MOLE 3 MOTHER LOVAHS

Artwork by Chris Cheal



MOLE 3
5TH JANUARY

BANDS:
THE MURDER ACT
SEX DUNGEON
D.A.A.S.I

MIXTAPE AMNESTY
MOLE ZINE
£2 ENTRY
£1 WITH MIXTAPE

CAMDEN HEAD, 100 CAMDEN HIGH STREET

SOUL JAZZ

Soul Jazz Records Bitesize profile

I should mention (out of fear of sounding like a P.R creep) that I don’t work for the label or know anyone affiliated with it but after years of seeing their ridiculously cool adverts staring back at me from the bottom of The Wire magazine I was lured into the Soul Jazz jungle and i’m having a real hard time making my way out.

One of the UKs best independent record labels releasing one spellbinding compilation after another, Soul Jazz was founded in the early 90’s. The London based label specialises in all manner of non mainstream musical delights with its main focus on principally black music with compilations featuring some of the most radical artists and musicians; including Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Alice Coltrane and Os Mutantes. Amongst their incredible catalogue of innovative black music, Soul Jazz also delve into the world of psychedelic, DIY post punk and no wave and global sounds with the label imprint Sounds of the universe.

Soul Jazz don’t just deal in soundwaves, they’ve got the visual goods to boot with a whole host of excellent Blaxploitation films and music documentaries such as Les Stances A Sophie, Dub Echoes and Studio One Story.

Soul Jazz recently reignited (and sadly snuffed them out again) the flames of their infamous 100% dynamite monthly Sunday event in Brick Lane, featuring Soul Jazz sound system and hosting a huge roster of talent including Warrior Queen. They played dancehall, dubstep, funk and soul and hosted a film screening of Franco Rosso’s Babylon, a poignant look at working class black youths living in South London in the early 1980s accompanied by the sounds of I-Roy and Aswad.

With the likes of global music conduit Gilles Peterson regularly putting together compilations for the label, it is the first port of call for anyone interested in delving into the wonderful world of...Haitian voodoo tribal drumming say, or perhaps the polyphonic voices of Georgia. Whatever the niche, chances are Soul Jazz have covered it. But before anyone dare say it, Soul Jazz don’t deal in novelty exploitative new age rubbish; care and attention is paid to each release, usually coming with some artwork integral to the record itself and a nifty booklet chronicling the development and history of the genre or scene featured.

Here’s a small snippet of some recommended Soul Jazz releases.

Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound
An amazing selection of Brazilian Tropicalia featuring legendary artists such as Os Mutantes, Tom Zé and Gal Costa.

New Thing!: Deep Jazz in the USA
As usual Soul Jazz offer another microcosm of the cream of the civil rights jazz crop, in a similar vein to Universal Sounds of the America but less afro futuristic and more politicised tracks.

Universal Sound of America: Universal Sound of America
This is what the future should sound like. Theme de Yoyo is possibly the best track on the album. This release just proves Space is the Place.

Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968 – 75
A recent release putting together some familiar and alien sounds inspired and hired by some of the greatest Blaxploitation films, including Coffy, Foxy Brown and of course, Shaft Goes to Africa.

http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/

Now Then: The Field

Sometimes it’s necessary for electronic music to provide some warmth, depth, sometimes it’s ok to combine a hybrid mix of luddite and technophilic sensibilities, man maketh the machine, the machine do not maketh the man. Sometimes techno can do with a god damn heartbeat. Enter The Field to provide the circulatory electronic system needed to pump some blood through the wired veins of Bungalow and Bears sound system.

Joining Sheffield’s Pygmie Globetrotters and Forest Creature for an extraordinary rare free gig, (yurp that is correct, FREE) the Kompact signed swede, known also as Axel Willner, is accompanied by live guitar, bass and drums. Together they look more like a warped metal band, all tattooed up with a wife beater vest thrown in for good measure but the sound produced is far removed from what their attire might suggest. Delicate, danceable rhythms that pull in a large hipster crowd and most importantly get them moving. The sort of beats that are repetitive but not tediously monotonous, the sort of driving beats that make you want to dance until your feet bleed. Motorik beats that give a mechanical nod to Can and Neu!

80’s power ballad ‘Everybodys Got to Learn Sometime’ by The Korgis is translated into a dreamy, whimsical mantra, gently aided by light tribal like drumming. As much as some are transfixed by the beat, others are most probably lost in the cyclical luscious soundscapes The Field is clearly renowned for.

Watching from the side of the stage to admire the drumming, the live instrumentation really elevates the spectacle, it’s no longer Vladislav Delay (whos performance at East London based Concrete and Glass last year failed to thrill visually) hunched over a laptop with an icy stare transfixed by a blank screen. What kind of a human being can pretend to be enthralled by that?

It’s often hard to catch any of the onstage antics, every so often the tip of a shiny bald head bobs up above the crowd at the front, but maybe sometimes a shiny bald head is all you need to see.

Who said you can’t get something for nothing.

Now Then: Hicks Review

Sheffield docfest: American: The Bill Hicks Story

(Directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas)

The Resurrection of Goatboy

‘Ever notice how we always kill the good guys and let the demons run amok?’

The self proclaimed ‘Chomsky with dick jokes’, Bill Hicks was a prophet and philosopher, embittered by religion, American unipolarity and capitalism, i’m yet to come across anyone who wouldn’t agree with his wise musings. Three years in the making, it was two brits Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas that were granted the divine right to tell the story of one of comedy’s if not humanity’s most iconic figures. This feature length documentary adopts innovative animation technique, using photos and snippets of footage of Hicks’ family and friends to go above and beyond the conventional talking heads set up. Harlock and Thomas speak to those who knew Hicks best, with each one capturing the essence of Bill with their amusing anecdotes and memories of the fellow. His close family recall his Baptist upbringing, which seemed to be the butt of some of his more extreme material. His childhood friend Dwight Slade reminisces over the duos high school days, performing guerrilla routines in front of anyone who happened to be within their perimeter. We’re launched into an animated recreation of the world of Hicks, his beginnings in Houston sneaking out of the house to perform at the Commix Annexe. Perhaps the most impressive footage is 15 year old Hicks performing to a crowd twice his age as the accompanying voiceovers recall his rare observational talent from such an early age. With the footage of Hicks live routines we feel as if we are in the audience, we cringe when he puts down drunken hecklers in the audience and almost compelled to shout praise in agreement of his poignant quips. The animation really excels itself during the documentary’s ‘squeegee clean’ third eye segment; recounting Hicks experiences with magic mushrooms and goes hand in hand with his liberal take on the ‘war on drugs’. A notorious chain smoker, the documentary deals with Hicks struggle with alcohol and pancreatic cancer without too much unnecessary hyperbole and sentimentality culminating with footage of Hicks last show in New York in 1994 just before his untimely death at the age of 32. As one friend puts it, as is so often the case with reluctant heroes, If Hicks was able to see the messianic status he’s been afforded in the entertainment industry he’d either find it highly amusing or be disgusted by it, but as biographic documentaries go ‘American...’ is a much needed celebration of Hicks life and philosophy; the vital importance of which in this day and age I cannot stress enough. After all It’s just a ride.

