Courtney Barnett
12 WEEKS OF TECHNO X O Y O R E S I D E N C Y J A N U A RY - M A R C H 2 0 1 6 SATURDAY 9 JANUARY
SCUBA [ALL NIGHT] ROOM 2
TREVINO [ALL NIGHT] SATURDAY 16 JANUARY
DEETRON | JIMMY EDGAR SATURDAY 23 JANUARY
SHACKLETON [LIVE] | KOWTON B2B PEVERELIST SATURDAY 30 JANUARY
KENNY LARKIN | RYAN ELLIOTT SATURDAY 6 FEBRUARY
NICOLE MOUDABER | FUR COAT SATURDAY 13 FEBRUARY: HOTFLUSH PARTY
ALAN FITZPATRICK | PAUL WOOLFORD ROOM 2
SOUTH LONDON ORDNANCE SATURDAY 20 FEBRUARY
MIND AGAINST | VERONICA VASICKA SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY
MATTHEW DEAR | ANTHONY PARASOLE SATURDAY 5 MARCH
CHRIS LIEBING | TALLMEN785 SATURDAY 12 MARCH
LEN FAKI | LOCKED GROOVE SATURDAY 19 MARCH
NINA KRAVIZ [EXTENDED SET] SATURDAY 26 MARCH
SCUBA B2B SPECIAL GUEST [ALL NIGHT]
WWW.12WEEKSOFTECHNO.COM TICKETS FROM: WWW.XOYO.CO.UK 32-37 COWPER ST, LONDON, SHOREDITCH, EC2A 4AP MORE INFO & EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAYS FOR TICKET BUYERS: WWW.HOTFLUSHRECORDINGS.COM
"Fuck this. Let's go dance..."
secretsundaze SATURDAY DECEMBER 5TH - ALL NIGHT LONG THE PICKLE FACTORY / 10PM – 6AM
JAMES PRIESTLEY · GILES SMITH
FRIDAY 1ST JANUARY - NEW YEAR’S DAY PARTY SHAPES / 10PM – 6AM
LEON VYNEHALL · MARTYN JOEY ANDERSON GILES SMITH · JAMES PRIESTLEY SATURDAY 30TH JANUARY VILLAGE UNDERGROUND / 10PM – 4AM
DELANO SMITH OSKAR OFFERMANN GILES SMITH · JAMES PRIESTLEY TICKETS:
secretsundaze.net
Highlights Exhibitions Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2015 25 Nov 2015 – 24 Jan 2016 Lower & Upper Galleries
Radical Disco Architecture and Nightlife in Italy, 1965–1975 8 Dec 2015 – 10 Jan 2016 ICA Fox Reading Room
fig-2
5 Jan 2015 – 20 Dec 2015 ICA Studio
Film
Events Talks Series: Now You Can Go On Social Reproduction Sat 5 Dec, 11.30am
Speakers reflect on feminist efforts to transform the work of love and care, and explore how the concept of social reproduction has become a key theme amongst anti-austerity movements.
Marinella Pirelli Screening Sat 5 Dec, 2pm
Shown for the first time in the UK, a selection of the Italian filmmaker’s 16mm film explorations of light and movement.
Rescue Missions: Women’s Art Recovered Wed 9 Dec, 6.30pm
This talk considers some of the ethics and responsibilities of researching, archiving, curating, restaging, marketing and collecting women’s art.
Symposium: Liquidity Wed 9 Dec, 11.15am
Art flows, money flows, life flows. This symposium asks how these flows sustain or oppose each other.
Parallax 06: Trinity Laban Composers at the ICA Thu 10 Dec, 7pm An evening of new and recent work by current postgraduate students and staff.
Culture Now: The New Feminist Cinema Fri 11 Dec, 1pm Writer, editor, educator and activist Sophie Mayer is in discussion with filmmakers Hope Dickson Leach and Tina Gharavi.
Symposium: Women’s Filmmaking in Contemporary Britain Sat 12 Dec, 11am Conceived by Prof. Lúcia Nagib, Alison Butler and Prof. Laura Mulvey.
Panel Discussion: Designer Discos Wed 16 Dec, 6.30pm
This talk explores the relationship between architecture, design and nightlife.
Feminist Practices in Dialogue Fri 18 Dec, 2pm
A day of video works, performances, sound pieces and installations, followed by a discussion on the challenges facing contemporary feminism. Institute of Contemporary Arts The Mall London SW1Y 5AH 020 7930 3647, www.ica.org.uk
Luis Buñuel: Aesthetics of the Irrational 12 Nov – 6 Dec 2015 A retrospective of the films of Luis Buñuel (1900–1983), celebrating his genius, irreverence and unique poetic style.
Chemsex + Q&A Fri 4 Dec, 6.30pm
A documentary that follows the lives of men on the ‘slamming party’ scene.
Catalan Avant-Garde: El cant dels Ocells (Birdsong) + Q&A Fri 18 Dec, 8.50pm
The final screening of the season with special guest director Albert Serra joining for a post-screening Q&A.
Barry Lyndon + Panel Discussion Sat 19 Dec, 3pm
A special 40th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s darkly comic masterpiece with panelists Richard Ayoade, Jan Harlan and Maria Pramaggiore.
Onwards and Outwards Until December 2015 at nationwide venues
A unique programme of films made by British women filmmakers over the last 50 years. Includes sreenings, talks and events.
The ICA is a registered charity no. 236848
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Contents Features
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COURTNEY BARNETT With her don’t-call-it-slacker-pop reflecting the muddled feelings of millennials with disarming clarity, 2015 has been a landmark year for Courtney Barnett. Here, she talks to April Clare Welsh about why nobody cares if you don’t go to the party
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GRUFF RHYS Sammy Jones talks to the SFA frontman turned theatrical pathfinder Gruff Rhys on history, Howl’s Moving Castle, and how his new show shunts him into another world
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MAJICAL CLOUDZ After their cinematic pop found new audiences, Majical Cloudz were forced to confront emotion in front of thousands. Front man Devon Welsh opens up to James F. Thompson about his healthy dose of theatricality
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MERTHYR RISING In a vibrant melding of high fashion and community spirit from the inhabitants of Merthyr Tydfil, Charlotte James and Tom Johnson’s project has captured the Welsh mining town that Thatcher left in economic ruin. They speak to us about the vitality of street casting
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MICK JENKINS The Chicago rapper speaks to Duncan Harrison about personal freedom, salvation through creative expression and the transformative power of love
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ANIMAL COLLECTIVE With Animal Collective's first album in four years on the horizon, Avery Tare flags up the band's committment to experimentalism
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EOTY ROUND UPS The best records of 2015 according to Crack
Courtney Barnett shot exclusively for Crack by Harry Mitchell London: November 2015
Regulars 15
EDITORIAL In defence of enumeration
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TURNING POINTS: DJ MARFOX Marfox is a figurehead of the wildly rhythmic sound springing out of Lisbon’s ghettos. The scene stalwart reflects on his sound finding international ears with Josie Roberts
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AESTHETIC: HONEY DIJON The globetrotting DJ traverses worlds, finding success in art, music and fashion. Honey is the subject of this month’s Aesthetic shoot, where she tells us about her passion for unearthing the unknown
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DIGRESSIONS Baines’ World, Tall Order with Grace Jones, the Crossword and advice from Denzil Schniffermann
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20 QUESTIONS: LADY LESHURR The First Lady of grime weighs in on our twenty questions, talking YouTube comments, Danny DeVito and where she was when found a slug in her sink
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PERSPECTIVE: ALANNA MCCARDLE Alanna McCardle’s decision to leave Joanna Gruesome as the band prepared to become indie linchpins baffled some. In a column discussing gender, music and mental health, she opens up about the difficult circumstances that led to her departure
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2015
Roots Manuva Bleeds
Big Dada
Ninja Tune
Seven Davis Jr Universes
Lee Bannon Pattern of Excel
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune
Romare Projections
Young Fathers White Men Are Black Men Too
Big Dada
Ninja Tune
King Midas Sound / Fennesz Edition 1
Levantis Romantic Psychology 1
Technicolour
Werk Discs / Ninja Tune
Helena Hauff Discreet Desires
fabric December 2015 05 Room 01
RPR Soundsystem Rhadoo Petre Inspirescu Raresh Visuals by Dream Rec. Room 02
Terry Francis Slam Alan Fitzpatrick
12 Room 01
Craig Richards Seth Troxler Cab Drivers (Live) Acid Mondays Room 02
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Terry Francis Floorplan (Robert Hood) Luke Slater
Room 01
Craig Richards John Digweed Room 02
Mindshake Paco Osuna Fer BR Terry Francis
31 fabric NYE
www.fabriclondon.com
Craig Richards Terry Francis Alex Arnout Eats Everything George FitzGerald Maya Jane Coles Nina Kraviz Richy Ahmed
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Issue 59
Executive Editors Thomas Frost tom@crackmagazine.net Jake Applebee jake@crackmagazine.net Editor Davy Reed Marketing / Events Manager Luke Sutton luke@crackmagazine.net Deputy Editor Anna Tehabsim Online Editor Billy Black Junior Online Editor Sammy Jones Editorial Assistant Duncan Harrison Creative Director Jake Applebee Art Direction & Design Alfie Allen Graphic Design Yasseen Faik Marketing / Events Assistant Lucy Harding Editorial Assistant Duncan Harrison Intern Steve Mallon Staff Writer Tom Watson Film Editor Tim Oxley Smith Art Editor Augustin Macellari Fashion Lu Philippe Guilmette, Dexter Lander, Charlotte James Words Josh Baines, Denzil Schnifferman, Geraint Davies, Angus Harrison, Josie Roberts, James F. Thompson, Thomas Frost, Robert Bates, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Aine Devaney, Francis Blagburn, Tamsyn Aurelia-Eros Black, Tomas Fraser, Joe Goggins, Xavier Boucherat, Adam Corner, Jon Clark, Matt Cole, Thomas Painter, Ellie Harrison, Benjamin Salt, Jazz Monroe Photography Jack Johnstone, Harry Mitchell, Cam Sweeney, Theo Cottle, Ro Murphy, Elise Rose, Tom Johnson, Kane Aaron Rich, Vincent Arbelet, Lewis Lloyd, Chelsea Emms, Andrea Macchia Illustration Toby Leigh, Edward Chambers Advertising To enquire about advertising and to request a media pack: advertising@crackmagazine.net CRACK is published by Crack Industries Ltd © All rights reserved. All material in Crack magazine may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of Crack Industries Ltd. Crack Magazine and its contributors cannot accept any liability for reader discontent arising from the editorial features. Crack Magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any article or material supplied for publication or to edit this material prior to publishing. Crack magazine cannot be held responsible for loss or damage to supplied materials. The opinions expressed or recommendations given in the magazine are the views of the individual author and do not necessarily represent the views of Crack Industries Ltd. We accept no liability for any misprints or mistakes and no responsibility can be taken for the contents of these pages.
NOT WAVING Get Serious MISS RED Leggo OCTOBER Blood Feud PATRICK COWLEY You Gotta Make It Loose DAVID BOWIE Blackstar POPE FRANCIS Cuidar el Planeta ERYKAH BADU Hello (ft. Andre 3000) SANTIGOLD Who Be Lovin' Me ft. ILoveMakonnen DOUGHBOYZ CASHOUT Raw Shit CROSS RECORD High Rise
Deerhunter are rubbing shoulders with Fetty Wap, Ty Dolla $ign is neck and neck with Nils Frahm and Oneothrix Point Never has fared considerably better than Lana Del Rey. Compiling an end-of-the-year list is a long, bizarre process. And with a music policy that’s led to us featuring both Skepta and Slayer on the cover in the same year, sometimes the clashing tastes of our staff and contributors can drive us towards dead-end debates and get us stuck there for ages. Still, I love it. We probably end up working too many late nights, but that’s because we need to get it right. The arguments can get too heated, but then I’d like to think that’s because we feel connected to the records we’re discussing. The end result is an honest, thoroughly researched roundup, and I hope you’re able to either discover some stuff in there you like, or feel a sense of satisfaction in seeing some of your favourites ranked highly with a decent write up. And if all of this is sounding too cheerful for you, there’s always our ‘Worst Albums of the Year’ list online. It brings us nothing but trouble, but it lets our readers know that we’re still not afraid to call bullshit on terrible records, and therefore it’s important. That said, I do empathise with the EOTY scrooge. I remember seeing a producer mock the concept with a couple of sarcastic tweets last November. I respected the point of view and I can understand the cynicism, but it definitely didn’t put me off the idea of us including that artist in 2014’s list. In fact, they ended up scoring well. So no matter how you feel about all this list stuff, I’d urge you to check out the ones we’ve put together for this issue while you’ve got it in your hands. And if there’s nothing you love among the 50 tracks and 100 albums compiled, then you're probably holding the wrong mag. Davy Reed, Editor
AWE Actus Primus CIRCLE JERKS Beverly Hills FREDDIE GIBBS Fucking Up The Count ACRE Love TRINA Da Baddest Bitch EMPRESS OF Standard (ABRA remix) MICHAEL CHAPMAN Plain Old Bob Has a Hoedown SUN O))) Kannon 2 SAVAGES T.I.W.Y.G. MOLLY NILSSON I Hope You Die MSSINGNO XE2 STORMZY Standard THREE 6 MAFIA Armageddon Comes YUNG SHERMAN thinkingboutu VÅR Brodermordet FATIMA YAMAHA Imaginary Lines HINDS Solar Gap SADE Never Thought I’d See The Day (L-Vis 1990 Sunrise Edit)
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net
Respect Charli XCX Nathan Fielder Terrence McKenna Dresden Leitner Sinky 1 Sinky 2 Devika & Roger
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Recommended
O ur g uid e t o w ha t 's g o ing o n in y o ur cit y
THE NEW FEMINIST CINEMA ICA 11 December
HUDSON MOHAWKE 10 December Roundhouse
THE INTERNET XOYO 8 December
HIDEOUT Bicep, Seth Troxler, Stormzy Pag, Croatia 26 - 30 June 2016
Once a year Zrce Beach on the Croatian Island of Pag is turned into a ravers' paradise for Hideout festival, and 2016 looks like it could be the biggest year to date. This time round they’ve roped in some help from grime heavyweights Skepta, Stormzy and Preditah to add a bit of bass weight to the party oriented line-up, which includes Jamie xx, Julio Bashmore and Jackmaster. Hideout has a habit of shifting very tickets quickly, so if you're tempted, you'd better get planning soon.
ADRIAN SHERWOOD Pickle Factory 2 December
Hudson Mohawke has come a long way. In 2009, his tour with Bibio and Clark had such a small budget that he was forced to sleep in the “worst hotels France has to offer” and in a grubby Amsterdam squat where the kitchen cupboards were full of peoples’ clothes. Grim. Now, of course, he’s a globally renowned, in-demand producer who’s risen to the top with a unique sound that redefines (or maybe just ignores?) dated conceptions of “good taste”. This show will be a total blast, and we reckon these days HudMo can afford a night in London’s fanciest hotel afterwards too.
LENA WILLIKENS Corsica Studios 19 December
NAO Heaven 2 December
RINSE BOXING DAY Ministry of Sound 26 December
BICEP: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI Bicep, Charles Green B2B Mehtola, Chris Headcount Patterns, Brighton 31 December
WE CONCUR PRESENT NEW YE ARS DAY Oval Space 1 January Someone always makes the reckless suggestion to go out again on New Year’s Day. Often, they are lying but hoping that you make the assumption that they are the kind of person that engages in that kind of devil-may-care activity. This year though, if someone suggests venturing to Oval Space for this 11hour epic, they are probably just pretty savvy. Lined up for the first day of 2016, the Bethnal Green palace will play host to quite the line-up: stargazing Detroit veteran and former Crack cover star Jeff Mills, REKIDs boss Radio Slave and a live set from ascendant Russian techno mainstay Dasha Rush. You can also tell people you went out on New Year’s Day. You bloody tearaway.
It has been a seriously spectacular year for Bicep. They’ve curated their own festival in Belfast, completed a knackering 13-week residency at XOYO and with this year's Just, they have cemented their status as purveyors of 4/4 pandemonium. For NYE, they’ve found a seafront space in Brighton to transform for one night only to give us a taste of the Miami strip. Feel like Sonny Crockett as you hop out the cab and roll up to the door with that barcode on your phone. They’ve put together a bill of local talent to get you in the South East Cali spirit. Vibrant shirts recommended. Balenciaga pool-slides recommended but not crucial.
WE ATHER WINTER Paris Event Centre 18-20 December 25€ Ever since its emergence, Weather Festival, run by the team behind the beloved club Concrete, has felt like the visible embodiment of Paris’s burgeoning club music scene. Having branched out with Weather Winter, they can continue to turn the city’s growing passion into heady and expansive events. Running across the weekend, Friday sees Jeff Mills play all night long – that’s eight whole hours – to celebrate 25 years of his Axis label, while Saturday’s main event enlists the likes of electronic veterans Kenny Dope and Lil' Louis alongside Marcel Dettmann, Mr. Ties, Voices From The Lake and more. Shake off the chill in style.
HONEY DIJON Corsica Studios 31 December
ANNA VON HAUSWOLFF Oslo 8 December
EL V Y Electric Ballroom 9 December It must be a curse to be in a band that everyone loves. Matt Berninger is best known for being the lead singer of The National. Everyone loves The National. His prickly, curmudgeon-like persona is a big part of their whole shtick. In his new project - EL VY - he finds himself freed from the stylistic constraints of his main gig. He’s making a noise that sounds less like the surly doom and gloom of a Brooklyn loner and more like someone who’s actually (deep breath) having fun.
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ROBERT HOOD fabric 12 December
ALEX CALDER The Victoria 4 December
NINA KR AVIZ The Rainbow Venues, Birmingham 12 December £15 + BF The last few years have seen this Siberian-born house and techno selector become one of the most iconic names out there. Kraviz’s music has always had a hypnotic and spacey quality to it, and her unhinged sets, propelled by her joyous energy, continue to light up dance-floors worldwide. Bringing the sounds of 80s Chicago and Detroit towards a futuristic conclusion is her calling card, while this year saw her curate a collage of deep, murky cuts and propulsive techno on her new Trip label. Kraviz is an artist in high demand – and you’ll rarely see a DJ so visibly loving what they do. Catch her at Birmingham's Rainbow Venues this month.
