Been Better is another angsty anthem from the girl whose emotions run deep – shot at night with barely a ripple of light and plenty of gothic imagery, take a peek, then watch this exclusive interview from Intruders TV.
Squeezing past the punters at the bar, I could see that the box-like auditorium of Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen was already full in anticipation at the arrival of Beth Jeans Houghton. This was the last night of the tour supporting her new album, Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose, and, like her most recent appearance in the capital (Upstairs at the Garage), all tickets had long since gone.
I’d first discovered Beth Jeans Houghton a couple of years ago, playing a set at the Windmill in Brixton. At the time, the young Newcastle singer was a hotly tipped one-to-watch on the nu-folk scene (though she would probably consider herself more un-folk) following the release of the Hot Toast Volume One EP, before she seemingly dropped off the radar. Houghton resurfaced last year, having signed to Mute, and could be spotted playing at the Camden Crawl and, later on, at the Lexington (sporting a tiger stripe onesie, as you do). Gone are the wigs that she used to wear at gigs, the acoustic guitar (she’s now electric, you see) and the battered suitcase that doubled as a bass drum, but that amazing voice is still unchanged.
Taking to the stage with her band, the Hooves of Destiny, there was bit of a jokey keyboard and drums Also Sprach Zarathustra moment before things got underway. The set was basically a run through of tracks from the album, with a few added goodies thrown in. Houghton was very much centre stage, with a sparkly blue dress, bouffant blonde hair and bright red lipstick, and her voice soared through songs like Dodecahedron and Liliputt. Some Afrobeat-style guitar introduced Atlas, which I’m fairly sure had a few subtly altered lyrics, and old favourite I Will Return, I Promise was given a sprightly makeover.
Houghton was more than capably backed by the band, featuring the imposing Findlay MacAskill on violin and backing vocal duties, Dav Shiel and his galloping drums, Ed Blazey swapping between trumpet, a very posh banjo and guitar and bass player Rory Gibson’s frighteningly loud trousers. It was pretty clear that everyone was enjoying themselves, and a broken string and dodgy guitar strap did little to dampen the onstage banter. Houghton was in impish mood, telling the audience what MacAskill (a doctor) had been doing during the day (repairing some poor unfortunate’s nether regions) before conducting a survey of what people’s favourite words were (“discombobulation” seemed to score quite highly). There was also a prize for “funkiest dancer” up for grabs.
The set closed with Houghton and the Hooves joined by the support band, Goodnight Lenin, for a fully choreographed rendition of (would you believe) Madonna’s Like A Prayer, before being urged back on stage by the crowd for an encore and ripping through the joyously punky coda to the album finale, Carousel.
With her much anticipated album finally released (and very well received), and now apparently based full time in Los Angeles, it looks like Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny will be riding on to bigger and better things.
It was a bakingly hot day, even by the sweltering standards of the past week or so, and the upstairs venue of the venerable Lexington offered cool, air conditioned sanctuary. It was already pretty busy, with Newcastle’s Retriever coming to the end of a pounding post-punk infused set as I arrived, and from what I heard it’s a shame I didn’t get there earlier to catch more of them.
By the time Nadine Shah was due to come on stage, the Lexington was pretty much a full house, and judging by the accents I could pick up, I got the impression that there was quite a sizeable Northeast presence.
Hailing from Whitburn, a small coastal village in South Tyneside (which has links to both Lewis Carroll and, improbably, the Spanish Armada), Nadine Shah came to everyone’s attention last year with her darkly dazzling Aching Bones EP. Following a lot of positive press, two recent singles heralded the impending release of her debut album, Love Your Dum and Mad, which itself has been receiving rave reviews. I’d seen her play a spellbinding set at the Old Blue Last in April, so knew that tonight would be something special.
Taking to the stage dressed all in black, Shah and her band (featuring her producer, Ben Hillier, on drums) were accompanied for the opening part of the set by a horn section, running through tracks from the album like Remember and Used It All. The unsettling Aching Bones, with its clanging percussion and insistent bass riff, got an early airing and a lot of cheers from the crowd.
PJ Harvey is a comparison that crops up a lot in articles about Shah, and though I suppose there are some similarities, I think she ploughs her own particularly intense furrow. Shah’s rich, haunting voice fills her quite often dark lyrics, which deal with loss, regret and, in the case of new single Runaway, the bitterness of the wronged wife. As a performer, Shah always seems transfixed on some point in the near distance, seemingly trying to contain the emotions rising within her. Between songs, she is a complete contrast, both chatty and witty (she jokes about the irony of singing a song called Winter Reigns on the hottest day of the year), and there are plenty of thankyous to various friends and family in between sips of red wine.