NOW THEN

So I made the concious decision to get off of my bee-hind and attempt to start some writings again. I've had an influx of ideas for articles and other things, MOLE has a facebook group now so if your interested, join it, if you aren't interested, die. simple.

In other news there's a awesome magazine in these sheffieldian parts called Now Then
it's a arts, music, culture and politics free physical magazine that comes out monthly and I asked them if i could contribute a few bits and pieces. I have a gig review of The Field and the Bill Hicks doc (see below post) so that's pretty tidy, as one might say if they were northern...perhaps, i'm not sure i haven't learnt many northern colloquialisms since i've been here to be quite honest, which actually is a bit shit. anyway if you are from sheffield get the freebie copy of Now Then, not just because my shites in there but it is a genuinely nice little publication and it doesn't cost you anything. which is good isn't it?

ooh and psssst... MOLE 3, JAN 5TH, THE CAMDEN HEAD, CAMDEN, LONDON, ENG-ER-LAND. We're putting on bands and whatnot, it's gonna be a QUHWOOT.

American: The Bill Hicks Story

Bill Hicks= saviour of all mankind. 15 years after his death at the age of 32 and Hicks is still as hilarious and relevant as he ever was. just saw a brand spanking new awesome documentary on the man himself and it was fantastic. the doc comprises footage of some of Hicks' material, anecdotes from close family and friends all pasted together with creative animation and photo montages. it really is an inspiring film about a very inspiriational man.
Here is the official website for the film.
if you've never heard of bill hicks or never really watched any of his standup then do yourself a favour and go forth and research.

OXBOW

You like big burly men who play 'a blend of Noise Rock, Experimental Jazz and Musique Concrete , that creates caustic soundscape with constant overtones of paranoia and revulsion'(!) who write books about fighting and like to strip down to their pants everytime they perform? yes? well then go see Oxbow at the Star and Garter in Manchester on tuesday please, because this will probably be one of the very few events which will satisfy your perverse interests...


Me and The Moon
Time, Gentlemen, Time
S Bar X



Oxbow are quite the intense band, notorious for their live performance and even more for their well hung front man (if you go then you'll understand, i'm not saying i know from experience, it's just well known...) there was an intereting article in The Wire or somewhere similar about the band saying something along the lines of why people have this curiosity about the group. is it purely due to their music? is it because Robinson is black? do people have this weird colonial interest in this seemingly ferocious, feral black fellow who strips down to his panties and often gets in fisticuffs? i t would be insulting to the band and to Robinson to suggest this, the music speaks for itself that's a certainty.
like Swans, Neurosis and oodles more hardcore, no wave, drone metal, whatever you want to call them bands, Oxbow produce a hypnotic soundtrack with layers of sound, whilst Robinson mutters and howls ominously underneath. they've got some nice collaborations featuring Jarboe and Robinson also features on Ruder Forms Survive the debut album by British doomy, ‘instru-prog-metal’ band Capricorns.

Robinson is quite the jack of all trades, writer, singer, agony aunt, actor and 1998 CAAT Heavyweight Men’s Sanshou champ...woof. his book is called 'Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass Kicking But Were too Afraid you'd Get your Ass Kicked for Asking. ' the chapter on knives has been censored over here, what with everyone knifing each other and all that, we just cannot be trusted!

A worth while purchase i think you'll agree, i've always wanted to know how to kill someone with a palm strike.

Black

some nice music that i have been listening to recently. None of it is new but all of it is nice...click on the title of this post if you want to hear a lame little mix/ sample of these nice tunes.


Black Rhythm Happening- Eddie Gale
Melt!- Flying Lotus
BANG- DJ Dijital vocals Mr. Bubble (Underground resistance)
Dread Cowboy- Tayo meets Acid Rockers Uptown
Krautrock- Faust
Orthodox Caveman- Sunn 0)))
Theme de YoYo- Art Ensemble of Chicago

bbbbbbbbbbbback

so i'm at uni in the city of steel, i haven't written any reviews or articles for some time, but i find myself on facebook constantly posting videos and links like mad, i figure if i'm not gonna spend my time doing any god damn work and the shite newspaper and radio station refuse to answer my questions about contributing i may as well stick some shit up on this bad boy blog! shame to let it go to waste is it not!?
i guess i should inform anyone who may be interested in the MOLE night at the George Tavern way back when, nearly 2 months ago now, jeeez louise. we had an awesome night thanks a hella bunch to those who came along and took part in the mixtape amnesty, hope you enjoyed the fine tunes being played:
LATE THANKS TO Cgul, General electric (ahaha), Gavin Gaa Gaa, Ellen Percival, Massoud Barzani and Lucy Tesco...
we had some super cool mixtapes with some special artwork, the venue was nice, laid back and relaxed, we had a LOT of funky soul sounds going on with some noise and a bit of ska to start of the evening, next time we'll stick some metal up yo' ass and put some heavier tunes on.
speaking of next time there IS another MOLE going on, next tuesday at the George Tavern, I'm not involved in this particular MOLE but it looks awesome

MOLE 2: ROCKABILLY VS NOISE, check it...

DOUR

p.s Dour Was frigging immense, i still have not written a little review of it which is a shame because i did love it so...i can lie and say there is one in the pipe line but i aint so sure so to make up for my shortcomings, here is a tiiiiiny tiiiiiny little picture of Engelbert Humperdinck...kadinky dinky dink doink BING!

