EDITOR’S LETTER Remember the start of 2011 - when James Blake was just a few EPs and a twinkle in our collective eye? When nobody knew what a Jessie J was, and somebody, somewhere thought Viva Brother would sell records? Well, it's over now. As another year comes to its end the time comes to look back on the last twelve months of fantastic music. From the emergence of Ghostpoet through to the award-hoovering genius of PJ Harvey, there are more than a few contenders for DIY's album of the year. It's a testament to modern music that it's almost impossible to pick a standout contender. Looking forward to 2012, we're pleased - nay delighted - to welcome back The Maccabees. Working with Tim Goldsworthy - a man possibly best known for his DFA connections they've returned with an album that elevates them to a whole new level of awesome. Simone Scott Warren's cover feature finds a band not short of ambition on the eve of their third album; arguably more of a challenge then even the fabled difficult second full length. We've also picked out a few of your favourite bands of next year. From the bewitching pop of Niki & The Dove through to the tribal Fixers and the satisfyingly loud DZ Deathrays, we'd recommend checking out each and every one. If you want even more, there'll be expanded profiles, tips and interviews on thisisfakediy.co.uk at the start of January. Speaking of the website, we've had the painters in and undergone a bit of a redesign. We're proud of this one, so if you've time between videos of cats falling off things, check it out.
STAFF LIST Editor: Stephen Ackroyd Deputy / Online Editor: Victoria Sinden Contributing Editor: Emma Swann Features Editor: Harriet Jennings News Editor: Sarah Jamieson Film Editor: Becky Reed Games Editor: Michael J Fax Contributors: Adam Parker, Alex Yau, Andrew Backhouse, Aurora Mitchell, Ben Marsden, Daniel Wright, Dave Rowlinson, Derek Robertson, Edward Clibbens, El Hunt, George Boorman, Heather McDaid, Heather Steele, Huw Oliver, Jake May, Jamie Milton, Joanie Eaton, Joe Skrebels, Lauren Down, Marc Thomas, Martyn Young, Mary Chang, Matthew Davies, Matthew Horton, Sam Faulkner, Sam Lee, Sebastian Reynolds, Simon Butcher, Simone Scott Warren, Tom Baker, Wayne Flanagan Creative Director: Dacre J. Bracey Designer: Sam Millard, Chidi Ubani Illustrator: David Flanagan Style Pages: Irene Asanji, Cheyenne Davide Stylists: Neesha Sharma, Gemma Swan Photographers: Adrian Nettleship, Jake Green, James Pearson Howes, Marc West, Patrick Heagney, Sam Bond, Simone Scott Warren
SALES TEAM For DIY Magazine sales: nigel@rewindcreative.com matthew@rewindcreative.com tel: +44 (0)20 31764299 For DIY Magazine editorial: email: info@thisisfakediy.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76137249 For DIY Magazine online sales: email: lawrence@sonicdigital.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76130555
Cover photography: Sam Bond DIY Magazine is contract published by Rewind Creative Media Ltd on behalf of Sonic Network Limited. All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the publishers Rewind Creative Media Ltd. DIY Magazine: 25p where sold Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Rewind Creative Media Limited or Sonic Network Limited holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY Magazine or it’s staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. 3
TS
N TE ARS
N CO
7
-1
52
9
-5
82
34
5
-4
40
-3
38
-6
60
78
S
-7
9 1 -8 80
EW ms VI lbu e A iv h RE c Te m es l Fi am G 3 L -7 70 -75 74 77
s ES abee ove UR acc he D AT he Mi & T FE 22 T Nik ers ds op ays x 18 -27 Fi rien a P athr ter g 26 29 F n e in in o 28 30 Ic Z D W A K 11 3 D lu ll 20 -3 i 32 -35 Zu K Of o 9 st T Be 7
L ape GU ixt ws ene tudio RE06-07 1M1 NePopscThe S n t O 08 -13 In irst ion Las 12 -15 F sh & Fa irst F 14
16
6 thisisfakediy.co.uk
MIXTAPE Not content with giving you a free magazine, DIY Towers has been ringing out to the sound of music; free music that we’ve begged, stolen and borrowed from some of our favourite bands and labels. We’ve put it all together to make this month’s DIY Mixtape. To grab your free copy head to thisisfakediy.co.uk/mixtape now. 1 LOS CAMPESINOS
7 CAVE PAINTING
2
8 ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER
3 4 5 6
By Your Hand TRAILER TRASH TRACYS Dies In 55 MINT JULEP Aviary BLEEDING HEART NARRATIVE Shoals THE TWILIGHT SAD Kill It In The Morning TROPHY WIFE Canopy Shade (Chad Valley Remix)
Leaf
My Mistakes
9 14TH
Hide Yourself
10 REAL ESTATE
Out Of Tune
11 BEING THERE
Tomorrow
12 DAN MANGAN
Post-War Blues
10 8
4 6 5
8 thisisfakediy.co.uk
1
7 12
9 7 11
3
9
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS December sees All Tomorrow's Parties celebrate the festive season with Nightmare Before Christmas. With this year's event featuring the likes of Wild Flag, The Field, Surfer Blood and No Age, we caught up with two of the curators - Les Savy Fav and Caribou - to find out what it's like picking the bill for one of the events of the year, and why they chose what they did. CARIBOU Curating an ATP is made doubly hard by the catalogue of amazing acts who have performed/reformed at ATPs past. As much as possible we wanted to choose a new (to ATP at least) crop. Still, we were able to spot a few holes in their back catalogue. Right at the top of our list - short of curating the dead (Mozart, Biggie Smalls, etc) was Pharoah Sanders. We thought he was firmly in the 'pie in the sky' camp but ATP have ways of possibilising the impossible. Completing a triumvirate of septuagenarian-plus saxophone heroes are the Sun Ra Arkestra led by Marshall Allen and the incendiary Getatchew Mekuria with The Ex. Together they represent a good chunk of my favourite music in the world and I pity anyone who has to take the stage after any of these three. Which probably means us. I'm not in it for a pissing match of who 10 thisisfakediy.co.uk
could collect the oldest/most revered: the relatively unknown Orchestra Of Spheres, who as far as I know are making the trip over for this for their first shows outside of Australasia, we met at the bottom of a swimming pool in a summer camp in the New Zealish wilderness. Just try not to be transfixed by this free-wheeling amalgamation of Transglobal Disco Outernationalism. With more column inches I could continue to enthuse - heroes (Theo Parrish, Omar Souleyman), old friends (Four Tet, Junior Boys), newer friends (Toro Y Moi, Factory Floor) and still some of the most exciting additions as yet to be revealed... I just finished a DJ mix consisting of all the bands playing on our day and listening back to it I can't quite believe they're all going to play with us all on the same bill. I've been waiting all year - hurry up, already.
LES SAVY FAV ARCHERS OF LOAF
In 1992 I was pawing though the 7"s at Pier Platters Records in Hoboken and found this sweet looking single. It was a black and white sleeve, hand colored with Crayon. It was the first Archers Of Loaf single and I've loved the band ever since. In 1996 or 7 Les Savy Fav were asked to open for them. The only hitch was the show was in NYC and we were on tour in Texas. We ended up driving straight from Denton, Texas to a New York snowstorm and loaded straight in to the old Coney Island High. Worth It!
HOT SNAKES
The Hot Snakes make Les Savy Fav want to play music - then burn our instruments because it wouldn't be as awesome. I remember when LSF played with them for the first time in DC. I was hooked.
1
HOLY F**K
HF are a band that inspire joy and ecstasy in me and pretty much everyone in the audience when they play. I don't think those are easy sentiments to engender as a rock band (I use that term not as a genre ID but as a philosophical designation).
NO AGE
Among the good things about our last record 'Root For Ruin' leaking is that we changed the release date. Otherwise it would have come out on the same day as No Age's 'Everything In Between', which is such a great record that it would be hard for the world to accommodate the majesty of it all. I really liked No Age before that but after I LOVED them!
WILD FLAG
It's like a super group of goddesses. We are honored to share a bill with them. I grew up with Mary Timony in DC and being such a long-time Sleater-Kinney fan, we landed in the honey pot when we were able to book them. SMD are so loud and fun. I can't wait to feel their DJ set. If it is even 1/10th as contagious as their live performances I'll be sweating blood. In a good way.
OXES
FUTURE ISLANDS
The Dodos bring a unique perspecive. Their approach to songwriting I find both novel and familiar. They bring a full dynamic range; their artistic vision is very in line with LSF's way of thinking.
MARNIE STERN
SURFER BLOOD
We asked a lot of female bands as most music festivals are dude heavy. Marnie is an amazing musician and her guitar skills are phenomenal. She is a road warrior and we are excited she was available.
VIOLENT SOHO
Although there's an unavoidably anachronistic aspect to VH (e.g. early Butch Vig production credits) it feels more like their efforts to make unselfconscious, ballsy, concussive rock songs just ended up there without too much fuss.
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
Sometime in the early part of this century on one of our unending profitless and ecstatically joyful tours of Europe we got booked to play with some band called Oxes. It was Amsterdam I think. We'd never met before but still ended up in a pretty hedonistic and extended mostly shirtless end-of-set man jam. The audience of about 20 people mostly left before we finished I believe.
THE DODOS
Current Suppression Ring gets me excited and this project headed up by their guitarist is a great example of another manifestation of the ECSR ethic of unapologetic, timeless musical directness. So refreshing.
A lot of bands make reverb soaked "surf " influenced music right now, most of it has no hooks. Surfer Blood have hooks.
TOTAL CONTROL
Anything remotely connected to Eddy
The singer from Future Islands seems like a legitimate visionary kook. Visionary kooks are my favorite kind of kooks and small music is a great place to find them rooting around in weirdo bags of delightful delusion. Samuel T. Herring's weird vocal affectations and lyrics take this band from pop to pop-eyed.
THE BUDOS BAND
I love me some Afro-Soul and the Budos Band do it better than anyone else Stateside. That they're contemporary makes their timeless approach all the better. ATP's Nightmare Before Christmas will take place from 9th - 11th December at Butlins Holiday Centre, Minehead. 11
WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU'VE EVER HAD?
Johnny Foreigner's Alexei doesn't always enjoy his job as a t-shirt monkey, so this issue we ask: what's the worst job you've ever had? "I worked at Lidl. And was fired." @joeparry, via Twitter "Worked in an electrics factory & had to separate bins full of 2 different lengths of screws into individual length piles." @ollocks, via Twitter "I worked at an NHS call centre reminding people they had appointments to get hearing aids fitted. It was fundamentally flawed." @mrimmaculate, via Twitter
SOAP BOX As Summer Camp touched on in the last issue of DIY, being in a band doesn't always equal big bucks. Often, musicians need day jobs to get by. Johnny Foreigner's Alexei Berrow sells merch for other bands in his native Birmingham… I'd like to take this soapbox to fire a bullet point rant at people I meet in my IRL job. I know you probably saw my name and expected some gin-soaked rant about The Industry, but it's ok 'cos I work in Show Business, so it's still relevant. I am a t-shirt monkey to the stars. I've always ignored ranty soapbox people though, so, if I was to stand on one and spew righteous ire, I would place it in the foyer of any large arena and target specific individuals as they passed me by. This would include: - Mothers of 8-year-old girls on Rihanna's 'Loud' tour: don't b**ch about how our security are heartless when they ask you to leave at ten to midnight. You just made your daughter watch a sex show and spent so long choosing which soft porn souvenir to buy her that 150 staff and 16998 people went home. - The drummer and the soundman in P!nk's backing band: there are higher paying gigs you could be working where you don't have to suffer that kind of abuse from the talent. - Miley Cyrus: um, your autotune is broken. - Take That: not only do I hold you per12 thisisfakediy.co.uk
sonally responsible for giving us the worst virus of our lives, I think I caught oestrogen poisoning. Also Mark, your autotune is broken. - Katy Perry: please don't tell your management yr going to inspect the merch and then go somewhere else. We bled for you. - Alan Carr: you probably know Lee Evans did five nights to your one, but what you might not have been told is, during Lee's set, you could hear people laughing. - People who have temporal disorder: you cannot buy the DVD of the show before the end of the show. How can you be so old yet not understand the flow of time? - Everyone who's played at the NEC in Birmingham in the last ten years apart from Kelly Jones: yes, thank you, we would like a crate of beer as a gesture of thanks. - Elton John: buzz my stand with that f**king helicopter one more time and I'll shred your ugly t-shirts in the rotor blades. Johnny Foreigner's new album 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything' is out now via Alcopop.
"I was a mystery shopper, my only payment was being reimbursed for the McChicken sandwiches I had to buy to test staff in McDs." @michaelmphysics, via Twitter "I used to do 'sticking up' for skittles games down the local pub, required me to pick up skittle pins for 3 hours." @christianallen8, via Twitter "Selling ice cream from an unrefrigerated bike during a heatwave wearing a polyester waistcoat with a fake bowtie." @edseed, via Twitter "Call centre worker for Land's End, selling 'shelveless' swimsuits to 60+ women." @williamggrant, via Twitter "I worked at the bear factory (build a bear now). I used to have to dress up as a bear & dance for kids. Really." @bemyfirecracker, via Twitter "I used to hand out free raffle tickets at a small-town Sunday market. Got bonus for alerting the 'dodgy' vendors to police." @keeppoploud, via Twitter Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/thisisfakediy
ON SECOND THOUGHTS Derek Robertson takes another look at Radiohead's innovative release method for 'In Rainbows'. “We’re doomed!” is a pretty common lament by record label execs when asked about the state of the industry. The reason? Piracy, of course. The ease with which digital files can be ripped and shared has unsurprisingly led to the collapse of CD sales and those beloved fat margins. All our fault, basically. So you can imagine the collective gasp when Radiohead, perhaps the most successful, critically acclaimed band of the last ten years, announced they were basically giving away an album. Both industry insiders and fellow musicians lined up to criticise them. The Cult’s Ian Astbury called them “irresponsible”, Kim Gordon complained it “made everyone else look bad,” while Morrissey, ever the romantic, still “dreams of an album that sells well not because of marketing… but because people like the songs.” So far, so predictable. And when James Blunt helpfully pointed out that “I’ve got to pay a band, a producer, and a mixer,” most people conceded that he had a fair point, and that selling albums for 1p probably wasn’t the best way forward. But all this whinging overlooked one, cru-
cial factor: they never advocated it as a solution for anyone but themselves. Ever ones to push the envelope, they’d found themselves with a huge following but without a label, and simply decided to experiment. The tip-jar style system not only treated music aficionados (for once) as sensible adults, but also – by making them register – gave them a valuable insight into who their fans actually were. As their manager noted, it wasn’t a “prescription for the industry,” simply a forward-looking band using the immediacy of internet technology to directly engage with their audience. Of course they were in a fortunate position, and of course the idea wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone, but to complain, as Gordon did, that “it wasn’t catered towards their musical brothers and sisters, who don’t sell as many records,” misses the point entirely. The digital genie is well and truly out of the bottle and, as physical sales continue to dwindle, isn’t going back in anytime soon. By demonstrating that there’s always an alternative, that artists of a certain stature no longer needed a label, and that fans were more than capable of deciding what consti-
tutes a fair price, Radiohead were lighting the path of Web 2.0 and giving songwriters a little more control over their destiny. The digital landscape is vastly different to that of 2007, but many of the services we now take for granted, such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp, would have seemed equally crazy back then. Indeed, what is the latter but a glorified version of what Oxford’s finest tried? If MySpace proved you didn’t need a label to help with promotion, Bandcamp is showing that you don’t need one to sell music either. Coupled with innovative ways of raising funds – PledgeMusic springs to mind – artists are finally freeing themselves from the whims of the Dark Overlords. “What about the smaller bands?,” I hear you cry. Well, if noone’s listening to your material, and you can’t drum up interest, it’s unlikely you’d have got a million-dollar deal under the old system either; the cream always rises, as they say. So let’s give thanks to Thom and Co. for showing the majors as the paranoid, money-grabbing Luddites they are, and that there’s still gold to be had if you chase your rainbow hard enough. 13
POPSCENE OXFORD DIY Radio host Sebastian Reynolds tells us about Oxford. Photos: Marc West.
