Spindle Magazine Issue 2

I s s ue 2 // 2010 F re e , bu t b y no me a n s c he a p

Issue 2 // 2010 Photography

Kevin Mason at Garage Studios (full credits pg24) Illustration

Sarah Ferrari

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Contents

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Issue 2 // 2010 Editor in Chief and Creative Director Heather Falconer heather@spindlemagazine.com 07719 528 622 Graphic Design Sarah Ferrari sarah@spindlemagazine.com sarahferrari.com Music Editors Amy Lavelle amy@spindlemagazine.com Dominic VonTrapp dominic@spindlemagazine.com Arts Writer Kathryn Evans kathryn@spindlemagazine.com Film Writers Thomas Dearnley-Davison thomas@spindlemagazine.com Toby King toby@spindlemagazine.com Fashion Writers Emily Amelia Inglis Laura Hayward Shane Hawkins Stylists Emily Bosence Sara Darling Igor Srzic Cartledge Heather Ridley-Moran Frankie Lynn Kate Canegie Lotte Goodwin Photographers Sam Eddison sameddison.com Bartolomy bartolomy.com Kevin Mason kevinmason.garage-studios.co.uk Jean-Luc Brouard jeanlucbrouard.com Daniel Regan danielregan.com Matt Martin mattislucky.co.uk Fellowes daniel_fellowes@hotmail.co.uk Paul Spencer paulspencer.co.uk Milo Belgrove drizzholla.blogspot.com Sam Hiscox samhiscox.blogspot.com David Levine www.davidlevine.co.uk Shane Hawkins freshflowerpressed.blogspot.com Stephanie Coffey stephaniecoffeyphotography.com

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Amy Lavelle Bart Kamp Bevan Stevens Dominic VonTrapp Emily Bosence

Cover Credits Photography

Shane Hawkins Styling

Heather Falconer

6 Fran Glover 7 Heather Falconer 8 Jean Luc Brouard 9 Kathryn Evans 10 Laura Hayward

11 Sam Eddison 12 Sarah Ferrari 13 Shane Hawkins 14 Thomas Dearnly Davison 15 Toby King

Grooming

Illustration (above)

Model

Illustration (opposite)

Lydia Pankhurst using MAC Tom Ward, wears Happy Harriet leather trousers and accessories

Carlos Garde-Martin Tom Forman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Spindle are of those retrospective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine. The magazine welcomes ideas and new contributors, but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Spindle is printed and published in the UK 4 times a year.

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Illustrators Carlos Garde-Martin carlosgardemartin.co.uk Tom Forman tomforman.illustrator@yahoo.co.uk Rachel Williams missrachelle.co.uk Philip Dennis philipdennisart.com Ruth Ferrier ruthferrier.com Ben Jensen handsomedevilart.co.uk Laura Brown laulaulikes.blogspot.com Hannah Forward hannahforward.com Zoë Bryant zoebryant.co.uk Eleanor Wood eleanorwood.com Jessica Kemp jesskemp9@hotmail.com

Matt Saunders rabbitportal.com Denis Carrier studiofolk.com Rory Walker roryroryrory.com Philip Hall philhalldoesthis.co.uk Chris Wilder c.wilder@tiscali.co.uk Jack London jacklondonart.blogspot.com Zara Holtom zaraslatteryillustration.com Maria Sagun mariasagun.com Heather Webster heatherbeatricewebster.blogspot.com Hair and Makeup Lydia Pankhurst Laura Hyman Bebe Newson Catherine Jasper Hair by Ben Lucy Bridge Rose Downing Simon Webster Ken Michaela Sporkova Online Editor www.spindlemagazine.com Thomas Dearnley-Davison thomas@spindlemagazine.com Web Design Bevan Stephens Interns Amy Yates Elise Kerr Holly Almore Jason Pye Frankie Mace Harriet Keen Sam Foot Sophia Darrell Jess Rose Cadwell Petrushka Gabrielle Lee Laura King Publisher Heather Falconer Many Thanks John Falconer MaryAnn Falconer Lynne Allen Mary Falconer Carole Jordan Dean Marsh and Shino Allen at Creative Law Brett Isherwood Sara Mouncer Garage Studios and Everyone who helped out with the launch of issue one, Madame Geisha, Desmond O’Connor, Liz Bishop, Dave Mumbles, Sweet Sweet Lies, The Half Sisters, Chancery Blame and the Gadjo Club Advertising Manager Francesca Glover fran@spindlemagazine.com Submission Email info@spindlemagazine.com Spindle Magazine is printed by Wyndeham Grange Ltd, Butts Road, Southwick, West Sussex, BN42 4EJ © 2010 Spindle What do you think of Spindle? info@spindlemagazine.com

Issue 2 // 2010

For those of you who are first time readers, Spindle aims to promote emerging talent across the fields of fashion music, art and design.

‘The Mens Issue?’ showcases a fresh breed of creative talent and introduces a film section to the magazine for the first time. This month sees Brighton’s Duke of York’s Cinema celebrate its one hundred year anniversary and still flying the flag for independent cinema. Writer Toby King explores the beauty of indie cinema vs. the multiplex (pg54).

The core theme of the issue derives from different opinions of men’s style. Exploring fashions of the more traditional English gentleman to that of the drag queen.

There has been resurgence in the popularity for male facial hair: Sam Eddison and Ben Gold (pg8) share their photographs of interesting facial hair as seen on English gentlemen. From traditional grooming to the future of men’s fashion, we talk to Kim Choong-Wilkins (pg30) and Stefan Orcshel-Read (pg20) about androgyny; why men’s fashion is so exciting right now.

Thanks to everyone who’s been involved with Spindle.

We have an amazing team of very talented people, which is constantly growing. I hope you enjoy this issue of Spindle Magazine, and look out for issue three, ‘The International Issue’ out January 2011.

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Issue 2 // 2010

Léigh Bartlam

Leigh has recently turned a four year music management hobby into a Net-label for a collective of Electronica music. Having previously dabbled in everything from Music, acting, performing, journalism and modeling.

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Michael “Atters” Attree

Michael “Atters” Attree is the satirist, comedy writer and and one the veteran editors at the satirical magazine The Chap.

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Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

On a one-man mission to introduce Hip-Hop to the Queen’s English, Mr. B is delighted to present Chap-Hop.

Photography

Sam Eddison

Photography Assistant

Laura Nixon

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Issue 2 // 2010 Photography

Ben Gold

Mr. Wax

and Proprietor of Wax Industries wax. maker of Bounder moustache es, tach ld’s wor the ing When not tam he is a writer and vintage DJ.

Nick Meincken

Hoxton based web designer with a fondness for the surreal.

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James Nixon

Journalist, bread baker, mandolin player and wind-up gramophone DJ.

Andrew Harrison

An electrician and mechanic from West London whose interests include building and maintaining custom hot rods and classic motorcycles.

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Photography

Matt Martin Styling

Heather Ridley-Moran Clothes

Stylist’s own Model

Louie Zeegan Illustration

Rachel Williams

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White Silk Shirt: Lako Bukia Leather vest: Harriet’s Muse Cream boyfriend blazer: Topshop

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Suspenders: Stylist’s own Men’s shirt: Curtis PVC trousers: Rhea Fields

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Issue 2 // 2010 Photography

Bartolomy Styling

Kate Carnegie Hair & Make-up

Ken

Models

Zoe Brown and Suzanne Strutt at Profile Models Illustration

Laura Brown

Yellow Blazer: Topman Black skinny leather trousers: Harriets Muse Wrap block sequin top (worn inside out): LALL London Brogues: Topshop

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Short sleeve silk blouse: Lako Bukia Polka dot trousers: Orschel-Read

35 North Road Brighton BN1 1YB T 01273 688311 W www.haircultuk.co.uk

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Stefan Orschel-Read is flying the flag for modern tailored menswear. We meet him as he finalises the preparations for his S/S 2011 collection to discuss androgyny, life as a designer, and why mens fashion is exciting again!

Questions

Laura Hayward Interview

Shane Hawkins Illustration

Ben Jensen

Photography

Courtesy of Stefan Orschel-Read

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When did you first realise you wanted to work in the fashion industry?

I studied law before going into fashion.

I used to sketch fashion for relaxation.

After my course finished I decided to pursue that interest.

What advice would you give to the Spindle readers who want to be a fashion designer?

I advise to thoroughly investigate the industry through internships, go to one of the global multinational brands and also to some younger or smaller companies to get a rounded grasp of the hard realities of the industry.

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We are at a time when bespoke and couture is again relevant to men.

What inspires you?

My ongoing inspirations are English tailoring, androgyny, the allure of wealth and the multicultural youth of London.

What excites you about men’s fashion?

The remits of men’s fashion are ever changing. We are at a time when bespoke and couture is again relevant to men. This time it is not for kings and emperors, it is for you and I. What direction do you think mens fashion is going in?

The importance of individuality is growing in menswear. In conservative suiting the stripes are bolder, streetwear is more diverse and high-end menswear has never had so much creativity.

Tell us about your current collection?

The next Orschel-Read collection is called “The Spy Who Becomes Me”. It explores a story of a playboy youth on the Riviera struggling to grow into a self-sufficient adult.

It has lots of military and classic tailoring influences.

Would you ever consider designing for women?

No I am happy in my specialism. Some of my menswear is wearable by women however.

Who would you like to wear your clothes?

I would dress the British Prime Minister David Cameron in a classic tweed suit. I would also love to style Eddie Redmayne in one of the tonic suits from the next Orschel-Read collection.

Who is your muse?

My muses change every collection. I design for a discerning man with a taste for theatrically tinged, yet flattering English tailoring.

Where would you like to be in ten years time?

I aim to increase the global distribution of the Ready To Wear. I hope to remain in London and to still be involved with all the creative stages of the production and design of the Orschel-Read pieces. _ www.orschel-read.com

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Fellows

clothes

The Old Wardrobe Styling

Frankie Lynn Model

Ashley D Illustration

Philip Dennis

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Issue 2 // 2010 RIGHT

Leggings: Kim Choong-Wilkins Latex Cape: Atsuko Kudo

Photography

Kevin Mason

Photography Assistant

Natasha Alipour-Faridani Shot at Garage Studios STYLIng

Heather Falconer Styling Assistant

Laura Hayward Interns

Holly Aylmore and Amy Yates Makeup

Lydia Pankhurst and Laura Hyman using MAC Female Hair Stylist

Lydia Pankhurst

Male Hair Stylist

Catherine Jasper using TechniArt from Electric Hairdressing Models

Tom Ward, Akinola Davies Jr. and Rebecca Bone Illustration

Hannah Forward Stockists

Atsuko Kudo: www.atsukokudo.com Chronicles of Never: www.chroniclesofnever.com Vera Thordardottir: www.verathordardottir.com Kim-Choong Wilkins: kim.choong-wilkins@ network.rca.ac.uk

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left

Grey and black jumper with structural shoulders: Kim Choong Wilkins Leather shorts: Chronicles Of Never Leggings and long black jumper: Both Kim Choong-Wilkins

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Dress: Vera Thordardottir Latex gloves: Atsuko Kudo Long white tulle skirt with silk bow: Vera Thordardottir

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Black studded jumper: Kim Choong-Wilkins Latex skirt and bow: Atsuko Kudo Black and silver striped studded jumper and flared black trousers: Kim Choong-Wilkins Silver and white ring: Chronicles Of Never Leggings and black ribbed shoulder jumper: Kim Choong-Wilkins

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Words

Emily Amelia Inglis Illustration

Hannah Forward

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An MA Fashion graduate from the Royal College of Art who has worked under Alexander McQueen in London and Ermenegildo Zegna in Milan, Kim Choong-Wilkins has not only a vision to catch your eye and consume your view, but advice and experience that reveals not only the work that goes into his success, but the future of menswear.

We talk to Kim about not only his vision for Bodybound, but also his progression from a student, to an established designer, his experiences along the way and where he thinks menswear is going.

