Issue 3 TLG Magazine

UNDERGROUND ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE

MARY ANNE HOBBS

FREE /

ISSUE 3 WINTER 2011

Holla!

2011 has been another big year as far as music is concerned.

Cover Girl: Mary Anne Hobbs Photographed by Joseph Denyer at the Warehouse Project in Manchester.

Publisher & Editorial Director:

Alice Muir Layout Designer: Stacey Wilson Front Cover: Joseph Denyer CONTRIBUTORS Corrine McConnachie Hailey Maxwell Lorna Irvine Joseph Denyer Felix Welch Nick Eagle Claudia Miquel Marco Prosch SPECIAL THANKS Margaret Hughes Fergus Clark Gareth Roberts James Lang Kath Leone Brian Doherty

There has definitely been a growing representation of credible female rappers such as the wonderful Azealia Banks and the feisty miss Dominique Young Unique that make up for the birth of another generic girl band being born out of the XFactor. As one of my photographer friends cleverly put it, “I feel I am the true winner of the Xfactor as it is FINALLY over and I no longer need to be subjected to ear cancer and Facebook commentary.

Crack open the Champagne!”

Well said Laura, I feel the same way. However, out of the goodness of my heart, I would like to wish those little muffins all the best in the New Year!

It has also been a big year for all of us at TLG Magazine* - We built a very strong team of editors, designers & journalists and we worked with some of the greatest female talent our country has to offer. But we’re not stopping there.

2012 is already looking promising as we kick off the first issue of 2012 with our amazing cover girl, Mary Anne Hobbs, a pioneer of many different types of music and a true asset to the UK’s electronic music scene. We also had the chance to catch up with German-based graffiti artist, Mad C as we discovered her passion for film noir and animation.

I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported TLG Magazine this year - whether you were a reader, contributor or someone who had given us helpful advice, we couldn’t have done it without you. Long may we continue to bring you the latest information from the underground creative scenes!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Alice Muir, Editorial Director *The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or the production team.

KEEP IN TOUCH! www.tlgmagazine.com Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/tlgmagazine Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/tlgmagazine

“Joanita Jojo and I at the Entrepreneurial Exchange awards in Glasgow. Joanita designs clothing inspired by her home country of Uganda for her own company Fruit Riche”

03

CONTENTS

Unwritten Prophecy

page 6

Kate Simko

page 8

Isolated Heroes

page 10

Mary Anne Hobbs

page 14

Earthly Matters x TLG Magazine page 16 Mad C / Delicious-Styles

page 18

Kath Leone & the Super Suit Two page 22 Timeless Tattoos

page 24

Suicide Girl

page 26

Lost Gem

page 29

Music Reviews

page 30

CONTRIBUTORS

Joseph T Denyer / PHOTOGRAPHER

As a photographer for Resident Advisor (www.residentadvisor.net) Joseph has shot many club nights and festivals, developing a strong sense of emotion and passion within different aspects of the audience/performance relationship.

He has also taken part in photography projects for, Eric Prydz, Mix Mag and the Warehouse Project.

For this issue of TLG Magazine, he photographed Mary Anne Hobbs in action at the Warehouse Project in Manchester.

Hailey Maxwell / JOURNALIST

Hailey is currently studying History of Art and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. She reads and writes as much as time allows and has the cutest kitten you have ever seen.

For this issue of TLG Magazine, she has written us an interesting piece on a whole new generation of glamour models, known as the ‘Suicide Girls.’ She also braved a trip to Timeless Tattoo in Glasgow to discover what being a tattoo artist is really all about.

Lorna Irvine / JOURNALIST

Lorna Irvine was raised by wolves in Perthshire, which may explain her tendency to only come out at night.

A regular contributor to TLG, she also writes for The Skinny, Mslexia and Northern Tales, and worked with BBC Talent.

Passionate about culture, you can find her outside un-salubrious nightspots, howling at the moon.

Corrine McConnachie / JOURNALIST

A fashion obsessed student, blogger and passionate journalist with aspirations for a future career interviewing remarkable and creative people rather than writing mundane local news stories with headlines such as ‘Man loses comb.’

Alongside pen skills, her talents include playing the saxophone, downing pints, rapping after downing said pints, spending money in Urban Outfitters and accidentally ending up with the work’s pet tortoise.

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UNWRITTEN PROPHECY NYCBASED BASEDLIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE UNWRITTEN PROPHECY ISIS ANANYC BRAND FOUNDEDBY BY ALLEN FELDMAN IN 2010.

BRAND FOUNDED ALLEN FELDMAN IN 2010.

UP A BRAND BRANDFOCUSED FOCUSED ON PROMOTING UP IS IS A ON PROMOTING INDIVIDUAL GROWTHTHROUGH THROUGH CLOTHING INDIVIDUAL GROWTH CLOTHING AND CONSCIOUS OUTLETS. AND CONSCIOUSMEDIA MEDIA OUTLETS

www.unwrittenprophecy.com

07

KATE SIMKO

BY LORNA IRVINE

For her debut solo album, ‘Lights Out,’ Kate Simko poured her heart, soul, and two summers of inspiration in Buenos Aires into one of the most impassioned and timeless electronic music albums of recent times. The Chicago-based producer catches up with Lorna Irvine to talk about early influences, classical composition and the lack of females in electronic music.

disliked for achieving a status above men. Also, women view their own abilities as less than men, overall. So, we are holding ourselves back by not believing that we are capable.

