DIY, May 2022

PLUS Sunflower Bean Bloc Party Sports Team Warpaint & tons more

ISSUE 118 • MAY 2022 DIYMAG.COM

BEING

JAMIEE T JAMI Inside the mind of UK indie’s most complex national treasure

RECINTO FERIAL DE IFEMA MADRID

M AY 1 9 - 2 1 | 2 0 2 2

SUEDE JUNGLE JARV IS… SLOWDIVE KINGS OF CONVENIENCE KEVIN MORBY

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER SHAME Goat Girl CONFIDENCE MAN THE MARÍAS LE BOOM THE HAUNTED YOUTH RIGOBERTA BANDINI SEN SENRA CAROLINA DURANTE CARIÑO ALIZZZ CUPIDO ROJUU and many more

WHAT HAPPENS IN MADRID, STAYS IN MADRID. A sunny spring weekend in a city ready to be discovered.

A different line-up to be enjoyed with your friends.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience.

TOMAVISTAS: YOUR NEW FAVOURITE FESTIVAL SINCE 2014

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Photo: Jenn Five

hello

Question!

Jamie T's celebrated debut 'Panic Prevention' was released 15 (!) years ago back in 2007: a classic year for albums. Aside from Mr T's opus, what were Team DIY's other top records of '07?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor Released smack bang on my 17th birthday, there was no bigger album for me that year than Paramore’s ‘Riot!’. I even remember wearing some disastrous neon jeans to go and buy it in HMV at the time, just to really mark the occasion.

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor Absolutely no curveballs here, it’s easily ‘Icky Thump’.

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor The more I look through this list, the more I think 2007 might be indie’s greatest year. Monkeys, QOTSA, White Stripes and Cribs all on top form; absolute ‘you had to be there’ classics ℅ ‘Myths of the Near Future’ and ‘Strange House’. I cannot and will not pick. OK fine, ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’.

LOUISE MASON • Art Director 'Liars' by Liars, and I'm still obsessed. I loved them so much when I started working for DIY that they let me do an interview with Angus. My first, last and only interview, probably because I mainly asked him about bananas.

ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor While I wish I could give a cool answer for this, 13 year old Elly was very much in her Jonas Brothers era and that selftitled second album is full of hits. 15 years later, and I still unashamedly know all the words to ‘SOS’.

Editor ,s

Letter

While he might be considered one of music’s more unassuming characters, there’s no denying that Jamie T has played a pivotal role in helping to forge the modern UK indie scene. Ever since earworming his way into our collective consciousness with the still-iconic ‘Sheila’ back in 2006, he’s continued to offer up his vivid vignettes of life for over fifteen years; now, as he launches his new record ‘The Theory Of Whatever’, we’re thrilled to invite him to the cover of DIY to give us a first taste of what’s to come.

And that’s not all - it’s another absolutely packed issue this month, with DIY favourites such as Sunflower Bean, Warpaint, Bloc Party, and Porridge Radio all getting a look in. Plus, we find out exactly what to expect from the next Sports Team album. Now don’t say we don’t know to how to treat ya!

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Listening Post KATY J PEARSON - SOUND OF THE MORNING Teaming up in part with post-punk’s go-to producer Dan Carey, the second LP from Bristol’s KJP adds a little more bite to her Americanalaced melodic wares. Driving debut cut ‘Talk Over Town’ and the Fleetwood Mac-esque ‘Game of Cards’ hint at the impressively disparate material contained within.

JACK WHITE - ENTERING HEAVEN ALIVE The stripped-back flip side to April’s riffy ‘Fear of the Dawn’, big JW’s second release of 2022 might be less of an overt rocker but don’t go pulling up a pillow just yet. Just as oldies ‘We’re Going To Be Friends’ or ‘Hotel Yorba’ showed his knack for making playful acoustic magic, there’s more to ‘EHA’ than just folky love songs.

FOALS - LIFE IS YOURS It’s pingers-o-clock and everyone’s invited as Yannis, Jimmy and Jack welcome in their most purposeful party album yet. Just in time for a (let’s hope) summer of sunshine and good vibes, pop a sausage on the barbie, crack open a cold can or 12 and let ‘Life Is Yours’ be your guide.

ISSUE PLAYLIST Scan the Spotify code to listen to our May playlist now.

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C o n t 28 e n t 44 s News

6 Sport s Team 10 DIY Alive 12 Omar Apollo 16 Fest ivals

Jamie T

Warpaint

NEU 20 22 24 26

Ho r s eg ir l Wund er ho r s e Fanclub wallet Flo wero vlo ve

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Sunflower Bean

REVIEWS 5 6 Alb ums 6 5 E P s , etc 6 6 Live

40 Bloc Party

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Sharon Van Etten

Shout out to: The incredibly accommodating staff at Shoreditch’s Well and Bucket for putting up with our weird old cover shoot; all at state51 for being excellent photoshoot extras; Satellite414 for hosting us on the Dua jaunt; Bea and Burak for hopping on the team for DIY Alive and a huge shout out to Oval Space, BeSixth and everyone involved in making the festival weekend such a brilliant party. Onwards!

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Contributors Adam England, Alisdair Grice, Bella Martin, Ben Tipple, Bethan Harper, Bryony Holdsworth, Burak Cingi, Charlotte Marston, Chloe Tucker, Chris Hamilton-Peach, Ed Miles, Elvis Thirlwell, Emma Wilkes, Eva Pentel, Gemma Samways, Georgia Evans, Ims Taylor, James Smurthwaite, Jenessa Williams, Jenn Five, Joe Goggins, Katie Macbeth, Louisa Dixon, Matthew Davies Lombardi, Max Pilley, Mia Smith, Neive McCarthy, Patrick Clarke, Phil Knott, Rhian Daly, Sarah Taylor, Tyler Damara Kelly, Will Richards.

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Porridge Radio

For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com For DIY sales: advertise@diymag.com For DIY stockist enquiries: stockists@diymag.com 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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THE THEORY OF WHATEVER 29.07.22 JAMIE-T.COM

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NEWS Having just missed out on topping the charts with their debut, Sports Team are gearing up to get back in the ring with a “more intense” follow up in the form of ‘Gulp!’. Rural writing retreats! Studio experimentation! “Less songs about roundabouts!”

It’s all go on LP2…

Words: Elly Watson.

Photos: Jamie MacMillan.

MATCH

FIT

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engaging in some light Twitter beef. The strength of ‘Deep Down Happy’, however, took the sextet beyond their tongue-in-cheek tendencies and proved that the band - completed by Rob Knaggs, Oli Dewdney, Al Greenwood, Henry Young and Ben Mack - were genuine contenders not to be so easily brushed off. The album would go on to get a Mercury Prize nod and only narrowly missed out on the Number One spot to Lady Gaga (although, as Rob discloses, “Alex was definitely expecting the Number One!”). It seems that the sentiment of their recent posters scattered around the capital is actually bang-on: “It’s okay to like Sports Team”.

Y “I feel like we’re releasing something that feels like it’s genuinely part of a movement.”

- Alex Rice

Y

ou probably know the iconic scene from Looney Tunes when Wile E. Coyote, on an endless quest to finally catch his perpetual arch-nemesis Road Runner, finds himself momentarily suspended in mid-air. As he becomes increasingly aware that he’s about to fall off a cliff, the cartoon canine glances towards the audience before gravity swiftly does its job.

It’s this moment, and those from similar cartoon classics, that has inspired the title of Sports Team’s upcoming LP ‘Gulp!’. “That’s kind of what a second album is really,” frontman Alex Rice offers over a late afternoon pint near London’s Kings Cross Station. “Just like, chucking yourself off a cliff.”

Set to arrive later this summer, ‘Gulp!’ follows the band’s 2020 almost-chart-topping debut ‘Deep Down Happy’. Back then, a couple of weeks before the album’s release in June, Alex had told us, “No one’s gonna be sitting around waiting for a second Sports Team album, let’s be real.” But the reality the band find themselves in now is undoubtedly to the contrary.

Sports Team have always leaned towards self-deprecation, knowingly toying with novelty act quirks such as writing songs about Ashton Kutcher, organising annual bus trips (read as: piss-ups) with fans to Margate, and readily

ou’d be forgiven, however, for thinking the pandemic might have taken the wind out of the band’s sails a little. With ‘Deep Down Happy’ having arrived in the midst of the first lockdown, it was a weird time for the group to be celebrating these undeniable goals. In fact, their album release party ended up taking place with some select close pals in a graveyard, “worrying about there being too many of us sitting around a table”.

“The last gig we played was at The Roundhouse,” Oli recalls, “and then as we came off stage, we heard SXSW was cancelled. Then in the next few days our manager rang us like, ‘Every gig you have for the foreseeable is cancelled’. So I guess we were kind of forced into the position of just writing all the time. It probably wouldn’t have happened until way later [if not for that], but we were kinda pushed into that position.”

The band decided to head to a studio and lockdown together, relocating to the countryside.

And it was in a shed in “the middle of nowhere” in Devon that the majority of ‘Gulp!’ truly started to take form - a stark change in pace to how its predecessor was made, with the band recording tracks between festival appearances when they could test out new material.

“This time,” Oli notes, “it was like, ‘Right you’re in a residential studio for a month, go write an entire album’.” Henry points out that ‘Deep Down Happy’ was mostly pieced together of "singles which I think most fans already knew,” but that this time it’s “like, all new stuff”. “They call that a ‘body of work’,” deadpans Alex.

While the record came into being in remote, rural Devon (a few bits ironed out via iPhone recordings when they all decamped back to their family homes later), the core themes of the album were formed a bit closer to home while the group were living together in a house in Camberwell.

“It was [influenced by] that experience of living together and having our relationships with people in the band tested in a way that was very different to before,” Rob explains.

He continues: “We were always on tour, and there was all this new stuff, and so many people around buying drinks and taking us to places, and we were going on these stupid little ridiculous adventures. Then suddenly it was just a really aggressive fallout where all the nice little bits that make being in a band really fun go away, and you’re sort of sat around trying to figure out what was there when everything else disappeared.”

Described as “more intense” than its predecessor, ‘Gulp!’ is filled with moments that reflect on themes likely to be familiar to any cohabiting pals. As Rob puts it: “The first time we’d just sit around the room and record, and

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this time it was like group therapy.”

The thumping second track on the album, ‘Dig!’, boasts lyrics like, “When you’re deep in the ground, dig”, and explores the common experience of making terrible decisions every night and then, as Alex says, “You wake up like… quick drink?”. Elsewhere, the infectious ‘Cool It Kid’ - which features a special guest vocalist whose contribution came from a bribe of the promise of breakfast - is a little more on the nose with its message: “Living with you is making me sick.” "There’s a few tracks that are about living so intensely like that,” notes the singer.

“The first time we’d just sit around the room and record, and this time it was like group therapy.”

- Rob Knaggs Mr. Mack’s third period keyboard lessons were always a highlight of the day.

Lead single ‘R Entertainment’, which arrived earlier this year, explores our relationship with social media, while opener ‘The Game’ - which the band have been playing live for a while - focuses on how easy it is to live your life even when the world is falling apart around you, Alex yelping “Life’s hard and I can’t complain”. “There’s a real slow burner at the end, which is great,” Henry adds of closing track ‘Light Industry’. “It was recorded all live in the studio. That might be the lights down moment where Alex goes off for a costume change…”

S

itting on the album for a while, Sports Team have amassed about “three versions” of ‘Gulp!’, with some of Album Three already coming into shape. “We actually got a brass band in for a session,” Alex beams, “but I don’t think that made it.” Henry adds that they also wanted a children’s choir for the album, but concedes, "that’s kind of the death note for a band, though.”

Still rife with the indie bangers that fans have come to know and love from them, Rob promises growth in the band’s songwriting too. “The first one was drawing on stories from when we were, like, 18,” he admits. “So there’s less lyrics about dumb things. There’s less songs about roundabouts.”

NEWS

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.

Yard Act have really been monopolising the musical discourse of late.

Yard Act are now (@yardactband) so famous they can hire in Hollywood actors as their stunt doubles. (@yardactband)

With their sights obviously already set back on that elusive Number One spot (“And critical acclaim would always be nice!” Alex jokes), ‘Gulp!’ feels almost like a second debut. “It kind of feels like the first time, in a way, when we can go out and do the in-stores and make videos and meet people and chat about the album,” Alex says.

“The context in which we’re releasing it is so different,” he continues. “I genuinely feel like we’ve had maybe a bit of an impact on the way guitar music has gone. You now have the Wet Legs, and Courtings, and Dry Cleanings, and it’s a lot more of the music that’s a bit more joyful and cathartic, rather than dirge-y. I feel like we’re releasing something that feels like it’s genuinely part of a movement.”

‘Gulp!’ also finds the band ready to get back on the road and do what they do best. But, after a triumphant Brixton Academy show last year, what could be on the cards for their next live highlight? “Have you seen those bands that do weird, interesting multi-shows?” Alex asks.

“Didn’t Metallica do that? You do one with a string quartet, and the other one is a really grimy rock show, and you just have shows with different vibes. That’s what I want to do.” As always with Sports Team, get ready to expect the unexpected.

‘Gulp!’ is out 22nd July via Island. DIY Sports Team play Mad Cool Festival (6th - 10th July) where DIY is an official media partner. Visit diymag.com/festivals for more info.

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Gagayama is the collab the world wants and needs. The petition starts here. (@rinasonline)

In their spare time, Wet Leg are an impressively green-fingered duo. (@wetlegband)

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NEWS

Get a closer look at...

DIY

The inaugural edition of our very own festival featured the likes of Shame, Lily Moore, Matt Maltese, Phoebe Green and loads more.

Turn the clock back by even just a year, and the idea that we’d be hosting our own two-day festival seemed - quite honestly - utterly ridiculous. However, following our 100th issue shows at Signature Brew in September 2020 and last year’s Big Bank Holiday Weekender, we just couldn’t help ourselves, and decided to throw as big a party as we possibly could.

Designed to give punters a glimpse into the inner workings of DIY itself, the inaugural DIY Alive saw us take over several venues around Oval Space in East London - including the neighbouring Pickle Factory, Canvas and Space 289 - to host live performances, hands-on workshops and our In Conversation live interviews, alongside an incredible line-up of artists and creatives who help inspire our magazine each and every month.

Photos: Burak Cingi & Emma Swann.

Baxter Dury

Saturday

Predictably, Shame’s triumphant Saturday night headline slot was always going to be a deliciously chaotic highlight, but there was plenty more to get stuck into across the day.

From Lynks’ gimp mask masterclass (which, yes, was as brilliant as it sounded from the off) through to the slick return of former Palma Violets’ frontman Chilli Jesson via the sweaty carnage unfolding in Space 289 thanks to the likes of Panic Shack, VLURE, Baby Dave and 404 Guild, DIY Alive’s opening day was a real doozy.

Grove

Ash Kenazi VLURE

Baby Dave

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NEWS Self Esteem

Jelani Blackman

Matt Maltese

Phoebe Green

Lily Moore

Sunday

After a bit of a late one (and a few sore heads…) - mostly thanks to Ash Kenazi’s Popperz takeover, ahem, popping off at The Pickle Factory the night before - Sunday was a bit more of an easy-going affair, with both our minds and souls being soothed by the likes of Matt Maltese, Prima Queen, and Lily Moore. Throw in some stellar performances from Jerkcurb, Phoebe Green and - our surprise guest! - Jelani Blackman, alongside In Conversation sessions with Self Esteem and Alfie Templeman, and it was a fitting end for such a momentous weekend.

We’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone who played, contributed to and attended the first ever DIY Alive - we couldn’t have done it without you! And a special thanks goes out to our sponsors: the brilliant SyncVault, BIMM Institute, Family In Music, Brixton Brewery, $AIR, Blackstar Amps, VEVO, Awesome Merch and Dr. Martens for all their support, and Oval Space for all their help in making it come to life.

Until next time…

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NEWS

“Even though I’ve had projects out since like 2018, this definitely feels like the beginning.”

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DIY In Deep is our monthly, online-centric chance to dig into a longer profile on some of the most exciting artists in the world right now.

DIY in deep

rocket man With bilingual debut album mar ‘Ivory’ set to open him up to Apollo an even wider audience, OMAR has APOLLO’s emotional storytelling never and embrace of his Mexicanbeen American heritage is breaking one to through to the R&B big leagues. Words: Elly be fazed Watson. by his own

achievements.

Dialling in having just landed in Vancouver, even as he ticks off the milestones in his budding career - from scoring two Latin GRAMMY nominations for his collab with C Tangana on last year’s ‘Te Olvidaste’ to receiving personalised voice notes from Tyler, the Creator about his “fucking banger” ‘Tamagotchi’ - the 24-year-old rising star maintains his chill throughout. But when you find yourself in the studio with a figure like Pharrell, it’s hard even for someone as relaxed as Omar to keep their composure.

“The first night, I didn’t sleep,” he recalls of working with the Neptunes and N.E.R.D legend. “I was like, ‘Man what the fuck?!’. I never really do that. People are like, ‘Oh, you’ve come so far, does it hit you?’

And I just don’t think like that. That was the first time I’ve ever felt like that, really; I was like, ‘Oh, THIS is what they’re talking about’.”

Keeping a game-face on despite any internal excitement, however, Omar arrived at Pharrell’s studio dressed to impress (“When you dress nice, you don’t really have to say much”) and penned a pair of tracks: not only Tyler’s fave, but also an asyet-unreleased banger that had the famed rapperproducer rounding up people to listen. “[Pharrell] freaked out and he went downstairs and got everyone and brought them upstairs. Pusha T was there, and a bunch of other people. He was like, ‘You’ve gotta listen to this shit, man!’” Omar laughs.

“After that he asked how many sessions we had, and I said two, and he was like, ‘Extend your trip!

We’ve gotta make more of these!’. I was like, ‘Alright, say less!’ and extended my trip immediately.”

I

t’s the type of praise that many can only dream of, but that’s already becoming standard for the singer. Raised in Indiana to Mexican parents, Apollo (full name Omar Apolonio Velasco) began uploading his music onto Spotify half a decade ago before 2017’s jazz-tinged ‘Ugotme’ shot him

into public consciousness. After dropping debut EP ‘Stereo’ in May 2019, he followed it the next year with a second - ‘Friends’ - that saw his swaggering, soul-infused bedroom pop and funk-tinged R&B garnering comparisons to Prince. Signing to Warner just before the pandemic hit, 2020’s self-made mixtape ‘Apolonio’ then saw him move even further into sizzling R&B territory, complete with yearning lyricism.

As it came time to start work on his eagerly-awaited debut full-length, Omar decided to switch things up, branching out from his “bedroom shit” and heading into the studio with around 20 producers. However, the music he was making soon morphed into something that didn’t fit. “Prior to that I was making everything myself,” he notes, “so it kinda turned into something that I wouldn’t make [myself].”

Taking the advice of a friend who told him to set some creative boundaries, the singer decided to start again from scratch, cancelling his Desvelado tour in November in order to reset, and telling fans “my new music is amazing, I’m putting my whole soul in it, I just need more time to finish it”. “I was very anxious,” he reveals of the decision today. “It was funny because I was, like, lying to everyone.

I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve got so much shit, I’m just not gonna play it for you’. But I didn’t really have anything that I would want to use on this album with this direction.”

Paring back his collaborative team to just his inner circle, Omar rented houses in places like Joshua Tree, California with his engineer and a few friends to start work on the record again. Over time, he eventually remade around 65% of that original, with only ‘Bad Life’, ‘Waiting On You’ and ‘Go Away’ making the cut from his first take.

“It was a learning experience, for sure,” he admits.

“I feel like now I know how to make an album and, down the road, all I wanna do is make more albums. Before, my first couple of projects were songs I would make in my house, and then I ended up touring off of them so I didn’t really have time to develop the studio side. This feels like the beginning. Even though I’ve had projects out since like 2018, this definitely feels like the beginning.”

Read the full feature at diymag.com/omarapollo.

‘Ivory’ is out now via Warner. DIY

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NEWS

haveyou heard?

ANGEL OLSEN

Big Time

The title track to her forthcoming sixth studio album, ‘Big Time’ sees Angel Olsen dig out the Stetson from the back of her closet and return to the kind of country ballads like ‘Lonely Universe’ and ‘The Waiting’ she was writing on her debut ‘Half Way Home’. However, while those songs were intimate and lovelorn, ‘Big Time’ is an uplifting celebration of the halcyon days of a fulfilling relationship that twinkles with accents of organ and steel guitar.

With a hook inspired by her partner, Beau, this is the sound of Angel finding freedom in authenticity.

(James Smurthwaite)

SORRY There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved

Since the release of debut album ‘925’ in early 2020, Sorry have been sprinkling new material out that hints at brilliantly weird new directions for the Domino signings. Latest cut ‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’ is more traditional – a captivating slowdance defined by Asha Lorenz’s intriguing vocals – and whets the appetite thoroughly for a new release later this year on which the new track appears. (Will Richards)

PINKPANTHERESS FT. WILLOW ` Where You Are PinkPantheress and WILLOW have become two of the most distinctive voices of modern music over the last year. While the former is bringing drum’n’bass back for the TikTok generation, the latter has become a pop-punk megastar. On collaboration ‘Where You Are’, the two manage to keep hold of their eccentricities while fitting perfectly together. A classic ‘00s pop-punk guitar line (courtesy of Paramore's 'Never Let This Go') sits below vintage PinkPantheress’ beats before WILLOW’s verse is delivered with passion and confidence. (Will Richards)

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SUPERORGANISM crushed.zip Superorganism have crawled out of the wonky pop primordial soup of ‘crushed.zip’, and it tastes delicious.

Chewy synths and wobbly Auto-Tune make for perfect ingredients; ones that manage to make earworm-y harmonies of “I’m feeling so crushed” sound obnoxiously sweet. ‘crushed. zip’ is a fitting title: the track crams in so much fun and oddity that it bursts at the seams, begging to be extracted. It ends with a noisy slurp that gets soup all over you, but you don’t mind.

