Audio Addict #22

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LIGHTS ON SHE GOES, UP SHE GOES

ENTER SHIKARI / ERIC DINGUS / KEVIN ABSTRACT / PEACE MARCH 2015 ISSUE #22 / FREE

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EDITOR’S LETTER Hey, I don’t know about you, but this issue’s feelin’ 22 – y’know, whilst combing through this issue and the previous one, we’ve come to notice how many intentional and unintentional references there are to Taylor Swift. Amongst peers, it’s no secret that I adore T. Swizzle and her premium brand of pop music – but even I’m baffled as to how many times she’s managed to sneak in. Perhaps we’ll make a game of it. Spot all the Swift mentions, send ‘em over to audioaddictreaders@gmail.com and we’ll definitely fire back a prize*.

For this issue, I was truly blessed to have one of the most enlightening conversations of my writing career thus far with Canadian synthpop star Lights, who graces the front cover this time around. Alongside diving into the creative nuances of her enchanting third album Little Machines, she was gracious enough to open up about womanhood in the music industry and the additional challenges she’s faced since becoming a mother last year. It’s bewildering that in 2015, women throughout all walks of the industry still face prejudices unique to their gender, but it’s my hope that young women can read about her experiences and feel inspired to choose any career path they desire without hesitation – as it should be.

We also chat to two of our fair isle’s finest bands,

Enter Shikari and Peace, who are both in the midst of celebrating absolute musical stonkers with The Mindsweep and Happy People respectively.

And of course, a host of recurring features make their comeback from the last issue. Foreword offers an insightful gaze into the world of rap creative Kevin Abstract and his innovative collaborators Brockhampton - the ‘All-American Boyband’ with an awe-inspiring twist – alongside production aficionado Eric Dingus, who just so happened to make an appearance on Drake’s recent surprise release, If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (like, no big deal or anything). ‘The State Of...’ returns with a look into the not-so-sorry condition of modern emo - trust us, it’s okay - as does Alcohommentary, which this time round sees one of our writers tipsily tackling DMX’s rouge Redemption Of The Beast compilation with, uh, interesting end results.

We hope you enjoy reading this one as much as we enjoyed putting it together! *I can’t promise that the prize will be anything greater than a funny picture of Imagine Dragons fronted by an actual dragon. Putting together these magazines can get pretty crazy. - Joshua Pauley

EDITOR // JOSHUA PAULEY FRONT SECTION EDITOR // JAMES BARLOW REVIEWS EDITOR // CONNOR CASS CULTURE EDITOR & SUB-EDITOR // NATHAN BUTLER ART DIRECTOR & FOREWORD EDITOR // JOE PRICE

CONTRIBUTORS

Will Ackrill, Freya Cochrane, Callum Cornwell, Jodie-mae Finch, Samantha Fisher, Steven Fox, Joel Hernon, Amy Jones, Benjamin Maney, Paige Mathis, Kialha Nakahara, Nok from the Future, George Parr, Rebecca Rayner, Rob Sayers, Joseph Skingsley, Tom Staniszewski, Harriet Stanley, Kaitlyn Ulrich, Minnie Wright, Andrew Yates

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A D D I C T Website: audioaddictmag.com // Email: audioaddicteditors@hotmail.co.uk The Audio Addict magazine and blog is produced by students on the BA (Hons) Popular Music Journalism course at Southampton Solent University. The views expressed in the magazine and blog are the contributors own and as such the University and its staff can not be held responsible.

CONTENTS

FRONT SECTION

6 FIXING THE LEAK 7 BACK & FORTH: CROWDFUNDING 8 ALTERNATIVE MUSICIAN JOBS 9 ALCOHOMMENTARY: DMX 10 MUSICAL CONFESSIONS 11 THE NEW SOUNDCLOUD

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FOREWORD 12 KEVIN ABSTRACT

“I’m searching for the spot that’s in between Yung Lean and Taylor Swift”

16 ERIC DINGUS 17 RIVAL YOUTH CULTS EMERGE + RED EMPEROR 18 THE STATE OF: EMO

COVER FEATURE

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20 LIGHTS

“No-one can tell you how to create – so just go the hell for it!”

24 ENTER SHIKARI

“Guess we’ve got a bit more confident in ourselves, maybe it’s from getting a bit older”

26 WHERE’S THE MUSIC? 27 PRODUCING THE CHANGE 28 PEACE

“We’ve never sat down or been sat down by other bands and been told ‘here’s how you could do this’”

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30 REVIEWS

CULTURE

34 FILM REVIEWS 35 A NOT SO REGULAR SHOW 36 THE EVOLUTION OF NAUGHTY DOG 37 THE MOST ANTICIPATED VIDEO GAMES OF THE YEAR 38 GIG GUIDE

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FRONT SECTION

FIXIN G THE LEAK:

MOVING PAST TRADITIONAL RELEASE MODELS In recent years, album leaks have become monotonously common.

Whether it’s streamed online by a faceless hacker, as with Björk’s latest album Vulnicura, or leaked intentionally by the artist themselves as a middle finger to their bull*****ing record label, relying on a neat little ‘release date’ is now a risky game.

With leaks becoming commonplace, the way in which artists utilise them becomes more important than whether or not they actually occur. Artists may leak their own albums because, in contrast to minimal royalties received from album sales, the exposure gained from a leak - not to mention the affinity it can create with fans - can be far more beneficial overall. Leaking your own album can contribute vastly towards alternative revenue streams, widely acknowledged to be overtaking more ‘traditional’ earning opportunities .

There are a variety of advantages for an artist leaking their own album.

Firstly, the press coverage is immense and publicity is power; as a result, leaking your own album can sell huge numbers of tour tickets, get you innumerable interviews (yet more publicity) and, vitally, send a clear message. When Angel Haze’s record label backtracked on their promise to release Dirty Gold within the year (2013) if she finished it early enough, she leaked the album to spite them, garnering an large amount of press coverage. Consequently, her label brought the release date forward and the album came out December 30.

Although Death Grips’ leak of No Love Deep Web as a ‘f**k you’ to Epic Records resulted in being dropped from their roster, artists do profit from leaking their own albums. Conversely, the time and care that the entire team behind an album put in to fine-tuning a strategic build-up and release is rendered futile in the instance of it being leaked early.

The internet has opened artists up to a siege of theft, and when an album is leaked against their will, the only relevant factor is how they respond.

Significant damage control can be achieved through streaming the album via an official source such as iTunes or NPR. Some artists do the grown-up thing (‘The Drake’): accept what is out of their control and appeal sensibly to loyal fans (“Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it”). Then there’s the slightly more expletive-ridden, hysterical reaction (‘The Madonna’), delivered largely through social media, polarising opinions and gaining much publicity (“This is artistic rape!!”, “This is a form of terrorism. Wtf!!!!” etc.).

But it is essential to note the wider repercussions the internet has had upon the music industry: nothing is sacred any more. You want that album for free? The one that cost people thousands of pounds and hours to make, and thousands more to produce, market and offer to you? You’ve got it.

Artists going unpaid for their music is criminal, whether it’s before or after the intended release date. Being a musician provides as much of a service as any other more conventional employment. An album provides people with jobs just as a car manufacturer does, and those people need paying for their work. Whenever it’s done, illegally downloading music is theft.

It’s not about preventing albums leaking, it’s about moving on. We live in a generation of total upheaval in the music industry; with milestones such as the invention of Napster, the iPod, and the growth of social media, it’s time we stopped clinging on to a pillar of that industry that is now redundant: the traditional production/consumption model.

Bands don’t sit down, record an album, release a single with a nice PG video for MTV, put the album in record stores and tour to promote it any more. The revenue streams in music have changed their courses in the past 20 years, and it is essential that both artists’ and consumers’ expectations adjust accordingly.

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Artists need to find creative ways to make the new climate work in their favour, rather than swimming against the tide and continuing to attempt to appropriate the old model. Labels and official channels are now there to merely to provide a framework, to be used and abused as we head towards a democratic industry. (Minnie Wright)

BACK&FORTH

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FANS Funding musical projects via crowdfunding campaign sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo seems to be an ever-evolving occurrence nowadays. But is this a good or bad sign for the future of the music industry? Kaitlyn Ulrich and James Barlow can’t seem to agree.

For:

Against:

Crowdfunding is starting to become a more and more successful way for musicians to fund their projects. Basically, a band announces they want to record new material, they set up a website, and their supporters give money online in return for the finished product when it’s fully recorded. It’s a ‘you help me, I help you’ type deal that all revolves around support. If a band is popular and has dedicated fans, those fans will have no problem investing a bit of money up front in order to get a hold of some brand new material.

I’m not going to sit here and argue that crowdfunding isn’t an effective way of raising capital for everyday people or professional artists alike – look at how much cash that plucky chap raised on Kickstarter for his potato salad after all. I do, however, find the whole procedure a bit strange. Detailing your intentions and listing reward schemes for your backers and then watching the money roll in – it’s all so simple, but is there something in place to ensure that the donated dollars are going to be used as promised? What’s to stop the person from splashing out on a shiny new watch/car?

Crowdfunding can also be helpful in attaining funds to keep a venue up and running or to keep a festival happening. Money can come from around the world over the Internet, so there’s really no limit on region.

If people love and care about what’s being offered or supported, then the funded project will have no problem attaining a set goal. It allows fans to show their support, therefore feeling as though they are truly a part of project. This also allows musicians to stay on an independent route without the interference of a record company, therefore allowing them to create a record the way that they want to.

Welsh rock band The Blackout had some issues with their record label so they decided to self-release their latest EP Wolves through the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Being that they already had a large fan base, they offered people different ‘reward’ levels for different amounts of money given. These levels included signed copies of the EP, t-shirts, and other memorabilia. Any crowdfunding success would be more effective with these special gifts offered. Personally, I would be definitely more than willing to throw a few more bucks at a band if I get the record plus any other crazy thing the artist is willing to offer in order to fund their project. (Kaitlyn Ulrich)

Some artists have famously benefitted greatly from crowdfunding though. Amanda Palmer has notably left her career in the hands of her devoted fans in recent years as she has relied on donations to fund new music in addition to other favours such as crashing at fans’ houses after gigs. This comes as a logical move as she has always enjoyed a close and personable relationship with her fans but other crowdfunded campaigns seem to make less sense.

The recent TLC Kickstarter campaign for instance comes as a bit of a head-scratcher. The fact that the two remaining members of the group are preparing to release another record under the TLC name 13 years after Left Eye’s death and the trio’s last LP is a dividing point already, but the fact that they are asking for donations to do so is the real kicker (no pun intended).

The video on their Kickstarter page unashamedly calls TLC the ‘most successful female group of all time’ having reportedly sold over ’65 million records’ worldwide, so why is it that they are now in need of the public’s help to fund this new album? (James Barlow)

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FRONT SECTION

ALTERNATIVE SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS It can be rather amusing picturing musicians in more everyday life situations, yet retaining that distinctive personality of theirs. So here we have decided to imagine some of our favourite artists’ back-up careers if this whole music thing doesn’t quite work out.

Andrew WK – Wedding Planner Anyone who knows anything about Andrew WK is aware that he is the party prince. From sorting a killer venue and exquisite catering to putting his famous motivational speaking experience into play for a world-changing speech – an Andrew WK-organised wedding would be an absolute tour de force. And the best part? You know that if the hired wedding band isn’t pitch perfect for whatever reason, Andrew and his Hawaiian shirt-clad entourage would not hesitate in storming the stage for an unrelenting set of the most party-themed back catalogue in music, inspiring everyone present to ‘Party Til You Puke’.

Billy Corgan - Music Shop Owner Billy Corgan has never shied away from odd musical endeavours including a misguided eight hour ambient jam - but his relationship with organs has never quite taken off. His chance to truly connect with the instrument can come to fruition with ‘Corgan’s Organs’.

Alternatively, when the shop inevitably fails he can retain the name and move into dodgy back alleys selling hearts, lungs and small intestines. Just a little bit of a change of pace, really.

Drake – Relationship Counsellor I just think he’d be a really good listener.

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Kid Cudi – Tour Guide for Man on the Moon Tours Richard Branson is a dreamer – he’s planning to make commercial flights to the moon a reality, but what he definitely hasn’t thought of is how he’s going to bleed his intergalactic customers dry with expensive tours of the new territory. Luckily, we have the perfect ambassador: Kid Cudi. With three albums dedicated to the moon and a further one on the way, Scott Mescudi is an expert on Earth’s personal night light and we imagine he’d be over the moon at the prospect of lunar employment.

