Westworld - Issue 3 - Nov. 2010

november 2010

003

– FREE –

Exploring Arts, Culture, Music, Film within Bristol.

westworld Including – Wilder interview Andy Tokyo Bake Designs Strummerville In:Motion Fred Blunt Centre for Performing Arts Featured Artist – Joshua Saunders

Joshua Saunders Joshua is a third year Graphics student, with a keen interest to draw, make books, take photographs, collect old records. buy new records, make lists and cross things off. He runs two nights in Bristol with a group of friends & local producers, Nebula & Ninetree, which he worked on the branding of as well as playing at them.

Since being at university he has tried to work on as many different projects as he can, developing his skills as a designer & working on building a Professional portfolio. In the future, Joshua is looking forward to collaborating more with other local designers, especially in Bristol as he believes it is has strong roots in the creative industries of graphics & illustration. .

joshuajames123.blogspot.com

Submit Artwork westworldinfo@gmail.com

Publications Editor George Rowe

Submission deadline for December issue November 25th

Editors Sean Guest Alice Palmer Brown

Creative Directors & Design James Somerfield hello@jamessomerfield.co.uk Alex Green alexinleeds@gmail.com

Contact UWE Publications Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol, BS16 1QY www.westworldmagazine.net

Typeset Grotesque MT Std Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk & Warnock Pro

Andy Tokyo

Mixing Run DMC’s ‘Tricky’ into Mumford and Sons recent popular folk-chart crossover hit ‘Little Lion Man’ in the middle of a heaving club night should be all sorts of wrong, yet with a combination of the musical Midas touch and bare-faced cheek Andy Tokyo creates a happy genre-bending marriage of the two. Every few months for the last year Mr Tokyo has been releasing hour-long mix-tapes through his Facebook page and these have, in part, helped to establish his impressive 1000+ person strong cyber-following.

Even though Andy is relatively new to the indie DJ scene (he has only been DJ-ing for 2 and a half years) you wouldn’t know it thanks to his overwhelming talent and confidence. In an interesting take on conventional dj-ing methods he combines new and old techniques such as Ableton and CDJs to produce an exciting and eclectic mix of genres, ranging from indieelectro to hiphop, dub-step and even toying with some metal.

He also shows no fear of playing with some all-time classic songs. This aural experience leaves you caught between musical love and almost comical musical confusion but primarily results in you wanting to dance. I like to think of Andy as wriggling between musical genres like a worm in a really good itunes library.

Despite working full-time Andy moonlights as a DJ, playing nights three times a week for the self-proclaimed ‘UK’s biggest indie-night’ club-night monster Propaganda in cities such as Cardiff, Oxford, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, Belfast and, of course, Bristol. You can often find him dancing around on stage in unsuitable glasses, playing ‘hands to the heavens’ bangers at the O2 Academy’s club night Ramshackle on Friday nights. Andy attributes his career move into dj-ing to, initially, a distinct lack of good club nights in his hometown of WestonSuper-Mare and also wanting to prove to a stubborn friend that he could achieve a good reaction when he mixed rock and indie music. Judging by the crowd reactions all over the country, and the packed out venues, this point has now been soundly proven.

An Interview with

Wilder

By Hollie Brotherton

Although Bristol’s electro-indie sensations are currently travelling the country on their first nationwide tour, they were good enough to spare a couple of minutes to speak to Westworld. Hollie Brotherton asked the questions...

Many students choose to live in Bristol because of the diverse culture, did the city's music scene influence you as a band?

Yes. You can find any type of music in Bristol, if you know where to look. The good stuff is usually hiding in some back alley.

Would you compare yourselves to any other local artists?

Not really. There are a lot of good bands in Bristol, but nothing that sounds like us. It’s a city that’s known for its electronic music, which gives us a lot of freedom to create something new.

The Mystery Jets released their third album earlier this year after being re-signed to the same independent record label, Rough Trade. Their new sound proved

popular with fans, do you feel the label, and all its history, influenced your sound at all?

Collectively it’s our favourite label, so yes. The bands that they've signed over the years are a big influence to us, in many ways.

Last year you supported Julian Casablancas on tour. How was it and how did it feel to receive national recognition?

