Culturedeluxe - August 2010 by Culturedeluxe

AUGUST 2010 - THE FESTIVALS ISSUE Editors

Mathew Parri Thomas (parri@culturedeluxe.com) Adam Gibby (adam@culturedeluxe.com)

Advertising Manager

Nick Foster (nick@culturedeluxe.com)

Publisher

Richie Brown (richie@culturedeluxe.com)

Cover Design Dom Cooper

Contributing writers

Bradley Poole, Chantelle Pattemore, Dean Renphrey, Graham Shannahan, Jack Richardson, John Rain, Keith Haworth, Kevin Burgess, Matt Churchill, Mark Webb, Matt Fearon, Phil Russell, Robert Miller, Ross Park, Salwa Azar, Tom Doyle Copyright Culturedeluxe 2010 www.cuturedeluxe.com Culturedeluxe is published on 100% virtual paper. No trees were harmed.

Dom Cooper is a man of many the talent. If you’re a fan of folk music -- in particular those who operate in and around the Rif Mountain records staple – then you’ve no doubt come across Dom’s work before – be it musical or artistic.

freelance designer/illustrator by trade, Dom also surrounds himself with music, fronting his own project The Straw Bear Band, being a key player in The Owl Service and Wolfgang and the Wolf Gang, and also co-running Rif Mountain records. As an artist not only find himself is in more than one band but also co-runs a record label, it will come as no surprise that Dom has created more than a couple of album and single covers in his time. The likes of The Owl Service, Young Husband, Lisa Knapp and Jason Steel. Across his work, Cooper flits between line drawings, stencilling, collaging and digital with ease, each piece defined by Dom’s unique approach and imagination. Having created the cover for our August Festivals issue we caught up with Dom for a chat:

First off Dom, a massive thanks for creating the cover for our August issue. Can you tell us a little about the cover and the idea behind it? Hi, no problem, thanks for asking me. Initially I thought of

a sea of tents. That kind of army of people that springs up. All strangers, yet friends. All intent on getting wrecked and having fun. As the days grew warmer I guess I was brainwashed by the heat wave, because I started to think melting suns, explosions, campfires, fireworks, heat, pyramids in blazing heat and a bright blast of colour. So I sketched a few of those inklings up into ink-beings. Giving my ideas legs, so to speak. I did a melting sun and organic explosions, drawn and coloured up, which I submitted. But I kept thinking that I wasn’t happy with it. My own self confidence at an all time low. The drawing had been quite rough. So I started again, up against the deadline. Creating the final cover. It’s a couple watching a pyramid stage, with the dying light and the bright sun. I wanted something quite

psychedelic that represented that time of the day. At a festival you’re very aware of the elements. The couple are drawn in to the music and I hope it captures that spirit.

A lot of your portfolio is built up around your association with music. Tell us a little about your musical background and how it has affected you as an artist. My musical background is eclectic, but basically goes: hip hop (De La Soul, Hijack, EPMD etc); first gig Public Enemy & 3rd Bass; Radio 1 Rap Show; soul, Motown; the hip hop sample sources of the 60s (Hendrix, Beatles etc). Lots of music bombardment – early Warp, grunge, house, blues.

tastes. The band morphed and became a frenetic live outfit, but the recording got harder. In the words of Nick Abbott (rockfeedback.tv), we were “too schizophrenic”. Things ran their course, and I wrote the first Straw Bear Band album in the guise of the old band. The Straw Bear took over and I started to play out live again with Lewis Hill (of Phonofiction) and Adam Lambert (of The New Shapes). This made us strip back and simplify. I met The Owl Service who’d just put out an EP, and they agreed to release the Straw Bear album. I ended up joining The Owls to play live, getting to play some festivals and amazing stages that I’d only previously seen from an audience perspective. I’m very grateful. My knowledge of folk increased. Revival songs, in the form of Fairport Convention and The Trees etc. I’ve been involved with two albums now for The Owls.

“I could still snap my crayons at any point.”

My first flirtation with playing was as a drummer in a blues band. It lasted about four weeks with no gigs in public. Music listening became more John Peellike. I had a big interest in music from Chicago, the so called post-rock movement. Tortoise, Will Oldham etc. Around then I started DJing (in the loose term) at college (Broadcast, Mo Wax etc). I still do these mixes, as The Straw Bear Band’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Then, whilst working at Virgin Records, selling fewer CDs than I bought, I met a friend from college, Hood, who’d taught himself guitar from Beck and Radiohead albums. I began to join in with him, making electronic noises, and writing lyrics. Then I started singing because of a lack of any other talent. My singing got better and we wrote and recorded songs under the name Phonofiction. I started listening to rawer music, folk and early recordings (Bert Jansch, Leadbelly) around this time, drawn in by the power of the voice. Our musical endeavours turned in to a band because we got asked to play live. I bought a melodica, a dictaphone and a glockenspiel for that first gig. The glockenspiel’s legs has tiny bears on – something I noticed later. We then started to write more songs. Our style was as diverse as our listening

We’re finishing the second Straw Bear Band album and the musical activities continue to increase. With a third band to play in too, Wolfgang & The Wolf Gang. My listening tastes are still broad. The John Peel gene growing. That’s it basically. I know, not so basic. Sorry. Relating that to art and design. I guess it means the same, an eclectic taste and a quest for that elusive style or defining piece of work. I’m still looking.

And how does that work in reverse. Do you think being an artist has an impact on what you do with The Straw Bear Band?

I think that it may impact it. I guess my thoughts are conceptual (from doing design). So the music is usually centred round an idea, themes and concepts, and is quite cinematic or visual. That makes it sound very prog, all King Arthur on ice. It’s not something that I’m too conscious of. Honestly, I know my musical ability is limited -- one finger keyboard solos and air guitar. So I believe I try and compensate with lyrics and vocals, or with grand schemes. Tying myself up in knots and setting

impossible challenges, like writing an A-Z. I’m very reliant on my band and friends to actualise my ridiculous notions. I ask for the sound of a star dying and they try and make it. For me it’s more of a learning quest. Different to art in my mind. But it may be similar.

When it comes to doing artwork for a band is it important that you believe in the music? Have you ever turned down a project? Luckily that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve always found something I’ve liked with the projects so far. Maybe I’m not quite at the diva, only china cups and poodles, stage yet. It might happen. I could still snap my crayons at any point.

You seem to use a lot of different styles and mediums. How do you approach each project? Each project is different, which is probably why they turn out that way. Sometimes

the artist/person/client has a clear idea, other times it’s left to me. I usually get a crazy instinctive idea that I say and then have to try and explain it. For example on Nancy’s [Wallace] album (Old Stories) I said the songs reminded me of keeping warm in winter. I had to try and show that. From there I said hot and cold smoke, snow, a cottage etc. I then had to get it out of my head and into a visual form. The methods come from trying something new or from the music. Listening helps. Tea and loud music. With that one it was a collage of drawing, photograph, ink, hole punch waste and Photoshop. So in answer, I start with an idea and go from there following my instinct. It’s blind luck.

How did you become involved with Rif Mountain?

I met Steven from The Owl Service online, whilst looking for a collaborator for The Straw Bear Band’s second album project, An AZ of British Eccentrics. We set up a

label, that died and became something else, that was then put to bed because of legal shit. Out of that situation we were reborn as Rif Mountain, which has become a family of friends, putting out limited editions of their music. We do everything ourselves. The recording. The design. The posting etc.

With this being our festivals issue, what do you think of the current festival culture?

kind of vibe. Dancing and merriment ‘til you drop. www.domcooper.com www.myspace.com/thestrawbearband www.rifmountain.com Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

I think it’s healthy in a way. Because there is so much choice. But festivals started becoming too big for my liking. Greenman for the first two years I went, was really special (GM2 and 3). I like festivals that are different. Supersonic has a great style. It’s urban and noisy. Luckily there’s plenty of new small ones coming up.

Hit us with your dream headlining trio for a festival. I’d start out with The Flower Travellin’ Band playing Satori, with Joe atop his life-size plastic elephant (look them up on YouTube). Heavy and full on. Then I’d go into Caribou, with their two drummer psych electro. Carrying on with that full on thing (I saw them at Greenman in 2008 and they were amazing). Finally I’d finish with Andy Votel and the B-Music DJs’ til the early morning. At Festinho last year they had a great gingerbread house for the DJs in the forest. That

Part 1: The Secret Garden Party

y introduction to festivals came during the early eighties when hair was big and its daily maintenance was an almost Olympian task. And due to the hours of preening and sculpturing of said barnet, the very thought of leaving the mirror, hairdryer and jumbo can of boots gluespray to spend a weekend in a muddy field with the great unwashed (including older siblings) was unthinkable. We liked to watch our bands play in small, dark caverns late at night not during a glorious sunny day using a clear blue sky as a backdrop. This was until one festival announced the appearance of our latest alternative ‘sacred cow’ on their line up. The year was 1984, the festival was Glastonbury and the band was The Smiths. This news was enough to drag myself and another one of my pasty-faced friends all the way to a large farm in Pilton and a truly life changing experience. The Smiths were, of course, absolutely brilliant and the memory of trying to scale the Pyramid Stage in a vain attempt to reach Morrissey will stay with me until the day I die (buried to the strains of Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now naturally).

However there were other wonders that my first festival experience brought to me, the main one being the ability to wander around a field, listening to music while drinking beer undisturbed by ‘the man’. It was an epiphany. After that my holidays were based solely around the festival circuit starting at Glastonbury and generally finishing at Reading, taking in many smaller events on the way. Remember the Phoenix festival, no ...oh well I was there in ’93. As the years rolled on the festivals became bigger and more corporate (V anyone!?). Band line ups were announced to attract more visitors and before you knew it the Glastonbury of thirty thousand people in the eighties has grown to a over a billion, cramped and in the case of 2005 practically underwater. However over the last few years smaller ‘boutique’ festivals have sprung up, keeping sizes to a minimum and capturing the ‘happily merry and wandering’ feel that the more established festivals have now lost due to overcrowding. For this article I’ve decided to focus on two

relatively new festivals, the rather low key, totally independent, creatively magical The Secret Garden Party and the family favoured Bestival little sister Camp Betival to see if either can bring back that ‘happy camper’ feeling that started off my fascination with festivals all those years ago.

The Secret Garden Party

Since starting in 2004 with only 1000 people attending, one hand-built stage and two small bars, this Cambridge-based festival has come a very long way with over fourteen stages for 2010, most of which are small, hand crafted and hidden in woodland around the events central focal point... a great lake which plays host to all sorts of water vehicles including what appeared to be a giant air balloon ship. There are parts of the lake where you can swim and even a fun, wobbly bridge to make you feel disoriented when crossing. If this sounds like the most perfect small festival that you can imagine then I am pleased to announce that it’s actually better in reality. With a line up that consists mainly of up and coming bands, with a smattering of better known acts,

bedroom DJ’s and fringe theatre acts, SPG is the perfect wander fest. Bathed in the glorious sunshine for the best part of the weekend every area of the lake and surrounding woodland was explored, stopping to catch the odd band here (Will & The People, Lissie, Rubiks, Chukin) the occasional DJ act there (Gorrilaz Sound System, Idiotech) but never managing to catch more than the odd couple of songs before the desire to discover what every nook and cranny of this beautifully put together, imagination fest had to offer. Some stages were hidden away (The Artful Badger) and others didn’t come alive until the sun went down (The Remix Bubble – empty during the day – ram packed at night), and the Action Camps featured everything from fringe theatre (The Never ever land Theatre) to info tents (the Forum, The Conspiracy Camp, Guerrilla Science) and, ahem, more specialist fare (didn’t find the Asstrology tent, which is apparently exactly what it say’s on the tin .. a bit of a fumble and your future is revealed, however did stumble upon sympathy although decided to skip a visit this year). SPG really has something for absolutely everybody .

if you are looking for an Indian Head Massage, then I can heartily recommend the ladies at The Sanctuary (and before you ask, no there wasn’t any ‘happy endings’ on offer) or if Victorian vaudeville and honey wine is your thing then the Bloodstone has that and more on offer (did you know that ‘Fish & Chips’ was brought to London by the Jewish immigrants , just one of many fascinating facts I found out during the weekend by traversing from one stage to another.) When I first went to Glastonbury I caught almost every band I could by the time I stopped going I barley saw three. Not because of the talent on offer but due to discovering the many other delights the festival had to offer and this is why SPG is my first

nomination for ‘the new Glastonbury’ . If you want to see band after band the Reading / Leeds / V festival are probably the ones for you although if you want to experience something new, imaginative and different then you know where to go next year. However as I would hate to see SPG grow in the same way as the small Pilton festival I loved as spotty teenage has, let’s keep if our little secret.

Camp Bestival

Oh how quickly they grow. One minute they’re toddling around, finding their feet, letting their imagination run riot then, before you know it, they become a screaming, petulant figure screaming for your attention. I am talking festivals here and one in particular that I have seen grown from an infant in 2008 to a recognised child in the overcrowded crèche that is ‘festival season’. 2008 was its first year, reaching out, testing and confirming its validity amongst the bigger children in the festival family, 2009 we have the terrible two’s, stamping its feet and announcing its presence to the world, bold and unstoppable, holding its breath until everybody takes notice ...2010 ..well ... it’s the year that shapes how the infant is growing and possibilities for its future. What stated off as a boutique event that also catered for the younger festival goer, Camp Bestival has now grown into a sprawling, family-friendly fun weekend with added fields dedicated to Zippo Circus tents, dressing up and other wholesome children’s activities. However with this sort of growth there is the danger that some of the more creative, DIY elements become sacrificed to the throne of overall entertainment and the inclusion of a large, very popular, Singstar tent is perhaps an unwelcome but admittedly necessary inclusion to appease the younger teens amongst the audience. Now I’m not sure if either the word has gotten around that for ‘hip parents’ Camp Bestival is the ultimate weekend away with their kids or that the choice of headliners (first year Flaming Lips, second year PJ Harvey, this year Madness, a band whose average

audience member would probably have spawned at least two ankle biters and, if I was to be perhaps a tad cynical, along with other bands on the bill like The Human League, would the perfect target for a promoter who wanted to ensure a large number of parents and children attended their event) have made this year’s festival an almost entirely family event as opposed to just, happily, including activities for children who came along. On the plus side this is surely what organisers Rob and Joise Da Bank had in mind when putting this festival together. Camp Bestival = the outdoor Bulins. However having to cater for so many children has meant that some of the slightly more creative, themes have been cast aside to make way for aforementioned circus tent, skateboarding ramp and console karaoke. Although, someone seems to have forgotten to mention the extra child quota to many of the acts in the comedy tent as the ‘no swearing before 10pm’ rule is not only forgotten but even used as a foil by the likes of Carl Donnelly to elicit hilarious reactions from both adults and the children of an age who may have understand (proving that making a gaggle of thirteen, fourteen year olds shout out the C word can be both big and very funny if done right). In fact, due to most

“It’s a pity that Suggs hadn’t locked him in a toilet so I wouldn’t have had to witness his sexless gyrating at first hand.” 13

parents letting their children run amok until the very early hours, it’s the comedy that brings the most solace for the likes of us who had forgotten to bring a couple of rug rats, be it watching the hilarious Abandoman do their lightning paced, hip hop improv. or attending the live version of the Early Edition featuring Marcus Bridgestock, Andre Vincent, Rufus Hound and Matt Kershen. As for the music, like the Secret Garden Party, the bands are less than the main event and more of just something else that is going on during the weekend. Madness do what they do best and are perfectly enjoyable if a tad predictable (although full marks go to Suggs for locking Calvin Harris in a portaloo), the same goes for The Human League and many of the other ‘name’ bands over the weekend (we manage to miss Funkadelic due to rock god Alice Cooper playing at Sonisphere on the same night). Only Friendly Fires stand out but, unfortunately, this is solely down to the fact that they prove that middleclass, white boys should not be allowed anywhere near musical instruments. It’s a pity that Suggs hadn’t locked vocalist Ed Macfarlane in a toilet so I wouldn’t have had to witness his sexless gyrating at first hand. Just horrible.

not coming along as a family unit, but hey, we have its bigger sister festival Bestival (and in reality the more likely contender for the next Glastonbury) later in the year for anyone wanting a more adult event and there is still much to enjoy amongst the ten foot tulips, various market stalls, dance tents (memories slowing flooding back about dancing to 80’s electro and Acid House in the early hours of Monday morning ..eeek), comedy and great food stalls (River Cottage Cafe, Pieminister, Hopelessly Devoted To Stew) for festival goers of any age to enjoy. Words: Nick Foster Camp Bestival Pictures: Colin Friend

As usual it’s the lesser known acts that provide the best entertainment, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun proving to be an interesting, although not totally remarkable, Roddy Frame-type singer, songwriter experience and Lewis Floyd Henry, who seems to be popping up at every festival this year, providing us with totally loopy, one man, psychedelic blues are two acts that spring to mind. Due to its success, Camp Bestival has lost a little of the whimsical, magic it had in its previous years and I would find it hard to recommend for anyone who is

Seeing as this is a One To Watch... article you’d best tell us a little bit about yourselves. So, in the style of Cilla Black on Blind Date: What’s your name and where d’you come from?

Hello Cilla, our name is The Lost Cavalry and we’re from London.

Your debut EP Waves Freeze To Rolling Hills is being released on your own Two Six Heave label. What’s the decision behind that?

I think it just seemed like the right thing to do - we’d already recorded the tracks ourselves and we knew how to go about getting the EP manufactured and distributed. Oliver used to run a small label called Felt Tip so that helped too. It was quite a bit of work but it feels good to know we did it all ourselves - and as our friend Jim from Looking Glass advised us - “no one will work as hard for you as you will”.

The incredible illustrations and artwork that accompany the EP have been handled by Toby. Is this all part of having complete control of your output?

They’re great aren’t they? We’re really lucky to have such a great illustrator in the band. It seemed natural that Toby would do the artwork as he had loads of ideas and knew what look we were aiming for. A couple of the songs on the EP are about sailing and the sea, so the image of a steam boat came out of that.

With the links to Fanfarlo and a pastoral folk-pop sound there’s going to be a lot of journalists out there who’ll want to lump you in the ever growing London “nu-folk” scene. How do you feel about that?

We’re OK with it - though I don’t really feel like we’re part of a scene. We tend to use instruments like the ukulele and concertina, but we also have a fair amount of electric guitar and strong drum beats in the songs too - it’s fun for us to have songs with picked strings and vocal harmonies at one end and roaring guitars at the other.

The EP has that slightly sinister feel that comes with children’s fairytales -- like the brothers Grimm. What themes are you most comfortable exploring?

I tend to have ideas for lyrics come to me in different ways - some almost write themselves after I overhear a conversation or I let my mind wander at night, others I get an idea for and then I spend ages researching and then writing and re-writing the words until they work. I guess a lot of the songs are based on true stories and events but with an extra twist added in - the lyrics of our song ‘The Elephant Of Castlebar Hill’ are actually true - there really is a circus elephant buried under Castlebar Hill in Ealing but the

part where it comes back to life is probably less true...

It’s also been said that your songs are like form a book that can be read in any order. And that’s just from an EP! What plans do you have for the album? A trilogy of dicerolling novels?!

I used to love those dice-rolling adventure books when I was younger! Maybe that should be our album concept - a CD that you have to listen to on shuffle where all the songs join up any way around. We have some more songs that we’ll be starting to record soon, but the album is along way off at the moment. It’ll definitely include songs about deserts, destroying the world and at least two more songs about boats.

will be the best yet, we’re really looking forward to those. We’ve been playing a mixture of plugged-in gigs with electric guitars and samplers, and fully acoustic gigs without even any microphones - I’m not sure which I like most, it’s great to fill a room with noise but also nice wandering around at a festival playing acoustic under a tree and singing as loud as I can.

What’s next for The Lost Cavalry?

More recording and more gigs... and enjoying the rest of the summer.

Ahead of the release of the EP you’ve been doing a mini-tour of London. How’s that been going?

We all love playing live and we’ve had some great gigs recently... hopefully our EP launch on a boat and our gig in August at The Lexington

Chantelle Pattemore chats to San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Still Flyinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; about the influence of Peter Gabriel, odd cover songs and their abundant number.

How did the band form?

It started as a joke. I was in another band in Georgia, when I was at university, and I had this joke reggae song called ‘Never Gonna Touch The Ground’. When I moved to San Francisco I was still kind of obsessed with that song, so I built a band built around [it]. I invited everyone I knew to be in this super reggae band, then we started playing and it was a lot more fun than anyone had imagined. Architecture in Helsinki asked us to go on tour and we’d been a band for like, six months. We were like, ‘what, go on tour? We can’t do that there’s too many of us!’ There were fifteen of us, and there still are, but now we tour a lot there aren’t that many people. We were never really interested in touring but it was really fun, so we were like, ‘huh, maybe we should record in studio’ and then we slowly started becoming a real band.

How did you cull members when it came to going on tour?

We all determined that there’s like, the ‘Super Seven’ that have to be there in order for us to sound how it’s supposed to sound, basically. So we were like, anyone else, if you wanna come and there’s room for you in the van, then you can come but you have to like, fly yourself. Some people do that... the seven tends to stay the same, then there’s all these extra people like, ‘ok, ok I’ll do this tour’ and it’s more like a vacation for them. It works out good actually.

I read that you have different members in other countries that you pick up when you get there.

Yeah that happens. It started when we toured Sweden a couple of times for some weird reason, like we toured Sweden before we even made it to the east coast of the US! We have a lot of Swedish friends there and they’ll just play with us when we go there, and then we toured Australia and there’s a lot of Australian friends that we have and they all joined the band. Now that we’re touring a lot we always have the same seven people no matter where we go. There’s still a little bit of that though, this time two friends from Sweden have been playing with us.

Isn’t it a nightmare trying to rehearse with so many band members? Yeah, it’s a nightmare to do anything! On Tuesday it took, like, thirty minutes just to get everyone to just walk up these stairs and sit down and do an interview. So if it’s that hard when everyone’s together in the same place to just move to another room, you can imagine what it’s like to try and schedule a practice! But it’s all worth it because when we play it’s a lot of fun, it’s like being at a party with all your friends.

How did you guys go about getting signed? Did you approach them or were you doing your own thing and then someone saw you? 20

Moshi Moshi, one of the guys that runs it, Stephen, he put out Architecture in Helsinki records and Architecture in Helsinki were like, this band are really great you’ve got to listen to them. So he listened to us way back when we just had demos and he was interested but he was like, ‘not quite’. Then he kept talking to us sporadically for several years and when we finally recorded our album he was like, ‘I hear you’re recording your album, let me hear it’ so we sent it to him and he was like, ‘alright, let’s do it!’ So it was good. They’re a really good label.

I also saw that you refer to yourselves as ‘hamjamming’... is that just a jamming ethos or something else?

We have this band guru type of thing, which is [a] hippie kind of thing I guess. He designs all our album art and shirts and stuff, even writes these tour itineraries for us, with like, insane goals and stuff we have to do to keep it interesting. He made up the word ‘hamjam’ which just means like, having a really wild, good time basically, and we decided we’re hamjam music. I guess we could call ourselves a party band.

Who are your influences? Pavement I think are a big influence of yours? I don’t think musically we sound like them at all. When I was growing up, they were one of my favourite bands ever, their attitude to stuff had a big influence on me. The easy way to describe it is like,

what Still Flyin’ is all about, just really absurd, funny things, you know? I mean that is just hilarious, and he seems like a really funny guy to hang out with.

