Issue 75 / March 2017

CONTENTS
New Music and Creative Culture
Issue 75 / March 2017
bidolito.co.uk
12 Jordan Street
Liverpool L1 0BP
Editor
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk
Media Partnerships and Projects Manager
Sam Turner - sam@bidolito.co.uk
Editorial Assistant
Bethany Garrett - editorial@bidolito.co.uk
Reviews Editor
Jonny Winship - live@bidolito.co.uk
Branding and Design
Thom Isom - hello@thomisom.com
Cover and Editorial Photography
Thomas Gill - thomascogill@gmail.com
Words
Christopher Torpey, Craig G Pennington,
Damon Fairclough, Paul Fitzgerald, Rebecca Frankland,
Jonny Winship, Sam Turner, Bethany Garrett,
Matt Hogarth, Cath Bore, Del Pike, Max Baker, Stuart
Miles O’Hara, Dave Tate, Janice Long.
Photography, Illustration and Layout
Thom Isom, Thomas Gill, John Johnson, Nata Moraru,
Keith Ainsworth, Darren Aston, Yetunde Adebiyi,
Mike Sheerin, Stuart Moulding, Roger Sinek,
Paul McCoy.
Distributed by Middle Distance
Print, distribution and events support across
Merseyside and the North West.
middledistance.org.uk
The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the
respective contributors and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the magazine, its staff or the
publishers. All rights reserved.
09 / EDITORIAL
Editor Christopher Torpey introduces
the new Bido Lito! era by looking at
the role of independent media in the
digital generation.
10 / NEWS
The latest announcements, releases and
non-fake news from around the region.
12 / ALTERNATIVE FACTS
Craig G Pennington asks Professor
David Garcia, do we need to become the
opposition party?
18 / SLOW JOURNALISM
Old news is good news – so says
the latest (and slowest) revolution in
news coverage.
20 / STREET SCENE
Assessing the world of street
media through the prism of regional
music fanzines.
24 / LOUIS BERRY
Walking tall on the road to
success with a Scouse superstarin-waiting.
26 / DEEP SEA FREQUENCY
Diving deep with a new musical
venture that already has a loyal
following of ravers.
28 / ASTLES
Storytelling and classic songcraft in
perfect harmony – meet Southport’s
Renaissance man.
32 / SPOTLIGHT
We get a closer look at three local
artists who’ve been impressing us of
late: Danye, Amina Atiq and Pixey.
36 / HANNAH PEEL
Ahead of her headline performance
at Threshold Festival, the multiinstrumentalist
speaks to us about
her creative processes.
38 / PREVIEWS
Looking ahead to a busy March in
Merseyside’s creative and cultural
community.
42 / REVIEWS
The Fall, Reassembled, Slightly Askew,
Mall Grab and C Duncan reviewed by
our team of intrepid reporters.
54 / THE FINAL SAY
Veteran DJ Janice Long on her
career in radio and the importance
of independence.
BIDO LITO!
08

09
BIDO LTIO!

EDITORIAL
“We have to find ways
to reach out to others,
engage with them,
listen to other opinions,
and strengthen our
collective network”
Welcome to the new look Bido Lito!
Whether you’re reading this in our bigger,
revamped magazine, or on our fancy new digital
home at bidolito.co.uk, thank you. The very act
of picking up a copy of Bido Lito!, or even clicking on a link, says
that you value this platform of ours. This platform only exists
because of the rich creative community we have on Merseyside
that makes it one of the country’s cultural hotspots. By engaging
with us you’re also engaging with this inventive, musical, funny,
passionate and diverse group of individuals – and helping us to
support them.
We felt that, after seven years, a facelift was much in need
– and for our outlook as much as our aesthetic. We’ve always
featured a broad range of content from across the spectrum of
Liverpool’s independent culture, and we will continue to do so.
But we’ve also been doing a bit of soul-searching of late, asking
ourselves some fairly fundamental questions: why, in 2017, do
we even bother doing a print magazine, especially one as niche
as ours? And, what is the role of independent media today? With
newspaper sales falling and so many established periodicals
radically changing their business models (NME) or going out
of print entirely (InStyle, FHM), it could be seen as folly to keep
swimming against the tide.
It’s our belief that we, as Bido Lito!, and you, our readership,
have a responsibility: we can’t just be passive observers of the
passage of history; we have to find ways to reach out to others,
engage with them, listen to other opinions, and strengthen our
collective network. It’s a form of cultural activism that we’re
particularly good at round here, and by sharing the messages
we feel to be important and valuing the work of those who can
transport us away from the mundane, we’re establishing a vitally
important movement of our own.
2017 is a year of turmoil as we face up to our complicated
relationship with the truth. Facts have become political footballs,
with everyone from Wikipedia to Wikileaks engaged in a tug of
war over what constitutes news and truth. For the information
generation this is something of an existential crisis: what if
everything we’ve been taking as truth is compromised? Who do
we trust anymore? Our relationship with the news, especially
on the internet, has become so much more complicated, and it’s
becoming ever more important that we make informed decisions
on where and how we get our news.
Art is a powerful vehicle with which to have this conversation
– and The Pitchfork Review’s Music And Politics Issue, released in
Autumn 2016, assesses this brilliantly across a series of thoughtprovoking
articles. Marc Masters’ excellent profile of Nation Of
Ulysses – the 80s/90s post-hardcore, politico-terrorist group
fronted by Ian Svenonius – painted the picture of an outfit that
were as much a movement as a band, aiming to develop a new
culture of protest. “But rather than dole out political messages
in overly earnest tones,” Masters says, “they preferred to baffle,
to amuse and to disorient. They proselytised like a life-altering
cult and obfuscated like an absurdist art collective; they pledged
allegiance to both revolution and candy. It was art as politics,
but even more so, politics as art – with a ton more going on
between the two.” There are parallels here with ultimate art-punk
hijackers the KLF, whose reappearance this year (under their
Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu guise) is venerated like a second
coming, 23 years since they disappeared into thin air after
slashing open pop music’s thin skin and exposing its innards.
Celebrated music journalist and critic Simon Reynolds’
fascinating article in the same publication – A Personal Journey
Through UK Politics And Pop – is an interesting take on the
musical movements that are perceived to have shaped our
country over the past few decades, debunking a few myths
along the way. In his profile of Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ new
soul revolt, Reynolds says that he sees “teenagers as the only
really revolutionary class”; and though he believes the idea of
changing things through music is “arguably a useful illusion”,
Reynolds does note that it creates an “urgent sense of mission
and high stakes that again and again results in inspirational
sounds and statements.”
Accessible forms of culture like music, art, theatre, poetry and
comedy are all forms of mass communication, ones that we’re all
free to participate in – which brings us back to the statement on the
front cover of this magazine: ‘We are the opposition’. Echoing the
activist art of the Situationist International movement, we’re hoping
that this statement acts as a catalyst to wake people up to the
power we have in our collective voice: the voice that is expressed
through Bido Lito!, Getintothis, Queen Of The Track, Between The
Borders, The Double Negative, The Skinny and so many more
digital and physical platforms. The discourse on who and what
needs opposing – and how we achieve that as part of a creative
community of independent media – is something we’re hoping to
continue beyond the articles in this month’s issue via a number of
special events we’ve put together for our brand-new Membership
programme. We want you all to be a part of that conversation.
The Pitchfork Review’s Music And Politics Issue opens
with the assertion in its leader article that “music has always
had something to say in times of trouble”, and frames the
conversations around its subsequent articles – Nation Of Ulysses,
Beyoncé, the Civil Rights movement, Simon Reynolds’ post-
Thatcher UK politics, Black Lives Matter – by talking of music as
being a “salve and a spark”. This is personified no more succinctly
than by the artist who graces that issue’s front cover, M.I.A.. In
her unflinching confrontation of the issues that have dogged her
throughout her career, Maya Arulpragasam has made hay out
of her struggles as both a migrant and a woman in the music
industry, and provided millions of people with the courage to do
the same with their own struggles. Whether you’re a poet from
Yemen or a bunch of mates from Liverpool kicking about in a
guitar band, the same freedom that M.I.A. operates with is open
to you. Don’t you think it’s time to oppose? !
Christopher Torpey / @CATorp
Editor
BIDO LITO!
010

NEWS
Introducing...
The Bido Lito! Membership
Buoyed by our new look magazine and shiny new website, we are excited to
announce the launch of the BIDO LITO! MEMBERSHIP, an all-new package
combining multimedia subscription and live events which allows Bido Lito! fans
to sample all that’s great about Liverpool’s cultural scene. For just £7 a month,
members receive an advance copy of Bido Lito! on their doorstep before anyone
else, free entry to two monthly events (our Bido Social live gigs plus our new
Special Events) and a digital bundle of free downloads and exclusive content.
It’s a monthly briefing of the best new music, access to the most interesting events
and regular additional special treats and opportunities. The first few months of
the membership programme include a Q&A with Rough Trade’s GEOFF TRAVIS,
a launch party extravaganza headlined by STRANGE COLLECTIVE, and an
exclusive curators event at the brand new BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE.
New members will also receive a fetching pink Bido Lito! record bag to further
sweeten the deal. For more information on how to sign up, see page 22.
Sound City+ Announces
First Round Of Speakers
Plans for the 10-year anniversary of Sound City gather pace with the
announcement of this year’s conference programme. SOUND CITY+ will
welcome PEACHES, JAH WOBBLE and DON LETTS among its raft of speakers.
Taking place at Camp and Furnace on Friday 26th May, the event will continue
its mission to bring together various facets of the music industry for illuminating
discussions, debates and networking opportunities. Also on the bill are
members of ART OF NOISE, following their Human League support slot the
previous evening, and club legend ANDREW WEATHERALL. Rock photography
enthusiasts will also get a chance to hear from veterans TOM OXLEY and
KEVIN CUMMINS.
Don Letts
A LEAP To The North
Bido Lito! at Focus Wales
LEAP Festival of Dance returns this month, celebrating its 25th anniversary
in Liverpool by taking over a huge warehouse in the vibrant North Docks to
present the best of the UK’s dance within a pop-up, bespoke environment.
LEAP’s mission has always been to inspire people through the medium of
dance and it is that commitment that drives LEAP’s typically provocative
agenda. The festival opens with award-winning choreographer Gary Clark’s
latest production, COAL, a prolific statement that sets the scene for the festival
with untold stories – celebrating a life of work and courage. The full programme
can be found at leap2017.co.uk
Focus Wales are busy putting together another super strong line-up for the
annual music and arts festival in Wrexham. This year Bido Lito! is joining the
party to present three lovingly selected Liverpool-based acts. KATIE MAC,
GINTIS and MARY MILLER will be flying the pink flag, while topping the main
festival bill are BRITISH SEA POWER, CABBAGE and JOHN BRAMWELL. A truly
special metropolitan festival, Focus Wales showcases a diverse breadth of activity
across the spheres of music, comedy and arts as well as a discursive programme
which this year features Big Audio Dynamite founder DON LETTS.
Wrexham / 11th-13th May
Are You Experienced?
Housed in the iconic Cunard Building (previously home to the
About The Young Idea exhibition on The Jam), the BRITISH
MUSIC EXPERIENCE exhibition opens its doors this month.
The museum tells the fascinating story of British popular music
through myriad artefacts and interactive displays, all sitting
alongside an events space. From the post-war teen culture boom
to today’s digital age, the exhibition will be a welcome addition
to Liverpool’s superb music tourism offer. Bido Lito! members
will get a chance to gain a special insight into the exhibition in
an exclusive curator’s tour in June. The British Music Experience
opens to the public on 9th March.
British Music Experience
Spirit Of 81
Live At Leeds
The hallowed space at 81 Renshaw Street was once one of
the most bustling places during the Merseybeat era, and the
building’s latest proprietors are hoping to make the venue
just as important to the city’s musical fraternity of today.
The newly-refurbed venue space will host comedy, gigs and
theatre on a weekly basis, while the café serves up hearty
homemade fare during the week. Meanwhile, the basement
record store is stocked with a veritable trove of vinyl pleasures
running to the thousands, alongside collectables and some
notable local music publications.
SLAVES, MOONLANDINGZ and HONEYBLOOD are among
the acts in a mega line-up for this year’s LIVE AT LEEDS
festival. The festival takes place in various venues across the
city and is bookended with shows from FUTURE ISLANDS
and MAXÏMO PARK. There’s also Merseyside representation
in the form of swoon rockers TRUDY AND THE ROMANCE
and SHE DREW THE GUN. The event takes place on the
late May Bank Holiday Weekend and is proceeded by Leeds
Digital Festival, an event which celebrates digital culture in
all its forms, happening between 24th and 28th April.
11 BIDO LITO!

DANSETTE
Our pick of what’s been
lodged on the Bido Towers
turntable this month...
Grimes feat.
Janelle Monáe
Venus Fly
4AD
VEYU Album
Underbelly Out Now
40 Years Of Pure
Musical Sensations
VEYU
Originally featured on her 2015 album Art Angels,
GRIMES brought this male gaze-slaying wonder back to
our attention after releasing a self-directed video in early
February. Its uber-cool futuristic cyborg-goth aesthetic
(with a hint of TLC) is the kind of escapism we need.
Plus, MONÁE has led protests against police brutality
and performed at the Women’s March on Washington
and Grimes just donated $10,000 to the Council on
American-Islamic Relations after matching fan donations.
Can these guys lead our future please? BG
After the critical acclaim of their eponymous debut EP
back in 2014, enigmatic five-piece VEYU return with their
long-awaited second offering, Underbelly, out now via Payper
Tiger Records. Clocking in at just under half an hour, it’s full
to the brim of intricate guitar textures, rolling liquid synth, a
life raft of a rhythm section, and those trademark melancholic
vocals. Lyrically, it’s certainly hefty; tackling mortality, conflict
and a sense of sanctuary. Lead single Where Has The Fire
In You Gone? bleeds Radiohead meets Joy Division and its
accompanying video visualises its fluid soundscape faultlessly.
therighteousaretoblame.com
1977 was not just year zero for punk, it also marked the
beginning of Roger Hill’s PMS show on BBC Radio Merseyside,
the longest-running alternative music programme currently
on UK radio. Over the next 40 weeks, the PMS team will be
celebrating this landmark with a series of special features,
as well as delving into their rich programme archive to unearth
outstanding music and interviews from the past four decades.
Each week, the show will broadcast a new commission from
a local musician that has been specially created to reference
the 40 years of amazing sounds brought to us by PMS.
pmsradio.co.uk
Omni
Fever Bass
Chunklet
Industries
This hot new cut from Atlanta’s OMNI finds the trio in
familiar form: blisteringly intricate guitar and bass licks
lock in tight as a G clamp with dexterous, intense drum
work. What OMNI don’t share with Atlanta compatriots
Black Lips, Gringo Starr et al is the heavy garage leanings,
theirs is a stripped back, post-punk direct hit from the
Devo/Viet Cong handbook. What they do share is hooks;
more hooks than an Atlanta high school locker room. CGP
Katie Mac
The Lost Brothers
The Bird Dog
Tapes - Volume 1
Bird Dog Recordings
Got MIlk?
SAFE AS MILK festival have added more mind-bending
artists to the line-up of their inaugural outing at Prestatyn
in April. Grunge forebears BUTTHOLE SURFERS, folk
grand dame SHIRLEY COLLINS and enigmatic avant-gardists
THE RESIDENTS head a bill of heavyweights from across
the leftfield music spectrum. Taking its name from the seminal
Captain Beefheart LP, the festival is the brainchild of the
organisers of the highly-regarded Tusk Festival in Gateshead.
This one’s for the broad of mind. V Festival it ain’t.
Prestatyn / 21-23 April
Formerly of this parish, The Losties returned to record the
wonderful New Songs Of Dawn And Dust at Parr Street
with Bill Ryder-Jones back in 2014. This collection from
those sessions features the duo, along with Mr Ryder-
Jones and Nick Power taking turns to cover each other’s
compositions, a few originals and familiar favourites from
the likes of Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt and The
Quarrymen. It’s a celebration of songwriting at its most
simple, powerful and exquisite. ST
Sampha
No One Knows
Me (Like The
Piano)
Young Turks
Shirley Collins
Ah, the piano ballad – the universal symbol of naked
emotion. South London polymath SAMPHA, the perennial
guest who’s become known for filling in the gaps for his
A-list mates (SBTRKT, Drake, the Knowles sisters), has
grasped this formula with unabashed sensitivity. The
heartrending No One Knows Me (Like The Piano), taken
from the stunning new album Process, is a quivering ode
to his late mother and just needs to be listened to over and
over. The time of Sampha the bit-part player is over. CT
NEWS 12

