Subbacultcha BE July/August 2013

By Sofia Ciechowska Illustration bi Basje Boer

Unruly Music Magazine July and August 2013

Food

What’s Cooking

The Psychedelic Issue

Mark McGuire, Jackson Scott, Ignatz

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� 21.06 – 01.09.2013

ReSiDu� Hotel Charleroi Aleksandra Chaushova Theo Cowley Svenja Deininger Laurent Dupont-Garitte Jana Euler Maartje Fliervoet Martin Laborde Wobbe Micha

Curated by Agata Jastrzabek & Dirk Snauwaert Av. Van Volxemlaan 354, 1190 Brussels, www.wiels.org

The Psychedelic Issue

TOP 5 NEW MUSIC WE SAW YOU JACKSON SCOTT MARK MCQUIRE IGNATZ U.S.GIRLS

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STEVE GUNN SCENE REPORT: RUSSIA ART AGENDA SUBBACULTCHA! SHOWS OTHER SHOWS

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Summer has landed. Finally! Time to go skinny dipping at night, to vote for trips into the wild, to drink strange brews at 11am, to catch the most far-out field recordings of frogs while laughing your ass off, to sit in a tree with a perfect stranger, and to do something crazy and brave and exchange your daily surroundings for something warm and colourful. Yes, we could go on like this for ever. Sunshine will make you happy, so take the lead! Leave the blues behind and bring out the greens. This issue is a spring awakening to a psychedelic summer!

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Colophon

Who we are and what we do Subbacultcha! magazine is published by Subbacultcha! www.subbacultcha.be. magazine@subbacultcha.be Subbacultcha! Belgium Karperstraat 26, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Subbacultcha! Netherlands Da Costakade 150, 1053 XC Amsterdam, the Netherlands We are Editors: Herlinde Raeman and Kasper-Jan Raeman

Editorial assistants: Niels Jonckers, Eveliina Petäjäaho and Megan Roberts Design: Marina Henao Good girls: Nina Strebelle and Gerlin Heestermans Good guys: Ewout Compernol, Emmanuel Van Damme, Tomas Lootens, Valentijn Goethals and Tim Bryon Contributors: Will Martin, Kasper-Jan Raeman, Herlinde Raeman, Jonas Nachtergaele, Julien Van de Casteele, Ye Rin Mok, Meghan Remy, Max Turnbull, Nina Strebelle, Mathieu Serruys, Zach Correa, Aaron Kostial, Anya Kuts, Tim Gentles, Ivan Afanasyev, Alexander Khmelevsky, Luke Frost, Jon Rundall, Christopher Schreck, Nikolai Egorenkov, Asya Baeva and Therese Vandling Distribution Brussels: Gertjan Rasschaert, Julien Van de Casteele, Pieter Serkeyn, Eveliina Petäjäaho Ghent: Stephanie De Keukeleire, Bram Bonte, Eno Swinnen, Maarten Van Nieuwenhove, Ruud Van Moorleghem, Linda Baumsteiger, Anouk Dusart Antwerp: Antonio Marques, Egon Parmentier, Thomas Konings, Anna Bagues Leuven: Vincent Baptist Kortrijk: Thomas Vanoosthuyse Luik: Collectief Jaune Orange Pick up Subbacultcha! at Brussels: Les Ateliers Claus, Botanique, Beursschouwburg. Ghent: Vooruit, DOK, S.M.A.K., Music Mania. Antwerp: Scheld’apen, Trix, Think Twice, American Apparel. Kortrijk: De Kreun. Leuven: STUK, Depot, M Museum. Luik: Jaune Orange Advertising To advertise in Subbacultcha! magazine send an email to magazine@subbacultcha.be.

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Cover: illustration by Luke Frost, John Rundall and Therese Vandling Page 4

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Top 5

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Selection of the month

Performance: Sheniqua World Tour

Sheniqua World Tour is the visual DJ performance concept by Ruud Rudy Van Moorleghem. He’s releasing a first tape this summer and is playing the Soscastoa stage at Boomtown, Ghent. Go support!

Music: Deep Magic

Deep Magic is Alex Gray, one part of tropical-spacemen three-jam team Sun Araw. He released his debut, Solar Meditations, on Not Not Fun and is constantly sending us excellent new spaced-out sounds he puts out on his small cassette label Deep Tapes. Summer tunes to the max.

Partners: Wastelands

Wastelands Festival wouldn’t be the best summer hangout without the beers of Mongozo, the hospitality of the Faja Lobi bed & breakfast and the delicious vegan catering of Just Like Your Mom. Tickets are still available through the Subbacultcha! website and Facebook.

Holidays: Summer break

We are taking a short and sweet break during the first two weeks of July. About time we emptied our heads, relaxed and let the beast go again. We will be back in full force on 15 July. Enjoy your summer!

Thank-yous

We cannot fully express the gratitude we feel towards our fantastic intern Nina, our members, musicians, contributors, company board, volunteers and all their friends... We’re building up a community here and we’re proud of it. With much love, yours truly, Kasper-Jan and Herlinde.

QUALITY BASICS SINCE 1906. VISIT US AT WWW.ORIGINALESKIMO.COM

By Tim Gentles (Rose Quartz)

This month’s recommendation

New Music

Ana Caprix

soundcloud.com/caprix

London producer Ana Caprix follows the ephemeral, Soundcloud-only distribution model typical of so many internet-based artists today. Despite the annoying tendency for tracks to disappear from the web after only a few months, the producer is nonetheless amassing an accomplished body of resonant, otherworldly internet-electronica.