Killer Mike - Professional Hugger There are a lot of jobs Killer Mike would prove to be good at, especially if his incredible rapping skills and activism are anything to go by. Having said that, there’s something about the guy that just screams for a bear hug. His lyrics are mean, impassioned and quite often violent, but there’s no denying how awesome it would be to get a hug from one of the most lovable figures in hip hop today. Just try to wipe that smile off your face when you next see Mike grinning from ear to ear.

Seriously, just try.

Mac DeMarco - None We tried to think of a job for our boy Mac: professional-shover-ofdrumsticks-up-butts/cigarette tester/beautician, but two of those jobs aren’t real jobs and he looks too much like a swamp dweller for a real job anyway so... HOMELESS DUDE.

A L C O H O M M E N TA R Y

TIPSY REVIEWS: DMX - REDEMPTION OF THE BEAST The years have not been kind to DMX, the party doesn’t seem quite up (in here) anymore. As he fights to get his career back on track after recovering from drug addiction, January saw the release of Redemption Of The Beast – a ‘stolen’ compilation of recordings that the rapper reportedly never consented. So, much in the same way as our intoxicated editor Joshua Pauley took on Attila’s Guilty Pleasure in our previous issue of the magazine, Joseph Skingsley volunteered this time around to tackle DMX’s latest with the help of his own arsenal of alcohol. Here’s how he fared.

‘It’s a Problem’

‘Spit That S**t’

Surprisingly, I really like this one. The beat is smooth, X’s lyrics aren’t as ridiculous as they have been, and I really can’t stress how important this is, but it’s also one of the shortest songs on the album. Well done X, you have impressed me for the first time since I tasted that first sweet sip of beer on my lips about an hour ago.

Right we’re off to a good start here, the beat makes me feel like a Yonkers hood man and in this situation, is there anything better you could be? DMX is telling us that he’s going to ‘Spit that s**t’ (I hope to God he’s talking about rapping here) but he sounds oddly sexual telling me... is DMX coming on to me through the medium of song? I don’t even know right now.

‘Built Like a B***h’ It’s only the second song and I’m already convinced that DMX might have some ‘feelings’ that he just can’t express in any other way. Of course “bang bang, ahh it hurts” could be talking about someone getting shot, but I just don’t want to believe that that is the case. On a side note, has DMX ever been to prison? And I wonder how many dogs he actually owns...

‘Get Up and Try Again’ Oh my God, DMX is singing a hook and it’s goddamn magical... or is it? I’m slightly intoxicated now and I’m really feeling this beat! The guitar loop is making me feel happy but X’s slightly distorted moaning is making me question any credibility this ‘Ruff Ryder’ once had. “You got to get up and try again” - yes X, please try again.

‘Solid feat. Rampage’ I honestly thought DMX was going to go all Marvin Gaye on me and opt for a soul ballad at the start of this one. I considered cracking open the whiskey and having a ‘gentleman’s’ party but he quickly crushed my dream. Rampage and X apparently “get n****s murdered” but all he seems to be doing is murdering my love for hip-hop at the moment.

Christ, I might need that whiskey after all.

Hahahahaha I’m sorry, I had to spit my Pinot Grigio out (yes, it’s an elegant drink and I like the taste). “I beat the s**t out of money” WHAT?! I can’t help but wonder what motive X has for curb stomping a ten dollar note...

‘56 Bars’

‘Where You Been feat. Freeway’ Wow. Two in a row that haven’t made me want to go outside and fight a tree through sheer anger. This is very impressive okay, so no one, I repeat NO ONE take this away from DMX. “What we gonna do here?

Party” I think we should, since I’m now so intoxicated that I’m starting to warm to these tracks. I definitely think that we should party.

‘Right or Wrong feat. Jannyce’ This is the best song on the album. Most notably because DMX doesn’t start rapping until 3 minutes in and it only lasts 30 seconds.

Jannyce has a lovely voice and the beat is perfect for her. I mean, although we have to hear X rap about rough sex YET AGAIN, it’s a small (and quick) price to pay to hear Jannyce own this track. YOU GO JANNYCE! ‘Love That B***h feat. Jannyce’ Oh my god YES! We’ve finally made it. We’re at the end and I can stop drinking, but guess what? THIS TRACK IS MEDIOCRE. My excitement for mediocre is purely because it’s not awful. “I love that b***h” “I don’t trust that b***h” “I’m stuck with that b***h” “f**k that b***h” - I’m so confused at the message X is trying to send to us here.

I’ve just given up trying to find any meaning within any of his lyrics..

I’m finally out of booze though so praise the lord it’s the end of the album. DMX, this has not been pleasant but thank you for giving me an album I can LITERALLY use to wipe my a**e with.

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FRONT SECTION

MUSICAL CONFESSIONS When it comes to passionate music fans we all each have our own dirty little secrets of questionable behaviour and dodgy gigs. Here we present the Audio Addict team’s own shameful musical confessions.

Forgive us Yeezus for we have sinned.

I cried when Steps split up. - Samantha Fisher I know every single line of 'C'est la Vie' and actively listen to it for pleasure. Also when I think no-one's looking I mime along to songs.. and may do a little dance now and then. - Andrew Yates

Every time I'm walking with my music on, I pretend I'm in a 'Bittersweet Symphony' style music video. - Will Ackrill I had Tila Tequila's 'Stripper Friends' as my ringtone for 2 years. -Jodie-mae Finch I told my mate the Black Veil Brides song that was on in my room was someone else so he didn't think I liked them.. I actually think they have some tunes. - George Parr I can still do the entire dance routine for Hannah Montana's 'Hoedown Throwdown'.

I miss her. - Harriet Stanley I wept a couple of real life tears during Take That's first live TV performance after Robbie rejoined. It was on the X Factor. They sang 'The Flood'. - Minnie Wright I tell people I let my mum use my spotify, but in actual fact, Southampton is a grey, soulless hell hole and sometimes I get sad and need to listen to 'Time After Time' by Cyndi Lauper.

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AN ARTIST’S VIEW

AS TOLD BY THE FUTURE: THE N EW SOUN DCLOUD Sometimes artists have things to say outside of their music, and here is where we give some of those artists the outlet to do so.

In this issue, we gave space-rap favourite Nok from the Future a chance to talk to some of Soundcloud’s most promising talent.

A global cultural movement is upon us that is within the hands of every individual with a laptop, tablet, phone, or any other device connected to the Internet. The world has not fully acknowledged this movement, and it has thus far remained unnamed as it is currently happening; movements tend not to have legitimate names until they begin to approach the “post” phase. For the sake of the article, the movement will be referred to as the “SoundCloud Movement.”

Tracks that are traditionally released through major outlets tend to involve extensive mixing and mastering to ensure a loud, crisp sound that will be consistent whether they are played from laptops or massive speakers. The movement on SoundCloud instead embodies a certain nonchalance: producers render and upload tracks directly from the project file with minimal, if any, mixing or mastering that still manage to get upwards of 50k plays within the first few days.

Drip-133, a producer affiliated with rapper Bones’ Team SESH, creates tracks that embody the nonchalant notion of this movement.

“I think everyone should make their own music,” says Drip, referring to the ease and accessibility that people have to creating music. He explains, “I don’t really focus on my aesthetic. I just post whatever photos I think look good for album art and such.” Drip has amassed over 17k followers through instrumental tracks that have surpassed 100k plays.

Drip notes HNRK as someone who influenced his music, who is also an affiliate of Team SESH. A signature sound that can be heard in productions by both Drip and HNRK is a continuous drone-like bass that almost serves as the “floor” of the track, providing depth and

ambience at the same time. “I was never that good at 808s and I got tired of them,” said HNRK, “so I decided to start using that sound instead. People started to like that sound, which is cool. It’s a Logic preset, but oh well.” Top producers often shy away from using presets as they can be identified easily. However, this is not the case for HNRK as it embodies the nonchalance of his music and emphasizes how it makes him feel more than anything else.

Falco, a producer who is known for being played by the likes of DJ Plastician and other notable jockeys, is known for his hilarious Twitter and colourful personality. He explains, “People like my beats because it’s just good music, but I’m not doing anything crazy musically. I’ve been dropping music like McDonald’s. You know what I mean?

Everyone can consume it.” Having been involved in other music scenes such as dubstep and modern boom bap, he says in regards to how music trends travel through the Internet: “The trends are gonna be just whatever’s hot. It’s going to pass from person to person. It’s inherited.”

The numbers yielded in this movement are of monumental significance because they are not the result of major promotion by labels, blogs, the music industry, or influential figures. They instead stem from the tastes and preferences of everyday Internet users who sift through SoundCloud for tracks. As HNRK said, “you will never know and that’s what makes it so exciting to me. You basically have new styles and musical ideas surfacing on a daily basis and everybody can be an influence if their creativity and their unique approach is appreciated. The Internet is the most short-lived place when it comes to art - that makes it thrilling and also scary because music is consumed like food and if you eat the same food too much, it gets boring.” When art is as replaceable as it is on Soundcloud, to panic or ponder too much over your artistic output is counterproductive.

Nonchalance is the way of the “New Soundcloud”, and these artists are part of the zeitgeist. (Nok from the Future)

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FOREWORD

WORDS BY JOE P RICE IMAGERY BY HK COVERS & FRANKLIN MENDEZ & B R YA N R I V E R A

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Foreword is our way of introducing some of our favourite underground and rising artists. This is where we’ll take a look at the origins, as well as the future of artists that we’re excited about.

On the eve of releasing his debut album, 18-year-old Kevin Abstract posed a question to his fans: “What’s worse? To be lame on the Internet or to be lame in real life?” While he still hasn’t figured out the answer, it’s an interesting point that he brings up. As our lives depend more and more on this digital world, does it really matter if you’re more popular online than in real life and vice versa? “We’re all so connected yet so disconnected” his note read, adding to the notion that for however easy it is get in contact with people via the Internet, social media is ironically becoming more and more antisocial. Tweeting in the corner of the room during a party isn’t socialising, but connecting with your followers and fans is. It’s a tough balance to maintain, especially for a millennial artist.

Despite his young age, Kevin Abstract talks more sense than the majority of people in the music industry right now.

He knows his audience, because he’s part of his audience.

His songs deal with growing up, drugs, depression and the existential angst that comes from all of those things. His lyrics depict a wandering mind, an artist rapidly maturing.

There aren’t many artists that write lyrics about holes in their forearms at such a young age. He even describes his debut album, MTV1987, as a coming of age story: “A kid lost as f**k in his bed room, dealing with high school bulls**t, and trying to wake up from some fantasy world he’s been stuck in.”

He’s embodying what it means to grow up in the 21st century, and placing it on an easily accessible platform for all to see. He’s anything but an internet rapper, even if the internet is an important part of his music. Because of how much more visible he is online, he sees the online world as less of an escape from reality, and more of an extension of reality. His distinct blend of hip hop and experimental pop is full of disparate influences, from old school emo to futuristic space-rap akin to Kid Cudi.

However, his sound and artistry is constantly moving forward, and he’s already acknowledging that: “I’ll never be able to make another album like MTV1987, and that’s why I wrote it. I wrote with my eyes. I used my eyes and studied the world around me at 17 years old. Things that made me and my friends tick - stuff kids tweeted about.” Romil, the producer behind MTV1987 and Kevin’s key music making partner, shares this thought process: “I always go with how I’m feeling. Music is how feelings sound, ya know? And I’m not gonna feel the same emotions all the time so my songs shouldn’t sound the same either, right? Plus, it’s super boring making similar sounding s**t over and over again.” Kevin adds, “I like to challenge not only myself, but the listener.” This self-imposed challenge makes for some incredibly exciting music.

But, it’s not like either of them are trying to alienate their listeners, it’s just that they both share a desire to constantly push and better themselves. It’s kind of somewhere in between, they’re making music both a music geek and a radio listener can appreciate. “I don’t want to make easy listening music but I also don’t want to make over the top experimental stuff. I’m always searching for that middle ground. That sweet balance. I’m searching for the spot that’s in between Yung Lean and Taylor Swift. You know?

Super radio but super Internet. I want to sell out. That’s the goal. I want to be associated with billion dollar companies.”

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Selling out might seem like an odd goal for some, but when he’s making music that could very well appear in the charts to begin with, what does selling out for Kevin really mean?

MTV1987 even premiered through Billboard, aka one of the biggest pop publications in the world, showing just how far both of their admirable aspirations reach. But for all the selfconfidence and aims to take over the charts, there’s still a sense of insecurity at the heart of Kevin’s music, but he’s not scared of coming forward about that. “Senior year I moved to Atlanta and I didn’t have many friends - that didn’t bother me.

