DIY, August 2020

FREE • ISSUE 99 • AUGUST 2020 DIYMAG.COM

DIY

Raw Power PLUS DECLAN MCKENNA TKAY MAIDZA THE KILLERS BRIGHT EYES THE MAGIC GANG

A L E S S O N I N C AT H A R S I S F R O M A N G E L O L S E N

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A A U U G G U US S T T

listening post

What’s been worming its way around DIY’s collective ear-holes this month?

question!

The world is slowly starting to edge back into action - what’s the most ‘normal’ thing Team DIY have done over the last month?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor I went on a little jaunt to Wales, had a walk on the beach, ate some fish and chips and spent a week just listening to the sea.

Talk about zen...

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor Spent a wholesome day looking at flora and fauna at Kew Gardens. (This is not only the most ‘normal’ thing I’ve done since lockdown, it’s probably also the most ‘normal’ thing I’ve done all year.)

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor Spent half my wages on the first weekend of the month and now must eat toast for the remaining 27 days. For a brief moment, my bank balance was so happy.

LOUISE MASON • Art Director Got heavily into semi-professional croquet. But mainly very much enjoying shoots slowly filtering back into the system. Next month will be special.

THE NUDE PARTY MIDNIGHT MANOR

North Carolina gang The Nude Party’s self-titled debut arrived like the good-time house party soundtrack we’d all been waiting for and now, on their forthcoming second (due 2nd October), they’re back with the kind of beer-soaked garage rock’n’roll that’ll get you drunk just listening to it.

FENNE LILY BREACH

Dead Oceans-signed Bristolian folkie Fenne returns with her second record, and it’s a more wide-reaching affair (is that a distortion pedal we hear?) that still cuts an affective shape. Fans of Marling, take note.

METZ - ATLAS VENDING

It’s a cheery, chirpy slice of summer pop on the way for METZ’ incoming fourth (due 9th October). Lol rofl lmao etc. In fact, ‘Atlas Vending’ deals with “crushing social anxiety, addiction and media-induced paranoia”. Fun!

ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor Went to an actual hairdresser and subsequently got yelled at for bleaching my own hair...

editor’s letter

With summer well and truly in full swing, and the longer evenings bringing in a much-needed bit of reassuring warmth, it feels like the perfect time to get lost in an album like Angel Olsen’s swirling new ‘un.

For August - which doubles as DIY number 99 (!)- we’re digging deep with Angel in her home of Asheville, NC. Opening up to us about new album ‘Whole New Mess’, the singer tells us about the creation of this more stripped-back take of many of the songs featured on 2019 record ‘All Mirrors’. It’s sure to become the soundtrack of reflective, sun-soaked days to come. Elsewhere this month, we speak to the likes of The Killers, The Magic Gang, Tkay Maidza and Bright Eyes, as well as loads more.

Just enough to keep you content ‘til next month, when we’ll reach a milestone and reveal our 100th issue...

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

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All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of DIY. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which DIY holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

Shout out to: Meesh Bryant and Team Angel Olsen for making our cover shoot work, Eva and Sub Rosa Studios, Andy Prevezer for loaning us his house, Tkay Maidza for doing the most glorious self-shot lockdown photos and Signature Brew for providing Team DIY with many - perhaps too many? - reunion beers. Ouch.

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Contributors Ben Tipple, Eva Pentel, Gemma Samways, James Balmont, Jenessa Williams, Joe Goggins, Leonie Cooper, Nick Harris, Percy WalkerSmith, Pooneh Ghana, Sean Kerwick, Timi Sotire.

Cover photo: Pooneh Ghana Photo this page: Eva Pentel For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com For DIY sales: advertise@diymag.com For DIY stockist enquiries: stockists@diymag.com DIY HQ, Unit K309, The Biscuit Factory, 100 Drummond Road, London SE16 4DG

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He’d bend over backwards for us, our Declan.

THE STUNNING NE W ALB U M O U T 28 TH AU GU ST

P V R IS . C O M

F EAT UR I N G T HE S I N G LES D E ATH OF M E, HALLUC I N AT I ON S AN D D EAD W EI G HT

PR E - O R DE R NO W C D • LP • D I G I TAL L I MI TE D E D I T I ON C OLOUR ED V I N YL AVAIL A BL E AT I N D E PE N D E N T R EC OR D S T OR ES & HM V

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We’ll Meet At The

End of the World Bright Eyes aren’t exactly strangers to the idea of dystopian prophecies, but when the Omaha trio reunited to complete their long-awaited tenth album, no one could’ve imagined the new version of the world that lay ahead. Words: Sarah Jamieson.

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“G

ot to keep going like it ain’t the end,” sings Conor Oberst on the first line of Bright Eyes’ first record in almost a decade. And while the singer has always had a knack for succinctly condensing life’s more existential moments, it’s an opener that seems to cut especially deep right now.

Granted, when the trio - Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott - decided to get the band back together after nine years away, they couldn’t have dreamt what would lie ahead. And yet somehow, with new album ‘Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was’, they’ve managed to channel the feeling of discontent and uncertainty that’s been swirling above our heads for most of 2020.

“I’ve been trying to ration my news intake because, y’know, I’m a pretty sensitive guy!” admits Conor with a wry chuckle, over the phone from his home in Omaha, Nebraska. “I get pretty affected by reading and listening to things. Of course, I wanna stay up-to-date but I dunno…

I’ve found myself in a weird place…”

Having begun as an idea that “just spilled out of my mouth at this holiday party at Nate’s” back in 2017, it was only after checking back in a few days later that Bright Eyes found themselves committing to being a band again. “The way we make records takes a long time,” the frontman explains, “and it had been such a long time [since 2011’s ‘The People’s Key’], so we were just making sure we were all serious.”

In the interim, each member has been prolific in their own individual careers. Mike produced and worked on albums from the likes of First Aid Kit, and collaborated with Nate on the soundtrack for film The Fault In Our Stars. Nate became a touring member for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2016, while Conor himself has released three solo albums, returned to his punk band Desaparecidos for a long-awaited second record, and launched Better Oblivion Community Center, his record with Phoebe Bridgers.

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So why get the gang back together now? “I think to some degree, it was just serendipity,” the singer says. “But also, underlying that, even though it wasn’t explicitly said, I think we had all been through a lot of things personally in our lives, and the idea of doing something that felt more like going back to home base, being in an environment that was completely comfortable… There’s a certain safety zone that you don’t always get in other projects, or working on other records.”

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uch like the reconvening of any group of old friends, those first initial steps “took a minute”, but the trio soon settled back into a familiar rhythm. “I remembered all the things that I love about them,” Conor explains, “and I remembered the things that we would argue about - they were still the same after all these years! That was reassuring! I dunno, if anything, I think we’ve gotten more tolerant of each other’s eccentricities. They’re both, I think, bona fide musical geniuses, but they’re both also really eccentric and strange people, and I love them for that.”

While traditionally, Bright Eyes records tended to start with the singer bringing songs to the studio, they wanted to change things up for a 2020 version of the band.

“I thought if we were gonna do another record that’s the three of us,” says Conor, “let’s play to everyone’s strengths and make it as collaborative as possible.”

It’s a combination of this harmonious spirit and a harnessing of their eccentricities that comes to the fore on ‘Down In The Weeds…’. Opening with ‘Pageturner’s Rag’ - a spoken word-come-rag-tag tune that features two separate recordings from both Conor’s ex-wife and his mother - there’s an almost fever dream-like quality to the album that shines through, with luscious string arrangements and satisfying instrumental flourishes juxtaposed against Conor’s dark storytelling.

Renowned for their melancholic openness and his penchant for flirting with a more dystopian world view, on Bright Eyes’ latest, that outlook is in full force.

And while the record comes

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imbued with a real sense of pain and loss - the album itself is dedicated to Conor’s brother Matt, who passed away in 2016 - it also manages, at times, to feel redemptive.

“I don’t think I’m super unique in the sense that we all have shitty stuff happen to us, and we all have our own various traumas and challenges,” Conor ruminates. “[For] all my life really - but it gets a little more potent as I get older - there’s that idea of trying to encapsulate the human experience and what that means. The juxtapositions of terror and beauty, and the light and the dark that swirls together to make what it is to be a human being, to be alive.

Especially now, it feels even more…” Tangible? “Yeah, it’s like, who thought we’d be sitting in the middle of a If you’re a fan of Bright global pandemic?!

Eyes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that their “I guess what I’m saying newest record would is, those themes and that have a somewhat desire to blend all those political edge. This experiences into my lyrics time was a little has always been something I different, however. But was trying for. But it’s weird, don’t think Conor’s not being older,” he continues. “In as angry as ever… some ways, things feel more intense because it’s no longer “I’ve always been of some bad daydream you’re the belief that, even if having, or some bad anxiety. you’re writing a love You know more what disease song, it’s in front of the looks like and what ageing backdrop of whatever’s looks like, and the cycle of life happening in the world,” that we’re all gonna get to; he explains. “All those the realising the longer you things inform and live live, it’s only gonna get worse in your subconscious, in a way, because you’re just and that’s where my gonna have to say goodbye to songwriting comes more things. So there is more from; the way-back of a heaviness, I feel, but then basement of my brain at the same time it’s also not that keeps all the things as intense because you’ve I don’t wanna think seen things before, you start about all that much. to notice the patterns.”

LET’S GET POLITICAL

“I think it’s impossible not to [be affected].

Living in Trump’s America is a terrifying thing every day, and it’s a surreal thing.

It defies logic on so many levels and, to me, [it feels like] realities don’t matter anymore, facts don’t matter and science doesn’t matter. Democracy barely matters; all these institutions and fundamental pillars of what I have always thought of as life in the western world, they seem to be toppling in on themselves. Even though I didn’t write explicitly about that stuff, I’m sure that it informed the overall themes of the record.”

In some ways, then, Conor’s mission to represent the human experience is perhaps most successful on ‘Down In The Weeds…’. A surreal journey through hurt and healing - much like the real life one he’s found himself on over the past five years - their latest album may feel like their most prophetic yet, but even in these darkest of times, it’s a reassurance that no matter what happens, we’re in this together.

On the

‘Gram

These days, even yer gran is posting selfies on Instagram. Instagran, more like. Everyone has it now, including all our fave bands. Here’s a brief catchup on music’s finest phototaking action as of late.

Could it be magic? No, it’s just some fairly rudimentary Photoshop. (@selfesteemselfesteem)

Phoebe’s crystal ball readings were getting increasingly narcissistic. (@_fake_nudes_)

‘Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was’ is out 28th August via Dead Oceans. DIY

Announcing the Headspace app’s newest brand ambassador… (@matthewmaltese)

i got bored_ep preorder now www.lucydeakin.com

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S HOW ME THE

DOGGY

We love dogs. You love dogs.

Here are some pop stars’ dogs.

What’s Going on With...

CONNIE CONSTANCE The Watford singer on cutting loose and making the indie bangers she’s always dreamed of. Words: Lisa Wright.

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ake one look at the dead-eyed smiley face adorning Connie Constance’s left forearm and you’ll have a fair window - albeit one she slightly regrets inking permanently onto herself - into the London singer’s musical tastes. “I had this tattoo artist come down to my gig at 100 Club, and me and Master Peace both got Nirvana tattoos. But now I’ve got this fucking thing - the most basic [bit of artwork] - and I’ve started seeing this guy who’s got ‘In Utero’ and his looks so sick...” she groans.

tastes. “Throughout the whole time I was under development there, [I’d be given] R&B producers no matter how many times I was like, there’s literally no point in putting me in with these people because I don’t wanna make this music,” Connie recalls. “I felt like what I look like didn’t present an easily digestible indie artist: ‘I’m Connie, I’m from Watford, I make indie music and I look like an indie singer’. And that’s why every time it was this big confusion. It was always bizarre to me; I don’t know why it has to be so much of an effort.”

Growing up listening to Kurt and co, alongside The Jam, The Clash and the cheekier end of the UK’s alt-pop stars (“Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen - that kind of female, lairy attitude is something I’ve always been about”), Connie’s 2019 debut ‘English Rose’ hinted at her indie preferences. But it’s in recent singles ‘Monty Python’ and ‘James’ - a playful recollection of a too-big night that Lily herself would be proud of - that Constance is finally starting to audibly hit her stride.

Now releasing through her own label, however, Connie’s latest work makes it sound easy. Full of swagger and the “cockiness” that she’s always aimed for, these tracks may occasionally nestle up to the political, personal lyrics that made her debut, but for the most part she’s finally too up to be that down. “There’s gonna be more indie bangers,” she grins.

“The only thing my listeners might be upset about is I’m not in a deep, depressed place. I’m in a happy, confident place - which is great for my mental health, but it means I don’t really have the really sad songs that they liked [before] because I’m just not there.” Where she is sounds pretty good from here. DIY

Parting ways with AMF Records (a subsidiary of EMI) following the album, it’s only now, the singer explains, that she’s been able to truly embrace her

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THIS MONTH: JOE FALCONER Circa Waves/ Harpo Milk Name: Peggy the Goth Age: 1 year, 9 months Breed: Cavapoochon Favourite things: Chasing balls and The Cure.

Anecdote: Every second Tuesday of the month Peggy and her friends summon Cthulu around the back of Matalan.

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“I still think it sucks; I would still like to have everybody in the band again.” Ronnie Vannucci 3 Boys 1 Truck.

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Nearly two decades into their tenure at the top of the indie rock summit, The Killers return with ‘Imploding The Mirage’ - a sixth album that actually contains a whole heap of firsts. Words: Lisa Wright.

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hen The Killers first ascended to the top of Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage back in 2007, as kings of the then-current indie boom with two UK Number One albums in debut ‘Hot Fuss’ and follow-up ‘Sam’s Town’ to their name, things did not go quite how they were supposed to. With sound problems rendering their set more of a whisper than a bang to the majority of the field, the Vegas showmen were later quoted as saying they were “gutted” by the gig: you didn’t have to read the minds of Brandon Flowers, drummer Ronnie Vannucci, guitarist Dave Keuning or bassist Mark Stoermer to know there were some wrongs to be righted on the world’s most famous stage.

Cut to summer of last year and a Saturday night second shot that proceeded to rightfully claim what should have been theirs more than a decade before. Far from volume issues, The Killers’ headline show was recorded as the loudest the festival has ever seen; five-star reviews across the board swiftly followed. But there was still some uncertainty back in the band’s HQ. “There was this pressure because [the show] was kinda coming out of the blue in support of no record. What does it look like? What is this for?” recalls Ronnie. “I’m so happy with the way it turned out, but I’m sort of glad it’s over.

I get nervous thinking about it even now. Everything [normally] ramps up to having a new record, and doing new shows in support of the record, but then we recorded the record and the bottom dropped out, as it has done for everyone on earth.”

Speaking to us from an Airstream at the bottom of his property in California during renovations, “watching people go in and out of the carcass of the house, annoying every subcontractor known to man”, the affable drummer might have been affected by the pandemic the same as everyone else, but it’s safe to say his summer has been altered more than most. With The Killers’ sixth LP ‘Imploding the Mirage’ laid down

following last year’s festival highs, their newest showcases soaring highs and anthemic clarion calls inspired by and born for the stage - now, it’s one that likely won’t house them for a good while yet. However, Vannucci and Flowers have become somewhat used to adapting to life’s curveballs of late. Following the decision to retire from touring duties in support of 2017’s ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, ‘Imploding the Mirage’ marks the first Killers record to deviate from the band’s core four-piece line-up. Keuning, says the drummer, “was not there at all”, and Stoermer “was there when he could make it, which wasn’t a lot”.

“They’re doing their own things in life and asked to have that license to do that, and it’s a free country but we wanna make a record,” he shrugs. “I was really fearful that we wouldn’t have a most excellent record because we have excellent records with those guys; I was a little worried about losing that in their absence. But it didn’t turn out that way - a lot of great work was done, with a lot of surprises, and we had a lot of people involved that filled that void. But I still think it sucks; I would still like to have everybody in it again, but I totally understand life and how that works.”

