DIY, June 2020 by DIY Magazine

Tuning into the Phoebe Bridgers show

PLUS RUN THE JEWELS • NADINE SHAH • JEHNNY BETH • 100 GECS • ORLANDO WEEKS & MORE 1

THE DEBUT ALBUM 25 YEARS IN THE MAKING OUT NOW FEATURING

PAUL BANKS (INTERPOL)

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MATT BARRICK (THE WALKMEN)

JOSH KAUFMAN (BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN)

welcome Listening Post

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

RUN THE JEWELS - RTJ4 Quite literally the soundtrack of going to print, as Killer Mike and El-P dropped their incendiary (and yet, sadly still so lyrically relevant) fourth the day before. Essential stuff.

THE STREETS - NONE OF US ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS LIFE ALIVE

Question!

This month would have been Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary (sob) - what are Team DIY’s favourite memories of Glasto past?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor A bit cheesy but I loved Arcade Fire’s headline set so much that I watched it back about four times in a row - just could not get enough of Will Butler’s sprawling *ahem* performance.

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor Thoroughly enjoyed Jack White’s trolling of 2014 headliners Metallica by dropping ‘Enter Sandman’ into his set beforehand - and Wolf Alice on the Pyramid Stage in 2016 really felt like a ‘moment’.

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor Blur’s 2009 headline set; Patti Smith leading a rousing birthday sing-along to the Dalai Lama; that French sausage stall that’s always on the corner by West Holts. Glasto truly has it all. LOUISE MASON • Art Director Watching Patti Smith when I was 17, on Micheal Stipe’s recommendation. And every single second of last year. ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor Elbowing my way to the front and getting on the barrier at the Pyramid Stage to watch Stevie Wonder sing ‘Happy Birthday’ for Glastonbury’s 40th.

Showing off his magpie nature (Kevin Parker, Joe Talbot, Greentea Peng and Ms Banks among his guests) while remaining as quintessentially The Streets as we’ve known and loved, it’s not-quite-analbum, but it’s brilliant all the same.

DENAI MOORE MODERN DREAD

Pairing the personal with problems of the world at large with a heady dose of alt-pop, the singer-songwriter’s third LP is one to get excited about.

, Letter Editors

When we were first putting together this issue, it’s safe to say we had no idea what would be going on around the world when we actually released it. And while we’re incredibly excited to welcome the wonderful Phoebe Bridgers to our cover this month, we also think it’s important to address the situation that’s been unfolding in the wake of George Floyd’s death. First and foremost, we at DIY stand in solidarity with the Black community, and over the past week, we’ve tried to take the time to reflect upon and learn how we become the best allies we can be. We as a team will be continuing to educate ourselves, both individually and together, as we know we have a lot to learn, and we will be working to diversify both the artists we cover, and the wider team of people that we work with. Alongside these fundamental changes, we’re offering £10,000 worth of online advertising space to black charities, organisations and record labels whose voices need to be heard, and we will be donating £1 from every physical copy of this issue sold to Black Lives Matter. We know this is only a drop in the ocean, but this is the beginning of a long, overdue journey of change. Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Shout out to: Team Phoebe Bridgers, Zoom, everyone who donated to The Bail Project on Phoebe’s live stream (and the v good people at The Bail Project themselves), Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile for their at-home lockdown shoot, takeaway drinks from The Prince N22, Four Hundred Rabbits at Brockwell Lido, and The Earlsfield (we’ll get the pint of G&T next time), and London Fields Brewery for their box sets.

NEWS 6 100 GECS 12 MUZZ 1 5 H A L L O F FA M E 1 6 # S AV E O U R V E N U E S NEU 18 ASHNIKKO 22 ROXY GIRLS 24 KENNYHOOPLA 2 5 J AW N Y FEATURES 26 PHOEBE BRIDGERS 34 ORLANDO WEEKS 38 NADINE SHAH 4 2 ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER 44 JEHNNY BETH 48 RUN THE JEWELS REVIEWS 52 ALBUMS Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Contributors Ben Tipple, Ed Miles, James James Balmont, Jenessa Williams, Joe Goggins, Louisa Dixon, Martin Toussaint, Nick Harris, Sean Kerwick, Will Strickson

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.

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Photo: Johnny Hostile.

Cover photo: Ed Miles 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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“WE WANNA BE BIG LIKE BIEBER! MASSIVE!” - LAURA LES

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BLOWING UP ALL OVER THE INTERNET AND BEYOND, LAURA LES AND DYLAN BRADY’S 100 GECS PROJECT IS THE MOST EXCITING SHIT HAPPENING IN POP. NOW, THEY’RE READY FOR GECMANIA TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. WORDS: ELLY WATSON.

t’s not every day you hear a track that opens with the abrasive autotuned message “Hey, little piss baby, you think you’re so fucking cool, huh?”. And yet so begins ‘money machine’ the glitchy electronic-pop banger (seven million Spotify streams and counting…) from band of the moment 100 gecs. Speaking to them over Skype, you would think the duo - Laura Les and Dylan Brady - might have the same confrontational delivery in conversation as over the airwaves. But, sat in their respective Chicago and LA homes, the pair ooze chill, completely at odds with the people accustomed to barking out “Your arms look so fucking cute they look like little cigarettes / I bet I could smoke you, I could roast you, and then you’d love it and text me ‘I love you’ then I’d fucking ghost you” over hard electro backing.

SpaceX’s new employees were something of a curveball…

First meeting at an event in high school - “We met at a rodeo, fun fact!” - Laura and Dylan started making music together five years ago. “We just thought it would be a fun idea,” asserts Laura, mid-Juul puff. “I went to Chicago to make the first thing because I thought it would be really cool if we did it somewhere really cold,” Dylan adds. “So, I went there and we were just bashing our heads against a wall for half a day, and then kind of figured it out. There wasn’t too much of a conceptual idea beforehand.” “It was mostly just throwing ideas at the wall,” agrees Laura. “At first, we started to do this ambient thing because I was making ambient stuff, and then we were like ‘This is really boring!’ and made something else. And that was 100 gecs.” “Boring” would be the last word to describe anything that the pair have created since that lightbulb moment. Releasing debut album ‘1000 gecs’ last year, their music fully transports you into the pair’s own world - an aural internet wormhole, complete with memes, subreddits and songs fated to get a noise

complaint when played at full volume. Best comparable to electronic pop, although largely undefinable, the duo fuse elements of bubblegum pop, nightcore, industrial, experimentalism, screamo and pretty much every other sound to create bitingly sharp pop that hits hard at every level. Ever since the debut’s release, 100 gecs have been - rightfully - hailed as the genre’s boldest and bizarrest new offering. Did they ever expect that they’d have this impact? “Definitely not,” Dylan laughs. “That would be insane if we did.” “Yeah,” Laura agrees, “we definitely weren’t one of those people like, ‘Guys, check out my new track, you will NOT regret it.’ I was like, ‘Well, you might regret it…’”. And, as with any extreme (and extremely new) sound, the pair haven’t always had everyone on board. After gecs supported rapper Pop Smoke in New York last winter, they were approached afterwards by an onlooker: “They held Dylan down and were like, ‘Come here, come here. You fucking SUCK!’” The majority of people, however, can’t stop raving about how gecs are changing pop - and rightly so. With their balls-tothe-wall nature, connectivity to everything current in music and desire to completely push ahead of all of it, the pair have already developed a hugely adoring fanbase - one that’s even turned the tree on ‘1000 gecs’’ album cover into a fan tourist hot-spot. “It’s so sick,” Laura beams. “People leave gifts under the tree now. If you go to the tree, people have posted update

“THEY HELD DYLAN DOWN AND WERE LIKE, ‘COME HERE, COME HERE. YOU FUCKING SUCK!’” -LAURA LES

pictures of what’s underneath it. It’s on the property of a business and they don’t clean it up I guess, because some of the stuff has been there for like, a year. There’s a Minecraft strategy guide, an air freshener... I wish I could remember everything! People just leave shit under there but, like, cool shit. It’s fun.” Lately, it feels like the band have been doing ‘cool shit’ wherever they go. Dylan recently took time to hop on production duties for Charli XCX’s lockdown album ‘how i’m feeling now’, and has also lent his production chops to Dorian Electra’s latest single ‘Sorry Bro (I Love You)’, Hannah Diamond’s remix album of ‘Reflections’ and Nasty Cherry’s newest bop ‘I Am King’. Meanwhile 100 gecs themselves are gearing up to share a remix album of their debut, ‘1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues’. Releasing a handful of singles from the record already, they’ve recruited huge names to participate so far, with features and remixes from the likes of Danny L Harle, AG Cook, Dorian Electra, Rico Nasty, Kero Kero Bonito and new BFF Charli. Anyone they wish they had grabbed for a feature but didn’t quite get? “Taylor Swift, Playboi Carti, Bieber, Adele,” Dylan states. “Actually maybe not Adele, but I do love her.” “You wouldn’t want

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Adele on the album?!” Laura gasps. “Yeah, all those people I agree with. Oh, and then get Eddie Van Halen to rip a solo on that shit. He’d play a sick riff and I’d be like, ‘That’s all you need to do.’” With plans to tour cancelled for obvious reasons, Laura and Dylan recently hosted their own festival, Square Garden, on Minecraft - a site they’ve been using for a long time to host events with fans across the globe. The rest of the music world may have been forced in recent months to wise up to non-traditional online gig opportunities, but gecs have been at this shit for ages, with one of their first sets together taking place at the second ever Minecraft Fire Festival last year. “It was really dope,” Dylan says of the recent event, which saw streamed sets from album features GFOTY, Count Baldor and Tommy Ca$h. “Dylan had made this really elaborate stage show for our Tree of Clues tour and we had so many elements that specifically aligned with that tour,” Laura nods, “so we really wanted to use as [much of that] as we could. We had this really big rat. Did you see the rat? It was this colossal rat menacing over a colossal tree.” Having worked remotely from their homes across the US for the majority of

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their career, they even whipped up some brand new tunes for the Minecraft show. “My voice was completely gone by the time I finished recording that shit,” Laura laughs. “There’s these YouTube videos of this 14-year-old kid like, ‘Today I’m going to cover’ - I don’t know - ‘some fucking band that screams’, and then they do it into their webcam and they’re like, ‘Wow, that was awful’. That’s how I felt when I was done screaming. But then you throw some sweet vocal effects on it and ooft. It all comes together, baby. It’s that sweet glue, that sweet, sweet glue.” Set to take their virtual world domination offline as soon as they can, Dylan and Laura have big goals for the future of gecs. “We want to be Beatles-type level,” Dylan smiles. “Big like Bieber!” Laura enthuses. “Massive!” Already well on their way to achieving that, you get the feeling that the duo have more up their sleeves than they’re letting on, coyly hinting that as soon as they’ve let the remix album “breathe”, they’ll be right back with even more game-changing bangers. If you don’t know who the fuck 100 gecs are yet, it’s time to wise up. DIY

BE NO RAIN ALL NIGHT, RIGHT?

OUT NOW 9

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SHOW ME THE PUPPY We love dogs. You love dogs. Here are some popstars’ dogs.

This month: Dry Cleaning

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 catch-up on music’s finest photo-taking action as of late.

Rumours that Sports Team’s debut album sales weren’t all quite above board were yet to be investigated… (@sportsteam)

Name: Stella Age: 1 year old Breed: Miniature Schnauzer Favourite things: Wrestling with other dogs, the bigger the better. Please tell us a cute anecdote about your dog: When I’m listening to music she will normally sit in a different room, unless it’s death metal which she seems to really enjoy.

The Hit List At the time of writing, over 400 venues across the UK are still at risk of permanent closure according to industry bods the Music Venue Trust [see p18 for more on that]. Show your support while queuing for the supermarket, socially distancing not-quite-with pals in the park or simply pining for some ear-piercing live feedback with one of these…

BRIXTON WINDMILL ROOF DOG T-SHIRT

The south London boozer is as well known for its canine companions as its buzzy new band rep - now you can celebrate both. RRP: £13 Buy it: windmillbrixton. bandcamp.com

LE PUB SLOTH T-SHIRT

The cult Newport venue has already survived several threats of closure, and now in addition to its hard rock reputation hosts a gallery and other creative spaces as well as live music. RRP: £15 Buy it: lepublicspace.co.uk

What do music’s great and good rustle up for their supper? Let us peek inside the recipe book… bon appetit! NAME: NZCA LINES DISH: LUXURIOUS PASTA Ingredients: (serves 2)

• 4 handfuls of any pasta of your choosing, I enjoy penne or similar. Personally I use rice pasta, but follow your heart. • 4 nice vine tomatoes (doesn’t hurt to go organic) or 250g cherry toms • 3 cloves of garlic • Maldon sea salt • olive oil • parmesan or other cheese (optional) Don’t worry everyone, Dave’s got the whole socially-distanced gig thing sorted. (@glassanimals)

Bea had heard there was an opening for a new Royal around town.(@radvxz)

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Method:

Chop up tomatoes into approx. 2cm pieces, or half cherry toms. Crush garlic with the side of a large kitchen knife, alternately chopping until you have an oily paste. Glug some olive oil into a frying pan on a med low heat, and add the tomatoes and garlic. Cook for 3-5mins then add a good pinch of the Maldon salt. Get the tomatoes simmering and then turn on low, covering the pan. You want to cook them for about 20mins, alternately keeping the lid on to retain moisture, and removing to boil off any excess. Meanwhile, prepare pasta. Once pasta is ready, drain thoroughly and combine with the tomato sauce. Et voila! It should taste surprisingly amazing. Parmesan is encouraged but not essential.

OPORTO REOPENING RULES T-SHIRT

It’s obvious by now that things won’t be quite ‘the same’ for a while when the nation’s live venues are allowed to reopen, and Leeds’ Oporto have taken this in to account for this new design - bonus, anyone buying also gets a pint of their house lager once they’re serving. RRP: £18 Buy it: oportobar.co.uk

ELSEWHERE T-SHIRT

Will Margate beach have been as packed with visitors as local venue-slash-record shop Elsewhere should’ve been these past weeks? Quite possibly. RRP: £10 Buy it: elsewhere. community

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Interpol’s Paul Banks and life-long pal Josh Kaufman have joined forces with The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick for the oldest new union on the block. Making a great new supergroup? It’s child’s play. Words: Ben Tipple.