13 BIDO LITO!

ALTERNATIVE
FACTS
As the battleground for truth
spills out from the internet
message boards into mainstream
politics, Craig G Pennington looks
at what lessons can be learned
from the tactical media movement.
“How can we play
an active, meaningful
part in a response?”
On 26th January 2017, Stephen Bannon – Donald
Trump’s Chief Strategist – labelled the mainstream
media “the opposition party”, proclaiming it should
“keep its mouth shut” and that “they don’t understand
this country”. Less than a month later, Trump delivered his
Maoian depiction of the media as “the enemy of the people”. It
can be baffling to reflect on how such provocative, inflammatory
and wildly-unhinged statements have become a daily occurrence
since Trump embarked on his campaign trail – and equally
terrifying to see ideas considered peripheral and divisive only a
matter of months ago weave their way into the mainstream.
It is important to consider the fact that this media assault
isn’t a phenomenon reserved for the US. Before Bannon took up
his position as Trump’s chief lieutenant he headed up Breitbart
News Network, a far-right ‘news’ website in the US which has
managed to normalise and mobilise much of the ideology and
support which propelled Trump to the White House. Taking
divine inspiration and a heavy dose of mentoring from all this is
chief UKIP funder and pug-faced Brexiteer Arron Banks, who
recently launched westmonster.com – a thinly-veiled attempt to
dress hate and intolerance with some form of legitimacy, inspired
by the ‘successes’ of Breitbart. To Trump/Bannon/Banks et al the
media is the “enemy of the people”, unless, it seems, that media is
crafted in the image of themselves.
But, what does this all-out assault mean for the media
as we know it? As an independent media platform ourselves,
at Bido Lito! we’ve been forced through a period of self-reflection
by events over recent months. What role do we play? How
can we play an active, meaningful part in a response? How
does the creative community we are a part of come together
with an alternative view of the world? How do ideas of
tolerance, community, pluralism and respect counter the
extremes that seem to become more normalised by the day?
How do we counter fake news and post-truth with our own
alternative facts?
An indication of a potential route forward could well sit
within the idea of ‘tactical media’, an influential movement that
flourished in the 1990s that fused art, political campaigning
and an experimental use of the media itself; manipulating media
platforms and turning prevailing messages on their head for
artistic and political purposes. The tactical media movement has
inherently embraced the idea of ‘fake news’ for decades, but with
a very different purpose than Bannon and co.
With impeccable timing, How Much Of This Is Fiction? – an
exhibition which explores the idea of tactical media and the
fake news phenomenon – opens at FACT on 2nd March. One
of the exhibition’s curators, Professor David Garcia, has been
active within the tactical media movement since the 1990s. He
co-founded the award-winning Tactical Media Files, an online
repository of tactical media materials past and present, and
is currently Professor of Digital Arts and Media Activism at
Bournemouth University. It seems that the idea of fake news
has a much longer history than we may initially think, as Garcia
tells us. “Fake news in the form of fake newspapers have a long
history. For example, there are newspapers declaring allied
victory in the Second World War before it happened by the
Flemish resistance. Or Polish Solidarity, who faked a national
newspaper announcing the end of Marshal Law.” A quick visit to
tacticalmediafiles.net also throws up an interesting local example
of such an intervention; in April last year, mocked-up parodies of
The S*n’s infamous front page from 1989 declaring ‘The Truth,
We Lied’ appeared in newsagents across the city.
Away from newspapers, there are other marquee examples
of artistic hijack. “The example I would give is the Kissing
Doesn’t Kill campaign from ACT UP, who fought against fear and
ignorance of Reagan’s inaction and silence,” says Garcia. The
campaign, which centred around a nationwide run of billboard
adverts, aimed to combat the public indifference towards AIDS
and highlight the complex issues associated with it. “ACT UP was
a critical reference as it was a campaign that combined fine art,
the PR industry and ferocious activism. The PR connection plays
out in its clear relationship with United Colors Of Benetton’s use
of multiculturalism in their marketing campaign at the time.”
Evidently, the idea of manipulation of media is not a new
phenomenon. But, what can we learn from the practice to help us
navigate the new realities of today? According to David Garcia,
there is a much deeper shift at play. “I would argue that what
we are witnessing is the demise of [Walter] Lippmann and, later,
[Noam] Chomsky’s paradigm that established media combine
and contrive to ‘manufacture consent’,” he says. “This is no longer
possible, as one of the consequences of the new dominance of
social media platforms as primary news sources is that the big
broadcast and print media outlets have lost their role as gate
keepers, determining what it is possible to think and say. The
term ‘post-truth’ can sometimes sound like the howl of pain from
the status quo lamenting the loss of its ability to dominate the
agenda. Steve Bannon and the insurgent right have captured
the social media platforms to do the opposite; they specialise in
manufacturing dissent on an industrial scale.”
As an artist who has been working within the field of tactical
media, Garcia represents a view from the inside of the practice.
I’m intrigued to know how much of a threat to public life – and
society more broadly – he believes the fake news and the posttruth
idea to be. “I would argue that there are two tendencies
at least as worrying as the fake news panic,” Garcia laments. “I
am more worried about the shameless fake outsiders; Farage,
Trump, Johnson and Le Pen, all wealthy insiders masquerading as
the authentic voice of the people. I see this as a battle between
‘hyper-rationalism’ and ‘authenticism’. The hyper-rationalists –
for example the flawed Remain campaign and Hillary Clinton’s
presidential campaign – pretend they are in control. They adopt
the faux scientific language of ‘management speak’. They seek
to explain and then fail to persuade. They lack impact; theirs is
an affectless language. The inverse is the authenticist; typically
they pose as outsiders and adopt the guise of truth-tellers who
claim to represent the ‘authentic’ voice of the people, ‘telling it
like it is’. Even their gaffs and flaws are seen as demonstrations
of authenticity. Their blunders and lies are overlooked in the
belief that they are right about the ‘deep truth’. As tactical media
artists, we begin by un-masking both the authenticist and
hyperationalist as the rhetorical poses of two elites fighting for
control of the social mind.”
FEATURE 14

“Tactical media
still works, but the
bad news is it has
been captured by
the far-right”
While Garcia offers a somewhat chilling and poignant
assessment, it seems to me that there is also a distinction
to make between disruption and deception: is there a moral
question to consider when adopting tactical media tactics? Are
there questions of morality behind the deliberate political use of
fake news and tactical interventions, whatever your motivation?
It is a reality Garcia is acutely aware of. “Yes, an uncritical
avant-gardism is continually at risk of complicity with unfettered
capitalism’s ethos of ‘creative destruction’ [the inevitability of
new products constantly replacing outdated ones]. Even our
fetishisation of the ephemeral and our frequent preference for
the event over the artefact mirrors the famous description of
capitalism in the communist manifesto: ‘all that is solid melts
into air’. But I would still resist making any equivalence between
what we are celebrating in How Much Of This Is Fiction? and
the alt-right. The troll farms and meme-wars of the alt-right do
not use fiction as a method to raise awareness by un-masking
the workings of power; they are exclusively about seizing
power by any means and all media. And, worryingly, it may
not just be the temporary power of a single election victory.
Evidence is mounting that Bannon is even questioning the value
of democracy itself. Our true weakness may be less one of
complicity than an addiction to the spectacle of protest rather
than actually working for the realities of power.”
Ironically, it is this idea of an ‘addiction to protest’ which
seems to be neutering the leadership of the left in the UK. This is
not something Farage/Banks/Johnson and co. have struggled with
and, furthermore, it seems Donald Trump has been only too keen
to embrace the idea of tactical media, as his seemingly nightly
Twitter-gasms would suggest. “We have learned that tactical
media still works, but the bad news is it has been captured by the
far-right,” says Garcia. “The midnight tweets are just the tip of a
far-right tactical media iceberg. A powerful grassroots network
that has evolved over 20 years under the radar. It connects white
supremacist websites – the real Nazis here – to the meme-wars
that flowed from the message boards such as 4chan. This is a
space which also gave rise to Anonymous at the other end of the
political spectrum.”
We began this piece looking to consider what independent
media platforms can learn from the tactical media movement in
order to play an active, dynamic role in the discourse of today.
How can we, as a collective community, work together to provide
a counter-balance to the alt-right and the Breitbart set? Garcia
presents a practical call to arms: “squat the message boards
and steal their memes,” he says. “Independent media platforms
should participate in the ID of the internet that are the message
boards. We should draw on the rich and strange irrational
energies from these meme cultures. This is where the tactical
media of today lives and thrives. The initiative in this realm needs
to be taken back from the far-right who are rampant. As the last
unregulated spaces, the message boards can shock and outrage
us. But outrage and distaste is from where their sub-cultural
energy is drawn.”
Such a rallying cry from Garcia is welcome and may well be
precisely what is needed; a tactical media protest movement
from the bottom up to contest the ideas of the alt-right, taking a
radically different view of the world to the breeding ground of the
alt-right movement and utilising tactical media avenues to spread
the message. It is a movement which will depend on a new form
of positive collectivism, a do-it-together culture to counter today’s
rampant right-wing populism.
“Fact checking and truth telling are important”, concludes
Garcia, “but insufficient to deal with the threat the alt-right pose.
As, in the words of Stewart Lee, they are not just post-truth, they
are post-shame.” !
Words: Craig G Pennington / @BidoLito
Photography: Thomas Gill
Join Bido Lito!, Professor David Garcia and special guests at
FACT on 5th April for a special discursive event exploring
Alternative Facts and the role of Independent Media in the
post-truth world. Free to Bido Lito! Members.
Visit bidolito.co.uk/events for full details.
15
BIDO LITO!

SLOW
JOURNALISM
Old news is good news –
so says the latest (and slowest)
revolution in news coverage.
At first glance, the slogan “Last to the breaking news”
seems like a disastrous mission statement for a
news magazine. But for the team behind Delayed
Gratification, it is the tardy declaration of intent on
which their entire publishing model is based.
In a digitally-driven world which seems to compel news
outlets to publish first and ask questions later (if at all), Delayed
Gratification makes a virtue out of being late to every story. And
not only does the magazine cultivate a distinctly jet-lagged
brand of journalism, it is also perverse enough to favour print
over pixels. It may not be a news source you can zoom, pinch
or swipe, but at least you can spill a cup of tea on it without
invalidating the manufacturer’s warranty.
For obvious reasons, the eternal struggle between print and
digital is a topic that has exercised the minds behind Bido Lito!
rather a lot lately. When moment-by-moment news updates can
be fired around the world via apps and social media, are there
advantages to choosing a less up-to-the-minute, more reflective
publishing path? Clearly, we think so, but our magazine still sticks
to a monthly schedule. By contrast, Delayed Gratification is a
quarterly publication that covers three months’ worth of news,
but each issue is published three months after the period covered
in the magazine. It is one of the most well-known proponents of
what has come to be known as ‘slow journalism’, and we wanted
to find out why a current affairs magazine would opt to be so
wilfully behind the times.
According to Rob Orchard, co-creator of Delayed
Gratification, the magazine’s founders originally worked together
on Time Out Dubai in the early noughties. They enjoyed learning
their trade within a print environment, but weren’t quite prepared
for what the digital revolution had in store for their industry.
“It was a time when there was still money and buoyancy in
print magazines,” says Orchard. “It felt like there might be careers,
futures and opportunities for us. But when we all ended up back
in London in 2010, we looked around at the landscape and it was
as bleak as fuck. Everybody was talking about the death of print.
Digital was going to be everything.
“All the big print titles were haemorrhaging cash, readers
and advertisers. Social media was kicking off, and suddenly there
were these gigantic new spaces to fill with content; but at the
same time, there were fewer and fewer journalists with fewer
and fewer resources to fill them.”
Intelligent journalism, it seemed, was destined to go the
same way as the mechanical typewriter and the Fleet Street
liquid lunch. But Orchard and his colleagues were in no mood
to surrender the delivery of news to Facebook, Twitter and the
purveyors of shameless clickbait.
“I feel like this fake
news phenomenon
is almost the best
possible advertisement
for slow journalism”
“We decided we wanted to launch a magazine that was an
antidote to that. We wanted to invest every penny into long-form
journalism, investigative journalism, beautiful photo features,
intelligent data analysis – all the stuff you want from journalists
and editors. We wanted to make a magazine that was made for
readers, so it wouldn’t have any advertising. It wouldn’t be made
to hit a particular demographic, it would just be the magazine
that we really wanted to read ourselves.”
Although journalists have long enjoyed the thrill of chasing
a story and the adrenaline rush of being first to break it across
the front page, today’s ‘always on’ technology has resulted
in an accelerated news cycle that, in Delayed Gratification’s
19
BIDO LITO!

