Zero Core issue 4 by Croatoan Design

zero core music, design, photography_______________________________________autumn 2012 __ free

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THE DEBUT ALBUM - 08.10.12

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WEARETALLSHIPS.CO.UK

Hello Hello you, and happy anniversary. Bright Light Bright Light 06 Kraffhics Can you believe it? It’s been a 10 whole year since we Article first touched print to paper and XX released our debut Articlelike issue, tiny tadpoles swimming XX in to your eyes, Article all across the face of the UK. XX Article XX Article This magazine was once madeXX by three people in Cardiff. Now one of us is in London, one in Toronto, and the other, well, he’s still at home by the Taff, the lucky chap. So here we are at Issue 4. Four. Inside these pages you’ll find words about the labels we love, pictures of the bands we love by the photographers we love, and killer illustrations from illustrators we, erm, love. That was always the idea behind this zine, and we hope it’s one that’s still holding true a year later. Just basically a big load of stuff we dig. Hopefully you’ll dig some of it too. And if you ever want to get in touch with us and say hi, come write or shoot for us, then we’d be into that too. Anyway, enough of the chit chat, get reading you. There’s some flowers waiting for you on the bed, and we’ll see you next year.

Made by Jen Long, Adam Chard and Marc Thomas. Contributors in order of appearance Elinor Jones, Nat Davies, Kyle Smart, Lauren Down, Chris Chadwick, Francine Gorman, Owen Richards, Diego Arias, Polly Mackey, Andrew Backhouse, Al Horner, Helia Phoenix, Dan Tyte, Heather Steele, Daniel Mackie, John Rostron, Sam Lee, Anika Mottershaw. Thank you Bart Mcdonagh, Kevin Douch, Alice French, Catryn Ramsut, Kev Tame, Will Lawrence, Polly Mackey, John Rostron, Adam Whitmore, Rich Onslow, Dan Monsell, Kate Price, James, Jay and Ellie at Prescription PR, Leah and Helen at Warp, James Penycate, Matt and Isaac, Rachel and Michael Moshi, Rachel Silver, Nita Keeler, Jo Morris, Rich Walker, Tom and Ami EYOE, and everyone at Transgressive. This issue of Zero Core was created in three different continents using a lot of free wifi. All rights reserved and stuff like that. Don’t rip us off. Enjoy. Printed by MWL Print.

Heaps vibes.

Issue five due February 2013.

The Editors x

Email us: hello@zerocore.co.uk Advertise with us: advertising@zerocore.co.uk zerocore.co.uk

IN ISSUE

New Bands 1. Death at Sea 1.

There’s something deeply ominous about Death At Sea. Perhaps it’s the imagery their title evokes, or the way in which their tracks mirror this through lashings of distorted guitar and crashes of fore-bearing drums. Or maybe it’s their aesthetic, black and white and barely smiling. Or the narratives their songs lay out, bleak and ugly at times with just a glimmer of chorus. Whatever it is, there’s a hope and light in their music as well, and it’s this balance, this all-encompassing balance, that makes them one of the most exciting bands in the UK’s burgeoning guitar scene. As labels and media alike turn their minds back to sixstrings, it’s a style that’s nestled deep in the patchwork of this Liverpudlian five piece.

We say Liverpudlian, but really they’re just Merseyside-based, drawn from differing cities across the UK, with different pasts, and different past projects.

Behind the press shots, the comparisons, the blog posts, and buzz are songs mature and striking enough to stand any test of time.

And as for the scouse comparisons, your Beatles and Coral, there’s none of that here. Death at Sea find their musical home on the other side of the pond with the flannel shirts of Seattle’s past, Geffen-era Sonic Youth, and the year punk broke.

But back to the excitement for a second, a run of UK dates follows the release of their debut single, as well as a trip to Europe supporting Zero Core favourites Haim. And after that? Who knows what’ll happen. The world is their salty oyster. But one thing is for sure, and we don’t mean to sound ominous, but this isn’t a group you’ll be finding at the bottom of the ocean anytime soon.

New single ‘Drag’, out imminently through Kissability, is a murky, fuzz-laden yarn that holds both it’s heart and hooks deep under layers of gnarled guitar and slacker sludge riffs. But at the base of it all, is a pure piece of perfect song writing. It’s at the centre of all that this band do, and it’s what makes them such an exciting prospect.

deathatseaofficial.com

2. Luke Sital-Singh You’ve probably heard about Luke Sital-Singh by now. You’ve probably read about his impending stardom in the pages of a magazine just like this one, seen music fans sharing links to his Soundcloud online, or caught his heart-melting breakout track ‘Fail For You’ raise it’s glorious harmonies on daytime Radio 1. But despite gaining praise and plays across the board, we don’t know that much about Luke.

3. Winter Villains Now, stripped back and laid bare, the rich melodies and bare honesty of Luke’s music is left to attract the acclaim it deserves. With a wealth of support slots coming up it’s only a matter of time before his songs, some written up to six years ago, finally make it to the ears of folk around the UK and further afield. Luke’s story starts here. lukesitalsingh.com

While his emergence into the limelight may seem sudden, he has in fact been around a fair while, plugging and honing his folk about London and Brighton. And it’s not like he means to hide or erase that past, you can still watch videos of his previous project Fellow Stranger online, a band he built around his work but which eventually engulfed the stark beauty of his songs.