Stepping in to fill the void came producers Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs) and Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, while the pair adopted something of an open door policy when it came to accepting new input. “It was like, well fuck, what do we do now? Brandon and I had been spending a lot of time in the studio together, but I think we could only go so far before we were so up our own asses with ideas and would totally lose perspective, which is when it becomes really important for other people to be involved,” Ronnie begins. “That’s when it gets fun, when you have this license to experiment more, call a member of Fleetwood Mac... now we’re having a bit of fun.”

Enter legendary in-again-outagain Fleetwood guitarist Lindsay Buckingham. “Lindsay showed up, and I helped him out with his pedals - ‘Oh where would you like these, sir?’ - and then he became like a member of the band,” he grins. “It was so easy that I did a couple of times have to snap out of it and be like, wait a minute, it’s because of him that I’m a drummer and I’m in music.”

Yet, if life as a Killer is often filled with these pinch-yourself moments, then the writing process for their latest was by no means all roses. On ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, Flowers began to talk about the complex PTSD that his wife had

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“Brandon and I could only go so far [alone] before we were so up our own asses we would totally lose perspective.” - Ronnie Vannucci been diagnosed with; on ‘Imploding The Mirage’, it’s a subject and a healing process that writes itself all over the record. “I think, just as humans, if there’s a fire somewhere then you wanna help with that fire. If it’s a good fire you wanna keep it going; if it’s a bad fire, you wanna put it out. So if you see your friend, or your brother, in the midst of a fire and you don’t have a bigger fire, then my job in that scenario - in the last two records - has been more supportive: to try and understand and help get the message across,” Ronnie explains. “Even if it’s not playing, it’s just being there. Because in the last two records it’s been introspective and a personal thing, so I guess it’s just more like being a friend, and then a musician.”

Which is not to say there aren’t songs as big as any the band have ever laid their name to present here. It seems a cruel trick that the effortlessly massive ‘Caution’, or the sparkling keys of ‘My Own Soul’s Warning’ will have to wait to be lapped up by a live crowd, but the fact that, from troubles both personal and interpersonal, The Killers can still sound like the most joyous group around is testament to their prolonged powers. “That’s the trick, right?” chuckles Ronnie. “To get the message out in a palatable, fun way so we can stand ourselves first and people like it, second.

We’re just coming from as honest a place as possible, and I think we’re sensitive dudes like that where we can pick up on the bullshit of it all.”

Next year will mark the band’s 20th anniversary since forming as a group of barely twenty-somethings at the turn of the century. With their seventh LP already in the works (“we’re not touring so we may as well”), they’ve outlasted almost all of their peers, and show no signs of stopping. They’re still, says Vannucci, striving “to push ourselves and our band to a higher artistic place”, and they’re still evidently in love with what they do - as that triumphant Pyramid turn proved once and for all. So what’s the secret?

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Ronnie ponders. “I mean, the stories have all been written. All the cocaine, the whiskey, the women - it’s been written already. And I’m not saying we didn’t dip our toes in the water of that stuff, but even early on it was an opportunity that [we weren’t going to take for granted]. We didn’t come from wealthy families, we were all working stiffs, and so when you have this opportunity - maybe you don’t realise it holistically, and even now I don’t still fully grasp it, but we knew what a gift that was and what a chance to really change your life this would be, and I don’t think we were going to risk that for anything.

“This doesn’t happen a lot, so don’t fuck it up.”

‘Imploding The Mirage’ is out 21st August via Island. DIY

What do music’s great and good rustle up for their supper? Let us peek inside the recipe book… bon appetit!

Name: Izzy B. Phillips Dish: Izzy Bee’s Palm Island Iced Tea Ingredients: 15ml gin 15 ml vodka 15 ml tequila 15 ml white rum 15ml triple sec 25ml lemon juice 30 ml passion fruit syrup Top with cava Method: Shake together and strain with plenty of ice.

Garnish with a maraschino cherry and umbrella in a trashy glass of your choice!

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INCLUDES THE SINGLES

FASHUN, TRUE STEREO AND SONGS FOR JOANNA OUT 07 AUGUST

www.williejhealey.com

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BASTILLE FT. GRAHAM COXON WHAT YOU GONNA DO???

If you’re an arena-filling pop outfit who’d Quite Like to show the world you do indeed have amps, and know how to turn them up on occasion, obviously you’ll recruit one of the greatest guitarists ever to rock up for a guest spot, just like that. True, ‘WHAT YOU GONNA DO???’ isn’t all that far removed from Bastille’s big singles, but with the added gnarl of Graham Coxon’s guitar, some punchy drum action, the group’s signature “woah-oh”s replaced by excitable “woo”s, and even a smidgen of distortion on Dan Smith’s usually crystalline vocal, it’s still as if the foursome have found a new lease of life. (Emma Swann)

WALT DISCO - HEY BOY (YOU’RE ONE OF US) A manifesto for the glamorous outsiders, Walt Disco’s latest continues the Glaswegians’ mission to present a sexy alternate reality where gender is irrelevant and everyone is perpetually dressed like they’ve just swanned out of the French Renaissance. “Once upon a time, we were boys like you...” croon the band a cappella as the curtain draws back, before the swashbuckling main event reveals itself – half Adam Ant chants, half sordid synths to add a little bit of naughtiness. Right now, the world could all do with taking a leaf out of Walt Disco’s inclusive, celebratory book. (Lisa Wright)

PHOEBE GREEN - REINVENT

It’s ironic that the latest from Chess Club-signed Mancunian Phoebe Green finds the singer having something of an identity crisis (“If I reinvent myself for every person that I meet, will it make them stick around?”), because the shimmering, smoke machine pop of ‘Reinvent’ easily marks Green’s most headturning offering to date. Written alongside The Big Moon’s Jules Jackson – herself no stranger to a sparkling slice of melody – it pulses along on programmed drum machines and swooning melodies, crying out to soundtrack a pivotal moment at an ‘80s school dance scene. No reinvention needed, Phoebe’s hit on something that’s very much worth sticking with. (Lisa Wright)

NO ROME FT. BEARFACE - 1:45AM Staking their claim as one of our fave collabs of the year, No Rome and Brockhampton’s Bearface have teamed up for new track ‘1:45AM’. And what do you get when an indie pop act and a member of the most exciting hip hop collective in the world join forces? Well, a UK garage banger of course! In part due to the fact that legendary UK grime artist MJ Cole jumped on production duties, alongside The 1975’s George Daniel, ‘1:45AM’ is an upbeat banger, with Rome and Bearface’s delicately melodic vocals expertly intertwining to create a vibe-filled synth-leaning hit. Backed by an undeniable garageinfluenced beat, it’s a fucking smash. (Elly Watson)

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HAVE YOU HEARD?

HAVE YOU HEARD?

BILLIE EILISH - MY FUTURE

A song called ‘my future’ written by the most in-demand pop star on the planet could easily be a slightly tiresome thing (We get it! You’re probably going to have more houses than us!), but of course Billie is far smarter than to rub her dollar bills in our faces. Instead, the standalone, quarantine-penned single lands as something of an understated feminist anthem - an ode to being just fine by yourself (“Know I’m supposed to be unhappy without someone / But aren’t I someone?”) delivered over warm grooves that nod to jazz and soul singers past. The future looks bright. But then we already knew that – duh. (Lisa Wright)

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HALL ofof HALL OF FAME

THE RAKES - ‘CAPTURE / RELEASE’ Amidst the wayward cast of characters that populated the mid-’00s indie boom, in came The Rakes’ antsy debut to provide the despairing hangover of being young and doomed in the city. Words: Lisa Wright.

If

you had to distill the exact sound of heading to a cash machine, checking your balance and realising you don’t have enough money to get the tube to work thanks to the raging hangover/ comedown currently bedding down between your temples, it would be The Rakes’ 2005 debut ‘Capture / Release’.

From the alarm clock that opens ‘The Guilt’ before its stabs of panic sink in (“I had just woke up! Everything was fucked!”) to the weary protagonist just trying to claw his way through to Friday on closer ‘Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep)’ (“A shower and a scrub / Still smell like the smoking bit in a Wetherspoons pub”), it landed as a 34-minute, razor-sharp document of every entry-level employee’s working week: a record that careered between wild-eyed rampaging and feeling absolutely ruined within the course of a single song.

At its helm stood singer Alan Donohoe - a lanky leader with the jittery aura and spooked eyes of a man permanently running late for a job interview.

If the bands of the mid-’00s all succeeded (at least temporarily) by merit of their clearly defined niches - Hard-Fi for the geezers; Maximo Park for people who carried a scruffy copy of Baudelaire in their pockets at all times - then The Rakes were

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perhaps the most convincing of them all. When Donohoe’s strangled sob-cum-howl cries “everything is temporary these days / might as well go out for the fifth night in a row” on ‘Repeat’, you know he’s a man who’s looked down the barrel of the daily drudge and instead chosen six medicinal Jägerbombs and a second written warning the following day.

THE FACTS Released: 15th August 2005 Key Tracks: ‘22 Grand Job’, ‘Strasbourg’, ‘Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep)’ Tell your mates: Alan now works as a software developer, earning, we would assume, slightly more than £22k.

Crucially, however, despite its deep aura of wreckhead misery, ‘Capture / Release’ was full of short, sharp sonic slammers that could incite all kinds of rowdy behaviour themselves. If ‘22 Grand Job’ - likely the band’s lasting legacy lyrically landed as a slightly desperate pep talk, then musically it scored as a prime-time indie disco banger, all careering riffs and well-placed hand claps.

The Rakes would go on to release two middling follow-ups in 2007’s ‘Ten New Messages’ and 2009’s ‘Klang’ before, like most of their peers, calling it a day by the turn of the decade. But in their debut, they wrangled together an album that’s still eye-wateringly on the nose for anyone still permanently living in their overdraft and for the weekend. A 22 grand job in the City? Tbh it’s still alright…

DEATH OF THE PARTY THE NEW ALBUM 28 AUGUST

www.themagicgang.co/

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I didn’t go solo straight away because I knew that, as a Black woman alone, I was going to get chewed up.”

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Bree Runway

What’s Going On With…

Aluna

The first half of AlunaGeorge is going it alone, but there’s a far more important ethos behind forthcoming solo LP ‘Renaissance’ than just some banging beats. Words: Timi Sotire.

A

fter finding mainstream success and critical acclaim as one half of AlunaGeorge, Aluna Francis is ready to do things her own way. Briefly departing from long-term collaborator George Reid, now she’s heading towards her first solo release ‘Renaissance’ - an album that, via a deep exploration of her heritage, identity and sound, reimagines the parameters of dance music.

Feeling inspired by “powerful individuals” spearheading a new wave of the “Black Renaissance” in the past couple of years, Aluna felt compelled to use her platform to make a difference. “Music for me is an opportunity to discover, feel alive, move forward. It got to a point where I wanted to stand by my creativity and give myself the authority to make decisions,” she states.

As such, ‘Renaissance’, she explains, was designed for Black people - who Aluna believes are not catered for within the current iterations of the genre. “I’ve never listened to a dance record that gives me everything that I want. I just wanted to make a soundtrack for Black people who are living their best life,” she elaborates. As a series of exceptionally woven-together tracks with infectious beats, the album pays homage to genres generally disregarded in mainstream dance discourse. As Aluna explains: “I wanted to reimagine dance to incorporate Black history, and the Africa-born or African diaspora-made dance music that is considered ‘subculture’ or ‘sub-genre’.”

When it comes to dance music, the hierarchy of genres mirrors our current racial order. Black genres are categorised as lying outside the confines of mainstream

dance, in the same way that Black people are ‘othered’ in wider society.

Aluna sees this ostracisation of Black music as intentional; “Reggae, Afrobeat and Dancehall are all types of music you dance to. That’s dance music to me,” she notes, “but these genres fail to be included in the mainstream.”

Club culture in the UK was spearheaded by Black, queer and working-class communities, with dance music serving as a powerful tool for resistance and temporary refuge from persecution. Yet, as club culture continues to proliferate, its activist message is lost, and pioneers forgotten. So for Aluna, as a Black woman, reclaiming her sound on her own terms is important. “I’ve always found being the sole contributor to a piece of music kinda scary. I’ve always leaned on other people to verify that what I’ve done is good,” she concedes. “But now, I need to be there for myself.”

T

he erasure of Black club music works in tandem with the forces of austerity and gentrification, which obstruct Black people from accessing many physical club spaces.

The government’s now-defunct 696 form (which required promoters to detail the ethnicity of their patrons), paired with increased policing of communities, served to criminalise Black music and stamp it out of club culture. “People were being prohibited from being the central ambassadors of the music through government control; that’s big because it was a blossoming genre. The takeover by white people then happened really quickly,” Aluna explains. While Black music was marginalised, the same sounds pioneered by white artists grew without interrogation.

“I didn’t know this history of dance

music for a while, and would hate seeing [only] one or two Black girls in the audience when I performed. I had this notion that Black girls in general are not that into dance, but I get it now. Of course we won’t be on the dancefloor; they took our whole genre!” she says, frustratedly.

As a Black woman in a white-washed industry, Aluna says she had to be tactful in her career decisions. “I thought to myself: I’ve got this goal, but I’m not going to go straight for it,” she admits.

Looking back, the singer knows that she wouldn’t have found this level of success if she entered the industry as a solo artist. “I wouldn’t admit it to myself, but I can’t deny that I didn’t consider being in a duo as a much more successful prospect - doing music with a white man,” she continues. “One of my secret reasons for not wanting to go solo straight away is because the music industry is racist and predatory. I knew that, as a Black woman alone, I was going to get chewed up.”

The whole industry requires a massive upheaval and restructuring. There needs to be a deep interrogation into how the industry defines genre, tells its history, and who it chooses to platform. Aluna hopes that ‘Renaissance’ will help in reclaiming dance music as a form of escapism for Black communities, and help to force that change. “Black people need spaces where we can party together safely and have a harmonious night,” she nods. “I want this record to get people dancing. Dancing is healing.

The world is so polarised and is getting more and more terrifying: dancing is an antidote to that.”

‘Renaissance’ is out 28th August via Mad Decent. DIY

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neu new bands new music

Try and steal Andrew’s parking space, and the Ghosts will feckin ‘ave you mate.

A Swayze & the Ghosts "I hope [the album] pisses the right people off people who should be pissed off." - Andrew Swayze 22

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Impassioned, intelligent punk, about to finally put Tasmania on the musical map.

Words: Lisa Wright.

Photo: Rick Clifford.

When your home town is pretty much solely associated in people’s minds with a gibberishspeaking Loony Tunes character, chances are you’re probably not flooded with inspirational local success stories of the human variety.

Hailing from Hobart - the capital of Australia’s island state of Tasmania Andrew Swayze spent his formative years increasingly feeling like the walls were narrowing in. “[Tasmania] is isolated by physical distance from the mainland and it really felt like that when we were growing up, that we were so separate and always getting things last,” he recalls. “The education rate here is really low, the poverty rate is really high, the obesity rate is one of the highest in the country, the employment rate is low. Things have changed recently, but when I was a kid it was really depressing.”

However, when he stumbled upon Kurt Cobain, vocally exorcising his demons and expressing the same frustration and angst that he was feeling too, the young musician found something that felt like a way out. “That was the turning point where it really became evident that music was this really fucking ravenous thing within me,” he remembers. And from then, first seeking out the small, underground local scene and then, five years ago, stepping out and forming his own group, making music became an absolute necessity. “I always wanted more than just to live on this little island and be depressed, so music was always this avenue to be like, I don’t want to be normal. I want to express myself and be big and loud and not be one of these run of the mill people that I felt like I was surrounded by,” he continues.

“I was in this small community where not much really happened, but I’ve always felt this really positive attitude towards music - like if I want it, then I can have it. I never expected to do the stuff we’ve been able to do living in the place we grew up in, but I wanted it so much that I made it happen anyway. I kind of knew it was gonna happen.”