words, values “being first above being right”. For the Delayed
Gratification team, the answer was to take a lead from grassroots
movements such as ‘slow food’ and ‘slow travel’, and invest more
time in searching out each story’s nuances, in print, rather than
attempting to earn clicks at all costs.
“The parallel between slow travel, slow food and slow
journalism is that they are all about taking time to do things of
quality, and all of them are a reaction against doing things too
quickly,” says Orchard.
“When we launched in January 2011, the idea of slowness
being a virtue when it came to news reporting was an incredibly
niche concern. We were still very much in love with our
smartphones and excited about how fast everything was being
updated. But in the last six years, we’ve seen people getting sick
of that.”
Delayed Gratification’s cure for that creeping nausea is a
handsome print-only publication reliant on subscribers to cover
its costs. It has succeeded in building up a loyal readership that
pays for its pleasures – no mean feat in a digital world that
demands most of its content for free.
“We were incredibly gung-ho about the whole thing,” admits
Orchard. “We just thought if we can sell enough subscriptions
in advance, we can fund the print for issue one. We really hadn’t
thought how we were going to survive from issue two onwards.”
But six years later, Delayed Gratification is still here, giving
subscribers a combination of in-depth articles and fascinating
infographics that benefit from something that most news
publications can never have: hindsight. It is also beautifully
designed, almost begging to be plucked from the shelf.
“I think 60 or 70 per cent of the success we’ve had has
come from it being a beautiful piece of work,” says Orchard,
“and we always put a huge amount of time and energy into
things like the infographics. That’s been one of our real unique
selling points.
“We said early on that we wanted to have a serious news
publication, to address serious issues, and we wanted to report
from places where there are interesting things going on. But
looking around at the majority of news publications, they have
quite an earnest, drab aesthetic. And there’s no need for that to
be the case. You can actually make them beautiful.”
Not that beauty is the most important aspect of what
Delayed Gratification does. Being committed to truth telling is
also pretty crucial.
“I feel like this fake news phenomenon is almost the best
possible advertisement for slow journalism,” says Orchard.
“You’ve got people with a purely commercial agenda high-jacking
the news reporting of massively important and influential events,
and just spewing out bile and hatred. And because our former
gatekeepers – journalists and editors and so on – are so reduced
in status, and because we’ve got these networks that can spread
stuff immediately and which prioritise the more aggressive and
outlandish stories, we’ve got a perfect storm.”
“Delayed
Gratification makes
a virtue out of being
late to every story”
There is no obvious solution to this problem, and Orchard
admits to being “desperately worried”. “We’re a fun little
publication and we can keep going. We’ve got a group of
subscribers who will support us and hopefully we can grow that,
but the big mainstream publications need so much more in terms
of resources to keep doing what they do, and I’m not sure where
that’s going to come from.”
Orchard’s outlook may be bleak, but at least his team is
doing its best to provide a unique alternative – a magazine
devoted to considered, intelligent insight wrapped up in
superlative graphic design.
And so what if it’s permanently late to the party? In news
reporting, as in so much of life, we all know the best things come
to those who wait. !
Words: Damon Fairclough / noiseheatpower.com
Photography: Thomas Gill
slow-journalism.com
FEATURE 20

STREET
SCENE
At the heart of every scene is a hub,
a platform that binds a community
together. Where street media is
concerned, there’s no better way of
doing it than going local.
Towards the end of 2016, an article in The Guardian
alerted me to a piece of research that both alarmed
and encouraged me. Research group Enders Analysis
estimated that over a million British consumers gave
up buying print magazines or cancelled their subscriptions
in 2016, insinuating that the digital revolution was starting
to hit the bottom lines of swathes of established media and
publishing houses. “Digital has brought down the barriers of
entry for [creating and showcasing] content, recommendation
and discovery of products. Magazines will have to fight hard to
compete with that going forward,” said Douglas McCabe, chief
executive at Enders Analysis.
Thankfully the outlook wasn’t all doom and gloom, with the
article noting that a clutch of ad-heavy aspirational glossies are
bucking this trend. Nicholas Coleridge, international president of
Condé Nast (who own the high performing Vogue and Tatler),
spoke of there being value in an experience he called a “magazine
moment”, that just can’t be replicated in content on a tablet or
iPad. “It is very hard to replicate the physical allure of a luxury
magazine on other platforms,” he explained. “[It is] something
to do with the sheen of the paper, the way that the ink sits on
the page, the smell of money and desire that wafts off the page.
Readers move into a different mode when they engage with a
glossy. Advertisers understand this.”
Though we’re a million miles from the whopping tomes
of Vanity Fair hawking their high-class goods and airbrushed
lifestyle, I still think there’s a similarity here with inky publications
like ourselves that place a lot of value in print. Whether you get
your kicks from celebrity-endorsed fragrances or the latest local
bands playing a gig in a toilet venue, that magazine moment can
be crucial in rooting you in a tangible world that you want to be
a part of. For us at Bido Lito!, the allure of documenting the city’s
multiple amazing cultural scenes with a vibrant street media
presence has always been at the heart of what we do.
There is, of course, a precedent for this in Merseyside; a
legacy of regionally-focused zines and independent music
magazines that stretches back to the 1960s, that hints at a
certain civic pride felt by locals towards the region’s musical
might. Perhaps the most famous of these is Mersey Beat –
the newspaper run by journalist Bill Harry and his wife Virginia
between 1961 and 1964 – which documented a musical
scene that shook the world. Mersey Beat became known as
the “teenagers’ Bible”, and the trend of calling local bands
‘beat groups’ and concerts being billed as ‘beat sessions’ soon led
to the term ‘Merseybeat’ being used by national newspapers to
define this scene that had coalesced around The Cavern.
The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein wrote a regular column
for the fortnightly paper on the latest releases from his NEMS
store, which also carried poetry and drawings by John Lennon.
When including Priscilla White’s fashion column in one issue,
Harry forgot her surname and opted to credit her the author as
‘Cilla Black’, remembering vaguely that a colour was involved.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“People want to feel that
they’ve got something
of worth when they
hold something in their
hands”
“Suddenly, there was an awareness of being young
and young people wanted their own styles and their own
music… Mersey Beat was their voice, it was a paper for them,”
Harry explains in his book, The Encyclopedia of Beatles People.
“The newspapers, television, theatres and radio were all run
by people of a different generation who had no idea of what
youngsters wanted. For decades they had manipulated and
controlled them [see the scene with George Harrison and
Kenneth Haig in A Hard Day’s Night], but now the youngsters
wanted to create their own fashions. What existed on the banks
of the Mersey between 1958 and 1964 was exciting, energetic
and unique, a magical time when an entire city danced to the
music of youth.”
Mersey Beat was based in an office on the top floor of
81 Renshaw Street, and everyone who was anyone in the
Merseybeat era would gather here, including Harry’s close friends
John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe. If ever there was a building
in Liverpool City Centre that deserves a blue plaque, it’s 81
Renshaw. Today, it’s home to a café, events space and newlyopened
basement record store, and is run by another person with
a connection to Liverpool’s music publishing heritage.
Neil Tilly started Breakout as a rough-and-ready fanzine in
1981 when he was just 17, printing the 200 copies of its first
issue on his work photocopier. Coming in the post-Eric’s era
of The Icicle Works and the early days of The Farm, Breakout
was part of a collective of DIY mags that sprung up in this
fecund political and cultural environment. “What made Breakout
different to the other great fanzines that were out there at the
time – Merseysounds, The End, Garden Party, Vox,” says Tilly,
“is that we encompassed promotion as well, helping bands [to]
put on shows and tours.” As well as expanding on the stories,
characters and musicians that knitted this scene together,
Breakout played an active role in it, which put the magazine at
the heart of Liverpool’s creative community until its final issue
in 1986. By then, they were distributing 20,000 copies of the
magazine across the North West, a boom in popularity that no
doubt came from the world exclusive interview he did with Paul
McCartney in 1983.
“People want to feel that they’ve got something of worth
when they hold something in their hands,” says Tilly as he tries to
explain why the appetite for the physical over the digital remains
today. “With Reverb, the magazine I did in the 90s, the internet
was in its infancy. There was talk then that there was never going
to be another newspaper, which has obviously proved to be a
load of rubbish. There’ll always be a place for magazines – people
are always going to want to see pictures and read things that
interest them. [They’re] gonna be around forever.”
By their very nature, movements and scenes are intangible
entities that are difficult to quantify – and history would suggest
that physical media are the best way of animating the subcultures
that underpin them, allowing observers to feel more
intimately connected to them. It’s into this vitally important
grey area that we think Bido Lito! falls, giving all the amazing
culture our community produces a place to live. Further to that,
we believe that it’s important to not only reflect the art and
conversations around us, but to take part in and add to them.
It’s this ‘do-it-together’ culture that we feel is the real glue
that binds a scene together, an outlook that unites us with our
street media forebears and hopefully with you. Whether you
choose to do so with pen, glue and scissors or on a MacBook, if
you value something that the mainstream can’t provide, there’s
nothing stopping you from taking ownership of the conversation
yourself. Having a voice is not about rules – it’s about freedom
and power. !
Words: Christopher Torpey / @CATorp
21
BIDO LITO!

We believe passionately in Liverpool’s new music and creative
culture. As you’re reading this, we’re pretty confident that you
do too. By becoming a Bido Lito! Member you will be joining us
to champion that new music and creative culture. Plus, you’ll be
supporting local independent media, which we believe is more
important now than ever before.
BIDO LITO!
MEMBERSHIP
Just £7 per month
• Bido Lito! Magazine delivered to you first,
before it hits the streets, every month.
• An exclusive monthly download bundle of
the best new Liverpool music, including
brand new tracks, remixes and sessions.
• FREE ENTRY to our two monthly events:
The Bido Lito! Social - showcasing the best
new Liverpool music - and our lovingly curated,
one-off Bido Lito! Special Events (see opposite).
• Ongoing member-only exclusive
opportunities throughout the year.
• The Bido Lito! Journal 2017. A deluxe, end of
year publication looking back at 12 months in
Liverpool’s new music and creative culture.
• A rather hip Bido Lito! record bag as a
FREE JOINING GIFT when you sign up!
• Sign up now at bidolito.co.uk

UPCOMING
BIDO LITO!
EVENTS
The Bido Lito! Social
Sign up from 1st March.
First Membership Edition
(April 2017) will hit your
doorstep on 22nd March
Join us now at bidolito.co.uk
Wednesday 5th April
FACT
Bido Lito! Special Event
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
Join Bido Lito!, Professor David Garcia -
co-curator of FACT’s How Much Of This Is Fiction
exhibition - and very special guests to discuss the
role of independent media in the ‘post-truth’ age.
Free admission for members
£4 non-members adv from bidolito.co.uk.
Thursday 20th April
24 Kitchen Street
Bido Lito! Membership
Launch Party Featuring:
STRANGE COLLECTIVE
+ MC FARHOOD + VEYU
+ THE SHIPBUILDERS
+ PIXEY + EVOL DJs
Members only. Sign up in advance
at bidolito.co.uk or on the night.
Jeanette Lee and Geoff Travis
Friday 5th May
The Bluecoat
Bido Lito! Special Event
GEOFF TRAVIS: CULTURE OF INDEPENDENCE
Rough Trade Records founder and indie icon
Geoff Travis discusses grassroots movements,
independence and the spirit of revolution. In
association with WOWFest.
Free admission for members
£6 non-members adv from bidolito.co.uk.
Thursday 18th May
North Shore Troubadour
The Bido Lito! Social x Sound City
Pre-Party Featuring:
LUNGS + AGP
+ BILL NICKSON
+ more to be announced
special guest DJs
Free admission for members
£4 non-members adv from bidolito.co.uk.
British Music Experience
Wednesday 7th June
British Music Experience
Bido Lito! Special Event
BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE
CURATOR TOUR NIGHT
Bido Lito! Members enjoy a private tour
with the head curator of the all new BME,
the UK’s Museum of Popular Music.
Exclusive members-only special event.
Thursday 22nd June
Blade Factory
The Bido Lito! Social Featuring:
OHMNS
+ QUEEN ZEE AND
THE SASSTONES
+ JO MARY
Free admission for members
£4 non-members adv from bidolito.co.uk.
MEMBERSHIP 24

