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— Subbacultcha quarterly music magazine Issue 08, Summer 2017 1
New Music for New People
Subbacultcha is an independent Amsterdambased platform devoted to new music. We unearth the best emerging artists and bring ‘em to alternative stages near you. We make this unruly magazine to let you in on all you need to know. Become a member for â‚Ź8 a month and always get into our weekly shows for free. Come hang out. subbacultcha.nl/join
— Farai shot by Vicky Grout in London, UK read more about Farai on p. 26 05
Richard Serra Drawings 2015 - 2017 Richard Serra, Rotterdam Horizontal #5, 2016, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam, 2017
24.06 – 24.09.2017 boijmans.nl
Mede mogelijk gemaakt door:
Issue 08
Dear reader, Summertime is a time to get back out there – get that new project rolling, push those boundaries, fall in love again. For our Summer Issue, we spoke to some of the most exciting and genuine upcoming acts about the bustle and battles of life in the city and the need to escape. This issue has range, covering all-time faves and obscure first choices in the making. Meet our new local hero of dreamy teen tunes, LO-FI LE-VI and ready your ears for the battle cries of London-based duo Farai. We couldn’t resist another catch up with treasured Jane Penny from TOPS, we dive into the symbolism of the sea with Manchester lads Ménage à Trois and try catch a glimpse of new enigmatic production duo Lifestyle. Just in time for a season of shows and releases. We’ve got it all, just for you. See you at our shows!
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Contents
For your consideration
TOPS
13
Interview by Zofia Ciechowska Photos by Vinna Laudico
Sporting Life
40
Interview by Deva Rao Photos by Ryan Loewy
Lifestyle
20
Interview by Roxy Merrell Photos by Laurence von Thomas
Krista Papista
48
Interview by Moira Garee Photos by Rosaline Shahnavaz
Little Bubble
22
by Carly Blair 55
LO-FI LE-VI Interview by Maija Jussila Photos by Nick van Tiem
Whereistheprotestmusic.tumblr.com
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57
Farai
Meanwhile at our Shows
Interview by Layla Mahmood Photos by Vicky Grout
Click Click Club
26 Ménage à Trois Interview by Jack Dolan Photos by Nicole Dyson 34
08
by Jo Kalinowska
58 Meanwhile at Skatecafé 60 Upcoming shows 63
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-Portrait, 1980 Š Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
kijk voor alle activiteiten op www.kunsthal.nl
museumkaart geldig
Colophon
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Subbacultcha quarterly music magazine Issue 08, Summer 2017 Front cover: Farai shot by Vicky Grout in London, UK Editors in chief: Leon Caren and Bas Morsch
— Subbacultcha quarterly music magazine Issue 08, Summer 2017
Editor: Roxy Merrell
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Art director: Tjade Bouma Copy editor: Brittany McGillivray Advertising and partnerships: Loes Verputten (loes@subbacultcha.nl) Contributing writers: Carly Blair Zofia Ciechowska Jack Dolan Moira Garee Maija Jussila Jo Kalinowska Layla Mahmood Roxy Merrell Deva Rao Contributing photographers: Françoise Bolechowski Nicole Dyson Vicky Grout Vinna Laudico Ryan Loewy Rosaline Shahnavaz Laurence von Thomas Nick van Tiem Contributing illustrator: Eva Mooiman Printer: Drukkerij GEWADRUPO Arendonk, Belgium Distribution: Patrick van der Klugt (patrick@subbacultcha.nl)
Subbacultcha Team Programming: Robert Lalkens Production: Yacine N’diaye Online editor: Maija Jussila Finance: Anne-Nynke Knol Interns: Thierno Deme, Karam Wazir, Yoeri Wegman Thank you: Esther Alisson, Jacques-Henri Almond, Sera Akyazıcı, Francesca Barban, Matthew Barlow, Adrienne van den Berg, Ida Blom, Basje Boer, Alette Boogman, Fije van Bruggen, Nicholas Burman, Lee Canham, Adam Chang, Alex Christodoulou, Isabelle Cotton, Tessa Dekeukeleire, Kelvin Dijk, Elizaveta Federmesser, FotoLabKiekie, Margot Gabel, Sharon Garzón, Irene de Gelder, Maya Goodwill, Wallis Grant, Martine Haanschoten, Faith Hardman, Camilla Heat, Annemijn von Holtz, Karolina Howorko, Michelle Jansse, Leah Heaton-Jones, Stewart Kelly, Lotte Koster, Hector Garcia Martin, Maxi Meissner, Anna Mynte, Bernice Nauta, Phyllis Noster, Callum McLean, Laura Vargas Mora, Lisa Poelen, Aisling O’Rourke, Egle Salominaite, Randy Schoemaker, Emma Schouwenaar, Sara Serrao, Kaitlyn Smeeth, Monika Simon, Sarah Stone, Antonio Talarico, Aglaya Tomasi, Romee Ven, Vicky Visser, Colin Vlaar, Ana Vojvodic, Kaitlyn Woodhouse, Claudio Zaia Subbacultcha office Dr. Jan van Breemenstraat 3 1056 AB Amsterdam Netherlands Contact: editorial@subbacultcha.nl © photographers, artists, authors, Subbacultcha quarterly magazine, Amsterdam, June 2017
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Subbacultcha magazine
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Recent finds from our editorial team
Music
Cosmo Pyke
Cool right off the bat, Cosmo Pyke is this kid’s actual name. Cosmo’s an 18 year old skater, model and multi-instrumentalist from Peckham whose warm lo-fi tracks are spacey-hazy, summertimevibing tributes to beautiful moments in everyday life in East London. soundcloud.com/cosmopyke
Magazine
Anxy Magazine Anxy is a stunning magazine about our inner worlds. The recently Kickstarter-launched publication delves into the personal struggles we often refuse to share, in an attempt to reveal the gorgeous intricacies that make us falsely believe that the rest of the world is normal and we’re not. Echoing their rallying cry, we ask: ‘We are Anxy. Aren’t you?’ anxymag.com
Exhibition
Robert Mapplethorpe
Radio
Radio Ghibli mixed by Sega Bodega Studio Ghibli fans look no further, NTS presents 3 shows covering 30 years of mesmerizing Studio Ghibli soundtracks. Sega Bodega transports you deep into the world of the infamous Japanese anime mind that is Hayao Miyazaki (who recently came back out of retirement for Boro the Caterpillar, a film that’s been 20 years in the making). Lose yourself through sheer cinematic brilliance, perfect for those long train journeys.