Winter Villains are causing havoc with my calendar. Seasonally named for the months of November to January, they’ve decided to release their beautiful debut February through Barely Regal in the month of October. Are you still following? A six-piece chamber-pop group from Cardiff, they merge their voices in to soaring harmonies as prolifically as they merge themselves in and out of other groups frequenting the city’s musical landscape. And their music does echo a landscape. Having released first track ‘Moon’ in August, the accompanying video showed a small girl following a red ribbon across a torrid wilderness, but calmly, and with a comforting grace.

There couldn’t be a better image to compliment their record. It’s expansive and vast, but in such a delicate manner as to make you feel at home within each reverb of floor tom or crescendo of strings. With instruments often laid aside in favour of the guttural power of six glorious voices, theirs is a backline favourable to the road, yet it’s in the headphones that this band will really draw you in and strike your heart. In all truth it doesn’t matter what month they’re messing with. Winter Villains are an act for all seasons. wintervillains.bandcamp.com

Cate Le Bon

Words: Nat Davies Photo: Adam Chard croatoandesign.co.uk catelebon.com

“Fuck it. It’s just music, you can do whatever the fuck you want,” says Cate Le Bon, on the evening of her show in London’s Electrowerkz and days before she begins her third headline tour of the States. We are discussing how she evolved from lead singer in a teenage school band (“they thought my songs were really weird”), to Welsh language folk singer and favourite of Radio Cymru, into the bold, experimental artist she is today. “I was lucky,” she says. “Being around the right people, people like Euros (Childs) and Gruff (Rhys) definitely instilled that sense of freedom. I think as long as it’s genuine and it comes from the right place then I’ll do it.”

You can’t change direction from yourself, can you? Having just played shows in Glasgow, where “they went wild”, and with her second full-length album CYRK nominated for the Welsh Music Prize, Cate seems to be enjoying that rare confluence of hitting an artistic peak at exactly the right moment. Her second EP CYRK II, the “grown-up, confessional” older sister to its namesake, was released last month on Turnstile and Gruff Rhys’ Ovni label. The two records are a counterbalance to each other, one flashes and burns with a puckish energy, while the other turns away to stare out to sea, but they are seamlessly woven into her live set. On stage she is captivating, cloaked in black, with that incredible voice that can sustain pure, flute-like notes, bashing seven bells out of a keyboard or shredding guitar solos that leave audiences wide-eyed and beaming.

Cate is an intuitive leader: She orchestrates her music and commands her band effortlessly and with such obvious enjoyment. It’s easy, she says, because “when we are playing my music, I am the big boss. But likewise I’ll happily do as I’m told if I’m playing for them. And we’re all such close friends you can tell each other to ‘fuck off’ and that’s fine.” The idea to release a shorter album and a separate EP came from her friend and mentor, Gruff Rhys, when she appealed for help with the tracklisting. “He just saw that the fifteen songs fell into two camps and he was definitely right,” said Cate. Gruff was also the winner of the inaugural Welsh Music Prize for his solo album Hotel Shampoo last year. It was, says Cate, “quite special. He was the most deserving person on that list, it would have been a travesty if he didn’t win.” Ever the team player, she describes her own nomination as “lovely, it’s an important award” but says she is rooting for Islet to win it “because their music is so odd and beautiful and you can’t really pigeon-hole it.” The award ceremony, and the end of the tour, will mark turn of season for Cate, who plans to record a new album in Los Angeles next year. She is looking forward to working with a new team (so far all of her records have been recorded with the same loyal group of people, at Krissie Jenkins’ Signal Box Studios, in Cardiff Bay) but says the record will be, in a sense, more of the same. “I don’t worry about a change in direction. You can’t change direction from yourself, can you? And even if you could, you can’t keep it up for long. With this it’s just me, and I can do whatever I want.” 9

Savoir Adore

Words: Lauren Down Illustration: Kyle Smart kylesmart.co.uk savoiradore.com

As a band born out of two faltering solo projects Savoir Adore have a pretty good understanding of the trials and tribulations of collaborating but, rather than locking horns over their desired creative direction, they have rather seamlessly forged an enduring, fantasy pop partnership. “I think a lot of it has to do with the stress-free idea behind it all,” explains Paul Hammer, the duo's resident Doom Metal expert. “It works because we were doing it for the purpose of experimenting, of combining so many different ideas, ones that would not have come about if we didn't have one another to bounce them off of, if we weren't there to challenge one another.” Hey, if artists as distinct as David Byrne and St. Vincent can forge one artistic voice then why not two friends from Brooklyn?

A dangerous relationship where two people find out too much about one another “Our inspirations can be very different but because of the way we work together all these different styles naturally create an interesting blend. I listen to a lot of what I like to call 'sad acoustic music' like Laura Marling, Ryan Adams but also I would say Cut Copy were a really big influence on Savoir at first.” Paul continues before Deidre Muro, the other half of this charming equation chimes in “I listen to a lot more 60s pop and soul. I really love Scott Walker right now. Old jazz musicians like Ella Fitzgerald, Screamin Jay Hawkins and Peggy Lee. I love the Cocteau Twins and Jack White too.” Actually the pair admit that if they could have seen any two performers work together, their dream team would have been Jack White and Jeff Buckley. I think we can all agree that would have been amazing.

