DIY, April 2023

MONKEYS • QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

NAS X • THE LUMINEERS

• THE DRIVER ERA

• AMENRA • THE TESKEY BROTHERS

APRIL

Question!

This month, our cover star Arlo tells us a little about the home comforts she’s currently appreciating, but what item could Team DIY not live without?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor

Being a bit of a (novice) baker in my spare time, I really do love my KitchenAid, but really, I couldn’t ever give up my bed. I’d probably spend my whole life nestled in there if I could get away with it…

EMMA SWANN • Founding E ditor

Nothing says home comfort like a giant hoodie with extra long sleeves.

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor

Made a couple of stupidly fuffy cushion covers that feel like being snuggled next to a pink Cookie Monster. On the fip side, also love my kitchen blowtorch for a luxe hot choc situation

LOUISE MASON • Art Director

The woodburning stove is admittedly cute but a watertight hull is probably top of the list.

ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor

My Smeg coffee machine is literally the only thing that gets me up in the morning.

Editor's Letter

When Arlo Parks released her debut album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’, her life really was transformed; going from writing in her Hammersmith bedroom to playing across the world and bagging the 2021 Mercury Prize, the transition would be dizzying for anyone. Now, two years on from its release, and with a gorgeous second album up her sleeve, we’re thrilled to invite her to the cover this month. We caught up with the singer from her new home in LA to discover exactly what went into making ‘My Soft Machine’.

Elsewhere this month, we sit down with Jessie Ware to talk her funky and firty new record ‘That! Feels Good!’, we dive into the veritable treasure trove that is Speedy Wunderground HQ with Dan Carey, and get formally introduced to Empire State Bastard, the gnarly new project from Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil. Just fip the page to get started…

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Listening Post

LIZZY MCALPINE - FIVE SECONDS FLAT

It might be a year on from the release of Lizzy’s meditative second album, but the news of her upcoming headline set(!) at Barn on the Farm fest has served as the perfect reminder to revisit it.

TEMPS - PARTY GATOR PURGATORY

James Acaster? Check. A myriad of incredible musicians from across the globe? Yep. A costume that’s nothing short of iconic? Of course! It could only be the frst album to come from the comedian’s musical project.

BUSTED - BUSTED

It may have been two decades since they told us what they go to school for, but that doesn’t mean Busted’s punky hits are any less infectious now; in aid of their recently-announced 20th anniversary tour, we’ll be spinning their debut ’til September.

Contributors: Bella Martin, Ben Tipple, Carolina Faruolo, Charlotte Gunn, Ed Lawson, El Hunt, Elvis Thirlwell, Faith Martin, Helen Messenger, James Hickey, Louisa Dixon, Matt Ganfeld, Matthew Davies Lombardi, Max Pilley, Nick Levine, Otis Robinson, Pooneh Ghana, Sam Davies, Sean Kerwick, Sinéad Grainger, Tom Williams, Will Richards.

For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com

For

OUT APRIL 7TH 2023

Let The Games Begin…

After months of mystery, Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and former Oceansize frontman Mike Vennart are finally ready to unveil their new monster of a project. Please welcome, Empire State Bastard…

Words: Sarah Jamieson. Live photos: Sinéad Grainger.

It’s not often that artists go from playing the cavernous rooms of arenas to the sweaty confnes of Glasgow’s Cathouse in the space of six months - unless, of course, something has gone terribly awry - and yet that’s exactly where Simon Neil and Mike Vennart fnd themselves right now. Emerging on stage for their frst ever show, the pair - accompanied by legendary metal drummer Dave Lombardo and Bitch Falcon’s Naomi Macleodstand steely-eyed and bathed in the kind of red light that signals something ominous is about to go down; Empire State Bastard are fnally ready to introduce themselves.

Rewind to just a few days earlier, and the two men - whose day jobs are perhaps better known as Biffy Clyro’s frontman and touring guitarist - are sat in their Yorkshire rehearsal space on a short break from prepping frantically for their new outft’s frst run of shows. “Look at these eye bags!” laughs Mike, pulling at his cheeks. “I've just got numbers and riffs and loops of the most frantic fucking stuff I've ever written just going round and round my head!” “Poor Mike’s not slept a wink,” Simon picks up with a grin. “He's got so much music in his mind right now…”

While dabbling in side projects isn’t exactly new territory for musicians who’ve been in the game as long as these two (Simon already has Marmaduke Duke and his solo moniker ZZC, while Mike also releases solo material), you get the sense that Empire State Bastard really is the purest defnition of a passion project.

“That's the exciting part,” nods Simon. “Mike’s been playing around with this record for probably close to fve years, but it was only in the last couple that it really came together. We didn't really know if we were ever going to play these shows live, but actually, the music just demanded that. We really feel like the music is too important and too special to us, and didn't just feel like this passing wee addiction we had; it felt like we wanted to dwell in this for a while and really inhabit it.”

Admittedly, after its lengthy gestation period, it’s not too surprising that Empire State Bastard want to showcase the fruits of their labours. While the pair have spent years in the back of tour buses diving into all corners of metal, it was from 2011 that Mike began “throwing things at Simon. Once I realised he just wanted to scream his fucking head off, it was like, ‘OK, how do I dress

“This is our love letter to metal.”

- Mike Vennart

“It’s really nice knowing that it is a little rainbow that struck in the middle of a really shit time.” - Simon Neil

that?’ I tried throwing a few different vibes over the years, all markedly different, but none of it quite stuck.” It wasn’t until 2018 that things clicked into place. “I just hit upon [a moment where] I was fucking out of my mind with rage at the current political climate, and something that had happened to me,” Mike explains. “So I just decided that I was going to write some fast, angry, blastbeat stuff. And then when I'd written a couple of songs, I was like, ‘Wait a minute, maybe this isn't for me’. I sent it to Simon asking ‘Is this what Empire State Bastard was meant to sound like?’ and he replied with ‘What the fuck is this?!’” “Which was the right response!” Simon quips.

By the time the pandemic struck in 2020 and all of Biffy’s upcoming live commitments were indefnitely on hold, Simon fnally had the chance to dig into the songs Mike had written. “It's nice to talk about the pandemic with a little bit of distance now,” nods Simon, confrming that this project likely wouldn’t have ever seen the light of day without it. “To say that [without it] I probably wouldn't have had time to devote to this fruitful and enjoyable project, and Mike wouldn't have. You know, we're always touring and Mike’s always working on his own music: we're full time. So it's really nice in 2023 to be starting the project in earnest, practically and logistically, but knowing that it is a little rainbow that struck in the middle of a really shit time.

“This project was just essential,” he continues. “It helped get me through the pandemic - [as did] all the music I worked on - but this was how I could get that frustration and proper anger, and just not knowing what the fuck was happening in the world, how I could get that out.” After almost a decade of tinkering away, Simon wrote his vocal parts in around a week.

As it might be easy to guess by this point, Empire State Bastard dwell in the more extreme ends of the musical spectrum. Inspired by their shared love of all sub-genres of metal - from thrash to grindcore and just about everything in-between - the project takes the jagged rhythms of Biffy’s very early material and wraps them in barbed wire. It is, as Mike puts it, “our love letter to metal”.

“I always feel like this kind of music is the centre of gravity for me and Simon,” Mike explains. "Whatever I've done has been from this school base. Have I fucking learned to play because of this music? Yeah. And obviously I've gone on to get interested in all kinds of different stuff, but my centre of gravity is metal, so the most important thing is to exude an air of authenticity. It's not like some fucking t-shirt we want to wear this week.”

’Gram on the

These days, even yer gran is posting selfes on Instagram. Instagran, more like. Everyone has it now, including all our fave bands. Here’s a brief catchup on music’s fnest phototaking action as of late.

We’re not sure that this is what they meant about counting your chickens. @falloutboy

Hello Dave!

As if the sum of their parts wasn’t strong enough, Simon and Mike managed to rope the one and only Dave Lombardo to get involved, too. Here, they tell us exactly how they caught the attention of the former Slayer drummer…

Simon: We were just hunting through our brains wondering who could play like Lombardo, and it kind of dawned on us that it was a pandemic and everyone would be at home, so we just fucking emailed Dave Lombardo, as you do… He gets approached to work in a lot of music, so it really takes a lot to cut through the bullshit with Dave. He replied to us really, really quickly, and that was what kinda confrmed to us that the record was special. As soon as Dave Lombardo comes back and says, ‘I want to be a part of this’ then you're like, ‘We're fucking writing a special record’. I know that myself and Mike have both had proper moments of ‘Oh my god, Dave fucking Lombardo’.

Mike: He’s right next door and it’s hard to get over. When things click together, because we're still in rehearsal mode, it’s the most euphoric and exciting thing. Just to feel the power of him behind you, there’s nothing like it.

Simon: It’s honestly such an honour. Not to get too hippy dippy, but it really is such a fucking honour. And it helped us really take this seriously; we were like, if we’ve got Dave Lombardo in this fucking band, then we better make sure that we are fying.

“You know, a few people have said that normally it should be a Nick Drake-type singer songwriter record at this point,” Simon picks up, referencing the kind of side project the duo might’ve been expected to make right now. “But what's the point? What's the point in doing something where you're taking your foot off the fucking gas, off the accelerator? I need to fucking want to need to do this, and I know that Mike’s the same. We've toured for 20 years now. We're not desperate to sit in a dressing room for four hours anymore. So we know that our love affair with music is still here and it's a connection in the right way, and that's what this project has reaffrmed to me.

“Playing with Biffy, nothing beats that for me,” he continues, “but things sometimes get so big and [you’re] playing places like the O2, it's kind of unnatural. I think we still feel a little more safe in the smaller and more extreme corners of the universe. I feel that when Biffy firt with the mainstream, it's kind of like we're doing it in a kind of perverse way, whereas this is,” he gestures to the two of them, “where I feel that we belong. I quite often say that about Biffy and people look at me and think I'm stupid, but that's the truth. That's why this has hypnotised us and pulled us into fucking doing it.”

Despite holding the keys to a Pandora’s box of extreme delights, the band are still keeping their cards fairly close to their chest for now. Along with these three tiny shows they’ve released just one track so far; the incendiary ‘Harvest’, which bursts into life chugging riffs reminiscent of the likes of Converge and Entombed. But, with a full set being previewed and a handful of festival appearances on the horizon, this certainly isn’t the last you’ll hear from these two... DIY

“There were three in the bed, and the little one said…” @phoebebridgers

We know it’s awards season and everything, guys, but this really is taking the piss. @shame

Believe it or not, musicians sometimes do normal things, too. They get lost, buy milk and catch buses – all sorts. This month, we clocked a fair few of them roaming around… Mark Ronson strolling down Prince Street in New York; Ben Gregory having a chinwag with some mates down in a Peckham pizza joint; comedy royalty James Acaster and Nish Kumar having a pint together in South London; Asha from Sorry watching last month’s Alex G show at Camden’s Roundhouse.

in deep

DIY In Deep is our monthly, onlinecentric chance to dig into a longer profle on some of the most exciting artists in the world right now.

in deep

JPEGMAFIA & DANNY BROWN: BREAK THE INTERNET

It’s a match made in heaven, a marriage of hellish beats and lyrical devilry with a side order of alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl. With one half of the duo now on his way to rehab, ‘Scaring The Hoes’ is a narcotic joyride in experimental rap. Words: Sam Davies.

“If anything, bitches scare me,” says Danny Brown, giggling typically down the phone line. “I wouldn’t say I’m scaring no hoes.” He’s explaining the title of ‘Scaring The Hoes’, the frst album-length collaboration between him and his friend, acolyte and kindred spirit JPEGMAFIA. “How we came up with that, Peggy would come over and we would just hang out for days, and I’m sitting there watching crazy internet shit and he like, ‘What the fuck is going on, what is this shit?’”

‘Scaring The Hoes’ arrives as 36 minutes of rhythmic distortion and harebrained raps about drugs, sex and memes, pairing two rappers with a shared approach to both fun and inebriation. JPEGMAFIA’s production is an onslaught of noise and pandemonium, an unpredictable din that rattles between the ears like a bumper car, occasionally blossoming into moments of unfettered sampladelic beauty. It’s a tribute to experimental rap and an affectionate satire of everything online. “I embrace internet culture ‘cause that’s where I come from,” adds Danny. “I’ve been on a fucking computer every day of my life since 1998. This shit is almost like ingrained in my body at this point.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking JPEGMAFIA was the same. Track titles from his oeuvre include ‘Beta Male Strategies’, ‘The Internet Ain’t Safe’ and numerous songs named only by emojis. It’s often been rumoured that he lurks in chat rooms dedicated to his music. But he says the opposite is true. “I don’t make music for incels,” he says. “But they think I’m one of them for some reason. I don’t really know what the olive branch I extended to incels is, but I never extended it. All these little 4chan n****s be like ‘Oh my God, JPEG used to post on 4chan!’ Yeah, I did, to promote my music. I’m making money. I'm there to steal your vernacular and make it better. But me and Danny have this love for the internet and this dirty white boy gene in us that comes out every now and then.”

Peggy says he never goes on the JPEGMAFIA subreddit, but reckons Danny might be in the habit of reading his own equivalent. “No, I actually don’t,” says Danny, speaking a few days later. “If I’m on that shit, last thing I’m doing is looking at some rap music shit. That shit does affect you in some sense. Don’t get me wrong, like, I’ll read comments on my podcast and shit, cos I take that kinda as constructive criticism, ‘cause that’s me joining a new lane, but far as me going and reading my subreddit… Knowing like all this shit that I been going through

these past years, I know a lot of it ain’t got nothing to do with music, so why would I wanna read that?”

This — the shit he’s been going through — is Danny’s frst reference to what’s been a challenging time for him. A week before the ‘Scaring the Hoes’ release date, he used a SXSW appearance to announce plans to go to rehab. “I made so many songs about doing drugs,” he told the crowd. “Sometimes I feel bad about that shit… If I fucked your life up, I’m sorry.”

Being fucked up used to be Danny’s brand. While MCs have rapped about selling drugs since the ‘80s, when he broke through to public consciousness in the early 2010s he was among the frst to wax maniacal about taking them. He’s made songs about weed, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, codeine, promethazine, acid, shrooms and morphine, and called himself the ‘Adderall Admiral’ after his penchant for amphetamine pills. He once rapped: “I might need rehab, but to me that shit pussy; pray for me y’all, cos I don’t know what’s coming to me.”

For a while it seemed like prayer was Danny’s best hope of making it to old age. But he’s overcome a lot. Born in Detroit in 1981, his mum was 18 and his dad 16. He grew up on hip hop at his dad’s house, while his mum read him Dr Seuss; when he began talking, he spoke in rhyme. They bought him video games to keep him off the streets, but once he turned 18 it was up to him to make a living, which in his case meant selling crack. Until then he’d gone by Daniel, but when affectionate crackheads started calling him Danny, it stuck.

He was arrested at 19 and again not long after, leading to a short stint in jail after which he began to take his gift for rhyme more seriously. His early catalogue includes some deeply underrated mixtapes, including ‘Hawaiian Snow’, a collaboration with G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo that almost won Danny a contract with 50 Cent’s record label, only for it to fall apart due to sartorial differences (“He didn’t sign me because of my jeans,” Danny later claimed). ‘The Hybrid’, an excellent, sub-radar debut album, came in 2010, before 2011’s ‘XXX’, his frst masterpiece. Read the full feature at diymag.com/scaringthehoes.

‘Scaring The Hoes’ is out now. DIY

“We’re like the leaders of experimental rap. We’re like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Or Batman and Superman.” -

JPEGMAFIA

CHAPTER

“I wasn’t well enough to continue [with Blaenavon]. We needed to take some time away, and I needed to recover.”

CHAPTER

I“like coming back to this offce,” notes Ben Gregory, leading the way into a room populated by an intimidatingly large synthesiser and a stack of CD copies of his forthcoming debut solo album ‘episode’, a chunk of which he’s spent the day signing. It’s no surprise that Ben feels so at home within these narrow walls; home to Transgressive Records, the label who also oversaw the release of both albums from Ben’s former band, Blaenavon. Having formed in school at the tender age of 13, it was the vehicle through which the musician experienced his adolescence. There is an air of domestic comfort in the way that he plays host in the space. “We have the original painting from Blaenavon’s frst album cover in here somewhere,” he says, taking a seat.

Blaenavon saw a sizable level of critical acclaim during their tenure. With a voice and perceptiveness that reached far beyond their years, the trio paired the attractive veneer of festival-pleasing guitar rock with an ear for creeping, almost macabre delivery and a knack for introspective lyricism. With two albums in the bag - 2017 debut ‘That’s Your Lot’ and 2019’s ‘Everything That Makes You Happy’ - the Hampshire trio appeared to be riding a steady wave of upward momentum, but then the plug was pulled. “It might’ve felt from the outside like it ended abruptly, but it was actually a slow process. We broke up at the age of 23 and we’d already been a band for 10 years!” he caveats, laughing at the ridiculousness of the statistic.

It’s a tale as old as time: friends become bandmates and bandmates become business partners before the project outgrows itself and ceases to be enjoyable. “I feel very proud about the vast majority of our time as Blaenavon, especially when I come back to this offce,” he continues, gesturing to the framed records, Polaroids and other knick-knacks from the band’s journey that litter the building. “Everyone has a different experience of that integral phase between 18 and 21, and I think ours was spent doing the best thing ever.”

Objective external success aside, however, internally the band were tackling hidden strains. With the singer’s mental health in decline, the relationship between three friends who were already growing apart had been placed under unsustainable pressure. “I fnd it diffcult to listen to some of the later stuff, when I can tell that I’m not in a good place. That’s the thing that I fnd a little bit sad,” Ben says, his tone turning pensive. “I wasn’t well enough to continue. We all needed to take some time away, and I needed to recover.”

What followed was an extended period of personal upheaval for Ben, as stints in and out of psychiatric care punctuated the liminal space between one chapter of his life fnishing and another arriving to offer a lifeline. He explains that his sense of reality itself had been thrown into doubt, with concentrated bouts of manic energy paired with subsequent crashing lows lending a constant instability to the time. “This may sound dramatic,” he’s said of the journey. “But it’s hard to know if

you can trust how you feel about a partner, a situation, a future, when you’ve sat in a hospital bed, torn a newspaper to shreds, sat back and watched it put itself back together.”

However, as the clouds started to clear and a sense of steadiness reintroduced itself into Ben’s world, a burst of creativity emerged. Penned in the space of ten days, the tracks that came from this time would go on to form ‘episode’: an album that showcases his infuences and musical capabilities at their most untethered and free.

From frantic, claustrophobic opener ‘storm of conversation’, to the thoroughly liberated and sprawling ten-minute saga of ‘blue sea blue’, ‘episode’ is the sound of an artist spreading their wings after experiencing the very worst that life has to offer. With touchstones ranging from industrial metal to Lorde, it explodes out the sound of his previous band and takes Ben’s writing into exploratory new territory.

“I think the listening habit that defnes this record is probably how much I started loving Nine Inch Nails,” he refects, taking a breath from a vocal steamer that he jokingly insists isn’t just a heavy-duty vape. “During the pandemic, I’d text my manager and ask him to send me weird albums to check out. It’s been really helpful, otherwise I’ll just be listening to the third MGMT album on a loop.”

Despite his evolving listening habits, one thread which remains consistent throughout Ben’s songwriting is the way in which he conceals fashes of ultra-melodic pop within the darkest of corners. ‘manifest’ covertly plants strikingly poignant lines of melody into the most compact of spaces within its frenetic and confessional verses; intensity builds over muted instrumentation before a lofty chorus sprouts from the most unlikely of cracks. “‘manifest’ ties the whole album together in quite a signifcant way,” Ben says. “It has all the things that make this record different to what I did with the band, and it also has the things that were great about those albums with the band.” He squirms modestly for a moment. “…that’s what I think, anyway”.

Tall, well-dressed and model-esque in his appearance, Ben cuts an imposing fgure at frst. Just a moment’s interaction with him, however, reveals a softly-spoken vulnerability and genuine fragility that’s impossible to ignore. How will he cope with touring these tracks on a nightly basis, reopening the wounds from which this album was conceived? “Making music is the perfect catharsis,” he counters. “You battle something as you’re going through it, then you release it slightly when you write it, then a little more when you’re recording it. Then each time you perform these songs, you’re releasing the emotions more and more.”