It's a perfect time to be writing about the Oxford music scene, what with Jon Spira's documentary on the very subject ('Anyone Can Play Guitar') having been recently released to great critical acclaim, and a whole crop of Oxford-based bands blazing a trail to the mainstream. The local scene that has, over the years, spawned such global musical behemoths as Radiohead, Supergrass, and Foals, is going from strength to strength. Vertigo Records' psyche-tribal-drone-pop band Fixers were Zane Lowe's Hottest Record In The World with the track 'Ranch Majesties', and many other Oxford bands are getting the attention they deserve. Arts and music collective Blessing Force are causing quite a stir locally and far beyond. BF has been championed and mentored by Foals and include in their number Trophy Wife, Pet Moon, Chad Valley and Solid Gold Dragons as well as artists such as Tinhead and Charlotte Freeston. Their events at Modern Art Oxford provided some of the musical high points of 2010. The continued success of the Oxford scene is due to the fact that, alongside so many excellent bands, there are many great promoters here who give young musicians a chance as well as those who continue to bring the best big-name and up-and-coming acts to the city. Promoters such as Coo, Adventures Close To Home, Back And To The Left, and Feed The Birds are really giving a fantastic platform to local and touring artists and the continued support of the town's small to medium sized venues such as The Cellar, the Port Mahon, the Wheatsheaf, the Bullingdon Arms and the Jericho Tavern are enabling the scene to continue to produce some seriously amazing bands. Oxford's Nightshift music magazine has long since been the nexus of all things musical in the city, with its yearly Punt festival of new Oxford bands a highlight of the city's music calendar. BBC Radio Oxford Introducing also do a fantastic job of encouraging new bands and showcasing the best with live sessions on their weekly show. Sebastian Reynolds co-hosts 'Pindrop Presents' on DIY Radio every Wednesday at 9pm. 14 thisisfakediy.co.uk
PLACES TO VISIT
BANDS TO WATCH
OXFORK 39 Magdalen Road, OX4 Oxfork is a brand new cafe bistro that has recently opened up in east Oxford, right next to the Tibetan Buddhist temple on Magdalen Road. It is run by local supporters of the music scene and is fast becoming the hip place to go… Open daily for brunches, lunches and afternoon tea.
DEAD JERICHOS soundcloud.com/deadjerichos Twice cover stars of aforementioned super influential local music zine Nightshift, Dead Jerichos are continuing to be THE hotly tipped Oxford guitar band. They effortlessly update the math-rock movement with a hard, tribal, delay drenched drone punk sound of their own.
TRUCK STORE 101 Cowley Road, OX4 Truck Store is the only independent record shop in Oxford and stock a superb cross section of local releases, plus a fantastic selection of hard to find vinyl and standard chart fodder. They also have frequent instore shows. Keep an eye on their Twitter (@Truck_Store) for regular updates.
THE YARNS myspace.com/theyarnsuk Oxford has produced a slew of acoustic led pop bands that have gone on to great things, Stornoway and The Epstein spring to mind in particular. The Yarns are my tip as the next band to follow in their footsteps. The demos they've posted online are maddeningly catchy and very much on the right side of literate folk pop.
THE REGAL 300 Cowley Road, OX4 The Regal has been home to some mindblowing evenings of music, particularly shows with CocoRosie, Silver Mt Zion, Mogwai and Why?. It really deserves to be a lead fixture on the UK 1000 capacity tour circuit. Its beautiful, faded interior is similar in atmosphere to London art deco theatre venues such as The Forum and The Troxy. MODERN ART OXFORD 30 Pembroke Street, OX1 MAO has built on its reputation as being one of the best places to see live music in Oxford by having a progressive, open minded attitude to how they host events. All year round the gallery is host to many of the big touring exhibitions by the world's leading contemporary artists. G+DS various locations, Oxford An Oxford only ice cream parlour/local institution with three branches across town, G+Ds is the best post/non pub hang out around. The bagels are reasonably priced and the honey and greek yoghurt is my personal favourite. All ice cream is homemade locally and the hot chocolate is to die for. Open daily 7am - midnight.
THE COOLING PEARLS soundcloud.com/the-cooling-pearls Something of a local super group, The Cooling Pearls feature members of folk arkestra heros We Aeronauts and indie rock band Cat Matador, and is the brain child of Oxonian musician Aiden Canaday. Their tape-hiss-heavy debut 'The Honoured Meal Of The Strange' recalls The Velvet Underground at their most winsome, as well as echoing British folk legends Nick Drake and John Martyn. GRUDLE BAY RIOTS soundcloud.com/grudlebayriots Grudle Bay Riots use hushed, breathy vocals, chiming, delayed guitars and shimmering, atmospheric keyboards to great effect and have written some truly beautiful, haunting songs. In their full six-piece they are an impressive live spectacle. TOLIESEL soundcloud.com/toliesel ToLiesel are the newest in a long line of Oxford-based Americana-influenced bands. Very much inspired by spaghetti western soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone as well as modern alt-country legends such as Wilco and Fleet Foxes.
15
IN THE STUDIO OF MONTREAL Jamie Milton catches up with Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes to discuss the band's forthcoming new album. Photo: Patrick Heagney.
By the time ‘Paralytic Stalks’ sees the light of day, Of Montreal will be eleven albums strong. That being the case, you can only envisage frontman Kevin Barnes using this milestone as some sort of catalyst for making his most experimental offering to date. The last truly odd and striking album in the band’s catalogue came in the form of 2008’s ‘Skeletal Lamping’, a work that shares a lot in common with the Athens, Georgia-based group’s forthcoming record, claims Barnes; “This one’s definitely asking more from the listener... The arrangements aren’t obvious or based on simple structures or basic chords or anything.” Most Of Montreal records have their idiosyncrasies, odd bits here and there that almost intentionally thwart the listener. It seems ‘Paralytic’ Stalks’ will have similar moments: “There’s one song in particular where it’s either going to be one of those songs that people really love or really hate," he tells us. "It’s not funky, or anything in particular, I don’t really know how you can describe it. That song’s the one where I actually had to kind of fight the label and make sure it 16 thisisfakediy.co.uk
went on the record, for obvious reasons.” But the challenging nature of this next record might not stem from experimental instrumentation or unconventional structures: Barnes highlights the lyrical nature of the album as quite confronting; “I think with [previous album] ‘False Priest’ I was doing roleplaying, in a way, telling stories and acting out and singing songs from a different persona. The album’s definitely more in touch with my personal life and as a whole it’s much more confessional. On the storytelling of the last record, a lot of the stuff was true but the spirit of the album was a whole lot more dramatic.” ‘False Priest’’s lyrical content was extremely hard to ignore, too, with tales of girlfriends throwing fish out of windows, followed by stark, blunt monologues on religion. But where the last album thrived on a sense of theatre and performance, ‘Paralytic Stalks’ sees a full-frontal emotional performance. “With this record, I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve,” says Barnes, “I was a lot happier, a lot less vulnerable [on ‘False Priest’] than I am for this one.”
But what looks like potentially Of Montreal’s darkest, most harrowing record to date, also comes with a contrastingly fun companion, on release day. The band plan to issue out “500 or so” copies of a customised board game, alongside the record. Including a question section devoted entirely to North Korea (“a lot of that isn’t factual-based,” admits Barnes), it’s fit for social outings, whilst the album sounds fit for isolated, headphoneassisted listens. The board-game has “been created to be pretty much impossible to win in a conventional way” and likewise, with the album, Kevin Barnes predicts it to be far from easy on the head: “As the record goes on, a lot of the songs get longer and longer and the final song on the album is thirteen minutes long, and a few other songs are around eight minutes long.” Is he concerned about how people will receive it? “I never worry about how it’s going to be received when I’m making it. It’s pointless worrying about how commercial or anti-commercial the album is.” That’s been Of Montreal’s ethos from the very start, and to date it’s paid dividends.
17
FIRST ON: BOS ANGELES
OUTFIT
Bos Angeles seem like a loveable bunch. Even if you disregarded their music, you’d probably still want to give them a hug. The band from Boscombe – the seaside town from which they got their name – seem modest and genuinely amazed by the attention they’ve had so far.
the trio’s attitude towards the music. “At that time we had about 18 or 20 songs that were fairly finished. After seeing all the attention 'Beach Slalom' got we got rid of all our songs except for two and started again. It more or less changed everything. It drove us to get better.”
“The last 12 months have been insane,” Rich tells me – and you would imagine that he’s not exaggerating. After all, the three of them (Rich, guitar/vocals; Ben, bass; George, drums) have only been together for just over a year (before which they worked as ice cream men on the beach) and now they find their name perched triumphantly on the tip of every dedicated new music fan’s tongue.
But of the adoring words that bloggers worldwide have to say about them? “We read it and it’s all really exciting – though we tend to take it with a pinch of salt. We like to keep our heads straight and concentrate on what we like to do,” Rich adds. “If we believed the hype it would have gone awry long ago.” And gone awry things certainly have not; they may be taking things slowly but they're still most certainly going strong, with two confirmed releases – a single out on Jamie Fullerton’s Roundtable, and an EP out on the increasingly impressive Art Is Hard Records.
Outfit are a Liverpool-based five-piece who don’t comply with expectations. Signed to the ever-growing Double Denim, they fit in perfectly amongst other DD bands waiting for their time to shine. Apart from the fact that they look uncannily like Deerhunter, they produce genre defying music that draws most notable comparisons to Wild Beasts.
“It was a huge surprise,” says Rich of the popularity of their song 'Beach Slalom' (which, thanks to its in-your-face surf pop meets post-punk urgency and unnatural levels of catchiness, quickly found itself hyped by swathes of bloggers back in March). “I never thought it would do anything apart from sit on our MySpace page and get a few plays. It was a great big mind f**k. But a good one. An enjoyable one.” As well as being a “mind f**k,” Rich says that the success of the track also improved 18 thisisfakediy.co.uk
Guitar music doesn't need saving. But if it did, the hero of the hour wouldn’t be the bl**dy Vaccines, it'd be Bos Angeles – and they probably wouldn't be aware that they'd even done anything. ( Jake May) Bos Angeles' debut single 'Days Of Youth' / 'Beach Slalom' is out now via Roundtable Records.
Mixing off-time percussion with ricocheting expansive guitars, their debut single ‘Two Islands’ has a dizzying one minute intro to ease you into a repeated piano hook accompanied by crooning vocals that manage to captivate you for over 6 minutes, not to mention a funk bassline that slips away unnoticed in the background. They’re not one dimensional though, BSide ‘Vehicles’ is a world away, sounding half like a Blessing Force band, and half stereotypical indie. It’s hard to believe that this is Outfit’s first recorded output: the production is crystal clear, and their accomplished instrumental abilities astound. They’re not likely to tell you their life story as they have a rather elusive nature, but the music is storytelling in itself. (Aurora Mitchell) Outfit's debut single 'Two Islands' is out now via Double Denim.
LETTING FIRST ON: COLD SPECKS UP DESPITE GREAT FAULTS There’s a chance you’ll become quite smitten with Letting Up Despite Great Faults’ dreamy indie pop: the next year is going to be a big one for them. The opening track of debut ‘Movement’ showed their attractiveness from the offset. Their self-titled LP is so much better though. ‘In Steps’ borrows New Orderesque bass lines and ‘Our Younger Noise’ is wrapped in Radio Dept. like atmosphere. Recent mini album ‘Paper Crush’ is another fine release. ‘I Feel You Happen’ is Joy Division on speed, whilst the laid back ‘Teenage Tide’ would fit perfectly on a Smashing Pumpkins record. Fans of M83 will also love the monumental ‘Repeating Hearts.’ They’re not just a revivalist band though. ‘Paper Crush’ has a noticeably more ambitious sound than previous releases. It sets them apart from the crowd. If they continue to grow this way, we’re sure they’ll become just as huge as their contemporaries. (Alex Yau) LUDGF's new mini-album 'Paper Crush' is out now via Heist Or Hit Records.
‘Spine-tingling’. That’s how to describe the eerie soul of Canadian Al Spx in one horrifically clunky adjective. Her gloomy introspection has already drawn comparisons to everyone from Tom Waits to Adele, and with a debut album now recorded, she's certain to blow up in 2012. Huw Oliver grabbed a few quick words with the timid singer-songwriter before she headed out on tour. Tell us who’s behind Cold Specks. Just me, really. There are other band members who play with live and have been recording. But really... it’s just me. How would you describe your sound? It’s been referred to as ‘doom-soul’, and that’s become the best way to describe things, I guess. What did you do before you started performing as Cold Specks? I worked in a call centre in Toronto. Have you always performed music? I sort of did it privately before, in the comfort of my own home. Then I moved here and started performing more openly. Where do you draw inspiration from? Tom Waits… Bill Callahan… Field recordings.
So, you’re supporting Howling Bells soon. Are you excited? Yeah, I’ve never toured before, so it should be interesting. Do you look forward to playing live, or is it more of a burden? I used to get incredibly nervous, but I’m fine with it now. What are your songs about? Suburban disenchantment. What other material have you got recorded? We got back from a studio in Wales last night. We now have eleven tracks. Does that mean we can expect an album soon? Yeah, it’s done for the most part. Early next year is when you should hear it. So, what other plans do you have for the future? I don’t have a clue. I’ll just go with the flow, I suppose. A headline tour? I’d like to. Cold Specks' debut single 'Holland' is out now via paradYse. 19
INTO THE WILD Simone Scott Warren visits The Maccabees in Coventry, of all places, whilst they prepare for the release of their third fulllength, 'Given To The Wild'. Photos: Sam Bond. 20 thisisfakediy.co.uk
The pitfalls of the third album are often understated. Whilst we're consistently led to believe that we're only meant to point and laugh at a band's dismal sophomore offering, and should they survive that humiliation it's smooth sailing ahead, in truth it's often easier to coast through that with the leftovers from the blistering debut. If being forced to actually sit down and be creatively productive only occurs again for the third outing, it's then that the cracks actually begin to show. The Strokes' debut, 'This Is It', managed to be both a commercial and critical success, earning them the kind of plaudits that 'Room On Fire' was never really expected to live up to. But third album 'First Impressions Of Earth' found the NYC boys faced with a critical mauling for the first time in their career, consigning it to petrol station bargain bins at the speed of sound. We probably shouldn't really mention 'Humbug', right? After releasing two genuinely brilliant albums, the Arctic Monkeys' third
offering was met with a fairly universal sigh of disappointment. And when Oasis invited us to 'Be Here Now', the obvious response appeared to be a dismissive 'no thanks, I'm washing my hair'. Which isn't to say that it's impossible to release an outstanding third; 'OK Computer' completely changed our perceptions of Radiohead, whilst 'Parklife' catapulted Blur from being indie near misses to an arena sized proposition. It's just that, whilst popular theories label the second album 'difficult', the third could easily be considered the real 'challenge'. So it's with some trepidation that we settle down, in a dressing room filled with Maccabees, to listen to a selection of tracks from their own third album, 'Given To The Wild', painfully aware that our every facial expression and toe tap is carefully being scrutinised. It's a difficult record to predict, given that
there was such a leap in both style and tone between the Maccabees' debut long player, 'Colour It In' and their second effort, 'Wall Of Arms'. The implication seemed to be that of a band manoeuvring themselves from being ostensibly run-ofthe-mill indie, to a far grander, darker, meatier sound. First impressions of this album, laden with brooding guitars, ferocious drumming and epic melodies, suggest that the Maccabees have been busy pushing the boundaries still further. And whilst circumnavigating the band's genre leaping career thus far might be considered a daunting enough task alone, to add to my current predicament, guitarist Hugo White appears to be testing reactions to a specific track, 'Heave', which he informs me is dividing the band as to its inclusion on the album. It's hard to know what to say, in truth it's quite gorgeous, filled with heart wrenching strings that exemplifies how far the band have travelled in the last six years. But it's easy to sound sarcastic 21
when attempting sincerity, or sounding too sincere and coming across like some kind of sycophant. After proffering gentle reassurance that it's a beautiful track, this seems a prudent point to address the issue of their re-invention, and any concerns that those fans of the Maccabees circa 'Colour It In' might feel a little alienated by this new record. “I can't even remember what we were like when we made that first record though,” guitarist Felix counters, “I feel like, with those people who came on board back then, that saw something in us, I always thought that they could already see the progression of it. Getting beyond that, it's almost... not rewarding exactly...” He tails off, seemingly frustrated at his inability to vocalise his argument. “We're proving to the people that had faith in us that we're worthy of it?”, his 22 thisisfakediy.co.uk
younger brother Hugo offers. “Yeah,” Felix agrees, “It's like, we're proving something to the people that slagged us off on the basis of the first album, for those people that saw something in the band.” So, any notions of a band with a point to prove seem validated. It's understandable though, as when the Maccabees first emerged in 2005, the musical landscape was awash with similar sounding bands with very little to say. Rallying against those preconceptions is no easy task, even whilst second album 'Wall of Arms' showed glimmers of the grandiose nature of 'Given To The Wild', Arcade Fire's producer Markus Dravs appeared, through no fault of his own, to walk off with the majority of the credit, affording doubters an opportunity to accuse the band of simply jumping on a different bandwagon.
