ian steadman

Amelia’s Magazine | Album Review: Peasant – Shady Retreat

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003_1Rick the punk poet does his thing

Being a wee bit literary, approved sale I have a penchant for poetry, visit this site so it was with some expectation and enthusiasm I went along to the Poetry Night at Coffee And Corks coffee shop in Canterbury last night.

This poetry night is a weekly affair, held every Tuesday evening, but last night’s was different, in that it was being held in conjunction with the Airplot initiative. What’s Airplot, I hear you all clamour? Well, it’s a project that’s been dreamt up by Greenpeace to help stop the building of the third runway at Heathrow Airport – put simply, the NGO and a group of celebrities have bought a plot of land that is slap-bang in the middle of the proposed runway site. Members of the public can buy a share in the plot and therefore become a ‘beneficiary owner’ of the land.

002_1Coffee And Corks: it doesn’t just do coffee, there’s alcohol too – now that’s the stuff

As such, the evening was kicked off with an introduction from Greenpeace’s John Hallyday. “Climate change is having – and will continue to have – a massive effect on our species and every other species on the planet,” he said. “If we allow the third runway to be built at Heathrow, the UK won’t meet its greenhouse gas targets set last year. Plus, 500 people’s homes will be demolished in the village of Sipson, which stands in the way of the proposed site.”

After giving a plug to Canterbury’s upcoming Climate Fair, John’s final words were borrowed from the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as he read a poem written by the latter while aboard a Greenpeace ship chasing whalers on the high seas. It’s fair to say it set a good vibe for the night to come. And it was immediately followed by the handing out of cards that those in attendance (poet participants, listeners or those just enjoying a coffee; all were welcome) could fill in for a prize – three hours’ free recording time at Canterbury’s West Track Studios. Not missing a trick (and why should they?), the organisers also ensured that by filling in a card and entering the raffle you also signed up to the Airplot campaign.

And so to the evening’s poetry itself. To say that there was great variety in what the poets – many regulars, some new – performed would be an understatement; to say that some of it was risqué and rather personal would be a vast understatement. However, I must admit, the vast majority of the poems impressed me, as did the pluck many of their authors had to stand up in front of people (some of whom, like I said, had only come in to sip a late latte) and deliver their thoughts, feelings, wit and wisdom through verse. I must give special mention to the middle-aged Adrian, whose ‘The Web Of Life’ was a lyrical, eco-friendly missive, and Rick, a self-proclaimed coffee-shop-culture-punk resplendent in a Mr Happy t-shirt, whose delivery owed much to the beat poets of old and whose entertainment value was only equalled by the title of his final poem, ‘Don’t Eat Dodgy Food In Foreign Countries’.

004_1

What a fine sentiment – especially in a coffee shop

All in all then, this was a great evening that hopefully drew attention to and created new converts to Airplot, as well as highlighting the good work of the Skillnet Group Community Interest Company in the Canterbury community, in conjunction with West Track Studios. I tip my hat – or rather my beat poet’s cap – then to the organisers, in particular Helen Long who it was that brought Greenpeace, West Track Studios and Skillnet all together on this chilly evening in a caffeine-fuelled fun-filled event.
003_1Rick the punk poet does his thing

Being a wee bit literary, drug I have a penchant for poetry, so it was with some expectation and enthusiasm I went along to the Poetry Night at Coffee And Corks coffee shop in Canterbury last night.

This poetry night is a weekly affair, held every Tuesday evening, but last night’s was different, in that it was being held in conjunction with the Airplot initiative. What’s Airplot, I hear you all clamour? Well, it’s a project that’s been dreamt up by Greenpeace to help stop the building of the third runway at Heathrow Airport – put simply, the NGO and a group of celebrities have bought a plot of land that is slap-bang in the middle of the proposed runway site. Members of the public can buy a share in the plot and therefore become a ‘beneficiary owner’ of the land.

002_1Coffee And Corks: it doesn’t just do coffee, there’s alcohol too – now that’s the stuff

As such, the evening was kicked off with an introduction from Greenpeace’s John Hallyday. “Climate change is having – and will continue to have – a massive effect on our species and every other species on the planet,” he said. “If we allow the third runway to be built at Heathrow, the UK won’t meet its greenhouse gas targets set last year. Plus, 500 people’s homes will be demolished in the village of Sipson, which stands in the way of the proposed site.”

After giving a plug to Canterbury’s upcoming Climate Fair, John’s final words were borrowed from the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as he read a poem written by the latter while aboard a Greenpeace ship chasing whalers on the high seas. It’s fair to say it set a good vibe for the night to come. And it was immediately followed by the handing out of cards that those in attendance (poet participants, listeners or those just enjoying a coffee; all were welcome) could fill in for a prize – three hours’ free recording time at Canterbury’s West Track Studios. Not missing a trick (and why should they?), the organisers also ensured that by filling in a card and entering the raffle you also signed up to the Airplot campaign.

And so to the evening’s poetry itself. To say that there was great variety in what the poets – many regulars, some new – performed would be an understatement; to say that some of it was risqué and rather personal would be a vast understatement. However, I must admit, the vast majority of the poems impressed me, as did the pluck many of their authors had to stand up in front of people (some of whom, like I said, had only come in to sip a late latte) and deliver their thoughts, feelings, wit and wisdom through verse. I must give special mention to the middle-aged Adrian, whose ‘The Web Of Life’ was a lyrical, eco-friendly missive, and Rick, a self-proclaimed coffee-shop-culture-punk resplendent in a Mr Happy t-shirt, whose delivery owed much to the beat poets of old and whose entertainment value was only equalled by the title of his final poem, ‘Don’t Eat Dodgy Food In Foreign Countries’.

004_1

What a fine sentiment – especially in a coffee shop

All in all then, this was a great evening that hopefully drew attention to and created new converts to Airplot, as well as highlighting the good work of the Skillnet Group Community Interest Company in the Canterbury community, in conjunction with West Track Studios. I tip my hat – or rather my beat poet’s cap – then to the organisers, in particular Helen Long who it was that brought Greenpeace, West Track Studios and Skillnet all together on this chilly evening in a caffeine-fuelled fun-filled event.
003_1Rick the punk poet does his thing

Being a wee bit literary, about it I have a penchant for poetry, buy so it was with some expectation and enthusiasm I went along to the Poetry Night at Coffee And Corks coffee shop in Canterbury last night.

This poetry night is a weekly affair, held every Tuesday evening, but last night’s was different, in that it was being held in conjunction with the Airplot initiative. What’s Airplot, I hear you all clamour? Well, it’s a project that’s been dreamt up by Greenpeace to help stop the building of the third runway at Heathrow Airport – put simply, the NGO and a group of celebrities have bought a plot of land that is slap-bang in the middle of the proposed runway site. Members of the public can buy a share in the plot and therefore become a ‘beneficiary owner’ of the land.

002_1Coffee And Corks: it doesn’t just do coffee, there’s alcohol too – now that’s the stuff

As such, the evening was kicked off with an introduction from Greenpeace’s John Hallyday. “Climate change is having – and will continue to have – a massive effect on our species and every other species on the planet,” he said. “If we allow the third runway to be built at Heathrow, the UK won’t meet its greenhouse gas targets set last year. Plus, 500 people’s homes will be demolished in the village of Sipson, which stands in the way of the proposed site.”

After giving a plug to Canterbury’s upcoming Climate Fair, John’s final words were borrowed from the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as he read a poem written by the latter while aboard a Greenpeace ship chasing whalers on the high seas. It’s fair to say it set a good vibe for the night to come. And it was immediately followed by the handing out of cards that those in attendance (poet participants, listeners or those just enjoying a coffee; all were welcome) could fill in for a prize – three hours’ free recording time at Canterbury’s West Track Studios. Not missing a trick (and why should they?), the organisers also ensured that by filling in a card and entering the raffle you also signed up to the Airplot campaign.

And so to the evening’s poetry itself. To say that there was great variety in what the poets – many regulars, some new – performed would be an understatement; to say that some of it was risqué and rather personal would be a vast understatement. However, I must admit, the vast majority of the poems impressed me, as did the pluck many of their authors had to stand up in front of people (some of whom, like I said, had only come in to sip a late latte) and deliver their thoughts, feelings, wit and wisdom through verse. I must give special mention to the middle-aged Adrian, whose ‘The Web Of Life’ was a lyrical, eco-friendly missive, and Rick, a self-proclaimed coffee-shop-culture-punk resplendent in a Mr Happy t-shirt, whose delivery owed much to the beat poets of old and whose entertainment value was only equalled by the title of his final poem, ‘Don’t Eat Dodgy Food In Foreign Countries’.