MUZZ

might only now be preparing for the release of their debut self-titled record, but the trio’s musical kinship reaches as far back as the early ‘90s. Before Paul Banks launched his acclaimed career with moody New York City outfit Interpol, and prior to Josh Kaufman’s illustrious credits across production and performance (playing with the likes of The War on Drugs, The Hold Steady and more), both shared an early teenage friendship built - as many are - on Nirvana and a love of guitars. Two decades later, ignited by an unassuming suggestion from The Walkmen’s drummer Matt Barrick, Muzz has emerged as an unexpected, but not entirely unlikely, merging of three kindred lanes. “My life with a guitar will always go back to Josh,” explains Paul from his home in Scotland. “It just seems like it would have made sense at some point for us to do this.” “There’s this simpatico that Paul and I have had since we were kids,” Josh agrees, dialling in from New York. “Maybe both of us didn’t force that, or subconsciously didn’t want to put pressure on it [before]. The fact that it just sort of happened through Matt made the collaboration realistic; that moment had to happen naturally.” Back in their late-teens, Paul recalls how he would often turn to Josh for musical advice. Describing him as a mentor of sorts, the singer would record his creative musings for Josh’s consideration, sending mixtape cassettes across the city in the post. One side would blare out the works of The Who, Neil Young and the like, while the other would unfold as a vocal stream of consciousness, paired with Paul’s ever-improving guitar work. “I used to love getting those tapes,” Josh smiles. “When you’re 15 and you meet one other person that has the same passion as you, and then especially someone who is already really good at the thing you want to do, there was this really beautiful fraternity that was created between us back then,” picks up Paul. Despite the pair’s long-standing friendship, however, it’s Muzz’s drummer who became the integral cog in the operation. Having worked with both musicians, it took Matt’s outside force to finally bring them professionally together. “Stepping into that without any presumption of what it might be left it so open to become something beautiful,” says Josh of the group’s first session together. “There was nothing for me to be disappointed with.” And indeed, far from disappointment, it only took one jam session

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for the trio to decide it was worth moving into the studio. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a band who’ve clocked up more than six decades in the industry and a lot of shared history between them, the three musicians instantly began to create something that felt notable. “We just immediately established a very frictionless camaraderie together,” Paul states. “There’s a really well-balanced chemistry between three very different people who find each other very funny,” Josh adds, “and are able to be comfortable enough around each other to be honest.” ‘Muzz’ - the self-titled album that emerged from these sessions - acts as a reflection of this compatibility. It’s ominous and apocalyptic (“I’ve often written about the end days as we know it,” Paul laughs), yet filled with defiance, hope and romance. Lyrically driven by a sense of timeliness, there’s a direct honesty that sets Muzz apart from any of the trio’s other projects, with anything too abstract collectively refined. The result? “It’s more like somebody’s journal than somebody’s sci-fi novel,” Paul smiles. Musically it bears the fruits of all involved, brimming with an understated beauty. Rules and roles were largely thrown out the window, with the band instead trying a new, free approach where instruments were shared regardless of proficiency. It’s a creatively liberating mindset that bleeds all over the broadreaching scope of the record. And at least for now, there’s appetite for more, with new material in the works and plans for a tour underway. Concerns that this means a hiatus for the members’ other projects are quickly shot down. “I’ve juggled all of my projects and always managed to do Interpol,” Paul notes. “One thing does not come at the expense of another. “But I’ve definitely learned something from Josh and Matt,“ he concludes of the project so far. “Everybody’s so mature that nobody’s going to get butthurt at a studio session. Realising that I might have [previously] been the guy to bring that energy to an equation, I learned a few things from these guys having great, easy temperaments. Who knows what we can do [next]? It’s so exciting.” ‘Muzz’ is out now via Matador. DIY

“We just immediately established a very frictionless camaraderie together.” - Paul Banks 13

HAVE YOU HEARD?

ALISON MOSSHART ‘IT AIN’T WATER’ One unintended consequence of artists’ access to recording being limited to what they keep at home is the airing of a lot of material which, for whatever reason, has laid dormant on hard drives, tapes, or down the back of various seating implements. The flip side to recent solo single ‘Rise’, Alison Mosshart’s ‘It Ain’t Water’ was recorded with QOTSA knob-twiddler Alain Johannes “quite some time” ago, and channels the softer side of her work with The Kills, finding the singer in pensive mood. It might not be part of anything more than something to keep her mind ticking while the world stops - but we’re really quite glad she decided to share it. (Emma Swann)

NASTY CHERRY I AM KING

An unapologetic ode to having a big ol’ wank, the latest from band-slash-reality-stars Nasty Cherry arrives in a flurry of self-pleasure and lyrics about getting your rocks off in your car (whatever works for you, babes). There’s something about the quartet’s ‘90s pop bitch aesthetic that can sometimes be a turn off: an attempt at no-fucks-given empowerment that just comes off like the Mean Girls who wouldn’t let you sit at their table. But in their latest slice - which pits its one track mind over simple, fuzzy guitar stabs - the combination makes sense. There’s no point pretending to be cute here, let’s face it. That said, the spoken Gossip Girl-ripping “Xoxo” outro remains unforgivable. Know when to quit while you’re ahead. (Lisa Wright)

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HAVE YOU HEARD?

IDLES ‘MR MOTIVATOR’ How do you follow up a record (2018’s ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’) widely heralded as the most timely, poignant and - quote unquote - ‘important’ thing to come from its peer group in years? Well, if you’re IDLES, then you consign any possible pretence to the bin, title your comeback track after a lycra-clad daytime TV star from the ‘90s and announce its release via a fake workout video. Duh. Just to remind us all that the beauty of the Bristolians has always been their simultaneous ability to make you weep one second and piss yourself laughing the next, ‘Mr. Motivator’ arrives in a barrage of brilliant one-liners aimed at revving you into a state of cathartic power: Delia Smith becomes the third TV chef to find their way into Joe Talbot’s lyrical arsenal (honestly mate, what’s the beef?), while “like Kathleen Hanna with bear claws grabbing Trump by the pussy” is destined to become a gloriously unifying crowd moment, as soon as that sort of thing’s allowed. A big, bold call to arms with oodles of humour, it’s everything you want from them in three celebratory minutes. (Lisa Wright)

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BROCKHAMPTON ‘N.S.T.’ / ‘THINGS CAN’T STAY THE SAME’

THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Returning on the sly, ’N.S.T’ and ‘things can’t stay the same’ arrive as BROCKHAMPTON’s first new material since 2019’s ‘GINGER’ LP. Ahead of the release of not one but two (!) albums later this year, ’N.S.T’ sees vocalists Kevin Abstract and Matt Champion going hard in their lyrics over looping synths and punchy backing, with bearface’s refrain of “big trauma, stone-cold stunner” an undisputed earworm line at the end. ‘things can’t stay the same’, meanwhile, also finds Kevin leading on vocal duties, its freestyle-esque verse merging into a subtle almost gospel interlude, before Matt Champion dives in over bass-heavy backing. Straight in with two smashes, it’s an exciting look at what BROCKHAMPTON are cooking up next. (Elly Watson)

CELESTE ‘I CAN SEE THE CHANGE’ You could say 2020 got off to a rather strong start for Celeste, after she bagged herself the much-lauded BRITs Rising Star award, and topped new music tastemaker charts like there was no tomorrow. But, according to new single ‘I Can See The Change’ - a track written for a time when she felt “disconnected from [herself] and the world around [her]” - things weren’t quite as they seemed. A predictably gorgeous offering, which comes produced by Finneas, just for a bit of extra added wow factor, her newest release is a bittersweet but redemptive track which glimmers with hope. (Sarah Jamieson)

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Fame

Gerard Way - Hesitant Alien

Forget ‘The Black Parade’ and pass the fuzz pedals, we look back on Gerard Way’s gloriously scuzzy debut. Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Mike massaro.

or anyone who solely knew My Chemical Romance as the titans of emo, it’s fair to say that frontman Gerard Way’s solo debut may have come as a bit of a surprise. But track the lineage of the New Jersey band back to the days before ‘The Black Parade’ and the pomp of their goth-rock-opera and you’ll see that the foundations for a Britpop-esque turn had been laid long before. With its fuzzy guitars and glammed-up arrogance, ‘Hesitant Alien’ is the sound of Gerard embracing the flip side of his musical self. While MCR undoubtedly leaned on their heavier influences - Iron Maiden, Black Flag and many more all get credited as shaping the group’s sound - an initial blueprint (at least according to their 2006 documentary ‘Life On The Murder Scene’) stemmed from the idea of a band that felt like “Morrissey was in the Misfits”. Throw in the fact that a cover of Blur’s ‘Song 2’ was a regular feature during their 2005 tour sets, and the obvious comparisons that Gerard’s stage presence drew to Pulp’s iconic Jarvis Cocker, and, well, you’ll start to see a pattern forming.

THE

FACTS

Released: 29th September 2014 Standout tracks: ‘Juarez’, ‘Get The Gang Together’, ‘Drugstore Perfume’ Tell your mates: Gerard’s look for the record (natty blue suit, bright red hair) was influenced by both Bryan Ferry and David Bowie’s ‘80s looks.

And that’s what makes ‘Hesitant Alien’ so satisfying. Arriving less than a year after the official split of MCR, it may have been a shock to some, but it made perfect sense to others. Doused in feedback and dripping with the same swagger that defined so much of the ‘90s indie pop he grew up listening to, it’s an album that’s giddy with enthusiasm, just from the sheer love of it. From the Supergrass-ish whooping that introduces ‘Get The Gang Together’ to the crunchy, swaying stabs of piano that punctuate opener ‘The Bureau’, there’s a playfulness and confidence that shines through. “Do you miss me?” he kisses off in ‘Action Cat’, like a doe-eyed David Bowie, upping the ante with a sense of coy bravado. “Cause I miss you too.” Gerard may have grown out the red locks and stuck the royal blue suit in storage in favour of returning to his first musical endeavour for the time being. But, whether their reunion shows happen this year or next, ‘Hesitant Alien’ remains a joyous, fuzzy ride that could well do with its own reboot sometime soon too. Hint hint. DIY

Since the start of lockdown, #saveourvenues - an initiative launched by the Music Venue Trust, aiming to help grassroots spaces survive the financial fallout of the pandemic - has raised a truly impressive £1.5 million. It’s so far enabled 140 much-loved spaces to be removed from the ‘critical’ list, but there’s still a long way to go before all our favourite mosh spots are safe. Why should you donate a few hard-earned pennies (if you’re able) to the cause? Because these are the places where culture thrives - where superstars-in-the-making are created and once-in-a-lifetime nights occur. We asked a load of DIY regulars about the small venues that got them to where they are today: give your local venue some love if you can, and find out about the campaign over at www.saveourvenues.co.uk.

WILL GOULD CREEPER ON SOUTHAMPTON JOINERS

ON MANCHESTER DEAF INSTITUTE

What makes The Joiners a special place? One of the defining things about it is the family of people that work to keep it operational; from the person on the door, to the bar staff, right to the person booking shows - the whole place is a family. I used to live with the venue booker and would watch him work 12 hour days, seven days a week, all the time. The people who work at the venue love the place; it’s more than just a venue.

Why does The Deaf Institute mean a lot to the history of Pale Waves? Ciara and I used to skip university sometimes and go there to eat and plan the future of Pale Waves. We were so driven to headline that venue. Then our very first headline show was there, and we were so nervous but it came together better than we ever could have expected. It’s still one of my favourite ever gigs.

Why do people need to get behind venues like this right now? If you appreciate music of any kind in any way you have to get behind venues right now. Every record in your collection, every one of your favourite bands, you owe to a local venue somewhere. They are how scenes and bands exist. By not supporting them you are essentially wishing away the future for the next generation of artists and also losing the platform for your favourite acts of today.

How important are venues like these to the area? Small venues are so important, I can’t stress it enough! They provide new and upcoming bands the opportunity to build a fan base, and for kids growing up in cities around the UK they’re such an important part of life and culture. Pale Waves must have played every small venue in Manchester, and I’m so thankful we got to do that. We were such shy nervous babies at the time, we needed that experience to build our confidence.

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HEATHER BARON-GRACIE PALE WAVES

ISAAC HOLMAN SLAVES ON TUNBRIDGE WELLS FORUM

IZZY PHILLIPS BLACK HONEY MARK BOWEN IDLES ON BRIGHTON HOPE AND RUIN

ON BRISTOL EXCHANGE (FKA THE CROFT)

What was your first experience of the venue? It was at a hip hop night, I was about 14 and me and my mates had a little group called All Mouth where we all beatboxed and rapped. I was usually one of the people hanging around outside up to no good, but once I was in, I was in.

Why is The Hope and Ruin such a key venue for the city? I think because it’s so close to the station and a really small room, it’s kind of the heart of the city. We did so many shows there; the dressing room was an actual toilet when we started out. They’ve done some layout changes since, but managed to make it still feel like a dirty dive-style music venue.

What makes it a special place? I think the programming is a big thing: you can see an obscure Norwegian metal band one night, an avant-garde electronic band the next and then future festival headliners the next. They’re not afraid to put on a show that maybe 15 people will go to, but it means so much to that 15 people.

What role does the Forum have in creating a music scene in the area? Without it I don’t think there would really be a music scene in the area. Or at least it would be very different. It welcomes and embraces artists in any form and gives likeminded people a place to come together, express themselves and be a part of something.

What makes spaces like these so important? Every big band you see in large venues needed these small hubs of culture to hone their craft. Taking away these venues is like taking away a painter’s canvas.

How did the venue help IDLES progress as a band? We were allowed to play there when we were terrible. We still managed to get those supports, those front room slots that we needed to learn what it was to be in a band - how to do gigs, get better. Then when we got better we played our biggest ever shows there in the main room. Those shows stay with you. 17

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Ashnikko If you’ve been anywhere online in the last few months (and frankly, where else has there been to go?), it’s likely you’ve come across Ashnikko. Known for her electric blue hair and unfiltered lyrical style, the North Carolinaborn, London-based musician hit the digital big time when Miley Cyrus lip-synced to her 2019 song ‘Stupid’ on lockdown-app-of-the-moment, Tik Tok, resulting in the track unsurprisingly blowing up everywhere.

The viral sensation and modern girl power icon, advocating for pussy power one fiery verse at a time. Words: Elly Watson.

“It was very surreal,” Ashnikko laughs. “For like, a month people were sending it to me, and I was like ‘YES I’VE SEEN MILEY CYRUS DANCING TO MY SONG!’ The whole thing was weird. One time I was on mushrooms and it was only on 1,000 plays or something, and my brain was like ‘This is fucking mental, this is going to be a smash’. I feel like I manifested it while I was on ‘shrooms…” Although the ‘Bangerz’-hitmaker may have been the one to push her into mainstream consciousness, the rapper has been bubbling on the sidelines ready to strike for a while. First starting to make “really horrendous” music back when she was 15, she moved to London at 18 with the hopes of “making it” in the big city. “In my 18-year-old brain, I was like, ‘It’ll take me a year tops to be a full-time musician, so I’ll get a stupid restaurant job [in the meantime]’,” she reminisces. “I remember being so slapped in the face with reality [when that didn’t happen], like ‘What the fuck am I doing!’ But then I met loads of people in music in London because I was really annoying and forced everyone to listen to my music.” Raised on a musical diet of iconic female artists including M.I.A, Gwen Stefani, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Björk, Kelis, and Missy Elliot, Ashnikko has always wanted to amplify the same strong, independent message within her own art. “I feel like I used music as a confidence booster, and it was so important for me growing into my body and my womanhood and my own opinions and feeling OK in myself,” she explains. “That’s the type of music that I want to make and that I’ve been striving to make. It’s very sex-positive, confidence-boosting music. The type of music that people can sing in front of their mirrors into a hairbrush.” One of the leading voices in the new wave of female music icons unafraid to shake previous lyrical boundaries, her songs include fiery references to PornHub, masturbation, and, above all, empowerment . “I feel like the scene has changed so it’s more about pleasure for women, self-pleasure and independence, and less male gaze-y,” she elaborates of how she sees her position. “I feel like Megan Thee Stallion is a really good example: she’s one of the biggest artists in the world right now and the way she talks about sex is

very powerful. She’s basically a musical dominatrix. Like, ‘This is for me, this is my pleasure, I cum first and I really don’t care if you cum!’. It’s definitely pivoted more towards personal pleasure and I really love that. There have been lots of women who have paved the way for the weirdos to be more - I hate the word - but ‘commercially viable’. It’s OK to be yourself!” Teaming up with another lovable weirdo for her latest release, this month Ashnikko drops lovelorn anthem ‘Cry’ featuring Grimes. “She followed me on Instagram and I was like, ‘Oh my fucking god’,” she giggles. “I immediately messaged her like, ‘You’re my favourite’. She’s an ethereal, supernatural being through and through and she’s so sweet as a person as well which is sick. I said ‘I really want you on this song’, and she bodied it, she sounds so good.” Full of already-classic Ashnikko lyricism including the epic line of “Fuck a fucking fuck boy”, the track precedes a mixtape set to land later this year. “It’s 10 tracks, so surely it’s an album right?” she jokes. “But no, I don’t want to commit to calling it an album because I have commitment issues.”