FAUST St Johns Hackney 5 December R ADICAL DISCO: ARCHITECTURE AND NIGHT LIFE IN ITALY 1965 - 1975 ICA 8 December - 10 Jan 2016
DEMOB HAPPY 100 Club 10 December
PE ACHES Electric Ballroom 6 December
JON R AFMAN Zabludowicz Collection 8 Oct - 20 December
MADONNA O2 Arena Greenwich 2 December
JME / SKEPTA O2 Academy Brixton 18 December
Know much about the relationship between radical architecture and countercultural night life in Italy during the 1960s and 1970s? If your answer is a resounding no, an enthused yes or anything in between; we think you should mark this exhibition on your calendar. The show focuses on architecture collectives such as Gruppo 9999, Superstudio and UFO, all of whom became disillusioned with the shortcomings of post-war design. Their unique perspective viewed architecture as a potential catalyst for societal change and elevated discos as an arena for creative freedom and experimentation. Along with shedding light on an interesting underground movement of a bygone era, the exhibition displays a plethora of striking cultural artefacts in the form of architectural drawings, music, archival photographs and film.
Merrill Beth Nisker has made a name for herself as one of the most subversive live performers out there. Her erotically charged, electro-punk alter ego Peaches is a quote-unquote pop star who shuns the mainstream for gritty, uncompromising chaos and still commands a legion of adoring fans with brash punk-influenced electronica. Her latest album Rub might not be among her best work, but in the live context you can still expect Peaches to reign supreme. R ANGLKLODS Birthdays 5 December NELLY Koko 14 December
MOSS LIME The Old Blue Last 7 December
CLOCK STRIKES 13: VIEWLEX X Bloc 11 December When a huge tax bill threatened operations at Intergalactic FM last year, it took less than 36 hours for fans to chip in and save it. The cult Dutch radio station, that promotes synthesizer music in all its forms, has amassed quite the following over the years from its home in The Hague. The station’s owner, DJ, producer and ex-Unit Moebius member I-F, has been spearheading its wide-reaching, hi-octane style for two decades. For this Viewlexx showcase, I-F’s label (which releases the likes of Gesloten Cirkel and Legowelt) will be showcased alongside station staple Intergalactic Gary and The World Unknown’s Joe Hart. Expect rare and thrilling sounds.
TAMA SUMO SHAPES 31 December
Is Nelly capable of a proper comeback? It’s hard to tell. 2013’s M.O. album was panned by the critics despite its star-studded track list, and his legal issues possibly hint at troubled times (since 2012, cops have discovered large quantities of particularly more-ish class A drugs on his tour bus on two occasions). But on the other hand, Nelly’s recent single The Fix found him in good company with production from DJ Mustard and a guest spot from the consistently excellent new school crooner Jeremih. Either way, people aren't going to this gig to hear the new stuff, they’re going for the classics. They’re going for Hot In Herre and Ride wit Me. And you're tempted to go with them.
JOHN DOR AN (DJ SET ) Servant Jazz Quarters 12 December
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New Music
L AUREN AUDER
ADAM OKO
SERIAL HAWK Seattle-based, doom slinging three piece Serial Hawk have been bubbling away on the underground for a while but they’ve just released their first full length album and it’s just too terrifying to be ignored. With crunchy riffs and sparse instrumentation they conjure up a menacing American drawl that’s equal parts stoner metal and glue sniffing punk. Their debut album Searching For Light is out on the Arizona based metal imprint Bleeding Light Records and it’s a cut above their earlier demos. Sharper production brings a new sense of purpose to their loose, crushing sound and sees them soaring into the major leagues with a sludgy bang.
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O Desolate 1 Melvins /Yob serialhawk.bandcamp.com
Adam Oko makes music that isn’t easy to define. His scope ranges from lo-fi, ambient soundscapes to warped, synth-driven struts that reference the utopian sounds of 80s Japanese electronic music. Underpinning it all is an inquisitiveness that lays his process bare; he’s uncovering things as he goes. Hailing from Canterbury and currently based in London, Oko also makes music with Pride of Gombe; a collective project featuring Lukid, BNJMN, Samoyed, Mr Beatnick, Kelpe and Luke Owen. In Oko’s own words, “ruthless experimentation and absolute objection to compromise” unify the diverse artists he cites as his biggest influences; namely Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Haruomi Hosono and This Heat. These values permeate Oko’s approach to making music, which involves various field recordings, samples and sounds from analog sources, and frippertronic loops: a technique that creates real-time delay between repeating tape loops. As evident on his debut solo EP Diet of Germs, Oko’s music has a relationship to artists like Oneohtrix Point Never and James Ferraro, and he seems to share their approach of raking through the past and looking forwards at the same time. “I find that a retro vision of the future is always more tasteful than a contemporary one,” he says. Oko makes it clear that his approach is more instinctive than planned out however. When I ask him about the interplay he creates between utopian sounds and the dark, industrial elements of his work, he is quick to dismiss any conceptual motives. “That contrast is more about what sounds right to my ears than intentional. Whilst I love that grit and rawness, I’m also a hopeless sucker for a knee-weakening melody.” His music is full of articulate ideas however, and some of the tracks feel like meditations on the creative process itself. Suketo begins as a restrained, ambient soundscape that feels like it’s striving or hinting at something, until at the exact midpoint of the track a sampled voice floats in: “people are full of poetry you know… everything they say; maybe the way they say it has this magic and spark in it. People are always saying things that inspire me… people are just full of wonderful things.” The voice belongs to a 19 year old Kate Bush but divorced from its original context, it has the feeling of an epiphany.
O Suketo 1 Oneohtrix Point Never / James Ferraro : soundcloud.com/adam_oko
PSYCHIC BLOOD When a band has a name as trendy as Psychic Blood (apparently short for ‘Psychedelic Bloodbaths’, and god only knows why they can’t use that name), they have to be pretty good to justify such zeitgeist-y silliness. Luckily, this Western Massachusetts-born post-punk/shoegaze three-piece’s noisescapes make their name just an afterthought. Vaulting, shimmering propulsion fortifies the dark swirl of reverb-laced guitars, and echoing drums and sneered vocals kick and scream against alienation and death on their releases. Picking up some recognition off the back of their latest EP; they’re now deemed big enough to be supporting the likes of label-mates and fellow West Coasters Parquet Courts.
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O Blur World 1 Spectres / Swervedriver psychicblood.bandcamp.com
FLORENTINO Manchester-based Florentino channels his Colombian roots into a heady cocktail which has just debuted on Mancunian label / club night / collective Swing Ting. In his own words, he is “the most romantic of the romantics”. Through all his hyperreal interpretations of Latin-American reggaeton and souped-up R&B club edits, Florentino’s SoundCloud has long been a hotbed of ringtone romanticism. His Tu y Yo EP is the perfect introduction. Contorted Spanish vocal samples somersault across the syncopated bass-lines on Perdido while Split In 2 gradually swells into a heart-wrenching breakdown complete with starry-eyed harps and sentimental strings. This is music for lovers lost in cyberspace, roses clenched between their teeth while they anxiously await a Tinder match. We’re sold.
What do you get when you put blue wave, drone, witch house and hip-hop through a lo-fi blender? Seventeen-year-old Lauren Auder provides the answer to this question, with a vocal style reminiscent of James Blake and a scope that manages to be both broad and coherent. Auder currently lives in France but has been casting his net further afield when it comes to pursuing opportunities - he’s collaborated with London rapper Kojey Radical, made a mix for Jimmy Tamborello from The Postal Service and is affiliated with OGZ N THA HOOD; a music collective based in Japan. Our favourite track so far is In Which Lauren Meets The Lion, where Auder shrouds his delicate vocals in heavy, relentless waves of drone that build up with increasing urgency as the track progresses. His vocals move in the opposite direction; growing steadily more despondent and eventually disappearing as the instrumentation marches on towards a fist-clenching climax, evoking the feeling that he’s been overcome by a force greater than himself.
O In Which Lauren Meets The :
Lion 1 Spooky Black / hnrk souncloud.com/lauren-auder
O Perdido 1 Murlo / Future Brown : soundcloud.com/ deejayflorentino
O Track 1 File Next To : Website
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Courtney Barnett: Life’s a Breeze
“I guess I was trying to say that sometimes we focus on trivial things so much, we miss what’s going on right in front of us,” Barnett tells me a couple of months later. Her billboard slogan (which was lifted from one of her song titles) tapped into the typically Gen Z condition of FOMO, subsequently smashing it to smithereens by swapping post-millennial anxiety with carefree confidence. It’s no wonder that, in 2015, Courtney Barnett’s relatable charm has translated to considerable commercial success. The Melbourne artist seems to have always had a casually creative streak. Perhaps under the influence of her culturally aware parents (her mother, a dancer, met her stage manager father through ballet), in her teenage years Barnett headed for art school in Tasmania, where she took up photography and drawing. Having played guitar in a few bands after dropping out, Barnett eventually released her debut solo EP, I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferri, in 2012 via Milk! Records, the label which she runs from her front room and on which she’s released records by fellow Melbourne artists such as Fraser A. Gorman, Ouch My Face and her girlfriend Jen Cloher.
Barnett’s sophomore EP, How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose, produced one of her signature tunes Avant Gardener – a darkly humorous tale of an anxiety attack which came on as the result of a horticulturerelated allergy. But regardless of all her DIY grind and subsequent success, Courtney Barnett is forever being allied with the ‘slacker’ tag by the music press. “I’ve never really known 100% what it means,” she admits. “Yeah, I’m probably a slacker at heart, but I work too hard to technically be one. To be honest I don’t really dig tags, they’re in the same box as stereotypes. Although if I did have to have a tag it would be ‘optional: wash separately.” It’s this breezy humour that wafts through Courtney Barnett’s songwriting. Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit – the award-winning, critically lauded album she released in March this year – is an elevensong sketch book of vignettes, crafted by an artist who is equal parts wordsmith, diarist, musician and comedian. Barnett pens effortless-sounding, often dead-pan odes to the humdrum, the banal and the small-scale, from the minute character study of the disgruntled worker in Elevator Operator to the universal ennui and dissatisfaction felt by so many of us in our 20s on the aformentioned Nobody Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party. “I do think I do my best writing when I take myself out of the city and away from distractions and go to the country or something,” she ponders when I ask about the birds I hear tweeting at her end during our phone call. “My surroundings have a
Words: April Clare Welsh Photography: Harry Mitchell
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net
When Courtney Barnett staged an impromptu street show outside London’s Camden Station in August, she and her band played before a huge white billboard bearing the message: ‘Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party’. Part of a wider marketing campaign, identical billboards were installed in numerous spots across the globe. They stood like bold statements of intent for the 28-year-old artist.
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huge effect on my songwriting, because my songs are so reflective of the environment I’m in. I try to take snippets from everywhere, as it helps build up the whole story. And I try to write every day, no matter what it is. I just scribble general observations.” Sonically, Barnett’s words are shot through with the instrumental heft of her band, who range between trad college rock (Pedestrian At Best, An Illustration Of Loneliness), blues and country flavoured indie (Small Poppies, Depreston) and zoned-out pyschedelia (Kim’s Caravan). Naturally, her band are her mates. There’s guitarist and album co-producer Dan Luscsombe (also of the Drones) – although he hasn’t been present much this year – drummer Dave Mudie, and bassist Bones Sloane. “Bones and Dave are my best buddies,” she gushes. “We’ve known each other for a while; we used to play in other bands together. They’ve always been really supportive of the songs I write, and they are some of the best musicians I know. We’ve spent the last couple of years living out of each other’s pockets in very close quarters.”
“The success is great, but it’s not gonna
change my life. The thing I care about most is
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net
writing songs that I’m proud of”
It’s certainly been a non-stop year for Barnett. Riding off the success of Sometimes I Sit... her seemingly endless schedule has seen her generate all kinds of hype at
SXSW, tour the world, open for Blur in LA and New York, appear on The Ellen Show and record a single for Jack White’s Third Man Records. Next January, she’ll help mentor at Australia’s first ever Girls Rock music camp; a program seeking to teach and encourage young female musicians aged between 10 and 17. “I am super stoked to be part of it,” Barnett enthuses. “I’ve met people involved in Rock Camp around the US and I thought it sounded like an inspiring project. I wish I had had something like that when I was a kid.” So with such an intense level of demand that leads into 2016, is she beginning to feel the strain? “Spending so much time away from home is definitely not a good thing for relationships and friendships,” she admits. “Good ones can withstand it, but it still doesn’t change the fact that you’re living different lives for a huge majority of the year, which is weird. I started cutting a lot of tour opportunities so I could stay home.” When musicians rise so quickly through the ranks, in this scatterbrain age of discontent there’s the worry they will suddenly find themselves discarded on the heap. In Australia – and other Anglosphere countries – there’s the common term “Tall Poppy syndrome”. It describes the sociological phenomenon where those who are thrust onto pedestals really quickly can be cut down just as quickly. Barnett explores this at two different points on her album; in the chorus for Pedestrian At Best, where she wails ‘Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you / tell me I’m exceptional, I promise to exploit you…’, to a backdrop of noisy guitar scree and weighty four-tothe-floor drums, and also more directly with the track Small Poppies. Perhaps there’s an element of cautiousness to her humble attitude.
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net Upon its release, Sometimes I Sit... shifted an impressive number of units, making it to the number 20 spot on the Billboard 200 chart and no.16 in the UK. But unsurprisingly, Barnett seems totally unphased by the stats. “It’s great because it means it’s connecting with people and people are liking it and finding something good in it, but it’s definitely not gonna change my life,” she asserts. What is important to her, then? “As an artist the thing I care about most is just writing songs that I’m proud of and feel like they’ve achieved what they’ve set out to achieve. That can be a difficult task.” Does she care about the emotional effect her songs may elicit? “I don’t think you can direct the impact your songs have on people. I think that is something that happens once the song is finished because it’s out of your control. You can totally have semi-ideas about it, but it’s ridiculous to know how someone is gonna feel about a song.” As per usual, Barnett is eager to steer away from any statements which make her seem egotistical. But with songs which play like mini-audiobooks covering everything from the minutiae of daily life to the bigger questions that keep us awake at night, her songwriting has connected with many people, and in 2015 she felt like an unlikely poster girl for a generation of 20 and 30 somethings looking to make sense of the topsy-turvy world around them. Courtney Barnett’s lyrics may make her sound restless and disillusioned at times, but somehow she finds a way to convince us it’s ok to feel that way too. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is out now via Mom + Pop
JOHN GRANT
BER NA R D + E D I TH
FATH E R JO H N M IS T Y
BEACH HOUS E
Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
JEM
I Love You, Honeybear
Thank Your Lucky Stars
P INS
EZ R A F U R MA N
L A ND S H A PES
LANTERNS ON THE LAKE
Girls Like Us
Perpetual Motion People
Heyoon
Beings
BEA C H HOUSE
CLAR E NC E C L A R I TY
ME R C U RY REV
PET ER BRODERICK
Depression Cherry
NO NOW
The Light In You
Colours Of The Night
bellaunion.com
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Turning Points: DJ Marfox
"It was just a matter of time before people paid attention to the sound of the Lisbon ghettos"
In the high rise landscapes of Lisbon’s isolated barrios, DJ Marfox has iconic status. A figurehead of Portuguese imprint Príncipe and the Angolan-Portuguese Kuduro style, his productions can be felt pulsating through the capital and in the swelling collective of its artists – many of whom adopt ‘fox’ in their name as a sign of respect to the genre’s pioneer. With this percussive, pumping, syncopated heat now rattling dancefloors internationally, we caught up with Marfox to reflect on the symbiosis between his sound and his city. 1990s: Growing up in Quinta do Mocho, Lisbon I come from a very creative environment, and I’ve never imagined myself doing anything other than DJing. In such a multicultural neighbourhood you grow up with the music of many different heritages – Lusophone, African, Indian, Brazilian, Portuguese – alongside the mainstream Anglo-pop and electronic of the 90s. Bringing together all of these influences into the Angolan style of Kuduro, I developed my own sound. Early 2000s: First parties and the early DJ years I started throwing my first parties at home with friends from school, on our Wednesday afternoons off. Those were my first
performances facing a wider public – the first critics and reviews, the first laughter and cries. These moments at the beginning of the path still resonate strongly with me. 2006: DJs Do Guetto, Vol 1 Compilation Before DJs Do Guetto Vol.1, the majority of young people in the barrios wanted three things: most wanted to become professional footballers, others to make money in the easiest way possible, or, for a small few, to get a college degree. But this compilation changed things. It introduced the fourth option – to become a DJ or producer of this new sound springing out of the peripheral barrios of Lisbon. 2007: Meeting Pedro Gomes and Nelson Gomes of Príncipe I remember how they first approached me: “we want to seriously support your music.” For the first few weeks I was quite wary – I’d never had any contact with a label before – but I couldn’t smother the dream of wanting to take this music forward. Príncipe understood better than anyone else what this music means for all the DJs and producers. They were able to focus this sound onto the centre of Lisboa. It was just a matter of time for everyone else to pay attention to the sound of the Lisbon ghettos.