The alternative scene is very different in America to how it is here. I mean, bigger bands like The Killers mention how they make it big in England before they do in America. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know. I think for a band like Still Flyin’ we’re very... it’s easy for people to be too cynical about a band like us that’s so positive and fun and happy, they’ll be like, ‘what is this shit?’ In America, people are like more, I think they just can’t let themselves go. We’re a dance party band where people dance. We play in San Francisco, our hometown, where all of our friends are there, but there are a lot of people at shows who stand completely still and we always say those are the worst because they just don’t do anything. Then we go and play in Australia and the people are going crazy at our shows and that’s so much fun. I think in certain countries in Europe and definitely Australia, they just don’t care and they’re ready to have a good time no matter what. We’re the opposite of this pretentious band, we’re silly and stupid. In Australia they really get behind it.

the slacker thing, I don’t think that we’re slackers or they are but it’s the whole thing and the sense of humour that they have going about stuff left a big impression on me. And I really love their music a lot.

So if they don’t directly influence your music, what artists do?

Erm, well, I would say a lot of like, cheesy 80s people influence us now. At first it was reggae, but now it’s like the cheesy 80s, like Lionel Richie, Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue, stuff like that. I wanted to make songs with a feelgood vibe, like Matthew Wilder that anybody could get into. Not necessarily that cool, but you hear it on the radio and you’re like, ‘oh yeah, this song!’ We’re always changing and one of the goals I have is never to do the same thing. Not change so much that it alienates people, but so that it’s slightly new and something different. Expanding our palette basically, that’s the whole goal and so far we’ve kind of been doing that.

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would you choose?

I always say this answer but I guess it’s true... we want Matthew McConaughey to play bongos with us. That’s the ultimate goal.

Ha! While he’s high, sitting in some random person’s bedroom? Yeah, not a lot of people know that story! That’s

When I first heard your music I got such a sense of fun, there’s so much energy. And then I watched the video for ‘Ghost Town’, which is brilliant. Did you come up with that? Thanks. No, actually most of our videos I do come up with the basic idea and the concept but for this one, there’s one person in the band, her name is Isabelle, she makes videos and does animation and stuff for a living and so she makes all of our videos. That was all her idea and it turned out awesome. Earlier today we were making our new video and I came up with the basic idea.

Where were you filming that?

Just in a loft space that a friend of ours has. It’s like, black, and we’re gonna have animation in it, kind of like green screen kind of stuff. But it’s all stop motion with our faces when we’re singing, like Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’. We weren’t really going for it but now it’s sort of turned out like that and it’s gonna be really good.

What single is that for?

It’s a new song, we have a new EP coming out over here in September and it’s a song called ‘Bullriff’. It’s good, I’m excited to see what people think of the new stuff.

Is it quite similar to the stuff on your current album? No, there’s more keyboards and electronic drums and percussion instead of bongos, and a lot less horns. What horns there are, they’re really

processed so you can’t even tell they’re horns. But it’s still us, it’s still Still Flyin’, it’s just like I was saying earlier, we wanna change every time.

What are three songs you wish you’d written?

Oooh that’s a good question, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one! Honestly, I would wish I’d written Under Pressure. (Long pause) What A Fool Believes by Michael McDonald and Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder.

Do you do any cover songs?

We’ve covered Young Turks by Rod Stewart which was awesome. So awesome in fact that we played it and the crowd started screaming ‘again!’ immediately after we’d finished playing, so we had to do it again.

Really? That’s incredible. Where was that?

In San Francisco, at our Halloween show, they were really drunk. That’s about it. There’s so many of us that it’s really hard to decide as there’ll always be some people like, ‘that song, I hate that song!’, and we don’t wanna force someone to play a song they don’t like, so we can never decide on covers. Another drawback to having so many people in the band.

What’s next for you guys? Obviously the EP, but what are you doing before then?

We’re going to write some more songs in the summer and work on those and probably record in the fall. Touring in Europe in September, UK and Europe. I don’t know... I guess that’s it. That’s not that much but I guess we’re taking it easy a little bit.

Words: Chantelle Pattemore

The Bewitched Hands... are French, they side-step pigeon holes like Fred Astaire and they happen to be quite brilliant. CDX sat down with the band to find out what makes them tick.

Hey there TBHOTTOOH! That’s quite the acronym you’ve got there! You’ve got to tell us where that name came from.

Actually, “The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads” was the name of Benjamin’s initial solo project. It quickly became our band’s name because we loved the way it sounded and we thought it perfectly suited our band’s state of mind; it had long words and there were many of us. Plus we were looking for a psychedelic-oriented name. We also liked the idea of bewitchery and how music can somehow put a spell on you.

There’s an impressive six of you in the band. Can you tell us a little about how you formed and ended up so many.

Some of us have been friends for a long time and we’d never actually played together before. When we began, some of us were seriously involved in other musical projects. So this band was a recreative project for most of us, we wanted to have fun and sing altogether... and we thought the public could be somehow receptive to that. One night at a bar in Reims, we were all playing together in an improvised way. We surprised ourselves by the power of the sound we made! We then decided to turn this improvised essay into a real band whilst keeping this specific state of mind. That’s pretty much why they are so many of us in the Bewitched Hands.

The title track on your debut Hard To Cry EP is a sprawling five and a half minutes of varying influences and styles. There’s a lot of comparisons to be made from the likes of Arcade Fire though to Spiritualized. Who are your main influences as a band?

It’s a difficult question to answer. We have listened to a lot of things, from sixties pop to nineties indie rock as well as electronic music. Yet we never used to refer to one or several bands in particular. We began the band on a folk basis, with folk guitars and vocal harmonies, and we progressively added other influences, an indie rock energy, some eighties sounds... We’d like the band to be a reflection, or a synthesis, of things we love in music. We don’t limit ourselves about that.

On the counter to Hard to Cry the two remaining tracks, Out Of Myself and I’m Slim, barely break the three and a half minute mark combined. Quite a pop contrast! You seem hard to pin down when it comes to style! In fact, we don’t ask ourselves those sort of questions as some songs are very simple, carried by the evidence of their own melody. It’s natural for us to make them short. Other songs tend to evaluate, put the listener in a particular ambience which needs to be developed. These are two very different approaches, but it’s important for us to conciliate them. On the EP, the contrast is indeed very pronounced.

If you say “French band” to someone they’re more than likely to bring to mind the likes of Gainsbourg, Air or Daft Punk. It tends to be those in Sweden and Denmark that are championing the indie-rock sound of the continent. Are you hoping to change that perception?

The difference between us and bands like Daft Punk or Air, is that these are identified like French bands, with a French sound, a French identity. Air’s musical aesthetic is influenced by Gainsbourg,

Polnareff or Michel Colombier, and Daft Punk is associated with what was called the “French touch” of electronic music. I don’t think it’s the case for us, I don’t think there are a lot of French references in our music, it’s more American-oriented, even if it’s not deliberate from us. It’s a fact that bands like Air, Daft Punk or Phoenix have contributed to export French music and paved the way for bands like us. Yet indeed, we don’t correspond to the “French band” image... Are we hoping to change that perception? Of course, but above that, we appreciate playing behind people who simply love our music, without wondering where we come from.

With the comparisons that people might make to scene in Canada and the USA how do you think you’re nationality sets you apart from those bands?

When we record and when we play, we don’t compare ourselves to other bands and we don’t ask ourselves a lot of questions about our nationality, except about language. Few of us really speak English, and our lyrics are sometimes more phonetical than carried with a real meaning. But as I said before, we often played for people who don’t really care about that.

You’ve recently been touring pretty hard, including supporting Iggy and the Stooges and a number of festival shows in Europe and the USA. As a relatively new band how have you found such a tough touring schedule?

Apart from the fact we are helped by some very competent people who find gigs for us, we can say that it’s a kind of vicious circle which started during the Transmusicales festival in Rennes at the end of 2008: we play, we are noticed by bookers, who decide to have us play at other festivals and so on.

Are there any plans for more releases in the near future? An album in the works?

Our first album is recorded, it will be released in October. We’ll go on tour then, whilst keeping on writing new songs, perhaps for the next album.

You say it’s Hard To Cry. What was the last thing that made you cry?

Last june, when Pete Qualife, the Kink’s bass player, passed away in a general indifference. I didn’t really cry but I was definitely sad.

Who’s your favourite witch and why?

For me it’s Samantha from “Ma Sorcière BienAimée” (Bewitched), because I loved the sitcom when I was a child, and sometimes I’d like to be able to disappear simply by moving my nose. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

Chantelle Pattemore catches up with Reading-based trio The Colours to talk the 80s, record companies and Deal or No Deal... How did you guys meet and form the band?

We met about 4 years ago as we were all pursuing different musical careers. Tom P was a singer/ songwriter writing and performing songs around Reading and London. He also wrote songs under a pseudonym for a couple of acts around the time we met, though he hasn’t yet revealed these yet though to the wider public! Tony had been teaching drums since he left school and been drum tech-ing for a couple of session bands. It is something he still does when the band is not writing or performing for extra money. Tom N had started work with a studio in Reading with local producer Raphael Ponnudorai who taught him his way round a studio. After working for a year with Raphael, Tom started producing himself with mostly local acts. However, a chance recording session with Reading band ‘Zoot Woman’ helped make a proper name for himself. In late 2004 a meeting at Tom’s studio with a band comprising of Tony’s drumming and a song written by Tom P, the band first played together after the keys player and bassist failed to show. The rest, as they say, is history.

I’m introducing your music to a friend. What should I tell them about you? Tell them ‘come and see them live’. We have always prided ourselves on a great live show that comprises of a tight theatrical performance. We sound like all the good bands from Britain over the last 40 years so there is a good chance your friend would like what they hear.

Who are your biggest influences and how do they affect your work?

Our biggest influences are bands we love and their music but also the way they conduct themselves on stage and in the studio. This means bands like Radiohead and the Beatles will always be influential but we can also finds things to admire about JLS, Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West. It may sound unlikely when you hear our music but we can be influenced by pretty much anything.

Your songs have quite an 80’s sound to them. Is this intentional and if so, why do you feel it

was such an important time in music?

The 80’s seemed to be another good decade to experiment with music and sounds so if that’s what you mean then yes, we are influenced by them. Musically though we have elements of all decades as far as I am concerned so we wouldn’t see ourselves as 80’s revivalists or anything. It is more likely that we copied what we heard from bands that themselves copied from the 80’s!

You’re currently unsigned after parting ways with your record label. Do you feel that it’s integral to your future success to get resigned straight away, or are you happier with the creative freedom that being unsigned often allows?

No we don’t, it is far more important to write and record on your own as much as possible off your own back. The money and distribution is important from a record label but nowadays you do need to be more inventive when it comes to releasing your music. The internet obviously is a great tool for this and it is very possible to gather a fan base using that method.

Talk us through a typical day in the life of The Colours. Are you a full time band or still working on the side?

There is no typical day as we are always doing different things. We do have part time jobs to keep us afloat but we do earn what we can from live dates. These in turn have funded most expenses that the band throws up.

What’s next for the band? An album release? Yes, we will be releasing a new album early 2011. It will be finished by Christmas of this year so expect to hear a snippet or two on our MySpace (www. myspace.com/thecoloursreading).

Three songs you wish you’d written are... After the Goldrush - Neil Young Love Machine - Girls Aloud White Christmas - Bing Crosby

Finally, tell us something nobody knows about the band. We are addicted to Deal or no Deal.

Words: Chantelle Pattemore

2010 sees Indietracks’ fourth year of all things indiepop and steam trains at the Butterly Rainway Centre. CDX caught up with festival orgainiser Stuart MacKay.

et’s be honest, who doesn’t like a bit of indiepop? Boys and girls who don’t take playing their instruments too seriously but do have a keen ear for a tune and a good time. And while we’re at it, who doesn’t like a little train action? No, not the sort of experience where the wrong kind of snow on the track leaves your train cancelled or where you find yourself squeezing into a hot tube only to find out that the person next to you overslept this morning so had to skip a shower. I’m talking about massive, old fashioned trains with huge steam engines, a man in a flat cap at the front shoveling coal and those private rooms as seen on A Lady Vanishes or the end of Trading Places. The Indietracks Festival is now in its fourth year and continues to grow. This year the line-up features well known acts like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Slow Club, The Primitives, Love Is All, Allo’ Darlin and Ballboy along side a raft of lesser-known, hand-picked

indiepop tallent. As well as all this music across four stages (including a tiny old church, a train shed and an actual moving steam train) there’s a host of crafts, steam train rides through the Derbyshire countryside and discos from the likes of How Does It Feel To Be Loved? and Feeling Gloomy to entertain the masses. Ahead of this year’s festival Culturedeluxe’s Mathew Parri Thomas caught up with festival organiser Stuart Mackay to talk about, well, trains and indiepop!

Hey Stuart! The marriage of indie pop and steam trains isn’t an obvious one. How did the idea for Indietracks come about?

It was laziness really. I was travelling a lot to get to gigs and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have the bands come here instead?” I happened to be living/ working at the railway at the time, and worked out how to make it happen.

Having been to the previous two Indietracks you can definitely see that the festival is growing, both in terms of attendance and stature (like the upgrade from a curtainside lorry stage to a proper outdoor rig). Would you ever consider moving if you outgrew the Midland Railway Centre?

Yes and no. I don’t think we’ll ever outgrow the place, and I wouldn’t want it any bigger, but I have thought about moving for other reasons.

Last year’s event saw the outdoor stage curated by Spain’s Elefant Records. Are there any other collaborations or special bit and bobs in the works for this year? Nothing planned, sadly! We did consider asking another label, but didn’t want it to become a yearly feature.

Other than some of the best indiepop around, what else can people expect from the festival?

I’m sure we get a lot of our good reputation from the crowd, it’s allegedly one of the friendliest festivals around. And many people are fascinated by the steam trains, thay take a break from watching the bands on the green, church or loco shed and have a chuff down the line watching a band play in the luggage car.

Who are you most looking forward to on this year’s line-up and, apart from the big hitters like Pain of Being Pure at Heart and Slow Club, are there any smaller bands that can’t be missed? I’ll be absent from organiser’s duties to watch Be Like Pablo and Antarctica Takes It!

If, next year, you could have any three bands you liked to headline who would they be?

Find out when we announce next year’s bands! But next year may be different. I’d like to scale down the headliners – dealing with booking agents means the handful of big hitters takes about ten times as much work as the other 60 bands combined.

The indiepop / twee scene seems to be going from strength to strength at the moment, with club nights such as Baby Honey doing well and the likes of the Fortuna Pop! label championing renascence of the C86 sound. Is the twee world at a risk of the commercial cash in? Are we about to see a new range of twee fashion alongside the pre-faded Led Zeppelin t-shirts in Topman? I’d expect there to some more interest next year if there’s media hype on the 25th anniversary of C86. But not much beyond that.

What other festivals are you going to this year?

None, I’m not a festival person. I hate the mud and miles of trekking between stages (and when you get there you can’t get in or can’t see) and the overinflated prices. But do Popfest’s count? They’re great for finding bands for indietracks (festivals aren’t). I’ve been to the London and San Francisco ones this year, and I’m helping organise the Edinburgh one in October. I’d planned to go to Athens (Georgia) but a friend decided to get married that weekend. Oh and New England hopefully, it’s definitely a favourite.

Given the opportunity to do a one-off, special Indietracks would it be on the Trans-Siberian Railway or The Orient Express?

I’m not an airs and graces person so that would rule out The Orient Express. The Trans-Siberian sounds like much more of an adventure. There may be a one-off indietracks special adventure next year, but we’ll stick to running within the UK. The indietracks Mystery Tour will take passengers to a mystery railway to see mystery bands. But whether I’ll find time to organise it is a mystery!

Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

We need to be able to give something back to the artists who make everything happen.

How active will you be in the day to day running of the site?

united is a new community website that is aiming to reignite the music business by allowing up and coming independent talent to make a name for themselves in an industry that is becoming increasingly tough on artists trying to break through. Founded by Midge Ure the site aims to give these independent artists a level playing field by allowing them to create and promote their own music as well as receiving 100% of the profit for each download that they sell. The main aspects that Tunited seeks to embrace are: Create, Community, Promote and Listen. Create incorporates the music and design creation software, that comes free with Tunited. This can help artists to create their own music, upload their existing catalogue or create designs for album covers. Community is the social element of the site. Artists can team up to make virtual bands, share ideas or artwork and fans can discuss bands they’ve discovered or already love. Promote covers news, interviews, online concerts, and fantastic opportunities for advice and feedback from industry experts, A&Rs and producers. Listen is where you can enjoy all the music that Tunited offers, with charts to show which artists are most popular within each musical genre. The site is still currently in its beta stage but you can keep up to date with all of the goings on ahead of the official launch by visiting the blog (www.tunite.com/ blog) or the Twitter page (http://twitter.com/tunited). I was lucky enough to be able to have a chat with Midge ahead of the website’s launch as well as being given exclusive access to the site in its beta stage. First up, the interview:

When did you come up with the idea for Tunited?

I came up with the idea for the site a few years ago now. It seemed that there was a gaping hole waiting to be filled by something like this that gives independent artists a chance to get themselves heard and more importantly to get paid for their music. People expect to get their music for free now and it’s damaging the artists at the bottom of the ladder. I remember sitting in the office of the record label I’m with ten years ago when Napster came out, asking them what they were going to do about it and they said they weren’t going to do anything and no-one would be interested in it. Then a couple of years later the topic came up again and their response was to buy it because it had become that much of a threat!

I’ll be fairly active with the site. It’s my baby so I’m not just going to sit on an idea for a few years and then walk away as soon as it gets going. I won’t be having anything to do with the design of the site, I don’t have that kind of mind, but I’ll still be involved with the day to day running of it, interacting with the bands and people on there and so on.

Do you think there’s more pressure for this to do well because you’re involved?

No I don’t think so. I think this idea had to come from a musician because only a musician can really appreciate how tough it is to get started and I know all the things that they’re looking for, like promotion, like being able to get paid for their music. I don’t think it would really have made a difference who was involved. If the site works then it works regardless.

What do you think Tunited can offer that services like Facebook, Myspace and Spotify can’t?

I think the main thing is that they focus on the music being free and on more of a social side, which is great for the fans but not so great for the artists. With Tunited the artists get paid every time one of their songs is streamed, not only when it’s downloaded. We’ll also give them one hundred percent of the profit from these instead of the twenty or thirty percent they’d be getting from a record company. There’s also the software that we have available for them to download, for free, to help them to make music and upload it on to the site.

The launch was supposed to be early this year, have there been any teething problems?

Oh there have been huge problems. Huge problems. I mean we’re doing all of this from the inside looking out and there are so many different areas that need to work with each other. We might do something and then someone else will point out that it doesn’t work with another area and we’ll have to start it again. There’s also the fact that we don’t know how the public’s going to react to it. What we might think is great they might hate, which is why we’ve got it in a beta phase at the moment.

People will be getting excited about the various different aspects of the site but what excites you the most? I think it’s just being able to discover all of these new bands that you might not otherwise get to hear. You look at the radio industry these days and you’ll get maybe around 70-80 songs that seem to get played on repeat every day. There’s a panel who decide what songs to put on to the radio playlists and they think that that can speak for the general

public but who are they to say what the public want to hear? I wouldn’t say that we’re necessarily being spoon fed our music because it’s always been like that but it’s not natural to be told what to listen to.

People are saying that the internet is ruining music but do you think with sites like this that it could end up being the best thing to ever happen to it?

I hope so. I remember back in the Seventies when cassettes first became widely available and everyone was up in arms because people were taping songs of the radio. It was supposed to be the end of the music industry because everyone could tape their favourite songs for free but it wasn’t! Nothing happened, people still went out and bought albums and it’s the same now. Hopefully with sites like Tunited we can balance out the negative effects that the internet is having on music as the potential that it has is really very exciting.

Now, on to the exciting bit; the site itself. Tunited has an eye catching front page with easy to follow tabs and it seems to be an amalgamation of all the very best bits of other music sites out there. You have the social elements offered by Facebook or Myspace, you have the streaming and playlist elements offered by Spotify but Tunited trumps all of these with the sheer scale of what’s on offer. There are so many bands to flick through even in the beta version of the site that it’s easy to spend hours listening to a track here, a track there and so on. However, the site is giving artists money for every track that is streamed, so where does this money come from? Well, the site has implemented a unique a pay-as-you-go-streaming system, which means that you’re able to listen to all the tracks for free as well as creating revenue for your favourite artists. So you’ll be given fifty credits in your ‘streaming bank’ when you join. Every time you stream a track for longer than a minute it deducts one credit from your account, so there are fifty free songs straight away! However, you can earn more

credits for free by promoting the site and artists you love by embedding a widget on Facebook or Twitter etc and then every time someone makes a purchase through your widget you earn more credits. You can also earn more credits by inviting friends to join Tunited or by splashing out and paying to download the music yourself. It’s also refreshing to see that the site specifies exactly where all of the money you spend on tracks, t-shirts, hoodies etc goes, so there is total transparency and trust from the site’s founders. There’s more than enough here to keep any music fan happy for hours, weeks, months, years even but the real winners here are, unsurprisingly, the artists themselves. The wealth of material and resources available to these independent bands is quite frankly staggering, and all for free. As mentioned earlier there are programmes that allow you to create music and artwork, or you can jump in to a rehearsal room and team up with another budding young musician to collaborate and you can then get feedback on your tracks from fans or other musicians. If you’re still struggling there are tutorials and webinars to get you started. Once you’re done you can head over to the Promote section to get expert advice on getting your music noticed by leading industry experts. It’s basically everything that a young band could possibly need to get themselves on the music business ladder and it offers them the fairest method of payment for their music. If this all sounds like a very glowing review that’s because it is. Other sites may deliver individual aspects better but as a whole Tunited is miles ahead of anything else out there at the moment. It is the fusion of all these different aspects, as well as the unique advantages that it gives to independent musicians that makes me confident that Tunited will grow and grow and may possibly change the way we view the music industry for good. Words: Adam Gibby

or a venue with a reputation of being small, hot and sweaty it was with some anticipation that I approached the Camden Barfly on a gloriously hot summer’s day — especially seeing as the headlining Californian four-piece had managed to shift all available tickets for their London show. However, on entering the Barfly for the first time in God knows how long I learn that they’ve now got air conditioning. If I’m honest, I was a little disappointed.

Dry The River

First to grace the stage in front of no more than a score of the yet-to-arrive capacity crowd were Dry The River. The rather unassuming five-piece tick all the boxes that might get them lumped into the horrendously overpopulated and increasingly derivative “London nu-folk scene”: a violin, lots of melody and buckets of harmonies. This would be selling the band short. Throughout a set plagued by technical mishaps (broken snare skin, faulty DI box, stinking head colds) the band managed to charm the assembled audience with a sometimes woozy and delicate, sometimes rousing and fierce sound which should draw more comparisons to the like of Grizzly Bear than Mumford and co. All late comers really missed.

Jonquil

Jonquil and their myriad of instruments and percussion stood in front of a now growing crowd. Knowing the name but not the sound I was interested to see what was going to happen with the assembled collection of noise making fun. There’s no denying that Jonquil are party band. Calypso percussion, dancing keyboard lines and wired drumming being the order of the day, the influence of the arty math rock of Foals is bolstered by the bassist’s t-shirt. While the crowd seemed happy the novelty wore off pretty quickly for me. My biggest disappointment is that when I watch a party band, well, I want them to party. Aside from a little shuffling and head nodding Jonquil seemed far to preoccupied with threading together intricate guitar lines and rhythm patterns

than enjoying themselves. Not bad but also not convinced. Yet.