25 BIDO LITO!

LOUIS
BERRY
Walking tall on the road
to success with a Scouse
superstar-in-waiting.
LOUIS BERRY is ready. Match fit, sharp, prepared. He
knows where he’s heading, and how he’s going to get
there – he just doesn’t necessarily want to tell the rest
of us yet. It’s his road to walk and he’s got plenty of
time for the journey.
Signed after a single gig, and with a fanbase that’s built
slowly and surely, Berry has been a star-in-waiting seemingly
from the very start. His debut, home-recorded single .45 lit the
touch paper, leading to him signing to one of the biggest labels
in the world. Add a slew of live dates at prestigious UK and
European festivals alongside a debut album on Sony, and you’ll
see that Louis Berry has a lot of future ahead of him; and, for
such a young artist, a hell of a lot of past.
As he sits in The Brink, reflecting on where he’s come
from and where he sees himself in all of this, what is evident is
the confidence that oozes from him. It’s a sense of contentment
and surety that comes from living through the struggles he’s
faced along the way. Growing up in Kirkby, Berry’s beginnings
weren’t easy. He’s talked in the past of his father’s battles with
heroin, and the isolation that brought him. That could be where
the tangible sense of drive comes from, the need to break out,
to work out how to stand up for himself and move forwards.
It started, as it does for so many, with a cheap guitar and
three chords.
“My Grandad was more of a father figure for me than my own
father was, and one day he went the car booty and came home
with a guitar and stood it at the end of the bed. One day, I snuck
upstairs to his room and picked the guitar up. I found this chord
book, and had a go. From then, I was in. It just seemed so natural
for me, somehow.”
From there he moved around, trying to get a gig, wanting and
waiting to be heard. You’d think that, in a city such as Liverpool
with such an active music scene, he’d have been welcomed with
open arms and ears. Not so – scenes can be healthy, but they
can often be insular and unwelcoming of those perceived as
outsiders, as Berry found.
“When I started playing, I went to bars in Liverpool, loads of
them, to open mic nights, and I’d ask if I could put my name down
to get up, and I’d always get ‘sorry mate, we’re full, we’ve got our
regulars, come back next week’. I’ve got a strong accent, and I
had a skinhead at the time, and it was like ‘he’s not a musician,
what does his music look like?’ Well, I listen to music, I don’t
fuckin’ watch it. Since then, I always thought, ‘fuck you, then’,
and now, now people are asking me if they can support me at my
gigs. Well, sorry mate… I’ve got me regulars,” he laughs.
A conversation with Louis Berry bears many of the same
characteristics as watching him in the live setting. There’s an
enthusiastic energy, a sense of drive and an urgency in the
way he speaks. He connects with you, eye to eye, holding your
attention, and it’s clear that he means every single word. He’s
edgy, determined and definite. He carries himself and his words
with uncompromising honesty and an easy wit, and there’s no
room in his thoughts for self-doubt or hesitancy. In a world where
the word truth is redefined on an almost daily basis, his honesty
is refreshing and engaging. This manifests itself in his lyrics, real
tales of real characters facing all too real struggles. It’s burned
into his voice, the growl and the howl of those struggles, the lives
lived in those songs and the stories told.
This honesty spills over into the writing process, which,
for Berry, is everything. For it to work for him, it has to come
from him.
“I wanna write about real things that are true to me, so I
won’t let anyone else write for me, cos you’re not an artist then,
you’re a performer… I couldn’t stand there, like a fraud, and
sing songs that haven’t come from me. I don’t wanna lose that
authenticity. It’s about truth.”
“There’s an
enthusiastic energy,
a sense of drive and
an urgency in the
way he speaks”
The marker of this will be Berry’s debut full-length, which is
due later in 2017. Off the back of huge singles Restless and She
Wants Me, there’s a growing anticipation for this as-yet untitled
album, which was recorded in 2016 in Nashville. Whether or not
it’s finished or not, only Louis knows. “I keep saying it’s finished,
but then… it isn’t. I keep going back to it and changing a couple
of things.” As with everything in his career, he’s taking his time,
drip-feeding his eager fanbase, teasing them with brief tastes of
what’s to come. A broad smile dances across his face as he thinks
about this; the caution of the journey and the care he’s taken so
far are always close to mind.
“The thing is, a lot of the stuff I’ve got coming is far deeper
than what I’ve got out at the moment, cos you’ve got to play
the game,” he admits. “There’s a bit of push and pull over what
songs we release first, and how we get there. I could so easily
release my most pop track, make a big pop video in America in
the sunshine with a load of Cadillacs in it or whatever, sit back
and say ‘there you go’. Go straight at it that way. That’s fuckin’
easy. But, if you get that wrong, then where d’you go? You’re
fucked. You went right to the top from the beginning, and now
you’re fucked. I want longevity in my career, and I need to make
sure that every step I take is on solid foundations. I have to move
forward like that.”
We could be forgiven for thinking that this single-minded
and dogged determination might not go down well with Sony, his
record company; major labels such as them aren’t always known
for their patience, or readiness to relinquish control.
“Yeah, I suppose you could think about the record company in
terms of this big entity, and then you as a separate piece of that
entity – or you could just look at them as individuals in the room.
When I walk in that room, I’m not having conversations with
Sony, I’m dealing with people. I’m talking to John, Paul, Sarah and
Jane. And all the people I’m working with there are great, they’re
sound people. They don’t try and control me. We’ve got a mutual
respect for each other. I understand the game they wanna play;
they’re patient, and the route they wanna take is towards that
longevity too. They have reasons for the way they do things, and
you have to trust them in it, but at the same time they have to
trust you when you say ‘no, this is the way I’m doing it’. A bit of
give and take.”
Seeing Louis Berry live is an experience of high-octane
impact: the connection he has with the crowd is a solid
and unswerving two-way conversation, and, for Berry, the
performance of these songs is the fulfilment of his intense vision
and focus. The stage is where these songs live, where they
belong, as a part of that connection with his crowd, and with
each performance he seems to breathe new life into them.
“I see it like this. You know when you go to a fight, and
you’re terrified before it and you come out after it, and you won?
And you walk away like you’re the dog’s bollocks?” he laughs.
“That’s the feeling I feel at a gig. Like I’ve had a scrap and won.”
Watching him, you’d certainly get the feeling he’s won a good
few scraps in his time. Again, that vision comes to him, the
certainty of purpose he feels…
“For me, writing is the most important thing – but the live
performance is the fulfilment of the writing. That’s the climax.
When I write, I envision: I see the crowd. So, when I’m standing
there, I’ve already seen what’s going on in the room. The room
could be empty, but in my head, I’ve already seen their reaction,
I’ve seen them singing them songs back to me. When I write, I
do it with optimism, not pessimism, and I see that in my mind.
Everything I’m achieving now, I’ve already seen.”
There’s no doubt he’ll see a lot more on his journey. That path
he’s treading is well-worn, fraught with the danger of far too
many distractions. It’s claimed its victims before, and it will again;
those who thought too big, and those who thought too small.
Those who didn’t think at all. Louis Berry’s different. He doesn’t
just think he’ll reach his destination, he knows. !
Words: Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM
Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photographer.com
louisberryofficial.com
She Wants Me is released on 10th March via Sony Music.
FEATURE 26

DEEP SEA
FREQUENCY
Diving deep with a
new musical venture
that already has a loyal
following of ravers.
“I’m not going to lie,
it’s been hard for us,
but we’ve just had to
make our mark.”
Liverpool’s dance music scene has become one of the
healthiest in the UK. Driven by energies from new
creatives and established promoters alike, young ravers
in particular have latched onto fresh, intimate parties
with an underground twist. The Meine Nacht events – with their
secret, never-before-seen warehouse locations and bring your
own booze policy – have really struck a chord with those thirsty
for a hedonistic experience, particularly one which eliminates the
sometimes unnecessary frills of event production and promotion.
Now with a successful run of parties under their belt and
more ideas brimming, Meine Nacht founders Orlagh Dooley (also
known by her DJ alias Or:la) and Jessica Beaumont are turning
their hand to a label, something which will embody the things
which made the events so successful; a unique aesthetic, a focus
on audience involvement and a musical policy which doesn’t
pigeonhole. DEEP SEA FREQUENCY will be the newest platform
for the pair to explore and generate.
After studying a similar music production course at university,
a friendship developed between Orlagh and Jessica, stemming
from a mutual interest in music after meeting on Liverpool’s
clubbing circuit. With a similar outlook and taste, they launched
Meine Nacht with Liverpool immediately enamoured to the raw
and rowdy get-togethers, soundtracked by soulful house, gritty
techno and frenetic bass; but it’s with the label that they view
creative longevity.
“We didn’t expect the party to take off the way it did, but it
just worked for us. We’ve continued to push forward with it and
it’s just been a snowball effect from there,” says Jessica. “We love
doing the parties but ultimately we want something that will last
and we don’t have to be stuck in one place to do them; with a
label we can reach a worldwide audience.”
Similarly to the way the pair plan their events, a meticulous
attention to detail and innovative ideas for format and delivery is
at the forefront of Deep Sea Frequency. Focusing on vinyl-only
releases to begin with, the tactile element will be present in more
than one way. “We’re going to have braille on the record so that
it’s multi-inclusive,” explains Jessica. “It’s going to be one of the
first labels that will have that incorporated in that way.”
It’s not the first time that physicality has played a part in
their ideas either. For their most recent Meine Nacht warehouse
event, they hid copies of all of the film photography from previous
parties around the venue so that revellers could pick them up and
keep a memento of their experience. “We’d documented it over
a year and we wanted our audience to have a copy,” explains
Orlagh. “It’s the touch element which we wanted to keep, and
the people who are releasing on the label will be able to keep
something personal to them. It’s very important to us.”
The name for the label itself stems from the reliance marine
animals have on sound for survival, and how they adapt to their
environment to enable them to communicate different messages.
The changes in rate, pitch and structure alter the messages, which
is where differing frequencies become important. In relation to
music, it will represent the information and interpretation of the
abstract communication between producers and their audiences.
Orlagh has been producing under her Or:la moniker for a
few years now, and late last year she had her breakthrough with
her release on Scuba’s renowned Hotflush imprint. But finding
a home for her music has been a struggle to contend with as an
emerging artist, and it’s this market that the pair think they can
tap into to create more opportunities. “It was hard to find a label
which actually combined all the different sounds which I liked in it
on an EP,” tells Orlagh, “so with us creating this label it’s going to
be easier because there won’t be any rules of restrictions about
genre.” The first release on Deep Sea Frequency will be an EP
by Or:la that comes out in May, with a launch party at a secret
location alongside it, which will feature acts coming over from
New York and Barcelona.
In many ways the label is an extension of the parties,
where Jessica and Orlagh regularly meet budding artists who
were keen to share their music with them. “We realised that
the stuff we were getting sent is actually really good and
these people didn’t have a platform to put their music out,”
explains Jessica. “We have an EP ready from a guy from
Liverpool who attended all of the parties and became our mate.
It’s an important thing for us to release local stuff because we
want to give people a chance that maybe we didn’t get at the
start of our journey.”
A keen eye for new talent was expressed even earlier when
Orlagh and Jessica started up a DJ society at university with
the intention of getting more girls involved in the scene. With
more production courses popping up specifically for females
(like the workshop developed in Glasgow by DJ Nightwave), it’s
refreshing to see more and more women conquering an often
male-dominated scene. “The girls did express that they were
embarrassed and they didn’t feel like the inclusion was equal,”
remembers Jessica. “I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard for us, but
we’ve just had to make our mark. If you want to do something
then you just have to go for it. It all boils down to passion.
“Holly Lester [a friend and fellow DJ] made a nice point
recently, that perhaps people don’t see being a female DJ or
producer as a proper career. Maybe that’s down to how to people
are perceiving it, but you’re just as worthy as any man and you
can do just as good a job as any man, because we’re just humans.
We shouldn’t be separated by gender.”
With a genuine interest in adventurous and underground
music, you can expect a dynamic attitude towards nurturing new
talent alongside a penchant for unearthing unheard gems. The
club night has already proved their panache for thinking outside
the box, with no reason to fear a dimming of their enthusiasm
anytime soon. “I’ve always had the attitude that if you want to
do it, then do it. Nothing like that has put an obstacle in the way
of us doing what we want to do,” says Orlagh. “It’s been a really
good journey and I hope that this is just the beginning.” !
Words: Rebecca Frankland / @beccafranko
Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk
soundcloud.com/deepseafrequency
27
BIDO LITO!

“The oceans of
reverb it created
have expanded into
thick, atmospheric
sonic depths”
29
BIDO LITO!

ASTLES
Storytelling and classic
songcraft in perfect harmony.
Dan Astles looks right at home leafing through the
record stacks in Jacaranda Records, giving off the
air of a seasoned musician despite being in the early
stages of his career. We’ve met to discuss the first
fruits of his journey as ASTLES, an EP of bristling, reverb-laden
pop recorded at the Scandinavian Church, which marks the first
chapter of what already looks to be a promising career. We head
downstairs in search of a more forgiving acoustic environment,
and as we hunch over a battered and antiquated table in the
historic Jacaranda basement, Dan attempts to tally the countless
times he’s played within these walls. While only 18, Dan has
been writing since the age of 13, his teenage years spent refining
his sound at open mic nights in places such as The Jac. He’s even
been attempting to create his own music community near his
home in Southport, and the open mic events he’s put on so far
have already taught him the importance of hard work and not
settling for a feeling of comfort.
That reassuring comfort comes with familiarity and repetition,
something that is abundant in his sleepy, predictable, seaside
hometown. His experiences in places like The Jacaranda have
inspired Dan to catalyse a scene within Southport, starting
with his regular open mic nights in The Hideout bar. “[It’s] a
place where people can go to play, and feel like they’re a part of
something, and be around like-minded people,” he explains about
the ethos of his Hideout Acoustic Sessions nights. “That wasn’t
there when I was 15, I always needed to go to Liverpool because
there was nothing going on in Southport.”
The lack of activity in the area drove Dan to run the tracks
into the city in a pursuit of new experiences, people and sounds.
“For me, Liverpool was the centre of the world, I couldn’t get
enough of it. The amount of times I’ve caught the last train
home to spend as much time here as possible, it’s so many.”
Liverpool has been a key inspiration for Astles as an artist too,
expanding his mind both musically and socially. Every other
sentence he utters is infused with a boundless enthusiasm for
the city and its recent knack for harbouring young talent; he
lists Silent Cities, Thom Morecroft, LUMEN and Eleanor Nelly as
key influences who have left their mark on him. After becoming
acquainted with many of the acts currently on the scene, Dan has
not only learned a lot from them, he is now using them as a bar
to measure himself against. “Having these people around you,
who you think are amazing, encourages you to improve.” He also
praises the support available to young artists in the form of LIMF
Academy, Merseyrail Sound Station and the nurturing creative
local environment. He credits these as a stimulant for the recent
wave of acts being recognised by the music industry, such as MiC
Lowry, Clean Cut Kid and XamVolo.
Having been involved in the LIMF Academy last year and
having impressed the judges enough at the Merseyrail Sound
Station Festival to be crowned its 2016 winner, Astles is
starting to turn heads of his own. Off the back of this
achievement, he’s set to release his first recorded EP in March
– Live At The Nordic – which comes with a launch show at
Liverpool’s Small Cinema. Featuring only Dan and his guitar, the
EP’s five tracks were recorded in the Gustav Adolf Church on
Park Lane with Michael Johnson of Tankfield Studios, a producer
and engineer who’s worked with the likes of New Order and Joy
Division. The Nordic church proved to be the perfect location
for Dan’s pained vocals, and the oceans of reverb it created
have expanded into thick, atmospheric sonic depths. There are
touches of Amen Dunes’ Damon McMahon in Castles’ evocative
introspection, and even something of Damien Rice’s pained
troubadour on Time Forgot.
The ethereal sound that has become Astles’ trademark is
something Dan has refined over his years of gigging solo. Playing
soft, reverb-honeyed songs, in an attempt to stand out amongst
most acoustic guitar open mic acts, he aims to harbour a fragility
and a pureness. “It just makes everything sound bigger – and
I wanted to play something different and more intriguing,” he
explains. “Jeff Buckley was able to capture that mood of him and
his guitar. It’s so powerful, but people can miss that, because it’s
so simple.”
Creating a strong, colourful and vivid picture is something
that also seems fundamental to Dan’s fascination with music. That
storyteller’s craft of acquainting the listener with the character and
setting is a skill that shows up time and again in Astles’ songs. A
defining memory for Dan is listening to his parents’ records as a
child. “I remember being really little, and being sat in the back of
my dad’s car and hearing Piano Man. The way he describes the
characters, you can feel and see them in your head. I remember
thinking that’s an amazing thing to do within a three or fiveminute
song.” As he grew older he started to search for his own
influences, in the form of Bob Dylan, John Martyn and Elliot Smith,
further feeding his hunger for storytelling in music. He explored
literature as another medium by which to exercise his obsession for
imagery and narrative. Classic novels such as The Catcher In The
Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird inspired him to recreate the impact
of those stories in a shorter, simplified song format. The ability of
encapsulating an array of characters, messages and emotions, and
portraying them in such a simple format, is something he found
overwhelming when listening to artists like Bob Dylan. “The fact
that people can write songs that takes a film three hours, or a book
400 pages, that’s something that’s really inspiring to me, being
able to say something that quickly and that strongly.”
The music making process is as important to Astles as the
presentation of it, whether it be live or recorded. After enrolling
in a Music Technology course in Liverpool, he’s now cultivating
the art of production, tailoring different sounds, and exercising a
new form of experimentation. “Now I’ve got better at production,
some of my ideas come from hours spent at my computer.
Fiddling around with sounds, I can build upon the ideas I have
with just me and my guitar.”
“It’s so powerful,
but people can miss
that, because it’s so
simple”
While only just starting to make his mark upon Liverpool,
pages are being turned towards the next Astles chapter. Already
eyeing up his future, he’d like his next batch of EPs to adopt
individual concepts, more like cinematic entities and short stories.
He also expresses his will to not be restricted by orthodox band
set-ups, with a desire to incorporate grand string sections and
layered percussion high on his agenda. A reference point he
draws on is the latest Bon Iver release, 22, A Million: “It’s stripped
back, but still has all these ideas coming from all over the place.
That sound that is so raw, but still so considered.” In taking notes
from the great novelists and songwriters of the last century and
this, Astles has set his heights high, but his ambition is clear. !
Words: Jonny Winship / @jmwinship
Photography: Nata Moraru / facebook.com/NataMoraruPhoto
soundcloud.com/astlesmusic
The Live At The Nordic EP comes out on 14th March,
with an EP launch show at The Small Cinema on 30th March.
FEATURE 30