2011: First release on Príncipe The first record was really special. From then on I felt that everything was about to change. In 2011 to release a record called Eu Sei Quem Sou [translates as I Know who I Am] was seen as arrogant, but today – four years later – my message got across. I know who I am, I know where I come from, and I know the potential of this music. 2014: MoMA PS1 Performance, New York All international performances bring so much positivity, but a particularly memorable show was at MoMA in New York. Halfway through the set I remember realising why the city is considered ‘the capital of the world’. There was such a diverse group of people from so many different worlds, all dancing like crazy and with such togetherness. This precise moment really struck a chord with me. DJ Marfox performs at Hidden, Manchester on 6 February
Words: Josie Roberts
“There are pushes from the media and government on how we should live. Actively pursuing life outside of those doctored ideals is being free�
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“It helped me, it helped Vic, it helped Chance, it helped Noname. It helped all these people… that’s what we have in common besides just being from Chicago.” Mick Jenkins is talking about love. Talking to me over the phone from Chicago, we cover a lot of ground – the trailer for Spike Lee’s Chiraq looks super cheesy, Jenkins is pretty excited about his brand new laptop, his family are warming up to his career – but talk somehow always comes back to love. Jenkins has just got back to Chicago after months of heavy touring throughout the US and Europe following the release of Wave[s] – his third mixtape and a continuation of his thematic focus on H2O. The tape’s predecessor, The Water[s], was deeply conceptual, exploring the metaphor of water as a kind of distilled truth and clearness that we are all in search of. Jenkins’ aptly aqueous-sounding flow was sprawled out across colourful, lucid instrumentals. It had all the ruminations of a ‘conscious rapper’ with none of the condescending baggage – a middle ground he intentionally shot for. “Nobody wants to hear somebody pointing a finger at them, coming from a higher place. I keep that in my mind when I’m writing music… There’s a lot of ‘conscious’ rappers that I like to listen to that unfortunately sometimes come across preachy. Very preachy – condemning me for doing what I do, and I don’t necessarily want to be condemned when I’m vibing out to my music.” For Wave[s], Jenkins took the pressure off a little and worked more on instinct. The results gave him his first real crossover hit
in the shape of the Kaytranada produced Your Love, where his baritone singing voice comes to the fore atop a sweltering beat. “Fall in love in Chicago / Have a dream”. It is a philosophy you can’t escape when listening to Jenkins’ music. Like Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa and Noname Gypsy, he comes from a school where love and communitarian ideals are at the centre of creativity. It’s not an alternative to the city’s drill scene and it’s not any kind of response to it either – it is just a group of artists who all spent their youth carving out an expressive outlook which belonged to them through poetry slams and open mic sessions. “We learned how to write, we learned how to be, we learned how to interact with all these different cultures," Jenkins tells me. "We had a space to be ourselves and talk about our feelings through poetry and not be judged for it. It’s no coincidence that we’re all in the space we’re in right now.” Jenkins’ crew Free Nation Rebel Soldiers operate on a similar doctrine of beliefs – a strand of youthful anti-establishment thought that is driven by compassion rather than disenfranchisement. “At this point it is very clear that there are certain constructs on society. There are pushes from the media and government on how we should live. Love, beauty, success – what those things are and how you achieve them. They put you into a box of what love or success could be… Actively pursuing life outside of those doctored ideals is being free. Anybody who’s thinking free is part of our collective.” This credo is firmly at the forefront of his focus as he cooks up his debut studio re-
Midwest Romantics: Mick Jenkins and the healing power of love cord, slated for a release in 2016. He tells us that he’s around half-way done, hoping to produce more material than he needs as to then choose his favourites. In terms of features, he’s eyeing up contributions from SZA, Earl Sweatshirt, GoldLink and Ab-Soul – like Jenkins these are artists who express a social conscience without ever hoisting themselves onto pedestals. It’s smart, but it won’t stop you ‘vibing out’. It would be hard for Jenkins to become preachy or self-righteous when the message is so abundantly clear. The LP is called The Healing Component and – sure enough – it centres around the curative powers of love and togetherness. “It’s The Healing Component. It is love. At the root of a lot of the world’s problems there is a lack of love. Lack of God’s love, lack of brotherly love, people don’t know how to romantically love.” He frequently reiterates the gulf of misunderstanding that lies between hip-hop and love. “I think something that is popular in hip-hop is to condemn a person for being emotional which is crazy. People need to be more aware emotionally, people need to experience emotion and talk about it… It’s not cool to be open emotionally – you’re ‘in your feelings’. I think the concept of that is really silly… If you don’t speak your feelings out loud, it doesn’t mean you’re not in your feelings.” When I ask what his family thought of his rapping – Jenkins comes from a religious background and is still a devout Christian
– he takes on a kind of pantomimic voice to impersonate his mother’s initial response, “Oh you just smoking weed and cursing!” It’s a misconception that has since been repaired, “She hears the ideals and the messages that I’m trying to push and it’s not really something you can argue with when you understand it.” The Christian values Jenkins was raised on still underpin nearly all of his work and they make up the foundations for The Healing Concept. When I ask him what he is most scared of – a question he had previously said he wanted to ask his hero, Andre 3000 – he responds almost instantly, “Not going to heaven”. As our conversation begins to wrap up, the depth of Jenkins’ conscience shows no bounds. He talks about salvation, sensitivity among males, the police, the betterment of the people, world-scale corruption and the bible, but he never sounds like he’s speaking from the other side of the pews. His mother was right to hear him out, Jenkins isn’t chasing the flashy archetype of a hip-hop lifestyle, nor is he condemning that lifestyle in favour of a more spiritual path. The crux of it all is fairly simple – Mick Jenkins is talking about love. Wave[s] is out now via Free Nation / Cinematic Music Group
Words: Duncan Harrison Photography: Elise Rose
WAXAHATCHEE
TOTAL BABES
girLpOOL
MEg BAirD
FrAnkiE & THE HEArTSTringS
FiDLAr
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Don’T wEIgH Down THE lIgHT
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DEcEncY
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bEfoRE THE woRlD wAS bIg
Too
wHEn You wAlk A long DISTAncE You ARE TIRED lP / cD / Dl – 26TH fEbRuARY
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Albums Of The Year 2015
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from putting together this year’s lists, it’s that your feelings towards a record can change dramatically once you’ve allowed it time to settle. In 2015 there were unescapable albums with big budget PR campaigns that have failed to leave a lasting impact, and there were overlooked releases which have slowly revealed themselves to be low-key classics. We’ve compiled 100 full length releases. Some of them achieved great commercial success, some of them remained defiantly underground – but those factors have been mostly irrelevant in our decision-making. Instead, the criteria here is that these are records our staff, contributors and readers are passionate about. Contributors: Anna Tehabsim, Sammy Jones, Tom Watson, Duncan Harrison, Aine Devaney, Davy Reed, Geraint Davies, Billy Black, Jazz Monroe, Gunseli Yalkcinkaya, Angus Harrison, Steve Mallon, James F. Thompson, Thomas Frost, Xavier Boucherat
MILEY CYRUS Miley Cyrus & her Dead Petz Smiley Miley Inc.
CHAIN OF FLOWERS Chain of Flowers After
WILLIAM BASINSKI Cascade Temporary Residence
CARTER TUT TI Carter Tutti Plays Chris & Cosey Conspiracy International
KURT VILE B’lieve I’m Going Down Matador
JOEY ANDERSON Invisible Switch PAN
SPEEDY ORTIZ Foil Deer Carpark
JEFFREY LEWIS & LOS BOLTS Manhattan Rough Trade
JULIO BASHMORE Knockin’ Boots Broadwalk
BATTLES La Di Da Di Warp Records
For those unsure where they stand on Miley Cyrus – at one point she’s campaigning for LGBTQ rights, the other making a fool of herself regarding issues of discrimination in the industry – this was another curveball to contend with. Stoned anti-pop from the periphery, her low-key collaboration with Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips was a sprawling 92-minute stretch of faraway vocals and soft psychedelics. It was undeniably self-indulgent and occasionally cringeworthy, but it marked a stylistic break from a massive star that was both surprising, and surprisingly enjoyable. AT MICACHU & THE SHAPES Good Bad Happy Sad Rough Trade
CHILDBIRTH Women’s Rights Suicide Squeeze Childbirth are the Seattle supergroup that went viral last year with I Only Fucked You As a Joke, an indie-punk slice bemoaning a bout of deeply regrettable sex. Thankfully, the band donned their matching hospital gowns and sense of humour here, too. “I’ll let you explain feminism to me,” Tech Bro reasons, “if I can use your HD TV”. Did we mention its back-to-back earworms, full of fuzz riffs, and shout-along moments? Ladies, raise your glasses of chardonnay. SJ
TR A AMS Modern Dancing FatCat
DR . DRE Compton Aftermath / Interscope
With this selection of shimmering pop, Bashmore tried to break away from the hit machine and forge something timeless. There were few true peak moments, yet you could imagine a number of these found their way into every club and festival across the country, good and bad. There have been plenty of copycat attempts over the years, but Knockin’ Boots bore Bashmore’s indelible mark: tracks that make you all warm and fuzzy, on and off the dancefloor. AT
GANGSTA BOO Candy, Diamonds & Pills Self-released
TINK Winter’s Diary 3 Self-released
SPECTRES Dying Sonic Cathedral
TYLER, THE CREATOR Cherry Bomb Odd Future / Red
MUMDANCE + LOGOS Proto Tectonic Recordings
ANTHONY NAPLES Body Pill Text
MA JICAL CLOUDZ Are You Alone? Matador
FATHER Who’s Gonna Get Fucked First? Awful Records
DRINKS Hermits on Holiday Heavenly
VISIONIST Safe PAN
ABR A ROSE Awful Records
To deconstruct moulds, to reassess stylistic arcs, or to pervert from what is deemed ‘the norm’ can leave many artists exposed. Yet, for Visionist, his debut LP not only dismantled perceptions of form but reassembled them in his own austere image. Safe separated Visionist from context, forcibly confronting his struggle with anxiety while also taking a form of music making and pillaging it to a state of malformation. With Safe, Visionist transformed himself from grime’s acquaintance to its spiritual stranger. T W
BELL WITCH Four Phantoms Profound Lore
MAC DEMARCO Another One Captured Tracks
TRUST FUND Seems Unfair Turnstile
It’s hard to imagine Mac DeMarco feeling blue, but something was up with Mac on Another One. This was a Mac DeMarco breakup album. His syrupy guitar riffs wobbled more than ever, bending and stretching under his gentle vocals – a beautifully burned-out ode to a romance slipping out of reach. While there weren’t as many earworms as in his previous work, Mac proved hopelessly endearing, even with a broken heart. AD
MARCHING CHURCH This World Is Not Enough Sacred Bones
MGL A Exercises in Futility Northern Heritage / No Solace
ST GERMAIN St Germain Warner Music
Polish black metal is a law unto itself, and Mgla have become its standard bearers. The despondent, triumphant, remarkable Exercises in Futility may boast the tremelo picking, blastbeats and wretched roars which signify the BM canon, but in capturing the essence of what makes all metal thrilling – extremity, catharsis, ambition, technical brilliance – it transcends the genre restrictions which can often make that world seem prescriptive and severe. Mgla have crafted one of the most addictive and individual albums that heavy fucking metal – of any specification – has seen in years. GHD DENZEL CURRY 32 Zel / Planet Mushrooms L&E x C9
NOZINJA Nozinja Warp
RUSTIE EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE Warp
Nozinja Lodge was a 10-track invitation into the astonishing and hyperactive realm of Shangaan Electro from its proud founder. With the irresistible palpitations of Tsekeleke at its centre, the LP proudly flaunted its kinetic, almost bass-free sound. While it might have been more of an induction than a fully formed long-player, Nozinja Lodge triumphed by amplifying all the most human traditions that the genre is built from; movement, togetherness and positivity. DH
MISS RED Murda Self-released
OCTOBER Black Body Radiation Skudge
M.E . S.H. Piteous Gate PAN
DEERHUNTER Fading Frontier 4AD
FENNESZ / KING MIDAS SOUND Editions 1 Ninja Tune
BL ACKLISTERS Adult Smalltown America
L ANA DEL REY Honeymoon UMG
MA X RICHTER From SLEEP Deutsche Grammophon
TESS PARKS & ANTON NEWCOMBE I Declare Nothing A Recordings
BUILT TO SPILL Untethered Moon Warner Bros
FOUR TET Morning/Evening Text
OUGHT Sun Coming Down Constellation
KEHL ANI You Should Be Here Self-released
ROMARE Projections Ninja Tune
EMPRESS OF Me Terrible Records / XL
NILS FR AHM Solo Erased Tapes
T Y DOLL A $IGN Free TC Taylor Gang / Pu$haz Ink / Atlantic
In late March the world quietly celebrated ‘Piano Day’. Surprisingly, this event, founded by Nils Frahm, was the first of its kind. Not only did the classical experimentalist encourage the populace to share their personal piano scores online but galvanised our submission by releasing a collection of his own works for free. Solo is the product of a composer leading a generation of embryonic radicals. And instead of lazily basking in his own caricatured sentimentality, Frahm permits Solo’s space composure to carry you towards a state of total tranquility. T W
Dedicated to his incarcerated younger brother – who features on the album through endearing phone conversations from behind bars – Free TC dropped after a number of delays while Ty spent a total of three years getting it right. The result was well worth the wait – club-rattling hooks like Blasé and Saved mixed up with traditional soul, cinematic production and world-class RnB songwriting. DH
PAR ANOID LONDON Paranoid London Paranoid London Records
HELENA HAUFF Discreet Desires Werkdiscs
GODSPEED YOU! BL ACK EMPEROR Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress Constellation Records
KRILL A Distant Fist Unclenching Exploding in Sound / Double Double Whammy
VIET CONG Viet Cong Jagjaguwar
HELEN The Original Face Kranky
SICKO MOBB Super Saiyan Vol.2 Self-released With a sound that often replicates the feeling of pure elation, Chicago bop was often framed as the optimistic flip side to the nihilistic and violent rhetoric of the city’s drill rappers when it emerged a couple of years back. The sub-genre’s leaders Sicko Mobb returned this year with Super Saiyan Vol.2, delivering a whirlpool of autotuned gargles and bubble gum synths that, even if set to a calmer pace that its predecessor, felt like it was stuck on fast-forward. Arguably the most addictive mixtape of 2015. DR
E ARL SWE ATSHIRT I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside Columbia / Tan Cressida
PRURIENT Frozen Niagara Profound Nore
COURTNEY BARNET T Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Mom + Pop
LEVON VINCENT Levon Vincent Novel Sound
GIRL BAND Holding Hands With Jamie Rough Trade
THE INTERNET Ego Death Odd Future / Columbia
WA X AHATCHEE Ivy Trip Wichita
SLE AFORD MODS Key Markets Harbinger Sound
From the first thrill of Ivy Tripp’s keyboard drone opening all the way through to its fuzzedout conclusion, it was clear that Waxahatchee’s third LP represented a distinct step forward for Katie Crutchfield. More detailed instrumentation and grander themes may have made this a vaguer listen than Cerulean Salt, but Crutchfield left just enough room for your own imagination to run free, making this an equally affecting listen. Heartthawing, raw, emotionally intelligent – this appealed to anyone who has felt anything, ever. SJ
Nottingham no-fi punk-rap duo Sleaford Mods have charted a clear progression over the past eight years. But Key Markets felt different: a statement, a marker. This was an album about desolation and small town dejection; the raging has quieted, the hopelessness is implicit. But more than ever, it feels like every single word had its place in a carefully-aligned landscape. Key Markets was a heavy and hard listen – not Sleaford Mods’ most explosive or explicit document, but it might have been their most affecting. GHD
JENNY HVAL Apocalypse, girl Sacred Bones
NICK HÖPPNER Folk Ostgut Ton
EEK FE AT. ISL AM CHIPSY Kahraba Nashazphone
JAM CIT Y Dream A Garden Night Slugs
JESSICA PR AT T On Your Own Love Again Drag City
BL ANCK MASS Dumb Flesh Sacred Bones
K AHN, COMMODO & GANTZ Volume 1 Deep Medi
BE ACH HOUSE Depression Cherry Sub Pop
CONTAINER LP Spectrum Spools
On Depression Cherry, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally narrowed their field of vision slightly but increased their sense of focus. Where 2012’s Bloom was a widescreen, lush suite of songs, each effectively acting as a movement within a greater whole, Depression Cherry saw the two opt for sophisticated electronic minimalism and individual song craft. It was a record that felt at once colder but more intimate, and while there was ultimately a pervasive sense of melancholia to all of it that tempers any elation, nobody would have it any other way. Once again, Beach House made sadness sound endlessly alluring. JFT
Höppner’s inextricable connection to Berghain/Panorama Bar felt integral to this release, considering he used to manage Ostgut Ton and has been a mainstay on their dance floors since the beginning. Folk married a pensive outlook with lightness of touch that gives the record real warmth. Even the punchier tracks still hugged rather than hurt you. The maximalism achieved on Folk owes as much to the swirling, heady progressive sounds of the 90s as anything else, brought right up to date by a man who knows the world’s most progressive dancefloor inside out. TF DR AKE If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late Cash Money / Young Money / OVO Sound
LITURGY The Ark Work Thrill Jockey
FUTURE Dirty Sprite 2 Epic / Free Bandz
ONEOTHRIX POINT NEVER Garden of Delete Warp Records
VINCE STAPLES Summertime ’06 ARTium / Def Jam
DJ RICHARD Grind Dial White Material boss DJ Richard surprised everyone this September with a set of beautifully subdued house sketches, carefully built to mess with your head. Listening to Grind the whole way through was not dissimilar to navigating a hung-over Sunday’s brutal mess of emotions. The sullen drones, syncopated beats and eerie synth-work prompted painful unease, unwarranted optimism and numbing apathy in equal measure. XB
GRIMES Art Angels 4AD Making good on all that Visions promised, Art Angels is the indefinable atom-bomb of a full-length that Grimes laboured so lovingly over. Sugar-rushed love songs, murky underground electronic cuts, unrelenting gory interludes with Taiwanese rappers and everything in between all compiled into one miraculously cohesive whole. She journeyed to every corner of her artistic cosmos and created something universal. Playful, explorative, boundary-pushing and gleefully fearless – Art Angels is the sound of tearing through boundaries without even trying. DH
CHASTIT Y BELT Time to Go Home Hardly Art Death, control, and the patriarchal gaze are all engulfed by the misanthropic mist of Chastity Belt’s second album. Trembling with nihilism, boredom, and anger (all quickly played off with dark humour), its inky tide pulls horribly relatable modern observations into its midst: making a joke of the heavy shit, how boring mansplaining is, and using alcohol as a social crutch are just a few motifs. A haunting ode to the fatigue of life in the ‘real world’, and a definite Crack office favourite. SJ
R AE SREMMURD SremmLife EarDrumers / Interscope SremmLife – according to Rae Sremmurd’s definition – is a way of life. “If I was to break a rule, I can just say ‘SremmLife’ and it makes it ok... it also means to ride in the front seat.” If you subscribe to this ideology and don’t over-think the duo’s infectious brat rap – you’ll have yourself one of 2015’s most enjoyable records. Immaturity never sounded so good. DH
JLIN Dark Energy Planet Mu Jlin is from Gary, Indiana; a neighbouring city geographically glued to Chicago. And, for Jlin, this is a crucial association. With Dark Energy, she heralded the robust lineage of Chicago’s inaugural footwork dignitaries, yet her detached origins make her an outsider; revising the genre’s blueprints and embellishing upon its familiar tropes. Fierce and forward-thinking, Dark Energy contained some of the most vital electronic music of 2015. T W
JME Intergrity> Boy Better Know ‘No label, no PR, no publisher…’ so goes JME’s Twitter bio, ‘no meat, no dairy no egg.’ He’s an independent artist who abstains from the spoils of hedonism. A 16-bar grafter, he’s grime’s tireless lifer with the ethical mettle to safeguard the genre’s integrity. Rooted in his Boy Better Know enterprise, he spits like the educator of reason; “If you want something, work towards it.” JME works hard, and as Integrity> attested, hard work pays off. The end product of grime’s militant immortality. XB
LOW Ones and Sixes Sub Pop Low’s music smoulders away with steadfast persistence, like embers that are constantly tended to in order to maintain a very specific level of heat. In less skilled hands, their songs would fizzle out or fall flat – it’s the bands nuanced understanding of song craft that imbues their compositions with subtle tension and intensity. Ones and Sixes laid out a bleak wilderness of icy, billowing sounds and reverb-laden, fuzzed guitar as backdrop to Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s haunting vocals. A profoundly moving album. SM
GIRLPOOL When the World Was Big Wichita Despite their meager setup (one guitar, one bass, two sets of vocals), Girlpool’s perfectly harmonised twin voices have been among the loudest of 2015. That’s not to say When the World Was Big is noisy (it’s spare, if anything) – it’s just that when they’re speaking in their wincingly true, but apparently effortless terms, they do it without the aid of anything that could distract. Their debut LP feels like the start of a phenomenon started by two teenage best friends, and it’s magic from start to finish. SJ