“We were kind of conscious of that”, Felix affirms, “Throughout that record, Markus was intent that it didn't sound like Arcade Fire, that it represents something different. We chose Markus primarily because we liked him, and he was a good referee.” Frontman Orlando, who up to this point has been an enigmatic figure lurking in the corner, uncomfortably playing with a teaspoon, quietly contradicts Felix a little, “We did choose him because he'd worked with Arcade Fire, though.” Whilst Felix does nod agreement, he seems keener to set the record straight, “But it's not like we phoned him up and said “Can you make us sound like Arcade Fire, please?” and he went “Yeah, I know exactly how to do that!”, that's not how it worked.” However, for the third album, the band
appear to have made a particularly leftfield choice when it comes to co-production duties. Tim Goldsworthy is best known as part owner of DFA Records, with previous production credits including Massive Attack, UNKLE and of course, LCD Soundsystem, but despite his presence, the Maccabees have not spewed forth a glaringly electronic record. It definitely seems like a less than obvious choice, but perhaps that's the point. “We'd done a lot of the production ourselves, so we understood how we wanted it to go, rather than just turn up and record it” Felix affirms. “We already knew how we wanted it to build up, and that sort of thing. We just felt like we needed somebody who had a bit more nous, with a specific ability to make things three dimensional. And Tim turned up and loved the songs, and I think he saw that this was our best record, and it doesn't just sound like another indie band going 'blah blah blah'.” For that to be the case, this record must find the Maccabees' moving away from their usual lyrically oblique style, with something very definite to say, which seems to be a fair assessment. Within their little unit, things are changing, people are growing up, and 'Given To The Wild' appears to be their opportunity to document the shift in their lives. “This morning, one of our good friends had a baby, and that sort of thing wasn't happening when we made the last record,” Orlando confirms, “There's been so many births, and that makes you start thinking about things in a different way, the shift in responsibilities, that tipping point, the age that we're at. And I've felt it very acutely, I guess. You're so happy for people, but at the same time, you're so agog at the thing that they've just taken on. And it makes you start thinking about those things, concerning your own family and your own really close friends. So that's the thread of the record. And with that comes all the anxieties of what that means for me, and for us...” It's all getting a bit serious, and so we shift the conversation on to the location chosen to record the album, the illustrious Rockfield Studios. With a rich history of previous occupants, including The Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers and (umm) Gay Dad, it must have been quite a domicile for the summer? The mention of the place seems to light up the room. “Oh yeah”, Hugo beams, “In one of the rooms, there's the piano that Freddie Mercury played 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on!”
“It was important for us to go somewhere that's not super slick. We never feel very comfortable in those sorts of places, because we're a little ramshackle band. Somewhere old and full of character,” Orlando enthuses, before Felix interjects, “It's an amazing place, and that type of studio is kind of disappearing because people are recording more and more in their own spaces. So it was good to go somewhere with history.” History, and as they inform us in an attempt to challenge for the position as the least rock and roll band in history; lots of kittens. “They were really scared of people so you had to go back every day to see if you could get a little nearer...”. Hugo becomes incredibly animated as he discusses worming his way into the affections of those cute little bundles of fur, “They let me go in the barn!” “They did warm to you,” Orlando teases him, “Kittens, they like your face!” And so, if there was any underlying discomfort lingering at my presence in the dressing room, it's almost certainly now dissipated. Orlando has even ceased fiddling with his spoon. It seems only right then that I ruin the jovial atmosphere by querying a quote where Felix asserted that this record has been inspired by the Stone Roses, David Bowie and Kate Bush. It seems prudent to point out that those artists sound nothing like either each other nor, from what we've heard of it, the new record. He looks a little bashful, before clarifying his comment. “The point that I was making, was that 'Low', 'Hounds Of Love', and the first Stone Roses records, they all have a very identifiable sound to them, they have a kind of freedom, and you believe in those records quite quickly.
"THIS TIME AROUND IT FEELS LIKE WE'RE READY TO GO OUT AND PLAY LIVE AGAIN. WE'VE GOT A RECORD WE FEEL DESERVES IT."
There's just something about them, you could live inside them forever. Once we'd got some songs together, we were just trying to work out how it could have its own identity, be this thing that exists on its own, like all those records do.” So does this mean that this is the Maccabees' shot at a Classic Album? “It's definitely an ambitious album,” Felix asserts, before adding that their entire approach has changed, “With the last record, while we were writing it, we'd look to play a few songs to people, just sort of gauge it. And with this one we didn't do that, we just ploughed through and concentrated on it, but with enough of a view to how it would translate.” And it seems a point they all agree on, as Orlando concurs, “The big difference with the writing of this one, is that it's written much more from a production aesthetic, not thinking as a guitar player. So you're writing an overall piece of music, rather than Sam playing the drums, me playing guitar...” Felix interrupts his train of thought, “It's been a different way of making music.” Animatedly, he continues, “This time around it feels like we're ready to go out and play live again, without being too fidgety about it, because we've got a record and a piece of music that we feel deserves a stint at it, and we can play it without thinking, 'oh we can do better, or we should just stop this and start again and make a different record'. So I think this time, touch wood, should be the most enjoyable.” But does such an obsession with detail explain the long gap between albums, after all, it's been over two years since 'Wall of Arms'? “It's a long process,” he confirms, “It can get pretty clinical, so it takes a long time to make not very much music. But it's an incredibly rewarding thing when it happens.” Orlando seizes the opportunity to interrupt, “That's the best bit of the whole thing, that really tiny moment when you think, oh god, this might actually be alright, and it's so fleeting because five minutes later someone else says they don't like that bassline and you have to change it, but just for that minute, that twenty seconds or so, where you're making something from scratch, it's unbelievable...” The attention to detail appears to have stretched beyond the recording process too; the Maccabees are well known for their attempts to capture the odd traditions of our fair nation for prosperity, with their video for 'Can You Give It' having featured the Gloucestershire sport of 23
"THIS MORNING, ONE OF OUR GOOD FRIENDS HAD A BABY. IT MAKES YOU START THINKING ABOUT THOSE THINGS."
Cheese-Rolling. Apparently, it's a theme that they're keen to continue, sticking to this ideal with the artwork for 'Given To The Wild'. “Am I allowed to say?” enquires Orlando of his band-mates, and after getting the affirmative continues, “We've got Andy Goldsworthy on board, who's a sculptor we've persuaded to let us use his work.” Now if, like me, you've no idea who that is, he's apparently best known for using his bare hands and teeth to create artworks out of flowers, icicles, mud, pinecones, snow, and stones. “There's so many cool eccentricities about Britain, that it seems only right to try document them. And also, it looks awesome.” Before we're ejected from the Maccabees' dressing room, we quickly enquire if there's to be another Christmas single, akin to last year's 'Walking In The Air' offering. “It 24 thisisfakediy.co.uk
was a nice thing to do, we should do something like that again. But it has to be odd enough. If we ever do covers, it's always got to be something a bit 'boom boom pow', it's got to be something so different that it can't be judged. We'll have to think of something so far removed. Any suggestions?”. This is my moment to put forward 'Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime', with the implication that it's about time they put the Macca back into the Maccabees. Felix shoots my dreams down with a quick fire retort, “You can't out McCartney McCartney!” It might have been an ambitious suggestion, but since that is the new buzzword for the Maccabees, it was worth a try. After all, it appears they're foregoing 'Third Album Syndrome' and opting instead to climb the next rung of the ladder, moving
away from venues the size of tonight's gig in Coventry, and instead glancing, shyly, at the possibility of arena tours. And indeed, why not? Tonight, they literally rock the Kasbah with five new tracks, including the deliciously epic 'Ayla' and the furious 'Feel To Follow', both of which are implausibly greeted like old friends by the audience. So let's be straight, if you disregarded the Maccabees completely, wrote them off as a throwaway band singing about minty fresh kisses, 'Given To The Wild' seems like the perfect opportunity for a reappraisal. And you know what, if you still don't like it, fine, but in the words of the band themselves, if you've got no kind words to say, then you should say nothing more. The Maccabees' new album 'Given To The Wild' will be released on 9th January via Fiction.
27
CLASS OF 2012
NIKI & THE DOVE Perfectionism is such a cliché, but that's exactly what we're inclined to accuse Niki & The Dove of when we meet them in a cold, leafy park in North London. Words: Harriet Jennings. Photos: Adrian Nettleship.
The duo (twos are very in this season) consisting of Malin Dahlstrom and Gustaf Karlof are preparing to go on stage at Camden's Koko, a venue that seems to have captured their collective imagination. "It looks so Sherlock Holmes; it must be very old,” swoons Malin, famed for seeking inspiration in unlikely places. The band's previous two EPs, 'The Fox' and 'The Drummer', take on themes of their own: nature and the desert respectively. Carrying more bags than you would imagine her tiny frame could handle, frontwoman Malin is a real enigma, seeming simultaneously friendly and hard to reach, but with an obvious sense of determination. She grins excitedly at Gustaf as we begin the interview, and is more than happy for him to take the lead in our conversation, a rapid u-turn on the previous press tactics that have portrayed her as the main attraction in the band. “I think that if the last EP has a theme of the desert and our different interpretations of the metaphor, then the album is more of a patchwork,” she explains. “It is a collage. If you zoom out, there might be a pattern, you might find it.” The pair are currently working on their debut full-length with fellow Swede Elof Loelv, tackling the production duties together as a trio, a fact that Karlof is keen to cement in our minds. With the band's 28 thisisfakediy.co.uk
writing habits contradicted in online reports, it's easy to understand why they might be so particular about such questions, and they eagerly assure us that they both contribute to writing new material. “We have two tracks left to record in November now and then it's supposed to be finished,” Gustaf says, fidgeting slightly and clearly agitated at the lack of completion. “The album is planned for March, and I really hope it is ready for March,” explains Malin, tentatively. The duo's hesitation to talk about their forthcoming release is quite obvious, playing up to their ultimately mysterious image - something they're both fully committed to cultivating. “I wouldn't want to describe our music,” Malin says when pushed for more information of the forthcoming record's sound. “But if we had to describe it, because we do get asked this question a lot,” Gustaf sighs, rescuing his bandmate, “in a boring way, it's a lot of acoustic percussion and quite a lot of electronic harmonies on top of that, with some melodies. "It's just melodic, it's not static. We like melodies. A lot of music today is focussed on other things, a lot of music has a steady beat in a minimalistic way and a minimalistic melody and they want to describe something else.” Speaking of descriptions, we ask about
the "Pagan" label that the band's EPs have attracted. “I'm not surprised that they call it Pagan,” Malin whispers. “It isn't Pagan, but I'm not surprised. It's just labelling. Everyone tries to do that with their lives.” “People love to compare things to other things,” Gustaf continues. “It's amazing how 90% of people talk about how much sounds like other music. Why can't you just listen to music for what it is? People always have to compare it to other things. It must be a psychological thing with that person, or just with humanity!” “People struggle to find structure, I think,” poses Malin. “Because they can't describe the music they have to compare it to other things and that's their way of describing it. I think it's kind of shallow actually. I wish they could just describe our music or just listen to the music and describe it with
words, but it is a difficult thing. I think that's why there is music; it can communicate things that words cannot.” And whilst communication might not be their strong point, Niki & The Dove have been very clear to convey exactly what they do and do not want to their record label, Mercury. “When we wrote the deal, it was very important for us to have the creative freedom,” Gustaf asserts. “We were very determined about that, it was one of the first things we said. They can have opinions but we have the last word. For example, with the instrumental songs on 'The Drummer' EP, they [Mercury] were a little doubtful of that because they thought it was a bit strange.” “We wanted to have them because we wanted to work through the theme,” Malin smiles. “It is a thematic EP and to do that, we needed those three tracks on it.
"IT'S VERY IMPORTANT FOR US TO HAVE CREATIVE FREEDOM. WE HAVE THE LAST WORD."
We decided to keep them and I love that we did it.” So what decisions exactly are their label permitted to make? Touring, as it happens, which is something the band are likely to be doing a lot of next year. “We've had a nice time on a support tour and on a headline tour too. But those are the decisions that the label can make,” concludes Gustaf. “We heard something about it last night but that was just the first discussion about it,” Malin says, hinting at a headline tour. “But let's hope for one for my sake anyway, I'd like to do one,” she finishes. And with that, our time together comes to a close, and I leave them playing with a stranger's dog. I think they prefer his attention anyway, he asks fewer difficult questions.
29
CLASS OF 2012
FIXERS 2011 was a big year for Fixers; a whirlwind of hype that ultimately saw them sign to Mercury for their debut album. As we find out, that's only half the runaway train of a story. Words & Photo: Emma Swann.
Fixers booked themselves a gig before they were a band. This is the Fixers who've been one of 2011's most hyped new acts, the Fixers who've not long signed with a major label. The Fixers who, immediately following our chat, are off to arguably the most famous recording studios in the world to master their debut album. “We won't talk about this stuff because we get scared – we still pretend we're rehearsing for a one-off show,” is their response. “It's crazy how this is happening,” explains Roo Bhasin, sat next to vocalist Jack Goldstein (the remainder of the band are off to find coffee following our photoshoot). His bandmate continues: “There's no way we would've seen this happening back then. It was booked before we got the band together. Then, by the time 30 thisisfakediy.co.uk
we'd done two rehearsals, we realised it was never going to be a one-off, regardless. We were slugging away so much at it.” Their hard work over the past eighteen months has paid off: Fixers' immediate future features a string of live dates, and the release of new EP, 'Imperial Goddess Of Mercy'. That's after a visit to Abbey Road to complete the album. Yet, they're already worried about being bored with the result. It's nearly six months until the record will be released – it took them just four weeks to tire of previous EP, 'Here Comes 2011 So Let's All Head For The Sun'. “You've got to wait so long for it to come out,” Roo explains. “By that time, we're
"A LOT OF PEOPLE OVERINTELLECTUALISE MUSIC, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT."
gonna most likely be bored with it, we would have moved on to something new.” Jack goes further: “There was only a month between recording the last EP and when it came out, and by the time it came out we were bored of it. You kinda hope that you're not in that frame of mind with your album.” This, and learning to deal with what Roo calls the "very large machinery" of a major label, might just be counterbalanced by the chance to revisit the songs live following the album's release. "We may be bored of hearing the songs, it'll be the first time we'll be playing the songs, so that's OK." Read almost anything introducing Fixers,
and one phrase will be visited time and time again: 'psychedelic pop'. Often artists will balk at such brief descriptions of their life's work, but Jack's pretty happy with this one. "It's a fair representation; whatever we make is always going to be influenced by Brian Wilson, and it'll always be influenced by Van Dyke Parks, no matter how it sounds. Maybe we'll use different production techniques, or maybe we'll listen to different things, but we'll always have certain fundamentals. I'd also say experimenting is one, perhaps dance is, and then everything else around it is quite an ebb and flow, it comes in then shoots off." Pressed on whether there's anything the band take as much from artistically as
those examples that we might not expect, there are mumblings of "Japanese dance, but I guess people do know about that to a certain degree," then Jack settles. "George Gershwin. It's just so intricate, yet it's so simplistic to listen to. You can listen to it in a very linear way and have complete utter enjoyment. And yet he's playing the same amount of notes that I've played in my entire life twice over in thirty seconds of one piece! I know a lot of people overintellectualise music, but you don't have to profess to understand it." Finally, what would make 2012 a successful year for Fixers? It's quite simple, according to Jack: "2012 would be good if by the end of it we were a little less scared." 31
CLASS OF 2012
FRIENDS Samantha Urbani from Friends is already starting her New Year’s resolutions. “I’m cleaning my room because it’s a mess,” she tells us down a crackly phone line from her apartment in Bushwick, New York. “My mum is coming to visit me today, we’re gonna go do yoga.” Samantha should enjoy the spare time she gets now, because it’s clear Friends have a busy year ahead. September 2010 is when it all began. With Samantha living in Berlin for the summer making demos on her laptop, it wasn’t long before her mates heard them and, as soon as she returned, she tells us, “everything just fell into place. One night, we all just happened to be together. I played them my demos and we practiced that night. The chemistry was there from the very beginning, so we knew it was going to turn into something.” Their steamy debut ‘Friend Crush’ shot into the blogosphere like a white-hot meteorite, and the bass-heavy, eye-popping strut of ‘I’m His Girl’ serves as the perfect anti-anthem for all New York’s hippest rooftop parties. It’s a tantalizing glimpse into the mind of Friends. Samantha tells us of their band name: “We thought of a bunch, but they all 32 thisisfakediy.co.uk
sounded too much like band names - like two words. When we thought of Friends it seemed a little bit different. It had a joke quality to it, so we could just say ‘Hi, we’re Friends’.” Yet in the time of the band being together, it’s come to mean much more than that; it’s come to define what Friends are all about: “inclusivity, connection, community – what we bring to our shows, the way that we make our music, and network and stuff. It’s about losing that hierarchy you see so much in the band/fan relationship.” It seems to be an ethic many Bushwick bands adopt, there’s definitely a thread running through those coming out of there - a fuzzy, starry-eyed dreamlike charm to them all. “The scene is really thriving,” Samantha says of Bushwick. And you don’t have to live there to see it. From dream merchant Darwin Deez, to other hotly-tipped Lucky Number signings Caged Animals, also showing ample promise. Clear out the old and move onto the new. In 2012, we invite you to plunge in at the deep end with Friends. And as far as we’re concerned, it’s not a bad New Year’s resolution. (Andrew Backhouse)
WEIRD DREAMS Formed over a mutual obsession with David Lynch, the duo of Doran Edwards and Craig Bowers started Weird Dreams in the summer of 2010. After adding friend Hugo Edwards to the set up they have been playing gigs around the capital ever since, going from relative unknowns to landing support slots with the likes of tUnE yArDs, Veronica Falls, and more recently Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. It’s not hard to see why their reputation is quickly advancing. Their retro hooks and shimmering, dream-like guitars take influence from classics such as The Beach Boys and Syl Johnson. Lead singer/songwriter Doran has a seamless ability to take elements of yesteryear and craft them into meticulously melodic pop songs. After releasing a self-titled EP not long after forming, they've gone on to record with producer Rory Attwell and acquire guitarist James Wignall, something which has had an undoubted effect on the band's more structured, multi-layered second EP. Expect the band's sound to prosper and evolve into early 2012, when the their debut full-length 'Choreography' will be released. (Wayne Flanagan)
CLASS OF 2012
ICONA POP Sitting in Mercury HQ, surrounded by copious amounts of biscuits, you might be forgiven for forgetting that you're in a major label's board room. And those girls sat opposite are not your friends but instead a ferociously talented twosome upon whom a good proportion of their record label's hopes for 2012 are pinned. Pressure? Not if you're asking Icona Pop. Words: Harriet Jennings. Photos: Sam Bond
“It's exciting for us to see where we'll end up. It's kind of chaos...” Caroline begins. “It feels so weird though. We've been working so long and now something's finally here, but it's very fun.” Fun is quite clearly something very high on Icona Pop's agenda. Meeting in their native Sweden only two years ago, Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo are the latest in a long line of Scandinavian pop exports. With the same haunting vocals and mashing of light and dark that might incite references to the schools of Robyn and Lykke Li, the duo are incredibly proud of their home country. “I think it's kind of cool that a small country like Sweden has so many artists out there at the moment,” Aino gushes. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what these girls are good at, but their latest EP goes a step beyond their earlier work to reveal something a little more sinister. As such, it's quite difficult to pin down what to expect from the band's first full-length release. “I think the album will be like a mix between everything,” poses Aino. “Some tracks are slow and some have big drums and twisted synths, and the other songs may have our vocals on and just a bass.” For the as-yet-untitled album, the girls are currently working with Elof Loelv (Niki & The Dove, Eric Hassle) and Patrick Berger (Robyn), two gentlemen that they affectionately refer to as “the real rock stars.” “Elof is a crazy guy,” smiles Aino. “We have been working with him since day one. He's amazing. He's just 34 thisisfakediy.co.uk
helped us to create our sound and take it to another level.” By all accounts, the producers are about the only people permitted to voice their opinions on the record's progress. Or, in fact, most things. “We've been given a lot of space,” affirms Caroline. “The label have been supportive of what we want to do. I think they realised quite quickly that we have a lot of opinions and we're quite sure of what we want. We bring a lot of ideas to the table. I think that makes it easier for them. If we don't do it, someone else will do it for us.” “We're constantly writing,” she continues. “And even though we have enough songs for maybe three albums, you're developing all the time. I think that this month, we will write a song that will end up on the album.” “We always write when we move to new places,” Aino nods, grinning at her band mate. “You get so much inspiration that you have to get rid of the energy somehow and often it ends up with us two sat with a laptop. We've been doing lots of new tracks
"I'M NERVOUS, BUT EXCITED. THE ALBUM IS OUR LITTLE BABY. WE'RE READY TO SHOW IT TO THE WORLD."
