C I R C U L A T I O N volume 2 / issue 1 / free
Bombay Bicycle Club.
also — DELS + The Antlers
Contributors /Contents T H E
C I R C U L A T I O N
T E A M
1 |A U T U M N
M I X T A P E
E D C J M J F A R J C H L B O L W N T S M A M J W J R C R S J C G
D I T O R A V I D W A R D
2 | C O L U M N S
O - E D I T O R + G I G S O S E C A R B A J O
— PUNK GARAGE METAL
A N A G I N G D I R E C T O R A C K L U C K E T T E A T U R E S E D I T O R D A M B Y C H A W S K I E V I E W S E D I T O R A K E F A R R E L L O M M E N T E D I T O R A N A T E R A I E - W O O D
3 | I N T E R V I E W S — BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB 5 — THE ANTLERS 7 — DELS
I V E E D I T O R E N E D I C K G I B S O N
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N L I N E E D I T O R E V H A R R I S
10 | L I V E
R I T I A M O M I A N A R I L E X A T T O N I I L L O E L A C H
E R S H C O N N O L L Y D U T H I E G A R D E N E R K R I S T I N M A R T I N S E N O S B O R N E H E W P O R T E R R O O M E V I G N O L E S B R O O K S E L P R O N G E R
O O I E
M N I S T S R T J O H N S O N N O ’ B R I E N I C A R O B E R T S
L B M S
U E O S
A R T O O N I S T U S B E A M I S H - C O O K -
E D I T O R ’ S
N O T E
Welcome to the second year of Circulation. While it always seems contrived to say it, this really is our finest issue yet. There are three interviews with excellent artists; the ever-wonderful Antlers, new darling of the UK Hip-hop scene DELS, plus the ever-improving and evolving Bombay Bicycle Club. Of course going into a new year we felt we had to freshen things up so the magazine has been beautifully redesigned courtesy of Bhav Mistry (bhavmistry.net) - complete with an exclusive font. We have also finally sharpened up our online presence. We now have a fully fledged website at circulation-mag.com where you can find all the content from this issue, plus regularly updated comment, reviews and interviews. Finally, to celebrate this release, we are putting on a gig at Stereo on Gillygate on the 23rd October. We present hotly-tipped band Theme Park supported by the excellent Childhood and The Sundowners, as well as York’s own Handbook. With entrance at £4 for members and £5 for everyone else, this is the best value gig you will find in York. Thanks for reading.
R E V I E W S
— SUMMER FESTIVAL ROUND-UP 11 | A L B U M
R E V I E W S
— APPARAT BEIRUT BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB 12 — DJ SHADOW FOUR TET GIRLS M83 LAURA MARLING 13 — NOEL GALLACHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS SULLY TINAWIREN WAVVES 14 | S P I N - O F F — R&B AND INFLUENCE: THE PRODUCER AS EPHEBE. 15 — FORMAT MATTERS CARTOON -
David Ward. Editor. C O N T E N T S
/
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Columns |||
Autumn Mixtape
P U N K
G A R A G E
Autumn signals the end of EuropeÕs festival season,
M E T A L
There is presently quite a bit of controversy rumbling in the depths of the underground on the classiÞcation of
some new hard rock and metal albums. Opeth have just
October 28th-30th to look forward to. The Fest, in Gaines-
future garage. Can a genre with no parading anthems, no
released the sublime ÔHeritageÕ album, which as well as
ville USA, is one of the biggest events in the punk calendar, uniÞed sound and without the rudeness of pirate-driven town and take over almost all of the music venues. This is the tenth year of The Fest and with headliners including
sound of the underground?
Mikael Akerfeldt abandon the remaining elements of his
The doubt is rooted in the criticsÕ search for one collective sound to deÞne future garage as a genre. We all seem
looks to be an unforgettable weekend. The size of The Fest to be rummaging through the likes of Jamie XX, Oneman,
A R R A K I S R O L Y P O R T E R
B E R L I N M A T T H E W H E R B E R T ¥ Roly Porter, one half of dubstep act VexÕd, has just released ¥ On October 10th Herbert will release the Þnal chapter in his a new album, ÔAftertime.Õ A step away from his previous Þerce ÔOneÕ trilogy, ÔOne Pig.Õ This will be the result of attempting to dubstep sounds, this track is dark, spacey and perfect for record the life of a pig, eventually using parts of the pig itself the autumn nights. as instruments. For the moment, heard this beautiful track from ÔOne One.Õ U F O E S G V A C U U M B O O G I E ¥ Autumn is the time of Halloween. Put this on for some F L O A T I N G P O I N T S terrifying funk grooves. Complete with ghostly howls. ¥ First released in 2009, this intense tune is enjoying a resurgence in clubs. Four Tet and Ramadanman have both - been heard playing this over the past few weeks - perhaps due to its hugely funky house groove. The album is surely on G O O D M A N its way. R A P H A E L S A A D I Q ¥ In this issueÕs spin-off section we have a piece on R&B, producers and inßuence. Raphael Saadiq is one of our favourites of those producers for his work with Tony! Toni! 2 H E A R T S Ton ! and DÕAngelo. He returned this year with ÔStone RollinÕ,Õ S U L L Y this is the single, a piece of vintage soul. Watch the video as ¥ Engrossingly warm future garage track from the Þnest well, featuring Dennis Wise from The Wire. dubstep debut of recent months. The album, ÔCarrier,Õ is reviewed in this issue. - S H U F F L E B O M B A Y B I C Y C L E C L U B B I B I N A M P U ¥ There has always been something slightly wistful about M I M S U L E I M A N Bombay Bicycle Club, never more so than on acoustic album ¥ Sitting by the campus lake in bright sunshine and ÔFlaws,Õ but still present on ÔA Different Kind of Fix.Õ Perfect 26¡C makes compiling an autumn mixtape quite a test of then, for when summer slips away into autumn. We interview imagination. Here I must admit defeat, this bassline is the them on page 3. perfect summer groove.
B L U E V E L V E T C H I L D H O O D ¥ Dreamy and yearning - catch the band playing this at our launch gig at Stereo on the 23rd of October. - S O S A I D K A Y F I E L D M I C E ¥ A wonderful track for the cold misty mornings of November. One of the very best opening lines in indie history as well.
surprising (and angering) many fans with an even more
where bands of all sizes and success rates descend on the border genres have enough ÔoomphÕ to revive garage as the ÒproggyÓ and now ÒjazzyÓ 70Õs rock feel, also sees singer
the Bouncing Souls, Against Me! and Less Than Jake this
-
This autumn is a great season to be looking out for
but for fans of melodic hardcore and pop punk there is still
-
I M A B E N D R O T R I C H A R D S T R A U S S K E T T E R I N G ¥ ÔIm AbendrotÕ translates as ÔIn the GloamingÕ, gloaming T H E A N T L E R S meaning twilight, or dusk. From StraussÕs Four Last Songs, ¥ We interview The Antlers in this issue about new album meditations on death and transition, the piece offers poised ÔBurst Apart.Õ This caused a revisit to previous effort ÔHospice,Õ reßection and, ultimately, acceptance. There is no more a standout indie album even in the year of Veckatimest and suitable autumnal listening than this. Merriweather Post Pavillion. -
all together, in the hope that we can stuff hundreds of
the line up being dominated by American bands itÕs great to
producers into one neatly gift-wrapped genre. Impossible, of
see some smaller UK acts such as Leagues Apart getting
course, because it was never intended to be one independ-
of Mastodon, who after 2009Õs intense prog of ÔCrack
an invite. The Manchester upstarts have just completed a
ent genre. Future garage, with Òthe name future garage...as
the SkyeÕ which detailed a quadriplegic manÕs time travel
successful UK tour supporting The Menzingers, and for a
an attempt to help describe the music rather than to market adventure into the body of Rasputin, may have stripped
band with one release through a minor label, The Fest is
itÓ, is an underground movement; Òa re-envisioning of
down their sound for an album that more closely resembles
a fantastic platform. Their EP ÔTo AnywhereÕ is available on
what garage can and should beÓ, as Sub FM boss Whistla
their heavier earlier albums ÔRemissionÕ and ÔLeviathanÕ.