Tell us what it is about Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Men that inspired the Bodybound collection, and where else did you and do you continue to pull inspiration from?

I actually started the process by looking at these old anatomical drawings, and then a little later, found the poem, and that verse in particular, and it really described what I was doing perfectly.

It’s that thing about, ‘their hungry thirsty roots’; I guess it’s to do with repressed feelings, or something that’s going to enable us to address or maybe not always be comfortable to address. There are those awkward aspects of our humanity that drew me in, and that was a beautiful way of putting it.

How has the poem directly affected your collection aesthetically?

As an example, one of the materials I’ve used is super luxurious, there’s an almost hard, outer crusty surface and inside it is an amazingly soft cashmere. I really think that this contrast came into play as a result of the poem and the goblin men in particular.

Looking at the collection, there seems to be an almost medieval inspiration.

There is a semi romantic notion some of the time, certainly I was looking quite a lot at these 16th century Tudor portraits, and there is this kind of formality. And you have this sense where, for example, portraits of Ann Boleyn, Elizabeth and Henry VIII, they address you totally, and it’s their eyes that subjugate you.

Certainly, I wanted to do that with the bodies, although they are quite obtrusive and expressive in their size and form, they are almost panels for display, and they don’t necessarily subjugate the person who is viewing them, rather that they become a frame for the head, or a frame for the eyes.

In addition, because the neckpieces come up over the mouth, the wearer can almost only communicate through

their eyes, and there’s something quite formidable about that as sometimes they are completely impotent. They can’t do anything, they’re too big to really have a fight with, and they cannot vocalize, and yet the idea of just having the eyes to express, is rather intimidating.

As an accomplished designer, having lived through university and work experience, looking back now, what aspects of that education still stand in your work today?

In hindsight, most of my influences have come from the work place, and working with different people, as opposed to my education.

Certainly the RCA refined my style, I chose them, as there was a certain finesse that was exhibited in their shows and I wanted to be of that level. They offered a much more avant-garde way of design.

Unfortunately it was everything I thought it wasn’t going to be.

It was an absolute battle; I’ve never fought so hard in my life.

Even working in the most horrendous places and under the most extreme conditions, I’ve never fought so hard in what I believe fashion to be than when I was at the RCA. I thought it would be a nurturing environment, but it was extraordinary.

If anything I learnt how to fight.

Every inch was sweated and bled over, which you could say was good training. It was a very, very hard two years, but after, I really know what I want to say, and I guess, how much it was worth it.

How was it working for Alexander McQueen in London, versus Ermenegildo Zegna in Milan?

I started as an intern at McQueen; it was an absolute baptism of fire; I have never been called such things, almost revolting things, and I mean…they really shouted at me, but eventually I left to work for Ermenegildo Zegna. The latter is very conservative and stuffy in comparison to McQueen.

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Issue 2 // 2010 When I returned to London to do my MA, McQueen were understaffed and contacted me; I returned as more of a seamstress.

If I was to compare my experience in Milan with that of McQueen, it was one of the best graduate jobs you could have; working as a knitwear designer and within such a small team, I was directly designing pieces.

In comparative to McQueen, where everything is realised in £1000 fabrics or one of a kind brocade, and these are the samples, and for all the sweat and the tears and the names I was called at McQueen, I would choose that every time. I was so bored in Italy!

Speaking of Ermenegildo Zegna, you were producing knitwear there, and looking at Bodybound, knitwear remains a dominant factor. Is this where your love of knitwear was born?

Knitwear for me came much, much earlier on. Having studied a BA in Textile Design at Central Saint Martins in 2005, I realised I did not want to make rectangles for the rest of my life and it was much more sculpture that I was interested in, which then bled into fashion and subsequently, knitwear.

McQueen was not your only experience with a London designer however; you also worked for Matthew Williamson.

At Williamson I was brought in to produce knitted showpieces. Which was fantastic, I could go away and work and come back to show them and avoid any office politics.

However, the first pieces I did for them were really quite wild, and it was really exciting.

However, it was something that I wanted to produce, but then you have to filter out, filter out…filter out some more…and then you end up with…a dress.

And that’s the difficult thing [freelance designing], because you know that this amazing piece would be brilliant for them, it could be fantastic, but you have to bite your tongue and do what you have to do, as they are the client.

As a freelance designer and an established designer, do you hold back when working for others?

Season by season, you have to be a better designer, so even if you regurgitate a relatively good idea of something you had for somebody else, or yourself, previously, there’s nothing to say that next time you make it, it’ll be recognisable.

The best piece of advice the visiting tutors at the RCA had was that if you have an idea, just do it. Because, not only are you getting your idea out there, out of your head, you figure out so much about how realistic it is, but also how you want to refine it.

In your experience, past and present, has menswear changed and where do you think it is going?

I really think menswear is evolving, and in a particularly interesting way. It’s really starting to define itself, especially from womenswear.

It’s separating itself from the more stagnant, almost ‘Saville Row’ness of men’s fashion, or men’s garments as a whole.

I think the male consumer demands so much more now. Men can’t get away with a shapeless shirt and a pair of jeans now, and this is an amazing gaining of ground for menswear fashion.

As a result, designers can now push themselves, and conceive things that are more avant-garde. Although I’m not a proponent of market lead fashion, but I ask, why not use fashion marketing to push something so much more than just a five pound t shirt, but push really great fashion and really interesting pieces, things that make a difference.

This evolvement means that as a designer, I have to step up. _

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Photography

Daniel Regan menswear

Laura Cremene www.showtime.arts.ac.uk/laura womenswear

Jelin George www.showtime.arts.ac.uk/jelin Models

Andre Mckie and Christina Daly Illustration

Ruth Ferrier

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Issue 2 // 2010 Shane wears: Dress Kristian Aadnevik, leopard print body and shoes Topshop, tights and headpiece stylist’s own.

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Brett wears: Floral neckpiece and skirt both House of Blue Eyes, lace dress American Apparel, shoes Kurt Geiger, tights stylist’s own.

Photography

Sam Eddison

Photography Assistant

Laura Nixon Styling

Emily Bosence and Heather Falconer Makeup

Bebe Newson using MAC Interns

Jason Pye and Elise Kerr Models

Brett Isherwood and Shane Hawkins flowers

Sadie Drinkwater, www.theflowerstand.co.uk Illustration

Jessica Kemp www.houseofblueeyes.com www.digforvictoryclothing.com www.kristianaadnevik.com www.americanapparel.co.uk www.topshop.com

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Issue 2 // 2010 Shane wears: Black top, models own.

Brett wears: Floral neckpiece and skirt both House of Blue Eyes, lace dress American Apparel, shoes Kurt Geiger, tights stylist’s own.

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Issue 2 // 2010 Gabriel

Boho tusk necklace: Sam Ubhi Dark blue jeans: We are Replay Leather arms: Stylist’s own

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Issue 2 // 2010 Nick

Necklace: Toby McLellan Jeans: We are Replay Belt: Models own Silver star spurs: John Forster, POA @ Baroque Leather stirrups: Stylist’s own Ring: Icon @ Baroque Boots: Vintage Clarks

Photography

Make up and Hair

Stylist

Models

Stylist’s Assistant

Illustration

Ishay Botbol

Sara Darling Hermione Russell

Michaela Spork using Mac and L’Oreal Gabriel and Nick Wilson @ Select Zoë Bryant

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Nick

Left arm T bar cross bracelet: Jacey Withers @ Little 15 Oxidised cuff: Kimberly Selwood @ Little 15 Silver tubular bracelet: Maria Francesca Pepe Barcode cuff: Pippa Knowles @ Baroque Elephant cuff: Matthew Campbell Laurenzo

Gabriel

Cut out gold cross necklace: Maria Francesca Pepe Jeans: Replay

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Right Hand White snakesin ring: Matthew Campbell Laurenzo Crown ring: Toby McLellan Red jewelled ring: Matthew Campbell Laurenzo Oxidised ring: Kimberley Selwood @ Little 15 Shard ring: Chris Hawkins @ Little 15 Japanese denim jeans: We are Replay

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Garbriel

Key and cross jewelled necklaces: Matthew Campbell Laurenza

Nick

Arrow “which way” necklace: rockcakes @ Baroque Small boar’s tusk necklace w/diamonds: Sam Ubhi Skull Chain necklace: Jacey Withers @ Little 15

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Issue 2 // 2010 Gabriel

Necklace and bracelet (around neck): Adrian Eric Morales Grey trousers: Full Circle

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Issue 2 // 2010 Nick

Plain resin cuff and Boutique studded cuff: Sam Ubhi

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Issue 2 // 2010 Andre

H&M briefs: customised by stylist Coco

Leather Arm piece and bodice: Bespoke by Sarah Lewis www.huelwenlewis.co.uk Paloma skirt: Colour Fashion www.colour-fashion.co.uk Headresses: From a selection by little wings accessories www.littlewingsaccessories.com courtesy of Handmade Co-op, Brighton

Photographer

Jean-Luc Brouard Styling

Heather Falconer Styling Assistant

Laura Hayward Interns

Elise Kerr and Holly Aylmore Hair and Makeup

Lydia Pankhurst and Laura Hyman using MAC Models

Andre Mckie and Coco Njie Illustration

Philip Dennis

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Live Music // Clubs // Comedy // Arts Autumn/Winter coming up...

For More Info www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/jam jonny woo

Jimmy Edgar

Jam The South Lanes, 9-12 Middle St, Brighton, BN1 1AL 01273 749465 www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/jam general enquiries jam@drinkinbrighton.co.uk Booking enquiries dave@drinkinbrighton.co.uk Press and PR enquiries fran@drinkinbrighton.co.uk Design

www.sarahferrari.com

3 Daft Monkeys Balkaneasca Brighton Live Club Chat Noir Club Tabou Craft Club Doctors Orders with Jehst Donky Pitch Drum Eyes Gabby Young & Other Animals I.O.U Comedy Jam Live Jimmy Edgar Jonny Woo’s Midnight Gay Bingo Life Drawing with Jake Spicer Melt Banana Mount Kimbie Mumford & Sons Over The Wall Oxjam Soundtracks Tall Ships Teeth The Hot Club of Belleville The Sound of Arrows The Stash The Wild Nothing Thursday Night Fish Fry TRUTH Well Rounded Zoe Lyons 53

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Filmmaking is by definition a continually evolving art form. In just over one hundreds years, film has gone from another mere novelty side show at fairs and circuses, to one of the biggest industries in the world, fusing art with business and developing technology, showcasing and changing perceptions of art, entertainment, education and information.

Film has continued man’s persistent desire (from cave paintings to youtube) to tell stories about where we have come from, where we are and where we are going. Film has not only depicted society and it’s changes over the last hundred years, but unlike any other art form (perhaps along with the rise of ‘pop’ music) film and cinema have been active in changing society and ingrained itself into the common psyche, the areas of dreams and desires to become an integral part of modern folklore. But it is not just the movies that have played a part in film becoming the institution it is, but how and where people watch these films is probably as important, culturally, as are the movies themselves.

ways for worse. For most people today, going to cinema means a trip to an anonymous soulless building in a shopping center paying a small fortune for warmed popcorn and a dilutedcarbonated-syrupy drink and enjoying the novelty of a beverage holder on your arm rest whilst watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster (now in 3D kids!). Is there anything wrong with this?

Well, no one’s getting physically hurt I suppose (I’m sure Odeon have an outstanding health and safety record!), but it seems that if films are capable of being remarkable and memorable and can invoke real emotion in the viewer, then surly the act of watching a film (including the place you watch it) should also play a part and why not a significant one?

The cinemas and venues where we watch these films and the act of going to them are an integral part how cinema and film have had such an impact on society.

Of course this trend of the corporate conglomerate take over of cinemas and making generic multiplex venues is in no way unique solely to cinema. The towns of the UK are swamped with the neon logos of Starbucks and Tesco Express cropping up several times on high streets nation wide.