That whole tour was insane. It was all about the crowds, they were huge.

Did you play any festivals this summer? Where had the best atmosphere? Where did you receive the best reception?

We did a few festivals this year. The best was Reading. The atmosphere, the crowd, everything was amazing. The energy

on stage was electric and we came off buzzing.

Which artists inspired you to form the band?

Telsa. He invented the alternating current.

Can we look forward to any local gigs in the near future?

We are preparing a house party in Bristol. It’ll take place in a secret location during November, so keep your eyes peeled and focused on our Facebook group.

Find us on : www.myspace.com/wearewilder

Bake Designs is an independent streetwear brand based out of Bristol, I started the brand in October last year and it’s grown pretty nicely in that time.

I’ve always had a pretty keen interest in streetwear, trainer culture and the scene that surrounds it. I’d wanted to do some tees for about 5 years and just never had the money or minerals to actually take the plunge. When I did have the money I decided to just take a punt on it and see how it went.

Bake Designs The man behind brand Benjamin Haskings

From there it’s just sort of progressed naturally, and I’m now releasing my third line of tees. The designs themselves take inspiration from all over the place really; a couple are heavily and quite obviously influenced by Barbara Kruger’s work. But the majority of the designs are very basic and clean, and I think this is mostly down to the fact that there are a thousand companies out there doing pretty decent illustrated tees. The market’s saturated and doesn’t need any more illustrated tees.

I wanted to use the experiences I’ve had in graphic design to create really clean and simple concepts that might not be breaking the boundaries of design, but are a little different to most of what’s on the market already. Plus if I can sneak in a bit humour here and there it doesn’t hurt.

From the start I have always wanted the growth of the brand to be as organic as possible. I don’t want to be a pusher, and constantly force my products down people’s throats, and that’s

not to say I don’t work hard on getting the name out there. But I want people to discover the brand for themselves as much as possible. I’ve had a few lucky breaks like Annie Mac wearing one of the tees during her set at Creamfields festival this year, and some pretty good write ups online (The Daily Street, FatKidOnFire).

The brand will continue to grow and I plan to move on to different items of clothing in the future, so the brand is constantly growing, and is never allowed to become stale.

The new tees will be available through both the Bake Designs BigCartel (www.bakedesigns.bigcartel.com) and Donuts on Perry Road in Bristol.

We intent to live forever

Strummerville

By David Reed

The Strummerville tour bus recently came to town, bringing a bunch of new bands to one of Bristol's most beloved music venues, The Croft.

The line up consisted of south east London vagabonds and tour headliners Rum Shebeen, who brought the house down with their unique sound, a blend of ska, garage rock and tropical music. Also on the bill were raucous mod punks The Supernovas and the rugged voiced, gleefully inebriated troubadour, Beans on Toast. Once the bands had played, the gig goers were also treated to a very special guest appearance from the prolific film-maker and punk veteran Don Letts, who DJ'd a set of old and new school dub reggae.

The Joe Strummer New Music Foundation was set up shortly after the iconic front man of The Clash sadly passed away in 2002. Its mission is to carry on Joe Strummer's legacy by supporting up and coming artists who are influenced by Strummer's vision, DIY ethic and punk mentality. ‘We're a music charity and we give opportunities to people through music’ Strummerville's charity director Trish Whelan explained.

‘We give bands bursaries to go and record demos, we've got rehearsal rooms in London, Belfast, Milan, we're building a music room in an orphanage in Malawi, we support Jail Guitar Doors the Billy Bragg incentive for providing guitars in prisons for people who are rehabilitating through music and we just funded the setting up of the Rinse FM academy in London’.

So how would a Bristol based band get involved? ‘Just check out our website (www.strummerville.com), we've got a huge DIY platform’.

After The Supernovas play a well received set, I get chatting to them about their affiliation with Strummerville and how it all began. ‘We used be based in a pub called Nambucca which is on Holloway road in north London, and tragically, it burnt down,’ explains the band's front man Joei, ‘even more tragically it had all our equipment in there ‘cause we used to rehearse there, and even more tragically than that it had our bass player Panashe's bedroom in it because he'd moved in the week before. So Strummerville gave us the money to buy it all back and after that we started doing gigs with them’.

