Dork, October 2017 by Dork

THIS MONTH

DORK readdork.com

Editor: Stephen Ackroyd stephen@readdork.com Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden viki@readdork.com Associate Editor: Ali Shutler ali@readdork.com Contributing Editors: Jamie Muir jamie@readdork.com Martyn Young martyn@readdork.com

Sub Editor: Poppy, the office cat (meow@readdork.com) Events: Liam James Ward liam@readdork.com Design: El Coxo Writers: Alex Bradley, Alex Thorpe, Ben Jolley, Ben Kitto, Chris Taylor, Claire Biddles, Dan Harrison, Daniel Jeakins, Danny Randon, Heather McDaid, Jessica Goodman, Josh Williams, Lily Beckett, Rob Mesure, Steven Loftin Photographers: Corinne Cumming, Phil Smithies, Poppy Marriott, Ryan Johnston, Sam Nahirny, Sarah Louise Bennett

‘INFINITE’ #CONTENT 4 UPDATE

4 READING & LEEDS 12 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE 14 DORK LIVE! 16 SELF ESTEEM 17 BLOODY KNEES 17 RAE MORRIS

26 HYPE

New bands, eh? In the park? Jumpers for goal posts? 26 ALEX LAHEY 27 BAD NERVES 28 YASSASSIN 29 SEA GIRLS 29 CASSELS

30 FEATURES

Lots of words and pictures about bands? Yeah, we got ‘em. 30 INHEAVEN 36 THE HORRORS 40 NOTHING BUT THIEVES 44 SLØTFACE 46 REVIEWS

Or ‘how many stars can Dork get away with giving the new Wolf Alice album?’ 46 WOLF ALICE

48 DEATH FROM ABOVE 49 FOO FIGHTERS 50 GIRLI 52 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM 53 LIAM GALLAGHER 54 THE KILLERS 56 LOWLANDS 57 VISIONS 60 ‘THE BACK BIT’

Where other mags are too scared to tread. 60 ACTIVITY CENTRE 62 ANY OTHER QUESTIONS WITH… DREAM WIFE

EDITOR’S LETTER

t’s no secret that Dork bloody well loves INHEAVEN. We’ve been raving about them since our first issue hit the streets. Last month, we gave their debut album a full five star review. That’s why we’re absolutely bloody delighted to bring them to the cover for the first time. It’s been a long time coming. As the big beasts of Q4 approach, we’re saying hi to another of our faves, too.

Wolf Alice have been teasing us with 14/10 bangers for a couple of months now, but now they’re back with their second album ‘Visions of a Life’ quite probably our most anticipated record of 2017. Spoiler alert, it’s absolutely amazing. Yeah, we know you could have guessed. There’s a huge review in this issue

just to make sure, though. With Reading & Leeds out of the way, there’s loads to get your teeth into this issue.

From our massive review of the festivities to chats with The Horrors, Nothing But Thieves, Orlando not-from-

P U B L I S H E D F RO M

THE BUNKER

W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M

Photo: Phil Smithies

You’d think that ‘news based content’ would be a bit ‘old hat’ in a print based environment, wouldn’t you, Dear Reader? But no! Because - erm - reasons!

18 ORLANDO WEEKS 20 PHOENIX 21 BANGERS 22 CALENDAR 23 NEWS FEED 24 CONNECTION

Illustrators: Rhi Lee Cover photo: Phil Smithies

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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd. 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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

The-Maccabees-anymore and loads more, we’ve got your essential guide to keeping boring at bay. Enjoy!

WIN!! A SUPER LIMITED TEAL VINYL PRESSING OF PARAMORE’S AFTER LAUGHTER

W IN S TUFF

We’ve been waiting for Paramore’s album of the year contender to arrive on glorious wax since the day it came out, Dear Reader. So, when it happened, we nabbed ourself a copy of the most limited edition - a teal marble pressing limited to 1,000 copies. And then it sold out. And we saw loads of you missed it. Seeing as we’re lovely, we’re giving you ours. Enter at readdork.com now.

UPDATE IF IT’S NOT IN HERE, IT’S NOT HAPPENING. OR WE FORGOT ABOUT IT. ONE OR THE OTHER.

READING 2017 TAKE COVER! IT’S

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER, JESSICA GOODMAN, STEPHEN ACKROYD, STEVEN LOFTIN. PHOTOS: CORINNE CUMMING, RYAN JOHNSTON, SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

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GLASS ANIMALS ARE IN OUR HEADS Pineapples. Pineapples are banned at Reading Festival. Did you know? Did you hear about the pineapples? Yeah, pineapples! Banned! At Reading Festival! That’s the conversation leading up to Glass Animals’ appearance at this year’s Reading & Leeds. A thinly veiled joke from the festival organisers has launched a great band into a circus of international news, as outlets around the globe pick up on the fruit based fun. It’s attention that the band don’t only deserve, but thrive under, even if it is a little – y’know – weird. Then again, weird is what Glass Animals do best. Like Everything Everything before them, they do pop music, but not quite as we know it. ‘Life Itself’ is stickier than

superglue, packing more hooks than an industrial length of velcro, but it never once feels conventional, boring or expected. ‘Black Mambo’ slithers and slides, while ‘Youth’ stalks, occasionally breaking cover to explode in blinding light. There’s always a feeling that Glass Animals are a band operating off a plan we all enjoy, but only they can ever truly translate. Of course, there’s only one song that’s ever going to bring their set to a climax. With ‘Pork Soda’ come those contraband pineapples. As their giant king fruit shimmers on stage, giant inflatables appear from the crowd. They’re everywhere. Pineapples! At Reading Festival! Turns out you really can’t keep a good band (or pineapple) down.

DOWN WITH BORING

READING + LEEDS 2017

READING WEEKEND IS QUITE PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THE CALENDAR. PACKED WITH BRILLIANT BANDS ACROSS LOADS OF STAGES, IT’S LIKE MUSICAL CHRISTMAS. OVER THE NEXT FEW PAGES, WE’LL TELL YOU THE STORY OF READING 2017. STRAP YOURSELVES IN. THIS IS GONNA GET MESSY!

RAT BOY STORMS THE MAIN STAGE

The Main Stage hasn’t seen many acts like Rat Boy. Cascading out, instruments cast aside, for the first few minutes it’s like a mutant evolution of East 17 have forced their way past security as the band jump and shout, occasionally stopping to kick over part of their stage dressing. When you’ve got tracks as infectious as ‘Move’ in your back pocket, it’s only so long before the party is forcibly started. For all his rag tag stylings, there’s no denying Jordan Cardy is a fully functioning pop genius. Live, it’s a song transformed, taking catchy-as-fuck quick fire rhyme and sending it soaring over Berkshire. From the boisterous tumble of ‘Knock Knock’ to the shopping channel chic of ‘Get Over It’, there’s every argument that Rat Boy shouldn’t work on Reading’s biggest stage. Within half an hour, every single one of them is in tatters. Brilliant, baffling confusion reigns supreme.

FRIDAY Yonaka are party animals. Even at the opening of the afternoon, they’re here for one single reason and that’s to have a bloody great time. Their music is loose and carefree, juddering from grimy rock and roll to something that glitters under bright city lights but instead of overthinking, over stating or trying to make apologis, they just roll with it. And the crowd does as well. ‘Ignorance’ into ‘Drongo’ is a powerful shot and chaser, kicking things up a gear and dimming the lights, ‘All In My Head’ teeters on the edge of chaos and abandon before ‘Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya’ pushes things over the edge. It’s up to ‘Bubblegum’ to stand underneath the chaos, catch it and twist it into something glorious. Been looking for sun scorched guitar melodies to blaze over the heatwave? Felt a craving for a rock and roll attitude to tear through the hot weather? Then Marika Hackman is the place to be. Delicate and destructive in equal measure, Marika demonstrates a power and a finesse that few can balance. Guitar riffs chime with an enchanting grace, distortion ever building to take the crowd on a whirlwind venture to somewhere thrillingly new. While members of the crowd heckle for a magic trick between songs, the band cast a spell that no one wants to shake. Drawing heavily from latest album ‘I’m Not Your Man’, Marika and Co inspire a freewheeling sense of glee that brings the festival to new life – no matter how hungover a first night in the fields may have left anyone gathered. Conversation is minimal, and energy is high, the music washing through the field and stirring the space into action. It’s a bolt of lightning purpose crafted to engage, and there isn’t one who’s going to stand in the way.

With the release of his debut album earlier this year, Declan McKenna introduced himself to the world as an indie pop sensation. Performing at Reading, he cements himself as a superstar. The glee is evident on the crowd’s faces even before the musician takes to the stage, and it only grows stronger throughout his set. Barely still for a moment, Declan hold the audience in the palm of his hand, throwing himself not just into the songs he’s playing, but into seemingly every empty space on stage – and it’s not long before he’s throwing himself into the crowd too. “To be fair, I’ve learned before not to crowdsurf because of moshpits forming behind, but it’s fine – it’s rock and roll,” Declan laughs as he clambers back onto the stage front. “It’s shit, but it’s fine.” From the rallying anthem of ‘The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home’, through the endearing sentiment of ‘Paracetamol’, to the chant-a-long monologue of ‘Listen To Your Friends’, and beyond, the musician makes every moment his own. It’s an energy too bright to be forced,

too bold to be broken, and there’s no doubt in the minds of anyone present that it’s one that’s certain to last. This is stardom in the making – and now’s the time to stand up and listen. It isn’t that long ago a band like Oh Wonder would have been eaten up and spat out by Reading. These days, we don’t even have the traditional ‘rock’ day, never mind the run of the site. It’s a good thing, too. As the festival moves on, so does its ability to find voices of different hues. Oh Wonder paint in a spectrum that sparkles more than your average Reading second stage band. There’s joy and beauty in their songs – the kind that’s really rather welcome on a sunny Friday afternoon in a Berkshire field. ‘High On Humans’ could well end up coming across as cloying sentiment, but here it’s an enthusing mix of brilliant pop. Because that’s what Oh Wonder do. As Josephine proclaims she promised as a fifteen-year-old to never attend the festival until she played it, you can’t help but feel that holding out was a smart move. Reading 2.0 is a different place – but a better one too. Circa Waves want to headline Reading & Leeds. We know, they told us. The equivalent of a World Cup win for any indie band, it’s the natural aim for a band operating on their level. And, let’s be honest, they’ve got the songs for it. Maybe not quite enough of them yet, but the pedigree is there. One blast of ‘Fire Than Burns’ is enough to prove it. Not even their biggest banger, it’s enough to send a sun-kissed Main Stage crowd into raptures. But then, Circa Waves’ true claim to the crown lies in one place and one place only. Even a guest appearance from Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble doesn’t come close to the raw indie powerhouse of ’T-Shirt Weather’. As it blasts out across the Berkshire horizon, you can’t help that feel that maybe – just maybe – Circa Waves may be in for a shot of that dream. More than a sensation, The Amazons performance showcases what the festival spirit is all about. In front of a crowd spilling out far beyond the Festival Republic tent’s

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“EVERYONE THOUGHT WE’D JUST GO AWAY”

KASABIAN MAKE IT LOOK ‘EEZEH’

Kasabian have been here before. They’re no longer the underdogs, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost their bite. The swagger that drew the spotlight to them as the natural successors to Oasis, The Stone Roses and confident, bolshie rock music is dripping from the stage tonight. Arms aloft, this still isn’t a victory lap. If tonight is going to be a triumph the band are going to work at it. And work it they do. From the crunch of ‘Ill Ray (The King)’, through ‘Bumblebee’ and the fuzzy point of ‘Eez-eh’ to the sideways glance cover of Daft Punk’s ‘Around The World’, Kasabian champion unity. Everything is done together. The main stage moves as one to the beat of their drum. It doesn’t take long for the group to enter proper Greatest Hits territory. ‘Empire’, ‘Club Foot’ and ‘L.S.F’ now cross generations, and there’s a timelessness to the way they engulf the field. Kasabian are now comfortably playing with the big boys, and they’re holding their own. The closing flare of ‘Fire’ captivates their universal appeal, while moments earlier Noel Fielding’s prance about the stage for ‘Vlad The Impaler’ lights up their ridiculous, overblown sense of humour. We wouldn’t have them any other way.

borders, still cheering along to every word, this is a band entirely in their element. Football stadium ready chants breaking out between songs as people clamber under the canvas determined to get to a space inside. This is the energy people come here for. Driving rhythms fuel that fervour even further,

SAT AT THE TOP, TOM MEIGHAN PROMISES KASABIAN AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE.

extended breakdowns forcing volumes to fever pitch. Throughout it all, Matt Thomson’s melodic vocals command rapt attention, holding the gathered mass hook, line, and sinker. Delighting in the destructive weight of their music, the group bask in every moment as much as the people huddled before them. “My mum brought me to Reading Festival for the first time, and I’ve been every year since,” Matt declares, to rapturous applause. When the performances incite as much fun as this one, it’s no surprise the crowds return year after year. If you’ve seen IDLES before, chances are you already know the score:

absolutely anything goes. A whirlwind of chaotic energy awaits the Bristol punks, and all it takes to unleash it are two simple words: “Alright fuckers.” Wearing nothing but a pair of tight fitting briefs, guitarist Mark Bowen swings, stretches, and shakes his way in front of (and into, and over) the audience. Sunglasses, items of clothing, and later people fly over heads as the fervour ignites and spreads at like wildfire. Human metronome Joe Talbot commands the chaos, throwing himself into the brawling spirit of the moment with an intensity that would be chilling if it weren’t so damn contagious. The crowd relish in the same abandon, circle pits opening and closing with each track the band perform. For all intents and purposes, it should be a mess. But IDLES create their own magic, and through the chaos, the band forge something truly spectacular. We all know The Big Moon are something pretty special. Debut album ‘Love In The 4th Dimension’ confirmed that, showing the world a band stopping at nothing in their quest to create music to soundtrack your fondest moments. Performing at Reading Festival, that’s exactly what they treat their audience to. What other band would pause their set to matchmake new friends they spot wearing the same Oasis t-shirt in the crowd? Where else would Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ fit so seamlessly in the middle of

It’s Friday night at Reading and despite the fact Tom Meighan was in hospital a few days earlier, the result of a virus caught in transit, he’s stoked at the prospect of once again headlining. “I’m a survivor,” he grins. “I’m just excited. It’s gonna be monster when we walk on that stage.” There’s the promise that tonight, like every Kasabian show will see the crowd get “the fucking night of their lives,” and the reason they are still sat at the top is “’Cos we’re good y’know what I mean?” The band have always had pride but it’s taken a while for people to take them seriously. When they topped the bill back in 2012, people sneered. When they headlined Glastonbury in 2014, it was more of the same. The world might have been against them then but now, it’s a different story. Underdogs? “No! Fucking hell, that tag’s gone. We are what we are now. Everyone thought we’d just go away just because we came out years ago guns blazing. We were mouthy little shites, weren’t we? Now, we’re a people’s band.” Kasabian have been a band for twenty years now, and the thing that keeps it exciting is unity. That raging message of togetherness that they scream from the biggest of platforms, is also shared in the quiet compound beforehand. “We’re a family and we’re close. We’ve been through a hell of a lot. We’ve got that unity. If we’ve got that and we enjoy what we’re doing and keep writing good music then we’ll be together forever. We’ll turn out to be like The Who or the fucking Stones. I hate using the word established, but Kasabian, it’s a name now. The name’s fucking there. Like Oasis or the Stone Roses or Muse or Arctic Monkeys. On that scale, there’s very few left.” As for new music, “that’s a question. I can’t even think about tomorrow,” but there’s an underlying grin. Kasabian aren’t getting of the throne anytime soon. P DOWN WITH BORING

READING + LEEDS 2017

bonafide indie bangers? The answers are, probably none. Classic hits and already cemented favourites collide in an explosion of energy and enthusiasm – because that’s exactly what The Big Moon do best. “It’s Friday! It’s half past four!” they yell as they take to the stage. Not that it would matter what the time is – wherever The Big Moon are, it’s cause for celebration. So that’s exactly what the crowd do. Songs like ‘Cupid’ and ‘Bonfire’ are as freewheeling as the performance is frenetic, while set closer ‘Sucker’ is elevated to the status of indie anthem. Putting on a show that’s bold, brash, and downright brilliant, there’s not a one who’d deny they’re a sucker for the band too. Rewind twelve months, and The Magic Gang were using Reading’s Festival Republic stage to prove just what a vital force they had become. A year later, and they’re back. This time round, though, they’re firmly camped in a tent

WOLF ALICE ‘SURPRISE’ READING

Wolf Alice’s return might have been fuelled by the fizzing, strobe lit urgency of ‘Yuk Foo’ and the sweat-drenched excitement of their teeny UK tour but today, as they pop up at Reading Festival for a semisecret set, they prove they’re totally in command of their own march forward. Most bands would do the expected, starting with a comfortable hit to settle nerves, get the people moving and score early points, but Wolf Alice don’t need victories today. They left their scene at the top and distance has only made the heart grow fonder. Predictable isn’t an offer. Boring is the enemy. The set crashes, spins and dances under their own glorious vision, ending with Ellie leaning into the crowd screaming her heart out before the eternal terrace anthem of ‘Giant Peach’ takes over. It takes a certain romance for a band to end a secret set with more excitement than they started with but Wolf Alice have always carried a special sort of wonder. Today it crackles, coming to the surface with big, bold strides. This might be a secret set, tucked away in a quiet corner of the festival, but the message couldn’t be louder. Wolf Alice are back. Death to dull.

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comfortably four times the size of their previous home. Those tests just keep on coming. But then sensible people – and we count ourselves as sensible people, Dear Reader – have no room for doubt when it comes to The Magic Gang. Since their first moves, they’ve been a little bit special. As time goes on, that sparkle only increases. Sounding more robust than ever before, their timeless indie jangle is a heady mixture. ‘All This Way’ doesn’t just swoon, in booms – sing-a-longs already firmly in check – while ‘No One Else’ and its glorious harmonies soars, every inch the anthemic moment The Magic Gang were built to create. At times, it’s easy to forget this is a band without an album behind them to swell the ranks. But then, more decorated peers playing the same stage later in the weekend won’t pack anything in the class of new single ‘Your Love’, a song that sounds both current and timeless in the same moment. That’s The Magic Gang all over. As ‘How Can I Compete?’ provokes its own impromptu karaoke session, it poses a question that needs no answer. Nothing’s a challenge when you can cast a spell so strong. The gang continues to grow at pace. Bastille seem almost surprised to find themselves second top of the bill. It’s understandable too. Theirs is a rise low on showy grandstanding, built on a

foundation of enthusiastic and devoted fans, and an ear for a hook. Setting up camp on the airwaves, they’ve earned this the old fashioned way. What’s equally impressive is just how well they rise to the occasion. It’s no secret that Dan Smith isn’t always naturally comfortable with the limelight, but tonight you’d not guess. As master of ceremonies, he strides about the stage, rarely staying still for longer than strictly necessary. Channelling the band around him, he’s a big game player, and they don’t come much bigger than this. From the opening blast of ‘Send Them Off!’, the throwback bounce of ‘Flaws’ the falsetto blast of ‘Good Grief’ and the titanic finale of ‘Pompeii’,

Bastille have firmly become a band. Not a band in the tradition of your average Reading band – they’ve got pop leanings that historically would have marked them out as more of a V Festival headliner in waiting – but in 2017 they fit like a glove. It’s a brave new world, and though Bastille are concerned with the darker side of the modern condition, they’ve found a way to thrive.

SATURDAY The BBC Introducing stage is Reading’s smallest ‘official’ arena. Sat in the middle of clothing stalls and food vans, the sounds of other, louder bands wash

SUNDARA KARMA MAKE MAGIC

over it’s more humble proportions. This is where the newest artists come to prove their mettle. Quite probably the hardest test the festival has to offer, to make an impact here proves a band have something special. Pale Waves have already shown us they’ve got that by the skip load. As the svengali like Matty Healy watches on from side of stage, they’re more than capable of proving it, too. ‘Television Romance’ might be a solid gold banger, but there’s layers to the summer’s latest, greatest track. Beneath the ear worm hooks and technicolour joy hides a fragile subtlety beyond the reach of most other bands. ‘My Obsession’ shows they’re more than a one trick pony, while closer ‘There’s A Honey’ remains a true moment. The real marker, though, is that for almost half an hour, they’re the only thing that matters. A crowd that usually only stops for a glance before wandering away stands transfixed. Everything else is just background noise. Pale Waves will be back next year. By then, they’ll be ready to create true Reading moments. With the release of her ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ EP earlier this year, Sigrid introduced herself as a pop sensation. Performing on the Dance Stage, the Scandinavian artist breathes fresh life into the hype. Sugar sweet vocals hypnotise the crowd, never more so than in the set’s single stripped back number. The real power here, however, lies in the songs’ addictive pop punch. This is music with weight, an energy and motion destined to command, and the gathered crowd are powerless to stop it – not that anyone here wants to. Feel good almost to an extreme; it’s a performance made to marvel in. So that’s exactly what the audience do. Giving in to the music, the energy builds with every bouncing riff.

Dancing around the stage with an effortless grace, basking in the moment entirely, there’s every sense that this is what Sigrid was born to do. INHEAVEN might just be the perfect indie band. That’s not to rank them against their peers – everyone has their own special talent in the current wave of future superstars – but as a group, they feel like they’re the result of generations of evolution, all building towards an arsenal of tent levelling bangers. From ‘Baby’s Alright’ to ‘Treats’ to ‘World On Fire’, each move they make seems to be grounded in grungy, gloriously dark glee. Bright colours from blackened corners, theirs is a world running against the tide. As a gang, they’re an attractive prospect to join. As ‘Regeneration’ proves itself, yet again, to be a cut above the pack, there’s the suggestion something exciting might be happening in INHEAVEN’s world. With their debut album to follow within days, we’re all invited.

In a summer that’s seen the band perform to packed out tents at Glastonbury and beyond, Sundara Karma are riding a surefire wave of success. The Reading locals opened the Main Stage last year, and today they find themselves significantly higher on the bill, performing before a crowd who echo their every motion. Following the release of debut album ‘Youth Is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect’, it’s an excitement the group have grown to take in their stride. There are smoke flares and sing-a-longs a plenty as the band take to the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage. Frontman Oscar Pollock bounds and sways around the stage with a perfectly measured confidence, inciting the audience to be their most earnest – and no one resists. It’s not long before he’s diving off the barrier to join them, rolling his way over the crowd front. Sundara Karma are magic in the making.