There are a lot of people in our towns and

Where and how people watch movies has changed and evolved as much as the movies themselves, in some ways for better, in some

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they all ‘need’ ready meals and frappacinos quick and at their convenience. The same can be said for going to the movies. “The appeal (of the multiplex) is the knowledge of what they (the consumer) know. Like why go to a Starbucks when there is a nice indie coffee shop? Fear of the unknown.

Also multiplexes often open in places where people go like shopping centres”. Jon Barrenechea (General Manager of The Duke of York’s Picture House in Brighton).

Brighton is a good example of how cinema going has changed in this country. There have been over 20 cinemas in the last 100 years in Brighton. Cinemas such as ‘The Academy Theatre’, ‘The Astoria Theatre’, ‘Bijou Electric Empire’, ‘The Continentale Cinema’, ‘The Coronation Cinema’ and many more are long gone. Now only three remain. Two relatively new (opened in the late 1980’s) multiplexes (‘Odeon’ on Western Road and ‘Cineworld’ at the marina) and the ‘Duke of York’s’, 100 years old this year and is Britain’s oldest cinema.

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Issue 2 // 2010 Many of the older single screen cinemas that opened between the 1920’s and the 1950’s were closed down and turned into shops by the late 70’s. Even in a town like Brighton, now a city with high student and tourist numbers, the depredations of the 1960’s saw the loss of several large theatres complete with dramatic interiors and palatial settings with big screens. It wasn’t until the late 80’s and early 90’s that the multiplexes were built, a similar trend seen throughout the country, ‘in 1990, there were only 660 cinemas in the whole country (indies and big ones) and then the multiplexes started opening at a huge rate everywhere.’ (JB) The reasons for this are many and can be looked at through shifts in society, economy and culture.

Our habits as consumers and the constant tension between what the public want and the perception of what corporations think they want (or what they want you to want?!), are a main reason as to why the cinemas of today are how they are. Largely bland atrocious buildings showing generic Hollywood gloss on ninety percent of their numerous screens.

Of course multiplex cinemas are essential to cinema today and without them the cinema industry could have completely folded leaving cinema, and as a result, the films themselves in a dire state irreparable deflation.

More people going to the cinema, in whatever form, means more money going into making more movies, and say what you will about the current state of the standard of contemporary film, there are still great films being made all over the world to a consistently high level of ingenuity, intelligence and with an emotional core, continuing to push the limits of creative storytelling.

have been and therefore it stands to reason that people want a more memorable, unique and interesting way to watch them. There are significant demands for showing classics, genre, independent and niche movies as well as the latest Hollywood offerings. Along with a way of watching that invokes the audience and actively engages them with the process of viewing. Perhaps this is a reason for the increasing amount of illegally downloaded movies. Other than the obvious monetary incentive for viewing movies in this way, the reason for increasing illegal downloads and DVD sales (although as downloading rises DVD sales are showing a decline) is because people want a different experience from what cinema going has largely become.

“There’s no charm or personality in going to a multiplex, it’s purely a homogenised business transaction. You spend as little time in the lobby as possible and feel no connection to the people around you, or the company showing the film…a persons response to a movie is personal, it is unique and it is something that people like to share and talk about.” Efe Chakal (co founder of ‘The Auteurs’ a pay per view film website).

The success of legal sites such as ‘The Auteurs’ and the continuing trend in illegal downloads shows that people want a more personal and vivid experience of watching, something that today’s multiplexes largely fail to deliver, and are therefore relying on home entertainment as the main medium of watching films.

However, “There is nothing better than seeing a film with a packed house on a big screen and sharing that experience with someone.” Danny Perkins (Managing Director/COO, Optimum Releasing), and this is something that home media can never truly replicate, no matter how much plasma is in your ridiculously wide TV or how fully surrounding your surround sound is, it won’t be the same as a fulfilling big screen cinema experience.

There’s no charm or personality in going to a multiplex, it’s purely a homogenised business transaction.

There are, however, signs that audiences desire something more from film and the process by which they watch them. Films are as loved and cherished now as they ever

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Although independent cinemas are few and far between in this country, they are surviving and some are thriving. City Screen who run Picture House cinemas (19 cinemas nationwide including the Duke of York’s) and help programme other independent cinemas are showing that audiences do actively want, crave and enjoy a more personalized and social experience when going to the cinema. Part of the company’s ethos is to provide ‘architecturally interesting cinemas in city center locations’, ‘providing café-bars as integral to the cinema going experience’. They also book a variety of independent, art-house, foreign language and mainstream Hollywood movies. This mixture of titles is integral, the Duke of York’s for example screened more titles in one year than both Brighton’s Odeon and Cineworld multiplexes (housing 8 screens each) combined. A feat even more impressive seeing as the Duke’s has but the one single screen!

These are simple enough ideas, yet they are touches that have been ignored and left on the wayside by the corporate multiplexes and the cinemagoers have noticed and have reacted, by dwindling numbers at multiplex chains (only recently rising due to the 3D fad/phenomenon) and numbers at independent cinemas are slowly rising (but are still a small number in comparison).

Issue 2 // 2010 www.picturehouses.co.uk www.secretcinema.org www.theautuers.com

Words

Styling

Clothes

Illustration

Photography

Make Up

Models

Thanks to

Lighting

Hair

Toby King Sam Hiscox Sam Bond

Lotte Goodwin Rose Downing Simon Webster

The recent success of ideas such as ‘Secret Cinema’ where the audience sign up for tickets online for an unknown film in an unknown location (location revealed only days before and the film itself remains a mystery until the curtain goes up) are another sign that people want more from a cinema experience. By incorporating live entertainment and a high level of production design in unique locations such as abandoned buildings, night clubs, parks, railway arches etc, ‘Secret Cinema’ has proven to be a very popular, successful and original way of screening movies. The most recent ‘Secret Cinema’ event sold over 2000 tickets within ten minuets of going on sale. Ideas such as this and events like the summer screenings in London’s Somerset House prove that cinemagoers crave and enjoy memorable and original experiences of watching films en masse. The multiplexes may choose to continue to ignore this trend, and may therefore leave the audiences alienated and despondent, or they may continue to pack in the crowds, as long as we fear the unknown.

But for the more adventurous among us, it is comforting to know that is another option to fulfill our cinema-going needs.

To Be Worn Again Jerome Miller and Emily Hayler

Denis Carrier The Duke Of York’s Picture House

But the only way independent and unique cinemas will continue to flourish is if the audiences make the decision to go to them.

Jimmy Anderson has been working as a projectionist and technical guru at Brighton’s Duke of York’s for 30 years and has seen first hand the trends of cinema attendance.

‘Independent cinemas will have a place as long as they exist, it’s as simple as that. Once we let them disappear then they will be incorporated into the multiplexes, as has already happened in some cases’. And this is perhaps the key. It’s up to the people to choose about where to see their films and the experience they want from it. It is therefore essential that the independent cinema exhibition industry continue with their, so far, successful work, to make these cinemas and film watching experiences available and essential for the audience that is there for them. The promotion of the virtues of cinema as experienced in cinema’s such as the Duke of York’s needs to be widely promoted and the demands of a demanding fan base met and developed to build support by offering an experience of going to the movies that rises above the competition and extols the virtues of what the movies can show and the pleasures of the shared experience of this unique popular art form. _

It’s up to the people to choose about where to see their films and the experience they want from it.

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Issue 2 // 2010

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big hello to all aspring film-makers out there! The world is our oyster, right?

We’re young, bright and bursting with creativity… yet we can’t get anywhere.

So, the team set to work. ‘There is a mall across the street from the Burbank Ikea and we would all meet and rehearse in the food court. We’d run lines, plan blocking.’

It’s never been easy to break into the film industry. For every lowly production assistant (read: teaboy-gofer) position, there are hundreds of applicants; there’s never enough money, and now with the recession, we just can’t catch a break. But there’s a movement out there that says you can be inspired by the everyday situations around you and go and shoot a film in the streets for mere pennies.

‘I would liken the planning to a jewel heist or covert ops mission’, Spencer adds, ‘maybe not as high stakes, but we stressed the hell out over it.’

Brighton-based film maker Pedro Cardoso thinks the best thing an aspiring director can do is sign on to a film course: ‘They run all year and you get access to a lot of good gear, from Z1 cameras to lighting equipment and editing suits running Final Cut Pro – plus everyone is really helpful and will lend you equipment.’

I did the same thing with my friends when I was younger. Except we weren’t making films. We just used to wonder into MFI and pretend we were in ‘Neighbours’. Way cool.

The ‘Ikea Heights’ team couldn’t shoot for too long in the store, so ‘it was actually better to shoot when the store was at its busiest. The more customers, the more distracted the employees are, the longer we could get away with it…we just had to roll no matter what happened’; therefore, the key to their success was in the planning. Pedro agrees that ‘if you don’t know when and what you’re supposed to be doing it will quickly become chaos, and if you’re like me and not very organised I would get help from someone who is.’

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Sounds tricky. But here’s the good news for us skint, would-be directors: ‘It didn’t cost anything to make. No budget… besides time, sweat, and meatballs - nothing really.’ Similarly, Pedro claims his only expenditure is ‘petrol, food and maybe a couple of beers!’

After ‘Ikea Heights’ went online, David recalls ‘at first it was a slow reaction. It was somewhere around Episode 4 that the show

Words

Thomas Dearnley-Davison Illustration

Philip Hall

Do they think they have inspired people to do similar things? ‘I hope we inspired people to make things and use what they have available as sets’, David says. ‘Everyone spends too much time worrying about what will “sell.” Ikea Heights can’t sell…we can’t make any money off of it, and that’s what makes it interesting.’

“It didn’t cost anything to make. besides time, sweat, and meatballs nothing really”

“I would liken the planning to a jewel heist or covert ops mission”

It was in this spirit that Los Angeles-based David Seger and Spencer Strauss garnered inspiration from a most mundane situation: ‘We were shopping at Ikea and said “Look at all these displays, they look like sets - we should shoot something here.”’ Their concept was simple: let’s make a pastiche daytime soap opera, filmed entirely in Ikea stores. ‘If you’ve ever been on a film or TV set, you can’t help but notice that Ikea is almost the same thing. Those TV’s don’t work. There’s no running water. And most importantly – it’s just display after display that could work as a film set!’

caught on and everyone was talking about it online. At first it was just like any other video.

People said “Good job” and “That’s funny.”’

The team have now moved onto even bigger covert film-related ops: they have even remade ‘Footloose’, ‘…for free and for fun, in an attempt to undermine the Hollywood remake machine.’

Meanwhile, Pedro is running in and out of abandoned buildings, attempting to create authentic grit for his latest ventures: ‘Of course I wouldn’t condone such practices…always try and get permission first’, he says with a grin.

So you see, an aspiring film-maker can take matters into their own hands. The little guy can take on the ‘machine’ and win. David has the last word on what it meant to him: ‘I don’t remember regretting any of it…it made my private life better because I was creating something that was getting a reaction which made me happy and fulfilled.’ _ ‘Ikea Heights’ can be found at www.ikeaheights.com

Issue 2 // 2010

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Issue 2 // 2010

It is a damn shame that today’s top female movie stars are Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie and Reese Witherspoon.

They churn out bland rom-coms and brainless action movies and call themselves ‘modern empowered women’. No; they are dull, dull, dull. I long for the golden days of real empowered women on the screen. I long for the wicked women.

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onsider the body of work left behind by Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Getting the guy and settling down with a husband who would take care of them was not their primary concern: they schemed, connived, blackmailed, bitched, punched and murdered their way to the top – and let no-one stand in their way.

