimacy issues) better in the recent Duke of York production, it's hard to say whether Neil Pearson's cold arrogance or James Wallace's brilliant wild-eyed, sexual predator was the better turn as historian Bernard Nightingale. Charlie Anson's Septimus Hodge was the perfect balance of mischievous and serious where the plot required, and Beth Park deserves a mention for her potrayal of the deceptively girlish Thomasina, Septimus' charge.
The play itself is a complicated blend of historical drama and a second setting whereby the events of the 'present' (1809 to around 1814) are examined by modern historians, trying to uncover whether or not Lord Byron fought a lethal duel in the grounds of the manor during a flying visit in April 1809. The sub-plot to the essential dichotomy of Classicism and Romanticism is the setting of academic disciplines such as history against the sciences; in the most dramatic scene Nightingale rubbishes four years of work by the mathematician Valentine, causing him to abandon his efforts. The sub-sub-plot (and, I think, possibly the most interesting) is that of the child-savant Thomasina happening upon the idea of the Heat Death after seeing a Newcomen steam engine, and applying her experimentation with iteration to it.
I'm not going to ruin any more of the plot, but simply say that it's a beautiful, moving play. More than this, it's essential for any humanities student who lives with scientists (smug bastards), or scientist who lives with humanities students (after all, as Valentine points out, the Second Law of Thermodynamics does render Byron fighting a duel in 1809 as “trivial”). There aren't many plays as intellectually challenging, and few with as moving a final vignette as a mathematician devoting the rest of his life to save the universe with “good English algebra”. Close to perfection.
Alright, I'm reviewing for High Voltage, so I won't bang on about the live stuff here (why write the same thing twice?); instead, I'm going to write a short thought on each panel, do my day in quotes, and reviews of the evening's music from my Twitter feed. (Oh, look how down with the 'kids' he is....)
Quotes of the day (sorry if I misattribute any, I'm short sighted):
Musician's Union: Pay to play? Ok
Chris Long: "I'm going to ask Guy [Garvey] whether he'd pay to play."
Guy Garvey: "Right now?"
Jay Taylor: "Except for Helienne [Lindvall], don't you think this panel looks like a ZZ Top covers band?"
To be honest, this panel kind of missed the point to my mind, and got bogged down in a lot of technicalities, particularly the issue of tour support. Somebody (I think Horace Trubridge) argued that since many bands have to pay for a tour support slot, a local band under a pay to play deal with a few friends might make more on the night.
The thing with this of course is that pay to play usually doesn't offer good tour support slots, and more often you're playing to a room of quite unduly tribal fans of four bands of completely different genres. More than that, to give a local example, the costs are quite huge to the band- to play Academy Unsigned at Club Academy or Academy 3, a band has to front £250. That is fucking obscene, and everybody knows that gig will not get you anywhere.
I was surprised to hear Jay mention a semi- pay to play deal at Ruby Lounge (required ticket sales, without fronting cash), for I don't remember any pressure when I played there a couple of years back. Anyway, the panel was made by MM's Cath Aubergine getting up and finally saying what everybody was thinking: pay to play is a bloody outrage and you're safer in the hands of decent independent promoters (here she singled out Dan and Hannah from Pull Yourself Together). Right on!
Afterwards, I ended up having an interesting conversation with Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets) about the music business, where I'm pretty sure I recieved a Marxist Interpretation... so maybe that history degree is useful after all?
Blogging the USA
A much less controversial panel, this one seemed more at pointing out the rather obvious- blogs are important, do pitch music to them, do treat them with some respect. There was appropriate mention of the fact that there's the much-maligned 'basement blogger', and then there is the blogger who strives towards something approaching Proper Music Journalism; of which categories, I presume to be in the latter. I think this panel was more aimed at the few remaining people (they must exist somewhere in the industry) who are clueless about blogs.
Would have liked to stay for the Q&A, but had to run over to work at the Keynotes, so...
"Bloggers would have been rock critics in another era" - Ryan Schreiber
"blogs are modern fanzines" - Ollie Russian
"it's only the most agreeable things that rise to the top" - Sean Adams goes on the offensive after arriving late...
"a free t-shirt or guestlist is how the PR gets a hold of the young blogger" - Ollie Russian
Right, so after that was a drinks reception and then the excellent Upside Down: The Creation Records Story film. Afterwards I caught Mark Gardener for just long enough to say "Drive Blind is one of my favourite songs", and get a sideways compliment about people my age still listening to that stuff.
Whilst working the door, I overheard somebody say "no students know what they are talking about". Ok, so I am oft-quoted as saying "students are useless", but let's just remember that those of us who do know what we are talking about will save what's left of the industry, thank you very much.
Tweet Reviews
On my way to The Steals, a bunch of chavs tried to get us to give them our sandwiches. When that failed, they tried to mug us. We told them to fuck off. It was weird.
The Steals: "The Steals are like first album Verve meets the Cocteau Twins. This is a Good Thing."
Team Ghost: "Nat, you never told me that Team Ghost would be FUCKIN RAD live!"
Still Corners: "Still Corners bashing out motorik beats... Cool, but not as intense as The Secret Machines."
The highlight of the day though was at the bus stop, where some dude told me he'd seen an ace band opening for Maps & Atlases earlier that week, and for the first time I was able to casually go, "oh really? It's funny, because they are on my label..." (smarm added for emphasis)
I mainly like the four Big Ps: Post-Rock, Progressive Rock, Punk and er, Pshoegaze. I'm also partial to a bit of Trip-Hop.
Submissions for review are very welcome- get in touch at acelynham [at] hotmail [dot] com if you have something you think I might like, or use the DropBox below.
Other stuff I do:
Run this - http://www.superstardestroyer.co.uk/
News Editor (2010-2011)- High Voltage
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/
Contributor - The Fly
http://www.the-fly.co.uk/
Contributor - This is Fake DIY
http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/
Contributor - Noize Makes Enemies (2009-2011)
http://www.noizemakesenemies.co.uk/
Play in -
http://www.myspace.com/nowhereagainuk
I also freelance for Classic Rock Presents: Prog. That's pretty sweet.
