Vibrations Magazine - April 2015

Leeds & West Yorkshire Music Magazine

The Cribs

Vibrations Magazine

Leeds and West Yorkshire

Free

April 2015

Vessels Deuce & Charger Therapy?

ILT Movie Kleine Schweine Marmozets

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Contents 6 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 23 24 26 38

The Cribs Vessels Deuce & Charger Therapy?

ILT Movie Best Of Festivals Kleine Schweine Made In Leeds Shatner Centre Stage Reviews Marmozets

VIBRATIONS IS EDITOR Rob Wright bert@vibrations.org.uk DESIGN James Link james@78design.net www.78design.net PICTURE EDITOR Scott Salt photos@vibrations.org.uk REVIEWS EDITOR George Paris records@vibrations.org.uk LIVE EDITOR Tim Hearson live@vibrations.org.uk ADVERTISING Jack Simpson info@vibrations.org.uk

www.vibrations.org.uk CONTRIBUTORS

VIBRATIONS IS LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS 1800 magazines seen by music lovers across Leeds.

Contact Tony tony@vibrations.org.uk WRITERS • PHOTOGRAPHERS ARTISTS • SUB EDITORS Contact Tony tony@vibrations.org.uk SEND DEMOS IN TO George Paris, Vibrations Magazine, Eiger Studios, New Craven Gate Industrial Estate, Leeds LS11 5NF LINKS & STREAMS TO records@vibrations.org.uk VIBRATIONS IS FOUNDED AND PUBLISHED BY Tony Wilby tony@vibrations.org.uk Jack Simpson info@vibrations.org.uk

Rob Wright, Tim Hearson, George Paris, Feargal Sharkey, Katharine Hartley, Tim Mitchell, Matt Brown, Rob Fearnley, Alan Stewart, Mike Price, Catriona Chadderton, Steve Walsh, Danny Owen, Ben Stockdale, Paddy Gunn, Gavin Seacrest, Kate Wellham Maria Alzamora Robbie Jay Barrett COVER PHOTOGRAPHY The Cribs

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Do you have an idea that could use a small amount of funding or support to get off the ground?

We might be able to help you. We’re especially interested in the creative arts and ethically/community minded projects but we’re also looking to help small business start-ups.

Contact projects@growcafe.co.uk 4

Editorial The rumours of our demise have been highly exaggerated.

Okay, I’ll level with you: it has been a busy time for all and sundry at Vibrations Towers and heaven forefend some of it has had nothing to do with music. The important thing is that we are back, in a slightly austerity stricken form, prone to the forces of economy and market as are all publications these days.

I blame the internet, so the recent cliché goes.

But here we are, older, wiser, greyer and fuller of stuffer for the discerning music, arts and media aficionado, for it is a broader church that we are preaching to. Sure, we have music in our soul, but just as oranges are not the only fruit, so it is that we are interested in stuff other than music. So, lots of stuff, lots of snippety stuff.

But, despite our phoenix like resurrection, there have been losses. In the last couple weeks that this has been written following, we have lost Terry Pratchett, Leonard Nimoy and the legendary Daevid Allen. I realise that this is probably a name you might not be familiar with, but as founding member of both Soft Machine and Gong, he was a bit of a free thinker, imagining pot head pixies, flying teapots and Zero the Hero while discovering Steve Hillage and presenting hallucination inducing psychedelic prog rock to an unwitting world.

I saw him back in the tail end of the nineties, when I was a bit of an Octave Doctor and he fair took my breath away in his UV glowing white jumpsuit. It was fun, theatrical and bonkers. Good people, if you have not heard the album Angel’s Egg, I suggest you do.

And smile while you listen to it. It’s a good thing.

Not only that, but Random Hand are having a last hurrah and the Fab Bar is closing… to move somewhere else, but that’s not the point. All this change is leaving me breathless, but in the name of stability I will remain a little oasis of calm in a world gone awry. Stay here a while, read, enjoy, have a cup of tea. Appreciate what you have while you still have it, because you don’t know when it will be… … gone.

Rob Wright Contemplate - Ed

And though he has not gone as such, it is with heavy heart that we bid an adieu to our records editor Steve Walsh and hello to our new writer Steve Walsh.

He has and will serve us well - of that I am certain...

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Cribs Are Kinda Magic…

It’s an exciting time for local heroes The Cribs, who have just finished a successful UK tour and released the acclaimed single, ‘Burning For No-One’. Though it’s been an intense period for the band, they are brimming with optimism ahead of their hotly anticipated new album, For All My Sisters. Katharine Hartley talked to singer Ryan Jarman about life after Johnny Marr, dealing with the pressures of the music industry and coming out the other side with a cracking new album under your belt…

K: How is everyone feeling about the new album?

R: The feeling within the band is really optimistic at the minute. It’s refreshing, because after the last album [In the belly of the brazen bull], the feeling in the band was really low. We were all dealing with personal demons and it felt really fragmented, like maybe we were at the end of the band. But, in the interim period we took three years off, we released Payola [The Cribs’ “best of ” album], plus I moved to New York and my life completely changed. I went from being a moody death rocker to feeling like things were good again. We wanted to make this hooky record and we were writing things that were much poppier. We recorded it really quickly with Ric Ocasek, who is someone we have always wanted to work with. We were just really happy with how it came out; it sounded EXACTLY as we wanted it to, which is really quite rare. The fans have responded really well to it too, so the vibe in the band is great at the minute.

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K: How was it working with Ric Ocasek?

R: We always have a list of people that we want to work with and Ric was someone we had wanted to work with for a while. He doesn’t produce that many records these days so it was great that he was up for it. I met Ric for dinner one day, we got on like a house on fire and I sent him the demo. Usually producers will switch things round – the order of songs or verses and choruses, but he said that they all sounded like hits and that he didn’t want to do anything with them.

That was really flattering, but it also meant that we were all on the same page. It made everything dead easy in the studio, there was no second guessing anyone and we just bashed the record out. It was really fun.

K: It definitely feels like you have unashamedly embraced your pop side on this record, is that something you have been afraid of doing in the past?

R: We’ve never been afraid of it we’ve always known that we have a pop side, everything we do is hooky and poppy. In the past though we have thought “Oh man, this is too pop” or “Ok, we’ve got a couple of pop songs on here, now it’s time to do something weirder” – whereas this time we thought let’s just embrace the pop side of the band, and not feel ashamed of it. It’s one of the things that our band does well, and which sets us aside from other guitar bands. We’ve made six records now – we can afford to have one really pop record!

K: You mentioned that after In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull you felt as if it was the end of the band – is this what the compilation was borne out of and did it draw a line under a difficult period?

R:It did draw a line under our time with Wichita [the band’s first record label] and this was part of the reason that there were some strange feelings between us all.

Not only were we individually dealing with personal issues, we were collectively dealing with the fact that we couldn’t work with the label that we’d worked with for years. What they wanted to achieve was different to what we wanted to achieve and that was difficult to come to terms with. On top of that I had been really ill, and also we weren’t really getting along, which was strange because being brothers 7

we had always been tight. The industry had really ground us down.

You enter into this industry so optimistic you want to write songs that make people happy. Then you get ground down by all the bullshit and bureaucracy and it was getting to the point where it had ground down all the enthusiasm which you really need for endless touring. Don’t get me wrong, I love touring, but it felt like the industry itself had become the problem. We needed something to happen to help us recapture that enthusiasm.

Having time off, working with Ric, and moving to New York all really helped recapture some of that.

K: There’s a definite feeling of introspection on the album, which feels a little more collected and a little less frantic than previous albums – is this a result of having some time out to reflect?

R: Yeah I think it is. Around 2006/2007, when Men’s Needs had just come out and I started dating Kate [Nash], we had a lot of mainstream attention. It was hectic and strange to me. Then Johnny [Marr] joined the band, and we had people comparing us to The Smiths, which was stressful. After we made the record with Johnny, everything was going great, and we were planning on having some time off because we felt burned out. But then Johnny left and we thought; “we HAVE to put out another record RIGHT NOW!” - just to prove that it wasn’t the end of the band. As a result, we were working under duress. The records from that period of time came out angry, came from a negative place. With the new record, although there is still a lot of emotion in the songs, it doesn’t come from such a dark place.

K: Do you have a favourite track from the album?

R: I love ‘Simple Story’, which is just a track I wrote myself and has a lot of meaning attached to it. ‘Pink Snow’ is also one of my favourites too.

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K: Your most recent tour has included some smaller, more intimate venues – was this a conscious decision to get back to basics?

R: We always like to play a handful of intimate shows because the fans really enjoy it. Doing these tiny venues in winter when it’s really cold, the fans all pile into the dressing room and it’s pretty hectic.

Our fans are amazing and they’ve responded really well to this tour.

I find it difficult to remember a show which wasn’t great because our fans are so amazing, they are so devoted and that makes such a huge difference to us. The new songs have gone down really well too. We have been playing roughly half of the new album, and the rest of the set has been a bit of a greatest hits – but perhaps not ones you would expect or that you have heard us play live much.

K: There was no hometown show in the tour – are there any plans to return to Wakefield anytime soon?

R: Not until after Leeds festival – they don’t like bands playing gigs too close by on the lead up to the festival so our hands are tied until after then. After the festival we will definitely sort something out though!

K: You played Long Division last year, how was it and what do you think of the festival?

R: It was really good – Unity Works is a great venue, and I really like what’s going on in Wakefield at the moment. When we were growing up there wasn’t really that much to do if you were in a band but now it’s almost unrecognisable - there is a great grassroots music scene.

It feels like everyone’s in a band, there are independent labels, good promoters, and the guys at Long Division are bringing some really good gigs into Wakefield which was unheard of when I was a kid. I hope our band breaking out of there gave people a bit of hope that things can happen for bands from Wakefield.

K: What’s coming up in 2015 for The Cribs?

R: We have Reading and Leeds confirmed and we would really like to do a bunch of festivals this summer. Once we’ve finished the UK tour we are going to New York to do a residency and then we will be heading off to South by Southwest and Coachella.

K: What’s the reception like over in the states?

R: It’s really good – it kind of works like it did in the UK – word of mouth.

It’s taken us a long time, we’ve done tours of some really small venues, working up to our last tour which was of 1000-capacity venues. The fans are the same – totally hardcore dedicated fans, even though we aren’t as big over there as in the UK, it’s kind of translated across in the same way.

K: So it’s over ten years since your first record – what have been your highlights and what’s on the band’s bucket list that you haven’t achieved yet?

R: Headlining the second stage at Reading was amazing – we did that twice and that would probably be one of my highlights certainly as far as live stuff goes. As for the future, we want to play at a stadium! We’ve played every kind of venue you can imagine and we’ve played at loads of festivals but we’ve never ever played a gig in a stadium. We are all big Queen fans so we want to play at Wembley Stadium some time – whether it would be headlining or supporting, we just want to play there!

New album For All My Sisters is out on 23 March 2015 available on Sony Red/Sonic Blew and you can catch them playing at Live at Leeds. If you can get in the venue, that is…

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Vessels On the Virtues of Electronic Music…

Okay. Let us draw a line under this. Vessels have gone electronic. Deal with it. If you won’t take my word, how about the words of someone who knows.

Tim Mitchell of Vessels, please take the stage…

As someone who grew up listening to and playing in mostly guitarbased bands of various degrees of heaviness, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on exactly at what point electronic music made an impact on me, and why.

What are the peculiar qualities that are intrinsic to the fascination that music made using a variety of electronic instruments and production technologies can hold, even to people who otherwise like to listen to jazz, folk and rock?

Clearly, on the one hand music is music and delineating quality on the grounds of genre or how it is made is a misguided enterprise.

However, given that numerous people do dismiss entire musical genres such as techno as ‘not their thing’, it might be useful to explore the virtues of electronic music in all its various guises. Electronic music is also not really a genre but we could use it here as an umbrella term that includes the myriad styles that harness electronic sound production (whether it be analogue or digital) to create music, rather than just using acoustic or electro-

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mechanical instruments.