Tonight’s set covered pretty much the whole of Love Your Dum and Mad, so we also got the simple synth patterns of All I Want, the delicately mournful Dreary Town (which puts me in mind of the second Tindersticks album) and the brooding To Be A Young Man. Closing the evening, Shah played a reworked version of that old torch song Cry Me A River, her tortured vocals soaring through the room, before leaving the stage to resounding cheers from the crowd.
With her UK tour to promote the album resuming in September, after a spot supporting Bat For Lashes at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in August, things are looking bright for this rising Northeast star.
Making their first visit to the Big Smoke, those most inglorious sons of mythic Sheffield suburb Valhalla Dale, The Moonlandingz, have already made a big impression on the airwaves, with the track Sweet Saturn Mine getting heavy rotation on BBC 6 Music, and they’ve also drawn the admiration of Sean Lennon (yes, thatSean Lennon).
Actually a collaboration between the South Yorkshire based Eccentronic Research Council and members of South London’s Fat White Family, The Moonlandingz (with their charismatic lead singer, Johnny Rocket) were originally conceived as small town indie band royalty and the object of stalkerish obsession on Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine… I’m Your Biggest Fan, the ERC’s blackly humorous album that once again engages the talents of actor Maxine Peake. Already featuring the Fat White’s Lias Saoudi and Saul Adamczewski on the album, the tracks attributed to “The Moonlandingz” were expanded for an eponymous EP, before they finally broke the fourth wall (in a musical sense) and went on tour. As the Eccentronic Research Council’s Adrian Flanagan explained in an interview for the Lexington’s blog, “the reason I wanted to create an actual band… was to give the ERC album that extra depth, I wanted to get real fans and real stalkers for the fictional band and by some cruel twist of fate that has now happened, we are now the hottest ticket in town.”
And a hot ticket they were indeed, as the Lexington was pretty much at capacity even during the support band slot, more than capably filled by Abjects, who won a few admirers with their 60s garage infused sound.
With a brief, if abstract, introduction by the Fat White Family’s usual compère without compare, Patrick Lyons, The Moonlandingz appeared for the penultimate night of their North By North South tour. With the stage flanked by the vintage synths of Dean Honer and Adrian Flanagan, backed by a rhythm section of famed producer Ross Orton on drums and Mairead O’Connor on bass, Saul Adamczewski got things underway with the spidery guitar intro to Psyche Ersatz. Centre stage in a black leather waistcoat and cartoonish makeup, Lias Saoudi basically wasJohnny Rocket, even down to a pseudo-Sheffield accent.
An early showing for a rampant Sweet Saturn Mine got the moshpit into full swing (not that people needed any encouragement), with arms outstretched to a prowling Saoudi (or should that be Rocket?) – part adulation, as the narrative of the album comes to life, and partly to try and drag him into the mass of bodies (I spotted a wryly smiling Flanagan taking a photo of the mayhem on his phone).
Lias Saoudi was actually ideally cast as the titular (anti)hero, if you’ve ever caught the Fat White Family live before – like a young Mick Jagger in his satanic majesty or, more particularly, Iggy Pop, marking his territory at the front of the stage and, like Pop, not averse to getting up close and personal with the audience.
Lay Your Head Down On The Road also made an appearance, sounding much fuller live with a full band to flesh it out. Of the new songs, there appeared to be a surprisingly twangy country number, and a song about rabies (but of course).
A furiously paced run through of Man In Me Lyfe to close the set prompted a fair bit of crowd surfing (by, from the looks of it and whilst dodging the odd flailing foot, some people old enough to know better) before The Moonlandingz headed off stage. There were calls for one more song but hey, fictional bands don’t do encores, okay?
The Moonlandingz as a live prospect certainly put the sweaty into meta, and with a new EP coming out on Sean Lennon’s own label in the next couple of months, chances are we haven’t seen the last of Johnny Rocket.
Written by Richard Pearmain on Thursday September 3rd, 2015 10:51 am
At a time of year when live music is usually thin on the ground, Fortuna Pop’s trio of Winter Sprinters at the Lexington gave the grateful gig-goer a chance to shelter from a damp and dismal early January evening. Nestled on a first night’s set list, between the rockabilly of the Werewandas and the acerbic laments of the Singing Adams, was the gifted Laura J Martin.