If there’s an unshakeable confidence to the way the singer speaks of his band then, on the cusp of releasing debut album ‘Paid Salvation’ this month, the work has been hard-earned. Beginning life in the shared house where Andrew

and his trio of Ghosts previously cohabited, the group’s early days were as self-destructive as any punk cliches could suggest. “It was dirty and cold, I was a massive alcoholic and drug user at that point, and the other guys were equally as messed up.

I used to get absolutely fucked when we’d go and play - it was an excuse to completely write myself off which just didn’t work,” explains the singer. “But I hated sucking, so we started to really practice. And even when I was getting completely blitzed and falling off the stage, I was still writing about things that I felt were important.”

These days, the singer - sporting a rather dignified polo neck when he joins us on Zoom - is completely sober. But while it may have taken him a while to make the necessary life adjustments, he’s clearly always given that level of gravitas to his art.

Exploring themes from the title track’s critique of “the monetisation of religion” through to ‘Suddenly’’s discussion of gender inequality - with lyrics written

by Swayze’s wife and sung from her perspective - ‘Paid Salvation’ is an album that takes its platform seriously.

Yes, it’s full of the kind of volatile, careering riffs that’ll find a happy home in any mosh pit, but Andrew is quick to assert that spit’n’sawdust punk bile is far from the aim.

“I despise lyricists who just mess with irony. I’ve got a lot to say. I’m a heavily opinionated person,” he confirms.

“I hope [the album] pisses the right people off - people who should be pissed off. I spent months and hundred of iterations of these songs getting everything right, so I’m really proud of every track on here - if people love it that’s awesome, but if people hate it I don’t really care because I’m sure I’ve said the things I want to say.”

Sometimes, Andrew admits, having this backbone of strong opinions and fierce integrity can be difficult in an industry where your art becomes a form of commodity; the slight awkwardness of having to promote a song about the hatefulness of social media (‘Connect to Consume’) on social media is not lost on him. “People are like, ‘Oh it’s ironic’, and it’s not, it’s hypocrisy. But you’ve got to pick your battles,” he accepts.

But fundamentally, A Swayze & the Ghosts are heading into their debut with the attitude of a band determined to mean something.

“I wanna be as big as Bowie, and I’m happy to say it because at least then I can fall short and be mildly successful. I want the platform; I’m not a conventional punk frontman character who’s ‘anti’ all that,” he nods, confidently. “I definitely want it, and I expect I will get it.” He grins. “I’ll just take it.” DIY

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OTTA A lotta lotta lo-fi charm c/o otta.

PA SALIEU Heading for the frontline of British hip hop.

Raised between Gambia and Coventry, and fusing the experiences, culture and sounds of both places into an inimitable mix, Pa Salieu has spent the first half of 2020 becoming a firm radio fixture. January’s ‘Frontline’ headed into summer as BBC 1Xtra’s most-played track of the year, while recent single ‘Betty’ deftly shows his multinational approach - a track that speaks of local violence and his own past troubles and struggles over dancehall rhythms.

LISTEN: Pa also recently guested on ‘Hit The Block’, with viral rapper SL. SIMILAR TO: The new sound of the underground.

HOME COUNTIES Wonky melodies and clattering kicks from Bristol’s newest gang.

The band FKA Haze have returned as Home Counties a ragtag bunch of Bristolians dealing in clattering riffs and a sort of ‘Parquet Courts down the working men’s club’ brand of controlled chaos.

Debut ‘Redevelopment’ tumbled its way into view with barely a pause for breath, while excellently-titled newie ‘Dad Bod’ suggests their forthcoming EP could be full of similarly eccentric delights.

LISTEN: The full ‘Redevelopment’ EP lands next month via Alcopop!

SIMILAR TO: A bit of Leeds boys Mush; a bit of the Fat White Family (albeit PG-rated); a bit of the ‘Courts.

‘Bedroom artists’ these days are generally well-versed enough in Logic that their home recordings still sound pretty damn slick. Finnish / British multi-instrumentalist otta’s latest EP ‘Songbook’, however, takes a more intimate, rickety approach to things: one that leaves all the rough edges in, and that sends you straight into the room with her. Veering from R&B tinges to tUnEyArDsesque playful electronic pop, there’s already a confident sense of identity here.

LISTEN: Recent single ‘never see’ is an idiosyncratic delight.

SIMILAR TO: What everyone wishes they’d managed to come up with while cooped in their room during lockdown. .

BENEE The New Zealand pop star taking over the airwaves one viral banger at a time.

Spent hours scrolling through TikTok in lockdown?

Regardless, it’s likely you’ll have heard BENEE’s viral smash ‘Supalonely’ at some point. Blowing up on the app, the bop has all the materials for a great pop song: a banging beat, witty wordplay and a guest spot from Gus Dapperton. Collabing with Kenny Beats and Bakar for newest song ‘Night Garden’, it’s evident BENEE is the hottest name on pop’s lips rn.

LISTEN: Just try to stop singing the chorus of ‘Supalonely’. We dare ya.

SIMILAR TO: An unstoppable tour de pop force.

RECOMMENDED BABY QUEEN Gen Z ennui has its newest poster girl.

South Africa-born Bella Latham might only be two songs into her pop career, but she’s already had Matty Healy popping down to her video set to see what all the fuss is about. As per usual, he’s sniffed out a special one: debut ‘Internet Religion’ might be Sky Ferreira for the Snapchat generation, but it’s on recent track ‘Buzzkill’ essentially Lorde’s ‘Royals’ on downers - that Baby Queen really proves she could be onto something big.

LISTEN: “My biggest flaw is a total lack of self-control” begins ‘Buzzkill’ before a list of other killer bon mots.

SIMILAR TO: If Lorde and cartoon teen Daria did a team up.

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neu

Bringing the sunshine of the West Coast to a 3D scanner near you. Words: Emma Swann.

REMI WOLF

“I figured out a way to interact with the audience by, like, getting all the cars to beep and flash their lights,” explains California native Remi Wolf.

She’s speaking about her recent live show - an experience (or at least an experience with an audience) that only a handful of artists have been able to lay claim to since March. Sure, her view from the stage whilst hosting LA’s first lockdown drive-in gig back in June was a sea of cars, but “it was super awesome to perform again” all the same, she says: “It was a scene. I’m sure people who were driving past were like, ‘What the fuck is going on over there?!’”

palpable - and matched every beat by the full-on, technicolour visuals on which she collaborates with artist Agusta Yr.

The show was to celebrate the release of recent EP ‘I’m Allergic To Dogs!’ - a technicolour splash of sunshine-fuelled pop, or a “West Coast record for sure”, as Remi puts it. The sum of a childhood spent listening to her mum’s Prince and Stevie Wonder records, alongside a love of MIA (“she was a big one when I was younger”), classic rock, indie and more, the singer’s list of influences is as eclectic and wide-ranging as they come.

Namechecking everyone from AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses and Tool, through to Porches, Whitney, Angel Olsen, Anderson .Paak and Kali Uchis, the result is record whose vibrancy and joy is

And while a planned trip to the UK had to be canned alongside the rest of music’s 2020 touring hopes, Remi’s been putting that time towards a full album. “I’ve had way more time than I would have had to focus on it this year. I’ve been writing a lot more rock stuff, and getting in touch with influences that I haven’t really explored in a while,” she explains. “So whether that be something that’s super sunshine, or poppy, or more mellow - I’m really trying to figure out what my next step is in terms of my sound and what I’m trying to say lyrically.” DIY

“I wanted to extend the world of my EP into a visual one,” says Remi. “We filmed the ‘Woo!’ music video together two weeks before lockdown started, and then we 3D scanned all my looks to make them animated. I had to film some 3D stuff here, so we set up a green screen and did some socially-distanced filming for ‘Disco Man’, but everything else was done prior to quarantine. We got really lucky with the concept in general, because we were able to extend the life of those characters throughout the entire visual landscape.”

“I wanted to extend the world of my EP into a visual one.”

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BUZZ

FEED

All the buzziest new music happenings, in one place.

A-WOP-BEABADOOBEEA-WOP-BAM-BOOM

Big Neu news! Following recent banger ‘Care’, Beabadoobee has announced the imminent arrival of her hugely-anticipated debut LP. It’s called ‘Fake It Flowers’ and, while there’s no official release date as yet, it’ll be here before the year is out.

For now, listen to the new track, which Bea says is “pretty much me being angry at society, or people around me who I just don’t think know me and don’t care”. “I don’t want you to feel fucking sorry for me. I just want you to understand what I’ve been through,” she adds. So there.

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PLAY LIST Every week on Spotify, we update DIY’s Neu Discoveries playlist with the buzziest, freshest faces. Here’s our pick of the best new tracks:

TIÑA ‘Golden Rope’ ‘Golden Rope’ trots into view as a self-described “cowboy gallop away from suicide on a horse named self-compassion”. Drums canter along beneath chintzy, fairground organs, as singer Joshua Loftin’s characterful vocals meander through lyrics that are somehow both abstract and strangely clear. Saddle up.

JULIUS BLACK ‘Mirrors’ An elegant gem of a track reminiscent of Ryan Beatty, Rex OC and Frank Ocean, ‘Mirrors’ finds New Zealand’s Julius Black reflecting on a time when he’d just relocated, broken up with his girlfriend, got fired from his job, and was feeling all-round isolated. If he’s making this magic under super shitty circumstances, think of what he might do when it’s all a little brighter…

BLESSED BE

HANDSOME DEVILS

Limerick lyricist Sinead O’Brien has announced details of her debut EP ‘Drowning In Blessings’ (produced by Speedy Wunderground head honcho Dan Carey, and set for release next month) alongside news of a March 2021 UK tour.

BULL ‘Green’

Class of 2020 faves Walt Disco are set to unleash debut EP ‘Young, Hard and Handsome’ on 20th September, following on from a string of fabulously theatrical singles including the recent glam-pop stomp of ‘Hey Boy (You’re One of Us)’.

The Notorious SOB (it’s got a ring to it…) has also shared new track ‘Strangers In Danger’ by way of a teaser. “Scenes play out in windows, on streets, inside homes; It’s about spaces, claiming personal space in the city, naming things, bringing them closer,” she says.

The Glaswegians will also be heading off on tour next spring, with a six-date jaunt beginning in Aberdeen on 1st March and winding up in Edinburgh at the end of the month. Get your glad rags on for this one.

A lazy, hazy offering that’s a bit like R.E.M’s ‘Shiny Happy People’ on a ‘90s slacker trip, Bull’s latest sounds more North California than North Yorkshire: think Pavement charm, and pretty jangles that underrated ‘00s beach boys The Thrills wouldn’t hate.

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THE GOA EXPRESS ‘Be My Friend’ Filled with all the youthful vim of a band of teenage mates (which they are), the latest from Manchester’s The Goa Express arrives in a giddy rush of baggy garage rock excitement.

Like if Palma Violets had taken their cues more from the US than the UK, ‘Be My Friend’ has a rabble-rousing enthusiasm that’s infectious.

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BALMING TIGER The internet-crazed Korean collective, about to take their rightful spot as your new fave K-pop stars. Words: Elly Watson.

“We all know K-pop has blown up, and I feel like it’s our turn,” Omega Sapien beams over the phone from Seoul. One member of the nine-strong, self-described “alternative K-pop band” Balming Tiger, Omega - alongside fellow crew members San Yawn, Mudd The Student, Wnjn, Sogumm, Henson, Abyss, Jan’qui and Unsikable - has slowly been building up buzz online. Now the collective are ready to take over the globe.

Drawing inspiration from their love of all things internet, the group’s hits ‘Armadillo’ and ‘Kolo Kolo’ have pushed them into the wider musical consciousness, with the latter - which literally translates to ‘Cough Cough’ - even becoming the soundtrack for an online dance challenge. “That came so out of the blue!” Omega laughs. “We tried to push our own ‘Kolo Kolo’ video through TikTok and that really didn’t work, so we didn’t plan it at all. It was just a very lucky coincidence.”

With direct examples such as 2018 single ‘I’m Sick’’s repeated, autotuned “link in bio” opening, Omega emphasises that internet culture forms the basis of everything Balming Tiger do. “As Korean artists, we don’t want to do something that’s very stereotypically Asian or just copy straight from the Billboard chart,” he affirms. “We want to make our own, distinctive, no-boundary type thing, and I feel like the internet is perfect for that. You have all these different cultures and different ideas coming together, and we’re just fusing everything into one.”

Blending multiple genres, but centring themselves mostly around hip hop-inspired bangers, the collective are ready to show off the alternative side of K-pop.

“There’s a lot of different music in Korea and there’s a lot of different spectrums to K-pop,” Omega emphasises. “If you say K-pop, it isn’t really a genre if you think about it. There’s techno, EDM, hip hop, ballads. We’d love to give the world a taste of Korean underground music.”

With BTS and BLACKPINK paving the way, Balming Tiger are hoping to blow up and make their mark on the music world and beyond. “For me, we want to be an iconic group coming out of Asia, just how Bruce Lee was doing it back in the day,” Omega states. “When I went to America when I was in eighth grade, being an Asian boy wasn’t the coolest thing to be, but I’m hearing from my friend’s little brother that because of BTS and stuff they’re cool now, finally! My goal is just to add on to that and have a strong influence across the globe.” DIY

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"We'd love to give the world a taste of Korean underground music." Omega Sapien

"I wanted to make it clear on our EP that we aren’t a one trick pony.” - Harry Jordan Eades from Leeds: we’ll bet they succeed(s).

Words: Ben Tipple.

“We’re not the youngest band in the world,” vocalist Harry Jordan states, looking back on the various groups Eades’ five members have been part of over the years. “We’re not Arctic Monkeys being 19 when they released their debut album. We’ve made mistakes and learned a lot.”

Having released debut EP ‘Microcosmic Things’ at the start of July, the Leeds quintet are, instead, the product of years grafting through underground music. Boasting a distinct, collaborative attitude, they share writing duties, capitalise on Harry and bandmate Dan Clifford-Smith’s production skills and generally show that a little bit of age and experience is no bad thing.

Citing the likes of Talking Heads and Joy Division as influences on their atypical blend of sun-kissed indie and new wave, theirs is a hybrid style that also comes underpinned by distorted guitars, layered vocals, and a subtle hint of heavy noise. “We’ve learned how important it is to work out your own sound and not follow other people,” Harry notes.

With a musical past including projects rooted in dreampop, shoegaze, psychedelic rock and neo-soul, Eades have quickly

begun to cross musical boundaries. It’s an eclectic outlook that writes itself all over the band’s first release. “We didn’t want to get stuck in one genre. With our first EP we wanted to have five songs that vary in style so when we do our next single it’s not a shock,” Harry explains. “I saw a documentary about Foals where their producers were talking about the fact that how they’ve changed so much is what’s kept them exciting. That resonated with me. I wanted to make that clear on our EP - that we aren’t a one trick pony.”

Instead, Eades find consistency in their shared musical passion and DIY ethos, and have even started their own label, thanks to a little inspiration from Sports Team. From dancing around his bedroom with a toy guitar and a Red Hot Chili Peppers DVD as a kid, to now having penned more than 50 new tracks during lockdown, the singer is evidently in love with the simple joys of being in a band - and with an EP that already races out of the tracks with all the excitement and energy of indie’s finest, it’s an enthusiasm that’s infectious.

“We’ve got all the different people pulling their weight,” he enthuses of Eades’ ethos. “It’s the first time I’ve been writing something I’m genuinely really proud of. I just believe in what we are doing. That’s all that really matters.” DIY

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d

Intervention

Divine

I Latest opus ‘`Whole New Mess’ finds Angel Olsen looking to the future but reaching back to the past, to an emotionally-purging set of recordings that would lead the singer to her rawest work yet.

Words: Leonie Cooper.

Photos: Pooneh Ghana.

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A sa kid, Angel Olsen would climb the stairs of her family’s Victorian home in St Louis, Missouri, right up to the small landing at the top of the house. With her she would take a Yamaha keyboard and a cassette player.