Tart-with-a-heart Joan Crawford danced the Charleston right off the screen and into the hearts of the nation. Crawford characters were often the ‘working girl’: she came from the wrong side of the tracks; she was tough, brittle, knew what she wanted, and knew how to get it. As she said in ‘The Damned Don’t Cry’, ‘In this life, you’ve gotta kick and punch and belt your way up – ‘cause no-one’s gonna give ya’ a lift’. In the midst of the great depression, these were hard words for hard times. Her fans responded in droves; if Joan could make it, so could they. As the saying at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer went, ‘Norma Shearer got the productions, Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both’. The bad girl made good box office.

By the time the second world war rolled around, Crawford had been dubbed ‘box office poison’ and Bette Davis was the new queen in town. With the men at war and the women left alone, Davis made a succession of films about sisterhood, noble suffering and sacrifice; all very well and good, but women also wanted to see their new found empowerment reflected on the screen.

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Yes, much more delicious were Davis’ super-bitch roles like ‘The Letter’ – the opening scene of which has Davis shooting her extra-marital lover six times in the back.

Her seventh squeeze of the trigger yields an empty barrel; her look of total composure and lack of any further shooting tells us everything we need to know about this cold, calculating woman. ‘In This Our Life’ sees Davis’ character, ambiguously named Stanley Timberlake, drunkenly running over a local child and framing her cook’s son for the crime. And in ‘The Little Foxes’, Davis’ mendacity drives her husband to keel over from a heart attack; as he slowly crawls up the stairs to fetch his heart pills, she sits, watching, unmoved – not before telling him ‘I hope you die. I hope you die soon. I’ll be waiting for you to die’.

Crawford and Davis had as many battles off screen as on: alcoholism, affairs and divorce plagued both women. They had to fight their studio heads to get decent roles, in a town run by men who didn’t like to be stood up to by women. As Davis said ‘An actor is something less than a man; an actress, more than a woman’.

More than a woman indeed. The battles these wicked women fought were often with each other. Davis mocked Crawford’s promiscuity (‘She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie’), and Crawford undermined Davis’ attempts to disappear into a character (‘She called it ‘Art’. Others

might call it camouflage – a cover up for the absence of beauty’). It was also rumoured that Crawford had a secret lesbian hankering for Davis. Good lord! When asked about this years later, Davis responded ‘How the hell do I know if Joan was a dyke? I never let her get that close to me!’

In today’s sanitised, toothless media world, could you imagine Aniston saying that about Jolie, whom she clearly despises? I think not. Why, girls next door simply don’t speak that way. No, these delicious characters have now sadly faded away. By the end of the 40’s, Crawford and Davis’ careers had faltered. Though there were bright spots for both in the years after, public tastes had changed; and now there are very few complex and diverse roles for movie actresses.

So back to Aniston, Jolie and Witherspoon.

It is said that the modern box-office is controlled by the whims of thirteen year old boys. But as Bette Davis said, ‘The public don’t know what they want until they see it’ – meaning we could bring about a resurgence in these types of films. In the mean time, the celluloid speaks for itself. We are still watching 80 year old films starring Davis and Crawford, and continue to be spellbound by them; I doubt we’ll be doing the same in 80 years with ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’.

Bette Davis’ tombstone reads ‘She did it the hard way’; here’s to the wicked women. _

Issue 2 // 2010

The battles these wicked women fought were often with each other.

Words

Thomas Dearnley-Davison Photography

Stephanie Coffey Gowns

Tramp Vintage Clothing Models

Charlotte Early and Miranda Foxx Illustration

Rory Walker

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62 It is perhaps fitting that Hopper’s acting career started as the traditional ‘studio system’ of Hollywood was being abandoned and becoming obsolete and redundant. ‘Teenagers’ began to appear, and the ‘youth’ market began to boom; the films of the old Hollywood were no longer making a connection to the all-important demographic audience and the emergence of a youth-based culture.

Dennis Hopper (as an actor) was by no means ‘one of the greats’, ‘a lot of the 150 films I’ve made are hopefully only seen in Fiji or Eastern Europe.

Maybe they shouldn’t even be shown there!’

(Dennis Hopper) however the roles he played and the movies he was in portray a specific and highly personal look at how characters and specifically the anti-hero developed within American filmmaking over 50 years.

‘I’ve made my living playing the bad guy, I wasn’t really offered any other parts’ (Dennis Hopper, in an interview at London’s ICA in 2008). But what is also significant about Hopper’s career is the context of his time in the world of film and indeed the entire art world that was integral to him and he was integral to it, as actor, director, artist and collector.

Throughout history stories have relied on a central character, a protagonist around which the action hinges. This character is traditionally male, and more often than not, in some ways flawed. From the myths of ancient Greece, through to Shakespeare, to Dickens, to the film noirs of the 1940’s and 50’s and to TV shows, such as The Sopranos and The Wire, the male character has come from an increasingly ambiguous moral centre; capable of acting out great heroics, yet also troubled and dangerous.

Dennis Hopper left this world earlier in the year and in his wake we are left with 50 years of iconic film performances from a man who was not only an actor, but also a director, photographer, artist and innovator.

Issue 2 // 2010

Issue 2 // 2010 Arguably the iconic ‘teen movie’ of the 50’s was to be Hopper’s jumping board in terms of his acting career, Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) saw Hopper land a modest role along side the iconic teen bad-boy, James Dean. However it would be nearly 15 years until the movies properly caught up with contemporary society in terms of youth and the ‘counter culture’ movement. Spearheading a new movement in American movies was Dennis Hopper with the film that opened the gateway for a new breed of cinema, Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969).

Directed by, co-written and co-starring Hopper, Easy Rider follows ‘Billy The Kid’ (Hopper) and ‘Captain America’ (Peter Fonda), two figures from the fallout of the counter culture movement as they ride their custom built Harleys across America with thousands of dollars from a coke deal stashed in their gas tanks. Accompanied by songs from Steppenwolf, The Band, Bob Dylan, The Byrds and coming across characters from the new ‘counter culture’ movement and also conflict from people from the older generation, Easy Rider hit the American movie scene like a revved up, supercharged beast that had been brewing up all the past decade.

American music and art had been pushing boundaries and blowing apart doors all through the 60s, now American film had caught up with long greasy hair and a Harley with a full tank.

Ford Coppola, 1983), the truly horrific and disturbing ‘Frank Booth’ in Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986), the comical but atrocious bus bomber ‘Howard Payne’ in Speed (Jan De Bont, 1994), to mastermind villain ‘Victor Drazen’ in TV phenomenon 24 (2002).

Hopper used these characters flaws to dramatic effect and he played them with relish, conviction and outlandishness, much like how he lived his life. He appeared in over 150 films so he could finance his other artistic aspirations of photography and painting (and his tastes for drugs and alcohol). Perhaps it is that he lived a life on his own terms whilst predominantly working in an industry that is surrounded by conformity and massproduced blandness (i.e. main stream Hollywood) that he was able to make his characters and perhaps himself engaging to audiences. He was also, however, capable of portraying the positive and admirable.

Take, for instance, the famous scene in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993) where he plays estranged father to Christian Slater who is on the run from the mafia. He heroically sacrifices himself so as not to betray his son, by using the mob boss’s (Christopher Walken) cultural history and his own racial prejudices against him, “Sicilians are descended from niggers!...now tell me, am I lying?” It is a near perfect scene, largely in part to the conciseness and genuineness of Hopper’s performance and his delivery of Quentin Tarantino’s original and acute dialogue.

“I’ve made my living playing the bad guy, I wasn’t really offered any other parts”

Hopper took ideas from the French ‘new wave’ cinematic movement and artist friends Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. These new fresh influences in filmic style and aesthetic, along with the use of ‘found’ music (Easy Rider claims to be the first film to use a compiled soundtrack of contemporary songs) gave Easy Rider its edge, appeal and artistic integrity. It was also the first American independent film to get major financing and distribution that led to it being able to reach a mass audience, and therefore its financial success.

But Hopper’s character, ‘Billy The Kid’ is no hero, in-fact he comes across as erratic, unpredictable, selfish, greedy, a drug fiend and a womanizer. It is fair to say that these characteristics would be trademarks of the rest of Hopper’s characters, from the crazy and bizarre photo journalist in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), the broken alcoholic father in Rumble Fish (Francis

No doubt there will continue to be actors that indulge and develop the bad guy persona, making villains and crazies on screen appeal and endear to a mass audience, and indeed audiences will always want to see bad guys on screen. But there will be no one quite like Dennis Hopper, whose iconic performances and charisma on and off screen will long be remembered.

Few other actors can lay claim to being at the forefront of American movies for 50 years, not only engaging with the industry (whilst also being prolific in other fields), but also being responsible for changing Hollywood and how the industry works and connects with audiences. His dark characters on screen and his rebel nature off screen showed Hollywood to no longer fear being bad. _

Words

Toby King Illustration

Denis Carrier

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Issue 2 // 2010

Maths has long been a pillar of respect in Western society; the purveyor of ‘truth’ and creator of fact, but as developments have shown that the dream of a unifying theory of everything is not possible, maths is increasingly seen as a creative practice. Katie McCallum has established a connection between art and maths in her prizewinning dissertation exploring the motivation behind the two fields.

In a society that places great emphasis on the sciences and often dismisses art as a functionless frivolity, could this partnership alter the level of importance we place on art?

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Before studying Sculpture at Brighton University, Katie studied maths and further maths at A level, where she became disenchanted by the inconsistencies in the subject. She explained that a lot of maths is based on an assumption that if something is true then a theorem can follow. This creates different branches of mathematics each pursuing different directions, allowing people to select rules depending on the practical applications.

For instance, according to Euclidean geometry and our experience of reality, parallel lines don’t meet; they keep going, forever the same distance apart, never converging or diverging. Or at least that is what we assume, without infinite space to test the hypothesis. In most situations it is useful to assume this is true, however Katie tells me of a situation where it is useful to assume the opposite:

Issue 2 // 2010 Words

Kathryn Evans Illustration

Matt Saunders

“If you look at Einstein’s relativistic space it becomes more useful to assume that perhaps they can converge and maybe space can curve in another dimension apart from our own. The point is not whether or not they do, it’s the fact that sometimes it is useful to assume they do and sometimes to assume they don’t and just to pick and choose which one is appropriate.”

This situation perfectly highlights the abstract nature of maths. It is not rooted in reality, it is a system that allows us to order and analyse the world in order to better understand it. But maths is one in a number of systems: science, philosophy, poetry and art being examples of others. No one system has any more claim to the ‘truth’ than any other, but it is easier to put our faith in those that can be tested. When it comes to illness we would rather trust medical science over folklore passed down through the generations.

It was once hoped that all the loose ends of maths could be tied up into a perfectly logical system, which would at least make sense unto itself. We now know this isn’t possible, which lies at the heart of Katie’s research: “Gödel changed the philosophy of maths. He proved that a formal axiomatic system, which is your most rigid defined system, will always be incomplete or inconsistent, obliterating the idea of your perfect, unified theory of everything. The blind faith people had that eventually, if you carry on looking, we will explain everything using maths, our most reduced and clear cut way of thinking, that’s just been destroyed.”

Both the artist and the mathematician are driven by the same impulse of intellectual exploration.

While maths will always have practical applications regardless of this discovery, the pursuit of the mathematician is deemed to be one of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, particularly in branches such as pure maths. When new theorems turn out to be useful it is almost a by-product of exploring the beauty of the relationships and patterns that exist within the number system.

Katie McCallum argues that this narrows the gap between art and maths, which on the surface seem vastly opposed.

She believes that both the artist and the mathematician are driven by the same impulse of intellectual exploration and uses a wonderful term to describe their shared purpose: mental gymnastics.

Maths has been accepted as a worthwhile pursuit since Pythagoras (571-496 B.C.) suggested the world could be explained through numbers. Now the subject has taken on a life of its own, progressing to a point of interest in itself. The pairing of art and maths gives the practice of art and the very act of mental gymnastics more credence, re-establishing it’s worth and function. Katie goes beyond this and states that art, like maths, also has practical by-products:

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Issue 2 // 2010 “It is completely accepted that you pursue maths just for its own sake and then it turns out to be useful, but the thing is art turns out to be useful all the time. For instance, exposing the kind of kitschy way our lives are now, like the way the Chinese takeaway down the road is constructed.