004_1

What a fine sentiment – especially in a coffee shop

All in all then, this was a great evening that hopefully drew attention to and created new converts to Airplot, as well as highlighting the good work of the Skillnet Group Community Interest Company in the Canterbury community, in conjunction with West Track Studios. I tip my hat – or rather my beat poet’s cap – then to the organisers, in particular Helen Long who it was that brought Greenpeace, West Track Studios and Skillnet all together on this chilly evening in a caffeine-fuelled fun-filled event.
Shady-Cover-Done

The second album by Damien DeRose, website like this aka acoustic act Peasant, there is one for the summer. It’s overwhelmingly (or should that be underwhelmingly?) gentle, a collection of stripped-down folk Americana that bears resemblance to the recordings of groups like Fleet Foxes and Megafaun, albeit on a much more intimate scale. Recorded in attics and in bedrooms, ‘Shady Retreat’ would be unremarkable if not for Peasant’s tin whisper of a voice bringing to mind the dust of cabins and the homeliness of a romanticised rural America – it doesn’t take long for postcard images of kids on tire swings down by the ol’ swimming hole to flash through the mind. There’s Ma, frying up some catfish for the young ‘uns. Pa’s whittlin’ a new spoon on the porch, etc. etc. The liner notes credit, “an old stone house from the 18th century,” that survives in downtown Doylestown, Pennsylvania as a major inspiration – like an old stone building these songs already sound almost timeless in style, a mix of jaunty piano and folk acoustic guitar that contains echo and disrepair in equal measure.

Within seconds of pressing play, you’ll get “Thinking”’s refrain fluttering out of the speakers, at odds to the piano that accompanies it. It’s a somewhat lacklustre declaration that, “we just can’t go on without thinking/maybe we’re wrong/I’ve been thinking” – this is as close to a statement of intent for the album as there is. This isn’t anything like the angst of someone like Bon Iver, or even a Ryan Adams, as it’s just far too restrained. It’s the kind of regret that comes with, roughly, six months of introspection about and dissection of (maybe more, maybe less) a failed relationship – emotionally muted, and now only slightly bitter. Example lyrics: “Keep up your looks/Got you as far as they could,” on “Pry”, or “Tell me that I look like I’m gone/when I’m around … Why you got to treat me this way?,” on perhaps the most upbeat song here, “Well Alright”. Peasant’s entire philosophy seems to be a shrug.

peasant grass

His delivery, though, is always, always kind. The lack of specifics, the reduction of the target of these songs to vague descriptives, keeps everything in the inoffensive realm of the folk ditty. His vocal style is laid back, withdrawn, intimate, willowy – the effect is as if he’s in the room down the hallway, just knocking out some tunes casually and carefully, but nothing ever stands out or intrudes upon the rest of life.

Therein lies the problem – whilst there are a few standout songs (“Well Alright”, “Tough”) on ‘Shady Retreat’, taken as a whole it’s more of an extended mood. It is the perfect soundtrack for, say, drifting downstream on a sweet, hazy summer afternoon (you can’t help but think that DeRose does exactly that whenever he gets the chance). These are the kinds of songs that pass the time around campfires, the kind that are a gentle strum in the background of a day spent relaxing in the shade of some oak. They are, to put it succinctly, lovely. However, that is part of their weakness, as ‘inoffensive’ can often be a synonym for ‘forgettable’, and there’s little here to justify heavy rotation. Whatever stream Peasant likes to float down, it’s not a particularly deep one – and that’s fine, for a while. He’s got to return to land sometime, and when he does I’ll be waiting to see what changes it brings.

Written by Ian Steadman on Thursday March 4th, 2010 1:56 pm

Categories ,album, ,americana, ,folk, ,ian steadman, ,peasant, ,shady retreat

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Amelia’s Magazine | Album Review – She & Him – Volume 2

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I suppose I should let Zooey Deschanel go by now. I was so young at the time, a mumbling, shy teenager with a crappy haircut (admittedly, the hair hasn’t improved much) when I first developed a bit of a pathetic fancy for those big blue eyes of hers – I can’t say my admiration of her looks hasn’t dimmed, admittedly (and somewhat shallowly), but I’ve grown wary of her acting ability. Being typecast is something some, if not most, actors attempt to avoid, yet Zooey thrives on playing what’s referred to in critical circles as the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ role – a bit kooky, a bit insane, and just a tad an absolute fiction of a person, one who exists in the minds of fevered male youth everywhere. Her purpose is to bring the lead male out of his emotional shell, to embrace life, to seize the day (and, presumably, to act as therapist and counsellor and tissue) – to be, in effect, a nothing of a person but a blank canvas who’s just waiting for a chance to listen to all the moaning and despairing and general torment of the soul that characterises the most privileged demographic group in history, the Young White Western Man of the 21st Century.

So – as her roles keep her locked up in a safe little box, a box that doesn’t allow too much range (even (500) Days of Summer, whilst specifically a film about how real life doesn’t conform to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype, was hardly a stretch), I’m in danger of losing sight of Zooey Deschanel, Actress. All I will have left is Zooey Deschanel, Attractive Celebrity. Being left with that would just be unfair to her as an individual, considering how lovely she is an all – though let’s not concentrate on how I know this, or how I met her, or how her height disappointed me, or how her strapless dress was perhaps a brave choice for the evening but she rocked it admirably – let’s leave that for now. OK? OK. What we’re talking about today is She & Him’s Volume 2, the second album from the musical collaboration between Zooey and folk singer-songwriter M. Ward. Their first, the aptly-titled Volume 1, was an excellent stab at breathing new air into 60s country-folk, and Volume 2 is a further step forward. What it also does is reaffirm, for little old neurotic me, that Zooey Deschanel is a very ably-talented singer and songwriter. Zooey Deschanel, Artist, if you will.

Halfway through first track ‘Thieves’ and the blueprints from Volume 1 are still there – gentle drumbeats, an electric guitar-line with a lovely country twang, and Zooey’s lilting voice that’s as sweet as a glass of freshly-squeezed fruit juice (I’m an orange man, myself, but other fruits such as banana or kiwi would be acceptable alternatives). It can feel a bit like well-trodden territory, but the compositions are just accomplished enough to avoid this (though, of course, one has to ask how long this formula – and it is a formula – can keep working).

M. Ward still stays mostly in the background, leaving the spotlight to his leading lady, except for a notable appearance on a cover of NRBQ’s ‘Ridin’ In My Car’, here reinterpreted as a duet. The other cover here, the Milton Kellem-penned standard ‘Gonna Get Along Without You Now’, also manages to be reinterpreted in such a way that’s not hugely different to the more memorable versions by singers like Skeeter Davis – things are shifted around only slightly to achieve that She & Him vibe. Zooey’s recurring lyrical theme here is of losing or dumping a man but being the happier for it, so the background hums and ahs on this cover totally fit between the ballad to Californian lovin’ that is ‘Home’ and the filled-with-longing ‘ba-da-da-dum’ chorus on ‘Me and You’.

‘In The Sun’, also a single, fizzes and bumps along thanks to Ward letting his guitar do a little bit more work than on Volume 1 – I think it can be safely said that he’s let himself show a little bit more here. Despite mentioning earlier that, yes, he’s still largely a background figure, the actual music that carries Zooey’s lyrics so delicately is still mostly his work, and there are some more flourishes, a few more touches of individual energy that come peeping through. He’s got a very distinctive husk of a voice, and it would be nice if he could show us a bit more, but, as it is, Zooey still does well on her own. You can hear the smile on her face when she sings, “why do I always want to sock it to you hard?” on ‘Over and Over Again’ – she plays the role of the strong-willed woman admirably, and these are most determinedly not laments. At its heart this album is about sassiness.

I suppose the main lesson to be learned from She & Him is that soft rock isn’t a terrible sin. Sure, it’s repetitive, but when the basic framework is so enchanting (especially on closer ‘If You Can’t Sleep’, which has a fair shout at being the most beautiful lullabies you’ll hear this year). There’s something comforting about familiarity, and here that comfort comes in spades.



Written by Ian Steadman on Monday April 12th, 2010 5:01 pm


Categories ,album, ,Country Rock, ,folk, ,ian steadman, ,In The Sun, ,Indie, ,Indie Folk, ,M. Ward, ,Milton Kellem, ,NRBQ, ,review, ,She & Him, ,She and Him, ,Skeeter Davis, ,Volume 1, ,Volume 2, ,Volume One, ,Volume Two, ,Zooey Deschanel

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Amelia’s Magazine | Festival Preview: Secret Garden Party

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secret garden party

Out of all the festivals that fill the calendar over the British summer, medical none are quite like the Secret Garden Party. Every year friends come back, page wide-eyed, stories tumbling from their mouths about the fantastical things that they have seen and experienced. Last year’s festival had a whole stage on a boat in the middle of the lake on site (above) – as the festival was brought to close on the final night the ship was fully exploded in a mad orgy of fiery violence. It sounds like it was brilliant. Every year they have things like this.

It’s a strange festival in that the attraction is not so much the lineup (good as it may be), or the site (beautiful though it is), but the other people who attend. The organisers explain it best:

“We provide the Garden and plant the seeds, but you nurture its life and allow it to blossom. It is your party – your creative participation allows the festival to rejuvenate & regenerate. Our number one rule is that the festival must facilitate your participation.”