Not getting a certain amount of likes on Instagram bothered me though. Maybe I’m an insecure f**k who cares too much about how people view me online, but I’m fine with admitting that. I make stuff. I want people to see the stuff I make.”

For Kevin Abstract, real life success is a dream he’s close to accomplishing, but as of right now he depends on the Internet to get his music out there. “Social media platforms are my biggest platforms,” he explains, adding that “We’re not living in the rock band era anymore, ya know?” Gone are the days of hopping in a van to tour the country in hopes of securing a record contract, we’re placing more and more of an importance of retweets and likes. “We have Soundcloud now - the most important platform for an artist in 2015. Everyday people are fighting to be relevant, [and] it’s a f*****g battle.

Everything is quick. I love this, I hate this. I don’t know. I think too much.”

But this dependency on the internet as a platform has led to a close connection with his listeners, which has resulted in some interesting and unpredictable experiences, including a 24 hour long stream in which Kevin broadcasted his desktop.

The stream featured him reading Wikipedia pages, checking social media, and “a bunch of other stuff you probably do in the dark.” It was unabashedly personal, honourably real, it was an “Internet experience in real time” he says.

This wasn’t the only time he connected with his fans on a deeper level, as he asked for crowd funding to shoot a professional-grade video for the impassioned ‘Hell’, one of the many highlights from MTV1987. When the video launched, his website featured a unique interface in which listeners had to submit their fears before getting through to the rest of the website. It was a unique concept, but how the fears manifested on the website was even better, with them all appearing in a scrolling wall of text behind the video. Some of the fears were comical, whilst others represented the type of existential angst and fear most people wouldn’t dare to admit.

B R O C K H A M P T O N 14

ART FROM THE ‘BUBBLEGUM/IWB’ RELEASE

A good level of care goes into every aspect of every project he releases, especially when it comes to the visuals. “I obsess over the tiny things,” he mentions, explaining just how meticulously he likes to package his projects. “We’re never going to release some visuals for a song just because we want to keep hype going for a project or whatever – everything has to have functionality and be beautiful.”

This expands over to Brockhampton, a group of artists he refers to as an “All-American boy band.” While their music is far from that of The Backstreet Boys or N Sync, their insistence on Brockhampton not being a collective a la Odd Future sets them apart. They aren’t interested in simply regurgitating the past, but they are into the enhancement of the future.

Comprising of almost twenty members and seven musicians, Brockhampton mysteriously emerged from the ashes of Kevin’s former collective, AliveSinceForever. With only a couple of collaborative tracks under their name so far, Brockhampton is a ragtag group of artists on a similar wavelength to Kevin. Each with something unique to offer, the group showcases an immense amount of promise. From the sing-song style of Matt Champion to the fiery aggression of Ameer Vann, every member has proven themselves as an incredibly exciting musician in their own right. Kevin promises that their future is assured, explaining: “years from now, it will be something much bigger and I don’t want to speak on it yet – I don’t wanna ruin anything.”

Of course, ambition runs through everything associated with Brockhampton. From the gorgeously filmed but ultimately melancholy ‘Dreams Die Young’ video diary series, to the lengthy and experimental song structures, it’s evident that Brockhampton just don’t like to sit still. One of the next things on Kevin’s lengthy to-do list involves improving his live show: “I need a better live show. I kind of want to stop performing live for a while. I’m not where I want to be yet.” Now isn’t the right time for the bettering of his performing talents, but he’d be the first to admit this, saying “I’m still learning so much – I wanna be awesome.”

With one of the best underlooked albums of 2014 under his belt already, it would initially seem that Kevin has already reached his goal. In reality, however, it’s not in his sights just yet – he’s making the music he wants to make, of course, but he hasn’t quite received the audience that he truly deserves yet. With a sound far beyond his years but very much a product of them, it’s only a matter of time before that desire to sell out is accomplished. Working on his latest output, Death of a Supermodel, Kevin is already moving on from the sound that gained him the majority of his fans, striving for a sound that will gain him even more.

It’s not like he’s doing any of this for the money or anything though, it’s just that he genuinely wants to make music that more people can enjoy. The world’s biggest stage deserves his music, even if to many he will remain an Internet weird boy for the foreseeable future. His unique vision, his ability to understand the depression experienced through the infinite scroll of a mouse, will remain one of the Internet’s best kept secrets for the time being.

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S P O T

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T H AT ’ S

Y U N G

TAY L O R

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S U P E R

R A D I O

B U T

S U P E R

I N T E R N E T

The world will catch up with his vision and artistry someday, but only if Kevin and the rest of Brockhampton manage to sit still for long enough. We may be stuck in the past, but at least Kevin is offering us a glimpse into the future.

MTV1987 is available for free download via Kevin’s website. Expect to hear a lot more from Kevin and the rest of Brockhampton throughout this year.

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FOREWORD

E R I C D I N G U S

W O R D S B Y F R E YA C O C H R A N E

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At the age of 19, producer Eric Dingus is the poster child of the Internet youth’s own American dream. Collaborating at every opportunity he gets and now running his own label, it looks as though the young artist is on his way to building himself an empire. Now, with the recent release of his atmospheric single ‘Night Gallery’ and a feature on the surprise new Drake album, he’s cementing himself as one of the most relevant young producers of the year.

Everything the Texas-based producer knows is from his own intuition.

“I started messing around with a 4 track record, Casio keyboard, and [an] Electribe drum machine to make beats. It was just the best feeling creating a full song.” It’s from here that Dingus has created his own brand of multi-dimensional beats, dancing between ambient and hip hop but never settling either side. From the heightened, beat-driven drama of Dowrong’s ‘All Black’, to the understated-yetgrandiose mix ‘Isolation Dreams’, he flaunts broad knowledge of music and incredible versatility. “At first I was very much trying to have one specific sound, but as I grew and progressed I figured out that I wanted to be as versatile as I could be.”

His determination and perpetual state of self-betterment has already paid off. Dingus’ “big break”, if you will, came last year when Drake’s label October’s Very Own approached him to make a mixtape for them. Now, almost two million plays later, Eric Dingus has produced a track on Drake’s new surprise album, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The track, ‘Now & Forever’, stands as one of the many highlights from the album thanks to his trademark production, which perfectly complements Drake’s verses.

B E A T W I Z A R D PHOTO BY OSCAR LEWIN

As if that isn’t enough for ambitious Dingus, he’s also the co-owner of his own label, Dream Sequence Records. “At first it was mainly just a way for us to release our music, but slowly as we learned more and got more serious about it all, it became a much bigger part of our daily lives.”

Specialising in darker strains of hip hop, the label has now grown to include some of Eric Dingus’ companions and collaborators: Dowrong, Drone, Bishop Light, and Mystic Pimps among others.

All emerging as front-runners of the left-field, each act defines and promotes the DSR name as a seriously competitive collective.

Looking ahead, there’s a distinct horizon. Dingus has a talent for self-assessment, constantly finding ways to bring more excitement and individuality to what he does. This bleeds over into plans for DSR, which he hopes will keep expanding: “We plan to incorporate more electronic music into the catalog and find a good balance between hip-hop and electronic music.” He’s also revealed that he’s working on a new EP due for release in the coming months, which he describes as “a good example of my progression as a producer and showing my current musical vibes.” If ‘Night Gallery’ and ‘Now & Forever’ are anything to go by, his future release will be the perfect testament to this.

Not one to settle for anything less than perfect, Dingus doesn’t set himself small goals either: “My main goal is always to make a difference with my music. I’m just trying to grow as much as possible and be the best producer I can be.”

Expect Eric Dingus’ as of yet untitled EP to be released sometime this month.

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FOREWORD

RIVAL YOUTH CULTS EMERGE

WORDS BY CONNOR CASS

Artists have always needed a project to divert their musical attention away from their main band - Jack White turned to The Dead Weather for even dirtier blues, Thom Yorke entertained his electronic impulses further in Atoms for Peace and Ben Gibbard took a liking to cutesier bleeps in The Postal Service. Similarly, for Bertie Ellis Dean, Rival Youth Cults Emerge first came to exist while away from his now defunct main band - Plymouthian indie quartet Hotel Infusion - as a chance to begin “recording music I knew my band would hate.”

“The whole point of RYCE is to do whatever I feel like doing without having anyone saying ‘maybe we should cut the noise down,’” Dean admits, and over RYCE’s time as a project it’s showcased that freedom through the sheer variety on offer. Debut Polaroid Demos, a collection of tracks that traverses garage, folk and psychedelica, was followed by the more electronic affair of The Flying Pig Underpass, afterward came a digging into Bollywood (Thirteen States Of Absolute Nirvana), and a brief interlude to the self-explanatory Rushed Rum Music. On the surface these album have little in the way of musical similarities, but each are connected by a strict experimental ideal “it’s completely selfish music and I only really make it for me.”

R E D

His latest project, Harp, fully delves into the world of black metal, which his work as RYCE had hinted at beforehand, as well as drawing in the influence of Leviathan who Dean describes as “really harrowing and just completely beautiful and drenched in noise.” However, it’s yet again a record that refuses to abide by any kind of tradition. All RYCE material is released for free on Dean’s own label, Little Ying Record, and within its roster is a plethora of bands that Dean has a hand in, one of which is shoegaze outfit Ying, who had a huge influence over Dean’s musical personality: “you could say I found my voice in the guitar with Ying.”

However, if you want to hear Dean completely unfiltered and unrestrained from genre, bandmate and live setting limitations, Rival Youth Cults Emerge is the project to check out. Dean has little worry of who will hear it and whether it’ll even be heard admitting that “many others and I don’t really have faith in RYCE and that’s okay, it means I have no pressure what so ever.”

Rival Youth Cults Emerge’s latest album, ‘Harp’, is available for free download via Little Ying Records.

E M P E R O R

W O R D S B Y PA I G E M AT H I S

“A musically synergistic group of young musicians playing original music” is how the Brighton-based, alternative rock band Red Emperor describe themselves. “We play powerful, energetic music to satisfy both audiences, young and old.” Consisting of lead vocalist Charlie Herridge, lead guitarist Edward Bedford, drummer Navraj Manku and bassist Ollie Horner, the foursome are rapidly making a name for themselves, having played Guilfest last year and having recently released their first EP, Red Emperor, under their own name.

angst-ridden anthem ‘Kink in Your Soul’ and the soulful harmonies in ‘Small Talk’, Red Emperor have not placed themselves in one category. Despite sharing a likeness to the recent influx of British bands in the industry, the band have their own distinct sound and show themselves to be carving out their own quarter in the industry.

Herridge says “before we released the EP, people would hear us live, go home and Google us, and find no music, but now, with the EP, we have something to support what we do.”

Red Emperor formed in 2012 and was founded by Herridge after having already been playing with three members of the band under the name Triggerfish. He had been best friends with Bedford since childhood and met Manku and Horner from previous bands. He explains that the band “needed to freshen things up with a new, original name” and eventually came up with Red Emperor. Herridge continues, “I pulled us all into a studio and Red Emperor were born.”

Between the gritty guitar riffs in ‘Natural Divide’, the acoustic

When they are not hungover in a Brighton Wetherspoons or working as rivals in their local supermarkets, you’ll find Red Emperor playing headline gigs in their local bars. Herridge says, “We can’t wait now until we can get back to the studio and record our next single. We’ll definitely be playing some festivals this year and hopefully some big surprises to announce over the coming weeks so be prepared!”

Red Emperor’s self titled EP is out now.

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T H E S TAT E O F : EMO STEVEN FOX DELVES INTO THE N EGLECTED WORLD OF EMOTIONAL HARDCORE.

Emo is one of the loosest genres ever coined. It’s a term that’s constantly changing, developing and altering itself, dipping in and out of the mainstream’s gaze. One person’s emo could be completely different to another’s, and this is what makes it such an interesting genre of music. Fish around and you’ll most likely find something you enjoy.

Taking a look back, it’s said that emo ‘started’ in Washington DC’s hardcore scene with bands such as Embrace and Rites Of Spring moulding the term ‘emotional hardcore’ to fit their aesthetic.

Then in the early to mid-nineties, Jawbreaker came out with an indie-rock take on the genre taking influence from countless altrock acts. Interestingly enough, late nineties to early noughties saw an influx in both sides of the genre, the mainstream and the underground. While on the surface, Jimmy Eat World were selling thousands upon thousands of records, the underground was seeing skramz and emoviolence really come alive. Punk aesthetics and passionate songwriting was the focus of this movement. Orchid, Circle Takes The Square and Welcome The Plague Year were all harnessing something the mainstream can never force, passion.