Artwork made in that image makes you ask why our lives look like this now? How is this benefitting us? The answers reveal a lot about our society and history.”

A successful artist can lead the viewer to socially relevant conclusions by removing things from life, either physically or by representation and presenting them in a way that brings these meanings to light. In this way art, as well as maths, can be read as notation telling the reader or viewer the route their mental gymnastics should take.

The notation then acts as a record of the creator’s train of thought, which can be re-traced in the mind of each person that comes upon it.

The similarities in both subjects’ notations lie in their use of symbols to tell the viewer what their intentions are, the difference being the strictness of orders given to the viewer.

Maths symbols mean very specific things: 2+3=5 can only have one meaning, whereas things taken from reality have a million and one different associations that an artist could be referring to, allowing for a personal interpretation.

Art, as well as maths, can be read as notation telling the reader or viewer the route their mental gymnastics should take.

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As with all intellectual exploration, art and maths are reductive ways of looking at the world. They isolate specific characteristics and then work from there to impose meaning. Maths abandons content and looks at relationships and patterns, which can then be generalised to other situations. Art selects pretty much whatever it wants! Whether it be sound, whole objects, colour, texture, time, dimension; these things are withdrawn and manipulated. Even in a photograph where no manipulation has taken place, there is a selection process that isolates a situation and allows the viewer to ponder a deeper meaning without the distractions of a fast paced world.

The definite rules of maths and the hazy ones in art, are great assets to each subject. They provide a language through which each practitioner can explore and communicate their subject. Katie talked about how these systems can assist each other: “Using logical analysis and rigid ways of thinking is useful for many things, but a looser approach is also beneficial.

Jonah Lehrer has written about revolutions in scientific thought being helped by a group of different people talking about a problem rather than a group of specialists in the same field. They don’t have the established technical language to talk about the problem and instead, must explain a concept using incomplete metaphors, which partially explain it and although slightly wrong, give room for different perspectives. New ideas come about just by not using a technical language, using something that isn’t so effective for communication.”

Issue 2 // 2010

The definite rules of maths and the hazy ones in art, are great assets to each subject.

Language and especially notation, have allowed for a long history in both subjects, acting as symptoms of the human condition to reduce and impose patterns and connections on the world. We search for meaning in a hope to dominate the world by understanding it, going beyond survival and becoming successful. Not to suggest that people step out of their front door with the purpose of dominating, but it is worth recognising that dominance is an outcome of thousands of years of human beings mindlessly advancing, as Katie has discovered: “The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski points out moments that changed the nature of mankind, like forward planning, which is the postponement of desire.

An important stage, when considering the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, is when people made tools sharper than they needed to be and about the same time started putting patterns onto things. As well as making something for a future purpose, you are making something for a purpose as yet unknown.

Having found this common motivation behind maths and art, Katie now wants to explore this further in a PhD, interviewing practitioners from both fields to better understand this human urge. Her research comes at an exciting time as people are beginning to see that a relationship between the arts and sciences could be a healthy development.

Jonah Lehrer suggested in his article “The Future of Science…Is Art?” that: “Every theoretical physics department should support an artist-in-residence,” whilst championing the philosophy of Karl Popper who said: “It is imperative that we give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, and our hopes; that all we can do is grope for truth even though it is beyond our reach.”

If we accept this and acknowledge that all attempts to comprehend the world are equally flawed in their incompleteness, it frees all areas of intellectual exploration to admire the beauty of their created systems of understanding. It allows us to return to the motivation behind it all, which ends up revealing more about human beings than the subjects we set out to study. _

“In some ways it’s like the pursuit of art, doing something without quite knowing how it’s going to be useful but doing it regardless. That is exactly how people approach the study of maths and science, not because you can build a nuclear bomb, you want to understand just for understanding’s sake.”

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Issue 2 // 2010

Having won the Saatchi New Sensations prize, artist Oliver Beer has brought his resonance project to a mesmerised international audience, leaving all manner of spaces, from sewers to the Pompidou Centre, ringing behind him.

The project works around the idea of finding a resonant frequency in a space causing it to fully reverberate, just as the shower booms with our morning chorus and a wine glass sings as we circle the rim. Oliver brings together groups of singers and composes music to tease out harmonies and awaken the most unsuspecting of architectural spaces.

This pursuit has driven him, not only to places that were designed to reverberate in an impressive manner like monasteries, but also to such obscure and unexpected harmonic gems as multi-storey car parks. In a monastery in Rome, he brought together a group of people to recite the Lord’s prayer, which was played back into the building repeatedly, with the space accentuating the resonant frequency increasingly each time, until

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“I tried to do a similar piece in a synagogue in York and it was going to go ahead but then they decided it was blasphemous to break down the word of God.” that was all that remained. From there the people sang harmonies around the sound, building to a powerfully resounding finale.

As with a lot of Oliver’s work you initially become aware of an unassuming beauty but leave pondering its ambiguous meaning. On the surface, the monastery piece seems to be a beautiful and spiritual celebration of the remarkable building and God’s residence there, but when the same technique is applied to a recital of the Scottish Parliament’s cultural policy, a more subversive interpretation of the technique becomes obvious, as Oliver explains: “When you turn it into a political text it seems to become about vandalising the words, but for me in some ways you could interpret the ones that use the Lord’s prayer, which is then broken down in exactly the same way, to be this dissolution of all the meaning and the fact that no matter what words you say the walls bounce back indiscriminately this perfect mathematical sequence of tones.”

Words

Kathryn Evans Photography

Oliver Beer

Illustration

Zoë Bryant

Issue 2 // 2010

Religious text and harmony have been willing partners for an extraordinarily long time and to dissolve the words into tone still seems in keeping with the spiritual roots of religion. Yet, political text, with its reputation for being a load of hot air, talking circles a actual problem, turns Oliver’s intervention into a mockery of this practice. This disrespectful interpretation is however shared by a strictly religious perspective: Oliver said: “I tried to do a similar piece in a synagogue in York and it was going to go ahead but then they decided it was blasphemous to break down the word of God.”

Whichever interpretation you take, one thing is for sure: Deep and Meaningful is outstandingly beautiful. From the singing, to the lighting of the perfectly circular sewer, to the flecks of dusk shimmering in the water collecting around their feet, it has been expertly crafted to blow you away.

The ambiguity surrounding Oliver’s work, including that outside of the resonance project, seems to take its cue from the concept of harmony: two distinctly separate elements combing to create an incredibly rich space in between. This undefined but intoxicating space stands between the physical, cultural and auditory elements of Oliver’s work, leaving the viewer free to ponder their connection, with an overall sense of the correctness of their union. _

“Even if you were being ironic and I don’t know quite if I was or not, it would still tear you up.”

This ambiguity of mockery or celebration is continued into the exhibition Deep and Meaningful at murmurArt, where I caught up with Oliver to discuss this dichotomy.

The centre piece, a film of the same title, saw seven male singers repeating the word ‘amen’ in formidable harmony standing in a Brighton sewer, donning some health and safety issued rubber gloves.

“It is basically a continuation of the digestive system, that’s where everything goes and they’re singing this word Amen which means let it be so in Hebrew. There is a duality of, is it a very unsubtle form of blasphemy, singing amen in a pipe full of effluent, or is it a celebration of this beautiful space and the beautiful mathematics and engineering of the space. Even if you were being ironic and I don’t know quite if I was or not, it would still tear you up, the perfection of this space and the fact that it exists, tunnels running beneath the streets, leading to chambers the size of churches.”

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Issue 2 // 2010

Of all the groups of people that have the capacity to infuriate me, those who openly attempt to inflict their self-imposed doctrines and dogmas on others score pretty highly.

Especially when these groups hide under the guise of representing the “only moral option�.

In this category you can neatly put all the usual suspects, Catholics, Muslims, scientologists, Tories, Fans of homeopathic medicine etc, but there are also a few other groups, which should not be forgotten.

Anarchists inflict their political opinions with an overwhelming arrogance and lack of research, (unless you include watching Zeitgeist three times a day as research) condemning all others as being either Nazis or deluded morons. Vegans are equally single-minded, often branding those who do not follow their strict way of life as sadists, and accusing normal vegetarians of gross hypocrisy.

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Issue 2 // 2010 Words

Dominic VonTrapp Illustration

Chris Wilder

Pagans mock Christianity loudly, before descending on fields in the countryside, performing rites and making offerings to Gods and Goddesses and anyone else that happens to be listening. They, like Superman, believe it’s a lot less ridiculous if you’re wearing a cape.

Of course my generalisations and assumptions are also bullshit. We all make them, however much we know they are wrong. As such, I am always thrilled to meet people who force me to confront my own, which was why it was so nice to talk to Anarchist, Vegan, Tranvestite, Pagan and “Metal-head” (and breathe!) Andrew O’Neil.

Andrew had forgotten about our interview when I rang, but was happy to talk to me anyway. “I must warn you, I’m in my pants” he announced early on. “Please don’t worry” I said, secretly quite glad we were doing a phone interview.

Andrew O’Neil is certainly a one-off. Also a transvestiteheavy metal fan, his social and political subscriptions read like a list of the things Middle America is hiding from its children. Like most die-hard heavy metal fans one might meet, he is incredibly polite and affable, and not nearly as stupid as the banal lyrics of his chosen genre would seen to suggest.

his social and political subscriptions read like a list of the things Middle America is hiding from its children.

I jump straight in with the big guns: “Do you consider yourself a militant vegan?” “Not at all” he counters, “Militancy is un-useful [sic]. We are fairly un-popular, and having met vegans that are absolute twats about it, I can see why. Having said that if confronted, the militancy comes out a bit” he grins.

What drove him to the choice of cutting out meat product I wonder, “I am a vegan purely on moral grounds” he says “I think it’s right, and I think it’s easy. I live in London round the corner from a vegan supermarket, it is no problem at all”

As such, he has played a lot of the places you might expect, picking up shows at Download Festival, The Torture Garden, and various fetish shows. How do they differ from shows in Camden? I wonder, does he throw in any gags about Burzum or Cannibal Corpse? “There are a few Burzum gags in the show” he laughs “But most of the time I play to pretty straight audiences.

The material is designed for everyone” I ask him what he prefers “I like performing to straight audiences. I talk to stag do’s and hen parties about homophobia, veganism and other topics they possibly aren’t used to discussing” So does he think his comedy is a form of activism?

“No, I couldn’t say that getting up and telling jokes is a form of activism” As someone who spent most of my teenage years in notentirely-masculine clothing and a thick layer of make-up, I was interested to ask about what motivated him to dress as a woman: “It isn’t rebellion” he said, just a little too quickly “I am a heterosexual man who enjoys dressing as a woman” But is it for stage? Or would he dress like a woman around the house? “Well at the moment I’m in my pants” he reminds me, I laugh, and let him drop it.

Along with his comedy, Andrew also organises Jack-TheRipper tours of Whitechapel, and plays in a band (with an ex-member of Creaming Jesus) I wonder if he ever feels like just staying in bed “Nah” he says quickly “Other comics say to me “It’s the hardest job in the world” to which my response is “Fuck off”” Maybe transvestite-metal-pagan-anarchist-vegans aren’t too bad after all. _

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Illustration

Jack London

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Sitting in the corner of a busy cafe sits a young boy with torn clothes and scruffy, tangled hair. He nervously approaches us, “Hi, are you....?

Oh good, I’m Johnny” he mutters. It seems odd that the young, hesitant man in front of me stands at the head of the resurgence of the British folk scene, hugely critically acclaimed, and referred to by The Times as the genre’s “Poster-boy” (Shudder).

Johnny Flynn is far more than a poster boy.

He is a modern troubadour. His songs are influenced by literature and poetry as much as traditional folk music. They are heavily narrative, both truth and fiction, featuring strong characters that are easy to identify with, all steeped heavily in English middleclass traditionalism.

