MUSIC&RIOTS Magazine 12

music&riots FREE | ISSUE 12 | JUNE

ANTI-FLAG NO JOY

American Spring Is Now!

Real Life Subverting Pop Music

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DÄLEK HINDS EMERY AS IT IS NOVELLA HOLLY MIRANDA CIRCUIT DES YEUX FOUR YEAR STRONG FRANCESCA BELMONTE CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK!

ALGIERS REVOLUTIONARY NOISE IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD

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E C L A A R T U N R A B M O HU EN S

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HUMAN ABUSE new album out

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FEATURES UPCOMING - MYRKUR

12 A Nordic story love affair INTRODUCING - AS IT IS

14 Patty Walters talked with us ROUND UP - Senses Fail, Refused,

16 Gwenno, Deftones and much more...

WITH... DÄLEK 18 5WeMINUTES talked with MC dälek WELCOME BACK - EMERY

22 We caught up with Dave Powell // VOL.12 - Adult Mom, Frank 26 NEU Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Big Moon, Sunflower Bean

INTERVIEWS 32 36 40 44 48 52 66 70 76

NO JOY FRANCESCA BELMONTE CIRCUIT DES YEUX FOUR YEAR STRONG HINDS HOLLY MIRANDA NOVELLA ANTI-FLAG CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK!

COVER STORY

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ALGIERS

Big interview with Ryan Mahan and Lee Tesche

REVIEWS 82

ALBUMS REVIEWS Algiers, Bully, Citizen, August Burns Red,

Downtown Boys, Desaparecidos, Envy, Florence + The Machine, Kid Wave, Girlpool, Mates of State, Matt Skiba And The Sekrets, Mewithoutyou, The Ongoing Concept, Rolo Tomassi, Senses Fail, Sorority Noise, Super Unison, Valet, Wolf Alice and much more...

REPORT 106 LIVE Gazelle Twin, And So I Watch You From Afar, Mylets, KEN mode, Shabazz Palaces, Jakob, Poison Idea, Caïna, Russian Circles, Mono...

116 CINEMA Mad Max: Fury Road, While We’re Young, Soaked In Bleach, Jurassic World...

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“...the things that we have seen written about us and people talking about us is that it’s quite dark, caustic, and maybe it sounds like it comes from hell, maybe just overly melancholic, but actually there’s a lot of affirmation in it...”

Ryan Mahan - Algiers

WORDS FROM THE DEPUTY EDITOR After a few days of the longest day of the year, here we have the new issue and my first time writing some words on this little space that (probably) no one bothers to read. This is always an exciting time of the year, when Summer comes (at least for me), and we are more than excited to show you this compelling and fresh issue.

Algiers are our cover story and there are a millions reasons why, you just have to read our big interview with them and listen to their rad self-titled debut album! Besides that, we talked with Alan Day of Four Year Strong; the revolutionaries legends Anti-Flag; the talented and amazing Holly Miranda; Madrid’s hot new band Hinds; the beautiful Francesca Belmonte and a lot more chats... We highlight some new bands that you should totally listen to and reviewed a lot of records and films. Regarding live shows, we went to see Gazelle Twin, KEN mode, Torche, Mono and much more.

Hope you like this new issue as much we loved to do it!

Your Deputy Editor, Andreia Alves

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All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without our permission. The views expressed in MUSIC&RIOTS Magazine are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff.

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PATTI SMITH NOS Primavera Sound 04.06.2015 Picture by: Hugo Lima

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UPCOMING // MYRKUR

MYRKUR A Nordic story love affair

M

yrkur has announced the release of her debut full-length album titled M and it will be out August 21st via Relapse Records.

M was recorded in various locations of Oslo, Norway (including renowned artist Emanuel Vigeland’s Museum) with co-producer Kristoffer Rygg aka Garm – the mastermind behind black metal legends Ulver – M finds achieving the grandiose heights that everyone hoped she would climb to. Rounded out on record by members of Mayhem & Nidingr plus a guest appearance from Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy, MYRKUR has quickly established herself as one of the best and most intriguing acts in metal today.

MYRKUR on the concepts of M: “The album is a story where the songs are connected. It is Nordic folk music, black metal, classical choirs and more. It feels like a soundtrack to some sort of Norse mythology horror movie with blastbeats. I wrote it about many things, as a goddess who wants revenge and to kill off people in my life, perhaps also a side of myself. I feel a strong sense of being divided into two, not one whole. a side of light and a side of shadows battle within me. And sometimes a disassociation to reality. A disconnect to the normal world and to what I am.

This album tells my story and the transformation to one is complete in my mind.”

Producer Garm of ULVER on M: “In a – for me – short, but efficient time I feel that we managed to sew together a production that will be instantly recognizable in the plethora of “history conscious” metal music, with it’s stylistic wavering between classical, folk, rock (shoegaze) and (black) metal traditions. At the same time “M” also sounds strangely contemporary to me. It goes in circles, I guess. Soundwise it’s all out classic analogue stuff. No triggered drums, brick walling or all on grid here. It’s a really natural sound harkening back to the days of old.

That’s the feel (or soul) we were after and I think we captured it. It’s no secret that Amalie loves Bergtatt (our first album), and there’s even a song on the album to prove it! I’m not really a type to gush, but Myrkur is a multi-talent and she knows it...”

M will see its worldwide release August 21st via Relapse alongside her first ever live performance, headlining the black stage at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival with Deafheaven and Tombs. Numerous other festival appearances around Europe are planned throughout the year.

M arrives on August 21 via Relapse Records musicandriotsmagazine.com

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"Never Happy, Ever After" is a pretty strong sentence, but it's also the title of Brightonvia-Minneapolis band's debut album. As It Is have been touring heavily and with the signing to Fearless Records and the release of the debut album, things are just getting started. While they were on a soundcheck for a show in Berlin, vocalist Patty Walters took some of his time to chat with us about a little bit of everything that surrounds As It Is right now.

Words: Andreia Alves

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ou guys formed As It Is in 2012 and now you’re about to release your first full-length.

What do you think has changed the most about the band?

I think the only thing that has changed is the opportunities we’ve been given. It’s just the same five guys and we’re still doing what we love. We’re just as passionate and happy as we’ve ever been. We’ve been given so many opportunities to get signed and to tour the world, to write and record an album...

Yeah, I think that’s the only thing that has changed. We’re still feeling just as good as ever.

I know you must have answered about this a million times, but now that I have the opportunity I want to know how much of John Hughes’ films such as The Breakfast Club had influenced your music. I’m a fan of his work, in particular of that movie, so what can you tell me about it?

We relate so much with the characters and message of a lot of John Hughes’ films, about the kind of struggle of growing up against your will, want to stay and feel young, to not become jaded or underway with all the things you see and experience in life... that’s how 14

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os m e th of nd ki is r te Af er Ev , py ap H er ev “N a representation of the way we write lyric Hughes influences our music.

You signed with Fearless Records and you are the first UK band signed to the label. How did that collaboration come to be?

Our manager discovered us early last year and we partnered up with them and it has just been incredible. Shortly after that, we got a little of label interest and Fearless was the label we spoke more seriously from the get go and it ended up seeming the ideal label for our band. We haven’t looked back since then and it’s an amazing experience. It’s wonderful to us and we hope we stick with them for a very long time. [laughs] I read that for your album Never Happy, Ever After you basically spent everyday of five months writing it. What can you tell me more about that?

It was a very unique experience to write the album. The only way that

we could approach it was for everyone to quit their jobs and make things with this band our full-time profession. We started writing it in late May and went into it with not with many more than few songs written. The entire album was really written in those five months and it was amazing and intense, and at times very difficult because we had no space from each other. There was basically not a single moment where you were by yourself... the thing about that is as much as we love being creative and we love writing songs, but when it’s the only thing that you think about it becomes a bit of a choice that it’s difficult to make yourself stay creative. The wonderful thing about creativity is that it shows up unexpectedly. At times it was a little more difficult than others, but it was an amazing experience. We are so proud of the outcome.

INTRODUCING // AS IT IS Florida. How went the whole recording process?

That was an incredible experience. We started having a few people, few names suggested and we got after some names from the producers that we wanted to work with. One that really stuck out to us was James Paul Wisner. He has done a lot of records that mean a lot to us and still sonically sound amazing after a decade or maybe even more. Our sound is very influenced by early 2000’s alternative music like pop punk and emo. For him to have done so many Dashboard Confessional’s albums, early Paramore, Underoath, The Academy Is...

Those were albums that we perceive as iconic of that era and to work with a producer who has worked on those records, we were so interested on having him on board. He totally understood the sounds we wanted to achieve and it was an amazing experience.

’s It . ve ha n ca u yo at th m bu al c ti is im ss pe st ” s. ng so r ou to in t pu e w ge sa es m e th d an cs The track “Sorry” has a line where you sing the title of the record - “Never happy, ever after”. Tell us about the meaning behind this song.

It’s similar to a lot of our lyrics.

That lyric is basically just as direct as you can get and that’s how we like to write our lyrics, because I like to say that Ben and I are relatively positive people outside of our songs and part of that is that we have our lyrics and what we write on paper, because then our feelings are free with what’s going on our heads. When you’re having a really bad day and you’re feeling like the world is against you, it’s the best way to get that out of you... just put it on paper, putting in a song for us.

Never Happy, Ever After is kind of the most pessimistic album that you can have. [laughs] It’s a representation of the way we write lyrics and the message we put into our songs.

This album seems in a way very emotionally deep and not always with an optimistic point of view.

Each song seems to reveal a bad or rough time that you went through.

Was that the whole lyrical content that you want to explore on this effort?

Yeah, definitely! Ben and I write the majority of the lyrics together next to each other and we basically play everything we have. It was interesting getting used to trying to share these different intimate thoughts of other people, but we became very close in doing that now with each other and eventually showing these songs to the rest of the world. Our songs are basically mine and Ben’s diary. [laughs] It’s just that every thought we had throughout the songwriting process was used in some way, shape or form on the record I think.

You guys did recently your first-ever USA tour with Set It Off, Against The Current and Roam, but you will be back in the States for Warped Tour. What are you the most excited about it?

I’ve been to few Warped Tours in various summers of my life, so it will be really exciting for me to go back for the first time for so long. But for the rest of the four boys of As It Is, it will be their very first Warped Tour ever. I think they’re looking forward to seeing what Warped Tour really is, what happens and what it feels like to be on Warped Tour. But now that we have done our first USA tour with Set It Off, we’ll be on Warped Tour. We’ve done a European tour with Trophy Eyes and Silverstein who we’ll be on Warped Tour and we’ll been doing a UK run with This Wild Life and Seaway who we’ll be on Warped Tour. We’re looking forward so much to just catch with our old friends and making a bunch of new friends on Warped Tour.

We’re just looking forward to get to know everybody, playing some shows, having some fun and meeting fans out there.

You recorded the album with producer James Paul Wisner in www.facebook.com/MUSICandRIOTS.Magazine

Never Happy, Ever After is out now via Fearless Records 15

ROUND UP

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Nawa Recordings have announced the release of Alif’s debut album Aynama-Rtama worldwide on Friday, September 4th.

Alif is the collective sound of five musicians at the forefront of independent music in the Arab world, and Nawa Recordings is a label dedicated to bringing new alternative music from the Arab world and elsewhere. Conceived in 2012 and taking its name from the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, Alif features Khyam Allami (Oud), Tamer Abu Ghazaleh (Vocals/Buzuq),

Bashar Farran (Bass), Maurice Louca (Keys/Electronics) and Khaled Yassine (Drums/Percussion).

Their self-produced debut, Aynama-Rtama (Arabic – translated as Wherever It Falls) is a reflection of its time and environment. Recorded between Beirut in Cairo in 2014, it is a shape-shifting album that twists and turns when you least expect it.

Northlane will release their new album Node on July 24th via UNFD. This new effort will be the Sydneybased act’s first album since the critically and commercially

WIDOWSPEAK “All Yours” in September

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idowspeak‘s Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas are back with a new album, All Yours, which will be released on September 4th via Captured Tracks.

The band has also unveiled the first single from All Yours.

“Girls” is about Hamilton’s fears about being a woman and an artist and feeling competitive – specifically with her younger peers.

She describes it as “six-minute velvety reflection that follows, Hamilton’s voice pirouettes around this urge to compare, finally shrugging it off for kindness as Thomas strings along a sweet ribbon of a guitar solo, tying it off like a bow to finish the song.”

According to the press release, the conceptual process of writing Almanac and The Swamps had been creatively draining. They focused on other things: Molly went back to school, Rob took a job at a Catskills hotel. They wrote leisurely, from shared voice memos and late night jams in the living room.

As a result of writing down what came naturally, without any overarching vision, the lyrics on All Yours are largely unadorned, the songs connected only by the forgivingly vague theme of “moving on”.

The band chose to work again with Jarvis Taveniere, who produced their self-titled debut in 2011.

They also enlisted him and drummer Aaron Neveu (both of whom play in Woods) as the studio rhythm section.

All Yours arrives on September 4th via Captured Tracks

successful Singularity. In mid-2014, then-vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes departed for health reasons, leaving a question mark hanging over their future. But from this unrest came something wholly new – after answering an open audition call alongside over 2,000 other hopefuls from around the world, Sydney’s Marcus Bridge emerged as the new frontman.

Parquet Courts have announced the release of two split 7″s, which follows the last year’s Content Nausea. The first

comprises a cover swap with Vermont artist Joey Pizza Slice due out August 11 via Wharf Cat. On August 14, they’ll drop a live 7″ with Brooklyn’s Big Ups via VERA/LIVE. 500 copies of the first 7″ will be released, and 300 for the second.

Publicist UK are going to release their debut album Forgive Yourself on August 21st via Relapse Records. Originally conceived as a long-distance experiment, quickly and effortlessly became a fully functioning band, which features

Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, exBurnt by the Sun), Zachary Lipez (ex-Freshkills), Brett Bamberger (Revocation), and David Obuchowski (Goes Cube). After writing and rough-recording songs from the band members’ respective homes in Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Colorado during its early days, Publicist UK released two demos.

Shortly thereafter, the band signed to Relapse Records and recorded its full-length Forgive Yourself in New Hampshire at The Wild Arctic Studio with producer Dean Baltulonis.

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dälek

are that kind of very special band that we don’t see and hear that often. The Newark-based hip hop experimental group has not only released top notch music, but they’ve also attracted people that generally speaking aren’t that into hip hop, and because of that they’ve have toured with bands such as Godflesh, Isis, and The Melvins. It precisely after a dälek’s live show in Prague that we talked with MC dälek.

Words: Arnaud Diemer

W

hy is your music so dark?

I always looked at music as my therapy. So my music is dark so I can be a normal person off stage. It’s a better way to get all my anger, frustration and angst out in a creative way.

For you, what are your utmost import values?

My word. If I tell you I’m going to do something I’m going to do it. I like people that are straight up with that. It’s like in the movie Scarface, “All I have is my word and my balls and I don’t break them for anyone”

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“I feel finally ca sound. P in

like the time is aught up with our People are more nto it now.”

5 MINUTES WITH... // DÄLEK

What has been your most fucked up time on tour?

That’s a rough one, I can’t remember the exact times, but there where times when we where touring America and we didn’t have enough money for food. We would go to the headliners backstages to steal their potato chips.

What are you doing when you’re on the down side of tour, when you just want to quit?

I never wanted to quit, I took a break for a little while, 5 years, just because I toured so much. But we’ve been there when no one came to the shows, when no one stayed for the shows, when we played people would leave because they didn’t like what we were doing and we did it a long time ago. I feel like the time is finally caught up with our sound. People are more into it now.

I was sleeping on people’s floors, we didn’t have enough money for food so we took shit from backstage from the headliners and we would make potato chips sandwiches. Bread, mustard and potato chips. That was our dinner.

You’ve been touring for a long time, what is your warm up?

A little bit of quiet time, I usually take a piss before going on stage because I don’t want to piss myself on stage. That’s about it.

Time for some quick questions now, what’s your favourite cheese?

Manchego, from Spain.

Favourite Whiskey?

Oban.

Did you trust Obama the first time?

No! What’s your favourite comedian right now?

Paul Mooney.

And before?

Dave Chapelle.

What is your job aside from Dälek?

I’m working in a recording studio.

Any last word about the upcoming album?

We don’t have a new album yet, but it’s coming. Dälek is not going anywhere, we’re coming, new shit is coming.

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ROUND UP

LE BUTCHRETTES’ NEW ALBUM IN SEPTEMBER

L

e Butcherettes have announced the release of their new album.

A Raw Youth will be released on September 18th via Ipecac Recordings.

Frontwoman Teri Gender Bender, drummer Chris Common, and bassist Jamie Aaron recorded the album at RLP Studios in El Paso, Texas. The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez produced the album – he also produced the band’s previous two albums. Other

contributors included Iggy Pop and John Frusciante.

Gender Bender says “the focus of the album is the recurring conflict between minorities (the raw youths) and society: The oppressor and the oppressed.” She continues: “Each song is a different story of a youth from a different era. Some of them want to die because their faith in humanity has ended, some want to fight the authority, think outside themselves. ‘Sold Less Than Gold’ reflects the story of women who are sold into

American pop-punk band Light Years sign with Rude Records. The band

is currently mixing and mastering their highly-anticipated second full-length album, due out this fall. Produced by Will Yip (Anthony Green, Balance and Composure, Circa Survive, La Dispute, Title Fight and more), it already puts Light Years as a band to look out for in the future, not mentioning the success and buzz their debut album I Won’t Hold It Against You had to offer.

Topshelf Records will release Happy Diving’s So Bunted 7″ EP on July 17, 2015. The band’s new So Bunted 7”

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marriages or into sex slavery and how resilient their spirits are.

Despite the different time periods, history repeats itself.

There will always be conflict and sadly, despite the rebels in our history, there are people that are zombified.”

“A Raw Youth is an awakened collective consciousness of wanting to live and not fear death.”

A Raw Youth arrives on September 18th via Ipecac Recordings

EP was recorded in just four hours at The Atomic Garden in East Palo Alto, CA, with the help of producer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Joyce Manor, Whirr). So Bunted follows 2014’s Big World LP (Father/Daughter Records) and will be their first release on tastemaker label Topshelf Records.

Blessthefall revealed the details for their new album To Those Left Behind, set to release on September 18th via Fearless Records. The band’s fourth full-length was recorded with producer Joey Sturgis (The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria,

F

LUCERO’S LOVE LETTER TO MEMPHIS

ollowing the release of 2012’s Women and Work, according to the press release Lucero’s new album All A Man Should Do contains some of the most resonant lyrics Ben Nichols has ever written. They read like chapters from his life: the duality of relationships, getting older, finding where you want to be in this world and more.

Working with producer Ted Hutt (Old Crow Medicine Show, Flogging

Molly) for a third time at Memphis’s Ardent Studios, the band felt comfortable enough to take some chances with a palette of new tones that sound understated yet powerful, bringing life to the stories behind the lyrics without overshadowing them.

And for the first time they put a cover song on a record, with a full band version of Big Star’s “I Fell in Love with a Girl”. The track features Jody from Big Star singing back-up vocals.

This is a Memphis record in the

Of Mice & Men) and is the follow-up to 2013’s Hollow Bodies.

“As a band we are constantly trying to outdo ourselves and take a step forward with each record” explains lead vocalist Beau Bokan.

“With this new album we’ve taken a giant fucking leap forward and are at our absolute best as musicians and song writers. We’re looking forward toseeing where this album will take us.”

The Dear Hunter have announce the release details of their new album Act IV: Rebirth In

Reprise, out September 4th on Rude Records. The release of Act IV marks the long-awaited continuation of the band’s six album concept series chronicling the story of a boy at the turn of the century, only referred to as “The Dear Hunter.”

Mercury Rev have announce the release of their new studio album, The Light In You, September 18th on Bella Union.

On The Light In You, Jonathan and Grasshopper decided they were best served being based at home in

greatest sense and a perfect finish to the three-part love letter to a city that brought them up and made Lucero what they are today.

“I was 15 years old in 1989.

This record sounds like the record I wanted to make when I was 15.

It just took 25 years of mistakes to get it done” - Ben Nichols stated.

All A Man Should Do arrives on September 18th Via ATO Records

the Catskills for once.

Surrounded by longtime friends such as engineer Scott Petito and bassist Anthony Molina, Jonathan and Grasshopperquickly found their stride recording themselves in their own basement studio as well as venturing out into the daylight to record tracks at some of their old haunts like NRS and White Light Studios. The two even found time to arrange backing vocal harmonies and record with Ken Stringfellow at his studio Son du Blé studios in Paris.

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EMERY

are back with their sixth studio album entitled You Were Never Alone, a reference and a tribute to their huge and loyal fanbase. Since the release of their previous album, 2011's We Do What We Want, the group has started their own label called BadChristian Music and even worked on other musical projects. Drummer Dave Powell told us all about that, the new album and a lot more.

Words: Fausto Casais

L

our music. Tooth & Nail is and has always been awesome, but we just wanted to do our own thing.

et’s talk a little bit about the years that went through since you released your latest album We Do What We Want (2011) and the new one You Were Never Alone. You guys worked on other stuff like the acoustic project Matt & Toby and your own label BadChristian Music. Tell us a little bit about all that.

Yes, Matt and Toby decided to release some music that was on the softer side and it just didn’t fit with Emery so they did their own thing. We started the label for a few reasons, the main one was to have total control and ownership of

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You Were Never Alone is the first record you released on your own label. How does feel that achievement of going independent with your music?

It feels great. We actually sold more records in the first week than we did with We Do What We Want in the first week. That being said, the majority of the credit goes out to our fans for sticking with us.

The new album was funded via IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign. How was that process for you guys?

Good. We weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, but it was way better than we could of hoped for. Again, our fans made it a lot smoother than it could have been.

What about the creative process for this album? What did drive you while working on these songs?

For me personally I was just excited for us all to be recording together again. We went back and forth transferring files online for the last two plus years since we all live in different parts of the country, so it felt so good to play everything live. I’m just so happy to still be making records.

Why call this album You Were Never Alone?

This was in reference to our fans. So many of our fans have shared very personal stories about how our music has gotten them through a rough time. We wanted to let them all know that they have always been a part of Emery and without them, the band would not exist. You Were Never Alone

WELCOME BACK // EMERY

is suggesting our fans are in fact part of the band and we are all one unit.

Before the release of the new album, you released week by week a episode on the brand new podcast called Break It Down. Each of the first 12 episodes feature a song from the album. What led you to unveil each song that way?

This was Matts idea. He honestly just did it because he thought the fans would enjoy it. On this last tour, he had so many compliments on the podcast so they must have.

He actually has received requests from other bands that want him to do the same thing.

The track “Thrash” is probably the most unpredictable track of the record and it ends in a pretty subtle way. What can you tell us

about this one?

We’ve always wanted to do something like this and finally thought it was time. The idea of changing so drastically in the same song just seemed so appealing.