It’s basically a pain in the ass for women to excel in careers that are considered masculine. We all know music composition, and electronic music especially, is a boys club, so you have to have thick skin to go at it.

Who are your earliest influences, in terms of sound and can you remember how old you were at the time?

I know this is a bit abstract, but my earliest sound influences were outdoor everyday sounds. Starting around age five, I used to go outside on our backyard swing set for hours, listening to birds chirping, cars driving by, planes overhead, trains in the distance, etc. I remember closing my eyes and hearing the story of life unfolding around me. These were my first experiences learning how to listen to sound.

My father listened to classical music exclusively, so that would be the other main influence.

This is your first “official” solo debut. Does that feel strange, calling it a debut, given your prolific back catalogue?

Making my first full-length album was a different experience than making EP’s in the past, or collaborating on the two albums with Andres Bucci. So yeah, it did feel like my debut actually. I was striving to cover a range of musical styles that I’m into – electronic listening music, house, minimal, and ambient – and also maintain continuity and tell a bigger story.

You studied classical composition, and obviously you have remixed Phillip Glass. But who, above all is your favourite composer, or what is your favourite classical piece?

I think Chopin is the ultimate piano music composer, and I especially like the French style of Ravel, Debussy, and the minimalist style of Eric Satie. I wrote a simple piano piece “Melancholy Satie” for my first album with Andres Bucci (as Detalles), which is homage to Satie. My favourite classical piece is Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Poema Singelo.”

That is the most difficult piano piece that I ever played, full of crazy rhythms, eccentric dynamics, yet it has a simple, lush beauty throughout. Learning this piece helped me grow a lot as a musician.

Why do you think less women are involved in the producing, composing and mixing side of dance music?

I think it’s the same reason that there are so few female engineers, scientists, mathematicians, etc. I think it is begins with the way women are nurtured by their families and school environment. There is a solid research report called “Why So Few” that is an in depth look on why so few women pursue careers in math and science. One of the primary factors is that girls’ achievements and interests in math and science are determined by the environment around them. If the notion that girls are not as good at math as boys exists around them, they are much less likely to excel in math. Studies (including the one I mentioned) have found that people actually hold negative opinions about women in perceived “masculine” positions like science and engineering. Women are considered less competent than their male counterparts until they clearly excel. And then, they are often

You’ve had many collaborators- who is on your wish list ?

I’d like to collaborate with a female producer next. I have a vision of me and another woman doing a live show together.

Right now I’m really excited about working on new solo music, but eventually I’d like to pursue this collaboration idea.

At the moment, who are you listening to- got any recommendations for the readers?

I recently picked up Craig Richards’ mix CD Fabric 01 (first the in the series). It’s such a unique, genre-bending journey, definitely worth picking up.

And the strangest/most unusual set you have ever played?

Hmm I think it must be playing a festival with Gustavo Cerati and Diplo in Punta del Este, Uruguay a few years back. Cerati is probably the biggest rock star in Latin America (like the U2 of the region), and he has mega fans.

Somehow the festival organizers thought I was a major artist too, and treated me like a full-on rock star on the whole trip.

I played for thousands of people, had an amazing back-stage area, etc. A good friend from New York joined me, and we had an absolute blast! We ended up back at Cerati’s house in Punta, and the band was jamming out songs for Diplo and us.

Good surreal times What is next for you?

Right now I’m focusing on making as much new music as possible. The live album release tour, press, and DJ’ing, took a lot my focus of a lot in the past year. Now I am excited to be back in the studio making new music. I’m also creating a new live set-up that with keyboards, and an updated interactive audio-visual display. It feels great to be re-focused on the art side of things!

www.katesimko.com 09

By Corrine McConnachie

A

photography by Emma alexander

s I descend into the dark depths of Glasgow’s Sub Club I wonder, has Halloween arrived early this year?

The creative creatures of the un-dead have risen from their graves, ready to terrify the civilians of Glasgow with their outrageous, avant-garde, cut throat creations. They strut around, pale faced and ravenous, eager to feed off all their artistic counterparts to make the In The Company of Wolves event a hell-raising theatrical spectacle. The award-winning In The Company of Wolves event to showcase the best up and coming Scottish fashion designers took place on Wednesday 26th October. The B-Horror movie inspired catwalk show invited 17 Scottish designers to showcase their latest collections.

The particular designs that held most captive,including TLG, were those of luxury streetwear brand, Isolated Heroes. Samantha McEwen, wowed audiences with the second collection for her Isolated Heroes label called ‘The End of The Outside World is Nigh’. This collection expands on the themes which ran through Samantha’s popular graduate show ‘Voodoo Zumbies’ collection inspired by the Voodoo religion and the sense of identity and optimism that it evokes.

The A/W collection focuses on the darker areas of voodoo practice.

Samantha took inspiration from the practice of Voodoo healing powers in the modern day multiple murders, which is the sacrifice of a human with a look to the body parts being used by witch doctors in their potions used to create wealth, power and prosperity, ‘I became quite intrigued by these ideas, particularly the open practice of multi-murders in South Africa and the rise in witch doctors and ritual type potions in the UK.’ These influences were prominent in the highly impressive collection as the voodoo tribe of model zombies paced the catwalk in bright colours and baggy statement pieces ready to pick a human sacrifice from the fearful, unsuspecting audience.

www.isolated-heroes.com

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13

MARY ANNE HOBBS Mary Anne Hobbs can only be described as one of the most influential female DJs to come out of the BBC. She has dedicated her entire life to sourcing new and innovative music and over the past 20 years she has pioneered a diverse range of musical genres from Heavy Metal to Dubstep.

