Nathalie Stern / Competition - Live for ENDLESS WINDOW at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle

For their eighth and end-of-year chapter, Endless Window have brought together two artists who share a common ground in the way they perform their music; each utilising looped motifs through various ways of sampling to structure their content. 

The stage upstairs at the Cumberland Arms, in stark contrast to the cacophony of instruments and equipment covering it last month, is bare, except for a central podium stand; a table of technology draped in rich blue velvet. Unified at this lectern, in a blue macintosh, Craig Pollard, as Competition, starts his set.

The last time I saw Pollard perform solo he engaged with his instruments and effects at floor level which framed our musician as submissive and jittery as he searched for relevant knobs and devices on the ground, but tonight, by standing up tall to perform, with all of his sound playground apparatus at an accessible distance from his digits, the deeper vulnerability expressed in his music could be shown through his own confidence, as masterfully engineered quotation, without the audience being drawn to Pollard’s own practical stage concerns. His voice and lyrics sit delicately and deep inside the dense textures he samples for his loops, emphasising the delicate character of his voice more than the clarity of every word. 

Competition’s penultimate song, the project title-track, is a perfect encapsulation of melancholic confusion, and you could see it reaching inside the hearts of the focussed faces in the audience tonight. In contrast, the last song had a delightfully bouncy beat which was married with a soliloquy charting an existential crisis of a distracted mind. The song’s narrator kept returning to the burning question: “Seriously - when will I get a dog?”

Substituting the podium with blue velvet for a synth stand of her own (this one adorned with a cape sporting a green, red and yellow flower design) Nathalie Stern opened with a slow drone and steadily interjected vocal phrases. Her presence was instantly commanding and the unique texture of her voice took hold of the space with its characteristic spirit of strength and darkness. Using multiple loop-stations and a Korg synthesiser, she blended her first few songs into one another, with a particularly furtive chant using harsh Anglo-Saxon consonants. Midway through the set, coyly asking the audience for permission to play an instrumental, Stern then turned to her synth and embarked upon building up a fuzzy four-bar phrase; a tune which would not be out of place accompanying fantasy adventures. 

In this self-described ‘second phase’ of her songwriting, Stern’s composition focusses even more around the voice, with these recent performances not involving any guitar orchestration that the previous period had. This direction feels perfectly whole in a new way. The duplication of her own voice with impeccably chosen harmonies, fills the sound, and holds more power in an unshared air. Tonight, once more her bold music, balanced with her natural charm on stage, has fresh and seasoned admirers seduced alike.

The evening’s designer Mark Corcoran-Lettice swiftly followed up on the positive mood hanging in the air after Stern’s set, by launching straight into the disco portion of the evening, which brought a modest, but exuberant, amount of wigglin’ hips to the dance floor, and kept them there with songs by (to name a few) The Breeders, KLF and Kendrick Lamar. For the closing track at 12-o-clock, our DJ summoned the Gainsbourg/ Birkin duet Je T’aime; a gentle and respectfully playful nod to French culture, love and life.

[2015.11.20] for NARC Magazine.

Warm Digits with Filmbee / co￥ﾡpt / Pentecostal Party - Live at Northern Stage, Newcastle

Following on from supporting Razmataz Lorry Excitement’s Without album launch, Claire Dupree, in the name of NARC Magazine, once again utilised the space at Northern Stage, to give a band close to her heart an unrestricted stage to play with.

After a break from performing over the summer, Warm Digits (Steve Jefferis and Andrew Hodson) recently popped down the road to play at Leeds’ Recon Festival in October. Now, the Distraction Records duo return to Newcastle to give their home fans something new. As well as a set written to include recently recorded tunes, they are also relinquishing their light-show element of the show, to give way to collaborate with the film co-operative FilmBee, who will shape the display of visuals for this upcoming evening. 

In terms of the programme, Jefferis explained that Warm Digits were keen to have other acts on the bill that were doing interesting things with electronic music currently. From Pentecostal Party and co￥ﾡpt’s recent output, their inclusion on the bill certainly seems to marry this desire.     

A healthy crowd circulate downstairs in the Stage 3 venue at Northern Stage, shortly after the doors are opened, and lively chatter and the clinking of glasses is lacquering the air. Walking into the space, you discover gorgeous old Elf projectors sitting a-top of wooden platforms, whilst busy members of FilmBee’s team sweep clothes-hangers of film strips into position, ready for their collaboration with the headline act: the promise of Warm Digits’ ever-evolving spectacle supported immediately for those attending, and anticipation blossoms into excitement.

Fading up the outline kicks of what will develop into Night & Day, Dawn Bothwell as Pentecostal Party subtly develops the outline of the beat on her table of toys as the house lights fall. Behind her, a projection screen fills the back wall behind the stage, and a video loops the slithering of an intimidatingly large blue eel underwater. Pentecostal Party uses rigidity in the rhythms of her songs which carve out, what feels like, the blue-prints of physical architecture with which she sits the more vulnerable centre of her music inside: her vocal chants and reimagining stanzas. 

Pentecostal Party’s previous show for the Halloween Hauskonzert put a spell on the upstairs room at The Old Police House in Gateshead recently, with a packed room of people engaged with its heartbeat and cathartic yearning melodies. Tonight, due to a contrasting space and performance time, similar material was digested more reflectively from most of the crowd, with some attendees ignorantly continuing to prioritise the sound of their own voice over someone who actually had something to offer.

Highlights of the set included Lets Storm Heaven, with Bothwell fully immersed, one hand reaching up to the ceiling as she refrained the call-to-arms. At the close, percussion was removed as synthesised chords looped, and improvised melodies were played with, fading this unbroken streaming seance into silence.

Riding high off the back of performing at Manchester’s Algorave event at Texture last night, the live-coding spirit of Sean Cotterill, co￥ﾡpt (pronounced co-opt,) was still restless and keen to dance. Armed at his laptop, (Sunn O))) T-shirt holding his hand,) Cotterill set about creating his set, using phrases of computer code to grow and manipulate sounds and images. The language of his instructions were projected in real-time, whilst other shapes and images were mixed into the canvas, also at his command. 

His improvisation started with swelling chords, with percussion elements slowly entering the fray. Unusual words like ‘Buf’ and ‘pwhite’ built steadily in different colours of the rainbow behind him and slowly but surely the audience partially ingested the links between the visual language Cotterill was speaking and the sounds they were hearing. This first section enjoyed a half-time feel with lots of hemi-demi-semi-definition made up of small clicks and fuzzes. Certain visual motifs were established on the backdrop too, including mosaics of black triangles streaming, and cuboid lines intersecting. After a while of what was a steadily unfolding landscape, a more vigorous style was programmed kicking out the previous scene and from here on in Cotterill moved quickly through various progressive movements. Though the sounds were very different to traditional set-ups, the flow was in the spirit of progressive rock or fusion jazz improvisations. Alongside this playful sonic confidence, the visuals became more dynamic, with the original triangle motifs collapsing together and expanding, as if they were a beating heart.

