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Fever Ray Crack Magazine | Issue 85

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017

Contents

Goldlink:

Vic Mensa:

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs 46

Rina Sawayama 50

crackmagazine.net

Fever Ray:

Discover – p.25

Recommended – p.20

Rising: Kayla Painter – p.23

The Update: Coach K – p.27

Retrospective: Get Rich or Die Tryin' – p.77 My Life as a Mixtape: Donae'O – p.85

Reviews – p.65

20 Questions: Open Mike Eagle – p.83 Perspective: Picture Perfect – p.86

CONTENTS

Editor's Letter – p.19

A local music scene can shape an artists’ sense of confidence as well as their sound. So when an act makes that jump from talk of the town to international acclaim, it’s important that they don’t forget where they came from.

Fredo Santana Jealous ft. Kendrick Lamar The Fall Blindness Onyx Collective Steam Rooms CASisDEAD Pat Earrings Daniel Avery Slow Fade The Distillers Dismantle Me Nathan Fake Sunder Britney Spears Toxic Jean Graye & Quelle Chris OhSh ft. Hannibal Buress The Breeders All Nerve Burna Boy Sekkle Down ft. J Hus Booji Boys Doin’ The Pyre Kali Uchis After The Storm ft. Tyler, the Creator Charli XCX I Got It E Ruscha V Who Are You Carlos Maria Blu Terra

This issue features Washington D.C. rapper GoldLink, who incorporates his city’s old school go-go genre into his sound and has given America’s DMV states a globallyrenowned anthem. With the US rap industry still disproportionately based in New York and LA, Atlanta veteran Coach K tells us he aims to remove obstacles for his roster of local artists with his label Quality Control Music. Elsewhere you’ll find an interview with the excellently named Newcastle band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. While they acknowledge the challenges faced by Newcastle’s alternative scene, they’re beaming with pride for their hometown. They even packed their Newcastle United shirts for our photoshoot. But not everyone is born and raised in the place that has the support network they need to thrive. In this month’s cover story, Karin Dreijer describes growing up in the socially conservative suburbs of Gothenburg. This prompted her to escape to Stockholm, where she joined the “queers and weirdos and freaks” and formed her radical band The Knife. Dreijer also explains that visiting another scene populated by the progressively-minded queer communities of Berlin gave her the artistic invigoration she needed to return with her second Fever Ray album Plunge. And so, for all the talk of online communities and post-geographical genres, let’s not forget that the real inspiration for musicians is often out there on the streets that they walk.

Fever Ray shot exclusively for Crack Magazine by Ninja Hanna in Stockholm, January 2017

Davy Reed, Editor

019

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EDITORIAL

Issue 85

020

Recommended

Sam Binga & Rider Shafique fabric 23 February

O ur g ui d e to wh at's goi n g on i n y ou r c i ty

Craig Richards b2b Ricardo Villalobos fabric, London 17 February

CASisDEAD XOYO 8 February

Part of a series of b2b sessions, this inspired pairing sees Ricardo Villalobos, who’s no stranger to early mornings in the fabric main room, team up with Craig Richards – who is known to throw up some strange sojourns into the weirder corners of their respective record crates. You’ll want to be with them every step of the way. Just make sure you book the Monday off, eh.

Jayda G Phonox 4 February

Murlo Patterns, Brighton 16 February

Hideout Festival AJ Tracey, Peggy Gou, Hunee Zcre Beach, Croatia 25-29 June Pairing some of the hottest breakthrough names in grime with a selection of the most reliable party DJs around, Hideout Festival has officially established itself as one of the biggest events on the European calendar. It’s a status reflected in this year’s blockbuster line-up. Lyrical wizard AJ Tracey, Manchester’s finest Bugzy Malone and Croydon trailblazer Nadia Rose are representing for the grime and UK rap contingent. You can also move and shake to sets from Kerri Chandler, Hunee, Joy Orbison and Or:la. And we haven’t even mentioned how idyllic the location is. Or how fun boat parties are. Or the fact that Heartless Crew are playing.

The Soft Moon The Dome 16 February

Call Super The Pickle Factory 9 February

Anna of the North XOYO 15 February

Spring Break Amsterdam Wiley, Big Narstie, The Heat Wave Various venues, Amsterdam 8-10 April It can be easy to take life too seriously. Help-to-buy ISAs, reusable straws, that film about the billboards, emails, eating fruit – there’s an awful lot to think about. Often in April (or the end of the first quarter as the suits would call it!), you’re in desperate need of really letting loose. Spring Break Amsterdam offers the perfect outlet for precisely that kind of reckless abandon. Stagger through the picturesque streets of Amsterdam and happen across sets from bonafide party-starters like grime Godfather Wiley, Base Defence League captain Big Narstie and dancehall connoisseurs The Heat Wave. Bar crawls never stopped being fun, it’s you that changed.

Alvvays Roundhouse 23 February

Roundhouse Rising Festival Roundhouse 21 February-4 March Now in its ninth year, the Roundhouse Rising Festival aims to open doors with a programme of events. It includes a DJ soundclash, a BBC Music emerging talent showcase, panels, workshops and shows from newcomers such as Dublin artist Ailbhe Reddy and folk musician Blair Dunlop. On 4 March, Little Simz – who’s considered to be one of the UK’s most underrated acts – returns to the festival with her Welcome to Wonderland II event, which will showcase German beat maker IAMNOBODDI, as well as rappers Lioness and Junglepussy. New artists need our support more than ever, here’s a fun way to show some.

Rewire Festival Laurie Anderson, Nina Kraviz, Floating Points The Hague, Netherlands 6-8 April

EVENTS

Rewire Festival returns to The Hague for another round of audacious music programming and discussions spread across the city’s theatres, churches and abandoned spaces. They’ve tapped experimental pioneer Laurie Anderson to present her ongoing multimedia series under the Artist in Focus banner, heading up a diverse line-up that draws from underground stars-in-waiting (Lanark Antefax) to guaranteed crowdpleasers (Nina Kraviz). Threatening to steal the whole show, though, is SOPHIE, whose rare live performance promises new music and vivid choreography – a guaranteed talking point.

021

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Brixton Academy 21 February

DJ Stingray E1 24 February

Nadine Shah Roundhouse 2 Febrary

Wild Beasts Eventim Apollo 17 February

Chip Roundhouse 9 February

Nabihah Iqbal is at a landmark moment. 2017 saw her drop the Throwing Shade moniker, assume her birth name and chart off into a dream pop direction for her debut album Weighing of the Heart. Though the guitar-based trajectory was unexpected, it saw Iqbal return to her roots with the rich, gauzy tapestry of the album woven together by the influences that permeated her upbringing. Iqbal has always displayed her versatility and wide breadth of musical knowledge on her NTS show. However, her first LP sees her fully realise her vision as a singular artist.

Siren w/Josey Rebelle Bloc 10 February Part of a new generation of London-based DJs resetting expectations in the club, Josey Rebelle’s intuition behind the decks has no doubt been sharpened in her role as radio DJ for the likes of Rinse or NTS. Able to find the drama in stylistic juxtapositions without sacrificing flow, her ability to read a crowd combined with a deep knowledge across rave, soul, house and beyond guaranteed her a spot in our Most Exciting DJs in the World (Right Now) countdown. But don’t take our word for it….

Nabihah Iqbal Archspace 22 February

Kelela Roundhouse 22 February 2017 was a watershed year for Kelela. Her long-awaited debut LP Take Me Apart, a study in breathtaking vulnerability, felt like the work of an artist being absolutely true to their vision. After the Solange collaborations, candid open letters about the realities of being a WoC artist and increasingly high profile TV appearances, the album cemented her status as a true RnB star – no ‘alternative’ qualifiers needed. These live dates will capture Kelela at the height of her newfound powers.

Care: A Musical Directed and Scored by Klein ICA 3-4 February With a lawlessly experimental approach and an eccentric sense of humour, Klein tends to confuse and compel people in equal measure. The London based musician’s releases merge harsh noise with warped vocals and warm RnB tones, and while the results are usually messy, every project glows with Klein’s distinct personality. Care has got to be her most ambitious and unusual project to date: a Disney fairytaleinspired musical set in a London care home. Our advice is don’t worry about “getting it” and just go with the flow.

Iglooghost Corsica Studios 1 February

Avalon Emerson The Yard 17 February

Playboi Carti Kentish Town Forum 25 February

Midland Phonox 2 + 9 + 16 + 23 February Having built a reputation for classic, timeless mixes and wide-ranging DJ sets that have little regard for tempo or genre, 2017 saw Midland perform a busy festival schedule, play a residency at The Warehouse Project and step up for a FabricLive mix. The UK DJ won’t be stopping anytime soon either, as he plans on seeing in February with four consecutive nights at the Brixton club bookended by all-night sets with friends. Manchester’s Raf Dug will be joining him on the decks, as will NTS regular Dan Beaumont. Amongst the plethora of nights the UK capital has to offer, these are standout highlights on the February event calendar promising quality sets and guaranteed fun.

Davido Brixton Academy 18 February Nils Frahm Barbican 21 + 23 + 24 February Nils Frahm is leading a quiet revolution. In last month's Crack Magazine cover story, the iconoclastic pianist spoke about his passion for creating something timeless. Frahm's emphasis on making something which stands the test of time acts as a pointed rebuke to much of contemporary culture, where plastic fills up the oceans and art is lost in the scroll of the newsfeed. Something's clearly resonating: he's about to take his vision across the planet. The All Melody World Tour runs up a stonking 73 shows across 62 locations across the first half of 2018. Comprised of material from his new album, we're sure it'll make a lasting impact in the minds of those quick enough to cop tickets.

Col3trane Birthdays 20 February

Omar Souleyman Oval Space 7 February

EVENTS

Lobster Theremin: 5 Years of Techno M8 Corsica Studios 2 February

Sounds Like: Cinematic ambient soundscapes Soundtrack For: Clearing your head on a solitary Sunday walk File Next To: Nicolas Jaar / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Our Favourite Tune efa Fun Fact: Painter recently scored an advert for Disney Where to Find Her: kaylapainter.bandcamp.com

For a recent AV show, Kayla Painter guided an IMAX cinema audience through digital snowy mountains, before gracefully gliding over the ruins of awe-inspiring structures built by ancient empires. With visuals created by collaborator Jason Baker, Painter’s set – which saw her share a line-up with Fatima Al Qadiri and Pan Daijing – simulated the tranquil but quietly unnerving experience of exploring lifeless worlds. “I tend to paint bleak landscapes with my sound palette because it’s something that I find eerily comforting and beautiful at times,” Painter explains. While Painter’s work can conjure post-apocalyptic imagery, her sound palette includes warmer tones that are decorated with acoustic guitars and intriguing field recordings. There's her manipulated cooing – which brings to mind the vocal elements of Holly Herndon’s music – or the unconventional sampling on tracks made entirely out of sounds from underwater, which Painter recorded in the bath. Fragmented beats sometimes skitter around in her tracks too, suggesting cluborientated music has played a subtle part in the development of her sound. “I did grow up in Southampton, so I have a strong gravitational pull to anything between 130140 bpm and garagey.” Having started out with a passion for more conventional musicianship, Painter is eager to credit her higher education for her artistic development. At Newport University she read theorists such as Baudrillard, Derrida and Adorno, which helped open her mind as she experimented musically. “I went in as a bass player, playing in pretty standard band setups. I came out doing a ten minute experimental audio-visual performance at my grad show,” she remembers of her Creative Sound and Music degree. After studying a Masters degree in Bath, Painter settled in Bristol.

“I feel in two minds about Bristol,” she admits when asked about being based in the city. “It’s gone through several phases of having a really rich underground DIY culture in the years I’ve lived here, which as an experimental musician, I have really enjoyed. There were the days of [cassette label] Zam Zam records, who’d put on shows in warehouses, dank little basements, that sort of thing. [Those days] were wonderful, enriching and freeing of all structures.” However, Painter suggests the demand for adventurous sounds isn’t always as strong as the city’s reputation might have people believe. “I still find some people, even in Bristol, can be really narrow-minded about experimental music.” Fortunately, Painter is attracting some of the support she deserves for 2018, which will see her release new visuals alongside a string of singles and an EP. Having been selected for Gilles Peterson’s ‘Future Bubblers’ project, Painter is now receiving mentorship from Brownswood’s Mita De, a music industry vet who also manages Kindness. With a desire to absorb the knowledge she needs to navigate herself, just like those far-flung spaces captured in her visuals, Kayla Painter is making her own path towards unchartered musical territories.

MUSIC

Words: Davy Reed

023

Rising: Kayla Painter

025

Discover

Jay Glass Dub

Toronto DJ and promoter Ciel (aka Cindy Li) has little regard for genre when it comes to her sets, traversing the spectrum of breakbeat, trance, acid, house and electro through her classy and upbeat excursions. Her skills as a selector are just one aspect of her extended influence in Toronto’s music scene, with the Discwoman affiliate pushing for the ‘floor to be more inclusive for women and non-gender-conforming individuals via her night and radio show Work In Progress. Last year, she published a Google doc spotlighting hundreds of women DJs in the city; it was Li’s way of urging promoters to book line-ups that reflect the diverse, and often overlooked, pool of talent in Toronto. Her production debut, Electrical Encounters, landed via Shanti Celeste’s Peach Discs imprint in October. A hypnotic and captivating threetrack EP, it meanders through dreamy, glistening synths and buoyant rhythms, weaving a world of nebulous textures that, at times, is balanced by a hint of the unsettling.

K Trap

Abyss X

File Next To: Shanti Celeste / Pearson Sound

Followers of a certain pocket of experimental club music may have encountered Cretan polymath Abyss X before: she’s released on Rabit’s Halcyon Veil and Mexico’s Infinite Machine, burning through ideas and sound palettes with a theatricality that betrays her performance artist background. Certainly, few artists would have the gumption to follow the fluid RnB of Echoes with a mystical rumination of Minoan legend, employing a sea fog of ghostly chorales and filigree strings on 2016’s Mouths. But it’s Pleasure of the Bull (released via Aisha Devi’s Danse Noire this month) that feels like her definitive statement, giving full rein to her most gothic, theatrical impulses. Never mind the yen for new age music, we’re calling it – the dark ambient revival starts here.