Thissongisjustsogood. zip. (Mia Smith)

PHOEBE BRIDGERS Sidelines Her first - and stated to be only - new material this year, Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Sidelines’ is springtime melancholy in musical form. Written for the upcoming TV series Conversations with Friends, adapted from the Sally Rooney novel of the same name, it’s a chamber pop track with a haunting orchestral feel. On ‘Sidelines’ Phoebe discusses being fearless and watching the world from the sidelines, “‘till you came into my life / Gave me something to lose” – it feels like classic Phoebe while hinting at a slight evolution in her sound at the same time. (Adam England)

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£

Sea Power Field Music The Howl & The Hum LIFE Pictish Trail W. H. Lung LYR The Clockworks Haiku Salut VENUS GRRRLS Deep Tan Honeyglaze Modern Woman Low Hummer Chloe Foy Rachel Sermanni ĠENN Fiat Lux Prima Queen Bored At My Grandmas House Team Picture Van Houten

£33+BF

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Across Wakefield City Centre

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ES FR O M

11 June 2022

IC

DEADLETTER / MEMES / Rebecca Lou Sunflower Thieves / Blue Bendy / Seazoo Mi Mye / Mollie Coddled / Komparrison Shelf Lives / Pit Pony / Viera Josephine Sillars / Household Dogs Pleasure Centre / Fuzz Lightyear / RUBY Dilettante / Gad Whip / Teah Lewis / ODAS Dead Wax / Terror Cult / Piles of Clothes Claudia Fenoglio / Little Planets The Sunkissed Child / Mia Jade Carmen Mclean / Katerina Elenkova / Neeto longdivisionfestival.co.uk

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Get to know…

highschool

The Great Escape 11th - 14th May Various venues, Brighton It’s true, we do like to be beside the seaside. As do a veritable smorgasbord of buzzy new acts - Neu faves Willow Kayne, Honeyglaze, Naima Bock, L’Objectif and Grandmas House alongside more familiar faces including Yard Act, Mykki Blanco, Laundry Day - and even viral superstar turned hyperpop queen Rebecca Black.

DIY returns to Horatio’s on Friday 13th May, hosting Momma, Wallice, Prima Queen, SOFY and HighSchool.

Hailing all the way from Melbourne, Australia, this outfit could possibly have one of the longest journeys to the south coast this month, coming still relatively hot off the heels of a string of dates supporting Chvrches earlier in the year.

Describe your music to us in the form of a Tinder bio.

Just out of a two-year relationship with a maleficent virus. Drama and fake people not my thing. If my dog doesn’t like you, it’s game over.

What’s your earliest musical memory?

Discman headphones pressed against my mother’s pregnant belly, playing Beethoven’s fifth to my foetal self so that I grow up to be a genius. And Grade One talent show dancing to Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’.

Who were some artists that inspired you when you were just starting out (and why?)

Snowing, I Hate Myself, American Football, The Van Pelt and all the other midwestern emo bands out of the ‘90s and early ‘00s. The adolescent years were difficult ones.

AC/DC, Sweet, Blink-182, the soundtracks of video games and skate videos.

You’re from Melbourne – how is the scene

FESTI

Tomavistas 19th - 21st May Recinto Ferial de IFEMA, Madrid

goat girl Q&A

What’s new in the world of Goat Girl?

Lottie: We just went on a writing trip to Cornwall where we demoed lots of potential album three songs which is very exciting.

You’ve recently completed an arena tour with Sam Fender - how was that?! Getting to shout “Hello Wembley” and it be factual must have been quite the moment?!

Holly: It forced us to up our game and it felt really exciting to be part of such a huge production. We received a lot of really positive messages from younger fans. And of course, getting to come out and say “Hello Wembley” is something we’d only previously dreamed of. It was surreal and overwhelming in the best way possible. …and it’s not too long before you’re headed to Knebworth with Liam

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there at the moment? Are there other artists breaking through at the same time that you take inspiration from?

Melbourne’s scene is great! So many awesome acts out of Melbourne at the moment - Exek, Grazer, Body Type to name a few.

What are you looking forward to most about The Great Escape – and the trip to the UK as a whole?

EKKSTACY Who is your dream collaborator and why?

Honshibori. If you don’t know, now you know. You’re welcome.

Musically or otherwise, what are you most looking forward to in 2022?

[Upcoming film] Crimes of the Future. It’s not a remake! I’m so keen.

If people could take away one thing from your music, what would it be?

Tinnitus.

The fields, venues and resorts across the Iberian peninsula have long been festival staples, thanks to their (usually) sunny disposition across the summer months - and Madrid’s Tomavistas is set to kick festival season off with a selection of well-established names: longtime favourites of these pages Shame, Goat Girl and Jungle sitting alongside veterans Suede, Slowdive and Jarvis Cocker’s outfit, Jarv Is… across the festival’s three days.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Goat Girl since they graced the cover of DIY’s February 2021 issue, not least supporting Sam Fender in arenas nationwide, and being announced to play actual-bloodyKnebworth with LG himself. Their trip to Spain this month should be similarly biblical...

Gallagher.

Holly: It’s hard to fathom playing even bigger shows than the ones we’ve just done, but we’re excited and up for the challenge. Being offered the opportunity to do it is pretty mind blowing, so we’re ready to grab it with both hands and shout along to ‘Wonderwall’ till the cows come home.

I’ll definitely be singing along to ‘Live Forever’, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and ‘ Champagne Supernova’ if he plays those.

There can’t be much left on the Goat Girl wish list, can there?

Holly: A tour bus, haha! We’re not quite there yet, but it’s a dream of mine to travel whilst horizontal…

You’re heavily involved in the campaign to save the Ravensbourne Arms in South London - can you tell us a bit about that, and why it’s important?

Lottie: Yes! I recently joined the Sister

Midnight team to help with their project to start up Lewisham’s first community-owned venue. We ran a crowdfunder that successfully raised over £250k, alongside lots of events where we've had the likes of Horsey, Porridge Radio, Grove and of course Goat Girl - perform.

The next event is at Fox and Firkin for Sister Midnight's 4th birthday party, on 23rd June.

Finally getting to gig in mainland Europe must also be exciting, after being forced to postpone your earlier tour (and the whole not being able to travel for years, obviously) what are some things you’re looking forward to about it?

Holly: We’re chomping at the bit to play overseas. Looking forward to the warmer weather (in some places), food,

always! We’ve been making more of an effort to sightsee and fit in activities on tour. For me it’s been climbing, Lottie skating, Ellie’s most likely to be found in the botanical gardens and Rosy loves a mooch around the local charity shops, so more of that probably.

Wide Awake

27th - 28th May • Brockwell Park, London The South London event returns this month for Round Two, doubling up with a dance-heavy first night headlined by chart-conquering beat-peddlers Bicep, alongside acts including Caribou, PVA and Scalping, and a Saturday that’ll see Primal Scream perform their seminal ‘Screamadelica’ in full after sets from The Horrors, Yard Act, Amyl & the Sniffers, Dream Wife, Alex Cameron and more.

North Londoners Sorry will be crossing the Thames for this one, with new material in tow - not least recent single ‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’. The band’s Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen look ahead to their appearance.

sorry Q&A

Hello! It’s been a year since we last spoke to you - what have been some of Sorry’s most notable accomplishments in the interim period?

We went to the moon and back, we did singing, we managed to stay alive and in the light. We’ve been working on music, this new single especially and have been making videos - trying to stay creative and happy.

You’ve just released new track ‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’. When did you write and record it?

We wrote it a couple years ago. It started as a little demo song that me [Asha] and Louis just did in my bedroom. Then we wanted it to be a bigger affair and a bit of a show tune. We arranged it more and played it with the rest of the band, and added more sounds and samples. We went and recorded it properly in Bristol, and it became what it is today..

And it’s the first taste of what we’re told is ‘a future fuller release’ - are you able to tell us any more than that?

Songs are incoming, beep beep.

Will you be debuting any new songs on the road?

Yes, we will be playing a bunch of new songs that we’ve done over the last couple of years between bits of ‘925’. We're excited to feel and play them live - as well as properly tour ‘925’ which we never got to do because of that thing that’s been happening the last couple of years, but we’re excited to play it to the world in a real way now.

IVALS

Q&A

Lauran Hibberd

Live at Leeds in the Park

4th June • Temple Newsam, Leeds

From the team that’s long brought us the inner-city scramble of buzzy new acts that is Live At Leeds comes a far more pastoral affair; Live at Leeds in the Park is an outdoor oneday event which for its inaugural appearance will host headliners Bombay Bicycle Club, as well as others including Arlo Parks, Sports Team, Holly Humberstone, Alfie Templeman, and Lime Garden.

As she prepares to release debut album ‘Garageband Superstar’, Lauran Hibberd lets us in on how she got Limp Bizkit’s DJ Lethal on her song - and who she’s intending to catch at the event.

Hello Lauran! What’s new in your world?

I’m getting really pumped for festivals this summer and the release of my debut album! I’m also rapping now (if you can call it that).

It’s not long since you announced details of ‘Garageband Superstar’ - how are you feeling ahead of its release?

I’m beyond excited! I’ve wanted to make this record for as long as I can remember, and it’s stressed me out in a way I can only imagine is similar to having 89 children.

But listening to the end product, I’m so proud of what’s been created and I cannot wait to share it. There’s so many things that go into making an album, and coming from years of EP and single releases it was a slight culture shock but there’s something addictive about it and I’m already halfway through writing album number two. So basically, I can’t wait to do it all over again.

How did the DJ Lethal collaboration on recent track ‘Still Running (5k)’ come together?

We all decided we needed some scratching on the track and we discussed getting some local DJs in the studio to do it live instead of using samples etc. Larry [Hibbit, producer] asked if any of us knew someone that knows DJ Lethal,

and we all laughed. It was like ‘Imagine how cool that would be’. That night I just decided to message him on Instagram with the track so far and explained how much I’d love for him to feature.

The next day at the studio I saw the three dots come up meaning he was typing and we were all huddled around my phone. He loved the track and wanted to do it, it was mad.

You’re also back on the road at the minute - how’s it been getting back to performing live more consistently?

It’s been great being able to play the set including the new album tracks, it’s so exciting to sort of unveil a new era. My favourite part is walking out as a support band with everyone having no expectations and just shocking the life out of them. I love getting everyone on the floor, it’s a real ice breaker.

You’re gonna be playing at Live at Leeds at their shiny new ‘In The Park’. What’s your best advice for punters heading down for the day?

Having just been on tour with The Snuts, I know first hand you’d be a fool to miss that set. I’m super excited to see Arlo Parks, Holly Humberstone and my mates Coach Party. My band and I have actually nicknamed it ‘Bikini Leeds’, because every time we go it’s beyond freezing but still sunny.

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FESTIVALS

Long Division

FESTIVAL

10th - 11th June • Various venues, Wakefield While the majority of the event will be taking over various spaces across Wakefield on Saturday 11th June, this year’s festival opens the previous night, with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage - a relatively local boy - in conversation. Then the following day will feature acts new and old - Sea Power and Field Music top the bill, with Neu faves Honeyglaze, Modern Woman, deep tan, Prima Queen and DEADLETTER along for the ride.

Also appearing are Hull exports LIFE, who are preparing to release third album ‘North East Coastal Town’. Frontman Mez Green fills us in on what they’ve got in store.

Earlier this year, you announced plans to release your new album ‘North East Coastal Town’ next month. Can you tell us a bit about what went into making this record?

As you can imagine we had time on our side during the writing of this album; we wrote it together in our studio in Hull. Our studio sits on the banks of the Humber.

The scenery was of abandonment. It was quiet and thus we just focused on writing. Once the album was shaped and written, we then took it to a studio below the river where we lived together in a chapel to record the album with our friend Luke Smith. It was also important to us that the sense of belonging that we had written about was also reflected in the album’s craft. We solely used locally-based studios, equipment, gear, friendship and the community around us to establish what it means to belong in a North East Coastal Town.

You’ve called the album a bit of a love letter to your hometown. What prompted you to explore that idea? In hindsight, how do you think you’ve done representing Hull on the record?

Hull and the surrounding area runs through our DNA. Hull has shaped us, weathered us, empowered us, embraced us and made us feel accepted. You're correct, ‘North East Coastal Town’ is our love letter to the city. The album is an ode to kinship and relationship with its musical and lyrical spine picking out themes of love, desire, beauty, horror, chaos, pride and most importantly the sense of belonging.

It’s a reflective body of work dedicated to people and place and those that have always been there and made

News in Brief

life Q&A

us feel like we belong; so, I guess that's how we've represented Hull on this record!

You’re also getting back into the swing of life on the road at the minute. What’s it been like being back on stage after a couple of years away?

It's been revitalising. Last year, the band got back on stage as soon as we could with a full UK tour throughout the winter months. It really did mean the world to us to be able to be back in the communities we had longed for throughout the long lockdown months. We've also recently been back to Europe for some festivals, which was again a special feeling especially as in March 2020 we had to abandon our USA tour and come home early due to the global circumstances. Nothing beats being on stage together.

You’ll also be heading back to a bunch of different festivals throughout the summer. Do you relish the challenge of a gear change like that, when it comes to your live show?

Yes definitely; nothing beats playing live and even more so nothing beats seeing familiar faces in crowds and making new friends on the road. The gear change is always welcome.

The band are going to be playing at Long Division how are you looking forward to it? Which other acts will you be trying to check out?

We're looking forward to hitting the main stage this year, we've done the festival a few times and Wakefield is always heated when the event is on plus it is always great to play a northern town that appreciates music like Wakefield does.

I'd like to see deep tan and Low Hummer.

Rage Against The Machine, Biffy Clyro, Glass Animals, Run The Jewels and Nova Twins are among the acts set to play Mad Cool Sunset (10th September), a new alldayer to take place at their Espacio Mad Cool in Madrid.

Turnstile, Paris Texas and Willow Kayne are some of the final names for Gorillaz’s takeover of All Points East (19th August), joining Remi Wolf, Pusha T, IDLES and of course, Damon Albarn’s cartoon gang themselves.

Claiming their “biggest ever lineup,” Latitude (21st - 24th July) have announced more names for this year’s event, including Alfie Templeman, Naima Bock, Prima Queen, Courting and Harkin.

TRNSMT (8th - 10th July) has finalised their bill, with Years & Years heading up the final names.

The Glasgow event is due to host sets from The Strokes, Wolf Alice, KennyHoopla, Fontaines DC and more across the weekend.

Stormzy, Phoebe Bridgers, Years & Years and Måneskin will play

Montreux Jazz Festival

(1st - 16th July), with the series of shows also hosting artists including Björk, Mitski, Ashnikko and Celeste.

The second wave of artists for

Green Man (18th - 21st August) has been revealed, with The Long Blondes, Tune-Yards, Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul, and Art School Girlfriend joining headliners Michael Kiwanuka, Kraftwerk, Beach House and Metronomy.

Bombay Bicycle Club will headline the Saturday at Barn on the Farm (30th June - 3rd July), with The Vaccines, Cavetown, Rachel Chinouriri, Will Joseph Cook and Flowerovlove also among those newly confirmed.

Margate’s Leisure (24th June) have announced more names, with CMAT and Clairo joining the previously-confirmed Mitski, Soccer Mommy and Sorry.

End of the Road (1st - 4th September) have added a handful more acts, including Soccer Mommy, English Teacher, Battles and HighSchool.

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19

“We were these little freaks at our DIY shows, separate from what was going on [around us] and idolising things from the past.” - Gigi Reece 20 DIYMAG.COM

HORSEGIRL Cantering to the top of SXSW’s buzz list, Chicago teen trio Horsegirl are harking back to the alt’90s and offering up different ‘Versions of Modern Performance’.

Words: Lisa Wright. Photo: Jenn Five.

“H

orsegirl rules!” shouts an excitable passer-by to the trio of gathered friends fitting in our quick photoshoot outside Austin’s Seven Grand: the venue of their fourth and final SXSW 2022 show. A few days later, the band - co-vocalists and guitarists Penelope Lowenstein and Nora Cheng, plus drummer Gigi Reece - will be announced as winners of the festival’s esteemed Grulke Prize, awarded annually to the most promising US act to play the event; fast forward another couple of weeks and the three teenagers are sat on Zoom assessing what’s just happened.

“That was insane; we did not at all think that would be the reaction from people there. Afterwards we were joking like, we didn’t even know we were competing?!” laughs Gigi, calling in from her college dorm room, the walls plastered floor to ceiling with friends’ names etched out in bright orange tape.

“It’s such a bizarre place because you play these shows and you have no idea who’s in the audience, but apparently one of them is the person who decides who gets the prize,” Penelope picks up. “If I’d have known, I probably would have been way more nervous. I mean, Haim won before and huge acts have won - do they know we’re just some kids from Chicago?!”

Remove the self-effacing “just”, however, and the fact that Horsegirl are three bezzies who’ve spent their youths building a deeply intertwined world away from the hubbub of buzzy trends is their greatest asset. Having met aged 14 at a local

DIY show, that ethos runs through everything they do. Indebted to the alternative scenes of the ‘90s, they effusively wax lyrical not just about the music (although the likes of Sonic Youth, Belle and Sebastian, Pavement and Yo La Tengo all stand as key influences) but the whole culture of that period, of hands-on creativity and nurturing a group of musical pals and peers.

band purposefully kept the rawer, rougher edges intended for their live show in. “We wrote those songs never thinking that we’d have the resources to record them properly, so we felt like it would be a mistake to go into the studio and then change everything we’d planned,” Penelope explains. “We were going for the driving energy of punk even though none of it is explicitly punk.”

“I think the reason us three ended up connecting really well was because we felt separate [to the rest of our age group] in that way. We were these little freaks at our DIY shows, separate from what was going on and idolising things from the past,” Gigi says. “We really liked the idea of ownership in the community and feeling like you belong to something,” nods Penelope. “But if you’re just idolising bands that are your parents’ age, there’s a bit of a disconnect, so we wanted to find that feeling with people our own age.”

“The vocals are kind of like another instrument because they don’t follow the path of traditional singer-songwriter stuff,” adds Nora. “At the start we were very inspired by Stereolab and the way the words are pronounced and mixed in; on certain songs I can’t even tell if they’re singing in French or English - it just sounds like sound.”

Horsegirl, then, has been an exercise in finding that feeling, from their first practice when Penelope and Nora spent “probably nine hours” learning Sonic Youth’s ‘Incinerate’ on loop, to now as the band stand on the cusp of this month’s debut ‘Versions of Modern Performance’, set for release via Matador - the label home of many of their biggest musical inspirations. Their debut is an album that unashamedly contains echoes of the past, of shoegaze fuzz and antsy rhythms, but that also feels self-contained: the product of three minds working completely in unison.

From the spiky interjections of recent single ‘AntiGlory’ to the skeletal interplay of ‘Live and Ski’ or ‘World of Pots and Pans’’ swathes of fuzzy noise, ‘Versions of Modern Performance’ too sounds like its own entity. There’s little doubt that, were Horsegirl still just pitching up to local basement shows in their hometown, they’d be playing the same songs, loving the same bands, having the same great time. Now, however, there’s just a few more people wanting to hitch onto their wagon.

“We’d always daydream about putting out an album and going on tour and being awesome, so now we’ve got the chance it feels insane,” Gigi smiles.

“We’ve known what we wanted this to sound like for so long; now we’ve got the opportunity to make it happen.” DIY

Having written the tracks before getting signed, the

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WUNDERHORSE neu

W

“I realised that there was a lot more I wanted to do than just go on stage and shout and be angry every night.”

Former Dead Pretties frontman Jacob Slater sends a ‘60s-inspired postcard from his quiet new life by the sea. Words: Will Richards.

hen Jacob Slater picks up the phone to DIY, he’s half an hour or so into a five-hour train journey from London to Cornwall. Across the lengthy trip down through the West Country and along the coast of Devon, you see landscapes getting greener and more spacious by the minute, and the mind slows along with it. By the time you disembark on the idyllic Cornish coast, the grit of the capital is a distant memory.

Jacob - last seen as frontman of unhinged punks Dead Pretties, who imploded as quickly as they emerged half a decade ago - made this switch permanent in 2019, settling in Newquay, a place he has had an affinity for since holidaying there with his parents as a child. “I’ve never really been a city person,” he explains, as the tannoy in the background tells him he’s about to approach Reading.

Despite first emerging as the energetic and animated vocalist of a buzzy punk band, Jacob has always had introspective vulnerability inside him, and it comes out via new project Wunderhorse. The handful of tracks released so far re-introduce a songwriter inspired by classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s, with debut single ‘Teal’ balancing intimate, detailed songwriting and expansive instrumentation perfectly. If music could evoke the mind and body easing down to a more languid pace, this would be it.

“When I was in that first band, I was getting a lot of stuff out of my system,” he reflects. “Maybe at the time, I thought that was who I was, but after doing it for a

22 DIYMAG.COM

few years I realised that there was a lot more I wanted to do than just go on stage and shout and be angry every night.”

Elsewhere in Wunderhorse’s currently slim catalogue, he wigs out on ‘Poppy’, a song that ends with a screaming, psychedelic guitar solo. New track ‘Butterflies’, meanwhile, is brash and bluesy in its instrumentation, but has the soft meditativeness of Elliott Smith in its lyrics. Jacob states that the late songwriter is a formative inspiration behind Wunderhorse, alongside Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other pillars of 20th Century songwriting.

Before he made the move out of London and started the project, the singer says he had started to “believe the bullshit” that gets thrown around the capital’s music scene, and as an antithesis to that, Wunderhorse is deliciously bullshit-free; it doesn’t piggyback on any current sonic or aesthetic trends, instead treading an endearingly solitary path.