ALTERNATIVE
FACTS
05/04
In association the exhibition
How Much Of This Is Fiction, join
Bido Lito! and a panel of special
guests including Professor David
Garcia to discuss post-truth
politics, fake news, and the role of
independent media.
The Box, FACT
Free to Bido Lito! members
£4 non-members adv from bidolito.co.uk

SPOTLIGHT
DANYE
Four like-minded souls who weave a particularly
dreamy thread of space pop while trying to find
some escapism from the real world.
“...while music
is increasingly
exclusive, you can
still do it yourself.”
If you’re a guitar band in Liverpool, occasionally getting
lost in the crowd is an occupational hazard. Thankfully
for DANYE, they’ve a knack of getting their heads above
the rest, which comes from their marriage of a decidedly
retro feel with shimmering, futuro guitar-pop nous. The
quartet – Dan West on words and fibres, Jordan Swales on
cathedral sounds, Rhys Davies on resonance and Dan
Martindale on pots and pans – barely knew each other
before they met for their first practice together, but the Danye
vibe has brought them close together like only best mates can
be. They also have an, err, interesting take on their own sound,
describing it as “like waking from a wet dream feeling good,
but very confused.”
Danye’s most recent song, Recently (funnily enough), is a
relentlessly-paced, space-pop weird one that comes across like
Wild Nothing covering The Pale Fountains. It’s a combination
that shouldn’t work, but there’s a lo-fi dexterity to it that is
charming, and has masses of radio potential. “We’re still trying to
get our heads around it ourselves,” the band say about the track,
almost as if it just came to them in a dream. “Our songs all tend
to be very different, as we all have similar yet differing tastes. So,
they probably show that we’re all confused as to what’s actually
going on a lot of the time, which, you know, could be a good or a
bad thing.”
They’re reticent to list a number of artists who they’ve
aspired to emulate (“apart from Will Smith, Björk and Def
Leppard”), insisting instead that they’re all pretty open-minded
to each others’ ideas – and, by extension, their influences.
“Probably our biggest common influence would be artists
who self-record and produce – they’re a huge inspiration to our
generation of musicians, by showing that you don’t need a
studio and loads of money to make good music. People are
discovering that their favourite artists produced records in a
tiny room in Slough or something, not some fancy studio, and
it’s refreshing as it reminds us that, while music is increasingly
exclusive, you can still do it yourself.”
Far from being tarred with the ‘slacker’ brush, Danye
have been making good on their word by self-recording their
first EP. The four-piece are about to release another single and
video, for new tune Happy One – “a straight-up, no-frills pop
tune about trying to get a table in Sapporos…”
So, why is music important to Danye? “Apart from escaping
our jobs and reality, it’d be connecting with others and just
expressing ourselves,” they say. “It’s a wonderful thing when
you’re all in the moment together sharing that experience of
music, there’s nothing quite like it. In a wider, more clichéd sense,
music is important as it brings people together, and facilitates
expression between us all. I guess we don’t need to explain why
that’s important, as the experiences music gives makes that quite
self-explanatory.”
Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk
soundcloud.com/danyemuzic
Danye play Threshold Festival on 1st April,
on the Merseyrail Sound Station stage.
33
BIDO LITO!

AMINA
ATIQ
Yemeni published poet and
member of Writing on the
Wall’s young writers group,
AMINA ATIQ uses her words
to protest and educate.
If you had to describe your poetry in a sentence,
what would you say?
I would say that my poetry is a platform through which I am
able to give back to the voiceless by speaking against racism,
oppression and prejudice. Also, as a first year student of Creative
Writing at LJMU, I am currently developing my ideas and
strengthening my writing. As a writer, we are normally critical
of our own work and we are always wanting to improve. I am
willing to learn about and experience the world around me, so
that I am able to express this in an artistic form, so that those
around me and after me will know of our world through poetry,
and not only by biased mainstream news articles. People want
honesty and poetry is the gateway to the truth.
What’s the latest material you’ve been working on –
and what does it say about you?
My latest performing poetry is Interference, which was published
last year. It was part of a short story I had written of a girl
called Isra who flees her birth home, Syria. The final part of the
short story finishes with a poetic monologue: as Isra is on a
boat travelling through the sea at night amongst other families,
she pleads for the world to listen to her words, which may be
her last. This piece is inspired by politics and their agendas to
create war; it reflects the true voice of a child who does not
understand. Though this is about this young girl from Syria, this
reflects my voice; I do not understand either and I am still trying
to understand why we still read history books when all we do is
recreate these situations over and over again.
Did you have any particular artists or poets in mind as an
influence when you started out? What about them do you
think you’ve taken into your own work?
I have always read English-translated Arabic poetry, I was
inspired by the music poetry can create. I began to watch
YouTube videos of spoken word artists in America, like Omar
Suleiman’s Dead Man Walking. I was inspired how poetry on
stage can be so powerful, you don’t even have to shout for
people to listen, just speak from the heart, the truth. The power
in Omar’s poetry gave me power to speak up too and I thank him
for he gave me the courage to speak against injustice.
@AminaAtiqPoetry
PIXEY
“Lo-fi electric guitar riffs
with a feel-good pop beat” –
PIXEY’s brand of slacker pop
is right up our street.
Just to get a bit more information from you:
who/what is Pixey?
Pixey is a solo project that I started last year. I started writing
and producing everything on a laptop in my bedroom and when
I started out I only had my guitar to work with, so I ended up
playing all the instruments on the tracks. Everything heard on my
songs, including the bass, is played on guitar. Although I write
and play everything when I’m recording, I’ve got a four-piece
band behind me when I’m playing live.
What’s the latest release you’ve been working on –
and what does it say about you?
I released my first single Young last year, which I wrote entirely
for a bit of fun and didn’t think too much of it. If it says anything
about me, it would probably be that I really do love to do nothing
and sit indoors all day. I’m now working on my first EP which I’m
hoping to release around April.
Did you have any particular artists in mind as an
influence when you started out? What about them do
you think you’ve taken into your music?
I’m a really big fan of Mac Demarco and George Harrison,
but I also admire Grimes, so I wanted their influence on my
sound to meet somewhere in the middle. I’ve always loved
Mac Demarco’s carefree lyrics, which definitely influenced
what I wanted to write about when I started out. I also thought
the gritty guitar riffs and upbeat feel of George Harrison’s
album All Things Must Pass was something I wanted to recreate
in my own way. That album really changed the way I saw
music. But, on a completely different tone, I always looked up
to Grimes for pushing the boundaries with her contemporary
and pop edge.
Why is music important to you?
Music is important to me because anyone can identify with a
song, album or artist. It’s a completely universal language that
gives you the freedom of who and what you want to be.
soundcloud.com/pixeyofficial
Pixey plays the Bido Lito! Membership Launch Party at 24
Kitchen Street on 20th April.
SPOTLIGHT 34

PREVIEWS
FESTIVAL
Hannah
Peel
Threshold Festival – 01/04
“We were never
told about the
power of what
music could do.”
LIPA graduate HANNAH PEEL initially worked as a
composer, arranger and musical director for theatre,
as well as a session musician. She launched her solo
career in 2010 with Rebox, an EP of music box covers
of songs from the 1980s by Soft Cell, New Order, OMD and
Cocteau Twins, and has gone on a varied and fascinating journey
since then. The Irish-born multi-instrumentalist is a member
of The Magnetic North along with Gawain Erland Cooper and
Simon Tong, a trio known for their exploration of different
members’ childhoods through their two quasi-concept albums
(Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic North and Prospect Of
Skelmersdale).
The second Hannah Peel solo album, Awake But Always
Dreaming, produced by Cooper, was released in 2016, and
features Wild Beasts’ Hayden Thorpe. The follow-up to her
2011 release, The Broken Wave, Awake But Always Dreaming is
inspired by her grandmother’s dementia.
I understand the roots of Awake But Always Dreaming
came from the latter stages of your grandmother’s
illness, when you discovered the link between music
and memory?
She went into a nursing home and I particularly remember
walking in one day as my aunt was leaving and my aunt was
crying and the automatic feeling was to go ‘oh no, what’s it going
to be like today, has she forgotten us completely?’. She was living
back in the 1940s working in a factory and couldn’t understand
who we were or where she was. I used to imagine in her mind
she was wandering around these cities and brutalist buildings, all
cobbled streets with shops, and in every shop was a memory. It
would have, maybe, my grandad’s piano or a songbook that she
really loved and she would go in and come back to us in those
moments.
We were never told about the power of what music could
do. She was an amazing singer, and sang for years, but she never
wanted to sing and we thought ‘oh, that’s gone like everything
else’. I said to my family one Christmas Day when we went to
visit, ‘why don’t we sing some Christmas carols?’. She just woke
up, and started to sing. She hadn’t sung for four or five years; her
vocal chords wouldn’t have been used in that way and it was a
really magical moment.
You’ve said Italo Calvino’s book of prose poetry,
Invisible Cities, played a big part of your process in
writing the album. I’m reading it at the moment; it plonks
you into these alien worlds of exotic faded glamour, but in
so few words.
It’s very mad, isn’t it? That book was a huge inspiration. I was
completely absorbed in this book. I had pictures pasted to my
walls of communist buildings, designs and photography and my
dream was to compose a song for every single city, and at the
end of the day it just didn’t work. And I spent years doing it. It
wasn’t until I realised, in that moment, ‘oh my god, I’ve just been
dreaming about where she’s [Peel’s grandmother] been going,
for four years’. So, I came out of it and started to write about the
personal experience.
Your music box compositions and recordings have
found their way on to numerous adverts, artist remixes
and in film, and you’ve used the music box on Awake But
Always Dreaming to great effect. Do you make music
boxes as well?
I buy the mechanics of it online but the making of it is hole
punching every note and then I join them all together with
Sellotape, which is really high-tech! But the box is mine, and the
way the pick-up is inside the box, it picks up all the creaks and
the cranks and you get the pull of the paper. It makes a really
beautiful sound you can’t get with a digital, sampled version. It’s
really special. [At gigs] the audience can see when the song is
about to end as well. You can pre-empt the ending. It’s nice how
it falls to the floor with a clunk.
I hear there’s a new Magnetic North record slated for release
in 2018.
We’re working on something. We’ve already taken the guys to
Ireland. Compared to both of them [Erland Cooper and Simon
Tong] I’m very transient, I’ve got different parts to me. I lived
in Liverpool as long as I lived in Ireland and as long as I lived in
Barnsley, so there’s an equalness to where I would want to base
it, so we’re gradually finding that and gradually trying to piece it
together and make something coherent. But I don’t think it will
be as solid as Skelmersdale or as solid as Orkney. It will be a bit
different from that. I’ve also just written a piece for a 33-piece
colliery brass band. I’ve just recorded it and it will be out in
September. It’s brass band and synths.
Is this the mythical Mary Casio, of Mary Casio: Journey To
Cassiopeia? How is Mary?
She’s doing well! Mary’s my middle name but I had this idea…
I’ve got loads of Casio keyboards and I would often just put a
drumbeat on the Casio and just play along to the samba and
rumba beats and swing beats, and started saying, ‘this is Mary
Casio’. She’s like a space lady, a bit like a mad inventor. She’s
old and she’s never left Barnsley, and in her back garden she
has a shed she has all her inventions in. She’s a bit like a Delia
Derbyshire or Daphne Oram type character. Spends her life
working in the local post office and at night, when nobody
knows, she goes into the garden and she makes all these crazy
electronic instruments, and has a dream of going to the actual
star constellation of Cassiopeia.
You’re juggling so much: Hannah Peel the solo artist, one
third of the Magnetic North, and, of course, Mary. How do
you balance everything?
With her [Mary], it was definitely making theatre. It isn’t theatrical
music, it’s very ambient and spiritual, but I went into that story as
if you were reading a book and imagined that character as I was
writing it. The Hannah Peel solo stuff is what I go through on a daily
basis, and then the Magnetic North is also something completely
different because it harks back to childhood and memories and
nostalgia. It’s quite hard to separate it all: at the moment I’m finding
it hard to write for Magnetic North. The boys are really pushing
me to do stuff and I kind of don’t want to do it [laughs], because
my brain isn’t separating them all very well. But once I’ve got Mary
mastered, I think I’ll start to change my mind about that. !
hannahpeel.com
Hannah Peel plays Threshold Festival on 1st April.
Awake But Always Dreaming is out now via My Own Pleasure.
37
BIDO LITO!

GIG
Tinariwen
Invisible Wind Factory – 07/03
Tuareg multi-instrumental group TINARIWEN bring
their genre-defying melting pot of funk, blues, folk and
psychedelia to the Invisible Wind Factory in support
of their latest album Elwan. With their homeland,
a Saharan mountain range between north-eastern Mali and
southern Algeria, transformed into a conflict zone, the lyrics
on Elwan are even more politically charged than their previous
releases, pivoting around concerns for the future of the Tuareg
people and of the deserts they inhabit.
Their music is as masterful as ever. Ténéré Taqqal (which
translates into ‘What has become of the desert’) breathes a deep
soulful lament into the album; one voice punctuated by more
hopeful-sounding call and response choruses. The faster-paced
Assàwt, a tribute to Tuareg women, is a much more celebratory
affair, all quick fingerpicking and layer upon layer of textural
rhythms. And then there’s Ittus: just one member of the band and
his guitar – pure slow draw, soft-voiced desert blues.
Recorded across a shifting desert backdrop, but imbued
with the culture of home, Tinariwen split their time between
California’s Joshua Tree National Park, and M’Hamid El Ghizlane,
an oasis in southern Morocco near the Algerian frontier, setting
up their tents to record. Their California location allowed for some
high-profile guests to drop by and the hordes of artists queueing
up on the collaboration conveyor belt speaks volumes: Kurt Vile
makes an appearance as do Mark Lanegan, multi-instrumentalist
Alain Johannes (known for his work with Queens of the Stone
Age) and guitarist Matt Sweeney (who’s worked with Iggy Pop
and Johnny Cash amongst others).
But don’t take their word for it – Tinariwen’s rich and plentiful
back catalogue speaks for itself. With this date, we’re granted a
chance to support and celebrate music created by a culture under
threat. Don’t miss it for the world.
Enda Bates
FESTIVAL
Open Circuit
Victoria Gallery and Museum
24/03-29/03
The Interdisciplinary Centre for Composition and
Technology (ICCaT), based in the Department of Music
at the University of Liverpool, specialises in the kind
of research that burrows down into the very fabric of
sound. Their ethos sees staff and PhD students working together
to investigate how music composition and sonic artforms
intersect with new technology, performance and perception.
OPEN CIRCUIT FESTIVAL is the centre’s main platform
for presenting this cutting-edge research, which they do every
year through a diverse programme of public events and musical
activities that contextualise the various types of research
they undertake. The festival not only offers a series of free
contemporary music events in the glorious surroundings of the
Victoria Gallery’s Leggate Theatre, but also provides academic
context on the future of music making and technology through
panel discussions, artist talks and public demonstrations.
For 2017, the team have put together an audacious
line-up that builds upon these themes, and shows that the
spirit of discovery is alive and well. Swedish trombone player
CHRISTIAN LINDBERG (voted the ‘Greatest Brass Player In
History’ by Classic FM in 2015) will lead the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra’s 10/10 Ensemble in a programme he has
curated specifically for this event, which will look at innovative
approaches to writing for chamber ensemble. French composer
PHILIPPE MANOURY is a pioneer in the field of instruments and
computer sound, and will host a talk on 28th March that will
focus on the interaction between performers and computers. This
will be followed by a performance of Manoury’s Partita I for viola,
and realtime electronics by PIXELS ENSEMBLE.
Elsewhere, Irish composer ENDA BATES delivers a talk about
the spatial composer as illusionist, and flautist RICHARD CRAIG
expands on his impressive repertoire with the premiere of a new
arrangement that merges flute and electronics. All events are
free, but you’re encouraged to reserve tickets in advance at
iccat.uk/open-circuit.
PREVIEWS 38