TNS Records and is deÞnitely worth a listen..
publicised in 2009.
What I have heard of the album so far (which has recently
One of the biggest stories in punk over the past months
The evolution is being driven by producers uniÞed by
—
A U T U M N
M I X T A P E
genres. September brought us the eagerly anticipated return
been streamed from their website) sounds excellent; itÕs
has been the departure of Þery and enigmatic frontman
their desire to break down the constructs of genre classiÞ-
Frank Carter from the Watford hardcore mob Gallows. De-
cation with the intent of developing new sounds. These new Yet there is still a great deal of haunting melody. The guitar
spite statements of his desire to quit music before the re-
sounds are based on the classic bumpy 4/4 pulse, shufßing work is jaw dropping and it clearly shows the bandÕs evolu-
lease of their last album, ÔGrey BritainÕ, CarterÕs exit came as hi-hats, and chopped/pitched vocal samples of UK as well
heavy and far more riff orientated than their previous effort.
tion as one of the 21st centuryÕs biggest metal names.
a shock to many fans. Statements released on both sides
as the more irregular rhythms of 2-step and of course
declared the split to be due to different opinions over the
House. And with the inßuence of parallel sub-genres and
laboration with Lou Reed to make an album titled ÔLuluÕ. With
bandÕs new direction. The Þnal send off for Carter was an
the works of pioneering artists like El-B and Zed Bias
only a 30 second preview to go on, itÕs hard to know what to
incendiary live show at ULU which tore the place apart and
as well as sound engineering and futuristic production
expect. This album could either be a shrewd publicity move
left those lucky enough to be there thoroughly drenched in
techniques, the fundamentals of garage are once again
by both artists or an attempt to create something genuinely
the charisma and energy displayed by the original line up.
producing music that can no longer be conÞned to London
different. Metallica could Þnd their decision to partner the
CarterÕs place was quickly Þlled by AlexisonÞreÕs Wade Mac-
and her boroughs.
69 year-old blowing up in their faces, especially after the
Neil, but this has not been a popular move. Gallows were
Nearing the end of 2011, it is impossible to ignore
Upcoming in October is MetallicaÕs bizarre choice of col-
lukewarm response to their previous effort at experimenta-
at the forefront of the UK hardcore scene and with CarterÕs
the dissolution of the borders between what were once
seething lyrics and vocals there was something uniquely
separate styles of underground bass music. The future now their thrash metal fan base. From the 30 seconds released
British about them. From latest release ÔTrue ColoursÕ with
wades in a melting pot of style and creative opportunity.
so far no-oneÕs heard enough to judge, but it seems likely
MacNeil at the helm it appears that this has been lost. The
A large bulk of the future garage movement, pushed by
that ÔLuluÕ will leave many continuing to deny that Metallica
fresh approach with a 40 second blitzkrieg of noise is more
organizations such as Rinse FM and The Boiler Room, is
have released anything since the Black album in 1991, with
reminiscent of Every Time I Die or Blacklisted; this doesnÕt
continuing to devote their production to the earlier sounds
all other releases having been a bad dream.
sound like Gallows and itÕs hard to imagine how ÔLondon is
of garage, dubstep and house. These include labels such
Moving on to more local news, York has plenty to offer
the ReasonÕ will sound in a Canadian accent.
as Hessle Audio (Ben UFO, Blawan, Ramadanman), Swamp
rock fans this Winter Term. Duff MckaganÕs Loaded, Sonic
New York hardcore legends Sick Of It All are entering
tion and the on-going mutterings about their credibility from
81 (Instra:mental, Funk Bias, Falty DL), Hyperdub (Kode9,
Boom Six, Electric Six, and Bill Bailey are all acts worth
their 25th year as a band and to celebrate they are releas-
Burial, Ikonika, Scratcha DVA), Night Slugs (L-Vis 1990,
seeing this autumn. Classic rock fans should take note that
ing ÔNonstopÕ, an album of re-recorded classics. This reeks
Mosca, Girl Unit), Numbers (Deadboy, Jacques Greene,
Irish legends Thin Lizzy will be playing the York Barbican
of self-indulgence and self-gratiÞcation, especially when
Slackk), and L2S (Whistla, Submerse). However, the fusing
in January, though whether the current Moore-less and
the band says that they want to give the songs Òa more
of sub-genres has now made the expansion of the future
Lynott-less line-up still counts as Thin Lizzy is up for
powerful soundÓ.
garage territory inevitable. From percussive focused artists
debate. Very worth the 40 minute train journey to Leeds on
such as Mount Kimbie and Jamie Woon with full and distort-
November 5th is one day festival Damnation at the Leeds
2nd full length album over the next month. The record-
ed vocals to the more heavily synthesized works of Damu,
University Union. Headlined by the Devin Townsend project,
ing has been completed and they are going through the
Melee and SBTRKT, even stretching further to post-dubstep with Evile, Decapitated, Turisas, Doom and a whole dayÕs
Þnal stages of production. Debut album ÔLive.Breathe.
dubbed artists such as Shlohmo, Submotion Orchestra and
Build.Believe.Õ was a stunning example of UK punk ska
Phaeleh, to more sound engineering focused producers like liver a well-deserved bang over for the week afterwards.
and reggae and there are high hopes for the follow up, so
worth of the heaviest of heavy metal, hopefully all will de-
James Blake; the limits are endless. Even UK funky, a genre
Also playing in Leeds this autumn are 36 CrazyÞsts, The
watch this space. Interestingly, this album has been funded originally intended to be segregated from the future garage
Melvins, Alkaline Trio, Against Me!, Dimmu Borgir, Wednesday
without the aid of a record label. The band instead opted
movement, has begun to put in its two cents. The recent
13 and Black Stone Cherry. So plenty of local gigs to get
to ask for pledges from fans to pay for the recording and
works of Roska with Rinse have managed to combine the
your teeth into. York is now lucky enough to have not one
production. This mini rebellion against the music industry
tribal percussion and House tempo of UK Funky with the
but two Rock/Metal nights on Fridays, with Blackout at the
has worked for them, by gathering Þnances for the record
newer futuristic production vibes.
Duchess and Rock Zombie at Mansion (Ziggys), and with
With so many gems released in 2011; James BlakeÕs
the two opposing nights being more competitively priced,
make pledges for VIP shows or to be in the bands videos so ÒJames BlakeÓ, DeadboyÕs ÒHereÓ, Falty DLÕs ÒMean Streets:
there is now no excuse for any self-respecting metal head
check out pledgemusic.com. Upcoming gigs: October 22nd
Part OneÓ, and with SullyÕs ÒCarrierÓ, DamuÕs ÒUnityÓ and the
not to be spending his or her Friday nights drunkenly
Fibbers, Goldblade/October 26th Stereo, Random Hand/
collaboration of Blawan and Pariah as Karenn amongst
shredding the Air Guitar and head banging in unison to
November 1st Duchess, Sonic Boom Six/December 17th
many to look forward to in the near future, itÕs irrefutable
some of YorkÕs best Rock DJs.
Duchess, Cockney Rejects.
that future garage continues to hold its own amongst the
best of UK funky, house, grime, juke, house, jungle and electro. Future garage has managed to manifest the swag and inßuence of a true deÞned bass-genre while spear-
heading the evolution of garage into what looks to be quite
RJ
a fruitful future.
