Vibrations Magazine - October 2014 by Tony Wilby

Leeds & West Yorkshire Music Magazine

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October 2014

Beacons Leeds Festival Nightmares on Wax Deuce and Charger?

Vibrations Magazine

Alt J

Leeds and West Yorkshire

Black Moth

Contents 4 7 10 15 18/19 21 22 29 34

Black Moth Nightmares On Wax Beacons Festival Leeds Festival Centrefold Poster Parish Notices/Genreology Recorded Reviews Live Reviews Alt J

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 Steve Walsh records@vibrations.org.uk LIVE EDITOR Tim Hearson live@vibrations.org.uk WEB EDITOR George Paris webed@vibrations.org.uk ADVERTISING Jack Simpson info@vibrations.org.uk

www.vibrations.org.uk

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ADVERTISERS 1800 magazines seen by music lovers across Leeds. Contact Tony tony@vibrations.org.uk

Benjamin Paul Chris Little Scott Salt Rob Wright Mike Price Tony Wilby Alex Cooper Anthony Harvey Steve Walsh Rob Fearnley George Paris Gerard Leachman Katharine Hartley Greg Elliott

WRITERS • PHOTOGRAPHERS ARTISTS • SUB EDITORS Contact Tony tony@vibrations.org.uk SEND DEMOS IN TO Steve Walsh, 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

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Black Moth: Benjamin Paul

Editorial Unaccustomed as I am to being lost for words (actually not true: I usually remain pretty schtum unless I can open my mouth to get me in hot water. There isn’t a medical term for it, but there should be; that way I could explain to the people I’ve previously worked with that I’m not really an arse – it’s A CONDITION), this editorial is causing me issues. It happens. I could talk about the end of summer, but that’s too bleak, and Autumn’s not that bad really – the trees get beautiful, the air is full of the smell of bonfire and the crisp chill of winter is approaching and soup is back on the menu (it’s the little things). I could talk about the new term, but that’s too safe; besides, everyone going to school/ college/university is well aware of what they’re doing and how odd and new it’s going to be, because they’re living it and all that. Peter Capaldi? I could talk about Peter Capaldi. Then again, I suppose not everyone is a Doctor Who fan. New football season? Nope, haven’t a clue. This isn’t proving to be easy, is it? Come on, got to think of something… Maybe the soundtrack isn’t helping (Radiohead – Amnesiac) or it could be the wine – preposterous, I know… I think it’s just been the fullness of these last months – meeting Black Moth again (always a joy), heading off to Leeds Festival (my only festival this summer as Alt Fest got cancelled… and that’s all a bit dodge too, so less on that) and grooving with some good friends, doing lots of weddings… in fact, special congratulations have to go to Vibrations alumni Tom Martin, who I have known since my days at Sandman to be a stout, dependable and thoroughly nice chap, who is now wed to the lovely Charlotte. Also further congratulations got to Vibrations very own Greg Elliott… who, funnily enough, I have also known since my Sandman days and who is also a stout, dependable and thoroughly nice chap, though is now married to the lovely Lila Holden, not Charlotte. That situation would get complicated.

Aha, I have it! That’s one of the things about the Leeds music scene that I love, and which keeps me hanging on despite my advancing years and reduced cool factor – the people you meet. Leeds festival wouldn’t be half as much fun without all the goons of the Leeds music scene around (you know who you are, you beer catching muthas) and it is an absolute privilege to attend the weddings of friends through music (and another one coming up next year). It makes the whole thing feel like you’re part of one big extended family. And now, by picking up this magazine, you’re part of that family too. You may not realise it yet, but this is your first step to getting involved, by reading about what’s going on, having your own thoughts on events, albums, bands – believe me, it all starts here. So I finally have something to say: welcome to the family. The Ed of the family And this just in: a death in the family. After 20 years of being on the forefront of the Leeds music scene and being a regular stop on many a touring bands schedule, the Cockpit has shut its doors for the last time, regardless of whether your name is dan or not. Anyone who loves music in Leeds will have fond memories of this place, despite the rumbling of trains, the tinny sound and the overly draconian door staff - if it wasn’t for the Cockpit, I would never have seen Death in Vegas, 65DOS, Rolo Tomassi, White Boys for Gay Jesus or Black Moth fill the main room on their first outing at Live at Leeds. It will be sadly missed.

Black Moth

Moths and Legends It is a muggy Monday in August, post Whynot Festival and Black Moth are slumped in one corner of Santiago’s in varying advanced states of exhaustion from the weekend and the day’s exertions. Such are the issues of a life/rock n roll balance. Jim is pretty much comatose having worked a full day as well as doing a full weekend, Dave looks a bit less partied out but has been at it hard all weekend either playing or teching, Nico looks fairly chilled and Dom is handing out the beers. Harriet looks chipperest of the five, but for good reason: “I’ve been puppy shopping today so I’m really perky and chirpy. That’s what heavy metal bands do.” But Black Moth are not your average metal band, that’s for sure. I don’t need to bore you with the details that now bore them (‘We don’t want to talk about the Bacchae’ says Nico, which was fair as I wasn’t going to ask) – the past is the past and they’re all about the now. Their second album, which is a piece bordering on the bloody amazing, is about to break and from listening to it almost constantly for the last three weeks I have to wonder what has changed since the last album and what lessons have they learned? “I never learn my lessons,” says Dom, casually tossing back his beer. “Look after your engineer,” says David sagely, “he was ill all the way through recording.” “Maybe start writing the songs sooner?” mumbles a slumbering Jim. 4

Harriet nods in agreement. “After album one it’s very easy to get swept into the fun of touring, but it’s very important to keep on top of your song writing,” she admits, “which we kinda were but we did get to a point where we thought we really want to put out another album… yeah, keep creative, keep making new stuff happen.” So when did you start writing album two? “Well, we did a single in between…” “Which we didn’t use,” Jim interjects. “There was a lot of riffs that we’d come up with since the last album,” Dave continues, “but we actually sat down to finish the songs in August last year.” That went through to September, then October. “We had to buy a white board,” says Nico enigmatically. Such wonders of the rock and roll lifestyle. “We wrote them all in a couple of months and recorded in December and that’s very different from

album one,” says Harriet, “which we wrote over a long period of time.” As a consequence, or coincidence, the new album does sound more together. “Album one was pretty much a load of songs that we had that we put together for an album,” admits David. With this new focus, the new album does display a couple of themes that run throughout, one being the eschatological nature of the album. “What does that mean?” asks Nico. End of the world. “I’m nicking that,” he says. “We all engage with the spiritual and arcane in different ways,” says Harriet, “from a lyrical point of view with album one I was definitely very interested in the apocalypse, but I suppose it was quite classically gothic horrory themed album whereas I would say with album two it draws more of those ideas into the present.” That being the other theme, of a mystical undercurrent to the mainstream, populated by Burger

Queens and Undead Kings of Rock and Roll. “I suppose it’s the sinister undertone to the everyday –the first album is what it is, but I noticed that a lot of my lyrics were almost clichéd things you hear in heavy metal and I wanted to shift that… and another thing about this band is that there’s a lot of humour with it – we don’t take ourselves super seriously and we’re not particularly sinister individuals to talk to – so I wanted to work with that ‘darkness’ that we have and make it more grounded in the present and more observational.” “Harriet’s Lyric sheets for the second album actually made me do a few laugh out louds,” confides Dom, “in a good way.” Harriet starts to laugh, verging on the uncontrollable. “I think the fact that they’re more playful makes it all more sinister,” she says, “like brit horror movies like Sightseers, because it’s so grim and settling, but what makes it that way and also very funny is that realistic feel.”

PHOTO: Benjamin Paul

As well as that magical reality there’s also a lot of… dare I say it… Sex in the lyrics? Harriet sucks air between her teeth, hissing, then laughs. “I think you’re right, but they’re not only sexual but also ridiculous – the Stinkhorn, the penis shaped mushroom, and balloon fetishists.” The track ‘Looner’ on the new album is about balloon fetishists. I thought it was more about subdom. “What’s interesting is that already there are so many different interpretations about it,” she says, still laughing, “that’s always going to be the case, and it’s interesting for me to hear different people’s interpretations of it – I know I don’t have straight up reasons for it either. I sometimes look back and can’t believe what came out of my head.” “We just hear it in the studio and we’re even more shocked,” says Nico, “Harriet sitting there doing lyrics and there’s a porn magazine next to her…” “Literally!” says Harriet, laughing even more, “One thing I can say about those lyrics is that I wrote them all down in a month, locked away churning them out, so it almost was like a stream of consciousness and I was genuinely detached from them.” Yeah, should be fun to see them do them live... One thing that hasn’t changed is that they are still heavy… heavier in fact, so ignore that last statement. “I don’t think anything we do is a conscious decision,” says Nico, “you just write the music you’re writing and it just happens to turn out that way, probably because of where we were in our lives. Also, because it was written in a short time we had that pressure there… that’s probably why it feels heavier.” Ah yes, the pressure of working with Jim Sclavunos, rock god, for a second time. Was it a mutual decision? “Right from the end of doing the last album he said he wanted to work with 6

us again,” says Harriet, “We didn’t have as much contact with him during the writing process but he was cracking the whip and joined us in the pre-production stage and really helped us overhaul certain songs – ‘Set Yourself Alight’ would have been dead and buried without Jim – he’s one of the gang who gels us altogether.” Like the lukewarm water of Derek Smalls? “Nah,” drawls Jim, “He’s steaming hot, man.” “I guess the interesting thing with Sclavunos is that he’s not necessarily into the music we are,” says David, “and therefore all he cares about is whether they’re good songs or not.” “You always need someone on the outside of the band to actually look at what you’re doing,” says Nico sagely. But Jim is not the only living legend on the Moth roster – seminal album cover and fantasy artist Roger Dean has provided the cover for the new album, Condemned to Hope. How did that come about? “He sent us an email saying ‘Look, I’ve been listening to your album for a while and I’m a huge fan – please let me do the cover for your next album – I’ll do it for free.’ ” Thanks for that Dom. After the laughing has died down (note: Black Moth laugh a lot) David explains: “our label got onto Roger Dean and asked him if he’d do the cover – he asked to hear the album and said he’d do something – and that’s what happened.” “I met up with [Roger] and his daughter Freya in Brighton and we got on really well and he seemed quite inspired by what we were about,” says Harriet, embellishing the tale a bit more, “he liked the first album and agreed to do it… he’s a great guy…”

The cover has a WW1 theme, very poignant and appropriate considering that this year is the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, but not directly connected with the themes on the album. “I actually thought that works brilliantly with Condemned to Hope,” says Harriet, “these nameless faceless figures walking into oblivion - it’s so special that we’ve got something of his that’s so tailored to us and what we’re about…” “What I really love about what he’s done to the cover,” says David, “is that he’s got some blackbirds on there, flying off, which ties in with the first album.” There’s so much else that we could talk about – Dave’s custom pedals, Nico’s psychobilly band, X-ray Cat, Harriet’s ‘zine and Psychotherapy degree, Jim’s yoga and Dom’s career as a successful mime artist and racing car driver (one of these may not be true) but time is pressing on, so I have one last question about the album: why Condemned to Hope? “Condemned to Hope can be taken two ways,” says Nico, “you can be condemned by hope or condemned by taking hope away.” “I see the human condition as swinging between hope and despair… so Condemned to Hope is about the human condition but shows that there may be a way out of that.” So should we end it there. “I think you should end it with om,” says Jim. “Everything ends with om,” says Harriet. Fair dos. OM. Condemned to Hope is due to be released 15th September. Don’t leave 2014 without it. Rob Wright

Nightmares On Wax ® Sweet Dreams, Solid Tunes

It is Saturday teatime and Mike Price is midway through his Beacons 2014 pilgrimage. One of the highlights will be tonight’s performance from local boy done good George Evelyn, aka DJ E.A.S.E, rapper, composer, producer and collaborator, responsible for stellar dance music under the Nightmares On Wax moniker for a quarter of a century. Indeed it is in the celebration of his silver anniversary with WARP records (he is the label’s longest serving artist, his debut release ‘Dextrous’ back in 1989, being the label’s second ever record) that he finds himself at Beacons this year. It will be his first UK date following a string of Stateside appearances, also coinciding with the retrospective best of ‘N.O.W. is the Time’, a stunning distillation of his back catalogue, recently hitting the shelves.