The Morning Benders

In a now packed Barfly — complete with pockets of teenage girls ready to swoon at the sight of Chris Chu — The Morning Benders arrive as the house lights went dark. Opening with the slow-burning brood of Stitches Chu and his band assert their intent from the outset: lots of reverb, lots of noise and lots of feeling. Throughout a set which featured only material from their current Big Echo LP (bar a slightly out of place cover of New Order’s Ceremony) the band where at their strongest when airing the more down-tempo, hazy, reverb-soaked moments from their sophomore effort. With Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor on production duties on the record it’s a credit to the band that they can recreate that feeling and sound on stage. It’s the record’s more upbeat moments that failed here, tracks like Excuses, Promises and Cold War lacked the feeling that they require to succeed and Chu’s vocal, while good on record, lacks any power on stage. The biggest let down of the night was Chu himself. It’s no secret that The Morning Benders are his band but tonight we were treading close to the “Chris Chu Show”. With constant affirmation required from the audience and little interaction with his fellow band mates a little humility wouldn’t have gone a miss. As much as the performance was good the edge was taken off it by the size of our front man’s ego taking over. As much as this was a solid performance, Chu’s self-assurance tarnished what could have been one to remember. He’s backed by three very competent band members who deserve as much praise as him not only from the crowd but Chu himself. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

Morning Benders Jonquil Dry The River

Where: Camden Barfly When: 01.07.2010

Kula Shaker

Where: Garage When: 08.07.2010 The Indian chanting over the PA means only one thing to this crowd of thirty somethings – the return of Kula Shaker. An unfeasibly young looking Crispian Mills adorns the stage with military jacket and floppy hair as if the noughties never happened. Or the 70s and 80s for that matter. Launching into The Sound of Drums, the crowd releases a collective sigh of relief at the averted danger of the perils a reunion gig and the loud cheer at the comment that this was a return to the scene of an early gig with the Presidents of the United States of America suggests this is not an audience of new fans. The old gang of Mills, bassist Alonza Bevan and drummer Paul Winterhart have now been joined by Julian Barrett lookalike Harry Broadbent on keyboards. Broadbent replaced original keyboardist Jay Darlington, who declined to join the 2008 reunion for third album Strangefolk, deciding he’d had enough of retro ways and joined, oh, Oasis...

Perhaps it’s the enthusiasm of the performance but there is more energy in the new songs than captured on the new mellow sounding album, Pilgrim’s Progress. Modern Blues prompts plenty of foot shuffling from the now sweaty crowd as Mills removes his jacket to reveal a Kula Shaker t-shirt underneath. Well everyone wants a souvenir I guess. A handful of songs from the new album follows before K album track 303 gets the crowd excited and singing along with Mills enjoying it so much he briefly plays on his back before bursting into Tattva with its bonus Star Wars overture middle eight. As expected, it’s the early hits which excite the crowd. Hush has everyone moving and the encore sees an impressive singalong of Govinda, despite its entirely Sanskrit lyrics. This might be the band that time forgot but it was a hell of a good time. Now when’s TFI Friday back on? Words: Ross Park

Arcade Fire

Where: Hackney Empire When: 07.09.2010 The last time Montreal’s Arcade Fire were in London they were playing to twenty-odd thousand people over three nights at Alexandra Palace, tonight, hot on the heels of anticipated new album ‘The Suburbs’ the eight piece band take to the stage at the grandiose and historic Hackney Empire to a large applause from the small and dedicated audience who have waited nearly three years for the Canadians to come back to this part of the world. Holding nothing back, the band who had prior to the gig admitted the recent tour of smaller and more intimate venues was planned as a chance to road test the new material and warm themselves up for their upcoming festival appearances throughout Europe (including an headline slot at this year’s Reading & Leeds festivals), head straight into the aptly titled new song and stomping rocker ‘Ready To Start’ followed swiftly by another new song ‘Modern Man’, this early one-two punch from the new album was not only a brave move but also placed the bands intentions firmly on their sleeve, they are proud of the new songs and they want people to hear them. Understandably the most enthusiastic responses of the night come when the band dip into their back catalogue and it’s not long before they treat fans with some of their classic material as ;Laika’, ‘No Cars Go’ and a stunning version of ‘Haiti’ are aired early on before the band delve into more new stuff, including recent single ‘The Suburbs’ which showcases the more stripped back feel that many of the new songs on show tonight have, its clear the band have taken a step back from the huge bombastic sound of Neon Bible and many of the new songs seem to have a more direct and visceral approach, this is also reflected in the new live set up, gone are the horn section and huge organs from the Neon Bible tour, instead we have a more basic approach, though many of the new songs now

feature two drummers, you do get the feeling this is a concerted effort to get away from the big expansive sound from the previous album which did find some criticism in retrospective reviews. Most importantly the band seemed in great spirit and goaded on by a very jovial and enthusiastic crowd in the stunning Hackney Empire, front man Win Butler finds the time for plenty of between song banter and even dives into the crowd at the end of another new song ‘We Used To Wait’, but the real highlight of the night came when the band stepped back onto the stage for a breathtaking four song encore which included a ragged version of ‘Crown of Love’ (which wasn’t on the setlist), ‘Tunnels’ which had everyone dancing and singing along, ‘Keep The Car Running’ and ending on a spine tingling version of ‘Wake Up’, a song that seems to get every single person in the whole theatre on their feet, hands in the air singing along to every word and harmony before the song breaks down into a Motown inspired dance beat that gets everyone of the people with their arms previously in the air, dancing around like a drunken uncle at a wedding, and as the shot on the big screen behind the band pans around the audience there isn’t a face in the crowd that isn’t beaming with delight. Arcade Fire are a band that can do that to you live, it’s like being in attendance at a mid western evangelical sermon at times and the interaction between crowd and band is an integral and poignant part of their performance which many a band just can’t do, I leave Hackney with a huge smile on my face surrounded by a sea of similar faces and wake up the next morning still buzzing from the gig, which is the biggest compliment I can give any band. Words: Kevin Burgess

The Middle East

Where: Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush When: 13.07.2010 They’re a strange band The Middle East. Formed and based in the imaginatively named Townsville, Australia five years ago, they’re a five-, six-, seven-, or sometimes even eight-headed beast with a personality disorder. As they took to the stage, the sold out crowd desperately fanning themselves with whatever flyer came to hand, the erupting noise confirmed that this was going to be a home gig on foreign soil. In their five years together as a band The Middle East have surprisingly only released one full length album, The Recordings Of The Middle East, and an abridged version of the album released as The Recording Of The Middle East EP (the latter being my only experience of the band). While on the EP the songs are tempered and lush, with the delicately picked guitars and close harmonies being matched by waves of noise and snarling guitars, the live Middle East flit between barndance and pin-drop silence — seemingly at will. At one turn it’s all hand clapping, foot stomping fun and, at the next, the band has the audience so quiet you can hear the hum of the air conditioning that the sweat coating your body would deny had ever been installed.

With three members taking turns on lead vocals it comes as no surprise that the close harmonies that go a long way to defining the band’s sound were on the money throughout. Add to this an ever changing line up of bass, accordion, drums, rain stick thing, percussion, keys, mandolin, banjo, guitars and tambourines it becomes exhausting to work out who actually does what. The one key thing though, no matter what instrument was in hand, They. Fucking. Love it. That kind of enthusiasm matched equally by the material — the band pulling from what feels like a back catalogue of about five albums for over an hour — is surely all anyone is looking for from a live show. As the band closed with the sing-a-long favourite of Blood one thing became clear: The Middle East you hear on record aren’t the Middle East you see on stage. Live the band has more country sensibilities, more power, more enthusiasm. When it gets loud it gets really loud; when they want things quiet over half of the band are more than happy to walk off stage. All this is to their credit. While tonight may have been a home gig on foreign soil, it was definitely an away win. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Where: Heaven When: 29.07.2010

Situated underneath Charing Cross station Heaven is generally better known for its status as London’s uber gay club than a place to see the latest, hot indie band on the block. However, if they keep putting on gigs of this calibre (they have hosted other gigs by the likes of The Strokes & the Mark E Smith fronted Von Sudenfed) then maybe their one-scene-only reputation could easily change as they challenge the likes of Islington’s Garage for the title of ‘best-small-to-medium-sizedLondon-music-venue’. The grestest thing about Heaven is the ability to wander down the left-hand corridor then peer at the bands from different view points thanks to various alcoves conveniently placed throughout the venue. These I used to my advantage whilst ‘up and coming band of the moment that are not the Drums’ Yuck perform their new take on late eighties shoegazing. The layout of the venue made sure I managed to view the three guy, one girl set up from many different angles. Now bassists aren’t meant to be sexy, they are meant to look more like Yuck’s drummer, fuzzy of hair and large in build, however I feel I have to mention that Mariko, the band’s goddess of the four string plank makes for one diverting spectacle. Unfortunately due to being transfixed by said bassist’s swaying movements I cannot remember if the band hypnotic, noise was actually any good, however they

did end their set in a wall of feedback which is always welcome. TPoBPaH arrive on stage with little fanfare, ploughing straight into This Love is Fucking Right sounding a lot tighter than a band with their shambolic influences should. They then follow this up with a set made up almost entirely of their debut LP. This is a good thing and Teenager In Love, Come Saturday, The Tenure Itch & Stay Alive are all trotted out, mirroring the albums sound perfectly. On-stage moves consist entirely of vocalist/guitarist Kip Berman swaying back and forth in front of the mike, Peggy Wang shaking her locks, fraggle rock style behind her keyboard whilst the rest of the band remain pretty static. Banter is also kept to a minimum with the occasional remark from either singer or keyboardist, which due to their slight voices, are hardly audible. They encore with a fine new song Just Like Heaven before closing the night with Gentle Sons leaving the appreciative packed crowd, exiting into the warm summer night, more than happy. So Heaven is a place in earth which doesn’t only just serve the pink pound. More of the above type of gigs would be welcome and then maybe the venue could become as well known for it’s gig nights as it is for it’s gay nights. Words: Nick Foster

The Silent League (with Maps), Common Prayer Where: Upstairs at The Garage, London When: 22.07.2010

The brothers Russo have been playing together for many many years now. Starting in Hopewell, moving on to Mercury Rev and now settling on their own projects (thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be The Silent League and Common Prayer) the pair have been in each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s musical company from the beginning. Touring the country together, CDX went down to see the pair in London, camera in hand.

Cultruredeluxe was also lucky enough to sit down with the brothers Russo after the gig for an exclusive brother vs brother interview. Look out fort that next month. 45

RockNess

Where: Loch Ness When: 11-13.06.2010

the likes of Plastikman, Benny Benassi and, oh, himself – naturally.

The compact arena is split into a number of different stages, from what may be the world’s first breakbeat beer garden hosted by the likes of Freestylers and High Contrast to the classic structure of the Main Stage. The latter plays host to a series of chartbothering acts during the weekend including a Friday night double header of Friendly Fires (who delight with a closing triumvirate of ‘Climb Aboard’, ‘Paris’ and the much-loved “a new one from our next album”) and a return slot for original 2006 headliner Fatboy Slim who rolls out a crowd-pleasing if somewhat innocuous DJ set featuring

Entertainment on the same stage the following day comes somewhat slower and smoother with an afternoon slot by acoustic rapper turned R n B swinger Plan B. This career-saving move now sees a smartly suited Mr B flanked on stage by a soul outfit where once he stood awkward and alone clutching a guitar and, more importantly, no longer afraid to prove to the world that this boy can sing. Recent sales back this up and he’s perfect fodder for modern festivals, switching effortlessly from cod-big band to cod-reggae with no more than an eyebrow raise – and when he does have to call on his back catalogue, he opts intelligently for a dubstep remix. One man who knows nothing about career progression is Ian Brown, standing on the same stage that last year hosted The Complete Stone Roses and is, sadly, less convincing than even they were as he drawls through ‘Fools Gold’ for the nth time. Nobody doubts his rock star credentials nor his place at the top table of ‘top indie geezers’ nor that girls young enough to be his grand-daughters in the front row want to make love to him, but his voice goes from

elebrating a half decade in business, RockNess has successfully grown into arguably Scotland’s greatest annual festival. Once more boasting a bill both eclectic and eminent, thousands of music fans descended upon Clunes Farm by the banks of Loch Ness keen, if not to see the fabled monster, then certainly to experience a monster weekend. Dressed variously in unlawfully short shorts, outrageous sunglasses and the odd mankini, this was a crowd unfazed by low temperatures and bursts of seasonal showers – or at least one that wasn’t shy about warming themselves up through a copious intake of alcohol.

bad to worse. Forget a new low today during ‘Corpses in their Mouths’ – Brown’s own vocal chords died years ago. And speaking of living off former glories, Leftfield close the stage on Saturday with a perfect study into nineties dance music revisiting the ageless ‘Song of Life’, the still brooding ‘Original’ and closing proceedings with the thunderous roll of ‘Phat Planet’ with plenty more picks from ‘Leftism’ and ‘Rhythm and Stealth’ in between. Who knows if the reunion will bear new fruit, but the evidence suggests the live show has lost none of its bite. Sunday kicked off with the highly-rated Kirkintilloch act Pearl and the Puppets and the bright, enthusiastic smile of singer Katie Sutherland attempting to rouse a bleary-eyed rabble sheltering from the rain under a medley of corporate pack-a-macs – which is fitting given that PATP sound like pretty much every whimsical, indie-folk advert on TV just now. Those who, unlike my companion, did not complain that the saccharine pop was making them feel sick will no doubt be looking forward to the act’s appearances at a number of upcoming Scottish festivals this year. Also likely to be making their presence felt on various stages up North are the ever-stupidly-monikered Dananananaykroyd – an act having more collective fun on stage than the entire audience, a fact they make abundantly clear through a series of surly addresses. Their (now slightly musty) self-styled ‘fight pop’, twin vocal onslaughts and jokes about Aleister Crowley (which go way over the crowd’s head) do not endear them to the uninitiated, but they do pretty much make one pre-teen boy’s day as he pogos furiously to the left of the stage. From small acorns…. Speaking of the awkward sounds of yesteryear, The Maccabees are up next. Audibly they do not seem to have progressed much beyond 2007, but they have added a horn section which I guess gives them more retro-Britpop kudos than a selection of songs that make The Kooks look macho by comparison ever will. Of course, it’s difficult to dismiss them – they are very accomplished musicians – but something with a bit of edge really wouldn’t go amiss. Which is why we have to hand over to a band with a collective

age approaching a millennia: the eternal-youth-pop of Blondie. It’s true that Chris Stein has virtually completed his metamorphosis into Andy Warhol and that Debbie Harry’s sultry saunter onto the stage could have just been due to the absence of a good zimmer, but the band’s driving pop-punk grooves and graffiti stage set eloquently transport the audience way back before most of them were born to 1979 New York when the band were mere whippersnappers in their early thirties. The set is made up of both classic hits and new material with Debbie dedicating ‘Maria’ to all the ladies in the crowd (presumably in the hope they’d help her ailing voice with that deceptively operatic chorus). There’s ‘Atomic’, there’s ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, there’s even a cheeky insertion of Muse’s ‘Uprising’ in ‘Call Me’ and a cover of Taio Cruz’s ‘Break Your Heart’. Who says they’re not down with the kids, eh? Of course, Rockness is primarily a dance music festival and that means the majority of ticket-holders spent the weekend in various states of consciousness in one of the many arenas showcasing some of the best in modern dance music. These ranged from old hands such as Aphex Twin (who ruled angrily over the Clash stage on Saturday night firing random bleeps and beats in our direction as epic laser lights threatened to decapitate all but the most frenetic of dancers) to the freshest faces of all in the Bollywood tent which played host to a number of competition winners, many of whom gave the professionals a serious run for their money. Special mentions must also go to Andy Mack for rolling out pulsing techno while most of us were still digesting our lunches; Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip for forcing politics into the ears of young grimers via the brilliant ‘Stake a Claim’ and the Optimo boys for chucking on Bizarre Inc’s ‘Playing with Knives’ and making this writer very happy. We should also mention Parisian idiosyncratics Naïve New Beaters for injecting a much-needed dose of stupidity into their Bollywood set. Their ludicrous pop hi-jinks and badly synchronised dancing are perfect festival fayre even if playing their bizarre mix of New Young Pony Club and Black Lace at home would lead to your stereo committing suicide.

Performance of the Weekend – The Ragga Twins, Rizla Arena Now, it takes a big act, legends even, to make me miss a Soulwax gig. Step forward, or rather step out, the Ragga Twins in the Rizla Arena and celebrating twenty years as such. Many have made the journey with them too, isn’t it beautiful to see men in their fifties bopping like it was 1990? Some would say you may limit yourself by naming yourself after the music scene of the time* but luckily there’s been a long overdue resurgence of ‘old skool’ – even if it wasn’t called that then. ‘Shine Eye’ is a highlight even if the performance is robbed of Junior Reid and replaced by the brother’s somewhat off-key vocals. ‘Hooligan 69′ not only reminds us of their finest moments but also their way of punctuating their vocals with trademark chuckles. What’s most pleasing is that they haven’t simply slept for the past eighteen years since the minor hit records

ceased. This evening they rap, toast and holler over some seriously up to date drum n bass backings that effortlessly eclipse some of the records that made their name. Half way through they share their brandy with the small crowd, and it’s not like a group of firebrand Scots to pass up a free drink. Meanwhile DJ Crucial gets bored and starts scratching impatiently as, inevitably, word gets around and the arena doubles in size, mainly due to drunk Scots looking for the free booze. But it works, most stay and the Rizla arena enjoys the party atmosphere it deserves and so rarely gets. *- “In another time they could have been called The Skiffle Brothers”. Thank you to Mr Craig Cummine for this remark. Words: Richie Brown

Evolution Weekender When: 30/31.05.2010 Where: Newcastle

The Evolution Weekender 2010 encounters a drizzly start as hoards of Geordie teens snake their way between the huge puddles that litter Spillers Wharf car park, which for one weekend a year becomes the main stage arena. The thing that first struck me about Evolution was the seemingly narrow age range. On this grey, overcast morning, you’d be hard-pressed to find so much as a provisional driving license. The reason for such early arrivals of Tyneside’s finest ‘scenester’ summoning is not immediately apparent. The first couple of bands, Let’s Buy Happiness and Findlay, receive polite applause through their 40minute sets but most of the crowd seem more occupied in each other’s conversation than the stage. Then as the third band took the stage, the crowd demographic became immediately apparent. Twenty Twenty took the stage, an almost perfect Mcfly doppelganger, complete with matching fringes, annoyingly catchy pop tunes and, of course, the high-pitched squeal of the pre-pubescent fanbase. Evolution is an odd arena. Its car park location means the arena is very linear and with only one gate for both entry and exit, getting from one end of the main arena to the other can be a challenge. Throw puddles and the between-band rush into the mix and you’re essentially left with something of an assault course, complete with overpriced burger

kiosks and a Jaegermeister van, distributing garish orange neckerchiefs with gay abandon. The second stage, dubbed the Baltic Stage, is a 15-minute stroll back up the Tyne and is situated in front of the Baltic Art Gallery. Organisation at this stage is a little better, the crowd is weaned into the stage area by a complicated series of fenced-off paths that take you around and behind the gallery before you emerge onto Baltic Square and the more ‘dancey’ stage. Sunday’s lineup is dominated by every It kid’s favourite new genre, dubstep. The stage sees the likes of Filthy Dukes, Scratch Perverts and headliner Fake Blood pumping out enough rumbling subsonic basslines to loosen every colon this side of the Tyne. Upon returning to the main arena, it was comforting to see that the prospects of a Futureheads set had filled the main arena. Young and old, the crowds flocked in their hundreds to witness the North East’s finest play Evolution for the first time since the festival’s debut in 2005. A brilliant, hit-laden set, featuring tracks from new album The Chaos (Heartbeat Song and I Can Do That), has the whole crowd jumping and singing along in the distinctive Geordie accent that we love so much about bands like The Futureheads and Maximo Park. The

highlight of the set is, of course, Hounds Of Love. A track that for me, never gets old. Frontman Barry Hyde gets bonus audience interaction points for ‘The Futureheads Singing Game’, splitting the crowd down the middle to sing the acapella intro. As the band leave the stage to thundering applause, I can’t help but feel that whoever planned the festival missed a trick with The Futureheads, who deserve a far longer set than their allocated 50 minutes and a higher position in the running order. Heading uphill from the Quayside took me up to the Ballast Hills stage and the first patch of grass I’d seen since the start of the festival. The mood at this stage is far more relaxed. The stage plays host to the more acoustic side of the festival such as Scotland’s King Creosote. There’s also a circus tent full of younger festival-goers and their parents trying their hands at juggling and plate spinning, courtesy of London’s Aircraft Circus. For the older kids, there’s a chance to learn some basic skills on the trapeze and silks. I got to the tent just in time to catch the 6.30 performance by the Aircraft Circus performers themselves where, among other things, the crowd bore witness to a young trapeze artist splitting the crotch of her leggings and losing her wig and a chicken fillet bra pad, to rapturous applause and wolf-whistles. After a vast, stomach-filling tortilla wrap from a tent at Ballast Hills, I made my way back down to the main arena to catch Paolo Nutini’s headline slot. I’m a big fan of Paolo’s new jazzy direction and was keen to see if it worked live. It did,

spectacularly. Nutini hunched under the microphone in his trademark pose while a huge backing band belted out new favourites such as Coming Up Easy and the fantastic Pencil Full Of Lead while the crowd jived and boogied itself into a frenzy. It was great to see that Nutini has fully embraced his new, better, style and re-worked all the old singles. The best of these was New Shoes, which now sounds how it should have always sounded. ‘Thank you, Evolution’, Nutini says in his indiscernible Scottish mumble, before rounding off day one with a huge singalong version of Last Request, which echoes through the crowds long after Nutini has left the stage. Monday morning is, for once, bright and sunny and looks set to stay that way for the rest of the day. The cheap ponchos and sodden shoes of Sunday are replaced by shorts and sunglasses as we return for day two of Evolution 2010. On

the main stage are Everything Everything, wearing matching outfits of black skinny jeans and dress shirts. For some reason, the live setting manages to dilute Everything Everything’s catchy pop with its infectious hooks into homogenised nothingness. Next up are the angry Scots Dananananaykroyd, who throw the crate of Red Bull that hospitality has provided with them into the crowd, with the words, ‘Who likes Red Bull? Good, ‘cause we fuckin’ hate it.’ Ellie Goulding takes the stage just before 6 and after several false starts and rogue soundboards, begins a medley of songs that I can’t decide if I’m sort-ofenjoying or just tolerating. Starry Eyed goes down well with the crowd but aside from that, Miss Goulding has little impact. Curious to explore a tent I’d seen on Sunday but forgotten to visit, I headed back up to Ballast Hills. The bar here is much better too, serving real ales and nice lager, as opposed to the Carling and Strongbow of the main arenas. I then enjoyed a blissful half hour sitting on the sun in the grass, slowly enjoying a cold pint of Amstel. I even managed to catch a bit of the circus show again. The trapeze artist obviously hadn’t had time to replace her leggings and the renegade chicken fillet decided to make a second appearance, to much the same audience reaction. To the side of the main stage is a strange little tent into which 20 people disappear then re-emerge 10 minutes later. A sign outside it read ‘Live Kaleidescope Show’. Intrigued, I got in line. Inside the tent was pitch black, A French man with a torch ushered people onto tiered seating then closed the door. Music began to play and a tunnel

in front of us lit up with strange moving shapes and colours, accompanied by a rustling sound. After a few minutes, I contemplated my situation. 20 strangers were sitting in a dark tent watching a Frenchman wave his foil-covered arm around in a tunnel of mirrors and cheap laser lights. After emerging in a semi-confused state, I walked back along the Quayside to the Baltic Stage. The opening synth riff of Alt-dance headliners Delphic’s Clarion Call played across an empty stage at 10pm and the band appeared as the song dropped. The more aggressive, louder version of the album track gave the hot, tired crowd a second wind. The set continued with a fantastic sense of flow and composition, riffs overlapping riffs and songs woven in and out of each other. The band stopped only once to thank the crowd before launching into their last hurrah, the infectiously catchy Halcyon. And that was it, Evolution 2010 was over. It may have only been two days, not five, and it may have been in a car park in a city centre, not a 1000-acre site. And it may have concrete, not grass. But for all these limitations, it provides its own festival experience. It has its big headliners. It has its small local bands. And it has its Frenchman with his kaleidoscope. Words: Jack Richardson Photos: David Wala – www.davidwala.com

Back at the end of June Culturedeluxe’s Matt Fearon took himself off to Somerset with countless others for the 40 th Glastonbury festival. When he returned we asked him: “So, what was it like this year?” His reply? “I can’t remember.” We’ve salvaged these pictures from his disposable camera.