Simple, eh? This means that there’s a very blurred line between performers and attendees, leading to a merry atmosphere that’s had people deliriously happy since 2004. It may not have the ‘big’ names that characterise the larger, more corporate festivals, but that’s not the point (and, as the four friends who run the festival say, “there’s something unsettling about relaxing in a field in the summer underneath a giant Pepsi logo”). This sharing, communal atmosphere is largely responsible for the festival’s grand reputation amongst the partying people of Britain.

There are still stages and tents and acts and headliners, of course. This year there will be performanes from artists as diverse as Mercury Rev, Fionn Regan, Eliza Doolittle, Mr Fogg, Marina & the Diamonds, and Crystal Fighters (but that’s just scratching the surface of the lineup). They’ll be appearing on the different stages and in the different tents across the site – wonderfully-named things, they are. There’s The Great Stage (aka the main stage), or the Wild Stage (bands play to the audience from a treehouse), or The Pagoda (a DJ arena, backed by a Peter Foster-designed pagoda), or The Feast of Fools (a medieval banquet experience underneath a huge, ancient oak), or… well, take your pick, there are 14 different locations to choose from, all of them suitably wacky and enticing.

This year’s theme (for there is always a theme) is ‘Fact or Fiction’. Again, in the festival’s own words:

“In 2010 The Secret Garden Party will be prizing open the chinks in man’s most carefully constructed edifice: Reality. The Garden will be exploring the illusions, visions, theories, fantasies, mysteries and legends that have created a rich world between Fact and Fiction.”

The idea is to come in a costume that’s stranger than fiction. Whether that is entirely logically possible is a moot point – it’s all about having as much of a party as possible by exploring the inventive ideas of the past, present, and future. Plus it’s a chance to dance in a field dressed like Bowie in Labyrinth. No?

Ah, Secret Garden Party. Between the hippie girls with flowers in their hair to the massive raves in the woods at night, there’s a lot of space to do your own thing. It’s a festival all about doing what you want to let yourself have a good time, and in the process get other people to enjoy themselves more through the power of community. It’s all very excellent.

Written by Ian Steadman on Tuesday May 4th, 2010 9:10 pm

Categories ,Bowie, ,Britain, ,crystal fighters, ,Eliza Doolittle, ,festival, ,Fionn Regan, ,ian steadman, ,Marina & the Diamonds, ,Mercury Rev, ,Mr Fogg, ,Secret Garden Party, ,summer

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Amelia’s Magazine | Petter & the Pix – Interview

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Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Petter & the Pix‘s second album, prostate Good As Gold, pilule an eclectic bundle of folk and rock that never sits still longer than one track at a time. I urge you to seek it out, and you can listen to the first single off the album (Never Never) here. Petter, lead singer and ringleader of the group, of sorts, is an Icelandic chap from something of a musical family – his brother, Pontus, is half of the successful pop songwriting duo Bloodshy & Avant (not sure which one), and Petter himself used to be in Iceland’s first big reggae band, Hjálmar, as well as in a few other acts making everything from house beats to jazz. The Pix is Petter’s band, consisting of Mike Svensson on piano, Andreas Gabrielsson on bass, Nils Törnqvist on drums, and Mattias Franzen and Klas Ericsson on guitars. I had a quick catch-up with him to ask about his songwriting process.

Hi, Petter. What is it that you’re trying to do with the Pix? As in, what are you aiming for?

To make music and let everyone that is involved feel as involved as we are. I see music as some sort of get together, and I don’t want to work with anyone unless I can trust them to do their very best. For me a very big part of making music is to find situations where you can create moments of trust, with both your fellow musicians and a possible audience.

How would you describe your sound?

I’d say it some sort of pop.

Your music is extremely varied in style and instrumentation – how much to do you draw upon your experience with genres other than just ‘indie’ in making music?

I don’t really know how to define indie or pop if you are referring to it as a certain style of music. There are so many different music styles that people call indie or pop. The expressions seem to change depending on the decade in which they’re used. I think that for musicians, every piece of music they participate in changes the way they think about making music. If the musical history of the members in a group is varied, the outcome will somehow be a reflection of this.

What’s it like working with such a talented range of musicians? How much do they help in achieving that semi-orchestral breadth of sound?

The musicians are everything that there is! If I would choose another constellation of musicians then I’m sure that it would sound very different, not necessarily bad, but different. The fact that we’re all old friends makes it easier to work together.

What else influences you in your work? Where do you draw your ideas from? The world around you, friends, things like that?

The fact that it’s possible to survive as a musician, and that I enjoy playing and recording music, of course, are definitely the reasons why it’s worth making the effort to finish a song. But I think that what actually triggers the ideas could be just about anything, most likely it’s a combo of different components that effects your emotional state and I believe that music is just a product of that process.

This is your second album – do you feel that you’re progressing as a band?

Yes, I think that this album sounds different from the first one, so that would be progress. We haven’t been touring with this band so we haven’t been able to evolve in terms of meeting an audience. But we’ve played together in different constellations for at least ten years so I think that gives us the comfort to play what we like, even if doesn’t happen that often.

Written by Ian Steadman on Thursday April 15th, 2010 4:41 pm

Categories ,Good As Gold, ,ian steadman, ,iceland, ,Indie, ,interview, ,Lykke Li, ,Múm, ,Never Never, ,Orchestral, ,Petter & the Pix, ,Petter Winnberg, ,rock

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Amelia’s Magazine | Hjaltalín – Interview

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Claire Roberts

The central premise of Silent City, treat the group comprised of artists Emily Whitebread, Cara Nahaul and Sally Mumby-Croft, whose first exhibition has just opened in Brick Lane, is intriguing. Their starting point was a reaction against what they perceived as the standard Climate Change exhibition. Cara explained the original thinking behind the group:

“We went to the RA’s ‘Earth: Art of a Changing World’, and we were completely disappointed. There were one or two standout pieces, for example Lemn Sissay’s performance video ‘What If?’, but on the whole it was a very shallow, one-dimensional show. It didn’t provoke us at all. We found the bright red neon globes and concrete flowers both obvious and pious. The worst thing though, was that it seemed almost entirely from a Western perspective. We’re the ones who caused this mess with our industrialisation, but the Global South is paying the highest price. Bangladesh will be submerged by our actions, but at that show countries that are actually directly affected by climate change didn’t even get a look in.”

They founded Silent City the next day. Their objective was to redress this balance by putting on exhibitions that would seek to present the full implications of Climate Change – especially what it would do to those nearer the equator.

I went along to Brick Lane to see if their exhibition could match her admirable words, and I was suitably impressed. A group show of around 20 artists of various backgrounds whose work all deals with the environment have joined the three founding artists, and the result is a pleasing mix between professionally polished ideas and the kind of activist idealism that was missing from Earth: Art of a Changing World.

Tutte Newall

The work, in various mediums from painting and film to dead insects, was of a very high standard. Highlights included Tutte Newall’s beautiful but disturbing paintings of monochrome animals who stand in pools of their own colour, Jools Johnson’s fascinating installations of dystopian cityscapes fashioned out of screws and random computer components, and Claire Robert’s presentation of dead bees, a commentary on the emergence of colony collapse disorder, which threatens bees worldwide, and therefore a third of the world’s food supply.

Jools Johnson

Works such as the documentary Drowning By Carbon, by Hazuan Hashim and Phil Maxwell, which featured Bangladeshi children planting the trees that they hoped would one day save them from the looming climate catastrophe, ensured that the original promise that the exhibition would deal with the Global South was kept.

But perhaps the best thing about Silent City was that it managed to put forward a view of Climate Change that was not obvious, in spite of the fact that as a topic it has been talked to death from every angle. Featured documentary Mauerpark, for example, focused on the proposed development of the famous Berlin park. At first glance, this seems more a social than an environmental issue, but after watching the film its relevance to the Climate debate became clear: At its heart the film was about the choice between the short term pursuit of growth and a space that was for everyone, whose benefits could appear more intangible and immeasurable. It became easy to view Mauerpark as microcosm of the natural world itself.

This outlook on climate Change that seemed fresh and different, coupled with art that was as well thought out and made as it was thought-provoking, made Silent City a big success. In fact it was so successful that the closing night film screening was such a scrum that people were camping out on the stairs, able to hear but not see the films. Silent City was apparently just the first of a planned series of exhibitions. It looks like next time they might have to rent out a bigger space.

Photographs by Sally Mumby-Croft

Iceland’s Hjaltalín are one of the many groups from the island nation currently building up a fair bit of buzz – their first album, physician Sleepdrunk Sessions, drug was hailed by many for its large, expansive sound featuring what sounded like a whole orchestra at times. Some even compared their sound to Arcade Fire soundtracking a Bond film. I had a chat with their bassoonist, Rebekka Bryndís, about the band as they prepare to release their second album, Terminal.

—-

Can you start off by explaining how the band works together. How do you write your songs?