Before wowing an ecstatic Beacons crowd (see the Beacons review) Mike was lucky enough to catch up with the erudite Mr Evelyn, taking a little time out from a hometown pregig routine to share a few thoughts on his career to date, plus any plans for the future he may care to share with us.

Firstly, being a resident in Ibiza for a number of years now, our hero was somewhat relieved that the inclement Beacons’ weather of the opening day had abated for warm sunshine….how very different it would be just 18 hours later. When asked what it meant to be WARP’s most enduring act his response was philosophical, musing, “it’s the first time I’ve really looked back, because you spend so much time trying to go forward. It’s a bit like opening Pandora’s Box because you realise there’s part of your life you’ve forgotten about, songs you’ve forgotten about and then there’s the experiences linked to the songs. If you go back to the beginning, to about ‘88 when our first demos were made with Kevin ‘Boy Wonder’ Harper, we couldn’t get a record deal so we ended up pressing the vinyl ourselves. I walked into FON Records and Steve Beckett was working behind the counter at the time, that was where he [WARP] started, and he asked us to remix ‘Dextrous’ which became WARP’s second ever single and you think ‘Wow, what an amazing story, not just for me, but for the label too.’ Since then I’ve grown with the label, the label has grown with me achieving amazing things and it’s only now when I look at the path I’ve taken and realise how much stuff I’ve done, ironic considering how much time I spent thinking I’ve not done enough.” George’s earliest musical influences pre-date the hip-hop sound that heavily influenced the early N.O.W. releases. Indeed his first musical awakenings were fuelled by the 2-Tone era, the soundtrack to restless urban Britain some 30-odd years ago, illustrated in the N.O.W. classic ‘70s 80s’. When asked what he loved about 2-Tone, George commented, “I think this is where the connection with hip-hop is, it’s a social response, an expression of what’s going on in your environment. If you look historically 8

into music, most of the best that’s been written is because of what’s been going on socially. 2-Tone represented that, just the same way that Hip-Hop did after. It’s like the voice of the street, as reggae was always part of my background, when the 2-Tone thing happened, when I was 11 or 12 so, the identity thing started to happen. It was also all around me in my community along with youth clubs and sound systems. Going back to the song [‘70s 80s’], that came out of a conversation with LSK who wrote the lyrics after we were reminiscing. It was super-organic the way it happened, me playing him the loop and the rhythm of the track sat in a hire car outside Warehouse night club. If you talk about that time with the rude boy and reggae stuff, I also remember the segregation that was also going on. For someone of mixed race, there were only certain parts of Leeds you could go to, even some record shops were risky but you still went because you needed to get the music. Talking about all that was how ‘70s 80s’ came about.” Being back on home turf for the first time in a while, George has taken the opportunity to catch up with his nearest and dearest, enthusing, “I’ve brought my family from Ibiza over, plus my sister and nieces are also here today. I’m really happy to be at Beacons because there are loads of Leeds acts playing, so many people doing things in Leeds now and I’m looking forward to watching the likes of Paul Woolford and Tristan da Cunha. Being in Ibiza is great but there is a part of that live element that you miss and it’s wonderful to see Leeds really thriving with music. Growing up, I always had a bit of envy for places like Sheffield and Manchester who seemed to have musical hubs whereas Leeds always seemed to be a bit scattered to me, now that musical hub seems to be here too. Growing up we started deejaying at 15 at a club called Ricky’s, the owners shitting

themselves every time we played thinking they were going to get shut down because we were underage. Before that, apart from the Warehouse, there weren’t really any West Indian DJs in town.” Other formative influences for George came from more a unusual source: “my [older] sister, who is here at Beacons today, used to enter disco dancing championships, going out every week to compete. She’d come back with a mix tape or a 12 inch, given to her by the DJ which I’d then listen to. Unbeknown to me, the guys doing these mixes included Ian Dewhurst and Paul Schofield, and they became kind of mentors for me…. we’re all really good friends now, I play Baltic soul weekender with Ian. Combine that with growing up with reggae sound systems and I soon realised that I wanted to be a DJ, the stuff these guys [Ian and Paul] were producing, I was listening to second hand and it became my food if you know what I mean, even though I didn’t know who they were. I even applied to do hospital radio and tried to get a show on Radio Aire but when Hip-Hop came, it was like, ‘I can experiment with music?’ Then I met Kevin in Bradford through breakdancing and that was it… as soon as I knew I could manipulate sound… taping 10 seconds of a record - what you’d call sampling now - even though I didn’t know that was what I was doing at the time. After that I started collecting records and it soon changed from wanting to be a DJ to wanting to make a record.” The perceived wisdom is that the 1980s were a poor decade musically but George disagrees. “I remember looking back to the 80s thinking they were crap but now I think ‘What an amazing decade.. If you look at the variety of music that came out here during that time, never mind America, it’s phenomenal, such a melting pot. What’s more, it was mostly new

music…imagine being around in the decade that jazz started.” Being an old school DJ at heart, George is delighted about the renaissance of vinyl as a medium to listen to music although he is keen to add, “It never really went away for me. Things have to be tangible and have substance, you get to a point that things have to be questioned, not that the digital thing is wrong; it’s just how you acquire music. For me inventions come out to make things easier for us, but sometimes they also take away an element of how you connect with something. I can pull out a record and tell you when I got it, who produced it, everything. What i-tunes have done is turn music into fast food. There’s an information war going on at the moment, it’s like. ‘How long can I keep your attention?’ About 4 years ago I was converting loads of stuff off DAT and I found some old cassettes and started listening to

them…..it sounded so wonderful, despite the bacon hiss in the background. People have forgotten about stuff like that – with digital everything has become so ‘perfect’, even though it isn’t as there’s no space, depth, or warmth - and people are getting used to this, the same way people get used to vocals on auto-tune. Going back to vinyl…when I make my music and get all my digital stuff back from the mastering, it’s not until I listen to the test pressing I can really hear what I’ve done. You don’t get that on digital….listen to a Bob Marley album on vinyl and you get the room, the depth, and the people. I’ve got a friend, a bit of a vinyl junkie like me who’s got a room with a Technics turntable, a pile of vinyl and on a weekend he sits in there with his kids and he lets them play records. I’ve had my niece’s friends come into my studio, point at a turntable and say, ‘What’s that?’”

Naturally George is very much looking forward to tonight’s show, adding, “I’ve got two vocalists, Mozez, who’s recorded with me for a few years now, also doing stuff with Zero 7, then there’s Ricky Rankin who’s been working with me since 2004. I’ve got an amazing drummer from Manchester called Grant Kershaw and I’m really blessed Beacons have given me an hour and a half - it’s going to be a really solid show.” Somewhat of an understatement, I’m pleased to add. The Time is N.O.W. is available from quality vendors of music everywhere – set your controls for the heart of the chill…

Live Reviews

Skipton 8-10 Aug 2014 Its 8pm on the final night of Beacons and things are not quite going to plan for Mike Price. Punk veterans The Fall have been ordered off the Loud and Quiet main stage after just three songs, much to the bemusement of singer Mark E Smith, instructing his band to continue despite the plug being pulled on the PA system, the crowd unsurprisingly starting to get restless as the house lights turn on, the disgruntled masses forced to vacate the sanctuary of the marquee for the lashing rain. The reason for the sudden halt to proceedings we’re told is high winds, tropical storm Bertha depositing yet another deluge on Heslaker Farm on what has been a decidedly moist denouement. The casualty list doesn’t end there: the Red Bull DJ rig is also cordoned off due to storm damage, with Andy Weatherall and Sean Johnson aka A Love from Outer Space silenced in full flow. Thank goodness the Noisey tent is still open for business, despite rain falling horizontally through each side of the well ventilated marquee. The poor sound man is stuck in the middle, hunkered down as if stood on the bow of a North 10

Atlantic trawler. Fortunately the crowd are well wrapped up as unruly Brixton sextet Fat White Family take to the stage and deliver arguably the performance of the weekend, sticking a veritable two fingers up to mother-nature as tent, crowd, band and equipment almost take off in the gale. Even on first viewing, one has to say singer Lias Saoudi oozes rock & roll, a melting pot of Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Mark E Smith with a bit of Bon Scott thrown in for good measure. Combine this ‘fuck-you’ attitude with a not insignificant amount of craft from his handful of cohorts and you have quite a force to be reckoned with. ‘Is it raining in your Mouth?’ is a brilliantly seedy ramshackle pogo fest whilst ‘I am Mark E Smith’ is doubly ironic, considering the song’s subject is less than 100 yards away still twiddling his thumbs. The story does have a happy ending as our eponymous hero is able to return to the stage with The Fall and the rest of the evening just about proceeds to a conclusion due to the heroic efforts of the organisers, benefiting from valuable past lessons learned and ensuring its reputation as the coolest music festival in the North remains intact.