“I feel like the scene has changed so it’s more about pleasure for women, selfpleasure and independence.” And what can we expect from the not-an-albumbut-a-mixtape? “My last EP was definitely about my harrowing heartbreak and my anger towards my exboyfriend. I wrote like, 450 songs about that stupid fucker,” she says of her inspiration. “I’ll write about my friends’ heartbreak and their stories - I am a bit of a story vampire like that. But I can also write about other things beside heartbreak! I write about sex-positivity; that’s big for me. Just the orgasm of people with vaginas is important to me and my music because it’s been a very elusive concept until recently. Our orgasm is not prioritised in mainstream media or music, and I just wanna fucking cum!” Nuff said, really. DIY

RECOMMENDED

neu BANANAGUN Aussie five-piece helping you to get your groove on. Melbourne-based Bananagun are getting ready to bring their colourful bops to the world, with debut album ‘The True Story Of Banagun’ set to land next month. Originally beginning as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Nick Van Bakel, the now-quintet’s vibrant soundscapes blend ‘60s and ‘70s grooves with fierce rhythms; throw in a touch of afrobeat, a dash of psych and these fruity faves will have you grooving along in no time. Listen: Latest track ‘The Master’ is a refreshing slice of funk-filled fun. Similar to: The musical equivalent of fizzy cocktails by the beach.

COURTING

Nice Swan Records newbies ready to woo you. Like if Shame and Sports Team had some rowdy Liverpudlian offspring, Courting are taking Britpop bops and blending them with post-punk punchiness to create their thrilling new sound. Veering from January’s rousing smash ‘Football’ to recent bouncy indie gem ‘David Byrne’s Badside’, we’re unsure what they’ve got up their sleeves next, but it’s bound to be something special. Listen: ‘David Byrne’s Badside’ is a (psycho) killer track. Sorry... Similar to: The soundtrack for your boozy post lockdown night-out with the lads.

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DRAB CITY

Intoxicating otherworldly darkness from the longtime collaborators. Drab City might be a new project - this month’s LP ‘Good Songs for Bad People’ their first under the moniker - but its members have been collaborating as witch house faves oOoOO and Islamiq Grrls for a few years now. It makes sense of why the record sounds like the work of a band far from their infancy. Listen: ‘Good Songs for Bad People’ lands 12th June. Similar to: The lush melancholy spirit (albeit far sparser) of Karen O and Danger Mouse’s ‘Lux Prima’ project.

JORDANA

Lo-fi pop fave in the making. Kansas-based singer Jordana’s been piquing interest in her homeland for a while, releasing debut LP ‘Classical Notions of Happiness’ last year. But it’s only now, with single ‘I’ll Take It Boring’ - a gauzy, lo-fi gem that comes on like The Japanese House injected with Daria-style miserabilia - that she’s starting to make waves here. Keep your eyes peeled for her EP, which shows she can do crunchy pop sass too. Listen: ‘I’ll Take It Boring’ is far more magnetic than its title might suggest. Similar to: Snail Mail and The Japanese House’s cheeky cousin.

OLIVER MALCOLM

Beatmaker to the stars carving out his own lane. Oliver Malcolm has already spent portions of his life in three different countries (Sweden, the UK and his current US base) and moved between two musical careers - first making beats for the likes of Joey Bada$$ and now releasing music under his own name. A prodigious talent, early singles ‘Helen’ and ‘Kevin’ are just as far-reaching as you’d expect, channeling the magpie attitude of Gorillaz. Listen: ‘Helen’ shows off both production chops and enviable pipes. Similar to: Music’s next big crossover producer-artist.

BUZZ FEED PLAY All the buzziest new music happenings, in one place.

REEP-ING THE REWARDS

Hamburg’s annual new music extravaganza REEPERBAHN FESTIVAL has announced that its 2020 edition - scheduled for 16th - 19th September will still be taking place (hooray!), in a new “pandemicadapted” shape. “In addition to the forced significant reduction in the number of visitors, we expect a significantly higher proportion of audiences, artists, speakers and partners from Europe and Germany due to the special circumstances. However, the scope of the programme is not expected to change significantly,” they explain.

BETTER TOGETHER

A host of Neu faves and general good eggs have contributed to excellent new charity compilation album ‘GROUP THERAPY VOL.1’. Raising money for the Music Venues Trust and NHS Charities Together, the album - available to purchase via download - features a whopping 65 tracks of b-sides, demos and rarities from the likes of The Cool Greenhouse, Lynks Afrikka and Lazarus Kane, as well as more established artists including Shame, Sorry and Happyness. Well done team.

EVERY CLOUD

Two long years after their attention-piquing self-titled debut EP, Vancouver collective CRACK CLOUD have announced news of their imminent debut album. The cheerily-titled ‘Pain Olympics’ will arrive on 17th July via Meat Machine Records and comes off the back of recently-released single ‘Ouster Stew’: a track that “may not be a straightforward proposition, but its Devo-esque plinking melody and off-kilter gang chants are actually pretty damn joyful”. So says us.

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The cast of Les Mis were looking a bit rough.

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:

JAPAN, MAN ‘I Like To Wait’ A laid-back, effervescent summer slow jam, ‘I Like To Wait’ oozes with woozy bedroom pop beats and pleasingly warped keys. Underneath there’s a subtle defiance too; at just 15-years-old, Beirut’s Leaticia Acra is already sounding supremely strong. ALIEN TANGO ‘Arthur Conan Doyle’ A surreal sonic adventure following the life of the ‘Sherlock’ writer as he travels to our current time, the track is a weird and wonderful slice of alt-pop magic, featuring an “evil cadence” as its catchy main melody. Will we have it stuck in our heads for a while? Elementary. EADES Forget What You Want’ Apparently influenced by “Synecdoche, New York’s funeral poem and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road”, the latest from the Leeds newbies is a far sunnier proposition than all that sounds, nodding to the classic jangles of Postcard Records or New Yorkers Public Access TV. Which brings us to… CLUB INTL ‘Crush’ An indie supergroup formed of Chromatics’ Johnny Jewel, John Eatherly of PATV and Cults’ Madeline Follin, ‘Crush’ - Club Intl’s debut offering - very much does what it says on the tin: a three-minute swoon of giddy melody, overdriven synths and breathy, lovelorn vocals. 21

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The Sunderland quartet reviving the city’s long line of gritty and angular post-punk champs. Words: Sarah Jamieson. Over the years, the North East has produced a steady crop of angular-yet-astute indie rock bands (The Futureheads, Maximo Park etc), so it’s reassuring to find in Roxy Girls a group ready to grab the baton.

Roxy Girls “We’ve just managed to wing it, but I guess that’s a good skill to have!” - Tom Hawick. 22

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Having met one another in and around Sunderland hub Pop Recs Ltd - a record store, café and creative space set up by indie popsters Frankie & The Heartstrings back in 2013 - where drummer Aidan volunteered making coffee -each step of their life as a band has seemed to somewhat perfectly fall into place each step of their life as a band has seemed to somewhat perfectly fall into place. “Five or six years ago, [Heartstrings’ guitarist] Michael McKnight introduced us and said, ‘Oh, Tom, do you like shoegaze?’,” recalls frontman Tom Hawick, at home in the city just a week before the release of their new EP. “I had no idea what shoegaze was at that point, but I said, ‘Yeah, I love it!’.” The rest was history. Since then, the quartet have bagged themselves live slots supporting the likes of The Murder Capital, Drahla, Mush and loads more across 2019, building a reputation for their intricate but scuzzed-up post-punk. Behind the scenes, however, they’ve had to dive in the deep end. “We’ve never all been in the same city since the band started,” continues Tom; while three of the members are

originally from the city, one currently lives in Leeds, with another over the river in Newcastle. “We’ve gotten used to that over the past couple of years though. Last year, we played 40-odd gigs, but we only rehearsed seven or eight times, and we just managed to wing it. I guess that’s a good skill to have!” From that initial almost-accidental formation through a couple of years of “winging it,” they even found their current label home of Moshi Moshi in a fairly innocuous way. Label boss Stephen Bass tuned into a Marc Riley session the band played, they explain, and messaged them saying, “If you’re old-fashioned enough to want to put a record out, please consider us”. “It’s happened in phases,” Tom nods, “but it’s probably been as organic as it could be.” Now, with new EP ‘A Wealth Of Information’ on the horizon, they’re feeling even more comfortable in their own skin. “When we started, none of us really had any experience of being in bands,” he admits. “And although there is some good stuff on the first two EPs, this is the one we’re most happy with. It focuses on mundane life and the situations that people all go through, in one shape or form, at some point in their life.” You might call their path so far lucky, but Roxy Girls are proving Sunderland’s musical lineage is still far from mundane. DIY

"'That’s the reason why I haven’t done any drugs, because music makes my hair stand up.”

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Kenny Hoopla

The Wisconsin-based, genre-spanning artist pushing feeling above everything. Words: Elly Watson.

“I think I’m definitely an indie boy at heart,” muses KennyHoopla. “I feel like if anybody could ever compare me to anyone or give any of my essence to anyone it’s definitely [The Drums’] Jonny Pierce. But I’m so all over the place 24/7; I’ll listen to some indie shit, then witch house, then Playboi Carti, but it’ll all be super passionate.” Growing up loving a variety of artists who prioritise this sense of “passionate” emotional urgency, Kenny has spent the last three years striving to stir up the same feeling within his own music, crafting a collection of emo-infused, beat-laden bangers that draw influence from ambient trap, pop-punk and everything between. Give him a quick Google, and you’ll likely see his sound paired with his previous description of “new wave nostalgia”. “Oh my god, that’s so cringe, why did I say that?” he laughs. “What I’m trying to say is that people say I give them that nostalgic feeling, that sense of freedom. I think it’s [being] high on life. That’s what music has done for me too. That’s the reason why I haven’t done any drugs, because music makes my hair stand up and I think that’s what people feel.”

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Showing this style on his biggest body of work to date, last month saw Kenny release debut EP ‘how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//’. A six-track record of sprawling, shapeshifting influences, he pinpoints intro ‘thinkingoutloud//’ as his favourite. “If you could open up my heart, that’s probably what it would sound like,” he enthuses of the punchy indie gem. “It’s beautiful, it’s like organised chaos. It sounds like my head and how I think in scribbles - like some kind of acid trip or something. I think it sounds like colour and it sounds like falling in love.” Although not 100% happy with the outcome yet - “It’s not, like, Kanye level...” - Kenny is currently working on a debut album that he hopes will project the feeling that he’s always been drawn to within the music he loves. “I’ve only been making music for three years and I don’t say that as a flex, but I’m trying to learn what I’m doing because I don’t want to be getting ‘lucky’ or anything,” he emphasises. “I really just want to make a beautiful album which is me. I just want people to feel me, I guess. And just get the feeling - this dangerous and natural high. I can’t explain it, it can’t be explained, but anyone who feels it knows what I’m talking about.” DIY

neu "'Honey Pie’ is a match under my ass to show I can write even cooler music."

Jawny A viral hit in slacker-funk gem ‘Honey Pie’ might have introduced him to the world, but now Philly-born Jawny is ready to show the full breadth of his considerable talents. Words: Lisa Wright.

“I’m not in Philadelphia anymore, I have moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams of being an indie musician!” proclaims Jawny with a giggle. “If you’d have told me two years ago that I’d be living in LA I would have said you were fucking crazy, but I’m blessed to be able to eat and pay my rent and make music, so thank you momma for raising a fucking rock star.” It’s not just his accommodation that Jawny - formerly known as Johnny Utah - has upgraded over the past months, either. After spending more than a decade of his still-young life making music (“Me and my brother were like, ‘We’re gonna make beats, and we’re gonna be famous rap stars and we’re gonna produce for Pharrell’ - this is when we were like, 12 years old,” he notes) the singer spawned a viral YouTube hit in last year’s breezy ‘Honey Pie’, racking up nearly nine million views on the platform (and 70 million in total across the board) to date. “I knew this song was gonna do good - I was manifesting it you know? - but every goal I wanted to hit, I quadrupled the benchmark I set for myself,” he recalls. It seems like the logical way for an artist like Jawny - one who began tinkering with free music tech and combining his love of artists as wide (and strangely rhyming) as The Killers, Gorillaz and Mac Miller from a young age - to come through. When he’s not getting dressed up for photoshoots, he might look like a guy who sits around getting stoned to Butthole Surfers (one heavily-liked YouTube comment compares his slacker aesthetic to a “healthy Mac DeMarco”), but in reality the singer is clearly someone who knows it wasn’t all better back in the day. “It’s more of a community now. Spotify, playlists, Instagram... if it was the ‘90s, I’d have to literally travel around the world [to connect with fans]. But because I’m an artist today, I can pull out my phone and have that blue screen rush in a few seconds!” he grins. With a new EP-shaped ‘project’ set to land shortly - one that demonstrates his broad-reaching music tastes and cheeky knack for a hook - Jawny’s ready for the real work to begin. “‘Honey Pie’ is a match under my ass to show I can write even cooler music,” he says. “And it’s not about topping it or competing to get more streams, I just wanna make music I love for people that love it.” DIY

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With her straight-shooting, self-deprecating take on indie-folk, Phoebe Bridgers has fast become one of the most in-demand singersongwriters in the world. Who knew that being professionally sad could make you so happy? Words: Jenessa Williams. Photos: Ed Miles. Art Direction: Louise Mason.

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“Ugh! Can you hear me now?”