Our Favourite Tune: Electrical Encounters

File Next To: Rabit / Lustmord

Where To Find Her: soundcloud.com/cl_lit

Our Favourite Tune: Lyrical Waxing

File Next To: Ossia / Trevor Jackson Our Favourite Tune: About The Author (ft. Leslie Winer) Where To Find Him: @jayglassdubs

It looks like UK drill is here to stay. Last year saw South London's K Trap breakthrough and drop his debut full-length The Last Whip in the summer, and the balaclava-clad 22-yearold recently tore into 2018 with new tune Watching. “Slithering snakes, how much time can I cut this grass?” he asks, before detailing the lifestyle his artist name references: “Italian kicks and clothes, I'm stepping clean from a kitchen stove/ I can get you a brick of snow, but after that's sold, I'll switch my phone.” Another morose banger with chilling lyrical precision. File Next To: 67 / Harlem Spartans Our Favourite Tune: Watching Where To Find Him: @ktrap19

L U C Y Hailing from Bristol and now studying in Guilford, experimental grime producer L U C Y is marrying the dark blueprints of her homecity’s sound with a future-facing, floor-focused sensibility bringing nothing but bangers. In previous interviews, she’s mentioned Kahn and Neek in the same breath as trap superproducer WondaGurl when unpacking her influences. It’s a formula that’s unmistakably present in her music – shiny, poppy synths clash with metallic percussive noises and squelchy bass throbs. File Next To: Mumdance / Preditah Our Favourite Tune: Flowers Where To Find Her: soundcloud.com/ lucyproduction

Where To Find Her: soundcloud.com/abyssxxx

MUSIC

Ciel

South London label Bokeh Versions explores the dankest end of dub mutations. The artists Seekersinternational and Jay Glass Dubs define the core of their sound, and the latter has just propelled the imprint into the highest esteems of fans of tripped out, slippery dub. Greek producer and DJ Jay Glass Dubs, real name Dimitris Papadatos, has earned a cult following in recent years with a number of albums which twist elements of coldwave, ambient, weightless grime and techno into its compelling dub template. Papadatos's latest release sees him become a darling of the avant-garde world: Your Mom’s Favourite Eazy-E Song is a collaboration with radical-minded intellectual, poet and former supermodel Leslie Winer, who is said to have invented trip hop with her 1990 album Witch. Innovative dub seems to have hit a purple patch in recent years, and Jay Glass Dubs is creating some of the most powerful – and beguiling – work in the genre.

PLUS MANY MANY MORE. JOINING THESE CREWS: AFICIONADO RECORDINGS / BANOFFEE PIES / CRACK MAGAZINE / DIRTYTALK DISCO DEVIANCE / DISCO HALAL / DISCO KNIGHTS / DOWN TO THE SEA & BACK / ELECTRIC CHAIR ESP INSTITUTE / FEEL MY BICEP / FUTUREBOOGIE / GOTTWOOD / HOMEGROWN / HOMOELECTRIC HONEY SOUNDSYSTEM / HOPE WORKS / HORSE MEAT DISCO / JUST JACK / LOWLIFE / MAKE ME MUSIC FOR DREAMS / NEEDS - NOT FOR PROFIT / NTS / PERCOLATE / RANSOM NOTE / RED LASER RECORDS / RESIDENT ADVISOR / ROBERT JOHNSON / SECRET SUNDAZE / SHAPES STEVIE WONDERLAND / STUDIO 89 / SUNSET SOUND SYSTEM / SUPER CONCIOUS RECORDS TEST PRESSING / THE NOTHING SPECIAL / TIEF / TROUBLE VISION / WILDE RENATE / ZUKUNFT

AVALON EMERSON / BEN UFO / BICEP / CALL SUPER CRAIG RICHARDS / CRAZY P SOUNDSYSTEM DANIELE BALDELLI / DJ TENNIS / FLOATING POINTS FOUR TET / GERD JANSON / HORSE MEAT DISCO / HUNEE JOB JOBSE / JOY ORBISON / MIDLAND / MOVE D OPTIMO / PALMS TRAX / PARANOID LONDON PROSUMER / ROMAN FLÜGEL / RUB N TUG / SHANTI CELESTE / THE UNABOMBERS / YOUNG MARCO

A SAGITTARIUN (LIVE) / ADAM SHELTON / ALEX DALLAS / ANDY BLAKE / APIENTO ARTWORK / ASTROCAT (LIVE) / ATA / BALEARIC MIKE / BANOFFEE PIES / BEGIN BENEDIKT FREY / BILL BREWSTER / BRADLEY ZERO / CHRISTOPHE / DAN BEAUMONT / DARSHAN JESRANI / DAVE HARVEY / DICKY TRISCO / DJ DIE / ERIC DUNCAN / FANTASTIC MAN / FELIX DICKINSON / FRANCIS INFERNO ORCHESTRA GATTO FRITTO / GEDDES / GIDËON / GINA BREEZE / HAMMER / HEIDI LAWDEN HONEY SOUNDSYSTEM / IDJUT BOYS / IL BOSCO / IGOR TIPURA / ILIJA RUDMAN / INTERGALATIC GARY / JAIME READ / JAMIE BLANCO / JAMIE BULL JAN SCHULTE / JANE FITZ / JASON BOARDMAN / JONNY ROCK / JOSEY REBELLE / KELVIN ANDREWS / KENNETH BAGER / KICKIN PIGEON / KIWI KRYSKO / LAUER / LEXX / LO SHEA / LOVEFINGERS / MAN POWER / MARVIN & GUY / MOSCOMAN / MOXIE / MR PRICE / NEIL DIABLO / NICK THE RECORD / NOT AN ANIMAL / OCTO OCTA LIVE / PARAMIDA / PBR STREETGANG PEAK & SWIFT PHAT PHIL COOPER / POWDER / RAY MANG / REBOLLEDO / ROI PEREZ / SAOIRSE SEAN JOHNSTON / SECRETSUNDAZE / SOLAR & GALEN / SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER (LIVE) / TELEPHONES / TOM OF ENGLAND / TRISTAN DA CUNHA WILL TRAMP / ZOMBIES IN MIAMI (LIVE)

JOINING THESE CREWS: AFICIONADO RECORDINGS / BANOFFEE PIES / CRACK MAGAZINE / DIRTYTALK DISCO DEVIANCE / DISCO HALAL / DISCO KNIGHTS / DOWN TO THE SEA & BACK / ELECTRIC CHAIR ESP INSTITUTE / FEEL MY BICEP / FUTUREBOOGIE / GOTTWOOD / HOMEGROWN / HOMOELECTRIC HONEY SOUNDSYSTEM / HOPE WORKS / HORSE MEAT DISCO / JUST JACK / LOWLIFE / MAKE ME MUSIC FOR DREAMS / NEEDS - NOT FOR PROFIT / NTS / PERCOLATE / RANSOM NOTE / RED LASER RECORDS / RESIDENT ADVISOR / ROBERT JOHNSON / SECRET SUNDAZE / SHAPES STEVIE WONDERLAND / STUDIO 89 / SUNSET SOUND SYSTEM / SUPER CONCIOUS RECORDS TEST PRESSING / THE NOTHING SPECIAL / TIEF / TROUBLE VISION / WILDE RENATE / ZUKUNFT

PLUS MANY MANY MORE.

027 What's your background in the Atlanta music industry? I don’t want to date myself, but I’m a 20-year veteran. And I’ve been able to coach a lot of teams. I started with Pastor Troy – a cultural icon in the South of America. Then I managed [Young] Jeezy for eight years, then I managed Gucci Mane for five. And then Migos. There have been a lot of artists in between them, but those were cultural moments in hip-hop history. Is it true that the American hip-hop industry is still primarily based in New York and LA? The major labels are in New York and LA, but the South has had a chokehold on hip-hop for the last 15 years. Me and my business partner [Pierre Thomas] were just having a conversation last night, with Quality Control we’re going to build a platform so these artists from the South don’t have to go to New York or LA. We want to become that major label in the South. Def Jam was [once] an indie, then it became a major. Interscope was an indie, became a major. So that’s the plan for Quality Control. What makes Quality Control different from traditional record labels? When we sign an artist, it’s business, but it’s more like we’re a big family of creatives. Most other major labels,

their employees might have 100 artists they have to deal with. At 7pm, when they shut down, they go home to their families and the next day they have to deal with different artists. With us, we’re smaller and we’re more direct. What inspired you to work with Stefflon Don? I mean, she’s very, very talented. Steff is culture, you know what I’m saying? Our music comes from a place that’s inside, you have soul with it. She has a label, because she’s partnered with a really good friend of mine, and the first time I heard her music, I was like ‘Oh my god this is incredible, I want to be your partner in the States’. She has the talent and the ability to cross over here into the States. Because she’s making the type of music that’s universal. Our label is all about a culture and a feeling. And Steff has it. To what extent have Migos affected Quality Control and your career in general? Are they at the heart of what Quality Control does? I mean, Migos was our first signing – it’s going to be five years in May. They’re the OGs of the label, and they’re the babies of the label! So we spent a lot of time developing the sound, developing the look, you know, just developing the talent.

What was the vision for the recent Quality Control: Control The Streets Vol 1. compilation? The vision for that is self-explained – to control the streets. We wanted to display our artists and talent. In a way, we’re running it right now. What we’re basically saying is that we’ve got the streets on lock, whether it’s your city or my city. The Migos members have been particularly prolific with collaborations and guest verses. Is that part of the strategy? Most definitely, we want a piece of the market share. Offset had the Without Warning album with 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, Quavo had the Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho album with Travis Scott. The plan was for it all to come back to the album Culture 2. What projects can we expect from Quality Control in 2018? Culture 2. New projects from City Girls, Jordan Hollywood, another Lil Baby project, [Lil Yachty’s] Lil Boat 2. A surprise Glazier Boys project – that’s going to be a big one. Culture 2 is out now via Quality Control Music / Virgin EMI

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Atlanta's rap mogul outlines the goals for his label Quality Control Music

Interview by: Davy Reed Photography: Lester Cohen

Coach K

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029 Words: Louise Brailey Photography: Ninja Hanna Creative Direction: Martin Falck

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Bite B ack

Having laid The Knife to rest with a surreal finale in 2013, last year Karin Dreijer shocked her fans with the reprisal of her muchloved solo project. In the years since 2009â€™s debut Fever Ray LP, the freedoms Dreijer so fiercely protects have come under increasing threat. But following a period of queer exploration, the progressive glow of Fever Ray is brighter than ever.

When Karin Dreijer showed her sister a trailer for her new album, Plunge, she didn’t get it right away. The short visual features an alien woman – a kind of monstrous feminine, played by Dreijer, with skin painted arsenicwhite. She’s fielding a phone call from a stiletto telephone, dressed in Japanese bondage rope and white rubber; in her hand, a speculum. Flanked around this character is a row of polythene-sheeted objects, suspended from butchers’ hooks which, according to Dreijer, represent the old Fever Ray costumes. But her sister wasn’t buying it. “She said, ‘they look like dead bodies!’”

“Hey, remember me?” teases the opening line on the lead single, To the Moon and Back. “I’ve been busy

working like crazy.” But it hasn’t been all work – Dreijer got divorced from her husband five years ago and, to use her own euphemism, has spent the time since then “being curious”. The result is a record which teems with freedom, an abundance of queer desire and subversive sex. You don’t need her sister’s gift for semiotics to work out what’s going on the video for lead single To the Moon and Back; a delightfully twisted coming out fable inspired by the cult 80s movie Liquid Sky which begins with a cryogenic reawakening and ends with a woman – dressed as a kind of X-rated Mr. Incredible – well, doing what hasn’t been done in pop music since Frankie

Goes to Hollywood’s Relax video. But that wasn’t the most shocking part: at the very end of the track, which marries percolating synths with a hyper-catchy major key melody, lies a tonal tripwire, a lyrical shake in the habitual: “I want to run my fingers up your pussy”. “The ‘pussy’ thing, it’s super important,” Dreijer readjusts her specs (they’re those hip ones, with see-through frames) and laughs at my botched attempt to cite the line. She’s talking to me from her Stockholm home over Skype, the laptop balanced on her knees which gifts our talk a strangely intimate complexion. “It’s like a super primitive, super decisive way of just

Revisiting the first album, Fever Ray, you’d be hard-pressed to find any ‘fucks’, and certainly no fucking. Arriving between The Knife’s 2006 breakout album Silent Shout and Shaking the Habitual, Fever Ray anatomised the cosmic alienation of new motherhood. The distinctive sound, a kind of penumbral synth pop, leaned hard into pop’s darkest recesses, all pitchedshifted vocals and synths that thrummed with a rheumatic loneliness. It wasn’t a happy record, but it wasn’t a happy time. “I had children with a man… a male person,” she self-corrects. “And experienced all the structures around having a kid and what’s expected of you when you become a mother. You’re not expected to be an artist. You’re not expected to do anything.” There was one line in particular, from Seven, which stood out on that record – perhaps because it distilled this kind of domestic, dogmatic reprogramming: “Accompany me/ by the kitchen sink/ We talk about love/ we talk about dishwasher tablets, illness/ And we dream about heaven”.

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wanting to be free,” she clarifies. “I think To the Moon and Back is probably the happiest track I’ve ever done. I think it’s so full of life. It’s, like, super horny.”

The symbolism won’t be lost on longtime followers of Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer’s solo project. It’s been eight years since Dreijer hung up her druid robes for real, and few were expecting a return. In fact, the last glimpse many of us had of Dreijer was on screen, in drag, as part of The Knife’s extraordinary final tour. That was in 2013, when Dreijer, along with her bandmate and brother Olaf opted to bring the curtain down on their celebrated synth pop project with pre-recorded music and high concept production. A kind of Godspell meets Gender Trouble, bowing out in a blaze of postmodern theory and spandex. The Knife’s widely-publicised, divisive curtain call has effectively raised the stakes for the forthcoming Fever Ray live show, which kicks into gear this month. As audacious as The Knife’s final statement was, it pales in comparison to what came next. Plunge, the longawaited follow-up to 2009’s Fever Ray, landed in late October. It's an album so profoundly surprising that the least surprising thing about it was its surprise release. Dreijer, who is 42-years-old, even surprised herself. “You know, I’ve made a track with 17 ‘fucks’ on it. I’ve never said that word in my whole life.” She laughs at this, her normally steady voice suddenly pitching upwards, in disbelief, or perhaps shock. She’s not the only one.

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“Change happens when you take money away from the people who oppress us”

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For Dreijer, whose sharp-fanged, feminist politics were clear to anyone who had listened to Silent Shout (sample lyric: “I’ve got mace, pepper spray/ And some shoes that run faster than a rapist rapes”), the situation was untenable. The tipping point came when she became concerned about the effect it was having on her children, now aged 10 and 14. “That’s not how to be a role model for your kids,” she says, adding, “That is not the way I – or anybody – is supposed to be.” Karin Dreijer’s politics, it’s safe to say, were shaped early. She grew up in the suburbs of Gothenburg, some 400 kilometres away from where she lives now, in Stockholm. Her mother was a librarian, her father was an architect who was also active in the communist party – but, Dreijer hastens to add, that was pretty common on the West coast of Sweden in the 70s. The upbringing instilled a strong sense of social justice in her. “I learned very early that it was very unjust that some people have money and some people don’t. I think when I meet new people, that’s my biggest interest still,” she says. And it shows – she’s at her freest when talking about the current state of politics in Sweden, railing at the Social Democrat party, or the school system. Growing up in Gothenburg, even among a left-leaning family, had its challenges. “Gothenburg was a very strange place. It was very much [beholden] to the old Social Democrat fear that everything should be the same: a family looks like this, everybody will also get this much money from the government, but then you will create a family like this.” Furthermore, despite being outwardly progressive, Gothenburg was small-C conservative. “I didn’t know what feminism was. Until I was, I don’t know, maybe 20 or something,” she reveals. “The left in Sweden, they were very homophobic – it was not a place for any queerness.”