1
feeling of the songs Þtting together, rather than what has
icant coverage not normally available to them, and despite
but also a cult like following. There are still opportunities to
-
moving from the upbeat to the haunting with a greater
and its ten venues allow for many small bands to get signif- and Koreless searching for one key element that links them on occasion felt like an awkward melting pot of antithetical
London ska punks The Skints look set to release their
W A X ( H A L L S R E M I X ) T H E M E P A R K ¥ Sitting by the campus lake in bright sunshine and 26¡C makes compiling an autumn mixtape quite a test of imagination. Here I must admit defeat - this bassline is the perfect summer groove. Theme Park are headlining our launch show on the 23rd October at Stereo. Wax is one of their standout tracks, so check out Halls rework, cloaking it in warm pads.
death metal growls. In my opinion the album is fantastic,
JR
SB
2
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C O L U M N S
Interview with—
Bombay Bicycle Club. Bands making their way through the mire of the modern music industry can often Þnd themselves facing the unenviable prospect of a brief, but beautiful, mayßy existence or a career of slowly diminishing returns. There arenÕt many bands who can eschew these dominant traditions and only a select few manage to haul themselves steadily onwards and upwards, content in the knowledge that whatÕs in front of them is more exciting than whatÕs behind. Bombay Bicycle Club are one such band. Formed in 2006 in North London and given a helping hand by the Road to V competition of the same year, BBC have lithely adapted to the challenges of remaining interesting and important with aplomb ever since then. The release of their third album, A Different Kind of Fix, comes off the back of a bold left turn, in the shape of their sophomore acoustic offering Flaws, and neatly rounds off the trio that started with their endearing debut I had the Blues but I shook them Loose. Their extensive output belies their collective youth but is an accurate reßection of their startling maturity Ð perhaps an overlooked quality of the band.
H C T R
A H H E
S B E I N A N G E D A T T H E C E I V E D
G S O Y O U N G T H E W A Y Y ’ V E B E E N ?
“When we started out people gave us a bit of leeway because we were young and you accept that there’s room to grow.” says lead guitarist Jamie MaCcoll “In a positive sense I think being young and having some songs about being young has always attracted younger and particularly adolescent fans. Hopefully young people find it easier to relate to us than to posturing rock bands.” If part of the attraction of BBC ever was the intrigue of seeing particularly young people performing brilliantly in a job usually reserved for people of more advanced years then their third album will put an end to that. It’s a cohesive well-executed record with an assured, polished sensibility. There was no real manifesto behind the album, but we were definitely all more involved and confident with how we wanted it to sound.” says MaCcoll “With the first record we were fairly intimidated by the studio equipment, we had no idea how anything worked.” They may be more proÞcient in the studio, and A Different Kind of Fix sounds acutely assured and polished, but live they are still as visceral as ever, a fact sharply demonstrated by their performance at this yearÕs Reading and Leeds festival. For MacColl it represented the best parts of being in Bombay Bicycle Club. “Every time we play Reading and Leeds we say it’s been one of our favourite gigs. I think Reading and Leeds falls in quite a special place in the year; it’s the end of the summer and often the culmination of a lot of things. This year the album was just about to come out and it felt like quite a big turning point. It was also one of the few big gigs where the crowd sang back every word. We all left with very big smiles on our faces.” And why not? To continue to climb such a steep upward trajectory must be creatively daunting, but what better challenge to have?
Where next for Bombay Bicycle Club? “We don’t really sit down and set out goals, it all comes quite naturally.” MacColl continues “People are surprised that we’ve produced so many albums, but I think it’s just a product of being young and restless. If we’d been at university we would have been figuring out what we want to do afterwards so I see this as a similar thing – for the last 3 years we’ve been wrestling with our identity and trying to decide what kind of music we want to make” Importantly BBC are, in their own words, making the music that they want to make, a fact that can often escape bands crushed under label pressure and the weight of their own hype. Their sincerity and integrity is essential to their appeal and at a time when some of their contemporaries have fallen by the wayside such qualities are needed more than ever, as MacColl elaborates: ÒWhen we left school indie music was certainly on the start of a decline. That period around 2005 when indie music had become part of the mainstream seems to have ended. With the odd exception, the days of major labels throwing half a million pounds at a band with 4 songs on a MySpace are deÞnitely over.
Hopefully if we started out now things would have turned out the same. I donÕt think weÕve ever been a band with a massive hype around us; we didnÕt even get a record deal until after weÕd made our Þrst album. I think the way weÕve gone about things has been very natural.Ó JF. 3 / 4
—
I N T E R V I E W S
Interview with—The
Antlers
The Antlers are not what I expected. These are the Brooklyn based art rockers whose debut concept album Hospice was based around an abusive relationship between a nurse and a terminal cancer patient. I am anticipating navel gazing, glum faces and tortured artist shtick. Instead I Þnd myself in a shabby tour bus somewhere in a Welsh Þeld, crammed around a minute Formica table with three chatty, cheerful musicians who are more interested in raving about their Matt Berninger fandom, than droning on tediously about the Ôcreative processÕ.
But when weÕd get back from tour it would be like Ôholy shit IÕm really exhausted!Õ Really burnt out. But I think that would happen even if you had a kind of upbeat happy kind of show, after a whileÉ just that persistenceÉÓ
The band are grateful for the positive reaction to Hospice, but they are also keen to avoid complacency. ÒThere were deÞnitely a lot rumblings initially, positive things, then a few more larger publications like NPR was very big for us in the States,Ó says drummer Michael Lerner, Òbut at every level we sort of experienced growing pains a little bit, it really wasnÕt over night. I guess it These initial assumptions were of course wildly unfair. helped us just get better as a unit, as a band.Ó The Hospice was an underground hit back in 2009 and bonding experience seems to have paid off. Whilst the now the band are touring a brighter, poppier follow-up band was originally established by Silberman largely as Burst Apart. The new album still displays The AntlersÕ a support act for solo material, Burst Apart seems to penchant for heart wrenching theatrics (as witnessed have been a more collaborative project, generated from on epic closer ÒPutting the Dog to SleepÓ) but it is all night improvisational sessions at the bandÕs studio in noticeably lighter in tone. Floppy haired keyboardist Brooklyn. Did this close working environment lead to any Darby Cicci conÞrms this change of tone: Òit feels like tension? ÒIÕm sorry I got my Darby tattoo now, I can tell a very dramatically different thing in lots of ways,Ó he youÓ deadpans Lerner, and the ease of the ensuing jokes says, ÒitÕs much lighter, itÕs a little more experimental, it between the musicians seems to suggest that it canÕt feels more like catchy pop at timesÓ. Indeed, tracks such have been too painful a commitment. as ÒNo WidowsÓ and ÒEvery Night My Teeth Are Falling OutÓ seem to demonstrate a newfound urge to write more In fact The Antlers seem to beneÞt from self imposed immediately accessible singles, complete with beguiling isolation. Although Hospice and Burst Apart are electro-pop riffs and hooky choruses. very different albums, both demonstrate a peculiarly distinctive brand of electronic indie, immersive, half This move towards lighter material seems to have been hushed and drenched in alternatating streams of a natural reaction to Hospice, an underground success darkness and light. Although Silberman acknowledges that brought critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base, the inßuence of Cocteau Twins and Portishead, the but also left the band at risk of being pigeonholed as sound The AntlersÕ create is often deÞnitively their arty miserabilists. Softly spoken frontman Peter Silberman own. When I ask if there is anyone they would consider conÞrms a desire for change after extensive touring. collaborating with there are hesitant mentions of Caribou ÒWe got tired of the black cloud hanging. The fact that it and Four Tet, but it is clear that the band really envisage was such a serious thing meant people connected with themselves continuing alone for the next few years, it, which is great, because a lot of people really strongly touring, experimenting and just seeing how things turn connected with itÉBut it can get to you after a while, out. This is an unmistakably tight unit, and for now there itÕs just kind of exhausting.Ó I wonder if it was difÞcult seems to be no need for outside intervention. performing such emotionally draining material with commitment every night? ÒIt doesnÕt feel difÞcult whilst To an outsider, Brooklyn appears to have been something youÕre doing it,Ó insists Silberman, Òat least with me I of a creative hub over the past few years, generating wasnÕt getting sad every night. It felt like a performance... early breakout bands like Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer and
MGMT, as well as more recent ones to watch such as She Keeps Bees, Here We Go Magic and Shad[]wb[]x. The Antlers have been Þrmly based there for the past few years, but they dismiss the idea of a distinctive Brooklyn scene. ÒThereÕs been millions of New York bands and scenes for a long time,Ó says Cicci, ÒI mean now everyone just lives in Brooklyn cause everyone has been edged out of Manhattan. So thereÕs a million bands happening there, a lot of good ones, but not really a scene that kind of uniÞes all these bands, more bits and piecesÓ. ÒMaybe a few years ago it feltÉ it seemed like that was kind of a thing,Ó adds Silberman hesitantly, Òbut a lot of those bands have sort of gradually made it to the big time. I feel like scenes, circles and collectives have kind of happened on a smaller level. It just be that weÕre on tour all the time weÕre just not there to see it.Ó When I bring up The National, another Brooklyn based band who The Antlers supported on tour 2010, the response is far more enthusiastic. ÒTheyÕre great career/life role models,Ó enthuses Cicci, Òthey all work together so well and the whole crew are just really nice and professional. Hopefully one day thatÕs what weÕll become.Ó Lerner agrees that
they were inspired by The NationalÕs famously powerful live performances: ÒtheyÕre just a fucking force onstage! I got goose bumps at times,it was like ÒHoly shit! IÕm actually that excited about this band!Ó IÕm seeing them every night but still... IÕm seeing them every night but stillÉ when Matt [Berninger, the front man] runs into the crowdÉÓ The interview winds down as the band collapses into sighs of admiration, but later that afternoon I manage to catch their set in a crowded, dimly-lit festival tent. There are no Berninger-style ßourishes, no stage invasions or stage dives, but it is an intense, mesmeric experience nonetheless. As audience members leave reeling, murmuring ecstatic praise with wide-eyed enthusiasm, itÕs easy to see why such a buzz surrounds The Antlers. With this impressive a presence so early on in their career, it would be no surprise if The AntlerÕs turned out to be the next big Brooklyn success story. Berninger and co. should watch their backs. RP.