Today, it seems to be a very similar way, even if the more popular side of emo isn’t creating platinum selling records. Record labels such as Run For Cover and No Sleep are leading an underground mainstream with bands like Basement and Daylight, which is odd to say the least. This has lead to a draining amount of half-arsed copycat bands of the same ilk, these are the bands that pollute scenes and stunt creativity. It’s ironic, in a scene labeled ‘emo’, most of the bands aren’t capturing their emotion at all, it all feels so processed and forced. Thankfully we’ve seen a decline in these bands in the UK; it’s where the problem mainly lied. But alas, trends move on therefore the scene-hoppers scatter leaving behind what’s honest and genuine.

The departure of said fans also accentuates the unseen talent that pushes this DIY driven genre to become twice as diverse, for better or worse. For now, it’s screamo, emo’s favourite sub-genre that’s on top. Both the UK and US is booming, and the passion now feels like it’s erupting yet again. In the UK, WOLF TOWN DIY, Boslevan Records and Black Lake Records are all putting out incredible bands (Healing Powers, Crows-an-Wra, Carson Wells) at the moment. All these labels are one of the sole reasons that a scene is even slightly recognised on this tiny island, promoting hard for shows and releasing constantly interesting material from bands that wouldn’t gain any recognition otherwise. In the US, Driftwood Records, Topshelf Records and Broken World Media are constantly striving for interesting and fresh music to release, along with Count Your Lucky Stars and their slogan ‘The little label with lots of love <3’, which beautifully sums the current movement of emo up perfectly. It’s not intimidating, it’s just an all inclusive umbrella term for a bunch of people working together to create a bright and vibrant musical future. The following five bands are a testament to the togetherness and inventiveness of a genre that is, quite antithetically, in a very happy place.

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T H E S TAT E O F

Two Knights If relatable comes to mind for one band in particular, it would be Denton, TX’s Two Knights. This scrappy, mathy emo two-piece released one of the best records of last year. Packed full of intricate tapping riffs, wavey slow love songs and some of the most energetic, intense bursts of energy, it’s really something special. Sounding like a cross between folk-math legends Maps & Atlases and horn-driven Colossal with often piercing, blunt vocal lines. “I’ve let everyone see how vulnerable I am, but they won’t listen/no one listens/I just wanted you to know that all of this was for you”, these two twenty somethings are creating real and passionate records which shouldn’t be ignored.

Olde Pine When summery midwest anthems about crap relationships and drinking some beers at a party are needed, Olde Pine have it covered. Over the years the Westborough, MA’s favourite emo two-piece have progressed with their sound. New record, The Jawns, is a perfect mix of synth driven leads, jangly, twinkly guitars and groove ridden drums with tuneful, singa-long, sometimes shouty vocals. Olde Pine just constantly hit the spot, release after release. Catchy songwriting, produced wonderfully and a band that never gets boring.

Kaddish Screamo is mysterious, and so are Scottish skramz/post-hardcore enigma Kaddish. Releasing their first demo in 2002, they have dipped in and out of activeness over the twelve years they’ve been a band, releasing odd demos and splits with bands such as fellow Scots Bonehouse and the UK’s Battle Of Wolf 359, but now with the release of their second LP, Thick Letters To Friends, collaboratively through Make-That-A-Take Records, Black Lake Records, The Ghost Is Clear Records and Boslevan Records, Kaddish feel real again. The record captures a much more melodic band than in 2002. Wonderful soaring riffs, shouty sing-a-longs and intense blast parts that fly the Scottish screamo flag higher than ever before.

Algae Bloom Algae Bloom are fairly new to the emo scene, born out of the ashes of previous band Halogens, the Norwich based two-piece are impressing people all over the UK with their scrappy, lo-fi style of skramz. Made up of guitarist Matt and standing drummer Leigh, the band borrow countless influences from NY’s Told Slant, but manage to keep completely fresh and an incredible rawness to their Horrible Demos release creating a beautiful mess packed with experimentation and originality.

King’s Girls Halifax, Nova Scotia’s King’s Girls are fast, intense and come in very short bursts. Playing heavily Jeromes Dream influenced emoviolence, this fourpiece is a real hard one to ignore. Shrieking vocals pierce through melodic riffs played at high speeds, with plenty of intricate drum patterns making their first release, Numbers, one of the most interesting and captivating records under five minutes made in recent years. Their new self-titled record is nothing short of brilliant either, with the same kind of intensity shown, King’s Girls are on the right track to becoming classic skramz.

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C O V E R F E AT U R E

PUS H I N G T HRO U G H T HE PORTA L

ENLIGHTENED BY THE WONDERS OF PARENTHOOD AND

POETRY, LIGHTS PRODUCED HER MOST PERSONABLE

ALBUM TO DATE – BUT EVEN THE

BRIGHTEST OF LIGHTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS...

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WORD S BY JOSHUA PAU LEY

During the three years in which Lights has been absent from British soil, her life has undergone a multitude of personal changes. Alongside birthing her third album Little Machines last September, she also gave birth to her very first child - her daughter, Rocket – and took her first steps into parenthood.

“When you sit down to write songs, you’re picking your own brain – and during that time I was becoming a parent so you re-prioritise the things you stress yourself out about,” she recalls. “One of the things I really learned was to enjoy the moment you’re in, because eventually everything will disappear on you.”

The first single from Little Machines, entitled ‘Up We Go’, certainly alluded to the fear of disappearing that the synth sensation brings up. Recognising the potential repercussions of her absence from music, its chorus bows out with the lyric “from down this low, it’s only up we go” – and since her return, up is the only trajectory Lights has been heading. Back in her native homeland of Canada, Little Machines picked up a nomination for Pop Album Of The Year at this year’s JUNO Awards – the Canadian equivalent to say the BRITs or the AMAs – whilst her international touring schedule has been particularly frantic, having spent most of 2015 thus far playing to thousands of fans all across Europe with her child and husband in tow.

Whilst the birth of her child has had a positive impact on Lights’ life, there have also been moments in which it’s presented new challenges, some of which have risen from preposterous circumstances. A few hours before going onstage at London’s Scala – and the night prior to this interview - she was forced to remove her child from the building and relocate her to a nearby hotel for several hours – much to her shock and disapproval. “I’ve never really dealt with that up until now, and it kinda took me by surprise – like, how is this possible?” she says, with exasperation. “It’s not the venue’s fault, it’s the law – but there’s gotta be a grey area there because that’s completely against the rights of a mother.”

One should not have to pick between what they love and who they love, and yet life on the road as a musician appears to be one of the few professions in which Lights would be left with such a harrowing clash of interests where there needn’t be.

“Touring is not conducive to being a mother, and that in itself speaks hugely about the fact that there aren’t that many women doing it, and that the women that are don’t feel like they can have a family,” she explains. “They see a girl and they think: ‘It’s not real rock and roll, it’s not real punk rock, it’s not real’, and it really just harks back to this outdated frame of mind that it’s a man world – but it’s not.”

It’s with those words that Lights exposes one of today’s industry’s crudest flaws. In 2015, the credentials of female musicians are still being plagued and pulled into question by archaic mind-sets that have somehow failed to remain unsightly footnotes of the past.

“It’s a frustrating aspect and I’ve only really become aware of it in the last few years. Growing up writing music, I never thought about that at all. I just considered myself a musician, not a female musician – but being in the industry you start to notice [discrimination] more and more in little nuances here and there.”

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With a new perspective came a new batch of musical influences. Strong female musicians played a huge role in providing Lights with inspiration whilst writing Little Machines – with those being name-checked including legendary artists such as Kate Bush and Patti Smith.

“With Kate Bush, the production around her songs and the way that she sings were hugely influential – she sings in a way that’s so abnormal, she just growls and grunts and sings with conviction. With Patti Smith on the other hand, her poetry was a big influence on [Little Machines] – I was reading Woolgathering and her book Just Kids and learning a little about her and what she put into her work.

She was able to phrase things in a way that’s so fluid, without thinking about how it’s received,” she reflects, with wonder.

Judging by the way in which Lights sings their praises, one might assume that the artistic integrity of such widely admired female artists can exist without question - but even legends aren’t exempt from such prejudices. Bjork – an artist so widely revered by many for her innovation and experimentation recently revealed to Pitchfork that she’d gone largely uncredited for the intricate production work on her 2001 album Vespertine, with the media instead falsely crediting male electronic duo Matmos as the sole producers of the album. The sheer disbelief that greets the telling of this story to Lights is an indicator as to how insulting such claims are today.

“I’ve been writing and producing my own demos and finished songs for years,” she states bluntly.

“Girls ten, even twenty years younger than me need reminding that you can be more than just the singer, you can be more than just the pretty face. You can be behind the scenes and you can kill it back there – and I think that’s something that’s overlooked right now. You look at a class of audio engineer students and maybe one out of thirty is a girl, and I’d like to see that changing.”

Production is certainly an aspect of music in which female representation appears to be lacking – but given the aforementioned hardships of being a female musician, it’s not surprising to see why that could be. These patriarchal frames of mind continue to run so prevalent in today’s industry that even a term like feminism still gets haphazardly thrown around like it’s a live bomb moments from exploding in their faces rather than a symbol that represents gender equality.

“If you believe that a woman can be rock & roll, can be a producer, can be at front of house, can be anything they want – that to me is feminism,” Lights notes with unwavering conviction. “That shouldn’t have an ugly connotation, but I think that men get sorta intimidated by it because they think that it means you hate men when it’s not that way. If you believe that there should be 50/50, that’s feminism.

Really, that should be the bottom line, not ‘hope for the future’ – but sometimes that’s the way it feels in certain industries.”

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Although the negatives might appear to overshadow the positives, there’s undoubtedly been a rise of successful female producers on an international scale in recent years. The UK has seen Hannah Wants skyrocket to the peak of the house music scene, America has producers vividly bridging the gap between electronica and hip-hop such as TOKiMONSTA and Lights’ UK tour mate K.Flay – and the musician herself continues to push her stylistic edge on synthpop to a widespread audience that grows with each release. “I’m glad to be part of that movement,” she enthuses. “I think it’s just about inspiring the young girls to get into it more because maybe they don’t feel like it’s their world, when they should feel that, they really should.”

Perhaps one of Lights’ most endearing qualities is that she isn’t just a visionary for young women – and young people – wanting to create music. The ideals she’s held have always shone through in her other significant passion – her adoration for comics, graphic novels and video games. Over the course of her career she’s often sold comic book inspired artwork that she’s worked on alongside her records. There’s even a tattoo depicting Wonder Woman on her back, complete with a banner reading ‘unstoppable’ – a signifier of female empowerment and strength none different than the musicians she sought inspiration from when writing music. “Everything’s so black and white in comics, it’s great,” she beams. “It helps you carve out your morals in such a simple perspective.”

There are some, however, who would fail to see the potential benefits of such things. Supernatural worlds and otherworldly characters a million light years away from reality would be written off by many as trivial and childish – but Lights serves as living proof that there’s plenty of room for the fantastical to spark creativity. “I was coming under pressure a few years ago personally where I was feeling like maybe I’m getting too old for this kinda thing, like I was supposed to ‘grow up’,” she sighs. “I was more uninspired than ever, and I believe that’s part of the reason I sunk into one of the most frustrating bouts of writer’s block in my career. I was like, ‘what’s supposed to inspire me now, if I’m not allowed to like the things that I like?’. People should be allowed to like whatever makes them happy and whatever helps them understand their own sense of creativity.”

In the truest sense of her name, Lights’ words can be seen as a beacon of inspiration for young creatives everywhere – it just comes down to identifying and working towards the things you love. “My passion for comics and video gaming has been validated a lot in the past few years because I’ve been behind the scenes a lot. I’ve visited the Marvel offices, I went to the [World Of Warcraft developers] Blizzard headquarters and seen these talented individuals working in the jobs of their dreams, doing what they grew up loving. I think there’s a place for that now more than ever. No-one can tell you how to create – so just go the hell for it!”

Lights’ latest album, ‘Little Machines’, is out now via Warner Bros.

“GIRLS TEN, EVEN TWENTY YEARS YOUN GER THAN ME

N E E D R E M I N D I N G T H AT YO U C A N B E M O R E T H A N J U S T T H E

S I N G E R , YO U C A N B E M O R E T H A N J U S T T H E P R E T T Y FA C E ”

23

INTERVIEW

DEAR FUTURE HISTORIANS

ENTER SHI K AR I ’S RORY CLEWLOW REVEA LS HOW HI S BAN D P L AN TO CHA N GE THE WORLD

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WORD S BY CA LLU M CORN WELL Enter Shikari are veterans of today’s UK rock scene. Starting their journey back in 2003 they made their mark mixing djent guitars and frantic drums with hectic vocals into a post hardcore frame, synth elements trickling down over the top, bringing genres together like no one before them.