After being sure to close the door to the landing, Angel would record herself singing over and over into the tape machine, stacking harmony upon harmony. “I would add layers the old fashioned way,” she explains, using the double deck to multitrack her vocals.

“That’s how I taught myself to record and sing.”

By the time she was in high school, she’d built up enough confidence to leave the door to her DIY home studio open. Since then, her instantly recognisable, reverbdrenched, postmodern torch singer style has been defined by two things: a willingness to let the world in on her own intimate thoughts, but also a staunch lone wolf mentality.

Now, after a decade of acclaimed releases - fittingly beginning with 2010’s cassette-only ‘Strange Cacti’ EP - she’s pulled back the curtain even further, going back to basics for the devastating, stripped-back ‘Whole New Mess’.

Her first proper solo album since 2012’s debut ‘Half Way Home’, the new record is driven by the singer’s powerful vibrato, twanging guitar and bursts of stark, emotional release. As well as taking her career full-circle, ‘Whole New Mess’ also breaks the traditional release pattern: it was, notably, recorded before last year’s masterclass in symphonic rage, ‘All Mirrors’. In fact, ‘Whole New Mess’ should

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sound more than familiar to fans of Olsen - all but two of its tracks are made up of the very first versions of the songs that went on to comprise that last album.

But this is no mere demos collection. Taken on its own merit, ‘Whole New Mess’ is a powerful thing; the close, often uncomfortable sound of someone working through the spiritual detritus of a break-up and coming out not with answers, but catharsis.

And in the context of ‘All Mirrors’ it also offers a fascinating insight into how an artist works, showing us the bare, brittle bones of songs before she was able to stand back and cover them in sinew and flesh, to dress them in dramatic, scenestealing costumes.

“It feels more personal,” explains Angel from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, comparing ‘Whole New Mess’ to its predecessor. “I was still processing a lot of the feelings and the thoughts that were going into these songs when I was recording them. I just needed to write them and sing them without

“I weed out the stray weeds coming through the rocks in my garden, and it feels like weeding out the shit in my life.�

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really knowing if they were going to be flashy, or what people wanted to hear, or if it would be interesting, or if it would sound good.”

An artist who has never shied away from letting fans know exactly what’s happening in her heart, it’s no surprise that Angel was willing to release these sessions, but that she wanted ‘All Mirrors’ to come out first definitely makes a statement.

“I thought it would be more interesting to see something explosive, and then take a look back to where it started - to do

ready to punch you in the gut all over again.

Recording sessions for ‘Whole New Mess’ took place inside a converted Catholic church in the small, leafy town of Anacortes, Washington.

A grown-up version of the hidden landing at the top of the stairs, Angel worked there with a small team lead by Michael Harris, who engineered her 2016 breakthrough album, ‘My Woman’. “He and I had developed a really close friendship and I felt really able to be vulnerable around him,”

service if they were crying.”

It’s now been almost two years since those sessions. So how does she feel hearing it back all over again, knowing how bruised she was when it was made? “I can separate myself from it now that I’ve performed it in some context,” she admits. Even so, Angel is alright with those painful memories staying within reach. “I would hope that whatever feeling of sadness or indignation, that I would continue to have that. But I don’t want to romanticise things that aren’t worked

“I thought it would be more interesting to do something explosive, and then take a look back to where it started.” it the other way around,” she says of her decision to release the albums out of order. Though it might not have the bells and whistles of ‘All Mirrors’ - a lavish production which comes complete with a string and brass section overseen

by Grammy-winning St Vincent producer John Congleton - ‘Whole New Mess’ is explosive in its own right. Like a pistol fitted with a silencer, it may not make as much noise, but it’s just as deadly.

Songs like ‘(We Are All Mirrors)’ - which would later morph into ‘All Mirrors’’ dramatic title track - swirl with a taut, controlled chaos, while ‘Lark Song’, the formative track for ‘All Mirrors’’ ‘Lark’, begins as a gentle acoustic strumalong, before Angel’s voice takes off into a soaring, pained falsetto. “Every time I turn to you / I see the past it’s all that lasts / And all I know how,” she calls, almost hopeless. Then that aching refrain of “What about my dreams? What about the heart?” arrives,

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she explains. Though the album might have been a far smaller affair than the theatrical, full-band ‘All Mirrors’ - which would be made a month later in a far swankier Los Angeles studio - it was a hardgoing 10 days: “It was a lot of emotional work,” Angel nods, “because I’m performing these songs that I was still clearly dealing with.”

Just like she had done years before in St Louis, she ended up recording vocals on the staircase and embraced the “dreamy and yummy and ghostly” reverb that typified her early releases. “It was spooky,” Angel says of working at the old church, which is called The Unknown and has been a functioning recording studio since 2010, run by Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie. “The bathrooms used to be confessionals, and upstairs the listening room used to be a crying room for when it was a church – mothers would take their babies up there in the middle of the

out either, because that’s part of moving forward.” oving forward is something Angel Olsen’s made a pretty decent job of. Since recording ‘Whole New Mess’, she’s bought a house in her adopted city of Asheville and, in light of the global lockdown, she’s been able to spend a satisfyingly long stint there - a rare thing indeed for a touring musician who usually lives out of a suitcase. “I haven’t really been home for longer than a month at a time, or two weeks at a time, for many years,” she notes.

M

Until it got too hot to be outside, Angel was using lockdown to walk six miles a day, as well as spending some quality time with her squirrel-obsessed fluffball of a cat Violet. Her friend Juliana Barwick’s new album ‘Healing Is A Miracle’ has been on heavy rotation on her record player (“I like new age music. I hope that

HI, VIOLET!

Yeah yeah, Angel’s new record is great.

But what of the important questions?

What about her seeminglymassive cat Violet?

“She’s just big boned, you know, and she’s quite tall and long. But we’re working on it together, we’re getting her to slim a little bit. I adopted her when she was five. I’ve had her for four years and she already had the name Violet. I tried to name her something else, but I don’t think she would even go by her name, she just goes

by Kitty. She’s shedding quite a bit now in the heat. I vacuumed yesterday but there’s already new furballs.”

She has her own Instagram account - does she update that herself?

“She does, she does. She’s got quite an obsession with squirrels...”

35

I get to do a new age record someday with somebody”) and she’s even had time to perfect her risotto recipe. The secret, informs Angel, is heaps of patience and switching up your dairy.

“You don’t have to stick to pecorino,” she explains, channelling her inner Nigella Lawson. “If you change the cheese it can really change the flavour.”

She’s also been attempting to stick to the testing task of not drinking booze, “which is hard considering everything that’s going on right now!”

But Angel’s enforced homestay hasn’t all been lavish rice-based dinners and zen cat stroking sessions soundtracked

by Enya. It’s also brought up a whole bunch of deeper issues too. “I’m facing a lot of stuff which has nothing to do with the current state of the world, it’s just stuff that I put on hold while being on tour,” she reveals with a sigh. “It’s just hard to be present for life stuff when you’re travelling. It’s a real feat to do that, which is part of why relationships can be so hard for musicians, because they’re trying to be present, but they can’t.”

Despite her transient lifestyle, from the outside at least, it seemed like Angel was truly thriving before lockdown. In February, she finished up the hugely successful European leg of her ‘All Mirrors’ tour, including her biggest ever

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London show to date - an old-school-style spectacular at the Hammersmith Apollo. Considering such major-league exposure - collabs with Mark Ronson, spots on the Orange Is The New Black and Broad City soundtracks - she’s managed to maintain her indie cool despite also making inroads to the mainstream. She’s the kind of artist whose gigs are attended by Miley Cyrus, but who your chinstroking mate that only buys vinyl and refuses to listen to mainstream radio still rates.

After the European tour was done, Angel headed out to Los Angeles, preparing to add a new string to her storied bow.

There, she attended a bunch of meetings about sound design and scoring movies. “So that was cool,” she nods.

Is sound design something she’s ever done before? “No and, in fact, I hear it’s a fucking pain in the ass!” she jokes.

“But the stories are really interesting and I think that, even if it’s time consuming, I have all the time right now to do it...”

With most of her friends living in California, not to mention collaborators and fellow artists, the move would be a logical one. But logic doesn’t always necessarily prevail over gut feeling. “When I’m there I just have this feeling

realising how no-one else is responsible for taking care of it. I have to clean out my gutters and mow my lawn and tend my garden and make sure that the ants don’t come back, you know? I think that it’s teaching me to examine my relationships and examine my life and tend to my life, because I have to tend to my house. When I’m in the garden, I’m thinking about weeding out all the stray weeds that are coming through the rocks, and in a weird way it feels like thinking about weeding out the shit in my life. It feels meditational.”

T

hough she’s been recently seeing someone again, when we speak, Angel is back to reveling in the easy bliss of an empty house. “That’s been really good, but now I’m back to solitude,” she says. “They went back to LA and now I’m back at it with working non-stop, which is actually good for me because, as much as I love being in a relationship, the solitude that you have alone - the loneliness that you feel alone - is a little bit more stable than when you feel it with other people.”

As well as getting stuck into promoting ‘Whole New Mess’ less than a year on from her last album, after our call Angel is off into town for a very 2020 show: hosting the second of her online Cosmic Stream events to an empty Asheville Masonic Temple. The gig isn’t just to give fans something in the absence of a summer tour, but also to raise awareness for Swing Left, a Black Lives Matter-backing group of Democrat supporters who were founded in the wake of Trump’s disastrous Presidency. “I was trying to figure out how to be more impactful about this year’s election,” she explains. “I wanted to be more on board with stuff in my own community, but also work with a national organisation that draws attention to voting and doing what I can to talk about those things forcing myself to articulate [those ideas].”

“I just have the sense that the world is going to end and it’s going to start with Los Angeles.” like it’s about to fall into the ocean. Every. Time,” she says.

“It doesn’t matter how beautiful the day is, or if I’m at the beach. I just have the sense that the world is going to end and it’s going to start with LA.” Angel’s sense of impending doom suggests that it probably isn’t the best place for her to settle down, but that doesn’t always chime well with her romantic side. “I end up always meeting people that I fall for there and then I have to tell them that I live in Asheville,” she concedes. “And I’m not leaving, so it’s hard.”

Lockdown was announced pretty much the moment she came back from that trip. Since then she’s been using the time to share one-off cover versions of Tori Amos, Lucinda Williams and Fleetwood Mac, and broadcast gigs from her living room, as well as working on writing new songs, with around seven already taking decent shape. “But they’re all different,” she notes. “I don’t know if they all belong on the same record.”

One thing she isn’t doing is working on any fancy home improvements in her still new-ish pad. “I’m just trying to make sure that I’m keeping up with it,” she explains of her attitude to homeownership. “Part of me doing this is

Like many members of the US indie music community, Angel was a vocal supporter of the socialist-leaning Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, who dropped out of the race in April. Does she feel as enthusiastic about the eventual nominee, Joe Biden? “Um, I don’t think anyone is very enthusiastic about him, at least not in my friend group,” she reasons. “But I’m definitely going to vote for Biden, and I think that it’s really important that Biden makes more of a connection with liberals and bends more towards some of Bernie’s campaign ideas. If he makes that effort, I think that would make a huge difference for artists sharing their enthusiasm for him. I feel like work will be done to keep some of Bernie’s goals, but it’s hard to say. You know, don’t trust politicians!”

‘Whole New Mess’ might be about Angel Olsen’s own personal turmoil, but in the strange, fucked-up year that is 2020, she’s made one of the most raw, relatable records around. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you.

‘Whole New Mess’ is out 28th August via Jagjaguwar.

DIY

37

THE

MAN WHO

Pulling influence from his ‘70s heroes, space, the internet and beyond, Declan McKenna’s second album ‘Zeros’ finds him all grown up and ready do whatever the fuck he wants. Words: Elly Watson. Photos: Eva Pentel.

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“I

feel like there should be more purposeful necklaces,” Declan McKenna muses, fiddling with the gold harmonica hanging around his neck. “You see someone with a key on their necklace and you’re like, where are they going? Where can they lead me? It’s a good bit of intrigue with a multipurpose necklace, y’know?”

Even more intriguing than a snazzy, multifaceted fashion accessory, however, is ‘Zeros’: the singer’s hotly-anticipated follow-up to debut ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’.

First starting work on the record at the back end of 2017, his second effort marks a transitional period for Declan. “It was the first time I had the choice to think about how I was going to portray myself and expand on the ideas of the first one,” he explains. “With this, I had a bit more understanding of a studio environment and confidence in writing. It was like I had the right to, almost. Originally I was going full ‘70s space opera and then I thought, ‘Reeeaaaal original’. I was like, I need to think about these ideas and why I’m doing it and why I like it. That sent me down a rabbit hole of ‘Why do we look up? Why do we like space? Why do we like God?’ And that’s kind of what birthed the ideas on the album.”

Inspired by the likes of T.Rex, Kate Bush, Bob Dylan and the ever-useful motto of “What would David Bowie do?”, Declan’s new album is a glitzy journey through a dystopian landscape, complete with end-of-the-world scenarios and a plethora of

colourful characters. Recorded in a converted church over several weeks to reflect the sense of “weirdness,” his aim was to channel the energy of his live band into the record, compelling his band to “play shitter” in order to keep the live vibe and translate his original ‘70s space opera vision into something “not quite as corny”.

“I wanted to reflect society, but it’s not really set in our world, I don’t think,” Declan elaborates. “I guess I wanted to tell the story of people becoming disenfranchised with society. People become lost to the world a lot now; there’s so many dark corners of the internet where people can do that. I was talking a lot about that but also the stuff that makes our world what it is, and in turn makes us who we are. At one point I was writing a song for each way the world could end. There’s the flood in ‘Sagittarius’, the asteroid in ‘You Better Believe!’, whereas I think the thing that’s scary and is changing us right now and putting us into perspective, is it’s not about God, it’s not about an asteroid, it’s about us.

“I guess I was looking at how we can take ourselves out of the picture sometimes and be like, ‘We’re not in control of this’, when we have a real responsibility to be in control of the world,” he nods. “That was a huge part of the album - following the story of someone in this world where it’s the same things going on but it’s just more clear and dystopian. It starts with [the idea that] you’re going

TO

EARTH 39

to get yourself killed, and then the last song is really sad and about missing something. I think that’s too common of a story: we’re too bad at understanding each other until it becomes too late. I wanted to place it in this space Western world and give it the characters that I’ve kind of done on the first album, but just expanded.”

T

hough still based around the social commentary that saw him hailed as a “voice of his generation” with his first album, ‘Zeros’ sees Declan stepping slightly away from that role and embracing a more fun side to his music too. “People have put a lot of pressure on me, saying

all this crazy shit [like that]. So I was like, well with this album I’m just going to write, and just going to create, and it’s not going to be me trying to put out any specific direct political meaning in the way some of the songs did on the first album,” he says. “I was just about having fun doing it! Some points in it, I’m chatting absolute shite and it feels great!

There’s still direct songs, like [pre-album single] ‘British Bombs’, and I still have the desire to do that. But I didn’t want anyone to think I hold the belief that all art has to be the most significant thing in the world. At the end of the day, the reason I love music is because I like sticking it on whenever, and I like going to festivals and I like to party. It’s

about getting that balance between the reflection [of society] and the party, and I think that’s where my music lies.”

Definitely bringing the party, ‘Zeros’ is chock-a-block full of bops, crafting a banger-filled new world that he hopes people will use to understand each other and our position in the real one more. “I think my role in all of this is encouraging people to trust in themselves and believe in themselves, because I think music needs to do that with every generation,” he emphasises. “If you can get someone to free themselves from social constructs then they start believing in themselves, and they start believing in others, and start believing the world can

“AT ONE POINT I WAS WRITING A SONG FOR EACH WAY THE WORLD COULD END.”

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be different from what it’s been set out to be.”