A debut album is due later this year, and Slater is also set to star as Paul Cook in Danny Boyle’s imminent Sex Pistols biopic Pistol, which oddly – or suitably, perhaps – feels like a chaotic role akin to his past. “I saw it as a one-off opportunity, and had to do my damndest with it,” he says. “It’s OK though. I know that if stuff ever gets too stressful, Cornwall is there to come back to.”

Even over the sound of the food and drink trolley crashing down the aisle past him, you can hear his voice loosen as he glides back down towards home. DIY

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neu

UNSCHOOLING MYSIE French post-punks with an ear for melody.

Hailing from Normandy, Unschooling use post-punk as a rough jumping off point for their sound, but it far from defines them. On their modest output so far, they leap into melodic indie-pop, rowdy noise and beyond, and it’s this unpredictability inherent in the band that makes them so exciting.

LISTEN: New five-track EP ‘Random Acts of Total Control’ is a perfect introduction.

SIMILAR TO: Post-punks born and raised on indie-pop; if Shame met Alvvays, say.

OPUS KINK Creepy, enticing postpunk to lose your mind to.

Brighton’s Opus Kink convey simple pleasures through dark and dangerous filters. The five-piece describe new single ‘I Love You, Baby’ – a thrilling, chant-filled rock’n’roll romp – as “a sweet, tender love song charting one careless heart’s adventure through purgatory.” With this mix, they touch on something universal but present it in a fresh and fantastic package.

LISTEN: Recent single ‘I Love You, Baby’ is their best yet.

SIMILAR TO: Pottery, Crack Cloud and others on the fizzing edges of post-punk.

Rich and intriguing songwriting cosigned by producer Fraser T. Smith.

Having already bagged herself an Ivor Novello and signed to acclaimed producer Fraser T Smith’s own label 70Hz, it’s clear that South East London’s Mysie is already doing plenty of things right; one listen to her latest EP ‘joyride’ - out later this month - only helps to confirm that further. The EP’s title track - with its easy funk lilt and rich lyricism - is a gorgeous place to start.

LISTEN: Recent singles ‘joyride’ and ‘fade’ show off the sheer range of emotions she deftly weaves into her music.

SIMILAR TO: The middle ground between Sampha, Jessie Ware and Solange, with a South East London twist.

THE DINNER PARTY

The buzziest unknown entity on the block.

With precisely zero songs released or readily available to stream, The Dinner Party’s considerable industry buzz (a host of big dog labels are, we’re told, sniffing around the sextet) has come solely from their recent speight of live shows. Are they THAT good?

Well, yes. A full stream of their Walt Disco support show is on Youtube and shows a band gleefully playing with styles, mixing flamboyant theatricality with flourishes of Siouxsie Sioux and even Kate Bush.

LISTEN: The aforementioned online live show is all you’ve got for now.

SIMILAR TO: You know how Wet Leg arrived fully formed?

Yeah, that.

JESSICA WINTER Hypnotic pop hailing from South London.

You might know her best as one half of the weird and wonderful Pregoblin, or for her production work with the likes of Jazmin Bean and Walt Disco, but Jessica Winter is steadily carving out an intriguing new solo path.

Inspired by ‘80s music, trap, indie, and pop, Jessica crafts atmospheric genre-bending sad-pop music that’s already grabbed the attention of Death Grips and is sure to take her from a word-of-mouth must-see to leftfield pop’s newest contender.

LISTEN: No-skips debut EP ‘More Sad Music’.

SIMILAR TO: Music that you can cry on the dance floor to.

23

Turns out The Queen’s Gambit wasn’t quite so exciting IRL.

FANCLUBWALLET Ottawa musician Hannah Judge has had her fair share of challenges over the past year, but it’s with her debut album that she’s been able to find herself again.

Words: Sarah Jamieson.

neu

“I’m someone who is always giving advice to friends,” Hannah Judge offers up wryly, as she Zooms in from her bedroom in Ottawa. “It’s like, if something bad has happened to you, ask me! It’s probably happened to me too!”

Her stage name, Fanclubwallet (inspired by her dad’s Dennis The Menace money holder), might suggest a certain frivolity, but as her statement attests, Hannah’s got more in the bank than just a knack for a memorable moniker.

a lot better now, and obviously things have opened up,” she says. But having spent such a long time behind closed doors, she found herself reassessing. “It was like, ’Oh my god, who am I?’ It feels like my personality took a weird, yearlong pause, and then last summer I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna try to remember who I am as a person’. I decided to move out, and go and do stuff on my own, and just become a human being again.” And it’s these questions that helped shape her debut album, this month’s ‘You Have Got To Be Kidding Me’.

“I love fun, happy, upbeat songs, but [for a long time] all that was coming out was this heart-crushing stuff.”

Take the fact that, having made the decision to drop out of her university course in Montreal to pursue a career in comic illustration, she soon found herself back living with her parents, where she then suffered from her first major Crohn’s disease flare-up since high school. "I was like, ‘OK, I’m trapped in my home…’,” she says, a glint of humour in her inflection. But even when bedridden, she continued writing music. Recruiting close friend Michael Watson to help, from her bedroom the pair created 2021 debut EP ‘Hurt Is Boring’ and set things firmly in motion. “Suddenly I’m making music and people are listening to it,” she reflects today. “Everything was really changing.”

After ten months of being ill, Hannah had recovered enough to decide to move back to Montreal - a decision that presented its own set of challenges. “I’m doing

24 DIYMAG.COM

A record that builds upon the brand of authentic but introspective slackerish rock that she cultivated within her EP, Fanclubwallet’s first full-length takes things a step further. The album both broadens her sonic palette - “I used to be very like, ‘I have one guitar and don’t need anything else’,” she notes - and offers up a series of honest but witty accounts of life that feel refreshingly relatable.

“Some of the songs were kinda hard to write. For part of the album, I could only write really sad songs and that’s not what I want to do. I love fun, happy, upbeat songs, but all that was coming out was this heart-crushing stuff,” she notes. “But we finished recording the album in the woods up in Frontenac, which felt really good as I was able to sit with the songs and look at them more objectively. We wrote the title track while we were there, and that felt really cathartic. I’m feeling much happier now.” DIY

I LIKE IT WHEN YOU SLEEP TIGHT...

Class of 2022 star Holly Humberstone has shared her newest track ‘Sleep Tight’, as written with longtime collaborator Rob Milton and The 1975’s Matty Healy. It’s her second collab with Matty, following on from last year’s ‘Please Don’t Leave Just Yet’.

Speaking of her newest offering - which you can hear on diymag.com now - Holly has said: “It’s awkward trying to navigate catching feelings for a friend, as they are often feelings we might have been suppressing for some time. When they float to the surface, you have to weigh up the risks of getting hurt and potentially losing them in your life. I wrote ‘Sleep Tight’ about the uncertainty of friendships evolving into something more.

The first summer out of lockdown was pretty crazy for my friends and I because we finally had our freedom back and acted like we had nothing to lose. This song takes me back to that time of what it felt like with no consequences and impending heartbreak.”

BUZZ FEED JUST A LITTLE BIT All the buzziest new music happenings in one place.

NAIMA AND THE GIANT PALM Former Goat Girl member Naima Bock has announced details of her debut solo album ‘Giant Palm’. It’s set for release on 1st July via Sub Pop Records/Memorials of Distinction, and has been previewed by its title track. Listen over at diymag. com now.

Speaking of the first track to be taken from the album, Naima says: “Giant Palm was written collaboratively by myself and Joel Burton (who arranged and produced the whole album), I wrote the vocal melody and lyrics and he wrote the instrumentation. The recording process was limited (which I always find the most creatively productive way to record) by what we had in Joel’s room and recorded during the summer of 2020, resulting in mostly electronic instruments apart from the acoustic guitar. The vocals were later recorded by my dad, Victor Bock. We named the album after this song as it was the one that most reflected our collaboration as musicians and the innocence and freedom that characterised the making of the record.”

Fresh from their performance at last month’s DIY Alive, London-based duo Fräulein have announced their debut EP ‘A Small Taste’.

The four-track EP - which features their newest track ‘And I Go (La La La)’ - is set to be digitally released on 27th May, while vinyl will follow on 18th August.

“Recorded in just two days, ‘A Small Taste’ was meant to be us at our most natural: live takes, minimal overdubbing and an emphasis on sound,” the band’s Karsten van der Tol says. “Josh Rumble is an absolutely incredible producer, collaborating with us excitedly about tones, settings and providing an atmosphere of play more than work.

Coming off the back of playing a boatload of shows in the two months prior to recording, we felt the strongest that we ever had in the studio and the results speak for themselves.”

“We picked the title ‘A Small Taste’ because we wanted it to be a reference to a lyric in one of the songs on the EP (‘Golden Boy’),” Joni Samuels continues. “Because we picked the songs for the EP solely on what we felt were our strongest (a mixture of new and old songs, having no real connecting theme, other than feeling very ‘us’), ‘A Small Taste’ took on a new meaning.”

THE

PLAYLIST 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:

COURTING TENNIS Liverpool gang Courting’s sense of playfulness is intact on latest single ‘Tennis’ – in fact, it might even be at its peak. In a froth of drums and driving, looping guitar noise, the ebb and flow of the instrumentals parallel vocalist Sean Murphy-O’Neill’s tirade of imagery: paypigs, country houses, “you’re a night in the Holiday Inn, I’m an unusual toasting conveyor belt”. Weaving a story as whimsical as ever, and as mischievously seedy, Courting continue to establish their style: frantic, bubbly, and brash. It’s a good look on them.

BERRY GALAZAKA WOKE UP, CHOSE VIOLENCE Back with a new persona described as “a pop-punk performing, Babushka-wearing, art enthusiast”, Polish-American alternative newbie Berry Galazaka has dropped her newest track ‘Woke Up, Chose Violence’. A spiky new’un, Berry’s latest blends punk elements with hip-hop infused beats Rico Nasty-style, as Berry spits bars over the backing (“lyrically I’m here to fuck your wife and kill your husband”), forming the first taste of her new Salvador Dali inspired EP. And with a Great British Bake Off shout out, what’s not to like?

KEG KIDS Launching with a giant leap into the chart marked Indie's Funniest New Band, Keg's latest attempts to answer the question of what to do if your spawn turns out to be terrible. “Daddy, I want an Itsu!” cries one whinging specimen; “Daniel watches repeat editions of Michael McIntyre's Roadshow on repeat” laments singer Albert of another. Hollered chaotically over XTC-like rhythms complete with cowbells and brass parps, 'Kids' is like Squid down the Comedy Store bonkers, brilliant and - thankfully - not terrible at all.

GHUM DECEIVER Not many artists are able to channel a brand of dark vitriolic post-punk, all while seamlessly slipping between two different languages but London quartet GHUM manage it just fine. Their latest offering ‘Deceiver’ - the newest taste of their forthcoming debut ‘Bitter’ - is a blistering and agitated track, backed by pummelling percussion and led by Laura Guerrero Lora’s enticing vocals, which lure the listener in before snapping right back in their face.

Want to stream our Neu playlist while you’re reading? Scan the code now and get listening.

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FLOWEROVLOVE Living a Hannah Montana lifestyle of balancing her studies alongside music, London dreampop singer flowerovlove is learning to harness her “main character energy”.

Words: Tyler Damara Kelly.

26 DIYMAG.COM

Having grown up in a household with a rotation of One Direction, Justin Bieber and ABBA on the go, Joyce’s childhood dream career was an obvious one. “I’ve always lived by six-year-old me saying that I want to be a popstar,” she smiles. “When you’re younger you always say that, but I truly meant it and I still mean it now.”

T

hrough a grainy image over Zoom, Joyce Cisse - better known as flowerovlove - is sitting cross-legged on her bedroom floor, sporting a bright red jumper that highlights the crispness of a white collared shirt.

Joyce is well known for her fashion choices, having previously modelled for Gucci and Pangaia, but though this is a good look, it’s not one she’s chosen for herself: she’s just finished school for the day and is yet to change out of her uniform.

Then, just as our interview begins, someone from Atlantic Records tries to call; life, it seems, really is non-stop when you’re a 16 year old trying to balance a flourishing music career alongside legally needing to still attend your studies. “I'm not really balancing it, I'm kind of just prioritising music,” she notes. “Let's just say my attendance is really poor!”

Three days prior to today’s call, flowerovlove played her debut London headline show at The Courtyard.

Unsurprisingly, Joyce describes it as the best day of her life, and one that she will remember forever. “That sounds cringey but I don’t even care - to hear your lyrics being sung back to you is probably the best

As she grew older, Joyce became enamoured with Tame Impala, who had a huge influence on the music she would go on to make herself. “My brother was producing music with some of his friends and he was like, ‘Why don’t we do something with you?’ I made a song which was very indie, called ‘Kiss and Chase’, and it became the first song I ever released.”

Since then, Joyce’s brother has been at the helm of all production - a sort of London-based echo of Billie Eilish and FINNEAS’ world-beating sibling relationship.

“I hope he's not too busy for me at some point because he’s doing his own thing,” Joyce notes, “but I feel like, as a brother, he'll always make time. I always want him in the room.” flowerovlove is a project rooted in nostalgia and the search for pure joy. In debut EP ‘Think Flower’, Joyce collects pieces of her youth and creates a time capsule of her experiences in life. Whether promoting self-love (‘Keep Falling’) or feeling at one with your surroundings (‘Dancing in the Rain’ / ‘Pot of Gold’), the EP is a swelling indie-pop soundscape that occasionally ventures into trip hop, Joyce’s almost-whispered vocals dancing over steady beats and dream-like synths. At its core, ‘Think Flower’ promotes the idea that you should work towards blossoming into a positive mindset that affects not only yourself but the world around you.

“When you’re a child, you tend to be at your happiest because you don’t worry about anything. I try to replicate that feeling of my childhood. Every sound reflects something that was happening in my life at a certain age or era. I feel like I’ve really found my sound and I don’t see myself doing anything other than music ever again,” she says.

“I don’t want to put out an album for the sake of it; I’m trying to put out an album that will be Number One.” feeling ever,” she says with a confident shrug. There’s a youthful elegance to the way she speaks about herself and the music she creates. At an age when most people are confused about what they’re supposed to be doing with their lives, Joyce is overtly confident and self-assured in the choices that she’s made - choices that, even though still a teen, have been a long time coming.

It’s a confidence that’s seen flowerovlove stick to her guns in all ways, releasing a steady string of singles following ‘Think Flower’ as opposed to setting her sights on a longer body of work too soon. “I don’t want to put out an album for the sake of it; I’m trying to put out an album that will be Number One. I wouldn’t even want a Number Ten, I'm settling for Number One and that’s it,” she laughs. “I have a lot of singles that are so powerful on their own.

They have main character energy and these things need to have their moment, you know?” DIY

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All In Good Time JAMIE T

AS FAR AS MODERN MUSICAL CAREERS GO, ’S HAS BEEN FAR FROM NORMAL; LONG PAUSES, MINIMAL SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE, SELECTIVE INTERVIEWS. ON THE EVE OF FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM ‘THE THEORY OF WHATEVER’, HE TELLS DIY ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY, COMMUNITY AND THE HOPE OF MAKING MUSIC THAT WILL DO THE TALKING FOR HIM. Words: Jenessa Williams. Photos: Ed Miles.

Art Direction: Louise Mason.

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Jamie really found himself during our shoot.

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“Where Is Jamie T?”

Long before noughties indie nostalgia became a fully-fledged revival, a small Twitter campaign was bubbling, pondering where one of London’s most beloved songsmiths had got to. The forensic billboard of evidence mapped various sightings; his 2014 album ‘Carry On The Grudge’, a low-key campaign for 2016’s ‘Trick’, the odd tagged appearance on Carl Barat or Miles Kane’s Instagram page. But since a B-sides and rarities album in 2018, the trail had gone cold, the break even longer than the one he took in 2009. Fans wanted new music, but they also wanted to know that he was alright - to hear word from a musician whose work made them feel as if they were checking in on a mate.

It’s now 2022 and, having seen him with our own eyes, DIY are happy to clear the matter up: Jamie T is doing just fine, and Jamie T is about to release one of the best indie records of the year. What kept him so long?

“Well, I never stopped writing,” he begins of July’s ‘The Theory of Whatever’. “It takes me years to write a record; it's well documented how many tracks I make for an album, and obviously we’ve been through a pandemic too. It’s not like I'm faffing around doing nonsense, but I don't feel the need to keep a diary of things.

Really what people want, hopefully, is songs. I work hard, and I release albums as soon as they're ready.” He smiles. “It’s time, you know?”

Meeting Jamie Treays is a much more comfortable experience than you might expect. Much has been made in the past of how ‘elusive’ he is with the press, how deeply he dislikes talking about himself. Sat in an East London pub with a pint in hand, discomfort is probably a more accurate term than dislike - a thoughtful tentativeness rather than a full-on fear. The last few years appear to have been kind to him; his trademark doubledenim and battered Nikes are now topped off with grown-up glasses, and he fidgets a lot less than the nervy teenager of the early noughties, much more at ease with being centre of attention. He takes to DIY’s deeply meta photoshoot like a champ, rolling up a newspaper in his back pocket to take home to his partner as a souvenir of “a particularly weird day at the office”. As it turns out, he’s no stranger to a novelty costume.

“During the pandemic, I bought a lot of fancy dress stuff online. And drank a lot.

You know how it goes! Wake up in the morning, put your Harry Potter outfit on, get drunk again, play ping pong without a ping pong table. A bit like a student theme night.”

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One thing he didn’t fill his time with was social media. Dipping in and out only when strictly necessary, he completely missed any campaigns for his return, only breaking cover in January to announce a 15th anniversary re-pressing of his debut album, ‘Panic Prevention’. It was, of course, an instant sell-out; the sound of scrappy adolescence, it’s become a classic of the genre, uniting enthusiasts of both indie and grime.

“That whole album, I have really fond memories of,” he says. “I wrote a song the other day actually with a mate of mine, and I was sitting there thinking that it sounded like ‘Panic Prevention’. He said to me, ‘Nah, it sounds like someone who doesn't know what they're doing’. But that’s exactly what that album is! It's someone who doesn't know but is trying their damnedest to figure it out. It's charming in that regard, I think.”

Charm is most certainly the word. Though a recent Twitter Listening Party gave Jamie the opportunity to reconcile with some of its less flattering moments (“That line at the end of ‘Alicia Quays’ [“She's a fat bitch but I'd still give her one”] - not a lyric I would write now, but I was like, fucking 19 years old…”), the wider context of the record still feels deeply resonant. The ‘urban poet’ label might make him cringe, but with his resolutely Saaf London accent and attention to detail, it positioned him as a master of the mundane, elevating everyday observations into something life affirming. Delivered with a certain romance, he sat alongside Alex Turner as a cultural commentator, crafting beer-soaked love letters to their cities.

“Me and my friends have this joke that London is like being in publand,” he says.

“And I'm publand as fuck! This is our culture; it’s what we do, where we live, and everything we talk about comes from that kind of mentality.”

Amongst all the praise of his bolshiest, most youth-orientated work, it’s easy to overlook Jamie T’s versatility. A great deal of his best music is heavy, even melancholy; for every indie disco-slaying ‘Sheila’ or ‘Stick ‘N’ Stones’ there’s an ‘Emily’s Heart’ or a ‘Love Is Only A Heartbeat Away’, more in keeping with the art of a traditional balladeer. The cheeky-chappy label thrust upon him in the mid2000s always seemed like a bit of an ill fit.

He sighs. “I don’t really think about it too much, but I never felt like I was the ‘lad lad lad’ kind of thing at all. ‘Panic Prevention’ is all about not being able to be a lad, I suppose - being quite sensitive. A lot of it is quite literally about anxiety, but it's been cloaked in so many things. Ultimately, people have to realise that when you're talking in songs, you’re allowed to not come off well. I always understood that it’s alright if you look like a bit of an asshole or whatever, if it's good for the song. So how do I look back at it now? If I was what people portrayed me as back then, I don't think I would have had the career I’ve had.”

We all make mistakes, we all fuck up, but I wanted [the record] to have a lot of hope.”

With ‘Panic Prevention’, Jamie was certainly able to push for something more.

Opening up conversations about mental health long before it was considered common to do so, he seems like

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“

Me and my friends have this joke that London is like being in publand - and I'm publand as fuck!”

something of a groundbreaker, particularly among young men. Does he think the record made it easier for other people to talk about anxiety in their work? “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he squirms. “I wouldn't want to be like, 'Yeah, I set the bar'. It didn’t feel brave at the time; it just felt like I was writing the songs I wanted to write, and I’m sure that’s how everyone feels. Um, yeah. I dunno…”

He pauses. “I don’t think I can answer that question. Can I get another half pint?”

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n Jamie T’s mind, music is a process of action, not overthinking. For ‘Carry On The Grudge’, he estimates that he wrote approximately 180 songs; this time around for ‘The Theory of Whatever’, he was well into the 200s, struggling to recall the moment when the process began and ended. “To me, that's what art is. It's not about sitting down and going, 'Here we go, album five'. For me, I really enjoy it when you end up creating things you didn't know you had in you. There were six or seven tracks that I had a real feeling in, and then I wrote the rest around that, just flipping things in and out of playlists, trying to work out what I was trying to say.”

Working from home, that freewheeling often took on a nearobsessive quality. “I was working like a dog,” he laughs.

“People would come round the studio and I’d be there in my pants, just staring at the screen.” Living night for day, he would sleep three hours at a time, jolted back awake when a new idea pinged in his brain. “That’s the wonder of working at home; I really caught my breath again like I did years ago.

It was great to be old enough to be in the present with it and realise wow, this is a real moment.”

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To DIY’s ears, ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ strongly reflects this sense of freedom. It cements all of the things that Jamie T fans have come to love, and adds an array of interesting new flourishes to the mix; bold song structures, old-school indie samples and song interpolations. “It was tough at first, looking back at a few of the demos that just didn’t sound like me, but I got over that in about a year and from there it was just fun,” he says. “I think everyone loses their way sometimes, especially with this obsession people have with artists ‘moving on’, which I think is fucking rubbish. If you just write songs like you, it should naturally follow that course - you don't have to force it.”

