House of Tracks

Owl City @ Birmingham o2 Academy 21/02/10

2010-10-27T17:46:00.000+01:00

After finally being signed by major Universal Republic in 2009, Owl City went from strength to strength in the US, and appears to be making a break for the UK with their latest album ‘Ocean Eyes.’ A top ten album in the US since it was released last July; it’s set for success right? Then again, do we like the same things as the Yanks?
Arriving at the new Birmingham o2 academy, I had a sudden flashback of the old Carling Academy. Dark, dingy and that lingering smell of stale excitement, you knew you were in for a decent night when you stepped through those doors. Although I’d already been to the new Horse Fair venue a good few times before this, stepping through these new shiny ones still felt very hinged, (as in decorous not the fact that the doors were attached to the frame, which they were of course) and not the kind of academy experience that old smelly one offered.
Nostalgia aside, first up was Canadian singer songwriter LIGHTS. With lyrics reading ‘Who will trap my soul?’ and ‘How can you love me when I am ugly?’ most of her material fits with Owl City’s style of tacky pop. With a similar sound to Robyn, her voice fits well for a synthpop artist, but sadly lacks that catchy bass vibe that made her a hit rather than a miss. Defining herself as new wave would be taking it a bit too far in my opinion, but hey ho. Unfortunately though, LIGHTS didn’t show up in the end, due to illness apparently. What a shame, I was so looking forward to what was set to be a brilliant tour debut. Jokes.
Instead we ended up with Lee from The Element, a local Birmingham based singer songwriter sporting nothing more than a red electric-acoustic and a strong brummy accent. A kind of wannabe Paolo Nutini without the edge or material, his voice was more croaky than kooky, and I did feel pretty guilty for laughing at him, but telling the crowd his lift story about how he plays in a pub with his mate every Tuesday night just was not interesting providing his overall position. The Academy management must have gone outside and shouted ‘Who can play the guitar?’ then yanked him in faster than he could tell them he only knew two chords. To be honest, he did look like he’d just been pulled off the Bristol Road itself.
I was impressed to hear Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ while we we’re waiting, apparently one of Adam Young’s influences, and took great devilish delight when the crowd started singing Jason Derulo’s lyrics after the breakdown, only to realise they were WRONG. Ha.
So yes, after a lovely soft lullaby of violins Young appeared and with one almighty punch to the air the electric drum and manic keyboard kicked in, which I could hardly hear over the teeny bopper screams. To be fair Adam Young’s voice is not bad, not a screech, croak, or bum note was to be heard, but as expected he seemed a lot more interested in making sweet love to his keyboard. An ensemble of a cello, violin and keyboard playing women was a nice touch, and the way that they transformed into impromptu dancers was frankly shocking, but impressive.
The da-da-da’s by the infectiously smiley supporting female were admittedly good, and at some points she was showing Adam up, quickly solved by blasting her beautiful pure tone with a good shriek of a drone effect.
Drinking a cup of tea between songs was a good move, anyone who drinks tea on stage is in my good books. Appearing to be the only song that anyone there actually knew, Young introduced fireflies as the song he’d written after a date with a girl in McDonalds when he spilt ketchup on her dress and she punched him in the neck. Now, the connection with ‘fireflies’ I do not really understand, but he did appear a little hyperactive so maybe he was just kidding around?
Another shocking observation, I was deeply shaken at the sheer number of middle aged men, that were ALONE and singing and dancing to Owl City. They really do have a very interesting fan base, when Adam cried out ‘This is a song about teeth and dentists and stuff’ the crowd went absolutely wild. Surely there is no better proof of dedication?
By the time we came out my ears were no longer picking up on human tones after the sheer number of sound effects that had practically flooded my ear canals. (Poor gag I know.) Although Owl City offer a synthpop sound that doesn’t make me feel sick, if I was to play Fireflies on my iPod more than once, I’m likely to smash it up. Hellogoodbye still go unbeaten for the electro/powerpop sound, and remain the only artists from the genre I can value. For a sold out tour, I still wouldn’t class the band as having a highly credible sound, but for a bit of fun and sing song they’re your people. So for the mainstream, great. For me personally and probably most other independent loving Brits, thanks but no thanks.

Girl Behind Glass

Splore 2010 @ Tapapakanga Regional Park

2010-03-16T12:44:00.005Z

Splore only comes round every two years, which is a damn shame cos many would agree it was the best weekend of the year, and a gleaming highlight of their summer. I certainly would, and I know that's a big call to make but here's why. It was the perfect location blessed with perfect summer weather and a great line-up, a heady combination indeed. Nothing but good vibes. To sum it up here are my Do's and Don'ts.

Do's and Don'ts

Do go for as many swims as possible, bask in the beautiful scenery and dance in the water by the main stage! Being on the beach, and dancing to great music at the same time is my idea of Heaven.
Do check out the Art Trail by day and by night so you see all the pretty lights.
Do get caught up in an endless marimba jam session with twelve other randoms at 2am, then after twenty minutes quietly leave, knowing that this music could go on til sunrise.
Do stop to drink out of the giant teacups at 3am with your new friends whilst wandering back to your tent.
Do go get your hair and make-up done if you get the chance. There was a very long queue for the main hair and make up artistes, but the results were fab.
Do watch the amazing trapeze act at the Aerial rig, and the stunning burlesque at the Living Lounge.
Do reward yourself for having lasted the whole of Basement Jaxx's two hour set by yelling 'Romeo! Romeo! Romeo!' repeatedly at them as they leave the stage.
Felix Buxton acknowledged our cries with a mere apologetic shrug. How the hell did they manage to play for two hours and include all the hits except that one?!
Don't get so lax and dreamy-eyed that you stop reading your program on Saturday night and miss Gaslamp Killer. D'oh!
Don't steal other people's goodies, including expensive or hard to find props. Apparently a few things went missing, including one of the giant tea-cups and a very expensive rare cows head from the Midsummer Nights Dream 2050 showcase. I'm sorry, but aren't those incredibly hard things to hide in your back pocket? Wtf.
Don't leave your litter behind, that includes cigarette butts. This may sound obvious, but the snarky bit on the email sent out after Splore was pretty serious eh. Apparently they spend four days picking up cigarette butts after the festival was over. You may be thinking "boohoo", but they weren't happy about it, and they wanted us to know!
Don't forget your sunscreen and insect repellent. Actually mosquitoes weren't as much of a problem this time, but I did see a few nicely burnt beetroots and tomatoes walking round.
And most importantly: Do book Monday off.

If the weather's this good again you won't want to leave too early on the Sunday if at all possible. Why tear yourself away from Paradise early? Also, there didn't seem to be a strict curfew for when you had to leave... so hell, if you volunteered like I did plan to stay for the afterparty! Or have a little beach party of your own.

Overall Highlights

Watching Jamie Lidell, Lupe Fiasco and other international guests being welcomed into Splore at what may have been their first powhiri.

Jamie Lidell. I caught the end where he was just stepping out from behind the synths and beats machines to hit us with a beautifully uplifting bit of singing. As always, he'd saved 'Multiply' and 'Another Day' til the end. There were some brilliant acapella bits where he got us all to sing back at him. He was singing out to us while facing into the warm sunshine and you could see he was loving it.

Lupe Fiasco. I enjoyed every bit of this set even though I only knew the two big singles that came at the end. The band also played Radiohead's 'National Anthem' as part of one song which got my vote, and overall it was punchy, slick and hugely popular with most people. When they did 'Superstar' he was conducting the whole crowd as they sang the chorus back to him, then just to really show off he whipped his shirt off for 'Flowers' and punched the air for extra impact. What a showpony eh. Nice work!

Basement Jaxx Sound System. They filled their whole two hour set showing off how they could drop that bass in like true pros. Honestly, it got me every time. (well, for the first hour anyway, before it got colder and I still had a drink in my hand). Brilliant singers shaking it, singing it and showing off excellent little sychronised dance moves. They treated us to every hit they had, and lots of extended mixes. All that and no 'Romeo' as I said, but y'know I could almost forgive them.

Orchestra of Spheres. This band was a must-see for me, as I'd heard very good things and was curious. I rushed to the Living Lounge and was rewarded with a truly mind expanding experience. Their scarlet and gold costumes, sunglasses and array of interesting instruments made for an epic sound and a hypnotic presence that's still burned into my memory (like a distant red flare sliding into the sunset). There was some sort of home-made tin box guitar, a theremin, a keytar, and a short man who came to the front to recite a verse about the pendulum of life. Or something just as profound. Don't ask me to remember the exact words, I'll have to get the cd, but I was definitely moved by it I'll tell ya that. They did a Sun Ra cover that was frankly amazing, and we were loving it so much they got to play an extra half hour, much to the delight everyone including the crazy fan at the front who kept yelling out everything he could think of to raise our applause.

Easy - 'like a Sunday morning', played on Sunday morning and wasted no time in linking that into their name. Which is Easy, spelt the easy way, and therefore easy to remember. Their upbeat funk and soul tunes were the perfect remedy to the 'oh man don't make me go home I never want this weekend to end' blues. The frontman dressed to impress in a bright yellow t-shirt and green shorts that showed off his long slender legs. This worked perfectly for when he wanted to 'get his Mick Jagger on', he did a great impression of him. Great energy, good times all round. I have to mention that one of the horn players had a tie tucked into his jeans that said 'Porn' which was a curious thing. Apparently the singer put him up to it, so don't worry kids, no subliminal messages there.

Special mention has to go to best Burlesque act I've ever seen in my life at the Midsummer Nights Dream 2050 show on Saturday night. One of the characters kept yelling out the line 'Puck, puck? Where the f--k is Puck?!' whenever he was on stage. That made me chuckle a bit, thinking of the kids in the audience, heh. Anyway the burlesque dancer stripped off her black corset in front a somewhat smug (and well he might be) Oberon to reveal the most classy miniscule bling you've every laid eyes on - diamond nipple tassles and a matching g-string. Once she'd emerged from her behind her black feathery fans she gracefully climbed into a giant champagne glass and splashed around showing off as much leg as possible. We were all completely spellbound by this point. Need I say more?

Also big ups to Dubhead and Nickedemus who topped off the perfect Sunday afternoon with a great spread of tunes. Dubhead was the perfect thing to kick off the day with some laid back reggae mash ups, and Nickedemus whipped the crowd into one last frenzy before they had to reluctantly pack up and head home to reality. Argghh, no! Roll on 2012. It's not the Apocalypse I'm talking about you fools, it's the next Splore I'm looking forward to.

Review by Dedee W

BRIT Award Nominations 2010

2010-01-21T21:16:00.007Z

Well, it's the 30th year of The BRITs, and audiences are promised a 'landmark event' by chairman of The BRITs committee, Ged Doherty.
But apart from the Performance of 30 Years awards, I'd just like to start by saying, why is it that the same names must pop up time and time again?

Ok, so you might think 'don't be so stupid, that's just because they're amazing artists and deserve as many nominations as they recieve' , but surely if awards like the Brits are created to give artists accreditation for their talent, they should be given to developing artists craving the recognition, not ones that have been around for so long, they've pretty much given up the go? I'd just like to add that I am in no way denying that Muse, Coldplay and Travis aren't worthy of a BRIT, but it would be nice to give someone else a chance, right?
Maybe not though. Maybe Robbie Williams needs to win Best Male Artist this year, an award he's already won 4 times. I personally don't think any of the nominees deserve it, Mika has hardly had a great input on this years most played, but according to the BRIT nomination panel, I am obviously mistaken.

One award I am pleased to hear of is the Critics Choice award, which is soon to be presented to the West London based Ellie Goulding. During the turn of the decade, it's been hard to avoid music related programs, articles and reports naming her as one of the most promising acts set to rise in 2010. Dropping out of university to pursue a music career was a brave step, which appears may be about to pay off. Her potential is even described by the Independent as 'pop's most promising newcomer.' I'm usually quick to judge young, blonde (yes I'm blonde but I still do it) singer-songwriters, coming out with a new mix of pop and some other genre they suddenly decided gave them some sort of 'kooky sound', but after listening to 'Under The Sheets', 'Guns and Horses' and a pretty good cover of 'Black and Gold' by Sam Sparro, I found myself partial to someone I usually would cast off as just another media created 'popstar.' Maybe this is one BRIT that won't go to waste?

Other than this, the other nominees show little promise of change, with lack of anybody remotely exciting and new popping up for a change, the reason I don't often watch music award ceremonies.
(apart from Bat For Lashes, Friendly Fires, Ladyhawke and Empire of The Sun, I suppose.)

So once again, I won't be tuning into the Brits , as I think I can predict who will be walking away with the awards yet again this year, and after all, do they even stand for anything any more?

Girl Behind Glass

All Tomorrows Parties : Nightmare Before Christmas @ Butlins Minehead, Somerset, UK

2010-01-14T23:30:00.002Z

A weekend at All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival is a different kind of lost weekend. Here you can lose yourself in a swathe of 90s nostalgia watching J Mascis and the Fog sing ‘You’re the Only One’, or go back even earlier watching The Buzzcocks play a brilliant set to a massive roomful of fans. You can also re-educate yourself with a diverse selection of newer bands handpicked by well respected curators. In this case it’s My Bloody Valentine presenting their very own mixtape of musical tastes as well as films in the cinema and an ATP TV channel to watch in the comfort of your chalets. And with most bands playing one hour sets there is much to digest.

First up on Friday night were De La Soul on the main stage, celebrating 20 years of their seminal album ‘Three Feet High and Rising'. “Think about where you were when you first heard this album.” they said to the waiting crowd. Well, I was growing up in New Zealand and I was 9. So hell yes, this album takes me back alright. It was the best classic hip hop sound possible to kickstart the weekend. They played their Gorillaz hit ‘Feel Good Inc’ and paid tribute to their influences with a Run DMC cover. They also treated us to ‘Me Myself and I’, and ‘Jennifer Oh Jenny’, which sounded a bit different to the originals with the band's swinging horn section behind them.
Another older band with a big following, Yo La Tengo (formed in 1984) had a diverse range of sounds. It ranged from a quiet song with soft female vocals, to an infectious groove with an unexpected whacked out keyboard solo in the middle. They finish up on an endless beautiful drift of bass and drums with a rambling guitar solo over the top. Interesting stuff and definitely worth another listen.

The Buzzcocks were really great. I didn't think I'd watch the whole hour but got hooked cos it was so lively and immediate. 'Fallin' in Love With Someone' was brilliant. With the whole room was singing along, it was a purely hedonistic moment.
Saturday after a whole day of fun at the wave pool and waterslides at Splash Waterworld, I witnessed the magical Sun Ra Arkestra. Resplendent in glittery capes and sparkly costumes they took us on a celestial journey. This group originally formed in the mid 1950s and it was an absolute treat to see them play. I was thrilled to recognise 'When You Wish Upon a Star' as I walked in, the chords floating out towards us as Marshall Allen (aged 85) in his red sparkly cape and hat squiggled out a crazy sax solo. The next song had the chorus ‘We all Move to Celestial Rhythms’ which sums them up pretty well. The whole band seemed to intuitively breathe and improvise as one. Even if free jazz isn’t really your thing, trust me, this was amazing to watch. One of the other old guys jumped up to show off some amazing caterpillar dance moves throwing his legs high in the air. Very impressive.