Standon Calling 2009

I need a snorkel, I’m practically drowning in the sheer abundance of festivals taking place this year. Slowly but surely each year our fertile musical nation is giving birth to more and more. Fortunately Standon Calling manages to stand out from the brood.
From its humble beginnings as a birthday barbeque, the Hertfordshire based event has evolved into an award winning, fantastically intimate boutique festival, and it’s only in its second year.
This year the festival had the ingenious theme of Space, synchronizing the lineup to fit the theme and encouraging attendees to dress up in an array of out of this world (excuse the pun) garments. I believe a round of applause is in order for the group of fifteen middle aged drunkards ALL dressed as Coneheads.
What is particularly special about Standon Calling is the sheer quality of acts performing. The festival isn’t afraid to put on avant garde musical pioneers like Sun Ra Arkestra and Femi Kuti and the positive force alongside emerging local talent. They may have possibly succeeded in upstaging last year’s Japanese themed lineup comprising Acid Mothers Temple and Melt Banana.
Sticking with the intergalactic theme each stage is given a cosmic inspired name: Galileo, Apollo and err…Main Stage. Barberella’s proves a popular nightclub style haunt, tucked away in a converted cowshed with graffiti and decoration paying homage to the movie of the same name. People dance like extra terrestrial beings and play with the strange and ever so slightly confusing decorations/ props dotted around the place.
Friday brings us the eccentric and childish musings from Tim Ten Yen. Pulling some serious shapes, Tim Ten Yen does a strange whilst forcing the cross legged audience sitting in front of him to stroke the stuffed cat he brought along to accompany his act. My festival acquaintance speaks about him for the rest of the day and genuinely wants to marry him one day…
We Have Band are a London based funk dance troop. Dressed in silver and white they play matchmaker with Gang of Four and Donna Summers, who’s also messing about with LCD Soundsystem behind their back. WHB manage to pull in the largest crowd of the day thus far, which might well be over 30 people! Bear in mind this is a very intimate festival. The trio’s cover of ‘West End Girls’, and single ‘Oh’ goes off like a bomb in a discothèque (note: I just looked up the term Disco Bomb, this is not what was meant by the aforementioned metaphor.)
Not quite in keeping with the space age theme swedish folky sisters First Aid Kit are Johanna and Klara Söderberg and are exactly what you’d expect from Sweden, quirky, delicate beauties with a warm and soulful tinge. They look a tiny bit like fashionista shedevils the Olsen Twins ® (they are a brand not humans) in certain light but redeem themselves with their maudlin, gorgeous two part harmonies. These Scandinavian sirens have ethereal voices and, no one can deny a genuine talent defying their envy inducing youth.
Making their British festival debut Mothlite are a welcome surprise, providing beautifully atmospheric drone pop. Visually, these folks are mind cripplingly boring, although they do come with some smoke which they most likely stole from sunn0)))’s tour gear. Sonically they are gifted, close your eyes and you might find yourself falling into a deep, beautiful slumber, open them and you probably will too.
Sun ra Arkestra clash, quite tragically, with the much hyped Chrome Hoof who are in their very existence a doom/jazz tribute to the Arkestra themselves. The astro jazz disciples of the late great Sun Ra, the Jazz legend who coined his own philosophy and believed he came from Saturn, perform to an elated and intoxicated crowd, led by 85 year old Marshall Allen who has played in the arkestra since the mid fifties, the group eventually begin after an intensely long sound check. Streams of people crawl into the Galielo tent, whether they’re there to shelter from the torrential rain or there to witness a free jazz spectacle is beside the point.
The group lead the audience in a hypnotic chant of ‘Space is the Place’ and after this I’m left wondering which planet I originate from, afro futurism is the future.
Playing to an embarrassingly small audience Sunday afternoon, Kap Bambino do exactly what crystal castles do, create a barely tolerable noise which sounds like a cross between scooter and a female led hardcore punk band. The latter being a good thing the former…not such a good thing. I have to leave quickly as my ears begin to bleed quite heavily from the gabba influenced back beat.
Obviously 98% of the crowd watching Tony Christie turn up for the novelty of seeing the man himself perform ‘that song’, much to their disappointment Christie doesn’t bring along the cast of Phoenix Nights for a march along, instead he croons his way through a couple of Everly Brothers tunes and knocks out a bit of Andy Williams, he even dares to sing a few songs of his own that aren’t ‘that song’…but then he belts out ‘that song’ and simultaneously everyone feels like they’ve achieved something, no ones quite sure what though.
Femi Kuti and The Positive Force are a fantastic climax to such an eclectic lineup- channeling the spirit of his father, Fela Kuti, Femi brings his politically charged Nigerian carnival to the green fields of Hertfordshire. Kuti coaxes the largely white middle class spectators into repeating politically charged anthems criticizing the state of African governments. Afro beat accompanied by a huge brass wind section and three curvaceous backing singers shaking it in every direction.
Not to be missed is drag queen Jonny Woo’s Gay Bingo. Not for the faint hearted, or for that matter the young children sitting in front of me, there are a lot of references to Ketamine and predictably a lot of sexual innuendos. Woo looks like one of the girls from the video to simeon mobile disco’s ‘hustla’, at the end, when the girls wear those creepy masks that make them look like sexy ugly monsters. Gay bingo proves a fun camp frolic and a good opportunity to win a bottle of nasty cheap plonk.
Not only boasting a stellar musical roster, Standon Calling is situated in an 18th century manor house, yes someones actual garden…really big garden. The festival even has a swimming pool for tent dwellers to cool off/ wash in, replete with Wet Sounds under water DJ’s, quite spectacular I think you’ll agree.
Any one willing to pay 300 quid to go to Reading frankly deserves to pay 300 quid to go to Reading…Standon Calling has set a standard and i’ll be damned if I ever lower mine!

MOLE

Artwork for MOLE by Ellen Leber

MOLE AT THE GEORGE TAVERN 28TH AUGUST 2009

SOOOOO.....when we were about 16 an acquaintance and myself had grande ideas about hosting a club/gig night shindig in a local townhall which was home to many a misfit and troubled youth (we wern't one of them, but basically the townhall was a bit of a shitter).
Unfortunately our lack of initiative, funds and well any sort of experience prevented us from going ahead with our big plans.

Needless to say, not a great deal has changed, experience and funds are still relatively low but we have finally taken the initiative 3 years later to put on a pub night on the 28th August in Londonia at the infamous George Tavern in Whitechapel.

It's all very exciting, scary and fun to sort out, we're organising this event with a lass from London called Charlotte, so just incase you get an invite to this thang, thinking it's some faceless pointless generic club night with aload of tendy hipsters posing and pouting so that they can be posted on a photo website in ironic clothing...THIS IS NOT THE CASE. we just wanted to be involved and be proactive rather than being the cynical, passive, critical bastards we are, complaining about having nothing to do!

The night basically stemmed from an idea (not the most original one i know but hey an idea's an idea) to create a MIXTAPE AMNESTY at my sixth form, now as i'm sure those of you who may have gone to my sixth form can guess, this never actually happened. But now it is.
I havn't given up on buying cds and it's always fun to have a surprise compilation featuring music that you have never heard of of would never usually listen to, so i think this would be a pretty special opportunity to discover some unheard sounds and maybe strike up some conversation and chumships.

we've got other ideas floating around which include crazy raffle, some free badges and maybe a copy of MOLE Zine once in bloom.

It's a friendly affair, we have some mates helping us with leaflet and flyer design. They're gonna provide much better artwork than my little flyer job you see above.
we're gonna be handing out flyers ourselves and glueing up posters. so whether you know us or not come along for MOLE night, think it might be a chuckle.

If you are interested in getting involved, have any ideas yourself or any other enquiries drop me a line: radical_imo AT hotmail.com

ummmmmkay!


Facebook Page

Myspace Page

Last fm Page

Standon Calling

Standon Calling is a lovely little 'boutique' festival located, i do believe, in the grounds of a 17th century manor house in Hertfordshire.

This looks amazing, i'm gonna be 'bartending' at this years festival because it's only a few minutes away from my hood and the lineup is particularly special.

They have a space age intergalatic feast this year, last year the theme was Japanese and they managed to get hold of Melt Banana and Acid Mothers Temple to perform, I missed it unfortunately!

This year has afro beat legend Fela Kuti's son Femi headlining along with the late Afro futurist jazz legend Sun Ra Arkestra and Hawkwind- it's going to bedazzle.

In the mean time watch this little clip of Space is The Place, I'm now desperate to watch this film.