An icon in capturing icons. Known for his highly stylized and controversial photography, Robert Mapplethorpe famously documented artistic greats – the likes of Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry – and New York’s then-thriving underground S&M scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Don’t miss your chance to get all stirred up at the retrospective exhibiting as we speak (until 27 August) at Kunsthal Rotterdam.
nts.live/shows/radio-ghibli
kunsthal.nl
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Subbacultcha magazine
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Recent finds from our editorial team
Illustrator
Podcast
Aleksandra Waliszewska
S-Town So if you haven’t heard of S-Town by now, you were probably hiding in a cave without internet and/or human contact. And if this is the case, then let us enlighten you: S-Town is a new stunning podcast by the investigative journalism team behind Serial and This American Life. Need we say more? Download for free at stownpodcast.org
The paintings of Polish artist Aleksandra Waliszewska may be nightmarish and dreadful, but they all seem to grasp the disturbing beauty of pain and suffering. To own Waliszewska’s work, pick up hand-bound volumes of Problem and Solution (sold together). You can buy them from Amsterdam-based, independent bookstore Boycott Books. Free delivery in Amsterdam.
Music
Smerz
boycottbooks.com/aleksandrawaliszewska
Stand-up Comedy
Tig Notaro Tig Notaro has been making some amazing standup comedy for years now, but we only just caught on after binge-watching her Amazon series One Mississippi. Tig knows how to balance dark comedy and quality drama in a way that’s endearing and disarming, ready to punch you in the face with reality just when you’re about to let your guard down.
Just one listen was enough to get us hooked on Norwegian duo Smerz. The Copenhagen-based female producers make a seductive brand of deconstructed pop that is absolutely infectious. Soaring, layered vocals are paired with dreamy reverb and clean-cut production. With only a handful of tracks out, Smerz has got us and all their feverish followers wanting more. soundcloud.com/smerzno
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graduation 5, gerrit
6,
2017
show 7, rietveld
8,
9
july
academie
rietveldacademie.nl
Subbacultcha magazine
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Recent finds from our editorial team
Hang-out
FC Hyena
himself, a docu...wait, must-be mockumentary, in which music biz pros like Mac DeMarco, Jack Black and Weyes Blood talk us through Callinan’s alleged rise to stardom and fall from grace. Ace television + even better tunes. On the YouTube channel: KirinJCallinanVEVO
Music The rest of the city may have caught on to American Noord’s allure, but it’s still a weird and wonderful place. Last month, we took the ferry to IJ plein. From the madness of central station, you can be in a quiet residential neighbourhood (bordered by industrial warehouses-cum-cultural centres) only moments later. We made our way to FC Hyena (a restaurant, movie theatre and venue), where we had an amazing dinner, while a band played loud psychedelic rock music to the crowd of young filmmakers showing their work at the Amehoela Film Festival. Only in Amsterdam, right? fchyena.nl
Art Feynman
If you’re like, ‘man I need to discover some new groovy, exuberant dance music that’s gonna kick-start my summer season big time’, we’ve got just the thing. Listen to Art Feynman’s new single ‘Feeling Good About Feeling Good’, a psychedelic jam made without any loops or drum machines. We’ve had it on repeat in the office and it’s got us all pumped up for things to come.
Mockumentary
Kirin J Callinan Off The Record
I Love Dick
It’s been a minute since we heard anything from Sydney’s divisive indie slacker pop (anti-)hero Kirin J Callinan. Persistent in his strong aesthetic, Callinan figured his upcoming second album, out 9 June, needed an adequate prelude. Recommending Off The Record on the Aussie man
We were already obsessing over Jill Soloway after watching all three seasons of Transparent, but now that she’s released her new drama series I Love Dick it’s really becoming a thing. Get ready for another gripping tale of sex, art, gender and feminism.
Series
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Subbacultcha magazine
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Recent finds from our editorial team
Book
Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen When celebrity culture expands to the White House, you know it’s time to start taking gossip seriously. Movie stars and pop icons represent much more than just the work they do, and no one is more aware of it than Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed writer and fulltime gossip philosopher. She muses on breakups and writeups, sharing both her own and other’s think pieces, always with a feminist take. Her latest book, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, is about female icons of pop culture of today that we love to hate.
All the way from Adelaide, Australia, the biannual KRASS journal is an absolute statement piece – the very latest KRASS 03’s metallic cover demands awe and attention. Editors Sanja Grozdanic and Tess Martin dedicate their magazine of many conversations and outrageously distinctive design to curiosity and battling apathy. Perfectly summed up by their brand of ‘independent, ambitious, gracefully impolite’, it’s a big purchase, but absolutely worth it. Grab a copy at Europe’s only distributor – our all-time fave Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum. krass.com.au
Music
Shygirl MSRYNVR
facebook.com/celebritygossipacademicstyle
Magazine
Krass Journal
Our favourite lyricist returns with another powerful club collaboration with producer Sega Bodega. Shygirl layers punchy eastern percussion with her heavy narrating vocals to channel a new progressive take on dance music. soundcloud.com/shygirl_93
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Subbacultcha magazine
NEW MUSIC introducing you to fresh artists we admire
Interview by Deva Rao Photos shot by Ryan Loewy in New York City, USA
Sporting Life
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Sporting Life lives up to his (assumed) name. He peppers his speech with basketball analogies – ‘I make music every day to get better… gotta get my jump shot up, you know?’, he has a basketball-centred music video, and he has an EP series titled Slam Dunk. But far from limiting him creatively, his athletic art persona seems a continuous source of inspiration and conceptual versatility, one that’s served him well on both his solo releases and his production work in much-lauded NYC rap group Ratking. His music fleshes out a swaggering, lithe hip-hop backbone with court-hardened grit and a smattering of more idiosyncratic musical drawing points extending his sonic palette far beyond the checklist of the forum-dwelling mouthbreathers dictating the do’s and don’ts of ‘real rap’.
Sporting Life
‘Just because Eminem went three times platinum, doesn’t mean Chief Keef can’t exist.’ If you had to pick an all-star basketball lineup consisting of people you’ve collaborated with, who’d make the starting five? I gotta go with Actress, Panda Bear, Logan from Teengirl Fantasy… Wiki, even though he’s small, his energy is big enough to play centre. And Earl Sweatshirt. And me. We gotta play with six. We’ll allow it.
Have you met any of those guys?