Of course that collaboration exists in a fantasy world, but so does the pair's output. Their forthcoming “adventurist wild pop” album Our Nature focuses “on the chaotic relationship between a monster and a girl and their journey through love,” explains Paul. “A lot of it grew out of our last record. We started writing about this wooded forest land and this little fairy tale developed when we were writing the new record. The narrative and the music developed side by side, in a really natural way.” “The fantasy element started as a form of escape from other music,” Deidre recalls of their origins. “It wasn't until we started writing together that we became interested in it as a genre. Since then I've become a really big Lord of The Rings fan, in a real nerdy way.” Paul interjects, giggling: “In an unbelievable way! I've never had a really big attraction to fairy tales and fantasy stuff but I definitely played a lot of video games in high school, things like Final Fantasy which got me into the idea of these other worlds.” “When we first started the project we were writing a lot of personal songs and we wanted to break out of that just for fun.” But it has now clearly become a reoccurring theme – one that is beautiful in its own brilliant way and one that is grounded in the real world. “It is really just a metaphor for a dangerous relationship where two people find out too much about one another, getting too close almost and the whole thing ends up imploding because of that intimacy.” It is ultimately that different perspective that makes Savoir Adore so special and so wonderfully dynamic.

JODIE MARIE Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd

Dragon Theatre, Barmouth

@ Sŵn Festival 2012

DJANGO DJANGO

THE BLACKOUT

w/EGYPTIAN HIP HOP GULP / WILD SWIM

£10 adv / 7:30pm / 18+ show / LATE SHOW / Django Django will be on stage at 23:00

@ Sŵn Festival 2012

Theatr Hafren, Powys Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth

GALLOWS

w/FEED THE RHINO BROTHERHOOD OF THE LAKE

£10 adv / 7:00pm / 14+ show

RACHEL SERMANNI w/GRETA ISAAC SAM BARNES (Denuo)

£7 adv / 7.30pm / 18+ show

@ Sŵn Festival 2012

THE CRIBS

w/FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS / MAZES

£18 adv / 7:00pm / 18+ show

w/WILLY MASON

w/SAVE YOUR BREATH / ANIMAL

GARY LOURIS (THE JAYHAWKS) w/LIAM GERNER

SOLD OUT / 7:30pm / 14+ £14 adv / 7:30pm / 18+ show

£12 adv / 7:30pm / 14+ show

@ Sŵn Festival 2012

Gwyn Hall, Neath

BEN HOWARD

SILENT DISCO £5 adv / 10:30pm / 18+ show

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY

w/ITAL AUDIO / DON LEISURE (DARKHOUSE FAM) (DJ set) Glee Club, Cardiff Bay

£24 adv / 7:30pm / 18+ show

LAETITIA SADIER (STEREOLAB) w/PEN PASTWN

£10 adv / 7.30pm / 18+ show

w/JIM LOCKEY AND THE SOLEMAN / TIM BARRY

Brangwyn Hall, Swansea 7:30pm / £18adv

TAKES PLACE IN VENUES ACROSS CARDIFF OCT 18TH – 21ST SWNFEST.COM

kilimanjaro Live & SŴN presents

BAND OF SKULLS w/FOLKS

£15 adv / 7.30pm / All Ages. Under 14’s must be accompanied by an adult

Kilimanjaro Live & SŴN presents

FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS

OUR 4-DAY ANNUAL SŴN FESTIVAL

Kilimanjaro presents

EXAMPLE w/BENGA (Live)

£25 adv + STBF / 7.00pm / Under 14’s accompanied by an adult.

Tall Ships

Words: Chris Chadwick Photos: Elinor Jones elinorjones.co.uk wearetallships.co.uk

On perhaps the sunniest day of the all too short 'British summer', Tall Ships are to be found relaxing on a rooftop in Dalston. Standing every so often as the shadows gradually reclaim the asphalt from the sunlight, to shift the lumpy sofa on which they recline, the three-piece couldn't look more sedate. It's understandable. Ric, Matt and Jamie have spent the last three months hitting every festival in the UK that time would allow, summed up with the five words, “lots of naughtiness in tents.” The culmination of their summer was a headline slot at Reading & Leeds on the BBC Introducing Stage, which the band later described as “one of the best shows we've ever played.”

There’s a thirty piece choir, a spade, and a small Brazilian child singing “It was completely unexpected,” admits frontman Ric Phethean coyly. “We only found out two weeks before so it came completely out of the blue. It was a teenage dream. Just to be able to say we clashed with Foo Fighters was incredible”. Not a bad way to sign off at the end of another festival season, but after a busy couple of months the band are in need of a rest, even if only for one afternoon. But there's no letting up for Tall Ships. From one euphoric high to another, the band's eagerly awaited debut Everything Touching is set to be released on 8 October by Pink Mist collaborators Big Scary Monsters and Blood & Biscuits. It’s been a long time coming and there’s a sense of relief among Tall Ships as they begin to open up about the album.