“Who was it who wanted a flag ban?! Glasto just wouldn’t be the same.”

“Happy 40 years Glastonbury, and another 40 to come!”

“The best drink for miles. Whoever these Brothers are... I have a lot to thank them for.”

“The catchy Cribs alongside the effortlessly cool Johnny Marr, performing to a sea of straw trilbies.”

“The stunning Florence & The Machine storming The Other Stage.”

“The Green Police in between loving the farm just as much as we all should.”

“Taking a break from working on that T-shirt sun tan in a bus full of... crap... obviously.”

“A vague outline of Jamie T... just”

“The sun’s about to set; the fun’s about to rise.”

“A glorious view of the site from the top of The Park, my perfect start to the day.”

Indietracks

Where: Butterly Railway Centre When: 23-25.07.2010

n many ways Indietracks is the epitome of what a festival should be. With the likes of Glastonbury and Reading booking all the big names year in year out, your mate will always come back bragging about the little band they caught at two in the afternoon over on the middle-of-fucking-nowhere stage, because even though they paid the £100,000 entrance fee to the festival they’re not there to sell out to the big names, they’re there to be a free spirit and discover the unknown. Probably. With Indietracks a voyage of discovery is pretty much your only choice (unless you’re some sort of indiepop oracle). With the weight of the “big name” tag being shouldered by just a few bands (The Primatives, Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Slow Club, Ball Boy, Allo’ Darlin and Tender Trap) the rest of the weekend is set aside for the panning of indiepop gold. There will be some bands you’ve heard of and no doubt many others you haven’t. Every now and again you’re going to discover a shiny nugget of musical gold. And that’s the fun part. Surely that’s what festivals are all about?

Arriving on site a little hot and a lot hungover, I headed straight for the shade of the Train Shed stage for the Felt Tips. This troupe of Scots were a fairly breezy start to the day and made a good attempt at blowing away the cobwebs fugging up my mind. With amusing and often uncomfortable lyrics about love and life (“The reason my mum asked if I was gay: Morrissey”) they’re like a younger, slightly less polished Ballboy -- and that’s not just because they’re Scottish. Out on the main stage La La Love you are making the sort of noise you’d expect to come from a South Park episode. Not that that is entrirely a bad thing. This Spanish band with a penchant for bubblegum punk barely speak any English, all wear pink sports jackets and have a singer with a voice not to dissimilar to Cartman. Still, they were quite brilliant and, although you’d never really listen to them in your own home, they’re a perfect festival band.

Following on the Outdoor Stage were Antartctia Takes It!, a band touted by Indietracks very own Stuart Mackay right here in CDX. He wasn’t far wrong either. The Californian’s breezy pop tunes were delivered with an infectious enthusiasm that was hard to deny. After wandering between stages for an hour or so casting an ear onto a few more unknowns and taking a nice sit down on the old steam strain carriage to sample a few of the many real ales on offer, the the sun started to set and the “bigger” bands started to appear. First up was Ballboy, with Geordie in good humour at what is surely his spiritual home: an indiepop festival. Bands are almost expected to “bang out the hits” at festivals and, after a day of listening to music and bands you’ve never heard before, a hit-heavy set would have been welcomed from Ballboy. It was disappointing then that the band decided to air only a few of their big hitters, favouring newer or brand new material. Still a solid set as expected.

Headlining the Saturday were The Primatives. Did they sound good? Yes. Was it a good performance? I guess so. Did they save Crash until the end? Well, surprisingly, no. Almost the whole festival were in attendance and, apart from a small smattering of folk, no one was really that clued up on the band’s back catalogue. Even when the opening riff of Crash rang out it was greeted with a slightly lack luster reception. I’m sure there are many who are all about The Primatives, but it seemed that most here saw them as something of the one-hit-wonder. As a headliner it felt like a slightly flat end to the day. Sunday opened with what I’m touting as my pick of the weekend: Be Like Pablo. Yet another indie band from Scotland, they were one of the few bands of the weekend that made me think “They’re a proper band.” With indiepop a lot is carried off with the charm and delivery -- the musicianship and songs playing second fiddle to the “fun”. Be Like Pablo? Proper band. Interesting use of synths.

Boy/Girl vocals. Good banter. If you’re searching for a sound-a-like then you wouldn’t be far off with something like Silver Sun, maybe with a little Weezer thrown into the mix. The Indietracks zinelike programme informs that the band are about to record an album with Brian McNeill (Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Twilight Sad). Keep ‘em peeled for that one. After a characteristically amusing set from the spinner of comedy yarns that is M J Hibbert and

the Validators (“I’d like to thank my support band The Primatives... technically they were the last band on this stage”), Sunday’s crop of bands didn’t yield much gold until Standard Fare. Over the course of their set they managed to bring me round from “No thanks” to “Yes please”, which happens rarely. At a first listen the Sheffield three-piece aren’t too easy on the ear -- mostly due to singer and bass player Emma’s less than perfect vocals. The winner though? They’ve got the tunes. As their set progressed I was won around and the crowd in

front of the stage continued to grow. Good stuff. Another find. Next came the almost double-header of headlines. First up Slow Club played to a more than appreciative crowd. Charles and Rebecca rattled through their album to everyone’s delight. The thing that surprised me most about the band is quite how accomplished they are. All banter, jokes and taking the piss in between songs but, when it came to game time, everything was spot on. They’ve blasted their way through this set time and again and you can really tell. And finally, the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Over the last couple of years the Pains... have easily been the winners of “most spotted band t shirt” at Indietracks so to have them headline is something of a coup for the festival and a real treat for all the Indietracks regulars. Kip took the stage alone to

open with Contender before the band joined him for a set full of favourites, B sides, 45s and even a few new tracks that gave me the impression that their self titled debut might actually be beatable. The band were clearly in awe of Indietracks, with so many bands, friends and label mates present, and their set was both humble and energetic. Catching the steam train after the last chords of the Pains... had rung out (it’s not often you get to say that) it occurred to me that that headline slot is going to take some beating next year. But, as mentioned, the fun of this festival is the discovery. With so many hand-picked bands to sample you’re always guaranteed to walk away with a few names scribbled down to investigate and a tote bag full of records and demos. And that is what festivals should be about. Words & Pictures: Mathew Parri Thomas

trying to get an almost ethereal feel to the song. May 45 has an almost Kitchens Of Distinction feel to it and is pure pop, while tracks like Hold Fire and Moment Gone sound like a cross between James Blunt,The Darkness and The New Radicals. The standout track Delays - Star Tiger, Star Ariel on the album is In Relased: 21.06.2010 Brilliant Sunshine Label: Lookout Mountain Records which is the most Words: Phil Russell “rockin’” song on the From the start of the album opener album. Another thing the song Find A Home (New Forest Shaker) has gong for it is that, for the most I wasn’t sure where the Delays part, it is lacking the over-used were going with this album. With falsetto that is oh so present on the slower tempo, lush keys and the rest of the album. That is a heavy reverb, to Greg Gilbert’s good thing. It’s the only song on distinctive falsetto, it seemed that the album that really sound like Star Tiger, Star Ariel might be something fresh and new. more of an ambient turn for the The Delays are a talented bunch band. That is not the case as The but after listening to the album Lost Estate quickly launches the several times they don’t really listener into the album with the seem to have a sound of their own. chorus of “Why don’t you ask They just spend too much time me to stay?! I want nobody but bouncing around from song to you,” which has a massive 80s song emulating bands from their sound (think Def Leppard mixed youth. Star Tiger, Star Ariel is an with Siouxsie and the Banshees). interesting listen with a few solid Rhapsody again uses Gilbert’s tracks but it’s been done before, falsetto (almost too much) in and done better.

Say No To Love was introduced to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s ever-growing fanbase late last year – at a time when it seemed nobody could get enough of the New York indie throwbacks – when it was included in a live set already groaning under the weight of their steadfast

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Say No To Love Relased: 05.07.2010 Label: FortunaPop! Words: Richie Brown

everyone’s favouite San Diego noiseniks. That new single then. Sleep Forever is an immense step forward from last year’s debut LP Summer of Hate and one that should grab them a place in the heart of anyone for whom music should sound as if it were recorded in a Crocodiles - Sleep Forever (single) cathedral in 1991. Relased: 05.07.2010 Also, the title Label: Fat Possum Records and chorus seem Words: Richie Brown to refer more to “They’ve robbed it of its a joyous, post-euphoric catnap funkiness!”, “I’m picturing the than to the notion of shuffling off Jesus and MaryChain doing shots this mortal coil. At the very least with ? & The Mysterians”, “It that’s what you’ll need to regroup sounds like INXS” (!) Yes, after sampling this perfect this record has split opinion prescription. More from more cannily than a hot Crocodiles please – make knife through I Can’t it snappy! Believe it’s not Butter and, whether you love it or hate it, this cover of Deee-Lite’s P-Funk tribute Groove is in the Heart melded with the Beach Boys’ California Girls has certainly got us talking. Talking so much, in fact, that my love for this sonic onslaught has made me rather stupidly forget that it is merely the flip side to a brand new single from

retro scrapbook. Reaction was somewhat lukewarm, particularly when reflected in the dazzling beam of the recently released Higher Than The Stars EP. However, given the full studio treatment, does the track now stand up well when compared to the Pains’ faultless previous output? Well, had this appeared on their debut LP, it would have barely resonated against some of the fuller-sounding tracks found there; although by no means would you ever find yourself skipping it. Both the A-side and the accompanying B-side (Lost Saint) find the band

in chimerical mood coupling Kip Berman’s high descant with their trademark twee twang. However, neither song can really offer that final layer of abrasive insouciance that made previous singles such a joy to behold. It’s what’s called being a victim of your own succcess: Say No To Love by most band’s standards would be a real triumph but here it seems the Pains are treading water preparing to catch the next wave of inspiration before recording their second long player.

Treecreeper - Juniper Released: 28.06.2010 Label: Trash Aesthetics

Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

There are few bands out there who are happy to let the songs dictate an album. Many will pour over every last detail; every minute guitar line and snare hit, the acceptable length and number of tracks, the complexity of the chord sequence... Sometimes, things are best left unguided. A natural progression is a good

thing. A spontaneity, a creative hand forced by the relatively unknown. To use a tired cliché, if “slowburner” were in the dictionary then it should rightfully be accompanied by the cover of Juniper, the latest offering from Wendover’s Treecreeper. Although meagre at just eight tracks in length, everything here (ignoring a short instrumental) comes in anywhere between the five to nine minute mark, which quickly bolsters the album’s rightful place as a long player.

Everything on Juniper is carried off with a measured pace, Will Burns’ smokey vocals sitting atop a steady groove of glitching guitars, shuffling drums and beds of wordless harmonies. This is Americana for those with time on their hands. The band are able to settle into a simple two chord repetition for a number of minutes before a change — which is made all the more effective by its anticipation. Across Juniper there’s an appreciation of the instrumental workouts we see from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Sun Kil Moon or Magnolia Electric Co. It’s not

uncommon that a third verse or final chorus is preceded by a three or four minute instrumental breakdown. The key is that everything sounds live; not just the fact that the band recorded live but also that arrangements were handled on the fly. It’s tight but not knowingly rehearsed. For some, Juniper’s tempo and arrangements may be a little trying. If that’s the case you’re not trying hard enough. The album is by no means instantly gratifying but was it ever supposed to be? It’s a soft and quiet beast that’s best enjoyed on repeat.

The Young Veins - Take A Vacation! Released: 05.07.2010 Label: One Haven Music / ADA Words: Bradley Poole Take A Vacation! is a re-imagining of 60s pop, with tracks seemingly breezing forwards while smiling emphatically at the past. As a 23 year After experiencing dizzying old front man it’s quite global success as the primary incredible to hear such an songwriter of Texan chart darlings accomplished, experienced, mature Panic! At The Disco, singer song writing skill. The album is and guitarist Ryan Ross found peppered with textbook Motown himself increasingly outgrowing drum fills, and an occasional the stylised theatrics projected boisterousness reminiscent of The by the band. A more seriously Who. This is more than a dreamy crafted song writing partnership Californian nod to The Beach evolved with bassist Jon Walker Boys, although harmonies are ripe and the pair set out to create a and sweet throughout. The Young new sound under the moniker The Veins have demonstrated a real Young Veins. Take A Vacation! is maturity in assembling this album, the debut album from the band the use of a Wurlitzer, harmonium who after moving to Los Angeles and Stylophone all validate it’s embraced a much more, well, authenticity. Californian outlook. Having spent plenty of time

in their former incarnation occupying chart space, Ross and Walker are perhaps on their own vacation imagining themselves ambitious for that space some fifty years earlier. Everyone But You is a standout, a moody weariness that somehow still holds the hope and positivity that runs through the entire album. Dangerous Blues has a charming gentle swoon with just enough punchy guitar to keep it from falling completely off it’s chair and Cape Town is right from the Phil Spector school of music production. Despite being an entirely American affair, to me this sounds incredibly British and occasionally triggers a memory of Dodgy’s 1995 album Homegrown, an emblem of sunny festival song-smithery that tapped into a similar sentiment. I imagine this to be a great festival set, an image which is no doubt

borne from the decision to record most of the album over two short live sessions. The Young Veins have successfully gathered their influences to create something truly accomplished and while they may sound older than their years, it’s reassuring to know that there’s a few decades of albums still to look forward to.

Maths & Physics Club – I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do Released: 12.07.2010 Label: Matinée Recording

Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

Maths and Physics Club are back with their second album, I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do, and it’s non-stop indiepop til you drop. The Seattle trio have penned a record of ten breezy pop tunes about everyone’s favourite topic: love. Well, for the most part anyway. Even though Maths and Physics Club hail from America’s west coast there’s more Scotland than Seattle that meets the ears here. Charles Bert’s soft and

unassuming vocals bear no discernible accent and, along side the shimmering, jangly guitars, there’s more in common here with Glasgow’s Belle and Sebastian than any of Seattle’s more famous musical exports. The arrangements are kept simple between the three-piece with the the staple of acoustic, drums and chiming electric guitar joined on occasion by simple string arrangements and flourishes of banjo and brass. As with many an indiepop record the recurring theme here is love — and an awkward love at that. On Love Or Loneliness Bert questions a partner’s motivation, “You say there’s only me, then

you say it’s sweet I still believe in monogamy.” I’ll Tell You Anything deals with the nervousness and excitement of new love, “This would be a good time for a clever line or a witty observation.” We even have a counterpoint to McCartney’s When I’m 64 in Will You Still Love Me?, “When we get our thrills from small blue pills will you still love me?” It’s this subtle humour which underpins the record and keeps it the right side of the dreaded “twee”. When not musing on love the band can be found poking fun at themselves on We’re So DIY! (“We’ll never carry up the charts but we’ll be the indie stars that everybody hearts”), telling the story of a chorus boy who breaks ranks on Everybody Loves A Show Tune (“I’ll be the one they

all adore, just keep smiling, just keep laughing”), and the evergrowing world of faux celebrity on Internationale (“So shameless for a photograph, so famous for nothing in particular”). With ten tracks coming in at under 25 minutes (just two venturing into a third minute) I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do avoids any chance of becoming bland, trite or derivative — a trait which is often a fault of some of Maths and Physics Club’s contemporaries. With light and delicate production, sparkling and bouncing arrangements, and lyrics with a hidden wit waiting to be discovered I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do is a short and simple joy.

Kula Shaker – Pilgrim’s Progress Released: 05.07.2010 Label: Strange Folk Words: Ross Park

associated with the Nazi’s. Unfortunately all he seemed to do was compliment the Nazi’s natty dress sense. It doesn’t matter what you release after that, they’re not easy Did you know that Kula Shaker’s quotes to overcome. debut album, K, was the fastest To give them credit, as well as selling British debut album since peddling ancient nonsense, Mills Definitely Maybe? OK, everyone had a keen ear for melody and from Arctic Monkeys to Susan wrote some great guitar riffs. Boyle has broken that since, but K was a mixture of Hendrixit’s still pretty impressive. inspired rock riffs (Grateful It was the whole swastika When You’re Dead) with sensitive thing that led to the Kula Shaker and melodic guitar lines (Start break up in 1999. Posh-boy All Over), and while second frontman Crispian Mills gave a album Peasants, Pigs and hideously misguided interview Astronauts was both more progsaying that a symbol that had rock and more bonkers than previously stood for peace its predecessor, it still featured and love would now forever be a few fine moments, notably

Shower Your Love. It’s also worth saying that Mills’ post Shaker band, The Jeevas, also had some great songs across their two albums too. I can’t avoid talking about it any longer; Pilgrim’s Progress is not the Kula Shaker album I wanted. It’s by no means a bad album but there’s no cool riffs and very little Sanskrit chanting. It’s just not fun. An example? Opener Peter Pan RIP has the lyrics “Peter Pan won’t come back; they chained his feet and broke his back”. There’s certainly nothing fun about torturing flying children, fictional or otherwise. As for Modern Blues, unless he starts freestyling about a lack of 3G access for his 4th generation iPhone, there’s nothing modern about it. I don’t mind that

though; you don’t listen to a reunited 60s-obsessed 90s band for modern, but the energy and fun of the first two albums is nowhere to be seen. It’s a mellower Kula Shaker from the one you remember and perhaps desire, with only two songs featuring an electric guitar. That said, they’re very good songs, especially Ophelia with its laidback acoustic and harmonica, and epic closer, Winter’s Call. Think more Indian retreat with Donovan than Marquee Club with Clapton. Whilst not featuring the instant catchiness of previous work, Pilgrim’s Progress grows with each listen. And that’s what they said about the latest Arctic Monkeys album too.

Black Soul Strangers – Animate Released 05.07.10 Label: Squeek Records Words: Matt Churchill

Irish quartet Black Soul Strangers are becoming increasingly familiar round these parts. With a pair of singles under their belt and a growing checklist of the UK’s ‘any band must play to succeed’ venues, the foursome from Donegal release their much anticipated debut long player Animate. Combining radio-friendly pop-rock and dark brooding anti-airwave anxiety, it’s a record of contrasts. Light moments are frequent and justifiably triumphant in their standing, just as well then, given the sharp intensity that flickers back into frame pulling the record into the same waters as Editors and Interpol. Panic Sets Direction, an opening track of ferocity, begins with chiming guitars and breaks into a Bloc Party-esque riff which sets a foundation for the restricted bleakness which sits menacingly throughout the LP. When listening to The Haunting,

the band’s second single, it becomes apparent that frontman Barry Gorey possesses an alluring vocal fragility which, upon closer inspection, sounds almost like Fran Healy. This is a glorious revelation. It adds a new dynamic to the record and is most unexpected given the brashness of the opening exchanges. Wonderfully this continues with Leave, even as the chorus kicks in full paced and aggressively takes the LP to another level. Track five is often the pivotal point on an album – is the audience

answer vocals keeps the songs themselves from drifting away. Silver Dollars bassy opening parades as Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl for a short while but, as with much of the album, has just enough depth to pull through into a decent pop song — after a single verse any gambling man Allo Darlin’ – Allo would have Darlin’ favoured the Released 07.06.10 opposite outcome. Label: Fortuna Pop! The moral of the Words: Dean Renphrey story here seems to be that with In recent years twee, if there is enough references to add reality to anything as distinct as a genre by the most ridiculous of situations there that banner, has had a rollercoaster is still plenty of charm in the world ride. It has been the birthmother of to make whimsical pop work. The seduced or reduced to tears? records from both ends of the quality bass never stomps, but adds enough Monster is the most understated spectrum and has seen artists take weight to the light strumming of a track on the record and is crying a folky approach whilst others have ukulele to complete songs such as If out to be the band’s third single. attempted to distance themselves Loneliness Was Art and allows the Sweeping backing harmonies, from this by playing heavy on the gentler side to shine through on the tempered by crystal cut guitar distortion. In its purest form it has delicate Heartbeat Chili. The record strains, give the song a different become something of a musical also has its fair spattering of “shadynamic, a trend that continues to marmite, yet Allo, Darlin’ bring it la-la” harmonies and only Woody develop deeper into the album. back to its simple, pleasure-pop best. Allen ramps things up enough with The songs collected here are very The indie-pop sensibilities of The a guitar riff snuck in to wake you much from the same family, flowing Polaroid Song (“Feel like dancing from your daydream. easily in and out of each other; that on my own/ to a record that I do Twee needn’t be marmite anymore Black Soul Strangers don’t sit still not know/ in a place I’ve never seen than it needs to be its own genre, here is a testament to their obvious before”) are not there by any sort of and led by Elizabeth Morris’ gentle ambition. A sign of a good band coincidence, but with the unashamed vocals Allo, Darlin’ will not be is that their sound is immediately intention of sounding like you splitting vote anymore than they will distinct as belonging to them; Black haven’t a care in the world. Even cross over and set the world alight. Soul Strangers have that box firmly if you really do. About something It is one of those long players you ticked. Ambition and good songs rather innocuous. should listen to; either you take it to are great assets for a band to have Kicking off aptly with Dreaming heart or you don’t, but is certainly on the eve of a first album release; there is an absent-minded notion worth spending the time to find out. it’ll be exciting to see where they go that permeates the whole record, from here. yet the punctual use of question and

Florence & The Machine - Cosmic Love

put Cosmic Love out as the lead or second single to draw in as Released 05.07.10 many fans as possible, Label: Moshi Moshi Words: Adam Gibby the strength of the other singles means It is the sign of a that Florence is now in a position remarkable album to release this as a final flourish. when an artist can With guitar, bass, drums and afford to release such harp lines all weaving together to an outstanding track produce a driving verse they crash as the final single. together with pounding drums Whilst many would and powerful vocals to create a have undoubtedly stunningly euphoric chorus and it’s

hard not to feel your hairs stand up when you get hit by this wall of sound. It’s also one of those rare songs where the lyrics are in perfect allignement with the music. This was undoubtedly the highlight of ‘Lungs’ and it will be very interesting to see if Florence can keep up the same level of consistency on her next offering, though I doubt that we will see the same heights that have been scaled with ‘Cosmic Love’.