For real. Anything else you want to get off your chest here?
Nah. But I saw 2 Chainz at a festival once, flying a drone.
I’m gonna fight to keep everything as vague as possible.
That’s very 2 Chainz.
It’s gonna be a struggle.
It is. I slept on him for too long, man. He’s like top three rappers right now.
It’s a game, you know what I mean?
Damn, high praise! Hell yeah! Dude has no wack verses, he’s ill. He’s a blend of what rap used to be and what it is now. He can be silly to the point of genius. I feel like he’s misunderstood. Yeah, you can’t tell the person who created something how it’s supposed to be done. The culture determines that, not any one person. Most of the people building rules on what should or shouldn’t be done aren’t rapping, making music or having any type of
soundcloud.com/asportinglife
Actually no, I fucked up. I gotta go me, Future, 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane, Playboi Carti.
impact on the culture. It ain’t about being the most lyrical miracle, you know? Just because Eminem went three times platinum, doesn’t mean Chief Keef can’t exist.
Totally. You obviously love sports, and you seem in shape, judging by your videos, which I’ve studied extensively. What’s your workout like? I don’t necessarily have particular methods I follow, but I like to do calisthenics and pushups, and I play basketball pretty often. Nothing too strenuous. I need to step my game up. The body’s really all you have. Supposedly.
— Sporting Life’s Slam Dunk dropped on vinyl via R&S Records this January
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Subbacultcha magazine
NEW MUSIC introducing you to fresh artists we admire
Interview by Moira Garee Photos shot by Rosaline Shahnavaz in London, UK
Krista Papista
The Greek/Cypriot/Australian artist Krista Papista fuses the illusion of dreaming while half-awake. Each song is treated with dimension and poetic allusions that create an electropunk, cinematic effect. As a studied performance and digital media artist, Papista’s life and work reflect her evolving artistic spirit and influences including Kraftwerk, Kubrick and Bikini Kill. Her most recent video for ‘AMAN AMAN’ is created in light of her personal experiences with inconsistencies of far-right Cyprus nationalists. Krista Papista’s work is empowering and supports the reclamation of the femme in all of us. Conversing with her was familiar and informative, and makes you want to delve into her world even further. 22
Krista Papista
‘It’s like, this is 2017. I can’t believe women are still being censored.’ Do any of your early memories of living in Cyprus come to life in your work? When I wrote ‘Modern Girlhood’ I was thinking about how I grew up on the beach. All the boys would be topless and all the girls would have to wear these awkward, sticky bikinis. If you took it off, that was considered kinda slutty, and guys would come up to you to try and chat you up… ‘Modern Girlhood’ is very much about that.
It’s natural, but a bit exhausting talking about it. All the time, I keep getting my account blocked for like three days because some misogynist person reported the picture. And it’s like, this is 2017. I can’t believe women are still being censored. Have you always taken a stance against this kinda thing? It comes natural to me. That’s why I describe my work as ‘sordid pop’, because what I notice is always ‘kinda conservative’ people get a bit insulted or upset with my work. I’m enjoying when people get pissed off and leave shit comments. And they’re blogging about it on Greek websites saying ‘Shame! This artist did this!’ [Laughs]
Greeks have this pride… but please, tell me what do you have to do with the history of your country? Why are you so proud? You have nothing to do with the origins of democracy, the ancient theatre, philosophy. This sense of pride has been going on for ages, I think it has definitely undermined the evolution of the modern Greeks.
krista-papista.bandcamp.com
The toplessness images you have are liberating.
politics as I grew up. The far-right wing kids would be obsessed with the idea of Cypriots uniting with the Greeks. And then you would get actual Greek kids in school, and no one would talk to them. The Cypriot kids would stick with the Cypriots. It was just ridiculous. The way they embodied this sense of pretentious nationalism and identity.
I don’t want to take any political stance, or pretend that I have a passion for politics. I just want to expose the errors in the Greeks and Greek Cypriots’ prideful, nationalistic judgement.
Can you talk more about growing up in Cyprus? Basically, it was very political and nationalistic. Half of Cyprus is occupied by the Turks. Everyone was super into
— Krista Papista’s AMAN AMAN was self-released in March.
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Subbacultcha magazine
NEW MUSIC introducing you to fresh artists we admire
Interview by Maija Jussila Photos shot by Nick van Tiem in Alkmaar, NL
LO-FI LE-VI
Up in North Holland, something’s been brewing in the district of Alkmaar. The comfort of LO-FI LE-VI’s voice and soothing jams lay down a perfect backdrop for daydreams, and while his musical output falls right under the category of extreme chill, reactions to his productions are quick on the draw. It seems LO-FI LE-VI is reaching the listeners he deserves, shining some much-deserved recognition his way. Take the example of his ‘Reflexion/Sorry’ release, hoarding tens of thousands of views on Youtube (79,246, to be exact) and piling up with listeners’ comments of approval below. Is it the charm of a young guy with high aspirations, a sedative output of R&B and pop, and like his name suggests, lo-fi productions all the way? You be the judge of that. 24
LO-FI LE-VI
‘I always thought that everybody wanted to be a musician.’
How’s it going? It’s going great! I just got my amp fixed and played my first show for a big crowd at Kingston Crown, Amsterdam. That was really sick. Where are you at the moment? I’m in my room. I live with my parents and my cat; my older brother moved out last year.
a trampoline in my room, too. What got you into music?
An organized mess. Clothing, shoes and music gear everywhere. Posters of some of my favorite musicians on the walls. Blue and yellow floor. What’s your room’s best feature?
My dad is a musician, my grandparents and my uncle too. I always knew I wanted to be a musician. I always thought that everybody wanted to be a musician. What’s your greatest achievement so far?
My bed... Or my guitar... Or the glow-inthe-dark stars on the ceiling, haha!
Getting recognition from my idol, twice.
How old are you?
Any achievements you wish to have?
I’m 19 years old.
I don’t know. For now, little things like taking a photo with a fan.
soundcloud.com/lofilevi
Paint me an image of your room.
Does age matter? Lay out your future goals for me. Yes. Because you grow when you get older. I do at least. Who do you idolize? Tyler, The Creator. Because he’s the coolest person ever. He just does what he wants and makes a living out of it. He has a house with a tennis court and a swimming pool because he makes music and clothes and videos and other art. He has a trampoline in his room... I want
I want to make a living out of doing the things I love. Make more songs, design more artwork, design merch, put out some albums, work on videos, work with my idols. Anything! If I’m into milking cows in 5 years, I want to buy a farm or something.
