Alt-J – and so she thinks

Birthday with Latitude

admin — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:10:00 +0000

Latitude Festival marks its tenth birthday this year, and is throwing its usual Suffolk party with an extra bang. The line up was announced yesterday, with Years & Years, Alt-J, Wild Beasts, Noel Gallagher and Django Django all hitting the music stages, along with the variety of literature, art, comedy and cabaret performances that will spread across Henham Park over the weekend of 16th-19th July.
Natasha Haddad, music programmer, probably explains the vibe best. ‘Music, arts and emotions go hand-in-hand and we’re so lucky to have an audience whose appetite for these covers such a broad spectrum; from the hands-in-the-air euphoria of Jon Hopkins, Caribou and Kiasmos to united sing-alongs during Noel Gallagher, Manic Street Preachers and Laura Marling, Latitude will also embrace the celestial moments of Portishead, James Blake and Sun Kill Moon.’
This year’s theme is ‘For Richer, For Poorer, For Better, For Worse’ – but as things stand the weekend will be rich and better one for certain.

Lovepark – How Do I See/Shudder

admin — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:37:53 +0000

Released July 2nd

Out this week is How Do I See/Shudder, the amazing self release debut AA-single from Love Park. The Brighton based band have worked with Charlie Andrew (Alt-J) and Sean Woodlock to produce a gorgeous stealthy tracks that build up as they beguile, and for songs of a relatively low slow pace are startlingly arresting. Subtly mesmeric in its stance, the grove led beats charge on, to create this flawless summer jam single.
Limited to a run of 500 hand numbered purple 7” vinyls, Lovepark’s the band will be celebrating the launch at a party hosted by Jen Long/Simply Rad at the Queen of Hoxton on Wed 4th July – tonight! Head on down…

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The Great Escape 2012 – Festival Special!

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:40:40 +0000

It’s that time of year again, when It’s All Happening, along with thousands of music fans, hundreds of bands and a good percentage of the music industry head down to sunny Brighton, for The Great Escape. I could wax lyrical about it, but I will just let our special edition zine do the talking…
In it you’ll find our opinion on the following 57 bands, as well as where and when they are playing, to help you plan your weekend around maximum musical pleasure …Cut Ribbons, Deaf Club, Among Brothers, Alabama Shakes, Dry The River, Common Tongues, Mujeres, Me And The Bees, Ninette & The Goldfish, Seward, Amics del Bos, Oso Leone, The Suicide of Western C ulture, Furguson, The Robbie Boyd Band, Wet Nuns, Sonic Boom Six, Swim Deep, Yukon Blonde, Bos Angeles, Toy, Alt J, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets, Chew Lips, Dakota Beats, The Front Bottoms, Shabazz Palaces, Pikachunes, Tripple Nipples, BOY, Emily & The Woods, Rae Morris, Slow Down Molasses, Tall Ships, Fanzine, The Switch, Worship, Concrete Knives, Mammal Club, Saint Saviour, Spring Offensive, Gunning For Tamar, Clock Opera, Hymns, Dems, Munich, Escaoists, Team Me, The Joy Formidable, Warpaint, Katzenjammer, Rachel Sermanni, The Manic Shine, Hatcham Social, The Temper Trap & Jack Savoretti.
As well as the IAH team (Dan, John, Greta, Caroline, Michael, Katie and Francesca) the lovely Jen Long (BBC Radio 1), Chris Foster (Pop Noodle), Jordan Thomas (Recharged Radio), Ellie Coden – (Fierce Panda), and Steven Boniface (Labelled Independent) have all written guest articles – thanks guys!

Open publication – Free publishing – More bands

The next twelve months

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:12:51 +0000

So now we know that it’s not the end of the world, what’s coming up in 2012? This is the stuff we’re already getting excited about.