and we've only been here for a month.” Icona Pop's new London home has also been lending itself to a few collaborations (New Young Pony Club, Style Of Eye, to name two) but the band have their sights set pretty high for future targets: “I would like to work with The Knife or Planningtorock. They both have this really dark side and I think that would be a great clash, to bring the really, really dark theme into Icona and twist it even more, that would be awesome.” “That would be very cool,” agrees Caroline. “And then of course it would be very nice to write a song with Prince. We're working like 24/7 so sometimes when you're sitting down you have a moment where you're like, "whoa, what happened?" A lot of stuff 's going on and sometimes it's just crazy. We're just working and doing our thing and just hanging out with each other, having fun.” “Will we ever be finished?” ponders Aino, “I don't think we'll ever be finished in our heads. We're very nervous. It's like releasing a diary.” “Yeah, but I also think that even though I'm nervous, I am excited because this is our little baby and we've been just keeping it to ourselves. Now I feel that we're ready, we're ready to show that to the world.” And show it to the world they intend to, with plans for next year including an album release around March and hopefully a tour, it's safe to say that Icona Pop will not be short of nights like this in 2012.
35
CLASS OF 2012
DZ DEATHRAYS If you like your rock thrashy and bassy, DZ Deathrays could be the band for you. Hailing from Brisbane, Australia (that's ok, honest) and formed at a party, this duo are not famed for biting their tongues. DIY catches us with Shane and Simon to talk tapes, touring and The Future. Words: Harriet Jennings; Photos: Adrian Nettleship.
Your EP 'Ruined My Life' was recently released in the UK and came through on a number of different formats via a few different labels, why was that? Simon: The first one we put out through a couple of mates and it was their first release. And the second one we did through another friend called Johann [Ponniah]. Shane: Over here it's come out on cassette through Kissability, CD through Big Scary Monsters and then there's a vinyl that has two different tracks on Too Pure. So it's been pretty awesome to get everyone to work together. What made you decide to release on tape? Shane: [BBC Radio 1's] Jen Long put together Kissability and she just had this idea of bringing back the cassette. Simon: When we heard the offer, we were like "sounds awesome." Shane: I really like the idea of doing limited edition things and we've never really done that before so it was really cool to be able to do something completely different. I still have a tape deck at home. I'm pretty sure most people have a tape deck somewhere. It's just something cool to collect. That release sparked a few comparisons to the likes of DFA 1979. What do you make of those remarks? Simon: Well, we did listen to a lot of DFA 36 thisisfakediy.co.uk
when we were making that album... Shane: We'd rather be compared to a great band than a terrible band. It doesn't faze us at all. The whole basis of the band was influenced by DFA in the beginning, and now that we're doing a lot more than we ever expected to, we want to make our own sound of it. But then it's two people with a heavy bass line so it's always going to be kind of similar to that, which is great because there's not really many other bands that have that. Speaking of making your own sound, have you been working on new material? Shane: Yeah, with shows at the moment, we're only playing two songs off the first EP and three off the second EP but we've got a bunch of new songs that we've written for our album that we've been playing for about seven or eight months now. We've got a whole load more that we haven't started playing yet because they're not quite ready. So what's the plan for the album then? Shane: We're putting our album out in Australia through IOU, which is Johann's label. We want to get everything released in the UK at the same time. It's good that we're over here touring now because we can maybe sort something
out and release next year around March. Obviously the EP came out first in Australia as well. What's your position like outside of the UK? Shane: It's kind of weird. We've toured solidly in Australia for about two years and the first tour we did in Australia was amazing. Our first big tour was in February '09 and we got to tour with Crystal Castles so it was a huge thing for us. From that we really started touring own shows and that was a high point. We've had to climb our way up. I think the last headline tour we did was definitely the best. We've done heaps and heaps of support tours. We just decided that we wanted to go overseas so we've been to America twice and we came over here twice so we've just really been focussing on touring. Seeing that things were really picking up in the UK, we decided to focus on that area and see what happens. What's the plan for next year then? Shane: Album. Album'll come out and then we'll do a tour in Australia and a tour over here. We're thinking about relocating to somewhere in the UK or Europe for about six, seven months and then from there we need to get on the festival circuit and see what happens but this is what we really, really want to do.
"WE'D RATHER BE COMPARED TO A GREAT BAND THAN A TERRIBLE BAND. IT DOESN'T PHASE US AT ALL." 73
CLASS OF 2012
SPECTOR Some bands are meant to be really, really big. Some bands are destined to be selling out massive venues and gracing the covers of every music magazine you can think of. Some bands just aren't supposed to spend their careers halfway down the bill on a Monday night at the Camden Barfly. Spector are one of those bands. The London-based five-piece, just off the back of a trilogy of singles released though Luv Luv Luv Records (who also work with Florence & The Machine), create the kind of expansive pop songs that sound as though they could only have been written with more than one eye on the charts. With anthemic, sing-along choruses and shimmering, reverb-drenched production that would leave their record producer-turned-gun-toting-lunatic namesake drooling in his Californian prison cell, it's pretty clear that Spector aren't playing the shy wallflower when it comes to their music. Their style sits somewhere in between the spacious, lovelorn guitar music of the 60s - their latest single inspired by an encounter with a childhood sweetheart in Primark (yes, Primark) - and 38 thisisfakediy.co.uk
JESSIE WARE the processed synth pop of the 80s, while bespectacled frontman Fred MacPherson gives the tracks their unmistakably English eccentricity. MacPherson, known in a former life as Frederick Blood-Royale (frontman of Les Incompétents and, more recently, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man), is no stranger to fronting successful underground bands - but it seems as though, with Spector, he can see his chance to take it to the next level. And, by the looks of things, he and the rest of the band will be reaching for that opportunity with both hands. Although they're undeniably a band with populist leanings, Spector have got enough style and individuality to make their potentially mainstream bothering sound work. Bridging the dangerous gap between being 'popular' and being 'cool', they've got the potential to appeal to a mass audience, but enough hipster credibility to ensure that they do it whilst maintaining their musical integrity. It might sound like a lazy journalistic cliché, but you really would be foolish to ignore these chaps next year. (Sam Lee)
If there is one thing that UK music has excelled in over the past few years, it's producing female pop stars; but, while the likes of Jessie J have proven to be all style and very little substance, one of 2012’s brightest hopes Jessie Ware promises to be a much more intriguing and exciting prospect. Hailing from South London, Ware has already made a strong impression with her collaborations with SBTRKT, Joker, and Sampha, but it is her hugely impressive debut single ‘Strangest Feeling’ that firmly establishes her as one of the UK’s most promising new talents. Similarities can be made to Katy B, another singer with very credible electronic connections, however, the thing that really sets Jessie Ware apart is her incredibly soulful and classy voice, which, coupled with her impeccable ear for a strong pop melody and taste in progressive and inventive minimalist beats, make her a much more rounded and interesting proposition. It is not an easy task to be loved by both the electronic underground and pop mainstream but it is a task that Ware is more than up to. UK electronic music may have found a new star. (Martyn Young)
BRETON Lurching into life like an eerie scene from Mary Shelley’s most famous novel, the twisted electronic sounds of Breton could only have been concocted in a laboratory. And while the Swiss Alps certainly hold a greater sense of romantic mystique than South London, it is here where the quintet set up BretonLABS to conduct their sonic experiments. When we say “experiments” though it’s not just inflated hyperbole, the physical release of their second EP ‘Sharing Notes’ actually came mounted on a hand-made circuit board with a list of components and instructions detailing how to create a fully functional synthesiser. We can only hope to receive such carefully crafted multi-media efforts when the five-piece release their debut full length ‘Other People’s Problems’ in March next year. As for the music itself, previous singles ‘The Commissioner’ and ‘Edward The Confessor’ have already given us a taste of the glitchy, reverb heavy, multi-instrumental, sci-fi inspired ambience to come. And while the Swiss Alps may not have been involved, Sigur Ros’ Icelandic studio definitely was – helping the band’s output retain a sense of inscrutability whilst achieving galvanism that might even make Dr. Frankenstein proud. (Lauren Down)
LANA DEL REY So, what do you say about somebody who everyone already has an opinion on? Despite not having even released a full album yet, the internet has gone into overdrive to deliver their point of view on Lana Del Rey. At the time of writing, the video for 'Video Games' has received 4,508,330 views and she sold out her first London show in just half an hour. Popular, hey? Yet, Lana Del Rey – or Lizzy Grant as she is also known – has violently split opinion. It might be something to do with the fact that she is a both a very modern popstar (one whose popularity seems to have sprung out of nowhere) and an old school pop siren in a very traditional sense; one who has now signed to a major label (with rumours that she had been a part of the Interscope roster ever since ‘Video Games’ first appeared). They’re not the only rumours hanging over her. Her brief career is strewn with smoke and mirrors. If you believe everything you read LDR is a record label's Frankenstein's monster, the ultimate ‘indie retro pin up girl’. Lana, seemingly a woman of few words, has had to deny having collagen implants and admitted that ‘managers and lawyers’ helped her choose the ‘Lana Del Rey’ moniker.
Yet, does any of that matter if the music is good enough to speak for itself ? Scrape back from the surface and there seems to be very little discussion of the music apart from mindless hyperbole or equally mindless diatribes (oh hang on, I was just reading the YouTube comments, my bad). In the context of the current pop charts she is a breath of fresh air. 'Video Games' showcases a voice that is effortlessly sultry and swoonsome – as well as endearingly fragile. We’ve not heard much else (other than b-side 'Blue Jeans') yet but with another single ‘Born 2 Die’ out soon and a debut album slated for release in January, Del Rey faces her acid test. She needs to show that what she does is more than nostalgia and stitched together video clips. That she’s more than the American Duffy. The alluring glamour, the old school Hollywood look – everything seems to be in place. The pop mystique of the era that her voice harks back to may have gone but for all the bubblebursting of the internet trolls, the rise of a real and gifted popstar is something truly exciting. She cites David Lynch as an influence – if she proves herself to be anywhere near as weird and interesting we are in for something special. (Daniel Wright) 39
CLASS OF 2012
ZULU WINTER A London five-piece with a big future, Zulu Winter first made a splash with 'Silver Tongue' earlier this year. With 2012 around the corner, they're set to take their tribal pop on to a bigger playing field. Emma Swann pinned them down to learn more. Half way through our chat with Zulu Winter, the faces on the pub's TV screen begin to look a little familiar: yes, it's them. The first time they see themselves on telly, and it's with us in a quiet (well, it's Monday afternoon) pub in east London. "It's a bit weird," is their initial reaction, aside from laughing at the TV's old-fashioned dimensions displaying the credit 'Lu Winter Ver Leave'. "It's a real moment," keyboardist Dom Millard exclaims. "We haven't seen it before, so that's quite exciting," bandmate Henry (Walton, guitar) agrees. At first glance, the story of Zulu Winter is short and sweet: band forms in early 2011, band creates massive buzz six months later. But, as all things are, it's not that simple. The members (vocalist Will Daunt, drummer Guy Henderson and bassist Iain Lock making up the rest of their number) have known each other since their school40 thisisfakediy.co.uk
days, have been playing together in bands for years, and regrouped as Zulu Winter "about eighteen months" ago. "The previous name we were playing under... wasn't very good," admits Will, sheepishly, while Dom continues. "We found ourselves making music that we didn't like, basically. We woke up one day and were like 'this is rubbish!'" A period of self-exile followed, the band locking themselves away from prying ears for "a year and a bit" to write, write, and write some more. "We didn't play any gigs for nine or ten months, and just tried to write as much of the album as we could," chips in Guy. "Our first official show wasn't until the Shacklewell Arms in September," Will continues. "One of the scariest things that can happen to a new band is, you have three good songs, and then everyone goes
'Oh, these guys are amazing!', and suddenly they're all 'Have you got any more songs?', and they're like, 'Er, no'". It allowed the band to find their feet, and, as both Dom and Henry explain, more importantly find their sound. Dom begins: "We wanted to have enough songs that we could get a sound, and make something that made sense to us." "The speed at which things move means that you don't get enough time to develop what you're actually doing before someone else is asking more of you," muses Henry. "This way, we knuckled down and spent as much time getting things as right as possible." Their masterplan appears to have worked. Weeks after their first live outing, and days before the release of their debut single, they're well on the way to having
a whole album recorded. "75% I'd say," estimates Dom. The single, a double Aside 7" featuring 'Never Leave' / 'Let's Move Back To Front', was released in early November via Double Denim. It's a "good statement of intent of our sound," says Guy of the tracks chosen, although as Will attests, they may not be the band's obvious 'single choices'. "I don't think they're our most 'pop' songs," he ponders, "we've got various other songs which perhaps would be considered more 'pop', more traditionally 'pop', but it's nice for us to release something that's a bit more 'this is where we're at'." 'Never Leave', the track to which the aforementioned video belongs, was written "a bit later on," while the flip side was one of the first Zulu Winter songs to come about, and, according to Dom, marked a band milestone. "'Back To Front' was written quite early on, and when we
wrote that it made sense to us, what we were doing, it's the epicentre of the album in a way. It was a real moment where we were like 'hey, we could be alright!'" They've also been adding to their short live history, a single launch at CAMP in London, and then the small matter of Brixton Academy, where they support Friendly Fires at the end of November. "It's gonna be amazing", Dom's reaction is hardly surprising. "We've all been to gigs at Brixton, seen lots of bands there, and it's always quite amazing to see bands there. I think we're first on, so there might only be like, twenty people there, it might be quite cavernous, but..." Henry's quick to point out it's not all about the big gigs. "We've got quite a long tour coming up," he chips in, "which is good. Good to be playing lots of shows." What, then, for 2012? "There's things be-
ing thrown around by our management," Will states. "Plans to go to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, play SXSW, all that kind of stuff. But the most important thing for us is to make sure that the record is as good as it possibly can be." This is a point they're all in agreement over, and as Dom explains "we all really believe in the album as an idea. All the bands that you love, it's about the great album, the classic album." "Even if people don't listen to it," asserts Henry, "I want to come out of the studio with a record that I'm proud of. There's an element in everything that we've done, taking time out just to write and record, that it was for us, and that always has to be a central point, we make music for us, we want to make a record that we like in the way we like it. And if you start doing it any other way, you're a bit f**ked. And it's too early to get f**ked." 41
CLASS OF 2012
TO KILL A KING To Kill A King may be little more than eighteen months in the making (give or take a previous University band's existence), but they're already having to clarify that no, their name doesn't come from the title of a Civil War film, as has (apparently) been widely accepted as fact. Instead, it's a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The band explain. Words: Emma Swann. Photography: Jake Green. Stylist: Neesha Sharma. Grooming: Oriona Robb. "Trying to find a band name that five people agree on is ridiculous. This one had a vague little poetry about it, 'no small thing / to kill a king.' Hamlet's dad gets killed by having poison poured in his ear, which I thought was quite nice, too - it's not a musical reference, but you can see it." The band initially formed while Ralph, Josh (Platman) and Ian (Dudfield) were studying at Leeds University. Kid iD, as they were, "was a bit more dancey, more party-oriented." A move to London, picking up Jon (Willoughby) and Ben ( Jackson) on the way turned them "a bit more lyrical," and brought them a new name. Having just released their debut EP, it won't be too long before an album follows - they've finished recording, and are aiming for March ("the basic plan is to get over X Factor season, then start again in January"). Then, the aim's either to win over Stephen Fry (Ralph: "If he added me on Twitter, that'd be it, that'd be the end of my career"), or sell at least a very specific number of albums. "If we sell at least 60,026 records by Ian's 26th birthday," giggles Ben, "he's going to get a tattoo of a unicorn with a tank instead of legs that I drew."