W

hen I was a kid music was an incredibly elusive commodity in those days and I lived in a strange household where my father banned all music from the house. That didn’t stop me buying my little singles, for example the Sex Pistols singles and hiding them in my sock drawer.

When he found my records he would always smash them to bits and the only thing I had to listen to was a tiny transistor radio which was about the size of a can of tuna. In the dead of night I used to hide under my covers so that I could listen to John Peel’s show and this little radio I had was the only thing

I could conceal from my dad. Peel’s show for me was absolutely incredible because he stood at the gateway to an alternate universe as his show was the only evidence I had that this place actually existed. The other piece of evidence was a weekly music paper called Sounds, it was very much like the way NME is today. In those days NME was really more about music politics and I couldn’t understand it at all but Sounds wrote about contemporary rock music which is what excited me so much.

I left school when I was fifteen and dreamt of going to London to become a writer for Sounds. I didn’t really have a clue as to what the first steps were. Never did it occur to me to simply write a review and send it to them but I thought a lot about how I could impress the editor at sounds and I thought that working for a band might have been the way to do so. Years ago there was this one, working man’s club. It was a real spit and sawdust shit hole in Lancashire and about twice a year they used to put on a live band. They had a chalkboard where they wrote the line-up for the bands who were to play and I remember one day finding a band called ‘Heretic’ from London on the board and I was absolutely determined to get a job with them. I travelled to London with them and lived with them on a bus, in a car park, for a whole year. We used to call the bus the Blue Goose Hotel but it was like some broken - down piece of shit from a Mike Lee movie. We all used to work really shitty day jobs as well. A couple of the band were grave diggers and a couple of us worked in a factory where dog dishes were passed on a conveyer belt. We used to save all the money from these shitty jobs we did and go on tour and I remember as we were going through this process my eye was still on a job at Sounds Magazine.

Fanzines were very much the preferred form of communication back then and I thought I would have to make one. I got a couple of extra jobs working in bars an saved a bit of money to publish a few issues of my fanzine, Krush. I then sent, probably the most demented CV that Sounds had ever

seen at that point to the editor. It listed all of my duties to the band, for example I had designed their record sleeve, I did all their costumes and I was their lighting technician when we went on tour and sent him the tour diary I had written.

One morning I recieved a letter with the Sounds logo on the envelope and I absolutely couldn’t believe it, that was it – I had made it!

I think the media is a causeway where you have to build a brick at a time and you build your own pathway to success. You really have to make it up as you go along and it doesn’t matter what race, color, creed, sexuality or social background you come from or what type of education you have, if you have real flare and passion then you absolutely can make it in this industry.

There never have been any jobs in the media and there never will be. They materialize at the point to which you can prove to a publisher or a broadcaster that you have something really valuable to deliver and that all comes from within.

I’m part of what I would call the DMZ generation. My entry point was around 2005

when I started to broadcast the Dubstep records on Radio One. It was early in 2006 when we did the Dubstep Warz special which was an entire program that I devoted to the Dubstep sound and it was really funny because at that point if there were ten people at FWD festival then it was considered to be a really big night! There were always just a tiny handful of people, mainly producers and artists who were actually involved in the scene and I could feel this incredible momentum starting to build. I had such belief that the Dubstep sound would touch a global audience in the same way that it had really touched me.

It completely changed my life.

I remember reacting to Dubstep, as a broadcaster, in very much the same way as John Peel reacted to Punk.

I discovered the sound when I heard a Pinch tune called War dub that I played on the show. I remember contacting Pinch in Bristol and ‘saying Jesus Christ, I’ve never heard anything like this.’

The record absolutely stopped me in my tracks! He was the one who told me about DMZ, Mala and Loefah. I remember contacting Mala and going to DMZ for the

first time and it really changed my life overnight. There were many people at that time who were extremely dubious about what I was doing and it was true in the first sense that I was probably playing to a tiny, tiny handful of fans but my passion and my belief in the sound was completely all-consuming. I decided to put together this one-off, two hour special known as Dubstep Wars, where I took in seven of the real key producers of the time, all of whom had a completely different and unique interpretation of the sound and there was definitely magic in the air that night. At the end of the show, all of us had this sense that we really had done something pretty extraordinary. What we had no concept of whatsoever was how quickly the message about that program would become viral. In a lifetime, if you get to broadcast one show which is as culturally significant as that one was, it really is a complete miracle. Even to this day when I travel around the world to DJ, rarely does a week goes by without somebody saying to me, Dubstep Warz changed my life! It’s been five and a half years later now and it still feels amazing to hear that. What’s really fascinating is the way that those primary influences were absorbed from that generation. Dubstep started five years earlier with the likes of Oris Jay and LB; they were the primary crew of producers who created that sound, born out of dark garage back in 2001. I think there were a lot of people who came through the same gate as me in the aftermath of Dub Warz. I think that sound inspired so many new producers to move in a billion different ways now.