In 2013 and 2014, you guys played a two-part The Weak’s End 10th Anniversary tour, and now you’re currently on a 10-year anniversary tour of your sophomore album, The Question, with the support of Sleeping Giant, Wolves At The Gate and Forevermore. It’s really awesome the idea of doing those tours, but who came up with that and how is the response of your fans?

The Weak’s End Tour went over so well that we decided to do the same thing with The Question. It’s really awesome to interact with fans that have been listening to

music that is 10/11 years old.

Besides that tour, what other tour plans do you guys have in mind?

We have a tour with As Cities Burn in August which is going to be a blast. We also have something in the works for the East Coast in the fall.

By the way, what have you been listening to lately?

I have been on a punk rock kick lately. I have been blasting NOFX and Bad Religion. I have also been playing a lot of Taylor Swift.

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You Were Never Alone is out now via Rude Records 23

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NEU! ADULT MOM FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES THE BIG MOON SUNFLOWER BEAN

NEU VOL.12

ADULT MOM Where? New York (USA) Who? Steph Knipe, Bruce Hamilton, Jen Sinski, Kt Mcmanus For fans of: Frankie Cosmos, Waxahatchee, Jenny Lewis

I

t’s not the first time that a band starts in a bedroom - actually there are a lot of them nowadays - but it’s sometimes on such intimate space that comes out the most honest and organic songs. So it happened with Purchase New York’s Stephanie Knipe.

She started her own band after watching a show that inspired her to play music. From there she started playing music by covering Rilo Kiley’s songs,

but then it grew organically to write her own songs.

I fell in love by accident was the release that caught more attention and since then Knipe has performed with a full band, composed of Jack Tomascak, Jen Sinski and KT McManus. Her bittersweet indie pop music was enough to make her keep on rising on the NY’s music scene. Sometimes Bad Happens is Adult Mom’s first full band release, a new confidence bloomed with heartwarming tunes.

Adult Mom are going to release their debut album Momentary Lapse Of Happily on July 28th via Tiny Engines and she deals on her songs coming out as queer, which gave her a much greater openness in her music, and her life of course.

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FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES Where? Watford (UK) Who? Frank Carter For fans of: Gallows, The Ghost Of A Thousand, Pure Love

A

nd here we have the new band by Frank Carter, former frontman of Gallows and Pure Love. It’s inevitable not to talk about his previous bands when he starts a new one.

When he left Gallows to start the band Pure Love, there were these mixed feelings about what he would do next. With former The Hope Conspiracy guitarist Jim Carroll, they formed Pure Love, a more

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rock-oriented band with messages of hope and love. A different approach by Frank, but a good one though.

After Pure Love announcement of an “indefinite hiatus”, Frank kept on pursuing his musical career with a new band. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes is his return to a much loud and angry music.

It seems like a mix between the furious Frank seen in Gallows and the still hopeful Frank seen in Pure Love.

The band has already released their debut EP Rotten with the frenetic song “Fangs” being the first single unveiled. Their debut album will be released August 14th via International Death Cult, and it’s titled Blossom. It seems Frank is still angry and ready to explode.

NEU VOL.12

THE BIG MOON Where? London (UK) Who? Juliette Jackson, Soph Nathan, Celia Archer, Fern Ford For fans of: Palma Violets, Alvvays, Elastica

T

here are countless new bands coming from London that have caught our attention, not only for the exciting music, but for their awesome attitude. The Big Moon (formerly The Moon) are a four-piece consisted of Soph Nathan (guitar, vocals), Celia Archer (bass, vocals), Juliette Jackson (guitar, vocals), and Fern Ford (drums). They’ve only met each other just over a year ago and they already

sound like they’ve known each other forever.

Music wise, the girls swing between loud and sometimes noisy rock’n’roll with a pretty fuzzy indie pop. “Sucker” was the first single they released and it shows how energetic and confident they already sound together as a band.

The single was produced by the band themselves on the independent label Hard Up. As well as this, they’re set to release a limited edition (100 copies) tour cassette titled Milked. It will feature three new songs: “Eureka Moment”, “Nothing Without You”, and “This Is The News”.

The Big Moon are growing day by day and it’s only a matter of time before they reach out to higher grounds.

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NEU VOL.12

SUNFLOWER BEAN Where? Brooklyn (USA) Who? Jacob Faber, Julia Cumming, Nick Kivlen For fans of: The Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, Tame Impala

H

ailing from the city that never sleeps, Sunflower Bean sure write music that makes us daydream.

Comprised of Jacob Faber (drums), Julia Cumming (vocals/ bass) and Nick Kivlen (vocals/ guitar), the trio cite Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, Nirvana as some of their favorite bands and it’s really interesting how they combine different parts of those aforementioned names.

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Drawing from lo-fi sounds, dark rock’n’roll and psychedelic with a proper amount of reverb and heavy riffs, their music is sort of moody, but at the same time magical mixed with a young and brave attitude. They used to call their music as a “neo-psychedelic for the digital age” and we totally get that. Now the trio see themselves beyond that.

Early this year, the trio released Show Me Your Seven Secrets EP that definitely showed and even drew the attention of the most distracted music lovers. That EP has six songs that compile the perfect combination of what the band is about. “I Hear Voices” is the band’s most recent single and it’s a song inspired by a “fun fight” between the band.

NO JOY

R E V B U S E F I L L REA ----------

-----

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C I S U M P O P G N RTI ---

------

outfit No Joy s n' ia ad an C e nc si ed ss pa ve More than five years ha n. More ow gr s ha nd ba a as ty ci na te d formed and their intensity an and they mix the beauty and the chaos Faithful is their third full-length We had a lovely chat with guitarist with soft and heavy tunes. m, recording in Costa Rica and Laura Lloyd about the new albufluence on their mood. why the Moon is an in Words: Andreia Alves //

Photos: Allison Staton

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L

ast May you did a UK tour with CHEATAHS and played at The Great Escape Festival. What were you the most excited about it?

I think touring with CHEATAHS! We’ve been fans of that band since we’ve heard about them. I was just really excited to play with them and they were just as excited as we were to tour together. [laughs] It was really fun. We typically like the UK just because we really like Marks & Spencer. [laughs] The food on the side of the road is what we get in America. It was nice to make it over there when it was not also raining and cold.

You have been a band for more than five years now, so what do you feel has changed the most within those years as a band?

It’s hard to answer that question because it felt such a natural progression for us. When you say what has changed the most over the years, I don’t necessarily believe that we have or more like this is what we’ve always had intended to do, just now we have more resources to kind of achieve that. We know with our first record we had to do all ourselves. We didn’t have any help and that’s why our second record sounded completely different, because we had the resources of an entire studio and engineers to kind of put things together for us. I say often that our second record is what our first record would sound like if we had the time, money and the resources. [laughs] We’ve been a band for five years and we’ve been playing a lot together. We do like to challenge ourselves, but all that seems like it was a very natural progression and never like intentional to change our style or the way we sound.

Early June you released your new album, More Faithful. How was it like to work on this new effort?

We had just come off from a lot of touring for the second record, so it was kind of like you’ve been touring for two years and then you’re kind of thrown back into normal life where you’re supposed to maintain a routine or have a normal life. [laughs] After touring 34

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for so long, you know you’re not used so that’s kind of a weird space to be in to begin with. We felt that was kind of hard to deal with and put that weird energy we had into creating new songs for the next record, because we knew we wanted to do it. Well, relatively soon after and ended up being quite a while. [laughs] The process was half similar to the last record and also very dissimilar. We worked with Jorge Elbrecht who did our second record, Wait To Pleasure, and this time we recorded at the same studio in New York, except we did the second half of the whole recording process, which was the mixing and the lighter stuff, and we did it in Costa Rica which was a complete change of scenery and that just kind of happened. We never really intended to go there...

Our producer Jorge was really sick in New York and his family is from Costa Rica, so we had access to this old farmhouse on the side of a mountain. [laughs] Going there and finishing the record was about the same as staying in New York. [laughs] We figured we might as well go and see what that does, so that was really cool.

Is it an experience that you would like to repeat on a future release?

Yeah, I’m open to it. We like the comfort of the studio, the routine ... I think if you start to change things up too much or on a regular basis, you have lost track of where you started. So, I’m open to going to foreign locations and working there absolutely, but it’s not something that I’m going to actively seek out. It kind of has to be the opportunity has to present itself because if you start with a crazy idea in your head, it may really not fall together the way it should and this was kind of like the pieces just fell together, that’s what happened.

Musically, your previous album Wait To Pleasure had more textural and atmospheric shoegaze sounds and More Faithful has a more straightforward sound and it’s more intense as a whole.

What did differ between the approaches for each one of them?

For instance, you hear the song “Moon in my Mouth” and I’ll tell you for a fan is a very uncomfortable song to play. Everything sounds simple and basic when you listen to it, but it’s an 11/4 time, which is basically attached to it, and if I’m not counting the entire song,

then I would lose track on how to play it. [laughs] So if you ever see us live, you will see me really concentrated. [laughs] The idea was kind of to bring for these new conceptual ideas of making and having something so complicated sound really pretty and not really hard to digest. I think that comes out a lot in some of the songs, also in the sense of texture and intensity. You know, I have a heart [laughs] and it’s hard for me to see the difference between the two albums in the same sense. I feel like this one is very much a continuation of the last one and I think we still have all the textures and it’s something we really like to play with. In terms of intensity, I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that and I hear people saying that. Maybe it’s just because we kind of drop the reverb a little more than we have before, but that’s something we’ve done and it’s time to move on to something new. [laughs] We’ve never been bounded by that, it’s just something that we like. When it fits, it fits... If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

A lot of people may say that is shoegaze or whatever, but in my opinion we were never a shoegaze band. [laughs] People are quick to label things, but people change, things change...

On More Faithful, it feels like there are heavy songs and soft songs. It’s like there’s a frenetic side of the album, but there’s also a moody side of it. Do you feel that was intentional while writing the songs or was it something organic?

It was absolutely organic and if you look at the body of our work it has always been that way. There’s always been the soft and pretty ones and there’s always been the heavy and crunchy ones, even if you look at our very first release, “No Summer” and “No Joy”, which I’m sure it’s very hard to find. [laughs] It was just a 7”, one side was soft and pretty and the other side was hard and dark. I think that’s always been there and it’s something that we love to play with. I like to write both ways and we all do, so it’s just how we have been and how we always kind of functioned. Maybe on this album, there’s more of a contrast between the two because were different experiences, different spectrums... Definitely that’s something core to us which is to have kind of the whole

INTERVIEW // NO JOY

“It was absolutely organic and if you look at the body of our work it has always been that way. There’s always been the soft and pretty ones and there’s always been the heavy and crunchy ones...”

sphere of emotions. [laughs] Considering this is your third album, what did mainly drive you to write the lyrics for this one?

We all write separately and then we come together and put the songs together. I can’t really speak for everyone what inspired them to write, but I know it’s always been like when it comes to writing songs I’m really interested in textures and sounds and that’s what always starts a song for me.

I’m just friendly guitar and I like the way the tone is, and that’s the building part. I don’t really like to speak of inspirations because it’s never one particular thing and it’s never something that you can pinpoint. I think I’m realistic and there are so many factors that go into it. [laughs] I know some people that take an idea and run with it, but that’s never really been a way we function.

What about the album’s title, More Faithful? What led you to choose that title?

It was such a long process. [laughs] We were arguing over three different names and in the end we were like “Ok, let’s do a process of elimination” and then two people were still very

uncomfortable. [laughs] But we just kept going through that process over and over, until we were passed our deadline. [laughs] It’s just kind of came out of that, but I think it’s an idea that reflects within all of us...

We were looking for something that kind of last a bit longer and that’s kind of the idea behind it.

“Moon In My Mouth” is one of the softer songs of the album. What’s the story behind this one?

I could tell you a little bit, but I don’t really know... Jasamine writes all the lyrics and she keeps it under lock and key. [laughs] But I do know that the idea behind this song was kind of do a really soft twist style song. From what I understand the lyrics are pretty harsh like there’s a juxtaposition there with the soft sound and aggressive lyrics that you can’t necessarily pick out.

You have mentioned the moon quite often in your songs. Is there any particular reason?

Yeah, absolutely! [laughs] Jasamine and I are both Cancer signs and we’re both incredibly affected by the moon. [laughs] It sounds really stupid and it’s not necessarily something that I fully believe in, but whenever there’s a full moon or something I just can feel myself going crazy. [laughs] I stay in

when there’s a full moon. [laughs] My mood is easily affected.. we are both really moody to begin with and with that factor is a wild card. [laughs] It’s something that we always joke about, but we don’t totally believe in it. [laughs] More Faithful is your first record released by Arts & Crafts, aside from Mexican Summer. How did that collaboration come to be?

We’re still with Mexican Summer, who we’ve been with from the beginning, and we asked them to kind of explore other options to release in Canada just because we’re a Canadian band and our record in Canada is so expensive, because it’s imported from the U.S. It’s like $35. [laughs] So, we thought it might be time to find a Canadian label to cover this country that we live in. Mexican Summer reached out to them and turns out they have been fans of the band for a long time, so it worked out really easily and they were happy to do it.

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More Faithful is out now via Mexican Summer 35

ENIGMATIC, FRANCESCA BELM HIPNOTIC AND STUNNING! A NEW AGE OF TRIP-POP IS ARRIVIN

and an Italian father, has recording wonderful vocals year it was announced th would be released on Trick Belmonte about her beau one of the mo

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MONTE, born in London, to an Irish mother

been working with Tricky for the last six years, s and performing with the trip hop legend. Last hat Belmonte’s debut album, entitled Anima, ky’s own False Idols. We talked with Francesca utiful and haunting music, and what’s behind ost enigmatic albums of the year.

Words:Tiago Moreira

NG...

H

ow are you dealing with this pre-release period? I know that it can be really stressful.

Yeah, it is a little bit stressful... I’m really enjoying it, though, but I’m in the process of changing management as well at the moment, so that’s been a little bit stressful. Apart from that, it’s really nice to speak with people like you and people who have been really kind and supportive about the album and the music I’ve released so far. Obviously it’s a little bit scary because it’s the very beginning of my journey, but I’m enjoying every minute of it... or trying to, at least. [laughs]

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I saw you a few weeks ago performing with Tricky. I have to say, it was one of most weird and, at the same time, brilliant shows I saw in a long, long time.

I think ultimately with Tricky he’s not a pop star and he’s not a performing puppet. I think that has been his saving grace and his downfall, you know what I mean?

Well, maybe not his downfall, but he definitely does not conform and that’s what people love about him.

It’s how he managed, I think, to keep a career for 20 years.

People can say what they want about Tricky but there are very few people out there that’ve maintained a career for pushing 20 years now. I think with his live shows basically you’re dealing with a very honest artist. He’s very true to himself. He’s always on time on stage. I’ve seen him going on stage with the worst flu or with a broken leg... I played a show with him where he broke his leg and that same day he was on stage performing. He does take it very seriously and he will go on stage to give you a show, but if he’s not in the mood to do certain songs or to perform perhaps in the way you would expect him to do it... He won’t do it.

Is it a challenging process for you, performing live with him?

Yes, it is extremely challenging. [laughs] Yeah, it seemed like it. It seemed like you were always trying to guess what would be his next move, you know what I mean?

Oh god! [laughs] To me that means that I’ve failed as a performer. It should look a lot more seamless than that. I hadn’t played with Tricky for about three months and there was no rehearsal or anything, so I was kind of finding my feet again. But when we’ve been on tour for a while I think my performance is usually a little bit more seamless. It’s a difficult gig because he’s a paranoid person so it’s difficult to kind of... the whole show is completely unplanned and there’s no set list so you have to keep an eye on him in order to figure out what’s happening next, but then at the same time he gets very paranoid about you watching him. It’s a tricky thing – excuse the pun – but it should be more seamless than that. It’s very, very fucking challenging.

When did you decide that it was 38

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time to work on your own stuff?

I’ve been ready for a long time.

I’ve been ready since I joined with Tricky. Before I joined with Tricky I was working on my own stuff, I had management, and I was playing shows around London, but then the opportunity with Tricky came up and it was such a big one that I had to kind of jump and do it. I was so committed to Tricky that everything... there was always something else to do – a tour to do or an album to record – so my stuff just got put on the back but I was totally cool with that because I was really enjoying my time with Tricky. I think when you’ve been on a gig for like six years, and I’ve done two or three albums with him on his stuff, you just come to the point where... I began to feel very, very comfortable and I think that’s quite dangerous. I could just end it up being his singer for years, and years, and years. It just got to the point where it was time, you know?

I just begun to feel a little bit drowned and a little bit suffocated.

It was time to kind of move on and explore my own expression.

The awesome thing about it is to see Tricky being so supportive.

You don’t see that that often from other people.

Yeah, he was, and is, very supportive. But I think I gave him huge amount of support, so I think there’s this reciprocal kind of relation. You’re absolutely right, he’s the first person... I had tons of people going, “Yeah, I really believe in you. I’m going to do this for you. I’m going to do that for you,” but no one actually come through, nothing’s happened. He’s the first person who has put his money where his mouth is.

Is Anima, the title of your album, a reference to Carl Jung’s school of analytical psychology?

Yeah! Well, it’s a reference to a lot of things. I’m into Jung’s psychology and... I was just reading about it – I just know little bits and I’m just now starting to read it more in-depth – and I came across that word. At first it just stood out because I really liked the word, I thought it looked really cool written down. Obviously it means soul or spirit, in Italian – I’m half-Italian so there’s a connection there – and the more I read about it the more fitting it felt for where I’ve been for the last kind of six years. Although the songs are not necessarily about this

concept. In Jung’s psychology it means that it’s the female element of the male psyche.

Every man has a female element, which is called anima, and every woman has a male element in her psyche, which is called animus. I just thought that Anima was quite fitting having been Tricky’s singer for the last six years and being each other’s inspiration, and everything. But also, Anima in even more ancient kind of theory – my guitarist showed me this the other day – it’s kind of everything and anything. Anima is the study of an idea that everything and anything has a life. You can climb a mountain and be sitting on a rock and that rock is living and breathing. It’s the idea that we’re part of the same consciousness, which I’m very interested in.

How did you meet Mykki Blanco and how did he end up on “Keep Moving”?

Basically Tricky and I were playing a show in Berlin and Mykki Blanco was supporting us. We watched his show and we were like blown away by his show. Tricky started speaking to him and Mykki ended up on Tricky’s album and we invited him on mine and he was very, very cool and he was very happy to do it. That’s the story basically. [laughs] He’s a very nice guy. He’s a very, very sweet man. I haven’t sat and had very long conversations with him or anything, but he’s a special one, I think.

Who’s responsible for having the brilliant idea of recording your cousin Daisy’s voice?

Basically how that came about...

Tricky bought Daisy – she’s my cousin and God daughter – a pair of trainers and I was with her when she opened the present and I called Tricky for Daisy to thank him. They talked on the phone and, you know, she’s from this East End part of London, and she speaks in this really thick, cockney voice, very low and husky, and he was blown away with her voice and he said that I had to bring her down to the studio. So, I got her down, initially just for fun and for her just to hang out in the studio, and then he wrote her this rap and she laid it down and... it just came out really, really amazing, beautiful, and haunting.

Am I wrong to assume that some of these songs exist for quite a

INTERVIEW // FRANCESCA BELMONTE

“I just begun to feel a little bit drowned and a little bit suffocated.

It was time to kind of move on and explore my own expression.” while now?

Yeah, none of them are more than maybe two or three years...

Oh, “Joker” is very old. “Joker” is a very old song. I wrote that one about six or seven years ago.

I didn’t even wanted to put in on the album but Tricky insisted and... I have to trust in someone that has been doing this for so many years. Then “Stole” is a couple of years old. I wrote that kind of about a year or so into working with Tricky. But the other ones are fresh.

I thought they were written in different periods of time because they seem to have a different mindset from each other.

Apart from “Stole” and “Joker”, they all are from the same moment but I’m very messy, disorganized, all over the place kind of person, you know what I mean?

I’m quite eclectic as well, in my musical taste, and that’s why is

probably come out quite fragmented and disjointed but... I would say I wasn’t in the most stable place while I was recording the album. Anyway, it’s quite natural that it has come out quite erratic and disjointed in that way.

How different was to work with Tricky as a producer as opposed work for him, in his project?

It was much the same as the recordings of Mixed Race and False Idols. When you been working with someone for that long and that insensately you can find your own rhythm together, so the Anima sessions were much the same as the last two albums. Obviously it was for my album and so I had a lot more input in regards to lyrics, and I’ve predominately written every single song. There’s a few songs that I brought in fresh and... It’s very difficult to work with Tricky, sometimes. [laughs] Because as much as you want to create the

whole thing yourself and just have him as the producer like... He’s an amazing artist so sometimes we would have a beat playing and I would be on to something, a really cool idea that I believed in, but then Tricky would come with like a really cool verse or a chorus that I would have to go, “Yeah ok, let’s put that down.” [laughs] I’m not going to have huge pride and like, “Every lyrics have to be mine.

Every melody has to come from my head.” Initially I was thinking, “Oh no!” but his ideas are so good and beautiful that I had to go there. You have to just make that decision, don’t you? Is it worth let your ego get in the way?

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Anima is out now via False Idols 39

CIRCUIT DES YEUX DEEP INTO THE COMPLEX ELEMENTS OF HUMAN EMOTIONS...

Circuit des Yeux, also known as Haley Fohr, striking, and kind of operatic voice has been grabbing people’s attention for some time now. The now twenty-six-year-old artist and musician from Indiana is offering a brand new taunting album, this time joined by “some of the most progressive musicians in the Chicago music community” – a city that she calls now home. It was about the new In Plain Speech that we talked about with Haley Fohr.

Words:Tiago Moreira // Photos: Julia Dretel

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H

ow was the transition from college to what people like to call “the real world”?

It was a rude awakening. [laughs] It was kind of tough. I was pretty broke, and I’m still pretty broke... it was kind of sink or swim but I managed to make it work. I found some people that had a really cheap apartment for rent, like 200 bucks per month, in Chicago, so I basically moved into a closet, found work, and worked my way into semi-stability, which I have now, I guess. [laughs] Do you think that “rude awakening”, that harsh reality, had an impact on your music?

Yes! [pause] Well, I think the state of mind definitely was altered by those challenges.

It just made me realize how hard it is to not get sucked into kind of an eight-hour day,

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forty-hour week job that you don’t give a shit about. It’s hard to make ends meet, and it’s hard to do things on top of that and find to do the things that you love. So, I kind of just made a decision to focus on the things that I love and hope that I was able to pay my bills and figure out that way was hard, but I think I have figured it out. I do wish I made more money. I think my music is completely affected by my socionomical standing. It’s very in-house but I think it’s something that I learned to love and deal with.

Are you working for other people?

Are you recording for or with other people?

No. I used to work for a record label called the Numero Group, which I was the audio engineer, and I made some pretty good... alright money, doing that. But these days I’m just focusing on Circuit des Yeux and I’m really trying to focus on my voice, so this is the year of my voice. I’m doing a lot of improvisation gigs, I’m collaborating with other musicians.