With this being the case, it is telling that the album that made me take note of non-guitar based music was Endtroducing by DJ Shadow. Not by any means a purely electronic album, there is an organic feel to much of the record and it incorporates a number of funk, hip-hop and jazz styles (and a sample by Metallica), but it was made almost entirely using an Akai sampler that facilitated the creation of something different with an often ethereal atmosphere.

The organic sounds of the record helped to reel in listeners of more traditional styles and open up a new world for them. At least it did for me. Really, it may have been Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin that I discovered a little later that really opened up the kind of sonic landscape that purely electronic music can create.

Indeed, it is the capacity of electronic instruments and musicmaking techniques to create a sense of atmosphere that is so striking. Of course guitars can do this if you use enough effects on them but again it is the manipulation of the signal that is creating this. It is even purer if the instrument is electronic in the first instance. The otherworldly and ethereal quality generated by electronic audio experimentation is clearly exemplified by the ghostly sounds of one of the very

first electronic instruments, the Theremin. The ability of synthesis to create bizarre, beautiful, or frankly frightening soundscapes has been exploited to the full by a variety of artists from the early days of analogue to the production of electronic sounds via digital techniques using the full creative potential of the modern computer.

It may be less human in that the sounds are created artificially, but this in no way precludes the ability for the sounds to be emotive and even transcendental; they are after all programmed and played by a person even though it is clearly possible for them to sound like they have not been.

The repetitive nature of electronic dance music in particular, often with the incessant presence of the kick drum on each beat of the bar (in house and techno music) is an immediate turn-off for many people, signifying the music of nightclubs and drug-use. And whilst there is clearly some truth here (this music is perfect for a drugaddled mind in need of something to dance to until the early hours), it is not the whole story. Electronic dance music in its various guises often tends to slowly develop its narrative, and listeners develop a sense of patience and the ability to appreciate the pace of this music as new, often minor, textural and percussive elements are introduced over an extended period. In many ways post-rock is not so different except that it relies on the dynamics of a live band to lend its repetition a

sense of narrative and urgency. And indeed, the fact that a lot of modern electronic music, particularly in its more experimental manifestations, grew out of the ‘krautrock’ of the 1960s and 1970s gives the lie to the distinction between electronic, rock and even jazz given that these bands were often, though not always, a fusion of these styles. The key thing was a willingness to experiment and I think this is really where electronic music can excel.

There is an exciting sense of potential in electronic music that is difficult to find anywhere else; of new, untapped sounds that further experimentation with electronic music production will unearth.

The divisions between old-school musical genres are becoming less and less relevant as contemporary artists cross a variety of styles from ambient, techno, dub-step, and even introducing more traditional elements of world music, jazz, and classical: see recent albums by Kiasmos and Fatima Al Qadiri.

As listeners we have gotten used to having our genre boundaries constantly change as influences from the world of electronica and beyond feed on each other. The ability of electronic artists to remix each other’s work creates an exciting cross-pollination and convergence of styles. The technology clearly facilitates this, and there are many bedroom producers who can now be musically creative without ever having to set foot inside a dingy rehearsal studio.

And perhaps this is another of the liberating aspects of this music, the lack of dependence on others and the ability to more easily create, perform and record a singular musical vision.

Numerous artists started their musical careers in bands and gradually moved towards the world of electronic music: Kieran Hebden, Dan Snaith and Portico (Quartet) are obvious contemporary examples. Sam Prekop of Sea & Cake has just released an album solely for synthesizer after many years as a pop songsmith.

It is a great time for electronic music understood in its widest sense, with the constant development of the technologies, sound quality, cross-pollination of genres, producers, and electronic musical events/ festivals across the world celebrating music, art and technology. Genre distinctions are collapsing, and we are happy to be part of this.

Vessels third studio album, Dilate, is out now and is amazing.

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DEUCE & CHARGER Kryptonite Clubbing Local trio Deuce & Charger have been causing a stir on the UK music scene with their uplifting blend of dance, pop and D ‘n’ B. Previous singles ‘Always Broke’ and ‘Stop The Sky From Falling’ have both been sizeable online hits, receiving much praise, both from blogs and more established publications (influential website Idolator compared the latter track to Massive Attack’s classic ‘Unfinished Sympathy’). The band released their debut EP last November and Matt Brown caught up with Pete from the band to find out more about the band and what we can expect from them in the future.

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Tell me about how the band formed/the general line up. Who are the core members and how do you bring in your collaborators?

There are three of us in Deuce & Charger (the name often confuses people who think we’re a duo but it actually comes from a Superman super-villain team) - Becky, Yoni and me. After our previous band split up, I started writing/producing other artists, mainly in the pop/ dance/R’n’B world. Gradually the

enthusiasm for the three of us to work together again came back - we’ve got a great chemistry and missed making music together.

Initially we were writing/producing other artists but at the end of 2013, inspired by acts like Naughty Boy, Rudimental and Chase & Status, we decided to put ourselves out there as artists in our own right.

Our debut track ‘Always Broke’ got a great response and encouraged us to push forward with it all.

we should change the lyrics to be more stereotypical love/relationship themed. For us that totally went against the meaning of the song.

We’re big fans of pop records that have a social commentary aspect - Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the first Curtis Mayfield solo album, even Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation - and we wanted to bring that back.

So we developed the track into the released version and it became the catalyst for what we do now.

As for our collaborators, we write all the music, melodies and lyrics (other than the raps) for our tracks so they are complete songs – quite unusual for producers. We need to find the best vocalists who connect with the tracks and really bring them to life; our first collaborators (Benn Moore and Bianca Gerald) were friends or friends of friends but quickly the web went wider and we’re now collaborating with artists from all over the country. It brings an exciting dynamic to what we do - we never quite know what to expect and it means our music is filled with diverse influences and personalities.

Can you tell us about the debut EP Deuce and Charger EP1?

Tell me more about the writing?

‘Always Broke’ for example - what inspired the song?

We have no set process and our songs can go through all sorts of changes until we hit upon what feels right. Sometimes this happens really quickly and sometimes it takes more time to get it right. Usually, I write the core song, starting with the top-line melody and lyrics on piano or guitar. The three of us then work on the song together fleshing out the production sounds and beats - we all throw ideas into the mix.

‘Always Broke’ started out as an R’n’B type track intended for a solo artist we were working with a few years ago. We then took the chorus hook and used it for a hip hop track we were working on for another artist. We got some A&R feedback that the chorus was too bleak and

EP1 came out at the very end of last year and is very much a document of the first year of Deuce & Charger.

It has the original of ‘Always Broke’ plus the TYR dub remix, which got a great reaction online and introduced us to a totally different audience. The EP also has the track ‘Stop The Sky From Falling’, which has probably had the best response so far, with loads of BBC Introducing and press support. ‘Stop The Sky From Falling’ was a track that we had written a little while ago but we’d never found the right vocalist to do it justice. Then Bianca Gerald came along and smashed it with an absolutely killer vocal! It was also the first time we had worked with an MC, and we were really lucky to get the awesome Weezy Jefferson in on a verse. The EP has the studio version as well as a special live acoustic version we recorded for International Peace Day. The newest track on the EP is ‘Wild & Free’ which switches the pace up with a drum & bass rhythm track.

It’s got loads of energy, with the spirit of the track brilliantly captured in the vocal and sermon (oh yes!)

by Leeds soul legend Rev Chunky Butt Funky.

What other things can we look forward to from the band - where would you like to be in 12 months time?

We’ve got loads of plans for 2015 and beyond.

We’re currently finishing off some new tracks with

more new collaborators. We’ve been doing a lot with MCs - the UK scene is really exciting at the moment. We want to keep releasing our tracks in unusual ways (like the video campaign for ‘Always Broke’ and the #PeaceSignSelfie campaign for the live version of ‘Stop The Sky From Falling’), really just to keep mixing things up. There’s a lot of talk about the internet destroying the music industry but we don’t see it that way. It just means you’ve got to think about things differently.

What music, both current and past, inspires you the most? You list What’s Going On and Sign of the Times’as influential albums - what is it about those two masterpieces specifically that has impacted on your music? What is your opinion of the current Leeds music scene?

We could be here all day answering this! What’s Going On and Sign of the Times are big influences on us for the quality of songwriting and the social commentary. We’re not a political act but we want to write about life and what’s going on around us. The sound of classic soul albums has also been a big inspiration on our production style - so we listen to a lot of Curtis Mayfield, Sly & the Family Stone, etc. We like how Massive Attack used vocalists and MCs from diverse backgrounds to create something unique - we’re trying to do something similar by working with MCs like Weezy Jefferson but also artists like Phoenix Pearle (exNightmares On Wax) and bands like The Witch Hunt. Despite referencing a lot of older music, we’re all about making music that’s in the here and now - we listen to a lot of new stuff like George The Poet, Major Lazer, Sigma, DJ Fresh, The Weeknd and Years & Years. The Leeds scene is as vibrant as ever and it’s a pleasure to be part of it all.

Deuce & Charger EP1 is out now h t t p : / / d e u c e a n d c h a r g e r. c o m Twitter @deuceandcharger

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Still Angry After All These Years – Therapy?

For all those of a certain age, the opening beats of ‘Screamager’ will still make your heart jump for joy. Apparently, it does the same for the band wot made it, as Rob Fearnley discovered when he spoke to Therapy? frontman Andy Cairns…

We all heard it from our parents when they said “you won’t always feel this way,” but what happens if you do? How are you meant to react when the same things that pissed you off at 15 still piss you off at 30, 40 and 50? If you were to follow the example of Therapy?, you’d keep on writing pissed off music, which is exactly what they’ve done on 14th album, Disquiet.

“I’m 50 soon and yes I’m angry but the focus of that anger has changed somewhat,” says frontman and guitarist Andy Cairns, “around the time we released Babyteeth and Troublegum it was almost impotent rage and I was angry at myself more than anything. 20 years later I’m still angry but more at the helplessness of today’s society.”

These feelings of matured rage are obvious upon listening to Disquiet, the band’s most single-mindedly angry record for 18 years. It has 14

all the hallmarks of the seminal Troublegum album in terms of theme (anxiety, paranoia, isolation) without ever being identikit. It definitely has a whiff of their 1994 classic about it though. Having toured Troublegum in its entirety throughout 2014 has revisiting it had an influence on the new record?

“It had a big influence,” says Cairns, “everyone was enjoying the fact that the Troublegum songs had gone down so well and after the tour we wanted to remain tight and focussed. It was our drummer Neil Cooper, who didn’t play on Troublegum, that noticed that the early new songs were very direct and to the point and suggested maybe we should look at doing that with the rest of the album.”

The punch-to-face directness of Disquiet is prevalent from the off with the teeth-gritted pleading of ‘Still Hurts’ as Cairns screams ‘Each year/it gets worse/it won’t stop/it still hurts’ out of sheer frustration.

What brings about a level of frustration like that for a man heading towards his half century?

“On a broader scope it’s seeing how class and financial systems work but closer to home I look around me and see people in jobs they don’t like, stuck in relationships they’re not happy in and getting into debt. They borrow money they

don’t have to impress people they don’t like.

Conversely Cairns thinks he knows why he hasn’t ended up that way: “I didn’t go out and get drunk and get in fights and it’s probably because I had the band as an outlet. I’d much rather have it this way though than have my anger impinge on my personal life.”

Arguably the highlight of Disquiet is the sneeringly straightforward ‘Idiot Cousin’, which features the line “you don’t look like a boy that sings,” attributed to a former work colleague of Cairns’ when he worked in a tyre factory as the band was starting out. 25 years is a long time to sit and stew over something as cutting as that so why the wait to address it in a song?

“I suppose I was taking a step back from the last 20 years of the band and I realised that the thing about Therapy? is that we’ve always been a bunch of outsiders. It wasn’t through choice and we never wore it as badge – that’s just how it was.”