It’s a stance that’s clearly resonated with his legion of fans, who see his live shows and music as a safe space to express themselves and be whatever they want to be.

“That’s what I was always looking for and that’s what I found in David Bowie. So I was like, ‘Fuck it, that’s what I’m going to be like,’ because my hero died and I think a lot of kids need that in a musician,” he smiles, joking about how people often don the unofficial Declan McKenna uniform of glitter and dungarees at his shows now. “My best friend from secondary school came to my show in Brighton and it was the first time he’d been to a show in years, and he was like, ‘Man, this is so fucking weird, they all dress like you!’”

Although yet to become the subject of any ‘What is Dec wearing?’ meme pages - “I’m always wearing the same shit really, so [fans] are mostly like, ‘Oh my god, buy another pair of shoes!” - the video for ‘British Bombs’ has seen the singer become unexpectedly linked to the classic delicacy of baked beans. “I didn’t even mean for it to become a thing!” he laughs. “The ‘British Bombs’ video had these pulsating beans that were obviously such a gross image that people were just like, ‘Declan McKenna loves beans.’ I do love beans though. My problem with the bean thing is the same problem the Arctic Monkeys had until their fourth album; crossing over to America.

Their baked beans are not the fucking same! But beans are slowly becoming part of the brand. We’re now trying to get people to subconsciously think of me every time they see a tin of beans. You’ve just got to assert it…”

He may still have a way to go until ‘Beanz Meanz Dec’ becomes a global slogan, but if you’re looking for sociallyconscious, glitter-filled music that’s as eloquent as it is oodles of fun, then look no further. He’s a starman and he’s been waiting.

‘Zeros’ is out 4th September via Columbia. DIY The only God that Declan prays to is the God of Disco.

41

Nothing Left to Lose

With her third album, Alicia Bognanno asked herself if she wanted to continue the cycle, or break out of the box. Unsurprisingly, on ‘SUGAREGG’, Bully returns emboldened and renewed.

Words: Sarah Jamieson.

Photo: Angelina Castillo.

H

eading into her third album as Bully, Alicia Bognanno didn’t have a particular concept to explore, or a message in mind.

Instead, her agenda was much more straightforward: “I was like, ‘You know what? Fuck it, I’m gonna write whatever the hell I want to’.”

It might sound like an obvious mission statement, but it was a necessary one all the same. Emerging after three years away with her project’s third album, ‘SUGAREGG’ still packs in the raw energy that Bully has always so deftly harnessed, but it’s a very different beast to 2017 predecessor ‘Losing’.

That, in some respects, comes purely down to where Alicia finds herself in life right now. Having begun writing for the record back in 2018, it’s an album that’s not only been a long time in the making, but also one that’s seen the singer striking out on her own and fully labelling Bully as a solo project.

In her personal life, too, Alicia was processing some changes. Diagnosed with Bipolar II, her latest work and this subsequent promotional time around it marks the first period in which the singer has felt comfortable discussing its impact on her life. “I couldn’t avoid talking about it; it had everything to do with everything,” she explains candidly.

“So many of these songs - ‘Like Fire’ and ‘Come Down’ - those are just all about being at the peak of that frustration. But, feeling like I could navigate it a little more, and have a little more control over it let me be able to not look at it as such a heavy thing. I can let go of the stigma that

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you usually hear around being bipolar, and just talk about it in a comfortable way.”

Between the two major adjustments in mindset, it’s enabled Alicia - and ‘SUGAREGG’ - to become far more open, creatively. “I went into it wanting to just do what I wanted to do, instead of thinking about how it was going to be received, or whether or not it was gonna be ‘cool’,” she explains. “I wanted to experiment with different things, and try and do it a little bit more for personal growth, as opposed to ‘Losing’, where I had a lot more voices in my head and was in a weird place. During ‘Losing’ I remember thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say this lyric because I know that I’m gonna be asked about it a bunch’. But with this third record, [I knew] I shouldn’t censor my art.”

It’s a thought that artists are still struggling to come to terms with: balancing the pros and cons of exposure on a knife’s edge, and how - even seven years on since the band first formed social media continues to transform the ways musicians are forced to broadcast their lives, and consider their art. “We’re just constantly giving, giving, giving so much of our personal lives,” she agrees.

“It’s heightened these expectations that people have. I thought about it and I was like, ‘I don’t owe anybody shit’ - I don’t owe the world my personal life when I’m talking about my art! The thought of not being able to make the art that I want to make because I feel like I’m gonna have to explain it to the world is crazy, it’s outrageous.”

The resulting record, then, sees Alicia making her own rules. For each track like ‘Every Tradition’, which cuts deep and direct, there are songs like ‘You’, ‘Where To Start’ or ‘Let You’, which feel more playful, and provide some levity to the album’s more weighty themes. “I [used to be] like, ‘No, this has to be completely true, and very literal! There has to be no bullshit’,” she says of her previous approach to songwriting. “I kinda let go

of that, and in doing that, I could write more playful storylines that excited me.

I think that adds to the lightheartedness.

I’m so happy,” she laughs, “because - not to talk shit on my [other] records - but sometimes I listen to ‘Losing’ and I’m like, ‘Ugggh, it’s such a drag!’”

That approach of exploring new avenues also saw Alicia handing over the production reins for the first time. Having self-engineered both her debut ‘Feels Like’ and ‘Losing’, it was a move some perhaps wouldn’t have anticipated, but for this record, it felt right. “Leading up to it, I felt like I was gonna be sad, or that I was going to micro-manage,” she says of the album’s first session with John Congleton. “But the second I got in there, I did not give a fuck what John was doing! I was just like, ‘You are so good at what you do, I am just gonna let you do your thing!’. I’m so glad I worked with him and didn’t engineer it [myself] - I couldn’t say that enough!”

While it’s easy to pin any artist’s latest record as their most accomplished work yet, with ‘SUGAREGG’ it feels like Bully is truly returning as a rejuvenated entity.

Visibly contented about her new project, this time around Alicia Bognanno’s done it her way, and it undeniably pays off.

‘SUGAREGG’ is out 21st August via Sub Pop. DIY

“I thought about it and I was like,

‘I DON’T OWE ANYBODY SHIT’.”

- Alicia Bognanno

43

Weird the

4444DIYMAG.COM DIYMAG.COM

World

of

Wonderful

& With the advent of new EP ‘Last Year Was Weird Vol.2’, the Australian rapper is learning to invest in every part of herself.

Words: Gemma Samways. Photos: Tkay Maidza.

H

ad all gone as originally planned, Tkay Maidza would have been an international tennis star right now. A child prodigy, she competed at state level in the same age group as current women’s world number one Ash Barty. In fact, tennis is the reason the Zimbabwe-born, Australia-raised rapper/singer lives in Adelaide now, having relocated with her family from the small mining town of Whyalla nine years ago to improve her access to the big competitions.

When her enthusiasm for the sport waned in her mid-teens, she dived headlong into rap instead, applying the same discipline to her bars as she had her backhand, spending hours perfecting her flow by freestyling over Kanye West beats. Her debut single ‘Brontosaurus’ dropped scarcely a year later, winning the then-16-year-old favourable comparisons to M.I.A. and Azealia Banks, and sending her down a dance-pop path that would ultimately culminate with her 2017 eponymous debut.

Despite turning in an impressively cohesive collection of high energy hitsin-waiting on that record, back then she worried that she hadn’t found her signature sound. Three years, two mixtapes and one brand new record deal later, the 23-year-old doesn’t seem any closer to settling on any one particular musical style, but perhaps that’s become the whole point of the project?

“I think that’s what my strength is,” she agrees today, speaking over Zoom from her Adelaide apartment. “I’ve come to the conclusion that what makes me unique is that I like to move around and be versatile.” That flexibility is abundantly clear listening to ‘Last Year Was Weird Vol. 2’ - the second of three releases under the ‘LYWW’ banner, and her first for revered indie label 4AD. Drawing on an impeccable set of influences including Outkast, Janelle Monáe, Janet Jackson and Kaytranada, one moment she can be found exploring soulful funk with Kari Faux (‘Don’t

Call Me’), and the next she’s trading bars with JPEGMAFIA over twisted trap beats (‘Shook’). Tkay herself describes this latest installment as “a turbo version” of the first EP, which was more introspective in its outlook but drew from a similarly vast pool of musical inspirations, including gospel and reggae.

Yet though she’s purposely vague about the circumstances surrounding her debut album today, there’s definitely a sense that the whole ‘Last Year Was Weird’ project was born out of a frustration with her previous industry experiences. “Back then, I was more leaning towards dance-pop and whilst I like that, it’s not what I listen to daily or what I draw inspiration from,” she explains diplomatically. “So though what

“I’M NOT TRYING TO BE AN AMERICAN RAPPER, I’M JUST TRYING TO CARVE MY OWN LANE.” I’m doing now is still eclectic, I feel like the core of it is more true to who I am.

It’s more soulful, and if it’s rap it’s really hard-hitting, and if I want to do a pop song, it still has elements that I have more say in.”

In an attempt to reclaim her creative autonomy, Tkay parted ways with her US label and several members of her team following the release of that first LP - an intensely trying period that ultimately inspired the title of this new series of releases, written with LA-based producer Dan Farber. “I just put a magnifying glass on everything,” she sighs, recalling the period. “And that was really stressful

Tkay Maidza 45

for me because then a lot of things started to unravel…

It just felt like it was totally out of my control, and I was really upset and, basically, depressed.”

Though entirely inspired by personal circumstances, the title accurately reflects the political and social unease in the world too, and arguably becomes more prescient with each passing year. This coincidence isn’t lost on Tkay, who fully intends to channel wider global events and issues into its final instalment.

“I’ve never really been an overly outspoken person politically, and I think that’s just from being really sheltered.

But I think now, if you don’t know what’s happening in the world you’re being ignorant,” she nods. “And [with the next EP] there definitely will be moments of me addressing how 2020 has made me feel, because for me it’s brought up a lot of repressed trauma.”

L

ike millions all over the world, the recent Black Lives Matter protests have prompted Tkay to publicly confront her own experiences of racism. In a hugely brave Instagram post shared in early June, she detailed a horrific experience at US immigration while en route to her first SXSW, resulting in an invasive

“I THINK NOW, IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD, YOU’RE BEING IGNORANT.”

strip search. She was just 19 at the time.

“I didn’t really tell people [then],” she recalls today of the aftermath. “I was just so focused on writing the next song, playing the next show, and building my profile that I almost brushed these events off. I was going along with things like it was normal, but racism is definitely not normal. It’s not OK. “In Australia there are much fewer [people of colour], and I think a lot of us - especially the ones of us that have been here since the early 2000s - we’ve learned to water ourselves down and blend in, just so we don’t make other people feel uncomfortable. But my tolerance is so low now. I’m happy to call people out if I feel like what they say is ignorant or racist or an uneducated point of view.

“I can definitely relate to the American experience too, because I spend so much time there. Like, there have definitely been times when a policeman has come up to me and I didn’t feel safe. And when you think about the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd stories you think, ‘What if that was me?’ But I feel like people just need to open their eyes, because it’s not about whether you can relate to it or not: people are literally dying.”

This determination to use her platform for good adds even more urgency to Tkay’s quest to break out far beyond the Australian hip hop scene, where she currently sits apart from both a glut of young battle rappers and the old school sounds of established stars Hilltop Hoods. Unsurprisingly, conquering the US is the ultimate goal, but even armed with an EP of weapons-grade bangers, she’s under no illusion that it’s going to be an easy task.

“I think a lot of Americans only want to hear stories from other Americans, so being from Australia you have to convince them that what you have to say is worth listening to,” she says. “But I think it’s doable. And I think what I and a lot of other Australians can do is just offer a different perspective on hip hop. I’m not trying to be an American rapper, I’m just trying to carve my own lane. And that’s what’s so exciting.”

‘Last Year Was Weird Vol. 2’ is out now via 4AD. DIY

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OUT NOW

47

moving

Fun fact: Willie was actually a koala in a past life.

It’s been a slow and

steady journey

for WILLIE J HEALEY, but new LP ‘Twin Heavy’ finds the singer

coming into his

on

own, and making

some new mates along the way.

Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Rowan Allen.

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up

“S

omeone told me a few years ago that you’ll know you’re onto something good when musicians start getting behind it because their ear is really to the ground. And it wasn’t until recently that I thought, oh holy shit! All these people that I look up to are saying nice things to me and supporting me,” grins Willie J Healey, audibly beaming down the phone from his new Bristol base.

“Sometimes you wonder if anyone’s listening, so that kind of validation is priceless.”

Since releasing 2017 debut ‘People and Their Dogs’, via the following year’s more introspective ‘666 Kill’ EP, it turns out rather a few notable heads have been turning in the 26-year-old’s direction. New LP ‘Twin Heavy’ will be put out via YALA!, where label boss Felix White and his former Maccabee mate Orlando Weeks have both been lending their ears to help with the album. Willie’s also become firm friends with Jamie T, “writing some songs and sharing material,” while, during the recording process, some other dude also kept cropping up around the peripheries...

“When I was sending demos through to my producer Loren [Humphrey], I’d get feedback and it’d be like, ‘Oh, Alex says maybe you could try this’. And for a while I was like, who’s this guy? Who’s Alex? And I realised it was Alex Turner,” chuckles the singer. “So he’s been around, friends of friends basically; he just gives little bits of advice - what could be a good single or something.

He turned up to a show and I was trying my best not to fanboy, but it’s a massive compliment.”

Having put out his first LP via major label Columbia, you sense it’s probably precisely the qualities that subsequently got him dropped - a fondness for the classic songwriters of the ‘70s; a refusal to box himself into any one style - that have made Willie a firm favourite of those masters of the craft. Back then, he explains, the main comment would be that people “don’t really know what [he] is,” that his predilection for enthusing simultaneously about George Harrison’s solo work and “the curly worm sound” from Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ made him too un-pigeonholeable to fit within the algorithm. “Labels obviously have expectations. They’ve already visualised what they think they’re signing and what they might be able to

achieve with you, so it’s harder to keep up with someone that one day wants to make a slow R&B song and the next day wants to do something like Neil Young,” he notes. “They’re a bit confused as to who you’re making the music for.”

But, in classic fashion, it was only when Willie realised the only person he was really making music for was himself that he began to truly thrive. “The thing that I’ve learnt more and more is to follow my own opinion, which sounds really obvious but it’s hard,” he shrugs. “You almost have to care less - I do really care and I want it to sound good, but in order for that to happen you have to give yourself up to the process. Just do it, as Nike would say.”

And so, on ‘Twin Heavy’, the singer throws himself with gusto into all the things that make him tick. Unashamedly harking back to what he refers to as “the golden era” of songwriting (“We basically treated [the sessions] as if we were in the ‘70s as much as we possibly could,” he notes), Willie’s latest might be a big, warm-sounding record that doffs its cap to the greats, but it’s crucially also a record that doesn’t just sound like pure retro-fetishisation, one that sparkles with a more modern undercurrent indebted to a childhood where, in the car, “it’d be Van Morrison for a couple of hours, and then ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ for a couple of hours”.

“We would all sing along but without the swear words, because that was the rule,” he caveats. “I’m slowly getting swear words into my music now...”

playlists, but one that instead beats with a far more timeless heart.

“It used to be something I’d stress about, that things weren’t moving at the tempo I’d like to, and it would annoy me that it happens very quickly for some bands. But I feel like the more I make, the more confidence I get in myself,” says Willie. “I’ve learnt there’s no one way to success and sometimes these things take time. So I wouldn’t say I’m not in a rush, because you never know what’s around the corner, but my goal is to slowly conquer the world.”

Seems like he’s already got more than a few cheerleaders on his side to spur him on.

‘Twin Heavy’ is out now via YALA!.

DIY

From the pure Harrison hug of recent single ‘Fashun’, to the Lou Reed swagger of ‘Songs for Joanna’ or the laid-back swing of ‘Sweeter than Most’, ‘Twin Heavy’ is an album that loves love, but again manages to find new ways to spotlight these tales as old as time. Fundamentally, it’s an album that rings with a clear point of view - not one that necessarily adheres to trends and

“ALEX TURNER TURNED UP TO A SHOW AND I WAS TRYING MY BEST NOT TO FANBOY...”