It all started so differently some 54 hours previously, with British Sea Power kicking off the main stage in style. Facing away from the mainly seated audience, the sextet delivered an evocative rendition of their soundtrack album ‘From the Sea to the Land Beyond’, the film playing simultaneously. In the week that saw the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1, the pictures served as a moving and most fitting curtain raiser. The warmly appreciative audience made the atmosphere resemble the civility of a Gabriel-era Genesis gig but don’t let that analogy put you off; this was a real delight. Over on Noisey, local favourites now 50% bigger The Witch Hunt had started things off in predictably brooding style, ably followed up by the taut indie-punk of Baby Strange. The main stage audience were awoken from their dreamy post BSP reverie by the twin assault of local favourites Post War Glamour Girls, accompanied by a deafening clap of thunder. PWGG next single ‘Gustave’ is a typical slice of their ruminative art-rock, matching the suddenly deteriorating weather and proving the highlight of the

quartet’s set as an angry burst of feedback signalled their finale. Heading across to Noisey to watch the austere electronic pop of mixed doubles duo Paris XY, my fun was short lived as the weekend’s first curtailment ensued, the band stopped due to lightning. As it happens, a later act dropped out on the main stage, allowing a grateful keyboard wizard James Orvis and singer Alice Smith to reprise their material. The weather soon improved as Napoleon III hit the compact and bijou ELFM stage; James Mabbett’s experimental ambient pop was surprisingly good on the ear as the sun returns. I’m also joined by local leading musicians David Martin (I like Trains) and Katie Harkin (Sky Larkin) presumably watching her band’s drummer Nestor Matthews in yet another side project. With everyone continuing to dry out, local dub steppers Sub Motion Orchestra took the chill out factor up a notch, a bunch of assured slices of urban cool including new single ‘Alium’, as a sizeable congregation at the DIY stage anticipated the arrival of super prolific rootsy

troubadour King Creosote hawking his latest songs from the recent release of his topical soundtrack album, ‘From Scotland With Love’. Following in the footsteps of British Sea Power, the new material,l including ‘Largs’, ‘Miserable Strangers’ and ‘Leaf Piece’, was accompanied by compelling film footage which really complemented the music. Heading back to watch Joan as Policewoman on the main stage, I’m suddenly drawn to a heaving Noisey, bouncing to the pulsating Afrobeat rhythms of Melt Yourself Down. The sextet includes both a pair of drummers and sax players, their urgent rhythmical sound somewhere sitting between Transglobal Underground and The Specials, and was a big hit with the nicely warmed up crowd, further reinforcing Beacons’ reputation as a happy hunting ground for great new music. There’s still time to catch the end of Joan before Daughter emerge, the first time they’ve closed a festival stage, the throng swelling for the trio’s ethereal musings. Local duo Menace Beach

get the main stage underway on a bright and sunny day two; you get the impression the fluid ensemble of supporting band members still need a bit more time to gel and properly do the core band justice. The material starts out with a definite metal edge but each subsequent tune seems to gain more of an indie feel. Another crack Leeds outfit Kleine Schweine, scheduled to open Noisey at noon, have been moved to their 4pm slot and they’ve clearly benefited from the extra lie-in, piling through their cold war thrash punk numbers in record time...11 songs in barely 20 minutes, leaving everyone breathless, giddy and always wanting more. Home grown acid jazz throwbacks Capua Collective mix extended chilled out instrumentals, punctuated by an occasional female vocal, mellow out the DIY stage viewers as the late afternoon sun starts to lengthen the shadows. Next up, multi- instrumentalist (voice, keys, flute) Lucy Taylor aka PAWWS, dishes out polished and pretty stylish nuggets of sweet North London kitchen sink electro pop. Sandwiched between these 11

sets over on Noisey, it’s the turn of Joanna Gruesome leading lady Alanna McCardle to captivate the festival goers with a delicious combination of pop dreaminess and feisty punk attack. Following a brief but most enjoyable pre-gig chat with the supremely affable Mr Nightmares on Wax, yet another local musician made good, today’s main events in Loud and Quiet are upon us. Backed by a drummer and a couple of MCs, the main tent is full to bursting as we are treated to a trawl through one of dance music’s finest back catalogues. Starting with the rocksteady mash up of ‘Now is the Time’ followed by the gospel tinged ‘Give Thx’ and the ragamuffin shuffle of ‘Be-I Do’ there’s not a stationary shoe in the tent. DJ Ease is mixing it up throughout, sometimes sat behind the decks, other times in the foreground joining in on vocals as the 18-track set list delights the throng, an effortless fusion of hip-hop, house, techno, reggae, dub, lounge, funk PHOTO: Chris Little

and more besides. ‘You Wish’ ‘Les Nuits’ ‘Dextrous’ fly by and before you know it, the blinding show is concluded with ‘Aftermath’ leaving a heavy legged crowd only 30 minutes to catch their breath before collaborator-in-chief Jon Hopkins is set to round off day 2, wondering how he can top what he’s just witnessed. He needn’t have worried as his 75 minute (why only that long??) appearance was a lesson in tantric techno, each track building slowly to an epic climax as a couple of dozen giant Day-Glo balls bounced above the ecstatic crowd, making to it an audio visual experience to last a lifetime, ‘Open Eye Signal’ proving the highlight. I’d been transfixed in the same spot for 3½ half hours, missing cracking stints from Galaxians and Hookworms by all accounts…..oh to be able to be in two places at once. Those leaving the main stage afterwards were greeted by light rain, a precursor to the closing day. The Sunday show went on though, largely uninterrupted as the artful

fuzz of all male Girl Band gave way to the slanted electro-indie of Tall Ships and the quality indie-prog of Nope, featuring twin drummer assault as tub thumpers Jon Nash and Steve Nuttall faced each other centre stage, perhaps the percussion equivalent of Karpov vs. Korchnoi. One band I’d been looking forward to seeing were The Sleaford Mods, a duo perhaps easily mistakable for brothers. Erudite streetwise ranting from vocalist Jason Williamson….a bit of Mike Skinner given a Lydonesque twist with a healthy dose of Tourette’s thrown in for good measure combined with Andrew Fearn, content to stand there looking menacingly at the audience drinking from a bottle, his sole task consisting of starting the next backing track on his Mac. The resulting anger levels are comparable with a kick in the knackers, a snarling take on 21st century Britain with standout tracks ‘Jobseeker’, ‘Tiswas’ and ‘Jolly Fucker’ going down a storm as the Sunday teatime rain showed no sign of abating, the Beacons booking strategy once more way ahead of the game. Following the early evening Bertha related shenanigans and with everything seemingly back on track for the final acts, what better way to end an unforgettable weekend with local boys done good Eagulls. With a Letterman appearance in the can, the boys are on an upward curve but have retained enough of the rough edges that made them so liked in the first place. The elements still played their part although you were just as likely to be hit on the head by a fellow reveller diving from the tent supports into the crowd…..ouch! Only 300-odd days until the next Beacons…. can’t come soon enough. Mike Price

Bramham Park 22nd – 24th Aug So the annual shindig at Bramham Park has been and gone, doused and soused in equal measure, with nothing remaining but a massive cleaning bill and a marked aversion to expensive cheap lager. Is there life in the old dog yet, or has it run its course, waiting only to be assigned to the museum of not so modern culture? Our three intrepid reporters, Alex Cooper, Rob Wright and Tony Wilby brave the elements and the, ahem, crowds to see if that spark remains unsnuffed by the inclement weather… Friday Don’t know about you, but I’m always in a bit of a pickle when I go to festival land: there’s part of me that wants to go and see what new temptations are on offer, possibly with the chance of finding a gem; then there’s the other part that just wants to see the bands I know and love. So what to do today, Friday at Leeds festival…? Well, I’ve been told by my bossy Ed I’ve to go and see Allusondrugs, a local band whose star is on the rise. Finding them on the Introducing Stage, I can understand the appeal. An affable bunch, enthusiastically bobbing in unison while playing some decent frothy grunge, some great beats going on and special kudos to bassist Jamal for some stunning rhythms. The sound was definitely murkier live than on their recorded tracks but for a festival vibe it added interest and whilst they weren’t the most polished performance of that day, I’d like to see what they could do if they had space on a bigger stage; with a tour supporting the Marmozets coming up, I won’t have long to wait. Next up and I thought I’d take a look in at the Lock Up stage where I came across a gem in the form of the Blacklist Royals, a southern style bluesy rock quartet from Nashville: gorgeously smoky, husky and melodic yet powerful and edgy with some phenomenal musical light and shade; an

absolute treat and for me a highlight of the day. Look them up, they’re so good!! Heading to the main stage for Tonight Alive I’m struck by how quiet the festival is. Quiet or not, the assembled crowd seem to be enjoying Jenna and the gang’s performance and it looked like the band were having fun too, with a fine array of goofy grins on display. Their brand of skater rock pop may not be something I’d choose to listen to, but for a bit of light hearted music on a sunny Friday afternoon, they fit the bill quite nicely. Next up on the main stage are Young Guns. Solid guitar rock with songs just bordering on anthemic, as yet they make nice background music. But give them time... Next up it’s Papa Roach, one of the bands I’d been looking forward to and they don’t disappoint. Sure, they’re older and chunkier than when they started up twenty years ago but they still have bags of energy and the experience to know how to work a crowd. With old favourites such as ‘Scars’ and of course ‘Last Resort’, the set may not have been any different to the last time I saw them but frankly I don’t care. Now moving back to the Introducing stage and to a band Alan Raw is enthusiastically welcoming on to stage

as “the finest band you’ll see today”. Certainly Mother have a different sound, again with interesting rhythms from both the drums and bass guitar and some wonderfully entwined keyboard lines. With a modern, heavier Doors-esque sound, they weren’t the finest band I saw that day but they were easily one of the most interesting. For my final two bands of the day I headed back to the main stage for A Day To Remember and You Me At Six. I’m not going to make any friends with this one but it was the second time I’ve seen ADTR and the second time I’ve wondered why they’re so popular. The mix was muddy and I couldn’t make out a word they were singing and then wasn’t sure when one song went into another – it was just so samey. The mix seemed to have been sorted for You Me At Six and like several main stage acts that day, their brand of rock was acceptably entertaining albeit nothing I’d go out of my way to look up again. Heading home, I couldn’t help but reflect that apart from Papa Roach, the main stage had been pretty safe and it was on the smaller stages that I’d found the excitement. Which pretty much answers my opening question… Alex Cooper

Leeds continued >>> 15

PHOTO: Chris Little

Leeds continued >>> Saturday To start the day, a bit of unfinished business: I’ve missed My Chemical Romance too many times. I am not missing Gerard Way. Opening on the Radio One stage, this is his first set ever, but the friendly crowd means approval is a foregone conclusion. It’s heartfelt pop punk, but the guitar heavy mix swamps the vocals. It is fun to see the entire crowd confused by his Jesus and Mary Chain cover at the end though.

