Zero Core Issue 1 by Croatoan Design

zero core music, design, photography________________________________________autumn 2011 __ free

Hello Greetings and salutations, welcome to the debut issue Bright of Zero Light Core. Bright There’sLight not much 06 we can tell you in this Kraffhicscomment editorial that you can’t 10 figure out yourself Article by flicking through our beautiful XXpages. We were made Article in Cardiff; we love music, and XX all the people behind Article it. We thought, given this was XX our first outing and all, Article that we’d tag ourselves on to the XXSWN Festival that’s Article this October in our XX happening home city. There are lots of neat bands playing. Continue through these sheets and you might find out about some of them you didn’t already know.

Made by Jen Long, Adam Chard and Marc Thomas Contributors in order of appearance Jonathan Hyde, Mei Lewis, Lauren Down, Polly Mackey, Laurie Rollitt, Heather Steele, Michael Azerrad, Luke Morgan Britton, Dan Tyte, Helen Weatherhead, Sian Rowe, Adam Corner, Alex Bean, Paul Bridgewater, Anika Mottershaw.

If you’re reading this during the festival, we hope you have an ace time. If not, don’t worry. There’s still plenty here to keep you smiling in the face of winter, and economic poverty, and all that other stuff that just pales in comparison to this new Los Campesinos! album we’ve got on the stereo.

Thank you Mike Diver, Bradley Kulisic, Stuart Davie, Tom Baker, Al Lavelle, Hayley Absalom, Rich Thane, Ryan Oxley, Lucy Johnston, Joel De’ath, Kevin Douch, Anna Mears, Natalie Judge, Matthew Maxey, Matt Fidler, Isaac Jones, John Rostron, Ami Lord, Rachel McWhinney, Michael Moshi, Tania Adams, Nathan Warren, Mike Williams, Joe Howden, Mike Day, and Lisa Matthews.

So yes, welcome, enjoy, and if we don’t see you SWN (it’s pronounced ‘soon’ btw, that’s why our joke is funny), then we’ll see you for our next issue.

Peace out xxx

Printed by MWL Print.

The Editors

Issue two due Feb 2012. Email us: hello@zerocore.co.uk Advertise with us: advertising@zerocore.co.uk Issue one dedicated to the loving memory of Dananananaykroyd 2006 – 2011 RIP.

IN ISSUE

Kim Campesinos! This Isn’t Love. Nor Romance.

illustrations: Robert Campesinos! and Reed’s Nautical Almanac, 1978

He wakes up and his head is instantly filled, as if someone turned on a tap, his head quickly overflows with her, Memories and fantasies have collided so often that he no longer knows the difference. The problem he has is he’s unable to switch his brain to anything else She is always there, always swirling around his mind. Dancing all over his thoughts, his memories, his consciousness. Always a rose tinted version of the woman that exists outside of his mind. This isn’t love. Nor romance. It never will be. This is the agonising realisation that this constant monologue that has been running through his head has become the closest that he will ever get to her. And she doesn’t have a clue.

New Bands 1. Daughter 1.

It’s not usual that a young girl can silence the braying masses of Reading Festival with nothing more than her voice and an acoustic guitar. But then Daughter isn’t your usual artist. Lesser known as North Londoner Elena Tonra, she’s not what you’d expect to see at the world’s greatest rock festival. Yet, there’s something so fiercely fragile about her demeanour, it’s just as hard to ignore as a fully amped Metallica.

leave the same. Performing alongside her drummer and guitarist, Daughter has all the unnervingly youthful talent of Laura Marling, but with an individual twist. Her songs don’t care for the folk tales of ye olde world, but instead delve for the bare bones of human nature and human heartbreak.

Open and honest in her lyrics, almost painfully so, it still feels like there’s something darker propelling that voice out, something lurking behind the quiet front and dark fringe.

Playing the BBC Introducing Stage at this year’s Reading and Leeds, an odd choice of festival, she stole the attention of passers by who joined an endearingly patient crowd that supported and applauded her every move and breath. Captivating and utterly stunning, it felt like the whole site ground to a stop for twentyfive beautiful minutes.

Currently on tour supporting Benjamin Francis Leftwich, it wouldn’t be brash to suggest crowds should arrive early and

Debut EP His Young Heart was released earlier this year with follow up The Wild Youth set for release next month. Working

with producer Ian Grimble (Manic Street Preachers, The Beautiful South), Daughter’s newer tracks see a broadening in her sound while the songs still retain those cut dead lines and intimate delivery. On the track Youth, she accuses “It was a flood that wrecked this home… and you caused it. You caused it.” Before softly intoning the kill blow, “Most of us are bitter over someone. Setting fire to our insides for fun, to distract our hearts from ever missing them, but I’m forever missing him.” With lines like these and near flawless production, Daughter is just as captivating on record as on stage. And neither is to be missed. ohdaughter.bandcamp.com

2. Cut Ribbons Perfection is impossible, and quite often, unnecessary. Sometimes the best moments, the defining characteristics that make you fall in love with a band, can be found in the flaws. But five minutes spent in the company of Cut Ribbons and you get the feeling this is a theory they’ll not gladly follow. Based in Llanelli, the five-piece have spent this year travelling the length and breadth of Wales in a van that doesn’t look safe to store an amp in, perfecting their skills and playing their hearts out to any crowd who’ll hear them. They even bring their own lighting. With glorious girl boy harmonies and a bassist who abhors stasis, their teen dream indie has the hooks of a pop hit and the soul of a song you can treasure forever.