Our lead singer writes most of the songs. He comes up with an idea or writes something and then they kind of evolve into the full songs through teamwork. And then also some came about from playing with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.

Are you guys classically trained to use your instruments?

Yep, most of us are.

So then you come to this with quite a detailed knowledge of music theory, I imagine? You have a very interesting orchestral sound, especially on the latest album [Terminal]. How does it differ from your first album [Sleepdrunk Sessions]?

It’s very different from the first album. The first album came about, pretty much, because it was supposed to be an EP but it then evolved into an LP. It’s all quite different with Terminal, because we’re all touring a lot and so the songs have changed a lot, within the band, and when we decided to record the songs most of them we recorded in one big session with a chamber orchestra so it had that live sound. Not all of the songs were recorded that way, but most of them.

Recorded quite organically then?

Yes, it was.

I can hear a lot of influence from film soundtracks and composers like Ennio Morricone in your music – are those big influences on your sound?

Yes, true…

Were you trying to record something that sounded like a soundtrack to something, in a way?

Uh… Not really! [laughs] It just kind of turned out that way. We wanted to do a wide sound, really. Lots of things going on.

Have you ever done a film soundtrack?

We have! It was for this black and white film, I believe it was the first film that was ever made in Iceland, made by some Danish peeps, called Saga Borgarættarinnar.

What’s it like to record a real film soundtrack, compared to a normal album?

We played it live, actually, for a film festival, the Reykjavik International Film Festival, and we played live in front of an audience alongside the film. It was a lot of work… We were told that the movie was two hours but when we got the DVDs it was something like four and a half hours, so we just did the first half of the story… It was interesting.

It was a different creative process?

Definitely. We’d just hang out at the rehearsing spaces and just come up with stuff, but after our sessions this guy called Ben Frost – he’s this minimal electronic artist – he performed with us and we had a few recordings that were really cool, for Wonderbrass…

Wonderbra?!

Wonderbrass, it’s the jazz group…

Ah, not the brassiere company.

No [laughs], that’s kind of the joke, I think… But yeah, Ben Frost performed with us, it was like a collective.

Does that happen a lot with you guys? Other artists coming in to help you?

Uh, no… Well, we do have other artists coming in to help us sometimes, but they’re not any part of the group.

But you might be in the studio and someone will stroll by and help put down a guitar track or something?

Yeah, yeah, people do come in and help with stuff.

That’s my impression of the music scene in Iceland – that it’s all like a close-knit, family community sort of thing. Is that what’s it’s like?

Most people, if they don’t know each other, they know of each other – they’ll recognise each other in the street. I guess it’s safe to say that there’s almost cliques that form? But not in a bad way, there are just circles of people who are really friendly and helpful.

Where are you going from here, then?

This summer we’ve got some festivals going on here, and we’ve got this big thing with the National Symphony Orchestra here so we’re here for that…

I imagine it’s quite hard to get them on tour with you.

[laughs] Yeah, yes. That’s a difficult thing. Uh, yeah, there’s also a big tour in September, going across Europe, with Germany in July at the start I think. It’s a busy summer.

What’s going to be the first single off the album?

‘Abroad’? I think… we haven’t really discussed it yet. All the songs are so different!

Written by Ian Steadman on Tuesday May 18th, 2010 5:15 pm

Categories ,Arcade Fire, ,Ben Frost, ,Ennio Morricone, ,Hjaltalín, ,ian steadman, ,iceland, ,Indie, ,Orchestral, ,Saga Borgarættarinnar, ,Sleepdrunk Sessions, ,Terminal, ,Wonderbrass

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Amelia’s Magazine | Petter & the Pix – Good As Gold – Album Review

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Hello mother nature, nurse rx H&M calling…. 

Answering to the needs of so many already environmentally conscious shoppers, website like this and those of mother nature, H&M are making their attempt to join the eco-friendly race and making sure we all know about it. A multitude of high street brands have approached the environmentally-friendly route but some with little success. What the average High Street consumer normally gets are increased prices, due to the new fabrics the brand has to source, and the design lacking in quality and variety compared with it’s non eco-friendly competitors. Sometimes the obstacle of incorporating unharmful dyeing techniques isn’t always cost effective enough.  

Luckily none of this is evident in H&M’s new The Garden Collection available from the 25th March 2010. Exhilarating Summer brights boost the collection with everything you could want from a high street Spring/Summer collection. This is an exciting step for one of the most predominate and successful brands on our High Streets, and those around the world. For H&M the beginning of eco-friendly clothing didn’t start here – they’ve been using organic cotton in some of their clothing since 2004 and have invested much time and money into finding and developing fabrics which are sustainable. It’s only now that they’re shouting about it, and for good reason.

The amount of attention inputted in style, texture and colour seems to be delicately balanced between every piece in the collection. There’s also a good varied range of clothing styles, making it accessible to a variety of ages and body shapes. It’s safe to say the collection has a very floral, feminine theme, running from bright and extravagant, to subtle and elegant; draping, flowing and layering create a variety of textures and shapes on the body, complimenting the female form. Best of all – the price points for this collection are no different to those of the rest of H&M – cost effective and guilt free, exactly how fashion should be!

One of the most noticeable pieces in the collection has to be a red strapless dress, sold out in most stores already, beautifully adorned with recycled polyester chiffon roses, with a fitted elegant bodice, romantic and playful in design. 

Excitingly to see is the use of the new fabric Tencel, hyped up by the press to be the next best thing in the development of mother nature friendly fabrics. It is beautiful to the touch and I predict it will be a favourite addition to many wardrobes from now on; it blends the gaps nicely between the recycled polyester, organic cotton, and linen in the collection. 

It’s always great to hear of a brand continuing to mould themselves into the eco-friendly world of fashion, and hopefully this is the start of something continuous and an idea which will be planted in the minds of the suits of the fashion world. So lets start showing these brands that what we want is fashion with a conscience, all of the time, and that if they want our hard-earned pennies then they need to earn them by working hard to make our home a better place to live.

I’ve just opened my window, sick for the first time since the autumn. I had to deal with some cobwebs, this some stiffness in the joints, but the fresh air has been a welcome change from the stuffiness of the past few months. It was beginning to feel like Das Boot in here. It was somewhere around the third track of Petter & the Pix’s second album, Good As Gold, that the urge to open the window for some spring relief kicked in – ‘Sit Down With Me’, the song in question, is a woozy daydream finger-pickin’ song, exactly what I needed to cause me to pause, to look up from my computer to the brilliant blue sky that’s currently hugging the ground around where I live.

The band is mostly Swedish, although the ‘Petter’ of Petter & the Pix used to be a member of Iceland’s first (and presumably still the only) reggae band, Hjálmar. His brother, Pontus, is half of the songwriting duo known as Bloodshy & Avant, most infamous for writing the Britney Spears hit ‘Toxic’ (I almost wrote ‘comeback single’ here – at the time it felt like something of one, but in retrospect it seems to have been a slight pause before the steep fall…). This album is neither pop nor reggae – it’s a varied and eclectic bunch of musical styles thrown together by an extremely talented bunch of people (‘the Pix’ are six fellow musicians, some of whom are members of other Scandinavian groups such as Lykke Li and Múm) that nevertheless manages to stake out its own distinct sound. Petter’s vocals are the archetype Nordic drawl, that affectation and elongation that, to a native English speaker, sounds like someone who’s given up. It gives Swedish pop that weirdly moving, pleading tone that makes groups like Peter, Bjorn & John and The Concretes so intriguing to those of us not used to the accent.

It’s no surprise, then, from my perspective, that this album is lyrically quite downbeat. Lots of songs about being alone, a bunch of stuff about Petter resigning himself to defeat, a whole lot of nostalgia for, “the first time you came over.” The real interest to be had here is in the musical ambition on display, though – sometimes the lyrics match the tune’s mood, sometimes they don’t. There will be something here, one song at the very least, that you will love (that’s second track ‘In The End Of The Day’ for me, a post-punk ballad that rests on a 4/4 drum thump and a melancholic descending guitar riff that’s simple, and sweetly effective).

Opener ‘Never Never’, also lead single, is perhaps the poorest song on the whole album. There’s a weird guitar line (or is it just a chanting vocal line that’s been put through some distortion pedal?) that’s straight out of an Aliens track, alternating with a slow-hum chorus with Petter wondering, “I think I was deep in love…/I think I was deep in love…,” over and over again. That vocal/guitar line, whatever it is, is more annoying than catchy by about the third play of the LP, so I’ve started skipping straight to the aforementioned ‘In The End Of The Day’.

This establishes, quite early on, the division between the more straightforward indie tracks on here and the slightly more interesting folk numbers – the title track, an example of the former, but then there’s examples of the latter in the Beirut-alike accordion folk of ‘Before I Do’, and the stripped-back Shins vibe on ‘Momentarily Lost’. Surf rock creeps into ‘Stuck In Between’, and there are definite nods towards The Cure on ‘Four Walls’. It’s all over the place, this, but the somewhat-ethereal production ties everything together. There’s not a lot in common between Paul Simon and electro-rock, but here, somehow, there is. I suppose that’s a credit to the talent of the musicians involved and their overarching vision for their music.

