Nยบ 32 WINTER 2012/2013
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE The Vintage Queen
POST-ROCK SPECIAL Mogwai 65daysofstatic Explosions In The Sky Glorie
Pure Reason Revolution // Gossip // The Cherry Boopers Fuel Fandango // LCMDF // Foals // Of Monsters And Men // Dredg
INSIDE WHAT’S NEW? 07.
ble LP.
INTERVIEWS
14.
Dirty Beaches announces Dou-
Epic tracklist: The Knife album “Shaking the Habitual” is nearly 100 minutes long. The Mars Volta “Noctourniquet” album will be the last of “it’s kind” says Omar Rodriguez.
REVIEWS Pure Reason Revolution “Amor Vincit Omnia” Gossip “A Joyful Noise”
10
The Cherry Boopers “Black Lolita” Fuel Fandango “Fuel Fandango”
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LCMDF “Mental Health” Foals “Holy Fire”
12
Of Monsters and Men “My Head Is An Animal” Dredg “Chucles and Mr. Squeezy”
13
20.
Florence + The Machine:
08. 09.
SPECIAL The New Era of Post-Rock
“I was almost out of control”.
F
lorence talks about the creation of her last record, “Ceremonials” the follow up to her 2009 album “Lungs”, a star-making ubiquous album that spawned the single “The Dog Days are Over”.
17. Chico Y Chica “We don’t know how to sing or play like normal bands.”
T
his basque duo of electropop strikes again with a record full of dancefloor songs that shows their love for trash and the sublime. Some of their new singles are among their best works so far, such as “Quiéreme Doctor” and “Diabla”.
LIVESHOWS 30. 31.
Mumford and Sons fly to Boston.
Love of Lesbian start their new tour around Spain.
32.
Crystal Castles gave their best gig at Barakaldo.
Go back to go forward: the resurgence of post-rock.
A
fter its 1970s heyday, post-rock receded in on itself, but now a new wave of bands are embracing long, difficult songs and fantastical lyrics – and finding fans for it, too. You’ll find everything about the newest progressive bands from the most famous bands such as Mogwai to the newest additions like Glorie.
RELEASES
30.
Alexz Johnson // Bulb // Noisettes // The Boxer Rebellion // Warpaint // Atomship // Thievery Corporation
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Sound and Vision
“It’s all part of a ritual. You’re trying to help the audience lose themselves, and you’re trying to lose yourself.”
Gazette: I hate to start with this, since I’m sure you’re sick of talking about it, but how’s your voice doing after your vocal-cord injury this month? Florence Welch: It’s good! It’s pretty much back to 100 per cent, I think. I mean, it IS back to 100 per cent. I’m being very, very good. No alcohol at all. It’s been three weeks now – whoa! I am craving a dirty martini like I’ve never craved one before. But I’m being good. And no caffeine. I haven’t had a Diet Coke in ages. It’s very, very boring. Gazette: Is life even worth living without caffeine? Welch: I know! (Laughs and pretends to cry.) I look at people drinking Diet Cokes and I have to resist the urge to suck their blood. Gazette: Can you talk a bit about how the injury happened? Welch: It happened when I was singing; I felt something pop and I had to completely readjust my vocal level. I mean, it was kind of an interesting experiment. I managed to complete the set, and it actually went fine. I just had to sing at a completely different
level – the high belting notes were not there, so I had to sing at a more restrained, lower level. And when I came off stage, I could tell something had popped. And it happened to me once before, but years and years and years ago when I first started out. And it was just kind of this popping. But it was weird, because I felt it so intensely. It was real. It was there. Something had snapped. Gazette: I’m cringing just hearing you describe this. Welch: (Laughs) It was weird. And I remember going for the notes again, because you can’t quite believe what’s happened, and then I was like, “Wow – they’re just not there anymore.” And it was that terrifying thing of, ‘Will they ever come back?’ Luckily, it was just a strain. Because what it’s like is it’s like being an athlete, straining a muscle. So it just takes rest, and you just need to let the muscle heal itself. That’s all you can do. And stay hydrated. Gazette: So how was your first show back after the cancellations, in B.C.? Did it scare you almost as much as the show where you lost your voice? Welch: No, I was okay, actually, because I’d done
You said you sometimes invent fake bands—with real members other than yourself?
Russian films. I like his total approach to film as art, especially when it comes to music.