His tracks are often based around familiar contemporary pop vocal samples, which are warped, subdued and submerged, reimagined with a sound that encompasses both the warm and the cooly technologic. Aligned with the burgeoning internet music underground in terms of his visual aesthetic and pop-awareness, the producer in many ways pushes his sound in the opposite direction to many of his contemporaries, eschewing the by now familiar ironised, hyper-masculine displays of garishness and applying feminine pressure through tracks that are reflective, sensual and deep.

This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in recent track ‘Under Bare Ground’, which mines shuffling café textures, off-kilter samples and twinkling arpeggios. Elsewhere, ‘Can’t Eat, Can’t Sleep, I’m Sick’ flips an Iggy Azalea sample with a deftness that’s thoroughly immersive, while the producer’s recent mixtape for BEASTONLEASH.BIZ, 13 Angels Standing Guard ‘Round the DJ Booth, explores the spiritual and dystopian elements of club music.

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We Saw You

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Spotted at Subbacultcha!

Photo by Nina Strebelle

What has been the most psychedelic experience in your life so far? I have a very vivid memory involving my grandparents, but in reality this moment never happened, because my grandfather passed away before I was even born and my grandmother shortly after.

Jean-Julien Delcourt, spotted at The Fresh & Onlys show at Madame Moustache in Brussels on 05 June 2013.

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Jackson Scott

20-year-old neo-slacker Jackson Scott is the latest signing to Fat Possum Records. His debut Melbourne will be released in July and he’s heading to Europe in August for the first time. Pretty interesting prospects for this young guy so we caught up with him to dream together about what summertime will bring him ‘A lot of the music communicates existential and metaphysical ideas, such as the eternal inevitability of everything and attempts at understanding the meaning of humanity’ Interview by Julien Van de Casteele Photos shot by Zach Correa and Aaron Kostial in Pittsburgh, USA

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What are you most looking forward to this summer?

Right now, I am in my hometown in Pennsylvania and mainly just hanging around until Melbourne comes out in July. Then after that, our tour kicks in. I would say going to Europe to play music is probably what I’m looking forward to the most, as I have never really been outside America before. I really want to go to Sweden, lots of blondes I hear, but anytime I am in a new place with new people I enjoy it.

What do you associate summer with?

Usually with excessive amounts Page 14

of free time, boredom and overall mellow times. I think that makes summer a very good time for creating things. I wrote most of my song ‘That Awful Sound’ on my rooftop in the middle of the summer of last year.

What’s the overall vibe you’re trying to communicate through Melbourne?

When I was making Melbourne, a lot of it was me trying to document my weird 19-year-old self with all my good and bad traits. So a lot of the music communicates existential and metaphysical ideas, such as the eternal inevitability of everything and attempts at understanding the mean-

Jackson Scott

ing of humanity. Overall, I wanted to make people think and feel better or worse about life; I think it’s healthy to think that life is really fucked up and really beautiful at the same time. Our house in Asheville was referred to as Melbourne, it was the name of the street the house was on. The whole album was recorded there. We did not have TV or internet, which I think helped me record as obsessively as I did. It was great for isolation. I really love isolation but it is a double-edged sword, because I can start getting too far into my thoughts. But basically, the only thing to do in the house

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was to do drugs, listen to records, and make music.

Do you believe those experiences can be used as an aid to be more creative with music?

Yes, I would agree on a certain level, because it is relative to how you use them or react to them. For instance, some people will take drugs or chemicals and treat them in a shallow manner, as in they just party with them. That’s totally cool. However, you can also take anything you want and dig into deeper ideas and get inspirations from them. But I really think that, at the end of the day, they Page 15

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‘Overall, I wanted to make people think and feel better or worse about life; I think it’s healthy to think that life is really fucked up and really beautiful at the same time’

can only enhance your own ideas or creativity: they can’t create art out of nothing. They can help someone create art the same way that sitting on the beach or going on a nice walk can help someone create art. That being said, sometimes when you are deep into a psychedelic experience, you start to feel or think on a level that is hard to explain when you are totally sober. It’s those feelings that are definitely very interesting to explore in an artistic manner. I do remember one trip that I had last summer; I was deep into recording and it lead to the development of a certain sound that I wanted.

Your album certainly has psychedelic vibes. Do you have a background in listening to psychedelic music?

I am a huge fan of ’60s psychedelic music: Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Donovan, T. Rex, The Doors, all that stuff. Also, My Bloody Valentine was very big for me, because they really Page 16

are able to create the sonic feeling of drifting into eternity, making you feel like you’re a part of everything instead of a separated individual.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I am recording some stuff right now, actually. I definitely want to put another record out next year.

We’ll see. I just bought some recording gear; I was borrowing my friends’ stuff for most of Melbourne. Hopefully I can finish the new album this summer before I start touring.

Jackson Scott plays at Madame Moustache, Brussels on 13 August. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.

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Mark McGuire

Mark McGuire began creating electronic music with his band Emeralds in 2006, and since then has released nearly 100 albums through his various projects. His new album, Along the Way, is on the way, and the same goes for the man himself, who’s invited to play Wastelands in August.