It’s less recording-based year and more of a get-out-there-and-perform kind of thing.

Did you move right away, after finishing college, to Chicago?

Yeah. It was really important, and great, and I’m glad I did it. There’s a diversity here that isn’t around in Indiana. The things that I miss about Indiana is the slow pace, I mean, people in Chicago even walk faster than I walk, and that’s been really hard to adjust to, and the lack of nature, and beauty...

You know, I grew up in flat fields of farmland and factories, so there’s not much room to run around and just sort of get lost in the Mother Nature. The thing I miss the most, I think, is being able to see the stars. There’s so much light pollution that you can only see like

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one or two stars, so whenever I’m on tour it’s a delight.

Was Chicago the first time you found a music community that you felt a part of?

I felt a part of the Bloomington music community, which was where I went to college. I definitely felt a part of that movement. There’s a record label and a studio called Magnetic South... John and those guys really helped me flourish and kind of grow through my early 20s, but it’s such a small scene. It’s literally something like thirty people, so I just felt too comfortable. And the Chicago scene is kind of the perfect balance for me.

Everybody is really inviting and nice, they are all my friends, but it’s also big enough that you don’t get too...

Is that why this new album, like it says on the press release, “represents the start of a new, more collaborative chapter for Circuit des Yeux”?

Yeah, it’s something that I’m intentionally trying to do at this point of my life. There are amazing musicians in Chicago.

Promoting Overdue you toured solo, without a band, a tour manager, or even a driver. How was that like?

It’s just something that I had to do. At first... I don’t know, it depends on the day, I guess how I’m feeling. Some days it’s an adventure, some days it’s a challenge, but for the most part I really like touring, and I like meeting people. When you’re just by yourself you can kind of be whoever you want to be... Yeah, you have to be really, really open when you get to a venue, because you don’t have really... You just rely so much on people for house and food, emotional communication. You don’t have anyone to talk about to. You drive like these eight-hour drives by yourself... You can get in your own head sometimes.

Do you think that experience gave you some new tools to work with?

Yeah, musically certainly. I don’t really approach my life, music and recording the same because I just can’t. I can’t play all those instruments

st fa y ll a e r ’s it , a ic r e m A in “Self-love, especially e their bodies and their tim c ifi r c a s le p o e p f o t ’ lo it a t u b , k c e h c y a p t a h t e something done, or maykourself and see yoursel

d n a , d e t n ie r o ld o g d n paced a t e g o t y r t o t p e le s ir e h t d me, an on t c e fl e r o t t n a t r o p im y ll ’s rea lf worth.”

INTERVIEW // CIRCUIT DES YEUX

at once, so really challenges me to explore and trying to fill up a room just using my guitar and voice, and I think I’ve learned a great deal from that.

Reading the “Do The Dishes” lyrics I couldn’t help thinking that it was a message to your own self.

Would that be a fair read of it?

Absolutely! I’m glad you feel that way. I come from a family of women. My mom has seven sisters, I have two sisters... I identify as a woman so I have a lot of problems that might be due to being a woman and...

I don’t know, they never stood up for me. When I was younger I was feeling a certain way and putting myself through certain situations that I just wished another woman, or just another person in general, who have said, “Believe in yourself. You’re important. You’re special.” And I think that is a message that everybody should feel. Self-love, especially in America, it’s really fast paced and gold oriented, and a lot of people sacrifice their bodies and their time, and their sleep to try to get something done, or make that paycheck, but it’s really important to reflect on yourself and see yourself worth.

I’m curious, do you remember when you were for the first time willing to take the risk?

I don’t think it was until recently. [laughs] I just had my twenty sixth birthday and I kind of allowed myself to really be debaucherous and enjoy myself, and not worry about other things in my life. It’s definitely been a recent development, that sort of new confidence in my art, and just in my life, and how I am as a musician.

Has it been easy to shift, to change?

Shifts and changes are really hard. As an artist and a musician I found myself to be my biggest critic... that’s my biggest struggle, like kind of see the positive things about my art, and not being so negative.

I’m pessimist by nature so I see something and I see the things that I want to fix, and I feel that way about myself. It’s a challenge but once I stepped into that mindset... It’s something I have to work on every day, changing the way I feel about the world around me, but the more I do it the easier it becomes and life in general is much happier and enjoyable for doing that.

Is “Fantasize the Scene” talking about Bloomington, Indiana, and what you felt while you were living there?

No, not at all, actually. “Fantasize the Scene” is about all the people I meet on the road and these instant connections you can make with someone. Meeting someone for a day or just having a random conversation, maybe at a bar or a restaurant, and then having to go on your separate ways. I think everybody goes through challenges, every day, and they are all very similar issues. With make a connection with someone like that and it’s something that lasts forever, even if it’s only for five minutes. It’s always kind of strange not knowing if you will ever see that person again. You share this connection and this intimate relationship, but it could have lasted for one show or it could last for one day, or for one night.

In Plain Speech is out now via Thrill Jockey

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A new and refined

FOUR YEAR

Last year we saw Four Year Strong coming back to release new music after a The EP Go Down In History was their first new material after that long p more focus and more confident than ever and the result is their rad sixth with Alan Day about this awesome new album tha

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era for the mighty

R STRONG

three-year hiatus, which led to a lot of rumors that the band had broken up. period of time and the proof that they were back for good. Now they are h self-titled studio album. We couldn't miss the opportunity to catch up at it's probably one of their best efforts to date.

Words: Andreia Alves // Photos: Matthew Vincent

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L

ast time we talked about your EP Go Down in History and now you’re about to release a new album, the follow-up to 2011’s In Some Way, Shape Or Form. It’s safe to say Four Year Strong are definitely back. How do you feel about the band to where it is now?

I feel bad and also great about it. In Some Way, Shape Or Form was undoubtedly a time where we needed to take a time off. After that record came out, personally we were not in a great place as a band and there were a lot of other things like the label situation, members being out of the band.

There were a lot of things that ended up to us need to take a lot of time off, which there were talks of breaking up during that time off and that never actually happened which is a good thing, because all of the sudden we all realized that we want to keep going again and had a realization that it was stupid to kind of threw all away just because of stupid personal issues.

That’s when we decided to get back and write Go Down in History and I think that was until we just wrote and recorded this new self-titled - my favorite thing that we’ve ever written to date. It put us in a good place mentally and it seems like the fans really like it.

It put us kind of back on the map again and gave us the opportunity to write this full-length. We did that and it’s by far the best thing, I think, we’ve done yet.

Dan [O’Connor, guitarist/vocalist] stated that this record is “one of the most raw records we’ve ever made, it’s just us playing.

No fancy computer shit. Made for singing along and head banging.”

It feels like there are the heaviest and poppiest songs that you’ve guys ever written. What can you tell us about the writing process for this album?

It was great! It was a lot different that we were used to, because we’ve always done a lot of the finishing touches of writing while being in the studio and that’s what we were used to, using compressed computer tricks always lend itself well to that. If we needed to 46

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change something after tracking half of a song, we could do that because the computer can do...

But this time we got into the studio and Kurt Ballou, who recorded this, that wasn’t his way of doing things. We just had to relearn and really just practice the songs and play them really well until we got to takes. It was challenging, but I think a lot more rewarding in the end.

sense with our catalog, but cooperating what we learned about ourselves as songwriters and as musicians led into the music that we write now. We still have the mentality of writing Rise or Die Trying (2007), Enemy Of The World or earlier records and just kind of merge the two. That’s what we did with Go Down in History and that’s what we’re doing with the self-titled.

You guys worked with Kurt Ballou at Godcity Studio, which must had been an awesome experience.

How was it like to work with him?

It was really great! We had a lot of fun. It was in Massachusetts, so it was really crucial at the time because Dan had just had a baby and we live in Massachusetts. He wanted to be able to while we’re not on tour still be at home spending time with his daughter. It was really nice to be able to go to the studio and then go sleep in my own bed. He could spend time with his kid and that was really nice.

But actually working with Kurt was great too, because I think musically we are a little outside of his new house and what he normally works with in his studio and same viceversa. His production style is a lot outside of our comfort zone, but also what we really liked to hear and what we’ve being used to work with, it was really a good mix to be able to be uncomfortable together to make this really cool, unique thing happen.

As your fifth album and being self-titled, what does represent to you guys at this point of your music career?

We almost didn’t want to call it self-titled because a lot of times it felt like “We could come up with something better.” But at the time the album was finished, we were so happy with it that we were all of the sudden excited about the idea of calling it selftitled, because it represents us as a band so well I think and that was the perfect time to do that.

Go Down in History EP felt like a mix between of Enemy Of The World (2010) and In Some Way, Shape Or Form (2011). What do you think it stands the most on this record compared to those records?

You’re right when you say Go Down in History was kind of a mix between Enemy Of The World and In Some Way, Shape Or Form and we just kind of wanted to continue that with the new full-length. Many people thought that In Some Way, Shape Or Form was very different and it was still Four Year Strong and it was still us writing the songs. At the time, we were aware where we wanted to be creatively, but it was mostly because we were sick of being Four Year Strong at the time and we wanted to do something fun and exciting and that’s what playing music should be. We were just stuck creatively and so we just tried something different, but it was still us. Now it makes more

Your vocal style ranges from half-scream to half-singing, a lot gang vocals and a more steady singing. How do you feel about the development of your singing style throughout the years?

To be honest, I’ve never really noticed differences just because it’s been a part of me and it extends every single day like we don’t realize how faster our hair is growing, but if you see it every year and now they cut the hair is like “Oh crap, your hair is so long.” I think it must be kind of like that. To us, it doesn’t really feel different because we’re always saying the same, we always have the same process and I think more so than anything else is that on our earlier records we were very young and it was just natural voice changing, puberty that happened to make us sound the way we sound now.

Some of the song titles come from movie lines, such as movies like Jaws (“Here’s to Swimming with Bow-Legged Women”), Boogie Nights (“I’m a Big, Bright, Shining Star”) and Home Alone (“Stolen Credit Card!”) to name a few. What can you tell us about that?

A lot of times we just say “It’s time to come up with some song titles.” We try to find movie quotes that actually make us laugh and we name the songs with that.

INTERVIEW // FOUR YEAR STRONG

“We just had to relearn and really just practice the songs and play them really well until we got to takes. It was challenging, but I think a lot more rewarding in the end.”

The track “Go Down in History” of the EP is probably one of my favorite recent songs from you guys and it’s also on this record.

Why did you put it there?

Mostly because it was one of our favorite songs and quickly became a fan’s favorite in the live shows.

It became one of the best songs to play live and we didn’t want to kind of let that disappear on the EP. Not that it would, but we didn’t want to take that chance, so we decided to just put it on the full-length and let it be a part of our actual discography.

The album’s artwork is so funny!

Tell us a little bit about it and who did it.

The artist is Ryan Eyestone. We were on tour and we knew we had to come up with artwork ideas.

We just got around one day on the tour bus joking about different ideas and how was the one that stuck. Our tour manager made a list of all the things we were saying and sent it to the artist,

and that’s exactly what came to be the artwork. Actually, the artwork was finished before the actual music was finished.

At this point, do you have any bands that still inspire you musically?

That’s kind of all over the place.

Something that we take pride in our songwriting is that our influences are directly different from each other and it has a lot variety in genres and styles. I listen to a lot of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but also Taylor Swift and also Led Zeppelin. I listen to stuff all across the board and I like to think that shows in the music we write, not necessarily that we sound anything like that, but we take little bits of pieces and make it unrecognizable in our guitar playing and like little pieces of the music, not like the song as a whole but taking influences the way that we feel they should be taken and not necessarily stolen directly and apply in a certain way, but more

like “The energy of this song... I want to capture that in a certain way, the way we do it.”

What’s next for Four Year Strong after the album’s release?

We don’t have a lot of 100% solid plans for the rest of the year.

We’re still working most of it out.

Everything that we’re doing right now is just releasing this record, we have some music videos coming out and we’re on a tour right now with The Story So Far and that’s going really well and we’re hoping to do another tour in the fall. We’re taking a bit of the summer off just to spend some time with our families. I’m going to get married later this year, so we’re taking some time off then.

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Four Year Strong is out now via Pure Noise Records 47

sun summer party fun e h t d r a e h u o y e v ha

? s hind Previously known as Deers, Hinds are four girls from Madrid that know how to have fun while doing music. Their contagious energy and positive vibe are something unique and their music is the result of their great mood and great friendship. The girls are now preparing to release their first full-length and Carlotta Cosials (vocals/guitar) was sweet enough to answer our questions.

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For those who haven’t listened to you yet, how would you describe your music?

Messy, sincere and smily.

There’s a great chemistry between you girls. How does it work the songwriting process in your band?

Depends on the song, but it’s almost everything on Ana and me.

We have little time to write for the album so we had to do it very fast. We used to write the music all together in our rehearsal place when we used to have time...

Hopefully going back to that technique soon!

Y

You released a documentary about the band entitled A Summer With Us that shows how awesome it must be touring

ou did some live shows in Australia and then you flew to the USA for more touring. It was your first time playing at both places, so how was it like to play those shows?

Australia was super, super crazy and the USA changed our lives. You never know exactly what are you going to expect, but we really get on very well with the people who come to our shows, so we really love touring anywhere. [laughs] Following to a legal threat, you girls had to change your name Deers to Hinds, which it’s a clever and cool choice even though we loved the other name. So, what happened exactly?

I know, we love Hinds too! We received an aggressive email from a lawyer saying that we had to do it, so it was tough but we did it.

Putting this name issue aside, your band began as a duo but turned into a four piece. Tell us a little bit of how your band came to be.

It just started because we wanted to! Ana (vocals/guitar) and I weren’t musicians at all, we were just music lovers, so all we try is to do the kind of music we’d love to listen to. But it’s not the same story for Amber (drums) and Ade (bass). Ade has been studying music since she was 7 years old, and Amber has been 8 years playing drums already. They really beat us. [laughs]

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“You never know ex going to expect, bu very well with the to our s

xactly what are you ut we really get on people who come shows...”

INTERVIEW // HINDS around, especially with your friends. What do you girls like to do the most while on the road?

We play, we sing, we talk a lot, we sleep almost nothing, we sweat, we shower at the venues, we eat gas-station-food, we get drunk almost every night, we meet people, we do interviews, we never have time to see the cities... Touring.

You girls always seem to be in a good mood and having a great time together. How do you keep up that positive and contagious energy? [laughs] That’s only because we learnt to make an effort. It’s

easier to be tired. We were really well educated. [laughs] Your transparency and positive attitude are definitely conveyed into your music. What’s your daily motto?

We do it and then we’ll see.

You are currently working on your first album. How is it going?

What can we expect from it?

More music. More love.

I read that you want to be 11 songs in the album. Why’s that?

Is it a special number for you?

All the perfect albums for us have 11 songs, it’s more than important. [laughs] Do you recommend any new bands from Madrid that we should listen to?

Sure! Lois, The Parrots, Los Nastys and Hache.

Hinds’ debut full-length is slated for a fall release. Stay tuned...

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ADVENTUROUS AND STYLISTIC

Holly miranda IS BACK! Both solo or with a band, Holly Miranda has always shown her talent through every record she worked on and every stage she put her feet on. Such as with her former rock band The Jealous Girlfriends or as a solo musician, there was no doubt that she would give a step ahead on whatever she did next. Miranda is still exploring her skills as a songwriter and this new self-titled album is a proof of that. We talked with Miranda about her latest tours, the creative process of the new album and a lot more.

Words: Andreia Alves

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Which of your performances or collaborations have stood out for you over these years as a musician?

Performance wise, I would have to say getting to perform at the Sydney Opera house alongside Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson takes the cake. Lou, Laurie and Hal Winer curated the Vivid Festival and I was lucky enough to be asked to play.

Collaborations are a little harder, they’ve all been so different. I think that’s what I love about collaborating, is that I can do something entirely opposite of what I would ever come up with by myself or for my solo music. I wrote a song with Erol Alken that’s coming out soon, I’m excited for that to be out in the world!

Y

ou were at SXSW and you surely played the new songs. How was it?

I was in Austin for about 30 hours! I flew in between shows on tour with Andrea Gibson. So it was a quickie southby visit. I did get to sing a few songs with my dear friend Kevin Devine, record a session with Daytrotter - who I love -, stopped by the Gibson showroom and talk to Rdio. I also played a showcase for my new label, Dangerbird Records, and got to meet all my label mates. That was a blast! That was about all I had time for though. I didn’t even go to sleep, I just went straight to the airport.

Besides that, you were recently on tour with Karen O as backing band in support of her solo debut Crush Songs. How was that tour?

That was such a great experience for me. I don’t usually get to play for someone else, or sing backup. It was a real challenge, in the best way possible. I learned a lot and have a whole new understanding of what that’s like.

Karen is incredible and a huge inspiration to watch perform every night. Also Moses Sumney was in the band and opening some of the shows, he is absolutely amazing!

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“Something happens to my brain when get out to the desert, the expansiveness, the space, being able to see further than a block. I love it” You made a trip to Joshua Tree to jumpstart the creative process for new material. How was that experience and in what way did it help you to work on the new album?

Yeah, I just felt like I needed to get away from the noise of cities, so I could let my own thoughts come through. Something happens to my brain when get out to the desert, the expansiveness, the space, being able to see further than a block. I love it. It was exactly what I needed.

Musically, what bands or records did in some way inspired you for this record?

That’s a hard one to answer, but I

can say I was listening to a lot of old Nina Simone records and albums made before multitracking. You can hear that one mic in the middle of the room. I wanted to carry that vibe into the record, not a lot of overdubs, keeping first takes, not a lot of effects. I love my band and I wanted it to sound more like we do live.

In 2013 you unveiled the singles “Everlasting” and “Desert Call,” which are part of this new record. How long did you take to write this new album?

Some songs I wrote a while ago, like “Mark my words” and “Pelican Rapids”, but the bulk of the album I wrote in that month out in Joshua Tree.

In the meantime, you signed with Dangerbird Records. How did that happen?

I was on tour with Karen O and we were doing three nights at The Masonic Temple in LA. The owner of Dangerbird, Peter, was at the one of the shows and asked the sound woman about me. She passed his number on to me and I carried it in my wallet around the globe. A few months later I was looking for someone to put this record out, I just took a chance and wrote him an email with a link to the record. A short while later we had lunch and I checked out the DB studio and offices in Silverlake, we just really hit it off and I signed with them. They have been so incredible to work with!

I know it took me a while to get this album done and out, but I’m so happy about the way it happened now.

This album seems to be more straight forward, organic and raw than your previous release.

How is this album different from The Magician’s Private Library?

I co‐produced this record in a studio in Brooklyn, NY with Florent Barbier. I love The Magician’s Private Library and I loved working with Dave Sitek who produced that record -, but I really wanted to try my hand at producing and make something that sounded more live. I also never want to make the same record twice. I want to always be growing as an artist, taking risks.

You recently shared the track “All I Want Is To Be Your Girl,”

INTERVIEW // HOLLY MIRANDA

where you sing this awesome part “The days are shorter, but the nights are long / We could fuck in the sun and then dance till dawn.” What can you tell me about the writing on this one? [laughs] Well, for me it’s about that part of the relationship in the beginning, when everything is new and exciting. That’s all I can say about this. [laughs] Like you mentioned, you co‐produced the album with Florent Barbier and you also had the help of bandmates Timmy Mislock, Maria Eisen and David

Jack Daniels to record it.

What can you tell me more about the recording process?

We recorded it over a few months in Florent’s studio in Brooklyn, NY. Hurricane Sandy happened right in the middle of it actually, and I ended up starting a charity with some friends and doing a lot of relief work during the recording.

Also the G train that got me into the studio was down after all the flooding, so I ended up living in the control room for a while on Florent’s pull out couch.

a graphic novel with Portland based artist Catherine Lazar Odell. What can you tell me about that?

Yeah! I’m really excited for this, Catherine is an old friend and such a talented artist. It’s going to be really beautiful! It’s going to be more short stories with illustrations by Catherine.

You are currently working on www.facebook.com/MUSICandRIOTS.Magazine

Holly Miranda is out now via Dangerbird Records 55

Algiers are an Atlanta-based power-trio who caught our attention four months ago when their label, Matador Records, released, on YouTube, a song called “But She Was Not Flying,” off of their self-titled debut album. The mixture of punk, noise, gospel, blues, and hip hop, combined with words that follow the same mindset of many of the greatest – Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, MC5, The Clash, etc. We talked with Ryan Mahan and Lee Tesche (unfortunately Franklin James Fisher couldn’t be present) about their debut album, the meaning of the name Algiers, the influence that Atlanta had on them, religion, racism, classism, apathy, and many more.

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REVOLUTIONARY NOISE IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD Words: Tiago Moreira // Photos: Alex De Mora

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H

ow did you guys meet? Was the relationship developed exclusively because of the music, at first?

Lee Tesche: It’s an interesting question...

Ryan Mahan: Yeah, it’s quite complex, Tiago. All three of us grew up on a periphery of Atlanta, Georgia, so in a suburban environment, in a suburban space. Two of our families come from historic old American southern families.

Franklin’s [James Fisher, vocals/ guitar] parents are from North Carolina, mine are from the mountains of Tennessee, and so we have very different experiences, obviously. Franklin comes from the black experience, I come from a family of people who lived on the mountains and then moved to Atlanta. I think the three of us probably felt a little bit like outsiders in our sort of suburban environment, those spaces that are stereotyped so much as being quite homogenous, and quite white, and quite dominant. So, we all sort of looked towards Atlanta as a space to develop and to... as a space of progressive politics, progressive music, and I think us moving into the city as young people and experience life there, that was one of the main influences and one of the main things that brought us together. Obviously it’s fundamental where we come from and Franklin and I met through a mutual interest in politics, a mutual interest in progressive politics particularly, and a critic of the American southern experience. The racism within the South and the very conservative politics that sort of dominated the state of Georgia - not the city of Atlanta which is a very progressive space in terms of politics.

And then Lee, I was actually a big fan... when I was younger I used to go watch Lee’s band playing.

He was in a post-punk band and he was, in some senses of the word, my musical idol in a lot of ways.

He was really doing cool stuff with the guitar and they were playing DIY spaces. So, it’s quite a complex relationship.

I suspect that the name of the band is in some way connected 58

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ok The Plague is th bo e th in g in th l ta en am “...the fund we going to e Ar ? it t ou ab do to g in so what we’re go of sense of humanity? W

to the country Algeria, a former colony of France and a country that had to face really harsh situations.

Ryan: Yeah, you’re totally right about that. I mean, it has a lot of different meanings for each of us.

Some very directly historical meanings, so we do refer, in some ways, to the anti-colonial struggle more in general that started in North Africa, but it takes different formations in Algeria as it does in a place like Ghana where Kwame Nkrumah [the founder and leader of the African independence movement] took a more state’s approach and they didn’t experience the revolutionary violence that took place in Algeria.