“Are you ready to lose your shit?” frontman Ben Gregory questions the crowd before him. “I know I am.” Balanced on a knife edge between grace and ferocity, Blaenavon turn everything up to eleven. It’s a wondrous world that the trio’s music inhabits, echoing in splendour and interlaced with a driving distortion. Performing at Reading Festival, that’s exactly where they take their crowd. Shimmering hooks and pummelling rhythms abound, bright melodies tinged with a darkness that boasts enticement by the barrel full. The band’s ferocity floods the tent in next to no time, Ben Gregory throwing himself around the stage with a reckless abandon. Bassist Frank Wright eventually forsakes his instrument

completely, throwing it to the ground to join Harris McMillan behind the drums, while Ben dives head first over his audience, losing himself in the fray as the final chords ring clear. Crowds remain gathered by the stage front in excitement, waiting for a glimpse of the group they hold dear. Reading: accomplished. Next stop: the world. Yesterday, PVRIS dropped their second album, ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’. Today, they play Reading’s Main Stage. It’s testament to just how far the trio have come – and how fast they’ve done it – that they already feel like they’re ready for the next step up. They’ve got the songs – opening one-two of ‘You & I’ and ‘St Patrick’ is up there with anything you’ll hear all weekend. They’ve got the excitement factor too. Everyone knows their star is still only heading in one, stratospheric direction. The only negative of their early afternoon set is that, actually, they’re fast becoming a band worthy of higher billing. Cast into the shadows of dusk, this set could be spectacular. It still is, but as a thundering ‘My House’ proves, once they get to where they’re so obviously going, PVRIS will own the lot. British punk has a set of new, fresh faces and their name is Shame. Major Lazer is currently dominating the festival on the Main Stage, but in the Festival Republic tent, there’s a small crowd who don’t want to be a part of the masses. Shame’s energetic punk easily fills the space, while frontman Charlie Steen spends almost as much time off the stage as he does on. He beckons forward everyone in sight, making sure the entire crowd is engaged. Behind him, the band bound and sprint around the stage. Never faltering in their delivery, Shame prove they’re the real deal – and make sure that everyone watching knows it. In many ways, Superfood don’t feel like they’re about to release their second album. Between their debut and its follow-up, they’ve changed labels, changed line-ups and refined their sound. They’re not quite a totally new band, but they’re not a known quantity either. For many, such disruption would be a sign of desperation. Not for Superfood, though. Not even close. Distilling down on what makes them tick, they’ve found an identity all of their own. The tracks from new album ‘Bambino’ feel like the sound of an act who know exactly who they want to be. It works wonders. Even the old cuts sound reborn – ‘You Can Believe’ fizzes with excitement – but it’s the newer material that really triumphs. Singles ‘Unstoppable’ and ‘Double Dutch’ reign supreme, but it’s the sample heavy groove of ‘Where’s The Bass Amp’ that steals the show. Superfood 2.0 are a band reborn. From here, the sky’s the limit. DOWN WITH BORING

READING + LEEDS 2017

There’s adoration in the air and energy on the ground as LANY take their place on the Dance Stage. Armed with clap-along anthems to the most feel good of feelings, the band’s performance is nothing short of a dream. This is pop music of the most sun-blissed kind, inciting open-armed swaying and inebriated antics all through the depths of the tent. Frontman Paul Klein is every bit the superstar, basking in the moment with a bliss rivalled only by that on the faces of the crowd. From start to finish, from front to back, the audience wave their arms in the air like they just don’t care, and for the time LANY spend on stage, the only thing that seems to matter is the minute everyone is in. For shimmering pop that inspires sheer delight, we dare you to find any that do it better. We’re finally there. The road to The Japanese House’s debut album is clear. “I’m focusing on the album now,” she tells us earlier in the day. “I’ve got a little studio at the end of my road which I’m going to and writing in every day until I’m either dead or it’s complete.” Let’s all hope for the former, because quite frankly imagining a world without Amber Bain’s blissed out vibes is a bit of a nightmare. This isn’t her first Reading, but as each year progresses, her power to sooth and delight only grows. This time round the feeling is almost palpable – a step up is firmly on the cards. Over the last year or so, Bain has added genuine depth to her sonic world. ‘Saw You In A Dream’ feels like the cherry on top of a glorious sundae of whipped delights, while ‘Face Like Thunder’ drips with glorious, honey-like bliss. The build has been a long one, but with the wait nearly over, expect the reveal to be spectacular.

You get the impression that Black Honey consider Reading to be ‘their’ festival. All glitter and bangers, they’re a band that thrive on the big horizons, surrounded by their indie peers, adjusting the scale to something far more widescreen and cinematic. There’s also the hint that the feeling is mutual. This isn’t Black Honey’s first stint in the leafy Berkshire (not-quiteso) greenery, and it certainly won’t be their last. Their set is packed full of future, and current, festival anthems. ‘Somebody Better’ soars through the Festival Republic tent, clearly looking for a larger home next time around, while ‘Hello Today’ struts like a superconfident pack leader, already certain that it’s on its way. Like so many of their contemporaries, this weekend Black Honey are a band preserved in a moment – but only for a snapshot. This is the last time we’ll be seeing them in an arena so small at Reading. More than prepared for that next step, bigger things await. There’s no shirking Two Door Cinema Club’s status as indie giants. The Irish outfit cemented their place among the greats marking their return after an extended break with a headline set on the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage in 2016. Taking to the Main Stage a year on, the band showcase just how much they’re capable of – and the crowd lap up every moment. As the bouncing melodies of ‘Undercover Martyn’ wash over the field, fans tear their way towards the stage front, dancing all the way. Frontman Alex Trimble is a steadfast master of all he surveys, gazing out over the sea of swaying arms and shapes with a sly smile of satisfaction. It’s moments like this that Two Door Cinema Club were made for, engaging the masses with an unparalleled dexterity. Smoke flares scatter through the crowd throughout, coloured mist

only adding to the vibrancy the group present. As they draw their set to a close with ‘What You Know’, giant balloons bounce overhead, energy bubbling to eruption in an all out dance celebration of everything the field is here for. If you were looking for a party on a Saturday afternoon, ALMA’s performance on the Dance Stage at Reading is exactly where you needed to be. Elated to the highest heavens, this is music at its most footloose and fancyfree. If there was ever any doubt as to the Finnish pop artist’s acclaim, the rapturous applause that follows every song instantly drowns that out. Jumping around the stage front, ALMA commands her audience with unwavering delight – an emotion echoed in the frenetic footwork and embellished dance movements of everyone present. A beacon of brilliance in the otherwise darkened tent, ALMA places a power in sheer freewheeling enjoyment that’s as addictive as they come. “Now is the time to party!” she declares

to her crowd as she launches into closing song ‘Bonfire’ – though there wasn’t a person who wasn’t revelling in the celebration already. It’s weird to think it, but Everything Everything are basically elder statesmen of their scene now. With their fourth album, ‘A Fever Dream’, currently riding high in the UK Album Charts, this isn’t their first bite at the festival cherry. Far from it. And it shows. Never wilting wallflowers, tonight they’re a band with real vim and vigour in their stride. From new album opener ‘Night Of The Long Knives’ on, they match their oddball pop with genuine, assured confidence that they’ve got this. And boy, do they. The beauty of Everything Everything is that they manage to belong without becoming just another face in the crowd. Playing in their own register, but never another language, when it comes to the higher reaches of a festival bill, they’re still quite probably the most exciting safe hands in the game.

SUNDAY There’s no doubt about it: Sløtface are the garage pop band everyone’s been craving. The group take Reading’s Lock Up stage by storm, their frenetic energy and dizzying antics a flawless antidote to the blazing heat. “If you want to take your shirt off, that’s okay,” Haley Shea addresses to all the females in the crowd. “Anyone who gives you unwanted attention for doing that, you have my permission to punch them in the nuts.” Laughing and joking with the audience as they power their way through a set of longstanding favourites and spirited new material, the group welcome the crowd into their world like old friends. “We have this disposable camera,” Haley offers between songs. “We were wondering if you would take some photos of each other then pass it back at the end of our set?” Throwing t-shirts to the front row, and giving a hurried shout out to their debut album after starting their last song, before diving to the barrier to hug their waiting fans, Sløtface’s performance is every bit the picture of perfection.

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Where last year the heavens opened, drawing fans into the tent, this year it’s wall to wall sunshine. There’s no need for help from the elements when you’re capable of delivering your own sunny, sweet disposition, after all.

Some bands just seem ready. That Fickle Friends’ set starts with a technical mishap means little when it’s followed by a performance so pitch perfect it puts most headline level acts to shame. ‘Brooklyn’ and ‘Hello Hello’ have already proved themselves as grade A bangers, but it’s a trait that runs through every track. New EP cut ‘Vanilla’ skips and slides in equal measure, ‘Cry Baby’ sets off fireworks, while ‘Glue’ prefers to drop sonic bombs from ever increasing heights. By releasing regular one-off singles that fizz on impact, Fickle Friends have built up a stockpile of thermonuclear alt-pop. Today, they’re using the lot. As ‘Swim’ drips with icy cool, there’s a palpable feeling that Fickle Friends’

time is finally approaching. As the zeitgeist starts to turn in their direction, it’s doubtful it’ll ever catch up – they’re far too smart to let that happen – but it’s certainly catching on. All the lights are about to turn green. Just watch them go. It’s been quite the year for Will Joseph Cook. A debut album packed with bangers has heralded a step up for Tunbridge Wells’ other musical son, and even though it’s brought him back to the same festival he played last year, on the same day, the reality is a mile apart. Fully realised as a proper indie pop star, his set fizzes with excitement. 2016’s potential is 2017’s reality.

A sunny Sunday afternoon such as this one requires a musical atmosphere that evokes some decent swaying and a bit dancing. That’s where Pond come in. Breaking out the moves almost straight away, Nick Allbrook leads the way in cutting loose. With the backing of their massive sounding 80s psychedelia, he and his cohorts know exactly how to find a groove. Pond are having a great time – and so is everyone else. “This is the first time they’ve let us outside at this festival,” Mattie Vant exclaims. VANT certainly aren’t going to let this opportunity pass them by. From opener ‘Fly-By Alien’ through to closer ‘Parking Lot’, there’s a constant singalong coming from the crowd. As the set barrels forward, kids are running from across the site to see what’s going down. And with tracks that talk about immigration (‘Birth Certificate’), politics (‘The Answer’), and mental health (‘Do You Know Me?’), it’s no wonder the crowd around the Main Stage are both young and engaged. They’ve found an icon with a voice that makes sense – a part Mattie plays perfectly.

MUSE ARE FULL OF SUBTLE REBELLION

Muse have always hated The Man. From their love of Rage Against The Machine to the makes-you-think cover art of recent album ‘Drones’, Matt, Dom and Chris have always tried to stick a two fingered salute to The Establishment wherever possible. Problem is, they’ve never done it very well. Cries of ‘Isn’t capitalism bad?’, ‘The government is corrupt’ and ‘We should take the power back’ don’t really add anything to a conversation that’s articulate, engaging and everpresent, especially when set inside their own little world of escapism, detachment and fancy lighting. That distance has grown in recent years as the band have indulged more in grand concepts and forced narratives. Overthinking the game, the human element of their resistance has been watered down. Men safe in high castles encouraging revolt from afar. But as the band return to headline Reading & Leeds for the third time, the walls come tumbling down. From the opening plea of ‘Dig Down’, defiantly encouraging strength in the face of adversity’ to the closing “you and I must fight for our rights” in ‘Knights of Cydonia’, Muse are here to deliver a powerful and surprisingly succinct message. There’s no God to turn to, to fix this mess. Now the only ones we can rely on are each other. Those towers of unity and standing up for each other dominate the set. There’s power to be found in emotion. Hope in love. From the fiery want of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ to the individuality baiting wail of ‘Plug In Baby’, classics are given new meaning and energy within this tale. The return of fan-favourites ‘Showbiz’ and ‘Take A Bow’ share a vision of fighting back against the expected. Of not wanting to follow the path that’s been laid out before them. At a festival, and a time, where cries of “fuck Donald Trump” act as an easy way to get the crowd to engage, Muse’s headline set is full of subtle but persistent rebellion. Heart led and full of hope, it’s smart, understated and surprisingly meaningful. And if that’s not a sign the world going to hell… DOWN WITH BORING

READING + LEEDS 2017

When Alex Crossan performed last year, he incited a whirlwind of excitement that felt destined for greatness. Performing significantly higher on the same stage tonight, that same excitement swelled to a fever pitch that proved impossible to resist. Mura Masa’s music is like a drug: addictive, intoxicating, and the cause of delirious action. Riding a wave of elation following the release of his self-titled debut earlier this summer, the applause that greets the musician as he steps out onto the stage is nothing short of rapturous. Guest vocalists empower from the spotlight, dancing like there’s no tomorrow (it’s the last day of the festival,

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE SURPRISE AND DELIGHT

Queens Of The Stone Age headlined a few years ago and they smashed the proverbial out of it. They’ve got nothing to prove today on the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage. Kicking straight into ‘No One Knows’, this is a band that don’t only mean business, they deal it out with a devilish grin. ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ swiftly follows, somehow finding another level of excitement and disbelief to exploit. Two of the greatest to start, the band aren’t slowing down. ‘If I Had A Tail’ and ‘My God Is The Sun’ stand shoulder to shoulder with the giants while the flamboyant glee of new track ‘The Way You Used To Do’ already lifts the set to new, exciting places. Carefree but electric. ‘Little Sister’ finishes off with a nod, a wink and QOTSA safe in the knowledge that this is one of those moments that will define the weekend and beyond.

so what does tomorrow matter anyway?), but it’s him who holds the spotlight, smiles, charm, and energy invigorating the tent like nothing else. “You know, Reading was the first festival I ever went to,” he declares between songs. If the extravagant movements of the audience are anything to go by, the moment is as special for everyone gathered as it is for him. Blossoms are a band that fit the mould of indie superstars to a T. With their distinctive swagger and polished pop sound, the outfit take to the stage ready to live the rock and roll dream. Setting off smoke flares within seconds of their entrance, the crowd are raring to do the same. Introducing a different member of the band between each song (“I know it’s not Drake, but…”), making the audience ‘boo’ a girl named Molly who recently dumped their friend Gaz, and guiding a crowd sing along that falls slightly flat (not that it matters), Tom Ogden is every ounce the charismatic frontman. The band wear their influences on their sleeves: the weighted riffs of The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ work their way into the end of a song, while cover renditions of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and The Smiths’ ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ have the field swaying. Where the band shine brightest, however, is with their own sleekly polished anthems. Closing number ‘Charlemagne’ bubbles and gleams, showcasing a band with a knack for contagion that can drown out even the harshest critics. Liam Gallagher could own Reading, if he wanted. One blast of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ proves that. Oasis’ classic songs have a resonance no other band on this weekend’s bill could

“IT’S ON THE EDGE, AND THAT’S WHERE WE LIVE” PLAYING TWO SECRET SETS IN ONE DAY AND DROPPING THEIR NEW ALBUM ‘VILLAINS’, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE AREN’T DOING READING BY HALVES. Queens of the Stone Age might be seven albums in, but they’re still refusing to play by the rules. Leather jackets, aviator sunglasses, whiskey and vintage trouble; they live up to the stereotype while mocking it at the same time. No one tells them what to do. “We’re toying with our own expectations most of the time,” starts Troy Van Leeuwen. “We deal with chaos. We don’t like to repeat ourselves.” Following their guts over glory or second guesses, the band dive into the future without checking the temperature. “It’s always going to be a surprise by nature,” adds Jon Theodore. “And we’re okay with that. The alternative is not acceptable for us.” ‘Villains’ sees the band once again poke the beast of surprise. Following the sprawling, studioheavy exploration of ‘…Like Clockwork’, the new album saw the group - Troy, Jon, Josh Homme, Dean Fertita and Mikey Shuman - lock themselves away and record live.

Why? Because they could; “that’s what we do best. We wanted to make an upbeat record. Coming off of ‘…Like Clockwork, we wanted to step up and make your ass wiggle.”

On paper, teaming up with Mark Ronson to produce it was a cause for alarm. Them: dirty, rugged and carefree. Him: known for his polish. “For us, it made perfect sense. He wasn’t Mark Ronson of ‘Uptown Funk’ or Amy Winehouse, he was just Mark Ronson. He was in our band for a few months. He cared as much as we did,” offers Jon, before Troy continues: “We just wanted to focus on being a band again, that was key.” Taking the energy of cohesion and closeness following a long stint on the road, ‘Villains’ is sure of itself. Songs evolve, change direction and drift as they come blaring out of speakers. “We really got to know each other musically. Some of that’s comfortable, and the idea is to push that and take it to where some of it is dangerous, some of it is almost falling apart. It’s on the edge, and that’s where we live. We like to be there.” More than simply allowing the band to lose themselves in groove, that sense of togetherness can be felt across ‘Villains’. “Lyrically, there’s a lot of stuff about vulnerability, family, and the more global sense of community,” starts Jon. “That’s what’s happening in our lives. We feel lucky to have ourselves as a group of brothers, and that absolutely informs the lyrics. There’s an air of gratitude involved in what we’re doing.” “That’s the general energy of the record,” continues Troy. “Being grateful but also taking a moment to go, ‘Well this is important to me’. And to get up and move. To be proactive in whatever it is you’re passionate about. To me, that’s the main theme of the record: act. If you’ve got something you want to do, you better act now ‘cos time is precious.” Queens of the Stone Age know what they’re doing. They’ve been here before. But still, somehow, there’s an air of danger. A smirk behind the shades. “Even though this all seems standard, all bets are off. Here we go, fingers crossed and I hope to hell this works. Who knows what’s going to happen?” P

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DOWN WITH BORING

READING + LEEDS 2017

hope to achieve. Unifying anthems that cross generations, they’re proof immortal that in the 20 years since their peak, we’ve not made another band able to connect on such a grand level. But Liam has a problem, and it’s not just the limited volume of the Main Stage. As usual, it’s himself. Just like at Glastonbury earlier this year, his forthcoming solo album ‘As You Were’ hangs like a millstone round his neck. It’s not that the album is good, bad or indifferent – it’s simply not here yet, and that’s a major speed bump in his set. While those Oasis classics – ‘Morning Glory’, ‘Slide Away’, ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’ – provoke mass sing-a-longs, the majority of his newer material is entirely alien to the Reading crowd. Of the half dozen or so new tracks he plays, only ‘Wall Of Glass’ really makes any impact. Only one other – ‘For What It’s Worth’ – has been released to the world. The rest may be identifiable from recent live sets, but that’s not something to lay down as darkness falls at one of the biggest festivals in the land. To add insult to self-inflicted injury, Liam even takes time to offer up a Beady Eye track. When you consider the Oasis classics – including some he’s been performing of late – that

could have taken ‘Soul Love’‘s place, it’s hard to imagine who the younger Gallagher is picking his set list for. But then, when it’s right, it’s right. After a false start on new cut ‘Universal Gleam’, even Liam’s obsession with ‘Be Here Now’ feels like a 100% solid gold banger has been offered up from the heavens. Following it with anthemic set closer ‘Wonderwall’, while we may ponder how great his set could have been, at least he leaves us on a glorious high. P

KING NUN ARE READY TO REIGN

There aren’t many playing one of Reading’s main stages who are as fresh out of the metaphorical musical womb as King Nun. With only two singles and four songs properly out there, they’re still in their first forays, but the potential is staggering. They have the lot. The green shoots of a ferocious live presence mixes with hints of genuine indie anthems within their mid-afternoon set. Where bands around them can play on familiarity, King Nun are still the unknown. That which has found a wider audience – mega-banger ‘Tulip’ and recent cut ‘Sponge’ prime amongst them – fizzes and bangs with the assured confidence of veterans. Twelve months down the line, they’ll be taking the roof off.

SCREAM OUR MATES AT UPSET ARE GETTING SPOOKY THIS OCTOBER. KEEP’ EM PEELED FOR MORE.

ork’s sister mag Upset is teaming up with our pals at Kraken Rum and heading to Leeds and London on 13th October to unleash something TRULY TERRIFYING with the chilling experience known only as Screamfest. The details are being kept close

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to The Beast’s tentacles at the moment, but look out for full details on 20th September in Upset. We’ve heard that mutant clowns, rum cocktails and the scariest films EVER are involved which sounds alright to us. Follow @KrakenRumUK on Twitter and look out for #IScreamForKraken.

FREAK AND KING NUN ARE TEAMING UP FOR A DORK LIVE! TOUR THIS MONTH!

TWO OF THE BEST NEW BANDS IN THE COUNTRY ON ONE TOUR. RESULT!

nless you’re especially inattentive, Dear Reader, you’ll have noticed we’ve been doing a load more Dork Live! stuff this year. From one off gigs to our recent short Husky Loops tour, we don’t really see Dork as just a magazine. It’s an everything. Everything is Dork. And so, we’re off out on the road again next month, and we’re doing it alongside two of our favourite new acts on the whole damn planet. Yep, Freak, King Nun and Dork (hi, that’s us - Ed) are joining forces for a five date co-headline tour this September. Kicking off in Nottingham, we’ll be calling off in Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester before finishing up in London. All dates are 14+ - under 16s with an adult, apart from Bristol where it’s 16+ only. Sorry, the youth of Bristol.

ONLY A POWER CUT CAN STOP FREAK

On one hand, Reading is exactly where Freak belongs. Rowdy and ragged round the edges, there’s no way Connar Ridd is standing on ceremony. On the other, The Pit is usually the resolve of a different kind of band. Not that that’s stopping him. Blasting out of the traps with the kind of energy reserved for those playing by their own set of rules, Freak packs a punch. Already blessed with his own enthusiastic band of fans, power cuts can’t dampen the fire. The battle is already won.

The dates read: SEPTEMBER 24 Nottingham Bodega 26 Bristol Louisiana 28 Birmingham Hare & Hounds Venue 2 29 Manchester Sound Control Basement 30 London Boston Music Room We’ll be seeing you there.