Sounding like ‘you’ is perhaps easier when you’ve always been a fearless genre amalgamator. Jamie T surely wouldn’t be caught dead describing himself as influential, but there’s no getting around the fact that his long-term scene-melding will have shown a great many others that they can do it too, confidently mixing indie-punk with rap and grime.

Seemingly, there’s nothing he cannot turn his hand to. “Well, maybe,” he says. “You've got to be careful. I can't suddenly start doing, you know… I was about to say that I can't just start doing disco tunes, but I wrote one yesterday and was pretty chuffed with it. Ha!” A host of friendly cameos also informed the process of the singer’s fifth studio release. Matt Maltese can be heard on ‘Thank You’, while Hugo White from The Maccabees produced across several tracks. “Orlando [Weeks] was very involved in it too, as was Willie J Healey. Tom from Audio Bullys helped with ‘90’s Cars’ and ‘Keying Lamborghinis’,” he says. “There was one song that my friend Yannis [Foals] helped me with, and lots of other very very good people besides. I'm not precious about that stuff; at one point I was waking up every morning, sending out a track and, that night, getting three back from three different people of their own music, everyone just vibing. You always help each other. It's a nice thing.”

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n more ways than just an open attitude to collaboration, ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ feels like the work of an artist holding nothing back.

Highlights are bountiful and diverse; ‘90s Cars’ twinkles with ‘Kings And Queens’-era nostalgia, while ‘Thank You’ pushes things forward, depicting the taxi cab rides that facilitate a longdistance relationship with fond humour (“Her

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rating’s confidently a four-pointfive”). ‘A Million Ways To Die’ is classic power-punk, while ‘Talk Is Cheap’ is arguably one of the best ballads he’s ever written, a strungout love song that centres around plain-stated despair: “A bag of white / I fade black… I am rudderless.”

BETWEEN THE BARS

Jamie talks us through some of the record’s political themes:

BRITISH HELL

“Frank Carter sang on this, which was great. He’s someone I’ve grown up with; we came up at the same time, had the same magnifying glass on us. We hadn’t really spoken in a few years, but I called him and he was round in fifteen minutes which really bemused me, just like oh, alright? I perceived the original song that I sample [‘London Dungeon’ by Misfits] to be about not really wanting to play in England, but I wanted to change that around to talking about us being cut off as a country, becoming Little Englanders who are closed off to immigration and foreign culture. It’s about wanting to be a society of the world instead of cutting yourself off into some horrible toilet queue.”

SABRE TOOTH

“‘Sabre Tooth’'s about starting proxy wars, or being involved in proxy wars and having to pay the price.

We make these people leave their countries, run halfway across Europe to a border they're not allowed into.

They're there for so long and treated so badly that they go back, and by the time they get back, the war's over and they're left with a crumbling country. As lofty as it is as an idea, I think the song’s good, so fuck off! I'm 30-fucking-six now; if I want to write a song about something like that, I'll write a song about that. I don’t think it’s a bad look!”

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Jamie T famously hates explaining his lyrics, but we have come to the part of the interview where DIY inevitably wants him to do just that, unpicking the knotty web of characters and stories from which he pulls. He smile-sighs as we raise the subject, knowing what's coming. There are a lot of drugs on this record, we put to him, and seemingly lots of reflections on the impact that certain behaviours might be having on the health of a romantic relationship, one that appears to mean a great deal to him.

Is that a fair reading? Maybe, but also maybe not.

“To me, it's a record about disillusionment,” he says. “It's about trying to be what you can be, trying to reach goals and maybe not getting there, being let down by other people. But I think when I listen to a song like ‘The Old Style Raiders’, there’s still a lot of hope in it. We all make mistakes, we all fuck up, but I wanted it to have a lot of hope. And that’s all I want to say on that.”

How come?

“Well if I wanted to unpick lyrics, it would just be a wormhole, you know?” His apologetic smile creeps in again. “I try my best to be a politician about it. You're not wrong, I'll give you that. But you're not right.

You know what I mean?”

Would he say there’s a specific lyric on the record that he’s particularly proud of?

“No. Because I don't want to say ‘em! There's a couple I’ve got in mind, but I don't want to say ‘em, cos I know you're going to ask me to pick them apart. So nope!”

The banter is playful but firm, and

the matter moves on. Maybe Jamie T has a point; if the success of recent bands like Wet Leg and Yard Act has taught us anything, it’s that truly great indie is as satisfying to dance to as it is to dissect. There is great power in a sign of the times opus, but it’s also possible for a song to mean a great deal without claiming to be the sum knowledge of the topic.

Talking about the other music that Jamie loves seems like much safer ground. He describes Sam Fender as “great”, and loves Los Campesinos! (“They’re a fucking amazing band.

One of their tunes, ‘Glue Me’, is one of my favourite tunes of all time”).

Indeed, he’s long had a keen eye; back in 2007, his record label imprint Pacemaker released a 500-copy run of the debut single by Adele, a littleknown singer-songwriter just starting out. To this day, he enjoys keeping tabs on the next generation, feeding back into his valued sense of indie camaraderie.

“I've been out of the game a little bit recently, but Matt Maltese and Willie J Healey are my favourite young acts,” he says. “Matt Maltese is the best fucking ballad songwriter I've heard since The Beautiful South; Willie J Healey is just his own entity. I speak to him like twice a week and get constant inspiration. I don't have a band around to vibe off, so I like to find community in other artists, and it's great; it makes me feel part of something.”

Never forgetting to be a fan, this cultivation of friendships will surely come in handy when tour time rolls around. Jamie has a few gigs lined up, but in typical fashion, he’s happy for the business details to be handled by those who have his best interests at heart. “The singles and things, they decide all of that,” he says, gesturing to his managers who sit close by.

“There are a few things in the works which I’m not sure I can say, but I'd love to play it live. I just want to keep going for the minute; I’d like to just be in the fold, be a bit more present in the moment. If I can fucking work out how to play the guitar again, I’m all for

playing shows.”

While he figures out his instrument, fans will get to figure out the album. It begins with the seemingly-random cover art of a golfer, a joke about settling down into inoffensive retirement. “It’s sort of funny how it leads into critics' hands - ‘A hole-in-one for Jamie T?' NOT!!! I just liked the idea of critics finding punny ways to be like, ‘Oh, he's a bit old’, but I'm a bit long in the tooth to give a fuck.”

The same goes for the album’s title, an invitation for you to make meaning for yourself. There’s a strong inclination to leave these things openended, but how might ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ end up fitting into the Jamie T discography? “I don't think about things like that, it's far too dangerous!” He pauses, pondering whether to elaborate. “I hope it does well, but I stopped thinking about the Jamie T discography a while ago. I've

“

People have to realise that when you're talking in songs, you’re allowed to not come off well.

I always understood that it’s alright if you look like a bit of an asshole.”

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We’re not saying Jamie’s a diva but he did insist on these bodyguards accompanying him at all times.

been doing this since I was 16; it's what I know how to do, you know? It keeps me sane, and I enjoy it. I hope other people get some enjoyment from it too, but it’s out of my hands. Time will tell.”

It’s a mysterious point to leave on, but at this point, to know too much about Jamie T would almost destroy the magic. As is good journalistic practice, we ask him if there is anything else he wishes to discuss - in many cases, an artist’s last thought in a conversation like this will elicit something new, a bee in the bonnet that they’ve been dying to unleash. For Jamie T, it is a thankful sign that the interrogation is almost over. “I’m schtum now mate. Schtum!”.

Did DIY give him a horrible time? “No, it was much easier than I thought,” he grins. “I hope I did alright! But I’m bullshitting, you know? It's all bullshit. I try my hardest, but we’re all just bumbling our way through.”

If Jamie T’s latest opus is the sum result of 15 years of bullshitting and bumbling, things haven’t worked out too bad, we’d say. Self-deprecating to the last, it’s good to have him back.

‘The Theory of Whatever’ is out 29th July via Polydor. DIY

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ON THIRD ALBUM ‘HEADFUL OF SUGAR’, SUNFLOWER BEAN ARE RAILING AGAINST THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE CAPITALIST WORLD AND DIGGING FURTHER INTO THEIR OWN DYNAMIC THAN EVER BEFORE. WORDS: MAX PILLEY. PHOTOS: JENN FIVE.

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here’s a very distinct reason that Sunflower Bean’s third album is called ‘Headful of Sugar’. Having been together for nearly a decade (despite all still being in their mid-twenties), the New York trio have seen enough of the world to recognise the difference between the superficial ephemera that clogs up our day-to-day lives and the rarer spiritual nourishment that comes from acting in a way that truly makes you happy. Alas, instead of concentrating on the latter, too many of us are content to be filled up with the former, but the band would like us to reconsider.

“There are a lot of things that are trying to get your attention,” begins guitarist Nick Kivlen. “There are a lot of things being sold to you at all times. You’re constantly being subjected to the algorithm of capitalism: that’s the sugar. But this record is about human connections and the ways you can make meaning in your life through your relationships with others and things that are really important, like freedom, or your ability to determine your life.”

The sentiment runs through ‘Headful of Sugar’ like a stick of rock, although the music itself remains deliciously less defined by it. Like 2016 debut ‘Human Ceremony’ and 2018’s ‘Twentytwo In Blue’, on their third the band demonstrate an enviable ability to create fizzingly fun, sunshine pop tunes that themselves have a sweet, addictive quality to them, as attested by early singles ‘Baby Don’t Cry’ and ‘Who Put You Up to This?’.

If there’s a greater philosophical depth this time around, however, then the reason for it is a fairly universal one. Nick and singer/bassist Julia Cumming spent much of their pandemic together, while drummer Olive Faber set about building a homespun recording studio and teaching herself to be a sound engineer. The enforced pause in their usually hectic, tour-filled lives allowed them to reflect on the substance of what Covid had taken away, directing them towards their most mature and refined record to date.

The band have a knack for capturing their stages of development in time capsule form. “When I think about ‘Human Ceremony’,” Julia says, “I think alot about existentialism and spirituality. We were really grappling with late teenage-hood then.”

Similarly ‘Twentytwo In Blue’, as its title suggests, documented early adulthood or in Julia’s words, “that moment when you’re worrying about how your age is going to be perceived and where you fit in, and yet you’re so bombastic and confident.” ‘Headful of Sugar’, then, can be seen as being about developing a rounded perspective of the outside world and life beyond your own experiences.

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S

SUGAR, WE’RE GOING DOWN…

tylistically, however, Sunflower Bean are not so easy to pin down. Early earworm nuggets like ‘Easier Said’ and ‘Come On’ did little to prepare listeners for the cocksure, driven rock of their 2019 EP ‘King of the Dudes’, which in turn failed to predict the glossy pop sheen of 2020 single ‘Moment in the Sun’. Their latest LP continues to keep us on our toes, with tracks like the pulverising, aggressive ‘Beat the Odds’ rubbing shoulders with the breezy, optimistic ‘Stand By Me’.

“It’s completely unintentional,” says Nick about the diversity of the band’s sound. “It just has to do with how we grew up listening to music.” They certainly do belong to a generation that divided itself less along tribal, subculture-based lines than their predecessors, but rather grew up with the everything-at-once nature of streaming services and YouTube wormholes. Where Sunflower Bean were once in danger of being pigeonholed as a nostalgic reinvention of ‘60s power pop, their growing body of work easily dismisses that accusation. “I’m the least obsessed with the past that I’ve ever been,” says Nick. “I’m a huge nerd so I was always obsessed with certain records and archaic ways of thinking about records and worshipping the boomers, but now I just feel fully out of that.”

If anything, the new adjustment in their focus brought about by the pandemic, coupled with their increasing interest in incorporating a broad range of

musical styles into the mix, has led the trio to their most directly individual album so far. “It’s the most Sunflower Bean record because it’s very unfiltered,” Nick continues. “And most of the time it was just the three of us in our home studio having fun.”

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he nature of the album’s conception necessitated that ‘Headful of Sugar’ arrives as more of an in-studio concoction than their previous albums, on which the band were more eager to capture the aesthetic of their celebrated live shows. Working alongside producer Jake Portrait, and taking on more of the burden of recording and engineering themselves, the trio became more interested in the potential for recording studios to accentuate individual performances and spotlight particular instrumental parts. “For the first time, we transposed a record into a three-piece band, rather than transposing a threepiece band into a record,” notes Nick.

The whole process appears to have bound Sunflower Bean together more tightly than ever. Julia confides that she went through a period of personal problems while recording the track ‘Otherside’, with Nick and Olive rallying to help when the song hit an impasse.

“In that moment, that was my bandmates and my best friends being there for me in a very literal way,” she says, choking up. “That’s a very special thing that can only happen between three people who love each other a lot and who love working together a lot.”

“THIS RECORD IS ABOUT HUMAN CONNECTIONS AND THE WAYS YOU CAN MAKE MEANING IN YOUR LIFE.” - NICK KIVLEN 37

STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL The video for single ‘I Don’t Have Control Sometimes’, directed by Charlotte Ercoli, depicts a man donning a Sunflower Bean t-shirt, only for a series of ever-increasing misdemeanours to derail his day, his relationships and even his life…

Julia: It was important to make sure that there was something light and humorous and dark that went with the song, because that’s how the song is. It’s poppy, but it is supposed to have a subversive, dancing-in-the-chaos, psychosis feeling. It has to be dark in sentiment, but light in execution. I think she did a really great job of that. I like the protagonist, too; he looks like a Sunflower Bean fan.

Nick: He looks like a guy that would ask me about my pedals after the show.

“WHEN ME AND NICK AND OLIVE MET, ALL WE KNEW WAS THAT NONE OF US WANTED A NORMAL LIFE.” - JULIA CUMMING

If any track summarises the thematic tone of ‘Headful of Sugar’, however, it’s ‘In Flight’ and its refrain of “Life is short and the cliffs are high / I don’t have to close my eyes”. Invoking a giddy, Thelma and Louise-style sense of fearless abandon, it literally flies in the face of a world that often seems determined to grind you down. Similarly, ‘Roll the Dice’ climaxes with a frenzied cry of “I just wanna win win win”. “It’s about cynicism about the American Dream and prosperity,” says Nick of the latter. “Most people don’t think they’re going to be successful, rich or even just stable unless they take big risks and get lucky.”

The sugar that’s dangled before us to distract the world from these hard realities is no longer sweet enough to satisfy Sunflower Bean, although their return to life on the road certainly is. For a trio that came of age traversing the highways and motorways that link the inner-city clubs that have been their home for the last decade, the allure of the lifestyle remains indelible.

“This is a very crazy thing to do,” says Julia. “It requires a lot of personal sacrifice, [especially] from your family, who don’t get to see you. Now everyone is talking to us like we’re these grizzled old rockers, when we’re now the age that most people are when they start their bands! But when me and Nick and Olive met, all we knew was that none of us wanted a normal life…”

‘Headful of Sugar’ is out now via Lucky Number.

DIY

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Playing By Their Own RULES

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towards happy, positive endings because in my twenties and thirties I was more of an optimist. But right now, in these last four years, I think we all feel that something has changed.

‘Alpha Games’ marks Bloc Party’s sixth studio release and a return to the spiky, muscular outbursts that first shot them to fame. Beneath the riffs, however, Kele Okereke is exploring a far more sinister arena. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Wunmi Onibudo.

“I WAS CONSCIOUS WITH THIS RECORD THAT I WANTED TO KEEP THE UGLINESS IN.” - Kele Okereke

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t’s not that Kele Okereke doesn’t want you to look at him, it’s just that he doesn’t want to look at himself. “I hate doing it with the cameras on because the whole time I’m just focusing on myself and I’m not really engaging with what I’m saying,” he concedes honestly, requesting we go old school audio for today’s chat. “It’ll be a better interview this way…”

It’s understandable why the Bloc Party frontman would want to have his head (if not his face) fully in the zone; heading into the release of the band’s sixth LP ‘Alpha Games’, Kele, long term guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Justin Harris and drummer Louise Birtle are sitting on an album that instigates deep dives into the current political quagmire and delves into the band’s own storied musical past. Far from mellowing with age, it’s Bloc Party’s most immediate, powerful album in years - one populated by murky, sinister motives and a constant sense of modern life’s dark underbelly.

When we suggest that there’s a certain viscosity to the record, a sort of slithering unease, the singer hums with satisfied agreement.

“I guess the thing I was conscious about with this record was that I wanted to keep the ugliness in,” he begins. “In the past, I think I would have made everything rosy and veered

“I don’t feel optimistic about the future or that we’re heading towards a good place. Look at what’s happening in Ukraine right now: one man’s solipsistic vision of how he sees the world is causing so much pain and suffering to people, and that’s where the strong man, my-way-or-thehighway attitude takes us. So I felt like it was important not to sugarcoat or try to hide [those ideas], because we need to be aware of what’s happening and that we’re sliding backwards.”

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n conversation, Kele is pointed and specific in his targets. The album, he explains, took shape in 2018 and 2019 as Theresa May’s Conservative Party began to fracture and turn on itself amid the Brexit negotiations; the “backstabbing and skullduggery” that he was witnessing, as such, informed the landscape for ‘Alpha Games’ and the nastiness splashed across it.

Lyrically, however, the frontman was keen not to root the record in any specific political storyline but for something wider and more insidious to come to the fore. “I really wanted to capture the sense of people fucking each other over but looking each other in the eye; of it not being about institutions or overarching systems, it being about pushing someone out of the way to get to where you want,” he explains. “I think that’s really the core of the record: what happens when we stop treating each other with respect and think only about ourselves?”

It’s a question that’s written all over ‘Alpha Games’’, from its purposefully macho-baiting title outwards. “We be the kind that aint got no scruples / We be the kind that break the law,” go the sneering wideboys of ‘Rough Justice’, before ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ enters, populated with bar brawls and bad men. Recent single ‘Traps’ (an immediate, insatiable entry into the top tier of Bloc Party’s best work) has a seedy, predatory undercurrent to its lust, meanwhile the scattershot drums and propulsive growls of ‘Callum Is A Snake’ are punctuated with the climax of a soon-to-be-legendary burn: “Ooh, you’re a snide little fuck…”

Musically, meanwhile, the album’s wares are muscular and tight, in turns riffy and menacing, then full of big cathartic melodies. In short, ‘Alpha Games’ sounds more like OG Bloc Party than Bloc Party have done in years. “It’s funny looking back at the records we’ve made and seeing how, from ‘Silent Alarm’ through to ‘Alpha Games’, each album was an attempt to move further away from the record that preceded it,” Kele muses. “Over the years I think we wanted to get

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away from doing things that were the most natural for us, but with Louise being brought into the band with her youth and her openness and ability, it gave us licence to go back there and play with that abandon that we haven’t really played with for a while.”

Crucial to the change too was the band’s decision to acquiesce to some rare nostalgia in the form of 2018’s ‘Silent Alarm’ tour. Setting up a practice room at each venue (“It’s good to know that I can still feel creative, that I’m not just a jukebox…”), the quartet began writing ‘Alpha Games’ from a place that was literally wrapped up in the physicality and spirit of Bloc Party’s celebrated debut.

For a band so intent on forward motion, what made them want to indulge in a second outing of their past? “I remember saying [previously] that I’d never want to do anything like that, so then the fact that I’d said it and it existed in cyberspace made me think that well, rules are meant to be broken,” Kele chuckles. “I thought there was something quite perverse about agreeing to do it, and that felt quite enjoyable. I’m a massive troll, but that’s how I roll. That’s how I troll…”

I

f a greedily-received anniversary tour is his idea of pranking the internet, then Kele Okereke is probably the most generous troll that a fan could ask for. But more than that, the singer - and Bloc Party’s - moves over the last few years suggest that maybe there’s a side to them that we’ve had wrong all along.

“I feel like, at the start of our career, we kind of got this rep as being bookish or heavy, and then that became [our thing]. I used to have to answer questions about being shy and then before you know it, it becomes folklore even if it’s not really true,” he recalls. Instead, the Bloc Party of today seem revitalised and less bothered about adhering to any old fashioned notions of indie purity. If they want to go back and play the hits, they will; if Kele,

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having just turned 40, wants to make the most gnarly album he’s made in nearly two decades, then he’ll do that too. “I don’t spend that much time slumming it with international socialite terrorists. Not since the kids arrived,” he jokes of his first-hand experiences with the subjects that populate ‘Alpha Games’, but there’s also the caveat given that he’s “lived a life”, one that hasn’t just been spent with his nose in a book.

Enthusing about his love of the wordplay found in rap and grime (“It’s really funny, lyrical music that maybe people don’t see because it’s Black musicians doing their thing”), before waxing lyrical on his need to always be fulfilling different ends of his musical spectrum (“I need to experience opposite ends of things at the same time to feel that I’m balanced. I think it’s because I’m a Libra”), Kele seems content revelling in all sides of his creative self. And on ‘Alpha Games’ the result is a thrilling, visceral testament to letting go and following your gut.

“I remember [on the ‘Silent Alarm’ shows] thinking, ‘I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to do this night after night’,” he recalls of the physically-demanding setlist.

“But we were able to do it. And I was kind of surprised but also I wasn’t, because over the years I’ve realised that you can do anything you want if you really want to do it.” We’ll call that game, set and match.