As the co￥ﾡpt set came to its dramatic finish with ripped up bassy sounds, Cotterill shook his two fists at chest level in triumph; a feeling very much understood by those watching, themselves noticeably thrilled.

The crowd moved forward, embracing the gap of space in front of stage as the main feature took position. Lights circulated around the skin of Hodson’s bass-drum, projected out from the kick. With a quick nod to one another, Warm Digits were off! They opened boldly with Wireless World and then the optimism of Working For A Better Future, with its joyful skipping beat, and Jefferis’ sweet melody lines. 

Though shoulders and two-steps were grooving from the beginning of the set, it was by the time the funk bass of one of their more recent offerings, End Times, came around a few tracks into the set, the waves of movement in the room were banishing all thoughts of an outside world; their groove was in the marrow of every bone, and their imagination leading everyone. 

Throughout, the duo linked songs, maintaining the momentum, which they utilise as an important foundation upon which to build their musical textures. This sense of travel has also become one of the great attractions of their sonic identity, taken to a further, more literal interpretation, on their material for the Half Memory project. Sometimes they melted tracks together with a seamless blending of motifs, and at other times they enjoyed looping and degrading the last breaths of the previous tune before excitedly entering a new track, with a new style, and a new athletic movement. This sonic relentlessness is paralleled by Hudson’s performance throughout, which speaks to endurance. With uplighting around his drum-kit, the drama in his facial expressions and flying limbs were given added distinction. 

Towards the end of the set, the hyper scaling of Weapons Destruction started, and joyous fans made the floor bounce at the realisation; some with arms raised in the air, others hooking embraces around friends. 

FilmBee intertwined their sumptuous visuals around Warm Digits’ music across this special occasion, creating symbolic and textured film-loops on two additionally erected screens. Some of the shapes resembled Cy Twombly circles, whilst others included broader paint marks. Not only did the progressing visuals interact with the music, but both the left and right screens developed relative to one another as well, all skilfully edited live at the two stations at the back of the room. 

It’s not often two separate encores are genuinely coerced from a band, but tonight everyone was in WD’s plane as the wheels left the ground and nobody felt like coming down so the architects of flight kindly kept on going a little longer, finishing with two older classics, including One Trash Groove. Though most of FilmBee’s accompanying work had been more abstract for the evening, in this final coda, humour and tenderness were summoned, with a section of film depicting a very sweet little guinea pig.

With its combination of acts, the evening felt like a celebration of shape, space and angles explored through various styles of music and visuals, performed by artists who possess the skills to go deep within these topics. The thoughtful curation elevated each glorious part to a greater sum.

[2015.11.13] for NE:MM Magazine.

Midnight Doctors / Cath & Phil Tyler / Posset - Live at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle

With the Midnight Doctors, Phil Begg pulls together some of the regions most interesting musicians and holds a truly unique orchestra in orbit. The first album collates an eclectic mix of instrumental grooves, atmospheres and samples; a seemingly arbitrary collage but each piece lights another up perfectly. 

With each member of the extensive MD family committed to other projects and schedules, the self-titled debut record (released through alt.vinyl,) has been the remaining evidence of their existence since the first launch. There have been no further concerts, but quietly, Begg, along with a slightly altered line-up of musicians, has written another collection, and to the joy of those who had enjoyed MD’s music on record, but had yet to enjoy it live (myself included) the news of their follow-up LP, Through A Screen and Into A Hole’s launch upstairs at The Cumberland Arms was a ticket to jump on.

Sitting behind small, round tables just in front of the raised stage, Joe Murray (Posset / also a contributor to MD’s debut LP) humbly welcomes everyone to the evening and opens with his support set, routed in manipulated tapes sounds. Using several player/recorder devices, Murray pulls squeals and partial sounds and sentences from a range of cassettes, keeping the texture eternal as he inspects new combinations. The room is transfixed on his playfulness and echo the taped applause finishing his set.

Cath & Phil Tyler follow with a typically gorgeous and melodic set of songs. A variant of Fair Mary Of Wallington, with Phil Tyler’s crisp finger-picking and Cath Tyler’s straight and unpretentious lyrical unveiling, cracked a few hearts in the room. To append their set, the duo stepped down in front of the stage to join members of their weekly Sacred Harp society. Cath Tyler suggested we consider the following tunebook songs less as a performance, and more as part of a gathering, of which we are included. The powerful dominant intervals in the harmonies held strongly whilst their choir engaged a range of different voices. This elevating surprise in the night took emotions to a place that could now only be set free by the crowning celebration. 

And so seven of the Midnight Doctors took the stage. Begg was strapped with an electric guitar, ready by his harmonium, which shone in the light. The set started with a new song, opening quietly with the pensive notes of John Pope’s bass. Throughout the set, Sean Cotterill and Niles Krieger voiced the violins stage right, whilst Christian Alderson sternly worked up strong punctuation from his drum kit at the back. Completing the line-up, Emily King and Faye MacCalman paired Alto and Tenor saxophones stage left. Though the sound of each piece was necessarily different from the recorded versions, the band remained dedicated to demonstrating a breadth of expression the self-titled LP has been celebrated for: from subtle melodies treading cautiously like toes in water, to explosive ricocheting blow-outs where all members vibrated as violently as their instruments. Mixing a set with pieces from their latest and original album (along with a few extras,) Midnight Doctors relished in the enjoyment of playing their music, sharing their music and the evening. Each member’s physicality and facial expressions were constantly reacting with the sounds. Big smiles donned their faces as they moved dramatically from the moments of light jazz skipping to the intense moments of chaos in new track Chump Change. In the restrained building of drones in Mount Analogue, these musicians harvested completely different moods and shared them with equal import. 

The End Of The World Carnival Waltz, full of its grand Eastern-European flavour, finished with a climatic energy which communicated the end of the night naturally without the need for explanation. Begg reached for the microphone to praise each band member, but it slipped on the stand in front of him and out of his attempted grasp. He gestured to each instrumentalist, and tried to offer thanks off-mic but his words were dissolved under an ecstatic, and seemingly endless, applause from the audience. This rapture signified how lucky everyone felt to be present and a part of an important moment of community. The music of the Midnight Doctors had brought everyone along together.

[2015.10.26] for NARC Magazine.

Mr Vast - Touch & Go - Album Review

“The garden’s not a prison when you admit that you’re absurd.” This lyric from the album perfectly reflects the nature of Mr Vast’s musical ambition: colourful, adventurous, and ridiculous. His relentless pastiche and parody incorporates transatlantic references, each track either making you smile or cringe depending on your mood.