Now onto their fourth album, the Hertfordshirebased four-piece’s ever-growing sound has graduated to a much more punk and even hiphop influenced mix. “As the musical landscape changes, new sounds and things are brought into our field of vision so to speak,” says guitarist Rory Clewlow about Shikari’s reworked style.

“You just kind of absorb it subconsciously and then it comes out when you start to write.”

Apparently, frontman Rou Reynolds spent his writing time for The Mindsweep listening “pretty much exclusively to classical or neoclassical” music, so his lyrics for the album are fairly organic. “Rou is working within the confines of a song, and he has to make the lyrics sound nice [within] those songs. It’s art at the end of the day.”

Current affairs are ever more prevalent in the new Enter Shikari material. As the struggles the world faces change, so does the way we talk about them. “I was watching a video the other day,” Rory recalls about the Charlie Hebdo attacks, “this guy put it really well. He was saying that freedom of speech is the gateway to every other freedom. If you don’t have freedom of speech then you can’t start to talk about whatever the status quo might be at that time, and if you can’t talk about the status quo then it can never change. Freedom of speech is the most important freedom because it’s the beginning of all the other [freedoms].”

On Twitter, and in the flesh, Reynolds is known for his left-wing political views and outspoken philanthropy on an accessible level, but Enter Shikari aren’t a band who like to get preachy.

“When you listen to a Shikari record, it’s not like listening to a lecturer talk about one subject for hours,” says Rory. “I guess we’re just trying to spark up interest in people, to go out and do their own research.”

You can definitely hear this coming through with songs like ‘The Anaesthetist’ and ‘Price on Your Head’: Enter Shikari like to present you with an issue, but it’s up to you to decide what to do with it. Rory reckons you shouldn’t “just accept things because that’s the way it’s been for [you] growing up, in whatever country [you] grew up in.” For a long time now Shikari have been all about taking control of things.

“Question things and look at life a bit more objectively, that’s the main thing. That’s what makes a healthy society.”

Rou’s pre-album statement labeled The Mindsweep as a “lasting record of who [they]

are and what [they] stand for.” His ever mysterious way with words gives Reynolds a platform with which to spread his thoughts, and certainly within the band these views are echoed. “The time we’re living in the human race has a lot of power over the future, more than we ever have done in the past, and that power will only get greater as time moves forward.” Clewlow might not be the band’s regular mouthpiece, but it’s evident that their power to the people ethos is held by more than just Rou, that this is band who actually give a shit. “We want people to start acting a bit more, and thinking, because it’s important.”

Politics aside, Enter Shikari’s burning passion for their music is astounding. Four albums into their career, Clewlow puts the band’s success down to their decision making. “I guess we’ve got a bit more confident in ourselves, maybe it’s from getting a bit older.” There’s no doubt that well over ten years of tweaking and toying with their sound has helped. “You feel more like you can trust your gut feelings and do what you want to do. The one thing we’ve really learnt from our careers, all the things we’ve done which have been best received have been the times when we’ve done exactly what we wanted to do.”

Working within the rules of genre conventions is something that Enter Shikari have never been especially bothered by. As their career has progressed, they’ve picked up and dropped, switched up and re-styled their sound countless times. “Whenever we try to think about pleasing anyone else, it just hasn’t gone down well. I guess this album we’re getting more and more confident in what we want to do.”

With confidence blooming, the band are itching to get their music to their fans. “When you write a load of songs, they’re kind of like your children. It’s hard to pick your favourite child [but] we’ve started playing ‘Torn Apart’ for the tour and it’s so much fun to play live.”

Satisfied with how The Mindsweep turned out, they’re “really excited to play the UK again, because we haven’t done a big production headline tour [here] for ages now.” Shikari are already predicting an insane time in the capital: “we’ve got two nights at The Roundhouse, which have both sold out,” adding “obviously it’s one of my favourite venues.”

Rock music doesn’t have to be your jam for you to find a friend in Enter Shikari’s sound.

Whether or not music has the power to change the world is still up for debate, but there’s no doubt that bands like Enter Shikari are willing to give it a go.

Enter Shikari’s most recent album, ‘The Mindsweep’, is available via Ambush Reality records now.

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OPINION

WHERE’S THE MUSIC? Audio Addict’s Amy Jones takes a look at the mystery surrounding some of 2015’s most anticipated releases.

Kanye West, Rihanna, Frank Ocean. Just a few of many big name artists who are supposedly dropping albums this year, but won’t confirm or deny the reports. Instead, they are leaving listeners on a cliffhanger by releasing singles and are intent on being all mysterious about it. Or worse, releasing it by surprise and not telling anyone.

So why are they doing this? Well for a start, teasing an album and then not releasing it would stir up unbelievable and unnecessary media frenzy, causing music magazines galore to freak out about what could be upcoming, which is a waste of time if it sounds just like the last two albums they created. For example Kanye West had a private album listening party for his new album during Paris Fashion Week 2014 and invited 20 people - all of whom were probably getting paid obscene amounts of money to keep Kanye’s secrets about the album.

Having said that, there’s plenty of opportunity for the artist to change the tracks they produced, as since that release party, Kanye claims to have changed it “a million times”, before releasing the perfect version that the fans will have heard for the first time. West’s previous album, Yeezus, went to extreme measures to not be heard, like not sending

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any tracks via email, recording in hotel rooms instead of studios and keeping the external hard drives containing the tracks in a fingerprintsealed box. Doing this made sure that the first time the fans heard any new music was on the day of release. Being mysterious and not confirming any releases or not under any circumstances letting the album leak means that you can do what Beyoncé and Drake did, and secretly release an album.

It’s a slap in the face really, for the artists who have worked really hard in promoting themselves and these big A-listers come along and sweep the carpet from underneath them. Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late released on 12th February and Beyoncé’s self-titled album last year have come under great criticism, saying that the secret release method is wrong and doesn’t give any time for promotion, especially as Beyoncé’s record label only knew about the release the day before. Although the speculation of releasing an album and the mystery gives the artist an opportunity to do that, or they could just come right out to the fans and be honest about what they’re releasing, instead of keeping everyone waiting, causing more speculation which is want they would want I guess, to win the game that is fame.

OPINION

PRODUCING THE CHANGE Despite being a profession that has been around as long as recorded music has existed, there still seems to be an uncertainty as to what it is that a music producer actually does. Nowadays producers are undoubtedly more visible and vocal than ever before. This perhaps only heightens this ambiguity into their role as the line between artist and producer has more or less been made redundant, with it becoming increasingly difficult to determine where one begins and the other ends.

successes in Rae Sremmurd’s Sremmlife helmed by veteran hitmaker Mike WiLL Made-It, who boasts previous production duties with Miley Cyrus, Rick Ross and Future. One of last year’s rising talents Cashmere Cat is looking to capitalise on his momentum gained from his work with Ariana Grande, Charli XCX and Tinashe already with an impressive collaboration with a guy called Kanye West that will likely give his a career a shot in the arm.

Case in point being Mark Ronson - there’s probably a great deal of people who still believe ‘Uptown Funk’ is Bruno Mars’ song purely because he sings it and those same people probably wonder who that smug looking guitarist dude in the shades at the back is too. That track however was under Ronson’s name of course but the past few years have led to an incredible wealth of producers making their own name on other artists’ tracks.

We’ve also already witnessed one of yesteryear’s most exciting dance producers, Arca, continue his ascent now that he can count a vital role in forming Björk’s fragile opus, Vulnicura, among his greatest accomplishments alongside his outlandish production with FKA Twigs, West and his own debut, Xen. Then of course, there’s DJ Mustard, who will likely continue the dominance that he enjoyed in 2014 with YG, Tinashe and Jeremih - whom also worked with another heavy hitter in the form of Shlohmo.

Once upon a time unless you were a George Martin or a Phil Spector, you’d likely be nothing more than a name to most people (if that) while today, many are infiltrating the mainstream with their intriguing personalities and unmistakable beats. This is most prevalent of course in worlds such as hip hop and R&B where the producer has become almost of equal importance as the vocalist given the more expansive and colourful instrumentals that now adorn those genres.

This young year has already seen one of the more unlikely hip hop

These are obviously some of the heavy hitters in the realm of production, but there are plenty of lesser-known names – Maya Jane Coles, Hot Sugar, WondaGurl, Nate Fox - also thriving while largely remaining in the background – or in some cases, their bedroom.

As we live in a more collaboration-happy world often with many producers on the same track, never has it been a more rewarding time to be that guy behind the mixing desk, moving those sliders, or whatever it is that they do. (James Barlow)

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GE ST N RA NG

INTERVIEW

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P EACE’S DOM B OYC E D I S C U S S E S AMBITION, PA R T Y I N G A N D H I S BA N D ’ S J OYO U S N E W RECORD

WORD S BY TOM STAN ISZEWSKI Born into a city with a music scene that previously could boast the likes of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Electric Light Orchestra, Peace have brought the West Midlands back to basics with their brand of anthemic indie music, teamed with youthful enthusiasm and a unique ability to write uplifting material. This was brought to light with their joyous debut record In Love, and as they prepare to release their second album Happy People, the band’s drummer Dom Boyce answered some questions on how the quartet have progressed.

Happy People has been described as having the kind of ambitious spirit with the potential to touch the lives of millions. This statement suggests that Happy People is miles away from the band’s 2013 joyous debut In Love, which hints that they have perhaps developed their sound and musical ability - an exciting thing to hear. However, when asked about what elements have been introduced on Happy People that weren’t on In Love, Boyce didn’t exaggerate: “I’m not sure if there is anything. It’s not like we can say we’ve got a keyboard player in but we do have strings which is something we didn’t have on the first record. The biggest change is the approach to the way things have been recorded and the way the songs have been written.” This is despite the fact that Peace have brought back Jim Abiss - the same producer from In Love.

Peace have waited nearly two years to release Happy People and during that time you would have thought that they would have been able to enhance certain elements, including their musicianship which Boyce confirms: “Over the time since the first record we have developed our ability to play our instruments and record songs,” states Boyce. This can only be a positive thing as it shows the band going from strength to strength.

Since their debut album Peace have toured all over the world and been able to enjoy new things and new cultures, giving them the chance to write about different experiences.

Boyce hinted that In Love was primarily about frontman Harry Koisser when explaining that, “when writing Happy People, Harry did look out to other things other than just himself - which isn’t to say that the first record was purely selfindulging or just about him because it wasn’t - but I think maybe in this record there’s things that are specifically related to other people and other things that are going on outside of Peace.” It has been said that Happy People has a glorious sense of adventure and this change again shows us that Peace have developed over the past eighteen months. Boyce was keen to point out that “if you are a Peace fan or even if you’re not, you’d be interested in what Harry has to say on this album.” From the tone of Boyce’s voice when talking about the album and the track ‘Money’ in particular, it’s clear that he is extremely proud of the album.

“When I hear that song back it reminds me of the enthusiasm and excitement that we had when we went back in to the studio. I’m proud of that song and I find it rewarding to listen to and play.”

This pride and confidence shines through when the topic of the music charts is brought up. Peace’s previous album charted at number sixteen and Boyce is in no mood to suggest that this album will do worse. “It would be silly to say that we don’t care and we don’t want it to be in the top 10 because of course we do, because that then results in more people coming to your gigs.” It’s great to hear a band think this way - wanting success whilst not sounding arrogant - but even if the album wasn’t to chart in the top ten Boyce states that “we wouldn’t call it a day if Happy People didn’t make the top ten and we’d still be happy to carry on.” This shows Boyce’s immense passion for the band’s music whilst remaining optimistic.

Having just unveiled a lyric video for track ‘I’m A Girl’ from Happy People, it was interesting to learn how much say Peace themselves have in their always unique music videos’ direction. Boyce said, “When we agree to codirect a video with a director that’s when it never works, because you’ve two lots of strong minded people approaching the same goal.

It either works if we do it 100% or 0%.” It’s refreshing to hear a band wanting to be part of all aspects of their music including videos rather than shying away from it all.

Peace have toured with some very reputable bands including Bombay Bicycle Club and the Manic Street Preachers and through doing this, Boyce and the band have learnt an awful lot - how to balance the writing process of being a band, and then the other side of being in a band, aka getting really drunk at parties.

When asked if these bands ever offered Peace direct advice however, Boyce said, “We’ve never sat down or been sat down by other bands and been told here’s how you could do this, because that’s a bit uncomfortable. But you do definitely learn things and pick things up being on tour with these bands.” This demonstrates the level of respect that Peace have earned from their prestigious tour-mates.