42 thisisfakediy.co.uk
From left: Ralph wears jacket by Nicholas Deakins, £79.99; shirt by Original Penguin, £49.99; jeans by Henri Lloyd, £74.99 Jon wears jacket by Fred Perry, £79.99; polo by Fred Perry, £54.99; chinos by The Duffer of St George, £39.99, shoes by Lacoste, £65.00 Josh wears shirt by Fred Perry, £79.99; jeans by G Star, £79.99 Ian wears jacket by G Star, £114.99; polo by Original Penguin, £59.99; jeans by Denham, £129.99; Ben wears jacket by The Duffer of St George, £99.99; shirt by Original Penguin, £59.99; jeans by Original Penguin, £69.99
scottsmenswear.com 43
CLASS OF 2012
This page: Ralph wears jacket by Original Penguin, £124.99; jeans by Henri Lloyd, £74.99 Opp. page: Josh wears jacket by The Duffer of St George, £79.99; jeans by G Star, £79.99 Ian wears jumper by Denham, £199.99
44 thisisfakediy.co.uk
scottsmenswear.com 45
CLASS OF 2012 This page: Ben wears jacket by The Duffer of St George, £69.99; shirt by Original Penguin, £59.99 Opp. page, top: Ben wears jumper by The Duffer of St George, £49.99 Jon wears hooded jacket by One True Saxon, £69.99 Opp. page below: Ralph wears jacket by Original Penguin, £124.99 Ian wears jacket by One True Saxon, £99.99; polo by Fred Perry, £64.99
46 thisisfakediy.co.uk
scottsmenswear.com 47
CLASS OF 2012 INTERVIEW COVER STORY MAZES BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
FILM JEREMY IRVINE Plucked from obscurity to star in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, we speak to the young British actor about working with the legendary Hollywood director. Still buzzing from introducing scenes from War Horse, Jeremy Irvine is unfailingly polite as he talks about landing his impressive film debut. The Bedfordshire actor takes the lead in Steven Spielberg's sumptuous adaptation of the beloved book and play, playing a young soldier who travels through France looking for his beloved horse Joey, sold to the British cavalry during World War I.
most people did, and to suddenly be meeting the man himself, one of the best directors ever, is just mindblowing. When I was in the chorus with the Royal Shakespeare Company, I thought 'This is it, it doesn't get any better!'"
It took two months of auditioning for a secret project before he twigged. "It was a long process, doing lots of cold readings," he reveals. "I had kind of guessed this was War Horse for Steven Spielberg, but we hadn't really talked about it."
After the huge success of Nick Stafford's long-running stage adaptation, Irvine is confident the film, released on 13th January, will bring something new to the story. "What I think the film can do is really focus on characters," he ponders. "One of Steven's instructions was that the camera shows emotion and feeling. It doesn't show the thinking - you need to be feeling it."
How did he learn his fate? "I get a phone call at 9 o'clock at night, saying 'Can you come and meet Steven Spielberg for tea tomorrow morning?' It's just ridiculous! I grew up watching E.T. and Jurassic Park, as
With months of intensive horse riding training, it wasn't his four-legged co-star that worried him on set. "You constantly expect someone to tap you on the shoulder and say, 'We've worked you out - you're not
48 thisisfakediy.co.uk
actually a very good actor.' Every scene I was terrified." Spielberg's warm way with actors calmed his nerves, with Irvine dropping an adorable piece of information. "You get on set, and Steven's greatest asset is that it feels so normal and relaxed. He's so lovely and approachable. I mean, on the back of his chair, instead of 'director' he's got 'Dad' written on it!" Irvine will close 2012 as Charles Dickens' hero Pip in the Mike Newell adaptation of Great Expectations, starring alongside Helena Bonham Carter's Miss Havisham. He's just been cast as the lead in moving true story The Railway Man, playing a British Army officer held in a Japanese prisoner-ofwar camp during WWII. Colin Firth plays him in later years, as he eventually forgives and befriends his torturer.
FILM FELICITY JONES From The Archers to Sundance, the Birmingham actress takes Hollywood by storm with her role in romantic drama Like Crazy. After starring in the sweet and underrated comedy of manners Chalet Girl, Felicity Jones' latest film reveals why she took the US by storm earlier this year. Like Crazy hits the UK 3rd February, with the 27-year-old Oxford graduate playing a British exchange student in Los Angeles who overstays her visa after falling for classmate Anton Yelchin, effectively banning her from returning to her first love. Her natural, understated and incredibly perceptive performance wowed the judges at 2011's Sundance Film Festival, who awarded her the Special Jury Prize. At this year's London Film Festival, Jones reveals how she had a connection with writer and director Drake Doremus. "It started with a phone call - I read the script and loved it immediately. Drake and I spoke on the phone, and we had similar
ideas of the kind of films we liked, and wanted to make." She sent an audition tape to the Californian director. "I spent my weekend making a tape in my flat in East London: when they first meet, a phone call where I break down, and I tried to recreate the shower scene in my own shower." Laughing, she points out: "It was a close-up! That's how I got the part..." Her chemistry with Fright Night star Yelchin carries the story, as the pair struggle to maintain a long-distance relationship. "The film is improvised," Jones reveals. "So we had a 50 page outline, but we found the dialogue ourselves. We rehearsed for a week, and spent far too much time together!" After a summer being feted in the US,
Jones reflects on her decade as Emma Grundy on Radio 4's The Archers, before leaving in 2009 for roles in Cemetery Junction and The Tempest. "It's always fascinating whenever you say what you've done, and without a doubt the thing that causes the most excitement is The Archers. It's always impressive to people's parents as it's such a British institution. It was a great place to start my career!" The new face of fashion house Burberry, Jones is set to reunite with Doremus on his secretive, untitled new love story, starring alongside Guy Pearce. She'll also be seen with Maggie Gyllenhaal in Hysteria, a rom com about the invention of the vibrator, and has been snapped up by director and actor Warren Beatty to lead his romantic triangle based on the life of iconic industrialist, aviator and film producer Howard Hughes. 49
CLASS OF 2012
GAMES 2012 is set to be a belter of a year for games – we can only imagine the amazing technological advances that'll go into FIFA 13 in which the ball will actually smell like a real ball using the all-new Ball Stink Generator system. But, here's the top five we're looking forward to the most for the year ahead! Get saving, kids. FINAL FANTASY XIII-2
(Square Enix) – Xbox 360, PS3 3rd February 2012 “Hey, guys, let's make a new Final Fantasy game! It's one after part thirteen, so it's part thirteen part two, right?” And rightly so!
HITMAN: ABSOLUTION
(Square Enix) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC TBC The return of Agent 47 pioneers the rebirth of baldy coolness even more than re-introducing Grant Mitchell to Albert Square ever could.
MASS EFFECT 3
(EA) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC 9th March 2012 Slick sci-fi coolness where we hope and pray we can use the same deformed Shepard we've had all along. Also promises multiplayer!
THE DARKNESS II
(2K Games) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC 10th February 2012 We believe in a thing called love – and quad-wielding weaponry. This is one sequel we've been waiting on for a LONG time. Well, since 2007.
YAKUZA: DEAD SOULS
(SEGA) – PS3 TBC Even the Yakuza series isn't immune to zombie infestation. Definitely hoping that we'll get to own a zombie and dress him up like a hostess in a bizarre change of pace for a franchise that can be a gender minefield.
50 thisisfakediy.co.uk
PS VITA
22nd February 2012 But it's not just stellar games (see: sequels) that 2012 will be remembered for. Will the rumours about PlayStation and Microsoft's next-next-next-next gen consoles finally come into fruition? Speculation aside, this one's actually got a release date. Please welcome the PS VITA. Due for release on 22nd February, the latest PlayStation hand-held console includes two analog-sticks, a touchscreen and a touch-sensitive back panel that can be used to manipulate games like some sort of future-box. With 3G and WiFi models available, the console is also set to be fully backwards compatible with PlayStation Portable games. We got our hands on one earlier this year and were impressed by its intuitive controls. Although it can come across as the console equivalent of an iPhone, titles in development like LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted: Golden Abyss should open the hardware up to new and exciting ways to play. And, by the end of 2012, we're pretty sure PS Vita will be the hand-held console to own.
51
BLUEY ROBINSON Despite being just 21-yearsold, Bluey Robinson is a man full of stories. Photography: Jake Green. Stylist: Irene Asanji There's that time he hung out with Justin Bieber, whilst the pint-size popstar was wearing just his pants ("he just decided to take off all his clothes!"). There's that time he toured with Tinie Tempah ("the after parties were fun..."). While it might all sound fun and games, there are tough parts to the job too; but he can handle the pressure. "Getting people to understand you, and standing out from the crowd can be tough," he explains. "Sometimes you have to make decisions fast too - but so far I think I’ve made the right ones." He's also been working on a ton of collaborations for his forthcoming EP. "I’d like to get Dappy on there," he smiles, flashing his new G-Shock watch in, of course, the hue of blue. "Dot Rotton, Ed Sheeran, Ryan Leslie, who’s an American producer." As for what else he's up to: "I hope to have my album out [in 2012]," he tells us, "and be successful in terms of people liking it and buying it. I just hope people like it and embrace it."
@blueyrobinson. Bluey’s tough timepiece of choice is the GA-110H, £110, part of the Oversize range. The 3D-style time teller ticks all the boxes; from cool factor with its electrifying colourways to on-trend display case, give your wrist mass fashion appeal. Visit G-Shock.co.uk for stockist details 52 thisisfakediy.co.uk
RED MIST Photography: James Pearson Howes Styling: Neesha Sharma Grooming: Oriona Robb Model: Michael Roberts - MandP
54 thisisfakediy.co.uk
This page: hat by All Saints, gilet by Marshall Artist, sweatshirt by Supreme Being surfdome.com, shirt by Alpinestars Opp. page: blazer by Lab by Pal Zileri, shirt by Merc, chinos by Luke, hat by Fallen, scarf and waistcoat by Topman
55
56 thisisfakediy.co.uk
This page: cardigan by Quicksilver surfdome.com, scarf by Topman Opp. page: gilet by Belstaff, cardigan by All Saints, jeans by Luke, boots by Onitsuka Tiger, hat and gloves by Topman
57
58 thisisfakediy.co.uk
This page: shirt and jacket by adidas, gilet by The Duffer of St. George, jeansby All Saints, boots by Penguin Opp. page: Shirt and cardigan by Luke, duffle coat by Farah, trousers by Pal Zileri
59
60 thisisfakediy.co.uk
This page: tracksuit bottoms and shirt by American Apparel, jumper, jacket, hat and gloves by All Saints, boots by Luke Opp. page: jacket by Marshall Artist
61
THE BEST OF
2011 And so we reach the end of another year; twelve months of great music, jaw dropping games and amazing cinema. After countless arguments, tantrums and break downs, DIY's writers have created a definitive list of unmissable moments of the last 365 days - the very best of 2011.
THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011
20. Yuck
Yuck Two ex-Cajun Dance Party people, a drummer recruited from a Kibbutz in Israel, and a bassist born in Hiroshima – it’s an extraordinary line-up. Equally striking is their proclivity for fuzzy distortion and hazy vocals. Exuding a nonchalant coolness, they’re equally prepared to indulge in a seven minute shoegaze expedition ('Rubber'), as they are to impact with immediacy – the daedal feedback squeals of 'Holing Out' a brilliant example. A captivating record. (Simon Butcher) 62 thisisfakediy.co.uk
19. Slow Club
Paradise Well, we don't think anyone predicted this. Slow Club's debut 'Yeah So' was superseded this year by 'Paradise', an LP which saw a vast increase of post-break-up sassiness, sexiness and sadness. A new fullband set-up allowed glam to stomp all over 'Where I'm Waking', more mature balladeering with 'Gold Mountain', along with a lovely bit of sax in 'Hackney Marsh'. All that, plus a potential-single-of-theyear with 'Two Cousins'. (Tom Baker)
18. Los Campesinos
Hello Sadness What everyone will tell you about this album is that it’s more mature and darker than the band's last. Sure. It’s those things. It’s braver too - 'Hello Sadness' leaves all worries about Los Campesinos! holding back in the dust. You get the impression that they've swapped the members they have lost since their last record for a second wind. Darker plus maturity plus fewer members equals amazing. (Marc Thomas)
17. Wild Flag
Wild Flag The debut album from Wild Flag was always going to be amazing. Featuring Sleater-Kinney luminaries Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss alongside Helium's Mary Timony and The Minders' Rebecca Cole, any early excitement was easily justified. 'Romance' sells the self-titled LP best - four minutes of unadulterated guitar pop, its angular, awkward shuffle marks out the kind of brilliance few others could dream of matching. (Stephen Ackroyd)
16. Lykke Li
Wounded Rhymes Swedish export Lykke Li builds upon her debut with 'Wounded Rhymes', an LP that amalgamates the sentiments of youth via a civil war between the celestial virgin and malignant temptress. With lyrics like “I’m your prostitute, and you gon’ get some," you get the feeling Li wants a little more than Pizza Express on the first date. Domineering percussion, catchy beats, plus delicate, yet raw vocals equals bloody good pop. ( Joanie Eaton)
15. Jamie XX & Gil Scott-Heron
14. Kurt Vile
13. Arctic Monkeys
We're New Here On its own merits Jamie xx’s reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s 2010 comeback album ‘I’m New Here’ justifies inclusion in our list, but the death of Scott-Heron this year gives the album extra poignancy; his ghostly presence floating throughout, providing a captivating spectral quality. Really, however, ‘We’re New Here’ is a showcase for Jamie XX’s tremendously inventive production skills that mark him out as one of UK music’s most special talents. 'We're New Here' is an excellent post-script to the career of the legendary Scott-Heron. (Martyn Young)
Smoke Ring For My Halo Kurt Vile has always had a sense of how to articulate classical music. You know the classics, right? Zeppelin, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead - that lot. Vile’s greatest trick has always been in drawing what he loves from these behemoths and making it sound personal. There’s a U2 twang to ‘Society Is My Friend’ and ‘In My Time’ sounds like an echo of The Byrds, yet each centres itself around Vile’s introspective drawl. If classic rock always resonated with the spirit of the blue collar, 'Smoke Ring For My Halo' resonates with the spirit of the man beneath it. ( Joe Skrebels)
12. The Horrors
11. Bon Iver
10. Adele
Skying Despite ‘Primary Colours’' Mercury nomination, ‘Skying’ has emerged as The Horrors’ most powerful, inventive release yet. From the echoing ‘Changing The Rain’ and hypnotic ‘Still Life’, through to the final pulses of ‘Oceans Burning’, the album is as ethereal as it is euphoric, as immediate as it is wandering. 80s-soaked synths, guttural guitars and Faris Badwan’s unmistakable vocals: ‘Skying’ removes you from time and place in a way that only the finest records can, firmly establishing The Horrors as one of Britain’s best bands. (Heather Steele)
Bon Iver There's always been something intensely beautiful about the music of Bon Iver, and this self-titled release is no exception. From the opening piano notes of 'Wash', to the honeyed tones of Justin Vernon's vocals, there's something awe-insiring within this album. Portraying a perfect combination of simplicity and embellishment, we see Bon Iver tackle new arrangements, allowing them to grow away from their quiet, acoustic-driven roots. There's still an overwhelming sense of melancholy, but this time it's coupled with a feeling of hope. One of 2011's most powerful records. (Sarah Jamieson)
Suck It And See They may see it as their duty to keep guitar music alive; but, on the basis of their fantastic fourth album, 'Suck It And See', the Arctic Monkeys are also saving pop music. 'Suck It And See' is the perfect progression from 2009’s (horrifically underrated) 'Humbug'. Bringing together all the best elements of their previous three efforts, Alex Turner and co. have created a wonderful album of sparkling pop and lyrical surrealism, littered with a few 21st century rock gems. One of 2011’s best albums, by Britain’s most constantly developing band. (Edward Clibbens)
21 What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular, but Adele's second full-length '21' seems to be one thing the British public can all agree on. With the album's perpetual placing at the elusive Number One spot this year, it's difficult to imagine a Top 20 Albums list without it. The aural equivalent of a good stew, '21' is hearty, warming and irrevocably British, filled largely with soaring ballads. Whilst not a huge departure from debut '19', it shows Adele in a darker, more mature light. (Harriet Jennings) 63
9. The Weeknd
8. Gang Gang Dance
7. St Vincent
6. Girls
5. The Antlers
4. Wild Beasts
House Of Balloons A surprise attack in music is difficult to manage, yet it was swiftly accomplished by The Weeknd, aka Canadian singer Abel Tesfaye. His smoothly electronic brand of modern soul, originally hidden behind his moniker, injected a welcome shot to the world of R&B with the free online release of ‘House Of Balloons'. It’s a record packed with subtle dubstep dabbling and a surprising collection of alternative samples, including a title track that took a Siouxsie & The Banshees beat to new levels of woozy meandering. It all culminates in a dizzying nocturnal LP that shatters previously concrete moulds. (Adam Parker)
Father, Son, Holy Ghost This was the record that cemented Girls' place as one of the most exciting guitar bands of 2011. From the moment their six-and-a-half-minute-long single 'Vomit' was released in July, it was clear that the sophomore album from the San Francisco duo was going to be a bit of a belter - and it didn't disappoint. Borrowing heavily from 1960s guitar bands, 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost' is jam-packed with perfectly-sculpted and unpredictable pop songs - but it's the album's tender heart that really makes it one of the year's best releases. (Sam Lee) 64 thisisfakediy.co.uk
Eye Contact 'Eye Contact' is a record unlike anything else. Gang Gang Dance have always been a band who create their own universe, in which ecstatic futurist-pop sounds collide with tribal rhythms and banshee cries – and this is the perfect continuation of their evolution. Featuring songs about reincarnation together with joyous swooshes of otherworldly noise, 'Eye Contact' is a spiritual album from the future. The ideas just keep coming. At times you get lost in the vastness of the alien sounds and the ambitions - the only solution is to give into this mindmelting piece of work. (Daniel Wright)
Burst Apart The Antlers' 2009 debut 'Hospice' set tongues wagging, but didn't reach out to the mainstream that should have welcomed it. Nevertheless it stirred up a gorgeous, quiet storm that’s built on here. Songs have a graceful, ghostly edge – 'No Widows' recalling the dusky clouds of Guillemots' 'Walk The River'; 'Parentheses' soaring spacily like Wild Beasts – and a big sound is made without sacrificing pure, intimate feeling. There are mild surprises in the horn-led finale of 'Hounds & Putting The Dog To Sleep'’s clanging guitar, but in the end 'Burst Apart' relies on its own wounded, static grandeur. (Matthew Horton)
Strange Mercy On first glance Annie Clark appears the very picture of innocence with her porcelain complexion and demure exterior. Indeed, you may be forgiven for double taking when she produces dark, subversive gems like "best, finest surgeon, come cut me open." In ‘Strange Mercy’ Clark is at her most complex and intriguing. Whether a song is slow burning or exploding with synth-pop, it is completely absorbing. St Vincent manages to pair unsettling lyrics with approachable music, and like the hidden darkness beneath Clark’s cheery outward appearance, the juxtaposition in this album is what makes it so brilliant. (El Hunt)
Smother When the 2011 Mercury Prize nominees were announced in July, complaints were clear. Across the board, both fans and bands alike named Wild Beasts’ ‘Smother’ as being criminally omitted from the short list. The Kendal band’s third album sounds like no-one else’s; there are electronics, heavy rock elements fitting in nicely with Tom Fleming’s vocals and Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto that refuses to be tamed. Further, while the word “arrangement” might meet derisive glances in most circles, Wild Beasts prove arrangement plus rock can lead to fantastic results. (Mary Chang)
3. Metronomy
The English Riviera If we'd have peered a year into the future 12 months ago we would have been very surprised. Not by the fact that DIY has made the leap from html to the shelves, but by this: Metronomy at the Royal Albert Hall. “How did this happen?” We’d have asked. “'The English Riviera' happened,” would be the reply. Metronomy have always been living in denial: denial of their potential, denial of their ability to write a song as God-damn sexy as ‘She Wants’, or as beautifully foot tappin’ as ‘The Bay’. Free of their denial there’s no knowing where they will go next. (George Boorman)
1. Ghostpoet
Peanut Butter Blues & The Melancholy Jam 2011 may not have been the most optimistic of years, but it certainly had an album to improve its mood. Honest, candid and loveable, ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’ offers much more than its charming musings with a huge range of influences combining for an almost flawless, beautifully composed record. If striking a balance is something of an art, Obaro Ojimwe, more commonly known as Ghostpoet, shows a true mastery of it, always open without being self-obsessed, emotional without being self-pitying and confident without a hint of arrogance.
2. PJ Harvey
Let England Shake We’ve seen Polly Jean Harvey transform herself from ‘Rid Of Me’’s ragged, enraged figure, to a stadium-keen rockstar in ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’, right through to the draped, sullen character from ‘White Chalk’, but few could have been prepared for the next theatrical change. Bellowing out war stories with the perspective of an on-watching child, PJ Harvey becomes this pensive woman, discovering the darkest corners of the Earth and reciting these grim stories to an unprepared listener. Brilliantly written songs carrying the darkest of messages. It’s an album of few flaws. ( Jamie Milton)
It’s as easy to praise as it is hard to classify; perhaps Ojimwe himself explained it best when speaking to DIY earlier in the year: “I would say kind of experimental electronic, hip-hop music with extra elements of the stuff I listen to, like indie, dance, electronica, folk... ” Adding up to danceable electronica, trip-hoppy waves and the odd flourish of instrumentation under lyrics a more mature, wiser and calmer Mike Skinner still probably wouldn’t think to write. What really stands out is just how rooted in reality the songs are, each a new angle on the nature of daily life. That’s not to say they’re depressing, far from it, but they’re unusually devoid of pretension, selling no image and refusing to indulge in themselves. All in all, it sounds real. These songs do speak to you about your life, to remedy one of The Smiths' oldest complaints. “You and I wear things like pork pies, and eat things like pork pies” is a toast to the shared interests of lovers in ‘Us Against Whatever’ while family strife is explored in ‘Cash & Carry Me Home’. It’s not all rooted in close relationships though, “I’m just sitting here drinking, playing Pro Evo and thinking” captures the mood and motivation of millions as well any lyric you’ll hear this year. Witty, reassuring, amusing and at times hugely inspiring, ‘Peanut Butter Blues...’ has all the characteristics of someone you’d love to meet. It has had Album Of The Year written all over it since February, garnering a deserved but unexpected Mercury Prize nomination and it was no great failure on anyone else’s part to displace it. The real feat will come in topping it at all, as one of the best British albums of any year. (Matthew Davies) 65
THE BEST GAMES OF 2011 1. L.A. Noire
(Rockstar) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC A sublime mix of old school/new school gaming that is, at its rawest, a point 'n' click crime thriller. With the familiar Rockstar controls, gorgeous motion capture, and a gripping, mature storyline, there's little to dislike. It's less heavy on the action than your typical Rockstar joints, but there is something truly fascinating at work here. If L.A. Noire was a human, we'd probably have assassinated it due to confused fanboy obsession.
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
(Square Enix) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC Fine, Adam Jensen's a bit of a 90s sci-fi cliché. Look past his gruff voice and big Matrix coat, and you'll see a deep and cautionary tale of posthumanist augmentation. With no right or wrong way to go about missions, choice is paramount making Deus Ex one of the most engaging and immersive games of all time.
3. Battlefield 3
(EA) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC So the single player campaign's not exact66 thisisfakediy.co.uk
ly treading new ground, but we'll be playing multiplayer until this time next year. Taking everything from Bad Company 2 and ramping it up with new detail, accuracy and customisation, Battlefield 3 is where we've spent most of our weekends. We don't shower much.
4. Batman: Arkham City
(Warner Bros) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC The Dark Knight gets even darker as you run amok amongst a city full of super villains. Facing some of Gotham's most notorious s**ts, taking down huge groups of bad fellas has never been so beautifully gloomy.
5. Portal 2
(Valve) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC Wormhole-abusing science puzzle sequel that heralds the return of the auto-tuned terror of GlaDOS as you do your best to escape her never-ending test chambers by bending physics as you know it.
6. uncharted 3
(Sony) – PS3 As close to the Indiana Jones series that games will ever get – this is action-based cinematic gaming at its best.
7. Dead Island
(Deep Silver) Xbox 360, PS3, PC Possibly the buggiest game ever made, this open-world zombie FPS takes you around the tropical island of Banoi, crafting weapons and battering the undead brains of dribbling ex-holidaymakers. Oddly appealing, despite its obvious flaws.
8. Saints Row: The Third (THQ) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC Hit a cop with a purple dildo. End.
9. From Dust
(Ubisoft) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC An unlikely god sim from Another World's Eric Chahi that has you guiding Dorito-faced tribesmen around maps, utilising the power of nature to create paths by lowering and raising land and fending off the elements.
10. RAGE
(Bethesda) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC Like Fallout, minus all the talking and moral dilemmas, RAGE is an all-out blast-a-thon/dirt racing hybrid that never quite knows where it sits, but never ceases to be awesome.
THE BEST FILMS OF 2011 1. Submarine
For his directorial debut, IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade made a duffle-coated, Nietzsche-reading, Serge Gainsbourglistening Craig Roberts the year's most unlikely teen hero. This droll adaptation of Joe Dunthorne's coming-of-age novel works as a love letter to cinema and to the cynicism of teenagers, with every frame a gorgeous, semi-iconic work of art. A doe-eyed Roberts and a sardonic Yasmin Paige are the difficult school sweethearts, with all the pain and agony of teenage love magnified by Alex Turner's score and Erik Wilson's glorious photography in Swansea's less glamorous locations. Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor are touching as the parents of the unique snowflake who thinks in Super 8 film, and daydreams his eulogies. For all its stylistic touches, Submarine achieves the incredible feat of being a romanticised memory that isn't remotely twee or try-hard. For all its spine-tingling beauty, Submarine is also a wonderfully witty and astute comedy, thanks to Paddy Considine's figure of fun. In a year that's been consistently very good indeed as opposed to belting out pure classics, Submarine edges the others out with bucketloads of charm.
2. Kill List
Ben Wheatley's haunting British horror stands out in an otherwise poor year for 68 thisisfakediy.co.uk
the genre. An ambitious hitman thriller with a subtle twist, it boasts gallows humour and a chilling score that could raise the dead. Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley are the contract killers whose list grows increasingly unnerving and unpredictable. Something epic and wicked is alluded to throughout, with Wheatley allowing your imagination to take the film as far as you dare. A gothic, off-kilter buddy movie, it boasts startlingly natural performances from Maskell and Smiley. Until it stumbles with an ending that's been overdone, Kill List is a near masterpiece.
3. Bridesmaids
Annoyingly billed as the "female Hangover", Paul Feig's comedy is in a league of its own. Kristen Wiig steps from supporting actress and Saturday Night Live alumnus as star and co-writer of a film that is riotously funny and pitch-perfect. Wiig's a demented ball of panic and resentment as a maid of honour undermined by flawless trophy wife Rose Byrne. Knock-out performances from a killer ensemble cast of improvising comediennes, it's Melissa McCarthy who is pure genius in a starmaking turn. Squirm-inducing toilet humour sits alongside pure slapstick, and the big-hearted comedy is the freshest in years.
4. X-Men: First Class
Breathing life into the superhero genre
in the most imaginative and successful reboot since Star Trek, director Matthew Vaughn makes the origins story of Professor X and Magneto the most stylish and electrifying action film of the year. Wisely casting James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, the latter's intense, icy Bond-like Erik steals the film in every jaw-dropping scene, but it's his chemistry with McAvoy that seals First Class's success. Best of the X-Men franchise, best superhero film of an over-saturated year by a mile, it's a miracle it turned out so well - Vaughn turned the film around in a staggering eight months.
5. We Need To Talk About Kevin
Lynne Ramsay's unforgettable take on Lionel Shriver's novel is one of the most radical and daring adaptations of the year, and it's a risk that paid off. A layered, nightmarish examination of a mother's guilt, it features an exceptional performance from Tilda Swinton, matched by an uncanny Ezra Miller as her sociopathic son. An exaggerated metaphor for the lack of maternal bond, Swinton is painfully open as the reluctant mother with a warped perspective. Ramsay's film is strikingly beautiful, ugly, disorientating and gripping all at once, with a feeling of dread and terror in one woman's memories that would rival the greatest horror movie.
6. Never Let Me Go
Criminally underrated, Mark Romanek's elegant adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel is one of the finest book-tofilm translations in recent years. An impressively subtle sci-fi piece, the power comes from the chilling aspects of a rewritten history and a post-war medical breakthrough being portrayed as so ordinary. A love story between three childhood friends, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield have a very depressing fate as adults. Uncannily brilliant child casting helps elevate this unique drama into something special. Bleak, yet with a glimmer of hope, Alex Garland's faithful screenplay is aided by heart-breaking performances from three of the UK's most exciting actors.
7. Animal Kingdom
The most remarkable aspect of this incredible Melbourne crime drama is what's missing; David Mich么d's debut feature is drenched in aggression and palpable fear, but there is minimal violence. A moody thriller that simmers with tension and quiet rage, it features the fascinating Jacki Weaver as the menacing matriarch, based on a real criminal grandmother. Her testosterone-heavy quasi-family of Joel Edgerton, Sullivan Stapleton and the riveting Ben Mendelsohn take in James Frecheville's orphaned teen relative, with
Guy Pearce the detective hoping to earn the boy's trust. A supremely confident film with an air of gravitas that sets it miles apart from its peers.
8. The Skin I Live In
Pedro Almod贸var brings his baroque style to what is essentially his first stab at macabre horror, adapting Thierry Jonquet's novel Tarantula. A dramatic score and unsettling photography accompany a never-better Antonio Banderas as a revered plastic surgeon with a dark secret. Elena Anaya is extraordinary as his body-suited captive, living in confined luxury, before an intruder upsets the apple cart. Almod贸var's psychosexual thriller has a gleeful sense of the grotesque that would warm the cockles of David Cronenberg's warped heart. A flesh-crawlingly nightmarish mad scientist fable, its killer twist is revealed midway, leaving plenty of time to "enjoy" the surreal ride.
9. Blue Valentine
A rare male-driven romance, Derek Cianfrance's relationship drama is agonisingly honest. Developed over years with his dedicated leads Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, the pair are gutwrenchingly powerful as the married couple who've drifted apart after years of domesticity. As Gosling attempts to rekindle the flame during a distressing date
night in a tacky love motel, flashbacks to the heady early days show how easily passion can mask incompatibility. Cianfrance drops subtle bombshells that frequently come back to haunt the couple in harder times. Refreshingly and unusually candid, intimate and raw, it's often uncomfortable to watch, but Gosling and Williams have never been better.
10. Hobo With A Shotgun
A glorious technicolour gorefest, Jason Eisener's exploitation homage is exceptional. Having already won a Grindhouse trailer competition in his native Canada, Eisener was on to a winner landing the iconic Rutger Hauer as the titular homeless vigilante. The tone is spot-on; completely outrageous and excessive, it's staggeringly violent, but never offensive, and frequently knowing and hilarious. Hauer battles evil of Biblical proportions in a desolate, lawless town ruled by a sadist family - behold the human pinata and the human manhole cover as just a couple of many sick set-ups. It looks amazing, and the chaos is held together by Hauer's heroically committed delivery. Honourable mentions: Attack the Block, Drive, Jane Eyre, Hanna, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Senna, Source Code, Tangled, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tyrannosaur. 69
REVIEWS Albums | Singles | Gigs | Films | Tech | Games
71
BACK STORY... LOS CAMPESINOS On a scale of 1 to gut-wrenching, Los Campesinos! new long-player, 'Hello Sadness' is re-defining the term 'heartbreak album', so we thought we'd better sit them down, check they were all okay, and find out all about recording it.