PREVIEWS
GIG
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Invisible Wind Factory – 20/03
Seun Kuti
Nearly six years since his 16-piece band, Egypt 80, electrified
The Kazimier’s stage (and probably caused the logistics folk
there a good headache), SEUN KUTI makes a welcome return
to Liverpool, this time upping sticks north to the Invisible Wind
Factory. The youngest son of one very famous Afrobeat pioneer
Fela Kuti, Seun took on the role of leading his late pa’s band and
has become a respected artiste in his own right – he even went
to LIPA. Touring his latest album, the socially conscious Struggle
Sounds, Kuti continues the activist ethos of his father, as well as
his funk-fuelled Afrobeat grooves.
GALLERY
North:
Identity, Photography, Fashion
Open Eye Gallery – until 19/03
If you haven’t moseyed on down to Mann Island already to
see NORTH, you better hurry. Also, where’ve you been? A
glorious multi-media exhibition exploring how the North of
England is depicted, treated and celebrated in the worlds of art,
fashion and photography, it’s one to lose yourself in. Immersive
documentary work, fashion photography, clothing and prints all
mix shoulders in homage to the cultural heritage of the North,
and how this heritage has been reshaped by outsiders through
visual representation. Big names like Mark Leckey and Corinne
Day feature but our pick is a tongue-in-cheek piece revolving
around Shaun Ryder.
North: Identity, Photography, Fashion
FESTIVAL
Threshold
Northern Lights – 31/03-02/04
GIG
Coven
Philharmonic Music Room – 07/03
The grassroots music and arts ambassadors at THRESHOLD FESTIVAL have
curated another eclectic line-up, bringing us the best of the North West’s emerging
music scene at a mere £15 a pop for the full weekend. There’s everything from
multi-talented music maker HANNAH PEEL, to groove patrons GALACTIC FUNK
MILITIA, and shit-hot neu-punks QUEEN ZEE AND THE SASSTONES. With their
huge emphasis on emerging artists and affordability for punters, Threshold have
traditionally relied on a bit of funding help but have had a recent setback: help
them out by making a pledge via crowdfunder.co.uk/threshold2017.
Assembling three of the British folk scene’s most celebrated and forthright
female acts, COVEN bring their formidable songwriting and storytelling to the
Philharmonic Music Room in celebration of International Women’s Day. Harmonic
duo O’Hooley & Tidow will be joined by multi-instrumentalist trio Lady Maisery
(who in the past have covered Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work, to raise money
for the charity coalition End Violence Against Women) and the irrepressible
songwriter, activist and performer Grace Petrie. With ‘coven’ usually referring to a
gathering of witches, we very much like its reclaimed application here.
COMEDY
Josie Long
Epstein Theatre – 13/03
The ever-exuberant JOSIE LONG is a breath of fresh air on
a stand-up comedy circuit that tends to breed cynicism and
sarcasm. Tackling identity struggles and self-acceptance, her
style sounds a little on the heavy side for a comedy show, but
Long is renowned for being as funny as her work is heartfelt.
She’s written for Skins and toured with Stewart Lee, and
presents Something Better off the back of the international
sell-out success of her last tour. Billed as being a show about
optimism and hopefulness, it seems like a natural remedy for our
times. Head to bidolito.co.uk now for an exclusive interview with
Josie Long.
Josie Long
GIG
Ditto Live
Camp and Furnace – 24/03
Presenting a prime crop of this city’s best and brightest
talent, DITTO LIVE brings a big bunch of musical loveliness to
Camp and Furnace, hosted by BBC Introducing’s main man
on Merseyside, Dave Monks. Topping the bill is architect of
masterful soulscapes and recent Decca signing, XAMVOLO,
then there’s catchy 70s rockers LILIUM, 60s psych throwbacks
THE WICKED WHISPERS and rock ‘n’ rollers LITTLE
TRIGGERS. Add a bit of spunky groovers OYA PAYA, garage
gang SEPRONA, Banksy wannabes THE SNEAKY NIXONS,
and thoughtful alt. rockers THE MONO LPS, and you’ve a fine
mix indeed.
CONCERT
Intimate Letters
Buyers Club – 24/03
Contemporary concert troupe Manchester Collective are
teaming up with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation
to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the illustrious author
of A Clockwork Orange. The Collective’s second Liverpool
showing of 2017 features a world premiere of Huw Belling’s
thrilling Inside Mr Enderby song cycle, which aims to delve
deep into the unsettling world of one of Burgess’ lesser known
works. Celebrated Australian baritone Mitch Riley will be a
guest performer for the night’s work, which also features a
rendition of Czech composer Leoš Janáček’s emotionallycharged
Intimate Letters for string quartet.
39
BIDO LITO!

CLUB
Monki & Friends
24 Kitchen Street – 09/03
Underground tastemaker and DJ MONKI brings her shattering
house sets to the Baltic. Known for championing new electronic
talent on her Radio 1 show and through her digital imprint Zoo
Music, Monki has melded together mixes for Red Bull Music
Academy and has kicked off what’s set to be a momentous year
for her with Carl Cox, Skream and MK all guesting on her show.
Launching her tour with celebrations at Fabric London, catch her
on her second stop as she brings her pals to Kitchen Street for a
night of fresher-than-fresh house music.
Monki
GIG
Bolshy Album Launch
Meraki –18/03
The evolution of BOLSHY from street busking band to full-on
riotous noiseniks now has them ticking the ‘studio band’ box as
well. The ska/punk seven-piece bring out their album Reap The
Storm on Antipop Records on 18th March, and they’re throwing a
launch party to mark the occasion (the night also marks their fifth
birthday). Bolshy’s slew of punk, dub, Afrobeat and Klezmeric
dynamism has made them a hit on the underground festival
scene, and they’re looking to export that to venues around the
country as they head out on a UK tour in support of the record.
Bolshy
GIG
Thundercat
Invisible Wind Factory – 24/03
Thundercat
Do you like funk? Good. How about soul and jazz? THUNDERCAT’s got you
covered. His backstory is pure jazz pedigree – his pa, Ronald Bruner, Sr. played
with The Temptations, Diana Ross, and Gladys Knight. Young Thunder picked up
the bass and, with it, collaborations with Erykah Badu and Kamasi Washington.
He brought his mad funk genius to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly (and
won a Grammy for it). His solo work is of the same calibre. A chance to see this
super talented cat play his own thing in the space age environs of a north docks
warehouse? Only a fool would miss it.
LITERATURE
Bad Taste Reading Group
The Bluecoat – 22/03
CLUB
Sonic Yootha #18 – It’s My Party
24 Kitchen Street – 10/03
Move along Oprah. Richard and Judy, take a hike. The cool and cultured folks at
The Bluecoat bring a different kind of reading group to town. Bad Taste Reading
Group grapples with reflections on art and society with monthly informal and
welcoming discussion groups. Facilitated by Dr Paul Jones, Bluecoat’s Sociologistin-Residence,
and Bluecoat’s curator Adam Smythe, get existential and antiestablishment
with readings of French social theorists Pierre Bourdieu and Bruno
Latour, and feminist scholar Donna Haraway. Free to attend and open to all, take
the leap and book a place in advance via thebluecoat.org.uk.
Every cool kitten’s favourite club night returns for its second outing of 2017;
a sparkling, positive pop-culture fest on the horizon in these frankly shite
Armageddon times. Expect Her Madgesty, Mariah, George Michael, Tina Turner,
The Human League (the list goes on!) sweat, glitter, and dance moves straight out
of Paris Is Burning. Pro tip: keep a keen eye/ear out for the Yootha gang’s regular
Mixcloud playlist in the run up to the big night. If that doesn’t put you in the mood
for dancing and free love, you might like to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
GIG
Taupe
Kazimier Garden – 02/03
Taupe
Celebrating the release of their second album Fill Up Your
Lungs And Bellow, Newcastle purveyors of punk and jazz
TAUPE bring their explorative brand of music chaos to the
fires of the Kazimier Gardens. Citing influences ranging from
South Indian Carnactic music to the heavy polyrhythms of
Swedish metal outfit Meshuggah and math-bop (this genre’s
new to us too), this is certainly one to expand your minds.
Rory Ballantyne and Michael Paul Metcalfe of Liverpool jazz
stalwarts Dead Hedge Trio will team up on the night to provide
an electronic soundscape of flowing synth and experimental
drum loops in support.
PREVIEWS 40

Ezio
plus Seafoam Green
The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Thursday 16th March
Ian Prowse & Amsterdam
Pele’s classic debut, ‘Fireworks’ 25th Anniversary Tour
Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Saturday 18th March
Jesca Hoop
THE Magnet
Wednesday 5th April
Kathryn Williams & Anthony Kerr
Philharmonic Hall
Sunday 23rd April
Nightingales & Blue Orchids
THE Magnet
Friday 28th April
Boo Hewerdine (full band)
‘Plus Findlay Napier
Philharmonic Hall
Friday 12th May
The Monochrome Set
Philharmonic Hall
Sunday 28th May
@Ceremonyconcert / facebook.com/ceremonyconcerts
ceremonyconcerts@gmail.com / seetickets.com

REVIEWS
The Fall (Darren Aston)
Pink Kink (Darren Aston)
The Fall
+ Cabbage + Hookworms
+ Eagulls + Pink Kink
+ Ohmns + Goat Girl
CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH @ Arts Club - 21/01
“There is something
truly beautiful
about the flaming
destruction”
Catching THE FALL in their element is a source of pure joy. Like
watching an asteroid shower, there is something truly beautiful
about the flaming destruction happening before your very eyes.
It doesn’t make a difference that most of the time their live sets
are an utter shambles, because, with a line-up like tonight’s, it’s
a winner either way. If Mr E Smith shines through then it’s merely
a bonus.
It’s barely gone five o’clock but Arts Club’s Loft is already
packed out for PINK KINK. Despite having not released a single
song, the Liverpool-based five-piece have gathered quite some
hype. Armed with an array of neon cardboard delicacies, and
outfits just as vibrant to match, Pink Kink are an explosion, a
sensory overload that is overwhelmingly pleasing on the ear.
Quite unlike anything else on the Liverpool scene, they flip rapidly
from anger-fuelled feminist anthems to heartfelt ballads to funfilled
party anthems.
Having left the sweatbox upstairs we fly down to catch
STRANGE COLLECTIVE. With their usual carefree attitude and
trademark shambolic garage-psych fug, they tear the room in
half. The scouse burr of lead singer Alex Wynne is the perfect
complement to the pedal-fed fuzz provided by guitarist Ali
Horn. Combining classic hometown melody with a whole load
of distortion, delay and mind-altering wah-wah is what’s helped
them gain their fanbase, and what will surely help them grow it
further.
Shouldering through a crowd of cracked leather jackets
reeking of nicotine, we travel back to the loft in search of
OHMNS. Unyielding, vicious and unpredictable, they are West
Derby’s answer to The Gories. “We are Cock Piss Cabbage,”
sneers singer Quinlan, wasting no time for chat and slamming
straight into a raucous rendition of Boil D Rice. The group
combine a filthy East Coast garage vibe with a Northern humour
– like Half Man Half Biscuit on speed – and bring a much-needed
edge to proceedings.
After sampling the delights of EAGULLS and GOAT GIRL,
the penultimate bands of the night couldn’t seem further apart.
Rather than choose between CABBAGE or HOOKWORMS, I split
down the middle and opt for catching half a set each. The Loft is
packed full to the rafters for Cabbage, with what feels like people
squeezing into every possible orifice the room has to offer. With
humidity rising as much as anticipation, the Mossley crew arrive
with a rockstar swagger brought on by sold-out shows across
the country. Cabbage are a band who might split opinion, but one
thing that can’t be argued with is their stage presence. They’re a
group of Northern boys who’ve struck a chord with generation Y:
it may be simplistic and raw, but you can’t argue with the frenzied
smiles of young and old that fill the room.
Hookworms couldn’t be more different. Perfectionists by
nature, it has taken a little longer for the Leeds collective to set
up, so I’m surprised to wander in mid-set. However, I’m not
surprised to be blown back by the multisensory tour de force
which confronts us, a barrage of electronic noise accompanied
by a hypnotic visual show. Unlike Cabbage’s cult of personality,
the members of Hookworms are shrouded in darkness, letting the
music take on its very own being. It’s a huge sound which holds
the audience in its gaze.
No matter what Mark E Smith and co. are like, today has been
a victory for underground music which encapsulates everything
The Fall stand for.
Matt Hogarth
Oh, lord above, where do you start? Not with this headline
performance, that’s for sure.
THE FALL topping off CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH’s all-day
gigathon was supposed to be perfect, but after two (admittedly
great) songs – Wolf Kidult Man and Cowboy George – it kind
of all falls apart. A slew of unrecognisable tunes mix in with the
odd gem like Dedication Not Medication, but the show is lost, a
surefire letdown.
As a Fall fan of many a year and the proud owner of every
studio album (30, count ‘em), this is my 10th Fall gig – and, I’m
sad to say, it’s the first I have genuinely not enjoyed. I say enjoy:
my usual state down at the front of a Fall gig is that of pure
ecstasy, for no matter how grizzled and pissed our hero may be,
he generally rises up and delivers. The band are always tight,
tighter than most, and there is humour in the gnarly venom spat
out by the goblinesque Smith.
So, do I forgive them for this one night of dirge? Of course
I do. We can’t always get it right. Do you sack a teacher on the
strength of one bad lesson? No. Smith has the right to drop the
ball every now and then.
Look at his schedule: it appears that, somewhere in the
world, Smith and his ever-changing line-up are playing a gig or
a festival every month. They never stop. With pretty much an
album released every year or two since 1979, prolific is their
middle name. The line-up carousel has been unusually stable
the last few years, with Peter Greenaway, David Spurr, Keiron
Melling, and Smith’s wife Elena Poulo providing the driving force
behind the shouting. In Poulo, Smith had a sparring partner, but
with her now departed, The Fall are back to a four-piece, and it
feels skinny.
Prowling the stage like a wounded bear, Mark E Smith seems
like a lost soul, and it’s kind of heartbreaking. He looks older too.
To be fair, he’s never really been a good looker has our Mark,
but as the years have gone by the wrinkles have piled on, and
for some time he’s looked a great deal older than his years (60
this March). Like an ancient tree, however, those indentations
and scars hold wisdom. His lyrics continue to astound: check out
Stout Man from 2015’s Sub-Lingual Tablet for proof. It’s just that
they’re getting harder to decipher. And when he resorts to trilling
like a budgie in favour of singing, like he does tonight, it’s even
more confusing.
By defending Mark E Smith, it is difficult in some ways not to
criticise. To the uninitiated, a Fall gig may look like a full-blown
disaster, with Smith often scrabbling on his knees behind an amp,
trying to find his lyric sheet, or tampering with the equipment to
no noticeable effect – but it’s all part of the act.
Disappointed? Yes. Will I go again? Yes. Because, seriously,
you never know what to expect with The Fall. In the words of The
Osmonds, one bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch. Now that
would be a Fall cover to cherish. !
Del Pike / @del_pike
43
BIDO LITO!