5 / 6
—
I N T E R V I E W S
Interview with—
DELS
Whatever anyone else says, there is a distinctive trend in the music world between living in a small suburban town and producing meaningful songs. A case in point is UK rapper Kieren Dickins, better known as DELS, who hails from Ipswich, Suffolk. Tied with a self-confessed feeling of isolation and alienation on eventually moving to the Big Smoke, DELS wrote what turned out to be a beguilingly introspective and compelling debut album in the shape of GOB. Released by Big Dada earlier this year, it is eerily reminiscent of a certain Dizzee RascalÕs critically/acclaimed debut album Ð Boy in da Corner. With a helping hand from UK music gods Roots Manuva and Joe Goddard, it is safe to say that DELS is in good company, and with a clutch of impressive videos to accompany his songs, it looks as though he has all the boxes ticked to stand the test of time. On listening to GOB, what is most striking are the unconventional, sinister beats that border on atonality. What were your thoughts behind this? In regard to the production and the album, I had a vision where I’d use producers who aren’t known predominantly for making a hip-hop record. Something I loved about the golden age of hip-hop in the ‘90s was how individual it was and how everyone was so conscious of not ripping each other off. That was something I wanted to do, but I didn’t want it to sound American at all. So choosing Micachu, Kwes and Joe Goddard created a fresh angle and it pushed me conceptually as well just because Micachu and Kwes’ beats are so awkward and Joe Goddard is a king when it comes to making a pop record which gave me another dimension on the album sonically.
Would you ever consider taking the Chipmunk/ Dizzee Rascal route and saturating your sound to cater for mainstream audiences? It’s something I’ve been thinking about but I don’t want to compromise my vision and I don’t want to compromise what I stand for, but ultimately everyone wants their music to be really popular. But it doesn’t mean I’d necessarily want to saturate it or emulate anyone’s recent chart success because there’s no longevity in that; I want to have a career out of it. I want to be remembered as someone who really cared about the art form, because I don’t want to disrespect the art form, I’m in love with the art form and I want to stand up for it so I guess for my next record which I want to start working on next year, I will be conscious that I didn’t put many hooks in the first album and a lot of bits were disjointed and out of place. You touched on album number two, have you recorded any new material? What have you been doing since the album release? I’ve been playing festivals all summer, getting ready for my first headline UK tour. I’ve also been working on a new mixtape that Kwes and Micachu have been doing together called Kwesachu Vol. 2 which comes out at the end of the year, I recorded a song for that last week and will be doing another in the next few weeks. I’ve also been asked to be on a mixtape that Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio is putting together. I’m also working on a new EP that will come out next year.
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How are you feeling about supporting DOOM on his upcoming tour?
C I R C U L A T I O N
How much did living in Ipswich inßuence what you rap about?
I think it did, just because in my friendship groups I was always known as the boy from Suffolk, always an outsider. I didn’t feel like I fitted in London, I still don’t now. But when I go back to Ipswich, I feel like It’s an incredible experience, you get to see how he that’s my home. There’s all that talk of alienation and interacts with his own particular fanbase and people loneliness on my album, I still feel alone at home. All have been waiting a long time to see him perform, he’s my friends have gone down a certain road and I went got a big cult following. He’s always done what he down a different road. I’ve always had my own ideas wanted to do, that’s what I emulate, you know? It’s very of what I want to do, I’ve never really followed anyone inspirational. It’s such a pleasure to be a part of this else. I guess that’s kind of represented in a sense on big tour with Hudson Mohawke and Jamie XX and people my album. I’m not talking about inner city life; I’m talking who I really respect. about other experiences. It’ll be interesting to see how I write my second record, after spending so much more How rewarding was it making the ÒShapeshiftÓ video on time in the city and going all over the world. money you raised yourself? The concept behind Trumpalump Ð whether we dream in Yeah it was very rewarding, just because it felt like I colour or black and white Ð how did this idea come to was in control of everything, I didn’t have any label you? telling me how to do it. It felt like a uni project, it was me and my mates coming together and literally just I dream some fucked up things a lot. A way of having fun with it really. It turned out better than we documenting these dreams is waking up in the morning anticipated really, because it was made on such a and scribbling in my notepad things that I’ve seen or shoestring budget but it goes to show that if you get things that stand out and I’m remembering things later people together with the right skills then you can do on in the day, working out that nothing really makes literally anything. I don’t really like being in front of sense. One day I was just sitting there, thinking about the camera though, it’s quite daunting, and everyone dreams, and thinking do we actually dream in colour? is looking at you the whole day. I don’t really like being I love that perpetual loop, you don’t ever know in what bossed about too much. Not to sound like I have an colour you dream. The fact that if we colourise our ego but with people saying ‘look that way, look this way’, dreams when we remember them is such a nuts idea. I it’s hard. Maybe on my next album I might approach expanded on that idea in the video. When we making it it differently; maybe I won’t be in my videos at all, we felt like we were doing something fresh. switching it up with animation or something. A lot of hip-hop albums are weighed down by featuring Does your work as a graphic designer inform your artists Ð is this something you actively moved away from videos? How much creative control do you have? Do you for the album? come up with the ideas and concepts? Yeah definitely, just because I felt like on the first album One of the reasons why I signed to Big Dada was you need to stamp your own voice. I wanted to prove because they allowed me complete creative control. With to myself and others that I could do it on my own. But all of their visual output it’s all been finalised by myself, when Roots Manuva came along I couldn’t turn down then sent it to the label to see what they think. They’ve that opportunity. always trusted me with my ideas and had faith in what I wanted to produce. Because I’ve always worked really closely with friends it’s been really easy. I’m definitely interested in directing videos for other bands or for myself by my third album because I’m only making three albums. Why only three albums? And why retire by the age of 30? Just because I don’t want to be an old rapper, really. There’s so many other things I want to do. I want to be a lecturer, I want to go to Royal College of Art and do a masters, but being a rapper wouldn’t allow me to do that. But if by album three youÕre at the top of your game commercially and critically would you maybe reconsider? Maybe, maybe think again. My initial plan is to do three albums, and move onto something else. I don’t want to fall out of love with music, I might be a producer or something. I want to make sure that I’ not saying the same thing over and over again. You get a lot of artist who churn out the same shit over and over again. I really really don’t want to go down that road. I want to be a bit more consistent and my music to be more considered and thoughtful, I don’t want it to get to repetitive and boring.