Canadian punk band Fucked Up were a great way to end the night. They had some weird awkward comedian introduce them who made lame jokes about the NME and other bands. He had many drinks thrown at him by the restless crowd, it was past 2am and after a day of many intense one hour sets already so he was asking for it. I’ll never forget their singer Damian Abraham standing proud with his moobs out and a plastic cup stuck to his head, pushing through the crowd and screaming into that mic. I like a band that gets in amongst it, and it doesn’t get much more in your face than that. A truly meaty satisfying set.

At this point I should mention that yes, I did manage to catch some of The Horrors. A good two or three songs at the end which was more than enough. I don’t really get what all the fuss is about with their new sound. “Oh they’re so much more mature and interesting now ,” everyone keeps saying. Personally I find it kind of droney and boring, like a watered down Joy Division with a plethora of other oh-so-important influences thrown in. I’d rather hear ‘Count in Fives’ any day.

On Sunday afternoon we ventured back to the Crazy Horse bar (the scene of much indie disco mayhem ‘til 4am) to watch the end of the ridiculously hard pub quiz. The coveted prize was a chalet at an ATP in 2010, to be curated by Matt Groening. Our friends were taking part from the sidelines, having opted of the endless queuing to register for the quiz yesterday. In the end it came to a tiebreaker, which meant a sudden death round between three teams. But the questions were so hard it was a complete shambles and went on way too long! The question that finally won it was “Name all the members of
Black Sabbath." Typical. The winner got lucky on that one.

Múm were completely captivating and magical. They had me from the start. This eight piece band from Iceland had a real quirky playfulness with subtle touches of brilliance and silliness. They played recorders, kazoos, synths, sang some sublime harmonies and had some fun dancey drum and bass moments. They are a multi-instrumental gorgeous sounding band with a childlike playful streak and I would totally recommend them.

Dirty Three (from Melbourne, Australia) were primal and beautifully rugged. Their music is epic like a storm in the desert, the notes spilling over like welcome fat drops of rain. Their wild haired violinist Warren Ellis entertained us betweened songs with great tales of LSD trips gone wrong.

Lightning Bolt – Ohmygod, a whole hour of these guys? Relentless. Completely fearless from start to finish. Lightning Bolt make the hardest fastest and loudest noise possible from a duo of bass guitar and drums. They sound unbelievably tight at their breakneck speed, but a whole hour can start to numb your senses a bit. Didn’t play ‘Ride The Skies’ which was a shame. Perhaps they felt it would be too obvious. I was also slightly disappointed to see them playing on stage for once. Maybe they changed that when they did a surprise second set the next day. The security guys didn’t look happy constantly battling to catch the rampant crowdsurfers. One fan dressed as a giant banana had to be fished out several times. Must have been a relief for drummer Brian Chippendale to finally take that tea cosy off his head so he could breathe. You can work up a real sweat playing sped up hardcore versions of Irish jigs you know.

My Bloody Valentine (the curators of this fine ATP weekend) played all three nights, to make sure everyone could get a taste of their sprawling massive set. At the end of every performance they subjected us to an extended spell of the loudest and longest chord I’ve ever heard in my life. It was a wall of white noise and feedback that made time stand still for approximately 11 minutes. (I set my stopwatch to it the second time, just for the record). After the 11 minutes was up they simply unfroze their poses and finished the song. If you add this up over the whole weekend that’s about 33 mins of non-stop noise. Earplugs were provided so we could enjoy this aural onslaught safely, even standing right by the speakers feeling the floor and steel barriers shaking around us. The set itself was a treat for fans I’m sure, but a lot of us were grateful for the seats at the back to relax and take it all in. I even spotted one person playing Solitaire on their phone. I’m sure they weren’t bored, they were just killing time right?

An honourable mention should go to School of Seven Bells who ended our epic ATP weekend with their softly ambient yet anchored sound. The voices of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza rang out in true harmony, but their set was slightly marred by dodgy sound levels. I stayed until I heard my current favourite ‘Half Asleep’ and swayed my way to a calm and beautiful conclusion to a truly enlightening weekend.

If there’s one thing you should take from all this, it’s that ATP isn’t just for older festival goers. But it does cater well for those with wider tastes, ranging all the way back to the 70s and earlier to 2010 and beyond. If it’s your first time here, expect to learn a few things.

Review by Dedee W

Håkan Lidbo Interview

2009-12-09T22:17:00.004Z

What music influenced you when you were growing up?
i guess ABBA was an early influence, like for most kids my age. my parents didn't have many records at home and their musical taste wasn't very exclusive. but when me and my younger brother got one monophonic tape recorder each and i nicked his recorder and connected them both, i discovered a simple way of making ping-pong recordings, layering tracks of sounds. that was inspiring. i did some simple sonic experiments and got a taste for weird sounds. i still start with the sound of a song before i make any melodies or lyrics, even if it's straight up pop. my best friends older brother bought the first kraftwerk records in 1974 and that was inspiring. and then 80s synth, some of the experimental music then; Einsturzende Neubauten, Holger Hiller, but also early hiphop... And Yello. But then I also was introduced to jazz and discovered the greatness of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Lyle Mays, Keith Jarret, Palle Mikkelborg, Jan Johansson etc. And I've listened hundreds of times to Stravinski's Rite of Spring and György Ligeti's Lux Aterna. Lot's of influences... and i'm still looking for music that blows me away.

Tell us a bit about the compilations Music We Hate. Do you think the musical regression therapy worked? What did you learn from the process, and did you end up liking your chosen song 'Born in the USA' more as a result?
i think the regression therapy worked. by confronting your musical deamons, the tracks you don't like, you can get in touch with the places within where your music comes from. no artist is totally free. there is no pure artistic genious. everyone is influenced by others and then our art reflects that. i think it's a very healthy process to go through as an artist, to try to find the reason why you make the music you make. it will explain so many things who you are as a person and why you have made certain choices in you life.

i hate bruce springsteens "born in the USA" because when it was released, it represented everything that i did NOT want to do musically. it was so back-beat-heavy and un-dancable, it was totally non-electronic and every fuckin' music critic just adored springsteen. i mean, i can appreciate his earlier records but the 80s bruce springsteen... i still don't understand what he is all about? the lyrics... ok, they are well written but at that time, they didn't mean anything to me, to the person i was then. so i learned a great deal about a period in life when i decided what kind of music i wanted to to make. and even more important - i decided that somehow I wanted to make a living, making music. so i did everything i could to make that happen and now, i've made a living on music for 15 years.

thanks bruce!

What inspired Music for Alien Civilisations?
The question of where music comes from.On Earth it's only humans that create music and when people from different cultures meet and play their music to each other, there is never a conflict or misunderstanding because there is nothing to misunderstand. Music comes from another place than human logic and human civilization. I think maybe we don't play music because we're not a successful spieces that have learned to do so, I think maybe we are this successful because of the music. Music is obviously a fundamental part of the human construction but we still haven't figured out it's function.

When NASA send out the space probes Voyager 1 and 2 in 1976 to reach outside the solar system, they had a golden disc aboard. Some sort of gold vinyl with sounds form earth, some animal sounds, water and rain and the word "Hello" in 50 languages. But most of of it was music. The selection was very politically correct, some native american songs, some african songs, classic music, chuck berry and jazz. Everything should be there as they didn't know the musical taste of the aliens.

So from there the idea came that we should make new, music to send out in space. Music is probably the best and safest way to say "hello, we're humans and we come from earth. we are OK and we want to make contact". the music should tell something about all mankind and also express our will to make contact. The task was to make music, not for human ears, but for alien civilizations.

The signal was broadcasted June 4 2008 and now it has reached something like15.000.000.000.000 km, direction Casiopeia. We expect and answer within 20.000 years.

How long have you been doing your radio show, Strom?
We're preparing our 5th season now and we have a number of interesting topics to deal with in 2010, march-june, 12 episodes. we will also have a big section with interviews, interactive stuff, a specially designed digital musical instrument to play the strom sounds with. it will be interesting.

Have you got any more of these compilations in the pipeline?
Yes, indeed! The project 2010 will be the best and most thrilling so far. It's called "The music from the future" and I do it together with a scientist that does research about the future. so we will make a number of possible future scenarios, fairly far ahead in time, like 20-30 years from now, when the world will be different than today, and then ask a number of artists to create the music that will be produced in the future according to those scenarios. we can never know about the future but we know that music will be important and it will most likely be partly electronic. this project will be a way to force the artists to make music that sounds like nothing we have heard yet.

I read that you once wrote a score for a nineteenth century ballet for the Copenhagen Radio Symphonic Orchestra, how did you get involved in that?
well, the score was recorded by the copenhagen symphonic orchestra and then i took that sound material and remixed and electrofied it. so the ballet "the three gifts" was divided into two acts and the first act was the original music but freshly recorded by the orchestra, and the second act was my deconstruction of the sound material. it was a very cool dance company in denmark called the peter schaufuss ballet and the ballet master used to work as creative master at the royal ballet in london. i got the job because a danish guy i know was asked who would do the job best... and he thought of me. very sweet! since then i've made music to some other dance performances and i also did a very ambitious ballet togehter with the choreographer åsa unanders-scharin. it was called 60.10.60 and is released on CD and DVD.

There are some very interesting photos on your myspace profile. Who came up with the concept for them?
i did. you know i'm just a music geek, i'm not a model and i'm not a rockstar, so when i pose it doesn't look like much. but with some special fx make-up and the sacrificing of one of my favorite suit (original 70s), the pictures got a bit more edgy - and with that energy that i think they need to reflect my music. now, i'm into a few different styles simultaniously but when i took the pics i was working on my album "dunka dunka" on shitkatapult.

i also like the idea of the music doing something physically to you, i mean there is no perpetrator in those picture, its only me and i think what caused those injuries on me was the music. right now i'm working on a forthcoming episode of my radio show strom on swedish national radio, an episode that is about how music effects the human body. I've talked to performance artists that put voltage through their bodies to get involuntary muscle contractions. and i've talked to an american company that make sonic weapons. i also did some research about car stereo building competition where one diciplin is simply as loud as possible. these guys make car stereos that go up to like 175 dB which means that the moment you turn on the stereo at full level you die.very fascinating to be killed by music in your own car stereo. so again, i like the idea of being abused by music.

What are your favourite music festivals?
i have to say voltfestivalen (www.voltfestivalen.se) because it's anew festival that i'm a apart of myself. it's a fantastic challenge to make the perfect festival. we did pretty well in june 2009 and we aim even higher for 2010.

otherwise, internationally, my favorites are mutek in montreal, transmediale in berlin one that doesn't exist any longer, the public service festival in copenhagen.

Who have been your favourite artists of 2009?
fever ray, karin dreijer of the knife's solo project, genuine guy at tigerbass, sebastian did an amazing ep on kitsune, my shitkatapult label mate magnum 38 did some good stuff and houratron did fantastic music on new judas. lots of good stuff in 2009, it was a good year.

What do you have planned for next year?
many different things. i have tons of projects going on. on top of the radio show, the festival, the records, loads of remixes, i have some arty projects coming up as well. i plan to surprise myself.

and oh... almost forgot... i'm also planning to invent a totally new musical style.

Internet Forever Interview

2009-12-01T22:00:00.009Z

How did you all meet and start making music?
Me and Craig were friends on the internet for years and we liked each others solo projects, one day he commented on this blog I used to write saying "I want to be in a band called Internet Forever" and I said "Can I be in that band?" and he said yes. The next weekend I went to his house and we wrote our song 3D! I had been friends with Chris for years so a few months down the line we needed another member (so we could play live) and he was the first person that came to mind, cuz he is a super musical dude.

How do you create an Internet Forever song?
Our earliest songs were finished mostly by one of us coming up with an initial keyboard or guitar line and then sending parts back and forth on the internet until it was finished. Nowadays we have a more conventional process, where we take an idea to rehearsal and all add our own parts etc. The vocals come last and that's my domain, really.

Which one of you plays MS Paint?
HAHAHA Chris is the only one with a PC so we leave that to him.

What was the most fun part of making the Cover The Walls video?
The whole day was really fun but also tiring as hell. We recorded for 12 hours straight, pretty much. Personally I enjoyed the bits where I got to jump on the trampoline and swing on the rope swing! The parts where we had to walk through brambles and got lost were not so fun! We did the bit on the roundabout last and that was really fun. There were kids in there with their parents and afterwards the kids came over and started playing our instruments. It's a shame we couldn't film that part cos it was super cute!

Did you get dizzy sitting on that roundabout?
Thankfully we only filmed on the roundabout for a short time! Afterwards we went on the swings and the rocking horse, it was awesome.

Back in October you played the Chapel in Cardiff as part of Huw Stephens Swn festival. Did you have fun at the festival and how did Huw Stephens discover you?
Huw saw us play a completely shambolic show at Club NME about six months back. He loved it and played our demos on his show. Then we got to go and do a Maida Vale session, which was completely amazing. SWN festival was really fun because we got to play with some of our favourite British bands, like Los Campesinos! and Munch Munch.

What are your favourite new bands?
I think there are millions of amazing bands in England right now. I love lots of bands you'd see supporting at Upset The Rhythm shows like Trash Kit, Roseanne Barr, Chaps and Teeth!!!.

You keep an excellent blog on Blogspot, we (at House of Tracks) have recently moved to Blogspot, do you have any Blogspot tips?
Craig does all the fancy pants editing to make it look pretty, I just log in and post nonsense. Personally I prefer Livejournal (lol). LIVEJOURNAL-TIL-I-DIE.

What are the best & worst gigs you've played so far?
The worst was kind of also the best. It was where Huw saw us first at Club NME. Craig's guitar broke and he borrowed mine. But he is left handed so he was having to play upside down. We were in this tiny room and it was so so packed and sweaty as fuck. We didn't have any monitors so we couldn't hear a thing. The whole thing was crazy and a total sham, but also super fun. We just got back from tour with Johnny Foreigner and that was non-stop awesome too.

What is your favourite chocolate bar?
Oh man, I love all chocolate. I like buying Yorkie's cos they say "NOT FOR GIRLS" on them and I'm like SCREW U PATRIARCHY.

What does the future hold?
We have two ambitions for 2010 - record an album and tour america.

Update Your Bookmarks

2009-11-22T21:04:00.006Z

You may remember, a few weeks ago we announced that House of Tracks is going to cease on January 1st 2010. Well, that's still true, you certainly won't be able to access the official House of Tracks website after that date. However, since this announcement there has been a huge public outcry for House of Tracks to stay on the internet (even if it's just an archive).