Things got underway with the sprightly Doki Doki, as a swirling, stomping Martin built up looped layers of flute. She is an engaging performer, with a fragile voice rather reminiscent of a young Kate Bush, and she deftly switches between flute, mandolin and keyboards whilst backed by assorted samples and her trusty loop station. Martin may be from a folk background, but her music is infused with contemporary influences (as her collaborations with Canadian MC Buck 65 and former Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs show). A new piano-based number gave way to Fire Horse, inspired by Martin’s time living in Japan and learning of the story of Yaoya Oshichi. A Lalo Schifrin-esque flute intro announced the arrival of the slinky Spy, whilst Martin entranced the crowd with the lilting Tom. She closed her set with Salamander, switching between mandolin and flute and building to a hypnotic finish.
As she heads off on a mini-tour and with her album, The Hangman Tree, hitting the stores in a couple of weeks, it looks like 2012 will be the year that Laura J Martin will astound an even greater audience!
Written by Richard Pearmain on Tuesday January 10th, 2012 10:18 am
It was never a good idea to make an effort to see a support band without first checking up on them. This I really should know after many years of gig going. But sometimes you just don’t learn, help you know? So it was that I found myself facing the most excruciating half naked squall in the upstairs venue at The Lexington in Islington. I had rather presumed that as the support band for the Jeniferever Silesia album launch These Monsters might echo their soporific post rock nuances, prescription but their particular brand of ‘Regressive Rock’ could not have been more different. So I removed myself from the noise and waited in the downstairs pub until it was time to return for Jeniferever.
I first profiled Jeniferever in Amelia’s Magazine many years ago, and I remember well the band asking me if I knew of anywhere for them to stay as they set off on a tour of UK cities, an anecdote which demonstrates well their tenacious nature. They are now onto their third album, Silesia, which was recorded in the wake of the death of singer Kristofer Jönson’s father, and was named for the former name of Berlin’s Ostbahnhof because he was nearby when he learnt of the news.
From the moment it opens with the deeply reverberating echoes of Silesia it’s clear that we are on familiar territory – hypnotic vocals wrapped around a simple but deeply engaging tune. The following tune Waifs and Strays feels like a protracted yearning, but The Beat of Our Own Blood moves the familiar Jeniferever sound onto an altogether different level, the curling melody a sure fire contender for mainstream radio play where even the lyrics “goodbye to bright spotlights” are discernible.
A Drink to Remember starts with the simple pickings of a guitar but nearly seven minutes later finishes with an incredible wall of sound. Deception Pass is frantic, all shadowy reflections as Kristofer traverses “the darkest hours of hope”. By Dover there is a lighter feel, a sense of climbing out of troubles… moving forward with the help of friends. The album finishes on the slightly more pensive and questioning sound of Hearths.
Jeniferever at The Lexington, all photography by Amelia Gregory.
For their album launch Jeniferever peppered new songs with a smattering of older goodies, each member effortlessly swapping between instruments. Guitarist Martin Sandström swung his asymmetric blonde hair elegantly against the beautiful ruby red backglow as I drifted off to Jeniferever land, the emotions reverberating across the floor and up through my legs.
Guitarist Martin Sandström.
Jeniferever have always done it their way, and Silesia is no exception: it’s a must have album for anyone who loves the otherworldly end of the musical spectrum.
It was a bakingly hot day, even by the sweltering standards of the past week or so, and the upstairs venue of the venerable Lexington offered cool, air conditioned sanctuary. It was already pretty busy, with Newcastle’s Retriever coming to the end of a pounding post-punk infused set as I arrived, and from what I heard it’s a shame I didn’t get there earlier to catch more of them.
By the time Nadine Shah was due to come on stage, the Lexington was pretty much a full house, and judging by the accents I could pick up, I got the impression that there was quite a sizeable Northeast presence.
Hailing from Whitburn, a small coastal village in South Tyneside (which has links to both Lewis Carroll and, improbably, the Spanish Armada), Nadine Shah came to everyone’s attention last year with her darkly dazzling Aching Bones EP. Following a lot of positive press, two recent singles heralded the impending release of her debut album, Love Your Dum and Mad, which itself has been receiving rave reviews. I’d seen her play a spellbinding set at the Old Blue Last in April, so knew that tonight would be something special.
Taking to the stage dressed all in black, Shah and her band (featuring her producer, Ben Hillier, on drums) were accompanied for the opening part of the set by a horn section, running through tracks from the album like Remember and Used It All. The unsettling Aching Bones, with its clanging percussion and insistent bass riff, got an early airing and a lot of cheers from the crowd.
PJ Harvey is a comparison that crops up a lot in articles about Shah, and though I suppose there are some similarities, I think she ploughs her own particularly intense furrow. Shah’s rich, haunting voice fills her quite often dark lyrics, which deal with loss, regret and, in the case of new single Runaway, the bitterness of the wronged wife. As a performer, Shah always seems transfixed on some point in the near distance, seemingly trying to contain the emotions rising within her. Between songs, she is a complete contrast, both chatty and witty (she jokes about the irony of singing a song called Winter Reigns on the hottest day of the year), and there are plenty of thankyous to various friends and family in between sips of red wine.