We’ve always wanted to ask him questions about psychedelia, so space out or try to follow ‘The creative process always changes, but it does often involve altering consciousness in some way or another, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything specific like drugs’ Interview by Will Martin Photos shot by Ye Rin Mok in LA, USA

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Mark McGuire

You’ve spoken of your album Get Lost as being born out of an experiment with psychedelics. Do they play a direct role in the creative process for you?

What I was referring to there was an isolated experience, which took place the night I recorded the last song, ‘Firefly Constellations’. The creative process always changes, but it does often involve altering consciousness in some way or another, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything specific like drugs.

Equally, you’ve spoken somewhat about what you consider ‘the generally psychedelic nature of existence’: the cosmic links between mind, body, spirit and Mother Earth and how the energy we contain is the same energy that stretches out to the deepest regions of infinity.

How do you apply this idea to the music that you make?

The idea that all energy in the universe is connected is something that I feel very deeply about. It’s something that makes me feel alive, which is what drives me to do things like making music in the first place.

So it’s something that I’m always aware of, and I always try to approach what I’m doing with these types of ideas and feelings in mind. With my music itself, I try to paint pictures of sound to help illustrate these ideas.

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Psychedelic and meditational music are very good for helping to push you out of your normal frame of consciousness, which is when your mind can really explore new territory.

Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?

That word has a lot of connotations that imply a lot of things that I don’t subscribe to, but in a personal way I think my main driving force is that I feel a very deep spiritual and metaphysical connection to the world.

Is reaching an enlightened stage of consciousness something you strive for?

In a way yes, but I think that’s another idea that has a lot of connotations that I personally don’t go for…

I think the idea of reaching enlightenment or being enlightened is fairly misunderstood and involves a lot more than what people generally think, which is actually one of the main themes of my new album.

The theme of the album being enlightenment or the misconceptions surrounding it?

Both. The album is called Along The Way, and is about the journey of an individual entering the world, and his quest for true knowledge about the universe and about himself. The preface of the album explains that because everyone has so many difPage 21

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Mark McGuire

‘The idea that all energy in the universe is connected is something I feel very deeply about’ ferent ideas about concepts like enlightenment, good and evil, and ideas like happiness, that everyone basically misunderstands one another, and most ideas are completely lost in translation. It’s basically saying that people pass things by and really only hear what they want to hear a lot of the time, or only understand ideas in terms of what their mind has already accumulated in their lifetime. Crowley spoke about how each one of us, has thus, a universe of his own. Robert Anton Wilson referred to everyone as having their own reality tunnel, in which everything they experience is filtered. So I’m just sort of exploring ideas like that, because I feel these ideas to be very true.

What’s your opinion on collective (usually drug-induced) psychedelic experiences? Shared psychedelic visions, drug trips, for example. Do you think drugs are able to break the reality tunnel that Wilson talk about?

I mean something like that depends on certain factors... but I think generally yes, certain drugs can. People are so controlled by their ego Page 22

and even super-ego many times that everyone walks around being so self-aware and self-conscious. This creates a whole world of things in itself, but it particularly stifles a person’s natural behaviour, communication, and even their perception of the world around them. Drugs can pretty quickly take people out of this state, and cause them to start communicating on levels they have never experienced. This isn’t always the case, and can even have the opposite effect in certain cases. But as far as sharing the same space outside of consciousness or shared visions and this type of thing, this happens because people who are on the same trip, are exploring the same space outside of their consciousness together. It’s happening in real-time, and there is no predestined place that you’re supposed to end up. The space is created as you go along, because you’re going along.

Mark McGuire plays Wastelands Festival on 10 August at the Grindbakken in Ghent. The festival is free for members.

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Ignatz

Ignatz is the moniker of Belgium’s finest underground guitarist Bram Devens. Devens recently relocated from Brussels to rural Landen and therefore named his latest LP Can I go home now?, a sequel to the brilliant I Hate This City.

No better place to dig into his psyche than in the backyard of his beautiful house. Moody blues on a summer day, that’s what it is!

Interview by Herlinde Raeman Photos shot by Nina Strebelle in Landen, Belgium

The word ‘psychedelic’ notes a mental state of intensified sensory perception.

Have you ever experienced that before?

I once smoked Salvia and lost my ego completely. I didn’t know who I was any more nor if I ever existed anyway. I was in a black vortex and couldn’t get out. It was hot that day, 1 May 2004, and I had to play my first gig as Ignatz. Nautical Almanac, Dolphins Into the Future and Floris

Vanhoof were playing as well. After the show I went home with a friend and we decided to smoke the Salvia.

Normally you get into a very short, 15-minute trip, but I fell on the floor and started yelling. I woke up only when my girlfriend came upstairs to see what was happening. It was the last time I ever did something like that, so maybe I can give a less drugrelated answer as well [Laughs]. I have Page 25

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Ignatz

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‘My opinion of making music differs from most musicians, so I believe I’m more of an artist than a musician’ weird dreams, they call it sleep paralysis. Do you know these 19th-century paintings in which people are sleeping with a little devil sitting on them?

That’s what I mean: you cannot wake up, even when you want to; it doesn’t work. I have that when I take a nap during the day.

Does the ultimate psychedelic feeling influence your music?