There is power in the vulnerability that Ben Gregory injects into ‘episode’, a collection of tracks about taking ownership of your own story and moving forward. “Everyone experiences suffering at some point in their lives, and I went through a fairly large bout of suffering at a time when I was young enough to recover and begin again,” he says as time wraps. “This has given me a new outlook on what’s signifcant to me and I’m grateful; things could’ve worked out very differently and I don’t take that for granted.”

‘episode’ is out 7th April via Transgressive. DIY

Calln time o hi bad ad suffein a extree peiod of poo metal healt, fome Blaeavo frotma Be Greoy’s lat few years have ben a journey. The positive next intalmet, howeve, coe wit ‘eiode’ - a debut solo offein tat ses te muicia back o hi fet ad trivin.

Words: Matt Ganfeld. Photo: Neelam Khan Vela.

“Making music is the perfect catharsis.”

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS TO BE HONEST

Even without the knowledge that ‘To be honest’ is the frst taste of a twenty-track opus that he himself has described as “an operatic gesture,” Christine and the Queens’ latest feels like a dramatic opening salvo. Musically, the song builds to an anticlimax; the lack of payoff demanding more. It’s at once familiar - the beginning dripping with wellworn chord changes and rhythm, plus the repetition of the title - and on edge - Chris’ accent and fuctuating emphasis offering a contradiction to the musical safety. But there’s also a brightness to it: whatever the sonic build is aiming for, it’s a positive.

(Louisa Dixon)

HAVE YOU HEARD?

BAXTER DURY AYLESBURY BOY

Very few people, you suspect, get as much pleasure out of language as Baxter Dury. It’s not just in the actual words he chooses - strange, singular descriptions of “potato faced ancestors” and “Burger King trousers” that smash ideas together to paint entire warped worlds - but in the playful ways his particularly London twang wraps around them too. It is worth listening to ‘Aylesbury Boy’, the hip hop-tinged frst cut from forthcoming LP ‘I Thought I Was Better Than You’, purely to hear him pronounce the word “Kensington”. When the slippery characters that populate the scene go “yah”, you can picture them immediately. Seven albums in and Baxter still sticks out like the most delightful sore thumb.

(Lisa Wright)

FLO FT. MISSY ELLIOTT Fly Girl

The latest from FLO is a heady mix of some Very Good Things: take the vocal styles of ‘90s R&B, the bestiesat-the-bathroom-mirror vibe of Little Mix, and sprinkle some Missy (Fucking!) Elliott over the top and you’re somewhere in the ballpark. FLO claim their titular ‘Fly Girl’ is gender inclusive (“She/he/they/them/ are not shaped by what society deems beautiful or acceptable,” goes the press release), whilst the track also features the magic touch of MNEK (that’ll explain its earwormy nature, then) and quite literally fips and reverses it.

(Bella Martin)

THE JAPANESE HOUSE Boyhood

Amber Bain’s frst release since 2020’s ‘Chewing Cotton Wool’, ‘Boyhood’ largely continues where she left off, straddling the delicate intimacy of bedroom pop, and infusing it with infectious, often electronic sounds, striking an equilibrium between energy and emotion, while her timeless, mellowyet-assertive vocals combine expressively with complementary synth sounds. A welcome return.

(Faith Martin)

THE XCERTS Ache

Fresh from releasing their vibrantly chaotic ‘GIMME’ earlier this year, The Xcerts’ latest offering is another lesson in alt-pop brilliance. Teaming up with Architects’ vocalist - and longtime friend of the band - Sam Carter, ‘Ache’ arrives as a kind of scuzzed-up but euphoric reminder to look out for the glimmers of hope (“I’m picking fowers in the churchyard / I’m seeing beauty in the darkness waving”) in the darker moments of life. Defant in its message, and still deliciously catchy, this one will be stuck in your head for a while yet.

(Sarah Jamieson)

RECORD ON the

On The Record is a chance for DIY’s esteemed writers to wax lyrical about the subjects close to their hearts and populating your timelines. This month, Lisa Wright on the magical wave of artists turning gigs into full-on stage spectaculars.

Good gigs make you cheer, but great gigs make you grunt. It’s a theory that’s recently presented itself to me, and that truly underlined its veracity whilst watching the all-singing, alldancing visual masterpiece that was the Self Esteem tour last week. Rebecca Lucy Taylor and her three backing singers bathed in red light, giving a perfect, angular, Bob Fosse wrist fick. Oof. The pure Janet Jackson circa ‘Rhythm Nation’ness of the military snap to attention as the beat drops.

Unngh. The on-stage costume change, as the full band slowly, straight-faced remove their suits to reveal skin-slick lycra and harnesses: for a musical theatre kid who spent fve out of seven nights a week in rehearsals for anything that would have her, I Tour This All The Time should be subtitled (A Thousand Tiny Orgasms).

It’s not just Self Esteem that’s been upping the game in terms of what’s possible on stage, either. In recent months, The 1975’s muchtalked about live show arrived as a meta theatre piece, the intricate, oh-so-smart stage design marking the best use of an arena budget that this journalist has probably ever seen. Last year at Glastonbury, Kendrick Lamar’s headline set was a jaw-droppingly beautiful thing full of precise, powerful choreography, staged in acts. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, pop provocateur Lynks used our DIY Now + Next tour (fip the page for more on that) to road test a

new show full of highly-skilled anarchy, where skits and jokes could coexist alongside full dance routines and costumes that matched the stage set. Of course, stadium-sized pop stars have been doing this shit for years, but the rumble of more indie and hip hop artists pushing the boat out feels relatively new and gloriously exciting.

Maybe it’s the David Byrne effect - his stunning American Utopia tour having genuinely changed the live game forever. Maybe it’s a collective post-pandemic YOLO, or maybe it’s a reaction towards ever-infating ticket prices and the increasing diffculty of selling out gigs in a cost of living crisis: as festivals realised years ago, these days maybe you just have to do more. Far more likely (and far less cynically), however, we’re probably just living in a purple patch of creativity, with a bunch of artists using that label cash to its fullest potential. What I’ve noticed when chatting to musicians of late is that it’s become cool to care again. Gone are the days when interview responses rattled between a sort of irritating insouciance or a navalgazing “I just make music for myself and if anyone else likes it, it’s a bonus” (the Number One answer in journalism bingo). Now, artists are unashamedly vocal in how much they give a shit and how hard they want to try, and it’s an enthusiasm that’s resulting in some of the best live shows in recent memory. Long may it continue. DIY

“Indie artists are pushing the boat out with their live shows - it’s gloriously exciting.”

A quick catch up with LYNKS.

Talk us through the Clueless punk dream that is your stage set.

I had to do a few shows recently on my own where it became tradition that, if I didn’t have Lynks Shower Gel on stage, I would bring all the furniture from the dressing room on with me. It turns out it’s really fun performing in a living room; it kind of feels like when you’re a kid putting on a musical for your parents - which everyone does, right?! I’m not weird…

How do you want to keep levelling up?

Obviously I’m not going to bring any instruments in. Gross. But unsurprisingly, I’m a big lover of theatrics, and I think there’s a lot of big, out-there, live performance and theatre that can be brought into the music world but that hasn’t yet, outside of big stadium people like Gaga. I really love the idea of a show that almost feels like watching a musical.

You’re playing a lot of new tracks - tell us about them!

I’m obviously biased but I do think the new songs are quite signifcantly better than the old ones. I wanted to make a really sexy song but with a twist, so I thought what’s the least sexy thing? It’s death. So it’s this slut-pop song from the point of view of someone on the brink of death. There’s a love song told through the metaphor of tennis, and there’s a good one that’s about being on the DLR on the way to have sex with a stranger from the internet.

All

the action from our inaugural run, with Lynks, VLURE and more…

With a series of red hot openers including Circe, Ciel, DAMEFRISØR, No Windows and Gag Salon kicking off proceedings across the six dates, we join the inaugural DIY Now + Next Tour at Brighton’s Komedia, where VLURE are four days into the run and thriving. Hailing from Glasgow, the band’s biting dance-punk electrifes the crowd instantly. “We are V-fucking-LURE!”

frontman Hamish Hutcheson informs the crowd, instructing everyone to get on the foor before jumping up in unison at a perfectly timed beat drop. Recent single ‘Cut It’, as well as tracks from last year’s debut EP ‘Euphoria’, perfectly blend rave-ready beats with mosh-pit intensity, leaving the crowd pumped up for what’s to come.

Three years ago, wearing a handmade Barbie two-piece, Lynks closed out our Hello 2020 series with a headline set that left everyone lucky enough to squeeze into the Old Blue Last that night stunned. Armed with alt-pop bangers, confetti cannons and the Lynks Shower Gel back-up dancers, even then their set was one to remember. When they were inducted into DIY’s Class of 2021, meanwhile, they elaborated on the idea behind their live show: “The entire point of it is to create a space where people can completely let go and get total catharsis, where even people who normally don’t dance at gigs get to be the ones starting the mosh pit.”

Creating a yellow tartan living room backdrop to match their outft, Lynks’ show fies from tracks about making bechamel sauce to a skit featuring a fainting backing dancer, resurrected via aptly-titled, unreleased banger ‘CPR’. Equal parts camp and catharsis, the whole crowd lap up every minute, and by the time they close the show with ‘Str8 Acting’, even the loitering +1s have been completely won over. As Lynks told us back in 2020: “I want everyone to get in on the party!” We can’t imagine a place we’d rather be. (Elly Watson)

FESTIVAL News In Brief

FESTIVALSFESTIVALSFESTIVALSFESTIVALS

Spring has sprung, Easter is on the way, and the start of festival season is just on the horizon. If that’s not enough to get you excited for what’s to come, this news should…

UR SO COOL

Having previously announced the likes of Robbie Williams, Lizzo, Lil Nas X, The 1975, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sam Smith, Madrid’s MAD COOL Festival has now confrmed its fnal line-up.

Set to take place in Spain’s capital city from 6th to 8th July, the event will also play host to new headliners Janelle Monáe and Mumford & Sons, as well as The Offspring, King Princess, Mimi Webb, STONE and loads more.

That’s not all: the festival have also announced the nine winners of their Mad Cool DJ Talent competition - as sponsored by Vibra Mahou, which include Victor Carre b2b Body-O, Loopi.ta, Armis, Mobox, Alvaro Valero, Miss Deep'in, Chalkyninenine, DJ TRapella, L.A.S DJS.

HERE WE GO GLASTO!

It’s arguably the most anticipated festival news of the year: GLASTONBURY have offcially announced their line-up. Having already confrmed Elton John as one of this year’s headliners, Glasto have now announced that Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses will also be topping the bill at the 2023 event.

Other acts confrmed to appear across the weekend at Worthy Farm include Lizzo, Måneskin, Carly Rae Jepsen, Young Fathers, slowthai, Lil Nas X and Lana Del Rey - who has self-confrmed to headline The Other Stage.

The 2023 edition of Glastonbury follows last year’s longawaited return after repeated COVID cancellations, and will take place from 21st to 25th June.

COASTLINE CAPERS

Ahead of its event next month, THE GREAT ESCAPE has announced 150 new acts who are joining the line-up for this year’s festival.

Among the new names are The Murder Capital, Sorry, PVA, Deb Never, Heartworms, Fat Dog, L Devine, Hak Baker and Gengahr. They’ll join the likes of Arlo Parks, Maisie Peters, The Big Moon, Sad Night Dynamite and Lime Garden, who have already been announced to play in venues across Brighton this May.

The festival has also announced the line-up for the return of The Late Escape, which will see performances from the likes of I. JORDAN, Daisha and Changing Currents go on into the night during the festival.

This year’s Great Escape takes place from 10th to 13th May in various venues across Brighton.

THE DIY TAKEOVER

LIVE AT LEEDS: IN THE PARK is returning to Temple Newsam Park on 27th May this year with headliners Two Door Cinema Club and loads more exciting names.

What’s even better? We’re super excited to also be heading to Leeds to help put on a special DIY Stage with some of our fave new acts… While Cavetown will be headlining, he’ll be playing alongside our Class of 2023 cover stars Crawlers, as well as CMAT, Låpsley, Sir Chloe, Bully, James Marriott, Ber and Ellur.

Other acts set to perform on the day include Kate Nash, Maximo Park, Everything Everything, The Big Moon, Black Honey, Panic Shack, and many, many more. What’s more is that we’re giving away a pair of tickets to the festival to one lucky reader! Just head to diymag.com/ liveatleedscompetition to fnd out more.

The 28th edition of MELTDOWN FESTIVAL (9th - 18th June) will take place at London’s Southbank and will be curated by Christine and the Queens. Chris will take to the stage twice, and will be joined by Warpaint, Moonchild Sanelly, Sigur Rós, Lynks, serpentwithfeet, Let’s Eat Grandma and more.

Belgium’s biggest music festival ROCK WERCHTER (29th June - 2nd July) has completed its line-up, welcoming Kasabian, Ashnikko, Viagra Boys, The Murder Capital and Just Mustard to the fourday bill.

2000TREES (5th - 8th July) have added a slew of new acts to the line-up, including Black Honey, Employed To Serve, American Football, Tigercub and The Joy Formidable. They’ll perform alongside the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Xcerts, Witch Fever, and Bob Vylan at the Upcote Farm event.

BOARDMASTERS (9th - 13th August) have announced that Lorde will be the Friday headliner of this year’s festival. She’ll be joining other headliners Liam Gallagher and Florence + The Machine, as well as recently-announced acts including RAYE, SG Lewis, Everything Everything, Nova Twins, and Yard Act.

boygenius, Christine and the Queens, Nova Twins and Romy are just four of the latest acts that have been added to the line-up of this year’s ROCK EN SEINE (23rd - 27th August). The event, which takes place in Paris have also announced Amyl and the Sniffers, Bonobo and Gaz Coombes.

Over seventy new names have been added to the lineup of this year’s READING AND LEEDS festivals (25th27th August), including Rina Sawayama, Yard Act, Arlo Parks, Easy Life, and Holly Humberstone.

“People underestimate music listeners a lot. They don't need a dumbed-down version of songwriting to enjoy it.” – Karly Hartzman

With new album ‘Rat Saw God’, the diaristic storytelling and country leanings of songwriter Karly Hartzman should fnally get their wider-world breakthrough. Words: Will Richards.

Until now, Wednesday have existed on the fringes. Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, the fourpiece indie band – vocalist Karly Hartzman, guitarist Jake Lenderman, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis and drummer Alan Miller – have quietly released three excellent LPs and a 2022 covers album while largely steering clear of any mainstream concern. “A certain unsearchable weekday band name has recently become more unsearchable,” they joked online last year after the release of the Addams Family spin-off on Netfix, not seeming entirely bothered about their dismal SEO.

Living outside the spotlight has served the quartet well though. Across their fve years as a band, they’ve honed a sound and energy that marries crunchy indie rock with country fourishes, slowly growing and evolving from their Asheville base. On their newest ‘Rat Saw God’ – their frst for Dead Oceans – the secret’s out though; these ten tracks are the sound of a band reaching for another level.

Calling DIY from her front porch, Karly is preparing for the band’s biggest headline tour to date, that will take them across the States in signifcantly bigger venues than before, to the UK and Europe, and eventually Australia in 2024. Flipping the laptop to give us a look around, green space surrounds the home that she shares with Jake, and discusses how this sense of quiet allowed Wednesday to develop in their own time and fnd their sound organically.

“I think it would have been too shocking to my system if it had happened too quickly,” she says while waving to a passing neighbour. “I’m glad it took the time that it did.” Initially thinking that getting a manager and signing to Dead Oceans would “go against my punk and DIY sensibilities,” it was the greater success of 2021 LP ‘Twin Plagues’ that made Karly start to realise the potential for the band. “Once I adjusted to the idea of having help from someone in the industry,” she refects, “I realised that I would be wasting an opportunity for fve people to sustain themselves on something they love. It feels really rewarding to be recognised for your work.”

It was on ‘Twin Plagues’ that Karly says she felt a breakthrough in her songwriting and was able “to create the sound that I always envisioned in my head” while tackling diffcult topics and writing more honestly, openly and emotionally about her life. In retrospect, she sees it as no coincidence that this change in songwriting topics came hand in hand with greater exposure for her music. “I can tell when someone's writing a song that is trying to appeal to as many people as possible and has no real introspection,” she says. “When someone’s being authentic, it's a naturally attractive quality to people. I think people underestimate music listeners a lot. They want to hear a really raw form of people; they can handle it. They don't need a dumbed down version of songwriting to enjoy it.”

These insights and personal breakthroughs burst out of every sinew on ‘Rat Saw God’: an album of unfinching honesty and purpose that should see Wednesday break through in a much bigger way. Single ‘Chosen To

bringing with her a sense of wide-eyed wonder that may have faded from more seasoned players. Drummer Alan is also a relative newcomer to his instrument, and this freshness contrasts beautifully with the precision and experience of guitarist Jake, whose alt-country solo music as MJ Lenderman predates the band.

Purposefully deciding to learn more about the artists who flled her radio waves as a child, Karly spent the last few years digging into the country music of Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams. “When you live in the South, country music is ambiently in your surroundings all the time,” she says. “A lot of my [childhood] memories have that music playing in the background. It’s always been there, at the post offce or the grocery store, but I defnitely recently gained a newfound appreciation for just how talented the songwriters are that contribute to that genre.”

On ‘Rat Saw God’, this love of country mixes beautifully with Wednesday’s louder parts, with ‘Chosen To Deserve’ sliding from a twangy verse into its huge, distorted chorus. While Jake’s fuzzflled riffs punctuate the rockier side of Karly’s songwriting, Xandy’s excellent lap steel playing gives texture and roots in country sounds.

Deserve’, is anchored around a gigantic chord sequence that’s desperate to fll sold-out theatres, while nine-minute behemoth ‘Bull Believer’ careers between squalls of noise and introspective tenderness.

Karly only started playing guitar six years ago,

Country’s infuence can also be felt hugely in the album’s lyrics, with ‘Chosen To Deserve’ telling stories of drug and alcohol-fuelled misdemeanours; recalling the time a friend had to get their stomach pumped, Karly concludes that “all the drugs are gettin' kinda boring to me”. ‘Bath County’ recalls Karly and Jake fnding a man overdosed on the street while they were on their way to visit Dollywood, while other moments on the album - a record of consistently vivid, fascinating storytelling - include Karly getting a nasty electric shock during band practice (‘Got Shocked’) and her dad “burning down a feld with a model rocket” when she was a child (‘Hot Rotten Grass Smell’). “Stuff like that is all over the album,” she says. “It’s me retelling stories I've always wanted to share.”

Through fnally telling these stories, biding their time and slowly developing a unique and layered sound, Wednesday have earned their big break. Now they’ve just gotta let it happen. DIY

“I see your one eye Rebecca Black, and I raise you…”

Kam-BU

“An artist’s duty is to refect the times,” says South East Londoner Kam-BU (pronounced Kam-be-you), quoting legendary singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone to explain away the gathering idea that he’s a political rapper (he’s not, he’d like you to know).

It's 11am and, over Zoom, Kam is discussing environmentalism, the relationship between artistry and fashion, and his sustainable label OFF GRID. He’s a climate-conscious artist who volunteers with Green Gym - an organisation that engages communities to nurture local spaces - and is on the Youth Board for the London Wildlife Trust. His industrial British rap, meanwhile, has historically offered a tongue-in-cheek yet sometimes scathing critique of the UK government, touching upon the Windrush scandal, Grenfell and the Conservative Party’s white-knuckle grip on power. However, he reiterates, all this does not necessarily make him a political rapper. “I’m [just] going to say what I want to say, and if people fuck with it, they do, and if they don’t, they don’t. I’ll get it off my chest and move on,” he shrugs.

Masterful and insightful voices like Kam’s don’t come around often, but he’s “always had bars”. “If you didn’t have bars [in school],” he notes, “you weren’t saying anything.” At his local youth centre, he would play around in the booth, learning the process of recording music and “taking it a bit more seriously”. But it wasn’t until landing a couple of early milestones - a 2018 Boiler Room LOW HEAT session, followed by 2020 single ‘Different’ featuring Lord Apex that “blew up” - that he realised people were resonating with his perspective. He recalls these frst glimpses of success less as accolades and more moments of selfactualisation: “It helped me realise what I’m capable of”.