“I think we’re finally ready to get it out, anytime before now it wouldn’t have felt right and I think now we’re at a point where we feel like ‘this is it, let’s go’,” says Ric with all the enthusiasm of a child on a sugar-high. “We’re relieved,” continues Matt. “We’ve worked really really hard on it and we kind of feel like now we’ve got a piece of work that we’re really proud of. We’re just looking forward to giving it to people really. It feels like it’s finally no longer ours, it’s everyone else’s.” As for what to expect from the band’s debut, it’s anybody’s guess! After all, Tall Ships are hardly a band who stick to a formula, veering from the stadium-sized riffs and heavy beats of ‘T=0’ to Ric’s delicate vocals on the more tender moments of recent single, ‘Gallop’. The three-piece have an enviable ability to take their music in new and innovative directions without losing that un-definable essence that makes their music recognisable. “I think we’re lucky as a band in that we’ve never really had the constraints of a particular ‘sound’,” says Jamie. “As a three-piece using loops and keyboards and synths we can do whatever we want, so on this album we’ve got trumpets and strings, there’s a thirty piece choir, a spade, and a small Brazilian child singing.” “There are a lot of ideas in there but it’s all held together,” he continues. “There are lots of very different sounds and instruments on the album. We’ve not really constrained ourselves.”

It sounds idyllic but the reality is that Tall Ships are in a privileged position to have so much creative control, so much scope to experiment with instrumentation and different styles. Were it not for the support of Pink Mist label mates, Big Scary Monsters and Blood & Biscuits, there can be no doubt that the three-piece would have been forced to hone their sound to a narrow, one dimensional form, to add vocals to the songs on Everything Touching which have remained raucous instrumentals and to reign in tracks like the nine-minute epic, ‘Murmurations’, which closes the album. “As a label [Big Scary Monsters] have just given us complete freedom to have creative control even when it comes to things like the artwork for the album and giving us so long to work on the album and Blood & Biscuits have released some great bands. It feels like working with friends rather than record labels.”

With the album released into the wild the months before Christmas are filled with tour dates, starting with a UK-wide string of headline shows followed swiftly by a fortnight in Europe supporting Nada Surf. This is surely Tall Ships’ time to shine, with their well-deserved reputation for explosive live shows sure to capture the imaginations of hoards of new fans. But what’s next? What does the horizon hold for the UK’s favourite nautically named band? “Who knows!” laughs Jamie. “We could be going abroad, maybe to America, starting to write a second album which I think we’re all hungry for. But I think we’ll just let it develop naturally and see what happens.” The answer belies the true potential for Tall Ships’ future, disguising the reality. With the right record label[s] behind them, an ever increasing fan-base, and an album which proves that this is a band as capable of producing gargantuan indie anthems as intricate instrumental master-pieces, Tall Ships have plenty of wind in their sails.

Elinor Jones

Words: Francine Gorman elinorjones.co.uk

(Main image) Jessie Ware (over page) 1. Thom Rhoades, CITIZENS! 2. Sunless '97 3. Santa Monica Pier 4. Chairlift

There aren’t many jobs that allow you to work alongside the likes of Sonic Youth and Jessie Ware one day, and Ben Sherman and Unicef the next. But London based photographer Elinor Jones has exactly that, cutting her teeth in the live music world before broadening her horizons to include fashion, portraits and landscapes. “I think it came about when I first started getting into music,” says Elinor of what led her to take up the craft. “I'd buy Melody Maker and NME every week, read them cover to cover while listening to John Peel or whoever, then just pore over the pictures. I lived in a tiny village in Somerset and Kevin Cummins and Steve Gullick provided a means of escapism. I then started buying old music papers from the punk days and studied those – to me the imagery became as important as the music it was depicting. I'd had cameras from an early age, but it wasn't until I got Jill Furmanovsky's book The Moment when I was 15 that it all clicked into place.”

My mother's Welsh cakes have been eaten by quite a few bands Passion firmly established, Elinor set out to build a career in the art, learning different methods and working with different formats to refine her style. “I'm probably happiest when I'm driving around in the middle of nowhere and can stop the car anywhere I like in order to take [landscape] photos, that doesn't pay the rent though,” she comments of her preference, before going on to address the ever present issue of digital photography versus film.

“I use both in my work. I learnt on film and in the darkroom then once I started working, I had to use digital – it would be impossible to do most of the jobs I do and meet deadlines working with film. Though I think this has meant I view digital very much as a means to an end rather than something to explore," Elinor explains. "To me, digital is the equivalent of listening to music on your laptop and film is the equivalent of a proper sound-system. I personally just don't think the quality, depth and feel are comparable, digital leaves me a little cold and I'm not sure I would be so captivated by it if I was a teenager nowadays looking at photos like I was in the 90s.” Aside from the many tips that have been picked up along the way, including how to steady a subject’s nerves at a photoshoot (“feeding them always seems to go down well – my mother's Welsh cakes have been eaten by quite a few bands,”) has the job turned out to be what she expected? “I always thought I'd be photographing bands, but what I wasn't prepared for was how it would feel doing it,” she responds. “The photo pit separates the audience from the stage and if it's a good gig where everything comes together, that gap will be where the emotion from the audience collides with the energy from the band and vibration from the speakers – it's powerful and exhilarating, like a natural high.”

FEATURE

Why?

Words: Jen Long Photos: Owen Richards owenrichards.co.uk whywithaquestionmark.com

Let’s review some recent facts. Why?, the Cincinnati-based project of Yoni Wolf, formed in 2004. Releasing in the US on his co-founded Anticon label, Wolf and co’s last output was 2009’s Eskimo Snow, a far more organic and sedate venture from predecessor Alopecia, despite being recorded at the same time. Now, Why? return with Mumps etc. But facts are boring. Let’s talk some truths. Did you really have Mumps? “I had it May of 2008, on the Alopecia tour,” drawls Wolf in his unmistakable dulcet tone. “I got it in Sweden.” Sitting in the lobby of a swanky London hotel, he comes across relaxed and practised when talking about the new LP that’s had fans comparing back to 05’s Elephant Eyelash, a note which causes Wolf to skew his face. “I never did anything like this stuff, like hyper rhyming”.