3. Dancers And they’re never short of new ideas, with tracks receiving the turnover of your local call centre. Their debut single is due for release later this year via Transgressive imprint, Kissability, yet the group are still in studio forging new paths into the prodigious. Details forever up in the air, one thing you can count on from Cut Ribbons is that whatever they do, it’s as close to perfect as bloody possible. cutribbons.bandcamp.com

What began as a solo project in the bedroom of Dafydd Myddleton quickly ascended to Radio 1 plays and NME love. Unsure of what had happened and entirely unprepared, it took a fair few months and even more band practices for us to finally have a fully formed Dancers. From Denbigh in North Wales, Dancers describe themselves as a 1–10 piece band, although at the last count we saw five. There’s something about them that feels deeply organic with more potential to blossom than a flower in balmy weather.

that’s nothing short of gutcrunching, heart-swelling brilliant. There are elements of Arcade Fire and even a little Pavement in there, but then isn’t there in most of the bands we love? Dancers don’t sound like those bands. Alongside the musicianship and determination there’s an idiosyncratic awkwardness, the awkwardness of a band that are unsure why you’re listening, but thank you all the same. As we thank them back. facebook.com/dancersband

Their songs have the kind of passion and drive that can only come from an honest place. Their front man has the apologetic haunch of a fellow who never meant his music to really leave the bedroom, and together they create a noise

VVolves

Words: Marc Thomas Photo: Mei Lewis: missionphotographic.com vvolves.bandcamp.com

Everything that you need to know about VVolves’ biographical details you can find on the internet, and so there’s no point in my rewriting them here. What you won’t get anywhere else is the similarity between this four piece industrial pop band and soul monster, walrus of love, the late, great Barry White. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in an uncharacteristically warm October as VVolves sit down on a picnic table in the beer garden of Buffalo, Cardiff smoking hand rolled cigarettes and talking about their second EP. “I like to make sure the band’s running alright and always looks good. When we make stuff, I think about Factory Records.” says Rhydian Ball, guitarist in the band and currently studying advertising at university, “Their whole concept is like a brand. It’s not just the music but everything behind it.” The others agree. VVolves are making a name for themselves not only with their synth heavy, lyrically intense pop music but also the time that they put into their product – and I use the term advisedly. Recently, iTunes was selling my all time favourite record for the bargain price of £1.99. On Stone Gon’, Barry White makes me feel things that married men rarely feel about other men. With its spectral cover, an airbrushed Barry at a white piano with a woman’s slender arm just in frame, you do not need to know anything more; Barry White’s entire career can be summed up by this deeply soulful, resonant record. Forget about the big hits like You’re the First, the Last, My Everything because by the end of 1973, Barry White had perfectly packaged his entire legendary career into less than 40 minutes.

This is Barry White: the brand. Back in 2011, four students from various parts of Wales have accomplished exactly what Barry White did that amazing year. “That’s definitely what we’ve been doing. This DIY thing and putting artistic input into it ourselves.” Tom Winfield, guitarist and keyboard player for the band says, outlining the VVolves brand, “It’s not just buying a jewel case; you’re buying into us.” DIY ethic is core to this band and this comes out in the packaging of their new EP. “It began huge and now it’s become less and less. We’ve screen printed all these CDs, we’ve got a poster,” says Winfield, “We were going to put a remix CD in but the last remix was sent to me today and we haven’t burnt the CDs.”

It’s not just buying a jewel case; You’re buying into us But it’s not all straightforward, Tom Roberts, drummer and silent type pipes up here, “Think about it. This marketing campaign with new bands, for instance WU LYF; they have this huge cult thing, which is very shady. If they didn’t have that music to back them up, what would be the point? It would just be a CD with some fancy stuff.” Here’s to hoping that VVolves make you feel the same way that Barry White makes me feel. Trembly inside.

Strip Tease

Sparky Deathcap: the man who gave us Heat Rash.

Damn the man, save the Empire. We are children of the 80s. We grew up with cassette tapes, tie-dye t-shirts, and Jared Leto before he went alt. We write the blogs you read, we design the clothes you wear, and we play in the bands you listen to. And right now, we’re feeling nostalgic.

Words: Jen Long loscampesinos.com/heatrash

“When we were putting out Heat Rash all the kids were like, why don’t you just send out a pdf or do a blog or something?” drawls Los Campesinos’! multi-instrumentalist down a crackling line. “And we’re like BECAUSE THAT’S NOT THE POINT!” Earlier last year a short clip circulated online from the Cardiff septet rumouring that something was coming. Something called Heat Rash. After much comment section speculation, it was revealed that Heat Rash was a new subscription fanzine from the band, and the man at the pen for the majority of said rag was band member Rob Taylor, otherwise known in his solo guise, as guitar and pen wielding Sparky Deathcap.