We've given this a lot of thought and found a great solution in the form of Blogspot! That's right, House of Tracks has moved to Blogspot and who knows, we could even keep it updated. So much for the 'End of an Era'! This move completes HoT's four year evolution from a virtual magazine to a fully fledged blog.

So what's new? Well, there are a few nice features that are completely new for us. You can now email our interviews and reviews your friends and comment on them for everyone to see. You can subscribe to our blog and 'follow us' using RSS feed technology. You can search for old reviews and interviews really easily using Blogspot's advanced searching and tagging functionality. And you can still see all of our latest tweets and Flickr photos on the homepage.

However, there's no stylish clock in the top right hand corner of the site. The forum has had to go and at the moment, it's not possible to backup the old version of the site (2006 - 2008). Also, the site feels less unique and slightly less special. Maybe over time (and after a bit of stylizing), it will gain it's own identity again, but at the moment it feels a little bit like just another Blogspot blog. hummm...

Anyway, don't forget to update your bookmarks and let us know your thought's on this move.

Swn Festival 2009

2009-11-03T05:33:00.001Z

The sane among you may think festival season is over, it's too cold to be racing round trying to cram in even more amazing new musical experiences. You're probably right, but against our better judgement we decided to check out another one, Swn Festival in Cardiff.

Swn Festival is more than just a musical marathon, it's an actual marathon. Huw Stephen's own Cardiff Crawl boasts a whole street full of venues right next to each other, but once inside there's lots of stairs to climb. Another slight flaw of the layout is that the two larger venues are at opposite ends of the city, both almost 30 mins walk away.

So lots of well timed venue hopping, and making special pilgrimages to Chapter and The Gate in a bid to see as much as possible meant that this was not a festival for big fat lazy bums. We were on a mission!

Thursday. We begin with a bit of Fiction at Y Fuwch Goch. I like Fiction, they're quite good. Upbeat, interesting and never too predictable. The perfect way to start the weekend.

Across the road to Clwb Ifor Bach, we caught the end of Glass Diamond's set, and it was so brilliant we wish we'd seen more. The singer started wandering round the crowd singing through a loud hailer, while the rest of the band kept up edgy experimental electro vibes going on stage. Back to Y Fuwch Goch, I managed to squeeze my way back to the front row as a large crowd had gathered for Three Trapped Tigers. TTT were absolutely amazing, and I say this in all honesty, they blew me away. They've got that epic loud-quiet-loud thing down to a fine art. We watched the drummer break all sorts of sound (and speed) barriers showing off his skills then they instantly switched to a beautifully calm keyboard melody so fast it I’m sure it created a vacuum in the room.

We made the massive trek to the Chapter Arts Centre to catch a bit of Post War Years, enjoyed that, then got a cab back cos we were feeling lazy. The driver was nice though and switched the meter off for us when we were caught for ages by a red light. Win!

We got back in time to see Drums of Death who put on a fine show upstairs (and yes, that's three flights of stairs) at Clwb Ifor Bach, but he deserved a bigger crowd.

Portasound get the award for most annoying Metronomy wannabes. Well, at least for those first few songs, it seemed so obvious I had to laugh. Three guys goofing round with simple synth and guitar lines, that sounded curiously like a lazy tribute to one of my favourite bands. It was like they wanted to break into their own version of 'Heartbreaker' any minute, but they didn't, which just made it even more frustrating!

Friday. One of the obvious highlights of tonight was Talons. All the complexity of Foals with the heaviness of Tool. A mightily impressive instrumental band. I liked watching their pair of headbanging violinists. We saw Rose Elinor Dougall, she's sounds lovely but overall her set isn't that exciting.

Victorian English Gentlemens Club brilliant as ever. Well worth the trek back to Chapter Arts Centre! They have a real striking presence and a driving intensity on stage that always makes them exciting to watch. The stage was decorated with flags, fairy lights, and flowers scattered everywhere. The band themselves have colourful splashes of facepaint on to complete the display. With such a strong set of songs, we only wish they could’ve played longer.

Saturday. Finally, we allowed ourselves a truly enjoyable night, settled in at The Gate. It was a no brainer really, a lot of the bands we wanted to see were on there, all in the same place, imagine it!

While my friend made the mistake of watching Gwenno play a set to a small room of mostly friends and family. I headed straight to The Gate, splashing out on a cab I could barely afford cos it was just too damn windy outside. I heard later that Gwenno had included some cringeworthy Pipettes style dance moves in the middle of her songs! Shouldn’t someone tell her this is a bad idea?

Meanwhile I was sitting comfortably in the back row of the grand theatre setting of The Gate, quite happily enjoying the end Sparky Deathcap's set with of pint of cider and a chocolate bar. It turned out Menickie weren’t playing after all. Shame really, I’d been looking forward to seeing an all male Kenickie tribute band.

Next up were Copy Haho, and the sight of their bass player who decided to play from the front row of the audience for most of the set, like it was a completely normal thing to do. He seemed to be enjoying the gig like someone playing guitar hero at home in their front room! It didn't spoil the sound at all however, and I definitely rated their slacker pop vibes.

Dananananakroyd were brilliant. Wall of hugs!! no that's not one of their songs, but one of their favourite traditions. Internet Forever were one of my favourite things of the whole weekend. Perfect two minute packages of casiotone pop. Charming, sweet and rough around the edges. Like badly made Morrisey chocolate bars.. or maybe not.

Ended up finishing with a Welsh band. Race Horses. They had a bit of a 60s pop sound to them, with some great groovy synth lines. Everyone knew the words, to the point where even I had to start singing along. All in all a great end to a very educational weekend.

Review by Dedee W.

The End Of An Era

2009-10-30T05:58:00.000Z

OK so the naughties are nearly over and so is House of Tracks! That's right folks, on January 1st 2010 (exactly four years to the day since the website launched) houseoftracks.co.uk will cease and the website will no longer be accessible.

2009 has been a year of recession and death. It started with Woolworths, then Jade Goody followed by Michael Jackson, The London Paper, Patrick Swayze, Bloc Party and The London Lite. On the bright side we seem to be approaching more of civilisation with the end of both Big Brother and Oasis. And even Aha have announced they're going their separate ways. So what a fashionable time to stop.

Anyways, we are approaching the end of the decade and I'm pretty sure that the two thousand's are going to be remembered for all of the wrong reasons. Just like all of the tacky 80s and 90s clubs that play the same Chesney Hawks, Bon Jovi, Oasis and Spice Girls songs over and over again, totally oblivious to all of the excellent music that was being created at the same time. And so, alas, the naughties will forever be remembered for artists such as Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, The Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, The Sugababes & Kylie.

What a tragedy that all the fresh and forward thinking music from the same era will be forgotten. If the spirit of House of Tracks could have any control over how this decade will be remembered then artists such as The Young Knives, Foals, Klaxons, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, Tim Ten Yen, Ungdomskullen, Tom Vek, Miss Kittin, Tiga, DAT Politics, David Jack, Kid Koala, The Pippettes, Shitdisco, Radiohead and Thom Yorke, Robots In Disguise, Kate Nash, The Holloways, The Noisettes, Ladyfuzz and Esser, Soulwax, The Shins, The Maccabees, Blood Red Shoes, Post War Years, Clarky Cat, So So Modern, Ida Maria, Milk Kan, Squarepusher, David Cronenbergs Wife, Paul Hawkins, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Datarock, Jeremy Warmsley, Clark, Bat For Lashes and George Pringle should definitely get played at Naughties club nights.

Sigh.

Please note that this site will no longer be accessible from January 1st 2010, so please download all the content you need while you still can. After this date we will not receive any email addresses that end with @houseoftracks.co.uk.

Review by David Apple.

Bingo Master's Breakout

2009-10-02T05:44:00.001+01:00

Karaoke, poetry, and a good old fashioned game of Bingo with a cash prize! All this and there's a free bar and buffet for the earlybirds. Sounds like the perfect Friday evening to me.

Bingo Master's Breakout is one of those nights that you can really look forward to. There's a certain kind of Peter Kay/Phoenix Nights kitschness to the whole proceedings, but I mean that in the best possible way. The decor of the St Aloysius Social club, with it's glittery silver curtain behind the small stage, complete with small spinning disco lights and Christmas decorations really makes you feel like you've gone back in time. Itís a friendly and informal open mic where you can sign up for a karaoke and poetry slot, (and these do fill up quickly so it pays to be early) you can recite your own poem or take one from the 'pool table of poetry'. This night has been running since April 2007, and I was lucky enough to recently discover it when I went to see Paul Hawkins, and a few months later for Tim Ten Yen.

Most of the time the heartfelt renditions of everything from Enola Gay to God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You to a stunning version of Big Spender, had me laughing til I cried. Add a sprinkling of outlandish, odd or downright ranty poetry to that and you're in for a real treat. Following that there's the thrilling game of Bingo, then at the end of it all, everyone's invited on stage for one big drunken singalong. The last two times I've been there we sang the theme from 'Minder' and 'Easy Lover' by Phil Collins. When we sang 'Easy Lover' I could hardly see the screen cos the stage was so full but discovered I already knew all the words!

Seriously, if you're not some sort of boring snob, have a sense of humour and enjoy watching a real variety of talent at an open mic, you'll enjoy yourself. Bingo Master's Breakout is one of London's best kept secrets. So come and check it out. Not too many of you though, I don't wanna lose my seat in the front row!

Why? Taking the great traditions of Karaoke, Poetry and Bingo taken to a new level.

Friday Oct 16th, from 7.30pm @ St Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix Rd, Euston, NW1 1TA, Free. Arrive early for the free bar and buffet.

Review by Dedee W.

Videopia

2009-10-02T05:37:00.000+01:00

Remember when you were a kid and you and your friends used to dress up and act out scenes from your favourite movies? No? Well if you missed out on all that in childhood then here's your chance.

This night is a ridiculous amount of fun for film geeks and film lovers alike. It's a great excuse to indulge in a bit of DIY filmmaking. Held in the stylish and welcoming setting of the Notting Hill Arts Club, as soon as you arrive you're invited to take part by starring in these ten minute 'sweded' versions of films. The whole thing is cast, shot and screened in one night so you can sit in on your very own premiere. The Videopia night was first inspired by the film Be Kind Rewind, and has been running since January 2009. They've already covered such classics as Jaws, E.T. and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and you can watch the finished mini-epics at on the Videopia Youtube Channel. This month, in tribute to Patrick Swayze, they're doing a remake of 'Dirty Dancing'.

The Videopia team provide a brilliant array of props and costumes and each session begins with everyone in the room singing the theme tune. The more amateur your acting skills the better, for example, I got over my stage fright the first few times by choosing roles where you couldn't see my face. The first one was Jaws, where I got to wear a shark costume and devour someone siting in a rubber life raft. The second time I was Darth Vader in the final fight scene, (with excellent light saber sound effects provided by the audience) and I accidentally smacked my co-star Obi Wan in the face with my light saber cos he couldn't remember his lines. That got a great crowd reaction. And it was especially hilarious as the guy playing Obi Wan was my boyfriend who was visibly scared, no acting required. There are also bands on as part of the evening's fun, and this month they've got Fair Ohs, Acres Acres, Young Athletes League, and Rockfeedback DJs.

For more information check out the Videopia Facebook Group.

Why? Get involved in remaking classic movies.

Tuesday Oct 20th, from 7pm @ Notting Hill Arts Club, £5.

Review by Ella A.

Secret Garden Party 2009, Eden & Babylon

2009-08-23T06:08:00.001+01:00

Secret Garden Party is our most beloved little festival in the whole of the world. This is our fourth year in a row at SGP, but it feels like more because there's always so much to pack in. Four full days of it. I think all weekends should be four days long!

This year's theme was Eden and Babylon, perfect for all the decadents and flower children out there. SGP boasts the best and most beautiful festival site you could wish for. Out in the Cambridgeshire countryside, it's the perfect size and shape for you to explore. It was like visiting an old friend for us, til we couldn't find the Camel's Arse cafe! What's this?! They've moved it? Had us worried for a second. The Nutbuster burgers still rule supreme. This is SGP's sixth year, and it's definitely grown. More campers, bigger camping ground and a much longer queue at first. And there seemed to be even more Action Camps and activities than ever.

There was no Digital Funfair this year (but we did enjoy seeing them at Bloc Weekender). So instead of playing that cheesy electro theme tune game and trying to play Pacman while pedaling on a bicycle, we found our way to Granny's cinema and lounged around watching 'Where the Buffalo Roam' starring a very youthful Bill Murray. Special mention must go to the ladies (and blokes) at Granny's Gaff who served us tea and crumpets while staying in character as sweet little old ladies the whole weekend. Now that's commitment.

The highlight for us was Envelopes playing 'Hold Music'. We've never heard them play that live before! We think someone requested it, we'd like to shake that person's hand. It was so brilliant to be bouncing up and down and singing along to one of our favourite b-sides by this Swedish band.

The best cover of the weekend was Mpho's cover of 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush. She had a great voice, it really soared. Also, we absolutely loved the crazy oompah band's cover of Human League's 'Don't You Want Me Baby'. Who thought a clarinet and accordion could ever sound that good at that hour of the morning. Koko Von Napoo provided very the best electro set of the weekend. French, edgy and very stylish.

This year was all about stage invasions. Phoenix started this off by inviting everyone up at the end of their set. The mainstage (this year dressed as a giant snake to go with the Eden and Babylon theme) is quite low and easy to climb onto, so when Jarvis played later that night he had a job keeping people off the stage. First just one guy came up and danced with him for half a song, then later it became more of a free for all. It interrupted the end of his stunning set, where he mainly did songs off his new album 'Further Complications'. He was very polite and said 'Thanks for coming up here but can you all get down now, we've got a few songs left and there's a few safety issues'. Very well controlled Jarvis.

Soko was just lovely, but doesn't take any shit from anyone. It was a nice intimate setting with all of us sitting on the stage watching her. There were quiet teary moments, she played a great drum solo and shouted over it, sang a song about Peanutbutter, a funny song called 'Wet Dreams' and ended with 'I Will Never Love You More'. Oh, and when people called out for 'I'll Kill Her' she dismissed them with a simple 'Fuck off..'

I made sure I caught SGP veteran Bean On Toast playing Where The Wild Things Are on my way to see Thoes Dancing Days. He was playing his classic "MDMazing" when I rocked up. He made it all the way to the second verse before he forgot the words. He kept playing one chord for a bit too long, his eyes rolled up and we all sniggered. He appologised and explained that he had forgotten the words because he was wrecked the night before. The audience seemed endeared by his honesty and he played a few more, forgetting the words to all of them! His grand finale was when he brought on his beat boxing mate to do a rap that they had been rehearsing for the whole weekend. It was really impressive, he got almost half way though it before he forgot the words. We were all of the floor in hysterics by this point. He found it pretty funny to and explained the rest of the song to us like he was telling a story! Genius.