So you're going all over the UK on this tour, is it hard for new London bands to get exposure outside London? ‘When you're in a band kind of starting out the best gigs you can do outside your home base is supporting bigger bands, like we supported Babyshambles for a couple of gigs last December and it was wicked, but that don't exactly mean if we go back to Manchester we're gonna fucking pack it out. But with this tour, Strummerville essentially is the headliner do you know what I mean? Us, Rum Shebeen and Beans on Toast are flying the flag

for Strummerville. People trust the name Strummerville’.

The night comes to a close, Don Letts spins his last tune and the whole Strummerville crew is in high spirit. The Rum Shebeen boys are digging Bristol's welcoming atmosphere.

‘When we got to the venue there was someone cooking for us. It was wicked, chilli con carne. You don't get that when you play a gig in London,’ the band's lead singer Dave Ashby points out. ‘But the one thing about Bristol is – there's only one 24 hour off license isn't there?” Yeah, it's just down the road. ‘Well that's all right then’.

‘They sell that cider called Blackout don't they? Last time we were here we made a gang called The Blackout,’ recalls lead guitarist Matt. ‘We'd drink as much Blackout as we could and then spin around and see where we ended up,’ Dave informs me. ‘We ended up in halls of residence, our keyboard player James slept in a shopping trolley.’

So what's the vibe on the Strummerville tour bus, you guys are going to have a party right? ‘Yeah I had a little snooze this afternoon because it's gonna be a big night tonight, its Bristol innit.’

In:Motion

INTERVIEW WITH TOM BACON, PROMOTER What’s your background? What were you up to before IN:MOTION? Back in the early days of the venue, I was an external promoter running a number of club events around the city. After my partner in crime discovered the space and persuaded me to come and do a party here I was hooked. Back then things were very different, the space was unpolished, but we could all still see the potential and fell in love with the place. I was then brought on board to do freelance work here, helping the club make the transition from hosting the odd party to consistently running some of the best and most exciting events in the UK. How did IN:MOTION come together and when did this project start?

The idea came together a while ago when we were looking at ways to raise the bar and push Motion to the next level. We took the city’s two top promoters and brought them on board to help out, the rest is history.

What response have you had from the Bristol public?

There has been a lot of buzz around the nights, is this filtering through to you guys running the show?

The buzz has been amazing, and yeah it is filtering through to us. Our inboxes are flooded, our website is getting more hits than we ever expected and our office phone is ringing 24/7. It’s not just buzzing in Bristol either, we’ve got emails coming in from as far as the USA. How does the music scene differ in Bristol to other cities around the U.K? Bristol has always had its own thing going on. It’s a city that, on a musical level, punches well above its weight - other cities

of similar size fall way short in terms of their music scenes.

Bristol has been crucial in the breaking of many new genres and acts, trip-hop, DnB and dubstep have all flourished here and that does set the tone a bit, but truth-be-told it’s a very diverse place and most genres do well here if they are done right.

What direction do you see Bristol music going over the next few years?

Some may say the ‘dub’ scene is dying away so what’s next?

The nature of electronic music is that things move very quickly, a song that’s huge one week is old news the next and it’s a similar trend in genres. If you stay still you’re actually moving backwards; this applies to the whole spectrum of the industry, from producer, to DJ, to record label to nightclub.

Things will always move and they will move quickly, we may be able to predict the next year or so but further than that is anyone’s guess. New genres are popping up all the time and old genres are coming back in fashion, the term “Bass-music” is getting branded around a lot and I think this summarizes a lot of new exciting music pretty well. Bristol has always been a stronghold for the edgier, bassier forms of music, I think the fusion between this and more classic, housier sounds will probably be a big trend, check out Julio Bashmore’s stuff: he’s one to watch at the moment.

How are you contributing to this directional change?

The team we have are very good at spotting new talent and we will always push these artists, it doesn’t matter what genre they play. If they are talented and they play good music then we will try our hardest to have them perform here. This means that without making a conscious decision to push a

new genre we will inevitably push that genre by pushing the musicians that are at its forefront.