Kim Campesinos! This Isn’t Love. Nor Romance.

illustrations: Robert Campesinos! and Reed’s Nautical Almanac, 1978

“It was a sort of organic thing, we all came to the conclusion together that it was a good idea.” Recounts Rob on the creation of Heat Rash. “It was partly because we had eight people at the time and we kind of felt like we had lots of ideas and lots of things to say.” Picking influence from a lifelong love of alternative comics, Rob cites the likes of Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve and Daniel Clowes’ Eightball as favourites, but how much is the desire to create something physical a bout of nostalgia? “I think that’s definitely a major part of it.” he agrees. “I still have a lot of 55

magazines at home in my mum and dad’s house. They have no value to me, but I can’t really bear to get rid of them.” “I love the old zines that were all photocopied and done with permanent markers. I think it’s just a really nice way of having a voice. The world is so polyphonic at the moment, it’s easier than ever to have a blog, so it’s nice to create something beautiful that people can collect and cherish maybe.”

tical

“A band like ours has a particularly young fan-base and we want to give our fans an experience they might have missed out on, if that doesn’t sound too patronising.”

Why don’t you just send out a pdf? BECAUSE THAT’S NOT THE POINT!

With a new Los Campesinos! record on the verge of release, and a new Sparky Deathcap website under construction, how does Rob split his time? “It’s tricky because the touring and travelling schedule is quite prohibitive, there’s not always that much time when I’m sitting in front of my drawing board. And then the times that I am at home I’m working on Heat Rash as there’s an awful lot of work that goes in to that.” He pauses, before conceding, “Time is always the one thing that seems to escape me.”

incess/

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LL OVER AND OUCH-

ic movenate flooranana peels nderside of n the snow.

Tip 6. The Richard Curtis EXTREME

[WARNING: only use in times of sheer desperation when all other tips have failed]

Arrange a press conference in the rain outside a wedding and tell your crush “love actually is all around” whilst showing them the picture of their face you had tattooed on your stomach with the words “To Me, You Are Perfect” underneath before informing them you’re a girl or boy and your standing in front of them ask-

ing them to love you and put a umbrella over your head and ask them if they have noticed it is still raining. If they have then you have failed. And I AM SPENT! Unfortunately that’s all the help I can give, so if you’re still untouched and alone then Hollywood and, more importantly, I have failed you and I am sorry, but I leave you with these wise words from the John Hughes classic 99

Sixteen Candles about unrequited love to further cement your despair:

“That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call them something else.”

Here’s hoping Sparky and Los Campesinos! find the time and keep the dream alive and physical for the next generation. Over the page: a Sparky Deathcap exclusive, created especially for Zero Core. 13

Esben and the Witch

Words: Lauren Down Photo: Jonathan Hyde: jonathan-hyde.com esbenandthewitch.co.uk

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind year for Brighton trio Esben and the Witch. Signing to Matador records, finding their way onto the longlist for the BBC’s Sound Of 2011 Poll, not to mention spending weeks on tour in the States. “Seattle and Portland were two areas and two shows that were my absolute favourites”, recalls guitarist/electrical man Daniel Copeman whilst enjoying the Indian summer on Brighton beach. “SXSW was insane, you have to commit so much to an intense performance that I think if you come away from it unscathed and still alive, that is a triumph.” “It has been absolutely crazy, we have been to so many beautiful places and interesting cities that I don’t think any of us really thought we would ever get a chance to visit, like Tokyo, America, Slovakia and Istanbul. We just started giving our music away for free on our website because we wanted people to hear it, there was never any great plan. You never really expect anything to come from being in a band, you kind of just do it because you want to, and then suddenly people start saying they like it and asking you to play in different countries. It is incredible but slightly confusing at the same time.”

If you come away from it unscathed and still alive, that is a triumph But of course, the band haven’t just been touring since they released their debut full length Violet Cries, they’ve been working on a brand new EP too. Having self-produced and recorded their breathtakingly eerie, pastoral 33 EP and their

debut album with little more than bedroom equipment, the three-piece’s recently announced Hexagons EP is the first record to have been created in a professional studio environment. “All we had ever known was recording in our bedrooms and so when we signed to Matador we kind of stipulated that we wanted to still be able to do that, because that is what we knew and that is how we felt our sound was at the time. It’s only in the last 6 months or so that we have begun to properly embrace the idea of a studio, and we have better equipment ourselves now. It’s odd, it feels a bit like growing up in public, but it’s quite nice.” The surrounding seascapes and the vast rolling horizons of the Sussex Downs inspired the beautiful, dramatic, and organic record that is Violet Cries. It’s isolated harrowing melancholy and literary inspirations carved a distinctly unique aesthetic that has now evolved. “It’s a bit colder, a bit more based in the idea of the city although the sea to me has always had this sense of escape, of a limitless horizon. Cities can be quite claustrophobic but there is a great amount of beauty and horror in both. I would say this new record seems more inspired by going to absolutely incredible, intense metropolises.” “We felt Violet Cries was more of a collection of songs we had written over the two years we had been in the band, and Hexagons I guess we feel is a bit more conceptually strong,” explains Dan. “A debut is always going to have that element of a hotchpotch of different aspects of what

you liked of the band at the time, so yeah the EP is much more consistent. It feels like it moves better to me, it has more of a flow to it generally, and certainly it’s easier to listen to than Violet Cries.” Without wanting to give too much away or impose his own ideas too heavily Dan posits, “There is an element of encroaching ice and I guess a fictional timelessness to it, like a fictional world being preserved in ice. Whereas before we were kind of working off the landscapes that were right in front of us, that we could see and fully inhabit, this time we have created our own world with hypothetical landscapes. There is definitely more of a human element. I think anything going forward will be similar.” Where previous efforts have largely concerned themselves with stories and traditions, Hexagons is “More about human responsibility, and reactions to hypothetical futures” according to Dan. “Literature is incredibly important to all three of us. It is the one thing, other than music, that we first bonded over. I’m surprised that books don’t heavily influence more bands; they are incredible. The imagery the written word can conjure up is so individual. But Hexagons focuses more on people, which is something we might be working towards more generally because we felt after Violet Cries that we saw a lot of things and accumulated them without really adding personal feelings. There are so many artists that are so raw and honest and I think that is something we could imbue our music with at times – more honesty, more emotion.”