Osaka’s Crossfaith open the main stage, and it is quite a salvo, despite the minimal crowd and sleety weather. Kenta and the boys deliver overcaffeinated techno power metal that fizzes and buzzes… not be everyone’s Jagerbomb but lighten up! Let’s have some fun… and some walls of death… and some circle pits. Now for a tale of two two pieces – Blood Red Shoes on the main stage and Drenge on the Radio One stage. BRS deliver their bass-heavy sludge

pop to a pitifully small crowd; Drenge are pounding out the grunge pop to a packed tent. BRS create a noise that only two people should not be capable of; Drenge have a solid set, but it still lacks punch. BRS go balls out with a Creatures-esque style; Drenge look like a couple of lads who still can’t believe they’ve done this well. Drenge are okay, but I wish more people had checked out Blood Red Shoes, who were valiant. Front Bottoms are way too safe for their name or the Lock Up stage

– besides, we already have Death Cab For Cutie. Not a good surprise. Unlike Dancing Years on the Introducing Stage, who start off sounding like well-crafted pop with a hint of folk then explode into a post-rock… post-indie pop finale. Wistful, melancholic, melodic and marvellous - a real grower, this lot. Eagulls make my face ache with their harsh post punk guitar noise and George Mitchell’s belligerent barking does not help. Pacing stroppily around the stage, head lolling floppingly around his neck, eyes shielded by sun glasses, he looks like a man who doesn’t want to be there. Unfortunately, he can’t leave; fortunately, I can. Walking into a Fat White Family gig is like walking into a sleazy strip bar through a fine spray of sump oil and finding that the house band is fronted by Marty Feldman. The sound here is also harsh and painfully loud, but the dirty bad trip BMRC surf psychedelia of the songs are exactly what I expect and want. ‘Touch the Leather’ leaves me feeling used. This is surf rock for the M Kat generation. John J Presley is testifying to a crowd of about fifteen, shameful as his Cajun blues infused set oozes wealth and taste, and not just because of the squeezebox. If this snake charming man comes calling, I suggest you go and get a taste of his medicine. Bill Bailey is one of the few comics that can pull off a rock festival, and he does so with aplomb, abandoning his surreal musical neutrality to have a go at mainstream politics and 1D and ending with a dub version of the Downton Abbey theme tune. Effortlessly hilarious. Brody Dalle, formerly of Distillers and Spinnerette, is feisty, angry, riffy and direct. Her songs may not be the most original, harking back to early nineties grunge rock and riot grrl, but you’ve got to respect her brutality. When she closes her set with a song dedicated to her dad… I’m not sure if that’s so good for him. We’re into the final furlong as Queens of the Stone Age take to the stage… and the heavens open again, Joshua is wearing a puffer jacket and scarf combo… it feels like autumn. They’re decent players, undeniably, just not very exciting, though it’s always a joy to hear ‘Feel Good Hit of The Summer’. Metronomy, for their English reserve, are a more entertaining prospect, with

their mood lighting, white suits, close harmonies and danceable infectious electropop. ‘Love Letters’, ‘Reservoir’ and ‘The Look’ are fantastic, but ‘The Bay’ feels subdued, making for a damp squib ending. Very British summer. Saturday still has one last surprise in store, in the shape of Giggs on the Radio One Xtra stage. I confess I am unfamiliar with hip hop and grime, but I find his lively, witty, risqué and very very dancey set invigorating and enlightening, and I know I’m sounding pompous but… ya get me? Performing in darkness, backlit by his animated caricature likeness, dominating the stage and restarting songs until he gets the crowd reaction he’s after, here is a man in control – respect to that. ‘Don’t Go There’? Do go there. Rob Wright Sunday So, Leeds festival what will it be this year? Everything just as it was last year with some different bands, just like always? Ok. At least we know what we’re getting. The festival definitely felt a bit emptier than in previous years and, given the number of alternatives now, it’s not really a surprise. Leeds doesn’t feel like it’s adapted over the years. It’s great for your first festival, and it does a job for some but falls way short in comparison to smaller festivals who try just that bit harder than “put some bands on a big stage in a field”. The alternate view is that it was “Fan-FUCKING-tastic!”, as drunkenly exclaimed by my Finnish friend who was experiencing his first ever festival. Maybe I’m just seasoned/jaded. We arrived just in time for Pulled Apart by Horses who’d unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute due to bassist Rob Lee collapsing an hour before the band were due on stage. Get well soon, Rob. Dry The River were next on the main stage and while they played and sang well, it didn’t quite work in that setting. The sound from the main stage can easily get lost without a crowd to soak it up and that’s what happened here. The strings and the choruses seemed to drift off and left things feeling pretty empty. In direct contrast, the NME/Radio 1 tent was absolutely

rammed for Royal Blood. I’m not sure how many people in there knew the band as there seemed to be lots of talk of “I’ve never heard them but they’re the next big thing, apparently” but they seemed to have a nice time all the same. The set ended abruptly after the drummer decided he wanted to do a few high fives with the moshpit, who made their feelings very clear via much booing after the band announced “These fuckers just cut us off ”. Should’ve saved the high fives for later. At the request of my aforementioned Finnish festival companion, Foster the People were next. I knew little of this band other than the odd song I’ve heard on the radio and I won’t be making any attempts to further educate myself. Their clichéd interactions with the crowd fell pretty flat and I was out as soon as I realised the harmonies were provided by a backing track. A better band on record than live I’m told. Hmmm. Jake Bugg was next and he played well, entertaining the crowd with his hits which generally turned into massive sing-alongs, peaking with ‘Broken’. He’d do well to interact with the crowd a bit more and have a bit more stage presence but that will presumably come. A well-polished set that was a definite crowd pleaser. So, on to the main event. The Arctic Monkeys pretty much always deliver and tonight was no different, with Alex Turner bossing the stage throughout. None more so than during ‘No. 1 Party Anthem’, when all the lights apart from his dimmed, the band retreated and he stepped forward, one leg casually up on the mintor and played acoustically to 70,000 people like it was the most natural thing in the world. He’s gone from shy wordsmith to true entertainer and he’s great to watch. He’s a world away from the guy playing The Vine and Escobar in the bands’ formative years, as is his accent – he certainly didn’t speak like that when lived nearer Hunter Bar and Rotherham than New York. I’ll forgive him that as the band delivered a greatest hits set worthy of a festival closer and seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves with Turner playing on his Yorkshire roots, much to the delight of the local, partisan crowd. They ended the set with a single verse of ‘Mardy Bum’ which led into ‘R U Mine’, finally ending after being reprised twice. Job done. Tony Wilby

Boomtown 2014 by Anthony Harvey It’s a Wednesday, it’s 4am, it’s dark, it’s spitting, it’s cold and I’ve just had to get out of my bed and into the street in minutes. Normally this would make me pull my own eyes out in protest, but I can’t conceal my excitement! Am I going on some exotic holiday, not quite, but not far off… It’s that time of year again… BOOMTOWN!! We get in the car and I sleep all the way from Leeds (bonus) and when we arrive the sun is blazing and looks set to stay. The media team I travelled with (a day early) splits up so I hook up with some friends from Happy Slap Boutique who run the now infamous El Espectaculo Esqueleto in Barrio Loco, but my

social call turns into lugging huge speakers and amps around for the day… standard. They do however feed me, entertain me and let me sleep in their marquee for the night because they’re a good bunch (and yes, I am one of those annoying, presumptuous knobs who doesn’t bring their own tent to a festival anymore…). Thursday begins and I can feel the excitement and anticipation in the air. All this is about to begin. I start drinking (slowly-ish) soon after I have woken and decide to wander the site before all the townsfolk return exactly a year later from that place we call ‘The Real World’. The main stage is massive! And well smart! And what’s that? Oh, just a f*ck off pirate ship with a stage in the side! Huge mills with water wheels, reggae sound systems in the woods, shanty towns, Aztec ruins, ghetto blasters as big as a house, leisure centres with Funktion One sound systems that make

p e o p l e want to go to the gym, huge mechanical metamorphic monstrous metal spiders… this PHOTO:Photo Scott -Salt place isbynuts!!! All the Jhitta good shit that Rob Zombie @ Download Gobinder 18

we’re used to is here, and much, much more!!! While The Real World has been hustling and bustling, Boomtown has been busy… People are arriving thick and fast now and everyone looks well up for it!! Grass, blink, TENTS!! And then from afar I hear something… It’s a beat! It reminds me of a starter’s gun, or maybe a bugle marking the beginning of a battle where everyone is armed with inflatables and positive vibes… It’s the Devil Kicks Dancehall. Punk has kicked off the festivities and it sounds awesome! I make my way there, jump around and hug the random person that we gave a lift to the supermarket yesterday. The band are awesome and set a really high standard for the rest of the festival, and who’d expect anything less!?! I laugh to myself as this is the

first band of a long weekend and I’m well on my w… Onwards! I leave Devil Kicks and recognise the dreadlocks and piercings sitting in the back half of a gnarly car (with

no gnarly front half). It’s a friend!! And so it really begins… One by one, crew by crew, everyone meets up, celebrates, parties, shouts and laughs and proceeds to consume all the supplies they’ve brought in one day (or maybe that’s just some of us). The atmosphere is buzzing and more and more people are arriving and claiming their piece of land in the glorious sunshine. My housemate arrives and gives me a knowing look as if to say, ‘you haven’t wasted any time…’, as I meander towards her and give her a hug, before chucking my bags in her tent ;) Friday, and everything kicks off!! After a night of stumbling around tripping over tent lazers, with googly eyes stuck all over our faces, about 5 of us wake up in a three man tent covered in muesli and mackerel. We realise we need to get a bit

of a move on, The Wailers are on soon, opening The Lion’s Den. We get there and the place is packed with eager revellers, well up for a skank. We crack open a box of cider and head to the front. But then we get to the middle and decide we like it there; good view, right next to some Funktion One speakers, job’s a good ‘un. The Wailers hit the

gigantic crumbling Aztec temple (!?) and are awesome!! Everyone steps to and it’s all smiles and dance moves. A girl happens past us and we swap an orange for what I now know is called a glitter shower; get on your knees and have a bag of glitter poured over your head. Really felt the part after that. Still can’t get it all off… Next up was Soom T, who is a personal favourite of mine, and she absolutely nailed it. Soom T is super cool. The day then turns into a heady mix of

amazing, sights, sounds and friends old and new, which to be honest kind of blends into the whole weekend; sleep when you’re tired, eat when hungry, have fun none stop. Waking up in my friends’ van surrounded by awesome food was a highlight, because we scoffed it, played drinking games and then hot footed it to the Arcadia spider to be perfectly primed for Koan Sound (who I’m well into), followed by Tipper (who I hadn’t heard before

and am now well into), followed by Freear (who everyone’s into!). We spent a good few hours dancing beneath the spider to these DJs, who were all amazing, and it was one of the best times ever. The party atmosphere built and built as the day turned to night and the spider came more and more to life. Lazers, fire, big beats, mega! Oh yeah, and then there was dancing in the pouring, warm rain to the whole of Easy All Stars’ set back at The Lion’s Den as they performed the entire Dub Side Of The Moon album. Mind. Blown. And whoever decided to organise a massive silent disco street party after the Sunday curfew is a genius!! Watching all

manner of weird a n d wonderful characters bust out some end-of-festival shapes to some funky sounds was a sight for sore eyes. Even funnier when you take your headphones off and all you can hear is the rustle of fancy dress. As amazing as the media teams are that work with Boomtown (they have to be to document something so out of this world), no article, image, song or video will ever give anyone the true feeling of what it’s like at Boomtown. It is like nothing else and it is incredible. You have to go. 19

DJ PLAYING ROCK/PARTY/POP PUNK/ALT

ELECTRIC EVERY TUESDAY ENTRY £1

DRINKS FROM£1

SELECTED PINTS £1 VODKA & MIXER £1 SHOTS £1

Parish Notices The scene never sleeps, but July, August and a bit of September have proven to be even more insomniac than the rest of the year. So much so the Right Reverend Reverend Wright has not only be burning the candle both ends but also in the middle. So apologies for the wax stains. On the bright side, it’s been a very happy time of ‘felix coniunctio’ for the Leeds music scene… and a lot of bouncing bundles of joy… in a manner of speaking.