An album like this, then, which at first glance feels perhaps a little bit throwaway, a little bit all over the place, turns out to be nothing of the sort. It’s a grower, and it flowers when given the correct nurturing. Let it unravel, let it flow across your ears on a warm day like today – it’s got a good something at its heart, and bodes well for this semi-supergroup’s work to come.

Written by Ian Steadman on Tuesday April 6th, 2010 3:48 pm

Categories ,album review, ,beirut, ,britney spears, ,Das Boot, ,folk, ,Good As Gold, ,ian steadman, ,Indie, ,Lykke Li, ,Múm, ,Never Never, ,Paul Simon, ,Peter Bjorn & John, ,Petter & the Pix, ,Petter and the Pix, ,Surf-Rock, ,sweden, ,The Aliens, ,The Concretes, ,the cure, ,the shins

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Amelia’s Magazine | O.Children – Interview

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petter and the pix thumbnail interview

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Petter & the Pix‘s second album, here Good As Gold, malady an eclectic bundle of folk and rock that never sits still longer than one track at a time. I urge you to seek it out, and you can listen to the first single off the album (Never Never) here. Petter, lead singer and ringleader of the group, of sorts, is an Icelandic chap from something of a musical family – his brother, Pontus, is half of the successful pop songwriting duo Bloodshy & Avant (not sure which one), and Petter himself used to be in Iceland’s first big reggae band, Hjálmar, as well as in a few other acts making everything from house beats to jazz. The Pix is Petter’s band, consisting of Mike Svensson on piano, Andreas Gabrielsson on bass, Nils Törnqvist on drums, and Mattias Franzen and Klas Ericsson on guitars. I had a quick catch-up with him to ask about his songwriting process.

Hi, Petter. What is it that you’re trying to do with the Pix? As in, what are you aiming for?

To make music and let everyone that is involved feel as involved as we are. I see music as some sort of get together, and I don’t want to work with anyone unless I can trust them to do their very best. For me a very big part of making music is to find situations where you can create moments of trust, with both your fellow musicians and a possible audience.

How would you describe your sound?

I’d say it some sort of pop.

Your music is extremely varied in style and instrumentation – how much to do you draw upon your experience with genres other than just ‘indie’ in making music?

I don’t really know how to define indie or pop if you are referring to it as a certain style of music. There are so many different music styles that people call indie or pop. The expressions seem to change depending on the decade in which they’re used. I think that for musicians, every piece of music they participate in changes the way they think about making music. If the musical history of the members in a group is varied, the outcome will somehow be a reflection of this.

What’s it like working with such a talented range of musicians? How much do they help in achieving that semi-orchestral breadth of sound?

The musicians are everything that there is! If I would choose another constellation of musicians then I’m sure that it would sound very different, not necessarily bad, but different. The fact that we’re all old friends makes it easier to work together.

What else influences you in your work? Where do you draw your ideas from? The world around you, friends, things like that?

The fact that it’s possible to survive as a musician, and that I enjoy playing and recording music, of course, are definitely the reasons why it’s worth making the effort to finish a song. But I think that what actually triggers the ideas could be just about anything, most likely it’s a combo of different components that effects your emotional state and I believe that music is just a product of that process.

This is your second album – do you feel that you’re progressing as a band?

Yes, I think that this album sounds different from the first one, so that would be progress. We haven’t been touring with this band so we haven’t been able to evolve in terms of meeting an audience. But we’ve played together in different constellations for at least ten years so I think that gives us the comfort to play what we like, even if doesn’t happen that often.

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Petter & the Pix‘s second album, this site Good As Gold, capsule an eclectic bundle of folk and rock that never sits still longer than one track at a time. I urge you to seek it out, about it and you can listen to the first single off the album (Never Never) here. Petter, lead singer and ringleader of the group, of sorts, is an Icelandic chap from something of a musical family – his brother, Pontus, is half of the successful pop songwriting duo Bloodshy & Avant (not sure which one), and Petter himself used to be in Iceland’s first big reggae band, Hjálmar, as well as in a few other acts making everything from house beats to jazz. The Pix is Petter’s band, consisting of Mike Svensson on piano, Andreas Gabrielsson on bass, Nils Törnqvist on drums, and Mattias Franzen and Klas Ericsson on guitars. I had a quick catch-up with him to ask about his songwriting process.

Hi, Petter. What is it that you’re trying to do with the Pix? As in, what are you aiming for?

To make music and let everyone that is involved feel as involved as we are. I see music as some sort of get together, and I don’t want to work with anyone unless I can trust them to do their very best. For me a very big part of making music is to find situations where you can create moments of trust, with both your fellow musicians and a possible audience.

How would you describe your sound?

I’d say it some sort of pop.

Your music is extremely varied in style and instrumentation – how much to do you draw upon your experience with genres other than just ‘indie’ in making music?

I don’t really know how to define indie or pop if you are referring to it as a certain style of music. There are so many different music styles that people call indie or pop. The expressions seem to change depending on the decade in which they’re used. I think that for musicians, every piece of music they participate in changes the way they think about making music. If the musical history of the members in a group is varied, the outcome will somehow be a reflection of this.

What’s it like working with such a talented range of musicians? How much do they help in achieving that semi-orchestral breadth of sound?

The musicians are everything that there is! If I would choose another constellation of musicians then I’m sure that it would sound very different, not necessarily bad, but different. The fact that we’re all old friends makes it easier to work together.

What else influences you in your work? Where do you draw your ideas from? The world around you, friends, things like that?

The fact that it’s possible to survive as a musician, and that I enjoy playing and recording music, of course, are definitely the reasons why it’s worth making the effort to finish a song. But I think that what actually triggers the ideas could be just about anything, most likely it’s a combo of different components that effects your emotional state and I believe that music is just a product of that process.

This is your second album – do you feel that you’re progressing as a band?

Yes, I think that this album sounds different from the first one, so that would be progress. We haven’t been touring with this band so we haven’t been able to evolve in terms of meeting an audience. But we’ve played together in different constellations for at least ten years so I think that gives us the comfort to play what we like, even if doesn’t happen that often.

The first thing that you’ll notice about O.Children is that voice. Their singer sounds like he’s singing from the crypt – hell, physician the whole band sound like they’re howling from some horrible netherworld. Their indebtedness to the production style of the late 80s is clear (just stick on ‘Floodland‘ by the Sisters of Mercy to see exactly how much), but their sound owes just as much to more modern exponents of shoegaze and noise rock.

An introductory note here: When I first ‘got’ music, when it became something more than a tinny backing tune on the radio on the school run, it was the 80s that I fell in love with. I would stay up late listening the epic squall that opens Bauhaus’ ‘In The Flat Field‘ over and over again; or I’d search the web for grainy videos of Joy Division performing before they were canonical; or I’d even stay to the very end of Nick Cave‘s solo set at Bristol’s Colston Hall, missing my train back to London and sleeping in the station just because I couldn’t bear to miss a beat. I love how dark that music all sounded, all the space between the notes and the way that the guitars seemed to shiver while some demented sage would chant into the void about bats and judgement and all that nonsense.

Thus my fascination with O.Children, who appear to be rooted in this time period. I fired off a few quick questions to Tobi, their lead singer, on the eve of the launch of their latest single.

—

Can you introduce yourselves and the rest of the band?

I’m Tobi, I sing and write the songs. Gauthier plays guitar. Harry plays bass and Andrew plays drums. Collectively we’re O.Children.

I’ve been listening to your songs, and I sense an affinity with the darker sides of early 80s post-punk, and (whilst I’m not sure you’d agree with me here) especially some of those proto-goth/industrial bands like Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and Sisters of Mercy. Where are you coming from with you music – are those the kinds of bands that you draw upon?

We’re certainly inspired by 80s goth music but we’re also into the general sound of the 80s as well as early 90s noise. The production techniques in particular. We love bands like The Birthday Party, Ciccone Youth, Big Black and Ministry, so we just take bits from all those types of bands and add them to our own personal sound. A little bit of edge.

What’s with the name? Is it a Nick Cave reference?

We bonded on ‘Shivers‘ by Boys Next Door, but then we realised that Boys Next Door was already taken and Shivers just didn’t work. O.Children was the next best thing.

What is it that you’re trying to achieve with your sound?

We just want people to enjoy the music. We’re recording out album at the moment and people will hopefully be (pleasantly) surprised by the outcome. We just want people to listen and make up their own minds.

What are you recording or planning to release? Anything soon?

‘Ruins‘, our second single, is released on April 19. The album should be done and released sometime in June so look out for that also.

—

Head over to our listings section for more info on the party to celebrate the launch of their latest single, ‘Ruins’.