DOWN WITH BORING

SELF ESTEEM

“I WENT INTO THE STUDIO

INTENDING TO MAKE A

RIHANNA

RECORD”

D O YOU RECOG N ISE TH AT FACE? IT’S ON LY RE BECCA FROM SLOW C LU B, BACK

ebecca Taylor is preparing to step out from a decade in Slow Club for a whole new experience. “Ten years is a long time to do anything,” she laughs. “I have to start being able to say something beyond an Instagram account.” Self Esteem is the blossoming of years of dreaming and thinking, what if? Fuelled by a new sense of freedom, her latest project is beginning to take flight. “I’ve wanted to do something on my own for about six years,” she begins. “I gave it the artist name Self Esteem all that time ago. “Now and again I’ve been making songs with people that don’t go anywhere, and I’ve been keeping it very much on the back burner but rumbling inside with the intense desire to do it. I’ve also had the duty to be in Slow Club though and not confuse the two. “I’ve laid low, but a couple of years ago it spilt over, and I wanted to put something out. That manifested itself in art things – I did and exhibition of a load of paintings and prints. That was under the artist name Self Esteem and scratched the itch of it.” While art and her lifelong passion for film making are at the heart of Self Esteem the step forward into recording and releasing music pushed it to another level. To do this, she was aided by a welcome confidence boost from a fellow indie hero.

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WITH A DE BUT SOLO E FFORT TH AT’S PACKE D WITH ATTITU DE AN D G O O D TIM ES. WORDS: MARTYN YOU N G

“I finally showed some songs to Jamie T,” she explains. “He called me and was like” - cue a perfect Jamie T impression - “’This is great, you’ve got to do this’.” That gave me the kick up the bum I needed, and we worked together. It’s been rumbling on for a while.”

Fortunately, Rebecca has a bunch of loyal fans earned over the years who eagerly await Self Esteem’s progression. Her first single ‘Your Wife’ is a bold statement and represents a different side to Rebecca that was only hinted at with Slow Club.

Rebecca is constantly brimming with creative thoughts, funny quips and a genuine passion for making things. All sorts of exciting things. Self Esteem is an all-encompassing monster that allows her to do everything she dreamt of doing.

“All I listen to is Destiny’s Child, Rihanna and Kanye West,” she says. “I love the music that a lot of people might say isn’t real music. American RnB pop music is my jam. I’ve always had this idea that because I was in this indie girl folk box that’s what I had to make, but I always wanted to do that pop stuff.

“All the way through Slow Club and my whole creative life I’ve got a desire to write, to make films and dance and I want to do too many things,” she says. “Music affords you the opportunity to do anything. Even if you do it badly, you can do it with conviction. In a band you have to share everything though; if the other person doesn’t want to do it, then you don’t get to do it.” This time though there are no compromises and no debates; all of Rebecca’s creative ideas can be fulfilled. “Everything Self Esteem - from the music to the art and the films, even the play that I’m writing - was forced out through the orifices while I was being myself playing in my band,” she explains. “It’s a gamble because Slow Club is safe for me and I know what I’m doing, but every tea cup you can buy in every service station will tell you to do the things that scare you and follow your dreams.”

“So, I went in the studio imagining I was making a Rihanna record, but it’s me, and I’m going to sing like this with my lyrics. We took it back to the two things that I can offer which are rhythm and melodies. It’s been a different way of approaching it.” Helped by pal Dave McLean from indie mad scientists Django Django, Rebecca is currently busy beavering away on an album that promises to be drastically different than anything she’s done before. Self Esteem though is more than just about musically shaking things up. It’s about something bigger and more important. “I grew up when being equal as a woman wasn’t accepted. School didn’t promote it,” she says. “I love that now it’s a given in the world. Even though I’m young, we did grow up with the girls are weaker, you need to be a gentleman thing. I’ve had this

realisation where I’ve learnt everything about strength and love and standing up for yourself.” “The project is me saying all these things, and that’s alright,” she continues. “Over the last ten years in music, I’ve sometimes felt it’s not okay to like pop music or want to dance or do something funny. There have been rules for me as a girl in a band. Self Esteem is quite a terrifying overspill car park of ideas and frustration.” There’s a primal thrill to what Rebecca is doing now, a feeling that anything is possible. Or, as she puts it, “I’m excited about cutting your chest open and letting whatever it is fall out.” Despite forging ahead with Self Esteem, Slow Club are very much still a going concern. “I’d like to do another album as soon as we feel we’ve got one in us. We’d like to treat ourselves like a national treasure,” she confirms, laughing, “build it and they will come!’ For now, Self Esteem is her primary focus. Oh, that and Ru Paul’s Drag Race of course. “Ru Paul’s Drag Race is my religion,” she enthuses. “Every single day I watch it. I think about it all the time. That show changed my life.” Fittingly then there’s a quote from the great Ru Paul that sums up everything about Rebecca’s new adventure: “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” We can all get an amen on that. P Self Esteem’s debut single ‘Your Wife’ is out now.

“DON’T STRESS ME OUT!” N O I SE MA KI N G SCA L LY WAGS BLO O DY KN E ES A RE BAC K W ITH A N E W E P, A N D A RE NEWE D E NTHUSI ASM, SAYS BASSI ST SA M.

‘Not Done’ is an apt track to return with. What can you tell us about the EP’? Yeah, I mean because we have constantly been writing, the change in sound doesn’t feel too drastic. But it’s definitely a step up. It’s a rock record. We didn’t try to make something that was trying to pigeonhole itself or sound super inventive. Have you started to think about putting together an album? Is it on the agenda? God yeah the album, is that something we have to do now that this is a thing again? Okay, so we are back writing again and have another collection of songs and a sound which again is evolving. I think another EP and we are probably ready to put a full-length out. Don’t stress me out though, please. What do you think is the most important lesson you guys have learnt during your time in Bloody Knees? To never take it too seriously. Yes, the music you write is serious and you do need to be fully committed. But, with music, it doesn’t always go your way. People will always tell you it’s great, but then it doesn’t always come up Milhouse. Have fun with it. P Bloody Knees’ EP ‘Maybe It’s Easy’ is out 13th October.

RAE

It feels like it’s been ages since we last heard from you guys, what’ve you been up to? Yeah, it’s been a while. We never actually stopped doing the band, still played the odd show and have been writing music. We just found it hard to commit full time. I guess when you get older, living at home with your ‘rents (in the middle of the Cambridgeshire countryside) and waiting on something to happen got a bit tiring. We were always writing and recording but were never that happy with the outcome. Me and Bradley moved to London, and the Wilkes bros moved to Cambridge. As soon as we started doing more things with our own lives, the music started sounding better.

BLACKPOOL SIN G E R-SON GWRITE R R AE MORRIS RETU RNS W ITH COME BACK TR ACK ‘RE BORN’, AN D A BATCH OF U K DATES TO INTRO DUCE

Hey Rae, how are you? I’m really well thank you! I’ve been hanging out in London mostly, enjoying getting to know the city properly. When I first moved here, it was at a really busy time, and I didn’t have time to just live and exist here. I’ve fallen in love with the city completely now. You’ve said comeback track ‘Reborn’ is about new beginnings - did you feel like you needed a new start? It wasn’t that I needed one particularly, but I was watching myself transition naturally into a new

A WH OLE N E W SOU N D.

place. With time to reflect and think came a change of mindset about certain things. That felt really freeing and good. I’m the type of person that will always keep changing and learning. I don’t believe that you’re ever the perfect finished article. That would be no fun at all. What can you tell us about your new material, is the album done and dusted? Yeah, the new record is completely finished now. The deadline for deciding the final track listing is today! I’d say it’s super colourful and energetic. The songs feel like little stories, short vignettes and windows into different sides to my character and other interesting characters I’ve met along the way. Did you know what you wanted this album to be right from the off? Did you have a specific vision? No, I didn’t start with a concept in mind, but as the writing began, it became clear quickly that I wanted to make tracks that were full of life. I felt so much freedom to go crazy and create something new and exciting that it felt like a shame to sit at the piano the whole time writing sad ballads. I wanted to dance around the studio with a handheld mic making mad sounds with my voice that I hadn’t made before. It felt like an

ultra creative moment; only the most exciting things went on to be finished for the record. Who have you worked with on this album, are there any guest spots? I began writing with Fryars very soon after the touring of ‘Unguarded’ ended, in October 2016. It worked so well that we wrote and produced the album together solidly for around a year. And at that point, we needed some fresh ears for perspective, so I took the music to MyRiot (lovely Tim and Roy), and we spent a few months making final touches and recording nice pianos as replacements for the demo midi versions. We wrote a song with our mate Fin (Starsmith) called ‘Dancing With Character’, which is actually one of my favourites, and a song with Buddy Ross who is a brilliant guy and musician. Will you be debuting any songs on your upcoming tour? Yes, we’ll be doing mostly new songs! I’ll play a few tracks from ‘Unguarded’ that still resonate and work in the set, but right now, I’m so excited to see what people think of the new music. When can we hear the album? The album will be out early 2018. P Rae Morris tours the UK from 24th September. DOWN WITH BORING

ORLANDO WEEKS

“I JUST FELL FOR THE CHARACTER” YOU THOUG HT THE MAC CAB E ES WE RE GON E, RIG HT? N OT FRONTMAN ORLAN DO WEEKS, WHO’S JUST RE LE ASE D H IS VE RY OWN BOOK.

hat do you do after thirteen years in one of the UK’s most successful bands? Well, if you’re Orlando Weeks you spend The Maccabees’ celebratory swansong year creating a magical fairy tale, naturally. Now that The Maccabees have graced the stage for the final time, Orlando is ready to bring The Gritterman to life and reveal what he’s been plotting over the last year. When The Maccabees announced they were to be no more, it sparked a fertile period of creativity for Orlando as he began to cook up the tale of The Gritterman, resulting in the beautiful Snowman-like whimsy of the book and its accompanying album. “I started really working on The Gritterman around the same time the announcement happened,” he begins. “I’d written a song about a seasonal hero as the theme, and I just fell for the character. I thought it might be something that I could develop. The idea of this stoic, slightly happy go lucky, solitary figure felt like a good voice to try and write in. I started writing some more music, and a story to go with it and I thought I could do some drawing to go with this.” Creating The Gritterman was partly borne out of frustration with touring and a desire to do something a little bit different. “I started writing stories a few years ago. It wasn’t for anything; I just realised it was a way of spending time that would otherwise be wasted on tour. There’s so much hanging around. It felt like a good way of getting to the end of the day and feeling like I’d done more than just do the gig. After a while, you start feeling like you need to do more stuff.” The tale of The Gritterman is an everyday story brought to life as a melancholy fantasy as the soon to be redundant hero takes his final voyage doing the job that he loves. In the Gritterman character, Orlando recognises someone who

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WORDS: MARTYN YOU N G

has a deep love for what he does although it’s, y’know, a bit different to being a rock star. “I suppose in a sense it gave him great pleasure in the same way that making stuff gives me great pleasure,” he says. “I totally understand the character’s feeling for loving what he does.” The way Orlando writes about the character is such that he has enormous respect and empathy for him. Something anyone who does a similarly nocturnal and unheralded job can relate to. “So many people do jobs that don’t get recognition. I’m in a peculiar position in that my job in some ways is only successful if lots of people are interested in it. There’s something very special about someone finding a job that they love if that job doesn’t get recognition. There’s something romantic in that.” The way the story really comes to life though is through Orlando’s illustrations. Art has long been a passion, going back to his days studying at the University of Brighton. Here, he combines his musical and writing skills with the drawing to create something wonderful. First, though, he just needed to go somewhere to find the perfect place to work. “I’d moved to Berlin to just be somewhere else,” he begins. “The Maccabees had been at the NME Awards, and that night I put all my gear on Foals’ tour bus because they were in Berlin a few days later and I had flown in and met them. I didn’t know a lot of people and thought, I need something to do with my time. I didn’t want to get stuck on anything. I thought that if I could find a way of using these three things that give me pleasure – writing, music and drawing - then I’m going to feel good and use my time well.”

along with it. It’s evocative and full of rich imagery. “The music could afford to be more atmospheric and quieter,” he says. The beauty of The Gritterman is that you can attach your own ideas and imagination to it. There are lots of subtle details. “I thought it was nice and neat that in the summer he could sell ice cream and in the winter, he could get rid of ice. With any of those things where you have a bit of an idea if it’s a good enough idea you’ll notice these little things will fit together and you roll with those punches.” Giving voice and gravitas to The Gritterman was Paul Whitehouse, ex-Fast Show star and genuine comic royalty, who plays a striking role as narrator. “We met and had a cup of coffee, and I felt very shy,” laughs Orlando. “I’ve grown up watching his stuff. There was a programme that he did recently called Nurse. There were a couple of characters in that that were so gentle and had a bit of a tragic element to comic characters, so I thought he could do this. It was a pleasure because he was a real gentleman. The amount of time, energy and patience he had with the project and with me made me feel very lucky.”

From there, things swiftly moved forward. “Each of the disciplines helped develop the other in terms of forming the story and the look and sound of it.”

The Gritterman is an ambitious project encompassing all the distinct aspects of Orlando’s buzzing creative mind. Following the end of the Maccabees though it feels the right time to indulge in something a little bit special and unique. “It’s not a solo project. It’s not what I’m going to do for the rest of my life,” concludes Orlando. “I just wanted a project that I could really become absorbed by. I wanted to use all the bits that gave me pleasure when making it. It was about trying to make something that made me feel good.” P

Musically, the accompanying album is informed by the setting of the night and eerie calmness that goes

Orlando Weeks’ debut book The Gritterman is out now.

PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

DORK

PHOENIX

EXPECT NOTHING

PHOENIX ARE HAVING A BUMPER YEAR: FIRST 5* ALBUM ‘TI AMO’, NEXT: ONE OF LONDON’S BIGGEST VENUES. WORDS: JAMIE MUIR.

homas Mars is an hour away from leading Phoenix into a first, and firsts for Phoenix are continually dwindling. Whether it’s sellout shows around the globe, headline sets at festivals or the fact they’ve carved out a genre and style of their very own - Phoenix have reached the stage where merely the utterance of their name conjures a world of joyous moments. Tonight marks the Parisians’ very first show in Thailand, another country to tick off on their spanning map of dominance that simmers and croons with the sounds of electro-pop royalty. Not even thunderstorms can stop this party. “It’s really satisfying,” explains Thomas, taking in the final moments before he steps out on a stage with a new live show full of shimmering displays and wall to wall hits. “When you release a record you want it to be a surprise each time, you want unexpected things to happen, and we really don’t expect much. When we come back, we expect nothing or close to nothing.” ‘Ti Amo’ isn’t just another Phoenix record. It’s an album that only they could produce, one that infuses Eurosoaked cosmopolitan juices, a touch of dazzling synth sugar and a twist of carefree abandon that when shaken and served, makes for one refreshing cocktail. Embracing the stunning views that came with the runaway success of ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ and then ‘Bankrupt’, ‘Ti Amo’ is a record that

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firms itself as a statement - opening a new chapter for a band whose key focus since the very beginning, was making the sounds and moments that they thrive in. For Thomas, looking back now is a warming tale of closeness and constant reinvention. “In the beginning, it was a primal scream,” he notes. “I went with Deck [D’arcy] down into my basement, and we started playing because we needed to. As the four of us, we built this confidence, like we were so pretentious - we all thought we were going to be the next Beatles. I think that feeling lasted for about a year, just the one pretentious year, where we were just really confident.” Alongside brothers Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz, Phoenix had every reason to be confident. Debut album ‘United’ was a jolt in the arm for a world still coming to terms with a new millennium, breathing life to a force that took the idea of cool and made it taste ever so sweet. Its impact could be felt at every turning, from ‘Too Young’ appearing in Hollywood films to even, as Thomas later found out, ‘If I Ever Feel Better’ being played in Norwegian mental health institutes. For each swooning indie-pop glimmer over the past 17 years, it’s easy to point to Phoenix as a shining influence no matter what flavour hook they turn to next. “We have to reinvent ourselves to keep things interesting,” points out Thomas. “Every record for us is like a first record. We come up with things that are weird and their own thing, y’know?

“WE WERE SO PRETENTIOUS - WE THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO BE THE NEXT BEATLES” We’ve found our way to make music, and the one conscious decision we probably make going into each record is to start with a negative from the album before. We’ve done five albums, we know we’re not going to repeat them, so those are the directions that we’re not interested in pursuing, and that’s about it. “We like to disappear for a few years, so it’s just us four in a room. It can take a lot of time, and usually, we’re exhausted when the album is done, but it’s all about creating something that we’re confident in and that in a few years we won’t look back on and be ashamed of!” It’s a record that has found itself at home with Phoenix on the road, playing to thousands devoted to the rainbow of sounds and sights that flow out of their stage show. Every note and flavour of Phoenix’s repertoire comes to the fore. Glam neon-lights, constantly changing yet packing that memorable punch on every track there’s a pursuit of uniqueness that defines who Phoenix are as a band, and Thomas as not just a frontman,

but someone enamoured in the power of music. That must be an odd experience, stepping out to a sea of adoring fans every night? “It feels surreal,” comments Thomas, “we go from these small shows to huge festival shows in front of tens of thousands, and we do that deliberately whenever we tour. I think it’s to realise what’s going on, to appreciate that feeling of a club show and then that feeling of those giant concerts too - where there’s this epic sort-of-biblical quality - and both are really different. “For me, if we can play a venue that nobody has ever played before, or is a little bit weird, that’s exciting to us. At the same time, it’s amazing to feel a part of this musical legacy where you’ve gone to see and heard people play at these amazing venues, and now we get to play there too. When you can say ‘Oh, Johnny Cash played here’ - you feel like you belong to some sort of tradition.” P Phoenix play Alexandra Palace in London on 30th September.

FIND MORE ON OUR CONSTANTLY UPDATED BRAND NEW BANGERS SPOTIFY PLAYLIST AT READDORK.COM

BANGERS BAD NERVES

RADIO PUNK

HYPE

You can do a lot in just over two and a half minutes. We live in an age where time flies by at an alarming rate, and everything we want – we want it now. It’s that frantic and direct mantra that rings through with Bad Nerves and ‘Radio Punk’, searing with an urgency and primal kick to rip apart the rulebook and frolic in its confettistripped downpour. It doesn’t so much grab attention as it clears out anything else that may be floating about in your mind, and it’s all about the now. From the minute ‘Radio Punk’ lights its fuse, there’s only one direction its going in. Sounding both incredibly fresh but comfortingly familiar at the same time, it’s a runaway train of panoramic heights. ‘Radio Punk’ wants you to tap away at it as you sit in another dry Maths lesson, it wants you to click that repeat button straight away, it wants you to have the words plastered on your mind from the first listen and more than anything, Bad Nerves want you. There’s moments when

you click at the focus a band has, and in ‘Radio Punk’ intentions are clear – Bad Nerves aren’t afraid of blending themselves into something undeniably joyous. If it feels this good right away, then just imagine how glorious things are about to become.

DREAM WIFE

FIRE

Dream Wife are yet to release a song that isn’t an absolute banger. From the sun-soaked nostalgia of ‘Kids’ to ‘FUU’’s smiling threats, ‘Hey Heartbreaker’ to ‘Somebody’, they’ve been knocking it out of the park since the moment they stepped out of art school. ‘Fire’ is different, though. On ‘Fire’, Dream Wife are ablaze. We all know the story. You meet someone on a night out, or at a party, and you feel it. That spark. Dream Wife have fanned the flames, building that sudden electrical charge into an epic romance with giddy vocals and riffs sharper than a throwing star. ‘Fire’ is a song for falling in love in five minute increments, the equivalent of a wedding waltz for club night couples. This one is all crackling immediacy, and not for the faint of heart. Dream Wife have turned the heat up.

PALE WAVES

TELEVISION ROMANCE

Once in each class, you’ll get a band who do everything perfectly. From the word go, they’ll arrive fully formed, crystal clear in their vision of who they are. Musically, they’ll hit every right note. Aesthetically, they’ll be confident in their own skin. Every sinew will scream ‘this is the one’. There’s no doubt about it – they’re going to be huge. From 2017’s pack, that band has only ever been Pale Waves. With their opening track, ‘There’s A Honey’, they’d already dropped a gold star banger of the year contender. They’d taken symbiotic influence from their partners in crime Matty and George from The 1975, but dragged it away from those bright neons into their own

shadowy den to create something both dark and brooding yet gloriously luminous in the same moment. But that, so it seems, was merely a warm-up. Anyone who has caught Pale Waves live will have heard their opening number. Titled ‘Television Romance’, it runs with the same DNA as its older sister, but twists it to be even closer to the ideal. It’s not that Pale Waves do things other bands couldn’t, but more they do them in ways they simply don’t see. Quickly ushering themselves to the back seat of indie’s double decker school bus, they’re a gang that already feel to possess the swagger of the coolest kids. Their debut album is already firmly marked as one of the most anticipated of 2018. The only question now is – with a perfect record behind them so far – just how big they can go?

BANGERS ON DEMAND

Want to keep up to date with the latest bangers as they drop? You’ll be wanting our Brand New Bangers playlist, then. Load up Spotify on your mobile, tap search, then the camera icon, scan the code to the left, and it’ll pop right up. Follow to make sure you never miss out again

DOWN WITH BORING

2017 O CTO B E R

CALENDAR 4

SUPERTOUR! SUPERTOUR! Their new album is out, they’ve done the ‘summer’ ‘festivals’, now Superfood are on the road, starting today in Bristol. They’ll call in Southampton, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Nottingham before finishing in Leicester.

BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOURHOOD It’s Manchester’s Neighbourhood festival today, with a very Dork-centric line-up. There’s Peace (welcome back, Peace!), Rat Boy, Black Honey, The Amazons, Bad Sounds, Get Inuit, Bloxx, Estrons and loads, loads more. Get all the info at neighbourhoodfestival.com

SIMPLE THINGS PLEASE SIMPLE MINDS And we’re sure the band Simple Minds would approve of the line-up for this year’s Bristol festival, featuring hometown heroes Idles (pictured), Metronomy, Wild Beasts and loads more.