— LO-FI LE-VI plays our magazine release party at Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam on 2 June
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Interview
Farai on black diaspora, breaking stereotypes and the London squat scene
Farai Interview by Layla Mahmood Photos shot by Vicky Grout in London, UK
I am alarmingly close to the amp when London-based singer Farai belts out her famous ‘battle cry’ during a rehearsal at the Music Complex in Deptford, South London. Producer Tone gets deep into his synth magic, as if he is performing sorcery 26
rather than music. ‘Wait,’ Farai interjects. ‘Is this working?’ And ‘how should I end this?’ Tone assuredly responds with: ‘just vibe it. You don’t even have to sing. Go in and touch the crowd. Be Jim Morrison. Be a rock star baby.’
Farai
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Interview
Farai and Tone form the new London-based duo from NON records. The dynamic between them is pure and boundless in its exploration of creativity and musical freedom. Farai, originally from Zimbabwe and Tone (moniker for Basil) is British born with Guyanese and Welsh roots. They are both consciously aware of their origins and place in the black diaspora, without fully defining themselves in relation to it. Notable, considering NON records is an art and music collective with strong political motives, aiming to break down barriers for people of colour in artistic production. Their standout song ‘Lion Warrior’ synthesizes the ideologies of NON with their own creative vision, representing a complex portrait of contemporary black identity. Over this theme, Tone’s new wave sound28
‘Really our music is about battles in London.’ ing synths peak, enabling a cathartic release from youthful angst. Farai’s lyrics powerfully repeat: ‘I’m a warrior, I’m a warrior. But even lions cry too,’ expressing strength as well as vulnerability. The music video, directed by renowned Akinola Davies Jr, lends itself to interpretation, but the sense of a deeper message concerning race is clear. The video opens in an internet cafe with Farai dressed as a religious black Madonna figure sandwiched amidst an array of famous British artists of colour presently on the scene. Images of the marketplace hustle are represented, portraying people of colour selling various goods (fruit, perfume, cigarettes).
Farai
According to Farai and Tone, the video is meant to celebrate and explore this notion of black industriousness, visually contrasting a traditional form of entrepreneurship – the marketplace – with the new market of the internet for people of colour.
lective she was apart of called ‘The Shopfloor Sessions.’ The collective performed in various squats in South London, doing roughly 250 gigs.
I ask Farai and Tone if they prescribe to any particular genre or influence with their music, but they both assure me that the production process is organic. Tone elaborates, ‘we just want it to be powerful and want the music to reflect the lyrics. I try to make the mood right for the songs, reacting to Farai’s words.’ She adds: ‘I am more the writing aspect and Tone does the production side. Then we just infuse everything together and magic is made.’ They have been compared to Joy Division and the genre of post-punk, though this is apparently coincidental or unconscious.
‘I feel like Grime artists are really opening up a lot of doors for the underground and underdog artists in London, but also all around the world. It’s a genre that’s spreading globally.’
Tone confesses later, more seriously, ‘but really our music is about battles in London.’ A statement that becomes more pertinent as the conversation deepens and Farai confidently opens up about her struggle with Bipolar type 1 Disorder, discussing how music is a form of therapy for her. ‘My music is my way of escaping and dealing with my problems.’ She goes on to explain: ‘I just came out of hospital and I ran into some painters who I had bumped into the previous summer. I was enrolling in a music theory course and this girl told me there was a jam happening on Monday in a squat. I turned up one Monday in January and the rest is history. I attended that jam every single Monday for three years.’ Not only did the squatting scene help Farai develop her music and performance skills, transforming what originally began as poetry into songs, but it also gave her lyrical inspiration. In the scene she heard a multitude of stories from diverse individuals of the Lewisham borough, empathizing with their hustles in London. ‘They became my family,’ she tells me, in reference to the squat col-
As well as acknowledging the benefits of squat collectives, we also laughingly discussed some of the hypocrisies inherent in them, such as the rich kids that glamorize poverty that you see so often in these groups. Tone emphatically expresses that ‘a lot of those kids just run home to mum and dad. It’s like a statement for them. When I met Farai it wasn’t a statement, she was having to do that.’ ‘I was really in a bad place,’ Farai confides. ‘I really had no choice and nowhere to live.’ Farai unashamedly bears her soul, which refreshingly disarms those in her presence and undoubtedly informs her music. Deep within the core of Farai and Tone’s music is a bold and unfiltered expression of emotionality and experience, arguably its most powerful quality, bound to resonate with many. When I inquire about their upcoming album and current opportunities for artists of the black diaspora, they responds with hope and optimism. Farai references Grime music, expressing warmly ‘I would love to collaborate with more people like that. I feel like Grime artists are really opening up a lot of doors for the underground and underdog artists in 29
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Farai
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London, but also all around the world. It’s a genre that’s spreading globally.’ Tone adds: ‘It’s an exciting time for black music because it’s becoming more varied.’ During his teenage years this wasn’t the case; ‘I had cornrows and wore baggy jeans, and exclusively listened to hip hop for two years, because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do.’ In reality, as well as listening to hip hop, he liked punk too: ‘And then I wore skinny jeans with rips in them and I could feel people just thought “yo, what? You can’t do that.”’ Their upcoming reflects this progressing representation of diversity through its eclecticism. ‘Every song is themed to a different genre,’ Farai says. Tone continues: ‘We’ve got one track with just guitar and vocals, and then one with a big band, that has a saxophone. I think people will finally stop putting us into one category when they hear this.’
— Farai’s EP Kisswell is out now on NON Worldwide.
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Farai
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Ménage à Trois Interview by Jack Dolan Photos shot by Nicole Dyson in Manchester, UK
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Ménage à Trois
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Ménage à Trois
The legend goes that Ménage à Trois met in a gay karaoke bar in Manchester and decided to form a band on the spot. In fact, as lead singer Jonathan Flanders is trying to tell me over a very jolty skype connection, that’s a bit of a simplification, but sometimes he falls back on the story anyway. Before their chance meeting with Joseph Manning, at that point drummer for enigmatic indie band WU LYF, Jonathan (vocals) and his friend Craig (keys) had never even considered making music. The three of them started hanging out and eventually found themselves in that karaoke bar doing an impromptu performance. Even then they had no idea they would become a real band, they just started making tracks because it was enjoyable. The trio have now finished the third LP in their oceanic-pop triptych, Australia Parts I, II and III, and they’re already scheming on the next. Where do you guys make music? Craig makes these Steven Spielberg videos on his phone and puts music to them, and then Joe’s just been making cute songs and sending them to us because he has more free time. I’ve been writing down loads of observational stuff from conversations that I overhear or that I’m involved in. Then we come together and sometimes we just end up beating each other up, and sometimes we might make a really good song. Sometimes there’s harmony when we come together and sometimes there’s hostility. Living in Manchester is pretty heinous. Would you say your music is generally quite melancholic? If I was to make songs on my own they would be fucking depressing. Between us all it becomes more positive. So you’re the depressing member of the group?