Smudge Cabin, for example, is a ludicrous drive; giving a cubist portrait of the four-walled dwelling, whilst Testify opens with a monologue about the title’s amusing etymology, before entering a Country & Western swagger. 

By the time the closer Bottle Nose comes around, squeezing much amusement from the leftover sounds of a Sgt. Pepper Beatle, you are left wondering “what was that?” as Mr Vast is laughing merrily off into the distance.

[2015.10.20] for NARC Magazine.

Anna Von Hauswolff - The Miraculous - Album Review

Anna Von Hauswolff’s follow-up to 2013’s Ceremony opens with Discovery; an epic, reaching close to seven minutes across an instrumental landscape, before Von Hauswolff’s, at first elfin, voice captures the scene. The mood is set and the following eight tracks further paint a heavy and sore world, often using rich organ sounds as the spine of these stoic tracks. 

Touches of Sabbath metal can be heard emerging from time to time as in Come Wander With Me Deliverance. 

Subtlety is not order-of-the day on this record, with arrangements filled with weighty on-beat unison, and vocals divining archetypal eccentrics, but The Miraculous patiently draws a narrative of resilience and determination against oppressive weathers to great effect.

[2015.10.20] for NARC Magazine. 

Xiu Xiu Play The Music Of Twin Peaks - Live at The Sage, Gateshead

“Diane. It’s 7pm at The Sage. I’ve just arrived at their Double-R Diner, and there’s a man in blue denim and long grey hair eating cherry pie.”

The upstairs room between the two venues had been perfectly transformed into The Black Lodge too. Each guest, dressed-up as a favourite character, walked around The Red Room with childlike wonder on their faces.

With Angelo Badalamenti’s original soundtrack as fundamental to Lynch’s creation as the visual world, it takes bravery to recreate alternative versions of the music, not least because of the scrutiny they would receive from fanatical followers. Facing Hall 2, packed full of the North-East’s division of the church, Xiu Xiu came to share their adaptations.

As they started to play Laura’s Theme in front of a screen looping the sinister fan shot from the show, a young man beside me fainted. Audrey’s Theme was played with extra fuzz in the baselines, whilst Shayna Dunkelman’s xylophone brought out the famous riffs perfectly. Though used sparingly, Jamie Stewart’s voice will have divided opinion, but his passion for the material was doubtless. Their choice not to speak between the music allowed an eery atmosphere to be maintained across the set.  

The night concluded with dramatics as Dunkelman took up Laura Palmer’s diary, and read from it with a wild impression. Jamie Stewart then channelled Leland from behind the drum kit with Does Eat Oats. After the show, Some people returned to the Black Lodge, clinging on to a wonderful night.

[2015.10.05] for NARC Magazine.

The Tempest - Improbable Theatre Company / Northern Stage

Improbable set the tone for their adaptation of The Tempest perfectly with their opening scene. In front of a curtain of tied-together clothing, the main cast stood by a washing machine, to which some Arial powder (wink, wink) was added, and the machine ‘turned on.’ The curtain then lifted as if we were all being spun by the barrel, and the storm, onto the shore alongside the action.  

Dunes of shirts and trousers provided hillsides for characters to emerge from and escape around. Dressed in coherent apparel, the island residents blended in with the background as they made covert approaches, and eaves dropped on the washed-ashore. Throughout, the father-daughter chemistry between Tyrone Huggins as Prospero and Jade Ogugua was perfect and adoringly recognisable, whilst Eileen Walsh’s Ariel kept up a boundless energy as she tormented the selfish and vein lost souls. As Miranda and Ferdinand finally got Prospero’s blessing, the stage was filled wall-to-wall with colour. 

Providing delicate and mysterious music to the show was Brendan Murphy, who danced with wine-glass harmonics and glass tubular bells from his stage-right pit of tricks.

This adaptation took the brighter aspects of the text and ran with them. This packed main room at Northern Stage was left with an audience clapping heartily for another storm soon.

[2015.09.29] for NARC Magazine.

Richard Dawson / Asiq Nargile / Spires That In The Sunlight Rise - Live at St Gabriel's Church, Heaton, Newcastle

Entering St. Gabriel’s Church, we are treated to the memory of incense long soaked into the furnishings.

Sat humbly on chairs in front of the chancel and imposing golden imagery, the duo Spires That In The Sunlight Rise set the night alive, looping flute and saxophone passages amongst samples and synths. Kathleen Baird’s contralto burned lyrics into their aching sonic impressions.

A touring companion, fluent in English, introduced Asiq Nargile, explaining that she would be singing songs that made up portions of epics. Having the outlines of these stories prior to the performance may have helped the audience contextualise, however, standing stoic, using only her head, vocal cords and flying fingers (unfolding the encyclopaedia of her sas,) to demonstrate, Nargile captivated all with strength, beauty and precise articulation.

It is a testament to his expanding reputation that one member of this audience had travelled up from Malvern, Worcestershire exclusively to see Richard Dawson before returning the next day. Dawson ran long with his many facets: a greater range of music (including a Shirley Collins cover,) more jokes, more bananas. His conviction in the distinction for each of his songs shows his skills are as sharp as they have ever been.


[2015.09.17] for NARC Magazine.

LIDO - Sagan Megadrive - EP Review

Deep in the heart of the North-East last August, a new four-track EP was brought to life at the Ginger Music Company, out of the fevered mind of Chris Minnis, the sole console of Sagan Megadrive. Though live, you might see him working his nimble fingers around an acoustic guitar with a Casio keyboard in tow, on record he is fully fledged with special guests filling a spectrum of sound.

LIDO kicks off with The Quest For Coal. Minnis’ progressive tendencies are instantly laid bare with an 11/8 bluesy electric guitar riff. We are then swiftly taken to a complimentary section replete with bouncing brass. Theme and variations continue, until a spookiness is toyed with later in the track; synth wobbles over stabbing chords. Finally, a euphoric lydian lead line transports our journey back into the light and the main theme. It certainly feels like we have got closer to the coal by the end. This track also has a video full of eclectic and amusing imagery (including laughing masks and a dragon) all montaged and crudely edited together. Seek it out - It compliments the vision well.   

Next up, with an opening fanfare, is a musical response to a Doom Cheat “…to Dissemble and Smoke Berserk Pack Pts 1- 3.” This instrumental chops dramatically between feels and beats. If Queen influences were not suspected previously, halfway through this track we are treated to a harmonised distorted exposition in the identifiably May-school of guitar playing.  

