Edition 007: Foreword
The Olympics are proving to be a huge corporate money grab on the public purse. Sadly self employed musicians performing at the events aren't included in the bonanza. Apparently they should be happy to work for the exposure. WTF!? Why? Not only are they working but they are increasing the entertainment levels of the event, thus making it better.
Is this the trickle down benefits of the £12 billion we're pumping into this then? Hmmm.
On the plus side, edition 007 of the magazine is now live. Much better than the Olympics. And not sponsored by Coca Cola or McDonalds. Hurrah!
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Magazine Index
01| Music You Should Hear: Graveyard Johnnys / Slyde
02| Interview & Music: Disappears
04| Bands You Should Know: by Disappears
05| Music You Should Hear: Moonface / Muncie Girls
06| Short Film & Interview: Ted Tremper
09| Photographer: Oleg Dou
10| Live Session: Sunday Driver
12| Music You Should Hear: Mmoths / Ed Schrader's Music Beat
13| Audio Visual Art: Onur Senturk
14| Interview & Music: The Destroyers
17| Bands You Should Know: by The Destroyers
18| Music You Should Hear: It Hugs Back / ?redo from start
19| Mix Tape: Elvis On The Radio (ambient mix tape)
20| Live Session: Jon Byrne
21| Classic Album: The Who
Credits: information about this edition
Ebullient Punk Rockabilly to open editon 007 from the rather wonderful Graveyard Johnnys. The 2011 released Songs From Better Days basically kicks arse from start to finish.
Not much more needs to be said really. Single 'Cherelyne' is posted in the video below and if you like that you'll like the album. With the exception of the cover of Radar Love, which I personally found a tad pointless and a worse song than their own though thankfully track 11 so it can be easily ignored, the album does, simply, kick arse.
We are doing a live session with them early June which should be online in July at sometime, so keep an eye out for that as I imagine it'll be blistering. And until then, gorge yourselves on their album.
[Graveyard Johnnys facebook page]
[Graveyard Johnnys on spotify]
Sitting comfortably next to Graveyard Johnnys in the eclectic world of EyeSeeSound is this huge funky dance track.
For comparisons, Basement Jaxx' will be mentioned... and I guess it treads a similar huge epic path as the Jaxx did in their heyday. But it is, when you listen to more of Slyde's music, very much Slyde.
This is a single from their summer released sophomore album, which will also feature the rather glorious Lucky Disco Pants. But if you take a step backwards to their debut release, 'Everyone's Entitled To our Opinion' you'll find yourself a rather large 13 track slab of big beat disco funk WELL WORTH getting your hands on too.
Really looking forward to the next album, but for now turn up the volume and let rip with this
(note, if you go on Spotify to find them they are lumped in with some lame Rock band called Slyde... this Slyde don't do crap rock!)
Disappears are bloody great. I'd have said frigging awesome but I'm middle class and from the South of England so that wouldn't sound right. But they are. Both bloody great and frigging awesome.
Guider, their second album blew me away. Particularly the 16 epic minutes of Revisiting. I own it on vinyl. Pre Language, their third album, was featured in the last edition of the magazine and it has really grown on me. I will admit to being a tad disappointed at first that it wasn't Guider II, but that's my issue and anyway I fully accept now I was wrong. It is its own beast and it too is bloody great
(frigging awesome). I'm now the proud owner of it on vinyl too and both records push at me for attention on a regular basis. This band really are very very good.
We came close to doing a live session with Disappears but their dates over in Europe meant we couldn't, and for that I shall forever be a tad disappointed. As a small consolation they've agreed to do a little interview with us, for you of course.
If they ever come back and their dates are amenable though, we shall try and get them in for that live session.
ESS: You recently finished a two week tour of Europe for the Pre Language album. Was it your first time here and how did it go?
D: No, we were there last year a few times - this was our third time. It went great, we seem to have found a nice audience in EU/UK that understands what we're doing. All the trips have gone well and this one was definitely the best.
ESS: Was London the best city you visited and why?
D: Ha ha....well, we love London as we have some great friends there and are
very indebted to the music. The appreciation for music and how it's so a part of growing up in England is something really special. It's a small country that really champions their own and that's something very appealing to us. the US is not really like that, music isn't intertwined into the fabric of culture in the same way. So sure, it was the best.