It seems that sense of being on the outside of total acceptance hasn’t been a hindrance though: “it’s always been a strength that we never fit into any particular genre.

We were just a mongrel because we liked all sorts of music which wasn’t seen as cool.”

With an extensive UK tour coming up to support that albums release, Therapy? are looking forward to airing some of the new material: “we’ll play as much of the new stuff as we can. We normally play for an hour and 45 minutes which is realistic in terms of keeping the energy levels up and making sure the audience doesn’t get bored or knackered. We’ve been playing a few of the new songs for a while

now but there’s nothing on Disquiet that’s tricky to play so we’ll do quite a lot of it but we’ll play the ‘hits’ as well.”

25 years into their career and Therapy? are enjoying not so much a re-birth as a re-evaluation of what it is that made them form a band in the first place. Cairns can testify as to why Therapy? will always have a

rich vein of source material to mine: “there’s a myth that once you get to 30 you mellow and then once you hit 40 it’s a long slow trundle down into the beige years. I don’t think that’s true – I think people are angry until the day they die.”

Therapy? Will be playing at The Brudenell Social Club on 19th April. Prep yourself by listening to Disquiet, available now.

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The Divorce Before Marriage Plot ILT, Matt Hopkins, Ben Lankester and the Anti-Music Documentary For all those who have been following the Leeds music scene, I Like Trains need no introduction.

For those who haven’t, just ask anyone with a decent beard at the Belgrave, or get on the post-rock express that will be ‘A Divorce Before Marriage’, the story of the fall and rise of ILT. But, as Alan Stewart discovered, there’s more to the film than building to a crescendo and fading to nothing…

In the old days, independence was a badge of honour- a cause to fight for. No matter how challenging or indeed unlistenable a record, if it was independent then it was good. Existing outside the music business meant you retained some sense of purity – you could remain untouched by the pressure of shifting units and follow your muse. For many, the idea of being commercial was as inconceivable as Iggy Pop flogging insurance or Johnny Rotten hawking butter, but times have changed, as has the music industry. Independence for many bands these days is a necessity rather than a statement of intent. As Simon Fogal, drummer for Leeds’ post-rock heroes I Like Trains’ observes in the forthcoming documentary ‘A Divorce Before Marriage’ independence means bands “have a lot more control, but have to work a hell of a lot harder.”

This work ethic is just one of the themes explored in Matt Hopkins 16

and Ben Lankester’s first feature, due to hit the UK and European film festival circuit soon. The pair forged links with I Like Trains over the last five years through directing their music videos and live promos.

This was shortly after the band had been forced to go it alone after their label, Beggar’s Banquet, collapsed. It was this situation and their own position as emerging filmmakers that gave the pair the premise for the new work. As Matt Hopkins explains, “How well known the band were never came into our thinking when we decided to start making this film. From the start we saw that I Like Trains represented something very different in the musical landscape. They had a small but fiercely dedicated fan base and were balancing on a pivot between being a larger full time band (as they once were) and a DIY outfit. This was our initial link to the film and we quickly realised that there was a larger story to tell in addition about the band members’ lives as people outside of music too.”

So, ‘A Divorce Before Marriage’ promises to be more than simply a documentary about how a band remains independent, a situation that Hopkins remarks is not entirely unique in the current climate. He and Lancaster have been following the band around for over three years now and have a wealth of material currently in the final stages of editing. “We’ve been working

very hard on the structure of the film, there are a wealth of angles, stories and ideas that we could go with, and so it’s been a lot of trial and error in some areas of the film.

It’s really starting to come together now, but there’s still a lot more work to go!”

Although he identifies one of the main challenges to the project as the typical balancing act between creative work and other commitments, Hopkins observes that the three year stop and start nature of the production has added another layer to the film. “Seeing the band’s lives change over the last three years has been remarkable.”

A clear parallel between the musicians and the filmmakers has been their use of crowd funding to bankroll their endeavours. The success of the Pledge campaign for I Like Trains’ post Beggar’s album He Who Saw the Deep was undoubtedly a factor in their resolve to keep going. Similarly, Hopkins and Lankester took to Kickstarter to secure finance to finish their project. From a target of £16,000 they swiftly exceeded this and gained a staggering £28, 000. “It was a revelation for both parties to see how much people valued the band and these art forms that surround it,” says Matt. “As filmmakers, we weren’t sure of the response that we’d get, but it was a revelation when the funds came in allowing us

to surpass our targets many times over which we are eternally grateful for to all of our backers.”

For those considering going down the crowd-funding route, Hopkins has some sound advice - before you ask for people’s hard earned cash, show them what you can do.

“One similarity we had with the band and their Pledge campaign is that we both had a body of work to show our funders before starting our campaigns. They had an album and an EP which fans loved; we had two and half years of footage which we could cut into a trailer. This is something really important for people thinking of going down the crowd-funding route. You’ll fare a lot better if the audience can have a taste of what you’re going to make rather than just an idea of things.”

Given the cinematic nature of their previous work, in particular their moving promo for ILT’s ‘Sea of Regrets’ and the must-see online documentary series ‘England, Your England’, Matt and Ben’s project deserves to find an audience beyond the post-rock enthusiasts of Yorkshire. I raise the subject of various landmark music docs from the last few years such as ‘Dig!’ and ‘Anvil’ but Matt is quick to distance ‘A Divorce Before Marriage’ from them. “We want this film to feel like the anti-music documentary.

We’ve pointed our lens into places that you wouldn’t expect from a music documentary, so we hope that comes across on screen. We definitely wanted to make sure people appreciate the real lives that the band are living alongside their musical careers.”

Though the project has clearly been a mammoth undertaking, one potential sacrifice has been avoided.

As part of the Kickstarter campaign the co-director’s offered up Ben’s beloved purple Nissan Micra to the investor who stumped up a grand.

I ask after its welfare. “The Micra lives on!” says Matt. The kind backer who pledged the £1000 for the car actually decided he didn’t need it so it remained in Ben’s possession.

We’re still using her on shoots, she’s picked up a few new battle scars and speeding tickets but she’s still very much part of this film!”

‘A Divorce Before Marriage’ will be released later this year. Visit Matt and Ben’s Kickstarter page to preorder a copy.

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Beacons Metro - Embryonic Hope Festival: from Latin. festum ‘to feast’. A feast. A word that raises the expectations of the ordinary. Raising them high up into the upper echelons of euphoria. The escapism and hedonism of a music festival has always been one of the most attractive qualities to what is a summer staple for most. Cue the tough question of “which one to go to?”, which in turn has the festival organisers questioning “How to get people to attend my festival?”

One look at this year’s Leeds & Reading please-every-demographic lineup and it isn’t hard to imagine how weekend ticket sales will be slow considering a loss of identity across the weekend. Without angering any specific fans; The Libertines, Mumford & Sons and Metallica don’t sit well next to each other. It seems that the organisers are expecting more people will opt for day passes, with a nicely packaged option of choosing between your metal-day, pop-day and indie-day. Maybe there will be a colour co-ordinated system in place next year, similar to your favourite crisp packet. Though maybe that it isn’t too much of an issue for the attendee as the booming festival scene ensures plenty of alternatives if one doesn’t suffice.

Of course music is not the exclusive experience to be found at festivals. Food, art and film also feature heavily on a festival’s menu. All four platforms, being equally represented has been triumphantly displayed in Leeds city centre

by Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen, with the concept becoming more and more enticing elsewhere too. Beacons Festival always pursued this as well but 2015 will sadly see them set sail from the field festival world. Last year’s whipping from the tail end of a tropical storm may have been the final nail in the coffin.

In its place rises Beacons Metro; an urban festival where people will not have to queue for toilets, food or seek awful shelter ever again; where a come-and-go-as-you-please urban setting will be beneficial to most. Starting in October, a 12 week long programme of food, music, film and art will take place in the centre of Leeds. An idea of what this will entail can be gathered from the varied list of partners on BM’s most recent press release. For example, both No Gloss and Leeds International Film Festival already take place during the proposed BM season, so BM will probably serve as an extension of the two already established festivals. There are also big promoters, art heads, experimentalists, bookstores, foodies and music labels all pitching in to hopefully produce an inordinate range of entertainment.

The BM press release states that it was time to “move onto the next stage of the festival’s evolution”, implying the possible death of their association with the term ‘festival’. Instead, its urban location and large time scale could make it one of the largest scale pop-up venues a city has seen. Warehouse spaces or temporarily derelict corner shops won’t be a patch on a gigantic 3 storey high, former textile mill. Perhaps it could serve as a Belgrave 2, housing acts and events that the former couldn’t or become an event space that displays an even greater amalgamation of art formats working together. Mass interaction between each aspect of BM could become its USP; film working alongside music and art, within the same performance (presumably being wise for food to remain a bystander).

However this is a responsibility of the acts involved as much as the organisers and may prove to be too high an expectation.

To eradicate a dichotomy between cultural activity will probably be the defining factor of BM. If a dichotomy was present then the BM brand could hint to being more profit-driven than experience-driven. Why house so much cultural activity within the same building if they don’t interact with each other? The city is more than capable of having music festivals, film festivals, art exhibitions and food fairs within different venues. There would be no raised stature to the events that take place at BM if it ran as a series of separate events. Now profit is not completely negative as this is an expensive world but it would be hopeful to think that a profit driven venture would not lead to BM becoming a commercially sponsored slice of unbuttered bread. The more art forms that work together under one roof could mean that Leeds could have its very own metropolitan Glastonbury Festival.

George Paris See also Live at Leeds, headlined by The Cribs, Carl Barat and Gaz Coombes, Wakefield’s Long Division, with British Sea Power, Ash, Pulled Apart By Horses and The Fat White Family and Tramlines, with Wu Tang Clan, Buzzcocks and Basement Jax for more urban experiences. Inner city is the new outer limits…

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Schweine of the Times

countries are amazing, the people, the set-ups, the politics… some are still pretty crazy, some are a lot more normal…

So here we are, sat in an overpriced bar in Chapel Allerton, drinking coffee and discussing the absurdity of Russian politics. Can this really be the same Neil Hanson who brought you ‘There’s No I In International Trust’?

Yes and no...

But the new album – not about Eastern European or a concept album?

It’s a little bit conceptual – it’s all about twats this time. The stuff we talk about as a band isn’t just Eastern Europe… it’s that politics is fucking ridiculous and that’s a big running theme through it… it’s more about now. It’s not Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ at all… but that’s what it is, it’s the state of the fucking world through our eyes.

What was it that first made you consider going into music in the first place?

NH: I always wanted to be in a band since I was a little kid in school, about ten or eleven –I drew gig posters of imaginary bands I was in. Or it was seeing Stone Roses and Happy Mondays on Top Of The Pops in that crazy episode where both bands appeared back to back.

Wow. I was into pop and Smash Hits. I started buying Melody Maker after that.

The first album is pretty facty…

The stuff on the first album… it sort of fell into that. I’d written one song about Edi Rama… and then I wrote a song about Ceaucescu, then we said ‘let’s write an album about all this stuff.’ Which made writing it much harder.

When did you first start a band?

NH - Back in school when I was fourteen, played in a band at university, after university played in a string of bands, it’s always been there… and they’ve always been quite similar… but they’ve all had their own slant.

Why’s that?

If you’re writing all your songs about one thing ... It works because you know what you’re doing and you’ve got a plan, but you’re already limiting yourself hugely and now I’m quite looking forward to putting the next album out, which isn’t about Eastern Europe…

Has there been an evolution in your bands?

Yeah, but I used to write about shagging and nothing stuff, this is the first band where I’ve actually written about stuff that I really care about…

So you won’t get called ‘Horrible Histories for adults’…

I love that, and when I was half way through writing it, I was thinking ‘this is fucking brilliant, no-one’s ever done it like this before’. We quite quickly became a political band without meaning to be but once we started writing these songs we got a buzz… and consequently every interview we did around that first album was ace … which made me think that it’s maybe not the interviewers that ask inane questions, it’s the bands that provoke it.