It’s 10am in California, and Phoebe Bridgers is sitting in the garden of her Silver Lake home, hood up and hunched in front of the laptop that she’s trying to wrestle a decent Zoom connection out of. Like most of us, she’s barely left the confines of her house in the last two months, and is teetering on the edge between welcome rest and nervous energy. “I go through phases, and I’m trying to allow myself that,” she says. “I talk to a couple of my bandmates and they’re all like, ‘Why don’t you use this time to do that thing you always talked about doing?’ I’m just like… excuse me? This is the most psychologically taxing time of my life! But I’ve been learning my own songs on piano, and I’ve got a treadmill, so I walk on that like a crazy hamster for like, way too many hours in the day. The weird silver lining for me is that everybody is being honest right now. You say ‘How are you?’ and it’s like, well… I’m not sick, but my friend’s mum is sick and it’s just crazy to get really deep with people right off the bat, but that’s kind of cool. My therapist tells me that therapy is all just about one thing right now for everyone, and I guess that’s quite connecting too.” She takes a deep breath, smiles. “So, how are you?” Born in Pasadena in 1994, Phoebe Bridgers has spent her life in the heart of Los Angeles, the city that makes dreams come true. Where most young musicians have to wait until they’re old enough to set out on the pilgrimage for their big break, she was already in the right place, set on becoming a musician from the age of 13. Encouraged by her mum, she studied vocal jazz at LA County High School For The Arts - a cornucopia of rich kids and determined fame-seekers, carving out their own slice of Hollywood.

“I do forget what California means to people who aren’t from here,” she admits. “I had the least money of anyone in my friend group, but if I lived somewhere else I would have been rock-solid middle class. My parents aren’t in entertainment, but my friend’s mum was the director of Hannah Montana, and my other best friend’s dad is the AllState guy [a high-profile American Insurance advert personality]. Everybody around you is involved in something. There were straight-up American Apparel models in my class at high school, people doing drugs in

the bathroom. There were two camping trips a year, and the musicale - with an e - where everyone got to perform a song. I sang ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’ at that talent show, but obviously, because it was a hippy school, it wasn’t really called a talent show - kids, it’s not a competition! There are no grades here! Every year I’d look forward to it so much, and end up talking to lots of parents who were in entertainment or in bands.” Grateful for her own privilege without being entirely at ease with the jazz hands and ruthless networking of her peers, Phoebe describes herself as something of a high school misfit. She was outgoing and well-liked, but very aware of the cookie-cutter mould of expectation that the city rewards. “It does come with a level of pressure, but I like, loved attention,” she laughs. “I say loved, as if it’s past tense… But yeah, if I wasn’t raised here, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to play a club and get scouted for a commercial, which was what my early 20s were like.” Her early 20s also gave Phoebe her 2017 debut ‘Stranger In The Alps’. A slow-burning hit, ‘Stranger…’ felt startling in its intimacy, telling stories normally reserved for late night confession sessions with a trusted friend. She’s quick to lay her own plaudits at the doors of others (“I didn’t really know what I sounded like for the first record, Tony [Berg, producer] took a huge chance on me”), but the quiet power of the record feels distinctly her own - imbued with her collaborative spirit and ability to evoke dark humour from her own vulnerabilities. From ‘Motion Sickness’’ pithy dismissal of a toxic ex (“I faked it every time / But that’s alright”) to the ongoing depression management detailed in ‘Funeral’ (“We talk until we think we might just kill ourselves / But then we laugh until it disappears”), it was a debut record that asked for little but offered almost everything of its unassuming creator. “There was literally no entitlement to do anything other than play a million small gigs in LA. If one cool person came to a show, I’d be like, ‘Tonight was the night of my fucking life!’” she smiles. “I remember the summer of 2016, when I first played a show with Conor Oberst. I went home and started jumping up and down because he talked to me for a long time. Every level has felt like a success to me, which is great. But also, if I went back and told my 16-year-old self about the things that I’ve done since, I would have fucking lost it. It feels so corny to say it, but it’s just so weird that my life has been so specifically curated to make me happy.” Although the press around the album was positive, many writers expressed confusion, wrapped up in complicated indictments of what a young female musician should look like. How could this sombre artist, crafter of worldly-wise folk songs, be the same meme-sharing girl who gleefully goes by the Instagram username @_fake_nudes_? Can songs about death and despair really sit sideby-side with a press release that describes them as being about “hitting the open road with six strings and a UTI?” “I feel like it’s hard for people to accept multitudes, for sure,” she says. “People who

QUARANTINE QUEEN Coronavirus is inspiring plenty of bands to write songs about lockdown – would Phoebe consider writing her own?

“It’s a catch-22. I heard a solo song from the guy from the Barenaked Ladies called ‘Isolation’, and it’s some of the worst shit I’ve ever heard in my life. Of course, there are totally exceptions - I love Ben Gibbard’s one, and I really hope Margaret Atwood is somewhere writing something insane. But on the whole, people who think the world needs their specific art on it right now? There’s a way bigger failure rate than a success one.” 29

do seem one-dimensional publically, it’s normally a lot to do with social pressure, y’know? I met with a label when I was 18, and they were just like ‘Your Twitter is weird, you should be tweeting more Elliott Smith lyrics and stuff’. They didn’t want me to have a personality. One of my favourite rumours is that I’m an industry plant; I think my mum would have totally gone for that if she’d known how to make me one, but it’s not what has happened. I’ve always been really inspired by people who refused to be one-dimensional. I grew up listening to people like Fiona Apple. She’s been painted into this weird corner - ‘Oh my god, she’s off the rails!’ - but she’s a fucking human being! It’s fucking gnarly.”

NOTES ON UNCONDITIONAL PALS Not content with her own record and various side projects, Phoebe also features on four tracks of The 1975’s latest… “I met them after this record was done, but I fucking love that band. I feel like they’ve always been a band where there are no bad ideas and all the jokes are just on point. Matty says all sorts of shit that you think you would only say in front of your one or two best friends but he’s just constantly coming out with it. Their world is so insulated – nobody else is around them, there’s no weed carriers or random homies hanging out. They’re just complete dorks who make music by themselves, and then show it to the world when it’s completely done. It’s a wild way to work. I feel like that inspired me more than anything about that band – knowing that you can say whatever you want in your work.”

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n record and off, Phoebe is an engaging storyteller. She punctuates the facts of a tale with snippy asides and “like”s, trailing into ellipsis as a more interesting thought occurs to her. 'Shit' isn’t always a negative; 'gnarly' doesn't always mean cool. To speak with her for even a few minutes is to feel like you know her; to listen to her music is to gain an insight into her diary as a means of better understanding your own. But of course, you can only ever know as much of a person as what they choose to tell, and the balance between full emotional disclosure and personal preservation is a tricky one for this self-confessed oversharer to strike. “Oversharing on Twitter and being self-deprecating in my music - they’re the same personality, just one is shooting off constantly and the other is something I’ve worked really hard on,” she explains. “There are jokes on this album, but some people don’t get that it’s a joke or get it way late because my speaking voice sounds like I work at Arby’s, and my singing voice is very apathetic and sad sounding. That said, I feel like it happens to me all the time, with interviews - just being a little bit too honest. Sometimes in my music or interviews I talk about stuff that I don’t

really want to elaborate on, but then I realise that once it’s out there I kind of have to. Shit about my childhood, or certain members of my family that I don’t speak to. It’s just a weird world because you’ll talk to a journalist and make an actual connection where you forget that it’s going online, but the piece is great and you feel great about it so it’s cool. But then two years later, this random guy will be like, ‘So, you’ve talked about opiates before...’ and you’re like, um, did I? The trope about being a Woman in Music is the best example. I’ll have a real conversation about womanhood with another woman, but then, because I’ve answered it before, men are like ‘SO, you’re a chick…” Despite a growing awareness of her own boundaries, her second solo record shows no signs of shutting anybody out. From the beginnings of ‘DVD Menu’ - an ominous instrumental that recalls the bouncing symbol of a player on pause - to the hefty breathing that closes ‘The End Is Near’, ‘Punisher’ has all the heart of its predecessor, cutting one-liners placed just at the moment where the emotional tension might become too much to bear. Building flesh on the stark bones of ‘Stranger…’, it’s brightened by flourishes of emo strings and horns; on ‘Kyoto’ and ‘I See You’, she almost recalls

a ‘Pretty. Odd.’-era Panic! At The Disco, stretching the boundaries of what one might expect from her work. “I mean, I was thinking more My Chem and ‘[The] Black Parade’, but Panic is good too,” she laughs. “It wasn’t a concerted effort to be different. I think the only real shift was that I hadn’t really toured when I was making the first album, and after touring an album that’s like 10 songs of the saddest, slowest shit you’ve ever heard, I was starting to hallucinate onstage. There’s nothing more exciting than a totally silent room when you’re playing a sad song, but five in a row… you start to spin out a little…” Having spent the years between her solo records as part of Better Oblivion Community Centre with Conor Oberst and boygenius alongside Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, working on ‘Punisher’ renewed Phoebe’s belief that no great idea is born out of total isolation. With Warpaint’s Jenny Lee Lindberg, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and her supergroup bandmates all hopping on board for her second, it’s an album that comes as a product of a safe space where no concept is too embarrassing to share. “I don’t know how people do writing sessions with strangers, where every day

“I cried on my 11th birthday when I didn’t get a Hogwarts acceptance letter.”

Phoebeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dead happy to be our latest cover star.

“[As a kid] I like, LOVED attention. I say loved, as if it’s past tense…” has a new dynamic - I need years of bad ideas with someone to be comfortable,” she says. “The first record ended in actual tears; I had been bundling up all these resentments and feelings and just started bawling in the studio. This record was breezy as fuck in comparison - there were so many times where we were just jumping up and down with joy. It’s fun to make music with people you know really well.” That said, there were some bumpier moments. “The one I did get a little bit shamed for my ideas on was ‘Chinese Satellite’, because it sounded like really fucking bad U2 for a minute,” she recalls. “It was a little too fist-pumpy, y’know? Taking all the instruments out except for the strings was basically our

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last resort, and then even when we were mixing it we were like, do we get another drummer? I had my friend Charlie Hickey sing on it, as a duet, but his voice is way too perfect and it made it sound even cornier. Tony was just like, you CAN’T release this, it’s way too gnarly. It was one of those songs that didn’t really feel done with the rest of the record, but even he called me the other day to say that it rocks. I think it lives in a good place on the record; it doesn’t sound like the other shit.”

s the central point of ‘Punisher’, ‘Chinese Satellite’ was worth all the soul-searching. Looking to the skies for a sense of higher purpose, it extends the classic Phoebe Bridgers motif of ghosts to

question what else might be out there - the possibility of extra-terrestrial life which helps put her own existence into relief. “I wasn’t raised religious at all, but I really wish there was a thing I could cling to that resembled faith at all,” she contemplates. “I think I do believe in aliens; I’m really receptive to that shit. I cried on my 11th birthday when I didn’t get a Hogwarts acceptance letter, so I am fully prepared for there to be some other world out there. I’m not scared of it at all - I’m way more scared by this [gestures around]. I mean, humanity, are you kidding me? I think the earth will continue without us whatever, we’re not the centre of the world, but it’s way more depressing to think

that this is all that there is.” As someone who openly admits her affection for attention, does creating work help with the fears of her own mortality, of being forgotten? “Totally, yeah,” she nods. “It’s weird because, especially with the context of coronavirus, it’s so easy to feel victimised. Like, ‘Oh my god, I’m really missing out on the year that I was supposed to have’. But when I think about it, I’m so glad I have something to focus on. I feel lucky to have a platform to tell people to donate to charities, lucky that when I do a livestream people pay attention. And most of all, I feel lucky to have something new to show people. “I’m so much happier now

“I feel like it’s hard for people to accept multitudes.”

than I was on the first record. People get afraid that they have their whole life to write their first album, and then only a short window for the second, but I feel like I had my whole life to write kind of shitty, and in the last three years I’ve gotten so much better,” Phoebe continues. “The first one took me so long, and the label has literally told me that when they look at the first week sales, it’s basically hilariously bad! But even then, playing tiny shows and having people sing words back to me - I thought I’d totally made it. “I’ve talked to musicians who are obsessed with the idea of people still talking about you after you’re dead, and I’m like, who can you really do that with?” she ponders. “I mean,

Shakespeare? I don’t know what my favourite bop from 1890 was, y’know? I think it just matters for yourself and the people you connect with. Something I do think about way too much is that every time I finish a song, I wonder whether it’s going to be the last one. It’s so weird. I wonder if like, Nick Cave has that, or who the most famous person is who feels that way. Especially when you hear people’s later career records, and you wonder when they started to lose touch...” She smiles again, not quite able to deprive herself of one last witticism. “Maybe it’s when they stopped hating themselves…” ‘Punisher’ is out 19th June via Dead Oceans. DIY

“I’M NOT UNAMBITIOUS TO PLAY TO LOTS OF PEOPLE, BUT IT’S IN NO WAY THE GUIDING FORCE.”

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Forever Changes Documenting the emotions and adjustments as he prepared to become a father for the first time, ‘A Quickening’ finds former-Maccabees frontman ORLANDO WEEKS opening up and letting the world in more than ever. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Jackson Bowley.

If,

when The Maccabees called time on the band back in the summer of 2017, you were to have placed a bet on what their softly-spoken singer would get up to next, you’d have been wise to look not at the canon of emotive indie anthems that made the Brighton quintet’s name, but at the under-the-radar side project Orlando Weeks quietly put out back in 2012. While the band were busy promoting Mercury-shortlisted third LP ‘Given To The Wild’, the frontman also released an illustrated picture book and accompanying EP under the name Young Colossus; a gorgeous, subtle thing, it was given a limited release, one solitary live show and then consigned to rare eBay fan forays forevermore. Though its tracks and wide-eyed outlook still clearly came from the man who’d soundtracked a thousand lovelorn moments with his band, it hinted at an artist who was in it for the art’s sake as much as the increasing objective success. And, since parting ways with his musical comrades, it’s been this that’s been the singer’s fuel - from 2017’s audio-visual

project The Gritterman to now, as he prepares to release ‘A Quickening’, a ‘concept’ album of sorts based around the experience of becoming a parent for the first time. “There’s something addictive about [success] but I don’t think I have that addiction as bad as I might,” he decides, talking down the phone from where he’s currently locked down with his young family. “The Maccabees did two nights supporting Florence and the Machine at the Hollywood Bowl, and I don’t normally feel envious of people like, ‘Oh you’re headlining here, that must be great’, but I totally did. So there’s an element of me that really wants to do that. And I’m not unambitious to play to lots of people, but it’s in no way the guiding force and I want to make sure that, with what I’m making, that isn’t part of the decision. Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments where I think, hmm... maybe I’ve gone a bit left [with this project]. But I don’t think so; I think I’ve done something I’m comfortable with.” For a lyricist who’s never been particularly prone to baring all with explicitly personal tales, it’s notable that the singer’s first full-length solo endeavour is one

that puts himself so readily at the centre. Of course, with such a huge life hurdle on the cards, the preoccupation was a natural one - “Once we found out that we were going to be having a baby, I found it increasingly difficult not to think about and not to write about it,” he notes - but there’s the sense that the experience also re-sparked the urge to chronicle something so close to home. “By the time it got to [Maccabees final album] ‘Marks To Prove It’, I was feeling less like exploring the personal and actively seeking out other people’s experiences to document them. And then The Gritterman was written entirely from the point of view of a fictional character, so I sort of thought I’d fallen out of love with that,” he explains. “But because the writing and the making is a comfort to me, I’d keep coming back to this [topic], and unless you’re going to try and make grand, sweeping statements then the only way you can possibly document it is to root it in your own experience and the fiddly, imprecise aspects of the day to day.”

fragile, atmospheredriven record that takes in wonderment, tenderness, excitement and fear via piano and brass, intricate

textures and the prioritisation of “beauty” at every turn, ‘A Quickening’ is a time-capsule

FRIENDS REUNITED? The Maccabees recently joined forces to take part in #timstwitterlisteningparty and even played a song together at a one-off event. Does it mean... could it mean...? “We played a song at Hugo’s wedding which was very nice and felt great actually - muscle memory is an extraordinary thing. And we did Tim’s listening party which was very nice too; it’s always a pleasure to spend time with those boys, they’re very good eggs. But there’s been no conversation about doing anything else together.” Bugger.

of an album that’s both specific but relatable - one that fully explores, but doesn’t require you to have been through, those tentative first steps into parenthood to understand where it’s coming from. There are moments, such as the sparse, circular ‘St. Thomas’’ - an ode to the hospital where both Orlando and his son were born - that are clearly rooted in a particular scene; “Big Ben is under repair at the moment and it’s boarded up, and I was looking at my Mum’s pictures from my birth and it’s the same photo with Big Ben boarded up - that was the last time they did it for refurbishments,” he notes. Others, such as the vocally-dextrous ‘Moon’s Opera’, give a more heady, ambiguous snapshot into his mindset.