Animal Collective - ODDSAC Released 26.07.2010 Label: Plexi Film

Words: Matt Churchill

ODDSAC is a collaborative feature film between Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion heroes Animal Collective, and long term co-conspirator and visual artist Danny Perez. The 50 minute visual/audio marriage is a hypnotic kaleidoscope of contrasting sound, weird visuals and off the wall acting. Many musicians have tried to pull together visuals, music and art – Neil Young’s Human

Highway and Elbow’s work with the Soup Collective being two such examples. Neither however managed blur the lines between the two disciplines quite so much as ODDSAC. A smattering of unreleased Animal Collective material sits inbetween collections of sounds, brought together to resemble music, which flash and flicker out of time but in sync with the images on screen. There’s a nod towards Joy

Division in the opening song with dark hollow vocals that sound lost and anxious, tinged with regret perhaps at the foreboding of the story that is about to unfold. There are five tracks recognisable as straight forward songs, all with that brilliant rurality that the band possess. The main narrative of the film,

the system in the wake of the uberpsychedelia that precedes them. If Jackson Pollock had worked in coloured lines of electricity, he’d appreciate Perez’s work. Dreamlike sequences show grinding colours pixelate and jump in synchronisation with the Animal Collective soundtrack.

work where we see the predatory character beaten by sunlight and slowly oozing with orange, blue and black paint and boiling away to his timely demise. In one of the most sensible sequences, a character dressed in Jimmy Saville-like attire with matching white droopy hair is seen clambering over rocks to build

survival and that humanity, however perverse or uninteresting, will not out-do nature and the course of events that awaits us. The film had its preview at the Sundance festival in January, but is only now due to be available for widespread purchase, in the US at least. Animal Collective are a

bizarrely, is told with droning, trippy pieces of music that do the majority of the story-telling legwork, allowing the main tracks to stand out on their own merit. Other tracks focus on acousticity and there’s even a moment of beauty in the final track which has bright sweeping harmonies which are a re-assuring shock to

There are ‘live’ sequences with an evil protagonist resembling a haunted looking clown with a Garth Brooks pony tail, in which he seeks to row across a lake and to eat alive a family who are camping in a forest. The film flips to Blair Witch territory (thankfully not in black and white) with shaking camera

his drum kit in order to beat the living hell out of it – it can only be presumed this is Panda Bear. Monty Python appears influential here too, if not in the wonderfully understated costumes which look like they were cobbled together in ten minutes in a joke shop – glorious. The story seems to be about

charismatically introverted bunch, and ODDSAC perfectly encompasses their diverse soundscapes and tripped up rhythms with Danny Perez’s maniacal ability to create visual artistry. The most surreal 53 minutes committed to tape? Quite probably. A must see.

heart beat bass line bed in as dancing melodies flitter around Released: 12.07.2010 each other. Label: Make Mine Closing the EP are Sound Words: Mathew Parri Thomas Speed Ashes, coming off like a it was enough to just getting going. soundtrack to Streets hospitalise him and Plural ups the anti. Of Rage, with the inspire this here EP Buzzsaw synths, ethereal 8-bit synths joined by of sonic wizardry. bleeps and swells, and thick bass and choral And if we’re honest schizophrenic guitar moaning, and Flying “I Got A Nasty phrases are this time joined by Deep, a slow motion ode to deep Electric Shock” is live drumming which proceeds powder inspired by Teej’s love of a shit name for a into wayward, arm-flailing chaos snowboarding. record. as the track around it does the For a debut EP from a man The opening, scratchy guitar same. There’s a lot here to please that’s never even played a live chords of the title track are soon fans of the elecro/post-rock gig before I Got Electrocuted is joined by a dark and brooding crossover pioneers Errors. worryingly accomplished. Teej’s mix of beats and bass. Stop/start Taking things down a notch or obsession with vintage synths phrases cut through a wandering six, Heart Timing (inspired by a and the application thereof and high keyboard melody and, post-electric shock hook up with has produced a record with a before you know it, we reach an a heart scanner) is a welcomed dizzying pallet of textures, layers abrupt end. A short and perfectly calm after the preceding storm. and ideas. It’s electrifying (now formed piece it may be but, at Landscaping fuzz (a la Fuck where did I leave my coat?) just shy of two minutes, it was Buttons) and a simple, rising,

Teej – I Got Electrocuted

Although on his debut EP Teej claims I Got Electrocuted, he didn’t. The pedant in me can’t help but point out that if Teej had been electrocuted his debut release would also be a posthumous one. Electrocution is, of course, death by electric shock, and although Teej’s electric shock didn’t kill him,

basically being some orchestrated ‘ohs and ahs’ and would probably work better as the album’s opener. The standard of every aspect of the record, whilst being DIY to the point of stupidity, generally picks up from here on in. By the time you make it to Tattoo and Filipino Song, tracks two and three on my imaginary new tracklisting (minus the first four remember) you have got to know the Trash Kit – Trash Kit band and their sound, but still you are crying out for them to finish at Released: 24.05.2010 least one of there promising ideas. Label: Upset The Rhythm The record sounds like a massive Words: Dean Renphrey brainstorm, recorded and then left Upon seeing Times New Viking with every loose end untied. live for there first time there was a Natascha comes in just shy of certain apprehension owing to the fact three minutes. The tuneful Fame and that the melodies are so hard to hear Gorey, saxophone included, stretch through the ripping of distortion that past two minutes each and both show blankets the band’s recordings. Trash evidence of raw talent and an ear Kit, having clearly listened to Rip It for a catchy melody. Whilst there is Off too many times, are what I had some definite need for honing, a bit been expecting to hear; a repetitive more patience may have been all this drum roll and guitar riff is utilised far record needed to fulfil its potential. too many times in the opening four The aftertaste is wholly unsatisfying; songs, the only positive being that this constantly you are taken to the brink takes only six minutes to pass. of a brilliant tune only to be brought Finally at Pig Cat do you cross back down again as a crash of drums some semblance of thought/effort/ thoughtlessly introduces the next fifty melody and it’s quite good for second idea.

Little Axe – Sold for a Dollar, Bought for a Dime Released: 07.06.2010 Label: Real World

Words: Dean Renphrey of work that is as relevant as it is listenable. His interpretation of SonHouse’s Grinnin’ In Your Face Whether you have come across (shortened to Grinning here) is him as part of the Sugar Hill of the highest order and the same in-house band, of Tackhead, or feel resonates throughout whether one of the many other guises his it be the second coming of old musical career has led him to don, Tackhead songs or the miniature those of you who are aware of vocal layerings that bookend the singer/guitarist Skip McDonald record. will not question his authenticity Intentionally, but to its in the role of well-travelled blues detriment if you are unfamiliar, man — and this latest offering the record moves at the pace of shows know reason why you rising cigarette smoke and never should. faster and while for reasons such Reinventing songs his own as this it might not win a huge songs as well as other people’s amount of new friends for the work for Sold for A Dollar, talented McDonald, it will serve Bought for A Dime is no small to further enhance his reputation. feat, but thanks to the talent of both himself and his team, coupled with his ability to absorb influences from hip-hop, dubstep and funk, he has produced a piece

Grasscut – 1 Inch / 1/2 Mile Released: 05.07.2010 Label: Ninja Tune Words: Mark Webb

At first touch, this album feels more like something from perhaps the Thrill Jockey catalog than Ninja Tune. Not to pigeonhole this

psychedelic bits from the outskirts of The Beatles work and brought that particular viewpoint into the here and now. You’ll certainly notice its country of origin. Either that, or a full-tech version of what Brian Eno was going for when he left Roxy Music. I’d feel as comfortable recommending this record to the

done much research — I have a feeling that’s how Grasscut would like to be viewed on this album, it creates its own world and speaks for itself. 1 Inch / 1/2 Mile opens with High Down: a chill-pop anthem. This is one you’ll enjoy on a stretch of highway, a comfy piece of furniture, or privately up your earphones in some other situation where you are letting music take you to a higher place. Complex

Wall. The soundset ranges from classical instrumentation, through Mellotron-ish things, on into full digital squelch. Muppet is great in the squelch department. There really is a lot of sound here, at times I had to pause to notice whether what I was hearing was coming through the speakers, or from an open window. Extended drifts into ambient out-space, back into glitched beats that remind you it’s 2010, and just

fine set of tunes, that does no help to anyone at any time. I’m saying this to perhaps catch your attention if that’s what’s up your usual alley. It certainly at no point is hip-hop, jazzy funk, or dance music that you might expect from the Ninja end of the galaxy. It is actually more tech-beatlesque... That is, if you took the most experimental,

average twenty-something hipster as I would an old prog-rocker. Assuming that is, your heart and head can handle the possible jolts from jarring beats and the 3-D experience that is modern electronic music. Hopefully that gives you an idea of where these guys are coming from, that is my first impression without having

crystalline fractal structures built around vocal harmonies and/or chilling vocal samples, usually with a truly abstract melodic base form the songs. Yes, songs. It’s really good. About the only non-song piece on this disc is the chilling 1946, which pops you (quite literally) into the excellent vocal tune The Door On The

plain rocking out are all parts of the same songs (try Meltwater for this, it has it all). You could drop in at any point here and end up in a completely different synaethesic soundspace. Somehow, this is what makes the album cohesive, and will have you most likely listening to all nine tracks together happily.

Natureboy – Natureboy Released: 07.07.2010 Label: O wn Records Words: Phil Russell

Natureboy is the musical output of Sara Kermanshahi. Here she collaborates with Cedar Apffel and Rory O’Connor to make some truly haunting and passionate music. The self titled album is a very quiet stripped down affair with the guitar being used the most to create an acoustic and intimate feel. Sara’s voice is

the star here and carries the album. In several tracks her voice is reminiscent of Courtney Love (in a good way) in that the way she wails some of the lyrics you feel the emotion in each word she sings. The entire album feels like it could be a soundtrack to movie, telling of the trials and tribulation of the main character and the struggle to find redemption and purpose in life. Highlights on the album include Pariah which picks up the pace of the album, if only for a few minutes. Bad Dream which sounds

like a track Courtney Love (again, in a good way) could have done had she actually felt and cared about the music. Dither is one of the most moving tracks on the album and has a wonderful melodic harmony throughout the entire song. Heart to fool is one of the more peppier (I use that term loosely) tracks that sound like a very slowed down Yeah Yeah Yeahs track, which give the song a familiar feel. It’s also one of the only other tracks to have drums featured. Railroad Apt is a quite reflective instrumental that is very easy to get lost in and at a little over two minutes, it brings you back to reality almost to soon.

The nine song album clocks in at under 45 minutes but feels like it goes by faster. Fans of Grant Lee Phillips or Mazzy Star should take note. This is a must have for fans of the mellow style used here. This album tells a story and takes you on a journey. It’s a journey that, once over, you feel better for having gone through it. Moving stuff indeed.

Tender Trap – Dansette Dansette Released: 12.07.2010 Label: Fortuna Pop! Words: Nick Foster

counted more than musicianship. Back in 2010, the return of Tender Trap adds more momentum to the previously much maligned ‘Twee’ revival (soft, Suddenly, when ex TalullahGosh/ pretentious, too scared to rock – twee became used as an musical Heavenly vocalist Amelia insult much in the same way Fletcher shouts “JESUS & kids now use ‘gay’ to basically MARY CHAIN!” on Do You Want A Boyfriend?, the deride anything they don’t like) shopkeeper appears and we are and as with fellow indie-poppers all musically transported back to PoBPaH’s debut, their new LP is the mid-to-late ’80s where bands as faultless as it is retro. were shambolic and melody Adding new members

Thee Single Spy – OK Corral Released: 09.08.2010 Label: Robot Elephant Records Words: Nick Foster

OK Corral is the incredibly self assured new single from Alex Mattinson and his musical ensemble otherwise known as Thee Single Spy. Mattinson walks the Cash/Cave vocalist line and the melody is more spoken than sung, which fits the song arrangement perfectly. Musically, everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in (horns, strings, melodica etc) but nothing is there that shouldn’t be and the narrative flows brilliantly over

the orchestration in a way that could give your standard Jacque Brel composition a run for its money. Adventurous and mature, this is the sort of song that you point dullards like the Couteeners toward when they start claiming that they’ve written the best album ever. If the rest of TSS’s material comes up to this standard then they could easily become my new favourite band... and possibly yours too?

Elizabeth Darling from Allo Darling and Katrina Dixon (Cat Police) to the fold, Amelia, Rob Pursey and John Downfall have managed to hit gold with Dansette Dansette, which unapologetically mimics their previous bands’ highs. The LP is choc full of Spectoresque drums, twanging guitars and the sort of harmonies that were common when the Dansette Record Player took pride of place on the family sideboard. Amelia has always had a canny knack with a (retro)pop melody and it’s this that elevates the album over a lot

Panda Bear – Tomboy (single) Release date: 26 July 2010 Label: Paw Tracks Words: Mark Webb

Animal Collective! Do those words make your ears buzz? Well, read on and get ready for some somewhat expectedly soupy sounds from Panda Bear (Noah Lennox). Tomboy and Slow Motion really don’t have much in common with the last Panda Bear album, Person Pitch. Its groovy, spacey, stereodelic-guitary, echophonic goodness, rooted in some sort of organic wilderness. There is just the right number of ingredients in this batch of soup. Apologies for the kitchen

of their contemporaries, with a good 90% of potential pure pop singles held within the ten tracks on offer. Album highlights include Capital L, Grand National and the aforementioned Do You Want A Boyfriend which rhymes “psychologically” and “gynaecologically” whilst sounding like the Shangra Las on speed, which is all great fun. The summer is here so why not celebrate the sun by letting your macho, rock guard down, embrace your inner tweeness and shimmy around your Dansette... you know it makes sense.

comparisons, but occasionally Animal Collective sounds like everything including the kitchen sink is thrown into the mix. Here I picture Mr. Bear cooking up this tasty little slice of music at the studio in Portugal, with the intent of tripping you out just enough, making you do a little dance to its insistent but not overwhelming beat. You’d sing along if you had any clue what he was saying, but you’re in animal-land. Words are somewhat inconsequential. Dancing and snapping your fingers in the style of whatever creature you secretly picture yourself as is what will probably happen when you let these two tunes open up your head. I can’t really say whether the A-side, Tomboy, or the flip, Slow Motion is better. Both songs are equally good. Ok kids, don’t sleep on this one. You can get the digital copy now, but what you really want are the limited-run vinyl 7”s that are going to be released on various labels leading up to the Tomboy LP. Vinyl is forever. Remember that.

Common Prayer – There Is A Mountain Released: 26.07.2010 Label: Big Potato Records

Words: Mathew Parri Thomas including bass duties for Mercury Rev, helping out his brother Justin with The Silent League and being the founding member of shoegazers Hopewell. With all this said, it comes as little surprise There are times when a record that There Is A Mountain finds comes along and, on just a single itself on Big Potato Records, a spin, it clicks. The penny drops label founded in part by Slowdive’s and you’re sold on the whole thing Neil Halstead. before you’ve even had a chance Hard to pin down and easy to to check for dents. It’s instantly love, this is a melting pot of styles, familiar. It’s instantly likable. It’s instruments and found sounds. instantly worrying. The problem The album is full of ideas and with music which is so immediately flourishes, each track seemingly gratifying is that, on the same taking a new approach to how token, it’s also just as disposable. you construct a song. Guitars What once was your own special have been tuned just enough to song, loved by you and no one else, be acceptable, where drums won’t is soon regurgitated every half do tin cans will, and why use one an hour on the radio, used as bed vocal when you’re so many in music on every television station number? Where commonprayer going and ends up tantamount to is built on a click track, lazy fingers down a blackboard. When finger-picked guitar and a wealth I first heard There Is A Mountain I of samples and found sounds, knew I loved it. Time to panic. Us Vs. Them is full of bombastic Common Prayer are a ragdrums, sparkling piano and beds tag bunch of Brits assembled of harmonies. You, Aloft’s short and steered by Brooklyn’s Jason instrumental of backwards loops Sebastian Russo, whose fingers and layered strings is countered have been in a few music pies by American Sex, a quiet campfire

song of just voices and acoustic, suddenly hijacked by warped tabla and bible-questioning vocal sample. While all the tracks have their differences there’s one thing that ties the whole thing together: melody. Lots and lots of melody. Russo’s voice is thin and fragile but never lacks purpose and feeling. His subject matter often turns to love. Lyrics like “I’ve been singing in and out of tune, it’s always been to you” and “You and me, staring at the same ceiling” manage to tread the fine line where cuteness meets sincerity. On Us Vs. Them he’s taking on the world with a loved one, “linked arms spining into the sunset in a lazy waltz.” Marriage Song, complete with pots and pans percussion, tea chest bass, drunk slide guitar and an I Want You (She’s So Heavy)-aping break down, talks of living in “a house built for mileage”. Closing the album is the rousing singalong Everything and More. As more voices than you can count join in chorus (“We’re walking on water that’s turned into wine / I’ll take yours and you take mine / we are every little thing all of the time”) the tracks builds over

a rising four-chord progression. As vocals grow in strength and instruments starts to teeter on the brink of going out of control the track shifts into second gear, Russo’s now screaming vocal drowned out by the cacophony of voices, cymbals, strings and brass. A cliché? Perhaps. Handled perfectly? Without doubt. Get the wrong person behind the desk and you’ll find a symphony orchestra on this quicker than you know it. What’s so brilliant about this is that it’s a small number of people playing it like they mean it. Given a quick glance or a casual ear There Is A Mountain is ostensibly a pop record; it’s packed full of ear-worm melodies and, with the majority of tracks clocking in at around three minutes, it’s over in little more than a half hour. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll find an album which is fit to burst with ideas; it’s peppered with tricks, ticks and turns of phrase that are as clever as they are effective. There Is A Mountain is an album you’ll love instantly, return to constantly and never tire of.

without any discernable purpose or direction, the more vocal-lead affairs draw you back in with some Words: Tom Doyle admirable song writing and richly smattering of vocals and background music because there is a constructed, multi faceted, cleverly glitchy beats giving way to pop nous on display here which forces produced instrumentation. Strings, the occasionally more solid, its way into the front of your brain live drum sounds, horns... this anchoring bassline. I would, and refuses to move once entrenched. album is certainly nothing if not of course, never ask someone Girls of Boredom comes over like the ambitious. at the bar what the music psuedo dubby cousin of Bloc Party’s Unquestionably Happiness was because everyone else in Flux but the wheeling, spiderish Machines is a solid debut but one the pub totally knows who it synth lines and layered sounds give it which fails to reach the lofty heights is by and would wonder what a flavour all of its own. you suspect its composers were The sun is shining and I am drinking musical rock I had been hiding under Elsewhere, Passed with Cuts ultimately aiming for. Nevertheless coronas in trendy pubs in bits of East to display such wanton ignorance. sounds like the music during that there is without doubt plenty to London which used to be working But, if I did get up the courage, bit in American Beauty where enjoy here, perfect for an afternoon class but are now the denizen of the barman might inform me that they watch the plastic bag flying in the garden or, dare I say it, as a art graduates with stupid haircuts I was listening to Leicester upstarts around (you know the bit I mean) soundtrack to a night in a bar, but and Jesus and Mary chain T-shirts. Moscow Youth Cult and their before moving into more spacey equally worthy of a blast on the Sometimes in these pubs there will breezy, structured electronica. It is atmospherics and mellifluous beats. headphones and some proper care be some music playing. It will be actually rather unfair to characterize Whilst some of the tracks here, and attention. electronic (natch) and ethereal with a Happiness Machines as bar like Pre-Cert Landfill II ramble on

Moscow Youth Cult – Happiness Machines

RPA And The United Nations of Sound – United Nations of Sound Released: 19.07.2010 Label: Parlophone Words: Mark Webb

himself, not mimicking other vocalists or doing anything surprising really. If you didn’t already know his M.O., you certainly will after sitting through this. He loves life and music, and that’s what he’s on So this is the Gospel According to Richard Ashcroft: again. It has a about. Non-stop. Sounds like he’s vague spiritual bent that will have having a great time at the very least. Old themes are re-visited, you guessing at times. It borrows unapologetically from just about combined with a possible touch every angle of past Americana of apocalyptic paranoia? At any possible. I assume this explains rate, he pulls it off, and overall the title, United Nations of Sound. this album has a solid commercial Happily absent is the pseudoacceptability to its sound, with the country twang from the last few twist of having a genuine rock n’ efforts. Every tune takes absolutely roll madman spouting off about no risks however. From the track whatever the hell he wants to. Not America: ‘America, America, I’m many US artists get to do this on looking for you everywhere – same a major label’s dime, and this was thing, same joy, same sound’. obviously recorded in the US of A. A few tracks on this album His words, not mine- but that’s it sound extremely similar to some in a nutshell. Glad I was able to old hits by other artists. Will this quote lyrics and not have to write it myself. Unapologetic. That’s one have R.A. in court again defending musical plagiarism? Probably thing that comes through, there’s not. Quite literally every possible no big peepshow going on, what chord progression in rock n’ roll you hear is what it is. has already been used, so, what Here is Richard sounding like

do you expect? We have some standard blues riffs here, some cheesy pseudo-power-ballads… If you had to take one for the road, it might be Life Can Be So Beautiful, and it would likely end up on a mix meant for, well, bedtime with your lady. Yes, ‘the quiet storm’ is what it’s called on American radio, that is, music for boning. Not that you could have sex to this song without laughing, unless you were actually the guy singing. There is an element of machismo through these tracks. Mildly entertaining and amusing. Taken in comparison to previous solo works, this is definitely a step up. Not, however, a complete change in style that I expected considering it was produced by Chicago’s No I.D, primarily a hiphop producer. This only approaches being ‘hip hop’ a few times, and that’s only musically. No, Richard Ashcroft has not become a rapper, thank God. The rest of the cast is also quite assorted, a fresh batch of musicians if you will. It’s got some guitar-solo-wah virtuosity that could probably have been left off altogether, it just doesn’t

quite fit. The standouts in the sound certainly are the string arrangements. Without them, this album might well be completely intolerable. Taken in comparison to Verve square one, this would be a big disappointment. However, if ‘Storm in Heaven’ sounded perfect to you, well, everything that came after that has already disappointed you. Let’s put this all in perspective: I’m writing this review in New York, and have watched Ashcroft/ Verve’s popularity mostly RISE since the initial stylistic jump from the mellow wash of ambiance that was their initial output. Take that for what you will: I can’t say whether it’s an effect of the music being more readily available to American consumers, or it being more acceptable to people’s ears. So, assuming this is pushed somewhat heavily on the masses, I actually think it’s going to go down quite well worldwide. In the UK? Doubt it. Sorry to say, but most everyone remembers higher times.

Thomas White – Accidentally Like A Martyr EP Released: 05.07.2010 Label: Cooking Vinyl Words: Ross Park

may justifiably think, “as normally cover albums are reserved for the likes of Rod Stewart or Celine Dion needing a career pick up and releasing their favourites from the ‘Great American A covers EP you say? From the Songbook’.” guy from Electric Soft Parade and Maybe because he signed his Brakes? “That’s surprising,” you first record deal at 16 he’s ready for the midlife crisis covers album but

he’s made some interesting choices that suit him well, from Warren Zevon’s title track to Sparklehorse’ Little Fat Baby. There’s a warm fragility to his voice that makes anything he does hugely listenable. There’s also the classic We Have All The Time In The World, and while it’s a fine version, it’s hard to add anything to it, which is always the issue with covers records: it doesn’t often give much away about the artist or what to

expect from him. Any urgency or mellowness or emotion isn’t his. Springsteen’s choices for the Seeger Sessions record were as political as they were musical and there’s no clear theme that runs through these songs to suggest White is trying anything similar. Fans of either Brakes or Electric Soft Parade won’t be disappointed as this is a decent listen but anything he writes himself will be better.