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She got out as soon as she could, making a break for Stockholm, where all the “queers and weirdos and freaks” were, and set out to become a visual artist. “I applied for so many art schools but they wouldn’t let me in!” Settling on music instead, she formed her first band, Honey Is Cool, in 1994. She soon found her ambitions hemmed in by a backwards music industry that wrote them off as a girl band, despite Dreijer being the sole female. “But at the same time,” she remembers, “there was this DIY idea of doing things – that you could start your own label, produce your own music.” She and Olaf set up Rabid Records in 1998 as a way of buying themselves some freedom. The Knife was formed the following year, and they became one of the most influential bands of the early aughts, garnering international success and winning a succession of Grammis,

the Swedish version of the Grammys. They were invited to countless award ceremonies. They refused them all. Affecting a pointed distance, The Knife cloaked their identity in elaborate costumes and alienation tactics, once submitting an interviewer to the indignity of asking his questions via vocoder. The vestiges of this evasive performance art can still be read in Dreijer’s love of elaborate, often transgressive costumes and visual hallmarks. But now this gallery of characters reveal almost as much as they obfuscate. The cover of Plunge, for example, is a close-up of Dreijer’s face. But it’s covered in a spidery, Gothic lettering spelling out Fever Ray. According to Martin Falck, the album’s creative director, it's a play on the paradox at the heart of heavy metal: hyper-masculinity and make-up. Intriguingly, as part of the album roll out, Dreijer released an album teaser called Switch Seeks Same – terminology that many will associate with LGBT culture and BDSM. She also released a manifesto, co-written with British artist Hannah Black, that declared her desire to find, “a girl who stands 10 feet tall and has teeth like razors; I’m looking for a girl who could play the bored receptionist in the lobby of the afterlife”. Does she want to elaborate? “There’s an Instagram account called Herstory Personals,” she says, by way of explanation. The cult account offers a space where women can place hook-up requests in the faux-naif style of 90s personals – “Leggy Femme ISO Her Rachel Maddow", that kind of thing. “It’s amazing. I was reading that lot, and also exploring a lot of different dating sites,” she smiles a tight-lipped smile. “But… I’m not convinced.” When pressed further as to why she’s yet to be swayed by the promises of online dating, she closes down. “I think that’s a bit too private.” Talk, instead, turns to her IRL experiences in Berlin. Olaf moved there 12 years ago, and she’s been visiting the city since, exploring the intersection between anarchism and queerness that thrives across the city. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. It never happens in Stockholm, those parties and conferences and workshops.” She leans in, describing the unique atmosphere of trust fostered within the community. “Within BDSM there is this idea about consent and negotiation. Where your limits are. Then you can do almost anything.” It’s not hard to read these ideas percolating throughout the album which, at times, takes on the complexion of a make-believe safespace. On Wanna Sip, for example (“Wanna do it? If we do it, it's my way”) or A Part of Us (“No disrespectful gaze/ Centre of attention”).

This self-revelation as self-revolution takes on an extra charge in 2018. Not only has European and US politics polarised, generating an air of ambient anxiety, but the most fraught ideological point-scoring is taking place around sites of identity. Queer theory and feminism, once the preserve of academia, have been pulled into the real world, and the battlegrounds are now terrifying real: in the street, in public washrooms, or else intimate and amplified on Twitter. Dreijer, like everyone, feels it. “It’s a super effective way to oppress people. To take away their sexuality and try to blur it out.” Here she labours over the precise wording. “To shame queer sex is a way to quieten gay and queer people”. Plunge deals with the topic in typically candid fashion, “Perverts define my fuck history,” she spits on This Country, Dreijer’s vocal cadence landing like the twinge of a horrible memory. “The heteronormative forces like people to fit in, and they are so difficult to fight,” Dreijer counters, before suggesting a means of pushing back. “Making queer porn is one way.” (Intriguingly, The Knife tapped two queer porn directors, Marit Östberg and Bitte Anderson, to have directed The Knife videos, and the band contributed to the porn doc When We Are Together We Can Be Everywhere.) “But there are so many other ways.” Like making an album which features a line, “One hand in mine, the other in a tight fist”? “I hope it helps people find freedom, yes.” To help essay the album’s fight for liberation, Dreijer turned to a number of new musical collaborators. Some were old friends, like Berlin techno producer Paula Temple, whose eddies of steely ambient plays out like a sonic refractory period. Others came from further afield – like Nídia of Príncipe (Dreijer’s “favourite label”) who produced IDK About You, a 150bpm batida track that bristles with exposed-nerve energy. As one half of DJ duo Karim and Karam, she can often be found spinning the label’s output as part of their anarchic, global-reaching sets. Likewise, Tunisian producer Deena Abdelwahed – who contributed to An Itch – creates experimental but essentially playful music. The result, at times, harnesses the free-spirited energy of the club space, a diversity of styles reflecting a plurality of emotional states or identity in flux. There are developments elsewhere, too. The gender-masking pitch-shifting effect, a fundamental part of both the Fever Ray and Knife sound worlds, has been junked for Plunge. Instead, vocals sit high in the mix, spiky and prominent. “Of course, that is a performative action to choose not to use a certain effect,” she points out, with the air of a particularly patient module tutor. “But.

I think the voices of angry women are super nice.” When asked to elaborate, she grows a little shy. “Like rock women. I’ve listened to that a lot when I was younger, and that was something I found very comforting. Like Courtney Love, her first album as Hole.” Then she changes tack again: “But I don’t put any authenticity into that, that the human voice is more real than another one.” The voices of angry women can be heard more and more nowadays. The day before the interview, an open letter hit the headlines, signed by thousands of female artists who condemned sexism rife within the Swedish music industry. It was the latest brick to be lobbed into the deluxe hotel suite that is structural misogyny, and it gives Dreijer pause. “I hope, I really do hope it will make a change.” She closes her eyes and gathers her thoughts. “I’ve started to think about the past much more since #MeToo and also what’s happening in Sweden.” Is it something that she has experienced firsthand? “It’s happened so much it’s hard to pick out one thing,” she bristles. “It still happens when I’m on tour now, when I go into a venue, the guys who open the doors they… ” she gives a hollow laugh. “They still think I’m somebody’s girlfriend.” Is there any cause for hope? “Change happens when you take the money away from the people who oppress us,” she offers. As the conversation begins to wrap up, Dreijer becomes reflective. “I had a talk with a friend after I finished the album,” she remembers, eyes glinting. “We were talking about how to present it. She looked at me and said, 'You know, you’re coming out now. Officially.’” Dreijer looks perplexed, as if the thought had never once occurred to her. “I mean, to me, I don’t think it’s a big difference. I have always been fluid in my sexuality.” That may be. But even in a career defined by subversion, the way which Plunge weaponises queer desire feels vital. Although, perhaps predictably, it’s too much for some. “It makes me so uncomfortable,” sniffed one commenter, beneath the video for To the Moon and Back. Does that trouble her? What do you think. “No, I think that’s super good,” she grins. “It would be weird if everybody liked this. Because then we’d be the norm.” Plunge is out now via Rabid / Mute Fever Ray appears at Melt! Festival, Germany, 13-15 July

“I’ve experienced all the structures around having a kid and what’s expected of you when you become a mother. You’re not expected to be an artist”

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GoldLink:

The breakthrough rapper carries the torch of Washington D.C.â€™s legacy

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“Rap is chic, eccentric, Afrocentric and fun”

Words: Jesse Bernard Photography: Jack McKain

For decades, New York and LA had a stronghold over the American hiphop industry. And although recent years have seen Atlanta and Toronto dominate the US charts, there are still many obstacles for rap artists from other regions hoping to break the mainstream.

GoldLink tells me on a snowy day in London. The community spirit of the collaborators seeped into the DNA of the track, and he credits this for its rampant success. “It was one of the most natural and organic songs I’ve ever made, and a lot of that was because of these guys.”

But there's something brewing in these underdog states. The DMV area – which includes D.C., Maryland and Virginia – is a hotbed of talent that’s had few moments in the sun. In 2017, GoldLink created a powerful endorsement for the area when he dropped Crew – a smooth anthem featuring fellow Washington D.C. rapper Shy Glizzy alongside Baltimore singer Brent Faiyaz. At the time of writing, Crew has racked up over 56 million views on YouTube, and it’s been nominated for the Best Rap/Sung Performance award at the Grammys alongside tracks from Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and SZA.

GoldLink also reps his area by incorporating the go-go genre into his style. Go-go has traditionally been the region’s black sound, enjoying prominence from the mid-60s and 70s through to the old school hip-hop era and the more modern bounce beat. But it never quite managed to achieve nationwide success – fans of The Wire might recall Stringer Bell telling a character from D.C. that he “can’t stand that go-go shit”. While it has its roots in funk like most popular black music genres, go-go differs slightly as it exists primarily as a dance hall sound. GoldLink's 2017 album At What Cost, which includes DMV artists Mya, April George, Kokayi and Wale, was a candid love letter to his hometown that also conjured a nostalgic reimagining of the go-go sound – which GoldLink has called 'future bounce'.

“I didn’t anticipate [Crew] being so big but I knew it was something special,”

Despite GoldLink’s recent surge in success, the 24-year-old remains steadfast in his goal of putting D.C. on the map. The state's other flag-bearer, Wale, hasn’t been able to do it alone: despite his commercial success, a lot of serious rap fans are still waiting to be convinced by him. Fat Trel – who, like Wale, is signed to Rick Ross’s Maybach Music label – has reached a stage in his career where a mainstream breakthrough seems unlikely. But GoldLink thinks that, with all the dark times his city

has been through, it’s important now more than ever that D.C. is recognised globally for its music culture, which derives from its African American roots. While we’re on the subject of identity, he describes himself as “the epitome of black rap,” and it’s not just an inflated ego talking. “It’s more than being just black. It’s chic, eccentric, Afrocentric, fun and international and that’s what rap is,” he adds. On his track We Will Never Die, GoldLink raps, "Goddamn, young Link straight from the slums runnin' shit here/ You don't know what I been through for us to start gunnin' round here". It’s a reminder that despite how far he’s come, his humble beginnings aren’t a distant memory. In 2017, it’s reported that there were 89 shootings and 116 homicides in the D.C. area. I can sense that GoldLink laments these kinds of statistics, but also acknowledges that no matter how much the city undergoes change through gentrification, it’s something he can’t ignore. “It’s not always love, but we find a way to get along,” he says of the community he grew up with. GoldLink shines a colourful, rhythmic light on D.C.’s rich music culture, and in 2018 we can expect him to be “sticking to his guns, collaborating with more artists and trying to evolve”. Atlanta rap was barely known before OutKast welcomed us on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and it took Drake to truly put the Six on the map. Whatever happens from here, GoldLink will go down in history as an artist who gave the DMV an anthem of its own to proudly boast about. At What Cost is out now via RCA GoldLink appears at Sónar Barcelona, 14-16 June

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Vic M

040 Words: Aniefiok Ekpoudom Photography: Theo Cottle

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The Chicago rapper tumbles through life with his heart on his sleeve

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043 But Vic Mensa, spread over a plastic chair, sipping at a cool bottle of water, seems to take no notice. He’s fatigued, perhaps jetlagged too. The previous night had been spent on a plane, where he had tried desperately to relax as the mass of aluminium and jet fuel hauled itself across the Atlantic, from his home city of Chicago to London.

Nearly five years have passed since Vic Mensa first broke out of Chicago, leaving behind basement shows for cross-country tours, his childhood band Kids These Days for a freeing career as a solo artist. He poured his life into his work, releasing Innanetape, a project which saw him experiment with a melodic, elastic vocal style not dissimilar to that of his friend Chance The Rapper, who started out as a member of Mensa’s Savemoney crew. By 2015, when he was 22, Mensa’s style had evolved and the work started to breed results and recognition. He went on to release two collaborations with hometown hero Kanye West (U Mad and Wolves), and he signed a deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. But celebrity status has not tamed Vic Mensa. He has been consistently vocal about police brutality and white supremacy in interviews and late-night TV shows, on Twitter and red carpets, feeling a need to dedicate himself to issues larger than his own. And when he steps on stage to perform, like

He rubs his eyes and fidgets in his chair, as if any moment of quiet will send him crashing into a deep, fairytale-like slumber.

previously tussled with depression, drugs and anxiety. “In recent music I’ve put out, I’ve never pretended everything is all good,” he tells me, reflecting on those honest admissions. “I’ve just been real about shit, I’ve been real about the fact that I’ve conquered a lot of my fucking demons and shit.” The most recent battle is not personal but with his own country. It is the era of Donald Trump and divisive politics. The ‘land of the free’ seems to be folding in on itself, trapped in a suspended state of chaos, flitting from tragedy to tragedy, peace replaced by rebellion. And so, Vic, still only 24, now finds himself concerned with trying to mend the sorry state of a once lauded nation.

“London is my favourite city,” he says, shaking his head, his midwestern accent worn. “I’ve got so many friends out here, had so many great times… but I’m just too tired.” He curls his knees up to his chest, pulling his feet in close. “That plane sleep just ain’t the same, man.” In the next few weeks he will swap cities like footballers switching jerseys, and his only rest will come in brief fits: on planes, in cars, and if he can find some quiet on early afternoons in photography studios like these. “My life never has any routine,” he says, “and I live with pressure… I mean, pressure motivates me, but sometimes it also gives me fucking anxiety you know? A lot of the time people think that I have it all figured out… I don’t have it all figured out at all. I take care of myself better than I have done in other points of time, but I never put on a fake smile.”

“I take care of myself better than I have done in other points of time, but I never put on a fake smile”

he would do later in Shoreditch that evening, he says he feels pride that his 2017 album The Autobiography best reflects where he finds himself now. And unlike others tasked with being young and growing old in the spotlight, he’s chosen not to hide his flaws as he’s blossomed and slipped up, faltered and then found his feet again. Instead he has been open: about his delicate mental state and how he has

“I think that fear of the other is on the rise right now,” he says. “And what’s short-sighted about those fears is the failure to recognise who profits from them. As human beings, we all experience the same basic range of emotions, our bodies are configured in the same way, we eat the same food, drink the same water, there can’t be that many things that really separate us.” “What are the five senses of human beings?” he goes on. “Smell, touch, sight, hearing, taste. We all experience these things exactly the same, I don’t understand how different we could be.”

His solution, he argues, is love. “I think that love can live without freedom but freedom cannot live without love. Slaves loved. We love in poverty, we love in prosperity. But there can’t be freedom without love. “I think you determine your own destiny,” he says. “I’ve decided to dedicate myself, in and outside of music, to things bigger than me. I don’t know if I was born with a specific path but I get some answers to ‘why’ when I apply myself to causes that unite rather than isolate.” But while he’s attempted to save the world, he’s also had to save himself. Though he practices meditation and takes his medicine and exercise regularly, he still has the tendency to slip away from routine, drifting back into old habits, watching as things slowly fall apart, with no person to blame but himself. So now it seems the only obstacles that can prevent Vic Mensa are his own inhibitions. “Fear?” he says. “I know it very well. “I have a very personal relationship with fear. I think that without fear there’s very often not a motivation to stay alive. It’s the lion that makes the gazelle run so fast. With that said, fuck fear, I hate fear — but we need it.” Vic Mensa appears at The Governors Ball Music Festival, New York City, 1-3 June

MUSIC

In the near distance, somewhere not far over his head, Vic Mensa can hear the growl of a train skating across a bridge in East London. The soft grumble of the iron horse pierces the wintry afternoon, sending shudders down into the photography studio below. It’s an airy workspace carved into the arch of a railway bridge, and it’s now crowded with people and heavy lighting equipment and small talk. The grates of steel and murmuring railroad come dripping through the ceiling, shaking the walls, for a moment startling the small entourage of management and publicists, photographers and label staff.