Tonight’s set covered pretty much the whole of Love Your Dum and Mad, so we also got the simple synth patterns of All I Want, the delicately mournful Dreary Town (which puts me in mind of the second Tindersticks album) and the brooding To Be A Young Man. Closing the evening, Shah played a reworked version of that old torch song Cry Me A River, her tortured vocals soaring through the room, before leaving the stage to resounding cheers from the crowd.
With her UK tour to promote the album resuming in September, after a spot supporting Bat For Lashes at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in August, things are looking bright for this rising Northeast star.
Plastic Mermaids are a five piece band from the Isle of Wight. Since their 2014 release of debut EP ‘Drømtorp’ they have rightfully been earning comparisons to the likes of Animal Collective, British Sea Power, The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. After sold-out headline shows last year Plastic Mermaids have become notable for their eye catching stage production, which involves handmade sets, lasers, projections and samples from films. I caught up with multi-instrumentalist Jamie Richards to find out more…
How did Plastic Mermaids come together and how has your home in Isle of Wight shaped your sound?
Doug, Chris N. and I (Jamie) used to be in a sort of thrash-electro-punk band called Magic Octagon. Really loud fast trashy music, it baffles me that we ever did it to be honest. Anyway we stopped that and decided to form Plastic Mermaids. We did one gig without a drummer with the most outrageous electronic setup ever and it was a complete disaster. We knew Chris J through surfing so got him to play some drums, and eventually decided that it also made more sense to have a bassist who could actually play the bass (I was pretty crap) so Tom joined us. I reckon being on the Island has definitely had an effect on our sound as we’re less subjected to the latest musical trends than we would be in a city, so we just kind of do our own thing. Being by the sea is pretty great for inspiration too.
What is the process of creating new music as a band? Is there one person more in control and if so how does that work?
There’s no one person in control, we all write music and bring ideas to the table. It’s not a simple process though. I guess it usually goes something like this –
Someone has an idea that we all get excited about and start recording it before we really know where we’re going, we drink a lot of tea, everyone decides they want to take the song different places, we argue about it, record multiple versions, change it around until it bears no resemblance to the initial idea, decide we hate it, abandon it for months, throw away everything, start again, change the tempo by 20bpm in one direction then the other, drink some more tea, argue some more, change the key, throw it all away again, decide the original idea was actually quite good, drink some more tea, call it finished. Every now and then we get lucky and a song actually comes together pretty quickly. We wrote and recorded most of ‘Polaroids’ in one evening – Doug had a piano piece, which he had a completely different vision for and the rest of us totally butchered it while he was out of the room having dinner.
What is happening in the Playing in Your Mind video? What inspired all the ideas and how did you achieve them?
Ha! Well we followed Doug with a camera which was lucky because when he got attacked by that mannequin it made a pretty good intro..
If you could describe the inspiration behind the new Inhale the Universe EP in one sentence what would it be?
Tom had a dream he could inhale the universe so we tried to replicate it in music.
How often do you get to surf and do you ever surf together as a group or is it always a very individual pursuit?
Doug, Chris and I (Jamie) surf as often as the waves permit. Unfortunately being on an island half way up the English channel that’s not very often in summer. We do get some good waves in winter though, and it’s hardly ever crowded which is a bonus. There’s something really nice about sitting in the sea with a few friends in the middle of winter with snow on the ground watching the sunrise and getting some great waves, knowing that everyone else is still in bed.
The visual aspect of performance is very important to you – what do you hope to do with your live sets in the coming years? Any ideas you can share with us?
Obviously lights/projections/stage props etc do add a lot to the live experience, but I think a lot of what’s exciting about watching us play is just the fact that we’re doing it completely live. It’s become almost a rarity nowadays to see a band playing without a backing track. I swear I’ve seen bands recently that could stop playing their instruments and you wouldn’t notice. What we’re trying to do at the moment is to push things as far as we can technologically with samplers and sequencers etc whilst still remaining completely live and not being locked into a click track. There’s been so much of it around recently and I think audiences are starting to realise that gigs with backing tracks become stale pretty quickly. In our sets things can (and sometimes do) go wrong, and I think that adds an element of excitement. In future we just want to see how far we can keep pushing it and not play it too safe. And we’d like some big lasers of course.
Where can we see you live this year?
