Issue 47 / August 2014

Bido Lito! August 2014 3
Editorial
The geographic roots of music have always been fascination of mine. Whenever I get my lugs
around a new earworm I find myself wanting to dissect its heritage: what environment it was made
in, and the conditions that shaped it. I’m not entirely sure why I’m drawn to this to be honest – it’s
probably just because I’m a nosey get – but I find that developing a wider context around a piece of
music can prolong enjoyment of it.
For example, in Forest Swords’ Engravings you can hear the wind whistling over the hills of
Thurstaston, and there’s a certain satisfaction in understanding how this setting helped to shape
the record. When I interviewed Melody Prochet last year, I broached this subject with her, given that
I found her debut Melody’s Echo Chamber album to be such a rich mix of inspirations: a classical
upbringing in the south of France, with the songs written in a cramped flat in Paris, and recorded in
the sun-baked expanse of Perth. I was only a little surprised, therefore, when Melody agreed with
me about a sense of place being an important anchor within a sound: “I think the place where
selecting influences like you might fill up a pick’n’mix bag in a particularly well-stocked sweet shop.
The fact that music created at (virtually) any place and time in history can be readily accessed today
makes for a lip-smacking buffet of opportunities, in turn meaning that the creators of 2014 are no
longer limited by the circumstances of their birth and upbringing. If you add in to this the abundance
of production techniques available today, you can see just how liberating the digital revolution has
been and will continue to be in constantly moving the creation of music forwards – even if it does
leave a small pang for those knee-jerk recordings that capture the character of a specific location,
with all its imperfections left in.
In order to prevent things from becoming stale, in any form of art or communication, movement
is vital. The fluid transit of ideas and practices across cultural and geographical boundaries has
been vastly important in making our society as rich as it is, and music has often been a key conduit
in this cultural transfer. In our BETWEEN THE BORDERS feature in this issue, these themes are
inspected in a little more depth. We hope that it makes you look at the idea of migration in a
slightly different light.
On a totally different topic, now that summer holidays are a thing of the past, I have to get my
August kicks elsewhere. So it’s left to pre-season fever to get my juices going: again I’m not sure why,
but the prospect of bone-dry football pitches and meaningless friendlies fills me with excitement.
It’s also an excuse for me to gorge on my stores of optimism about what the season holds for
Tranmere and The Diggers. However it turns out, I can’t wait to don my Germany shirt, slip on my
Italian football boots, and fix my headband in place, in a bid to channel the spirit of Edinson Cavani.
Now that’s a cultural revolution for you.
Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito
Editor
you record is really influential. When I listen to
Portishead, for example, I can feel the UK and
the grey… ha! But I love it!”
Obviously this is but one small part in the
massively complex story behind the creation
of music, but is it something that is slowly
being consigned to the history books? Now,
of course, anyone with an internet connection
can access a database of two centuries’ worth
Pick and mix your musical heritage
of recorded music from all over the world,
Features
6
8
10
12
14
SUNSTACK JONES
AFTERNAUT
BE ONE PERCENT
ST VINCENT
BETWEEN THE BORDERS
16
MUTANT VINYL
18
ADRIAN HENRI
20
LIMF 2014
Regulars
4 NEWS
22
PREVIEWS/SHORTS
24
REVIEWS
Bido Lito!
Issue Forty Seven / August 2014
bidolito.co.uk
4th Floor, Mello Mello, 40-42 Slater St,
Liverpool, L1 4BX
Editor
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk
Reviews Editor
Sam Turner - live@bidolito.co.uk
Designer
Luke Avery - info@luke-avery.com
Proofreading
Debra Williams - debra@wordsanddeeds.co.uk
Words
Christopher Torpey, Craig G Pennington, Phil Gwyn,
Jack Graysmark, Jonny Davis, Richard Lewis, Ken
Clarke, Grace Harrison, Theo Temple, Darren Roper,
Dan Brown, Josh Ray, Alastair Dunn, Dave Tate,
Mike Townsend, Laurie Cheeseman, Sam Turner,
Alex Holbourn, Christopher Carr, Paul Riley.
Photography, Illustration and Layout
Luke Avery, Aaron McManus, Robin Clewley,
Mook Loxley, Keith Ainsworth, Becki Currie, Chris
Norman, Theo Temple, Nathalie Saleh, Gaz Jones,
Ray Kilpatrick, Glyn Akroyd, Charlotte Patmore,
Nathalie Candel.
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