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Cool… facemasks… pals?

Party People 50

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Having wowed the dance scene for several years, HAIKU HANDS are now getting ready to unleash their self-titled debut on the world. Just when we all need a bit of a mood boost, they couldn’t have timed it better. Words: Elly Watson. Photos: Cole Bennetts. ocial distancing at gigs might be a thoroughly new thing, but some musicians have more equipment in their arsenal to deal with it than most. And if you thought The Flaming Lips’ big inflatable hamster balls could prove a genius move, then Australia’s Haiku Hands are hot on their heels. “You know, on our first gig we wore fat suits,” Mie Nakazawa laughs. “Let’s bring them back!” Claire Nakazawa beams, backed up immediately by third corner of the triangle, Bea Lewis: “Yeah, and all the audience have to wear them as well to stay far away from each other!

Wait, are you going to put this in the interview?

Because we should copyright it…”

several years now Fat suits or no fat suits, the - known for their Aussie three-piece have high-octane live sets been making inroads in and infectious, synchronised the dance world for moves. “Our first dance actually came from wearing those fat suits and we were bopping at the same time as the fat suit went the opposite way,” Mie giggles. “I don’t know why we did it. I think we just thought ‘That might be fun?!’”.

First forming when Bea saw Claire playing at a festival, the pair were introduced by a mutual musical friend before Mie (Claire’s sister) completed the trio.

Releasing their first track ‘Not About You’ back in 2017 - a pulsating, club-ready anthem with scream-worthy lyrics (“I'm going to tear up the lexicon with a hexagon and my sexy thong on”) - it’s been pretty non-stop for the girl gang ever since then. “It all happened so quickly!” Mie emphasises. “When I joined, Claire and Bea had been writing a little bit, but as soon as we started performing we gigged so much that there wasn’t really a chance to keep on writing music. The last three years have been very full on.”

Now, having finally found time to return to the studio, their longawaited, self-titled debut is set to encapsulate all the fun from those hedonistic live shows. “When we started it was all playful and experimental; we were just seeing what was possible with our voices and it was just this very open minded approach that we had, very low pressure,” Claire details. “I think fortunately we wrote the majority of the songs on the album in that headspace: that’s why they’re playful and silly and experimental, because we were just literally experimenting.”

Spanning their time as a band - ‘Not About You’ opens the album, while previous releases ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Onset’ also appear - the three are eager to show what other musical muscles they can flex too. “There’s quite a few more ballad-y type tracks which aren’t as raucous,” Claire says. “I wouldn’t say ballad-y, they’re not like Beyoncé ballads,” Bea counters. “I’d say more like ‘song’ songs things that you can hopefully sing along to that we don’t include in our live set yet. It’s a bit more emotional; more feelings, rather than just high energy.”

“I LOVE BANGERS WITH INTENTION; I THINK THEY’RE IMPORTANT, PARTICULARLY IN TODAY’S WORLD.” Bea Lewis

Mie pinpoints ‘Car Crash’ as one of those tracks: a lighter-than-usual ode to friendship with a classic, catchy Haiku Hands chorus of “You’re fucking awesome!”. “My other favourite is ‘Eat This Bass’,” she continues.

“I think it has a lot of guttural energy within it. All the songs are just so different! It’s going to be interesting hearing what people think about the album as a whole.” “They’re all kind of singles in a way,” Claire agrees, “and then they’re all just forced to hang out together. Hopefully the fact they’re all so eclectic will be the thing that unites them.”

Haiku Hands are also keen to stress how their debut is about more than just the dance-along tunes they might be pigeonholed as making at first glance. “We manage to pop serious themes in most of our songs, just in disguise,” Claire explains. “There are some songs on there which are exploring technology and surveillance, and then there’s other ones about friendship and conflict.”

“Yeah, I’d say that the bangers hold just as many important messages as the other tracks for sure,” Bea continues.

“I feel like every track, to me, has a deeper message or a bigger thought behind it. There’s a lot of intention in all of them, which I really love. I love bangers with intention; I think they’re important, particularly in today’s world.”

But their overall aim for their debut? “I hope it makes people feel fucking amazing!” Bea smiles. “This year is so challenging for so many people on so many different levels, and I feel like music is a really good companion in so many ways. I would really like this to be a companion and an offering to people to make them feel strong and free, and help them get loose. There’s moments of reflection, moments of pelvic-thrusting joy, and something for everyone.” “People in lockdown still need fun, happy music!” Claire nods. And Haiku Hands are about to give us our much-needed happy music fix.

‘Haiku 10th Mad

Hands’ is out September via Decent.

DIY

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GOOD VIBRATIONS

“We wanted to write more about our day-to-day lives, be a bit more direct, more honest and brave.” - Jack Kaye

Returning after their breakthrough debut with an album that sees them digging deeper and reaching wider, ‘Death of the Party’ finds The Magic Gang finding power in musical positivity.

Words: James Balmont. Photos: Percy Walker-Smith.

O

n their much-loved 2018 debut, The Magic Gang established a reputation as the sound of a Brighton student house party. So how do you follow up a record whose sheer good vibes and fan adoration managed to send it careening unexpectedly into the Top 20? By delivering a followup that somehow sounds even more celebratory.

Incorporating elements of disco and Motown into their melody-craving guitar pop, second bite of the apple ‘Death of the Party’ arrives this month as the perfect antidote for the most restrictive summer in recent memory.

But it also presents a coming-of-age for the foursome, as they ditch narratives of idealistic romances in favour of a subtext firmly rooted in reality.

Sat around a dining table in Forest Hill, south London as they take a break from signing “thousands of records”, the band are in good spirits today. They might be releasing LP2 in somewhat unideal circumstances, but the album itself recorded with Grammy-winning producer

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Ben H Allen over four weeks in Atlanta last summer, at the height of a “mental heatwave” - was clearly a far more winning experience.

“It felt like a giant holiday,” grins drummer Paeris Giles. And, despite a gruelling work schedule with only one day off, the sun-drenched setting became a catalyst for the record’s sprightly production. In the evenings, the quartet - completed by guitarists Jack Kaye and Kris Smith, and bassist Gus Taylor - would take in the sounds of Atlanta’s musical natives, catching sweaty hometown gigs from the likes of Deerhunter and Omni. Elsewhere, their most enlightening experience came from a different form of worship. “We went into Martin Luther King’s church for Sunday service,” recalls Gus. “It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.”

In between breakfasts and bar crawls, meanwhile, their producer became the glue that bound the group together.

Balancing “super pop” credits with Gnarls Barkley and P. Diddy with work for more experimental groups like Animal Collective, Ben offered an avenue through which the band could narrow the abundance of songs they’d found themselves with by the

“We wanted to write more about our day-to-day lives, be a bit more direct, more honest and brave.� - Jack Kaye

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beginning of the year. With all four songwriters chipping in individually more than ever before, it was an essential part in making an album that worked.

“There were different genres because so many different band members were writing the music,” says Jack. “There needed to be a sense of cohesion in the recording.

The philosophy was to create a vocabulary that’s in the instruments and sounds, so we could explore different things without it sounding like a mess.” “The Clash were brought up a lot,” picks up Paeris. “On [1982 album] ‘Combat Rock’, it’s a punk band in essence, but they’re doing other styles of music. The choices of instrumentation and the sounds are relatively limited, but they’re doing all these different genres with that one sound.”

HOLY FUCK

Turns out, some choral enlightenment wasn’t the band’s only brush with spirituality in Atlanta...

“We played pool in the Jesus bar a lot,” Paeris says. “It was owned by a guy who used to be a pastor, and everything in this bar was like thrifty religious iconography. Loads of crosses.”

“We saw the guy from Mastodon in there, too,” adds Kris. “Someone came up to us and was like ‘DUDE, that’s the guy!’. It was proper mad.”

‘Death of the Party’ pulls off the mission with aplomb.

Across its 13 defined tracks, it sees The Magic Gang venture in bold new directions, whilst still staying true to their fortified, harmonyladen roots. The big, brassy horns on singles ‘Think’ and ‘Make Time For Change’ offer a taste of the quartet’s widened palette, bringing a stylish composure to a sound already resplendent with good vibrations, whereas the swirling strings on ‘I Am Sunshine’ and ‘Make A Sound’ take influence from Motown artists like Minnie Ripperton. ‘Take Back the Track’, with its pumped fourto-the-floor beat, funky bass and Nile Rodgers guitars, meanwhile, might be the most emphatic twist of them all. A disco-inspired indie number that takes cues from Sister Sledge’s ‘Pretty Baby’ and Stevie Wonder, it even

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features a choral “aah” lifted from The Meters’ classic New Orleans funk hit ‘Cissy Strut’, they boast.

“We watched the Quincy Jones documentary for inspiration,” says Kris. “We always wanted to have a crack at something more groove-orientated. All the Motown stuff - it’s been playing in my household as long as I can remember. I’ve always wanted to stick some brass and lush strings on a record, and this time we had the option to do so.”

The gamble paid off dividends. Nestled among daytime hits from The 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers as a firm fixture on the Radio One playlist, ‘Take Back the Track’’s insatiable bounce has already elbowed its way to the top as something of a career highlight. “I think from the moment Kris wrote it, we knew you can’t knock it,” Gus nods. “It’s been huge for us.”

But in spite of all its ‘70s leanings, ‘Death of the Party’ seems to take as much inspiration from the indie disco as it does from that of the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ variety. As Kris puts it so succinctly on ‘Gonna Bounce Back’: “It’s power chords and soul” that fuels the record. That track immediately recalls The Cars and XTC - ‘80s power-pop bands with a penchant for big choruses, while ‘Just a Minute’ and ‘What Have I Got To Lose?’ then channel the tight guitar jangles of The Strokes.

The emphatic vocal harmonies and chiming pianos on ‘World Outside My Door’ and ‘I Am Sunshine’, meanwhile, call on the stacked acapella harmonies of perma-influences The Beach Boys. “It’s kind of a given that we love those bands. We’re always going to be attracted to melody and harmony,” Jack concedes. “Those song principles will always be there with The Magic Gang.”

I

t’s this wealth of mingling musical personalities that makes ‘Death of the Party’ such a vibrant record - an interwoven quality that’s mirrored in the band themselves, these days. More than ever, The Magic Gang’s individual members are given the space to shine on different tracks, with the band sharing vocal duties as the album cycles through genres and moods.

“We’re pretty good at being honest with each other,” says Gus. “Paeris is like an overseer - quality control. Jack is a driving force in the group, and Kris knows how to make things happen with the music and production. It’s great for morale, that every part of the band [brings something different to the table].”

Jack credits Gus for stepping up, too: “We’re seeing more of his voice coming through now, as well. We’re showcasing tunes that he’s conceived himself much more.”

However, despite the band’s ambidextrous craftsmanship, it was their shared focus that became the driving force. “I feel like the first album was full of melody and songcraft and stuff like that,” says Jack.

“But we wanted to become a bit more specific lyrically, to write a little bit more about our day-to-day lives, be a bit more direct, more honest and brave. Jumping on that as a mission statement meant that it got us all on the same page from the start.”

As such, the lyrics across ‘Death of the Party’ are moreoften-than-not rooted in more earnest subject matter than the sprightly sonic mood might suggest. The devil’s in the details: Kris’ ‘Gonna Bounce Back’ claims “I might be somewhat unwell” at the heart of a self-deprecating narrative; Gus-penned ‘What Have You Got To Lose?’ references mental health treatment amid an anxious stream-of-consciousness, and Jack’s ‘Just a Minute’, with its catchy refrain of “honey if you hold me close”, comes off as a hooky ode to male vulnerability.

The kicker with The Magic Gang, though, is how their singalong choruses and uplifting crescendos always manage to maintain that all-important positivity.

all the good times, but then on the flip side it’s all the Mondays and Tuesdays where you feel lost in the world,” decides Gus. “We’re all dealing with those anxieties of being a 20-something, and I think a lot of these songs express those existential feelings of dread. We go out and have brilliant, wonderful times with friends, but there’s also a flip side that we’re often just living for the next good thing to happen.”

With over a year having passed since the album was recorded, the tracks have taken on new meaning in the summer of 2020, the band claim. “There’s this weird, cosmic, foreboding nature,” says Kris, referring to the worldwide disruption of recent months. “The songs have the same lyrics, but I reflect differently now because of all this very abstract dread going on in the world. At the time, what I was moaning about was so minor. It’s more real now than what it was at the time for everyone.”

With the album coming out in what’s (at best) the arse-end of a global pandemic, the band’s outlook has inevitably changed.

With live shows off the cards, they’ve adapted by collaborating with fans on social media, and writing music on demand. “It’s a lot easier writing songs when someone is telling you what to write,” Jack laughs. “Obviously the reason we’re doing all these things is because it’s the best way we can connect with people, doing what we do. Maybe that’s foreshadowing how we’re going to be creative moving forwards. It might be the new way.”

Having already penned a series of personalised love songs between fans, and crafted their own entry for the Eurovision song contest with the help of their Instagram followers, The Magic Gang have proven once again that, even during darkest times, they’re able to put a positive spin on the world through

“It’s a celebration of all the good times, but then on the flip side it’s all the Mondays and Tuesdays where you feel lost in the world.” Gus Taylor music. “We’ll look back on it and we’ll know why this content existed,” agrees Jack, speaking of the uplifting energy that lines their work.

So for all the trepidation that the title might suggest, ‘Death of the Party’ is far from a tragic reflection. Taking stock and “being real” can be an optimistic practice. And as the world continues to evolve in strange new ways, we could all do a lot worse than to take note from these Brighton boys doing their bit to inject a bit of joy into the atmosphere.

‘Death of the Party’ is out 28th August via Warner Records.

DIY

“It’s kind of night and day in the sense that it’s a celebration of

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GLASS ANIMALS

W

ho crafts worlds quite like Glass Animals?

After a two-year period that saw them nearly lose drummer Joe Seaward in a horrific bike accident, you could forgive them for wanting to retreat into the fictional fantasies that fuelled their 2016 breakthrough. Instead, they’ve taken the harder route, pushing for a blend of honesty and escapism that acknowledges pain without wallowing in it.

Though their Dali-esque surrealism of pork sodas and pineapples is still very much intact, ‘Dreamland’ focuses the

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Dreamland (Polydor)

nonsense into something more evocative. The Spongebob rock of ‘Melon & The Coconut’ and ‘Waterfalls Coming Out Of Your Mouth’ both feel delightfully bonkers, while ‘Hot Sugar’, with its “lemongrass eyelids”, “chocolate chapsticks” and “bath time cool whip,” is giddy with silliness but somehow still manages to feel summer-summer-summertime-sensual, the kind of track you could imagine lazily floating from a speaker at a Coachella pre-party. The whole record is indebted to a rose-tinted nostalgia of the perfect summer, snatched cruelly from their fingertips.

At some point the glasses have to come off, and ‘It’s All So Incredibly Loud’ is the first track to really offer insight into a more difficult headspace. Drums pinched from Kanye’s

1 Dreamland 2 Tangerine 3 ((home movie: 1994)) 4 Hot Sugar 5 ((home movie: btx)) 6 Space Ghost Coast To Coast 7 Tokyo Drifting 8 Melon And The Coconut 9 Your Love (Déjà Vu) 10 Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth 11 It’s All So Incredibly Loud 12 ((home movie: rockets)) 13 Domestic Bliss 14 Heat Waves 15 ((home movie: shoes on)) 16 Helium

ROSE-TINTED NOSTALGIA FOR THE PERFECT SUMMER. ‘808s...’-era send the song spiralling in unconscious thought; “Ooh, I’m breaking down…heartbreak was never so loud…” finds ‘Domestic Bliss’ continuing the more sombre tone, pulsing synths tracing the story of an abusive relationship. For a band used to keeping things upbeat, it’s not an easy story to tell, but it’s a powerful push towards longevity, testament to frontman Dave Bayley making good on his promise to allow the personal to rise closer to the surface of his work.