Kam-BU’s debut EP, 2020’s critically-acclaimed ‘Black On Black’, was

celebrated for its social commentary, immaculate lyricism and anthemic grime. Soon, he’ll fnally drop its follow-up: the ravenous, underground rave-infuenced ‘BUILT2LAST’, complete with brilliantly bourgeoisie-baiting recent single ‘ETON MESS’. He says the hugeness of his sound is a cathartic response to the inequality that surrounded his youth. “That brutalist, industrial feel is what it feels like to grow up in my London council estate and be around greediness. People don’t have too much hope,” he explains. “Most of my friends didn’t have dreams growing up. If you don’t know where you’re from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

But his political commentary does not represent the entirety of his identity as an artist. “I don’t want to be a political leader. I don’t think [the government are] lizards trying to make shit bad, but if we don’t speak on it, it’s an elephant in the room,” he reasons. His sound – an eclectic mix of classic hip hop, grime, rave and provocative industrial production – is actually about fun, liberation and rebellion, he says. Having grown up with Jamaican parents where the reggae of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh surrounded him, the idea of making “righteous” yet enjoyable music was infuential, but equally as important were the underground raves and sound system parties he attended in his youth.

Loud and wickedly abrasive, forward-thinking yet still rich with heritage and story, ‘BUILT2LAST’ is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate this duality. It’s a document of the contemporary Black British experience, but it’s also flled with undoubtedly sick bangers and, ultimately, captures his life at large – the good, bad and ugly. He concludes: “I’m still telling the same story that I’ve been telling, but in a way that’s more digestible – and you can dance to it. People rave. We need to rave.” DIY

Insightful and lucid, yet with a strong line in rave-indebted bangers, the London rapper is creating his own political party of one. Words: Otis Robinson.

“The brutalist, industrial feel of my music is what it feels like to grow up in my London council estate.”

KING ISIS

THE NEW DIRTY HIT SIGNEE WITH MUSIC FLOWING THROUGH THEIR VEINS.

Named, in part, as an ode to their great-great grandmother Omega King - one of Chicago’s frst Black female Opera singers - King Isis doesn’t just have the musical pedigree to help them stand out; they’ve got the songs to back it up. Last month’s single ‘in my ways’ arrived as a sun-drenched, scuzzy-around-the-edges slice of pop goodness, while the laidback groove of recent track ‘taste of u’ is gloriously addictive.

LISTEN: Dig into their new EP ‘scales’ - which includes last year’s tender ‘4leaf clover’ - as soon as you can.

SIMILAR TO: A bit like a mix of King Princess, Beabadoobee and DIIV.

SAM AKPRO

THE PECKHAM-BORN MUSICIAN FUSING TOGETHER STYLES.

Having already opened for the likes of Shame, 404 Guild and Wu-Lu, Peckham-born Sam Akpro is fast becoming a real one-to-watch in the South London scene. Now, he’s set to offer up a second EP - it’ll arrive later this month - with recent singles ‘Arrival’ and ‘Trace’ seeing the musician continue to push against sonic boundaries, melding together jagged rhythms with dizzying guitars to produce something entirely unique.

LISTEN: Last month’s single ‘Arrival’ feels like a sonic rush of adrenaline.

SIMILAR TO: Not a whole lot else right now, tbh.

BENEFITS

OPINIONATED SOCIO-POLITICAL PUNK WITH AN ELECTRONIC EDGE.

It’s both entirely in keeping with and a little bit amusing that Teeside punks Benefts come fervently backed by Sleaford Mods - the former because the quartet’s enraged, skeletal electro-punk is cut from the same furious cloth as their Nottingham brethren; the latter because the roars of recent track ‘Warhorse’ sound more than a little like Mods’ nemeses IDLES. You imagine both bands would more than back Benefts, and that many more will be supporting the cause before long too.

LISTEN: A series of singles from across the last few years have revved with an increasing ire.

SIMILAR TO: Ken Loach goes punk.

RecNEUommended �

LIFEGUARD

NOISY NEW MATADOR SIGNINGS.

When it comes to precociously talented, scuzzy Chicago bands, you’ve got to give it to Matador for championing the niche. First came Horsegirl, and now arrives Lifeguard: three teenage fuzz fans, with a penchant for combining riffy, slightly mathy intricacies with hefty slabs of noise. Last year, they deployed second EP ‘Crowd Can Talk’, while a summer US tour alongside their equine labelmates beckons. There must be something in the water.

LISTEN: ‘I know, I know’ is an incessantly hooky introduction.

SIMILAR TO: The next generation of the US alt-underground.

JIM LEGXACY

GENRE-BLURRING GEMS FROM SOUTH EAST LONDON.

As his name suggests, Jim has big plans for his musical domination. Already making waves, the South East London artist blends elements of emo, R&B, pop and grime into fascinating tracks that will likely cement his eponymous leg(x)acy. Don’t believe us? Just ask famous fans like Stormzy, Jack Harlow and Dave!

LISTEN: Recent single ‘Old Place’ is 90 seconds of chilled out greatness.

SIMILAR TO: You know that pre-Christmas excitement you used to get as a kid when you could tell something special was on the way? That.

NEU

AliceLongyuGao

The China-born, LA-based hyperpop star making social statements as strong as her explosive musical imagination. Words: Lisa Wright.

Alice Longyu Gao doesn’t want to be known just as a burgeoning music star, but as a rising CEO. “I think great art is great business,” she begins, on a Zoom from LA. “I went through stages where I would romanticise struggle but I’m just over that now.”

Born in China to a “very regular, normal family - they hate what I do,” Alice’s business brain is one born of necessity. When she talks about trying to carve out a creative path, she’s erudite about the struggles of fnding her own space within a landscape that, until very recently, has held Western music up as the only standard. “I see Western artists posting photos with K-pop bands because of the clout they have now and I just laugh, but also, alright, it’s about time!” she shrugs. “It’s very hard to survive in America because the world wasn’t built for someone like me’s success. When I started releasing music, some people thought I was just a socialite who had started to rap. But I wasn’t born in this country; none of my family are here; I’m a queer, pansexual woman - all the connections I have, I’ve had to make them myself.”

Those connections now include the likes of 100 gecs, Alice Glass and Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes - all collaborators of hers, with the BMTH frontman lending his scream to recent EP track ‘Believe The Hype’. Lady Gaga has gone on record as a fan, choosing the musician’s 2019 single ‘Rich Bitch Juice’ as part of a female-led playlist, while recently, notorious fake heiress Anna Delvey got in touch to

recruit her DJ skills for a party (“That hustler energy, that hard-working, go-getter spirit - I saw that from her story and I saw a piece of myself in her,” Alice notes).

Fusing a technicolour smash of pop, metal, electronic and more, the hyperpop world is one, she says, that’s intrinsically indebted to the culture she grew up in: “I know how many creators in this hyperpop circle were inspired by J-pop and K-pop, and C-pop still isn’t being recognised but I am here to be recognised and get the credits I deserve.” As her newest bid for those rightful plaudits, recently-released EP ‘Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn and Retire’ - a sentiment that she says “comes with peace and love and means no harm” - should see them racking up further, with

a run of gigs appropriately dubbed the CEO World Tour due to start next month in support: a long-held dream only made possible since fnally getting her green card.

Across the release’s eight tracks, Alice splices a dizzying array of ideas; on ‘Make U 3 Me’ alone, she hops between full on metal screaming and a bouncing pop line that recalls a ride on the Vengabus. All of it, she explains, is a completely honest portrayal of herself.

“People see me when I’m literally just being me and they think it’s a character,” she says. “With Asian culture, with anime and cosplay and how popular those things are, it gives people this reinforcement, which is dangerous because if they think we’re characters and we’re too dumb, then people with power in entertainment will think they can reshape us in any way they want to.

“I’m intentionally trying so hard and putting in so much effort to change my life and my community’s life, and I don’t want to pretend everything is easy because it might be for some bitches but it’s not like that for me,” she continues. “Oli [Sykes] said to me, ‘When people say they’re punk then they’re not punk’, but I am punk! I have to fght for this. For everything that we want, we have to fght for it and that process is really punk so, call me cringe if you want to, but I’m gonna name it.”

“It’s very hard to survive in America because the world wasn’t built for someone like me’s success.”

Nell Mescal

Nell Mescal has had a very busy 48 hours. Fresh from playing live at East London venue Colours, the Irish singer quickly headed home, packed up a case and hopped on not one fight but two, before landing in Los Angeles just in time for a swanky pre-Oscars party with her brothers, Paul (yes, that one) and Donnacha. “It was just a bit wild!” she laughs, just a few hours later. “I did sleep the whole time on the plane though. Everyone was like, ‘Why are you sleeping on the plane?’ and I was like, ‘Just wait…!’ Jet-lag frmly defeated, it’s easy to tell just how excited Nell’s feeling about things right now, and it’s little wonder as to why; when we speak, she’s fresh off an Irish mini-tour that concluded in Dublin, is set to play alongside one of her musical heroes Birdy (“I was so emotional [hearing the news]; I was crying my eyes out!”) and has just announced details of her next single, albeit a little earlier than expected. “Yeah, I was like, ‘I’m gonna announce something on Friday’ and then I announced it today because I just can't wait…”

The something she’s referencing is ‘In My Head’, which she’s already calling “one of my favourite songs ever”. Written alongside friend and collaborator Kai Bosch, the track follows on from previous singles ‘Homesick’ - that was released back in January - and last year’s ‘Graduating’, which both dealt more with the struggles of growing older, moving away and discovering your own self. ‘In My Head’, however, shows off a different side to Nell than those explored before; its darkly cathartic pop seeing her delve into the allure of returning to unhealthy relationships and trying to break that cycle.

“It was a weird one,” she says, of how the song’s subject matter came to the fore. “I don't usually write about the themes in this. I think I was pulling a lot from friendships and stuff like that, which is usually where my songs come from. But then it took on this different world where it became this kind of horrible love story.

“I feel like we all have like that one person that we’ll consistently go back to and we know it's not good. But I feel like what I love doing in my songs is having some sort of redemption or hope, even if it's like a really sad song. I'm not writing songs for people to stay miserable and so I feel like ‘In My Head’ has the perfect ending to have a little bit of revenge. So yeah, it was a weird song to write because it felt so cathartic, because I don't write about that kind of thing.”

It’s unsurprising that the singer’s trying on a few different styles for size: she is, after all, still just 19. “I think I'm so young, and I think that there's just so many paths I feel like I can take,” she nods. “I just feel like it would feel inauthentic to release something that was just the same every time because that's not how I write.”

It’s not just releasing music that’s been truly fortifying for Nell. While her social media channels do admittedly get their fair share of attention - thanks, in part, to the sibling mentioned earlier - and with the subject of ‘going viral’ constantly on people’s minds (“social media is such a frightening place to fnd yourself on, but I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am chronically online”), it’s not always easy to keep a grip on reality. Cutting through all that noise, however, is being able to fnally play shows and meet the people connecting most with her music.

“The shows have just been my favourite thing to do ever,” she grins, “and meeting people at the end, and playing songs that no one's heard before. It's been one of the best things in my life. After the shows, I usually spend like an hour just chatting to people and it's the most gratifying thing ever; more gratifying than getting a like on a tweet or a viral video. These are real people that really care and are showing up to as much as they can. It makes me so emotional, because I'm like, ‘Oh, OK, you guys actually really want to be here’.” DIY

Fresh from releasing her latest darkly-tinged single ‘In My Head’, the Irish singer gets us up to speed on life right now. Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: David Reiss.

I'm so young, and there's just so many paths I feel like I can take.”

All the buzziest new music happenings in one place.

Buzz Feed

SUGARY SWEET

Alice Low has announced plans to release debut EP ‘Transatlantic Sugar’ later this month. The sixtrack EP, which is due out on 21st April, will feature previous single ‘Show Business’, as well as new track ‘Fruitcake’, which you can hear over on diymag.com now.

“I grew up in a real homophobic town, and that abuse penetrated me,” Alice explains. “My spine permanently curved from the pressure. Every time I inched closer to pleasure, the violence came back, and I became my own bully. ‘Fruitcake’ is the rejection of prejudice, and the bliss of vulnerable sex.”

Alice will also be supporting Aldous Harding at London’s Barbican later this month (29th April) before appearing at The Great Escape in May.

THE ONLY WAY

Manchester-based quartet Mandy, Indiana have announced details of their debut album ‘i’ve seen a way’. The eleven-track record - which was, according to the press release, recorded in “caves, crypts and shopping malls” - will be out on 19th May. It features previouslyreleased song ‘Injury Detail’.

Speaking about the record, the band’s Scott Fair - who also produced the album - has said: “We wanted to alter textures, create clashes, and craft those moments when what you’re expecting to happen never comes.”

The four-piece have also shared latest single ‘Pinking Shears’ - which you can hear over on diymag.com - and have scheduled a seven-date UK tour for this October, that includes a stop at Corsica Studios in London.

YEAR OF THE DOG

Sir Chloe - the project of vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Dana Foote - have offered up another preview of forthcoming debut LP ‘I Am The Dog’, this time in the form of new track ‘Salivate’.

The latest song to come from the group follows on from last month’s single ‘Hooves’, and both tracks get taken from the band’s John Congleton-produced full-length that’s due for release on 19th May.

The new track also lands after the announcement of a hefty run of UK and European tour dates, which are set to begin in Dublin on 24th May, before concluding in Milan at the end of June. The tour will also make stops in Manchester (1st June), London (2nd), Brighton (3rd), Bristol (5th), Birmingham (6th) and Glasgow (7th) before it heads to mainland Europe.

THE PLAYLIST

Every week on Spotify, we update the Neu Playlist with the buzziest, freshest faces. Here’s our pick of the best new tracks:

SPIDER - AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL

If ever we needed a star like SPIDER, now is absolutely the time. Just as it feels as though the reasonable and empathetic elements of our world have been completely wiped out, the stomping, industrial-esque groove of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ arrives to dish out a well-needed reminder that being disruptive and in-your-face really can challenge the world. “Why are you so scared?!” she hollers in the track’s chorus, taking aim at bigots everywhere. Insatiable and impactful, like we said: the time is ripe for a star like this.

Æ MAK - SHIMMER BOY

Despite Æ Mak hailing from Ireland and residing in Berlin (the German capital also giving its name to the musician’s forthcoming’s April mixtape), it’s a sort of ethereal, magical Icelandic-ness that seems to twinkle around ‘Shimmer Boy’. Pairing Mak’s - real name Aoife McCann - unusual, rounded vocal twang with a throbbing electronic pulse and angelic backing coos, the combination makes for an otherworldly soundscape, made for icy vistas and dappled sky lights.

ISLAND OF LOVE FED ROCK

Island of Love originally wrote ‘Fed Rock’ as a stinging commentary on their local scene – little realising they’d soon be airlifted out of it. When Third Man Records heard them play, they made the band their fagship signing before the sweat had dried off their bodies. The immediacy of this single is a good indicator why: it rattles along with zany, breakneck energy, only dropping things down a notch to clear space for spindly Thin Lizzy solos. The video features monkey detectives fring banana guns as they chase down stolen master tapes; fngers crossed they’ll share the loot soon.

KHAMARI - ON MY WAY

If your plans for the weekend tend to involve a long, nighttime motorway drive, preferably escaping from and/or running towards an emotional milestone, then the latest from Boston-born Khamari should be frmly on the stereo rotation. The musician’s smooth, modern R&B has already drawn comparisons to Frank Ocean but it’s a parallel that bears repeating: with subtle strings and woozy beats crafting an intimate atmosphere that still prioritises musical space, ahead of an imminent forthcoming debut LP, Khamari’s making all the right moves.

Want to stream our Neu playlist while you’re reading? Scan the code now and get listening.

Tede Niht

In three short years, Arlo Parks’ life has changed beyond recognition. Yet between global acclaim, an award-winning debut album, and a move from London to Los Angeles, on second LP ‘ My Soft Machine’ she’s learning the importance of the small things.

Words: El Hunt. Photos: Pooneh Ghana.

I think there is a lot of magic around us. We just move too fast to see it really.

ver the last year, Arlo Parks has been trying to stay focused on the little things. “You know, like watering the plants,” she offers cheerily, chatting from her home in LA, “and checking the little tray at the bottom to make sure there’s not too much overspill. Going and getting a new set of spoons. The small things; tending to the little nest that I’ve built for myself.”

As we speak, an adorable black pooch named Wednesday – in honour of the Addams Family’s antagonistic daughter, of course – is nestled on her lap, belly up and staring a bit too intently into the singer’s eyes. She belongs to Arlo’s partner, fellow musician Ashnikko, and also answers to the name Simba. All of Arlo’s beloved houseplants – Bernard the rubber plant and Shrek the unknown bathroom shrub – are equally well-pampered. “I have this weird impulse to name inanimate things,” she

OBjörk is one of her favourites. I don’t know why we decided this, but that’s the one that rings true to her personality.”

It’s probably for the best – things could get dicey if any favouritism started to become apparent. However, with Wednesday decidedly nonchalant about the whole thing, the two musicians have become sounding boards for each other’s work instead. “I feel like we’re both each other’s cheerleaders,” Arlo laughs.

You sense that the 22-year-old particularly values the sanctuary she’s created for herself in Los Angeles, having lived out of suitcases for the majority of the last few years. Originally from Hammersmith, London, the musician was frst lured to the city by its community of like-minded creatives and the easy access to national parks like Joshua Tree and Yosemite. “I think that what I’ve realised really over these past few years is how much nature grounds me and how much it makes me feel small in the best way,” she smiles. “Especially when a lot of your work demands you to be around people or talking to a lot of people, which I fnd really enriching and lovely - I love that side of myself – but sometimes you do need to just be alone with trees.” To be fair, trees are excellent listeners.

Usually, the sunshine is another big draw, though today there’s a storm brewing and it’s lashing it down with rain. “It’s kind of cosy; it reminds me of London a little bit,” she says. “I kind of went into it with the same idea of LA that I’d gathered from flms and Joan Didion,” she continues, referencing the late American author who often wrote about the grit and dangerous glamour of the city, with its flthy neon signs and long, concrete boulevards. In the year she’s been based there, though, Arlo has found her own “little corner” of LA.

“I didn’t realise how little time I spent at home building a base for myself until I moved here,” she says. “You’re kind of forced to do that, I guess, because you’re in a new place. Now, I like buying plants and going vintage shopping, and fnding an appropriately large Radiohead poster to put up in my house. Those little things have made me really happy.”

All of this has been a conscious shift, explored in intricate detail through the small, everyday scenes that populate the musician’s second record, ‘My Soft Machine’. On opener ‘Bruiseless’ we frst hear Arlo’s voice giving a deep and uncertain sigh. “I just wish that my eyes were still wide,” she says on the fnal line of the spoken-word track, her words underpinned by woozy synthesisers and a skittering trip-hop beat.

laughs. “It drives my friends crazy, but I think it’s funny.

“Wednesday is quite unfazed by music in general,” she shrugs, returning to the slightly overbearing dog nestled across her legs. “She’s completely unfazed by either of our [own] music. She lives on her own doggy wavelength. We play a lot of ambient music in the house, and I think she’s a fan of that?

Though she speaks elsewhere on the track of fnding a love who is patient, feeding her cheese and making her happy in the process, Arlo’s narrator still sounds raw and wobbly, honing in on the smallest of details –”a peony ripped by the chain of a dirt bike” or “pollen sniffing over grazes” – in order to stay level. It sets the tone for ‘My Soft Machine’ as a whole; gathering together scenes of domesticity and tiny intricacies

to try and get back to the everyday kind of magic that feels slightly missing. While it also documents some harrowing lows in the process, as a record her second is always questing towards that wide-eyed, almost childlike state. “It is magic on a small scale, ” she says. “For me, that’s something that often goes unnoticed. I think there is a lot of magic around us. We just move too fast to see it really.”

After rapidly breaking through as a new artist during the lockdowns of 2020 at a thoroughly bizarre moment for the music industry, everything has happened very quickly for Arlo Parks. The artist’s genre-blending debut was embroidered with the fabric of a London that then felt very distant – tinnies at Peckham Rye park, poems scrawled on night buses, and the hustle and tacky chaos of Oxford Street’s slightly suspect American sweet shops; meanwhile, the tender embrace of early singles like ‘Black Dog’ tapped into the deep anxieties of the time. “It’s so cruel,” she sang, gently, “what your mind can do for no reason.”