‘Alpha Games’ is out now via Infectious / BMG. DIY

“THAT’S THE CORE OF THE RECORD: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE STOP TREATING EACH OTHER WITH RESPECT AND THINK ONLY ABOUT OURSELVES?” - Kele Okereke

LONDON & BEYOND

Momma

Sean Nicholas Savage

Porches

Ryley Walker

Kim Gordon

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WED 25TH MAY CORSICA STUDIOS

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MIKE

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WED 3RD AUG KOKO

A DAY OF MUSIC AND RIDES BY THE SEA

TUE 23RD AUG TROXY

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MITSKI CLAIRO SOCCER MOMMY NILÜFER YANYA SORRY L’RAIN CMAT LÉA SEN HIGHSCHOOL SOCIAL SINGING CHOIR

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FRI 16TH SEP SAT 17TH SEP EVENTIM APOLLO

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Japanese Breakfast

Porridge Radio

TUE 25TH OCTSOLD OUT O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN

THU 3RD NOV O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE

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Rose City Band

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TUE 18TH OCT O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON

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in eir first album th h it w g in n r Retu T PA IN R A sW ’ find s i h T Like e t a i ‘ Rad

more than half a decade,

relishing in life’s softer rhythms and more

nourishing ways of being. nott.

Ph i l K : s o t o y. Ph n Da l a i h R s: Word

I

t’s a bright Sunday morning in Los Angeles and Warpaint are transfixed by the sight of a hawk flying around Elysian Park Playground. As it soars over a bright pink bouncy castle and a marquee that’s decorated with inflatable Elmos, it swoops down towards the ground. “It’s probably trying to get some grubs,” reasons singer and guitarist Theresa Wayman as she and her three bandmates’ gazes linger on the bird, willing it on with their eyes.

This display of nurturing nature feels like a fitting one to meet the LA-raised four-piece in.

‘Radiate Like This’ – their fourth studio release and first in six years – feels like the kind of record that soothes and nourishes you, full of songs that offer a guiding hand or a spot of support and encouragement. “I’ll wait forever / Wait for you to take your throne / I’ll wait forever / Know that you are not alone,” they hush on the murky ‘Like Sweetness’, while devotion reigns on the percussive ‘Altar’.

“We all are trying to be more vulnerable,” Theresa explains of the band’s – completed by singer/guitarist Emily Kokal, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa – current spirit. “We realised there’s a lot of power in vulnerability rather than just putting up walls and being tough bitches with each other. That just doesn’t work, it’s not sustainable. No one’s happy if that’s the case.”

Vulnerability is something that courses through their new album, the women themselves opening up and encouraging those they’re addressing to do the same; “No armour, no anxiety,” they sing on ‘Melting’. “Sincerity is

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so mocked in our society - it’s so much cooler to be cool and not say what you mean,” Emily says, then changing tack and pointing to artists like Tyler, the Creator’s recent output as proof that that attitude is shifting. “Whatever we used to be considered ‘woo-woo’ for is now modern-day speak and, like, [heard in] SoundCloud mumble rap. So that’s awesome and really liberating.”

That openness makes itself known at several points on ‘Radiate Like This’, but perhaps none more so than on ‘Stevie’: a straight-up love song that finds Emily declaring “I’m your moon and stars through any kind of weather / You’re the sun, I feel you forever.” “Sometimes you almost don’t want to write certain kinds of things, but it was really fun to let myself go as literal and unapologetically mushy gushy [as I wanted],” she smiles. “That song’s an ode to the Bonnie Raitt, Joni [Mitchell] self-confessional, intimate thing.”

A

s she speaks, her partner appears on the path a few metres away, pushing their daughter along in a stroller, the child’s face lighting up as she wheels past her mother. The singer and guitarist discovered she was pregnant while the band were hard at work on the album, and the new life growing inside of her began to change the music she was contributing and how she was approaching the sessions.

“I was scared about getting back into the album-making process and certain things in our dynamic that stressed me out,” she says, referencing some of the tensions that have cropped up in the studio in the past.

“We realised there’s a lot of power in vulnerability rather than just putting up walls and being tough bitches. ” Theresa Wayman

HIN S E YOUR

LIGHT

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“So there was a meditative, more soft space I was trying to come from in my nervous system.” Emily had also stopped drinking nine months before getting pregnant and found that, too, was having an effect on her. “I was experiencing a lot more anxiety and [thinking about] a lot more of the things that I had been quelling.”

If that was part of the mood around the recording process, you can’t hear it in the final record.

‘Radiate Like This’ is an album of great, hypnotic beauty – one that pulsates with an ethereal feminine energy in its lush, soft layers and approach to life itself. Compassion and caring feel like they are at its very core, heard in songs like lead single ‘Champion’ and ‘Trouble’.

The former, a mantra-driven warm start to the record, finds the band lamenting the divides in society and urging everyone to find another way.

Although it was written before the pandemic and the political fractions of the last two years, Theresa says

Radiate Live This When we meet, Warpaint are in the middle of rehearsals for their UK and Europe tour - here’s how they’re planning on bringing the album to life on stage.

Emily: We’ve changed the songs to suit live and now we have to loosen a little bit of what the album sounds like, to translate it into something that’s fun for us to do. Our absolute dream would be a ‘Stop Making Sense’ tour where we have horns – even though there are no horns on our record! Imagining ‘Proof’ in its full regalia and all these songs that have layers… Maybe we can even do that, we just need a sponsor…

Stella: Where you at, Gucci?!

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it has now ended up as a statement about those things. “It’s just being like, ‘Hey, how about we all just lift each other up and realise we’re coming from the same place as opposed to pointing fingers and casting stones as if we have a right to do that,’” she says solemnly. “Nobody’s perfect. Let’s just have some faith that we’re all just trying to do our best and maybe that can turn things around.”

The shadowier, more melancholy ‘Trouble’, meanwhile, turns that kindness inwards, with Emily addressing her past feelings of shame and always being in trouble for tiny things. The chorus, which finds her advising “No looking back / You’re on the other shore / Look where you land / You’re there already,” was written from the perspective of her higher self trying to liberate her from these thoughts.

“I feel like my responsibility is to check myself over and over again to make the world a better place,” she reasons, “because that’s the only way I’m not going to create more conflict in the world or in my relationships.”

A

lthough ‘Radiate Like This’ might focus largely on sharing positivity, Warpaint don’t see that as a job artists necessarily should do. “People are dealing with or processing trauma or change and that’s going to come through in art,” notes Stella. “It shouldn’t be your duty as an artist to lift people up, unless that’s the message that resonates with you.”

However though the foursome might not feel a responsibility to make their listeners happy, at this point in their trajectory they do bear a responsibility to each other. The group have been open in the past about tensions in the line-up, almost calling it quits after touring their self-titled second album in 2014 and speaking previously about the strain of in-studio compromises. But having worked towards giving each other space to pursue their own paths outside of the band over the last few years, Warpaint now feel like they’re in a solid space.

“Honesty and trust,” Jenny lists when asked what they feel they owe each other now, while Theresa reckons it’s “not staying in the same habits or patterns that might be holding us back”. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately,” she expands.

“Procrastinating or putting things off because they’re difficult or whatever – we’re never gonna bust through our glass ceiling if we don’t shift some of the things that aren’t working.”

As Warpaint keep evolving – as a band and as people – so too does what’s important to them.

Nowadays, they find satisfaction and success in very pure ways. “Gotta be happy, gotta feel the joy and love what you’re doing,” Jenny says sagely. “Life’s too short and nobody has time for that shit. You’ve got to really enjoy it.”

‘Radiate Like This’ is out now via Heirlooms / Virgin. DIY

“There was a meditative, more soft space I was trying to come from in my nervous system [on this album]. ” - Emily Kokal

47

A Path To Born of living through trauma and coming out the other side, ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ finds Sharon Van Etten attempting to write her own coping mechanisms.

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Words: Patrick Clarke. Photos: Ed Miles.

Peace “ It’s OK not to feel OK right now - to put a magnifying glass to the little silver linings while also being fucking scared. ”

S

haron Van Etten has always written about what’s in front of her.

Every album, she says a little sleepily over the first coffee of the day when we meet in East London, is “picking up from where I last left off”. It’s probably no surprise, then, that ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, written and recorded primarily over two globally tumultuous years, is particularly intense - a bold and extreme listen that swings violently between sparseness and noise. “I didn’t want to shy away from the real emotions that I was feeling,” she begins to explain.

Even if there had not been a pandemic, the album would have been written amidst a period of major personal upheaval. Not long after touring 2019’s hugely acclaimed ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, a powerful reflection on moving forward despite lingering trauma, she, her partner and their young son moved from New York to Los Angeles. When wildfire season hit California shortly afterwards, they were ordered to stay indoors for their own safety as the sky turned orange and ash fell from the clouds onto her car. “It felt like the end of the world, and no one was telling me,” she says. “I was just holding on to my family for dear life.”

At first, it was a struggle to figure out how to process it all creatively. “For lack of a better term, I was more of a housewife than an artist for a while,” she continues. “Figuring out how to go from housework to my own music was a hard shift in gears, shaking off the duties to just suddenly go and be creative.” She felt uncomfortable writing purely political songs detailing Covid, the shambolic presidency of Donald Trump, and the swell in Black Lives Matter protests - or, as she puts it, “the racism that has always existed but was blatant because of Covid and the obvious dependency on the working class for everyone else to stay home.”

The solution, she discovered, was to focus on the little things and, in particular, that sense of holding her family close. In that idea, Sharon found a vast range of emotions that she could draw on, ranging from anxiety to comfort. On the one hand, she recalls thinking “I don’t want to lose my family, and then I would have visions like, ‘What if I’m the first one to go?’ [I was] battling anxiety and depression while trying to have a brave face for my kid, waiting until he goes to bed to finally cry.” On the other, she reflects on moments of profound gratitude. “I really like seeing my son!” she smiles. “Appreciating what I have, how lucky we really are in the context of the world. I have the best partner, the best kid, this sweet house, this fucking studio in my house. All these things I worked hard for, and I can finally sit still for a minute.”

She found ripples of pleasure in the blue skies, and the lack of pollution that came with the grounding of international air travel. And it's for this reason that ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ offers far more than gloomy lockdown introspection. “I like to have some light, some glimmers of hope,” she nods, acknowledging that her ultimate intention with the record is to offer solidarity by drawing on the dramatic highs and lows of her own mini universe. “It’s reaching out to the whole world more than it is just talking about my life,” she continues.

“It’s trying to connect with people and to let them know that it’s OK not to feel OK right now - to put a magnifying glass to the little silver linings while also being fucking scared.”

Y

ou can hear that on the songs that populate ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, which stretch along a vast emotional spectrum. As well as its moments of profound darkness and apocalyptic visions, there are equal counterpoints of reassurance and warmth. After the record’s

49

quietest and most tender track ‘Darkish’ - a song that Sharon sketched out some years ago but shelved - comes its most heartening, an electro-stomping meditation on self-forgiveness called ‘Mistakes’. Her voice across the record, meanwhile, is often overwhelmingly powerful. On its aptly-titled opener ‘Darkness Fades’, delicate acoustic arpeggios give way to a firm and determined drum beat, the singer’s voice soaring with a profound, almost choral quality.

In this rush of noise, it’s impossible not to feel at least a little bit emboldened.

Lifting herself to that point, however, took a lot of work. Three of the bandmates she had toured extensively with throughout 2019, she explains, provided something of a lifeline. “I thought they would be tired of me after touring for a year, but it turns out they’re my brothers,” Sharon smiles. Having got to know each other on the road, the group were attuned to each other’s highs and lows, and would “know when to reach out” to one another. “I don’t want to bombard people with demos, but they were like, ‘Bring it on!’ I’m usually very guarded, but I shared things very early on, just for me to feel connected to them and vice versa. I wanted them to know I was still thinking about them, and I wanted to make music with them.”

Yet at their core, the foundations of ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ were created entirely by Sharon herself, alone. When she would catch herself slipping into periods of depression or anxiety, “I would prescribe myself the studio, just to play, not record.” The creative process

went further than just being a coping mechanism; it was an act of reclaiming control at a time when society seemed to be crumbling.

“I’m a rape survivor, and it took me years to learn not to be scared to go outside, not to look over my shoulder,” she says. “I finally had all the things that I needed to feel safe, but then suddenly I’m being told I can’t go outside!” She recalls going into survival mode, purchasing an axe and stocking up on water. “I feel like anyone who has experience of trauma knows that feeling of being hyper-vigilant and trying to control your surroundings, [that] even if it brings anxiety, it’s a way to feel safe. That concept is throughout the record, for sure. Even the way I wanted to take the tracks from my home studio.”

Sharon is releasing the album without any singles (recent tracks ‘Porta’ and ‘Used To It’ will be standalone releases) in order to best express the vast range of emotions it contains with as much clarity as possible. “I chose the sequencing with intention, so that it’s an experience for the listener. It’s a journey, if you have the time,” she says. In this final act, she’s simultaneously presenting an album that shows the process of powerfully reclaiming control amid total turmoil, and handing it over to a listener so they can use it to do the same. “So that people can listen to it however the fuck they want to.”

‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ is out now via Jagjaguwar. DIY

Sharon So Far…

A potted guide to SVE’s wares to date.

‘Because I Was In Love’ (2009) An understated introduction, Sharon’s debut was a selection of lo-fi, straightforward and almost entirely acoustic songs that she recorded in defiance of an emotionally abusive exboyfriend insistent that she pack it in.

‘Epic’ (2010) AKA the album in which Van Etten made good on the promise shown by her early recordings. The first major release of her career, ‘Epic’ remains an intense, confident and emotionally eviscerating record that lives up to its name and then some.

‘Tramp’ (2012) An exercise in songwriting as selftherapy, ‘Tramp’ showcased the emotional lurches between hurt and healing. All the while, production from The National’s Aaron Dessner emphasises the subtle emotional punch of the instrumentals.

“ I’m a rape survivor, and it took me years to learn not to be scared to go outside, not to look over my shoulder. ”

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‘Are We There’ (2014) From the plunging piano and sweeping strings of opener ‘Afraid Of Nothing’ to the vast emotional sweep of closer ‘Everytime The Sun Comes Up’, it’s clear that ‘Are We There’ was the sound of Van Etten stretching her wings sonically.

‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ (2018) The record that took Van Etten from critics’ favourite to international acclaim, and an entire departure from the plaintive and straightforward guitar-and-vocals of her early career, ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ is totally maximalist, full of blasting rock n roll and uninhibited crescendos.

‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ (2022) Following up a hit on the scale of ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ was no mean feat, and to do so Van Etten has ventured deeper into her soul than ever before. A direct response to the chaos, uncertainty and terror of the last few years, it’s both an intense meditation on survival, and a lifeline amid a world that feels like it’s spinning off its axis.

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ON THIRD ALBUM ‘WATERSLIDE, DIVING BOARD, LADDER TO THE SKY’, PORRIDGE RADIO HAVE STRETCHED THEIR AMBITIONS AND EMOTIONS TO THE EXTREME. “I WANT TO PUSH MYSELF TO THE EDGE OF WHAT I CAN POSSIBLY SHARE,” EXPLAINS DANA MARGOLIN. Words: Gemma Samways. Photos: Eva Pentel.

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IT’S EARLY MONDAY MORNING

and Dana Margolin is drinking orange juice on freshlybrushed teeth. “Mmm delicious,” she deadpans, to the amusement of drummer Sam Yardley, the two of them sat side by side in a North London cafe, having just got back from a short run of rescheduled European dates promoting Porridge Radio’s 2020 LP ‘Every Bad’.

If it seems a maverick move to tour so close to what will doubtless be a lengthy stretch of promo in support of forthcoming follow-up, ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’, Dana remains unrepentant. “People had bought tickets two years ago so it was nice to honour them,” she explains, and Sam is absolutely in agreement. “I was really thinking that people were gonna be so over [‘Every Bad’] by now, like, the moment’s passed. But there was still that enthusiasm. In fact, if anything, it was even more intense because of the wait.”

“I just have this need to figure out where the line is, then push through it so I can connect and communicate.” Dana Margolin

RISING Intense is a word that comes up a lot in the course of conversation today, it being the most fitting descriptor for the Brighton-formed four-piece’s journey following 2016’s self-recorded debut, ‘Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers’. Graduating from

DIY darlings to being shortlisted for the actual Mercury Prize with ‘Every Bad’, Dana, Sam, keyboardist Georgie Stott and bassist Maddie Ryall suddenly found themselves catapulted into another stratosphere entirely.

To further complicate matters, it was an experience they each went through separately - and at a distance - as the UK went into lockdown just 10 days after the record’s release. There would be no album launch party, no international travel, and no live victory lap, just an endless stream of Zoom interviews and rapidly expanding social media numbers, all experienced in the context of widespread anxiety and fear. As Sam puts it, “It felt like we were watching whatever impact [the album]

had happening to someone else.” And though these torrid times ultimately overshadowed the band’s breakthrough moment, Dana has never harboured any bitterness.

“Shit happens,” she retorts, almost indignant at the implication she might have felt put-out by the circumstances of the album’s release. “Like, why should it work out? It's not like I have a right to be in a successful band. Plus every single person has had a really difficult two years, so we were lucky that we got away with releasing the album. And actually it was amazing to just be able to stop and look after myself.

“We had such a slog getting to that point, and

everything was difficult about that album, and then we were about to go on tour for a year and I didn't really feel ready. I was really at the edge, like, I need to go to bed RIGHT NOW. So yeah, I slept for a week or two, messaged Sam, and then we started demoing songs pretty much immediately.”

T

hese were the circumstances that would lead to ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’: a wildly ambitious third LP that cements the band’s reputation as one of the UK’s most vital, and that finds Dana asserting her utter fearlessness as a songwriter over and over again. Drawing on the very darkest of moments from feelings of intense anxiety to a streak of stark self-loathing induced by failed relationships - she

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“ t ep ak an rD be em em Ir succeeds in transmogrifying intense personal pain into something triumphantly universal. And however gut-wrenching it gets lyrically, any discomfort is offset by the band’s bright arrangements, which were predominantly composed on keyboard rather than guitar, and took inspiration from some pretty eclectic and unexpected sources.

“I listen to a lot of Radio 1, and I love a lot of big pop artists, so I was just so excited to play around with sound in the studio, treating it to make it sound raw and gritty but also big and shiny,” she explains.

She cites Greg Millner’s history of recorded music, ‘Perfecting Sound Forever,’ as being particularly influential on her creative process, while musically the band looked to Charli XCX, ‘Parachutes’-era Coldplay and Deftones circa ‘Diamond Eyes’ for inspiration.

“I remember you kept saying, ‘It has to be stadium epic’,” Sam grins. “But really, the most consistent reference point was stuff that we've done previously. Like, look at the vocal in this song: this exact moment is the feeling that we want to recreate.” Dana nods in agreement. “I had – and still have – complete faith in us. The songs that we've made for this album are great, and we have great chemistry, no matter what we’re going through in our personal lives.”

SISTER SISTER

Dana’s sis Ella Margolin directed the crafty video for ‘Back To The Radio’. She explains the concept behind the piece: Dana and I are really close as sisters, and I think we experience emotions in a similar way. When Dana gets sad she often becomes dissociative, and I wanted to see what it would look like to build that feeling in 3D. To me, the video is about waking up in a world that you feel completely disconnected from.

I had originally envisaged it as a kind of triptych, taking inspiration from the Garden of Earthly Delights by Heironymous Bosch. I think that painting makes beauty and joy feel kind of sinister, so I wanted the video to feel inviting, but somehow still isolating and hard to relate to. There’s something about Dana’s music that feels really childlike – maybe in its emotional intensity and rawness – so I wanted to reflect that, as well as celebrating her DIY-ness.

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You get a pretty lucid sense of the latter in a song like ‘Birthday Party’ which, lyrically, feels like an anxiety attack in audio form, and begins with the couplet, “A fear of death, a fear of dying, why won’t the dog pick up the stick? / Panic sweats, you wake up crying, always feeling kind of sick.” Similarly, lead single ‘Back To The Radio’ conjures a slow-building dread out of squalling feedback and persistent synth arpeggios, that fear accentuated by Dana’s ragged, emotionally-wrought vocal on lines like, “Nothing’s the same and I swear that I’m haunted.”

Though written pre-pandemic, and capturing the sense of rising panic Dana was anticipating in her future, today she concedes that the song speaks to a much wider societal anxiety. “People are struggling, and they don't know how to express it,” she says. “Everyone feels like they're really alienated in their anxiety and their misery, and mental health resources in this country are really not enough and they haven't been for a long time: the system in this country just lets people down again and again.”

sa y in g, ‘It has to be

O

ne powerful lyrical device she returns to repeatedly is using physical discomfort as a metaphor for mental anguish. On ‘Rotten’ her “puny muscles ache”, while ‘Trying’ sees her dissociating, her physique calcified into “wood and stone”. By the album’s crescendoing mid-point – ‘U Can Be Happy If U Want To’ – her relationship with her body has deteriorated to the point she’s crowing, “I peel off my skin”. But perhaps most disturbing is future single ‘End Of Last Year’, a slow-burning ballad featuring the lyric, “Cut off my hands because they’re itching so much”.

Throughout, the rawness with which Dana renders these images feels more than just courageous, but borderline compulsive. “It’s absolutely compulsive,” she confirms of the lyrical process. “Nothing is off limits when I’m writing, but when I'm sharing [my writing] I sometimes pull things back a bit, or make details a bit more ambiguous. But I really want to push myself to the edge of what I can possibly share because, for me, writing and art are about translating an emotion into something that somebody else can understand.

“It's actually a really terrifying thing to do. And sometimes it's quite alienating, because some people can find it too much; too intense. But also, I can't stop myself doing it. I just have this need to figure out where the line is, then push through it so I can connect and communicate… I don’t know to what end, or if it’s all worth it.” “What else are you gonna do?” Sam interjects flippantly, and Dana laughs, “Exactly.”

Perhaps most fascinating is Dana’s use of contradiction, most starkly rendered on ‘Birthday Party’ where she proclaims in the same breath, “I want one feeling all the time / I don’t want to feel a thing”. In a society increasingly obsessed by absolutes, it’s particularly satisfying to see someone accurately express the messiness of the human mind.

“My own emotional experiences are very intense and often very contradictory,” she agrees. “And it’s about giving myself space to feel ten different emotions that, on the surface, seem not to go

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together, but actually they do. Because, you know, maybe it's just really confusing being alive? And I'm trying to figure shit out by writing.”