“I THINK I AM QUITE PRIVATE, AND THAT’S LESS NORMAL THAN IT WAS.”

However, from the first bars of ‘Milk Breath’, which open the record with a repeated intonation of “my son”, Orlando’s latest is an album that knows what it is and embraces that idea fully. It’s a confident record - a word that has, perhaps not always correctly, been lacking from portrayals of the singer in the past. “I remember once doing an interview where I wasn’t feeling super comfortable, and there was a bowl of shells left over from some pistachio nuts so I started lining them up on the table. And then the interview went on about how it was a sign of such deep [inner turmoil] and made a big deal out of the fact that I wasn’t being polite or whatever,” he remembers. “I think I am quite private, and that’s less normal than it was. And I get shyer days and less shy days, but I also think that the cultural landscape that this record’s coming out in, there’s less and less personal space [in general]. Everyone’s given up the ghost of privacy, so maybe I need to try and be less concerned about that. It’s precarious enough putting art out in the world, especially if you’re not sure you can back it up, but I know I can. I’ve minded a great deal about this record, and I should be proud of it, so I want to be able to communicate that and talk to

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people about it.” Orlando’s turns of phrase might never be those of the Gallagher-esque blustering rock star, but you can tell he’s content, and assured in the path that he’s chosen. Currently, he’s working on an illustrated book based on ‘Moon’s Opera’; musically meanwhile, ‘A Quickening’ might mark the first album to bear his own name, but he’s not seeing it as necessarily the beginning of a traditional solo career. It’s not the standard route for a musician who’s experienced a Number One album, but it’s one that suits him fine. “I’m enjoying the clean-ish slate that I’m now working with, and part of that is feeling like I’m not now beholden to this style of record, or to maintaining a chronological approach to writing,” he nods. “I’m really excited for this record to exist as a whole in the world, and I’m very pleased with the package, but I’m equally excited to do something else completely and not be bound by this. I feel like life’s too short. And maybe it will end up being [another solo thing] like this, but I’d be surprised. I have no music written and no idea, and I’m going to try to have no idea for as long as possible.” ‘A Quickening’ is out 12th June via Play It Again Sam. DIY

choose

Photo: Fraser Taylor

own

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your Game-changing third LP ‘Holiday Destination’ positioned NADINE SHAH as a timely voice to soundtrack a politically turbulent era. Now, on ‘Kitchen Sink’, she’s turning her eye on her own life and proving that she’s a pretty funny fucker, too. Words: Lisa Wright.

“I

’ve got this really sexist playlist that I had playing before a recent show at MOTH Club,” begins Nadine Shah with an audible eyebrow raise. “There are so many of these great old songs that had the most despicable lyrics - ‘Hey little girl, fix your hair, do your make up...’; ‘Young girl get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line...’. And it’s only in the past few years that I discovered the Bechdel test too [that denotes whether a film has a female protagonist that isn’t involved in a plot line based around a man], so now I find it really hard to watch films! There are so many of these old films and old songs that make me so angry!” It’s a nondescript, balmy Thursday afternoon and, between inventing theories about the people who walk past the window of the Ramsgate flat she’s currently holed up in (a man who rollerblades from his car each day has a secret second life, she’s sure) and settling down for another night in (“I’m drinking every day, but I drink every day anyway so this all suits me fine”), the Tyneside-born singer is getting annoyed. She’s annoyed at a culture that allowed gross messages like this to be broadcast to the masses for years. She’s annoyed that, as a woman in her mid-thirties, she is constantly being fed certain ideas about what she should be prioritising in her life. And she’s annoyed that, until recently, she somewhat thought she should prioritise them too.

and when I’m 27 I’ll have a baby...’ And now I’m 34 and I’m not married and I don’t have children, and then you start changing your ideals a bit: I might not get married and I might not have a child, and that’s OK. It’s only recently that these so-called dreams or expectations have started to change, but I do still have this niggling thing at the back of my head and I find it really conflicting as a feminist.” Full of pissed-off musings on double standards and misogyny, and wry, witty observations on the minefield experience of growing older as a woman, it’s into a recognisable, relatable world that Nadine’s fourth LP ‘Kitchen Sink’ arrives. But, from its tongue-in-cheek aesthetic - a send-up of repressed ‘70s domesticity - to a barrage of middle-finger-up one-liners (open ‘Club Cougar’ takes the grubby lyrics of those old singers past and turns them on their head), the singer’s latest is far from a downbeat listen. Instead, it’s a record that brims with humour, personality and a twinkle in its eye - if not a demonstration of killing them with kindness, then an attempt at slaying with more vitality, vim and playfulness than any of the traditional bores could muster. “The line ‘One year younger, call me a cougar’ always makes me laugh because it says a lot, but the irony itself is so ridiculous,” Nadine chuckles. “There are all these names for women, but what do you call a man who dates women who are younger? Er... a movie star?”

“There are all these names for women who do it, but what do you call a man who dates women who are younger? Er... a movie star?”

“Me and my friends were talking about our ‘timeline’, and [that idea is] something we had in common when we were younger,” she recalls. “‘When I’m 20 I’m gonna get married, and when I’m 22 I’m gonna have a baby...’ And then life happens and you’re 22 and not married. ‘OK, when I’m 25 I’ll get married,

aving released two relatively under-the-radar records in 2013 debut ‘Love Your Dum and Mad’ and 2015’s ‘Fast Food’, it was with 2017 third LP ‘Holiday Destination’ that the singer began to break through on a wider scale. Early critical acclaim then led to a Mercury Prize shortlisting; performing ‘Out The Way’ live on the BBC

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during the ceremony, its central themes around the treatment of immigrants soon turned her into a sought-after artistic voice whose perspective seemed to reflect a key political moment in time. “I remember one really poignant moment during the performance, seeing my mother and father in the audience - especially my dad who is a first generation immigrant from Pakistan - and it meant so much to me. That sticks. That’s one of the ones I’ll bore me grandkids with,” she remembers. “Sometimes an album comes along and it soundtracks people’s frustrations at the time and I think that’s kind of what that album did; it was in the right place at the right time. I realised after making it that [speaking about its topics a lot] was a necessity and that was gonna come with it, but for a while people were just calling me a political artist and being very serious with me, so being more expressive about my own personality and feelings felt like an itch that needed scratching.”

regret because you look at someone like PJ Harvey and she’s so mysterious and classy, but there’s no going back now...” Far from regret, however, Nadine’s fourth instead revels in this duality. It’s a record that looks weighty, sensitive ideas dead in the eye and addresses them head on with eloquence, empathy and a sense of humour: one that acknowledges the utter mindfuck of being alive, but then pours a large glass of red and gets on with it. The likes of recent single ‘Trad’ - simultaneously a refusal to pander to archaic ideas and a nod to their appeal and ‘Dillydally’ with its central lyric “I am aware of the passing of time” are as socially conscious as anything from ‘Holiday Destination’, just this time it’s the personal that’s political.

“There’s a perception [of seriousness] when people hear my music and haven’t met me, but that illusion is immediately broken as soon as they do...”

Leaning in to every wicked and wonderful idea she had, ‘Kitchen Sink’ became an exercise in pushing herself further: riding a joke to its limit; wrangling with often conflicting emotions and letting both live side by side; making a musically bright record that was “almost slapstick in part”. “I really wanted there to be this playful nature in the music, the sonic version of going ‘ner ner ner ner ner’,” says Nadine, “a cross between Sesame Street and [experimental cult artist] Dr. John. “There was always a perception [of seriousness] when people heard my music and hadn’t met me, but that illusion is immediately broken as soon as they do,” she laughs with a broad Geordie twang. “I definitely ruined that mystery a long time ago, and it’s a thing I started to

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“I re-read and re-read and revise things to make sure I’m saying things responsibly. Am I saying exactly what I want to say? Can I say this in a way that speaks to more people? Can I say this with more power? I am aware of being a part of this wave of change,” Nadine emphasises. “But there’s something so powerful to me about taking those subjects and laughing at them. It feels like there’s a real direct ownership there. And it’s not funny - I mean, the fact that sexism still exists in 2020? What the fuck?! But what I was trying to do was champion these people and these stories. There’s something empowering about [this album]. It feels empowering to perform.” If the best way to undermine a problem is to laugh at it, then ‘Kitchen Sink’ finds Nadine taking every outdated, unhelpful notion thrown at her and the rest of the world, blowing it a raspberry and raising a glass. Cheers to that. ‘Kitchen Sink’ is out 26th June via Infectious. DIY

A Place Like Returning to their native Australia after a hefty world tour, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Feverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest finds them redefining their relationship with their roots. Words: Sarah Jamieson.

Home

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nyone who’s left the comfort of their home town to head into the big wide unknown understands that, by the time they return, things will have inevitably shifted. Wish as we might, our small patches of the world will always continue to turn without us.

It’s something Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever felt all too well upon their return down under last year. Following the release of 2018 debut LP ‘Hope Downs’, things really began to kick up a notch. With the album earning plaudits across the board, the quintet soon found themselves catapulted outside of their regular lives, instead spending their days looking out of the window of their touring van as they criss-crossed North America, Europe and their own continent for countless live shows throughout the next 18 months. By the time they returned home, it was to a notably different version of it than before. “The album itself came from feeling in a bit of a weird place, and home not really feeling, or looking, like home,” confirms the band’s Fran Kearney. “It was such a crazy period of travel,” adds fellow vocalist and guitarist Tom Russo, “and after that, we were reflecting on lots of things; that whole process of coming home and things being the same but a bit different, a bit weirder.” Due for release almost two years to the day since their debut landed on shelves, ‘Sideways To New Italy’ is less a travel document and more the sound of the band - completed by singer-guitarist Joe White, bassist Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie - rediscovering and reclaiming a version of that safety net. Recorded in a new manner for the band, Fran describes the time as “quite a gruelling writing and recording process”. “We didn’t lose our minds but we came close,” he laughs. “We really wanted to try and write it all in the same room together, whereas previously, someone would come with a song and a rough idea of how it could go, then we would flesh it out. The songs that we’d pull apart and put back together are the ones we’ve generally been really excited about playing live, because they rely on the chemistry of the five of us; we really wanted to harness that on this album, but the problem with that is it’s just the most time intensive process.”

Named for a tiny village in the midst of New South Wales where Venetian immigrants laid down foundations in the late 1800s - the record’s title reflects that sense of carving out a new niche in the middle of the unknown. “I think a big thing you learn is…” starts Tom. “You know, everyone loves going to these new places and looking through the window at other people’s lives, and you learn that the world is a massive place, but it’s also so small. There are all these connections that get drawn, and it’s just [from] people’s ambition, love and energy; people jumping from one side of the world to the other, and carrying on these traditions or trying to build these ideas of home in these places that are so far from what they’ve known.” Permeated with the sunshine of the Aeolian Islands (the location for their recent ‘Falling Thunder’ video) and the red dirt of Darwin, where they found themselves reflecting on some of the album’s demos, their second record feels as expansive and open as their last few years away. Yet, amid all the adventure, the album is peppered with spoken word passages contributed from some of their oldest friends - integral reminders of where it all began. “We really wanted to pour ourselves into it, and they’re some of our best friends,” explains Fran. “We’ve known them for years and years, so it just seemed really important that they were on the album with us, and that they were part of it. It’s really nice to have them living in the walls of the album too.” Ultimately, ‘Sideways To New Italy’ feels like a record that’s both boundless and grounded; a real reflection of the band’s identity in their new version of the world. “You spend so much time seeing other people’s lives that you start to wonder what you have and what your life is,” says Fran. “All of a sudden home just doesn’t seem like a given, and when you have that dislodgement, you start to wonder who you are and what you want. I think a lot of it for me was about trying to pour all of what I love about our band into this document, and for it to be a hopeful, adventurous album.” ‘Sideways To New Italy’ is out now via Sub Pop. DIY

Photo: Nick Mckk.

“You spend so much time [on tour] seeing other people’s lives that you start to wonder what your life is.” - Fran Kearney

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A record that revels in the complex duality of good and evil, and reaches down to the crux of what it means to be human, JEHNN Y BETH’s debut solo work ‘To Love Is To Live’ is in search of a world “without judgement and without censorship”. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Johnny Hostile.

in the

“There shouldn’t be anything from society or religion or politics that comes into your head and tells you not to think freely.” to understand the teenager I’d left behind and not completely forget about that part of me,” she continues. “But I think it’s the same movement that brought me into the UK and out. It’s the same energy - the idea of starting from scratch and not being enslaved to anything and just trying to survive and not die inside. I’m always afraid to get to the end of a journey and realise it’s too late and I’ve not listened to my gut.”

Born in the French city of Poitiers, Jehnny Beth knew from a young age that she wanted to be somewhere else. Stifled by her surroundings, she set her sights on London, moving to the capital aged 20. She became known not by her birth-name of Camille Berthomier, but by the new artistic identity she’d created for herself, making inroads into music first as one half of John & Jehn with partner Johnny Hostile, before gaining fame as the incendiary frontwoman of post-punk quartet Savages. Soon, the combination of time, place and inclination had all-butchanged her sense of personal identity, too. “I completely forgot about the fact that I was French. I embraced my cosmopolitan life,” she says. “I needed to escape, and I was determined to find out who I was and not be governed by my past and where I was from.” However, once the band had wrapped up touring on 2016’s criticallyacclaimed ‘Adore Life’, the singer realised that something wasn’t sitting right. “It felt like there were parts of me that were fragmented and needed to be joined together again. I needed

DARK

used to go to church with my grandmother, and everyone else in my family was baptised but me and my sister weren’t,” recalls Jehnny Beth. “[As a result] I got really into God when I was a kid, and I got really into prayer. I had this moment in my life when I was educating myself. I loved praying and my grandmother would offer me the Bible, and I had a cross. But the problem of religion is that it goes into your head and it tells you there are things you cannot think and you’re not supposed to imagine. It puts a morality on imagination.”