Craig is definitely more positive and stronger than me. Joe is a really strong, together, moral person and not as fucked up as me and Craig are. If shit got really serious I would definitely be fine to kill people for either of them though. If either of them walked into this room and punched me in the face and knocked all of my fucking teeth out, I would say thank you. Do you guys fight a lot? We had a big fight a few days ago in Toulouse because Joe and Craig were sleeping in the same bed and I had to sleep on the couch so I flipped out, put all my shit in a suitcase and stormed out of the flat. I didn’t have any battery on my phone and it took three hours to find a hotel. I met this guy from Syria who’d been a refugee living in Toulouse for six months and he showed me the whole city. I was supposed to be in a van with the guys driving back to Paris but I just told them I’m busy and I would fly back the next day. It must be important to take some time to yourself when you’re living in such close quarters all the time. You forget to take time until it’s a real crisis moment. I don’t realize how much pressure I put on myself until I’m running away in the night. What do you guys have planned for the future? Do you have a plan? This summer I’m going to run away and go write in New York for at least two months. Then we’re going to meet back in Manchester to record because I really have something strong that I want to say for the next one and it needs to be here. Most of the songs so far have been about memories and love and very momentary things. Now I’m thinking more about love with yourself as opposed to dying to live these moments that are so transient. Learning to love yourself is the next stage. 37
Interview
Has this come through travelling and touring? A lot of the songs have come from one major relationship and since that all I’ve done is fuck up other relationships since. I didn’t realize I was fucking them up but it was just going wrong because I never really let go of this one person. I’ve only just recently realized that... Not touring but just like self-indulgent bullshit. Maybe the next part will be slightly more helpful to other people rather than just nice to listen to.
Would you say your music is a way of trying to find that clarity within these fucked up situations then? It doesn’t bring clarity, it’s a way of sharing it and it not being so shit. If you go through the most intense experience that you’ve ever had, you can’t really describe to people. I don’t know, maybe you’re more socially evolved than I am, you might be able to understand it, you might not. Music just made it a positive thing.
‘Water is some kind of life source, energy, saviour, place to go that makes everything seem clearer.’
There seems to be a lot of oceanic themes in your music. Where does that come from? I have the word ‘ocean’ tattooed on my arm because I fell in love with this guy and the first night we met, it was raining and we came back to my place and he said to me ‘you look like you’ve just come out of the ocean’. He was only supposed to be in Manchester for two days and he stayed for two weeks and then he had a flight booked to Berlin so I went with him and then to Madrid and then he had to go back to Argentina. We planned to get tattoos in Madrid but we didn’t have enough money so we wrote it on each other and I came back to Manchester and got the tattoo on my wrist and then I got a flight to Argentina. The ocean thing is definitely symbolic too. Water in general is definitely some kind of life source, energy, saviour, place to go that makes everything seem clearer as opposed to more fucked up.
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— Ménage à Trois play De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam on 15 July. Show free for Subbacultcha members. Australia Part III is out now on Cracki Records.
Ménage à Trois
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Interview
TOPS Interview by Zofia Ciechowska Photos by Vinna Laudico in Montreal, Canada Styling by Kaitlyn Woodhouse
TOPS are back this summer with album number three, Sugar at the Gate, a subtle nod to achieving satisfaction and pleasure, but also encountering a barrier to what’s desired. If you know records numbers one and two, you’ll recognize the dreamy TOPSy pop that made your heart swell and hips sway when you first heard it. But you’ll also feel more pronounced tremors of strange psychedelia and live show exuberance, and a lyrical confidence of self-expression that’s come into its own. In their video for ‘Petals’, the band is pictured in their Glendale home filled with light and technicolor balloons, gorging on heavily frosted pastel-coloured cakes with Michael Jackson and Madonna impersonators, racing through the local cemetery in a red convertible. 40
TOPS
TOPS’ vocalist Jane Penny picks up the phone in Montreal, where the trees are on the cusp of blooming. She’s been home since January after spending all of 2016 in LA, living in a house called Glamdale with her band mates, David Carriere, Riley Fleck and Jackson Macintosh. Spacey electronic music gently bleep-beep-bops in the background as Jane occasionally giggles in between answers about where their Californian adventure has taken them musically. In between pauses, we joke about her really taking the call from a space pod instead of the Arbutus Records office.
Whose decision was it to move Los Angeles? Riley is from California. He was having issues with staying in Canada at the time, we decided it made sense for us to spend some time together elsewhere. We had all lived in Montreal for basically the entire time that we have been adults. Moving to LA seemed like a good opportunity to leave the Montreal scene, which can have a deterministic effect on your worldview and day-to-day. It was nice to take the music out of Montreal and into a new context.
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You came back to Montreal a few months ago. Do you miss LA? I admire LA more than I miss LA. It’s a beautiful place to be, I love the beach and everything else about it, but I’m not yearning to go back, you know? The cool thing about being in a band is that you never really have to leave any place, you always get to come back. There’s something that feels a little dreamlike about going to California from Canada, it fascinates me to no end. In Canada, it’s easy to have your little life set up, when you travel in California you are hit with many more complex experiences. But no matter how much time I spend there, I think I will always feel like a visitor in America. I read that you learned how to drive in the Forest Lane Memorial Cemetery in Glendale during your year there. We lived in a house in Glendale that was on a hill with a big driveway from which you could see the cemetery. That driveway also features in our music video for ‘Petals’. From that driveway you could go on to these grand suburban boulevards that spread across the area. I needed to go somewhere big and open like a parking lot, the memorial ended up being the best place to practice driving. There was only one time someone else was there, it was a fifteen year-old learning how to drive his dad’s SUV. What did you drive?
lost so badly, that by the time we arrived, the opening was over. Apparently Pamela Anderson was there and we missed her. So I just left my car there for the night and got drunk at a bar instead.
