asstfeature – and so she thinks

Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus // 2013 best of

admin — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 11:49:00 +0000

Best of 2013 by Jamie Malcolm – follow him @mylittleforts
Eagerly anticipated and didn’t disappoint. A throbbing behemoth of noise and euphoria all sloshed around making a cocktail with a multitude of explorable layers. The elation harnessed into a CD/MP3 is at times unfathomable.

Grizzly Bear live at Sydney Opera House

admin — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 00:25:40 +0000

January 5th 2014
After a 115-date touring cycle for acclaimed 2012 album Shields Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear could be forgiven for being a bit tired and laid back. But it’s Sydney’s Opera House, it’s the final date, and as a subsequent interview with The Guardian suggests, they have no idea when they will be back, the future being a ‘question mark.’ Lanterns illuminate the stage, their arrival seeing the house so dark that only the glow of the laptop is apparent. Once folk to the core, they have moved to something darker and more complex, waves of discovery, despondency, edginess and shifting time all being explored in Shields and on stage tonight.
There a reason that this venue is iconic. Sound is superb, and suited to the carefully cultivated and rich, deep hues of music that Grizzly Bear create and craft. The crowd are more than appreciative, and as frontman Ed Droste quips, it feels wrong to have more than one or two beers and get shirtless and rowdy in such a space.
But it’s not just the venue. Tonight is about a talented, passionate and hardworking band. Why would you need to get tanked up and physical, when all the senses and synapses are fired up by the sound that fills the space around. Exalted and magnified, the body quivers and quakes, shards and slices of music direct and deep. Songs of crushing hopes and brooding dreams still have a gentle charm to them, enabled by the lazy lilt of the interplay between the five band members.
Still on stage and not particularly conversational, the music does the talking, and acoustics here let them shine. The set list includes Knife, On a Neck, On A Spit, Speak In Rounds and Lullabye, ending with an ambient acoustic version of All We Ask.
It’s magical, a night of celebration and a natural fitting end to a long slog for the boys. A dreamy start before a long and well deserved night’s sleep no doubt.
Photo credit: Ken Leanfore

Euan Lynn/Belafonte/XGETXREALX

admin — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 20:53:26 +0000

Six songs, three bands, the latest six track EP from Euan Lynn/Belafonte/XGETXREALX is both a reflection of the collaborative DIY scene that exists and a condemnation of the sky high costs around production of physical music that they must share it all. Thankfully it is an easy way to introduce three great bands. Frantic, speedy, and brimming with punk attitude Euan Lynn is like a one man Ramone, straight to the point in his minute long romps. Bellafonte (Joe Lowdon) deals in deep and delicate, a wholesome voice that seems to sound like a sweet being sucked and loved, songs of a more despondent nature than the straight down the line tone of Euan Lynn, complex and by default a little longer. And so project XGETXREALX sees the two come together, the yin and yang combine to form a loud and bold, in CAPITALs. The whole EP is available for free download, or a lovely limited edition cassette run of only 15.

The Khmer Revival of Rock ’n’ Roll: Indie Music in Cambodia

admin — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 06:53:00 +0000

The sounds of drums and rock guitar pierce the air, young voices roar above their buzzing audience: no, this is not a gig in London or New York. It is the sound of Cambodia’s rock revival. As Francesca Baker attests, Khmer music is undergoing a rebirth and emerging as more energetic and determined than ever before.

Cambodia was once home to one of the most advanced and vibrant music scenes in Asia: it was the sixties and there was a thrill in the air. Controversial though he was, ruler at the time Prince Norodom Sihanouk was passionate and liberal about arts, and welcomed western influences. The Vietnam War had played a huge role in introducing rock ‘n’ roll to South East Asia, with the American Special Forces Radio Network dominating the airways, and US Navy flying studios spreading the sound of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music across Cambodia. People may not have known much about the music, but they knew they liked it, and soon started to imitate it in their own Khmer style. Parallel Lines released a compilation of songs – Cambodian Rocks – compiled by an American tourist named Paul Wheeler from some cassettes he bought in Phnom Penh from a local taxi driver. What’s more, two documentaries have been produced about the pre-war scene: The Golden Voice, Greg Cahill’s thirty minute film on the most famous of the era’s female singers, Ros Sereysothea, and Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, a feature-length history of the scene from Los Angeles-based cinematographer John Pirozzi.
Read more at The Culture Trip.