Third album in, you b**gered off to Spain to record 'Hello Sadness', right? It was in a very rural part of Spain, not far from the mountains and the sea, just west of Gerona. It was just the swimming pool and table tennis and gorgeous sun... it was as idyllic as it sounds. We were planning to record in Cardiff on a really low budget, so we could live at home and just make our way to the studio, and we spent months trying to get studio time there and we just couldn't get it. We ended up being invited to play two festivals in Spain, both were really well paid. Overpaid! Our manager, he knew a studio over there where the Super Furry Animals had recorded 'Love Kraft', so we kind of put two and two together. It's a strange choice of location for such a dark, heartbroken album though? Well, when it was decided that we were going to record there, it was very much sweetness and light. It became the “heartbreak album� only a week or two before we went over to record. I can think of few places that would've been better to spend that time, because of the surroundings and environment it was like being on holiday, so like being with my mates in Spain being miserable, rather than being at home, on my own, being miserable. Perhaps there was a bit of a contradiction between the lyrics and the environment it was recorded in, but it works.
72 thisisfakediy.co.uk
But you had to scrap all the lyrics just before you went to record? I'd started writing in this happy, comfortable place, and as soon as that disappeared it was like, okay, not going to be singing that any more. But I only really manage to write when I have to write, which makes everybody else's situation much more difficult, but it's always come together. Sometimes at the very bitter end. You've recorded again with John Goodmanson on production duties. Can't you think of anyone else you want to work with? Have you no imagination!? Partly that! But partly because it's someone we're very comfortable working with. Which after a while could be a bad thing, if we want to change things up, but the emphasis is on us to do that if we want. John almost feels like a transparent producer, because he's doing all this stuff without you knowing - we're coming up with ideas and he's just making it work. He's just so easy to work with, he's very zen, and I'm quite angsty. I don't think I've ever seen him worried. When you work with the kind of people he's worked with... Hanson? Yeah, Hanson! So working with us isn't going to worry him one bit. Lyrically, it's a really personal record. Do
LOS CAMPESINOS Hello Sadness
As album titles go, 'Hello Sadness' is a self-depreciating one, more angsty and life despising than a teenager before midday. Normally these associations trigger the odd eye-roll: after all, for every Laura Marling break-up album, we’ve heard 10 collections of indulgent drivel.
you find yourself living in fear of bumping into someone in the street who's angry about a song you've written about them? I'm pretty open with it, to be honest. People have always been quite understanding. There's been a couple of situations, where I should have disclosed more to somebody than perhaps I did... But then equally, I had a really weird situation after we'd played an in-store in Rough Trade, and the best friend of someone I'd written a more vicious song about came up to me after, and said: 'that song... I just empathised with it so much.' And I said that was great, but please don't mention it to your mate. In the case of this record, loose ends have been tied up and amends have been made, so I'm not too worried. It's an occupational hazard. I think I do shoot myself in the foot, on occasions, when I've been close to getting into a relationship with someone and that person's thought, “do I really want to commit to you writing songs about me in the future?” So we're going to have to start manufacturing relationships and breakups just to get lyrics. And keeping it an intimate record, you've handwritten the lyrics for the record's inlay? Yeah, for the first time! It makes sense with the record, and also one of the main reasons for handwriting the lyrics - in the
past we've been relying on outside people to put these things together. It's much easier now we've got Tom in the band, because he's a graphics genius. But in the past, we'd send over the typed lyrics, and then somehow, between me emailing them and them being copied into the format, typos happened. So at least if I handwrite them, then once I give that over to the other person, I don't ever have to check them again. Logistically that is a big reason for it. I like it in Blur's 'Parklife' booklet where it's all handwritten with all the guitar chords written. And all the Why? records are handwritten, the first Libertines' record is as well, it just seemed to suit. Finally, give us one good reason why someone should go out and buy 'Hello Sadness'. I think it's genuinely good. I think we're all quite happy with this record. We've made more of an effort to make a more listenable record, the last one was more self indulgent. We laboured over the track-listing much more, it'll fit on one vinyl, it's more traditional. If you've not heard, or not liked, Los Campesinos! before, then give us another try. If you don't like us after this one, then fine, but maybe this one is The One. We'll see. Los Campesinos!' new album 'Hello Sadness' is out now via Wichita.
Not so fast there - remember, the band in question is Los Campesinos!, who happen to pull off sugar-coated misery very well. Gareth has a penchant for writing lyrics that are poetic, albeit a little smutty at times. Whether he’s complaining about a lack of attention being paid to his manly parts or exploring the apparently numerous ways to make it through the wall, our Gareth is always intelligent and entertaining in his approach. On ‘Hello Sadness’ we can certainly expect more of the same playfully cryptic wordplay that made ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ so special. This is definitely a more mature album though, packed with self-awareness and emotion. Sometimes maturity can be a killer for bands that start life as a little bit twee, and 'Hello Sadness' faces the danger of becoming too heavy. Luckily this threat is sidestepped with ease, and musically this album is a giant energetic hub of hyperactivity. Leaping from sugary melodies to orchestral interludes faster than Usain Bolt, the success lies in the extremely pleasing balance of light and shade. Even when Gareth is singing about usually depressing subjects like burning the palm of his hand, he’s backed up by cheerfully clinking piano or fairground bleeps, the familiar sound of Kim’s backing vocals repeating his sinister statements with the joyful enthusiasm of a Sunday School teacher. ‘Hello Sadness’ is a great album, because it finds a happy medium between coming of age and just being grumpy old men. It’s all a little tongue in cheek, with just enough of the youthful defiance that dominated the band’s earlier albums. The naming of this album is intentionally downbeat, deliberately indulgent, playing with misery rather than wallowing in it. This might be a break-up album, but with a talent for producing such consistently enjoyable albums, Gareth Loscamp really has nothing to worry about because the girls will be queuing round the block to look after him. (El Hunt) 73
SWIMMING
KORN
Nottingham five piece Swimming release shimmering sophomore album ‘Ecstatics International’ from a position slightly under the radar, metaphorically. For all the acts swirling in the constant whirlpool of hype it’s hard to see quite why they haven’t succumbed to the same fate. Scratch the surface with even the faintest of grazes and what’s revealed is effortlessly melodic keyboards, engaging harmonies and cleverly worked songs. If Swimming had found four slightly better songs for a lacklustre third of the album it’d be very hard to leave out of end of year lists. As it is, it’ll just be very hard to leave out of your stereo. (Matthew Davies)
Dubstep has dominated the music landscape in the last year or so, with countless mainstream artists thriving in a new sound for experimentation. Now Korn have followed suit, recruiting Skrillex, Datsik, Tylias and various others to help. Their levels of experimentation surpass any preconceived scale, yet they’ve not entirely lost themselves: there is most certainly the core quality of the band visible; a futuristic and progressive version of Korn, per se. Some will love it and some will undoubtedly not understand. Regardless, this record solidifies that the band aren’t ready to sit on their laurels and will push themselves to various extremes. (Heather McDaid)
SIGUR ROS
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
Ecstatics International
ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER Last Summer
If the devil's in the detail then Eleanor Friedberger has been spending way too much time cavorting with ol' Beezlebub lately. 'Last Summer' is in thrall to specifics, to the fleeting moments that turn a nothing into a something. Each song is heavy-hearted and poignant. The smooth American 70s sheen suits these moments perfectly; adds an air of detachment that might give us, and Eleanor, the distance needed to survive this lonely, lovely melancholia. A truly special solo debut. (Dave Rowlinson)
INNI
FLORENCE & THE MACHINE Ceremonials
There's little doubt on 'Ceremonials' that you're listening to a Florence & The Machine record, which in itself encapsulates both the best and worst of the album: if you're willing to give huge orchestral pop a go, you'll struggle to do better. If, on the other hand, you've already had enough of Florence and her machine, this could very well be your own personal hell. Chances are, you made that decision a long time ago. (Stephen Ackroyd) 74 thisisfakediy.co.uk
You'd be hard pushed to find a debut live album more striking and impressive than 'INNI'. Whether it's the tumultuous crescendos of the likes of 'Glósóli' and 'Festival', or the subtle, spacious simplicity of 'Fljótavik' and 'All Alright', this epic double album is totally captivating from beginning to end. And while 'Sæglópur' and 'Hoppípolla' are undoubtedly highlights, they don't overshadow the rest of the set - a real testament to its strength as a whole. Sigur Rós really are the world's finest when it comes to blissful, life-affirming post-rock, and 'INNI' serves as an powerful reminder of this. (Sam Lee)
The Path Of Totality
Replica
With ‘Replica’ Brooklyn-based musician Daniel Lopatin has shown his considerable talent for making beautifully enchanting music that you can’t help but immerse yourself in. It almost seems strange to describe Lopatin as a mere musician as he is more like a sonic scientist carefully assembling his collections of samples, vocal affects and electronic sounds before arranging them into abstract soundscapes and experimental collages of noise. Another collection of wonderfully strange, beguiling and beautiful electronica. (Martyn Young)
SUMMER CAMP
OH LAND
What might the critics say about Summer Camp? That they're just a cute band with an 80s film obsession? Yeah, they're going to need some new lines after hearing this. Welcome To Condale is the moment Summer Camp prove they're got so much more than that. This is the moment they realise greater ambitions. Think when Blur cast off the limitations of the indie-pop world and made 'Parklife', think banishing inhibitions and giving everything you possibly can. 'Welcome To Condale' is big, bold, confident and ceaselessly inventive; full of wit and empathy, full of hearts and smarts. It truly is A Great Pop Record. (Dave Rowlinson)
Oh Land's self-titled debut is an odd affair. With more than a touch of hype a while back, it was easy to start to expect the Dane to swan her way happily into the charts. It's a record with all the tools to do just that - 'Voodoo' especially sounding like it has all the potential to provide a breakthrough moment. But then, really, is there anything here we've not already heard before? In a pop landscape set to be dominated by the Instagram filters of Lana Del Rey, it's hard to wonder if Oh Land hasn't left her big moment just a little too late. (Ben Marsden)
Welcome To Condale
Oh Land
JOHNNY FOREIGNER
Johnny Foreigner vs Everything Having changed record labels and finding themselves faced with a substantially reduced recording budget, logic might dictate that 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything' would be both short and bittersweet. But fortunately for all concerned, in the Brummie trio's third offering we’ve got seventeen tracks that prove JoFo either didn’t get that particular memo, or if they did, they chose to disregard it completely. Because whilst there might be less cash to flash than during the recording of their previous two long players, that certainly doesn’t mean Johnny Foreigner have decided that they're going to start skimping on anything. Why, even their song titles are still gloriously long-winded ('If I’m The Most Famous Boy You’ve F**ked, Then Honey, Yr In Trouble', 'Hulk Hoegaarden, Gin Kinsella, David Duvodkany, Etc'). And while they've certainly picked up where they left off after 2009's 'Grace & The Bigger Picture' with a similar melting pot of influences (Pixies, Pavement, Sonic Youth), there's enough curve balls here to ensure that any accusations of being too derivative are carefully dodged.
SHE & HIM
BENJAMIN SHAW
The third full-length collaboration between folk dilettante M. Ward and full-time-actress/part-time-singer Zooey Deschanel is an album of yule-tide standards being covered in a fairly "standard" fashion. The arrangements are sparse, consisting mostly of acoustic guitar and a light dusting of little drummer boys; the duets on 'Sleigh Bells' and the pretty-muchmandatory 'Baby It's Cold Outside' are subtle highlights. Really your enjoyment is going to come down to whether you're a Christmas-hating Scrooge or a more Buddy the Elf type; however, if you're the former, there's a good chance Deschanel's smoky voice could melt that icy heart of yours. (Tom Baker)
Whir, clunk, hiss, crackle, pass me the wine, please. Fusing experimental fuzz noise and acoustic folk gracefully is no mean feat, but with sleepy vocals and softly hummed harmonies, Shaw's pulled off a trick here. Common themes of heartbreak, rejection and abject misery thread through the album and hold each track together, but if Benjamin Shaw's distress produces efforts akin to this, then we'll gladly leave him wallowing. If Grandaddy and Hefner had ever had a deliciously dirty one night stand and abandoned their baby on the steps of the church of lo-fi, there's a good chance that Shaw would've been that rejected offspring. (Simone Scott Warren)
A Very She & Him Christmas
There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet
So, what gems have JoFo hidden within these seventeen masterpieces for our aural pleasure? It's difficult not to use the word 'ballad' (because ballads are s**t, right?) when describing 'Johnny Foreigner Vs You', ostensibly it is, but that doesn't really do it justice. Piano led, surprisingly tinged with Elbow, it's heartwarmingly gorgeous. Although, it does seem like every time that bassist Kelly Southern opens her mouth something beautiful falls out, perhaps never more keenly felt than on 'Concret1', where over a backing track of swirling, almost Four Tet-esque traffic noises, she deliciously describes that sensation when music transports you back to an alternate time and place. It's '200x' that truly sparkles though, with Junior Elvis Washington Laidley's definite drumming defying the hazy duet being uttered by Kelly and frontman Alexei Berrow. Elsewhere, '(Don't) Show Us Yr Fangs' exemplifies Johnny Foreigner's perfection of the boy/girl harmony, their voices beautifully entwining. Perhaps 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything''s only real flaw is that it's a little too long, and it's difficult to just dip in and out of, but it's impossible to say where sacrifices could've been made. Because truthfully, if this is the sound of a band angry at the world, then let's hope for all our sakes that no idiot comes along and advises them to cheer the f**k up. (Simone Scott Warren)
75
REVIEWS LIVE
LIVE REVIEWS
ARCTIC MONKEYS
The O2, London Unquestionably the biggest UK indie act of the noughties, Arctic Monkeys have finally brought their latest offering ‘Suck It And See’ to their native shores. After an extensive jaunt in the US the Monkeys are back to reclaim the throne. For a band of their stature it’s important to choose a good opener, a song to crystalize where they're at, and where they’re heading. On this particular occasion the song chosen is ‘Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’, lead single from their new effort. It works well, the heavy, QOTSA-esque riff kicking the crowd into gear from the word go. ‘Black Treacle’ sounds equally sumptuous, its elastic guitars weaving their way round the suitably massive O2 arena, and sounding very much like scheduled, yet sadly absent, support Smith Westerns. And it is MASSIVE, not that that’s a problem for the Sheffield boys, using standard arena tactics like the left vs. right ‘who can be the loudest’ competition and allowing the crowd to sing the opening refrain of ‘When The Sun Goes Down’. 76 thisisfakediy.co.uk
Following criticism for over-Americanising on their new album, the Arctics are definitely not shying away from their naysayer’s comparisons. Quite the opposite, with their new greaser threads and attitude. Matt Helders has even been seen swapping his Kappa trackies for a pair of leather ‘pants’, as our cross-Atlantic buddies would call them. And American it feels, understandably as the focus of 'Suck It And See'’s ongoing campaign has been on planting a firm seed across the pond, something the Arctic Monkeys have always struggled to do until now. Closing the show with a bombastic, star studded (Miles Kane takes to the stage on guitar), rendition of ‘505’, arguably their best song, fans both old and new are left with faces askew. Whether it be here, or over in America, Arctic Monkeys’ ongoing trajectory will soon make it hard to ignore that they’re becoming one of the most genre-defining bands of our age. (George Boorman)
SPECTOR
Shacklewell Arms, London It’s clear from the outset that Spector are designed for a more spacious environment; they’re packed in like sardines, we’re packed in like sardines, the Kaiser Chiefs are packed in like sardines. The latter's attendance is presumably accounted for after Spector charmed their cotton socks off during this summer’s Chiefs support slot, which has doubtless given tonight’s headliners a taste for the size of stage they seem destined to fill in future. If truth be told, it’s actually pretty easy to charm your way into my record collection; I’m a sucker for an intelligent frontman. And Fred has certainly used his previous employers to hone the art of witty, self deprecating stage banter, he’s appearing tonight as the younger, slightly geekier, brother of Art Brut’s Eddie Argos. So that battle is swiftly fought and won, it seems.