Back then, Arlo still lived at her parents’ house, and took up the pandemic hobby of DJing techno to keep busy. Once restrictions lifted, the promotional treadmill was seemingly non-stop; in the course of a just a few consecutive days she supported Harry Styles on the Dublin leg of his world tour, raced off to play Glastonbury, nipped to London to open for Billie Eilish, and then headed back to Worthy Farm to link up with Phoebe Bridgers, along with Clairo and Lorde, for a pair of duets.

Debut album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ – released in 2021 – would

SNAPHAPPY

Lurkers on Ashnikko’s Instagram will have noticed Arlo popping up in the comments of carefully posed pics every now and again to announce herself as Ash’s “uncredited Instagram boyfriend”. It’s true, every power couple needs a cheerleader behind the lens: but does Arlo have any tips for getting the perfect snap?

QUANTITY EQUALS QUALITY

Honestly, I just take millions of photos, because I know that 70% of them will be unusable and blurry, especially when it’s at night, which is quite hard. So I just take millions. I think: there must be something in there.

TAKE YOUR TIME; BUT DON’T WASTE IT

We'll just dedicate a tenminute chunk to taking them incessantly. Be prepared for the frst round to be in some way unacceptable. Don’t waste too much time on it because there's no time like the present.

CHOOSE YOUR COLLABORATOR CAREFULLY.

She knows exactly what she wants! Always!

go onto win the Mercury Prize, but that same period was also marked by crushing lows. By the time Arlo’s US tour rolled around in the autumn, she was completely exhausted and burnt out. In a statement, she told fans her mental health had “deteriorated to a debilitating place” and she needed to take some space to get better. “I am broken and I really need to step out, go home and take care of myself,” she wrote.

Arlo would prefer not to go into detail when it comes to the specifc circumstances that caused her to take a step back, though she does point out that the sense of support she felt from her team and peers in the industry when she made that initially daunting decision was absolutely vital at the time. Normalising these kinds of discussions is something that she encourages and supports going forward.

“I defnitely think that I felt supported,” she nods. “This is my hope, at least, [that] the conversations around artists’ mental health and burnout, and the pace at which artists work and travel… I hope that more of those conversations are being had around how to protect people. My main source of support was and always has been just my friends, and the other people who make music, who can understand, beyond just empathy, what it is actually like to live the life that we do. I felt everyone throw their arms around me immediately, and that made me feel so safe and happy. There is something about not feeling like the only person who’s struggling that’s really powerful,” she says quietly, her voice cracking slightly. “I was really grateful for that, for sure.”

This time around, the artist has been trying hard more generally to “put up boundaries, frmly but gently,” when it comes to keeping some more personal experiences just for herself. Is this something she’s felt herself becoming more acutely aware of since becoming a household name over the space of just a few years?

“I defnitely think that, as the work reaches [further], and more people are aware of who you are, then there is this desire to know more and more about you that I don’t think is malicious. I think it’s real curiosity,” Arlo says. “When you frst are introduced to the world, the perspective is very introductory; it’s like, ‘How did you get your name? And where are you from? And all these things,” she points out.

“As time goes on, people know the basic information and there’s a bit more depth to the probing sometimes. I’m just quite a private person, and I think a lot of what I want to say is in the songs.

“It’s important to be able to say, ‘Actually, no. I think that’s just for me and my friends or, you know, whoever’. It’s important for my own health and heart to know that there are things that I have just for myself.”

Since rocketing to fame, Arlo has become friends with many of the artists she grew up admiring, and Lorde in particular has proven a source of some very important wisdom. ”She’s one of my favourite people, who I see as this extremely wise aunt. I mean, it’s just very simple: she’s just always

Lorde is one of my favourite people, who I see as this extremely wise aunt.

DJ ARLO?

Arlo’s been teaching herself to mix techno and spin some tunes in recent years… but is an album of club bangers on the way?

“I would love that! Obviously Beyoncé did it with ‘RENAISSANCE’ and I feel like it suited her so well; especially in terms of creating this tapestry of samples and features, and having Grace Jones and Tems on there. My favourite artists are the shapeshifters, so… maybe one day? I don’t have a DJ name yet, but I need to come up with something unexpected. It needs to be perfect.” No pressure then, Arlo!

reminding me about rest, reminding me about the fact that opportunities come back around, but if you’re not taking care of yourself then everything crumbles,” she says. “Her reminders of rest, and just general wisdom and kindness were something that I really treasure, for sure.”

While debut ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ unearthed a sunshot soft-pop sound and ran with it, ‘My Soft Machine’ draws more heavily on intricate smatterings of electronica, spikier chugs of guitar, and the melodic beats of collaborators like Chance the Rapper producer Al Hugg and BROCKHAMPTON’s Romil Hemnani. On ‘Devotion’ – a riff-driven track that unfurls into headliner freworks – Arlo’s hunger to get back on stage feels apparent. “I found myself in front of people a lot, and there was this sense when I was making a song in the back of my mind of, OK, how is this going to feel live? How are people going to move to this, dance to this, cry to this? Is this going to move people?’” she recalls. “That can happen in a million different ways; it can be more of a ‘Black Dog’ moment that feels very emotional and small, or it can be a moment like ‘Devotion’ which is just like, super volcanic and outwards – a release.”

Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ was an infuence for the latter. “I love that song,” she says. “There’s this gentleness to the beginning, and then this sense of foreboding where you feel like it’s going somewhere and you’re not quite sure where. When it happens, it’s so euphoric.”

Just as the infuence of the UK capital bled through the edges of ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’, Arlo’s new home ultimately shaped the widescreen sound of its successor. “I mean, I just love a reference,” she laughs, knowingly. While some musicians keep their infuences somewhat guarded, Arlo has always been an open book about hers, detailing the many places, books, flms, poems, art pieces and other inspirations that did their bit during the sponge-like absorption phase of her writing process.

“I mention the Dayglow cafe, which is a coffee shop I used to go to before going to the studio,” she says of her daily ritual recording on Sunset Boulevard. “There’s a line on ‘Impurities’ where it’s like, ‘Piling in the Escalade, my chest is buzzing like a blue bird cage’,” she says. “That was about one of the frst nights that I went out in LA; we kept calling normal Ubers, and for some reason, these [Cadillac] Escalades – massive black cars – kept pulling up. We found it so funny, and we felt like teenagers again, rushing around the city. I wanted to bottle that feeling of community and fnding a chosen family. I defnitely think the record in a way has catalogued that process of falling in love with LA and California.”

Detailing some of her other infuences, Arlo highlights Autobiography of Red – Canadian writer Anne Carson’s retelling of the myth of Geryon and Herakles - as a notable one. In the original Greek story, Herakles kills Geryon (a monstrous red creature with huge wings) almost as an

afterthought, with a single arrow through the head. Carson’s version reimagines the pair as queer lovers, with Geryon fnding solace from his personal trauma in art and photography. “It inspired me to add ‘red wings’ in parentheses at the end of ‘Room’,” she explains. It’s easily the darkest song on the record, with Arlo’s narrator singing of her own wings being clipped, and detailing her intense fears of losing a person who keeps her grounded. “B-roll of us in my lids, dusting the coke off your fst,” she sings. “You were so far up, I would worry desperately.”

Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir In The Dream House – the author’s haunting refection on memory, narration, and an abusive queer relationship – was also embroidered into the tapestry that created ‘My Soft Machine’. “It’s very affecting,” Arlo says, “especially in a queer landscape, and having this element of surrealism and poetry. It feels so viscerally real. I spoke to Carmen actually, for [Arlo’s 6Music show] Dream Fuel, and I was very starstruck. The way that she crafts her book - it’s kind of nebulous in terms of its genre, but it just feels like itself. That’s something that I gravitate to in everything – that’s always the goal.”

And at its core, ‘My Soft Machine’ feels like a similarly edge-blurring record about love, and the messy, vulnerable, free-falling feeling that comes from opening yourself up to somebody else fully, no matter how scary that may be. “Some of my favourite pieces of writing around love, or pieces of music, have this openness,” Arlo agrees. “They show themselves being ripped apart by the feeling,” she concludes. “When you’re that open about something, then you also encourage people to hold the mirror up to themselves.”

’My Soft Machine’ is out 26th May via Transgressive. DIY

It ’s important for my own health and heart to know that there are things that I have just for myself .

My

purpose is to entertain and make music for people to escape to.

It takes confdence and a playful sense of humour to name your album ‘That!

Feels Good!’, but Jessie Ware has both qualities in spades. Those fabulously unselfconscious exclamation marks have certainly been earned after the “career resurrection” - her words - that the singer pulled off with her last album, 2020’s ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’. A stunning disco opus that managed to feel sultry and sweaty at the time, it heralded the beginning of an era for Jessie defned by fun and an irresistible prioritisation of good times in all their forms.

“I think it’s kind of demanding people notice me, whereas I’ve never been particularly keen on that in the past,” Jessie says when we meet at her South London home. Despite struggling with a nasty-sounding sore throat, she’s as warm and welcoming as you’d expect from the co-host of a hit podcast about food and family, Table Manners, which she makes with her mum Lennie. An enviably relaxed cat is enjoying a mid-morning nap on the sofa; a delicious dark chocolate cookie is presented with coffee as we sit down to chat.

“And so there’s an assertion [there] that I wasn’t properly doing before,” she continues, making herself comfortable on the foor. What made her want to be more assertive? “I know what I’m doing now,” she replies plainly. “I was so focused on what I wanted this record to be; I knew I wanted it to pick up from [gorgeously lush single] ‘Remember Where You Are’ from the last record. I knew I wanted this one to be a really groove-led, energetic, soulful record.”

Riding the joyous second wave of her career into evermore sparkling territory, Jessie Ware is having the time of her life - and inviting everyone along to join her. Words: Nick Levine.

F EEL GOOD INC.

’That! Feels Good!’, her ffth album, defnitely feels like a relative to ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’, but it’s also a sonic progression. It’s still disco, but warmer and more organic-sounding – a funkier cousin, perhaps. Co-written by the singer with producers including Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford and Madonna collaborator Stuart Price, it also has a pretty fruity sense of humour. ‘Shake the Bottle’, on which Jessie lists the pros and cons of various fctional male suitors, was partly inspired by campy new wave legends The B-52’s.

She described ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ as a “thank you” to the LGBTQ+ community, which has supported her passionately since she launched her recording career 13 years ago. It’s a connection that’s underscored on ‘That! Feels Good!’. Trailed with ‘Free Yourself’ – a life-affrming house banger that she debuted at last year’s Glastonbury Festival – and the equally irresistible second single ‘Pearls’, when she sings “I’m a lover, a freak and a mother” on the latter, Jessie is partly referring to the fact that she is, quite literally, a mum of three.

But at the same time, it’s also a knowing nod to her status as a beloved LGBTQ+ icon - “mother” currently being Queer Twitter’s favourite compliment to bestow on a woman who has, as Gemma Collins might say, really “earned her divaship”. “I watch RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose, so I know about mothers [in the LGBTQ+ community],” Jessie says. “But when I started seeing it in my Instagram comments, I was like, ‘Am I being a complete egomaniac, or is

Jessie Ware’s Most Motherly Moments

‘mother’ coming up quite a lot?’ So I knew the lyric could play both ways - I’m not stupid! And actually, the people I was writing with started calling me ‘mother’ as well.”

still Jessie’s best position on the UK singles chartbut to this day, she believes it’s just a TikTok trend away from becoming a full-on crossover smash.

Her fans call her ‘Mother’; here’s a few times Jessie more than justifed the title…

Her fans call her ‘Mother’; here’s a few times Jessie more than justifed the title…

Imagine It Was Us

Recorded for the reissue of debut album ‘Devotion’, this glitzy single didn't get enough attention when it dropped in 2013. But in a way, it helped to lay the groundwork for Jessie’s later forays into disco.

#JusticeForImagineItWasUs

What's Your Pleasure?

The title track from her gamechanging fourth album is equal parts steamy and sultry. “Push, press, more, less,” she sings suggestively. “Here together, what's your pleasure?”

Kiss of Life

You know you’re hitting the dance-pop jackpot when Kylie Minogue is up for a collab. The Australian pop icon even joined Jessie to perform it at Brixton Academy last year.

Pearls

Ware declares herself “mother” on the second single from ‘That! Feels Good!’ Propelled by a buoyant beat and an absolutely storming vocal, it really will make you want to “shake it till the pearls fall off”.

Believe

Covering Cher’s classic is a bold move, but Jessie pulled it off in some style during a recent visit to Radio 2’s Piano Room.

Embracing her ‘mother’ status is yet another way in which Jessie is displaying the confdence she’s gained from the ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ era. It wasn’t just her highest-charting LP to date, peaking at Number Three in the UK, but also a critical hit that was nominated for Album of the Year at the BRIT Awards. Barack Obama, meanwhile, picked ‘Remember Where You Are’ as one of his songs of 2020.

Then, the triumphant accompanying tour saw the singer sell out two nights at O2 Academy Brixton - her local venue growing up - and open for Harry Styles in Chicago. “Because people were receiving [the music] with open arms, you feel that, and you feel motivated by that,” she says. “I felt the most free I’ve ever felt on stage, the most commanding, the most happy and focused. I felt like I really appreciated being an artist again. I don’t think I appreciated it enough at the beginning because I was just so terrifed.”

Jessie, who cut her teeth singing backing vocals for old South London schoolmate Jack Peñate, was positioned as a class act from the start. Her frst two singles, 2010’s ‘Nervous’ and 2011’s ‘Valentine’, were super-cool collaborations with dubstep producer SBTRKT and electronic soul musician Sampha respectively. Then, her 2012 debut album ‘Devotion’ introduced her as a sophisticated soul-pop singer with one foot in the dance world (infectious single ‘If You’re Never Gonna Move’ was produced by house DJ Julio Bashmore) and the other in alt-rock credibility. Most of its tracks were produced by Dave Okumu of experimental indie band The Invisible.

‘Devotion’ went gold in the UK and received a Mercury Prize nod, so why was Jessie so terrifed?

“I just think that I got too much critical acclaim too early,” she says candidly. “I’m really proud of that record, but I have to credit Dave Okumu for the Mercury nomination because it was our thing together. He protected me and I loved the [recording] process so much, but I knew so much less at that time and I said so much less. I didn’t feel worthy of the accolades, and so therefore I felt like I was going to get found out. I felt like I needed to prove myself.”

She calls ‘Devotion’ an “intimate record” made with “a little group of lovely people,” but its unexpected success led to greater expectations for her follow-up. “I’m a people pleaser, so I was like, ‘OK, well what do I need to do to please you now?’” she recalls. “Whereas actually, I quite liked it when I was the underdog. I still feel like a semiunderdog now.”

She set about meeting those expectations with 2014’s ‘Tough Love’: a more expensive-sounding second album that included tracks produced by Lana Del Rey collaborator Emile Haynie and pop hitmaker Benny Blanco. Her record label must have hoped that ‘Say You Love Me’, an unabashedly romantic ballad co-written with Ed Sheeran, would become a huge mainstream breakthrough hit for their highly praised artist. It charted at a credible 22 –

‘Tough Love’ was another gold-selling success, but Jessie readily admits she found the album that came next, 2017’s sedate, stately ‘Glasshouse’, her most challenging to make. The recording process became even more “tarnished by politics and agendas” as she fretted about becoming “irrelevant” and continued trying to please everyone.

“I think I tried to make some music for Radio 1, because it’s in your ear the whole time that you have to get on radio,” she admits. “And actually, I do have radio support [now], on Radio 2. But Radio 1 became such a focus then, and it wasn’t necessarily paying off. I was an artist who was born out of blogs and the internet; that’s why I’ve always had this weird reach to many different countries, and I appreciate that. But I think the agenda was always, ‘If I’m on the radio, that’s gonna lead to blah blah blah and bigger sales’.” Sadly, it never quite panned out that way. “I wasn’t happier and I wasn’t selling more records,” she says frankly.

During this period, Jessie also felt the stakes had been raised because she and husband Sam, whom she married in 2014, had just welcomed their frst child. “I was the breadwinner and had to deliver to pay for my mortgage,” she says. “I know this is like, frst-world problems - I get that. But I just felt under immense pressure all the time and I kind of wasn’t being honest.” Even now, she says she can’t listen to ‘Thinking About You’, a ‘Glasshouse’ song about leaving her daughter to go to work, “because I feel so wretched about it and it brings up so much guilt “.

Jessie has moved on from trying to please Radio 1, but it still rankled when the station didn’t playlist ‘Free Yourself’ last year. “It was selected by pretty much every DJ [on the station]; they all played it repeatedly,” she says. “But someone was stopping it being playlisted - somebody at the top. And to be honest, I could get really pissed off about it, or [I could think] I don’t really give a shit.” She is under no illusion that as a female pop singer approaching 40 (she turned 38 in October), certain avenues are being shut down because of pernicious music industry sexism. “It’s sad that an old rock band can still get played, but equally, like, I don’t really give a shit anymore. I’m OK,” she says defantly.

On that count, it’s impossible to disagree with her. In addition to her musical “resurrection,” she’s cultivated a successful side-hustle with Table Manners, which has welcomed illustrious guests including Dolly Parton and Paul McCartney, and even spawned a live tour. No longer terrifed, Jessie Ware knows exactly who she is as an artist and as a performer. “My purpose is to entertain and make music for people to escape to,” she says. “That’s become my sole purpose when I’m on stage. I want them to dance and really enjoy themselves for an hour-and-a-half. And I know I can make that happen.”

‘That! Feels Good!’ is out 28th April via EMI. DIY

BLOWING

REFINING THEIR DANCE-PUNK HYBRID ON SECOND ALBUM ‘LAUGH LIKE A BOMB’, BABA ALI ARE CONCOCTING A LATE-NIGHT WORLD WORTH STAYING UP FOR. Words: Max Pilley.

Baba Ali’s recent single ‘Burn Me Out’ crashes into life on the back of a razor-cut, flthy post-disco synth beat, accentuated by a skittering, shuffing percussive rattle, with a spiderfngered keyboard melody crawling around in the background. Maria Uzor, singer with the dance-punk duo Sink Ya Teeth, joins Baba in an immaculately aloof, arch double lead vocal that acts as an incantatory call for the world to be brought down in fames. The track gathers a sadistic, nocturnal momentum; one of the most sordid slices of subversive pop music you’ll hear in 2023.

It’s a typical representation of the duo’s second studio album, ‘Laugh Like a Bomb’: a record that captures the strange alchemy that binds these two musical minds together. For the project, Babaa native of New Jersey who relocated to London in 2016 - is joined by Nik Balchin, a British record producer and multi-instrumentalist; while their debut LP, 2020’s ‘Memory Device’, promised much, ‘Laugh Like a Bomb’ sees them arrive for good. “We’re making bolder choices now, both visually and sonically,” says the vocalist. “People are starting to get familiar with what we do and who we are. It’s exciting.”

The central dichotomy of the duo’s music, and the contradiction that is writ large across LP2, is the combination of the late-night, underground dancefoor energy that they channel through their electronic production, and the jagged, maniacal attack that stems from their use of raucous guitar parts. The icy, insouciant character that Ali embodies on tracks like ‘I’m Bored’ - pitched

Photo: Garry Jones.

somewhere between the cool slick of Grace Jones and the seductive animation of David Byrne - contrasts with the red raw production of ‘Make U Feel’ or ‘Hold My Hand’, where Nik’s guitar parts rip through the detachment and set the tracks ablaze.

“Growing up, generally I was quite focused on guitar-led music: The Stooges, The White Stripes, The Kills,” says Nik. “As I’ve got older, I’ve obviously become more open, as I feel like you should, but I come from listening to music that is guitar-heavy.” “There was always the electronic element, but fundamentally, I grew up as a hip-hop kid,” counters Baba. “I played piano, but in terms of making my own music, my frst instrument was a drum sampler. That’s still to a certain extent how I create music now, with drum machines and stuff like that.”

It’s the fusion of the two, a balance they’ve been working on since they joined forces in 2018, that pushes Baba Ali’s music into elevated territory; these days, they describe their relationship as “telepathic”. The two met when they shared a job behind the bar at The Hope & Anchor in Islington in 2016, pulling pints together and playing songs on the house iPod. Realising the differences in their respective tastes, the moments of revelation came when they selected songs from each others’ wheelhouses: Nik impressed Baba with a choice J Dilla cut, while the latter surprised his soon-to-be bandmate with his love for the late ‘70s French no wave pioneers Casino Music and Athens, Georgia indie band Pylon.