Sonic Cathedral

admin — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:56:09 +0000

Much of the music I listen to would not reach me without the support of independent groups, individuals and organisations In the music business. I am always curious as to how these people tarted out in the music industry, or often found themselves in the said place. One of my favourite independent labels is Sonic Cathedral, a label that like many others has evolved and grown in different incarnations, every guise having the same core tenet at heart – music is visceral, vital, wonderful and to be enjoyed. Shoegaze to the core, celebratory in style, they are the current home of Young Husband, Happy Families and Dean Wareham. I caught up with the guys to learn more and have my curiosity abated…
First off, can you give me some background? When and how did Sonic Cathedral start?
It started as a club night and it was supposed to be a one-off. On October 23, 2004 I put on The Radio Dept at The Legion on Old Street and DJed loads of old shoegaze records, essentially for fun. The place was beyond rammed, people of all ages came along, some wearing dusted off old Slowdive T-shirts that had been in the wardrobe since 1991; it was like all these people had finally got somewhere to go that reflected their love of this music. I felt I had to carry on doing nights and then, a couple years later, the label just came about as the logical next step and has since grown into what it is today. I hate to use the word organically, but it’s the most appropriate. There was no five-year plan. In fact there was no plan at all. One thing has led to another and now I’ve released records for two of the artists I respect and admire more than anyone – Neil Halstead and Dean Wareham. I feel proud and extremely fortunate. (Then I remember I’m still skint!)
And more importantly, why?
See above, really. I started it for fun, essentially; an excuse to dust off all my old 12″ singles that I still loved and played. But when all those people showed up it had to carry on, it was like a public service! The label has taken on a similar feel these days – it’s nice to work with artists like Neil and Dean and release their records with the love and attention to detail that they deserve.
What makes Sonic Cathedral different?
The fact that I don’t have an office or any interns?!
Do artists even need a label these days? What do you do?
Maybe some don’t, but I still think the role of a label is an important one. I do think it’s changed a bit over the years – whereas once it was telling artists what to do and imposing ideas on them, these days it’s more a question of guidance and working alongside bands to help them realise their vision. For example, with the Younghusband album, myself and the band worked really closely with Heretic (the design collective) who did all of the artwork. It’s not just about spending money, either. Especially if you don’t have any like me.
How do you choose a band? Is it sound, lyrics, the feeling you get, or their personalities?
I guess it’s a combination of all those things and more. You just know when the right thing comes along I only ever release records I genuinely love, and as I’m only answerable to myself there are not too many arguments.
How important is a wotk ethic for a band, or should they focus solely on creativity?
Work ethic is important, and it’s great to have a band who are keen and hungry and resourceful. But if a band is more focused on the creative side of things then that is fine too, and that’s where the role of the label comes in handy as in the question above.
As genres and fashions change, is there any type of music that you think defines Sonic Cathedral?
Well, the club night was a shoegaze night. That was the whole point of Sonic Cathedral. But I’ve always resisted releasing straight up shoegaze copies. I always like people to add something of their own. And although that was the starting point for everything, a lot of what I release isn’t shoegaze at all – i guess the label’s grown into more of a reflection of my personal tastes.
What advice would you give a band looking for a label? What about someone thinking of setting one up?
Think about who you approach, don’t just fire off an email to everyone from the Music Week directory, or to a 1000 people on SoundCloud. What’s the point of that? A bit of research will give you a good idea of which label(s) would be right for you. The personal touch goes a long way. Spamming people with random MP3s just leads to deletion. And for people thinking of setting up a label, I’d say ‘don’t do it!’ and then I’d quantify that with a reminder that it’s really hard work, so make sure you really want to do it and you genuinely love the records you’re putting out. It may seem fun to begin with, but if you’re sat there filling in great big sheets of metadata at 2am, it really helps if you strongly believe in the end product.
Who should we be keeping our eye on?
Younghusband will go on to big things – their live shows are getting better and better. I’m excited to see what happens with Happy Families, whose debut single I release over the summer, and I’m also working with some really exciting bands from Mexico (Lorelle Meets The Obsolete) and the US (The Vacant Lots), both of whom will be releasing albums and touring next year.