Produced exclusively for Crack Magazine by Charlie Newhouse - charlienewhouse.co

MUSIC

Words: Theo Kotz Photography: Matt Martin

047

The Geordie psych-metal outfit have mastered a dark art

Among them is Charlie Chaplin (“I was quite happy with that one,” he admits). The list ends with his own punchline, Danny DeVito, and I glance at my own notes where minutes before I had written the words: ‘Danny DeVito – deranged Penguin’. Well, now he can add it to the list proper. It’s all refreshingly light-hearted. This show, hosted by The Quietus, is with experimental folk musician and fellow Geordie Richard Dawson, who himself conducts his inter-performance patter with the timing of a seasoned standup comedian. Early in their own set, Baty suggestively growls the words “I love you mummy, I love it when you rub my tummy” while doing just that, and howls “I am a thumb sucker” through his own first digit. Such actions summon a kind of demonic fury wrapped up in a knowing camp. The band's unconventional behaviour is attracting attention, but they’re humble

about their own hype. “It’s not like we do anything wildly different is it?”, Baty points out when I speak to him and guitarist Adam Ian Sykes a week before the gig. “If anything I think we’re incredibly derivative,” Sykes argues. That said, they’re happy to prod the sense of notoriety that surrounds their irresistible brand of sludgy riffage, sustained jamming and gleeful shrieks. And how else to begin with a band like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, than with their name? “I knew Matt, Jonny [bass] and Sam [guitar] for a while before we started,” Sykes tells me. “Someone mentioned this awful band name they had in the pub. I then actually stole it and had a couple of practises with a mutual friend of ours and they were like: ‘If you’re having our name then we’ll come and practise.’” “Basically me and Jonny got asked to join the band that we had formed in the first place,” laughs Baty. “The name came from making music with a band on its last legs, which just wasn’t fun anymore. We just wanted to start a band that was fun. It’s a ridiculous name that I thought was a good fit.” It’s certainly a break from the darker bands they often play in (Khuunt and Blown Out are good examples). Plus for Baty, a drummer by trade, it was a chance to move to the front of the stage and indulge in his natural talent

for pantomime. And judging by their consistently sold-out schedule, people are getting swept up in it. The buzz has ratcheted since the release of their debut album Feed the Rats last year. The three track LP sees Sweet Relief – which runs at a radio-friendly length of four and a half minutes – bookended by two fifteen minute epics of pulsating hammerblows. The band maintain a gritted intensity while Baty acts like a medium for the unholy spawn of Ozzy and Lemmy. As my experience of their London show attests, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ material truly comes to life by being unleashed on stage. “The only way you can get inside the song is by performing it live,” Baty argues, “because everything gets heightened. You learn everything about that song by playing live.” “I think at really good gigs you black out,” offers Sykes. Baty concurs. “It’s kind of like a trancelike state, almost like meditation. You can switch off that internal voice that says: ‘This isn't very good is it? You're not very good at this are you?’ You know you just forget, and my hope is that people get that [from] watching or listening to us as well.”

MUSIC

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are midway through their set at a soldout Friday night gig in London. The Newcastle band’s frontman Matt Baty is reading from a piece of paper, his hair dripping with sweat. He is wearing black shorts above the knee, and has removed the florally embellished black shirt he was wearing to reveal his heaving chest. On the scrap of paper are some of the comparisons he’s garnered online and in print.

048

“The studio is where you write the gospel. On stage is where the slaughter takes place”

“One gig that sticks in the memory was at [London venue] Electrowerkz. I started inviting people on to the stage which ended up filled with our friends just hitting things and shouting. I gave the mic away and went to lie on a couch backstage sort of heaving and panting. I could just hear all this noise back on the stage. That's on YouTube somewhere, I think.” It’s remarkable that they come close to capturing such a white-knuckle pummelling on tape: it’s akin to bottling hellfire, or writing out the deathly squall of a hurricane in musical notation. Yet their catatonic din bludgeons its way through speakers at home as in sweaty bars. “We try to create a sort of dogma in a studio,” says Sykes of the process. “I suppose in the studio is where you write the gospel… and then on stage is where the slaughter takes place.”

MUSIC

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ first record was released on Sykes’ short-lived imprint The Old Noise. Now they’ve found an appropriate home with Rocket Recordings – purveyors of psychedelia including the twin

totems of communal playing, Salford outfit Gnod as well as the mysterious Swedish band Goat. The Pigs and Goat essentially shared their first gig together in 2012 (although Goat were eventually booked in London the night before). And if Newcastle seems an odd place for a mythologised masked band from northern Sweden to be booked for their first gig, it shouldn’t: the city has a long history of supporting brilliantly noisy and weird music.

Venue troubles aside, Baty has a theory as to why Newcastle maybe doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. “I suppose it’s because there's a lack of music industry in Newcastle. I'd be surprised if many labels or managers come to scout bands. They'll find them in Manchester or London. You could be the greatest band on earth playing in Newcastle and no-one will ever fucking know about you. Sometimes people talk about it as if you’re on Mars.”

“Band-wise there's been loads of amazing music for quite a while,” Sykes says of the Newcastle scene. But the problem lies in the closure of many of the city’s most precious event spaces. Among them the Star and Shadow, where that first gig was played. “That left a big hole,” says Baty. Though hope has not left the city’s music scene completely: the volunteer-run cinema and venue now owns its own building and will re-open to the public in due course, as will The Old Police House, the revered underground spot just across the bridge in Gateshead, which had to shut its doors recently.

One week later I’m watching Baty clamber above the speakers and hurl down his intense gospel. Sykes sends his guitar into the clamouring crowd and surveys the scene, enthusiastically slurping a Kronenberg, while the rest of the band charge on. Baty disappears from view, and the screech of feedback and celebratory whoops fill the air. The greatest band on earth? Probably not. But hell if it isn't fun. Feed the Rats is out now via Rocket Recordings

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Rina Sawayama

Words: Ione Gamble Photography: Henry Gorse Styling: Neesha Tulsi Champaneria Stylist's Assistant: Joe Mills Hair Stylist: Waka Adachi Make-Up: Grace Ellington using MAC

“If art doesn’t make you escape from real life, then what’s the point?” Rina Sawayama asks me. The Tokyoborn, London-based artist is on to something: it's easy to lose yourself in her world of saccharine pop and glossy futuristic visuals. But to say her work is pure fantasy would undermine what she’s achieving as a musician. While inspired by the pop princesses of the early-aughts, Sawayama makes pop music for the self conscious millennial. Tracks such as Cyber Stockholm Syndrome, from 2017's mini album RINA, probe our increasingly complex relationship with technology, speaking to every one of us who spends hours scrolling social media while simultaneously mulling over countless existential crises. On top of making sense of life in the digital age with her music, Sawayama works as a model, using her own image as a tool against patriarchal, Westernised standards of beauty. “Challenging ideas of beauty is important to me, it’s an internal challenge to always do something new,” she explains.

STYLE

For Sawayama, embracing the things she loves – whether it be Lady Gaga, or her new haircut inspired by 90s boybands – is a political choice. “When you change your look you are challenging other people’s idea of you – that can be quite inspiring.” She

continues, “even little observations such as how your appearance can challenge femininity, that was definitely a factor in my decision to have shorter hair.” For someone who appears so brilliantly sure of themselves, it’s surprising to hear that Sawayama hasn’t always felt so headstrong in being who she is. “Music can really help you understand yourself, but there was a time a long time where I didn’t understand myself because I didn’t allow myself to just like the things that I liked.” Feeling under pressure to exist as purely a “British singer”, she temporarily dismissed the J-Pop she adored growing up in favour of “stuff on Soundcloud”. Sawayama continues, “as soon as I let myself enjoy and also analyse the music that I used to like back in the 00s, I was able to create something that was true to myself.” Admitting she spends a lot of time “hanging out on Instagram”, you only have to hear one of Sawayama’s tracks to know that she has complicated feelings about life online. For anyone that follows her on social media, you’ll already know she’s outspoken about the issues she cares about, from calling out racism and a lack of representation in the fashion industry, to promoting Asian designers while she's on set trying on clothes. However, shedding light on issues she cares about isn’t always easy. “I was coming from a really angry standpoint

maybe about a year ago,” Sawayama explains, “you set yourself up when you talk about these issues and put yourself in the position of an expert – when actually you’re not an expert at all. It’s hard to do everything. Activism, and art, and music – I feel like I’m incorporating it all but that’s been a challenge for me.” Sawayama joins the growing rank of pop stars who tackle politics head on – “I feel like pop is having a real self-aware, introspective moment” – but she’s still conflicted as to her own place in this new era of political pop. "Some people can just exist and their identity is their activism,” she says. "However, when activism is all social media based, it can so quickly turn to hate and that’s not what I want to spread.” Sawayama's considered self-awareness is reflective of how many young women now live their lives. And as fashion continues to embrace maximalism, for Sawayama, her bright clothes and determination to have fun with what she wears goes far beyond being Insta-ready at all times – they act as an armour to take on an increasingly dark world. “I’m just trying to be more positive this year, because if you’re not it’s just fucking depressing, isn’t it? RINA is out now via Momoé Records

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053 STYLE

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Gloves: Minnan Hui Swim top: Base Range Cooling face mask: Photographer's Own

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Memories of a Life A new exhibition at the Barbican captures the worldâ€™s most elusive countercultures and persecuted communities, finding beauty in their difference

ART

Words: Douglas Greenwood

059 ART

Casa Susanna Collection, Attributed to Andrea Susan, [Christmas card from Gloria in a black dress], 1965

060 Paz Errázuriz, Evelyn, La Palmera, Santiago, From the series La Manzana de Adán (Adam’s Apple), 1983

Philippe Chancel, Untitled, 1982, From the series Rebel’s Paris 1982

Casa Susanna Collection, Attributed to Andrea Susa, 1964-1969

ART

061 35 years after that photo was taken, it’s hung on the wall of London’s Barbican as part of Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins, an exhibition that champions difference rather than ridiculing it, and celebrates the legendary photographers who’ve captured its foremost figures over the past half century. Gathered from archives, galleries and personal collections, the most moving and provocative work of 20 photographers makes up the hundreds-strong showcase, chronicling everything from the street kids of Seattle to queer, crossdressing men in 1960s New Jersey who felt more free behind closed doors. Though their lives couldn’t be more different, the legacies of these outsiders have been immortalised on celluloid by photographers the world over. Now, they play as valuable a part in marking the pain of the past as they do the promise of the future. Exhibitions like this risk veering into the realms of gross fetishisation: treating their subjects like circus acts, and putting them on pedestals for voyeuristic purposes rather than to inform whoever’s viewing it. But the exhibition’s title alone manages to reject that; these people live alternate lives – not bizarre ones, and many of the image-makers involved are photographing them because they feel like it’s their duty to do so. Errázuriz was somebody who treated her work as a tool for positive political change. Her Adam’s Apple (1983) series respectfully captures the lives of Chile’s trans sex workers, the photos aching with the strength of the people they’re depicting. In one, a transgender woman is strewn across a bed in a dilapidated bedroom; in another, a

woman is seen in a wig and a cableknit sweatshirt, gently resting her hand on her elderly mother’s shoulder. The motivation of a photographer is a daunting thing to consider when the world has previously paid you no mind, but Errázuriz’s work captures a spirit of defiance. They’re evidence that these women lived through such fraught times, and exist to ensure we never forget it. The art world has fawned over photographers who tread the fine line between artist and photojournalist like Errázuriz for decades, Larry Clark being another known for diving intimately into ostracised communities. He played a key role in making unsightly art part of the American cultural conversation when Kids, his cinematic portrait of New York’s disenfranchised, skateboarding, drugtaking youth, cracked the box office back in 1995. The harsh reality of surviving as an addict couldn’t be more visceral and unattractive than in the photographer’s seminal photobook, Tulsa, excerpts of which also feature in Another Kind of Life. Shot across the 60s and 70s, Clark captured his friends as they drank, smoked and fucked their way through their early 20s – alongside Clark himself – creating poignant and raw portraits of 20th century American youth. “It was such a secret world and I was one of the guys,” Clark said of the time spent shooting the series in a 2002 interview. “I was an insider.” Thanks to the laissez-faire attitude the protagonists in his films tend to adopt, Clark is often accused of glamourising drug and sex-fuelled subcultures, but what seems exploitative and dangerous on the surface could be construed as a scathing and explicit commentary on the state of America, both then and now. Today, the images from Tulsa etch themselves into the minds of those who see them. Remarkable, yet distressing, they have a socio-political purpose that still feels relevant – especially as we try and tackle the prescription pill addiction epidemic plaguing young people today. Around the same time Clark was capturing the desolation of druginfested middle America, Britain was buzzing with youth subcultures, fuelled

by an obsession for American rock ’n’ roll, style and mindless violence. The Teddy Boys in particular made up a huge part of this. Famed for their romantic, Edwardian-style dress, their presence in the country’s bars and social clubs was marked by Chris Steele-Perkins while he was working as a photojournalist in his 20s. “It just grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go,” he tells me when I ask how he wound up taking photos of the men who ran with their own packs, causing violence and hysteria. “We spent a couple of years hanging out [and] documenting them. I liked the way it gave an identity and a sense of pride to kids who had very little in their lives, but made the most of it.” His portraits of the coiffure-haired, cigarette-smoking bandits, which are part of a wider collection titled The Teds, are captured relics of a rebellious uprising. These lads were a gang of young outcasts formed by their own building of barriers. In their eyes, it was us against them. Some 30 or 40 years after they were first taken, these photographs act as historical hallmarks of a political mood we wish remained in the past: of addicts seeking help and not getting it; of young lads inciting violence in order to be heard, and of the trans community wishing they could survive without facing abuse and ostracism. You would have hoped we might have come much further in a time that’s seen photography and art progress so rapidly: digitising, with analogue swiftly becoming a romanticised and archaic way of capturing the world. But instead, Another Kind of Life serves as a sobering reminder, not only of the progress we’ve made, but of the painstaking work that still needs to be done. Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins runs at Barbican, London, from 28 February-27 May

ART

A woman looks down the camera lens like it’s the barrel of a gun. Dark lips; bright blusher; a blue scarf around her neck shields her Adam’s apple, which is a memory of a life many like her never felt comfortable living. The photograph was taken by Paz Errázuriz in the underbelly of Chile in 1983, where trans sex workers are forced to flee from the streets and the Pinochet regime, surviving in the shadows of a city where being different can lead to your death.