So, that sort of anti-colonial struggle that we see persistent to

this day, maybe in different forms, so you have maybe colonialism in different guises. We really wanted a name that represented that sort of descent, and that defiance, and that critique of what people would call postcolonialism or colonialism by a different name, maybe developed in economics or all these other types of forms that might have taken, but it also represents just a space, a looking into the future, a political project but also could be an aesthetic project, trying to build something like [Frantz] Fanon does when he writes in The Wretched Of The Earth about building a new society, building a new man influenced by left-wing ideals, but also seeing him come to realize and have to confront all

INTERVIEW // ALGIERS continuing issue, or as you said, maybe shining a light again on these problems that are being perpetuated right now.

world, basically, e th of d en e th is at th hat we all know g to find some sort in go e w e ar Or r? he ot fight each ?”

What are we going to do

these big issues of violence, and struggle, and conflict as well.

Those maybe are elements of the name. Hopefully it also can be opened to interpretation enough where’s a discourse as well that we can invite people into that space and take away their own interpretations as well.

I found it curious because I live in Portugal, a country that had some colonies in the past, like Angola and Mozambique, and nowadays there are a lot of people that are sure about the freedom of those countries whereas some people, me included, don’t believe in that because we’re still there, not in the same way, but we’re still there. I thought the name

Algiers was a way to remind people that these problems still exist in 2015.

Ryan: That’s really interesting, Tiago. I studied politics and economics and I did some of my masters – I don’t speak Portuguese – doing some research on Mozambique and Angola, I did quite a lot of secondary source research on FRELIMO [Front for Liberation of Mozambique] and the civil war that took place on Mozambique, particularly, and the influence in the engagement of the South Africans, and some of the apartheid states in the US and the CIA that was involved there... One of the things is drawing attention to, maybe as you said, a forgotten history or a purposely repressed type of history that maybe explains some of the

I would like to ask you guys about your relationship with religion and the effect that has on Algiers’ music. I know that you all have different relations with it.

Lee: Yeah, that’s true. I think our relationship is complex just within the band, but my own personal experience... I’ve never really, just from a very young age... I didn’t really have that religious upbringing. I mean, it was present in the life of my mother, I guess, but for the most part I think I’ve just gravitated towards more praise music and a lot of just the nature of gospel music, and that stuff, more the sonic side of it. It was interesting and almost made up for what I lacked in my life in other aspects spiritually, I guess.

Ryan: Unfortunately Franklin is not here to chat as well because it would be interesting to hear from him and I know he has a different experience, but one of the things, Tiago... it’s not really considered very cool or popular to actually as a musician, or an artist, to engage sincerely, or to have a conversation, about religion. It’s just not something that’s discussed a lot.

We’re aware of some of those pitfalls and we’re definitely not a Christian band, so obviously we’re engaging with it from our own experiences and a political discourse as well. Obviously, and one of the things as well in the name Algiers, it also refers Islam and islamophobia and things that are actually going on right now as well between these different countries. There are multiple levels of engagement. My own experience... my household wasn’t overtly religious but we went to church every Sunday. It was a very conservative southern Baptist institution and as a young person I had a very hard time with the structure of it, let alone the actual doctrine of religion. But the institutional relationships that I noticed, when I was young, felt very repressive and very oppressive. I could see and sense some of the... I guess the contradictions in that space, which is supposed to be putatively a place of morals and values, but then seeing a lot of the type of silencing of differences. If you were different, if you were LGBT [Lesbian, Gay,

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Bisexual, Transgender], if you were goth, if you were a punk rock kid, if you were black, if you were into hip hop... all that stuff was left aside, so as I got a little bit older I just had a hard time with it and that probably influenced my development in other realms as well, that kind of experience.

I feel the same way as you, but I found curious reading Franklin words on the matter. He was saying that for most African Americans the church and religion was a space of their own, a space of freedom.

Ryan: Yeah, it’s interesting and that’s one of the dynamics within the band, but you’re talking about very different histories and experiences. If you look at the civil rights movement, one of the things that obviously – I don’t want to go on, and on, and on about politics but it does influences us a lot. The civil right movement centered around the church and it was a space where people came together and mobilize, but also talk about progressive things, which I didn’t have access to in my space. So, it’s just a completely different dynamic, and I think the music as well. If you look at the types of music... I’m sure that your experience in church was very staid and very uptight. It doesn’t really move you to want to do something, to get together, etc. That’s what Franklin, one of the many things he’s taught us just about congregation, communalism, and those type of feelings.

Is the second track of the album a reference to Claudette Colvin?

Ryan: No, it’s not. That’s a good question. Can you enlighten us?

Claudette Colvin was a pioneer, and her name is quite unknown unfortunately, of the AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement.

Ryan: That’s amazing. I mean, some of my biggest influences, probably growing up in the South, were people like Fannie Lou Hamer, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Stokely Carmichael later on, but that’s a name that I haven’t actually come across.

She was the first person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama (March 2, 1955,). I found it curious because most people just talk about Rosa Parks, which is somewhat understandable because they 60

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didn’t want to take it to public, because she was pregnant without being married.

Ryan: That’s a really amazing story, and it could have played into Franklin’s story, you know. But it’s difficult for us to know all about everything that was going on. I know that Lee also had some different interpretation of this song as well.

Lee: Yeah... I mean, I think that’s really one of the interesting things about songs and kind of the ideas and perspectives that other people can bring and put on to things. I think it’s open to interpretation, that’s kind the really wonderful and interesting thing about it.

Ryan: You know what’s also interesting, Tiago, that you brought up and you clearly interpreted from the song is... I don’t know, the things that we have seen written about us and people talking about us is that it’s quite dark, caustic, and maybe it sounds like it comes from hell, maybe just overly melancholic, but actually there’s a lot of affirmation in it, which it seems that you’ve picked on it and just kind of reaffirming in all these different times the power of people coming together, the power of mobilization, just the power of just thinking differently and standing out for things. It’s more vital than even to have those type of affirmative references in popular culture.

Did you ever feel that Algiers’ music fitted the music scene in Atlanta?

Ryan: We actually didn’t form as a band until we all had left Atlanta. I left about eight years ago, and I left basically because I had been communing for a year, I was driving to north Georgia and I was working in an office. I wanted to study more and I’d gotten an opportunity to study in London and I just jump at it. We had the concept to try to do something, but we didn’t really necessarily have the language to do it. We were all in different bands in Atlanta. Lee and I, we were in a couple of punk rock bands, and then Lee kind of formed a more noisey, ambient band after I had left, but yeah...

The band itself emerged as we left, so in a state of immigration, in a sense.

But would there be a place for Algiers’ music in Atlanta?

Ryan: Yeah, I think so. For sure. I mean, it’s hard for me to talk

“...the things that we ha dark, caustic, and mayb

about it because I’ve been gone for so long, I’ve always been an outsider and there’s always a lot of amazing stuff that has happened in Atlanta, but we basically formed outside of this space and... there are so many different musical legacies that you would think that there would be a place for that. Atlanta is a place of The Mighty Hannibal, the center of civil rights movement, so it does has a history of soul music, or protest soul music of black music, of black gospel music, but also a very interesting hip hop history.

One of my favorite records of all time, top five favorite records, is Goodie Mob’s [debut album] Soul Food, and I remember hearing that when I was a teenager... it just taught me so much about

INTERVIEW // ALGIERS

ave seen written about us and people talking about us is that it’s quite be it sounds like it comes from hell, maybe just overly melancholic, but actually there’s a lot of affirmation in it...”

Atlanta, in a sense, and I think really that’s one of our biggest influences, just that album and the gospel that comes from it, and the politics of it as well. I mean, I learned about police violence through that record because they talk about the Red Dog, who were this drug unit that really invaded and disrupted and violated black communities, heavily. Hopefully there are some strands and threads that would enable us to fit in into the music scene.

Lee: I think it very much does has a place. I was still there for a lot for all the kind of the early days of the band, I stayed because I’d never lived anywhere else – even just the idea of moving from the city that I was born and grew up, and kind of shaped me as

a person was a difficult thing for me, and I was quite involved in the music scene there. All of those influences, at from my perspective and what I bring into the band, really played a large role to me. I think it does have a place sonically because there are so many of these things that we pull from, which a lot are from our upbringing there.

On “But She Was Not Flying”, there’s a line that says “And now he flips the coin of power with all of his friends deciding who is fit to go out and die, and who is black enough to be left behind,” which made me think of the Young Father’s new album’s title White Men Are Black Men Too. Would it be fair to put these two things together and say that it’s

not only about race but also about class?

Ryan: I think it would be extremely fair to say that is a critical analyses that incorporates notions of race, notions of class, and historical notions of oppression and violence. And I think fundamentally race and class really intertwined, particularly in the US. Just socio-geographically, socio-spatially... cities emerged, in the 20th century, in very segregated forms. You can even just look at the geographical and spatial development of any urban space in the US and see not only a segregated dimension, but also a very heavy class dimension, and I think you disentangle them. Now, that shouldn’t necessarily move the discourse some sort of

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post-racial analyses, it very much is still focused... It’s not a discourse of identity politics, it’s not that permissive kind of 90s analyses, but very much a analyses of power and very much an analyses of class, and very much an attempt to find a place where as maybe that title potential suggest, maybe as a place where people come together in common cause, and I think one of the fundamental things about our experience in the South is white privileged Southerners and as Franklin as a black Southerner... Is this concept of kind of class warfare, which is perceived as racial warfare? So, it’s the basic notion where the dominant or upper classes divide poor whites from poor minorities, or from migrant groups, using political tactics, using economic tactics to divide that when people really should be looking at each other and say, “You know what? We’re the majority here, and actually we should be coming together.” So yeah, there’s definitely all that involved in some of the conversations that we’re having.

On your website you have this phrase that says, “Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.” Do you anticipate that kind of reaction from people to your music in any way? Well, maybe not hate, but…

Ryan: [laughs] Do you anticipate that, Tiago?

Well, yeah. I mean, people most of the time don’t want to hear the truth.

Ryan: I mean, it’s hard from me to talk about the Young Fathers situation because I don’t really know a lot about it. I mean, I know that they’ve had a really interesting experience and upbringing as a group, and I know that there are a lot of interesting dynamics, but I think that phrase itself is quite, even from... if I look at that kind of phrase... I would have a hard time with that.

Really?

Ryan: Well, it would... Let me rephrase that. It would definitely think a lot about what they mean.

Is it a provocation? Is trying to say that people experience different types of oppression or is there different levels of oppression?

They said that they just wanted for people to start a conversation.

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fundamentally what we are hoping to achieve as well, to have people talk. I think yes, we expect people to react in different ways to not only our music but the things that we talk about and our discourse generally. I’m interested in history, so I’m interested in the 20th century and the movements that took place there, and a lot of them failed, of course, I’m not sticking to the past and not sticking to these revolutionary movements and hoping that they would just repeat themselves, but at the same time there had been a trend called postmodernism that kind of tried to neutralize these discussions of power and critique just general.

People nowadays, because of that in one respect will have a hard

“...You have basically all these western people so involved in embedded countries saying ‘Don’t do this. Don’t do that. You can’t do this.

You have to do our way,’ but failing to looking at their own histories and how their own societies form...” time with anybody talking about big ideas, politics, and these things called metanarratives. I think you could imagine people would recoil from that, and I think this notion of even trying to find the truth, I think that in itself is really... probably pisses people off.

Yeah, there are a lot of people, at least in Europe, only caring about themselves. There are not much concern about other people, about society in general.

Ryan: Yeah, and I think we’re just trying to find those people out there that think the same way as us, you know? And just communicating generally in a global perspective. There’s a sense of solidary out there and we can share that... so when we talk about the

South, we don’t want to get modeled in particularity, we’re also very interested in this wider notion of communication, like you said. Caring about other people, communicating people struggles, and hold those and their lives as valuable, fundamentally.

On “And When You Fall” you say “And when you fall you’re gonna want to know who, who it really was who took you down.

And when you fall we’ll be there waiting for you.” On “Irony.

Utility. Pretext” you say “But when your time is come we’ll all be there just to watch you fall.” And on “Black Eunuch” you say “We are all walking in the dark with the scissors in our hand. We are there when you fall apart when there’s no one in your bed.” It can’t be a coincidence. Can you please talk about it?

Ryan: [laughs] That’s a really cool analyses... well, not analyses, but it’s really cool that you’ve noticed that.

My analyses comes with a question: can we assume that there’s some hope in these words?

Ryan: Yes, very much so. I mean, I don’t know... Walter Benjamin, the philosopher, talks about the notion of justice, a form of truth and justice, which we seemed to maybe lose a little bit in these times. To that very much is believing in justice, not in a justice system but in the big idea of justice. It’s very much there and it is within that element of those lyrics.

America is going through yet another distressful period with all the police shootings, the unbridled capitalism, more apathy that one would desire, etc. I guess it’s a hard question to ask but, can you see, or even imagine, a light at the end of the tunnel?

Ryan: From my perspective, you have to. Despite all the evidences to the contrary that there’s some sense of hope, one of the things that really reeks a lot of psychological damage, and that really pushes people apart, is this notion that “this is the best there is”, whether it is capitalism, the end of history thesis [check Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man], this is as good as it gets, there’s no possibility for an alternative

INTERVIEW // ALGIERS

se revolutionary “I’m not sticking to the past and not sticking to the eat themselves, but at the rep t jus uld wo y the t tha ing hop and s ent vem mo dernism that kind of tried same time there had been a trend called postmo tique just general.” to neutralize these discussions of power and cri future... That’s the worst kind of damage that can be inflicted upon people in a psychological sense, in a political sense. Obviously there’s physical violence and terror, and all that stuff that happens to people, that is obviously brutal, but if I’m talking about psychological terms that shutting off that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel... I think people need, I need that personally. I need to have a sense that potentially things can get better, and that we have some sort of agency within that, as naïve that might sound I think that’s fundamentally important for us to live and to imagine.

It’s just important to imagine.

Now, in real terms that’s really difficult to achieve because we don’t see it, and none of us have a party program, or a political

program to achieve that justice, but we have to hold on to this like [Albert] Camus talks about in The Plague [book published in 1947].

I mean, the fundamental thing in the book The Plague is that we all know that is the end of the world, basically, so what we’re going to do about it? Are we going to fight each other? Or are we going to find some sort of sense of humanity?

What are we going to do?

I don’t know about America, but here in Portugal we are used to say, “It could be worse.” It’s funny because it’s never, “It could be better.”

Ryan: [laughs] You know, that’s the kind of... I mean, there’s like this huge trend in American popular culture with all these different kind of apocalyptic scenarios. You get

zombies, you get something like The Road of Cormac McCarthy where there’s this unknown natural disaster, and most of the time is “This is hell!” because somehow capitalism has collapsed and now it’s just person against person in this Machiavellian struggle, which from my perspective is like, “Wait a second. Surely we can imagine an apocalyptic scenario where we actually come together.” David Harvey talks in one of his books that after 9/11 there was a space in time where everything stopped and for a few days people came together in the streets of New York, and they communed, and they convened, and they talked, and they interacted on a level. On those shows, like The Walking Dead, there’s also this really dark picture

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INTERVIEW // ALGIERS

, “Despite all the evidences to the contrary that there’s some sense of hope one of the things that really reeks a lot of psychological damage, and that really pushes people apart, is this notion that “this is the best there is”, whether it is capitalism, the end of history thesis...”

about not being able to imagine a different form of government, for example, or a different economic system. That’s also fundamentally what they are saying, that without these governments these securities state stall governments to protect us from the enemies then we would just kill each other, without this economic system we just wouldn’t be able to survive. We would just rob, and steal, and kill, and all these kind of stuff, which…

We’re doing as we speak.

Ryan: Exactly! [laughs] But some don’t, though. Some people are fighting, some people are trying, at least, on some level to resist, I guess.

On “Irony. Utility. Pretext.” you say “You put your vote in a ballot box – this one’s marked UNDP. Inscribe your tyrant’s name in blood. Choice is the guillotine.”

I’m curious to know what’s the UNDP... Is it United Nations Development Programme?

Ryan: Yes, it is. It’s probably more 64

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of a critique of that neo-colonial element within societies that says our way – the US, the UK, the Western Europe way – of practicing politics is the only way to do it, and actually it’s a critique of basically that statement. You have basically all these western people so involved in embedded countries saying “Don’t do this. Don’t do that. You can’t do this. You have to do our way,” but failing to looking at their own histories and how their own societies form and actually the violence that paved the way for democracy, and the violence that keeps democracy going. That kind of colonial critique of the language that you use in the kind of paternalistic approach to problems, for example in Africa.

Would you say that gospel and punk are a good match because ultimately they’re a cry, and a scream for freedom?

Ryan: Yeah, I agree and I think that’s one of the things that really brought us together. When we started talking, we were talking

about maybe feeling like outsiders, and maybe feeling frustrated with our local and social environments, and looking for something, like you said, looking for some way to express those feelings of discontent but also, as we talked before, those feelings of wanting something better.

Lee: Point towards like a hopeful alternative or a space, or collectivity.

Ryan: It also depends... when you think about punk rock, it also depends on what type because there are so many different types that have emerged, but if you’re looking at the early stuff, like The Clash, The Ruts, The Slits, DC hardcore... yeah, absolutely!

Algiers is out now via Matador

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A L L E NOV

WILD AND CREATIVE, WOOZY SHOEGAZE GOES COSMIC AND GLOO 66

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OMY...

London-based band Novella are known to create this 90’s shoegaze and the psychedelic 60’s mix with a dream pop sound, and that has been shown on their singles/EPs. Now with the release of their debut full-length, Land, we couldn't miss the opportunity to catch up with them and Hollie Warren (guitarist) was kind enough to answer our questions.

Words: Andreia Alves

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then Iain joined us after about two years. We wrote the album as the four of us and after we’d recorded it, decided that we really wanted someone else to join us on keyboard and to add more vocals and so we asked Issie to join. Now we feel like a little gang and I can’t imagine it being any other way.

Since your formation, you’ve shown a greater confidence in your music and as a band. How does it feel to perform the live shows with the current lineup?

I guess we made a decision that we could either improve as a band in private or in public and we decided that for us we just needed to go for it and play live as much as possible to test out the songs and to test

“This album definitely represents us as the band that we’ve been working towards – it took us a while to get there, but I think we’re confident about the songs we’re writing now...”

N

ovella started in 2010 and back then there were three of you in the band, but now you’re a five-piece. Tell us a little bit of how you started the band and how the other two members got in the mix.

Suki knew both Sophy and I in Brighton, and then we all happened to move to London around the same time. Suki and I had dabbled a little with making music together, but then we decided to get serious about it and asked Sophy to join. It was mostly the three of us writing songs together in the beginning, completely new to writing music and playing live and just the entire band experience. We worked with a couple of different drummers, but

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ourselves. So I think that there is more confidence between us now, and with Issie joining the band it just feels like all the pieces have fallen into place.

How does work the dynamics of the band regarding the writing process?

It’s always been very collaborative and very democratic, and I think everyone being involved in writing is something that will continue with the second album.

You are all from London and it’s a city with such amazing and inspiring cultural background.

How much do you feel that London has shaped you as musicians?

It’s probably shaped us in a bigger

way than we’re even aware of to be honest. There’s a pace and a pressure that comes with living in London – and it’s not entirely a negative thing.

Which bands from London do you think had a big impact on your music?

I’m not sure I’d name any specific bands necessarily, but I guess to a degree all of us came together through a shared interest in the 60s counterculture, and to a degree, the London psych scene.

Do you still have those favorite bands that you always go back to listen to and that still inspire you to write songs?

Yeah. Velvets, Stereolab, John Fahey...

You’re about to release your first full-length titled Land. What can you tell us about the whole process and why did you name it Land?

The process has been a long one!

Some of the songs on the album were written almost 2/3 years ago. We spent a year out not really playing much and just experimenting with writing new songs and then recorded in January last year. There are a couple of reasons why the album is called Land. Sophy pointed out to me that a lot of the lyrics I write have references to ‘nature’ which wasn’t really a conscious thing and so it was sparked from that really. It’s also a little bit of homage to Patti Smith.

Even though this is your first album, your music has developed through the years as a band and it feels more consistent and daring. How do you feel about that, about the band being where it is right now?

This album definitely represents us as the band that we’ve been working towards – it took us a while to get there, but I think we’re confident about the songs we’re writing now, we understand how to write and play together and it all just kind of works.

While working on your debut album, what did inspire the most for the lyric content?

Mostly about being in twentysomething limbo – songs of melancholy mixed with an aversion to apathy.

You recorded the album during

INTERVIEW // NOVELLA

one week in January 2014 with Jonas Verijnen and Joshua Third in an abandoned clothing factory-turned-studio in Dalston, East London. Tell us about the experience of recording the album with such cool crew and space.

Incredibly cold – the studio has high ceilings and no heating. But it was one of the most fun and rewarding experiences we’ve had as a band so far. It was so good for us to just immerse ourselves in the songs for a week. Jonas was great to work with and meticulously planned what we

should work on each day to make sure we got the most out of the time we had. And it was fun to have Josh with us, mostly to help with all things guitar pedal... we’d describe a sound we wanted and he’d find us something that would make it happen.

Blueprint Blue – they’re a favourite of ours and I saw them play some new material recently and it sounds so good. Also Issie is in another band called JC Flowers and they just put up their first song online called “Proletarieterette”.

Do you recommend us any new bands that we should listen to?

Really been enjoying the album from Wand, Ganglion Reef, and Jessica Pratt’s second album is absolutely incredible. You should also check out the band musicandriotsmagazine.com

Land is out now via Sinderlyn Records 69

ANTI-FLAG

AMERICAN SP

Once again

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PRING IS NOW

n they’ve challenged ourselves to change ...

ANTI-FLAG has been, for the last two decades, more than just a thrilling punk rock band delivering great songs and great records. They’ve been responsible for keeping the flame of the importance of information, of political and social awareness, of love and compassion, of hope for a better world, very well alive. On their ninth album they are as exciting as they were back when they released their debut Die for the Government, back in 1996. We talked with drummer Pat Thetic about the new album, American Spring, and the things that make Anti-Flag what it is.

Words: Tiago Moreira

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I

“There is apathy on many directly it ’s very difficult f angry and focused o

t scares you to see that subjects that you’ve tackled in songs that you wrote more than a decade ago stay relevant in 2015? I mean, in 1996 you released a song called “Police State in the USA”… well, it could have be written today.

Yeah, that’s definitely the case when we look at the lineage of political music lots of time is unfortunate, but the messages that are being written about in the 1930s, or the 1940s, are still very much issues today. On some level it’s disheartening that things haven’t changed, but it’s also important to keep fighting for these things because soon or later they have to change. One of the interesting things about “Police State in the USA” is – and this is the unfortunate reality – that we wrote that song not thinking about... we talked about that stuff that was going on, but we didn’t have any evidence to prove it but now, after Edward Snowden, we’re very aware, and we have evidence, that those things are actually going on.