Glasgow in particular is amazing in terms of electronic music. I remember night after night running in to Jackmaster (Numbers) and DMZ and again, I think these are people who were very much inspired by what was happening in ’05 and ’06. I think where the likes of Rustie and Hudson Mohawke have got the edge is the fact that they’re so brilliant in terms of live performance. They were the first people to really pioneer electronic performance that wasn’t a DJ set and Rustie’s Glass Swords album will be on top of many people’s list of top electronic albums of 2011 by the end of this year.

LuckyMe and Numbers are so wonderful and vibrant and they are such courageous people.

I feel that the whole of the Glasgow scene has built this amazing momentum but I think the reason why so many of these producers are moving to London however is the fact that there are a much greater number of kindred spirits down there that they want to gravitate towards. The difference between the way we work now compared to the way people worked when I was growing up is the amount of technology and access to a global audience that we have at our fingertips these days. If I wanted to see a picture of New

York when I was growing up for example, I’d have had to have gone to the library and got an encyclopedia out and it would probably have had a charcoal drawing of a sky-scraper or something! Now we have information overload at our fingertips and we are able to build these incredible networks and yet something completely different and unique happens when we all come together naturally as human beings.

In my experience, you find that a lot of things have been born out of one particular club night, for example DMZor FWD and I could feel something happening at Low End Theory where I remember going and experiencing something really special in 2009. I said to Flying Lotus and Daddy Kev at that point – “Make the most of these days because these are the glory days.” Things really do evolve and as people become more successful and eventually break away, everything changes within the music scene.

The clubs still remain absolutely brilliant but the core,original family who started a particular music movement eventually begin to move on to other things. It’s almost as if you have a couple of magical summers and then it’s part of evolution that things need to progress or else they will wither and die on the vine. I remember Steve Jobs saying that the best thing about death is that it’s nature’s way of regenerating the planet because regeneration is what people need, to understand that there are so many resources at our fingertips that are free and all you need to do is give a lot of your time, you don’t really need to spend any money. It’s about conjuring something really dazzling and unique and trying to create your own unique identity. I think to stand out from the crowd is a great thing as well. If you can balance things across various different formats and platforms it will work really well for you.

One of the girls who was a student in the union I used to work in made a Youtube channel called Laura Bubble about student life. She was offered a job at the BBC on the basis that she got so many hits on her YouTube channel. She makes these crazy little videos that she edits herself about all the disasters and triumphs and unique experiences that students have and she has a really unique sense of storytelling. She’s a brilliant example of someone who has built something unique that makes her stand out from the crowd. I think now, unless you live in central Africa, all the resources are available to you. The thing I always tell people is to just charge at your dreams and never look back. Just do it, what are you waiting for!? Sometimes you have to think about it this way – we are lucky enough to have been born on to the only planet a billion light-years in any direction with a sun that warms

us and with an eco-system that is actually life-giving. We’ve been born in the 21st century, into the UK, as the dominant species on the planet and we’ve got every conceivable device at our fingertips, what are we waiting for!? Don’t tell me that you can’t do it because I don’t believe you!

You weren’t born into a really oppressive regime, you weren’t born as an ant, and you weren’t born in the fifteenth century where you would have died of scurvy by the age of fifteen. You couldn’t be any better off right now.

Stop worrying about the things that you don’t have and look at all the stuff that you really do have.

It’s up to each individual person to realize that mentality and to run with it.

By Alice Muir

15

EARTHLY MATTERS

On the 30th October, TLG Magazine collaborated with our good friends at the Earthly Matters radio show on Subcity for a very special one-off broadcast.

This particular broadcast was inspired by the late Daphne Oram, who was a British composer and electronic musician. She was the creator of the “Oramics” technique for creating electronic sounds. If it wasn’t for her, electronic music as we know it today, would not be the same. We featured a timeline of female electronic music producers from the 1950s to 2011 and discussed how electronic music has evolved over the past 60 years.

“Daphne Oram is one of a small handful of people who in the second half of the 20th century more or less invented electronic music.”

Tim Boon, chief curator of the Science Museum Earthly Matters is a weekly radio show on Glasgow University’s own radio station, Subcity. Radio hosts Fergus Clark and Gareth Roberts have both had encyclopeadic knowledge of electronic music from a young age and so we knew that when we approached them with the idea for a radio broadcast, we would be in good hands!

These guys are by far the freshest young radio talent broadcasting through our airwaves at the moment.

Earthly Matters broadcasts every second Thursday night / Friday Morning {01.00 to 03.00am} and Sunday evening {08.30 to 10.30pm). GMT on www.subcity.org. facebook.com/earthlymattersradio

X TLG MAGAZINE

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PROFILE: MAD C C-ING IS BELIEVING! Mad C is fierce- in both senses of the word.

The thirty one year old graffiti artist and writer, also known as Claudia Walde, was born and raised in Germany, before living for several years in Ethiopia.

She cut her artistic teeth studying design and communication at the Burg Giebichstein University, before branching out into animation at the celebrated Central St. Martin’s College, London.

Her work is an explosion of colours and ideas, with a distinctly pan- global sensibility - sure, the hip-hop/urban elements are there, but you can also detect film noir, African design, Expressionism and the work of the late Louise Bourgeois, in her spiky graphics of volcanic lava reds and midnight blues.

The sheer scale of her work is vertiginous- massive concrete walls have been given her unique treatment, going through thousands of aerosol cans in the process (1,489 cans, to be precise!)

An incendiary talent, stand well back and watch her ignite!

By Lorna Irvine Photography By Marco Prosh 19

MAD C by lorna irvine

First question may be obvious, but let’s do it who is your favourite artist of all time?