Then I saw Those Dancing Days and they were a bit disappointing, but not as awful as Yearner Babies who were desperate for fans, made a huge racket, and I can't believe two of our friends were dancing to them and loving it.

Videopia was our best new discovery at the festival. Inspired by the film 'Be Kind Rewind', this is a place where you can come and star in sweeded versions of your favourite classic films. We got to be in a ten minute remake of 'Jaws'. I got wear a shark costume and eat someone, it was brilliant. They also have a monthly night at Notting Hill Arts Club in London. Well worth checking out.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

Ungdomskulen Interview

2009-08-15T02:07:00.002+01:00

What is your favourite video game?

Fifa 2003. My personal favourite is Space Invaders from the 90s. Is it in 2D? 1D, yeah! I like double D's! Colin McRae Rally Championships. Also Double Dragon is really good. I like Leisure Suit Larry. We used to play one of the Tony Hawk games a lot. There is a game called Cosmonaut, which is a really old game. It's kind of like Space Invaders but it's a bit different. The best game is Scorched Earth. I like Warcraft 2.

If you could have a superpower what would it be and why?

I've been giving this a lot of thought and I'm going to say invisibility. Because if you can fly, sooner or later you'll get discovered and you'll have doctors trying to figure out why you can fly and you'd be a threat to society. But with invisibility, they can never catch you because you can always go invisible. I guess. It would be really cool to fly but you would have a really hard time breathing and stuff. I don't think the human body is created for flying.

How did you choose the artwork for the Bisexual album?

We wanted a painting for it. That was the start point. We were talking about old prog records that have very beautiful, interesting covers. So Øyvind sent an email to George Underwood to check if we could work together. He said "Well, I'm painting something right now", he took a picture, sent it over and we were in love. Love at first sight. So we decided there and then, let's use this. So it was like fait.. faith.. destiny, yeah!

How do you think Bisexual compares to your debut album Cry Baby?

Eight songs! Bisexual is a bit more theatrical. It holds it's cards a bit, whereas Cry Baby is in your face all the time. Like a howling wolf. Bisexual is a bit more (long pause for reflection) of a gentleman of an album. It's more mysterious and has more secrets within. You know like a theme that comes back in another song and stuff like that. It's more thought through in a way. While Cry Baby is the immature record. In a way, a little bit, yeah.

Would you say Bisexual is more of a concept album?

Yeah maybe. I think when you start a band, you just start making songs and all of a sudden they turn in to an album. When you release that album you have a chance to go back and see how you could have done things differently. Or maybe you want to add more information to the album without necessarily have more musical information or more parts or whatever. But how to communicate on different levels and I think on Bisexual we had some stuff that we wanted to have, lyrics wise and also, like structures for songs that we hadn't used before that we wanted to try out. We also tried to make a ballad, but it didn't work out.

How do you go about creating a song?

We all meet up in a rehearsal space and start to make noise. So it's a cacophony sort of thing. And then it's survival of the rockiest. The one that makes the most interesting noise, we sort of lean towards that, whether it be the guitars or the drums or whatever. And then we sort of start creating the song and then we think, OK so where can we go from here.

Your songs are very organic. How do you decide which bits to keep, which bits to reject and which bits to extend?

It's really easy I think because we're all on the same highway lane in a way, as far as aesthetics and melodies go. We instantly dislike and like the same things as one. We work as a united force of power. It's not really a big discussion, what to keep or what to throw away. Intuition.

Have you ever come up with an idea that is so wacky that you can't keep it?

We always try to go towards the wacky stuff and then play it down. Maybe we have a bit that's a bit salsa, but if we change it, it won't be humorous. We don't want it to be funny, we want it to be beautiful but at the same time, we aren't afraid of going in to unknown territory and flirt with kitsch. I think it's important to stretch things out and see how far you can go.

How would you describe your sound, using only two words?

Sexy and innocent. Naive. Like a schoolgirl! Yeah, school girl, that's to words. Naive is actually true in a way because all about being instrumental is about being naive. If you're not naive then you wouldn't try out some stuff because you wouldn't think it would work. You have to have a deadpan outlook towards music. If you're a smart ass and you know everything you're going to do the right thing all the time and you wouldn't create anything new. So we try to be stupid about things.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

Blang Records

2009-08-09T14:49:00.000+01:00

Blang are an inspirational underground label based in East London who have a penchant for more unusual and subversive acts. It was started by Joe who's since been joined by Jules. They're responsible for releasing some great albums by bands such as David Cronenberg's Wife and Milk Kan. They're involved with a lot of stuff from the UK Antifolk scene and host a monthly night at 12 Bar which started back in 2002. In December 2008 they earned the accolade of Label of the Week from BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens on his "In New Music We Trust" show. As we've been watching them for a while, we thought it was about time we asked them a few questions.

What inspired you to start your own independent label?

Joe: I started a label called Audio Gland to release Sgt Buzfuz albums. Then I started the Blang nights at the 12 Bar Club. I began to meet all kinds of strange and wonderful musicians and the night got a name for itself. It seemed a good idea to start a new Blang label and put out other acts too. Running your own label is hard work. But Blang musicians have 100% control over what we do.

Jules: I met Joe at a Blang night at the 12 Bar Club and was really inspired by what he was doing and impressed that he'd managed to release two albums and get a UK distribution deal with indie distribitor Cargo Records AND keep the Blang night going whilst being frontman/songwriter of Sergeant Buzfuz and holding down a day job. I said let's sign some of these bands and stir up some trouble for the music industry, it's already in turmoil! I quit my job and we set up Blang Ltd on 13th December 2006.

How did you start out signing your first artists?

Joe: David Cronenberg’s Wife were the first band we signed. They played their first gig at the Blang night and played there loads of times. So we were friends. It seemed a natural step.

Jules: We took David Cronenberg's Wife to a Ukranian restaurant on the Holloway Road and got them really drunk. We took Filthy Pedro to the Sex Museum in Soho and Milk Kan.. well we're all still in a state of recovery and it's a bit of a blur.

What would you say to someone experiencing Blang music for the first time? e.g. Suggest how they would approach it for the first listen with a nice cold beer, in a suitable setting.

Joe: Here’s how to listen to the various acts:
Milk Kan: Get some beers in. Pump up the volume and open the windows.
David Cronenberg’s Wife: Speed. Close the curtains.
Sergeant Buzfuz: Dope. Skin up on a book about the Spanish Inquisition.
Filthy Pedro: Mushrooms. Listen while walking around Anglesey.
Malcolm Kaksois: GHB and Ketamine cocktail. Visualise driving a tube train (that’s Malcolm’s job and his new album only makes sense this way)
Dan Edelstyn: Acid and Ukrainian vodka. Watch one of Dan’s self-directed videos.
Lucy’s Diary: Pink champagne and put on your kinky boots!
Jules: Yup that works for me too!

Which are your favourite artists apart from those on the label?

Joe: Acid Mothers Temple. Jeff Lewis. Misty’s Big Adventure. Kinkajou. Julian Cope. Jinx Lennon. Artery. Jules: Desmond Dekker, The Ramones, Jinx Lennon, Diane Cluck, Velvet Underground, Ian Dury, The Cramps, Miles Davis and the Dead Kennedys

What's been your proudest moment in the last year?

Joe: Releasing 3 classic albums within 6 months. Jules: Ditto

Who is the most unusual band on your label?

Joe: Dan Edeldstyn and his Orchestra Of Cardboard. He performs backed by a life-size band of cardboard cut-outs. He’s importing a brand of vodka from the Ukraine. He’s making a film about his granny. His mouth can’t keep up with his brain. Jules: Malcolm Kaksois - he knows what lurks below in the tunnels of the London Underground.

What are your ambitions for Blang in the future?

Joe: To continue to release great music. To lose less money. To run a Blang stage at a festival. Jules: to kick up a storm and wreak havoc!

Anything else to add?

Jules: I met Joe at a Blang night at the 12 Bar Club and was really inspired by what he was doing and impressed that he'd managed to release two albums and get a UK distribution deal with indie distribitor Cargo Records AND keep the Blang night going whilst being frontman/songwriter of Sergeant Buzfuz and holding down a day job.

Joe: Can we also say, unlike most so-called 'indie' labels, who are really secretly funded by majors and thus sign dreary bollock and are about as independent as the police complaints commission, Blang is truly independent!

Enough said! Check out the latest news from the Blang website.

Review by Dedee W.

All Hail Being Unemployed

2009-08-05T22:37:00.002+01:00

"I was looking for a job, then I found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now."

Ah yes, Morrissey said it best when he sang these wise words. It's a line that often springs to mind and puts a smile on my face whenever I hear people complaining about their jobs. (Well, that would be the small percentage of my friends who don't happen to have music industry jobs, media jobs, or make their living freelancing, they can hardly complain can they! And generally people are too nice to complain about their jobs these days, it's like some sort of taboo we daren't speak of as we drag ourselves out of this tedious recession). But yes, when I think back those halcyon days of being a freshly unemployed bum at the start of this year, I definitely do feel a pang of nostalgia still. It started well, I knew it would be a long journey to the next honourable vocation, but I was fresh off a two month holiday and hadn't worked in months cos my temping job had ended a month before. So if you add that up, I wasn't working for a total of seven and a half months! That's the longest stretch of unemployed bum-ness I've ever experienced in my life. Here's a list of the best things about being unemployed:

The long luxurious lie ins. Then after a few weeks, trying to train yourself to get up at 9am so you can actually get things done before lunchtime.
Learning to sound really awake when agencies call you in the morning, even though you're still half asleep in bed.
Watching Working Lunch (or refusing to in my case, because of the crap set and crap hosts).
Watching This Morning and actually finding that cheesy theme music endearing
Going for long bike rides in the park, admiring the various wildlife and racing down hills.
Watching Diagnosis Murder, when you remember to.
Forgetting what day it is until you read the Radio times to see what's on TV
Watching the last 10-15 minutes of Deal of No Deal (the only bit worth watching really)
Watching another great episode of The One Show (I do that anyway, best theme song ever).
Discovering you actually are eligible for Jobseekers Allowance just before you've spent your last twenty quid. Woohoo!
Making a more concerted effort to find a decent job, while sitting in the garden with your laptop when it's sunny enough.
Getting nearer the three month mark and resigning yourself to the fact that you have to stop looking for your dream job soon and just take any job. Oh dear, how depressing.
Sitting in the garden with a pint, talking about what you'd do if you did get your dream job.

And that's pretty much all of it. That's all the good stuff you can fit in while you still appreciate being a free spirited, unjaded jobless bum. That's before the boredom sets in. That's about when becoming 'just another office slave' starts to look like a viable option. But take note - that's a sure sign insanity's just around the corner! Before you do sign your life away to being chained to a desk again, stop. Remember the virtues of a nice wee stint of unemployment. It can do wonders for the soul.

Review by Dedee W.

Secret Garden Party 2009 Preview

2009-07-02T20:23:00.000+01:00

Let the festivities begin! There’s only three weeks to go until the Secret Garden Party and the line up looks better than ever. Let’s hope we get another glorious heatwave for the festival like last year.

This year’s theme is Eden & Babylon; another nice open theme for people to interpret it as they wish. I’m envisaging people wearing only leaves, maybe a few people dressed as trees. The tranquil & sedate location of this festival suits the theme beautifully. For those that haven’t been, it’s a field near Huntingdon with an amazing lake in the middle. It looks stunning at sunset.

The line up includes Emmy The Great, VV Brown, Those Dancing Days, Slow Club, The Holloways, Dan Black, Envelopes, Au Revoir Simone, Beans on Toast and the king of Britpop Jarvis Cocker. Plus loads and loads more, no doubt there will be a few surprises as well.

It’s not all about the line up though. The Secret Garden Party has a reputation for random parties, action camps and activities. I once saw a guy sitting in a tractor tyre roll down a hill and into a river while walking to the main stage! Don’t worry he wasn’t hurt; he climbed out of the river and started dancing. Check out Youtube for heaps more SGP fun.

This years action camps include the Explorer Camp, The Laa of Soft Things (a house made of hay filled with soft cushions), Videopia (where you can star in your favourite movie, live!), The Bohemian Artists Studio & Life Drawing Camp, the Carnie Camp, Belle Epoque (a burlesque camp) and loads more. The organisers really go the extra mile when it comes to action camps and activities.

Check out the swanky SGP website for more details.

Review by David Apple.

Latitude 2009 Preview

2009-06-22T23:21:00.000+01:00

Since it first appeared in 2005, Latitude festival has earned a reputation for being a glorious weekend away, boasting the best bands, theatre, comedy, culture, food and everything you could ask for, all nestled in the lush countryside setting of Suffolk.

It takes place on 16-19 July, and is quite likely to sell out again so we hope you’ve got your tickets. The reason people love Latitude so much is that it’s the ideal place to unwind. The words ‘idyllic’ and ‘serene’ come to mind. Their slogan ‘It’s more than just a music festival’ is one they actually do live up to. You can wander through the literary, poetry and comedy tents for half the day before you even get to the bands! Latitude are also known for going the extra mile when it comes to taking care of its residents. Maybe that’s why its been labeled a quintessentially middle class festival [insert joke about posh campers here]. It’s definitely a festival for people who want to go camping without the yob factor. I mean it was all so civilised I managed to come away with nothing more than a satisfied post festival glow and almost no injuries.

My overall memory of being at Latitude is that of waking up in a field in the middle of an Alice in Wonderland story book. Starting the day with a nutritious breakfast of Bloody Marys and surprisingly tasty vege burgers with my neighbors. Wandering past a flock of multicoloured sheep. Being drawn up the hill to the Obelisk arena by Bat for Lashes’ ethereal voice floating down towards me. Squeezing my way into the comedy tent to witness one of Dylan Moran’s inspired rants. Being hit in the head by a plastic cup during Rob da Bank’s set, and two lovely girls coming to my rescue with tissues for my head injury. Sitting at a wooden table in the sun with some new friends, casually fishing some grass out of my pint of cider.

Past line-ups have been diverse enough to include CSS, Jarvis Cocker, Patrick Wolf, Seasick Steve, Tinariwen, Blondie, Mars Volta, Sigur Ros and Elbow. This year they’ve got a bewildering and delightful array of acts such as Doves, Grace Jones, Ladyhawke, Datarock, Phoenix, Regina Spektor, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Fight Like Apes, Marnie Stern, Bat for Lashes, Lykke Li and they’ve even snuck in a cheeky little bonus - a solo set from Thom Yorke at noon on Sunday. Very impressive.

Insider Tip

If you plan to see anything at the Sunrise Arena, give yourself a little extra time as it’s slightly out of the way.