What changed to make things… different?

It wasn’t intentional. Between International Trust and Kleine Schweine I wasn’t in a band for a couple of years, then my missus and a mate had a right go at me one night for not writing – and that was the first time that I considered writing about politics… but I didn’t want to sound incredibly naïve… or miss the facts…

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So: Why Eastern Europe?

I was always fascinated by Eastern Europe because we never knew anything about it as a kid. All these

Can you say anything else about the album?

I think another 22 minute album of one and a half minute songs that all sound the same would be a bit shit. So what we’ve done is nine one and a half minute songs that all sound the same… and one sixminute song at the end!

So when’s it due out?

Recorded in March, gonna be out the tenth of April. We did the last one, and we didn’t officially release it until four months after to get some press hype, which was effectively pointless. So this time we’re gonna release it as soon as it’s done.

All you need is a title.

If you’re naming an album… it’s gotta be right – it’s your baby. It’s the hardest thing in the world. It’s hard not to sound clichéd… we’ve had loads of suggestions. But the album is harder, heavier, nastier.

Except the six minute song.

So… you’ve got the giant inflatable pig then?

Funny you should say that…

Rob Wright You can go to Pledge Music to buy any number of Kleine Schweine goodies and the next album… or you can see them at Eiger Studios on 17th April. It will get messy.

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When you heard that Manchester had its own TV channel, Channel M, you were a bit jealous, weren’t you?

Admit it. Well, jealousy be gone!

Leeds has its own channel now and Mike Price has been getting the low down on it. And we (I) might be getting on the telly. I’m ready for my close up now, Mr De Mille…

Finally, the city of Leeds gets something a conurbation of this size should perhaps have had a while ago: its own TV station. The Made In…. franchise is an expanding network of self-styled “City TV” stations now covering Leeds, Tyne & Wear, Cardiff and Bristol. In the short time since launch, Made in Leeds TV (Sky 117, Virgin 159, Freeview 8, plus an online streaming launching as we speak) has reached over 400,000 viewers - not bad for a station less than 6 months old, giving the impression that the Leodensian populous have embraced their new service. The impressive stats are despite the very first programme dropping a somewhat unexpected c-bomb during the opening night broadcast last November. You have to wonder if that constitutes a record, certainly it wouldn’t have happened on the debut of ‘Made in TunbridgeWells TV’ if there was such a thing, but that’s probably because they’re a bunch of posh southern c**ts.

The supremely affable station manager Lee Ford, joining to head-up the fledgling station shortly after the notorious faux-pas gives his take on it, musing “There was a lot of pressure to launch, and because of some of the issues, they were looking for someone a little bit older, even though my predecessor did a really good job in pulling everything together from the get go. I inherited a team of people I’m incredibly impressed with, although we still don’t quite know what happened

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on the launch night, it’s shrouded in legend.”

If the station were looking for experience, they chose wisely, “I’ve always worked in television of some sort, whether as a producer or director. I was involved in launching the Sheffield TV channel, Sheffield Live, which is more of a community TV channel.”

Made in Leeds TV also produces live music output in the form of ‘All Star Unplugged’, a half-hour live platform for aspiring artists and bands in the region, recorded at the station studios.

Further live music shows are in the pipeline, including ‘Alive and Gigging’ due to be broadcast from Eiger Studios in Leeds and Warehouse 23 in Wakefield.

Naturally there are plenty other sources of programming: “What makes up Leeds is its music, football, sports and arts scenes and that is integral to what we should be showing. For me as the station manager, it’s also about launching new talent. A lot of the people that we’ve got are straight out of Uni, very new to the industry, in positions that may have taken them several more years to reach, we’ve found them and given them a chance, and that’s the same with our programming.”

The best local TV stations have their finger firmly on the pulse of what’s going on and Made in Leeds is no exception: “It should be about catching an essence of what a city is about, finding the current, tapping into it and delivering it back. ‘The Book-It List’ is probably our most recognizable show, we very seldom have a quiet week when there’s not something happening. It’s tough to do with the resources, but we’ve got

a very dedicated team. I think we do that with news too. When I worked in Sheffield, everyone there thought Look North was just about Leeds and when I came here, everyone thought it was about everywhere except Leeds. I think we find that voice, the smaller stories as well as the major stories that are breaking across the city and we spend a little bit more time on them. BBC or Calendar might not think them newsworthy whereas the community we live in does, we never lose sight of that.”

Despite the humble origins, the programmes are well made. Lee explains why: ‘When the local TV franchises came about Made… wanted to put together a network, a bigger organisation that meant that we could deliver TV programmes at a level that were acceptable to viewers.

[These days] people have got big screens and a lot of choice and we don’t have the budgets, so the creative decisions we make are based on the limitations we have, so each of the channels will share some material. For example, we have the opportunity to put on a music show in Leeds but will also share it with other channels and vice versa, so we’re giving that new creative talent accessibility across other cities.’

‘We’re a 24 hour station but our peak time is between 6pm and 10pm when we look to put on new, original and unique programmes. As well as our music, news and current affairs output, we’ve found some interesting comedy and sport…..Leeds is sport, part of the city’s blood, whereas in other cities it isn’t.’

Talking telly and music brings us to the possibility of a Vibrations Music programme appearing on the station.

Lee adds: “Vibrations is such a part of the city’s music brand it’s about finding a vehicle that captures what Vibrations is about, an extension of what the magazine is, but also something that doesn’t look like anything else. As soon as I came to Leeds, everyone told me about Vibrations. Every city that I’ve worked in, there always has been and always should be a local magazine that works at grass roots level dealing with music, that breaks bands and tells you who is happening.” Fingers crossed. http://www.madeinleeds.tv/

guitar for us. I’m slightly in awe of Paul, who is massively accomplished and a great player, so he gets to do pretty much what he wants. With two guitars it’s a massive sound, we are faster and louder than the Shatner of old.

No More Space Doubt Usually, for Leeds bands, ‘hiatus’ is a euphemism for ‘so long and thanks for all the gigs’ (though I am still holding out for the return of Mother Vulpine), but Shatner, much like the tenuously linked Star Trek, has come out of retirement… though I am not sure Jim would approve of the word ‘reboot’.

Catriona Chadderton chooses her words carefully with chief Shatnist Jim Bower…

So first off – why the 5 year gap between this and last album?

It’s actually 7 years!

We put a lot of time, energy and money into our last album, Thirteen O’Clock and for a while it was a case of ‘how do you follow that?’ Then a load of life started happening, our keyboard player got married and moved to Scarborough, our drummer opened a cheese shop (really), children were born, the recession happened, day jobs became more of a priority and nobody could afford anything anymore.

Mainly it was about me, I suppose. I stopped pushing it because I wasn’t really coming up with the songs and would rather wait for inspiration than try something half baked. It’s got to be 100% right or I won’t do it.

Why have you come out of your hiatus?

I finally got my shit together and wrote a set of songs I was happy with!

The key to it was coming up with a theme. The last one was about time, and this one is about space - not

just the big black thing in the sky but about the spaces between people, and how we communicate, what connects us.

The album is called Wow Signals after a famous incident in the 1970s when an apparent message was received from space (you can google “the wow signal” – other internet search engines are available). It only happened once and all attempts to find it again failed. This seemed like a great metaphor, it worked with the space/communication theme and allowed me to use lots of beeps and cosmic sounds between tracks, but more than that it’s about a yearning to reach out, to not be alone. Also we’re all waiting for our own “wow signal”, that elusive life changing event.

So once I had all this written, it was a case of “I’d better record these properly,” then it was a case of “I’d better release this then” and now it’s a case of “I’ll have to play this stuff live” and hey presto we’re back in the game.

How does it feel to be back?

We’re not completely back because we haven’t yet played live, though at the time of going to press we’re in rehearsal and we have a few dates booked in over the summer.

I am absolutely itching to play live again, can’t wait, and the live band is shaping up brilliantly.

The Scaramanga Six’s drummer Gareth played on the album and is still on board, and I was gobsmacked when Paul Morricone of the Six asked me if he could come and play

There’s a downside: it’s hard work and the rewards aren’t always apparent. Also the usual anxieties apply: will people like it? Can we still do it convincingly? My big fear is that I’m basically David Brent, just some middle aged fool with delusions, making videos, releasing pop music.

I’m sure there will be people who see me like that, but bollocks to them. I do this because I have to. A lot of musicians my age have either given up or are off playing in covers bands, but for me it’s all about the creative side, I have to produce, and I have to keep improving. I’ve been at it for so long now, I can’t switch it off, it’s what I am.

Has the music industry changed dramatically?

We have no idea, we’re not interested in the music industry and the music industry isn’t interested in us. People seem to have more facial hair but that’s about it.

How has social media made an impact on the band now you’re back?

I use twitter but I can’t say it’s been all that useful, I think Facebook has had more of an impact for us, it’s a good way of connecting with people and sharing stuff.

The main difference between now and 7 years ago in terms of technology is that we can now make our own videos, I’ve had a laugh doing that. I bought a green screen and borrowed some lights, the last one was actually filmed on an iPad. Wow Signals is available to buy from www.shatner.info See Shatner @ Parish Huddersfield 16th April, Puzzle Hall SowerbyBridge 20th June.

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wide variety of genres and styles of music. We had electronica, jazz, avantgarde and pop .We prioritise innovative music that would otherwise struggle to find an outlet, regardless of genre.

Q. It seems inevitable to me that the sort of young composers you’re featuring will have been influenced by other, nonclassical genres of music and that this will be reflected in their compositions.

The visibility of women in the arts, and more knottily the extent to which they can expect a fair stab at proving themselves against male counterparts, is variable across the range of artistic disciplines. For example, it could be argued that women in certain sections of the world of rock music have a much better chance now of being regarded as a significant contributor to the form than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Classical music, though, generally still regards the world overwhelmingly through the prism of dead, white, Western, male composers, the vast majority of concert programmes clogged with content chosen more for its familiarity through advertising campaigns and film themes, it seems.

Contemporary classical music, that is music composed since 1945 by in many cases still living composers takes a more enlightened and proactive view of inclusiveness and at, say, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival each year female composers are always featured, often as Composer In Residence. But initiatives at a local level are hard to find. Lucky for Leeds then that music graduates Mary-Ellen O’Shea and Claire Layton have decided to add their voices to the debate.

Q. The full name of your new venture, Centre Stage: A Spotlight on Female Composers, is pretty self-explanatory, but why did you feel the need to start it?

Mary-Ellen: Having studied composition at the Leeds College of Music, I found there was a big difference between the facilities and support I had received as a student and what was available after graduation. The rationale behind the night is to provide emerging female composers with the platform to showcase their compositions and present innovative music of all genres.

Q. So is it about inequality in terms of recognition in certain skills like

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composition, rather than simply equality of participation?

Claire: It’s more about representation. All emerging composers, no matter what gender, have difficulty in having their music played. Because fewer women go down this road we want to ensure that the ones that do get the support they deserve as artists. We are not saying that music by women is better than that by men- that’s nonsense. We are just giving under-represented artists a platform.

Q. Have you had any comments or complaints about the fact that you focus exclusively on female composers?

C: No, not so far. I think that people recognise the fact that historically women have been kept out of the picture when it comes to composition. Ask the average person to name some female composers and I don’t think you will get very far!

Q. How did Centre Stage come about, then? And why is it based in Leeds?

Neither of you are from Leeds are you?

M-E: We both studied music together in Cork and have both pursued music professionally so it made sense to work together on this initiative.

Many of my connections to fellow composers and musicians are here in Leeds so it was the best place for us to start it up and get it established.