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A DECADE AT THE ‘MATINEE’ Yep, Jack Penate’s debut album is 10 TEN - years old today. And we’ve still not, at the time of press, had news of his next record. We saw you hinting earlier this year, Jack. You’re not allowed to hold out. All indie heroes must return eventually.

TWO LEFT FEET, WE HAVE NO BEAT If you want to start a row in the Dork Bunker, just proclaim who the best member of Girls Aloud is. Obviously there’s a right answer to this, and as only one of us is writing this copy (Hi! - Ed), we can now settle it officially, in print. So many happy returns to the 100% official, uncontested ‘Best One In Girls Aloud’, Nicola Roberts. IDST. No take backs. Job done.

DREAM WIFE’S TOUR STARTS TODAY, ‘FYI’ You lucky blighters, you. Today nearly two weeks of live Dream Wife action kicks off with their biggest headline tour ‘to date’. They’ll play dates in Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford, Leeds, Manchester, Bedford, Brighton, Bristol and Bournemouth, before finishing up in London. There’s a new EP out too - check our review of brand new banger ‘Fire’ back on page 17.

HERE COME WEEZER Prepare for the opinions. Weezer are dropping their second album in two years. Following up on the well received White Album, can ‘Pacific Daydream’ go two for two? Here’s hoping. They hit the UK today to kick off a tour. The album’s out Friday...

INHEAVEN, INLONDON This issue’s cover stars INHEAVEN continue their touring supporting their debut album this month, rolling up to London’s Scala. This copy would have been so much easier if they’ve have played Heaven instead.

SUNDARA KARMA ‘DO’ BRIXTON Headlining Brixton Academy is the definitive ‘you’ve made it now’ moment for any indie band. Tonight, that’s what Sundara Karma do. With (quite possibly future Brixton headliners) The Magic Gang in tow, too.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER Happy birthday to Marina Diamandis! It’s a couple of years since the Really Rather Great pop star dropped her last album ‘Froot’. With that Clean Bandit hook up arriving earlier this summer, quite frankly we’d quite like the next ‘thing’ before too long. Once you’ve finished with the cake, obviously. We’re not monsters here. Not really.

YOU CAN’T BEAT A BIT OF BULLY They’re back! Today Bully release their second album ‘Losing’. We’ve already heard the first track from it, ‘Feel The Same’. From the sounds of that, it’s another winner. Check back for the full review next issue.

MASTER BAKER ... which is also when Julien Baker’s new album arrives! If you’re one of the silly billys who has yet to check out our Julien, here’s your chance to set that right. Titled ‘Turn Out The Lights’, she’s the kind of talent that only comes round every so often. Honestly, we can’t imagine it being anything other than brilliant, but you’ll need to check back next issue for the official verdict. No, you can’t have everything now. Shush.

N E WS F E E D

DORK

NEWS FEED

B L A E N AVO N Blaenavon have released a surprise EP - ‘Prague ’99’ is built around the band’s track of the same name, alongside three new recordings: ‘The Monte Carlo Kid’, ‘A Death in the Family’ and ’12’. It follows on from debut album ‘That’s Your Lot’, released back in April. They’ve also just finished up a seaside tour with alt-J, playing Brighton, Margate, Bournemouth, Weston Super Mare and Blackpool.

FA L L O U T BOY Pete Wentz wants Rihanna on the new Fall Out Boy album. In an interview with Billboard, he reveals that – while there are no guests on the recently pushed back ‘M A N I A’ yet - he’s been chasing down the singer for over a decade now. He also explains the variety of influences on the band’s new material. “The thing I point to now more than anything is we’re listening to a lot more music happening worldwide,” Pete says. “The thing I love about the globalization of music is I’m listening to beats that this kid in Lagos made… that would have never happened before.” ‘M A N I A’ is set for release ion 19th January 2018.

ST. V I N C E N T

Direct Hit! ANNIE IS ‘DOING’ A NEW FILM.

T H E K I L L E RS The Killers’ touring line-up is down to two full, original members, as guitarist Dave Keuning has announced he’s taking a break from the road. Like bassist Mark Stoermer, he’ll still be recording with the band. “We respect

While we were risking sunburn stood about in fields, banger-riffic duo The Rhythm Method dropped a track to celebrate August’s Bank Holiday Weekend. ‘Something For The Weekend’ is about the best weekend of the year - “it’s what New Year’s Eve should be,” explains Joey. Read more on readdork.com.

S I G RI D

his decision,” reads a statement from the band, “just as we respected Mark’s decision to go back to college.” New album ‘Wonderful Wonderful’ is out 22nd September; they tour the UK from 6th November.

LC D SO U N DSYST E M James Murphy and co. have launched

a virtual reality experience. The new video for LCD Soundsystem track ‘Tonite’ shows an animated party of dancing cones and cylinders, with viewers able to click on individual dancers to see the video from their perspective, while participants with their own headsets can experience the simulation as if it’s happening around them. Check it out at tonite.dance.

THE BIG MOON

U R Pooface T H EY SA I D I T, N OT US .

St. Vincent will be directing a new adaptation of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. Oscar Wilde’s only novel focusses on a hedonistic young man whose portrait ages while he stays young and good-looking. The new version with Annie Clarke at the helm and written by David Birke reimagines the classic tale with a woman in the title role. This won’t be Annie’s first foray into directing, though – she also co-wrote, directed and scored the short film ‘Birthday Party’.

T H E RH Y T H M M ET H O D

FOA LS It looks like Foals are starting work on their new album. Frontman Yannis Philippakis has shared a photo on his Instagram feed, with the caption: “Off to write the next record brb.” Lovely. The band’s last album, ‘What Went Down’, was released back in 2015.

W H AT YO U R FAVO U RI T E BA N DS A RE U P TO, N O M AT T E R H OW M U N DA N E .

The Big Moon have dropped a new video for their latest single ‘Pull The Other One’. The track is taken from their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album ‘Love In The 4th Dimension’, and sees them looking for clues to rescue a dog from Marika Hackman. Because Marika Hackman puts dogs in boxes. Bad Marika. It also features the greatest ransom note ever created. Keep your eyes open for that one, Dear Reader. Watch now on readdork.com.

Sigrid has been snapped in the studio working with songwriter and producer Noonie Bao, and composer and producer Patrik Berger. Both Patrik and Noonie have worked with Charli XCX, and between them have also teamed up with Lana Del Rey, Robyn, Katy Perry, and Carly Rae Jepsen. We’re expecting some pop bangers. But then, isn’t that what Sigrid always delivers?

WO L F A L I C E Touring the UK in support of second album ‘Visions of a Life’, Wolf Alice hit the road from 8th November - and they’ll be taking Sunflower Bean and Superfood with them. Great stuff. WE’VE GOT THE KEY... RECORDING RELEASE TOURING RUMOUR SPOTTED OMGOMGOMG VIDEO BANGER SOCIAL

DOWN WITH BORING

CONNECTION STUFF YOU SAID. STUFF THEY SAID.

TOP TWEETS

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@george_ezra: Do you have a dishwasher? George Ezra Sadly, since last issue, hard times have fallen upon our cover star George. He’s had to get a job down Currys PC World. Poor George.

CONNECTION DORK PO BOX 390 HASTINGS TN34 9JP

@DeclanMcKenna: Feel like I duped u all into buying tickets for my tour now so I could have a better chance at getting killers tickets but I swear I didn’t. Declan McKenna We’ve said it before. The boy’s a genius. Don’t listen to his denials.

LETTER OF THE MONTH SCRIBBLE ME THIS

I recently received a signed copy of The Sherlocks’ debut album in the post and although it is a great record, it got me thinking about whether having an album presigned is really worth it. I mean in this case, it didn’t cost me anything additional but in the past I have paid a fair amount extra for certain albums to have the band members’ scribbles all over them, and I’ve started to wonder if it is really so meaningful? It’s not like it’s been

SUCKERS

Hey Dorks, I have a bet running with my mate that we won’t see Charli XCX’s album until next year. What do you think? Alex It’s Charli, Alex. Of course we’ll be waiting. It’s tradition that every Charli XCX album has to be delayed six months, released in America, delayed again in the UK then randomly feature Rita Ora.

PSSST. JEMMA SOUNDS LIKE A MISERY GUTS

Hi Dork, I don’t want to sound like a misery guts, but this year’s festival headliners have been really boring (apart from The 1975, OBVIOUSLY). We need some new blood. I’d love to see Chvrches and Bastille play bigger slots, wouldn’t you? Jemma We would like some newer headliners, yes, Jemma. Bluntly, The 1975 best be headlining Reading in the next two years or we riot. We know they’ve done Latitude, but the biggest stages aren’t 24

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hand signed in front of me over an exchange in conversation; they simply sign the lot in one go during an afternoon, knowing nothing about who gets each copy. What are your guys thoughts on this? Is a signature on an album only special if you get it in person? Dominic, Oxford Ah signatures! The killer ‘please order this early from our selected retailer’ trick of choice. Well, Dominic. You’re probably right, tbqh. One is a memory of a treasured (slash really-

too large for that lot, Chvrches are ready for a Latitude type slot, Bastille may be with a third album under their belt. After ‘Visions of a Life’, Wolf Alice must be pushing for someone to give them a shot too - after all, they are pretty much The Greatest Band In The World Right Now. Alternatively, everyone could just book Paramore. We’d be fine with that.

MYSTIC MUGS

Hey Dork, Could you please look into your crystal ball and tell me what album will be the best of 2018? I think it will be Vampire Weekend. Olivia We’ve thought about this a lot, Olivia. By which we mean two minutes while making a cuppa in the office kitchen. Vampire Weekend is a great call - but we reckon you’re doing that thing again where you get all indie and forget the true, underlying rule of all music. While our fave bands may be brilliant - we should never, ever forget the might of Little Mix.

WI N!

A WI ‘DOW TH N B T-S ORIN HIR G’ T!

quite-awkward) interaction with a band you love, the other is just some scribbling on your record by someone - presumably the band, not an intern with an example sig to copy. Unless you really want to work out if your faves can write their own name (sometimes we wonder), does it mean much? In other news, we’ll draw a winner for that signed Lana album last month soon.

ART ATTACK

AFTER LAST MONTH’S BASTILLE ART FEST, WE’RE PUBLISHING MORE OF YOUR WORK. AND IF YOU’RE ONE OF THE HUNDREDS (YES, HUNDREDS) WHO HAVE SENT US PICTURES OF DAN AND CO., DON’T WORRY, WE’RE PLANNING SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL FOR A FUTURE ISSUE. KEEP ‘EM PEELED FOR MORE INFO.

This month’s art, clockwise: Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff by Ashley Donisch; George Ezra by @tilakmadanlo on that there Twitter; Dan Smith by Victoria Eno.

@RATBOY: 3.50 am I’m kinda wavy sitting on the toilet and I’m wondering why @Pharrell still hasn’t hit me up to make something together it’s deep x Rat Boy Where do you start. Is the toilet deep? What is wavy? Are you waving at someone? Do we sound like our parents now? @charli_xcx: i like the darkness Charli XCX The band, or the all enveloping futility that haunts us all at night? @liamgallagher: Apparently your not allowed to swear now in LEEDS stop the world I’m getting the FUCK OFF as you fuvking were you fucking cunts slags twats Liam Gallagher Liam is 45 on the 21st September.

E P Y H . W BANDS E N L A I T ESSEN

“WE’RE ALL DEALING W THE SAME S ITH H IT ”

he first song I learned to play on guitar was ‘Everywhere’ by Michelle Branch,” Alex Lahey recalls with a grin, “which still stands to be an amazing song.” No stranger to an addictive guitar hook, since the release of her debut EP last year the Melbourne musician has been stirring up quite the storm. Having made music her day job, toured half a world away from her home with Tegan & Sara, and now readying to release her debut album, there’s no shirking the excitement that surrounds Alex Lahey right now. “I started writing music when I was maybe thirteen,” she details. “I was formally learning the saxophone at school, and I had been for a while, but I wanted to teach myself how to play the guitar.” Picking up the instrument through her favourite songs, writing her own music was something that came naturally. “I was just kind of making up my own shit and not really thinking twice about it,” she laughs. “It was just something that I did. It just made sense.”

X E L A Y E H LA -P O P O O D FU ZZ BS U RD LY G A S N PE H EY E’ S A LE X LA S: JE SS IC A M EL BO U RN N TH . W O RD T TH IS M O U O S T’ U D H ER D EB G EM S - A N

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GOODMAN

Sense is something Alex Lahey has in droves. Her straight talking lyricisms and knack for a snappy pop hook never fail to prove accessible to anyone who wants to hear it. “For people to come back and be like, ‘How are you so relatable?’ It’s like, it seems so candid and it seems like we can all connect with this because we’re all the fucking same,” she laughs. “We’re all dealing with the same shit, at the end of the day.” “I think it’s really funny that people are like, ‘No one talks about it’,” she continues. “I don’t think I’m breaking any new ground. I’m like, ‘Yeah, but it’s happening to all of us’.” Citing “the world of LimeWire and season one of The OC” among her inspirations, Alex Lahey’s writing is driven by simply “wanting to express myself and how I genuinely feel about the world and what’s happening around me.” That’s exactly what her debut album offers. “It’s this collection of songs about relationships of all kinds that we encounter in our lives,” Alex describes. “Whether that’s with your family, or with someone that you’re madly in love with, or with someone

that you like who doesn’t treat you right, or with a friend, or whatever. It’s the multifaceted nature of those different relationships.” It’s a dynamic that echoes through the record’s very title. “I really like the duality of that line ‘I Love You Like A Brother’,” Alex considers. “In the song itself, it’s very literal.” Written about her own brother, and the changing dynamics between siblings as they grow older and come to understand loving each another like a sibling, it’s an innately felt notion that can resonate with anyone. “I really like the line,” Alex enthuses. “On the one hand, telling my brother ‘I love you like a brother’ is such a breakthrough for us, given that our relationship hasn’t always been the most solid thing in the world. But if someone I was in love with turned to me and said, ‘Hey, I love you like a brother’, it’d be the worst thing in the world to hear,” she explains. “There’s something in the line that’s almost like a sick joke,” she adds, laughing. “For what it means to me, that’s actually a really nice thing.”

Drawing from her own observations, emotions, and experience, ‘I Love You Like A Brother’ has been a long time in the making. “I’ve been playing shows for about eighteen months now,” Alex states. “If I was just playing songs that I’d recorded in that time I’d have a set of five songs,” she laughs. Instead, drawing together the strongest of her capabilities, the album is an instinctive portrayal of the world that anyone can relate with. With the release finally imminent, excitement duels with expectation at an all time high. “It’s hard not to get too reflective and start second guessing things,” Alex admits. “Not in an ‘I want to change this guitar part on the record’ type thing, but being like ‘Are we doing this in the right way? Are we rolling this out in the way that we should be? Is the record getting listened to in the right way?’” “That’s definitely something that’s on my mind, but now that the wheels are in motion, it’s kind of like ‘Whatever happens, happens,’” Alex shrugs. “It’s almost like the stages of grieving – eventually you

end up at acceptance,” she laughs. Relinquishing control as her debut album sees release, the result is now whatever you choose to take from it or make of it. “Maybe there is a sense of grieving of losing that control,” she confesses. “You are seeing that cliché of the person who’s owned the dog for years and is letting them run off into the wild,” she laughs. “It is nerve-wracking, but it’s exciting,” she concludes, before questioning “if I was making records and putting them out and I didn’t feel a thing, then why would I do it?”

HEE TH O NT ON E NE VIIN EV PE AP G RA GR

“The only thing I can really right about in this project, the only thing I want to express, is just me as an individual,” she explains. As character driven as her writing is, what makes Alex Lahey’s music so special is the universal recognition that fuels it. “I’m really not that different to anyone else,” Alex portrays, affirming, “it’s not about me. It’s about people connecting to the songs in their own way.” P Alex Lahey’s debut album ‘I Love You Like A Brother’ is out 6th October.

TWO-M I N UTE C HU N KS OF

GARAG E-ROCK? YOU’RE

G R AC E L A N D E M B R AC E F LOW E R P OW E R

Are you familiar with Norwich newcomers, Graceland? They’re very good. The fuzz-pop four-piece have teamed up with artist Sophie Michael for ‘Flowers’’ new video, featuring a teeny miniature garden and a flower with better moves than most. Watch on readdork.com.

When we caught up with Dead Pretties at Latitude, they had – y’know – a lot to say for themselves. That included promising new music. Titled ‘Confidence’, the trio’s latest offering is a swaggering slice of bombast and certainty with its gob set to stun. Listen on readdork.com (where else?).

I N TH E RI G HT PL AC E.

BAD NERVES LOVELY. WHAT FIRST MADE YOU WANT TO START A BAND? I’ve always been into music. I wasn’t brought up on much of what I now consider the good stuff though; it was mostly just Meat Loaf and musicals, but that was enough to get me singing at least - even if it was to the tune of Mary Poppins. I first wanted to be in a band after hearing Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ at the beginning of high school. I’d just started playing drums,

Fresh from crooning hearts all over the place this summer, Matt Maltese has announced details of his biggest UK headline tour to date, rolling its way around the country from 7th November.

D E A D P RET T I ES D E L I V E R T H E G O O DS

RI D ICU LOUSLY I N F ECTI OUS

HEY BOBBY, HOW ARE YOU? I’m doing okay. I just ate a large handful of pickled onions.

M AT T M A LT ES E I S O F F O N TO U R

and that record really sparked my middle-class teenage angst.

HOW DID YOU GUYS MEET? Me and Will Power have known each other for years but we never really got along. We figured the best way to remedy that situation would be to start a band. We still don’t get along, but we dig the sounds we make together. The music would be shit if we were best friends. WHAT’VE BEEN THE HIGHLIGHTS OF BAND LIFE SO FAR? Just playing music this fast is a

constant highlight. It’s so much fun. But it’s been really cool getting support from BBC Introducing, and Radio 1 etc.. We really didn’t think people would get it, so that’s been a nice surprise. TELL US ABOUT WHAT YOU GUYS ARE WORKING ON RIGHT NOW. We’re just writing non-stop. I guess we’re working on an album really, but our main focus right now is to nail some decent singles. ARE THERE ANY OTHER NEW BANDS AROUND AT THE MO WHO

YOU PARTICULARLY LIKE? The Cavemen, Fat White Family, Eat Fast, Uranium Club, Lumpy and the Dumpers, The Lemon Twigs. WHAT INSPIRES YOU, MUSICALLY OR OTHERWISE? Anything trashy that sounds like a crisp packet is always inspiring. Love that awful messy sound. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN? Mainly just write music, to be honest. But I like making videos and stuff too, so I do that a fair bit when I’m stumped for song ideas. I made the last two videos we put out actually. I’m no Spike Jonze, but it’s fun to pretend. WHAT’S THE BEST SONG OF YOURS FOR NEW LISTENERS TO START WITH? Just start with ‘Radio Punk’, the new single. P Bad Nerves’ single ‘Radio Punk’ is out now. DOWN WITH BORING

HYPE ESSENTIA

NDS. L NEW BA

N I S S A S YAS

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SEA GIRLS LONDON FOUR-PIECE SEA GIRLS MAKE THE KIND OF BRILLIANTLY CATCHY GUITAR POP IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO SHIFT FROM YOUR NOGGIN. HEY HENRY, WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALISE YOU WANTED TO MAKE MUSIC? DID YOU HAVE A MUSICAL UPBRINGING? I think I realised as soon as I was conscious of its existence. My mother was a DJ in her youth, and we had music playing in the house constantly - stuff like The Beatles, Elvis, the Stones, Sinatra and a lot of prog and classical music also. WHERE ARE YOU ALL FROM, AND HOW DID SEA GIRLS GET TOGETHER? We are from Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Kent. I was the singer in a band with Oli, and he fronted another band with Andrew and Rory as they were all living in London for university. When I moved down to London, it made sense to join up when both our drummers went elsewhere. Oli took up the drums, and we all started making music together. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST PERK OF BEING IN A BAND? Probably being able to pretend I’m cool. WHAT DO YOU MOST ENJOY WRITING ABOUT, AND WHAT’S THE BEST SONG YOU’VE EVER WRITTEN? I like writing when I’m in a mood; I try to channel that. I embrace being capricious; I write about being immature, jealous or confident. I quite like writing songs that I’m embarrassed about what I’m saying because it isn’t dignified. Sometimes I listen back and think, I don’t like that guy. The best song I’ve ever written was probably the second one I ever wrote. It was the day after Whitney Huston died. I called it, ‘Who Will Write All The Songs (Now Whitney You’re Gone)’. I just strung lots of her themes along lyrically. It made no sense, including the title, but I really liked it. WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING THING YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS? We are playing our second London headline show at the Lexington on 18th September, and then we’re doing a mini-tour of festivals every weekend after that. We will also be filming a couple more music videos. P Sea Girls’ single ‘Call Me Out’ is out now.