In person he is noticeably shy and unassuming, not exactly self-deprecating, but certainly self-aware. He speaks infrequently, but when he does he is hesitant and considered, interspersing his often-reflective thoughts with stutters and hesitations that add to their charm.

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We begin talking about his reported love for Shakespeare “I do love Shakespeare” he says defiantly, “as a writer and a poet, he has an inherent sense of the mystical without being explicitly religious. There’s a lot of folklore. The way stories are important to people, that’s how the information gets passed around. That for me is kind of magical, that’s what songwriting is, little stories and tales, music should have that effect, not just entertainment, but feeling important. Importance comes from something you can’t quite pin down, he’s very good at somehow implying things, makes metaphors, there’s lots of good writers, but I really like him”

Issue 2 // 2010

Words

Dominic VonTrapp Illustration

Jack London

We discuss his acting career, and his appearance in ‘Twelfth Night’. “I love acting” he muses “I’d be really sad if I thought I wouldn’t get to do any more. I really miss it actually. Especially being in a theatre company.

It’s a different job to be saying someone else’s words, a different skill. It’s cathartic. It feels healthy to do both together, rather than just working on what I’m saying, and what I’ve done all the time, I’m working with other people’s work. What they’re saying” Hordes of female fans follow him around, helping to propagate his poster boy image, but when I ask him about it he is very obviously uncomfortable. “It’s a little strange” he says, shifting in his seat, “I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t feel it’s that prevalent. The response at gigs is one of real genuine response to the music” he adds, “It’s kind of silly, it doesn’t mean anything”

I wonder if he would ever attribute his freespirited ways to a particular ideology, “I associate myself with an ideology that says ideologies are really, really bad. My ideology is to live and let live, to be as compassionate as possible, and to expand your heart to include people you would not usually include” God he’s good.

Whereas on some people, these words could sound like rhetoric, he says them with such genuine emotion and feeling it is hard not to be sucked in. He continues, “Too often people’s thoughts and beliefs are imposed on others” But as a songwriter is that not hypocritical? “I write songs and play music, you could say that’s exerting my beliefs on others, but I withhold what the characters say, try to explain what happened, and let people’s reaction to the music be the emotional engagement they have with it rather than trying to make them feel something” he continues: “There’s two many people in the world. There’s too many people talking. Their thoughts are chasing after other people. I’d much rather people’s thoughts stayed in their heads”

As we continue it becomes unclear where the music, poetry and even the interview separate.

We move on to the success of ‘Brown Trout Blues’, and how it seemed to discuss the male identity and role. Does he feel it should be addressed? “That’s the only argument I ever have with my girlfriend” he laughs “when I feel like she’s trying to change me. Her mum listened to it once and said “That’s the one where you tell Bea not to change you isn’t it?”

I wonder what he makes of “Nu-folk” as a genre, and if he considers himself a part of it. “It’s nice to be part of something that’s alive and not dead” he says “I didn’t set out to be part of a wider group of people, but have found myself associated with other acts. It’s not too helpful to consider all acts as the same thing. It would be frustrating to feel you could do the “wrong” thing by the genre” However long “Nu-folk” lasts, both as a musician and as an individual Johnny Flynn is definitely unique. _

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Issue 2 // 2010 Words

Amy Lavelle

Photography

Milo Belgrove

Illustration

Laura Brown

“Do we watch Peep Show?

Of course we watch Peep Show!” Kip Berman announces to the packed crowd filling out the Concorde 2 in Brighton.

And they go nuts.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are the four Brooklyn geeks who banded together to make their shoe gaze indie pop and write songs of teenage (mainly) innocence, taking their name from a children’s story a friend wrote, the moral of which is “that the most important things in life aren’t worldly power, station or accomplishment, but the adventures you have with your friends when you’re young. It’s fitting.” Aw, isn’t that nice? It’s a sentiment somewhat typical of a band who refuse to let the overload of hype generated by their first album affect them; not even a little bit. In fact, they’re almost pathologically humble. “We’re not really one of those bands. I don’t think anyone would want to do fashion spreads with us. It would be cool if they did, though…”

Apparently this all spurns from living through awkward teen days. What were they like back then? “Lame. So nothing has really changed.”

And they watch Peep Show. How can you not already love them?

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“I used to work in an office with Alex. Though I did a lot of random stuff, my favourite part of it was that I was supposed to come up with cool bands I liked and offer them free tennis shoes for this sneaker company. So yeah, I sent Deerhunter tennis shoes, which isn’t the worst job to have. No one gets mad at you for wanting to give them free shoes-- there were even Vegan versions, so No Age was happy too.”

Forming to play some tunes at Peggy’s birthday party back in the day, Kip Berman, Kurt Feldman, Alex Naidus and Peggy Wang since quit their aforementioned day jobs to focus on making critics and cool kids alike hail them as the second coming of indie.

Their debut album is a touching nod to the pains and heartaches of being teenagers.

But being the oddball outsiders throughout their respective high school existences has its upsides, especially when it provides a source of inspiration for the band’s lyrical process.

“It’s usually just stuff that happens in my life.

I’m not all that creative.” Kip modestly informs me. Would it be safe to assume the image of hooking up in the library, as in ‘Young Adult Friction’ (“Between the stacks in the library/ Not like anyone stopped to see/ We came they went/ Our bodies spent/ Among the dust and the microfiche”) is somewhat autobiographical, then? “That song is less about that image of “nookin in the bookin” as

it is about two people who love each other, just not at the same time.”

Well what about some of your other songs; have you done all the things that wouldn’t make your parents proud? “That song concerned a friend of mine who was really talented and cool, but he had these bad friends who’d come over and they just did loads of drugs all night. It was kind of sad.”

Okay, so not to labour the point of how Brooklyn seems to be the focal point of the universe for musical talent and achingly hip indie bands at the moment (I promise I’ll try hard not to mention it next time) but come on, you can’t help but notice the parade of Brooklyners passing through at the moment, right? Seriously, do they put something in the water? “Fluoride, I think. We have nice teeth.” Whatever, it’s working. And judging by the acclaim the first album was released to, I’m sure I’m not the only one getting sweaty palmed about the promised second album that’s in the works. “We’re on tour a bunch, but I’m really excited to start recording our album later this summer. We’ve had a bunch of songs for a while, so it’ll be a lot of fun to make that happen.” (Yesss.)

Bu, most importantly, are you pure at heart, Kip? “Painfully so…” _

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I swear bands used to make their debut records more quickly. All it took was 24 hours in someone’s shed with nothing more than that heady mix of cheap cider and ambition to fuel that creative fire.

Well, not so for Los Angeles’ fourpiece, Warpaint. It has taken them a staggering six years to record their debut album.

You’ll be glad to hear though that The Fool’s bruised alt-country is a triumph; all post-punk groove and psychedelia shimmer. It still begs the question: what took them so long? I caught up with Warpaint’s singer and guitarist, Emily Kokal, to find out why.

“Nobody was super technical or over serious: we just wanted to do something creative and fun. So we all moved in together and started playing in our garage. And then, after a long while, we started playing shows,” Emily recollects.

“It was always a very slow process, but we kept going at it until about 2007 when we started getting more serious.”

It was during this formative period that friend and producer of 2008’s Exquisite Corpse EP, Jake Bercovici, let Warpaint in on a secret: If they wanted to become a truly great band then they’d need to play at least a hundred shows. Warpaint set about doing just that, performing night after night in Los Angeles. So how did such relentless gigging help the band develop? “All that time in LA was great,” Emily recalls. “Because you’re playing for the same people a lot, you have to bring a new flavour. As things evolve, you have that challenge of playing a new show…After a while, we had played so many shows in LA that we just had to move forward.”

It appears that these LA shows gave Warpaint the time and space necessary to explore the full depths of their sound and in turn develop a complete mastery of their music. But when it came to recording a full length album, the band didn’t want to rush things. With a number of

line-up changes, including four different drummers, it wasn’t until Stella Mozgawa joined on drums that the band felt ready to record an LP. “She comes with a ferocious energy and she brings that to a lot of the songs,” enthuses Emily. “They still have that ethereal, beautiful quality but it’s a little bit more full spectrum.”

The band’s tortoise and hare philosophy has clearly worked; The Fool’s sprawling compositions intricately combine elements of post-rock with the innovative country stylings of bands like Mojave Three.

Having immersed themselves in the Los Angeles music scene for so long, it’s hard to imagine that the city didn’t in some way influence The Fool’s sound. “LA is a lot of things to a lot of people…The geography and all those differences have been a huge learning experience for me coming from a place that is so different, like Oregon. LA has so much going on; you have to find your niche,” Emily explains. “It’s been an interesting backdrop: a lot about growing up in your twenties in Los Angeles and not trying to be somebody.”

But it seems that in terms of Warpaint’s creative output, LA has had little influence. Emily states, “For a while, people were always making associations because we lived in Los Angeles. I feel like LA has had a very small influence on how we write and play music. It’s very funny that we live in Los Angeles. Even though I love it and call it home, we really don’t embody that archetype.”

With an extensive European tour planned in October to coincide with the album’s release, Warpaint are finally making their move. For a band that like doing things at their own speed, there must be a feeling of trepidation as things gather pace. “We are all learning, especially as it gets more intense, that we need to take care of ourselves and stay healthy. The time we spend together on the road has actually been really great for our relationship,” Emily states. “I think it’s really important for all of us to be grateful. We’re doing something together as the four of us, creating something that people can enjoy. To be unified in that is a complete blessing, and makes this the greatest job in the world.” _

“It’s been an interesting backdrop: a lot about g r ow i n g up in your twenties in Los Angeles and not trying to be s o m e b o dy. ”

Words

Tom Spooner Illustration

Phil Dennis

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Issue 1 // May 2010

A lot of bands supposedly sound like Joy Division at the moment. White Lies , Editors and These New Puritans all get compared constantly, which is odd , because none of them sound remotely like Joy Division.

“Sounds like Joy Division” has very little to do with Joy Division and even less to do with music; it simply means “eighties-butnot-in-a-Madonna-way”.

A strange tag, given that Joy Division released their last album in 1979.

You may have gathered, this grinds on me a little, so when I heard that ‘O Children’ sounded like Joy Division, I knew they probably wouldn’t. And they don’t. Not remotely, not at all.

I asked singer Tobias what he thought of the comparison: “I don’t know where it came from really.” In terms of production O Children’s

Words

Dominic VonTrapp Photography

Daniel Regan Illustration

Tom Forman

music is reminiscent of Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, and Christian Death (With Rozz Williams) but in terms of song structure, they are far more conventional than all that. The band name comes from the Nick Cave song of the same name as Tobias explains, “We are all into totally different music, but it was this one song we all came together on.” Cave’s influence is clear in the subject matter of the songs: love, death, love, death, and repeat.

Every track on the album features discussion about guns, I wonder why: “Guns are badass.

I mean… not what they do, but singing about guns is cool. The whole point of this album was so I could raise enough money to buy an airgun,” he says, somewhat unconvincingly. “And you can quote me on that.” I assure him I will, wondering if Tobias’ interest in portraying himself as macabre outweighs his interest in being interviewed.

The first EP was written, produced and performed exclusively by Tobias, who after being asked to perform for record labels, threw a band together and put on a showcase.

We chat about remixes the band has done lately: surely no selfrespecting Goth band would consider such a thing? “I like doing remixes. I met this guy at Glastonbury, Professor Green?

Well I bumped into him and just said ‘Do a remix of one of our songs’ and he agreed. It’s really great to hear someone else’s spin on your record.”