So, we get more information and we change messages slightly based on the information, but the ideas are very much the same.

We’re now living in a post-Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Gardner world. Those situations have resonated with you guys and with Chris #2 especially, because of the experience that he had with his sister who was a victim of violent crime and unfortunately justice failed, once again. Pat, how do you feel not only seeing the country suffering with this frightening justice system but also witnessing the pain of a brother, something close to your heart?

Well, most of the times it goes to anger because we see that and it makes us angry... It doesn’t have to be this way. When the powerful retain their power and they protect their realm. It just make us angrier more than anything else, really.

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Listening to your songs one can assume that that anger gives place to something more important.

I don’t know if it’s more important, but it’s a way of us getting out that anger and talking about it. We think that a lot of other people are experience that anger and frustration as well, and that music that we create can bring us together with other people in a very selfish way, because for us is important to be around people who have similar beliefs and see the world in a similar way, but then in a broader sense some other people

will possibly gain some comfort that others feel the same way.

I’m well aware of the level of apathy in my country, and Europe in general. As an outsider it feels that the US suffers from the same exact problem. Is it as frightening as it seems?

Yes and no. In America it is business as usual, right now... People are going about their days buying things and going by that process but I have, and it’s interesting because we were just in Canada and I talked to a lot of people and they don’t want to go to the

INTERVIEW // ANTI-FLAG

levels and if it doesn’t connect with you for people , the general population , to stay on the issue and try to change it.”

US anymore because they are so afraid of what’s going on in the US, and that fear is not as prevalent in the US as it is in the outside, but we’re definitely in scary times.

I was asking about the level of apathy because it seems, from the outside, that a lot of people have already forgotten about those important issues, those important situations.

Oh, absolutely! There is apathy on many levels and if it doesn’t connect with you directly it’s very difficult for people, the general

population, to stay angry and focused on the issue and try to change it. It’s a challenge and, again, that’s what we do as band.

We make people connect with these issues and it doesn’t just connect on one day. When you listen to that song again and again you connect with it over and over again and that keeps that focus on those issues. Once the news cycle in the US changes the people are thinking about something else and that apathy kicks back in and they worry about what jeans they’re going to buy as opposed to whether there should be justice for all

people at the hands of police violence.

I remember the black community being really pissed off because some black celebrities were not helping and supporting the causes, were not involved.

Thinking about it, maybe there’s some fear.

There’s some level of fear, but I don’t think it is fear. It just people are focused on themselves and they’re not as interested in worrying about change until it really happens to them, until it is in their face. I think that’s where

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that apathy comes in. I don’t think people are really apathetic, they’re just worrying about their own selfinterest until their own self-interest becomes changed by something that happens to them directly.

Connected to those situations is the song “The Great Divide”.

Do you think people are aware that the problem unfortunately is even bigger than just pure racism, prejudice and pure and simple stupidity? I don’t see many people talking about classism.

No, in the US the class struggle... the media has been able to say that “class struggle is over” and that’s a direct quote from places like FOX News. The reality is that is very much alive and well, but if you’re told that it’s not there over and over again then people don’t realize that’s still there. What we are dealing with is as much as a race issue in the US as it is a class issue, and people are not talking about that.

“Brandenburg Gate” is arguably the most anthemic song on A merican Spring, showing a kind of new sonic side of Anti-Flag and... again, a connection to your earlier stuff like “Police State in the USA”, where you did talk about Berlin and East vs West.

Yeah, it’s a different way of tackling that issue and a different way of saying that economic distribution should be more egalitarian, it’s a different way of making that argument. We went on a slightly different direction with that song, but I don’t know if it’s that far off. I think that “This Is The End (For You My Friend)” [from 2006’s For Blood and Empire album] and songs like that from our more recent records are also in that vein. It’s a little slower, I’ll give you that. [laughs] This record is undeniably heavy and aggressive. More than just denounce the occurring situations, what would you like to be, after all these years, the impact of American Spring?

Like I said earlier, the impact is really on a very selfish level is to find other people who have similar beliefs. You should’ve been able to go into a room and play music to people who have similar beliefs.

We’re not as grandiose to think that the music will have any change in the world, but I do know that when I hear people taking it 74

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to the streets and protesting and fighting for their rights, that inspire us to create music and if on some level that person gets some type of inspiration from us, from the music that’ve created, then that’s just amazing to us. I mean, I don’t have many skills other than playing drums so that’s the only skill I can give to the world. If anybody can take some inspiration from that, or some joy in knowing that somebody else feels the same way... That’s pretty amazing to me.

It’s well known Anti-Flag’s fight in these last two decades. Are there moments where you do feel like a political comedian that kind of needs to live in a fucked up country/world just to have new material?

My argument with that is that the world is a fucked up place whether you write songs about it or not. I would love to be in a world that we didn’t have to write songs about it, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon. I think that whether you live in the US or you live in Holland, or Portugal. Every way you go there’s inequality and there’s people taking power away from other people.

There’s always someone taking advantage of people that are weaker than them, who have less money than them, and it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. That’s happening every day and everywhere. That’s the thing that make us angry, and frustrated, and makes us want to scream and write songs.

Talking about political comedians.

It seems that people are not very pleased with Trevor Noah taking the job of host on The Daily Show.

His name was announced like two weeks ago and he has already been called anti-semitic, sexist, racist, and what not.... because of a few jokes on his twitter. Is it as bad as it seems?

I can’t really comment about that.

I don’t really have an opinion. I think that I can that aren’t racist or sexist or homophobic... I haven’t follow that situation to know whether he’s a racist or not, so I can’t really comment on it, but I know that there’s a lot of uproar about Jon Stewart leaving because he has done such a great job for so many years, so to have something to take that over is going to be very difficult. My question to you is: do you get the Daily Show every week, or every day, in Portugal?

Yeah, we have it every day here,

“...the world i place wheth songs about would love world that w to write songs I don’t see t anytime with just one week of delay.

Oh, wow. So, you’re getting the American point of view in Portugal, that’s awesome. The thing that is amazing about what Jon Stewart has done with comedy and with what we’ve been able to do with music – not to compare us to each other – is that our work is a way of expressing your frustration and putting different ideas out there that you can’t really do in a political debate. Jon Stewart has always been amazing in getting the really truth out there through comedy that you could necessary do another media.

Music is a way of, many times,

INTERVIEW // ANTI-FLAG

is a fucked up her you write t it or not. I e to be in a we didn’t have s about it, but that coming e soon .” getting that expression of feeling into a debate without actually putting the words out there... The music speaks much more affectively towards anger and frustration and emotion than sometimes words do.

How it is to be in Anti-Flag now compared with 20 years ago? Do people have the same problems they had with you back then because of your opinions?

It’s sort of less now, but you know... Everything changes.

When we were younger no one understood our message and nobody understood our point of view, so

people wanted to fight us for our point of view all the time. Now as we’ve gotten older people understand our message and if they don’t like what we have to say they just stay away from us whereas before we would be put into places, a lot of times, where we had to fight our way out either physically or through dialogue. But that hasn’t happen much in the last few years... Luckily because I’m not a very good fighter. [laughs]

give us a platform to say it whereas before they didn’t know what we were going to say. People have come to accept our beliefs on some level, but some people really still think that we should be shot for the things we say, they’re just not as around as they used to be.

Do you think it’s easier for you now?

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American Spring is out now via Spinefarm 75

E S R U O Y D N I F D N A T S O L GET

a C , o N ! k Chun

Described as a easyc albums, Something f During their current to new album as w

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F O D L R O W E H T O T N I ELF

! k n u h C n i a t p

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core band or whatever that means, Paris’ outfit are back with their third album! They released two great forNothing in 2010 and Pardon My French in 2013, but now it's time to take a bigger leap in their music. our, we caught up with the vocalist Bertrand Poncet that talked us through the co-writing sessions for the well the inspirations and how the new album Get Lost, Find Yourself is a step forward in their music.

Words: Andreia Alves

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ou guys are currently on tour. How is it going so far?

It’s going well. We are right now in the middle of the tour. It’s been great and every show has been amazing and people come to see us, so it’s like the big difference between a support tour and a headliner tour. This is a great feeling and people are here to listen to the new songs, partying with us on stage and so that’s a very good feeling.

Your new album was just released, so how has been the first reactions from your fans?

So far, it’s been great. It’s kind of early to tell... All reviews that I’ve read and all the comments that we’ve seen on the Internet are very good... You know, it’s always kind of stressful to read stuff about the new album because with this one we tried different sounds on different things. It always gets to that point where you’re like wondering if the fanbase is gonna still be here and we’ll still be getting what you wanna do with your sound when you try to do new things like that... but so far it’s been great. I’m actually right now very curious to hear what’s the fan base favorite song. Honestly, I’m very proud of every single song on the record, but for me, it’s kind of hard to tell what song has the best potential. It’s better to hear people talking and then we’re gonna figure out maybe another single to release. We’ll see, but so far it’s been a very good reaction and feedback. I’m very happy.

The title for this record is a very strong one, Get Lost, Find Yourself. Did you guys find yourselves in that situation while writing the record?

Yeah. It’s kind of hard to explain...

Like I said, we tried new things on this record and the whole writing process was completely different from what we’ve done before. We needed something new for sure and when we started to write these new songs we realized that we needed more influences and some different ideas to do something different, so basically we got lost 78

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in this writing process. We went to L.A. and we worked with different producers before even getting in the studio. We did some co-writing sessions and so basically we just sat down in the studio with a bunch of different producers. We just tried to write some songs and it turned out great. That was a very, very interesting experience just because it’s great to have different ideas.

At first you can be skeptical about some ideas that in the end when you hear the whole song you’d be like “Oh yeah, that’s awesome!” I think that was very good. About the album title... we got lost on this whole writing process just to find ourselves better at the end and I think the record as it is right now shows who we are as a band, but also as people right now. This is like a very accurate record for Chunk!

No, Captain Chunk! in 2015. I’m very happy with this one.

Would you say that Get Lost, Find Yourself is that sort of decisive record of your band as a whole?

For me this seems the most personal record that we’ve ever released. I’m proud of the previous ones, but I think this one like I said is more personal. When you look at the lyrics, they’re about more personal stuff like experiences.

This is like a different process and a different record, but at the end maybe it’s something more accurate.

As this is your third album, do you find it hard and stressful to keep on making music or is it something more than fine for you guys?

Basically, when you talk to older bands, the third record is always the hardest to write. It’s always the one when you’re like wondering what to do, if you’re gonna stick to your original sound or if you should go back to your roots or something different. It’s a lot of questions. At first it was very hard because we tried different things.

Like I said before, we did these co-writing sessions. We were just trying to make another record, but we didn’t have real passion on this record to put out. That’s why we went to work with the other people and then after the co-writing sessions we knew exactly what we wanted to do. But at first it was kind of a stressful time. It was not easy, but right now I think we made the right choice and we took the right direction. We’re gonna keep going into a new direction maybe

on a future record.

You mentioned that you did co-writing sessions with some producers. Was the album all done in those sessions?

We did these co-writing sessions for five songs on the record, which it’s pretty much the half of the record. We wrote two songs with a producer called Mike Green who did some All Time Low and Mayday Parade stuff and you can definitely hear the influences in these songs. These two songs are “Worst Case Scenario” and “City of Light”.

We wrote three other songs with another producer in L.A. called Erik Ron. He helped us on “What Goes Around”, “Pull You Under” and “Every Moment”. It’s great to have these five co-written songs on the record and I think it brings something different, a different vibe and something kind of unexpected to what the record was supposed to be in the first place. You can definitely hear the influences in the songs... For us, it’s obvious that we co-wrote these songs, but I think in the end it’s also a great mix of different influences.

Besides that, what else did inspire or captivate you to write these songs?

Basically what we tried to do with this record was... there was like 10 songs and we wanted these 10 songs to be like different. We wanted each song to sound very unique and I think that’s what we did, but it’s kind of hard to tell what had been our influences on this record. I can’t say we were inspired by some bands, it’s not very accurate. We just sat down in the studio jamming some guitar riffs and building the song around that. We’ve been doing our thing and we’re not the kind of a band that would pay attention to what is trending... We’re just trying to do the best possible and if it works, it’s great, but if it doesn’t, it’s not a big deal. I don’t see any bands that we’ve been very inspired by on this record. It’s just the evolution of our sound basically.

This was your first album without drummer Jonathan Donnaes. How did you deal with that and with the transition to the new guy?

We got the new drummer right after we went back to the studio

INTERVIEW // CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK!

“... we got lost on this whole writing process just to find ourselves better at the end and I think the record as it is right now shows who we are as a band, but also as people right now.” actually. Having a new member in the band can be very stressful because it changes the whole roots dynamic of the band and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work. Fortunately for us, it worked and we’re very happy.

We’re getting along all together.

Right now with a new member in the band and a new album feels like kind of a reborn or something... Honestly, everything has been going well and we have a lot of touring ahead and I’m very stoked about our future.

Get Lost, Find Yourself was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Kyle Black. How was it like the experience to record there with Kyle?

That was great! That was definitely different from what we were used to because our previous record Pardon My French was produced by Joey Sturgis and it was all digital and for this record we wanted something more natural, something that sounded real like real drums, real hands to get more feelings in a way. We spent all January in L.A. in the studio with

Kyle Black and it was great. It was kind of exhausting because it was non-stop, like 12 hours a day in a studio with no lights, no windows...

At the end of the month, we were very exhausted and tired. We went kind of crazy at the end, but that’s the process to make a good record and I really like the fact that Kyle was very involved on this album.

He tried to push us to our limits, to push every kind of emotion, creation, and any idea that we could have. It’s cool to have someone that is so involved in our project.

That was a very good experience.

You guys did the whole record in L.A., but you are from Paris. What can you tell us about the music scene in Paris nowadays?

The music scene in Paris is weird.

There is no rock scene first of all...

There are a few bands obviously, but there are no rock labels, for example, and so basically they go away for friends’ bands to basically make it in France. There’s gonna be a few shows coming through Paris, but at the end compared to the UK or Germany or Sweden it’s a very poor scene. It’s more into

electro or rap music. For us at first when we were not signed to Fearless, we knew that we had no future in our home country.

Fortunately, we got signed to Fearless and everything went well, but we got very lucky. [laughs] Do you recommend us any new bands that we should listen to?

There’s actually one band that we have on the tour and we had to fight to have them on the tour, because they’re not even signed to a label, but I’m kind of producing them. The band is called In Her Own Words. They’ve been around for a while and I think they’re very talented dudes. I really like their music and I think their new album will be great.

We’re still working on this right now, but I recommend everyone to check them out. They’re from California.

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Get Lost, Find Yourself is out now via Fearless Records 79

1 REPULSIVE | 2 Pure shit | 3 terrible | 4 must avoid | 5 average | 6 good effort | 7 good | 8 very good | 9 EXCelLent | 10 pure c

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ALGIERS Algiers Matador (2015)

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n Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi seminal work “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” the professor of psychology defines flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away.

Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” On that same work he designed a model – metal state in terms of challenge level and skill level – where apathy is the worst mental state possible, a concept that became more known after World War I, where soldiers developed a sense of disconnected numbness and

indifference to normal social interaction when they returned from combat after witnessing some of the most grueling, violent, hideous, and terrifying situations.

Fast forward to 2015 and you see the majority of the world suffering from the same disease.

It’s in this scenario that the Atlanta-based power-trio Algiers arrives. A scenario filled with apathy to the ever growing violation of the human rights by governments and corporations alike, an unblushing police state, inequality of opportunities and rights, no privacy, and economical slavery. There’s a kind of obligation to make it clear, the importance of a band like Algiers, to outline the significance of their fighting spirit and unshakeable focus.

It starts with clapping, a profound chanting, and the words “And the chained man sang in a

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sigh, I feel like going home”, carrying the sometimes forgotten spirit, the forgotten struggles – “But there’s a brand new show for you to watch today, so all the Western eyes can look the other way”. It’s also a terrifying voyage that has reached its pinnacle on Son House’s Grinnin’ In Your Face – “It’s all about the attitude”, clarified Jack White some years ago. It’s an attitude repeatedly accentuated, a constant throughout nearly forty five minutes.

Whether with the folk and blues, or with the noise and industrial sounds, or the punk rage, or the freedom of gospel, or even with the grounded sound of a more contemporary generation as it is the case with the hip hop, Algiers excels on the task of putting nomenclatures and divisions on a second or even third plan. A synergy that encompasses the past, the present, and doesn’t close its eyes to the future. On

the first encounters with the album, it would be easier to fall in the trap of seeing it as an unhealthy angst, hatred, despair and a certain alienation – more than once brutal pictures are painted (black and red) with words, with the relentless But She Was Not Flying breaking one’s spirit. Yes, it’s brutal, but that’s the misfortune of this world. The truth is not necessarily pleasant. Time and time again Algiers remind us of the importance of hope. They refuse to lay down on the dark. It’s something different from the classical French film La Haine – although one can find the parallels between the two worlds... but on this particular case there’s hope – you can be the judge regarding its kind. On “And When You Fall” they give the warning, “When you got it. You forgot it was never yours You won’t know how but when it falls down. You’ll know exactly who we are,” and on “Irony. Utility. Pretext.” they shout

aggressively, “But when your time is coming we’ll all be there just to watch you fall. And then one-by-one all the parasites will just fall off.” It’s the sound of another revolution, a riot of someone that can’t stand it anymore.

When it’s all said and done, Algiers’ self-titled debut transcends any simple compartmentalization. Just like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly or even Young Fathers’ White Men Are Black Men Too, Algiers’ album documents a struggle and it’s fearless not just because it wants to be fearless, but because it needs to be. Born out of necessity.

A battle cry and one of the most important musical documents of the twenty first century. The perfect flow!

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7 ABRAHMA Reflections In The Bowels Of A Bird Small Stone Records (2015)

This is the French quartet’s second effort of Psychedelic Stoner Rock that sounds like a fusion of 70’s classic rock with the Seattle sound of the 90’s, namely Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Although they have a very close connection with the sound of the aforementioned bands, they also have a very distinct and pronounced Doom influence interspersed with ethereal passages augmented by distortion drenched solos and riffs. Unlike other Stoner Rock groups these guys can imprint each song with dynamic arrangements and shifts in tone and tempo that avoid the record from becoming tiresome. Throughout the course of one song you can have an electronic effect driven melody, quasi fast riffs, ethereal passages and Doom laden rhythms all accentuated with otherworldly passages.

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AUTHOR & PUNISHER Melk En Honing

ARMORED SAINT Win Hands Down

AUGUST BURNS RED Found In A Far Away Places

The fine art of creating songs with fistpumping, hard-hitting riffs, great guitar duel trade-offs and melody-infused guitar solos has been lost for some time in this current age of heavy music. The responsibility to bring all of that back rested now upon Armored Saint, who’ve managed to masterfully recover that musical ethos in great style for Win Hands Down. Songs like the opening title track, “Mess”, “An Exercise in Debauchery” and “In an Instant”, all of them are chapters in a manual on how to write some finely crafted heavy metal tunes with a modern feel. The Saint sure sound reenergized and ex-Anthrax singer John Bush still roars just like that lion Scott Ian always said his own band needed. It’s definitely one of the best returns of the year. It just wins…hands down!

August Burns Red have been around for quite a while and it’s impressive to see how a band like them are always challenging themselves and being innovative. Found In Far Away Places is a ferocious and damn heavy record, but in the middle of (almost) every song there’s an instrumental break where they explore a completely different music style. For example, the track “Majoring In The Minors” has this western-themed bridge and there’s also a lot string arrangements on the songs. To add to these awesome tunes, the track “Ghosts” features Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember and even Paul Waggoner of Between The Buried And Me played a guitar solo on the track “Everlasting Ending”. Pretty awesome stuff.

If Tristan Shone’s previous excursions had demonstrated his ability to give his machines a voice, Melk En Honing represents his inevitable symbiosis with them, a Tetsuo-like point of mechanistic spirituality and a glimpse into the soul of steel. A&P is still a resolutely claustrophobic prospect, a cold crush of metal and drone that towers like an assault course of unsurmountable walls, but as his arsenal has increased, so has his repertoire, flickers of neoclassicism and religious solemnity lighting up the darkness while allowing a doomy sense of melody to shape and redirect his ambitions. In the past, Shone’s immense power had always proved his most impressive asset but in escalating the scope of his sound to such an impressive degree, he has become something even more intriguing.

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BULLY Feels Like

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he thoughts and points of references invoked by the Nashville-based alternative rock outfit Bully are probably the biggest challenge with their self-recorded debut Feels Like. To that “problem” contributes the fact of guitarist and singer Alicia Bognanno’s internship at Electrical Audio studio, in Chicago, with the legendary producer, engineer, and musician Steve Albini.

You see, it’s easy to throw names like Pixies, Breeders, Nirvana, Hole, and many others, but when one is predisposed to listen and to accept that influences can be just that, and what’s important is that sometimes unexplainable sense of authenticity, which is, in all fairness, undeniably present in the 31 minutes of the album, then we start to see things for what they really are.

When Bognanno screams her heart out, we can rest assured that there’s a damn good reason behind it – it’s a heritage carried,

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seemingly embedded in the DNA, which can be traced back to punk and hardcore. “I remember getting too fucked up” or “I question everything / My focus, my figure, my sexuality”. It seems that few stones are left unturned regarding the insecurities and the more intimate thoughts that are a constant throughout anyone’s life – let’s not call it “just a teenager thing” because we know that’s bullshit.

The honest delivery with the raw, cutting, heavy, sometimes sweet sound makes Feels Like an immensely desirable and tasty rock album.

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BITTER END Illusions of Dominance

BLOOD YOUTH Inside My Head EP

BRANDON FLOWERS The Desired Effect

The San Antonio’s hardcore outfit Bitter End are releasing their new album. Illusions of Dominance is yet another album influenced by New York’s metallic hardcore scene of the 80s and 90s, which includes heavy usage of thrash metal. Lyrically, it speaks about the human fragility at the hands of nature, while sonically speaking is just what we can expect from a band that uses hardcore and thrash metal… Unfortunately, it’s too much obvious to the point of only attracting people that are interested in listening to a kind of “formula” from the past. It takes the last moments of the closer “No Man’s Land” to find a little bit of excitement. Not a bad album, but it doesn’t impress in any way or form.

On 2014, Climates came to an end when the creative input between frontman Wes Thompson and the band clashed, their visions for the band’s musical future were totally divided and the result was that they couldn’t carry on anymore as a unit. Blood Youth was the catalyst for the other now former - members starting from zero, creating a new identity of their own. Inside My Head is an intense and cathartic effort, where they were able to channelling their frustrations and fears into music, giving a new meaning to their own struggle.

Anxiety, vulnerability and fear about their unstable future where the fuel to ignite this heavy and ferocious emotive effort. One last word for Kaya Tarsus, dude you nailed it...

