delphic – AmeliasMagazine

Amelia’s Magazine | Festival Preview: The Great Escape

The Great Escape Festival is like a British version of SXSW. It’s the one festival where you’re guaranteed to stumble across the next big thing, see catch some already big bands in relatively small venues and generally have a good time.

I went to the first ever Great Escape when I was 18 and immediately fell in love with the block party idea of venue hopping with one wristband. The festival has grown since those days, and now you’ll need a plan of attack if you want to make the most of TGE. It’s less easy to venue hop these days, simply because it’s become that much more popular, but with a little planning and pre-thought you can still see the acts you want to.

The great thing about festivals of this nature is that there’s no main stage – you don’t have to sit through a set if you don’t like the band that’s on. You can head to the next venue and see what else is happening. TGE is at its best when you take a chance on a band you’ve not heard before. The first time I saw Friendly Fires was at the 2008 Great Escape.

The line-up this year is probably the best so far. Groove Armada, Chase and Status, Broken Social Scene, Delphic, Wild Beasts, Angus & Julia Stone and These New Puritans are at the top of the bill. There’s also plenty of up-and-coming acts that will be playing too, including Is Tropical, Everything Everything, Frankie & the Heartstrings, Chew Lips and White Rabbits.

Whichever venue you choose to check out, there’s someone pretty exciting playing each day. That leads to plenty of clashes that are sure to divide the festival-going masses.

TGE is an industry event too; a delegate’s pass lets you push to the front of the queue for venues, and you get access to the interesting seminars that run throughout the day. There’s a long list of speakers, ranging from people who work at record labels to music journalists, PRs and other media insiders. At £150 a delegate’s pass is still cheaper than the majority of British festivals, but a massive hike up on the £55 standard venue-only pass.

This year there is a bigger range of TGE tickets available than ever before: you can buy individual day tickets; a ticket for Friday and Saturday; a priority pass which lets you skip the queues or a single gig entry ticket.

I’ll be heading down next week for the launch party on Wednesday and running around Brighton for the full three days making sure I can report back to the Amelia’s site with a strong list of bands who wowed at this year’s TGE, and some tips for the bands to watch over the next few months.

Written by Laura Nineham on Tuesday May 11th, 2010 5:36 pm

Categories ,Angus & Julia Stone, ,broken social scene, ,Chase and Status, ,Chew Lips, ,delphic, ,everything everything, ,festival, ,Frankie & the Heartstrings, ,Groove Armada, ,Is Tropical, ,sxsw, ,The Great Escape Festival, ,These New Puritans, ,White Rabbits, ,Wild Beasts

Amelia’s Magazine | Kitsune 8 – An Album Review

We live in a haphazard world, ailment where one minute we can all feel like grotesque, all-consuming fat cats with an incredibly strong pound to suddenly joining the back of the JSA queue, lying to them about how many job interviews you’ve actually been to. There is a sprinkling of certainties in life that we can rely on however. For example, come daylight savings rollback when we are plunged into mid-afternoon darkness we know we are destined for up to six months of generally feeling a bit less enthused about our lives, especially when the Christmas decorations start to attack our high streets. Another is, when the latest compilation by Parisian cool label, Kitsune lands in your inbox – because let’s face it, we can’t rely on Royal Mail, so we may as well go digital – you know that you have yourself a ready-made electro-infused indie disco. Not of the ilk that plays Ash’s Girl From Mars on repeat either, the kind of soiree filled to the warehouse rafters with really stylish and beautiful people.

The French success story of a label has already discovered far too many ipod staples and festival headliners to mention here. Now on it’s eighth compilation, the chic and nice issue, Amelia’s Magazine would like to toast their brilliance. It’s almost like the release is named after us – chic and nice!

Like associations with Moshi Moshi or Ed Banger, the Kitsune seal of approval is big news. If you are in a band, when a sketch of your face plasters one of their record sleeves, you know your stock is on the rise. They possess the skill to bring songs that you had resigned to the mainstream, back into a respectable feature on your playlist. Think the red haired one. Think Phoenix. The French label makes chart tracks cool again and discover obscure myspace fodder that you simply haven’t got the time or patience for, then give it that fairy dust magic they do best.

With chic and nice, Kitsune unearth a fair few goodies I’d previously been ignoring as yet another new band of the day. Such as The Drums, which quite frankly, I’d decided was twee drivel, but a few spins in the Kitsune context, and you know what? I like it!

The fabulously wailing track by Chew Lips has been given a helping hand to the dance floor by Franz Ferdinand’s, Alex Kapranos. It’s nice to know he’s good for something in their “hit” hiatus.

A glorious track by Two Doors Cinema Club, who we chatted to yesterday, has its melodic vocals and soaring guitars messed with (in a good way) by the remixing talents of Moulinex. These chaps feature alongside fellow chic and nice entrants, Delphic, on a tour trying to encapsulate all that is good about the Kitsune brand with a live setting.

You’re not too late to catch the indie disco train, the tour lands in London this Saturday, stopping at Bristol, Nottingham and Birmingham along its tracks. Although, We’re not sure this hyperbole of a party can actually be achieved. No one actually has that many attractive and cool friends do they? Best get a copy of Kitsune 8 and let the indie disco come to you. You’re guaranteed a good time.

Check out the promo accompanying the package, it is well worth an ogle:

Amelia’s Magazine invites you to make your own dressing battle film and send it to us in a SAE. Although, given the aforementioned postal issue, you probably better off sending via email. Come to think of it, you may want to hold off until the summer months, when it’ll be warmer and you have your motivation back.

This compilation hits the digital (and other) shelves November 30th.

Written by Katie Weatherall on Wednesday October 28th, 2009 6:07 pm

Categories ,album, ,Chew Lips, ,delphic, ,kitsuné, ,La Roux, ,london, ,paris, ,phoenix, ,the drums, ,Two Door Cinema Club

Amelia’s Magazine | Two Gallants @ Koko

It’s the end of the show already and the stage is dripping in red light. From where I’m standing, the perspiration in the room looks like blood. Two Gallants have just been on for over an hour, so the perspiration on the walls feels like blood too.

They have wrecked this place. Their blues, rock, folk, punk, loud, quiet, angry, sad mayhem has blown the place to smithereens. Adam Stephens‘ voice is cracked, rasped and broken. His heart is heavy, his songs are long, his words are laced with the worn down dejection of a hard life. The mouth organ can barely hold up for the rust and rot.

Tyson Vogel bashes his drums like he’s making up for a past deed. He has no crash cymbal, just high hat and ride. He provides the drama, the beard, and the mystery. There’s just the two of them. Named after a James Joyce short story, as you know, they are literate. They tell tales: “I shot my wife today/Hid her body in the ‘frisco bay”. That’s a tough gig. They repent: “If you got a throat/I got a knife”.

But they’re not depressing. They’re painting a picture, writing a novel, making you think. Amidst the almost White Stripe-y rock-outs and the down beat Americana they’re doing rustic graffiti on the side of an old wooden cabin. They’re drinking whisky and opening their heart to a best friend because things haven’t worked out how they planned and they don’t know what to do about it. And they do it every single song.

Long Summer Day is as controversial and opinion-splitting as ever, the Gallants belting out Moses Platt’s lyrics as if they were their own: “And the summer day make a white man lazy/He sits on his porch killing time/But the summer day make a nigger feel crazy/Might make me do something out of line.” It raises an eyebrow, provokes, and stretches boundaries. But as reckless and offensive as some might see it, that, compadres, is what it’s all about.

Written by Tom Howard on Monday November 19th, 2007 4:04 pm

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