Yeah of course. You drop connections, start thinking on a different level, and see things from another angle.

Taking that distance is important in my music. The problem is that trying to copy the psychedelic whirl afterwards never works out, so you’re always condemned to fail. Next to that you can’t achieve the same effect by only listening to psychedelic music and although I have made music under the influence of drugs, it never came out well. After a while you get tired of being stoned. The first trip is always the best because you really believe your life has changed. Then it turns into a Photoshop filter and you start thinking about calling your

mom and stuff. It still has the same effect but it doesn’t feel so relevant any more.

You claim to create only three different songs: esoteric-non-structured ones, ballads and psychedelic Velvet Underground kind of songs. That band was into combining art and pop, is that what you try to do as well?

Yes, my opinion of making music differs from most musicians, so I believe I’m more of an artist than a musician. I can’t start from a musical idea, I start more abstract and try to transform those ideas into music by playing guitar and turning the buttons of my gear. That’s very vague, I know, but it’s so difficult to make it more concrete. Maybe laying in the grass on a sunny day can be a start?

I never really understood your lyrics.

That’s because I don’t write lyrics down. For some songs I recall lyrics better than others. I have to remember the melodies and that’s difficult enough. The way I sing is how I listen to English lyrics in music. I don’t listen too close, except when they’re Page 27

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Ignatz

‘For some songs I recall lyrics better than others.

I have to remember the melodies and that’s difficult enough’ very clear, because when you pay more attention, you begin to translate and that always turns out different from how you first understood. Singing in Dutch sounds very stupid I think. I tried, but it doesn’t work. The references become totally different and you get compared with other Belgian musicians. It’s all less abstract with Dutch lyrics.

In the past you selected album songs together with label people. Do you prefer to work with other people? Is that why you have a band now?

De Stervende Honden was an idea of Stief (Marreyt, from Kraak) to play as a power trio for Naast De Kwestie, but it also developed out of touring with Sylvester Anfang and Clay Ruby. He asked me if I ever played with a band and we just tried one day - we had all the gear with us anyway - and it worked. After that I started my own band, The Beautiful Band. We recorded some songs, but we never thought it was good enough.

It was hard to find time to develop the music and to make appointPage 28

ments with four different people. In the end El-g and Paul left and it became worse; the songs didn’t sound as solid anymore. De Stervende Honden are more of a backing band, there’s no artistic input from them [Laughs] .

Do you look out for people who take your music to a higher level?

We have to be on the same level music-wise, definitely, but I don’t even know what my style is. My dream allstar band would be The Doors; all of them, but without Jim Morrison because he draws too much attention.

Or maybe I would only take John Densmore, the drummer. Takashi Mizutani from Les Rallizes Dénudés can play in my band as well.

Ignatz & De Stervende Honden play Wastelands Festival on 10 August at the Grindbakken in Ghent. The festival is free for Subbacultcha! members.

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U.S. Girls

As with her continuing art practice as collagist and photographer, Meghan Remy’s musical output as U.S. Girls has been dominated by her insistence on a solo working method. What started in 2010 as an apparently tentative stab at collaboration - visiting Toronto to record The Island Song with Canadian musician Slim Twig - has now become standard operating procedure in life and art ‘Meeting each other seemed to start some sort of chemical reaction that opened doors for both of our projects. It’s been a game-changer’ - Max Turnbull, aka Slim Twig Image by Meghan Remy

U.S.Girls feat. Slim Twig and Floris Vanhoof play Wastelands Festival on 10 August at the Grindbakken in Ghent. The festival is free for Subbacultcha! members.

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Steve Gunn

Steve Gunn is a New York-based guitarist and songwriter. With a career spanning nearly 15 years, he has produced volumes of critically acclaimed solo, duo and ensemble recordings.

These days you can find him playing as a trio as well as serving as guitarist in fellow Philadelphiabred troubadour Kurt Vile’s band the Violators.

Time Off, his new album on which his compelling singing features more prominently than ever before, shows his oblique character sketches and story-songs about friends, acquaintances and denizens of his Brooklyn neighbourhood.

Gunn at the top of his game Photos shot by Christopher Schreck in Brooklyn, USA Steve Gunn plays Wastelands Festival on 10 August at the Grindbakken in Ghent.

The festival is free for Subbacultcha! members.

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Steve Gunn

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Scene Report

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Scene Report

Petrozavodsk + Moscow R SS A

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Petrozavodsk + Moscow, RU

Scene Report

We are more than excited about sharing with you all these brilliant stories from artists all over the world. The summer issue is a special one and so is this month’s scene report. We asked our Russian informants - Ivan Afanasyev of Love Cult and Alexander Khmelevsky of Midnite Cobras - to give us intel on their home scenes: Petrozavodsk and Moscow. This is only a part of their more extensive scene stories, which you can find online.

So for those who want to be properly informed: check our website!

‘We’re very much into collaborations and splits, especially if they somehow connect Russian and Karelian scenes with the world’ - Ivan Afanasyev ‘We describe our music as “shitgaze” because we don’t really play our instruments that well and we try to sound like a shoegaze band’ - Savier Alexander Text by Ivan Afanasyev and Herlinde Raeman Photos shot by Ivan Afanasyev, Nikolai Egorenkov, Asya Baeva in Petrozavodsk and various photographers in Moscow, Russia Page 37

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PETROZAVODSK I’d like to tell you more about the Petrozavodsk scene. Petrozavodsk is the capital of Karelia and with just under 300,000 inhabitants a very small town on a Russian scale. My name is Ivan Afanasyev and together with Anya Kuts I play in Love Cult and run a label called Full of Nothing.