Written by Ian Steadman on Wednesday April 21st, 2010 6:18 pm

Categories ,bauhaus, ,Big Black, ,Boys Next Doors, ,Ciccone Youth, ,goth, ,Gothic Rock, ,ian steadman, ,interview, ,joy division, ,Ministry, ,Nick Cave, ,noise, ,O Children, ,Post Punk, ,Ruins, ,Shivers, ,shoegaze, ,Sisters of Mercy, ,The Birthday Party

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Amelia’s Magazine | Clogs – The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton – Album Review

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Perhaps the most apt album title of the year so far, sickness The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton is the fifth album from the classically-bent folk group known as Clogs. Theirs is a music grounded in an intellectual appreciation of musical form and theory, here but when they come to actually write their songs they sit around and jam like any other rock group. It gives their songs a fluidity and spontaneity that belies that this is, side effects at heart, a group of chin-stroking music theorists – those members being Padma Newsome (Australian multi-instrumentalist), Bryce Dessner (most famous for being guitarist for The National), Rachael Elliott, and Thomas Kozumplik.

The title is apt, dear readers, once you realise what, exactly, the Garden of Lady Walton is. The Argentinian Lady Susana Walton lived with her husband, the British composer William Walton, on the island of Ischia in Italy. Upon arriving at their new home in the year after the end of the Second World War they decided to call in the famous landscape gardener Russell Page, who decided upon a mix of indigenous Mediterranean plants and imported tropical, exotic varieties. Almost two decades ago the garden was opened to the public – the William Walton Foundation runs a museum dedicated to the composer, and puts on a series of classical concerts every year in the garden’s Greek Theater. It’s a highly-respected piece of horticulture, and very neatly acts as a metaphor for Clogs’ project – artists and musicians from around the world perform under the boughs of trees from every corner of the globe, an eclectic and vivid mixture that works far better than the sum of the parts. The creatures in the garden are the friends and influences that have helped them make this record, which by contrast to earlier Clogs output it more varied, more filled with wanderlust.

‘Cocodrillo’, then, opens with an a capella chorus of chirps and mumbles while the chant, “these are the creatures in Lady Walton’s garden,” is sang in rounds, exactly in keeping with the tangled foliage on the album’s cover – maybe a little bit too close to ‘concept album’ territory for some, but charming nonetheless.  There’s an operatic element to The Creatures… thanks to the vocal contributions of Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond – whereas previous Clogs albums have remained mostly instrumental in nature, her singing occupies pride of place on over half of the tracks here. It’s a voice that I could imagine would grate terribly with some but endear itself to others, a sweet and swooping voice that suits the more delicate classical compositions – something like ‘The Owl of Love’ is almost medieval – but which is thankfully not deployed over everything.

Newsome writes most of the lyrics, and sings on ‘Red Seas’; there’s also an appearance from Matt Berninger of The National, whose guest slot on vocals for ‘Last Song’ is a definite highlight. His voice, that level baritone, sticks out amongst the dramatic ups and downs of Newsome’s singing. Sufjan Stevens also guests, but his appearance is limited to the instrumental – no doubt to the disappointment of his fans, who were probably hoping for more than plucking a few banjo strings. Still, it’s a worthwhile contribution, as closing track ‘We Were Here’ is elegiac and rousing.

Every song sounds like a Clogs composition, but each one has its own little quirks and traits to make it seem more unique – there’s the concerto of ‘Raise the Flag’, the post-rock tinkle of ‘I Used to Do’. Trying to pull out which influences come from where feels like trying to weed a particularly stony patch of ground – beneath every root there’s another, then another, and another.

It’s hard to find fault with this record on the level of individual songs – it’s certainly Clogs’ strongest work, but its only weakness appears to be its strength – its delicateness. As with much music rooted in the mind rather than the soul there is little dynamic to grab the casual listener. I adore it – I adore the sensation of wandering through a mass of roots and branches, finding spaces of clarity and beauty on the Italian coast, as that’s what it cannot help but sound like. Perhaps Walton himself would approve, though I’m certain his wife would have.

Written by Ian Steadman on Monday May 10th, 2010 4:54 pm

Categories ,Bryce Dessler, ,classical, ,Clogs, ,folk, ,ian steadman, ,Matt Berninger, ,My Brightest Diamond, ,Padme Newsome, ,Shara Worden, ,Sufjan Stevens, ,The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, ,The National

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Amelia’s Magazine | Mountain Man – Made the Harbor – Album Review

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I’m not the best person to be covering the arts events of this summer, healing taking place at a smattering of festivals across the UK. The reason for this is quite simple; I have never been to a festival. This is usually when someone drops a plate, another person screams and a cat yowls whilst an errant piece of tumbleweed dances down the road.
Alright, I haven’t been to a festival! I have a total and utter phobia of insects, I can’t sleep well at the best of times and the idea of being zipped into a stuffy hot tent with the floor as my mattress has never had much appeal to me. Plus all the mud and the hygiene issues of finding a nice lavatory. But this year, one name has sung it’s siren call. The power of this one name has rendered me ebaying portable mosquito nets and stocking up on wetwipes. No, it’s not one of those musician types, for whom I can hear on the noisebox at any time I please, it is a man. A man who changed my life. Brett Easton Ellis. When I saw his name on the Latitude Literary Area line-up, I choked half to death on my hobnob (that’s not an allegory). The man behind Less Than Zero, one of my favourite books, and American Psycho (another favourite book) is flying over from his elusive bunker somewhere in New York, to grace the filthy muddy bastards of Latitude with his presence? Inconceivable. Yet, I don’t think they’d lie about a thing like that. Ergo, I must go. Like a sacrificial festival virgin to a vengeful insect fuelled Aztec God, I must go. Sebastian Faulks and Julie Burchill are also included in the programme, but my eye stopped roaming at Ellis, and thus my summer has been made.

Anyway, the point of this all, is to focus on the Arty side of these godforsaken pagan events. Evidently, I’m not one who has much knowledge about all of this, but I’ve certainly been doing my homework since. Latitude is one of the best Arts forward festivals in the UK, with a film, poetry, literary and theatre arenas to tickle all sorts of fancy’s alongside the usual barbaric muck and ruckus that I also imagine goes on. And also, there’s The Secret Garden Party.


Upon checking out the website for Secret Garden Party, I immediately found myself sold on the idea of going to a magical little wonderland to moot about and have a lovely time free of bugs and dirt. Also, the art line up is pretty fantastical. The Never-Ever Land Theatre has a rotisserie of performers and theatrics from companies such as MOD theatre and Toulson and Harvey. The Artful Badger area includes ‘shamanic journeys, drumming and whittling’ as part of the agenda.

I’m not the best person to be covering the arts events of this summer, about it taking place at a smattering of festivals across the UK. The reason for this is quite simple; I have never been to a festival. This is usually when someone drops a plate, viagra 40mg another person screams and a cat yowls whilst an errant piece of tumbleweed dances down the road.
Alright, I haven’t been to a festival! I have a total and utter phobia of insects, I can’t sleep well at the best of times and the idea of being zipped into a stuffy hot tent with the floor as my mattress has never had much appeal to me. Plus all the mud and the hygiene issues of finding a nice lavatory. But this year, one name has sung it’s siren call. The power of this one name has rendered me ebaying portable mosquito nets and stocking up on wetwipes. No, it’s not one of those musician types, for whom I can hear on the noisebox at any time I please, it is a man. A man who changed my life. Brett Easton Ellis. When I saw his name on the Latitude Literary Area line-up, I choked half to death on my hobnob (that’s not an allegory). The man behind Less Than Zero, one of my favourite books, and American Psycho (another favourite book) is flying over from his elusive bunker somewhere in New York, to grace the filthy muddy bastards of Latitude with his presence? Inconceivable. Yet, I don’t think they’d lie about a thing like that. Ergo, I must go. Like a sacrificial festival virgin to a vengeful insect fuelled Aztec God, I must go. Sebastian Faulks and Julie Burchill are also included in the programme, but my eye stopped roaming at Ellis, and thus my summer has been made.

Anyway, the point of this all, is to focus on the Arty side of these godforsaken pagan events. Evidently, I’m not one who has much knowledge about all of this, but I’ve certainly been doing my homework since. Latitude is one of the best Arts forward festivals in the UK, with a film, poetry, literary and theatre arenas to tickle all sorts of fancy’s alongside the usual barbaric muck and ruckus that I also imagine goes on. And also, there’s The Secret Garden Party.


Upon checking out the website for Secret Garden Party, I immediately found myself sold on the idea of going to a magical little wonderland to moot about and have a lovely time free of bugs and dirt. Also, the art line up is pretty fantastical. The Never-Ever Land Theatre has a rotisserie of performers and theatrics from companies such as MOD theatre and Toulson and Harvey. The Artful Badger area includes ‘shamanic journeys, drumming and whittling’ as part of the agenda.

You’d think that the internet would offer up the number of annual visitors to US National Parks more easily. I was hoping to start this post by comparing the resurgence of bluegrass harmonies in American popular music to the numbers of tourists traipsing across the Blue Ridge Mountains that feature in so many of those songs, this web in the hope of finding some evidence of some wider cultural trend. All I can do instead is blame Fleet Foxes for this and move on.