062 Philippe Chancel, Untitled, 1982, From the series Rebelâ€™s Paris, 1982

ART

063 ART

Igor Palmin, Untitled XVI, Stavropol Krai, USSR,, From the series The Enchanted Wanderer, 1977

065

Live

Fiber x The Rest is Noise Muziekgebouw aan t' IJ, Amsterdam 5 January

Tucked away down a rainy street in central Bristol, The Island complex teems with creativity. At its surface, the listed building is unassuming, but the complex's formerly disused Old Bridewell Police Station has become a well-loved home for the city's boundary-blurring club nights. The Timedance parties began in February 2015 with bossman Batu alongside Beneath and Transient at the Cavern Club. Since then they have been graced by the UK’s leading pioneers of all things weird, spooky and techno-leaning, from local punk noise heroes Giant Swan to sought after names like Ben UFO and Objekt. The parties have become more than just a casual club night. Operating on a strict safe space and zero harassment policy, Timedance has one of the most diverse spaces in Bristol – in terms of the crowd as well as the adventurous music policy. On warm up duties, Batu delivers the unexpected. As a producer, Batu is known for his unhinged, dark low-end mutations on his own label as well as for Bristol favourite Livity Sound and the iconic Hessle Audio. As a DJ, tonight Batu reaches far past his instantly recognisable sound, bringing an unabashed party atmosphere. Spinning old school nostalgic dubstep to an enthusiastic crowd, the atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming. Batu goes on to dip in and out of various UK club sounds, with UK funky, Afrobeats, club trax and a dose of rowdy Bristol techno for good measure. It's a tough set to follow but Lena Willikens looks unphased. After all she’s been resident of Düsseldorf's esteemed Salon Des Amateurs for over five years. It’s near impossible to see anything but Willikens right at the front, but the entire venue is consumed by the energy of her music. Seamlessly mixing acid-tinged techno with fiery electro, the first hour of her set passes without anyone noticing. As we approach the end of the night, there is no gentle wind down, instead Willikens switches from wall to wall slammers into pop-tinged techno and back again. At close, shouts of ‘one more tune' ring around the room, but alas we're defeated by the higher powers of club security. As we all left wanting more, so did Lena. Her words on the night, "I wish I could have played another three hours for this crowd", are a powerful endorsement for why Timedance continues its stride as one of Bristol's most cherished events. ! Yewande Adeniran N Yewande Adeniran

! Jack Dolan N Maarten Nauw

Comunité Casa Tortuga, Tulum 5 - 6 January Tulum, an idyllic patch of Caribbean coast in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is changing. In recent years, Tulum has transformed from a sleepy beach town to a bustling hub. As the skeletal constructions of new hotel and apartment complexes rise across Tulum’s landscape, tourists teem around on bikes, scooting between eco-chic hotels, yoga retreats, boutique shops, restaurants and, of course, its glistening stretch of protected coastline. As Tulum grows, boutique electronic music events are finding a home across some of its most picturesque scenery. Such events are usually the haunt of affluent travellers keen to party against an Instagrammable backdrop, but slowly the scene is diversifying. Comunité is amongst this wave, but its organisers are eager to offer something different, and the young electronic music festival has positioned itself as an alternative to the majority of the party scene in Tulum. As we arrive at 10pm, the site is something to behold, instilled with a mystical quality courtesy of its three crystal clear cenotes. The fresh water pools scattered across Tulum’s thick jungle, cenotes are a constellation of peep-holes into the Yucatan Peninsula’s vast underground lagoons. The main stage is the largest of three wooden structures which host DJs and live acts, connected by low-lit pathways that snake through the trees. Playing across these stages are a considered selection of Mexican, Latin American and international artists that make up an ambitious breadth of programming – just one way Comunité sets itself apart from its competition. Another is the event’s ecological focus. All food on site is both vegan and locally sourced. The event has a strict policy on plastic cups, offers cheap tickets to Tulum locals, and partners with the charity Restore Coral. Something’s clearly working, as this year was Comunité’s busiest yet. The festival attracted around 2,600 people to Casa Tortuga across its continuous 18-hour stretch. Throughout the night, the largest crowds assemble at the main stage, which holds two of the event’s most anticipated live performances. Havana-born jazz singer Dayem Arocena thrills with Cuban-influenced songs full of joy and longing, driving the crowd into a frenzy alongside her band. Later, James Holden & the Animal Spirits conjure of wall of driving noise with various unorthodox instruments, replicating their album, while never quite reaching the intense heights achieved on the record. The Lunar stage, a clearing aside the site’s smaller cenote, is laced with feel good house and sleek minimal. Highlights here include the seductive grooves of Afriqua as well as Lawrence, who takes cues from the brightening sky with classics like Larry Heard’s The Sun Can’t Compare. The smallest stage, Yu Yu (curated by the Mexico City club of the same name) is built into a dip in the site’s surface as to resemble a small, rocky amphitheatre. Matias Aguayo is also quick to capitalise on the energy of an incoming wave of early risers by banging out punchy tracks like I:Cube’s Transpiration. As the sun rises over the jungle, the mood shifts further. Murcof’s live set on the Lunar stage feels far removed from the flashier elements of Tulum’s party scene. The avant-garde Mexican producer transfixes the crowd with strange, sad and beautiful ambient glitches. An unexpected highlight, it’s a compelling break in Comunité’s mostly upbeat soundtrack. And, nearing the end of its 18-hour stretch, the cenotes create a similar sense of calm. The ropes enclosing the water came down a few hours ago, and attendees who aren’t dancing frolic in the water, laze across its bordering rocks or pass out in hammocks. As Mexico City club kids, European travellers and jet-setting techno tourists congregate in and around the impossibly clear pools, it’s in this moment where the event’s ethos seems to come into focus – its values of coexisting with the environment and with each other finally fleshed out. Comunité’s aims are certainly ambitious, but the payoff is well worth the trek into the jungle. ! Anna Tehabsim N Comunité Festival

REVIEWS

Timedance The Island, Bristol 20 January

Only a few delicate days into 2018, Fiber teamed up once again with The Rest Is Noise to curate a selection of performances and screenings in Amsterdam’s spectacular Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Fiber’s series of events last year delved into the relationships between image and music, technology and art – and this year Fiber will continue to explore these intersections. Starting from the top, Canadian visual artist Sabrina Ratte’s installation plays with computer generated architectural forms, extending them into glitchy, three dimensional spaces that become increasingly enthralling the more time you spend with them. Meanwhile downstairs in the main hall, Lullabies For Insomniacs boss Izabel plays a restrained selection of obscure sonics well tailored to the evening. Joris Strijbos & Daan Johan are the first act in the main hall with the latest development of their Macular concept; adding a third disc of light to the two we saw at Fiber’s main festival last summer. The spinning beams are designed to generate an impressive array of hypnotic geometric patterns, and the results make for a dizzying spectacle. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited set of the night is Nine Inch Nails collaborator and ambient composer Alessandro Cortini, who’s clearly attracted a few die hard fans with this visual performance of his album AVANTI. The show itself is remarkably simple and steeped in nostalgia, with the songs accompanied by beautiful, grainy video footage of Cortini’s childhood in Italy. Cortini’s performance, whilst enjoyably restrained, is instantly eclipsed by the act that follows. UK duo Demdike Stare and visual artist Michael England take us through a series of varied passages each punctuated by darkness and bassy rumblings. Some tracks are represented with computer-generated pulsating patterns, whilst other sections use stock film of seemingly random mundane situations. All are edited to build a gripping energy and demand our focus. Once again Fiber have managed to bring together a wide spectrum of audiovisual performances which speak to the versatility of a format which – fuelled by technology and innovation – continues to grow.

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Releases

08 08

CupcakKe Ephorize Self-released

REVIEWS

Rappers don’t come raunchier than CupcakKe. Since going viral in 2015 with early tracks Vagina and Deepthroat, the 20-year-old Chicago native has been honing her skills across a slew of mixtapes and albums. By the end of 2017, the popularity of her consistently crude social media presence had won her a legion of fans – the ‘slurpers’ – which positioned her as a potential breakthrough star. Now, CupcakKe has delivered her third album Ephorize, which once again amps up her X-rated blueprint. As usual, the pussy jokes come thick and fast, as do the hilariously filthy rhyming couplets and the eyebrowraising analogies: “Covered in all my cum the dick be looking like a goose” is a standout example of her amazingly dirty taste in similes. CupcakKe’s lyrics have always been this explicit. What makes Ephorize a step up is her evident confidence and ability to effortlessly ride any beat. On Cartoons she proclaims herself to be “cocky like Johnny Bravo” – and she has every right to be. And while the album functions as a great party record, progressive politics drive her vulgarity. She waxes lyrical on everything from LGBTQ rights and body confidence to Eurocentric beauty standards and slut-shaming. Sure, there are a few clunky couplets and the album would benefit from a few of the EDM-lite tracks being trimmed. But ultimately, Ephorize sees CupcakKe flex like an established pro. Not only is it guaranteed to keep her slurpers happy, it’s an example of an artist in her prime. A brilliantly filthy riposte to an increasingly buttoned-up world. !

Jake Hall

Franz Ferdinand Always Ascending Domino Franz Ferdinand’s fifth album has been described as “nothing short of a rebirth” but the evidence for such a claim is scarce. Always Ascending reaches none of the heights suggested by its title. Instead, it feels more an unwitting return to the band’s roots. It’s like the difficult second album they never had. Parts of the album – their first in five years – confidently display the band’s formula of Blondienot-Patrick-Cowley disco that they once termed “music for girls to dance to”. Glimpse of Love and Feel the Love Go are prime examples of FF’s ability to write shimmering, strutting tunes. It works well in places – see the enjoyable synthpop of Lois Lane – but the songs themselves are a bit wanting. Huck and Jim’s nautical cod-reggae call and response is grating, as are the smug lyrics (“we’re going to America – we’re gonna tell them about the NHS”) and clunky chorus, while Academy Award recalls 2005 single Walk Away without the introspection or wit. Former NME Editor Connor McNicholas recently bragged that in his day he wouldn’t feature a band who didn’t have “good hair and good shoes”, and so Franz Ferdinand showed up on the scene with “fucking great hair and brilliant shoes.” Franz Ferdinand were too good to have their legacy soured by the less favourable memories of the noughties indie era. But Always Ascending is a middling effort that seems to have suffered from the departure of the band’s founding guitarist Nick McCarthy, and the ‘normal songs + synthesisers – guitars = revolutionary’ equation doesn’t achieve the rebirth they needed. !

The Nightcrawlers The Biophonic Boombox Recordings Anthology

Jon Clark

It’s strangely reassuring to learn that in a Philadelphian micro-scene nearly 40 years ago, experimental synth ensemble The Nightcrawlers were cooking up soft, subtle, menacing Kosmiche thousands of miles away from their sonic contemporaries in Germany. Archivist label Anthology Recordings worked with an expert (D. Strauss) on this period of dreamy, futuristic and vastly influential electronic music, to excavate a series of more than 40 cassette recordings released over a decade-long career of hypnotic, avant-garde, musical star-gazing. With a backstory like that, the collection has a lot to live up to. Happily it does, via seven ethereal tracks that capture the sound of cinematic electronica circa 1979. You don’t have to look far to see the swirling influences of Tangerine Dream liberally sprinkled through the contemporary electronic landscape. So while The Nightcrawlers’ material sounds resolutely retro, it echoes much closer to home. The collection doesn’t really rev-up to anything resembling a metronomic rhythm, but it wallows in the same murky waters as Pye Corner Audio’s magnificent synth-driven, ambient techno. Elsewhere, you can hear the playful, melodic repetition that sits at the heart of the space-disco served up by artists like Prins Thomas. At a point in time where ambient revivalism is rife, it’s intriguing to check in on a set of recordings like this: the tracks merge fluidly into one another, stopping points defined more by the improvised basis of the material than any obvious need to distinguish the compositions. In fact, clocking in at 24 minutes, the sprawling Zeitgeber doesn’t appear to need stopping points at all. ‘Timeless’ is an over-used term, but in this case applies: the aesthetics crafted during this period of music have literally stood the test of time. And when committed (you could even say obsessive) people take the time to dig out a long-lost time capsule containing music as compelling as this, we should be very happy to see a light shone into a dusty corner of an era of electronic music that continues to shape adventurous artists nearly half a century later. !

Adam Corner

Rejjie Snow Dear Annie 300 Entertainment / Brace Face

Young Echo Young Echo Young Echo Sound The eleven-strong Bristol collective confidently mash up hip-hop, noise and dub on this emotive second album. Over 24 tracks, there are no qualms about delicate poetry sharing space with wall-shaking distortion – you just need to throw yourself into this unpredictable world. “Come dance with me,” comes the unsettling invitation early on; “In dying dancehalls, in drunken, last-dance light, hold close, we can hold one another tight.” Sometimes subdued and at other times cacophonous, Young Echo's DIY ethos could be compared to earlier Bristol groups, like Massive Attack precursor the Wild Bunch, or perhaps more appropriately, Mark Stewart's radical post-punk outfit the Pop Group. But in terms of sonic similes beyond the solo work of producer-members Vessel, Jabu, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Kahn and Neek, try a blend of Kode9 + The Spaceape's dubbed, sci-fi grime, Vatican Shadow's ominous onslaughts and the cold-staring, funky creep of Clipse and the Neptunes, with hints of Burial's nightwandering melancholy. Short bursts of expressionist rhythm, synth and sample are alternated with fully formed songs. There are voices on most tracks, with duties shared by Young Echo’s five vocalists. Jasmine sometimes leads us into crystalline pop chambers; Rider Shafique sends mystical decrees from a rumbling war machine of a beat. Manonmars' delivery on the languid, minimalist grime of Red Dot, Green Light, MC leaves you speechless, striking feelings of profound danger and soul. On tracks like Untitled, Wolfe, Oran and Home, vocalists Bogues and chester giles create something more direct than the abstract, generalised emotion you often hear in electronic music. The lyrics dive deep into personal reflections on struggle and interaction. Young Echo’s live performances are notorious for their chaotic, even ruthless approach. This aesthetic brutality is palpable in the scraping metallic percussion of Psychology of Destructive Cult Leaders, or in Oh, Won't You, where the very transmission of the signal seems to stutter and fail under the force of the rhythmic impact. The closing track Wicked Ones frazzles jungle beats into an inferno of heat and pressure, a suffocating, squashing of thought that ultimately results in meditation. This is undoubtedly a big album, from a whole gang of people expressing a range of emotion. With such a multitude of talents smudging together, it's bewildering to try and unpick the parts. But in this way Young Echo reveal the power of solidarity and collectivism. They express, through multiplicity, some of the contradictions of love and fear, with a pronounced streak of tension and subversion that could be said to define Bristol's music culture, or human nature itself. Young Echo's vivid stories surge proudly through a desolate and disaffected world. !

Gwyn Thomas de Chroustchoff

If you’ve been waiting, ever since Nick Hakim’s stunning Green Twins dropped in the first half of 2017, for a soul album that feels radiant, that feels both retrominded and forward-looking, that feels free, then wait no longer – Dublin-born rapper Rejjie Snow’s debut LP Dear Annie is all that and more. Flowing between between funk, jazz, soul, RnB and hip-hop, the keyword throughout Dear Annie is fluidity – not only in the sumptuous oceanic grooves that underpin the tracks but also in Snow’s sense of identity. There is no ugly Frankenstein-style forced ‘eclecticism’ here – rather everything seems to emanate naturally from Snow’s varied musical consciousness. For such a dazzling record there’s no showing off here – he can croon and rhyme without showboating (check the sublime openers Hello and Rainbows), mix both plaintive balladry with fierce agit-pop polemic (23 and the gorgeous Pink Lemonade’, and create quiet-storm eurotinged 80s pop (Mon Amour and Spaceships) and gritty Adrian Younge-style chamberpop (the astonishing Oh No and The Ends) with equal deftness and ease. Crucially, for an album by a 23-year-old Dear Annie comes across with no point to prove, no egotist grandstanding throughout there’s no sense of distance between you and Snow, rather it feels like he’s holding your hand, taking you both externally down his streets and his world, and internally through the tangled tendrils of his own psyche. You remain a willing passenger because the sounds Snow couches his visions in are just so damn addictive. One of the most delicious debuts of the year so far. !