“A lot of the other bartenders were also music students,” remembers Baba, who himself was studying at the time. “Nik didn’t study music, so I naturally gravitated towards him.” “It still took him about two years to ask me to be in a band with him, so I guess there was a slow build,” Nik jokes.

Their frst album was produced by Al Doyle of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, a connection the duo had been particularly enthusiastic about establishing after the release of the latter’s 2017 opus ‘American Dream’. “He was more involved on that LCD record than anyone else has ever been [on an album of theirs],” says Nik. “So on that level, I was interested to work with him just to see what he picked up working so closely with James Murphy, both in the studio and live. We weren’t disappointed.”

For ‘Laugh Like A Bomb’, the duo took on production duties themselves, but were afforded the opportunity to do so in the studio that Al hand-built during the pandemic. “Obviously, his synth collection is very much part of that place – we tried our best not to use them, but we were easily enchanted,” says Baba, smiling. “One of the biggest gifts that Al gave to us in allowing us to use the studio was trust – trusting us to go in there and just do something with it. That gave us a lot of confdence and positive energy. We just had fun with it.”

This inquisitive sense of fun is winning them

supporters in high places, and it’s not just Al that’s predicting great things for Baba Ali these days. In the past year alone, they’ve opened up for Self Esteem, Yard Act, !!! and The Go! Team, however as they prepare to release ‘Laugh Like a Bomb’, the duo are champing at the bit to headline their own tour. As with everything else, they’re overfowing with ideas about how to make it stand out.

“We’re moving more and more towards putting on shows that are later and trying out club environments, while still retaining what we do,” says Baba. “It’s cool [because] what we do appeals to a dance scene, but you still have this guitar that takes you out of it every now and then, momentarily. It’s all about creating the atmosphere that serves the music we’re making.

“The most exciting thing is when our shows really do come together,” he continues, “because we can be louder and crazier than our recordings ever allow us to be. In those moments, we know we’re doing something worthwhile.”

‘Laugh Like A Bomb’ is out 21st April via Memphis Industries. DIY

“We’re making bolder choices now, both visually and sonically.” - Baba Ali

Ever since she was a child, Indigo de Souza has been grappling with the question at the root of the human experience: “Why live if you’re just gonna die at the end of it?” If existence is fundamentally futile and no one makes it out alive, then for a long time the North Carolina musician would struggle with how you’re meant to fll the space in between.

“I found some journals from when I was 12 or 13 in my mum’s house the other day, and all of them were just like, ‘Why am I here? What’s the point?’” she says. “I had literally written that I wanted to die. I was so fucked up as a child. It was actually nice to read those letters because I felt so insane for so long but [it turns out] I’ve always been this way. For some reason, I’ve always been confused about being alive.”

There’s a positive punchline to the narrative; these days, with her soon-to-be-released third record in her back pocket, Indigo has done something of a u-turn. ‘All of This Will End’ might sound like the bleak reckoning of a person in turmoil, but its statement title is essentially the opposite: a glass half full exhalation of acceptance that comes with an unspoken addendum… and so let’s embrace the ride.

“There’s a shift that happened in the middle of the pandemic when I realised that my whole perception on the idea of death had completely changed and that, instead of feeling really sad and out of control over it, I felt really just so much joy and happiness that I get the chance to be here for a little while,” she recalls. “And because of that chance, I get to do whatever I want with it, and I can really, really pour intention into every moment and express myself and make art and connect with people and try to make changes in my small corner of the world. That shift was so cool and it’s really stuck with me.”

And so, though its refective lyrics still often ring with confict and pain (she might be somewhat enlightened, but she’s still only human), there’s a brightness and excitement to her third that feels borne from realising that it’s all up for grabs. “The album feels like the most confdent thing I’ve ever done,” she nods. “I just remember fnishing and listening to it, and thinking that I wouldn't change anything. It was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Sat on her bed in a pink kimono-style robe, arms covered in tattoos, Indigo exudes the aura of an artist. She’s planning a relocation away from her adopted hometown of Asheville to a secluded spot where she and her best friend intend to “homestead on the land”. Originally hailing from a small town elsewhere in the state, her mother was a multi-hyphenate creative, the sort of woman who could “just put her mind to anything and do it really well”.

It’s perhaps surprising, then, that Indigo’s own journey as a musician has been one so riddled with self-doubt. Though she describes her homelife as inspiring, she recalls a constant, niggling inferiority complex. “Because my mum is such an incredible artist and did so many different things, I felt like there wasn’t a ton of room for me to do things or to express myself,” she explains. When she moved out, releasing her debut in 2018 and critically-acclaimed follow up ‘Any Shape You Take’ in 2021, she found herself in a different kind

Written in the midst of upheaval, ‘All of This Will End’ fnds Indigo de Souza searching within herself and fnding comfort in the great unknown. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Angella Choe.

“ Fo soe reao, I’ ve always ben cofued about bein alve.”

of negative space. “I was surrounded by really depressed indie artists, [where there’s] a lot of darkness; it was hard to have strength,” she says.

It took a pandemic for everything to shift. She decided to actively change her social circle, fnding people “who knew about and were learning from nature, and making fres down by the creek, and hanging out together and talking about their feelings and creating really life-giving, deep bonds”. One day, the entire group took a big, communal mushroom trip that reset the musician’s views on vast areas of her life. “I came out of it realising that I didn’t want anyone else to make my art for me anymore,” she says. “I have visions for everything visually and musically, and it feels important to me to do it my way and show up for people in the most honest way possible.”

In the midst of it all, ‘All of This Will End’ took shape - written while living alone, re-evaluating her life and refecting on everything that had come before. You can hear the push and pull across the record. On the fuzzy, self-soothing swaddle of ‘Losing’, she questions “Am I trying hard enough? Or am I trying too much?”; the deceptively breezy indie-rock of ‘Parking Lot’ is full of devastating observations (“I’m not sure what is wrong with me but it’s probably just hard to be a person feeling anything”), meanwhile the crux comes on the album’s title track. “I don’t have answers - no one does / I’ve been fnding comfort in that,” she sings as gently lulling guitars build into a soft wall of sound. “There’s only love / There’s only moving through and trying your best.”

Trying her best, then, seems to suit Indigo de Souza well. The reaction to ‘Any Shape…’, she smiles, gave her the confdence to truly believe that just being herself was a good thing to be while, having also drawn a line under much of her creative team following that album, her latest marks an audible embrace of the more immediate sounds of the pop world that she loves. She gets visibly excited talking about her new guitarist (“a total beast”) and drummer (“incredible”) and how they helped her make the bold choices that write themselves over the gnarly riffs of ‘Wasting Your Time’ or opener ‘Time Back’ - perhaps the most radio-friendly, crossover track she’s penned to date.

“I love big sounds that move your spirit in a big way, and it just feels invigorating to make music that’s really hitting in a specifc power,” she says. “When we were

PUTTING THE ‘FUN’ IN FUNGI

Indigo’s a big believer in the power of mushrooms. She explains why…

“I had a very big mushroom trip with my entire community and I came out of it being able to draw again. I don’t do them that much but I do them every once in a while to get back in touch with myself. Sometimes there’s revelations and sometimes it’s just working through some stuff, but I think mushrooms are really important for healing and I think the world would probably have a lot less problems if everyone were to experiment with that. I would suggest taking like four grams of mushrooms [as a frst timer] and just start there…”

doing ‘Wasting Your Time’, which is one of my favourites, I was just screaming into the mic and it came out sounding so insane - sometimes you don’t even know what the sound is, it just sounds like death. I just remember feeling so excited about the album [when I was] recording that because it sounded just like I wanted it to.”

There’s melodic grunge on ‘You Can Be Mean’; drum machine beats and sassy kiss-offs (“You think that I’m trying to fuck but I’m really just trying to bang”) on recent single ‘Smog’ and a wide-screen yearn of connection on ‘Not My Body’. On ‘Younger & Dumber’, an acoustichelmed, stripped back meditation that closes the record, she concludes with a refection: “When I was younger / Younger and dumber / I didn’t know better”. It’s potentially a sad note to end on, but in its empathy for the past it also implicitly contains hope for the future.

“I’ll never have everything fgured out and I’ll always struggle with mental illness and probably always be a bit messed up, no matter what,” she says. “I think I will always be a little bit sad but I’m also completely able to function in the world and enjoy my life even though that is the case.” Looking forward, she can fnally see the point of it all and her place within it. “For me, success would be feeling like anything is possible.”

‘All of This Will End’ is out 28th April via Saddle Creek. DIY

lke aytin i posile.

“

Fo me, suces would be feln

”

(Fat White

COLLATERAL DAMAGE IS WORTH THE ANNOYANCE

People think I’m insane for having parties in the studio, and sometimes things do get damaged - someone put a cigarette out on the piano once and burnt one of the keys; that was really annoying - but it’s well worth it to me because then I know what the room should feel like with lots of people listening to a banger. I remember with the frst Kae Tempest stuff that we did, it was so weird and we weren’t really sure what it was because it was kind of an experiment - doing something narrative with beats and rapping that wasn’t hip-hop. But I remember lots of people coming back after a show at the Windmill, putting ‘Happy End’ on and everyone being like, ‘What the fuck is this, this is hard!’

CURVEBALLS CAN TAKE YOU PLACES…

I was doing a lot of folk stuff with Emilíana Torrini and Parlophone were trying to sign her, so as something to entice her they asked if we wanted to do a song for Kylie. We went back and wrote ‘Slow’ and she loved it. The only brief they had was to make it really fucking cool so I thought yeah, how about some minimal acid techno?

DON’T JUDGE A BAND BY THEIR NAME

Wet Leg came over for two days just to see how it would go and we recorded ‘Wet Dream’, ‘Ur Mum’ and ‘Supermarket’. I remember calling my manager and saying to cancel everything in the schedule because we had to do the album; at the time, he hadn’t heard anything and didn’t like the name, so had said he didn’t think I should do it. I was just like, ‘Trust me…’. I knew they were amazing, you could feel that there was a lot of potential but I don’t think anyone could have predicted that it would quite go off in the way that it has.

RESTRICTIONS ARE YOUR FRIEND

A while back, I made this album called ‘The Rules’ which kind of mutated into Speedy Wunderground. With Speedy, it’s about a time restriction [all tracks are recorded entirely in a 24-hour period], because one day isn’t enough to get completely lost in the process. Sometimes having more time is right for certain things, but this works because what you come out with is a better snapshot of what you’re thinking at that time and it’s not overcooked.

…AND A LITTLE SPRINKLE OF MADNESS CAN ONLY BE A GOOD THING

The studio looks a bit chaotic, so I think most people feel quite at home here. I’ll set the band up so that everyone’s interacting with each other, and then I'll mix all the signals into another amp that plays a version of whatever everyone else is playing, so it’s like having a crazy person with a loud amp playing along with you. Ten times out of ten it makes everyone excited in the room, then sometimes I’ll turn all the lights off and put the smoke machine and the lasers on, so you’re completely in another world when you’re playing. When Squid did ‘The Dial’, all the lasers were happening and I asked them to play it loads faster and it turned into this whole other song.

BEING A DECENT PERSON WILL GET YOU FAR

slowthai’s got an amazing quality where, when he comes into a room, everyone is just in a slightly better mood than they were before. Some people can make a whole room feel tense but he’s the opposite; everyone just relaxes. We spent ages [whilst making ‘UGLY’] just jamming; throughout the day, different people would just come and join in for a bit, it was very chilled. It was a really fun record to make because he’s so good at making everyone else feel good.

NURTURE YOUR IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS

The long relationships feel really nice. I love working with Fontaines. Even though it hasn’t been a long period of time, we've done three albums together. With Kae as well, we’re working on Album Five now, so those things do feel really special. I think we all probably share the same desire to keep things evolving. Everything that we do feels different from everything we’ve done previously, and it would be harder to have a long relationship with someone if they didn’t think like that.

HOW TO MAKE A RECORD

A ccording to

Dan Carey

Flick through any issue of this magazine from the last half-decade and you’ll fnd one name that crops up more than any other: that of prolifc producer extraordinaire and Speedy Wunderground head honcho, Dan Carey. He’s the man twiddling the knobs on all your favourite records, from Wet Leg’s world-beating debut to slowthai’s recent masterpiece ‘UGLY’. He’s brought every Fontaines DC album to life, sat at the centre of the post-punk revival (Squid, black midi, Goat Girl and Warmduscher have all recorded LPs with him) and released early tracks from the likes of Kae Tempest, Black Country, New Road, PVA and more. As Speedy Wunderground celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, who better, then, to share his tricks of the trade… Interview: Lisa Wright. Photo: Emma Swann.

DON’T BE CONSTRAINED BY GENRE

We’re releasing a Speedy boxset of dub mixes and someone asked me the other day why they exist because it’s kind of a weird thing to do on this kind of label. I learnt production through a dub producer, so all his mixing was live dubs and I just thought that was how you did it. After I did Kylie, all the major labels would send me these popstars like Britney to write with; I’d be making this weird tune and at the end I’d completely fuck up the mix by just putting loads of echo on everything until they’d be like, ‘What on earth are you doing?!’ Eventually someone told me that’s not normally what you do, but then I got interested in taking the process of making dub but applying it to the wrong situation, so now it’s become a tradition and that’s why these mixes exist.

PRIORITISE PLEASURE

Sometimes when I describe things it sounds a little bit like just fucking around: some of it is hard work. But at the same time, life’s too short and it’s not worth it if it’s not interesting and enjoyable. We’re not making a vaccine for anything, it’s just music and it should be fun.

‘Speedy Wunderground - The Dubs Vol. 1’ is released 4th August. DIY

“I listen to bands hate on modern music and I think, ‘But that’s because you couldn’t write a modern music song…’”

ALONG the RIDE for

“My job is to notice things and to think about things,” decides Matt Maltese, eating a shakshuka out of a comically large tagine in a North London café. He’s just been on a chilly walk for his DIY photoshoot and is feeling grateful that, unlike last time we took his picture back in 2021, we haven’t plunged him into a grubby pond, fully clothed.

Right now, the thing that he’s noticing is that his eggs are a bit runny, as he pokes them suspiciously with a fork, but usually the 25-year-old troubadour is noticing other things: things about the state of the world and about human connection; observations that he’s then sprinkled with a blend of wit and melancholy across three glorious albums. Soon, he’s about to release his fourth, ‘Driving Just To Drive’, which more than ever feels like a peek behind his eyelids, into his life and psyche.

He puts the terracotta top back on his lunch for a bit, opting to avoid a potential bout of salmonella, and continues his thought about the often overwhelmingly heartfelt nature of his music. “I’ve always tried to be as honest as possible, and you can’t really hate on yourself for doing that,” he says matter of factly. “It’s like writing a diary but your diary is your living. And so you keep writing more diaries and [hope that] people care about your life – or your take – enough.”

Matt’s records have always felt like documents of growth. Signed to Atlantic aged 19 for debut album ‘Bad Contestant’ only to be dropped a year later, his career has been one of peaks and troughs, one minute being “told by The Guardian that you’re interesting” and then the next minute feeling like you “don’t have anything, really”.

With nothing to lose and no Plan B, he persevered. “I thought I might as well be exactly what I want to be, not think about how I’m being perceived and stop trying to game it. The only way forward is to just be yourself,” he adds. “Which must be hard for like, arseholes...”

A couple of years ago, that very 2020-something thing happened where one of Matt’s songs, ‘As The World Caves In’, blew up on TikTok. Far from a canny marketing campaign, it was completely organic, young people fnding its apocalyptic

Life’s motorway is full of unexpected bends and, on fourth album ‘Driving Just to Drive’, MATT MALTESE is embracing them with his most self-assured effort yet.

Words: Charlotte Gunn. Photos: Louise Mason.

“I’ve always been chronically re ective. at’s kind of my thing.”

balladry the perfect soundtrack to a global pandemic. “It was bizarre. I have a different relationship to going viral than other people because I wasn’t even on TikTok at the time,” he says. “It came out of thin air. I wasn’t, like, a pioneer.”

The track has now been streamed over 291 million times on Spotify alone. A very happy accident, then? “I think for some people it validated getting dropped by Atlantic, or unvalidated that. But I honestly didn’t think too much about it.” He has now embraced the video platform under the brilliant Stars In Their Eyes-referencing moniker @ tonightmatthew, and he’s enjoying the ride.

“The whole music industry is TikTok now and hey, I really like it,” he shrugs. “It’s amazing how people can romanticise the things they liked 10 years ago. People say they want the old Instagram, and before that they wanted print journalism. But really, was that the thing? As if paying a guy twenty grand to play your song in a radio meeting was the main route to success? That’s really grim! And sure, TikTok has its own evils, but as a means of music consumption it’s really democratic. People just hate what kids like.”

There’s a new-found confdence in Matt both as he talks and on ‘Driving Just To Drive’ – a sincerity that perhaps comes from getting older and feeling more at peace. “I think earnestness makes

“ e only way forward is to just be yourself. Which must be hard for like, arseholes...”

Dear Uncle Matt

Wise beyond his years, we lean on Matthew for some sage advice.

Dear Uncle Matt. I'm in a relationship with someone who I love very much, but every time we watch a flm they insist on something with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it.

It sounds to me like they have some kind of childhood safety thing attached to Arnie, so I feel like, treat it like a therapy problem before making any rash decisions. Find a way of them creating that safe space without watching that flm. And then of course, if they don't want to do therapy, I think you do have to break up with them.

Dear Uncle Matt. I’m getting weighed down by the heaviness in the news. How can I live a happy life when everything around me is crumbling?

Yeah, I mean, I defnitely don't have the answer to that. I think maybe focus on fnding ways to make your own days better, whether that is avoiding the news or doing something for a friend. I fnd listening to depressing podcasts helps me feel like I’m not alone and quite at peace. So maybe listen to something depressing – or something happy if you’re not wired in a weird way like I am.

Dear Uncle Matt. I think my relationship with my girlfriend has run its course, but she's completely embedded in my family. How can I break up these relationships as well as ours?

I think at the end of the day, it's your life. Unfortunately, this is the fallout from you making a decision about what you need to do with the relationship. At the end of the day, especially with younger relationships, I think your ‘in-laws’ are kind of your family but they're also not, you know? They're connected to a relationship and if that relationship isn't working, then the web has to break a bit.

for the healthiest state of mind,” he says, earnestly. “Being sarcastic and self-deprecating - those things are very fun, but the whole point is to be real with yourself and the people around you. So now I try to use it to make people laugh, rather than to try and hide the truth.”

The album fnds the musician with his head somewhat in the past, reminiscing about his hometown of Reading (‘Museum’), a notable early gig (‘Florence’) and past loves (‘But Leaving Is’). It’s a perspective that he thinks came from the pandemic’s brutal reminder that everything is feeting, contrasted with a return to “normality”, where fnding meaning is an endless struggle. “I’ve always been chronically refective. That’s kind of my thing,” he notes. “But coming out of COVID, I had a relationship that didn’t work out and I felt a bit like, ‘What am I? What is life?’ And then that took me back to my childhood and I started to feel a lot more relaxed about it. You know, I’m very fortunate really. I would have HATED living in a cave…”

It’s not all serious though, and on LP4 there are plenty of moments of levity. The peppy, Fleetwood Mac-esque ‘Mortician’ features some alwayswelcome Maltese mirth (“You say that men like me can’t make their minds up / I think you’re wrong but I can’t decide”). On ‘Hello Black Dog’, he personifes his sadness as some sort of looming, inescapable ex“Hello black dog, it’s been a while / I changed my address and blocked you online” - while on single ‘Mother’, he writes from the viewpoint of his mum, who is more upset about his breakup than he is. “That conversation just really stayed with me,” he says of the real-life chat with Mrs Maltese that spawned the idea. “When I was writing the album, you search your life for interesting things that have happened, and it was just a really funny conversation. Sad, but also funny.”

For this record, he teamed up with a producer for the frst time in a while, picking relative newbie Josh Scarbrow - a collaborator with Arlo Parks and Etta Marcus - who had never worked on a full album before. “I needed to mix it up and Josh was a friend already. You sort of know what it’s going to be like when it’s just you. I wanted to know what it would be like with someone else.”

Josh’s production has layered a cinematic quality onto Matt’s hearttuggy vocals but, despite enjoying the process, he remains largely a lone wolf. “I think I’ll fit between the two for my future albums,” he says of the experience. “Making stuff with people is a lot more fun. But with the writing especially, I think I’m just too far gone to really make it super-collaborative. I’m conscious that a big part of that process will always be alone.”