CASSELS

OXFORDSHIRE SIBLINGS CASSELS ARE ON THE VERG E OF RELEASING THEIR HARD-HITTING DEBUT, A RECORD ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM PHYSICAL ABUSE TO INEQUALITY. Hey Jim, when did you guys decide you wanted to be in a band together? Who initiated it? I’ve always wanted to be in a band for as long as I can remember – it’s been (and continues to be) a lifelong obsession. Unsurprisingly there weren’t that many people to play with growing up in the middle of nowhere though, so when Loz was about eight, I managed to coax him onto the drums and, through a careful process of positive reinforcement, essentially brainwashed him into being in a band with me. He never had a choice basically, the poor bastard. I guess we started ‘properly’ doing stuff as Cassels when I moved to London in around 2013, but it took us a couple of years to find our feet. You’re about to drop your debut album proper, was it a long time in the works? Nah it was all super quick. [Record label] Big Scary Monsters told us last year that they wanted an album from us at the end of this year, so we had a bit of a deadline from the start. I guess writing started around mid-2016 and we went and recorded four songs with Rocky O’Reilly in Belfast last November, then went back and recorded the remaining five tracks in June. We were in the studio for a total of five days, and for three of those Loz didn’t play anything (just napped). Personally, I find it weird when you hear a record by a two piece, and it’s got loads of extra shit all over it. If you want keys and three guitars on every track, why not just get more members? What was your frame of mind like while you were writing the record? I had a few crises of confidence when I started writing. This was the first time I’ve ever had to write an album’s-worth of material from scratch, and a debut album’s-worth no less, so for a while I was stressing out about making sure it was this

career defining piece of work which we’d look back on in years to come as the pinnacle of our achievements. But thankfully I managed to recognise that was a stupid and unrealistic goal, and just crack on with trying to write some good songs. In the end, I actually found having a bit of a deadline quite helpful as it kept me focussed and motivated. You tackle a lot of heavy topics - do you ever think, ‘Fuck it, I’ll write a cheery song’? Yeah, that’s actually what I tried to do with the last song on the record, ‘Chewed Up Cheeks’. There’s even a line in it that goes, ‘This is the sound of my suspending my cynicism for just one second’. The idea for that song was to take the logic applied in ‘Cool Box’ of the ‘you’ in the song being a real person (in this case literally YOU – the listener) and write something which people can hopefully use in times of distress to make themselves feel a bit better. I always rely on music as a release or a distraction when I’m having a particularly bad time, so I liked the idea of writing a song with that purpose in mind for people listening. What would you most like listeners to take away from your music? I dunno. I’d just like them to enjoy it, I guess? I imagine a lot of our music could be misinterpreted as being quite didactic and preachy, but in actual fact, I’m not really trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking – I’m just expressing my own ideas and opinions. Personally, I don’t believe music has the power to completely alter peoples’ perceptions and views, only articulate, soundtrack and reinforce the opinions people already have. I’m under no illusion that the people who enjoy our stuff probably share a similar world view with me. What are you up to for the rest of the year? There’s a tour with Single Mothers, right? Yup, well excited about that! That’s in November. Got a couple of album release shows before that at the beginning of October, and we should also be doing a screening of the documentary Rod Huart made about us at some point. Oh and probably another single. P Cassels’ album ‘Epithet’ is out 6th October. DOWN WITH BORING

W WITH THEIR DEBUT ALBUM FINALLY HERE...

... INHEAVEN ARE READY TO WATCH IT ALL BURN.

WORDS: HEATHER MCDAID. PHOTOS: PHIL SMITHIES.

I N H E AV E N

NHEAVEN ARE SITTING IN AN ABANDONED FACTORY. James Taylor and Chloe Little have a hard day of work planned, finding ever-more work to do, even with their self-titled debut recorded and ready to go. Why relax? It’s a waiting game, but a productive one.

“Chloe and I are this weird factory,” explains James. “I was obsessed with counter-culture. I guess we wanted to create our own Warhol type scenario where we are our own factory; we are our own studio, we are our own designers. We write music, then Chloe and I discuss the visuals right there, and a lot of the songs spark of video ideas. And it goes from there.” The South-London foursome are completed by Jake Lucas and Joe Lazarus, and their DIY ethics are welllauded by now – no one knows the ideas floating around inside their heads better than themselves, and so they set to work. They do it all. ‘Regeneration’, their first hazy blast into the world, was written over a collage of thousands of images Chloe had compiled – it became a catalyst for all to follow. “We started feeding everything out onto the internet on a weird website that had all this cool stuff,” he says. “Back when we were called Blossom, you’d click on the letter O, and a secret video would pop up of one of the songs, click somewhere else, like on the flower that was on the tongue, you’d find another.” That unique approach caught the attention of The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas and Cult Records (“Probably my number one day ever,” notes James. “That’s a big claim,” laughs Chloe), and a bunch of self-made videos, zines, touring and around a hundred songs later, it was time for their debut album.

IVE YEARS IS A LONG TIME FOR SOME PEOPLE TO GET TO THEIR FIRST FULL- LENGTH ALBUM, BUT FOR INHEAVEN IT FELT JUST RIGHT. “We wanted it to be solid from start to finish,” explains James. “We already kind of know what we’re going to do for the second record, and we already sort of have an idea down and a few songs for the third. We always wanted to release a trilogy of albums.” “I think the reason it’s taken so long is that we spent a lot of time touring for two years and getting really good as a band,” continues Chloe. Honing their craft in a live setting has built their confidence and capabilities as musicians. “Now just feels the right time to put out our debut record. If we’d have done it before, it would have been too early for us. If we had waited

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“I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE SAY STICK TO THE MUSIC” any longer, it would have felt stale. We feel like now is the perfect time for us.” “I think, for bands especially, there are no shortcuts,” James notes. “You have to get into a van. When no one’s heard of you, you have to get in a van for three years and tour up and down the country until people know who you are what your songs are about. It’s not like the pop world where you can release one song and suddenly play Shepherd’s Bush Empire - you have to put in the work, you have to put in the hours, and you have to play as many places as possible. Now we have that solid foundation, it feels like the perfect place to start building on this.” INHEAVEN’s album feels like one of two halves, the personal and the political. ‘Stupid Things’ twinkles and soars declaring, “I don’t wanna grow up, I just wanna be with you”, where ‘Baby’s Alright’ stomps to life taking clear focus: “Lonely kids of the USA, fight a war in a foreign state […] Pull the trigger now or face your fate, in a messed up place where hate breeds hate”. These two distinct strands thread around one another into an album

that combines decades of influences effortlessly. ‘Treats’ viciously spits on the state of the world, ‘Velvet’ lulls you angelically into other realms. Drift away and relax, channel frustration and anger, INHEAVEN navigate the dichotomy flawlessly. “I always loved those albums where you listen from start to finish, and it takes you on a journey,” says James. “We wanted to have those breaks in the middle with ‘Do You Dream’, and we wanted to end it with a more atmospheric, cinematic song like ‘Velvet’ where you just fall into the world which we invented. The best albums have diversity on them. The worst is where people just do the same song ten times – I hate that. We wanted to show what we were capable of. We wanted to show all the different angles of how we feel.”

HOLD YOUR NERVRE

IT’S A FRAUGHT TIME, BEING IN A NEW BAND. James: We’re just 24/7 nervous about everything, all the time. I think most new bands are because there are so many barriers to break through that you’re kind of waiting for that plateau period of, ah, this is it now. But then you speak to bands on their second album, and it doesn’t feel like anyone ever gets to that plateau. They’re always nervous about something. You just play a show and see people singing and starting circles and shit, that’s when you feel like you’re doing something that means something to people. We’re usually nervous most of the time. There’s always something to worry about. Chloe: Crossing the road, North Korea, there’s a lot going on.

I N H E AV E N

“WE JUST WANT PEOPLE TO FALL INTO OUR WORLD” INHEAVEN cannot be accused of doing the same song ten times over. ‘Bitter Town’ jangles to life triumphantly – picture that scene at the end of a movie when they realise they’d been missing the obvious all along and run past everyone else to their happy ending. This is the soundtrack. ‘Drift’ is the perfect summer song, ‘Vultures’ is INHEAVEN’s brand of anarchy bottled. “It’s quite an honest representation of us over the years of which it was written,” says Chloe. “The political angle was just impossible to ignore, things we have been discussing and feeling. If you’re angry, you write a song about it, if you’re in love you write a song about it. Politics is no different.” “You have to have some depth in a record,” James adds. “Some of our favourite albums have those big uplifting angry moments. It’s just important to have light and shade like yin and yang. I’ve never really thought in genres,” he continues, on his favourites in music. “I think in movements. My favourite movements were 1960s counterculture, 1970s punk, 1990s grunge probably 1980s indie and DIY culture, Britpop. I definitely look at music in that fashion.” Names are never named on INHEAVEN’s debut, but the feeling is clear and moulds itself to the world around us, and various people. Take ‘World on Fire’, it’s a political punch declaring, “We’ll build a wall and kill them all, ‘til he’s the last man standing tall, stupid is as stupid does, a man who lies you cannot trust […] Power over honesty.” The video, however, focuses on the era of Salem Witch Trials. It works on both counts; their work applies itself to many situations.

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The world unfolding around us affects everyone, but often people can be very wary on publicly addressing political attitudes in particular. “When you have someone pushing their views on other people there’s a social obligation to be vocal about things that you think are wrong in the world,” begins Chloe. “Especially bands. There’s a history of revolutionary music and musicians speaking out against the powers that be. It’s important to do it, and most people don’t want to - especially mainstream media, pop artists and all that. Having said that, 2017 has seen a lot more people be more vocal, don’t you think?” “Yeah,” agrees James. “We are very inspired by the 1960s counterculture period, the rock’n’roll movement that came through. We always wanted to mirror what was going on in our society, and we wanted to mean something to people. I think that you owe it to everyone that came before you to carry that flame and to push forward. It’s so exciting and fucked up at the moment - you see so many kids politically motivated and engaged to say things, so many young people, it’s really inspiring for us as a band. “We really want to evoke that feel, and it comes through particularly in our live shows. We see the reaction the kids have to the more politically charged stuff like ‘Treats’, ‘Baby’s Alright’ and ‘Regeneration’ – they blow up and go absolutely crazy. They come up to us after shows and talk to us about politics, and it’s a really amazing thing.” “If you can be smart with your lyrics rather than be like ‘Down with Thatcher, this is what I believe’,” explains Chloe, “when you are more ambiguous, then people come up to you and say ‘Is that song about Trump? Is that song about this person?’ You can make your own interpretations.”

“We never say the word Trump [in our music] for example - that would be lame,” notes James. “There is no way of escaping politics at the moment, and I think that bands should be reflecting on it. If they’re not, then that can create a form of escapism. For INHEAVEN, we would prefer to tackle it head on.” It can be interesting to see the reaction to politics being involved in music – “keep your politics out

of my music!” is a common cry in various forms, “just make music” another. But music is inherently political – many genres were forged around politics and protest. Punk is defiance; Riot Grrrl was pivotal in bringing a feminist consciousness into an already political movement. To see music as separate from the world around us is to ignore the importance of what musical protest and anger have afforded for decades before us – not everything has to be a distraction, art forms can also be a mirror, a challenge, a refusal to sit quietly by and watch people burn the world. “I hate it when people say stick to the music,” sighs James. “Music is meant to reflect society. It’s not meant to always be shiny and nice and escapist. Some of the best music of the last century were politically charged songs, even if you didn’t know that they were. I love the fact that Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ was so anti-America, but it became an American anthem. I’ve always loved that about music - when people interpret it so heavily the wrong way.”

HE ABILITY TO BE AMBIGUOUS IN THEIR WORDS BUT CRYSTAL CLEAR ON THEIR TARGETS ALLOWS INHEAVEN TO CAPTURE FEELINGS THAT LET YOU APPLY YOUR OWN LIFE, FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES. It feels a fairly standard question to ask if any songs stand out to them for the story behind them – often it can be a news story that sparked a furious songwriting session, a realisation in life that was worked out through lyrics. For INHEAVEN, it’s a journey that involves “that weird place in Wales” and resulted in ‘Treats’. “We went to the edge of this little Welsh town on a cliff with a really dark looking sea around it, one of the cheapest we could find on Airbnb,” he says. (“40 quid a day!” remembers Chloe.) “The farm was still

being built, and they had this weird little cabin that you could rent out. We wanted to create the perfect song to mosh to. ‘Treats’ has these little moments in it where it just jumps away for a second, where Chloe’s singing and the music just builds and builds. It was literally made for mosh pits. So, there was this pagan circle that we found on-site-” “It was like this old pagan stone circle,” laughs Chloe. James continues, “I had the music and Chloe wrote some great lyrics for the verse. We couldn’t get the chorus. I kept trying to write over it, but everything sounded like some lame rock chorus. The riff’s so heavy, we thought it would be too masculine to have a male voice, so Chloe went and stood in the middle of the stone circle for like ten minutes, and when she came back, she just hummed the melody over the top of the chorus. Oh my god! Amazing! If it wasn’t for the pagan circle that song might have been lost in time.” The cliff-side solitude was a very exciting time for them – they wrote a number of favourites including ‘Vultures’ and ‘World on Fire’. “The lyrics were very post-apocalyptic with no people around,” says Chloe. “We were imagining the end of the world - imagine living there with no one around.” Their post-apocalyptic visions are striking, but the more you listen, the more unveils itself. It’s something they will build on in other areas as time goes on. “The best records make sense over a long period,” says James. “We have always tried to make things that you can look back on, and they make sense. You can see the bands that have sat around a table and discussed all the artwork. You can also tell from a mile off when it looks like stock logos and stock graphics and stock music videos. There’s the hot directors of that moment and seem to be doing all the bands of that moment; they blur together. From doing it ourselves, we have found the best way to separate ourselves.” “I’m proud our artwork and our videos don’t look like anyone else,” notes Chloe. “You can contract the shiny and the sheen of the modern music videos, but it’s better to embrace your own strengths. That’s what we’ve done.” The artwork, the videos, everything that goes along with the music isn’t an afterthought – it’s all equally important, various pieces of the same puzzle. “We just want people to fall into our world and understand us,” James notes. “The artwork – [open mouths, tongues out, consuming the same thing] - represents the

constant consuming of new music that happens today, how music gets devalued constantly. By keeping each single artwork the same, we wanted to represent that monotonous cycle of churning out new music and streaming; the fact people get bored of stuff in like two weeks now. “We wanted to create our very own version of The Factory, the pop art Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Diptych. It’s the same image, but it changes slightly through different perspectives and colours – that’s what our artwork represents.” The consumption of art has changed, but while they’re critical of music’s devaluation, it’s also the perfect era in which they think INHEAVEN could have grown from. It’s an age where you can listen to all the music that’s come before you in the click of a button, where influences that reside decades apart can collide and create together in ways rarely seen before. It’s another one of the many serendipitous happenings that makes right now INHEAVEN’s perfect moment, and one they’re going for with all they’ve got. It’s been five years, countless tours, over one hundred songs and, of course, one pagan circle in the making. How have they found the experience of bringing their debut to life in just three words? “Euphoric, exciting, delicious,” beams James; Chloe adds simply, “Dream come true.” Their self-made factory’s latest work is their finest yet, but it’s only one piece of their ever-growing puzzle. P INHEAVEN’s self-titled debut album is out now.

DOWN WITH BORING

THE HORRORS

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"WE COULD HAVE EASILY QUIT” A NEW HORRORS A L BU M I S ALWAYS AN E XCITI N G PROSPECT. W HAT WI LL FARRI S AND C O. HAVE C OM E U P WITH THI S TI ME? TH E F RO NTM A N L I F TS THE LI D ON ‘V’.

aris Badwan may be severely jet-lagged, having just returned from a festival performance in Tokyo, but the forthright frontman speaks with conviction when he considers just how much was riding on his band’s new album, ‘V’.

“If this record hadn’t turned out right it could easily have been the end of the band. We could easily have quit, for sure.” Even for a group as self-destructive as The Horrors, drawing a line under a decade in which they have successfully mutated from a bunch of oddball goth rockers to one of the most exciting British guitar bands around today sounds, on the face of it, a tad dramatic. But Faris and his bandmates simply don’t do safe. At any cost. Even if that cost is the very thing holding them together. “The fact is we’ve been in the band for eleven years, have been releasing records for ten - I guess the thing I’m most proud of is, firstly, that we’re still releasing records at all and, secondly, that I

still feel creatively inspired,” Faris says. “With this record, it had to feel like we could all be creatively fulfilled at the end of it. If I was in a band where I thought what I was making was getting repetitive I would hate it. I wouldn’t be able to do it.” He adds: “When you’ve been working together with the same people for that amount of time it’s hard to keep things exciting and fun. I think if I felt like I wasn’t having fun I would probably just quit. We all felt like that.” This restless, do or die attitude towards making music together has been burning away under the surface ever since The Horrors came screeching onto the scene in 2007 with their debut album, ‘Strange House’. It just hasn’t burned quite so fiercely before. In the four years after ‘Strange House’, the Southend-on-Sea quintet took huge strides towards indie rock’s big league by shifting their taut, lo-fi garage punk sound of their first record to the more expansive and diverse palette of ‘Primary Colours’ in 2009, before releasing the lush, melodic psych of ‘Skying’ two years later. Both albums received much praise from the

WO RDS: A L E X THORPE. DOWN WITH BORING

THE H NO AT RIROONRASL

critics, but it was the latter, with its stand-out single ‘Still Life’, which really moved the band into unchartered waters. Suddenly, this group of big haired misfits had found themselves at Number 5 in the UK Albums Chart, on Radio 1’s A list and were being mentioned in pretty much everyone’s album of the year list. So when it came around to making 2014’s ‘Luminous’, all eyes were on Faris and co. like never before. What followed was a solid, wellproduced collection of songs which managed to solidify their position but without accelerating it in the same way its predecessors managed to. The album peaked at Number 6 and received a generally positive response, but it felt like there was something missing. Drummer Joe Spurgeon referred to ‘Luminous’ as their “plateau”, and Faris now admits the record was missing some of the “accidents” which made their earlier albums sparkle. So, were they simply guilty of playing it a little too safe? “At the time it didn’t really feel like that,” Faris replies. “It was almost like we didn’t play to our strengths. There are a number of reasons. This is something I find really difficult now - the way a record is presented is such a big part of it, and I find it really difficult…” The frontman pauses and picks over his words carefully. “It’s not like I feel there was anything particularly wrong with the way we recorded, I just think that we didn’t have enough of the accidents that we normally do have.” He adds: “We never plan things - we’re not really capable of it. “With this record, we had no preconceptions of what it should sound like, but the biggest thing was that we wanted to keep some of the spontaneity when you first come up with an idea for a song. “When you first come up with a melody, you get that initial spark and enthusiasm, you play it in a loose way, and there are accidents. We always used to put that stuff in our records. “We always used to put in the incidental noises from recording a demo. On the last record, we didn’t really do that. We kind of cleaned up the writing and recording process. “I think with this new record, the main thing we were conscious of was keeping things a little more raw and keeping those instinctive bits on the record.”

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In urgent need of “shaking up our working methods” for their fifth album, The Horrors turned to none other than Paul Epworth, producer of pop giants Adele, Rihanna and Coldplay. Epworth and The Horrors had already become acquainted when the producers helped out on the recording of ‘Luminous’’ album track, ‘Falling Star’. Armed with a bunch of demos, the band headed to the producer’s Church Studio in London’s Crouch Hill in early 2015 to begin work on what would become ‘V’. “By working with Paul, I think it just gave us complete freedom. He knows that there’s no need for us to play it safe and to make a really safe pop record,” Faris says. “He was aware that it was good for us to make something that pushes us a bit more. He’s really gifted when it comes to sonic ideas and experimentation. He was the perfect producer for us really.” And while Faris admits that it “took quite a while to feel like there was a direction” before the recording process, Epworth’s approach in the studio encouraged the band to let loose and chase their own imagination. “He is really good at not judging ideas before they’re fully formed and at forcing us and to carry on with things which maybe in the past we would have got rid of,” the frontman says. “The pressure we feel at the start of a record very much comes from ourselves. The pressure is to make something that feels different, at least to us.” Faris adds: “Because we’re a diplomatic band and you’re asking a whole load of different people for their input, it’s hard to get anything done when you make something creative. “If you’re not careful, when people don’t know when to step back or step forward, you can end up with something which is so diluted and so safe because there’s only a thin area of space where everyone is willing to go. “We found a better way of compromising with different people’s opinions. We had the right amount of danger in it at different points.” The results of those

recording sessions first surfaced in June this year when The Horrors released the album’s first single, Machine - a dark, mechanical psych rocker which sounds like nothing the band have produced in the past decade. And it was soon followed by their shamelessly euphoric second single, ‘Something To Remember Me By’. With its dancefloor-friendly drums and swooning synths, it was another bolt out of the blue for a band who sounded like they had recaptured their element of surprise. Bassist Rhys Webb said in the lead-up to the album’s release: “When we started we had a very clear idea of what we wanted to do, which was to make as furious a noise as possible, a fast and violent racket. “But even though we started with this punky garage sound there was always this real spirit of wanting to experiment and explore.” Aside from the music, one of the most striking aspects of ‘V’ is its artwork; a disturbing amalgamation of human heads conjured up by the mind of talented VFX artist and director Erik Ferguson, who is known for his abstract and intriguing creative vision. It was followed by an equally unnerving CGI music video for ‘Machine’. Faris can explain. “It’s the idea of simulation and the uncanny valley phenomenon, the idea of when things imitate human life they kind of become grotesque,” he says. “There’s themes of imitation and simulation running through the whole record. I like the fact it’s very different to any of our other artwork. The 3D head scan was something I always wanted to do.”

Then there’s the album name itself. Faris recently suggested that the ‘V’ symbolised a two-finger salute to everyone. “To be honest, most of the things I say are quite flippant. I did say it was a ‘fuck you’ to the world, but it makes me sounds a bit like an angry teenager,” he says. “I don’t really feel hard done by or anything. It just doesn’t really feel like we have anything to prove. “I think it’s probably our strongest record. It’s hard to be objective about what’s stronger than something, but I definitely feel proud of it. It’s the most diverse record.” Faris went to bed this morning at 11am and woke up at 4pm. He admits he’s still on “Japanese time”. The brief visit to Tokyo sounds worth the jet lag, though. “It’s just such a fun place to go. Everything seems quite reserved, but then they’ve got this intense, weird side underneath,” he says. With a trip to Mexico just a few days away, an exciting new album around the corner and a UK tour to follow in October, it seems The Horrors are right back into the swing of things. He couldn’t really give all this up, could he? “[After ‘Luminous’] it felt like we had come to the natural end of a period of time and of writing songs in a certain style,” he says. And now? “It feels like the beginning, rather than the end.” P The Horrors’ album ‘V’ is out 22nd September.

Available October 6th on CD / LP / CS / Digital

“A catchy indie gem with a deeper meaning.” – NYLON “Wild Ones at their most vivid” – GoldFlakePaint “Danielle Sullivan’s warm vocals blend with the intense, yet still pop-influenced percussion and synths that swirl around her.” – DIY Magazine

For fans of: Chairlift, Alvvays, Jay Som, Empress Of

N OTH I N G BUT TH I EVES

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HAVE CO M E BAC K KI CKI NG.

FO R AL BU M NU M B E R T WO TH EY ESCA PE D TO A ME RICA, AN D

TOURIN G A LL OVE R THE PLACE, AN D IT N EA RLY B RO KE THE M.