Red Kite – Dance With Crow

admin — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 20:33:55 +0000

As a fan of music and literature, and anything that unites the two, Red Kite‘s Dance With Crow was always going to pique my interest. The fact that is an exhilarating and thrilling tune, full of deep rushing guitars and vibrant menacing melodies only sustains the thrill. The album, written and produced over a dramatic two years, and obviously lyrically influenced by Ted Hughes, was was initially made available to fans via a Pledge campaign in April and reached 100% of its target within four days of going live. Those people who invested won’t be disappointed. Thrusting forward with driving drums, its a track that is compulsive and dizzyingly epic. Starting direct and sparse, the metronomic regular beat that underpins throughout is layered with soaring vocals, a guitar that at one point sounds as though it is being stretched and grated through an industrial washing machine, soft and delicate strumming, a whirring frazzle of intense chords, buzzing sinuous fretwork and sharp intense deviations of tempo and timbre. Glorious. Get it from Stolen Records.

Who is the artist? And does it even matter?

admin — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:03:07 +0000

The art vs the artist. Which matters? When it comes to biographies, background stories, and research into identities of artists, do we sometimes go too far? There’s an understandable yearning to gain deeper understanding and elucidation of a piece of art that has been part of your life, but actually does it matter who wrote Twelfth Night as long as it is good, or what Dickens had for breakfast as long as it fuelled his day. Who cares what someone got up to if their work was decent? Why do we care so much about not just the narrative of the text we are reading, but the life narrative of its author?
When asked, at this year’s Battle of Ideas, as to why he decided to write a biography, John Bridcut, biographer of a new book on Benjamin Britten was very clear that he wanted to understand the music, its creation, its depths, and found that the process of writing altered his understanding of the music. To truly understand art, he believes that it is essential to get inside the mind of an artist. But does knowing more about an artist lead to a fresh understanding of their art, or does it undermine it? Is it even relevant?
There can be no doubt in my mind that art cannot sit separately from an artist – if it is true art in the way that I identify it: emotional, imaginative and vital. Otherwise it is just a product, part of a manufactured chain. The urge to create and be artistic should come from an experience or mindset, rather than just being a job. As both a conscious and unconscious process, art comes from the messes and vagaries of life and experiences. And if the art is purely a product or result of a job, then the life and background of its creator is unlikely to be of interest to the public anyway to warrant any kind of analysis or research like that of a biography. There is an exciting dialogue between art and the creator and their lives, just like there is with all individuals, and work contains things and themes that are inextricable to the creator. Artists therefore shouldn’t expect people to just take their work at face value. Whilst an author’s work transcends their biography and we shouldn’t reduce a work to the author’s sex and class and age, knowing how they lived can be incredibly illuminating and enrich the experience.
Learning about an artist is a sign of respect and appreciation for the art. It’s rare that an urge to want to know about an artist’s life happens first. As Gerry Feehily, author and writer, says, you fall in love with an artist and so want to know more about them. It’s essentially being a fan. The problem is when work ‘becomes a metatext for their life – it destroys the creative process.’ Understanding of an artist and their life can elucidate and radiate, but it can also destroy. Without wishing to go too far down the path of relativism, we start to smear art with its creation, judging in in a different way, depending on the context. It is important to preserve autonomy of text, as well as understand it and appreciate it.
Of course, the result is not always one of greater appreciation. It can undermine the work. One of the reasons that this idea of biography or art history has become more controversial in recent years is the way that it reveal things about our idols that make us uncomfortable. Whether it is the aforementioned Britten’s relationships with young boys or Wagner’s anti-Semitic sensibilities, we judge past eras with the morality and prejudices of our own time, and this colours the work. Sometimes we don’t want to know what someone has done, not because of what it says about them, but because of what our response may say about us. The question of whether we can enjoy work by a loathsome human being and continue to listen to or read it, whilst being debated eloquently and at length, has been best responded to on a forum, where one person said ‘If you feel that your continued appreciation of their work may beget harm to others, then you’re morally and ethically free to boycott any and all of their work. If you’re absolutely obsessed with their work, but cannot tolerate them as individuals, then you could write them a strongly-worded letter.’
The fact is that however uncomfortable the things we learn about a composer or an artist or a novelist are, they are an important part of their work. Life is gritty and grim, and so why should artists be pure. However, the work is created, and set free. It was once part of the creator, and reflective of them, but finished and in the public domain it is for all to use, appreciate, interpret and above all enjoy, and no longer being shaped by the artist, although our appreciation and response to it can be shaped by our appreciation and response to that artist. But if you are someone who likes to know who, where, what and why, there is no doubt that digging into the history and context will reveal hundreds of threads, strands and associations between the artist and art. Some will be striking, some insignificant, some scary, some enlightening, but all will have played a part in the creation of the art you love.