Tyondai Braxton- 'Central Market'

So usually when I review an album I’m generally cooped up in my dark grotty chambers, alone with only my quill and rats fighting in the shadows for company. For this particular solo debut however, I find myself draped over a leather couch at the Roxy bar and screen, roped off in a romantic room surrounded by burgundy drapes and candles, plied with a fountain of free alcoholic beverages to sweeten me up and dull my senses I’m assuming.
A clever ploy to prevent leaking of any tracks whilst simultaneously earning brownie points for the PR department of the record label in question, Warp records home to Aphex Twin, Gang Gang Dance and one of the leading forward thinking British independent record labels...god damn it, their evil plan just may well have worked!
Tyondai Braxton the ambitious vocalist of ‘complex time signatures and weird proggy effects’ group Battles and son of legendary multi instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, releases ‘Central Market’ a collection of compositions this September.
From the classical compositional feel of ‘Opening Bells’, punctuated with syncopated rhythm at the records beginning, I couldn’t shake this vision of Braxton conducting an orchestra of Disney characters in some cartoonish green utopia; I was instantly reminded of the film score to Snow White.
As the record evolves we’re interrupted by urgent horn sections, a bass heavy sequence and a plethora of quirky sounds from cowbells, kazoos on ‘The Duck and the Butcher’, to inaudible alien vocals interspersed between dull metallic noises.
Braxton is in possession of an auditory crystal ball in which he predicts the sounds of the future.
In this sense ‘Platinum Rows’ appears to be the more accessible track on the album for those not too down with epic orchestrated pieces, it’s a far Mellower, sludgier affair. A haze of apocalyptic, dirty guitar builds up in contrast to rest of records clearer sheen, transforming into grungy repetitive guitar chords and a rumbling bass line, the track is accompanied by shamanic indecipherable vocals.
Central Market certainly has a narrative to it and felt to me like a chronological record of modern orchestration, guiding the listener by the hand into the ‘22nd century’.

O Brother where art thou

Little Brother at the Jazz Cafe 1/7/09

Thanks to the deelitefool Shook and Doctors Orders mammoth 4th birthday celebration I got to check out North Carolina natives Little Brother at the Jazz cafe.
Now i'm not particularly hot when it comes to hip hop, as i've established before, I'm not incredibly good at keeping up to date, but I did a lil bit of research before trotting down to camden and recognised a few names on the groups good ol' wiki page- Kanye West anyone? Lil Wayne anyone else? nah? ok!
supported was Ghanian rapper Wanlov the Kubolor and acquaintance, these guys were a nice choice of warm up and managed to get the crowd going nicely with their global blend of afroamerican tinged hiplife. a highly enjoyable affair.

It wasn't until Phonte, Big Pooh (ahar i know, i like it too) and co came onto the stage that things really started to pick up. Waltzing onto the stage to the soulful acapella version of Jackson 5's 'I'll Be There', it nearly made me cry, maybe it was a combination of alcohol and the death of his majesty the King of Pop last week, but it was nigh on impossible not to be touched by rapper Phonte's homage to jacko.
I strongly believe regardless of a groups performance, flawless or not, the crowd reaction is paramount, (eg. Tv on the Radio at ABC in Glasgow- awesome band, shittest audience in the galaxy did not make for a particularly great gig). But the Jazz cafe crowd were really responsive, everyone seemed to know the words (except for me of course, i just mumbled unconvincingly and mimed some made up words inorder to feel like part of the crew). Many a head was nodding away, arms pumping up and down and three of the tallest guys i've ever seen in my life stood smak bang in front of me doing a strange jig. They were all at least 6ft 4 plus, why would they do that?!!!

Phonte provided some lovely smooth rnb style crooning, singing random phrases and words in the lull between each song. 'ASSSS ON THE COVER, ASSS ON THE COVER'. Whilst Big Pooh gave the crowd a taster from his latest solo album, which might i add sounded exactly like every other song Little Brother performed, but i'm not complaining, just making an observation.
unfortunately i didn't get to witness the remaining spectacle due to public transportation being what it is. Just as I made my way out of the door, a tune which sounded to me like one I ACTUALLY recognised crept into my ears and the crowd seemed to get even more restless- but I still regrettably made my way into the humid london night! I always seem to miss the best parts god damn!

For now, Here's a relatively amusing video from the group it's kinda funny.

King For a Day, Fool For a Lifetime

Well honestly i feel like my best friend threw a party and i wasn't invited, what a bitch!

i was aware that Faith No More were reforming to play download and some european festivals this summer but i had NO IDEA they were doing this Brixton warm up gig. Incase you are unaware (which most likely you are) FNM was probably the first 'alternative rock and roll group' that i ever obsessed over from the age of 14. unfortunately they have been hailed as responsible for spawning the blasphemous music genre known as 'nu metal' this is unfortunately true, after one listen to 'angel dust' and all is forgiven.
obviously the band were long dead by the time my ears started to listen to 'the real thing' and 'angel dust' but hey i still got to see Mike Patton perform with Peeping Tom and Fantomas!
i even dedicated part of my GCSE english project to a mock review of one of the bands albums, AND named them (along with old metallica...eurrrgh) as my fave band when i had a brief cameo in a girly magazine- everyone else seemed to go for beyonce and natasha bedingfield. but not me, nuh uh- FNM were number one!
I was in two minds when my friend informed me of this reunion. it must be greed, i assumed at first, pattons gone bankrupt and needs funds to support his record company Ipecac and his many many many many 'side projects'. but nah, im guessing he's pretty loaded thanks to the track 'epic'.
what i would have given though in hindsight to stand there at the front singing along to 'Midlife Crisis' and 'be Agressive' ah an opportunity wasted. shame they couldnt get jim martin back on geetar plus original vocalist chuck mosely singing 'we care alot' would have been the icing on the cake...ah well a girl can dream. sigh.

Sud Afrika

SHARP SHARP!

Having been in South Africa for the past few months i figure it might be appropriate to try and write something about the music over there. thing is, there isn't a huge scene over there and after watching the SABC music awards on the tv, i realised that they do have a lot of shit music! in terms of live scene, cape town in parituclar had little to offer, unless you have your contacts and you're willing to dig deep, it's almost impossible to find live stuff going on, very unlike london. when i was over there i missed out on the cape town international jazz festival where i think south african jazz legend hugh masekela performed and mos def made an appearance, alongside other jazzy types.
BIG MISTAKE, looked like it was the only thing goin on in cape town at the time.
in terms of whats popular in the strange country Kwaito is massive, it's a fusion of hip hop, trance/ techno and traditional south african rythyms and a huge bassline- usually punctuated by the MCs or rappers shouting repetitively over the top of the tune. anyone who has seen the film 'TSTOSI' will have heard Kwaito- you see guys dancing about with 90's fashion and what looks like fisherman sunhats on their heads- that's Kwaito. Every time i got into a minibus taxi (which does exactly what it says on the tin) the driver would have this sort of music cranked right up and i think it was the best music i heard in the place. speeding through the streets of cape town and durban with this stuff blaring out is a common sight and sound in the country. so expect a little article on south africa my experience there!