NOTHI NG BUT TH IEVES HAVE SPE NT TH E PAST F EW Y E A RS

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

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N OTH I N G BUT TH I EVES

f there’s one day that captures Nothing But Thieves’ story so far, it’s 12th March 2016. Their self-titled debut album has been out for a number of months, and the band are seeing a following grow and grow before their very eyes. Early in the evening, they play main support for stadium titans Muse in Brussels, grabbing attention with their other-worldly fuse of anthemic rock laced with that underlying tint of darkness. Thousands are converted, furiously typing into their phone reminders to ‘DL NOTHING BUT THIEVES’ when they get out, and as they leave the stage, their message has been delivered. For any other band, that’s a successful night. Try leaving the venue straight away, bundling into a van - and driving all the way to Amsterdam to headline a festival. Too good to refuse, that high on the stage has fizzed through Nothing But Thieves from the very start. By the time they finish their set at about 2am, their eyes are set on returning to Brussels to support Muse once again the next night. Nothing But Thieves aren’t about waiting around for the golden ticket to land on their lap; they’re hell-bent on bringing everything they’ve got right to the faces of all who come near. “D’ya know what?” points out guitarist Dom Craik. “I feel like being in this band, and the past few years - that’s been my university. I didn’t go to university myself, so that time was mine definitely I mean, I learnt a lot of life skills and got drunk a lot after all.” Lesson one when it comes to Nothing But Thieves: that unspoken bond that you find in all bands is intensified in everything they do, a gang of mates who together have taken themselves around in the world. That surge from meeting and playing together from the early days of school life in Essex into a band who seamlessly managed to cover the globe over the course of two years through an unflinching belief in what they do. It’s why they find themselves tucking into a Monday lunchtime meal on a top floor overlooking East London, recalling memories of recent runs where feverish crowds continue to wrap themselves around the band’s every move and why, in ‘Broken Machine’, they have an album primed to deliver a statement of where they go from here. “It’s really refreshing,” notes frontman Conor Mason. “Not just for us, but for fans too. It’s great to be able to start again; it almost feels like we’re a new band again.” “Reinvigorated really,” interjects Dom. “Having that established fanbase is a huge difference from where we were with our first album, and there’s this sense of having to live up to people’s expectations. We made sure that we were prepared for that next chapter, so we weren’t just going blindly into the

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“IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE A NEW BAND AGAIN” studio, and the standard of what we’ve been writing has just been growing and growing.” ‘Broken Machine’ is a record triggered purely from a band who have realised their position on stage, born out of the surroundings of their self-titled debut an album packed full of runaway singles that nestled perfectly in festival fields wherever the Nothing But Thieves train pulled into town. A diverse blending of primal alternative rock, soaring melodies and dense hits of pure human emotion, its impact not only still stands - but can be felt in every decision and note of ‘Broken Machine’. Looking back on their debut now, the band have a clear perspective of how to take things up another level. “With the first album, we started writing it when we were like 18 or 19, and we were just finding our feet as writers, and that’s why the songs sound all over the place,” details Conor. “I think this album is a real snapshot of nine months to a year of us writing and getting better as a band, what we were going through on the road, what we were experiencing and what we were seeing.” “That was our main concern with the

first record,” continues Dom. “We were worried that people would think it was all over the place, and being conscious of that made us lean in a certain way to making this record slightly more cohesive.” With the likes of ‘Ban All The Music’, ‘Trip Switch’ and ‘Wake Up Call’ to name but a few, Nothing But Thieves firmly emblazoned themselves across the darkest twists of modern life. Going from the local pubs to the biggest stages of them all, its ever-increasing returns can have an impact on a group of young musicians all discovering and learning as it came to them. The world came to them, and learning how to handle it was a balancing act. “We’d been a band before all of this,” points out Dom, looking around at his bandmates as they kick back with the courses laid in front of them. “But the furthest you would go is Chelmsford or up to London whereas this was a different ball game. We found ourselves in different countries, sat in vans for hours and hours, we had no money, using crap gear that kept breaking. All of that was, I wouldn’t say a shock, but we were exposed to it all for the first time - so we were learning how to deal with

EASY DOES IT

NBT ARE ONE OF THE HARDEST WORKING BANDS AROUND. A US tour here. A string of TV show appearances there. Dates continuing to fly in. Life on the road is a harsh one. “It did nearly break us,” states Joe, who began to witness its effects within the bond of mates. “I think we toured too much, and it reached a point where we had to look at each other and decide to stop things.” “We know our limit now,” comes back Phil Blake, “which I think was a really important lesson to learn.” “What fucked us,” elaborates Joe, “is that because we took every tour that came our way, and kept being given those opportunities things just got busier and busier and never let off.” Dom sits and contemplates for a second. “We were pushing it a bit. In hindsight, it was the right thing to do but I think we went a bit hard, we wanted to do everything we possibly could and play every gig that we were offered - now we just think, okay we might die if we keep doing this, so let’s think again.” “Even when we came off tour though,” picks up Phil, “we would spend time thinking about getting home and recharging our batteries, but then after a while, you start thinking, ‘Well, we haven’t worked so hard to simply sit on our arses’. Plus Dom can’t be on his own at all. “I get bored easily,” answers Dom. “It just doesn’t suit me at all, but I remember finding myself sleeping as if I was sleeping on a tour bus. With me legs and arms together, which was really odd.”

that while being quite young too.” Full of immediate moments that required more than a few pinching clicks, it’s the sort of story that every person holding a guitar and playing with others in Saturday night bars would dream of. “Maybe last summer, when we were doing festivals, we went to South Korea and headlined a stage to like 10,000 people which was a weird one, realising we actually were doing okay in places you’d never expect” remembers Conor. “Yeah, those are the moments where you don’t expect something like that to happen - where you’re caught off guard a bit, and you feel there’s a ripple of your music translating across the world. There’s a lot of friends of ours who are in bands who do well in the UK and Europe but trying to get to America or Asia is just out of the question. We aren’t doing anything particularly different; there’s just something resonating which is still amazing.” “It all ties into the fact which we’ve been talking about,” picks up Conor. “Every decision we made, say a tour here or a single there, we were driving the car so to speak. It was never trying to catch-up to where we found ourselves, we were really pushing things up the hill, and we knew what the stretch of road coming up looked like. It never plateaued or went downwards; we just kept building and building.” By the time the band placed their name across the hallowed signs of Brixton Academy in December 2016, Nothing But Thieves were a band inbetween the success of what their hard work had laid out in the years past, and the fever-pitch vision for what would come next. When they played ‘I’m Not Made By Design’ live on that night, it formed more than just a neat new song into another landmark moment, but instead reached across the past and the future with an insight as to where they were fixed on next. Formed during those many hours and days together, Nothing But Thieves had a blueprint for what they wanted their next album to be, pulling together life on the road into a record of potent power and hitting like a raw kick to the gut. Winded in the best possible way, it’s a progression on everything Nothing But Thieves can be. “I think because we wrote the album mostly while we were still on the road, you’re automatically thinking about how it’s going to translate in the live setting,” points out Joe LangridgeBrown. “It made us think about what’s missing and what we wanted from this album, and this time around I think we knew how we wanted the album to sound - compared to the first album.” “When we toured for two and a half

“THERE ARE BATTLES EVERY DAY” years, we realised that we wanted to make that live sounding record,” explains Conor, “and a bandy kind of record which was a reaction from fans coming to live shows along with our own reactions to everything going on around us.” ‘Broken Machine’ is brimmed with those reactions, and in turn comes out as a cohesive illustration of wrestling with demons, the world and that natural instinct in the face of everything chucked at someone trying to live in the modern age. Recorded with renowned producer Mike Crossey, the band honed everything they had into one pot in his LA studio, working tirelessly on an album that never sits still. Taking the foundations of what they’d formed together, in the studio ‘Broken Machine’ fleshed itself out into full plumage - snarling at one moment with a rabid intensity, devastatingly raw at the next and begging to be digested over and over again, setting up shop in that part of the mind reserved for impulsive singalongs. From a time spent in LA together in the studio for 16 hour days, running headfirst into their big Friday night parties (which would usually put pay to any weekend they could have spent wandering the city’s streets), Nothing But Thieves are a band doing exactly what every band should be. Enjoying it. “Ironically, we really felt like we were back at home there,” points out Phil Blake. “Everyone that was working with us, and being out there was just like being with your mates all the time doing something we’re so passionate about, and that put us so at ease.” Freedom is scrawled in huge letters across ‘Broken Machine’, managing to balance a diverse set of tracks with a refined sensibility which comes from a band realising who they are, what they stand for and who they want to be. ‘Amsterdam’ could easily

be their biggest card-calling track to date, while the heavy breakdown and apocalyptic spirals of ‘I Was Just A Kid’, ‘Particles’ and ‘I’m Not Made By Design’ are all unrelenting in their scorching touches. From the chilling shape-shifting pulls of ‘Afterlife’, or the thumping and spitting electro-trance beats of ‘Live Like Animals’ to the devastating battles ringing out of its title track, the soaring ‘Sorry’ and the intoxicating ‘Soda’ - don’t ever think you have Nothing But Thieves covered. There’s a whole world to explore after all. And it’s in that essence that Nothing But Thieves embrace their future. They’re five mates who found each other, fixed on capturing human emotion and a tangible desire to go forward - and have had the most surreal three years as a result of it. Every moment is valued, every stage is conquered, and by being so connected to that ride, things are only going to get bigger. “You always want to be the biggest band in the world,” declares Conor. “There’s the soundbite,” jumps in Joe.

“You hear that a lot but I think the way we talk about it is focused on how we actually go about it. It’s about building things up step by step, like how Foals have done it - redefining themselves on each album and now at that stage of headlining festivals.” “I think it would freak us out and be pretty unhealthy if we had just suddenly become this huge band,” continues Dom. “I don’t think we’d handle it really well, so the fact that it has been gradual and allowed us to find our feet has been great. You have time to learn from your mistakes.” “I don’t think we’ve ever had those moments where we feel accepted,” points out Phil, cueing agreed nods around the table as they finish up their lunch. “I think there are battles every day and we’re constantly fighting. I’m glad that we have that fight.” Broken machine? Why, that’s what makes them human after all - and Nothing But Thieves are savouring the moment. Now that’s living. P Nothing But Thieves’ album ‘Broken Machine’ is out now.

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S L ØT FAC E

TRY NØT TØ FREAK ØUT N O RW EG I A N I N DI E P U N K WITH AN I MP ORTANT MESSAG E, SLØTFAC E B L E N D F E M INI ST F I RE WITH BRI LLI ANT BA NG E RS. W ITH THE I R D EBUT ALBUM ‘TRY NOT TO F RE AK OUT’ A BOUT TO D ROP, THAT NOI SE I S ONLY G ETTI N G LOU DE R. WO RDS: DA N I E L J E A KI NS.

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“W

e all know the whole ‘stick to the music, you’re not politicians thing’ is complete bullshit. After all, who would Bob Dylan be if he wasn’t politically engaged? Whether you’re a musician, student, politician, whatever, you should use the tools you have to make a difference”. It’s midday, and Sløtface’s four members are in Hammerfest - a town in their native Norway so far north that “you get midnight sun, and it’s only dark for a few hours.” A punk band in the truest sense, the four-piece rarely do much of anything without a cause. “Anyone that finds it weird that we disagree with Trump clearly hasn’t listened to any of our songs or knows anything about us!” laughs Haley Shea – Sløtface’s frontwomen and lyricist. She’s recalling the time her band were quizzed about feminism on CNN prior to the US election; a platform new bands very rarely find themselves on. “I remember lots of people saying, ‘Who the fuck cares what a Norwegian band thinks about American politics?’” recollects guitarist Tor-Arne Vikingstad. “I think that’s fair enough,” interjects bassist Lasse Lokøy, “but we feel like we have a right to pass judgement. Anyone that’s actively working against women, in the way that Trump is, deserves to be condemned for it.” While many bands may shy away for having their music labelled so frequently, Sløtface welcome the ‘feminist’ tag so frequently attributed to their output. “I don’t see the feminist label as a restriction,” remarks Tor-Arne – “it’s something we truly stand for and like to highlight.” “We’ve written some songs that are feminist manifestos,” continues Haley, “but even the songs where we’re not trying clearly speak out about a feminist issue still come under feminism. They’re rock songs written from the perspective of a female in a story that you’ve often heard told by a man.

That’s what we want people to view feminism as. I think you can stick the feminist label on any song we’ve written and it would still apply.”

they’ve ever made,” continues Tor-Arne, “or else it’s a shitty first record. It’s pretty unhealthy that the music industry works like that – young bands are expected to be super talented and revolutionise things. I also think it’s just a really fun, cocky title.”

Sløtface made headlines following the release of their 2016 single ‘Sponge State’, for which the band released a music video filmed while protesting against a Nordic mining company. Environmentalist groups prevented the company from dumping millions of tonnes of waste into a fjord. “The whole project came from ideas from friends of ours,” says Lasse. “We saw a lot of bands were sharing the blockade on social media, and we thought it would be a nice way to spread the message to make a video for them. It was fantastic to see so many young people come out and protest legally – it cost the mining company millions just because a few teenagers made an effort to stand up to them. That’s why we thought we should show our support.” “People always talk about trolls on the internet, but we’ve always found people to be really supportive of great causes,” asserts Haley. “If anything we feel like we deserve to be critiqued more for what we do.” Moving forward, the band aim to be even more direct in their messaging. “We’d like to write music that’s even more powerful in terms of reflecting on major issues. I think that’s an amazing craft, for someone to be explicitly political in their lyrics”. After sitting on it for an entire year, they’re finally ready to unleash their debut album ‘Try Not To Freak Out’ onto the world. “It’s crazy how much there is to consider with timing a release, with all the random stuff that comes into play is incredible,” explains Lasse. “With the title, we wanted to poke fun at the sense of expectation people seem to have for debut albums. There’s this feeling in the music industry that you’re more talented when you’re younger – but personally, I’d expect more from someone who’s been making records for twenty years than a band making their first album.” “For any new band, their debut album has to be the best thing

The band have drawn inevitable comparisons to pop punk bands gone by – not all of which have been embraced by Sløtface themselves. “I think Wolf Alice and Los Campesinos! are good comparisons, we all really love those bands,” reveals Haley. “The only thing that pisses us off when it comes to comparisons is obviously when we are compared to other female fronted bands that we don’t sound like. There are so many other things that are more important points of reference than the pitch that I sing at.” “When we write music we choose different things from the bands we listen to,” muses Tor Arne. “Some of it comes from electronic music, some from hiphop, some from old and new rock bands. For us, all we hear is those references. Our music feels like something that’s been pieced together like a quilt.” It isn’t just music that inspires Sløtface’s output. Their breakthrough single ‘Empire Records’ makes reference to the 1995 film of the same name, as well Stephen Frears’ 2000 adaption of the Nick Hornby novel ‘High Fidelity’. “Movies and TV shows about music were really inspirational to me,” Haley recalls. “My dream job as a teenager was always to work in a record store. Proper record stores don’t really exist where we’re from, so I think I had an unrealistic fantasy that I’d be surrounded by other people that really liked music all day, discussing our favourite albums. Then we started a band which is probably a bit better because then you get to make the music!”

Continuing, the Sløtface frontwoman reveals that High Fidelity, in particular, had a major impact on her. “The thing that’s always resonated the most with me with that film is the way Rob [Gordan, portrayed in the film by John Cusack], associates music with the different relationships in YOUR EX-LOVER IS DEAD his life.”

HALEY’S LOVE SONGS PLAYLIST STARS

“YOUNG BANDS A R E E X P ECT E D

THIRTEEN BIG STAR

RYAN ADAMS COME PICK ME UP

ROBYN

DANCING ON MY OWN

TO B E S U P E R TA L E N T E D A N D REVOLUTIONISE

SKYLAR GRAY

I WANNA DANCE WITHOUT YOU

“I’m part of the playlist generation, so when I was in high school I had this playlist that was my love songs playlist,” laughs Haley. “You could really follow it in and out of relationships. Sometimes it’s hard to explain to people that aren’t into music how much it makes you feel and what it means to you. High Fidelity showcases that really well – just how important music can be to someone”. Sløtface’s debut album ‘Try Not To Freak Out’ is out on 15th September.

THINGS” DOWN WITH BORING

REVIEWS

WOLF ALICE VISIONS OF A LIFE

eeeee

T 46

o break through the barriers, every reaction needs a catalyst. While that may be a slightly mangled metaphor, when it comes to music scenes, it has a grain of truth. No matter how much exciting stuff bubbles beneath the surface, there’s always a point where one band has to break through in order to give the others confidence that actually, anything is possible.

album that really set the wheels in motion. Only losing out due to Florence’s last minute Glastonbury headline appearance, Wolf Alice always were the glue that held a multitude of bands together. Carrying their other worldly buzz easier than most, they were a band in the best sense of the world - each with their own personality bringing something unique to a living, breathing machine. A band’s band, a lighting rod for the creative energy swarming around them, when they made it big, everyone else saw the way.

That was Wolf Alice’s role on their debut album ‘My Love Is Cool’. While peers had seen success around them - from The 1975’s fangasm provoking self-titled full length to the lesser victories of Peace, Swim Deep, Palma Violets and co - it was their narrow miss on a Number One

Since then, the UK underground has blossomed. Bands that were making their earliest steps back in 2015 Black Honey, The Magic Gang, The Big Moon and more - have sprung forward with the confidence that this world can be theirs. Others - Dream Wife, King Nun, Pale Waves - have

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appeared, eyes blinking into a postWolf Alice world - one where, for the first time in years, being a guitar band wasn’t seen as raging against the dying light. Excitement, energy, having something to say - all things that started to work again. Youthful rebellion hung heavy in the air. To say all of this was down to one band would be folly, but it was Wolf Alice who struck that first killer blow. And so, two years on, they’re back. Still the most convincing light to lead their tribe, there’s a degree of pressure. If the mighty Wolf Alice were to fall, what would that mean for the rest? But nobody - not even the band themselves - seem to think there’s much chance of that. What they built first time around wasn’t made of faddy trends or paper thin intent. They’ve always been a band of steady hand and sure mind, creating

their own world around them. With ‘Visions of a Life’, they’ve expanded into the universe beyond. In many ways, it’s an album that could only be Wolf Alice - and yet at times it still has the ability to shock. While the first two tracks to see the light of day from the record - the inflammatory, spitting fury of ‘Yuk Foo’ and the woozy, punch drunk stream of consciousness ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ - may sit at opposite ends of the spectrum, in between there are moments that prove that this is a band still refusing to pick a single cookie cutter outline. ‘Beautifully Unconventional’, for example, does exactly what it says on the tin. A strutting, retro, almost cinematic left turn - it’s not that it pushes boundaries, so much as the kind of move that’s previously

REV I E WS

ALBUM OF THE M ONTH

ARCANE ROOTS

MELANCHOLIA HYMNS Easy Life

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WOLF ALICE ARE QUITE PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT BRITISH BAND OF THEIR GENERATION not seemed part of the Wolf Alice lexicon. And yet, by the half way mark, it’s definitely them - Ellie Rowsell’s trademark melodic stamp firmly placed. It’s the kind of creative evolution which runs through ‘Visions of a Life’. While ‘My Love Is Cool’ was populated by songs that had bedded in over a couple of years of slow building hype, this time round Wolf Alice are bringing a record at us completely cold. There’s no safety in the riffs of ‘Giant Beach’ or the hearttugging brilliance of ‘Bros’. Rather than repeat what’s gone before, they’ve tried new ideas. There are choruses, but at no point do they feel like a band tied down to structure. The rulebook isn’t shredded, but it’s certainly laying in a corner, watched with a look of barely concealed contempt. For most bands,

it wouldn’t work. For Wolf Alice, it really, really does. By freeing themselves from the shackles of expectation, their particular talent for weaving wonder takes hold. ‘St. Purple & Green’ almost audibly winds its way through four and a half minutes of wide eyed fascination, twinkling, sweeping and swaying from front to back. By the time Rowsell’s spoken word refrain hits, its hypnotic trance is unbreakable. The folky, ethereal ‘After The Zero Hour’ sparkles with magical dust, while ‘Sky Musings’ builds with a glimmering, diamond clear sheen. There’s the odd moment where Wolf Alice prove they can still hammer those more base instincts - the final 40 seconds of ‘Space & Time’ offer up an indie romp that The Vaccines

have spent years trying to perfect, but it’s done with such flippant ease that, for them, it’s no big deal. It’s the textured groove and siren call of ‘Sadboy’ that follows which represents Wolf Alice 2.0 - a fresh iteration running on a whole new level. Because true leaders don’t just blindly charge forth. Wolf Alice have shown their peers how to run free - but as the pack follows them through the hole they blasted in the mainstream consciousness two and a bit years ago, they’ve no intention of thundering towards the slings and arrows that await. They’re smarter than that. With ‘Visions of a Life’, Wolf Alice have taken flight. As the world beneath them shrinks to tiny, insignificant dots on the horizon, watch them soar. Yet again, they’re showing us the way. Stephen Ackroyd

Arcane Roots are a band who don’t do things by half measures. Celebrating ten years together in 2017, ‘Melancholia Hymns’ is only their second full-length record, touching down no sooner than four years after their impressive debut, ‘Blood & Chemistry’. Although this is a far less unhinged effort than its predecessor, the London trio have emerged from a cloud of mid-recording setbacks by taking everything they can do and running with it. The first cut that was aired, ‘Curtains’, serves as a bombastic statement of intent that they are no longer content with being a mid-tier technical rock band. Arcane Roots are heading all the way to the top, and with an album like this, nobody is in any position to stop them. It’s taken a full decade, but Arcane Roots have finally delivered on the goods and soared light years above their stratospheric ambitions. Shining with cosmic charm, ‘Melancholia Hymns’ declares that the time has come to rejoice at this mindbendingly brilliant band. Danny Randon

BLACK KIDS

ROOKIE Self-Released

ee It’s been ten years since Black Kids’ debut came out amongst the throng of indie landfill back in 2007, and they’ve been extremely quiet since. Sadly ‘Rookie’, only their second outing, is little more than a cheap throwback to that time. While the pop sensibilities that spark out carefree fun are there, they feel hollow, like a facsimile of the past. There are hooks a plenty, but lyrically everything falls short. Sickly sweet lines that talk of virginity (‘V card’) and unrequited love (‘Iffy’) all feel the opposite of where Black Kids should be in 2017 should be. While the titular track refers to defiantly growing up, there’s little else to prove this has actually happened. Steven Loftin DOWN WITH BORING