You mentioned a team of you behind this project, are some of the individuals purely investors or do you all get a say on what’s playing etc?

No one is purely an investor, everybody has their own field of expertise and so everybody has a say. It’s a close-knit team and we all work really well together.

With so much competition in Bristol for ‘underground’ music what’s going to set you out from the rest?

I think it’s a combination of the music policy and the nature of the space that keep us nice and different to the other clubs.

We’re very lucky in that we hold the keys to one of the most unique venues in the country. We put everything back into the space and constantly change things around to keep things exciting. Musically we’re not afraid to try things that most other clubs and promoters would look at and say no to, simply because of the fear of losing money. We don’t seem to get put off by those risks, I’m not sure if it’s stupidity or blind faith that keeps us going.

What is the future for IN:MOTION , post Christmas, next year? Is this a long term plan or see where it takes you sort of vibe?

The In:Motion series culminates on December the 11th but Motion will continue to operate as normal, hosting a range of events throughout the year. We have some big names & promoters making their debut at the club in 2011, keep up to date on the website.

Our inboxes are flooded, our website is getting more hits than we ever expected and our office phone is ringing 24/7. It’s not just buzzing in Bristol either, we’ve got emails coming in from as far as the USA.

Joyest IN:MOTION REVIEW

By Alex Green

Saturday saw some of the biggest names in electronic music flock to the Wild West to celebrate in the tradition of Halloween, which is now all of a sudden a massive deal. Anyone else notice this (topic for another day)? Anyhow… names included Detroit’s finest Seth Troxler, Berlin’s Martyn and our very own Joy Orbison. In:MOTION has been flourishing under the new format and this night did not let the name down, cementing itself in my eyes as an annual event that should definitely continue (similar to the Warehouse project in Manc). Donning the traditional one can of Red Stripe, I meeked my away around the ever busy Motion nightclub. Trying to be all professional, I thought I’d treat the night as work and do a full review on every aspect of the smorgasbord of activities on offer. The pure excitement generated at each performance, however, left me uncontrollably and ecstatically jiving to some of the best sounds I have heard in a while.

Mr Seth Troxler generated a lot of excitement that night, and rightly so as the guy has been on a crazy production tip and touring all areas of the globe in the last year or so. His unusual ‘early’ headline slot 12-2 demanded an early presence, and he brought a superb range of different sounds, stretching from the melancholy to outrageous bangers amalgamated together with eerie thumping bass…. Sound confusing? Well, it was really; it was rock, disco, techno, folk and funk all together for our listening pleasure. Sexy spooky maybe?

Don’t be scared off by this, it really did seem appropriate at the

time and it made for a worth wile 2 hours. Listen to one of his mixes on Soundcloud and you will get a better idea of where I’m coming from, or get hold of his Boogybytes Vol. 5 (a compilation mix album).

everyone back with his iconic dark dub tech sound. I think it was Martyn’s cross-genre mixing as opposed to others genre defying remixing that made it the pinnacle of the night; well for me anyways.

Next on the bill one of 2009’s biggest DJ’s Joy Orbison, who landed on the electronic radar with Hyph Mngo way back in the summer of 09. I say ‘way back’ because modern music today is moving at an absolute canter and it takes more than just a tune every few months to stay top of the pile of an ever crowded list of music producers. Sound like a rant? Probably is… but I’m more targeting the insane schedules DJ’s have to fulfil once they have any tune played out by Annie Mac or bloody Zane Lowe, so much so that finding time for them to sit down and create another whizzer seems almost impossible. This is something that is most definitely reflected in the sets DJ’s are putting across at the moment; it’s easy to please a crowd full of pissed up students (no offence to myself), yet Mr Orbison managed to put across some new ideas and at the same time walking the tight rope of ideological modern dub step / dub tech (whatever you want to call it). Oh, and with maybe half the set played by Julio Bashmore it did seem bit of a copout.

On a whole the diversity of what was on offer was the overall winner that night, and that was down to the great selection made by the In:Motion team. I hope this is something that will continue long into the Bristol music scene. If you haven’t been down to one of the nights, go now. Right now.