The most important thing that Peace have learnt according to Boyce, is this balance of being professional and partying. “When you first start out in a band there’s no one there to stop you from doing the gig and going out every night and get really drunk at parties. It’s only when you see bands that you really like and want to be as successful as them you think ‘hang on, they don’t go out and get drunk so maybe we should tone it down.’”

The release of Happy People could prove to be an exciting chapter in the life of Peace and its clear that Boyce speaks about his work with a pride and passion like all good musicians should. He also has his feet firmly on the ground and knows not to get too carried away should Happy People prove to be a successful record.

Boyce ends the conversation by touching on the band’s future with an infectious youthful exuberance: “whether it be our fourth album or twentieth, I would love to be sat here talking about it and being excited about the release and excited to go on tour and play it all live.”

Peace will tour the UK in March, with three nights scheduled at Brighton’s The Haunt.

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R E V I E W S

BA D BA D N OTG O O D A N D G H O S T FA C E KILLAH: SOUR SOUL [LEX RECORDS]

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here’s a clip on Youtube from last season’s VH1-favorite, “Couples Therapy”, where Ghostface is sitting down in some sort of therapy session and admits to cheating on his long-term girlfriend, Kelsey. I have two favorite parts. The first part is when he subtly suggests a friendly threesome as the ultimate solution and the second part is towards the end, when after his partner had just spent the entire session expressing how torn she was, he simply replies, “Nahh you gon’ stay, you make me cum”. Ghostface Killah, everyone.

If you’ve been following him since his Wu days, it’s no surprise to find that this man isn’t as articulate as his rhymes. But beneath his inscrutable facade in this godawful reality show, his strong belief in human microchips, and his ability to separate mind and body (“I’m here but I’m not here naaa mean?”), he has always been a self-aware, socially conscious rapper.

In ‘Tone’s Rap’ he laments, “I can’t pimp in these clothes! The diamonds in my teeth are flushed!” His usual, “I got a main b***h, a side b***h, and two in-between” boasts sound more like a mid-life crisis - an identity struggle between his past habits and his current stage in life, a realization that he’s just not as good as he used to be. Which is true.

And let’s be honest here, Wu-Tang f**ked themselves over the minute 36 Chambers came out. We’ve all had our suppressed doubts about their career, ever since their legendary debut punched our guts with that raw, gritty, kung-fu scheming, Staten street intensity and set the bar too damn high. We knew it, they knew it, and the pinnacle of their fading legacy was seen last year on their dreadful sixth studio album, A Better Tomorrow.

The now fractious Clan seemed tired and forced, rapping about their wives and kids on uninspired, corny, orchestrated R&B vocals. Ghost went from rapping about the grim tragedies of the diseased, poverty-driven projects to rapping about Ebola and his condolences for ‘his people’ in Africa. His following solo album wasn’t much better, either.

In an age where artists are constantly experimenting with different sounds, reinventing the ground works of boom bap, and pushing hip hop frameworks through a genre-blending melting pot of Internet culture, Wu-Tang have become stale, outdated and lifeless. This is where BADBADNOTGOOD come in.

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Three young jazz students, dismissed by their instructors for their rendition of Gucci Mane’s ‘Lemonade’ and Tyler’s ‘Bastard’, put up an online video and instead grab the attention of Tyler himself. You know the story. But what made them truly unique wasn’t their fairytale background but rather their eclectic jazz reinterpretations on anything from Nas, James Blake, the Zelda soundtrack, My Bloody Valentine to a startling Gang Starr/Joy Division mash-up.

They make jazz look cool as f**k to fellow Supreme-sporting kids. They play jazz that you can mosh to. They have a six minute music video of them eating cereal. They’ve remixed ‘Pretty Boy Swag’. Their discerning palette and vision is what gives them the aptitude to distance themselves from their roots, onto a much refined jazz-fusion composition - making them the most reinvigorating solution to this much needed collaboration.

Ghostface is pulling his weight too, and back with his signature name drop lyricism; homages to revered rappers (Tupac, Flava Flav, Snoop), references to older works (Protect Ya Neck, C.R.E.A.M., Supreme Clientele), obligatory drug lord (Escobar, Sosa) and cultural media mentions (Scarface, Book of Eli), token street cred, alter-ego Ironman jabs, and clever one word punchlines.

But while he drags on about how he makes “food for thought” throughout the other half the record, the true spotlight shines on his features. “Six Degrees” truly comes to life when Danny Brown, one of the most eccentric voices of contemporary rap brings in his hilariously hypedup flows on really trivial matters, like being annoyed at someone’s big ass head blocking the flat screen when his favorite part comes on in the Tupac-starring movie, Juice.

While all their features excel, the most important chemistry between Ghost and BBNG sometimes feel underdeveloped. Where undeniable sparks fly when magical collaborations happen (Madlib/Doom, Kendrick/ Flylo), their partnership rests without pushing each other to their fullest potential. However, to say that this is a horrendous album would also be a blasphemous lie as it is consistently enjoyable throughout the short, half hour bliss. Sour Soul proves to be a satisfying stepping stone for both artists but wavering unison and fall backs to the safety net restrain it from being a true masterpiece. (Kialha Nakahara)

7 .5

PURITY RING: A N OT H E R ET E R N I T Y [4AD] If you’re not down with the deep, dark and at times confusing world of electronic music then the easy comparison to make with Purity Ring is to CHVRCHES. It’s not unreasonable to liken to two-piece Canadian ‘future pop’ band to the recently popular Scottish three-part, but Purity Ring are far more complex than that similarity would have you believe.

Purity Ring have an undeniable darkness about them. Despite the Ibizalike harmonies there’s a gruelling dubstep-influenced bassline which surges through the veins of each track. Megan James’ voice has a silky trickle to it, with echoes of T.a.T.u and Ellie Goulding to be heard. This fluid sound glides delicately over the bass-heavy background.

It’s easy to become fully submerged in the carefully entwined layers of Another Eternity - you will become gripped by the loveable pop side of Purity Ring. It’s this charming pop-ease that gets this album stuck in your head for hours on end. The memorable and ironically repetitive nature of songs like ‘Repetition’ lodges the lucid vocals deep into your brain until they resurface hours later when you’re trying to concentrate. This album is so catchy it will drive you to daydreaming. The floating gracefulness of James’ voice is reflected in the simple and dainty lyrics, which have the curious quality of appearing shallow, but actually being deeply complex and alluring. The delivery matches the majestic quality of the arrangement, adding to Another Eternity’s enticing sound.

From the first gasp to the last breath of this album you’re led down the winding paths of your own imagination, peacefully meandering among your thoughts. Whether you’re after an easy to love pop album, or a complex trip down memory lane, Another Eternity is probably just what you’re after. (Callum Cornwell)

8 . 0

GHOSTPOET: SHEDDING SKIN [ P L AY I T A G A I N SAM] Unlike his previous two albums, Ghostpoet has recorded Shedding Skin with a full live set up, and the distinction between the two outcomes is remarkable. With the added instrumental variety, Ghostpoet’s words take on a whole new sound. There’s a rather subdued, melancholic feel in the production of many of the tracks - use of cold melodic piano chords and electric guitar riffs set the landscape for Ghostpoet’s deft mix of spoken word and pub-closing-time singing. There are surprises too, markedly the shoegaze elements on ‘The Pleasure in Pleather’.

Ghostpoet has a collective group of featured artists on Shedding Skin, namely Etta Bond, Paul Smith (Maxïmo Park), Nadine Shah, Melanie De Biaso and Lucy Rose. The way these features are incorporated is essential to the concept of the album - the voices heard either explicitly echo Ghostpoet’s words, or act as a counter story to the tale of each song, and to the album as an entity. It’s an idea used previously, notably on ‘Dial Tones’ from his second album, however, here it’s been worked in such a way that makes Shedding Skin one of the most intriguing and innovative musical narratives in recent memory.

The line “p***ed and facing defeat” from title track ‘Shedding Skin’ arguably sums up the outlook of this album, and this should be lauded.

Yes, the production methods may have altered, but Ghostpoet remains the perfect ‘4am, slightly drunk and alone’ music. (Will Ackrill)

8.5

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REVIEWS

BJÖRK: VULN ICURA [ON E LITTLE IN DIAN] The public perception of Björk has always been that she’s an eccentric, almost alien presence within the music industry, but it’s often forgotten that her music has always had a very personal, human touch to it.

Vulnicura ends up being her most overtly personal yet as a record that expresses the fears, loss and grief over heartbreak, utilising it to produce a beautifully tortured record.

Björk’s eighth studio record pulls in parts of her past, most noticeably as a more subdued combination of lush strings and striking beats that she favoured on Homegenic and, to an extent, Vespertine, while simultaneously abandoning their typical song lengths and structures.

Björk has always had an aptitude for drawing in boundary-pushing contemporary producers, and Vulnicura continues this pattern as Björk finds a daring new direction for her art, with Arca (Kanye West, FKA Twigs) handling the majority of production and The Haxan Cloak (The Body) making a fleeting appearance. Sonically, Arca plays with terrifyingly

OH LAND: EARTH SICK [TUSK OR TOOTH]

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hastened thuds amidst the weeping violins on ‘Black Lake’ and The Haxan Cloak lends a slow, intense beat that stalks the first portion of ‘Family’.

Anthony Hegarty reprises her role from Volta on ‘Atom Dance’, where her vocals playfully intertwine with Björk’s over wondrously magical strings.

The music may be outwardly warm at time, but it refuses to avoid lyrical bleakness - which is carried by her haunted vocals - as she chronicles each stage of her break up, effortlessly drawing you into her despair.

The ghostly, choral synths of ‘History of Touches’ serves as a bed for Björk to reminisce of happier times during her ailing relationship, while ‘Family’ reveals her feelings of desolation in the face of her family splitting apart, and ‘Notget’ encapsulates the record’s overarching feeling in one haunting line - “without love I feel the abyss”.

Biophilla may have exposed a bit of a wound in Björk creative powers, but Vulnicura undoubtedly seals it, proving that exceptional albums are still in her nature. (Connor Cass)

9. 1

C A N C E R B AT S : SEARCHING FOR ZERO [NOISE CHURCH]

The central ideal driving Earth Sick’s creation appears to be attempt for the Denmark native to return to her roots, retreating to her home studio to reflect upon the production-style of debut Fauna. Earth Sick is no rehash of her musical beginnings; it sees her beautifully weave past, present and future Oh Land together.

From their first release Birthing The Giant through to 2012’s Dead Set On Living Cancer Bats have established a sound that is energetic, heavy and fun by nailing the rough grit of hardcore punk to headbang-worthy metal riffs. With each release they didn’t really reinvent the wheel, but they did refine this sound to become one of heavy music’s most party-hard bands.

The wondrous, vivid pop songs she’s effortlessly mastered are here, but they’re adventurously infused with triumphant brass and graceful strings.

‘Favour Friends’, a slice of bubbly electro-pop, features her mother’s delightfully overwhelming operatic acrobatics, a deliberate call-back to her appearance on Fauna’s ‘Numb’. Earth Sick also represents every facet of her personality.

Their latest effort, Searching For Zero, for the most part is business as usual for Cancer Bats, only this time their focus is on melody over anything else. A lot of their heavy guitars and the hardcore punk intensity have fallen by the wayside and this really hurts the music on this release.

Cancer Bats have lost their balls.

Lyrically, its central focus is on the concept of becoming ‘earth sick’, a process in which astronauts struggle to reacclimatise to their home planet. It’s a canvas for Oh Land to both express her very personal, very human anxieties and feelings as an outsider and struggles with the enormities of living as an earthling, perhaps balanced most effectively on highlight ‘Little Things’.

There are good moments such as the blistering speed of ‘All Hail’ and the stoner-esque ‘Dusted’. Unfortunately, the moments that make you wanna jump up on your chair and fist-pump ‘til your elbows disintegrate are unfortunately too few and far between. Even the hooky chorus of ‘True Zero’ is unable to save the song from its bland and predictable chord progressions. There’s not much life in a lot of the compositions on display here.

If 2013’s Wish Bone was her searching for summer pop perfection, then Earth Sick is the comforting whimsy for these frostbitten winter months.

(Connor Cass) 7 .9

On Searching For Zero, Cancer Bats sound like a band that have simply partied out, searching for that sharp shot of adrenaline to their withered hearts. (Rob Sayers) 5. 6

H E E M S : E AT P R AY T H U G [ M E G A F O R C E ] The world at large probably isn’t ready to admit it, but Heems is one of the most important voices in hip-hop. Beneath his goofy demeanour and sly quips, Himanshu Suri possesses an incredibly unique voice. His debut studio album, Eat Pray Thug, is his most serious project yet, showcasing just what it is that makes him such an underrated figure.