YOUNG THUG Barter 6 300 Entertainment / Atlantic Restraint was key to the success of Barter 6. With a wise disregard for scoring radio hits or reeling in big name features, the relative subtlety of the LP’s beats allowed Thug more space to explore the strange and remarkable possibilities of his vocal chords. His style may be erratic, but Barter 6 was sound of Young Thug warming to the idea that, if he applies a little method to the madness, there’s yet more alien territory to be discovered. DR
RP BOO Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints Planet Mu There’s a confidence to RP Boo’s footwork. It’s coarse and unfettered, frequently sparring between sonically debased drum samples. It’s also very specific. Classic even. Instead of growling with syncopated structure, it locates the weak spots of your body and releases round after round of bloodied jabs. Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints was an attestation that footwork’s gaudy protest against stagnant club culture is no longer revered solely by the dance crews of Chicago’s basements. It was an international roar in favour of footwork’s permanence, acting as the defining record from the scene’s equivalent to Juan Atkins. And as the closing segment of B’Ware crassly insisted, it may just be time to ‘move the juke out the way’ and embrace the future as told by RP Boo. T W
D’ANGELO Black Messiah RCA
HUDSON MOHAWKE Lantern Warp
TAME IMPAL A Currents Fiction
While it came out in the final days of 2014, D’Angelo’s Black Messiah quickly became a defining work of the months that followed. Repaying fans for over 10 years of patience and hope, Black Messiah was the soul-bearing sociopolitical opera we all dreamed of. Harnessing the realities of life for African Americans and channeling it into a whirlpool of virtuosic jazz instrumentals and masterfully multilayered vocals. This wasn’t a record trying to answer all the questions, it triumphed because it made them clearer than ever. DH
It can sometimes be hard to know exactly how much fun we are supposed to be having. Favouring a shroud of irony over sincerity, expressions of open enjoyment leave us vulnerable, looking over our shoulders, secondguessing whether or not anyone else is going to join in. In this climate, Lantern was remarkable. From start to finish, its intent was to encourage serious, aggressive, uninhibited joy. This was euphornography. Just as it is easier to send a thousand flirty, sarcastic texts than to say, “I love you”, Lantern took the step to actually sound as big as we can all feel. Lantern challenged you not to start enjoying yourself, and it won every time. AH
Kevin Parker is a man with nothing left to prove. With gold and platinum albums already under his belt, Currents was always going to be a victory lap. The record allowed guitars to take a backseat to promote swirling, woozy synths. Sounding more effortlessly highaltitude than ever before, it felt like Parker was singing to us from atop an enormous helium balloon heading for the outer reaches of the earth’s atmosphere. A break-up record by all accounts, Currents examined heartbreak within the context of the unstoppable upward trajectory of Parker’s career, feeling simultaneously intimate and enormous. SM
SUFJAN STEVENS Carrie and Lowell Asthmatic Kitty
HUNEE Hunch Music Rush Hour
JULIA HOLTER Have You In My Wilderness Domino
It’s undeniable that Carrie and Lowell is an honest, if not heart-wrenching, piece of art. Written for Stevens’ late mother, whose mental health struggles and alcoholism meant that she was often absent from his life, the album is a doleful lament of a broken childhood. This wasn’t the Stevens whose music comes clad in light-up suits and bird wings, but Stevens at his most stripped-down and vulnerable. It was account of the universal feelings of loneliness and yearning for what is lost – and therein lied its poignant beauty. GY
When Hunch Music won ‘best album’ at the Dutch 3VOOR12 independent music awards, Hunee was thankful, but cautious in his reply: “as musicians and people working within sound … that's our work and our struggle, and our joy and eventually our reward.” You got the sense that such praise was appreciated, but superfluous: Hunee truly made this album for himself. Hunch Music tunnel visions into Hun Choi’s world: full of contemplative sweeps of colour and piled high with dust laden jazz records, an overall sense of restless exploration settled in the grooves. Underpinned with the infectious warmth of his DJ sets, Hunch Music was inspired by field recordings and the expansive sounds that make up his vast record collection, and with it Choi forged a style of his own. A stunningly singular addition to electronic music. AT
On Feel You, the opening track of Have You in My Wilderness, Holter asks “Can I feel you? Are you mythological?” It’s a question for somebody else in this instance, but throughout the rest of the record it seems to be something she asks of herself. When compared to her previous three albums, all rooted in works of fiction, HYIMW traded the fantastical for the feverish and the richly intimate, to spell-binding success. In terms of songwriting, in 2015 Julia Holter remained almost unparalleled. AH
MIGUEL Wildheart RCA “Trust your intuition. I am freedom. Forever.” This is what Miguel – clad in a tasseled white leather biker jacket – told the crowd when we caught a glimpse of his messianic world tour. Starry-eyed proverbs like this didn’t even seem corny anymore. We’d already fallen head-first under the spell of Wildheart. Somehow, through the sheen of the production and the effortlessness of his performance, Miguel managed to reignite the fire of classic RnB and make it seem brand new. Timeless tales of porno shops, Californian dreams and coffee in the morning. DH
BJÖRK Vulnicra One Little Indian
HOLLY HERNDON Platform 4AD Following 2012’s Movement, Holly Herndon returned to coax further secrets from the hyper-emotional core of the digital landscape, and the idea of reclamation was present throughout. You might assume, and not unfairly, that any record concerning itself with a post-Snowden internet would be largely characterised by pretty grim vibes. But Platform refused to despair, instead asking, “how can we fix this?” And despite offering up some of Herndon’s most accessible work to date, Platform retained a crafted, academic feel; a focused set of studies carefully dissecting their respective subject matters. Paradise in this life? Maybe, said Platform’s deeply engaged, avant laptop-pop, but not without a making a conscious effort to. As third track Unequal put it, “change the shape of our future, to be unafraid, to break away.” XB
Shortly after recording Vulnicura, a devastating document of her mid-life divorce, Björk went on a pub crawl in central Reykjavík. At midnight, she led her posse of collaborators to a hip-hop club called Prikid, where, in the words of an accompanying New York Times writer, she “danced nonstop, sang along and downed shots of birch schnapps until nearly 4 a.m.” It’s a telling anecdote that’ll surprise no one familiar with her art’s wild spirit. Vulnicura is an album of heartbreak, but also of manic enlightenment. Its unique sorrow is the vertigo of total self-understanding, reflecting a life lived in constant proximity to the deepest truths of humanity, the kind most of us only comprehend at a loved one’s deathbed. The result is that you’re not dragged down to its level so much as elevated in wonder at the breadth of human emotion. Some of the lyrics bordered on melodrama -– “My soul torn apart, my spirit is broken/Into the fabric of all, he is woven,” goes a verse in Black Lake, undercut by grand, weeping strings that stutter and soar – but thankfully, the album contains a degree of redemption, as Björk discovers oblivion is its own kind of sanctuary. Listening along, you’ll experience that simple truth as a revelation. JM
KENDRICK L AMAR To Pimp A Butterfly Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope On Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 album good kid, m.A.A.d city, an excerpt of a voicemail message from his mother was tucked into the track Real: “I hope you come back and learn from your mistakes. Come back a man, tell your story to these black and brown kids in Compton. Let ‘em know you was just like them, but you still rose from that dark place of violence, becoming a positive person. But when you do make it, give back with your words of encouragement, that’s the best way to give back.” Sure enough, To Pimp A Butterfly chronicled Lamar’s subsequent ascent from “a peasant, to a prince, to a motherfucking king”. The story he came back with was one of guilt and depression, one in which his integrity was threatened by the seductive – but destructive – temptations of the music industry and the intoxicating ego-massage of fame. But K.Dot survived with his soul intact. He’d learnt how to eradicate internalised self-hatred and replace it with self-love and positivity, how to break out of the cocoon and take flight as the butterfly. He had words of encouragement to give back. But despite the deeply personal themes explored in its many layers, To Pimp A Butterfly is an album for the public of 2015, and it’s the most staunchly political record to have dominated the mainstream in recent memory. In the last few years, the international media has woken up to the harassment and violence directed towards African American citizens by members the US police force – many of whom have appeared almost immune to sufficient punishment from the judicial system. On its first day of release, To Pimp A Butterfly was streamed 9.6 million times on Spotify. Footage has emerged of the song Alright being chanted at police officers following tensions at a Black Lives Matter conference in Cleveland, Ohio, and at this year’s Million Man March in Washington D.C. In 2015, Kendrick Lamar’s words of encouragement resonated with many, many people. In the current landscape, it can be so tempting to indulge in nostalgic daydreams, to browse the recent past for eras when popular culture always evolved in conjunction with socio-political shifts and the emergence of new generations. To Pimp A Butterfly was an album which was deeply invested in the history of 20th century African American music of course, but it was one that weaved together threads of jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop into a new fabric; with Kendrick’s voice being the most ground-breaking instrument of all. The album’s references served as a rally call, a reprisal of the idea of music’s inherent revolutionary spirit. A door has been kicked open. To Pimp A Butterfly is radical music for the masses. DR
Tracks Of The Year 2015
This list presents a broad cross section of songs we’ve been borderline obsessed with, along with those we just couldn’t shake this year. Some took the floor from under us one time in a pounding club, others existed purely on our laptops, to be replayed, replayed, replayed. Some we’d heard every morning before we left for work, others we’ve garbled at the top of our lungs on the late journey home. We started wtih a huge longlist of great tracks – here are the 50 which made the final cut.
Contributors: Billy Black, Robert Bates, Duncan Harrison, Sammy Jones, Steve Mallon, Davy Reed, Anna Tehabsim, Jason Hunter
JACK Ü FE AT. JUSTIN BIEBER Where Are Ü Now? Mad Decent / OWSLA
CISUM THE PAINTER 20 Bound Recordings
DJ MANNY Would U Mind ft. DJ Taye Hoko Sounds
MAN POWER Trans (Discodromo Remix) Throne of Blood
JAMIE X X Gosh XL Recordings / Young Turks
SO STRESSED Apple Hill Honor Press
ALL DOGS That Kind Of Girl Salinas
DESTROYER Dream Lover Merge
IPMAN Strong Ones Tectonic
YG Twist My Fingaz Def Jam
ANDREA Outlines Ilian Tape
PSALM ZERO Real Rain Black Mass
Justin Bieber’s unbridled rise from bratty tween to credible RnB sensation has been impressive to say the least. This new, calmer Bieber was put to work excellently on Skrillex and Diplo’s Where Are Ü Now? The vocals are pensive and restrained while the beat flitted between big room EDM pads and tropical house stabs. Justin Bieber, welcome to the fold. BB
It’s not like Meredith Graves to stay quiet for long. She didn’t release a Perfect Pussy record this year but she did start a brand new label Honor Press and in doing so, had the ingenious idea of signing So Stressed. The Sacramento posse’s Apple Hill is a satisfyingly intense racket. A blur of intense yelps, a peaking, fuzzy bass line and crashing, stilted drums. This is posthardcore nonpareil. BB
SOPHIE MSMSMSM Numbers
FRACTURE + CHIMPO From Early Metalheadz
Andrea made a play for Shed’s unofficial title of King of the Kick Drum with this emotive yet pounding track on Illian Tape, a no-hype label that plays the ‘no-hype’ thing without it actually being a pose. Referencing ‘classic’ techno – Jeff Mills at his most melodic, KMS & maybe Surgeon too – Outlines raises functional, beat-led techno to cerebral, mystical highs. RB
MIGOS One Time 300 Entertainment / Atlantic
SKEPTA Shutdown Boy Better Know
TY DOLLA $IGN Blasé ft. Future & Rae Sremmurd Taylor Gang / Pu$haz Ink / Atlantic
BORAI Anybody From London Hotline Recordings
SAUNA YOUTH Transmitters Upset the Rhythm
JANET JACKSON No Sleeep ft. J Cole Rhythm Nation / BMG
DJ RASHAD Understand ft. Nick Hook & Machinedrum Self-released
PILL Misty Eyed Porno Reader Dull Tools
Unbreakable was let down in many ways by its clunky attempts at placing Janet Jackson in pop’s contemporary climate. No Sleeep proved that she could still flourish under one of the many styles she’d always done best. This weightless, unfurling single reaffirmed her status as one of pop and RnB’s true outsiders. Too fast to be a real slow jam but too slow to make any real dent in the pop world – Jackson stayed in her own lane and hypnotised us all over again with this neon-lit pillow-talk anthem. DH
JACK J Thirstin Future Times
THE WEEKND The Hills XO / Republic
SIR SPYRO Side By Side ft. Big H, Bossman Birdie & President T Dragon Punch Records
KANYE WEST All Day ft. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom, Paul McCartney GOOD Music / Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
FETTY WAP 679 ft. Monty RGF / 300
Jack Jutson, half of the Pender Street Steppers, has been producing laid-back, melodic house that has real cross-genre appeal for a while now, and this year’s Thirstin has torn up dancefloors worldwide. The disco walking bass, Fender Rhodes piano and descending vocal lines all help, but it’s the clattering, otherworldly effect the intermittent tape echo lends that makes this one of the most charming records of the year. RB
GRAMRCY Ruffian Ancient Monarchy
DJ FIRMENZA Alma Do Meu Pai Príncipe Discos
Kanye scrapped the official All Day video in favour of the BRIT Awards performance footage, and it would have been absurd not to. Inevitably, some tried their best to provoke a backlash online after the show, but the track itself has archived an exhilarating moment in popular culture – a much-needed jolt of adrenaline for a British public who’d begun to accept the award ceremony concept as nothing better than a bland and predictable form of corporate hell. DR
DEERHUNTER Snakeskin 4AD
TAME IMPALA Eventually Interscope Records
GESLOTEN CIRKEL Acid Stakan Viewlexx
POWELL Sylvester Stallone XL Recordings
MBONGWANA STAR Malukayi (feat. Konono No.1) World Circuit
KELELA A Message Warp Records
OSSIA Red X Blackest Ever Black
BULLY Trying StarTime
MURLO Moodswung Mixpak
RIHANNA Bitch Better Have My Money Roc Nation
STORMZY Know Me From Self-released
DRAKE Hotline Bling Cash Money / Republic Aubrey shifts his weight in front of the mirror, tries his new Stone Island puffer. Zipped, and then unzipped. Even Miami gets cold this time of year. He hits the clubs, always knowing that out past The Bluffs, in Hamilton or Oshawa, there are clearer skies. Right here there’s nothing but smog-sunk horizons. Stone Island can’t bring her back. Dancing can’t bring her back. She used to call him on his cell phone. BB
BICEP Just Aus Music
FKA TWIGS in time Young Turks
Bicep have come a long way since 2012's retro smash Vision of Love. Their releases in the past few years have carried that similar instant classic feeling through denser, tougher sounds. Yet the Northern Irish duo achieved a new kind of elegant ubiquity with this year's Just. It gripped you instantly – its chilly breakbeat locking you down while a whirling melody creeps up your spine and slowly consumes you. This yearns to be played in a club – the aural encapsulation of cold blue light enveloped in foggy haze. No bicep emojis here, just the time-suspending pre-peak rush of a dance floor captured in song. AT
in time is part aspirational mantra, part fierce diatribe directed at an emotionally distant significant other. Twigs presents a multi-faceted picture; at times it’s like she’s speaking to herself in her head in whispered, brooding tones, looking to the future for solace; other times she flips into present tense, railing against her lover in ferocious double time. Underpinned by ethereal production and icy, razor sharp percussion, twigs’ shifting sentiments and stark honesty are amplified to a monumental scale, making in time a majestic anthem about hope and unrest in love. As another spectacular year for twigs passed, this was her crowning glory. SM
LEVON VINCENT Woman Is An Angel Novel Sound
JENNY HVAL That Battle Is Over Sacred Bones
KENDRICK LAMAR King Kunta Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope
The tape slice jolting you out of rhythm half way through Woman Is… is a display of Levon’s unflinching imperfection. A U-turn from 2008’s Woman Is The Devil, the track is one of the LP’s dancefloor friendly offerings, where, arriving last, its brooding energy is laced with triumph, feeling like a victory lap at the end of the race, or a simmering, skyward leap into the arms of a loved one. With this track, Levon Vincent was back with typically bracing brilliance, making hairs stand on end across dancefloors worldwide. AT
Sitting somewhere between hallucination and reality, Hval’s album Apocalypse, Girl is a lucid experience. The Norwegian artist’s razor sharp wit and sprawling narrative unraveled in this vital track, gliding across woozy orchestral swells and sending it skywards, the track practically achieving lift off with the line that underpins Hval’s frustrations: “You say I’m free now, that battle is over, and feminism is over and socialism’s over. Yeah, I can consume what I want now”. As That Battle… showed across its lush swirling stretch, Hval’s eloquent articulation of modern frustrations comes wrapped up in an addictive haze, like a bitter pill made easier to swallow. One of 2015's surprise obsessions. AT
With one eye on the dancefloor and the other on a copy of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Kendrick managed to pack serious emotional and intellectual depth into this irresistible funk freakout without sabotaging the party. With references to the legendary enslaved man Kunta Kinte brushing up alongside Smooth Criminal quotes, King Kunta forced your feet to move and your head to implode. Four minutes of wild perfection. JH
COURTNEY BARNETT Pedestrian At Best Mom + Pop A typically idiosyncratic and darkly funny groan about imposter syndrome transformed into a garage grunge hit? A timeless anthem with a chorus about origami? Please forgive us, but this is anything but pedestrian. When we watched Barnett play this over the summer she went mad, swung her hair around and head-banged, and who can blame her? This was the crowning glory of Courtney’s glorious year. SJ
JME Man Don’t Care ft. Giggs Boy Better Know Anyone who’s been at a JME show or heard Man Don’t Care on a good soundsystem in 2015 will testify that the crowd’s adrenaline levels surge the moment those whirring organs begin to simmer from the speakers. With machine-gun delivery and a dextrous display of (figuratively) violent lyricism, the BBK veteran asserts his authority before Giggs – who sounds as good as he ever has here – creates a sense of brooding menace without loosing an ounce of cool. A masterful declaration of independence. JH
GRIMES Flesh without Blood 4AD As details of her impending album drip fed our anticipation throughout the year, all the hints Grimes dropped about her feverishly-awaited, much-teased, hyped-towithin-an-inch-of-its-life fourth LP proved useless at deciphering what was to come: “trippy free association about nature and shit” and “bro-art” were just two inspirations offered by Boucher, who remained free-spirited despite all the pressure mounted on her. So when Flesh without Blood suddenly appeared – recognisably ‘Grimesy’ but cleaner, fresher and freer than ever before – it's no wonder the world’s jaw dropped. Art Angels is proudly filled with noughties pop nostalgia, helium squeaks and bubblegum melody. This diss track, aimed at an ex-best friend, is the album's high-kicking, shackles-breaking, propulsive core – and it has surely cemented Boucher as an alt-pop megastar. Released during the latter half of 2015, Flesh without Blood was the anthem we’d been craving all along. SJ
YOUNG THUG Pacifier 300 Entertainment / Atlantic With moments of spontaneous genius to be discovered in an abundance of leaks, numerous full lengths and a constant stream of loose tracks, picking the best Young Thug song of 2015 is like choosing your favourite child – if you have hundreds of them. But if there was one track which encapsulated the thrill of this year’s victory, it was the criminally overlooked single Pacifier. Press play, turn it up and let your heart soar as Thug ascends with a gospel choir before exploding all over Mike WiLL Made It’s thunderous beat. It demands classic status. DR
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Animal Collective: Painting with the Colours of Chaos
There are few bands who manage to render colour into lurid musical being as successfully as Animal Collective. Their albums are made from vivid pulps, gaudy streaks, and soupy palettes from which melodies and hooks emerge with euphoric clarity. They are a band that make pop music, only, you’ve got to find it first. On their forthcoming album Painting With (to be released in February via Domino) the spectrum is conjured again – crystalline melodies appear fully formed from the psychedelic melee. Far from faded, the brushstrokes feel brighter and bolder than before. I find myself obsessing over this dynamic before I speak to Dave Portner (Avey Tare), one of the band’s vocalists, founding members and multi-instrumentalists. “The way I got into it was making flyers for shows—somehow it fell on me to do the flyers when we first starting playing,” Portner says, responding generously to a question as simple as 'do you paint?' “I started pretty simply at first,” he explains. “I’d take these flyers and hang them up over New York, just as a way to do something organic and visually different, then that carried into doing some of the album artwork. I feel like it takes me away.” Portner is one of four. There’s himself (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Brian Weitz (Geologist), and Josh Dibb (Deakin). As with 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, it was the trio of Avery Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist who recorded Painting With, and it’s this incarnation of the group who arrived to our London photo shoot with masks.