Daughter – We were lucky enough to see Elena Tonra (aka Daughter) play at the beautiful St Giles in the Fields church in London just before Christmas and she absolutely blew us away. We’d been meaning to catch her for months, but events always conspired, but nothing could have prepared us for one of our gig highlights of the year. On some levels she will be pigeonholed as another ‘girl with a guitar’, but there is much more to her music. We’ve seen it described as ‘dream-folk’ and ‘ghostly’, which isn’t too far wide of the mark, with the kind of subtle soundscapes that the XX do so well adding depth to her music. If we’re honest she had us hooked after one listen of Landfill, but live she really is something special. With a date at Islington Assembly Hall already in the diary for April and many more around the country, we really hope 2012 is her year.
Listen to and buy both her EPs here.
Lucy Rose – Really excited to hear the full album from Lucy Rose. Having done the backing vocal rounds with Bombay Bicycle Club, this year is definitely her time to shine as an artist in her own right. With a voice to melt the heart and some beautifully crafted songs she’s sure to do well this year. Expect a BBC member or 2 on backing as well.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adBPg8Zdp2g]
Alt J – We wrote this on seeing them live a couple of months back… ‘The last couple of years haven’t been short on intelligent, earnest ‘indie’ music, but where say Wild Beasts skirt the fine line of irritating pretentiousness, Alt – J seem more accessible in their own abstractness and imagery, but no less intelligent or intriguing in their performance and sound. On this showing, they’ll certainly be heading for the upper ends of the ‘ones to watch’ lists for 2012.’ – we’ll stand by that…
Social Network here–
Breezeblocks (demo) by alt-J
The Maccabees
Ascending and descending through the depths of all emotions, the title track from latest album Given To The Wild is a departure, brimming with wavering soft ambience, but the gritty guazey guitars, stop start rhythms and dashing assault of psychological similes that made The Maccabees one of our favourite bands remains. ‘We’ve grown up as people and changed as a band,’ guitarist Felix White said recently. ‘We’ve learned for the first time what we really wanted The Maccabees to sound like on record. It’s taken us three albums but we finally achieved that. We’ve discovered what we’re truly capable of and that feels really exciting.’ Sounds it.
Blood Red Shoes

Their Facebook bio may describe them as just ‘another fucking roll’n’roll band’ but we know different. Scuzzy riffs, rip em up guitar work and a blistering pace, Blood Red Shoes consistently deliver behemoths of tunes, and the follow up to Fire Like This and Box Of Secrets won’t be any different. Besides, since when has being a rock’n’roll band been bad? Some narrow minded twit called David A Noebel stated on his spoken word album The Marxist Minstrels back in 1974 that rock’n’roll ‘music is loud, primitive, insistent, strongly rhythmic and releases in an undisguised way the all-too tenuously controlled, newly acquired physical impulses of the teenager. Mix this up with the phenomenon of mass hypnosis, contagious hysteria and the blissful feeling of being mixed-up in an all-embracing, orgiastic experience, and every kid can become ‘Lord of the Flies’ or the Beatles.’ Sounds bloody brilliant doesn’t it?

Ten bands you must hear this year (with handy links so you can start right now)

Fanzine
Low by Fanzine
Lanterns On The Lake
Lanterns on the Lake ‘Lungs Quicken’
Grimes
Grimes – Skin
Soldiers Can’t Dance
Soldiers Can’t Dance – Lego by soldierscantdance
Spring Offensive
A Stutter and A Start by springoffensive
Rachel Sermanni
The Fog by Rachel Sermanni
Young British Artists
Young British Artists – Everything In Front Of You
Ideals
Significant Other by Ideals
The Wave Pictures
The Wave Pictures – Sweetheart
Gross Magic
Gross Magic – Yesterdays