Prince - 20Ten

Released: 10.07.2010 Label: NPG Words: Kevin Burgess and each new release is shrouded in the expectation that he might finally have pulled something out of the bag, only to be let down by another sub standard effort with maybe one or Whilst it is a touch unfair and a two half decent songs, but mainly little too obvious, it is also very littered with watered down funk difficult when reviewing or even jams or schmaltzy Prince by discussing a new Prince album numbers, down tempo ballads not to refer to his back catalogue, that wouldn’t have made it onto or more specifically to the fact an Appollonia 6 b-side, but still that his most recent output just we come back each and every doesn’t compare to it, but for time, with that small glimmer someone who has always strived of hope, and as I press play, my to let the past be the past, on new head already dreading the worst, album 20TEN, Prince takes a big I’m quite taken aback by what step back into somewhat familiar hits me straight away, is that a territory.The fanfare surrounding Linn drum machine I can hear? this album relates to the fact that Synths? Have I accidentally slipped Prince has once again decided to 1999 into my stereo? (yes kids, I give away an album for free, this still use a stereo!) Compassion is time with copies of the Mirror a bright and breezy opener that newspaper in the UK (having bounces along with aplomb, funk previously released 2007’s ‘Planet beat n’ all, this sounds like Prince Earth’ free with copies of the is having some fun, it obviously Mail on Sunday..) and also for harks back to earlier in his career, recent comments relating to the especially the Controversy/1999 physical only release of the album, period, in fact this sounds a little that the internet ‘is over’, just like like Lets Pretend We’re Married, MTV before it. He’s always been and maybe with a more daring a forward thinker, and a pioneer lyric, this could maybe have sat so we’ll give him the benefit of the nicely on 1999… maybe. Next up doubt for now and see how that is Beginning Endlessly, more pans out. drum machines and synths and an Onto the album, now having understated bass, a very jagged been a big Prince fan for many beat underpins the whole thing, years, especially and primarily of and drags the song along rather his 80’s work, its not been the most nicely as those familiar scratchy satisfying of decades in terms of guitar tones lead the song out. the funky ones recorded output, Wow two songs in and this is a

pretty impressive start, this may be the sound of Prince delving into his back catalogue for inspiration, but ironically it’s probably the most daring he’s sounded in years. Then the third song hits ‘Future Soul Song’, now its not that it’s a particularly bad song, its not, its just… well it’s our first down tempo, schmaltzy ballad of the album, and it lacks a punch, the first two songs had my ears pricked up with half excitement and half curiosity, and yet halfway through this, I almost lose attention as my mind wonders, not a good sign. Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t live up to the opening, but that’s not a terrible indictment, Sticky Like Glue and Lavaux are decent enough funk dance songs and Act of God and Everybody Loves Me are both playful pop songs, all of them carrying the same ethos as the opening songs, i.e an updated take on his 80’s sound, a sound he did single-handedly create after all, and its hard to knock someone for doing that, especially someone who has spent the better part of three decades heading off in different directions. The album actually flows very well, the songs sit nicely next to each other, and it definitely sounds like a more focused and cohesive effort than a lot of his most recent work, but it just lacks a spark, or more importantly that cloak of sleaze that seemed to slather his best work, for the most part it doesn’t find him reaching for, or taking any risks when compared to huge portions of his

back catalogue. This isn’t a bad or terrible album, its perfectly listenable and quite enjoyable, its sits well in the current sunshine, its let down by two or three uninspired ballads, especially after the promising start, but its just not 1999, or Sing O The Time or Dirty Mind, and for an artist (The Artist?) who was once so daring and took so many risks and yet sold a shed-load of albums, all the while somehow managing to remain the greatest of enigmas, it will always be disappointing to hear him taking things so easy, installed firmly in his comfort zone, throwing off lyrics like ‘From the heart of Minnesota, here comes the purple yoda’ when at one time he would litter songs with phrases like ‘I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth’ or ‘All I want is to rub your body, until you start to bleed’. I mentioned at the start that its difficult to write a Prince review without referring to his past achievements and I find myself constantly referencing his best work, but that is credit to the man and his art and unfortunately for him it’s a poisoned chalice he’ll have to carry for the rest of his life, he once showed up at the Brit awards with the word ‘Slave’ emblazoned across his face as a protest to the way his record company were treating him, ironically over thirty years into his career, he has become a slave to his own past artistic triumphs.

at the controls of an analogue synth, and having a dream where life is contained in subtractive synthesis. It’s accompanied by a sweet little video that may or may not help you understand. Either way, quite nice. Mellow, low-BPM synthpop with some lyrical decoding is the theme, which continues onto the flip, Shmoo – Waves (Single) C.i.2.i., a mildly coded love song. Release: 26 July 2010 ‘We don’t see eye to eye’. Get it? Label: Station Dynamic Words: Mark Webb Good. ‘You know and I know, we both This is a really interesting little know, that this has to end.’ And single. I didn’t immediately fall in bang, that’s it, 7 minutes through like, it took a few listens for it to two tracks of well-thought, tidy and really sink in. engaging music. The B-side is easily Waves is a neat tune, the lyrics as good as the A, so there’s your create an analogue between the basic incentive to grab this one. elements of synthesis and life. Yes, that is a multiple entendre. It might only really make sense to synthesizer nerds, but don’t let that put you off giving it a listen. ‘Sine wave, square wave, triangle, oscillators, attack’ (paraphrased). I imagine it being written after too many hours staring

David Shane Smith – Perfect Forms Words: Keith Haworth

There has always been a spooky eccentricity to the work of David Shane Smith. After last year’s Cloud Pleaser, Perfect Forms is another left-field dispatch of esoteric folk-based electronica. Creatures is an exemplar of this, whereby DSS’ vocal delivery comes over sounding uncannily like John Foxx period Ultravox! Not a bad thing I hasten to add. This could be a glitch-based take on their The Wild, The Beautiful and The Damned. Non conformist to the last, this is a decidedly

polarising album that should jar the straight edged listener while pleasing the avowed left fieldists of the populace. Dripping as it is with a displaced and melancholic audio trajectory that locates, and firmly stays within its own aesthetic parameters. Tall In The Smoke and Ending touch upon a certain John Martyn, while elsewhere it may be too experimental for some. Nevertheless, this is an album that deserves to be immersed in and not something for a quick fix of adrenalin on a Saturday night, but more suitable for a Sunday morning comedown perhaps.

Gemma Ray – It’s A Shame About Gemma Ray Words: Phil Russell

Ray (a nod to The Lemonheads album) is a series of cover versions of some of her favorite tracks ranging from Etta James to Sonic Youth via Lee Hazlewood, Mudhoney and Buddy Holly. She After the success of her last recorded them with Matt Vertaalbum Lights Out Zoltar!, Ray at his New York studio you might expect Gemma between Christmas and New Ray to release a safe follow up Years Eve of 2009/20010. Ray’s — but this is where you would be dark, brooding voice and the wrong. For the most part, this is western blues style in which a good thing. most of the songs are performed It’s A Shame About Gemma actually adds another dimension

to most of the tracks with the exception of Everyday, which is really slowed down and sung in such a way that it just falls flat. The rest of the album easily makes up for this misstep with selections like Sonic Youth’s Drunken Butterfly performed to the music of Rosemary’s Baby or Cy Coleman’s Hey Big Spender which almost ventures into Portishead trip-hop territory. Other intriguing takes on classic tunes include Mudhoney’s Touch Me I’m Sick, which sounds like it could have been an outtake from the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack, and Memphis

Minnie’s Looking the World Over, which would make George Thorogood proud with it’s driving guitar and catchy beat. Over all, this album is a nice collection of interpretations of some of Gemma’s favorites but I would rather hear working her magic on some new original tunes. It’s a Shame About Gemma Ray is definitely worth the listen but probably won’t be a purchase for all but the die hard fans. Being that Gemma Ray is still in her early 20′s, I have hope that we have many years of great music to look forward to from such a gifted artist.

Tom Billington – Make No Bones Released: 24.05.2010 Label: Daddy Max Words: Tom Doyle

Whats the best thing you’ve ever done in a week? Well, if your name is Tom Billington then the best thing you’ve ever done in a

within a tried and tested framework, but does so absolutely superbly. Above all, this album is endlessly charming. Emotionally erudite and delicately executed, there is a crystalline beauty to Make No Bones which makes it not only a joy to behold but also a joy to revisit and re-

the approach here being far more stripped down, allowing the imagerich lyricism to sing through and sucker the listener in. The delicious Poppy Seed Heart is a perfect example of the subtle orchestration which affords this album much of its power. Sneaking up with a perfectly measured string section picking through the melody, it is just one of many tracks here demonstrative of a maturity of songwriting and a richness of ideas

Find Me Out perhaps falls down on the wrong side of the line in the emotive vs whiney stakes but even here there is much to enjoy about the aching simplicity of the delivery and instinctive understanding of melody. Overall, this is a genuinely beautiful record possesed of a consitency which few singer songwriters are able to achieve over the course of 15 tracks. And whilst much of this album falls

week is record Make No Bones (Tom, if this is not the best thing you’ve ever done in a week, I need to check your life out, cos it must be brilliant). Treading the well-worn path of guitary singer songwriter with a dash of emotive instrumentation thrown in the mix, this is an album which operates

discover when the weight of more complex and bloated musical experiences drag you down. The haunting fragility which skips through Billington’s vocal delivery is reminiscent of early Bright Eyes, yet musically there are fewer of the broad brush strokes of sound which characterize Mr Oberst’s output,

which in a fairer world would see Tom Billington elevated to the cult hero status at the drop of a hat. If there is one criticism to be levelled it is that this is real heart on the sleeve stuff from start to finish, and as a result occasionally walks a tightrope of self-indulgence. Album closer Someone’s Gonna

into a similar furrow, it is written and executed so beautifully that it would hard to level criticism at Billington on this count. Instead I highly recommend you check this out and bask in its glorious, heartfelt songsmithery. You shan’t regret it.

The Books – The Way Out

here, carrying on seamlessly from Released: 19.07.2010 their previous Label: Residence Records Words: Robert Miller album (2005’s Lost and Safe). Up, the flip side of the Their latest output, The Way coin has the likes of Two Out, is bookended by the two tracks Virgins, Metal Machine Group Autogenics I and Group Music and all of Neil Autogenics II. Again, the idea Young’s 80′s albums of a track made up of electronic [What?! - Ed] ready to instrumentation over a collage of remind us of the horrors hypnosis tapes is not going to be of the experimental. everyone’s cup of tea, but it works in On the other hand, its own way. Experimental music is a term that there are bands who’s entire raison From here the songs vary between can strike fear into the hearts of d’être is the creation of well crafted drawn out soundscape’s (The Story many people, and anything labelled experimental pieces. Nick Zammuto of Hip Hop), to 20 second audio with these words can often hint at and Paul de Jong (AKA The Books) clips that do little to divert from the one solitary listen before the CD ends are one such group, who have been source sound (A Wonderful Phrase up gathering dust. And this isn’t producing albums in the background By Gandhi), it all explores similar without good reason. It’s important of the mainstream for just nigh on territory for The Books that will to remember that when most of us a decade. please any existing fans. But The think of experimental music, we The New York-based duo’s Way Out shows a great progression think of successful and established distinctive cut and paste style, which from the duo’s previous efforts. In artists less than impressive attempts involves a lot of ‘found’ audio clips a rare move they have three tracks at transcending the limitations of spliced between a blend of non drum using their own vocals, which go to their own genre. Despite the odd based percussion loops and acoustic show the bands ability to create more success, such as Kid A, or REM’s instrumentation comes in to full play traditional and cohesive pieces. These

end up being some of the best tracks on the album. All You Need Is A Wall and We Brought the Flood are downbeat, dreamy efforts, with more than a hint of Sparklehorse about them. Free Translator is a straight forward folk song with a twist, crafted in such a way that it in no way feels out of place on the album. The Books pull in an amazing variety of sounds, from answer machine messages and dial tones to psychotic sounding spoken word samples, and at points the whole thing borders on turning into a sonic art project. But what surprises me most is that it works completely. Despite the type of techniques and audio samples used The Way Out flows well from track to track, and is at no point jarring or abrasive. If you haven’t heard The Books before, then this will serve as the best introduction, and will definitely warrant repeat listening.

Rose Elinor Dougall – Without Why Released: 26.07.2010 Label: Scarlett Music Words: Nick Foster

Without Why is the debut solo outing from ex Pipette, Rose Elinor who’s left the polka dot dresses behind to strike out on her own, armed with (I assume from listening to the album) a collection of late eighties, classic, alternative LPs.

According to her press release, Rose Elinor, name checks the likes of The Smiths, Felt and the Durutti Column as influences, and elements of these great bands are all present and correct within the LP, however one other named inspiration reigns over the whole album. Although Rose Elinor’s voice lacks the same London twang as Harriet Wheeler, The Sundays (no not the more laid back

cousins of The Saturdays) sound is prevalent throughout Without Why and although there isn’t a song quite strong enough to match Can’t Be Sure or This Is Where The Story Ends the air of melodic, serenity that echoes the 80’s / 90’s legendary, underachievers is undeniable, making the LP a very pleasant listen indeed. Produced by Lee “Muddy” Baker, there are a great deal of cast off, psychedelic sounds that intrigue (the opening song uses what I believe is a clavinet – anelectrophonic keyboard

sound that was common place in the mid sixties to early seventies) and Rose Elinor has knack of twisting a melody around the instrumentation, the album’s downfall, however, is the lack of a killer, stand out track, so denying the listener any real aural peaks. It is quite simply a very good listen, which if possibly given a little more thought (the album was 18 months in gestation) could’ve have been a great one.

The Lost Cavalry – Waves Freeze to Rolling Hills EP Released: 02.08.2010 Label: Two Six Heave Words: Ross Park

First track, Oh Sally, leads with a concertina which gives it the sea shanty-like sound that the cover promises b efore a perky glo ckenspiel This, Waves Freeze To Rolling chimes in. There’s a sense Hills, is the debut EP from the of drama to West’s Marc London’s The Lost Cavalry, led Almondesque voice, if not by former Fanfarlo guitarist shared with the music. The Mark West. While Fanfarlo Elephant of Castlebar Hill gets seem to b e permanently closest to that drama with its based in either America or an pulsing rhythmic push, but it adverAt, West has fled to the do esn’t quite get the flourish seas for this aquatic based slice in the chorus that it perhaps of a forthcoming album. deserves, and perhaps would

have received under his former employers. O nly Forward do es get the rich crescendo that the EP has b een lo oking for. Starting gently with an almost regal, plucked ukulele, b efore building layers of guitars and glo ck, with the cymbals mirroring the crashing waves of the EP’s lost-at-sea theme. In b oat terms, it’s certainly no Titanic, in comparison to either the disastrous sinking or the massive b ox-office success. To celebrate the release, The Lost Cavalry are playing on 4th August on a

b oat at Tamesis Do ck. It’s not worth risking seasickness to see them but who is? Other than Seasick Steve, just for the irony of it.

Continuing our series on film’s greatest movie composers, this month John Rain looks at the work of the great John Barry

he roaring brass and sweeping strings are as synonymous with James Bond as the Walther PPK and the licence to kill. This is all down to the genius of one man, John Barry. John Barry was born in York, England in 1933. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic environment, he soon began to assimilate the music which accompanied the films he saw nightly to a point when, even before he’d left school, he had decided to become a film music composer. It was during his National Service that he began performing as a musician. After taking a correspondence course and arranging for some of the bands of the day, he formed The John Barry Seven. He successfully launched them during 1957 via a succession of tours and TV appearances. A recording contract with EMI soon followed (and some hit records, including Hit and Miss the theme tune composed for the BBC’s Juke Box Jury programme). Barry’s undoubted talent showed impressed the studio management at Abbey Road and he became an arranger and conductor for other artists on the EMI roster including Adam Faith (heart throb of the day); he also composed songs and film scores on Faith’s behalf. When Faith made his first film Beat Girl in 1960 Barry composed, arranged and conducted the score that was not only Barry’s first film, but the first soundtrack album to be released on an LP in the UK. These achievements caught the attention of the producers of a new film called Dr. No who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Barry was hired to beat some life into it and the result would be one of the most famous signature tunes in film history, the James Bond Theme (though the writing credit went to

Monty Norman). Barry took the concept of the theme and injected it with the now famous raw energy you associate with Bond. That creeping guitar line and the exploding brass that follows it are almost as big in character as Bond himself. When the final guitar chord rings out you cannot help but smile and punch the air in joy (imagine how Bond must feel when he hears it?) Barry then followed Dr. No with the excellent From Russia With Love (beginning the tradition of also composing the Bond themes). If Dr. No was the blueprint for how Bond would sound, From Russia With Love went full steam ahead and built the majestic palace of sound that continued well into every Bond film with Barry as resident composer up to and including The Living Daylights, his final Bond gig. In fact the only Bond films Barry did not score at this time (due to either being busy of living abroad as a tax exile) were Live and Let Die (George Martin), For Your Eyes Only (Bill Conti) and The Spy Who Loved Me (Marvin Hamlish). Barry ploughed ahead during the 1960’s (in between Bond duties) and created some of the most beautiful and classic scores of the period such as Zulu, The Ipcress File, Midnight Cowboy, The Wrong Box, The Lion in Winter and Born Free (for the latter two films, he won Oscars for Best Original Score). During the 1970’s he weighed in with further classics

such as his 1972 musical version of Alice in Wonderland (co written with legendary lyricist Don Black, who also co wrote a few Bond themes with Barry). All the time he seemed perfectly able to bend his style to suit the period. With the 1970’s and disco he seemed to enjoy himself with the soundtrack to The Deep and the disco version of Moonraker. Further epic jobs would follow such as the remake of King Kong in 1976 (the music, apart from Jeff Bridges’ beard, is about the only thing to come out of it with any credit) and scoring the last Bruce Lee movie The Game of Death in 1978. Barry once again embraced the theme of Space in 1979 when he composed The Black Hole score. It is without doubt one of the best scores he ever produced and is full of creeping menace and well outshines the frankly tepid film itself. During the 1980’s Barry seemed to relax and produced some classic moody scores such as Body Heat, Jagged Edge, Peggy Sue Got Married, Howard the Duck (yes, believe it) and Out

of Africa (Oscar winnning score once again). In 1990, he once again received an Oscar for scoring the epic, Kevin Costner-helmed Dances with Wolves. The music was really a perfect marriage for the look and feel of the film and was a reminder that Barry still had it and still knew how to touch his audience with his beautiful music. Throughout the 1990s he kept busy with work scoring films like Indecent Proposal, The Specialist and The Scarlet Letter. The last film he scored was 2001’s Enigma and he has no further plans to get back into the soundtrack business, poor shame. In the late nineties he made a staggeringly successful return to the concert arena, playing to sell-out audiences at the Royal Albert Hall. Since then he has appeared as a guest conductor at a RAH concert celebrating the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor and made brief appearances at a couple of London concerts dedicated to his music. In 2004 he reunited with Don Black to write his fifth

stage musical, Brighton Rock, an adaptation of the Graham Greene novel which enjoyed a limited run at The Almeida Theatre in London.

Very average Bond film, good thing John Barry don’t truck with no average scores.

In more recent years, Barry has produced a couple of albums of his own music, Moviola starting with an unused theme for the film of that title, and The Beyondness of Things. These albums might be described as soundtracks without the intrusion of film visuals. His latest such album has only recently been released under the title Eternal Echoes. He has a fourth album on the way (with no release date as yet) called Seasons and is said to complete the trilogy started with Moviola and Eternal Echoes. Needless to say, John Barry’s position as the sound of James Bond is still undeniable despite its modernisation under the helm of the current Bond tunesmith David Arnold (who is very evidently heavily influenced by Barry).

Bond goes 80’s and Barry ably keeps up and gives Dalton a classy first go at the part. Barry would describe working with A-Ha on this project as “exhausting” (in other words, he thought they were twats) and they didn’t get on at all.

At the age of 71 in February 2005, Barry received the BAFTA Fellowship Award in recognition of his services to film music.

The Living Daylights

Diamonds are Forever

Connery came back and Barry made his home warm, welcoming and classy. This score just exudes the Vegas feel of being very cool.

You Only Live Twice

Barry actually had another song and singer already recorded, but at the last minute, I repeat, at the last minute, knocked out this piece of genius and called Nancy Sinatra. As you do.

Zulu

The very definition of epic. If you are ever besieged by a tribe, make sure you pop this on to get the right vibe.

In no particular order, here are my top 15 John Barry scores:

Goldfinger

The very definition of bombastic. An undeniable classic.

Body Heat

The feel of the movie perfectly summed up. Sexy, hot, sweaty and Ted Danson in glasses. A score I will always associate with my childhood love of all things Kathleen Turner.

Chaplin

A brooding subtle and tragic piece that plays on the heartstrings.

Howard the Duck

How John Barry agreed to score this film will forever remain a mystery, but this score is pure class and really deserves a project that is mildly decent.

The Wrong Box

A beautiful, sweeping score that waltzes through the film like a velvet ballerina.

The Ipcress File

This score makes the unbelievably cool 1960’s Michael Caine seem 200% cooler, now that is going some.

The Black Hole

Fear, menace, terror, loneliness. All perfectly portrayed in this unbelievable score.

Moonraker 92

Born Free

A score so famous Vic Reeves once released the song as a cover version. This lovely score conjures up images of African plains and lions gambling (not that one).

Midnight Cowboy

A film about seedy men involved in male prostitution just doesn’t deserve a fanfare this good. However, like the film, it’s a classic.

Dances with Wolves

A sweeping majestic score for a sweeping, epic, Oscarwinning modern classic. Words: John Rain

It was 30 years ago in July that Peter Sellers died. Here in this three part tribute is everything you need to know about the man, the myth, the legend: Peter Sellers.

Part One

here have been many hard nosed interviewers in the history of the journalism industry, from Jeremy Paxman to Robin Day. They made their names by cutting through the crap and getting to the point -- there was no messing around with these guys. A person could walk in plugging a book and come out psychoevaluated. But only one got Peter Sellers to reveal his inner workings, to explain his real feelings in one statement. That interviewer was Kermit the Frog. When Sellers guest starred on an episode of The Muppet Show in 1977 he chose not to appear as himself (which is what celebrity guests had always done) but instead appeared in a variety of costumes and accents. When Kermit the Frog told Sellers he could relax and be “himself” Sellers (wearing a Viking helmet, girdle and a boxing glove, claiming to have attempted to dress as Queen Victoria), replied, “There is no me. I do not exist. There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.” Not to take anything away from Kermit, Sellers would always give this kind of answer and this was just the latest in a long list of replies he had given when asked a question along these lines. He was once asked by a reporter on Canadian television, “You have played so many very different characters: who is the real Peter Sellers?” he paused, lowered his head and said, “I ... don’t really know”. Sellers was never happy when having to be himself, he was only ever satisfied when putting on a voice or donning a disguise. Certainly later in his career, he would usually only appear on the chat show circuit in costume. In 1974, he appeared on the Parkinson show dressed as a member of the Gestapo. After a few lines in keeping with his assumed character, he stepped out of the role and settled down for what is considered one of Parkinson’s most memorable interviews. Richard Henry Sellers was born on the 8th September 1925. His parents nicknamed him Peter after his brother that died at birth. Now, I am sure psycholgists would have fun with this fact - even as a child he was playing the part of someone else, but nevertheless it’s true.