Nonetheless, collaboration exists in his work in other ways. In recent years he’s worked as a songwriter with the great and good of British female pop talent including Celeste, Etta Marcus, Joy Crookes and Birdy. Is he setting himself up as the British Jack Antonoff? “It’s just the offers I get,” he says of his tendency to work with women. “I haven’t thought about it too deeply, really. I would say my energy as a person maybe isn’t classically masculine? I have a lot of female friends and when I look out at shows, maybe my songwriting connects more to women than to men? But yeah, I defnitely don’t have a preference.”

Matt has always viewed his work as a service. Speaking to DIY in the past, he’s expressed that music is a way to “pay his rent and connect with people”. With so many songwriters professing to write for themselves and themselves alone, it’s a refreshing perspective. “I often feel like the people saying that [are people who] have parents with a house in Finsbury Park. It just sounds nice doesn't it?” he says, not really buying it as a line. “I’m not considering other people in the way that I’m sat at a notepad, like, ‘What do people think?!’ But for me, to not lean into what connects with people wouldn’t make me good at my job. I make stuff for people, defnitely.”

Not quite done with the subject, he carries on. “When people say they’re making stuff for themselves, really they mean that they’re making stuff for the elite side of indie music in the UK. And I always think if you were making it for yourself, you’d be making a lot more accessible music because we’re all full of feelings - we’re not all full of intellectual thought.

“And people who can’t write choruses also like to slag off people who can. I do fnd that’s a thing. I listen to bands hate on modern music and I always think, ‘But that’s because you couldn’t write a modern music song’. Slagging off pop music is the same as slagging off the headspace of people who aren’t that deep-thinking – but that’s a nicer way to live…”

As he shovels in the rest of his shakshuka, running late for a writing session with Celeste, it’s clearer than ever that Matt Maltese is just one of life’s thinkers. “I feel like I am just soppy and emotional and sentimental, and I feel things deeper than the next person - or so I’ve been told,” he pauses. “It sort of adds up. So now I just lean into that, and try to make good in my friendship groups and family, and make music that people feel comfort listening to because yeah, that’s all there is really.”

‘Driving Just to Drive’ is out 28th April via Nettwerk. DIY

A story of unbreakable friendship and mutual respect.

 BOYGENIUS

the record (Interscope / Polydor)

The anatomy of the supergroup has a rocky past, often pulled together for commercial gain or a desperate attempt to revive a fatlining legacy. That the individual parts of boygenius are arguably better known as a trio tells a different story, one of unbreakable friendship and deep-rooted mutual respect that has rapidly become the lifeblood of the collaboration. Touching on an unavoidable cliche, they are better because of each other.

It’s no mean feat given their statuses as three of the best songwriters around. They share a powerful honesty that has encouraged a crossover of their respective fanbases, but each boast distinctive nuances that are brought effortlessly to the table. Julien Baker’s self-critical charm bleeds in, as does Lucy Dacus’ heavier tone and quick-witted wording. Phoebe Bridgers - away from boygenius, the biggest name on the line-up but here perfectly aligned - brings her dense blend of delicacy and rage. The screams that brought 2020’s ‘Punisher’ to a crashing end ring out on ‘Satanist’ and ‘$20’ – the latter one of boygenius’ punchiest tracks to date.

’the record’ never shies away from being a sum of these parts, with their love for each other’s craft helping to avoid the temptation to reinvent the wheel. There are songs that are unmistakably assigned to one of their strengths; ‘True Blue’ continues the themes from Lucy’s ‘Home Video’, ‘Anti-Curse’ elevates the full-band outing from Julien’s ‘Little Oblivions’, and closer ‘Letter To An Old Poet’ unfolds in

a way only Phoebe could manage. But even in these moments, it’s clear all three are being pushed beyond their usual creative comfort zones.

Phoebe speaks of ‘Emily I’m Sorry’ being the moment boygenius was reignited, written as a solo track but in her mind destined for ‘the record’. It’s indicative of the album’s power of the combined voice, not just in the obviously beautiful harmonies, but also in the playful instrumental and lyrical nods. The words switch from sincere to funny in the blink of an eye, some such as ‘Leonard Cohen’ a self-referential in-joke that simultaneously comments on male singer-songwriter tropes. The track plays out without a chorus, something that none of boygenius’ component parts would have likely written alone.

Here, the trio sound more assured than ever, willing to sit outside of their respective norms, placing their unity frst while never shying away from their shared experiences in lyrics and tone. On stand-out ‘Not Strong Enough’, the trio come together with perfect precision, landing the balance between lyrical poignancy and enacting a longstanding desire to reference Sheryl Crow. It’s a shining moment in a sound of friendship that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but comes built on an unshakable admiration for every facet of their beings. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Not Strong Enough’

A humid release full of yearning and questions.

 LANA DEL REY

Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)

Nestled within ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel

Under Ocean Blvd’ is some of Lana Del Rey’s best work - and not just because it somewhat baffingly ends with a chunk of a lifetime-peak track (’Venice Bitch’) that she already released fve years ago. Among the sprawling, 16-song tracklist are concise moments you might more traditionally associate with the production touch of omnipresent pop magic-sprinkler Jack Antonoff. But that’s clearly not the point of ‘…Ocean Blvd’.

Instead, Lana’s latest is full of offerings that change course halfway through and interludes that sometimes outstay their welcome. It’s a record that plays out like a Tennessee Williams drama, with all its restless, unsure inbetweens left in. Dreamlike sequences and fashes of uncomfortable laughter pepper a humid release full of yearning and questions: about motherhood, about humanity, about herself. “There’s a certain point the body can’t come back from,” goes ‘Kintsugi’ - one of the album’s more centred moments.

Beginning with gospel harmonies that ebb and fow throughout a track flled with meditative warmth and refection, ‘The Grants’ introduces the record with the same confdence of 2019’s superlative ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, while its previously released title track is classic LDR, augmented by the same harmonies at its close. ‘Sweet’ channels old Hollywood in its piano futters, whereas ‘A&W’ feels like a defnitive moment, almost Radiohead-y guitar plucks enveloping big statements about America and youth and sex before the whole thing veers left down a dark, dubby alleyway. It’s like the cockiest bits of her debut but steeped in the narcotic fug of time

and regret.

Then things start to get weird. The extreme length of an interlude from Judah Smith - an American pastor - must be making a point, but it’s one at odds with listener enjoyment, while a spoken interlude from musician Jon Batiste cuts in not long after. ‘Fingertips’, meanwhile, fnds Lana delivering an almost stream-of-consciousness spoken word piece about having a baby (“Can I handle it?”) that’s flled with a discomfting nostalgia that’s more Grey Gardens than ‘Video Games’. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Paris, Texas’ is purposefully straightforward (“I went to Paris… I took a train to Spain”), its sing-song simplicity given a strange sense of sadness after what’s come before.

The album’s fnal third comes back-loaded with duets: Father John Misty crops up on country-folk number ‘Let The Light In’; Jack Antonoff appears on the aforementioned ‘Margaret’ under his Bleachers moniker, while Tommy Genesis ups the swag on ‘Peppers’, which name-checks both the Red Hot Chilis of its title and, more surprisingly, Angelina Jolie. They’re some of the most obvious singles on the record and wrap around the autotuned outline of ‘Fishtail’an easy highlight that also seems weirdly fung at the end. The fnal duet, meanwhile, is left for Lana to sing with herself, as closing track ‘Taco Truck x VB’ segues into a woozy, disorientating portion of ‘Venice Bitch’ - Ocean Blvd’s tunnel seemingly only stretching back to the past.

As a piece, it’s adventurous and pleasingly unbothered with a musical landscape that prioritises singles and hooks and succinctness. As a listen, it doesn’t always completely land, but when it does it’s truly exciting. As an artist, ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ shows Lana Del Rey pushing herself perhaps more than ever. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘A&W’

Changing the game.

 JPEGMAFIA X DANNY BROWN Scaring The Hoes (PEGGY)

“What kind of rapping is this?!” asks JPEGMAFIA early on in opening track ‘Lean Beef Patty’. Answers to that are varied and deep, from the pinnacle of fantasy rap duos to the genreless gnarling hybrid baby of two of the most post-whatever artists walking the planet. As fans of either would know, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown represent two of the hardest to pin down musicians around, formless liquid talents flling whatever bizarrely-shaped container they fnd themselves in. Perhaps the biggest surprise though is that somehow, when combined, their enigmatic profles interlock perfectly –Danny’s rapping shines over JPEGMAFIA’s unconventional beats, while Peggy’s delivery and abstract but oh-so-perceptive lyricism shines alongside the bombast of Brown’s nasal snarl.

Searing talent fnds absolute confdence and with the total absence of rules or constraint the stage is set for an unrelenting exhibition of the most contemporary and dense rap skill that anyone in 2023 might dare to wield. ‘Scaring the Hoes’ is built on an abrasive saxophone line that runs throughout in between the crashes of drums, ‘Fentanyl Tester’ uses chopped vocals from Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’ before Danny Brown arrives for an impossibly urgent drum and bass twist. The album likes hiding a new surprise around each corner and across its 14 tracks never once overstays its welcome. Despite the absolute chaos, the restlessness and the sheer orgy of ideas, it boasts a staggering amount of pure hooks, shoutout lyrics and bar raising wordplays. ‘Burfct!’ and ‘God Loves You’ are likely to get played to oblivion by the time of the end of year lists (which prematurely Danny and Peggy should be troubling).

For a project that could have held unreasonable expectations, it overdelivers time and time again. Both parts of the duo are on their A-game in equal parts and each keeps the other from some of their worse instincts. No meandering, no half-formed experimentalism. So many collaborations come off as charming novelties at best, but these two – they might have just changed the game. (Matthew Davies Lombardi) LISTEN: ‘Fentanyl Tester’

 YAEJI

With A Hammer (XL)

In 2020, Yaeji’s mixtape ‘What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던’ took a bombastic yet strippedback approach to alternative electronic music, furthering a characteristic contradiction within her sound. Complicating this contradiction – or rather, enhancing it – is followup ‘With A Hammer’, where sound slips far beyond the binary boundaries of maximalism or minimalism: it’s DIY pop at its most whimsical and untethered. Using rebellious reconstructions of genre – including avant-pop, trap, house, hip hop and electroclash, as well as wind and percussion instruments – Yaeji builds an inventive, abstract, platform-video-game-esque fantasia where pop music is indescribable yet familiar, considered yet unbound, material yet digital.

On opener ‘Submerge FM’, she tunes into her manifesto, acting as a stylish Y2K Pied Piper to a listless youth: the past

A brilliant and sparkling

into the future.

is not a faraway place – intergenerational trauma follows closely – and nobody is alone – everyone is cut from this same cloth. But over metallic, warpy synths and infectious repetition, its title track explains that overcoming turmoil is less sunshine-and-rainbows and more hammers-and-rage rooms, where smashing everything to pieces is actively encouraged. Yaeji gently guides the listener to overthrow longstanding family monoliths, to succumb to slow-boiling fury (as opposed to the distraction and indifference of modernity) over pleasant digital alt-pop; an antithesis that is quietly, maniacally empowering. No track veers away from her message, making it a clear-cut concept album, with highlights including the fdgety ‘Away x5’, hard ‘Michin (ft. Enyanet)’ and multi-layered, erratic ‘Fever’. Elsewhere, parts remain as soft as her earlier releases, such as ‘I’ll Remember for Me, I’ll Remember for You’, an ode to honouring pain.

In its refusal to sound anything like its alt-pop predecessors, ‘With A Hammer’ is a breath of fresh air: innovative yet familiar, lackadaisically cool yet brave, a brilliant and sparkling window into the future. Its idiosyncrasies, consistently and wonderfully oxymoronic, are its greatest strength. (Otis Robinson) LISTEN: ‘Fever’

MATT MALTESE Driving Just To Drive (Nettwerk)

Since frst emerging with 2018’s ‘Bad Contestant’, Matt Maltese has been an old head on young shoulders, capable of summing up life’s everyday struggles with wit and wisdom in equal measure. On ‘Driving Just to Drive’ - the prolifc musician’s fourth in fve years - this core appeal remains, however there’s a warm domesticity to many of these tracks that’s smaller and softer than the apocalyptic balladry that frst made his name; these are vignettes plucked from a Richard Curtis movie - romantic and relatable, with all the humorous foibles left in. Matt’s crucial talent is in his knack for spotting new perspectives amongst universally-documented subjects, thus sweeping album opener ‘Mother’ becomes a break-up song told through the eyes of a parent who’s also lost an in-law, and the sepia-tinged ‘Museum’ details a life via the artefacts that would make up their own personal retrospective. Among the mid-tempo safe space of the record, little revolutions stand out; Biig Piig’s intimate delivery turns ‘Coward’ into a tender duet, while ‘Widows’ cuts through the niceties with an untempered lust (“I put myself inside of you / And use my hands when you tell me to / Like there’s no fucking tomorrow”). Sure, it’s not GG Allin smearing shit on himself, but it’s Matt keeping the listener on their toes, nonetheless. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘But Leaving Is’

window

Poignant and thoughtprovoking.

 DAVE OKUMU AND THE SEVEN GENERATIONS

I Came From Love (Transgressive)

That ‘I Came From Love’ is both a Dave Okumu solo record and not makes complete sense. His reputation for musical depth is long-established, having spent over a decade as member of The Invisible, producing and songwriting for others, and even alone, before releasing solo debut ‘Knopperz’ back in 2021. This follow-up - albeit under a semi-pseudonym - is as sonically rich as his past work would suggest, each track consisting of whipsmart layers of lush noises, a carousel of collaborators joining in as a backing band of sorts. Ultimately, it’s par for Dave’s course. The record as a whole, though - this being where his ‘Seven Generations’ take centre stage - is closer to the reading of a dense historical text, simultaneously an exploration of Dave’s Black identity: as an Austrian-born Kenyan who came of age in London; as literal descendant; as metaphorical offspring. Grace Jones opens the record, an artist Dave recalls as an early example of seeing himself refected in popular culture, and one who doesn’t choose features lightly (if at all). British-Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph is recruited, too, while text is pulled from a slave owner’s memoir, Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, protests following the New Cross fre of 1981 - an event likely fresh in many Black Londoners’ minds when Dave and his family arrived. These two parts - the history repeated, refected on and allowed to permeate by the record’s impeccable pacing, and the intricate, textured and often funky sounds - hit a complementary zenith on ‘Blood Ah Go Run’, its skittish, disconcerting yet immediate sound an excellent vehicle for the song’s story - the New Cross tragedy and its aftermath - while its refrain (“Blood ah go run / If no justice no come”) echoes the message of the time (“Thirteen dead / Nothing said”). A poignant, thought-provoking record on so many levels. (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Blood Ah Go Run’

Art Attack

 THE NATIONAL The First Two Pages Of Frankenstein (4AD)

The National have reached Morrissey levels of titling songs, often little novellas in their own right. ‘First

Dave Okumu reveals more behind the artwork for ‘I Came From Love’.

“Imagery can be so powerful. It can be provocative or playful, subconsciously directive, replete with meaning and symbolism or devoid of intention. As a storyteller, I have always been interested in inhabiting the inbetween, the areas of complexity where there is space for questioning, refection, discourse and multiple perspectives. I’m interested in exploring the possibility of reconciling the implicit and the explicit. I ask myself the question, ‘Can direct statements be framed in such a way as to give rise to ongoing iterations and explorations of the human experience?’

Through the journey of constructing this project it has been wonderful to work with the amazing artist and flmmaker Nicolas Premier across all the visuals. In Nicolas, I found a partner who was compassionately invested in the album’s subject matter and I relished the opportunity to go deep into a visual collaboration via the artwork and the flms. While there was an alignment of intent from the beginning, a trust was established that allowed for the process to be very intuitive as well.

When I saw the portrait of myself in the white hood, an array of responses surfaced that felt totally ftting for the project. The image felt deliberately and thoughtfully provocative, and possessed an ambiguity which I believe compels a nuanced response. For me, the image poses many questions: What type of face covering is this and why is the subject wearing it? I wanted to raise questions around oppression and suppression but also around adaptations of protection and survival, the ways in which we alter our forward facing aspect to contend with our environment, but also to whom we choose to reveal ourselves and where we feel safe to be our true selves. An embodiment of the tension between the implicit and the explicit, a metaphor for the minority experience and the entire project, with its open ended questions around identity, heritage and historical narratives.

It was important to me that my eyes conveyed a spirit of loving defance. To me the image says, ‘I am in touch with my power and you may need to do some work to understand me and my experience.’ Although my face is concealed, nothing has been taken away. I’m wearing a regal kimono covered in doves with the words ‘I Came From Love’ directly beneath me. I retain my autonomy and I claim my origin and its unending value.

Of equal importance for me is that this image doesn’t exist in isolation. To my mind, it is paired with the portrait where the subject is unmasked and radiant, face exposed, looking towards the heavens.”

Two Pages of Frankenstein’ is a loaded album name - is it a reference to the way Mary Shelley innovatively framed the opening of her epic tale through letters? A stalling of the bookmark on the bedside table? This is all part of the fun when analysing Matt Berninger’s words, which often perplex and enthral in equal measure. Either way, it feels as if beginnings were front of mind with the frontman who, apparently, struggled to actually make a start on The National’s ninth studio album.

It’s an understandable problem to have. The National’s slow crawl to arena status has been well documented - at a certain point, when the rooms get as big as they go and the chapters begin to blur together a little - there’s nowhere to go but to sink further into the sound you’ve honed, something the group certainly does here. From the opening piano motif of ‘Once Upon A Poolside’, Matt makes his detached state of mind clear as Sufjan Stevens’ ghostly backing vocals split the mist alongside a swell of strings - “Everything is different, why do I feel the same? / Am I asking for too much / I can’t hear what you’re saying / what was the worried thing you said to me?” This mood, bolstered by his lackadaisical delivery, makes the frst few listens of ‘... Frankenstein’ feel a little uneventful; but, rest assured, gems surface upon reentry.

‘Eucalyptus’ builds into a barnstormer featuring an itemised list of belongings at the centre of a break-up (“You should take it because I’m not gonna take it”). ‘New Order T-Shirt’ is a tender ode to feeting moments that are quietly treasured - “I carry them like drugs in a pocket,” Matt reveals over shimmers of synth and a plucked acoustic guitar. ‘Grease In Your Hair’ falls in the same lineage of National epics as ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, while Taylor Swift offers some enveloping counter melodies and storytelling to the forlorn sonics of ‘The Alcott’, documenting a run-in with a complicated ex.