Last on the list was Martyn, and as fans know he has a unique and devilish way of combining dubstep with techno. Martyn cruised through his set, ably mixing genres into a coherent whole. He started off with quite a bit of garage, before pining

Illustrator

Fred Blunt

hits Bristol museum

By Luca Furio

On Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th October the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery welcomed children's book illustrator Fred Blunt to its studio.

Centre for Performing Arts: Season Preview

The Big Draw 2010, which has been running since October 9th, concluded with a creative and family-friendly session from the well known UK based illustrator who graduated from UWE in 1996 after taking an illustration course.

Fred stated that the event titled a ‘sprawling group draw’ was successful and that he enjoyed the experience. He believes that ‘the successful turnout of 3000 parents with children created a very positive atmosphere and allowed the kids to really get involved’.

Fred explained how the events free-for-all style encouraged the children to ‘observe something they liked from the museum and add it to a larger piece; for example one child would draw a lion whilst another drew something chasing it’.

This allowed them to think creatively and enjoy the art on offer in the museum and gallery.

Blunt’s success in publishing, greetings, animation and design has allowed him to return to Bristol as not just a UWE graduate, but an extremely well known figure in the city’s artist scope.

It’s curtain up for a dazzling new season of music, theatre and dance as Julia Phillips explains...

CD of jazz favourites – great for auntie's Christmas present while orchestral players flock to Glenside for some fine tuning.

There is so much more to car park one than two-plus parking.

You might not have noticed it but in the top corner near S Block are two rhomboid shaped green buildings – landmarks of the Centre for Performing Arts. It is here that the talented musicians, dancers and actors of the university get together not only during the day but late into the evening to pool their respective talents.

If you have an ear for close harmony, the Barbershop has healthy membership of mixed barbershoppers, the Gospel choir sing a cappella on a Wednesday lunchtime while chamber choir runs on Thursday lunchtime for those discerning musicians who can read music. That’s not all – the saxophone group come together on a Tuesday evening, woodwind on a Wednesday afternoon and instrumental lessons of all varieties are held weekly.

For the body-conscious the Dance Society can put you through your paces in a variety of styles. Not only jazz, contemporary and ballet but also the slick manoeuvres of Strictly's ballroom and latin and the upbeat popping and gliding of Hip Hop. Whether it’s to learn a new step or for general fitness, all are welcome from beginners to advanced.

Finally the CPA, in collaboration with the Drama department – a strong foothold of any performing arts institution - are this year performing 3 plays from Chekhov and Beckett to Pots

by John Reid. These productions are open to anyone in the university and will no doubt unearth some new talent.

Whatever your inclination, from African drumming or Big Band to street dance, barbershop, soul singing, orchestra and musical theatre, there is something for all and this year the numbers are up and still rising.

Being involved in the CPA not only means discovering a hidden talent but performing in some major off-campus venues – from Berkeley Castle, Bristol Cathedral and the Colston Hall to Fiesta Havana, the Redgrave Theatre and jazz bars in and around the city. Furthermore the Barbershop ‘Four in the Bar’ recently filmed with the BBC and CPA staff put on their Louis, Simon and Amanda hats to judge a final of Mecca’s Got Talent!

For many students joining the CPA is a social opportunity where people get together with friends to form a musical group, brush the dust off an old instrument or re-discover their voice.

This year there are some new activities starting up and for the first time ever wannabe pop stars rocked into the CPA in Glee-like fashion to become part of the new Sound of Soul choir. Lecture theatre 2B025 reported large numbers at UWE singers for the first of a 10 week burst of Italian choral music and hopeful auditionees turned up to the first meeting of the Madness musical ‘Our House’.

Old timers like Showstoppers, now featuring on Frenchay, Glenside and Bower Ashton campuses, has also swelled in its ranks coming together this term to sing West Side Story, My Fairy Lady and Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. Big Band is as big as ever and has even recorded its own 13 track

It’s all go in the CPA offices with phones ringing, paperwork flying and computers fizzling with indigestion. However there is anticipation for an exciting new season ahead with details of all forthcoming events outlined in the CPA events diary.

For those interested in finding out more about the CPA go to the university website www.uwe.ac.uk/cpa and register your interest using the on-line form.