R.I.P Plan B

After returning from the Bermuda Triangle, i attempted to rebuild my contacts and my short lived stint at Plan B Magazine ( i spent a day at there cool little scruffy office in london on 'work experience and did some flyering around camden for them).
After emailing the editor and seeing if i could continue my time at the magazine i was saddened by the news that the magazine has folded and the june issue was the last of it's kind! here's a link to the Stack subscription website where the news was broken. Plan B had some of the coolest articles, features, illustrations in the land so i shall miss looking upon it's perfectly crafted pages. too sad. i shall now conduct a 2 minutes silence in honour of Plan B...

On another note STACK is damn awesome. although i'm not a subscriber the concept behind it rules and i managed to bag a freebie magazine from them a few months ago which was damn cool. the idea is that each month they send you a different magazine on rotation, you don't have any control over what you get but you are guaranteed a super cool, beautifully presented publication that may well change your life...or your choice in reading material at least. dooo it!

Artrocker Brownies

i'm pretty sure the Brownies article is in the latest edition of Artrocker, i aint go now way of gettig hold of this so if some kind soul wants to purchase a copy and send it to my humble abode on my return and i will pay you with copper coins and twigs.

DOUR

Me and sonny jim just bought our tickets to this bad boy

It's in Belgium :I land of chocolate, waffles and history trips, should be a corker, only 20% of the lineup have been revealed thus far but the names i do recognise don't look half bad:

Aphex Twin, Five Elements of Hip Hop (wooooah), Deerhoof, Diplo, Killing Joke and about 180 others to be announced.

judging by their past lineups Dour looks like one of the best festivals in the world and for 100 of your continental euros- it's a bargain if i ever did see one.

Don't be sour, come to Dour. Sorry that was poor.

Artrockahhh

Yeah that's right, the Spider and The Flies article can be found in April 09 issue of Artrocker feast yo' eyes on my second piece of published material PLUS they got my name right, well done this particular musical and cultural rag, well done.

Mole Fm

This will probably be one of my last posts for some time to come...i wonder what will happen to this here blog in the next few months, i aints gots a clue!

Tracklisting as follows:

Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley
Telepathe- So Fine
Roy Orbison- In Dreams
The Ikettes- I'm Blue
Don Henley- Boys Of Summer
The Knife- Forest Families
Nina Simone- I Put A Spell On You
Whyte Boots- Nightmare
Gang Gang Dance- House Jam (Hot Chip Remix)
Billy Holiday- Strange Fruit

Big Bad Mole

'Dyin' aint much of a livin' boi'


I have been incredibly neglectful these past few weeks, i have intense spurts (urgh hate that word) of writing, then it all goes to pot and i lack the motivation and decency to bother! i made a conscious decision to stop doing CD reviews as i have become incredibly disillusioned with the idea of rating something and telling someone about music...I'm happy to do interviews, write constructive gig reviews as i feel like these are moments and experiences that are easier to define and invest in more, basically they are funnerer, also easier to sieve through the bullshit and the hype really than listening to a CD, it became a chore and that's not why i write about music it's not a job (i don't get paid obviously).
anyway boring rant over, the main reason for this random realisation was whilst i was watching a documentary on BBC4 'Festival!' directed by Murray Lerner, it was damn inspirational. i was never big on folk or blues for that matter but that documentary had a big impact on me.
after that I couldn't stop listening to Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bo Diddley. i jut remember why i like music, personally i am not too great at getting up to date with every album as they come out, i prefer to just go with whatever i want to listen to or whatever phase i'm going through. at the moment all i have on my mp3 and CD player is Telepathe, Scratch Acid, Bo Diddley, Red Bird compilation and Brazilian Tropicalia. Literally. that's at least 50 years of music.
this isn't the most entertaining of posts i admit but it sort of explains the abundance of tumbleweeds that have been blowing through this here blog.
on another note i have got an interview with Spider And The Flies out tomorrow in the latest edition of Artrocker and also i'm just finishing an article on a Norwich band called the Brownies hopefully to be featured in Artrocker so look out for that...


Over Und Auf

Knife Fever

I just downloaded the new single to be released by Karin Dreijer Anderrson under the guise of Fever Ray. Karin is of course one half of one of the most amazing electronic pop groups in the world ever, The Knife. listening to the Fever Ray track 'If I Had a Heart' sounds distintively knifeish but even darker, like 'forest families' from the album 'Silent Shout' but with Grinderman in the background, it's brooding art at it's best. I love her androgynous warped man vocals too which she brings back.
Me and a few friendlings managed to catch the Knife play at The Forum in 2006 Planning To Rock supported them and it was a triumph to say the least. They went to great lengths to hide their identity probably because it was one of their rare live performances. I vaguely remember there being a massive sort of translucent/ net curtain between band and audience and loads of weird and wonderful videos projected in the background, the duo both wore balaclavas and looked amazing.
Here's a little link to 'Pass This On' from The Knife's first album 'Deep Cuts' (the crazy hoodlum looking guy that starts dancing at the beautiful man lady is Olof Dreijer Karin's brother and partner in crime.)

To a Sky Lark

Leeds triumvirate, Sky Larkin, have had quite a year, with some impressive support slots (Conor Oberst) and mentors there to guide them (producer John Goodmanson and Death Cab for Cutie have mucked in).
Now signed to Witchita (home to the likes of Bloc Party, Les Savy Fav and Bessie mates Los Campesinos’) the band look like they’re in safe hands.
Those Sky Larkin birds are however a difficult breed to try and track down. GIITTV were hoping for a lil bit of chat time before christmas loomed, unfortunately it wouldn’t be until January when I was finally able to nab a conversation about the new album ‘Golden Spike’ and what the future holds for the band.
I knew I was cursed from the moment my train was delayed by an hour. After having finally scheduled a phoner interview with the band, my car then broke down preventing me from getting to the necessary tools in order to record the interview!
Eventually I managed to transcribe the interview and write up a piece only for it to be lost in the expansive cyber universe! The Gods just did not want the message of Sky Larkin to be spread.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, you say…ne’er fear after many obstacles and torturous hours I bring you a brief but insightful interview with front women Katie Harkin who was ever so gracious and lovely in spite of the misfortunes that plagued the interview, the women is a true professional. Enjoy it, I walked slowly over hot coals and ash to bring you this…sort of.

How would you describe the sound of the album?

Katie: Well when we went to Seattle to go and record it we met (producer) John (producer John Goodmanson) just as we were straight off the flight and we were incredibly jet lagged and we were trying to have a constructive conversation and I think the only words that I could get out of my mouth in my jetlagged state were ‘RAW’ and ‘FULL’. ‘I want it to sound really full but also really raw at the same time’. I think that’s was about as far as I could get, and I think that’s how it sounds.
The fun of being a three piece is that, ‘cos they’res only sort of a limited number of things going on at one time, you have to make each of your parts as full as possible without overplaying.