‘Moving to LA seemed like a good opportunity to take the music out of Montreal and into a new context.’
Tell me more about the new album that TOPS is releasing, Sugar at the Gate. I think it’s an interesting record because we made it in a bit of a time capsule of putting ourselves in a position of being in a new city and a new house. In many ways it’s a classic TOPS record, just more pushed to the edges. Our second record was quite poppy, whereas with this album we managed to incorporate influences from pop, but also a range of more psychedelic, heavier and stranger undercurrents that we have always had, but get characterized by less. Overall, it’s still quite smooth and has some classic TOPS elements to it, but mood and lyrics-wise there’s more variation and diversity in them. It’s nice to have something to share again with our fans. I’m really happy that there’s songs like ‘Dayglow Bimbo’ on this record.
I learned to drive in my friend’s black 1991 Mercedes. He lent it to me, and I played everyone’s designated driver and chauffeured them around town. I dented his car slightly and sent him a picture of the damage with no scale indicator and he freaked out. My first experience of going on the freeway was when my friend forgot to disable freeway routes on my GPS as I was trying to get us to a Julian Schnabel opening in Century City. I was driving in a panic through Downtown LA and got 43
Interview
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‘Apparently Pamela Anderson was there and we missed her. So I just left my car there for the night and got drunk at a bar instead.’
David’s contribution there was intended to make the record represent something that we could all stand behind. After playing so many shows, it emerged to me as an artist, that that is something very important, more so than attempting to create the perfect pop song.
You sing and write the lyrics, what’s worth noting in these particular areas?
Did you surround yourselves with any particular sounds in your record-making capsule in Glendale?
I’m just more confident with allowing myself to believe that I can say something and because it has meaning for me, it has value in the context of a TOPS song. In general, it’s allowed us to go into a lot more interesting and unique kind of songwriting. Up until this record, a lot of my lyric and songwriting has been more exploratory than confessional. In the past, a large part of the pursuit was learning how to write a song, as well as expressing one’s emotional response to life.
Sade is one of those artists who I always go back to. I listened to Virna Lindt’s song ‘Underwater Boy’, which is quite a TOPSy song. David and I listened to a lot of ‘90s R&B instrumentals from Faith Evans, Janet Jackson and Aaliyah. With their compelling vocals laid on top, it’s hard to focus on just their pop production. Without vocals though, it’s laid bare what’s going on, and I feel like we eventually were able to reference some of that on our own record by recreating it sonically.
Whereas now, I have gained confidence in my ability to create a song that is successful, and I was able to use my intuitive personal perspective when writing the songs with David and Riley, and the lyrics came more spontaneously. Once I wrote them, I was committed to them as an expression of myself and what I thought was valid, I was not in pursuit of perfection. I really love the lyrics on ‘Hours Between’ that I wrote with David, it goes into things that really resonated with us all, and
What conversations are you having amongst yourselves as you await the album’s release? We do not engage in self-exploratory conversations about the music we made, we just talk about the songs when we play together. When we are in the process of writing, David, Riley and I will discuss the lyrics and arrangements, but after recording, we don’t dive into conceptual presentations or how others may interpret us. David and Riley are fine with having people think what they want to think. I agree to represent the band to the public, which is a privilege for me, it means a lot that I have their trust. It’s a healthy balance as they have much less outgoing personalities than mine [laughs]. What can you tell us about your friends with slightly less outgoing personalities? Riley and David are very dedicated musicians with real practices. Riley drums at least four hours a day, he does various technical exer-
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cises and pursues explorations in electronic music; music is most of his day-to-day. David is producing, recording and songwriting constantly. It made sense for us to live together because we are all constantly engaged in our music already. We moved to California because we wanted to stay together. We just enjoy certain aspects of playing together so much and have a lot of respect for each other, that when issues arise, it’s always worth working through them.
— TOPS play De School, Amsterdam on 8 June. Show free for Subbacultcha members. Sugar at the Gate is out on 2 June via Arbutus Records.
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Interview
Hazy London-based production duo on defying genres and expectations
Lifestyle Interview by Roxy Merrell Photos by Laurence von Thomas in London, UK
Lifestyle is the new obscure project by best mates Lewis Rainsbury and Luke Brennan. Before trying to prescribe a goto description, here’s a disclaimer: expect the unexpected. Lifestyle aims to stray from anything you thought a band or duo production project might be – continuously evolving, open source, with no rigid mem48
bers and no genre limitations. ‘Basically,’ Lewis, former front man of impressionistic indie band Vondelpark sums up, ‘I don’t like conforming’. Having caught our eye with only a few lush, ambient tracks online, we called up Lewis for a late night chat, to try zero in and reveal the figures that make up the trippy silhouettes.
Lifestyle
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Hey Lewis. Where are you right now? I’m in our new apartment, with some friends, in a place called Streatham, it’s south west London. I’ve been about the last couple of years. I’m definitely staying in Streatham for a good… good minute.
pear to be just two people, but it never is. There’s quite a few of us involved. We’re like Wu-Tang. Everyone’s doing their own thing. What we’ll present live is just two people, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say there were other people that help us. How did it begin?
Tell me about Lifestyle. Would it be fair to call you a duo? A duo. Yeah. It’s been going on for quite a while. Luke Brennan, the guy I’m collaborating with, and I used to have a project a long time ago. He used to play in a punk band, called Zulu, so Luke brings his punk attitude to my electronic music production – somewhere in the middle we’re left with (I think) quite an Atlanta approach to making pop songs. But at the same time, if you take Orbital, Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers, they may ap-
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We didn’t consciously decide to start Lifestyle. I’ve been making music for years with different people – there’s about six people involved now. It originated with Hugo, a film director and really good friend of mine. Whenever we have time, we make tunes. Is London an exciting place to be right now? I don’t know – fuck London. I love my group of friends, and we have our own world. It’s more of a worldwide project. It’s not really about London. It’s usually made when we go to other cities, that’s the most inspiring.
Lifestyle
I think it’s like a coping mechanism, for everyone collaborating. We make stuff just to make ourselves feel like we’ve done something. We’re looking around at each other in London thinking we need to stop like, being fucking degenerates. We’re trying to put some positive action together. But now things are actually starting to get going.
Lifestyle. We’ve got an interesting thing coming together, which will hopefully be more clear, in terms of releases and context, and easier to find; this portal site we’ve got called Eureka Garden. What’s that about?