Vincent Van Gogh! I love the energy of his lines and compositions and his vivid colour combinations.

I’m convinced he had loved the graffiti culture had he lived to see it. Also I have a lot of respect for artists who didn’t give up when no one understood their art and who dared to be different.

One for all the Banksy sceptics- Banksy, or Blek Le Rat?

Both! As far as I know I never met Banksy but I had the pleasure of spending quite some time with Blek. He is a very down to earth person, which I admire a lot. Obviously Blek is the godfather of stencil graffiti and was copied by Banksy a lot – willingly or unwillingly. I see Blek more as an artist while I see Banksy as an entertainer. Both ways are a nice approach. Banksy’s work is very smart and I think his documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” was a fantastic exposure of the art world.

What would you say to the critics of graffiti art who claim there is no real artistic merit (as politely as possible!)?

I believe the art world simply didn’t understand graffiti writing fully till today. Most critics have difficulties seeing the variety and the artistic skill of painting letters.

The illegality of graffiti writing is also counter-productive for this art form to be taken seriously by those people. In the end there’s not much difference between a portrait with eyes, nose and mouth and a letter with serifs and lines and curves. A letter can be as much a portrait with personality and meaning as a face can be. And that’s just one example of many. But I am sure we will reach the point when critics and collectors breach those barriers and finally open their eyes a little wider to see that. In the end the graffiti writing movement is the most exciting art that has arisen in a long time.

www.delicious-styles.com

Where do you stand on the “using stencils in graffiti art is cheating” debate?

How is Europe different from, say, the UK or United States in terms of getting your work recognised?

I’m quite open to everything. So discussions like that just make me smile. I think it’s two different approaches and each one has its justification. Of course I respect can control a lot, but diversity is what’s most important to me. So bring all the tools possible!

I think it is not so different in general. You always have those who don’t understand and respect my kind of art and then you have those that are more open-minded and support you widely. I think the only real difference is in the laws. The US and UK for example totally exaggerate it and put young adults and artists in jail for years instead of giving them a chance to evolve. Luckily it’s not as bad in Germany for example. You have to pay heavy fines when caught doing illegal graffiti stuff, but it doesn’t necessarily ruin your life.

I see a lot of cinematic influences in your workwould I be right in saying film noir is a big interest of your’s?

Yes, all sorts of film and animation influenced me. I haven’t found much inspiration in the graffiti art world for quite a while now and therefore have been influenced by other media and also contemporary art.

And finally, what is next for you?

I’m not really planning much, I have tons of ideas in my head and just go with the flow and see where they’re taking me. What I know by now is that I have a big group show Are there any buildings you would like to make over? coming up in December in Germany and a solo show in Absolutely! I think I’d find at least one building in every Switzerland at the La Grille gallery in February 2012. In street I’d like to fill with life by painting it, no matter where March and April 2012 I’ll be in Oslo, Norway for a in the world. I love to integrate architecture in my work. commission and I’ll be painting in South America again Painting walls like a frame or sticker became quite boring next year. This time I’ll be going to Peru.I’m curious what over the years. I always try to find more interesting options. else 2012 will bring.

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Super Suit 2

kath leone

Part of the Ramageddon Collection I share a studio space with the other artists who are part of the ‘House of Ram’ collective in East London.

There are about nine people in there now and each artist does something different. Most of us do freelance work and some of us are simply pursuing hobbies. Some of us have exhibited work with the Recoat gallery previously but this time they suggested we do a group show, which was interesting because the rest of us don’t normally work like that.

I’ve only had one big exhibition before, many years ago. So this particular group show, named ‘Ramageddon’ came about because we decided we wanted to do something different and showcase our work as an artistic collection. The reason why the exhibition is called ‘Ramageddon’ is also a bit random actually.

It’s because of where our studio is, there are a lot of churches where people shout and they have really

loud ceremonies and then when all the artists moved in to that studio, we were all connected through this one guy we knew who had previously lived in the studio building, whose nickname is ‘Ram’ so that’s how the ‘House of Ram’ came about.

It’s great working with so many people because we bounce so many ideas off each other.

The biggest collaboration project I’ve done so far would be with one of the artists, Will Barras.

I designed the material prints that he stretched on to canvases and then he painted over it. Also, for Super Suit Two that I made I used his drawings for the print on the suit.

The Super Suit has proven to be very popular within this collection and I think I might incorporate that design in to hoodies and sweatshirts in the future.

The idea came about after a period of time in the winter when our studio became very cold. I made all of the artists furry animal suits to keep

themselves warm in the studio and then Will Barras happened to draw each of us in the animal suits.

I then took his drawings and added little things to them in order to make a print for the Super Suit Two piece.Normally what I do is, I create a print design and then and then I send the artwork to clothing companies such as the Jack Jones company and then the print is then sold on a commercial garment. Working like this can be difficult because commercial fashion companies move at such a fast pace, in order to keep up with trends. My main role is to provide designs for commercial garments but I can also sew and make garments myself and that’s how I was able to create the Super Suit Two.

By Alice Muir Each issue we will be reviewing a piece of art which we have spotted and adored!