Neil Kulkarni

073

07 08 03

Lottie Brazier

Astrid Sonne Human Lines Escho

Nils Frahm All Melody Erased Tapes

Steve Reich Pulse / Quartet Nonesuch When minimalist composer Steve Reich wrote Quartet in 2013, he felt as if he needed to create a piece of music in reaction to it. As it happens, this point of contrast came about through Reich’s writing of Pulse in 2015, which is similar in its use of instrumentation to Reich’s 1987 Electric Counterpoint for Pat Metheny, with both pieces being carried by a warm, propulsive electric bass. On this new release, both previously performed pieces are positioned against each other. The name Pulse itself refers to the musical feature which underlies all of Steve Reich’s compositions – the fixed pulse – and here it is warm, inviting and gentle. On the contrary, this album’s second piece Quartet is distinctly stark, hesitant, frantic – it captures a sense of a complex, populated urban space. There's a jazziness across Quartet that traces Reich’s own personal influences as a composer, small glimpses of his love for John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass and Miles Davis. Unlike Pulse, which is harmonically stable, Quartet jumps frequently and frantically between keys, making it a disorientating listen at times. Its second and third movements are particularly startling, with the pianos and vibraphones clouding the movement with a dramatic natural reverb. The percussive interplay between these two instruments is a particularly exciting feature, showing not only once again Reich’s interest in jazz but also in non-Western rhythms. Sat next to each other on this release, Pulse and Quartet seems to serve Reich’s desired effect – their differences helping to magnify each other’s individual qualities.

Various Artists Midnight Manual Midnight Shift Ministry AmeriKKKant Nuclear Blast Ministry, Al Jourgensen’s legendary industrial metal outfit, was rightly revered by the masses in its heyday but mocked in recent years for incessantly defibrillating the band’s corpse following each public disbandment. The band’s fourteenth studio album AmeriKKKant is, if you haven't already caught on, a record about American politics. With track names such as Wargasm, TV 5-4 Chan and Victims of a Clown, the forefather of distorted electronics manipulates vocal snippets from Trump rallies while haphazardly ranting over heinously calculable metal riffs. And while heavily processed Trumpisms maintain a refined balance of horror and humour, AmeriKKKant’s unfiltered anger comes off as a violent tantrum rather than a calculated takedown of the American president. Classic Ministry heft is occasional, irregular and abstracted by gawdy raprock turntabalism. Antifa, the record’s most lyrically mutinous moment ("Skinheads taking a dive/ Antifa is coming for you they won't survive”) harks back to Ministry circa The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, but lacks the nuanced cynicism that Jourgensen is so capable of producing. And herein lies AmeriKKKant’s fatal flaw. It’s a release so socially incensed that the overall product is rendered totally ineffective. !

Tom Watson

Marking five years for the Singapore-via-Berlin techno label Midnight Shift, the Midnight Manual compilation gets off to a strong start. Continuing his Midas touch into 2018, Hodge’s collaboration with fellow techno disrupter Gramrcy (Barnohl) manages to be both thundering and delicate at the same time, with a gently gibbering vocal hook sitting loftily atop a muffled bass kick and a sporadic disco sheen. The next track, by Knuttson Berg, adopts a Livity Sound-style stance, somewhere excellent between breakbeat and techno. But there’s nothing quite as striking as the opening two tracks in the rest of the collection. Mark Forshaw’s acid-plated Power Grab is a wide-eyed, frenetic, but workaday contribution. The Hacker’s pseudonymous contribution as Amato is also a little underwhelming. The messily mesmerising Turbine by Thermocline gets things back on track, sharing with Hodge and Gramrcy’s opener an enjoyably demented take on the techno template. But the gloriously monikered Terry Lamboughini (another artist in disguise – this time Glaswegian producer Marco Bernardi) fails to sign the collection off in style, his wobble-step rhythm sounding a raucous but ultimately throwaway note at the album’s conclusion. There’s nothing approaching terrible on this compilation, but for a commemorative release there should be no filler – and too many tracks on Midnight Manual drift by. !

Adam Corner

Nils Frahm is no stranger to unorthodox methods of musicmaking. On previous albums, such as Felt (2011), he has clad the hammers of the piano in felt and used toilet brushes as percussive instruments. All Melody, the latest album from esteemed German pianist, was made almost entirely from instruments deconstructed and reconstructed by the artist himself. Composed in a self-built studio in the industrial 1950s confines of the Funkhaus complex in East Berlin, Frahm uses the historic reverb chambers in Funkhaus and an old well in Mallorca to create a manually rich echo, as well as using a self-made pipe organ and mixing desk. Like with former albums, the strength of Frahm’s melodies comes not from sonic busyiness, but minimalism. Each musical component follows a simple path but is arranged in such a way that evokes maximum emotional payoff. This is typical of Frahm’s work, which achieves grandiosity using a looping crescendo that begins quiet, creeps to a peak, before returning to silence. Human Range, for example, begins with the melancholic parp of a trumpet that – drawing on Frahm’s jazz training – slips across scales and around a flurry of choral voices that form a crescendo. Often pigeon-holed as neo-classical or postclassical, Frahm’s music reveals a host of influences, ranging from the classical simplicity of Erik Satie to freeform jazz and the production of electronic music. In All Melody, these genres interact to create a fluid structure that seems purposely vague. By allowing room within each song, the listener is given space to explore an emotional landscape; and invent their own narrative across the sprawl. !

Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Superchunk What a Time to Be Alive Merge When grunge plunged out of commercial fancy, not every 90s band survived the fallout. Yet as co-founders of Merge Records, Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance remain persistent to this day. Thanks to their DIY ethos and stubbornness to debase Superchunk’s trademark sound, time has gifted the Californian indie-punk veterans with steady support, from one passing generation to the next. But as Erasure – lead single to their eleventh full length, What a Time To Be Alive – implies, the world is an increasingly antagonistic and unsupportive place. Stephen Merrit of The Magnetic Fields and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield contribute to the song’s refrain, “What you’re after; erasure,’” a sweet-sounding, but unnerving chorus in the context of the album’s anxiously political tone. It’s a recurrent theme on tracks such as Reagan Youth and Lost My Brain, the latter of which touches on the sheer carnage of millennial existence. What a Time to Be Alive is also a loud record, enhancing the punky prickles at the nucleus of the band’s poppy songwriting. Rather than diluting social discourse with aimless angst, Superchunk add a heady lyrical remedy of satire and sincerity to topics that have publicly polarised nations. In turn, this record acts as an olive branch to latch ahold of during the darkest of days. This fear alone makes What a Time To Be Alive a punk record in its truest guise; cleverly destructive and immediate. Nostalgia such as this never sounded so rousingly current. !

Tom Watson

On her debut album, Astrid Sonne explores the fundamental truth that electricity is first a phenomenon occurring in nature. Sonne, herself, is relatively new to electric instruments, having been classically trained before becoming enamored with the sound of synth. The fledgling curiosity can be felt throughout Human Lines, wherein Sonne re-narrates the process of her discovery. But even more, Sonne completes an energy circle, coming into the process of making electronic music while routinely returning to its natural origins. Without words as her primary force of messaging, the Denmark composer’s music breathes meaning on its own. There are exhaling silences on the opening Also, where Sonne finds her footing, slowly stringing disparate sounds together creating a wondrous constellation floating just above our headspace. The skyward synth in the backdrop signals an ominous painful period after a flicker in the darkness reveals nightmarish figures. Sonne’s musical choices makes for an experience that is sometimes difficult to take in cleanly. Such as on Waw, which sounds like sand particles scratching against skin, inching into our ears. Once inside, a squeaky beeping catalyses a dive into deep darkness, landing us in a dreamlike daze that only wears off after the song sputters us awake. But Sonne returns to normalcy on the backend of the record, and Modular Body is the most typically rhythmic track. The process of discovering, of creating, and manipulating is one of unceasing chase. We get a sense of that difficulty in making and discovering on Human Lines. For a debut, there are many crossing strands and meanings pulled from this voiceless work that are communicated quite clearly. Sonne makes it sound easy to let the tools do the talking. !

Tirhakah Love

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08 08 One of Ought’s many talents is their ability to expose the beauty and desperate meaning in the mundane. Therein lies life, after all. The sneer suggested in much of singer Tim Darcy’s voice always seemed a half-hearted attempt to hide sincerity. In the irresistible mantras of “I am excited to go grocery shopping” and “How’s the job? How’s the family? Beautiful weather today!” on Today More Than Any Other Day and Beautiful Blue Sky respectively, are the conflicted yelps of the living. When the confessional chords and Darcy’s baroque baritone shimmy their way through your headphones on Room Inside the World’s opener Into the Sea, Ought do away with any pretence of irony. It serves to signpost the album’s musical direction too, boomeranging away from the jerky convulsions of 2015’s Sun Coming Down back toward the wooze that seeps through the art-rock band’s debut LP. They haven’t completely smoothed their jagged edges: Disaffection and Pieces Wasted carry a motorik chill and angular bounce respectively, but they serve to accentuate the glow that permeates throughout. This warmth was hinted with lead single These 3 Things, evoking Metronomy’s The Look in its crisp incessancy. Nowhere is it more apparent than on the album’s centrepiece Desire: a close cousin of Sun Coming Down's Passionate Turn, wherein Darcy “hey hey”'s and “c’mon”'s his way through a forlorn ode to fading lust, sounding like Street Legal-era Dylan and backed by a 70-piece choir. Conversely, on Take Everything, the band don't so much channel The Smiths as heave Morrisey's disgraced carcass from the wilderness and re-animate his younger form; and the eventual payoff (a guitar solo that recalls The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary) is unabashedly gratifying. Overall, Room Inside the World succeeds in progressing Ought's sound with a collection of songs as beautiful and resonant as the best of the band’s work. !

Theo Kotz

07 Terre Thaemlitz Deproduction Comatonse

DJ Taye Still Trippin’ Hyperdub At its best, footwork breaks free from the genre’s strictures, and it soars. The common starting point – rapid drums, and lots of them – becomes a background concern as other elements spin into focus within the centrifuge. DJ Taye’s creative, rich debut album Still Trippin' is footwork at its best. The 23-year-old Chicago artist admits to a burden of responsibility in keeping the spirit of departed footwork hero DJ Rashad moving. This has resulted in one of the more varied albums in the field for a minute: Taye goes for broke with upfront drum assault here (as on three collaborations with eccentric footwork artist DJ Paypal), but brushes them with a feather touch there (as on the comparatively gentle Same Sound). Vocal cuts featuring Chicago rapper Chuck Inglish and Jersey club Queen Uniiqu3 sit alongside tracks where the main thing singing are the sour synths. There’s a surprisingly strong chiptune influence coursing through the album, as on the Pac-Man mania of Matrix, or Trippin’ – a chalk-and-cheese combination of 16-bit trills and Taye’s pitch-shifted raps which probably shouldn’t come off as well as it does. Truly sealing the deal are the tender moments bookending the record. Just as the warm bass runs and melancholic clang of 2094 instil a sense of gravitas and great hope to fire it up, so too does the plaintive and graceful I Don’t Know guide the ship down with purpose after a second half of head-spinners. If there are more footwork LPs to come in 2018 at the level of Still Trippin’, consider it a banner year for the sound. !

Gabriel Szatan

Children cry, birds chirrup, and an argument burbles in the far, far distance. Strings swell, then fade. Signals are interrupted. Voluminous clouds of bass arrive only to disappear immediately. The occasional word and phrase tries to break through the murk – “harassment,” “racist,” “you know you made that choice” – showing us something like clarity, but it never unfurls fully. A fight breaks out. A fight might end. We’re not sure. Things carry on this way for 45 minutes, and then we end with a soul record heard through a partition wall. Terre Thaemlitz’s Names Have Been Changed is the first masterpiece of 2018. Deproduction sees the absurdly talented, innovative, and fundamentally vital Thaemlitz heading into tortured psychodrama territory. But being Thaemlitz, it’s more Michael Haneke’s Hidden than Hitchcock’s Psycho: this is deeply disturbing music that refuses to offer any kind of salvation or release. Most “dark” music, be it the blackest metal or the harshest noise, is often teenaged and staged, try-hard. This, however, is the real deal. Luminous solo piano might light Admit It’s Killing You (And Leave) but we’re still trying to pick it out of the ruins of whatever relationships have been slaughtered in the record’s opening half. Deeply lonely, this is Thaemlitz at her most honest, raw and spellbinding. For those of you who cannot get enough of her seriousminded dancefloor workouts as DJ Sprinkles, Thamelitz offers up a pair of deeperthan-deep house versions of Deproduction’s deadly duo. Both renditions ache with twilight sadness, searching for a light in the dark, hoping a vision of a better world might be out there, somewhere, in a nightclub, at a party. !

Josh Baines

The Soft Moon Criminal Sacred Bones

With his last two projects, Maxo Kream established himself as one of rap’s best storytellers, his trap tales heavy with gory details and delivered as bursts of semi-automatic syllables. On Punken, the 27-year-old Houston artist opens up about the world that forged him, revealing the forces and decisions that turned a young knucklehead into someone facing five to 99 for organised crime. As he has previously, Maxo sticks to the grimier side of Houston – “hookers, strippers, crackheads, robbers, trappers, all in public housin” – but he doesn’t stop there. On Punken, he lays out his entire family tree: a granny quick to use an extension cord or switch; a mother who worked her whole life to move her family out of the hood; a father who served time for “crackin' cars for revenue;” a trapping brother who ended up with a bullet to the face; and – perhaps most tellingly – the “petty thief and junkie” uncle who stabbed a man in front of Maxo when he was just six years old. Thanks to his lyrical gifts, Maxo’s family members aren’t simple stereotypes – they’re real people, albeit the ones who left him to “become a grown man … overnight.” Beyond this familial portrait, Punken is loaded with the same explicit and vivid lyrics about drug-dealing and drug-abusing, about shooting and screwing, that has defined his mixtape catalogue. While some of the lyrical tropes might be repetitive, Maxo keeps things fresh by linking with a wide array of producers and pulling back on the sinister menace to tell different stories. There are mid-tempo sex jams that revel in contradictions: Maxo ends up the fuckboy punchline on Astrodome Pt. 2 and turns Future’s “choose the dirty over you” lyric into an ethos on the syrupy Love Drugs. But there are also melancholy songs like Janky and ATW about street paranoia and supposed friends who will snitch “for a Coca-Cola and some cigarettes.” On Punken, Maxo Kream trains the scope of his rifle on his past and mostly hits his mark. After naming his 2016 effort The Persona Tape, this one could be accurately titled The Personal Tape.