Following on, bursting ahead of the music (with a glorious North-East accent,) is the lead vocal of the only sung song on the EP. Faces, in the Crowd jigs along with a glistening strummed acoustic guitar, supported by warm, and at times Gospel-style, backing vocals from Fiona Tobin. The dominant seventh chords rattle around until a swung bass groove takes the reigns, and steals the track away into strange synthesised sounds.
    

The EP concludes with the title track, and it is the most monstrous of the collection; with cacophonic instrumental harmonies and hyperactive drum patterns. It appears that Minnis’ outdoor swimming area is overpopulated with riotous attendees! As this EP concludes we are left with so much energy transferred to our ears from crashing white horses.

Each track sits between three and just-over five minutes in length (the EP itself just seventeen minutes) but with the flurry of ideas in each, each orchestrated part mixed crisply, you feel like you have ventured far, and heard many audio wonders.

Like visiting a theme park, LIDO will thrill you in the way it whisks you around, but will also draw a wry smile from your mouth as you catch a moment to observe some of its colourful aesthetic choices and references. It is bustling with fun, and Minnis does not ever let his perfectionism trick him into taking himself too seriously, and the compositions are freer for that. 

[2015.08.06] for NARC Magazine.

Hapsburg Braganza / Yeah You / Kieran Rafferty / Alright Lover - Live at The Globe, Newcastle

Upstairs at The Globe, gig-goers relax on the balcony in a bright Summer eve, whilst sound-checks are completed. On first, Alright Lover (Craig Pollard) starts on his knees, mildly neurotic, building prerecorded phrases with his sampler. These carefully constructed sounds underlie songs sung with fragility and angst.

You may have enjoyed Kieran Rafferty live before, with his impeccable voice of saxophone melodies and bright chordal tensions from his Fender. Tonight, our next act’s sound is expanded, as certain technologies divide the notes he plays on his Jaguar as part bass-simulation, part traditional electric guitar tones. Drum loops complete orchestration, and these new songs grip the room.

The only guarantee of Yeah You live is knowing you will be surprised, and that is a fantastic guarantee.The sonic organisms created tonight, from a square table of toys, are less volatile than many of their previous pieces. One light creature was born when a keyboard demonstration was accidentally triggered and then eaten up into their style of improvisation.

Due to the rhythmic energy of preceding acts, Hapsburg Braganza’s exquisite soundscape painting brought the feelings in the room safely to land for the night. Phil Begg started his set with a minute of eclectic snipped spoken quotations before embarking on a rich collage centrepiece of ambient sounds.

[2015.07.23] for NARC Magazine.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals / Artistas del Gremio - Live at The Gala Theatre, Durham

Billed as a headline event of the Durham Brass Festival, Huey and Chums were set to put a jewel in the crown at The Gala Theatre with their brand of schmoove, mob-inspired hip-hop. Entering the venue, this possibility seemed doubtful initially, as the auditorium felt palpably sparse as the night began.

Members of the all-brass support, Artistas del Gremio, crept onto stage like faux-timid pantomime pucks before unleashing a wealth of camp alongside masterfully rearranged covers, including Bohemian Rhapsody and I Feel Good. Perhaps their unapologetic monkeying around was a yin to our headliner’s yang. It certainly was an unlikely ECT start, but seemed to spark the hips of this almost exclusively young-in-the-90’s crowd; a shot of something present in the arm before nostalgic feelings could be satisfied.

The theatre had filled when The Fun Lovin’ Criminals, complete with their singer’s cheshire grin, arrived on the stage to joyous applause and kicked off with their winking protest song, King Of New York. Particular highlights of the night were Bombin’ The L and Up On The Hill. To add colour, and service the festival, a brass trio accompanied the band throughout.

This greatest hits show, though trapped in the pre-millenium glory days of the group, was enthusiastically performed and what was loved then, was lapped up now in an unlikely setting for New York grooves.

[2015.07.17] for NARC Magazine.

NARC Magazine Demo Reviews - July

10ft Tom / Austin Tweddle / Cactusman / Northern Horizon / Six Billion Monkeys

You’re on your own at the back of a smokey bar, drinking away the pain of a lifetime of bad decisions and troubled situations, feeling lost. Don’t worry. 10ft Tom (and his Leprosy Crooks?) are singing a lil’ rock’n’roll just for you with their song, People Like Us. The chord cycle in the verse rolls like a stone whilst our giant singer reads a register of dedications. The excitement as the band speeds up in the choruses is endearing, like a child taking you by the hand to show you a new painting they’ve drawn. As a single-finger keyboard string line is added to the orchestration, and the singer assures us we’re not alone, the song leaves the ground carrying the listener to a more hopeful place.

As our singer meanders through lyrics reflecting upon the complications of a femme fatale, Austin Tweddle’s appreciation for Sheffield’s LA Teddy Boys could do with being ever so slightly diluted. His lazy drawl is seamless and cool, and this modern noir is completed in Blueprints by a female backing vocal singing in unison at the choruses. The production is crisp and perfectly judged, allowing tastes such a modest tremolo part and a soulful distorted distant guitar to sit within the mix, embellishing without distracting. The track outros with a rally of repeated distorted guitar motifs as our Romeo’s frustration finally concedes and he begs for his beau’s ‘blueprints’ of the song’s namesake.

Cactusman certainly have a taste for the bittersweet in their song Death Of Me; from the teary lead electric guitar tone painting with arpeggios, to the rainy lead melody. Even the accompanying visual artwork to this song is a delicious extension of the mood, with its heart and death collage of mixed materials. Death Of Me classically combines the optimism of a recycling positive chord sequence and resigned and mournful lyrical content. When a female voice harmonises in the choruses, our lead singer’s mildly flat pitching is emphasised. Though certainly an imperfect flower, this ballad is the demo that glistens the most this month. Alongside entries that celebrate traditional forms,
this is no exception, but Death Of Me feels like a sudden expression that captures a mood instantly, and the band have had the wisdom not to mess with that.

The production does not get slicker this month than with Northern Horizon’s Miss Hopeless, a song psychically connecting the teen spirit of Ajax, Ontario at the turn of the millennium with the present adrenaline of five boys from the North East. Steve Waltl’s accent denies any British routes for a seamless brat American voice. His delivery and control of glimpsing falsetto moments are expertly handled and own this punchy and angsty pop ballad. The track rocks its groove seamlessly between a full and half-time feel whilst maintaining a solid heart throughout. With just a pinch of something more unique in the ingredients, this would have walked the demos this month. 

The most embryonic demo this month comes from Six Billion Monkeys, seemingly the pseudonym of Rodney Hall. There is a devil sat on my shoulder tempting me to reflect the tracks title, Are You Prepared?, back on the songwriter and if he was not selling the song, I would have not let those thoughts onto this page. The track pumps Am, F, and E chords over a crude delay-heavy drum pattern as lyrics are yelled through distortion far back in the mix, barely audible. Though it may serve as a useful draft, those with the lowest-fi, punk penchant would still want to add a cherry or two before calling this finished. 