Who What

Kath Leone/Will Barras Hand-Made Suit Foil Screen Printed Fabric

Where The Recoat Gallery

Glasgow Price

£450

www.kathleone.com

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By Hailey Maxwell Photography

By Claudia Miquel

I

ts been almost four months since

Timeless Tattoos descended upon Glasgow City centre. The idea started

in the depths of the Savoy Centre where Roddy McLean and Laura Kennedy worked together in a small shop before Roddy decided to start a shop of his own on Dundas Street and thus Timeless Tattoos was born. “We wanted to keep everything a little bit ghetto given our roots” explains Roddy. His shop standson the site of a former Haddows; the glass partition which served to separate irate jakies from Buckfast has been kept to allow a division between the waiting room and the studio.

The whole shop in fact is like an urban curiosity cabinet; when I walk in the first thing I notice aside from the grimacing customer having his full back tattooed in the middle of the room is another relic from the shop’s previous careerthe cigarette cabinet from the off-licence has been kept to store bottles of ink in every colour and a number of little mechanical looking needles.

In the more private studio, Roddy shows me a Buffalo skull given to him by a gun slinging customer. “We get loads of weird presents, people give us all sorts of stuff” he tells me. On the walls I see frames filled with Coyote jaw bones, Scorpions and creepy little spiders. It’s pretty clear that this studio is a far cry from the hyper professional surgically silent shops a lot of people have the misfortune of getting tattooed in. This shop is like more of an art space - every inch of the wall is decorated with some obscure curiosity or art work; the bathrooms appear to be wallpapered by pink 1990‘s pornography while the staircase to the cellar displays approximately one million sketches and designs for customers.

The basement itself is like a kiddies party come acid den.

I’m told that customers come down and spraythe walls with obscenities and graff and that the balloons on the walls are from the shop’s launch party. Laura explains that the shop is intended to be unconventional and different from some of the more dull shops she and Roddy worked in previously. I suppose

branding people for life involves a certain responsibility not only to provide the customer with an aesthetically pleasing design they enjoy, but also the actual enjoyment of their experience of being tattooed is something the guys at Timeless seem to be preoccupied with. That’s not to say there is no attention paid to things like hygiene or skill, but Laura tells me that the ethos of the shop is primarily concerned with the creative process and producing a unique design for each customer.

“We do custom tattoos, but mostly when someone comes in with a design we alter it a little bit. It would be boring for us to sit and do the same designs all day and for everyone to be walking about with the same tattoos. We try to give everyone something they like whilst improving our skills and being creative”

Most of the shop’s customers are regulars with a yearning desire to be repeatedly tattooed by the same artist which is surely a massive compliment and says a lot about the levels of customer satisfaction. On one of the walls in the studio there is a huge grid with photographs of around 50 regular customers. I imagined it must be like being a therapist or a hairdresser seeing so many regular customers for quite intimate sessions.

“We do get a lot of different stories, and our customers trust us” says Laura. “You spend so much time doing the designs, maybe sitting for 20 hours in total with the same person. You get to know the individual and learn about them and their life.” Laura herself has a very bold graphic style, although she tries to incorporate many styles into her work. “Its about constant improvementI always try to improve my work, it’s a constant learning process.”

Laura began her own career as a tattooist at the deep end; “I worked in a coffee shop and the guys used to come in so I got to know them and decided to get a tattoo myself” she shows me a small Mogwai symbol on her wrist, “I said while I was getting it done that it must be an awesome place to work and just by chance the

receptionist in the shop was getting the boot at the time so I got the job. So I worked the desk for a while then the other guys found out I was good at art and drawing- I was going to go to Art school before I got the joband encouraged me to get into tattooing.”

Lucky for Laura she had a stream of enthusiastic friends and volunteers who let her practice on them allowing her to progress away from the reception desk into a job as a full time tattooist. “There isn’t really education or qualifications that get you into this kind of job and opportunities are hard to find, I was really lucky to be in the right place at the right time. But tattooing shouldn’t be a career accessible to everyone” She is right of course, as well as her circumstances Laura possesses more than enough talent, creativity and skill. Body modification is ever popular but is something that is also very personal and thus should be unique. In terms of her own tattoos, Laura went from her first modest design to allowing Roddy to do a full sleeve on her, then another. “I like the way the design flows, and I like the bright colours” she says.

The most complicated tattoo she has ever done she tells me, is one of a huge robot battle which was the inspiration for the design of the shop window.

My favourite thing about Timeless Tattoos is that there is a commitment to art for art’s sake instead of branding faceless customers soullessly as a purely capitalistic venture. There is a commitment to the shop’s aesthetic, to providing unique designs for every customer and to exploiting the shop space as an adaptable venue for art, parties and general fucking about. The team produce a variety of really unconventional, original multimedia including the Timeless TV channel on YouTube which features short videos which can best be described as Jackass meets Gaspar Noe which really says everything about the hyperactive creative energy of the team and their success as individual artists, as a business and as what can only be perceived as a very genuine friendship between all the staff at the shop.

www.timelesstattoos.co.uk

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SUICIDE GIRLS

O

ne Glaswegian Glamour model; petite, pale, intelligent, naturally beautiful red haired sweet and humble Lass Suicide defies many of the conventions we are encouraged to associate with this type of modelling. Her tiny, pale, feminine frame adorned with tattoos and the odd piercing, it could also be said that she defies typical conventions we are encouraged to associate with femininity. As well as being a full time student, she has modelled for notable alternative ‘lad’s mag’ Front and recently shone brighter than over 2000 other hopefuls to gain the prestigious title of official suicidegirl. suicidegirl’s is an alternative adult brand aimed at both men and women with an online community and global success.