ESS: I've read comments about the shift in direction from Guider to Pre
Language perhaps being a reaction to the positive response to the sound of Guider and the epic Revisiting in particular. Pre Language has less of the scuzzy psychedelic bluesy garage rock sound of Guider and more alternative art rock elements. Two bands that came to mind when I first heard it were Prinzhorn Dance School and Mark E Smith's The Fall. Was it a conscious decision to move on from the very successful sound of Guider and make something new or was it a natural organic evolution born from your own desires to be continually push your creativity and a relatively (if not completely) new drummer?
D: We weren't reacting against anything, just moving forward. We could have easily done an album that further refined the stuff on Guider and repacked it as a new album but that's not what we're about. We're much more interested in challenging ourselves and pushing forward into something new or different. It's more exciting for us to make ourselves uncomfortable in the writing process and take a chance than repeat ideas we've already explored.
ESS: I have read you prefer the writing and recording of songs more than the touring. Can you explain why? And does that mean we can already wet out lips with anticipation of a fourth album? And if so, any ideas what it may sound like compared to the last releases?
D: Well, the creation process is the most gratifying because it's when the most "magic" happens. That sounds a little silly but it's true. Those moments are the
most exciting, when your connecting with your band mates and making new sounds, new noise. That stuff happens live as well but nothing really feels as good to me as when you've got a new song and you all play it right for the first time. We've started writing for the fourth album - we're still sorting the ideas out but we've had some preliminary recording sessions and things are sounding great. It's kind of early to say what it will sound like but it's different - still stark but in a new way, a different light almost.
ESS: How have you found the response to Disappears both from fans and critics? Do you feel you have achieved what you wanted when you started, or are heading in the right direction if not fully there?
D: I think we're still getting there, we've definitely not made a perfect statement by any means, but I think we've accomplished what we set out for on each album. I think each album has very clear progress from the one before, that's something we're proud of. Fans and critics opinions are considered but never really reflect how we feel about the music. Great reviews and people being excited about your album is so flattering and really makes you feel good but we try and file them in the same space as the negative ones. We know what we're doing and where we want to go, best to keep ourselves focused and concentrate on where we're headed.
ESS: What question do you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?
D: I sometimes wish people would ask a little more about the lyrics but am glad they don't so I don't have to decode them.
ESS: Can you answer it then?
D: Nah....
ESS: Many thanks for your time. Good luck with the rest of the tour over in North America and when you return to Europe in the summer. If you ever stop by London and have the time we would love to do a live session with you.
D: Sounds awesome, thanks for the questions. Not sure we'll make it over to London for the summer gigs but possibly in the fall. We love live sessions too, we'll get something down at some point. Take care.
This is a majestically dark and brooding album. Goth everyone can like, in some ways. An ashen faced chisel jawed razor sharp cheek boned vampiric pout of a record. Spencer Krug (Moonface) is joined by Siinai in this outing, who add an epic element, with the full band, that raises this above Krug's recent solo efforts (which are no less brilliant, just not as cinematically encompassing in their splendour).
Krug has a way with haunting melodies, tailored perfectly for both the strengths and limitations of his vocals, which draw you deeply into his aural landscapes, pinning you down whilst the instrumnetation beats on you like a small wooden boat gets beaten on on a hurricane battered deserted shoreline. By the end of Lay Your Cheek On Down you feel exhausted and spent in a truly cathartic way.
As ever, crap will always, sadly, rise to the top of any charts, playlists, coffee table statuses, whereas works such as this will remain in limited circulation. BUT, those who did end up buying this instead of the Marina & the Diamonds do have the added bonus of both having contributed to the furthering of beautiful artistic creation as well as not having to listen to or admit to owning sub-GaGa pish. So buy this, enjoy its splendour then smugly pat yourself on the back.
[Moonface website]
[Moonface on spotify]
This was sent by the band with a very short and polite little email asking us to listen to it and post it if we liked it. We listened to it. We liked it. We decided we would like to share it with you. It is here, now, in edition 007.