Having already revealed the first track from this new, emotionally imbued EP ‘Hexagons II (The Flight)’ it seems Dan’s assertions ring true: a cautious, delicate and brooding number it lurches into life with muted, industrial synths before it is swept away with intricate strings, bubbling percussion, and Rachel’s quivering, plaintive, irresistible siren calls.

Why would you hate something if it weren’t important? It’s all about context Inspired as ever by great literature, great musicians and the desire to “Make dramatic music…to make people feel something” Dan seems genuinely excited about the future. “I wouldn’t want everyone to like what we do. If everyone thinks something is alright then that means no one loves it. If you’re passionate about something, whether you love it or you hate it then there is some worth to it. Why would you hate something if it weren’t important? It’s all about context isn’t it? It’s all about circumstance and experience giving you perspective. The more you open yourself up to these things the more opportunity you have to experience the good side.” A fearless exploration then, embracing the worst and the best in what they have created, Esben and the Witch’s Hexagons EP will be released on 7 November via Matador Records.

17 17

OUT NOW FROM SUB POP

MISTER HEAVENLY Out of Love CD/LP

MALE BONDING Endless Now CD/LP

FRUIT BATS Tripper CD/LP

BLITZEN TRAPPER American Goldwing CD/LP

MEMORYHOUSE The Years EP CD/12”

DUM DUM GIRLS Only in Dreams CD/LP

STILL CORNERS Creatures of an Hour CD/LP

CHAD VANGAALEN Diaper Island CD/LP

On tour soon –

Dum Dum Girls, Shabazz Palaces, THEESatisfaction & Fruit Bats Distributed by

SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up CD/LP

DNTEL Life Is Full of Possibilities 2XCD/2XLP

HANDSOME FURS Sound Kapital CD/LP

THE DEBUT ALBUM “Esben & The Witch have contrived to create a stunning document of our era.” The Quietus

“Rich, epic and elegant” NME

“A RECORD OF EXCEPTIONAL CLASS AND CALIBRE” - 9/10 DROWNED IN SOUND

ALBUM OF THE WEEK aaaa THE TIMES

ALBUM OF THE WEEK aaaa DAILY TELEGRAPH

“A VERY SPECIAL ALBUM” - 9/10 LOUD AND QUIET

aaaa MOJO

aaaa TIME OUT

aaaa THE FLY

OUT 7TH NOVEMBER THE NEW EP ‘HEXAGONS’

VISIT ESBENANDTHEWITCH.CO.UK FOR MORE INFO

FEATURE

Jonathan Hyde Our cover photo this issue comes from Brighton photographer Jonathan Hyde, who shoots on film and develops his images in a darkroom, like in the old days.

That’s what makes a good photograph – you’re attached to it Words: Polly Mackey

Do you remember the first photograph you ever took?

jonathan-hyde.com

No, I remember the time it would have been around; we had a family holiday to the States when I was about twelve, and driving through Arizona I remember taking loads of photographs and thinking they’d be beautiful, but when I got them back they were really disgusting and ugly because it was a crap camera. That kind of made me want to get a good camera. So it was probably around then. Certain collections of your photography merge differing horizons. What was the inspiration behind this? I don’t know when that started really, probably because about four years ago there was this massive clearance of Polaroid film in my local Boots. I just bought it all, about two hundred Polaroids, and I had them all lined up on my bedroom wall and I just thought it was a nice way of threading together photographs without seeming pretentious and having to write a blurb about why you put them together; they’re purely placed like that.

taking too much. Like today when I got the train back from Brighton, I took a few pictures – I know they’re not going to be good, I just really enjoy photography and the process of it, even if it’s just hearing the shutter click or winding it on. It’s very rare that I’ll take one and think ‘I know that was good’, it’s mostly just an activity; I enjoy that way of passing my time. Your images are very cinematic – have you ever experimented with filmmaking? Certainly, I actually work in a cinema in Brighton. I’ve worked there for two years. I’m a projectionist so I get to see and view things in that way; as a photographer I view films like a cinematographer. I’ve made playful things before, but I made my first video this year for Esben & The Witch, and I’m making another one at the moment – a dance video for a friend. I would like to get into that, but it’s so much more... intimidating actually. There are so many more levels. Plus the cost, I don’t really want to film digitally, so if I go back to old techniques that would cost a lot. What is your favourite ever photograph?

What is it that povokes you to pull out your camera and take a photograph? More and more, when I think about it, it’s more a case of what I don’t take a picture of. Choosing not to take the camera out of the bag has become more of a lesson to me and more important than

Ha, I definitely don’t have one. I’m looking at my walls right now... A lot of the time it’s going to be for more sentimental reasons; that’s what makes a good photograph – you’re attached to it.