YOU ME AT SIX
O2 Academy Brixton, London Before tonight's show has even begun, you can feel the sense of accomplishment in the air. As the closing show on their seven-date tour, You Me At Six are taking to the stage after not only selling out Brixton Academy for a second time in eighteen months, but after sitting pretty at the top of the UK mid-week album charts just days earlier. A massive achievement for any rock band of this generation. It doesn't take long for the hysteria to set into the younger members of tonight's crowd. When Josh Franceschi and co. plunge headfirst into second album opener 'The Consequence', it's instantly evident as to why. Whilst You Me At Six are a band that have come up against all kinds of opposition throughout their career, it's a performance like this evening's that proves them to be one of the most talented and hard-working bands within the rock community. The level of energy is high throughout, the musicianship is undeniably impressive, and the interaction between band and fans is enough to have a good few
audience members in tears. Playing what feels more like a pseudo greatest hits set, they find comfort in songs from 2010 effort 'Hold Me Down'. It is, however, entirely within the new songs that the band shines. The taunting gang vocals of 'Loverboy' are anthemic, 'Little Death' sounds massive and 'Bite My Tongue' possesses a whole new level of intensity, with Franceschi himself impressively taking on the vocal part otherwise sung by Oli Sykes. Yet, regardless of the talent showcased and fun shared, tonight stands as more of a statement than anything. Midway through the set, Franceschi speaks of a recent article published in The Guardian detailing how rock music is dead. With this he argues, and alongside the evidence provided tonight, we'd have to agree with the frontman. Thus, as the crowd happily indulge in one more explosive chorus of 'Underdog', we hope that Guardian reporter is having a rethink, since this rowdy lot seem very much alive. (Sarah Jamieson)
Whilst the expectation might be for only early tracks ‘What You Wanted’ and ‘Never Fade Away’ to receive a good reaction, in actuality there’s a lot of love in the room for the whole set, in particular ‘Celestine’ and ‘Chevy Thunder’. Defining Spector, who bare no relation to any of their obvious namesakes (either Regina with a 'k' or Phil), isn’t too easy - which in itself is a good thing - at times they’re a little New-New-Wave, at times a little Springsteen, at times a little bit (whisper it) Killers. But even in this pocketsized venue, there’s people air punching. But nothing is ever perfect, and Spector are about to throw a massive elephant into the room. And it’s not even like they’re unaware that they’re doing it, as Fred informs us that his booking agent has told them that, should they ever perform this cover again, they’re on their own. Let’s just leave it at this: covering Kings Of Leon is never, ever a good idea. We filter into the night, safe in the knowledge that we're unlikely to catch Spector in a venue of that size again, and that we've all been part of something a little bit special. Kings Of Leon aside, of course. (Simone Scott Warren) 77
TECH The best gizmos and gadgets worth getting excited about this month. IPHONE 4S
RRP £500 SIM-free While many may moan that the 4S isn't a 5, Apple's latest iteration of the must-have mobile device is still an upgrade worth having. Even putting to one side the potential amazement of digital butler, PA, secretary and dogsbody Siri - able to help keep your life organised while making you feel like a bit of an idiot talking to a phone - the incremental improvements are significant. Faster, fitter and still the best around - if you're still on a 3GS, it's time to make the jump.
KOBO TOUCH
RRP £109 How do you deal with the world of the tablet and e-book if your business is selling mags and paperbacks? If you're WH Smiths, you sign a deal with Canadian firm Kobo to sell its Kindle-a-likes. Coming in two models - WiFi and Touch - it's similar to Amazon's industry leader in size and shape, and the unavailability of the Kindle Touch in the UK might give Kobo an edge.
BEST BUY
SONOS PLAY:3
RRP £270 Sonos have long provided the home audio set up that techy types lust after. Wireless audio giving access to your whole music collection wherever you are, the Play:3 keeps them top of an increasingly crowded pile. Streaming all your digital music, internet radio and online services like Spotify, it can work as a standalone or team up with more Sonos kit, linking your entire home into one big entertainment hub.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE
RRP £589 SIM Free So you don't want an iPhone. You're not that mad on a BlackBerry. What you want is something that will do Serious Business. Step forward the Samsung Galaxy Note. A hybrid of a phone, trying to give the best of both worlds to get work done on the move, the Note is big. A 5.3" display on a phone which still seems slim and light, it's slightly odd to have a phone come with a stylus in 2011, but it actually works. A solid alternative. 79
FILMS
THE ARTIST Sneaking in cinemas on the last day of 2011 and causing endless debate at DIY Towers regarding our top ten list, we chose to devote the featured review of the month to the utterly joyous The Artist. To banish winter blues, make sure this is the first film you see in the New Year. A black & white silent movie set in the 1920s, you say? No matter if silent cinema is not your bag, as this film is for anyone who has ever been bewitched by the movies. A glorious, uplifting tribute to the pioneers of cinema and the movie stars of old, it follows the fate of George Valentin ( Jean Dujardin), a screen legend who refuses to make the switch to talkies. Faithful to his wife, he is nevertheless innocently attracted to the charismatic young dancer and dedicated fan Peppy (Berenice Bejo), mentoring her to stardom. As his own career falters, the obstinate and proud Valentin falls into despair and ruin, but there is always someone looking out for him. A French production from director Michel Hazanavicius, it features familiar faces such as John Goodman, Missi Pyle and and James Cromwell in supporting roles, but stealing 80 thisisfakediy.co.uk
50/50 every scene is Valentin's canine sidekick, the cutest, smartest dog to ever run away with a movie. However, it's Dujardin who carries the film, and he does so in silence, like a captivating cross between the suave Cary Grant and the swashbuckling Errol Flynn, but without a trace of smugness. The Artist is shot like a lovingly restored old classic, and is unbelievably authentic (bar some clever asides), with the buoyant orchestral score and the odd intertitle card. There is an incredible depth and warmth to the photography, and this is one film that must be seen on the big screen, in the grandest theatre possible. For all its technical beauty, it's the story that lingers; romance, comedy, tragedy and the most glorious of feelgood endings, complete with a telling revelation. Not only the most astonishing work of art, but a loving thank you note to all the stars who've come and gone. Magnificent. (Becky Reed)
TO BANISH WINTER BLUES, MAKE SURE THIS IS THE FIRST FILM YOU SEE IN THE NEW YEAR.
When many people hear the words "cancer" and "comedy" in the same sentence, they may well be put off by 50/50. Give it a chance, because Will Reiser's semiautobiographical script has created a fantastically funny, heartwarming, tragic and important film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam (based on Reiser himself ), who is diagnosed with an extremely rare form of spinal cancer. His friend Kyle (Seth Rogen, Reiser's best friend) sees this is as an ideal opportunity to play the sympathy vote with women, but still stands by Adam during his troubles. The mixture of gallows humour and a traditional bromance dynamic is what makes the film tick. The remarkable achievement of this film is that it never once gets mawkish, retaining a realism which prevents melodrama, rooting the story in the characters rather than weighty histrionics. Everything that happens feels natural - there is no forced soul-searching, giving the characters a humanity which makes us care far more than a carefully orchestrated tearjerker would. (Sam Faulkner)
DREAMS OF A LIFE Carol Morley's powerful docudrama discovers the woman behind one of the most tragic news stories of 2006. In a flat above London's Wood Green shopping centre, Joyce Carol Vincent's decomposing remains were found by bailiffs, with the lights on and television still blaring. It was estimated that Vincent, 38, had died three years previously, but not a single person had realised she was missing. In this deeply moving film, Morley puts a face and history to the name, seeking out Vincent's shocked former friends and colleauges. Horrifyingly, it shows how easily a viva-
cious, popular woman can slip under the radar and end up completely forgotten. For the dramatised scenes, Morley has an ace up her sleeve in the form of actress Zawe Ashton, silently haunting as the party girl, then weary bedsit dweller who died alone, wrapping Christmas presents. It paints a damning picture of big city society, but doesn't pass judgment on the affected parties. Just when you think you're out of tears, Morley drops a stunning coda that elicits a final whirpool of conflicting emotions. Essential viewing. (Becky Reed)
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL
Previews
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Release Date: 26th December 2011 PLOT: The US remake of Niels Arden Oplev's masterful 2009 adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel, about an antisocial hacker and disgraced journalist who solve the decades-old disappearance of an heiress. YAYS: It's the latest film from the man who brought us Seven, Zodiac, Fight Club and The Social Network. It comes with a readymade fanbase of those who lapped up the books. After fighting off every young actress in Hollywood, Rooney Mara takes on the iconic Lisbeth Salander, having held her own in the masculine Social Network. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide the score. NAYS: It's the latest film from the man who brought us The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Game, Panic Room and Alien 3. Noomi Rapace already immortalised Lisbeth in a career-defining performance. The subsequent books limp to a disappointing end, meaning the planned trilogy might not be worth investing in.
Release Date: 16th December 2011 PLOT: Holmes and Watson return to stop the dastardly Professor Moriarty unleashing hell in Guy Ritchie's sequel to his hit revamp of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved creation. YAYS: More of the snarky Robert Downey Jr and his bromance with Jude Law. The original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the amazing Noomi Rapace, makes her Hollywood debut. Jared Harris is an interesting choice for baddie Professor Moriarty, after starring in Mad Men. NAYS: In no sane universe could Stephen Fry be Downey Jr's blood relative, but the pompous presenter returns to film to play his big brother Mycroft Holmes - Ritchie has already threatened a nude scene. As with all sequels, there's a chance the reasons the first film worked will be overcooked. Even with the presence of Rapace, Rachel McAdams reprises her underdeveloped love interest role Irene Adler.
Release Date: 26th December 2011 PLOT: Tom Cruise returns as secret agent Ethan Hunt for the fourth film in the action franchise, this time blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin. YAYS: Director Brad Bird makes his live action debut after charming Disney Pixar animations Ratatouille and The Incredibles. It stars Sawyer from Lost - Josh Holloway is now freed from the shackles of television to bring his Southern bad-ass charm to the big screen. Co-star Jeremy Renner is being groomed to take over as star of the franchise, so will be one to watch. It's been shot with IMAX cameras, which means Cruise's hyped scaling of Dubai's Burj Khalifa tower is awesome. NAYS: After the failure of Knight & Day, people don't necessarily demand Tom Cruise the action hero, and quite frankly, we want to see him in films like Magnolia again. With Renner also announced as star of the new Bourne film, it may get a bit confusing.
81
GAMES
GAMES TO BUY FOR CHRISTMAS Drool with anticipation over these future faves
BATTLEFIELD 3
(EA) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC A coin with two very different sides, this. HEADS: a unique, breathtaking and immersive multiplayer experience, adding detail and scale to the beauty of Bad Company 2, that you'll happily stick with until Battlefield 4. TAILS: A disappointing and unadventurous single player campaign that does nothing to break out of its very structured and rigid confines other than look pretty. Regardless, this is one you'll stick with for the long haul. Battlefield 3 is a flawed, but jawdropping, masterpiece.
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3
(Activision) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Not got this yet? Climb back under your rock! One of the most explosive and intense shooters of the year, refining the balls off its predecessors.
SONIC GENERATIONS (SEGA) – Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS
Call it nostalgia, call it old school arcade score-hunting, call it the right combination of colours – there's something irresistibly cool about this blue spiky b**tard. SEGA's latest incarnation sees you play as Classic Sonic from the 90s and Modern Sonic from the Nowsies, re-visiting blisteringly remastered stages from the Sonic canon. 2D platforming has never felt so fresh. Only limited boss battles and the odd rhythm-breaking grinds to a halt let down this hypnotic rollercoaster. Hands down, the best Sonic game since we were in short trousers.
MARIO KART 7 (Nintendo) – 3DS
It's Mario Kart just as you know it, but in blazing 3D with upgradeable karts! You'll also find yourself hang-gliding through levels and racing underwater, just like you don't do in Need For Speed.
UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE'S DECEPTION (Sony) – PS3
The return of Nathan Drake's rugged neo-Indy chic with a Chandler-FromFriends hair flick is a welcome one. And the third of the series is an explosive and cinematic thrill ride that becomes hard to pinpoint where the remarkable cut-scenes stop and the game begins. Climb, clamber, shoot and punch your way through a globe-trotting adventure that, by far, outdoes not only its contemporaries but its predecessors. Let down only by the sheer predictability of a blockbuster's nature, the diverse and rewarding multiplayer is simply unbeatable. 82 thisisfakediy.co.uk
RAYMAN ORIGINS
(Ubisoft) – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, 3DS
Re-visit 2-D platforming and the very origins of one of gaming's most recognisable and underrated characters! So what if he has the floating wandering hands of a pervert at a party? Let's not hold it against him.
RETRO GAME OF THE MONTH
BRUTAL SPORTS: FOOTBALL (Millennium Interactive, 1993)
Commodore Amiga What was thrilling about Speedball 2? The fast-paced, futuristic score-based ball-game? No, smashing three shades of bum deposit out of opposing teams. And where Bitmap Brothers's dramatic removal of injured players from the pitch was a solemn affair, Millennium Interactive's Brutal Sports: Football relishes gruesome and explicit violence. This is a horizontal rugger style ball game featuring two teams of beardy Viking sorts who must fire the oval ball into the opposing team's goal. You can kick it, throw it, tackle team members or, more importantly, pick up varying scattered items like shields and swords and stab their faces off. 'Brutal Sports' isn't just a clever name. This is a blood-thirsty, violent little gem in which you can disregard the ball-game completely and spend the duration stomping on opponents bodies until their energy depletes (somewhere in the second half usually) and their heads pop off. If that wasn't humiliating enough, you can then wield their heads as weapons. With one-off matches (known as Unfriendlies), knockout rounds or four leagues to fight through, Brutal Sports: Football has enough energy and charisma to keep it going. After matches, you can go back to the locker room and recharge your team's broken heads (literally put their heads back on!) and beef up their skills. It's violent, even by today's standards, but unless you've got a beard, you won't confuse it with real life. Safe!
SYNDICATE (EA) - Xbox 360, PS3, PC - Release date: 24/02/12 Picture this! A world no longer controlled by governments. YAY! Instead it's divided up and run by mega-corporations known as syndicates. BOO! And not quite the syndicates you have at your work to try and win the lottery, no, these syndicates have revolutionized consumer interaction with the digital world. The most you do in your syndicate is pick that same number over and over again. These syndicates have introduced neural chip implants to humans, allowing them to access the world's data and control technology – but also allowing the corporations unprecedented control over the 'Chip'd' individual. So, it's a wee bit corrupt, eh? Well, business is war between the syndicates and you'll take over the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype agent, embarking on an adventurous mission of betrayal and revenge. Sound familiar? Starbreeze Studios and EA have taken that 90s staple of strategic and tactical shooting and turned it into one of them FPS games! A sci-fi shooter up the alley of Deus Ex, compared to the 'Theme Park but violent' look of Bullfrog's original creation. We'd spend hours on levels in the original Syndicate, perfectly constructing the right modified team for the job. It was more Pop-ULous than Pop-A-Cap (...sorry). Will this be a celebratory and refreshing reboot or a dumbed down betrayal of the original series? Regardless, this is one we've got our Chip'd eyes on! What's next though? The Secret Of Monkey Island FPS?! Duke Nukem Origins (The deep and touching tale of how Mr. Nukem became such a prick)?! We're holding out for Sonic: Arkham Hill Zone. 83
FIRST & LAST GRUFF RHYS Recent winner of the first ever Welsh Music Prize for his new solo album 'Hotel Shampoo', Gruff Rhys tells us a few more of his Firsts & Lasts. Instrument you learnt to play? FIRST: Drums (buckets). I started collecting buckets when I was 5 after seeing a rock concert. My ambition was to become a drummer when I grew up. LAST: Piano (sort of ). I've been trying to play the piano live all year. I'm starting to get the hang of it I think. Song you wrote? FIRST: 'Rydwi'n Gyrru Trên' (5yrs old). It's about getting old. People tell me it's a pretty heavy thing to write at 5, at which point, I point out my comrade Euros Childs wrote a song called 'Jumping Off The Severn Bridge' at the age of 3. LAST: 'Post Apocalypse Christmas' (40yrs old). It's a pretty new song, I'm trying to re-invent the Christmas song. From a secular/atheist perspective. Record that inspired you? FIRST: Meic Stevens - 'Y Brawd Houdini'. one of the first songs I would have ever heard, and the catchiest melody of all time. It's about the great Houdini and drinking beer in a cole mine. LAST: Pic Nic - 'Amanecer'. Pic Nic were like the Catalan version of The Free Design. Really spooky late 1960s atmospheric harmony pop. They are really inspiring me at the moment. This song has a really unu84 thisisfakediy.co.uk
sual harp part (not to put you off )!
45s now (unsuccessfully).
Gig you went to? FIRST: Alan Stivell/Ac Eraill. My parents took the whole family to a folk festival when I was 4 years old. This was a special double bill of hardline Breton and Welsh hippies. LAST: Mogwai. I'm on tour with Mogwai at the moment. I get to see them every night. The last gig was in Hanover on Halloween.
Fan encounter? FIRST: Paper/balsa wood hand held, a simple design yet effective to ease summer heat. LAST: Air conditioning. There's great air conditioning at the Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas. It makes a warm and deep buzz sound that seems to make the paintings hover.
Favourite band / act? FIRST: Ac Eraill. They were like a long haired soft folk boy band with radical political and spiritual leanings who deeply inspired me as a 4-year-old to get into music. LAST: Mogwai. Mogwai and Super Furry Animals have been around a long time, we've played together many times. They just keep getting better. Always brave and inspiring with their best days still to come. Format you bought music in? FIRST: Vinyl. I started buying vinyl as a kid. The first time I bought a CD I flipped it over to listen to the B-side. LAST: Vinyl. Much as I love cassette tape hiss and phasing. A good vinyl record is the best way to document music. Digital files just get deleted or just disappear, CDs scratch to easily. It's harder to lose a vinyl record. I'm trying to only collect seven inch
Item "borrowed" from a hotel room? FIRST: 1996 - comb. One thing about calling an album 'Hotel Shampoo' - people think you love hotels. I'm happy and grateful to have a roof over my head, where ever it may be. LAST: 2010 - Biro. I collected shampoo from hotels for 15 years in order to build my own small hotel with the bottles as bricks. Since building the hotel I now only take the free biros. I have very little guiding beliefs in my life that are worth sharing, but one of them is: 'You can never have enough biros around.' This also applies to pencils and pens. Always useful to have them handy in a pocket somewhere to document something. Gruff Rhys' new album 'Hotel Shampoo' is out now via Turnstile.