Best Coast – Fade Away

admin — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 12:02:40 +0000

Fade Away, the new EP or mini album (what’s in a name?) from Best Coast is something of a belter. Out October 22nd on Bethany Cosentino’s new Jewel City label the gritty and cooing vocals, rampant chords and trademark muted drums rollick along as they play tales of bittersweet experience and amorous angst. As always from the duo (Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno),, it’s a heart on the sleeve affair, with titles such as Fear of My Identity and Who Have I Become and lyrics like ‘Telling lies like it’s a big surprise / Now it’s time to say /Baby, goodbye’ on Telling Lies and ‘My heart is open like a door / But I don’t trust you like before / I don’t know who I am this year’ on Baby I’m Crying. Known for their summery effervescent vibes, this has a more autumnal and grown up chill to it, evoking russet leaves and a clear sky. It’s excellent, and you can listen below.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/12046555″ width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Shopping – In Other Words

admin — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:42:21 +0000

Bouncy guitar sketches, snake-hipped sonics, grooving rhymes and poly rhythmic twitching guitars. Shopping are what you call a supergroup and make something of super sounds. In Other Words bounces with nineties grooves, punky passion and a sound not dissimilar to The Young Knives and all who went before them, and the 7” single sold out in just ten days. So the dark Dalston four piece are releasing new album Consumer Complaints, a thrilling 13-track set of tunes, 4th November via Milk Records.