How did you find the recording process did it all go pretty smoothly, were there any amusing anecdotes you can share?

Katie: Well we went to two different studios we went to Death Cab For Cuties studio, they lent us us drums and amps and stuff like that for recording the basic tracks ‘cos we only came over with the standard baggage allowance. Nesta managed to break five snare drums in one day. He broke nothing until the last day that we were there then he managed to break five in one day.
We went to johns to do vocals and sort of extra bits and pieces and John had just moved into this studio that he was halfway through building and the vocal booth that he had was in an old broom cupboard it was so hot in there that if I had the light turned on, it was too hot, so I had the light turned off and had to sing in the dark.

Did you find that had any impact on you’re vocals at all?

Katie: It’s always a bit schizophrenic like singing and then lifting back to yourself and then being like, yeah I’d like to keep that or whatever, it’s always a bit maddening. So yeah I did go a bit loco.

Who would you say were your kindred spirits within the industry?

Katie: There’s bands that we’ve toured with and played with a lot. We’ve toured with Los Campesinos a couple of times and we’re just about to go on tour with Johnny foreigner. We’re all kind of around the same age and we all play gigs together before any of us had albums out.

You’ve kind of grown and developed together?

Katie: Yeah definitely. Johnny Foreigner are coming along with us touring Europe.

What about the name Sky Larkin? I was trying to find some sort of reference and wondered if it was inspired by a love for Percy Shelley (in reference to Shelley’s poem ‘To a Sky Lark’)?

Katie: It’s funny ‘cos I started the idea for the band when I was living in London and I went to meet my friend Simon, I said to him I wanted a band name that sounded positive and hopeful and kind of ambiguous, like it could be a person or a band at the same time. He just suggested it, you can’t think of anything more expansive and universal than the sky. Plus my last name is Harkin so it’s a pun, which is always good.

Good wordplay. Where do you see Sky Larkin going in the next year?

Katie: I don’t know exactly what we’re doing in the next three months, but I know that we’re gonna get to go back to a lot of the places where we were lucky enough to do support tours last autumn like Conor Oberst. We went to places we never expected we could go and now we can go back to those places, it’s gonna be nice to go back to Switzerland and places I never really imagined we would play and I guess every musicians aim is to have a record out. When we first started out our goal was to have a 7’’ single out and maybe to play a gig in another country and beyond that everything is just a bonus.

No Pussy Blues

After reading a quote in some rag or t'other this week, in which a particular artist claimed that boys do 'it' better (im assuming this particular quote 'it' refers to creating music), got me thuhunking.
At first i agreed with this sweeping statement. 'yar...' i thought 'boys do do it better'. however after a liddle bid of reflection AND on closer inspection, i've come to the conclusion that the aforementioned statement was, to put it bluntly, the quotation equivalent of a steaming pile of turd that sits crusting in the suns rays.
to make matters worse i think the quote can be attributed to a female band member, she was basically admitting to her own inferiority, to be fair her band are not particularly special.
Plankish though her statment was, it sort of proves how initially it's difficult to list great female artists and singers without going through the same old people.
I started thinking about no wave, the likes of lydia lunch, Jarboe and Diamanda galas, three women who i have ALWAYS meant to get into their work but have neglected to do so. their influences have stretched far and wide, they're all loud mouth bizznitches and a little bit weird...that's why i like them.
i also found a cool book which is home to an archive of interviews from 'punk planet' (punk rock zine i assume...i have little knowledge on the subject) in Oxfam a few months ago, there is a cool interview with kathleen hanna, she of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame. she's basically a stark raving feminist...but not in the way i have always assumed feminism to be, man hating. she puts up a good fight, she's eloquent, knowledgable, witty and doesn't contradict herself which is a surprising feat considering the conviction she has in her views. Hers was definately an inspirational point of view.
My new found gender awareness is thanks in part to listening to a lot of Ellie Greenwich stuff and The Slits this week. I've never really been a feminist or really taken the time to study in depth womens roles in society, however i still get supremely pissed off when i do take the time to think about the gender injustices that plague our world. i'm considering going on a tirade about this, perhaps in article form or something and link it in music, we'll see what happens with that one.
On the lady note i'm just getting into a novelist called Harry Crews, and coincidently Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, bummed around with Nick Cave back in the day) were in a short lived 'supergroup' in the late 80's which was based around him and his books...check him out he seems interesting. he's probably a misogynist like most of the people that appeal to me.

Flash

The Furious Five sure did know how to dress, dapper and well fitting.

This months Plan B

Looky here, I am officially a published 'journalist' my first ever piece of proper published writing appears in this months Plan B magazine, how exciting!
However...I was slightly dissapointed to get this email from the reviews editor of the magazine:

hey imogen, hope you're well - have, um, good and bad news - the good being that richard (cced here) will dispatch you a free copy of the latest issue if you can get him yr address - the bad news will become apparent when it arrives - yr review made it in as one of the leads, and yr name nestles proudly amongst the other contributors on the contents page but somehow - and this is totally my fault - you've been misnamed as 'isobel decordova' in the actual review credit - felt sick when i saw it - so sorry - hopefully we can make it up to you in the future...

it is a rather unfortunate state of affairs, both bitterly ironic and humourous and touching all at once. but oh well, it's only my vanity that would be bothered about my name not being 100% right in the credits. so if you happen to stumble across the article there is no Isobel, it's a cunning disguise on my part :s

Full Transcription of Spider and The Flies Interview

Spider And The Flies Full Transcription of Interview

This interview took place on Saturday 31^st January 2009 in Tom’s plush flat somewhere in London.

How did the project flourish

S: Spider and the flies came about from tom and I spending countless hours and evenings exploring listening to and just kind of losing ourselves in electronic sounds from some of the earliest Musique Concrete straight through to brand new releases and everything in between. And I think it’s such a insane world that it’s something that you really have to discover for yourself. As a teenager, at school, the idea of dance music or electronic music was something that really scared me because it was something that I didn’t want to anything to do with my identity with riffs and guitars like the rebellious side of like avoiding what I was confronted with in the charts…

T: You think it’s something that’s sort of intangible, not real.

S: I think it was such a horrible time for electronic music as a kid or a teenager, it was something that you kind of just ignore. Chart dance music, was one of the reasons why I completely immersed myself in punk and garage but of course what lies behind the awful, face value stuff that is played on the radio all day, is the most amazing world of creativity that starts out as a science.

I mean most of the original electronic composers were actually trained orchestral musicians who were suddenly given a new instrument or sound to explore in a completely different way. So I suppose in the late 50’s the idea of messing around with the limited equipment they had you know working with oscillators and tapes, suddenly the idea of being able to explore a sound that was before completely unheard of, is just the most exciting thing in the world.

I think for me the first electronic track where I suddenly understood and completely got into everything must have been when I was I dunno, 18 years old, dancing at this mad club and then the 15 minute version of I feel love came on I was in quite an altered state of mind at the time, and as the song went on and on and on, I was obviously familiar with the track, this 15 minute track was the most insane freak-out, it was just like a mad euphoric explosion of synthesizers and wild kind of filtering and phased drums and I just lost myself in that moment.