His parents were music hall performers, his mother a dancer (in a water dance act) and his father a pianist. His mother was Jewish and his father was a Protestant Yorkshireman. His maternal grandmother, Benvenida Welcome Mendoza, was of Portuguese-Jewish descent. Her grandfather, Mordecai Mendoza, was a first cousin of “father of boxing science” English prizefighter Daniel Mendoza, a person that Sellers would identify with and mention quite a few times in his life. He also had a famous painting of Mendoza hanging in his office. From a young age, Sellers learned stagecraft performing with his family both dancing and drumming. He became an impressive jazz drummer and would often play drums throughout his life whenever the opportunity arose. He also played ukulele (Sellers always claimed that his father taught George Formby) and banjo. His specialty however was voices and impersonations. Sellers did not fit in at school. He was a lonely boy and definitely closer to his mother than to other boys, living a nomadic life (due to the frequent changes of address) and observing people around him rather than

interacting with them. This enhanced his physical talent of vocal flexibility and mimicry. During World War II, Sellers was an airman in the Royal Air Force. He was restricted to the ground due to his poor eyesight. He shared ground duties with a young Tony Hancock (megastar of 1950’s radio) and his tour included India and Burma. He also served in Germany and France after the war. He joined the famous Gang shows and travelled with them around the camps entertaining the troops. He had a reputation for impersonating his superior officers (his portrayal of RAF officer Lionel Mandrake in the film Dr. Strangelove and Goon Show character Major Dennis Bloodnok were certainly examples of this). On one occasion (using mimicry, talcum powder and a false moustache) he bluffed his way into the Officers’ Mess and helped himself to drinks and chatted with other officers. This was very brave (and stupid), as impersonating an officer carries a punishment of a possible dishonourable discharge and even imprisonment. He told Michael Parkinson in a 1972 interview that occasionally older officers would suspect him but he seemingly always got away with it (prompting friend and actor Graham Stark to nickname Sellers “Goldenballs” as he seemed to get away with everything). After the war, Sellers was unemployed so he decided to take advantage of his talent in mimicry and started

appearing onstage as a comedian. His first jobs were as a stand-up comedian in strip shows and voicing parrots and other animals in films such as The Black Rose. Fed up with his stalled career, Sellers called BBC radio producer Roy Speer and, imitating a famous radio personality of the day (Kenneth Horne), Sellers proclaimed himself to be one to watch and said that Speer should audition him immediately, which he did. After the audition Sellers became a member of the cast of Ray’s a Laugh, a highly popular radio show of the day. It was during this time that Sellers began to perform with some friends he met whilst performing at the Hackney Empire at a pub in London called The Grafton Arms. These friends were Spike Milligan, Harry Seacombe and Michael Bentine and they went by the name of “The Goons”. It was only a matter of time before the BBC began to broadcast Goon Show performances, though initially they insisted that they change the name to Crazy People. Many people believe that the spirit of the experimentation that became prevalent in the arts in post war Britain began with the Goon Show. Certainly The Beatles were massive Goons fans (George Martin even recorded Goons albums before the Beatles and almost certainly picked up his experimental techniques from working with them),

as were all of Monty Python, Peter Cook (whilst at boarding school, Cook used to feign illness on Friday evenings just so he could listen to the Goons on the radio in the sick bay), Dudley Moore, and many others who pushed barriers throughout the latter part of the twentieth century. George Harrison often felt that there was a spirit that passed from the Beatles to Python, and there is no doubt that the same spirit began with the Goon Show. Fans of indie music should also note that the band Ned’s Atomic Dustbin take their name directly from a Goon show episode. By today’s standards The Goons sound rather tame and certainly silly, but at the time nothing had been heard like it. The series premiered in May 1951 and audience figures grew rapidly, from around 370,000 to nearly two million by the end of the 17th show. Many senior BBC staff were totally confused by the show’s surreal humour and it has been reported that senior programme executives erroneously referred to it as The “Go On” Show. Sellers would often reminisce about this time as being his happiest in time in his professional life and you can see why. For someone with an identity crisis, radio really is the perfect medium -- and no one had an identity crisis as big as Sellers. He was able to fire out character after character and rarely ever used his own voice. It is certainly hard to imagine a show like The Goons causing such a stir now, but it was like a revolution in the wireless. People had simply never heard a show in which a batter pudding would be hurled at someone or a steam driven piano would be played. The BBC commissioned a second series during which a number of changes occurred. Bentine left the show, citing a desire to pursue solo projects and it went from strength to strength. Some attempts were made to get the Goons on screen (The Case Of The Mukkinese Battlehorn, Down among the Z men, Telegoons, A Show Called Fred) but these were never as successful -- it seemed the fun was in the listening, building the images in your mind. The pictures would never be as successful. Sellers however, began his first steps into becoming a film star. In 1955 he won a part as a teddy boy gangster in the classic film The Ladykillers. This gave Sellers an opportunity to work with his hero Alec Guinness (who had not long since showed his versatility and played an entire family in the film Kind Hearts and Coronets). To learn his lines Sellers recorded the entire script impersonating each member of the cast to perfection. Classic film parts followed such as Prime Minister Amphibulos in Carlton-Browne of the F.O. and the multiple performances in the classic film The Mouse that Roared (he played four parts). A career-defining performance followed in 1959 when Sellers played Fred Kite in the classic union satire, I’m

Alright Jack. Sellers won a BAFTA for the role and it cannot be denied that it is a powerhouse performance. In the same year, Sellers collaborated with Richard Lester (who also directed Milligan and Sellers in A show called Fred) to make The Running, Jumping, Standing Still film. It was filmed over two Sundays, at a cost of around £70 (including £5 for the rental of a field). It was basically a home movie. Sellers, a keen camera enthusiast, brought the cameras from his extensive home collection of expensive equipment. It went on to be nominated for an Oscar, but didn’t win sadly. It was a favourite of the Beatles, which led to Lester being hired to direct A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Cameras weren’t his only obsession, Sellers also had an obsession with cars (referring to himself as an “auto-erotic”), briefly parodied in a fleeting cameo in the short film Simon Simon, directed by friend Graham Stark. His love for cars was also referenced in The Goon Show episode The Space Age, where Harry Secombe introduces Sellers by saying, “Good heavens, it’s Peter Sellers, who has just broken his own record of keeping a car for more than a month.” Sellers then went on to play Dr. Ahmed el Kabir in The Millionairess (where the classic and contentious song “Goodness, Gracious me!” originates) with Sophia Loren. Rumours still persist to this day that Sellers and Loren began a torrid affair during this time, though many suspect the rumours may have originated from Sellers himself. Next followed some comedy roles in films such as Two Way Stretch, Only Two Can Play and a cameo as an Indian doctor in The Road to Hong Kong (another entry in the highly sucessful Bing Crosby/Bob Hope comedies). A dramatic role followed as Clair Quilty in the critically acclaimed adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. It was his for next part however, that he will always be remembered. Blake Edwards was putting together a David Niven jewel heist film called The Pink Panther. Peter Ustinov was on board to play the role of the French detective out to stop Niven’s jewel thief. However, for unknown reasons, Ustinov dropped out and Edwards brought in Sellers. By the time the film came out, Sellers was world famous and had stolen the show from under David Niven (a big star at the time) and a Clouseau spin off sequel was already in the works. Sellers was now top of his game. Next stop Hollywood. Surely nothing could go wrong? Words: John Rain

Inception

Released: 13.07.2010 Directed by: Christopher Nolan Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine

o say that every new Christopher Nolan film is hotly anticipated is a bit of an understatement. It’s a bit like saying that England had an average World Cup or that Beethoven had a mild hearing problem. Boasting a back catalogue like Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight, most directors would probably be scared to even go out of the door in case they do themselves a disservice. Nolan on the other hand seems to want to get out there and prove to the world that his previous work was by design and in no way by accident. With Inception, he does just that, and then some. Inception is the story of Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a world class criminal for hire who, with the help of a team of sleep agents, works his way into people’s subconscious and steals what people value most: ideas directly from their minds, this is called extraction. In his latest assignment, he is requested not to steal an idea from someone, but to plant one inside that person’s mind. This is called Inception and is thought to be impossible.

The pacing to the film is what makes it so unique. Usually with films such as Inception, the complex ideas and plot points are usually slowly delivered like fat parcels through a large letterbox. Inception fires its concepts at you like a tennis ball serving machine and after a while you begin to catch them at the same speed. You then begin to feel like a co-pilot of a Formula One car as it whizzes through the winding labyrinth track at breakneck speeds. The initial fear with the film as it opens is that you worry you are stupid and that it is leaving you behind, but worry not, it soon gently applies the brakes and lets you in on the plot with ingenious explanations and wonderful visuals. You sit watching this multi layered, demonic onion of a plot peel in front of your eyes and by the end can’t help but smile and shift in your seat knowing you have just witnessed a modern sci-fi thriller that will undoubtedly one day become a cult go-to film in much the same way Blade Runner is today. In fact, Inception feels very much like another Philip K. Dick interpretation much like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report were before it, however, this piece of magic is written by Christopher Nolan himself.

While the film is in no way perfect (there are plenty of holes you could pick in it) it somehow transcends any criticism by just feeling so fresh, original and a lovely throwback to the days when sci-fi movies had balls and treated their audiences with respect without a constant stream of exposition. When there is exposition in Inception, it just feels natural and in context. There are also a few nice action sequences that make you wish that when Nolan has finished with Batman (the third installment is up next on his agenda) and whipping Superman into shape that he get his laughing gear around James Bond. There is really no doubt now that the always reliable and impressive Nolan is really now batting things out of the park with Kubrick-ian aplomb and verve. His partnership with Wally Pfister (Director of photography) is still continuing to impress and amaze with the soft focus and command of light that Pfister obviously perfected with his early grounding in soft core pornography.

Nolanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preference to work with familiar faces doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end with his crew, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine return to the fold as does Hanz Zimmer and his amazing score which damn well nearly blows you out of your seat. The score is also worthy of note because it seems not to cease and just keeps the frenetic energy of the film ticking along like an angry bomb. The rest of the cast also shine with Joseph GordonLewitt (was that really him in 3rd Rock from the Sun??) Ellen Page, and Tom Hardy particularly standing out. In conclusion, Inception is a piece of art, and whilst flawed in places is an amazing and rewarding experience on every level. If it were a theme park ride I would have gone back for another go. A must see. Words: John Rain

L’arnacoeur

Released: 02.07.2010 Directed by: Pascal Chaumeil Starring: Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier, Andrew Lincoln

or some, French cinema holds all the crosschannel lure and magnetism of an Eric Cantona monologue and about half the entertainment value of The Singing Nun. After all, how can ninety black and white minutes of two grizzled fisherman constantly shrugging their shoulders at the question of whose turn it is to clean the accordion — all told in barely legible subtitles — be an engaging experience? Well, guess again, recent Gallic output (Un Prophete, Mesrine) has seen a real renaissance (sorry) of the nation’s film industry. Furthermore, you will get your chance to view this story in an inevitable, and ultimately pointless, American remake some time soon, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t catch a head start now. The film concerns Alex Lippi (Romain Duris), a ‘professional heartbreaker’, and his hapless sister and brother-in-law who run a service breaking up unhappy marriages before they have a chance to happen. However, the trio are presented their hardest challenge yet by the father of Juliette Van Der Becq (Vanessa Paradis) who wishes Lippi to seduce her out of her upcoming marriage to the rich and apparently flawless Brit Jonathan Alcott (Andrew Lincoln). What follows are a far-fetched and very funny few days as the trio

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employ every scheme, set-up and technology trick they can think of in order to make Van Der Becq fall in love with Lippi. The leads play their roles well with Duris enchanting from the offset and, after a stony start, Paradis finally letting her beauty shine through. François Damiens and Julie Ferrier are hilarious as bungling, delusional stooge Marc and his sharper, sassy wife Mélanie while Andrew Lincoln is adequate and you cannot help but imagine the fourteen year old version of himself bragging to his mates that in twenty years he’d be sleeping with France’s number one pop star — on film at least. Based loosely on the Frank Capra’s screwball classic It Happened One Night, Heartbreaker is a warm, funny and engaging film. What it loses in improbability and corny prosaism it more than makes up for in affability and rollicking levity. Catch this story on its original run and in its original language, you won’t regret it. Words: Richie Brown

Valentine’s Day

Released: 12.07.2010 (DVD & Blu-ray) Directed by: Garry Marshall Starring: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Kathy Bates, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Julia Roberts

hen Love Actually was released way back in 2003 the world marvelled at how Richard Curtis had managed to assemble such a stellar cast, featuring the cream of British talent, and plonk them all in to one romantic comedy. Now it’s Hollywood’s turn and director Garry Marshall has pulled out all the stops to secure the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Emma Roberts, Bradley Cooper Patrick Dempsey, Kathy Bates, Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway, Eric Dane, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, Shirley MacLaine and more. So with a cast featuring everbody who’s anybody in Hollywood and a director who has shown his hand at rom-coms in the past (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) you’d expect Valentine’s Day to be an unprecedented success. Unfortunately it isn’t, but it’s not as bad as many people would have you believe. The trouble with these ensemble pieces is that they all too often rely on star quality to make the most out of a dodgy script and that’s what we’re left with here. The different threads of the film weave together successfully enough and there are a few nice touches and surprises at the end, most

notably involving Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper, but inevitably some of these threads are much stronger than others. While Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift produce a few funny lines in their roles as overly loved up teenagers, they are completely unneccesary and only tenuously linked to the other stories, likewise the thread where a young boy has crush on his teacher (Jennifer Garner). It seems that these have only been inserted to bump up the running time. However, the two threads that are most prominant are both done well. Ashton Kutcher is seemingly the main protagonist within the film and he excels as Reed, a florist whose girlfriend leaves him on the day he proposes to her. Kutcher brings a warmth and charm to the film as he struggles to deal with his emotions for the women in his life and it’s clear that he genuinely cares about the people around him. Elsewhere a thread involving Jason (Topher Grace) and his girlfriend Liz (Anne Hathaway) comes to a head when Edgar and Estelle (played fantastically by Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine) teach him that you have to take the rough with the smooth in a scene of surprising poignancy. Whilst Valentine’s Day might have a healthy dosing of the cheese and corniness that comes as part of the territory that comes with romantic comedies, it also has enough heart and genuinely touching moments to ensure that it doesn’t descend in to farce. The performances of many of its stars including Kutcher, Elizondo and MacLaine make it worthwhile viewing. Words: Adam Gibby

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Greenberg

Released: 04.10.2010 (DVD & Blu-ray) Directed by: Noah Baumbach Starring: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh

f you’ve had any contact with Noah Baumbach’s previous work (The Squid and the Whale, The Fantastic Mr Fox, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou) you should approach this film knowing what to expect: a lot of dialogue, a lot of character analysis, and not great deal of plot. On this occasion Baumback not only fulfills what is arguably his most comfortable role as writer of the screenplay (adapted from a story conceived by Jennifer Jason Leigh) but this is also one of the rare occasions we find him in the chair stencilled ‘Director’. Greenberg finds Ben Stiller stepping out of the comedy pool and dipping his toe into rare serious role. Now, before this makes you roll your eyes and walk away, don’t forget his turns in not only The Royal Tenembaums but also as a very angry version of himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm — which he pulled off with aplomb. Here he plays the titular Roger Greenberg, a

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man who, having just finished a stint in a mental home following a nervous breakdown, has escaped New York returning to his childhood home of LA to house-sit for his brother and “do nothing”. It’s here that he meets his brother’s house keeper and assistant Florence (a mainstream debut for Mumblecore stalwart Greta Gerwig). As the film’s title would suggest, the film focuses Greenberg, the narrative made up of the events in the six weeks he spends in LA and the periphery characters from his current and former life — primarily an awkward relationship with Florence. While no one is going to call this performance careerdefining (perhaps a product of quite how many people will pay to see this as compared to, say, the upcoming third installment of the Meet The Parents franchise) there’s no denying that Stiller pulls of the awkward, shy, OCD-afflicted Greenberg with ease. Both Greenberg and Florence are seemingly in life limbo, their lives both propelled by snap decisions and regrettable situations. The interactions between Stiller and Gerwig are tense and frustrating, which is everything they need to be. Even after countless arguments, a horribly awkward attempt at sex, and the fifteen year age gap the pair are inexplicably

drawn to each other. A relationship that continues to fail even as it’s beginning.

— especially for fans of LCD Soundsystem (it’s on Spotify).

Padding out the cast are a number of appearances from Greenberg’s past including his old friend Ivan, the guitarist from the band that were “this close” to making, played by Rhys Ifans. While Ifans isn’t really given enough screen time to shine he plays the rather demure Welshman-out-of-rehab with ease (referred to as an Englishman on a number of occasions) and acts as a good sounding board for Greenberg. Also making a brief appearance is Jennifer Jason Leigh as the ex-girlfriend.

It’s easy to bemoan Greenberg for its lack of any real story or infact point. While the film does seem to loose what little plot it has in its final third (a drugfulled party which seems to serve no real purpose) it still manages to capture your attention throughout — helped no doubt by Baumbach’s talent to spin dark, whitty and sharp dialogue. The film is full of quirks like Greenberg’s obsession with writing brilliantly articulate complaint letters about seemingly inane annoyances, including a letter to Starbucks about how he enjoys their choice of music too much which starts: “Dear Starbucks, in your attempt to manufacture culture out of fast food coffee you’ve been surprisingly successful for the most part. The part that isn’t covered by ‘the most part’ sucks.” It’s also peppered with quotables like “Hurt people hurt people” or “Youth is wasted on the young.”

Interestingly for music fans, the soundtrack for Greenberg was handed to James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. Although a smattering of songs by other artists feature (Albert Hammond, Steve Miller Band, Duran Duran) the bulk of the soundtrack is made up of original compositions by Murphy. Consisting primarily of subtle beats and soft synths it draws comparison to Michael Andrews’ soundtrack on Miranda July’s You Me And Everyone We Know. When it’s not ploughing that furrow it picks up with a few breezy acoustic numbers and calypso rhythms which suggest that Murphy has probably been watching a lot of Wes Anderson films in preparation. As a first effort at soundtrack work it’s largely accomplished and well worth checking out

Born very much from the staple of Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers, Greenberg might not be for everyone but this doesn’t mean it’s no good. If you like your dialogue sharp and witty, your focus on character over narrative and your soundtrack by James Murphy then this is well worth your time. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

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Get Him To The Greek

Released: 04.06.2010 Directed by: Nicholas Stoller Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss Rose Byrne, Sean Combs

et Him to the Greek is the latest film to fall off the Judd Apatow comedy juggernaught, giving Russell Brand his own spin-off from his Forgetting Sarah Marshall appearance as rocker Aldous Snow. Except it’s not any of those things. It’s a spin off to Forgetting Sarah Marshall in the way that Joey was to Friends. It’s from a different set of writers from Sarah Marshall and it’s quickly apparent that Brand’s character has little more in common with the first film than his name. Jonah Hill, who shared most of his scenes in Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Brand, is literally an entirely different character, appearing as a record company worker who plans to relaunch Aldous Snow with a comeback gig at the Greek Theatre. All he has to do is get him there (cue hilarious consequences). Since the last film, Snow has slipped down the greasy rock ‘n’ roll pole after his single, ‘African Child,’ was named as, “the worst thing to happen to Africa since Apartheid,” and has subsequently descended back into a drugs and alcohol daze putting him into a period of reflection and inner turmoil.

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Apatow’s Funny People had a similar line of ‘What’s it all about?’ moments but here it’s stretched, laboured and actually quite depressing. There’s quite a period where you almost feel uncomfortable laughing at the funny moments amidst Snow’s sorrow. It’s almost as if there’s two films going on; one the comedy, almost excessively crude at times; the other, the journey of a rocker wondering what happens when you get everything you wish for, which prompts a few tired clichéd lines. That said, there’s a lot of laugh-out-loud moments from the various cameos and Puff Daddy/Diddy/ Doddy’s several scene-stealing turns as the record label boss with his constant quotable lines (“You can’t outrun me – I’m black!”). As in his other film roles, Russell Brand is funniest when being Russell Brand. He delivers some great deadpan ridiculousness in his exchanges with Hill and some lines have his floral flourishes all over them (when running down a long hallway, “This corrider is almost Kubrickian”). Whilst it’s by no means perfect, there’s more than enough in it to enjoy. Words: Ross Park

Le Concert

Released: 30.07.2010 Directed by: Radu Mihaileanu Starring: Aleksei Guskov, Mélanie Laurent Thirty years after his ignominious dismissal as the conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, Le Concert tells the tale of Andrei Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) and Sacha Grossman (Dmitri Nazarov) as they use an intercepted fax to re-assemble their largely Jewish (and therefore largely ‘wrong’ under Brezhev’s Soviet Union) orchestra to play one final hurrah at Paris’ prestigious Châtelet theatre. Enlisting the help of the broken, yet still staunchly Communist, ex-KGB officer who orchestrated (sorry) their original downfall, they manage to convince the theatre of their authenticity and ensure travel, board and expenses for their entire number plus a guest appearance by young French virtuoso Anne-Marie Jacquet (Inglorious Basterds’ Mélanie Laurent) – now they just need to put their orchestra back together, arrange instruments, suits, over fifty passports and Visas and the sponsorship of a tone-deaf Oligarch.

the orchestra who simply run riot around Paris once they arrive (save for the wonderful Jewish father and son black marketeers / trumpeters) and, ultimately, by a lovely if incredibly far-fetched ending. However, excellent central performances from Guskov, Nazarov and Laurent and the seemingly ageless Miou-Miou (as mysterious agent Guylène de La Rivière), the wonderfully shot Parisian scenery and the superb score (topped by Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major op. 35) all make for a very enjoyable film. Words: Richie Brown

Le Concert is an endearing, funny and ultimately heart-warming romp backed up by some wonderful music and contains an entertaining puzzle pieced together over its course. It is let down slightly by a rather unnecessary blood bath during a Russian mafia wedding and the general feeling of dislike for much of

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Predators

Released: 09.07.2010 Directed by: Nimrod Antal Starring: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo

Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked to reprise his role in the sequel but didn’t like the idea of the film, feeling that taking it into the city was a bad idea. He declined and decided instead to sign on for a different sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. History has proved him to have once again made the right move.

n 1987, science fiction and action merged majestically to bring us Predator. The story of a crack regiment of soldiers, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are hunted down and picked off one by one by an alien hunter. As an action film it is a work of art, almost every scene a wonderfully crafted set piece directed with real flair by John Mctiernan (who the following year lovingly brought us Die Hard) and acted out with genuine skill and care by the amazing ensemble cast.

Danny Glover took over the hero role for the sequel and doesn’t really carry the film very well. As an action star he is rather awkward and looks uncomfortable climbing over rooftops and pointing guns at people. Bill Paxton and Gary Busey appear in minor roles however, so not all hope is lost. Predator 2 doesn’t really measure up to the first one and is deeply flawed. It has some great set pieces (the subway, the abattoir) but that isn’t enough to keep it interesting.

To understand why Predator is so good, you have to bear in mind the time it came out. The mid to late 1980’s were a hot bed of macho action movies and the king of action through the 1980s and 90s was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Looking back it is easy to see why he was so popular. The man just exudes charisma and likeability. He could seemingly do no wrong with his initial film choices (you could argue that 1986′s Raw Deal is an exception to the rule) and with each film got better and more at ease on screen. Predator is Schwarzenegger perfecting his art in the hands of an excellent director. The script by Jim and John Thomas is perfect. Within ten minutes you are in the jungle and you begin to get an idea of what is out there hunting our heroes. A silent and seemingly invisible hunter who can blend seamlessly with its surroundings. Another key part to the success of this film is the creature design. It is just so original and was something that just had not been seen up to that point. The man responsible (as with all good make up design of the period) was the amazing (and sadly late) Stan Winston.