Throughout our conversation Portner flits between referring to his bandmates either by their real first names or their adopted nicknames within the group, as if the titles themselves are subject to change with passing moods. The friendship between the four of them grew from high school. Yet where most high school bands move from friendship straight into pubescent dreams of rock shows, their sights were shifted further out, towards making music as an experience. “I think that was around the same time we start experimenting with psychedelics, so we would listen to music in a way that contorted images.” This fantastical tendency began to emerge on 2000’s Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. The title track on that first record is a bewildered maze of song. It stings and fuzzes like a deteriorating machine, while poignant, tapped out vocals vaguely communicate some isolated lament from outer-space. “We were working with our imaginations. We would put on a record and talk about what it brought to mind and we’d all have these crazy experiences. It’s something we’ve worked at, and now it’s natural.” The band have cited Dadaism as an influence on their latest record. The early-20th Century avant-garde art movement was a highly politicised movement in pre and post war Europe, yet from a contemporary perspective its artistic spirit perhaps serves the most obvious connection to a band like Animal Collective. With Duchamp’s Fountain – an autographed porcelain urinal – among the movement’s most cited works, Dadaism held the reckless abandonment of pre-agreed
Words: Angus Harrison Photography: Jack Johnstone
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“We want stuff to be more of a challenge. How can we distort things further?”
structures and rules in highest esteem. As Portner acknowledges, it’s this desire to push and test things that still resonates today. “I think throughout the history of art and music you have certain time periods and people who took a step out there. The next step in the field that they are in. Whether it’s Dadaists, or Cubists, or Picasso, or Warhol, or Stravinsky, or John Cage. These are the foundations that have come before me—now what can I do that’s different with these foundations?” By adhering to this philosophy, Animal Collective have maintained a footing ahead of the pack. “I want stuff to be more of challenge,” he explains. “How can I distort things further?” Painting With’s opening track Floridada is a perfect articulation of this subversion of form in parallel with Dadaist method. “Floridada for me is actually quite a traditional pop song, but we take that thing that sounds so comfortable and distort it. Presenting an idea that might be familiar in a different way, so it feels Animal Collective, and feels personal.” By their standards, this is an album of singles. Taut, lean tracks that pack the otherworldly into as compact a running time as possible. Portner admits that this is in part an effort to create music more rooting in a climate of singles, streaming, and immediate consumption. “We’ll always be album people, and I think making a full cohesive album will always mean a lot to us, but we are also aware of the context that we are putting out music in. The concise punch of an individual
track matters so much now.” It’s interesting to consider Animal Collective’s connection to the mainstream, since they're the sort of band that have managed to occupy such bizarre imaginative space, they have largely escaped much definition by contemporary standards. Given the four years since the band’s last album and the constant skin-shedding of rolling music industry cycles, it’s conceivable that a band as meditative and wildly disconnected as Animal Collective would struggle to find a place in a such an ever-present, immediate climate – is there such a thing as millennial psychedelia? Portner acknowledges the risk in taking the truly idiosyncratic to mainstream. “I was criticised when we were on the main stage of Coachella the last time we played there. I said something like “we’re here to bring the weird”, and a journalist writing about the show was like 'What is that anymore? What is weird?'” Yet, personal reflection, much like his earliest creative sessions with his band mates, is the space within which the imagination can still find new avenues. “To me it’s a balance between chaos and structure,” Portner reflects. “An element of our music has always been the sense that any second it could fall apart, that jam-like quality. Within that, there’s a magic place where the balance is found. Where chaos and the traditional meet, and the psychedelic shines through.” Painting With will be released 19 February 2016 via Domino
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A Kingdom All His Own: Gruff Rhys tames tedium with his Candylion Words: Sammy Jones Photography: Cameron Sweeny
Inflatable animals. Sing-a-longs. A glittering cast of musicians-cum-actors. An allegorical tale inspired by Studio Ghibli. At the centre of it all: an unlikely showman, orchestrating, singing, but definitely not dancing. This showman could only be Super Furry Animals frontman turned theatrical innovator, Gruff Rhys, and this could only be The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion. I meet Gruff at the National Theatre Wales offices. People stream through Castle Arcade and peer into the window as we talk, occasionally filtering through the door and greeting us as they go. Gruff must be a familiar face by now. Praxis Makes Perfect, a biographical show about Italian publisher and left-wing activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, was also realised by the theatre company in 2013. Gruff’s latest show, the aforementioned Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion, travels to an even bolder new horizon: the future. “It’s what I found exciting, in a way,” Rhys says, peering at a sheet of freshly-printed Candylion stickers, as if for inspiration. “It’s freer – it may be set in the future, but it
might apply today and in the past. I’ve fallen into a weird biographical phase, somehow, before this anyway – and it’s definitely healthy to walk free of history. We’ve been wildly imagining. It’s a healthy change.” ‘Wildly imagining’ seems to be an understatement. The show is about Candylion (“sometimes she’s a he and sometimes he’s a she,” says Gruff), a pink inflatable lion who lives so far in the past that it’s actually the future. She, or he, lives in Pixel Valley, in a co-operative society – but as Gruff explains, “Candylion starts to get out of control, and gets greedy and starts eating objects, and eating his friends and grows bigger and bigger – can his friends get him back down to size?” The show is an allegorical tale, meant for all ages, but this tag by no means equals ‘just for kids’. “I’ve got no interest in writing music for children, or adults, you know – I just wanted the music to be pure,” he explains. “Not patronising people by writing things directed at an age group. I spent lots of time with [director] Wils and [playwright] Tim, trying to figure out the right tone, and how to turn the story into something that
makes sense. We’ve been working together and getting drunk for quite a long time.” When I ask if this allegory could potentially be political, he is thoughtful. “It works on lots of different levels,” he says, after a pause. “A child can appreciate it on vibrant colours and narrative alone, but there’s plenty there for people to read into. We’re living in quite extreme times politically, and sometimes things are more powerful when they’re said by a bright pink balloon.” While the show will feature music from Gruff’s 2009 album Candylion amongst “four or five’” brand new songs he’ll perform himself, please don’t call it a musical. In fact, try not to categorise it at all. “I’m working with a team who are pretty turned off by musicals in general, but we love music,” says Gruff. “I like a lot of records that have been created for theatrical reasons that are never called music, like The History of Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m hoping this is part of some tradition that’s outside that kind of straitjacket of tedium.” Other inspirations he notes are Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (originally named Hywel’s Moving
Castle and made by renowned Welshophile Hayao Miyazaki), Jean Claude Vannier’s L’Enfant assassin des mouches, and the Tropicália movement that revitalised late 60s Brazil. Despite Gruff’s obvious dedication to theatre and its musical offshoots, when it’s put to him that he might be adding to the same kind of canon his theatrical heroes inhabit, he’s very clear on his role in the proceedings. “I’m a songwriter,” he says. “I’m not very agile, or much of an exhibitionist, you know, and that’s why I’m excited to put these songs in a different medium. It’s great being able to see these songs fully performed, without needing to become someone who I’m not.” Gruff, with something as madly magical as this on the horizon, we’d never ask you to be anything else. The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion runs at the The SSE SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff, 16 December - 2 January
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But the unlikely progression from the bedroom to the stadium has only encouraged Welsh to continue doing what Majical Cloudz do best: confronting the most tender human emotions with startling sincerity. “If anything, [playing stadium gigs] just made me feel less concerned about performing in a certain way or presenting myself in a certain way,” Welsh says on the phone from Germany, mid-way through headlining a tour of his own. “It made me comfortable just being myself on stage.”
Nowadays though, Majical Cloudz operate with the benefit of a loyal, ever-growing fan base. “It feels less like you’re having to prove yourself to people and more like you’re sharing,” he says of the current tour, which snaked through London last month. “Everybody’s interested in the music and we want to play it – it’s more of a happy experience for us.” Welsh and Otto also now have the advantage of another 12 spectral and beautifully unadorned songs with which to beguile their audience – their second LP Are You Alone?, which was released in October via Matador. At the core of the music, Welsh’s fragile voice is again paired with minimal, minorkey electronics, and this time, long-time Arcade Fire collaborator Owen Pallett was recruited to add strings and minimal percussive touches. Where Impersonator seemed to focus on the exploration of identity – an internal monologue that perhaps reflected an
Words: James F. Thompson Photography: Ro Murphy
The Naked Clarity of Majical Cloudz
ongoing struggle for Welsh to find his place and purpose in the world – Are You Alone? represents one side of a two-way conversation. We’re still not sure with whom that conversation is taking place, or whether lyrics like “All I want is for you to talk to me” (on Disappeared) are directly relatable to Welsh’s life, or simply meant as a relatable portrait of any lovelorn ex. That’s sort of the point though, says the man himself. “I think there is some of me in the music inevitably, in writing the songs and writing from personal experience, but I think I always try to abstract things to a point that feels natural,” Welsh explains with playful evasiveness. “I think I try more to create a feeling and just stay closer to the overall emotional experience of life. It’s important sometimes to build up a moment, or emotion, then inject that with an element of the theatrical maybe… An element of fantasy is good for art.” Are You Alone? is out now via Matador
In other interviews, Welsh has made it clear that the Lorde tour came about not through record company lobbying or PR hucksterism but artistic happenstance, owing to a connection with fellow Montrealer Grimes. Back in 2007, Welch met Claire Boucher at a first-year dorm party at McGill University. The pair kicked off an artistic and romantic relationship that lasted, on-and-off, for the next three years. In January last year, Boucher got in touch and asked if Majical Cloudz could support her at a Grammys pre-party in Los Angeles. Welsh readily obliged, and right there amidst the spellbound audience was one Ella Yelich-O’Connor. Lorde was rightly enraptured by the performance, but it could be fair to say that some listeners would be almost intimidated by Majical Cloudz’ emotional intensity. Stories abound of fans openly weeping at gigs, while on record Welsh is almost confrontationally open with his feelings; listening can at times feel like a voyeuristic experience. In the past, some gigs saw him strip almost naked, or hide behind bits of the stage – just to lighten the mood.
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net
The more things change, the more they stay the same for Devon Welsh. Following the release of their superlatively beautiful debut album Impersonator in 2013, Majical Cloudz became cultish outfit; admired but adrift. Within the space of a year, Welsh and bandmate Matthew Otto were up on stage in front of enormous crowds supporting Lorde on her world tour.
Iris, A ge 72, Retired, Bus & Coach station Wearing sunglasses by Moschino
With its local characters posing for the camera, Merthyr Rising captures the spirit of a determined Welsh town In the right hands, street casting can produce beautiful results. Merthyr Tydfil, a place once home to thriving coal and iron industries, has had its fair share of troubles. Like many of its kind, the Welsh town was struck by dramatic economic decline following the closure of its mines in the 80s. Like any story, however, there are two sides – and Charlotte James, a London-based fashion stylist and a native of Merthyr, is seeking to represent the one that resonates with her. When Charlotte met photographer and fellow Crack contributor Tom Johnson in April last year, their respective talents found a shared biting point, and the idea for the Merthyr Rising project was born. With the goal of challenging misconceptions and celebrating the charisma of Merthyr’s locals, the pair travelled to the town with camera equipment and suitcases full of borrowed high fashion pieces. What followed was a series of shoots that enlisted Charlotte’s family and friends, passersby, and people found through social media. “People were naturally quite curious, I think only one or two people said no,” Charlotte explains. “Some days we actually had too many people lined up, so we had to miss out on a few. Everyone was really encouraging and happy to be involved – everyone we met had a story to tell.” The photographs produced over their stay in the town cast a new light on both their subjects and the clothes they have been styled in. Often recruited on the spur of the moment, the subjects embody a warmth and spontaneity that is frequently missing from shoots with professional models. “I think subjects who aren’t models can be more natural to work with,” Tom says, reflecting on his love of street casting.
“Maybe sometimes they’re unaware of how brilliant they look, whereas a model has more self-awareness in their appearance and will play to that.” Of the photographs previewed so far, an image of an elderly lady named Phyllis, styled in a pleated blue Issey Miyake blouse, stands out as one of the most striking. Charlotte sheds some light on her story. “Phyllis was 91 years old. Unfortunately she passed away recently, so it’s a real shame she never got to see this project. She had nine grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and three great-greatgrandchildren. She worked throughout World War II in London, then as a dinnerlady until she retired. When we turned up with my suitcases full of clothes she thought I had brought her my washing to do. She is an amazing lady who made us laugh a lot. She kept saying ‘cheese or sex’ when her picture was being taken.” Another image of a woman called Iris leaps out, her life an ode to living freely. “She had an accident which nearly killed her,” Charlotte recalls. “When she recovered she told her husband she wanted to change her style, so she cleared out her wardrobe and revamped it with lots of colour. She now wears head to toe a different colour every day of the week. The first time I saw her in the town she was dressed all in orange with Hello Kitty trainers on. I took lots of photos of her and fell in love with her.” While Merthyr is slowly rebuilding itself in socio-economic terms, this collection of heartfelt photographs demonstrates that there will always be positivity and optimism to be found among its inhabitants. Merthyr Rising will show at Box Studio, London, from Wednesday 9 – 13 December
Words: Steve Mallon Photography: Tom Johnson Styling: Charlotte James
Phyllis, Age 92, Retird Dinner Lady, Swansea Road Wearing pleats by Issey Miyake
Evie, Age 7, Twynyrrodyn Wearing Agi & Sam
Terry and Lee, Age 58 & 68, Ex-Coal miner and Construction worker, Bus Station Wearing Antipodium and McQ by Alexander McQueen
Cameron, Age 13, High Street Wearing T-Shirt by McQ
Desire Lines: ROID traces the rugged paths to forbidden territory Words: Francis Blagburn Photography: Theo Cottle
Everyday life in a major city is an automatic process. Once your daily routine is set, it becomes second nature to follow established routes – to live between a limited network of tube stations and bus stops, and to only venture to new terrain with the heads-down logic of a Citymapper route plan. But even in the age of the internet not every journey we take is determined by an algorithm. People are constantly personalising the environment around them in small but significant ways, discovering new barriers to break down, and leaving traces in their wake for others to pick up on. Every city bears the marks of these unofficial, unplanned journeys. Known as ‘desire lines’, they can be of anything from a hole in a hedgerow that’s been used as a shortcut, to a well-worn ribbon of dirt running across a patch of grass. They are the subject of a new piece of work by ROID, a British graffiti artist and member of the world famous MSK crew. In recent years, he’s translated his work into printed publications, gallery exhibitions and, it’s probably worth noting, a really good Instagram account. He’s currently building an installation for an exhibition at NikeLab 1948 London, which he was commissioned to create as an accompaniment to the relaunch of NikeLab’s ACG collection. Entitled Don’t Fence Me Out, the piece will draw on his experiences of painting in various cities around the world, where it became normal for him to follow paths carved out in unconventional directions and climb through mangled fences that had been battered by previous graffiti writers aiming to reach the same spot. “What always interested me was the idea of the number of different people using the same routes and entrances and holes despite
these places being off the beaten track and in highly secure areas,” he explains. “In a lot of these places, the ways into train depots and holes in palisade fences are pieces of art in themselves,” Gates continues. “They display a sort of history or timeline of when holes were cut, and then security in turn patched things up trying to reinforce the fence. Sometimes you could have up to four or five layers of different types of fence welded together like some sort of galvanised steel monster, and it’s a sort of physical documentation of the constant cat and mouse game between graffiti writers and security or the companies in control of the rail system. I wanted to find a way to relay that idea.” Sharing ‘desire lines’ doesn’t necessarily denote a sense of solidarity. With more and more painters sharing territory, and the pressure of negotiating uncertain terrain, there’s always potential for the atmosphere to sour. “Recently, we had a situation in a well known spot in Holland where we turned up via a particular route to a cut in the fence, only to find two writers waiting by the fence watching three guys who were already painting waiting for them to either finish or get chased so they could go into paint themselves. Being the third group in line was a strange position to be in… I’ve come across other people plenty of times, and it’s definitely not often a ‘handshake, fun times’ moment. Everyone is there to do their thing and if someone else is trying to paint the same spot as you, you’re not gonna be that happy about it. “On the flip side, graffiti is one of very few subcultures in the world where if you’re an active person you could spin a globe, let your finger land on a city and be able to find someone through a friend or a friend
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of a friend that would most likely have a place for you to sleep and take you to paint. Since you’re essentially engaging in illegal activities with people you barely know, there is a massive amount of trust required… That can lead to some really good friendships with people you’d have otherwise never met.” But there’s the theory that such positive experiences are harder to come by in London, and that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to gain the access required to produce high quality work. “Everything is being redeveloped. I’ve spent the past 15 years figuring out how to get into spots throughout this city and it’s getting harder every year. What we do really lack here is space. Nothing sits around for very long, as soon as something becomes free, it’s quickly snapped up and built on. As a result you’re a lot less likely to find abandoned sites and forgotten about spots than you would most other cities around the world. I think there are always things to explore here, but it’s dependent on how far you want to go with it.” The NikeLab ACG Collection – paired with ROID’s functional stripped back style due to its focus on urban utility – is a world away from the baggy jeans and hoodies that typified the 90s graffiti writer stereotype. I’m curious to hear if the caricatured idea of a graffiti artist still bears any resemblance to reality? “Graffiti seems to have always had this confused and frankly strange link with hip-hop,” he argues, confirming that functional, technical apparel, stylish but “nothing too precious” is what graffiti artists more typically wear today. “As far as I’m aware the only correlation was that the two subcultures existed at the same time and were slung together in the same documentary [Style Wars].”