Reassembled,
Slightly Askew
17 Love Lane - 25/01
“Dislocation,
helplessness and
frustration are
the emotions it’s
designed to evoke”
In the dimmed light of a unit underneath the old railway
arches on Love Lane, I look across a disconcerting scene: four
hospital beds are arranged like a makeshift ward and a nurse
with a clipboard is stood waiting to admit me. This is the way
REASSEMBLED, SLIGHTLY ASKEW begins, throwing you off
guard from the outset.
Conceived as a piece of installation art, Reassembled… is
a sonic experience that wants to take you out of your comfort
zone. Dislocation, helplessness and frustration are the emotions
it’s designed to evoke, and it’s not something you’ll find the
artist responsible for it, Shannon Sickles, apologising for. In
2008, Shannon developed a strong head cold that caused her to
start seeing auras. It wasn’t until she started acting irrationally
and arguing with people in the street that she and her partner,
Gráinne Close, became alarmed. Shannon was diagnosed with a
rare brain condition when she was admitted to hospital, and had
to undergo emergency surgery to save her life, before being put
into an induced coma. This traumatic experience, as well as the
long road to recovery, was something that Shannon felt that she
had to share with the world.
“I think the process of creating Reassembled… helped me
understand the magnitude of what I had been through – but
only at the end of the process of creating it,” Shannon explains.
“I never set out to make it as a cathartic process, as I’m actually
a very private person. I was fascinated by how my brain had
changed, and how to artistically create something that captured
my journey in an interesting, exciting and challenging new way.”
I’ve filled out my admission form and now I’m sat on the edge
of one of the beds, taking my shoes off. Suddenly I feel quite
vulnerable, weirded out. ‘Am I really ready for this?’ I ask myself.
Too late: the eye mask slides over my head and plunges me into
darkness. I can feel the plastic out-patient wristband chafing
at my wrist, but other than that I’m rudderless. There’s nothing
left for it now but to lie back and submit to the headphones
treatment.
“The binaural microphone technology we used was integral
in recreating what I experienced in my journey of acquired brain
injury, in particular the sense of internal confusion and frustration,
noise sensitivity and feelings of passivity. The artistic team
had explored how to recreate my process of hemiparalysis and
learning how to walk again, but the missing pathways between
my brain and the left side of my body couldn’t be captured as
accurately as we had hoped.”
Unaware whether or not the experience has started yet,
I hear a car driving past to my left and I assume someone has
opened the door to the ‘ward’. In response, the whole left hand
side of my body goes cold as if experiencing a blast of wind
from outside. But there is no open door: my body is perfectly
warm, but my brain is interpreting the sounds I’m hearing
through the headphones and getting confused. The binaural
technology creates a spatialised, 3D audio sensation that’s quite
unlike any other sound experience. Somehow the sounds I’m
hearing – of Shannon’s journey back from the shops, the rustling
of bags, her inner monologue, the passing cars – aren’t taking
place in my head, in between my ears like conventional audio
does; it’s happening around me, like I’m walking along the
street with her. It’s quite an uncomfortable sensation,
disorientating even, quite different to my previous experiences
of binaural technology through triggering my ASMR (autonomous
sensory meridian response). But I guess that’s kind of the point,
right Shannon?
“We were aware of the boundaries of how to take the
audience to the edge of their comfort zone, as that onslaught
– that they only get a hint of – is what my noise sensitivity is
like – but I can’t escape it. I wanted the elements of sound and
movement to be dynamically explored, as my noise sensitivity
and the hemiparalysis down my left side were such terrifying
aspects of my acquired brain injury. I think a strength of
Reassembled… is that it’s a strong match between content
– what the story is about – and form – how the story is told.
Reassembled… takes audiences inside my head for a story about
how the inside of my head has changed.”
In total I spend 47 minutes inside Shannon’s head, swimming
through the jumble of memories. During her recovery, she veers
from post-operation elation (where she believes she’s still going
on holiday to Mexico) to intense frustration at her doctors and
the pace of her recovery (“I just want my brain to BREAK!” her
voice shouts at one point, jolting me out of a reverie). The value
of this total immersion in understanding the ways in which the
brain works is not lost on the medical profession, and Shannon
has collaborated extensively with various neurosurgeons in
creating the whole experience. I wonder if she’s noticed any
differences in the way people have responded to it, depending
on their background?
“One of the focus groups we ran during the research
and development process was a group of very skeptical
neurosurgeons,” Shannon explains. “I was pleased that all
responded positively, even one saying he thought it would be
‘something arty-farty’ and that he ‘had no idea it would affect
[him] so profoundly and so viscerally.’ I’ve had neuroscience
nurses say that, after hearing only a 10-minute sample, they
would change their practice. One consultant neurosurgeon at the
Society of British Neurosurgeons wouldn’t give a potential job
applicant the position unless he went and experienced the audio
sample I was facilitating. It’s fantastic to know that it’s made such
an impact in personal and tangible ways.”
It finishes as it begins, accompanying Shannon on a
journey along the street – but there’s a subtle difference to
the underlying tone now, one of optimism rather than a mindspinning
sensation of impending dread. I spend a few minutes
after it’s finished letting the layers of my mind settle back into
some normality, and wondering if something like Reassembled…
can really help to change the narrative and stigma around
brain injuries.
“I hope that it increases empathy and awareness about
the hidden disability,” says Shannon. “The feedback we’ve
heard from audiences since its premiere in 2015 is that it
is accomplishing that. Which is a lovely result after such a
personally harrowing experience.” !
Christopher Torpey / @CATorp
Reassembled, Slightly Askew
(Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk)
REVIEWS 44

Echoes: Dimensions
DJ Bone + Jon Rust
+ Dimensions Soundsystem
Abandon Silence @ Invisible Wind Factory
04/02
3am comes at Invisible Wind Factory, and the masterful DJ BONE
demonstrates his technical prowess with the mixer, slowing the
tempo to an almost standstill, the beat pushing and pulling on the
spot. After what can only be described as gasping porno samples
come to the fore, the tempo picks up and after building to a
gradual climax, Donna Summer’s I Feel Love slides into the mix.
Though his reputation is built as a techno DJ, Bone has just set
the room flying to the disco classic.
Billed as a rare house and disco oriented set from the Detroit
legend to round off the fourth edition of Abandon Silence’s
Echoes series, DJ Bone follows JON RUST and the residents’
DIMENSIONS SOUNDSYSTEM. The underground ethos shines
throughout the night – a collaboration with the organisers of
Croatia’s Dimensions Festival – as members of British and
international underground scenes are represented by venue,
promoter and the DJs. Given their connections to The Kazimier,
Invisible Wind Factory feels a spiritual home for Abandon Silence;
a larger space to attempt more ambitious projects, a factor in
tonight’s proceedings.
The visual spectacle on display, continuing Abandon Silence’s
habit of incorporating ambitious lighting projects into events,
is a vital aspect of Dimensions. Projection screens are draped
in pairs from the roof to the side walls, going to the back of the
room, leaving the Wind Factory shaped like an exotic tent. The
molecular shapes projected above the crowd are initially minimal
in colour, causing one’s mind to wander in an attempt to make
sense of their origin. Bodily? Planetary? Is there a meaning? You
snap back, realising that if they’re making your mind act like this,
they’re having the desired effect.
Amid the rhythmic tent, the DJs lead the crowd through
the night. Abandon Silence’s own Andrew Hill and Dimensions
Soundsystem breathe warmth into the cold room as it fills,
Marquis Hawkes’ Tim’s Keys helping to usher the congregation
forward, Red Stripe in hand, ready to start in earnest.
Once all is warmed up, the night’s blood flowing, Jon Rust
begins his set, white silhouettes moving rhythmically around him.
Rust’s well-judged selection, which spans the majority of the
techno/house spectrum, is well received by the crowd. The Levels
label boss’ ability to recover from a brief sound system failure
as if nothing has happened, kept the flow of energy unbroken,
keeping the room moving.
Yet, no matter the quality of the preceding sets, both are
transcended by the sheer brilliance of DJ Bone. His experience,
technicality and ingenuity are reflected in a spot-on selection and
rarely attempted mixing techniques, his transition into I Feel Love a
prime example. Come the 4am finish, the night still feels short, DJ
Bone’s teasing ends leaving the crowd wanting more, a desire which
sums up the set’s quality. Brains entranced by the combination of
beat and visuals, which create a microcosm in which time stands
still, are taken from their rhythmic vortices as the lights come up.
Wistful that tonight has finished, all agree on its success.
Max Baker
Klein (Tate Liverpool, Roger Sinek)
January Blues + Klein
Tate Liverpool - 29/01
Blue. The colour has the power to evoke serenity, coolness
and calm, while in some it renders a more sombre, melancholic
emotion. Yves Klein, in collaboration with a French chemist, was
able to encapsulate the vividness of the colour, patenting his
own pigment of blue (International Klein Blue). He utilised it to
pursue an immateriality of absolute freedom and infinite space,
encompassing his entire outlook; combining the earth and sky,
a vehicle for which his emotions can be illustrated, free from
external impurities. In Britain, we have to endure the annual
affliction of the January Blues; a far less poetic allegory. Born from
an amalgamation of the consequential come-down following an
acute period of over-indulgence and excess spending, and the
asphyxiating claustrophobia resulting from wearing too many
layers and being indoors all the time.
So, in toast of yet another January gone by with our mental
sanity still intact, and in response to Tate Liverpool’s current Yves
Klein exhibition, Tate provide us with a northern live debut for the
non-genetically related south London musician, KLEIN.
Attending a gig at a modern art museum, on the surface
sounds like an incredible social achievement, although
expectations of a champagne reception and brushing shoulders
with attractive, aloof artists are quickly dissolved, as I’m ushered
towards a silent, pitch black room on the top floor. People sit
courteously, cross-legged, laden in winter clothes and civilly
sipping wine, their silhouettes gently illuminated by the blue
light from Klein’s laptop screen. Video loops of angry looking
landscapes then fire up, jumping across the visual display on
the wall behind her. A backdrop of dark skies, punctuated by
ominous clouds and lightning, sets the tone of the start of the gig,
as Klein’s own brand of experimental electronic music focuses on
the disconcerting, hypnotic and, at times, disturbing, to open her
set.
She wields her voice as another thick layer against the
bricolage of the cacophony of her sound. For long periods it’s
doused in distortion, pitched low, rough and distant. When it
comes to the surface it’s mesmerising, primal, evangelic, and
uplifting as she sails close to gospel singer Kim Burrell. Glimpses
of danceable rhythms leap from the swirl of chaos, bodies move
in time, but are quickly returned to static as these Flying Lotuslike
beats are swiftly withdrawn.
The set draws on and people start to filter out, her music is
certainly engaging and deeply layered, a fine experimental piece
of art. However, the pockets of the crowd that take their leave
may have treated this as an art exhibition rather than a live show,
moving on as their attentions pique.
For the ones who have stayed, they witness Klein’s set
occupy vast open spaces, unshackled from tight rhythmic
sequences; a mellow, reverb-infused spectral duvet cloaks the
room, whilst a bright, blue sky now occupies the screen.
Call it tenuous, but it’s in this exploration of space where
Klein mirrors the artist of the same name; her tactile use of
time signatures, the use of colour, mood and volume provoke
a kaleidoscope of emotions, and although her lyrics are often
incomprehensible, and the sound for large parts is muffled,
themes of love, religion, family and pain are evoked. Klein is a
cauldron of potential.
Jonny Winship / @jmwinship
C Duncan
+ Stevie Parker
Harvest Sun @ O2 Academy - 28/01
C DUNCAN sits in a comfortable place where his three
driving forces meet. The place where art, composing and live
performance converge is the place where this prolific creator
finds his natural place. Two albums in, and with a third already on
the way, it’s hard to believe that it’s only two years since he first
appeared with the Mercury-nominated Architect album, and this
is his third show in Liverpool in that short time. You’d struggle
to find ample comparisons for Duncan’s unique and innovative
sound, born of his background in classical music and composition.
And when playing Liverpool, that is a huge plus point. Outward
facing and inwardly welcoming, this city’s audiences take people
like C Duncan to their heart. We like to champion those who
stand aside, those who do something different.
As the room fills, the evening starts with a set from STEVIE
PARKER. Edgy, nervy and dark pop structures are laid over
heavily atmospheric and spacious layers of beats and guitar
hooks, giving plenty of room for Parker’s trademark folk-pop
vocal to float above. And float is exactly the word – and that’s
kind of the problem. All too often, Parker’s songs rely on the
distracting waver in her voice which at times feels and sounds a
little forced, a little too earnest, maybe. There are times, though,
when it absolutely works and adds to the force of the dynamics
of the songs, such as in her closing song, the title track from her
C Duncan (Stuart Moulding / @OohShootStu)
recent Blue EP. It’s also found in her beautiful, mid-set rendition
of the Joe Jackson classic It’s Different For Girls, reimagined here
in a dark, brooding and intimidatory version.
C Duncan arrives onstage with a genteel nod to the crowd,
and within seconds, the tightly packed room is drawn in by
those beautiful and strange choral builds, and layer upon layer
of tight, close harmonies. It’s an utterly beguiling experience to
take part in, and he and the band are seemingly as happy to
deliver it as we are to bear witness. We find ourselves hung on
every moment, each intriguing chord progression, each expertlyplaced
melody. And ‘placed’, is exactly the right word. Duncan’s
Conservatoire background has created a composer who places
each part together with a deft precision, and an extraordinary
poise, to create these luscious and celestial pieces. There are
so many moments of sheer pop beauty here, so much exquisite
creation taken from Duncan’s two very different albums, but
special mention must go to Castle Walls. This song – composed
specially for a Record Store Day release in 2015 – brings the
room to a hushed standstill, such is its intimate closeness and
delicate harmonies. It’s so close, so special, and so absolutely in
and of the moment, it takes the breath away.
The next steps in this intriguing artist’s journey will be as
fascinating as those he’s already taken. Second album The
Midnight Sun took the lead from Architect, but brought a slightly
darker, more experimental edge, which is delivered so well in
a live setting. There is certainly a platform to build upon, and
when his shows are as good as this, he’ll always have a deeply
appreciative audience here in Liverpool.
Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM
45
BIDO LITO!