Three girls from different parts of the United States met at Bennington College in Vermont and, click discovering that they shared both a fondness for traditional music forms and a cracking sets of pipes, about it formed Mountain Man. The mountain man is an American archetype – the rugged individualist hunting for furs on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a loner content to spend winter after winter beneath the boughs of some tree pregnant with snow and beside a partially-frozen river than trickles down towards the orange groves by the coast. With regards to facial hair, neither Molly, Amelia, nor Alexandra possess any; the name is otherwise perfect as an indicator of what it is that they do and what it is that they’re going to sing about. Made the Harbor could well have been recorded a full 80 years ago – it opens with ‘Buffalo’, and a repeated choral chant of, “…And the mighty Mississippi River swills/follow, follow, follow, follow the buffalo/in my eyes I saw the great black hills.” Subject matter does not vary greatly thereafter.

Very little of this album relies upon instrumentation. There’s occasionally an acoustic guitar, but it’s not a centrepiece and the focus is always on the harmonies. Oh, what sweet harmonies. Remember how O Brother, Where Are Thou? managed to wake a dormant appreciation for good vocals in pretty much everyone through simply showing three southern ladies washing their particulars in a rural river while singing old gospel standards? There is something so incredibly real about that, and about this; it feels like something that should be done far more often than it is. The girls of Mountain Man haven’t got extraordinary voices, but that isn’t the point. It’s the warmth that comes from three very natural and unpretentious vocal lines coming together into one new beast. How they sound together is almost more important than what it is that’s being sang, though interestingly the topics covered very much mirror the nostalgia in the sound.

Or, well, perhaps not every song (I almost said ‘track’ there, but that didn’t feel right). Not the bits about how, “the sweat will roll down our backs,” on ‘Animal Tracks’, a song that draws on animal metaphors to describe their sexual desires in a way that’s presumably as explicit as they’re willing to go without sacrificing their aesthetic. There would be something intensely strange and disagreeable about these three girls singing about sex in a straightforward way, although their obtuse alternative is pretty intriguing.

That in itself is a pretty strange thing, though, right? Because Mountain Man sing in such an incredibly retrograde manner (they even recorded these songs in, “an abandoned factory from the turn of the 20th Century,” according to their official back story) it’s almost making me take on a retrograde attitude towards what they could acceptably sing about. Whilst modern technology is never referenced, nor modern lifestyles, the issues are often strikingly modern. “Can’t you understand that I’m trying to be a good woman?/Let me go…” one of them pleads on ‘Soft Skin’; independence in women isn’t some post-war thing, true (there are lots of female blues artists who could be pointed at here as evidence), but it’s a very specific musical niche that Mountain Man occupy here, one that’s not associated with aspects of American culture do have such a tradition.

For example: ‘Babylon’ is an old standard, Psalm 137, but a glorious version sang in rounds that recaptures a lot of the despair of the piece that’s often left out by other artists. For anyone who hasn’t heard it, I strongly urge you to seek out Nick Cave’s ‘The Secret Life of the Love Song’, a lecture he gave on the nature of love in songwriting and its need to feed off of powerful feelings of regret, longing and nostalgia. He deals with Psalm 137 at one point during a general screed on the emotive power of the Old Testament and its general unpleasantness; for those unfamiliar, the psalm is a lament by the people of Israel at the loss of their homeland to the rulers of Babylon, who demand that their captives sing for them the songs of Zion. Amongst the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the children of Israel ask their god for permission to seize the infants of Babylon and, “dash them against the rocks.” It’s a vivid image, it’s a vulgar image, and it’s an extreme image. Mountain Man are not concentrating on the same things as Nick Cave, however, and their version of ‘Babylon’ focuses entirely on the first verse, the bit about sitting by the river and weeping. It’s sung with conviction, but that is nonetheless all that they sing about, and it’s exactly the same kind of selective reading of the Bible that constitutes much of southern American evangelism. The blow is softened, and the focus is on the sadness and not the (now unfashionable) anger. Blues wouldn’t hold back here, but Mountain Man is rooted in Americana that is far more hung-up on Lutheran issues.

The girls of Mountain Man have created a gorgeous album, a collection of songs that conjure up as much blue-tinge and rolling mist as you could wish for. But it’s not as modern as it thinks it is – these songs are as coy as if they had been sung by these girls’ great-grandmothers, and it should be approached as such. It’s an album of vocal beauty that attempts to bring an old style into the modern era, but the end product is cannot escape those firm roots that have been nurtured so carefully.

Written by Ian Steadman on Tuesday April 27th, 2010 3:30 pm

Categories ,Animal Tracks, ,Babylon, ,Boney M, ,Fleet Foxes, ,Harmonising, ,Harmony, ,ian steadman, ,Jerusalem, ,Made the Harbor, ,Mountain Man, ,Nick Cave, ,Oh Brother Where Art Thou, ,Vocal, ,Zion

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Amelia’s Magazine | Festival Preview: Dot-to-Dot

by


Illustration by Naomi Law

For the last day of  the Sketchbook Pop-Up Shop, case Susie Bubble of Style Bubble fame gave a lecture on Newburgh St, bookending an event that celebrated the creative arts in a social and relaxed atmosphere complete with illustrations all over the walls. As one of the more prolific bloggers out there, Susie Bubble is someone I have ‘followed’ for a long time owing to her quality of photos and copy as well as her evidently well-researched posts. The Style Bubble blog started in 2006 as an outlet for Susie’s opinions, naturally developing a huge following with mentions in i-D magazine, The Financial Times and numerous awards within the blogging world in a relatively short space of time (that’s the online world for you!).
 
Susie has already written an excellent post on the ‘pop up social space’, and as the last speaker at the event ties things up quite nicely – she even featured on the cover of their very first issue. Teaching herself web coding at the age of 13, Susie was always destined to make a foray into the online world. Her blog has grown quickly over the last four years and rather than a ‘what to wear now’ site endorsing celebrity-led trends, Style Bubble is full of Susie’s musings and ideas of what she really thinks. ‘I would only stop blogging if ideas run out’, she said. Not much chance of that in London…
 
Following a few questions from the audience on branding, sponsorship and advertising it was very refreshing to hear Susie’s responses reflecting the idea that a blog should be a personal passion rather than a way to increase traffic and generate sales, as an all encompassing business or brand. ‘I don’t see what a Style Bubble app would bring to the iPad’ she reveals, and equally she doesn’t see a future or market for paid blogs. If they are controlled by the brand themselves she can see the merits, though – ‘if a brand have a blog, especially some of the more secretive design houses, it is a good idea as long as the content is interesting’.   
 
Content is key, and she advises that in order to make a mark in the blogosphere, a blog must bring something new to the table. If you are in need of some more inspiration, Susie uses The Guardian fashion pages, The Coveted, and Jak&Jil for fashion news.

She understands that fashion, especially luxury fashion, is not always ethically sound, and where ‘it is impossible to investigate every choice’ we make on clothing we must be aware of the sources of our purchases. Broad generalisations can confuse consumers; for example, not everything made in China needs to be avoided. When choosing items, Susie goes for what feels right. ‘Buying luxury clothes is selfish. I ask myself if it feels nice or looks good on me’. On her own style, she made it very clear that it’s a personal choice, but in terms of A/W10 predicitons, its ‘texture, texture, texture’! Mix it up and make it your own – for S/S go for pastels and embroidery.
 
One of the nicest elements to Susie’s character is the honesty and modesty in with which she answered the questions. The London-based blogger loves the constantly developing creativity in our city, and how there are opportunities to turn your hand to whatever you want, describing herself as a ‘fraud’ with no formal training! At the moment Susie is unsure how to progress with the blog. Now in a ‘pondering phase’, she doesn’t see herself working with a ‘team’ as it is such a personal project – just her and her handy boyfriend for the photos!
 
3 facts you might like to know:
 
1. She voted Lib Dem
2. She wears her hair up when its windy
3. She was incredibly flattered when Daphne Guinness wrote about her in the FT (who wouldn’t be?!)
 
As well as some consulting work, she has some mysterious up and coming projects, so keep an eye out…


Illustration by Naomi Law

For the last day of  the Sketchbook Pop-Up Shop, price Susie Bubble of Style Bubble fame gave a lecture, purchase bookending an event that celebrated the creative arts in a social and relaxed atmosphere complete with illustrations all over the walls. As one of the more prolific bloggers out there, stomach Susie Bubble is someone I have ‘followed’ for a long time owing to her quality of photos and copy as well as her evidently well-researched posts. The Style Bubble blog started in 2006 as an outlet for Susie’s opinions, naturally developing a huge following with mentions in i-D magazine, The Financial Times and numerous awards within the blogging world in a relatively short space of time (that’s the online world for you!).
 