Sky Larkin: wave after wave of brilliance

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:55:09 +0000

Given that they are about to kick of their UK tour to support new album Motto, the one subject to rave reviews, 8/10 ratings and general buzz, Katie Harkin, founder, writer, singer and guitarist of Sky Larkin would be forgiven for feeling nervous or frantic, buzzing about the attention she is receiving and anxious as to how to perform to the level of the bar that has been set. As it is we are sat downstairs in The Lexington, munching chips, chatting away. Only after twenty minutes or so, when soundcheck is upon them, do we realise that there has been no question and answer situation, but a genuinely nice conversation. The gregarious and lovely Katie is chatty, happy, and quietly welcoming, saying thank you at any mere hint of praise, suggesting that not only are they one of the most exciting bands on the scene, but one of the nicest.
Today they have been playing an acoustic session for This is Fake DIY, something she describes as ‘odd for band like us, but nice.’ Loud and proud, their sound is not one that would immediately translate to acoustic, but she ‘enjoyed it. There is so much muscle memory to music, and you get used to physically playing live, so it is nice to strip it back to the song. I don’t want to be bound up in the athleticism of it all, and that isn’t why I play the way I play. Just because we can play really fast and loud now, but that doesn’t always mean that we should!’
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EycdIduOb70&w=560&h=315]
The way she plays is vibrant and vital, and the new songs have a rush of urgency that is immediate as well as intimate. It has always been this way, for both debut album The Golden Spike in 2009 and 2011 sophomore Kaleide, but the writing process for Motto accelerated the level of intensity and sound. Written whilst Katie was touring for twenty months with fellow Yorkshire band Wild Beasts, there was a need for immediacy and as she testifies, ‘there is nothing like a final boarding call or a limited few days back at home’ to force you to write.’
Whilst writing was done on the road, recording happened back in the band’s hometown of Leeds. The Leeds music scene is one that she rightly has a lot of pride in, the home leg of this tour at the legendary Brudenell Social Club being ‘the only place to be’ although confesses that she finds the hostessing element sometimes stressful. Just a day before they donated t shirts from their first album The Golden Spike to local record shops Jumbo and Crash. ‘We’re so lucky to have two independent music shops. There are cities that have massive universities that don’t have record shops. Can you believe that? Only HMVs.’
Sky Larkin’s place in the hierarchy of music is an odd one. They have been around for nearly five years, and are signed to mighty label Wichita, home of The Cribs, Los Campesinos, and Frankie & The Heartstrings, yet are still moderately small. Part of the reason for this is that although the band is ‘old’ they are ‘young.’ Right from the get go with debut single Fossil I they picked up attention from such a young age, being suddenly cast into the indie public eye right from the start, when Nestor was still at school and Kate had just started university. People shouldn’t put too much weight upon their age though. As Kate says, ‘we were just that age. We were lucky in many ways that we got attention so close to the start, it was right from the beginning. In the age of the internet everyone grows up in public, so people have always been aware of us.’

What it does mean though is that there is a clear evolving progression to their sound, and general consensus is that on Motto they have stepped up a gear with The Fly, NME and The Guardian all raving about them. Again, Kate believes this to be something that is pretty obvious. ‘Between the ages of like 17 and 24 you change a lot, and so our sound has also altered. We’ve become more mature so I guess that the sound has to. It’s not a conscious decision, but a natural evolution. Of course we have changed, so of course our sound has.’
As a label Wichita is a good place for them to be, and a great umbrella for the band, the support that comes from a mass indie label never dulling the vibrancy of the independent band. The label are sat at a table next to us drinking pints and eating burgers, all hanging out together. ‘There’s a huge deal of push and pull, we are always trying to create opportunities for each other, and we come to them with ideas and vice versa. There are no restrictions..’ In fact later on, when on stage, Katie thanks the label for responding to her text to ‘bring whisky to the stage please.’
Everywhere people have been commenting on the band’s time off, but whilst Nestor was finishing his degree and playing in Menace Beach, members changing (it was bassist Michael Matthews first gig tonight, and Nile Marr and Sam Pryor perform on the album) Katie had ‘never physically worked so hard in my life.’ Touring, learning new songs, writing the album, as well as ‘trying to be a good person to everyone at home’ takes its toll. This is the first hint that things have not been so rosy on a personal level. Losses and loves have clearly influenced the songs and the lyrics, and it wasn’t something that Katie spoke to people about until the release of Loom, her ‘fake out.’ Is the album an exorcism in some way then? ‘I can’t detach myself from what happened, and when I write I guess it all comes out, but the way they are written though means that people can read the lyrics and understand or they can take it as a pop song, the way it is.’
With a level of complexity and depth the new album reflects a game change and step up for the band, be that conscious or not. At tonight’s gig I am with three people who have never heard the band before. Each goes home and buys the album that evening. Like me they are enamored by Katie’s reticent beauty and banter, but also those immediate and captivating great pop songs, slow building gritty lyrics, and the band’s masterful stage vibrations. Sky Larkin, and Katie Harkin, have no reason to feel nervous or frantic – they have talent and tunes.