Travel info

To get there from London, grab a coach. Last year, the organisers hooked up with National Express and a few other coach services to provide easy, fast and efficient travel directly to the site. It’s also a really good opportunity to make friends with other Latitudites. You never know when you might need to borrow a cup of sugar or find yourself in need of some help setting up your tent. You could also consider liftsharing through sites like liftshare.com. if you want to share your car with fellow festival goers. Alternatively you could get a train. The nearest station is Halesworth (you can get there from Liverpool Street station) but be warned, these trains are quite infrequent and can get busy before and after the festival. The organisers advise you get a train to Ipswich and then grab a shuttle bus to the festival site.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

Ungdomskulen @ Various Venues, London, UK

2009-06-20T12:18:00.000+01:00

Norwegian three piece Ungdomskulen were back in the UK last week to promote their new album Bisexual and we were all over them like white on rice. I mean, how often do you get the chance to see your new favourite band three times in one week?! We couldn't believe our luck.

First stop, White Heat at Madame Jojo's. Support came in the shape of Hypertext (a band that live just down the road from Ungdomskulen in Bergen) & Dutch Uncles whose singer had excellently bendy legged dance moves to match their quirky charms. Ungdomskulen played a confident set to a modest crowd. Lead singer Kristian Stockhaus was wearing skimpy shorts, there were a few technical problems with Frode's distortion pedal, the sound was terrible, but their song still sounded great. The best bit of this set was the slow and skilfully improvised intro into 'Ordinary Son', which was how Kristian and Oyvind filled in time while Frode sorted out his pedal. It turned it into the most epic version when the bass finally kicked back in, it was totally worth the wait.

Next stop, The Old Blue Last with support from Three Trap... oh wait it's been cancelled due to a power failure. A quick wander around Shoreditch and a few phone calls later we find out the gig has been moved to Last Days of Decadence. Kristian is sitting pretty on the merch stand greeting people as they come and go. The band play a rocking set to a tipsy and packed out room who are loving it. They ended their last song 'Spartacus' by jumping down off the tiny stage, crashing into each other and dancing furiously to the end. A great finish. They set the bar way too high for Three Trapped Tigers to reach. Technical problems, feedback and long delays spoiled what was an otherwise amazing set, pretty much dominated by the technical skills of the drummer who completely blitzed his way through every time signature they could fit in. It was the release party for their new song '7' and they had to start it twice after it fell apart the first time. It's a shame, as the recordings on their myspace always sounds brilliant, but live they're too fussy and seem to have too much equipment to pull off a smooth gig. The people next to me seemed to love it anyway, I presume that wasn't just due to their drunkeness, but in recognition of TTT's mindblowingly complex brilliance once they actually got down to business.

The following night is party night,with Ungdomskulen DJing at the Lock Tavern. We take the opportunity to interview them (coming very soon). And finally, they complete the week with a set at Club NME at Koko wearing fantastic sequined shirts. As the projector screen lifted and the kids swarmed to the front of the stage, their opener 'Sleep Over Beethoven' hammered home the presence of something special. Their set was a little bit more of a 'best of' rather than a plug for their new album, playing more tried and tested songs from their debut album 'Cry Baby'. Everyone was very impressed, got very drunk and had their bicycles stolen. The end.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

"Get on your bike to beat the strike!" and other propoganda

2009-06-11T00:42:00.000+01:00

Get on your bike to beat the strike! and other propaganda Listen to that, the sound of another cheerful slogan designed to take your mind off the real issues and get you enjoying a bit of fresh air while cycling round London.

I think I first saw it on the Tfl site and I thought well isn't that nice! There's a two day tube strike on this week but they wanna help us look on the bright side! That's all well and good for the people who are used to cycling to work but what about all the newbies, forced out onto the extra congested roads with miles of backed up traffic. crowds spilling onto the street at the bus stops, people arguing fiercely over taxis, and the queues of extra buses everywhere?

'Get on your bike to beat the strike' is about as helpful as the delightfully patronising signs I see at tube stations in summer that suggest you 'Carry a bottle of water with you', with a big picture of a plastic bottle on it just in case you hadn't seen one before. You're probably better off on a bike then to be honest. Hell isn't other people, it's other people crammed up against you on the tube in rush hour in 25 degree heat. My tip is to freeze a plastic water bottle overnight, leaving a small gap at the top to add water and start it melting again. Take that with you. It's an absolute life saver.

So all of this ties in nicely to what I was going to mention next - it's National Bike Week from 13-21 June! If you're keen to find out more about all that outdoorsy fitness feelgood stuff, go to the Bike Week website. Go on, you know you want to. There's a great story on the Times Online website about cyclists getting together to beat the tube strike. It includes this quote from one man:

"My fiancee always says to me that she doesn’t want me to cycle because she doesn't want me to die."

Aww, bless him. And I thought that it was just me that was a bit nervous about being hit by a truck. You can read the full article on the Times Online website.

The story also mentioned that Mayor Boris Johnson had called for "Blitz spirit" during this strike. This reminded me of all the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters I keep seeing everywhere. I even have one in my room that I bought on holiday, on the other side of the world for crying out loud. When did that slogan become so fashionable again? Oh don't tell me it's that recession thing. I'm so sick of that. Let's take a leaf out of Charlie Brooker's book and start calling it Moneygeddon! We could make a new poster that says "Moneygeddon, Bring It On!". For a bit of history on the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters check out this Wikipedia Page.

Lastly I'll take this opportunity to bid a wistful goodbye to the Apprentice for this year. Thrilling television as usual. Not only did the quietly confident, and ruthlessy thrifty Yasmina win it (and Debra wasn't even in the final to spice things up!) but there was the shocking news that Margaret is leaving the series to do her Phd in Papyrology. Good on her I say, she's more than paid her dues. I was disappointed they didn't play the Margaret Mountford song from the Adam and Joe show, that would have been the perfect tribute for her. Anyway, no more talk of any reality shows til next year, I promise you. There are plenty of other places you can read about that.

Review by Ella A.

Rose Elinor Dougall @ The Luminaire, London

2009-06-09T22:23:00.000+01:00

What better way to spend an evening than watching a lovely young songbird mesmerise a crowd of fans with her gorgeous voice. Rose Dougall, once everyone's favourite Pipette is back having kicked off her successful solo career with a sold out single 'Another Version Of Pop Song'. Tonight the room is fairly packed for the launch of her second single 'Start/Stop/Synchro'. Even though I didn't know the songs at all I went in fully expecting to enjoy every minute. I would describe her songs as classic slow burners, smooth and easy on the ear, but intriguing enough to invite you back for a second listen. Every song envelopes you in a floaty dreamy wall of sound. There's hints of Howling Bells' sultry loveliness, along with strong riffs and harmonies that are spread out to form a lush lazy atmosphere of pop paradise. It seems like this girl can do no wrong.

Review by Dedee W.

Bat For Lashes @ The Town Hall, Birmingham

2009-04-14T15:03:00.000+01:00

Bat for Lashes is back with her difficult second album 'Two Suns'. But before we write her off completely, let's go and see her play it live.

The Town Hall in Birmingham is a relatively new live music venue. I think it mainly hosts classical music, they serve tea and everything is clean. The excessive sound treatment on the ceiling suffocated the hall's acoustics. Natasha commented on how quiet it was in between her songs. I could clearly make out people on the other side of the hall breathing heavily.

The venue aside, there's no denying that Natasha Khan has grown a lot since her 'Fur and Gold' days. She's quite content to majestically sweep across the stage while singing with nothing in her hands but a microphone. Her voice, as strong as a chainsaw, can go from mega loud to ultra soft while hitting every note perfectly.

Unfortunately, her new instrumentation and session musicians made everything sound thin and weedy. She may as well be collaborating with Keane, it's such a waste of her talent. The only performance in which the music matched the power of Natasha's vocals was the second encore and her latest single, 'Daniel'. 'Daniel' is a masterpiece, her best song ever. It's really catchy and funky. And I suppose, there were a couple of old songs that shone through. She played 'Prescilla' with just an autoharp and she brought on one of her old session musicians (Caroline Weeks) to play 'Tahiti'. The rest of her set sounded weak, forgettable and boring. Half way through the night I whipped out a sleeping bag, climbed in and drifted off next to the wall.

I'm sure Bat For Lashes is going to be around for a long time and I'm really glad but don't buy this album. Hold out for her next one.

Review by David Apple.

Coffee & Cake @ Cassie's House, Kings Heath, Birmingham

2009-04-06T17:45:00.001+01:00

On Sunday night, the House of Tracks crew attended the Coffee and Cake club in Kings Heath. A simple but rare concept, Cassie - the host, gets artists to play in her living room, providing free cake and coffee. This results in a delightful, unique and intimate gig experience.

Musical entertainment was provided by Tom Peel. Combining cute, funny and personal songwriting with a full range of vocal noises (including screeching, shouting and growling) which greatly amused to 25 strong crowd. After his performance he sold some CD's which came in material pouches, handmade by is mother!

Following this was open mic. Among the performers was a guitar and violin duo who played a few brilliantly epic songs that gave me goosepimples! They haven't released anything official yet but watch this space for more.

A lot of the people knew each other and the atmosphere was like that of a house party rather than a gig because of the setting. A random but great night that I will definitely be attending again!

Review by Shelly Lace.

All Hail The Sony PSP

2009-04-02T23:16:00.000+01:00

The Sony PSP is the greatest hand held gaming device ever. I think lots of people maintain that the Sega Game Gear is better but it's not and I will explain why shortly but first, some history. On Sunday December 12th 2004, Sony released the first batch of PSPs in Japan. The operating system that these original PSPs (officially called PSP1000s) were running was the notorious Firmware version 1.00. The massive flaw in this software became apparent to everyone almost immediately. Japanese people were able to upload and run applications on the device without any setup at all. This might not seem like such a big issue but it wasn't long before people started writing applications to copy official UMD games and movies, overwrite the firmware, play downloaded games and even play old PlayStation One games!

Sony immediately set to work on a firmware update (called 1.50) to get around this problem. This new firmware was installed on all the PSPs that were released to the rest of the world in 2005. It was a Spanish programmer called Dark Alex that eventually hacked this firmware update and to this day, Sony keep releasing firmware updates and Dark Alex keeps hacking them.

For the gaming industry, the hacked PSP is generally bad news. Game makers can't charge as much for their games because they know people just won't buy them if they can download them illegally instead. However, for the user, a hacked PSP is a very powerful tool. So far, the PSP has been know to run NES, Commodore 64, SNES, Genesis, Mega CD, N64, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Game Gear, ScummVM and PS1 games. It can also emulate the old Atari operating system as well as MS Dos, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems. Also, with a few extra hardware additions, it can also work as a camera, telephone and even a satellite navigation device!

Since 2005, Sony upgraded hardware of the PSP in the form of the PSP2000 and the PSP3000 series. These models have the added features of being slightly thinner, having a better screen and a built in microphone. They're also a lot more secure than the original model, to the point that the PSP 3000 is currently considered unhackable.

Review by David Apple.

Drums Of Death Interview

2009-03-18T22:41:00.002Z

You've just played at Bloc Weekender.

I have just played at the Bloc Weekender, my first time here.

How did your set go down?

It was cool, it was fun. I had some really weird sound problems so it was less vocal tonight. There was a really weird delay in the microphone. I've never really done a festival before because people just watch you but when people come and see me it's a lot more intense and they get involved. Which is cool but it's kind of like they're evaluating it and thinking "Do I like this?", "I do, I will watch it some more" and they watch it like it's performance art. But I don't want to get bogged down in trying to get a message across. I'm just here to make people sweaty. Oh yeah!

You played the Moshi Moshi party at Matter in London. That was kind of a festival.

I suppose so. I had just come off this tour with Hot Chip about a week before that as well in the US so it was really good to see them again. I had a really good time there. I played at Matter again in January at the Wonky Pop night and that was really good fun too.

How did you get signed to Greco Roman?

They heard a little recording I made in my brain that fell outside of my ear and into my hands and through various means Joe and Alex of Greco got hold of this mixtape. Loved it. Wanted to put out almost everything on it and a week later I was playing a show with Hot Chip in Manchester.

So when did you start working with Peaches?

Last summer I suppose. I played in Berlin at Scala, a really dope club there, run by her boyfriend. And it's in a squat so it's a really cool place. There was a Greco Roman party there and I played that, and Peaches came along. She'd heard about me, liked my stuff and came down. It was really easy, straight away she said 'Look, do ya wanna do a mixtape for me? I really love your beats, I'll give you my acapellas'. I think she really wanted a different slant to what some younger producer would do. It just went on from there, I spent a week in Berlin and I got her acapellas and I was sampling her, her Junos, you know all her gear. And then came back to London and ditched all that recording and started from scratch. And that's the mixtape.

You're supporting Peaches around the USA in May and June, are you looking forward to that?

I am very much looking forward to that. I'm doing like, two months, well fuck, a lot of touring. I'm doing a week of European shows with her, and then we're doing Greco Roman parties in Moscow and Paris. And the following weekend I'm flying to Detroit to start the tour with Peaches the day after. I'm really excited, it's gonna be great. I'm just gonna have to take care of myself. Better care of myself than when I was on tour with Hot Chip. It's gonna be all rock'n'roll sweaty noise..it's gonna be brutal. A brutal brutal tour.

You mentioned you've been to America with Hot Chip before. Have you toured the USA a lot?

Not really, I've done a few little secret things here and there, and a few low key things. When Hot Chip asked me to support them, it was two weeks of crazy shows and they're lovely guys, they party but I think the Peaches thing is gonna be like, sweaty leather funk, acid rock..She's one of the nicest people that I've met in my entire life. But she gives it, and when she's on stage it's all about communicating what you want to give to the people. Not like it's some sort of message, but 'this is my music, this is what I do, this is what gets me up in the morning. And this is how I want to present it to you now, and make it special'. And I think we work well together, and I think the tour's just gonna be amazing. I say that now. I'll probably die on tour. This is one of the last interviews I'll ever do.

Are you working on an album?

Yes, it's gonna be called 'A Generation Hexed'. It's my first album. I've been recording string quartets, and there's lots of piano stuff on there.

Yeah on your myspace it sounds almost classical in parts.

Yeah I really want to surprise people. When the album drops I'm gonna be touring it with my live group. And it's gonna be insane. It's gonna be what I do times three. Bigger bolder louder. And we're gonna move it into larger venues, phase two of the plan.

Is it all recorded now, is it ready to go?

Not really, well half of it is, but I keep writing more stuff. I wrote a new single last night, I wrote it at four in the morning. And I was emailing it to the label really excited, going 'This is the single, this is it!' It's huge. So we were all happy but it wasn't ready to be played tonight. I was playing a few little newer things. I wanted to try different things cos it's an audience that have possibly never seen me before and are here because of the whole event. So I just wanted to play around a bit and have some fun.

So before you were doing this, were you mainly djing?

I djed, and I was in many bands. But that was the old me, this is the new me. This is the good me. This is the bad me! That was when I was confused, and it took me applying thick greasepaint to my face in public, and trying to make the bodies jerk in the most inappropriate fashion, to make me realise that everything I did before was just tuning up. This is what I do, and this is my thing so everything before was just practice.

Was it something of an overnight transformation?