The franchise rested for fourteen years until the god awful Paul W.S. Anderson (Soldier, Event Horizon) Aliens vs. Predator arrived in 2004. The less said about that (and the woeful AVP:Reqium) the better. They are very bad and should be avoided like dog shit on a pavement.

It is lucky he came along, as before Stan Winston was hired the Predator looked very different (and was performed by Jean Claude Van Damme). Good thing Winston came along and redesigned that mess (thanks to James Cameron also for coming up with the idea of the creature having mandibles). Out went the old suit (and Van Damme) and in came the new design and 7ft 2in Kevin Peter Hall (also sadly not with us anymore) to perform inside the suit. Hall had previously played Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons and was about the best there was at the time. Seeing Schwarzenegger dwarfed by the huge Predator during the final battle really made the creature seem much more menacing and a genuine threat. The film was a success and it was only a matter of time before a sequel followed. In 1990 Predator 2 was released to lukewarm reviews. The idea this time being that the predator was in Los Angeles, or as the tag line put it “Silent. Invisible. Invincible. He’s in town with a few days to kill“.

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The Predator (and Alien) franchise looked dead, buried and frankly sorry for itself. However, last year, it was announced that Robert Rodriguez’s (From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, Planet Terror) long talked about Predator sequel script from 1994 (intended to be

Predator 3) had been dusted off by someone at Fox and greenlit (maybe the same kind soul who greenlit the Alien prequel). The internet went crazy, and Rodriguez himself posted a message online to confirm he was attached, but as only a producer and that Nimrod Antal (Control, Vacancy) was to be the director. So, after 23 years and 3 mediocre sequels, what is Predators like? The film begins with Royce (Adrien Brody), a mercenary, plummeting through the sky from a great height. Eventually his parachute opens and he successfully lands in a jungle. Upon landing, he is immediately confronted by several other heavily-armed individuals including Russian Spetsnazsoldier Nikolai, Mexican drug cartel enforcer Chuchillo (Danny Trejo) and IDF sniper Isabel (Alice Braga). They quickly encounter several more people dropped from the sky into the jungle, including an RUF officer called Mombasa, an American Death Row inmate called Stans (Walton Goggins), a silent Yakuza assassin called Hanzo, and an American doctor (Topher Grace). Only one thing is common between the people stranded in the jungle – they are almost all coldblooded killers and the last thing they can remember is a light, then waking up in freefall. It eventually becomes apparent however that they are being hunted by a group of Predators. This is where the film begins to fall apart. So much time is devoted to our group of castaways (their confusion and hostility reminiscent of Lost) that we barely get to see the Predators. When there is action, it is lost in jerky and confusing camera movements. This combined with the bad script serve only to frustrate the viewer.

The characters themselves also suffer from the writing. Where as in the first film you wanted to jump in the screen and back up Dutch and his brave boys, in this film you couldn’t care less if this vapid bunch of crack bell-ends get slaughtered. They just don’t have anything memorable about them. They simply exist as cannon fodder and your main passtime becomes guessing the order in which they will die. Lawrence Fishburne pops up to play the modern equivalent of Terry Jones in the hole from The Life of Brian (“fifteen years and I hadn’t said a word until he came along“) and serves about as much purpose. He may as well be called “Mr. Exposition”. He plays a guy who has been there for ten years and survived. He is a total piece of lazy movie writing and even has an imaginary friend he talks to in a “I’m mad, me!” way. His appearance is doubly annoying as it slows the already pedestrian pace of film down even more. This film just feels like it has been written and directed by people who don’t understand action and how to deliver it, which is a real shame when that is principally what your film should have in abundance. Another problem is Adrien Brody. He just isn’t an action star. Nimrod Antal says he specifically chose Adrien Brody for the main protagonist: “It was a challenge in finding a balance. When we cast Adrien, there were a lot of people going, What? But at the same time, if we cast a Vin Diesel in that role or anyone who is Arnold-esque, we would have been attacked for doing that. So we decided early on to go in a very different direction as far as the casting process, but it turned out fantastic.” As gruff as Brody wants to talk, he just doesn’t seem tough. When he takes his top off at the end it feels like an elaborate Mr. Muscle advert (or Twiglets) and he doesn’t do or say anything to endear himself to the viewer. There are some good points. The score by John Debney lovingly pays homage to the Predator score. The problem with that though is that you yearn for the original film as the points in the score you have stored in your mind have visual resonance, whereas here they just play along whilst Adrien Brody maneuvers his massive conk across the screen and speaks in a gruff voice. The creature design and CG effects are also pretty good (though again, the manic camera work sometimes spoils nice shots) and the general look of the film is pretty good. It is very sad as the elements are all in place for this to be a good film, but it just isn’t. I am afraid it is toss. I never thought I would say this as I walked into the cinema, but Predator 2 is actually a better film. While this is nowhere near as bad as AVP, it simply just doesn’t have enough going for it to stick in your memory for long. If you have £10 burning a hole in your pocket, I suggest you buy Predator 1 & 2 and stay in for the night. Words: John Rain

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The A Team

Released: 29.07.2010 Directed by: Joe Carnahan Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley

he A Team is a remake of the classic TV series from the 1980s. It stars Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) as Face, Quinton Jackson as B.A., and Sharlto Copley (District 9) as Murdoch. Together they form the aforementioned ATeam, an elite army team, imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. They soon escape and set out to clear their name. The film begins with a highly unnecessary origin sequence in which our protagonists all meet up and begin working together. We are subjected to twenty minutes of finding out that Hannibal likes plans, Face likes women, B.A. hits people and likes his van and Murdoch is mad. The film then fades to black with a caption saying “8 years later“. Surely, we could just take it as read that they know each other? This all seems fairly pointless and serves no real purpose other than to explain things that simply dont need explaining. I am getting fed up with Hollywood’s obsession with origin stories. They aren’t exactly deep characters or anything, they are men, they work together. One thing the TV series had, love it or hate it, in abundance was charm. This remake has no charm at all. In fact it has a charm vacuum and much like a vacuum, it really sucks.

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There are some good things in the film. Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) is very good as shady CIA agent “Lynch”. He is actually the best thing in the film and keeps it ticking along every time he is on screen. He also has the best lines and scenes by far. Sharlto Copley, Bradley Cooper and Quinton Jackson make a good fist of rounding out the A Team. They certainly make lemonade from the lemons the script hands them and Copley even manages to get a few laughs. But that is about it. You would have to say the problems begin with the script. It is flabby, clichéd, predictable and full of honkingly bad dialogue. There is a scene at the start in which Hannibal is serving in Iraq and has a “moment” with the Iraqi soldiers which at best can be described as patronising. He talks to them like they are six year old children, it is skin crawlingly embarrassing. Talking of Hannibal, Liam Neeson is really not very good as Hannibal. He just seems wrong for the part, espeiclaly when compared to the charasmatic George Peppard who originated the role. I don’t think chomping on cigars and endlessly parroting “I love it when a plan comes together” is really a substitute for charisma. Say what you like about Peppard, but he had that mischief in his eyes that Neeson just doesnt

have. Neeson’s potrayal of Hannibal just seems like they would all call him a twat behind his back. When he does try and have a bit of banter with his team it just comes across as awkward. Remember Peppard and Mr. T hated each other, but you would never know that by watching the TV series. Neeson just feels disconnected from this team and rather awkward, like he is a Chris Rea fan at a Metallica gig. Another issue with this Hannibal is that most of his “plans” seem to hinge on many factors he can’t possibly control or predict, and frequently require the people involed to be highly psychic, invisable or superhuman. Quite often, I found myself being reminded of the recent film Macgruber. That had the same cliches and same bad dialogue, but it was intentionally a comedy. Another major problem is the CGI (I wish I had a pound for every time I have said that). Movie makers seem to have forgotten about peril. To believe someone is in peril, you first have to see them in peril. I am sorry, but seeing someone hanging out of a helicopter with a clearly fake green screen background, just doesn’t do it for me. Surely it is about time that we returned to old values? Can we have action films with actual action in them? No more CGI boats, planes or helicopters. Even the last Bond film had a CGI plane in it. Stunt men are very capable, history has

showed us this, Burt Reynolds made films about it in the 1970s. I grew up watching TV specials about stuntmen, what will there be for my children? Will we ever have another truck sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark? A scene so crazy-amazing that it left me open mouthed for years afterwards and still gets my adrenalin going. I just dont get excited about seeing fake stuff happen. There is a big set piece in The A Team involving a boat full of giant metal crates. From the first second of the sequence starting, you can see that it is all computer generated. In almost an instant, I tune out. I am sure I am not alone in this. The direction by Joe Carnahan (NARC) is also suspect. Whenever there is action, you have no chance as a viewer to see what is going on. The camera just does not stay still. You become bewildered and can never keep up with who is punching/shooting who. Action scenes start off with good intentions and then slowly become disorientating, like the camera operator is being attacked by really angry bees. So in conclusion, if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you should avoid The A Team. Words: John Rain

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Toy Story 3

Released: 19.07.2010 Directed by: Lee Unkrich Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen

fter the fantastic duo of its predecessors, not to mention a gap that tops a decade since the sophomore flick, Toy Story 3 has faced high expectations since the first announcements of its production. Typically also, cynicism purely based on the unwritten rule of cinema that: if you’re making the “threequel” to a series, it’s likely to be, well… not very good. This being said, the week of release sees queues spilling out into the streets, something that I haven’t seen for a long time; and for at least this week, the cinema can proudly boast that it’s not just Orange Wednesday that’s keeping them afloat. Rated U, and created by the awesome legacy that is Pixar/Disney, it couldn’t be more of a kids’ film. Ironically, there’s barely anyone here under the age of 18. Looking up and down anxiously excited queues and sticky strips of theatre rows, 90% of the audience are at least 20-something, and like me, were around the right age for the first two installments in the Toy Story trilogy, which gives a nice, charming twist to the usual target audience. The third outing for everyone’s favourite plastic heroes sees all the usual characters back and better than ever before. Loveable duo Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) still bringing an instant smile to a nostalgic face, as well as the rest of the classic gang including Slinky, Hamm and Mr & Mrs Potato Head. This time around, their owner Andy has grown up, doesn’t play with toys anymore, and is moving to college. Once he begins packing, he has to decide whether to pack his toys in the attic or donate them to the local day care centre, Sunnyside. As the name might suggest, Sunnyside seems like the idyllic setting for Woody and the gang to live out the rest of their days, but true to form, disaster is just around the corner courtesy of day care centre head honcho Lotso. His posse of villains include the eerie Big Baby, startling Cymbal Banging Monkey and the hilariously camp Ken. These are amongst a range of other debuting toys, including a few nice cameos including Whoopi Goldberg as Stretch, and Trixie the Triceratops voiced by Kristen Schaal of Flight Of The Conchords fame.

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Returning director Lee Unkrich is more than welcome, and turns Sunnyside into a theatrical rollercoaster. Unkrich can turn even the most innocent idea of a baby doll into something sinister, a shot seeing the lone Big Baby sitting on a swing slowly lulling in the night’s breeze that’ll send a creepy chill down anyone’s spine. Don’t let that be a put-off though, as it’s a nice contrast to the joy of the series that is well known, loved and ever present. Toy Story 3 is full of laughs and banter that’ll have kids and adults laughing side by side, such as the endlessly amusing romantic back and forth between metrosexual Ken and protagonist Barbie. Not forgetting Buzz’s odd Spanish turn, which although it may outstay it’s welcome just a little, is still satisfying funny. Some may argue that the same old Disney-esque formulaic story has been revamped and churned out again, but when it has worked so well twice before, why not?! There are still the urgently tense shots of adrenaline when you think it’s all over that’ll have those “seen it all before” cynics swallowing their hearts with relief, because you can’t help but become emotionally attached, and that’s what Disney do best. Emotionally attached is an understatement, so be prepared to cry, as even the most rugged of hearts will have their strings pulled. Those half-embarrassed-tobe-here adult men who have been dragged along by their girlfriends are thankful if they’ve seen it in 3D — those glasses will mask their manly tears as the Toy Story comes to an end. The massive hype behind this film is pretty much justified, and Pixar have arguably created the best film with the number three after the title, bringing a fantastic ending to the characters that have defined the last 15 years of Disney, and many more to come. Words: Matt Fearon

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Crackdown 2

Format: Xbox 360 Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Ruffian Games Three years back a game arrived which turned a few heads — that game was Crackdown. Why the cricked necks? Well, first off all it was a third-person sandbox shooter that had been conceived by David Jones. David Jones? Oh, he’s just the guy who created Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings! The gaming heritage box was well and truly ticked before anyone had a chance to get their hands on it. Excitement brewed. That second selling point? By buying a copy of Crackdown you were also buying access to the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta. A massively big deal; at 8.1 million copies Halo 3 is still the biggest selling game on the Xbox 360. The anticipation of its arrival was huge and most of that pant-wetting excitement was for

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more multiplayer. What impatient Halo fans found themselves with was a solid game that was actually pretty good. Bonus! Set in the quasi-futuristic Pacific City, a new breed of agents found themselves in a vast and open metropolis blowing shit up, leaping from rooftop to rooftop and forming a crack-like addiction for Agility Orbs. After saving Pacific City and celebrating with a liberal round of high fives we’re back in our agency threads to, you guessed it, save Pacific City! Crackdown 2 takes place ten years after the events of Crackdown and, although it looks like any number of bombs has hit it, it’s still the same Pacific City. This time around a virus (I guess) has resulted in a terrible number of mutant “Freaks” to be wreaking havoc in the city. At the same time the vigilante group called The Cell are revolting against both you and the freaks. Your job as an agent of, er, The Agency, is to sort the whole thing out. And when it comes to story, that really is about it. Yes there are a tonne of audio files to find and collect that perhaps help the narrative unfold but the problem is you have to find them. By simply focusing your attention on the main task at hand there is no exposition. The narrative should unfold as you work your way through a game, new tasks and challenges drip-feeding the player information and insight. Crackdown 2’s biggest flaw: repetition. You have two main goals as an Agent: sort out the freaks; sort out The Cell. Unfortunately these are basically the same thing. When it comes to dealing with the Freaks you are tasked with detonating nine bombs — all part of “Project Sunburst”. First you need to navigate to and active three absorption points. This triangulates a bomb’s drop point. The Agency will then drop in a bomb to the given location and your job is to defend that bomb from waves of Freaks while it activates. Repeat eight more times. The Cell? Well they control a number of Stringholds in the city. Your job is to navigate to each Stonghold, call in a chopper and then, yes, defend that location until you’ve eliminated the required number of cell and the chopper arrives. Arrive, activate, defend. Repeat. Until. Fade. The one saving grace of Crackdown 2 is that while the

game doesn’t evolve, you do. Just by working your 9-to-5 as an Agent you’ll be picking up skills without even trying. By playing through the game you’ll be steadily filling your Firearms, Strength, Explosive and Driving metres which reward you with new weapons, vehicles and the strength to start wielding lamp-posts, throwing cars and performing a couple of special moves such as a ground smash and a barge. As in the first installment of the game the only way you can increase you agility (jump height, running speed) is to collect the shiny, beautiful, warmly glowing orbs. Much of your time will be spent leaping from building to building, climbing up ledges and working out the best way to get your hands on the most difficult to reach blobs to crack. As well as all 500 agility orbs, 300 secret orbs, a number of renegade orbs which you have to chase either on foot or in vehicle, and multitude of audio logs that you can find around Pacific City there’s a whole host of other challenges to be tackled. Seriously, if you’re a completest then this game will ruin you. When you add a number of vehicle races, rooftop races and vehicle stunt rings to your To Do List then you’ve got to be getting on for at least a thousand trinkets and challenges to collect and complete. Pound for pound, there’s a whole lot more side quest than main quest in Crackdown 2.

There are some fairly fundamental problems with Crackdown 2, the most obvious being “Why was it made?” It offers very little that wasn’t already in the first game. They’ve not even gone for the old film sequel classic of “Same film, different location.” Its second flaw is the virtually nonexistent story. No real narrative means no real gameplay. Even a poor story can drive interesting and entertaining game play. The “Eliminate the cell, eliminate the freaks” core of the narrative leads to repeating the same task over and over, which soon becomes a chore, even if your agent’s arsenal of skills are becoming more fun to wield as the game progresses. Admittedly, when it comes to sandbox games half the fun is turning it on and messing about in a virtual world for an hour or so with no need to take on any of the main game. Ruffian have got the messing about stuff spot on here. There’s more than enough to keep you busy and thousands of freaks and cell to dispose of when it comes to playing with your powers and toys. However, once you’ve grown tired of messing about there’s nothing of any substance to turn to. Ruffian seem to have focused on the mantra of “Collecting shit makes you bad-ass. Go have some fun!” and then remembered at the last minute about story and gameplay. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

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Hyrdo Thunder Hurricane Format: Xbox Live Arcade Publisher: Microsoft

The Xbox Live Arcade is often overlooked by the majority of regular gamers — probably due to the fact that you have to pay around £10 (1200 MS Points) for a game that would be more suited to a previous generation console. Why should we fork out our hard earned cash to play something that doesn’t hold up to the graphics or production standard that we have become accustomed to since the birth of the Xbox 360? Well, if you search around the 100s of games currently available on the Live Arcade, you might just find the answer: – a few hidden gems. In the late 90’s Midway produced the hit Hydro Thunder -– a frantic boat racing game with environments that move, shift and collapse right in front of your eyes. The first official sequel comes in the form of Hydro Thunder Hurricane, bringing with it stunning HD visuals and a redeveloped game engine to push the possibilities for water physics in a low budget game like this. Vector Unit has stepped in as the developer and, despite having a crew that could fit in a Mini Cooper, has managed to develop something on a much larger scale than should feasibly be possible. It really is bang on with its motto ‘Big games in small packages’.

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So, onto the game itself. Everything you need as a novice to this title is there from the beginning, with beautifully simple tutorials on the game modes, controls and even boat types. It can be flicked through in a matter of minutes, allowing you to jump straight into the action without needing to take a look back. The downloadable game comes with eight all-new interactive tracks, four single player modes – race, championship, ring master and gauntlet — multiplayer modes for eight online players and four local

players, and a shed-load of unlockables to keep you busy along the way. The single player aspect is extremely well thought out, with a position-based credits system to unlock further items as you progress through the game. This system works well to drip-feed rewards and keep you wanting to advance to the next unlockable track, boat, race type and even avatar item or gamer picture. The dynamics of the racing feel very natural and fluid, even with the collapsing cliff faces, 800ft drops and exploding barrels. The earlier boats provide a good base to improve your skills before moving up to the ‘expert’ vessels and more advanced track layouts. On the subject of tracks, they are quite something – beautifully designed with each layout having a unique feel and usually something completely out of the ordinary to throw you off course – cue gigantic dinosaur. There are a few modes to add to the diversity of the single player campaign. The standard race, where you always start in last place, is simple but effective. Ring Master is a gate-based time trial — each ring passed through allows you to add boost to your transforming boat to speed through the track. You can’t just go all out

though, as every missed gate costs time and empties the boost meter. Gauntlet is your benchmark time trial mode… with exploding barrels everywhere in the water! Finally, the Championship mode mixes all of the above over a series of events for a bumper credit score, depending on your position. Each mode seems to lure you into that horribly addictive ‘just one more try’ ethic, which is frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Multiplayer can be slightly weak at times –- it feels as if you aren’t racing against each other for bragging rights as much as the AI boats just to stay 5th or 6th. Unfortunately this just loses the competitive edge slightly — the whole point of playing alongside someone in a race game such as this. The difficulty, which is so wonderfully balanced in the single player mode, seems to be programmed in a different way here. Races are incredibly hard to win even when all human players are on novice difficulty. This can be extremely frustrating, as a near-flawless race can still land you in third place. It’s a shame that online multiplayer was unavailable at the time of reviewing, as this could potentially have pulled the co-op aspect of this game back from the depths. Apart from the music that will drive you mad and a voiceover guy who needs to lay off the caffeine, overall this is a very solid title — one that is worth the purchase if you are an occasional visitor to the Live Arcade scene. Hydro Thunder Hurricane provides quick-fix fun that can be played for minutes or over the course of hours if desired. If you don’t happen to play this over the summer, it just might be one of those hidden gems you find somewhere down the line. Words: Graham Shannahan

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LIMBO

Format: Xbox Live Arcade Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Playdead Platform games are sick, twisted and generally a bit fucked up. Super Mario Brothers in a nutshell:a lady of the gentry has been kidnapped by a giant and evil tortoise and is being held in a heavily fortified lock up. Rather than getting Jack Bauer or Jason Borne on the case the Yellow Pages are turned to and a lowly plumber is tasked with fighting his way though enemies and obstacles to rescue the hostage. He has to traverse all manner of environments -- snow, desert, the sea -- avoid falling into bottomless pits while scrambling from ledge to ledge, fight off weird and horrific monsters, dodge fire and axes... it’s crazy. But, slap on a snappy soundtrack, chose a day-glo colour pallet and make everything a bit “cute” and what sounds like it would work well as a Friday night fright-fest-come-action thriller at the local cinema is suddenly the child-friendly, best-selling video game franchise of all time. Limbo is a platformer in the most classic sense: keep walking right and until you get to the end. Perhaps that’s a little over simple but, still, at the core it’s this simple mechanic which is returned to on Limbo. While other platform games are going 3D and forever trying to find new and inventive way to refresh the formula, the guys over at Playdead Studios are operating on a ‘less is more’ approach. Limbo is perfectly summed up as “David Lynch does Mario.” You play a small boy without a name. There’s no intro sequence, no opening dialogue or reams of text to read. A black and white woodland scene appears on the screen, after a few seconds a small boy get up from the floor, and you’re off. The only story we do know comes from the precis that accompanies the download from Xbox Live: you play a boy looking for his sister.

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With just two buttons used (Jump and Action) you have to work your way through a dark, evil and grainy black and white world -- new puzzles, obstacles and enemies always beyond the end of the screen. You’ll be pushing and pulling blocks, timing jumps, flipping switches and activating magnets to get further and further on. If you fail -- and you will fail a lot -- your small avatar will meet with an untimely and uncomfortably gruesome death. At times you’ll find yourself missing a jump, stuck at the bottom of a pit waiting uncomfortably for that ever-approaching saw to complete the inevitable. Although the premise is nice the story element of Limbo falls rather flat. Infact, if it wasn’t for the small blurb that you might have been bothered to read when downloading the game there is no story whatsoever. Still, that doesn’t detract from the care and detail that has gone into the look and feel of this game. It makes bold moves by having very little music at all. If you die it’s not met with a chirpy sting of music as your save is loaded, the screen just fades to black and you have another go. The puzzle design is second to none too. A constantly evolving world means new and fresh ideas are constant. If anything, as the game is short and perfectly formed, I doubt anyone would complain of repetition if each section of the game had been explored a little further. Although it may have a couple of minor flaws (no story, a touch short) I’ve not enjoyed a game so much in a long time. The unique and brooding look and feel of the game coupled with simple controls, perfectly pitched difficulty and brilliantly well thought out puzzles are sure to make Limbo the next Xbox Live Arcade cult classic. Words: Mathew Parri Thomas

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