Three piece post punk influenced indie band from Exeter who are 'putting forward the importance of female input in music'. It's sad that girls/women still feel they have to promote their gender's importance/viability in music... well in anything really, it is 2012 for fucks sake, and without women we'd be, er, not born, so a general global respect from men to women is about due... but hats off to them for flying the flag and for delivering this lovely energetic romp.
There's more to hear on their bandcamp page and follow them via their facebook page.
[above: Three webisodes of Break Ups]
Ted Tremper is the man behind two rather delightful little web series called Break Ups and Shrink. Both are based upon improvisation which not only adds an air of authenticity to the scenes but upon knowing this also adds an extra element of respect to the actors involved.
Break Ups are about the end of relationships. Mostly they are witty and insightful takes on break up conversations though some are also touching as well. Shrink is about a wannabe psychiatrist and his trials in getting there. These are just funny though there is a tragic sub-textual narrative to them as well. We fired some questions at Ted, this is what happened:
ESS: Why have you engaged so fully with utilising improvisation in these shorts?
TT: Improvisation is the reason I moved to Chicago. It's the most meaningful art form to me personally because it is an expression of one's total self: An improviser must access the totality of their emotions, intellect, memories, imagination, listening, and express that physically through language and gesture in real-time in front of an audience. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. Somewhat unfortunately, improv's only real outlet in mass media to this point has been Who's Line Is It Anyway or in some feature films when the actors acknowledge in interviews that sections were improvised. Not to knock Who's Line at all - it's a wonderful representation of short form improv - but after seeing shows like TJ & Dave, The Reckoning, or 3033 in Chicago you realize that improvisation is this infinite space where (if you get the right people) you can create a product that will surpass anything you've ever seen. And I will never disparage traditional actors: their job is tremendously difficult, but in the case of my films I always hope to present improvised scenes that captivate audiences and help others develop the same respect and love I have for the fact that these amazing individuals have poured the entirety of themselves into an extemporaneous performance.
ESS: With the Break-Ups episodes, did you discuss a loose break up scenario up front with the actors and if so who tended to bring the basic premise to the table?
TT: Absolutely no dialogue has ever been written for Break-ups. With Break-ups, I would approach an actor or actress and say, "Hey, I really want to do one of these with you. Pick anyone you want, figure out if there's a time that works, and let me know when it is. The only rules are that you guys can do anything you want." Sometimes they would create a premise, as was the case with "Seth & Kellen" or "John & Linda," but sometimes it was as simple as deciding how we wanted the piece to FEEL as with "Paul & Cecily" or "Tim & Mary." Once I had that basic information I would pick a place and usually just the three of us would film it. Overall, there is a staggeringly small amount of preproduction - these are improvisers: All they need to perform is their enormous talent.
ESS: Have you found making the two shows as web series liberating?
TT: Liberating is a wonderful word to use. I first picked up a camera because I had access to one through my grad school and I thought taping live shows would be a great way to get to know improvisers. Fast forward to 4 years later: All of my heroes are now my friends or colleagues. There is no one in the Chicago improv community I would feel strange asking to be a part of one of the series because they have been so well received and I think there's a mutual respect present in any conversation I would have about improv and film.
ESS: Do you feel like delivering them as web series has achieved what you wanted and helped bring awareness to your work?
TT: I think it would have been impossible to find the audience we have without facebook and vimeo. My original goal was just to see if I could produce 10 episodes and have 100 people watch each of them. "That would be 1,000 people!" I thought -- that's ten times a normal sold out show at iO! The numbers are a lot more than that now, but I still care about every single one. After winning the Vimeo Award, Break-ups went from 2,000 views to 200,000 in about a week. When SHRINK debuted, it had something like 300 in the first day, and I was equally as happy. Just knowing that someone has invested their time and attention to watching my work is the greatest gift I could ever receive.
ESS: What was the long term aim of doing the web series?
TT: My longest of long term goals is to make everyone who sees my work feel the same way I do about improvisational performance and the performers they're watching. I have been very lucky in that most of the films I have created star people I love, idolize, and cherish. They are my heroes and have been for several years. More imminently, I am in the process of editing Break-ups and SHRINK into pilots for submission to the New York Television Festival to see if we can get some money to increase production and distribution of new episodes.