That’s why I like England... people actually listen for lyrics here Perhaps not, but Mumps etc. certainly bears more in common with pre-Eskimo Snow offerings. The music and melodies are still as lush and innovative, but the words, their narrative and knowingness, that familiar lyrical essence is back. “That’s why I like England,” smiles Wolf. “Because people actually listen for lyrics here.” And with lyrics that sink the depths of personal, how much of what Why? say is true? “I mean it’s like any other writer. I wouldn’t say that I’m writing 100% autobiography. Of course a lot of stuff comes from my life, but just like any other writer you use things from your life and then you embellish.”

“What I go for is a line that just makes me go like, yesss! And it all needs to come together, it needs to have the meaning, it needs to have the humour, it needs to have the sound of it, the cadence, the musicality of it, the phrasing and all has to merge together to make you feel like it works.” And what about the subject matter? What do Mr and Mrs Wolf make of their son's often shocking and volatile efforts? “I mean, they get concerned about me sometimes or whatever,” shrugs Yoni with a smile. “When I was down in Atlanta and I was doing these tweets like, ‘doing karaoke with businessmen at a male strip club and snorting coke off of the…’ y’know whatever. And just making shit up like that, and then my mom calls me the next day, and she’s just like ‘I’m just concerned about you’ and she starts crying, ‘and I don’t know what you’re getting in to’ and I’m like, MOM. This is not real. So the album stuff, yeah, they get concerned but they appreciate it and they understand that it’s not… I don’t know. They probably think that I’m searching and I need God. That ultimately I’ll discover The Lord and find my way or something.” It’s a feeling that's echoed on Mumps etc., the feeling of still finding your way. But with every line perfectly honed, can Wolf pick a favourite? “I mean right now, it’s one of the lines from ‘Waterlines’ that I like a lot. It’s the line ‘Girls used to fawn over my locks to kill. Now the curls are gone and I’m on Minoxidil’. When I came up with that I was more than proud of myself. And I came up with it, I can assure you, looking in the mirror putting on Minoxidil. Why? It’s all true. 21

Menomena

Words: Polly Mackey Illustration: Diego Arias diegoarias.com menomena.com

For a band of three members that have been familiar with each other since a young age, four albums and ten years in is a difficult time to have a member leave. Where many would simply abandon, apologise for the unfulfilled tour dates and exercise their individual artistic output elsewhere, Justin Harris and Danny Seim propelled forward with a new lease of creativity. They return as a duo with the personal yet accessible Moms, an accidental concept album focussing on the most important person in most people's lives. So did Brent's departure refresh the process? “I guess we had a little more impetus in general just to start writing. His departure didn't really inform lyrical content necessarily, but I think him moving on, forced us to also move on and say ‘yeah, we'd better start writing an album’, and this is the album we wrote.”

It's just a matter of burning it into our muscle memory Whereas the previous album Mines took almost four years to record, that period surrounded by rumours from the press and concern from the fans, Moms has returned quickly despite the internal shift.

“The dynamic changed, we weren't necessarily going to be repeating ourselves and the more laborious recording processes that we've gone through in the past. It gave us a new lease on life, made us want to start the new chapter of this band. That being said, we both still write the same way and have the same working habits, so not a lot changed there, but I think inherently just having one less person sped the process up.” “That and the fact that we didn't tour as much on Mines as we would have, had he stayed in the band; we did two tours on that record, when he quit, but we still had a couple booked that we still needed to do.” “We decided pretty early on that once we'd finished our obligations of touring, we'd start recording the new album.” As as a band known for their prolific production and complex arrangements, Danny discusses taking the record on the road, “Sometimes we bite a little more off that we can chew while recording, not really giving too much thought as to how we're going to pull it off live. It's just a matter of doing the same thing over and over again, and burning it into our muscle memory. But it's getting there, these songs are really fun to play, so that helps, and I feel like the group we got together for touring is really good, all the vibes are good and everyone seems to be having a nice time.”

Words: Andrew Backhouse artishardrecords.tumblr.com

Let’s get it out of the way now – Richard has a confession to make. “I’m infatuated with George Michael. They don’t make pop stars like him anymore. “A lot of the old pop stars like Madonna get deluded and think ‘this is what people will listen to’. They should just stick to what they do best.” And what does Richard do best? Why he has his own DIY label, of course! Art Is Hard is the name, and putting out ever-brilliant releases in the most inventive and DIY formats is the game. Dave and Richard run the label. “We just found loads of amazing bands that weren’t really getting recognition on the south coast,” Richard tells us, “and really wanted to put them out.” With a roster boasting home-grown bands like Splashh and Best Friends – to newer acts like New Mexico’s enigmatic Sun Stains – it’s no wonder Art Is Hard is universally known as one of the most consistently brilliant, on-the-pulse DIY’s we have in Britain. “It’s really cool, because we come across a band and think this is really cool, and then we find out that their best friends are all in music and make this really cool music – that’s what happened with Playlounge and Joanna Gruesome.” Art Is Hard does exactly what it says on tin. Sure – surviving as a DIY in these times is tough, but it’s fun too, each and every release coming as something brand new and fresh and exciting. And it’s not just a feast for the ears, but for the eyes too.