O Children bare all the marks of a classic late 70’s post-punk outfit. Luckily for them, they also have enough disco, surf and rock and roll to be considered a viable modern act. They are trademarks of a new era in music: an era in which whatever your genre, if people get into what you are doing, you have a good chance of getting a deal and a following, so long as you have the material. And if you sound a bit like Joy Division, so much the better. _

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Words

Amy Lavelle

Illustration

Hair

Eleanor Wood

Yusuke Ukai

Photography

Make-up

Bartolomy

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Styling

Sarah Darling

Ken

It’s summer (or maybe it’s not but for the sake of this article just bear with me).

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Passing her off as just another stage school brat trading on her connections to make it big, however, may be doing her an injustice.

“I’ve always been quite independent from them. My mum’s a singer but she’s more musical theatre and obviously my grandma’s got the school but I never went to the school and I was always more into doing it on my own, so in that sense I haven’t really let anything affect me like that. I’ve always done my own thing.”

In the grand tradition of the English, you’ve optimistically made your way to the beach at a run at the first hint of a sunny day and are now lying oiled up on your towel, arms pinned to your sides (because every other Brit not currently in Spain or Greece is doing the exact same thing right next to you) jealously guarding those few prized precious feet of pebbled beach you’ve elbowed at least five other competitors off for.

Bruised yet victorious, all you need now is that trashy novel and summer play list to transport you away from the unsightly view of a pair of too small Speedos on too hairy a man lying inches from your face and that annoying kid dripping its ice cream on your leg. This year, Eliza Doolittle’s debut album may be just the ticket: her brand of sugary pop is about as summery as a 99 flake ice cream and lobster red sunburn. How nice.

“For this album I really went on a theme and it was a very summery sound and every time I went in a direction with the music it tended to be quite summery and that affected my thoughts and what I wanted to write about.”

Her own thing being almost obnoxiously infectiously happy retro pop that’s guaranteed to get stuck in your head for FOREVER. With her backing band, Doolittle trades in a jazzy style of 50s and 60s melodies, singing cheery tunes about life in London, boys and rollerblading and stuff...

“I sing less about love and stuff. I don’t really write about that or anything too personal, not because I don’t feel comfortable just maybe because I haven’t had enough experience? I don’t know. I think it’s better to write about just what I’m feeling or just my opinion on something.”

This has led to any number of Lilly Allen comparisons.

Aside, however, from the obvious similarities of them both being pretty brunettes living in London, spawned from famous parents, the reasons for the apparently inescapable comparisons are fairly inexplicable as the musical similarities between the two girls’ style are few. It’s not surprising, then, that it’s something Eliza is keen to avoid and move on from.

“I think it’s better to write about just what I’m feeling or just my opinion on something.”

Chances are, if you try and Google the 22 year old pop starlet you’re as likely to come across Pygmalion and Henry Higgins references as you are anything relating to the London born singer/ songwriter who changed her name from ‘Caird’ for a more sensational sounding choice. And yes, that is Caird as in director John Caird (her father) and, while we’re doing the famous family name dropping thing, her mother’s singer Frances Ruffelle and her grandmother’s none other than Sylvia Young, don’t you know.

“I think it’s because of my accent and just having the English/London accent because my music’s nothing like her music. Her music’s quite electronic and programmed and stuff and mine’s all real instruments. I’m kind of over it really. I keep hearing it really but I think it’s just because of my accent.”

Give her a go and decide for yourself. If you have the stomach for shamelessly cheery and breezy pop you may just find Eliza Doolittle leaves you with a smile on your face. _

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Issue 2 // 2010

A lazy LA drawl floats over a bad telephone line.

Meet Sky Ferreira, the 18 year old Lolita of the electro pop scene.

Words

Amy Lavelle

Illustration

Tom Forman

Here are some things you should know: she’s worked with everyone from Britney to Boodshy Avant, she’s drawing so many comparisons to an early Madonna and Courtney Love it’s becoming tired and she’s got a set of lungs on her that’ll make Christina green and made M.J. cry (he was a close family friend of her grandmother, you know how it is). So far, she’s handling the attention well. She’s probably had enough practice by now, being another of those actress/singer types who grew up in the lap of L.A. And now she’s leaving her background of classical training, opera and gospel singing behind and setting the hearts of old men everywhere (and I’d guess a few of the younger ones too) a flutter with her ‘French pop/ Dutch pop/ Chinese pop’.

All this she blithely shrugs off. “There’s always creepy old men in any situation if you’re a girl I think.”

Maybe so. ‘Course your chances of attracting them are greatly increased when you’re busy gaining a reputation as the hottest thing on Myspace and your lyrical repertoire mainly comprises tales of your alleged sexual experiences: “It’s a complicated blend of tenderness and aggression/ That’s what gets me off/ That is my obsession” (Sex Rules). The girl’s putting it out there. So are you as sexual as your lyrics suggest, Sky, or is this just your way of showing everyone you’re all grown up?

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“ There’s always creepy old men in any situation if you’re a girl I think. “

“I think, um.. I don’t know how to properly say this… I am but it doesn’t mean I do random acts of sex, you know?”

Do you have any sex rules? “No,” she laughs.

Then, of course, there are the other rumours, like that the barely turned 18 year old is a party girl bad ass. How about those rumours, Sky? “I go out and stuff but I don’t go out all the time…” We’ll ask again after the bad mug shot.

Come on, we’ve all heard the protests of legendary party girls before her, and it becomes even harder to swallow that old chestnut when listening to single ‘17’ (all set to become an Oceana hit and the anthem of underage girls everywhere) in which Sky vocalises the woes of angsty teens the world over: “Mom and dad/ They don’t seem to understand/ She’s got so many older friends/ They pick her up every Wednesday night.” Combine that with the video in which the poster child for ‘too fast, too young’ writhes in front of her mirror with lashings of lippy, just hitting that jail bait mark, and suddenly I want to confiscate her fake ID and take a face wipe sternly to her face. Still, as someone who would reputedly cut off the hair and break the teeth of anyone who would dare to be mean to her (“It was a joke” she languidly assures me) I’m pretty sure she can hold her own. The girl’s hard. “I dont know. Usually when people say they are [a bad ass] they arent.” Yeah, you know you are. Sky Ferreira’s got that nonchalant air of world weary teen down cold. Hell, attitude is pretty much a prerequisite of being the new It girl (keep trying Taylor Momsen). She’s the pop tart with an edge (she still signs off her blog posts with a heart though). Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of writing this young one off too fast: she’ll be the face of Rimmel in a month. If you do, chances are she’ll get you for it… _

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Issue 2 // 2010 as Hip-Hop eventually, given it’s growing popularity over the past twenty years? “Maybe” he says “Electro is often mixed with other genres to create something new, we mix it with pop mainly” The range of different genres that fall under the electro banner have indeed allowed it to traverse fashion and trends with ease and grace. Everything from Donna Summer to Grandmaster Flash, to Shit Robot to Fischerspooner, to, ahem, Alphabeat has at one point been described as electro.

One of the most popular business models in any industry is to exploit an existing successful business model by copying it almost exactly, then re-launching it. It might have a slant on the logo, a few variant ingredients, or a wild health claim accompanied by completely fabricated scientific research and berries found only in the jungle, but it’s basically the same thing.

Plagiarism of specifics will leave you open to a lawsuit, but plagiarism of style, flavour, feel and all the other immeasurables will leave you very wealthy indeed. “You cannot copyright attitude”, as some French philosopher may have said, if he hadn’t been drunk and on strike.

Every time some bright spark comes up with something new there are teams of people waiting to follow in his footsteps. As any racing driver will tell you, you can move much faster in the slipstream.

The Sex Pistols had Sham 69, and Amy Winehouse had Duffy.

Even Il Divo had G4. Rest assured, should you attempt to create, you will be followed by the sound of a thousand opportunists echoing your every thought.

Enter boy/girl 80’s electro-pop duo MAY68. It’s a bit like the 80’s. It’s electro. ish. It’s definitely pop. There’s a boy and a girl. It might just be Alphabeat, except that it definitely isn’t. While I’m sure MAY68 haven’t noticed this, Alphabeat have actually been hugely successful recently, with their three top 20 singles

selling in the region of 400,000, but it isn’t my job to speculate on people’s motives, not today anyway, so I stuck it on.

career-destroyingly bad albums I have ever heard. Unfortunately for MAY68, both these bands sunk without a trace.

I really liked it, which was infuriating, given the circumstances.

MAY68 are grittier than Alphabeat are, and while the similarities are innumerable, the differences are significant. They are darker, and the synths are far more aggressive. In these ways, they are similar to The Modern (pre-chart disqualification and subsequent shame spiral).

They have touches of the energy that Do Me Bad Things had, before they made one of the most

“The name came from the general strike in France in May 1968” said Matt from the band, with a certain pride.

“Would you consider yourselves political?”

I ask tentatively “Absolutely not” He replied, “That’s where the name came from, but we aren’t that sort of band” He’s right of course; sanctimonious pop bands are irritating and pointless. I ask him about electro in the wider sense; does he think the genre could become as established

They are darker , and the synths are far more aggressive.

MAY68 have joined a long list of bands in this vein and signed to Paris-label Kitsune, one-time home to The Drums, La Roux, The Klaxons and Metronomy, amongst masses of korg-strapped others; I asked him why the label carried such gravitas with the scene. “Kitsune were at the forefront of the scene when it broke in France six years ago, they’ve hosted so many great acts, they seem to have a real knack for getting it right” They do have an uncommonly high hit rate. Their compilation albums have become the stuff of legends, destroying the belief that label samplers are only for geeks and charity shops.

Does he see being part of a scene as a strength or a weakness?

“You get more publicity, which is a good thing” he ponders, “But there’s usually only one band of significance that breaks out of any given scene” Unfortunately for his sake, he’s quite possibly right. _

Words

Dominic VonTrapp Illustration

Maria Sagun photography

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Bartolomy

Issue 2 // 2010 Words

Dominic VonTrapp Photography

Milo Belgrove

Illustration

Zoë Bryant

Recording artists are not the only people to have suffered in the music industry lately.

Producers are fucked as well. Cheap, home recording equipment has got better and better, leaving many producers with an absence of bottom-end work. Falling CD sales have also meant the decline of the top end, as it is becoming harder and harder to recoup the hundreds of thousands of pounds majors would traditionally spend on a debut record.

I ask him if he thinks Graphic Design and Music have any parallels, “Graphic design has a lot in common with music. Textures, rhythm, the way you hear music is a good indicator of how you perceive visuals and graphics. Some people look for the main themes first, others look a little deeper, just like with music” Toro is not the only person to cross from Graphic Design to music, Chuck D from Public Enemy holds a Graphic Design degree from Adelphi University in Long Island.

I ask Chaz what brought him to Graphic Design in the first place “Creative people can turn their hand to different things. If you try to do something it can lead to something else.

If we needed a CD cover, I would just do it. I got into it through the music. After designing album sleeves, I needed to find out the proper name for it, and found out that it was Graphic Design, but it all came from music originally”

I ask him about touring, which he’s been doing all around the world for a long time now, he suddenly looks quite serious “I started touring last August. There are points on tour that I just want to go home and see my friends and family. People tell me, you should carry on, you will regret it, so I carry on. I’m touring now because my girlfriend is travelling.” Could he imagine a time when he gets fed up and quits? “Definitely” is the short answer.

Toro Y Moi have always made lots of their stuff available for free, I ask him why, “You cannot control downloading, I looked into it. You have to go with it. It’s understood now you won’t make money from CD sales, not unless you’re Top 40 or something” Even then.

I wonder what it’s like for a young kid from South Carolina to be name dropped by Kanye West, “Amazing!” he exclaims with a genuine enthusiasm “I rung my mum straight away and told her” There is something about Chaz that is not exactly naive, but certainly sweet and childlike, let’s hope after he’s toured he’s still able to take some of it home with him. _

Every cloud does however, have a silver lining.

The home studio has already given birth to a new kind of recording artist, one not hampered by studio budgets and time restraints.

Using cheap hardware synths and drum programming, Chillwave has emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes of the major labels.

