Issue 60 / October 2015

16
Bido Lito! October 2015
What do you do when you've reached a landmark
anniversary and celebrated it with your biggest
party yet? Well, you try and top it, of course. An
evergreen fixture on the latter part of the city’s live music
calendar, LIVERPOOL MUSIC WEEK is set to embark on its biggest
programme of gigs to date this October, showing us that it has
no intention of standing still. Returning for its eleventh year,
LMW 2014 drew in 20,000 people across its 10-day run, with
the festival making the shortlist at the UK Festival Awards 2014
for Best Line Up (Mogwai, Caribou, CHVRCHES, Forest Swords).
The biggest indoor festival of its kind to be held in Europe
over the winter months, LMW has long since expanded past
its seven-day format of musical cramming; 250 acts are set
to appear at over 50 events across Liverpool’s key city-centre
venues, running from Friday 23rd October until Halloween nine
days later. Once again the line-up is an absolute smorgasbord
of musical confections for your consideration, where alternative
rock titans sit alongside cutting-edge pioneers in electronica. It
also wouldn’t be a Liverpool Music Week without an undercard
of flourishing local acts, and this year is no different, with several
of them now sitting comfortably alongside the headliners.
If you need some help in drawing up your own list of this
year’s must-see acts, here’s our guide to what’s taking place.
Holly Herndon
Richard Hawley
Words: Richard Lewis, Bethany Garrett.
OPENING PARTY
23rd October @ The Kazimier, Rat Alley and The Arts Academy
SHOWCASE EVENTS
Though there are other shows running alongside this on 23rd
October, the Opening Party is the real place where Liverpool
Music Week comes alive. The Kazimier, its adjoining outdoor
Rat Alley, and the recently adopted Arts Academy will act as
the incubator to an opening night of epic proportions, with a
plentiful amount of stages and nooks pressed into service.
Avant-garde electronic artist HOLLY HERNDON, a lynchpin of
the constantly fascinating 4AD label, headlines this event in a
stunning opening gambit for LMW 2015. Herndon’s cerebral take
on that grey area where experimental electronica meets club
music is full of inventive tingles, with her second LP Platform,
issued in May, winning her near-unanimous critical acclaim. This
LP landed Herndon on the cover of Wire magazine in April, where
she discussed liberating the potential of technology.
Another Wire magazine cover artist in 2015, Mica Levi, makes
a welcome return to Liverpool as part of the Opening Party with
her avant pop group MICACHU AND THE SHAPES. Fresh from
the release of new LP Good Sad Happy Bad, the Shapes’ bright,
cut and paste manner has now added and extra emotional
dimension that works on a wealth of levels. Micachu And The
Shapes’ inclusion demonstrates LMW’s eclecticism as they line up
alongside electronic duo DARKSTAR, whose third LP Foam Island
finds the Warp heavyweights in classic dark-yet-uplifting form as
they tackle their own disillusion with 21st-century society.
Shadowy electronic music producer and DJ JAM CITY – the
project of Jack Latham – also features at the shindig, bringing
to life his updated version of what the post-dubstep landscape
sounds like. This year’s Dream A Garden album is something
of an about-turn from his 2013 debut record Classical Curves,
and sees Latham venting his frustration at everything from DJ
culture to the non-committal attitude of modern musicians. He
has, as ever, got plenty to say, and delivers it with a detached,
alien-like voice.
A special guest slot is also reserved for returning heroes
OUTFIT, as they reassemble on Merseyside after an extensive
UK and European tour. Slowness – their Memphis Industriesreleased
album from earlier in 2015 – has had a slow-burning
effect in winning listeners over, but win them over it has. If the
reaction to their gloopy, angular melodica at their Kazimier
headline show in June is anything to go by, this could mutate
into the night’s biggest happening.
VEYU will add a flourish of bruised, driving indie to proceedings
as they warm things up, and they’ll be joined by a clutch of fellow
local stars-in-waiting across the three performance spaces.
Many of the highlights of this year’s LMW will come from its
series of standalone shows which, when put together, look like
an especially star-studded constellation. For many people, the
centrepiece of these shows will be the appearance of RICHARD
HAWLEY on the festival’s opening night. Hawley is on the road to
promote new LP Hollow Meadows, which is a return to the classic,
sophisticated songwriting of the Pulp guitarist’s formative solo
years. It is a highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s Standing At
The Sky’s Edge, an LP which secured Hawley a second Mercury
Prize nomination. The little-used Dome at Grand Central Hall will
be the setting, a spectacular location which will hopefully follow
in the same vein as Hawley’s fantastic show at the Philharmonic
Hall in 2013, a similarly ornate venue for the Sheffield singer’s
baroque pop songs.
A collaboration between LMW and alternative music
promotions powerhouse All Tomorrow’s Parties brings Canadian
post-rock titans GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR to Camp and
Furnace on Tuesday 27th October. Godspeed have one of the
most distinctive audio footprints in music – a loud/quiet/louder
approach, with strings and found sounds stuffed into the gaps
to devastating effect – and they have undoubtedly been a huge
influence on post-rock bands of every hue. The Montreal group
are travelling the globe showcasing recent LP Asunder, Sweet
And Other Distress, which was issued to widespread acclaim
bidolito.co.uk