Glass Animals might be a band, but it’s clear that this is Dave’s opus. Having spent most of his childhood as an American, he has always flirted with hip hop sonics in his day job, but all the time he’s spent over the past few years producing for rap stars has finally come to its true fruition. ‘Tokyo Drifting’, which felt somewhat jarring as a lead single, makes a lot more

sense in context with the record’s wider palette of bouncy trap-pop, while the titular opener sits in similar cadence to Frank Ocean’s ‘Chanel’, floating through wisps of old-timey telephone operator glockenspiel.

Many guitar bands have tried to enter new R&B spaces; many have failed. It’s something that this self-described “skinny Jewish boy” might have worried about, but it’s testament to the band’s skill that at no point does ‘Dreamland’’s infatuation with the East Coast come off as culture-vulture voyeurism.

Instead, they have crafted a new geography of their own, pulling together all of their strengths and vulnerabilities. Thank God they made it through the flames - our musical landscape is plenty richer for it. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘Hot Sugar’, ‘Dreamland’, ‘It’s All So Incredibly Loud’ 57

REVIEWS

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TKAY MAIDZA

Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 (4AD)

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BRIGHT EYES

Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was (Dead Oceans)

There’s a lot, naturally, about ‘Down In the Weeds…’ that feels as if Bright Eyes - who last released an album almost a decade back with with 2011’s ‘The People’s Key’ - never went away. Conor Oberst’s Conor Oberst’s distinctive, crackled vocal; the glorious familiarity of many of its chord changes; the fact that, between Conor’s solo material and the behind-the-scenes work of Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, in a sense they never really did. But to assume the trio’s tenth studio record is a second pressing of the pause button is a little too simple. Musically, there are licks and flourishes that the self-aware ‘00s Bright Eyes may have baulked at: there’s the ‘80s percussion and synth of ‘Mariana Trench’, the Desert Sessionslike intro of ‘Pan and Broom’, the fact that ‘Forced Convalescence’ could fit right in on Arctic Monkeys’ latest, and an eyebrow-raisingly OTT electric guitar solo on ‘Calais To Dover’. And lyrically, while still showing off Conor’s enviable way with words (“Parisian revelry / Unapologetic apathy” just one), it’s as dark as one might expect from a group who’ve gone through some Real Life Shit. “The cowboy drinks himself to death / Fresh out of rehab / While they’re loading all the rifles on the range” goes ‘Mariana Trench’.

“Limbs they hang like chandeliers / From alcohol and age” in ‘To Death’s Heart (In Three Parts)’. It’s a smart juxtaposition that creates a thread of curious hopefulness through the record - see the glorious builds of ‘Stairwell Song’, for example. At once bleak, grey and obsessed with morbidity, and lush, blooming and gorgeous, it’s great to have them back. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘Stairwell Song’

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When Australian-Zimbabwean singer and rapper Tkay Maidza penned the first volume of her ‘Last Year Was Weird’ trilogy, she had no idea what 2020 was about to serve up. Yet, although the second outing carries with it the powerful urgency that current times inspire, it primarily embodies the might of Tkay’s continued musical selfdiscovery. Showing a greater flare for experimentation and rejecting many hip-hop and R&B staples in favour of a genre-crossing grit, ‘Last Year Was Weird Vol. 2’ channels the innovation of the likes of Missy Elliot on the unabashed ‘Shook’ and places it against the minimalist dancefloor ready ‘24k’. By the time the dancehall pop of ‘You Sad’ and the nostalgic groove of ‘Pb Jam’ rear their heads, the obvious inconsistency of the mixtape instead presents itself as imaginative confidence. That the EP arrives alongside a clothing line of the same name is testament to Tkay’s widereaching ambition, a continued evolution of her all-round aesthetic.

Together they mark another step in an unpredictable journey that, although yet to settle on a destination, outlines a clear framework of how – in the right hands – weirdness can lay the path to greatness.

(Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘24k’

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BULLY

SUGAREGG (Sub Pop)

“I’m not angry anymore,” Alicia Bognanno exhales on ‘Hours and Hours’, “I’m not holding onto that.”

It’s a far cry from the visceral rage of her band’s previous albums, now replaced by a more optimistic outlook and melodies to match. Instead the anger gives way to a palpable urgency to rebuild. Single ‘Where To Start’ is at once frustrated and liberating, a combination that defines much of Bully’s distorted melodies - themselves creating a singular grunge-pop sound. On ‘Prism’, Alicia lays this bare: “There’s nothing I can do but relax and move on,” she delivers with both empowered resignation and anticipation of what this new mindset may bring. ‘What I Wanted’ sees her forgive herself for past insecurities, while the punk-laden ‘Not Ashamed’ waves goodbye to regret. It’s testament to her newfound confidence, mirrored in Bully’s most compelling sound to date. Yet much like the object in the album’s title, ‘SUGAREGG’ is eminently aware of its own fragility under its candy-coated shell, and with it a candid recognition of the fleeting nature of happiness and the work required to hold onto it. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Not Ashamed’

REVIEWS

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TAYLOR SWIFT folklore (Polydor)

Remember when Taylor Swift lamented about a boyfriend having “some indie record that’s much cooler than mine”? Well, said BF is gonna have a hard time finding that record now. The surprise drop finds Taylor once again experimenting with her musical style - and flourishing. Cowritten by a team including frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, The National’s Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and the mysterious William Bowery who fans have hypothesised might be a pseudonym for Taylor BFF Lorde or actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, ‘folklore’ finds Taylor finding beauty in delicate indie-tinged musicality and introspective storytelling. Full of the heartstring-pulling lyricism that Taylor is known for, albeit this time channelled through characters - “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending” she sings of doomed relationships on Bon Iver duet ‘exile’, while highlight ‘the last great american dynasty’ explores the fairly wild story of Rebekah Harkness, whose house Taylor now owns - what makes ‘folklore’ stand out in her discography is its difference. A modern-folk masterpiece which finds her moving from her previous pop bangers into stunningly simple yet sharp melodies, ‘folklore’ will be going down in Swiftie history as one of her most unexpected, and undoubtedly one of her best. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘the last great american dynasty’

Undoubtedly one of her best.

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THE MAGIC GANG Death Of The Party (Warner)

There’s a spirit of forcefully broadening their horizons and proving the doubters of their sunshine-soaked, good-time debut wrong that underpins The Magic Gang’s second. In some ways, it’s a shame; there was a wideeyed positivity to that album that seems lost second time around - perhaps naturally, perhaps through choice. But while ‘Death of the Party’ finds a more world-weary band coming to the table at points, there are still plenty of times when the quartet’s natural way with a melody can’t help but shine through.

‘Take Back The Track’ is an effervescent, disco-indebted gem that harnesses the best of their newfound magpie tendencies. Likewise, ‘I Am Sunshine’ starts off on familiar ground before veering left for an understated yet deeply satisfying chorus, while ‘Fail Better’’s speak-sing verses add a playful wink to proceedings. Sometimes, as on ‘What Have You Got To Lose’, the experimentation seems at the expense of what they do best; the track’s woozy vocals are perhaps more ‘interesting’ than enjoyable. But for the most part, ‘Death of the Party’ shows a band actively pushing themselves to grow.

They might not be the same happy chappies as before, but not even The Magic Gang can stay young forever.

(Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘I Am Sunshine’

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REVIEWS

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THE KILLERS

Imploding The Mirage (EMI)

Six albums in, we know the score: The Killers don’t do things by halves. And while previous record, 2017’s ‘Wonderful, Wonderful’, saw them exploring new musical terrain in a somewhat more reflective manner - excluding, perhaps, over-the-top opus ‘The Man’ - it’s with their newest that they shift things back into firmly epic territory. That’s not to say they’re rehashing the same old formula. On ‘Imploding The Mirage’, they continue to push forward, offering up a more eclectic collection of surefire hits, but still with the stadium-rock sheen they’ve long cultivated. There’s the funky strut of ‘Fire In Bone’, with its Eighties-style synths and vocoder samples, while ‘Running Towards A Place’ bears the fingerprints of collaborator Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, with its swaggering guitars. The warm, Americana sway of ‘Blowback’, the E Street Band-like chorus of ‘Dying Breed’, the no-bones-about-it hit that is ‘Caution’; it’s an album that feels rich and invigorating, and proves they’re still one of our most treasured bands for a reason. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘My Own Soul’s Warning’

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BIFFY CLYRO

DECLAN MCKENNA

A Celebration of Endings

Zeros

(Warner)

(Columbia)

“What do you think about the rocket I built?” asks Declan McKenna in opener ‘You Better Believe!!!’, both a slick nod back to the singer’s 2017 debut ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’ and an immediate hint as to where its follow-up is aiming: skywards.

And in similar ways to Sundara Karma’s second fulllength ‘Ulfilas’ Alphabet’ (‘The Key To Life On Earth’ and ‘Daniel, You’re Still A Child’ would easily slide in on that one) and Harry Styles’ entire solo canon (‘Emily’ very much in particular), Declan’s musical palette second time around comes full of glitter and flares, taking all it can from the decades taste forgot. The opener makes like The Kinks’ Ray Davies fronting T.Rex (via a smidgen of Arcade Fire). ‘Be An Astronaut’ has the kind of massive ‘80s rock solo you’d expect to find in the forthcoming Bill and Ted movie. ‘Twice Your Size’ makes like ‘50s producer legend Joe Meek with all manner of strange noises accompanying surf-rock guitar. And still, Dec finds enough earthly wisdom to nod to Quavers, after-school meetings and even the heinous Mrs Thatcher. Starspangled and confident AF he may be second time around, the Declan of yore isn’t quite lost in a sea of sequins.

‘Zeros’ is a lot of fun. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘You Better Believe!!!’

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Needless to say, when Biffy Clyro were putting the finishing touches to their eighth album at the start of 2020, they couldn’t have dreamed of the version of the world it’d be released into. A record loosely based around - as the title infers - the idea that the world we once knew has ended, and we’ve moved into a new era of uncertainty, it’s an album that unsurprisingly comes imbued with the sense of creeping darkness we’re now familiar with.

“I poke at my eyes just to prove they’re no longer worthless / All I see is black / There’s no brightness coming back” goes the opening refrain of the tremendous ‘North of No South’, giving a swift glimpse into the Scottish trio’s psyche this time around. As Biffy-ish as ever, with its cranked-up guitars and stadium-sized hooks, it’s also a deliciously unusual listen, shifting gears from the dub-flecked ‘Instant History’ to the unhinged scorcher of ‘Cop Syrup’. And while ‘A Celebration of Endings’ does explore the current frustrations felt by the band, both political and personal (“We’re fighting an ugly war / And it’s no good to freak out,” sings Simon Neil on ‘Weird Leisure’) it also offers up a brand of gut-wrenching, defiant hope. “I’ve been saved from the darkest place / I’ve embraced the need to live,” the band rally together on its final track, proving there’s still a light at the end of the tunnel. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘The Champ’

After 99 issues, DIY finally managed to trap Simon as our office pet.

REVIEWS

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ANOTHER SKY I Slept On The Floor (Fiction) Ever since their evocative performance on Jools Holland back in 2018, Another Sky have seemed on the verge of creating a truly powerful piece of work. On ‘I Slept On The Floor’, they make good on that promise and then some. An album that veers from haunting (opener ‘How Long’) to invigorating (‘I Fell In Love With The City’) and back again, it’s a deftly pieced-together debut that boasts a poignant and mighty heart.

Catrin Vincent’s distinctive vocal is, unsurprisingly, a cornerstone for its beauty, with tracks like ‘Brave Face’ and ‘The Cracks’ trembling with defiant strength, but this isn’t just a record that leans on her voice. From the intense centrepiece that is the title track, through to the quiet introductory beats of ‘Life Was Coming In Through The Blinds’ - which soon give way to crushing drums - there’s a richness to the instrumentation that proves just how seamlessly this quartet work together. An album that manages to be both delicate and thunderous at once, ‘I Slept On The Floor’ is a potent and empowering statement of intent. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘How Long’

Q&A

Vocalist Catrin Vincent gives us a glimpse into ‘I Slept On The Floor’s themes, but won’t reveal all that much about its title. Interview: Sarah Jamieson.

Late last year you told us that this record had been a long time in the making, and listening to it, it feels very much like a document on growing up and growing through things: was that something you set out to do?

Not at all! Because we’re a band and we write collaboratively, it’s never easy to plan what a body of work’s going to be about. There was a point where someone sat me down and said, ‘OK, but what’s the album about?’ And I couldn’t give an answer. So, I sat staring at the lyrics, printed out, for about two weeks, until I finally realised the album was about the one thing I didn’t really want it to be about, which was growing up, adolescence, teenage years and mainly my home town. It so interesting to look at the lyrics, as they were so metaphorical, and it’s because I was trying to hide those feelings out of the fear of what people would think. To me, the album feels like it’s documenting that journey of trying to hide through to trying to be as blunt as possible.

That must’ve been quite an intense realisation.

It was! It’s like, I love the name of our album, too, but in interviews, I’ve been finding it really difficult to talk about it. I feel like the title really encapsulates it, but when it comes to talking about it, I freeze. It has a few different meanings, but it feels weird being this personal, when the whole time I was trying not to be.

It’s quite an evocative title - and at least it’s quite a universal experience.

There are all sorts of situations which can lead to sleeping on a floor...

Yeah, and that’s what people seem to be saying. It’s been really interesting to hear what people think it’s about!

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DISCLOSURE Energy (Island)

Disclosure’s intuitive way with a song made them unlikely stars of 2012, two young brothers with a red button marked ‘banger’ glowing bright on their crossfader. Hits were the language in which they dealt, and their debut ‘Settle’ had plenty, each song going on to gain a life much larger than itself. Their ascent had been swift, and at the top of that mountain came ‘Caracal’, a moment to display their new-found maturity. The follow-up had its own fair share of starstudded moments (Lorde, Sam Smith, The Weeknd), but there was something about it that felt overly considered, a party winding down into drinks and nibbles as opposed to an out-and-out rave. Utilising a considered selection of guest vocalists, ‘Energy’ takes a keener focus on rap and afrobeats, making good on the breadcrumb trail of singles that have tided fans over since. Common takes ‘Reverie’ straight back to ‘90s Chicago, while Cameroonian musician Blik Blassy shines on ‘Ce N’est Pas’, a silken-shoulder groove that manages to nail the free-flowing, meditative sound they couldn’t quite nail with ‘Caracal’. At the other end of the spectrum, the equally potty-mouthed Aminé and slowthai deliver the goods on ‘My High’, a grubby number that demands to be bumped loud out of car windows. Perhaps their return to form comes from the strength of their most audibly recognisable collaborator.

Introduced to us on ‘When A Fire Starts To Burn’, legendary hip hop preacher Eric Thomas is back for the album’s title track, a rousing, vuvuzela-toting stomp that will have you beating down the door of whatever local gym reopens first from lockdown, demanding to get on that treadmill and sweat with the fury of a thousand suns. It’s what they do best, and it’s what we want more of - motivational, sky-reaching anthems that don’t overthink the euphoria at hand. It might be time to reinstate that red button… (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘Energy’ 61

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DOMINIC FIKE

REC O MME WILLIE J HEALEY NDED 

Twin Heavy (YALA!)

Missed the boat on some the best albums from the last couple of months? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

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CREEPER

Sex, Death & The Infinite Void Chorus-fuelled bombast ahoy, it’s the South Coast goths’ most liberating move yet.

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DENAI MOORE Modern Dread

A portrait of an artist ready to lean into her fears.

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HAIM

Women In Music Pt. III A timeless classic that explores the trio’s every musical whim.

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Three years since the release of debut ‘People and Their Dogs’, Oxford’s Willie J Healey is back with ‘Twin Heavy’, a glitzy and gorge second offering that sees him build and expand on the sleek-pop of its predecessor.