How did you manage to get in contact with Joe Goddard and Roots Manuva?
He used to do this night at Queen of Hoxton last summer called Dub College. I played that and he loved the set. I remember during soundcheck he told me he really liked “Shapeshift” and asked if we could do something together with a Hot Chip beat. I told Joe and he was over the moon because he’s a massive Roots Manuva fan, so he made a beat and sent it to me the next day. I wasn’t too sure of the beat at first but Joe was like ‘trust me this is going to be a banger’ then I wrote the verse and then Roots Manuva went and wrote his verse and Joe added a hook. In the studio we added the brass and it went on from there. That was the first time I worked in a proper studio as opposed to a bedroom, I was like ‘Wow I’m living the dream’. It all came to me in that moment and I felt really proud of how far I’d come. LH.
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Theme Park / Childhood /The Sundowners /Handbook— rd Sunday 23 October @ Stereo, York — £5
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ADVANCE
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Festival Round up The UK festival season allows Brits and their friends from around the world to enjoy several days’ music for about the price of three Rihanna tickets. But in an age where increasingly more festival-goers are looking overseas for their hedonistic delights, is the quality of music at our weekenders good enough to provide value for money? Attendees of boutique festivals Secret Garden Party and Bestival were treated to a reggae history lesson, courtesy of David Rodigan. Rather than merely pump out reggae classics, Rodigan put into context every song he played – from Millie Small’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’ heralding the birth of ska, to Toots and the Maytals’ ‘Do the Reggay’ demonstrating the first use of the term in song. Rodigan also provided evidence of his esteemed reputation in reggae circles with exclusive dubplates of standards such as Tenor Saw’s ‘Ring the
Alarm (Rodigan Dub)’ Submotion Orchestra managed these festivals plus Glastonbury, Greenman, Shambala and Limetree, amongst others, on their path to festival domination. Last seen in York’s YUSU bar in June, the group’s live dubstep, replete with haunting vocals, set heads nodding across the country. Theirs is the kind of act one can be content to stand still and be encapsulated with – not the case with guitarist duo Rodrigo and Gabriela, who brought their Latin-inspired acoustic shredding to Womad and The Big Chill and wowed audiences with commendable technical skill on both lead and rhythm guitar. To the surprise of many, they produced a rich and powerful sound from their two humble-looking instruments. Kanye West proved a less popular headliner at The Big Chill, with many subsequently expressing disappointment at his lavish stage
FOR MEMBERS
show in which, surrounded by dancers and a backdrop of Greco-Roman statues, he spoke of being treated ‘like Hitler’ in an unsuccessful bid to win the crowd after his songs – which he began from the sound tower - left most unimpressed. West should perhaps have let his songs do the talking. His impressive entourage was eclipsed by that of Janelle Monae, whose twenty musicians and dancers enabled her to make an entrance as subtle as West’s was grand; sharply suited, she revealed herself as one of three caped cavorters. The set echoed the one we saw at Bestival 2010, with the addition of inspired takes on Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’ and Nat King Cole’s ‘Smile’ – a request easily managed by the sunworshipping afternoon crowds. But what about those who sought their festival fix abroad? York students were to be found at Outlook in Croatia, where Rodigan and Submotion were joined by other bassline luminaries. Outlook, like many far-flung festivals, is far from foreign; organised from the UK, acts are largely there in association with their UK record labels – Maffi, Black Box, Deep Medi etc. There is a strong argument, no doubt, that watching your favourite DJ from atop a boat, or whilst wallowing in the shallows of a beach on the kind of scorching day that comes as a rare surprise in Britain, is preferable to investing in the British national culture. But how many UK festivals will be able to afford to become such UK summer institutions as Glastonbury or Womad? Will this responsibility be left to Outlook and its peers? Only time will tell. BG + JB. 1 0
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A P PA R AT The Devil’s Walk Apparat a.k.a Sascha Ring, practitioner of Berlin techno since the early noughties, has grown up. On 2007’s Walls, he honed a niche for lush, atmospheric electronic shoegaze that
BEIRUT
The Rip Tide
The Rip Tide, the latest instalment from New Mexico band Beirut will by no means shock the listener. For returning fans, the foremost characteristics of lead singer Zach Condon’s
B O M B AY BICYCLE CLUB A Different Kind of Fix For many bands the clamour surrounding the release of a new record can turn into their own death knell, the high water mark before an inexorable decline. This is not the case for
DJ SHADOW The Less You Know The Better
After expanding the hip-hop genre with elegant sample-based instrumentals on 1996’s Endtroducing, DJ Shadow successfully applied a similar formula on 2002 follow-up The Private
took its cue from the dream pop of Slowdive and expansiveness of M83. Since then, Ring has spent most of his time working with Modeselektor as Moderat, putting out an acclaimed LP in 2009 and touring the world with a visually-enhanced live show. The conception of The Devil’s Walk began during a lengthy trip last year to Mexico, before becoming realized later in European recording studios. The cross-continental journey and combination of cultures helped to define a blend of cold electronics with warm strings and keys; and drifting vocals that recall late, quiet nights in a simple tropical atmosphere. It entices you in rather than grabs you by the throat with the measured, crystalline amble of tracks like ‘Candil de la Calle’ and ‘A Bang in the Void’. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Black Water’ feels a little
mechanically manufactured for epic status and the vocals on ‘Escape’ sound awkward next to the delicately melancholic baroque-pop string arrangements. Despite this, Ring clearly has an ear for graceful vocal melodies that have been sown together with great care, perhaps an indication of the commercial direction in which he wishes to head. Broadly speaking, The Devil’s Walk is swathed with left-field textures not dissimilar to Sigur Rós in their heyday, but pales in comparison as a slightly inferior replicant of their abilities, and is perhaps guilty of substituting maturity for soft introspection intended for the mind rather than the body. So not a step up from Walls as such, more a step-over to a more accessible field, albeit with mixed results. LH.
sonorous vocals and frolics into European instrumentals are ever present and abundant within the album. Yet this third complete studio album suggests a development of maturity and conscientiousness in their song-writing, separating the group from the naivety of sporadic and wistful tunes in the 2006 Gulag Orkestar. Condon’s distinct reflective tone remains present. The last offering, the collaborative March of the Zapotec & Realpeople Holland EP, explored the richness of a slower and more ominous tone. Here, the heaviness of a Mexican marching band has been replaced by a far brighter, and overall, cleaner sound that openly provides a ‘poppier’ element to the modest record. Disparate to the unambiguous melodies of previous tracks such as ‘Sunday Smile’ and ‘Postcards From Italy,’ the album is much more
contemplative and relishes in the loneliness of Condon’s vocals. “I may drift a while”, from ‘A Port of Call,’ suggests a melancholy and sense that, even still, this singer/songwriter/instrumentalist has not settled into a comfortable musical setting. Whilst we get a glimpse of electro-pop in the homeward Santa Fe, the satisfaction of Beirut’s music is found within its morose song subject interjected by a youthful sanguinity. This romantic and optimistic sound, now a trademark of the band, is found within the likes of ‘East Harlem’ and ‘A Candles Fire.’ This is Beirut’s most intimate and introspective album to date. While it may not be as instantly and obviously enjoyable as their previous works, the gentle majesty of the music allows a private, albeit slight, perspective into Condon’s conservative ideals that are wholly his own. MP.