“We’ve always wanted to do something unique – even if it’s just a tiny bit. When it came to putting out the Gorgeous Bully cassette, doing your really niche thing there was this custom made cigarette packet. It’s really hard to innovate in 2012 because it feels like everything’s been done before, so you have to get really weird with things.” And when Art Is Hard say ‘weird’, trust us – they’re not overegging the pudding. There’s a cigarette packet cassette, a “cheesy American family photo” and a Pizza Club. “We’re currently talking about doing a release that’s just a puzzle,” Richard tells us, “and to get hold of the music they have to put a 1000 piece puzzle to get the download code together.” Picture it – in the post arrives your new Art Is Hard release: a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle compilation. You dedicate hours putting it together and then, right at the very end, you discover there’s one piece missing. “That would be tragic. We’d have to send them a new one to start all over again... We should run a scam and take out the essential pieces of a puzzle to make sure people buy loads of copies. I might have you in on this Andrew – slip you 20% for that idea.” Whether it’s cigarette packet cassettes, pizza clubs, or George Michael’s grinning face on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle – it’s DIY, alive and kicking in 2012, and it’s freakin’ awesome. We salute you Art Is Hard!

Reviews 1. Flying Lotus Until the Quiet Comes Warp 1 October 1.

Steven Ellison doesn't exist in a league of his own so much as in his own space-time continuum. His 2010 album Cosmogramma proved not just a watershed moment in the Californian's career, but in electronic music as a whole – a phantasmagorical fever dream of bleeps and beats that ghosted in and out of New Orleans jazz, booming East End rave and everything in between. It was intrepid, experimental, but most impressive of all, no matter how far out its sonics ventured, they somehow never lost sight of the dancefloor. In the two years since, Flying Lotus has become something of a household name, hounded by A-listers for collaborations. Not bad for a 28-year-old self-ascribed “normal guy” obsessed by astro physics and new age philosophy.

But admirably, despite the likes of Kanye West and M.I.A at his door, Ellison hasn't been drawn by the bright lights and chiming cash register sounds of the charts, instead committing himself to delivering a follow-up that twists with the same impulsive, freethinking zest as its predecessor. The result is Until The Quiet Comes, a sprawling space opera that suggests Cosmogramma wasn't a one-off but an intriguing ellipses into a man who is just getting started. Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu are among the cameos on this, Ellison's fourth full length, but such is Until The Quiet Comes' bright constellation of sounds that you barely register their contributions till repeated listens.

From the nocturnal throb of ‘Sultan's Request’ to the 16-bit keyboard euphoria of ‘Putty Strut Boy’, the album glides by with a lucid energy, lit up by wandering bass, celestial echoes and hip-hop percussion, like Brian Eno on a magic carpet ride through 90s Harlem. “I tried to think about being a 7 or 8-year-old boy sitting at night time, astral projecting, seeing things I'd never seen before,” Ellison said recently of his approach to this new album. Astral projecting is one thing but on Until The Quiet Comes, Flying Lotus has delivered something truly out of this world. Words: Al Horner flying-lotus.com

3. Samoans Elevated Reflections EP Barely Regal 4 September

2. Halls Ark No Pain in Pop 15 October One of the most interesting strands to emerge from the post-dubstep apocalypse is the collection of singer-songwriters who – 20 years ago – would have been composing pleasing, lo-fi indie-folk ballads. Today, they’re powered by Pro Tools and Ableton, creating evocative music that’s powered by layers of field recordings and electronic effects. As you might imagine from an album that uses sounds recorded in a church, it has a certain ecclesiastical flavour (added to by track titles like ‘Funeral’, ‘Reverie’, and ‘Holy Communion’). It’s spacious and brooding, brimming over with sentiments of anxiety and isolation that resonate with the cavernous space of a medieval place of worship. I’m elaborating, but you get the drift.

You’ll hear elements of the obvious (XX, Mount Kimbie, Burial) alongside shadows of AFX and the Beta Band. As a concept album, Ark stands up against the best of them, particularly as it’s a debut from 21 year old producer, Sam Howard. But if there’s one place that it falls down, it’s the lyrical delivery, directly from the school of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, and more nauseatingly, James Blake. The choral-style vocals fit nicely on Ark given its subject matter and style, but you feel like Howard is capable of more. Next time, I’d love to hear him give it more gruffness and power – and perhaps it’ll come with age, but at a slightly more ballsy pitch. Words: Helia Phoenix halls.bandcamp.com

The Western Samoan rugby team visited my primary school during the 1991 Rugby World Cup. They threw balls around. They posed for photographs. They signed autographs. One of the players wrote down his hotel room number on a piece of paper for my friend Joel. Coming before noncing’s glory days in the tabloids, our ten year old selves were unaware of the potential implications. Gary Glitter was still just a glam rocker. We’d probably have been in his gang, depending on what sweets he had. Like Joel, Cardiff-based threepiece Samoans are sexy kids. EP opener ‘Super Vapour Trail Sunrise’ comes over like a screamo Simple Minds. If Patsy Kensit’s single these days, one of the boys could definitely follow Jim Kerr’s lead and take her up the aisle, so to speak.