In Loving Memory

Finally some bad news. Heart-ships, following the announcement of their debut album, perished quite suddenly. This promising young band will be sorely missed, and would like it to be known that they can still be enjoyed posthumously via their It is with saddened heart that we announce that on 10th September, 2014, The Cockpit quietly slipped away in it’s sleep. It had been undergoing renovative surgery, but after years of sonic abuse, not helped by the train service running overhead, time was called on this mainstay of the Leeds Music Scene. A proper elegy will be held next issue. Black ear plugs will be optional.

Births

Oh such joyous arrivals! Much congratulations on the arrival on second albums for Black Moth (Condemned to Hope) and Alt J (This is All Yours), and third albums for Petrol Bastard (Nice Jacket, Dickhead) and Pulled Apart By Horses (Blood). There will be no rest in those households for a while…

Marriages

First a number of genuine weddings, as mentioned earlier, but there’s no harm in having a double celebration. So congratulations to Greg Elliott and Lila Holden, Tom and Charlotte Martin and Adam Nodwell and Eve Townend – blimey, it’s been a busy month. On a more abstract level, happy reunions have occurred in the music scene with the reforming of Shatner, renewing their vows and planning a new album anytime soon. Good luck, Jim! Also, though it’s a bit off topic, I Like Trains are looking for funding for a divorce – A Divorce Before Marriage, that is, a documentary of a year in the life of ILT. I don’t want to get into an argument about divorce, but you should support this – look it up on kickstarter…

Genreology When the going gets weird, the weird get categorising. Yes, the latest instalment of musical genres that we’ve completely made up but will be absolutely terrified by if they do become a thing gets to the third of the way mark in the same month I heard one band comically describe themselves as ‘vagina-fronted with penis-led guitars’. Stick that in your genre classification system, HMV… headlining BoomTown Festival last G - gUrDy-HeRdY Poison’s ‘Talk Dirty to Me (This August, 2015 is set to be the year Started in the darker regions of ye Christmas)’), this is a genre nobody of the Gurd! Just don’t mention olde west country in celebration thought or wanted to be on the agrikrautrockers Die Wurzels… of the harrowing power cuts of rise. And what Steel Panther has to ‘83. The genre spread like wild do with this is anybody’s guess. fire throughout the summer of H - Hooties the following year - creating the In a bid to add a new dimension I - I.K.E.A (I Know Every Angle) dance phenomenon we know to the world-wide chain Hooters, A combination of Math-rock, today. As the black-outs occurred CEO Terrance M. Marks employed Tri-step, Progressive Metal and a Hurdy-Gurdy would be played house bands to attract a wider, Dubtuse music - developed by in that town’s surrounding fields as more refined clientele to his bars. musicians sick of hearing about the masses gathered to perform Each band, dubbed The Hooties how complex Dream Theatre dances like the Jive-Berry Thrust house band, comprised of at least were. Consisting primarily of songs and the Skank Snozzler to the one member of Def Leppard, that yo-yo between time signatures instrument’s sultry tones. Originally who proceeded to play extended 33/7.2 and 4/56 over a dub-reggae dubbed Gurdy-Herdy as narcotics versions of ‘Pour Some Sugar On beat at 168.4bpm it is said that were a big factor in its appreciation Me’ - at least twice every hour. only 3.14% of humans have the the name was swiftly altered to Most people are against its position ability to hear what is actually being hide the deeper activities of the in HMV’s genre classification played. genre from ‘The Fuzz’. Pioneers system due to its highly derivative include Plant & Page, Scooter and nature, but with a constant release Recommended Bands: Binary Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda. With of seasonal cover versions of Ba*****s and Maths and the G.H.O (Gurdy-Herdy Orchestra) other Hair Metal classics (such as Vandalisers 21

Reviews ALBUM REVIEWS The songs themselves are a non-stop succession of killer ROCK songs. Opener ‘Tumbleweave’ has a strutting, swaggering riff with enough tics and twitches to have it diagnosed as suffering from musical Tourette’s Syndrome; ‘Set Yourself Alight’ and ‘White Lies’ drive their merciless riffs like desperate animals; ‘Looner’ and ‘The Last Maze’ seethe and boil like furnaces; ‘Room 13’s jagged riff and spat words make it sound like a thousand razor blade slashes; ‘Stinkhorn’ and the title track are slow, moody epics that may slow the pace but do nothing to take the album off the boil. Best of all is ‘The Undead King Of Rock n Roll’, a grinding orgy of guitars and drums that raises a vivid picture of rock n roll personified in the body of an undead, slowly rotting corpse, singularly unimpressed by attempts to resurrect his (still smouldering, obvs) spirit. It’s a great song, but then so are all the others.

Black Moth Condemned To Hope (New Heavy Sounds) Anyone who’s seen Black Moth play live in recent months will know they’ve become a phasers set to kill, solar plexus punching, neck snappingly good live ROCK band, with a locked-in precision and withering self-confidence delivering a white hot music that seems to shimmer and levitate reality before your very eyes and ears. You can see it written on their faces, they just KNOW they’re involved in the ride of their lives. If The Killing Jar was an impressive debut, Condemned To Hope effortlessly, gloriously renders that album redundant at a stroke. Yes, this is a SUPERB album, and if you’re expecting an impartial review then fuck you.

First thing to say is that although each member of the band shines individually throughout, it’s always the sound of five people playing absolutely together with a single, unified purpose. Dave Vachon’s bass has always been the bedrock of the band but guitarists Jim Swainston and Nico Carew and drummer Dom McCready have all upped their game considerably to create this devastating engine of noise. To be honest, I can’t say I’ve much noticed Harriet Bevan’s lyrics before, but producer Jim Sclavunos has found a space in the racket for her words to punch through, the clarity revealing the wit, drama, playfulness and imagery of words that seems to exist within each song rather than being merely laid on top.

But apart from the music, the chief delight is the lyrics, which deserve a review of their own, really, but here’s a few choice snippets; ‘My tomb a bedsit shrine/I’m pickled in cheap wine/The silence is deafening/But I still hear the crowd scream’ (the peerless ‘Undead King…’); ‘Here they come torches raised/Asking how we spend our days/ But it takes time to cultivate/A squalor quite like ours’ (‘Set Yourself Alight’), ‘Stack your books, plant a vase on my breasts love/Watch me bend over backwards for you’ (‘Looner’), and finally ‘I’d tell the truth but you’d never believe me/So I may as well have some fun’ (‘White Lies’) which is the best opening couplet I’ve heard in a long time. If they all just seem to be about sex, death, lust and pleasure, they are, but what else in life is important? What we have here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the best rock album of the year. Anywhere. Steve Walsh

Reviews Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers Dinosaurs Ate My Caravan (Crabophone Records) Anyone familiar with Leeds will be aware of the City Varieties Club, a beautiful Victorian music hall made famous as the venue of The Good Old Days, a BBC TV staple for over 30 years that attempted to recreate early 20th century live light entertainment for the modern masses.

Pulled Apart By Horses Blood (Transgressive) It is sometimes staggering to think that PABH are six years old; they have exhibited a tremendous amount of longevity for a band formed for fun. Of course, this could all be smoke and mirrors designed to make their rise look effortless, because PABH are not stupid; quite the contrary, and Blood may be the album to demonstrate this.

Well, this heritage seems to have rubbed off on locals Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers, a quartet of moustachioed throwbacks who sound like they’ve just stepped off the set of Pennies from Heaven. Starting at the aforementioned music hall, mix with a bit of ukulele, Oom-pah, Charleston, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, before adding lyrics straight out of a Monty Python sketch via the Natural History Museum, leaving you with something unique, surprisingly accomplished, not to mention exquisitely silly. ‘My Mysterious Uncle’ opens up proceedings, a lament to the creepy and seldom seen relative who only turns up at weddings and Christmas parties…. we’ve all got one. ‘David Attenborough’ eulogises the glittering career of the former head of BBC2. Then we’re

From the muffled then monolithic stomp of ‘Hot Squash’s opening, parallels can be drawn to QOTSA’s Era Vulgaris, parallels that continue to be drawn as the song progresses into a chorus worthy of Homme or At The Drive In that slides between minor and major, backing vocals shadowing Tom Hudson’s uncertain ‘I should have known’. Power is there, but it is tempered with something that began on Tough Love: self-knowledge and even doubt. ‘ADHD in HD’, with Rob Lee’s Cobainesque yowl and Nirvana chorus only adds to the uncertainty, and ‘Hello Men’s MBVesque dischord is musically disturbing. There’s still a lot of fun, though, but it’s not just ‘young, dumb and full of cum’, as ‘Medium Rare’ opens, before pounding out a song full of laid back fury. ‘Lizard

treated to the caravan eating ‘Dinosaurs’ of the album’s title before things get surreally sartorial with ‘Tweed Jacket’, as we’re shrewdly informed that a pink shirt worn with the aforementioned garment makes one look like an antiques expert. The rockabilly shuffle of ‘Triangle’ informs the listener that it’s ‘perfectly natural to be equilateral’, whilst the baroque ‘Andrea’s Arms’ is the tale of a too-short armed woman driven to drastic measures. The remaining assorted subject matter whizzes by, never letting up on the eccentricity, culminating in the crustacean friendly ‘Land Hermit Crab’ and the curds and whey porn-fest of ‘Cheese’. In a parallel universe this band would be as big as Lieutenant Pigeon. Mike Price

Baby’ sounds like ‘Ghostbusters’ with one hell of a riff chorus buried in the middle of it; ‘Skull Noir’ borrows/ steals the intro from ‘War Pigs’; ‘Weird Weather’ buries ‘Silence is Golden’ in there for shits and giggles. Fun and games, but prior knowledge required. What doesn’t need explaining is the power of the riff, and it is still strong in them, but now it’s a sludgier, grungier riff (‘Golden Monument’ reeks of hashfuelled stonerism) – perhaps grudge rock. PABH still have something to prove, which is why they’re still angry, but with every album they get closer. Stronger vocals, stronger riffs: it’s a bunker buster. Rob Wright

Reviews The Orwells Disgraceland (Canvasback/Atlantic Records)

The Agency… Of Ghosts (Solarbear Records)

The Horn The Hunt Terrafidella (Gpig Records)

The debut album from Chicago 5 piece The Orwells comes on the back of some serious buzz in their native country as well as Europe. High profile tours and TV appearances mean they should hit the ground running with this release. It’s fair to say that the record should help them continue that momentum as its 11 tracks of full throttle rock n roll with a keen ear for melody and hooks. Stylistically The Orwells occupy similar territory to The Strokes and The Libertines stirred through with a generous pour of the pop sensibilities of Weezer (spookily enough the singers surname is Cuomo!).

Of Ghosts is an album of tales. ‘Fast’ features Machiavellian political corruption imagining the voices of angels and demons talking to the next bright young thing in the political world. Its sound leans towards the doom of anything from Nick Cave’s ‘Push the Sky Away’. The songs middle section captures this at best with its off kilter happiness juxtaposing the songs theme. ‘She’ and ‘Child So Careless’ contain instrumental ideas similar to The National but the vocals sometimes lack the conviction to control the song - however the stories told throughout are very interesting. ‘For the Daughter’ and ‘For the Daughter Reprise’ seem to be ballads of a criminal with the first narrated from a Father and the reprise from the narrative of the Mother. This switch of narrative helps create a harrowing realism to the album as presumably the songs are about a person’s last words before some kind of sentencing. ‘Border Song’ makes great use of the tremolo guitar against a subtle drum beat.