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The aesthetic shift here is visible in the content of what ROID produces, too. It’s certainly an entirely modern vision, and what’s most striking is the coexistence of a contemporary, almost computerised clarity with an insistence on working entirely by hand. It’s a boiled down aesthetic borne of painting on in brutalist buildings and abandoned factories “on raw concrete with as little and as basic materials as possible – generally a bucket of white paint, a roller and a few cans of black spray paint…” There are also other influences. “Japanese graphic and print design... My dad introduced me to [designer, illustrator and printmaker] Tadanori Yokoo through an amazing book he brought back from Japan when I was young. You could place him somewhere between pop and psychadelic art, but with very solid graphic design elements”. For anyone familiar with ROID’s murals, it’s unsurprising to hear that this designer made an impact. It’s exactly this stripped back, off-kilter style that continues to see ROID stand out as one of the paramount names in street art, even if he now works from within an exhibition space. While Don’t Fence Me Out will take place within this more curated, less transient context, the memories and stories it speaks to represent the multitude of broken fences and malformed gateways to spots from across Europe, and the anonymous writers who construct them. One thing ROID’s development here demonstrates is the ongoing relevance
65 of graffiti as a medium in 2015; like any interesting piece of work that comes from an artist whose spent years in the game, it’ll be interesting to hear soon from another generation of writers ready to follow their own path. The NikeLab ACG collection is available from 3 December at NikeLab 1948 and online at nike.com/NikeLab. ROID's installation can be viewed at NikeLab 1948 London until the end of the 2015
Issue 59 | crackmagazine.net
“Holes in palisade fences are pieces of art in themselves”
Aesthetic: Honey Dijon
Though you’re now more likely to find her DJing in London, Berlin or New York, Honey Dijon is undoubtedly a child of Chicago. After charming her way into legendary clubs like Music Box from the age of 12, the DJ and producer had an introduction to dance music some can only dream of. “Chicago is in my blood,” she tells us. “In the beginning, people that were into house music dressed a certain way and went to certain clubs. Everybody knew the codes if you were deep into the culture; if you were ‘HOUSE’.” Honey came of age during the birth of house music, where the city’s then historymaking scene opened the door to a new world. “The kids would get dressed up to go out and dance all night. Your clothes would be in tatters when you left the club. It was magical. I learned so much about selfexpression and bringing a certain personality and beauty that contributed to the party.” But Honey had always been searching for new ways to unearth the unknown, particularly through her love for art, fashion and photography. “When I was very young fashion offered me a world that was different from where I came from,” she explains. “I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I could get lost in the fantasy of a photograph or an editorial spread in a magazine. It was an escape from the everyday. The possibility of a more beautiful life.” Soon Honey set out in search of that ‘beautiful life’. Fuelled by stylistic inspiration but longing to recreate the boundary blurring approach of her Chicago peers, she found
success as a DJ in New York. Honey has since brought her subtle glamour to the world’s best clubs and fashion parties alike, programming music for runway shows and DJing the afterparties. It was also in New York that Honey began experimenting with identity, recognising kindred spirits in gender-blurring artists like Grace Jones. Honey is openly transgender, and though she refuses to be defined by the tag, she hopes discussing these issues will help trans visibility in both fashion and dance music. After all, both spheres still have a way to go in terms of diversity. “It’s nice to see more queer people, women and people of color making more dance music and creating their own spaces. Although, I think the essence has been lost in some way, because if you are queer you don’t have to go to queer spaces to connect with other queer people now. The internet has changed dance culture forever. There seems to be very little mystery or being able to stumble across something wonderful by being curious and being out in the world.” While she may bemoan today’s modern transparency, Honey continues to find inspiration at the intersection of art, music and fashion, and continues to live a life defined by creative expression. “Style to me is not so much about the clothes you wear but how you live your life in them. I am more interested in how a person walks, their conversation, ideas, confidence, and courage to live life on their own terms.” Honey Dijon performs at CTM, Berlin, 29 January
This Page Hat by Claire Barrow Shorts by Haal Bracelet by Annina Vogel @ Liberty London Opposite Page Sleeves and skirt by Phoebe English Next Spread Shirt by Giles Skirt by Amy Trinh Bracelet by Annina Vogel @ Liberty London
This Page Top and T rousers by Faustine Steinmetz Opposite Page Bra by Phoebe English Coat by Giles Necklace and jeans Honey's own
Words: Anna Tehabsim Photography: Dexter Lander Stylist: Lu Philippe Guilmette Make Up: Celia Hannah Hair: Virgine Moreira
1995-2015 : 20 YEARS OF DJ-KICKS
WWW.DJ-KICKS.COM WWW.K7.COM
For a free download compilation, visit www.strut-records.com/sampler www.strut-records.com
SETH TROXLER OUT NOW 2LP / CD / Digital
DJ KOZE OUT NOW 2LP / CD / Digital
GILLES PETERSON PRESENTS SUN RA & HIS ARKESTRA To Those Of Earth And Other Worlds 2LP / 2CD / Digital
THE SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA Resistance LP / CD / Digital
ACTRESS OUT NOW 2LP / CD / Digital
NINA KRAVIZ OUT NOW 2LP / CD / Digital
PAT THOMAS & KWASHIBU AREA BAND 2LP / CD / Digital
KANAKU Y EL TIGRE Quema Quema Quema LP / CD / Digital
AKASE - ‘GRASPERS’ OUT JANUARY. DEBUT ALBUM FROM HARRY “MIDLAND” AGIUS & ROBBIE MEDWAY
COMING IN JANUARY: SOUL SOCK SEGA SEGA SOUNDS FROM MAURITIUS 1973-1979
PITCHFORK PARIS Le Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris 29 - 31 October
Not so long ago, ‘going to a festival’ used to signify something pretty specific about who you were and the music you were into. But as the lines between previously distinct sonic cultures have become increasingly blurred, the form and function of the humble festival has splintered into a dozen different loose formats. And at Le Grande Halle de la Villette – a cavernous, super-styled ex-abattoir on the outskirts of Paris – Pitchfork laid out their vision of what a music festival should be like. Spread across three nights, the acts were programmed in a single, continuous stream, split across two alternating stages. Destroyer’s luxurious hipster lounge and saxophone-driven pop symphonies provided a suitably studied start to proceedings on the opening night, but the first major highlight was a raucous and hypnotic set from
Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Both drummers bludgeoned the elegiac guitar melodies into submission, and their trademark wailing strings provided an uneasy narrative for the creepy visuals projected from reel-to-reel cameras on to the screen behind the nine-strong band. But it was Beach House’s transcendent performance that arguably exemplified the ethos of the festival better than any other: a slowmotion explosion of shimmering drone pop, received in wide-eyed reverie by a hushed but rapturous crowd. Somnambulant lullabies like Myth and Space Song – backlit by a golden haze of light – washed over Le Grande Halle, providing a blissful and resonant end to the evening. The second day’s programming was slightly spikier. HEALTH’s pounding sub-industrial rhythms offered an
early evening wake-up call for anyone still starry-eyed from the night before, while later in the evening Battles’ electronic staccato prog (in particular 2007’s bonkers Atlas) was honoured with a mini moshpit. But, in general, this was an event where people who were talking too loudly during the quiet bits of songs were politely motioned to shut up. Kurt Vile’s grungy take on alt-country went down a treat, with his charisma (‘Paris, you are all looking fucking HOT’) subtle song craft lifting him above most other acts in the genre. The final day found its feet with Run the Jewels, whose playful but aggressive shtick provided a welcome injection of hype to the proceedings. If you thought Jason Pierce’s Spiritualized had knocked it on the head years ago, then that makes two of us, but in fact their choral, ecstatic indie slotted in perfectly, with set-closer Come To-
gether sounding as triumphant as it always has. Hudson Mohawke had constructed some kind of Transylvanian Thai fishing village onstage to mark the fact that it was Halloween, and his restless, dayglow rhythms sounded vital and fresh (rather than jittery and disjointed, as they sometimes can on record). Later in the night, John Talabot and Roman Flügel pulled out a seamless set of richly layered house and techno – sparkling and melodic; sweeping and precise. With the line-up that the organisers had pulled together, this event was hardly going to disappoint. And although it may have left a little to be desired for the more rowdy festival goer, the whole package worked like a dream. Stylish and expertly executed, Pitchfork Paris was a beautiful way to spend a sunny, autumnal weekend in the French capital.
Words: Adam Corner Photography: Vincent Arbelet
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Live
AUTECHRE Electric Brixton, London 21 November
JULIA HOLTER The Lantern, Bristol 10 November “I have a lot of obstacles in my life. We’re going to attack them like tigers.” While Julia Holter’s most recent album, Have You In My Wilderness, exists in a hazy, harpsichordsoundtracked world of clean air and ebbing tides, the Julia Holter stood before us at The Lantern is far more flesh and blood. With the subtle imagery of her videos stripped away, Holter slips out of her straight face and prefers to chat about scones – in fact, just that afternoon she’s had the best one of her life, “with an egg sandwich on top”. This easy banter is an early indicator of Holter’s effortless, if unpredictable, stage presence. At points she leans conspiratorially into the crowd like a lounge singer, her wrist lolling at her throat, a white wine in hand. At others, she’s angry, smashing at the keys of her Korg with her brow furrowed and voice utterly determined. It’s impossible to predict what atmosphere the next song will embody. Opener Sea Calls Me Home starts innocuously enough, with Holter’s impeccable voice kept high in the mix and the classical talents of a cellist, double bass player, and drummer to bolster her. Happily, this becomes the trend – Holter’s voice rising above all, but the accompaniments becoming more dramatic as the songs proceed. As she leaves the stage for the first time, the polite crowd turns defiant, demanding another song. “One more for y’all,” she sweetly says as she enraptures the crowd all over again
N
! Sammy Jones Kane Aaron Rich
Out in the smoking area, a guy who has a night off from parental responsibilities tells me how he first saw Autechre in 1993, and how he hasn't been the same since. This is the type of delirious fervour the Warp Records stalwarts, who last played in London five years ago, seem to inspire in their fans. Their compositions are not for general consumption, and can only be described as dance music in the most abstract use of the term. Rob Brown and Sean Booth's approach to performance is to completely shun any form of visibility. Apart from the green glow of exit signs, the main room descends into darkness, as though the audience has been sucked into a void. At first, this is pretty unsettling. I grasp for something familiar – a kick drum or a snare – until gradually my ears adjust to the raw sonic information pummelling them. In place of structure, it is all texture: intricately designed chaos that feels like the stream of consciousness of a being of pure circuitry. It would be a stretch to say that their set was enjoyable in a conventional sense. But the mere fact that the crowd’s senses took such a beating shows that there are still realms within electronic music where very few venture. After two decades, Autechre remain at the vanguard of this kind of sonic exploration. ! Adam Quarshie
FOALS Anson Rooms, Bristol 15 November CLUB TO CLUB Turin, Italy 4 - 8 November Based in the Northern Italian city of Turin, the main venue of Club to Club – a huge former Fiat plant – is no beauty spot, but the quality of the festival’s electronic-leaning line-up leads to many stunning moments which take place inside it. And with the Friday and Saturday schedules running until around 7am, daytime explorations of Turin take a backseat on the weekend. Just as well, then, that the festival’s programme gently eases you in, leading us to the stunning 300-year old Teatro Carignano theatre for its annual Thursday night concert, which sees Floating Points noodle through the subdued jazz experiments of Elaenia with a ten-piece band. With a desire to turn the night up a notch (no drinks are served at the Teatro Carignano), a cheap cab ride takes me to the smaller (but still sizeable) room of the festival’s main Ligiotto Fiere complex for SOPHIE’s set. Having turned heads by dancing among the crowd in what seems to be a silver perspex outfit, PC Music’s human avatar QT joins SOPHIE onstage to mime and dance during latter half of set. The crowd smiles, and it feels like good fun. Nothing more, nothing less. Working with a similar formula, Mudmance then performs alone before welcoming regular collaborator and recent Crack cover star Novelist onstage. The dancefloor’s a little sparser by the time we’re approaching the 4am mark, but Novelist whips the remaining crowd into a frenzy, spitting with precision and grinning as crowd-surfers are thrown up during the rowdiest moments. For those who are inclined towards electronic music with a forwardthinking vision, the schedule for the next two nights is a blissful prospect. Carter Tutti Void sustain a slow, lurching pulse while generating hissing feedback with low-slung guitars, Holly Herndon shares powerful messages about the refugee crisis with her A/V show, Houston grime experimentalist Rabit mixes murky instrumentals with Southern rap acapellas, while the succession of Todd Terje from Anthony Naples creates a joyful party atmosphere that reaches sweltering temperature levels with a packed out crowd and a liberal policy on indoor smoking. An unusual highlight of the weekend is Lorenzi Senni’s set. The Milan-based artist, who was fresh from Evian Christ’s Trance Party tour, specialises in what’s loosely described as ‘ambient trance’. With intense synths which eternally tease a euphoric drop which never happens, his formula is something of an acquired taste, and somewhat inexplicabilty, he’s booked to play at 5am in the Ligiotto Fiere’s colossal main room – straight after Jamie xx’s crowd-pleasing set. By this point, it’s been two hours since the venue stopped selling alcohol (a curfew set by Italian law) and, hilariously, the room empties at a rapid pace. But those still present are mesmerised, clutching the crowd barrier with eyes closed and soaking in Senni’s emotionally-charged, beatless synth tracks – including those he wrote for How To Dress Well’s 2014 album What Is This Heart? It’s a beautiful finale to the night, and it feels like a neat summary of Club to Club’s adventurous attitude. ! Davy Reed N Andrea Macchia
“Sundays in Bristol are like a Saturday night in other cities,” declares Yannis. With an insane touring schedule ahead that’ll take Foals through the USA, Australia, the UK and then South America, it’s only now that the he’ll confidently be able to remember what day it is and which city he’s in. The frontman’s praise is a catalyst for a sense of euphoria which erupts as soon as the band kick off with Snake Oil. With a competent set eclectically woven with songs from their four albums, Foals’ most captivating moments lie in the heavier Providence and Inhaler – channeling Rage Against The Machine with credibility late in the set. Hearing nicely tweaked versions of Hummer and Olympic Airways – the latter an infallible live winner – is a treat for the crowd, too. Okay, so Yannis’ regular crowd-surfing sessions are feeling a customary these days, but you can’t fault him from keeping a connection with the crowd – something that’s reinforced by his yells of “fuck the Tories” and “this one’s for the Corbyn voters.” Left-wing arena math-rock? It can only be Foals. ! Tim Oxley Smith N Jenny Harrington
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KATE: BEHIND THE RAINBOW PHOTO BOOK katebook.co.uk £40 This photo book, created and curated by Kate Bush’s photographer brother John Carder, is a stunning look back on the icon’s career. Outtakes from classic album shoots, never-before-seen photographs, and rare, candid studio shots are all included, plus a smiling Kate is pictured on the cover smothered in equally smiley dogs. A must have for any coffee table/bit of wood held up by breezeblocks you might have in your front room.
CARHARTT WIP WALLETT carhartt-wip.com £45 When it comes to making stuff which looks good but is actually durable, you can’t really go wrong with Carhartt WIP, and people who’ve got their shit together tend to have decent wallets, so we’d recommend splashing out a little on this one here. It could be that little step towards being a full functional adult that you needed.
LAW ISSUE 7 – SPECIAL EDITION goodhoodstore.com £12.50 As we found out speaking to the people behind the brilliant LAW, the magazine is more an homage to the Argos catalogue than i-D. Featuring dispatches from everyday life in the UK, Issue 7 is the first ever themed edition – based entirely on The Outdoors. Grab this glossy special edition to preserve a slice of everyday beauty.
20 YEARS OF PLANET MU planet.mu Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu label has been staunchly independent for 20 years now, helping champion various strains of electronic music and launching them onto the international stage. True to the broad-mindedness of the label, they’ve dropped a bunch of new merch alongside their 20 Years Of Planet Mu boxset, to celebrate two decades of keeping it Mu.
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Alert. Don’t be caught short. I see those 95s, those vintage TNs you got good as new with your Christmas bonus, those limited edition Supra x Steve Aoki sneakers that you spent your whole student loan on. Protect them with this spray. Protect the crep. Oh yeah, those Supra x Steve Aoki shoes actually exist. These are end times.
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Albums
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SUNN O))) Kannon Southern Lord
On first glance, it’s not immediately obvious what place a compilation like this – the fourth from the solid, respected but relatively unchallenging label Relish – has in contemporary music’s murky micro-genre depths. When the label first started making waves more than ten years ago, the modular, playful disco and electro it purveyed was super-fresh, and the new-wave gems that labelboss Headman dug out (like The Units’ High Pressure Days) set the bar high. In the years since, though, the label hasn’t exactly set the world alight. So it’s a pleasant surprise to find their fourth compilation reeling in acts like Daniel Avery (pitching in a with a heavy-handed Divided Love robo-sample remix), Richard Fearless and Timothy J Fairplay. If the occasional track sounds a bit dated, its compensated for by the diversity of material on offer, from hi-camp post-punk daftness (Gina X’s oddball track No GDM), to Heretic’s Insurrection – timeless gothic disco that is equal part seduction and subdued serotonin. It’s hardly breaking new ground – any one of these 20 tracks could have been on an Andrew Weatherall mix at some point in the last two decades – but there’s enough leftfield electro hijinks to justify the continuing existence of a label that was unapologetically pegged to a retro aesthetic from the day it began.