There’s a lot to unravel and enjoy across ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’ - but it takes a bit of patience to get there. It’s unlikely to capture the attention of casual listeners but that’s not what The National are about; their audience is a dedicated one who will no doubt be thrilled by the contents here, albeit largely unsurprised. A little change of pace and a tad more sonic variety admittedly wouldn’t have gone amiss, but nevertheless, ‘...Frankenstein’ is a solid addition to The National’s canon. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: ‘Grease In Your Hair’

ALBUMS

Rat Saw God (Dead Oceans)

The third album from North Carolina’s Wednesday comes at a time when their stock hasn’t been higher - hype bubbling over across the board; an extensive fourmonth tour across the US, UK and EU eagerly awaiting them. ‘Rat Saw God’ sees the band hone their seductive powers for grunge pop and country rock more acutely than ever. The heavy hitters here are coruscatingly direct. Brief-but-blistering opener ‘Hot Rotten Grass Smell’ explodes its steaming-hot noise like a jet-engine to the face. Eight-minute-plus centrepiece ‘Bull Believer’ winds and crawls before vocalist Karly Hartzman screams her lungs out - “Finish him! Finish him!” - for the song’s uproarious conclusion. Then, offsetting these come lounging country crooners ‘Chosen to Deserve’ or ‘Quarry’, each loaded with that Big Thief-ian edge of uncertain ground underfoot. Most distinctive however in Wednesday’s well-stocked armoury are those ever more diaristic lyrical narratives pushing the most benign of observations into the emotionally-charged contexts and vice versa: passing out on a couch with a nosebleed while your friend plays Mortal Kombat; someone who took so much ecstasy that he had to get his stomach pumped. While some of the stylistic variation here can feel disjointed at times, there’s plenty on offer to suggest a band on the rise, capable of rising even higher. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Bull Believer’

 JESSIE WARE

That! Feels Good! (EMI)

There’s something so intensely satisfying about Jessie Ware’s renaissance, and it’s almost certainly because she seems to be enjoying it so much herself. Not often do artists fnd themselves with the opportunity to be so playful and lavish over a decade into their career, and you get the sense with ‘That! Feels Good!’ that Jessie really is revelling in such freedoms. Building upon the disco foundations of 2020’s ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’, here her offerings come imbued with more infectious funkiness; the firtatious whispers of the title track soon making way for the kind of groovy guitars Stevie Wonder would be proud of, while last year’s single ‘Free Yourself’ is a liberating, sparkling dancefoor number that’s hard to resist. What’s better yet, then, is the fact this confdence and swagger fows through the album as a whole, with every twist and turn adding another colour to its extraordinary palette. The sound of an artist hitting their stride and then some, ‘That! Feels Good’ really does live up to its name. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘That! Feels Good’

 BEN GREGORY episode (Transgressive)

Still only in their early twenties by the time they disbanded, Blaenavon’s twoalbum canon showcased a trio of musicians with an impressively ambitious approach. It turns out, however, that this was only the tip of the iceberg; on debut solo album ‘episode’, frontman Ben Gregory has made a record quite mind-boggling in its scope and scale. Written following a stint in a psychiatric hospital, the explosion of ideas present across these eight tracks tally with an overactive brain trying to put itself back together - in the space of the seven-minute ‘deathbed hangover’ alone, moments of beauty and brutality jostle for space, as a twinkling melodic line tries to fght its way through glitching electronics and cacophonous soundscapes. ‘blue sea blue’ is an epic that moves from undulating, ballsy electronics through a sweeping meditation on a future child into an uneasy depiction of an unravelling mental state and out again; even on ‘episodes’’ more straight-forward tracks (the gently euphoric ‘manifest’, or the cathartic slow-build of ‘mother’s son’), there’s still the sense of an artist operating at a real creative peak. Judging from ‘episode’, the next instalment of Gregory’s musical career is one worth pausing on. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘deathbed hangover’

 BLONDSHELL

Blondshell (Partisan)

As her singles have suggested, Blondshell's debut is not easy to place. Opening track 'Veronica Mars', with its stretchy Ellie Rowsell-like vocals and Tom Morello-style guitar solo over a grungy rock sludge, prepares you for a heaviness that never happens. Instead, it is followed by 'Kiss City', whose laid back vocals and lush arrangement could appear on a Japanese House song. This album is a prism and its only consistency is a dark intensity, both in music and lyrics, which Sabrina Teitelbaum frequently uses to discuss her struggle to get sober. And it’s in these intense moments where her talents lie: 'Tarmac' is raw and atmospheric in a way that feels effortless, an angst that few can achieve. Similarly, 'Joiner' offers the same driving focus that sets Phoebe Bridgers apart from the crowd. It's a shame that the album isn't consistently this fuid – in its weaker moments, it betrays a new artist trying to make songs with big choruses and relatable lyrics but falling short on both. It's when Blondshell isn't reaching so hard for something else that her vulnerability and grit shine through. If she can unearth that voice, whatever follows next will be remarkable. (James Hickey)

LISTEN: ‘Tarmac’

MILEY CYRUS Endless Summer Vacation (Columbia)

Miley Cyrus has long been known for her musical evolutions. From the Disney Channel pop of her Hannah Montana alter ego through to Dead Petz’ experimental turn via the country-rock of ‘Younger Now’ and her dive into glam on last album ‘Plastic Hearts’, she’s always been keeping us on our toes. Eighth studio album ‘Endless Summer Vacation’ emerges as a clear indication of someone who’s fnally fgured out who they are, resulting in a bold pop record oozing with the confdence and style that results from a period of self-discovery.

‘Flowers’ sets the tone for the album. Iconically released on her ex’s birthday and packed with lyrical Easter eggs, it’s this relationship which provides much of the record’s inspiration. “We went to hell / But we never came back,” she sings on the glistening ‘Jaded’. ‘Muddy Feet’, meanwhile, holds nothing back, Miley revisiting her rock vocals over a thumping backing, with biting observations: “And you smell like perfume that I didn’t purchase / Now I know why you’ve been closing the curtains / Get the fuck out of my house”. Miley also doesn’t shy away from her own faults and vulnerabilities. On the sleek ‘You’, a piano-led love song driven by her powerhouse country-tinged vocals, she admits, “I got some baggage, let’s do some damage”, and the sexy-pop bop ‘Wildcard’ sees her warn “don’t forget, baby, I’m a wildcard.”

One of the most poignant moments comes from penultimate track ‘Wonder Woman’. A rousing ballad, the song tells the story of a woman’s enduring resilience: “She makes sure that no one’s ‘round to see her fall apart / She wants to be the one that never does”. Its parallel to Miley’s own life can not be ignored, and her power to overcome heartbreak and become her best self is palpable throughout the record. Ending the LP on a demo of ‘Flowers’, she hammers home her points through the song’s already well-known lyrics: she can love herself better than anyone else can. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Flowers’

A bold pop record, oozing with confdence.

 ALMA Time Machine (PME)

Alma’s approach to digesting a complicated relationship with fame (particularly as a fnalist on Finland’s answer to Pop Idol) was once to chew it up and spew it back out over dry, erratic punk pop, with a massive middle fnger and an abrasive (but infectious) attitude. Her 2020 debut ‘Have U Seen Her?’ stamped an exclamation mark over this, with her staple I-don’t-give-a-shit neon green hair to match. But on second record ‘Time Machine’, an entirely new – and red-headed - Alma pulls her guard down to refect on more emotionally charged, intimate troubles – her origins, parents, twin sister, relationships, queer identity, pop star pressures and regrets – with a new sound that embraces her spiritual predecessors. Throughout, Alma sits within a kaleidoscope of psychedelic Scandipop pop-rock, each track swelling in whispering grandiosity, as if ABBA were put into a melting pot with Elton John, David Bowie, and even a bit of trippy newbies Lime Garden. There’s the glistening synths of ‘Everything Beautiful’ and ‘Tell Mama’; the bouzouki-led love song ‘Natalia’; a theatrical title track; and huge standout ‘One In A Million’. Myriad artists claim inspiration from pop music forebears, but very little succeed in honouring their hyperbolic melancholia: ‘Time Machine’ entirely revitalises it without slipping into imitation. And although Alma had once cemented herself as an artist with nihilist tendencies and a rebellious brand, her willingness to embrace queer theatrics means she’s just as prepared to take risks as before. Thank God, because who doesn’t love a little bouzouki? (Otis Robinson) LISTEN: ‘One In A Million’

Q&A

What was your headspace going into ‘Time Machine’?

I grew up listening to Amy Winehouse and artists who open up in their songs and are fully themselves. I wanted to make an album where I’m just myself, with no pressures or label shit. I didn’t plan on making this album just yet, but once Covid-19 hit, so much personal stuff happened in my life. Little things became huge. Important stuff changed places. It felt like there was no other choice than for me to make an album that I am 100% proud of. In early lockdown, I met the producer Elvira Anderfjärd (Taylor Swift, Tove Lo) and I’d never worked with a female producer the same age as me. We met and fell in love immediately – everything happened naturally. We both shared our stories from our childhood. We had basically lived the same life. The stories just started to happen. It was clear to me that, ‘Oh shit, I’m going to make [that] album’. A lot of the songs on ‘Time Machine’ I was scared to put out because I’m really saying stuff. I had to ask people like, ‘Is it OK if I tell this?’

So you dig much deeper than on debut ‘Have U Seen Her?’… where did this change come from? I don’t come from a musical family. I never went to music school or

 DAUGHTER

Stereo Mind Game (4AD)

anything, so when I got a chance to make music, in the frst year, I was trying to fnd my sound, and it was fun. I wrote in the moment, but I was a worse writer, and worse in [communicating] my emotions – I didn’t go to therapy, so didn’t have the knowledge to talk about my feelings. It felt right to talk about ‘Chasing Highs’ or the life that I suddenly had, the parties that I went to. I was living in the moment. But with ‘Time Machine’, there was no living in the moment – everyone was just in their homes – and I had a lot of time to think about myself and what I want to sing.

You worked with some huge pop producers (Elvira Anderfjäld, Tove Burman, Fat Max and Decco). Did they share this vision?

There was one magical week with Elvira, Tove and I when everything clicked. [At this point] I didn’t know if I was going to quit. So many [things I loved] about music had been taken away. There was only the fucking shit part of being an artist. I remember I went to Elvira and I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go with it. Let’s make a fucking huge pop track like I’m in the studio with Max Martin’. But nothing came out. It sounded shit. I was panicking because I was like, this is my moment and I really wanted to make something with Elvira.

I [said] ‘I have this song ‘Natalie’’. It’s totally different, doesn’t even have a beat or drums. I play it, and Elvira is like ‘Wow, that’s amazing’. Max Martin actually came into the studio and said everybody was talking about something cool we were doing. I was like, ‘Holy shit’. Elvira replayed my demo and I remember Max getting so excited. That was an important moment, because I knew I had these stories and songs where I’m really opening up but was afraid no one was going to listen to them. But then I had Max Martin – the fucking king of pop – coming in, and he’s like, ‘No, no, no, you have to do this’. He was like, ‘I don’t know you, but when I’m listening to these demos I feel like I know you’. That was the moment I was like, ‘OK, fuck it, let’s go’.

Daughter’s ability to conjure emotional reaction in their audience is by now unquestioned; whether Elena Tonra’s barely-there whisper of a vocal meticulously expressing her lyrics, or the trio as a whole painting in sonic watercolour, their soft layers of sound disappearing or multiplying at precisely the right point. These two factors are key still on third studio album - and their frst since 2016’s ‘How To Disappear’ - ‘Stereo Mind Game’. The frst comes via ‘Party’, the song which also provides the album’s title. “I could stop if I want to / I just don’t want to yet” is perhaps a well-used line, if not in exact verbiage then in sentiment, but following the gut-punch wordplay of “Fear that I’d forget / The worst night of my life / Or even worse, the best,” it’s a stand-still moment. Then, see the mid-record pairing of ‘Neptune’ and ‘Swim Back’; the former quietly epic, building to a fade out, the song drowning in itself before the latter returns as a - for Daughter, at least - clamouring track, its heavy bassline propelling forward while also offering sonic gravitas and grounding. Which is all to say, this is all very Daughter (and very good).

(Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Party’

 HMLTD

The Worm (Lucky Number)

It’s safe to say HMLTD have left no stone unturned for album two. Featuring 47 musicians in total - a gospel choir and 16-piece Greek string orchestra included - ‘The Worm’ comes moulded in the guise of the ‘70s high-concept British progrock album: all Medieval infuence, stylistic virtuosity and inexplicable science-fction narrative. Telling the story of human psychological struggle and salvation through the tale of a giant worm swallowing the city of London (yes really), the record is just so astonishingly committed to its outlandish - basically ridiculousideals that it manages to successfully move, enthrall, and weird out, at so many moments across its nine-track lifespan. The seedy freak-jazz of ‘Wyrmlands’ makes the skin crawl; the tear-sprinkled balladry of ‘Days’ waltzes tragically in the limelight; the massed voices chanting - “We were born in the belly of a great worm, a worm that swallows worlds” - in the title track is appropriately epic. So theatrical as to automatically presume a show-stopping stage production must surely be in the works, this stylistic clusterfuck is likely to satisfy those who gobbled up Crack Cloud’s similarly ambitious shift to expansive instrumentation. And if you're just downright confused by the whole preposterous thing, that’s probably just fne too. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘The Worm’

Already back in the studio, Alma tells Otis Robinson how she was once happily one of pop music’s biggest hitmakers.

ALBUMS

RECO MMEN D E D

Missed the boat on some the best albums from the last couple of months? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

SLOWTHAI UGLY

Full of bold choices, his third is a beautiful thing to behold.



INDIGO DE SOUZA

All Of This Will End

(Saddle

Creek)

Going into ‘All Of This Will End’, Indigo De Souza is unwilling to waste even a single second. The frst fve tracks all clock in at under 2-and-a-half minutes and are almost all punchy, ferocious and crunchy. It’s bold and uncompromising, but often buries the singer-songwriter’s voice both literally and metaphorically in an overbearing soundscape: for every ferocious lyric that justifes the driving sound (“I’d like to think you have a good heart / And your dad was just an asshole growing up / but I don’t see you trying that hard to be better than he is”), there’s a meandering stream of consciousness (“In the parking lot / I feel like I am somewhere else / I text my boss to say I'm not feeling well / and I’m not sure what is wrong with me”). The record’s second half sees Indigo let loose, switching up her formula: songs are longer, more expansive, and it’s all the better for it. ‘Smog’ is a club-ready bop that recalls the peppy charm of 2021’s ‘Hold U’ without feeling like a rehash. ‘Always’, meanwhile, offers a needed moment of catharsis. Utilising loud-quiet dynamics, it begins lusciously and sparsely but soon breaks into feral screams, as she cries “Father / I thought you’d be here / I thought you’d try / I thought you’d stay”. Closer ‘Younger & Dumber’ is a hugely evocative, gradually-building power ballad that exists on an entirely different plain to the rest of the album. At the point of crescendo, she sings of all that drags her down (“I get so tired of flling the space all around me”) and all that she has to offer (“the love I feel is so powerful it can take you anywhere”). It’s an immensely moving moment of reconciliation between grace and hardship, love and isolation. It’s also a reminder of De Souza’s best songwriting. (Tom Williams) LISTEN: ‘Younger & Dumber’



CHAPPAQUA WRESTLING Plus Ultra

 FENNE LILY

Big Picture (Dead Oceans)

When the world went into lockdown, many new couples faced the dilemma of either not seeing each other for the foreseeable future, or taking the leap and quarantining together. Fenne Lily and her partner decided on the latter, and this relationship forms the core of third album ‘Big Picture’. Written in the midst of their time together, unlike her previous outputs, 2018’s ‘On Hold’ and 2020’s ‘BREACH’, ‘Big Picture’ soundtracks the ups and downs of a relationship in real time, with the added pressure of being confned to four walls as the world stops outside. “We held each other while everything burned around us,” she sings on the folk-tinged ‘Lights Light Up’, before admitting, “I guess we never really had that much in common, except the days, the nights and the cold”, while the delicate ‘In My Own Time’ fnds her musing, “Sometimes I feel like I’m killing time here / Or maybe it’s killing me”. Throughout the record, Fenne provides a poignant glimpse into the uncertainty surrounding your whole life changing in front of you. As she sings on the stunning ‘Red Deer Day’: “I’m alright / Or I will be in time”. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Lights Lights Up’

HEARTWORMS A Comforting Notion

A masterclass in making an entrance.

 YVES TUMOR

Praise

A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

Grounding, brutal love songs among a furry of dance, and industrial noise.

Chappaqua Wrestling may be keen to underplay their Manchester beginnings, not being natives of the city, but there’s a lot about ‘Plus Ultra’ that owes its sound to - if not solely the city itself - easily the North West as a whole. Opener ‘Full Round Table’ begins in a furry of post-punk despair adjacent to Echo and the Bunnymen, basslines lower than Peter Hook’s strap accompanying a similarly bleak lyrical turn: “The penny drops / And it falls down the drain.” And while this musical line doesn’t continue throughout the outft’s debut - we reach twee indie-pop come ‘Not In Love’, while as early on as second number ‘Wayfnding’, layers of shoegazey fuzz can’t hide a pure late-noughties-esque Big Chorus - it is at once a record which simultaneously nods to the early90s and could never have existed pre-Oasis. Its basslines are dark, lumbering and ominous, while its guitar solos are pure Britpop. Its apparent sociallyconscious themes are lost amid indie’s equivalent to classic rock: “I’m never gonna be there for the cause,” sings Charlie Woods in twinkly, sentimental closer ‘Can I Trick’: what cause he’s ducking out of is never quite clear. ‘Need You No More’ is pure ‘80s driving song until it crashes into an early Fontaines DC-like sea of tambourines, ‘Wide Asleep’ is a sea of suitably awkwardly-placed ad-libs (“Wipe out your present / Then your future’s fne… yeah”), and there’s the spirit of a fourth Gallagher brother in the elongated enunciation of ‘Opaque’. There’s a perfectly fne indie-rock record here, if only it were a little less obfuscated by an aim it doesn’t quite achieve. (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Wide Asleep’

When did you start creating ‘Big Picture’?

I never really decided to start making a record, it’s basically just a record of COVID, sadly. I knew I wanted to write songs about somebody I was in love with before they left, or before I left. Lockdown gave me that but way too much.

How does it feel revisiting that time now when you listen to the album?

If I wasn’t doing a press circuit for a record about that time, I probably wouldn’t be thinking about it that much. I feel like it was almost a sensory deprivation tank situation where I defnitely got something out of it growth wise, but ultimately it was like a long sleep and now I’m awake, and I just want to stay awake.

You recorded ‘Big Picture’ in North Carolina, how was that experience?

There was a producer I wanted to work with and I was like to my band “Do you boys wanna go on holiday?!” I fnd it useful to do the bulk of the work on something in a place where you feel almost overly uncomfortable and unwatched, and then take it somewhere where you almost have to embody a character that you’ve written for yourself. Have you seen ‘The Staircase’? The documentary about the guy who pushed his wife down the stairs? Or did he? That whole thing happened literally fve minutes from the house where we were recording…

Fenne Lily tells Elly Watson about the circumstances around the recording of ‘Big Picture’.

 WHENYOUNG

Paragon Songs (AntiFragile)

There was a time, back in the heady days of the late-2010s (aka just before the ‘before times’) when it was near impossible to avoid Whenyoung. Between scoring every second support slot in the capital to being the name on the tip of other artists’ tongues, when the then-trio of Aoife Power, Niall Burns and Andrew Flood geared up to release debut album ‘Reasons To Dream’ in 2019, expectations were high. Four years later, a marriage up, a member down, away from both the big city and the major label, the Whenyoung we fnd on ‘Paragon Songs’ seem to have shed any pressure that had cooked up around them: this is a collection of songs which - although mixed in results - have been given the space to just be. Opener ‘Shame Train’ is closest, perhaps, to the outft’s starting point, its stormy nature akin, perhaps, to Aoife and Andrew’s new Kentish milieu, while ‘The Laundress’ sits in direct contrast, sonically bright, a beat-led track that owes a little to Chvrches’ early sound. ‘Ghost’, meanwhile, takes an unashamed stab at a big pop moment. The pair’s foray into more synth-based styles doesn’t always sit so well: ‘A Little Piece Of Heaven’ sees Aoife’s vocals stretched uncomfortably on a track which is ultimately paper-thin, but when their new palette works, it does so beautifully. Case in point, ‘Shed My Skin’. Here, Aoife’s feather-light voice offers intimacy on one, indieinfuenced hand - think the emotionally-intense side of Wolf Alice - and on the other, there’s a steely pop nous under. In short, it’s suited to both Sunday afternoon festival tears and the potential fame of a hammed-up television montage. Across ‘Paragon Songs’ there’s ultimately the sense that this is Whenyoung going through their song cupboards and trying things on for size, and for that alone, it’s a pleasure to hear. (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Shed My Skin’

ABSOLUTE (BEHIND THE) SCENES!

A peek inside the studio with Whenyoung when they recorded ‘Paragon Songs’.

 BILLIE MARTEN Drop Cherries (Fiction)

With its title taken from a metaphor for offering someone love, Billie Marten’s fourth offering ‘Drop Cherries’ fnds the songwriter painting a series of vignettes about the different phases of a relationship. The intriguing ‘Just Us’ celebrates the mundane moments and ‘This Is How We Move’ explores the “relationship dance” of two people fnding their fow together, while the delicate ‘Devil Swim Meadows’ fnds Billie urging “I wish you’d open your mouth and let the devil swim out”. The title track, meanwhile, nods to the simple moments in a love story as she sings “I drop cherries at your door when you ask for more”. “Imagine stamping blood-red cherries onto a clean, cream carpet and tell me that’s not how love feels,” she previously explained. It’s a shame that this “stamp” could not have been channelled sonically onto her fourth LP. ‘Drop Cherries’ may be a soothing depiction of a relationship’s simple moments, but this simplicity does leave the listener wanting more, and its poignancy often lacks any punch. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Drop Cherries’

 BABA ALI

Laugh Like A Bomb (Memphis Industries)

Being a woman of the west, Aoife likes to be wrapped up in a shawl when recording acoustic guitar. Think this was during the track ‘Home Movie’.