There were a few things that really struck me. Coming to London. I was born in Scotland, but Drums of Death really is a creation of London because it's a creation of hearing two step, hearing jungle, hearing music that I knew of in Glasgow, but wasn't open to in such an everyday way.

You're playing Bestival this year.

Yeah, I played last year and it was amazing. It was my second ever festival, I played Glastonbury a month or two before. We played the Rizla stage on the Greco Roman night and it was like conducting a rave from the back of a Victorian ice cream truck. I'm quite a tall guy so I had to kind of duck down for them to see me while singing. It was cool but this year's going to be bigger and badder.

Anything else?

There's a 12" single of Got Yr Thing coming out in June with the Zombie Suite on the B-Side. Got Yr Thing is a love song. It's for all the undead guys and all the undead girls and undead guys to guys and undead girls to girls, whatever you're in to. And there's an amazing remix on it as well and on the flip there's the Zombie Suite which is two banging club tracks based around zombie flesh eaters and then one more after summer and then the album.

Review by David Apple.

Tim Exile @ Bloc Weekender, Butlins, Minehead

2009-03-17T14:34:00.000Z

My highlight of Bloc 2009 has to be Tim Exile. He was on before Clark on the Saturday night on the 'Red Bloc' stage. He had a laptop, a sampler and a crazy, circuit bent joystick that produced all of these insane effects when Tim was playing with it. At one point he jumped over the barrier with it and used it to loop and layer his vocals. Everyone in the room rushed over to get a better look at him using it. He brought a cellist on stage to accompany one of his songs and his special guest towards the end was Beardyman! Tim was completely messing up Beardyman's vocals and making them sound crunchy as fuck. He ended with his latest single 'Family Galaxy'. A hypnotic, psychedelic, genre bending mindfuck. The tempo changes seamlessly from 87bpm to 116bpm and ends somewhere around 174. The audience, that were all drugged up to the eyelids by this point were freaking out.

I managed to get a quick chat with Tim during the disappointing Aphex Twin set later that night and he was still buzzing from the set he played at Berghain in his home town on Berlin the night before. His album 'Listening Tree' is out soon on Warp and his next UK gig is at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 17th April.

Review by David Apple.

Bloc Weekender 2009 (13th - 15th March) @ Butlins, Minehead

2009-03-17T13:00:00.004Z

It felt like I was sneaking into festival season a few months early, unaccustomed as I am to spending a sunny weekend at Butlins partaking in one of those 'rave' type festivals. Yet here I was, and it was only March! So it was a bit of a treat to already be indulging what could be described as the electronica version of an ATP. I mean, it was Dave the Warp records fan who'd really wanted to be here, but I felt this would be a learning experience for me.

It wasn't the most amazing line-up in the world, but with just a few strong headliners and lots of random unknown stuff, it meant there was less pressure to rush from stage to stage and more time to enjoy ourselves. I'd also been lured in by the added bonus of 'Splash Waterworld'. This is where we spent most of our days, floating round the current pool, bouncing round the wave pool, and going on all the waterslides, including the one where they sit you in an inflatable raft and they push you down a massive dip. Hours of fun. The spas could have been a bit warmer though.

Friday

So, down to the music! And the fun of exploring the weird, brightly coloured surroundings of Butlins. The first thing that got me in the mood was walking into Tec Bloc hear some guy mixing a great tune with the music from Pacman in it. Following the theme of computer games, we'd discovered they had our beloved Digital Funfair, enjoyed many a time at Secret Garden Party.

It's a neat little tent full of silly addictive stuff, including video games you control by pedaling on a bicycle in front of a big screen There's a certain catchy tune to be found in this funfair tent that's become almost a theme tune for festivals, so we felt right at home.

We went for a wander and found the 'Welfare Tent' that was only interested in your welfare if you’d done the required amount of party drugs. They came across as very sweet, well-meaning and demented when they explained that yes, they had laid out all these mugs ready to serve tea, but only if you’d taken too many drugs and were freaking out. We offered to pay for some tea, but were politely told to go elsewhere. Weird.

We spent most of our time in Jak Bloc a smaller more intimate room. They started off watching Greco Roman Sound System played some dubby reggae tunes. Then on came Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. We were instantly impressed with their flashy costumes. One guy was dressed as a big green dinosaur, the other, some sort of mystery character wearing a red cape with a glittery silver box for a head. They treated us to some massively cheesy dancefloor classics such as ‘These Sounds Fall into my mind’ by the Bomb.

Drums of Death (or Colin, to him Mum) has such a brilliant energetic stage presence. He really throws himself into his dance moves, and by the end of his set the white zombie facepaint was dripping down his neck onto his black shirt. He absolutely caned his mix of Franz Ferdinand’s ‘What She Came For’, coming out front and singing to the front row like it was fully packed room. Even though half the room rushed off at the end to see someone else! What were they thinking.

Rob da Bank’s set was somewhat marred by the presence of one of the Greco Roman guys, beer can in hand, mic in the other, acting as the Peter Kay style emcee for the whole of the set. Except it wasn’t that funny. Well, except for when the sound guys pretended the mic was broken for a whole song just to let us enjoy the music.

Saturday

I thought I might go see the a bit of Lee 'Scratch' Perry but quickly discovered a long pointless queue for him at Centre:Bloc while they were running one and half hours late. This was the stage with the biggest room at the festival though, so did people realise there was no need to queue? Instead of queuing I went and checked out the digital graffiti art battle at the Yr Wall thing, Watched a bit of Pathic, which was quite good before it got too repetitive for my ears. Then I ended up watching most of Ulrich Schnauss, cos it was just so beautiful and hypnotic.

I was really drawn in by the slow heart beat of the bass drum emanating out of the massive speakers. It was the biggest loveliest ambience I heard all weekend. I think with a sound system like that it was the perfect place to discover it. Everyone was just standing around smiling and nodding and for once I think I actually knew why.

Jamie Lidell. Brilliant. My first impression at another festival last year had left me a bit disappointed, but tonight was a totally different kind of set. He was definitely on. Got to hear some of those gorgeous warm soul vocals, and it all just gelled so well with all the stuff he was doing onstage. By ‘stuff’ I mean all that knob twiddling and mixing combined with coming out front and singing his great songs to the room.

Tim Exile, amazing, so I heard. He was on the same time as Jamie Lidell so I didn’t get to see him! Clark, really bloody good as well. Sounding crisp and sophisticated and always interesting, I was glad to finally get to see him live. Played one of our faves off Turning Dragon, and ended by doing Proper Lofi for an encore. Nice. Aphex Twin & Hecker. predictably disappointing. I was prepared for this, as he's apparently never been the type to play anything at all you would recognise. I don't mean Windowlicker or anything that obvious, but y'know, something that sounds good and twisted like you’d expect. I had a good dance, but it could have been anyone up there on that stage. We felt like it had been mostly Hecker who was doing the work.

Went back to the 'Welfare tent' and watched people before us, trying and failing to buy a cup of tea there. Disturbingly, the dear old lady serving tonight kept telling people to ‘go get fucked’ when they asked for a cup of tea. That’s right. She cheerfully told people to ‘Go and get really fucked out of ya head, then come back and have a cup of tea.’ I felt like asking her exactly how many Class A’s I would need to consume before I got a cup of this precious reserved for druggies only tea. I s’pose they were trying to make sure no-one was just at this rave for the free tea supplies. Geez!!

Sunday

I-F, with dancing girls in skimpy-ish costumes. We had a dance and enjoyed watching and trying to guess which ones were really girls. Then we decided they all were. Oops.

Ceephax Acid Karaoke. The most brilliant thing we’ve seen in a while, despite what the guy in charge was telling us. "You will never hear anything like this again. It will never be performed again. This will be the crappiest thing you hear in your life." We heard amazing acid karaoke versions of Total Eclipse of the Heart and Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, it sounded so out of it, I can only describe it as mindbendingly fun to listen to. Also great to watch Dave’s face as he gaped at the amount of stuff this guy had to play with. "He's got two 303s!!" he raved. When the guy who sang Wuthering Heights won by a landslide clap-o-meter victory, Mr Ceephax felt a bit guilty cos it was his mate who’d bagged the cash prize. But he’d done it fair and square. The runner up didn’t think so, she snapped ‘Misogynist’ at our MC a few times before she left, taking only a complimentary record with her. Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. Oh yeah, and we didn’t get to see the one thing we’d stayed for, Mr Hopkinsons computer, cos he was on earlier for some reason! Typical.

Still, great festival, discovered some great twisted gems that weekend. More than I’d expected and that’s gotta be a good thing.

Review by Dedee W.

Noah and the Whale @ The Town Hall, Birmingham

2009-03-15T17:02:00.000Z

The Club Silencio Tour was film and music tour featuring Noah and the Whale. The films were introduced on screen by Red Velvet, a slightly odd man wearing a red suit. There was a storyline to coincide with the introduction of the films, though I didn't quite get what was going on, since another one of the characters had his voice disguised so much that I didn't understand what he was saying. The first film 'Le Grand Sommeil' was a bit confusing. It had been made as a stop start film with toys moving around and playing ping pong. It was well made but I didn't quite understand what the point was. The second film 'The Bloody Olive' was a black and white French film with subtitles. There were three characters who kept seemingly killing each other and coming back to life. It wasn't gory but it was funny and entertaining/

Jay Jay Pistolet started his set with a couple of beautifully sung songs whilst playing quiet and simple tunes on his guitar. The music for the last few songs was played on a Grammophone with him singing along. During one song he ballroom danced with a masked hoody who'd come onto the stage. His songs are good chillout songs.

After the interval was more of that bizarre Red Velvet fellow, some of it slightly creepy. Then another film 'The Lounge Bar', a New Zealand film about playing music in bars - there was a little violence in this one, it too was slightly creepy.

During Noah and the Whale's set the screen still had films playing behind them, which was a little distracting. However, some of the films complemented the music quite nicely. There was a cute pencil drawn film, which was made specifically for the song played with it and I liked the old fashioned style that the films were made in. Noah and the Whale don't have many upbeat songs, 'Two Atoms in a Molecule' was short but got some people moving around in their seats and '5 Years Time' is another upbeat one, though sounded slightly strange without the female vocal part. The rest of the set was quite subdued, which, along with everything else meant that the evening was relaxing and laid back. I liked some of the funky things that the guitarist did, using his guitar to his full potential but the I was drawn mostly to the drummer's talent.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Post War Years @ Leamington, Assembly

2009-03-01T23:10:00.001Z

Leamington Spa is a lovely little town to wander round, but this was our first time at a gig here so we didn't know what to expect. Well we did expect the Assembly to be a posh and cosy little venue but turns out it was not only posh (i.e. very VERY clean) but also huge, like a well kept concert hall without the seating. Wow, how the hell do you fill this place?!

James Yuill looked very smart. His songs are quite folky if you ignore the techno beats and acid house parts that he layers over the top. At one point he got way too carried away with the floor pounding house music and attempted to turn the Assembly in to a late 80s rave. Maybe it was a little too early into the night to attempt that, but hey, he apologised afterwards. He came across as charming and intellectual if a little geeky. His album will very likely be one of those love it or hate it affairs.

What?! Who are Wave Machines? I thought I was seeing The Wave Pictures tonight. Well that just shows I should pay more attention, and besides Wave Pictures aren't on Chess Club, they're on Moshi Moshi. Maybe that's why James Yuill got confused as well when he was announcing who was on next. Anyway, Wave Pictures' songs were probably quite good, I just couldn't get past the stupid masks they were wearing. It made them look like creepy little puppets with no eyes. I realise they've probably got a lot of comments about this already, but I don't care. We get it now guys, they're masks of your own faces, very clever, now take them off. Unless you've really got something to hide, but then look at all the ugly bands out there that don't wear masks.

Playing to a hometown crowd couldn't be easier when you're this confident and tight as a band. Their sound was powerful and punchy while the performance was cool and laid back. Post War Years' set comprised of mainly new material like 'Whole World On It's Head', 'White Lies' and 'False Start'. They didn't play very many of their old favourites like 'You And Me Both' (I love that song), and they didn't do an encore despite everyone in the room cheering for one. I think it was getting too late, the venue must have had a curfew. Post War Years have matured a lot in the last couple of years. Their next single 'Whole World On It's Head' is coming out on Chess Club records on March 9th with a launch party at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.

Review by David Apple.

Antifolk Winter Festival 2009

2009-02-27T01:39:00.001Z

Before I begin, let me just get one thing off my chest. The fluorescent lighting was shit. I’m still a fan of 12 Bar, and the festival, but I think a potentially great line up deserves proper stage lighting. This niggling problem was finally solved when the offending lights were switched off for Milk Kan's set, accompanied by a mosh pit of mostly teenagers, thank you Liam Joplin! It was mayhem. New single 'God with an Ipod' was sounding nice.

Tim Tomlinson opened with some deftly improvised sweet folk tunes. He showed off just some of his multi instrumentalist skills, playing a Portuguese twelve string guitar, violin and button accordion. Pure rustic, genuinely charming stuff. Alex Sheppard, who's thinking of changing her name to 'Alex the Girl', sang sweet songs with references to fairy tales (rhyming nutella with Cinderella) then ended with a cautionary tale "We're all gonna get an STI", with a chorus to the tune of 'YMCA'. Catchy. Siobhan Parr may've been a bit too mellow for some, but her voice had a strong enduring quality, sounded quite Americana.

Sergeant Buzfuz and his band were sounding particularly strong this evening, on the back of their recent album release. The violins were ringing out in 'Here Come the Popes' creating a really sunny carnival atmosphere. It was a very confident and civilised lead up to Milk Kan, who tore the place apart in the 10pm headlining slot.

I saw a little bit of Candythief's set, she looked and sounded lovely as usual. The Many Few drifted over my head a bit and didn’t quite hold my attention and Delicate Hammers weren't that delicate, but did hammer the point home by being extra shouty.

I was looking forward to seeing Popular Tyre again, and they got us all dancing with energetic tunes like 'Johnny Showbiz'. Another good one was 'The Old Walking Man', that had one of them doing their best impersonation of 'The Laughing Policeman'. They call their style of music 'digital country', a bit of vocoder singing, harmonicas and thigh slapping drum beats, it's just the thing you need around 1am to really re-energise the room.

In the coveted 'graveyard slot' we got one of those 2am gems, Deferred Sucess (spelt with one c). They had one guy on an impressive looking electric bass, and another guy on guitar. They pretty much dealt out a bunch of tight upbeat tunes interspersed with perfect little harmonies, that had us all tapping our toes and smiling. They scored the token drunk stragglers clambering up on stage to help them sing 'Razorlight are shite'. Add Jimmy Blade (guitarist from Milk Kan) joining in on drums and some reggae rapping, and the night was complete.

Nice one Antifolk. Another great night out, with all the familiar messiness and friendly faces we know and love. A simple formula, but it still works beautifully.

Review by Dedee W.