The Joy Formidable

Words: Heather Steele Illustration: Laurie Rollitt: laurierollitt.blogspot.com thejoyformidable.com

2011 has been The Joy Formidable’s year. Since the release of their debut album The Big Roar in January Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd and Matt Thomas have been touring non-stop. Returning fresh from the US after performing on Letterman, right before heading back there for shows with Foo Fighters, they’ll be home. So, are they excited about being back in the UK? “Yeah absolutely, it will be our last UK tour of the year and also our biggest shows to date, so it feels very special,” Rhydian explains. “We’re going to mix things up and play some tracks that people haven’t heard yet and do things differently to keep both us and other people on their feet. The UK’s where it all started as well, so it just feels great to get back onto home soil.”

People think we’re fucking Scousers or something! So just what is it that makes the band so successful abroad? “Every band’s different. I think that we had nice timing I suppose, it seems as though everything’s just been a natural progress. Not too much hype or anything like that: you’re not setting yourself up for any bullshit. It’s always just been loads and loads of shows and things have all just seemed to fall into place.” There might not have been ‘hype’ as such surrounding the band, yet the explosion of their presence at festivals and in the press is undeniable. Yet great record or not, the band’s commitment to touring is one thing that has surely increased their success. “I know there are a lot of bands that are

afraid to tour as much as we do,” he laughs. “But we love being on tour, getting out to new places and the variety that being out on the road brings. We’ve done a lot of shows and that’s a real big part of the fabric of the band. That will never stop.” Amongst other accolades, the trio have also been nominated for the Welsh Music Prize, yet remain unfazed about making the shortlist: “I don’t like getting too involved, but I think that what’s nice about it is that we’re a band from North Wales, right at the top in Mold, and I think it would be nice if we could put that on the map a little bit. Somehow we always get tied into across the fucking border, people think we’re fucking Scousers or something! But we have our own identity so I think it’s important that that gets recognised.” So what’s next for The Joy Formidable? “We’re always writing – I think it’s important to document everything, and not try too hard either. We’re looking to put out an album next year, which we’re really excited to be sharing with people eventually,” he explains. “We’ve also got loads of shows next year, it’s more of the same really! So a heavy schedule ahead, but happily so.” Let’s hope 2012 is just as rewarding.

LABEL PROFILE:

fulltimehobby.co.uk

Founded in 2004, London based indie Full Time Hobby have put out records for the likes of School Of Seven Bells, Timber Timbre, and The Hold Steady. We caught up with co-founder Nigel Adams for a quick pep talk… Who started the label and why? Myself and Wez. We had been working at Mushroom Records (I was label manager at Infectious, a label within Mushroom and Wez was general manager at Mushroom) and it was being sold to Warner Bros and we didn’t fancy working for a major. What was your first release? Viva Voce’s ‘Alive With Pleasure’ EP. A fitting title… Did the Sony/Pias warehouse fire affect you? Yep, we lost almost all of our stock. It’s been a pain in the arse dealing with insurance, cash flow, and general nonsense but hopefully we’ll be OK. What releases do you have out at the moment that you can’t stop talking about? Well, two at the moment would the debut EP by Diagrams, a new signing to the label who will have an album out next year, and also a new find from Denmark called Pinkunoizu who played our recent London label night, and their debut 12” is out in November.

Do you have a favourite release of all time, or one you’re most proud of? Well, I wouldn’t want to single out any one band as they’re all signed to us because we love them so much. We put together a compilation called Dream Brother (the songs of Tim & Jeff Buckley) that we’re proud of and it helped get the word out early on, it also helped us to sign Tunng and Micah P Hinson. What other labels do you admire? Lots. From the past; the original Elektra label started by Jac Holzman, particularly at the point they had Love, The Doors, Stooges, MC5 and Tim Buckley on there. Current labels; Domino, Warp, Bella Union seem to release consistently strong records, Secretly Canadian, Sub Pop… thankfully there are still lots out there. Tri-Angle has some interesting stuff, as does Stolen. If you could put out a record by any artist, alive or dead, who would it be? Tough one… I would love to release a record by Mark Lanegan. We have a track of his on a forthcoming compilation we’re working on, so getting close. And I would have loved to released TV on The Radio’s debut. Where would you like to see Full Time Hobby in ten years time? Still working with music we love, in whatever form. Doing the best for our bands, taking them as far as we can and enjoying what we do. 25

michaelazerrad.typepad.com

Michael Azerrad: A Tale of Two Festivals

Does “indie” mean anything anymore? It’s become a cliché to even argue about it. But the difference between indie and corporate could not have been made more clear by two festivals I attended this September: the Incubate Festival in Tilburg, Holland, and the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany. (Full disclosure: both festivals paid for my flights and hotel; I gave a keynote address at Incubate but was simply a guest of the Reeperbahn.)

One of the great lessons of the indie explosion of the late ‘70s and ‘80s was that great music can come from anywhere — even places like Manchester and Minneapolis. That’s the tradition that Incubate upholds. True, the line-up is mostly out-of-town musicians, but the point is, something really cool happens in a small (pop. 200,000) city with a reputation for being boring. And all the bands are on independent labels.