Since the demise of Das Racist, the group he was a part of since 2008, we’ve not heard a whole lot from Heems. After exiling himself to Mumbai to record the album, Eat Pray Thug has been a long time coming. It’s not perfect, but Heems’ first solo album is still special. Like the work of Das Racist, the album isn’t exactly instantaneously appealing, but it manages to remain compelling from start to finish regardless.

Moving on from obtuse pop-culture references and Lil B based-isms, Heems really hones in on some dark and striking subject matter on Eat Pray Thug. Tackling his personal issues as well as cultural and racial topics gracefully, the album highlights racial fear in a post-9/11 world from the seldom-heard angle. The powerful closing track, ‘Patriot Act’, shines a light on what it was like for him after the towers fell, and it’s essentially heart-breaking to hear what he was put through.

But for all the heavy-handed topics that the album deals with, this is still a Heems project through and through. The strange cultural references still pop up here and there, pointing out just how funny he can be when he wants to be. There are even a few love songs on the record, with one of them featuring an intensely personal portrayal of a crumbling relationship set atop gorgeous singing and guitar from Dev Hynes. Heems certainly knows how to handle variety.

Unfortunately, the album suffers occasionally when it comes to the production. Whilst some of the tracks bang and bounce with an excitable vigour, others feel limp and lifeless. ‘Suicide by Cop’ in particular suffers from an uninteresting and hindering beat. It’s one of the few cases wherein the production takes away from Heems rather than complimenting him.

However, Heems remains interesting lyrically throughout, even when the instrumentals can’t quite match his high levels of charm.

The memorable non-sequiturs and stories of purchasing American flags out of fear for his own life stick in spite of the any production issues. Eat Pray Thug is still an incredibly exciting record, proving once again the world needs Heems, even if it doesn’t know it yet. (Joe Price)

8.3

H OT S U G A R : GOD’S HAND [BREAK WORLD RECORDS]

Nick Koenig has invented his own universe in which he appears to dwell comfortably, with no need to tightly grip onto reality. Comprising of selfrecorded samples, a hazy aesthetic and dreamy disposition, if you have not yet been acquainted with Hot Sugar, let his impressive debut album be your guide.

In the world of God’s Hand, everything’s pastel-washed and the air smells of candyfloss and alcohol. This place is one full of contradictions, conceptual oxymorons at every turn. ‘Beer Cans & Bubblegum’ is the perfect example of this, intertwining an air of despair with delightfully optimistic synths.

Lead single ‘Not Afraid to Die’ plays like an off-kilter lullaby, whilst ‘Vengeance’ showcases a comparatively aggressive and grandiose side to Koenig. Of course, Hot Sugar’s take on aggression is that of a Yorkshire Terrier; playful and utterly endearing. All in all, the album stays in its own twee, soft, harmless cocoon, and in no way is this a bad thing; its mix of disparate genres still captivates from beginning to end.

Hot Sugar isn’t simply a musician - God’s Hand confirms that he’s balancing between music and art in the most tantalising manner. The world he has created and enveloped himself in is utopia in the form of a malfunctioning Tamagotchi. (Freya Cochrane)

8. 7

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R E V I E W : A M E R I C A N

By now, the majority of people will be familiar with the story of the “American Sniper”. Chris Kyle was a Navy SEAL sniper who has been credited as being the most deadly sniper in American history, with over 160 confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq. Director Clint Eastwood has interpreted the events of Kyle’s military life from the now-deceased Kyle’s book, also titled American Sniper, into the highest-grossing military film of all time, but it’s not without its detractors.

Many people have slated the film for its fairly obvious propagandist overtones including Nick Broomfield, the award-winning British documentarian who said Hitler would’ve been proud to make American Sniper, and the Iraqi Ministry of Culture who ordered that the film be removed from a cinema complex in Baghdad due to its portrayal of Iraqis as “savages”.

It’s hard to ignore the pro-American/anti-Iraqi messages because American Sniper is so unapologetically upfront about it – from lead actor Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Chris Kyle as a grizzly-bearded, shadesand-a-backwards-hat-wearing All-American Hero ™, to the portrayal of ‘The Butcher’, a high-ranking enemy who drills holes in kids’ heads.

If you care enough about the sanctity of human life, you’ll most certainly be left with an awful taste in your mouth after seeing this – there are too many instances of deaths followed by celebratory smiles and

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congratulations, and being forced to view a child of a war-torn country picking up a RPG through the scope of a rifle is enough to make anyone’s stomach churn. What is intended to be a heroic portrayal of one man’s military experience turns out to be an inadvertent showcase of extremely problematic social and political issues in the United States of America.

The crisis of male identity is painfully obvious. The constant “oorah”s, Kyle’s inability to ever speak about his experiences at length with anyone, and in the scene where Kyle walks in on his girlfriend with another man, his laughter at the situation and subsequent (misdirected) anger at the destruction of a US embassy in Kenya are all clear indicators of machismo confusion. Anti-Islamic connotations present themselves most clearly when Kyle shoots an Iraqi driving a car and the camera pans to the man’s hand holding prayer beads and an explosive device... then in the next scene all is calm as it fades in to a shot of Kyle’s bible.

It sanitises and glorifies war to a point where it’s so Call of Duty-fied that it becomes a joke, but this fallacy leads to a very harrowing realisation that we are disconnected from actual, real-life human beings killing one another because it’s not happening on our doorstep. American Sniper no doubt made many viewers cry, but I wonder: how many cried for the “legend” who took over 160 lives, and how many cried for humanity as a whole? (Nathan Butler)

R E V I E W : E X - M A C H I N A

2015 is set to be the year of AI. Reminiscing of films such as 1982’s cult classic Bladerunner, three of 2015’s biggest releases will be bringing the theme of artificial intelligence to the big screen. The most anticipated of the three without a doubt will be April’s The Avengers: Age Of Ultron but March’s Chappie and Alex Garland’s directing debut Ex-Machina are both thrillingly exciting and clever watches, even if they won’t draw in the same mammoth audiences as Marvel’s latest instalment will.

one important purpose, to perform the Turing test on Ava in the goal to find out if Nathan’s creation truly has a mind of its own.

Ex-Machina itself is based around Ava (Alicia Vikander), an AI that blurs the boundaries between human and robot, truly perplexing the audience to surprising levels. After Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder that works for tech-genius Nathan (Oscar Isaac), wins a competition to spend the week at the elusive boss’ house among the vastness of the secluded wilderness, things turn out to be a little more complicated than a just a free luxury getaway.

The real highlight of the film is Vikander’s portrayal of Ava. With a cold blank robotic exterior one minute and a humanly emotive disposition portraying love and fear the next, the overall question of ‘could artificial life really exist?’ echoes throughout your mind well after the film itself is over.

After arriving in the highly technical bunker-like home, Nathan convinces coder Caleb to be the test dummy for a mysterious project he’s been working on, the scientifically ground-breaking artificially intelligent robot named Ava. It unfolds that Caleb was in fact purposely invited for

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What unfolds is a twisted tale of romance and thrills, never knowing what twists and horrors lay waiting around the corner. Isaac portrays Nathan in such a way that you immediately question his motives and quickly grow to hate his character from the offset.

With stunning scenic shots, a clever plotline and well-acted characters with the kind of emotive depth you want from any good thriller, ExMachina is a definite must-watch for any sci-fi fan. The possibility for a follow up film is left wide open, as are many questions of the fate of Nathan’s advanced technology and the human characters themselves.

(Rebecca Rayner)

A N OT S O R EG U L A R S H OW Growing up as a kid without Cartoon Network was hard. Constant conversations about Ed, Edd and Eddy were bandied around the playground, references to Dexter’s Laboratory were the source of tearful laughter (I still don’t get why omelette du fromage is funny) and if you were poor or your parents were awful, awful people, you were excluded from the elite cartoon conversations.

Forced to sit quietly and patiently until conversation switched from CN shows, the Freeview kids hopelessly dreamt of a world without Johnny Bravo. Unfortunately, as we all grew up, he became the subconscious poster boy for UK lad culture, and therefore haunts the Freeview kids of the noughties on a daily basis. However there is some form of hope for those who look back on their childhood with a distinct lack of fulfilment; those regressive, legally-recognised-asadults who still eat sugar-overloaded cereal and watch cartoons in their pyjamas past midday.

It’s called Regular Show, and it’s a slacker’s wet dream – a blue jay and a raccoon named Mordecai and Rigby are employees at a park who spend their time doing anything but work, which always leads to a surreal misadventure with an even more bizarre solution.

The show’s title works on so many levels. It’s fitting because the character’s voices aren’t excessively cartoonish, they have a very real and relatable manner of speaking with colloquialisms familiar to anyone who does dumb things with their friends – from in-jokes about relationship fails and punching each other, to a tailored way of exclaiming in celebration (“oooooohhhhhhhh!”). It also works on an ironic level because the first portion of every episode starts out innocuously before descending into madness, but also highly ironic considering Mordecai and Rigby’s boss Benson is a gumball machine, and they occasionally babysit for a cockney version of Death.

It’s one of many British reference points (thanks to show creator J. G. Quintel’s college roommate) which manage to avoid the nauseating stench of Anglophilia and as such, are thoroughly welcoming to a British audience. The aforementioned innocuous beginning of each

episode that slowly develops into absurdity closely mocks that of a Little Britain sketch (but with less annoying, gimmicky catchphrases that don’t become points of cultural embarrassment), like the episode ‘Do Me a Solid’ in which Rigby abuses the power of the ‘solid’ to mess with Mordecai and ends up almost destroying the universe.

There’s also a blindingly obvious love affair with The Mighty Boosh - Mordecai and Rigby often do their own style of crimping and Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil from The Boosh) even voices the ‘Keepers of the Voicemail’, the leader of which is a talking answering machine.

A whole episode is dedicated to a British taxi possessed by the soul of the murdered cabby, which spouts the catchphrase “’ELLO GUV’NOR!” in an exaggerated, 40-a-day cockney accent before attacking. As a British person, it makes you feel a sort of pride that our culture and customs are slyly appreciated across the pond.

Aside from the love-in with British humour, there’s a major recurring theme of 80s references. If the decades of the 1900s were a big group of friends, the 80s would be the small kid dressed in odd clothes who, whenever he opened his mouth, the rest of the decades would say “shut up, the 80s”.

It’s that weird decade that no one really knows why it happened and we’re all a little embarrassed of it – it’s officially ‘wack’- but Regular Show takes the lame references and presents them in a very selfaware manner, which somehow brings you closer to the decade that so many try to distance themselves from.

The real beauty of Regular Show though lies in its multigenerational appeal. A bearded 23 year old university student and his 5 year old niece can sit down, turn Netflix on and giggle at Rigby’s pathetically weak attempts to display his anger. With Regular Show, Quintel has managed to create humour that appeals to kids but isn’t too childish for adults, and also appeals to adults but isn’t hugely inappropriate or too cerebral for kids - it’s the happy medium for the Johnny Bravo hating Freeview kids of yesteryear to get a taste of real quality cartoons that they have longed for. (Nathan Butler)

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C U LT U R E

N A U G H T Y D O G

A N T H R O P O M O R P H I S M A N D M O R A L LY A M B I G U O U S H E R O E S Naughty Dog were once famous for games about a genetically mutated bandicoot smashing boxes and an elf-like humanoid with a strange fictional animal-hybrid friend. Nowadays the game developer is in a very different place from the days of Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter.

Having created the world’s most awarded game in history with post-apocalyptical epic The Last Of Us and having major success with treasure hunting series Uncharted, the Californian company is one to be taken seriously. However, recently fans have started to raise questions about the future of the developer. With Uncharted 4 : A Thief’s End set for release sometime this year, it is unclear where the brand are set to go next.

Uncharted has stayed interesting through new and exciting plots, new detailed areas and new iniquitous enemies. Throughout the series, almost everything has been executed to perfection, from voice performances to the beautiful recreations of some of the world’s most exotic and interesting locations, both real and fictional. The questions arose when fans realised that this may not be sustainable for more than few games. If you were to play the original Uncharted - Drake’s Fortune - and skip to the third - Drake’s Deception - you would notice very little difference in the actual gameplay and character animations. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you have three games, and potentially four, that follow this blueprint, it can be.

However, will Uncharted 4 : A Thief’s End - due out this year - be the same? The simple - and reassuring - answer is no, the reasons are more complex and actually sound quite impressive.