Tim Tomlinson @ Antifolk Winter Festival, 12 Bar, London

2009-02-25T16:08:00.001Z

There were about twenty early birds gathered around watching Tim kick off the first night of Antifolk's Winter Festival this year. He only played about five short songs and one of them was improvised. He picked up a violin and said "This one is an improvised piece, I'm going to play in on the s..." Tim forgets what he was going to say. Someone shouts out "Spur of the moment?!", Tim responds with "Skin of my teeth!". Everyone laughs.

He's a very interesting character. When he wasn't playing one of his many interesting instruments (including a Portuguese guitar and accordion), he was nervously muttering things like: "Oh God, this one is even less familiar to me, it might be a complete cock up". But of course, as soon as he starts playing he's totally confident and charismatic. Maybe he's a genius. I give him until this time next year to get interviewed by Lauren Laverne on the Culture Show. Decide for yourself, here's Tim Tomlinson's myspace.

Review by David Apple.

Harmonic 313 @ Plastic People, London

2009-02-21T23:33:00.001Z

I'm guessing that a lot of you don't know who Harmonic 313 is so let's start at the beginning. In 1998 Mark Pritchard started putting out records under the alias Harmonic 33 (that's thirty three, not three one three). He released a couple of albums of kitch, vintage easy listening music set to hip-hop influenced beats. It's really funky stuff and well worth checking out. In 2006 he totally changed his style and started putting records out under the alias Harmonic 313. His first release was an EP imaginatively titled 'EP1'. Mark scrapped his vintage easy listening influences in favour of chunky electro beats and quirky synth sounds.

The gig at Plastic People was a launch party for Mark's new album 'When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence'. It was the first time I've seen Harmonic 313 so I didn't quite know what to expect. He took to the DJ booth at about 10:30 armed with a laptop and a box of vinyl records. He started blasting out his unique brand of electro and the crowd took to it immediately. The sound at Plastic People was really good, you could feel the dirty, sustained saw waves sounds in your chest. Mark said nothing, but occasionally he would play a cheeky sound byte of 'three one three'.

His new album 'When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence' is a faultless collection of the most refreshing electo in the last decade. It will send shivers down your spine from start to finish.

Review by David Apple.

Mumford and Sons @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton

2009-02-20T21:00:00.001Z

Marcus Johnstone drums for Laura Marling, possibly a more famous name than Mumford and Sons, the band that Johnstone fronts. I've seen Mumford a few times this last year, at various gigs and festivals and every time am reminded of how wonderfully talented and entertaining they are.

At the Wolverhampton Little Civic they were delayed due to having a five hour breakfast in Bath. They've recently had a tour round the country, though perhaps the route they took could have been more economical, it seemed that whoever was booking the gigs didn't do any research into where these places are! It was a tour of places they hadn't played before, though most of the people at the Wolverhampton gig seemed to have come from Birmingham.

A guitar, a double bass, an electric bass, a keyboard, an accordian, a full drum kit, a tamborine, a banjo and four beautifully harmonic voices were the instruments that the four members used during the night, an indication of the wide range of musical talent the band has. Their performance is so tight that it hardly differs from the recorded versions, though watching how passionate they are about the music really increases the enjoyment of watching them play live. Look at their My Space www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons or become a fan on Facebook, but don't bother listening to their songs online, find out their tour dates and buy their EPs when you've seen them and decided that you love them.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Big Day Out 2009 @ Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

2009-02-13T20:04:00.001Z

It was a relatively low key Big Day Out this year, what with Neil Young being one of the main drawcards on the line up, compared to previous years bulked up by the like of Tool, Muse and Rage Against The Machine. So with around 3000 less people to push past, it made for a more cruisy but just as eventful day.

I had a great time anyway, my last Bdo was back in 2004, back when Kings of Leon played a smaller stage and still had proper beards. Needless to say I happily got on with it, zipping round industriously, seeing all I could see in the space of one day.

Major highlights, Ladi 6, who I found inspiring, a superstrong perfomance and lovely dance moves, plus a guest spot from Scribe. Hot Chip, still brilliant. They seem to do more extended variations of their songs every time I see them. And then there’s that beautiful ending with a Sinnead O'Connor cover seguing into ‘Made In The Dark. Awww. Fantomas - genius! I just had to watch the whole set as they were playing the whole of ‘The Director’s Cut’ album in track order. After that I did manage to catch the end of Neil Young's set and his encore, a cover of ‘A Day In The Life’ which was pretty impressive. It made me think I could have appreciated his set even without knowing all the songs.

I also enjoyed seeing Bionic Pixie, the fresh faced first band of the day. She's pretty cute, and plays a red heart shaped guitar. I really liked some of her lyrics in her songs about boys, and the super sharp electro beats exuding her own distinctive style. Her real name is Zoe Fleury, and she also has another band called the Bengal Lights. I probably could’ve watched more of Bullet for My Valentine, both the sound and the mighty mosh pit below them were amazing to behold. I actually had a bit of a ‘magic metal moment’ watching the crowd all start to mosh in unison, it was powerful stuff. Much more so than what was apparently the highlight of most people’s Bdo drum ‘n’ bass ‘legends’ Pendulum?! That’s all very well I spose, but personally I’ve never been that partial to that kind of ‘black t-shirt wearing, bogan’s drum ‘n’ bass’. I prefer the real stuff. Black Kids seemed to be a real hit with the crowd, their summery indie pop fitting perfectly with early afternoon slot on the Orange stage. Tiki Taane played a hypnotic and wicked set in the Boiler Room, but the surprise party of the day went to Son of Dave at the Lilyworld stage. It was mental, people were loving it. There was lots of great harmonica playing and lazy blues jamming. Two girls from the crowd were pulled up on stage to sing backing vocals and Ladi 6 even dropped by to sing with him. I had heaps of fun bouncing off the inflatable seating, sustaining minor injuries and bouncing people off their seats with drinks still in their hands. All in all, a great day out even with a slightly lighter line up for once.

Review by Dedee W.

All Hail Daria

2009-02-12T12:43:00.001Z

I recently took a week out to watch all five series of Daria (plus the two feature length episodes). I know I'm a little late catching on to this cartoon (it being twelve years since it first aired and seven years since it ended) but it really is timeless and powerful stuff.

When I was growing up, I only really caught the occasional episode here and there. I knew all the characters and I found Daria's witty off hand remarks hilarious but I never really realised how deep and poignant this animated series gets. It's not really until series four that the plot starts moving and things start heating up. Up until that point the only real question the viewer has is when is "So when the hell is Daria going to get together with Trent?" The last episode of series 4 'Dye! Dye! My Darling' is the pivotal episode that blows that question out of the water. I won't spoil it.

The last ever episode 'Boxing Daria' is a really good one. It gives the viewer a glimpse into Daria's psyche and there's a very funny moment that harks back to the very first Daria episode 'Esteemsters'.

Anyway, Daria is one of the only cartoon charters to age. The first episode is her first day at high school and the last episode is her last day at high school. So if Daria were still on air today, she would be 25! Imagine that.

All Hail by David Apple.

Lily Allen 'It's Not Me, It's You'

2009-02-11T20:53:00.003Z

So Lily Allen might have got to number one with her single 'The Fear' but don't let that put you off! Her second album has some fantastic pop songs on, with the humour and cheekiness of 'Alright Still' but in a more mature manner.

Allen fans will be used to her glottal stops during her accented singing, mostly apparent in the opening song 'Everyone's At It'. I can't decide whether I love this song or hate it for this reason, though it's not so obvious in the rest of the album. The songs all have a different kind of poppy sound, from 'He Wasn't There', which has a 40's style and sounds like it's being played on a gramophone and 'Not Fair' that has a Wild West sound (and has really funny lyrics). A great album with a variety of songs on to suit any mood.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Three Trapped Tigers Interview

2009-02-11T17:43:00.002Z

How did you three meet?

Friends of friends of friends basically. I was playing in a band whose bassist played in a band with Betts who was living with Matt. Those two met at music college. So the three of us knew each other for quite a while before we 'formed' and for the record originally it was meant to be a five-piece band with two drummers!

I read that your third gig as Three Trapped Tigers was at Reading Festival. What was that like?

Ha, well Reading was awesome obviously. I don't think Matt and I could quite believe that we got to do that so early on. But it was pretty weird, and sketchy. It's the only gig we've ever done with a different drummer as Betts was unavailable so we trained up his flatmate Blease who learnt the parts (incredibly) in two sessions. And it was our first gig without a bassist - ie. as a 3-piece which is what we remain.

What's been your favourite gig so far?

I don't know but they do seem to keep getting better the more confident we get. Technology no longer seems to break, and we're taking more risks in the music now, which is great. So probably the last one.

How did you get signed to Blood and Biscuits records?

Ha, well Blood and Biscuits is a front organisation for our own self-promotion. Basically, a couple of friends of ours who work for another label came to our early shows and started to champion us and so when we made a record and no one came forward to put it out, they offered to set up their own label specially, using their knowledge/experience etc. So it was pretty simple really, and it's worked well. We'll take some persuading not to do the same thing again for the next EP.

Your songs get quite complicated at times with time signature shifts and unexpected breaks. How do you keep together when you play live?

Er, all the complex stuff is (obviously) written so there's no secret here, it's just a case of following the music/knowing the music. Betts played in a hardcore band for 5 years with the craziest time changes, and Matt is semi-autistic when it comes to memory and rhythmic feel - in his own music he specialises in music that grooves but that places the feel in the wrong place so you end up counting it but the numbers are in the wrong order.

Squarepusher is one of your top friends on myspace and I can definitely hear Squarepusher influences in your sound (particularly Matt's acid synth part in 'Untitled 3'). Do you know Squarepusher?

Not personally (I know someone who played in a wedding band with him when they were teenagers.) but obviously we all three of us know and love Squarepusher's music intimately, and he was absolutely one of the top influences we were hoping to explore when we started. All the Warp crowd remain to me some of the most progressive music there is, as well as music I have a real emotional connection with to do with the time of my life when I got into them, etc. Matt will be very pleased you picked out his synth part as that is clearly his model. It's all about that 101 sound.

You are regularly likened to Warp artists such as Battles, Pivot and Aphex Twin. Do you take these associations as compliments and would you sign to Warp if they were to offer?

Well, see above. One thing to clarify though is that I feel far more strongly about Aphex than I do about Battles and Pivot. We don't really liken ourselves to Battles and Pivot even though we're a live band, as we feel like we're doing something qualitatively different. It's difficult to explain, and no doubt we really respect Battles and like their music, but I don't think of us as being part of the same crowd. As for Warp offering, I guess we'll cross that bridge if it comes. I'm a big Grizzly Bear fan, I think Hudson Mohawke is excellent, Gang Gang Dance are interesting, but other labels have caught up with them when it comes to that kind of breadth and vision.

The guitar effect on 'Untitled 1' sounds amazing, what pedal are you using?

Not telling. (because I don't know)

Are you writing any new material and have you got any future releases planned?

Yes, we're working on the next EP already and have a rough schedule to get that out in the summer, and a third EP before the end of the year. I'm trying not to think about albums yet.

What festival would you most like to play?

Er for me personally it would probably be Neil Young's one on his ranch in Canada which raises money for charity, not least because the only way you can get on the bill is for Ol' Shakey to invite you personally.

Review by David Apple.

Three Trapped Tigers @ Bloomsbury Bowling, London

2009-02-06T15:28:00.001Z

As if the hyper inflationary depression wasn't enough for us to worry about, we're having the largest volume of snow fall for the past twenty years, apparently. Fortunately, the treacherous weather conditions did not deter punters from attending 'Dirty Boots' at Bloomsbury Bowling. Amongst the crowd were Steve Lamacq and The Editors (who were bowling with their girlfriends). Headlining the night were Crystal Antlers with Three Trapped Tigers preceding.

Three Trapped Tigers are the greatest band of all time. Without a shadow of a doubt, even better than Radiohead and The Beatles. There's a lot of hype around them at the moment (which usually means they're going to disappear in under a year, take Teenagers in Tokyo, Corrine Baily Rae and Friday Hill for example) but don't be drawn in by the media frenzy. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that TTT are still going to be releasing forward thinking music in five years time.

There were a few technical difficulties just before Three Trapped Tigers started. I think Tom wanted his Carillon synthesiser turned up but the sound guy was refusing to co-operate. Fortunately, the promoter stepped in and I overheard him offer to buy the band drinks as compensation. It wasn't long before all of this tension was put aside as TTT launched headfirst into their electrifying set. They opened with 'Untitled 3'. A chirpy little keyboard piece set against a schizophrenic, fidgety beat. To me, this song screams of Squarepusher (AKA Tom Jenkinson) influences, no wonder he's one of their top myspace friends. At this point I should probably mention that so far, the band have only released a five track EP in which all of the tracks are called 'Untitled 1' to 'Untitled 5'.

Anyway, as soon as they started playing, the audience were captivated. Adam's drumming alone was enough to demand the attention of the crowd. He would quickly switch from playing a simple, straight forward rhythm to totally screwing around with elaborate, insanely fast paced drum rolls and breaks.

They continued their set, segueing into 'Untitled 2' before they accomplished the near impossible task of tearing the roof off Bloomsbury Bowling by blasting out their hot ball of rage 'Untitled 1'. It starts with a high pitched, heavily distorted guitar line before the manic, drum and bass influenced drums kick in with heaps of effects. While all of this chaos ensues, the time signature keeps changing and remarkably the band always sound totally together. At about two or three points through the song, everything drops out and this beautiful, quiet piano part drifts over the crowd. A perfect combination of mellow and not mellow.

After that hardcore onslaught, they play their much more laid back 'Untitled 4' and end with 'Untitled 5', a track that features heavily echoed drums, fancy Baroque style piano arpeggios and more peaks and troughs than a roller coaster.

I know what you're thinking. All of their songs are untitled, they keep changing the time signature. Aren't they really wanky, jazzy and self indulgent? Well, no. Not really. Their songs are too well structured and precise. Apparently, Tom meticulously scores their parts on manuscript paper. It's very cleverly written and quite challenging to listen to but it never gets boring, it's easily danceable and they're astonishingly tight when they play live. Three Trapped Tigers have successfully managed what Pivot and Battles have been trying to do.

Review by David Apple.

Oasis - 'Falling Down'

2009-02-04T00:45:00.001Z

Did you see the new Oasis video debut on Channel 4 last night? Don't worry if you didn't, it wasn't very good. I've never really liked Oasis, even in the nineties when they released those blood curdling, vomit inducing "Britpop Anthems" that got (and still get) played to death, I was trying my hardest to block them out and not let Liam Gallagher's whiny, irritating vocals get to me. Even in interviews, they come across as human sized penises in leather jackets by swearing too much, swaggering in a passive aggressive manner and overdoing their inbred Mancunian accents.