[2015.07.16] for NARC Magazine.

Flying Saucer Attack - Instrumentals - Album Review

Throughout the nineties, David Pearce and his Flying Saucer Attack produced albums annually, showering sounds from the orbits of a shoegaze sun. At the turn of the millennium, Pearce seemingly hung up his FSA gown in support of a quieter lifestyle, with some brief excursions with other collaborators at the turn of the naughties. Now, after fifteen years away from public output, to a dedicated following’s delight, FSA are back with an album of fifteen brand new instrumentals.

Though arbitrarily numbered after their order on the record, each of these pieces is quite distinct, and at no point across the hour of music is there the sense that material is being duplicated or filled. All tracks are almost exclusively built with effects and amplification manipulating the sound and progressions of electric guitars. Each enjoys a bespoke colouration, for example, with Instrumental Three, the chords gently shimmer with delaying ripples, whilst Instrumental Four outlays drones and pad-like fuzz. The sixth instrumental dramatically interrupts the mood, breaking from tonality to explore the potential of crushing and wild white noise; from screaming pitches to factory raws.

Released ahead of the album, with an eery video montage of rural scenes, Instrumental Seven is worthy of distinction. Using guitar feedback alongside a second guitar moving around minor tensions, a rich, almost pipe-like sound is created. As well as this, the sound gates every so often. This fracturing of the recording creates a further unease, first established by its sorrowful melody. 

Instrumental Ten, once more introduces a new perspective, with an open-position string exploration supported with a gentle oscillating ticker in the background.

Often the tracks are faded out, sometimes swiftly, almost crudely, giving the impression that their conclusion is arbitrary: the context of an album limiting our access to their fuller existence. However, the album concludes on lengthier tracks. The penultimate piece uses harmonics of IV and V chords with reversing sound to create a wonderfully eternal and hypnotic effect, whilst the last stand revels in a regenerated Em chord with hammer-on flickers and fuzz.

This album of instrumentals is a wonderful celebration of the distorted electric guitar, with each track utilising it in a different, peculiar way - often isolated, the only instrument from silence. Here, the ear is given the chance to focus on all of its frequencies and qualities aside from other instrumentation. It is testament to a fine musician to take something as familiar as this instrument and with each track take a listener’s ear back to a more virginal sense of expectation for its sound, but as tracks unveil on this new FSA album, demonstrating a wealth of different techniques and colours, Pearce does this.  

After breaking from Domino Records in 1999, FSA now release Instrumentals with their support once more. It is a good to see Domino Records, ever popular through floor-filler acts like The Arctic Monkeys and Hot Chip, still keeping their umbrella wide and soul filled with important alternative artists speaking to audiences with more intimate desires. As well as bringing joy to loyal fans, may this new release on an ever prominent label introduce a new generation to FSA.

[2015.07.02] for NE:MM Online Magazine.

Rhian Thompson / Rhodri Davies & Mark Sanders / Shelly Knots / Callan - Live at The Old Police House, Gateshead

As people arrive for Hauskonzert #20, quietly growing his set out of his soundcheck, DJ Callan moulds tones quietly through the PA kneeling discretely at the side of the main living room space. Using LP’s with soft ambient tones, he delicately interacts with the dials of a little box in loop with the vinyl player, effecting and editing the sounds. This gradually evolving ambiance graciously soothes the ears.

Stepping up behind her laptop in a bright yellow Adidas jacket, Shelly Knotts then starts her set, teasing, what sounds like a hive of lizard tongues lashing, into life. These percussive acceleration and deceleration cycles then adopt a soggier character and we are transported from the desert to the monsoon. At a climatic point, a wonderful dominant seventh interval sustains in a synth sound as clashing thunder falls around it. SK shrugged as she finished her set, suggesting a concern about what she had produced. The audience’s applause however indicated that if she had doubts, they were her own.

Next up, on the first floor, a drum kit and harp sit, anticipating heartbeats. If you need a further reason to love Hebden Bridge, Rhodri Davies introduces his long-term musical collaborator, and duo partner for tonight’s performance, South London drummer Mark Sanders, with an anecdote explaining that he first met him whilst visiting West Yorkshire’s artist’s haven in 1994, and that discovery of Sanders’ musicianship was a primary influence for his own exploration into the greater world of improvised music. 

The improvisation between them that follows is sublime, with Davies and Sanders’ intuition of each others instincts palpable. The combination of Davies’ emerging muscular arpeggio patterns breaking free, and Sanders’ more fluid and joyful beats, blends into a complicated and fascinating animal. Sanders would swim in sections of his drum kit throughout - a hydra of cowbells, then a woodblock and tambourines for example - and draw focus to these timbres before moving on to another compliment with unstoppable enthusiasm.

If this jam put excitement and encouragement into the audience’s blood, Edinburgh’s Rhian Thompson concluded the bill, putting a chill back into it - with an eery piece, complete with indistinct voices (wound and rewound live on a handheld tape recorder,) klaxons, and doll rattles. With the daylight fading fast outside of the window, Thompson uses these sounds, supported by synthesised drones and pedal notes, in an interrupted and less repetitive way; not allowing any certainty to establish itself in the mind of the listener. She concludes this instrumental, reaching the maximum tension, by sustaining a loud high-pitch feedback, defeating some listeners into shielding their cocleas. It has been another delectable edition to the history of Davies’ Hauskonzerts for sure.

On a personal note, I think it is important to note that composer Mariam Razaei, with close friends such as Adam Denton, has, in a short period of time, turned this once Police Station, then Youth Centre, into a magical space for passionate musicians to create and perform without any distractions beyond the occasion itself - nought but music and participation. We are fortunate to have discerning curators like herself and Rhodri, supporting peculiar talent in this area, and connecting us with such from afar too. Involve yourselves in the events that take place in this little house on the Gateshead side of the river, and the rewards will be true.

[2015.06.18] for NARC Magazine.

Micachu & The Shapes - Good Sad Happy Bad - Album Review

Mica Levi and her Shapes follow up 2012’s Never with a record that finds subtle detail in mope and sadness. The mixing is deceptively simple, but one-off touches, and unusual dynamic placement of certain instrumentation gives these pop songs a cosy setting.

Like M&TS’ previous output, tracks are given distinction with bespoke sounds: Oh Baby’s stubborn misery is realised with minor riffs from a kettle drum and 2-bit timpani interjecting. Unity sports guttural screaming. LA Poison is a doped acoustic grunge skank whilst Sea Air’s disorientated melody evokes Robert Wyatt.