Q. The first Centre Stage gig was wonderfully eclectic in terms of styles of music covered.

M-E: Yes. The aim of the night was to display the work of female composers across a

M-E: Yes, when we say ‘A Spotlight on Female Composers’ we do not mean ‘classical’ composers.

C: That is the beauty of new music - it is a really unique synthesis of all of the amazing sounds that are available to us as listeners now. Why limit yourself to one genre when there is so much to be explored?

Q. So, the next Centre Stage event is in May, but in the meantime is there anything you want to add?

M-E: We are looking for other female composers regardless of genre, so if anyone reading this wants to get involved, send us an email.

The next Centre Stage: A Spotlight On Female Composers gig takes place at the White Cloth Gallery, Leeds on 8th May headlined by Stef Conner.

You can contact Centre Stage via centrestageleeds@gmail.com Steve Walsh More info at www.centrestageleeds.com

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Reviews ALBUM REVIEWS Snow’, all seven minutes of it, epitomise the album’s exasperating decline. For All My Sisters has energy and bombast in abundance, but noticeably lacks star quality.

Ten Toes’ peters things to a sprawling ambient close. Count me assimilated.

Tim Hearson

Danny Owen

The Cribs For All My Sisters (Sony RED) The Wakefield rockers defied any postMarr hangovers with their brazen indie ideals remaining typically persistent, if a little timeworn.

Two years on from their Payola compilation, The Cribs are as contradictory as ever. Innately underground yet capable of raucous stadium crescendos, their hoppypoppy hooks sumptuously compliment Ryan Jarman’s deadpan delivery; an underrated three-piece ingrained into hipster’s hearts, whilst flirting sporadically with the mainstream.

However, For All My Sisters falls someway short of its predecessors.

True to tradition, their sixth studio release explodes out of the blocks, confidently thundering from upbeat indie climaxes into poignant wouldbe-ballads. Their tub-thumping thrust and charming Yorkshire twang draw it together in a neatly wrapped package of boisterous buoyancy; The Cribs in a nutshell.

‘Finally Free’ is steeped in exuberance, its brooding bass line and flickering hooks seamlessly dovetailing Jarman’s unruly screeching. ‘Different Angle’, as boisterous as it is expressive, follows in the openers’ steel-capped footsteps.

Meanwhile, lead single ‘Burning For No One’ and ‘Mr Wrong’, the album’s grungy apex, reach heights their successors simply cannot match.

Bar the stripped-bare soul of ‘Simple Story’ and uber-catchy ‘Diamond Girl’, the latter half suffers from over-similarity, limping across the line a fatigued, battlescared mule. The forgettable ‘Pacific Time’ and marathon stumble ‘Pink

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Hawk Eyes Everything Is Fine (Red Vole) Vessels Dilate (The Leaf Label) Instrumental Rock has long been flirting with the dirty world of Dance and it almost seems like a rite of passage that the syncopation-heavy, guitar-wielding komponists gravitate towards the synths and stick down a solid four-on-the-floor (take 65dos’s We Were Exploding Anyway as a prime example). The effect on the long term fan tends to be a gradual process of bewilderment, rejection, mild Stockholm Syndrome, then assimilation.

Well, now it’s Vessels’ turn, so get ready.

The album starts as it means to go on with a persistent, deadened bass drum pulse before mechanistic bass synths slide in. ‘Vertical’ consists of glacial shifts between pulsating and dying lines of music before grafting itself deftly onto the momentum of ‘Elliptic’. This track then takes a steady journey towards a motorik groove that now resembles a touch of the Vessels of old. But, you know what, I’m having a really great time. Stockholm Syndrome has set in and it only took two tracks.

Dilate continues its assault in a warm bath of synth and heady progressions, including the Kraut-infused ‘Attica’ providing one of the most neckbobbingest grooves you’ll encounter this year. The vocal splashes of Isolde FreethHale and a glitched-up Snow Fox give the album some strategic lift right when a human touch is being called for by our lonely little minds. Finally ‘On Your Own

This could repeat the same impact on British rock music that Therapy? had with Troublegum 21 years ago, when rockers, punks and metalheads were united by the sheer ferocity of what had been laid before them. Screaming these are our influences and look what we’ve done with them it’s a blend of styles that the finest of baristas would be proud of.

‘The Trap’ rolls out with a Tool-esque intro before descending into the chaotic sound we’ve become accustomed to from Hawk Eyes. Dillinger’s discordance and Mr Bungle’s vocals are heard in ‘The Ambassador’ before exploding into a crowd-pitting frenzy of a chorus. ‘The Ballad Of Michael McGlue’ drips with head-nodding passion while ‘More Than A Million’ gallops along with its indelible ‘So here’s to you rebel, rebel’ refrain.

‘Happiness is a risky business’ hollers the opening line of ‘Terribly Quelled’ which seems ironic given the shit-eating grin that Hawk Eyes will put on many a discerning music fans face.‘TFF’ is a classic saving-the-best-to-last right hook.

Teasing with a lone guitar chord it builds into an absolute planet-smasher of blissful riffery and percussion that will have a multitude of acts weeping onto their effects pedals.

It seems bizarre to be talking about album of the year when the Christmas decorations are barely down but fuck it, Everything Is Fine has got album of the DECADE potential. Everything isn’t just fine for Hawk Eyes, everything is absolutely and stunningly brilliant.

Rob Fearnley

Reviews is still full of quality, gladly ensuring that we will get to hear more and more of Eaves mesmerising songwriting for many years to come.

George Paris

Menace Beach Ratworld (Memphis Industries)

Eaves What Green Feels Like (Heavenly Recordings)

Sometimes unfairly titled a ‘supergroup’ due to the line-up’s occasionally revolving door policy, core members Ryan Needham and Liza Violet have drafted in the cream of the Leeds scene to not only play on but, in the case of Hookworms’ MJ, produce as well.

Despite being choc-full of the beautifully fuzzy riffs and hooks that you’d expect, Ratworld has an effortlessly lazy and laid back feel. However this doesn’t deaden its impact. It adds to its appeal, sounding like it was constructed with exactly the attitude it conveys.

Eaves over the past few years has gone from playing occasional sets around Leeds, to supporting European tours with Nick Mulvey, a headline UK tour for himself and gained the backing of independent label Heavenly Recordings.

The young songsmith has an undeniable talent in both song and voice so queue the release of his debut album What Green Feels Like.

Coming across as a gentle yet journeyed songwriter in ‘Alone In My Mind’ and the beginning of ‘Pylons’ his lyrics spell out captivating stories. During the emotive final number, ‘Creature Carousel’, he portrays himself as a young man lumbered with thought, pleading ‘I want to distinguish between what a life and a dream is’. The delicate musings of ‘Timber’ lead into ‘Hom-A-Gum’, where self-reflection bores deep, spearheading the album as Eaves sits at a piano.

Singing ‘Look at the job you’ve done/ Before you give it up for good’ in the latter, Eaves confronts doubt with a vigorous potency as the song moves into a drunk and stumbling piano that ponders before rising into the dramatic hammers of the song’s coda; filled with chittering ambience and climactic brass.

‘Blue Eye’ and ‘Dig It Up’ are insistent but dreamlike and provide an allover satisfaction that you wouldn’t get from chorus heavy hits. ‘Blue Eye’ in particular has a very personal sense and slows the album down without ever detracting from a flow that remains constant and engaging throughout the album.

‘Come On Give Up’ provides one of the most radio friendly moments with its glorious refrain evoking Yuck and Group Love amongst others. Lead single ‘Tastes Like Medicine’ is another instant highlight; ploughing along relentlessly with a staccato drum beat and unapologetically British indie chorus that has 1995 stamped right across the middle.

Whilst clearly having a strong American influence, Menace Beach have a distinctive and unmistakably British sound running through the album - think Elastica or Blur at their messy best.

Menace Beach can now, deservedly, be added to the ever growing list of Leeds bands who are capable of breaking out on a grander scale.

Rob Fearnley

However the album, at times, does have a sense of being overdone. The overlaying of vocal tracks in ‘As Old As The Grave’ and ‘Dove In Your Mouth’ detract away from the emotional and raw qualities that Eaves can communicate live. There is an overriding sense of being too studio polished and one can’t help thinking that it is a direction that he should push to avoid.

Whilst performing live, the best parts of Buckley, Yorke, Dylan and Young can be heard in Eaves voice as it unfolds upon his audience. Though this sometimes seems to go a miss during the album it

The Birdman Rallies Real River (Self release) This is hooks-a-plenty indie pop. Come on, the lyric ‘Walking out the cinema all superheroed up/It lasts for a minute and we snap back’ is so relatable it is almost laughable - a masterclass in engaging album-opening lines. Then there is the instrumental ear candy of ‘Wild Sisters’, ‘Patrick’, ‘A Little Of Your Glitter’ and ‘Heartless’ proving that this band know how to write an intro.

By the time ‘Julia’, with its guitar-led northern twang, comes around the album has been fantastically crafted. The dawn-becoming-day strings of ‘Wild Sisters’ makes for a euphoric ending, tinted with best of Blur vibes; effortlessly sung, with a tongue in cheek Englishness.

Actually it is the left-field English eccentricities that give this album its defining edge. The harpsichord in ‘Dissolve Into The Black’, the frequent timpani rolls, the lightly texturing guitar riffs and urban R’n’B inspired drumbeats all amalgamate into, well, joyful pop. At some points the album does seem long; ‘On a Corner Overtaking’ and ‘Kitty In Detroit’ are fighting for their place but that’s only in comparison to the rest of the album’s strengths.

Instantaneous melodies and moreish rhythms mark this as an addictive listen.

Some songs will imprint in your brain for days. Even so that it’s still surprising to think that the line ‘After a pinot noir’ from ‘A Little Of Your Glitter’ is a potential crowd chant; perhaps after an obligatory red wine… not quite rock ’n’ roll but it bloody sticks.

George Paris

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Reviews The Horn The Hunt Wovo (Gpig records)

Super Luxury Ten Solid Years of Applause (Self release)

Bearfoot Beware The World Owes You Nowt (CHUNK)

The multifaceted nature of the ocean, breathes deep into the heart of Wovo.

Deep and dark textures flow into bright synths and glistening vocals in ‘Watching the Waves’. Syncopated accents depict the gentle yet unpredictable nature of water. ‘Oceans Breath’ retains a static structure, causing you to latch onto Clare Carter’s dazzling voice.

Stripped of the lunatic stage antics of singer Adam Nodwell and presented in a manner that brings the sonic mayhem under some kind of control, it is remarkable just how much like (eek) proper songs many of these eleven tracks are. Even the grinding ’25 Metres’ has a priapic swagger about it. The hurtling riff of the immediately following ‘Constant Delicious’ is sheer scuzz rock, the lyric sporting a mad story about a food party throwing King that doesn’t want anyone else to come.

Bearfoot Beware have recorded unpredictable, raucous mayhem that twists and turns like a rabid animal.

Each song chucks out any preconceived notion of how songs should be written, as if a microphone had been placed in the middle of their practice, capturing all the intimacies of a band trialing new directions.

The world influenced drums of ‘Wovo’ create a festival of sound as Carter declares ‘Only nature I can trust’. The directness of ‘Seashell’ draws you in with its inclusive lyrics and ‘Albatross’ weighs heavy with bass and dry drums as vocals explode on top. There is some excellent production within this as every instrumental nuance seems to be debris that falls away from the vocal explosions.

The rock beat and memorable chorus of ‘Be the Prey’ lead into ‘Snake Charmer’; dark and brooding, it ends awash with crashing cymbals and a guitarist playing with injury causing intensity. ‘Life Is Movement’ welcomes another big chorus, though the chugging guitars almost become incessant however this could be a comment on the movement of life.

The final number ‘The Lonely Ray Lanzarote’ can be split into two parts; part I seems to be Carter’s last stand as the sun begins to set on the album leaving us with nothing but the sound of waves in darkness and part II is a distant Raga enabling the album to drift away.