ESS: What was the inspiration behind Shrink?
TT: The initial premise was inspired (I think) by the ridiculous lie all Americans are all told when we were children: If you work hard, do well in school, after you graduate everything will be fantastic and you will be happy. It's a little naive isn't it? Most of us now emerge from college an average of $10,000-$20,000 in debt with a 50% jobless rate for first year graduates. In Dr. David Tracy's (played by Tim Baltz) case, he did everything right, but the one thing he has worked he whole life to achieve remains just out of reach and he can't grasp it. He's $586,000 and technically a doctor (at least for 6 more months), and it's destorying him. He's living a bronze medal life, and I think a lot of us feel that way in America.
[above: Three webisodes of Shrink]
ESS: Are the episodes shot in one take on multiple cameras?
TT: Most Break-ups were shot with one camera, one take. At the time I was very dedicated to the idea of PROVING it was improvised. I remember seeing a Bela
Fleck interview where he explained that when the Flecktones were playing together there was a television special they did where they played in separate studios live to prove that they were actually as good as they were at playing and that their studio recordings weren't just elaborate digital trickery. I sought to do the same thing with Break-ups.
Shrink is shot on three-camera for a different reason. There was no real way to set-up a therapy session where both actors could face camera unless you got very theatrical, and I wanted this to feel very casual. There is very little actual editing of content. I just switch up the angles to help the pacing and tension.
ESS: Do you find a cathartic release from watching the dysfunction you portray in both Shrink and Break-Ups play out?
TT: Haha! Yes. I find tremendous catharsis for seeing anyone create a lovable character being brutally tortured through circumstances of their own or other's invention.
ESS: Do you have any new web series in mind or have you had any interest from companies wanting to commission the ideas for longer format shows on TV?
TT: Well, the main goal of Shrink is to generate enough material for a TV pilot, then a feature. I have some scripts and other ideas for TV pilots and films I don't have the money to shoot right now. I also work with a manger in NYC to develop projects. I hope eventually to prove my cred producing improv based projects so that I will someday be able to get money from financiers and be trusted there will be a return on investment like Mike Leigh and Christopher Guest.
We were lucky enough to have all seven of Sunday Driver positively fill the stage at The Luminaire for one of our live sessions. The five song set mostly featured tracks from their In The City Of Dreadful Night album as well as a track from what finally became their recently released new album, The Mutiny. It was a rather stunning performance, both aurally and aesthetically with much care and attention paid to all aspects by the band.
Mixing eastern influences with contemporary jazz, folk and a quirky pop sensibility, Sunday Driver has slowly been making headway both on the live circuit and in the UK and US Steampunk scenes, where they are rather popular. We also dragged a few words out of them, which turned out to be so pleasingly witty and self-deprecating that we liked them even more.
Chemise: Hi we're Sunday Driver and we're a band. We play music with harps and drums, guitars...
Chandy: desert spoons
Chemise: and spoons yes,
Chandy: sitars, clarinet
Chemise: and she sings
Chandy: and he sings
Chemise: and I sing a bit
Chandy: he sings la
Chemise: yes, I sing la
Chandy: and it's very pretty... and so are we.
[sampler of The Mutiny lp]
Chandy: The album we were touring at the time of the live session, In The City Of Dreadful Night' was inspired by two great pieces of literature from the nineteenth century, one is called in the city of dreadful night and it is a piece of prose about Victorian Calcutta by Rudyard Kipling... and it's all about rats and sewers and... decaying turbans and what else is it about?
Chemise: evil things
Chandy: yeah evil things... and what is the other great inspiration for our great work?
Chemise: … curry
Chandy: Ok, well there you have it. Sunday Driver all about mixing different...
Chemise: curries.
Chandy: The new album, The Mutiny, is going to sound a bit different to the last one because it has some different instruments on it, it has drums on it... how else is it different...
Chemise: difficult question... drums must be the main thing because we only had tabla before but now we have drums and tabla...
Chandy: and we have new hats
Chemise: new hats yes
Chandy: because the current hats we have been wearing I think they've been around for...