The second album of Brandon Flowers marks a take of his own style, much more pop and vibrant kind of music that is made by The Killers, the band which he is the vocalist. Himself assumes this position with a production and more refined image and the intention is clear: to reach as many people as he can. This different way gave birth to a pop record, full of 80’s little reminders, with a lively and danceable hue, like a remake of an album of the great names of the decade. The lyrics are simple, emotive and captivating and the end result is very convincing. Highlighting the stories are the inspiration of video clips of two singles released so far: “Can’t Deny My Love” and “Lonely Town”.

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Island (2015)

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Landscapes, Climates, Heights

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ECSTATIC VISION Sonic Praise

DIAMOND YOUTH Nothing Matters

DOWNTOWN BOYS Full Communism

At first, Diamond Youth’ debut effort sounds great and beautiful, but then it turns a bit cheesy with their radiofriendly sound. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing, but going through this record a lot of times, that feeling starts to grow. Despite that, Nothing Matters is a box full of surprises. The band blends a lot of different styles within their major style: Rock. It can seem pretty simple, but it’s not and that’s why this record is catchy and varied. Between the tracks reminiscing the 60’s surf rock such as “Thought I Had It Right” and “In The Clouds”, we can even find a more grungier rock track like “Far Away From Earth” or even a much mellow rock song as “Riptide” is. Nothing Matters is a good record with good songs.

Full Communism is a collection of protest songs against this fucked up society, can I say World? Yes, I said it... Ranting about smashing the prison industrial complex, racism, queerphobia, capitalism, fascism, boredom, all the things people use to try to close our minds, eyes and hearts... In a fucked up world like this, Downtown Boys are one of the few acts that truly stands for a change, that truly fights and talks about the issues that really matter. In a current and critical moment of struggle for justice in the US and in the whole world, Full Communism represents a non-conformist activist punk manifesto, an artistic statement with the power to inspire, making us believe again and again in the power of words and music.

A classic working class affair. Amazing!

Individually it’s not every day that you see a press release from a band that mentions Amon Duul, Can, Hawkwind and Aphrodites Child as influences, and it’s even rare for a band to cite all these groups as inspiration for their sound. And as you hear the songs you can detect the outer space sound of Hawkwind, the percussive flourishes of Can, and the Jazz like interludes of Amon Duul. This band from Philadelphia can create and sustain a very interesting groove of hypnotic rhythms similar to those of their main influences. It is refreshing to hear a Stoner Rock band that takes their cues from bands other than Black Sabbath. For those of you that don’t know or never heard of the previously mentioned bands and are at least intrigued by the ethereal qualities of the record, should explore further into the Prog Rock realm.

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CITIZEN Everybody Is Going To Heaven

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Run For Cover (2015)

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wo years after the release of their breakthrough album, Citizen is back with Everybody Is Going To Heaven, their sophomore and highly anticipated new album. The whole hype that surrounds these dudes is awesome and they totally deserve it, that’s for sure.

Well now that we can assume that all the hipsters and former emo haters love Emo, it’s finally cool and accepted being emo.

Everybody Is Going To Heaven is an indie-emo-post-hardcoreshoegaze look alike, sounds good and is introspective as fuck. If somehow you are thinking what Radiohead could sound if they were a Brand New meets Superheaven meets Nothing covers

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band, this might be your answer.

Dark and haunting, Everybody Is Going To Heaven is difficult and depressive, there is no such thing as happiness here, and we as listeners are forced to go deep into their own suffering and tormented demons. You might not even notice, but if this is your first encounter with the band, their sound just got bigger and even more tense, maturity makes another victim.

Cement, Ten, Stain, Dive Into My Sun

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DESAPARECIDOS Payola Epitaph (2015)

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t feels that these dudes have been away for too long... And if in 2002 they were able to cause quite a fuzz with their direct and caustic political issues, 13 years later everything they spoke in the past escalated to far worse, the world is a mess and Desaparecidos are another voice to educate and show some enlightenment to people, kids or whatever...

On Payola, the band consciously tackled a wide range of political issues at a much broader scale, in Read Music/Speak Spanish they went direct to political prisoners

and to the blind American policy regarding their own frontiers and that classic division of classes.

Now, singer Conor Oberst - yeap, the same dude from Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk - is targeting the same issues, where the corporate greed, the huge racial tension in the US and in the whole world and the way immigrants keep being treated. Well, nothing new, perhaps the only thing different is that more than never we are being watched... There is no such thing as freedom nowadays.

Payola is a protest album, a punk record in his pure essence, a smart and direct statement that can raise some conscious awareness. Featuring some

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9 collaborations, with guest spot for Cursive’s Tim Kasher, Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace and the So So Glos, Payola is way more melodic than its predecessor, but angrier, louder and raw.

Seems that Desaparecidos are here to stay, with a strong record and strong message, nowadays more needed than ever.

As a band they’re finally getting their due with this sophomore release, unfortunately only came 13 years later though... There’s a lesson to be learned, punk rock has the power to change the world, it lies in every single punk rock boy and girl. “You can’t stop us, We are Anonymous, Expect us, We know what all of us know.”

Anonymous, The Left Is Right, Golden Parachutes

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ENVY Atheist’s Cornea

Temporary Residence (2015)

10.07

7 Before Envy became the postrock hardcore band to tell your friends about, they were a much more direct proposition, an emotionally wrought emo/hardcore band with some great splits and an abundance of passion to their name.

Atheist’s Cornea sees a slight resurgence in that vitality, its flurries of snare and rhythmic chaos a welcome presence amongst the twinkling melancholy, but there’s no hiding the immense polish that has gone into this record. From those stadium-sized hooks and strains of classical elegance to Tetsuya Fukugawa’s bichromatic delivery, switching from heartfelt spoken word to emotionally rapt screams and a little in-between, it hits the poles of Envy’s sonic spectrum while remaining accessible enough for latecomers to the band and sincere enough for the veterans.

It sounds nothing short of gorgeous, the band in lithe form as they embrace a succession of breezy melodies that belong as much to Thursday as they do to Sigur Rós, a time capsule of everything good about early 2000s rock as well as Envy themselves, with the only catch being that it perhaps sounds a little too like them.

There are no brave leaps in sound this time around, but even within these safe constraints, they have delivered a collection as memorable as it is invigorating, and there’s no doubt that it will be even more effective once they take it to the stage.

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FLORENCE + THE MACHINE How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Island (2015)

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How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the title of the third album by Florence and the Machine, couldn’t be a better way do represent the album itself. As we were used to on the previous hit albums - 2009’s Lungs and 2011’s Ceremonials - Florence Welch brings another big, heartfelt and ethereal effort.

After taking a year off and going through a rough time, Welch was inspired by that vulnerable time and that’s when she started working on this album that is probably the most personal record she’s ever made. This time around, she put aside the themes about water and producer Marcus Dravs told her to not write any more songs about water- although she couldn’t resist and “Ship to Wreck” made into the cut. This album is much more about “trying to learn how to live and how to love in the world rather than trying to escape from it” as Welch has mentioned. Her inspiring strength as a vocalist/musician is always neat on every song.

There’s a much powerful brass section to go with her unique vocal skills as she tangles gospel with indie pop. Nonetheless, it’s an easy record to digest, even with the heartbreaking, passionate lyrics and the intense melodies.

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful sounds big, is damn beautiful and it can make you feel blue from every listening.

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FIGHT AMP Constantly Off

FRANCESCA BELMONTE Anima

GENGAHR A Dream Outside

In constant evolution since birth, Fight Amp gives us their strongest and solid effort so far. The band finally knows what is their best way, arriving into something darker and more powerful, using the similar project, a crossroad of punk hardcore and a groovy sludge sound, but with a distinct approach. The way the band have shaped and molded themselves is really creepy and fantastic, giving the idea that this can be a potential future of a band. Not giving up on the fast speed, Fight Amp remain pretty fast such on the track like “Survival is Strange”, growing on the listener a state of motion and rebellion. Fight Amp starts to build soundscapes in completely unique ways in a scene where too many try to differentiate and fail.

Belmonte’s debut Anima could be a complete train wreck. Fifteen tracks scattered all over the place, especially lyrically, but also sonically – hard to say how “Joker” and “Brother & Sister” work on the grand scheme of things. Anima is a distressful, confusing, incoherent, coherent, and very passionate album, which is to say that there’s an utterly human side to it. It thrives with almost unhealthy doses of focus, and its incoherence isn’t a flaw but rather a pivotal feature. Belmonte wears her heart on her sleeve. Anima is the definition of repeat value, a musical Frankenstein that stumbles all over the place with an incredible array of motions. It’s singularity at each beat not concerned with its last footstep when giving the next one.

For a debut album, A Dream Outside does more than enough to encapsulate Genghar’s essence. The London foursome have created a collection of nostalgic tracks that draw the listener into their weird and wonderful world of calm psychedelia. With a release date just in time for summer, the album’s slow-burning sound evokes clear blue skies, its hazy beats and rippling, distant riffs flowing like sunlight filtering through trees. In just a few minutes over the half-hour mark, with peaceful tracks like “Dizzy Ghosts” and lyrically darker ones like “Where I Lie” and “Fill My Gums With Blood”, the band manage to maintain the romantic yet measured quality that defines them, with shoegazy album closer “Trampoline” bringing the journey full circle.

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Brutal Panda Records (2015)

False Idols (2015)

SÉRGIO KILMORE

KEN mode, Kowloon Walled City, Keelhaul

Transgressive Records (2015)

TIAGO MOREIRA

Tricky, Zola Jesus, How To Dress Well

ANTIGONI PITTA

Fugazi, MGMT, Metronomy

29.06

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GOBLIN REBIRTH Goblin Rebirth

HEARTLESS BASTARDS Restless Ones

JAMIE XX In Colour

Goblin’s myriad incarnations may be beginning to reach Hawkwind levels of complexity but Rebirth, featuring founding bassist Fabio Pignatelli and long-time drummer Agostino Marangolo, may well be the most exciting one these days.

Criss-crossing not only their Suspiria-era glory days but also the Italo-disco of the 70s and their raucous guitar-centric pieces of the late 80s, Rebirth are about as all-encompassing a Goblin experience as you can get, the gothic tension of “Requiem For X” and Pignatelli’s incendiary runs on “Evil In The Machine” offering glimpses of the band at their peak. Atmospheric and infectious, the songwriting is on top form but, more importantly, there’s a primal sense of bloodlust and tension here showing that their dark magic is still strong.

The Hearthless Bastards, rock band from Ohio, launches this month its fifth effort, another step up in the career of this band that despite the relative lack of public in general has been affirmed as one of the great promises of the decade. The formula is simple: raw rock and fashion indie melody, but assuming a different stance than the previous album, as if to demonstrate some progress through the experimentation of different sounds. There is something captivating in the lyrics and intonation of them which thickens the acumen of the message. Going to the heart of the matter, Restless Ones is a very interesting album with message and melodies at the level of the previous work, and we expect a good acceptance.

Jamie Smith’s debut isn’t a particularly bluntly departure from past endeavors, nor it is simply taking advantage of former glories. The participation of bandmates Romy and Oliver Sim aren’t exactly what was expected from people that have recognized the incontestable prominence of Jamie on The xx’s sound, but with Romy’s participation, especially with “Loud Places”, there’s a sense of reaching for something slightly outside of the known circle. Perhaps the mistake was to create overblown expectations... Yeah, that’s probably the case because when we look through the rearview mirror we remember Young Thug and Popcaan featured on the banger “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)”, the extremely focused “Obvs”, or even the energetic “Girl”. The right step on a journey that promises to be undaunted.

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Relapse Records (2015)

DAVE BOWES

Zombi, King Crimson, Ennio Morricone

90

music&riots

Young Turks (2015)

Partisan (2015)

June

NUNO TEIXEIRA

Deer Tick, The Whigs, Delta Spirit

The xx, Disclosure, Tycho

TIAGO MOREIRA

REVIEWS

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7 THE BIG JAZZ DUO

Enemy

Fire Was Born Records (2015)

The Big Jazz Duo, these dudes just unleashed a monster of an album, an epic and frantic effort, full of layers and textures, these dudes should be for sure aiming for something big. The extreme metal is nowadays boring as hell, but only because there are no many acts like these, with the ability to sound fresh in a genre that we feel that has nothing new to offer. Strong, fast and full of blast beats, Enemy is a beast of a record, modern death metal sounds like this...

FAUSTO CASAIS

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9 DOGHOUSE

Dysfunction EP

Morning Woods Records (2015)

Legendary Belgrade punx are finally back after six years of absence! They are stronger than ever, and the new EP is there to show it. Their fast and aggressive skate punk sounds as good as it always did, but with more depth into it. The lyrics are more mature and more direct, but this release has something that previous releases haven’t. It has “Nobody”, magnificent punk rock anthem a la Hot Water Music, and possibly the best tune the band has ever written!

MILJAN MILEKIC

10.07

7 F.O.E.S.

Antecedence EP

Crooked Noise Records (2015)

Art-metal anyone? Antecedence is F.O.E.S.’ second EP, it’s different, diverse and daring, there is also a cinematic post-rock approach that gives a new meaning regarding their own intensity, atmosphere and sonic invention. Clearly inspired by acts like Karnivool, early Cave In and Deftones, F.O.E.S. go deep into their own influences, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing here, because they still maintain their own accomplished and cinematic signature sound.

FAUSTO CASAIS

FUCKED UP Year Of The Hare EP Deathwish Inc. (2015)

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Year of the Hare is the latest installment of Fucked Up’s Zodiac themed releases. Seems once again that there is no such thing as limits regarding their own creativity, this is the shape of hardcore that really matters.

Recorded and created over a two year period, Year of the Hare is another experimental chaotic artistic statement, two discordant almost post-everything songs/masterpieces that totally transcend any kind of genre or even sub-genre associated.

“Year of the Hare” is quite possibly one of the best songs they have made, the vocal contrast between Damien raw and guttural voice is perfectly balanced by Isla Craig haunting, beautiful voice. Once again, their ability to push forward their own sound was a success, even their detailed palette of noise is an adventurous, intriguing and epic achievement.

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91

GIRLPOOL Before the World Was Big

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Wichita Recordings (2015)

T

he first time I listened to this band I was amazed with how just two girls could make simple songs sound really cool and addictive with only two instruments and a strong willingness to express their feelings. That’s right, these girls have the power and the attitude to

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Adult Mom, Frankie Cosmos, Honey Blood

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June

make that.

Cleo Tucker plays guitar and Harmony Tividad plays bass and both sing. Their first release was the awesome self-titled EP and now their debut record, Before The World Was Big, has the same vibe and kind of the same approach as the EP. The girls before recording this album moved from L.A. to Philadelphia and that probably gave a different scenario

ESSENTIAL TRACKS:

Before the World Was Big, Cherry Picking

to them. They focus more on themes about childhood and adulthood. Their way to swing such raw and honest feelings into such stripped-down rock tunes show how much they put themselves into each song they write.

The world might look bigger as we get older, but at least Cleo and Harmony have each other’s back and they’re not afraid to put in words and melodies what they feel.

ANDREIA ALVES

REVIEWS

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8 THE JULIET MASSACRE Human Abuse Self-Released (2015)

Is this for real? Italian death/slam/ core metal crew The Juliet Massacre goes even beyond what we are used to listen to regarding extreme metal, and damn, this sounds good... Their pedigree is pure and their sound is fashionable raw, totally abusing our common sense of what violent death-grind-core should sound. Human Abuse, centred in what mankind is able to do every single day, abuse and even more abuse of their kind, leading to the inevitable collapse of this failed and corrupted society. If there’s any kind of real extreme scene in Europe, face it dudes, the scene is dead and lacks diversity and innovation, it’s bands like The Juliet Massacre and beyond that should lead the revolution against this corporate metal European scene.

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Origins, Pig Destroyer, Suicide Silence

7 OUT NOW

KID WAVE Wonderlust

OUT NOW

Heavenly Recordings (2015)

Known mainly for his experimental guitar excursions as part of Implodes, Dream Memory is Camden’s third solo album for Kranky. This joining of artist and label is a mutually beneficial pairing, Camden fitting in nicely with Kranky’s roster of somnambulist waking dream pop from the likes of Windy & Carl and Benoit Pioluard. Tracks like “Adenosine” and “Time Bend” recall the gentler pulses of early 1990s shoegazing territories while “Renewal” opens up third eyes with the most delicate and kindly of prising. Conventional guitar sounds are notable by their absence, the instrument confined to effects generating tool, and the overall ambience is of a soundtrack for wandering freely through a wishfully sunlit hazy daydream.

Finding a debut album with a steadfast sound is rare, but Kid Wave seem to have hit the nail on the head. Wonderlust, in all its jangle guitar pop goodness and non-chalant vocals moves in its own energetically languid pace, which stems from the band’s own untraditional blend of nationalities and influences.

Having already gained valuable territory and a reputation as a live act to watch in the London scene, the band, Harry Deacon, Mattias Bhatt, Serra Petale and singer Lea Emmery, translated their musical savvy into a solid debut, a few months after the release of their first EP, Gloom. With carefree guitar riffs and Petale’s killer drums meshing with Emmery’s distinct huskiness, the tracks make for a bittersweet listen of woolgathering and attitude. Opener, “Wonderlust” is hair-swinging nostalgia while in “Honey”, the lyrics allude to the title’s desire of escapism. The catchy hooks and the harmonies are all there as Kid Wave indulge in vibrant tunes with introspective lyrics and daydream ramblings to make you rock and sway.

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8 KEN CAMDEN Dream Memory Kranky (2015)

Benoit Pioluard, Windy & Carl

EUAN ANDREWS

STELLA ELIADOU

Pale Honey, The Voyeurs, Superfood

9 KEN MODE Success

Season of Mist (2015)

Canadian toughest are back. This is going to be a surprise even to those who are familiar with the band – or maybe not. Success is KEN Mode as ironic as it comes, this time drifting into 90s post-hardcore territory (the The Jesus Lizard influence is undeniable). There is more of a grungy punk-rock edge and less of crushing sludge, but I’ll avoid being descriptive here because I really don’t want to spoil the surprise. Success proves KEN Mode have great observers and its lyrics reflect how much these guys mastered the arts of dark humor.

Music and production wise, well, it’s probably their most mature record.

This is a mandatory 2015 release, and it will definitely be among the best of the year!

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RICARDO ALMEIDA

The Jesus Lizard, Baptists, Narrows

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8 MULTICAST DYNAMICS Aquatic System Denovali (2015)

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8 MULTICAST DYNAMICS Scape Denovali (2015)

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MATES OF STATE You’re Going To Take It

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Barsuk Records/Fierce Panda (2015)

After seven albums, three EPs, a bunch of live performances and much more, Mates Of State are still going strong. Husband-and-wife duo Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel are a perfect example for every other musician couple of how to stick together after all these years. It has been quite a while since these two lovers-musicians are together, and after all it must be a great thing to do what you love with the one you love right by your side.

You’re Going To Make is their new EP and it shows the duo in a great shape. It feels like a competent follow-up to their latest release was the 2011’s album Mountaintops, but also an easy and cheerful EP. These five songs deal with youthful love tangled with nostalgia and also technology nowadays. Their dreamy pop/electro pop approach is still pretty catchy.

Mates Of State brought once again their essence into this EP and from now on we can count more EPs like these, because the band said that they will only release EPs rather than albums. Fair enough.

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The New Pornographers, Tilly and the Wall

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ANDREIA ALVES

he evocation of environment and landmass has long been a favourite mode of exploration for ambient music forms. Eno’s 1982 On Land album remains a high watermark for transcribing audio representations of natural landscape, most notably for using the memories of specific times and places to create variations on physical realities which may never have existed prior to being dreamed up in Eno’s recording space. It could be that ambient music’s perfect state has been in this recreation of possible geographical and biological worlds.

The work of Samuel Van Dijk AKA Multicast Dynamics follows this ever flowing tributary down what will eventually be a quartet of albums focusing on environmental states surrounding the human body. Intended to move from evolutionary to cosmological scales, the initial release of Scape focuses on flickering glitch electronica while Aquatic Systems, as implied by the title, grows into the perfect soundtrack for bobbing in a floatation tank.

It’s easy to take or leave the concepts attached by Van Dijk to both Multicast Dynamics releases which weigh down these soundscapes with an air of portentousness. Rather, just switch off your mind and let the music flow gently over you. There is nothing to fear or alarm you here inside these pleasing electronic simulacrums of the world in which you belong.

EUAN ANDREWS

REVIEWS

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8 HOLY SERPENT

Holy Serpent

Riding Easy Records (2015)

Something good must be happening in Melbourne, and goes by the name of Holy Serpent. Something that the city has always been good at, is to take a unique established form of sound and turn it in a fresh direction to create a new beast. Such is the case with Holy Serpent, a fuzzy doom from down under giving a tribute to the psychedelic 70’s with a modern twist. These guys had the nerve to nail this debut EP among the best and among the clash of massive important bands of the scene.

SÉRGIO KILMORE

30.06

7 JULE VERA

Friendly Enemies

Pure Noise Records (2015)

In a few years Jule Vera will be claiming their place among the rock elite, among acts like Paramore and No Doubt. Insanely catchy, Friendly Enemies will appeal to a younger generation of fans, with sing-along harmonies along eight slices of harmless Summer tunes, Ansley Newman’s compelling and talented voice will mellow your heart, that’s for sure.

Somehow between Echosmith and Paramore, Jule Vera’s future looks promising and bright...

FAUSTO CASAIS

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6 LAST DAY OF SUMMER

Remember Nothing EP This Is Core (2015)

Italian rock act Last Day of Summer is a modern rock band. Nothing sounds new, but their own way of mixing heavy riffs with harmonious melody is infectious. Full of that classic pop-rock American cliché, Remember Nothing EP goes deep into the world of bands like The Starting Line, Mayday Parade and even Panic! At The Disco. A fair and solid effort, catchy enough to makes us sing-along, because these tunes get stuck in your head pretty easily.

FAUSTO CASAIS

MATT SKIBA AND THE SEKRETS Kuts Superball Music (2015)

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hree years on from Matt Skiba’s first solo album, 2012’s Babylon, he is back with Kuts, if you think that you gonna listen to something completely different from Alkaline Trio, then you’re so fucking wrong...

Kuts still sounds like Alkaline Trio, but with a classic and refined touch from 80’s synths. Once again, it’s Skiba lyrics that really make this record big and emotional, and even if it sounds like Alkaline Trio, there is a huge dark and gothic presence on Kuts - now, you guys must be thinking, what else is new regarding that we are talking about Matt Skiba.

Skiba’s own personal and sometimes painful life experiences, as always, are the fuel to ignite this masterful and crafted cathartic effort. Kuts is the full expression of Skiba own cut with those attachments and rise above them. Catchy and infectious songs, full of hooks and melody, even their own conception, construction and execution are perfect, these are songs that are going to be stuck in our heads for days...