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DEATH FROM ABOVE OUTRAGE! IS NOW

Hiya,

DEATH FROM ABOVE

Last Gang Records/eOne

eeee Death From Above - minus the 1979, you might note - usually take much longer between records. Or at least, they did with the decade between their first and second albums. No such hanging about this time round, though, as they return with what’s for them a relatively speedy follow up. In the time since they dropped 2014’s ‘The Physical World’ the dynamics of the world around them have changed. Not just in terms of the grander political plays, but sonically too. Two pieces that make a din are back in the game - both Royal Blood and Slaves have made their moves. Both owe much to DFA, but ‘Outrage! Is Now’ probably isn’t the album to send them kicking and screaming to those sort-of-mainstream heights. That’s not because of a lack of quality - far from it. Death From Above are simply an unrelenting force. Uncompromising in their quest to make an unholy din. Dan Harrison

ONE OF THE MOST INSTANTLY RECOGNISABLE AND MOST WELL-LOVED DUOS IN ROCK HAVE RETURNED WITH ANOTHER MONSTER. WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN. Death From Above are back. “We would have like to have had this record out a year ago,” says singer and drummer Sebastien Grainger. “But with the nature of our process - how we work, how we write, and also how careful we are with what we put out - it ended up taking just a little bit longer.” Not wanting to tarnish their hard earned mystique by simply churning out record after record, Death From Above work in the shadows. The first look at ‘Outrage! Is Now’ - the follow up to 2014’s comeback album ‘Physical World’ - came in the form of surprise single, ‘Freeze Me’. Seventeen years on from their incendiary debut, and the duo are still pushing themselves forward. “I feel like we’ve expanded our palette a little bit wider,” Sebastien notes. While they didn’t feel any pressure surrounding what to create, there was a bit to get the record out. “We actually had tours booked where we were supposed to have it out,” Sebastian laughs. “The tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that we did last fall was supposed to be for the new record. We hadn’t even started!” “I think the only very concrete idea was that we wanted to strip things down,” bassist Jesse F. Keeler explains. “That’s the one thing that we absolutely knew because early on we had thought okay, we’re going to make a punk record. It’ll be really stripped down; it’s just going to be the sound of our band. That’s it.” While they consider this effort stripped down, when it comes to Death From Above that doesn’t mean it’s rife with acoustic guitars or a barren landscape of sound. There’s still an absolute barrage of drums and crunching, striking, bass riffs. After finishing up ‘Physical World’, an album that they have mixed feelings about (“It’s like we had to get that one out of the way”) they knew that as long as they kept doing what they were doing, new ideas would appear. “It’s all a learning process,” says Jesse. “I feel every record, ‘Physical World’ included, we tried a bunch of things and learnt that we could do them. The progression is a result of us realising the things we can do.” Looking to the future, Jesse’s excited. “It’s like, ‘Oh shit, we can do this now!’ or ‘Oh god, I’ve got fifty ideas based on this!’ so it will always evolve as we learn more - hopefully, there’ll be one or two fans around!” P

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BRAND NEW

SCIENCE FICTION Procrastinate! Music Traitors

eeeee Despite all the odds, the delays, the radio silences and those mysteries, Brand New have actually released a new album. It would be very easy to set ‘Science Fiction’ against the winding road that the band took to get it here, or the apparently imminent sunset of their actual existence. But that wouldn’t be doing it justice. Emotionally fraught and underlined with a sense of freefalling doom, playful sparks light up this dizzying adventure to pastures new. There’s a constant struggle between comfort and unease that allows the band to rage, reflect and serenade with nimble movements and grand gestures. One moment they welcome the end, while the next they’re holding hands with someone they love, finding paradise in the embrace. Curtain call or new chapter, Brand New’s ‘Science Fiction’ shines under bright light. Ali Shutler

CHELSEA WOLFE

HISS SPUN Sargent House

eeee Chelsea Wolfe’s fifth album ‘Abyss’ was the sonic equivalent of tying an anvil to your ankle and wading up to your neck into a pit of tar. The density and dread that it instilled elevated the singer-songwriter from a gothic folk siren to an unlikely hero of the extreme metal scene. Part of Wolfe’s allure is her sense

of mystique, but through ‘Abyss’’ pitch-dark successor, the Californian seeks to become more introspective in her art. Inspired by American writer Henry Miller’s ‘idiot with a can opener’ proverb, what ensues is a slow-burning and suspenseful cathartic release. Recording with Converge’s Kurt Ballou in his native Salem, Massachusetts in the midst of winter, there’s something more cinematic to ‘Hiss Spun’ than Wolfe’s previous works. But despite a plethora of guests and the handiwork of Ballou - arguably the greatest producer in contemporary heavy music - this record is inevitably Wolfe’s for the taking. Against Salem’s backdrop of biting cold, she writhes through bursts of doom-laden noise, purging demons to give her most chilling performance yet. Even with six albums under her belt, Chelsea Wolfe is an enigma which is only just starting to slowly

unravel. In bearing substantially more than usual on ‘Hiss Spun’, she is empowered and all the more enchanting. Danny Randon

CULTS

OFFERING Sinderlyn

eeee Four years since their second album ‘Static’ - which followed a fairly banging self-titled debut back in 2011 - Cults have finally returned. ‘Offering’ is an effort more than worth the wait, seeing them push themselves to new, bigger limits; the synths are more darling, the beats more pulsating and the vocals as soothing. They’ve managed to evolve from the innocent sound of ‘Cults’ to a point where there’s an urgency layering proceedings, bringing to life a world of retro sounds. Let’s hope it’s not another four years until the next round. Steven Loftin

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CUT COPY

HAIKU FROM ZERO Virgin EMI

ee While their latest endeavour, ‘Haiku From Zero’, sees them returning to the style of dance anthems that made their name, it feels like Cut Copy’s day in the sun is over. It’s by no means as resolutely dull as 2013’s ‘Free Your Mind’, but it just feels like they have nothing really left to say. It doesn’t help that much of the album feels like a patchwork of other people’s songs. Opening track ‘Standing In The Middle Of The Field’

has a breakdown so similar to Caribou’s ‘Odessa’ that it can’t just be a coincidence. Similarly ‘Black Rainbows’ features a xylophone part that is practically torn out of Paramore’s ‘Hard Times’. ‘In Ghost Colours’ and ‘Zonoscope’ had tracks that burrowed so deep into your psyche that, even almost ten years later, they can trigger something that makes you race for the nearest dance floor. In ‘Haiku From Zero’, there’s nothing like that. Just a Happy Meal of pop where you’d much rather be dining out on the weird and exciting fare of old Cut Copy. Chris Taylor

ENTER SHIKARI

THE SPARK Play It Again Sam

eeeee Enter Shikari’s ‘The Spark’ is once again new territory for a band who cherish unexplored spaces. It’s different like never before as the group lean back, open up and allow the record to breathe. Teetering on the edge of doom, it sees the band look at the horizon and smile. There’s a reason to dance, a reason to fight, a reason to continue. Yes, this is Enter Shikari at their most accessible, but it’s not at the cost of souls or spirit. Ali Shutler

FOO FIGHTERS CONCRETE AND GOLD

RCA

eee Foo Fighters are a big band. Obviously, right? They headlined Glastonbury this summer. As far as we’re concerned, there’s a decent chance they’re still headlining Glastonbury now, such is Dave Grohl’s love of a never ending set list. Regardless, their scale

is not in question. What is in question, though, is what that actually means in 2017. What’s the point in the Foo Fighters? ‘Concrete and Gold’ isn’t really the sound of a band staying slavishly in the same place, and yet presented through their filter, it’s a record that still sounds awfully familiar. Safe even. Radio friendly rock for people who might still wear a bootcut, it’s also the sound of a band now too big to ever fail.

That’s the vibe that runs throughout ‘Concrete and Gold’. There was a point, maybe fifteen or more years ago, where Foo Fighters felt like a genuine force. They’d rip holes in festival bills and drop albums that felt like events. Now, even when attempting something different, it all sounds the same. While there’s still the odd spark that threatens to catch light, Foo Fighters are all too predictable to ever be exciting. Dan Harrison

DOWN WITH BORING

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EMILY HAINES & THE SOFT SKELETON

CHOIR OF THE MIND Last Gang

eee ‘Choir of the Mind’ is a return of sorts for Emily Haines, recording under her own name for the first time in ten years; an introspective and deeply personal consolidation of experience, it keeps the intimate pairing of voice and piano at its heart. Perhaps inevitably for such a prolific artist, there are elements of ‘Choir of the Mind’ that are surplus to requirements – there’s a Rihanna quotation in the title track that aims for cute, but hits embarrassing, and some songs mimic greater preceding moments. These missteps are a reasonable price to pay for the unexpectedly experimental spirit of the record, though – and overall, ‘Choir of the Mind’ is further evidence that Haines is a confident and always intriguing songwriter. Claire Biddles

KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS

PHILOKALIA Athenian Aura Recordings

eeee Conflicting features of sound and philosophy form the core of Keep Shelly in Athens’ latest album, ‘Philokalia’. Despite the word ‘philokalia’ literally meaning ‘love of beauty’, its narrative explores the doomed experience of a poisonous infatuation, delivered by haunting vocals, bass-driven synths and sinister lyrics. The tale of obsession in this album is far from being a thing of beauty, but the music itself certainly has its moments. With a relentless energy, this album is more accosting and encompassing than any other Keep Shelly in Athens have released to date. Lily Beckett

PROTOMARTYR

RELATIVES IN DESCENT Domino

ee In these troubled times, ‘In these troubled times…’ has become a reviewing crutch almost as wearying as the act of switching the news on - or swiping down to refresh - itself: what fresh hell awaits? Music is expected to be a comforting balm, a joyous distraction, or to confront the encroaching horrors with righteous vitriol, often all at the same time. Now Detroit’s Protomartyr wade in, tackling the fake news age and universal scepticism. But rather than hitting it head-on, ‘Relatives In Descent’ prefers poetry to punches, abstracts to anger; a post punk fog to passion and fury. This works well in places, but the relentless, shapeless gloom can get a bit much. Finding occasional patches of colour, and hope, amid darkness, we could do with a few more - both here, and in these troubled times. Rob Mesure 50

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GIRLI’S ‘HOT MESS EP’ TRACK BY TRACK GUIDE HOT MESS

I wrote ‘Hot Mess’ because I was sick of being talked down to by guys in the music industry who thought that they could mansplain the meaning of my songs and tell me what I should and shouldn’t wear, how I should conduct myself in public, that I should wear more makeup etc. when I saw friends who were boys in bands acting way more reckless than me and never being told what to do. I wanted to write a song that said: “FUCK YOU I’M ALLOWED TO BE MESSY, I’M ALLOWED TO BE LOUD, I’M ALLOWED TO BE OPINIONATED AND YOU DON’T HAVE A RIGHT TO TELL ME I CAN’T.”

MR 10PM

This song is about a neighbour I had living below me in the first flat I rented away from home. I had a few parties that were a bit loud, and he made my life a misery, sending angry letters, trying to get me evicted by complaining to the landlord constantly, saying I was disturbing his (10pm) bedtime. I hated him. But one day I had this thought; doesn’t he remember what it was like to be young? To make noise? To make mistakes? I wrote this song feeling kinda sorry for him because he grew old and grouchy and I was having fun. [Please don’t ever move near us, m8 Ed.]

NECK CONTOUR

This song came from a list I made of all the things I wanted to change about myself, written at a time of major selfdoubt. I was feeling super vulnerable and low and wrote this song in a very painful mood. I think I was dating someone who didn’t make me feel very special and I was struggling with loving my body and my skills, comparing myself to every other girl. The chorus was the reality of what I’d be saying to everyone else when they asked me if I was okay, saying “I’m fine”, when actually I wasn’t. Sometimes you bottle up feelings instead of talking to people around you about them.

CAN I SAY BABY?

I’d started dating a guy who was very off and on about his feelings for me, making me think we were going out and then getting with some other girl and being a dick, and this song was about not knowing if I could call him baby or if that would weird him out. It’s about that stage in a relationship where you’re like, “Are we going out? Is he my... boyfriend?” There are weird lyrics in the song because it was a weird relationship; I really liked him but he was playing me around a lot, and so I ended up playing him around too, snogging other people and pretending I didn’t like him when I did. P

GIRLI HOT MESS EP

PMR

eeee If pop is about moments, then with her latest release, Girli has a couple of blinders on her hands. For a while now, she’s been building her thunder, dropping track after track, each feeling like a step up from the last. All that anticipation has to pay off somewhere, though. Like a sonic butterfly bursting from its cocoon, this is the point the fully formed Girli finally arrives, and she’s absolutely bloody glorious.

Title track ‘Hot Mess’ is solid gold Girli - all sass and quick fire attitude, its sugar-spun hook is the sound of realised potential. It’s closer ‘Can I Say Baby?’ that might be the greatest revelation, though. While until now brash, in your face personality has been Girli’s calling card, here she proves she can back it up with raw talent. Getting down and dirty in a glitching world of pure pop, it’s like Calvin Harris’ earlier offerings were left to ferment into something even more potent. This Girli has more than one trick up her sleeve. Dan Harrison

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PROPHETS OF RAGE

PROPHETS OF RAGE Caroline

ee When Prophets of Rage stepped out wanting to “Make the World Rage Again”, as their 2017 tour would have it, there were those who were understandably excited. After all, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk, DJ Lord, Chuck D and B-Real are members of some of the most incendiary musical groups of the last fifty years. It’s all the more disappointing then that, when thrust together, their self-titled debut seems to forget everything that gave them their status and instead diminishes their once innovative respective styles into a mess of clichéd heavy-handedness. In these turbulent times, it’s easy to see why the Prophets of Rage have appeared in our lives. What’s more difficult to comprehend, however, is how they managed to get it so badly wrong. Ben Kitto

SLØTFACE

TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT Propeller Recordings

eeee Sløtface have always had more to them than big choruses and irresistible charm. Their two previous EPs, ‘Empire Records’ and ‘Sponge State’, saw a band already testing limits, toying with contrast and dancing with expectations, but on their debut full-length, everything comes together to push things forward. From the breakup anthem of ‘Magazine’ which sees ‘em dumping bad body image with a blissful smile, to ‘Nancy Drew’, out to stop the flood of beige blokes with acoustic guitars, Sløtface are a powerful force. Like the best movies, ‘Try Not To Freak Out’ is you versus the world. Like the best bands, they soundtrack the struggle while having your back at every turn. Ali Shutler

THE BRONX

V Cooking Vinyl / ATO Records

eee “Everyone’s gonna die!” screams Matt Caughthran, and you’re right in the thick of The Bronx’s new album ‘V’. The LA punks open their fifth album with two fists up, and they don’t let them drop over the course of 11 pulsating rounds. ‘V’ finds The Bronx at their violent best; scrappy numbers like ‘Fill The Tanks’, and the huge ‘Sore Throat’ get right in your face as they’re delivered with blistering speed and those venomspewing, razor-sharp, vocals from the band’s ringleader to match. Add into the mix that producer Rob Schnapf has got John J. Ford and Ken Horne’s duelling guitar tones slicing through the madness with fuzzing riffs like in opener ‘Night Drop at the Glue Factory’ and in the flanged ‘Two Birds’ and you get all that makes The Bronx such a force. Alex Bradley

NOTHING BUT THIEVES BROKEN MACHINE eeee

ifficult second album? Many bands have tried and failed to take that next step, but for Nothing But Thieves it’s one embraced and morphed with commanding results. Following on from their self-titled debut and

its many twists and turns, ‘Broken Machine’ is a record that finds the Southend five-piece locked into a direction they’ve witnessed as they travelled around the globe, packed with soaring hooks that rage and ripple in equal measure. While their initial emergence into the world was a varied melting pot of sounds and scenes, ‘Broken Machine’ is a tenacious record that distils to the core what Nothing But Thieves are

all about. That unbridled fever that rips through the punchy ‘Amsterdam’, ‘I Was Just A Kid’ and ‘I’m Not Made By Design’ is matched by the chilling rawness of the title track, ‘Hell, Yeah’ and ‘Soda’. Nothing But Thieves have carved out their own path and identity by taking those depths we all experience and revelling in its moments of utter despair but also in its unshackled intensity. Scouring through faith, mental health, the modern world, heartache and more - it’s a record that speaks volumes. Difficult second album? Nothing But Thieves have passed with flying colours. Jamie Muir

KELE OKEREKE FATHERLAND

Sub Pop

eee It’s safe to say that Kele Okereke’s new album ‘Fatherland’ is a dramatic departure from what he’s done before, both solo and with Bloc Party. Ditching the dance efforts of his previous solo work, Okereke’s gone for a more soulful, lo-fi approach for ‘Fatherland’. ‘Streets Been Talkin’’ sees him croon “from the Palace of Versailles to the streets of Peckham Rye” over the sound of his acoustic guitar, while ‘Grounds For Resentment’ is a duet with Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander over a soft jazz-esque tune, and it works brilliantly. ‘Yemaya’ has an almost hypnotic guitar running through it, while Okereke’s duet with Corinne Bailey Rae ‘Versions of Us’ is a highlight showcasing the very best of the singer/songwriter talent that Okereke possesses.

However, Okereke’s simple sound grows thin by the time ‘Road to Ibadan’ rolls around, and it feels as if the album could do with being a bit shorter even at its 45-minute

runtime. It may be a departure from Okereke’s comfort zone, but it’s not remarkable and grows old quickly. Josh Williams

DOWN WITH BORING

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LCD SOUNDSYSTEM AMERICAN DREAM e e eee

here are different kinds of pressure a band has to thrive under. The pressure of getting noticed, of selling out shows, of delivering a debut album worthy of attention then following it up with something that hits the same high mark. Of touring the world, of being away from home for months on end, living an unsustainable lifestyle on buses, planes, trains and beyond. But none of these compare to the pressure that LCD Soundsystem could have put themselves under with their fourth album. ‘American Dream’ isn’t ‘Sound Of Silver’. That should be on the table early doors. It isn’t the immediate, era defining record that burns long and bright, practically perfect in every way. That’s not to say it’s not its equal, either. If there were any doubts they might be about to destroy that legacy, they’re put firmly to bed within the first couple of tracks. By the time ‘Other Voices’ brings in the ice cold vocal cool of Nancy Whang, the deal is sealed. They’ve still got it. With the radio-friendly singles put to one side, this is LCD Soundsystem hitting their groove. There’s a darkness to ‘American Dream’ – understandable from the title alone – but also a

METZ

STRANGE PEACE Sub Pop

eeee METZ, it seems, have never heard the word “gentle” in their lives. The Toronto three-piece are the sonic equivalent of being constantly slapped around the face with a slab of concrete. They create not so much a wall of sound but an electrified fence, surrounded by a moat of broken glass. ‘Strange Peace’ is more of the same but, when it comes to METZ, that’s certainly no bad thing. They have their volatile formula, and they’re just going to keep on seeing what colourful explosions they can make in the lab with it. Die hard fans of METZ may complain that, as the band have grown older, they’ve become more careful - there’s nothing here quite as viscerally intense as ‘Wet Blanket’ or ‘Rats’ - but really, ‘Strange Peace’ is as raucous and fun as you want a METZ record to be. Chris Taylor 52

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certain light. There’s no gimmick, no forced theme or awkward posturing. It’s a record that shimmers under its own precious gleam, with the odd hint of something more around every corner. The influence of Bowie, understandably, appears often. Working with the legendary musician before its creation, it’s not a new element to LCD’s sonic spread, but one that feels more pertinent than ever before. The soaring interstellar rise of ‘Call The Police’, the lyrical regret of ‘Black Screen’ – they only add to the impression that this is a band that exists beyond the moment. A true legacy act, we’re lucky to experience their magic first hand. Because it is magic. There’s no denying that. The sassy hip shake of ‘Emotional Haircut’, the goosebump echo of ‘Oh Baby’, the pulsing dark heart of ‘Tonite’ – they’re all moments that no other band could recreate. In returning from their early demise, LCD Soundsystem haven’t feathered their own nest so much as embellished their already lustred legend. The fact they went away wasn’t a failure; it was another step in the story of a group that sit a level above their peers. LCD Soundsystem fell. LCD Soundsystem rise again. Pressure means nothing to them. Stephen Ackroyd

THE HORRORS V eeee

he Horrors fifth album ‘V’ is full of surprises. Yes, it does a lot of things you expect The Horrors to do and does them very well, but the magic is in the moments when the band do something that little bit different adding sparkle and depth to an already vital voice. Always at their best when they have a point to prove and ready to shake things up. ‘V’ finds Faris and co ripping up the rule book opening different sonic avenues for the band to get lost in. You can hear it in the industrial space funk of ‘Press Enter To Exit’ and the electro balladry of ‘Ghost’.