As Love Cult we create raw, emotional music on the edges of drone, shoegaze and modern electronics. We released our debut LP via London’s finest label - Public Information - last year and are now touring Russia and Europe. Anya has just returned from New York where she was the Russian participant at the Red Bull Music Academy.

Full of Nothing started in 2010 as a communication platform. It’s our way to show love to the people we meet, to strike up e-conversations and to exchange ideas. Over the course of three years we’ve released over 40 tapes and CD-Rs. The Full of Nothing catalogue is graced by stunning releases from such artists as: Gnod, Bear Bones, Lay Low, M Geddes Gengras and many more. More importantly, however, the label allows us to meet like-minded individuals from across the globe. We’re very much into

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collaborations and splits, especially if they somehow connect Russian and Karelian scenes with the world.

Anya and I also curate a series of events called Тайная Комната (Tainaya Komnata, ‘a secret chamber’). We’re desperate to break the concept of a ‘gig’ and challenge music lovers to find new ways of appreciating sonic art. The shows change location basically every time and we’ve managed to organise gigs and festivals in an old courthouse, attics and living rooms of wooden cabins in the forest, industrial lofts, desolate beaches, public libraries, cinemas, art galleries, independent venues and bars.

Everything is still 100% DIY and not-for-profit, merging unusual music with art, dance, tea, public talks…

The Karelian independent music scene has something to offer. First of all, I’d like to mention our partners in crime - Dva Zagorodnyh Doma. Unlike us, Lena and Sasha - also a couple - are both very active with their solo projects: Kot Kot and Sashash Ulz respectively. Their work can be described as playful melodies and simple songs buried in terrible sound.

Another little star in the tape scene is Anton Filatov, aka, Wind in Willows.

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as well as digital interference, guitar, and god knows what else. Actually, his very house served as the starting point for the Tainaya Komata events.

The audience had to take the bus to the city edge and then walk five kilometres into the forest.

I can’t talk about the Petrozavodsk scene without mentioning electronic pioneers Igor Bogdanov and Victor Shubin, better known as ADD. These self-proclaimed ‘Karelian magicians of glitch’ have been making computer glitch music since the mid-1990s and are highly regarded by many young folks here. Another key player is Sergey Suokas, who Page 40

likes to confuse his audience by constantly releasing music under a different moniker. Sergey is a super-talented electronic producer whose work sprawls in all directions at once.

Essential Karelian spots: Tainaya Komnata, Taiga, Essential Karelian artists: Love Cult, Kot Kot, ADD, Dva Zagorodnyh Doma, Sashash Ulz, Wind in Willows, Sergey Suokas

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MOSCOW My name is Savier Alexander and I work as a promoter called Lion Is The Sun. Since five years ago I’ve been bringing bands to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. However, I’m not the only promoter in Moscow, there are five people working on the same kind of shows as me, but we all have our own style. What binds us is that we are all independent promoters; we’re not agencies. We do all the bookings and promotion ourselves. I also play in a band called Midnite Cobras and I have my own solo project, Burago. Midnite Cobras are just me and two friends. We describe our music as ‘shitgaze’ because we don’t really play our instruments that well and we try to sound as a shoegaze band.

The music scene here has changed a lot in the past five years. On the one hand, it’s become much more accessible than in the past, now that you can find more information about shows on the internet. On the other hand, we don’t have a lot of venues here in Moscow. There’s a place called 16 Tonn Klub, one of the city’s oldest venues - it exists for more than ten years now, which is very rare for Moscow - but the only venue I work with now is Клуб Artplay. Actually it’s the Page 42

university for media and arts, a cultural place, but in the summer they also organise parties and shows on their terrace, that can hold up to a thousand people. Not long ago I wanted to organise a Death Grips show there, but they told me that kind of music was too rough for a university. The same goes for Lil B. The venue’s director, an older business guy, doesn’t fully understand this kind of music. Therefore I’m trying to find other spaces; not actual venues but places where you can do everything yourself from the start and ask good security guys who won’t ruin your event. Security can be very tough here! It depends on how many people show up for a gig. Grouper played a show for me two years ago, with High Wolf at Актовый Зал, which is also more of a cultural centre than a regular venue. At that time no punk or hardcore shows were allowed, but this venue didn’t really pay much attention to that. three hundred people showed up that night! For Death Grips 700 people bought a ticket and 200 more were on the guestlist. My shows usually range from 100 to 800 people.

Originally I was only putting up shows for artists I knew or liked. Later I started contacting agents as well, or artists contacted me because somebody told them I could hook them

Petrozavodsk + Moscow, RU

up with a show in Moscow. Recently I’m trying to avoid agents because I like to have a more direct contact with the artists. For me there are two types of artists: people who are interested in me and what I do and want to play in the name of music and artists who just want to come here and make money. You can always tell from the beginning of the conversation who’s who.