Nik Void & Klara Lewis (Mike Sheerin)
Nik Colk Void & Klara Lewis
+ Algobabez
FACT and Deep Hedonia
@ Philharmonic Music Room - 01/02
Returning to Liverpool having shed half of her main project Factory Floor, and recruiting Swedishborn
electronic composer KLARA LEWIS, NIK COLK VOID’s performance tonight promises to be
somewhat different to the dancefloor-friendly post-punk she is perhaps best known for. As a live,
improvised electronic composition from the pair as part of FACT’s ongoing exhibition No Such Thing
As Gravity, the pummelling drums and acid-tinged bass will probably be left behind. The exhibition
itself poses the question ‘what is the nature of scientific proof?’, exploring the limits of science
where the absence of established facts may leave room for new theories, alternative science, and
conspiracy theories. It’s an interesting prospect to see how the duo contend with such lofty enquiries
and there is a sense in the venue that most don’t know what to expect.
Opening the show tonight is the snappily named ALGOBABEZ. Part of the equally puntastic
Algorave scene, their deconstructionist approach to live electronic composition is equal parts arcane
and invigorating. The duo’s experimental songcraft sees them writing their compositions by typing
out computer code on the fly, generating their noisy, dance-tinged compositions with keyboard
strokes over pads of piano keys. While they stand on stage behind their laptops, furiously typing
away, the inner workings of their process are projected across the back wall for the audience
to admire while listening. Lines of code scurry across the screen as the audio is generated and
manipulated in real time. A thrilling, if somewhat alienating experience, that proffers a new approach
to live electronics, bringing the idiosyncrasy and unpredictability of traditional instruments into the
digital realm.
The headliners for this evening take a slightly more traditional approach to their live composition
work. Stood behind an imposing black table, behind laptops and cables of varying sizes and shapes,
their process remains altogether more mysterious. Found sounds, grumbling synthesis and amniotic
effects make up a heady soup of sounds that straddles the divide between music for the body and
music for the head.
Hypnotic and beguiling, the rhythmic inflections hint at a dance music heritage but, much like
the deconstructed drum and bass of Lee Gamble of or the ethereal dubstep of Balam Acab, the
soundscapes are altogether more abstract. Arhythmic and sparsely populated, the alien world
conjured by the duo’s synth work bridges the divide between the industrial and the organic.
The accompanying visuals further invite exploration on the dichotomy between these two worlds.
Cogs and pistons smash while cells split and reproduce, all of it garbled through a warped video
filter. The low rumble of the bass lends the set an air of menace throughout, while the glassy,
reverberant percussion creates dream spaces which the compositions inhabit.
Having a gig with entirely female performers shouldn’t be worthy of note, but, thinking on
tonight’s performance, it may be worth reflecting briefly on the space electronic music composition
and performance has opened for women to exist outside the paradigms or stereotypes of ‘female
musicians’. Being able to eschew the traditional roles for ‘girls in bands’, there is an increasingly
large number of successful women operating in the vanguard of the form, gaining recognition that
has often evaded those working in the more traditional genres. This perhaps speaks to the politics
of the genres or maybe the newness of the form. With promoters like Deep Hedonia and institutions
like FACT and The Philharmonic providing platforms and visibility to these musicians, it will surely
inspire more to carry the mantle. This can only be good thing for the scene going forwards, both
locally and nationally.
Dave Tate
47 BIDO LITO!

Upstairs With Mall Grab
+ Andrew Hill
+ Piers
Buyers Club 26/01
MALL GRAB is precocious London-based Australian Jordon
Alexander, known for his recent residency on Rinse FM,
his Alone EP (amongst a shelf-load of other releases), and a
choice line in back-of-the-cupboard house. He’s also running
a sub-label (Steel City Dance Discs) for Bristol’s Shall Not Fade.
Busy bee, as anyone who’s seen one of his sets will attest. But
before he starts bouncing behind the decks, there are hours
of local talent to dance through first. Turning up during PIERS
(Garrett, of Melodic Distraction fame)’s set just after midnight,
it’s a heady mix of Latin beats. Rhythm might have your two
hips moving but a run of Shazz’s El Camino and Art Alfie’s Easy
To Love in quick succession has convinced some people in the
crowd that they’re in possession of a tripartite pelvis. With such
an appealing foundation, he gets away with spinning some real
noise over the top – tuneful screaming and Shepard tones. Mmm,
contemporary. Resident DJ ANDREW HILL takes over with a
more submarine sound, bass from a locked room. His sound’s
more brutal, despite funk in the bass. Perhaps the joins are
messier, but he confronts the crowd with a noise which defies
them to back down, to go harder. They do, and they carry on into
the main man’s set, which opens with spare, layered percussion.
It’s a while until there’s even a hint of any melodic material.
When the sounds upstairs do open, they’re unashamedly 90s,
and that’s probably what this crowd wants. Not for nothing
has he described his mixes as “mildly celestial, hella stoned
introspections”.
Truth be told, the first hour isn’t revelatory for this very
reason. A matter of taste, of course, but it’s in hour two that
things hot up, with a wider tonal palette, and the sound of
machinery gone awry. After that spare opening, the rattle
of loose parts becomes a bona-fide offbeat. Showing us
this framework, giving us time to absorb it, he wreathes it in
squelching eighth notes. Admittedly, his playlists are hard to
fathom (they don’t appear much online either), but given his
prolific output and obvious love of music, might as well enjoy it.
To say the crowd are pleasantly surprised is… an understatement.
I don’t even have to ask why it’s popping. An energetic Irishman
volunteers his critical opinion. “It’s not electronica with everyone
pushing, it’s not techno with no one caring. It’s like, disco, with
everyone dancing!” That would be an ecumenical matter, but he’s
bang on about the spirit of disco. Add that to the outpourings of
a young man who has, one strongly suspects, ring-modded his
kitchen utensils and you have reason enough to keep an ear out
for Mall Grab. You’ll be hearing him again.
Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1
Margo Price
+ Jeremy Ivey
Harvest Sun @ Leaf 21/01
“It’s Saturday night!” shouts MARGO PRICE, and the crowd roars.
It is indeed Saturday, and (as has surely been said elsewhere)
on Friday, the USA swore in their 45th president to roars from
a much bigger, and yet much smaller crowd. It isn’t quite right
to refer to an elephant in the room for, despite his wrinkled,
dust bath complexion and the tiny birds riding on his back, one
of Trump’s worst qualities denies him the status of pachyderm:
thick-skinned, he ain’t. But Price leaves the political commentary
to her support act (and husband) JEREMY IVEY. “A fascist, a
pervert, and a commie walk into a bar. Barman says, ‘What’ll it
be, Mr President?’” There’s a cheer, but it doesn’t quite land. Two
out of three will do. We’re still in the Deep South, and Russia is
still the Soviet Union down there.
But onto the music. Ivey’s every inch the American
troubadour, much folksier than his partner, with a bag full of
songs inspired by a life lived on the road. There’s no proof
he actually has lived on the road, but Greyhound is the best
description of staring out of the window on public transport this
audience has ever heard, ringing true whether on the eponymous
canine or travelling to London on the Megabus. His choruses
could do with being chorused, so here’s hoping they end up being
better-known.
With debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter not even out a
year yet, the mainstream (US) music press might call Margo Price
up-and-coming, but this is her third visit to Liverpool, courtesy
of Mike Badger, and she clearly feels the esteem reserved for
country music on the Mersey delta. It’s glossy pop in the Garth
Brooks vein – the only thing with dust on its boots is Price’s
Dollywood accent. As well as covering Jolene, there’s something
a little more specialist in Merle Haggard’s Red Bandana. Haggard,
of course, was 20 years old, more jailbait than jailbird, when he
heard Johnny Cash at San Quentin, but tonight’s star has done
her time too. “You wanna more upbeat depressing song? How
about one about the weekend I spent in jail?” One wonders if that
stretch had anything to do with the thorny legality of whether
It Ain’t Drunk Drivin’ If You’re Ridin’ A Horse.
Ah, for the early days of Dubya, when history was over and a
chimp in the White House didn’t so much derail the liberal world
order as amuse us by hooting and jabbing at the letters W, M,
and D on a flash card. For a time when Americans were loud and
brash and insular, but only in a funny way. Fortunately, Margo
Price is a sharp cookie. She remains tight-lipped on the topic of
commanders-in-chief, instead dedicating Four Years Of Chances
to “the ladies, especially today”, as 673 Women’s Marches take
place around the world. As the lady sings “One thousand, four
hundred and sixty-one days”, we’re already counting down.
Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1
Mall Grab (Yetunde Adebiyi)
ROUND UP
A selection of the best
of the rest from another
busy month of live gigging
on Merseyside.
Queen Zee & The Sasstones (Stuart Moulding)
Hidden Charms (Paul McCoy)
The Magnet is proving to be one of the best places to go
for a down-and-dirty gig, with promoters and punters
alike favouring its intimate setting. And it’s where Bethany
Garrett witnesses Leeds’ MENACE BEACH overshadowed
by a couple of local acts.
Openers PEANESS and QUEEN ZEE AND THE
SASSTONES are the night’s show-stealers (for those who
get down early, anyway), their respective shy indie pop
and brash glam-punk contrasting but equally cool. Fellow
support act BRUISING (who, like our headliners, also
hail from Leeds) are a real peach of a dream-pop slacker
band. They possess the kind of songs you’ll find yourself
humming days later and a look that says thrown together,
not thought out. Headliners Menace Beach definitely uphold
a more constructed aesthetic – each member draped head
to toe in black – but their tunes are harder to distinguish,
drowned as they are in a dark, heady scuzz that sees
punters on the packed-out floor stomping along with angst.
When it comes to Del Pike’s turn to step into The
Magnet, there’s a thrill already in the air in anticipation of
the headliners. HIDDEN CHARMS may hail from London,
but their signing to the mighty Deltasonic will always
ensure them a special place in the hearts of Liverpool folk.
Opening with Left Hand Man from their Harder From
Here EP, the whole band are moving in unison creating an
instant party onstage, all hair, maracas and 60s keyboards.
It’s easy to see why legendary Who and Kinks producer,
Shel Talmy, has asked to work with them: their sound is
retrospective for sure, and incredibly modish, but there is
no lack in originality and youthful exuberance. Inflections of
George Harrison and even Devendra Banhart even out the
pace, but this is kept mainly to intros as each track builds to
an alluring wig-out.
I Just Wanna Be Left Alone is the perfect closer, a
complete balls-out rabble rouser, which induces a full-on
stage invasion. If any band deserves to explode this year,
then Hidden Charms are top of that list.
There’s an altogether more peppy affair going on at
the Philharmonic Hall when Cath Bore steps in to catch
Fife’s finest KING CREOSOTE. While he’s impressed at
Liverpool’s voracious sexual appetite, Kenny Anderson
is in fine form as he tiptoes along the line between
melancholy and cheeky humour, mixing songs from his
latest LP Astronaut Meets Appleman with some of his more
recognised work.
Elsewhere, KARL BLAU impresses Jonny Winship
with his soothing strain of captivating Americana, while
Glyn Akroyd opts for the countrified SEAFOAM GREEN
experience at Leaf.
Full reviews of all these shows can be found now at
bidolito.co.uk.
Andrew Hill (Yetunde Adebiyi)
Menace Beach (Stuart Moulding)
REVIEWS 48

WRITERS & INTERNS WANTED
If you fancy joining our writing team,
or taking up one of our work experience
placements, email
chris@bidolito.co.uk

THE FINAL
SAY
A radio stalwart for three decades and a
reassuring voice for late-night listeners,
DJ JANICE LONG reflects on the importance
of keeping the independent spirit alive.
“What I love most
about radio is its
immediacy”
I
started out in radio over 30 years ago. Coming into the
world from a technical point of view, I first worked behind
the scenes but was always really into my bands. I read
countless magazines and always had my eye on presenting.
After getting my first show, I’ve been hooked ever since.
What I love most about radio is its immediacy, which is
something other formats don’t quite have. You’re able to interact
with your audience throughout a show and develop a bond with
them there and then, which makes it that bit more personal. You
develop an audience who listen to you because of what you
do, and this includes bands. When you have musicians as part
of your audience, they’ll work towards the goal of trying to get
themselves played on the show, and this makes for a kind of
community. Radio has an identity quite unlike any other medium,
and provides a space for people with things in common to come
together in the moment and enjoy something together as a
community, whether that be talk radio or music shows. It offers
something for people who feel they may otherwise be alone, and
that makes it very special.
Having recently finished my last ever regular BBC Radio 2
show, I think what I’ll miss most about it is the audience, that
sense of community. Over the past seven years it’s become much
harder to get things which are a bit more out there on Radio 2.
First, they cut down on spoken word sessions, and then it was
cutting the next thing, and the next. But I always tried to bring
something slightly different to the audience, whether that be
a bit of dance or a smaller, less well known band such as The
Vryll Society. I wanted to bring something a little different to the
station and I’ll miss being able to do so.
Donald Trump’s Chief Strategist, Stephen Bannon, called the
media “the opposition party” in a briefing after taking office and
this is something I find alarming. Of course, there has probably
always been censorship of the media, and always will be, but for
someone in such a position of power to say so proves worrying.
The unbiased media outlets need to unite and stand against
this message – and if Trump doesn’t like the real news being
reported then he can step down. In an age where phrases such
as ‘alternative facts’ have become common, it is the media’s role
to report what is happening.
However, musically, radio is most important in expanding
a knowledge of culture – and this can be done simply by
playing a range of music that spans every genre. Most people’s
musical tastes can’t be pinned down to one style and radio
should embrace that and pass on a message. You don’t always
want politics in music but it definitely has its place, especially
with bands such as the Manics. People can often be apathetic
politically, but they still hold a vote – so, if music can spark debate
or interest then that’s great. And it’s not only music that’s a great
source of this, independent media outlets are too. They offer an
alternative to the mainstream media and offer up viewpoints that
would otherwise go unheard, so I feel it’s important to have faith
in it. As the saying goes, the public wants what the public gets. !
55
BIDO LITO!

THE BIDO LITO!
MEMBERSHIP
LAUNCH PARTY
STRANGE COLLECTIVE
+ MC FARHOOD + VEYU
+ THE SHIPBUILDERS + PIXEY
+ EVOL DJs
20/04 - 7.30PM
24 KITCHEN STREET
Free to Bido Lito! Members
Sign up in advance at bidolito.co.uk
or on the door