Ultimately, Dana’s mission to explore multifarious states of being is intrinsic to the album’s title, which was born out of her own painting - partially inspired by a collage by British surrealist Eileen Agar, and making reference to the Old Testament tale of Jacob’s Ladder. As she explains, “The waterslide represents joy and play, the diving board is about work and risk and fear, and then the ladder to the sky represents infinity, and how insignificant we all are… Each of these compositions have all three elements in them.”

‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’ is out 20th May via Secretly Canadian. DIY Porridge Radio play Open’er (29th June 2nd July) where DIY is an official media partner.

Visit diymag.com/festivals for more info.

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It’s this commitment to balance that ensures the album comes over as cathartic rather than maudlin, capturing and celebrating the endurance of the human spirit. And with the band’s musicianship coming on in leaps and bounds too, it feels like ‘Waterslide…’ could prove another watershed career moment, pushing Porridge Radio way beyond their current highs.

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That’s not to say Dana isn’t ambitious about her hopes for Porridge Radio, but that, like ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’ itself, they’re not linear but complicated and multiple. “Success for me is having the freedom to choose what we do next,” she nods, “and I definitely feel like I have ambitions [for the band] but more than it being like, ‘I want to win a GRAMMY,’ I want people to take a desire to be honest from this record. Because if I can be this vulnerable and honest, maybe other people can as well?”

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because it was this unbelievable thing that we never expected.”

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“Obviously I'd love to have a wider fanbase, but we’re still our own primary target audience,” Dana considers.

“And what interests me more is songwriting, like, how can I challenge myself? How can I learn something?

When we got shortlisted for the Mercury we thought it was kind of funny,

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These songs have a real and sincere heart.

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It all feels remarkably familiar, but given the record’s pedigree, that’s far from a bad thing. 

Arcade Fire WE (Columbia)

Arcade Fire don’t often put a foot wrong. From their critically-lauded debut ‘Funeral’, to the dizzying heights of ‘The Suburbs’ via the delicious disco of ‘Reflektor’, they’ve somehow always seemed one step ahead of the game, relentlessly pushing forward and offering up the unexpected.

Cast your mind back even just five years to the maximalist concept that shrouded previous effort ‘Everything Now’; an album which pulled no punches when it came to bombastic ambitions - think fictional corporations, giant wrestling ring live stages, a dose of abstract existential dread. And while it would become their most divisive release thus far, in hindsight it still managed to drill down into the increased cynicism and fear of our current global climate; again, just a little ahead of the curve.

So it feels somewhat apt that in 2022, the band would return with an album titled ‘WE’, at a time when connection feels so viscerally important. A more distilled version of Arcade Fire than we’re admittedly used to (the record is just seven tracks, split into two thematic halves), it’s one that seems to be content to return to the sonic strengths of their earlier albums, swapping the more jarring extrovert elements of their previous record in favour of richer choruses and grandiose moments.

And while there are still undeniable remnants of scepticism present here (the album’s opening two disco-indebted tracks are titled ‘The Age Of Anxiety’, after all), they now come backed by a tangible sense of earnestness and hope. Take the record’s lead single ‘The Lightning I, II’ - a glorious, Springsteen-ish rally call for togetherness - or the rich and moving ‘Imagine’-esque lilt of ‘End of the Empire I-IV’, that comes complete with the kind of swelling widescreen orchestration that Arcade Fire have become renowned for.

Even in the comforting message of ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ ("Look out kid, trust your heart / You don’t have to play the part / They wrote for you") written for Win Butler and Régine Chassagne’s son, it’s clear that these songs have a real and sincere heart, designed to both stir and soothe the soul in one fell swoop. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘The Lightning I, II’

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The Smile

A Light For Attracting Attention (XL) For all their stylistic iterations, global superstars Radiohead have found a base in Thom Yorke’s distinctive, high-toned vocals and melancholic lyrics. ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’, the debut full-length from Thom’s latest musical venture, follows suit. Joined by Radiohead bandmate and guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, The Smile aren’t likely to shake associations to the ‘OK, Computer’ creators. The tracks slowly build to emotive crescendos swirling around Thom’s voice, itself as much part of the instrumentation as the full brass section or London Contemporary Orchestra strings.

The obvious distinction arrives courtesy of Tom Skinner’s rhythmic involvement. It drives the unusual sounds of ‘Thin Things’ and the urgent ‘We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings’, pushing Thom and Jonny beyond the conceptual boundaries set by recent Radiohead records. Although mood sits firmly at the centre of ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’, there are broader swipes in tempo and style. It’s telling that the band launched with ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’, arguably the album’s most forceful outing.

Although subtle, the mood swings come quickly. ‘Thin Things’ gives way to the delicate ‘Open The Floodgates’, and ‘Skrting On The Surface’ (complete with missing i) places a gentle full stop on the record following the immediacy of the previous track. Yet much like Radiohead’s catalogue, it’s the softer tracks that carry the biggest weight. ‘Free In The Knowledge’ thrives on its unsettling melody, complete with heavily ambiguous lyrics. It all feels remarkably familiar, but given the record’s pedigree, that’s far from a bad thing. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Free In The Knowledge’

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Rammstein Zeit (Spinefarm / UMG)

It’s vulnerable, it’s heartfelt, and above all it feels real.

Rammstein arrive at their eighth album battle scarred. That much can be understood just from the sound of ‘Zeit’’s opening tracks, even for those who don’t understand a word of the metal legends’ mother tongue. The trembling synths and crunching guitar of opener ‘Armee der Tristen’ sound dystopic twisted into a minor key, while the title track’s beautifully absorbing rock opera dirge witnesseses the band at their most fragile – unsurprising when vocalist Till Lindemann confronted his own mortality after ending up in intensive care two years ago. Yet this startling sadness isn’t going to make Rammstein into shells of themselves, as the man-on-a-mission power trip of ‘Giftig’ and metallic stomp of ‘Angst’ attest, both sounding nothing short of mighty. There’s plenty of classic Rammstein weirdness too: ‘Zick Zack’ satirically snarls over pounding drums and spatters of electronica, while ‘Dicke Titten’ stuffs a marching band, a hand clap chorus and guitar chugs into three and a half minutes in a way only Rammstein could get away with because it’s just that bonkers (and to top it off, it’s about boobs).

The sound of Rammstein, then, in 2022, is about as Rammstein as they can get – unpredictable, eccentric and always brilliant. (Emma Wilkes) LISTEN: ‘Giftig’

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Let’s Eat Grandma Two Ribbons (Transgressive)

When Let’s Eat Grandma dropped the title track of this third record last year, it marked a decisive step away from the exhilarating electronic sounds cemented on 2018’s ‘I’m All Ears’. An eerie ballad accompanied by a suitably lo-fi music video, it hinted at a more explorative sound. Bookended by the hopeful ‘Happy New Year’ and the sombre title track, ‘Two Ribbons’ explores Rosa and Jenny’s individuality more than before. Although still sharing vocal duties, each track now has a distinct lead voice. This gives space for directness, delving into identity, sexuality and friendship. It also leads to a free-ranging sound, although always underpinned by the ethereal synths that place Let’s Eat Grandma somewhere between pop and unfiltered euphoria. It’s a space few have managed to occupy. ‘Hall Of Mirrors’ explores uncertain feelings, swirling downwards to spoken word-esque musings as real as the thoughts that inspired them. The borderless sound masks powerful pain.

“Dunk my head in the bathtub and scream underwater,” they offer through a wave of distortion on ‘Insect Loop’, a song that showcases the emotional rise and fall Let’s Eat Grandma so brilliantly capture. It’s a sign of their growing exploration, even more direct, succinct and personal than their two prior releases. As the title track affirms the friendship’s resilience, it notes how they have been given the opportunity to explore themselves as individuals. “Like two ribbons, still woven although we are fraying,” they admit. By accepting this, Let’s Eat Grandma have found the sonic balance between friendship, unity, and individual identity. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Hall Of Mirrors’

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Warpaint Syd

Broken Hearts Club (Columbia)

Of all the artists to emerge from the Odd Future collective, Syd is easily among the most fascinating.

First joining the likes of Tyler, the Creator and Matt Martians as a teen under the moniker Syd tha Kid, she went on to form The Internet with Matt in 2011, and released her debut solo album, ‘Fin’, in 2017.

And now, five years later, comes ‘Broken Hearts Club’. Syd is vulnerable throughout, wearing her heart on her sleeve on a record that harks back to ‘90s R&B and neo-soul but at the same time cements her as one of the most innovative artists we’ve been blessed with. While predominantly an R&B record, funk, trip hop, indie-pop, and hip hop all weave their way through, and averting ears for even a moment risks missing something special.

From opener ‘CYBAH’, or ‘Could You Break A Heart’, featuring Lucky Daye, she showcases a sparser, more minimalist sound and plays around with negative space. Elsewhere, some tracks veer more into radio-friendly pop territory, like the catchy ‘Fast Car’ and ‘Right Track’. The former has a sundrenched indie-pop feel with a funky guitar solo – this might be a heartbreak album in many respects, but she isn’t dwelling on sadness. ‘Broken Hearts Club’ is vulnerable, it’s heartfelt, and above all it feels real. (Adam England) LISTEN: 'Out Loud'

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Radiate Like This (Heirlooms / Virgin) There’s a specific vocabulary of adjectives that tends to follow Warpaint around: bewitching, hypnotic, enveloping. Though, at times, it can paint Theresa Wayman, Emily Kokal, Jenny-Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa as four musical sirens, luring unsuspecting listeners to their lair on the rocks, the simultaneous underlying thrust is that the LA quartet are, at their heart, an album band: one whose interwoven textures and palettes beg for quality time spent with them, for the listener to submit and submerge. On long-awaited fourth album ‘Radiate Like This’ (their first in six years) this much is true. But while the classic Warpaint tropes - clever, heady interplay; four voices weaving as one - are present and correct, this time the more icy edges are rounded off in favour of softness and a nurturing sense of femininity. Lead single ‘Champion’ arrives as a gentle, undulating ode to self belief, while ‘Melting’ channels an almost ‘80s melodic line into a call to drop your armour. ‘Stevie’ sounds like Unknown Mortal Orchestra with perfect girl group harmonies, ‘Like Sweetness’ bathes in its refrain (“I’ll wait forever/ Know that you’re not alone”), and even the darker rhythmic tension of ‘Hips’ is offset by a powerful sense of womanhood. Growing up and embracing their next stages of life, it’s a lesson in how to evolve gracefully. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Stevie’

Photo:Phil Knott.

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Albums

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Alfie Templeman Mellow Moon (Chess Club)

‘Mellow Moon’ seems to exist in an alternate universe.

On this fizzingly technicolour planet we take a stroll through 19-year-old Alfie Templeman's mind and find ourselves faced with a wealth of self-discovery, catharsis and sage words of empowerment. Alfie has a knack for taking the anthemic qualities of indie-pop and injecting them with pure, danceable funk.

And regardless of where it finds itself, it’s guaranteed to mainline some pure zest and vitality into any situation. The all out ‘80s synth of ‘Candyfloss’ and crazed delivery of ‘Colour Me Blue’ keep energies high, whereas ‘Galaxy’ transfers those romanticisms into a sizzling venture of elastic vocals and impressive guitar solos. It's not all swirling about in a new world, completely topsy-turvy, however. On ‘Mellow Moon’, Alfie also finds a way to work through his feelings when they reached an unfortunate low. The jazz-influenced ‘Take Some Time Away’ is soft and simultaneously fraught with pent-up stress that finds its release throughout the album. He comes to terms with coming of age in a weirder world than ever and finds joy through addressing the more challenging aspects of life and moving onwards. With his debut album, Alfie Templeman has found a means of discovering himself and a means to cope. It makes for something incredibly promising. (Neive McCarthy) LISTEN: ‘Galaxy’

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mxmtoon rising (AWAL)

Where EPs ‘dawn’ and ‘dusk’ showcased an artist that embraces distinct parallels, ‘rising’ maximises mxmtoon’s sharp pop acumen, now leaning into a complete, rounded personality in the form of disco-tinged verdant self-love anthems. Maia has always been an open book, but songs like ‘learn to love you’ and ‘sad disco’ are particularly revealing, as she sings on the former: “Once in a while, it feels like there’s too much to prove in this life” before a glowing, fuzz guitar chorus envelops the track. On ‘victim of nostalgia’ she asks “Will I always be the words I wrote when I was 17?” reinforcing the album-wide sentiment of reflecting on artistic progression, evident alone by the title itself. ‘rising’ eventually moves from lamenting the past, to embracing the status quo (’growing pains’), and finally rebirth on the finale (’coming of age’). It tells an indulgent and personal story of subsistence through her candid lens. What makes the record so enchanting is that Maia isn’t cosplaying as a confessional teenager, but in fact at 21 she holds first-hand experience of growing up ‘stranded’ by a pandemic, and the growing pains therein. Maia is to indie-pop what Olivia Rodrigo is to pop-punk - a fresh and welcome face that disregards gatekeeping in favour of utilising nostalgia to captivate new audiences, bridging a gap that ignores the omnipotent zeitgeist for confessional, shimmering accessibility. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘sad disco’

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Porridge Radio Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky (Secretly Canadian)

With trajectory-changing 2020 LP ‘Every Bad’, Brighton’s Porridge Radio became a band simply too good to ignore. A word-of-mouth breakthrough success following underthe-radar debut ‘Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers’, its intensely cathartic stories, narrated by lynchpin Dana Margolin’s edge-of-the-precipice vocal delivery, propelled the quartet suddenly out of the underground and onto the Mercury Prize shortlist: a place they clearly never expected to be and that, Margolin has explained, fed into much of anticipated follow-up ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky’’s lyrics. Full of visceral, tactile imagery of sickly bodies and wretched mental states, the experience has evidently been a head fuck; if ‘Every Bad’ was raw, then ‘Waterslide…’ is almost compulsive in its need to splay its heart across every moment. Skin is peeled away in majestic centrepiece ‘U Can Be Happy If U Want To’ and hands are cut off in the strangely gentle, tender ‘End of Last Year’; there’s barely a track here that doesn’t contain references to breaking points and bodily rejections, to sadness and badness and mantras of pain (“I don’t want to be loved,” repeats ‘Birthday Party’ as it crescendos into an Arcade Fire-like purge). But therein lies the brilliance. Like the greatest musical masters of devastation (there are touches of The Cure found throughout the album’s increasingly widescreen sensibilities), there’s something invigorating about how audibly Porridge Radio stare their demons head on, step up to the plate and turn them into something big and ambitious and beautiful. And, much like its title, ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky’ might be riddled with hurt but its takeaway feels a lot like hope. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘U Can Be Happy If U Want To’

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Sigrid

How To Let Go (Island) Boasting ten top 40 singles in her native Norway and a top-five debut album in the UK, Sigrid unarguably has a name for herself as a hit-making machine. Yet ironically, that’s exactly where much of the criticism of debut album ‘Sucker Punch’ came from; every song was a radio-ready single, but there wasn’t much to tie it together. Opening confidently with the sci-fi-inspired ‘It Gets Dark’, the core theme of ‘How To Let Go’ becomes apparent: throughout the album Sigrid is colliding with herself, accepting everything she is, the light and the dark. At times she is the unabashed pop star who takes huge stages in her stride; on ‘It Gets Dark’, she accepts each fragment of her personality through euphoric hooks and anthemic beats, and with the dance-heavy ‘Burning Bridges’ she turns to face the darkness of someone else. In this case, it results in the story of leaving a partner set to a soundtrack of flourishing sonic confidence. But ‘How To Let Go’ is an album of two halves, where at times she seamlessly slides back into the laid-back persona of old. On ‘Dancer’ and the acoustic guitar-led ‘Grow’, she's still that chill girl from Norway, and it's in these contrasts where you find the album’s story, one that tells of coming of age and acceptance: without dark, you cannot know light. (Bethan Harper) LISTEN: ‘It Gets Dark’

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Sunflower Bean Headful Of Sugar (Lucky Number)

Photo: Eva Pentel.

Sunflower Bean’s last outing, 2019’s ‘King of the Dudes’ EP,

Big and ambitious and beautiful.

was flawless; a short but supremely sweet about-turn from the previous year’s somewhat softer ‘Twentytwo In Blue’, which showcased a fearsome sound from the trio, seemingly ready to become torch-bearers for New York City’s storied line of sleazy rock’n’roll icons. It’s that confidence that’s the biggest through-line to third full-length ‘Headful Of Sugar’; a record which can’t help but beg the question, ‘Where next?’. Drummer Olive Faber may be one of many artists who’ve turned their talents to production in the last couple of years, but it’s her smart use of layering - the swaggering, ‘80s hair metal guitar solo almost buried in the title track; the synths barely making themselves known on ‘Stand By Me’ - and electronic textures, from soft (opener ‘Who Put You Up To This’ ) to all-out industrial (ultimate standout, the beautifully beastly ‘Beat The Odds’), which tie together the record - ultimately an exercise in Sunflower Bean showing off that they can do just about everything well. ‘Baby Don’t Cry’ is as peppy sonically as it is lyrically emo in the most wonderfully melodramatic way.

‘Post Love’, meanwhile, successfully carries on another of NYC’s legacies, with its obvious nods to early disco. And as if to hammer this whole point home, ‘I Don’t Have Control Sometimes’, on which frontwoman Julia Cumming’s are highpitched and breathy - coquettish yet in command - is followed by ‘Stand By Me’, which uses her lower range to similarly stunning effect. What’s more, in a world where invisible rules tell of front-loading albums with singles; ‘Headful of Sugar’ ends on a thrashing high: ‘Feel Somebody’ is two-and-a-half minutes of pure grunge joy. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘Beat The Odds’

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Tate McRae

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Sharon Van Etten

We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong (Jagjaguwar) After spending much of the last couple of years looking back, having reissued her breakthrough ‘Epic’ last year for its tenth anniversary, Sharon Van Etten is now very much fixed firmly on the future. The records that followed; ‘Tramp’ in 2012 and 2014’s ‘Are We There’ established her further as one of the great modern indie rock songwriters and while ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ in 2019 was a little bit of a diversion, focusing heavily on synths and electronics and a more brooding atmosphere, 'We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong' brings back guitars in a way that makes for sprawling soundscapes. Sharon declined to release any singles from the album prior to release, a rarity in an era of drip-feeding run-ups to albums, and even the cursory first few listens make it clear why; ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ is clearly designed to be listened to of a piece, from the softly soaring opener ‘Darkness Fades’ to the lovelorn, acoustically-driven ‘Anything’ and the heart-rending minimalism of ‘Darkish’.

Perhaps the standout moment acmes at the midpoint, in the form of ‘Born’, which builds slowly towards an epic, string-led conclusion. With a lyrical outlook that focuses on family and the uncertainty of the past two years (the affecting ‘Home to Me’, in particular, is written as a paean to her son), this is very much the most mature Sharon Van Etten offering to date - and perhaps the most musically accomplished, too. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Born’

I Used To Think I Could Fly (RCA)

Tate McRae pulls out all the emotional stops on ‘I Used To Think I Could Fly’. Confessional, coy, and at times cheeky, she taps into all the anxieties and awkwardnesses of the life she’s navigating, confiding her deepest feelings in us - it’s comfortingly universal.

Sometimes she veers deep into the diary-entry style, while elsewhere it’s pure piano (the painfully intimate ‘Hate Myself’, ethereal closer ‘Goodnight’).

Sometimes she has swooning synths chiming in to expand the heartbreak (slow-burner ‘Chaotic’, ‘Feels Like Shit’) - and while these moments are moving, at times, they feel a little self-indulgent.

Perhaps that’s because when Tate turns up the heat a little more, it becomes the perfect, angsty vessel for what she’s saying. ‘She’s All I Wanna Be’ glitters dangerously with pent-up rage; she brushes this intensity a little more breezily on ‘Cool’, a little more spikily on ‘What Would U Do’, always delivering the emotion despite the less immediately melancholic sound of her lush vocals. It’s clear from the album that Tate McRae’s arsenal of jagged pop weapons is extensive, and can be expertly wielded when she wants. (Ims Taylor) (Ims Taylor) LISTEN: ‘She’s All I Wanna Be’

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Lykke Li

EYEYE (Play It Again Sam / Crush Music)

Lykke Li’s noir avantpop takes an increasingly introspective turn with palindromic audiovisual venture ‘EYEYE’. Swapping the peppy choruses of ‘so sad so sexy’ and ‘I Never Learn’ for a more subdued style, the Swede tacks to a spareness reflected in the album’s development recorded in her LA apartment with vocals captured via a no-frills handheld drum mic. The polish of earlier records remains, however, elegiac electronic moments trickling through ‘Highway To Your Heart’ and ‘Carousel’, and ‘Happy Hurts’ revisiting the grandiose dream-pop of past work in its suite of harmonies, its glacial synth shared with closing track ‘ü&i’. Lacking the previous high energy sweep, ‘EYEYE’ offers a poignant exploration of lust, attraction, attachment and rejection set to a self-proclaimed “hyper sensory landscape,” which the singer renders through her usual baroque filter.

Coinciding with a series of one-minute videos, the eight-track collection finds its voice through an ever more personal lens, one that dials down the familiar ignitable fare in favour of intricate ambient spread.

In doing so, variation on past cues and themes are offered, sonically pared down yet expansive in concept – an effort that adds new facets and angles to Lykke Li’s art. (Chris Hamilton-Peach) LISTEN: ‘Happy Hurts’

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Ethel Cain Preacher’s Daughter (Daughters of Cain)

Last year’s ‘Inbred’ saw Florida-raised Ethel Cain step beyond the hushed bedroom production of her early work.