Bombay Bicycle Club, now three albums deep at an impressively young age, each new offering only brings the happy expectation of greater things. A Different Kind of Fix follows the acoustic Flaws but the sincerity and sharpness of the song-writing is still palpable despite the increased production. Lead single ‘Shuffle’, for instance, is an infectious, beautiful song centred around a piano loop and augmented by lead singer Jack Steadman’s affecting delivery. ‘Beggars’ errs on the side of Flaws folk sensibility without sounding tired, whilst ‘Leave It’ soars in a manner uncharacteristic of the group but befitting of an album of this scope. Much of the new material has been receiving a rapturous reception from festival crowds throughout the summer especially the hazy groove of ‘Lights Out Words Gone’ which emits
relaxing vibes. However, the pedestrian tempo of final track ‘Still’ is a somewhat abrupt end to an album that moves along so cohesively. This is the album that will solidify BBC’s reputation as one of the most endearing bands working in Britain today. They are a band who are beloved by the mainstream but don’t cater to it as they continue to write essential, exciting, evolving music with integrity and ease. JF.
Press. Then came The Outsider, an atrocious mess of hyphy and moody Radiohead imitations that resulted in much of his audience tuning out. The Less You Know, The Better is, at least, an improvement. It begins with the statement ‘I’m back. I forgot my drums’, and shows Davis has not lost his impeccable ability to sample beats, creating impact and atmosphere. But this is not enough to give the album consistency; within the first six tracks one can hear hip-hop, metal, introspective soulful folk, piano-led jazz crooning and indie stomp, before the album becomes less interesting, epitomised by tracks entitled ‘Tedium’ and ‘Going Nowhere’. Put simply, Shadow seems to have run out of ideas for songs fairly quickly, including instead linear instrumentals that form an eclectic collection, one lacking in both ambition and rationale.
Despite this, ‘…The Better’ has enough sublime moments to make it a worthwhile listen. Endtroducing throwback ‘Enemy Lines’ has wah guitar and 80s keyboard string stabs over a crisp yet mellow groove. Ironically, the finest sampling comes on a track without any drums: the plaintive ballad ‘Sad and Lonely’. The Deluxe Edition also contains ‘Def Surrounds Us’, which surpasses all else on the album. A grimy dubstep groove mutates into an industrial, pounding drum ‘n’ bass voyage to Hell and back. Here Shadow for once seems confident in his approach to new genre territory. ‘The Less You Know, The Better’ is worth a listen and, if you’re willing to put up with Davis’s constant attempts to make the next song sound nothing like the last, may become quite enjoyable. But there’s no way you’ll like every track. BG.
on all that.” The mix opens with a recording from Fabric itself. Hebden’s set is scattered with these audio samples, replicating the experience of moving from one room to another. These moments worked nicely to tie the mix together yet have me searching for the skip button when relistening to the record. Fabriclive59 manages to encompass a variety of music styles yet remains cohesive. Four Tet never set out for this to be a big club mix – so the tracks can sometimes become stale and dull. He treated this as a project in which to discover old classics and search out lost gems – “The music is important, but the experience of finding so many forgotten records and producers became an intrinsic part of the story” – as a producer this may be a relevant task, but the results are less impressive from a listener’s perspective. At times
the mix loses its way, after the impressive original track ‘Pyramid’ we fall into ‘How I Program’ by Red Rack ‘Em, frequent moments like this detract from a solid set of songs. Treating the mix as a study of Four Tet, we can see his own musical elements in the music he selects, full of skittering high hats and subterranean bass lines, with authentically created vinyl crackle. The Four Tet originals ‘Pyramid’ and ‘Locked’ are the undisputed highlights of the mix. Both showcase Hebden’s skill with combining live sounding instruments with computer generated beats. Yet it is disappointing that few other moments hit these heights. JR.
Mac as his. You listen to their second album and hear something of each. He talks of his ‘baby’ like Tom Petty and adds in lazy drum fills like Dylan did on ‘Joey’. As Owens explains, the idea behind Father, Son, Holy Ghost is ‘the presentation of something’s origin, something’s identity, and something’s spiritual quality’. This album taps into the trinity incredibly well. The lyrics are so candidly sentimental that they turn listening into an act of emotional surrender. Something of Owens’ origin is given much airing; his famous Children of God upbringing and difficult relationship with his mother are covered in songs ‘My Ma’ and ‘Forgiveness’. Girls have a habit of going through people’s Girls croon over love, women and life as if records to expose the bands they once religiously sentiments were the only topic of worth, but these followed. Frontman Christopher Owens lists The growing pains are softly uttered rather than Everly Brothers, Randy Newman and Fleetwood blurted out like they were on the debut, Album.
The blaring guitars on ‘Die’, redolent for Owens of Fleetwood’s ‘Oh Well’ and Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for me, shout the anger to spare the vocals from doing so, which remain cool as they do throughout Father. Compared to their debut, the production is better, the composition of the songs is more intricate and although the lyrics remain as guileless narratives about love, thoughts have moved on from breakups to makeups. The opener, ‘Honey Bunny’ sees Owens return the affection of the Mother ‘who loved me’ with the repeated refrain, ‘you’ll be the girl that I love’. Owens takes opiates to focus on his song writing. The blinkers that he puts on are useful to Girls; it helps create music so forthright that it resembles artists and memories that make us look back. HT-W.
impressive, which is why their sixth studio album is met with enormous expectations. This is also due, in part, to it being over three years since their last album: Saturdays=Youth. Anthony Gonzalez, the man behind M83, describes the new album as ‘darker and very, very, very epic’, which hints as to where he has taken it. The album features some extraordinary songs, yet no song falls underneath a certain level. ‘Intro,’ featuring Zola Jesus, whets your appetite for what will be thrown at you the next song. ‘Raconte-Moi Une Histoire’ is a warm, upbeat song revolving around a child telling a story about a frog. One track that stands out is ‘My Tears Are Becoming a Sea’. This is a widescreen Sigur Rós-esque song, with a full orchestra and longing lyrics. While making such a lengthy album is not an easy task, because the songs can easily become monotone,
yet Gonzalez proves that this is no issue. The album stands out for its craft. One can clearly hear that no sound or beat has been left to chance. Each track performs a different function and the music has neatly been constructed around that exact purpose. It is quite surprising that all the songs are so different, and that they don’t blur into one another. Overall it is a darker album in some ways, but missing are the sore, emotional songs, like ‘Graveyard Girl’ and ‘Too Late’, that made Saturday=Youth special. You can still hear the hurt in songs like ‘Splendor’, but it’s not as brutal as in the last album. MKM.
FOUR TET Fabriclive 59 In the official press release for Fabriclive59, Keiran Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet, is quoted as saying “This mix is not about my Djing. It’s about London and Fabric and nights out and my take
GIRLS Father, Son, Holy Ghost
M83 Hurry up, We’re Dreaming M83’s new album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is much anticipated. Their climb from just remixing songs by big bands like Bloc Party and Placebo to releasing their own records has been
Sons has led to recognition as a talented singer/ songwriter with a loyal fan base. A Creature I Don’t Know is Marling’s third album, and she has firmly imprinted her own stamp on this record. Compared to her previous efforts, A Creature I Don’t Know was shaped and written before “anyone else gets their grubby mitts on it”. This attitude is evident as the album seizes a new direction, perhaps not as catchy as her debut 2008 “Alas I Cannot Swim”, yet darker and more enthralling than her 2010 release “I Speak Because I Can”. The album reveals a grittier Marling. The substance of her song writing is uncompromised as she deals with issues of love and loneliness, Laura Marling has been a notable name on the heaven and hell. The album not only satisfies London folk scene since her 2007 release My old fans, keeping to the same writing style, but Manic and I. Her involvement with bands such as its versatility attracts new listeners. Marling’s Noah and the Whale, Mystery Jets, and Mumford & profound intensity is translated through songs
LAURA MARLING A Creature I Don’t Know
such as “The Beast” which is fuelled by heavy rifts and a deeper vocal sound. However, this is contrasted by more gentle, melodious tracks such as, “Rest in the Bed” where her soprano range shines, as Marling fluctuates between vocal extremes. “Don’t Ask Me Why” is personal and speaks directly to the listener; the lyric “those of us who are lost and lonely, I know how you feel I know it’s not right but it’s real”, conveys an air of vulnerability within the album. There is an overriding poignancy to “A Creature I Don’t Know” as it encapsulates Marling’s immense progression, as well as justifying her status as a 2011 Brit Award winner. NC.