Next track ‘Acrobat’ is half hooks and guts, half introspective shoegaze. ‘Catamaran’ is like that girlfriend you used to have: nice-sexy-nice-sexy-SHOUTYnice-sexy. Remember her? Instrumental interlude ‘Elevated Reflection’ is just that. Unlike Stuart Pearce in San Marino 1993, ‘San Marino 1994’ is all about control. Clipped emotions on lost love, or the death of Ayrton Senna. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Stellar stuff all round on these five tracks, which is what you’d expect on a release from Taff taste-makers Barely Regal. It’ll be interesting to see how the band use the space of a long player to develop their sound. Unlike the Western Samoan flanker, if Samoans ask you back to their hotel room, you should go. #YOLO etc. Words: Dan Tyte samoanstheband.bandcamp.com

4. Tilly and the Wall Heavy Mood Team Love 1 October I have two prominent memories when I think of Tilly and the Wall. One was years ago at Reading Festival where someone brought a bag of balloons to the small tent they were playing in and passed them round the crowd as the air slowly illuminated in floating multi-colours. The other was jumping around in the bedroom of a chalet at All Tomorrow’s Parties screaming the closing lyrics (“I wanna fuck it up!”) to their 2003 single ‘Nights of the Living Dead’. Now it’s 2012 and the Nebraskan five-piece return with their fourth studio album Heavy Mood, and it’s a culmination of all the elements that first made me love the group who write bold pop songs and swap their drums for a tap dancer.

5. Rebekka Karijord We Become Ourselves Freak Kitten 29 October Title-track ‘Heavy Mood’ is a brash mix of Yacht’s playfulness and twee You Say Party! keys, while ‘Thicker Than Thieves’ has the cheeky smile of a Darwin Deez number, all chorus and unabashed pop. If you’ve ever been a fan of Tilly and the Wall you’ll love this record. If not, and you’re open to hooks and heart, then give it a spin. You might end up with some treasured memories of your own. Words: Jen Long tillyandthewall.com

As the fourth album from Norwegian musician Rebekka Karijord, We Become Ourselves is both more progressive and lingering than its predecessors. While her song structures remain multifaceted yet simple, it’s Karijord’s voice that is the album’s real strength, with a genuine depth and diversity that renders each track simultaneously powerful and fragile. Piano and vocal duals are prevalent, particularly with tracks such as ‘Oh Brother’ and ‘You Make Me Real’. Opener ‘Prayer’ is as hymnal as its title suggests, while second track ‘Use My Body While It’s Still Young’ is equally upbeat, as Karijord cries “The only thing that stops this noise is skin,” over organ notes that continue to ripple throughout the album’s entirety.

While her own vocals are extraordinary, it’s the haunting harmonising choirs and occasional harp glissando that add eerie qualities to the record, particularly on penultimate track ‘Ode To What Is Lost’ with its low, rumbling bass backing that accentuates the heights of her own vast vocal range. Although its melancholy overtones are not too dissimilar to the ilk of Cat Power and PJ Harvey, and its narratives centre on tales of lost love, We Become Ourselves is by no means a gloomy record, rather one that is completely absorbing, expressive and soulful. With a second corresponding album due for release, it will be intriguing to see where Karijord decides to venture next. Words: Heather Steele rebekkakarijord.com

Live

Words: Marc Thomas Photo: Daniel Mackie danielmackiephotography.com thexx.info

The xx Coal Exchange, Cardiff, 11 September The xx are so laid back that many among the crowd at the Coal Exchange are in danger of falling asleep under the weight of childhood lullabies – not least the older contingent. Some of the more aged members of our number are pretty keen to point out that they haven't seen this much dry ice or such a well played out light show at a concert since the first time that they saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer live. Support tonight comes from Zero Core favourites 2:54 who go by, unfortunately, as if the sound tech had accidentally left a test CD playing in the background.

The xx arrive half an hour later to the huge delight of the crowd. For 45 minutes, the trio play a mixture of old and new songs with a heavy bias to the former. “We just released our album yesterday, we're so happy to be here,” Oliver Sim says after a playing through a few of their hits. His gruff, low voice goes out through the sound system and although he speaks so softly, the syllables reverberate with brilliance around the crowd of 500 who are waiting silently to hear the band do literally anything. This is a band who can do nothing wrong after releasing that beautiful, beautiful first album followed by one which is, essentially, exactly the same album with the addition of steel drums on one track. If any other band did that, they'd be crucified by reviewers but this one gushes great tracks one after another: opening with new single ‘Angels’ and extended version of ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ before responding to the crowd's rapturous calls for an encore with, ironically, ‘Intro’. Paradoxically, their live show is actually quite an upbeat affair. After several years of remixing, producing and generally making brilliant electronic music, Jamie Smith pro-vides a backdrop of calm dubstep and electronica which is far superior to their re-orded sound. For example, the performance of ‘Basic Space’ allowed Smith to jut off onto waves of sound causing many to forget where they were. Heads nodded, shoulders swayed and The xx wowed everyone. How do they do that? This music shouldn't work. This music is magic. 29

Things that go WMP in the night

So last year we started the Welsh Music Prize. I can’t remember what exactly spurred us to do it, The Coal Exchange but I know that in the mix of motivation was having, g Welsh Music Prize nominated acts | gyda’r artistaid canlynol yn chwarae at some point, read through the list of bands on every Words: John Rostron ight Bright Light | Cate Le Bon | Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog Mercury Prize shortlist ever made and only seeing national | Huw M | Jodie Marie | Kutosis | Truckers of Husk welshmusicprize.com one and a half Welsh artists nominated. One and a oors 7.00pm | 14+ show | Tickets £10adv from swnpresents.com half. The ‘one’ was Super Furry Animals for ‘Rings Around The World’ and the ‘half’ was Gruff Rhys (again, he’s the lead singer of Super Furry Animals you see) as one of half of Neon Neon. As serendipity would have it, in the period when we launched our first Prize, another Welsh artist, Gwilym Silcock, would join last year’s Mercury shortlist. So that’s 2.5 nominees from Wales from a total of 234 artists ever nominated. Go Mercury!