May the recognition for Levi’s soundtrack for Under The Skin bring more attention to her other work. Her invention is uncompromised by whichever pool she’s swimming in.

[2015.06.15] for NARC Magazine.

Teen Men - Teen Men - Album Review

In a new project, a breath away from The Spinto Band, Nick Krill and Joey Hobson join forces with visual artists to bring their new Teen Men self-titled debut album to life. Though the songs carve relief-deep definition for themselves, the mix of forms used in the various videos accompanying the tunes really help to convey the fuller sculptures. A mild melancholic vocal sometimes pulls the listener closer, but the songs are often delivered with a certain level of detachment, allowing their life to be observed, but from a window far away. This precise dreamy pop record has been perfectly realised and feels unworried by its unfaltering passivity. If you feel unworried by that too, there is a sweet record to be enjoyed here.

[2015.06.15] for NARC Magazine.

Beauty Pageant / Commiserations / Dead Friends / Kilo Grandma / Waskerley Way - Live at The Old Police Station, Gateshead

Whilst playing a game of chess a couple of weeks ago, a good friend delivered news of the best surprise: Beauty Pageant were back! and to be playing a gig at The Old Police Station in Gateshead at the end of May. After over a year away from performing live together, the imagination and graft of events organisers Even Clean Hands Cause Damage have brought them back to the area where they formed, to once again twist and punch ears. Further delights were to colour the evening too.

   

Opening the nights proceedings was Michael Bridgewater, performing as Waskerley Way. Taking off his jacket, and kissing his football shirt with a wink in his eye, he embarked upon three contrasting instrumentals built with sounds from his laptop and keyboard. The set evolved from slippery bass moans, through hip-hop influenced beats, to a final tune blossoming with a melodic prettiness.

Next we were treated to one face of Kilo Grandma; an improvisation group, this time utilising the talents of Beauty Pageant’s drummer, Dan Dixon, modular synth meddler John Bowers, clarinetist Rebecca Jennings and Charlie Bramley on pocket operator synths. Across two jams they filled the room with as much volume as it could handle, sourcing new musical patterns from one another, with phase progressing phase.

A man known as Dead Friends then brought an inspired bout of humour, playing prerecorded compositions from his tablet whilst casually drinking from a can and indicating choice moments in each track with a point of an index finger, or a raise of a brow. This setlist of short crude extracts and melted classics supported by deadpan expressions was a perfect aperitif.

Commiserations, a raucous trio from Leeds, realigned the airwaves with noisy short songs driven by loosely tuned guitar riffs and thrusting drums, whilst the two members with microphones vocalised their aggression. A goblin decided to play tricks from within one of the guitar amps halfway through, bringing the set to a holt. The band tried to correct the issue whilst the room of people watched with hopeful anticipation. Thankfully the amp returned to its full force and the riot could play out.

Crowning the evening, Beauty Pageant start with their Torso EP opener Superplasticizer and the mood is instantly theirs. After a few tracks uniting headbangers and the hypnotised alike, a humble thanking of all involved is given and met with audience agreement (displayed as silence.) Marie Thompson makes fun with this awkwardness before encouraging BP to quickly premiere a new song, returning to the comfort of playing their musical storms. When Helen Papaioannou’s opening saxophone riff for Cheerleaders starts up, final inhibitions are cut loose, and the room rides out unbridled excitement to the finish.

Though they have been away for a while, tonights display confirms their united character is still strong and loved. This performance has recharged our batteries until next time.

[2015.05.25] for NARC Magazine.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Christopher Sergel

Many will remember holding copies of To Kill A Mockingbird in class many moons ago. Outside the Theatre Royal this evening, a large crowd of teenagers were being assembled by teachers; a new generation exposed, getting ready to see what they have been reading in class reimagined in Christopher Sergel’s now-touring stage adaptation.
   
    As all are finding their seats, the stage is bare, except for a sturdy tree with a rubber-tire swing hanging from one of the branches, and some chairs and a bed tucked to the right hand side. The conversation is lively and loud on this well-attended opening night but a firm whistle from one of the actors raises the attention to the full cast now at the front of the stage, each holding a copy of Harper Lee’s novel, and the play begins.

    Each taking turns to read an opening passage of Scout’s account from the original text, the play outlays a device it will use throughout, helping to move each scene to flow into the next, and to narrate this tale of courage, prejudice and hope for justice with the eyes and innocence of a young girl’s perspective.

    This production benefits from being seen from a balcony, as the cast quickly build the town in a two-dimensional map on the floor in chalk and set the locations that various characters will visit throughout the story, including Mrs Dubose’s and Boo Radley’s homes, and the jail where Tom Robinson awaits his fate. The first half of the play runs quickly from scene-to-scene, introducing various tensions and relationships, each being presented like a miniature fable within this larger essay on humanity. Luke Potter adds a further depth to the spirits in this town with light accompanying music from a tenor ukulele or steel-string guitar, and singing too.

    In the second half, the story is played out in an extended courtroom scene where Atticus Finch (whose enduring strength throughout is portrayed excellently by Daniel Betts,) unravels the lies and prejudices of the prosecuting witnesses, including the drunk and abusive Bob Ewell, whose villainy is instantly palpable the minute Ryan Pope swaggers the character on stage. By the time the wrongly-accused Tom Robinson relays his perspective on the events, the whole theatre was hanging on to Zachary Momoh’s understated and powerful delivery.

    As the original story is given heart and strength from its strong youthful characters, the future of theatre is given light for the acting quality of its cast’s younger members. It’s hard to believe that this is Jemima Bennett’s debut role acting in professional theatre as she confidently moves within Scout’s skin, showing us all of the character’s cockiness and confusion. The chemistry between the actors playing the three childhood companions is wonderfully natural, with each also making individual moments memorable too; Harry Bennett as Jem tearing up the flowers, and Leo Heller as Dill telling his exaggerated stories.

    Though rich in moments and detail, the show flew by and as the lights faded on Atticus and Scout, the audience pounced into applause before the blackout. As the clapping went long and beyond any social formality, each member of the cast humbly raised their copy of the book to show their debt to this brilliant story. 

[2015.04.21] for NARC Magazine.

Martin Gore - MG - Album Review

MG is an assertive set of sixteen short instrumentals from Depeche Modes’ Martin Gore; a follow-up record to the techno-inspired album Ssss, which he made with fellow Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke. Here, Gore takes full control and produces a setlist just short of an hour, portraying many unique spirits and painting lots of contrasting moods. You will be exhausted by the end, but in the best possible way; like when the house-lights come up after a wild, late-night thriller. 