Three years since its predecessor Depresseur Jolie, The Horn The Hunt have had this record on the back burner. Recorded over 2 years and released the following year, their patience is laudable.

The only thing this album is truly missing (and may stop the band from reaching the higher echelons in the short term) is a genuine radio hit. ‘Southern Comfort’ opens with intent but the sing-alongs never quite grab you enough to be memorable whilst ‘Dirty Sheets’ threatens to take over your brain wholesale but never quite gets there. In all honesty it’s frustrating that they don’t quite hit the mark because there’s serious song writing ability throughout the record which is perfectly listenable and I would imagine they’re even more powerful live. With the band still in their early 20’s they’ve got all the time in the world to find the element that will spill them over into chart bothering territory but in the meantime Disgraceland is a fantastic start to what could end up being a fantastic back catalogue. Rob Fearnley

The album has its highs and lows but ‘Jack and the Spade’ lets the album go out on its highest with its tale of a man being betrayed and buried, with the lower register vocals becoming highly effective as the album fades out to the lyrical anti-anthem ‘And the Dirt You Pour Down On Me’. George Paris

Opener ‘Black Fire’ has a driving, persistent drum beat, adorned by bass, mourning synth and vocals. It sets the tone beautifully with some surprising modal twinges and sultry groove. It has hints of Rökkurró at their mellowest. ‘Gold’ picks up the pace with a stomping, tom-tom groove as Clare Carter’s vocals swan about in jarring fourths. Before we know it, we’re into more poppy territory with the lilting bass-synth of ‘Not Sure’. Three tracks in, it’s a varied bit of kit. THTH are a band with pop sensibilities but are always looking to break out of them. ‘Find It Free It’, featuring the sturdy drumming of That Fucking Tank’s James Islip for one track only, is awash with brash bass and an almost ‘80s feel (in the best way). ‘Starless’ has a similarly synth-pop vibe. There are some proggy moments, too. The title track features sections of plodding, bluesy bassline with whispered vocals – very atmospheric.

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Reviews > > > > > CONTINUED My only beef with THTH is that for all their crafted arranging and limitless soundscapes, there’s just something a bit empty about it. A record like this needs more punch to really get to the next level. I felt the same about Depresseur Jolie – the sound is great, but doesn’t grab me in the way I feel it ought to. Other than that, though, I have little to draw fault from. A few tuning and timing mishaps can be forgiven for the sheer imagination the record encompasses. Roll on the next record. Tim Hearson

Perpex Flesh Perspex Flesh (Statik Shock Records) Debut albums often betray a certain mood of green behind the ears, wide-eyed amazement, as if the band members can’t quite believe they’ve managed to get this far. This is Leeds hardcore quartet Perspex Flesh’s debut album, but you’d be hard pushed to find anything about it that is wide-eyed or green behind anything. And that’s not just because the band members have been round the block a few times in their still young lives anyway and seen action in lots of other bands. This is hardcore; it doesn’t do complacency.

Perspex Flesh definitely belongs to the contingent in hardcore more interested in pushing the genre forward than repeating formulas. While the band utilise the trademarks of hardcore (direct, unadorned, cathartic sonic violence) the songs eschew traditional structures in favour of an unpredictability that screws the tension tight as a drum. But the variety of approaches is striking; the punk roots of hardcore are evident in ‘Black Magic’, perhaps the most conventional song on the album, even though the middle eight is more of a Sonic Youth one chord squall; weirdly, if you took away all the distortion ‘Cancer Black’ wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Wire album; and ‘Perspex Flesh’ toggles abruptly and thrillingly between slow, medium and madly fast sections in a seemingly random arrangement. If you don’t think nuance and subtlety can’t work in conjunction with rage and aggression in music, you probably need to hear this album. Steve Walsh

alt-J This Is All Yours (Infectious) I am a massive Cardiacs fan and if any band could be described as a Marmite band, it would be Cardiacs. Most people have a problem with either the fairground music, the time signatures or Tim Smith’s distinctive voice. I tell people ‘you’ve got to look at it as a whole’ and they usually say, ‘yes, I do, and I hate all of it’. Now I could be accused of doing this to alt-J; I’ve been missing the whole. And the whole is… odd. I was expecting some kind of Vampire Weekend affair, not an intro comprised of ‘la’s and incomprehensibly distorted vocals, a semi symphonic, overblown

affair that was more Jean Michel Jarre than mainstream indie. I’m… surprised and a little bit excited. With ‘Arrival in Nara’ and its companion piece ‘Nara’, I feel I’m in Lone Wolf or Her Name is Calla territory, the slow waltz on piano and guitar, the soft, non-affectated vocals, the sombre, spare vocals that emulate a madrigal style… it’s quite lovely and sorrowful, and when a beat finally arrives it is funereal, lumbering and monstrous. ‘Every Other Freckle’ follows with one of the worst lines ever: ‘turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet’ – I’m sure there’s a good reason for it – and the poppiest track

yet, but it’s still weirded up by a hurdy gurdy break, ‘Left Hand Free’ is Monkees goes medieval, and the ‘romantic’ duet of ‘Warm Foothills’ is a conjoined piece between male and female where they finish each other’s lines. It’s pop, but it’s subverting it to buggery, treading the path of Sigur Ros and The Knife while still being very British. I’m taking this as a whole and embracing this odd little record. I think I get it. Rob Wright

Reviews Captain Wilberforce Distance (Blue Tuxedo) Simon Bristoll, who is Captain Wilberforce plus backing band, isn’t the most prolific of songwriters (a mere three albums in 10 years), but it’s always welcome when a batch his songs emerge, even if it’s just a five track EP like this one with four original songs supplemented by a radio friendly edit of lead song ‘Someone To Love’. Bristoll’s skills may be maturing well with age but this quartet of ‘anti-‘love songs show he’s not likely to descend into blubbering romanticism in his dotage. ‘It’s your own stupid fault/You deserve what you got/Someone to love’ runs the chorus of the compressed and oblique ‘Someone To Love’s tale of a woman trapped in a loveless, abusive relationship, while ‘The Johnny Depp Memorial Café’ puts it more bluntly ‘Don’t be happy/’Cos it always turns to sad’. By contrast the music and melodies are sweet and the arrangements expertly orchestrated, which, contrasted with the bleakness of the lyrics, gives the sings their bittersweet bite. More please, and, with an average three years between Captain Wilberforce releases, a bit sooner next time would be good too. Steve Walsh

This City Limits Colourblind (Self released) They’ve only been together for 18 short months but Sheffield rockers This City Limits are already on to their third release and it’s pretty good. Taking an American sound and giving it an all over British sheen a’la Mallory Knox, ‘Colourblind’ is 4 minutes of screeching guitars and soaring vocals. It’s a tough market for a band like this as it’s a crowded market in terms of the number of acts already ahead of them. The right tours and radio plays and they could do ok though. Looking forward to a full album next time guys! Rob Fearnley

SINGLE/EP REVIEWS

Robert M. Francis Broken Landscapes (The Junkyard Procession) Francis’ northern tones unfold over drones that evolve slowly from one texture to the next. Broken Landscapes is best described as a spoken word/ experimental E.P. telling folk-tales of urban dystopia. The sound is raw with lo-fi loops providing a backdrop to Francis’ musings. It makes for an absorbing listen but if only more quality was given to the vocal capture; the human voice alone can create so much depth and atmosphere with its own individual frequencies. George Paris

La Bête Blooms TV Speak (The Adult Teeth Recording Company) This post-punk band from Hull does well do create the punchy, melodic single that is ‘TV Speak’. Combining slightly ‘spooky’ sounding verses and a catchy chorus, with lots of raw vocals and guitars, it seems like the kind of song that would lend itself well to an energetic live performance. Gerard Leachman

MOTHER Up For Hours/The Blue Room (Self release) Formed out of the ashes of GST Cardinals, Hull quintet MOTHER deliver a brace of punk/garage influenced tunes that suggest they’re a band confident in their own abilities and not really interested in sounding like they have any special reverence for either punk or garage. ‘Up For Hours’ effectively conveys a frazzled, sleep deprived exasperation as it alternates between a sparse, choppy verse and needling chorus; by contrast ‘The Blue Room’ is based on an insistent, repeated riff that worries away at the song and is goaded by some Floyd-ish organ into

a woozy and psychedelic coda. Singer Dave Sinclair possesses one of those great untutored rock voices that can accommodate a nasal regional whine and throat shredding screeches and still sound cool as fuck. I suspect MOTHER are the dogs bollocks of a live band. Steve Walsh

Rayne Chemicals (Self release) There’s something way too pop sounding about this track that kind of hurts the positive aspects, which are the absolutely epic choruses, and the more emotion filled instrumental outro. Despite this negative the 4 minute track went by too quickly. Once you get into it, you just get dragged into its depths. But still, less cheese and more epicness please. Gerard Leachman

The Dead Blues EP (Self release) Once you find out that The Dead Blues toured with The Pigeon Detectives earlier this year, it’s hard to disassociate them from that kind of easy going pop punk, but that’s largely because that’s where they seem to think they belong. Although moody opener ‘Frankenstein’ initially suggests other routes and sports a nifty chorus (‘Such a beautiful monster/I created today/She never used to lie/Or look at me that way’), subsequent songs rather signpost their references: ‘Festival’ strays dangerously close to a Fratelli’s-like jaunty pop knees up, and ‘Angry Troubadour’ has a go at Frank Turner style fist punching social commentary but it’s just too lightweight and lacks conviction. Initially ‘Getaway’s blues rock swagger is a welcome distraction until the chorus turns out to be more pure Detectives. The EP leaves you to wonder what The Dead Blues would sound like if they played The Dead Blues songs. Steve Walsh

The Horn The Hunt/ The Family Elan @ Caroline Club, Saltaire There is a merciless storm when I arrive at the unassuming Caroline Club in Saltaire on a gloomy Thursday in August. The weather is menacing, and I’m so wet that I’m half-convinced I actually swam down the river from Leeds. Fortunately for me, Gus Bousfield’s Pleasure Grounds is a night with a unique touch of home – housed in this quaint working men’s club which emanates the tired majesty of former glory, yet remains a somehow familiar and homely place. After drying off and purchasing a 1970’s priced pint of the black stuff, I settle down to watch The Family Elan. A superbly interesting choice led by Bouzouki wielding Chris Hladowski – a capable, mercurial three piece from West Yorkshire and whose performance is a flighty musical journey from Eastern European Gypsy-Folk through to HindiPop via Psych, it makes for a high-energy, nimbly-executed eclectic start to the night. With everybody suitably warmed up, The Horn The Hunt take to the stage with Terrafidella, their brand new album largely inspired by the landscape of Tenerife. Fronted by Leeds-based Claire Carter & Joe Osborne, THTH present an adeptly-crafted alt-pop which paint pictures of a landscape both arid and open, simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. First up is album opener ‘Black Fire’; a haunting, brooding epic that draws you in and holds you under its spell. The beguiling vocals make me catch my breath, and considering Claire is without the characteristic harmonies heard on the album, the band achieve a sound which is lush, laden and bright.