I found ‘Lifestyle’ pretty difficult to find online, until I found ‘L1F3STYLE’. Is that the official name or…?
It’s just an online space. Essentially – quite a big concept to talk about, but in short – it’s basically a portal, not a platform, and there’s a difference between the two. We want to make a track that continuously evolves, and work with people across the world. Everyone can work on this one concept and give input to it. It’s not saying: ‘this is us’. It’s saying: ‘this is us, and fuck with it, squeeze it and twist it to suit you,’ and then whatever that eventually evolves into in five years will be what Lifestyle is.
Whatever you want! Whatever you like. It doesn’t really matter. The band’s just called
Are you exploring something different with Lifestyle, than you were with Vondelpark?
Was that unexpected? I don’t know where it’s going to go really. We’re just hoping it connects with people. Though we’re pretty on it, to be honest. We’ve been working on it quite solidly for the last six months.
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It’s not conscious. The big difference is, we want to work with labels but we want to keep it more like a Fugazi approach. Down to the point of absolutely everything involved. Obviously at first you don’t have anything to compare it to. Now we only work with places and people we’re about. I was young and quite naive [during the Vondelpark years]. What happened, it was cool, but we didn’t take it very seriously. Now, me and my life has changed so much, in terms of my actual practice. The way I live my life actually revolves around what I do. Before, I used to fit it in with a job and stuff like that, and now this is just me.
Although the name is Lifestyle, and we like trap, and my favourite artist right now is Gucci Mane if not XXXTENTACION, a lot of the time the motifs and the shit these guys talk about are the things that are ruining the world – like capitalism. We live quite a poor life, but I feel happier than ever. Why is that? I just really believe in this project, I think. I really do. It’s pretty sick. There’s some really interesting people about and we have some good values.
Is that why it’s called Lifestyle? It’s very fitting. I’ll tell you what – I was drinking quite a lot about a year ago, drinking loads and taking loads of xanax, and all this shit. And one of my really good friends got really pissed off with me. He literally texted me just ‘Lifestyle…’ as if to say, sort your life out, sort of thing. And it just really hit home. It’s sparked loads of interesting talks, and is also a bit of a piss take, but I won’t go into it too much. You’ve got a free mixtape lined up called Calm FM Survival Pack. Can you tell us about it? Essentially, when I was last in Amsterdam about six months ago, I found a really good book about survivalism. Everytime I come to Amsterdam, it profoundly flips my perception of my life back in London. It’s really weird. It’s strange, too, because my dad spent a lot of time there too, in Amsterdam, in kind of formative years. I don’t know what it is about that place, but maybe it’s in my blood. Point is, survivalism is an interesting theory in general. If you live your life on a survivalism wave, there’s not really too much time to like, enjoy London or nice things. You’re just trying not to spend any money.
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— Lifestyle plays De School, Amsterdam on 11 August. Show free for Subbacultcha members.
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Regina Spektor 15 AUG
Band of Horses 23 AUG
Grizzly Bear 13 OKT
Mogwai 22 OKT
Mura Masa 25 OKT
Le Guess Who? Festival 9 - 12 NOV
Father John Misty 13 NOV
Belle & Sebastian
Gramatik 26 OKT
Tori Amos 14 SEP
Bazart 24 NOV
1 SEP
The Lemon Twigs 7 NOV
mac demarco 29 NOV
Point of view
Little Bubble by Carly Blair illustration Eva Mooiman I vividly remember discovering Dirty Projectors. Rifling through the ‘New Music’ rack in my college radio station, I came across a cover featuring a drawing of a balding, fat, hairy, naked man, flaccid penis and all. In a font resembling letters scraped into the walls of truck stop bathrooms appeared the words ‘THE DIRTY PROJECTORS’, and little additional information. Asking me why I found this alluring is like asking me to explain my 20s in general: I’m as baffled as anyone. Fortunately this turned out to be a more fruitful discovery than anything I learned whilst slinking my way through university and the seedier hostels of Europe. The Glad Fact, as it was called, was David Longstreth’s first album as Dirty Projectors. The music within was aptly captured by that cover: half-formed, pretentious and yet vulnerable at the same time, weird and weirdly intriguing. A few flagrantly conceptual albums followed, before the band’s trajectory was forever altered when Longstreth met Amber Coffman and invited her to join the band. The two started dating, and Coffman’s poppy influence helped nudge the band towards a Bowieesque mainstream art-rock success. They weren’t destined to walk that path together, however. At some point in 2012 they privately split, and stayed under the radar until late last year, when they released rival revealing singles (Longstreth’s ‘Keep Your Name’, Coffman’s ‘All to Myself’), giving a first indication that the band as we knew it was done.
‘Keep Your Name’, the opener off Longstreth’s new album, Dirty Projectors, outlines various causes of the breakup, the most prominent being differing aspirations (‘What I want from art is truth, what you want is fame’). Throughout, distorted vocals echoes: ‘We don’t see eye to…,’ a line sampled from their most romantic song, 2012’s ‘Impregnable Question’ (‘I will always hope / What we shared so long / To be the only love / And though we don’t see eye to eye / I need you / And you’re always on my mind’). The accompanying video depicts a goofy-looking runner, at the end of a long run, locking eyes with a cheerleader in a parking lot. They run towards one another, but just as they are about to embrace it looks like they’ll be hit by an SUV. You don’t find out, because the shot cuts to footage of the man running again, alone. While it seems clear they were wrong for each other, there was a time when Longstreth desperately wanted to believe that Coffman was his cosmic counterpart. This propensity for projection, for being tricked by our hearts into dragging out doomed relationships, is brought to life throughout Dirty Projectors, perhaps nowhere more simply, or heart breakingly, than in the line ‘We had our own little bubble / For a while.’ Who’d have thought that the mind behind that naked dude could also render a moment of such bittersweet tenderness? A guy with the foresight to call himself Dirty Projectors, I suppose.