hortlist Concert | Cyngerdd Rhestr Fer

ednesday 17 October 2012 | Mercher Hydref 17 2012

17 October, Prizegiving 18 October – See welshmusicprize.com for more information.

ngerdd Hydref 17, Seremoni Hydref 18 – Mwy o wybodaeth welshmusicprize.com. www.welshmusicprize.com | www.swnfest.com | www.swnpresents.com

The wonderful, wonderful, ridiculous, wonderful car-crash that’s The Brits Ah look. We could have sat and swiped at the Mercury Prize, but, you know, everyone was doing that already and that, quite frankly, is boring. The Mercury is what it is and, you know what, it’s great. It promotes creativity and diversity over record sales, and that, my friends, is a ruddy good thing. It’s also a wonderful antidote to the big and brash and ridiculous Brits. The wonderful, wonderful , ridiculous, wonderful car-crash that’s The Brits.

But, anyway, yes. We set up our own prize – the Welsh Music Prize. In part motivated by the lack of Welsh acts at the Mercury Prize. In part inspired by the recently founded Nordic Music Prize. Definitely inspired by the Canadian Polaris Music Prize. And certainly created because it’s way more fun making something new and fresh than sitting moaning about lack of representation elsewhere. We found as many music critics and djs and writers and knowledgeable fellow Welsh folk as we could and they were tasked with keeping on top of the year’s record releases. As August came around they were each asked to choose their Top 5, and then those longlist picks were used to determine a shortlist. This year a whopping 70 albums found themselves in that longlist. By it’s very definition, a shortlist only leaves room for twelve records but it delights me that those albums making the final dozen know their position on that list isn’t tokenistic. They’re all flippin’ great records, and some are easily my top albums of the year. But it’s not up to me to choose a winner. There’s a panel of judges who have that unenviable task. Who would you choose?

EFTERKLANG piramida the new album out now

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T H E P I R A M I DA C O N C E RT S - fe a t u r i n g t h e N o r t h e r n S i n fo n i a 23rd Oct GATESHEAD - The Sage

28th Oct BRIGHTON - Dome

24th Oct EDINBURGH - Usher Hall

29th Oct MANCHESTER - Br idgewater Hall

27th Oct COVENTRY - Warwic k Ar ts Centre

30th Oct LONDON - Barbican

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LABEL FEATURE

PROFILE:

Words: Sam Lee toopure.com

Not many labels can boast a track record as impressive as Too Pure’s. Since its inception in 1990, it has consistently been one of the most forward-thinking labels around. After releasing PJ Harvey’s debut album in the early nineties it has gone from strength to strength, and became even more exciting when it morphed into Too Pure Singles Club a few years back. Now operating as a subscription-based singles label with a fresh 7” released every month, Too Pure has put out releases from the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses, DZ Deathrays, Deaf Club and many more. We caught up with head honcho Paul Riddlesworth for a quick chat to find out what goes on behind the scenes... Why did Too Pure Singles Club come about after the Too Pure label ceased to exist? When the [Beggars] labels merged back in 2009 it looked like curtains for Too Pure, but it has such a great history with artists including PJ Harvey, Stereolab, Electrelane, and Mclusky that we just wanted to somehow keep the name alive – and a singles club seemed like the perfect step. There’s no ego or bluster, just twelve releases a year that hopefully people will get into and like as much as I do. There’s almost certainly something for everybody.

What is Too Pure’s main ethos? We're here to champion unsigned bands and hopefully be a stepping stone to the next part of the their long, illustrious career. With most of the bands it’s their first ever release and we want to make the whole experience as worthwhile and as exciting as possible – hopefully they all leave having had a fantastic experience. As for the subscribers themselves, they're just as important as everyone else involved. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't exist, so making them feel part of the club is essential. What’s the main thing you look for in an artist or band? I just sign bands I really enjoy listening to with the hope that others will feel the same. It’s a very honest set up, there’s no ulterior motive to sign bands just on the basis that I think they'll sell. And finally, which artists should we be looking out for in the coming months? We've got some absolute crackers lined up for the rest of the year – Fear Of Men, Among Brothers and finishing off with the awesome Alex Dingley. Other bands I'm loving at the moment include Wet Nuns, Hookworms, Ellen And The Escapades and Seasfire – whether or not we get to do any of their singles still remains to be seen, but my fingers are firmly crossed!

WHAT'S NEW FOR FALL FROM

SAMOANS —ELEVATED REFLECTIONS — Debut EP Released 3 September 2012 on CD/digital download

CUT RIBBONS —DAMASCUS —

New single Released 24 September 2012 on 7" vinyl/digital download

barelyregalrecords.com

anikainlondon.com

Shortlist Concert | Cyngerdd Rhestr Fer Wednesday 17 October 2012 | Mercher Hydref 17 2012

The Coal Exchange featuring Welsh Music Prize nominated acts | gyda’r artistaid canlynol yn chwarae