There is nothing more pathetic than seeing mediocre, derivative musicians playing earnestly Incubate was the kind of place where one could discover Klaus Beyer, an unassuming middleaged Berliner whose life’s work is to translate the entire Beatles catalogue into German and then painstakingly slice-and-dice the original recordings into instrumental tracks so he can sing along. I saw him in a rowdy little bar and it was an epiphany. There were all kinds of electronic music (Lustmord’s subsonics literally shook the rafters), metal, improvisational music (legendary saxophonist Charles Gayle), a modicum of blogtastic indie rock (Wooden Shjips played a multimedia one-off), an excellent art show featuring dozens of local artists, and some smart, genuinely provocative panels that debated the nature and purpose of independent culture. Incubate even placed 100 pianos around town for people to play, creating some amazing moments and way too many renditions of “Für Elise.” The Incubate organizers are bright, funny, hard-working people whom you might well meet in the mosh pit. (Which is where they were at the

Fall show). But you would need an appointment to meet the organizers of the Reeperbahn Festival. With Popkomm gone, everyone’s aiming to become the hottest festival in Germany, the eurozone’s biggest music market. Enter the Reeperbahn Festival, which takes place in Hamburg’s creepy red-light district: six blocks of strip clubs, peep shows and assorted porn-related operations, not to mention the brothels on the side streets. The festival is explicitly being marketed to make Hamburg seem like a hip cultural capital, so that young creative types will move there and bring their luscious, lucrative new media jobs with them. And so music, as one speaker at the opening ceremonies proclaimed, is “a cultural factor that acts as a stimulus.” And I thought music was the food of love. The panels had titles like “Vision to Value” and “Value to Monetize,” as well as organized networking sessions, making it feel more like a marketplace for talent buyers than a place where music fans discover exciting new artists.

seeing mediocre, derivative musicians playing earnestly, not realizing how awful they are. Many were badly damaged by Radiohead and Sigur Ros, blandly striving to simulate “grandeur” and “deep emotion” but instead simulating soundtrack music. Probably the best show wasn’t part of the festival – a late-night outlaw party under a towering stature of Kaiser Wilhelm, kids protesting a local politician who is trying to kick out homeless people even as the Reeperbahn festival receives hundreds of thousands of government euros. Late that night, police swooped in and made arrests. Turns out that music really is a cultural factor that acts as a stimulus. The Reeperbahn festival treats music as a capitalist tool to be exploited, like the women who offer their bodies in the storefront windows of the Herbertstrasse. It’s fitting that, apparently, the festival ‘borrowed’ its logo from a left-wing street artist without attribution or payment. On the other hand, at Incubate, music is a vehicle for progressive culture, a way to freedom. Still wondering what indie is?

At Incubate, music is a vehicle for progressive culture, a way to freedom I saw many bands at the Reeperbahn festival but only one good one: Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s rollicking Devo/Kraftwerk pastiche the Apparat Organ Quartet. The rest were middling, mostly European, commercial bands jockeying for the favor of the German music industry. There is nothing more pathetic than

27 27

Reviews 1. Los Campesinos! Hello Sadness Wichita 14 November 1.

Los Campesinos! have always been a thoroughly ‘modern’ band; their lyrics sound like confessionalist poetry written via the medium of Tumblr, they connect with fans as much online as through their music, and even their name exhibits very postmodern (read as “unnecessary”) use of punctuation. But in a musical climate where even Yoni Wolf has to ask fans for help with health insurance, musicians have to increasingly think of the future. All except Wayne Coyne, of course, who’s living it up enough for all of us. During the 18 month interval between Romance Is Boring and the equally bleakly-named Hello Sadness, Los Campesinos! have lost three members, with two quitting to pursue alternate careers, but since gaining two more. They mirror the modern world in flux, also dropping their signature glock and violin, and

slowly moving away from that original boy-girl dynamic. They now stand as a far cry from the band who once wrote a hit about dancing. But listening to Hello Sadness, it seems all for the better. There’s still that playful, tonguein-cheek quality, manifest in the shameless innuendo of Gareth’s sardonic verse – from the opener’s homicidal/masturbatory analogy to the first lines of the title track, in which the singer compares his manhood to a wishbone, dangling above his partner’s chest and ready for pulling. But for the most part, the record’s a lot mellower than the psychosis of the previous LP and their hyperactive debut. They used to name tracks ‘Documented Emotional Breakdown #1’, ‘…#2’ and so forth. This has become obsolete now, with the ups and downs replaced by a constant but

somewhat contented darkness – like the very title suggests. While Romance Is Boring seemed a stark reaction to the sugary sweetness of their first record, Hello Sadness was perhaps always going to appear a little anemic in comparison. But what the album lacks in lingering post-teen angst, it compensates in maturity and coherence, making the release the band’s most focused to date; an album of a band finally finding out who they are and where they want to be. Words: Luke Morgan Britton loscampesinos.com