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NOEL GALLAGHER’S H I G H F LY I N G B I R D S Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Coming from a band hailed by the NME as having produced songs “woven into the tapestry of British culture,” both Gallagher brothers have faced a considerable challenge in making their
S U L LY Carrier This long anticipated first LP from the elusive Sully reveals a lo-fi body of work capable of breaking out the UK underground onto more commercial dancefloors. This dark album is
TINAWIREN Tassili In Britain’s musical landscape, there are many bands who claim to have come from a difficult background. For laddish Brit-rockers, musicians can only be genuine if they have put hours in
WAV V E S Life Sux Wavves’ new EP, the cheerfully titled Life Sux, is impressive in its ability to remain versatile in a surf-ish sub genre that can so easily get repetitive. Frontman Nathan Williams’ honest and
own marks outside of Oasis. Whilst Liam barely left time for the dust to settle before embarking on Beady Eye, Noel has taken a step back from the brothers’ well documented fallout to produce his own solo offering. Noel has described the idea of taking on the role of frontman as a ‘major pain in the bollocks’, Whilst comparisons with his brother’s band will inevitably be drawn, it appears Gallagher Sr has successfully drawn a line under the Oasis rift with the release of his debut solo album. Accompanied by the likes of the former Zutons bassist Russell Pritchard and The Sand Band’s David McDonnell, Noel is in good company, proved by The Kinks inspired melody of first single ‘The Death of You and Me’. Although the typically Gallagher nonsensical rhyming couplets and the steady guitar strum are eerily reminiscent of ‘The Importance of Being Idle’, the presence of
a string and brass section gives an added twist to Noel’s dated Britpop sound. There are further obvious differences between the new album and his previous work; there are only two guitar solos across the whole album. Other catchy offerings include former B Side ‘The Good Rebel’ and ‘(I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine’ – the latter possessing a soaring chorus familiar with the Noel of old which dates back to Oasis’ Dig Out Your Soul sessions. Whilst his debut offering may not contain too many surprises, Noel is nevertheless in fine form, delivering a series of tracks which make up a quality solo contribution even if it fails to fully recapture the magic he delivered in the early 90s. SG.
a cross-genre feast, adding to the basic foundations of grime and dubstep with touches of house and UK funky. ‘Pattern’ twitches from 2step breaks to synth flourishes, whilst ‘Let You’ expertly mixes sassy vocals with driving industrial rhythms. The influence of jungle first appears on ‘Encona’, and subtly prevails throughout the rest of the album. Although these numbers are amongst the most experimental on the album, they lack the emotion of the rest of the LP, proving that sometimes brilliant production techniques aren’t enough. Sully makes this right with standout track ‘2 Hearts’ - the Norwich based producer smoothly blending all the aspects of the Hyperdub scene together into a 2step anthem with the feel of a garage classic. Other special moments crop up in ‘Bonafide’ where the piano hook expertly
encapsulates the sadness of the LP in just a couple of bars. Despite these moments of brilliance Sully prefers to hug conformity for the rest of the album, sticking to what he knows instead of probing his artistic limits. Tracks such as ‘Exit’ are indicative of this approach, it’s tragic lo-fi soundscape very much akin to Burial’s ‘Homeless’. The same goes for ‘Bonafide’, ‘Trust’ and ‘It’s Your Love’ which are enjoyable yet generic. On the whole, Carrier is a successful debut from a still relatively unknown artist who promises surpass his dubstep peers. His production abilities are on par with those at the top of their game and in time he could develop into a highly successful artist. Look out for this respected debutante in the coming year. TD.
a terrible job, preferably in some blighted part of Britain’s post-industrial urban sprawl. Despite the undoubted drudgery of living and working in deprived towns, their experiences pale in comparison with that of Mali’s Tinariwen. Unlike that country’s other musical exports Amadou & Mariam, Tinariwen are drawn from Mali’s oppressed Tuareg nomads, and their music has long been in part an expression of anger at the injustice faced by their people. Over their career, this has been a blending of western guitars with the loping rhythms and keening vocals of the Sahara, a tried and tested formula that remains intact over the course of Tassili. The opener, “Imidiwan Ma Tennam”, is classic Tinariwen – a groove of syncopated percussion and acoustic stabs coupled with intricate lead guitar and keening vocals. Although this blueprint remains , Tinariwen have made attempts to introduce more
disparate influences into their music, recruiting TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone and Tunde Adepimbe for a handful of tracks. These are not entirely successful. Much of what appeals about a Tinariwen album is the almost otherworldly quality of the music; the combination of extraordinary back-story, unconventional song structures and an unfamiliar language creates a tremendous atmosphere, and Adepimbe’s soul croon and English lyrics damage this immersion. As a result, the album lacks some of the intensity of their previous records, but enough of what has made Tinariwen so popular remains. The skeletal “Tameyawt”is particularly moving and transports the listener to a Tuareg camp in the desert. Those expecting great variety or a leap forward from previous effort, Imidiwan, will be disappointed, but fans of Tinariwen’s desert blues will be more than satisfied. WV.
echoing American vocals are supported by rich and developmental riffs that are markedly more prominent than on previous albums, making this six-track offering a blessing to fans as well as anyone looking for some classic surf-rock to sway around wildly to. The opening track, ‘Bug’, builds up to a great instrumental stretch and sets the tone for this catchy record. While ‘Poor Lenore’ slows things down a bit by offering a slightly mellow (but welcome) chill-out track, the upbeat pace and angry indie boy feel is cemented by ‘I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl’ (which features some nice vocal harmonies as well as another classic instrumental outro) and the clever ‘In The Sand’. Another tone-changer for the EP is the two collaborative tracks, ‘Nodding Off’ (feat. Best Coast) and ‘Destroy’ (feat. Fucked Up). While ‘Nodding Off’ has electronic vibes, it maintains
the surf-rock chords and jamming that along with distinct, cooperative vocals, characterises Wavves. ‘Destroy’, on the other hand, gives the EP its powerful, thrash track. Damian Abraham’s loud, shouty contribution almost overdoes the song, but also gives it a different personality to the other tracks that contributes to the versatility of Life Sux. All in all, Wavves’ new work is much of the same, but you can’t deny that they’ve got a winning formula, and that their guitar playing has become more intricate. Life Sux is a ‘stuck in your head on replay’ job, which succeeds in making you swish your hair whether you particularly like the songs or not, but either way, it’s a great set of music for secretly swishing your hair to, or to enjoy more seriously as a genuinely pleasant slice of surf-guitar indulgence. AO.