Lead single ‘Gold’ is a punchy return to Earth; a pounding, restless tune with a nod to PJ Harvey’s ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’ and for a minute I feel like I’m sixteen again. Other highlights from the evening include ‘The Wild Gaze’, which is like a lonely walk, filled with uncertainty; and ‘Starless’ – a poignant song about having nothing left to give. The set finished with a beautiful rendition of Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’ and uplifting single ‘Find it Free it’ – a convincing, soul-soaring finisher, which leaves me feeling inspired, nourished and refreshed. If my ears were glued to the phonic feast filling the room, then I was equally fixated by the mesmerising lights and animations, provided by Pleasure Grounds’ Tim Peck. Red and green glowworms danced on the ceiling, whilst enchanting scenes from Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus and Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy for Lileth graced the screen like a beautiful daydream – the perfect backdrop to a truly enchanting band. Katharine Hartley

Field Harmonics/Juffage/ danopposite/Matt Robson @ Wharf Chambers, Leeds Being tucked away at the bottom of the bill might suit his unassuming manner, but it also denies latecomers the chance to experience the clear highlight of tonight’s show. Having found numerous outlets for his talent over ten plus years, Leeds veteran Matt Robson has only

recently started to record under his own name. His latest compositions see him shifting gears from the glitch-based electronica of his Noughties output as randomNumber to instrumental hip-hop with a less abashed sense of fun, yet it’s the technical skill underpinning his performance which leaves the most lasting impression this evening. A costume change later and Robson’s back onstage, providing the musical backing for local slam poet Daniel Hearn’s danopposite project. Hearns is likeable, his rhymes are well-executed and there’s clearly a lot of goodwill in the room towards the pair’s approximation of the irony-drenched, literate hip hop/electronica mashup popularised by Anticon-affiliated artists like Sage Francis and Clouddead, but it rarely coalesces into anything memorable. He may be a little precious on occasion, but Juffage is well within his rights to be cheesed off by the inexplicable inattentiveness of this particular crowd. It’s fortuitous that he’s at his best when he’s up against it, an undercurrent of anger feeding the off-kilter intensity of his guitar playing and lending a confrontational energy not normally associated with singer-songwriters. Field Harmonics is the solo project of Rob Glover, one half of the longserving post-rock duo Epic 45. He’s undoubtedly successful in his stated aim of paying homage to the pioneers of Eighties synth-pop, throwing together a reasonable period pastiche that’s one part New Order bliss, one part Depeche Mode portent. It’s not really clear what the point of it all was though. Greg Elliott

Billy The Kid/The Lion & The Wolf/ Joe Mcorriston @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds The back room of the Brudenell is perfect for shows like this. Low ceilings and the gentle buzz of a few neon beer signs makes it feel more like a backwater American bar than a snooker room. Tonight’s line-up of solo artists fill the room with sound admirably (particularly against the glam rock onslaught from the main concert room) with tales of coastal home towns and the tribulations of being a travelling musician. The night is all about Billy The Kid and an introduction to her fantastic new album ‘Horseshoes & Hand Grenades’. A prolific band member and solo performer, Billy is destined for great things with this new record, not least having been handpicked to support Billy Bragg in the US, so it’s fun to see the record unveiled in such an intimate setting. Opening the show is Morecambe native Joe McCorriston who rattles through an entertaining set of acoustic tunes, the best of which recounts his childhood hope of being able to sail to America direct from Morecambe Bay. Next up is The Lion & The Wolf, the solo pseudonym of Solent resident, Thomas George. Tom is a genuinely engaging performer and provides an interesting slant on the tried and tested nu-folk formula of Bright Eyes and Midlake. A clutch of tunes from his various bandcamp EP’s and demos are aired along with a brief cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘Your My Love Is My Love’. A great find and I can’t wait to hear the album, due out later this year. Let’s get down to the bones of it before we go any further: Billy The Kid is an

absolute star. How it’s taken 4 albums and countless miles for her to get to this position is beyond me but a chance meeting with Frank Turner brought her to the attention of Xtra Mile recordings and she’s now rightly reaping the rewards of plugging away thanklessly but cheerfully for the past few years. Live, she’s a revelation and blends a punk attitude with impassioned acoustic treasures effortlessly. Commanding silence from the first chord onwards Billy treats the captivated audience to some of the finer moments from the new record (of which there are many) alongside a few older tunes. The crowd is made up of confirmed fans and casual observers but by the end of the set everyone is the former. Highlights include the brilliant lead single ‘This Sure As Hell Ain’t My Life’, ‘Lord Let Me’ which tells the story of frowned upon love in mid-century Northern Ireland, and a spine tingling rendition of ‘Chelsea Rose’. Rob Fearnley

Festival Roundup – Full reviews available online at www.vibrations.org.uk/live.php Long Division 2014 @ Various, Wakefield It’s just a short train journey across the county to Long Division – Wakefield’s answer to Live at Leeds. Yet in all honesty, it is an event that is worlds away from its cross-county counterpart. With a great atmosphere, a string of sterling venues and a line-up to make Yorkshire proud, the overall experience was of an exciting, eclectic festival and a genuinely accessible exploration of local music, local venues, and a celebration of what the town has to offer musically.

First up on my schedule for Saturday was Protectors, taking to the stage at the gloriously grubby Players. The room was packed, sweaty and resembled a scene from the club’s previous nineties heyday; not surprising, given that the band come from a high-pedigree gene pool of local Punk bands including Pylon, Keith Burton and his Beef Curtain, Lubby Nugget and the Young Conservatives. Melodic and poppy, with huge sing-along-choruses and bittersweet harmonies, the show was great fun; not least for the band, who thoroughly enjoyed every minute, sang along to every song and had ear to ear grins throughout. The drummer was having a particularly great time, swigging a pint of “a 2015 vintage Malbec from Aldi” – I’m not even sure how that works, but I definitely wanted one. One of the first outings for their recently completed album, and a great start to the day it was too. A few beers later, and we were all starting to feel the tea-time slump. But luckily for us, Brawlers were on hand at Players to provide the perfect pickme-up. The Leeds-based four-piece put on a high-energy, Pop-Punk show full of pizzazz. Frontman Harry Johns spent the gig reeling around the floor and stirring the crowd up, only managed to clamber onto the stage only halfway through the final song. Not that there was any room up there for him, as the guitarist and bass player threw themselves around with such zeal that they almost had someone’s eye out. Audience participation aplenty, with mid-song photo poses from Harry, and some solid suggestions to enjoy the day and get boozed. Glorious, uninhibited fun. Next up were Buzzkill at Havana – a strange venue with the barriers set 15 feet away from the stage and disconnecting the audience from the band. Nevertheless Buzzkill are a

band who never disappoint. As ever, a relentlessly rock’n’roll show from the engaging Leeds-based Punk quintet, who barely paused for breath between the classic songs from albums Double Down and Driven by Loss. Fun banter, party starting punky rock’n’roll, all sewn up with some show-stopping scissor kicks from the bass player – a festival must-see. A little later and via a trip to the acclaimed Wakefield Pie Shop (frustratingly closed, furthering our detour in search of fried chicken), Cowtown injected Players with a dose of their characteristic golden energy. The self-proclaimed econo-rock party certainly brought us through the fuzzy haze of a festival’s early evening, with their bold brand of quirky, angular pop. A quietly charismatic troop, yet one who are full of force, proved to be yet another band which kept Players utterly bouncing and made it a strong contender for venue of the festival. We finished the night with Wot Gorilla, again at Havana, and with a smaller-than-anticipated audience. The Halifax-based mathcore band (still achieving a full sound in spite of recently becoming a three-piece) were, as ever, technically exquisite, full of ear-bending riffs, wonderfully jarring beats and a ton of charisma. Showcasing new tunes nicely bookended with classics such as ‘Snow White’, the complex songs with unexpected time signatures yet sing-along choruses were engaging and virtuosic. If the rhythms do nought but leave you guessing, they are a band who you can safely bet your bottom dollar on to put on a great show. Katharine Hartley

Long Division Festival Fringe @ Various venues, Wakefield

If it’s taken Long Division a mere four iterations to perfect the art of staging what is essentially a one day music festival, and making it one of the sharpest, most savvy festivals in the country to boot, the organisers seem a bit unsure about what to do with the Sunday. Labelled the festival Fringe, it’s always seemed to be based on the idea that people with massive hangovers don’t want to be faced with anything too demanding. It’s still in a state of flux, but the 2014 iteration of the Fringe scored a few well aimed bull’s eyes along with the odd misstep. Music in the Fringe was mainly taken up with the King Street Krawl, curated by local labels Clue, Of National Importance and Sticky Shoes, the rather neat idea being that the two venues at either end of said street, Inns of Court and Players, took turns to stage 30 minute sets by a succession of local and visiting bands from midday right through to 9:00pm. If you felt so inclined you could simply have pinged between each venue all day and seen 16 bands, all completely free. My sample was: Barnsley quartet The Black Lamps may have been around the block a few times but their post punk influenced originals are competently and confidently composed and played. It’s not mainstream of experimental, just solid. Leeds’ post rocky Esper Scout are coming to the boil just nicely now, their burgeoning confidence in themselves and their material resulting in blistering shows like this, and probably explaining why uber cool label Kill Rock Stars have picked up the band’s latest single for release in the US. Middlesborough’s Bi:Lingual are a monster rock/rap mash

up with a Led Zep rhythm section, Sonic Youth guitars and Rage Against The Machine style vocals that are more rap than rock. Singer Dylan Teague announces his intention to freestyle at one point, but his raps are so fluid it could all be freestyling. The music is wildly, anything-can-happen, fucking a-mazing exciting and Bi:Lingual are quite possibly band of the weekend. Yes weekend. Even based on half a set, Manchester guitar and drums duo Bad Grammar are clearly plugged into the same crazy wires that drove Jerry Lee Lewis to distraction and wipe the floor with most of the similarly equipped rock duo’s around at the moment. I mean, with Bad Grammar around, who needs Royal Blood? Closing the whole thing, another guitar (this time bass) and drums duo The Hysterical Injury demonstrate that this seemingly limiting format is really only so if you have no musical imagination. Tom Gardiner may hit his drums like he’s smashing rocks, but it’s his sister Annie who steals the show, demonstrating the rare ability to combine a (probably) classically schooled music education and an angelic voice that spans several octaves, with the capacity to play absolutely filthy, effects drenched noise rock bass. The results are mind bogglingly good. The Long Division Fringe remains a fantastic idea in need of a firm guiding hand, preferably one that’s not interested in getting hammered the day before. Steve Walsh

Bingley Music Live Bingley Music Live is a festival that has long since been punching above its weight. Three days of glorious music in a nice, compact environ; some rising stars, some known names and quite a few who should be better known than they are – and less than £50 for the weekend! Friday night starts off promisingly. I’m straight in to MNEK (Em-en-ey-ek), a young R&B popster, with plenty of bounce and charm. He’s got some serious writing and production credits under his belt, not least with Naughty Boy & Gorgon City and he’s a fairly funky start to my weekend. Supergrass may no longer be young or free but Gaz Coombes still appears to be keeping his teeth nice and clean. He’s performing in a solo set which isn’t full of surprises but doesn’t need to be. Standard Britpop fare served up in the traditional mod style leather jacket, just what you’d expect musically but perhaps with a little less attitude than his Supergrass days and judging by the frequent flashes of his pearly whites, he’s having fun. If you’re a thirty-something then Shed Seven will probably be a band you remember but whose hits you may struggle to name. Certainly that was the case for me and I was little apprehensive as to whether I’d know enough to enjoy them as headliners. I shouldn’t have worried as, from the moment they came on stage, I was transported back to my uni days with plenty of hits I knew and quite a few moments of “I didn’t know this was Shed Seven” along the way. This was a solid set of their greatest hits and finishing the night with ‘Chasing Rainbows’ left the crowd looking forward to what might be in store the next day.