Presenting a brilliantly unsettling picture of her troubled past, it marked a huge growth in confidence. It also provided an early snapshot of what she would go on to cement with this full-length debut. She has an unparalleled power to drag you into her world. Raised in a heavily religious setting by her pastor father, Ethel Cain emerged as the haunting creative outlet for Hayden Anhedönia. Rejected by her community for coming out as gay and then transgender, the project became an extension of everything Hayden wanted to be. Inspired

by Florence Welch and Lana Del Rey, both of whom find influence deep under the gothic middle-America twang of ‘Preacher’s Daughter’, Hayden’s creation began to blur heavily with real life. This dark duality runs through ‘Preachers Daughter’, Ethel and Hayden now seemingly interchangeable.

On ‘Hard Times’ she longs for the love of a distant father with her distinct soft

Flume

Palaces (Transgressive / Future Classic)

Inspired by his relocation to rural New South Wales following a decade in LA, ‘Palaces’ represents a homecoming for Flume. With the idyllic backdrop of his Northern Rivers base as an impetus, the Aussie electronic wunderkind eschews the glitched-out route of his earlier releases, instead rebooting the kind of instant earworms that powered predecessor ‘Skin’. Twinning synth trickery with chart appeal has been a mainstay of Harley Streten’s craft, and his third album continues to blur the line between off-kilter and accessible in its parallel-dimensioned pop. Opener ‘Highest Building’ sticks to this two-tone chemistry in skewing synth stabs with Oklou’s elastic refrains, ‘Get U’ closely rivalling in its alien-like pull. MAY-A collaboration ‘Say Nothing’ champions the album’s radio-friendly chops, while the hypnagogic ‘Sirens’ sees Caroline Polachek’s trademark vocals join climaxing electronica – partnerships that capture the imagination and innovation at the heart of Flume’s output. This dynamic carries the reunion with Kučka on ‘Escape’ as well as the meditative Damon Albarn-featuring title track, which taps into the ecological origins of the record via its birdsong incidentals. From this new personal phase, Flume’s latest techno-charged offering upscales the drops, fidgety distortion and replay value that has proved a constant in his playbook. (Chris Hamilton-Peach) LISTEN: ‘Sirens’

drawl. The way she approaches sex on ‘Gibson Girl’ is powerfully damaged, as the track effortlessly reimagines the stadium rock guitar solo. It’s never sounded so devastating. That Ethel lives on a diet of horror films in her converted 19th Century Indiana church isn’t lost on the sound. ‘Ptolemea’, one of the album’s many tracks running over six minutes in length, is nothing short of nightmarish.

But for all its gloom, ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ balances it with understated hope. Ethel Cain is a success story, after all. She’s an autobiographical embodiment of escape, and of a fresh start. ‘Thoroughfare’ jumps to a different world, touching on country in her unmistakable style. ‘American Teenager’ offers perfect epic pop told through Ethel’s blacktinged glasses. Here, Hayden battles with expectations and normality, deconstructing the modern American Dream. It questions the reality of being told you can be whoever you want to be. Ethel is who she is despite, and not because of, what has come before. Change, escape and identity are not easy things to navigate, and ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ is the dark, unsettling, sprawling beauty that comes out of it. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Gibson Girl’

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Vince Staples

Ramona Park Broke My Heart (Blacksmith / Motown / Motown UK) With Vince Staples already acknowledging that these latest tracks were put together at the same time as 2021’s self-titled offering, it’s hard to know if he’s found a groove or fallen into a rut. ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’ boasts all the same skill and deftness, but it doesn’t quite pulse with the same restless energy or threaten the same lethal bite. Mixing the characteristic lament of a troubled and violent life with lighter tones and sounds, Vince doesn’t seem to want to commit to being entirely introspective or making a truly obvious push for chart supremacy. Opening with “Ah yeah, everybody a killer / Trying to make it to the top / We can’t take everybody with us,” ‘The Beach’ introduces us once again to clever wordplay and lush production, but ends abruptly in the sound of gunfight, before leading us into ‘Aye! (Free The Homies)’, a bubbling anthem.

‘Slide’ and ‘Papercuts’ mark a highpoint: hooky but weighty, driven and well-structured. At his best, he’s still making it look far too easy. The excellent vocal flow is best sampled on early single ‘Rose Street’, while album closer ‘The Blues’ with its persistent repetition of “money made me numb” leaves a lasting emotional connection. Lacking the intensity of classic ‘Summertime 06’ or the fearless experimentalism of ‘Big Fish Theory’, ‘RPBMH’ is happy to entrance with the content of its own story. As it is it feels like a set of wellcrafted songs, executed without error but injected with the vitality and momentum from a spring that’s starting to run dryer. Vince himself acknowledges the album as a conclusion. It finds him at his most confident, if not most innovative, and maybe his most comfortable. If this is to mark a finality to Vince looking back, it’s certainly intriguing and tantalisingly unpredictable to imagine where he heads next. (Matthew Davies Lombardi) LISTEN: ‘Rose Street’

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Belle & Sebastian A Bit Of Previous (Matador)

It might be a surprise to discover that this tenth Belle & Sebastian album is the veterans’ first LP proper in over seven years. It feels as if they’ve never quite been away; they released a three-part suite of EPs, ‘How to Solve Our Human Problems’, and also soundtracked the Simon Bird-directed comedy Days of the Bagnold Summer. Still, we haven’t quite had anything resembling their traditional grab-bag since 2015’s ‘Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance’, and, despite the pandemic nixing plans to decamp to California to record it, ‘A Bit of Previous’ remains an enjoyably sunny listen, even if one frequently inflected with melancholy. That’s true on breezy opener ‘Young and Stupid’, and on the timely ode to defiance and conviction ‘If They’re Shooting at You’, as well the chirpy ‘Come On Home’. Elsewhere, Stevie Jackson chips in with his usual soulful reflection on ‘Deathbed of My Dreams’, while Sarah Martin rounds off the songwriting triumvirate with the synth-led ‘A World Without You’. It’s very much familiar territory for the Glasgow stalwarts - in fact, ‘If They’re Shooting at You’ is actually a partial rework of the 2018 single ‘Poor Boy’ - but when they’re serving up classical pop tracks this accomplished, it’s ground you’re delighted to hear them going back over. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Young and Stupid’

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Bloc Party

Alpha Games (Infectious / BMG) It's an understatement to say that lot has happened since Bloc Party's last album - 2016's ‘Hymns’ - and on 'Alpha Games', the outfit’s sixth effort, their despair at the state of the world is tangible. Holding back neither lyrically or sonically, propulsive opening track ‘Day Drinker’ kicks things off at breakneck speed. The equally exhilarating ‘Traps’ is one of several tracks situated in the club, but it’s far from all glamorous hedonism - that song itself is a cautionary tale of being taken advantage of, while ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ is quite literally an observation of booze-fuelled violence. Neither is it all shrouded in seriousness, however, as ‘Rough Justice’ manages to dabble in drug-taking and quote ABBA in virtually the same breath.

Better still is the one-liner from the resigned ramblings of closer ‘The Peace Offering’: “The first thing I lost was belief in the system / But in the end the system always wins.” (Sarah Taylor) LISTEN: ‘Rough Justice’

Obongjayar

Some Nights I Dream Of Doors (September)

“I think it’s time I stopped running from myself”, asserts Obongjayar on the title track of this debut LP. It feels like a mantra, diving head first into a technicolour world in which he is firmly at its centre.

Born Steven Umoh, the artist has had a rich tapestry of successes, with four EPs and features with Little Simz, Pa Salieu and, most recently, Jeshi under his belt. His distinctive voice, ranging from guttural lows to a glittering falsetto, is the tool he uses to sculpt out his vast sonic vision. A project that celebrates life and love, with ‘Some Nights I Dream of Doors’ we are granted access to Obongjayar’s masterful artistic imagination. Opening number ‘Try’ reflects on the endless possibilities of childhood. ‘Message In A Hammar’ is an anthem of resistance. Quivering with rage, he calls out the violence and arrogance of state corruption - with a particular focus on Nigeria’s special police force SARS. No-one is safe from his venomous tongue - “President (thief), Governor (thief), Senator (thief), Commissioner (thief)”. It’s urgent and timely, a militaristic drum pattern counting down the minutes until an uprising begins. It’s a message of community resistance.

There are softer instances too, the tender ‘All The Difference’ capturing intimate moments kissing under the fairylights in a lover’s kitchen. Catching the minutiaes of love, it’s these small gestures that make all the difference. Awash with midnight blue hues, his voice is soft and sweet as synths hum in the background like fireflies - their wings murmuring in the evening twilight. He takes many forms, looking at situations from multiple perspectives in order to understand a little better what truly lies behind those doors. (Bryony Holdsworth) LISTEN: ‘Message In A Hammar’

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Ibeyi Spell 31 (XL)

“Twins are the same / It’s a cliche.”

There’s every chance that - twins; Afro-French Cubans; daughters of decorated musicians Ibeyi’s work would be attributed to explorations of identity even if they didn’t mention any at all. But on third album ‘Spell 31’ they do just this in a manner that’s playful, and with immediacy. ‘Sister 2 Sister’, from which that lyric is taken, also features the line “Singing along with Shakira / Washing our souls in the river,” at once describing their relationship with each other and, as the band's Lisa-Kaindé put it when talking about the Pa Salieu-featuring ‘Made Of Gold’, “conveying our reconnection to [our ancestors'] power.” The Ghanaian-British rapper is one of a handful of guests here, each of whom allow Ibeyi to reflect the past and present simultaneously. Jorja Smith joins in on the slinky, Greek mythology-referencing ‘Lavender & Red Roses’, while a star turn comes from BERWYN, who adds a contemporary verse to a mesmerising cover of Black Flag’s 1981 anthem, ‘Rise Above’. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘Sister 2 Sister’

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Girlpool Forgiveness (ANTI-)

Dissecting every corner of their sound, exploring every possible avenue, with ‘Forgiveness’, the duo loose the threads that hold Girlpool together. The orchestra of slow-burn glitch-pop that constitutes the opening throes of the album dissolves as quickly as it manifests into the swooning guitar strumming of ‘Violet’ and, from then on, ‘Forgiveness’ becomes an exercise in the intersections between. There are moments where every effort and inflection Girlpool are throwing in feels totally symbiotic. ‘Afterlife’ simultaneously boasts a melody that taps into the pair’s pop-poetry sensibilities, and is transported onwards to somewhere otherworldly by vibrant, deep production. Similarly, ‘Junkie’ oscillates between simplicity and intensity; brash because it’s so restrained yet so captivating - Harmony Tividad’s vocals are piercing, and her words are sheer intoxication, ringing out incantations. Again, the melodic construction is standard. But the flickering, fluttering instrumentation blending mournful horn tones and piano notes with electronic sparkle is a pulsing demonstration of Girlpool’s mastery of control. (Ims Taylor) LISTEN: ‘Afterlife’

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Everything Everything Raw Data Feel

(Infinity Industries / AWAL)

Everything Everything’s decision to turn to AI to furnish their sixth album is less a desire to channel music’s leading experts in technological dystopia (Muse, this obviously means Muse), and more a studious exercise in digital découpé. But coming from a group whose lyrics usually land at around a 7 or 8 on the ‘zero to alt-J’ scale, who’d really be able to tell the difference? The Manchester indie stalwarts have made solid attempts at echoing their methods in the record’s sonic palette (opener ‘Teletype’ threatens to descend into ‘90s dial-up modem at any given moment), and it’s also a neat mechanism through which to allow producer/ guitarist Alex Robertshaw to lean into ’80s synth territory with a mild stab at retrofuturism. Otherwise, it’s a largely hit-andmiss pop record. And the discord between this -arguably an attempt to join the swelling ranks of chart-busting nerdy boy UK pop stars - and the occasional peeking through of the album’s premise (‘Software Greatman’, ‘My Computer’, which ultimately suffer most from one of said acts, Bastille, having very recently released a whole record on a similar premise) - means ‘Raw Data Feel’ seems nearly as jumbled as what the band’s algorithm may have spat back at them first time around. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘I Want A Love Like This’

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Static Dress Rouge Carpet Disaster (self-released)

Having already enchanted the underground with their darkly futuristic alt rock and immersive visual universe, Leeds’ Static Dress are announcing themselves to the rest of the world as British rock’s brave new hope; this debut offers to carry the torch that My Chemical Romance once led their black parade with. Comparisons to ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’ will easily abound, but rather than letting their influences overwhelm their identity, Static Dress are bouncing off them into their own brand of emo gold. It’s darker, leaner, sexier and - at points - a lot heavier, with ‘Lye Solution’ and ‘Courtney, just relax’ exploding in a cloud of world-ending noise. At the other end of the spectrum, they make beautiful things out of softer sounds with the twinkling twilight balladry of ‘Attempt 8’ and quietly blossoming epic ‘Marisol’, and it becomes almost impossible to believe that this is only a debut album when this band sounds like they’ve known themselves their whole lives. If there’s any shred of justice in the world, this is going to be a future emo classic – and it’s fully deserving of it. (Emma Wilkes) LISTEN: ‘Marisol’

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Q&A With ‘Forgiveness’ Girlpool have crafted a collection that combines introspection with surrealism, pushing forward a new, more honest narrative. Interview: Georgia Evans.

How did you strike a balance between experimenting while also maintaining the Girlpool ‘essence’?

Avery: While we have explored newer territory sonically and production-wise, our priority is always that the song feels like it’s one we wrote. We both individually have our own priorities within our music, I feel like, with how successfully a song communicates what we need it to. So, that will always be the most important thing no matter what new stuff we're exploring.

What inspired this shift in sound?

Harmony: We’ve both been exploring these kinds of tonal landscapes for a while. I feel like in ‘What Chaos Is Imaginary’ we tapped into it a little bit, but even before we’d both been interested in more industrial, dark and aggressive sounds. With ‘Nothing Gives Me Pleasure’, it felt like the right tonality for the song, because there’s a thirst to be heard and those noises are so aggressive and cutting that it just felt well-suited. I think we've always been inspired by those sounds and [producer] Yves [Rothman] was down to help us hone in on the best approach.

What songs from ‘Forgiveness’ really resonate with you?

Avery: It’s tricky. Sometimes we'll play a song and I'm like, ‘Whoa, I feel this like so strongly right now,’ for some reason, and we'll just be in rehearsal, but I'm tearing up because I haven't felt super moved by it in a while. Other times, we’re playing a song that Harmony wrote and I'm just taken over by it.

But more specifically, when I play ‘See Me Now’, which we've been doing with just me on the guitar and singing, I feel like, ‘Wow, this is a big step for me to say a lot of these things’ and it feels really pivotal for me.

Was it hard for you to be so vulnerable?

Avery: Yeah. When I wrote it, I kind of felt cringe about a few of the parts, so I sent it to Harmony. And she was like, ‘No, that's the best part.’ I think that's the great thing about Girlpool. She understands why it makes me cringe but also knows what I need in my life and where my blocks are. What's helpful is she can see it externally as someone that doesn't have those body reactions and contractions, and is like, ‘Wait, no, this is the reason why you're scared to move closer to this’. And that kind of support is really special.

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Mahal

Butterfly Blue

Heavy Pendulum

Toro Y Moi

Mallrat

Cave In

(Dead Oceans)

(Nettwerk)

(Relapse)

“How did I get so wrapped up in current affairs?” Chaz Bear posits on ‘Magazine’, riffing off the expectation for anyone with a platform to hold a ‘hot-take’ on every issue. It sets the scene for Chaz’s desire to distance himself from the slew of this discourse on seventh studio album ‘Mahal’. Chaz is both abstract and ultimately grounded here, leaning primarily into psych-pop but often dabbling in more impulsive, improvised solo segments. From the engine sputters on the opening track, to the hi-fi ‘losing signal’ outro in ‘The Loop’, we are but passengers on his breezy road trip, immersed in his supple and fluid melodies that stretch yearningly over a hazy canvas of back-road scuzz. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘Postman’

On ‘Butterfly Blue’ Mallrat takes steps towards a bigger amalgam of influences. Gentle acoustic ballads ‘It’s Not My Body, It’s Mine’ and ‘Arms Length’ touch on twangy country, while there’s airy production and buzzy electronics on ‘Your Love’, and ‘Rockstar’ sees lethargic, bleary-eyed vocals and gauzy instrumentals descend into a doomy zenith of fuzzy guitars.

The album doesn’t see a complete betrayal of her roots though, and ‘Surprise Me’ - a laidback and strutting hip hop-tinted cut - takes an already assured record to some of its highest heights. Mallrat’s flair for fashioning disaffected bedroom pop anthems for anyone with a habit of crying in the kitchen at parties remains. (Charlotte Marston) LISTEN: ‘Surprise Me’

2019’s ‘Final Transmission’ felt like an abrupt (and understandable) coda to Cave In after the death of bassist Caleb Schofield. However, ‘Heavy Pendulum’ is an intrepid reincarnation, showcasing a focused and visceral evolution for the posthardcore hawkers. There is fresh intricacy in Stephen Brodsky and Adam McGrath’s guitar duties, their symbiotic solos adorning the verses of ‘Floating Skulls’ and ‘Wavering Angel’ with the acuity of musicians who have played together for nearly two decades. At 71 captivating minutes, ‘Heavy Pendulum’ provides a touchstone, alongside new-wave, disruptive tracks that seek to tell tales of political turmoil, the ‘new reality’ of grief and posthumous brotherhood. A long-overdue homecoming. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘Careless Offering’

RECO MMEN DED 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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The Linda Lindas Growing Up

The outfit pair political and social charge with a suitable playful charm.

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Profound Mysteries

If I Never Know You Like This Again

Honeyglaze

Röyksopp (Dog Triumph)

SOAK

Honeyglaze (Speedy Wunderground)

(Rough Trade)

Back in 2014, Röyksopp claimed fifth album ‘The Inevitable End’ to be their last - at least in a conventional sense.

And while ‘Profound Mysteries’ does come with additional shenanigans it is, one finds, very much an album.

The record mostly acts as showcase to a series of collaborations.

‘Impossible’, with Alison Goldfrapp, showcases her pop nous and the duo’s ability to make sounds both euphoric and chill at once. There’s also time for a welcome return from Pixx, her detached vocals helming a robotic influence on ‘How The Flowers Grow’, while, in direct contrast, Beki Mari situates ‘This Time, This Place’ in the heart of the dancefloor. Whether underselling ‘Profound Mysteries’ as a standalone record, or over-egging its bells and whistles, there’s still much to enjoy.

(Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘How The Flowers Grow’

SOAK’s third outing sees the Irish songwriter once again working with collaborator and fellow ‘guitar nerd’ Tommy McLaughlin. The resulting ten tracks take their cues from ‘90s alt-rock’s more mellow side, ebbing and flowing between reflection and immediacy. There’s the powerful, drum-filled opening of ‘Last July’; ‘Bleach’ and ‘Get Well Soon’, which both deftly juxtapose bright sounds with introspective lyricism; before the cinematic ‘Pretzel’. There’s a strong sense of vulnerability that shines through much of ‘If I Never Know You Like This Again’. For anyone who’s long fallen for the Derry native’s charms, third time’s a winner - for anyone who finds comfort in revelling in stripped-back melancholy, it’s a dream. (Chloe Tucker) LISTEN: ‘Bleach’

It took just three days of studio time for Honeyglaze to record this selftitled debut (though with Dan Carey at the desk, that’s perhaps no record at all); an album characterised by Anouska Sokolow’s softly-spoken vocals, around which her guitar, the bass of Tim Curtis and Yuri Shibuichi’s drum patterns envelop themselves. There’s a homely, comforting aura around it all: not least via single ‘Burglar’, which manages to make like the lovechild of Whitney’s ‘Forever Turned Around’.

Elsewhere, the breezy ‘Female Lead’ is reminiscent of walking on a warm spring day; ‘Shadows’ is a slice of sunny alt-pop; and the spoken word of ‘Deep Murky Water’ separates to make way for a harmonious chorus.

A debut that can’t help but mark Honeyglaze out as ones to watch.

(Katie Macbeth) LISTEN: ‘Deep Murky Water’

Bob Vylan

Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life The unceasingly outspoken duo have given us one of the year’s most essential records.

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Jensen McRae Are You Happy Now?

It finds an artist even more exceptional at telling her own stories than caricaturing her peers’.

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Albums

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Charlie Hickey Nervous At Night (Saddest Factory)

At its best, ‘Nervous At Night’ harks to the haze of Elliott Smith, not least through Charlie Hickey’s subtle vocals.