3. Tubelord Romance Pink Mist 10 October

2. Summer Camp Welcome To Condale! Moshi Moshi 31 October Thanks to donations given by fans in return for jumpsuits and handwritten lyric books, Summer Camp, aka Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley, now have a debut LP for sale. And it’s awesome (if also a little bit frightening). Opening track Better Off Without You sets the mood for the release with a driving drumbeat and some shockingly spiteful lyrics (who wound Elizabeth up post sweet-sounding single ‘Ghost Train’?). This is then combined with an upbeat chorus boosted by Jeremy’s backing vocals, and some super eighties-sounding synthesizers. I imagine SC fitting in well at White Denim’s ‘Street Joy’ prom. Hooray. Track three, I Want You, begins with what sounds like snippets of conversation from a horror film, the nervous

chatter that takes place before one or both parts of a couple get devoured by something gross. Elizabeth then goes on to sound like the monster in-question by singing about squeezing somebody until “Every bone in your body snaps.” This bit being sick in both senses of the word. Other stand out tracks include Losing My Mind, which has nice whistles and clever wordplay, and Last American Virgin, which albeit still cold in lyrical content, glows through its Suzanne Vegaesque descriptions, joint whistling efforts, and sweet ‘ooh-ooh-oohs’. Words: Helen Weatherhead myspace.com/ summercampmusic

Certain bands occupy a very special place in your heart. Perhaps they sound-tracked the disappointment of the first time you hit a home run with a hottie. Maybe they provided the musical backdrop to your errant father and new stepmum’s first dance. They could even provide the melancholic strains of your often imagined funeral, bringing up bad joojoo of not enough tears and too many sandwiches. Tubelord are one of these bands for me. Not for any of the aforementioned reasons, but because they played in my kitchen wearing pigs’ heads. Yep.

best as the menu consisted of doggy-bagged Chicken Rezala bought at the end of a drunken night in August and I wouldn’t want to force my questionable frozen best before standards on them. Oh, so the album right? Yeah, it’s great. It’s power poppy. It’s emo electro-y. It contains the line, ‘making love in a time machine’. Tubelord are still Blink M25. Which is great. But scratching beneath the surface of the synths, whoops, hand-claps and hollers, uncovers an emotional depth here that rewards repeated listens. Words: Dan Tyte asktubelord.com

Now times change and they couldn’t be in my kitchen while I listened to their sophomore album, which is probably for the

4. The Field Looping State Of Mind Kompakt 24 October The debut album by The Field, From Here We Go Sublime, received almost unanimous praise, but it was somehow hard to love. This is not an accusation you could level at their latest album, Looping State of Mind. The shimmering icy stare that characterised much of their previous output has been replaced by a seductive, sultry glance. The endless grooves are still there; the overlapping melodies are still spun out to within an inch of their lives. But this time it all feels a bit more intimate, enticing where before there was a clinical distance. Album opener Is This Power sounds like a long lost Death In Vegas lock-groove – a snaking bass line and languid rhythm underpinning a vaguely menacing wash of melody.

5. M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming Naive 17 October The Field is no longer offering only measured slices of liquid, ambient techno: Caribou-esque percussion (Arpeggiated Love) and the electronic bluster of Fuck Buttons (Looping State of Mind) are also on the menu. There are times when the sheer scope of the tracks means you lose concentration. But, like Coracle by Walls (another fantastic offering from the Kompakt stable this year), this is music that knows you’re listening: it doesn’t need to be told. Words: Adam Corner myspace.com/thefieldsthlm

He’s been building on an obscure mid 80s movement for 10 years now but Anthony Gonzales’ sixth album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming shows he’s still leading the dream pop pack in the ideas stakes. Inspired by double disc beasts like Smashing Pumpkins’ patchy Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (best known for working with Beck), it romps through Gonzales’ “30 years as a human being” while dragging together countless styles with his trademark foggy finish. Some are belting and synthy (Zola Jesus howls her part on Intro; it’s difficult to count the layers of sound on OK Pal), while others deliver disco madness on a par with the likes of YACHT and The Rapture.

Fitting the cinematic scope of the record Gonzales turns his hand to odyssey’s of noise and spoken word; Reunion is power ballad-esque, while there’s a liberal dollop of floating, wide eyed ballads. Arguably most loved by fans, they’re also the records’ highlights. Well, he’s had enough practice… Fizzing interludes (Where the Boats Go, Another Wave From You) feel a little unnecessary and could have trimmed the record down to one disc, but when you’re dealing with an artist with such a strong personal vision, it’s safe to say that everything on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is there for a reason. Words: Sian Rowe ilovem83.com

Autumn

ReleAses

AmonG BRotheRs

olympiAns

Kutosis

— loved —

— wake up old —

— Fanatical love —

(single)

(album)

out now

24th october 2011

14th november 2011

amongbrothers.co.uk

onwardolympians.com

kutosis.co.uk

All releases available on itunes, spotify and Bandcamp.

Saturday 22nd October

Tuesday 25th October

Friday 4th November

in conjunction with newsoundwales

MARK MORRISS (THE BLUETONES)

BABY DEE The Globe, Albany Road, Cardiff 7:30pm / £10adv

Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay Friday 28th October

7:30pm / £8adv

in conjunction with Beyond Borders

SWN FESTIVAL 2011 presents

BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH DAUGHTER OLFAR FFRED JONES