We Are Augustines + Alt-J @ The Social, 8th November 2011

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:31:53 +0000

Last time that we went to see Alt-J (or ∆) it was in the Victoria in Dalston, rammed to the rafters with Shoreditch types, toilets of doom and a 30 minute wait at the bar which meant we couldn’t get back into the room to see the band play. Happy days. Tonight couldn’t be any further from that. Down in the tiny basement of the Social apparently it’s 1 in 1 out upstairs, but safely rooted in front of the stage and in relative spaciousness, it certainly doesn’t feel like it. If anything it’s the band themselves who are feeling the squeeze, with the four of them plus gear on the tiny stage, drummer Thom Green’s pretty much playing in the gents at the back. Not that they let this hinder them.
After the opening number, it’s the acapella vocal harmonies between lead singer Joe Newman and keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton that leave the room hushed with expectancy, before the chords of doom that open Tessellate crash down to dispel the silence. Newman’s voice sounding soulful and forlorn as he sings about love, sex and triangles being his favourite shape…obviously. There doesn’t seem to be a rulebook for Alt-J, if it sounds interesting it seems to go in. Xylophones, castanets and tom toms are all used at various points throughout the set to add to the layers of sound. Throughout, Newman’s voice and delivery is unique, not falsetto, but sometimes heading that way and there are nods to the guitar sounds of Radiohead in their playing. Hand-made is a beautiful track which floats along with its folk roots and vocal harmonies. Flood of Blood starts minimally enough, with Newman’s vocal weaving around the swirling guitar line, before building again with Unger-Hamilton’s falsetto backing adding weight to the xylophone melody and tribal drums. With its dense bassline, jabs of la la las and Newman sounding like a bluesman from the 50s, Breezeblocks is a frenetic and triumphant end to the set. With it’s repeated line of “Please don’t go…I love you so”, it perfectly sums up how we’re feeling as the song builds to a vocal joust between Newman and Unger-Hamilton. The last couple of years haven’t been short on intelligent, earnest ‘indie’ music, but where say Wild Beasts skirt the fine line of irritating pretentiousness, Alt – J seem more accessible in their own abstractness and imagery, but no less intelligent or intriguing in their performance and sound. On this showing, they’ll certainly be heading for the upper ends of the ‘ones to watch’ lists for 2012.
With the suicide of lead singer and guitarist Billy McCarthy’s brother and being formed out of the remnants of their previous band’s implosion, you could be forgiven for thinking that a We Are Augustines set could be, well… slightly downbeat. Throw in the fact that this was the last date following a tour with overrated Scottish miserabalists, Glasvegas, and there’s our preconceptions nailed. However, We Are Augustines couldn’t be any further from the whine of their previous touring partners if they tried. With just the 3 of them on stage – McCarthy on Guitar and vocals, Eric Sanderson alternating between bass and keys and Rob Allen on Drums – they create an intense, grandiose American rock sound that, whilst full of a sense of loss and reminiscing in the storytelling, they play with a real energy and positivity that leaches into the crowd.
It always seems lazy to heap the Springsteen influence tag onto American bands, especially a band from the East coast, but it’s hard not to hear the Boss’ influence throughout their set. They’ve been likened to the Gaslight Anthem and The Hold Steady in that way, but We Are Augustines are certainly no copycat revivalists. Headlong into the Abyss builds and builds, the drums pummelling while the chorus is pure Sam’s Town era Killers. McCarthy throws himself around the stage, bouncing off the wall while Sanderson stands beside him beaming, singing along to every word even when not needed to provide backing vocals. Current single, Book of James sees McCarthy channelling the sound of David Byrne whilst Chapel Song is given a freedom live that isn’t so much seen on their record. It’s simple, repeated guitar riff sucks you in, whilst McCarthy, sweating and looking like he’s reliving every word that he spits out, leaves you exhausted yet entranced with the imagery of torn photographs and blue skies. With one song to go it seems destined for the rousing finish, but just as the band are ramping it up McCarthy’s amp can’t take the onslaught any longer, leaving him to sing the final half a song with just the bass and drums for accompaniment. The crowd want more, but time restraints won’t allow it. It’s not the way they or we imagined it to end, which is a shame, as standing there watching them leave the stage you’re left with the impression that they’d have been pretty good at a big ending. If you’re heading to the XFM Winter Wonderland gig in December definitely get their early to check these guys out…you won’t be disappointed.