This electronic odyssey pings into action with the plinky syncopated broken-chords of Pinking. Around the clockwork progression rough scrapes build and intensify. As quickly as this sense of urgency has blossomed, Swanning follows, like a darkness below the drains, a beast lurking in the sewer. Gore has created an album of moments, often just two-to-three minutes in length, with a rounded central character, each memorable and intense. I could elaborate on all of them, but that would take away the fun for the first-time listener.

A few distinguished mentions: The swaggering limbs of Stealth, with its EQ constantly stretching in the unrest, Europa Hymn, using pulled pitching to bend sorrowful melodies, and the confident Crowly, bold and shining with various colours as its croaking pulse ceases to relent. 

Though there is nothing in the labelling of the tracks or artwork to indicate a narrative or concept to the record, the mind cannot help but recall or invent images to marry with what the ears are hearing. It would be a mixed blessing to have to create a video with this music; a luxury because these sounds would amplify a scene, being so vivid and exciting, but also a curse, for it would be a huge responsibility to compliment these tracks with images that further expand their already multidimensional world.

By titling this record with his initials, this experienced musician outlays a considered confidence by presenting this new phase of musical direction, for all intents and purposes, in his name - as he did, compounding it with his collaborator’s for the previous outing - VGMG. This confidence is demonstrated in the material, which balances continual enthusiasm with tasteful clarity. The album cover image of a hand-drawn potentiometer gives a hugely understated hint of the apparatus that will be supplying the sounds manipulated within, however, it also fairly communicates the focus and love that Gore has for these electronic instruments.

What makes the tracks on MG so striking is the efficiency of their design; each is orchestrated with only the necessary timbres. Often snippets of melodies and motifs highlight negative space in the linear parts. This kind of melodic construction invites your mind to imagine motion beyond what is being told to your ear, in the same way an author might offer clues to a characters path, leaving you to imagine what might have happened. This unpatronising style of composition welcomes the listener inside, creating the opportunity for a much stronger emotional connection and investment. It is clear from this cornucopia that Gore’s goat’s horn is far from drought, and I, for one, would relish in a further instalment from this sonic-cinematic direction.

[2015.04.12] for NE:MM Magazine.

Richard Dawson / Vibracathedral Orchestra / Phil Tyler - Live at The Star & Shadow, Newcastle

Having launched his incredible album, Nothing Important, at the Star & Shadow in the winter of last year, Richard Dawson returns tonight to play the first gig of his UK Tour once again on this homely stage.

The two supporting acts shine through the evening’s sky like the sun and moon crossing Dawson’s soul. First on, Phil Tyler stands steady and loyal as he retells melodies from both sides of the Atlantic using his banjo for divination. As the opening instrumental ‘No Wealth But Life’ draws focus from the spirited audience, many new eyes and ears fill into the room until it is packed full. Tyler’s performances are always modest, with his presence on stage almost bashful. This allows the instrumentals and songs to be witnessed and understood apart from the person playing them. By seeing such devotion, it is important to recognise Tyler as not just an excellent and skilled musician, but as someone committed to his passions for their own virtue.

As a styrofoam head presented at the front of the stage is adorned with headphones, and an A4 photocopy picture of Lou Reed is casually taped to the back curtain, the signs are set that Vibracathedral Orchestra’s performance will be abrasive, but boy, few were prepared! From a stage littered with instruments, The Leeds quartet took few moments to arrive at a torrent of sound which they then joyously improvised around and within for close to an hour. Phil Tyler’s considered approach is now balanced by this uncertainty and wilderness. Childhood curiosity was ever present in their eyes as each band-mate explored different instruments; from guitars, to synths, to percussion, to recorders. A fake severed hand lay on the floor throughout but was not utilised. Though their faces were lined with a million stories, these men were growing younger as they played. Though some members of the audience were defeated by the power of the sound, this unapologetic tirade was a strangely fitting purifier for the ears about to listen to tonight's headliner.   

With ale gleaming in his cheeks, Richard Dawson takes merriment in being a few minutes early onto the stage and enjoys joking with many characters in the crowd. Though clearly excited by this christening date in his calendar, friendly support in the audience is palpable and Dawson rides the waves with grace. As the opening motif to Man Has Been Struck Down By Hands Unseen is recognised, excitement curls in the faces watching and whatever has lead up to this moment has passed - the night now belongs to this music. 

Perhaps because of the heat in the room, or exhaustion, our singer’s voice is more strained than usual, with some of the falsetto notes falling into breath. This huskier and angular quality in his vocals however helped make tonight’s version of The Vile Stuff as violent a march as it has ever been. The fire in this performance was lapped up as one of the evening’s highlights, with the crowd singing favourite lines loudly, and laughing with its humour.

The setlist was a rich tribute to his album The Magic Bridge, filled predominantly with songs from that record with a few inclusions from the two following albums. 

When Dawson removed his jumper for the final portion of his set to reveal a Thelonious Monk T-shirt, there was something wonderfully childlike about how blushing he was of this item of clothing. Though depicting one of his heroes, he indicated it was an arbitrary clothing decision. Maybe so… 

A plethora of surprises made the denouement anything but formal. From an improvised verse of song playfully mocking his idiosyncrasies, to performing lines of dialogue from the Pacino/De Niro movie Heat, to putting the guitar into standard tuning! and then fumbling his way through Roy Orbison’s In Dreams. To finish he resurrected I Will Make It Up To You from his 2007 album, Sings Songs and Plays Guitar and the song’s bold romance capped the night perfectly.

As goodbyes are said, Dawson gives thanks to The Star and Shadow. Though the rooms now full of life and history are sadly soon to be relinquished, the community that built such a vibrant place, as our troubadour correctly identifies, will start a new lease of life in their next settlement. Long may they live! 

[2015.02.07] for NE:MM Online Magazine.

Group Of The Atlos - R U Person Or Not - Album Review

Group Of The Atlos is the name of a society of musicians that has grown around its five original members that formed in 2006. As a whole, they display traits common to post-rock practices, operating as a flexible set of players servicing the songs they compose with individual egos not rising above the resonating character of the work. Various vocalists and instrumentalists may be given a moment of focus in a track, but such displays do not provide the listener with evidence of what a future composition might be constructed from.

    Following a project scoring a film in 2013, the Wisconsin collective returned to recording this eight-track LP, R U Person Or Not. Throughout this new album, much of the music is weighty and sombre. Learning To Share opens with a slow waltz of guitar octaves. From this introduction, the texture crescendos as many guitar and brass counterparts are added. This building passage instantly supports their instrumental-rock influences. We hear similar building sections later, too - (the endings of News From Wino and On Wreck for example.)

    to: Saviour follows up, incorporating a soulful and wailing lead rock-vocal, roaming around the pentatonic scale, as the other instrumentation effectively peddles the route note. Such a style of singing is unusual within an album of more progressive arrangements like this one, for often such ornamentation and flamboyance in technique is considered immodest and individualistic amongst the post-rock purists. That kind of attitude is a lazy stereotype, and it is to Group Of The Atlos’ credit to include this vocal sound: a welcome additional timbre, giving a rich colour to this record’s rainbow.