Speaking from Paris, where she’s been living again since 2017, it’s this notion of high-stakes belief that beds down to the root of everything Jehnny says. It’s there when she explains the reasoning behind her difficult relocation, there when she describes the importance of emotional and sexual freedom that forms the backbone of collaborative book C.A.L.M (Crimes Against Love Memories) that she’ll be releasing later this summer, and there within every shred of debut solo LP ‘To Love Is To Live’. An album that embraces and explores tricky dynamics of pleasure and pain, love and hate, it’s a record that strips its author bare - beginning literally with the spoken intonation “I am naked all the time” - and allows the singer to present a picture of humanity that’s in turn beautiful and ugly, with equal weight given to both. “There shouldn’t be anything from society or religion or politics that comes into your head and tells you not to think freely. I suffered from that judgement when I was a kid and I think it’s dangerous; it’s hard to understand who you are if you’re not facing your dark side and your contradictions,” she emphasises. “As an artist, it’s impossible for me to draw a straight line and put good people on one side and bad people on the other and say, ‘I stand on the good side’. I have to step across to the other side and tell you how it feels. That was almost like a militant act for me; I had to do it as a duty, otherwise I’m not doing my job and I’m not presenting a true picture.”

rom the moment that Savages landed in a spiral of tension and spite on immediately-transcendent debut single ‘Husbands’, Jehnny Beth’s character - a fiercely intelligent, intimidating presence who wouldn’t suffer fools gladly - seemed to precede her. It’s with a small amount

of surprise then, that the woman who answers the phone today is a charming and funny conversationalist - undeniably smart and with an unwavering commitment to her art, yes, but also able to mock herself (“this is getting so pretentious...”), with an occasional tendency to finish trains of thought with a cute French flourish. “Et voilà?” “I think I’d built some kind of defence mechanism where I didn’t want to show certain sides of me,” she concedes of her presentation in the band, whilst also pointing to the lazy gaze that perhaps contributed to that idea: “Shocking is not bad. It’s not that I don’t care, but I don’t have control over that. And god, with Savages, if people are provoked by four women in heels playing punk music, what do you want me to do?!” However, the greatest moments of shock within her latest release come during its points of vulnerability. Yes, there’s the industrial throb of the aggressive, violent ‘I’m The Man’ and ‘The Rooms’, which paints a picture of “an orgy led by women”, inspired by a quote from Francis Bacon. But there’s also ‘The French Countryside’ - a reference to her past, and a tender piano lament that’s unlike anything the singer has ever publicly put her name to before. “I was telling [The XX’s] Romy Madley-Croft that I wanted to do a personal record and she said, becoming a friend of yours I realised there were sides of your personality that were not expressed in Savages and it would be great to show all these facets of who you are,” Jehnny explains. “I took on that advice, and it wasn’t always easy. But I decided if I’m not comfortable then that means I’m probably pushing in the right direction.” It’s a mindset that shows up for the importance of multiplicity, and today the singer’s most fervent passions (and she is largely passionate about everything) are reserved for these ideas - the ones that fight for the acceptance that not everything is black and white, that humans are a mass of contradictions and that’s part of the terrible beauty of them. “Cillian [Murphy] reads this text where he’s admitting that violence is contagious, and the power makes you sick and lives inside of him,” she explains of central track ‘A Place Above’. “I’m allowing [those thoughts] to exist without judgement and without censorship, and to live next

“It felt like there were parts of me that were fragmented and needed to be joined together again.” to other thoughts which are the complete opposite. The two exist and you can’t deny their existence; they come from the same human beings who share the same values.” Complex, searing and existing on a knife-edge between emotions, ‘To Love Is To Live’ may arrive nearly a decade into Jehnny Beth’s career, but in many ways it’s the record the singer has thrown an entire lifetime of experience and thought into. “The only thing standing in your way is yourself, so I always try to imagine that the creative person is not the same person as me and I try and seduce that person, to seduce the artist in me,” she chuckles. “But I also believe in never stopping. It’s like being an athlete: you have to train every day, because then on the big day when you have the competition, you’ll be magical.” Et voilà. ‘To Love Is To Live’ is out 12th June via Caroline. DIY

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Jehnny Beth: our lockdown spirit animal.

A B IL L I O N H E A R T B E AT S S TR EA M T H E N E W A LB U M O U T N O W P RE - ORD ER T H E P H Y S I C A L A L B U M O U T J U N E

★★★★

DIY

DORK

“ONE OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL INDIE ALBUMS OF RECENT YEARS” GIGWISE 9/10

un The Jewels are musicians of a rare kind: two rappers in their mid-40s both riding high on a career peak. It’s almost unheard of in the game. For a project that started life as a one-off experiment that now holds a quartet of WITH EVERY critically-lauded INSTALMENT OF THEIR LPs in its canon, SELF-TITLED ALBUM CATit’s left any ALOGUE, RUN THE JEWELS expectations HAVE SOUNDTRACKED A MOEl-P and MENT IN SOCIETY WITH WISDOM Killer Mike AND WIT. RETURNING WITH ‘RTJ4’ might have - THEIR FIRST RECORD OF THE held at RTJ’s TRUMP ERA - EL-P AND KILLER conception in MIKE ARE (UNSURPRISINGLY) the dust.

NOT LACKING IN FUEL FOR

THE FIRE... Words: Sean “I’m gonna be Kerwick. Photos: Tim honest,” El-P Saccenti. says, taking a drag from a joint in the comfort of his home studio where he’s clearly appreciating the perks of being a successful musician with his tools to hand. “Just like a lot of people who are discovering they can do their jobs from home, you’re gonna have a tough time post-Corona telling me that I need to do an interview in person.” When stacked in the grid of a Zoom call, the disparate personalities of the duo become clear. El-P remains still and seated for the entirety of our chat, whereas the more excitable Killer Mike is endlessly unsettled, shuffling about in his kitchen and front yard. “I’ve been doing real regular guy shit,” Mike says of his lockdown time so far. “I ain’t rapped a hundred bars in a minute. I’ve been gardening! I also have two businesses that in the middle of all of this needed some attention.” As well as his day-job as a hugely acclaimed musician, he also owns Bankhead Seafood - a local legendary foodspot on Atlanta’s Westside that he resurrected from closure with rapper T.I. - and The Swag Shop, a barbershop he owns and runs with his wife. When quarantine hit, the pair had the eagerly-awaited ‘RTJ4’ in the can - or so they thought. On the cusp of the original release date, they found themselves in the throes of a sampling clearance battle which they lost out to. “We were terrified, like shit - what the fuck are we gonna do?” El-P reveals. “We just completely revamped the jam and made it better. I’m never gonna tell anybody which song it was… mainly because we’re gonna beat up the artist,” he says, erupting into a cackle. “I’m just talking shit!”

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The album was pushed back slightly from April to June. Later, a fortnight after we speak to the pair and in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, they decide to release the album two days before its intended drop, with a statement: “Fuck it, why wait? The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all.”

he release of both ‘RTJ3’ and ‘RTJ4’ align with election years. With ‘RTJ3’ being released in the limbo between 2016’s election result and the inauguration, this is the first Run The Jewels project forged in the fires of the Trump era - and it shows. ‘RTJ4’ is undoubtedly the group’s most fiery, urgent collection. It’s an 11-track thrillride that blitzes through politics, race, truthsearching as humour, darkness and hope, all held in perfect balance at the hands of the duo’s razor sharp rhymes. “I listen to this record and it feels like it’s a fucking Porsche, like it’s a streamlined little fighter jet,” El-P says excitedly. “It’s darker but less moody; it’s meaner than the third one.”

AND

On the frantic opening track, which frames the duo in a fictional cartoon called ‘Yankee & The Brave’, Killer Mike is on the run from the powers that be as El-P raps “I’d rather have and not need you than watch your rotten demise / And you still owe me for them Nikes, you do not get to just die”. Later, on the fierce ‘Walking In The Snow’, Mike spits “I said something on behalf of my people and I popped up on WikiLeaks” before taking the passive ‘activists’ of Twitter to task: “You sit there in house on couch watching on TV / The most you give’s a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy”. “It hurts tremendously that people have ideas or ideologies but aren’t really active,” Mike told us back in May. “People who just senselessly and randomly voice opinions when other people are out there doing the real work. I hope as a country we start doing things that are less ‘I wanna yell and scream at you because you don’t agree with me’ and more ‘I’m getting out in the community and actually doing shit in whatever big or small way that is’”. Much like the lyrics of their song, it’s a prescient comment that time will only serve to prove or deny. The group have become synonymous with politics in recent years, particularly Killer Mike who has been a vocal advocate for Bernie Sanders. He’s carried out several chummy interviews with the Senator and delivered rousing, powerful speeches at his campaign rallies. Experience seems to have given the pair additional leverage to deal with political topics in the cuttinglyconsidered fashion that’s become their trademark. “Just know when we ushered in chaos, we did it smiling”, Mike spits on lead single ‘Ooh La La’.

“I LISTEN TO THIS RECORD AND IT FEELS LIKE IT’S A FUCKING PORSCHE, LIKE IT’S A STREAMLINED LITTLE FIGHTER JET.” - EL-P

“I think being older gives you the wisdom that you don’t mistake yourself for a leader who can solve the world’s problems in a three-minute song or video,” Mike says. “As a kid I really felt like Tupac, Scarface and Chuck D could form a world council and totally transform all of what reality is, but that’s not the truth. The truth is that they’re a few of the many voices in the artistic community who voiced the discontent that I felt as a young person. “While these people don’t have all the answers, they do provide the soundtrack to get you through,” he nods. “It’s the reassurance. It’s my aunt listening to Nina Simone, it’s my good friend DJ Swift listening to Donny Hathaway or my Mum listening to Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’. I’ve been in the community as an organiser, and been blessed to

know people who have been leaders such as [noted civil rights activist] James Orange, and I know that it’s not an easy cross to bear.” Penultimate track ‘Pulling The Pin’ both emphasises and questions this point, bringing to the table the album’s darkest, most affecting moment as Mavis Staples’ powerful vocal reduces to an emotional quiver: “At best I’ve just been getting it wrong, or worse I’ve been right from the start”. “That lyric was really about the gambit of our current reality, like what are the options here? They’re both kind of fucked up,” El-P shrugs.

avis Staples is one of many far-reaching guests that pop up throughout ‘RTJ4’, with 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Rage Against the Machine’s Zack De La Rocha and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age also making an appearance. “I’m friends with Josh and I’ve been such a fan of his band for damn near two decades,” El-P grins. “He’d never worked with any rap music, so getting to know him was an amazing thing.” “It all comes together organically,” Mike continues. “I mean, Zack De La Rocha and Pharrell Williams on the same song? That’s some amazing shit!” “Look at all these slave masters posing on your dollar!” goes the refrain of ‘JU$T’, the track in question. ‘RTJ4’ doesn’t just sparkle with highprofile collaborations either - it’s also a jewel in the crown of El-P’s production chops. The jostling percussion that starts ‘Holy Calamafuck’ falls victim to a mammoth beat switch-up at the halfway mark, with a swarm of rib-rattling bass

“I WANNA BE THE AC/DC OF THIS RAP SHIT; I WANNA BE DOING THIS WHEN I’M GREY.” - KILLER MIKE 50

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and shimmering chords; on ‘Goonies Vs E.T’, meanwhile, the accelerating drums guide the duo’s flows into overdrive - “The fuck y’all got, another planet on stash? / Far from the flames of our trash,” El-P asks as the track reaches boiling point. Still, at the heart of Run The Jewels’ fourth, it’s the spirited exchanges of El-P and Killer Mike that remain the nucleus of the project: a friendship and collaboration that’s just reached a 10-year milestone. “I met my wife and my ‘wife’ 10 years ago,” El-P laughs. “The two people who were completely just gonna fucking change everything!” After such a long time honing their creative chemistry, is there a key to the pair’s partnership? Killer Mike immediately cuts in. “Do you hear the shit we make together?!” he laughs. “I get to be in a group with my partner making incredible fucking music, you can’t beat it. I wanna be the AC/DC of this rap shit; I wanna be doing this when I’m grey, wearing black denim on stage rocking the fuck out.”

“What age do we have to wear the Catholic schoolboy outfits?” El-P asks. “I’ll pull that out at 60,” Mike promises. Their camaraderie is evident - the joy the pair take in their union audible both in conversation and on record - yet there’s always been the sense that Run The Jewels represent something bigger. On ‘Walking In The Snow’, Killer Mike raps “And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / And ‘til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, ‘I can’t breathe’” - originally written in 2019 as an echo of Eric Garner’s last words. The very fact that this line feels eerily foreboding is telling of the cyclical nature of racism and police brutality that will continue if it remains unchallenged. Works like ‘RTJ4’ are bringing these urgent conversations to the surface. As Mike says in our chat - “It’s too important to people not to put it out right now”.

WHO’S YER MATE?

‘Run The Jewels 4’ is out now via Jewel Runners. DIY

RTJ always manage to bag an impressively varied roll-call of musical guests, and their latest is no exception.

MAVIS STAPLES

Mike: We were searching for a singer to sing this hook that El wrote that I thought was beautiful but I just didn’t love me and him doing it. After months and months of going back and forth, probably driving El crazy, finally we got to sit with Mavis Staples and do it. It was insane!

ZACK DE LA ROCHA

2 CHAINZ

Mike: We saw 2 Chainz at a festival a few years ago and he goes, ‘I like what you and El are doing man, that white boy be rapping! Let me know if you wanna do something’. We got together around the Super Bowl, he pulled me over again and was like, ‘Look man, I’m serious - I love that rap shit!’

Mike: Zack is literally the homie! El-P: We have the philosophy that it’s about the song not about the name, but everyone on the record is definitely connected to us in some way. There’s a few unexpected voices here and there like Gangsta Boo, we had to have her do a surprise pop-up, Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio does a little co-production. There’s a lot of good will and we’re lucky for that.

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CHARLI XCX how i’m feeling now

e’ve all been picking up lockdown hobbies to stop ourselves from losing our minds completely, and Charli XCX is no exception. Leaping into action as soon as self-isolation became our day-to-day, she shared a statement at the beginning of April explaining, “For me, staying positive goes hand in hand with staying creative, and so that’s why I’ve decided I’m going to use this isolation time to make a brand new album from scratch.” Now, just over a month later, she’s unleashed the final product, and it’s the lockdown soundtrack we all need. Creating ‘how i’m feeling now’ in stages over the past few weeks, Charli has been open with her process, asking fans and friends to contribute via weekly Zoom meetings and enlisting frequent collaborators AG Cook and BJ Burton to

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(Asylum)

help with production, alongside 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady. It’s this that makes her fourth LP such a stirring and immediate listen, as Charli takes us with her on her lockdown emotional rollercoaster in real time. ‘how i’m feeling now’ finds her diving into all the feelings brought on by being confined in your house for the foreseeable. “I just want to feel in different ways / every single night kind of feels the same,” she laments on dark electroinfused opener ‘pink diamond’, a track that reflects the want “to go hard” with its pulsing beat and shuddering glitches. Next up, lead single ‘forever’, a fizzing melodic number, muses “I’ll love you forever / even when we’re not together”. On the trance-y club-ready ‘anthems’, she lays out an all-

TRACKLIST: 1 PINK DIAMOND 2 FOREVER 3 CLAWS 4 7 YEARS 5 DETONATE 6 ENEMY 7 I FINALLY UNDERSTAND 8 C2.0 9 PARTY 4 U 10 ANTHEMS 11 VISIONS

THE LOCKDOWN SOUNDTRACK WE ALL NEED. too-familiar “wake up late, eat some cereal / try my best to be physical, lose myself in a TV show / staring out to oblivion / all my friends are invisible / twenty-four seven, miss ‘em all”. Meanwhile, ‘enemy’ - one of the more delicate moments here, alongside the twinkling bubblegum pop of ‘detonate’ - sees her include a voice memo tackling her self-doubt, recorded after a telephone therapy session. “I think it’s a tough journey to be on, whilst you’re around a lot of people, I feel like I’m learning that about myself, and I don’t fully really understand it yet, it hurts here, it hurts here.” But ‘how i’m feeling now’ is not a doom and gloom record, and it has Charli proving why she’s one of pop’s leading figures.