It is clear how visionary this band are, considering the speed of this follow-up after last year’s Terrafidella album.

George Paris

Thereafter it’s a bit of a competition between slow, abrasive noise tracks and those that are a bit fast, giddy and delirious about their very existence.

Of the former, the sludge of ‘Golden Climbing’ followed by the similarly paced ‘Milk Sauce’ slightly kill the momentum with their middle-track placement.

Following this comes the jagged slash of ‘Salem Tears’, and mad dashing thrash punk of ‘Hyperhidrosis’ and ‘Drunk On Power’. Best song title goes to ‘Ian Mackaye made so much money out of Fugazi that he lives in a solid gold house and drives a solid gold car........’, which if you’ve any sense should alert you to the essential nonsense of Super Luxury.

While the crazy lyrics and aural tomfoolery swirl about on top, underneath are the rock solid drums and bass of Hamish Watts and Tom Goodall that keep everything hard and tight, the ace in the hole that saves the whole project from collapse and implosion.

Steve Walsh

Yet intimate they are not and neither are they trialing anything. Deliberately aggressive and schizophrenic structures are purposefully toyed with throughout The World Owes You Nowt. The basslines in ‘Thick Black Warpaint’ and ‘Mumzee’ are like eight-legged spiders scuttling across the frequently changing rhythms.

Ambient rock moments are fleetingly flirted with during ‘Ongoing Opera’, ‘Mumzee’ and ‘E By Gum’. The latter of which ends up driving a riff down your throat before imploding into ‘The Right Honorable’.

Lyrically obtuse, there is an element of sarcasm converting their confrontational sound into a slight joke between themselves. Repeated yells of ‘WE’RE SO MESSED UP’ in ‘Thick Black Warpaint’, followed by ‘HE SHOULD’VE DIED AS A KID’ during the next song, of the same title, portray their desires to shock. Then ‘People ask me why do I, do I smoke?/I just tell them cause I hate myself ’ ridicules the possible motives for asking in ‘Smoker’.

Bearfoot Beware want to start the brawl, to dictate the fight, to be on the side that questions conformity, though they do it with a wry smile, as the world doesn’t owe you anything - so why take it so seriously?

George Paris

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Reviews EPS/SINGLES REVIEWS

Flies On You etcetera (Self release) Second-album syndrome is a familiar term and there are times when it feels like Flies On You are struggling to pinpoint a specific sound during etcetera.

Some of the best moments come from the duo playing to their strengths, writing driving punk tracks. ‘People like Pete’ and ‘Poor Excuse’ are perfect examples: simple, catchy punk riffs, captured in snappy 2-minute capsules.

Subtle instrumental clues hint at the direction etcetera looks to head. ‘Our Little Secret’ is a cracking post-punk tune, brilliantly constructed, with what would be some excellent complementary lead lines in the chorus, if only there were some vocals to be complemented. The same can be said of ‘Can You Smell That Burning Noise’ which treads the line between new wave and the modern post-punk revival, a track which has all of the ingredients for a positively anthemic chorus, but again falls just short.

While the nuts-and-bolts punk tracks like ‘slippery fuckers sidestepping a hunched up shape on the pavement’ can get away with short, sharp vitriol, more musically elaborate tracks, in the ilk of ‘Action Stations’, could benefit from some more subtle lyrical embellishments at times.

Unfortunately it’s in moments such as ‘Roofspace’, an uneasy attempt at a full-on ska tune, in which the good parts of etcetera become slightly lost.

There are some really good moments here, the haunting chorus of ‘You’re The Anaesthetist, John’ being one, they just need a bit of finding.

Ben Stockdale

Track and Field You Are My Home (Self release)

very listenable step on the journey to Erewyrehve, wherever that may be.

What would you expect from a band featuring current and ex-members of The Afternoon Gentleman, The Plight and Cyvoid? Chances are that a blend of classic UK indie and late 90’s emo isn’t gonna be in your first 10 answers but that’s exactly what you get on the splendid first release from Track and Field. What we’ve got here is 4 tracks of brilliantly genuine emo that recalls Texas Is The Reason and Grade but has a decidedly British feel to it. The opening riff to ‘Ghost Sleep’ could have been written by any number of new wave bands from the last 30 years while ‘World’ features a structure and chorus that a thousand so-called emo bands would’ve killed for 10 years ago. The glorious bridge in particular will reduce the most hardened of ‘mosh’ kids to a weeping mess before it stomps off into a tremendous guitar lick-laden finish.

A top-notch debut from a band with genuine promise.

King No-One Foreign Tongue (Self release)

Rob Fearnley

Elizabeth Sketches for Erewyrehve (Obscene Baby Auction) This single 23 minute piece from That Fucking Tank and Nope guitarist Andy Abbott’s solo ambient/electronica project takes much the same shape as an Elizabeth live performance, in that it starts with some pulsing wash of synth and gradually adds layers of other instruments and sounds to construct a multi textured soundscape that rises to a resolution appropriate to the mood/ time/place. There’s some evidence that this recording has been subjected to overdubbing and editing to give it a structure and shape more conducive to repeated listenings. It essentially comes in two fairly equal parts, the first more ambient and static, while the second adds rudimentary bass and then drum machine to support multiple overlayed guitar parts. Elizabeth is still very much a laboratory for exploration by Abbott, but this recording represents a

Steve Walsh

Brooding yet brazen, ‘Foreign Tongue’s’ shimmering, teasing riffs and midnoughties angst scream out through a shade of polished indie rock. 3 minutes and 24 seconds of tantalising tenacity, supplemented by poignant vocals and a star-spangled solo, King No-One’s new release is air guitar-inducing and irresistibly addictive. Rooted in nostalgia yet refreshingly modern, the York-based quintet have blues in their heart and rock in their veins.

Danny Owen

Marsicans Gone in a Second (Love vs Fear) Disgustingly fun live, it turns out that they are on record too. Fast, slick and fun, all delivered at a million miles a minute. The guitars jangle along with the vocals, sprinkled with a northern twang that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

The rhythm is joyously energetic and the toy like piano delivers the playfulness that this band strive for. Catchy indiepop set for a Record Store Day 2015 release.

George Paris

O’Flynn Tyrion/Desmond’s Empire (Blip Discs) Blip Discs are a new electronic music label from Leeds and this doubleside 12” celebrates BLIP001… and what a start it is. ‘Tyrion’ is a dance-inducing calypso drum solo, set alight with percussion fading in

> > > > > CONTINUED 29

Reviews and out as if a Brazilian festival was closing in, demanding every limb to move. ‘Desmond’s Empire’ is led by an addictive hook of vamping accordion and an African chant. Gilles Peterson worthy, both track’s seamless blend of electronic house and acoustic world instrumentation deservedly will be cutting up parties all over the UK. George Paris

Kamara Happy/Over (Self release) A euphoric 7 minutes of reverb bashing tremolo guitar, driving bass and a drum beat written for arenas. The cherry on top being the song’s vocals; instead of opting for a powerfully flung delivery, to match the anthemic background, they are sung with a lilted lament that is coy and understated. It creates the effect of being incredibly emotive but without needing to try too hard.

George Paris

X Ray Cat Trio Bloody Deeds (Self release) Okay, ready for some rough rock and roll? It doesn’t get much rougher, rockier or rollier than this. Seven tracks of psychobilly sleaze that ooze and fuzz from your speakers as Nico (yes, he of Black Moth) Adam and Joe (not the comedians) lay back and open up.

Twangy and snarly, from the sinister drawl of ‘Executioner’ through the low slung languor of ‘I Was Cruel To You’ and the sneering funereal ‘When You Die’, this is an EP that, though it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, definitely soundtracks every dive bar in existence ever. Dirty stuff.

Robert Wright

Forever Cult Winter’s Glow (Clue Records) This growls. This growls a lot. Colossal bass fuzz, snarling vocals and lethargic yet heavy-hitting drum fills create a perfect storm. Each verse, masterfully

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and seamlessly, morphs from grit to soft in the blink of an eye, leading up to the powerfully strained ‘Teach me how to disappear’ chorus. The song’s abrupt end is an earth shattering bluff as MBV style guitars and a trashy tambourine break a momentary silence, causing an electrifying finale.

George Paris

William Gray Tish (Self release) After some quietly brilliant albums, singer songwriter William Gray left Leeds for China for the best of reasons (love, ahh) and has since become a father (aww). These domestic matters are important because Gray’s subject matter is usually drawn from his surroundings. So it isn’t really surprising, given his distance from home and that the internet probably looms large in his life for more than the prosaic reasons it does for you and I, that ‘La La Land Awaits You In the End’ and ‘I’m More Worried About You Rob’, are about encounters with internet trolls. ’Never Saw It Coming’ deals with Gray’s apparent propensity for fits of anger, ‘My Side of the City’ muses about the Leeds life he left behind and ‘The Visitor’ is a poignant and wryly humorous observation about fatherhood. A languidly tuneful collection of songs and China better be grateful.

Steve Walsh

Favela Gong (Self Release) This could sit anywhere on Gold Panda’s Lucky Shiner LP, except with a pop song at its heart rather than a dance floor beneath its feet. A fluttering pulse of drums and the piano’s addition of a polyrhythmic feel still keeps the dance influence alive through the calmness though. Arpeggiated guitar distills serenity throughout the song’s 4 minutes and soothing vocals, supported by some beautiful harmonies make this one exquisite piece of electronic pop.

George Paris

Peter Darling Mary Lou (Self release) This appears to be a ‘concept’ EP, about the murder of Mary Lou Fontenot that took place in Louisiana in 2010, consisting of three songs punctuated by four interludes. The songs view the murder from the perspectives of the main protagonists (relatives, murderer, victim) while the interludes chart a culturally formalised process of mourning, burial and wake. The music is a mixture of folk, jazz, classical, Cajun and blues and what emerges from this unlikely melange is a spellbinding unity of intent, purpose and execution.

Not a single word or note is wasted.

So completely does Darling seem to inhabit his subject matter that there’s an uncanny documentary feel to everything that borders on the supernatural.

Darling’s themes are love, death and loss, which are big subjects to be sure, but despite the delicacy and intricacy of the words and music they are more than capable of carrying that weight.

Steve Walsh

Fizzy Blood Feast EP (Self release) A delicate, yet demonic, lullaby introduces opener ‘Black Sheep’; perhaps a twisted reference to everyone’s favourite “Baa baa…” nursery rhyme.

Delicate does seem odd though, considering the band name’s association with anger but this is all part of the game. Yo-yoing between harmless and destructive, at a moment’s glance, the vocalist is a werewolf. Each song, at points, vanquishing any thought that they couldn’t quite push it enough.

Their lighter side sometimes seems over polished but their rough edge always saves them - listen to the chugging riffs of ‘Patience’. This EP proves they are a Leeds band to watch.

George Paris

Leeds & West Yorkshire Music Magazine

Vibrations is always looking for new writers and photographers.

Contact tony@vibrations.org.uk for more information.

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Vessels @ Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds Life, while unpredictable, tends to follow general rules. I’ve found one of those rules is that personal tastes always change over time, especially when it comes to music. However, some artists can stay with you forever, be it through an evolution of style that stays with you as you grow yourself, or simply through sheer nostalgia. Tonight was a celebration of both factors for me. I first saw Vessels in 2007, and, 8 years later, I’m back again.

Tonight, the headliners returned to Leeds with a third album under their belts, the fantastic Dilate, and they brought with them a performance worthy of the album’s brilliance.

Bradford two-piece worriedaboutsatan kicked off the night with a haunting, continuous set, lit only by a string of lights at the foot of their platforms.

Their pulsating sound-scape was an apt beginning to the night, which proceeded to see Vessels efficiently and powerfully work their way through their latest musical offering.

Gone are the multiple guitars and piano-lines that once built to such crashing crescendos on White Fields and Open Devices; the synthesisers that made such a strong impression on sophomore album Helioscope are here to stay.