Transformed by Donna Summer

S: Yeah, it just kind of I think yeah something clicks, and I suppose for me the exciting thing about electronic sounds is that it’s such a man made thing that its like it’s a very emotive way of communicating I suppose.

That’s quite paradoxic…

T: It’s jumping around quite a lot.

S: The earliest sounds that appeal to me, are kind of like the beginnings of working out what you can do, to the birth of dance music. Where you know it’s music to lose your mind to. That other worldly quality is something that from the earliest sounds to house, to everything really, it’s so affecting and I think that’s something that really appeals to us.

T: I remember sort of always being into the old much older records. The garage records that have electronic on them, I mean I don’t really know why anyone would consider putting (makes weird woohohoahfrdngr noise…) on an old garage record, I don’t know why they did it, but those are always my favourite ones.

There’s a great track called ‘Forest Of Black’ by Dirty Filthy Mud which is completely full of those sounds, that was my favourite one. Then it kind of was a natural progression of listening to completely electronic music. Opening your mind to the idea that dance music isn’t, this sounds really awful saying this now, but if all you’ve ever been exposed to is really awful soulless rubbish then you’ve got this horrible idea of what it can be like. It was opening your mind to the fact that it can be some of the most amazing music

S: The thing that is so inspiring and the thing that really drives us is the idea that in early guitar music it started to creep it’s way in…I don’t know what’s the right word. But the way that it’s affected generations from like acid house and then how in America…this is all getting a bit over the top…the impact that had on the London scene and what it’s evolved from into…you know what became rave and that into jungle and into drum and bass. It’s too difficult to say why you enjoy it, but it’s a world to easily get completely lost in.

It’s interesting what you were saying earlier about how it can be emotive music. Because of your garage / psychedelic influence with the Horrors, compared to the automated, very clinical techno influence- how do you find that differs in the process of actually making it and how you respond to it?

S: Well the process of writing is obviously completely different. It was amazing for Tom and I to work like this because it is working in such a different way. It’s not working in a band you know, writing together in a rehearsal room, throwing chords or ideas around, kind of that organic sense of playing and working. It’s such a different thing.

It was a real kind of release of energy, ok we’re writing as this band, but there was this other thing you could really do. The possibilities are endless, you could do whatever you want. And the point was, we were doing it for everyone’s enjoyment, but it was a chance for us to be let loose and try and explore.

T: There was no way out, there was no one telling us, whispering in our ear.

S: Funnily enough on that note, when we recorded the mini EP was kind of recorded in two sections the flip side of the vinyl release. The first five tracks on the CD were our first foray into recording and writing in that way, we had just been working with the Horrors up until that Friday and I think we booked in the Sunday. We literally got back from touring and decided to go straight into working like that.

We thought well lets not write this music lets actually think about, lets write to a theme or lets come up with a story ‘cos that’s obviously something we were interested in, in some of the concrete or the Joe Meek, more avant garde or experimental side. We thought, you know, lets actually write a story and then create the sounds for it.

It was very much played live at that point there was obviously a lot of programming involved.

T: It was all programmed, none of it was sequenced.

S: The other couple of tracks that feature on the LP we recorded a year later and you can very much hear how the sound has completely moved on. The original thing is quite organic and quite filmic, it’s certainly not the sequenced programmed…(inaudible).

Can I just confirm when exactly you started recording?

S: We actually recorded the first five tracks last summer.

T: We were gonna go on tour in America, we found out that was over and we had a week off so we decided to do this thing we’d been talking about doing for ages.

S: It was our first experience in a recording studio working like that.

How about the actual recording process how did you come up with the concept for each track? Is it just you literally messing about and seeing what happens and hoping you’re happy with the results or is it actually scientifically calculated?

T: It’s completely both ways, most of the time. The two most recent tracks, one of them was just like a 10 minute jam we were doing at the end of the night cut up into 4.5 mins. One of them was just us taking turns and putting parts on, it’s a real studio based thing, We’ve thought about taking it live.

Yeah, are you gonna have any live dates?

T: We would really like to, but its hard because of the way we’ve done it you either have to learn how to play the tracks you’ve already done, which would take more time that we’ve got or you have to do something improvised which could go either way.

S: We’ve kind of discussed what we’d do to take it live and we’ve wanted to keep as true as to working with the analog equipment and try and not get lost in the fact that you could just bring a laptop and have everything programmed at the touch of a button.

We’ve discussed the idea of having a load of drum machine, sequencer and keyboards clocked up. In theory you know, you can create and play within those limits, but still completely explore.

Visually that would be more exciting as well…

T: But there is a danger of it getting a bit tangerine dream, I think the trick is to keep it really minimal, you’ve gotta have about one keyboard each.

Reading the press release and your description on your Myspace you’ve kind of created this time traveling, out of space exploring…

S: We just made that up as the week went along didn’t we? There was a record called ‘I Hear a New World’ a kind of Joe Meek solo project, he worked with a live band, one of his regular studio bands but it’s really a record he used to explore and to play around with his studio world. And the various techniques that he’d been exploring of treating sound, very much in the way that the concrete musicians were but without really knowing it.

His exploration of tape loops, weird reverb units and echo chambers he’d built and he was really driven to explore electronic sound and this record was actually a journey into space.

Each track had a narrative and featured different aliens and life form and it told you about their personality. He created this world and each track had its on world within it, the music so vividly came to life. There were only 100 copies pressed, that was such an inspiration to us that we wanted to pick up where he left off and go on our own journey, our own vision of space. We thought that was a really inspiring idea.

I’m interested as to whether each track has a concept to it?

S: We did want to write a story for each track

T: We did but you kind of end up getting carried away with the music, but then it ends up coming back on itself and you’re like where’s the character now and how’s the story gonna end.

S: The first track is our launch into space…there’s our version of the kind of Cantina bar, our kind of robo-disco track we stumble across walking into a crazy club full of insane robots off their heads kind of dancing. There’s a mad space chase track which I just had this vision of speeding through a meteorite shower.

T: ‘Jungle Planet’ has got the best one, Jungle planet is a planet which from the outside doesn’t look like anything, it just looks like a bare, horrible barren planet . But you can go through it and when you go into it it’s all jungle and the song is suppose to be flying through the planet. There’s an alien tribesman trapping people. And there’s loads of creatures going (makes weird noise corresponding with the weird noises on the record). It opens up into this huge space and there’s this disgusting monster in it, then it’s the escape from the disgusting monster.

So it is a concept album then?

S: It is a concept album but we didn’t want to be too like erm…

Proggy?

T: Yeah exactly

S: Well the thing is it’s such a visual thing, we didn’t really need to explain what’s happening because it paints a picture that if you are to listen to it from start to finish you can hear what’s going on. If you’ve got a loose idea of what’s happening I think you could literally paint your own picture.

You won’t be having any epic story in the sleeve notes then?

Both: No.

T: We toyed with that idea.