We recorded the album at Studiowz in Wales. It is a converted chapel and has these lovely arched windows with seats in them, looking out over the countryside. These areas acted as everything from a vocal booth to writing space to nap spot.

The studio in Pembrokeshire was surrounded by felds, hills and valleys. If we wanted a break from work, there was always a friendly cow or sheep to chat to.

There’s a little of the previous few years’ zeitgeist to Baba Ali’s second album. It’s there in the title, ‘Laugh Like A Bomb’; a phrase full of uneasiness, designed to have us questioning our own split-second reactions. It’s also there in the track titles - ‘Bankrupt Funk’ and ‘I’m Bored’ evoking the monotonous desperation of that period best not talked about before one even need press play. The music too, with its bleak sonic palette and treadmill-like repetition, hints at an attempt to evade a slog, gives an impression of being caught in a human-scale hamster wheel, around and around go the ‘80s-like synths while Baba’s vocals meander on monologues. The decision to self-produce (2020 debut ‘Memory Device’ was recorded with Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem’s Al Doyle) gives it a harder edge; where the likes of ‘Black Wagon’ wielded a softness alongside its propulsive dance, here the bubbling ‘Burn Me Out’ and the title track are far more uncompromising. It can lead to spots of nothingness - ‘Gold Rush!’ and ‘Lip Service’ feel largely forgettable - but it’s the urgency of ‘A Circle’ where ‘Laugh Like A Bomb’ fnds its gut-punch, its vocals conveying genuine emotion. (Louisa Dixon)

LISTEN: ‘A Circle’

The live room was also a great space to play through or rearrange parts throughout the recording process. It also doubled as a nice morning yoga room!

Practicing a bit of tin whistle out the window. The studio was so isolated there was nobody to disturb for miles.

Bad Premonition (self-released)

Tei Shi has continually faced those all-too familiar systemic industry issues throughout her time so far: manipulation, loss of control, insidious contracts and barriers to releasing music. But on fourth EP ‘BAD PREMONITIONS’, she hits back. Her rebellion is embroiled within a witchy musical broth, where effervescent shades of pop speak in numerous tongues. Its ingredients include a bit of everything, in the best way: elements of dry Noughties beats and ascending Britneyesque melodies are found in ‘QUIEN TE MANDA?’, whispers of Scandipop on ‘MONA LISA’, hyperpop and UK garage on ‘COLOR’ and slick R&B on its title track. The result is a multifaceted yet cohesive project that stirs with her own opulent, magical perspective. It's rare that an EP feels so complete, so conclusive in its tone and message and, ultimately, so exciting. On the periphery of a deserved breakthrough, Tei Shi, with ‘BAD PREMONITIONS’, joins the many outliers breaking boundaries to take control of their artistry. (Otis Robinson) LISTEN: ‘COLOR’

 ANGEL OLSEN

Forever Means (Jagjaguwar)

Long-time Angel Olsen fans might be surprised by this EP, which can only be described as subdued lounge jazz. It's a sign of her remarkable talent that she pulls this off without any hint of novelty, instead delving deeper into her trademark bittersweet songwriting. 'Nothing's Free' opens proceedings with husky piano and drums, representing a strange departure from her usual dark pop guitars. Something has come over Angel’s voice too, with this outing seemingly more longing than on previous releases. She reaches Nina Simone heartache, or Elizabeth Fraser fourishes over the sparse percussion of 'Time Bandits', the latter demonstrating just how versatile a voice she has. Come closer 'Holding On', Angel gives us the closest thing to a typical song of hers, but the driving guitar never lets go of its fragility, only tantalising with occasional wisps of strings. Really, that is the secret of the EP: in its quietude, an unshakable tension builds that resists breaking into anything bigger. Perhaps a less confdent artist would be tempted to fnish on a grand crescendo, but Angel Olsen has made a masterful record that both requires and earns a little patience. (James Hickey)

LISTEN: ‘Holding On’

 KAE TEMPEST

Nice Idea (Republic)

Choosing to spend precious time off the road to head into the studio might seem an exhausting idea, but there’s a breeziness to ‘Nice Idea’, four tracks Kae Tempest laid down with frequent collaborator Dan Carey last year - that suggests its genesis was akin to pressing the reset button. With as many literary accomplishments as musical to their name (one oh-so-often appended with a term like ‘voice of a generation’), here Kae’s fow sounds comfortable even at its most insistent, as slacker rock and jazz-infected drum and bass backings mooch along. Tracks such as ’Thinking Clearly’ show their focus: “Uproar / But what I could really show up for / Is boxfresh kicks / And a Mark 4 Supra”. In fact, the only real stop-and-think moment is a deft musical construct in opener ‘Love Harder’. A track with a gloriously infectious, festival-feld ready chorus (“When it burns brighter / A lover like me learns to be a fghter / When it gets darker / A fghter like me learns to love harder”), the breezy backing cuts out while Kae crams in the words, the silence amplifying their point: “It’s they/them / Or he/him also works…” (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Love Harder’

 MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA

The Valley Of Vision (Loma Vista)

Arriving almost two years on from the release of their ambitious sixth album ‘The Million Masks of God’, Manchester Orchestra’s latest release sees the band once again eschewing expectations and switching up the sonic formula; this time leaning on an almost entirely electronic palette to create some of their most atmospheric songs to date. Over its six tracks, ‘The Valley of Vision’ is one of their more subdued, entrancing offerings, dealing quietly (quite literally, in ‘Quietly’) with overcoming mental hardships and searching for self-acceptance. But while their hazy approach does certainly give a cinematic feel to the collection, it equallyin moments - feels a little too sedate for its own good. Perhaps not their most dynamic chapter, but a gorgeous one all the same.

(Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘The Way’

 PATRICK WOLF

Night Safari (Apport)

Given that it’s been so long since he last released new music - last year’s ‘Enter The Day’ was his frst single in a decade - that ‘The Night Safari’ sounds precisely how one might imagine Patrick Wolf to sound in 2023 is in itself impressive. His soaring, operatic voice dominates for the most part, while the songs’ arrangements dart around it in a swell of melodrama. He ekes out every last hint of whimsy from each track - only one here stays under the four-minute mark: the interval-like, sprawling and oftenbaffing ‘Acheron’ - leaving not a theatrical stone unturned. It’s all exhausting, of course, but anyone who followed Patrick’s meandering journey prior to his extended break, wouldn’t expect anything less. (Ed Lawson) LISTEN: ‘Nowhere Game’

ComingUp

ASHNIKKOWEEDKILLER

It‘s Ash’s long-awaited debut album proper, set for release on 2nd June.

BULLYLUCKY FOR YOU

Alicia Bognanno’s fourth album and follow up to 2020’s ‘Sugaregg’ will be out 2nd June.

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS - PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE

A companion of sorts to 2022’s ‘Redcar les adorables étoiles’, it’s released 9th June.

RYAN BEATTYCALICO

The singer-songwriter’s third is set to hit shelves literal and metaphorical on 28th April.

A masterful record that requires and rewards patience.

THE PERFUME OF DECAY U.K. TOUR

LIVE SETLIST

FALL OUT BOY

Band on the Wall, Manchester Photos: Nat Wood. “

Anyway, here’s ‘Wonderwall’,” jokes Pete Wentz at the end of a spoken word love letter to Manchester, one of the two UK cities veteran pop-punkers Fall Out Boy have handpicked for intimate underplays this week. The band wouldn’t be here without the northern cultural mecca, he notes, citing inspiration by Oasis and The Stone Roses, sonically unlikely but in attitude and spirit immediately obvious.

The hype that continues to surround some the city’s established heroes is out in full force for Fall Out Boy, not least for the handful of hopefuls nestled outside Band On The Wall’s frmly shut doors desperate to get their hands on a ticket. Inside, the iconic and intimate space is at an all-time high, the lucky few captivated by setlist choices that should provide the blueprint for any future greatest hits sets. Pete, in one of his many joyful moments, tells the crowd that this is exactly what it was like in the band’s early days.

It’s a ftting setting for Fall Out Boy’s rawer material, the likes of live show regulars ‘Saturday’, ‘Grand Theft Autumn’ and a rare ‘Calm Before The Storm’ played out with an

urgency that only a club space can ignite. Their more heavily-produced tracks enjoy the same elevation, crisper and clearer in this smaller space and bursting with energy. Carefully selected songs from 2015’s ‘American Beauty/ American Psycho’ are delivered with an entirely new lease of life in line with more established fan favourites, and there’s a notable absence of 2018’s ‘M A N I A’. Instead, Fall Out Boy have delved into their past, pulling out the likes of ‘Headfrst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet’ to break all the emo hearts in the room.

It’s an intricate balance between nostalgia and relevance, played out with incredible mastery. The two new numbers showcasing the imminent ‘So Much (for) Stardust’ blend seamlessly into their most celebrated tracks, and there’s no reluctance on show to celebrate the heavy-hitting stalwarts ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ and ‘Dance Dance’. For a band of their stature there’s no ego on stage, playing for - rather than to - their fans. It’s this that connects Fall Out Boy to their northern heroes most, in a show that embraces intimacy at its very core. This isn’t about the size of the room, but rather the power of a band that truly understand their fans, who aren’t afraid to build a show around that alone. (Ben Tipple)

SELF ESTEEM

Back in late 2020, when DIY phoned Rebecca Lucy Taylor up to get an early preview of what would become her behemoth second album ‘Prioritise Pleasure’, she offered up three words in particular that really struck a chord: “enormous, choral and ridiculous”. Two-and-a-bit years later, on her second night of three at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, it feels like she’s really made good on that promise.

A show set to be packed with intense emotion and cathartic celebration, the sense of jubilated energy felt by the crowd is palpable before things even begin. Even as the stage is set - showing off a relatively modest set-up, bathed in shadows and wafting smoke - the crowd are packed in tight, craning their necks to get a glimpse of Self Esteem as she majestically emerges atop a staircase podium to the pulsating beats of her second album’s title track.

What follows is a set that’s utterly euphoric. The show swerves reaching for bells and whistles, instead making the most of its composite parts; harmonies and acoustics are used to dazzling effect, while Rebecca and her three backing singers become more theatre troupe than band-on-stage. Proceedings even come split into three separate acts; the frst, with David Byrne-like grey suits and choreography to match, before the second arrives bathed in red lights - a lusty, contorting section that boasts Madonna-like attitude, Broadway-style fnger clicks and two delicious new tracks.

It’s the third and fnal act, however, that really cements Self Esteem’s power as an artist. A stripped-back and solo performance of ‘John Elton’ feels utterly heartbreaking and bolstering in one, while ‘The 345’ is as effervescent as it is cathartic. Throughout the show, there’s also a gorgeous tenderness shared by those on stage, furthering the message of ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ in even the most intimate and simple of gestures.

And, just as the crowd are left gawping at the feat of artistry they’ve just witnessed after the gut-wrenching ‘I’m Fine’ - which has the whole room howling like the dogs of the song - Rebecca pulls another pop culture U-turn and changes the atmosphere entirely: Mr Blobby joins her on stage. A perfectly conducted ride through just about every emotion possible - and a lesson in remembering to embrace the silly moments in life, too - tonight isn’t just enormous, choral and ridiculous: it’s phenomenal. (Sarah Jamieson)

An intricate balance between nostalgia and relevance, played out with mastery.

Hammersmith Apollo, London. Photo: Helen Messenger.

BIIG PIIG LIVE

Jess Smyth pauses after one of her softspoken bedroom pop breakthroughs.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been doing headline shows,” she beams, looking out over a sold-out crowd at Manchester’s industrial Gorilla. In that time, she’s been toying with new sounds, dropping the frst real taste of her electronic expansion of the otherwise insular sound - ‘Switch’ - a week into lockdown. Where 2021’s ‘The Sky Is Bleeding’ held back, this year’s ‘Bubblegum’ fully removed its guard, with the likes of the Deb Neverfeaturing ‘Picking Up’ and ‘Kerosene’ throwing Biig Piig frmly into clubs, embracing all-out rave and nostalgic disco respectively.

Releasing ‘Bubblegum’ under the guise of a mixtape allowed her to freely push the boundaries of her music. It’s mirrored on stage, as the hour-long set weaves between minimalist R&B that perhaps

only Erika de Casier has recently mastered with as much ease, jazz and blues immeasurably bolstered by an incredible live band, and pure hedonism. The setlist plays with tempo, gliding upwards from the soft swagger of ‘Don’t Turn Around’ to a midpoint climax courtesy of the self-affrmative ‘In The Dark’, into unadulterated euphoria.

The narrative offers space for ‘90s Britpop nods (‘Feels Right’), to bedroom R&B, to dancefoor fllers without missing a beat. As ‘Switch’ jumps into ‘Picking Up’, the softness of the show’s opening moments is a distant memory, with Gorilla fooded in lasers and strobe lighting. Singular encore ‘Kerosene’ mirrors the glitterball brilliance of Jessie Ware, yet with a distinctive Biig Piig twist. As with her latest mixtape, it’s tantalisingly inconsistent in style and beautiful in delivery; a showcase of an artist on the rise, pushing boundaries, and having a damn good time doing it.

(Ben Tipple)

An artist on the rise.

FATHER

JOHN MISTY

Since 2018, Josh Tillman has given his sardonic alter-ego only a handful of outings on these shores; tonight, through the ebbs and fows of a nearly two-and-a-half-hour set, there’s the fzzle of excitement and weight that comes from watching a modern master deliver an all-too-infrequent sermon.

Though opener ‘The Next 20th Century’ begins proceedings in bleak fashion, the old Hollywood sensibilities of much of last year’s ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’ feel perfectly matched for the space. His oncelengthy locks shorn down to a short crop, the singer cuts a slick silhouette in black; augmented by a brass band, velvet curtain draped at the back of the stage with a spotlight sporadically beamed across its centre, he’s a lightfooted ringleader with an old-school kind of glamour.

As adept at crafting sweeping swoons of adoration (’Chateau Lobby #4 (In C For Two Virgins)’, ‘Funny Girl’) as he is playing the mocking, meta protagonist on ‘Mr. Tillman’ or penning vast, all-encompassing treaties on the futility of it all (’Pure Comedy’, ‘Total Entertainment Forever’), side by side it’s a stunningly dextrous collection.

Suave and collected, he dances between modes, dedicating the wry ‘Goodbye, Mr Blue’ to an audience member’s dead dog and sarcastically dismissing his most recent album as “fake jazz music” between tracks that brim with genuine beauty.

Returning with a cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ - a cheeky wink, one assumes, to the messed-up lothario character he’s created for himself - tonight’s extended encore makes for a masterclass in the magic of Misty. ‘Buddy’s Rendezvous’ is sad and sumptuous; ‘Holy Shit’ is delivered solo and spotlit on an acoustic guitar, while a fnal trio of ‘Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings’, ‘Hangout At the Gallows’ and ‘The Ideal Husband’ ramp up the intensity to bursting point.

By the end of the latter, he’s bathed in skittering red lights, twirling his mic stand as his band crescendo around him. A self-lacerating howl ripped from a more tempestuous time, Father John Misty might be keeping his demons largely out of the limelight these days but when he chooses to step up and open the door, there’s few who do it better.

(Lisa Wright)

Hammersmith Apollo, London. Photo: Jamie MacMillan.

Gorilla, Manchester.

Photo: Carolina Faruolo.

VENUE: THE BASE OF THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS

There’s an amazing energy around the Acropolis, and people have been performing there for thousands of years. Theatre as we understand it started in Ancient Greece, so that would be cool to play. There’s some amphitheatres there, and nice pine trees, it’s just a good vibe.

SUPPORTS: PUBLIC IMAGE LTD AND WU-TANG CLAN

I’d have Public Image Ltd when they were doing the ‘Metal Box’ era. Would Johnny Rotten enjoy being a support band? Probably not, but I’ve never really seen PiL properly, and [guitarist] Keith Levene died recently so they’ve been on my mind. And then I want Wu-Tang at their peak, around ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’. We’ve played on bills with them and I managed to get back into their compound at Bonnaroo in 2013. I got a photo with RZA and tried to get photos with more members but was told in no uncertain terms that I shouldn’t even be in the compound and got kicked out.

HEADLINER: NIRVANA

Nirvana right after ‘In Utero’ came out, which would be the same era as Wu-Tang so it could have potentially happened in a parallel universe. I was obsessed with them as a teenager and had a bunch of different footage on VHS; after PiL and Wu-Tang, you’ve got to have an all-time great.

WHO ARE YOU GOING WITH?

I’d like to go with Jamie T - he’s good to go out with and I owe him a night out. We crossed paths a bit in the old days, but then we started hanging out more about fve years back. We have similar opinions about music, and I think he’d appreciate a trip to Greece.

WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING?

Raki is a spirit you drink in Greece and Turkey; it’s a clear, distilled alcohol that’s pretty strong. If you’re gonna drink it, you should only drink that - then you don’t really have a bad hangover, but even just one beer with raki is very bad. It’s quite clean tasting and it’s great when you’re in Greece, but if you just drink it on a Friday night in Lambeth, it doesn’t taste the same.

WHAT ARE YOUR PREGIG PLANS?

If I’m not playing then I want a meal. I’d go to one of the souvlaki joints that are in Monastiraki which is a Metro stop away. It’s relatively grubby street food, a lot of the restaurants have been there for probably 100 years, they’re old school and really busy but they’re really good and cheap. Greek food doesn’t travel that well, so I wouldn’t really get a souvlaki anywhere apart from Greece. The type of tomato, the amount of garlic they put into the tzatziki… Tesco tomatoes that they don’t even have in Tesco anymore just don’t cut it.

IS THERE AN AFTERPARTY?

I would like to go to a Prince afterparty. All the way to the end, he was doing afterparties where he’d play for hours after the show where he’d already played for hours. I’d go to one of those iconic Prince parties where he’d magically play all the songs I wanted to hear.

ANY OTHER REQUESTS?

I’d like a portion of the crowd to be on bouncy castles. I think trampolines would be a bit hectic, but an adult, grown-up-sized bouncy castle so you could have extra pogoing fun - that would be good. I keep getting targeted clips of Anthony Bourdain talking about hangover cures on Instagram, and I think his trick is Alka-Seltzer, a cold can of Coke, a joint and then spicy Szechuan food, so we’ll give that out gratis for anyone who wants it the next day.

A once-in-a-lifetime dream gig, designed and curated this month by… Foals frontman YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS!

Foals’ ‘Life Is Dub’ remix album is out 22nd April via Warner Music. DIY

OMEARA PRESENTS

SUPA DUPA FLY

MIKE & THE MOONPIES

JACOB LEE

ALBERTA CROSS

IYAMAH FEEL IT

FAITH’S EASTER SPECIAL STONE

JASMINE JETHWA

TONNA

SOFTCULT

MORGANWAY

GRACE CARTER

WHENYOUNG

FEEL IT IST IST

KINDRED SPIRITS

GEMMA HAYES

TOBY SEBASTIAN

KIM CHURCHILL

FEEL IT

NOWEX

TREVOR NELSON’S SOUL NATION CLASSICS

POHODA FESTIVAL

CENTRAL CEE

JAMIE XX

WET LEG

SOFI TUKKER BEN HOWARD

ARCA

CAROLINE POLACHEK

AMELIE LENS

SUZANNE VEGA

SLOWTHAI SHYGIRL

RICO NASTY PERFUME GENIUS

VIAGRA BOYS

SAMPA THE GREAT

6.– 8. 7. TRENČÍN AIRPORT

MULATU ASTATKE – DRY CLEANING – SHAME – AROOJ AFTAB – HAZEY – PETE & BAS

CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY & BOLIS PUPUL – YARD ACT – MEZERG – ALINA PASH – PUSSY RIOT

MANDIDEXTROUS – BIGKLIT – VINTAGE TROUBLE – AMOR ELEFANTE – HERMETO PASCOAL

TATA BOJS – PVA – O. – PSYMON SPINE – LINIKER – MANDY, INDIANA – LEENALCHI

AVALANCHE KAITO – BLANCO TETA – ANGRUSORI – THE ORIELLES – MARGARITAS PODRIDAS

GROOVE& – CUMGIRL8 – KIMI DJABATÉ – NINA FARRINA – DAKH DAUGHTERS

ROZI PLAIN – DUO RUUT – RAGAPOP – ZEA – FALLGRAPP – AND MANY MORE