Chemise: they're old hat
Chandy: I don't normally laugh at chemese' jokes
Chemise: they're bad
Chandy: but I may have to this time
[In The City Of Dreadful Night lp]
Pronounced moths. Electronic // Other. Bloody gorgeous. Jack Colleran from Newbridge, Ireland.
Video below is for Heart featuring Keep Shelly In Athens and is taken from this five track EP. The other four tracks are equally gorgeous, blissed out slices of electronic trickery made even more amazing by the fact he created them with sticky tape and cornflakes boxes after watching a particularly inspiring episode of Blue Peter.
We fucking love this album. It's genius and insane and lovely all at the same time. Ed Schrader has taken one too many trips made out of Julian Cope's brain tissue, and though this may not be particularly beneficial to his long term sanity it offers up the wonderful by-product of Jazz Mind.
The call to arms of opening track Sermon is a slight of hand in many ways. But then he has 10 aces up his sleave and you don't care when he lays them all down as 10 of a kind. Fuck it. He's a genius and that hand is just a by-product.
The band is him on drums and vocals with Devlin Rice on bass. Occasionally they are joined on guitar. Drums and bass and vocals. And yes it works.
Oh, and the ten track album is 20 minutes long.
We just really fucking love this album. Well done Ed. Hats doffed to you.
Even though the film is not produced according to the base of Amos Funkenstein’s text on harmony, but the text is a convenient statement for the stylistic and representational behaviour of the film.
'I see some correspondence between the foundation of universal harmony on elliptical orbit and the predilection for the elliptic forms in Baroque architecture. In both cases harmony is still defined as unity within multiplicity, but it ceased to be static, namely, harmony expressed in one ideal geometrical form, and became so to speak dynamic. What was previously regarded as the deviation from the ideal form, was comprehended for the first time as an integral part of the form, or form of forms, which are capable of endless transitions one into another.'
[Amos Funkenstein, The Dialectical Preparation of Scientific Revolutions. On the Role of Hypothetical Reasoning in the Emergence of Copernican Astronomy and Galilean Mechanics.]
Thanks to Renascent, Combustion, Jens Karlson, Firat Parlak, Ipek Torun, Mert Kizilay, Omer Kasımoglu
Onur Senturk studied traditional painting and figure drawing followed by a traditional animation degree as his BFA. He took part in several international and national collaborative exhibitions with works in both print and time-based media. He designed and animated “Triangle ” which is awarded twice by Vimeo as best motion graphics and “ Nokta . ” which received honorary mention from Ars Electronica in Computer Animation/ Film /VFX category. He has been featured in many national and international magazines,newspapers, events, such as Onedotzero, Stash, Computer Arts, Freemote Born Digital and Motionographer with interviews, presentations, articles and showcases both online and published. He contributed David Fincher version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opening titles with design animation and creative direction at Blur Studios. Onur currently works as a designer, director at Prologue Films lives in Los Angeles, California.
This band offer up a rip roaring and exhilarating fiesta that casts you from Irish camp fires to Romanian hills via inner city dystopias all in a dilapidated Bedford transit probably whilst knitting and whittling flutes for small children to play with. As if the Pogues had taken Fiesta on a road trip to the Balkans and written an album on absinthe about the experience.
When listening to it I couldn't help but imagine it was a soundtrack to some comic noir film about life, love, society and debauchery that hasn't been made yet. And that's part of the beauty of the band's sound. It isn't just an aural gypsy ska klezmer beat poet extravaganza aimed at appealing to your ears and making your feet shimmy, but it also paints pictures in your head, enables you to travel to romantic and remote lands filled with liberty, harmony, nature and a communal sense of partying like life was made solely for that purpose. And not a single E needed at all.
I'm playing it a second time as I am writing this because it really was that exciting the first time. I'll not try and describe it anymore because describing music is like describing sex. No-one wants to listen to you self indulgently effuse about something that is better experienced first hand rather than through someone else's subjective commentary, so instead we have littered this interview with tracks from their new album and their debut in its entirety, so experience them first hand whilst you read some words they kindly fired back to us via email.
ESS: You're a very very good band. Do you think you'll be bigger than Jesus with the release of the new album and why?