   

    Fucks With Us presents one of the album’s most surprising sonic inclusions: a Jamaican-accent-inflected sung rap, leading a slow minor-skank. Out of delirious repetitions of ‘forgive me, forgive me,’ a manic stream of lyrical confession breaks out, resilient through to the song’s conclusion.

    Coplight uses it penultimate position to patiently wind together the roads of the record, carefully unfolding a melancholic duet. A true moment of intimacy is carved out (away from the earlier storms) by blending a solo male and a solo female’s vocal over soft instrumentation.

    The album concludes in a wonderfully farcical fashion with the spooky flash-groove of Forgiveness Rules. The paralleling vocals with guitar wails, and the celebratory energy perfectly off-setting the ernest resonances of the penultimate track.

    With the deliberately naive title of the record, and altered-skull artwork, we are given clues that, as listeners, we might experience an album focussed on some aspects of humanity (existentialism perhaps?,) and though each track is quite unique sonically, it is for this philosophical focus that the set forms as a coherent collection.

    R U Person Or Not certainly contains unique sounds, thoughtfully chosen and performed. The use of overlapping various voices throughout cleverly supports an idea of unity as an antidote against existential isolation considered in the lyrics: From the various vocalists occupying different frequencies within the crowd-chanting of Gun, and On Wreck, to the lyrical phrases completed from the gendered voices, hand-in-hand on Coplight. The variety of colour and influence throughout stimulates imagination in the listener’s mind. Such a display of so many styles, from track-to-track, makes it an enigmatic record as a whole, with certain portions resonating at different sittings.

   

[2015.02.01] for NE:MM Magazine.

Sebastian Beurkner - The Chimera Of M.

As you approach the recently constructed third floor space of The Tyneside Cinema (The Gallery) staff hand out 3D glasses and direct you to enter the room where Sebastian Buerkner’s movie-installation is showing. The film plays out on a large screen at the end of the black room. It is in constant rotation throughout the day (with a brief five minute interval after each run.) 

The twenty-five minute first-person exploration (The Chimera of M.) is made up of separate scenes from the perspective of a character journeying home to visit two people from their past with which they have been intimately acquainted. Apparently this narrative was inspired by a passage in Buerkner’s own life. Each visitation is unwound through alternating scenes, and with each framed moment, the audience is challenged to imagine, both the rest of the scene, and what past may have informed the current situations and behaviours.

Buerkner’s use of 3D technology is much more provocative than its common application to enhance realistic imagery. Though the content of the scenes is routed in a world we would know, moving two-dimensional shapes and vibrant colours are layered in a three-dimensional space to give a more symbolic representation of artefacts. By presenting images which require closer inspection to understand and relate to, as an audience member you feel immersed in the perspective of the character and the intimacy of their interactions. 

Though the piece is a celebration of how to engage an audience in 3D visuals in an unpatronising and sensual way, The Chimera of M. suffers for its supporting dialogue, which often lands half-way between naturalistic exchanges and pretension. With such imagination present in the visuals, to explore more suggestive speech elements (or vocal sounds) might have deepened the emotional connection with the audience. The other sonics enhancing the scenes (bubbles, clinking glasses etc.,) flesh the experience well.

Within a mostly ernest experience, the artist pokes occasional fun at the medium he has utilised: For example, an opening slide of an opticians eye-test chart draws attention to the limitation of our focus as viewers, and later, our character tries to thread a pen back into its lid, which the visited person is holding. Here, our hand holding the pen is shown missing the hole of the lid because, as the visited character explains, we have one eye shut. This scene acknowledges how simple relationships become problematic when the third dimension is missing. 

With works like Buerkner’s The Chimera of M., The Gallery is already proving itself a worthy compliment to the other spaces within this wonderful cinema, offering visitors the chance to explore other visual art forms relevant to cinema and film. The place where you have previously enjoyed a more traditional movie outing now offers a space to experience more experimental constructions. Once more, the Tyneside Cinema’s curators continue to inspire.

[2015.01.20] for NARC Magazine.

of Montreal - Aureate Gloom - Album Review

March welcomes another album from Georgia State’s finest purveyor’s of streaming introspections and musical erections, and once again, with Aureate Gloom, of Montreal treat us to a wall-to-wall sprawl of ideas, visiting a seemingly impossible amount of influences across the ten tracks.

Their familiar style of funk kicks off the record; firstly, with the single, Bassam Sabry, a rebellious groove lyrically set within the environment of the Egyptian Revolution, and following that up with Last Rites At The Jane Hotel, a song reflecting upon Barnes’ recent stay in Greenwich Village. Empyrium Crown is driven by a smooth pumping bassline, leaving our singer’s trademark self-harmonising vocals exposed in the foreground; as ever dreamy, melancholic and sensual. The pace of the record is intermittently broken with the slow-motion solid air of Aluminium Crown, before the energy returns.

In general, the softer folk and blues influences of Lousy With Sylvianbriar are left behind to give room for more rock’n’roll revelling, such as the likes of Monolithic Egress, bold with its four-to-the-floor drumming, and Chtonian Dirge For Uruk The Other raging against its leash, ripping with distortion and discords.

Barnes’ song titles once more relish in the less used areas of the English lexis and his lyrical phraseology is as ever scenic around its central points. Though seemingly sincere in trying to capture the chaos in his mind and relaying it, Barnes’ use of volatile juxtaposition in his lyrics (along with similar musical variation) walks that wonderful line of communication: At any one point, should this be taken earnestly or with a pinch?

Continued audacity and perfectionism keep their catalogue free from any potholes. Though False Priest flourished for its perverse sonic meanderings, both Lousy With Sylvianbriar and this latest release are exciting for the songwriting.

[2015.01.19] for NARC Magazine.

Darren Hayman - Chants For Socialists - Album Review

With his new album ‘Chants For Socialists,’ Darren Hayman once again utilises wisdom from British History, this time imagining songs from the poetic works of socialist William Morris to create a focussed LP, illuminating hope through community in these times of economic disparity.

A gorgeous a cappella song opens, outlining the records key lyrical themes, performed with a sturdy energy and unity that matches the philosophy. Though this excites the possibility that the whole album could be arranged for voices, Hayman breaks back into familiar guitar-based orchestration, with brass and snare-drum inflections referencing politically charged marches throughout. 

It is encouraging amongst a sea of songwriters with their eyes elsewhere, that there is someone bravely facing this immediate political situation with wisdom and care.

[2015.01.19] for NARC Magazine.