On Saturday I arrive for Bipolar Sunshine, a solo hip hop pop act, not too dissimilar to MNEK. He’s engaging and lively and in my humblest of opinions is just about to start coming in to his own. Walking on to stage in one of the ugliest bomber jackets I have ever seen is Jess Glynne, a flame haired songstress with a couple of dance beat hits under her belt. She looks nervous and the crowd don’t really warm to her until she plays Route 94’s ‘My Love’, a song she featured on. Another one of her better moments was Clean Bandit’s ‘Rather Be’ but it still isn’t her own. As they’re welcomed on to stage we’re informed that The Strypes have a super-fan in none other than Sir Elton John. The conversations I had after they’d finished would indicate a fairly even divide in opinion, the Marmite band of the day. I really enjoyed their rocky blues vibe – a sort of unusual love child of The Arctic Monkeys and Volbeat and given that the Saturday line up was fairly dance heavy, they made a nice break. Tonight’s headliner is Example. From the moment he came on stage he was out to entertain, with fantastic production (we all got to reach for the lasers), catchy, singalong parts and several of those Shed Seven, “oh he did this!” moments. By the time he finished with a frankly breathtaking ‘Change The Way You Kissed Me’ he had us all eating out the palm of his hand. Sunday is upon us and despite maybe feeling a little fuzzy headed I make it to the opening act of the day Downreno, a local bunch serving up far from local Americana. I hope this bunch come back next year much higher up the bill. Solid, talented and professional, they were a great start to the day. And now for Etta Bond. You might have already heard about this girl’s performance as

she gave a master class performance in right royal fuck-ups (she was booed off stage). Not only was her actual music tedious, immature and unoriginal, her attitude sucked. Soothing our frazzled nerves is the perfect panacea in the form of teenager Chloe Howl. Unsurprisingly, she’s looking petrified when she comes on stage but she needn’t have worried; just a couple of songs in and pretty much everyone has warmed to her gorgeous, smoky vocals beautifully matched to relaxed, soulful tunes. This girl has masses of potential and I don’t think it’ll be long before she takes on the likes of Adele and soars. An acoustic set from Simon & Oscar from Ocean Colour Scene comes next and is perfect for this beautifully sunny afternoon. Informal, chilled and with the odd classic thrown in, it’s the down time we all need before building up to the final two acts. ‘The Riverboat Song’ had us all joining in and made for a perfect finish for their set. Even without the bias of being a lifelong fan, Pet Shop Boys gave a magnificent performance with plenty of the hits to get the crowd jumping. A brief snippet from their ballet ‘The Most Incredible Thing’ segues into a stunning Electronica version of ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story into ‘Surburbia’. As if the music wasn’t enough the stage show was astounding, with plenty of big screen graphics accompanied by two animal headed dancers. With a laser show that literally made me jump for joy, a clever section of Chris & Neil in an upright bed pulling off some incredible dance moves (courtesy of a sneaky projector) and a back catalogue of hits, the Pet Shop Boys proved they were a long way from being boring. Alex Cooper

GIG PREVIEWS Cottonwoolf/Yarbo @ Oporto, Leeds 1 Oct One of Leeds’ up-and-comers, Cottonwoolf write melodramatic, stadium-sized folk-infected pop tunes and this is their EP launch. Disraeli Gears/O Captain @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds 1 Oct Another outfit with the potential to be massive, Disraeli Gears are loud, bluesy and ooze cool. The Sunshine Underground @ Stylus, Leeds 10 Oct You’ll probably preview this better than I can. Glass Caves/Carnabells/Tokyo Corner/Ic1s @ Warehouse 23, Wakefield 25 Oct Featuring rising stars of the Indie Rock scene Glass Caves, thrown in with other other rising stars of the Indie Rock scene, Carnabells. Great. Johnny Marr @ O2 Academy, Leeds 29 Oct Johnny Marr. Great. Eagulls @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 31 Oct Eagulls. Great. That Fucking Tank/The Family Elan/Commiserations @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 1 Nov Any gig lineup that includes That Fucking Tank is worth going to. They’re headlining this one, so, you know. Adult Jazz @ Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds 10 Nov Avant-poppers Adult Jazz have been making some noise lately. Weird noise in the form of tracks no less than 5 minutes, to be precise. Looking set to be one of Leeds’ edgier exports for this year, get them while they’re hot. Something about a drum circle, I dunno... Great. Kleine Schweine/Smilex/White Horse/Percy @ The Packhorse, Leeds 15 Nov Everyone’s favourite dictatorial punk-band are backhorse (back-at-The-Packhorse) and you’re allowed to go and see it. Hookworms/Koguzuma/Sex Hands @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 19 Nov Hookworms are having an album launch. This is great news because it means Hookworms will soon have a new album out. Great.

Hip Hoperating System When you played under the name of Films, did you feel that Leeds had a thriving music scene?

Alt J, named after the key stroke combinations for a triangle (which, no matter how hard I pound my keyboard, doesn’t work) enjoyed rather a fantastic 2012 when they won the Mercury Award for debut album, An Awesome Wave. Then 2013 saw them tour just about everywhere, play just about every festival and… then lose one of the founding members at the end of the year… well, the beginning of the next. Like the good doctor, however, they have taken this cataclysmic change in their stride, regenerated, and spent a good chunk of 2014 putting together a brand new album, This is All Yours. So to say they might have something to say about the last couple of years might be an understatement. In the name of needing to know, Catriona Chadderton racked up her phone bill talking to founder member and drummer Thom Green about the new album, student life in Leeds and music software… 2014 has been a whirlwind for Alt-J with the departure of Gwil Sainsbury, so it’s pleasing to hear the news that you’ll be releasing your second album, ‘This Is All Yours’ later on this month.You’ve come a long way from being a quaint band from Leeds under the name of Films - what was it like starting up here? It seems like forever ago that we were in Leeds. I live in London now and I didn’t really think I’d end up here. Leeds was great when we were there, all meeting at Leeds University - it was a fantastic place to be a student, which was kind of ideal. It wasn’t too big; it wasn’t too crazy. It had enough of the city in it for it to be interesting without being overwhelming. We started playing together in the dorm and I have a lot of really fond 34

memories of being there. Saying that though, we stayed for a year after we graduated and it felt a little boring... Because we weren’t students we didn’t have access to all the things we had access to as students so we had to adapt very quickly. The difference from when we were then to where we are now is incredible. I’d been abroad, what, one time before we started touring so yeah, I mean we’re still the same people, we just ended up… [laughs] it’s hard to describe. Do you ever go back to Leeds? Not really, no. We’ve been so busy. I think pretty much all of my friends that were there have left now too. I’m originally from Harrogate and I’ve been back there obviously, but I haven’t ventured out to Leeds for a few years I’d say... Well, other than playing.

Yeah, for sure! Once we actually started playing live it was good. We played at the Library often but we never really went out of our way to be a part of ‘the scene’ as it were, we weren’t at all interested. We concentrated on making tracks really; we didn’t play that often either at the start. It came about that our friends asked us to play in our living room and it sort of came about after that. You won the mercury in 2012, how do you feel it benefitted the band? Did it give you the motivation to record a second album? We were eventually going to have to make a second album I guess, but we were so wrapped up in touring that we never had the chance. We always felt that we were ‘promoting’ the first album to different places across the world because we were always the new band so it never really felt like an old album to us. We stopped touring… last October? We decided to just stop. It was necessary to make a second album really. It’s hard to write on the road, you’re tired, and definitely not in the right (write) mood. Your videos tend to be ‘off the wall’. For instance, your video for ‘Hunger of the Pine’ is particularly unsettling. Why the need for this? Are you testing the boundaries? Hmm... We wanted it to be interesting enough to warrant having a video in the first place. We have a weird thing with videos… well I do… I kind of don’t see the point [of them]. We’re not the kind of band that use music videos to promote ourselves; we’re not

in the videos or anything. I think it’s different for big pop artists because, you know, the fans love it and that kind of thing. We think we have a lot of freedom in that way. We can do what we like really. The video was Joe’s idea (it features an unnamed protagonist running away from an unseen assailant that is trying to fill him full of arrows – I won’t spoil the ending) and he met with the director with a clear idea of what he wanted. He wanted the video to leave a lot to the imagination, with a lot of unanswered questions. I think that’s really important - it’s more interesting and people ask more questions. which I think was really important because most importantly, they’re far more interested and make people ask questions.

We tried to be as open minded as we possibly could, we didn’t have a plan, we just wanted to write decent music and to go with the flow as it were. I learnt how to use samples and how to produce electronic music which I was really interested in so yeah, I wanted to include that. It seemed to work quite well with the balance and everything. It has a good dynamic of loops, inspired from the music that I love - Hip Hop stuff, Clams Casino Instrumentals are a massive influence. I’m sort of obsessed with his stuff. He has had a big influence on my beats anyway, with the use of the bass drum layered up with snappy snares.

Your debut, ‘An Awesome Wave’ did show a seemingly consistent style to it. However, the two tracks you’ve released from the new album both contrast immensely. What are your expectations for the second album? Being a drummer did you push for a more sample based electronic feel that we hear in ‘Hunger of the Pine’?

Ableton. I’m always making beats, it’s a hobby of mine. I’m lucky enough to be able to make beats for my job. I’ve always got different things going on - making remixes, producing music that nobody hears, that sort of thing. With the stuff that ended up on the album, I worked in response to what Joe was playing, so I’d have my laptops set up in the studio and

What software do you use to make your beats and how do you make them?

I’d play alongside, adding in a very simple beat - a bass drum and a snare. It happens in ‘Hunger of the Pine’ with it starting off with a sonar sound, then I added in the brass and then it layered up with Joe on guitar. Then sometimes, I’ll bring loads of samples which I’ve accumulated from all over the place. I’ll just drop them in randomly and mess around with them. It was quite fun doing that, I find it fun making a brand new sound out of something, recycling a sound and making it my own. I’ve always been very creative, very easily distracted. I could never concentrate at school I was far more bothered to play the drums and stuff. Having learnt Ableton well enough to be able to do everything I want with it, I’m really grateful to have access to it. I hope that the record reaches further afield and reaches out to fans of experimental electro and Hip Hop style beats. Alt J’s new album, This is All Yours, is available from all good record stores and will be sold to you regardless of your feelings towards experimental electro or Hip Hop style beats, but if you are a fan… even better.