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Essential Moscow spots: 16 Tonn Klub, Клуб Artplay, Актовый Зал, Dig, Purple Legion Essential Moscow artists: Midnite Cobras, Burago, OL, Vtgnike

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Art

Featured artist

Heretic

Heretic is the experimental illustration and screen-printing studio of Luke Frost, Jon Rundall and Therese Vandling. Exploring themes such as tomorrow’s symbolism, inner and outer visions, strange mysticism, psychedelia and space creatures, Heretic’s work primarily involves juxtaposing and blending elements of collage and drawing, using screen-printing as much for it’s reproductive as for its visual qualities. Their portfolio consists of a wide range of projects, from art prints and gig posters to record covers and 3D sound installations. Their work has been exhibited all over the planet, from Istanbul to Los Angeles.

Artist selected, liked and approved by Ladda & Topo Copy www.hereticheretic.co.uk

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Heretic

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Agenda

©Bart Vander Sanden

Shows in July and August

concertS

Strand of oakS (06.09) • the black angelS (11.09)• the boxer rebellion (12.09) • Pale grey (19.09) kate naSh + bleached (24.09) fuzz (25.09) • crocodileS (30.09) born ruffianS (30.09) • cloud control (01.10) • lilly Wood and the Prick (02.10) • tunng + Pinkunoizu (06.10) • majical cloudz (16.10) • mount kimbie (17.11) girlS in haWaii (21.11) Scan deze code en check onze website op jouw smartphone !

02 218 37 32 more @ botanique.be Page 48

Agenda On the following pages:

Subbacultcha! concerts and films totally free for members Page 50

Other shows Page 57 Overview Page 62

This is a photo of Seth Haley aka Com Truise, taken by Isolde Woudstra in Utrecht. Com Truise plays Dour festival on 19 July.

See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.be.

FILM | Charles Bradley: Soul Of America 12 July - Cinema Zuid, Antwerp 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Charles Bradley: Soul of America tells the incredible story of 65-year-old soul singer Charles Bradley, who released his critically-acclaimed debut in 2011 after a hard life of poverty, homelessness and tragedy. A story about real emotions and never giving up the dream regardless of how old you are.

Bobby Conn

20 July - Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | €tba | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Chicago-based Robert ‘Bobby’ Conn is a musician, misfit, culture warrior and bullshitter. His DIY approach and one-of-a-kind mix of classic pop influences, arty experimentalism, idiosyncratic lyrics and wild stylistic left turns are very unique. Like colleagues and weirdo icons Ariel Pink and R Stevie Moore, Bobby Conn’s style has probably confused as many as it has enlightened. One thing’s certain, his performance never bored anyone.

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R&S Label Night ft. Vondelpark, Egyptian Hip Hop, Space Dimension Controller 21 July - Vooruit, Ghent 23.00 | €16 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Founded in Ghent in the early Eighties, the now London-based label R&S Records is thriving again since re-launching five years ago with a cutting -edge roster of electronic and UK bass artists. Looks like the label wants to celebrate its roots on Belgium’s national holiday with a special night featuring DJ sets and live performances by some of R&S’s stellar acts. In order to dance.

Micro Festival ft. Moon Duo, Metz, Shannon & The Clams 02-03 August - Espace 251 Nord, Liège 18.00 | €12 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

For this fourth edition of Micro Festival, the people of Jaune Orange managed to present a very attractive line-up, especially with the presence of husband-and-wife psych rockers Moon Duo, post-hardcore sludge-punk trio Metz, Swedish punk kids Holograms and the mid-’60s psychedelicstyle Shannon & The Clams. Amongst others! Liège, here we come.

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Jackson Scott

13 August - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members This summer is a special one for Jackson Scott - not the xxx-rated star but Asheville’s new rising musical talent - as it represents the release of Melbourne, his debut LP. The digital popularity of the few tracks the weezerian student released on his Soundcloud led to suddenly having to deal with a professional online presence and worldwide tour bookings. Oh internet, you’re so good and dangerous at the same time.

Cosmonauts

21 August - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Normally, if we recommend one of a thousand bands from the same place playing the same type of music, you’d cringe – and rightfully so. But not when we’re talkin’ about yet another psychedelic garage band from California, right? Good, because these kids know how to rock the fuck out.

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FILM | Uprising: Hip Hop And The LA Riots

27 August - Cinema Zuid, Antwerp 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

This documentary, narrated by Snoop Dogg/Lion/etc, revisits the 1992 riots, that set LA ablaze following the beating of Rodney King, in gripping detail by highlighting the event’s relationship with hip hop and the role rappers played in forecasting the unrest.

EXPO | ReSiDuE

01 July - 31 August - WIELS, Brussels €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

This Summer, WIELS introduces the first edition of a yearly exhibition focusing on its residency programme with ReSiDuE, featuring the works of 60 artists formerly in residency at the Brussels Contemporary Art Center.

As its title suggests, the exhibition questions the notion of artistic production and its relation with the concept of residency.

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See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.be.

Wastelands Festival

10 August - Grindbakken & 019, Ghent 15.00 | €20-25 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

F

FE STIV AL

From the depths of the wastelands of Ghent comes a new festival, aptly named Wastelands. Though only on its second edition, the beautiful people of Wastelands have managed to put together quite the line-up, programming no less than 6 quality acts for your ears.

U.S. Girls Meghan Remy has declared her love for pop music before. On her new record Gem she has polished away the excessive distortion of her earlier recordings and ramped up her love of Sixties girl groups and R&B melodies just enough to make the experimentalism that is at the core of her songs easier to appreciate.