TD: Without wishing to be strung up by the balls at a born again red neck shindig, or to be placed under a superannuated fatwa by the Vatican, I think we are already bigger than Jesus. His itinerant collective consisted of 13 whereas there are 15 of us. Also our leader is 6'7"whereas he was reputedly only 5'1" tall. Like Jesus, our leader also believes in miracles (ask our driver!) and shows clear signs of a messianic complex.
ESS: There's 15 of you in the band! Who's correct the most?
TD: By some strange miracle of synchronicity, we speak with one voice, never disagree, saturate ourselves in the oil of humility, and defer to one another like a bunch of Quakers on a peace march. There is no jockeying for position, no point scoring. A typical exchange in the harmonious land of destruction may go thus:
'Brother Trombone"
"Yes dear Brother Tuba?"
"Would you care for some water in your whiskey?"
"Fuck off you twat!'
ESS: Hole In The Universe is a rather exhilarating experience I must say. It makes me want to leap towards the sky and not be pinned down by frivolities such as physics. Your press release said you all engaged creatively in this album... with 15 of you how did that work and how did it differ from your debut, Out Of Babel?
TD: Essentially, having been through the process of making Out of Babel and the collective reflection that ensued, we felt better prepared for the creative and logistical challenge of making HITU and were determined to make the production as inclusive as possible. This is not to say that 'Out of Babel' wasn't a collective creative process, but it was more fragmented for a variety of reasons – experience, finance, time, resources. 'Out of Babel' happened, drew favorable responses and we built upon that.
We started by considering where, when, how. This led us back to the Magic Garden to work with Gavin Monaghan who produced 'Out of Babel'. As you can imagine, we fall somewhere along the continuum from band to orchestra. We have the resources and vibe of a band and the demands of a mini orchestra, particularly when it comes to recording. Gavin knew how to work with us, we loved his approach and gritty aesthetic. It felt right.
In the lead up to the recording sessions we worked our way through composition to arrangements and rehearsals. During the winter ideas that had been bubbling while we'd been on the road over the previous year or more, were brought to the table for a weekly repertoire development session. Fortunately the vast majority of the band are musically literate and this allowed for useful collaboration between sessions, to flesh out the ideas. We didn't write lyrics or compose music by committee but allowed space for individual talents to play their part. The fine tuning came during scheduled rehearsals which opened the compositions to wider input as they moved towards final arrangements. Some of the material we were able to road test during gigs before going into the studio which was very helpful.
ESS: Normally when a band is touted as being a live tour-de-force it means the studio release sounds lack lustre. HITU definitely doesn't sound lack lustre... but is the live arena where your souls are and if so how do you feel about the studio side of things?
TD: We love the live experience. It's vital, at the heart of who we are and what we do, the moment when we are uniquely and undeniably that collective beast called The Destroyers. It combines challenge and achievement in one continuous arc. We lock into the collective energy in the venue and build up a dynamo effect that drives us through the gig and beyond. It's close up and in your face. The response is unambiguous, spontaneous and undeniable.
Having said that we also relish the challenge of recording. It requires a different way of channeling energy, and what it loses in spontaneity it gains in precision. There's an opportunity to reflect, review, retake. Often in the live arena sound quality, particularly on stage, is sacrificed to utilitarian concerns (at festivals there is often only time for a line-check) and the complexity of arrangements gets lost in the mix. In the studio these details are able to be given the attention they deserve. And of course the final mixing and mastering brings a final layer of creativity to the process, which again can't be done by committee but requires delegation to birth the album.
So, in fact, live performance and studio recording are equally important, the ying and yang of our continued existence as a band, the transient and the tangible. Each brings its own challenges and rewards. We love them both with a passion and someday we hope to be in the position to bring these two aspects into more singular focus by having access to recording facilities that would allow us to record live.
ESS: When you tour do you take your own Big Top with you? And if not, why not? Can't you use one of those fund a band sites to get others to pay for one?
TD: No we usually just bring a Big Mac, apple of course! However, during euphoric moments, post gig, under the stars on a warm festival night, such notions have passed between us like a carnival of unlimited possibilities. However, in the gray dawn more pragmatic concerns draw us back to earth. We value our independence from debt and overbearing contractual restraint although we are open to offers and collaborations. We combine idealism and pragmatism in equal measure!