‘V’ is a long record. Almost every song is over 5 minutes. The Horrors give you value for money. The length adds to the experience though. You never know what sound you’re going to hear next. It’s an album characterised by sounds and noises. Great big goose bump inducing noises like the supernova synths of ‘Ghost’ or Joshua Hayward’s spacey guitar that floats in and out of all the songs making its presence felt each time. The best noise is saved for the end on the stunning ‘Something To Remember Me By’. By far their biggest pop moment it’s illuminated by a great big joyous whoosh. This the album that sees The Horrors at their playful and creative best. Martyn Young

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LIAM GALLAGHER AS YOU WERE

s you were. Three words it feels like we’ve heard for eternity. A phrase that’s become so ingrained in tweets and assorted social media posts that it’s easy to forget there’s an album attached to it and there’s rather a lot riding on it. Yes, Liam Gallagher’s redemption trail has been long and winding, but ultimately, the music is what counts. It’s put up or shut up for music’s most notorious big mouth. It’s odd then that his solo debut ‘As You Were’ is short on bluster and swagger, or the sort of intense, in-your-face aggression that Liam is famed for. Instead, he seems to have gone for the softly, softly “Hey, I’m a serious songwriter too” vibe on an album that lacks conviction. The shadow of a

certain potato-featured sibling hangs heavy. Things start gloriously though with certified banger, ‘Wall Of Glass’. The reason it’s so exciting is that it packs a genuine punch. You can audibly hear a fired up and snarling Liam up for the fight. What follows is rather more limp and submissive. The songs aren’t strictly bad; it’s more that they’re not really Liam. The voice sounds familiar, and the sound uses the same tricks you’ve heard over the years, but it doesn’t feel right. The album was written with a hodgepodge of different people and features prominent production by uber pop writer and producer Greg Kurstin; the result is a collection of nice enough songs that leave Liam’s personality and grit only slightly hinted at or absent completely. In the right hands and with the

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right approach some of these songs could blossom into monsters. ‘Greedy Soul’ would make a punk rock banger if it were recorded by ‘Definitely Maybe’-era 1994 Oasis, while ‘Universal Gleam’ would be a sparkling anthem if it was sprinkled with some shiny songwriterly fairy dust. On the album though they sound lumpen and severely lacking in a bit of oomph. Heading into making ‘As You Were’ there’s no doubt Liam was at his lowest ebb following the split of Beady Eye and years of negative press. In coming back so prominently and reminding people that he’s still Liam Gallagher, the comeback can be considered a success - that is until you listen to the album and realise that the Liam we know and love may be lost forever. Maybe there’s someone out there who can coax him out? Martyn Young

- Bournemouth, 60 Million Postcards - Birmingham, Actress & Bishop - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club - Manchester, The Soup Kitchen - York, Basement - Hull, The New Adelphi - Derby, The Venue - Sheffield, The Picture House Social - Newcastle, Think Tank? - Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s - Glasgow, Broadcast

12 Oct 13 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct 21 Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 26 Oct

- Liverpool, The Magnet - Stockton-On-Tees, KU Club - Nottingham, The Bodega Social Club - Leicester, The Cookie - Southampton, The Joiners - Plymouth, The Underground - Bristol, The Louisiana - Reading, The Purple Turtle - Brighton, The Hope & Ruin - London, The Camden Assembly - Oxford, The Cellar DOWN WITH BORING

REV I E WS

THE KILLERS WONDERFUL WONDERFUL

eeee e

here’s a lot to be said for a killer (lolz, etc. Ed) single. That’s the light that leads the way for The Killers on ‘Wonderful Wonderful’. Even months on from when ‘The Man’ first dropped, it still feels like the swaggering calling card of a band who

understand that attitude is everything. It’s that fire that burns under Brandon Flowers and co.’s latest full-length. An assertion that they want to do things differently - and that maybe there’s room for improvement on 2012’s ‘Battle Born’. After five years away, ‘Wonderful Wonderful’’s strutting, cocksure standout is everything The Killers

should be in 2017. Big. Bold. Brash. Brilliant. The obvious question deserves an obvious answer; no, there isn’t anything else to match ‘The Man’, or even to sit in the same wheelhouse. In fact, at times ‘Wonderful Wonderful’ seems to be content to coast on the momentum it provides. “Don’t give up on me,” proclaims one song, “I’m just in a rut.” It’s that fear of standing still which seems to drive The Killers now. On

occasion, they try new things - never radical, but different all the same. The sparse beats and of the title track give way to a hook that feels like it’s about to head off into Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ before turning back round into a more brooding, dangerous sounding affair, while ‘The Calling’ begins by quoting a bible verse. Weirdly, it sort of works without sounding too preachy. It’s when The Killers embrace their true selves that they find their mojo, though. ‘Run For Cover’ storms out of the traps in a way only they can - a thundering, runaway truck blasting through the night, it’s proof if needed that, when playing to their strengths, The Killers only know how to do bangers. Stephen Ackroyd

You need these albums... The best albums from the last few months.

RAT BOY

SCUM There’s the slacker spirit of Beck, the raw confidence of the Beastie Boys and the urchin cheek of Jamie T, but at the heart, it’s all Rat Boy; never staying still long enough to become any one thing. 54

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INHEAVEN

INHEAVEN Their peers may be smashing it left right and centre, but there’s something special about INHEAVEN. With them leading the way, the new wave of British indie might just stand a chance.

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

A FEVER DREAM Few, if any, do oddball pop better than Everything Everything. On their fourth full-length, they’re not about to let that crown slip. ‘A Fever Dream’ is still brilliantly weird.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

VILLAINS ‘Villains’ doesn’t just put Queens of the Stone Age out onto those big stages again, it lays out the blueprint for Josh Homme & co. to build their very own,.

THE LEMON TWIGS

BROTHERS OF DESTRUCTION EP 4AD

eeee After the spirited, spangled carnival ride of last year’s 4AD debut, The Lemon Twigs return with an EP, closing “the last chapter of the ‘Do Hollywood’ era of our group” with ‘Brothers of Destruction’. If talking about your own young band in terms of chapters or eras suggests a swaggering self-importance, the D’Addario brothers have more than enough of the charm - and the chops to carry it off. Recorded on their home 8-track setup, the pair pack layers of invention, wit and melody into these six tracks. There’s plenty here to suggest that these ‘Brothers of Destruction’ are building towards something really special. Rob Mesure

TIGERCUB

EVOLVE OR DIE EP Alcopop! Records

eeee From the moment ‘Divided States Of Us’ slowly eases in with a static heartbeat, joined by singer Jamie’s

soft vocals, Tigercub’s latest EP is all out warfare. New depths are explored with ‘Into The Ashes’ conjuring imagery of dystopian-type fallout, while ‘It’s Only Love’ begins as a melancholic number, but soon morphs into a different beast entirely, with a funk-driven heart. Closer ‘Faking Laughter’ brings an amalgamation of all that came before it. Filled with dream-like flurries, a driving bass line and drums that keep it all tied nicely together, every moment will draw both complete devotion and selfrealisation. Steven Loftin

VESSELS

THE GREAT DISTRACTION Different Recordings

eeee For their fourth full-length, Leeds’ Vessels are getting collaborative. Teaming up with the likes of The Flaming Lips, John Grant, Vincent Neff (Django Django) and Harkin (Sky Larkin), it’s an interesting new dimension to a band who like to play on the edges. Opener ‘Mobilise’ may not pack the extra star power, but it makes up for it with powerful, techno sensibilities.

WEAVES WIDE OPEN

eeee

oronto quartet Weaves found themselves wrestling with who they wanted to be on their 2016 self-titled debut. Were they Talking Heads? Were they Pixies? Were they tUnE-yArDs? Were they a mash of all three with a dash of Karen O thrown in for good measure? The resulting concoction felt like a mess. But there was something there, something undeniably compelling they just needed to pin it down. With their second album, ‘Wide Open’, it seems like the hectic 12 months on the road has made them realise what

it was that made them so interesting. Explosive, exciting and rollicking good fun, it’s a scrappy little beast that really digs its hooks into you. No-one is fighting for centre stage anymore, which allows for a much cleaner sound that gives you the space you need to have a good time. Lead single, and opening track, ‘#53’ is the wonky pop they were so clearly aiming for. From that driving rhythm to the anthemic cries of, “I don’t wanna think about you again/I don’t wanna dream about you again.” It’s a cathartic and razor-sharp slice of rock. Weaves have clearly found a knack for writing those boisterous little hooks that will have you clambering for the front. ‘Grass’, with its whirling guitars and a melody guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days, is full of fun. ‘Slicked’, meanwhile, has

‘Deflect The Light’ sparkles with Wayne Coyne’s iconic vocal, while ‘Deeper In A Sky’ - an all star team up with fellow local talent Harkin - brings out a different side in both acts. While ‘The Great Distraction’ doesn’t forget what came before, it finds Vessels in a new universe - one even more exciting. Pulling together the strands, experimenting in sound and delving into the depths of the modern condition, it feels like the start of something new. Stephen Ackroyd

WOLF PARADE

CRY CRY CRY Sub Pop

eeee The deep storytelling sounds of Wolf Parade completely take hold on this return to form after six years. Channelling their inner Nick Cave, every word has a grip that rivets you until the last track. Co-frontmen Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner twin together to bring their characters to life, while the music creates a backdrop for stories to play out. While the actual style may flit around with a madness, Wolf Parade pull it off with style. Steven Loftin

FILE YOUR OWN REVIEWS

‘These days’, you can listen to as much music as you like, as soon as it’s released. So why do we need reviews then, you ask? Stop being so rude. Still, it does mean you can let us know what you think about the latest releases. Fill in the form below, cut it out, and send it to us. You can tweet a photo to @readdork, or mail it direct to Dork, PO Box 390, Hastings, TN34 9JP.

OUT NOW! Brand New - Science Fiction LCD Soundsystem American Dream Death From Above Outrage! Is Now Nothing But Thieves Broken Machine 15TH SEPTEMBER Sløtface - Try Not To Freak Out Arcane Roots - Melancholia Hymns Emily Haines - Choir Of The Mind Foo Fighters - Concrete And Gold Prophets Of Rage Prophets Of Rage Black Kids - Rookie Benjamin Clementine - I Tell A Fly Tired Lion - Dumb Days 22ND SEPTEMBER The Killers - Wonderful Wonderful The Horrors - V Keep Shelly in Athens Philokalia Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun METZ - Strange Peace The Bronx - V The Lemon Twigs - Brothers of Destruction EP Cut Copy - Haiku from Zero Enter Shikari - The Spark Girli - Hot Mess EP

the glamorous strut of T. Rex taken to different level thanks to Jasmyn Burke’s mouthful-of-molasses meets Karen O vocals. In fact, Burke has never sounded better. Even her “oohs” ooze a nonchalant cool. ‘Wide Open’ sees Weaves at their most energetic, focussed and fun. It’s strange to think this is the same band that, just last year, felt a bit all over the place. While tightening their scope down to the electrifying rock’n’roll that peeped through on Weaves doesn’t really reinvent the wheel in the grander scheme of things, it’s led to a band that feels more confident in who they are. This confidence, in turn, has created a band that’s all about having a good time. Pretensions are out of the window; now they just want to make you dance. Chris Taylor

DOWN WITH BORING

29TH SEPTEMBER Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life Tigercub - Evolve Or Die EP Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent 6TH OCTOBER Liam Gallagher - As You Were Kele Okereke - Fatherland Cults - Offering Weaves - Wide Open Wolf Parade - Cry Cry Cry

MY ALBUM OF THE MONTH IS...

here’s a seemingly random sprawl to Lowlands, but from the opening grin of Culture Abuse’s gnarled set, there’s unity to be found. Architects have a similar ethos, but theirs is less RSVP, more command. When Sam Carter tells the festival, “You’re mine for the next sixty minutes,” there’s no arguing. There’s more storytelling and wordplay with PVRIS; the roar of ‘Heaven’ and the sparkling destruction in ‘What’s Wrong’ lift the band to even greater heights. Glass Animals are riding a similar high. Leaning into the carnival spirit of ‘How To Be A Human Being’ and embracing the community within, the band are front, centre and leading the charge. There’s less certainty with The xx. Yes, they’re a Very Good Band but headlining the Friday night of a festival isn’t their natural home. Or so you’d think. Somewhere between ‘I See You’ and now, the band have learnt to open themselves up and face outwards. It’s changed everything. From ‘Islands’ to ‘Dangerous’, the band conjure euphoria from the darkest of places, reflect it off a revolving column of mirrors, and beam it through every person playing. The beauty is still preserved, but rather than something to admire, it’s now something to touch, feel and taste. The power of The xx lies in the interactions they inspire and the mass emotion they provoke. It’s the second day of Lowlands, and the

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LOWLANDS 2017

REV I E WS

wide eyed chaos is settling. Guerrilla games of musical chairs don’t seem as wacky; the lineup doesn’t seem as bizarre. And then Husky Loops take to the stage. Embracing the weird slant of their music, they throw themselves into every jarring leap and sudden skip. Black Foxxes feel dangerous in a different way, at their raging, terrifying, beautiful best. Skepta’s celebration lap continues its hectic run today as a very busy crowd embraces every edge that ‘Konnichiwa’ brings. Like The xx the night before, Alt-J are a band at their best when they’ve got total control. Festivals aren’t easy. There’s a lot of different moving parts, but they all come together as the band show off how far they’ve come. It’s Bastille that properly triumph today though. The band mean something different to everyone, and somehow they please them all in a crammed hour-long set. Backed with an impressive stage show, it’s escapist, confrontational and joyous. ‘Wild World’ is a sprawling record and live, all that fizzy blood starts pumping. The band are all sunshine and smiles as every left turn is met with the desire for more, every banger grows larger than life. Dan switches between An Absolute Pop Star, holding the crowd in the palm of his hand, and yer mate from down the pub asking how you are. He’s in the crowd for ‘Flaws’, somehow keeping his hat in the process, and that connection remains when he’s back onstage encouraging the place to dance and “embarrass yourselves with

me”. Bastille are quickly becoming a band that do a lot of things very well. For the third and final day of Lowlands, the stars are out in full force. At The Drive In dial up the theatrics; Cedric Bixler is an erratic flurry, tearing about the stage, climbing in, on and over whatever is in his way before ducking back and helping himself to a cup of tea. It’s a similar story for Death Grips, the band putting on a devastating performance. Halsey draws a dedicated crowd to the Main Stage. Gone is the wide-eyed amazement that we saw at Glastonbury and in its place, a more relaxed performance that sees her switch between Radio Superstar, commanding raging pillars of smoke, and music fanatic dancing to her own beat. Mumford & Sons don’t waste much time before dropping the first of their confetti-laced hits as ‘Little Lion Man’ gets one of the weekends biggest reactions. The band switch between the acoustic endear that got them here and the electric arena snarl that’s kept them interesting. Live, it’s still a little back and forth, but an appearance from First Aid Kid for ‘Awake My Soul’ loosens them up and sees them sparkle before the celebratory parade of ‘The Cave’ (with yet more confetti) elevates them to their peak. It’s a frustrating performance because there are sparks of magic to tonight’s closing set, but it’s never allowed to shine as brightly as it could so we have to settle with ‘fine’. Ali Shutler

THE BEST 3 BANDS WE SAW AT LEEFEST 2017 SUPERFOOD Rejuvenated and revived, Superfood Mk II are proving themselves a force to be reckoned with on 2017’s festival circuit. While they may have cast aside some of the more poppers o’clock moments of their debut album, there are reinforcements from new record ‘Bambino’ to step into the breach. Chief amongst them, ‘Where’s The Bass Amp’ - already sounding like a gigantic live dance party in the making.

WILD BEASTS Wild Beasts’ rise has been perfectly pitched. Building in a way which may not seem spectacular, but isn’t mundane by any lengths, they’ve turned into a band shinier than any hidden gem. Sleek, sexy and sure of their own direction, they may not be headlining, but they’re a step above the rest. Mixing purple haze with burning fire, they’re less wild and more deadly.

MILK TEETH It’s no stretch of the imagination to badge Milk Teeth as one of the most accomplished bands on the UK rock circuit right now. Still evolving at a terrifying rate, their progress since debut album ‘Vile Child’ is startling. Now signed to a new label, their recent ‘Be Nice EP’ shows they’re levelling up by the minute. What they do on record, they multiply live. A fearsome force.

VISIONS 2017 SHOWCASES SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING, INTERESTING AND INDIVIDUAL MUSICAL TALENTS AROUND

ow in its fifth year, Visions continues to celebrate obscurity and eccentricity. The Hackney one-dayer, taking charge of five hip venues and three outdoor spaces conveniently close to each other in London Fields, showcases some of the most exciting, interesting and individual musical talents that are yet to be discovered. Before the music, though, there’s an irresistibly cute dog show judged by Girl Ray and Mystery Jets to raise money for the All Dogs Matter charity. It might only be for an hour, but it creates a community of adoring dog lovers, bringing people together in a way that most other festivals can only dream of. If you like your festivals with something unusual to boot, then Visions is perfect – there’s also a crepe cook-off with Kero Kero Bonito vs. Frankie Cosmos, a beer pong tournament with Happyness and punk-rock karaoke. What more could you possibly want? Goat Girl provide the perfect start to the day, with a set that’s full of biting DIY indie anthems in waiting – perfect for Mangle’s intimate and industrial basement setting. The South London-based four-piece,

signed to Rough Trade and touring the UK in November, are compelling and transfixing to watch live. A short walk away, along the canal, Tel Aviv’s Noga Erez performs her experimental, glitchy, electronic-led hip pop to a busy crowd at Oval Space – a white-walled art gallery/music venue with a stage elevated at the front of the room. Wearing trainers, knee high socks and a netted black top with ‘POISON’ written on the back, she utilises every part of the vast stage, captivating the few hundred before her as she marches across it. Legging it over to Oval Space, with its apocalyptic industrial wasteland backdrop, it’s the first hyper-pop hour of the day. Bringing the party – inflatable flamingo and fluffy crocodile in tow – it’s KKB time! Jamie, dressed in an oversized top with dozens of famous chocolate brands, works the synths via a touch pad while Gus (also PC Music’s Kane West) drums away and Sarah bounces around with her face covered in glitter. Their sickly sweet pop is like a sugar rush to the head, almost like eating all the fizzy sherbet in a Dip Dab bag at once. By the time they launch into their newest banger ‘Forever Summer Holiday’, at least half of the crowd is bouncing with them. It’s easily the best performance of the day.

Visions isn’t just a music festival. Oh no, there’s much more to it than that. Namely - it has a dog show! We all know dogs are the only thing better than bands, so bin off the music and check out these furry friends. What good boys they are.

Embodying the entire ethos behind Visions, though, is the enigmatic producer who closes Oval Space with his first UK show in around a year. Few artists come as daring, individual, boundary-pushing and forward-thinking as SOPHIE, the Numbers-signed PC Music affiliate who has collaborated with Madonna, Charli XCX and most recently Vince Staples; despite being one of the most divisive, Marmite artists of the last decade. Unsurprisingly, there’s a strict no photo policy – fitting the ambiguous, elusive aesthetic perfectly. As smoke submerges the stage, a figure emerges behind the decks in a massive, hooded, pink puffa jacket, black leather skirt, tights and black boots. After Girls Aloud’s ‘Sound of the Underground’ and Kelis’ pop classic ‘Trick Me’ play, and then a slightly concerning fire alarm sound, it’s the perfect introduction to SOPHIE’s playfully surreal world of weirdly cool, often apocalyptic, skewed pop. Casually checking his phone in-between records, and judging by the clubbier new tracks, he’s still unafraid to experiment with unusual sounds and styles. Ending with A.G. Cook and Danny L Harle’s instantly euphoric edit of Charli XCX’s ‘Lipgloss’, golden strobes light up the crowd, making for a picture-perfect finale. Ben Jolley DOWN WITH BORING

ACTIVITY CENTRE IT’S TIME TO GET ARTY!

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WE BLOODY LOVE YOUR FAN ART. WE’VE BEEN SENT LOADS OF IT OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS, SO WE’VE DECIDED TO HELP YOU OUT WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING CREATIVE. OUR RESIDENT ILLUSTRATOR RHI HAS BEEN INKING UP SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE DORK PHOTOS. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS ADD THE COLOUR. SIMPLE, EH? THIS MONTH IT’S OUR GREAT MATE MARIKA HACKMAN WHO NEEDS A BIT OF TECHNICOLOUR ACCOMPANIMENT. GET YOUR CRAYONS OUT AND GET ON WITH IT. SEND YOUR FINISHED WORK TO @READDORK ON TWITTER OR TO CONNECTION@READDORK.COM VIA ‘EMAIL’ AND WE’LL FIND A WAY TO SHOW OFF THE BEST OES.

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PENS OUT! EYES DOWN! IT’S THE AMAZING DORK

CROSSWORD ACROSS

1. Black Honey are sure you can find Better. (8) 3. The Killers are this, twice over (9) 6. The Cribs do this 24-7, rock star style (4) 9. Sister? Nah. This nun’s in charge. (4) 10. Get Inuit’s Jamie is either half empty or half full, depending on how you look at it. (5) 13. Anna’s from here. (5) 14. You still can’t fool The Mystery Jets. (6) 60

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DOWN

2. It’s only ever fun in retrospect. (5) 4. It’s Dagny’s favourite outfit. (7) 5. When Jeppo is making her playlists, she’s always skipping ahead to her favourite 00s pop band. (7) 6. It’s a right old Bummer, according to our Lana. (6) 7. London Grammar see the picture. (3) 8. Willie likes people, and their furry friends too. (4) 11. Bless this house. (4) 12. Honeyblood are ready for it. (5)

DREAM WIFE A N Y OTHE R Q U E S T I O N S W ITH . . .

THIS MONTH, BELLA FROM DREAM WIFE RUNS THE GAUNTLET OF OUR RANDOM, STUPID QUERIES. Hello. How are you? Currently regenerating. Tell us a secret about yourself? I’m a witch. Who was your favourite musician or band when you were 14? White Stripes. When’s your birthday? Leo season baby. What was the first record you bought? When I was ten my dad presented me with two CDs: Sugababes - ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ and Nirvana - ‘Nevermind’, don’t remember first one I brought.

Reading or Leeds? Festy - only been to Reading... Place maybe Leeds, soz Reading.

What strength Nandos sauce do you order? Medium, but it’s never spicy enough.

Who’s your favourite new band? Yossef and The Groovies.

If you won the lottery, what would you spend the cash on? Weed.

How tall are you? 5”6. How punk are you out of ten? 6.66. Who is your favourite member of One Direction? The cute one. What did you last dream about? Floating around in the big, wide ocean, rising and falling through waves the size of mountains.

What was the last thing you broke? If you watch our new video for ‘Fire’ you’ll see us jumping all over the roof of an old jeep; we had to pay extra for damages... How do you feel about Marmite? Nervous yet curious. Have you ever won anything? Year 6 talent show, I was a magician. Turning milk into water and reading my teachers minds, you know the drill.

What is your earliest memory? Sitting on a wall in my friends garden and being swarmed by ants, my mum was finding them in my ears, belly button and... yeah, for weeks after. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? Jack the Ripper tour. Have you ever seen a ghost? We mess around with Ouija boards all too often. What is the best present you’ve ever been given? Jack the Ripper tour. Do you ever wear socks in bed? Only in states of emergency.