Through a PR endorsement for Shadow of a Doubt, Freddie Gibbs’s third studio album, the rapper concocted his own premium cannabis strain in collaboration with marketing agency The Grow Division. The chronic, labelled Freddie Kane OG, has received multiple reviews and ‘user’ ratings. “Potent” and “Tranquillising” were among the comments. Much to Gibbs’ benefit, even the certified Doggfather himself, Snoop, weighed in with his own appraisal. “Once Snoop Dogg gave me the plug, the stamp, it’s all love,” Gibbs said. It’s the perfect pigeon-chested gangster behaviour to accompany an album that is equally as outrageous, stimulating and crass. Gibbs’s flow here is by no means dissimilar to last year’s Madlib collaboration Piñata, his gutsy delivery joyriding over urgently aggressive hip-hop percussion and woozy vocal samples. Extradite, Packages and 10 Times are all forcibly menacing yet pertain a bounce that jumps like the rev of a motor. McDuck, Lately and Basketball Wives , on the other hand, offer a momentary relief as Gibbs croons boorishly, reminding us that he’s ‘always got that pussy’ on his mind. Very few hip-hop artists are as fortunate as Gibbs in being independent from major labels and sustaining themselves without any corporate interference. Through his ESGN label, Gibbs continues to be self-supporting, self-ruling and self-reliant. Shadow of a Doubt is the perfect example of Gibbs’s hard work and a refusal to rest on his laurels.
It’s hard to figure out where Le1f ends and Khalif Diouf begins. By now we’re used to the persona presented in his music. His mixtapes reveal a gritty and unfiltered slice of Manhattan’s forwardleaning hip-hop and fashion culture, with its own terminologies and hierarchies. Sass has always been at the forefront of his oeuvre – he’s constantly calling out ‘basic bitches’ and ‘fuckboys’ and shooting down smitten guys with callous panache in his tracks: “You say I’m fit/ hmm thanks, I already know”. It’s an exaggerated stance used to rail against everyone that’s stood in the way of his hard-won self-acceptance. Riot Boi follows in this vein but branches off to present a more multi-faceted picture. Taxi – one of the best tracks on the album – flips the prior dynamic on its head: “Boys pass me like taxis do/ I don’t care, whatever, it’s cool.” Explaining the track, Le1f has stated that he was “trying to embody all the times I felt inadequate as black man to be someone to date.” As arresting and powerful as his heart-on-sleeve earnestness is here; it falls flat on tracks like Tell and Change; which are more likely to raise eyebrows than chill spines; the latter straying into queasy conscious rap territory featuring jarring rent-a-hooks from Devonté Hynes and Miss Geri. As a whole though, the record delivers on everything that’s unique about Le1f: his singular vocal style, prickly one-liners and progressive beat selection that most rappers wouldn’t dare to touch. For the amount of risks Le1f takes here, you have to forgive him for striking out a few times.
Grimes, it seems, has given her very last fuck. You can hear it flying out of the window on her explosive first single from Art Angels, Flesh without Blood: “You never liked me anyway”, she sings. “I don’t care anymore!” You can hear it being smashed to bits on Kill V. Maim; a bonafide club banger told from the perspective of a vampiric, gender-switching Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt 2: “Hey! I won’t behave! I won’t behave! No way!” she screams, pushing her voice to helium heights. You can definitely hear it being crushed on Venus Fly too, a screamer of a song about being ‘too scary to be objectified’. So where did those fucks go? Evidence exists that suggests Grimes may never have possessed any in the first place. She did a Boiler Room set in 2013 and played Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift and the Vengaboys back-to-back. She dresses like a macabre manga character on the daily. She has built a devoted following just by being purely, and unapologetically, Grimes. Art Angels is the embodiment of this ‘screw your musical superiority complex’ attitude. Echoes of Alice Deejay’s Better Off Alone glance through the newly reworked and shiny Realiti, the outro of Kill V. Maim sounds like Fedde Le Grande’s Put Your Hands Up For Detroit, and you can even hear the distinctive ‘hi!’ of the Macarena on the titular Artangels. It screams fun. While it’s charged with chart nostalgia, more than that, it reclaims a portion of pop as Grimes’ own. Art Angels was written, engineered, produced and performed by Boucher herself – a comforting thought when you think that even Beyonce’s empowerment anthem Run the World (Girls) was written by a bloke. The male gaze of pop music is something that Boucher has spoken on before: “You wonder if maybe there would be less pop music that was just about sex and love if it wasn't always women in a room with a bunch of dudes,” she said in a recent Rolling Stone interview. While Art Angels is a thrilling listen by design, some songs can’t carry through the excitement of some of the bigger sounds on the album. Pin, California and Butterfly all sound a little too radio ready, missing out on the strangeness that’s made Grimes a true alt pop adventure. Despite these minor, skippable hiccups though, Art Angels’ overarching lesson is that it’s okay to like what you like, even if you’re a Dolly Parton fan who’s into J-pop and medieval Mongolia (just like the defiantly nerdy Grimes). Leave your sneers by the door: this is Grimes’ world and we’re all just living in it.
Sunn O)))’s most recent, most devastating live iteration has ended each performance with vocalist Attila Cshar coated in glistening, mirrored spikes, shooting refracted peaks of light across the air. It’s a hell of a sight: those spikes, those hard metallic shards dominating the eyeline, extending in all directions; so hard, so unforgiving. And it’s an outwardly metallic clang – a harsh, aluminium slash – which defines Kannon, Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley 7th straight-up full-length, rather than the rich, gluttonous, earthy tO))) nes which have often marked their most torrential work. Absent is the cataclysmic baroque of 2014’s starting Scott Walker collaboration Soused – an album which, more than anything else, left you with this uneasy tingle that nothing has ever sounded like this before – or the chiming symphonies of Alice, the instantly canonical track which saw out last album proper, 2009’s Monoliths and Dimensions, on such an elevating, elegiac note. That’s not to say Kannon is pure, raw and raging: there’s subtlety to be found in the album’s seeping opening and the pattering undulations which make up the closing Kannon 3. But it’s primal hiss and jagged edges which provide the lasting impression here. Cshar is in fine fettle on two of the album’s three tracks. His ancient croaks and painful exhalations add a burnishing heft. But the third and final piece, despite clocking in at over 11 minutes, fails to fully gestate; as monastic chanting makes way for feedback which growls then abruptly peters, it feels like at least one more of those vast timbral shifts might have seen Kannon out in more satisfying form. If you can be so reductive as to judge this and Monoliths as albums defined by their final, dying embers, then Kannon doesn’t quite match up to its esteemed predecessor.
! Adam Corner
! Tom Watson
! Steve Mallon
! Sammy Jones
! Geraint Davies
FREDDIE GIBBS Shadow of a Doubt ESGN / EMPIRE
VARIOUS ARTISTS Relish Compilation IV Relish
LE1F Riot Boi Terrible Records
GRIMES Art Angels 4AD
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ARCA Mutant Mute
JENNYLEE right on! Rough Trade
The engrossing power of Adele is an interesting phenomenon. Somehow, the inevitability of 25 smashing all conceivable records and becoming one of the best selling albums of the century qualifies its existence. These are songs that are justified on the clause that they win over the hearts of millions of people. 25 asserts its success even before you press play. It’s a ballad-heavy album, but the vocal performances manage to stop them all blurring into one. Remedy and All I Ask are perhaps the album’s most forgettable moments, the latter veering dangerously close to sounding like Andrew Lloyd Webber penned it for a Cats sequel. It’s not all completely schmaltzy, Send My Love (To Your New Lover) is the record’s most uptempo chapter but it’s the only song on the LP that sounds like it could belong to any other pop heavyweight (it was co-written by Max Martin, the faceless overlord responsible for Taylor Swift’s last three singles). Then there’s the seasoned, gospel-infused soul sounds of River Lea which, while sounding incredibly authentic, are dedicated to the river that runs through Adele’s native Tottenham – a literal expression of just how firmly the record exists on the comfort of home turf. If you’re willing to indulge the sheer scale of Adele’s all-conquering status, then 25 is an enjoyable listen. The album picks up where 21 left off, and Adele shows no interest in reinvention. Hers is a formula designed to create songs which possess the power to last in the memory of a generation. These are heavily produced, radio-friendly belters built to simmer in their own vast success.
As the western world’s rigidity towards androgynous art thaws, Venezuela-born artist Alejandro Ghersi aka Arca continues to soundtrack its strides. Last year, his debut record Xen was an aberration of mangled technology, declassified beat manipulation and warped ambience. Arca found normality in Xen’s ambiguities. “Xen isn’t really a boy…and not really a girl,” he said. Instead, Xen was a childhood alter-ego that blushed in its own depravity. With Mutant, however, no longer does Ghersi appear masked behind his bashful doppelgänger. Here, he embraces a monstrous beauty. Where Xen shrouded itself in baroque shortcircuiting and bass responsive ambiguity, Mutant pants with perverse pride. And it’s here that Arca’s sexual reverie is completely realised. Having the opportunity to consult for pop anomalies like Kanye, FKA twigs and most recently Björk, Ghersi has channeled a newfangled flair and certitude via an intravenous drip directly to Mutant’s veins. Across twenty tracks, Mutant weaves a series of glossy and disorienting aural puzzle pieces. Time signatures become tenebrous but Arca’s thematic arcs remain intact. The glitchy neuroticism of Alive and Sinner stutter between ideas of carnal imbalance and primitive intimacy. Umbilical clanks away like a file-corrupted game of Pong; bouncing between playful and perverse. Front Load and En grimace at disjointed trap beats and pirouettes around loosely fitted footwork. It’s all decisively alien in its mutations. Yet this is not so much a rebirth or renewal for Arca as much as it is an acceptance of what he represents as a producer tight roping between the underground and mainstream. Xen surprised those expecting discipline and accessibility. Accordingly, Mutant is a revision of Xen’s shock factor, where curiosity is the only familiar tool available to aid in deconstructing its unremitting nihilism.
Restraint is an approach seldom applied to New Jersey’s germinal house scene. Its hedonistic assessment of 4/4 centric, Baltimore club inspired, kick drum heavy asphyxiations are all but subtle. Its style is typically brash, rarely straying from formula. But continuing his spatial diversion from New Jersey’s norm, techno producer and Inmeg Recordings founder Joey Anderson returns to the Dekmantel imprint with an elongated LP of snare-vacant, psychoactive sample cutting. Building on the discernibly composed approach to his 2014 debut After Forever, Anderson’s Invisible Switch re-evaluates the humdrum of East Coast club music. Piano lines skip atypically out of formation with underpinned drum patterns. Out of all nine tracks, only Beige Mantis adheres to the customs of snare seeded percussion – acting almost as a reprise to After Forever It’s A Choice. Aside from this, it’s the undercurrents of Anderson’s disposition to melody and negligence of big drops that provides the producer with a unique appeal. The textural misrule of both Amarna and Arms are profoundly subtle; bypassing the hysterics of techno swagger. Considering the abnormality of Invisible Switch, Anderson’s dexterity in this production is cunningly human. There’s a scholastic warmth to this release – one that doesn’t trumpet for a dancefloor's attention but rather insinuates a quiet maturation.
The acid purists loosen their vinylonly policy with a digital release of their debut LP. Originally out on vinyl late last year, it bundles unreleased material with the raw, 303-driven jams that have surfaced over the years. Since 2007, the low profile crew’s straight-to-tape style workouts have quietly risen in parallel with two very different waves – hyper-sanitised house, and noise-techno crossover. PL’s unapologetically grubby sound may lie in total opposition to the former, yet doesn’t quite fit with the latter. Eating Glue’s overweight bassline may be crude and unruly, but the crunched up toms and tambourines are dropped into the rhythm with such precision that the impact is massive. It’s dirty, yet minimal, and it’s bloody effective. The guest vocals are a big part of what makes this such a killer. The inclusion of Chicago house original Paris Knightbridge is obviously genius, and Paris Dub 1’s brooding, run-down groove sounds as sweet and deadly as ever. But it’s Mulato Pintado’s oddball ramblings that lend Paranoid London something really special. “Keep your hands in your pockets / Don’t act funny / I worked all week for this money” – their unlikely inclusion somehow captures how fucking weird it can get down there in the club, when you’re a little far gone and lost in the smoke, feeling freaky, feeling good.
The Kompakt empire is built on two cornerstones: rich, evocative techno that has become pretty much synonymous with underground German dance music, and the Pop Ambient series (which has astonishingly been running since 2001). Through sheer endurance – and consistently killer releases – Kompakt has earned the right to do something every year that most labels would struggle to get away with once: release a compilation of pastoral, ambient electronica. If you’ve ever caught one of label-boss Michael Mayer’s extended sets, then you will know roughly what to expect: sumptuous, rolling melodies stretched across an almost rhythm-less frame, but with an identifiable sense of direction nonetheless. And there are some gems on the 2016 edition. Jens Uwe Breyer’s The Bremen is a creeping shadow at dusk, with haunted piano melodies enveloping the remnants of an autumnal day. Long serving Kompakt stalwart Dave DK’s contribution is a super-slow spacedout Balearic head-nodder, and The Orb (they’re still here) pull out an ominous, crackly mood board in Alpine Dawn. There are moments that veer away from gold-standard Kompakt – the droopy, lolloping Mikkel Metal by Titan – but by and large it’s a peaceful patchwork of electronic sedatives to get horizontal to.
Confusion continues to reign over the future of Warpaint; when they wrapped up their UK tour they indicated that they’d sporadically release singles as time went on, and that they might not necessarily make another album – the rigid framework had become a little stale for them. Then, more recently, Jenny Lee Lindberg claimed there would be another record, and that they hoped to have it finished by the end of next year. Whatever the situation, we should have plenty to tide us over in the way of solo projects, and it’s Lindberg who’s been quickest out of the blocks with right on! Anybody hoping for a radical departure from Warpaint’s sound is going to be disappointed. Tracks like blind; the strikingly sparse opener, offer a glimpse of what the band might sound like if they stripped things back; with just Lindberg’s ghostly vocals, an ominously plucked bass guitar and some ambient noise, it sets the tone in terms of sheer atmospherics. If there’s a key difference here from her work with the group, it’s that on a slew of tracks, there are no vocal overlaps. Lindberg even pulls back on the layering, and accordingly, it’s the first time we really hear her voice without it weaving in and out of somebody else’s. Warpaint’s real strength, though, has always been in their understanding of groove; something that Lindberg – as one-half of the rhythm section – has been at the core of. She has an enthrallingly offbeat grasp of this kind of thing – the shuffling percussion on long lonely winter, the erratic clatter of the drums that run through never and white devil’s wandering bassline are all testaments to this. Her stormy, oblique lyrics don’t reveal a great deal about Lindberg as a person, but right on! as a whole is an intriguing snapshot of exactly where she is as a musician right now.
! Duncan Harrison
! Tom Watson
! Tom Watson
! Xavier Boucherat
! Adam Corner
! Joe Goggins
ADELE 25 XL Recordings
JOEY ANDERSON Invisible Switch Dekmantel
PAR ANOID LONDON Paranoid London Paranoid London Records
VARIOUS ARTISTS Pop Ambient 2016 Kompakt
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Film It’s fucking Star Wars month but we haven’t seen it yet. Sorry. We can assume it’s at least an 8/10. If it isn’t, and there’s another Jar Jar moment – we’ll be so pissed off that writing about film ever again could be tricky. But here’s the past month’s selection of films, that are all very good, so we apologise for not choosing anything crap to lay into. Hopefully we'll have harsher words once all this festive cheer is out the way. Merry Christmas!
THE AMBIGUIT Y OF DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON dir. Greg Butler
08 08 BROOKLYN dir. John Crowley Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters
LOVE dir. Gaspar Noé Starring: Karl Glusman, Klara Kristin, Aomi Muyock LOVE was released to a flurry of thinkpieces about whether or not porn can be ever be art, and vice versa due to its unapologetic approach to showing real sex on screen. It’s all part of Noé’s attempt capture love in its purest form. “I want to make a movie about blood, semen and tears. That’s, like, the essence of life”, says Murphy, the film’s frustrated anti-hero, speaking for his director. There’s plenty of all three packed into LOVE, and not much room for spoken dialogue. Noé prefers to use sex as an alternative – a way of exploring the deepest and most intimate emotions of the central characters and their development through one another. But as high and mighty as this might sound, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Wooden delivery is left in for the hell of it, and at one point, a giant penis ejaculates into the audience’s faces in 3D. These elements could have all been toned down, but they weren’t. So it’s not worth getting too bogged down in theorising LOVE. Of course it throws up interesting questions about how we as a society treat sexuality, but the power of the film is in the textured, corporeal feel of the cinematography and the sincerity of the performances. The stunning closing shot - in which the two central characters cling to one another in a simple hug - will bring you into the frame in the most involving way, leaving you mesmerised by the closing credits and struggling to re-enter reality. ! Francis Blagburn
Brooklyn opens in Enniscorthy, Ireland, where Eilis Lacey (Ronan) is preparing to leave for America; a journey orchestrated by sister Rose, who enables Eilis to escape the limiting prospects of their hometown. Lonely and bewildered, Eilis struggles at first but with the comically dubious assistance of landlady Miss Kehoe (Walters on top matriarchal form) and her fellow boarders, she adapts. Then – as always – she meets a boy and a romance unfolds. When a tragic turn of events brings her back to Enniscorthy and a better version of everything she left, she is forced to choose between the life she always hoped she would have and the life she has created in America. Adapted from Colm Tóibíns 2009 novel of the same name, Brooklyn was one of the biggest deals ever to emerge from Sundance, premiering a relatively unheard of film and emerging with a $9 million distribution deal. Ronans' performance is captivating, bringing a complexity and depth to Eilis that the film could have sunk without, and the romance between her and Tony is solidly authentic yet impossibly fragile. Striking chords as both a coming-of-age story and an émigré journey, exploration of the relationship between sense of self and sense of place is where Brooklyn really hits home. ! Tamsyn Aurelia-Eros Black
This story of the Yorkshire musician David Thomas Broughton is told through the words of his peers, his family and his own. The film is backed by End of the Road festival, and it places David Thomas Broughton in the bosom of the British indie scene of well-mannered aficionados. The interviews are served up alongside an array of animations and cut-aways of the luscious British countryside, creating an intriguing introductory collage of man in question. In the latter half, director Butler’s personal understanding of Broughton produce some of the doc’s most entertaining moments – mainly capturing Broughton simply pottering about, sharing glimpses of kingfishers with fellow bird fanatics and photographing fungi with his digital camera. It’s when it’s at its most human – like most documentaries – that we felt most absorbed. However the filmmaker’s subjective association to Broughton holds the film back from taking its own journey and the attempted dollops of surrealism in the film's set pieces fall flat. But who gives a shit when The Ambiguity of David Thomas Broughton is a great-looking delve into a little known musical crevasse and a loving ode to the odd.