We certainly have within the collective that is The Destroyers a plethora of talents and connections, more than enough to fill a Big Top with a diverse and uplifting extravaganza!
ESS: Why should people love your band?
TD: Because we love them and provide them with cathartic entertainment to liberate their inner selves through compulsive dancing and mind expanding lyrics!
ESS; Seriously, what's the logistics of having 15 band members like? It sounds like a fucking nightmare. It's like herding cats when 4 creative people are in a band. And have any sound engineers quit during the soundcheck trying to make your live sound work?
TD: Undoubtedly we pose a challenge to many sound engineers and we try to deal with this in two ways: where possible we bring our own engineer; otherwise we supply in advance a very detailed tech spec. Also, believe it or not, we approach sound checks generally in a very disciplined and co-operative way because we appreciate the challenge that the range and number of our instruments and vocals, poses.
ESS: What is your call to arms?
TD: “Are you ready? Here we go!”
ESS: Anything else you'd like to add?
TD: Thank you for such an interesting and challenging range of questions.
Discovered It Hugs Back about two years ago. We will admit to not liking their first album much but we did love and feature Both Sides Of The Sun, a sprawling indie ambient shoegazy kind of epicness. At the time they said it was the direction they were thinking of going in and that made us rather curious to see where they ended up when they ended up there.
Laughing Party is the arrival and it's opener is a 15 minute sprawling shoegazy epic which pretty much sets the tone for the album in both sound and quality. This is shoegazing to all intents, and we say that as a good thing because there was not much wrong with that movement.
Flitting between short three minutes bursts of explosive energy and longer looping journeys through summer tinged psychadelia it's a big old beast too, 12 tracks coming in around 65 minutes, but one that takes you on a journey with suitable undulations to retain interest as well as excite, thrill and bliss out. And we're glad they made it to here.
We loved the eponomously titled Block 45 EP from 2 years ago, with Mouth Of Mischief and Something In The Air being two top eccentric big beatish dance tunes. ?Redo from start is nothing like that EP. It is darker and more challenging to listen to, rarely allowing the more accessible sounds of the Block 45 EP to find a footing in the new sound. But this album is all the better and richer for it.
It is like watching The Wire for the first time. Hard to get into yet you are compelled to keep at it until eventually you get it, you sync yourself with its heartbeat and then you return again and again as a fully fledged convert. So, give it the chance it deserves because this is actually a rather glorious, understated and articulate experimental electronic album and should be heard a lot more than it possibly will be... which is the shame most bands we feature are aflicted by because of the PR$ shifting units to sheep in Nike clothing. Save yourself. Save your soul. Spare your blushes and buy this instead.
Baaba Maal: [website / spotify]
Brian Eno: [website / spotify]
Robert Fripp: [wiki / spotify]
Sheila Chandra: [website / spotify]
Amorphous Androgynous: [wiki / spotify]
KLF: [Chill Out wiki]
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: [wiki / spotify]
Tsinandali Choir: [spotify]
David Sylvan: [website / spotify]
Richard Horowitz: [website / spotify]
The Verve: [website / spotify]
Harold Budd: [Harold Budd wiki / spotify]
please note this mix tape is unavailable on iOSX devices.
“Hands off the cloff boff”
Whatever happened to Jimmy I wonder...anyway, this isn't about the film but that IS really fucking good. Together with the album a work of Art actually.
So...the album. Probably Pete Townsend's greatest work and for me also the bands best... you know what?!?!? fuck all that. When I was a teenager, I saw the film and I wanted to be a Mod... it got me into The Who, I heard the album and wanted to be in a band, it basically inspired my whole youth.
The album illustrated everything I was feeling at the time. In my room singing along with Roger Daltery... 'Can you see the real me... can ya... CAN YA?!?!?!' And the bass line... whoa!!!
“Mum...can I have a guitar for my birthday?”
Buy the album. Buy the film and remember the pain and joy of your youth or if you're around 16 to 18 now, then listen to an album that: a) will blow you away and b) remind you how fucked up you are.
Simon
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