Certainly. Just like I invite the dancers onstage, I sometimes invite musicians to perform with me live. But I always take care not to tell them what to do. I try to make sure that there is a basis for everyone involved so that a live show can be built on the concept of improvisation. I encourage them to contribute something unexpected. I want them to do whatever they want. That’s why I picked them. I want to see what happens, not know in advance.
And how does that relate to what you do?
In another interview you’ve mentioned Andrei Tarkovsky, Lars von Trier and Werner Herzog as influences. How does that fit into the equation?
When I compose I consciously try not to overly reference the pop world. You can evoke a spiritual level within your music when you allow yourself to be inspired by other things—Hildegard von Bingen for instance. All the layering of vocals in my music comes from the experience of listening to her liturgical songs. When I pile up twenty vocal layers it’s reminiscent, at least for me, of medieval or Renaissance chorales. I try to incorporate these elements into the concept of pop music to find some kind of new middle ground.
“I’m a freak, I can hold my breath for so long. We timed me - we did it in the pub the other day and I held my breath for about two and a half minutes. I’m a freak.”
Film is probably my favorite medium. If I had more time and money, I probably would work more with film because emotionally it’s so much more effective than music. In a good film music is just a part of the whole. Music is an aspect. I regard film as a total medium that incorporates all other art forms in essential ways. Tarkovsky is probably my favorite filmmaker, because sinister things in his movies are always so subtle. Take Solaris—or even better, Stalker. Stalker to me is just such a cool movie. It’s almost like a horror movie in the traditional sense because it’s so goddamn scary. It’s fascinating to see that Tarkovsky doesn’t need a mon- ster or a bloody zombie to create that atmosphere of horror. It’s a totally intellectual kind of horror, but it affects you emotionally. It’s extremely thought-out. But it’s also astoundingly simple. What about Solaris? It’s so scary how Kris Kelvin is confronted with his most traumatic memories at the space station. That’s true horror. I don’t see how it can be taken any further. I discovered Tarkovsky because I studied Russian in college and had this intense desire to watch
In terms of method it’s a kind of copy-and-paste, no? I’m not sure I’d call it that. Listening to a choir or devotional music is extremely emotional for me, and I try to figure out why it touches me the way it does. If I can see a pattern in the music, I try to make it work for me too. But I want to get back to Tarkovsky briefly. I know lots of people my age who say that his films are too long, too slow and too intense. They don’t want to be lulled into his contemplative pace, and it’s hard to accept a movie that’s three- and-a-half hours long these days.
Nobody objects to the time commitment when it comes to The Lord of the Rings. [laughing] That’s true. I actually watched all three parts again pretty recently. On the big screen or your iPhone? Alec Empire recently told me how fascinating it’s been for him to watch the trilogy on the tiny iPhone screen with earplugs. Actually, I don’t have an iPhone. My friend has a big TV. It’s a twelve-hour endeavor. But for me it’s
Photography: Alex Lake
not a contradiction to con- sume both high culture and Harry Potter or some Japanese mangas. Pop art still appeals to me the most. I guess it has to do with the way I grew up in the 2000s. I like to see a film like Kill Bill as much as I do like watching Solaris. Both experiences are potentially inspiring. Or take dancing: lots of people say that dancing is just a waste of time, but to me it marks a key difference between animals and human beings. It takes a high level of intelligence to interpret music, especially as something you can dance to. It’s spiritual. It’s liberating. If someone can make you dance to their music, it’s a pretty amazing skill. Same goes for all the pop art that touches you emotionally in a split second. I can’t see anything negative in that. I sometimes get the impression that people mistrust their feelings. Are you referring to your own music? Actually, I would say it’s true of the last Katy Perry record. There are so many people who call her songs easy and so cheap, but to use elements of pop that so many people have used before and still make such an amazing record—that’s awesome. I mean, her son-
gwriting is really on parade, as is the production. A million people are trying to make pop songs all the time, and you’ll listen to all sorts of failed attempts on the radio every day. To succeed in a medium that everyone is working in is a huge achievement, if you ask me. It takes a lot of intelligence and talent for sure. Did you always dance to your own music on stage? That’s a damn good question. Let me think. I used to dance for another group when they were giving concerts, so dancing onstage was already natural for me when I started doing my own shit. But I think that for the first few gigs I had to focus so much more on my musical performance that I probably didn’t feel laid-back enough to do it. But this changed and nowadays it feels totally natural for me.