Not only full of sweet pop sounds, we find Willie pulling on 70s influences, from the glam-rock-esque opener ‘Fashun’ and the warm and fuzzy feeling-fuelled ‘Songs for Joanna’, to the delicate romanticism of the album’s title track and the stomping swagger of ‘Heavy Traffic’, resulting in ‘Twin Heavy’ feeling both drenched in nostalgia and still refreshingly modern.

Well and truly living up to his aim of creating a timeless classic, ‘Twin Heavy’ sees Willie delivering a more concise and cohesive record than his previous, leaning into a more distinctive sound and crafting an album that shines throughout. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Fashun’

What Could Possibly Go Wrong (Columbia) Back in 2019, Brockhampton uploaded a video titled ‘This is Dominic Fike’ onto their YouTube channel, introducing the Floridian pop star alongside showing a performance of his summer hit of a debut single, ‘3 Nights’. Subsequently tipped by the collective’s Kevin Abstract with a feature on solo LP ‘Peach’, name-checked by Billie Eilish and with ‘3 Nights’ appearing pretty much every time you turn on the radio, the rapper’s rise has been verging on stratospheric. On this full-length debut, ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong’ shows just why he’s ready for greatness. A long time coming, the record is fully worth the wait, Dominic flexing his musical muscles in a genre-blending debut that sees him dip his toes into rap, hip hop, pop, rock, emo, and more. A sure-to-be-beloved album amongst Gen Z-ers, the whip-smart ‘Cancel Me’ riffs on cancel culture whilst interspersing the lyrics with Jimmy Kimmel and Brockhampton references; the insanely catchy, R&B-infused ’Chicken Tenders’ is all about having post-coital snacks, while the Rex OC-esque ‘Why’ will undoubtedly become a definitive soundtrack for summer evenings. ‘WCPGW’ finds Dominic delivering on the hype and then some. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Cancel Me’

REVIEWS

BACK TO THE

DRAWING BOARD with Halloweens Q1: Where (and how!) did you record the EP?

Q2: What do ‘Divinity Pools’ look like?

Q3: How many ‘Trophies For Pain’ do you collectively possess?

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HALLOWEENS

Maserati Anxiety Designed (Super Easy) Where ‘70s-era Randy Newman and John Cale defined the sound of Halloweens’ debut LP ‘Morning Kiss At The Acropolis’ released earlier this year, the ‘Maserati Anxiety Designed’ EP bathes in the influence of synth-pop by way of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The peppy electronics of ‘Divinity Pools’, for instance, would be right at home on a Nintendo game. ‘Lonely Boy Forever’ is the EP’s masterstroke as shimmering chords descend around a chorus that unleashes an inescapable earworm. As always, Justin’s knack for a pleasing melody holds up his eccentric lyricism that has evolved to different leagues of whimsy away from the limelight of The Vaccines. They frequently toe the line between the good and the bad; “Try to destroy it / Helen of Troy it” and “alligator Jackie was so snappy” being case and point - but still there’s something about the confidence and risk that makes them all the more likeable. Although it’s uncertain as to how the work of Halloweens will impact the duo’s day jobs, it’s clear Young and Lanham are having fun. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: ‘Lonely Boy Forever’

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MATT MALTESE madhouse (Nettwerk)

On debut LP ‘Bad Contestant’, Matt Maltese allowed humour to cushion the topics of heartbreak and loneliness that stalk his songwriting. Second album ‘Krystal’ held a more direct approach, his tongue beginning to loosen from his cheek in the process; it’s a shift that continues here and lands Maltese on familiar ground for the most part. The EP’s title track reveals some imaginative arrangements and instrumentation at play serving as a welcome break from his loungey piano sequences, locking into a melancholic groove.

Likewise, ‘Queen Bee’ is a pleasing slice of summery pop with its crunchy drums and ‘90s alt-rock chord changes that manages to wedge an eerie nursery rhyme into its midsection. The ‘Madhouse EP’ contains some real gems but they’re somewhat overshadowed by the songwriter’s triedand-tested formula. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: ‘Madhouse’

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PVRIS

Use Me (Warner / Reprise)

Q4: Who is ‘Alligator Jackie’?

As if to set the mood of the third LP to come from Boston’s PVRIS, its opening track ‘Gimmie A Minute’ dives straight into the heart of the pain and frustration that Lynn Gunn has faced since their last record.

“Someone just ripped out my throat / Told me to sing while I was choked,” she snarls, placing the health and vocal problems she’s dealt with over the last few years front and centre, an obstacle to overcome. And throughout the darkly alluring ‘Use Me’, she does just that. Tracking her defiant struggle, it’s a powerful - and at times, vulnerable - listen that comes doused in sparkling synths and delicious beats. Expanding upon the electronic foundations laid so deftly with EP ‘Hallucinations’, there’s an assuredness to PVRIS’ latest move - especially during the affirming closer ‘Wish You Well’ - that shows off just how much she’s conquered. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Dead Weight’ 63

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JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD

ALL WE ARE

Even In Exile (Montyray) As Manic Street Preachers frontman, James Dean Bradfield is known for addressing all manner of political topics, and his solo work is no different. The lyrics on ‘Even In Exile’, written by playwright Patrick Jones, eulogise poet-activist Victor Jara, with a fitting sense of protest. There are elements of his work with the Manics here, including his trademark guitar style, but this is set against a backdrop of lush, cinematic instrumentals.

By stark contrast, there’s also a strong prog influence, with ‘The Last Song’ most obviously nodding to Rush or Pink Floyd.

To the album’s detriment, these two influences are sometimes indulged in for too long. But these wide-ranging textures ultimately prove to be the album’s main strength. And when songs like ‘Without Knowing The End (Joan’s Song)’ ring with the bite of Neil Young, or the storytelling of Woody Guthrie on ‘Recuerda’, JDB reaches the essential core of the album protest songs for the modern day, as told through the lens of the past. With more focus, this could have felt quite vital. (Nick Harris) LISTEN: ‘Without Knowing The End (Joan’s Song)’

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THE LEMON TWIGS

Providence (Domino) On their third album in five years, it seems at first glance that All We Are have worked out the sound that works for them and stuck by it. Ever-present are their rich, layered lead vocals, backed by minimal but melodic basslines and highly detailed drum grooves. But by contrast with their earlier work, there’s also something much less soulful on display. From the get go, the sound is pure ‘80s revivalist. And sometimes, that really works - ‘L Is For Lose’ has a menacing Peter Gabriel ooze to it that seeps into the skin. But the sound rarely offers up a convincing song, and by the time we change dynamic pace with the slow-burn of ‘When You Cry’, it feels like the first breath of fresh air after the same song four or five times. This is exacerbated by the inclusion of genuinely great numbers like ‘How You Get Me’, which highlight All We Are’s strengths - shifting, restless grooves which shine through subtly. And with highly catchy choruses on ‘Heart of Mine’ and ‘Deliver It’, it’s obvious that the band can deliver the pop sheen they are known for. But while reaching for style, it is only by exception that they achieve their usual substance. (Nick Harris) LISTEN: ‘How You Get Me’

Songs For The General Public (4AD)

On 2018’s ‘Go To School’, New York sibling duo The Lemon Twigs concocted a bombastic rock opera based around the life and times of a chimpanzee named Shane. On its follow up, Shane is gone (RIP), but the nostalgic theatrics are still out in full force. If there was any question, three albums in, as to whether the D’Addario brothers had any inclination to stomp their platform boots closer to the 21st Century, then the ringing Brian May solo of ‘Hog’ should answer with a resounding “No”.

Instead, we have a paean to the past, full of lovelorn warmth (‘The One’), Zombies-on-a-road-trip harmonies (‘Live In Favour of Tomorrow’) and Bugsy Malone-style ridiculous piano jams (‘Fight’). But for all the moments that tend towards fun-butsilly ‘70s musical theatre, there are plenty that, in isolation, ring with the kind of sepia-soaked sweetness that most genuinely don’t make anymore. The Lemon Twigs might not always take themselves seriously, but you’d be remiss to dismiss them as a joke. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Live In Favour of Tomorrow’

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JOAN cloudy

(Photo Finish)

If you were wondering what N*SYNC might sound like if they were reincarnated as an Arkansas duo in 2020, here are joan. EP ‘cloudy’ is a euphoric 6-track sleek-pop journey, full of 90s-drenched nostalgia paired with irresistible modern licks, that charts growing up, learning from past mistakes and falling in and out of love. From the unabridged cute AF stories of ballad-y ‘magnetic’ and synthheavy ‘cover girl’, to the LANY-esque ‘love me better’ with its big mood opening lines of “I love you but, right now you suck” and the lovelorn closer ‘brokenhearted’, it’s chock-ablock full of pop bops destined to make you feel all the feels.

(Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘want u back’

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HOCKEY DAD Brain Candy

(Farmer & The Owl / BMG)

On third album ‘Brain Candy’, Aussie duo Hockey Dad find themselves building upon their more laid-back surf rock roots and refining them into something altogether more scuzzed up and satisfying. Propelled forward by hefty opener ‘In This State’, there’s a sense of playful control present across the record, giving its tracks a real vibrancy, even during their grungier moments. Less scrappy than previous efforts, it’s also an album that sees them venture further from their comfort zone than ever before, with reflective midpoint ‘Itch’ showcasing that perfectly. Striking the right balance between slick and energetic, if a fuzzy but fun album’s what you’re after right now, look no further. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘In This State’ 64

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Coming Up IDLES - ULTRA MONO The follow-up to the Bristol noiseniks' allconquering 'Joy As An Act Of Resistance' will be released on 25th September.

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DREAM NAILS

REVIEWS

Dream Nails (Alcopop!)

That they’ve chosen to subtitle the lead single from their debut record ‘Chirpse Degree Burns’ is evidence enough of Dream Nails’ playfulness. Sure enough, the track in question, ‘Text Me Back’, is a giddy, witty pop-punk treatise on the pitfalls of modern dating.

There’s an effervescent sense of fun that fizzes throughout here on an LP heavily indebted to the work of Kathleen Hanna, both in its sound and its politics. In terms of the former, it lands somewhere between the feral thrash of Bikini Kill and the pop polish of The Julie Ruin; the former on ‘Vagina Panic’ and the simmering ‘Payback’, the latter with ‘Swimming Pool’ and ‘Jillian’. Dream Nails’ view of the world is one seen through a queer feminist lens and it’s something they wear on their sleeve, to the point that the record is punctuated with skits that reveal the themes of the following tracks and that might be a touch redundant, particularly when they do an impressive job of putting their anger into words on cuts like the furious ‘Kiss My Fist’, a broiling response to the homophobic attack on two women on a London bus in May 2019. It’s a striking indicator that there is more to Dream Nails than just freewheeling rock and roll boisterousness. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Vagina Panic’

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DAN CROLL Grand Plan (Communion)

WILL BUTLER GENERATIONS The Arcade Fire man's latest solo outing is out on 25th September.

Following 2017’s second effort ‘Emerging Adulthood’, Liverpool’s Dan Croll impulsively bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, and it’s his first 12 months in the City of Angels and the highs and lows that happened within that year that have formed third album ‘Grand Plan’. With his journey soundtracked in 12 beautiful songs, the record finds Dan discovering himself throughout the gorgeous nostalgia-seeped pop. Charting his changing feelings, acoustic-leaning ‘Actor With A Loaded Gun’ explores the feeling of uncertainty in new surroundings while ‘Work’ charts the first moments of discovering new love and ‘So Dark’ about making new friendships, before the easy-breezy ‘Coldblooded’ once again finds Dan ruminating on his doubts, and stunning closer ‘Together’ finds positivity in heartbreaking tragedy.

A beautiful and moving chart of a year in his life, Dan’s latest ‘Grand Plan’ has clearly paid off. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Together’

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NANCY

Happy Oddities (B3SCI) SVALBARD - WHEN I DIE, WILL I GET BETTER? The Bristol hardcore outfit return with their third full-length on 25th September.

You may not have realised you needed a fuzzy, lo-fi psych reimagining of the theme tune to slightly-problematic-in-retrospect ‘70s sitcom Happy Days, but Brightoner Nancy clearly knows better. It’s the amusingly odd cherry on the top of an EP - his second following last year’s excellent ‘Mysterious Visions’ - that rubs shoulders with eccentricity, but dips its toe into more human waters, too. Lead single and unashamed Bowie rip-off ‘Call Me On Your Telephone’ stomps its way through the ‘Fashion’ show with glam-rock swagger and some French flourishes, but it’s soon followed by the twinkling, woozy slow dance of ‘Hanging On For Dear Life’ and ‘Orange Yellow Orange’ - all warm organs and sweet whistles. Nancy’s original entry to the music world might have come packaged in purposeful quirks, but there’s clearly more depth and nuance going on here than just a man with a wacky taste in cover versions. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Call Me On Your Telephone’

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WASHED OUT SUFJAN STEVENS THE ASCENSION The singer-songwriter's eighth is set for release on - you guessed it! 25th September.

Purple Noon (Sub Pop) This is perhaps the closest Washed Out has ever been to his namesake.

While his trademark layered vocal style and ‘80s influence makes ‘Purple Noon’ unmistakably his own, in almost every other regard he’s shifted his sound to something more restrained, more elusive and more fragile. At its core, funk is replaced by reflective ennui, updating the sound to something like Joji, or even the vaporwave texture of Luxury Elite. This is a much slower, more repetitive album, and given the equally limited scope of the lyrics, it’d be easy to dismiss it as the same song ten times. But when the drums on ‘Paralyzed’ lean more towards Timbaland than Underworld, or the jazzy Van Morrison chords of ‘Game Of Chance’ are played by the only obvious guitar on the album, it draws the ear to the slight shift, inviting you to delve deeper into its layered patchwork of sounds. The album proves to be a glacial melt of shimmering beauty, asking for attention and rewarding it with a kind of zen. (Nick Harris) LISTEN: ‘Paralyzed’ 65

Coming Up

Specialist Subject:

IT’S YOUR ROUND A big inter-band pub quiz of sorts, we’ll be grilling your faves one by one.

This Month: JUSTIN YOUNG THE VACCINES/ HALLOWEENS

Where: London. Drink: Orange Juice. Price: Free

THE OC From which part of California is Ryan from?

Chino.

Correct!

Which band sang the show’s banging soundtrack?

Phantom Planet.

Correct!

Me and my friends really liked the Phantom Planet album that came out after that, and then they repackaged it with that song. I loved that Jason Schwartzman was the drummer.

What superhero is Seth dressed as during a famous kiss with Summer?

He’s Spiderman, and he’s hanging upside down.

True - and truly iconic.

Who does Marissa shoot in Series Three?

Trey!

Also correct!

Which of these bands did not play in The Bait Shop?

The Killers, The Subways or The Postal Service?

The Postal Service didn’t play. The Killers’ one was classic, but I know The Subways played because when I was 16 my sixth form band supported them in Bournemouth and they’d just been on The OC and we were in awe. They told us they’d been given Minis to drive around all day.

And that’s a full five out of five.

5/5 General Knowledge What chocolate bar used to be called a Marathon?

A Double Decker? No wait - a Snickers!

You can have that.

What is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series?

Oh I’ve only seen the movies, I can’t remember.

Chamber of Secrets?

It’s the Goblet of Fire.

I wouldn’t have got that.

What chemical element has the symbol Pb? I’m gonna say potassium but I don’t think it is.

It’s lead, unfortunately.

What I remember from chemistry is there were a couple that were quite misleading, like this. That’s the extent of my memory.

Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim are which band?

Oh, The Corrs!

Of course, it’s the beautiful Corrs.

In which sport can you win the Davis Cup? Tennis.

And that’s correct!

3/5 FINAL SCORE:

8/10

Verdict: “That’s quite good I think. Fred Macpherson only got one on general knowledge which surprised me because he’s quite a knowledgeable guy.”

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