Mark McGuire (Emeralds) Portland-based musician Mark McGuire can’t stop, won’t stop. At only 26 years old, the drone guitarist has released over 100 albums through his various projects, the most notorious of them being the electronic music band Emeralds, which sadly called it quits earlier this year. In August he embarks on his first solo tour

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Shows in September

Agenda

As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag

post break-up, to support the forthcoming album Along The Way which, if the first excerpt ‘In Search Of The Miraculous’ is anything to go by, should be quite a pearl of a record.

Dracula Lewis Italian space-psych-horror maestro Simone Trabucchi (aka Dracula Lewis) remains something of a mystery. The last few years Trabucchi spent living in a Milan squat, creating art installations and working on his own label Hundebiss Records (Stargate, Hype Williams, Primitive Art) which saw the release of his long-awaited debut full-length U$e Your Illu$ion$.

Steve Gunn Some might have recently noticed Steve Gunn as the new backbone of Kurt Vile’s live band, while avantgarde fans will have seen him in several other formations. Being more than a groundbreaking guitar player with a soothing and powerful voice, mixing melodies with traces of folk and blues and balancing on the edge of a breakthrough, we simply share Vile’s opinion on him.

‘It’s impossible to just talk about Steve. He’s too good, just listen to him. What can I even say about him

that touches that? Hearing Steve, I immediately received that same deep appreciation I got when discovering Jack Rose and was completely blown away beyond. Just from growing up with roots music and just kind of immediately seeing something that was real and totally pure, no gimmicks.’

Ignatz & De Stervende Honden Ignatz is the moniker of Belgium’s finest underground guitarist Bram Devens. Devens recently relocated from Brussels to rural Landen and therefore named his latest LP Can I go home now?, a sequel to the brilliant I Hate This City. For Wastelands Festival he’s bringing along his backing band De Stervende Honden.

Trailblazer Coleman Guyon is a real jack of all trades. The US-born youngster directed music videos for Psychic Ills and Idiot Glee and shot amazingly beautiful pictures for Subbacultcha!’s scene report about Lexington, Kentucky. He also makes kraut-pop music as Trailblazer.

For info and tickets: Facebook and www.subbacultcha.be

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Agenda

Shows in July and August

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Shows in July and August

Agenda

Warm Soda

15 years of Scheld’apen 06 July - Scheld’apen, Antwerp Fifteen years of Scheld’apen means fifteen years of madness and uncompromising music. The people of the Antwerp-based avant-garde hotspot celebrate their birthday in style with the Blote Billenkletsers, Irritante Indianen, Geile Gilles Van Binche and more. Plezant zenne!

Les Ardentes ft. Jacco Gardner, MØ, Hanni El Khatib and more 11-14 July - Parc Astrid de Coronmeuse, Liège A big player in the festival game, Les Ardentes has some true jewels in its line-up.

Jacco Gardner will sooth your ears with his lush baroque rock, while MØ’s sparkly electro-pop is doomed to bring out your best moves on the dancefloor.

Rock Herk ft. Suuns, Traumahelikopter, Warm Soda and more 12-13 July - Harlaz-Olmenhof, Herk-de-Stad This year’s edition of the almost legendary Rock Herk features Suuns’ experimental rock, Warm Soda’s fuzzy power-pop and Traumahelikopter’s garage punk, together with numerous other acts full of groovy guitar tunes.

Cactus Festival 12-14 July - Minnewaterpark, Bruges For the 32nd time, Bruges will be hosting its three-day summer music festival with a standardly deluxe international line-up.

Our picks for this year are Baltimore’s masters of dream pop Beach House, Sweden’s dylanesque The Tallest Man On Earth, and Mali’s desert rockers Terakraft.

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Shows in July and August

Warm Soda 15 July - 4AD, Diksmuide Many a good band has buckled under the pressure of playing SXSW, and Bay Area garage pop trio Bare Wires counts amongst the festival’s fatalities, imploding onstage back in 2012 and announcing their breakup soon after. Clearly not one to wallow, frontman and band leader Matthew Melton quickly rebounded by assembling Warm Soda and within a year recorded and produced their 2013 debut, Someone for You. Combining fuzzy production with bubbly melodies and bittersweet lyricism, they pour out glammy power pop that’s far from flat.

Moon Duo 18 July - DOK, Ghent Minimal psych twosome Moon Duo’s Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada are partners on and off stage. The team has recently relocated from the bustling psych scene of San Francisco to Portland. Originally started as a side project of Ripley’s main band, Wooden Shjips, the duo earned its fair share of praise with songs built on a hypnotically repetitive foundation of organ, fuzzy guitar and simple percussion. Their latest album, Circles, was released last year on one of our favorite labels Sacred Bones and is still in heavy rotation here at the office.

Dour Festival ft. Mykki Blanco, Com Truise, Petite Noir and more 18-21 July - Plaine de la Machine À Feu, Dour The annual pilgrimage to the dust fields of Dour is now imminent, continually proving that it is both the most chaotic and musically forward-thinking of the major Belgian summer festivals. Don’t miss Mykki Blanco, Com Truise, and the guy with dreadlocks about to throw up on you.