1. How did you start modelling?

I had been recently introduced to FRONT magazine by a few guy mates and out of curiosity sent in a few pictures to the ‘DIY’ modelling section on the website.

Hadn’t heard back from them and pretty much forgot about it until I received a phone call a couple months later from them asking me to come to London to do a photoshoot to be featured in the magazine. It really was too good an opportunity to pass up, I had great fun and even though I wasn’t happy with the photographs I don’t regret it.

2. How does the SuicideGirls application process work?

You can apply online by sending a few photographs of yourself in and then the model coordinator for the website will either accept or reject your application.

Once you have been accepted you get a photo set shot and submit this to member review. Once a set goes into member review it is then entirely up to the members if they like your look/set whether you become an official suicide girl or not.

3. You’re photographed half naked with other girls on shoots, do you ever get self-conscious or does modelling improve your self-esteem?

With the Front shoot I was very self conscious as it wasn’t something I had ever contemplated doing before and I had never thought of myself as particularly attractive so being surrounded by gorgeous girls was definitely scary! Now with Suicide Girls I feel a lot more comfortable and have enjoyed all the photo shoots I have done for them so far. For my first photo shoot with them it was just the photographer and GoGo Suicide who is a popular model on the site. They were both very patient and so kind that I was put at total ease and having GoGo there was amazing because she had been in my position before and knew how it felt.

Overall I think it has improved my self-esteem a bit but I will always be incredibly self critical of myself, it’s just who I am.

4. Tell us a little about your tattoos; when did you get your first one?

My tattoos don’t really have meanings like a lot of peoples seem to do these days.

The two questions that slightly irritate me after you’ve been asked a hundred times are ‘did it hurt?!’ and ‘what do they mean?’ tattoos hurt, I was pretty sure it’s a well known fact! I have them because I like how they look and I’m interested in the culture behind them, that’s all really. My first tattoo was terrible. I was 16 and got ‘handle with care’ tattooed pretty small on my rib cage, it has since been covered up!

5. What have you been up to recently?

The usual really, that being going out with friends and having too many lunch dates. Knuckling down with college work as I’m determined this year to make more of an effort with my work. I’ve also started going to weekly ballet classes quite recently in an attempt to get fitter too.

7. SuicideGirls appeals to both men and women as an adult brand, what do you think is different about it than typical lads mags?

With Suicide Girls it’s a lot about what the members want, the girls they vote for and like the most will do well on the site. Girls can post blogs and say what they are doing with themselves which I guess gives more personality to the girl than just looking at pictures of hot girls in magazines. There are various groups on suicide girls where members can arrange meet ups and in that respect it turns into a social networking site too.

8. Do you ever get any unwanted attention from people who recognise you in real life?

I’d say so yeah. I completely understand by doing nude modelling there is going to be certain people who disagree with this or think less of me because of it. I don’t shove it in anyone’s face though and I am completely open when people ask me questions about it, I still get a bit flustered mind you knowing they have seen those pictures of me and will have their own opinions of me and how I look. It has taken me a long time to accept my body as it is and feel comfortable in my own skin and now that I am I don’t see why I shouldn’t show it off a bit. I’m not going to look like this forever! People who are rude towards me and make unnecessary remarks towards my modelling I really have no time for. I have my friends who are very supportive and I have now learnt not to get upset over every nasty comment I hear about me. I am very patient with people though, I think you have to be with this sort of thing. It’s a tough subject to touch on.

9. You blog online on the SG website and on Tumblr, do you think having an online presence has presented you with more of a fanbase?

I really couldn’t say, I’ve had a lot of support from people who follow my blog which has been really sweet of them but a lot of ‘hate’ too. I’ve never thought of it as having fans as such, it’d be strange to think that! I’m just a normal girl doing Suicide Girls as a bit of fun and a hobby really, something I enjoy.

10. What are your plans for the future?

Well I will be in college for the next two years during term time. Then hopefully move to London to do another year on a more specific subject. What that will be I’m really not too sure yet! I plan on travelling America next summer for 5 weeks which I am very excited about too.

11. Any advice for girls who’d like to get involved with alternative Glamour modelling?

If you want to do it go for it! There are various modelling websites out there now you can apply to and you will get a straight forward yes or no from. Just keep in mind it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and therefore you might get some stick for it.

6. Was filming the SG video in Norfolk like one big sleepover?

By Hailey Maxwell

Yeah it really was actually, I was so nervous about going and meeting these ladies who I had been admiring online for quite some time. They were all so lovely and I really had nothing to be nervous or shy about. It was pretty surreal seeing that they were just normal people too whereas I’d built them up as really famous models in my head who wouldn’t have any time for me or what I had to say. It was such a laugh and it felt normal walking about half naked in a house full of girls just hanging out and occasionally having a peek at photo shoots other girls were doing. We always all sat down for dinner together and that was really nice.

twitter.com/LassSuicide 27

LOST GEM: MUCH DARK FUCKED-UPNESS! Nearly God by Tricky (1996 Island Records)

Tricky ’s ‘Nearly God’ is a collaborative side-project which, with his typically wilful perversity didn’t just die a commercial death, but arrived stillborn.