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KING PARROT Dead Set

MATT POND PA The State of Gold

MILLENCOLIN True Brew

Grindcore is definitely not one of the easiest Metal genres to muster, but if you infuse it with some Thrash Metal and Hardcore influences it becomes more multifaceted and vivid. These Australians have Phil Anselmo of Pantera fame as a big supporter and that has certainly helped to bring their chaotically driven music to a wider metal audience. The record shows a merger of bands like Carcass, Black Flag and also Thrash Metal more specifically from the German school i.e. Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction. All amalgamated with the singer’s guttural and evil witch vociferations. It most certainly is not a record for every metal fan out there, but for the most extreme metal fan this record deserves a careful excursion into this riot of sounds.

Is The State of Gold an ode to inspiration? Or to the little but very significant moments? Or to the persistent? Or to love? Well, it seems safe to say that all of that comes out through Matt Pond PA’s ninth album. It’s easily palpable the importance carried by the opener “More No More” – where inspiration finally came in a form of a simple afternoon sunlight. From that moment on, twelve other tracks give space to one another always carrying a torch of light, always transpiring a lightness and a certain effortless vibe. It’s way more than a collection of good songs. It’s the subtle art of making us dream and hope, a positive mark in a sea of negativism.

Millencolin were just absent for too long. Seven years is a really, really long time to live without these guys’ new record, but the wait is finally over. True Brew is just in our hands, and it was worth waiting. The expectations were high, and the band delivered. We got pure punk rock spilt over 12 fast and energetic songs, and one slower number, “Wall of Doubt”. The album has everything we are used to hear from these guys – simple, but heavy drums, screaming guitars big, sing-along choruses. In other words – hits. This isn’t the best release they ever made, but it’s in the upper half. They still have things to say, and determination to do it.

Highlights? Just listen to the damn thing.

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Housecore Records (2015)

NUNO BABO

Nails, Cretin, Superjoint Ritual

96

music&riots

Epitaph (2015)

Doghouse Records (2015)

June

TIAGO MOREIRA

Maritime, The Long Winters, Rogue Wave

MILJAN MILEKIC

Pennywise, Lagwagon, Strung Out

REVIEWS

MEWITHOUTYOU Pale Horse

24.07

8

Scary Monsters (2015)

I

t’s impossible to imagine the influence mewithoutYou had over these last fifteen years in the current modern underground scene, from indie rock to folk, from post-hardcore to post-punk, and beyond...

Over the years, mewithoutYou have been shaping their sound with that old rule of not imposing limits

to their own creativity. That’s why every single release from these guys has the ability to surprise us, leaving us unarmed and often without quite knowing what to say at the very first listen... We know one thing, with the first listen we are always quite amazed, but after several listenings we are totally overwhelmed.

Pale Horse is not a return to their more heavy groove post-hardcore origins, but it’s half way to that path. Aaron Weiss poetic and outstanding way of portraying their own special way of storytelling is still quite an

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ESSENTIAL TRACKS:

La Dispute, Listener, Fleet Foxes

experience.

The Philadelphia’s five-piece shows again that they are “again” reinventing, reinterpreting, and evolving their unique and detailed sound. Weiss poetic and cathartic tumble of words blends in perfection with the incendiary, yet sometimes tender and delicate guitar work, their catchy bass and their drum groove are still quite a challenge for the listener.

Abrasive, bold and eclectic, Pale Horse will not disappoint. It’s a record that is not restricted to genre guidelines, instead it redefines them.

Mexican War Streets, Catches For the Foxes

musicandriotsmagazine.com

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8 MUTOID MAN Bleeder

NO JOY More Faithful

Having Stephen Brodsky (Cave In), Ben Koller (Converge, All Pigs Must Die), and Nick Cageao on bass, could be enough reason for people to start calling it a supergroup, but this time around we can feel a different vibe with Mutoid Man. It’s just business as usual, just another project, and their debut Bleeder creates a more than enough gap between the other members’ worlds. It stands alone and ultimately it does a hell of a job.

More than just a handful of heavy songs, Bleeder relies on the experience and will to explore of its players. This is the sound of heavy rock in 2015. Another breath of fresh air in a genre that sometimes is more than happy with its own redundancy and stiffness.

For their third full-length, No Joy didn’t low their arms and write just another record. Instead, they wrote 11 elegant and fierce songs that transmit the dark and bright moments of the band. Sure, they are used to write songs that swing according to their moods, but on More Faithful the contrast between those songs is much well noted. Their fuzzy guitars mixed with some noise and dream pop are wonderful and both Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd bring quite a charm. Even though they don’t describe their sound as shoegaze, the track “Hollywood Teeth” delivers some hints of that, but overall their sound transcends that one genre. Lastly, “Moon In My Mouth” and “Everything New” are those tracks that get stuck in your head for hours.

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ASG, Kyuss, Torche

98

music&riots

Solid State Records (2015)

Mexican Summer (2015)

Sargent House (2015)

ANDREIA ALVES

Field Mouse, Cheatahs, Westkust

June

THE ONGOING CONCEPT Handmade Big melodies, perfect hooks, great songs and jaw-dropping heaviness...

Handmade is one of the most exciting and accomplished albums of this year, abrasive, intense and explosive, with the power to keep our levels of adrenaline on top, and with no signs of slowing down whatsoever... The Ongoing Concept are one of that kind of bands that’s impossible to define their genre, their own elements are so damn random and diverse, with no such thing as clichés attached.

Somewhere between the catchiness of letlive and heavy tunes of Every Time I Die, Handmade is an absolute beast of a record, full of details and thought- provoking lyrics. Like letlive’s The Blackest Beautiful, Handmade is a record that will redefine your musical preconceptions and tastes for the better, well let’s hope for it...

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FAUSTO CASAIS

letlive, Every Time I Die, Underoath

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29.06

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ROLO TOMASSI Grievances

Holy Roar Records (2015)

PINS Wild Nights

RICHARD THOMPSON Still

Manchester’s quartet PINS released in 2013 their debut album Girls Like Us, a promising and riveting effort which opened a lot of doors to them. With that record, they stood out to the obvious comparisons that were said.

Great tunes and great attitude is what comes out when these four girls are together. Wild Nights feels that way.

A mix of what we’ve already heard before, but with a bit more ambition and focus. Faith Holgate takes the lead into more introspective tunes, aside from tracks such as “Young Girls”, which is a great anthem for aspiring young girls who are still finding their own place. Wild Nights is another cool and super honest record, but besides that it doesn’t go further than what Girls Like Us brought.

The man who was a member of Fairport Convention and has released more than a dozen albums solo. He’s a fucking legend. Not just a legend as a guitar player as Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and producer on this new album clarified, “Richard’s been one of my favorite guitar players for a very long time. When I think about it, he’s also one of my favorite songwriters and favorite singers. He’s the Ultimate Triple Threat.”

Still is a statement. It not only states the relevance of Thompson’s music but also reinforces his trademark sound, which is to say his uniqueness. At the end of the day, Still is just a timeless album not worried about trends, just interested in attaining damn good songs with damn good lyrics. Once again, he did a damn good job.

Over this 10 year journey we saw Rolo Tomassi mature their sound, their own growth as a band and we witness all the major changes and everything in between. Music has this unique power to make closer to the bands or artists that we admire. Well, this is one of those situations. Grievances is Rolo Tomassi fifth full-length in 10 years, another punishing and brutal effort, if Astraea was more positive and euphoric, this new effort is more dark and gritty. The classic Dillingeresque meets Converge stripped down rawness is still here, their ethereal raging sound unique approach to noise is really outstanding. Rolo Tomassi over the years have ignored all the genre trends, they have their own sound and led by Eva Spence menacing barks, we must say, Grievances is their most intense yet dark, but at the same time stunning noisy visceral experience for the listener.

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FOR FANS OF:

FOR FANS OF:

Bella Union (2015)

Fantasy (2015)

ANDREIA ALVES

Dum Dum Girls, Novella, No Joy

TIAGO MOREIRA

Fairport Convention, Jeff Tweedy

FAUSTO CASAIS

Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan

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SENSES FAIL Pull The Horns From Your Heart

OUT NOW

Pure Noise Records (2015)

8 SELF DEFENSE FAMILY Heaven Is Earth Deathwish Inc. (2015)

Self Defense Family are a different band, they have their own scene and nothing and no one sounds like them, fact! Recorded at four classic studios by a diverse group of engineers: from Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios to Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, to Mark Millar at Sone Lab and even Jon Low at Miner Street Recordings, where each engineer left their own touch on this collection of songs, showing that punk rock could step to another new level, somehow a glimpse of how innovative music should be made...

Heaven Is Earth is beautiful and delicate, but at the same time is wild and dangerous, Patrick Kindlon’s introspective prose is pure emotion, pure punk rock soul. Heaven Is Earth is a journey often challenging, but that’s what makes it unforgettable.

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FAUSTO CASAIS

Fucked Up, Drug Church, Title Fight

100

music&riots

June

Funny thing, but I don’t know anyone who likes Senses Fail. I know people who are not into them, or people who are indifferent. Also I don’t know anyone who hates them. The ones who care for them, just love them to the core. And it’s no surprise. Their post-hardcore emo sound is not for everyone. It requires an active listener, someone who is ready to inhale their music and feel the lyrics. This record is no different. Buddy Nielsen once again gives his heart on the sleeve, and it’s up to the listener to take it or not.

He’s emotional and aggressive, down and angry, and it’s all spread through these eleven songs making every one of them a confession on its own. The combination of fast, aggressive hardcore destroyers and slower emotional songs, with almost ambiental feel gives this album enough diversity, making it interesting, and more important, giving it more insights into Nielsen’s thoughts, feelings and words. Senses Fail were always band for people who know what they want from music. They still are, now maybe more than ever.

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MILJAN MILEKIC

Silverstein, Bayside, Touché Amoré

8 SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN The High Country // Polyvinyl (2015)

The new album from Springfield’s SSLYBY is that pop record that we pray to get the opportunity to hear every time the summer announces its appearance.

It’s far from being bubblegum, or even just seasonal for that matters. Actually, it’s very fucking raw and aggressive. Aggressive in such way that doesn’t feel overly and ridiculously dangerous, but rather awesomely addictive and enjoyable. I mean, it’s a POP record, and there’s no other way around it. It’s like having an extremely more refined version of what WAVVES were doing with King of the Beach back in 2010. The High Country is that kind of album that doesn’t leave you alone, but you don’t care because it’s too damn good after all. YES! “I’m not afraid!”

FOR FANS OF:

TIAGO MOREIRA

WAVVES, Telekinesis, Best Coast

REVIEWS

OUT NW

6 THE NOPES

Nectar of the Dogs EP

Magnetic Eye Records (2015)

The Nopes’ debut EP is raw, couldn’t have been more rooted in old school punk if it tried. Somewhere between the Germs and Bad Brains regarding their main influences and their sound, The Nopes like it hard and fast, short and sharper punk songs for everyone’s younger self, that punk dude that’s somehow anxious for getting in trouble. Nectar of the Dogs will definitely provoke a reaction and make you feel something, might be discomfort or euphoria, it’s your call to decide.

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8 PULO REVÉ

The ÉP

Self-Released (2015)

Fuck yeah! After this, we can’t wait for the debut LP... Well, this should have been the last sentence of this review... Fuck that, nothing like saying what’s on our mind after listening to one of the best EPs of this year. An essential listening, and a name to be on your radar in the future. Emotional deep, bold, ambitious, full of social awareness, this is one of the swinging slice of underground post-hardcore/ progressive-rock effort you’ll come across this year. Well done guys!

FAUSTO CASAIS

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7 SAUNA YOUTH

Distractions

Upset The Rhythm (2015)

London’s four-piece Sauna Youth always stood up with their irreverence and restless attitude. Their debut album Dreamlands, released in 2012, made Richard Phoenix, Jen Calleja, Lindsay Corstorphine and Christopher Murphy a much solid group and their second album Distractions is a proof of that.This new record is full of frenetic and straight-to-the-point punk songs delivering important messages.

Overall, Distractions is a well-crafted record with incendiary tunes.

ANDREIA ALVES

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7 SONORITY NOISE Joy, Departed

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Topshelf Records (2015)

Joy, Departed is the second full-length

by Connecticut’s quartet Sorority Noise, the follow up to last year’s debut record Forgettable, and it’s for sure damn sincere and genuine effort. Frontman and lyricist Cameron Boucher opens up to some of his experiences with mental illness and that actually was the main inspiration for this record. He stated that “Depression is not a trend. Depression is not cool.

Depression is not hip. It is a serious mental illness.” Couldn’t agree more and there’s a familiar yet cozy sound that goes along with this important message, blending pop hooks with heavy riffs and orchestral swells. After listening to this record, it comes to mind a quote that I read somewhere saying “There is no enough time for hating yourself, too many things to make” and that’s how we all should face life.

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ANDREIA ALVES

Modern Baseball, Weezer, Somos

TEA BREAK Something’s Wrong. Everything’s Ok EP Nocturne Media (2015)

Tea Break are one extremely underrated band. Stuck somewhere between Rise Against-esque “big room”, maybe even mainstream punk rock sound, and the typical old school à lá Bad Religion, they just failed to break through and reach a wider audience. This EP won’t change anything, but it sure doesn’t mean it’s not good. The new release contains four highly energetic, fast and aggressive punk rock songs, with lyrics that represent direct attacks to main problems of Serbian, and society in general. They have always been aware of the world around them, but they were never this angry. The band took this EP as their manifest. With a new lineup, new label, and the same old commitment they made another release worth a listen.

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MILJAN MILEKIC

Bad Religion, Rise Against, Anti-Flag

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SUPER UNISON Super Unison EP Self-Released (2015)

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t’s not every day a band comes along who can easily be compared to acts like Sleater-Kinney, Black Flag and Coliseum... Just to name a few.

Recorded in February, this selftitled EP is too damn good to be missed, it’s only 7 minutes and 4

songs, but your time will be for sure precious enough to listen to that it ten times in a row and that will not mean a waste of time whatsoever.

Super Unison - the name of that same awesome 7 minute song from Drive Like Jehu - sound like early Sleater-Kinney, but with that Dischord Records and riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna vibe, it’s fast and intense post-punk/hardcore

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ESSENTIAL TRACKS:

Sleater-Kinney, Black Flag, Drive Like Jehu

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Walk Away, On Repeat, Close Your Eyes

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9 and vocalist and bassist Meghan O’Neil Pennie sings different from what we were used to in Punch, Pennie’s last band, which works really well.

Super Unison are pushing the boundaries of what hardcore or post-hardcore sounds like nowadays, their humble sound are quite adventurous. As far as confrontational art goes, it doesn’t get much better than this.

FAUSTO CASAIS

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7 SET IN MOTION

Like Sand Through Our Fingers EP This Is Core (2015)

A well-harnesses burst of aggression in a technical playground, this might be the best way to describe what Set In Motion achieved. Like Sand Through Our Fingers is a strong and solid effort, full of ambition, their blend of influences are quite random, from post-hardcore-almost-everything heroes Underoath to the progressive masters Animal As Leaders or even the Djent kings Meshuggah. Set In Motion done a pretty good job, writing good songs and showing huge potential.

FAUSTO CASAIS

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7 SWITCHBLADE JESUS

Switchblade Jesus (Reissue) Riple Music (2015)

Switchblade Jesus is a stoner band, but their musical exploits covers a wider range than simply that. There are bits of heavy and psych rock put into their sound, incorporating as much groove as can be packed.

This effort brings big and heavy guitars, that classic glowing blues esque with sharp drum beat and that heavy fuzzy bass tunes. A great vocal performance filled with plenty of energy and dry-throat tune, giving a roughcut quality to the tracks. Well done!

SÉRGIO KILMORE

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7 TABLE SCRAPS

More Time For Strangers

Hells Teeth/Weiner Records (2015)

Hailing from Birmingham (UK), Table Scraps are Poppy Twist (of Poppy & The Jezebels) and Scott Abbott (The Big Bang). Together they make frenetic, fuzzy and noisy garage-rock that just makes you want to move and scream. More Time For Strangers is their debut full-length and it’s intense as hell. They are fast and fierce, bringing an extremely infectious and vibrant rock’n’roll. Just press the play button and take this wild ride with them.

ANDREIA ALVES

VALET Nature Kranky (2015)

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t’s been seven years since Valet’s last album release on Kranky, 2008’s Naked Acid. That was predominately a solo affair for Honey Owens, a strung-out psyched night dip into lysergic waters happily embodying the desperate campfire longings of a post-millennium generation looking for kicks in the wilderness.

Now, Owens sounds like she’s moved back to the city and got a band together. Nature feels very much a group effort, from the opening dewyeyed strumming of “Sunday” which suddenly expands into widescreen shoegazing power-pop deliciousness. It’s as if, following the sprawling waywardness of past excursions, Owens suddenly pledged to join a class of respectable singer-songwriters complete with straight-hued musicianship and lyrics dwelling on twinges of urban life.

The psychedelic daytrip continues with a 1980s paisley-patterned filter applied as some of these songs wouldn’t sound out of place soundtracking slacker motifs of 25 years past. But then you reach the appropriately titled “Nowhere” in which the freeform haziness of old returns in bitesize format, auguring that Owens’ city visit may be brief before she resumes her solitary ramblings in search of oases in the scorched desert.

Wherever she goes, it’s to be hoped Owens telegraphs back before another seven years have passed.

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Eternal Tapestry, Noveller, Slowdive

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EUAN ANDREWSS

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TESSERACT Odyssey/Scala

Century Media (2015)

A live album coming out after only two studio records and one EP always makes you wonder about the timing for such a release. Nevertheless, Britain’s TesseracT went forward with the release of Odyssey, recorded in the UK, France, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Russia with the help of returning vocalist Daniel Tompkins. The band sounds highly proficient performing their selected cuts from Altered State, One and the Concealing Fate EP, presenting them in an exquisite and flamboyant display of technicality allied with an undeniably passionate delivery. However, even if the performances in Odyssey can be considered top notch, they are a little bit too close to their studio recordings without any great deviations or noteworthy live moments to make this record truly unique among their discography. Good for fans and completionists.

LUÍS ALVES

FOR FANS OF:

Monuments, Periphery, Intervals

THISQUIETARMY Anthems For Catharsis

TREMBLING BELLS The Sovereign Self Tin Angel Records (2015)

20 releases in 10 years, and we’re not talking about some grindcore band releasing splits with every band they’ve played live with. This time, it’s as if on one hand Eric Quach made an effort to strip his music down to the basics of gloomy ambient drone music, but, on the other the pounding percussion one can ear throughout the record doesn’t really want to hide itself in the mix, bringing up the genre pallet that has made them one of the most interesting projects in its field of expertise for the last few years. The said percussion may often drift onto industrial territory, except for track two, “Purgation / Purification”, where the black metal stance is pretty much undeniable. It’s not jaw dropping material, but still another very decent release from the Canadian musician.

At its core, folk music boils down to two things – sex and death - but with the soul-searching lysergism of the 70s, Britain took it in stranger and more fantastical directions, a journey which Alex Neilson’s ensemble sets out and expands upon. Lavinia Blackwall’s haunting moans and the quintessentially English melodicism of Neilson set the extremes through which The Sovereign Self vacillates, a swaying between tense ritual repetitions, splintered country and starbursts of kaleidoscopia that embodies the ingrained sensuality of Pentangle and the subtle violence of their forefathers. Though the blinding kraut beats of “Killing Time In London Fields” and the mournful “The Singing Blood” couldn’t be farther removed in sound, Trembling Bells have united such ranging threads in a heartfelt, witty and accomplished collection.

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TQA Records & Consouling Sounds (2015)

RICARDO ALMEIDA

Year Of No Light, Labirinto, Nadja

DAVE BOWES

The Pentagle, Meg Baird, Trees

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TWENTY ONE PILOTS Blurryface

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Multi-Love

THE VACCINES English Grafitti

Imagine one big bowl. OK? Now get the ingredients – hip hop, electronica, reggae, dub, alternative rock, and a little bit of punk rock vibe. Done? Now mix all of that together. That’s what you can expect from the new Twenty One Pilots record. The duo has once again done an amazing job, and offered an amazing album with a lot of different influences. And most importantly – it all makes perfect sense. The record sounds schizophrenic, but yet, totally natural. Chaotic but logical. Weird but comfortable. Like everyone of us. Like Blurryface. He’s one of us. He’s all of us, and each one of us. Everybody and nobody. This record needs to be heard.

These lyrics need to be read. Do it for yourself.

Multi-Love is the third album of the psychedelic pop multinational band and is, once again, a brave foray revivalist between sounds of the past and the pace of the future through a perfect combination. It’s danceable, harmonious and a melodic record with the usual musical madness clicks all present, awakening the most visceral reactions from the human musculature. Multi-Love introduces some tropical sounds that accentuate the beauty of the work without distorting the quality or ability to captivate.

Even when it’s calm, embraces us with meaning and purpose. We are able to love the entire album and perhaps the merit is the initial range that is in endless loop long. It is a clairvoyant and odd beauty.

How dare The Vaccines? They are unrecognizable. The third album of the London based band is a kind of revival and boosts an energy that seems totally unexpected but in a pleasant way. There is a severe fusion of styles and sounds of the past and present, where the synthesizer and electronica dominate the scene completely. The indie rock band is now strangely different and interesting. The goal, says the front man Justin Hayward-Young, is to define a music genre and this album to be now adored and hated in 10 years. Ironic, given the evocation of a bygone era that the album takes us. Sometimes nervous, sometimes tremendously ethereal, English Graffiti is more than a painting and may even be a brave tag in the 2015 music scene. Game chaging for them!

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FOR FANS OF:

Fueled By Ramen (2015)

ATO Records (2015)

MILJAN MILEKIC

All Time Low, Cobra Starship, The Maine

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NUNO TEIXEIRA

Lower Dens, Tame Impala, Panda Bear

Columbia (2015)

NUNO TEIXEIRA

The Strokes, Peace, Palma Violets

REVIEWS

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RADKEY

CHELSEA WOLFE

COUNTERPARTS

MYRKUR

Dark Black Makeup

Tragedy Will Find Us

Abyss

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WOLF ALICE My Love Is Cool

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Dirty Hit Records (2015)

London’s four-piece Wolf Alice have built quite a notoriety over these last three years. Once they released the first single “Fluffy”, an instant buzz was created around them and the more songs they released, the more people were talking about them and praising them. Totally understandable, really.

After releasing two EPs - Blush (2013) and Creature Songs (2014), there was nothing more to say but to wait to listen to the highly anticipated debut album.

Even though there were random questions about if the band would live up to the expectations, the truth is that My Love Is Cool is what everyone have been waiting for. It’s refreshing, vibrant, wild and diverse. Wolf Alice compile strong and astounding songs and there’s a bit of everything on this record, and that 90’s grunge label put on them is forgotten on this almost one-hour full-length. Their pop sensibilities are more vivid, but there’s still the heavy and loud riffs. Ellie Rowsell is an impressive and adorable singer, but she is restless and candid on her lyrics. The band make their debut on the electronic world in the powerful “Silk” and on the other hand Joel Amey sings passionately on the track “Swallowtail”.