Luis Vasquez is still not over his personal demons. Since The Soft Moon’s self-titled 2010 debut, the mechanised riffs, post-punk squirms and groggy krautrock beats of the Oakland-based one-man-band have remained. On Criminal, The Soft Moon’s fourth studio album, these sounds are at their most gruelling, and most sharplyproduced, yet. Criminal details some of the darkest aspects of the human experience – shame, guilt, violence, desperation, self-loathing. Give Something, then, is a pleasing break from the intense motor that runs through the first couple of tracks, as higher-pitched synths observe more nuanced vocals that wreak of desperation rather than sheer anger. It’s still painstaking, but on an album defined by its horror, there is beauty in the spaciousness which is wrought into delicate melodies. It is by focusing his anger on things outside himself – the father who abandoned him, in Like a Father, and the cocaine that stripped him apart, in Choke – that Vasquez manages some sort of catharsis. Criminal really grips on most in its instrumental passages, as on the thundering opening to Born into This. On the title track and album closer, passages of mottled jangly synths are enclosed with blasts of tense white noise. The result is claustrophobic. The inside of Luis Vasquez’s head is hardly the comfiest place to be shown around. But if you can bear the intensity, what is revealed on Criminal is stark in its honesty.

Chris Kelly

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Maxo Kream Punken Kream Clicc

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077

Get Rich Or Die Tryin’

“I get shot in the face and it knocks a tooth out of my mouth and now I make a little hiss sound when I speak, but this is the voice that has sold ninemillion records so I got shot in the face for a reason” – Curtis Jackson, 2003 For some, the album that brought them to hip-hop. For some, the start of the rot. Before Eminem signed him to a sevenfigure contract in 2002, the Jamaica Queens native Curtis Jackson lived through what most rap stars simply postured about. Raised in a broken home, Jackson started hustling young. Crack dealing was lucrative but also carried with it spells in prison, stabbings and shootings – all of which would feed into the 50 Cent persona. Spotted by Run D.M.C’s DJ Jam Master Jay in 1996, 50 Cent began crafting his debut album Power of the Dollar. In 1999, the LP’s lead single How to Rob gained attention due to its controversial, darkly humorous lyrical content – in which 50 detailed his plans to mug a long list of major hiphop artists.

The bravado backfired in May 2000 when an assassin tried to take 50 Cent’s life. With one bullet in the cheek, one in the hand, and seven in the legs 50 was lucky to survive, and Columbia Records shamefully offloaded him immediately, terminating his contract and scrapping the album. With the facial injury altering his vocal style, Jackson returned to the NYC hip-hop underground. He formed the G-Unit collective and churned out mixtapes that built his rep – not just for his baiting of arch-rival Ja Rule, but for the venom with which he addressed the failure of an increasingly out of touch hip-hop mainstream. Eminem won the ensuing bidding war, signing 50 to Aftermath, and pulling 50 into the studio to work with him and Dr. Dre on what was by then the most highly-anticipated hip-hop LP of the year. Wanksta got a preview on the 8 Mile soundtrack, and then In Da Club exploded. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was at the time the biggest selling debut album in hip-hop history. In Da Club, Wanksta, 21 Questions and P.I.M.P were huge crossover smashes and little Curtis Jackson from Southside Jamaica, Queens, could legitimately call himself the most discussed figure in hip-hop, as likely to grace the cover of The Source as

How 50 Cent's record-breaking debut gave rap an enduring boost of testosterone

the New York Times. You could sense it was a level of attention 50 wasn’t entirely comfortable with. All the panmedia interest (sustained by almost constantly being questioned by police for various shooting incidents) set a firm wedge between 50 and the hiphop cognoscenti, a wedge that still remains. For a lot of hip-hop fans Get Rich… was less an album than a commercial fact, and 50 is the artist who pioneered the phenomenon of rappers being more famous for their jail sentences and beefs than their music. A lot of hip-hop heads saw, and still see, 50 as a rapper for non-rap fans. A rapper whose exploits distracted from the one-dimensionality of his music, the simplistic, monomaniacal nature of his lyrical focus. What these snobs overlook is that hip-hop has always thrived on a mix of genuinely multidirection genii and single-minded maniacs. Maniacs like Schooly D or Snoop Dogg, so seemingly engrossed in a single subject – themselves – that their whole careers can be seen as one long, indulgent, public confession. Although from LA and Detroit respectively, Dre and Em’s production was classic East Coast gnarliness throughout. Inevitable comparisons to Pac and Biggie showed 50 wanting

Original release date: 6 February 2003 Label: Aftermath / Shady / Interscope

in terms of lyrical skills. But listening to the album in 2018 it’s precisely his lyrical limitations – the mumbling Southern-rap-influenced monotony and almost robotic lack of emotion – that works a treat, rendering the album a strangely vivid premonition of trap’s monomania and confinements. Where so many big-name rappers in 2003 (Diddy, Nelly) were busy softening rap, blurring the lines between pop and hiphop, Get Rich… was a reaffirmation of gangsta rap in a world crying out for a new thug god. If you’ve ever listened to Jeezy, Rick Ross, The Game or anyone currently plying gangsta motifs, it’s 50’s resuscitation job on the genre via Get Rich or Die Tryin’ that you should thank. In mixing Southern-style textures with gritty East Coast lyrical content, 50 hit on a template still being explored now. You can feel its effect on any of the mixtape sites, radio stations, rap gossip feeds and Twitter beefs where hip-hop currently lives. Wherever style obliterates substance, wherever visibility trumps longevity, wherever impact matters more than music, you will hear Get Rich…’s influence. Without a doubt, better hip-hop albums were released in 2003. Yet none casts quite so long a shadow, for good or ill.

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Tuesday 13 February

CHICOS DE NAZCA

Thursday 15 February

LEYENDEKKER

mothclub.co.uk Thursday 15 February Thursday 1 February

THE MOLOCHS

JAWS OF LOVE Friday 16 February Tuesday 6 February

THE MYRRORS

SHOPPING Tuesday 20 February Wednesday 7 February

CARLTON MELTON

PEACH PIT Thursday 22 February Friday 9 February

COOL GHOULS

LUST FOR YOUTH Saturday 24 February Monday 12 February

COTLLION

DRAB MAJESTY Thursday 1 March Tuesday 20 February

MINT FIELD

GUN OUTFIT Friday 2 March Tuesday 6 March

SOCCER MOMMY Wednesday 7 March

HERE LIES MAN Friday 9 March

LAZY DAY

Shacklewell Arms 71 Shacklewell Lane London E8 shacklewellarms.com Friday 2 February

MOONWALKS Saturday 3 February

MR. AIRPLANE MAN Thursday 8 February

LINA TULLGREN

DENT MAY

The Waiting Room 175 Stoke Newington High St N16 waitingroomn16.com Friday 2 February

TWO BAR HOUSE MUSIC

Friday 16 February

TRENTON CHASE Saturday 17 February

SIREN Tuesday 20 February

C.A.R Saturday 24 February

DJ SUNDAE Thursday 1 March

HELM

The Lock Tavern 35 Chalk Farm Rd London NW1 lock-tavern.com Friday 2 February

PIT PONIES Thursday 8 February

LYLO Friday 9 February

LUCY AND THE RATS

Saturday 3 February

INTERSTELLAR FUNK B2B ELENA COLOMBI Wednesday 7 February

BLACK GOLD BUFFALO Friday 9 February

ZALTAN Saturday 10 February

LUKE EARGOGGLE

Sunday 11 February

IRMA VEP Saturday 17 February

FRAUDS Thursday 22 February

ABJECTS Friday 9 March

THE VAGABONDS 77

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Film

08 08 09

The Shape of Water dir: Guillermo del Toro Starring: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon The Shape of Water is set during the peak of 60s capitalism, a world where success is defined by speed. The film follows a young mute woman Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a cleaner at a Baltimore aerospace research laboratory, who begins to form a relationship with an amphibian creature, captured by the Americans in an attempt to gain the upper hand against the Soviets in the Space Race. In del Toro’s quintessential style, which draws from a wealth of filmic references – ranging from B-movies, musicals and film noir – The Shape of Water spreads a message of love, which is portrayed as otherworldly. For del Toro, love is allencompassing, found in anything from hard-boiled eggs to Benny Goodman records. At its core is an Old Hollywood romanticism that lies in opposition to the film's consumerist backdrop. The tension between the ideal and the material is one of the film's primary stress points. Elisa's muteness renders her “incomplete”, subsequently separating her from the rapidly evolving context of political machismo that surrounds her. It is unsurprising, then, that Elisa's closest confidants, Zelda and Giles (played by Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins respectively) are also social minorities of sorts. Giles, a commercial painter whose work is gradually being replaced in adverts by photography, has his sexuality locked in the closet, while Zelda’s identity as a black woman is cause for discrimination both personally and in the workplace. “Sometimes I think I was born too early or too late for my life,” Giles says to the amphibious man-fish in one scene. Perhaps it is this immunity from society’s more malign forces that binds the film's heroes together, shielding them from the materialism embodied in the other characters and presented through the equally bureaucratic regimes of capitalism and communism. Ultimately, it is del Toro’s irrevocable humanism, embodied through Elisa's authentic love, that conquers all.

The Post dir: Steven Spielberg Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson

I, Tonya dir: Craig Gillespie Starring: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney “There's no such thing as truth,” drawls Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) at the start of this wickedly funny pseudo-biopic. Dressed in double denim, boot on knee, wire-brush hair at least partially tamed, she’s sitting in a nondescript kitchen telling her side of the story that turned her into an international hate figure in the early 1990s. Hers isn't the only version in Craig Gillespie's film, though, which also draws from the wildly contradictory statements of Harding's mother (Alison Janney) and ex-husband (Sebastian Stan). “Everyone has their own truth,” says Harding. What we do know: Tonya Harding is a twotime Olympian and a Skate America Champion whose career imploded in 1993 when she was implicated in an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. After pleading guilty to hindering the investigation, Harding was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Here, I, Tonya charts Harding's rise and fall in glibly Coen-esque fashion, shooting scenes of domestic abuse, reprehensible parenthood and killer competitiveness through a blackly humorous lens. For Robbie, it’s a dream role, and her performance is every bit as vanity-free as her Harley Quinn turn in Suicide Squad. She's a revelation, finding humour and humanity in a woman whom the media both vilified and cartoonised. Near seamless CGI gives the impression that Robbie did all the pirouetting herself – she didn’t – while the tongue-in-cheek tone recalls the likes of Casino and GoodFellas (only instead of gangsters we have ice skaters and manchild hackers). “I never did this,” Harding says to camera while reloading a rifle. Either way, her story (or stories) makes for thrillingly acid-tongued entertainment. ! Josh Winning

Lady Bird dir: Greta Gerwig Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts There’s a moment during Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, where the 17-year-old protagonist is asked whether Lady Bird is her given name. She answers in the affirmative: “I gave it to myself, it was given to me by me.” It’s one of those subtle pieces of dialogue that Gerwig has gifted her characters throughout her career, in movies like Mistress America and Frances Ha, striking a balance between wit and truth, and allowing complex characters to take up space, and to live. Lady Bird is one of those characters. Played brilliantly by Saoirse Ronan with a red rinse job, she flaunts her adolescent dissatisfaction like her pink plaster cast. Marooned in a convent school in Sacramento, “the midwest of California”, she dreams the dream of so many high schoolers, of escaping to New York (although she'll settle for writerly outposts like New Hampshire or Connecticut). But unlike the privileged student pseuds native to US indie movies – proxies for their 30-something creators – Lady Bird feels real. From the acne and her lack of pop culture knowledge (“who was Jim Morrison again?”) to the passive-aggressive exchanges with her mother – an outstanding, all-too-real performance by Laurie Metcalf – you’re asked to believe her before you believe in her. When she gets her heart chewed up by the brooding, pretentious Kyle (Timothée Chalomet), your heart feels a little chewed up too, or perhaps it’s the pangs of identification. Gerwig's realist touch will trigger long-buried memories of questionable hook-ups across all ages, regardless of the precise, turn-ofthe-millennium period detailing. But for all the subtleties, Lady Bird isn't perfect. A delicately rendered relationship between Lady Bird and her best friend (Beanie Feldstein) is daubed with schmalz in the third act which feels a little on-the-nose. But it’s easily forgiven in light of the film's broader achievements: with this coming-of-age movie, Gerwig has made a land-grab for a rare kind of universality, a carefully hoarded quality hitherto restricted to the stories of men. And it's in that very universality that Lady Bird triumphs.

Steven Spielberg’s latest film The Post is a battle cry for freedom of the press which, while taking place in the Nixon era, is a pointed reflection on our own times. The plot concerns the Washington Post’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, top secret documents relating to the USA’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The gruff editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) is at loggerheads with his boss and owner of The Post, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep), who is concerned that the legal ramifications of publishing the story will jeopardise the future of her family-owned newspaper, which is about to be taken public on the stock market. Compared with another recent film on the power of the press, Spotlight, Spielberg’s movie is lighter in tone and takes a more populist approach, but that doesn’t diminish the power of the story he tells. Hanks and Streep provide a charming two-hander. Hanks' performance echoes his portrayal of the tenacious FBI agent Carl Hanratty in Catch Me if You Can. He judiciously crafts the character of Bradlee, a role also played magnificently in the past by Jason Robards in All the President’s Men. Meanwhile Streep's character transforms from a darling of America’s political elite, schmoozing at soirees, into a woman willing to challenge the slick-suited men that surround her and belittle her. It’s a rousing watch. But make no mistake – Spielberg wants us to draw comparisons between then and now. The Post is a movie for today's era of fake news and alternative facts, and a timely reminder of the value of the freedom of the press. ! Joseph Walsh

! Louise Brailey

REVIEWS

! Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Ben UFO, Pangaea & Pearson Sound

Groupe Amazigh Blues Live DJ Kampire

Marrakech

J-Zbel Live, The Pilotwings OKO DJ & Judaah

30.08 — 02.09

John Talabot Call Super Lena Willikens Ninos du Brasil Live Job Jobse Mim Suleiman & Esa Live Awesome Tapes From Africa RAMZi Génération Taragalte Live B.F.D.M. showcase –›

Atlas Electronic

Jamie XX Hessle Audio (6hr. set)

Atlas Electronic Music / Arts / Culture 30.08—› 02.09 2018 Marrakech_Morocco

“Atlas Electronic is a four day-long music, arts and culture festival that celebrates not only music, but the bringing together of people from all over the world.” Crack Magazine (2017)

And many more

Workshops / Talks / Art Expo / Local Food Traditional Music / Yoga / On-site Camping and much more to discover!

Watch Nils Frahm discuss the foundations of his new album and perform new material live from Berlin’s Funkhaus complex on crackmagazine.net

atlas-electronic.com ‹—

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Products

Since 1989: VISION Record Bag xlrecordings.com £15 The new line of XL Recordings merch harks back to the 1992 VISION rave, which was hosted by the label’s co-founder Richard Russell and saw a 40,000-strong crowd of eager ravers queued from 9am in the morning. Now you can commemorate such glory with this affordable record bag.

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me abramsandchronicle.co.uk £14.99 Life can be pretty frightening sometimes, so maybe you can benefit from this Basquiatillustrated book celebrating courage within people of all ages. Reissued for its 25th anniversary, the book is filled with “fearsome images” of demons that are dispelled by the defiant words of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Life doesn't have to be scary anymore.