Naughty Dog have made a habit of pushing the PS3 to its limits, with the gorgeous scenery evident in it’s games standing out as almost too good in places. Imagine the possibilities now that the PS4 is in the mix. In fact, the animators at Naughty Dog have already confirmed some of the leaps they are taking now that they have to the capability of the PS4. For example, in previous games there was an animation for picking up ammo while Drake was still and another for when he was running. In A Thief’s End there are to be around 60 different animations for the action.

Furthermore, climbing animations have been completely redone and supposedly made more precise. Lead animator Jeremy Yates said that, “All of the different combinations and possibilities of where he can put his hand required us to have hundreds of new climbing animations.” Drake’s hand movements are even different depending on the size of a ledge, and he shakes when holding smaller ledges. “It adds a sense of danger,” Yates adds. “We’ve never been able to achieve stuff like this before. We’re trying to capture every detail in the climbing system.” Additionally, fighting has also been reworked, and repetition of animations has been limited as much as possible.

So, there you go, no need to worry so much about Uncharted 4. However, no one can be sure where Naughty Dog plan to go after that. With a sequel to The Last Of Us unconfirmed, what will come next?

The future of The Last Of Us is highly debatable.

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Many doubt if a sequel is even a good idea, arguing that it could it ruin the emotional impact of the game.

The beautiful depth of The Last Of Us’ characters and the poignant storytelling made it somewhat of an irregularity, in the best way possible. Naughty Dog deserve nothing but praise for this, but could they really do that a second time? This may be a cynical view, and to be fair video game series have proven to be slightly better off than films for not screwing up on sequels. Bioware’s Mass Effect series only improved by the second game, and Naughty Dog themselves have done it before with Uncharted, among many other examples.

However, the ending of The Last Of Us is very final in a rare way. It was this conclusive and bleak ending that helped shape The Last Of Us into the anomaly it was. Game series are frequently focusing on cliff-hangers, with clear plans for sequels already in place. The conclusive finish to The Last Of Us was special, and very powerful.

So, it’s fair to see why many would prefer if there wasn’t a sequel.

But when it comes down to it, why should the lack of a sequel worry fans? You can see how it might, but all it takes is a look through Naughty Dog’s past to see that they know what they’re doing. The Last Of Us may seem an anomaly, but it was one that was created entirely from scratch from the brand.

Who’s to say they couldn’t do that again? The point is, Naughty Dog have a more or less flawless record so far, so doubts are a bit early to be taken seriously. Regardless of circumstance, Naughty Dog are always one to watch.

The quality of Naughty Dog’s plots has even lead to movie deals. The movie adaption of Uncharted simply makes sense, the game’s already like playing through a blockbuster movie. The adaptation even has a writer in Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and a director in Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Undefeated) with release set for 2016. A movie for The Last Of Us is further from completion, but the game’s director Neil Druckmann confirmed recently that a second draft for the script has been finished, saying that “there are some big changes, but the tone and what the story’s trying to say is pretty faithful to the game.”

Of course many will argue that traditionally, movie’s based on games have been pretty uninspiring, but few have stories so suited to the big screen, and with the amount of involvement Naughty Dog has, it’s doubtful they’ll let it astray.

The main point here is that Naughty Dog are not done yet, they have always been a developer to be excited about and that is not going to change anytime soon. The lack of games on next gen means people are risking buying games they normally wouldn’t, combine this with the size of Uncharted, add a future film, and Uncharted could be the biggest franchise in gaming. Plus, with any number of future projects, a possible a sequel to The Last Of Us and not one, but two movies in the early stages of production, Naughty Dog are only going to get bigger and bigger. Don’t forget their name anytime soon. To be honest, you probably wouldn’t be able to if you tried. (George Parr)

M O S T

A N T I C I P AT E D

V I D E O

G A M E S T H E

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UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END (NAUGHTY DOG)

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TBA (NINTENDO EAD)

Considering their stellar track record, it’s easy to give Naughty Dog the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Uncharted. The latest adventure starring Nathan Drake, however, seems to be going for something a little riskier this time around. Expanding scope where it counts the most, Uncharted 4 promises more combat freedom and a wider variety of gameplay options, at least from what we’ve heard and seen of it so far.

Naughty Dog is the type of developer to stay true to their word, though, so expect Uncharted 4 to be the biggest and most ambitious in the series yet. (Joe Price)

This latest installment in the critically acclaimed Legend of Zelda series promises to return to its roots. Gameplay videos have shown that there will be an emphasis on exploration and discovery much like the original Legend of Zelda from 1986. Players will be able to explore a large open world whilst being able to approach dungeons however they please. This style of gameplay marks a departure from the linear approach used in previous titles such as Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. If this Wii U title can match the dizzying acclaim Ocarina of Time got in 1998 then this is bound to be the best game of 2015. (Joel Hernon)

DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE (DIMPS) Dragon Ball XenoVerse is one of the most exciting games to be announced in a while, especially of course, for Dragon Ball Z fans. As the first game from the franchise to be available on next gen, it is set to show the world of Dragon Ball Z like it hasn’t been seen before. Players will now be able to customize their character for the first time since 2001’s Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. Customisable features include race, gender, head, build, voice, and clothing. Voice effects even stretch to being able to change pitch and add effects to create an original voice that will help players stand out in competitive online fights as well as co-op missions.

The game is set in full 3D destructible environments and you’ll be able to traverse the levels, roaming in vast spaces and fighting on platforms, in the air and even underwater. Basically, this looks and sounds awesome.

(George Parr)

B L O O D B O R N E I S G O I N G B E O P P R E S S I V E I N A L L T H E R I G H T W AY S

T O

FINAL FANTASY XV (SQUARE ENIX) One of the highest-selling video game franchises of all time is getting a colossal revamp for 2015 – Final Fantasy XV. Having been in production for just under 9 years, Square Enix are pulling out all the stops. The latest FF instalment will feature an open world, single land mass (a relief from the claustrophobic corridors of XIII) in an attempt to offer a realistic, seamless travel experience akin to real life. Director Hajime Tabata is hoping for a worldwide release, and one can’t help but be drawn to the humanistic cultural experience that the fifteenth mainline Final Fantasy game promises to deliver. (Nathan Butler)

NO MAN’S SKY (HELLO GAMES) We should be sick of our little green and blue planet by now, it’s the focal point of our lives and therefore, our video games, all while the vast possibilities of space is left unexplored. However, this looks set to change with Hello Games open universe game No Man’s Sky. With an emphasis on exploration, combat and resource gathering on an uncountable amount of planets (the developers boast a possibility of over 18 quintillion planets) and an ultimate goal to reach the galaxy’s centre, No Man’s Sky is likely to consume every second of your free time. Also, the accompanying soundtrack from the crescendo-bothering 65daysofstatic is sure to enhance the games potential as a gargantuan adventure. (Connor Cass)

F A R F

BLOODBORNE (FROM SOFTWARE) If there’s one thing the Souls series of games by From Software has taught us, it’s that we take way too many aspects of modern game design for granted. Bloodborne, the spiritual successor to Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls, eschews the idea of a helping hand by offering an experience as brutal as possible. The gameplay is just as tough as the tar-black world, offering little refuge from its oppressive themes in all aspects. Bloodborne will be the hardest game of the year, but it’ll still be our fault when we inevitably die for the fiftieth time in a row. (Joe Price)

SPLATOON (NINTENDO EAD GROUP 2) One game a lot of people are excited about this year is Splatoon, the brand new IP from Nintendo due out in May. New Nintendo IP? What is it this time, another Mario-like platformer? Nope, it’s a third-person shooter!

And, naturally, it’s a Wii U exclusive. In Splatoon you play as an Inkling: humanoid beings that can transform into squids. The aim is to cover the map in as much ink as possible. If your team’s ink takes up the majority of the map when time runs out, you win. You can kill other players, but it’s not the primary objective, creating many strategic options with a variety of different weapons. (Andrew Yates)

F X V P R O M I S E S N E X C I T I N G E T U R N T O F O R M O R T H E S E R I E S

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GIG GUIDE

GIG GUI DE MARCHJUN E 15

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PEACE – SAT 28TH MARCH @ THE HAUNT, BRIGHTON

ICEAGE – TUES 28TH APRIL@ STICKY MIKE'S FROG BAR, PORTSMOUTH

THE VACCINES – FRI 3RD APRIL @ PYRAMIDS CENTRE, PORTSMOUTH

FLYING LOTUS – FRI 1ST MAY @ O2 ACADEMY, BRIXTON

KASSASSIN STREET – SAT 4TH APRIL @ WEDGEWOOD ROOMS, PORTSMOUTH

OUR LAST NIGHT - SAT 2ND MAY @ THE JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

WOLF ALICE – WEDS 8TH APRIL @ THE OLD FIRE STATION, BOURNEMOUTH

LAURA MARLING - SUN 3RD MAY @ GUIDHALL, SOUTHAMPTON

YOUNG KATO – THURS 9TH APRIL @ JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – TUES 5TH MAY @ GUILDHALL, PORSTMOUTH

COURTNEY BARNETT – THURS 9TH APRIL @ ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON

AMERICAN FOOTBALL – WEDS 13TH MAY @ ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON

THE TIDAL SLEEP – FRI 10TH APRIL @ JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

THE PRODIGY – THURS 14TH MAY @ BIC, BOURNEMOUTH

ZOAX – SUN 12TH APRIL @ CELLARS AT EASTNEY, PORTSMOUTH

THE HOTELIER – FRI 15TH MAY @ JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

MARIKA HACKMAN – WEDS 15TH APRIL @ JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

TWIN SHADOW - TUES 19TH MAY @ SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON

CIRCA WAVES – THURS 16TH APRIL @ WEDGEWOOD ROOMS, PORTSMOUTH

MANIC STREET PREACHERS – TUES 2ND JUNE @ O2 GUILDHALL, SOUTHAMPTON

VILLAGERS – FRI 17TH APRIL - THE OLD MARKET, BRIGHTON

EAST INDIA YOUTH - WEDS 3RD JUNE @ THE HAUNT, BRIGHTON

OF MONTREAL – MON 20TH APRIL @ THE HAUNT, BRIGHTON

PERFUME GENIUS – WEDS 10TH JUNE @ ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON

DRENGE – MON 20TH APRIL @ TRINITY COMMUNITY ARTS, BRISTOL

WAXAHATCHEE – FRI 19TH JUNE @ THE JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

AUDIO ADDICT RECOMMEN DS TURBOWOLF – SAT 18TH APRIL @ TALKING HEADS, SOUTHAMPTON

SWANS – THURS 21TH MAY @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

Having been lauded by the press for their anarchistic antics and oftevolving brand of haywire hard rock, Turbowolf have made a name for themselves over the years as an unpredictable tour de force. If there's one certainty, however, it's this - Turbowolf will be bringing unadulterated pandemonium right to your doorstep this April.

Fresh off the critical acclaim of their two disc behemoth To Be Kind, Swans return to the capital this May for what will be a truly incendiary show. Seasoned veterans at the art of noise-making, the sheer intensity of a Swans show is an exhilarating experience right to the last grain of ear-splitting feedback – although perhaps one the faint of heart should best avoid.

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR – MON 20TH APRIL @ SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON Godspeed You! Black Emperor have the propensity to disregard what usually constitutes live shows. Engaging with (and actually facing) the crowd take a backseat to an atonal maelstrom of static and ferocious volume while dystopian projections draw all eyes away from the actual band members for an astounding live music performance that you absolutely have to see to believe.

YOUNG FATHERS – SUN 31ST MAY @ ENGINE ROOMS, SOUTHAMPTON Emerging as the grand victors of last year's Mercury Prize award, Young Fathers are set to triumph even further throughout 2015.

Be one of the first to sample spirited live renditions of new material from the UK's most intriguing hip-hop outfit's second album at their Southampton show this May.

PURITY RING – SUN 26TH APRIL @ CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON

RUN THE JEWELS – SUN 7TH JUNE @ THE FORUM, LONDON

With their hazy, atmospheric spin on modern day synthpop, Purity Ring wield the captivating capability to sucker in even the most arrogant of non-believers. With new album Another Eternity shaping up to be a brighter but nonetheless spellbinding affair, the opportunity to hear the likes of the dream-soaked 'Begin Again' in a live environment is one not to be passed up.

Hip hop’s current darling duo of Killer Mike and El-P give one hundred billion percent every time they step on stage. Their politically-charged, savagely-delivered brand of rap music is like nothing else out there, making their impassioned shows an unmissable event for anyone with an appreciation of killer beats and bars. Their tendency to interact with crowd members quite often makes their shows unpredictable, too.

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