We’ve got a couple of headline gigs coming up, The Louisiana (Bristol) 23rd Feb and The Lexington (London) 24th Feb. We’ve just had a couple of festival bookings too, Wychwood Festival (31st May), Isle of Wight Festival (12th June) and Bestival (September). We’ve also got a nice slot on the main stage at Rob da Bank’s new Common People festival in Southampton 23rd May which is pretty exciting. Hopefully we’ll get a few more booked in soon as well.
Playing In Your Mind and Inhale The Universe are released on 9 March via Cross Keys Records.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday February 13th, 2015 3:25 pm
At a time of year when live music is usually thin on the ground, Fortuna Pop’s trio of Winter Sprinters at the Lexington gave the grateful gig-goer a chance to shelter from a damp and dismal early January evening. Nestled on a first night’s set list, between the rockabilly of the Werewandas and the acerbic laments of the Singing Adams, was the gifted Laura J Martin.
Things got underway with the sprightly Doki Doki, as a swirling, stomping Martin built up looped layers of flute. She is an engaging performer, with a fragile voice rather reminiscent of a young Kate Bush, and she deftly switches between flute, mandolin and keyboards whilst backed by assorted samples and her trusty loop station. Martin may be from a folk background, but her music is infused with contemporary influences (as her collaborations with Canadian MC Buck 65 and former Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs show). A new piano-based number gave way to Fire Horse, inspired by Martin’s time living in Japan and learning of the story of Yaoya Oshichi. A Lalo Schifrin-esque flute intro announced the arrival of the slinky Spy, whilst Martin entranced the crowd with the lilting Tom. She closed her set with Salamander, switching between mandolin and flute and building to a hypnotic finish.
As she heads off on a mini-tour and with her album, The Hangman Tree, hitting the stores in a couple of weeks, it looks like 2012 will be the year that Laura J Martin will astound an even greater audience!
Written by Richard Pearmain on Tuesday January 10th, 2012 10:18 am
Martha Bean is a hotly tipped singer songwriter with a classical training. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, she has already played alongside some well known names such as Seth Lakeman, Bon Iver and First Aid Kit. I caught up with the Leicester based talent to find out more…
How did you learn so many instruments and do you have a favourite you return to when you are songwriting?
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a musical house – my Mum is a pianist and double bassist, and my Dad (who plays with me, too) a cellist. My Dad was also a music therapist for a few years, so we had a few other instruments around the house – guitar, clarinet, saxophone, percussion, etc – so I’ve been surrounded my lots of instruments from an early age. Since I moved out, I’ve found my musical instrument collection growing as I can’t resist the charm of a £20 banjo… I find myself more inspired by exploring and experimenting with different instruments – it keeps it exciting. The piano is my favourite instrument to write on because of it’s versatility and scale. I feel more comfortable in front of the piano than anything else too, since I’ve been playing it the longest.
How has your classical background informed the way your create songs?
I suppose it’s given me a totally different set of ideas and influences than most songwriters. My experience has really helped me with writing string arrangements too – something I love doing.
And how did your time at the Dartington College of Arts inform your music making?
Dartington gave me the freedom and the confidence to try totally new ideas in my music. It’s where I first had the chance to record my demos, and play them with other musicians. It was also where I first picked up the double bass, and I spent hours listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan records. Those voices still inspire my singing today.
What is When Shadows Return to the Sea about?
The album is mainly autobiographical – I see the album as a kind of diary of my thoughts and experiences during my transition to becoming a full-time musician. The actual line ‘I can find myself when shadows return to the sea’ is taken from the opening track of the album, ‘When The Fear Comes‘ – a song about leaving my day job, not knowing whether I could survive it alone.
What is your favourite lyrical subject matter and why?
I almost always write from the heart, rather than telling a story. Writing songs is, for me, a form of therapy really! A way to process life’s puzzles – so my favourite lyrical subject is whatever currently plagues my mind.
Where was the video for Who Changed the Clocks shot?
We shot the video for Who Changed The Clocks at Fraser Noble Hall in Leicester, thanks to the generosity of the University of Leicester. The piano in the video is the same one we used on the album – an amazing instrument!
Who else plays with you when you perform live?
There are 7 of us in total (the line up depends on the gig / venue size, though):
Martha Bean – vocal, guitar, piano
Joel Evans – Wurlitzer piano, backing vocals
Adam Ellis – Bass, backing vocals
Joe Manger – drum kit
Rob Rosa – violin
Mirka Katariina – viola
John Bean – cello
When Shadows Return to the Sea by Martha Bean is out now, and the single ‘Bad Blood‘ is out in June/July.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday April 28th, 2015 5:42 pm
Been Better