Not to say that the classic formats have been done away with completely.

Tim Mitchell and Martin Teff still rock their respective drum-kit and guitars to great effect, but now they play alongside the electronic symphonies created by Messrs Malcolm, Wright and Evans, as the band moves seamlessly through the set, accompanied by a graphic projection that twists and turns in sync with the songs. A bumper crowd packed out the Belgrave tonight, and were treated to a band in top form, one that will, no

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doubt, continue to evolve further over time. And judging by their reaction, this crowd will be following them eagerly on their evolution.

Paddy Gunn 360 Club: Marsicans/Masses/ Kamara/Trashed @ The Library, Leeds Gosh, is that... Every sound from the last 30 years? Chesterfield’s Trash are loading in with some Smiths-y chorussoaked guitar jangle, before bouncing into a more Blink-esque feel and a couple of tasty passing chords. Their songs take the best of a whole range of influences and tie them together into some neatly packaged song-nuggets.

The result is pleasantly captivating and though the glazed eyes betray a sense of introversion, their vocal harmonies are assured and worthy.

Kamara. My word. By this point the crowd is showing signs of heaving and personally, I’m glad they’re here to hear this. The sound is humongous, starting from simple guitar and slackadaisical vocals á la the now defunct Cats and Cats and Cats into some wonderful backing-tracksmanship adorned with warm and cinematic sounds. And then there’s the drums: simple and sodding loud. Bass: Piercing and funky when it suits them. Then they start rocking the fuck out and suddenly even 3 guitars don’t quite seem enough. I am very happy to be listening to this. Expect big things.

Carrying on the theme of massive sounding rock music is the appropriately named Masses.

Ostensibly, they’re a band in the Oasis vain but with oppressive fourpart vocals and more than a touch of Industrial/Trip-Hop influence. With a frontman that looks more than comfortable and a surplus of facial barnacles, for the first time in my life I almost feel like one of the lads.

Then it all goes a bit ‘Phoenix Nights’

with an ill-advised prize giveaway from exciteable guitarist #2. Within a few minutes we’re back into the set and it’s a slinky, worming number to start with, building nicely to a suitably grungy chorus. Comparisons with the likes of Kasabian are sort of inevitable but I think there’s plenty to like about Masses in their own right. Obviously experienced and conduct themselves like pros throughout the set. Well, during the songs anyway.

Marsicans look very young. Indeed, their last attempt at a 360 slot was scuppered by them being literally too young to play. They sound young too.

Well, youthful. They are very much a product of the previous decade - flashes of Vampire Weekend and Maxïmo Park can be glimpsed among a set of balls-out drumbeats, severe bass and pirouetting, spangly guitar lines. Their confidence and energy is exceptional and the ample crowd are more than appreciative as their disco beats and top-drawer, barkedout harmonies ring out. Dress-wise they’ve really thrown themselves into the ‘80s. Unlike most of the ‘80s, it’s also disgustingly fun as their dronedout, four-part harmony snippet of Hall and Oates’ classic ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ succinctly proves.

If it weren’t so fun I might be doing my usual bit about how it’s not that original but music as a whole seems absolutely nowhere, directionally, so I’m going to take a holiday from the stick up my arse to pronounce this bloody excellent.

Tim Hearson

Hawk Eyes/God Damn/Blacklisters/ Haggard Cat Bothday Present @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds Hawk Eyes have been about a bit recently, but tonight they’re at the Brudenell, closing their headline tour with a free hometown hoedown and despite clearly being amongst mates they will be taking no prisoners, as usual. They’ve also brought some buddies along with them too so the free admission includes Nottingham’s hillbilly thrashers Haggard Cat Bothday Present (aka HCBP, made up with Terry and Barry from Baby Godzilla); another local favourite, sonic terrorists Blacklisters and Black Country duo God Damn, who’ve been supporting Hawk Eyes this past couple of weeks.

Put all that together and we’re talking VFFM in these austere times, leaving the punter with a bit of spare cash to invest in those all-important Space Raiders.

Blacklisters are always good value live and tonight is no exception.Yes they’re loud as fuck but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a pretty smart band with Billy taking his frontman duties as seriously as ever. Tonight, he’s tearing it up amongst the audience in front of the stage as his fellow band members Owen, Dan and Alistair look on like they’ve seen it all before.

Another revelation this evening are God Damn, consisting of a couple of beer monsters from Wolverhampton.

Thom Edward (guitar/vocal) and Ash Weaver (drums) have just released a new single ‘Where the Wind Blows’, an adrenaline fuelled slice of hardcore that keeps on giving. I’ve also never seen drums hit as hard as they are tonight, the bass-kick really creating a sound that would have Beelzebub banging the roof of his flaming kingdom with a red hot poker imploring us all to keep the noise down.

Finally we are reunited with Hawk Eyes and what I notice immediately is how they’ve changed in the 18 months or so since I last caught them live. In the intervening times they’ve undergone a line-up change, Paul’s hair is suddenly much longer, giving him a fringe forest in which to lurk, occasionally appearing to make his strike, whereas Ryan now also helps out with vocal duties. Fortunately Rob is still his evil-looking fretboardshredding self, no change there.

The tour dates have also honed Hawk Eyes’ live skills and they are super tight tonight, Paul and Rob, creating a furnace of riffage between them set to a ferocious pounding groove.

The set draws heavily on material from Everything is Fine opening with the sinister ‘The Trap’ followed by the ‘More than a Million’ and the industrial-tinged ‘Ambassador’ appearing in the first four numbers.

The already moshing audience are proving familiar with the new songs. In fact, only ‘Witch Hunt’, from previous album Ideas constitutes the lone back catalogue selection from the opening seven songs as the anthemic ‘Die Trying’, groove-tastic ‘Terribly Quelled’, the superb ‘Ballad of Michael McGlue’ all follow in quick succession, each sounding equally as impressive.

Stood as I am on the middle steps of Brudenell, it’s as crisp as if I’m listening to the album through headphones.

There’s plenty of interaction with the crowd in between songs, the quartet taking turns to share hilarious tales of life on the road. Oh how we laughed. (well, someone nearly did!) A couple of Ideas tracks follow. ‘Hollywood Sweatshop’ and ‘Headstrung’ with its cod-rockabilly intro and prog-metal tendencies. The set then finishes in a heap with debut album track ‘I Hate This, Do You Like It?’ Like it? I love it!

Le Toot and the Kansas City Four @ Inkwell, Leeds Being home to a major northern music education powerhouse, Leeds has something of an active Jazz scene not oft reported on in these pages.

In amongst the sea of dingy, modal indie venues and sweat lined, beatbattered clubs one can find the odd stronghold of the chromatic dark arts.

One such stronghold is Inkwell Cafe in Chapel Allerton, and on a murky Sunday afternoon in this brightly lit, community-centred bastion of bop, Le Toot and the Kansas City Four performed classic bebop and hard bop for a solid hour and a half.

Given the dour rep that Jazz musicians cultivate, it’s bloody good fun, partly due to bandleader Eliot Richards’ boldly self-depricating chat. Taking repertoire from the late 30s to early 50s this is a set of blisteringly quick horn-led numbers like ‘Jeru’, classic ballads and, the piece de resistance, a couple of gang vocal-led standards. It’s pastiche and proud of it but way more than a Dizzy Gillespie covers band.

The challenge of Jazz is to immerse yourself in tradition, the same way a craftsman will practice like crazy just to carve a fucking great table. These guys are well on their way to a fucking great table.

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Mike Price

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Next up were Tall Talker, an instrumental math-rock trio who were ridiculously good for their debut gig. Rhythmically complex yet having created something that was almost entirely danceable. The guitarist hammered his way across the neck as the bass and drums drove the melodic ideas into a new direction at every turn. ’Raspberry Blonde’ was especially good.

The group is superb today and sound wonderfully together with Simon Read on bass providing a firm foundation for the rest of the band to play off of.

Particularly on form is moustachioed, slick-haired trumpet player Tom Sharp, dancing his way up to the high notes and pirouetting back down with flair.

One of the things I love most is the vibe in the Inkwell - chairs are set out right up to the performance space and the music is punctuated by a pleasant clatter of cutlery on plates. There’s a raffle and everyone is having a lovely time.

Gavin Seacrest Campfires/Orchards/Tall Talker/ Piles of Clothes @ Wharf Chambers, Leeds Sunday: A day to wake up, re-gather your consciousness from the previous night, find a place to wallow with friends, dig into a glorious roast dinner and then… go to a mathrock gig. Andy Crowder, the man behind online math-rock magazine Musical Mathematics, turns out to be a great singer/songwriter who goes by the name of Piles of Clothes.

His impassioned vocals and rich acoustic guitar chords were a great introduction to the night’s music, albeit his lyrics sometimes seeming too young for his years.

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From Brighton came Orchards, who were an excellent math-pop band stopping by on their UK tour. Clearly the most gigged out of the acts they were impeccably tight. The only thing missing was a visual physicality. If any percentage of an At The Drive-In performance was attempted then they would go from being really good to unstoppable.

The headlining Campfires have recently gone through a severe lineup change, with only the lead singer/ guitarist remaining as a founding member. Band break-ups can prove to be emotional but this new incarnation showed no signs of a struggle with the renewed rhythm section. New songs such as ‘Felicity Flitwick’ and ‘Woodblock [a working title]’ paved the way for what looks to become a great math-pop band.

George Paris Nubiyan Twist @ The Wardrobe, Leeds Despite a few technical hitches and a late start, as if from nowhere, the 12-piece neo-soul outfit assemble on stage and strike up a set to be reckoned with. A band who proclaim that they “strive to encourage artistic and social unity between different cultures and music styles” – certainly do not disappoint, with a catalogue of tracks encompassing genres including funk, soul, Afrobeat, reggae, dub and hip-hop.

The band are an impressive blend of talent borne of Leeds College of Music alumna; and include graduates from jazz, performance and production.

No surprise then that they are impressively tight, barely missing a beat or a note. Title single from the forthcoming album Work House has a solid groove which makes the room pulsate, cleverly punctuated by pumping horns, and led by confident vocals from Nubiyan Brandon, who astutely meanders between considered spoken word and soulful melodies. It’s met with a delighted appreciation from the audience, as is Straight Lines, an Afrobeat-influenced number which the band dedicates to the late Fela Kuti. And his influence on the evening doesn’t stop here, as the night finishes with a lengthy reprise of the great musician’s Gentleman – a solid tribute, which doesn’t miss any of its originator’s trademark funk and soul.

One of the most impressive feats of this band is the careful balance of all of the elements on stage – no one member is the focus of the band, nor is anyone making up the numbers. Each fulfil a vital role – from the powerhouse brass who are both acutely precise and yet unrestrainedly free, to impassioned vocals and melodious keys, funk-driven guitar and bass, and the infallible backbone drums. The whole sound is impressively woven together with smart beats and FX, which makes for an inimitable, multigenre experience. There’s a mutual understanding from each member, each bringing something different to the party. There’s a collaborative vibe in the air, which makes for an inescapable celebratory atmosphere.

Katharine Hartley Live Review Photos by: Maria Alzamora (Le Toot) Robbie Jay Barrett (Marsicans)

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GIG PREVIEWS Jon Gomm @ Brudenell Social Club 04/04 Legendary axe meister and beloved of Stephen Fry (and I bet he’s sick of hearing that now) will be bringing his wit, talent and flair the Brudenell for your edification and entertainment.

Proper guitar stuff.

Strange Forms @ Wharf Chambers 04/04 & 05/04 Do you like post-rock music? That sweet pot-rock music? What better to prevent you from going into choc overload than a bit of post-math-rock-metal action.

Her Name Is Calla, worriedaboutsatan and Tomorrow We Sail feature in this weekend of all things climactic and fading to nothing…

Post War Glamour Girls @ Brudenell Social Club (Games Room) 16/04 Their debut album was one of the highlights of 2014 and they are one of the truly impressive bands in Leeds, so this opportunity to see them, supported

by Battle Lines, in the intimacy of the games room is not to be missed. So don’t.