Gosha Rubchinskiy Adidas Gym Bag doverstreetmarket.com £20 Gosha’s rave culture-themed collection with The Three Stripes has landed. St Petersburg is a cultural reference point, and it’s informed by the 90s: a period when an influx of electronic music entered the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here’s a way to switch up your gym attire with a piece from one of the most influential designers in fashion today.

Ideal Science Prints k-i-o-s-k.com £20 Got some blank walls you need to fill? Here’s our design pick of the month. Created by Nick Greenbank – the founder of publisher project Kiosk and London-based design studio Pavilion – Ideal Science celebrates the Risograph and its many flaws. Riffing off its setbacks and how using the printer isn’t exactly an ideal science, three prints have been made available and each one comes accompanied by a zine.

Concrete Desktop Planter barbican.org.uk £20

Superplus Alien Tee everpress.com/superplusalien £20

Guillaume de Ubéda is a Bristol-based graphic designer who pools his inspiration from punk aesthetics and French philosopher Guy Debord. Under the banner of his design studio, Atelier Superplus, he’s created vinyl sleeves, posters and fashion lookbooks with a DIY appearance for a range of record labels and artists. Now, he’s dropped his first t-shirt design with Everpress in a limited run. If you’re not particularly fashion-savvy but perhaps need to update your plain white tees, look to the left.

REVIEWS

Thanks to techno press releases, Brutalist architecture is perennially trendy. If you’re looking for a way to spruce up your office desk, consider bringing the movement to you via this small Brutalist planter.

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Crossword Across 2. Filler interview footage, TV news pundits, commentators 5. The label that found Nigerian synthesizer guru William Onyeabor 8. Strong-browed vocalist on X-Press 2 song Lazy 9. Outfit sampled in Mariah Carey banger Fantasy 10. Birthday suit Down 1. Real nutter, 'fafafafafafafafafafa' 3. Iconic music film starring unnecessarily large suit 4. Afrobeat-influenced follow up to Fear of Music 6. Storied East Village club, 1973 – 2006 7. Ambient music pioneer, former member of Roxy Music

Answers Across: Talking Heads, Luaka Bop, David Byrne, Tom Tom Club, Naked Down: Psycho Killer, Stop Making Sense, Remain in Light, CBGB, Brian Eno

Self Portrait Rina Sawayama

Britney Spears or Tears For Fears? Who said it, the pop princess or the Bath-born new wave band? 1) “After that amount of time you start to know exactly what you want. You feel a little bit more in your skin, in terms of who you are.” 2) “There are so many people around you that have opinions, but you just have to listen to your instincts.” 3) “Everybody wants to rule the world.” 4) “People in their late teens and early 20s tend to relate to the album more than any other age group because they’re just finding themselves.” 5) “You better work, bitch.”

7) “Just believe in yourself. That's all that matters.”

Answers: 1) Spears 2) Spears 3) Fears 4) Fears 5) Spears 6) Fears 7) Spears

DIGRESSIONS

6) “You keep your distance with a system of touch.”

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e l g Op a en Mike E Words: Davy Reed

What are you currently reading? Fuck Yes. It’s written by a relatively unknown author, people think it might be a pen name for Tom Robbins. But I haven’t finished it because I play too many computer games. Speaking of which, what’s your favourite computer game? Dark Souls. Who’s your favourite member of Slipknot? DJ Starscream [aka Sid Wilson] because he’s my buddy. What’s Sid like in real life? Super chill. I’ve actually never seen a Slipknot show, I don’t know what the hell they’re like, I only know him personally and he’s great. What was the first record you truly fell in love with? Flood by They Might Be Giants. Favourite Wu-Tang Clan member? My current favourite is U-God, because he’s super underrated. I have a cadre of

U-God verses I can recite from memory to anybody who talks shit about him. Could you name your top three U-God verses? Black Jesus, SemiAutomatic Full Rap Metal Jacket and I love his verse on Knuckleheadz. What was the last movie you watched on a plane? Baby Driver. What’s the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed in? The first time I played in Vancouver, this was before TripAdvisor, and we got a place on Hastings Street, which I learned later was where the people of Vancouver gathered to do meth. We got to the check in and the guy was like “Wait, you want a bed?” What’s your signature recipe? I can fry a bunch of chicken man, but I’m not sure it’s worth the wait. If you could pick a surrogate grandparent, who would it be? Oprah. Favourite emoji? The bicep emoji, if I can make it a black person. I’ve just figured out how to do that. Name an overrated artist… As much as I’ve really tried and I appreciate him, I still don’t get Young Thug.

What’s the worst haircut you’ve ever had? My Grandfather cut my hair through adolescence, so every cut he gave me was the worst. What was your first artist name? Drone, as that was also my graffiti name. Have you ever taken LSD? Twice. The first time was the worst time ever and the second time I was, like, microdosing and it was fantastic. Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? Halle Berry. How did you meet? She’s actually a friend of my family.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? I worked in the cafeteria in my university for like three years. I was a pretty social guy and it was weird to go from friendship relationships to them walking in and I’m serving the mashed potatoes. One time my friends started a big ass food fight because they knew I’d have to clean it up. What would you like written on your tombstone? “Why are you reading this? You should be doing something productive.” Open Mike Eagle’s Europe and Ireland tour begins in Amsterdam on 9 March. He appears at Jazz Cafe, London, 14 March.

DIGRESSIONS

Open Mike Eagle is a prolific rapper, comedian and podcaster who’s part of a large network of very cool people in LA. He’s been doing his thing for well over a decade now, but the general verdict of his 2017 album Brick Boy Kids Still Daydream – a concept record about the Robert Taylor Homes projects in his native city of Chicago – was that it was among his best work yet, perfecting his goofybut-smart balance. Keep reading to gain a little wisdom on LSD doses, Vancouver neighbourhoods and under appreciated Wu-Tang moments.

A.SAVAGE (PARQUET COURTS) FRI 2 FEB THE GARAGE

SOLOMON GREY THURS 8 MART LD OU & FRI 9SOMAR ST PANCRAS OLD CHURCH

MARTIN KOHLSTEDT THURS 7 FEB SERVANT JAZZ QUARTERS

MARTHA FFION THURS 8 MAR THE WAITING ROOM

HOLY THURS 8 FEB SEBRIGHT ARMS

ART SCHOOL GIRLFRIEND TUES 13 MAR SEBRIGHT ARMS

WILD BEASTS SAT 17 FEB EVENTIM APOLLO

SIR WAS WED 14 MAR THE LEXINGTON

LEYYA SAT 17 FEB THE WAITING ROOM

THE GARDEN WED 21 MAR ELECTRIC BALLROOM

SPINNING COIN WED 28 FEB THE VICTORIA

HOOKWORMS SAT 24 MAR ELECTRIC BRIXTON

TONY NJOKU THURS 1 MAR DIY SPACE

IDER TUES 27 MAR RICH MIX

INSECURE MEN THURS 8 MAR SCALA

RINA SAWAYAMA WED 28 OMAR UT OLD THESBORDERLINE

HANNAH EPPERSON TUES 10 APR SERVANT JAZZ QUARTERS

LOW ISLAND THURS 26 APR SCALA

ARCADE FIRE WED 11 APR, THURS 12 APR, & FRI 13 APR THE SSE ARENA, WEMBLEY

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My Life as a Mixtape: Donae’O I remember seeing Skibadee and them man find success and knowing if they can do it, I can do it too. Before that, we were paying attention to Tupac and Biggie, and they were good, but Skibadee was close to home. A UK funky track that changed the game The Cure & The Cause by Fish Go Deep and Tracey K [2005, goDeep Recordings] is a big, big, big tune. Everyone liked that song up and down the country and it made them all want to listen to UK funky.

“I remember exactly who I was in love with when I first heard Sweetest Thing, and I was just a yute back then”

Very few names in the game have staying power quite like Donae’O. His career spans across multiple eras, from house and garage to grime and of course UK funky – a genre he recently revisited with his Party Harder mixtape. Having blessed the world with classics like African Warrior, Party Hard and Devil in a Blue Dress alongside collabs with just about everyone in the scene, the vocalist and producer has achieved legendary status. But all the while Donae’O remains a man of the people, humble and close to his London roots. Here, Donae’O takes us through a selection of tracks that have inspired him over the years. The song that reminds me of my first love That’d be The Refugee Camp Allstars and Lauryn Hill’s Sweetest Thing [1997, Columbia] – “It was the sweet, sweet, sweetest thing I know”. I remember exactly who I was in love with when I first heard that song and I was just a yute back then, maybe around 13 or 14 years old. The track that made me realise music could be my career I’d say MC Skibadee & MC Det, Slowmo [1998, Times Two Records].

A track which takes me back to a legendary night out Fuck Up Some Commas [2014, Freebandz] by Future. Usually, I don’t really fuck up commas in the club, that’s not really my swagger, but there have been a couple times when I’ve spent four figures on a bottle. Commas reminds me of this one tremendous night in the West End, I had all my closest friends around me and we had a lot of good fun. A collaboration I did which made me proud Linguo with Giggs [2017, No BS / Island]. Whenever an artist and producer work together on a tune that blows up, you get these cases where the producer leaves the artist behind and gets gassed. I worked on Giggs with Lock Doh which, of course, was a hit and straight I way I wanted him to have another one. Lock Doh wasn’t a fluke, we had real chemistry there so I had to follow it up. As a producer, it’s always important to remember what’s worked for you. It’s all good focusing on new grass but always nurture your existing plants. Donae'O appears at AMP Lost & Found, Malta, 3-6 May

MUSIC

Words: Hamda Issa-Salwe

The record that sparked my career comeback There’s been so many. Party Hard [2009, My-Ish Music] was a career comeback. Gone in the Morning [2014, Zephron] was a comeback but I’d say My Circle [2016, Party Hard Records] is probably my favourite. Around that time, I’d been off the mic but producing for loads of people. My Circle was me saying “I’m still in the game”.

Augustin Macellari wonders if artists can fill Instagram’s perceived vacuousness with substance It became clear to me that my Facebook use was unhealthy a few years ago. In an act of self-discipline I managed to delete my account. I’d decided that any platform that normalises compulsively voyeuristic behaviour to the degree that it can be jocularly referred to as “stalking” is pretty suspect, while one glance into master-breaker-of-things Mark Zuckerberg’s eyes was enough to reassure me that the organisation’s agenda has been fucked-up from the get-go. Instagram, by contrast, appeared more innocuous. While Facebook stands as a kind of social panopticon, and Twitter a performative echo chamber, Instagram seemed as though it had the potential to be something more like a gallery. The service never lived up to that promise of course, but some artists have put it to interesting use: as a means to enhance their audience’s understanding of the reference points, interests and processes which constitute their creative practices. Though Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) is a critic, not an artist, his Instagram account exemplifies the best qualities of the platform. His daily posts meditate on subjects ranging from gender politics to the transcendent qualities of art, to his rage at the Trump administration. Instagram’s binary system of text and image, and its immediacy, give his posts the quality of notes or sketches, uncovering a new dimension to his approach and offering fresh insight into his critical perspective. That’s not to say that everything he posts is agreeable or even interesting – in fact he can be desperately smug and tedious – but at least he conveys a feeling of genuine conviction.

OPINION

Last year, a survey conducted amongst young people revealed that Instagram is not better than Facebook or Twitter. In fact, it’s worse – it’s been associated with depression, anxiety and FOMO.

Illustration: DR x ME

Perspective: Picture Perfect

A platform that rewards glossy perfection with likes is always going to be a fertile breeding ground for untruths and misdirection, exposing photography’s fallibility as a subjective medium. While the idea that a photograph can’t be trusted seems like common sense, it can be a difficult thing to remember in the face of Instagram’s relentless onslaught of beautiful faces and paradise beaches. Amalia Ulman (@ amaliaulman), an Argentine artist, interrogated the performativity and falsehood of self-representation on Instagram beautifully with a project called Excellences & Perfections. An ongoing series of glamorous selfies that attracted tens of thousands of followers, it’s telling that the project only really became ‘art’ when it made the leap from Instagram to a gallery; on the social media platform itself it was indistinguishable from the content it set out to confront. But artists most commonly put the service to use in the same way as everyone else: as a tool for selfpromotion. The benefits are obvious, but the pitfalls are dangerous. As an informal platform that blurs the lines between personal and professional, it facilitates a more fluid relationship between artist and audience – which can backfire. Last summer, Londonbased artist Hetty Douglas provoked outrage after uploading an offensive comment on an Instagram story. The intense backlash made Douglas a trending topic and the subject of widely-shared opinion articles, revealing how fragile and potentially perilous the web of relationships Instagram supports really is. Even artists whose lives are seemingly improved, rather than ruined, through the employment of Instagram as a point of contact with fans and audience,

report growing apprehensions about sustained use of the platform. Experimental musician Holly Herndon recently tweeted about the conflict that arises when principled objection to the social media collides with professional interest, proving that getting off the fucking thing is more problematic for artists who have to promote themselves it is for commonor-garden Instagram addicts. Because that’s what it is: addictive. Recent reports from industry insiders have confirmed what any compulsive swiper already knows; big tech has pursued a creepy, bio-hacking agenda, a conspiracy to literally steal people’s lives away from them in the form of attention invested in screens, rewarding engagement with dopamine. Instagram has colonised the interstitial moments of the day, so that queueing, waiting for a lift or sitting on the loo need never seem “boring” again. Any utopian-digital-gallery daydreams I once had have been crushed under a cycle of inanity, untruth and gloating. We’ve got the itch now, and so we keep unlocking, refreshing and scrolling. Instagram is a black hole, and any moments of accidental quality, from Saltz to Ulman to whoever else, must be recognised for what they are: decoration hanging in the void.

Hope Works presents: Winter Season 2018 Tickets online: Resident Advisor Tickets Physical: Balance Sheffield

Jan 26th /12 -7am Hope Works × No Bounds Dj Stingray 313 Josey Rebelle Mumdance Lo Shea Sybil Jason +Intervention takeover ft. re:ni Aurora Eruchie Ifeoluwa Hope Works Courtyard

Feb 2nd /12 -7am Hope Works × No Bounds Lee Gamble Parris Joe Muggs Lo Shea Mesters, Unit 4, Hope Works

Feb 9th /12 -7am Hope Works presents: Binh Gwenan Lo Shea Mesters, Unit 4, Hope Works

Feb 16th /12 -7am Hope Works presents: The Black Madonna Nd_Baumecker Eris Drew Ciel Lo Shea Chris Duckenfield Hope Works Warehouse

Mar 9th /12 -7am Hope Works × No Bounds Helena Hauff Errorsmith (Live) Peder Mannerfelt (Live) Lo Shea Shyboi Yaxu ifeoluwa Hope Works Warehouse

Feb 23rd /11-5am Hope Works presents: Josey Rebelle Leif Lo Shea Alex T Wire, Leeds

Mar 2nd /12 -7am Hope Works presents: Livity Sound × Timedance ft. Peverelist + Kowton Batu + Minor Science

Mar 23rd /12 -7am Hope Works × 17 Steps presents: Dusky Paul Woolford Bwana Lo Shea Chris Duckenfield Haze Hope Works Warehouse

Hope Works Courtyard

Info: www.hope-works.co.uk