My Love Is Cool is indeed a cool and brilliant record, the buzz is totally justified.

FOR FANS OF:

Honeyblood, The Vaccines, Palma Violets

ANDREIA ALVES

NORTHLANE

Node

TITUS ANDRONICUS

REFUSED

Freedom

HEALTH

The Most Lamentable Tragidy

Death Magic

HAPPY DIVING

OH, ROSE

So Bunted

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GAZELLE TWIN + ATILLLA Maus Hábitos, Porto

Words: Tiago Moreira // Pictures: Andreia Alves

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or some reason my mind always runs into Pharmakon’s direction when I think about Gazelle Twin. It’s not even the sonic side of it – to be honest that seems to be secondary with these two women in the sense that what I take from it is far more important and relevant that simple sounds, although I wouldn’t dare to discard its importance because that is, whether we like it or not, the first connection made – but more so the aesthetic, the extreme connections with the body and mind that more often than not pays its toll.

On that note Gazelle Twin’s performance at Maus Hábitos was an undeniable success by the simple fact of Elizabeth Bernholz’s ability of translating, and at times going as far as amplifying the hard dichotomy between the beautiful and utterly disturbing and the somewhat distressful atmosphere presented on her last album, Unfleshed. By wearing a blue hoodie and having her face with a pair of flesh covered tights, Bernholz doesn’t so much adds another dramatic element to the performance, but more so it makes sure that there’s not only space and freedom for everyone’s imagination, but also offers the opportunity of focusing on what’s really important.

If Unfleshed was an important mark not only on Bernholz’s career but also on modern music, then seeing Gazelle Twin live is the ultimate proof of its geniality, relevance, and the intriguing complexion.

Something also has to be said regarding the Portuguese opening act Atillla, the one-man project that served as a counterweight for Gazelle Twin’s music and performance. Not so much in touch with a palpable human side, Atillla is colder and practical in his approach. This time around without a drummer but successful on the task of representing the mixture between the heavy industrial sounds, dark ambiences, and electronics in a scathing way.

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Gazelle Twin www.facebook.com/MUSICandRIOTS.Magazine

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TORCHE + REDEMPTUS Musicbox, Lisbon

Words and Pictures: Ricardo Almeida

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orche’s refined riffs, heavy bass, contagious melodies and sexy grooves take us to a different place than most of the acts under the ‘sludge’ label. And that is fine. We all enjoy being kicked and punched and spit in the face at some filthy sludge show – seriously, that’s important sometimes. But most of us, no matter how much we might sympathize with a certain song, are not the characters in that music - and I guess even those like laugh and have a good time once in a while. Wearing our 50€ lumberjack shirts, we all enjoy cranking up “Dopesick” while sitting comfortably in our living rooms, drinking tea, instagraming our beards, wondering how life is hard and fucked up and all is negative.

I’m not judging. Well, actually I am. Sorry, that’s what people do. We’re all spectators in here, and we judge a lot. But I also know I might be among those I just talked about. No big deal.

Coming from Miami, where people drink stuff with umbrellas on, Torche totally earned the right to carry the flag of sludge rock. However, their live show is actually a mood booster, one that makes you leave the venue happier. The level of quality they’ve put into records like Meanderthal or Harmonicraf is only paralleled by their energetic performances and great mood.

One might push be a little to the depressive side most of the times and have little patient for music one can’t hang himself to, but that doesn’t mean one can’t enjoy and remember with great esteem watching bands like Metz, Oneida and now Torche play live. This is rock n’ roll celebration without all the tackiness of rock n’ roll celebration.

So why did I start this with a rant on a bunch of middle class hipsters dressing as lumberjacks from god knows where in the middle of the USA? I honestly don’t know. I guess we’re all peers in here (at least we’ll try to believe that), the pretentious hipster and the regular dude who wears white socks (and not because he is a Suicidal Tendencies’ fan), the tattooed covered hardcore freak and the guy who came straight from work, having no time to get out of his executive suit. Managing to break a kick drum in the very first few seconds of the show, Torche proved to be in great shape as they presented Restarter, with its brand new anthems like “No Servants” or the title track.

One last word for Redemptus: contrasting with the main act and fronted by one of the strongest vocals in the Portuguese underground, Redemptus injured our necks with their fine blend of dark hardcore influenced sludge. Keep an eye on these guys and their debut record, We All Die the Same.

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Caïna

CAÏNA

13th Note, Glasgow

Words: Dave Bowes // Pictures: Bruce Cowie

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Torche

hough the concept of the one-man black metal project is an oldie but a goodie, it does put some restrictions on the live experience, with the results often requiring either concessions or a complete re-envisioning of the concept. Caïna’s Andy Curtis-Brignell has circumvented the former with his recruitment of members of Voe and Esoteric Youth into the fold, but while there has been a certain rejigging of the band’s dynamic, it’s arguably for the better.

“I Am The Flail Of The Lord” proves a natural place to light the fuse, Lawrence Taylor grasping the groove by its blackened roots and tearing it to shreds, and if Caïna’s hardcore influences weren’t already evident, Taylor’s scathing, bloody-throated performance leaves little room for mistaking. Both the moments of chilling ambiance and their descent into

headlong fury are examples of early black metal at its most raw, showing the project’s progression while still managing to keep a tab on its origins.

“Vowbound” and “Applicant/Supplicant” are presented as sides of the same coin, the former a focused assault that hits in rapid strokes before delivering a colossal, sludgy beatdown while the latter instead swirls into swinging grooves and tense lulls that Curtis-Brignell pull off with impressive finesse. Even a cover of Marilyn Manson’s “Little Horn”, served up with the same fusion of malice and mania, retains that whiff of relatable misanthropia.

Caïna is still an odd beast, misshapen, unpredictable and as prone to sudden beauty as to violent whips of the tail, but it’s what makes the directness tonight so potent and, in a way, unexpected. The foursome create an air of ferocity, charging even moments of respite with violence, and Taylor’s unhinged presence and Curtis-Brignell’s laser-like focus are each as responsible for this effect as the other. Caïna have reached a new plateau of aggression, but it’s likely that this won’t be their last peak. musicandriotsmagazine.com

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RUSSIAN CIRCLES RCA Club, Lisbon

Words and Pictures: Ricardo Almeida

“I’d said to myself this was going be the last time I’d see Russian Circles live, but I guess I’ll keep coming to their every show in Portugal so I can say I’ve been to all of them.

They’re huge performers, it’s totally worth it” – a friend of mine said after the show. How many times have they played in Portugal? Six? I don’t know, but even after playing here so many times they still manage to sell out venues. That’s because the crowd already knows what a beast these guys are up on stage.

Russian Circles are not your regular soft post-rock act, and you won’t be hugging your girlfriend during their concert. They are loud and heavy, and they’re not here to make you think of rainbows and butterflies.

Their set is a massive avalanche, a driverless locomotive.

When seeing them play live one should expect lots and lots of smoke and, pretty much, only backlights (which makes photographing the show a pain in the ass, but that’s fine). It all adds up to the atmosphere, and one actually loses track of space and time during the performance.

If you listened to the amazing record Memorial, you might have an idea of how much these guys care about texture and density, right? Wait until you see the live show. Russian Circles live success is not only due their utter creativity, but also to their talent as instrumentalists. I mean, don’t expect tacky guitar shreds or drum solos. On the other hand, these guys, especially Brian Cook, the bass player, drift through unexplored territory and come up with fresh approaches to their instruments. Take a look at Brian’s spaceship of a pedal board plus gigantic synthesizer and you’ll get what I mean.

The set list revisited pretty much their entire career with ‘classics’ such as “Harper Louis” and the neckbreaker “Youngblood” lining along with “Deficit” and “1777” from the last album.

Once the show was finished and Toto’s “Africa” was playing, not one single person looked disappointed.

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AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR + MYLETS King Tut’s, Glasgow Words: Dave Bowes

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Russian Circles

ne man can move mountains, but another can create a dizzying swirl of sound that could be mistaken for Refused in a knife fight with Don Caballero. The latter man is Mylets, AKA Henry Kohen, and he spends his brief stage-time tonight constructing elaborate and forceful loops, teasing the audience with bristling melodies and caustic eruptions of distortion while retaining a playful and toe-tappingly immediate sheen. It’s a focused effort that leaves little room for mistakes, but the lasting impression is that of passion and youthful exuberance – the skill, and the occasional earworming gem, are just bonuses.

The ‘youthful’ part of the equation might not carry the same weight, but there’s no denying And So I Watch You From Afar’s enthusiasm as they careen from one colossal melange of riffs and fret-wrangling excursion to the next. It’s not just the effortless catchiness of needling opener “Run Home” or “Wasps”, each one greeted with a sea of well-timed chants and air-guitared attempts at matching Rory Friers and Niall Kennedy’s spiralling efforts, or the stupendous force that they inject into “A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way”, the steady, sweaty rumble of Chris Wee even prompting the odd crush of bodies on the diminutive dancefloor – it’s the momentum.

The Belfast lads are like a snowball set rolling from the crest of a mountain, slight at first but soon building up speed, power and the ability to consume anyone who stands before them. The complexity of their music, each song an exercise in accomplishment and splendour, proves little barrier to the band’s life-affirming physicality and after 80 minutes of dancing, bouncing and demented grins all round, band and crowd alike look thoroughly satiated. They might have a few years on their support, but you could never tell from looking at them.

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POISON IDEA Audio, Glasgow Words: Dave Bowes

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combination of weather and it being a Sunday night has conspired to make this longawaited return a trifle under-occupied, but it soon transpires that the extra floor space makes for some interesting benefits, like vast pits where mohawked punks can build up suitable momentum and stage divers can plummet to earth about 3 seconds after jumping. It’s a chaotic, sweaty and bloody-knuckled celebration and a more-thanwelcome return for Portland’s kings of punk rock.

To his credit, Jerry A. is about as unassuming a monarch as you can get, gifted with a biting wit between songs and only as violent as his cohorts when the machine roars into life once again. That’s still pretty violent, mind you, as they work through not only everything the crowd could want or ask for, but also plenty from this year’s Confuse & Conquer, an album with enough muscle to provoke the same frenzied reaction as “Alan’s On Fire” or “Plastic Bomb”.

There’s a whiff of necessary roughness to their performance, Jerry A’s snarls and bellicose belting out of many a disaffected Glasgow punk’s childhood soundtrack still packing the same urgency 30 years on, while the return of Eric Olson into the fold means a succession of fiery, innately memorable lead blasts alongside the jagged of Chris Carey’s basswork.

With an ear for melody and a hefty catalogue of gutter-trawling anthems, they make the most of a rapt crowd and a deceptively potent sound system to deliver an hour that would have been acceptable three decades ago and unequivocally ferocious tonight. Though the weeks that followed show that performances like these cost a heavy toll on the band, for those who dragged themselves out to them it was proof that you can’t keep a good punk down.

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KEN mode

KEN mode, CORTEZ, CONTRASTIC Klub 007, Prague

Words and Pictures: Arnaud Diener

Set in the basement of a university dormitory, the Klub007 is the perfect location to party hard between sweaty headbangers, drunkard student and wasted punks - during the weekends, though.

Even with an awesome line up as great as KEN mode and Cortez, not a lot of people showed up this Monday night. This didn’t prevent the two bands from crushing this club with monstrous badassery and an avalanche of pure awesomeness melted with cheese coated violence.

The openers as well did a good job warming up the enthusiastic crowd present that evening. A tech-death band sparkled with grind touch called Contrastic who proudly butchered our hears, in the right way of course.

Then the swiss trio Cortez jumped on the stage to teach us what “hard” means in their country. Post-hardcore at its finest with frantic drumming, heavy riffing and profound singing. A great journey during the whole set. The stage being quite small, the guitarist and the singer took a walk in the crowd bringing even more fun to the set. The Phoebus rised high this night, and the band is back on track for good. They announced a Russian tour in the coming month, so make sure to catch them in the land of bear wrestling.

To conclude the evening, Ken mode came to wreck what was left from the stage with madness and loudness. Some of the songs included a bass duo to bring some extra low riffs. The new songs from their upcoming album called Success (out on Season of Mist) are predicting some ultimate ass kicking for the month of June and its sunny days.

A special mention to Jesse Matthewson, the singer and guitarist who stuck his bass in the floor like an amp wired Excalibur.

LIVE!

Mono

MONO, HELEN MONEY Hard Club, Porto Words: Tiago Moreira // Pictures. Andreia Alves

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ard Club’s room two was yet again sold out for the Japanese masters Mono, just like two years ago when the band came to perform in the same room – this time to promote their amazing two latest albums, The Last Dawn and Rays of Darkness. With them it’s always different, a unique experience, and this time wasn’t any different. A Mono show is hardly a normal rock show. It’s not really about playing all these different songs in a given set. It’s about a stream of energy that you try to be in tune with, because if that happens then you find yourself in another dimension. In that sense there’s nothing much to add regarding their show. It was as magical and as out of ordinary as possible.

If with Mono there’s this possibility to access to the third eye, then with Helen Money, a.k.a. Alison Chesley, there’s the opportunity of feeling it in a physical, brutal way. It was really hard to avoid the jaw from dropping watching the violence that one person can bring all alone with a cello. Arriving Angels was one of the most impressive albums of 2013, but unfortunately it can’t translate all the magnificence of listening Chesley live.

Helen Money musicandriotsmagazine.com

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SHABAZZ PALACES GNRation, Braga

Words: Rui Correia // Picture: Joana Domingues

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ainy Friday in the holy land, was the perfect prelude to a blessed concert. Shabazz Palaces attended to GNRation (right in the heart of Braga), serving a generous new rap path.

A half-hour concert of this duo from Seattle would be probably enough to understand a little more of all the possibilities that their music can offer us, but it turned into two hours of faultless sonic psychedelia, which will serve to create a mystique around the group.

The harmony between Ishmael and Tendai is remarkable - from the careful introduction of features that fulfill their music to the choreography played without blinking -, that’s how they form their interaction with the public.

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A cohesive set that brought together more than two dozen themes were engaging the only two albums released to date - Black Up and Lese Majesty - serving to clarify one thing: the conceptual superiority of the new album. Songs such as “Motion Sickness” and “An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum” grow live with the introduction of the marimba instrument from which Tendai is a master.

These connections between ancient instruments and Ishmael’s diffused voice wrapped in technology, create a unique link from the present to the past of African culture. This is how the Shabazz Palaces performed and fired: challenging the audience to find itself in time and space.

If the public were Catholic, they would make Shabazz the new patron saints. Believing not be the case, we left the show at least with a more completed soul than when we entered.

LIVE!

Jakob

JAKOB

Shabazz Palaces

Audio, Glasgow Words: Dave Bowes // Pictures: Bruce Cowie

2009 was a very different time. That was when Jakob last made it to Glasgow, supporting Isis as they toured what would come to be their swansong, but now Isis’ name is anathema (admittedly, not exactly through any fault of theirs) and the New Zealander’s atmospheric instrumentalism has been pushed to the wayside by countless variations on a theme. Tonight, they set out to prove that even if many had moved on, their assertive beauty can remain touching and powerful, and they do so with the grace and awe-inspiring presence of an eclipse.

Better known for their dreamier moments, they throw an early spanner in the works when they open with Pneumonic, the guttural bass of Maurice Beckett an earth-shaking presence that leaves Jeff Boyle’s focused guitarwork in its dust. As they shift into Blind Them With Science, the trio begin to hit a stride which carries them through the evening’s most affecting moments. Boyle teases and coaxes waves of shimmering delicacy, not through restraint but with a gentle drawing of the bow, so that when release comes with each shuddering eruption, it is just that – release. It’s a far cry from mere quiet-loud dynamics and more the ebb and flow of an immense sonic wave.

Where they do show restraint, it’s in the most unexpected places. When Boyle hits his frenzies of sound and fury, he does so with immaculate control, Oran Mor’s lithe blasts executed with a tight grip on the reins and a keen eye on maintaining the trio’s complex dynamics, while Jason Johnston’s fleeting cross-kit skirmishes and thunderous bludgeons are equally spectacular and fluid. Times have certainly passed but, as last year’s Sines and tonight’s performance have highlighted, a unit as able to grasp the most minute metamorphoses of sound and feeling as Jakob will remain an irresistible, and unmissable, proposition. www.facebook.com/MUSICandRIOTS.Magazine

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CINEMA

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 10 DIRECTOR: George Miller WRITER: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris CAST: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, ZoĂŤ Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter AUSTRALIA/USA 2015

E

very few years there are milestones in action cinema that the next few action movies try to follow in their steps and emulate. 1981; Raiders Of The Lost Ark, 1988; Die Hard, 1991; Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1999; The Matrix, 2008; The Dark Knight. 2015 marks the next milestone in action cinema with George Miller's apocalyptic epic; Mad Max: Fury Road. This movie is everything I want an action movie to be.

It follows Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) joining forces with Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to get The Immortan's (Hugh Keays-Byrne) "breeding wives" to safety in a location where Furiosa calls "The Green Place" while The Immortan and his army of "Warboys" give chase along the vast desert wasteland of Australia.

First off, the action was incredible, all practical effects, real vehicles being destroyed with very little CGI and visible stunt doubles for Hardy and Theron etc. While the action is almost non-stop, as to be expected from a Mad Max movie, the plot with Theron's character had a surprising amount of depth and feeling to it.

The cast are all great, especially Hugh Keays-Byrne who plays one of the best movie antagonists in recent memory. Byrne also played the main antagonist in the original 1979 Mad Max but he's unrecognisable in his skull mask, arm or, grotesque make-up and is an terrific piece of casting. Tom Hardy is excellent as Max. Max Rockatansky has always been one of my favourite movie characters and in my opinion, Hardy has already overtaken Mel Gibson's portrayal. Hardy's Max lives up to his "mad" moniker more than Gibson. He hears voices, suffers from hallucinations and incoherently mumbles to himself on occasions which gives the character a slightly dark comedic touch which also gives him a large, memorable screen presence. Also, his voice isn't really Australian anymore, but more of a quiet, deep, gravelly whisper which makes his very few lines much more "cool" to hear.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a visual masterpiece, the best of the series, the best four-quel ever made and the best action movie I've seen in the last two decades.

Go see it... Now. JOE DOYLE

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WHILE WE’RE YOUNG

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DIRECTOR: Noah Baumbach WRITER: Noah Baumbach CAST: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Driver, Maria Dizzia, Adam Horovitz, Matthew Maher, Peter Yarrow, Charles Grodin, Dree Hemingway, Matthew Shear, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Annie Baker, James Saito USA 2014

After the amazing Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach is back with another truly original modern comedy. While We’re Young is fierce and sharp, this is a movie that can challenge the viewer in every single way, from the ageing issue to the same old preconceptions feelings that when you’re forty you should live your life according to your age. From the childless mid forties couple - Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts - to their boring couple of friends with children, from their boring ass routine to their new and free spirited younger friends - Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. A clash of generations that brings all the best ingredients that we have seen in all previous Noah Baumback movies.

While We’re Young is wise and funny, intellectually different, it’s an indie satirical comedy, quite similar to Woody Allen’s way of portraying relationships and overall society.

FAUSTO CASAIS

SOAKED IN BLEACH

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DIRECTOR: Benjamin Statler WRITER: Donnie Eichar, Richard Middleton, Benjamin Statler CAST: Ryan Aigner, Pat Asanti, Brett Ball, John Ball, Ben Berg, Tor Brown, Tyler Bryan, Aaron Burckhard, Carol E. Chaski, Kale Clauson, David Daskal, Jeff Denton, Vincent Di Maio USA 2015 Was it really suicide? Soaked in Bleach doesn’t give an answer because it’s well aware that for that it would be needed more investigation and access to more information, but it gives facts and statements by people who followed the case. Tom Grant, the private investigator hired by Courtney Love, gives facts (recorded conversations) that show a bunch of incoherencies and lies, but we are also presented with the opportunity to listen to some testimonials – an investigator/journalist, Rosemary Carroll (attorney and Frances Bean’s godmother), a forensic pathologist, the former chief of Seattle P.D., etc. This is a controversial film because it seeks the truth. Threats to theaters and blatant sabotage of ratings (IMDB) are some of the reactions. It’s extremely difficult for one to not be suspicious of the facts presented by the police and the media.

TIAGO MOREIRA

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CINEMA

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH DIRECTOR: James Kent WRITER: Vera Brittain (book), Juliette Towhidi CAST: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton,

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DANNY COLLINS

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DIRECTOR: Dan Fogelman WRITER: Dan Fogelman CAST: Al Pacino,

Colin Morgan, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Joanna Scanlan, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Redford, Anna Chancellor UK 2014

Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, Nick Offerman, Melissa Benoist, Josh Peck, Bobby Cannavale, Christopher Plummer, Aarti Mann, Katarina Cas, Anne McDaniels, Eric Lange USA 2015

Based on a memoir by Vera Brittain, Testament Of Youth portrays Brittain’s testimony of the First World War. It follows her journey before, during and after the war. It could be another film about how impetuous and horrible that time was, but this one goes beyond that and it’s especially thanks to the mighty and outstanding performance by Alicia Vikander, who plays Vera Brittain. It’s impressive how everything looks so extremely emotional and also hopeful as we see the young Vera falling in love, losing that love to the war and overcome all of her despair and sorrow with a brave and strong attitude. Vikander is really the reason this film is so deep and invigorating, besides the UK’s beautiful landscapes.

It’s about time to see a good movie with Al Pacino on it, not that all the movies he entered lately are bad, but are so damn forgetable. Al Pacino stars and shines as aging 70s rocker Danny Collins, who can’t give up his hard-living rock n´roll style. But everything changes when his manager - the always great Christopher Plummer - uncovers a 40 year-old undelivered letter written to him by John Lennon. After that he decides to change his course of life, in a journey to rediscover his ignored family, finding something more than just love with Mary Sinclair - the challenging character portrayed by the lovely Annette Bening. Danny Collins is corny, but also funny and moving without being bot cliché cheesy or boring.

FAUSTO CASAIS

ANDREIA ALVES

REVIEWED NEXT ISSUE

JURASSIC WORLD

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DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow WRITER: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, Judy Greer USA/CHINA 2015

Let’s go back to 1993 when Jurassic Park was released. It was undoubtedly a remarkable time of film history thanks to the great Steven Spielberg who created this mesmerizing world.

When we think of that film, a nostalgic feeling overcomes us for sure. Putting a bit aside the other Jurassic Park films that came after, Jurassic World is a follow-up to the events that happened twenty-two years after. The Isla Nublar is now a dinosaur theme park called Jurassic World. Everything seems all happy and successful, until their stupid ambition to create a new attraction to the park becomes a deadly intelligent dinosaur. With a bit of laughter, screaming and running from dinos, Jurassic World is an adventurous and amusing journey.

ANDREIA ALVES

DARK PLACES

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

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TERMINATOR GENISYS

Directed by Alan Taylor EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE

Directed by Wim Wenders TED 2

Directed by Seth MacFarlane ANT MAN

Directed by Peyton Reed

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