Susie has already written an excellent post on the ‘pop up social space’, and as the last speaker at the event ties things up quite nicely – she even featured on the cover of their very first issue. Teaching herself web coding at the age of 13, Susie was always destined to make a foray into the online world. Her blog has grown quickly over the last four years and rather than a ‘what to wear now’ site endorsing celebrity-led trends, Style Bubble is full of Susie’s musings and ideas of what she really thinks. ‘I would only stop blogging if ideas run out’, she said. Not much chance of that in London…
 
Following a few questions from the audience on branding, sponsorship and advertising it was very refreshing to hear Susie’s responses reflecting the idea that a blog should be a personal passion rather than a way to increase traffic and generate sales, as an all encompassing business or brand. ‘I don’t see what a Style Bubble app would bring to the iPad’ she reveals, and equally she doesn’t see a future or market for paid blogs. If they are controlled by the brand themselves she can see the merits, though – ‘if a brand have a blog, especially some of the more secretive design houses, it is a good idea as long as the content is interesting’.   


Illustration by Naomi Law
 
Content is key, and she advises that in order to make a mark in the blogosphere, a blog must bring something new to the table. If you are in need of some more inspiration, Susie uses The Guardian fashion pages, The Coveted, and Jak&Jil for fashion news.

She understands that fashion, especially luxury fashion, is not always ethically sound, and where ‘it is impossible to investigate every choice’ we make on clothing we must be aware of the sources of our purchases. Broad generalisations can confuse consumers; for example, not everything made in China needs to be avoided. When choosing items, Susie goes for what feels right. ‘Buying luxury clothes is selfish. I ask myself if it feels nice or looks good on me’. On her own style, she made it very clear that it’s a personal choice, but in terms of A/W10 predicitons, its ‘texture, texture, texture’! Mix it up and make it your own – for S/S go for pastels and embroidery.
 
One of the nicest elements to Susie’s character is the honesty and modesty in with which she answered the questions. The London-based blogger loves the constantly developing creativity in our city, and how there are opportunities to turn your hand to whatever you want, describing herself as a ‘fraud’ with no formal training! At the moment Susie is unsure how to progress with the blog. Now in a ‘pondering phase’, she doesn’t see herself working with a ‘team’ as it is such a personal project – just her and her handy boyfriend for the photos!
 
3 facts you might like to know:
 
1. She voted Lib Dem
2. She wears her hair up when its windy
3. She was incredibly flattered when Daphne Guinness wrote about her in the FT (who wouldn’t be?!)
 
As well as some consulting work, she has some mysterious up and coming projects, so keep an eye out…


Illustration by Naomi Law

For the last day of  the Sketchbook Pop-Up Shop, cialis 40mg Susie Bubble of Style Bubble fame gave a lecture, symptoms bookending an event that celebrated the creative arts in a social and relaxed atmosphere complete with illustrations all over the walls. As one of the more prolific bloggers out there, sildenafil Susie Bubble is someone I have ‘followed’ for a long time owing to her quality of photos and copy as well as her evidently well-researched posts. The Style Bubble blog started in 2006 as an outlet for Susie’s opinions, naturally developing a huge following with mentions in i-D magazine, The Financial Times and numerous awards within the blogging world in a relatively short space of time (that’s the online world for you!).
 
Susie has already written an excellent post on the ‘pop up social space’, and as the last speaker at the event ties things up quite nicely – she even featured on the cover of their very first issue. Teaching herself web coding at the age of 13, Susie was always destined to make a foray into the online world. Her blog has grown quickly over the last four years and rather than a ‘what to wear now’ site endorsing celebrity-led trends, Style Bubble is full of Susie’s musings and ideas of what she really thinks. ‘I would only stop blogging if ideas run out’, she said. Not much chance of that in London…
 
Following a few questions from the audience on branding, sponsorship and advertising it was very refreshing to hear Susie’s responses reflecting the idea that a blog should be a personal passion rather than a way to increase traffic and generate sales, as an all encompassing business or brand. ‘I don’t see what a Style Bubble app would bring to the iPad’ she reveals, and equally she doesn’t see a future or market for paid blogs. If they are controlled by the brand themselves she can see the merits, though – ‘if a brand have a blog, especially some of the more secretive design houses, it is a good idea as long as the content is interesting’.   


Illustration by Naomi Law
 
Content is key, and she advises that in order to make a mark in the blogosphere, a blog must bring something new to the table. If you are in need of some more inspiration, Susie uses The Guardian fashion pages, The Coveted, and Jak&Jil for fashion news.

She understands that fashion, especially luxury fashion, is not always ethically sound, and where ‘it is impossible to investigate every choice’ we make on clothing we must be aware of the sources of our purchases. Broad generalisations can confuse consumers; for example, not everything made in China needs to be avoided. When choosing items, Susie goes for what feels right. ‘Buying luxury clothes is selfish. I ask myself if it feels nice or looks good on me’. On her own style, she made it very clear that it’s a personal choice, but in terms of A/W10 predicitons, its ‘texture, texture, texture’! Mix it up and make it your own – for S/S go for pastels and embroidery.
 
One of the nicest elements to Susie’s character is the honesty and modesty in with which she answered the questions. The London-based blogger loves the constantly developing creativity in our city, and how there are opportunities to turn your hand to whatever you want, describing herself as a ‘fraud’ with no formal training! At the moment Susie is unsure how to progress with the blog. Now in a ‘pondering phase’, she doesn’t see herself working with a ‘team’ as it is such a personal project – just her and her handy boyfriend for the photos!
 
3 facts you might like to know:
 
1. She voted Lib Dem
2. She wears her hair up when its windy
3. She was incredibly flattered when Daphne Guinness wrote about her in the FT (who wouldn’t be?!)
 
As well as some consulting work, she has some mysterious up and coming projects, so keep an eye out…

Now in its sixth year, health the annual Dot-to-Dot Festival has evolved from a small one-day festival similar to London’s Camden Crawl into a sprawling beast that takes over three British cities at the end of every May. Headlined this year by the Mystery Jets and Ellie Goulding, information pills it’s become something of a rite of passage for many bands trying to break the UK’s music scene – charting the rise up and fall down the lineups from year to year is as good a barometer as any for assessing the success of recent indie bands, and many a time I’ve seen a group go from playing an empty venue at the festival only to come back to the same venue a month later for the same band’s first headlining tour and, on the back of hype, the place will be bulging. In many ways it’s similar to festivals like Brighton’s Great Escape, which showcase new bands as much as put on ones that have existing fanbases.

The festival is the pet project of DHP, the long-established gig promoter from Nottingham. As well as promoting tours they found themselves, in the early years of the last decade, in the position of owning all of the city’s main live music venues (meaning, in order of size from smallest to biggest, the Bodega, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, and the venerable Rock City). Using their monopoly they established the first Dot-to-Dot in 2005, with the event, staged across all their venues plus the large Students’ Union of Nottingham Trent University, proving a massive success with headliners like Ladytron and Radio 4. The size and prestige of the festival rapidly expanded – the next year saw headlining sets from British Sea Power and Buck 65 (notably, 2008′s headliner Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. was present at the very bottom of the lineup), and an increase in capacity.

After DHP purchased Bristol’s Thekla venue they expanded the festival to the city in 2007, with the entire festival taking place on one day and then shifting over to the other city on the next. 2008 had the festival spread out over the whole weekend, with the lineups swapping between the cities over the weekend. Whilst widely seen as a huge success by attendees (it’s got something of a legendary reputation amongst people lucky enough to have been there, that year), the sheer size and ambition of the thing meant that DHP had to drop the idea for 2009, returning to two cities with one day each. This year’s innovation, however, sees the festival spread out to three cities with one day each, with Manchester joining the fun. Will it cause organisational meltdown? Born Ruffians‘ 2009 set was cut short by their getting stuck on the motorway on the way back from Bristol, and I know they weren’t the only ones, but knowing that not every band is guaranteed to show up somehow makes the thing more interesting, not less.

Last year’s lineup was heavily focused on the burgeoning no-wave revival (shitgaze, if you will), with bands like Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts gathering most of the crowds. This year’ selection avoids any such thematic bunching – Los Campesinos! take their place on the posters alongside Beach House, whilst there’s also a rare chance to catch the legendary Liars live.

Top tips for smaller bands to look out for, though: O.Children (whom we interviewed not long ago), Yuck (whom I saw live and thought were AWESOME), Team Ghost (like M83, but more so), Washed Out, and Goldheart Assembly. It’s never failed to be fun day in the sun (or rain), and chances are you’ll be returning to the same venues later in the year to see some of the same bands play to much larger audiences once everyone else catches up.

Written by Ian Steadman on Monday May 17th, 2010 5:01 pm

Categories ,2010, ,Beach House, ,bristol, ,Crystal Stilts, ,DHP, ,Dot to Dot, ,Ellie Goulding, ,festival, ,Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., ,girls, ,Goldheart Assembly, ,ian steadman, ,Indie, ,liars, ,Los Campesinos, ,manchester, ,Mystery Jets, ,New, ,nottingham, ,O Children, ,Showcase, ,Team Ghost, ,Vivian Girls, ,Washed Out, ,yuck

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