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! Tim Oxley Smith
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STEVE JOBS dir. Danny Boyle Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs life provided The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin with a warts-and-all text to write the second Apple founder biopic since Jobs' death in 2011. Director Danny Boyle garners information from Sorkin’s ostentatious screenplay, framing the film as he would one of his stage productions; resulting in unfussy camera work harbouring the film’s big, Oscar-humping dialogue. Boyle attempts to expose what we don’t already know about Steve Jobs. This works in tangent with Fassbender’s exploration of the inner turmoil of his subject; the ego that’s had such a profound effect on the world. This notion is charmingly manifested in the film’s opening: stock footage showing science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in 1974 pretty much predicting iPhones. The unprecedented sociological aspects of his story get eclipsed however by the script that etches-out moments of fantasised poignancy, feeding the legend in an almost biblical fashion. Steve Jobs is a piece of old-school filmmaking that crystallises strange new paradigms of technology and humanity through a blend of truth and theatricality, adding another layer to Jobs’ reality distortion field. ! Tim Oxley Smith
TANGERINE dir. Sean S. Baker Starring: Mya Taylor, James Ransone It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and, after a 28-day stint in prison for crack possession, trans hooker Sin-Dee-Rella is back in business. Hearing her boyfriend-come-pimp Chester (James Ransone) has been cheating on her with one of his ‘other girls’, SinDee defends her honour by embarking on a rampage around Santa Monica Boulevard with best friend and trans working girl Alexandra to find the suspected mistress – all before Alexandra’s 7pm singing performance. Written and directed by Sean Baker, Tangerine is a snapshot into the secret lives of LA’s rarely broadcast trans community. But for the stories leading actors, the city’s unofficial red light district is no stranger: the script was inspired by real-life stories told by trans actor Mya Taylor, who plays Alexandra in the film. Baker's personal style is furthered through Tangerine’s cameras of choice – three iPhones. The at times shaky footage and zoomed-in shots take the audience along the characters’ warpath. Baker’s interest in minority groups sheds light and compassion over the often marginalised factions of Sunset Boulevard, revealing that in a city so superficial, it is in the darkest corners that people are the most genuine. ! Gunseli Yalcinkaya
December 2015 /January 2016 Saturday 5 th December
Saturday 12 th December
Low Steppa Vanilla Ace Mark Radford Lance Morgan
Norman Jay MBE The 2 Bears (Raf Daddy) The Shapeshifters Alison Limerick (Live PA)
Saturday 19 th December
Saturday 26 th December
MJ Cole Zed Bias Sirus Hood Camelphat
Katy B Novelist Section Boyz Zinc
FREE Y PART
Thursday 31 st December
Friday 1 st January
Tensnake Andrea Oliva Sonny Fodera Simon Dunmore
Masters At Work Detroit Swindle Bobby & Steve Thatmanmonkz
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Simple Things presents Sleaford Mods - Invisible Britain Wednesday 27 January The Cube Microplex
12—15 MOTH Club Valette St London E8 mothclub.co.uk
Lanzarote Thursday 3 December
MELTYBRAINS
Saturday 5 December
Tuesday 1 December
LANTERNS ON THE LAKE
TREMBLING BELLS Sunday 6 December
Friday 4 December
ELLIOT MOSS
LOVE BUZZARD
Monday 7 December
Saturday 5 December
THE PANIC BROTHERS CHRISTMAS CAPER
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LUSHES
Tuesday 8 December
WHISTLEJACKET
#lanzaroteworks
Monday 7 December
PIXEL FIX
Tuesday 8 December
ANNA B SAVAGE
Wednesday 9 December
THE DEARS
Friday 11 December
SILAS, SNARE & FRIENDS Thursday 31 December
TROPICAL WASTE NYE
Tuesday 8 December
I HAVE A TRIBE
Thursday 10 December
GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH
Friday 1 January
BUTTER SIDE UP
Thursday 10 December
JAY ‘TIGHTEN UP’ WATSON Saturday 12 December
CAVE CLUB
Friday 11 December
BAD VIBES CHRISTMAS PARTY Saturday 12 December
Monday 14 December
SON LITTLE
KID CANAVERAL
Saturday 16 January
AVALON EMERSON
The Lock Tavern 35 Chalk Farm Rd London NW1 lock-tavern.com
Tuesday 15 December
Tuesday 15 December
DAVE MCCABE & THE RAMIFICATIONS
MORNING SMOKE
Thursday 31 December
CAVE CLUB NEW YEARS EVE PARTY
NYC VS NYE
The Waiting Room 175 Stoke Newington High St London N16 waitingroomn16.com
71 Shacklewell Lane London E8 shacklewellarms.com Tuesday 1 December
GUADALUPE PLATA
Saturday 5 December
SOUL FOOLISH
Sunday 6 December
MYSTIFIED + THE VENUS LYX Thursday 10 December
Tuesday 1 December
Shacklewell Arms
MURKAGE DAVE
Thursday 31 December
Thursday 17 December
HAUS
Friday 4 December
MANSIONAIR
Thursday 3 December
NATASHA KMETO Friday 5 December
AN-I (CITITRAX)
COUNTRIER THAN THOU XMAS PARTY Thursday 31 December
NYE
Friday 8 January
WHISTLEJACKET
DFA 2015 Goldenvoice Presents
+ OTZEKI 08.12.15 THE VICTORIA DALSTON
MEADOWLARK 14.12.15 THE LEXINGTON
THE MAGIC GANG 15.12.15 THE LEXINGTON
JASON ISBELL
+ JOHN MORELAND 22.01.16 02 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE
THE LIBERTINES + SLEAFORD MODS + THE ENEMY 30.01.16 THE O2
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IN REMEMBRANCE DFA2457
11.02.16 O2 SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE
MARIBOU STATE 17.02.16 KOKO
HONNE
03.03.16 BRIXTON ELECTRIC
ELLIE GOULDING + JOHN NEWMAN 24.03.16 THE O2 25.03.16 THE O2
WOLF ALICE 26.03.16 OUT SOLD FORUM 27.03.16 OUT SOLD FORUM 28.03.16 FORUM
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08.04.16 THE SSE ARENA WEMBLEY
MATT AND KIM 08.04.16 SCALA
FATHER JOHN MISTY 18.05.16 OUT SOLD THE ROUNDHOUSE 19.05.16 THE ROUNDHOUSE
SHURA 26.05.16 SHURA
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Bush Hall Wednesday 02 Dec.
The Forge Thursday 03 Dec.
St John on Bethnal Green Thursday 03 Dec.
OLIVIER HEIM
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CHEATAHS
Ser vant Jazz Quar ters Wednesday 09 Dec.
The Victoria Monday 11 Jan.
XOYO Tuesday 19 Jan.
SOPHIE
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THE RESIDENTS
Village Underground Thursday 21 Jan.
The Lexing ton Thursday 04 Feb.
Hackney Empire Friday 12 Feb.
POLIÇA
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
DU BLONDE
Village Underground Monday 15 Feb.
Heaven Wednesday 24 Feb.
Village Underground Wednesday 24 Feb.
BILL RYDER-JONES
FATHER JOHN MIST Y
SONGHOY BLUES
SCAL A Thursday 03 Mar.
Roundhouse Wednesday 18 May. Thursday 19 May.
Roundhouse Saturday 21 May.
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The #clickbait music news rounded up by Josh Baines CHRONIC RELIEF Remember the first time you ever smoked weed? Remember how great you felt? Remember how after just one toke you knew you could take the world on and do anything you wanted? Remember feeling like everything was falling into place and you finally knew where you belonged? Remember running down the sidestreets of your youth screaming “EUREKA! EUREKA! EUREKA!” over and over? No, you don’t. Because weed is the most boring thing in the fucking world. To be honest, I hope Snoop Dogg and his new cannabis company are both liquidated with immediate effect. NOEL DEFINITELY MAYBE LIKES ELLIE GOULDING Noel Gallagher is sitting at home, alone, on a Thursday night. It is 7pm. The microwave pings. “Fookin’ ace, man,” he says as he unpeels the plastic sheath of his carbonara, “that’s a fookin wicked meal there pal, don’t let any fookin’ bedwetter tell you otherwise!” He takes the meal – still in its warped, black container – and lies down on his persian rug. “That fookin’ rug man, feels proper fookin’ quality on my skin, fookin’ proper that.” He is naked. He eats his meal without cutlery, inhaling it almost. As he licks his fingers a song he’s never heard before comes on the radio. “Mint,” he says, “this is fookin’ mint and make no mistake, our Liam’d fookin’ cut his cock off for tunes this good, man!” “And that,” Steve Lamacq says, “was Ellie Goulding.” Noel looks aghast. He is in turmoil. He must condem her in his next interview with Esquire.
Dear Denz,
Denzil Says:
I’m thinking of filing a restraining order against this DJ who wants me to vote for him in some end of year poll. First he sent me an e-mail, then he phoned me, and when I woke up and opened my curtains the next day, he was stood outside with banner saying “Vote For Me in the RA Poll”. I didn’t know the Royal Academy had anything to do with disc jockeys.
I’ve dealt with these characters before Miriam. They do nothing but play other people’s music, and in my opinion they get paid much more than they deserve for it. Call the authorities.
Denzil Schniffermann
Miriam, 45, Hounslow
Love, life and business advice from Crack’s esteemed agony uncle
Dear Denz,
Denz Says:
What do you make off that new Bowie video? Maddest thing he’s ever done, surely?
Me and Dave go way back, but to be honest, I’ve heard the new album and it’s pretentious nonsense. I much prefer Bowie the roc ker. I’d recommend you revisit the back-to-basics flavours of 1989’s criminally overlooked Tin Machine album. I played bass on that one actually – if you Google “David Bowie Tin Machine cover”, you’ll see a young Schniffermann stood second from the left.
MORRISSEY PAINTS A VULGAR PICTURE Writing about sex is easy, Morrissey. It begins with two chilled glasses of Echo Falls, ends with going to the bathroom and having very stern words with yourself and is followed by an evening spent watching Kitchen Nightmares USA in silence. No “bulbous salutations” necessary, my friend. @bain3z
Sarah, 29, Belfast
Dear Mr Schniffermann,
Denz Says:
My wife fancies you so much it’s genuinely started affecting our sex life. She makes me put Denzil masks on before we have sex and she’s got a timeline in our kitchen list where she’s chronicled all your achievements. It’s 7-foot long!!!!! I can’t compete.
Only 7-foot? Surely some mistake?
Phil, 54 , Nantwich
Problems? email denzil@crackmagazine.net
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Crossword Across 04. Big white sky circle; batty flash (4) 06. Super Furry Animals drew _____ around the world (5) 08. Pop a lime in the top of my beer or I refuse to drink it. I’m deadly fucking serious (6) 09. Lou Reed’s ________ of Love (9) 11. Come to our now defunct electronics store (5) 13. The Thin White Duke himself posited question about the existence of organisms on ____ * retrospective pompous clue alert* (4) Down 01. Matt Bellamy had a super massive _____ – and no, it’s not ‘-ly annoying face and disintegrating reputation’, smart arse (5-4) 02. The glorious sun is giving me enough electric to power this fan to stop me being too hot cause of the stupid sun (5) 03. Top notch statue minus the arms: _____ de Milo (5) 05. OMG this Sandra Bullock film is so incredibly OK that I can feel its force holding me to the earth (7) 07. The bar on your keyboard (5) 10. Van Morrison’s timeless classic ______ Weeks (6) 12. Chewing gum/Madonna producer William (5) 14. Wars trek struck burst fish (4) Solution to last month’s crossword: THEME: THE HUMAN BODY. ACROSS: 03. BRAIN, 04. EYES, 06. LIPS, 07. KIDNEY 09. HEART 12. ELBOW, 13. NAILS DOWN: 01. HEAD 02. KNEE, 03. MARCEL, 03. BELLY, 05. SPINE, 08.NERVES, 10. FOOT, 11. CALF, 14. LUNG
Few More Days To Go Debut album out 27th November available on
12” Vinyl, CD & Digitally Fufanu are on tour this winter across the UK and Europe fufanu.net • indian.co.uk “Disclosure attending Bela Lugosi’s funeral.” - Rolling Stone “A tantalising amalgamation of The Fall, Bauhaus & the weirder corners of Blur’s output.” - Q Magazine
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20 Questions: Lady Leshurr “I read my negative Youtube comments. They inspire me to write lyrics”
Words: Davy Reed
Lady Leshurr is a 26-year-old MC, actor and dental hygiene advocate from the West Midlands. While she’s been putting out a steady stream of mixtapes and dealing with all kinds of industry bullshit since 2009, this year she’s had something of a breakthrough. Leshurr’s back-to-basics Queen’s Speech freestyle series saw her flaunt her charisma and roll out the kind of punchlines that Eminem or Lil Wayne might come up with if they were still good. Alexander Wang is a fan, and according to the number of Youtube plays (at the time of writing, Queen’s Speech 4 has 11 million) there’s a good chance that you are too.
What was your favourite cartoon when you were a kid? Rugrats.
Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? Timbaland.
Who’s your favourite member of the WuTang Clan? Method Man.
Rate these actors in order of how much you like them: Danny DeVito, Danny Dyer and Daniel Day-Lewis... I don’t even know who they are!
And who’s your favourite person to follow on Instagram? I don’t follow anyone. But you’ve got Instagram right? Yeah I have Instagram, I’m just not an Instagram freak. Have you got a number one fan? No, I’ve got crazy fans, but not a number one. If you’re getting ready for a night out, what’s on your playlist? A little bit of Lil’ Wayne, Tory Lanez, Bryson Tiller. Do you have a signature recipe? Uhh no, I don’t really cook. What’s the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed in? Oh gosh. I think it was when I went to Pontin’s with my mum years ago. There was a slug in the sink.
You’ll know Danny Dyer... Is he the one who used to be in Eastenders? Yeah, and a lot British films, The Football Factory... Oh him, yeah I love him. And I’m just researching Danny DeVito. Awwww he’s cute! What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? I’ve never had a bad job! It’s always been things I’ve liked.
jogging on tour too actually. Is it hard to keep fit on tour? Yeah, to be honest I’m the unhealthiest person you’ll ever meet. I don’t really eat anything healthy; I eat junk food, I rarely work out anywhere. What would you choose to have written on your tombstone? Probably like ‘Big Kiss’ or something like that. Or ‘I’m still lush!’ [laughs]… Yeah I’d have something corny, because I always laugh at stuff like that. What’s the first thing you’re going to do after this interview? I’m going to fill my passport out.
Do you have any tattoos that you regret? Nah, I don’t have any tattoos.
And finally, do you read your own Youtube comments? Yeah, they inspire me to write my lyrics. If I read a negative one, I think of a comeback. I read them just for that, I don’t read them to get sensitive.
Have you ever had a nickname? Munchkin or Lee-Lee.
Lady Leshurr appears at AMP Lost & Found festival, Malta, 31 March – 3 April 2016
When was the last time you ran as fast as you can? I can’t even remember the last time I ran. I run on stage, does that count? I did some
Perspective: When The Limelight Swallows You Whole Alanna McArdle announced her split from UK indie-pop band Joanna Gruesome in June this year. Here, she opens up about the pressures which led to her decision, discussing the relationship between performance, gender and mental health. I was told recently that it must have taken a lot of guts for me to leave a band that was so smoothly riding on the path to success: that most others would find that decision unthinkable. One of the rarest opportunities a musician can be offered, gone in an instant. I suppose this is a question that comes to many lips when people disappear just as they reach what seems to be their peak, but it wasn’t the question I asked myself when I made my decision to leave Joanna Gruesome after a steep decline in my mental health at the beginning of this year. What I struggled with was not the potential lack of success, but the potential loss of identity. After so many years I realised that slowly the band had become me. Leaving it meant an instant void of personhood; up until my departure a feeling that I only existed through press photos, live videos, my own voice etched permanently on record, reviews that told me how I looked, how I sang, how I must have felt, had crept up on me. However, this need to sponge up identity started long before the band. Struggling
with bipolar disorder meant that I couldn’t reliably say how I felt at any one time – the constant fear of a total switch in personality, and the realities of such a switch, left me confused about who I was. When I first started writing music I was writing out my depression. I used my lyrics as a sort of catharsis, trying fruitlessly to place and form my own identity. The illness I wrote from was very real, but in being a girl, I found my lyrics reduced by others to that dreaded and gendered word ‘confessional’. I became a ‘singer-songwriter’: yet another emotional, hysterical woman. I suppose the lyrics I wrote, ripped almost straight from my diary, invited strangers to feel as if they knew and thus judge my personal life. Lyrics about sadness are perhaps the lyrics that people can and will project their own experiences onto the most. But there was a blinding irony in how the lyrics I wrote, so intensely personal and true to myself, were then diminished by these projections. I wrote with an aim to ground myself and find relief from my illness, but in allowing them to be consumed by others I saw their meaning become confused. I found myself caught in that age-old stereotype; I’m a woman and therefore expected to be emotional, maybe even dramatic. I became in the eyes of others a mere representation of a girl and no longer a girl in my own right. This disassociation was mirrored in my
physicality: taking the form of depersonalisation, a common symptom of bipolar disorder, which is characterised by a sort of split between body and mind. I’ve been thrown into watching myself perform actions rather than living them. I have floated above my body, seen myself speak, desperately out of control of what I’m doing. But there is also a certain sense of disassociation involved in how women are taught to act from a young age: always watching ourselves, always being hyper-aware of how others view us before we turn our minds to how we view ourselves. My illness, my gender, and my musical career merged perfectly to turn me into a mirror for others. As my mental health deteriorated and the spotlight on me increased, I lost the energy to turn the mirror to myself. I had become fair game at this point, already having been the target of online abuse countless times, having my photo taken, my voice recorded, and in turn all my flaws exposed without my approval or editing. And so people could project onto me their insecurities, their passions, and their traumas. The explosive intersection of how one can lose their sense of identity when struggling with mental illness and how women are taught to behave according to rigid societal expectations led to a desperate confusion. In leaving the band that seemed to have defined me for so many years, in taking a temporary step back from writ-
ing and performing, I thought I would lose myself. Instead I saw that it was during this period of fronting the band that my identity had been warped, muddled and eventually lost. But what women are subject to as musicians and performers – the intensified scrutiny of our appearance, the undermining of our musical and lyrical endeavours – and the concurrent aggravation suffered by those of us with mental illnesses does not have to define us. What I learned from this step back was that I didn’t have to play into these stereotypes; I didn’t have to accept others people's views of me as my own reality. After years of struggle against the rigidities of gender roles and an illness as disorientating as mine, this is no easy feat. Yet I was able to turn the mirror held up to me for the projection and distortion of others’ back onto myself. In accepting that people – in music and in life – will always turn you into what they want, I became empowered in the knowledge that I too could turn myself into what I wanted. @alannamcardle_
Illustration: Ed Chambers
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