Full of anthemic and euphoric beats, the album flits through pop and electronic influences, with the work of Dylan Brady resulting in some of the album’s most weird and wonderful moments that channel the distinctive, off-the-wall 100 gecs style into huge Charli-classic pop hits - the wonky and bombastic love song ‘claws’ a shining record highlight. Yes, lockdown is shit, yes, these are “strange and unprecedented times,” and yes, Charli has made the perfect banger-filled album to get us through it. Get the Zoom party ready. LISTEN: ‘claws’, ‘party 4 u’ (Elly Watson)

REVIEWS

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PHOEBE BRIDGERS Punisher (Dead Oceans)

In the three years since the release of brutally-honest debut ‘Stranger In The Alps’, then largely-unknown singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has become something of a cult superstar. Backed by a broad catalogue of projects - all of which bleed into new LP ‘Punisher’ - the various learnings of her collaborations with Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Conor Oberst and The 1975 have helped cement a beautifully refined sound. On standout ‘Kyoto’ she nods to her work with boygenius, adding a gritty personal stamp, whilst the unexpected shift in tone of the title track’s chorus takes a lesson from Matty Healy and pals’ willingness to experiment with sound. Much like Julien, and Bon Iver before her, Phoebe balances more grandiose instrumentation with her characteristic candid lyricism as she steps into her second solo full-length. On a record that risks collapsing under the weight of expectation, it’s a bold move to step away from the predominantly acoustic feel of her debut. Yet pairing the record’s comparably stripped-back ‘Halloween’ and ‘Moon Song’ with the drama of ‘I See You’ and cataclysmic closer ‘I Know The End’ helps to accentuate both the growth in tone and Phoebe’s resonating words. It’s largely in her lyrics that Phoebe has struck a chord. Following instrumental opener ‘DVD Menu’, ‘Punisher’ delivers ten tracks that reinterpret heartbreak, swapping cliches for poignant, unfiltered observations. The directness of ‘Stranger…’ remains at the centre of Phoebe’s songwriting, never overshadowed by melodrama, and she embodies a level of nostalgia - not least in ‘Garden Song’’s childhood musings. As the record builds to a final cathartic hushed scream, ‘Punisher’ marks a clear step forward, but one that remains as fundamentally graceful as all that has come before. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Kyoto’ 54

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We call this ‘The Eight Stages of Telling Phoebe She Has A Near-Perfect Album’.

Photo: Norbert Schoerner

Photo: Ed Miles

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SPORTS TEAM

Deep Down Happy (Island)

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LADY GAGA Chromatica (Interscope)

Cast your minds back to 2010, when Lady Gaga hit the road in support of ‘The Fame Monster’ with a full arena tour so intricate and detailed that it included a fully functional subway car, a dress which moved of its own accord, and a gigantic angler fish-style monster. And for her, that level of production didn’t even feel too out of the ordinary. Theatrics and excess have always been a real cornerstone for Gaga as a pop icon and, after her more recent work, the emergence of ‘Chromatica’ - both her sixth album proper, and a new planet inhabited by neon-clad Kindness Punks - feels exhilarating. A return to form in more ways than one, ‘Chromatica’ sees Gaga turning back to the electro-pop dance floor which inspired her earliest hits and restyling it for a 2020 audience. From the seductive house beats of ‘Replay’ to the maximalist addictiveness of lead single ‘Stupid Love’, it’s a record packed to the brim with euphoric beats and sizzling grooves. It’s also one of her most honest and open records yet; ‘Free Woman’ is a 90s-indebted reclamation of female identity, ‘911’ sees her talking of antipsychotic medication, while the Ariana Grande-featuring ‘Rain On Me’’s refrain of “I’d rather be dry, but at least I’m alive” feels like a powerful statement of vulnerability. Proving that pop can indeed be personal - an internal battle her infamous Ally of A Star Is Born faced throughout her ascent - ‘Chromatica’ goes some way to show that integrity and high octane pop songs can, of course, still inhabit the same space. Infectious, exciting and even a little hedonistic during some of the most confusing of modern times, now’s never been a better time to get lost in this new destination. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Stupid Love’, ‘Replay’

Photo: Norbert Schoerner

Infectious, exciting and hedonistic.

Having caused a stir up and down the country with their chaotic live shows, semi-ironic jollies to the seaside and a certain penchant for shooting their mouths off, Sports Team feel like the sort of band British indie has been holding its breath for. The traits that people find them insufferable for are the same that others adore - naked ambition, a disposition for smart-arse literacy and a ceaseless commitment to extending a joke as far as it needs to go to become funny again. And in Alex Rice, they possess a frontman willing to work overtime. Whether he’s howling his way through ‘Camel Crew’, an ode to sell-out musical peers and the boring bourgeoisie, or giving it his best call-and-response on ‘Here’s The Thing’, Alex intonates with full theatrical commitment, giving new life to the pithy observations that would have fitted right in with the mid-‘90s. Of course, no band is perfect. Considering their relative privilege, some of the middle-England commentary is less kitchen sink and more freestanding roll-top bath, jarring unspoken against their enthusiasm for making working-class cultural artefacts the butt of their jokes. Still, this stick is becoming an increasingly dull one to beat them with - where you’re born doesn’t negate your capacity for being bored and frustrated with the society you see around you. ‘Stations Of The Cross’ casts a damning eye across the complacency of suburban bystander syndrome, while ‘The Races’ takes suitable swipes at Union-Jack-sporting bigotry. The understated gem of it all is ‘Going Soft’, a comedy take on the fear of subsiding into mediocrity as middle age beckons. In 12 songs, they make it pretty clear which side they’re on, and it looks like the winner - smart, engaged, and willing to crack a joke with the faith that their musical dexterity will speak for itself. Love them or hate them, dismiss them at your peril. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘Going Soft’ 55

REVIEWS

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RUN THE JEWELS RTJ4

(Jewel Runners)

Photo: Tim Saccenti

Wrapped at the start of 2020, ‘RTJ4’ is fierce, urgent and drenched with a prescience that points to the disturbing predictability of these troubled times. On raging centrepiece ‘Walking In The Snow’, Killer Mike raps “And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / And ‘til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, ‘I can’t breathe’” channeling the final words of Eric Garner. And not only does the LP contain the duo’s finest performances, it also hosts a number of enthralling guest spots - especially ‘JU$T’ which sees the unlikely forces of Pharrell Williams and Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine collide to stunning effect. Closing track ‘a few good words for the firing squad (radiation)’ finds the pair ruminating on grief, pressure and love to a cinematic, tensening instrumental “Satisfaction for the devil, goddammit, he’ll never, ever have it”. Killer Mike and El-P leave no stones unturned - politics (“when we usher in chaos, just know we did it smiling”), racial oppression (“I said something on behalf of my people and I popped up on WikiLeaks”), class (“You ever notice that the worst of us have all the chips?”). The killer one-liners await every bar. ‘RTJ4’ is by far Killer Mike and El-P’s most accomplished chapter, wrought with rage but injected with a humour and wisdom that offers razor-sharp clarity and, with that, an unapologetically raw and sobering take on our times. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: ‘Walking In The Snow’

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ORLANDO WEEKS A Quickening (Play It Again Sam)

With 2012’s exceptional ‘Given To The Wild’, The Maccabees set themselves apart from the pack. Securing a coveted Mercury Prize nomination, the album consciously jumped away from the frivolity of ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ and ‘Love You Better’, showcasing a darker, most atmospheric side. Following the band’s amicable split five years and one album later, vocalist Orlando Weeks returns with ‘A Quickening’. A collection of observations building up to the birth of his son in 2018, ‘A Quickening’ takes from The Maccabees at their most ethereal, all-but stripping out the guitar to create a swirling escapist dreamscape. Hinting at Radiohead’s electronic output on ‘In Rainbows’ and ‘The King Of Limbs’, he delivers an all-encompassing sound that marries the anxieties of fatherhood with the unparalleled beauty of new life - not least on ‘St. Thomas’’, a heartfelt ode to the moment he first met his new-born son. Everything is underpinned by his stunning tones, given a huge space to breathe among the record’s vast experimentation. On the brilliantly atypical ‘Moon’s Opera’, somewhere between a lullaby and tribal chant, Orlando firmly demonstrates the range of his vocal ability - a constant across eleven tracks. Pairing this with sincere lyricism and soaring musicianship, ‘A Quickening’ emerges as Orlando Weeks’ most personal record by far, and is nothing short of stunning. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘St Thomas’’

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NADINE SHAH Kitchen Sink (Infectious)

Nadine Shah has never been one afraid to make a point with her music. From delving into mental health with debut ‘Love Your Dum and Mad’ through to 2017’s incendiary ‘Holiday Destination’, which saw her shine a stark spotlight on the mistreatment of immigrants and the recent refugee crisis, she’s undoubtedly a vital voice. But she’s also not one to take herself too seriously; that duality is one of the joys of ‘Kitchen Sink’. A record which delves into the female experience from all angles - whether that be through the clock-ticking myth that looms large in ‘Trad’ or the toxic relationship that ‘Buckfast’ swirls around - it provides moments of poignancy while delivered with a sense of tongue-in-cheek flare. “I am aware of the passing of time,” she offers up in the chorus of ‘Dillydally’ echoing what just about every woman around the age of 30 has wanted to scream - annunciating the phrase and owning it fully, almost audibly rolling her eyes in the process. Both playful and powerful in its delivery, ‘Kitchen Sink’ may be built around the challenges so many of us still face - and are angered by - on a near-daily basis, but it also offers a bit of light and - most importantly - liberating relief. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Trad’

REVIEWS

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HINDS

The Prettiest Curse (Lucky Number) Hinds’ third album sees the Madrid four-piece complete their transition from reverbladen lo-fi slacker rock to fully-fledged indie anthem creators, all while maintaining their playful charm. ‘The Prettiest Curse’ is packed with grooves, hooks and riffs, and from the opening bass drum to the closing fade, not a single beat is missed. With final track ‘This Moment Together’, vocalists Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote cry out “I don’t wanna make it stop,” the party crashing back to reality. Throughout the record, as the group traverse the struggles of lost love and identity crises, Hinds are insistent on holding on, from the repeated “all I want is my boy” on ‘Boy’, to the shout of “Fuck tomorrow, today never ends” that closes ‘The Play’. (Will Strickson) LISTEN: ‘Boy’

Q&A Hinds’ Ana Perrote talks recording in NYC, touring with The Strokes and an eventual embrace of synths on album three. Hinds have finally embraced synthesisers! What inspired this move? ‘Leave Me Alone’ was very rough around the edges, and then ‘I Don’t Run’ was a live rock recording. So what could we do next? We wanted to show what we’ve learned. We’d been working with different people and trying things like playing a bit of a piano or a keyboard - and it was so refreshing, a total new world for us. Jenn Decilveo [producer] is a super dope synthesiser player, she knows how to make the maddest sounds. She would get Carlotta to yell and then pass it through a synthesiser, for example. It’s her thing, so it was really great to have that match. What was it like recording an album in New York? We’ve spent a lot of time in NY in the past, but to record there felt really good. We ended up going to so many shows out there - from Charli XCX at Terminal 5 to Orville Peck at Webster Hall. In Madrid we get one cool show a month, so being able to go to everything in New York was really inspiring for us. It just made everything fun. What was it like to get to tour with The Strokes back in February? The whole thing came out of the blue. They asked us on the Sunday and the first show was on the Tuesday. We always used to joke that the reason we made the band was so that we could meet our heroes. Just to watch The Strokes side of stage would have been enough, but we ended up hanging out every night and they were the nicest guys ever. No bullshit, just humble and human and interested in us. It was awesome, like something out of a movie.

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JEHNNY BETH To Love Is To Live (Caroline)

Through her role as Savages’ ringleader, Jehnny Beth comes to her solo debut with a well-worn reputation for being fearsome; an ability to stare out her masses while a pin could audibly fall, or to climb atop them to instigate moshpit chaos. Pleasingly, there are moments recalling both on ‘To Love Is To Live’. There’s blistering lead single ‘I’m The Man’ and the irrepressible ‘How Could You’ (which notably features a guest spot from IDLES’ Joe Talbot), juxtaposed with the brooding restraint of ‘Flower’, or the piano balladry of ‘The French Countryside’. Going it alone appears to have given her space - literal and metaphorical; the instrumentation on ‘Innocence’, like much here, is industrial yet minimal, and the slowburning ‘We Will Sin Together’ would be far less sensuous had it not been allowed room to (heavy) breathe. And while the record does, on occasion, feel weighed down by its own existentialism - the more explicit musings on existence that open (‘I Am’) and close (‘Human’) the record notably - the rich sonic palette and Jehnny’s steely delivery ultimately win out. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘How Could You’

REVIEWS

REC O MME NDED 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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HAYLEY WILLIAMS

Petals For Armor At once heartwrenching and life-affirming, it’s her boldest move yet.

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Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley Chapter 1: Snake Oil

Homegrown

NEIL YOUNG

DIPLO (Mad Decent / Columbia)

You suspect Diplo - a man whose knack for catching the zeitgeist has kept him at the top of pop’s go-to collaborators for more than a decade - was having a little chuckle when he named his latest ‘Snake Oil’. Marketed as a country album at a time when, thanks to Lil Nas X, Orville Peck and more, the genre is having an upsurge in cool, even Thomas Wesley himself must know that his latest is little more than a classic Diplo offering dressed up to try and fool the masses. Both the aforementioned artists feature - Orville on a spoken word intro; Nas on a closing remix of ‘Old Town Road’ - but even with an additional clutch of country singers (Noah Cyrus, Zac Brown) on board, the result is still just a big, slick, debatably-decent pop record. It’s probably all you need to know that ‘Do Si Do’ - the biggest attempt at leaning in to the schtick - rhymes “honky tonk” with “badonkadonk”. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Heartless (feat Morgan Wallen)’

(Reprise)

Recorded in 1974 in the wake of a particularly potent heartbreak, Neil Young’s mythical lost album has sat in the vaults for nearly half a century, deemed at the time too painful for its author to wrangle with. And though several of its tracks were later repurposed on other LPs, you can see why ‘Homegrown’’s new (old) cuts would have stirred such feeling; at their finest, they’re as poignant as any of the legend’s most affective classics. Opener ‘Separate Ways’ makes the record worthy of release alone - a stupidly gorgeous torch song full of deep sadness in every note - while ‘Mexico’ is a simple, beautiful piano ballad that yearns for relief. It’s not all perfect: the previouslyreleased title track clocks in as a fairly innocuous hoe-down, while the slightly uncomfortable spoken word midpoint of ‘Florida’ makes for a jarring addition. Still, when ‘Homegrown’ soars, it acts as further proof that few in history can reach the emotional peaks that Neil Young can. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Separate Ways’

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LITTLE SIMZ Drop 6 (Age 101)

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PERFUME GENIUS

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately Mike Hadreas’ latest is an absolute tour de force.