The video to Oasis's new single 'Falling Down' isn't on Youtube yet, so the video above is just a teaser for it. It features Noel emphasising the importance of staying in your comfort zone and not challenging yourself as a musician. Yeah, that will explain why 'Falling Down' is essentially one chord repeated for 4 minutes (or what feels like 2 weeks). I mean, who wants to come out their comfort zone when there's a risk that you'll have to remember more than three chords during a set? Thankfully the video is just about interesting enough to distract from the coma inducing soundtrack.

'Falling Down' will be released on March 9th. It's the third single to be taken from the bands seventh studio album 'Dig Out Your Soul'. The album was described as "back to its stripped-down rock roots" by Jonathan Cohen of Billboard (a weekly American Magazine). Yeah, if Oasis's sound gets anymore 'stripped-down', all that will be left is one sustained sound that lasts for as long as Liam can go without breathing in. No wait, that would be too interesting and besides, it might take them out of their comfort zone.

Review by David Apple.

Girl Talk @ Cassette Nine, Auckland, New Zealand

2009-01-26T20:21:00.001Z

Anyone who’s been to Girl Talk gig before will know what I’m about to say. General mayhem, disco stage invasion chaos, two laptops wrapped in cling film, and big grins on everyone’s faces. Y’know that kind of thing. And if that’s Greg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) has come to be known for then that can only be a good thing.

The man is a machine. From the get-go jumping up and down at full energy– a mighty mash up mega mix, a one man jukebox of non stop, upended, circuit-bended hits. A fuckin’ ace fruit machine of juicy hot tunes if you will, with every spin bringing a winning combination. Some winning moments, well, the ones I can recall as they all flew by so fast. The best and wrongest combination of the instrumental from‘Come On Eileen’ with the lyrics from ‘My Neck My Back’ over the top. Now, for me ‘Come On Eileen’ always makes me think of my childhood and dancing round the lounge to Dexy’s Midnight Runners with my siblings. Put those words over the top and geez, it’s just so wrong! But it works so well dammit, so I’m forced to just dance and those memories tarnished forever. Another good one was the ever popular Kelis ‘Milkshake’ with some Led Zeppelin behind it, and Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’ with some nice dark undertones mixed in the background. Add in some ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, ‘Whoomp! There It Is’ and Jackson 5 hits, and, well he makes it look all too easy. And just to prove you will dance to anything this man plays, there was a huge explosive moment when the whole room jumped up unashamedly to ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ as if their lives depended on it! It was classic I tell you. Who knew we could all be so instantly united by a Kelly Clarkson song?

I’ve been listening to some of his albums while writing this, and I have to say that I really don’t think they reflect the impressiveness of a live show. Just a small point, but one to be noted.

Review by Dedee W.

Metronomy @ The Kings Arms, Auckland, New Zealand

2009-01-10T23:44:00.001Z

I had been looking forward to this gig for months. I was already excited to be heading home to Auckland for the summer, so imagine my excitement when I got an email saying Metronomy would be playing at one of my favourite old haunts while I was there?! It was the icing on the cake. And seeing as it was their first time in New Zealand, it was an even more anticipated occasion. Quite frankly, more of my friends should have bought tickets. My faith in the NZ gig going public was re-ignited by the long queue outside. Lots of people were turned away, as it was to become a sold out, historical little hot bed of a gig, which is how it should be! They’d come a long way to get here.

Firstly we were well entertained by French band The Teenagers, who made me smile by singing their own name a lot and getting girls on stage. Then Metronomy arrived and delivered what I can only describe as a triumphant sweaty intense party set, while the crowd bounced around gleefully lapping it up. It was brilliant. The riffs, the meatiness, all subtly decorated with falsetto vocals and synchronised dance moves. With their trademark pushlights glowing on their chests, they stood out like a beacon of true originality. And, as noted by many, they can have fun while they’re doing it. The whole thing was one big happy blur really, but here’s what I remember –They opened with ‘Holiday’ cos that’s what they’re on, sort of, their instrumental ‘polka’ tune stomped through like a steam train, ‘Heart Rate Rapid’ buzzed out over us like a trippy electro symphony, and on it went, all the best tracks off the album sounding just amazing live. Before we knew it, it was time for ‘Radio Ladio’ for the big ending. What, already? It seemed too soon, but there they were, fists pumping the air, milking every last moment. Once we screamed for the encore, they came back with ‘You Could Easily Have Me’ with the mightiest of riffs and the craziest of tunes. By now, the air just above my head is so heavy with humidity that raising my hand is like putting it in the stickiest of saunas. Even though I was standing just inside the doorway to the beer garden, that’s how packed and boiling hot the venue was.

True to form, Metronomy have well and truly blown the roof off this place. It’s not a show we’ll soon forget, so let’s hope they come back this way soon.

Review by Dedee W.

New Look Website

2009-01-01T00:00:00.001Z

To celebrate three years of gigs, festivals, interviews and reviews, we've completely updated the House of Tracks website (as you've probably already noticed). It's time to embrase new technology and make our content more accessible and more up to date.

So what's changed? Well, from now on, all new interviews, reviews, features and photos will be uploaded immediately so our content will always be fresh. We have a selection of RSS feeds for you to subscribe to. The HoT one will keep you up to date with all the latest interviews and festivals we will be reporting on. The twitter feed is for general music news. The Flickr feed is for all of our latest snaps and the gigs feed relates to the HoT gigs callendar.

One of the major problems with the old website was the inability to copy and paste text from the flash magazine. Now all of our articles are written in selectable ASCII text so you can copy and paste to your hearts content. The new site also features hyperlinks, enabling you to link to myspace pages and youtube videos.

We hope you like the new look and check out the new features. If you suddenly come over all nostalgic, don't worry, the old website can be found at www.houseoftracks.co.uk/oldversion.

Review by David Apple.

Untitled Musical Project Interview

2008-11-22T01:41:00.001Z

You're playing The Rainbow Pub in your hometown of Birmingham tonight.

Yeah and Fight Like Apes are playing Barfly, down the road too. We were going to be supporting them tonight but then we got offered this gig, supporting Future of the Left, and now Future of the Left have pulled out, so we're headlining! We're good friends with Fight Like Apes, we played with them last night.

Have you played here before?

Yeah, a couple of months ago. It's probably the best venue in Birmingham, for this size anyway. This venue is really well promoted as well.

You're playing The Sunflower Lounge with Popular Workshop in a couple of weeks. Are you looking forward to that?

It should be alright but The Sunflower Lounge is pretty shit for sound but it's alright, it's good fun. It's the sort of venue where you get a bit drunk and play. It's a grotty, dirty venue, no barrier.

You played Offset festival in August. How was that?

Oh, it was awful! We were second to play the main stage. So we drove to the festival site with plenty of time to get there but there was a bus burned out on the motorway. That was a two hour delay and to top that there was another crash on the motorway. So we arrived there about five minutes before we went on. The gig itself was pretty awful because we just wanted to sit down. Also, I think they had only just opened the gate when the first band were playing so there was nobody really there and the few people that were there were setting up tents. It was too early to play really and the sound was shit.

For some wierd reason there was a football match on that day. I don't know who it was, but loads of kids kept giving us the fingers from the cars so we started doing it back to them.

How did you three meet?

Well the band started before Greg (the drummer) joined. How long has the band been going? Three years? No, two weeks! We met on a dating service. We all pretended to be women, the orgy never happened so we formed a band. Yeah, we all met on adultfriendfinder.com! Is that the answer you were looking for?

You put a single out on White Heat Records a couple of years ago. How did that come about?

We played the White Heat club night at Madame JoJo's in Soho. It's full of crackheads, prostitutes and fights out the back. And then they put a single out for us. But we've played White Heat about five or six times now and it's been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. Some have been brilliant. We supported Eighties Matchbox B Line Disaster and Future of the Left, they were really good but a couple have been crap.

Are you putting together an album and how many tracks have you got so far?

We've probably got about ten useable tracks. The idea is to write as many as physicaly possible and choose the best twelve. The golden twelve. And then release the album in the Autumn next year and then see how that goes.

Are you going to release it on Tigertrap Records?

Yeah, we're really good mates with Tigertrap Records. He promotes it well and distributes it well. It's everything you need from an indie label. He puts the effort in where as lot's of other people just release stuff and not put as much effort in to it. He works his fingers to the bone.

You've already put a single out with them.

Yeah, it sounded pretty awful but it does it's job. It's a 7", so at the end of the day, is anyone really going to listen to it? I mean, I don't mind, I've got a few 7"s but no record player. I've bought them from bands we've played with as a sort of friendship gesture. Most of our 7"s are probably friendship gesture purchases as well! My mum and dad have got one. To be honest, I've only ever heard it played once and that was when we were mastering it! It sounds really good at half speed, kind of like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but the actual thing is shite.

Untitled Musical Project are lovely guys, if a little self deprecating. Live, they are a must see and their recordings, well, decide for yourself. Visit their myspace site.

Interview by David Apple.

Paul Hawkins Interview

2008-11-20T16:02:00.002Z

I still recall my first impression of Paul Hawkins, a lone figure on stage at the 12 Bar, strumming a guitar and bawling out a tuneless rant. "Is this guy for real?" I thought. Two years and two albums later, turns out he is. Since then I've been watching this very unique star emerge from the realms of the UK Antifolk scene, becoming something of an underground legend.

After making the move from Bristol to London four years ago, Paul's aim was always to form a band rather than play solo, and from that intention came Paul Hawkins and Thee Awkward Silences. The band's live shows are sprawling messy affairs filled with cuddly toys flying through the air, lobbed back with great gusto at the faces of band members. Paul showers the crowd with flowers and chocolates, or even conducts duels with plastic swords.

"I think I'm a lot more driven in my approach to it now. Before, I acted like I was pissing around, I wasn't pissing around, but if you take things seriously you look like you can fail. I was trying to avoid failing. Now I'm a lot more open about the fact that I'm serious about what I want to do. The songs are a lot more focused too."

Sounding like a charismatic mix of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and Daniel Johnston, Paul's been associated with the gruff and rough types since he first got noticed. A quote Artrocker's album review says it best perhaps; that is "Paul Hawkins sounds like no one". His sound doesn't sit in any one genre for long. Paul first formed Thee Awkward Silences with a few other Antifolk associates. The band has now expanded to nine people if you include the two backing singers. Earlier shows were all very 'garage rock', but eventually it had to move on from that. “

There's only so many gigs you can do being really extreme. Apart from turning into G.G. Allen, shitting on the floor and throwing it into the audience... you need to add another string to your bow really.

"The plan was to form the band for a one off gig, then the band stuck around and changed its line up a few times. I suppose the band formed properly at the start of 2007, six months after the first gig."

Two people who've been key figures in pushing the band forward are producer and musician Ian Button (ex-member of Death in Vegas, among other things) and Andrew from Jezus Factory records. Both of them found the band through friends, went along to check them out and found a raw edgy band with a unconventional but undeniable appeal. Another person who’s offered support has been Radio 1 Dj Huw Stevens. He asked them to play Latitude festival on the BBC Introducing stage, when another band pulled out at the last minute. Huw had just booked them in for a live session at Maida Vale studios the same day, so it was a lucky coincidence. Cut to an idyllic scene of the band playing at Latitude, with little kids and grown-ups dancing round Paul in the sunshine.

"Yeah, the little kids were really getting into it. It's funny, we don't really get reviewed, we're seen as outsider music. The good thing about a place like Latitude is that people don't have any preconceptions about music, whereas in London, people go to so many gigs, they sometimes expect every band to be terrible. So when you play to people with no preconceptions, it's not that outsider-y at all. I think what's interesting with kids is that everything sounds normal. I remember when I was six and I had a cassette with Iron Maiden and some Madness on it, and it didn't sound "heavy" or anything, it was just music. You don't make that distinction, it's something you learn."

The new album is called "We Are Not Other People", a statement in itself. It's something Paul's Dad used to say when he or his brother would ask why they didn't buy the same stuff, or go on the same holidays as "other people". "I suppose it works as an album title because a) it's quite defiant. And b) there's so many bands in the the world, well there's so many bands in London, forget the world! We're trying to say we're a bit different. And c) there are always people who don't fit into that general criteria.

So what's next for Paul Hawkins and Thee Awkward Silences? Paul ponders this out loud, then says simply: "Stadium rock". Supporting Nick Cave perhaps? "I'd rather hope we'd be headlining."

Ok, now I know he's joking. Or is he? Make of this lot what you will, Paul Hawkins and Thee Awkward Silences are a band guaranteed to keep you guessing.

Interview by Dedee W.

Untitled Musical Project @ Birmingham, Barfly, UK

2008-11-08T01:14:00.001Z

It wasn't until I saw the name of this band, printed on to their bass drum, that I realized I've been calling them 'Untitled Music Project' by mistake for the past two years (or however long it is that they've been around). This was the first time I've seen them play live, although I've heard a lot about them and heard a few of their records. They came on stage and launched straight in to their trademark, fast paced, loud and shouty sound.

Their songs are very clever, well structured and delivered in a furious fit of energy. The drummer was working really hard to keep up to speed with the other two guys but I couldn't help noticing his vainy arms, they looked like tree trunks!

They're well worth seeing if you get a chance to see them. Their myspace is myspace.com/untitledmusicalproject.

Review by David Apple.

Cold War Kids @ Barfly Birmingham, UK

2008-11-04T16:09:00.000Z

Tonight's gig was moved from the Irish Centre to Barfly, and I was incredibly glad. A band with this much soul and presence deserve a decent venue. Cold War Kids have gained a loyal following here since they played a sold out gig at Jug of Ale in 2006. And deservedly so, as they always seem to deliver truly memorable shows, with searing strong vocals and four talented musicians who really know how to lock into a solid groove. The best moments of the night were 'Hang Me Out To Dry' which still remains a stand out song from the first album. But 'Quiet Please' was drawn out so beautifully I think it's fair to say it was my highlight of the evening.

Review by Dedee W.

Young Knives @ Gigbeth 2008

2008-11-03T14:01:00.000Z

Young Knives get sillier and sillier each time I see them. That’s not to say they’re any less brilliant than when they started out. Oh no, the songs are stronger than ever, but as they’ve gained confidence and status over the years, perhaps they feel they can mess with their live show as much as they like. This was fairly evident as they arrived on stage wearing matching white suits and . Tonight we were entertained by the new VB-1 unit, as the crew on the side of stage drew up a sign just to get House to activate it. It turned out to be a somewhat lame bubble machine, that he then danced around in front of like a small child, or as Henry put it ‘a fat man dancing in front of a bubble machine’. We were serenaded with ‘Tailors’ complete with the addition of a Juno synthesizer. They even played ‘Long Cool Drinks By The Pool’ the hidden track off their second album. At the end of their set they gleefully stretched out the ending to ‘She’s Attracted To’ beyond all recognition, House jumped off the stage for a minute, and just when I was already killing myself with laughter, Henry started chanting “This is the second breakdown of the song” just in case we’d missed it. Genius. I honestly can’t guess how the next album will sound. These guys might just be the coolest geeks I’ve ever seen.

Review by Dedee W.