PHIL KIERAN vs WHITE NOISE SOUND UNDERPASS

Thursday 10thNovember

TALL SHIPS CUBA CUBA / R-SEILIOG

This is a 14+ show / please bring ID / £8adv

Volcano Theatre Company, Swansea

Undertone, Cardiff

SWN FESTIVAL 2011 presents

8:00pm / £5adv

8pm / £5adv

Saturday 29th October

Friday 18th November

JULIAN COPE

WISE BLOOD

The Globe, Albany Road, Cardiff

Undertone, Cardiff

7:30pm / £17.50adv

8.00pm, £4 adv

Tuesday 8 November

Sunday 5 Feb 2012

GIRLS

PAUL KELLY

The Globe, Albany Road, Cardiff

Ten Feet Tall, Cardiff

7:30pm / £8adv

7:30pm / £12adv

Tuesday 8 November

SWN FESTIVAL PREORDER SHOWS

Chapter Arts Centre

Saturday 22nd October

UGLY DUCKLING MR PHORMULA Cardiff Arts Institute This is a 18+ show / please bring ID / £5adv

Saturday 22nd October SWN FESTIVAL 2011 presents

THROWING MUSES TEITUR The Gate, Roath, Cardiff

THE FALL THE NIGHTINGALES TED CHIPPINGTON

Great Hall, Cardiff University 6:30pm-10.30pm / 18+ only / please bring ID / £15adv

Friday 21st October.

7:30pm / £20adv

SWN FESTIVAL 2011 and BBC INTRODUCING IN WALES WITH JEN LONG presents

Wednesday 9thNovember

LOS CAMPESINOS! STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR The Globe, Roath 7:30pm / £10adv

tickets for all our shows available from swnpresents.com

THE JOY FORMIDABLE AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR FRIENDS ELECTRIC CREATURES OF LOVE Solus, Cardiff University This is a 14+ show / please bring ID / £11.50adv

wegottickets.com seetickets.com

Gigantic.com Bristol ticket shop

ticketlineuk.com cardiffboxoffice.com

Spillers Records Derrick Records

and sign up to our mailing list swnpresents.com

Live Words: Alex Bean Photo: Paul Bridgewater: londonmusicphotographer.com iamgoldpanda.com

Gold Panda KOKO London, 6th Oct It’s been something of a rollercoaster year for Gold Panda. His Lucky Shiner album propelled the producer out of the blog community, up the BBC Sound Of 2011 Poll, and onto the covers of broadsheets. 2. As hand-scrawled signs stuck to the front door proclaim, ‘This show is sold out.’ KOKO in London is surely a peak. It would appear that the Panda has ascended into the public consciousness. There’s a clear sample-delic cloth to the support acts, with Dam Mantle and Nathan Fake mirroring a little of what Gold Panda himself does live; all MPCs, Macbooks, hoodies, and lush textures; they mark out the evening’s 4x4 footprint. But it’s only when Panda himself takes the floor, his gangly figure dwarfed by the enormity of the stage and the size of his floaty accompanying visuals, that the crowd really comes alive.

Building his tracks from the ground up through an array of hardware equipment, every sound he makes has an organic feel. It’s a seamless journey through Lucky Shiner, from Vanilla Minus, I’m With You But I’m Lonely and Same Dream China. Snow and Taxis sounds fearless, while the first few bleeps and samples of You causes a mass explosion of whooping. Only pausing twice to look up and address the crowd, it’s the mumbled pointing out of “That Indian lady on the balcony, the actual Lucky Shiner” – his granny no less – that cements the delightful feeling of intimacy in such a tall and busy venue. Having personally followed the musical career of Derwin Panda (sadly not his genuine surname) I’ve a proper sense of pride that 1000 people in London are dancing their little Amercian Apprael socks-off to his delicate, intricate soundscapes. When not bopping, brocking or jolting in unison to the music, the audience keep turning to grin at each other – apparently it’s not just his Gran who feels that we’re witnessing a seminal event. Speaking to Derwin after the show, he concludes: “I find it tricky playing to UK audiences, they’re pretty hard to impress. But yeah, that went alright, I’m pretty pleased with that one.” Rightly so Panda, rightly so. 33

M O S HI MOSHI LABELS 2011

S L O W C L UB PA R A D I S E

TEETH WHATEVER

THE DRUMS P O RTA M E N T O

COCKNBULLKID A D U LT H O O D

An album of exception and understated maturity and beauty Drowned In Sound 8/10

noisy, stroppy, neon and a little bit cool as fuck Loud & Quiet

Genius pop songs NME

Fizzing, elbows out synth pop, sensational The Times

S U M M E R CAMP W E L C O M E TO CONDALE

THE WAVE PICTURES BEER IN THE BREAKE R S

H E R C U L E S & L O V E A F FA I R BLUE SONGS

B E AT C O N N E C T I O N SURF NOIR

They take dream pop to a new and highly addictive level

Immaculate... vibrant... exquisite Sunday Times Culture

For those of us enamoured with Butler’s remarkable ability to nail the spirit of an era... Blue Songs is a subtly immersive treat Stool Pigeon

A true summer electro-pop gem The Guardian

NME

...as well as releases from Visions of Trees, Lulu & The Lampshades, Eagulls, Trophy Wife, Psychologist, Big Deal, Hot City, Two Wounded Birds, James Yuill, Idiot Glee, Clock Opera, The Very Best, Casiokids, MNEK and D/R/U/G/S. Get every release from Moshi Moshi Records for only £30 per year. Pay an annual subscription fee of £30 and get the digital version of every Moshi Moshi release on the Friday ahead of its official release. Visit www.moshimoshimusic.com for more information on the offer. www.moshimoshimusic.com twitter: @moshimoshimusic