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mel k w e g za 10 jun
do 17 aug
AMANDA CONOR OBERST PALMER & HIS BAND & THE DRESDEN ma 21 aug DOLLS KATE NASH do 15 jun AVEC do 05 okt NEWTON FAULKNER MADE OF BRICKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
wo 25 okt
GRAMATIK ma 30 okt
JOHNNY FLYNN & THE SUSSEX WIT tickets: melkweg.nl
Point of view
Whereistheprotestmusic.tumblr.com by Jo Kalinowska illustration Eva Mooiman A new Tumblr arrived this year curating the crowds of journalists asking: ‘Where is the protest music of today?’ It’s a question that’s ultimately shouted into a black hole, with each writer making a similar conclusion: There’s isn’t any. Protest music must have stopped in the ‘80s. I wouldn’t recommend reading the articles, but the question itself is worth considering. What role does music play in political movements? Can it affect, as well as reflect, political upheaval? We can’t expect all music to be political, yet we can’t completely abstract a song from the political climate it arises. How would we even define protest music? These columnists are searching for today’s Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, but would that mode of lyrical, heart-felt singing be equipped for the social issues of our time? The late radical thinker, Mark Fisher, talked about Burial sounding diagnostic of a 21st century with ‘broken time’ where futures we imagined in the 20th century have failed to happen. Fisher saw indie bands like the Arctic Monkeys, Blur and Oasis as our symptoms. Bands which ‘airbrush cultural time’ by bringing us closer to the ‘60s than we ever could have been in the ‘80s. But it’s these detached-from-reality bands that have been taking up the majority of mainstream music media coverage. A media that’s clumsily allowed itself to lose grip on the today’s abundance of political music. There’s obviously a deep separation between The Music Industry and Underground Music. To get into the first, you have to be able to sell
to the masses and be entertainment. It’s the second where you’ll hear a richness of voices that actually resonate with real people about real issues (think: housing over having your first kiss). Gaika is one such artist. He’s faultless at producing murky dancehallesque music which embodies the socio-political issues rife in the everyday, directly answering what it’s like to be a black man in London. Initially met with reviews that labelled his sound ‘dystopian futuristic’, it’s become evident that it’s a ‘dystopian now’ that is wrung out through his liminal beats. Grime tells a similar story. The media took its time before catching on to it being a relevant genre, not just ‘council estates youths sounding off’, but it’s grime we’re now praising for engaging youths in the upcoming U.K. general election. JME (MC/artist) recently admitted to Jeremy Corbyn (Labour leader) that he’s never voted before. He doesn’t see his vote as having any direct impact on the political climate. It differs from the ‘do it on our own terms’ attitude of grime which, in many ways, echoes Corbyn’s anti-establishment political agenda. The irony lies in the fact that asking, ‘Where is the protest music?’ only serves to demonstrate how isolated media has become. Protest music is definitely not hiding, so instead of blindly asking the question, people should be listening for the answers that are vocally streaming through the streets. Being deaf to these sounds is symptomatic of existing in a bubble of commercial radio and official chart lists – open your ears and listen! 57
Click Click Club
Meanwhile at Our Shows Subbacultcha through your eyes
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The Click Click Club means future #tbt material by our members. We hand them a disposable camera and they show us what they see.
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Want to join our Click Click Club? Shoot yacine@subbacultcha.nl an e-mail and get your hands on a disposable camera at one of our next shows. 01. at the Drugdealer show at De Nieuwe Anita shot by Subbacultcha’s Click Click Club 02. going to the Lente Kabinet show w/ Bruxas with the help of our friends at Abel shot by Margot Gabel 03. at the Drugdealer show at De Nieuwe Anita shot by Aglaya Tomasi 04. at the Blanka show at the OCCII shot by Lotte Koster
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05. at the Drugdealer show at De Nieuwe Anita shot by Subbacultcha’s Click Click Club 06. at The Homesick Release show at s105 (De School) shot by Thierno Deme 07. at the Abdu Ali show at s105 (De School) shot by Sera Akyazici 08. at The Homesick Release show at s105 (De School) shot by Margot Gabel 09. at the Blanka show at the OCCII shot by Lotte Koster 04
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Subbacultcha magazine
Meanwhile at Our Shows Subbacultcha through your eyes
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— All s105 shows are sponsored by Jupiler. Thanks to FotoLabKiekie for developing our negatives. 09
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We Visit You
Meanwhile at Skatecafé A series dedicated to establishments we like to visit
Picture this. You and your buddies get the green light to transform a warehouse in Amsterdam Noord. What do you do? You build a bar with a mini ramp, obviously. Fueled by friends and fun, Colin Vlaar opened Skatecafé late last year and the city’s loving every minute of it. The venue boasts a bar, a proper kitchen, space for shows, the ramp and really just an all-round good time. If the promise of skateboarding-meets-booze-andburgers doesn’t get ya, then maybe the Wednesday (kid-friendly) skate lessons, guest-chef Thursdays and endless friend-DJs-take-overFriday-night’s just might. Colin let us in on some of the simple truisms behind Skatecafé.
Noord is so damn… Canta Skatecafé is made up of… Lots of friends + having fun under 1 roof. Running a spot with your friends is like… Playing soccer in your spare time. Word on the street is that… Beer is truly gold. Amsterdam could really use some… Keep some warehouses instead of building flats and apartments everywhere. The dream? That would be… We’re in it already.
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Subbacultcha magazine
Meanwhile at Skatecafé A series dedicated to establishments we like to visit
And of course the dream theme night… Will have the best live music all over the Skatecafé, this will happen soon. After Kaassouffléfeest comes… Op de camping. I’ll know I’ve made it when… We die smiling. My mum always tells me… I love you. The track we can’t stop blasting at Skatecafé is… ‘Het Laatste Rondje’ – Andre Hazes If there were two of me, I’d… Do the same only it would take me half the time. Waiting on a chef to come make us some... Blueberry Cheesecake, so good! The coolest thing in this place is the… People who visit us, eat, drink and party with us.
— Text Roxy Merrell Photos shot by Françoise Bolechowski skatecafe.nl
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O U T N OW
Subbacultcha
A Selection of Upcoming Shows Magazine Release Party w/ Jakuzi + LO-FI LE-VI + Karel 02 June
Ménage à Trois + Skiing 15 July
Eyedress + Sun Shy Boy 05 June
Molly Nilsson + The Beat Escape 28 July
TOPS + Better Person 08 June
Lifestyle 11 August
Tall Juan + 000 + Hache 10 June
Festival Magia 19 August
Subbacultcha x Order: Ricky Staggs 16 June
Different Class Subbacultcha Belgium 26 August
De Zondag w/ Peaking Lights Acid Test 02 July
OMNI 31 August
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Free access to the best concerts and events. Join us for €8 a month. subbacultcha.nl
at the Kelly Lee Owens show, shot by Subbacultcha’s Click Click Club
New Music for New People