Kleine Schweine @ Eiger Studios 17/04 A night of nastiness extreme, with the punificent politicos being complimented

by Interrobang, Kingsley Chapman and The Murder, Knuckle and the maleficent Scaramanga Six. I’ll probably end with my t-shirt tied around my head, so you don’t want to miss this one…

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Therapy? @ Brudenell Social Club 19/04 Guess what? It saved my life too! They’re back, they’re still angry and I can see this one going OFF. Really, if you’re of a certain age you CANNOT miss this one.

Lazy Habits @ Wardrobe 08/05 Brass and hip hop? Have they taken leave of their senses? Actually, it works pretty fine – imagine hardfloor meets Massive Attack meets The Streets meets EPIC. Tempted? Yeah… me too.

Skinny Lister/Crybaby @ Brudenell Social Club 29/04 So after coming back from that there SXSW in that America and a European tour with Chuck Ragan, 6-piece folk group Skinny Lister will be bringing it on home to the Brudenell, supported

by Cry Baby. After that schedule, there definitely will be tears…

Stef Conner @ White Cloth Gallery 08/05 Previously backing singer and pianist with the Unthanks (although that was a while ago now) Stef dwells in a special place between folk and classical, one foot in each camp as it were but not compromising either. Catch her performance for something a little bit different.

Live @ Leeds @ Various, 01/05 – 03/05 The city wide magical musical fest returns featuring the likes of The Cribs, Gaz Coombes, Carl Barat and Dutch Uncles. Special mentions must go to local lads Hookworms and Eagulls, because they’re ace.

Live @ Leeds @ Eiger 02/05 & 03/05 Another mystery one… strange things afoot at the Eiger. We will keep you posted on the website but if you don’t feel up for the walkathon of L@L... This could be for you!

Will Varley @ Oporto 05/05 Known for his tour via shank’s pony along the coast of England, Let’s hope he shells out for the Megabus to get up to Leeds… otherwise he’ll be too knackered to play the gig. Folking not fracking.

Slam Dunk Festival @ Various 23/05 Thought the line up to L@L was a bit lacking in metal but still want an urban festival? Well, look at that – SLAM DUNK! Headlined by You And Me At Six, the roster also includes Reel Big Fish, The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx, Gallows, Crossfaith and many more. Bang that head that doesn’t bang.

Long Division @ Various, Wakefield 12/06 - 14/06 Curse you timing! I can’t make this, but you really, really should. British Sea Power, Fat White Family, Pulled Apart

By Horses, Ash, Menace Beach, Her Name Is Calla and Kleine Schweine – it may be in Wakefield but this has LEEDS stamped all over it. Enjoy.

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Marmozets A Lot of Beer Gardens from Bingley to Brixton…

We all remember being 14, right?

Spending your weekends knocking about with your brothers and sisters and a few other local kids, going up the park, maybe forming a band, playing Glastonbury, winning Best British Newcomer at the Kerrang! Awards, and.. oh, you didn’t? Must be just Marmozets then. Kate Wellham talks to Bingley’s bright young things that make Rolo Tomassi look positively ancient…

From a couple of sets of siblings playing around Bradford to the hottest alternative band in the country, the Bingley five-piece’s scorching rise has just seen them complete their own UK headline tour at the same time as Muse announced them as tour support.

And they’re still averaging around 18-years-old.

Being insanely young has been a USP for Marmozets to this point - it was unavoidable - but it’s a vulnerable position with a very limited shelf life. Likewise, being a female-fronted band on a Leeds Festival line-up is still, sadly, a point of note. I mean, look, we’re noting it right now.

Luckily, Marmozets have been putting the hours in at a time when anyone of drinking age would have been in the pub, and have quietly grown to such a mammoth stature that they’ve easily overshadowed whatever preconceptions could be thrown at them. They simply cannot be stopped.

So they can definitely handle us asking them a few questions we just couldn’t help but ask.

Which other bands or artists from Bradford / Leeds have you met in the time you’ve been gigging who you’d now consider to be friends?

Jack: We’ve played with loads of local bands in the past. There aren’t really many local bands from Bradford that are still together that we used to play with, unfortunately.

We’re friends with some amazing Leeds bands like Pulled Apart By Horses, These Monsters, Hawk Eyes, Blacklisters etc. they’re all fantastic bands and we’re big fans of the music they release. It’s always lovely to bump into them at festivals or at a show in Leeds.

How did it go down with school when you were doing the band at such a high level and still studying?

Did people try and put you off or were they supportive?

Jack: When we were in School we didn’t have a following at all.

We were just another band that formed in school. It was only Will that was still studying when we started touring. He eventually had to leave college because we were getting so busy.

It’s funny really, you find people that you never really knew in school popping up saying “knew you’d do well,” it’s like, (in response) “you never really cared then, so why now?” The irony is also they’d be the ones that would say “you’ll never make it, guys” We saw you years ago playing the Beehive for the Make Poverty History fest and you were playing outside in the beer garden. Someone said it was because you weren’t allowed inside because you were under 18. Is that true?

Jack: Yeah, I remember that show! It was in 2009? If I remember correctly it was

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because Becca (the oldest member) was maybe 16/17? So the rest of us were like 15/16. We haven’t really had any issues with it since being a ‘pro’ band.

What were the highlights of the UK tour?

Jack: Every show was amazing. It was the favourite tour we’ve ever done. It was so much fun. It was an emotional experience. When we came off stage in both London and Leeds we were all really emotional.

It was such a big deal to us. It was kind of overwhelming to see the amount of people there to see us.

What advice would you give to anyone forming a band right now at the same age you started?

Jack: Get on as many shows as possible, don’t worry about people not caring initially. Just keep on going. Keep writing and testing yourself as a musician. Then get into the studio and record a couple of demos when you feel you’re ready.

Practice makes perfect.

Having come so far already, what do you still want to achieve as a band that seems a bit impossible / out of sight right now?

Jack: We just want everything to carry on the way it’s going. We want to be headlining Brixton by the end of next year.

How does the sibling thing help / hinder what you do?

Jack: We find everything is easier.

We haven’t really been in bands before this so it’s all we know. We all get on and have a laugh. That’s what it’s about.

It feels like Bradford is getting more interesting with lots of experimental nights being put on.

What’s your take on whether the scene is changing there?

Jack: We used to be at every show in Bradford. In around 2008-2010.

A lot of bands (most of which were a similar age to us, maybe a bit older) split up or went to Uni or something. I unfortunately haven’t been to a show in Bradford for so long. We hope we can influence more bands from Bradford or the surrounding areas to get back at it and get more and more gigs on around there. It’s amazing with all that is going on for Bradford. It’s about time.

Becca, we’ve read a lot of praise directed at you, seemingly for just being authentic rather than playing up to the fact that you’re a female vocalist and taking on any kind of sex object / style icon role. Have you felt any pressure to do that?

What would you like people to take away from seeing you perform instead?

Becca: The only burden and pressure I wrap myself in is our work, our songs, but that only lasts so long. Me personally, as the singer, I want there to be a moment in our shows where as humans we just get lost in the moment and leave all our insecurities and just have a blast. I’m a very emotional performer in the way I express myself on stage but that’s my thing, which style and fashion cannot cover up.

What other frontmen or women have you been blown away by?

Becca: On that note Brandon Blaine is the best front person I have ever come across. I remember standing there watching thinking ‘he’s like me!’ He just loses himself and doesn’t give a shit what people think, but he does it all in his own unique dark mysterious way, it was a breath of fresh air even though I was dancing, sweating, loving on him and his band Plague Vendor.

The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets is available to download and stream from their website, www. marmozets.co.uk, and you can catch them on tour with Muse or at Leeds Festival. Nice.

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Fri 27th Mar • £8-£15 adv 10pm - 4am • over 18s only

Skepta + Ghetts, P Money, Solo 45, Amy Becker, Jammer

Sat 16th May • £12 adv

6.30pm - 10pm

The Clone Roses + The Smiths Ltd.

Sat 28th Mar • £17 adv

Fri 22nd May • £22 adv

Rival Sons + The London Souls

Digital Society presents Open Up

6pm - 10pm

Mon 30th Mar • £5 adv 6.30pm - 10pm

AMP Awards Final 2015 Fri 3rd Apr

Sleeping With Sirens vs Pierce The Veil + Issues Sat 18th Apr • £25 adv

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic + DJ Lubi (Soul Rebels), Tony Green (Fresh Jive)

9pm - 6am • over 18s only

ft. Astrix, Simon Patterson, Sean Tyas, John Askew, Alex Di Stefano, Christopher Lawrence, Eddie Bitar, Airwave Sat 23rd May • £39 adv 1pm

Slam Dunk Festival North 2015

Sun 19th Apr • £27.50 adv

Thurs 28th May

Sat 2nd May • various venues - £27.50 adv

Live At Leeds

Mon 4th May • £18.50 adv

Pentatonix

Thurs 7th May • £26.50 adv

Rescheduled show - original tickets valid

Mobb Deep

“The Infamous...” 20th Anniversary Tour + Rodney P, Norty, DJ 279 Sat 9th May • £23.50 adv 6.30pm - 10pm

Beth Hart + Miles Graham Fri 15th May • £27.50 adv

Brandon Flowers Hozier

Fri 12th June • £16 adv 10pm • over 18s only

Way Out West - Live

ft. Jody Wisternoff, Nick Warren, Sonic Union, Steve Arnold, Andrew Starkey Sun 21st June • £20 adv

Tony Visconti & Woody Woodmansey with Glenn Gregory

6pm

Centre Stage Final Tues 4th Aug • £18.50 adv

Bad Religion

+ special guests Snuff Fri 11th Sept • £11 adv 6.30pm

Definitely Mightbe Double Top Darts Supremacy

Thurs 1st Oct • £17.50-19.50 adv

Snarky Puppy

Mon 2nd Nov • £23.50 adv

Ella Henderson

Thurs 19th Nov • £16.50 adv

Fuse ODG

Weds 2nd Dec • £25 adv

Rescheduled - original tix valid • Starts 8pm

An Evening with Noel Fielding Fri 18th Dec • £10 adv 8pm • over 18s only

perform David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ + Morgan Visconti & Jessica Lee Morgan

Brutus Gold’s Love Train

Thurs 2nd July • £25 adv EXTRA DATE Fri 3rd July • £25 adv

Shed Seven

NOFX & Alkaline Trio

9pm • over 18s only

+ Lagwagon

ft. Bob Andy, Judy Mowatt, Tanya Stephens, Richie Spice, 809 Band

Weds 8th July • £17.50 adv

Marcia Griffiths & Friends

Weds 22nd July • £5 / £7 adv

ft. Michael Van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Vincent van der Voort, Mark Webster, Wayne Mardle

Tues 26th May • £30 adv

UFO

Jake Quickenden

Sun 24th May • £20 adv

Projekt presents Don Diablo

Sun 26th Apr • £22.50 adv

Mon 13th July • £15 adv / £25 VIP

Fri 25th Sept • £19.50-£32.50 adv

Chas & Dave

Five

Billy Ocean

ft. You Me At Six, Don Broco, Lower Than Atlantis, Architects, Reel Big Fish

Sat 18th Apr • £5 adv 11pm - 4am • over 18s only

Fri 10th July • £25/£28 adv

Mon 21st Dec Tues 22nd Dec • £22.50 adv EXTRA DATE + Inspiral Carpets Fri 15th Jan 2016 • £13 adv 8pm

Modest Mouse

Quadrophenia Night ft. Absolute Kinks

o2academyleeds.co.uk

55 Cookridge Street, Leeds, LS2 3AW • Doors 7pm unless stated Venue box office hours: Mon-Fri 12pm-5pm, Sat 12pm-4pm • No booking fee on cash transactions

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