Appearing as it did in the mid-nineties, when trip-hop had become an ugly term to which Tricky had been unfairly aligned, he seemed destined to be tarnished forever, floating in a passé netherworld between stoners and braying, dinner party pseudo-trendies.Chiming, percussive and hard to place, ‘Nearly God’ is a narcotic, fucked-up album which nags like a 3am insomnia, when fragments of troubling conversation and incident buzz in the brain to the point of distraction.Cath Coffey (Stereo MCs) and Specials legend Terry Hall do beautiful, understated vocals with sparse backing on ‘I Sing For You’ and ‘Bubbles’ respectively, while Bjork lends her coo to the twitchy ‘Yoga’.

Best track? The velveteen cover of ‘Black Coffee’, featuring Martine Topley -Bird, which hypnotically samples The Impostor’s classic ‘Pills And Soap’, an erratic heartbeat rhythm of finger clicks and piano stabs, as Topley-Bird drawls, “Weary all the daytime…weary all the night…all I do is drink…black coffee”, like a woman who hasn’t slept, period. To his credit, Tricky is not afraid to step back and let his guests helm the project- that spooky Bristolian whisper remains mostly in the background- but is no less effective for that.

The only weak link for me has to be Alison Moyet’s ‘Make A Change’- sadly, her histrionics don’t fit the album’s general wooziness.

No matter. If you like music which challenges as well as beguiles, you could do a lot worse: dark, sure, but oddly beautiful and beautifully odd.

By Lorna Irvine

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MUSICREVIEWS

2012 ONES TO WATCH

by Lorna Irvine

MICHAEL KIWANUKA

planningtorock

The “less is more” soul train moves gently on…

Twenty three year old Londoner Michael Kiwanuka’s debut album Home Again is tantalisingly close (it drops in March on Polydor) and could just be one of the major releases of 2012, judging by the beautiful, sparse singles Tell Me A Tale and I’m Getting Ready.

Most recently, he wowed Adele’s audiences as support on her sell-out tour- audiences from all accounts fell in love with him.

His recent performances on Later and in session for Lauren Laverne’s radio show on 6Music were simple, stripped-down affairs, just that rich, plaintive voice and guitar.

Influenced by Otis Redding and Bill Withers, he is also equally a fan of The Band and Joni Mitchell,and this is evident in his laidback storytelling.

2012 will surely be his for the taking.

The music industry is saturated with cloyingly kooky women- evil hybrids of Phoebe from Friends and Stepford Wives, they trill like pretty canaries, vacuous and inoffensive.

Which is why Janine Rostron, aka Planningtorock (all one word) is such an anomaly.Raised in Bolton, (yes that’s right, BOLTON, the creative hotbed of…errr…

Peter Kay),she now resides in Berlin as a musician (she is a multi-instrumentalist) and visual artist. A true outsider, Rostron was taken to see Stockhausen as a child, something that undoubtedly informs her sonic experimentalism – in particular her fondness for distortion of keyboards and odd tonal pitch. Often, her vocals are growled or slowed down, rendering the overall effect murky and ambiguous, as with her stage style: she is anti-image, other, theatrical in the most disturbing way, using wigs and prosthetic noses- the Anti-Gaga if you like. Second album, ominously titled W, came out in May 2011, but I have a felling this is just the prologue to this unique woman’s story.

WINTER DOWNLOADS Presenting my antidote to the crushing torpor of Christmas /New Year consumerism that is X Factor, Popera, cheesy hit compilations, etc…

EPs

ALBUM Leila (disappointed cloud) anyway (Warp)

She is back, after a four year hiatus, and while it’s odd she is finally getting soundtracked in advertising, to paraphrase this song “we love her anyway”.

A taster for forthcoming album U And I, the fourth album which is released in late January, it suggests time has not mellowed Leila Arab, but rather indicates a harder-edged sound; a head-on collision of spiky synths vie with hypnotic vocals from Berlin-based producer Mt Sims, layering in intensity.

Welcome back.

Factory Floor Real Love (Optimo)

Ok, so it was out in Spring 2011, but as both EP and remix, I reckon it deserves a reappraisal.

Real Love is an utter headrush, the London trio evoking all the sweaty hedonism of a European nightclub, while simultaneously transcending their Cabaret Voltaire/ Techno influences and it makes the world substantially better for five minutes.

Ephemeral. Sexy. Danceable.

What more could you ask for?

DRC Music Kinshasa One Two (Warp) This Christmas, you could appease your conscience by buying a goat.

Or…Get this! Over fifty musicians from the Democratic Republic of Congo have collaborated with eleven US and UK producers, resulting in this ambitious, deliciously eclectic work. Featuring Warp’s new signing Kwes and old-hand Damon Albarn you can imagine the scope of such a project- it’s impassioned, exhilarating stuff- highlights include the brilliantly titled African Space Anthem featuring Ewing Sima and Customs by Bokatola System. Proceeds go to Oxfam’s empowering project working in the DRC. Or- of course,if you’d rather,you could just buy a goat…

WIN! For your chance to win a pair of purple Skullcandy Lowrider headphones courtesy of Rubadub record store,

Please answer the following question: Q: What was the name of Mary Anne Hobbs' famous, one-off Dubstep show on Radio One? A: a).Dubstep Kingz b) Dubstep Soldiers c) Dubstep Warz Please email your answers to our editor: alicemuir@btinternet.com Or alternatively you can post your answer via snail mail with details of your name and address attached, to the following address: TLG Magazine 18 Aytoun Road Pollokshields Glasgow G41 5RN This competion will be drawn on Wednesday 29th February 2012.

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