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Spin— Off R&B and Influence: The Producer as Ephebe. There has been plenty of coverage in the press in recent months about the history of hip-hop and R&B. Channel 4 and The Guardian have commemorated 35 years of hip-hop as Def Jam release their chronicle ‘Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label’. This marks a resurgence of the influence of an R&B sound within contemporary alternative music. Acts from James Blake and Brenmar to Nguzunguzu and Frank Ocean are marked by a reconstitution of R&B tropes. By looping a vocal over house synths or draping a track in a codeine haze, for example, these acts are using this influence in a way that few have done before. But what is the effect of this? Does this recycling of a previous movement lead to a creative dead-end, or is the conflation of R&B with bass music, dance and indie creating something entirely new? It is helpful to first look at the history of R&B to understand what this new wave of artists is doing. While the culture of R&B is littered with narratives; the development of vocal performance, its role in the civil rights struggle, the commercial aspect, it is the history of production which suits the purposes here. R&B contains a string of incredible producers handing on influences over time. The roots of R&B lie in the late ‘40s marketing of blues records by record company RCA Victor, and developed to cover most black music - particularly the electric blues and soul records of Otis Redding, Little Richard and Bo Diddley. Moving into the ‘60s, the term encompassed Motown artists such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and The Supremes. Producers such as Norman Whitfield took the soul vocals and simple hooks of earlier records and added strong back beats, orchestras and vocal harmonies to thicken the sound. Later Marvin Gaye moved on the sound with his self-produced ‘What’s Going On?’, with jazz influences contributing to a looser feel. Following the disco era, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones added more electronic elements to create a smoother dancefloorfriendly sound. That was the precursor to the modern R&B sound. This was created when Teddy Riley began adding hip-hop beats underneath a more typical soul sound and gospel harmonies. A track he produced for Johnny Kemp, ‘Just Got Paid,’ developed this. Following on, Riley formed the group Guy with a sound that
fused previous R&B elements with hip-hop and gospel vocals. The opening track ‘Groove Me’, of their eponymous debut album showcases the new style, now known as new jack swing. The track features a well-used sample from The Mohawks ‘The Champ’, a song that also contains samples from The Temptations and Otis Redding. It was new jack swing that eventually mutated into contemporary R&B. By the 1990s groups such as Jodeci, Blackstreet and Tony! Toni! Toné! had gradually incorporated the developments of Dr Dre’s G-Funk as well as the Notorious B.I.G.’s cinematic sound. Sean Combs then fused these elements together to form tracks with artists such as TLC - songs that are the blueprint for the classic late ‘90s sound. This was a direction followed by Rodney Jenkins, a. k. a. Darkchild, with his smooth productions with Destiny’s Child. In different tangents, Tony! Toni! Toné!’s Raphael Saadiq created dryer, clipped music, particularly with D’Angelo. It was this that became known as neo-soul, illustrated by Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. At the other end of the scale, Timbaland (pictured) was making jittery beats, while emptying out tracks with a more electronic feel and obscure samples. His work with Ginuwine, Missy Elliot and Aaliyah is particularly strong. The Neptunes, masterminded by Pharrell Williams, continued his work, creating extremely minimal grooves. It is this late ‘90s sound that has been particularly mined by today’s artists. Burial, James Blake and Mount Kimbie have been busy chopping apart and reforming vocals, while wonky artists such as Hudson Mohawke and Débruit are indebted to the offkilter feel of Timbaland. With so many influences being drawn in by today’s producers, it is worth considering how influence actually works. Harold Bloom wrote on this subject in his book ‘The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry’. This is problematic though. Bloom was writing about poetry, in particular the distinction between mediocre and ‘true’ poets. However, his conclusions are not without relevance in other arts, and so the principle still holds. A larger concern is his ignorance of any other element having an impact on an artist. Bloom focuses only on the poet’s relation to previous poets, he does not mention any biographical or historical aspects in the creation of art. Nevertheless, as long as caution is observed, his theories are of use. Bloom highlights the importance of the interaction with the canon of literature for any poet. He traces a lineage of influence from Keats to Tennyson, Arnold, Hopkins and Rossetti and on to Ezra Pound. Bloom declares that an ephebe, or adolescent poet, must clear imaginative space in the canon of prior poets. This means he must interact with what has come before by misreading and mutating previous poets. Through this misreading, the strong poet forces his predecessor to be read through the filter of the new poet. The interaction between poets is explained with his six ratios of misprision, or misunderstanding. Only two of these need outlining. First is ‘clinamen’. This is a swerve away from the previous poet, a misreading by the ephebe that sees the original poetry as only partially correct. Generally ‘this appears as a corrective movement in [the ephebe’s] own poem, which implies that the precursor poem went accurately up to a certain point, but then should have swerved in precisely the direction that the new poem moves.’
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Next is ‘tessera’, a completion and antithesis, taking a segment of the previous poet’s work and creating something new out of it. The new poem should ‘complete’ the previous ‘by so reading the parent-poem as to retain its terms but to mean them in another sense, as though the precursor had failed to go far enough.’ We can see how this works contemporaneously in James Blake’s ‘CMYK.’ The overarching influence in this track is Timbaland. He takes the jittery nature of Timbaland’s production, as well as the textured percussion, but he ‘misreads’ this for his own ends by taking the bpm up to 140. This is clinamen, a swerve away from what Timbaland was doing. Then, Blake takes a tiny snippet of an Aaliyah vocal, from the Timbaland produced ‘R U That Somebody?’ and works his track around it - tessera. He has ‘completed’ Timbaland, taking the frame of an Aaliyah vocal whilst using it to his own ends. Bloom has something to add to help understand why current producers are working with R&B influences. He states that we all emerge into a cultural environment that is pre-created. The canon of art that has come before is entrenched and thus we are only able to create art in relation to what has been before. We are forced to re-work it otherwise stasis occurs. The current wave of producers began listening to music around the late ‘90s when classic R&B was at its peak. Those who heard it are bound to be influenced and to respond to what was heard at such a young age. This is one of the reasons why R&B is undergoing its renaissance of sorts. There is a problem with this. Given the saturation of music available to be accessed now, and the excellence of samplers such as Akai’s MPC, sampling has become extremely easy (this is one of the reasons why samples have become shorter. Rather than a bar, a sample is now typically half a second or less). When tracks are too reliant on an unknown sample plucked from the ether it becomes too simple to be successful and to overshadow the original track. In the hands of an unsubtle producer such a use of samples descends into cliché and is antithetical to creativity. This is clear in the number of dreadful tracks around at the moment in which an R&B vocal is cut-up and thrown over the top of a mediocre dubstep beat. The answer to this problem lies in a move away from sampling toward an original vocal. By doing this they are less indebted to their precursors and are able to mutate R&B influences in more ways than just a change of context. Listen to Creep’s track with Nina Sky, ‘You.’ By conspiring with Nina Sky, who had a hit in 2004 with ‘Move Ya Body,’ Creep have changed the direction of Nina Sky’s career. Rather than summery, dancehall inflected tracks, ‘You’ is dark, woozy trip-hop. This is becoming a recognisable trend of underground dance producers collaborating with singers. Blake has come from behind the producer’s desk to unveil his own voice, and is now working with Bon Iver. Burial is teaming up with Thom Yorke; even Ne-Yo is collaborating with jj. As this generation of producers matures, R&B continues to be a magnet and malleable template for new influences. DW.
Format Matters Discussion pieces on the different formats from which music fans must choose almost always come to the same conclusion: if it ain’t on vinyl, it ain’t worth listening to. There has been a slew of writing in recent years on the subject, all usually inspired by the writer baulking at a new technological advance in music reproduction. The tone of these pieces is a familiar one - things were much better back in the good old days. Vinyl, with all its imperfections, (arguably the cause of the proliferation of other formats) is held up as the ideal way to listen to music while all others are lambasted as falling short of this perfection. The success and popularity of a new format is thought of as a prime example of mass delusion or a lack of a ‘true love’ of music. Some go even further, linking new listening habits to wider changes in the make-up and nature of society, heavily hinting to a truly spurious argument that listening to music on vinyl promotes family values, personal discipline, hard work or whatever else the writer believes has disappeared. For me, this is all totally missing the point. Vinyl is the best way to listen to music. That is not the part that I disagree with. Indeed, it is well-known that vinyl records reproduce a wider frequency range than other formats, albeit with the positioning of these additional frequencies outside of audible human hearing range. This higher reproduction range is the regular reason given for the ‘warmth’ that is attributed to music on vinyl, a suspiciously wooly quality. I’m not denying this attribution either but I would put it down to something other than inaudible sound. Indeed, I think the reason is before your eyes, not your ears. Listening to music on vinyl is a much more visually satisfying experience than any other kind of reproduction. Before the invention of the phonograph in the late 19th century, the hearing of music was also almost always a visual experience - you would have to be with the musicians to hear the sound, implying that they could be seen. Music divorced from its visual accompaniment is in some sense like hearing a scream in the night - the fact that you do not know where it is coming from is more unsettling than the sound itself. A vinyl record, spinning while playing, the needle in the record’s groove, gives the listener much, much more to look at than the locked-room mysteries that are tape and CD players, not to mention the iPod. It is sight, not sound, that matters when it comes to formats. JL.
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