So that’s solar influences covered, would you say you’ve got any B movie, horror influences at all? With the artwork and the human fly image?

Both: No

T: That was more just like we came up with a name and then come up with the concept afterwards. There’s not an awful lot of good material to be found in B movies and horror stuff. I don’t know, I’ve got a few sound tracks but there’s nothing that amazing. No, that’s never really been an influence for us, we’re not really big film people, we’re big record people but not film.

Where did your relationship with Barry 7 from add N to X spring from, how did you meet him?

S: I met him djing at the old blue last, I was playing a track by Michael Cox, he came storming over and was sort of like ‘what’s this track, what’s this track’ and I told him what it was and immediately we started talking and we just became friends.

T: It was the opposite way for me, he was playing a record that I really wanted and we just hit it off, I think we’ve got a very similar love of music and electronics and he spurred us on to buy as much equipment as possible and as a result we’ve got too much. He was really supportive.

You’ve talked a lot about academic side to music, have you studied it?

T: No not at all, I kind of wish I had now, it was something that at the time the idea of music technology sounded like the Anti Christ, why would you want to scientifically break down that. Now I really wish I had.

S: I always see myself as a punk finding music in (any) of it’s form. The best thing about working with these new machines…

T: old machines

S: yeah well, old machines, is hearing and learning how they work and how sound is affected.

T: I come across a lot of people that know a lot, but you know, they ain’t got no soul (laughs). It’s not like you can’t learn it or do it yourself, if you put in the effort you can.

S: I think that’s one of the really inspiring things of the Radiophonic Workshop, is that they were inventing this science as they went along.

T: Them and Raymond Scott are the two kind of big people…I’m curious to know how many people were influenced by them immediately after and I’m pretty sure it’s actually next to no one. I think now what they were doing was miles ahead of their time.

S: There’s a really amazing album called White Noise I had before actually knowing anything about the Radiophonic Workshop and it is a psychedelic record made in ’69 heavily features electronics. Delia Derbyshire was approached to work on that record.

T: The way it was made is pretty much like exactly how Madlib or J Dilla made their records, except they were cutting up tape instead of putting it into samplers, it’s just as weird, just as psychedelic and just as amazing.

In terms of your contemporaries, would you say there’s anyone around doing what you’re doing?

T: Without sounding really wanky, there are some bands I really like but I don’t think they see themselves in the same ball park as we are and I don’t think we do either.

S: We just are in our own contained unit, maybe this is like the electronic wing of what we’re doing and we’d definitely like to go and explore other wings as well. But there’s definitely some amazing electronic music being made at the moment.

T: Mostly in The Hague, some really great dance tunes coming out of the ghettos in The Hague.

Do you know Underground Resistance? I was just reading an article about ‘Mad’ Mike Banks and the whole Detroit scene…

T: Yeah, yeah he’s amazing, but he’s in Model 500 now. Like Model 500 live is like a complete techno all stars team. I mean Underground Resistance, as far as their concerned no one outside of Detroit should even hear their records. That’s amazing, and that music is so much more punk than punk has been for a really long time.

Is there any relevance to the clockwork theme?

T: the idea it would be like a clockwork spaceship…

No homage to Clockwork Orange then?

T: No that would have been to easy.

This seems a lot more mature, it’s different to the kind of NME front page idea? Less NME more The Wire.

T: We never strived for that kind of thing with the Horrors.

S: Unfortunately other people have more power to create a mould/ image of you than you do yourself. We would have made this in exactly the same way as we did with the Horrors regardless of what anyone wrote or put on their pages. It really is what happens on the other side that says something.

T: Maybe it was a lot camper than we thought it was, we never had the intention of it being a shock horror thing.

S: We were just like 19/ 20 year olds playing guitar music, we didn’t think that anyone was gonna listen to that

.

T: None of us had ever written a song it was just a fun idea.

S: It’s just what we would have always done, if noone had paid any attention to the Horrors we would have still been doing it. We certainly weren’t really interested in what people were gonna think of it. We just did it. It’s the same as Spider and the Flies, wherever we were, we would have done that as well. It’s not in any way a considered move.

T: It’s not a case of ‘look how interesting we are, we make electronic music’ like what Coldplay did or something, ‘We listen to kraftwerk and we rip them off as well’.

Its just timing is it not? I was 18, you can’t expect like Leonard Cohen or something straight away.

I wasn’t saying that you’re intentionally trying to stray away, it’s just that listening to your album it’s not as accessible to some of the kids that maybe listen to the Horrors and are expecting something completely different.

T: They like it

S: I don’t know what I think, the reason we’re making music like that is because we

Explored and heard amazing music. I’m hoping it will have the same affect on people because actually there is a world of great music that isn’t rubbed in your face every day and that’s actually where the best stuff generally lies.

T: The Cave Club is a really good example of this, it’s basically an underground psychedelic club, we switched around and said we want to do the electronic stuff, and all the same people came down and stayed, people are open to that idea.

S: Great music is always great music. There’s just too much shit music around, it blurs people’s vision.

T: if you wanna eat fish and chips everyday then that’s your problem, your missing out.

You haven’t got any ideas for touring?

T: What with Spider and the Flies, not at the moment, no way.

S: We were planning on doing a live launch for the record we’ve been so busy doing other things that we haven’t sorted it out yet, but if someone was to say to us, ‘You’ve got a week off in August’, not even that far, ‘you’ve got a week off in May’ or something, ‘do you wanna play a gig?’ we’d probably say yes, we would and even if it was just a one off thing, we’d love to and we will as well.

T: Unfortunately I think the idea of a week off in August is way off.

So you’re just playing it by ear?

S: Yeah, that’s the way this entire project has worked. But there’s new sounds being created on a weekly basis.

T: We’ve been asked to do live sessions for the BBC and XFM, but instead of doing live sessions we’ll write three tracks each, instead of doing a session, so yeah they’ll come out.

What do you get out of this project that you don’t get out of other projects?

T: Initially it was, it’s was a chance to do, ‘cos we were touring lot when we’d started doing this record, we were playing songs that we thought maybe were a bit immature maybe we weren’t too happy about playing and this is a great chance to do something that we really wanted to do.

Now to be honest, I don’t really feel like I’m getting anything else out of this than the other band. It’s a bit more…fun I dunno its different to the Horrors, where you would have to sneak it in. It was initially a great opportunity to do things that we couldn’t do.

S: That’s not even true either, we’ve just recorded a (horrors) record that features a lot more…

Have you found that it’s seeped through, both projects have collided?

T: I think it would have been ridiculous for us to do another album that sounded exactly the same as the last...

S: (Interrupting) Well it was out of the question, it would just never happen.

Danke schön to Tomothy Furse and Rhys ‘Spider’ Webb for taking time out of their busy schedule to take part in the interview and subsequent photoshoot…the results of which I am yet to see.

The feature produced from this interview should be in the April or March edition of Artrocker Magazine unless something goes horrifically wrong or the editors think it’s shite...i'm not kept in the loop on these things. Watch this space, actually i wouldn't if i were you nothing will change.