‘Gold Line’ marries this with a distinct bedroom-pop style that pushes past the understated fingerpicking of ‘Mid Air’ and ‘Planet With Water’. The sound feels more comfortable in its grander state, but the ebbs and flows are pulled together by his expert ability to capture a moment. Where the album drifts towards classic singer-songwriter territory – see ‘Thirteen’ - it’s this storytelling that firmly grounds it in the alternative. But ‘Nervous At Night’ places Charlie at a crossroads, largely in-keeping with its coming of age tale. There are hints at a push for the mainstream, much like divisive megastar Ed Sheeran’s early balance of folk-pop on arguable career highlight ‘The A Team’. The album is strongest either side of this, going big on the title-track or embracing Charlie’s subtle, emo nature on ‘Choir Song (I Feel Dumb)’. It’s here he best captures the dusty West Coast haze, and vivid teenage melancholia. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Nervous At Night’

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The Black Keys Dropout Boogie (Nonesuch)

You might have wondered whether the curious decision

by The Black Keys to presumably name this new album, their eleventh, after the song of the same name by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band might offer some clues on the musical direction of it - could it possibly hint at a return to their bluesy roots, especially after last year’s ‘Delta Kream’, full of hill country blues songs, suggested they were nostalgic for the past? On the evidence of its ten tracks, though, this is a step forward rather than back for The Black Keys, and might actually be the most varied record they’ve made in a decade, since 2011’s ‘El Camino’ saw them make the step up to arenas. ‘Dropout Boogie’ is an album with a lot of that record’s poppy appeal, whether it’s on the soulful earworm ‘It Ain’t Over’ or the downtempo groove of the yearning ‘How Long’, but elsewhere, there’s the same kind of rock’n’roll, riff-driven crunch they made their name on, especially on the standout ‘Your Team Is Looking Good’. Notwithstanding their work with Danger Mouse, ‘Dropout Boogie’ is the first Black Keys record to feature contributors other than frontman Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, something reflected in its more expansive sound; guitar work from ZZ Top legend Billy F Gibbons, in particular, elevates the record. Twenty years on from their debut, ‘The Big Come Up’, it’s a statement of how far they’ve come, as well as an indicator of where they might be heading next. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Your Team Is Looking Good’

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Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Endless Rooms (Sub Pop)

Jangling Aussies Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever face a familiar challenge on ‘Endless Rooms’. After a formula-establishing debut and the tour tales follow up, can they keep listeners engaged without resorting to a recipe that could quickly become stale? They opt to take on this challenge with an “anti-concept album”. In practice, it means the album is like an advent calendar: instead of a chalky chocolate behind each door, you get one of the titular ‘Rooms’; a self-contained song chronicling their discontent with their homeland. The topics covered range from the destruction of reefs on ‘Tidal River’ to bushfires on ‘Bouncing off the Bottom’. The former drives with a bass-led, post-punk energy accented with improvised guitar interjections while highlight ‘Blue Eye Lake’ thrums with a groove reminiscent of the Stone Roses. Make no mistake, the tried and true formula still remains (‘The Way it Shatters’ and ‘Saw You at Eastern Beach’ will be instant earworms for established fans) but the sound is now broadened with new accents to keep things fresh. While ‘Endless Rooms’ chronicles a darker period in RBCF’s time as a band, it’s an album that paves a sonically brighter and broader future ahead. (James Smurthwaite) LISTEN: ‘Blue Eye Lake’

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Just Mustard Heart Under (Partisan)

The gestation period for Just Mustard’s second full-length was arduous and winding. The self-produced ‘Heart Under’ was subject to meticulous tweaks and re-recordings - across the space of a year in fact - before reaching its current form. Swampy and tumultuous like a month’s worth of rain, the Dundalk five-piece have spared no expense in creating immersive, cavernous spaces of shoegazing, post-punk splendour. ‘I Am You’’s nightmarish beauty, the near perfect stillness of ‘Blue Chalk’, or the crash-bang gushes of ‘In Shade’ stand out as among the album’s finest examples of Just Mustard’s mastery of tension and time.

Haunted throughout by screeching guitars - sounding as much like screaming underground trains as guitars - sinewy basslines and stony drum textures, cutting divinely though it all are Katie Ball’s intimate vocal displays. Her skysearing voice, matched with a seductively elliptic lyrical bite, offers a blinking light of human purity within such guttural and grimacing industrial soundscapes.

Honing the epic of ‘Disintegration’-era Cure, during the Bloodiest of Valentines ‘Heart Under’ snugs right into that stream of dissonant rock currently emerging from the Emerald Isle - Gilla Band and tour buddies Fontaines DC among them.

And isn’t the world a better place for it? (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘In Shade’

Q&A

Years on from acclaimed 2018 debut ‘Wednesday’, the Dundalk five-piece have finally emerged from slumberous hibernation, recharged and revitalised.

Interview: Elvis Thirlwell.

Let’s talk about the gap between this new record and the previous one.

What developments did you feel you made as a band during this period?

David: It wasn’t an intentional big gap. It was just the same thing that happened to everyone else, that big two years of nothing. As we signed with Partisan in late 2019, we were like, “let’s release an album.” Then we were like, “let’s wait, I suppose.” Everyone slowed down. Writing was fast, but afterwards, there was a lot of that… slowness.

Katie: I don’t think those two years counted. I thought we were all making a deal that they didn’t count. I’m still 24, it’s all fine…

David: I think the album we’ve made needed a long gestation period anyway. We were lucky that everything slowed down. We made ‘Wednesday’ over a long period of time, so it was quite good that we got a similar process, just us, chipping away at it, trying to get it finished.

Katie: There didn’t seem to be any kind of hurry either, because the world had stopped.

Where do you think the impulse to become more direct with your sounds come from?

Katie: We’d already done the murky, shoegazy thing and wanted to just change it up! I know I wanted the vocals to be a lot more clear. I prefer the sound of drier vocals. Being able to hear and understand the lyrics is something I wanted.

David: The first album we specifically wanted it to sound like you were in our practice space, but you were standing on the other side of the room, watching it. There was meant to be distance between the listener and the band. But [for this album] we wanted it to sound like you were standing in the middle of us. Playing live as well, stuff sounded more direct on bigger PAs, so it was good to try and replicate that, have that feeling on a record.

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Baby Dave

Monkey Brain (selfreleased)

Body Type Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising (Poison City) ‘Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising’ is Body Type at their most cheeky, assertive, and forward-looking. On this debut, the outfit do a hell of a job of leaning into a well-established sound, by turning something classic into something caustically charming and completely characteristic. They milk it for all it’s worth, using it for fun (the whirlwind gang vocals of ‘Buoyancy’), frustration (early highlight ‘The Brood’, with its interweaving vocal musings with insistent guitars), and reflection (final pair ‘An Animal’ and the title track, which in holding back a little merely inject the album’s closing moments with more drive). The record is saturated with groovy intricacies, with basslines never standing still. In some places it paces angstily, interrupted by outcries of guitar (see ‘A Line’’s sonic call-and-response); in others it dances and shimmies, offsetting the swaying motion present elsewhere, as on midway power duo ‘Hot Plastic Punishment’ and ‘Flight Path’. On their debut, Body Type adapt their sound to the end of a listening experience that veils a spectrum of emotion in pure, irrestistible entertainment. (Ims Taylor) LISTEN: ‘A Line’

Absolute (behind the) scenes!

A sneak peek in the studio while Body Type recorded ‘Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Suprising’.

Coming Up

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Just as it was easy to miss the sentimental side of Kent noiseniks Slaves, it was equally possible the pair’s knack for satire was flying straight over the main stage mosh pits that their music found itself on rapidly following their major label signing nearly a decade ago. And yet it’s here that ‘Monkey Brain’ - the first solo outing of singing drummer Isaac Holman - finds itself. A series of lo-fi vignettes detailing - in often indelicate detail (“Sitting on the 29 / And I need a piss,” he helpfully repeats on ’29’) - ordinary suburban life, it successfully cements the singer firmly in his specific lineage: that from Mike Skinner to Suggs; Ray Davies to Damon Albarn. In fact, it comes as little surprise - between the subject matter, Isaac’s deadpan delivery, and the record’s playground rhythmic patterns - that Damon’s similarly simian mitts are all over much of the production. And when it all comes together (‘Beautiful Princess’, ‘Clarence’s Dead Dad’) it’s utterly charming. That said, the line between ‘sweet’ and ‘irritating’ is but a fine one, and the childish instrumentation here does often threaten to cross it on many an occasion. (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Beautiful Princess’

EPs 

Krush Puppies

INTERPOL - THE OTHER SIDE OF MAKEBELIEVE The NYC indie stalwarts have teamed up with production beasts Flood and Alan Moulder for their latest. Out 15th July.

Love Kills The Demons (Holm Front)

Cecil smacking some fancy pearlescent Pearl tubs probably from the 18th Century.

Soph immortalising the whole recording process in a sparkly pink notebook.

Each track on ‘Love Kills The Demons’ sluices up an eclectic genre-smoothie, one that whizzes the sweets of grunge-pop with the piquant tangs of fret-shredding psych. Krush Puppies’ cinematic compositions abound with riches and marvels aplenty. Opener ‘Throw Me On The Fire’ steadily draws breath before initiating turned-to-11 freak-out rock. The tender-hearted moodiness of ‘Why’ delivers the EP’s most strikingly poignant measures, then beefs into fuzzed-up cataclysms.

When the snare-rattling ruckus of dénouement “Everybody wants to be a cowboy” (They do don’t they?), gallops out into the sunset, we’re left in a hapless dismay of tears and exhiliarations.

(Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Why’

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Wallice ‘90s American Superstar (Dirty Hit)

Georgia working hard on an RSI during the recording of ‘Couple Song’.

Annabel having a Mr. Bean moment in the Tone Zone.

‘90s American Superstar’ is precisely what you’d expect from its deadpan, dream-weaving title. Wallice is exploring her hypothetical future fame sharply and sardonically, with equal parts idealistic anticipation and ironic apprehension. ‘Rich Wallice', the EP’s slyest dig at fame and materialism, is also its most compelling, with an ominous, opulent electro backdrop. For the most part, though, it’s suitably sunny, be it through the mellow melodies of ‘Little Leagues’, or the buoyancy of the title track. Even closer ‘Funeral’ is ethereal and laidback. It’s unsettlingly relaxed and blithely casual, and a seamless closer for an EP that condemns as much as it builds castles in a cloudy, LA-bright sky. (Ims Taylor) LISTEN: ‘Rich Wallice’

MAGGIE ROGERS SURRENDER Maggie's second sees her producing alongside Harry Styles' knobtwiddler, Kid Harpoon.

Released 29th July.

ANGEL OLSEN - BIG TIME Angel’s sixth is set to be an emotional one; ‘love and loss’ might not quite cover it. Released 3rd June.

LISS - I GUESS NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME With the blessing of late frontman Søren Holm’s family, the Swedish outfit’s debut will be released on 10th June.

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live

Sam Fender Wembley Arena, London. Photo: Emma Swann.

Both intensely moving and rousing in the same breath.

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SET LIST: WILL WE TALK? GETTING STARTED DEAD BOYS MANTRA BETTER OF ME THE BORDERS SPICE HOWDEN ALDI DEATH QUEUE GET YOU DOWN SPIT OF YOU PLAY GOD THE LEVELLER THE DYING LIGHT ENCORE: SATURDAY SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER HYPERSONIC MISSILES

Dua Lipa

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Arena, Manchester. Photo: Shirlaine Forrest.

he very best pop stars know that high camp and just the right sprinkle of silliness can be two of the finest weapons in your arsenal.

From Kylie’s confetti-strewn Glastonbury legends’ set complete with faux wedding, to Katy Perry’s iconic whipped creamshooting boobs, a big, sparkling pop spectacle should be just that: two hours of escapism to a world in which love genuinely does conquer all and there’s little that can’t be solved with an outfit change and a well-placed dance break.

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o say that Sam Fender has had a remarkable rise is really quite the understatement.

Even before the singer reaches his two soldout shows at the capital’s Wembley Arena on his current UK run, he’s already hit a fresh landmark or two on the way; on one hand, his gig at Glasgow’s Hydro gets named as the biggest indoor show the city’s seen; on the other, he’s officially named as patron for the North East Homeless charity. And it’s in this remarkable balance that the North Shields singer’s strength lies tonight.

From the start of his blistering Friday night set, an insatiable energy sizzles through the crowd. Introduced with the rousing one-two of ‘Will We Talk?’ and ‘Getting Started’, it’s the kind of anthemic start to an arena show that anyone could hope for. From then, he veers easily through his discography, slowing things down with ‘Better of Me’ before his electrifying and giddily boisterous ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’ sparks some chaos in the

crowd once more. But it’s within the set’s darker moments that his real power comes to light. For every joke cracked, or Toon Army chant sung back at him - he even has unlikely TikTok star Francis Bourgeois riding around the stage on a scooter the following evening, in a feat of truly meme-worthy moments - there are vivid pictures painted of life’s hardships.

From the devastating ‘Dead Boys’, or the humbling message of masculinity’s challenges within ‘Spit Of You’, via incendiary single ‘Seventeen Going Under’, he treads a fine line perfectly; somehow managing to be both intensely moving and rousing in the same breath. It’s little wonder, really, that he’s been compared to Springsteen for so long now, because on stage, in front of this many people, it really does all click into place. And much like The Boss proved before him, to go from working class hero to a world-beating star in the blink of an eye is no mean feat.

Tonight, Sam Fender pulls it off just fine. (Sarah Jamieson)

It’s a memo that Dua Lipa has undoubtedly clocked and that comes into practice from the opening seconds of the star’s long-overdue Future Nostalgia tour: a celebration of almost certainly the best pop album in recent memory that catapults its author into the top tier of the world’s pop elite. Introducing the singer’s dance crew via a series of ‘90s Gladiators-style neon avatars, tonight - the opening Manchester date of the tour - expertly pushes the boundaries of cool, mixing the sexy and the silly into one joyous explosion with a consistently flawless soundtrack.

If Taylor Swift has her giant snake, then surely the unlikely hero of tonight is the massive inflatable lobster that bobs surreally in the background of ‘We’re Good’ as a nod to its high concept video. During ‘Electricity’, Dua and her dancers spin around a la ring-a-roses; in ‘New Rules’, they parade down the walkway wielding completely unnecessary umbrellas; clad in something akin to sexy skin-tight morph suits, the

end of ‘Pretty Please’ writhes around like a strange, PG13 orgy. The whole spectacle could, in the wrong hands, be chaotic, but helmed by such effortless sass, with Dua it all makes complete sense.

Though the first half of the evening is a surprisingly understated warm up, the traditional arena show whistles and bangs largely dialled back in order to let the songs shine; come the final 45 minutes you can see where the money’s been spent. ‘Levitating’ is performed, of course, from a moving crane platform, with stars and moons lowered down from the rafters, while a giant light cube sets the stage for a club portion of the show that includes oldie ‘One Kiss’ and ‘Cold Heart’ - replete with Elton VT beamed onto the screen. Whoever ordered in the balloons for a mid-song drop needs to at least quadruple the numbers, but even the underwhelming sight of four-anda-half balls bobbing about sort of fits the retro tongue-incheek-ness of the show.

Perhaps the night’s finest moment comes, however, in its final encore, when Dua returns to the stage completely solo to deliver ‘Future Nostalgia’’s title track; writhing and hair-tossing like an indisputable superstar, it’s the sort of supremely confident move that only someone at the peak of their powers can pull off. Which is exactly where Dua Lipa, of course, is right now. And as the whole crowd erupts to a final joyful ‘Don’t Start Now’, it’s a mic drop on the sort of victory lap even some of the singer’s most successful peers can only dream of. (Lisa Wright)

SET LIST PHYSICAL NEW RULES LOVE AGAIN COOL PRETTY PLEASE BREAK MY HEART BE THE ONE WE’RE GOOD GOOD IN BED FEVER BOYS WILL BE BOYS ONE KISS ELECTRICITY HALLUCINATE COLD HEART LEVITATING ENCORE: FUTURE NOSTALGIA DON’T START NOW

A celebration of the best pop album in recent memory.

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George Ezra

Arcade Fire KOKO, London. Photo: David Levene.

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his venue burned to the fucking ground,” Win Butler tells the crowd at London’s KOKO half way through Arcade Fire’s show at the Camden venue, which reopens tonight after a devastating fire in early 2020 and subsequent £70m renovation. “The only thing that survived is this fucking disco ball,” he exclaims, as lights shine on the glowing orb and dazzle the room as the band race into a rendition of ‘Afterlife’.

It’s not a complete line drawn under the ‘Everything Now’ era for the band though. When the start of the 2017 album’s title track receives the most rapturous reception of the whole night, Win quips: “Fuck the haters,” and the line between earnest and silly is toed perfectly across the show.

One-off 2020 single ‘Generation A’ is a rabble-rousing punk hit that channels The Clash (who Win thanks before the song) and oldie ‘Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)’ is as vital and spine-tingling as it was in 2004, but the set is also daft, funny and camp in all the right places.

KOKO perished just a few months before the pandemic began in earnest, and it’s an easy but understandable narrative to see tonight as the coming together of various returns – of one of London’s most storied and beautiful venues; of live music as a whole; of one of the best live bands in the world.

Surrender yourself to the cheesy story, though, and tonight’s show becomes a biblical, ecstatic breakthrough.

For opener and new song ‘Age Of Anxiety I’, Régine shines lasers out of her knuckles out onto the crowd, before donning a laser belt for the dazzling ‘The Suburbs’ highlight ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’. For viewers across the world – the show is being livestreamed on Twitch – it’s a taster of a surely beckoning arena show, with the band stretching their muscles even further as they enter their third decade of being a band.

The KOKO show comes just a week before the release of the group’s sixth album, ‘WE’. “There’s nothing saccharine about unconditional love in a world that is coming apart at the seams,” Win wrote in a statement accompanying new single ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’, and though its rendition in the encore tonight is accompanied by inflatable tube men thrashing around in front of the band, the song’s message of communion – written for Win and Régine Chassagne’s son but with a universal essence – cuts through brilliantly and shows a band determined to connect once again on a real level.

Before a second encore, where they debut sprawling new song ‘End Of The Empire I-IV’, Win instructs the operators to turn off the cameras and stop the livestream. “I’m fed up of the internet shit,” he says forcefully.

Instead, the energy that was flowing across the world is now all concentrated inside the room as the grand new song, set over sweeping strings, gets its world premiere. A welcome back for Arcade Fire, for KOKO, for live music, this is a night that sees everyone involved craving human connection more viscerally than ever before, and when it arrives, it feels like we’re properly, truly back.

(Will Richards)

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Palladium, London. Photo: Emma Swann.

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here are few other acts that are primed for sunny festival season quite like George Ezra. Armed with catchy pop hooks and infectious melodies, his upbeat pop’n’roll sing-a-longs seem to be made to be yelled back by a grinning crowd, beer in hand. Set to headline Finsbury Park later this year, it’s sure to be good vibes all round, but after three years of not performing, George decided to make his “warm up” shows before the big event a slightly more intimate affair.

Diving straight in with ‘Anyone For You’, the first taste of his upcoming third album ‘Gold Rush Kid’, the crowd may be a bit reserved as they remain seated, albeit bouncing along, but it’s not long until declarations of love start being yelled from the balconies. “We’ve been calling these warm-up shows, but you don’t need warming up!” George laughs, before playing ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ cut ‘Get Away’.

SETLIST AGE OF ANXIETY I READY TO START THE SUBURBS THE SUBURBS (CONTINUED) NEIGHBORHOOD #1 (TUNNELS) GENERATION A MY BODY IS A CAGE AFTERLIFE REFLEKTOR AGE OF ANXIETY II (RABBIT HOLE) CREATURE COMFORT SPRAWL II (MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS) EVERYTHING NOW ENCORE 1: THE LIGHTNING I THE LIGHTNING II REBELLION (LIES) UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) WAKE UP ENCORE 2: END OF THE EMPIRE I-III END OF THE EMPIRE IV (SAGITTARIUS A*)

Second album big-hitters ‘Don’t Matter Now’ and ‘Pretty Shining People’ also get an outing, the latter ending with George stepping back from the mic as the whole crowd take over singing “Don’t we all need love? The answer is easy”. An emotional and sweet moment, it’s only slightly outdone by the phone-light torch show that begins throughout the venue as soon as the moving ‘Hold My Girl’ starts.

‘Did You Hear The Rain’ gets a thunderous makeover before George introduces new single ‘Green Green Grass’, premiering the track live before its official release. Inspired by a trip to St Lucia (fuelled by some “lethal” rum punches), the song was written after he followed some upbeat music on holiday only to find out that it was coming from a funeral. Belting out the new ‘Gold Rush Kid’ banger, with the chorus “Green, green grass / Blue, blue sky / You better throw a party on the day that I die”, it’s another stomper from the singer. And the roaring reaction hints that his new album will be yet another platinum-selling crowd-pleaser.

The party continues after, with the crowd finally rising to their feet, as George gets the Palladium dancing and singing during ‘Paradise’, ‘Blame It On Me’ and ‘Budapest’, quickly exiting for an encore before signing off the night with a bang as he drops huge hits ‘Cassy O’ and ‘Shotgun’.

A joyous affair from start-to-finish, it’s clear that George Ezra’s reign as the king of pop’n’roll is nowhere near its end. (Elly Watson)

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IT’S YOUR ROUND A big inter-band pub quiz of sorts, we’ll be grilling your faves one by one. Now brought to you via Zoom!

THIS MONTH: WALLICE Where: Home in LA Drink: Perfected oat milk matcha recipe

General Knowledge

SPECIALIST SUBJECT: Japanese Food

3

1

Unagi is what?

Maguro is sushi made Freshwater eel. from which fish?

Correct!

I just eat it, I don’t know what it is!

My boyfriend is miming what it is… That’s my favourite sushi.

Are you phoning a friend?

Yes! Oh, it’s tuna.

We’ll give you and your boyfriend half a point for that.

2

What is the triangle or round shaped rice ball or cake sold as a snack in every convenience store in Japan?

Onigiri!

So speedy, well done.

5

4

What is Japanese hot rice wine called?

Oh… sake!

Perfect.

Tempura and katsu are both deep fried.

What’s the difference between them?

Umm… katsu has panko crumbs?

Yes! You know, tempura is actually from Portugal originally…

6

True or false: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa does not have eyebrows?

False?

It’s true! She doesn’t have any eyebrows.

That’s in Paris right? I think I’ve seen that before. Maybe she just had really thin eyebrows.

Maybe she over plucked!

7

Who wrote the first Winnie the Pooh books?

I feel like it’s a name I should know… It’s not Disney right?

It’s A.A. Milne.

I would never have known that.

10

4.5/5 4.5 /5

FINAL SCORE:

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8

What fruit did Violet become in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory?

A blueberry.

Correct.

Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic are different types of what?

I was really good at science in High School.

Um… scientific phases?

It’s actually different types of rocks.

I wasn’t good at geology, I’m more into biology.

Which city hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896?

Greece? Athens?

You got it!

2/5

6.5/10

Verdict: “I don’t know as much as I thought and I’m sad I didn’t get 10/10. I’ve gotta have a re-do someday.”

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BE JAMIE T!

Impress the Sheilas and Stellas in your life with your very own cut out mask of the man himself - just like our COVER!

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SPOTLIGHT SHOW

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