Pioneering this new genre is Toro Y Moi, the project of Chazwick Bundick, who has recently been name-dropped by amongst others, Kanye West. We meet in a park opposite the venue he’s due to play that evening. “I gave myself the name Toro Y Moi when I was about fifteen on a long car journey” he says in a quiet South Carolina accent “I’ve stuck with it ever since” Despite still bearing all the marks of a typical American teenager, Chaz graduated from South Carolina University in Graphic Design a few years back, and is actually 24 years old.

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“I would like to be an astronaut. Although I found out recently a music B-tech doesn’t cut the mustard at space school.”

Words

Amy Lavelle

Illustration

Heather Webster

Maybe not. But if you’re Polly Scattergood, graduating from BRIT School will get you an eponymously titled debut album, with some surprisingly dark subject matter, ranging from the catchy at its finer moments (the chorus of ‘Please Don’t Touch’) to the cloying (the rest of the album). Moving from a breathy whisper to a quavering resonance, Scattergood makes a determined pass at presenting a mentally fragile and damaged exterior, crooning lyrics such as “pass me some pills” in ‘I Hate The Way’. Unfortunately though it falls short of edgy and is instead a slightly too try hard, staged attempt, with the overly self-conscious lyrics just a bit cringe. “You can spit on my French knickers/ You can call me a whore.”

No thanks, Polly, I just don’t quite believe it.

“As a creative person I can only write and express things in my music that I have actually felt, but that doesn’t mean every single line is entirely autobiographical.

I am a songwriter, a story teller; every emotion in my music is real but not every word is entirely autobiographical.” Someone should really get the girl some chocolate.

entirely appropriate name, Polly Scattergood strives to maintain an aura of quirkiness around her at all times, and in this she completely succeeds; her source of inspiration for song writing being a prime example. “When I am feeling uninspired I often find a change of scenery helps, so I tend to disappear for a few days. The last time I disappeared me and some friends went to stay in this enchanted forest. I find sleeping in new places often inspires me.”

See what I mean? Scattergood surrounds herself with her own brand of kookiness.

“I’m just me, I do what I do.” Her actual story however is firmly grounded in reality. Hailing from Essex and working her way through BRIT School working on a market stall in London, selling “tomatoes from the Isle of Wight: the best tomatoes in the whole world,” Scattergood famously claimed to have written over 800 songs by the time she had graduated, so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear the girl’s already got her game face on and is getting on with album number two. “I feel like I learned so much working on the first album, now I just want to build on everything I have learned and keep going. I am hoping the new album will be out in the first half of next year, and then I will be touring again I guess. I just hope everyone is as excited about it as me!”

“I find sleeping in new places often inspires me.”

Chin up though, it’s not all bad: the angst ridden album has garnered more than a girl’s fair share of Tori Amos and Kate Bush comparisons. Though maybe, in a few years time, these will be something she can live up to, in the meantime, after ten tracks of emotionally fraught melodies, I’m left wondering what ever happened to the classic stiff upper lip of the English reserve.

Looking and occasionally speaking like something that has just skipped out of Enid Blyton’s imagination, with her long blonde tresses and wide eyed gaze (“I read a review once that said I looked like a sickly Dickensian match girl”) to her unbelievably twee yet

With promised co-writes providing some outside influences, it will be interesting to see the direction this one takes, especially now she has worked herself up a reputation as the new kook on the scene. The air of idiosyncrasy probably conceals a sharp mind and genuine talent, it is just question of whether or not she will tap into it.

Final thought from Miss Scattergood?

“Last night at 2am I decided I wanted to live in a inflatable house.” _

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Issue 2 // 2010 They have seen more band members pass though than front man and only constant member Gedge has had girlfriends (there might be some correlation there, if rumours are to be believed) who is generally acknowledged to have written some of the most heart rending and candid songs of love and heartbreak to come out of the 80s and 90s. John Peel said it so it must be true.

He laughs, “I do actually!” (Score.)

It pretty much goes without saying that in the 25 years since The Wedding Present rose from the vestiges of the Lost Pandas, they have become a rock institution, playing a crucial role in shaping the path for indie bands following in their wake and doing it all their way, sticking two fingers up at any of the major record labels who came a courting’.

And now 2010 sees the 21st anniversary of ‘Bizarro’, home to their first top 40 hit ‘Kennedy’.

It’s only fitting that this date be honoured with a tour. And you can bet the crowds for this will be filling out with more than just older blokes making their way down for a pint with a side of nostalgia. Remembering the lyrics must be a bitch… Ever forgotten the words and relied on the crowd to help you out? “I have yeah. It’s not as infrequent as you might imagine. There are certain people I see in the crowd quite a lot and I know for a fact they know the words better than me so if I’m struggling I will look to see what they’re singing.”

and for the first time they actually said you can carry on working in exactly the same way you’ve been doing so far. To be honest I hate to big up major labels because by and large they’re terrible but RCA were perfect for us really.”

With Bizarro being lauded as a more profound and mature creation than ‘George Best’, RCA allowing them creative control, combined with the constant trample of band mates passing through, helped the band progress with every album release and allowed them to survive long past the average band’s shelf life.

“It’s almost like splitting up with a girlfriend or something.” Course, this has literally been the case for him at times. “It is difficult but on the other hand I think it has helped the group because I’ve always been very keen that the music evolves over the years and a really good way of doing that is new people coming in. I’m quite proud that every record we’ve made is kind of different from the one before it but then that’s a part of this revolving door line up.” What is it that’s made you stick with it all this time, instead of surrendering defeat, potentially launching a solo career somewhere down the line?

“It’s almost like splitting up with a girlfriend or something.”

Despite stubbornly refusing to be tempted by the offers of the major record labels, after four years of label dodging, ‘Bizarro’ was also The Wedding Present’s debut with RCA records. Why did you give in then, David? “There was this kind of pervading attitude, it was quite patronising when they were like ‘Well you’ve done quite well so far but make a few changes here and take our advice there and we could take you to another level’. They were offering quite a lot of money but I just thought there were more important things so it went on for years. Then we met people from RCA records

Words

Amy Lavelle

“It’s a question I have to ask myself because people say you must really enjoy it but I don’t really. I don’t enjoy it that much. Maybe I’m a little bit obsessed with it, really.

So retirement’s not an option then? “I can’t do it forever can I?” I shrug. We’ll give you another 25 years. _

Illustration

Hannah Forward

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Armed with a stage wardrobe of black and a record of ‘blissed out buzzsaw’, spawned from front woman Dee Dee’s bedroom, Dum Dum Girls aren’t your typical Californian girls.

Words

Amy Lavelle Illustration

Zara Holtom

A fully fledged girl gang, Dum Dum Girls were Dee Dee Penny’s vision for continuing with the tradition of girls doing it their way, in case you hadn’t got that from the feminist vibes channelled in their lyrics. “For me to learn about bands that were just all girls just doing their thing, it was really significant for me and it was a tradition which I was really interested in carrying on and just experiencing for myself.”

However, the band started life as the solo act of Dee Dee, formerly known as Kristen Gundred; if you’re going to make stake a claim as the latest advocate of grrrl power then a name change is the least you can do, especially if it’s all part of a stage persona adopted to overcoming crippling stage fright.(God knows how the woman managed to get past herself enough in the first place to move from the solitude of making songs from her room to get on stage.)

“I try to really put forward an attitude that is hard to not notice.

I’m not a wild person I’m not running around or gyrating or dancing like some people do. I’m really just not that good at guitar; I’m not really capable of moving around. I’ve been painfully shy my whole life. It’s kind of an attitude adjustment that I have to turn on. I think if ever I’m distracted during a show or the realisation of what I’m doing hits me or penetrates the attitude I’m trying to project that’s when things get scary.”

“I’m not running around or gyrating or dancing like some people do.”

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You’d think she’d need a band around her to take the pressure off right? But, after shuttling between other people’s creative visions, Dee Dee got bored of band life and took matters into her own hands, getting herself noticed as a lo-fi one woman show. “I had played in bands before and was really burnt on the whole thing. I had never had the type of control over the band that I was happy

with what I was doing, so for me it was just after being so frustrated with being in other people’s bands and having to basically compromise what I wanted to be doing I was like fuck a band: I’m going to write songs, I’m going to record them and I’m going to do every single part exactly how I would do it, not worrying about anyone else.”

The result of which was to become the band’s debut album ‘I Will Be’, produced by Dee Dee and Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, The Strangeloves etc): a collection of 60s girl group pop harmonies which have been roughed up with a garage punk edge, landing the band with a load of nagging similarities to the likes of Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts. (Yeah, yeah; I know it’s obvious comparison to make but even ignoring the shared sound and former drummer Frankie Rose, Dee Dee Penny/ Cassie Ramone? Kind of asking for it, girls). Anyway. “I’d written enough songs and I was now ready to do the band thing again, very much on my terms again which happened pretty naturally. I had the record done and I was like ‘OK. I need some amazing women to play with me and all they have to do really is learn the songs’. So that’s still where we are as a band now. This is still just the tail end of me doing my own thing and then bringing people into it to help me recreate it live.” Stick a picture of an ambiguous woman from the 70s on the cover (Dee Dee’s mum actually) in the grand tradition of Vampire Weekend, and you’ve got yourself a hit.

Right now still one woman’s vision, if the band are to take the traditional turn of collaboration, they could be capable of something greater. In the meantime, sure, they may be at times derivative but there’s no denying that they’re still a damn good listen on their (or rather Dee Dee’s) own terms. _

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Silje Nes OpTickS (Album OUT 13/09/10 on cD & Digital) OpTickS is the new full-length from Berlin-based Norwegian Silje Nes. it is record full of wonder and unfurls a series of increasingly accessible and catchy little songs.

Mice parade wHAT iT MeANS TO Be LeFT-HANDeD (Album OUT 27/09/10 on cD & Digital) The stunning new full-length from Mice parade, a giddy-paced, flickering, enveloping, soaring joy-ride through band leader Adam pierce's musical imagination.

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Maps & Atlases percH pATcHwOrk (Album OUT 4/10/10 on cD, Lp & Digital)

The Twilight Sad THe wrONG cAr (ep OUT 27/09/10 on 12" & Digital)

complex take on pop music, marking Fatcat's 100th album release. “percH pATcHwOrk" is mature, graceful, exciting and dynamic.

A new ep that leads with two brand new songs - “The wrong car" & “Throw Yourself in The water Again", and two remixes from Mogwai and errors.

“Maps & Atlases present a confident,

Hauschka FOreiGN LANDScApeS (Album OUT 25/10/10 on cD, Lp & Digital) Hauschka's striking third album for Fatcat's 130701 imprint sees the pianist / composer adding a 12-piece string and wind ensemble from San Francisco's Magik*Magik Orchestra to his prepared piano work.

Gregory and the Hawk LecHe (Album OUT 15/11/10 on cD & Digital) The new full length from New York's Meredith Godreau under her Gregory And The Hawk pen name demonstrates her peerless grasp of head-bobbing rhythms, ear-piquing hooks and eccentric, otherworldly noise snippets.

Be sure to check out the fat-cat.co.uk webstore for pre-orders, streaming previews and exclusive material

Issue 2 // 2010

Love the look of the mag!

The garments from in the fashion shoots are amaz ing!

T he Mag , k looks Slic and n al pro f e ssio shion ve ry fa forward

Really glad we got a mag lik e thi s that looks st rong! We ’ve bee n in nee d of something lik e thi s for age s. Hat s off to ya!

Spindle is gre at for br inging togethe r c re at ive s

Jean Luc Brouard & Stuart Grimwood

se e a free R eally rare to od qualit y mag wi th such go and fe at ures, writ ing ! Kee p up phot ography. Ace the good work.

I’ve been enjoying the new magazine, very good and a refreshing change from the listing style mag’s that are all over the place.

Keep up the good work.

photography

I would li ke to con gr a tula te yo on a w on d u erful laun ch pa rty a fabulous nd bran d iden tity - Spin looks reall dle y really ex citin g!

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