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MOSES SUMNEY græ

The singersongwriter’s second is unconventional and ultimately essential.

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As soon as Simbi Ajikawo opened her 2019 breakthrough ‘GREY Area’ with the swaggering ‘Offence’, it was clear she meant business. After years of avoiding the brag-rap adopted by so many of her peers, it was a welcome re-introduction to an artist who had every reason to bask in her own confidence, a sign that she was ready to step up to the major league. Building upon the series of EPs that she dropped in quick succession across 2004 and 2005, ‘Drop 6’ takes 12 concise minutes to cement her as one of the finest rappers the UK has to offer. Inspired by the loss of autonomy under lockdown, the beats are raw and heavy, pulsing with the urgency of an artist who is clearly itching to get back on her game. The dark flow of ‘damn right’ recalls Drake when he was still young and hungry, while ‘you should call mum’ taps into the mental state of many a furloughed worker - “Livin’ day by day, sleepless night by night / Bored out of my mind / How many naps can I take? / How many songs can I write?” As something cooked up on short notice, it’s a glorious postcard from an unprecedented global moment, and a wonderful teaser for what is to come. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘damn right’

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What’s Your Pleasure

Muzz

MUZZ

JESSIE WARE

(Matador)

(PMR / Virgin EMI)

As by the time her third album, 2017’s ‘Glasshouse’ came to be, Jessie Ware’s music had all but faded into MOR blandness, it was easy to forget that the Londoner did emerge from club-ready roots, collaborations with SBTRKT, Sampha and labelmates Disclosure helping to first make her name. And while ‘What’s Your Pleasure’ doesn’t quite hit the heady heights of classic disco its soft-focus imagery might suggest, it’s both a more exciting - and natural - fit for the singer than we’ve heard in some time. ‘Save A Kiss’ is a blissed-out summer evening under the influence; ‘Ooh La La’ a heady earworm (with a bassline eerily similar to that of Dua Lipa’s ‘Break My Heart’ to boot); ‘Read My Lips’ a sizzling bop with the kind of ad-libs that can’t help but sound like fun. Sure, it might often fade into one long mood, all shimmering ‘80s synths and funk bass, semi-whispered lingering vocals and the promise of the night to come, but it’s a mood all the same. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘Save A Kiss’

The self-titled debut from a band consisting of Paul Banks (Interpol), Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman) and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen), ‘Muzz’ is both a wise and charming record, but never obnoxiously clever. ‘Knuckleduster’ is immediate, with brilliant moments of chaotic guitars, tuned feedback and a hell of a lot of spring reverb certainly a mature exploration of songwriting that is refreshingly innovative. ‘Red Western Sky’ is the highlight, composed of euphoric piano melodies and grooving cyclical drum patterns, which notably provides the urgency and darkness familiar to Interpol fans. The quieter tracks, including ‘Broken Tambourine’, single ‘Bad Feeling’ and closer ‘Trinidad’ show a more atmospheric, melancholic side, and despite the sparse arrangements, they’re always gripping. Those seeking another Interpol record won’t have much luck here, but ‘Muzz’ stands confident on its own two feet. (Martin Toussaint) LISTEN: ‘Red Western Sky’

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WESTERMAN

Your Hero Is Not Dead (Play It Again Sam)

Amid a varied batch of alternative male solo artists breaking through in recent years, Will Westerman has managed to carve out a corner that feels fairly unique. There’s a pillowy richness to the Londoner’s wistful synths that owes a debt to ‘80s pop stalwarts Prefab Sprout, while across ‘Your Hero Is Not Dead’ the singer conjures up a world of close harmonies and smoke machine nostalgia. Twinkles of Kate Bush keys dapple in the background of ‘Blue Comanche’; ‘The Line’ is a low-key gem of drum pad beats and subtle, clever chord changes, while highlight ‘Think I’ll Stay’ shows a classic songwriter of skill. Where Westerman’s debut suffers is in its consistency: there’s such a distinctive sonic palette that, within a batch of tracks whose tempo never steps past ‘mid’, it’s hard for individual offerings to always stand out. But really he’s done the hard work; now Westerman’s defined his niche, all he has to do is refine it a little. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Think I’ll Stay’

BACK TO THE

DRAWING BOARD with

Q1: Where did you record the album?

Westerman

Q2: If you could, which ‘hero’ of the past would you resurrect?

Q3: What’s the most ‘Easy Money’ you’ve ever made?

Q4: What does lockdown look like for you?

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Gene

I Love The New Sky

Goons Be Gone

(Domino)

(Bella Union)

LA PRIEST ‘Gene’ is named after an analog drum machine that LA Priest’s Sam Eastgate fashioned himself, providing a chunky backdrop for gloopy synth textures and finger-picked guitars. On ‘Open My Eyes’, for example, rolling psych-pop basslines and his warbling vocal take the listener on a technicolour journey, before the stuttering ‘Sudden Thing’ alludes to the minimalism of Arthur Russell. The synth chaos of ‘Monochrome’, meanwhile, recalls Radiohead at their most malevolent. It’s an amorphous record that floats effortlessly from track to track, with delicate grooves and dreamy production. But ‘Gene’ isn’t without its blemishes. Following danceable struts like ‘Rubber Sky’ and rainbow pop nuggets like ‘What Moves’ is a second half that meanders a little too much. But as a full musical journey, this is an album that feels rich, rewarding and proudly of its own world. (James Bentley) LISTEN: ‘Rubber Sky’

TIM BURGESS With the past few months seeing his online listening parties take over entire evenings of social media, it’d be easy to forget Tim Burgess was a musician at all, less so one with a lifetime fronting The Charlatans and a string of collaborative records under his belt. ‘I Love The New Sky’ opens with ‘Empathy For The Devil’, a high-energy nod to ELO and The Cure, but one can’t help but feel that it goes on a bit too long, and the vocal is not quite as engaging as it could be. Eight tracks later, these same issues are the hallmark of the album. And yet, at the last moment, Tim hits a genuine stride. ‘I Got This’ has a tangible sense of forward movement, while ‘Undertow’ is a beautiful, subtle, piano-led ballad that uses those strings and vocals to sublime effect. His vocal even takes on a Kurt Vile-like character. There’s all the material here for a fantastic EP, but as it is, this isn’t enough. (Nick Harris) LISTEN: ‘I Got This’

NO AGE (Drag City)

For a band of only two people, No Age’s music has always been impressively layered. Randy Randall and Dean Spunt put extra effort into incorporating unusual filters and samples into their music, drawing a dreamy skin over their punk heart. That continues on ‘Goons Be Gone’, but there’s something slightly off. Gliding guitar washes through and there are compelling sonic undercurrents, but then Dean’s voice sits atop, clearer than ever - and it’s grating. He used to sing as though charged up or being swept away by No Age’s riptide, but here he sounds bored. His leaden voice sinks the otherwise delightful ‘Smoothie’, while he sounds like a charmless Jonathan Richman on ‘Feeler’. A couple of times they get some wind in their sails, namely ‘War Dance’ and ‘Turned to String’, but the overall feeling from this is that No Age are, ironically, starting to show their years. (Rob Hakimian) LISTEN: ‘War Dance’

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JOCKSTRAP Wicked City (Warp)

Landing 18 months after debut EP ‘Love Is The Key’, Jockstrap’s latest is that rare beast that audibly makes sense of its lengthy wait. Every second of ‘Wicked City’ feels meticulously thought through, the huge breadth of sonic terrain the duo cover the result of real care and attention paid at every juncture. And, though appropriate plaudits have been given to the pair’s experimental ambition, what elevates Jockstrap from muso nerds into potential people-pleasers is how they marry the esoteric and the accessible. While ‘Robert’ makes for a sample-heavy, stuttering opener, ‘Acid’’s string flourishes or the classical pianos of ‘Yellow in Green’ provide moments of genuine beauty. Meanwhile ‘The City – which begins with sparse, quivering vocals (courtesy of singer Georgia Ellery) before descending into a glitchy, nightmarish dub breakdown – perhaps explains the band best; they’re innovators that haven’t forgotten to keep a bit of heart in there, and they’re making some of the most intriguing music around. LISTEN: ‘Acid’

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Innovators that haven’t forgotten to keep a bit of heart in there.

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ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER Sideways To New Italy (Sub Pop)

Having ensnared worldwide attention with their 2018 debut, ’Sideways To New Italy’ sees Aussie outfit Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever double down on all their strongest attributes. Inspired by the camaraderies and heartbreaks of life in a touring band, the record clings strongly to its home geography - ‘Beautiful Steven’ strolls along like Real Estate if their shorts were a little lower and the waves a little gnarlier, while ’The Cool Change’ recalls easy Los Campesinos! had they grown up on sunnier shores. Nothing quite comes close to ‘Cars In Space’ for desk-slapping earwormery, but with three singer-guitarists at play, the music chops and weaves with an impressive intricacy, always stopping itself short of selfindulgence. If you’re looking for a modern, uplifting celebration of all things riff, these boys have got your back. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘Cars In Space’

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Coming Up DREAM WIFE - SO WHEN YOU GONNA... Everyone’s favourite matrimonial trio follow up their killer debut on 3rd July.

SOKO

Feel Feelings (Because Music / Babycat)

Artists often talk about hitting the reset button with the release of a new record, but it feels truer than usual in the case of this third LP from Soko. The French singer-songwriter began work on ‘Feel Feelings’ immediately following a week-long retreat at the Hoffman Institute on the southern edge of the South Downs, where she underwent ‘psychological deconditioning’, which involved the removal of all coping mechanisms in order to live only with your own thoughts for seven days. This included music. She left with a blank creative slate on which to paint this richly-realised collection. It’s a dreamy listen throughout but one that still feels as if it runs the atmospheric gamut, veering between the airy, freeform melodies of ‘Replaceable Heads’ to the Beach-House-via-Twin-Peaks late-night ambience of ‘Blaspheme’. There’s a detached, languid feel to the vocals, although given much of the lyrical content deals with a period of self-imposed celibacy, it works, particularly when she’s spinning husky tales of longing like ‘Oh To Be a Rainbow’. The focus occasionally wanders - ‘Let Me Adore You’ kills the sense of momentum a touch late on, and might have been better left off - but it’s hard to hold a touch of self-indulgence against Soko when she’s produced such an intelligent, stylish pop record. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Oh To Be A Rainbow’

GLASS ANIMALS DREAMLAND Oxford's pineapplelovin' pop maestros return with LP3 on 10th July.

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Smash Hits Vol. 1 (self-released)

Sounding part weird comedy/art project and part one of the most forward-thinking pop releases for a while, Lynks Afrikka’s debut EP ‘Smash Hits Vol. 1’ is exactly what its title suggests - full of tonguein-cheek smashes. Expertly dissecting the trials and tribulations of modern life over a club-ready backing, Lynks covers all bases, from tapping into the anxieties and cliches of dating in the warped ‘Desperate and lonely, in desperate need of love’ - “I still think about my ex every time I masturbate, I’ve not got any plans for after I graduate” - to ripping the piss of standard life-guides in thumping 80s-infused ‘How To Be Successful’ - “Apply to jobs in TV, media and advertising, while always emphasising your love of filing.” Although it could all fall into being a bit niche, Lynks’ whip-smart analysis of what it feels like to grow up surrounded by pressures alongside with his penchant for crafting hugely infectious tracks makes the EP a thrilling and exciting listen. And you know it’ll have some bonus dance-a-longs too. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Str8 Acting’

FONTAINES DC A HERO'S DEATH One of the breakthroughs of last year will be given a follow up on 31st July.

Coming Up

LYNKS AFRIKKA

REVIEWS 61

Specialist Subject: STAR WARS

IT’S YOUR ROUND

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

THIS MONTH: FRED MACPHERSON (SPECTOR)

Where: The best pub he could find to make as his Zoom background. Drinking: Currently coffee, preferably tequila and soda. Price: Depends how expensive the imaginary tequila is…

How many bounty hunters did Darth Vader send out to find the Millenium Falcon in The Empire Strikes back? Okay, so we’ve got Boba Fett, IG-88, Bossk, Dengar, Zuckuss and 4-Lom, which makes six. Yeah, nailed it. But the last two work as a duo if anyone was gonna try and come for me over that question. What’s the name of the canyon that Luke used to fly through on Tatooine as a youngster, which he references during the fight against the first Death Star? Beggar’s Canyon. Well done. Yessssss. What is the name of the white furred beast that takes

Luke back to its lair on Hoth? Wampa! It is indeed. What was Han Solo’s military rank in Return of the Jedi during the Battle of Endor? Ooooh. I’m gonna go with my gut instinct, but I’m not 100%. General? Your gut instinct is right. Which docking bay does the Millennium Falcon depart from in Episode IV? This isn’t my guess, but it’s either 93, 94, or 95. Okay… I’m pretty sure it’s an early 90s number, unless it’s 80s, and I think it’s got a 4 in it, so I’m gonna guess 94. Nailed it, 5/5! That last one was hard, that’s not for casuals.

5/5

General Knowledge What was Shakespeare’s shortest play? That’s a really tough one. The Merry Wives of Windsor? Wrong sadly, it’s The Comedy of Errors. I would never have got that. What colour is in 75% of national flags? In 75%? It’s got to be blue or red. I’m going to say red. Congrats, red is right. What is Postman Pat’s surname? I actually had this in a quiz the other day. It’s something like Reardon? Rrrrr? I don’t know, what’s the answer? It’s Clifton. His full name is Patrick Clifton.

Wow. How many episodes of Friends are there? This should be to the closest 10. 110? Not even close. 300? Nope. 236. Well, I’ve only seen 235. Last one, which country has won Eurovision more than any other? That’s a classic pub quiz question, but one that I don’t know. I think it might be a Scandinavian country, so I’ll guess Sweden. Bit closer to home, it’s actually Ireland! Well, at least I got 5/5 on the specialist subject.

1/5

FINAL SCORE:

6/10

Verdict: “Anyone who’s reading this who wants to talk about Star Wars, my DMs are open…”

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“An absolute necessity” DIY “The voice of a generation” Independent “An absolute triumph” NME “Superb” The Evening Standard The Telegraph Financial Times

The Guardian The Mirror

The Sun Daily Mail

Pitchfork 7.6

PRESENTS THE BRITISH MUSIC EMBASSY SESSIONS:

KING NUN

>>>>>> WATCH NOW 64

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