Agenda

10 Days Off ft. Vondelpark, Egyptian Hip Hop, Vuurwerk, Bicep and more 18-28 July - Vooruit, Ghent 10 Days Off returns to the Vooruit during the ten-day madness of the Gentse Feesten, catering to fans of music across the electronic spectrum. Our highlights include Vuurwerk, Bicep and the R&S showcase on Day 4, which is free for Subbacultcha! members.

Boomtown Festival ft. White Fence, DIIV, and more 23-27 July - Handelsbeurs, Ghent If you missed White Fence’s Subbacultcha! show in May, here’s your second chance.

We can assure you, you won’t regret it. Another awaited comeback is of DIIV, who will be back on European stages with their dreamy psych-influenced pop.

Bruismelk Festival ft. Matt Krefting, Monopoly Child Star Searchers and more 26 July - Scheld’apen, Antwerp Bruismelk is the annual festival organised by visual artist, musician and radio host Dennis Tyfus, aka Ultra Eczema. This year’s line-up offers Monopoly Child Star Searchers, the audio project of Spencer Clark who used to form The Skaters with R&B cult producer James Ferraro, and tape artist Matt Krefting amongst others.

Vama Veche ft. Dans Dans, Spookhuisje, Low Vertical 30 July - 04 August, Astridpark - Bruges No better location to organise a festival than the fabulous Astridpark in Bruges. More than 20 bands are passing by in this Garden of Eden, and there’s plenty of Page 59

Agenda

Shows in July and August

SUUNS

live music that’s worth getting your teeth into. Our recommendations are jazz trio Dans Dans, Brussels-based psych guitarist Spookhuisje and art electronica combo Low Vertical.

ably the most underrated psychedelic music festival in Belgium. Our picks for this season are Peru’s 3 AM, America’s Karma To Burn, and the Franco-Swedish-American Blues Pills.

Micro Festival ft. Moon Duo, Metz, Shannon & The Clams and more

Wastelands13 ft. U.S. Girls, Mark McGuire, Dracula Lewis and more

02-03 August - Espace 251 Nord, Liège For this fourth edition of Micro Festival, the people of Jaune Orange managed to present a very attractive line-up, especially with the presence of the husband and wife psych rockers Moon Duo, post-hardcore sludge-punk trio Metz, and the mid-’60s psychedelic-style Shannon & The Clams.

10 August - Grindbakken + 019, Ghent From the depths of the wasteland of Ghent comes a new festival, aptly named Wastelands. Though only on its second edition, Wastelands has managed to put together quite the line-up, programming no less than six quality acts for your ears. From Torontobased gritty pop songstress U.S. Girls and her frequent collaborator Slim Twig to exEmeralds member Mark McGuire, and from horror electronica producer Dracula Lewis to the distorted blues brothers Ignatz & De Stervende Honden. Most probably the only festival not to be missed this summer!

Yellowstock 09 - 10 August - Bogaard, Geel Bringing a broad variety of international acts on stage, Geel’s Yellowstock is probPage 60

Agenda

Shows in July and August

Julia Holter

Jackson Scott 13 August - Madame Moustache, Brussels This summer is a special one for Jackson Scott, as it represents the release of Melbourne, his debut LP. Read more on page 52.

Julia Holter 13 Augustus - DOK, Ghent In advance of her highly anticipated release for Domino Loud City Song, Californian singer-songwriter Julia Holter returns to Belgium for an intimate show at DOK in Gent.

Cosmonauts 21 August - Madame Moustache, Brussels Normally, if we recommend one of a thousand bands from the same place playing the same type of music, you’d cringe – and rightfully so. But not when we’re talkin’

about yet another psychedelic garage band from California, right? Good, because these kids know how to rock the fuck out.

Feeëriën 26 - 29 Augustus - Warandepark, Brussels This year, Feeëriën houses itself once again in the picturesque setting of the band stand in Brussels’ Warandepark. Our picks include Ignatz, Julianna Barwick, and Jessica Pratt.

Music From The Guardhouse initiation 01 September - Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle At this experimental feast all-time ‘Kraak-er’ Lieven Moana will be presenting his new album, Music From The Guardhouse. The Antwerp-based new-age musician also selected a couple of his favourite artists to play on this special night, ft. Spencer Clark, Floris Vanhoof and more.

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Overview of all Subbacultcha! shows in July and August

12 July

10 August

FILM | Charles Bradley: Wastelands Festival Soul Of America ft. U.S. Girls, Steve Gunn, Cinema Zuid, Antwerp Dracula Lewis + more 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members Grindbakken & 019, Ghent 15.00 | €20-25 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

20 July

Bobby Conn

Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | TBA | Free for Subbacultcha! members

21 July

R&S Label Night ft. Vondelpark, Egyptian Hip Hop, Space Dimension Controller Vooruit, Ghent 23.00 | €16 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

02-03 August

Micro Festival ft. Moon Duo, Metz, Shannon & The Clams

13 August

Jackson Scott

Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

21 August

Cosmonauts

Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

27 August

FILM | Uprising: Hip Hop And The LA Riots

Cinema Zuid, Antwerp 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Espace 251 Nord, Liège 18.00 | €12 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

01 July - 31 August

EXPO | ReSiDuE

WIELS, Brussels €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

See all these shows, plus the Subbacultha! shows in NL for free.

Join at www.subbacultcha.be.

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